Outrun my Gun (Piden)

[Zephyr]

Saphor was still sitting in the same place she had been since the salamandyr hatching started. She didn't trust herself to get up, not with Piden around...and definitely not with Phaiden within earshot of the pair of them. She wasn't sure if Piden knew that they were here. If Piden had been any other father, Saphor would say with an undoubted no. Since any other father in his right mind wouldn't waste any time seeing the daughter he hasn't seen in eight years, especially when she was right in his backyard. Unfortunately, Piden wasn't any father. He wanted nothing to do with her or her daughter. She didn't want or need him to help her care for Phaiden. In fact, if it were up to her, he would never be around her daughter. Phaiden loved him though (why, Saphor had no idea), and she loved her daughter enough to try and make something work. She didn't want her daughter to know that her own father avoided her like the plague.

No child deserved that.

Why wouldn't Piden want to get to know Phaiden? She was a sweet, gorgeous little girl. Obedient and wonderful. Saphor knew she hit the jackpot with that kid. In short, Phaiden was perfect. The fact that Piden didn't want to be involved in such a perfect little girl's life was a crime.

She really didn't want to be here...really, really didn't want to be here. She didn't want to get involved with Piden, in any way shape or form. She wished she would have seen how irresponsible and lazy the guy was from the beginning, but one look at her daughter, and she knew she didn't have a choice. She owed it to her daughter to see how he felt after all these years. Maybe all the years of being a handler had matured him? She doubted it, but who the hell knew. Luckily for her, Phaiden had made a friend in the forum of a younger candidate. The girl wasn't too much older than Phai, and it seemed she had been suffering from lack of girls close to her age to play with. They had run off out of the dining hall, and with the hatching being over, people were starting to clear out of the building.

No better time to get this out of the way.

Rising fluidly to her feet, she stalked towards him. Anyone watching her would be reminded of a tigress stalking her prey. Her face had a fresh mask of pure passiveness, though beneath that her sky blue eyes burned with the rage she was feeling inside. HOW DARE HE. How dare this man decide that HER daughter was worthless. How DARE he ignore them after all this time and not be torn up over the decision. She had been walking so quietly, so effortlessly towards the handler, that hopefully he hadn't noticed her presence until her voice rang out, as sickly sweet as honey...laced with cyanide.

" Honey. You've NO idea how much I've missed you." Slipped off her tongue like silk. She was watching him with a predatory gaze, though everything else about her body was completely friendly and amiable. Payback's a bitch.

[Ruby]

Piden had finally managed to command Shells back to his side - he'd spent the last five minutes or so making embarrassingly sappy eyes at the mannish girl that had impressed the Gold, courtesy of his Bronze mandyr. Shells had finally returned, though, once the Candidate had removed her new gold menace, and Piden was busy trying to figure out exactly where Shells had gotten that egg while he finished his meal. And then.

The voice snapped his head up, so familiar, where had he heard it before? Piden blinked at the girl - woman - in front of him. She looked like someone he'd sleep with, but then again who didn't? So who was she... blink... what was her name... blink...

Saphor.

It hit him like a sack of bricks, and he choked on his sip of klah. Saphor, mother to Phaiden, his daughter. What was she doing here? "Saphor? What are you doing here?" he blurted, in a very uncharacteristic show of surprise, panic... whatever. Things that were decidedly not Piden. He sounded much more like the fourteen year old boy that ran away from her than the smooth young man most of the Weyr was familiar with. He recovered quickly, though, the mask sliding back into place as the redhead slid to his feet, reaching a hand out towards her in invitation for... what? A hug, a kiss, a handshake, an awkwardly aborted gesture, whatever he could get. "I mean," he tried again, voice picking up its normal purr again as he attempted to rectify the situation, "It's great to see you. You look amazing." He paused, letting a beat go by, before he tried again. "But what are you doing here?"

[Zephyr]

It took him a while, she could realize by the look on his face, for him to realize who she was. It wasn't that surprising, really. Eight years might not be a long time by some people's standards, but for a fifteen year old child growing into adulthood, eight years was a lifetime. She stood there, pleased by his slightly panicked reaction when he finally put two and two together. She didn't hide this pleasure either. It spread from ear to ear in the form of her grin, twisting across her face with its saccharine sweetness. This was going even better than she expected it to. She thought he would be surprised to see her, maybe panic some, but she had expected his cool to kick in far before this. When it finally did, her smile lost some of it's sickly sweetness.

Impossibly blue eyes fell to his hand. He was acting like they were friends. They weren't anything of the sort, at least in her mind. She regarded him with silent scrutiny, finally pushing out one slim fingered hand to rest in his. She had to play nice, at least for the moment. " You look...the same." She said, squeezing his hand in her's for a moment, looking over him closely. He really did look like the same fourteen year old who had knocked her up all those years ago. " She looks like you..." She mused, voice having grown soft as rain for a moment before she snapped herself out of her reverie long enough to gain back some of that venom in her voice.

" My daughter wanted to see the dragons. She's enamored with them. OH, you remember Phaiden, don't you Piden? My daughter?" It probably would have had more impact if she would have said our daughter or your daughter, but she didn't think he had the right to think of Phai as his in any way shape or form. He had lost that right long ago.

[Ruby]

Well, at least she was smiling, that was a good thing right? There was something about the smile Piden didn't like, but the Saphor he remembered was sweet and innocent, not a manipulative bone in her body, so he wrote it off as nerves. That had to be it. Shards, he was nervous enough, she should be even worse if he still knew her at all. Which, frankly, he didn't, but eight turn old memories were kind of all he had to work with.

He glanced down vaguely at his hand as if it didn't quite belong to him when she squeezed it, not totally sure why he'd put it out to begin with. The squeeze was nice, but he pulled his hand away near as fast as she did. While his body was busy betraying his nerves, though, his voice was doing no such thing. Shifting his stance so he was standing a bit more upright, he raised an eyebrow and looked down at her, purring, "Oh come now, age must have improved me somewhat. I'm pretty sure I was still pretty scrawny last time I saw you; Wherhandlering has really helped me keep my figure." Of course, he conveniently ignored 'she looks like you', since he didn't really want to figure out who 'she' was.

Saphor wasn't about to let it go, though, which actually surprised Piden more than anything. What had happened to his little Holder flower, Daddy's precious darling? Shaphor hadn't been anything but meek eight turns ago, but that backhanded comment was pretty much the opposite of meek. Both eyebrows flew up there, but he dropped them just as quickly, stepping forward into Saphor's personal space and sliding his arms around her waist to pull her hips towards his. "Phaiden. I always wanted to tell you that that was a beautiful name," he said, reaching one hand up to brush a stray hair off her face while the other arm around her waist kept Saphor trapped.