Once more with feeling. (PRP: Samael)

[Zephyr]

The girl lay on one of the cots, staring up at the ceiling, the ceiling she knew all too well. In fact, she'd been hurt so many times that she probably memorized the pattern of that ceiling. It wasn't just because of her clumsiness, either. It was also because she was just so unlucky. At least this time she hadn't been looking at some cute boy. Though come to think of it, that probably would have been better than what really happened. The girl hadn't been paying attention, too busy thinking about skipping chores than paying attention to where she was going and she tripped right over her probably too large feet. Now, this is where the unlucky part came in. It just so happened that there had been a rather large rock where she fell and she cracked her forehead on the rock. Of course she had blacked out for several seconds as blood ran down into her eyes, but the wound looked far worse than it really was.

Of course the overdramatic girl had made a big fuss of it when she was rushed into the infirmary. Over squeals of " I'm blind, I'm blind, I'll never see again!" and " OW, be careful! If I die, you're going to feel terrible!", she was dumped unceremoniously onto this bed. Because, no matterr how good the good Samaritan, there was only so much of one girl's drama queen wails they could take. She had said something too them, in quite an indignant tone of voice, but it had been lost as healers began work on her, cleaning up her head. The wound didn't even need stitching. Instead, here she lay, with bandage wrapped clean around her head.

Sighing heavily, she was sure the healers hated seeing her here, probably mostly because of the fact that she was just in here so much. Ani was probably the person they saw the most, and it wasn't her fault. It wasn't like she intended to twist her ankle or planned on spitting her head CLEAR OPEN. She just wished that people would stop saying that she got sent to the infirmary so much so that she would have an excuse not to do chores or attend lessons.

...

JACKPOT!

She hadn't thought of it before that way, but being hurt WAS a good way to get out of things that weren't so pleasant. Not that she was going to get hurt on purpose just so she'd be able to miss things. Getting hurt actually hurt...a lot, and Ani had a low tolerance for pain. Probably not the best thing for someone who injured herself so many times. It wasn't just the pain part she had issues with. She didn't like being talked about, and didn't like people assuming anything about her. Of course if she got hurt more often, then people would talk about her and say that she was doing it on purpose. It looked liked she was in a no win situation.

Feeling like she wanted to scream, Vellani put the furs over her face and did just that, until she was red in the face. Hopefully no one heard. Hopefully the furs over her face muffled the sound well enough for no one to hear.

Hopefully...

[Aftershock]

Samael hated the infirmary. Having visited it many times during his youth due to injuries related to falls or impacts with objects due to his blindness, since his sister couldn't be there to help him 24/7, he enjoyed the independence he had since he'd found Heimdall to guide him. However, Heimdall was still young, and rarely let himself get distracted, which spelled disaster for Samael. One such occasion had happened today, with Heimdall letting a wandering tunnelsnake distract him long enough to let Samael hit a dip in the roadway, causing him to twist his ankle severely enough that he had to have a couple people carry him to the infirmary. After gaining such independence, it was never fun being reminded of his disability in such a way.

Heimdall obviously understood his role in the accident, as he lie right next to Samael's cot, watching everyone walking by carefully as if he thought being extra-observant would make up for his lack of attention earlier. Samael sat on the cot sullenly, his ankle lightly wrapped to help keep it from moving and causing him pain, waiting for the weyrhealer to come over to check on it to make sure it wasn't broken and wrap it better before releasing him to hobble off. Suddenly, from a cot nearby, Samael's sensitive hearing caught the sound of a feminine scream, muffled by something held over her mouth. Horrified that something bad might be happening to some poor girl, and thinking no one else was paying attention, he quickly got up, forgetting Heimdall's sentinel position beneath his cot and catching his foot on the canine's broad back, causing him to tumble head over heels and fall directly beside Vellani's cot. Blind eyes staring up in the general direction of the girl, Samael gritted his teeth from the shooting pain from his freshly-twisted ankle as he asked, "Is everyt - hissss - thing all right? Are you okay?"

[Zephyr]

The girl's entire life would be a good example of overreaction. After releasing her frustrations into the pillow, she lay back with the thing still over her head. As usual, she had been too busy with her own deal to notice anyone else being brought into the infirmary. Of course her injuries were always the most important and anyone else could...

But, something startled her. The sound of something thumping to the ground right near her cot made her jump with a little shriek of alarm. Sitting up in the bed now, Ani flung the pillow to the side and gazed down at the boy, now on the floor. It took her a second of wondering why he was down there before he spoke. It took her another second to realize he was hurt, not that his presence in an infirmary meant anything, and another to realize that she should do something. Not at all as hurt as she would like to lead people to believe, she dropped down beside the boy and helped him up.

" I'm fine." She said, walking with him back over to his bed. " You didn't have to get out of bed for me. I was just being a dimglow." She said, biting a lip. For once, she felt bad for causing the injured boy to hurt himself further trying to see to her, when she was barely injured at all. " Are you okay? What did..." Suddenly she paused, studying the stranger's face. He looked so familiar. Why though? " I think I..." The eyes. They were so distinctive. " Were you born in blossom? You and your sister?" Ani perched on the edge of her bed, tilting her head to the side. It was clear the girl wasn't the best with tact, but she honestly had no idea what had happened to Samael's sister. She was just happy to have met someone she knew for once, even if she didn't know his name.

[Aftershock]

Samael flushed a bit as the girl helped his to his feet and supported him as he hobbled back towards his own cot, Heimdall at his other side, having bounded up right after Samael had tripped over him and gone over to attend his fallen master, whining plaintively at the fact that he had caused his master harm twice in one day, however indirectly. The feminine smell of the girl's hair overpowered the antiseptic smell of the infirmary as he limped back to his cot with his arm over her petite shoulders, and he tried to put as little pressure on her as possible, being unaware of what injuries she had in addition to not wanting to seem too weak around this nice-smelling girl with the pretty voice.

Biting back the pain from his voice, he waved off Vellani's statement about her being a dimglow, replying, "Oh, it's fine, really. I just heard your muffled screaming, and I couldn't see what was happening, so I just wanted to make sure everything was all right." He did his best to avoid the question of why he felt he, as a blind non-weyrhealer, would be able to help anyway, or why he reacted so quickly to a sign of cute feminine distress. "I was a bit of a dimglow, myself, not being more careful to check the way was clear before getting up. Being with my condition since I was born, you'd think I would know better by now," he concluded, involuntarily flushing a bit darker at the admission of his own stupidity.

When she seemed to recognize him, his expression grew sad, then a bit angry, and he responded, "Yes, I was born in Blossom Hold. My sister was Tomerin, and our parents were the silkweavers Tomell and Serin." Furrowing his brow a bit, he added, "Oh, I'm Samael, by the way. Thank you again for helping me back to my cot... did you know my sister? I don't recognize your voice at all..."

[Zephyr]

After he was safely on his cot, her eyes drifted down, catching sight of the dog at his side. Her eyes lit up and she half bent down to scratch the dog, but restrained herself. She didn't know this dog, and didn't have the boy's permission to pet him. So she bit her lip and righted herself, brushing her hair back away from her eyes as she did so. She blanched a little when he spoke, realizing that he had been on the wrong end of her over exaggerating her injury. Sometimes she could be a real idiot. The girl could walk the walk, but when it came right down to it, she couldn't really talk the talk.

" Oh me?" She shrugged lightly, sinking meekly into herself. " I'm fine. I just hit my head a little. I'm...kind of, I mean...pretty...clumsy." It was difficult for her to admit, but it was true. She could trip over nothing and hurt herself. It didn't help that she went chasing after boys all the time. Why was she so easily distracted? After a moment, she tilted her head to the side, winging her feet back and forth. After a second, she winked at him. " I think you're doing pretty well, myself. Though I don't know how much merit is in that, coming from me. I'm the worlds worst walker, ever. I fall more than I get anywhere, to be honest."

His change in expression confused her and almost immediately she regretted saying anything about knowing him. She wished that they made ways to take back things that you have said. His sister was. She wondered what happened, but didn't want to stick her foot in her mouth any farther than it already was. Instead, she perked at his words. " My parents are Clemarc and Evani. My mother died when I was born though, so I didn't know her. They made silk too! I helped a lot after mom died." The girl shrugged again. It didn't affect her too much that her mother died. She didn't know her, so there wasn't anything to miss. How her father treated her after wasn't great, though. She nodded slowly at his words. " Well, I didn't know her, but I remember speaking to her before. She was a cool girl. I'm Vellani. I don't know if you'd know me. I spent a lot of time helping my father with the silk."

[Aftershock]

Due to his condition, Samael was oblivious to Vellani's aborted attempt to pet Heimdall, blanch, shrug, head-tilt, or wink. Heimdall, however, wagged his tail a bit when she began to bend down to pet him, then drooped his ears and tail when she stopped, confused. Trying to get her to give him attention, he crawled forward on his belly towards where she stood next to the cot, sitting his loose-jowled face on her foot and looking up at her with his best puppy-dog eyes.

As she spoke about hitting her head, Samael's expression changed to one of concern and he began to reach out to check on her, before quickly realizing he was just as likely to accidentally poke her in the eye and retracting his hand, flushing a bit in embarrasment. "What was it about this girl that's causing me to act so stupid?" he thought to himself, then replied to her compliment with, "Oh, that's not me, that's mostly Heimdall," gesturing in the direction of the overacting canine on the floor. "Without him, I'm sure I'd be ten times worse than you could ever be. Perhaps if you had a canine to watch your step, you would do better, too, though," he added, smiling.

As she spoke of her history in Blossom, Samael nodded, saying, "I believe I remember my father mentioning the name Clemarc before, but I never participated much in his dealings with other silkweavers, so I never had any context with the name." As she mentioned Tomerin, he smiled a bit, sadly, saying, "Yes, Tomerin was an amazing sister. I never would have survived and thrived long enough to be where I am today if it weren't for her. She helped me be confident despite my disability, and find ways to be useful, and helped me move around before I found Heimdall." As the memories flowed, his eyes began to shine with tears as he said, "She would have been a great dragonrider, had she been given the chance... if it weren't for those damned, evil Wasteland bastards!" Balling his fists in anger, his eyes clenched shut and the tears rolling down his cheeks, his eyes suddenly shot open and his expression became haunted, and he shifted his head as if to listen around him for any Wastelanders who might have heard his outburst.

[Zephyr]

The dog's reaction made her tilt her head to the side. She hoped that the boy wouldn't mind her patting his dog. It was so cute! And all in all, she was still a girl...and she loved cute things. Sliding off of the cot, she pulled her knees to her chest and beamed down at the dog, patting it lightly for a few seconds. When Samael spoke, she glanced up to him, still scratching Heimdall. " Oh, I don't know. I'm sure you get around fine." Though she had never seen him without the dog, so she didn't dwell on the subject. When it came to her getting a canine, Ani just giggled, putting her chin on her knees. " Well, if I could find a canine as amazing as Heimdall, then I might just consider it." How did one go about getting a canine in the first place?

She was considering asking him when he continued on about his parents. Still petting the dog, she listened to him raptly, grinning when he mentioned her father. " I never had much of a choice. My father couldn't keep the business going if I didn't help him, and there was no way I was going to let that happen." It did keep her from living her life to the fullest when she was young, but it didn't matter. She'd make up for it now, she was sure.

Then, the atmosphere changed when Samael started talking about his sister. Vellani tilted her head, pulling her hand away from Heimdall to listen to his master. Obviously he loved his sister a great deal. She had never had siblings, so she didn't know what kind of bond that could be. She hadn't ever had any significant bond with anyone. The bond between she and her father was...different. She never felt that close to him.

Now, Vellani had never been good at comforting people, but when she saw how upset he was, there wasn't any way she was just going to sit there. Rising to her feet, she took a seat next to him on his cot, staying silent while he finished talking. So. The wastelanders were responsible for his loss? All at once, the color drained from her face. She had been at that hatching...where the bastards had killed innocent babies. Everything was falling into place. " Your sister..." ...was one of the dragonriders killed that day. She couldn't finish...didn't need to. That was the elephant in the room.

She composed herself quickly, taking one of his hands in her's without thinking about it. She felt compelled comfort him in some way. After a moment, she spoke, her voice soft. " Tomerin would be proud of you...you know? It takes so much strength to not give up after losing something so dear to you. You're living, Samael. Live for your sister. Live for anyone who lost someone they love." She stopped talking for a moment, realized that she probably was making a fool of herself. Finally, she spoke again, in a softer voice. " You're an inspiration, Samael, and those wastelanders...they can never take that away from you, or your will. That's all yours." She squeezed his hand a little. One thing was for sure, he had inspired her.

[Aftershock]

Samael seemed to recover a bit when he felt Vellani take his hand into hers, and he quickly rubbed his eyes on his sleeve, wiping the tears from his face as he flushed again in embarrassment. "Thank you, Vellani. You may be clumsy, but you sure know how to make a guy feel better," Samael said, a smile crossing his features like the sun emerging from the clouds. He sat for a bit in silence, not moving to remove his hand from hers, when finally he gathered his resolve and said, "I... I was wondering, Vellani... may I touch your face?" Quickly explaining, he blurted, "I mean, I can't... see you," he began, waving a hand to indicate his clouded eyes, "But if I touch your face, I can feel the shape of it, and in doing so know you better. And I, er... well, I think you're worth knowing better," he concluded, flushing yet darker as he awaited her response.

[Zephyr]

The girl was more relieved than she would say when Samael didn't pull away from her. She was new to this whole comforting thing, and to have him pull away would likely shatter some of her self confidence, especially around guys. And if anyone knew Ani, that wasn't a lot to begin with. So, it was probably a very good idea the boy didn't pull away. In fact, he seemed to be accepting her words, and what's more, he seemed genuinely grateful that she was there. This was a new feeling for Ani. She couldn't remember anyone ever being thankful for her presence, she quite liked it, actually.

The girl giggled when he thanked her. She flushed lightly as he mentioned her dirty secret to her. Well, it wasn't so much dirty as horribly embarrassing. She had made a fool of herself far too many times because of how clumsy she was. Still, it was nice that he wasn't judging her. That was definitely something she needed. " Well I'm glad I could oblige. I just wish someone had said something to me when my mother died." She shrugged lightly. She had been a baby at the time, but going through your life with your father treating you like a pariah. The girl was actually over it now though, she had long ago accepted the fact that her father wouldn't treat her like a true daughter, and that was alright, as long as she had someone who cared about her, at least a little bit.

They sat in a comfortable silence then, a silence, for once wasn't awkward for the girl. She wondered what Samael was thinking about and contemplated asking him, but the boy spoke again and Ani's eyes widened a little. Touch her? Why did he want to...Then he continued on, and she could see why he wanted to. Sure, it would be slightly weird for her, maybe a little disconcerting, but truefully, there was no way she'd say no. Because fact was, Vellani wanted Samael to get to know her better, and she wanted to get to know him. " Of course." To illustrate the fact that it was fine with her, she took his hands and brought them up to touch her cheeks lightly. She brought her hands down and watched him with interest.

[Aftershock]

Samael didn't say anything to the mention of Vellani's dead mother, because even though he couldn't see the shrug, he could definitely hear the lack of emotion in her voice when she mentioned it. The girl was obviously past feeling bad about it, and Samael realized that giving the girl sympathy about it could simply dredge up old wounds.

Samael smiled wider as his gambit paid off and Vellani agreed to let him "see" her face with his hands. He still was a bit flushed, however, as his somewhat non-social nature combined with the fact that many saw someone touching their face as a very personal thing meant that he had only "seen" the face of a very few people, and none of them was a cute girl near his own age. His sensitive fingers went from her cheeks up to move around her eyes (careful not to poke them), across her forehead, then stroking down her hair to her neck, then around and back up again to feel her jawline, chin, lips, and then nose. The touch was probing, yet soft and gentle, Samael's hands smooth and uncalloused from hard physical labor like many boys' his age were. As he completed his circuit of her face with his fingertips, he left his fingertips still hovering around Vellani's lips as he said, "Wow... you're beautiful." He actually didn't know how beautiful she was compared to other women, due to his very small pool of references, but he wasn't lying... to him, with how kind and personable she was, she WAS beautiful, even if he didn't know how she stacked against other women in the physical looks department.

[Zephyr]

If Samael had asked about her mother, she would have answered his questions. Talking about her mother didn't hurt her at all. Some people were free to call her heartless, Ani just thought of it as not missing something you've never had. It really was that simple.

She was uncomfortable letting him touch her face like he was. She had never let anyone touch her like that and it was a very personal thing letting someone practically stroke your face. Still, she trusted Samael, probably more than she had really trusted anyone. That was saying a lot considering she had just met him, but there was something about him, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. While she was figuring out what that thing was, she might as well let him get to know her better.

When he spoke, her face blushed bright red. She was glad that he couldn't see it at that moment. After a while, she spoke, giggling softly. " I don't know if I'd go that far, but...thanks." Her eyes fell as she admitted this. Finally, she spoke to him, glancing up to his eyes with a beaming smile. she realized that she knew very little about him, so she'd get to. Though, her method was a little different. " So, are you a candidate too?" She was a little hopeful. The thought of getting to know another candidate was a good one. She didn't know that his eyes would make it a little hard for him to be a candidate.

[Aftershock]

As Samael felt the heat of Vellani's flush rise to her face, he quickly removed his fingertips from her skin, stuttering out, "I, er, I apologize if I embarrassed you." Sitting in silence for a moment, this time a little more awkward than the last silence, her response made him smile a little, and he responded, "Don't mind me. I just don't talk to women too often, and you've been so kind to me, and friendly... most people seem to be uncomfortable around me because of my eyes, so I don't have too many friends..." He trailed off at that, a little embarrassed himself for such an admission.

Samael's mood darkened a bit as Vellani asked him about being a Candidate, and he sighed deeply before responding, "No, not I. With my blindness, I could never be a dragonrider. The only reason I'm here is because I couldn't survive without Tomerin, so when she was Searched, she convinced them that I had to come with her. So, now that she's... gone..." He choked a bit at the word, then regained control of his emotions and continued, "...it's just me and Heimdall." Patting Heimdall's head, he said, "I do my best to pull my weight around here, though I know I can never do as much as someone who can see, and I can never protect people like the dragonriders and wherhandlers do..." At this, Samael lapsed into silence, blind eyes glancing away ashamedly as he nervously twiddled his fingers against one another.

[Zephyr]

Vellani's eyes widened quickly, and she shook her head. " No, no, it's fine." Then she bit her lip and looked away, gaze settling on something in the corner. When she spoke once more, her voice took on a softer quality. " I'm just not used to being touched is all. Not like it happens all that much." Which is something she probably wouldn't be saying to anyone if that anyone didn't happen to be Samael. She glanced back to him as he spoke and smiled a little, laughing softly. " I know what you mean, but not about your eyes. People must really be awful if they choose not to be your friend because of something you can't control..." She tilted her head and regarded him carefully. " Well, their loss. It just means I can have you all to myself."

The blonde girl put a hand on the boy's shoulder as he started speaking, squeezing softly when the subject of Tomerin's death came up again. She could see how much talking about it hurt him, and her stomach twisted at the thought of making him bring it up again. After a second, she grinned lightly. " You two have me now, for what it's worth. If...you don't mind me being around?" The last part had a hopeful lilt to it. Having him reject her now would hurt, especially knowing the depth of the boy's feelings. He didn't want him to feel upset anymore, empathy being a new emotion for the normally over dramatic girl.

" Don't say that." She said as he finished speaking, eyes narrowing into a slight frown. " I'm sure you do plenty, and what you do do, you can probably do better than most seeing people. I know you can probably do almost anything better than me. And you have Heimdall. Never have I seen such a nobler aide." Technically, she was trying to make him feel better, but that didn't make what she said any less true.

[Aftershock]

At the explanation for Vellani's embarrassment, Samael's smile returned to his face, and he said, "I understand. It's surely not every day a guy asks you if he can touch your face. Those with sight are lucky enough to be able to see you without having to embarrass you in the process," he added, with a bit of a flush to his face.

At her feelings on people not being his friend due to his eyes, Samael smiled softly, responding, "Well, I think it's less they don't want to be my friend because I'm blind, but instead they're uncomfortable talking to me because they don't know how to speak to me.... they can't help but think about my disability, but don't want to mention it for fear of offending me, and so decide to not speak to me much at all." Smiling wider as she continued, he responded, "Well, their loss is definitely my gain then."

Samael flushed a bit deeper as he felt Vellani's hand on his shoulder, and when she asked if he minded her being around, he quickly retorted, "Oh, no, no, not at all! I truly enjoy being around you, and I... I would hope to have you around more, i-in the future," he continued, stumbling a bit over the words. "Samael, you just met this girl, don't go losing your heart over her now," he thought to himself, "Such an incredible girl won't want some silly blind weyrfolk as anything more than a friend, don't get your hopes up or else you'll just end up getting them dashed."

As she praised his ability, Samael's flush maintained on his face, and he replied, "T-thank you, again. You're much too kind. I simply... don't like to be a burden, is all. While me and Tomerin were growing up, I always wondered in the back of my mind whether she would have rather lived her life without taking care of me, where her life would have led without having to watch over her blind twin brother..." Samael trailed off a bit from there, and Heimdall, having wagged his tail and looked at Vellani at hearing his name, detected his master's shift in mood and nosed at Samael's hand, trying to comfort him.