"Practical. A rarity, in this town." She considers him, thoughtfully. "And you are very cute. I see why Zeke likes you."

"Thank you," he says, smiling again.

"So, itinerary most likely to get you your soul back properly in what I feel is the least amount of time. I take a trip to the library to look up all relevant information, and start figuring out how to make the curse less." She waves a hand, carelessly. "Shit. And get you information on the soul adventure and see how likely that is. But since going to Africa takes a while, I try to pin your soul back and we see how well it sticks. If it's good enough you can skip the plane trip to Africa and we all live happily ever after, and if it's not I un-pin it and send you off to Africa to see how that does. If it's worse than my efforts, I try again and believe in myself really hard and remember that I have professional pride and honestly I'll probably get it stuck on permanently the first time, I'm very good at magic."

"Sounds good to me," says Miles. "Thank you for your help. I appreciate it immensely."

"You can thank me by smiling at me some more, it suits you very much."

"Happy to oblige."

"The smile's even better with his soul attached," volunteers Zeke.

"Is it? What motivation, I'll get started right away."

Zeke grins.

So does Miles.

"But there is the subject of paying me for my time," points out Yvette.

"And in what currency would you like your payment? Smiles?"

"Hmm, I don't know. What other things can your mouth do?"

"Oh, plenty."

"I might require a demonstration before I agree to accept payment in the currency."

"Suits me."

Suits her too, as it turns out!

She would let him demonstrate for the rest of the night and into the morning, because wow that is a demonstration, but she's practical.

"You," she murmurs, after a drawn out kiss, "are staying right here until I get back with various books from the library, because I would like to get to work on it sooner rather than later and night only lasts so long."

"It's a deal," he says, grinning.

"Excellent." And then she kisses him again, before disentangling to put on clothes and go break into a library.

She's back in an hour and oh, look, they still have some night left where he could be oh so graciously paying her for her time. Does he perhaps want to take advantage of this, and the fact that she's kind enough to let him stay in her cottage during the day?

Why yes. That would be just lovely.

She feels so very well compensated.

That's the idea, yes.

So the books get ignored until she wakes up next sunset, but she did not lose her sense of professionalism when she lost her soul. Even if he is very, very tempting, she has a job to do. So she gets herself a mug of blood to get to work. .... And then brings him one too, because there is a certain amount of fondness that accompanies such feats of payment. She can read the neglected books in bed and only occasionally shoot him contemplative looks.

Miles is very pleased with his mug of blood. And with Yvette. He is very, very pleased with Yvette.

Yes, she knows. She needs to personally thank Zeke for the gift that is Miles because damn.

Anyway, right now: work.

"For the potential Africa ensoulening solution, do you want a copy of the entire chapter, a neatened up itinerary that I write, or both just in case?"