"I'm so glad."

Mmmmcozysnugglyhug.

Tearful reunions! 

Eventually Alemar brings up the house thing. They start discussing that. Elcisse is of the opinion that good acoustics are important.

"Of course," he says.

She gives him a tentative smile.

"Hmm, how about..."

He grows a twig from the edge of a table, pulls it away and smooths over the spot where it grew, and then starts reshaping it into a wooden model of a house. His design sense is exquisite. Pleasingly balanced without being rigidly symmetrical, elegant without being severe.

"Wow," Elcisse breathes. Lyrame beams at him. Mirelle and Endevar look impressed. Even Alemar gives a small nod of approval.

He beams at all of them, eyes sparkling with obvious delight.

"I like designing houses."

"Why don't you do it more often?" Elcisse asks, curiosity overcoming intimidation.

He smiles.

"I can't keep adding to the city forever," he explains, "and I'm in no hurry to get to the point where I have to raise a whole new island if I want to keep playing with architecture."

"I guess that makes sense. You could redesign more of the existing city, though, most houses are not that nice."

"I can, but it's so hard to get people to tell me what they want," he says. "And I don't find it all that fulfilling to play dollhouse with people's homes when I can't even tell if they want a new one or are just agreeing in the hope that I won't murder them, let alone get any meaningful design input. I recognize that everything about this problem is thoroughly my own fault, but here we are."

"Are we part of some secret plot to make people less scared of you so you can architecture."

He bursts into helpless giggles.

"Because, like, I would be okay with this."

"I'm afraid," giggle, "you're, ah, crediting me with somewhat more advance planning than I actually did."

"I asked, I didn't say you definitely were."

"Well, fair." Giggle.

"If you weren't planning to use us in some secret plan to make people less scared of you, are you now, and if so can I help?"

"I don't think that's a good idea, Elcisse," her mother says a little wanly.

"Secret plans are not really my area of strength," he says. "Maybe I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and see if it helps."

"It's getting late, Elcisse, maybe you should go to bed," Mirelle says.

"I'm not four anymore," she says. Mirelle winces. Elcisse looks sort of mutinously regretful.

—well, that's. Not something he has the first idea how to deal with.

"It's still very late," her father tells her. "Bed."

She rolls her eyes and stalks upstairs.

Lyrame breathes a quiet sigh of relief.

He's not sure he's ever had this close a look at a - a real family before. All of a sudden it's unsettling how foreign the concept is.

"Is it okay if I stay here tonight? It'll make my mom a lot happier if I don't just take off."