Vangelis looked away from the group and dropped his gaze as the two around him both clearly considered him to have recently lost his mind. In his moment of sentimentality; a pause in his life of efficiency that granted him the prospect that one day his two closest friends might decide to continue fighting longer than they should and greet Hades before their time - he had voiced that which he should not. Nike and Philippos were career soldiers. They had limited to no family; zero ties and responsibilities and they gave their lives to the call of the war horn. He should have known that voicing his care for them in his atypical obtuse manner would get him nothing but the questioning shock and derisive comments that it had.

Giving himself a mental shake and saying no more on the subject; falling, in fact, into his customary stony silence, Vangelis simply knotted his jaw and help up his mug to be refilled by the eager Commander already on his feet, allowing the man to make the journey to the bar in both his and Nike's stead.

Allowing his hand to fall back onto the table's surface, Vangelis' fingers tapped lightly on the knowl of the wood and a look of dark thought came over his features, his brow lowering and his jaw widening as he clenched his teeth.

To answer Pos' question within his own thoughts, Vangelis had no idea what had come over him. Perhaps it was his recent loss in the form of Captain Junas. Perhaps it was his mother words following such an event. Perhaps it was seeing his nephew for the first time in several months... Dion was now old enough to be entering into training and was the clear and living embodiment of the heir to the Kotas throne. An heir that would be entirely unnecessary if Vangelis were married and had had children.

Perhaps such thoughts had been swirling in the back of his mind, deep in his subconscious... more so than he realised anyway.

Blinking and shaking off such thoughts and any desire to verbalise them, as Pos returned from the tavern keep with his hands full of their three chalice mugs, Vangelis accepted his from the man with a simple, and shallow, nod of thanks.

When all three had been reset with their beverages, the crown prince felt a momentary glance in his direction from each of them. Whether due to his sudden (but not uncommon) silence, or because they wanted their general to propose to toast, he did not know. But at least doing so addressed both issues simultaneously.

"To long life." He offered them. "And may the Gods fill it with all that you desire, my friends."