Malba couldn’t help but release a quiet scoff, the smile on his lips growing a tiny bit more genuine--apologetic, even. "Could say that, yeah," he confessed, cautiously directing his blurred gaze to the boy. He pulled a hand up to rub at his eyes, attempting to somehow erase the pretty fucking obvious signs of tears still threatening to spill. Not like the sharp breaths or the shudders traversing his thin frame were dead giveaways of his current state or anything, right?
How should he respond to that question, anyway? Not exactly a pleasant subject matter for Zelos either, was it? Still, Malba didn’t want to lie. Not when Zelos looked at him with those troubled blue eyes, not when he cupped his cheek in that way of his that made his heart beat just a little too fast for all the wrong reasons.
“Just, heh. Just memories. Nothing I haven’t brought on myself, huh?” Malba gave a faint shrug of his shoulders, allowing his eyes to close, tilting carefully against that reassuring touch. It was comfort he didn’t deserve, for at least a hundred, thousand, fuck, a million different reasons, but... Yeah. That terrified young boy he had failed, another name added to that ever-increasing list of fuck ups of his, the memories were just a little too fresh, a little too utterly fucking heartbreaking to push away.