A sharp shake of his head, dismissive. Louis won't hear this.

"You were right to call."

As Louis lowers himself too, until he is looking up into Daniel's face. He can't stomach the idea of it, of never knowing.

"I thought," goes nowhere, stops abruptly. Things Louis doesn't need to say because they only excuse him, won't be a comfort to Daniel. "I called," he says instead. "I missed you."

Did Daniel think he was so easily forgotten?

Louis pushes past the uncertainty of it, asking, "How do you feel?"

Hedging around the necessity of hunger. Of pain. Trying to gauge well-being when Louis has so little understanding of how Armand had done about this. Louis had wanted to make it near-painless. He had learned from Claudia, what it could be. He wanted that for Daniel, suspects it is no what came to pass.