Gardening... (Snowman Garden: M'ta?)

[Ivy]

The Greenrider loved excuses to get dressed up, Gathers were especially her favorite. So dress up she had. A lovely, dark red, long-sleeved blouse clung to her subtle curves and draped over the waist of her black pants in a straight line with small slits cut on either side of the blouse. Those black pants, which were also fitted to her slight form, tucked into her newly aquired wherry boots. Black as well they were lined and the white fur trim contrasted nicely against both her pants and boots. On her wrists she wore a pair of beaded bracelets both decorated with glass beads that had various colors seeded throughout. Around her neck was a simple silver necklace that fell between the tops of her shoulders and just above her bossom. Her hair had mostly grown back since she'd cut it the summer previous, something she had been glad of as she had finished the last few intricate braids in her hair. Some of the braids had been pinned back and up while the rest of the small braids and most of her hair fell down about her shoulders.

The jacket she pulled on was not only warm but stylish. As well as being dark red just like the blouse hiding underneath, it was also trimmed in white fur - around the sleeves, the bottom up the middle where it buttoned, and around the neck. It was a long jacket and came to end just above her knees. The pockets had some light silver embroidery done around them, adding to the overall 'fancy' feel of the clothing item. It definitely spoke to her love of finer things. She had tugged on some black gloves, made of wherry hide just as her boots and jacket were and then grabbed a scarf to drape it lightly over her head to serve as a hat of sorts.

Ruliana brushed some stray snow off the front of her long deep red jacket as she made her way towards the inner area of Fort Hold. It had been a long trip to come North - not that between really took long, but to Ruliana it had felt like forever. Nine turns, it had been nine turns since she last stepped foot on any Northern soil. While they were on the western side of Pern being at Fort, it was still the North - and with each step she took she could feel her heart beating faster in her chest. Gathers were a big deal, usually people from all over came if they could - what would she do if someone from Nerat recognized her? These were the things plaguing her as she walked around. Eyes were kept mostly on the snow covered ground with glances here and there so she didn't run into someone or something. She had come for various reasons and they had been good reasons - the children had wanted to come. Samael was proving to be an artist and she had encouraged him to come sell his wares at the Gather - how could she have said no when he asked for a ride from herself and Amalath?

You look lovely Rulilove. Amalath's voice was soft and soothing - she was doing her best to reassure and comfort her rider whose nervousness she felt and shared. Amalath had never come to the North - and while she absolutely adored all the other dragons she could visit with, it was unnerving. All the snow especially. Snow was not completely new to the Green but still! Everything was covered in it and she couldn't decide if she liked it or not.

Ruliana glanced around as she tugged her scarf-hat a bit tighter around her head. Where was M'ta? Hadn't he said he would be here? Or perhaps she had misheard him... with everything going on earlier in the day she wouldn't put it past herself. With a light sigh - which formed in the air in front of her face in the chilly early evening air, she tried to decide what to do. Part of her wanted to just run back to Selenitas Weyr - even after nine turns and the leaps and bounds she had come in personal development... there was fear inside of her. Steeling herself against the fear biting at her stomach she saw a sign - 'Snowman Garden'. She headed in the direction the sign pointed and couldn't help but smile as she neared the area that had been set aside for this 'garden'. Small children were building lopsided snowmen and snowwomen here and there. There were some taller snowmen built up, obviously the work of adults. Someone had attempted to make a snow wher, which slightly resembled the real beasts in appearance but mostly looked like a large blob of packed snow. A couple was working on a large snow heart. Mostly though there were snowmen of various shapes and sizes pretty much everywhere in the 'garden' - adorable and perhaps a tinge creepy all at once. Buttons had been set out in a bucket, sticks in another, and then some bright orange fingerroots in another.

Another look around, no sight of M'ta, so she stepped into the 'garden'. Stopping by the buckets she grabbed a handful of buttons, a fingerroot, and a bundle of small sticks. She had never made a proper snowman, but it looked easy enough. Watching some children as they worked on theirs she chose an area a bit away from the other snowmen and then set her supplies down. She gathered some snow into her glove covered hands and then went to work on making a snowball to build up on. Yes, simple enough.

[Requiem]

Now how does a man even M'ta's size manage to get himself half-buried alive beneath a giant mound of snow with a small troupe of children (none his own) cavorting around him? Not even the weyrlingmaster could say for sure. One moment he'd been leaning up against a post, watching the laughing, rosy-cheeked kids darting about while keeping an eye out for Ruliana. This was to be their time. He'd promised...though he wasn't sure that the greenrider truly remembered, given the promise had been made quite some time ago. But they so rarely got time just for the two of them that he'd wanted a special evening, and since Ria was with E'rro this afternoon the timing couldn't be better. M'ta's attention had been drawn to the children, though, a distant look coming over his face.

Playing didn't seem so strange to him anymore. He'd played so often with Terilyn and Riaren, with Erilena's twins and even Elysia's young son, that he recognized it as a natural, normal thing. Just because it wasn't part of his childhood didn't make it weird and truthfully watching the kids brought up memories of enjoying all the kids around him (the two he'd adopted and the children of his friends) though perhaps that explained the mild nostalgia. Riaren and Terilyn weren't that old yet, but they were getting older, and quickly. Not as interested in playing anymore. Certainly not as adorable, since they were both trying to be more independent, and really it was about time to foster that. Even if he'd rather they stay young forever. What more weighed on his mind, though, was the need to ask Riaren...and Terilyn, too, but he was fairly certain of her answer...what he wanted. If he wanted to leave and take up healing officially. They shouldn't be old enough to be possibly moving out yet though, and the thought saddened him more than he'd like to admit.

He remembered a tugging at his pantleg, looking down into the wide, innocent eyes of a kid who couldn't be more than four and a broken toy being held up to him. It wasn't hard to fix, but by that time it wasn't just one boy, and then there were snowballs, and he was chasing giggling, squealing kids around with a playful growl... Somehow it had all led to this, the brownrider thrusting upward through the snow the kids were trying to pack around him and snatching the closest child who squealed with delight as M'ta tickled her. The abominable snowman in miniature put her down and shook himself off much like a dog might, brushing the snow off his clothes as best he could, thankful that he'd warn the leather that had been treated with a pure white dye that also had the added advantage of water-proofing the long jacket. The gloves themselves were fingerless because he liked to be able to feel what he was doing with his hands, but the boots were thick and warm, and so were the grey woolen trousers and tunic beneath the long white coat. His knots were obvious against the white of the coat, and worn more for the sake of intimidating weyrlings he saw at the Gather into behaving than so the holders would recognize his status at Selenitas. Though no doubt it would make it even odder to any holders watching to see the dragonrider playing with a handful of kids.

He let them wander off, though, their attention caught up in a snowball fight that had just broken out, in favor of moving toward the woman he'd just spotted. The grace and the undeniable elegance of her clothing made it obvious even from this distance just who she was. Continuing to brush the rest of the snow from himself as he closed the distance, the olive-skinned man smiled to himself as he noted that she didn't seem to have noticed him yet.

An arm slipped familiarly around her waist from behind and he snugged her back against him. She was taller than him, but not so much that he couldn't reach her ear easily enough, and he nibbled at it. Too many turns with R'wign made him less than shy when it came to shows of affection in public venues, though this was usually about as far as he took it. His interest wasn't to make anyone uncomfortable. He just was very fond of his weyrmate and didn't care enough about prudish sensibilities to try to mask that fondness. "You came," he commented softly, drawing his nose down along her neck before releasing her. "For awhile there I thought maybe you'd forgotten. I didn't remember to remind you."

Smiling up at the woman, the brownrider's gaze then dropped to her materials and he chuckled. Snowmen? Why not? "So who gets to be our unfortunate model today?" he questioned her playfully, well-knowing that Ruliana probably hadn't begun this with any intention of making light of someone else by building a snowman to charicature them. Didn't mean she wouldn't find the idea interesting, though. It was strange sometimes, and even M'ta could acknowledge it. Falling for the half-sister of his first dead weyrmate. She even looked enough like R'wign to cause occasional nostalgic pangs. Her attitude, however, was completely different.

And, at least at this point in his life, it was far more suited to M'ta than R'wign's would have been. The weyrlingmaster liked the quiet ease between them, and was grateful to her in many ways. How she was with the kids. Her presence by his side. Many, many ways. She'd saved him from himself in a fashion, though he doubted she knew that. "Well?" The short man raised a brow at his weyrmate.

[Ivy]

She rolled the snow into a tightly packed snowball before setting it on the ground. Looking around she watched as a child rolled their ball around and it gathered more snow - so she did the same. Making sure she had a wide enough area she began to roll it around and around until it reached the size she wanted. Smiling she grabbed another handful of snow and began packing and rolling it into another snowball. The scarf-hat had grown loose, so she pulled it off and tucked it into her pocket before continuing to mold the snow into a perfect ball. After some time she deemed it good enough to build off of and bent down to roll it like she had the first one.

The second ball she made was slightly smaller than the first and once she was done she had to carefully lift it up to sit atop the first one. Centering it, as she was quite the perfectionist, she was about to move to observe it from the other side when suddenly she was grabbed from behind. At first she jumped but then she realized the touch was familiar - as was the smell of her 'captor'. Smiling she leaned back slightly as she felt his warm breath work over her neck up to her ear. Giggling as he found and nibbled on her earlobe she pressed her body back against his. "Of course I came."

She turned to kiss his lips in a brief but tender display of affection before he noticed her building materials. Her weyrmate's question caused her to arch a well kept brow, model? She could tell by the look on his face that he was teasing a bit, but the idea did have some appeal to it. "It wasn't obvious? It was going to be you dear, that's why it's a bit on the shorter side."

Her tone was soft, tender, and playful. She knew sometimes he could have "small dog syndrome" and to nip that in the bun she leaned in to kiss him once more - this time letting her lips linger against his a bit longer. "Truthfully though I had no plans to make it any different than most the others here. If I were better with my hands I might try and make a Poe look-a-like, but I'm not. Why, do you think it should be different?"

Turning she looked at her stash of materials and the two portions of the snowman she'd already done. "Would you like to roll the next one for the head?"

[Requiem]

The flash of eyes and wrinkling of his nose was more than enough evidence to anyone who knew him that a bratty response was in the making. Inwardly he was more amused than anything else at how quickly she leaned in to kiss him again, almost as if she thought such comments actually irritated him. Even Ruth still called him 'ShortyHis' on occasion, though that was something of a slip given 'ShortyRuth's' was the name given him by Checkoth and Behruth didn't often say or do things that reminded him of the clutchbrother who had been everything but a physical part of him. It was either that or she thought that the kiss would forestall the brattiness altogether. She was wrong either way. M'ta cheated, enjoying the kiss and responding anyway with, "I still maintain that the rest of you are just unconscionably tall." Nevertheless, the kiss had softened the petulance behind the words and stripped away any attempt to keep a straight face.

His eyes returned to the half-finished snowman and then he shook his head, a mischievous smile tugging at his lips still. Nooooo. Nothing wrong with what she'd done already. He just felt like acting not entirely adult today, since he didn't have a bunch of teenagers and a pair of hoodlums - not to mention the three others that liked to call him 'uncle' - to chase after and act all mature for this evening. He blinked at Ruliana's suggestion, then laughed. "You know, I actually have no idea how to make them." The amusement was mostly at himself, since he'd commented on making a model of someone to begin with, and yet he didn't know how to make them.

This admission naturally didn't stop him from making the attempt. Unlike Ruliana, though, he didn't think to spy on the kids putting together their own creations all around them. Instead, the brownrider stalked around the snowy construction, hming softly to himself. He was good with his hands. Ridiculously so, in all truthfulness, capable of making most things out of wood as long as you weren't looking for something of journeyman level quality, and that without any formal training. It was all part of a brain that instinctively understood how things worked if he studied them long enough. Or took it apart. Nevertheless, this apparently didn't extend to the very serious craft of making figures out of frozen water, because as he began to try to form the smaller of the three balls to place on the top, it simply refused to roll together correctly. After the third such attempt distintegrating beneath his hands, he frowned pensively, plopping into the snow and glaring at it as if the snow itself was being difficult just to annoy him.

His eyes flicked up toward Ruliana after a couple of seconds of that and he flashed her a sheepish smile, a hand rubbing at the back of his neck awkwardly. "I think I'm going to need you to show me what magic you use to charm it," he commented, his voice a rich mixture of meaning beneath the surface of the words. The surface teasing of the joke contained behind it a wry amusement at his own inability to do something children seemed to find so simple, as well as a note of pleading that changed the words from a statement to a request. No one could say that the man wasn't highly expressive, particularly in the company of his intimates. A rather insignificant thing when it came to making snowmen, but the weyrlingmaster was a man of a suspicious nature and practically unreadable to anyone he didn't know well or trust. Even in something as harmless as this.

[Ivy]

Ruliana grinned and took a step back as her weyrmate moved to walk around the half-made snowman as if inspecting it. Then he set about trying to make the last portion of it - and failed miserably. She did her best to stifle a giggle until he looked at her and asked for her help, then there was no holding back. Rolling her eyes a bit she moved next to him and knelt in the snow. Picking up a handful she handed it to him then moved his hands around it to mold it into a ball.

"It really isn't that hard dear. Just have to take your time. I had to watch the children to see how they were doing it." She admitted to him with a smile, offering more snow to pack onto the snowball he should slowly be forming in his hands with her help. Offering her hands out she took the ball from him and then began to slowly roll it over the loose snow on the ground to make it thicker. "See? Slow and steady."

Once it was larger, but not too large, she offered it up to him once more. "There, now gently pick it up and put it on top - it'll be the head. Then we can add sticks for arms, buttons for eyes, and a fingeroot for a nose."

She beamed up at him and lifted up on her knees a bit to kiss his cheek before shifting back so she wasn't in his way.

[Requiem]

He definitely didn't have any complaints with Ruliana showing him how to make the snowball, especially when she was showing him while kneeling so close to him. And perhaps he was just a little extra slow on 'figuring out' what she was showing him to take further advantage of the close proximity. Nevertheless, a guy can only pretend to be so retarded with someone he's known for about a decade - even if their association hadn't been close for quite that long - and eventually the ball was rolled.

Taking the ball in his hands, he was in the process of standing when her movement caused him to pause, and he let her kiss his cheek before straightening fully. Now, her playful teasing was hardly something he hadn't noticed. Calling him short, the eyeroll, the amusement at his problem with making snowmen...it wasn't a drop the giant snowball on Ruliana's head offense, but it did require some form of retaliation.

Ruliana shared some personality traits with R'wign. Or perhaps R'wign had just had quite a few feminine personality traits. (M'ta had never been completely certain on that count, given the man's obsession with looks and sweet-smelling soaps.) One of these personality traits was what appeared to be mild OCD. The brownrider noticed just how neat and perfectly stacked the first two snowballs were, and he knew just what was likely to make his lovely Ruliana twitch.

With a serenely angelic face, he set the top snowball (after making a point of stretching up on his tiptoes like it was just too tall for him, even though he really wasn't all that short) at a jaunty, very obviously off-center spot right on the edge of the center snowball. In fact, it was just shy of threatening to topple right back off. Brushing the loose snow from his hands, he turned back to Ruliana with a self-satisfied smile.

"Now where are those buttons..." M'ta wandered right past Ruliana, then crouched over the basket to dig through it, taking his time to see if he caught her moving toward the snowman out of the corner of his eye or not. Though she probably should watch the evil short weyrlingmaster, who was likely to make the poor snowman's face very crooked indeed if left to his own devices.

[Ivy]

Enjoyed the close quarters to her weyrmate just as much as he surely did. When he got up she followed as well, standing to brush the snow from her knees and coat. She wasn't watching him all that closely when he positioned the head, but when he stepped back for her to admire it she took immediate notice. It was crooked. He had done it on purpose, she could tell despite his attempts to hide his smugness - she knew. Her eye almost twitched as she looked over the snowman, and she waited until he had moved to the baskets of supplies before taking a quiet step towards the snowman.

Carefully she rolled the head from its off-centered local to rest on the center of the middle snow ball. There. Perfect. Turning she caught M'ta eying her and she sighed, "You are so mean to me!"

She of course was being dramatic, he was anything but mean to her. Still she felt he was picking on her - and she'd never admit doing the same to him - and that just wasn't fair. Grabbing the fingerroot from the basket closest to her, before he could, she measured out the 'head' with her fingers until she found the spot that was exactly in the middle. Gently she pushed the nose into the snowman's head until it was far enough in it wouldn't just fall away.

"Now if you promise to behave you can do the eyes and mouth." She knew he wouldn't, even if he said he would. So she watched him closely this time, smiling all the while.

[Requiem]

The man was more than pleased to note her moving toward the snowman and even paused in his rooting around to sneak a peek at her, smiling mischievously to himself when he caught the woman straightening the head. The smile was quickly masked when she turned back toward him, and he didn't think she'd seen it, but she'd definitely caught him watching her. Oops. Not that she probably didn't know him well enough to at least suspect it wasn't unintentional anyway. Besides, teasing wasn't very fun if the other party never figured out that was what you were doing.

"Mean?" He blinked. M'ta was terrible at keeping a straight face, which made him a terrible liar. It was a good trait to have when you were just playing around, though, because then at least most people knew when he was teasing and didn't take offense. The smile was threatening to break out even now, and his eyes glinted with that same amusement, clearly smiling at her even if his mouth wasn't. "I'm just trying to enjoy this free time we so rarely get with my weyrmate." Which wasn't at all untrue, really, unless you counted the word 'just' in there.

Equally amused by her carefull placement of the root, he'd acquired the buttons by now and come up nearly at her elbow, making a show of studying just where she'd put it and giving her his best imitation of a completely innocent, trustworthy grin. "Of course I'll behave." A kiss as teasing as his actions followed, nipping at her bottom lip with a tender sort of suggestiveness that made the kiss less than completely innocent.

All the while he'd been placing the eyes quite blindly, confident in that he'd distracted her at least long enough to do that. To include a third 'eye' above the first two, though of course it was no more centered than the others. He was, after all, placing them blindly. A quick look made his grin widen. Indeed, that was even better than he could have done it ife he'd been carefully placing them off-center.

Brushing behind her and sneaking a feel that would be shielded from prying eyes by their bodies, he padded back toward the basket. "Now, what are we using for the mouth?"

[Ivy]

An attempt at being playfully cross with him was given, but then he was kissing her and she forgot all about that. Eyes fluttered closed and an arm moved around him to keep him close. She was clueless as to his real motive behind the kiss - the misplacement of the eyes on the snowman's head. It wasn't until he broke the kiss so he could look to the snowman that she did the same and noted what he'd done. A playful little sort of growl came from the woman and she moved to gently push him, just as he moved to cop a sneaky feel.

A blush worked over her already cold-colored cheeks and she looked around to make sure no one had seen that. A hand gripped the back of his neck and then she pulled him in to nibble on his earlobe for a moment before whispering, "Just you wait, dear..."

Then she had pulled away and was working on fixing the strange eyes on the snowman. "I was thinking buttons? Perhaps some smaller sticks? What are the children using? This is all that was left out to use."

Back to normal as if nothing had just happened. Ruliana had a better poker face than M'ta for sure.

[Requiem]

Enjoying himself altogether too much. He liked it when his attempts to distract Ruliana were successful, especially when they took this form. There was always something mildly intoxicating about knowing your lover found you attractive, after all. Especially in Ruliana's case. The very simple truth was he knew how uncomfortable she'd been around men, and he also had no trouble seeing how beautiful the woman was. Most would say she was very definitely out of his league. Even M'ta knew that he wasn't unattractive, but women like Ruliana could easily attract and keep men more classically handsome, powerful, (and taller/stronger, naturally) than him. He wasn't exactly grateful to her for that, of course. It was a silly way to behave, being grateful to a woman for falling in love with you, like she'd gone and done that on purpose just to be nice to a guy. He just liked knowing that she was definitely as attracted to him as he was to her.

Something that was more than clear in the slight shiver not brought on by the chill breeze as her lips found his earlobe. It was one of his more sensitive spots, and that was reflected in the dark eyes that settled on her with a hungry appreciativeness before he smirked. "Later," he agreed, as if he was holding her to a promise. His rooting through the box was delayed long enough to glance at the other snowmen, before he scooped up a handful of the buttons.

"Both, it seems like," he commented, shaking them in his hand and approaching her again. M'ta thought about getting another quick grab in, but decided such things were better done with more time between. It wouldn't do if she started anticipating the ballsy secret grabs he liked to indulge in on occasion. Nope, time for more buttons. Buttons because he'd have to place more of them, and that left more room for messing with her.

Crowding her space enough to jab a quirky definitely not uniform arc of buttons in one-by-one to the snowman head, he didn't try to force her away from their silly creation with a hip or shoulder. Had no intention of 'winning,' so much as just playing the game. In fact, he was looking forward to any attempt made to even out the smile of the snowman, fully intending to mess them right back up in a game of who could move the buttons around the fastest. Maybe it wasn't the most mature thing for a man nearly 30 to do, but maturity was overrated.

Besides, he was doing this as much for Ruliana's sake as his own amusement. M'ta could easily tell that she was enjoying herself and his own childish behavior, and, sappy as it sounded, he rather liked pleasing his weyrmate. Even when it took unconventional forms.

[Ivy]

She knew the game he was playing, and while she didn't want to play along she found herself doing so - she just couldn't help it. He was good at pushing her buttons and he knew it. As he moved in front of her to place the crooked smile on the snowman she found her gloved hand moving quickly up to fix each button, only to have him move them back again. A frustrated huff - not truly frustrated mind you, more of the lovey frustration than actual frustration - and she wiped the whole button smile off the snowman's face.

If he moved to pick up the buttons off the ground she would step back and pick up a handful of snow. Smirking to herself she was quick to make a perfect snowball and then whistled to him - only to throw the snowball straight at his head.

Ducking behind the snowman she picked up a button and placed it neatly on the snowman's face before peeking around at her weyrmate, giving a squeal of delight as she tossed a handful of unpacked snow his way. Childish? Maybe. But it was one of the many reasons she adored him.

[Requiem]

Aw. The pout was affected and dramatic, even as he crouched to scoop up some of the buttons she'd knocked off the snowman's face. "You made him sad," he commented, with false gravity. He probably should have seen it coming, to be honest, but Ruliana was a good deal more dignified than M'ta himself was. Despite the fact that he was trying to get her to play with him and let her hair down, so to speak, the brownrider was almost invariably surprised whenever he succeeded, at least out in public like this.

Thus it was that he looked up at the whistle and got a face full of snowball. His shocked expression must have been priceless as he dropped the buttons and wiped the snow from his face. The growl was a playful one, even if there was a definite irritated element to it as well. Sneaky greenrider. Throwing snowballs at him while he was off his guard. The short man bent and quite deliberately began packing snow together between his palms, the snowman quite forgotten.

Even when he noticed her put one of the buttons back up to start forming a smile again, M'ta's attention was definitely on retribution and not winning the smile game. That didn't prevent him from getting another facefull of snow, though, Ruliana's squeal both delighting him and inciting him to pursue her more aggressively. He darted around the snowman. Fast as M'ta was, though, he wasn't fast enough to catch her running circles around the snowy obstacle, and after a couple laps of this he suddenly switched directions.

A wicked grin spread over his face when he saw he'd caught her enough off-guard to at least have a shot now, and he flung the snowball at her back as she adjusted to the new direction and began running the opposite way. Then, rather than pursuing her or changing direction again, he burst through the snowman in a showering of white powder, stumbling and falling over when the snowman proved more solid than expected. But he made the grab for his weyrmate just the same, fully intending to pin her to the ground beneath him and tickle her until he was satisfied that she was thoroughly punished for the snowball to the face.

[Ivy]

The normally prim and proper Ruliana, the one who was always polite and lady-like - especially in public, seemed to take a break as she squealed and giggled some more. Running around and around the snowman to avoid being pelted by snow by her weyrmate she felt her cheeks turning red - from smiling and the chill. She attempted to grab up some snow to throw over her shoulder at him but then he changed course and she had to turn quickly. Feeling the snow on her back she glanced back at him and then took off once more. Round and round they went until suddenly M'ta took on a sneakier tactic.

A burst of white powder filled the air around her as he attempted to make his way through the snowman. His attempt was only partially successful though, as much of the snowman stayed upright while he began to stumble and fall. She turned just then and thought she was clear of his arms - but then they wrapped around her waist and with a happy cry she fell down into the snow beneath him. Smirking she reached up and brushed some of the hair from his face, gazing up at him still giggling with that happy glow about her. "I don't think I've ever enjoyed the snow this much."

Gone from her mind were her earlier thoughts of Nerat and her past. All that mattered now was the present - her weyrmate atop her smiling as they lay on a blanket of snow. His fingers found her sides and soon she was squirming and giggling beneath him, trying to pin his hands down away from her. The tickle attack continued as she squealed and finally cried out, "M'ta!" Tears threatening to run down her face from all the laughter.

[Requiem]

He didn't let up right away on the tickling, but sensing that it might cross from enjoyable to uncomfortable soon after she called out his name, his hands slipped down to settle on either side of her waist instead, the brownrider lifting himself up slightly as he nuzzled her neck briefly, murmuring, "I don't think I have, either." Though he did enjoy playing with his own kids - and others - in the snow, it couldn't really compare to getting the normall composed woman to enjoy herself this much. He smiled down at her fondly and brushed her lips with his, not really trusting himself to much more than that.

It took a little bit of work to find his feet in this mound of snowman, but once he did he offered Ruliana a hand up and didn't let go until she'd stepped down from the mound herself. M'ta started brushing the snow off himself, his eyes naturally tracking toward various groups of kids playing. Another snowball fight had broken out on the other side of the snowman park. It reminded him of a conversation he'd had with Erilena...

Really, M'ta found himself surprisingly insecure about the tall woman near him when he was alone, and he tried not to let it get to him...but it still did. Which only seemed even more silly at moments like this. There could hardly be any doubt in his mind that they both enjoyed each other's company greatly. He wasn't good at the whole indirect probing thing, though. Still, it seemed like as good a time as any.

"Our kids used to be that age," M'ta commented quietly, still watching the especially young ones running about. Waddling, most of them, in all those layers. "Sometimes I miss it." Indirect though it might have been, he no doubt was completely transparent, especially considering the thickening of emotion in his voice. The brownrider glanced up at Ruliana, and the smile definitely held a touch of melancholy. "Whoever decided 12 was old enough to start a career was an idiot. But I can't change it. Riaren will have to leave soon if he wants formal training as a healer...this turn even maybe. I keep meaning to ask him but finding excuses not to," he added ruefully. Which just showed how nearly certain he was that the boy would want to become a healer.

Not that M'ta could blame him at all.

"And Terilyn...as soon as she's old enough she'll be standing. I'd be surprised if she didn't Impress within the first one or two clutches. I can't imagine not having children in the weyr anymore." He wanted children in his life. And, yes...he wanted one of his own. It wouldn't change how much he loved Terilyn, who he'd raised from an infant, or Riaren, who was R'wign's and Meira's and incredibly dear to him even if he hadn't mostly raised Riaren from birth as well. But there was something about having your own child...and he'd never wanted one as a Flight mistake, having to work out with the mother who would take care of it when. Possibly with a woman who could barely stand him anyway.

Yet he was almost afraid to ask Ruliana. Perhaps because it was something he really wanted, and he wasn't sure how he'd react if she told him no...or if she seemed to just be saying yes because he couldn't hide how much he wanted it. M'ta had been waiting for her to bring it up, but she never had.

[Ivy]

Her giggling died down as he stopped the tickling and instead wrapped an arm around her waist. The soft brush of his lips against hers was a welcome one, though she understood why it was kept brief. As he stood she worked at brushing some of the snow off of her until he offered his hand out to her. A bright smile lit up her face as she took his hand and stood up, finishing the task of brushing the snow from her coat and pants as he spoke.

Eyes followed his towards the group of playing children, her smile softening into a more maternal look than that of a lover as she watched them. Catching the rise of emotion in M'ta's voice she turned her full attention back to him, "Yes, they were... And I do too."

Reaching out she took his hand in hers before reaching up with the other to gently brush over his cheek. Eyes met his as he continued talking, even if he did avoid her gaze now and then. Despite the fact she had never brought it up, Ruliana had in fact thought about what it would be like to have a child of her own. She loved both Riaren and Terilyn dearly - they were her nephew and niece, and over the past few turns had become like a son and daughter to her. But they weren't hers. She'd witnessed enough other women - riders and non - as they went through pregnancy. True it wasn't all fun and games - sickness, aches, pains... then giving birth itself was no easy feat. One she was willing to endure though, if it meant having a child of her own. A child with her weyrmate. Who better to have a child with after all? He was a great father to Terilyn, and Riaren as well even if Ria had spent most his younger years away from M'ta.

"Riaren will make a great healer... you should be proud of him. And you're right about Teri as well - I wouldn't be surprised if she Impressed a Gold. It would be quite quiet without any children in the weyr... It is hard for even me to imagine..." Her eyes twinkled a bit as she looked at him, he was standing on a bit of snow where as she'd placed herself so for once they were around the same height. Kissing his lips lightly she finished with, "Maybe we don't have to though?"

She left it as a question, but it was obviously a clear answer to what he'd left unasked.