Sometimes Declan was too sensible for his own good. This, however, was not one of those times. Aoba turned his head away from the window partway into the answer to watch the Guardian as he spoke, giving him all of his attention if not necessarily all of his agreement. By the end of it, though, it was hard not to agree with him -- or at least, impossible not to want to.

"I hope you're right," Aoba answered, softly smiling and not the least bit disingenuous about it. There Declan went again. Good, honest, brave, now add hopeful to the list... sure, he could counter that 'no one is like anyone else' all he wanted, but Aoba was still going to sit there quietly in his little bit of warm awe that he'd never met anyone quite like the Titan before.

The kind of guy you'd give up a Golden Age for, huh?

Aaaand there went all those intrusive little thoughts again, right on cue. Well, the morning hadn't been all that long ago, anyway. All those emotional nerves were probably still raw.

He looked back out the window before his cheeks could get too red.