Half a Man

Writers: Heather
Date Posted: 10th September 2019

Characters: R'axe, T'kev
Description: R'axe is reminded that he is only half the man he used to be.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 12, day 9 of Turn 9
Notes: Mentioned: K'yne

R'axe

T'kev

"Okay, I have everything hung in your closet by colors." T'kev explained to R'axe, who stood beside him facing the rack of clothing. "Everything is hung in groups of five and by color, so if you memorize each group, you'll know how to match colors together."

R'axe huffed out a sigh, blowing upwards at the bangs that hung down across his forehead. "I'm ready."

T'kev took the bluerider's left hand and started at the first grouping of clothing on the left. "These are your black shirts, both long and short sleeve."

"Group one, black shirts, okay." R'axe said, running his fingers down the lengths of the shirts.

"Next, group two," T'kev moved his hand to the next group of five, "these are all of your blue shirts. That should be easy to remember, yeah? Black and blue."

"My two favorite colors," R'axe remarked, thinking he recognized his favorite blue tunic by the embroidered pocket on the front that he could feel beneath his fingers.

"Group three are your grays, and group four are your whites. And that, my friend, is all of the shirts you own." T'kev said this with a hint of a chuckle.

"Hey, those colors work every time." He had originally liked wearing those colors because he knew the effect they had on his blue eyes and blonde hair, but without the eyes, he supposed it didn't really matter.

T'kev felt his grin widen. "I know, my closet might be more sparse than yours."

R'axe reached up and touched the soft material that was tied around his head, covering the place where his eyes had once been. "What color scarf is this?" he asked.

"It's black." T'kev replied.

"Oh, good. With some of those greenriders in the infirmary, you never know, it might have been glittery and bedazzled with flashy designs, or something." R'axe had come to realize that his only way to cope with his blindness was to mope or joke.

T'kev laughed, but he could think of some blueriders as well who had a wardrobe far more lavish than anything he owned. "Now pants, they're hanging just under shirts here. The left five are black, and then the right six are tan."

"Ah, good to know. I don't want to make the fashion faux pas of mixing black and tan." R'axe lifted his eyebrows mockingly.

"Alright, now, lunch is getting cold." T'kev said as he stepped away from R'axe and walked into the living area. He had the habit of doing that. It probably seemed rude, but he did not want R'axe to depend on him to get from room to room. The other bluerider had to learn to count and figure out where he was without needing someone's assistance.

R'axe muttered his numbers under his breath as he counted his way from the bedroom to the living area, stopped, turned, and then directed three steps towards the small dining table. "Ah ha, I didn't even run into the couch this time," he said as he pulled out a chair and seated himself cautiously.

"You did good," T'kev agreed. He watched as R'axe ran his fingers gingerly over the place setting, figuring out where his knife and fork were located, and then he carefully touched a finger to each of the foods on his plate, memorizing their locations. "You're getting better at that," T'kev said.

"Well," R'axe said as he felt around for his fork again, picked it up, and stuck it into some greens. "Learning to eat is at least one thing I can do. I'm not sure what else I'm going to do with my free time."

"Did you have a craft before the accident?" T'kev asked as he cut into a meat roll.

"Harper-Artist," R'axe held up his fingers and wiggled them. "I used to draw and paint. I suppose I won't be doing much of that any more." There was a resigned note in his voice.

"You could still draw and paint," T'kev said gently.

"Oh yeah? And what would they look like? Finger paintings by a weyrbrat?" R'axe frowned and shook his head. "I'd rather not do it at all if I can't be as good as I once was."

T'kev sensed that his crafting skills weren't something to be pushed at the moment, but he took the information and stored it away for later. "What about games?"

"Games?" R'axe repeated as he felt around for his napkin.

"You know. Dragonpoker, chess, games?"

The bluerider's brow furrowed. "I used to play those, but how in the name of Faranth would I play them now?"

T'kev chuckled. "Just leave that part to me, knowing that you know the rules is all I needed."

R'axe tilted his head to the side. "What about you? How does a bluerider have so much time on his hands to spend with me? Why aren't you at wingdrills or fighting Thread?" It was something that R'axe had not noticed at first, but over the past sevenday, he had realized that T'kev had been at his weyr during all candlemarks of the day and never seemed to have another task he was supposed to be completing.

"I was grounded." T'kev said, finding that there was no reason to lie to R'axe. He had learned Turns ago in healer training that it was never good to lie to a patient because once you broke their trust they would never feel comfortable trusting your judgment of their health again.

"Oh? By who?" R'axe asked.

"K'yne."

R'axe grinned a little. "Ah, he _is_ good to look at, isn't he? Steely blue eyes, he never smiles, strong jawline."

T'kev tossed back his head and laughed. "You seemed to have studied him well."

"I never forget a ruggedly handsome face," R'axe quipped.

"Yes, well, Lord Handsome Pants grounded me."

"Why?"

Here T'kev hesitated, not because he wanted to lie, but because he was ashamed of the reason he had been pulled from the skies of Pern. "I had a little drinking problem. It started after River Bluff fell."

R'axe made an empathetic noise. "I love wine so I can understand how easy that would be. Well, have you fallen off the wagon yet?"

T'kev laughed at the unexpected question. "No, not yet, although sometimes working with a hard headed bluerider who doesn't want to listen to my instructions brings me awfully close."

"Me?" R'axe flattened a hand to his chest in mock surprise. "I think you just want a reason to drink and get caught. Perhaps K'yne would spank you," he grinned wickedly.

The comment was so outlandish, and yet hilarious, that T'kev acted without thinking. He balled up his napkin and tossed it at R'axe. "Alright, that's enough out of you. You're as bad as those tawdry romances my nieces like to read."

R'axe flinched as the napkin hit him unexpectedly in the face.

T'kev froze, realizing what he had done and how R'axe might take it.

"I see how it is," R'axe said as he laid down his fork. "Throw something at the blind guy because he won't be able to catch it." He reached down into his plate and curled his fingers around a generous heaping of creamed tubers.

"R'axe, I swear, I didn't-"

THWACK!

T'kev's eyes clenched shut as tubers smacked him right between the eyes. "Well, the 'blind guy' has awfully good aim." He said as he wiped tubers from his face and then looked up to see that R'axe's shoulders were shaking with laughter.

"Think that is funny do you?" T'kev asked.

R'axe could not even formulate a reply through his laughter.

T'kev loaded some chopped fingerroots onto his fork, bent it back like a catapult, and then sent them sailing across the table.

R'axe's hands automatically came up to shield himself, although too late, from the raining vegetables. "It's on now, healer." R'axe said, grabbing at the next thing on his plate.

By the time they were finished, bits of food were strewn across the table, on the floor, and both blueriders wore remnants of the food fight on their clothing as well.

"You know, the laugh is really on you," R'axe said as he felt around on the table, collecting bits of food and returning it to his finished plate.

"How is that?" T'kev asked as he shook some greens off of his shirt.

"I can't see to pick up what is in the floor, which means you'll have to do it," he smiled broadly.

T'kev was truly seeing a glimpse of the man that R'axe had been before the Threadfall accident. "You got me on that one, but don't worry. I'll get payback, one way or another."

R'axe responded before he thought about it. "Mhm, payback. Is that a threat or a promise?"

The flirtatious remark caught T'kev off guard, and there was a moment of awkward silence as he tried to think of a proper response.

"I'm sorry," R'axe sobered almost immediately, all signs of good humor leaving his face. "That was... That was a silly remark to make. It's just... well, that's how I would have handled the situation before, I guess."

T'kev's eyes glanced down to see that one of R'axe's hands was clenched into a fist in his lap. "It wasn't silly, R'axe. What's wrong with flirting? You're still a man."

"Ha," R'axe's laugh was mirthless. "Not really."

"What do you mean? Did Thread take something else that I am not aware of?"

R'axe's mouth flattened into a thin line. "Who is going to want to sleep with a blind, useless bluerider who sometimes wears his shirts inside out because he forgot to feel for the seams?"

The pain in the question was palpable. "You are more than your eyes, R'axe."

"My appearance was half of who I was and without that, I'm only half the man I was." R'axe responded resolutely.

T'kev could see that he wasn't going to change R'axe's mind on the matter, not that evening way. Not that T'kev even knew _how_ he would go about helping R'axe feel better about himself when that was the very thing T'kev struggled with and what had driven him to drinking.

"Let's get this cleaned up." He said, standing up to find a broom and begin sweeping the food from the floor.

"Let's," R'axe agreed, relieved that T'kev had changed the topic. The last thing he wanted was for the other bluerider to feel sorry for him. For a moment, R'axe had almost forgot he was blind, which seemed like a ludicrous thought to him. As he had talked and joked with T'kev he had begun to feel that initial attraction that had always led him to flirt with a person before. **That life is over,** he reminded himself as he reached up to make sure that the scarf around his face was still in place.

Last updated on the September 23rd 2019

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Half a Man