Leareth is waiting for Maitimo in his room. Feeling - happy to see him, and also nervous and confused and weirdly shy. He goes to Maitimo for a hug. "How was your morning?" 

"Linguistics guild is debating whether to release meeting minutes in Valdemaran."

"Of their meetings here? Is anyone in Valdemar asking for them?" 

"No one is! They are worried that there must be a good explanation and maybe it's that by not publishing minutes in Valdemaran they're being unwelcoming."

"Has it occurred to them that literally no one in Valdemar is going to be thinking 'oh, my top priority for this week is reading meeting minutes about linguistics from another world'?" 

"I tried suggesting that but, you know, gently. I'm not sure it got through."

"Well, I hope they do not continue to labour under the misapprehension that someone in Valdemar is deeply offended about the omission." 

Leareth falls silent, leaning on Maitimo's shoulder. Thinking. It's annoyingly hard to talk about, he sort of wishes he could do the shoving-thoughts-at-Maitimo method instead of bothering, but - he's not sure it'll all come out in the right order and with the right feelings attached, now, if he does that. 

"An idea I had," he says finally, "is that - one of the things Melkor will not have been able to poison as much, probably, is - where I am the one taking actions. So I thought, maybe, you could tell me ways that you like to be touched and then I could decide whether I feel ready to try some. You could start with things that would still be - going slowly. What do you think?" 

"That occurred to me too. You could play with my hair, if you liked, though if you do I will be very distracted."

"...I am going to take a bit of time to figure out whether I want to do that." He thinks the answer will almost certainly be yes, but the way he's actually feeling right now is 'kind of overwhelmed', and he would prefer to see if he can sit with it for a while and get something more like 'excitement' or 'happiness' about it. 

"How very responsible." He will wait patiently and sing.

Leareth is mostly mentally simulating touching Maitimo's hair, and Maitimo being happy and distracted, and seeing if the overwhelmed-scared component will settle down.

"Yes, I want to," he says finally, which is true. It's not an entirely uncomplicated wanting, but - well, nothing is and it's not going to be, right now. "I might - pause, sometimes, if it gets overwhelming, it does not necessarily mean I want to stop entirely and it definitely would not be your fault." 

"I am not going to worry it is my fault." Hug. 

He's a little worried that Maitimo is trying very hard to make all of this non-stressful for him, which is impossible, and feeling bad when it's inevitably sometimes stressful anyway. Maitimo probably doesn't want Leareth to worry about his feelings there, though, so he doesn't say anything.

He settles himself in a comfortable position and then, slowly and cautiously, reaches for the end of Maitimo's braid. 

Maitimo smiles slightly at him and waits patiently.

What happens if he undoes the tie at the end of Maitimo's braid. 

If Findekáno did that he would pout and threaten to do it himself but he's - not sure if they're allowed to joke, yet. He waits.

Leareth starts undoing the braid. Stops a few seconds again, this time in amazement. "Your hair is so soft!" Probably it's annoying to keep stopping more than necessary, though, so he continues unraveling it.

(Softsoftsoft. That part is really nice, actually. There aren't a lot of sensory experiences that are almost-purely-pleasant right now, and running his fingers through Quendi hair is up there.) 

He tries not to be startling about it or anything but he is very distracted!

It makes him feel - a weird, but not inaccurate, description of the feeling is 'powerful'. He is really, absurdly, obviously having an effect on the world right now! If only on Maitimo. 

...Which is a complicated feeling, right now, he feels proud and satisfied and also terrified and confused, which is a bizarre mixture, and every so often his head starts to feel full to bursting, and he has to pause for a moment and close his eyes and pretend he's somewhere else until his emotions settle. 

Eventually he figures out that it's less overwhelming if part of him stays detached from it, like he's observing through a window. The same feelings are mostly still happening but it's a bit less - loud, and messy.

Hopefully Leareth is having a good time and making good decisions because he can't super read him right now while very distracted. 

Leareth stops after a while, shifts so he can cuddle with Maitimo. Maybe at an angle where Maitimo can't really see his face, to start. He waits to see if Maitimo is going to say or do anything. 

"How're you feeling?"

"...Good. That was...a lot, though..." He switches to Mindspeech, it's still easier. :I felt - I guess, like I had the power to do something in the world, even if it was only - making you happy. And that felt very good and also kind of scary, and just - a lot of feelings, so it was a little overwhelming, that was why I stopped for a moment sometimes. But, I am very glad we tried it: Snuggle. :I love you: 

I love you. I want you to have the power to do things in the world, things like that. I think it is an important part of being you, doing things in the world.

:I know why it is kind of scary - I tried not to do any things for a long time - I tried not to want things, I thought that anything I wanted was just a way Melkor could exploit me. And that is not true anymore but there are still - habits. That I want to try to unlearn: