Still Thinking

Writers: AL, Jane
Date Posted: 16th September 2008

Characters: Menore, Mehan
Description: Menore and Mehan are distracted from their work by thoughts of each other.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 12, day 3 of Turn 4

Mehan listened to the smith crafter, and nodded when he was required to, but the man could talk forever without getting to the point. Instead the thoughts of the Moonflower's captain wandered a little, distracted at the sight of Menore on the other side of the huge boathouse where the riverboat was laid up. She was talking to somebody, too. Or looking at something the man was showing her.

He wondered if she'd had any more bad dreams. She hadn't turned up in his room after that one night.

Probably a good thing ...

"Don't you think?"

Mehan found himself nodding as the smithcrafter's question broke into his thoughts. Surely he'd agreed with the man a quarter candlemark ago?

~ ~ ~

Menore did her best not to look in the direction of the captain. She was frowning at the woodcrafter as he explained why the entire wheel was going to have to be replaced.

"It's rotting from the inside." The man's frown matched the owner's and he cocked his head, went silent and regarded her.

Menore didn't notice. She was too preoccupied with not letting her thoughts wander to a certain man. Too busy trying not to think about how it had felt with him beside her, his warmth pressed against her body, and what it had been like to wake up to him in her bed. Or rather, she in his bed. She was also very busy trying not to imagine what it would be like to have him kiss her, his lips against her own, his hands tracing her curves, making their way over her body and...

"Did you hear what I said?" The man piped up, the tone of his voice tinged with annoyance.

"What?" The headwoman couldn't help but cast a furtive glance in the direction of her captain and shifted in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, would you repeat that?"

"I _said_ it's rotting from the inside and the entire thing will have to be replaced."

"The boat?"

"No." The man heaved an exasperated sigh. "The wheel."

"Oh. Yes." Menore shifted again wishing her eyes wouldn't keep sweeping over in that direction of their own accord. "Of course."

~ ~ ~

"It makes the boat heavier, of course, so that's less cargo -" The smithcrafter frowned. The riverboat captain hadn't even flinched at the thought of less cargo, and they _all_ reacted to that. It was their main concern. He cleared his throat and paraphrased the awful fact: "You won't be able to carry as much cargo."

The captain's thoughts were dragonlengths away - in time, rather than distance. He remembered when he had first met Dimaya's family, her father, the Moonflower's captain, and her little sister, just a child then. Little Menore.

He blinked, giving the smith false hope that the information about the cargo had got through, but Mehan was just coming back to the present and focusing his thoughts on the current day Menore there on the other side of the boat house.

Not a child. Not Dimaya's sister in anything but an historical sense now. The Moonflower's owner, and an ... interesting woman in her own right.

One that had bad dreams.

One that snuggled into his bed ...

He really shouldn't be thinking that way. He should be -

"What was that you were saying about cargo?" he asked the smithcrafter, finally tearing his eyes away from the distant Menore. "Not so much?

~ ~ ~

The woodcrafter left and Menore, for the moment, was left to her own devices. Unfortunately, her mind decided that it was going to wander back to the previous subject. Her eyes followed suit and fell upon the captain. Had he been looking at her? She had thought she had seen his own gaze dart away just as hers fell across his Why was he looking at her? What was he thinking?

He was probably thinking about how silly she was. Nightmares, of all things. To him she was simply a child, that little girl he had met when he had first joined the boat. How long ago had that been? It seemed forever. She hadn't really liked him at first, but as time had passed, she had grown to - though she had never told him that. In a way, their verbal sparring was one way she showed _how_ she liked him.

But lately? Was it simply friendship? Or had something changed? If so, into what? What had drawn her into his room? What had made her seek him out instead of someone else, or instead of solace? Why had she wanted to be comforted by him? And why in Faranth's name had she urged him into the bed to share it with her? Platonically of course. At least, at first. The morning had brought the stirrings of something more, however, and shaffit if she had just...just...

~ ~ ~

When the smith finished explaining the modification the anti-hogging beams for the Moonflower Mehan sighed. He would have to talk this over with Menore. Not that they had a choice - it would be foolish not to take advantage of strengthening the hull of the riverboat but it would mean he and Menore would have some work to do together working out some new cargo strategies.

He hated to admit it - eve only to himself - but he might have been avoiding her a little since the night of the bad dreams. Or, more to the point, the morning they woke up together. Not completely avoiding her, just ... not hanging around where she was.

While he thought about things.

He was still thinking.

But now he would have to seek her out, tell her the news, settle down to working together for a couple of days.

Strangely that didn't sound too bad.

He smiled and thanked the smithcrafter and then waved to Menore on the other side of the huge, busy building. He would go and talk to her right away. No point in wasting any more time thinking. It wasn't getting him anywhere.

Last updated on the September 18th 2008

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Still Thinking