I Speak for Fëanáro, not for myself.

His brow wrinkles with confusion. You are very presumptuous.

She softens again. When need be, yes.

I suspect neither of us is in the best state to be having this conversation. Perhaps we should continue it tomorrow.

Yes. My son is safe. Please - just let him get some sleep, don't take him away again.

...aww.

Of course, and she bows.

And he stands there looking utterly confounded and Fëanáro goes to bed.

And the kobold follows Fëanáro. When the doors to the throne room have closed behind them, she wraps him in a hug. You okay?

Yeah. Don't make my father mad he'll tell you to go live with a different tribe.

I don't think they realize they could do that, hug, and I'm not planning on telling them while we're still working on this. Anway, c'mon, we should get to bed. She offers him her hand.

They can't. Even if they tell you that you don't have to leave.

They can't force me to. But it might do more harm than good for me to stay if I'm not welcome - it would probably look like a threat, and most people don't react well when they're threatened. I don't want to make things worse for you.

You took me outside. And I don't think he's - threatened, just insulted and sad.

Well, we'll see. I'm going to apologize and try to start over tomorrow, that should help. She hugs him. I really do need to sleep first, though, even if you don't want to.

Will you stay with me and sleep?

Yeah. She hugs him and offers her hand again.

He takes it and squeezes it.

And then they're back in his room. She burrows under the blankets and waits for Fëanáro to make himself comfortable and cuddles with him for a little while and falls asleep.

He falls asleep too, though it takes a little longer. He hugs her a lot.

She's pretty hugable, and being hugged while she's asleep doesn't bother her at all.

In the morning, she spends a while thinking about the events of the previous evening, and then tries to disentangle herself without waking Fëanáro.

He wakes, but doesn't seem annoyed by it; instead he bounds out of bed.  We should do the fountain!

She giggles.

We should get breakfast, and then I need to go talk to your parent. And then we should do the fountain.

But the fountain's more fun and what if he tells you to go away.

I think they're more likely to tell me to go away if I wait, that's why I need to do it first. Hug. One of the most basic things in Speaking is that we try to find a way to make everybody happy; I don't just need to worry about you getting what you need, I also need to worry about them getting what they need, and what they seem to need is to know what's going on and have some control over it. And one way I can show them that I understand that they need that and that I want them to have it is by making it a priority that they get it, which means talking to them first thing, and apologizing, and being very patient while I explain things to them, and finding ways to let them be in control that don't hurt you - like staying in the city even though it's safe to leave. Hug, again. Does that make sense?

Yeah. He's - not usually mean. Just to me, and just when he's scared. Please don't be mean to him.

Sigh, hug. Yeah, that's what I'm going to apologize for.