She likes the sound of that, and finds someplace to sit down with Torok.

Breakfast!

"I really gotta remember to ask about baths this time. I'll do my best."

Her response to that is to lean across the table and give him an encouraging kiss. "I believe in you. Just picture me lying in the bath with you, leaning against your chest. For extra motivation."

He laughs. "Okay, I'll try that." Lil handsqueeze?

Cheerful handsqueeze, fond gaze.

"Awwwwwww," says the catboy waiter, returning with their breakfast. "There you go, lovebirds."

She blushes and smiles, then digs in. This is pretty great.

It is pretty great. Though it takes Torok a while to get around to finding that out, amid all this blushing.

Y'know what Torok's blushing does to the taste of her breakfast? It adds the taste of victory. She keeps smiling at him and enjoying her food.

Awww, it's so good when she's happy.

She reaches across and squeezes his hand while she keeps eating.

Cozy.

Okay, that's that for breakfast.

"Meet at the dumpling stall around sundown again? Or would you rather somewhere else?"

"It's a convenient landmark. Don't see a reason to vary that yet, but not opposed if you think of one."

She gets up, pulls him close, and presses a little kiss to his lips. "Have a good day, Torok."

He hasn't gotten up yet, which means he can lean into her a little and snug his arm around her waist and gently bonk his head against her shoulder in an affectionate fashion without having to lean down an excessively silly amount to accomplish the shoulderbonk. "You too."

She kisses the top of his head, grins, and nods. "Off to work I go."

And off she heads with a fond wave.

It's a quiet morning. Ross is just emerging from the City Hall building as she approaches; he nods a greeting, then waits for her to catch up so he can lead her along Main Street toward the east wall of the city again.

"Morning. Sleep well?"

"About as well as I ever do," she replies with a warm smile. "You?"

"Like a rock." He smiles slightly.

"Starting on the next tower today. Lots of stairs to repair. Frank might show up, he's my other carpenter. Kinda brash. Let me know if he causes trouble."

She nods. "Will do, though I'm sure it will be fine."

He nods. "Probably. Still, if he makes you uncomfortable it's my job to fix that."

She nods with a calm smile. "Appreciated."

A slight shrug, of a 'just doing my job' sort of nature.

He continues along the road and turns toward the next nearest tower, the one across the bricked-up gate from the one they fixed yesterday. The door on this one is basically fine, though Ross does swing it open and closed a few times to check the hinge. Inside, there's a small table with a couple of chairs, a couple of lamps hanging on the walls, and the stairs are pretty much fully absent all the way up to the next floor. There are a few beams remaining that look like they might hold weight, and plenty of broken pieces of wood scattered around the floor.

"Tidy this up while I get the cart," says Ross, nodding to the scattered rubble. "Save anything worth saving, get the rest into one pile out of the way of the stairs. Might want to bolt the door while I'm gone. If somebody knocks, ask their name, let Frank in if it's him. He's a rabbit-morph, tall, grey, long ears." Ross gestures a height for 'tall' that is shorter than Ross but still plenty tall by most reasonable standards.

She nods firmly and sets to work, bolting the door behind Ross when he goes. She glances over the remaining stairs, making sure she has a mental model of their rough pattern, then starts organizing the wreckage for salvage and disposal variously.

There's not much salvage and a whole lot of disposal. It's not clear what happened to these stairs, but it's clear that whatever it was, it happened very much.

Ross comes back after half an hour, knocking on the door with a gentle boom that would be hard for anyone else to replicate. "Got the cart," he says. The cart, it transpires, is piled high with lumber that they will be using to repair the frame on which they will eventually build replacement stairs. "Any sign of Frank?"

She unbolts the door for Ross. "None yet."