Don't you mess.. [Kali]

[rii]

.. with a little girl's dreams
'cause she's liable to grow up mean.

It wasn't the first night Ba'sun found himself awake in the dark hours between late night and early morning. Sitting on the edge of his bed with his heart racing and his hands numbly running over his arms to be rid of the ghostly weight pulling them down. After a moment of blindly scanning the darkness Ba'sun stood, opened the glow basket and paced the length of his weyr. He leaned over the bed where Shoal slept, carefully touching the side of the toddler's face. Warm. Alive. Of course he was fine - why wouldn't he be?

One thing for certain, Ba'su knew he wouldn't be getting back to sleep. Didn't want to stay in the weyr though, not to lie in the darkness and let his mind wander. Thus, shortly after getting dressed, Ba'sun bundled the sleeping child into his arms and headed for the creche. The woman on duty wasn't entirely happy to be woken up to take Shoal - but it's not like he handed her a crying child so she could kindly shove the attitude somewhere unpleasant.

From there he wandered. Mostly. It was both chance and purpose that Ba'sun found himself strolling into the infirmary. The drudges were too busy in the early hours - all that prepping work. The healers and apprentices, however, were just there on call and - most of the time - awake. Yes, surely one would be around and wouldn't mind a bit of non-patient conversation. It just so happened a familiar woman happened to be on shift. Regardless that Ba'sun had to poke his head in the various rooms until he actually found her. He was just simply passing by when he saw her inside her office. Purely coincidental.

Ba'sun shouldered against the frame of the open door. The casual smile he wore ever present. "Considering you are doing paperwork there must not be anyone attempting to bleed to death." The bluerider glance over his shoulder at the quiet infirmary. "Or anything going on that your underlings can't attend to.."

[Requiem]

It was that candlemark of her shift in which all of her mindmates were taking their nap. Everything was deathly quiet. The woman's stack of paperwork had been reduced to nothing...a mountain to be scaled every night, left over from the busier day shifts. Things that the Weyrhealer and Weyrdragonhealer should handle and no one else, and, considering Nysania was busy with wherling lessons...not that she minded. There wasn't much else for her to do here anyway. Very little happened this time of night.

She pulled out the letter she'd been penning to her contact at Healer Hall and began the painstaking process of sifting through what she wanted to say, what she should say, and arriving at something...sort of in the middle. Realistically, Ninian could well be feeding anything she wrote to the other two weyrs. But she didn't believe that of him. Kalierre settled for saying things vaguely. She missed his sound advice.

The woman looked up at the rider leaning against her doorway, recognizing him with a smile that might even betray the faint hintings of fondness. It was nice to have someone around who wasn't completely uptight. "No. No overbold felines tonight. Or blueriders at play." A reference to Z'ves, though Kalierre didn't really expect him to recognize that. Just as well. She said it for her own amusement...it could be fun to say obscure things and never explain them.

A brow rose at his next comment though, eyes tracking past him to the open space of the infirmary beyond. Erilena was somewhere out there...and she wasn't sure if Nysania had left yet or not. Kalierre didn't keep that close track of time. "You sound an awful lot like the apprentices did when they were trying to get me to play hookie when I was a teenager." Amusement was rife in her tone.

Brushing her braid back over her shoulder, she tilted her head slightly to one side. "Or have you heard the rumors about what goes on in this office behind closed doors? I'm sure they're quite exaggerated."

[rii]

Kalierre earned a tilted of head. Mild curiosity toward the latter portion of her comment. In end it wasn't a conversation Ba'sun cared to pursue. He pushed away from the frame and slowly began to move around the desk. His dark eyes skimmed over the papers as if the stack held any sort of interest. In truth looking away in a half-hearted attempt to hide the suppressed laughter dancing inside them. The smile grew a touch wider, a half a second before Ba'sun settled a grave look on the dragon healer.

"Oh no," He vigorously shook his head while leaning against the edge of her desk - now on the same side as her but moving no closer. "I wouldn't dare entice the revered dragon healer out of her cave to a night of music and wine, giggling and all sorts of foolish nonsense. The people here would be lost without her. Chaos would break out in the halls. There would be screaming and shouting. Madness at every turn. The dragons wouldn't know up from down. You're too important to this somewhat stinky room. I cannot ask you to leave it - it's not a choice anyone should have on their shoulders. The losses would be too great..

"So-" Here he knelt, one hand quickly snatching her wrist as he pull the woman up and out of her seat. His free arm snaking around a leg as he deftly placed her over his shoulders - one arm easily keeping hold around one leg and the captured wrist. Ba'sun stood and adjusted the weight. "-Instead I'm kidnapping you." He slowly turned around, eyes scanning the area for that pesky cane.

He paused long enough in his search to look at Kalierre's face, arching a brow and doing his best not to grin like a fool. "Are the rumors true?" Not that he had heard any. "I'd think the same thing goes on behind all closed doors - but what they say about this particular door.. You must let me know the truth of it."

[Requiem]

Watching the bluerider's progress around her desk through half-lidded eyes, the woman's head tilted ever so slightly to one side in a sign of her curiosity. Man was most likely up to something. Though this naturally was not a matter of business - Ba'sun was, refreshingly, one of the few people she cared to associate with who weren't work-related in one way or another - removing the desk as a barrier between them did not go unnoticed. Mm. The rumors were a bit exaggerated, naturally, but she didn't mind lending them a little more credence on a slow night like this...

She snorted openly as his words approached and sped past the line of hyperbole. "Don't forget that without me here the suns won't rise and the tides lie dead and still," Kalierre added dryly. The woman might have said something else (or more likely shoved at the man playfully) but he was suddenly kneeling and she was jerked toward him. Brown eyes widened slightly in surprise at the sudden movement. Fortunately, it was so unanticipated that she neither braced herself for it nor fought it. Which probably saved her hip a good deal of pain.

The woman wriggled back to life when he stood, then apparently reconsidered. Getting dropped from this height wasn't exactly optimal, and the wriggling only helped to settle her more evenly on his shoulders anyway. She placed a hand on his head against the feeling of falling that she couldn't quite dispell. "Really, Ba'sun," Kalierre commented in exasperation. "Aren't you a bit old to be spiriting women away into the night? That's a young man's pleasure."

Though she might as well oblige him if she was to be his captive. "Naturally the rumors are exaggerated. I've only had two men in here," the woman responded, with a definite touch of haughtiness. She wasn't running a charity! And, contrary to popular opinion, Kalierre was somewhat selective. Not that most would agree with her criterion. At all. 'Interesting' to the dragonhealer was not precisely normal.

Another experimental wriggle was given.

[rii]

Aha, Ba'sun's eyes honed in on the cane. He wedged the point of his boot in the curve of it, kicking it up into the air to catch with his free hand. It was slid through his belt loop much like a sword. Making sure it was out of Kalierre's immediate reach. Even though she hadn't smacked or kicked him - yet - Ba'sun wasn't about to put a weapon in the woman's hands. He valued his shins and- ah well, his groin too much.

Still sporting a smile, Ba'sun casually pushed the chair back in toward the desk before turning to head out the door. "And if I am?" He mused, hand raising to lightly pinch the side of her wriggling thigh. "You should humor this old man longing for his younger days." Carefully ducking into the infirmary, Ba'sun took a quick survey of the room to see if he had attracted any unwanted attention. Curious if anyone would actually try to stop him.

Ba'sun chuckled as he stepped around a gawking apprentice to gain entry into the hallway. "Only two in all the turns you've been here." A low whistle. "They must keep you too busy if that's all the fun you've had." He thought to pat her on the rump in sympathy, but figured it was too far of an awkward reach in his current position. He settled for the side of her knee.

"Hungry?" He turned on his heel, taking the winding path that would eventually bring him to the kitchens. "It's about time for your dinner and my breakfast, hm?"

[Requiem]

Kalierre snorted softly, not really caring if anyone noticed that she didn't seem to be protesting this manhandling all that much. Her eyes drifted to Ba'sun's waist where he'd hung the cane from, however, with a certain amount of calculation. Suggesting he might find himself with a bit more of a fight in the near future. Currently, though, the woman remained complacent. "Not really."

Fingers curled into his hair a little, playing with it. "My boyfriend decided I'd make a lovely captive weyrmate, more like. Then threw a fit when I invited someone else into my den of iniquity," Kalierre commented dryly. "Naturally I generously offered to find him a toy of his own, but he didn't seem too favorable." Actually, as she remembered it, a piece of furniture had gone flying across the room. Psht. "So I figured I'd keep him happy. He had his...good points."

The question about being hungry actually caught her by surprise. Kalierre found herself chuckling. "My, what a thoughful kidnapper you are." What was it with men and wanting to kidnap her, anyway? Did she give off a special type of pheromone? "Tell me, Sir Kidnapper...how do you plan to keep me from escaping?" she questioned him, only half-playfully.

[rii]

Den of iniquity - he liked that. Tell-tale by the way a smile slid across his features. If he was meant to bothered by the mention of a boyfriend-turned-weyrmate, Ba'sun didn't show it. He continued to tote the healer through the hall as his latest catch. In the end he was far too weyr-bred. Jealous weyrmates were the least of his concerns these days. "He sounds fussy."

It was toned playfully - because if that was the man Kalierre wanted to make happy, well that was her choice. Lucky man. Ba'sun set Kalierre down on the counter (to sit) as he looked around for any available food. A hand settled on eitehr side of the woman's legs, and Ba'sun leaned forward enough just to prevent her from giving him a good kick (or at least lessen the blow if she managed it). Could never be too careful with the dragon lady. She had a certain fiery spirit about her. "I've found that a fed woman nags less. Even more so when it's chocolates and wine."

Again that playful smile lite up Ba'sun's face. The chuckle a little higher than a whisper. Slowly he drew away, moving backwards to keep his gaze on the dragon lady. Giving her more than enough room to escape. "It might be presumptuous of me," What, with the cane still neatly sheathed through his belt loop. "But I'm fairly sure I can run faster than you."

He lifted the edge of a sheet covering a tray of meat rolls. His gaze only leaving Kalierre for the briefest of moments. Although he held a certain fondness for the woman, part of him wouldn't put it past her to sneak a knife up her sleeve to make a stab at him later. To prove him wrong on the part of being able to escape him, or because of some secretly held grudge. Ba'sun was the resident turn-cloak. Privately he had come terms with the high possibility of his death coming with a noose around his neck. "If you're good though.." And don't try and hobble-run away from him, or try and cut him open. "I'll give you a piggy back ride instead of toting you around like a sack of grain."

[Requiem]

Kalierre didn't respond to the off-hand comment. This was at least as much due to the change in her positioning as it was any lack of desire to speak about her late weyrmate, however. She leaned back a little from him when he leaned forward, wrinkling her nose slightly in her own version of playfulness. (Probably should be protesting more, seeing as how she should be working, but the infirmary would survive without her for this once.)

"I'll definitely take the wine," she responded, her tone a touch dry. "One shouldn't be sober when one is being kidnapped. Unspoken rule." The greenrider nodded solemnly to herself. Her expression said it all, too. The woman definitely agreed that it was presumptious of Ba'sun to assume her to be unlikely to outrun him. (Presumptious didn't mean wrong, after all.) Kalierre capitulated to the comment with a shrug of one shoulder, but the fire in her eyes suggested that yes, Ba'sun would not meet no resistance whatsoever.

The weyrdragonhealer pursed her lips together as if considering his offer carefully. "Well...if you're offering piggyback rides..." It certainly would be more comfortable for her. And also give her a variety of ways to mess with him. Resting an elbow on her knee, she leaned forward to support her chin on a fist. "I confess, your choice of companion at such a hellishly early hour has provoked my curiosity. Aren't there more interesting people to kidnap?"

Her tone suggested that of course there were. "Though I suppose most would greet you with bare steel. No one likes their sleep interrupted." This comment was phrased also in the tone of a question, probing as to his reasoning, perhaps. Most likely, though, Kalierre just had trouble sitting still and silent with nothing to occupy her. The woman thrived on being ludicrously busy, after all. (In fact, it made her many recent losses tolerable. Having no spare time to think on them.)

[rii]

Ba'sun lifted his gaze from the meatrolls to Kalierre's face. Did he by chance detect his flower wilting because of the long night's shift? For a fleeting moment Ba'sun felt guilty. In the next moment, however, he decided that his poor drooping flower just needed watering; in the form of wine. Ba'sun crouched before a bin and began picking out wineskins, uncorking the ends to sniff at the contents until he found a favorable one. This, along with the bits of food that made a mix of dinner and breakfast, was bundled together and tied against his hip.

A mild grin met Kalierre's question as Ba'sun moved back toward her, "If I told you that, you'd have no reason to play nice and allow me to drag you around the weyr. Curiosity can be such a burden." There were furs that he could have slipped into this morning that wouldn't have minded. It would of helped him get back to sleep. It wasn't the sort of company Ba'sun was seeking that morning. He wanted to talk; to joke around and laugh. Why? Because he hated missing his kids. Hated missing a life he use to have. Hated the itch for the fellis. The mood would pass, as it always did, and Ba'sun felt no need bother his company with it.

"What if I told you I was enamored by you," Curling his fingers around her raised wrist, Ba'sun gently pulled it away from her chin. He spun around, trusting his back to her as he wound her arm around his neck and shoulders. The man had been serious about giving her a piggy-back ride instead. "That I cannot get you off my mind, and tonight I'm whisking you away from all these other men so that we can elope. I've a horse waiting outside the stables, saddled and ready to carry us into the rising sun~"

He planted a light kiss on the back of her hand, "So stop stalling woman, there is much yet to do and so little time." The timing was important. Yes, she was suppose to be his kidnapee - even if he waited patiently for her willingly to situation herself onto his back.

[Requiem]

Kalierre considered the position she was now in, even as she listened to his smoke-blowing with amusement. Just climbing on his back seemed like too much of a capitulation, even if she really didn't mind this kidnapping. At all. And, well, he had her cane and arm, though. Plus she kind of sort of had told him she'd be good. Kind of sort of. Not directly. His fault for taking it on a less than definite basis.

"Yeah, right. I just inspire that in men. Did you know I suck their souls?" she concluded with a snort, wrapping one leg around his waist and draping the arm he hadn't captured over his shoulder, splaying over his stomach. Well, she wasn't likely to get very far, but she could still be a pain in the ass in other ways. Kalierre was more than content to settle for that.

"Tell me of this white steed of yours, my secret bandit lover," she murmured against his ear. The greenrider hooked her other leg around his instead of around his waist. Then she leaned over enough to disrupt his gait and plucked the wine from his hip, offering some to him by poking it in his face blindly. She thought she might have nearly gotten it up his nostril, which only pleased her more.

Naturally, she took it away before he could get more than a good sip - and that only if he was quick on his feet - and wiped the mouth off on the back of his shirt before taking a good mouthful of the stuff, savoring it before she swallowed. "You've good taste," she commented, wrapping her arm back around him. Oh yes, she could still have her fun. Picking on a cripple. Bad form, Ba'sun. Bad form.

[rii]

"That won't be a problem. I have no soul." Or so some of the Selenitas natives told him.

Ba'sun grin took on a lop-sided quality as he idly watched the hand slide down his chest. He made no motions to stop the pawing - if that's what she wanted to do to torment him, Ba'sun was perfectly fine with allowing it. A lesser man might have been stirred by her antics, but Ba'sun was not a man that went without intimacy for long. He knew a woman's game for what it was. The man turned his head away from the wineskin to avoid having it thrust up his nose - the result being having the dark wine splash down the front of his chest instead.

"First," Ba'sun's hands slipped under her thighs once she was finished situating herself on his back. A small hop helped mover her further up his back. The action followed with his hands lacing together under Kalierre's rump to keep her in place. If she pawed him, it was only fair play to return some of the attention. "It's black, not white. Bandit's don't ride white horses - that's for willy-nilly knights and other do-gooders. We bandits ride on steeds black as night; all the better to whisk women away under the cover of darkness."

Ba'sun glance side-long at the wineskin, hoping it would last the trip. The flower was a bit thirsty - might have to wrest it back from her once their trip ended. From the kitchens he went outside, sticking to the worn trail cutting through the stubborn grass that continued to grow even after multiple searing of dragonfire. His feet turned him toward the cliffs and eventually he'd reach the the zig-zagging trail that would lead him up to Drumheights. Dawn had yet to break, but the light from the moon and stars would light the way well enough.

"I dare say you've been waiting for this very night, working those long shifts through the late hours that you do." He'd wondered where the dragon healer had been hiding when he couldn't find her during the day. "You're suppose to light a candle in your window so that I know you are there waiting for me; wishing for me to sneak into your weyr.."

[Requiem]

For Kalierre's part, she was surprisingly successful at readjusting herself in such a way as to ride out the hop and subsequent shifting without any embarrassing little flailings or sounds. Though perhaps that was to be expected of a dragonrider. Bum hip or no, she still rode Phremath, and it was second nature to adapt to whichever positioning she most needed to be in at the moment.

If she noticed the positioning of his hands, it could be certain that the dragonrider didn't protest them, considering she made no move to attempt an escape or even acknowledged it verbally. Nope, instead she merely leaned forward without an ounce of modestly, her arms slung loosely about his neck and shoulders and her breasts cushioned comfortably against the back of his head. There was, of course, some guile behind the positioning, but for the most part she maintained it for its comfort.

"Oh, my apologies," she murmured, in that half-amused way that didn't sound at all apologetic. "Black steed." Resting her chin atop his skull, she lifted the wineskin for a small sip, knowing that as the guest - even a nominally unwilling one - she really shouldn't guzzle the whole thing before they even got where they were going. Which seemed to be up ever higher, to a world that seemed a touch empty without the giant, venerable old king of the forested mountains coiled about the towers reaching up into the still inky sky.

Inky, yes, but you could see that faint tinging of blue and grey along the surface of horizon, not the shift of hues that painted black shadows against that subtly lighter backdrop instead of the other way around. The dawning would be upon them in the next candlemark. Lulled into an almost sleepy state by the trek completed in companionable - and not uncomfortable - silence, his words almost didn't register on her.

"Such romantic notions," Kalierre returned, the fabric of her voice some mixture of amusement, teasing, and...sadness. Too complex a fabric to riddle out with any ease. That momentary lapse of depth passed swift, her dryness returning to her. "Better to just knock on the door, my delightful traitor. You'd find a better welcome and a much shorter wait." The greenrider offered him a drag from the wineskin, not teasing him this time.

[rii]

"Romantic," Ba'sun's lips twisted into wry smirk. In a story book he could be painted with such stripes. A lone wolf of a man just on the outskirts of the law. He's not a bad man, but neither is he a good one. Welcomed by some and shunned by others. He made his own way, followed his own laws - never swayed by the cheers, nor the jeers, of those that sought to judge him. Romantic a story might call it, but Ba'sun easily saw it as the excitement of doing something your probably shouldn't be doing; silly and careless without the weight of knowing better cast aside. "A knock would mean I am asking permission. As a traitor, and a handsome bandit, it would ruin my image if I knocked."

Sniffing audibly for it was a matter of his pride, Ba'sun took the wine skin for a quick drink. Not too much for him, he had wingdrills come dawn while the healer got to sleep. He didn't return it to her, instead fastening it to the side of his waist with one hand. It made his gait a touch awkward, and Ba'sun purposely let his steps near them toward the cliffs before he finished the shabby tying job, tucking his hand back under Kalierre's rump, and steering them back to the middle of the walking path.

"I think it would be more fun without the knock," Who knows, one might he might take Kalierre up on her offer even if it had been made in jest. Just as he stole her from the infirmary, what was really stopping him from slipping into her weyr if only to see her reaction. "Of course, you'd have to actually be in your weyr at night for it to really be fun. Must you work nights? You have enough underlings - and that new women is a night dweller now because of the wher. Let her deal with those lonely hours and long for a bandit of her own."

He made his way right into the drum tower, eyes roving the interior designed to boost the sound of drumming from within. It had never occurred to him to find to where drummed messages were sent. He hadn't heard one sent, or arrive, since he'd first arrived at Selenitas. Kalieree's legs were released - the loss of warm against his back noticable. He moved along, alone, to the edge of the tower were the stone columns were carved out of the side of the cliff and made for a good view across the weyr, the river, and the stretching jungle beyond. A good spot to watch the sun rise.

Heh, him romantic? Not a chance..

[Requiem]

An amused chuckle that was more a snort than an actual laugh greeted Ba'sun's silliness. She missed it, Kalierre had to admit. Not necessarily from the bluerider in particular, but in a more general sense? Yes. People had a general tendency to be altogether too serious around the crippled dragonhealer. (Granted, she was not someone you wanted to upset if you couldn't face down a confrontation with an aggressive cane-wielder.)

Wrapping her arms more determinedly about his shoulders, she eyed the approaching wall with every intention of smacking him upside the head every time he dragged her against it. Fortunately he seemed smart enough to avoid that whole scenario. Good. Relaxing a bit when all was settled back in place, the greenrider resumed her position with her chin on his head.

The woman was left to hobble up the stairs if she didn't wish to be a load of dead weight. Pft. Still had her cane, Ba'sun did. Flipping her braid over her shoulder, she placed her hand against the wall and made her way up in his wake. "Remind me to invest in another cane," she commented wryly to his back. "With the number of people who like to steal mine and not give it back."

After a few more steps, she spoke again. This time her words were more contemplative. "Well...it's not really that, you know. There will be seven of us soon but there were only four. I prefer having two - a senior and a junior healer - from the Triage Wing on shift in the infirmary at any given time. Since Serissa and Erilena can't get along..."

There was a shrug of shoulder. Erilena had been the obvious one for the night shift, seeing as how she wanted the shift and had a wherhandler for a boyfriend. Kalierre would prefer to have a day shift herself, though. So she could train who she needed to and because it was pretty weird to have both the Weyrhealer and Weyrdragonhealer never seeing the light of day. Of course...the problem remained Serissa and Erilena.

"Really, women are such a pain in the arse. If they had dicks I'd just throw them in a room together with giant sticks and lock them in for an hour. If one wasn't dead by the end of it they'd have their problem solved."