Very well. [ He sighs it out. He doesn't like it. But not liking the situation won't change it any more than going thought the bags a fifth time. There are battles that are worth fighting. This is not one of them. And so he relaxes. ] But so much as a wheeze and I will do terrible, foolish, reckless things until we find you safely behind Ishgard's walls and drinking hot tea.

[ It should feel more wrong than it does, leaning against Hoju now, of all times. He wouldn't have done it a few months ago even were he fit as a fiddle, but Alisaie is a terrible influence. He's careful, of course. But he's warmer than the walls. More comfortable to lean on, too. And it doesn't hurt that it places him well to watch his chest move with his breath and watch like a hawk to see that it keeps moving as it should. ]

There are a great many places I should want to be, were you in any one of them. But you are here. And so here is where I belong. It seems we are of a mind.