Company (1/3)

Writers: Devin, Dana, Eimi
Date Posted: 3rd July 2006

Characters: Traelyn, N'vanik, R'hoos
Description: Keeping his promise, R'hoos visits Traelyn on the restday, but things get ugly when N'vanik walks in on them...
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 12, day 21 of Turn 3

N'vanik

"So by then I had already been caught spying in the female student's bathing chamber, adding my own secret ingerdients to the Hall's stew, and selling term papers I had lifted from the master's records to the other apprentices. When the dragons came on Search you could hear an audible sigh of relief from all the Masters when I was picked out. My father loudest of all I think," he chuckled, the light of mischief still sparkling in his eye. "I'm sure none of them thought I would amount to much. They were just happy to see me gone. I'm sure it was a bigger shock to them than it was to me when I Impressed bronze."

R'hoos set his empty glass of wine down on the table. He didn't much feel like getting up and opening another bottle. Not while things were progressing so nicely. His fingers traced along the goldrider's legs that lay draped across his lap. He draped his arm across the back of the sofa as his fingers played lazily along the collar of her tunic, barely touching the soft skin of her shoulder. "But you were Weyrbred. You didn't have to depend on being found on Search. Was your family surprised when you Impressed gold?"

"Not as surprised as I was." Traelyn had finished her own glass long ago, and it certainly had loosened her up quite a bit. And she'd needed it, considering everything else that had been happening in her life here lately. "I never thought I was made of the stuff that is essential in goldriders--especially Weyrwomen. My friends, I think, were just as surprised." Shards...he could keep up those light, teasing touches all sharding evening...

"But I'm sure they were all proud of you," he smiled, his fingers sliding up her neck to trace the curve of her ear. "A gold is a rare gift."

"Sometimes I'd wondered what I did to deserve her." From the ledge, Nyith gave a soft, reassuring croon, and Traelyn smiled, glancing up into the bronzerider's eyes. As his caresses began to trail across her a bit more intimately, her thoughts began to take a different turn. "And has your bronze ever flown a queen?"

"Once," he nodded. R'hoos liked the darkening intensity in her eyes, and enjoyed the fact that it was him she was reacting to. "A very young queen. But it was the most intense mating flight I had ever been a part of."

The knowing smile she gave him was a bit smug. "It seems all you bronzeriders say that..."

"It's true," the bronzerider replied holding up his hand to swear to his honesty. "Winning a green flight is wonderful, but winning a gold flight... Shards, there's nothing to compare. And likewise, losing a greenflight is annoying but a gold flight... that's downright brutal.
That's why bronzeriders vow _never_ to let a gold slip through their fingers when they have the chance." He smiled turned almost wicked as he reached down to slowly begin pulling on the top tie to her tunic.

Shards...she'd heard that before. But she was just much too relaxed and full of good, white wine to pull out any particulars from that memory.
"Mmmm..." Traelyn shifted, her long skirt inching up a little higher on her leg, showing off more of a smooth thigh. "Do you mean a gold dragon? Or the dragon's rider?"

"Well, I leave chasing the dragon up to my lifemate." Another tie fell open under his hands. "And do you ever chase?"

Her grin was positively impish. "It's the bronzes who chase, R'hoos. I demand."

"And what happens when you don't _get_ what you demand?" he asked with a challenging look in his eye. A third and fourth tie fell open.

"I get cranky." She rose up on her elbows, a fire rising up within her to meet his challenge. "And I get snarly. I may even bite..." And as if to prove her point, she caught the tip of one of his lingering fingers lightly between her teeth.

He couldn't help the appreciative grin that spread across his lips. "Well, you know, I'm not good at following orders sometimes."

"Oh really?" Traelyn slowly rose to sit upright, her blouse falling open to give R'hoos quite a view. "Plan on getting me riled, bronzerider?"

"Funny," he said as he traced a finger down the opening of her blouse to reveal a little more, "I was just wondering the same thing about you."

"And would you mind?" With a fluid, deft move, she was suddenly stradling him, her knees tucked up against his hips before he could even reply. She bent in close, her lips whispering over his, smelling sweetly of wine.

"Not at all," he whispered back. She seemed at home taking the lead, fitting for a goldrider. And definitely intriging.

"Mmmm... I don't think you'll complain..." Her hands began to work at unbuttoning his shirt, slowly, teasingly, nails caressing skin as they went, lips hovering at a tantalizing distance from his own. She'd gotten halfway through with the buttons, when, impatient, she shoved what she could of it over his shoulders and down his arms.

"I try not to get people riled up too much," he chuckled, down low in his throat. His fingers curled first around her hips and reached around gently knead her backside.

"You sure about that?" Traelyn asked, her voice nearly breathless as she leaned forward against him, giving him more access to do whatever it was he wanted to do with her. As his hands got a little more creative, she buried her face into his neck, kissing him there.

"So, this is what she meant by 'company'," N'vanik said as he entered the weyr. He struggled to keep his tone light and only partially succeeded.

R'hoos looked over his shoulder at the man who just barged into the Weyrwoman's weyr. Just who is Faranth's name was _this_ guy and what gave him the right to interrupt them when they were obviously _busy_?!
"Yes, friend, this is what she meant by 'company'. Do you mind?"

**Shards...** Traelyn moved off of R'hoos, her eyes, a little too bright due to the vintage she'd been consuming all evening, were intent on the approaching bronzerider. "N'vanik..."

"Yes, I do mind. And I'm not your friend," N'vanik told the man. He knew Trae had sex with other men, and as long as it wasn't U'kaiah, it was easy to shrug off any discomfort at the idea. But seeing it, that was a different story. "I've got a time difference to deal with, so why don't you just . . . come back later." **Or not at all.**

"Because I was here first, I was _invited_, and I also have a time difference to deal with," R'hoos answered, very unamused or impressed by the intruder. "Now go away."

N'vanik's jaw clenched. She invited him here - from another Weyr? "I'm not going anywhere."

"N'vanik," her tone warned him as she rose a bit unsteadily from the couch. Her head did not much like such abrupt movements. Swaying a little, she jammed her hand against the arm of the sofa to keep her balance. "Don't be a stubborn ass right now, alright? This isn't worth getting into a brawl over."

"You're right," N'vanik said, glaring at her. "_You_ aren't worth getting grounded over." His anger was rising quickly, and lashing out was an instinctive reaction.

She snarled at him.

"All right," R'hoos growled as he leapt to his feet. "Now that's uncalled for, bronzerider! Apologize!" he demanded.

N'vanik laughed. "I don't apologize to anybody. And just who the shell crack are _you_ to tell me what to do?"

The other bronzerider snorted and smiled smugly in response. "I'm the one Traelyn wanted to spend her time with. Who are _you_?"

"I'm the one she flies halfway across the continent to spend time with.
That is, when she isn't drunk enough to spend time with guys like you,"
N'vanik said.

"Well," R'hoos chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief that _anyone_
would find that wherry's ass worth even a short trip /between/ to spend time with, "I assure you she was completely sober when I arrived. And she didn't have plans to be flying _anywhere_ except right where you found her when you barged in. So why don't you hop on your little bronze and go back where you came from and wait for her to come to you."

N'vanik's eyes narrowed. "I already said I'm not going anywhere." It was taking a lot of restaint to keep from punching the other rider. He had to keep telling himself it was not worth it. It was _not_.

Traelyn glared from one to the other. Shards! They were acting just as snarly as she was feeling--and she didn't like the way they were talking about her as if she wasn't even sharding there. Not one bit. Standing up straighter, she pulled the ends of her blouse together. "Really, N'vanik, be reasonable..."

He snorted. "Oh, please! You expect me play nice with your little distraction?"

Her jaw tightened. "My little _distraction_?"

R'hoos rolled his eyes. If _anyone_ was being a distraction at the moment... Still this sounded like a lovers quarrel that perhaps they would rather he not be a witness to. He wrapped a hand around the goldriders waist and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Trae, do you want me to go?"

Glaring at N'vanik, she placed her fingers over R'hoos's and shook her head, curving her body into his. Did the sharding prick _really_ think that after throwing insults at her guest and _her_ that she'd be wanting him to stay? The sharding _arrogance_ of that man! "No, R'hoos, I don't."

**Sharding bitch,** N'vanik thought, watching her touch the other bronzerider. **Now she's playing with me.** "I should have gone to see Sarian. She would have shown me a good time."

Her upper lip curled. "Yeah. She'll spread her legs for you no matter what, N'vanik. So why _don't_ you go to her? But maybe you should try and pick a place to get off that won't get you sharding grounded? Or maybe you _need_ to have that element when you want to screw her?"

**That got her.** "No, I don't need to. Sarian just happens to be very ... inspirational," he smiled.

"Then what are you doing here still sharding talking to me?" She wanted to claw that sharding expression off of his sharding face.

The smile widened. "Because you want me to leave."

"Well, now I'm _telling_ you to leave," R'hoos said, finally having enough of this. "You were not invited here, you are not wanted here, and you certainly don't belong here. This is not your home, this is not your Weyr. So I suggest you leave before the Weyrleaders need to be involved."

"This isn't your Weyr, either," N'vanik pointed out. Fantasies of pummeling the other bronzerider filled his head. "But it's not worth sticking around if you're going to go crying to the leadership." He shifted his gaze from R'hoos to Traelyn. "Besides, I'm tired of wasting my time with you, Trae."

It hurt. It hurt much more than it should have. It was petty, it was foolish, it was.... "Get out then!" she snarled, shifting half a step forward, ready to sharding _shove_ him out if she needed to.

**I win.** "Alright. Have fun with your toy rider," N'vanik said, giving her a nasty smile. But the smug sense of triumph was short lived. It only lasted until his back was turned to her and he started walking toward the door. A sinking feeling invaded his stomach as his anger faded into . . .
something else.

Traelyn stood there silently, staring after N'vanik. Sharding bronzerider. _Sharding_ prick. It was always going to be like this, wasn't it? **We really haven't changed over the months... Things between us just haven't changed.** With a hissing sigh, she eased back against R'hoos--an uncharacteristic gesture of weariness in itself--and pressed her brow to his shoulder.

Shards.

Last updated on the July 3rd 2006

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Company (1/3)