[There is a sense of grudging abatement. Not for the joke—he's hardly feeling kind enough to call it that (although it is a bit funny)—nor even the broad laugh that follows it, but the attention. It's something to focus on besides himself and the darting agitation of his own thoughts and the horrible absence behind them.
He wets his lips, slowly, before answering,]
That we currently share a cage does not make us friends.
no subject
He wets his lips, slowly, before answering,]
That we currently share a cage does not make us friends.
[Please keep talking.]