"I do like your house! You're picking things up really quickly - I know you don't think so -"

"I suppose I have high expectations of myself. I am not used to– I mean, I am used to doing things that are very hard, but not for the difficult part to be concentrating on something for longer than ten minutes. It leaves me feeling very - broken. I think it is getting a little easier, though." 

"It seems to me like it is. And - I'm sure it is hard for it to take time, but it isn't very surprising. Certainly no one was expecting you to bounce back immediately. - well, I guess I was a little terrified you'd do that. But. Not once we saw what had actually happened."

"What was the other thing you thought might have happened - oh, I suppose if you thought I had just been working for Melkor...?" 

"Yes. Which - in certain states of information might've been reasonable? But it'd have been terribly complicated."

"Looking back, I am surprised he did not try just erasing my memories all the way back to my arrival in Arda and beginning again, so that he could control my information state completely. I would be especially paranoid on arrival in a new world, but I was also especially paranoid when I believed myself in Melkor's hands, so it would not have made my level of suspicion worse." 

Pause. "...Maybe he did do this. I have not finished sorting through all of the memories yet. It somehow manages to be tedious and upsetting both at the same time." 

"I can imagine!" He squeezes his hand. 

Leareth squeezes back, without speaking.

His new house isn't ready for inhabiting yet, so he heads back with Maitimo to his very basic one. 

Where Maitimo can sing him to sleep, if he'd like.

Leareth would like that. He also doesn't really want to let go of Maitimo's hand, but will at any indication that Maitimo prefers that. 

No. They shouldn't do anything else until it's not a disaster if Maitimo leaves - Maitimo thinks he prefers not actually having romantic relationships where he is not allowed to be angry or leave - but they can hold hands. And pine. It's nice. It feels...emotionally healthy, or something.

It's confusing and honestly kind of frustrating, but that's not unique to pining, a majority of Leareth's experiences are some amount of confusing and frustrating. And it's also nice.