"Oh really? You're seriously asking me to guard them?" he asked, blinking and sobering up a bit when he realized that the other man wasn't just taking the piss or telling him in a playful manner. Guarding a Phoenix's ashes was a major ordeal, a complete honor and something not to be taken with a grain of salt.
"Well... I'd certainly watch over them with my life, or at the very least my immediate health," he said carefully. "And I would probably make sure you were reborn somewhere fantastically cool."