Ianto had to smile a little back at Sulu as he complimented him, shaking his head at the other man. He knew that he looked pretty horrible--he felt pretty horrible in that moment. But he was trying to be optimistic, here. Trying to see the brighter side of things. So he wasn't going to answer with some sort of comment about how he looked atrocious, like he normally would, and instead he would turn it around to be something a bit more positive. They were going to need all the positive moments that they could get at that moment, really.

"Yes, well," he said, smiling at the other man as he cocked his head at him a little bit, "I did learn from one of the best. It's hard not to know at least a thing or two, after spending all that time with an obvious master." If he could still joke around, things couldn't be that bad, right? God, he really hoped so, he really hoped that that was a case. He took a breath in. So long as he still had a pulse, everything would be fine. He was just going to have to keep repeating that in his head, he supposed.