“… Not ready to live the life of a hermit just yet.”
“Good!” Johann responded in low voice but upbeat at the remark. From such a small nuclear family as an only child he valued the larger Spectre family. He’d not been keen to keep in touch with older generations of Storms but put great importance on the behaviour amongst the Spectres. It was partly as he saw his own family never really changing for the effort (save for the maternal side who were an altogether better sort) but in the clan he saw how fundamental it was.

“You mustn’t worry too much about me…” But a little was appreciated nonetheless, Johann understood and gave a perky smile.

“I hope so too, si-.” Johann uttered respectfully, lapsing into politer habits despite the intimate exchange and topic. He didn’t expect the rest of the sentence and stopped mid-word. “Oh…!”

There were times when Johann had lapped up praise with an arrogant lift of his shoulders, for being clever, for proving others wrong and showing off his intellect but on this occasion he had not been expecting nor anticipating it, and it was disarming and humbling. His cheeks flushed, in a different embarrassment to the earlier topic, and he blinked, lips attempting to find words in one of his languages to express a response.

Johann quickly cleared his throat, and hurried, “I won’t let it down,” in earnest response to Balthair with a nod. 


End