I Told You So
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyrhold
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Elsewhere on Pern
NPC Weyr (NPC)
River Bluff Weyr
Seacraft Hall
Writers: Miriah, Yvonne
Date Posted: 13th August 2019
Characters: Ma'din, Harki
Description: Harki handles Ma'din and gets an apology.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 12, day 2 of Turn 9
---
Harki hesitated, her tray in her hands as she surveyed the dining
cavern. Some of her Wingmates were gathered near the far door but she
didn't feel up to more time with them after a long day of drills.
Rorela was nowhere to be seen. **Probably wih G'nir,** the greenrider
thought with a mental eye-roll. She sighed and started heading toward
her wingmates, but corrected her course when she spotted a pale head
of hair near the back wall.
"You've been a stranger," she said as she slid into the seat across
from Ma'din, setting her dinner tray down between them. "How's life?"
He looked up as Harki sat, but kept swirling the amber colored liquid
in his glass around the chips of ice that floated within. "Been a bit
busy." He took a sip of the drink without a change on expression.
Since the conversation with the women in Rorela's weyr, he'd made
himself scarce, brooding over the outburst he'd almost had.
The greenrider started tearing up her slice of brown, fresh bread to
drop into her soup. "Busy with what?"
"Riding. Fighting Thread." He took another drink. "Thinking." He
saved a hand as though to brush off the comment. "All that rot."
Harki could almost feel Rorela poking her in the ribs to say
something. She picked up her spoon. "How's that going for you?" she
asked.
Ma'din's lips tightened as he tapped his fingers against the glass.
"Fine. How's Rorela? And G'nir?"
"Probably banging." Harki narrowed her eyes at the brownrider over her
bowl. "And I think you're lying when you said 'fine'. You don't look
like you're 'fine'. I mean, you look _fine_ but not _fine_ fine..."
she trailed off, then shrugged. Wordplay wasn't her forte. "You know
what I mean."
He finally turned to look at her, his jaw twitching as he put his
glass down. He spoke plainly. "You blasted well have gotten under my
sharding skin. That's what's wrong."
The greenrider blinked. Whatever he was going to say, that was _not_
what she expected-- and she wasn't sure what she felt about it. Happy,
scared, flattered, ambushed-- **Shells.** This was all Rorela's fault.
"Um. I... sorry?"
Ma'din turned away, picked his glass back up, then downed the
remainder of the drink in one swallow. "Don't worry about it. I'll
handle it."
"Hey. I am _not_ a cold or something you can just-- just get rid of."
Harki set her spoon down firmly and scowled at Ma'din. The jerk. "You
can't _handle_ me. I'm too awesome to 'handle'. My butt alone is too
awesome for you to 'handle'."
"I never said I wanted to get rid of you." He snapped, his fingers
flexing around the glass until his knuckles whitened. "And having seen
and grabbed and _handled_ your _butt_ I'm very well aware of how
awesome it is." His grip tightened until the thin glass shattered and
he yelped as the shards cut into his palm. "Shaffit all to blazes and
back!" He grabbed a napkin, pressing it to his palm as blood began to
flow. Spilling the most vile curses he could think of and not caring
who heard or who looked, he got up from his seat.
"You stupid shaffing ovine!" Harki abandoned her soup and leaped up
after him. "Don't do that-- if there's glass in there you could cut a
tendon! Let me see."
He hugged his hand to him with a scowl, ready to argue over it, before
grimacing and thrusting the hand towards her. "Fine." His jaw
tightened at the pain, but he didn't cry out again."Fecking glass."
"Fecking _you_." Harki dabbed at the blood and squinted at the cut. It
looked deep, but she didn't think she saw anything in there. It was
hard to tell with the blood. "Come on. You're going to the Infirmary.
This might need stitches."
He twitched as she dabbed. "It's not that bad. I'll go, though. You
eat. I'll get it handled."
"You don't get to tell me what to do. Come on." She tugged his arm,
forcing him to follow. It felt weird to be the responsible one--
usually it was her who was hurt and protesting that she didn't need a
Healer. She scowled at another greenrider in her path and the woman
leaped out of their way. "And what the feck do you mean by 'handle',
anyway?"
"Neither do you, you bloody, insufferable female." His grumble was
tight, but the complaint was mitigated by the fact that he was doing
exactly as she directed and following her. "Just what it sounds like.
I'll take care of it. It's just a cut and I've had worse. Shaffit,
I'll just wrap it up and it'll be fine."
"And _of_course_ you'll be perfectly able to catch bags of firestone
tomorrow." She snorted. "I don't think you can handle it."
He finally yanked his hand from her grip. "Stop." He cradled his hand
to his chest. "I'll go to the bloody infirmary. Just go eat."
She glared at him. "You broke a glass in your hand because of-- of--"
What, exactly? Harki tried again. "Feck, what am I supposed to think
if you just walk off after doing something like that!?"
The muscles in his jaw visibly pulsed but whether or not it was from
the pain wasn't clear. The question that blurted out of him wasn't the
one he had intended on asking. "Have you slept with G'nir or not?"
"Seriously?! That's what this is about?" Harki took a step back,
shaking her head. "I haven't, not that it's any if your business."
The tension visibly drained from his shoulders as he exhaled. It
wasn't entirely all what disturbed his piece of mind, but the thought
and subsequent images had plagued him. "It's not. " He admitted. "But
can't bloody well stand the thought of it. Not you too. Not when..."
He shook his head. "Been a right ass, I guess. "
"You think!?" Harki frowned, bothered that Ma'din was bothered by
Rorela knocking boots with G'nir, and bothered more by the fact that
she was bothered by it at all. "Not when what?"
He frowned, his jaw tightening again as his body tensed. "It was bad
enough to hear her jabber about him when we were weyrmated. Ended up
hating the man. She's bedding his brains out now, fine. Took her long
enough. Good for her. But not you." Ma'din stared at his wrapped hand.
"Thinking about you and him...I can't stand it."
"I'm not going to sleep with G'nir," Harki said, exasperated. "Between
you and Rorela, I don't think I would survive the experience. If
boredom didn't kill me first."
That brought a snort of almost-amusement mixed with relief. "Good." He
looked up at her. "I'll hold you to that." He leaned against the stone
wall of the corridor, examining his hand. It probably did need
stitches and he was most likely going to hear it from D'ale the moment
he found out. He could handle that well enough. "Rorela probably
wouldn't care though." He admitted. "Shards, she'd probably try to
join in." Faranth knew that they'd done their share of...sharing while
weyrmated. "Rorela's a bit of a bitch, you know that?"
Harki shrugged a shoulder. "So what. So am I."
He looked up at her, then sighed. "Alright, lets go to the bloody
healers, then. Sorry I've been such as ass." The apology didn't come
easily to him, but then again, they never did.
The greenrider snorted, not quite mollified but getting close. "If you
end up getting stitches, you know I'm going to say 'I told you so'
until you die of old age."
"Why am I not surprised? Fine, then I'll tell you that you were right
every time you say it, okay?"
"You flaming well better." She sighed and gestured toward the
Infirmary. "Lead on. I'll follow in case you pass out from blood
loss."
Over two candlemarks later, Ma'din walked out with Harki, his hand
carefully bandaged. He looked disgruntled. "You were right."
Harki smiled. "I told you so."
Last updated on the September 3rd 2019