Hugs.

Yeah, those.

She finishes her dinner and seems somewhat at a loss for what to do next.

Would you rather stay here? I don't think he'll feel too abandoned.

That sounds good. Thank you.

No problem. And he directs more logistics remotely and leans against the wall and is not miserable because that's not useful to Maitimo.

She sleeps, after a bit - somewhat restlessly, but she calms right down when he pets her, at least for a while.

She wakes before dawn and looks around, confused.

You spent the night here because my cousin was stressing you out.

...yeah.

You okay?

Yeah, I'm fine. I'm pretty used to Maitimo, I've known him a while.

All right. She hugs him anyway.

Hugs. Do you want to just move in here? We can send some people to stay with him - or his brothers could -

She thinks about it.

I think it'd do me a lot of good to spend more time here - spend the night as a regular thing, maybe do my cooking here or just bring everything from my pantry and let your cooks handle it for me, that kind of thing. Having other people there... might work? I'd want to talk to them about it first, I know they have some problems interacting with other Eldar that they don't have with me but I'm not sure how serious that is, among other things.

Might be outweighed by the advantages of knowing what'll upset us better than he knows it for you.

Might, yeah. I dunno.

One of us would need to make sure to talk to them regularly, I think. They need to have someone around that they don't feel like they have to lie to about everything.

I imagine he can find that in his own camp, too.

Yeah, but until then. I can do it.

So can I, and I think it hurts me less.

She looks briefly pained. Yeah.

So I'll do it.

Mmhmm. If they ask for me or you need a break or anything I'm still willing; I'm apparently less resilient than I used to be but I should still be able to handle it.

Hugs. Angband is a hard thing to be resilient about.

True, but not what I meant.

Hmm?

I used to be really good for this kind of stuff - I get upset, but I don't mind being upset, it doesn't - didn't - hurt me, I'd be fine again afterward. And I seem to have lost some of that since I was exiled; it used to take a lot more for me to get to the point of having problems like I did last night.

Hopefully that's temporary but if I keep pushing myself it's less likely to be, so. She sighs.

So that sounds like a good reason to not push yourself.