Dinner for two (Miguel)

[Rowana]

It was a little early for dinner, so the crowds were small, but Annatolli liked it that way. It was easier to have a conversation if everyone wasn't bustling around and she could get a good look at everyone present. Anna liked to eat with different people when she could. Her Aunt Hoayamae was always too busy in the kitchen at mealtimes to join her and Anna liked to talk with everyone. With so few young people around, it was hard to have many close friends though.

Picking up a tray of food, Anna turned and beamed to see a familiar face. She trotted over to the young man and winked at him. "This seat taken?" she asked Miguel with grin. Xelos and Noish needed no such permission and landed on a nearby chair to eye Miguel's food greedily. Anna rolled her eyes at them. "You'd think I never fed you!"

[Requiem]

His father (yes, of course he was aware that S'rei was technically his uncle, being no longer five, but old habits and all) had brought him along to Inverness for once. It didn't happen often. Normally they left before the evening meal, too, but today the Selenitas Weyrleader's business was taking longer than usual. And Miguel was hungry. So it only made sense to wander off and get himself some food, even if he found himself uncomfortable in a sea of mostly unfamiliar faces and withdrew to an empty table somewhat removed from everyone else. Annabelle - Belle - had gone off somewhere. No doubt flirting with some inanimate object that was bound to cause her fits when it didn't react favorably to her flirting. He liked Belle. After this many turns, he should. She wasn't Lord, though. Sometimes he still missed the blue. Often. But then...there were a lot of people he missed.

Speaking of...Miguel jumped, blinking at Annatolli. "Anna..." Somehow it hadn't occurred to him. She was part of Inverness and he came here so rarely...Had he thought about it at all he might have sought her out earlier. Another blink. "No, not at all. Please, sit." The smile wasn't a bright one, but rather warm, reaching his blue eyes in a way that expressed his genuine joy at seeing her. He chuckled at the flits and offered them a little of the half-finished meatroll on his plate, wrinkling his nose good-naturedly. "Seems like they all think they're starving. Or at least want to convince us they are." It seemed like it had been turns since he'd seen her. Maybe it had. "You look great."

[Rowana]

Annatolli beamed at Miguel. It was terrific to see him again. It always saddened her that the adults seemed to think splitting everyone up was a way to keep peace. All it seemed to do to her was make people sad. Still, as Aunt Mae was fond of reminding her, she wasn't an adult yet even if she was a Candidate. She settled into her chair, chuckling at Xelos and Noish who played with the meatroll before eating it bit by bit.

She turned back to Miguel as he spoke, turning slightly pink at the complement. "Thanks," she answered, pushing a lock of curly hair back from her face. "You too, Miguel. It's wonderful to see you!" Anna took a few bites of her dinner, trying not to stare. Had Miguel been so handsome last time she'd seen him? She shook her head. More likely she just didn't have enough boys her own age to look at. Life was simpler when they were kids. "How's Selenitas?" she asked, genuinely interested. She missed her old home and the people she knew who still stayed there.

[Requiem]

The nature of the smile changed slightly. People have a natural way of knowing when they're having an effect on others, even if that knowledge itself is often subconscious. Miguel wouldn't have been able to tell anyone how he knew or for sure that he did, but he became more aware of the girl just a few months older than he was in response to her own interest. The young man had always liked Annatolli, though. Annabelle's name wasn't exactly an accident. The two had all but grown up together in Hoayamae's kitchen. "Dad says I look like Dad - my real dad, I mean," he stated easily. He'd heard it from more than just S'rei.

"Selenitas. Well, I guess not much different than it always was? Except people are less twitchy cause they're not worried about evil northern Weyrs trying anything. Lots of grumbling about the holds, though." He didn't think any of their mutual friends were still there. At least, if they were he didn't have much time to do much with them. He spent a lot of time either helping out at the infirmary or watching his little cousin. Not that the infirmary was a viable future for him. Despite all his best efforts...he still couldn't handle the blood. He'd given Elysia a scare, dissecting animals like some kind of psycho, but animal blood didn't effect him like human blood and it hadn't helped him overcome the fear and paralysis in the infirmary when he saw it, so he'd stopped his dissections. Much to his...stepmom's...relief.

"You're a candidate now." Aware that the words made his own lack of knots conspicuous, he forged on. "How do you like it?"

[Rowana]

Annatolli shrugged a little at the mention of Miguel's real father. "I'm sorry I never met him," she admitted thoughtfully. He was probably handsome, she thought to herself. "Aunt Mae says I'm starting to look like my mother," she added, eyes distance for a moment. She could still remember her mother in the short turns before the earthquake had claimed her. She shook her head. She was too old to cry about that anymore. They both had a bright future to look forward too.

Anna giggled at the mention of twitchy riders. "I think it must have taking Aunt Mae a month to teach people up here not to sneak food away from her. She was so twitchy all that time!" She pondered more of what he said as she ate a few more bites of food. "Talk about the holds here is about the same. That and folk are still grumpy about being separated. Me, I'm just glad I don't have to wonder if any of my friends will ever come back." The war had been scary. Too many times riders she saw at breakfast, would be gone by dinner time, or be stuck in the infirmary for weeks. Those times would be hard to forget.

The change of subject made Anna glance at her shoulder notes and give a sheepish smile. "Yeah. No luck yet of course, but I'm sure one of these days..." She trailed off then sighed a little. "It's lonely though. With the new rules, I don't get to see most other candidates until a few weeks before the Hatchings. It's barely time to make friends and most either become Weyrlings or go home and then I don't seem them much again." She picked at her food for a moment. "What about you?" She noted his lack of knots, but still wanted to hear from him what he'd been up to.

[Requiem]

Miguel simply listened to her silently, eating his food while she spoke and trying not to be too obvious about watching her maybe a bit too closely. Part of that though was her tendency to get lost in thought, which naturally evoked his curiosity while he tried to guess just what it was that she'd been considering a moment ago. The young man couldn't help but murmur "friends and family" after she stated her feelings on the matter, the soberness of that topic written on his face. Fortunately they moved on rather quickly to more enjoyable subjects of conversation.

"Aren't there other weyrbred candidates to run about with, though?" he questioned, deliberately asking his own question before getting around to answering hers. "And eventually you'll Impress and have a whole class of potential friends to hang with. I know weyrlings are pretty busy and everything, but I don't see why you have to keep your distance from them even if you don't Impress from the same clutch? You definitely will." He smiled pleasantly at her. "Dragons would have to be stupid to pass you over."

As for her question...well, he was hoping his own and the topic would keep her from remembering that she'd asked him something first. It wasn't really that he didn't want to tell her, so much as he was pretty sure that he wouldn't handle her feeling sorry for him well.