"We're lucky to have you too, Liam. It's-" He sighs, leans a little more. Then just huffs out a half strangled laugh and uses the arm around Liam's shoulders to tug the older man down to sit on the hard pan beside him. It's hot and sticky but all the stress of the last few days and Ignis falling apart on him this morning is just too much and Liam is one of the few people outside the situation that he feels he can lean on without adding to their burden.

"It's easy, when you've been through something enough times, to become kind of numb to it. Dying, people leaving, like it's just part of how things work now." He frowns, clearly troubled by this and the look he gives Liam is grave. "I think the worst part is that... I didn't even realize. Not till you started looking for Chiaki and I just couldn't be that upset. I barely knew her, y'know. It..."

He scrubs a hand over his face, lets his head thunk back against the wall behind them and stares up at that pale sky. "Back home, even before all this. We had to leave people behind a lot. The Scourge, the same disease Ardyn has. It kills most people turns them into dust and brings them back as daemons. The number of friends, comrades, I've personally had to put down. It's easier, here. At least like this they vanish and you can tell yourself maybe they just went home."

"And I don't blame you for not wanting to be around Ardyn. He's an ass a lot of the time but it's sort of a form of self preservation. So like... I trust him to try. He's been trying in his own way but there's a fuck ton of damage up here." He taps his temple, offers Liam a weak, apologetic smile. "I mean... we've gotta learn to be civil a couple days outta the month at least but no one's gonna fault you for wanting to punch his lights out."