[ Allen's mouth curves in a very faint smile at that reaction, lingering in a comfortable manner before he draws back to look at him. Sometimes he might nip at the earring and lobe and tease him when in high spirits and feeling a little daring, but this isn't one of those times. It's been easier to lately though when Shouto has had his apparently more amorous moods hit him. ]

Not exactly. [ Although he isn't wrong, but that's more a product of it than the thing he's truly grateful for. Allen squeezes his hand gently, smile soft and thoughtful. ]

More like... even with a lot of bad, a lot of hardship-- there's still a lot of good I wouldn't have known without it.