"Our house," I corrected. "You live here too. You're our roommate now. That means you're allowed to go upstairs at any time. It's simply polite to knock on someone's room before walking in."

"Like people do with the front door," she realized.

"Exactly like that," I agreed. "And now, I need some caffeine to get my brain in gear."

"There's an entire pitcher of tea brewed," Kanik called after me. Then he told Ayla, "So you can go work on the calendar if you want."

"Okay!"

While I was filling my glass, I heard her delicate little steps rush up the stairs. What I didn't hear was them on the floor above me. The girl moved softly. I had a feeling that could also be silently with very little effort.

"So," Kanik said as he stepped into the kitchen, "it seems she didn't want to bother you this morning."

"Which means I should come down for a tea first," I realized.

He just shook his head. "No, I think you should push her to go upstairs when she wants to. I mean, Zasen's talking about making that into her bedroom. Evidently she likes the window."

"You know there's another behind the bookshelf, right?"

"Oh, I forgot about that," he breathed. "We blocked it off instead of getting curtains."

"Because we're lazy and uncouth men," I joked. "But Ayla's going to need a lot more than just curtains, you know."

"A bed," he said. "Places for her clothes, if Lessa ever finishes them."

"She will," I assured him. "It's only been a few days, and sewing an entire wardrobe takes time."

"Probably a mirror," Kanik added.

I grunted at that, because he was right. "Definitely a mirror."

"Yeah, but..." He made a face. "Ry, I'm kinda broke. It's the end of the summer, so no tutoring for extra income. I'm basically just making the bills."

Reaching out, I clasped his shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Kanik. You know we got you. Hell, I'll even cover your share and call it compensation for not making me teach her Vestrian."

Kanik laughed at that, but he also looked a little relieved. "I just didn't want to assume."

"We're good," I assured him. Then I picked up my glass. "And I'm going to start cleaning up my side of the office."

"Ayla's room," he corrected.

"Still the office," I countered. "You need to convince Zasen to start moving his shit around. There's no way we'll fit two desks in there with his workbenches like it is currently."

"He's actually going to move a lot of that outside," Kanik said. "The sharpening tools and stuff will be fine against the side of the house."

"Works for me."

Patting his shoulder, I stepped around my friend and made my way back upstairs. When I entered the office, I wasn't surprised at all to find Ayla sitting in Kanik's chair with her face locked on the calendar that covered the top of his desk. Just to make sure I didn't scare her, I dragged the nails of my toes on the wood, letting her hear me coming.

Her eyes glanced up. "Will I bother you if I'm here?" she asked. "I'm very quiet."

"You won't bother me even if you're loud," I assured her. "Kanik mutters and grumbles when he works. Who knows, I might do the same." I flashed her a smile.

She offered me one back. "I just want to line up all these days," she explained. "Then I can put my holidays on your calendar and count out when the Moles are coming."

"I'm going to be rustling around," I warned. "Will that bother you?"

"No." She smiled again. "We women learn to focus even when men are being bothersome."

A joke? My mouth dropped open in surprise, because I was pretty damned sure Ayla had just made a joke at my expense! A moment later, a delicate laugh followed.

So I balled up a scrap piece of paper from my desk. "I'll show you bothersome!" And then I threw it at her.

She ducked the slow-moving projectile and giggled in a way I'd never heard before. "I don't have anything to throw back!"

Which made me laugh harder. "It's the only thing saving me, I think. But was that really a joke, Ayla, or am I bothering you?"

"It was a joke," she assured me.

Yet her voice hadn't turned into that demure mumble she so often used. Sure, it was softer, but more like she was shy and less like she was waiting for punishment. Her big blue eyes were sparkling with a hint of mischief.

"Well, then that means you can clean up the trash I tossed at you, since you are the woman here." And I stuck my tongue out at her.

She giggled again. "Nunh-unh. Jeera says Dragons are equal."

"Oh, that's my girl," I praised. "Look at you, putting me in my place."

She grinned again, then dropped her eyes back to her work, but I still had a smile on my face. With Ayla, it was those little moments that proved she was so much more than she let anyone see. Glimpses, that was all we'd gotten so far, and she'd been here more than three weeks.

She also looked really good behind that desk. I wasn't sure why, but it made me see her as someone powerful and important, not the timid creature who so often pulled into herself. Like this, she was in her element, and it brought out something in her that made her shine.

But while she continued to draw out grids for months and pause to count days, I picked up the first report. Of course, it was the budget. We needed more revenue for the town, but with the damages caused by Moles, people were hurting. Especially the ones on the south side. The poorest ones.

I read through that, glancing up every so often. When I caught Ayla chewing on the end of Kanik's pen, I had to fight to keep from smiling at her like an idiot. It was such a completely normal thing that it looked a bit out of place on her.

Then she began counting. Her finger tapped the squares she'd made, pausing when she made an X in one, and then she kept going. The pen scratched as she marked out numbers for both her days and ours.

This woman was smart, I realized. No, it wasn't her lining up some ancient English calendar with our modern one. It was that she was doing it in a language she hadn't known a few weeks ago. Her eyes flicked to the calendar on Kanik's desk, she made a note, and just kept going.

The names of our months, our days, and maybe even the numbers of our years were all different to her. She also didn't let it slow her down. That much change would be crippling to most people, but Ayla simply accepted it.

Just like how she'd accepted two men kissing. Two things might have the same name, but that didn't mean they were the same thing. When Moles kissed, it was torture. When Dragons kissed, it was affection. If the concept was that drastically different, then why would it shock her that men could kiss men, women could kiss women, or men could kiss women?

She really had burned down her old world. This quiet and gentle woman was discarding everything she'd once known with ease, and embracing our ideas as her own. It would take her a while to fully adapt, but I had a feeling she was going to figure it out.

Then her pen stalled. "It's in ten days," she breathed, looking up.

"What is?" I asked.