There is not generally any point in wishing my father was a different kind of person whose mind worked different ways. We needed - Fëanáro, the way he was, in order to - decide the best plan was to build your god before you were even back, to start working out how to do it - in order to have gotten the Noldor out of Valinor -

I think that is true. If for some reason I had the option to go back and change the past, but could only change Fëanáro's personality, I would not do so. Still. There is something I think you said to me once... I do not recall the context, I think it was in my notes somewhere, but - I was talking about only wanting things that were possible, that wanting impossible things put too much weight on what 'wanting' even means, and - you said that restricting myself to wanting only possible things was letting reality put too much weight on what 'wanting' means. So... I do not think it is inconsistent, to wish that somehow both things could have been true, even if we cannot change the world to be that way. 

Nod. 

I'll go apologize to him. Squeeze. This still feels complicated but not ridiculously upsetting.

Telumë leans in and kisses Maitimo's forehead. Good skill. I will still be here if you need to talk afterward... I suppose I am not sure if he will want to see me as well, at some point. 

Probably. He likes you.

He laughs. For some strange reason, I think he does. Where is he now? 

Vinyamar. My mother said they'd visit if we thought it was a good idea.

Well, on my end I would like to see both of them. 

Then why don't you extend an invitation, and I will let my mother know I'll be there too, and I will compose my apology and figure out how to manage it and then we can show them around.

Then Telumë will take his time writing up a nice letter with the invitation, and copying it onto good paper with his best calligraphy (it's not nearly competitive with Quendi calligraphy but this feels important to do himself), and then he sends it with the next regular mail exchange to Arda, along with anything that Maitimo wants to include for Nerdanel. 

And they write back almost immediately, to schedule a visit.

A week from now would be perfect; that way Telumë can arrange to be all caught up on routine business, and have lots of free time to show them around. (And Maitimo can plan out his apology.) 

They will plan on it!

Maitimo has a moody week. It's mostly not planning the apology, that takes about ten minutes. He thinks of some of it as 'giving the apology without sending Telumë something worrying over the marriage bond' but that's not quite it either.

He spends a lot of time worrying over his hair. Whether or not to do a married braid, whether or not to do a Noldorin one. He settles eventually on a style that wouldn't be out of place at home but that would never have fit with the circlet he used to wear. Not a married braid, though that's mostly for practical reasons; Telumë doesn't in fact know hundreds of different Quendi hairstyles and cannot do them for him. He might teach him one or two, someday, but not for this. 

Telumë is trying to get himself emotionally prepared so that he won't be too distressed by whatever he might feel from Maitimo; in a certain sense it feels like it's not his business. 

The day that Fëanáro and Nerdanel are scheduled to arrive, he does ask Maitimo for advice on how to wear his own hair; he's been keeping it braided out of habit, even during the period where there weren't any Quendi around in his city, but he's still doing the toddler braid style and possibly at some point should learn a more complicated one. 

Maitimo can do it for him; like a King, if he wishes that, or like a researcher if that's closer to the presentation he wants.

Telumë prefers it like a researcher, he decides. He doesn't really think of himself as a King. 

Then Maitimo will do it for him, in the space of about five minutes because most of the Tirion researcher fashions are not ones that take a lot of time. It's a married braid, of course, but very subtly.  When he is done he kisses Telumë.

Telumë kisses him back, and then they can go out and greet Fëanáro and Nerdanel together when they arrive via the Gate-terminus. 

Fëanáro looks - slightly surprised, to see Maitimo, but copes by studiously ignoring him. He congratulates Telumë on the city, on the god - can they talk to the god themselves -

They can! Foundation is strongest here and they should just be able to talk to them with osanwe, although it’s a little unintuitive the first time. Foundation knows how to respect the public/private thoughts distinction at this point, too.

Fëanáro is suddenly deeply distracted talking about physics and engineering with Foundation. Occasionally he delightedly tells Nerdanel that he was right about some technical point about the makeup of the air or what makes something a metal.

"How are you two doing?"

"We're very happy. The city's beautiful."

Telumë meets her eyes, suddenly feeling oddly self-conscious and unsure what he’s supposed to say. “Things are going well in the city, and the country more generally. I am pleased to have Maitimo’s help with it. And - very happy that we are together.”