Julien sniffled and nodded and then gave up the pretence, curled himself back up against Alfie's shoulder and sobbed like he hadn't been able to since he'd heard his mother start to disown him. He'd thought at times that it would have been better had she died, because at least he could have lied to himself and told himself that she loved him, but that just made him feel even worse for the very idea and compounded on the misery he was only letting out now, clutching hold of Alfie and hiccupping sorries between sobs he was still trying to stop.