"I love you," he says, snuggling her. "I'm sorry my planet is full of idiots. Who do things like pull your hair. I'm probably unreasonably offended about that part."

"I love you too, and yes you probably are. He neither broke nor extracted any hairs that I noticed. Bylinkin was very quick and my hair is tough stuff," Linya says. "They may be slightly pinched but will smooth out in a couple of days."

"Good." He pets her hasty braid and cuddles her some more. "I'll just continue being unreasonably offended, then."

"You're adorable." She sighs. "The fellow was, inconveniently, not a student, but a professor. With tenure."

"Bugger. Is he going to make your life difficult? Does he teach any of your classes?"

"No, none of mine, he was guest-lecturing for the physics course but it was a one-off or I imagine he'd have made his displeasure known before today."

"Well, that's good, I guess. Still."

"Yes. I'm glad I didn't become complacent about going accompanied outside the house," she sighs.

"Me too." Cuddle cuddle. "I'm glad you weren't hurt."

"He didn't have a weapon on him. Even if I'd been alone I think I could have gotten him off of me before he did any damage, although I don't think I could have managed it as elegantly as Bylinkin."

"Well, that's what Armsmen are for. Protecting the Count and his family."

Linya nods. She gives Miles another snuggle and another kiss and then lets him go so he can see to the care of her abused hair.

He brushes the hair. He pets the hair. He braids the hair - a five-stranded French rope braid that spins elegantly down her back. He pets the hair again. And then he sits in Linya's lap and kisses her.

"I love you too. And your hair. I definitely love your hair."

"It's extremely conspicuous that you love my hair."

Miles giggles. "I, um, yes." A memory of a certain conversation with Bel Thorne springs to mind, and he adds, "...How hopelessly pathetic was I when I first saw you? With the falling to my knees and all?"

"...Do you want me to generate a number on a scale from one to ten or elaborate further on what I thought of it?"

"Oh, I don't know, is both an option? I confess I'm much more interested in the latter."

"Then the latter you shall have. It's - a substantial part of your appeal is the way you sort of - project your experience of the world outward. It's very compelling. When that experience happened to be that you were thunderstruck by my designer's artistic choices, that was flattering; the particular way you displayed it was incidental."

"Well, now I'm going to be insufferably pleased with myself," he says, grinning.

Linya giggles and snuggles him.

Giggles! Snuggles! Giggly snuggles! And rebraided hair! Miles feels terribly accomplished.