Talk

Writers: AL, Jane
Date Posted: 7th October 2008

Characters: Mehan, Menore
Description: Mehan says he wants to talk to Menore, but his talk is not enough for her.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 12, day 5 of Turn 4

Menore had tried to do something productive, but she wound up merely putzing around her quarters at the hold, picking up things, placing them in order, only to pick them up and reorganise them in a completely different manner a few moments later. She had been preoccupied all day and it irritated. Yet, despite that irritation she couldn't get her mind off of a certain man. A certain captain. A certain Mehan.

So little had happened, yet so much that one night together. He had done nothing to shame himself in any way, yet Menore found herself wishing he _had_. She had certainly _wanted_ him to. Yet he didn't.
He had gone in bed with her, held her, but nothing more. So what sort of signal _was_ he sending? A very mixed one to be certain.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a knock upon her door and Menore swiveled on her heel and quickly answered it. How ironic it was that the person who had come calling was the very man whose face and touch had been plaguing her all day?

Mehan took a deep breath. "Menore." He nodded, then let all that breath out in a rush. He was nervous and it wasn't a feeling he was comfortable with. Surely he was too old for this sort of thing? "Would you ... Er. Would you like to come for a walk. Around the waterfront. To talk."

For a moment it seemed as if Menore wasn't going to answer. She simply stared at him as if he had spontaneously turned into a dragon right before her eyes. Finally, she nodded, "Let me put on my boots." She stated, then turned, leaving to door open as she moved further inside.

He hesitated and then said firmly: "I'll wait out here."

Mehan didn't have to wait long for Menore appeared a moment later and closed the door behind her. "Okay. Ready."

He indicated she should precede him down the corridors. "I haven't seen much of you today," he began in an effort to make conversation. "Have you been busy with something?"

"Just things with the boat." The wheel, the _entire_ wheel had to be replaced. That had taken up quite a bit of her time indeed. "I just hope it will be ready when they say it will."

"I'm sure they will. They probably schedule more time than's needed on the principle of the matter." He held the door open at the end of the corridor for her to pass through into the stairwell.

"I hope so." Menore didn't relish spending any more time on land than she had to. "I'm ready to be back on the river."

"So am I." He remained silent as they descended the stairs and then held another door open for the Moonflower's headwoman.

Menore passed through once more, casting a glance at her Captain. What was he thinking? About that night? About her? About something else? The girl bit her lip, uncertain. "So...what do you want to talk about?"

He looked along the road that led to the waterfront and nodded in that direction. "Let's walk." He glanced down at his companion, his sister-by-marriage. "I thought ... we could talk about ... What we should do."

"Do? About what?" Mehan wasn't being very clear about his intentions. Did he mean about the boat?

"About us."

She had a feeling he was going to say something like that. Menore stopped and turned to face her Captain. "What do you _you_ want to do, Mehan?"

Again he took a deep breath and then didn't know what to do with all that air. "Perhaps ..." He refused to shuffle his feet like an uncertain child but the urge was there. "Perhaps we should get married."

Menore took a step back in shock at the suggestion and couldn't stop the question from popping out of her mouth, "Why?"

"Well -" He had all the reasons worked out in his mind but as he came to utter them he had the feeling they might not suit her. "It would make sense," he began tentatively.

"How so?" The girl's eyes narrowed. Sense? He wanted to marry her because it made _sense_?

"You owning the Moonflower and me being her captain." He shrugged. That wasn't the main point, but it was certainly a consideration. "And your father would have approved, I think."

"I see." Menore turned away, flipping her hair behind her shoulder. "Is that the only reason?"

"There are more," he admitted. "Should we carry on walking," he added, gazing hopefully toward the harbour.

"Yes." Menore resumed her pace, doing her best to keep her face neutral. It made sense from a business perspective, but what more could he offer? What else did he have to convince her?

Mehan looked out over the vast harbour and had sudden thoughts of running away to sea. He was probably too old for that, he thought, which reminded him: "Do you think I'm too old?"

"No." Menore's response came without hesitation, then quipped with a sardonic smile. "Sometimes I think you're not old _enough_ with the way you act."

"Oh." Mehan wasn't sure how to take that. Not old _enough_? "I was ... Dimaya was closer to my age. And you're so much younger. I thought you might think ... Not old enough?"

"Sometimes you act like a little boy." Menore scoffed lightly. "One wouldn't even realise you were a grown man. But I suppose that can be a good thing from time to time."

"Wouldn't even realise ... Menore! What a thing to say to a man. Any man."

"I'm only saying what I've observed."

"What have I done that's made you think I'm like a little boy?" the Moonflower's captain asked, quite distracted from the 'talk' he had thought so hard about.

"All men act like little boys from time to time." Menore laughed. "So, you never did tell me your other reasons."

"I like you," he informed her, watching her expression to see how she took that admission. They argued a lot - or had until this enforced stay on on land. Things had changed.

"I like you too." Menore's features softened and a small smile played upon her lips. "But Mehan, that's not enough for a marriage." Maybe it was for the rest of society that seemed determined to tell women where to go when, but not for her, not when she had freedom to choose something more.

He sighed, then smiled. "I like you a lot?" he offered with amusement in his tone. A month ago he couldn't have imagined say the words, let alone laughing with her.

A smile tickled Menore's lips a bit more. "See, you sound like a little boy who's trying to admit to the girl whose tails he's been pulling that he was only doing it because he likes her."

"You tie your tails up," he pointed out.

"And you seem to like pulling them." Menore countered.

"You were a child then. A long time ago." When he was newly wed and new to the Moonflower crew. He could remember bits and pieces of young-Menore but most of his memories had been replaced with more recent views of her so that it was hard to recall what she had looked like.

"That was then." Menore nodded, then took a step closer, eyes locking with his. "I'm a woman now."

Mehan sighed. It hadn't been that comfortable a relationship with Menore as the owner and headwoman and him as the captain, but it had worked all right and he was reluctant to let go of that for something else. Something unexpected; something he could never have expected when he had married Dimaya and joined her on the Moonflower. But his wife had died and Menore had inherited the Moonflower and in some ways their changing relationship seemed a little too opportunistic for him to feel that it could be entirely right.

"I know you are," he said with a nod. He bent forward and kissed her gently and then retreated. "What do you think? About getting married?"

Surprise at his gesture made Menore start. After a moment, she looked away from him and toward the river that rolled along its merry way. "I don't know, Mehan. You still haven't come forward with a convincing argument for it."

"Oh? Oh." He shrugged. "What sort of 'convincing argument' do you want?"

"To be honest, something more than simply convenience." The world was filled with marriages of convenience, there didn't need to be another one.

"There's nothing wrong with convenience. And it would be. Convenient. Very."

"I'm sorry Mehan, but I need more than simply convenience." Menore shook her head and turned her face away from Mehan lest he see the hurt that was surely reflected in her eyes.

"Oh," he said again. "All right then." He nodded. "We can still go for a walk, I suppose."

"Yes, we can." Though to what purpose, Menore didn't know. Convenience. That's all she was to him.

Last updated on the October 11th 2008

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