Ah, so you're childhood friends! You must be quite a powerful team, when you're together.

[Remembering his own childhood....would they count as friends? "Childhood subordinates" doesn't quite have the same ring to it. He'd like to think of them as...former friends, anyway, though they obviously don't care for him now...

Ahem.] I may not have known her nearly as long as you have, but I could definitely tell she's a good person at heart. [A pause.] Though I'm not sure how she'd feel about us praising her aloud like this, haha.