Talk about your lack of segues. With Declan handling the dishes and his own appointment set for the morning, Aoba was ready to turn in for the night. His heart felt lighter and his head didn’t hurt, but with food in his belly he just felt exhausted all of a sudden. The question caught him pretty solidly off guard.

“Uh.” It stopped him quite short for a moment or three, to both think through his automatic answer in the additional light of the potential context. What he thought of fighting and weapons were just…playing pretend compared to going to war like Declan did.

“I’m…really not Guardian material, if that’s what that’s asking,” he answered, slowly at first until his thoughts caught up. “I can take care of myself if a punk or two gets too rowdy back home, but I don’t use weapons.”