Unfinished Business

Writers: Bree, Dana
Date Posted: 11th March 2007

Characters: Isaline, R'alt
Description: Isaline and R'alt make up after they are shaken by the reality of Threadfall for the first time.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 25 of Turn 4

Slapping his gloves on his soot-covered thigh, R'alt wove his way throughout the milling, subdued dragonriders, looking for one face in particular. Dragons of all colors were stretched out on the grounds of the Weyrbowl, some lowing in pain, others crooning reassurances to their worried and shaken lifemates. He and Tieranith had been lucky--extremely lucky. R'alt didn't know how they'd escaped unscathed, especially considering how many of their Weyrling group weren't so lucky.

}:We flew well,:{ the brown whispered, his mental tone exhausted.

**That we did, Tieranith,** R'alt replied, sending his love to his dragon.

The brownrider was just about to turn around and go back the way he'd come, hoping to find her on the way, when suddenly he spotted her.
Isaline was standing there all alone, looking out on the dreadful scene before her. He couldn't see her expression, but he did take in her appearance...and she didn't look so good. **Oh, Isie...** he thought, spying her flight jacket, which had been split nearly into two and was hanging half-off of her. Only Thread could dissolve something as stiff and as tough as wherhide. Slowly he approached her.

"Isie?"

Isaline's face turned in his direction, but her eyes seemed unable to focus. Her face was smudged with soot and grime, and the hair that had been neatly braided before Threadfall this morning was now a snarled mess with strands hanging limply along her face. She blinked at him twice before any recognition entered her eyes. "R-Rialt?" The old name slipped from her lips without her realizing it, but the familiar sound of it made her feel safer, somehow.

The look in her eyes was devastating. It made him angry to see her that way, to see her brought down to this. And the way she'd said his birthname....it aroused a wildly passionate side of him he hadn't really known before--the _need_ to shelter and protect. "Come here, honey," he murmured, opening his arms.

She slid into his arms, her fingers digging so desperately into his shoulders that she knew she'd leave bruises. Her breath left her in a sobbing gasp as she buried her face against his chest. "We almost died. We almost _died_, R'alt!"

He held her fast, one hand burying itself deep in her tangled hair, the other wrapping around her back, slipping in between the torn shreds of her jacket. He laid his cheek along the top of her head, eyes unseeing as he stared out into the distance, gently whispering soothing nothings as he held her. Dragonriding had become real for them today--instilling fear and leaving most shocked and numb to the core. Isaline had lost her innocence today, and it made him furious.

After a while, Isaline's shaking stilled and her fingers relaxed a little.
"Can you and Tieranith give me a ride to my weyr? Thanatath only got a little singed, but I want to let her rest. She's already up there."

"Of course, Isie. Tieranith's this way. Come on." He kept one arm protectively around her shoulders as he gently lead her to his exhausted dragon. R'alt could tell it took a lot out of his brown to launch himself from the Weyrbowl, wings straining as he tried to catch an air thermal to help buoy and lift him up. **You can sleep in Thanatath's weyr if you need to, love. I'm sure she won't mind.**

}:She doesn't. I've already asked her.:{ Tieranith grunted as he backwinged, landing non-too-gently on the green's ledge. Turning around, R'alt helped Isaline dismount.

Isie moved to her green's side first, her hand coming to rest aside the small burn on her flank that the dragonhealers had assured her would heal without a scar. She didn't say anything, just moved back and watched as Thanatath greeted her clutchmate and curled up against the larger dragon contentedly.

Once inside her weyr, Isaline pulled her gloves off and then struggled with the tattered remains of her jacket, making a frustrated noise when she realized that the Thread had melted through not just her jacket, but her thick outer tunic as well.

Without a word, R'alt stilled her hands, then curled his fingers under the hem of her tunic, pulling it gently up her body, taking the ruined jacket with it. Shards...she was lucky the Thread hadn't gotten through to her flesh. Lightly he ran the tips of his fingers down the soft skin of her back, as if he was searching for a Threadscore, but knowing none would be there.

Isaline shivered, and her breath escaped from her in a low moan of need.
She'd almost died. She's almost _died_ and she would have died without feeling R'alt's arms around her again. She would have died with the last words they exchanged being cruel. Everything in life seemed so stupid and petty right now except for her need to never, ever face Thread with unfinished business left behind her again.

She turned in his arms almost before the thought had finished, her hands scrabbling for the fastening on his jacket. There was no shyness and no hesitation, nothing but pure, uncomplicated need.

As she pushed the jacket off of him, his tunic falling to the floor soon after, he slid his hands down her slender sides, working at the fastenings of her pants with a growing need as fierce as hers. They could have both died today--lost forever /between/. The shock of that knowledge was overwhelming and he growled softly, shoving her pants down her hips and pulling her tightly against him. But they were alive. Alive!

She prodded him in the direction of her bed even as her fingers fumbled at the fastenings at his waist. One of them tripped, she didn't know which one, but then they were on her bed and his pants were gone and her fingers were tangled in his hair--

The magnitude of what had nearly happened today hit her again, and her movements slowed. Gentled. She kissed him softly before pulling back, staring at him as if she would memorize his face. "I was hiding from you because you made me feel like a silly little girl," she admitted softly.
She had to tell him the truth, now. All of it. "I'd never had sex like that before. You knew so much more than me. It made me feel...
overwhelmed."

"You could've told me, sweetheart," he told her quietly, reaching out to brush his fingers against her cheek. "It would've saved us from all of this sharding drama." A half-smile curved his lips. "Though I suppose I can't blame you for having your pride." Again he caressed her, brushing her hair back away from her brow. "But it hurt when you wouldn't talk to me. When you avoided me. Just because I'm a guy doesn't mean that I don't get my feelings hurt too." True, it wasn't the most manly admission he'd ever made, but she was being honest with him...she deserved some honesty too.

**I almost died...** And R'alt's feelings would have been hurt, and she never would have gotten the chance to smile up at him and bring his lips to hers for another kiss. She never would have felt the warm skin of his back under her hands as she slid them down in a long, teasing caress. She never would have shivered at the feeling of his hot breath against her ear as the mood between them shifted again, not quite as desperate as before but definitely hot and fast.

She could have died, and then she never would have gotten to roll him onto his back and show him just how much she'd learned from V'lorn since the last time they'd been in bed together.

Last updated on the March 13th 2007

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Unfinished Business