"Aw shucks," he drawled, but there was some genuine humility in it; Ani really had been there for pretty much all of his less impressive stints in life, so her praise was not taken for granted in the least. He finally did set her down, though he didn't release her, his arms still securely about her middle as his lips pulled into a lopsided grin. "Ah, me? Naw. That was all her." He nodded behind her where the giant Thunderbird was still standing, looking remarkably put-out at having been interrupted mid-pet.
"Right Coro?"
The bird flapped its wings once to send another great gale gusting in their direction, and Grayson's brows dropped. "Ah, don't be like that. This is my oldest friend in the world!"
He turned back to Ani with a wordless look that could only convey one word: yikes.
"So how long you in town? For a while?" He drew a deep breath through his nostrils, and then with the intense sobriety of one requesting the code to disarm a nuclear bomb, asked, "...Are we about to have a sleepover party?"