[ His eyes dart to the side bashfully, and Casita flaps a couple tiles at him encouragingly. He tries to swallow a smile, but can't, and it just spreads over his face uncontrollably. He feels more emotion welling in his chest than he'd like to, thanks...! So he just takes a short, deep breath and turns his smile on Pepa fully. ]

Okay. If it's doing you a favor... But.

[ He points a finger at her. ]

Can we have it at the beach?

[ The first acquiescence he's given, since she insists! His eyes light up a bit wistfully as he goes on explaining why. ]

Last year, Luca and I threw his birthday party out in Stardew, so we could—

[ He stops short suddenly, a distant look coming into his eyes as his gaze drifts off slightly and his smile falters. But it's just a blip, and he picks up exactly as he left off as if he didn't just emotionally glitch. ]

...swim, and see the stars, and make a big fire. It was great.

[ He picks up the cadence all right, but there's still something pained in the muscles around his eyes, something about the lukewarm "it was great," like that wasn't how he was planning to describe it when he'd started talking about it... He may try to smile past it and gloss over whatever thought just struck him, swallow his emotions, but he's dealing with the master here... ]