Then the logistics meeting can proceed uneventfully through everything else on the agenda! When it concludes Maitimo has a list of things he's promised the new city and a longer list of things to work on at some point in the future. 

He hesitates for half a second, standing up to leave, then touches Findekáno's arm. "I hope it goes really well."

"Oh, it will. We do boring things better than you, you know, always have."

"Mmhmm. - good night, everyone - thank you -"

"Good to see you again, Findekáno," Vanyel says, yawning. "...You know, if you're good at boring things it's not because you are boring, I think that's the first time I've ever seen Stef sit through the entirety of one of these meetings." 

"That is a lie and I was taking notes for you, you get too distracted thinking about magic. However I am glad we can now be done with that." 

Leareth nods to Maitimo and follows Vanyel out without speaking. He - has things to think about, apparently. 

His room in the palace is spacious and pretty and has a balcony looking out on the city.

Vanyel pauses by Leareth's door, letting Stef forge ahead to their room further down. :Are you all right? You've been quiet: 

Leareth smiles reassuringly at him. :I am fine. Thank you. A little tired:

:Better let you sleep then. It was really good having your help, back there, I find those meetings interminable when it's just me: He pats Leareth's arm and heads past. 

Leareth shuts the door, and wanders out to the balcony. He's not not tired, sleep is a good idea, but his head still feels too full for it. 

One: apparently Maitimo's feelings toward him are a lot more than just friendly? He had gotten enough of a sense before, back at the very beginning, that Maitimo found him attractive, but that's also different. Two: Findekáno is aware of this, has been for a while. Also seems completely unbothered. Three: Leareth has somehow been completely oblivious to it for the entire time. The entire last five years, maybe? Which is kind of shocking, but on the other hand, he had - sort of assumed that Maitimo was taken, that his already having a partner meant he might find other people attractive but wouldn't end up feeling anything more than that. He's not sure why he was so convinced of this, since it clearly hasn't held for humans, but...

It seems like Findekáno expects him to guess eventually, but there's no sign that either of them saw Leareth's reaction tonight. He's not sure if Findekáno even knows about the thoughtreading. Which means nobody is going to be asking him about it. 

...This is good, because how he feels about it is by far the hardest thing to figure out here. It's not that he's upset or offended, at all, on any level. It's just - very unclear what to do with this information, assuming he wants to do something other than keeping feigning ignorance.

He catches himself halfway through a thought that it'd be too awkward to tell Maitimo how he found out, reveal that he's still going around reading people's minds whenever he feels like it – except that this is obviously stupid because that will hardly be news to Maitimo.

Leareth sighs and leans against the railing, looking out at the moonlit city. Probably he should just go to sleep and mull on it in the morning. Or maybe two weeks from now when they're not on the middle of a busy trip. But it's weirdly hard to leave it alone. 

A Quendi couple is wandering through the streets, holding hands, singing. As they round a corner they interrupt themselves in their singing by bursting into giggles, and then by kissing, and then they stop that and look around to see how much fuss they caused and walk a little faster, out of sight. 

Somewhere else in the palace a young child is yelling that they will too go to Tol Eressëa if they want to.

Leareth smiles slightly. It's so - human - and it's a reminder of how safe and peaceful this place is. Now. It was a hard fight, to get there. But worth it. He hasn't ever resented having landed in Arda by accident, not really. Certainly not now. 

...It's very human, and he is, in the end, still human, and yet it's still impossible to picture himself in the position of that couple. It's not just that he's not a very giggly sort of person; it's a lot deeper than that. Which is a faintly sad thought, because it feels so clearly bright and shining and good that they're safe and prosperous enough to have room for that, and it's not that he's explicitly been trying to deny himself things that are good for other people–

Well, not for its own sake, but there were a lot of centuries of hard tradeoffs to make, over and over and over. 

He doesn't regret arriving here. It's possible it would feel worth it even if not for the Gates back and forth, the exchanges of resources - even if not for Vanyel - if the only benefit he had found here had been a friendship with Maitimo, somewhere in him is a conviction that it would have been a fair trade for five years as Melkor's prisoner. Which is a baffling way to feel, really. 

Leareth sighs and turns away from the railing. This does not really seem more productive than sleeping. 

He has left the next morning unscheduled so people who have been inspired to do magic research can get on that.

That is a more productive occupation, probably, but Leareth is still kind of distracted. 

Vanyel, fortunately, has enough enthusiasm for both of them, and is excited enough about several paths to try that by lunchtime, Leareth is engrossed enough to forget about the concept of eating. 

Who could possibly have predicted this! Maitimo, who sends them both some lunch and arrives shortly after that to join them for it. 

Vanyel transitions smoothly from diagramming out an automatic loom to cheerfully explaining it. 

Leareth props his chin on his fist while he eats and tosses in a few comments. Without helpful annotation via Findekáno's thoughts, he has no idea whatsoever what Maitimo is thinking or feeling behind his pleasantly attentive expression, which is very frustrating apparently even though he was completely fine with it before yesterday. 

Everything okay? he asks him at the end of lunch. We don't have to do more meetings, if you'd rather have some time to work in peace and quiet.

:No, the meetings are helpful - it would be less than ideal if we ended up researching the wrong problem due to not having relevant context: Leareth tries for a reassuring smile, but he can never get that past Maitimo as well as he can with Vanyel. :I suppose I am having trouble setting down everything in my mind in order to be sociable, is all: 

All right. Good skill.

Leareth nods and smiles and flees before Maitimo can get any more curious about his uncharacteristic distractedness.

...He wonders how long it will take before Maitimo gets suspicious that he isn't making his thoughts public via osanwë. Maybe long enough that he can figure out how to get his stupid thoughts to stay on topic instead. It's just pointless for it to be this distracting, really, especially when it's obviously been true for years and Maitimo's actual actions toward him have been, well, exactly what he's been observing all along. Even if he doesn't want to end up just ignoring this, he doesn't know what to do right now, or - see how to make progress on figuring it out - so clearly the correct thing to do is set it aside and work on the actual priorities...

Well, he can schedule an appropriate and not excessive number of meetings about those. 

He asks Vanyel if he's noticed Leareth seems distracted.

:Huh, you noticed too? I asked him about it and he says he's fine, so, I don't know, could be that coming out here is just taking some getting used to: