You can Lead a Horse to Water...(Lena)

[Requiem]

Erilena was in trouble.

To be fair, he probably should have warned her that teasing him when he grumped about having to come out to do a daylight performance after missing last evening's due to extraneous circumstances (i.e. a very unexpected meeting with his father) would result in retaliation. But that wasn't nearly as fun as catching her flatfooted, now was it? Besides. She'd been all too quiet here lately. Not that he didn't understand. R'wign may not have been a friend, but he was her teacher. And Fey had liked Checkoth apparently. Dmitri's opinion of the Weyrhealer aside. Clearly Erilena needed something to take her mind off things. Now, a nice boyfriend might have bought her something nice, wooed her a little. Dmitri rarely was guilty of being too nice.

But, being the sneaky harper that he was, the tall teenager was in perfect, pleasant form after bidding all the other annoying harpers goodbye. You'd think they could play in tune by now. (So what if it was only a half-cent sharp, it still was sharp!) An arm was slipped neatly around Erilena's waist, and he'd even snatched a rose off a nearby table to tuck it behind her ear. Couldn't let the evil teaser suspect anything, after all, and Dmitri could be charming when he wanted to be. He was often enough with her that she shouldn't find it odd. It wasn't like he didn't tease her any, after all.

"You must really like those heels. I'm feeling less-and-less tree-like," he commented, nudging her in the side lightly. "So, when are you going to tell me what you've been sneaking off to do the last couple days, hm? Keeping all these secrets...if I didn't know any better I'd say you'd been hanging out by the kissing stall, waiting for the next best thing to come along." The lightness to his tone made it clear he was just goading her, not at all serious. Dmitri couldn't really explain why the girl had chosen him, but he didn't doubt that she had. That was enough. "Are you hungry? Let's go get some food. I woke up too late to grab anything before the slavedrivers needed me here."

And thus, neatly, he redirected her toward the food stall. They just happened to pass one of the temporary stables erected for anyone coming in on runners for the gather. Of course it wasn't deliberate when he knocked her into a nearby trough. Of course it wasn't. Dmitri didn't bother to hide his self-satisfied smirk as he looked down at her. Hm. There was something to be said for wet dresses, that was for sure.

[Rei]

Trotting along beside Dmitri Erilena was completely unaware of any and all plotting. Sure she had teased him when he had started grumbling. That was normal for her. Why shouldn’t she tease? It wasn’t her fault the harper had missed his previous performance and had to make up for it by performing when the sun was up. Not her fault at all. As they walked the greenrider’s gaze occasionally traveled to the stalls to either side but for the most part it stayed towards the ground. Subdued was a good way to describe her current demeanor for the past few days. Most of it was R’wign’s death. Some of it was Feyrianth’s upset and still more the fact that after the gather she’d lose contact with Nephele and K’sel again. It had been extremely nice to see them again but there was a good possibility that after this she wouldn’t see them again for a good long time. It was all kind of sobering. At least Dmitri seemed to be taking her mood in stride?

In fact the harper was being downright charming. That in and of itself wasn’t all that odd really. He had been downright wonderful with her parents when they had visited for her brothers joining. Really Dmitri was probably just trying to improve her mood. Erilena felt a little bad that she wasn’t being completely reciprocal to his attempts really. He had even found a rose to stick behind her ear. The harper was being incredibly sweet currently. It was terrible that she couldn’t even muster up the ability to return his subtle teases. Instead the greenrider just gave her taller companion a small half smile when she felt the nudge at her side. Had he said something before that? Hopefully not because if it had been a question she hadn’t heard it.

The rest of Dmitri’s words however Erilena heard loud and clear. “Why should I tell you what I’ve been doing? You know you’ll find out soon enough anyway. How often do I actually succeed in keeping things from you?” Not very often. Not very often at all. The harper was very good at finding out anything he needed. Too good really the snot. The ending comment earned him a snort but no verbal answer. Sure she was out looking for someone else. That was exactly where the greenrider was when she left him briefly. Erilena’s gaze flicked back up to Dmitri when he mentioned food. The greenrider herself wasn’t really hungry but she didn’t doubt the harper was. “Hungry? Sure I could eat.” Was the light reply as he turned them and they started towards the food stall. Back into her own thoughts Erilena didn’t notice that they were actually rather close to the stable. Or that she was passing rather close to one of the water troughs…

Caught completely off guard at the sudden shove the greenrider stumbled sidewise and yelped as she hit the side of the low tough and, with a decent splash, tumbled completely into it. For a few minutes she was completely silent as she sat up and pushed wet hair from her face, keeping her gaze for the moment focused on the water in front of her. Shock was the woman’s dominant feeling, followed by a perhaps slightly irrational spike of upset which tapered off into a tiny spark of anger. She had liked this dress. Erilena fought to keep some semblance of control as she raised her head and narrowed her eyes at Dmitri’s expression. This so wasn’t funny. Not at the moment. “You…you. You’re such an ass.” She finally managed in a tone that was half irritation half exasperation. The whole thing was being made worse by the stares they were getting and the small ring of curious onlookers who had stopped to watch. If she hadn’t been embarrassed before she sure was now.

What was so sharding interesting? Didn’t they have something better to do than stop and gawk like idiots. A small part of Erilena wanted to attempt to pull Dmitri in as well but, for one he couldn’t fit without smushing her. And two he was remarkably hard to move when he didn’t want to be moved. If the harper had ever deserved a slap in his life this was the time. But even so the greenrider knew she wouldn’t hit him. Well not with her hand anyway, maybe a shoe. In fact she had just pretty much decided to fling one of her shoes at him when one of the runners, curious about the human in his water, slowly approached and reached his head out to lip at her hair.

Attention solely on Dmitri Erilena didn’t notice the bay until she felt the slight tug at her hair. Half turning her eyes widened and she screamed before practically leaping out of the water and stumbling back towards Dmitri, stopping before she had reached him. There the greenrider stood completely soaked with her clothes clinging to her and eyeing the startled runner with distrust as a small puddle formed around her feet.

Well at least everyone else seemed to think the whole thing was funny.

[Requiem]

Oh, look. Life. Dmitri couldn't help himself. It was nice to see an actual expression on the girl's face, instead of all those half-hearted smiles and wandering looks. (Plus he'd quite neatly gotten his revenge for Erilena's earlier teasing. Dmitri hated performances anyway. It was only doubly true when he was forced into them during the day.) The harper felt some pity for her, though, soaking in that trough of runner water; it certainly had drawn a crowd. Perhaps he could have found a more...private...way to shock her alive.

"That's a common name applied to me, yes," he agreed drolly. Ass. Brat. Jerk. It was just too much effort to be the perfect gentleman for any length of time. Not to mention that took the fun out of everything. Of course, that's when the runner decided to saunter up and take a sampling of Erilena's hair. Dmitri really couldn't resist that one. He snickered, which quickly turned into true laughter when Erilena practically bolted up out of the trough.

The harper flicked wet strands of hair from her face. "Aw. Don't look so set upon. She just likes you is all." Dmitri patted the mare's neck lightly, letting her snuffle at his shirt. A glance was given the crowd, which seemed to be dispersing slowly as they realized that Erilena probably wasn't going to fly into an entertaining rage. There were other things of interest about. Of course...that still left about half lingering.

Bending down, he retrieved the rose from the trough, wrinkling his nose slightly at the scent that came with it. Dmitri threw it casually into the crowd and took Erilena's hand with a certain finality. She could try to wrench it free, of course, but his grip would not suffer it. "I didn't think this entirely through. They're staring something awful, aren't they?" he murmured to her quietly.

It was a matter of moments before Dmitri managed to draw Erilena away from the majority of the curious, heading towards some of the less-frequented stalls. "You really shouldn't tease me. It makes me come up with all sorts of evil." The harper wrinkled his nose slightly at his girl. It was a decidedly playful expression, but there was also a small element of apology behind it.

"Would you forgive me a little if I told you that I brought a dry change of clothes?" That was something of a gamble to admit, considering it meant he'd clearly been planning on this at least since the moment of his waking. Dmitri hurried on before Erilena could have too much time to process that. (Hopefully.) "Just a nice day dress but you fill out everything you wear so nicely." Yeah, lay on the compliments. They were true, of course, but it didn't make them any less calculated.

"And a comb." Which set him to snickering again of a sudden. Erilena was resembling a monster from the wet lagoon right now with her hair all soaked and clinging in strands about her face and neck. Well, he'd tried to be good, anyway. For the most part. If you didn't count pushing her into the runner trough to begin with. Yeaaah. Good was Dmitri's middle name...

[Rei]

Standing there in her own miniature puddle being stared at really wasn’t doing anything to improve Erilena’s mood. Neither was the fact that Dmitri was now laughing at her too. He knew she didn’t like runners. They made her nervous. As did all the continued staring, which was also decidedly not helping her feel any better. It just made her want to go somewhere and curl up and hide. Yep or melt into the ground whichever worked better. The greenrider’s eyes narrowed as the harper flicked aside a strand of her wet hair and went to play nice with the runner. Evil creature that it was, now it got praise for trying to eat her. Well they could have each other.

Dipping her head, to try and hide a bit of her embarrassment with her soaked hair, Erilena declined comment. Wasn’t sure she could speak without stumbling over her words or maybe crying or something equally stupid anyway. It seemed her less than fiery reaction had the effect of dispersing more of the crowd. Something she wasn’t sorry for. Now if only the rest of the gawkers would leave. Wasn’t like she was getting any wetter or really doing much of anything entertaining. Go away. The greenrider was pretty sure she couldn’t get any redder and that she couldn’t feel any less disgusting. When was the last time they had cleaned that trough anyway? It had been slimy enough for her to believe it had been awhile.

Erilena was in the process of wrapping her arms around herself to try and stop the slight shivering when Dmitri grabbed her hand and started to tug her forward. Oh no. She wasn’t going anywhere. Thus the greenrider tried to dig in her heels, getting a protest from one ankle and the slightly muddy ground seeing to it that she was half dragged forward anyway. The harper also showed no signs of letting her go. Short of throwing an all out fit, which wasn’t work anyway likely, she was trapped. Still that didn’t mean the woman just gave up to trot sedately beside him. Nope she kept enough backwards pressure that he would have to keep that grip or she would break away, didn’t matter that the action slightly pained her ankle. Last thing she wanted was to be waltzing about the gather in this soaked sate for more people to gawk at her. Not for all the dragons in the weyr. When Dmitri dipped his head to murmur to her Erilena childishly turned her head away from him although she caught his words easily enough. “Yeah thanks for that. I’m sure I’ll make lovely dinner conversation later.” Her words were clipped, short. Not angry in tone but simple, almost resigned.

Fighting him on this all was becoming more difficult. Oh small part of her was genuinely irritated and possibly angry for once, but the majority of her wallowed in the upset area still. Hazel eyes regarded the harpers playful expression and she countered it with a narrowing of those same eyes. “I tease you all the time and have never been made into a spectacle for it. How was I supposed to know this time was different?” Erilena’s words still held the clipped quality but they were more weary this time. It was just too much effort to remain anything but upset. Besides angry wasn’t an emotion the greenrider ever really had felt towards Dmitri. The admittance that he had brought her something to change into only had her tugging back against him more. Oh and why would be have brought those clothes if he hadn’t been planning to dunk her? That was nice. Real nice. “I don’t know why don’t you tell me? That only makes it obvious that you were thinking about doing this to me anyway.”

Fill out everything she wore so nicely? Yeah he wasn’t getting off quite that easy. Trying to buy her forgiveness with being nice now? Nope. Besides she had tried to look nice for him and now that was ruined and on top of it all she was gross. He was such a liar. No way in Faranth’s green Pern was Erilena putting clean clothes on when she was this gross and smelled like dirty runner water. Nope. Furthermore…. “I am not changing in public. You can forget it. I’d rather walk around looking like a drowned and disgusting rat than ruin another outfit. I’ll just drip dry.” And now Dmitri was laughing at her….again. Oh she was so not touching him ever again. Dipping her head and narrowing her eyes at a soggy piece of hay in one of her bangs the greenrider fought to keep from tearing up. It was an irrational reaction Erilena realized and the majority of her understood that the harper had not intended to upset, her but well. She was upset.

“Where are we going anyway?” She finally managed in a somewhat level tone. Walking through the whole gather looking like this was not something Erilena was really willing to do despite her earlier claims. She disliked the curious looks. A lot.

[Requiem]

Now that was a first. Erilena was quite literally dragging her heels. Dmitri maintained his grip but slowed down to keep her from hurting herself. Kind of immature, that. (Not as immature as shoving someone into a runner trough for making fun of you, but whatever. He was a teenager. That was his excuse and he was sticking to it.) Still and all, it was fairly obvious that Dmitri's ploy wasn't working terribly well. He hadn't really expected her to be happy, but the sullen sulkiness had not been on his list of possibilities.

Okkkaaay. So smart Lena was smart. She was a healer. That was only to be expected. Still, she wasn't usually this cross about things. It made him half-tempted to push her into another body of water. "Yes." There was a touch of defiance behind the admission. So what if he'd planned it? "I think you should forgive me. Life would be dull without me around." His half-smile had returned, teasing again. Well, mostly. Dmitri didn't have a habit of staying where he wasn't wanted, true enough.

The harper rolled his eyes. "Dramatic much? It's water. It'll wash out." But if she wanted to walk around looking like a 'drowned rat' as she put it, farbeit for him to stop her. Or try to convince her otherwise. No, Dmitri was determined to let Erilena throw her tantrum and make as big a fool of herself as she wanted. So what if he was at least partially responsible? Normally she'd retaliate, not pull this five-turn-old act.

"Well, I was going to find you a not-so-public place to change. But since you're set on emulating a rodent on a sinking ship because you somehow think that will spite me, I suppose I don't really have to bother, now do I?" Releasing her wrist, he crossed his arms and eyed her with no small amount of irritation. "I've been nice to you for days. Took you to see your family. Tried to cheer you up any way I know how. Blame me if you want, but what am I supposed to do when you just do that little fake smile thing and retreat into your own little world?"

And now who was throwing the tantrum? Well, Dmitri might have been being just a touch manipulative. Especially when he turned on his heel and started walking away. If she wanted to act like a child, she could be treated like one, after all. He didn't have to put up with it if he didn't want to. (Yeah, the childishness was spreading like a disease.) The harper plopped down at a table by the food stall and set to studying his cuticles.

[Rei]

Still being quite adequately dragged, Erilena was beginning to lose the will to fight back and was contemplating just walk with Dmitri like a normal person. It was actually starting to make her ankle throb a little, all this resistance. Maybe she should stop being quite so stubborn. Before she put thought to action however the harper was speaking and the greenrider found herself distracted with listening to him. It was the near defiant tone to his words that had her keeping her eyes narrowed. Although she did have to admit, her life would be rather dull without him and far less happy among other things. But right now that was neither here nor there apparently because although he had half smiled at her Dmitri didn’t seem finished. Indeed not.

“Dramatic?” Erilena’s tone was now slightly unsteady, though from anger or upset it was hard to tell. “And shoving me into a trough of runner spit and water just for teasing you isn’t dramatic?” Pot calling kettle there. Okay so maybe she was being just a tad childish, possibly also a bit unreasonable. Dmitri did things like this all the time and she normally laughed it off. Or turned it back on him. It was normally a game of sorts between them. Still the build up of tension that she had felt for days needed some release and unfortunately it seemed now was the time. “Not-so-public place? Even not so it’s still public and I am not getting undressed anywhere near public. So I guess no. You don’t have to bother.” The greenrider half snapped back when Dmitri released her wrist. Suddenly this whole thing was turning into something she wasn’t all that used to with him. Because Erilena didn’t fight with Dmitri. Not often anyway.

Half glaring up at the harper as he crossed his arms and continued she had to fight to keep from tearing up. A fight she was rapidly losing. Not because she was really all that angry with him though. Oh make no mistake, Erilena was quite irritated and upset with the whole damn situation but Dmitri's words took most of the fight out of her. Because he wasn’t saying anything wrong. He had been nice, he had taken her to see her family for her brother’s joining, had been trying to cheer her up. And this? It was all just another stunt to try and draw her out of her almost depressive mood. So then what, it was her fault for feeling like this? Apparently so.

When Dmitri turned and started walking away Erilena watched him for a few moments, not bothering to hold back the tears anymore because he wouldn’t see them anyway. The harper hadn’t even waited for an answer to his question. It was okay though. Because the greenrider didn’t have an answer herself. What was he supposed to do? This whole thing felt wrong in so many ways and well, it wasn’t really Dmitri’s fault that she chose to react like she had. That was all on her.

Wet, uncomfortable, crying, and at a loss Erilena stood there for a few moments. What was she supposed to do now? Go back to Feyrianth? Follow Dmitri? Did he even want her around? Wiping at her eyes and trying to compose herself the rider mentally berated herself, why wouldn’t he want her around? One little spat wasn’t going to change things that much right? Besides he had been trying to cheer her up. Or so he claimed. Making a sudden decision, she took off her sodden shoes, to save her ankle the pain, and went to find the harper.

Finding him at a table near the food stall the greenrider paused. What was she supposed to say? Approaching Dmitri from behind Erilena thought to wrap her arms around him, except well she was still really wet and rather doubted he would appreciate her getting him damp as well. Instead she merely reached a slightly shaky hand out to place it on the harper’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. I overreacted. I know you weren’t trying to be mean.” Trailing off she dropped her shoes and moved to sit in one of the chairs next to him. Hazel eyes flicking to try and catch Dmitri’s gaze Erilena finally gave up and reached out to trail a finger along one of the petals of the flowers on the table.

“Guess I’m being kind of a spoil sport huh?” It was an attempt to lighten the tension between them. Offer a truce of sorts. She didn’t want to fight with him. Didn’t want this to get any worse. “If you want we can try a re do? Maybe I can find something else to conveniently fall into?”

[Requiem]

While it didn't really surprise him at all that Erilena had followed - that was part of the plan, after all - the apology and the tear-stained face that met his gaze when he glanced over his shoulder wasn't what he'd expected. Dmitri sighed softly. How was he supposed to snipe at her when the girl wouldn't fight back? Now he just felt like a big bully. So...being nice didn't get a response. Pulling pranks didn't. Arguing with her didn't. He was beginning to see why R'ven had such a hard time dealing with her down swings. Not that he was likely to mention that to the greenrider right now. (Or ever.)

His gaze drifted down to her feet. Ignoring most of what she'd said, the harper nudged lightly at her ankle with his foot. "You protest runner spit and yet walk barefoot through a gather full of runner scat, broken glass and any other number of things that will bloody up your soles and cause infection?" Nagging her. There was little irritation in his voice, however. Mostly it was just bemusement. Erilena could be a truly strange creature.

"You're not really being a spoilsport. Maybe a little too determined to wallow in your own head. For someone who so determinedly focuses on the bright side of so many things, you really seem to like your depressions. People die. I doubt he'd be making himself so miserable over you. No offense." Okay, so that wasn't terribly supportive, now was it? Dmitri didn't understand, though. He knew that R'wign and Erilena weren't friends. It was okay to mourn people you knew when they died, but he didn't understand this depression she'd sunk into. It was a cold, for Faranth's sake. What was there to be this depressed about?

Despite the harsh nature of his words, the wherhandler lifted the greenrider's leg closer to him, setting the foot in his lap so that he could inspect it. He tsked softly. A few scratches already. Removing his hip flask, Dmitri used the water to wet a cloth from his pocket and began cleaning the dirt from the bottom of her foot. He didn't let her remove it until he'd wrapped the foot, setting it down and retrieving her other leg to start in on the other one. "At least keep them clean if you're going to go without shoes."

That whole time his eyes had been determinedly on her feet, but now they lifted to Erilena's face with a sort of helplessness. "Not going to dump you in something else. Erilena, what is this really about? It's really hard for me to believe that you're taking R'wign's death this hard. He was just your teacher, right? Nothing else?" Dmitri really only meant that in terms of friendship. For the most part. Though it would be a lie to say that it hadn't crossed his mind...even though it seemed unlikely. The Weyrhealer had been joined, after all, and Erilena didn't seem the type who could mess around without half-killing herself with the guilt.

Still, the nagging doubt liked to linger. Thank you Elysia. Even when it wasn't logical and he trusted Erilena, the doubt liked to nibble at him. It occurred to him that some of this might be backwash from Feyrianth. She'd liked Checkoth, hadn't she? Erilena really effected her green, so why wouldn't the opposite be true? It was a more palatable answer.

The harper didn't set her other foot back down. His hands lingered on her calf, lightly massaging the muscle there as he met her eyes. "I don't know how to help you, Lena. Last time you did this it lasted months and you started pushing everyone away. It's been over a sevenday. How do I help you?" Because all the usual methods were not working.

[Rei]

Erilena wrinkled her nose as Dmitri started speaking. Poking him back with her foot she gave a soft snort. “I don’t like being yucky and wet. I like being barefoot.” Which really did nothing at all to refute his claim that it was probably a bad idea in this instance. Although just because she liked to traipse around without shoes on the occasion didn’t mean in this occasion that was the reason. “But really my ankle just hurts. That’s why I took them off. I figure getting dirty feet is better than breaking a leg or my neck in heels on a weak ankle.” The greenrider trailed off as the harper started to continue. Her gaze flicking from his, back to her wet dress, and then back to him again. At least he didn’t seem to be irritated at her over her reaction anymore. That made it a little easier. Also he was willing to talk about it. That was nice. Much better than pretending it didn’t exist.

Dmitri’s words caused Erilena to wrinkle her nose but the expression turned into a small smile when he lifted her leg and started concentrating on her foot. Silly. What was he doing? “I know…he wouldn’t be. R’wign had a family. It’s a sad situation. I’m not really miserable?” Had she really let herself get that down? Apparently so. It wasn’t just R’wign that was depressing her a little though. Which meant she was doing it again. Getting so wrapped up in things and letting it all weigh her down too much. Not letting him know exactly why. No wonder he was resorting to dropping her into things. Oh Demi…The greenrider’s gaze softened as the harper started working on her foot. Making sure it was okay. He…tried so hard. Even now he was taking care of her. And she hadn’t even asked. Had said not a word. Erilena stayed completely still as Dmitri cleaned and wrapped her feet. It felt good for one, and for two he was right. Silly of her to waltz around without shoes in an area like this. “Okay. Thank you.” She murmured softly trusting that he’d hear her without her having to say it louder than that.

Her eyes caught the harper’s blue grey ones when he finally lifted them to her face. The look in them made the greenrider want to hug him. Hug him and not let go. Except Dmitri was asking her a question and Erilena needed to answer it first. Put his fears to rest. The way he phrased the question stuck her as a bit odd. Did he really think that she and R’wign..? That was an almost laughable thought really. But she couldn’t blame him for it. Not after what he had been through in the past. Offering Dmitri a small smile she gave a short shake of her head. “No he was nothing more than my teacher. I talked to him obviously. He was a co-worker, maybe a friend in the loose sense of the word. It’s just kind of depressing seeing Kalierre and M’ta take it so hard. He had children too.” She paused. “And Feyrianth’s very upset as well. She liked Checkoth a lot and Behruth wasn’t doing the best before. Now that Checkoth is gone he’s even worse. It’s hard for her to see him that way and not be able to do anything to help.” The greenrider shook her head.

“It’s not just that either. Remember when you asked where I was and I told you you’d find out? Well I got to see Nephele and K’sel. And then they had to leave again. I miss them. It’s hard knowing that that might be the last time I ever get to see them. I can tell that they don’t think we’ll see each other again anytime soon and I know they’re right. Feyrianth wanted to see Nuoth and Pettahth badly. I couldn’t let her and she’s very upset now. Doesn’t think it’s fair. I tried to explain it to her but she’s still upset.” Finishing Erilena’s gaze again raised to catch Dmitri’s. She hated knowing that the reason for the look of slight helplessness was her. But none of this was his fault. “So it’s not just R’wign no. It’s losing my friends again and it’s Feyrianth being down. She isn’t often down at all and when she is it’s more sad because of that fact.” His touch on her calf was momentarily distracting and she gently rubbed her foot against his thigh to let him know she appreciated the light massage.

How could Dmitri help? Well even talking about it a little was making Erilena feel better. Really it wasn’t fair of her to do this to him. She hadn’t meant to, or really even realized that she was quite so down until he brought it up. But that was beside the point. Leaning forward she reached out to place a hand over the harper’s. “You are helping. Just by being here and supportive. And the trough thing might have worked better if one, it wasn’t cold and full of runner spit and two, I hadn’t spent so much time trying to look nice for you.” She made a face and pulled at her still damp hair. “Now all that work is ruined and I feel yucky.” The greenrider gave a small snort and then smiled. “I’m sorry Puppy. I didn’t really realize I was doing it again until you called me out on it. I need to get better at realizing when I'm being mopey. Talking helps a little. Doing more normal things might help too? Distractions to keep me from dwelling on the things I can’t fix? You’re good at those.”

Dmitri was terribly good at distracting her. Which was probably the reason for the trough in hindsight. Leaning further forward Erilena kissed the tip of his nose. “Except now all I want to do is to get clean and stop feeling so uncomfortable.” Her eyes momentarily swept across the area. “And people need to stop staring so much. It makes me feel a touch awkward.”

[Requiem]

The wherhandler went back to studying her feet, though this time the purpose was a little different. He was trying to see if her ankle was swelling up or not. Possibly bruising. That would be most unfortunate, wouldn't it? Of course, he couldn't tell without both her legs, so in the end he had her half in his lap, comparing the ankles side by side. And yes. One was just a little larger than the other.

Ah. He should have known. While it did make Dmitri feel a little better to hear Erilena say it herself, that R'wign was just her teacher, he wasn't really sure that half her reason for being this upset about it having to do with the midget muscleman freak was that much better. Dmitri didn't really like M'ta all that much. Guy seemed entirely too keen on proving how tough he was. The harper liked to refer to it as midget syndrome. They were so afraid of getting picked on that they overcompensated by a ton.

Of course, it wouldn't have mattered that much if he wasn't suspicious that M'ta had a thing for Erilena. Probably not a thing he knew he had - yet - but once the grief wore off...yeaaah. Okay, time to kick the possessiveness back down a peg. He managed to nod and look sympathetic despite his inward growliness toward men who paid more attention to Dmitri's girl than they should. She really was too nice sometimes. Yes.

"Nephele and K'sel?" Well, that made sense, actually. Hadn't he run into S'rei and Elysia just yesterday? Dmitri understood, though. He hadn't known what to do about Elysia at all. The woman was all over him the day before, but he didn't want to fight about it and who knew when - if - he'd see her again? Easier to just play it light and easy. Besides, he was grateful that she'd brought his father to see him. She could pinch his ass a couple times for that. "Elysia brought up moving there. Me, Dmisk, all the wherhandlers. I told her it wasn't feasible but...it really is tempting."

Dmitri's eyes narrowed at Erilena's nickname for him. By this point, though, the expression was more a reaction of habit than anything truly heartfelt. It was one of those things that there really was no use fighting. "I'll try to notice when you're trying extra hard next time. But you can't look much better than you do evey day, you know." He tickled her toes, smiling quirkily at her.

"We should just go home for the day. Can always come back some other time, and your ankle is swelling up a little." He brushed his fingers over the injured ankle gently. "You need to start telling me what's bothering you more. Especially if you don't notice when you start acting all 'mopey' like you said. All the people you worry about? Probably won't appreciate it if you pull back from them because you're feeling sad."

[Rei]

Erilena was quiet as Dmitri pulled both of her feet into his lap and set to examining them. She had probably just twisted it. Nothing life threatening. But she allowed him his examination anyway. Really the slight throbbing in her ankle was a minimal concern to the greenrider. For some reason she didn’t find it quite as uncomfortable as sitting around in her soaked clothes. A shiver ran though her after the thought. Funny how she didn’t even feel cold till she reminded herself that she was. Hmm. Dmitri was being rather quiet. Likely thinking on what she had said. Well at least he knew why now. Better than not knowing at all.

The sound of her friend’s names caused Erilena to give a little nod. “Yes. I met them by the food stall actually.” She trailed off as she thought about it. It seemed all the exiles were taking far too many chances. The greenrider didn’t really want to think of what might happen should any of them get caught. Her thoughts derailed as the harper finally spoke though. Elysia’s name causing her to turn her head back to try and catch his gaze again. Maybe it was a bit silly but she still felt threatened by the other greenrider on occasion. Just a little. Oh Erilena trusted Dmitri. She just didn’t hold much trust for the Benden woman who had been his previous lover. Could you really blame her? The older woman had been entirely too possessive and jealous as well. To extremes. She really didn’t think Elysia would take the whole thing lying down either. She’d want Dmitri back. Case in point. She was offering to have him leave Selenitas for wherever she was staying and for him to bring his whole wher group too.

Erilena didn’t bother to hide the slightly startled and upset reaction to his words. Tempting? Then…the harper was thinking of doing it? Leaving Selenitas? Leaving her? Nibbling her lip she dropped her gaze. Dmitri…he wouldn’t really leave her would he? The greenrider decided that no. He wouldn’t. Didn’t want to think of what it would mean if she was wrong. “Well it’s something for you to think about I guess. Dmisk is getting bored here isn’t he?” The words were spoken quietly and she suddenly felt much colder. “I don’t know how Feyrianth and I could go with you and I’d miss you if you left. Terribly. I wouldn’t want you to go but…I’m not going to stop you if that’s what you want to do.” It wouldn’t be fair of her to stop him. No matter how badly it hurt to think of him gone. Or how sick with worry the thought even made her. Erilena didn’t want to control him. Tell him he couldn’t do something if he wanted to. He was her partner. Not her slave. If the subject came up again she’d mention her reservations to be fair but…she wouldn’t tell him he couldn’t go.

The switch of subject was thus much appreciated. Even if it was Dmitri being flattering for no apparent reason. Erilena couldn’t help the giggle as he tickled her though, her voice coming out a bit lighter. “Uh huh. Nice try flatterer.” Giving him a genuine smile she wrinkled her nose and plucked at her wet clothes as he continued. “We could go home yes. I’d like to bathe. Relax. Except if I went between now I’d end up completely frozen.” The brush of fingers over her ankle had her tilting her head. Especially then the harper took up a more serious tone. “I know. I’m sorry. I meant to tell you. I promised myself I wouldn’t do this again.” The greenrider shifted and offered him a half smile. “You’re right. I don’t want it to happen again. I’ll make a conscious effort to tell you.” Leaning forward she reached for his hand giving it a light squeeze. “I promise.”

[Requiem]

It certainly took no great amount of intelligence to figure out what was behind that expression that went over Erilena's face at the mention of Elysia's offer. He could have kicked himself for not realizing that what he'd said would bother the girl. Lena was so much more accepting of the rather odd relationship he still had with his ex - despite the distance - that it was easy to think it didn't bug her in the slightest. That wasn't really the truth though, was it?

He sighed inwardly at her words. This was a topic he'd have to address sometime soon. If not, Erilena would simply worry about it forever. Not until he'd had a moment to run the thoughts through his head first so there would be no further misunderstandings, though. Dmitri was just as comfortable with letting the topic shift as the healer was.

Returning the light squeeze, the harper kept her hand in his. "I'll hold you to that." He would, too. Dmitri didn't have a good track record for holding his tongue in situations like that, after all. (Or for holding his tongue at all.) "We can stay here a bit longer...until you dry off. If you're hungry or anything..." Dmitri shrugged in the direction of the nearby stalls, his meaning more than clear.

Then he tapped her lightly on the nose with a finger. "I already told her I was going nowhere without you and Dmisk. Sure you can imagine how much she liked that." His half-smile was decidedly rueful. "And since it would take a divine act to convince Eikask to leave here - more than that to get Dmisk to leave his clutchsisters behind despite his boredom - it's rather a moot point anyway."

Hopefully that would soothe some of her worries. Erilena definitely thought too much about just about everything. "So, am I still in trouble for pushing you into a trough of runner spit, or are you going to let me bathe with you?" he questioned, attempting to lighten the mood. "Because if you're not sure I'm certain I have several persuasive arguments..."

[Rei]

Erilena smiled as Dmitri squeezed her hand and wiggled her fingers between his, interlacing them and tilting her head to look back at the stalls. Giving a light shrug she responded. “Well guess we’re stuck sitting here longer then.” Wrinkling her nose, her other hand smoothed out her wet dress. Yuck. As much as the greenrider hated sitting here all damp the thought of getting undressed in even a semi public area was worse. It made her beyond nervous and uncomfortable. Nope, they would just have to sit here until she was dry enough that a trip between wouldn’t cause her to freeze too much. “I’m not really all that hungry? You can go get something to eat if you want though. You said you were hungry earlier.” Before the harper had decided to try and ‘cheer her up’ actually if memory served.

Blinking as he suddenly tapped her nose Erilena turned her attention fully back to Dmitri. Ah, back to the Elysia topic. Not that she really wanted to think about it. At all. Was it wrong that she felt threatened by the older woman? Oh Erilena knew Dmitri wouldn’t cheat on her. Trusted him completely. Why would he after he went though what he did with Elysia? But still. Just because she trusted the harper didn’t mean she trusted the benden woman. Not one bit. At any rate Elysia wasn’t here and it seemed her last little venture to try and open a rift wasn’t really working. “I’m sure she wasn’t happy about it at all.” The greenrider responded with a slightly subdued smile. Erilena was well aware of how much Elysia liked her before when Dmitri and her were nothing but good friends. Now? Well now she was willing to bet the older woman would have no qualms about making her life hell if she could. “Guess it is rather moot then.” For now anyway. But there was no point in worrying about something that might never happen. Besides the harper had just said he was going nowhere without her. So then there really was nothing to worry about.

Erilena fixed her attention on some of the passing people for a moment and shifted in her chair again, a light shiver running though her in response to the light breeze. Summer would have been a better time to soak her. Turning her head towards Dmitri as he spoke the greenrider fought back a smile and slowly raised an eyebrow instead. “Oh you are most definitely still in trouble.” She responded with a slight narrowing of her eyes, the expression just a touch playful. “I hope you have very good persuasive arguments because right now I’m entertaining the decision of never allowing you to bathe with me ever again. I think that might be a decent punishment for my continued discomfort.”

[Requiem]

Dmitri waved that aside. He had a tendency to collect marks, but only because he wasn't fond of spending them on unnecessary things. The bluehandler wasn't so hungry that he couldn't wait a candlemark or two for Erilena to dry off. Food in the Main Hall was both tasty and free. Plus there was no limit on portions. An all around better deal than the Food Stall here, especially to a man who could almost eat his own weight in the course of a day. (With only mild exaggeration.)

Couldn't resist the small smirk at the woman's high-handed response. "That's my argument, actually. Checks and balances. We can agree at least that it's more comfortable to be bathed than to bathe oneself? I've caused you the discomfort, so it only stands to reason that I should be made to give you comfort in equal measure." As he spoke, his thumbs gently massaged at her feet.

"Besides. You'd never hold such a grudge against me forever. You like our baths too much. I'd give you a few days tops. Maybe a sevenday if you're being particularly stubborn." Which she was bound to be if he challenged her like that, but it was half the fun. "There is one other argument." Glancing sidelong at those closest to the table, he leaned in near Erilena. "You couldn't keep me out of the bathing room if you wanted to, not if I decided to be in there." Cue immature display of the tongue.

"So I have an idea. Why don't you just come up with a way for me to make the runner spit incident up to you? That should be far more appealing to both parties." Dmitri moved to her other foot. Apparently it didn't bother him in the slightest to be caught out in public with a woman's legs in his lap. The tall harper was half-settled back in his seat and looking entirely content at this moment.

[Rei]

So then food wasn’t important currently. Erilena was slightly amused by that. Dmitri was always hungry lately. Something she chalked up to him being young and very active. Or maybe just giant. Really at this rate the harper was going to end up like ten feet tall. Okay maybe that was an exaggeration but still. Wringing out the end of her dress the woman lightly brushed across Feyrianth’s mind and was momentarily distracted by the irritation present in the green’s answer. Apparently she didn’t want to go home. Sighing she attempted to explain to the female and when that didn’t go as expected decided to leave well enough alone for now. Try and make it up to her later.

Speaking of making things up to people. Hazel eyes regarded her boyfriend with thinly veiled amusement. Really? That was his argument? Okay so he did have a point but still. Hopefully Dmitri didn’t think it was going to be that easy. “Checks and balances. Hmm. You do have a point. It is more comfortable to be bathed. But. See…this way we both get something out of it. Doesn’t sound like much of a punishment for you to me. Not if I allow you to join me.” But he could keep rubbing her feet. That felt really nice.

Head tilting Erilena gave a soft snort. “Oh I don’t know. I think you’d be surprised at just how long I can hold a grudge for this one.” Her eyes narrowed slightly at the slight accusation. Yes she liked their joint baths. A lot. But she was also willing to bet Dmitri liked them more. Thus she was cutting him off. Or doing her best to. Brat. “Oh we’ll see how correct your predictions are. I think I’m more stubborn than you’re currently giving me credit for.” Raising one eyebrow the greenrider watched as the harper leaned in closer and she leaned in closer herself to better hear him.

Erilena’s eyes again slightly narrowed at his words and she gave a small smile before responding. “Oh really? I think I could keep you out if I was really determined.” After all there were all kinds of things she could use to block a door. Plus a Fey to use to her advantage if needed. It was really tempting to make a grab for his tongue as he displayed it but she settled for flicking at it instead.

Leaning back in her chair Erilena tried not to giggle. “Are you sure you want to leave that up to me? I’m not so sure you’ll enjoy anything I come up with.” Currently she was thinking maybe involving Fey and a dragon ride. Since they were talking about discomfort and all. But that was quickly rejected as just way too mean. Even if Dmitri did dump her in spit. Instead she was just going to hold it above his head for awhile before making a decision on the matter. “Maybe you should just keep sucking up for now? It might cause me go easy on you.” She teased in a light tone and this time it was her turn to stick out her tongue. Not that she was complaining about the foot rub. Not at all.

[Requiem]

Erilena had a comeback for everything, didn't she? He'd have to be hypocritical to hold it against her. (Besides, Dmitri didn't ascribe to the holdwoman's ideal. Boring.) Nevertheless, he wasn't going to dignify her baiting with responses. The wherhandler knew he was right. So he'd let her argue to her heart's content. And soon enough he'd have her in the baths just like she swore he wouldn't, because that was simply the way of things.

"As usual, you really don't even know what you'd do to 'punish' me, do you?" he questioned, with no small amount of amusement. "I don't know what you mean by keep sucking up to you as it is. I don't suck up to people." Unless baiting Erilena and claiming that she wouldn't be cutting him off was considered sucking up...in which case he'd really gotten the definition wrong.

No, it hardly occurred to Dmitri to think that how he was treating her was sucking up. The wherhandler had a habit of completely spoiling people and creatures that meant something to him - not without giving them a ridiculous amount of lip in the process though, of course. Erilena was certainly no exception. Leaning forward over the legs in his lap, Dmitri kissed her with enough attention to get her flushed. Intentionally of course. He could be mean when he wanted to be.

Not pulling back more than necessary to look into her eyes, he smiled a touch wickedly. "Do you think you'll dry off faster if I heat you up?" the teenager murmured. His hand slid up her ankle, up her calf, disappearing under her skirt. (Of course he wasn't being too wicked out her in public, and kept his hand on the lower portion of her leg. The goal was to fluster.)