Is there anything else they can help with now? Vanyel thinks it would be polite to offer them warmer clothes if they want that. 

There is interest in warmer clothes! 

The Noldor don't actually have spare outfits, for the most part - Tirion was much warmer than Vinyamar - but maybe we can import some?

This should definitely be feasible to obtain from Velgarth! Honestly Randi would probably just give them clothes if they ask, but they can also trade for it. Valdemar seems closer in its climate to Vinyamar; the north might be even colder. 

Then they can make plans for a return trip with clothes!

Stef makes sure to smile and wave at all the children, and then if there's nothing else to cover they can head back, it doesn't seem like there are really good accommodations to stay overnight. 

There really are not. The humans gather around to watch the Gate in awe and try to catch a glimpse of Vinyamar through it.

Well, hopefully there'll be a new beautiful city in a few years that they can just walk to, right? 

"That's the plan."

"I think that'd be really good," Vanyel agrees. "They'll benefit from nearby trade. If the Quendi locals don't take advantage of them in some way, that is; they are starting out with so much less. But it - doesn't really seem like exploitative trade is a habit your people have."  

"We are developing a lot of new habits outside Valinor. But - hopefully not."

"Fortunately for them, I think all of us and especially the King of Valdemar will be very sad if the Quendi mistreat the local humans, so you had best avoid it," Leareth says with a smile. 

"Yes, seldom have a people been born with so many powerful allies hanging around with nothing to do after having made the world safe for them."

"Leareth can speak for himself but I feel very busy, actually," Vanyel says cheerfully. "Stef, now, lazes around all day..." 

"Hey, just because you don't think staying in touch with all the people is real work doesn't mean it isn't. I go to so many parties so you don't have to." 

"What a valiant sacrifice on your part." 

"I'm with Stef. All the real work is done at parties; meanwhile you scribble on some paper until sophisticated magical technologies suddenly appear."

Oh no, Leareth was doing so well at being focused and now he's distracted wondering what Maitimo's thinking, again, this is so unhelpful. 

" - well. Good work, everyone. Get some rest, those of us who go to parties have lots to do tomorrow and I guess the rest of you will have to sit around writing things down until the genius ideas jump into your brains, too."

What a good idea. Leareth can escape with Vanyel before Maitimo has a chance to notice that he's preoccupied again and worry about it. 

He noticed. He's kind of worried about it. But - presumably Leareth will bring it up when he wants to discuss it with Maitimo. And if he instead wants to discuss it with Vanyel, he'll have lots of opportunity. 

And he does have lots to do, if not quite enough to keep him from worrying about what's bothering Leareth.

Maybe Leareth should talk about it with Vanyel? Except that sounds only fractionally less awkward than confessing to Maitimo that he's found it out, and it's even more of a violating of Maitimo's privacy, and gah. Normally he might consider asking Melody for advice on something where he felt this baffled about his own emotions much less possible actions, but he absolutely does not have that kind of trust with Jisa, and it's a really minor and petty thing to try to call her back for, that would be ridiculous. 

So instead it seems like he's going to go with 'try to ignore it and occasionally succeed.' He thinks he's succeeding at being less visibly distracted to Maitimo's face, at least. 

They wrap up the stretch in Vinyamar. They go back to Tol Eressëa. 

Maitimo had been considering suggesting they just relocate to Vinyamar - makes his work easier - but Leareth has been off this whole time so he does not suggest it. He can hop over to Vinyamar periodically; Leareth should be in familiar territory. 

All right, this is reaching a very stupid level of pointlessly mulling on something without any useful progress. 

The problem is less that Leareth doesn't know what the possible actions are. He could: put it out of his mind forever, tell Maitimo and try to politely let him down about it, or...tell Maitimo and say he's interested? Whatever that even means. The first one is apparently not doable in practice and the second one makes him want to scream. Probably there are options four and five and six that he's completely failing to notice, due to not having bothered to have any romantic relationships in the last millennium, but...actually it seems like the thing he's stuck on is earlier in the process than that? Maitimo is pretty good at helping him untangle that kind of stuckness, but also it feels unfair to drag it to him when apparently all Leareth can do with it is be pointlessly confused at it, probably that would be hurtful. 

He gives him a couple of weeks. Some interesting magic problems. Some light conversations over tea about Velgarth. 

And then - 

- privacy barrier. "All right. Something's bothering you, and it's worrying me. Can you please - if you don't want to talk to me that's fine, you can talk to Vanyel, we can call Melody back -"