Taking It Seriously

Writers: Bree, Dana
Date Posted: 12th March 2006

Characters: Traelyn, O'dan
Description: The Weyrwoman and bronzerider make a deal...
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 10, day 23 of Turn 3

She'd come looking for Dantial, but he wasn't here. And Traelyn was pretty sharding sure that she wasn't supposed to be seeing this. What was he _doing_? She leaned against the doorframe, glaring at the bronzerider who seemed to be concentrating very hard in putting one foot in front of the other. In fact, he was so focused on the task at hand that he hadn't even _noticed_ her yet.

O'dan was oblivious, his face set against the pain as he carefully braced his hand against the couch. He settled his weight slowly onto his injured leg, his breath hissing out as his knee buckled and he had to catch his balance on the couch. He cursed rather impressively before forcing himself back upright to try again.

"You're acting very stupid."

Her voice startled him, and he let his foot down without thinking, ending up on the floor on his backside with pain shooting up his leg. "Traelyn,"
he growled angrily, staring up at her with the first less-than-friendly look he'd ever given her. "That wasn't very nice."

She glared right back at him as she went forward - rather quickly - and knelt beside him. She might still be annoyed with him, and even angry at him, certainly, but she had to make sure the sharding bronzerider wouldn't break anything _else_ while he waited for his Thread injuries to heal.
"Yeah, it wasn't," she agreed. "Sometimes I'm not very nice. Here, grab hold of me and I'll help you up."

O'dan snorted as he sized her up. "Traelyn, I weigh twice what you do. At least. If you want to fall over on top of me, there are less painful ways."

She bared her teeth at him. "Then why aren't you suggesting any?"

Even sprawled out on the floor, O'dan managed a cocky grin. "Sweetheart, you didn't seem terribly interested in crawling into my lap before, but if you've had a change of heart..."

"I'm talking about getting you _up_ off the sharding floor, O'dan. We can talk about sex when you're better." This last held dry amusement despite her being angry with him for acting so scorching stupid.

"I can get up myself," O'dan grumbled, reaching up to brace his hand on the back of the couch. He _could_ get up himself... after all, it wasn't the first time he'd fallen. But it wasn't going to be graceful and having Traelyn watch was a little much for his pride. "I don't suppose you'll step into the hallway for a few minutes?"

She glared at him as she rose fluidly to her feet. Sharding man and his pride. "No, I don't suppose I will. If you fall down on your arse again, someone needs to be here to help pick up the pieces."

"Fine." He went through the whole undignified process, shifting to his uninjured side, getting his uninjured leg under himself and dragging himself back onto the couch. When he was sitting again, trying not to show just how much effort the entire ordeal had taken, he glared at her. "Happy now?"

"I wasn't happy to begin with." Traelyn came around to sit in the chair across from him. Her expression was still quite cross when she met his eyes. "You shouldn't be on that leg, O'dan. Your brother would kill you if he found out."

O'dan looked far from his usual cheerful self. "Some days I think I'd prefer that to sitting on my sharding arse all day long with nothing to do. I need to get out of this weyr."

"You'll get out a lot faster if you keep off that leg. You can't force it."

"I'm a healer too, you know," O'dan replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "Maybe no one remembers, but this _was_ my specialty. I know I'm lazy and a lecher, but I'm not an _idiot_."

Her dark eyes flashed. "Well you sure were acting like one, trying to walk on _that_ when you know it's not ready."

"I know how much I can push it," O'dan retorted, rubbing at his leg absently. The muscles were sore, but they were going to feel that way when he moved it. "I had to see how far I've got to go. And besides, no one was supposed to walk in on me and make me fall over."

She raised a brow. "_I_ didn't make you fall over, bronzerider."

"Of course not." Grumpy as he was, O'dan tried to regain some of his normal unflappable calm. "Except for the fact that the sight of you made my knees even weaker than they already were."

She snorted and a grin began to tease suddenly at her lips before she -
stubbornly - tried to quell it. The effort didn't quite work. "Is that your best attempt to try and charm me so you can return to my good graces?"

"Does that mean I was in your good graces before?" O'dan asked, giving her what he hoped was a charming grin. He had a feeling that his bruised ego was still smarting a bit much for him to be his usual friendly self.

"Depends on what you mean by 'before'." That one, scorching incident still left a sour taste in her mouth, despite everything. Sharding, arrogant bronzerider... Though she hated to admit it, he had taken quite a stab to her feminine pride that day.

O'dan laughed. "How about at all?"

"You'd started to worm your way through..."

"I'd promise to be better in the future..." O'dan shrugged and winked at her. "Well, I can promise to _try_ in any case."

Her brow rose again. "Oh? Better in what sense?"

"Less naughty?" he tried hopefully.

Her eyes flickered. "I'm not so sure if you'll go far with that one, O'dan."

"Probably not," he conceeded, shaking his head. "But it was a nice thought! See, I'm _trying_ to be nice, Traelyn. You're not going to storm out and leave me all alone again, are you?"

"You deserved to be stormed out on that last time." She made a face at him, but found that her irritation wasn't scraping at her as much as it had been before.

"Oh, I'm sure I did." He grinned at her. "But I probably deserve to be stormed out on _most_ of the time. I can't help myself around beautiful women. It's a weakness."

"Yes, I know. And it's too bad you won't really be able to act on that weakness of yours until you can move..."

O'dan's smile turned distinctly smug. "You obviously spent your time with singularly uncreative men, Traelyn."

A brow rose. "You've accused me of that before."

"Then find yourself a man who knows what he's doing," O'dan replied dryly.
"You're obviously missing out if you think a little leg injury is keeping me from making my beautiful lady friends very, very happy."

Her upper lip curled. Arrogant arse. "Is that a challenge, bronzerider?"

O'dan blinked at her in confusion. "Not really... mostly it was just an observation."

She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at him.

"Don't start that again!" O'dan held his hands up in front of him as if to ward off her glare. "Fine, fine! All of the men in your life are wonderfuly creative and very talented and have nothing to learn and I promise I'll never mention their supposed shortcomings again." He paused thoughtfully before adding. "For _at least_ a month."

Traelyn laughed outright at that. "Fine. I'll take you up on that. But..." She leaned forward conspiratorily, "if you make it _two_ months, I won't tell your brother that you've been up and about when you shouldn't be."

O'dan considered that for a moment and then shook his head. "He'll catch me eventually in any case. If you want two months, you're going to have to give me something in return..." He winked at her. "Like a kiss. I certainly could use one right about now."

"A kiss." She gazed at him, her brow arching yet again. "What? You've changed your mind? What did you say before...ah yes. You don't want to 'wait' anymore?"

"Traelyn, I'm a _man_," he responded as if it should be obvious. "I _never_ want to wait. I'd be chasing you up and down the Weyr by now if I could get on my feet, you silly woman."

Now that was one she hadn't been called before. Shards - she was tempted to just leave him here kissless for that. But even still... Traelyn looked at him, remembering the last time they'd been on his couch - before she had stormed off, of course. The way he'd touched her...

Shards and shells.

Her dark eyes flickered. "You promise now? Two months?"

"Mmmm. Two months." The light teasing from before had turned into something a little more serious, for if there was anything O'dan took seriously, it was pretty ladies and kissing.

Well, that settled it. She rose slowly to her feet, smoothing her hands down the fronts of her hips, the look in her eyes changing as she watched him watch her. Within a moment she was reclined on the sofa beside him, close enough that her side just brushed his.

He took his time, sliding his fingers into her hair first and reminding her just how good he could be with them. He rubbed his fingers in tiny circles against her scalp before moving down to her neck, finding the tight muscles out of habit and soothing them.

Her eyes fluttered shut, letting out a long, soft sigh. Shards... That felt good. She shifted, her head rolling slightly to one side to guide his fingers further down the side of her neck.

Since he wasn't in any particular hurry--it wasn't like _he_ was going anywhere--O'dan let his fingers find and soothe the tension in her neck, plenty entertained by the blissful look on her face.

When he'd worked out the last knot, he pulled his hand back and watched her for a moment, a smug smile on his face. "I don't know if I should kiss you, Traelyn... I like having you visit too much, and I have a feeling I'd get myself slapped when I couldn't stop at a kiss..." Unless she didn't _want_ to stop, in which case O'dan had absolutly _no_ problem with kissing her crosseyed.

"You're going to get yourself slapped if you _don't_ kiss me," she growled softly, her eyes smokey as they locked on to his. He wasn't going to get her all worked up and then _stop_ again. Not this time.

"Well, if _that's_ the way you feel about it..." He claimed her lips with no further hesitation, the aggressive heat of his kiss in sharp contrast to the gentle touch of his hands. He didn't bother with gentle coaxing, instead exploring her mouth with rough hunger, retaining just enough control over himself to ensure that it would be a kiss she'd _never_
forget. He certainly had practice, after all.

Last updated on the March 13th 2006

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Taking It Seriously