Daniel lets himself be urged back up, and he's glad he does, because it means Louis gets to see how honest and immediate his flinch of denial is.

"No." Emphatic, real. "Never."

As insane as that sounds. Never, not even then, not even when Louis was trying to kill him. A technicality maybe— Daniel was too high to really understand what was happening, and it was fucking crazy, but there was also an expected element. Daniel was always out rolling the dice, his life had been threatened before, but his addictions, desires, needs, were stronger than fear.

But it's not the 70s. They're here, now, and Louis is not a nightmare.

"I see your reading room a lot. The fake atrium light. I don't know why, maybe... because so much went on in there."

A breath in, and out. Armand's reveal, the diaries introduced, Louis' rocks, their memories dredged up, the end. And it was where he and Armand had the majority of their daytime interactions when Louis was sleep. Of all the recordings he has of them one-on-one, they're all there, under the artificial light.

"I see my daughters there sometimes. It's just nonsense."