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"Thanks, Wayne," Marasi said as the short man opened the hotel room door to let himself out. "Oh, think nothin' of it, Marasi. If I had a problem like that, an' this was the only way I could get any sleep, I'd sure want a mate who could help out, so why not do the same for you?" He smiled and closed the door, then turned to head back to his own room. And barely avoided crashing into MeLaan, who had been standing outside waiting there for a while, by the looks of her. Wayne jumped, startled. "MeLaan! Errm... this isn't what it looks like," he proclaimed immediately. "Looks like you coming out of Marasi's room late in the evening," the statuesque kandra remarked idly, looking generally downwards at him. "Well yes, but--" "After helping her 'prepare' for bed?" Wayne stiffened. "Now it ain't like that!" "I don't mind. It's not like I'd get jealous over such things. I'm mostly just surprised. Never saw any signs that you two were that close." He scowled. "We ain't! This was a... a professional meeting, me helping her with a personal need--" he stopped. "That just makes it sound even worse, doesn't it?" The kandra just grinned cheekily. "It's kinda embarrassing, truth be told. She wouldn't want me tellin' anyone about her little problem, especially if it were to get back to Wax." MeLaan simply nodded, her curiosity thoroughly piqued by now. "It's... well... her allomancy." "Her allomancy?" Wayne nodded. "You know her and I have complimentary powers?" "You burn bendallloy to speed up time in a bubble, and she burns cadmium to slow it down." "Aye. Well, she didn't use any of her power on today's Mission." MeLaan nodded. "She tends to find fewer opportunities than you do." "And just to make it all worse, cadmium burns real slow. Well, wisdom of the Survivor himself says to always burn all the metal you got left before bed." "I've heard of that. Allomantic metals can be toxic." "Exactly. And cadmium, it's one of the worst of all. Really nasty, what it can do to a person." "So she needs to make extra sure to burn it at night," MeLaan said. "Where do you come in?" "Well, the problem with burning off cadmium at night is what it does to you. Most metals, you can just let 'em burn until they're gone, and not much happens if you don't do nothing with them, but cadmium..." That's when it dawned on MeLaan. "She wouldn't be able to sleep well because she'd run out of time." "Exactly." "Unless... if you burn your own power at the same time, close enough that you're both inside each other's bubbles, do the effects just cancel out?" "Now you got it, " Wayne said. She smiled. "You're a good friend, Wayne, more decent and loyal than you give yourself credit for. It's one of the things I like about you. " Wayne actually flushed a little at that. "Thought'cha liked me fer me natural wit an' charm, an' me skill at disguises an' such," he mumbled. She grinned and slipped a hand into his, smiling playfully and giving his hand a fond little squeeze. "One of the reasons." Then she leaned down and whispered in his ear, "do you have any slow time left?"