It sounds nice. Alek can't say he'd know what that's like - it's been him and his brothers for the longest of times, but he can't complain. They've always stuck together and if he's felt alone, it's never because he's actually been.

"She sounds like she was a badass," Alek says softly. He hears that 'was' and he's lost his own, mother. He doesn't have to excel at social interactions to be sensitive when it comes to certain topics, and his mother is his own weakness.