LOG: I'll Cut Your Balls Off Myself
Date: Day 1, Month 11, Turn 21
Location: Records Room, High Reaches Weyr
Synopsis: After avoiding each other for a while, K'del and Teris run into each other. Things happen.
Records Room, High Reaches Weyr
Books. Scrolls. Bound hides. Maps. If it's a record pertaining to the Weyr, it's likely to be in this roughly oval room with its floor-to-ceiling cherrywood shelves, its multitude of slots for scrolls, and its wide drawers for materials that shouldn't be rolled up or folded. A scribe is usually on duty at the tall desk up front with its good view of the room, and is able to help visitors find what they're looking for via the big bound index on its rotating stand. Past the desk, several tables stand in neat rows for note-taking, each stocked with glowbaskets, scrap hide, paper and pencils. Additional lighting is provided by a many-armed wrought-iron light fixture, its glows gleaming through luxurious glass containers in fluted shapes instead of baskets.
To one side of the room, a gap between two sets of shelves outlines where another set once stood, now replaced by a tapestry-covered aperture. Peeking behind the tapestry reveals another cavern, this one likewise full of shelves, but occupied by only a few boxes of older records and a somewhat musty air of disuse. As well, two narrow but solid doors are locked when the room is unattended and a discreet staircase provides direct access from the Weyrleaders' weyrs.
Dinner time is not far off, for most of the weyr, which is probably why there's been a steady decrease in the number of people at work and study in the Records Room of late. K'del, who's been here for a while, but doesn't seem to have paid any attention to anyone at all, has yet to move: his head is lowered close to one of the tomes in the stack he's been pouring over, his finger scanning down columns of numbers and notations as he reads. He pauses, scribbling something down on the scrap of paper set beside him, then goes back to the reading, flipping pages hurriedly.
The fact that it's nearing dinner time is probably why Teris is making an appearance here now rather than staying squirreled away wherever she's been. She has a folder tucked into the crook of one arm and there's a quick scan of heads but she must somehow miss K'del because she's already approaching before she says abruptly, "Oh." There's a moment of awkward hesitation and then Teris is turning as though to leave without further comment.
That 'oh' is enough to draw K'del's attention away from what he's been working on, nevermind how engrossed he obviously was up until that point. His expression turns unreadable at sight of Teris, but as she turns to go, he lifts a hand. "Teris! Wait. Please?" He sounds guilty. He even half stands from his chair, as though he intends to chase after her if she won't turn back around.
She's already taken a few steps and for a moment it seems as though she doesn't actually intend to stop. But then, with a sigh, Teris pauses and she turns around again to look at K'del with a slightly arched brow and a slightly lifted chin. "If you're going to make me feel like a fool again, I think I'd rather just go, Weyrleader." Back to using his title rather than his name. But she doesn't just go yet, at least. She waits.
K'del stands the rest of the way, looking, surprisingly enough, not pathetic and awkward, but determined - if still a little guilty. "Do you really think that's what I'd want? To deliberately make you feel like that?" He sounds actively hurt, but waves that away to beckon her closer. "C'mere. Just wanted to-- apologise, mostly. I made you feel bad, and I'm sorry about that." Beat. "You surprised me."
"I have no idea how you want me to feel," Teris tells him, honestly if a little waspishly. There's more hesitation, jaw set stubbornly, but then she takes a few steps back toward him. "You're going to apologize to me?" she asks even though he already has. "You do remember the rest of what we were talking about that day, don't you?" It's mostly rhetorical. "I'm not going to apologize for that."
"Didn't ask you to apologise," says K'del, calmly. He doesn't confirm or deny what he remembers about that particular day, but from the way he's looking at her, so intently, he's probably played it over in his mind numerous times in the weeks since. "Just letting you know that I /am/ sorry. That I didn't realise." Beat. "Or whatever. Guess I'm not entirely sure; what you want from me. What-- well. Whatever. Just would rather not feel like I need to avoid you all the time."
That sets Teris slightly more at ease if nothing else, not being expected to apologize. "I'm sorry, too," she says anyway, though, just not for the bit that one would probably expect it to be for. "But it doesn't matter one way or the other because you're obviously content with... her," an effort to just use that word. "I don't know what I want from you, either. Nothing I'll get, I'm sure." Her lips pull slightly down into a frown as she considers him.
K'del spreads his hands flat upon the book in front of him, fingertips draping off the edges and towards the table. His expression doesn't change, though there's the faintest of nods that seems to suggest that he's pleased with getting even this much. "Rather depends on what you want from me, doesn't it?" He pauses, takes a deep breath, and then adds, "Would /definitely/ rather be your friend than nothing at all… I don't know. Kind of hard to move on from here if you don't know."
Silence follows for some time and Teris continues looking at K'del. She's thinking, that much is clear. Finally she takes the last step or so to remove the distance between herself and the table. Finally; "I don't like you being with her." But there's a beat before she continues, "If I tell you something, will you promise me not to repeat it to anyone else or do anything about it?"
"I kinda got that impression, yeah," says K'del, though he manages not to come across as though he's teasing, or even being remotely light-hearted about it. Or accusatory, for that matter. He watches her, takes a deep breath, and then nods, clearly intending her to carry on, something he confirms with his quiet, "Promise."
It takes another moment of the blonde studying the bronzerider before she resigns herself to what she's about to tell him. Teris moves closer but only so that she can speak more quietly. "The Weyrwoman told me to get information from you, to get close to you if I had to. To /sleep/ with you if I had to." Obviously that didn't happen. "And if she finds out that I told you, I'll cut your balls off myself." Serious business! She actually sounds like she'd do it.
Silence from the bronzerider, as he works through this particular bit of news. Finally; "Kinda like my balls where they are, thanks. Promised you, and I keep my promises." Beat. "So that's why you started being friendly-- friendlier to me?" Beat. "And it changed? Or are you telling me--" He breaks off from actually accusing her of making him feel bad as part of the whole underhanded plot. "Regardless, your boss is a bitch."
"It's why I started being friendly to you, yes. It probably would have happened anyway, considering, but--" But /what/ she apparently doesn't know. Teris frowns, not liking this being torn over something so trivial as feelings. "I don't know what happened." She leaves it at that and looks up at the bronzerider firmly, "Tiriana is a good Weyrwoman. She does what needs to be done and she puts up with people that she doesn't have to. You ought to give her some credit, K'del. And you can't really hold her wanting to know what you're up to against her."
K'del's nod is slow and thoughtful, though it stops short as Teris chides him. "Didn't say she wasn't a good Weyrwoman. Doesn't make her any less a bitch. If she'd /asked/? Would've told her pretty much anything she wanted to know. Don't keep secrets from her." Much. And probably, to his credit, not intentionally most of the time. "Just… resent that. Is all. Can you sort of see why I might?"
"Of course I can see why you would. I'm not stupid," Teris tells him like she thinks that might be what he's trying to suggest. "But I'm not telling her that either." And apparently not commenting on her own thoughts about Tiriana's personality. She looks away and there's a frustrated little sigh. "Anyway, there you go. Now you know my big secret and she'll probably fire me when I don't end up with any useful information about you." Which she probably doesn't actually believe but she's a girl and she's allowed to say stuff like that once in awhile.
Making a face, K'del opens his mouth as though he intends to argue, but he doesn't; in the end, he shakes his head, looking frustrated. What he says, though, leaning forward, is, "Wasn't any useful information to get in the first place, far as I can think. Pretty much an open book." Which is true enough. "Anyway. None of that changes anything. Still happy to be your friend. Still /rather/ be your friend than someone you avoid."
Teris shrugs one shoulder as though to say it doesn't really matter now without actually saying as much. "I don't do friends very well. Would have thought you'd have figured at least that much out by now." There's a small smile there but it's gone just as quickly. "But I can try. I can't promise I'll like her any better." Or try to. Then out of the blue, "If I asked you to kiss me, would you?"
"We were doing okay," insists K'del, and perhaps, by his definitions, they were. That comes out before he can actually process her question, and that makes him frown. "Is that another of those hypothetical questions that gets really awkward when I give my answer?" Beat. "Because I would, I guess. If you wanted me to. And it's not as though it'd be a sacrifice on my part." Pretty girl, wants to be kissed, all that. And, hurriedly, as though adding this in will alter any awkwardness; "If you mean you can't promise you'll like Milani any better, that's okay. I don't especially like K'ndro very much, either. Which is different, but--" Sort of similar.
"Then why do you share her with him? I can't even imagine." Teris shakes her head. "I can't imagine sharing anyone like that. Especially not after a /baby./" Brows furrowed, she's trying to sort out her thoughts and she looks up at him again. "And you. You allow it when you could easily have someone that you didn't have to share. I just don't understand." Her lips press into a thin line and she stands up a little straighter, tilting her head up toward him as she says, "Kiss me."
Plain and simple, no embellishments needed: "Because I love her. Because I don't care if she sleeps with other people as long as she comes back to me. Doesn't mean I care for her choice, but that's her choice." K'del rises, moves around the desk and towards Teris, one hand creeping around her back, as he gets close enough, the other nestled behind her head as - so long as she doesn't change her mind - he leans in to kiss her, as requested. A proper kiss, not hard or overly intense, but no half-arsed effort, either.
Even after this mention of love, perhaps surprisingly, Teris doesn't change her mind. She even tries to return the kiss despite the awkward uncertainty that makes it pretty clear that it's not something she has an overwhelming amount of experience with. She draws her head back slightly after but doesn't pull away just yet. "Thank you," she says as though he'd just picked something up off the floor for her.
K'del seems intent, at least, on making some effort to demonstrate proper kissing technique; he's obviously had more than his fair share of experience. As it ends, and as she thanks him, he stays where he is, hands where they are, and a faint smile slides about his expression, growing broader. "You're welcome," he tells her, firmly, and contentedly. "Rather enjoyed it."
His smile draws a small one from her, too, but Teris only lets it linger for a moment. Her eyes shift toward his lips and, briefly, it looks as though she might initiate another then instead she draws back more fully to slip away from his hands. "I should go," she says without offering any real reason for it and there's the whole fact that she hasn't actually done whatever she came here to do in the first place. "Have a good evening, K'del."
If K'del is disappointed, he shows it only in his expression: his eyes widen, his cheeks puff out a bit for a moment, but he does drop his arms away, and take a few steps back, all very polite. "Right," he says, finally. "Course. Ought to get to back to this stuff myself, anyway. You have a good evening, too, Teris. Look after yourself."
Teris nods her head quickly and takes a couple steps backwards before she turns properly and starts head back out the way she'd originally come. She'll probably kick herself later when she remembers she had come to the records room for a reason and only ended up kissing a boy. What is the world coming to!
K'del's smile curves easily around his face as Teris leaves and he gets back to his work. All in all? A successful evening.
Location: Records Room, High Reaches Weyr
Synopsis: After avoiding each other for a while, K'del and Teris run into each other. Things happen.
Records Room, High Reaches Weyr
Books. Scrolls. Bound hides. Maps. If it's a record pertaining to the Weyr, it's likely to be in this roughly oval room with its floor-to-ceiling cherrywood shelves, its multitude of slots for scrolls, and its wide drawers for materials that shouldn't be rolled up or folded. A scribe is usually on duty at the tall desk up front with its good view of the room, and is able to help visitors find what they're looking for via the big bound index on its rotating stand. Past the desk, several tables stand in neat rows for note-taking, each stocked with glowbaskets, scrap hide, paper and pencils. Additional lighting is provided by a many-armed wrought-iron light fixture, its glows gleaming through luxurious glass containers in fluted shapes instead of baskets.
To one side of the room, a gap between two sets of shelves outlines where another set once stood, now replaced by a tapestry-covered aperture. Peeking behind the tapestry reveals another cavern, this one likewise full of shelves, but occupied by only a few boxes of older records and a somewhat musty air of disuse. As well, two narrow but solid doors are locked when the room is unattended and a discreet staircase provides direct access from the Weyrleaders' weyrs.
Dinner time is not far off, for most of the weyr, which is probably why there's been a steady decrease in the number of people at work and study in the Records Room of late. K'del, who's been here for a while, but doesn't seem to have paid any attention to anyone at all, has yet to move: his head is lowered close to one of the tomes in the stack he's been pouring over, his finger scanning down columns of numbers and notations as he reads. He pauses, scribbling something down on the scrap of paper set beside him, then goes back to the reading, flipping pages hurriedly.
The fact that it's nearing dinner time is probably why Teris is making an appearance here now rather than staying squirreled away wherever she's been. She has a folder tucked into the crook of one arm and there's a quick scan of heads but she must somehow miss K'del because she's already approaching before she says abruptly, "Oh." There's a moment of awkward hesitation and then Teris is turning as though to leave without further comment.
That 'oh' is enough to draw K'del's attention away from what he's been working on, nevermind how engrossed he obviously was up until that point. His expression turns unreadable at sight of Teris, but as she turns to go, he lifts a hand. "Teris! Wait. Please?" He sounds guilty. He even half stands from his chair, as though he intends to chase after her if she won't turn back around.
She's already taken a few steps and for a moment it seems as though she doesn't actually intend to stop. But then, with a sigh, Teris pauses and she turns around again to look at K'del with a slightly arched brow and a slightly lifted chin. "If you're going to make me feel like a fool again, I think I'd rather just go, Weyrleader." Back to using his title rather than his name. But she doesn't just go yet, at least. She waits.
K'del stands the rest of the way, looking, surprisingly enough, not pathetic and awkward, but determined - if still a little guilty. "Do you really think that's what I'd want? To deliberately make you feel like that?" He sounds actively hurt, but waves that away to beckon her closer. "C'mere. Just wanted to-- apologise, mostly. I made you feel bad, and I'm sorry about that." Beat. "You surprised me."
"I have no idea how you want me to feel," Teris tells him, honestly if a little waspishly. There's more hesitation, jaw set stubbornly, but then she takes a few steps back toward him. "You're going to apologize to me?" she asks even though he already has. "You do remember the rest of what we were talking about that day, don't you?" It's mostly rhetorical. "I'm not going to apologize for that."
"Didn't ask you to apologise," says K'del, calmly. He doesn't confirm or deny what he remembers about that particular day, but from the way he's looking at her, so intently, he's probably played it over in his mind numerous times in the weeks since. "Just letting you know that I /am/ sorry. That I didn't realise." Beat. "Or whatever. Guess I'm not entirely sure; what you want from me. What-- well. Whatever. Just would rather not feel like I need to avoid you all the time."
That sets Teris slightly more at ease if nothing else, not being expected to apologize. "I'm sorry, too," she says anyway, though, just not for the bit that one would probably expect it to be for. "But it doesn't matter one way or the other because you're obviously content with... her," an effort to just use that word. "I don't know what I want from you, either. Nothing I'll get, I'm sure." Her lips pull slightly down into a frown as she considers him.
K'del spreads his hands flat upon the book in front of him, fingertips draping off the edges and towards the table. His expression doesn't change, though there's the faintest of nods that seems to suggest that he's pleased with getting even this much. "Rather depends on what you want from me, doesn't it?" He pauses, takes a deep breath, and then adds, "Would /definitely/ rather be your friend than nothing at all… I don't know. Kind of hard to move on from here if you don't know."
Silence follows for some time and Teris continues looking at K'del. She's thinking, that much is clear. Finally she takes the last step or so to remove the distance between herself and the table. Finally; "I don't like you being with her." But there's a beat before she continues, "If I tell you something, will you promise me not to repeat it to anyone else or do anything about it?"
"I kinda got that impression, yeah," says K'del, though he manages not to come across as though he's teasing, or even being remotely light-hearted about it. Or accusatory, for that matter. He watches her, takes a deep breath, and then nods, clearly intending her to carry on, something he confirms with his quiet, "Promise."
It takes another moment of the blonde studying the bronzerider before she resigns herself to what she's about to tell him. Teris moves closer but only so that she can speak more quietly. "The Weyrwoman told me to get information from you, to get close to you if I had to. To /sleep/ with you if I had to." Obviously that didn't happen. "And if she finds out that I told you, I'll cut your balls off myself." Serious business! She actually sounds like she'd do it.
Silence from the bronzerider, as he works through this particular bit of news. Finally; "Kinda like my balls where they are, thanks. Promised you, and I keep my promises." Beat. "So that's why you started being friendly-- friendlier to me?" Beat. "And it changed? Or are you telling me--" He breaks off from actually accusing her of making him feel bad as part of the whole underhanded plot. "Regardless, your boss is a bitch."
"It's why I started being friendly to you, yes. It probably would have happened anyway, considering, but--" But /what/ she apparently doesn't know. Teris frowns, not liking this being torn over something so trivial as feelings. "I don't know what happened." She leaves it at that and looks up at the bronzerider firmly, "Tiriana is a good Weyrwoman. She does what needs to be done and she puts up with people that she doesn't have to. You ought to give her some credit, K'del. And you can't really hold her wanting to know what you're up to against her."
K'del's nod is slow and thoughtful, though it stops short as Teris chides him. "Didn't say she wasn't a good Weyrwoman. Doesn't make her any less a bitch. If she'd /asked/? Would've told her pretty much anything she wanted to know. Don't keep secrets from her." Much. And probably, to his credit, not intentionally most of the time. "Just… resent that. Is all. Can you sort of see why I might?"
"Of course I can see why you would. I'm not stupid," Teris tells him like she thinks that might be what he's trying to suggest. "But I'm not telling her that either." And apparently not commenting on her own thoughts about Tiriana's personality. She looks away and there's a frustrated little sigh. "Anyway, there you go. Now you know my big secret and she'll probably fire me when I don't end up with any useful information about you." Which she probably doesn't actually believe but she's a girl and she's allowed to say stuff like that once in awhile.
Making a face, K'del opens his mouth as though he intends to argue, but he doesn't; in the end, he shakes his head, looking frustrated. What he says, though, leaning forward, is, "Wasn't any useful information to get in the first place, far as I can think. Pretty much an open book." Which is true enough. "Anyway. None of that changes anything. Still happy to be your friend. Still /rather/ be your friend than someone you avoid."
Teris shrugs one shoulder as though to say it doesn't really matter now without actually saying as much. "I don't do friends very well. Would have thought you'd have figured at least that much out by now." There's a small smile there but it's gone just as quickly. "But I can try. I can't promise I'll like her any better." Or try to. Then out of the blue, "If I asked you to kiss me, would you?"
"We were doing okay," insists K'del, and perhaps, by his definitions, they were. That comes out before he can actually process her question, and that makes him frown. "Is that another of those hypothetical questions that gets really awkward when I give my answer?" Beat. "Because I would, I guess. If you wanted me to. And it's not as though it'd be a sacrifice on my part." Pretty girl, wants to be kissed, all that. And, hurriedly, as though adding this in will alter any awkwardness; "If you mean you can't promise you'll like Milani any better, that's okay. I don't especially like K'ndro very much, either. Which is different, but--" Sort of similar.
"Then why do you share her with him? I can't even imagine." Teris shakes her head. "I can't imagine sharing anyone like that. Especially not after a /baby./" Brows furrowed, she's trying to sort out her thoughts and she looks up at him again. "And you. You allow it when you could easily have someone that you didn't have to share. I just don't understand." Her lips press into a thin line and she stands up a little straighter, tilting her head up toward him as she says, "Kiss me."
Plain and simple, no embellishments needed: "Because I love her. Because I don't care if she sleeps with other people as long as she comes back to me. Doesn't mean I care for her choice, but that's her choice." K'del rises, moves around the desk and towards Teris, one hand creeping around her back, as he gets close enough, the other nestled behind her head as - so long as she doesn't change her mind - he leans in to kiss her, as requested. A proper kiss, not hard or overly intense, but no half-arsed effort, either.
Even after this mention of love, perhaps surprisingly, Teris doesn't change her mind. She even tries to return the kiss despite the awkward uncertainty that makes it pretty clear that it's not something she has an overwhelming amount of experience with. She draws her head back slightly after but doesn't pull away just yet. "Thank you," she says as though he'd just picked something up off the floor for her.
K'del seems intent, at least, on making some effort to demonstrate proper kissing technique; he's obviously had more than his fair share of experience. As it ends, and as she thanks him, he stays where he is, hands where they are, and a faint smile slides about his expression, growing broader. "You're welcome," he tells her, firmly, and contentedly. "Rather enjoyed it."
His smile draws a small one from her, too, but Teris only lets it linger for a moment. Her eyes shift toward his lips and, briefly, it looks as though she might initiate another then instead she draws back more fully to slip away from his hands. "I should go," she says without offering any real reason for it and there's the whole fact that she hasn't actually done whatever she came here to do in the first place. "Have a good evening, K'del."
If K'del is disappointed, he shows it only in his expression: his eyes widen, his cheeks puff out a bit for a moment, but he does drop his arms away, and take a few steps back, all very polite. "Right," he says, finally. "Course. Ought to get to back to this stuff myself, anyway. You have a good evening, too, Teris. Look after yourself."
Teris nods her head quickly and takes a couple steps backwards before she turns properly and starts head back out the way she'd originally come. She'll probably kick herself later when she remembers she had come to the records room for a reason and only ended up kissing a boy. What is the world coming to!
K'del's smile curves easily around his face as Teris leaves and he gets back to his work. All in all? A successful evening.