Snort. "Maitimo asked me to marry him."

"Is this because of the recitation--does he seriously think--"

"...Allow me to clarify. The idea is that I marry him, and if you two get along well enough, you marry his boyfriend."

"Oh. That's actually pretty sensible. Maitimo and Findekano are boyfriends, huh."

"I love how you didn't have to ask who it was."

"It was contextually obvious! Even if he weren't the best candidate based on their public relationship, showing up at my place of work narrowed it down a bit!"

"D'you want to hear endearing stories about him from Maitimo?"

"Sure."

Endearing stories!

They are endearing! Vorondie is endeared.

"Well. You have my blessing to marry Maitimo, if you want, given the context. Not gonna make up my mind about my end of the plan for a while, of course."

"Of course."

It's a while before she leaves Vorondie's, and then she has apprenticeship stuff to do, but eventually she goes to see Maitimo again.

"Hello!"

"Hi!"

Vorondie said yes. ...To me marrying you, not her marrying Findekano, she's not going to decide for sure on that one until she knows him a little better. Endearing anecdotes notwithstanding.

You have found yourself a very sensible girl. Does that mean I should start courting you?

"I read a paper I thought would interest you, but perhaps you have seen it already." He pulls it out.

Yeah, if we're going to do it we should probably be as respectable about it as possible, given the reasons why.

"I've seen that one, yeah, but it was really interesting."

And a week later an invitation to a concert! And then a play! And then a dance! It is all splendidly respectable.

So respectable! And, conveniently, fun things to do with a friend even when neither of you is actually attracted to the other.

They should probably have their own versions of Ahya's Adult Conversations but that can wait until it would make sense for them to admit to discussing those kinds of things.

It should! The lack of physical affection is wholly explained by respectability too. The city is abuzz that its most eligible prince is finally dating someone.

"This is kind of weird," Ahya tells her husband.

(Marille has explained why she is dating Maitimo. Ahya's not sharing that but it's still kind of weird.)

"Yeah. Seriously. Why would she even like him, he's terrible -"

"That might actually be my fault, spending so much time occupied with you and not her may have left her in need of a confidante. And he's good at that, whatever else."

"It's great they're friends, just. Married? Can you see it? Really?"

"...I think Marille knows what she's getting into and if this is her choice it's more important to support her than criticize her."

(No, she can't see it, but she can't really explain why, or why they're doing it anyway.)

"Yeah but -"

"Yeah, I know.

...I know things about why this is less of a bad idea than it seems but they're secrets and they're Marille's secrets, I can't just tell you them."