A Misunderstanding? (Derek)

[Lark]

Despite the Southerner's intrusions on lessons and meddling in Trelis affairs, things weren't going too bad for Ara. She had purposefully stayed away from the meetings in case a certain bronze rider had returned. On one hand, she wanted desperately to see him again. On the other though, the idea of facing him after what she had done made her shiver with anxiety.

Avirith was simply bored with her rider's constant confusion, and had been a flit's length away from telling the bronzerider herself when Ara finally gave in. She would see him today, maybe it would all work out...maybe. Sighing, she shook her head and opened the door to S'bel's weyr. Her green had said he'd gotten back recently, but not from what. Oh, he was spending an awful lot of time with Iirla and her Gold. Maerath was flirting a bit more than I'd have liked too...but eh, he's a bronze. I think I'll show him by picking a little blue next time.

Ara, who had now stepped over to the bed and was about go lean down and kiss the apparently napping bronzerider, drew back her hand to slap him. "How dare you...you, you horrible man! I know it's one thing for a bronze to flirt with a Gold, but you?!? And I felt bad for kissing J'dol. I bet you'd have done lots more with her if you could have!"

<Short post is short, and it takes place after Iirla and Izanycorth have their adventure with S'bel and Maerath.>

[derek]

He had been sleeping peacefully, napping after his adventures with Iirla and Izanycorth, when suddenly he was being attacked. The slap to the face was certainly enough to wake him up, but the accompanying yelling definitely sent him flying, as well as the roar that Maerath let loose when his rider was slapped.

"How dare you...you, you horrible man! I know it's one thing for a bronze to flirt with a Gold, but you?!? And I felt bad for kissing J'dol. I bet you'd have done lots more with her if you could have!"

Ah. Those lovely tones could only belong to Alyara. Falling from the bed, tangled in his furs, S'bel quickly managed to right himself and drew himself up to his full height. While this would have been intimidating, considering the fact that he slept completely naked... the effect was rather comic.

"Woman!" He bellowed. "That hu--!" A confused look overcame his face. "YOU DID WHAT?!" He shouted. "YOU KISSED A STUDENT?" His eyes flashed in anger, and he grabbed Ara's hands to keep her from hitting him again. Hissing, he let go of one hand, however, to tenderly touch his face.

She had quite an arm, it appeared.

"Didn't I teach you anything?" He asked, exasperated. "I never once led you on when you were a student, and you know I don't mean to do it now!" Completely letting her go, he turned his back on her, running his hands through his hair in fervent exasperation.

Finally, after muttering to himself for a good while, he turned back to her. "Damnit, Alyara, don't you realize that I love you?! You stupid woman, don't you realize that I have always loved you?!"

[Lark]

She narrowed her eyes at him when he first started to speak, only to blush deeply and turn the other way. Okay, maybe she should have thought more about this. One would assume Ara would know that he wouldn't necessarily be clothed, but she wasn't always the brightest color on the canvas, as he so wonderfully pointed out. At least he's not calling you girl. Eh, she did have to give him that. Covering her eyes seemed futile though seeming as the bronzerider only stepped toward her and took her hands in his own.

She tried to yank them back, but no doubt it was fruitless. He was much stronger than she was. Yet it was his words that angered her the most. "Never....you think you never led me on. I can gaurantee you it had been different for me S'bel than for you. I didn't mean for things to get that far with him....but after K..after she died...he was there. He was just so sweet and, and you were no where to be found!" She narrowed her eyes again, glaring at him with hurt eyes. Then he said those words and her eyes widened completely. "You..." Never had she heard him say that he cared for her like that.

Alyara finally got her hands free from his and wrapped her arms around herself, backing up and shaking her head. "If you...feel that way about me, then why put me through so much? Why.....it's because she's green isn't it? It's because she's not a Queen." Ara blinked quickly to hide the tears. She should have known, he was a bronzerider after all. Bronzes chased Golds, they only went after greens when it was convenient and fun for them. She wasn't sorry for kissing J'dol, but she was confused. Who was the one, if any she should be liking? Was it worth it...was this man really worth the pain?

Avirith backwinged onto Maerath's ledge carefully, folding in her wings halfway as she kept her balance. Do not be angered at Mine because she is upset for what Yours and you did Maerath. She's in the right. Ara gave a weak smile as she listened to her green and shook her head. "You're just biased love."

[derek]

She blushed deeply, and S'bel threw his hands in the air. Didn't she know by now that he always slept naked? Grabbing a pair of breeches, he pulled them on, more for her benefit than his.

As he grabbed her hands, she struggled, which was useless, of course. While she was strong (obviously, as his face was rapidly turning red, and still stung from her slap), he was bigger and stronger, and there was no way that she could break his grip. "I never tried to lead you on! And you know fairly well I was away on Weyr business!" But then his next words stopped her cold.

And hers stopped him. He averted his eyes. "I must do my duty..." He whispered. "I never wanted a Bronze. I didn't even want a Brown that nearly Impressed to me. I never wanted the responsibility, but it was responsibility that I got saddled with, and my father taught me that no matter what, I must do my duty." He stepped forward, taking Alyara by the shoulders. "Avirith may not be a Gold dragon, but it doesn't make me love you any less."

He looked to the ground. "You have to understand... I love you. I always have loved you. I always will love you. But I can and will do my duty if Maerath flies a Queen. Even if he does fly a Queen, it won't make me love you any less, and I won't stop being there for you. Please. You have to understand... I don't want to lose you."

He was ashamed to find tears burning hot in his own blue eyes, because every word he said was true. He would never stop loving her. Never.

[Lark]

So where did that leave her then? She listened halfheartedly to the bronzerider speak, not even registering him in her mind as anything but. He cared for her.....yet, he couldn't see that he could still be with her. She had seen other greenriders and bronzeriders that had fallen in love and they never seemed to have an issue. They substituted in flights, they knew that they both were to serve their Weyrs. It wasn't one duty being greater than another. It certainly wasn't as if, to be honest, she herself was more of a help and influence than he was. However, those facts would be dead to him. Simple meaningless nonsense.

Shaking her head slower this time, Ara found herself remembering Avirith's first flight. No blue had shown, obviously they were more important than a normal green! But wait, that was not Alyara thinking, that was Avirith. The green snorted, flicking her tail irritably before pacing a bit in Maerath's cave and finally flopping onto the bronze's bed. It brought Ara back to the present, and she looked at the man she had looked up to. The one she had fallen for, the one she had went to find when he disappeared. When no one else had cared, it was Alyara that had been there. Yet he could only speak of duty and honor? Where was the honor in harming the thing you loved just to say you were doing your job of letting your dragon do something.

It would be as if saying she didn't matter quite as much to him because he was a bronzerider and had to fight thread! They all had duties to the Weyr, and they all found ways to be happy despite it. So why did he fight her so? That's what she failed to understand despite his gentle words. She sighed and closed her eyes. I have one who is unable to risk anything it seems for me...and another who would risk everything....why is this decision so hard? Then, she knew what she had to do. The tears that had been starting to fall stopped and she even ceased to breath hardly for a few moments. Her whole body became still.

How had she been so stupid. "Why didn't I realize this before?" She was smiling oddly down at her hands, and then she did the oddest thing......she laughed.

[derek]

He admitted to loving her. Admitted that he would stay with her and be with her until he couldn't... and she chose her student? His eyes narrowed. This was the problem they had... they couldn't understand one another well enough to be together.

"Fine."

He stood there silently, glaring at the green rider, seemingly unable to say anything else. Seconds stretched on and on, until finally he spoke again.

"Fine. I get it. You choose him. Fine."

His voice took on a hard edge, and Maerath lashed his tail. "Get out of my Weyr, Alyara." He had remained calm until this point, but now he couldn't stop the fury from boiling over. "GET OUT, I SAID! GET OUT!"

He had admitted to loving her, and still she refused him, when she had been the one chasing him for so many long years. He had finally given in, and she refused him. What kind of game was she playing.

"GET OUT!" He roared again, Maerath joining his voice to S'bel's. "GET OUT! AND DON'T LET ME SEE YOU HERE AGAIN!"

[Lark]

She flinched as he yelled. How could he?!? How could S'bel become so angry at someone he had just admitted to caring so deeply about. Leave? Oh yes, that Ara would do. The greenrider turned on her heel, running from the rider until she met Avirith and vaulted onto her back. An alarmed call rose up as Aries and Excalibur betweened to her, the gold and bronze trilling defiantly at the male rider that had made Theirs so upset. She didn't let the tears come again though, no she waited till after she flew off. Till after Avirith landed on her own ledge. Till after the green and flits had enveloped her in warmth and hide. Then she let the tears fall again.

She finally picked her head up, and shook her head, batting at the soft hair that surrounded her. It was too close, too suffocating. Any touch it held reminded her of him somehow. She wasnt sure what happened next, all she knew was suddenly she was up and there was a throwing knife in her hand from somewhere in her chest of clothes. The flits screamed and Avirith warbled and keened, but Ara only laughed. Then there was hair around her again then off of her, and finally she let the blade clatter to the floor and she smiled a happy satisfied little smile and collapsed against her green.

Another few moments passed and then she felt arms around her. At first the greenrider expected Inali, her friend or Panille even. She never thought she'd be seeing that face again in her life if she could help it. A familiar green shape slid next to Avirith's and the older green crooned sadly yet comfortingly. Ara lifted her eyes to the older woman's face, and a moment of fear flashed in them before it disappeared and was replaced by relief. A particular word floated on her lips, though she knew it was by association only. This was not her mother, yet somehow it was because this woman had raised her as her own. Avirith had known what her rider had needed really. Embracing the older woman, Ara finally stopped crying and spoke.

"What do I do?" She looked up pleadingly into the rider's eyes and received a warm smile as a wrinkled hand caressed the now butchered, short hair. "You fix this up." Then you get yourself back together and out there.