"Heh," he laughed to fill the silence that fell over them as he thought about that. Frowning, he shrugged his shoulders and hunched them further. "Suppose I'm just not adept at family situations..." He worried at his lip again. "And it's a bit like that, now, I think?" He felt so silly saying all of this. "Like, as children it was just me spending the summer with my best friend and his family. Now that we're getting older, the more time I spend here, the more it feels like I'm actually part of your family."

He was quick to amend that statement with another awkward chuckle and a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Not that you aren't my family, it's just. The formality of spending family holidays with a surrogate family is... terrifying, with as long as I've gone without one. Formally."