"That's pretty nice."  He will go ahead and exercise his freedom to not say what his means, here.

She doesn't ask. She unpacks what she got in her errands - snacks to keep in the room, for one, which are dried mushrooms but at least salty and chewy and to be consumed ad libitum if he feels underfed.

"Thank you!"

He kind of wants to offer her another massage, and kind of has all day, but if he does it now then it'll seem like he only does that in response to extra food.  But if he does it not in response to things, he'll just seem pathetically lonely.  Or worse, into her, and there's no way she's ever going to feel that way toward him, and then things will be horrible between him and the only person who doesn't think he's a slave.

"...Is there any way I could help with making another hammock?"

"Hm. So the two pain points there are getting the anchors into the ceiling, and getting strong enough silk to hold a person up. Can you weave? Or spin?"

"No.  Not already."  That's not one of his mom's hobbies that he participated in.

"Then unfortunately even if you start right now you will suck at it for years to come. Unseen Servants can spin but they need looms to weave just like people do and we don't have one... I could just buy hammock fabric if the book sells, how urgent is this?"

"It's not very urgent."

"Okay. Book first and then we can get you your own hammock."

Nod nod nod.

"I had the thought that I could work on translating while you're away, but I don't know whether that's an okay use of paper."

"You could maybe do some translating in your head, since you're more cultural consultant than Drow language expert and it shouldn't be that hard to call to mind whatever you thought up about rendering this or that across the language barrier?"

"Okay, I'll give it a go."

"Thanks."

Eventually Belmarniss has scrivened off a batch of the first fully translated installment of the book to go sell. (And in the intervening time has managed to Secret Page something on each of the incriminatingly strange otherworldly books to attach a Secluded Grimoire to the magic aura so she can whisk them off for safekeeping.)

Beau spends the time existing awkwardly next to the halflings, reading several of Niss's books, and occasionally seeing but thankfully not really interacting with her family members.  He gives her another two massages, and as he gets more comfortable around her, he starts asking her to Prestidigitate his hands clean kind of a lot. He gets enough of Light down to start working on Prestidigitation himself, a little.  He gets ahead on the parts of the translation he can do and spends enough time muttering the passages to himself that he sort-of-mostly memorizes a surprising amount.

It's - okay.  Surprisingly.

There are not a lot of luxuries to be had downstairs, especially for people who are used to industrial economies and sunshine, but she does eventually notice he likes bacon and there's more bacon after that, and when the book sells she brings home a tiny precious bag of peanuts and he can have them. ...half of them.

He is more than happy to share half a bag of peanuts with her.

After the next massage he gives her a very halting sort of hug from behind.

Is he going to like, dig his chin into the knot in her shoulder, or...

Nope!  That's all.

How are the prospects looking for getting him his own hammock?

She's convinced her mother to let her and she's shopping around for suspension ironmongery that won't drop him on his ass. There are not really good consumer protections in Noctimar.

That makes sense, yeah.  It'll be nice to be on a less-lonesome sleep schedule but of course he can wait for it to be safe to do so.

"Are you thinking a bigger or smaller run for the next chapter, based on how this one went?"

"I'm keeping an ear out for buzz and impatience. Bigger if I think they'll all sell."

And he's not going to be able to match even a small fraction of pages she can do by magic, let alone accurately.  So even if people are very impatient, it probably doesn't make sense for him to offer to help.  Nod.  "Is news that people are excited likely to make its way back to you?  ...Have you ever sold a book before, like this?"

"No, never, I sold a minor math paper one time but only three people wanted it and it was short enough that I just scrivened them off for each person who asked."

He nods.

"Is it safe for me to.... leave, ever?  I'm kind of worried I might - atrophy."

"I can take you for a walk if you want, it's not super safe but it's not that bad. You could come along and sit with me while I'm selling chapters. You'd have to - play the part, more, around people who aren't already familiar with me and how I act. Otherwise they'll - spend more time on wondering what you're doing there, than is a good idea to prompt them to do."