"Let us handle it anyway."

"You - you got notes on what I can do, right? We went over that."

"Yes, we did."

"And... I said I would defer to you. When I was backlashed. Even if I really needed not to... Oh I feel silly I thought I would notice it more than this."

"Do you want us to signal Traceless to come guide you?"

"No, it just caught my off guard."

Taptap. Taptap.

Lucien is going to listen to the people he said he would listen to even if it seems like a terrible idea. Well, emotionally feels like a terrible idea, he's clear headed enough to reason out that probably its not his fault.

Traceless pops out for a halfway-point break and dips Lucien into a kiss.

This is the first time he has kissed Haru when they are both pretty backlashed! It turns out to be amazing what was he thinking while awakening this is the best thing how did he ever think he wasn't into men.

Well if he would like to duck into a privacy tent they can do that. "We'll want to be quiet though. And shouldn't count on it being as appealingly on the menu in dungeons that are too distressing but this one's okay."

"Um I would really like to but shouldn't we save people first?"

"Guiding is part of saving people, if we don't do it we risk becoming nonfunctional for far longer than it takes to get back into fieldable shape. But in addition to quiet we should be quick."

"Shouldn't we wait until we actually need to? There are a lot of people who will have to wait on us."

"We've gotten half the people who're reported as missing, so this is a good time to take breaks - we still only have to take one if the pace holds and the whole operation will take the same amount of time if we take our one break now or later, it wouldn't be wise with psychological backlashes to keep going straight through if we can possibly avoid it."

"Oh if we're halfway there that makes sense I guess."

"Mmhm." Kiss. "Your call if you're not in the mood for a tent quickie though."

"Hm." Kiss. "I think I am."

Tent quickie it is!

Lucien was extremely correct about being up for it, apparently!

Oh good!

And then they can get dressed all the way and pop out for the second run.

Lucien eventually starts feeling like his excuses for not apologizing are really weak but he promised he'd defer to his support even if that was the case which was probably a mistake but he's still not going to renege on the promise.

And eventually they've got everybody out and a nonpowered team can go core-hunting while they guide.

Lucien feels weird about enjoying himself with Haru considering everything he's done but Haru is very capable of distracting him from this.

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, or something.