Breaking Old Habits

Writers: Bree, Estelle
Date Posted: 5th August 2005

Characters: R'yal, Dantial
Description: R'yal takes advantage of a late night meeting with Dantial and spends a little time flirting.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 7, day 1 of Turn 3

Dantial was fairly groggy while he wandered through the empting dining Hall intent on the hearth near the kitchens that held the ever-ready pots of klah and stew. His sleep schedule had become a jumble over the past few sevendays since the accident, as he'd been willingly taking odd late night and pre-dawn shifts in the infirmary more often than perhaps necessary. To him it made perfect sense though--many of the journeymen and journeywoman healers had someone waiting for them in their weyrs. The only person Dantial knew all that well was already in the infirmary, so he might as well be there too.

He'd woken up from a brief nap with more than enough time to stagger into the dining hall for food--and maybe even wake up a little--but he certainly hadn't been expecting to see anyone else up at this hour that was so late it was almost early. While rubbing at the side of his face while trying to cover a yawn with the other hand, he all but ran over a greenrider who had stood up from a chair across from the hearth.

R'yal was momentarily taken aback, thinking he'd seen the former Weyrleader when the man was supposed to be laid up in the Infirmary, but the instinctive flirtatious smile that came to his face when he thought of O'dan would do just as well for an equally attractive man with healer's knots. "Careful, journeyman! You look like you need something to wake you up..." He winked. "Can I offer you a mug of klah?"

"That's the direction I was moving in," Dantial replied, giving the greenrider a sleepy smile. "Night shifts in the infirmary are long and boring, so I might need more than just one mug."

"There's plenty here," R'yal said innocently, gesturing to the chair beside him with a jug, from which he poured klah into two mugs and handed one to Dantial. "I'm always happy to help keep someone up all night."

Dantial slipped into the seat next to R'yal and accepted the mug gratefully. "I'm Dantial, by the way."

"R'yal, green Iliraith's rider." R'yal sipped at his klah. "Pardon me for asking, but you're not by any chance related to the Weyrl...I mean, Bronzerider O'dan? You look very like him."

Dantial was used to that question by now. "I'm his brother, actually. I came here from the Healer Hall about a month ago."

"He never told me he had a brother," R'yal said, unable to resist the name-dropping. "He comes to my parties, you know. O'dan's very good at livening up a party."

"I'm sure he is," Dantial replied dryly. He could only imagine the sort of entertainment O'dan provided. "But since O'dan can't remember that he has children half of the time, it's not surprising he forgot about me."

O'dan had children? That shouldn't have been a surprise, though R'yal found it hard to picture the bronzerider as a family man. He grinned. "Well, I can certainly see why he didn't choose to mention he had an equally good-looking brother - no-one likes to increase the competition."

Dantial raised an eyebrow as he belatedly realized he was being flirted with. "I don't think most people would claim I'm equally good-looking. You might be a little sleepy."

"Not at all." R'yal winked. "I'm wide awake and just _full_ of energy..."

"Isn't that a bit unnatural this late in the evening?" Dantial replied, finding himself smiling. "Or is it early in the morning... I can't quite tell anymore..."

"It's never too late to be...sociable." R'yal had been drilling with his wing at dawn the previous day, and after he'd finished bathing and oiling his dragon and attending to his riding straps, he'd been so tired he'd spent the rest of the afternoon asleep. After a day of being so _good_, he thought that an attractive healer nearly running into him was a perfectly just reward.

Dantial laughed. "I may be a craftbred healer, but I believe that you are flirting with me, R'yal, rider of green Iliraith."

The greenrider grinned back at him. "And you may be a craftbred healer, Journeyman Dantial, but _I_ believe you're enjoying it!"

"You might be right," Dantial replied before taking another sip of his klah. The surprising thing was that he was enjoying it, at least a little. At the Healer Hall, the easiest way to deal with the ambigiousness of his feelings about romance had been to ignore men and women equally. Now that he was in a place where he wouldn't be shunned for it, it was easier to admit that R'yal's grin was attractive.

"Now, the question is," R'yal said, gazing at the healer in a most inviting manner, "whether you're only enjoying it because you're amused, like your brother the bronzerider, or because you've realised that you're not in your Crafthall any more and can do what you like with whoever you like...and you like that idea very much."

Dantial hadn't needed a reminder of his bronzerider brother, who already teased him endlessly. "I may not be in my Crafthall anymore, but old habits do die hard."

"Well," R'yal said, "maybe I can help to kill a few old habits off..." And with that, he reached out and touched the healer's cheek, turning his head towards him so that he could lean in and steal a kiss.

When he pulled back he was rewarded with the sight of a healer who looked highly flustered but not particuarly upset. "That was unexpected," Dantial managed after a few moments, not sure what he was more confused by--the fact that the greenrider had just kissed him within five minutes of meeting him, or the fact that he didn't really think he minded.

"But not unwelcome, I hope..." With unusual sensitivity - for him - R'yal decided not to push matters. He had just won a very nice kiss from a handsome healer, and had no wish to ruin it by scaring the poor man off. "It's time I was abed. But I have high hopes we'll meet again, Journeyman Dantial. And..." He winked. "You know who to ask for if you have any more old habits you'd like to break."

~*~

Estelle (estelle@triadweyrs.org)
R'yal, greenrider, DCW

Bree - bree@triadweyrs.org
Dantial, confused healer, DCW

Last updated on the August 12th 2005

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Breaking Old Habits