"Had a midday quickie?"

Nod.

He doesn't have to tell her twice.

In their rush, Laithan entirely forgets to take the ridiculous hat off.

That's fine by her.

She's so good.

Pelape's trial doing rounds at the market the next day goes well enough that Laithan asks her if she'd like to take over his morning rounds entirely.

"I might be relying on your implicit backing, can we try one day where you shadow me from enough of a distance to not be obvious and if that goes fine then sure? - also I will need to be paid, I'm still in the black on room and board at Elysium but I won't be if I keep skipping shifts to do mayor stuff."

"Yes, I can pay you a good amount more than you get at Elysium. Shadowing you at a distance for a shift sounds good. I'll also make sure market regulars know you have my support, and I can introduce you to a few specific people you can go to for muscle if you have issues."

"Thanks."

"I'm the one who should be thanking you."

"You can do that too! We can both be thankful. There is no law of conservation of thanks."

"I suppose positive sum interactions wouldn't really be possible if there was."

"No, they could still be possible in people who did not experience the emotion of gratitude, they'd just approach it differently."

"I really like you."

"I like you too, I think I'm tremendously fortunate to have encountered you."

"You seemed like you were already doing alright for yourself without me?"

"I mean, it was fine, but my second and third choices for who to hit up about springtime were pretty distant and also I like the being deputy mayor idea a lot more than being a full time laundress and dishwasher."

"You're really great at mayoring type things. And also at hooking up type things, you are really great at those too."

"Thank you!"

Lucien shadows her at a distance for a generally uneventful shift and then Pelape can take over on her own.

Eefa is normally content to wander around the market nearby Pelape, but halfway through the fourth day of Pelape deputy mayoring Eefa tenses up and hurries to stick much closer to her protector.

"- something wrong, kiddo?"

"Wolves."

"...how many?"