"What a busy life you live then, always changing--always building. It seems I surround myself with busy souls, when all I want to do is just watch the world go by," That cryptic smile he knew all too well, but instead of blushing beneath it Gale countered it with one of his own. "Lonely…no, vacant…yes. I'm happy to be there, but it's so empty right now. By spring time I hope that it meets the standards of the agency and I can foster…children." Gale had to wonder if that word would have the same reaction it did to many of his colleagues. He couldn't imagine someone like Éloi stopping long enough to even consider the notion of settling down, and if the word 'boyfriend' had such an affect on him he wondered about the whole children thing.

Gale knew that he and Chaz were at two different points in life, and that their relationship was on it's way to an end. He was strangely ok with it, because it has been good for the both of them. They were setting each other up so that the next could get the best of them and not the additional baggage from the past. Gale was walking out of this relationship a better man and even a better professor.

"But tell me, pretty boy, about your little amusement on the side? Is it very far?" He surveyed the rink, very much ready to be free from the cold, "I could buy you a drink, since you were so kind to indulge me."