Despite the main mess hall being closer to where they met, Heluna walked him across to the one in the sailors’ section of town. He found himself not minding at all; walking hand-in-hand with her gave him a very pleasant feeling of butterflies in his stomach.

Being with Heluna - really being with her - made him feel like a teenager again. He was full of giddy excitement.

Kaldalis had been in relationships before, and his last relationship hadn’t been that long ago, either. But this was the first time it really felt necessary.

As they walked, he examined the ‘why’. The answer came quickly.

For the first time in his life, he needed the emotional support a partner offered. This wasn’t a relationship based on convenience or even attraction. The intimacy of their connection was something that had grown from their interactions.

He really felt like he needed Heluna.

In the sailors’ mess hall, their table in the dim corner in the back was available, and while the food was nothing special, the company made it seem like a treat. Kaldalis was able to get off his chest what had happened in Panbu. He didn’t linger on his hatred for Voker, but really let off some steam about his feelings about his actions.

Heluna didn’t have anything really meaningful to add to the conversation on that topic, but knowing she was listening helped calm him down more than even fishing.

She had more to contribute when they started talking about the town being completed. There was a fair bit of grumbling when he told her that the floating dock was still in a salvaged state, and had never been addressed. But her spirits were visibly raised hearing about the fight in the Xorn den. Their victory was indeed a big step forward in stabilizing the environment around here, especially for the people in Cotanaku, who were likely living in fear of retribution from Zara.

Heluna had her own stories about the goings-on in Cotanaku. The building of the Persimmon had stalled a lot since the adventurers had all gone to quest in Panbu, giving her a lot more free time, but they expected construction to get underway shortly once things got back to normal. He tried to get some explanation of the adventurers in town who were strangers to him, but she didn’t seem to know anything about it. The best she could figure was that the place being a town affiliated with the Adventurers League drew them to the place.

Kaldalis also discussed with her the struggles he was going through with his team. Heluna had some suggestions from among the sailors for healers (administers, in game terms) and was willing to join the team herself, when she could find time away from the rebuilding. But she was understanding when he said that they were likely to be putting themselves into dangerous situations, and unless they were down to no remaining options, they wanted people who were going to be able to get back up if things went horribly wrong.

“It fuckin’ sucks to be told I could only be your last resort,” Heluna said with a smirk as she patted Kaldalis’s hand on the table, “but I do have a day job, unlike you dumbasses. Someone’s gotta build that fuckin’ boat, right?”

Kaldalis laughed, but in the back of his mind he started to wonder what would happen at the end of that. When the new Persimmon was completed, and departed on Filomena’s next adventure, would he never see Heluna again?

This wasn’t the time for that discussion.

Especially when an agitated-looking Suyon sidled up to the table.

“Oh, now I see,” Myrin said, her irritation giving way to a knowing smirk when she saw Heluna’s hand on Kaldalis’. “Now I get it. Now the pieces are falling into place. It’s all coming together now. I must say this opens my-”

“Myrin,” Kaldalis said, interrupting her, “you’ve met Heluna before, right?”

“Aw, I wanted to do the ‘trapped in the loop’ bit,” Myrin said with a chuckle. “Is it safe to say that this is the DPS you were talking about before?”

“Yes, we were just talking about that,” Kaldalis admitted. “Though we’re of an understanding that if we can find someone a bit more…”

“Of your sort,” Heluna said with a smirk. Despite her cavalier tone, she gave Kaldalis’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “Which is fair from my perspective. I sure as fuck don’t want to die for whatever bullshit you folks are up to.”

“If we’re just doing dungeons, Heluna knows some of the other sailors who could fill the healer slot, too. Dungeon deaths aren’t permanent, as we know. But yeah, after what we’ve been through, it seems irresponsible to drag someone along with us on our other shenanigans.”

“It might be worth considering,” Myrin admitted, leaning on the table. “For just this dungeon, at least. But we could use this dungeon as an enticement to draw folks in. I’m sure they’d rather do a blind run with us than count on Voker to guide them through without being a dick.”

“You could just all go in together,” Heluna suggested, tapping her lower lip with her fork before returning it to rest on her empty plate. “It’ll give you the experience penalty, but you’ll get through it.”

Kaldalis nodded. It would be less than optimal to go as a larger group, but it could be done.

“Well, I’m out of people to ask anyway,” Myrin said, grabbing a piece of breaded fish off of Kaldalis’s plate and popping it into her mouth. “Everyone who isn’t level two doesn’t want to give me the time of day. What about you? Did you find Dalgaard?”

Kaldalis grimaced and shook his head. “If they’re around here, they’re both able and willing to avoid me. And I had the same luck with everyone else. We’re pretty much SOL.”

“Wait a fuckin’ minute,” Heluna snapped. “Are you a food sharing type of guy? I didn’t think you were.” She reached over and grabbed another of the breaded fish bits on Kaldalis’s plate, gulping it down seemingly without chewing. “Thank you, hun.” She flashed him a wide smile.

Kaldalis laughed at that, pushing his plate to the middle of the table. He had eaten his fill already, and the two women devoured the few remaining pieces of fish in just a couple of seconds.

“We should head to Panbu and see if Balrim had better luck,” Kaldalis said, pushing his chair back from the table. “I gave him a deadline, and it’d be a dick move for me not to hold myself to the same one.”

Heluna patted Kaldalis’ hand. “It was nice catching up with you, Kal, but I should get back to work, too. Boat won’t fuckin’ build itself.”

“We’ll speak again soon,” Kaldalis said. “Panbu is done, so I should have some free time.”

“Right.” Heluna smirked as she stood up. “Your ass owes me dinner again.”

She gave him a quick peck on the cheek before sashaying away. The confidence in her tone of voice made him expect her to give her hips a little extra wiggle for him, but she was walking with her normal stride, which - after his experiences with Onirioago - was honestly kind of nice.

Despite the obvious physical interest she’d expressed before, both during their first kiss and with her invitation when they’d returned from it, she wasn’t interested in speedrunning to seduction.

It wasn’t surprising when he considered his confession to her, though. He appreciated her respect for his emotional state.

“‘Hun’, huh?” Myrin said, smirking at him with a waggle of her eyebrows.

“Yeah, yeah,” Kaldalis said, waving her off as they headed for the exit to the sailor’s mess hall.

“Having a private meal together,” Myrin continued, her eyebrows waggling even faster. “Huh?”

He sighed, and gestured for her to continue as she followed him out.

Best to let her get it out of her system.

“Having dinner? Again?” Myrin continued, her smile only growing wider. “Talking about your ass? Huh? Huh?”

“Yeah, I-”

“Huh? Huh?” Myrin interrupted, elbowing his hip and leaning closer. “Huh?”

“Stop it,” Kaldalis said, waving her down.

“Come on,” Myrin said with a laugh. “I’m always the last one to know about this kinda stuff. Let me have this.”

“What are you gonna do?” Kaldalis said with a sigh as they exited the mess hall. “Ask Balrim to guess who saw Kaldalis on a date with a scantily-clad sailor NPC? Or is blackmail your game?”

“Blackmail is such an ugly word,” Myrin said, smirking. “I prefer extortion. The ‘x’ makes it sound cool.”

“References aside,” Kaldalis said, “tell whoever you want. I’m not ashamed. I’ve got a bunch of fucking ridalongs behind my eyeballs on the stream.”

Myrin pouted. “It was just a joke. And if you don’t want me to say, I’ll keep my mouth shut. It’s your life. Besides, these are the realest NPCs I’ve ever seen. Seems to me there’s no harm in stress-testing the AI a little, if you know what I mean.”

Kaldalis felt his face heat up at that, but Myrin quickly defused the discomfort by saying “Huh?” a bunch more, elbowing him and waggling her eyebrows until he made her stop again.

On the boat ride back to Panbu, he expected her to try and have a heart-to-heart with him about not developing an unhealthy attachment to a person who was basically just pixels, but she left the subject alone.

It was a welcome surprise. Meant that he could save his energy for hoping that Balrim and the others had more luck finding backup than they had.

As unlikely as that was.