"I wanted to be outside," he says to Aphrodite. "It feels um... clean. And it's not too cold, really." He adjusts his bag of clothes on his lap and tucks his encyclopedia into it, blinking as the cold irritates his eyes. "It's really... really nice of you to offer, sir and ma'am, but there's nothing I can think of wanting to do here. I've only been here since I came to this world and since my parents never existed here, I can't go see their graves or anything. So um... I guess... maybe if you could help me find where to get my eye drops? If it's convenient, I mean. Otherwise I think I'd rather just... do whatever you think is best."
He's trying very hard to be grown-up and decisive, but he really is in the end just a rather lost 9-year-old kid with nowhere to go but with them or to the state, which he does not want at all.