Comfort
Who: R'vain, Essdara
Where: Mountain Waterfall
When: Pre-dawn, the morning after Yevide's death
Comment: Some mush, some adult hints, some teasing, and some very much not teasing.
The clouds obscure half of the stars that the great northern sky should boast this time of turn, but at least their brooding darkness holds down what little heat High Reaches can claim. It is a long hike up to the falls and by the time R'vain gets there it's the wee hours of morning, the dark before the dawn. His footfalls are heavy as they ever are, though he moves with effortless strength and heaves breath only lightly as he approaches. And he does not realize until almost upon her that the dark silhouette blocking out the reflections of clouds and stars on the rippling water is the shape of a woman on a blanket by the shore-- so he stops a bit short and sudden, squinting in the black to make out features. It takes him a few minutes to come up with the nicety of clearing his throat, but even that might not be heard over the crash of the waterfall, so a moment after that he walks up and around to the side of the blanket, then crouches there to get a better look.
In the darkness near the waterfall, sitting near the shore where it is dry, is Essdara. Her vigil over the night has been mostly silent, and any sounds she may have made easily lost to the solitude and the sounds of the waterfall. As the night edges towards dawn, she pulls the blanket closer around herself, briefly taking a moment to wipe the moisture from her cheeks. While the clearing of R'vain's throat isn't heard, his presence is felt as he crouches down next to her. She turns her head to face him, and the barest hint of a smile welcome him. After a moment she looks away, back towards the water.
Her turning her head is what it takes for him to confirm the identity he must have, since he crouched so close, already suspected. "Hey there," rumbles out in his gruff low voice, a little strained as if-- well, it's been a long night and here they are in the cold dark in the blackest part of it. R'vain drops a paw down from his knee to the ground near the closest fold of her blanket, shuffling toward her a bit. It almost offers a shoulder, an arm, something she could wind up leaning into. But it's also way casual, like he's just getting close enough to talk. "Y'can sniff me," he offers, obligingly.
Essdara isn't one to object to an offered shoulder, no matter how nonchalantly offered. As he gets closer, she leans over to put her head on his shoulder. At his words, though, she stiffens a bit; the darkness, thankfully, hides her blush. "I was out of line." She says, in a voice husky from crying. She clears her throat before trying to speak again, a bit clearer. "I'm sorry." She tries.
"No, no. Y'can speak your mind, girl." And R'vain wraps his great arm about her shoulders and shuffles the rest of the way near to her so that she can lean into him properly, going down on a knee to steady himself in the night-damp grass. "I won't lie t'you. This is th'kind of night it does a man good t'be passed out on a table through. But if I were I couldn't come after you, so." He turns his head just then, a little quickly, and puts his lips on her head, a funny little kiss as awkward as not, mostly into her hair. "So, uh. I found you."
A gentle smile, and she leands into shoulder and kiss. "You did." She agrees, quietly. "Though can't imagine you knew I'd be here. Pretty sure only Da does, cause he brought me. I... Wanted some time alone. To get away from everyone..." A soft sigh. "I couldn't sleep. I tried, but I couldn't. And awake, I could hear... Everything. Everyone talking, speculating..." A soft shudder. "Gloating, in some cases. Like she deserved what she got. Like it wasn't their fault it had happened." A hard edge with the last words, a brief flare of anger.
"No. Didn't know. I looked everywhere you /ought/ t'be, then gave up and came for a walk." R'vain laughs a little, one of those little sour chortles people use to avoid awkward silences that could lead to uncomfortable efforts to avoid crying. "Gloating," he says, a moment later, and looks off toward the water. "Yeah. Well. See, if she'd just packed up and gone back to Igen, I might be able to get up a good gloat, but this... she didn't deserve it. I mean, she wasn't so bad, not like that." It is very faint praise, sure, and the broad man seems displeased at the end of all of it, frowning. "I wonder what he's gonna do." 'He' being a pronoun without reference.
Essdara shrugs, softly. "They all think... Well, most people don't realise what really happened, and I haven't been enlightening them. So far as they are concerned, it was natural, and so they can gloat." A sigh, and she nestles closer. "You were looking for me?" Her question is with a tone of surprise, and some shyness. "You had more important things to worry about, R'vain..."
"Oh." R'vain frowns more deeply, darker, not that this is very evident in the night. But the shifting of the woman against him is welcome distraction and he tips down his head to look at her, or the shape of her, then settles onto his haunches in a half-sit so he can better hold her in his arms. Both of them now, the one behind her, the other loose in front, hand on her far elbow. "Yeah," he snorts softly, "Like bein' around when some nitwit guard wants t'ask me if I brought th'weyrwoman a drink or had any cross words with her. I did th'important stuff, got th'weyrlings settled down and tucked in. I'm here now."
Essdara nods against him, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder. "Good, I can't imagine that was easy on the poor little things." A soft sigh. "And... I am glad, R'vain, that you didn't... Induldge as you mentioned. I'm sorry, again, for what I said. You deserved more sympathy than that." She slips her own arm around his waist. "You ok? With everything that happened, I can't imagine that was easy on you... And don't think many will care if you are or not. But I do."
"Well, since I found you, I'm glad too." He's a little smirky about that, and of course because of it the rivers of denial he so likes to keep wading in ripple plainly beneath the surface-- no, his drinking isn't a /problem./ It's a coping strategy. But it's not the topic of the moment. "Essdara, I know she was your friend." Not his. Hers. "I'll be fine. It's hard on Ruvoth. Hard on everyone when a queen goes. But she was your friend." R'vain's embrace tightens a little and again he bends his head to put one of those weird manly-chaste kisses into her hair. "I'm sorry."
Essdara sighs, softly. "She was... Not a friend, exactly. It's hard to explain... She was, in so many ways, like I always wished mother would be with me. Caring, concerned, interested... I loved her very much, and I don't think I will ever be able to not hurt when I think about her." A light squeeze. "And you were with her, when it happened. That has to have had some effect..."
"I've heard some people describe her like that. I never got t'see it but-- " R'vain shrugs a little, moving against her. "I'm glad y'had someone like that, and I'm sorry y'had t'lose her." He frowns, tightens his grip on her yet again, then loosens up after that brief and fierce hug so he can sit down properly and get his legs out from under himself, grunting a bit against tensed muscles in his calves. "Effect like that I'm under suspicion for doin' it. Effect like I ain't never been that close to someone dying before. Effect like I wonder if I said somethin' that tipped her over." He looks away, off into the darkness downstream, and lets out a frustrated little growl.
Essdara lifts a hand to stroke his cheek. "I know you didn't do it. You're many things, but you aren't a killer. And... Being that close, is what I worry about. To have that happen while touching someone, I can see how that would have quite an impact. But R'vain... It wasn't you. The healers said it, right there. It wasn't natural, and thus, no matter what you or I had done, it would have happened." A soft sigh. "I was coming over, you know, right before it happened. I saw you there, and... It was a chance. To see you, yes, but to see her. Medina distracted me, so I wasn't there. I... Wish I had been. I wish she had been able to at least see a friendly face, then."
His head bows, guilt heavy on him. "I wish I'd /been/ one. Just for a sec." His shoulders raise and fall as he lets out a thick, heavy sigh, and turns his head back toward her after that, having come to some terms with self-control enough not to look too much like he's broken up about this little thing of a Weyrwoman's death. He steals an emerald glance at her, wary lest she be crying, because he probably couldn't cope with that, then makes gruff and rumbles, "What'll you do now?"
Essdara rubs his cheek more. "Run away?" She says, with a hopeful tone to her voice. "Go somewhere else, take up a position in some kitchen somewhere, live a nice quiet life away from drama and pain? Die alone and happy, many many turns from now?" She lets the hopeful smile ride a few moments, but it does fade. "But really... I don't know. What can I do? I'm just a cook, just a girl. It doesn't matter if I go, or if I stay, or anything else. Even with all my fear and worry even being flat-out threatened about this... I couldn't stop it. It rather puts me in my place, you know?"
His cheek is rough with stubble, though less so than sometimes-- he trimmed up a bit for the dance. He turns it again into her hand, and his facial shape changes just enough that she'll know he's smiling. "You wouldn't be happy alone," he calls her out, voice low and rough. "And I want t'put you on th'sands again sometime. And into my furs, sometime, too. Maybe not in that order." Abruptly he turns his head, lets go of her with the arm in front and uses a paw to press her hand to his mouth; a kiss heats skin there, ticklish from his facial hair, and then he lets her fingers go free. "It put us all in our places, girl. I don't know where we'll go from here. I got t'tend weyrlings and try t'keep 'em safe because it's obvious th'Weyr ain't doing that for me. You got t'take care of yourself. But when you can't, you got a place t'go. You know that, right?"
Essdara shivers softly at the kiss, looking up at him. "None of us are safe anymore. I don't think anyone is. And none of us should have to be alone." A soft sigh. "And I promise... When there are eggs, I will be there. For you... And for her. And who knows, maybe someday I'll have the chance to prove just how bad at it I will be." A thin, weak tease, but it's there. A quiet moment, and the she shifts, kneeling next to him, butt on the heels of her feet. She takes his hand, with a soft squeeze, "And I will be there for you you, when you need me. You shouldn't have to be alone either." She takes his hand. "Thank you,Sir, for finding me."
He shifts too, to face her, so he can let her have not one but both hands. Knees to knees, hands held, they form a strange little ritual circle on the ground, her in her blanket and he in leathers, and he grins at her, awkward but unminding. "Maybe we never were safe and we didn't know," R'vain says in his rough voice, thoughtful. He doesn't like being too thoughtful, though, and shakes his head a hard swing to banish the idea. After that he just looks on her, his eyes keen in the darkness to make out her features, to imagine the details he can't quite see. "You ain't goin' t'be bad at it. Y'got me to teach you." Some comfort. "Do I get a kiss for my trouble?" What a world, in which the rough take-what-he-touches Weyrlingmaster's found knelt in starlight by the waterfall begging a kitchen maid for a kiss.
Essdara lifts his heands, leaning down to give each one a soft kiss on the back. "I couldn't want for a better teacher." She then leans up and in, to lightly touch lips with him, lingering there for a long moment. "Let them do what they will, and we will find life and happiness where we can." Butt back to feet, smiling shyly up at him.
R'vain lets her make the kiss what she will, his back straight-- she might sense in him some tension, the toll his willpower takes on him-- and meets her lips as gently as hers could possibly ask for. All the while he watches her through the darkness, and when she shifts away from him his chest rises and falls with heavy breaths before he replies. "Best revenge is t'live well," he offers, reduced to adages by one little kiss. His hands squeeze hers, carefully gentle. "Want me t'have Ruvoth come get us home?"
Essdara gives a soft chuckle, rubbing the backs of his hands with light thumbs. "Are you so ready to leave?" She asks, teasing. "I'm not ready to go back to the dorms, let alone the kitchens." She moves, then, shifting over into his lap, arms around his neck and facing him. "Stay?" She asks, with all the meekness and quiet need she can muster.
He leans back, butt to feet, to let his lap become a slope she can climb onto. He'd say something, surely, if he could but think of quite what, but there's heat turning his neck and face colors of red that shame his freckles and that same fire must have affected the function of his brain. After a moment R'vain manages to shut his mouth and wrap his arms around her, steadying her against him. Eyes suddenly wide, hungrier than any of his cheshire grins could ever be, he lets a single nod suffice for his answer-- that and the lunge of his mouth demanding a kiss, a deep one, a kiss more to his liking.
*** FTB ***
Where: Mountain Waterfall
When: Pre-dawn, the morning after Yevide's death
Comment: Some mush, some adult hints, some teasing, and some very much not teasing.
The clouds obscure half of the stars that the great northern sky should boast this time of turn, but at least their brooding darkness holds down what little heat High Reaches can claim. It is a long hike up to the falls and by the time R'vain gets there it's the wee hours of morning, the dark before the dawn. His footfalls are heavy as they ever are, though he moves with effortless strength and heaves breath only lightly as he approaches. And he does not realize until almost upon her that the dark silhouette blocking out the reflections of clouds and stars on the rippling water is the shape of a woman on a blanket by the shore-- so he stops a bit short and sudden, squinting in the black to make out features. It takes him a few minutes to come up with the nicety of clearing his throat, but even that might not be heard over the crash of the waterfall, so a moment after that he walks up and around to the side of the blanket, then crouches there to get a better look.
In the darkness near the waterfall, sitting near the shore where it is dry, is Essdara. Her vigil over the night has been mostly silent, and any sounds she may have made easily lost to the solitude and the sounds of the waterfall. As the night edges towards dawn, she pulls the blanket closer around herself, briefly taking a moment to wipe the moisture from her cheeks. While the clearing of R'vain's throat isn't heard, his presence is felt as he crouches down next to her. She turns her head to face him, and the barest hint of a smile welcome him. After a moment she looks away, back towards the water.
Her turning her head is what it takes for him to confirm the identity he must have, since he crouched so close, already suspected. "Hey there," rumbles out in his gruff low voice, a little strained as if-- well, it's been a long night and here they are in the cold dark in the blackest part of it. R'vain drops a paw down from his knee to the ground near the closest fold of her blanket, shuffling toward her a bit. It almost offers a shoulder, an arm, something she could wind up leaning into. But it's also way casual, like he's just getting close enough to talk. "Y'can sniff me," he offers, obligingly.
Essdara isn't one to object to an offered shoulder, no matter how nonchalantly offered. As he gets closer, she leans over to put her head on his shoulder. At his words, though, she stiffens a bit; the darkness, thankfully, hides her blush. "I was out of line." She says, in a voice husky from crying. She clears her throat before trying to speak again, a bit clearer. "I'm sorry." She tries.
"No, no. Y'can speak your mind, girl." And R'vain wraps his great arm about her shoulders and shuffles the rest of the way near to her so that she can lean into him properly, going down on a knee to steady himself in the night-damp grass. "I won't lie t'you. This is th'kind of night it does a man good t'be passed out on a table through. But if I were I couldn't come after you, so." He turns his head just then, a little quickly, and puts his lips on her head, a funny little kiss as awkward as not, mostly into her hair. "So, uh. I found you."
A gentle smile, and she leands into shoulder and kiss. "You did." She agrees, quietly. "Though can't imagine you knew I'd be here. Pretty sure only Da does, cause he brought me. I... Wanted some time alone. To get away from everyone..." A soft sigh. "I couldn't sleep. I tried, but I couldn't. And awake, I could hear... Everything. Everyone talking, speculating..." A soft shudder. "Gloating, in some cases. Like she deserved what she got. Like it wasn't their fault it had happened." A hard edge with the last words, a brief flare of anger.
"No. Didn't know. I looked everywhere you /ought/ t'be, then gave up and came for a walk." R'vain laughs a little, one of those little sour chortles people use to avoid awkward silences that could lead to uncomfortable efforts to avoid crying. "Gloating," he says, a moment later, and looks off toward the water. "Yeah. Well. See, if she'd just packed up and gone back to Igen, I might be able to get up a good gloat, but this... she didn't deserve it. I mean, she wasn't so bad, not like that." It is very faint praise, sure, and the broad man seems displeased at the end of all of it, frowning. "I wonder what he's gonna do." 'He' being a pronoun without reference.
Essdara shrugs, softly. "They all think... Well, most people don't realise what really happened, and I haven't been enlightening them. So far as they are concerned, it was natural, and so they can gloat." A sigh, and she nestles closer. "You were looking for me?" Her question is with a tone of surprise, and some shyness. "You had more important things to worry about, R'vain..."
"Oh." R'vain frowns more deeply, darker, not that this is very evident in the night. But the shifting of the woman against him is welcome distraction and he tips down his head to look at her, or the shape of her, then settles onto his haunches in a half-sit so he can better hold her in his arms. Both of them now, the one behind her, the other loose in front, hand on her far elbow. "Yeah," he snorts softly, "Like bein' around when some nitwit guard wants t'ask me if I brought th'weyrwoman a drink or had any cross words with her. I did th'important stuff, got th'weyrlings settled down and tucked in. I'm here now."
Essdara nods against him, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder. "Good, I can't imagine that was easy on the poor little things." A soft sigh. "And... I am glad, R'vain, that you didn't... Induldge as you mentioned. I'm sorry, again, for what I said. You deserved more sympathy than that." She slips her own arm around his waist. "You ok? With everything that happened, I can't imagine that was easy on you... And don't think many will care if you are or not. But I do."
"Well, since I found you, I'm glad too." He's a little smirky about that, and of course because of it the rivers of denial he so likes to keep wading in ripple plainly beneath the surface-- no, his drinking isn't a /problem./ It's a coping strategy. But it's not the topic of the moment. "Essdara, I know she was your friend." Not his. Hers. "I'll be fine. It's hard on Ruvoth. Hard on everyone when a queen goes. But she was your friend." R'vain's embrace tightens a little and again he bends his head to put one of those weird manly-chaste kisses into her hair. "I'm sorry."
Essdara sighs, softly. "She was... Not a friend, exactly. It's hard to explain... She was, in so many ways, like I always wished mother would be with me. Caring, concerned, interested... I loved her very much, and I don't think I will ever be able to not hurt when I think about her." A light squeeze. "And you were with her, when it happened. That has to have had some effect..."
"I've heard some people describe her like that. I never got t'see it but-- " R'vain shrugs a little, moving against her. "I'm glad y'had someone like that, and I'm sorry y'had t'lose her." He frowns, tightens his grip on her yet again, then loosens up after that brief and fierce hug so he can sit down properly and get his legs out from under himself, grunting a bit against tensed muscles in his calves. "Effect like that I'm under suspicion for doin' it. Effect like I ain't never been that close to someone dying before. Effect like I wonder if I said somethin' that tipped her over." He looks away, off into the darkness downstream, and lets out a frustrated little growl.
Essdara lifts a hand to stroke his cheek. "I know you didn't do it. You're many things, but you aren't a killer. And... Being that close, is what I worry about. To have that happen while touching someone, I can see how that would have quite an impact. But R'vain... It wasn't you. The healers said it, right there. It wasn't natural, and thus, no matter what you or I had done, it would have happened." A soft sigh. "I was coming over, you know, right before it happened. I saw you there, and... It was a chance. To see you, yes, but to see her. Medina distracted me, so I wasn't there. I... Wish I had been. I wish she had been able to at least see a friendly face, then."
His head bows, guilt heavy on him. "I wish I'd /been/ one. Just for a sec." His shoulders raise and fall as he lets out a thick, heavy sigh, and turns his head back toward her after that, having come to some terms with self-control enough not to look too much like he's broken up about this little thing of a Weyrwoman's death. He steals an emerald glance at her, wary lest she be crying, because he probably couldn't cope with that, then makes gruff and rumbles, "What'll you do now?"
Essdara rubs his cheek more. "Run away?" She says, with a hopeful tone to her voice. "Go somewhere else, take up a position in some kitchen somewhere, live a nice quiet life away from drama and pain? Die alone and happy, many many turns from now?" She lets the hopeful smile ride a few moments, but it does fade. "But really... I don't know. What can I do? I'm just a cook, just a girl. It doesn't matter if I go, or if I stay, or anything else. Even with all my fear and worry even being flat-out threatened about this... I couldn't stop it. It rather puts me in my place, you know?"
His cheek is rough with stubble, though less so than sometimes-- he trimmed up a bit for the dance. He turns it again into her hand, and his facial shape changes just enough that she'll know he's smiling. "You wouldn't be happy alone," he calls her out, voice low and rough. "And I want t'put you on th'sands again sometime. And into my furs, sometime, too. Maybe not in that order." Abruptly he turns his head, lets go of her with the arm in front and uses a paw to press her hand to his mouth; a kiss heats skin there, ticklish from his facial hair, and then he lets her fingers go free. "It put us all in our places, girl. I don't know where we'll go from here. I got t'tend weyrlings and try t'keep 'em safe because it's obvious th'Weyr ain't doing that for me. You got t'take care of yourself. But when you can't, you got a place t'go. You know that, right?"
Essdara shivers softly at the kiss, looking up at him. "None of us are safe anymore. I don't think anyone is. And none of us should have to be alone." A soft sigh. "And I promise... When there are eggs, I will be there. For you... And for her. And who knows, maybe someday I'll have the chance to prove just how bad at it I will be." A thin, weak tease, but it's there. A quiet moment, and the she shifts, kneeling next to him, butt on the heels of her feet. She takes his hand, with a soft squeeze, "And I will be there for you you, when you need me. You shouldn't have to be alone either." She takes his hand. "Thank you,Sir, for finding me."
He shifts too, to face her, so he can let her have not one but both hands. Knees to knees, hands held, they form a strange little ritual circle on the ground, her in her blanket and he in leathers, and he grins at her, awkward but unminding. "Maybe we never were safe and we didn't know," R'vain says in his rough voice, thoughtful. He doesn't like being too thoughtful, though, and shakes his head a hard swing to banish the idea. After that he just looks on her, his eyes keen in the darkness to make out her features, to imagine the details he can't quite see. "You ain't goin' t'be bad at it. Y'got me to teach you." Some comfort. "Do I get a kiss for my trouble?" What a world, in which the rough take-what-he-touches Weyrlingmaster's found knelt in starlight by the waterfall begging a kitchen maid for a kiss.
Essdara lifts his heands, leaning down to give each one a soft kiss on the back. "I couldn't want for a better teacher." She then leans up and in, to lightly touch lips with him, lingering there for a long moment. "Let them do what they will, and we will find life and happiness where we can." Butt back to feet, smiling shyly up at him.
R'vain lets her make the kiss what she will, his back straight-- she might sense in him some tension, the toll his willpower takes on him-- and meets her lips as gently as hers could possibly ask for. All the while he watches her through the darkness, and when she shifts away from him his chest rises and falls with heavy breaths before he replies. "Best revenge is t'live well," he offers, reduced to adages by one little kiss. His hands squeeze hers, carefully gentle. "Want me t'have Ruvoth come get us home?"
Essdara gives a soft chuckle, rubbing the backs of his hands with light thumbs. "Are you so ready to leave?" She asks, teasing. "I'm not ready to go back to the dorms, let alone the kitchens." She moves, then, shifting over into his lap, arms around his neck and facing him. "Stay?" She asks, with all the meekness and quiet need she can muster.
He leans back, butt to feet, to let his lap become a slope she can climb onto. He'd say something, surely, if he could but think of quite what, but there's heat turning his neck and face colors of red that shame his freckles and that same fire must have affected the function of his brain. After a moment R'vain manages to shut his mouth and wrap his arms around her, steadying her against him. Eyes suddenly wide, hungrier than any of his cheshire grins could ever be, he lets a single nod suffice for his answer-- that and the lunge of his mouth demanding a kiss, a deep one, a kiss more to his liking.
*** FTB ***