Every little bit helps.
RL Date: 7/21/09
IC Date: 4/6/20
It is, to put it mildly, fucking early. T'rev sits in one of the chairs in front of the common room hearth, hair still damp from morning ablutions, of all things, reading a book like he completely belongs right there, reading at 0-dark-thirty.
Why Jaeyi should be up at this hour, as apparently it is not /still/ up... For the record, unlike /some/ indecent persons, she actually has jammies of the pink flannel variety, a long and very proper nightgown and even some nice fuzzy slippers to keep her toes off the cold floor. Still thusly attired, she emerges from her room, rubbing her knuckles into her eyes with one hand and expecting to pass through a still-empty common room. Except... except... "I am actually awake, right?" she asks, having back-tracked to re-peek at what's sitting in that chair, reading that book.
T'rev's head lifts at the sound of fuzzy-slippered footfalls and there's a faintly bemused, yet charmed smile on his face as he watches sleepy Jae wander by and then stop, return. The bookmark is slipped into place, the book snapped shut and T'rev grins at the baker. "Want to come over here so I can prove that you are, in fact, awake?" he says, all innocence then tilts a little nod towards the corridor. "My sister should be coming out any moment on her way to her shift with the kids. The fact that you're usually getting up to get ready around now has you know, nothing to do with why I'm here." Of course not. At least it's very quiet and almost deserted? Even the aunties aren't up yet.
The smile, though lined with sleepiness, very much does want to come over and be proven awake, yes. Jaeyi does shuffle nearer to the chair, the /chair/ and definitely totally not the man sitting in it, but she's awake enough to stop at the backish-side of it, which puts her largely out of reach without some serious bending of the arms. "I'm not working today, I took the day off. I was going to get some toast and go back to bed," she volunteers, arms folding on the top of the chair. "Why are you reading in here?"
Grinning understanding, T'rev doesn't quip further abot joining him, just tilts his head back as Jaeyi's arms cross atop the chair's back. "Mm - we were going to take these days off," the Weyrleader says quietly and keeps his hands folded around the book, though his gaze can find her face even if at that slightly awkward angle. "I am actually waitin' on Vani. Wanted to check in with her after yesterday, Hardin said some things ..." he trails off makes a little face. "You know, traditional holder type things." One of his hands leaves the book, touches to his lips and he reaches up to brush them against her fingers lightly. "Always the off-chance of catchin' you too. Wanted to say in person, thank you, for yesterday."
"I worked the rest of them, just finally realized I was about to snap yesterday afternoon and figured I better not be around the knives all day." That Jaeyi's hands twitch could have as much to do with what she was thinking about doing with said knives as it could a response to the finger-to-finger kiss. "Did Vani hear them? The things Hardin said?" With a breath, with her chin lowered till it rests on the back of her wrist, she takes the risk of dipping down her fingertips till they find the very end of his hair, just catching it. "Then say thank you," she suggests, tired-quiet and wishful-quiet at once.
"Snap about?" T'rev inquires casually then nods. "She did, so you know, thought I should touch base now we're back here instead of swimmin' in family," the Weyrleader explains about his sister and his head turns as hers lowers so, eyes trying to find hers again. "Thank you, Jae. It was a lovely birthday surprise," the Weyrleader says very quietly and for just a moment his forehead tilts towards her to graze against her cheek. "Have to tell me about the tea," T'rev claims after a moment of quick-caught breaths, trying to infuse buoyant cheer into his voice.
Jaeyi's answer to the first question is short and sweet, "Bread." But there's an 'it's a long story' quality to the quirk of her lips and the way she briefly squints. Generally speaking, one doesn't have to think very hard about breathing, but his forehead, her cheek, and her eyes close for a few seconds to make sure that breathing is the only thing she has to worry about; easier to focus without having to process all that visual input, too. "Tell me about what your stepfather said," she begins in a voice that's not smooth enough to be convincingly unaffected, "and I'll tell you at the tea afterward."
"Bread ..." T'rev echoes, brows quirking together faintly and she might feel it against her cheek, before his head tips back and away. "That he could still make a respectable woman out of her if she'd let him," the Weyrleader explains with a hitch or two in his voice that don't really have to do with the subject at hand. "He brought up another arrangement with another holder from the area. Since Nissa went back up to the 'station, he's kind of out of girls to marry off until Elenna and the younger boys are old enough."
Small laugh; "Respectable." There's no one here, he's right there, her fingers grow a fraction bolder and comb lightly through the clipped curls, from his temple, back over his ear, off toward the back of his neck. "She doesn't wanna get married," Jaeyi poses with that same laugh in her voice. "You probably know, she broke up with Kwei so she could figure out what she wants to do, and apparently with whom she wants to do that. That doesn't sound like a girl eager to tie the knot."
"Exactly," T'rev starts, stops as her hand goes a-wandering through his hair. "No, she doesn't, it's why she came here in the first place. To get herself sorted out, but she does know she doesn't want to get married." One of his hands lifts, slides upward and his fingers aim to hook into hers, into the hand that remains on the chair's back. "Hardin -- he just don't get it, I guess. I think he thinks he 'saved' my mother somehow. Mama -- she just loves him, wants to be with him. Ain't got nothin' to do with bein' 'saved'."
Jaeyi shifts, takes her chin off her wrist to accommodating the threading of fingers, her own quickly ready to lace through T'rev's. "He wanted to marry her off before, it's not surprising he still thinks it's his duty? Or is it more like his right?" Her fingers continue through his hair all the while, occasionally a little mournful at the lack of length. "What's your mother say? Vani's her daughter, hmn? Not his."
"Little bit of both," T'rev says about his sister. "Mama says Vani should do what she thinks is best. And of course s'more complicated now 'cos Vani's found her father. I mean, y'know, the guy as fathered her with Mama, though Gramps and Hardin are the ones as raised her," the Weyrleader explains further. "Nissa, she picked up and left, couldn't stomach him tryin' to hook her up all the time. Elenna, she might be more y'know, biddable," T'rev notes with a little wry turn to his mouth, fingers settling comfortably between the baker's. A door slamming down the hall though makes him sit up a little, his hand squeezes, then slides away.
"Given she's here and not there, getting married when she doesn't want to, it sounds like Vani's doing a good job following your mom's advice." Which Jaeyi apparently thinks is commendable, her tone pleased for the girl in question, a look finding its way toward a closed door belonging to T'rev's sister. That's still where she's looking when the door slams, and there's a visible reaction from her, a moment of tension and her eyes squeezed shut. "I doubt she'll think much of it," she begins, collecting herself, her palms pushing on the back of the chair while she slips away from it, along the back of it and the next one over. "But /I/ think she's being brave, and I hope Hardin doesn't get to her."
"She is, yep. Just hope she's not feelin' down about what he said, because Vani can be you know, shy like that," T'rev says with a little smile. There's a pang on his face when he sees that reaction to the door from Jaeyi, but he drops his hands properly to the top of his book, fiddles with the bookmark a little. A few moments later, footsteps come down the hallway and yawning handyman makes his way through, eyeballs Jaeyi in all her pinky-pjs glory with a touch of a leer, then blinks as he spots the Weyrleader, straightens, nods politely and hastens on through. T'rev returns that nod with all of the leaderly grace he can muster and holds still for a moment, then sets the book on his chair's arm, gets to his feet and paces restlessly after Jaeyi. "I don't think he will." When he catches up to her, his palms drop to her bathrobe-clad shoulders, touch light enough that she could pull away, but there's movement in his fingers, like he'd pull her to him, even for just a second.
Jaeyi answers that leer the same way she always would, which goes quite some way toward selling the fiction; head tilted, partial smile, it's very much a "don't make promises you can't keep" expression. She looks to go no farther than that empty chair, fingers falling off the back of it while she comes around, but-- by then-- T'rev's gotten to his feet and she stops, ostensibly so as not to cut in front of wherever he's going. That's the third-party version, but the truth is pretty obvious in the way her attention hangs on him. "Shy," she echoes, finds a little laugh, the only word from the whole conversation she can rightly recall at the moment. "Look," is the abrupt command, said while her feet shift out of her slippers, all bubble-gum-pink toenails on display. She's not pulling away, but something's gotta give, so here's a distraction.
In the space between the handyman's exit and that approach, T'rev's hands slide down Jaeyi's arms and then his close around her for just a moment, his head dropping so his nose burrows into her hair a little. Toes. Pink. His arm tightens, then the Weyrleader makes himself step back, goes to perch on the arm of that chair, very seriously looking downward. Conversationally and in a low tone of voice, he remarks mildly: "I think you've got every idea, what I'd like to do with those right now." When he looks up his eyes are twinkling with terrible mischief. "Very nice, you're coordinated from head to toe," is what he says more audibly, though the rest of the doors along that hallway remain closed for now. Time's slipping onward though and the closer it gets to not so early anymore, the more people will be getting up and heading for breakfast and work.
She steps right into that embrace, slides her arms around his waist, rests her cheek in the center of his chest, even sighs a quiet version of his name. Reluctant to let go, fingers tightening in his shirt a second, Jaeyi realizes soon enough that she's more reluctant to get caught like that and, under pretense of straightening that shirt, moves away with her palms running briefly from his shoulders to his waist. Looking down, for composure likely, she gives her toes a pleased beam and says as quietly, "I think you should tell me what you'd like to do with them anyway." Slippers reclaimed, she goes to curl up in the chair she staked out, looking up and across at him with a slightly refreshed quality-- only a hug, but it helps. "I got all kinds of colors for my birthday. Not that there's any going barefoot yet to make them worth having, but it can't stay cold forever, right?" Cheerful, public, safe.
"I'll write it for you," T'rev says in a likewise quiet voice, leaning a little more into the chair's back where he perches against the arm, looking at her with a very full expression, though there's an extra gleam to his smile too. Just a hug. But it's something that's not keeping their hands completely off each other. "You'll have to do them up all summer long. I'll keep an eye out for which color it is this seven or that seven and I'll tell you my favorite if you tell me yours." There's a teasing lilt to his voice, fond. "And it's getting warm. Getting warm. Reminds me, Da's here. Gather's due to open day after tomorrow and he'd like to make good on his promised gifts."
Jaeyi's, "Coward," is strictly the stuff of teasing in turn, made more humorous by the fact that another door opens, another yawn shuffles by on its way toward a bath or breakfast, just when she could have been indulging a detailed description of T'rev's employment of pink toes. Which, since she's getting comfortable for the time, she reveals again by dropping slippers soundlessly to the floor, sitting with her feet curling over the arm of the chair, her back against the other one, facing T'rev across a /safe/ distance. "Gee, let me think. Go to the gather and dance with a handsome and famous harper or... Well, I guess there really isn't an 'or' that can compare, is there?"
"For now," T'rev says laughingly and looks over at the passing sleepy yawner for a moment only to look back at those neatly manicured toes, but stays safely put with that distance between them. "Am I going to have to whack my own father over the head to get a promised dance with you?" the Weyrleader teases further, eyes crinkling up at the corners with good humor. "He's got something to play for you too. Don't forget the charmin' part."
With one of those lovely, simmering looks up through her lashes, Jaeyi answers with a laden, "I have hardly forgotten the charming part." Her toes wiggle delightedly on the arm of the chair, and it's those she's looking at for the dramatic sigh-- perked up enough now that she can accomplish dramatic instead of just drowsy. "Well, I would have said 'dance with a handsome and famous Weyrleader,' but I'm not sure it's entirely /appropriate/ for you to be putting those fancy steps of yours to use with apprentices."
Ducking his chin a little, T'rev just chuckles, folds his arms across his chest. "Yeah, at any rate, any time you want to go down. He's set up camp in the cothold. Serina and Cedri are staying with the wagons." Wiggling toes and the Weyrleader takes a deep breath. "That's gonna be a very /long/ letter," he notes confidentially with a meaningful look at her feet. That last though earns a shake of his head. "Dancing is always appropriate. Apprentices, journeymen, anyone. It's one of the beauties of dancing, you can be close to someone, really damn close and it's completely polite."
"T'rev. Sugar." A real pat-on-the-head tone. "I love you to bits and pieces," which Jaeyi says without the benefit of a lowered voice, as it has more of a teasing quality than a caressing one. "But the way you dance is not all that fit for polite company. But, if you promise to behave yourself." A look at her toes, a look at his eyes, perhaps questioning the likelihood of said behaving. "I promise I'll dance with you."
Laughter, again for the tone and T'rev gleams a grin at Jaeyi. "Jae-love, I solemnly swear, that I will behave, if only to have the privilege of dancin' with you at the Gather and to make good on the promise of takin' you there," the Weyrleader says sincerely. "Apprentice or no, I did make a promise and I think that goin' back on my word might be a little more suspect than havin' my hand at your waist."
"I dunno," counters Jaeyi, ducking her head a little, her hands held out on her knees to illustrate: "There's a pretty big gap in the back of that dress. I'm not convinced you should be putting your hand anywhere near it." Big giant lie written all over her face, based on the way her eyes brighten at the prospect. Genuine, hopeful delight starts to play her smile though, big toe stretched across the chairs to prod at his knee a couple times, "You really still taking me? I mean, is that, like, okay?"
"A very nicely designed dress y'know, have to say so m'self," T'rev answers musingly, smile starting to go ten kinds of sunny in respons to that look in her eyes. Her big toe is seized, toyed with playfully then released so he can rest his hand lightly atop her foot. It's not quite a caress either, just resting there all warm, its calluses and soft spots well-known. "Yes. I am still takin' you. I'll need to escort Cirse for opening day, y'know. But I will take you down for dancin'." There's a little pause and then more quietly, T'rev adds on: "I've thought things through a bunch, Jae. It's stupid to pretend like I don't are about you. It's one thing to do what's right, to step back, respect your rank and mine. But everyone knows how I feel about you. Everyone knows I'm waitin' for you and you for me. So. I can take you down to that gather. I can dance with you. Hold you even. Just can't be lovers until it's right to be. There's probably plenty of journeymen this has happened to y'know. Apprentices fall for each other, right? And one of 'em gets promoted and the other doesn't and they have to wait. Ain't all that different, except Weyrleader's more like ... Master." Sheepish grin there and he looks across at her with earnest sincerity.
It's not the same relief there'd be from disappearing with him all day, but Jaeyi sighs a touch at his answer, leans her head into the back of the chair, looks up at him with a quiet, pacified smile. "Thank you. I mean, not that I'm tickled pink, mind you," with a flex of her foot, pink, "but I can live with that. Without feeling like we're still telling lies." Thinking, still looking up at him in that hangs-the-moon way, "So, that means, like, sometimes I can hold your hand when we walk or even have a hug goodnight?" Small fucking victories, indeed.
Pushing up from his own chair again, T'rev nods. "Yeah," he answers all that simply and holds his arms out for another hug with an answering look of like kind on his face. Provided she tucks herself into that embrace, his head dips to press a kiss to the top of her head and quietly he asks: "So... about that tea?"
Oh, to hell with the slippers this time. Jaeyi's happy enough to suffer the cold floor on the way over to those open arms. She doesn't like fiddle with his buttons or put her hands anywhere they oughta not be going, just tucks in against his chest with her forehead beneath his chin, all muffled and pleased. Over a deep breath; "You know, I never thought I'd miss the way soap smells quite so much." Over a much less deep laugh; "Are you sure you're ready for a story that quaint?"
"I'll make sure to only ever use soap and not that body wash stuff you use," T'rev murmurs into her hair with a grin. "And better quaint than what I usually think of," the Weyrleader answers and tightens his arms around her, cheek resting against the top of her head. Down the hall the weyr's residents really are waking up in greater numbers now and a couple of doors open and close. One of the other kitchen workers passes, tucking her hair up and rolls her eyes at the pair as she goes by. "Well /that/ didn't last long," she says with a snort and disappears down along to the kitchen.
"Doooon't don't don't. You always smell clean-- well, not always. But--" Whatever the but might have been, or the story about the tea, it kind of gets put on hold for a minute at that snide remark, which has Jaeyi leaning her head back enough to keep track of whose nose is in her business this time. "I had a talk with my journeyman, did I tell you?" Because now it's topical, now while she shuffles a step of distance and, again, smooths his shirt unnecessarily. Excuses, excuses.
T'rev looks up and starts to come up with an answer, just lets it be, blows out a breath. "That's why in general, keeping my hands to myself," he tells Jaeyi more seriously, though his hands don't actually leave her, sliding down to her elbows as she steps back that one step and he does too, smiles down at her. "No, you didn't. What did you talk to him about?"
Placid; "Don't worry about it. She can make trouble if she wants, but on the list of my sins? Hugging a fully-dressed Weyrleader is pretty minor." Jaeyi's brows twitch a moment, a calculated but brief slimming of her eyes-- an explanation will have to be made, and she gives a moment's pause to consider it. Then, smiling once again, "Mmn, a lot of it was just clearing the air. So he wouldn't go on thinking I'm a useless tart, and I wouldn't go on thinking he's a soulless prick. But he did actually put things into perspective for me. About why being thought to belong to a man in your position won't really hasten my progress any."
"Yeah, just you know, don't want to make a lot of that kind of gossip for you, or for it to get back to Cirse who will be really really displeased," T'rev notes seriously now, though his hands still cup her elbows as he listens to this little narrative. Deep breath. "Yeah. It could look like I pushed any promotion instead of you gettin' it on your own," T'rev says bluntly. "Or that there's no point, because you can always just you know, be my tart," he continues quietly, the expression on his face taking any possible sting out of his words. "Better for you to get your knot on your own merits, completely, withou bein' /my/ pet baker," T'rev teases just a little, with that old joke about Fort's steward, reworked.
Scooting her arms back, freeing her elbows till her hands find T'rev's and her fingers curl around his, Jaeyi starts to press against them with a nod for the chair. As in, sit; they've had their hug, and there's already fodder for gossip, and his concern about what Cirse might here is just one more reason not to take advantage of an interlude. "There was that," she answers his speculations with a nod. "And-- well, what if you decided to make a fuss if they wanted me to go somewhere else? /I/ know you wouldn't, but /they/ don't know that. So it would be kinda like promoting an apprentice whose whole career is a foregone conclusion." The tease works, sparks her grin. "They, of course, also don't know about my own plans."
T'rev's fingers linger for a moment or two longer but he takes the hint, perches on the chair's arm again, hands resting alongside his thighs. "Yeah, all of those," he agrees with her statements and starts laughing as she grins, teases. "They sure don't know what they've really got with you, do they?" T'rev asks, eyes dancing her way. This time it's a gaggle of girls chattering as they walk along, likely headed for the laundry from the way they're binding up their hair under caps and wound swaths of cloth. There's curious looks towards the pair but other than Jaeyi's attire there's not much to remark on other than that it's early and the Weyrleader is talking to a girl who's still in her pjs and doesn't seem overly bothered. Okay, and the fact that two of them are fluttering their eyelashes at him and sighing because isn't he /dreamy/? And if he'll do random girls, why not /them/?
"Anyway, it makes it a little easier to stomach if there's a reason beyond just 'you're not allowed to fuck the weyrleader because he's the weyrleader, get over it.'" Jaeyi shrugs at that, which is pretty much what her interpretation of most people's logic was. To answer the unasked, she points to the girl in the back while she drops into her own chair, saying helpfully, "She's blonde. Her friend had real short curly brown hair for a while, but it's like chin-length now?" Ask not how many chicks had to be screened before one particular girl was sent up bearing breakfast. "Do you like it? The notoriety?" she asks after a time, studying his expression briefly in the interlude.
"Suppose it does," T'rev says gently and leans his head down against the chair's back a little, looking across the way at her with a softer expression again until she points and he looks up and over, just moving eyes mostly, angling his head. "Hmm? Oh. Um. Not really," T'rev says slowly. "Not that I've ever objected to y'know, bein' wanted, but I want to be wanted because I'm me, not because of my rank. There's girls who're sniffing around just because of the knot. Not really all that interested ..."
Being wanted. Jaeyi lowers her eyes for a second, entertains a small grin, and clearly debates whether or not to share her thoughts. In the end, well-- things are more comfortable than they were a week ago, so, "I hope not, or this would be an awfully objectionable moment for you, wouldn't it?" Back to the way she was, folded into the chair, only this time she keeps her toes against the arm of it instead of peeking up over in tantalizing pinkness. "I doubt it's /just/ because of the knot. You are, well, fucking hot. But there's something alluring about it, the idea of attracting a powerful man. Doesn't flow that way for men in turn?"
Did Jaeyi just make T'rev blush? She did. One hand lifts, sweeps through his hair which has at least had the grace to grow out a /little/ since it got chopped over a week ago now. "Maybe for some," he has to be honest about that. "For me it's never been about that. It's just the moment. Sharing it. That click. That connection." His fingers lift, snap once. "And that -- that usually has somethin' else to it than power or even the way a person looks."
Jaeyi sits up a little straighter, attends the pinkening of cheeks with bright, bright eyes. "Out of all the things I've said to you," she realizes, sinking back down with a smile both bemused and ridiculously fond. Awww, ain't he cute! She looks at the fingers while the snap, then back to his eyes afterward, listening with her head tilted attentively. "Soooo, if it's more than just the way a person looks, how did we wind up in bed after knowing each other for, like, an hour?" Or two, to be fair, but hyperbole sells the point.
That just makes his blush deepen. Yes, out of all the things she's said to him, complimenting his /looks/ is what gets him to pinken up. Brown eyes meet darker brown and T'rev's brows lift, surprise registering there. "Because there were sparks," he says straightforwardly. "Because I liked you, you showed spirit and we laughed and ..." he trails off, the corner of his mouth pulling to the side. "And because you you were willing. There was you know, mutual attraction. Without any strings. Safe bet that we could just enjoy ourselves."
That 'willing' makes her laugh, look upward for a second for that entertained response, then turn her attention back to him to attend the rest. "Wanting, is more the word I'd use," Jaeyi clarifies in all honesty. Then her smile changes a little, has her looking at the ends of her feet for a time, thinking. "Do you-- sometimes, lately, I think it would've been easier if it had just stayed that, mutual attraction. But you could... I mean, they don't all just want the knot."
"I mean, I'm not saying that you being pretty wasn't part of the attraction," T'rev says with an answering laugh. "But you know I've been attracted to women without them being what most folks would call lovely. And okay, yes, wanting. That's what y'know, mutual attraction is. Wanting, both ways." His finger points to her, points back at himself. His smile fades a little and T'rev's gaze follows the downward turn of her eyes, the shifts in her posture. "Easier, sure," the Weyrleader says lightly and his voice drops low, "but not better." He leaves that out there in the open for a moment, not just because it might require a moment to sink in but because several people pass by, most without really looking at who's sitting by the hearth. A couple of those aunties come out, bones a-creaking to settle in the other chairs and set to their knitting. "I know they don't," T'rev says for that last, switching into more vague word usage as they get company. "I know I could. Probably will eventually." Honest. And there was Riisa after all. And: "And I asked a certain Istan greenrider to come visit."
"Was it?" asks Jaeyi like the thought that she's pretty = T'rev and she had sex never entered her mind before. "All this time, I just thought you really wanted pastries. Hmn." She's easily heartened, and easier-not-better works to earn T'rev a small, pleased smile; so at least he's saying the right things. She gives the aunties a quick smile, being polite, hopefully winning enough points that they too don't decide to make sitting-and-talking into something it's not. "So you actually wrote that? Please come--" A word she leaves out, since there's aunties around now. "--my girlfriend? Are you going to... too?" Like people can just take a number with T'mic! "I hope he com-- visits. He's so sweet and energetic." Yes, so are puppies.
T'rev's head drops, shoulders shaking with laughter that doesn't quite make it to audible. "You make lovely pastries," is what he ultimately says, peeking up at her with bright eyes. "Yes. I actually wrote that. Without cussing. And maybe. We'll see," for 'will he too' and then he's laughing again. "Yeah. He is." Pushing away from the chair T'rev tugs his jacket straight and reaches over to pick up his long-abandoned book. "It's getting -- well not late, but y'know, later. I'm gonna go knock on Vani's door, ask her to come have breakfast with me. If you want to come along ... ?"
Not that it should come as any particular surprise but... "I wish we all could. Again. Together." And Jaeyi sighs wistfully for lost opportunities. Tragic, tragic. Her eyes follow him up, but there's no other movement on her part at the moment. "Noooo," she answers, finding a lazy drawl for that. "Go and have breakfast with your sister. I don't think she'd, uhmn, be all that keen on this particular third wheel? Besides. I need toast and a nap if I'm having company today." Lashes flutter adoringly to thank T'rev for thinking of her, both for breakfast and for, er. Company.
Softer: "Someday," T'rev promises with a wink for presently lost opportunties. His fingers brush hers lightly, briefly, then he nods. "All right then. Hopefully there's a good afternoon comin' your way," the Weyrleader says sincerely before he goes to knock on his sister's door.
IC Date: 4/6/20
It is, to put it mildly, fucking early. T'rev sits in one of the chairs in front of the common room hearth, hair still damp from morning ablutions, of all things, reading a book like he completely belongs right there, reading at 0-dark-thirty.
Why Jaeyi should be up at this hour, as apparently it is not /still/ up... For the record, unlike /some/ indecent persons, she actually has jammies of the pink flannel variety, a long and very proper nightgown and even some nice fuzzy slippers to keep her toes off the cold floor. Still thusly attired, she emerges from her room, rubbing her knuckles into her eyes with one hand and expecting to pass through a still-empty common room. Except... except... "I am actually awake, right?" she asks, having back-tracked to re-peek at what's sitting in that chair, reading that book.
T'rev's head lifts at the sound of fuzzy-slippered footfalls and there's a faintly bemused, yet charmed smile on his face as he watches sleepy Jae wander by and then stop, return. The bookmark is slipped into place, the book snapped shut and T'rev grins at the baker. "Want to come over here so I can prove that you are, in fact, awake?" he says, all innocence then tilts a little nod towards the corridor. "My sister should be coming out any moment on her way to her shift with the kids. The fact that you're usually getting up to get ready around now has you know, nothing to do with why I'm here." Of course not. At least it's very quiet and almost deserted? Even the aunties aren't up yet.
The smile, though lined with sleepiness, very much does want to come over and be proven awake, yes. Jaeyi does shuffle nearer to the chair, the /chair/ and definitely totally not the man sitting in it, but she's awake enough to stop at the backish-side of it, which puts her largely out of reach without some serious bending of the arms. "I'm not working today, I took the day off. I was going to get some toast and go back to bed," she volunteers, arms folding on the top of the chair. "Why are you reading in here?"
Grinning understanding, T'rev doesn't quip further abot joining him, just tilts his head back as Jaeyi's arms cross atop the chair's back. "Mm - we were going to take these days off," the Weyrleader says quietly and keeps his hands folded around the book, though his gaze can find her face even if at that slightly awkward angle. "I am actually waitin' on Vani. Wanted to check in with her after yesterday, Hardin said some things ..." he trails off makes a little face. "You know, traditional holder type things." One of his hands leaves the book, touches to his lips and he reaches up to brush them against her fingers lightly. "Always the off-chance of catchin' you too. Wanted to say in person, thank you, for yesterday."
"I worked the rest of them, just finally realized I was about to snap yesterday afternoon and figured I better not be around the knives all day." That Jaeyi's hands twitch could have as much to do with what she was thinking about doing with said knives as it could a response to the finger-to-finger kiss. "Did Vani hear them? The things Hardin said?" With a breath, with her chin lowered till it rests on the back of her wrist, she takes the risk of dipping down her fingertips till they find the very end of his hair, just catching it. "Then say thank you," she suggests, tired-quiet and wishful-quiet at once.
"Snap about?" T'rev inquires casually then nods. "She did, so you know, thought I should touch base now we're back here instead of swimmin' in family," the Weyrleader explains about his sister and his head turns as hers lowers so, eyes trying to find hers again. "Thank you, Jae. It was a lovely birthday surprise," the Weyrleader says very quietly and for just a moment his forehead tilts towards her to graze against her cheek. "Have to tell me about the tea," T'rev claims after a moment of quick-caught breaths, trying to infuse buoyant cheer into his voice.
Jaeyi's answer to the first question is short and sweet, "Bread." But there's an 'it's a long story' quality to the quirk of her lips and the way she briefly squints. Generally speaking, one doesn't have to think very hard about breathing, but his forehead, her cheek, and her eyes close for a few seconds to make sure that breathing is the only thing she has to worry about; easier to focus without having to process all that visual input, too. "Tell me about what your stepfather said," she begins in a voice that's not smooth enough to be convincingly unaffected, "and I'll tell you at the tea afterward."
"Bread ..." T'rev echoes, brows quirking together faintly and she might feel it against her cheek, before his head tips back and away. "That he could still make a respectable woman out of her if she'd let him," the Weyrleader explains with a hitch or two in his voice that don't really have to do with the subject at hand. "He brought up another arrangement with another holder from the area. Since Nissa went back up to the 'station, he's kind of out of girls to marry off until Elenna and the younger boys are old enough."
Small laugh; "Respectable." There's no one here, he's right there, her fingers grow a fraction bolder and comb lightly through the clipped curls, from his temple, back over his ear, off toward the back of his neck. "She doesn't wanna get married," Jaeyi poses with that same laugh in her voice. "You probably know, she broke up with Kwei so she could figure out what she wants to do, and apparently with whom she wants to do that. That doesn't sound like a girl eager to tie the knot."
"Exactly," T'rev starts, stops as her hand goes a-wandering through his hair. "No, she doesn't, it's why she came here in the first place. To get herself sorted out, but she does know she doesn't want to get married." One of his hands lifts, slides upward and his fingers aim to hook into hers, into the hand that remains on the chair's back. "Hardin -- he just don't get it, I guess. I think he thinks he 'saved' my mother somehow. Mama -- she just loves him, wants to be with him. Ain't got nothin' to do with bein' 'saved'."
Jaeyi shifts, takes her chin off her wrist to accommodating the threading of fingers, her own quickly ready to lace through T'rev's. "He wanted to marry her off before, it's not surprising he still thinks it's his duty? Or is it more like his right?" Her fingers continue through his hair all the while, occasionally a little mournful at the lack of length. "What's your mother say? Vani's her daughter, hmn? Not his."
"Little bit of both," T'rev says about his sister. "Mama says Vani should do what she thinks is best. And of course s'more complicated now 'cos Vani's found her father. I mean, y'know, the guy as fathered her with Mama, though Gramps and Hardin are the ones as raised her," the Weyrleader explains further. "Nissa, she picked up and left, couldn't stomach him tryin' to hook her up all the time. Elenna, she might be more y'know, biddable," T'rev notes with a little wry turn to his mouth, fingers settling comfortably between the baker's. A door slamming down the hall though makes him sit up a little, his hand squeezes, then slides away.
"Given she's here and not there, getting married when she doesn't want to, it sounds like Vani's doing a good job following your mom's advice." Which Jaeyi apparently thinks is commendable, her tone pleased for the girl in question, a look finding its way toward a closed door belonging to T'rev's sister. That's still where she's looking when the door slams, and there's a visible reaction from her, a moment of tension and her eyes squeezed shut. "I doubt she'll think much of it," she begins, collecting herself, her palms pushing on the back of the chair while she slips away from it, along the back of it and the next one over. "But /I/ think she's being brave, and I hope Hardin doesn't get to her."
"She is, yep. Just hope she's not feelin' down about what he said, because Vani can be you know, shy like that," T'rev says with a little smile. There's a pang on his face when he sees that reaction to the door from Jaeyi, but he drops his hands properly to the top of his book, fiddles with the bookmark a little. A few moments later, footsteps come down the hallway and yawning handyman makes his way through, eyeballs Jaeyi in all her pinky-pjs glory with a touch of a leer, then blinks as he spots the Weyrleader, straightens, nods politely and hastens on through. T'rev returns that nod with all of the leaderly grace he can muster and holds still for a moment, then sets the book on his chair's arm, gets to his feet and paces restlessly after Jaeyi. "I don't think he will." When he catches up to her, his palms drop to her bathrobe-clad shoulders, touch light enough that she could pull away, but there's movement in his fingers, like he'd pull her to him, even for just a second.
Jaeyi answers that leer the same way she always would, which goes quite some way toward selling the fiction; head tilted, partial smile, it's very much a "don't make promises you can't keep" expression. She looks to go no farther than that empty chair, fingers falling off the back of it while she comes around, but-- by then-- T'rev's gotten to his feet and she stops, ostensibly so as not to cut in front of wherever he's going. That's the third-party version, but the truth is pretty obvious in the way her attention hangs on him. "Shy," she echoes, finds a little laugh, the only word from the whole conversation she can rightly recall at the moment. "Look," is the abrupt command, said while her feet shift out of her slippers, all bubble-gum-pink toenails on display. She's not pulling away, but something's gotta give, so here's a distraction.
In the space between the handyman's exit and that approach, T'rev's hands slide down Jaeyi's arms and then his close around her for just a moment, his head dropping so his nose burrows into her hair a little. Toes. Pink. His arm tightens, then the Weyrleader makes himself step back, goes to perch on the arm of that chair, very seriously looking downward. Conversationally and in a low tone of voice, he remarks mildly: "I think you've got every idea, what I'd like to do with those right now." When he looks up his eyes are twinkling with terrible mischief. "Very nice, you're coordinated from head to toe," is what he says more audibly, though the rest of the doors along that hallway remain closed for now. Time's slipping onward though and the closer it gets to not so early anymore, the more people will be getting up and heading for breakfast and work.
She steps right into that embrace, slides her arms around his waist, rests her cheek in the center of his chest, even sighs a quiet version of his name. Reluctant to let go, fingers tightening in his shirt a second, Jaeyi realizes soon enough that she's more reluctant to get caught like that and, under pretense of straightening that shirt, moves away with her palms running briefly from his shoulders to his waist. Looking down, for composure likely, she gives her toes a pleased beam and says as quietly, "I think you should tell me what you'd like to do with them anyway." Slippers reclaimed, she goes to curl up in the chair she staked out, looking up and across at him with a slightly refreshed quality-- only a hug, but it helps. "I got all kinds of colors for my birthday. Not that there's any going barefoot yet to make them worth having, but it can't stay cold forever, right?" Cheerful, public, safe.
"I'll write it for you," T'rev says in a likewise quiet voice, leaning a little more into the chair's back where he perches against the arm, looking at her with a very full expression, though there's an extra gleam to his smile too. Just a hug. But it's something that's not keeping their hands completely off each other. "You'll have to do them up all summer long. I'll keep an eye out for which color it is this seven or that seven and I'll tell you my favorite if you tell me yours." There's a teasing lilt to his voice, fond. "And it's getting warm. Getting warm. Reminds me, Da's here. Gather's due to open day after tomorrow and he'd like to make good on his promised gifts."
Jaeyi's, "Coward," is strictly the stuff of teasing in turn, made more humorous by the fact that another door opens, another yawn shuffles by on its way toward a bath or breakfast, just when she could have been indulging a detailed description of T'rev's employment of pink toes. Which, since she's getting comfortable for the time, she reveals again by dropping slippers soundlessly to the floor, sitting with her feet curling over the arm of the chair, her back against the other one, facing T'rev across a /safe/ distance. "Gee, let me think. Go to the gather and dance with a handsome and famous harper or... Well, I guess there really isn't an 'or' that can compare, is there?"
"For now," T'rev says laughingly and looks over at the passing sleepy yawner for a moment only to look back at those neatly manicured toes, but stays safely put with that distance between them. "Am I going to have to whack my own father over the head to get a promised dance with you?" the Weyrleader teases further, eyes crinkling up at the corners with good humor. "He's got something to play for you too. Don't forget the charmin' part."
With one of those lovely, simmering looks up through her lashes, Jaeyi answers with a laden, "I have hardly forgotten the charming part." Her toes wiggle delightedly on the arm of the chair, and it's those she's looking at for the dramatic sigh-- perked up enough now that she can accomplish dramatic instead of just drowsy. "Well, I would have said 'dance with a handsome and famous Weyrleader,' but I'm not sure it's entirely /appropriate/ for you to be putting those fancy steps of yours to use with apprentices."
Ducking his chin a little, T'rev just chuckles, folds his arms across his chest. "Yeah, at any rate, any time you want to go down. He's set up camp in the cothold. Serina and Cedri are staying with the wagons." Wiggling toes and the Weyrleader takes a deep breath. "That's gonna be a very /long/ letter," he notes confidentially with a meaningful look at her feet. That last though earns a shake of his head. "Dancing is always appropriate. Apprentices, journeymen, anyone. It's one of the beauties of dancing, you can be close to someone, really damn close and it's completely polite."
"T'rev. Sugar." A real pat-on-the-head tone. "I love you to bits and pieces," which Jaeyi says without the benefit of a lowered voice, as it has more of a teasing quality than a caressing one. "But the way you dance is not all that fit for polite company. But, if you promise to behave yourself." A look at her toes, a look at his eyes, perhaps questioning the likelihood of said behaving. "I promise I'll dance with you."
Laughter, again for the tone and T'rev gleams a grin at Jaeyi. "Jae-love, I solemnly swear, that I will behave, if only to have the privilege of dancin' with you at the Gather and to make good on the promise of takin' you there," the Weyrleader says sincerely. "Apprentice or no, I did make a promise and I think that goin' back on my word might be a little more suspect than havin' my hand at your waist."
"I dunno," counters Jaeyi, ducking her head a little, her hands held out on her knees to illustrate: "There's a pretty big gap in the back of that dress. I'm not convinced you should be putting your hand anywhere near it." Big giant lie written all over her face, based on the way her eyes brighten at the prospect. Genuine, hopeful delight starts to play her smile though, big toe stretched across the chairs to prod at his knee a couple times, "You really still taking me? I mean, is that, like, okay?"
"A very nicely designed dress y'know, have to say so m'self," T'rev answers musingly, smile starting to go ten kinds of sunny in respons to that look in her eyes. Her big toe is seized, toyed with playfully then released so he can rest his hand lightly atop her foot. It's not quite a caress either, just resting there all warm, its calluses and soft spots well-known. "Yes. I am still takin' you. I'll need to escort Cirse for opening day, y'know. But I will take you down for dancin'." There's a little pause and then more quietly, T'rev adds on: "I've thought things through a bunch, Jae. It's stupid to pretend like I don't are about you. It's one thing to do what's right, to step back, respect your rank and mine. But everyone knows how I feel about you. Everyone knows I'm waitin' for you and you for me. So. I can take you down to that gather. I can dance with you. Hold you even. Just can't be lovers until it's right to be. There's probably plenty of journeymen this has happened to y'know. Apprentices fall for each other, right? And one of 'em gets promoted and the other doesn't and they have to wait. Ain't all that different, except Weyrleader's more like ... Master." Sheepish grin there and he looks across at her with earnest sincerity.
It's not the same relief there'd be from disappearing with him all day, but Jaeyi sighs a touch at his answer, leans her head into the back of the chair, looks up at him with a quiet, pacified smile. "Thank you. I mean, not that I'm tickled pink, mind you," with a flex of her foot, pink, "but I can live with that. Without feeling like we're still telling lies." Thinking, still looking up at him in that hangs-the-moon way, "So, that means, like, sometimes I can hold your hand when we walk or even have a hug goodnight?" Small fucking victories, indeed.
Pushing up from his own chair again, T'rev nods. "Yeah," he answers all that simply and holds his arms out for another hug with an answering look of like kind on his face. Provided she tucks herself into that embrace, his head dips to press a kiss to the top of her head and quietly he asks: "So... about that tea?"
Oh, to hell with the slippers this time. Jaeyi's happy enough to suffer the cold floor on the way over to those open arms. She doesn't like fiddle with his buttons or put her hands anywhere they oughta not be going, just tucks in against his chest with her forehead beneath his chin, all muffled and pleased. Over a deep breath; "You know, I never thought I'd miss the way soap smells quite so much." Over a much less deep laugh; "Are you sure you're ready for a story that quaint?"
"I'll make sure to only ever use soap and not that body wash stuff you use," T'rev murmurs into her hair with a grin. "And better quaint than what I usually think of," the Weyrleader answers and tightens his arms around her, cheek resting against the top of her head. Down the hall the weyr's residents really are waking up in greater numbers now and a couple of doors open and close. One of the other kitchen workers passes, tucking her hair up and rolls her eyes at the pair as she goes by. "Well /that/ didn't last long," she says with a snort and disappears down along to the kitchen.
"Doooon't don't don't. You always smell clean-- well, not always. But--" Whatever the but might have been, or the story about the tea, it kind of gets put on hold for a minute at that snide remark, which has Jaeyi leaning her head back enough to keep track of whose nose is in her business this time. "I had a talk with my journeyman, did I tell you?" Because now it's topical, now while she shuffles a step of distance and, again, smooths his shirt unnecessarily. Excuses, excuses.
T'rev looks up and starts to come up with an answer, just lets it be, blows out a breath. "That's why in general, keeping my hands to myself," he tells Jaeyi more seriously, though his hands don't actually leave her, sliding down to her elbows as she steps back that one step and he does too, smiles down at her. "No, you didn't. What did you talk to him about?"
Placid; "Don't worry about it. She can make trouble if she wants, but on the list of my sins? Hugging a fully-dressed Weyrleader is pretty minor." Jaeyi's brows twitch a moment, a calculated but brief slimming of her eyes-- an explanation will have to be made, and she gives a moment's pause to consider it. Then, smiling once again, "Mmn, a lot of it was just clearing the air. So he wouldn't go on thinking I'm a useless tart, and I wouldn't go on thinking he's a soulless prick. But he did actually put things into perspective for me. About why being thought to belong to a man in your position won't really hasten my progress any."
"Yeah, just you know, don't want to make a lot of that kind of gossip for you, or for it to get back to Cirse who will be really really displeased," T'rev notes seriously now, though his hands still cup her elbows as he listens to this little narrative. Deep breath. "Yeah. It could look like I pushed any promotion instead of you gettin' it on your own," T'rev says bluntly. "Or that there's no point, because you can always just you know, be my tart," he continues quietly, the expression on his face taking any possible sting out of his words. "Better for you to get your knot on your own merits, completely, withou bein' /my/ pet baker," T'rev teases just a little, with that old joke about Fort's steward, reworked.
Scooting her arms back, freeing her elbows till her hands find T'rev's and her fingers curl around his, Jaeyi starts to press against them with a nod for the chair. As in, sit; they've had their hug, and there's already fodder for gossip, and his concern about what Cirse might here is just one more reason not to take advantage of an interlude. "There was that," she answers his speculations with a nod. "And-- well, what if you decided to make a fuss if they wanted me to go somewhere else? /I/ know you wouldn't, but /they/ don't know that. So it would be kinda like promoting an apprentice whose whole career is a foregone conclusion." The tease works, sparks her grin. "They, of course, also don't know about my own plans."
T'rev's fingers linger for a moment or two longer but he takes the hint, perches on the chair's arm again, hands resting alongside his thighs. "Yeah, all of those," he agrees with her statements and starts laughing as she grins, teases. "They sure don't know what they've really got with you, do they?" T'rev asks, eyes dancing her way. This time it's a gaggle of girls chattering as they walk along, likely headed for the laundry from the way they're binding up their hair under caps and wound swaths of cloth. There's curious looks towards the pair but other than Jaeyi's attire there's not much to remark on other than that it's early and the Weyrleader is talking to a girl who's still in her pjs and doesn't seem overly bothered. Okay, and the fact that two of them are fluttering their eyelashes at him and sighing because isn't he /dreamy/? And if he'll do random girls, why not /them/?
"Anyway, it makes it a little easier to stomach if there's a reason beyond just 'you're not allowed to fuck the weyrleader because he's the weyrleader, get over it.'" Jaeyi shrugs at that, which is pretty much what her interpretation of most people's logic was. To answer the unasked, she points to the girl in the back while she drops into her own chair, saying helpfully, "She's blonde. Her friend had real short curly brown hair for a while, but it's like chin-length now?" Ask not how many chicks had to be screened before one particular girl was sent up bearing breakfast. "Do you like it? The notoriety?" she asks after a time, studying his expression briefly in the interlude.
"Suppose it does," T'rev says gently and leans his head down against the chair's back a little, looking across the way at her with a softer expression again until she points and he looks up and over, just moving eyes mostly, angling his head. "Hmm? Oh. Um. Not really," T'rev says slowly. "Not that I've ever objected to y'know, bein' wanted, but I want to be wanted because I'm me, not because of my rank. There's girls who're sniffing around just because of the knot. Not really all that interested ..."
Being wanted. Jaeyi lowers her eyes for a second, entertains a small grin, and clearly debates whether or not to share her thoughts. In the end, well-- things are more comfortable than they were a week ago, so, "I hope not, or this would be an awfully objectionable moment for you, wouldn't it?" Back to the way she was, folded into the chair, only this time she keeps her toes against the arm of it instead of peeking up over in tantalizing pinkness. "I doubt it's /just/ because of the knot. You are, well, fucking hot. But there's something alluring about it, the idea of attracting a powerful man. Doesn't flow that way for men in turn?"
Did Jaeyi just make T'rev blush? She did. One hand lifts, sweeps through his hair which has at least had the grace to grow out a /little/ since it got chopped over a week ago now. "Maybe for some," he has to be honest about that. "For me it's never been about that. It's just the moment. Sharing it. That click. That connection." His fingers lift, snap once. "And that -- that usually has somethin' else to it than power or even the way a person looks."
Jaeyi sits up a little straighter, attends the pinkening of cheeks with bright, bright eyes. "Out of all the things I've said to you," she realizes, sinking back down with a smile both bemused and ridiculously fond. Awww, ain't he cute! She looks at the fingers while the snap, then back to his eyes afterward, listening with her head tilted attentively. "Soooo, if it's more than just the way a person looks, how did we wind up in bed after knowing each other for, like, an hour?" Or two, to be fair, but hyperbole sells the point.
That just makes his blush deepen. Yes, out of all the things she's said to him, complimenting his /looks/ is what gets him to pinken up. Brown eyes meet darker brown and T'rev's brows lift, surprise registering there. "Because there were sparks," he says straightforwardly. "Because I liked you, you showed spirit and we laughed and ..." he trails off, the corner of his mouth pulling to the side. "And because you you were willing. There was you know, mutual attraction. Without any strings. Safe bet that we could just enjoy ourselves."
That 'willing' makes her laugh, look upward for a second for that entertained response, then turn her attention back to him to attend the rest. "Wanting, is more the word I'd use," Jaeyi clarifies in all honesty. Then her smile changes a little, has her looking at the ends of her feet for a time, thinking. "Do you-- sometimes, lately, I think it would've been easier if it had just stayed that, mutual attraction. But you could... I mean, they don't all just want the knot."
"I mean, I'm not saying that you being pretty wasn't part of the attraction," T'rev says with an answering laugh. "But you know I've been attracted to women without them being what most folks would call lovely. And okay, yes, wanting. That's what y'know, mutual attraction is. Wanting, both ways." His finger points to her, points back at himself. His smile fades a little and T'rev's gaze follows the downward turn of her eyes, the shifts in her posture. "Easier, sure," the Weyrleader says lightly and his voice drops low, "but not better." He leaves that out there in the open for a moment, not just because it might require a moment to sink in but because several people pass by, most without really looking at who's sitting by the hearth. A couple of those aunties come out, bones a-creaking to settle in the other chairs and set to their knitting. "I know they don't," T'rev says for that last, switching into more vague word usage as they get company. "I know I could. Probably will eventually." Honest. And there was Riisa after all. And: "And I asked a certain Istan greenrider to come visit."
"Was it?" asks Jaeyi like the thought that she's pretty = T'rev and she had sex never entered her mind before. "All this time, I just thought you really wanted pastries. Hmn." She's easily heartened, and easier-not-better works to earn T'rev a small, pleased smile; so at least he's saying the right things. She gives the aunties a quick smile, being polite, hopefully winning enough points that they too don't decide to make sitting-and-talking into something it's not. "So you actually wrote that? Please come--" A word she leaves out, since there's aunties around now. "--my girlfriend? Are you going to... too?" Like people can just take a number with T'mic! "I hope he com-- visits. He's so sweet and energetic." Yes, so are puppies.
T'rev's head drops, shoulders shaking with laughter that doesn't quite make it to audible. "You make lovely pastries," is what he ultimately says, peeking up at her with bright eyes. "Yes. I actually wrote that. Without cussing. And maybe. We'll see," for 'will he too' and then he's laughing again. "Yeah. He is." Pushing away from the chair T'rev tugs his jacket straight and reaches over to pick up his long-abandoned book. "It's getting -- well not late, but y'know, later. I'm gonna go knock on Vani's door, ask her to come have breakfast with me. If you want to come along ... ?"
Not that it should come as any particular surprise but... "I wish we all could. Again. Together." And Jaeyi sighs wistfully for lost opportunities. Tragic, tragic. Her eyes follow him up, but there's no other movement on her part at the moment. "Noooo," she answers, finding a lazy drawl for that. "Go and have breakfast with your sister. I don't think she'd, uhmn, be all that keen on this particular third wheel? Besides. I need toast and a nap if I'm having company today." Lashes flutter adoringly to thank T'rev for thinking of her, both for breakfast and for, er. Company.
Softer: "Someday," T'rev promises with a wink for presently lost opportunties. His fingers brush hers lightly, briefly, then he nods. "All right then. Hopefully there's a good afternoon comin' your way," the Weyrleader says sincerely before he goes to knock on his sister's door.