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"Well, thank you for that, dear. For all of it." Fiia was obviously touched and at a surprising loss for words, but she quickly recovered. "Oba is a nice place, I have to say, but it does have its share of angry folks. Not that Yera didn't, they were just angry for different reasons that I was used to. Sometimes they were even angry at Serr."

The young man in question laughed faintly, but it was more a breath of air than anything else. He brought Eziya a small, sugary morsel on an even smaller square of fabric that shimmered like something a noble might wear. A noble might have actually done so, in fact, but now the scarf or shirt or cape had been cleaned, cut, and served as a fancy napkin. With snacks in hand and blessings given in not so many words, Fiia seemed a lot more settled, almost as if she had been secretly waiting for the conversation to sour this whole time.

"All right," she said with a smile. "We're meant to be getting acquainted, so if there's anything you want to ask, I'll answer until Serr starts scowling."

"It's no bother at all," Fiia assured her. She smiled at the girl's question, her mind going far away for a moment as she thought back to the past. "The boys did like to hang around," she said with a chuckle. "But sometimes I think it was less about me and more about my parents. I mentioned what they did, the whole imported goods thing? We always had the most interesting wares. I imagine that's why some of them lingered. I was a brainy girl, though the gods only know where my smarts are now, but because of that, I was never very interested in making myself look nice for anyone. But I had my share of suitors. Avin and Lyell and Dhe—"

"Fiia..." Serr's voice was very quiet, but he still managed to somehow sound like a disapproving father. His aunt's smile grew wider and her eyes glinted with mirth.

"Eziya asked, dear. Anyway, chasing boys seemed less important once I took Serr in. And to answer your second question... he clams up about things like that, as you can see, so I'm sure I wouldn't know for certain. But I never heard any complaints of broken hearts back home, and whenever Serr's heartbroken it's usually about things rather than people." Her smile had softened, and to save the thief from going any pinker, she stopped there.

"I..." He felt like a player on a stage all of a sudden, under scrutiny himself rather than the one out of sight, scrutinizing others. "No." He was almost certain he had never trailed after anyone with the moon in his eyes, hoping for a meaningful glance or a shy smile. And even if he had, he didn't want Eziya to know.

"Ah, yes. All that tree climbing." Fiia chuckled. "He's gotten over most of it, though I do feel he's still learning that sometimes you need to speak in order to be understood. But he must talk to you, right?"

Now that they had almost abandoned the subject of his suspiciously absent fuzzy feelings, Serr quickly returned to his normal hue, circling around Fiia's seat and giving her a peck on the top of her head. He lifted an empty crate away from the wall and took a seat as close to Eziya as he deemed unremarkable, about a foot and a half to her right.

"I talk to her," he said. "I talk to you, don't I?" Serr looked at Eziya with a quirk of his head. "And you know what I'm saying when I don't anyway."

He let his hand rest on top of hers, trapping it in a loose cage for several seconds before leaning back, drawing his bent leg up against his chest and his foot onto his seat.

"She speaks just the right amount and so do I. Everything is perfect," he told Fiia with a cheeky smirk.

"I see that." She grinned back, looking between the two. "And since you've promised to visit and Eziya is clearly such a lovely young woman who can effortlessly keep you out of trouble, I give you my blessing. Not that you needed my permission to wander off." Fiia rose from her seat and moved closer, leaning in to place a hand on the girl's shoulder. "It was truly wonderful to meet you," was all she said out loud, but her eyes held so much more. She wanted to tell Eziya that she could count the number of people Serr was comfortable with on one hand. She wanted to make sure the girl knew that no matter how frustrating Serr's behavior was that he wasn't trying to hurt her. She wanted to tell Eziya that yes, Serr had a crush and it was her. Instead, all she said was, "I should let you go."

Serr popped up before Fiia had finished her sentence. "I'll get some things," he said, gesturing toward a wide ladder in a shadowed corner. He turned to the Shifter. "You can come up if you'd like, but it's just a room."

With one last look at Fiia—at least until it came time to leave entirely—Serr gestured for Eziya to follow, climbing the ladder upstairs with ease. There were four doors up here, all of them closed, which made the hall between them a little dark, but not unnavigable. Serr opened the last one on the left, lending the area some light when he left it ajar.

The room inside was small, just large enough for the cot that he promptly began to relieve of its coverings, and a set of narrow shelves that stretched from floor to ceiling. The lowest two held clothing: several pairs of pants and exactly one shirt. The rest housed a random assortment of items that seemed to have little connection. A couple of masks, rings, arm cuffs, and more fabric, though in larger and more varied pieces than the napkins downstairs.

"If you see anything you like, you may have it." The rest, minus his first prize, he'd leave for his aunt.

He watched her linger over his clothing, grinning down at his newly rolled bedding when she moved on to one of his favorite masks.

"I guess it is. My treasure and my shirt," he teased. "Should I bring it? I haven't worn it for a long time, not since we got south of Tale." It was far too warm in Oba for shirts. "I will be taking this though," he said, plucking a thin golden wrist cuff from its shelf. "The first thing I... earned."

The idea of going to a fancy party was intriguing, but the thought of him at one made Serr stifle a laugh.

"They might." He struck a subtle pose as she held up his shirt, though it was brief. "You never know what you'll have to do at a fancy party." After another pause he took the shirt and stuck it in with the other things he was taking with him.

Noticing her eyes on the cuff, Serr packed it away as well. He wasn't embarrassed exactly, it just felt strange to admit he enjoyed stealing things to someone who strove to help others so selflessly. But if she wanted to know...

"I took it from a man who wasn't paying attention. I had to distract him for Jyn. I distracted him very well." He realized then that it hadn't been the very first thing he'd ever taken, just the first he had stolen right out from under someone's nose. It was interesting that he felt so attached to it that he didn't want to leave it behind. Not as interesting as a party that required a shirt, but interesting enough.

"Yes," Serr replied, far more cheerfully than he had a right to. At least he didn't smile. "She didn't want me to have it." He shrugged. "I was supposed to report to her, give her everything and not jeopardize the others." He hadn't jeopardized anyone. "I got it back." In hindsight, he saw Jyn taking things that belonged to him as being far worse than getting stabbed, but he didn't share that. Instead he moved toward the bundle he was bringing, checked to see if everything was packed up tightly, and lifted it onto his shoulder.

"Should we go?"