"So you two--huh, that makes a lot of sense in retrospect. She liked him well enough, for the amount of acquaintance they had."

"He's lovely," he says fondly.

"Tell me about how he's lovely so I can talk him up for her when we get back."

He has a story about some tedious argument between their fathers, when Findekáno was still a child and Maitimo mostly grown but not yet sure of which rhetorical weapons had replaced innocent cuteness and had decided to handle it by feeding his little cousin lines. Findekáno went off script, but all for the better -

- they travelled together down south, back before there was anything to worry about raising suspicions about, they found a runaway seven-year-old, here's what happened -

- there's a song they wrote together, does she want to hear it -

She would love to hear it.

He sings the song. He has more stories. The lights change, silver to white-purple to gold, and they head home.

And Marille goes to see Vorondie.

"You'll never guess what happened while I was gone."

"Correct. If asked to do so I will guess something amusing that did not happen and then demand to know the truth when you confirm my guess's incorrectness."

Snort. "Maitimo asked me to marry him."

"Is this because of the recitation--does he seriously think--"

"...Allow me to clarify. The idea is that I marry him, and if you two get along well enough, you marry his boyfriend."

"Oh. That's actually pretty sensible. Maitimo and Findekano are boyfriends, huh."

"I love how you didn't have to ask who it was."

"It was contextually obvious! Even if he weren't the best candidate based on their public relationship, showing up at my place of work narrowed it down a bit!"

"D'you want to hear endearing stories about him from Maitimo?"

"Sure."

Endearing stories!

They are endearing! Vorondie is endeared.

"Well. You have my blessing to marry Maitimo, if you want, given the context. Not gonna make up my mind about my end of the plan for a while, of course."

"Of course."

It's a while before she leaves Vorondie's, and then she has apprenticeship stuff to do, but eventually she goes to see Maitimo again.

"Hello!"

"Hi!"

Vorondie said yes. ...To me marrying you, not her marrying Findekano, she's not going to decide for sure on that one until she knows him a little better. Endearing anecdotes notwithstanding.

You have found yourself a very sensible girl. Does that mean I should start courting you?

"I read a paper I thought would interest you, but perhaps you have seen it already." He pulls it out.

Yeah, if we're going to do it we should probably be as respectable about it as possible, given the reasons why.

"I've seen that one, yeah, but it was really interesting."

And a week later an invitation to a concert! And then a play! And then a dance! It is all splendidly respectable.

So respectable! And, conveniently, fun things to do with a friend even when neither of you is actually attracted to the other.

They should probably have their own versions of Ahya's Adult Conversations but that can wait until it would make sense for them to admit to discussing those kinds of things.