"- oh, he gave you his corncob, let me just -" Eliana takes that and picks off a fleck of something from it and returns it to the child who gave it to Ma'ar in the first place.

(Aaaaah why is she pecking a fleck off, is it because she thinks he contaminated it somehow–) 

Ma'ar cuts off that line of thought, since it seems stupid and unhelpful, and instead just stands there and smiles blandly at a point just past Eliana's shoulder. 

"Um, thanks for walking me home!" she says.

"You're welcome! Thanks for the cheese!"

Ma'ar smiles again, and then takes a step toward the door and turns half away (and resists very hard the temptation to read her mind and see what's even going on there), and instead waits to see if she'll say or do anything...

"Good night!"

"Goodnight!"

And Ma'ar escapes, with his little wheel of cheese in his pocket, still confused and wishing he could read her mind and get more data, but at least relieved that he's not going to be faced with any more confusion tonight. 

Aza's seeing a patient when he gets back but she comes home not too long after.

Ma'ar is sitting at the dining table when she gets in. He's staring vaguely at his little wheel of cheese, resting there between his hands, and looking tired and confused. 

"Cheese?"

"Oh, er, Eliana gave it to me, apparently she helped make it..." 

"Oh. Yeah, her family has the dairy. You look kind of... overwhelmed."

"- Do I? It - seems like a silly thing to get overwhelmed by." 

"I don't know if I'm reading you right."

Sigh. Ma'ar switches to Mindspeech again. :Eliana was hovering around after dancing, so I thought I'd - talk to her and see if I could learn about her virtues...:

And he briefly recounts the rest of it. 

:Well, it kind of sounds like she's got a crush on you and is not substantially suave about it:

:- I wouldn't mind, er, practicing having a crush on her! But I was trying to get her to talk about her virtues and - I think I'm just no good at it, I couldn't figure out how to nudge her into talking about interesting things: 

:She might just not be very interesting:

:....I guess: 

After a long pause: 

:I notice your virtues a lot? But, uh, I don't know if I...have a crush on you...or if you just actually have a lot of virtues, in general as a person: 

She's not really sure what to do with that. :Well, I think I'm great and... don't have a crush on myself...:

Ma'ar also isn't sure what to do with this entire exchange! 

:I, uh, also think you're great, but - I guess that's not the same thing as a crush: 

He sits back, puts away the small cheese in his pocket, and stands up. "I, er, anyway, how was your evening?" 

"Had an appointment. Circuit Mindhealers skip this place these days because I'm by every now and then but it's not really good as being able to have a regular one they see routinely."

"Mmm, that makes sense." 

Ma'ar can't ask questions about Azabel's Mindhealing patients, obviously, but he tries hard for a few minutes to come up with some tactful subject to talk about instead, planning to plead tiredness and flee to the backyard tentifact if he can't succeed at this task. 

"What kind of cheese is it, did she say? I can't tell for sure without cutting it open."

“Uh, cow’s milk and - good on brown bread, I think that’s all she said, I’m not a cheese expert...” Ma’ar draws it out of his pocket and holds it up. “I don’t mind if you cut it open, though, I - don’t really feel like carrying it for the next few days in my pocket...”

"Sure, let's have it with dinner." Dinner is fish stew that has apparently been on the fire while she was talking to her patient; she can also get a loaf of bread out.