[He was quiet some, and not even the lighting could mistake the look in his face. Distant still, with a bit of- sadness? wistfulness? -taking the edges off that smile, and he glanced off some.]

A bit more than that. We were hanging out one day, and she was helping me with something, and she got to talking about her family. You, and her other kids, and her brother... And she asked me about mine.

[Any pretenses fully gone now, he sighed a bit.]

When she found out I only had my uncle, who'd also raised me since I was little... Well, she- [He paused, wondering if this would be awkward to one of her actual children, but when he couldn't find a decent way out of it he continued anyway.] She offered to be something of a mom figure to me, should I ever come up needing one.