East of the Sun [R'men]

[Ruby]

It had gotten dark. Not that you could really tell, in the flightrooms with their adjoining ledge, where Nitrath was curled up with Weith, sleeping off her flight and still glowing like a miniature Rukbat. She provided more than enough light to wake Caden, who was normally up when the sun first peeked over the horizon.

The Junior Weyrwoman woke on her stomach, which was odd in the first place. Usually she slept on her back, ready to leap up at a moment's notice. One arm was slung across something warm, and her shoulders ached. She woke slowly, which was also rare, one eye slitting open just enough for her to realize she had a headache. Dehydrated, probably. Her whole mouth felt dry, so that seemed likely. There was something wrong with the light, too. She'd assume she was sick (not that Caden ever got sick) except that there was the most ridiculously pleased, languorous feeling coming from Nitrath, and surely her Gold would be worrying if there was something wrong with her. Therefore, she must be fine.

Not to mention the Bronze. Ah. Right.

Flight had happened, Caden had survived it. Gingerly, she withdrew her arm, scrunching her face up in pain. It wasn't her pain, of course, but phantom soreness from Nitrath, so Caden accepted it wholeheartedly. Anything she could do to make her Gold hurt less was fine by her. Once the arm was free, the girl flopped over onto her back, shoving her hair off her forehead. It was short, messy, and stiff with dried sweat, which couldn't help her be more attractive. That had never been an issue for her before - even Mo'rya's fussing about her appearance hadn't made her self conscious - but all of a sudden she was. She'd been aware of R'men before this (Nitrath had made her aware of all the bronzeriders), but she'd never met the man. What if he didn't like her?

Nitrath wasn't even awake to tell her what a stupid thought that was.

Well, there was one way to avoid finding out what he thought of her: she could get out of here as soon as possible. Most of her clothes seemed to be missing, although the only thing she could remember taking off was her jacket, but once she levered herself up (ow ow ow) and started searching, things started to show up. She was still wearing her necklace, though; silver wire around a gemstone, one of a kind. A gift from Er'ani. On second though, maybe that was a bad thing to wear to her flight, but she hadn't exactly been given a lot of time to prepare, and she wore it almost all of the time. It was the only piece of jewelry someone didn't have to force onto her, but she also hid it under necklines almost constantly. Ah, there was her shirt, under the - "Crap," she yelped, pulling her foot up into one hand, massaging the toe she'd stubbed on some hard thing under a blanket. Oops. Probably woke up her Bronze.

[Sheari]

The horrible truth was that the first thought to register in R’men’s mind was “This isn’t my bed,” and that that didn’t alarm him. In fact, he was more inclined to just lay there, allowing the pain in his back and shoulders to exist undisturbed. With that notion in his head, he allowed himself to just lay there and doze off again until the arm that had been laying across him, that hadn’t been noticed until then, moved. In a moment, it came back to him. The Flight, being pushed back onto a bed…he started when he heard Caden stub her toe, which strained his sore muscles.

He could feel Weith curled up on the ledge, sleeping with Nitrath, and the bronzerider would have been even more alarmed in he didn’t know that Nitrath was gold. The last time he’d woken up in the Flight room, it had been with a man. It was an experience he’d rather forget simply because Flightlust lead to things that two men simply should not be doing. Carefully, and with a good amount of discomfort, R’men turned his head and sat up, looking at Caden. He was careful not to let the blanket fall too far down to keep himself covered, despite the lack of clothes for either of them.

Seeing her for the first time under his own power he saw that she was beautiful in her own way. Perhaps if she styled her hair a bit different and let it grow a little more. Maybe if she added a bit more weight to herself and looked a bit more feminine. She was pretty, he’d give her that, and he knew that at the moment he was being incredibly shallow. For now, he’d barely even met her, if you could call this meeting, and if they got past this awkward stage he would be happy to be her friend.

“Isn’t it the guy who’s supposed to wake up and leave without another word?” he smiled. He’d never met Caden, and he had no idea how she would take that. It was, however, the best he could do at the moment, considering the circumstances. It seemed that they were far and way beyond the point of “hello”, skipping all of the steps that made up the core of any form of relationship, friend, lover, or stranger.

R’men gingerly rose from his place to search for his own clothes, being unable to recall removing any of them himself. Once he’d found a donned his shorts and pants he felt much more comfortable. “Can I help you with anything?” he offered. He hadn’t yet found the rest of his clothes, and at the moment he was certain that his shoulder would protest a great deal to anything involving a shirt.

[Ruby]

When she heard R'men sit up, Caden dropped her foot and started sideways, clutching the first thing she found over her naked chest... before she realized it was R'men's underwear she was holding. Letting them fall (and starting to turn red in a patchy, unattractive way) she crossed her arms over her chest instead, raising her chin and thanking Faranth she'd already found her underwear. "I don't... don't know," she answered his first question, meeting his smile with a glare. It wasn't his fault, she knew that, but she didn't have anyone else to blame, so R'men it was. "I haven't done this much before." She tried not to sound accusing, but it still came out that way - not that she knew anything about R'men. She just assumed. He was plenty attractive enough to be one of those womanizing bronzeriders, after all.

When he got out of bed, Caden turned all the way red, carefully looking anywhere but at R'men as she chucked him his boxers with deadly accuracy. The faster she could get him dressed and out of here, the faster she could go back to her weyr, even if every movement made her wince. She'd thought she'd been sore pretty much everywhere before now, but her inner thighs - a flash of remembered pleasure caught her off guard, making her flush even worse. She was practically purple, now. No wonder she was sore in funny places.

Poor R'men was not going to get out of this easily, either. Caden blithely ignored any of his attempts to be nice and offer help, automatically assuming he was making fun of her or something. "Help? I'm just trying to find my breastband so I can get out of here." Stormy goldrider was stormy. Luckily for R'men, though, the strength of Caden's discomfort roused Nitrath, who started humming quietly, obviously pleased. Talking to Caden and to Weith (if he was awake), Nitrath commented, Calm, girl. He did nothing to earn your wrath, did he? Did he hurt you, or give you no pleasure? I think not. You should apologize for your rudeness, he and Weith have been model mates. But - We will have a strong clutch, Weith and I. If nothing else, be glad for that, and please be polite to Weith's. His mindmate has been of great service to the Weyr. If there was any way to earn Caden's respect, it was to be of service to the Weyr.

Bending down to look under the only chair in the room, Caden muttered from her position on the floor, "Sorry. Nitrath says I need to be more polite." The color was fading from her cheeks (and neck, and head) now, and she risked a glance back at the bronzerider. "I'm just not good at, well, any of this. Gold's not my color." That made Nitrath let out a trill of gentle laughter, filling Caden's brain with light and warmth, still looping Weith in, as well. Of course it is.[/i]