"Secret reasons you should marry someone too uptight to - not only has he not kissed her, I'm pretty sure he's been careful to never be alone with her so people can't even wonder if he has -"

"Frankly if you could naively imagine how they make it make sense they wouldn't be very good at being secrets."

"True." Sigh. "You could tell Marillë she can trust me."

"I could but considering everything I think she would want Maitimo to be okay with it first before she gave me permission to tell you. I'll bring it up with her."

"All right." Kiss. 

Yes, that.

We have a minor issue, Marille tells Maitimo a while later.

Hmmm?

Tyelcormo has noticed that we have literally zero sexual chemistry and thinks us getting married is a really bad idea. Ahya thinks he can be trusted not to spill the beans and wants permission to tell him the truth.

Sigh. 

- yeah, okay.

Yeah.

There isn't much of a way of getting around the fact that we don't have any chemistry, but at least it's the kind of thing most people who aren't Tyelcormo wouldn't notice.

Yeah. I think Tyelcormo might be more inclined to look for reasons it's a bad idea than anyone else would bother being. I could be more affectionate in public.

Might help. On the other hand it might not, if people wonder why the change.

That seems easy enough to pass off as getting more serious - I think even if I were really courting someone I'd be cautious with that, it wouldn't be right to go too far and then decide we weren't suited to marry -

I see your point.

It took me ten Years to touch Findekáno once I wanted him. Though it would have gone a bit faster if it were safe.

It was faster than that for me and Vorondie but she took most of the initiative.

Oh, he took all the initiative, I was just - still terribly slow. If I'd had to take any initiative I would never -

- it's important to me to be the person people think I am -

I'm glad.

Yeah.

I love you. Not the way the Valar say a woman's supposed to love a man, but as a friend, I love you.

Hug. 

And the next time they're out in public, a kiss. He's very convincing.

She can do convincing, no matter how many faces she's making internally.

"Maybe Maitimo's just not very romantic," he muses, "but it'd be a sort of weird thing for him to be bad at."

"It kind of would. On the other hand, maybe he's so friendly with everyone all the time that his expressing-affection instincts are miscalibrated."

I got permission to tell you the secret but it should probably wait until we get back to the house in case you react noticeably.