That soft laugh of Zelos’ was a lot of things. Cute, relieving—maybe a little contagious, even. Malba found it easier to keep hold of that smile on his own lips, just at the sound of it, really. It was—well, another one of those things he shouldn’t think about deeply, didn’t want to think about too deeply. For the moment, just for a little while he really... All he wanted was to selfishly relish in the calm slipping over him, a familiar calm that Zelos always seemed to somehow, fucking miraculously, provide.
Not that Malba was exactly buying half of his words, that list of his. There were counter arguments that could be made for each and every one—anyone with even half of a half of a heart would be good to a spectacularly damaged kid like Kouji, and why shouldn’t he keep Zelos warm in body when the brat always managed to warm that dead spot in the middle of his chest, and—okay, sure. That last one. He could run with that. Safer option. Easier.
“... not every animal. Think there’s one or two I maybe haven’t gotten to yet,” he remarked with a thin laugh. Malba followed that laugh with a clearing of his throat, hesitantly nuzzling in just a little closer to Zelos—who was really keeping who warm here again?