[Ryuji was ribbing himself with that comment, but Akira going straight for the kind words about his mom hits him hard. He missed her, of course, but the other handled it so expertly that he can't help but let the sides of his mouth curl upward. That's... that's not fair, dude. Because if there's a few people he loves unconditionally in this world, one's sitting next to him, and the other is back home, at some point in time frozen and not having to worry about where her son is or what trouble he's getting into this time.

Ryuji rests his hands behind his head and wistfully sighs.]

Effin' smooth talker.

[There's no bite behind his bark, Akira can probably see how non-committed he is to the tease.]

She'd take you in, though. I've talked about you enough, y'know? Probably thinks you're the dude that put me on the straight and narrow and all that shit.

Which, yeah. I guess it ain't that far from the truth.