"I can trust the person who tried to bring me back to this place even though they knew I didn't wanna come back?" He sniped a barb in of his own, feeling his sass overpowering the ice in his tone. Rean sounded like the Chancellor and while it drove Crow nuts, he completely understood.

...which just drove him more nuts. Crow's already on his way back to his seat behind the desk and his cold coffee, fully moving forward as if he were walking away from Rean instead of just moving away to sit down, still a little bothered by Rean's earlier choice of words.

Crow just couldn't trust his friends like that. He never trusted anyone back at Thors with his past, Principal and Instructors aside - and they never once stabbed him in the back, never once used it against him - so there was no way it was gonna happen here with his comrades. What Crow had on his mind was better saved to tell someone closer than a friend, so Crow tried a different approach, schooling his tone and expression into something relaxed and calm.

"It's true that it's all pretty stressful, but I can handle it. I'm fine, Rean; it's not like I haven't done all of this before."