Room 303, Sunday Afternoon

[future_sandworm]

Leto had pulled the chair up next to the window. He leaned the baliset against his shoulder, and after adjusting the tuning a little he struck a few chords. Then there was a silence while he roamed through his memories for a tune to play, and eventually he found an old Fremen song, possibly lost to the people of his day. He played it slowly at

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[future_sandworm]

Leto looked up, smiling. "Hello, Dinah," he said, finishing the tune with a chord. He let the baliset slip lower against his shoulder and watched her.

[future_sandworm]

Leto watched Dinah, waiting. "Is this what you need to show Ghani?"

[blondecanary]

"One of the things..." Dinah took a breath, and slowly let it out. Took a step. Took another.

And hovered, three inches off the floor. "Not really impressive, but, I just started learning it from Karla." Another step. Four inches. "I'm getting better?"

[future_sandworm]

His eyes widened a little. That was impressive, in such a short time. "Karla taught you?"

[blondecanary]

"Uh-hunh. She talked me through it, when we were back in the cabins, and I walked off the roof." Dinah grinned at him, just hovering there. "I've been practicing off and on for weeks now, pretty constantly. And I can do this, but it's not the same as flying at all." She grinned, and stepped down back onto the carpeting. "And this--"

She reached out, and tapped the backs of his knuckles on the baliset with her TK, smile wide.

[future_sandworm]

He drew a sharp breath and pulled his hand away, then relaxed the next moment. Looking up at Dinah, he raised an eyebrow. "I hope the next step isn't flinging me against a wall."

[blondecanary]

"Nope. I'd have done that a long time ago, if I were going to," Dinah said, hands behind her back, looking amused. "Don't worry, I won't do it again. I figured it out last week, while things were... ahem."

[future_sandworm]

Oh, he had to laugh at that. "Well, flinging someone softly against the wall might go with it, then." He smirked at her. "Who was the target?"

[blondecanary]

That implication, which she'd missed when he mentioned the wall-flinging, had her turning bright red. "Um." And a sigh and rolled eyes. "George. The TA in TeeVee who is not Tony." She tried to be nonchalant, meeting his eyes, even if she still was pink. "Since I wanted to kiss him, but doing anything like that in front of Mitchell when he was all tense seemed like a bad idea."

[future_sandworm]

He grinned. "Ah, yes, it would probably have been a bad idea. I haven't spoken to George. Do you like him?"

[blondecanary]

"Yeah." Dinah shrugged though, expression somewhere between resigned and confused. "But I didn't talk to him this week at all. So I don't know if that was the hormones or not. He's just not around. I think maybe it could've been a fluke. I'm not pushing it." Because risking that kind of rejection? So not something she wanted to deal with.

[future_sandworm]

Leto looked at Dinah, and if it hadn't been against their agreement he would have reached out to touch her, just for comfort. And he nodded. "I assume he doesn't dislike you, but even if the attraction is mutual, the wants and needs may differ."

[blondecanary]

"I don't know him really well. But I thought-- think we're friends." Dinah shook her head, looking down at her feet. "But he's got stuff going on with him...." She remembered that weird flash of the forest, hyper-alert senses, all that pain. "So it's probably not about me, so much." She shrugged, her shoulders relaxing. "Fun while it lasted, though. And I'm still buddies with Zack and Priestly, despite being a moron around them last week." She grinned. "And Turtle, I guess."

[future_sandworm]

"Turtle?" Leto asked.

[blondecanary]

"I kissed her," Dinah said, still half-embarrassed and half-amused by that. "'Cause... well, I'm not really sure? She said I had pretty skin, and she had pretty eyes, and there was tension, and then--" She made an exploding gesture with her hand. "But that's all. And good thing George had left by then."

[future_sandworm]

Well, that was nice to imagine, but Leto didn't let his thoughts on the matter show.

"I thought the men here appreciated that sort of thing."