Leareth follows him in and shuts the door and then stands by it, smiling. 

Vanyel works in silence for a minute or so and finally glances up. "Are you going to– All right, what? Are you going to explain that smirk?" 

"I am not smirking!" Leareth leans against the wall. "I am going to tell you. I..." This is surprisingly hard to phrase! 

Vanyel watches him patiently. "Yes, go on?" he says finally. 

Leareth gives up on finding exactly the right phrasing. "Maitimo and I are - in a relationship now." 

Vanyel jumps to his feet. "What? Really?" 

Leareth laughs. "Yes, really - I know it is very surprising–"

"That is such an understatement." Vanyel grins. "Also that's wonderful. Since when? Is that why you disappeared all day yesterday?" Pause. Vanyel is trying for a suspicious look but he can't stop smiling. "Come to think of it, is that why you've been distracted for weeks?" 

"Maybe. I - guessed that he had feelings about me a few weeks ago. Then I was not sure what to do about it for quite a long time." He feels sort of silly about that now, the answer turned out to be quite obvious really. "Yesterday he sat me down and said I needed to tell someone what was on my mind, so I told him, and we talked about it, and then..." 

Eyebrow waggle. 

Leareth chuckles. "Anyway. You need to keep it a secret, all right? You know how Quendi feel about - this kind of relationship." 

Sigh. "Yes. I do." 

"I would understand if you wish to tell Stef, but you need to communicate to him that he absolutely cannot tell anyone." 

"Maitimo would be furious if he did. Stef may be - very himself - but he does have self-preservation as an instinct. I think he can keep it to himself." 

Leareth nods. And then smiles some more. 

"Are you bouncing right now? You are." 

"I am not." Leareth had in fact failed to notice that he was bouncing. He stops. The happiness needs somewhere to overflow to so it goes into grinning instead. 

Vanyel isn't sure he's ever seen Leareth make that expression. It's adorable. It's very tempting to tease him about it but that risks making him feel self-conscious and then he'll stop. 

"...Gates?" 

"All right, Gates." He can definitely focus. Certainly that's a thing he can do.

...For a while, anyway. 

They make some progress on it and then break for lunch and Leareth hunts around for Maitimo's mind. :I have caught up with Vanyel on our current projects; I could go to Vinyamar whenever is next a good moment for it: 

Sounds good! Do you want me to go too?

:I think I would appreciate that, if it is all right with you: Going up and starting that conversation with Findekáno on his own feels weirdly unapproachable. 

Sure. I bet he'll have more to say if I'm not there but I can introduce you.

:That makes sense: Leareth agrees that the conversation will be more informative if it's in private, it's just starting it that seems hard. 

Meet you at the Gate?

:Sure - in about ten minutes?: