Certainly seeing them lightened his spirits to a degree. He hugged Mel and Thalia as they entered, teasing him relentlessly about his thin frame. He pulled his shoulder-length hair behind his ear as it whipped into his face. "Aunties, I am fine," he insisted, letting them pull him into the kitchen. He wasn't feeling particularly hungry, but they would never take no for an answer. He accepted that they would dote on him as if he were their own son. He had always been a favored of all of them.
"I didn't mean to be silent for so long," he promised Thalia.