[Being teased by teens .... a terrible fate. Life is hard when you're an old man and a loner and nobody understands.]
...Now that you mention it, they are kind of similar, aren't they. Heh. Guess your first team never does leave you, even if you don't stay together.
[That's a little more maudlin of a thought than he'd intended, honestly, but before he can back this train up into some bad joke to lighten the mood again, Ruby says that last part and takes all the casually irreverent wind out of his sails. Because, honestly:]
Hey, we made it to this place together, didn't we? How could I not be doing alright, huh?
[Okay, maybe there's the like ... decade+ he's spent being various flavors of not okay despite her general existence! ...But he does genuinely mean it. As long as his family is in Trench, he can handle anything it throws at him. Maybe someday Yang will even make it to this side of the sea, and he doesn't need to have this nagging ache of something missing in this new life they've settled into. Still, nothing in life has really been ideal since STRQ fell apart. He has learned to cling fast to whatever small blessings he can, over the years.]
no subject
[Being teased by teens .... a terrible fate. Life is hard when you're an old man and a loner and nobody understands.]
...Now that you mention it, they are kind of similar, aren't they. Heh. Guess your first team never does leave you, even if you don't stay together.
[That's a little more maudlin of a thought than he'd intended, honestly, but before he can back this train up into some bad joke to lighten the mood again, Ruby says that last part and takes all the casually irreverent wind out of his sails. Because, honestly:]
Hey, we made it to this place together, didn't we? How could I not be doing alright, huh?
[Okay, maybe there's the like ... decade+ he's spent being various flavors of not okay despite her general existence! ...But he does genuinely mean it. As long as his family is in Trench, he can handle anything it throws at him. Maybe someday Yang will even make it to this side of the sea, and he doesn't need to have this nagging ache of something missing in this new life they've settled into. Still, nothing in life has really been ideal since STRQ fell apart. He has learned to cling fast to whatever small blessings he can, over the years.]