"Exactly!"

"The fact that you're this concerned about knowing how to be good to us is a big part of why I keep complimenting you like that, just so you know."

"...really? I mean—wouldn't anybody think the same thing, once they noticed?"

She shakes her head. "Most people on Earth (our old world) can't be bothered to figure out how non-default ways to be good to someone work or bring themselves to use them if you need them. A smaller subset will use non-default ways of being good to you if told. A smaller subset still will actually seek them out and find out on their own if you need them."

"I really don't think of myself as unusually concerned with being good to people! It's kind of worrying if most people are somehow thinking about it even less!"

"Honestly agreed."

She shrugs and feeds him another dumpling.

Nom!

He feeds her a dumpling right back.

She smiles and noms it. This is a pretty great way to spend an evening.

Yeah, it really is. Comfy dinner!

Well it would be more comfy if he weren't wearing armour, but that's a problem for another time.

Eventually they run out of dumplings to feed themselves and each other. Sable stretches.

"So are you thinking of staying a night at the orphanage if there's time to work there before bed? We could also try that sketchy place but I kind of agree with Arlen that we should save the sketchy place for later."

She nods, still stretching. "That's the idea, since it's that or ask you to pay for a non-sketchy inn and I don't wanna ask you to spend more money."

"I mean, I'm also going to be sleeping in the same place you are sleeping," Torok points out. "And I don't think I mind spending money that much? I mean, I guess it depends. I can't just sell tons of honey to Hazel anymore but I can probably find something else to sell tons of to Hazel, and maybe get a job with the guard if they don't mind me being away a lot of the time, so if a night at the, what was it, Cup and Spoon costs five hundred gems then I'm not paying it, but I think I'd be fine with something like fifty."

She blushes and smiles a bit. "Well, if you wanna get an inn, I'm certainly not gonna turn down an invitation to come along."

"I guess, in general, if you're trying to save me trouble by deciding to do things a certain way, I can't tell the difference between that and you just wanting to do things that way for your own reasons? So maybe it's better to check and make sure whether you're really saving me trouble or not. Anyway, let's go see how much for a night at the Cup and Spoon."

He remembers Arlen complaining about littering, so he folds up his leaf bowl and puts it in his pocket.

She does the same and gets up with him to see about the inn, watching for a trash can or something on the way. "I'll try to be more explicit about that. I just... worry I'll drain people or tire them out, if I let them help too much."

She shakes her head at herself, links her arm through his, and off they go.

"I like helping. I also like sleeping in nice beds!"

At the corner of Market Square, right by the turn onto Crooked Street, there's a big barrel marked GARBAGE. Torok tosses his crumpled leaf wad into it.

In goes Sable's as well. "Guess that makes two of us, on both counts. I'll try not to make silly sacrificial assumptions as much."

Just a few doors down Crooked Street, on the southwest side, is a big, cheerful-looking building with a large sign hanging out front showing a teacup with a spoon set neatly in its saucer. The words underneath say CUP & SPOON in friendly pastel blue letters, rimmed in gold.

"I'd say that looks like the place!"

She grins and nods. "It does!" In they go.

Inside is a bit of a bustle. Lots of people sitting down to dinner at tightly packed tables, or having a drink at the tightly packed bar. There's a clear path from the front door to the desk staffed by a busty rabbit-girl, though, and she waves invitingly when the bell over the door alerts her to the presence of guests.

She steps over to the front desk with Torok. "Hi there! How much for a night?"

"Thirty gems," she says cheerfully, "forty if you want a corner room, they've got more windows."

"Sounds fine to me!" He digs in his pocket and finds one yellow ten-gem piece and one broad flat red one, and hands them over.

The rabbit-girl puts the gems away and hands him a key, tied to a sturdy wooden tag with a room number on it. "There you go. Second floor, on your left. You missed dinner but you get breakfast tomorrow, served from an hour before dawn until four hours after, just show your room key to get a seat."