Eventually based on a description she can get pointed to the New York reading room, where they are having a movie-watching party for certain values of "movie". Rebecca can be pulled out. "Um, hi?"

“Hi! I’m Larisa, Vanya’s sister. I heard you were getting along pretty well during work period? You’ve got a music affinity as well?”

"Oh! Yeah! He was really fun to talk to up until the part where he got really upset I offered to sing him to sleep? Do you know what that's about?"

“I don’t know why that specifically, but - you should know this if you’re going to see him more - Vanya is, um, pretty fragile right now. He had a very bad time of it last year and he’s still recovering. A lot of random things will upset him, it’s not your fault.”

A brief pause. 

“But - I came looking for you because it sounded like he really enjoying talking music with you - you were good for him - and he…needs things like that, right now. So, um, Sacramento would consider it a favor to us, if you were up for doing that some more.”

Ugh, Larisa really hates this sort of negotiation, and especially about this. It makes her feel like an overbearing parent scheming playdates for her kindergartner.

"Um, that sounds good? Do you mean like now?"

"I wasn't thinking right now - you seem to be busy with something?" She hesitates. "But, er - so you do have a song that helps people fall asleep?" 

"I don't know how good it is but it always worked on my baby sister? I was on putting her to bed duty because nobody else could get her to go to sleep."

"Well, um, if you were willing to go by his room before curfew - I or Landon can walk with you, make sure you're safe - that could be really good? Vanya...has a lot of trouble sleeping." And she is on babysitting duty tonight, because Vanya is incredibly up-and-down right now and probably it's fine but she can't be sure that he'll be fine if he wakes up alone at 3 am. At least if he's asleep at 10pm on the dot, she'll have an easier time trying to get literally any studying done in between the inevitable mal attacks she has to fend off. And it'll make it more likely that he gets enough sleep even if she ends up waking him by blasting something. 

"Okay, um. I think trading is normal here? - I have to learn Latin and Spanish and German anyway."

"Makes sense. Nearly all of us have Latin and Spanish, Justin and Killian have German. We'd trade you for mana too, or - hmm. Do you have anything for personal mana storage?"

Giving her a mana sink, even a really basic and not especially good one, is worth a LOT more than a night of singing Vanya to sleep, or even a month of that honestly, but there's her goodwill to think about, and it's close enough to in-affinity for Landon.

"For that we'd want a longer-standing agreement," she adds. "That you'll, er, be available for working with Vanya and helping him sleep at bedtime. But it doesn't sound like his company is necessarily a hardship for you, and he could teach you Latin - I bet he will anyway, he does a lot of work cobbling spells out of old Latin church music." 

"I don't have any mana storage and would really like some! And I'm fine with hanging out with Vanya and singing him to sleep for a long while."

Larisa thumps her on the shoulder. "Excellent. A mutually beneficial arrangement, it sounds like. Landon will arrange to make you some mana storage - his affinity is personalized artifacts bonded to a specific person, approximately, so he'll want you to sit with him in the shop for some of it so he can shape it to you. Anyway, I'd better let you get back to your - movie night? Which is a brilliant idea, honestly. Should I come meet you here at...nine-thirty? Ten?" 

"There's like twenty more minutes in the movie, I think? Less, she'll probably skip the credits."

"Ah. I can go grab Vanya and meet you here in half an hour, then?" 

"Sure!"

Then Larisa will pat her on the shoulder again, and duck off to go find Vanya and to inform Landon of his new project! 

Rebecca rejoins the movie crowd and murmurs to Zeke about what's going on in case anything about it is a horrible idea.

“You should, like, figure out a time frame for it, so you’re not paying them back forever, and if he does anything bad then you should super tell me? And you should ask around about whether Landon is good at stuff. But it seems, like, basically fine as a thingy.”

"Okay, like how long a time frame?"

“... two weeks to, like, two months, probably? I dunno.”

"Okay cool."

She smooches him on the temple, when Larisa comes to collect her.

Vanya is trailing along behind her, looking down at the floor, but he lifts his head enough to smile tentatively at Rebecca. 

"Hi Vanya!"

"Hi! Larisa said you maybe wanted to learn more Latin?" 

"Yeah, in language lab I got Latin and also German and Spanish, I think it's because I know Ode to Joy and a lot of Shakira songs. I didn't get French, once I saw I had German and Spanish I was worried but apparently counting to ten and stuff doesn't count, and Italian musical terms don't either?"