I'm alright, sir. I was sick a lot when I was a kid, but I grew out of it. [There's a beat of hesitation where he presses his lips together, like maybe he's considering just leaving it at that, but.

(Sure, he'd been sick a lot, but Steve was pretty tiny during the flood, even compared to Gene. It kind of makes him feel a little bit guiltier even if he probably would have just been excited to have a buddy who understood how lousy it was to always get picked last for stuff if they were still kids.)]

Kinda sounds like you've got an idea of what that's like.