"Aye." He was still smiling, but it was a little sharper. "You have to salvage what you can, in this world and any other." But that was more serious than he was willing to go, so he shook it off, pulling a comical face. "'Course, there's also the bonus that if you rescue books, you've got an easy source of fuel if it all goes to shit. Am I going with you to talk to whatshername? Because this is all well and good, but I don't think I can read aught from this world, so there's better places to leave me, say true."

Her blush hadn't gone unnoticed. Nor had the fact that he thought she was joking, which he hadn't been. Overplaying it, perhaps - it was the only way he knew how to flirt, that almost-mocking suavity - but he had meant it. He almost told her so. But she wouldn't have believed him, and he'd had his fill of trying to figure such things out for now. They'd made it back to friendship. For now, he was more than happy to let it settle there.