Together Somewhere Else

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 6th August 2014

Characters: Taine
Description: Taine and his weyrmate prepare to leave Dragonsfall Weyr.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 8, day 15 of Turn 7
Notes: NPCs: Rayche
Mentioned:
Notes: Taine's intro.

After four Turns the weyr hardly looked like the place it had once been.

Taine looked around and remembered the months and months of work that had gone
into improving their living space - and indeed into improving the dragon weyr
beyond the half-open sliding doors.

Rayche was one of those women who liked to be busy, liked to be _doing_
something, and when she had finally accepted a masoncraft weyrmate she had
decided that they would spend their free time upgrading the weyr and rider
quarters. He would teach her the skills she needed and they would do the work
themselves.

It had, he remembered, been one of the better ways to settle into a
relationship. One partner trying to teach the other a new skill, trying to agree
on design elements, struggling to live among the chaos of renovation. By the
time the dust and rubble was cleared away most of the squabbles went with it and
they had learnt to deal with most of each other's moods and idiosyncrasies.

"Don't tell me you're going to get all teary-eyed over the _weyr_," Rayche said,
carrying another basket in from the dragon weyr. "You were the one who wanted to
make the move."

Despite her words she abandoned the basket and snuggled up to him where he stood
in the middle of the room. He slid his arms around her slim waist and drew her
closer.

They were of a height, for Rayche was markedly long-legged, which had been one
of the first things he had noticed about her. Those long, long legs in trousers.
He still hadn't been used to seeing so many women in trousers and while Rayche's
trousers hadn't appeared to have been painted on as some women's did, they
certainly drew the eye to her legs.

"I was thinking about us, actually, not the weyr," he protested as she rested
her head on his shoulder. "About us working here. Getting to know each other."

She smiled, a small huff of laughter escaping her. "We had some fun times."

"And some arguments."

"And some making up afterwards."

He laughed with her, kissing her short brown hair. "You still all right to move?
Haven't changed your mind?" Her family was at Dragonsfall, the sort of stable,
loyal people who would likely never transfer away.

"Of course not! It sounds like an interesting project for you and -" she
shrugged, "- I'm prepared to give life at a tropical beach Weyr a go."

Given the snow outside he couldn't blame her. He came from a more temperate
climate and it wasn't so much the coldness of the winters at Dragonsfall that
bothered him but the loss of daylight, both through the very short days and the
necessity to live primarily indoors during the worst of the winter.

It certainly wasn't going to be like that at Dolphin Cove.

"It feels a bit like we're moving away from our history as a couple. For you,
your whole life history."

"If we don't feel settled at Dolphin Cove after you finish the project there -,"
and that would be Turns away, "- then we can always come back." Rayche looked
around the weyr and shook her head. "This was the place we chose once all the
difficult stuff was over." Taine had had to overcome some fairly entrenched
hold-bred attitudes before she would allow him into her and Tahirath's lives and
none of that had played out in this weyr. She felt her eyes welling with tears
and tried to blink them away.

"Are you crying? Rayche -"

"Remembering." Since there was no point in pretending she wasn't she lifted a
hand to wipe the tears away before they fell. "'What would the perfect weyrmate
say'," she reminded him.

He had asked the question Turns ago, wanting desperately to end the deadlock
that was preventing them having a relationship. Time hadn't dulled his memory of
the moment, any more than it seemed not to have dulled it for Rayche.

They hadn't been weyrmates, not even lovers, for Rayche wouldn't let him get
that close until she was sure his attitudes wouldn't damage her. He had been
asking what he should say when she came home from Tahirath's mating flights -
what he should say if he was the perfect weyrmate.

Not mating flights in general; it hadn't been a theoretical exercise. It had
been that afternoon and somebody had advised him to stop waiting for time to
accustom him to the realities of having a dragonrider weyrmate and to just step
up and accept it.

In her weyr that evening Rayche had told him what she thought a perfect weyrmate
would say - and he had said it. Asked if she and Tahirath had had a good flight,
asked who had won it, asked if she had enjoyed herself.

The complex mess of emotions that knowing about the flight had roused in him had
been abandoned then, stepped over instead of battled through. He had asked the
questions, taking the kindly interest Rayche thought the perfect weyrmate would,
and then asked her if she would accept him as her weyrmate, though he was far
from perfect.

"Those eyes of yours are looking a bit damp, too, Master Taine," Rayche said,
laughing and kissing his cheek. "For a while there I was afraid you wouldn't be
able to change."

"No more afraid than I was," he admitted. "Somebody pointed out they were my
attitudes, and asked who better than me to change them?"

"Fair point. And you did, and we're here, now, together."

Taine looked around the rider's quarters, not seeing the improvements they'd
made any longer but the widespread disarray that heralded their move. This had
been their first weyr together and they had made it their own, but there would
be other weyrs, in other places.

"Soon we'll be together somewhere else," he pointed out.

"Not if you don't start pulling your weight in this packing business." She
moved out of his arms and poked a finger into his chest. "No point in having
muscles if they're not going to be put to good use."

He grinned and puffed up his chest like a bronze dragon when a gold looked his
way. "You think I have muscles?"

Rayche picked up the travel basket and pushed it into his arms, interrupting his
preening. "I'm hoping so otherwise it'll be me doing all the heavy lifting."

Last updated on the August 12th 2014

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Together Somewhere Else