"It's, uh-- things have been busy, is all." He smiles, and it is... still a LITTLE strained, but he is doing his best over here! "Just, a lot going on. But they're, uh... probably settling down for now. Fingers crossed."

There is no way he can dump all that on Shiro without prior warning, alright. ...Jury's still out on whether he'll manage to avoid going into it at all.