It's odd, the way he can lose track of time, here. Time in captivity, even after he'd mostly grown accustomed to it, isn't exactly the same as time elsewhere. Some things seem to fly by so quickly, but on the whole the days drag and weeks feel like months, and months years.

"Little over a month?" Ned isn't quite sure on which day precisely he should fix the beginning of it all. They'd sort of... fallen into it, mutually surprised by the way things were developed, both unsure and confused and hesitant for their own reasons.

Dirk, it seems, is more than willing to accept that someone like Ned and someone like Daneel can be involved romantically. He doesn't exactly spring to the congratulations, Ned notices, and there's an odd sort of neutrality to his reply that Ned can't quite suss out, but he's polite, at the very least. Ned appreciates that. It makes him feel, well, normal. Feeling normal isn't something he's altogether used to, so it's nice, to experience it.

"In fact," Ned glances at his communicator, taps at it to display the time, "I ought to get back, make sure he isn't worried I got mauled by another tiger. It was-" in the happy flush of talking about Daneel, of hearing about Jane, Ned has completely forgiven the whole pushing incident, "-good talking to you."

With that, he waves at Dirk, turns back towards the house, and the person he knows will probably be waiting for him there.