Nothing But a Flight

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 16th January 2020

Characters: Erivana, K'yne, Jadirah, Relis
Description: Circumstances cause K'yne to break his promise about attending Erivana's healer appointments.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 12, day 25 of Turn 9
Notes: Very late because of Avery's LOA

K'yne

K'yne glanced at the time once more, a habit he had taken up just that morning so that he did not miss Erivana's appointment with the healers. Theirs was a slow and tentative start and he did not want to do anything that might muck it up. She had revealed to him how helpful she found it when he went to her appointments, so he was determined not to miss any.

When it was nearly time to meet the greenrider at the infirmary, K'yne stood, stuffed his hidework in the top desk drawer, and exited his small wingsecond's office. He was just making the turn to head down to the infirmary when he felt an all-too-familiar pull in his gut.

**Arinoth!** he growled in a mental warning.

}:I must catch her, I must.:{ The brown said in return, flashing images of a pretty green dragon in K'yne's mind.

**I don't have time for that right now. I'm meeting Erivana, remember?** K'yne said, taking a determined step forward.

}:I will catch.:{ Arinoth said just as forcefully.

K'yne stood for a moment, struggling as he willed his body to continue walking to the infirmary. Only, he could not. The more he tried the harder his pulse pounded. **Damn.** He thought, releasing a pent of breath as he turned and headed for the flight rooms instead.

Zehlath threw her head back and screeched as she flew through the sky, wings burning. She led the string of brown, blue, bronze males behind her on a merry, wild chase, but finally she flagged and was caught by the handsome brown Arinoth. A fine speciment, the green thought as they twined tails...

When the burning off of the flight lust was done, Relis dozed off for a bit, the sweat cooling on her skin. She woke up and stretched out slow, smiling at the brownrider she wound up with. He wasn't in her wing, but she knew him in sight by passing. "Hey there," she said with a grin, stroking her fingers down his chest.

K'yne was still enjoying the slow thrum of the spent mating flight lust that made his muscles feel relaxed and sated. The best part of a mating flight, K'yne thought, was the way it seemed to help release any pent-up stress, and after the last few sevendays, he certainly had some pent-up stress. "Hello," he said, looking down at the woman in his arms. She wasn't familiar to him. "I don't think we've met."

"Relis. We fly Weyrleader's wing," she said. It was intended to be an explanation but there was pride in her voice, too. "And you're K'yne, Wingsecond of Cobalt. Handsome one, too."

The unexpected compliment made him chuckle. Relis was a very tempting armful and her reaction was certainly a different reaction than when Erivana had called him "sir"....

**Erivana!** the thought exploded in his brain and he sat up suddenly. **The healer's appointment!**

"I'm sorry," he had presence of mind to say to Relis as he left the bed and began picking up his clothing. "I was on my way to an appointment when Arinoth joined the chase."

Relis had hoped to continue flirting with him and have a successful second round. Sadly, it looked like he had somewhere to be. With a sigh, she rolled over and began reaching for her own clothes - though, to be a tease, she stretched out anyway to let him see her curves as she pulled her underthings back on. "Don't be a stranger, brownrider," she offered.

His blue eyes took appreciative stock of her figure as she moved. "Thank you for a nice flight," he said with the hint of a smile as he left the room, still buttoning up his shirt.

--

Time was a hard thing to keep track of in a mating flight, and so when K'yne reached the infirmary and saw the time he grimaced. There was probably no way that Erivana was still there. "Jadirah?" he called when he saw the healer walking by.

Jadirah looked up and caught sight of K'yne. Her eyes narrowed slightly and her mouth compressed into a tight line.

"Ah, brownrider. I'm afraid you're over half a candlemark late. For the end of the appointment," she added, pointedly.

K'yne's shoulders slumped in defeat as he looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "Was she upset?" he asked.

"If you ask her, she'll tell you no," Jadirah said. "But she held my apprentice's hand very tightly during the examination. And she didn't want to listen to the heartbeat without you."

"She didn't?" K'yne covered his hands with a hand before rubbing it down his face. "Shardit. I was on my way here for the appointment but then Arinoth won a green flight."

"You'd better hope she was on the teas, you don't want to be here again because of a greenflight do you?" she asked, mildly cantankerous in tone.

Still, Jadirah was weyrbred enough to know that that was unavoidable. After all, she'd certainly taken advantage of mothing opportunities before, and how powerful it was for the losers, it would be for the winners. She was still upset on the younger girl's behalf, so she added...

"I'd go make it up to her, let her know you really wanted to be here. Maybe come offer to schedule her next appointment so you're sure you can go. I might be willing to stay a candlemark late tomorrow if you can both make it."

Jadirah's first question nearly stunned K'yne. Had Relis been on teas? It wasn't as if he knew, it was a mating flight and there wasn't exactly time for conversation in the midst of it. Well, shards, that was something he didn't want to have to worry about, not when he was trying to focus his attentions on winning over his extra-shy pregnant roommate.

"I'll talk to her," he promised. "I'll let you know what she says about tomorrow, but let's plan on it for now."

She nodded. "I'll pencil you down. Now go make it up to her," she added, giving her best Mom Glare.

Considering that K'yne was a couple of Turns Jadirah's senior, he probably should have been unaffected by the glare, but the tall brownrider ducked his blond head before leaving and murmured, "Yes, ma'am."

--

Erivana was lying down in her bed in K'yne's weyr, trying not to be upset about him missing the appointment, and failing.

She tried to soothe herself with thoughts like: He was a busy man. An important man. A Wingsecond. He couldn't be there for her all the time because she was afraid to have exams done. She had to be respectful of other commitments on his time and energy. Not when he had many important things to do.

And also, she wasn't just a young child who had to have someone there with her for everything she did. She was a young woman and a dragonrider, fit to serve in the wings. She certainly should be able to go to a simple healer's appointment to check on the health of herself and the child without needing someone else.

But shardit, even though she was the one carrying the child, she was doing it because he'd wanted it too, and agreed to parent it. She wouldn't have been interested in doing this _alone_. And certainly hearing the heartbeat was important, right? So hot tears pricked at her eyes no matter how much she fought them.

K'yne did not go immediately back to his weyr but instead stopped by the bathing pools first. Taking the time to clean up helped him gather his thoughts and rehearse what he wanted to say, even though he always seemed to butcher his words.

As he passed through the weyrcouch he stopped for a moment to rub Seryth's flank before walking inside and knocking lightly on Erivana's door. "Erivana?" he said, opening her door a smidge to peer inside.

She scrubbed a hand across her face in the moment between the call and the opening, as though she could wipe away the little tear blotches, as though she'd just been sleeping. "Hi," she said softly.

"Hey," he said, his voice equally soft as he closed the door behind him and went over to the simple chair that sat across from her bed. "I'm sorry I missed the appointment," he said, damp hair glistening in the low light. "I was on my way but Arinoth won a green flight."

"Oh...it wasn't wing business? Seryth didn't know where he was," she said.

"No, it wasn't," the corners of his mouth lifted a little. "Nothing but a flight would have kept me from being there."

"Oh, I assumed, I mean..." she trailed off. He probably meant that as reassuring to her. Privately she thought that it wasn't reassuring at all. In fact, it was the opposite. Wing business, well, that was work... you couldn't control when you'd have to reprimand someone, or something. That thought didn't spur the same kind of jealousy. Whereas a flight, oh, a flight meant him was another woman, probably prettier and nicer, probably one he didn't have to worry about how to be nice to out of obligations...

"I managed the appointment all right. They said things were okay," she said, shifting topic quickly. "I told Master Jadirah that I'd wait until you were there to hear the heartbeat, it didn't feel right, to do it without you.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there," he said again, tone husky and low. "I spoke with Jadirah, she said we could come back tomorrow at the end of her shift."

She blinked. "So soon? I thought they were all busy."

"She said she would work us in, she knows how important it is," he answered. K'yne could see the splotchy evidence of where she had cried around her eyes, which only served to make him feel guiltier, even though the events of the day had been out of his control.

She cleared her throat and shifted around a little bit on the bed. What could she say to break the awkwardness? Or were they doomed to just sit here like this?

"What are you thinking of for dinner?" she asked.

**You,** his brain said, although his mouth was smart enough not to say it, especially since they weren't even near that point. "Whatever you would like."

"Are you going to get tired of it if I say bread and grains again?" she asked. "I could really go for some fresh bread. But not the meat stew, it's too much. Or the fish, eugh..."

She'd loved it at River Bluff and right now she couldn't stand it anymore.

K'yne lips quirked into a small smile. "No, bread and grains are fine. I'll eat anything, my mother says it's one of my finer qualities."

That made her snort. "Were you a handful to her?"

"No, I've always been the serious child. K'fel and Emyai, on the other hand, were always rambunctious."

"I can't imagine you as a not-serious child," she admitted. "Did you run herd on them then?"

"Only on Emyai," he confessed. "K'fel was older so there was no way he would have listened to me."

"Think it'll give you practice for our child?"

"I think my niece and nephew prepared me the most for that," he said.

"I'm glad one of us will have experience."

K'yne reached for her hand. "Experience is nice, but not necessary. I hear it comes quite naturally, like a mother dragon with her hatchlings."

"I hope you're right." She gave him another shy smile.

Last updated on the January 18th 2020

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Nothing But a Flight