2 - Down at Ellen's place

Valdyr shrugged. "It's nothing. You've done so much for us," he mumbled, slightly embarrassed. But very pleased to see she liked it. "I'm actually not that good with wood, I hurt myself more than once with the tools," he said with the hint of a smile.

Pica frowned slightly, still keeping her smile. "You shouldn't have gone though that much trouble, y'know. You could have... I dunno, made one out of something you can work without hurting yourself", she added, suddenly feeling a bit embarrassed. For some reason. "Also - don't try me with that 'I'm not that good, bluh bluh' bullshit, this stuff's pretty great!" She glanced at Valdyr, for a brief instant. "You didn't hurt yourself too bad, right?"

"I still have all of my fingers," Valdyr replied with a smile. "But I'm glad you like it. Aside from helping my brother to make Veana's bedroom, I haven't made any fourniture in a while."

Pica hesitated, but smiled brightly at him. "Maybe you should start back again. You're quite good at it, you don't seem to have lost your touch - and it would be a nice change, to build something different from cuckoos and cuckoos little houses", she added, teasing him a bit. The truth was she just really, really liked to say the word 'cuckoo'. And she preferred Valdyr not to think about his disappeared brother.

Valdyr rolled his eyes, holding back a smile. "I've built a cuckoo once, Pica, and it was for a client. You know just how much I hate those," he said with a chuckle. Indeed, he was more into intricate clockwork that didn't make a terrifying noise once in a while.

"I know, I know. But still..." Pica grinned widely. "I will never forget the one-meter tall jump you made when the thing just went coconuts and started to go 'CUCKOO, CUCKOO' all of a sudden. All those curses! There were some not even I had ever heard before!" She laughed. Yeah, that was a fond memory. For her.

"I hate those blasted cuckoos," Valdyr grunted. To make sure it worked, I had to make it yell at me. And sometimes, it just randomly went off! I had nightmares at night for months after that!" He was still a bit pissed by that memory. But smiled when he looked at Pica laughing.

Pica had now tears in her eyes, because, oh my God. The idea of someone waking up in terror in the middle of the night because of cuckoos was exhilarating. "Well, don't you worry - I'll never ask for you to make me one of those hellish machines", she managed to say after a while, when her laughter had finally subsided. "I think I would kill it after the first 'coo'. And smash it against the door. Hey, maybe you should build one just to do that! I bet it would be therapeutic!"

"Even for you, Pica, I wouldn't build one again." Valdyr chuckled again, and pondered over a thought for a moment. "Your watch is almost ready, though. But I still have some adjustments to make."

Pica's eyes shone when she heard Valdyr mentioning her watch. She had been promised one, and she could barely wait to have that precious thing in her hands. "Take your time!", she exclaimed merrily. "Are you sure you want to give something that breakable to me, though? You know I am not very delicate..."

Valdyr nodded. "Sure. It's just- giving me some hard time because of the design, but I'm almost there." More like, it was not a mere watch. He was also planning for it to show the faces of the moon accurately. As well as having a small compass in it. All of which was difficult to make into one single watch.

Pica smiled. "Alright, alright - don't work yourself too hard over it, eh? I know that 'barely sleeps' makes it on both of our top ten bad habits, but don't make me walk into you snoring over your worktable again." Under the humour, she was actually worried for her friend. She herself had promised him to never, ever fall asleep on the training grounds ever again!

Valdyr smiled back at her. "Don't worry, I'm watching myself." He remained silent for a few seconds, hesitating whether or not to ask her one question. "How long do you intend on staying, this time?"

Pica hummed, thinking about her answer. "Well, we'd better stay hidden until angels will lower their alarm level, and look elsewhere. So I guess at least one week, if not more. It's not safe out there, right now - it's better for Corvus to go on their own." She seemed a bit resentful about that - as if she felt her capabilities were being undermined.

Valdyr, on the contrary, was trying to hide just how happy that made him feel. He nodded, and hummed a bit. "Mh. Veana will be very pleased to have you around. And you should definitely to take some time for yourself, to rest. Speaking of which, I should let you sleep."

Pica laughed. "Yeah, yeah. Alright. I'll go to sleep", she said, sitting on her bed. "You'll go too, or you're going to stay up more to work on your trinkets?" She looked around, then to Valdyr again, raising a brow. "Because I don't think there's enough space for the two of us on my bed." She grinned. Of course she was teasing him again!

"Nah, I'm going. 's been a long day for me too," Vadlyr replied with a smile, while he walked towards the door. "Good night, Pica. I'll see you tomorrow." Well. He would have loved to spend more time with her, but he needed to let her rest, after all.

"Night, Valdyr", Pica chirped, actually laying down in her bed right away. She wasn't really tired, but sometimes, being lazy was just pretty nice. A shame that Valdyr seemed to want out of her room that quick - she liked to talk to him!

Valdyr gave her a fond look before he finally closed the door behind him, took a deep breath, sighed, and went to his own bedroom to rest.

I suggest a little jump in time! Do you want floof or plot! or did you have ideas?