<Humans have some norms around not doing too much of the face-mashing in public where everyone can see.> 

<...but they do it on television? Anyway humans all live in separate boxes and Andalites do not.>

<That is a good point! Television shows all sorts of things that are supposed to happen in 'private', I think that is part of the appeal, but Andalites would not have nearly so much of that.> 

And Leareth is going to relax and stop caring about the opinions of whoever's watching, though he can't actually get himself to stop watching his surroundings, turning his stalks to see everything happening - both his long-trained habits and Andalite instincts are in favour of staying oriented to his environment.

His environment is comfortably non-threatening right now, though, and so for a while Leareth is mostly not having thoughts at all, entirely focused on the sensory delight of petting Matirin's face and getting his pleased thoughtspeech responses.

<...Were you planning for - something like this?> he asks eventually, wonderingly. <I was not expecting this at all but you do not seem surprised.> 

<...not exactly? I noticed you had a lot of emotional investment but I thought you might prefer not to, and it'd be rude to - use the fact I can notice things like that about people.>

<You thought I might prefer not to - have the emotional investment at all? Or to do this? Anyway I am in favour of both, I think. I am glad you said something that caused me to consider my feelings here, apparently I was not doing it on my own.> 

<I thought you might prefer to be less invested or to not have it noticed, yes. I am glad it was productive to bring up.>

<Huh. I - suppose there are cases where less investment would seem adaptive, but overall I think it is healthy to have a friendship I can be invested in. Melody thought so. And I am not sure why having that but not having it be noticed would help with anything.> 

<I don't know what human professionalism norms here are. Andalite ones frown on this slightly. Alliances should mostly not be personal relationships.>

<Hmm. Human norms do somewhat frown on it outside of formal alliance marriages, though in practice I think relationships are often ignored if they happen in private. I have not had it come up before, since I tended not to have close relationships at all, in Velgarth. Is...this going to be a problem for you, politically?>

<I don't think so now, with the war over.>

<And I cannot see anyone in my organization objecting. I - suppose it could be distracting? Then again, I am not sure it would be less distracting to not, so I think I prefer to wait and see.> Leareth snuggles up a little closer against Matirin, happily. 

He leans against him and - thinks about politics, mostly, but it seems like it might ruin the mood so he doesn't share it.

Leareth is content, for a while, to enjoy just being close to him, letting his Andalite instincts have opinions about how this is VERY GOOD. 

<I can tell you are thinking about something> he says finally. <I would be curious to hear it, unless it is private.> 

<No. I was just thinking that if I'm going to try to get my people to not execute Mhalir I need to talk to Alloran about it. And I thought that might ruin your very cute good mood.>

<Oh. Yes, that - sounds necessary, and not very comfortable.> Leareth is silent for a few seconds. <That being said, I think it will not improve the situation if I let it ruin my good mood now, so I think I will let my future self worry about that.> Snuggle. <Is it cute? I have to say, that is not usually a word I associate with myself.> 

<It is!> He wiggles his tail, which has fascinating effects on Leareth's when they're intertwined like this.

Leareth makes a surprised-pleased murmur in thoughtspeech. <I am glad you think so. Gods, and I am so happy the war is over. I want...> He trails off, because he isn't sure what. <I am finding it easier to - hope for the future to be better, I think, when I am close to you like this. I am not sure why, it does not seem logical, but still.> 

<I don't know if I can explain it but - if I were you I would definitely be very lonely and it would make a big difference being somewhat less so.>

<Maybe it is that. I do not think I had trouble with having optimism for the future before, so much, but - the war was a lot. Happening very fast. I had a thousand years to prepare for my operations in Velgarth.> He wriggles his tail a little against Matirin's. <I should feel more hopeful, I think? In all likelihood I will not have to murder anyone to fight our gods. Just...>

Mental sigh. <I am still upset at how much value was lost, here, so recently, it feels as though it should be fixable but I cannot undo the past. And - it hurts more that the mistakes were Mhalir's, I suppose.> 

<It would have been hard for him to do better. I am still very - frustrated about it, but...>

<I know.> 

And if he dwells on this now it's also going to ruin his lovely mood, which feels unfair, so Leareth tries to set aside the frustration. This is a good moment. The future is going to contain a lot of frustration, even if it's eventually good, but - this can just be what it is, and worth holding onto for however long it lasts. It's not a mental motion Leareth does very often, deliberately letting go of the future to just be here and now, but it's an oddly restful one.

He pets Matirin's face some more, thinking vague half-formed thoughts about trust, what it means to be the kind of pattern that can trust and be trusted by others. 

Matirin does not want to go tell Alloran that he is going to argue that the Andalites should not execute Mhalir, but he is pretty sure that he ought to do it. He thinks about it intermittently over the next few days; it feels like there ought to be a framing that would go over - not well, but tolerably, that won't inspire Alloran to try to kill him on the spot at least. It's much less fun than spending time with Leareth but - he's talked Leareth into coming to his homeworld with him, he'll have plenty of time for that. 

He goes over to see Alloran a week later. Alloran is playing with the foals in the Companion's Field. He looks much better. This almost makes him want to change his mind about not executing Mhalir even though that's very stupid. 

They exchange pleasantries. 

<I want to go home and do some politics> he says, eventually. 

            <I am not surprised> Alloran says neutrally.

<Cayaldwin is close to figuring out a version of morph that permits demorphing into a nearby anchor, and that doesn't have a nothlit risk. At that point morph becomes a one-step cure to aging and most illness and disability. I think we ought to share it on Earth.>

           <It went so well last time.>

<If Seerow had shared morph it would have gone well, actually! I don't think we should give the humans starships and I think it was stupid of Seerow to give the Yeerks that. We should have kept them contained to the one planet and pointed our technological innovations at making that more palatable. We have lost a great deal because Seerow empowered the ones who wanted to enslave everybody.>

          <Which is all of them. Some of them required some brief soothing in very vague terms about how once the universe had ceased to resist they could cease to enslave people.>

<I know. I think we have more resources now, to retaliate if humans try something similar. We don't have to give them Gifts. And when our own warriors are all routinely trained with Gifts no enemy can stand against us.>

          <Maybe.>

<Visser Three has been helping Cayaldwin with the research. I know what you will tell me about this.>

          Tail-lash. <I don't know what his aim is but you are foolish to trust him at all and Cayaldwin is - behaving much like a traitor to our people.>

<Don't say that again.>

          <I spoke carefully> Alloran says, watching him. 

<I think I do know what Visser Three wants. He hopes to, by saving hundreds of millions of lives on Earth and elsewhere through new discoveries, persuade Andalites that Yeerks can be valuable. And he hopes that we'll spare him, in the trials that are commencing soon.>

         <That will never happen.>

<Nothing he does now can make right what he did during the war. And it does not change that he is the kind of person who did it.>

         <If you have encouraged him in the impression that you will spare him ->

<I am not sure whether I have or not. I certainly have not tried to, but I am conflicted, and I imagine he has sensed that.>

        <There are few arenas in which I would question your judgment> Alloran says stiffly.

But this is, obviously, one of them. <I hate him> Matirin says. He's not sure whether it's true. <If I could kill him twenty years ago I would gladly give my life for that. If I could kill him six months ago, though, I would not do that. It would have been uglier, without his aid.>

        <Now it is over and you can kill him.>

<Now it is over and I could kill him, or wait until he's invented a very nearly perfect generalizable cure for deaths by illness and aging and kill him then, and I think the second one is better than the first one, in a way that implies I shouldn't do the first.>

       <Can Cayaldwin not do it without him?>

<I don't know. It would take him longer. Mhalir had sunk several decades into research along similar lines.>

         <Using my head.>

<Yes.>

         <He is stupid, on his own.>

<I know.>

         <The only part of him that isn't stolen is the desire to enslave and torture people.>

<I do not, actually, think that's true. He had convinced himself that the only way to save his people was to destroy ours. It was a lie, and it speaks poorly of him that he convinced himself of it, but I think he would not be working on morph adjustments if he only wished to enslave people. And I think he would not have surrendered. He could still have gotten himself off the planet, with what he learned from Leareth, and reverse-engineered the adjustment that permitted morphing Gifts, and then had both Gifts and Leareth's knowledge of how to use them.>

      Tail-lash.

<It is beside the point anyway. If it serves our people for him to die, then he should die, no matter how friendly he is; his actions certainly warrant it and we should decide at this point for us, not for him.>

        <I am glad we agree on that.>

<That said it is not obvious to me that it serves us to kill him. I think it probably doesn't. He keeps his people in check. His inventions are useful. Leareth wants him alive. I think it is likely that I will argue that his sentence should be commuted. That he should be a nothlit in some other form, maybe.>

       <No.>

<I think that you deserve better.>

        <I don't - know quite what to say to that.>

<I am going to do what I judge best but I think - it will be very unfair to you, if I judge it best for the world to go on having him in it. I think you deserve better. I am sorry, that I am doing you this harm.>

        <It is not, in fact, best for the world to go on having him in it.>

<If it were, would you care?>

        <It - couldn't be best for a world at peace to go on having something like him in it. If there were a specific emergency with a defined duration - but we haven't won, if he still exists.>

Matirin shakes his tail ambivalently.

        <If it were him who'd killed your father, your brothers ->

<I killed one of my brothers> Matirin says. <I am planning to go on living, about it.>

They look at each other for a long time. Then Alloran turns and trots away.

<It went about as well as I could have expected> Matirin says to Leareth when he gets back.

Which, to Leareth, does not especially sound like 'it went well.' 

<Do you expect he is angry with me?> Leareth asks, a little stiffly. <If you mentioned that I wished him alive... I am wondering if I should not offer to spar with him again on my final trip to Velgarth, if it will upset him to see me.> 

<I don't think he's angry with you. I think he and Mhalir should never be in the same room and ideally not on the same planet, but that seems straightforward enough to arrange; he will be on Earth briefly before he returns to our homeworld and Cayaldwin and Mhalir can just avoid doing research together at that time.>

<I will warn Mhalir to stay somewhere shielded for the duration. Just out of an excess of caution.> Tail-lash. <I am not in doubt about my goals, here, but...I wish it did not come at the cost of hurting Alloran. I like him.> Somewhat to his own surprise. <Do you think he will be ready to return to your homeworld soon? I would prefer that I be personally around when he is on the same planet as Mhalir, even though that is almost certainly excessive paranoia.>