"I know where some of the bathrooms are, and if we hurry to help set up breakfast you can eat before the kids do, that should give you plenty of time to get to work."

"Mmkay, awesome. Show me a bathroom and then I'll meet you to help set up breakfast."

And she'll follow him and wash up.

He only takes one wrong turn on the way to the bathroom, and straightens himself out pretty quickly; from there to the dining hall he seems much more confident, and they get there in plenty of time to help cook and for Hailey to scarf something and leave before the bell rings to summon the child hordes.

There's a brief pause before Hailey leaves, where she gazes lingeringly at Torok. 

She wants to kiss him. She wants to touch him.

She won't.

"We care 'bout you, Torok. Fuckin' lot. See you tonight."

"See you!"

As she walks swiftly to meet her boss, Hailey realizes that perhaps they should've made time to braid the scraps of ribbon into bracelets last night. Oh well.

She'll people-watch and avoid bumping into anyone, heading off for another day of maintaining the city.

Ross finds her at City Hall in short order.

"Morning. Hope Frank shows up," he says, leading the way toward the guard tower they were repairing earlier. "Pulling down that busted floor is going to be a pain with just the two of us." Thoughtful pause. "Six, I s'pose, but you've only got one pair of arms so it works out the same."

She snickers fondly. "Yeah, for physical purposes we count for one. Be an awful lot more convenient to do jobs like this if we had separate bodies. Oh well." An amused headshake.

"How was the rest of your day yesterday?"

"Was all right. Willow's trying out new flavours of pie. I had a few. Liked 'em."

"We have to come by and try some of that at some point. All five of us love pastries, and I think the only thing Ruby likes better than pie is cookies."

Slight smile. "I can introduce you after work, most any day."

"And your hubby's baking is pretty damned amazing, too. Me an' Maya prefer savory things most of the time, even spicy ones."

"Yeah, he's good at it."

They've reached the tower they were repairing, and there's no sign of Frank. Ross shakes his head slightly, unslings a bag from his shoulder, and hands it to Hailey: it's got tools, to get started on the day's work with. Then he opens the door to the guard tower.

There's a lumpy figure lying on the floor just inside, anonymous except for a pair of long grey ears peeking out of one end of their patchwork blanket.

"...Frank?" says Ross, a little incredulously.

"Eh? Wha?" says the blanket, sounding an awful lot like a very groggy Frank.

Hailey frowns, crouches down, and rips the blanket away abruptly. "C'mon, pal. Writhe and shine. Dust yourself off and give us the deets."

"Who? Huh? Oh, it's you," he says, sitting up and scratching his head. He seems to be wearing day clothes and using a toolbag as a pillow. "Good good! See, I can get here on time, I can!"

"...sure," says Ross, blinking down at him.

"Not the strangest way I've seen someone get to work on time, nor the saddest, but the fact that I have to qualify both..." she mumbles quietly.

She shakes her head.

"You're here. We've got shite to fix, yeah?"

Ross rumbles agreement, and Frank blinks a few times and shakes his head and then grabs his bag of tools.

Today they're mostly dealing with pulling down the broken beams and rotting boards of the floor they were building stairs to yesterday. It's difficult and somewhat dangerous work, but much less dangerous with Ross right there to hold, brace, pull, and otherwise maneuver beams of wood that a person the size of Hailey or Frank would have trouble lifting. Ross's bag of tools also has climbing ropes and anchors, for when someone needs to go where there's not enough floor to stand on; he himself is too heavy to use them, but plenty good at holding the far end of the rope.

By lunchtime, they're maybe a quarter of the way through taking down the old wood. Ross loads up his cart and distributes today's lunch, some kind of thick pan-fried bread with a surprisingly fluffy crumb for something so dense and filling.

Hailey's conveniently quite a bit smaller than Ross, and smaller than Frank too (though a little less dramatically so once they discount his ears), so she winds up on the ropes most often, pulling things free and lowering them down to the others. She doesn't mind danger all that much, and really appreciates working high up.

When it comes to lunch, she grins. "This is delish, Ross. Kudos to your hubby again."

It's been a satisfying morning.

"This one came out good," Ross agrees. "Better'n usual."

"And his usual's no slouch!" says Frank, who has perked up considerably since this morning and is now ravenously tearing into the bread. "Yeah! Right on! Mmff nomf nnmm!"

And after that delicious meal, they get back to work. At one point, while pulling a piece of wood free of the wall, Hailey asks, "Either y'all know where to buy ropes? Like... soft ones?"

Frank scratches an ear thoughtfully. "Like for what?"

She blushes faintly and gives Frank a Look. "Like if y'got a boyfriend y'looking to tie up," she replies flatly.

"Oh, yeah, lots of places sell that," he says, seemingly oblivious to any Looks. "Just walk down Treasure Street lookin' in windows, you'll see how fast you see it, you'll see."

"Not all of 'em will tell you how to use it, though," Ross contributes.

"Know the basics: safewords, check circulation. make sure we can fit two fingers under the rope, all that. Suppose learning more can't hurt."

Ross shrugs. "I don't do that stuff myself. I just know there's things to know."