Mirko was washing the dishes from dinner when Denver cornered him, approaching under the pretence of taking a towel to help dry- but Mirko saw how furtively he looked down the corridor to where the others were talking in the lounge, how the muscles in his jaw clenched as he glanced back at Mirko, tossing the towel back and forth in his hands before moving to pick up a dish from the drying rack. He wasn't very subtle.

Still, "Thank you," was what Mirko said first, smiling at him as Denver began putting the dishes away (probably not in the right places- but there wasn't anything to be done about that).

"Yeah, no problem, no problem," Denver said, and there was a moment of obvious silence before he seemed to work up his courage, flipping the towel over his shoulder and holding up his hands. He clearly had something important he wanted to say.

"So...how are you, Helsinki?" Denver asked, and Mirko turned off the faucet to look at him.

"Everything is good," he said simply, and was going to return the question, but Denver spoke again first.

"Yeah. Yeah, so...you're still with, uh, Palermo, right?" Denver gestured back towards the lounge, where some laughter could be heard.

"Yes," Mirko replied. Denver nodded.

"And that's...that's all good, right, man?" Denver looked rather nervous, in his own way, and Mirko chuckled.

"Yes," he said again, and was ready to turn back to work- discussion complete- but Denver kept talking.

"Well, I'm just asking 'cause he's kind of, you know…" Denver held one finger up by his ear and spun it in a circle, pursing his lips as though to whistle. Crazy. Mirko laughed aloud this time.

"And in the Bank- and before that, when we were in Italy- you know. He didn't exactly seem very...nice. To you."

"We reject the body we spilled into- it doesn't matter the body, we can't help but reject it. Boom, boom, ciao. Homosexual sex! Haha!"

Denver looked at him, eyebrows raised, and Mirko shook his hands to dry them before replying.

"You're right," he said slowly. "Palermo was very unhappy back then."

He put one hand on Denver's shoulder and looked him in the eyes, which in his experience, always made other people really listen to the words in his mouth, instead of giving him their own.

"Palermo is a little crazy," he said. "But he's alright. Everything is good, brother, do not worry."

He withdrew his hand with a firm clap on the shoulder, but Denver looked at him a second more, and then his expression broke into a familiar wide smile. He laughed- that distinctive jackhammer rattle.

"You like crazy! I thought you'd be more into- I don't know- stoic types that don't say much, like yourself. But hey, look at me and Mónica- I guess opposites do attract!"

He resumed drying the dishes while he spoke, so Mirko turned the faucet back on, and they were done in time to join the others for an after-dinner round of sherry and cigarettes.