[ He starts to laugh a little himself; his shoulders shaking as he lets out a few puffs of air. ]

You really do know how to make things unreasonably difficult, Albert.

[ His tone of voice isn't admonishing or hateful, however. It's more tired resignation. He accepts this part of the man that he's been with; he accepts it completely. After all, William may have been the one to save him, but Albert is the one who knew of his existence in the first place.

Without that knowledge, without knowing he was drifting as some half-dead creature, would he have been eventually found and saved?

But instead of saying any of that, he says: ]

We could have been like this sooner, you know.