Turn's End Shadows (2/4)

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 14th February 2024

Characters: A'vel, R'nar, Rakanji
Description: A'vel and R'nar keep chatting after A'vel's performance, allowing R'nar to share some deep seated emotions with A'vel.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 13, day 29 of Turn 10

A'vel and R'nar had shared another two beers and chatted, especially
as R'nar's former wingmates and clutchmates occasionally dropped by
to say a hello. But now the Dining Hall was getting louder and
rowdier. With meals done and the gentler concerts ending, places were
being cleared to have a large dance area and harpers were working up
the tempo of the music to get people in a dancing mood.

A'vel still had a bit of dessert on his plate. He leaned forward and
tapped R'nar's shoulder. "About to get loud and I don't feel like
dancing, do you? If you'd rather keep quiet, we can step out."

“Your weyrledge?” R’nar suggested, leaning to speak directly in
A’vel’s ear to be heard over the crowd.

"Sounds good to me," A'vel answered. It helped that his weyr had an
easy walk from the Lower Caverns entrance up to it - something he
always appreciated when he'd been drinking or performing. "Why don't
you head to the entrance while I go get my lyre, I need to take it
home.

R’nar headed for the cavern entrance, appreciating the soberingly
fresh night air that poured in. As he stood waiting, a hand suddenly
draped across his arm.

“Well, hello darling,” the woman purred, flicking her glossy brown
hair over her shoulder.

“Hi,” R’nar returned out of politeness. He’d never seen this woman in his life.

“You seemed like you were looking for someone. Someone like me,” she
finished smoothly, red lips smiling as her eyelashes batted over a
pair of green eyes.

“Ah,” R’nar found himself saying.

}:Very articulate.:{ Iorath said with amusement.

“I’m, uh, waiting for my friend, he’s collecting his instrument.” It
was hard to believe that he had once been good at talking to women
because right now he felt extremely out of practice.

The brunette leaned in close. “I could help you collect _your_ instrument.”

R’nar couldn’t help the slightly surprised laugh as he held up a hand.
“I’m, uh, flattered, really but…” He looked eyes with A’vel over the
woman’s help, sending him a pleading glance.

A'vel had quickly collected his lyre and walked back to the exit from
the caverns. When there, he saw Rakanji from the kitchen staff
standing extremely close to R'nar, clearly flirting with him. At first
he thought R'nar was going to be reciprocating, and his breath caught
for some reason. He then saw R'nar make eye contact and sped up a
little bit, coming up to tap R'nar on the shoulder and brushing past
Rakanji.

"Sorry it took me a moment, several other harpers had the same idea
all at once."

"Oh look, see, there he is," R'nar said with a smile and a nod before
they both whisked away from Rakanji.

"Man, if you had taken _one_second_longer..." R'nar laughed, shaking
his head, glad to be away from the woman.

"She's very aggressive, isn't she? Known to be a flight moth. I've
heard other people say she doesn't stop pursuing - but once she gets
you, she leaves you alone."

"She's aggressive, all right. Imagine rolling over to _that_ once the
flight lust clears." R'nar visibly shuddered, but there was still a
glint of laughter in his eyes.

"Better or worse than when you rolled over to me?" A'vel asked. It was
a surprisingly bold statement from the hallbred greenrider, but it
came from the drinks he'd had so far loosening his tongue. He'd
worried they'd be weird around each other afterwards, just like he'd
been far more anxious around J'ackt after he'd won her (thankfully
only once). But waking up next to his _Weyrleader_ had been far worse
than next to his friend.

“Are you kidding? Waking up beside you was easy. And honestly,
preferable to a stranger hands down.” R’nar snagged two cups from a
passing server who was probably on his way from the kitchens, and held
one out to A’vel, only marginally sloshing the contents around. “Have
some wine for our walk,” he said as they traversed the path to
Tsogath’s ledge.

"Oh I was going to offer my wine, but let's keep taking advantage of
the Weyr's stocks," he said with a laugh. "Hand it to me when we get
to my weyr, I don't want to slosh it on the lyre."

"Oh, oops, right," R'nar said, having already forgotten about the
lyre. He took a generous gulp of his own though so it wouldn't spill
while they were walking.

Once they got to his weyr, A'vel carefully laid the lyre into a second
wardrobe he had for storage of his instruments. Then he shut the door
and followed to the weyrledge. "I'll take that now."

"Milord," R'nar extended the wine cup with a flourish.

A'vel took it and clinked it against R'nar's. "You're the lord, sir
bronzerider. I'm merely a harper's son and a poor one myself." He
batted his eyes like an actor.

The Lord Bronzerider dismissed that with a wave of his hand. "It's the
bronzes that chase the greens, after all, not the other way around."

"Ah, but we're so flattered by you deigning to chase us." A'vel
couldn't keep his face straight anymore and he jokingly pushed R'nar's
shoulder. "Shards, we're silly."

"Too silly," agreed R'nar, legs dangling from the weyrledge as he
finished off the wine and looked across the weyrbowl at Iorath and
Tsogath, flirtatiously rubbing necks with each other. "Look at those
two."

"They're very invested in it. She's shameless right now." A'vel
counted in his head, thinking. She was about two and a half months
from her last rise... Was she being flirtatious because she was close
to it, or just because she had always been close with Iorath? She
wasn't being actively proddy so it couldn't be tonight or tomorrow.

R'nar normally blocked Iorath's feelings when he was being flirty with
a green, because it could get distracting, but just for a moment, he
opened up their connection. His body was instantly bathed in a rush of
giddy lust. **Enjoying yourself over there?**

}:Of course. Tsogath is always so lovely,:{ Iorath said dreamily.

Tsogath had gone from rubbing her neck against Iorath to trying to
tuck under his wing. }:Why is he not here more?:{ she asked A'vel,
sending emotions both pouting and lustful.

**Because he lives elsewhere. Here is painful for him.** A'vel answered.

}:Terrible.:{

He laughed aloud. "Tsogath says it's terrible he's no longer here."

That made R'nar smile. "They look right together," he blurted,
surprising himself.

"They've always been friends, so of course they do. He is her favorite
clutchmate." Tsogath was gregarious enough that she'd enjoyed a few
friendships with other clutchmate dragons, mostly other greens. Ioreth
had absolutely been her favorite male.

"Standing on those Hatching Sands together feels like another life
time in a lot of ways," R'nar said, amazed by how much had happened in
a relatively short amount of time.

"Hard to believe it was two Turns ago," A'vel agreed. "My life as a
weyrling is still memorable. But my life as Faveron's son and shadow?
I just don't remember it, really. The bullying. The making myself the
butt of every joke. The hiding myself."

}:And then I fixed it for you,:{ Tsogath said to him, warm and
affectionate to her rider, at the same time as she was flirtatious and
needy at Iorath. His eyes went far away not just as he spoke to her,
but as her feelings washed over him. *All* of them. The warmth of love
for him and her feelings of affection mixed together in a rush of
feelings.

After a long moment, he shook his head and looked at R'nar, half
seeing Iorath superimposed on him, giving him a charged thrill. "Do
you feel completely different?"

R'nar didn't turn his head but continued staring forward at Iorath and
Tsogath. "I feel completely different. You said you were a shadow, so
was I, in a different way. The son of a Weyrleader and Weyrwoman. One
son of many. Constantly trying to prove myself. Trying to gain my
father's attention. To hear him say he was proud of me...." He glanced
down, looking past his swinging feet to the ground far below. "Then I
met you, Impressed Iorath, and I became someone. Then came Ranni and
Eranar, and that's when I really felt proud of myself." Sighing, he
tilted his head back and looked up at the stars. "Now I'm a shadow
again."

"You still have Iorath. His hide will always mark you as someone, even
if you acquire no rank in the wings ever. Bronzeriders are never in
shadow. You still have Eranar, and you're going to be a better father
to him than your father _ever_ was to you. He'll grow up and see you
as his light. Those things matter," he said fiercely.

He didn't speak about how he wished his father was proud of him; it
wasn't the time for his trauma. It was all about his friend right now.
A'vel set down the glass and his hand inched across the stone to take
R'nar's and twine their fingers together, comfortingly.

"You still have friends. One who sees you as R'nar. Not Ranni's
widower, not Iorath's rider, not even Eranar's father - just as R'nar.
Worthy in himself. And as long as that's true, as someone perceives
you, you'll _never_ be a shadow."

R’nar squeezed A’vel’s hand. No one understood him like the greenrider
did. Turning to look at A’vel in the starlight, emotion clenched a
hand around his throat. He didn’t trust himself to speak, only to
relay what he felt in the glow of his eyes.

Tsogath nestled against Iorath, and began a deep humming croon, like
the one after a good mating flight. He opened his bond deeply and
touched her just to be sure that she wasn't proddy - she wouldn't rise
in the dark, but would it be tomorrow? No, she just liked Iorath that
much.

}:If I was to fly right now, and Iorath catch me...You would be pleased?:{

A'vel thought about it with the same coil in his belly he always had
about her flights. Tsogath had been caught by a blue recently and with
blueriders, they liked men, they wanted to stay with him - he'd been
taught that with T'lin's carefulness and desire post-flight. But with
bronzes, Tsogath's preference... R'kehr, N'vanik, J'ackt... R'nar...
they didn't like men, they wouldn't stay.

**It's what you want, dear. You decide. I comply,** he told her,
trying to lock away the way he felt about her flights so she could be
free and unencumbered.

}:I like him. You like his rider. It only makes sense to choose
Iorath.:{ she said to him, pushing her feelings out at him.

Suddenly, A'vel needed to be closer to R'nar. He scooted over and
wrapped an arm around R'nar's waist, leaning his head to rest on the
bronzerider's shoulder. The thought of asking R'nar to have Iorath
come bubbled up, and he opened his mouth to ask...

**Bronzeriders won't,** he reminded himself firmly and closed his lips.

Last updated on the February 23rd 2024

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Turn's End Shadows (2/4)