Duck Lake are you worth your weight in gold, cause you're behind my eyelids when i'm all alone

Perhaps it was odd, but he thought of the smile almost as a gift; not necessarily from Mahler, either. It was a small moment granted to him to feel something aside from exhaustion, grief, self-loathing. A half-hearted consolation prize from the world, he thought, to witness what he felt was a rare thing in the other. He returned the smile, his own faint and quick to fade.
Another time, the blunt observation of his traits might have sent a flush through his ears. His gaze only sparked with muted curiosity now. Alarian stretched out his legs, a slightly mischievous thought coming to him. What would you be, then? The smile returned, this time impish and a little more enthusiastic, though it was as fleeting as the first. He wasn't sure what answer he expected, but he thought he knew what his own choice would be.