It's Just Me

Writers: Eimi, Rochelle
Date Posted: 2nd December 2009

Characters: R'mer, Eleada
Description: R'mer encounters Eleada in the halls after a nightmare ... again.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 6, day 9 of Turn 5

R'mer pinched his nose wearily as he made his way down the dim corridor. It was well into the wee candlemarks when he finally was relieved from his watch duty. He didn't mind the late watch, but by the time it was finished he was ready to just fall into his bed furs and sleep. Usually he didn't meet anyone as he made his way towards his rooms, save for a few who had whiled away the night reveling with their friends. The bronzerider didn't normally pay them much mind, and was about to ignore the woman slumped against the stone wall until something familiar about her made him stop and take a second look.

"Eleada?"

Shards... she'd thought the voices had stopped screaming her name when her knees gave out... Eleada shuddered, clinging to the wall underneath the glowbasket niche. She didn't want to know what face was going to rise from the murky depth of her living nightmares to fuel her irrational quest for companionship. She certainly didn't want anyone outside her head to be noticing her either. But she just couldn't stop trembling...

This wasn't the first time R'mer had seen her this way. It had been quite a while. In fact, it had been a long time since he had really talked to her. They had drifted apart after he met the brownrider she had chosen for her lover. He hadn't wanted to be there to watch their happiness, and she had seemed absorbed with work. But despite the awkwardness he might have felt if they had met under different circumstances, the bronzerider's protective nature came to the surface.

He reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. "It's all right, Eleada, it's just me. Come on, let's get you back to your own weyr."

The warm weight of the hand on her shoulder sent a jolt through her nightmare hazed mind, restoring her vision to the stone hallway just enough for her to make out the shadowed face of the young man bending over her. Shar... no... wait...

"R'mer?" She asked in confusion, still trying to martial her wits through a thousand conflicting, screaming emotions and flashes of nightmares.

"It's just me," he murmured softly, gently pulling her off from the wall and wrapping an arm around her. "I'll get you home."

She shook her head slowly, trying to force some sense back into her thoughts as she stumbled to her feet, clinging desperately to the warm body supporting her as intelligent thought started to flood back through her muddled senses. Faranth, she should have more brains than this. She was a dragonrider, a wingthird...! If someone told, if her wingleader or the weyrleaders found out about her dreams then she could lose her position... But R'mer knew, he hadn't told even after finding her before, he was safe. The only danger was to her shattered pride. Again.

"It's all right now," he murmured softly, supporting her with both arms and slowly walking her towards her weyr. How long had it been since he had walked this way, he wondered as he guided her around a corner. "We'll have you back in your own bed soon."

Her grip tightened a little more. Bed? She couldn't think of going back to bed, not yet, not while she had someone real with her, someone to prove that she wasn't alone and to keep the screams at bay... "No." She managed to choke out, her voice pleading as she tried to keep her attention on keeping her feet underneath her and not on the exquisite relief his presence afforded her. "Please. Just... stay?"

"I can stay 'til you're sleeping," he nodded, stopping her in front of her door. After all, having seen her this way before, he knew the question was coming the moment he reached out for her. But even as the words escaped his lips, he groaned inwardly. This could only lead to trouble. Again...

She forced a little smile of thanks for him, seeing the little sliver of light spilling out from under her door ahead. At least she'd managed to get the door closed before bolting, she thought vaguely. R'mer was a good kid. She knew he'd keep his word.

It surprised R'mer how little in her room had changed since the last time he had been there. He knew exactly where to steer her as they navigated through her darkened weyr. "You're almost there. You'll be asleep in no time."

The light from the glow by her bed was warmer now, just bright enough to cast a warm tint to the shadows of the living area she'd stumbled unseeingly through not long ago. Somehow she managed to stagger just far enough to the side that R'mer was forced to take her by her couch, and she slipped out of his arms to land on it as soon as she was close enough. She had absolutely no desire to go back to bed at the moment, and she wasn't sure her legs were willing to make it that far anyway.

"All right," R'mer sighed, knowing what this would mean. She would fall asleep on his shoulder and he would not be going back to his room tonight. **I can be adult about this...** The bronzerider slipped onto the cushion next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder so she could feel him close. He knew she liked that. "Just relax. You're safe now."

She buried her face into his shoulder, feeling the wiry, peculiar strength of dragonrider muscles honed into place by Turns of farmwork and firestone tosses. It felt so good to have someone there, the arm wrapped around her encircling her with a sort of familiar fire to keep the dreams at bay. He smelled good, like dragon oil and morning dew... Shards. He must have been on watch duty to be up so late... "I'm sorry." She mumbled into his shirt.

He wasn't sure what exactly she was referring to - the inconvenience, the fact that it was the middle of the night, or the fact that they hadn't really even spoken to each other in months. What did it really matter? "It's all right," he murmured softly, tucking her head beneath his chin. "Let's just get some sleep."

Eleada could barely believe her her ears, but in her still not quite together state wasn't going to turn away a good thing. He'd promised he'd stay until she fell asleep... she adjusted her grip around him so that she was a little more comfortable, but so that his arms were still around her. She needed that physical reassurance of someone's presence, and he was definitely real... she breathed a relieved sigh into his shirt, barely conscious of doing so as the tension drained out of her.

Last updated on the December 10th 2009

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It's Just Me