The Definition of a Friend

Writers: AL, Heather
Date Posted: 7th December 2015

Characters: Thayde, Irabel
Description: Thayde checks on Irabel to see how she's recovering.
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 3, day 12 of Turn 8

Thayde

Irabel didn't really drink much more than a glass of wine, maybe two, but
no more than that at one time. With the way her head throbbed and her eyes
refused to accept any but the dimmest amount of light the next day, she
wondered why anyone ever imbibed in so much alcohol. Unfortunately, the
consequences of the indulgence confused her. For some reason, the wine had
affected her far too severely. For some reason, when she'd had that one or
two glasses, she'd already tipped over into 'not quite there' territory,
and found herself on the edge of unreasonable. Glass after glass had been
presented to her, and why she didn't refuse, Irabel could not say.

Try as she might, the dolphineer could not do much more than get out of
bed. It took all the resolve she had to even write a note that she was
'incapacitated' and 'not feeling well'. Although that was the truth, she
had a feeling the acting Hallmaster would probably know why. She just
hoped he'd be willing to listen to her explanation - otherwise, she'd be in
big trouble.

Thoughts of the acting Hallmaster brought to mind the Hallsecond and that
only made her want to groan and hide under the covers. While the previous
day's events were fuzzy, the memories were just coherent enough to allow
her to remember what had transpired and suffer from embarrassment. She
really hoped she could avoid him for the next few days.

Unfortunately for Irabel, the acting Hallmaster hadn't been in his office
and the drudge had been forced to take her note to the Hallsecond instead.
Thayde had read the note with a mixture of amusement and sympathy knowing
that Irabel was bound to have one heck of a hangover. Leaving his office,
and draping a tunic over his arm as he did, Thayde showed up outside of
Irabel's quarters with a sharp knock on her door.

No no no. She did not want visitors. The last thing Irabel needed was
someone to see her in that state. For a moment, she pondered not even
bothering to answer the door, but the idea that the Hallmaster might have
sent a message in return and she'd probably better get it rather than risk
his wrath. With a sigh, the woman forced herself to her feet and trudged
into the main room, then over to the door. When she opened it, the sight
of the face she wanted to see less than even the Hallmaster greeted her,
and it took all her force of will not to slam the door in his face. As it
was, red crept into her cheeks, bright, and matched the colour the whites
of her eyes had turned into. "Thayde…"

"Ah, she lives." Thayde smiled, surprised that Irabel had actually opened
the door, he'd come over expecting to have to persuade his way in. "I have
something that belongs to you." He held the tunic up, the one she'd worn
the night before. "You will be happy to note that there isn't a hint of a
stain on it."

The hue of her face only deepened, her eyes darted to the tunic, then down
as she tried to calm the twisting in her stomach. "Thanks." She murmured
and reached out to take it, unable to meet his gaze with her own.

Irabel's behavior was exactly what Thayde had expected when he'd helped her
to her quarters the night before. "Ira, it happens." he said as he handed
the shirt over.

The woman clutched the tunic to her, as if it might offer more coverage for
her already modestly covered frame. "I don't...I don't usually drink like
that." To her, the words sounded lame at best. She didn't, so why had
she? What had compelled her to keep going?

"I know that, but I wouldn't think any differently of you if you did."
Thayde leaned his shoulder against the door frame, since it appeared she
wasn't going to invite him in. "You mentioned that the wine you drank
tasted funny last night. I'm thinking someone played a prank on you."

"A prank?" Irabel squinted, unable to get her eyes to fully cooperate.
"But why?" What had she ever done to someone that would make them feel
they needed to pull a prank. "You think they put something in my drink?"

"Maybe." He didn't know why anyone would want to play a prank on Irabel
either, but people were mean. "Who brought you your drink?"

"A girl from the kitchens. Said someone recommended the vintage and I
should have some. Thought I'd take two glasses, but after that…" After
that, she thought she'd have just one more, then one more, then one last
one, but the last one hadn't turned out to be the last one and Irabel found
herself almost drowning by the end of dinner.

Thayde's brown eyes hardened, "I'll find out who did it, Irabel, I
promise." And just as quickly his expression cleared, "You're really not
going to invite me in, are you?"

Irabel shifted from one foot to the other. If she didn't, she'd prove a
poor host, indeed. "If...if you want." Well, he wouldn't have queried as
to whether or not she was if he didn't wish to. After another moment, she
slipped to the side a little, her face still quite scarlet and wishing she
had better control over herself.

Rather than stepping past the woman and walking in, Thayde reached out and
tilted her face upward with a finger hooked beneath her chin, "Irabel, you
don't have to be so embarrassed. I am your friend, friends take care of
each other."

Sharp grey met warm brown and she blinked a couple of times. Friends had
been scarce, though she had counted Famell among them. Usually, her
'friends' were coworkers, people she spent time with because they had jobs
to do. There had been men who had sought more, but generally the 'more'
they sought wasn't something she was willing to give. One night stands
were not something she cared for, and their advances had indicated that was
all they wanted. Thayde, however, had taken _time_ with her, time that was
spent not trying to get off her clothes, but to help her see that there was
more to see than just the dolphins and the sea. After a few breaths, she
nodded, though the colour remained despite his assurance.

Thayde reluctantly released Irabel's face. "Do you want me to come in? I
understand if you would like some time alone." As much as he had teased her
about letting him in, he didn't want to force his company on her.

"You can come in." As embarrassed as she was and as frightful as she must
appeared, the last thing she wanted to do was to alienate the man who had
indicated his friendship. Friends took care of each other - and cared for
one another. She would let him do so. With that, she took a step back, no
longer blocking the way inside.

Stepping inside, Thayde closed the door behind himself, considering his
presence in Irabel's room a small victory. "Have you taken anything for
that hangover?" he asked.

"No." Irabel hadn't stepped foot outside of her room. The last thing she
needed was for other people to see her in such a wretched condition. Even
with Thayde's assurance, she still harboured a bit of trepidation. Perhaps
she should have requested the drudge to get something for her headache, but
she'd been more concerned with making sure she didn't get into trouble for
not letting anyone know why she was absent.

"Speaking from experience, eating something and getting hydrated is the
best you can do. Otherwise you just have to let it wear off on its own."
Thayde took a seat, trying to act as he would if he were in one of his
long-time friends' quarters. He'd told Irabel that they were friends, and
that's the way he wanted to treat her.

"I guess I should send for some food and water." Which meant she'd have to
open the door and get assaulted by the light in the hallway. Her own
quarters had remained dim simply because it hurt her eyes and intensified
the pounding in her head. "Do you...want anything?"

"Just some juice for me." He'd already been up long enough to have had
breakfast before he went to his office. Thayde's dark eyes followed
Irabel's movements, noting that she still wasn't completely relaxed around
him.

Irabel nodded and headed back to open the door. Squinting out into the
hallway, she peered out, then flagged down a drudge who happened to be
passing by. Quietly, she made her requests, then shut the door and turned
back to the gentle shadows that were far easier to bear. It was then
Irabel realized she still clutched that tunic. More pink darted to her
cheeks as the memory of the previous evening came to the forefront.
"Excuse me...I need to put this away.", she managed before hurrying into
her bedroom so she could hang it in her wardrobe.

"You were quite adamant last night that the stain had to come out of the
shirt. You mentioned your mother." he said, wondering if she would explain.
As long as they had known one another, which granted, was incredibly long
since he'd only been back from Jade Harbor for a Turn or so, he couldn't
remember Irabel ever talking about her family.

His voice carried easily through the doorway and Irabel leaned her forehead
against the wardrobe. Ugh. What else had she done to embarrass herself.
"My mother…" She started to call, then winced as the effort to lift her
voice to carry into the other room didn't help her head. Instead, Irabel
hung up the tunic, then shuffled back into the room. "My mother...she
uh...didn't like messy clothes." That was putting it mildly.

Thayde chuckled a little, "I was one of four boys so my mother was just
pleased that we were _wearing_ clothes. Fortunately for her my younger
sisters were much better behaved." Learning more about Irabel's mother
helped Thayde understand some of the .. quirks ..about the dolphineer.

"Where is your mother now?" he asked.

Irabel squirmed a little, then quickly found a seat in a chair opposite of
the love seat he occupied. "Up North. She went back a few years
ago...and um...is coming for a visit." Which had, undoubtedly, been on
Irabel's mind since she had received word.

Thayde's eyebrows lifted, "Really? When?"

"Um...she should be here in a sevenday or so, depending on the winds."
Although a dragonrider would have been faster, Irabel's mother wouldn't
leave her partner behind and dragonriders couldn't just drop what they were
doing and give rides to anyone who requested it.

"You don't seem… thrilled about it." He assessed, wondering what kind of
relationship Irabel really had with her mother.

Irabel cast a sidelong glance at her friend, then looked away. So how was
she going to explain? Part of her chided herself for even thinking about
speaking ill of her mother. Another part prodded her to be honest.
Eventually, the second part won. "My mother can be...a difficult person to
be around sometimes."

He imagined that was putting it lightly. Irabel wasn't the type of person
to say negative things about others. "Do you have siblings?"

"No. Just me." Which meant that anything Irabel did wrong was immediately
focused upon. The things Irabel did right earned only the slightest of
recognition, or a sense that she should know better than for things to be
any other way. After her father's death, it had only gotten worse. "She
uh...likes things 'just so'."

"Is that why you like things 'just so'?" he asked. Without looking, because
he'd noticed it the night before, Thayde knew that everything in the room
was in its place, and he also knew that her clothes were pressed, folded
and hung in the correct place.

Irabel's brow furrowed. "I guess. I just...grew up where everything had
to be pristine and in their proper homes. If not, there were
consequences." Not the sort that resulted in bruises and lashes, but they
were still unpleasant enough that Irabel simply complied rather than deal
with them. "Over the turns, it's just what you get used to and you do it
automatically."

"That's true, we are a product of our upbringing, but your mother doesn't
have control over you any more. You're a grown woman, you can do things
however you would like." Thayde was not imagining Irabel's mother as a nice
person.

"I know." Yet, sometimes her mother continued to have a hold over her,
despite the turns they'd spent apart. "I did that when I refused to return
with her."

Thayde's eyebrows lifted, "She wanted you to leave the Hall?"

"She expected me to. I was her daughter. I'd barely walked the tables to
become a journeyman and hadn't been assigned a partner. She saw no reason
why I shouldn't follow her back to the North." That had been before she
left to work at Topaz Seahold, before Kerchek. "It was the first time I
ever remember telling her 'no'."

"How did she handle that?" Thayde couldn't imagine his parents telling him
where to go or what to do with his life.

"Not well." Irabel admitted with a smile that held no humour. "It was
five turns before I saw her again, though we wrote on occasion."

That was a long time to go without contact, granted, Thayde couldn't
remember how long it had been since he'd last seen his family, he'd just
been so busy between his stay at Jade Harbor and then coming back to
Dolphin Cove and into the Hallsecond position.

"Is she a crafter too?"

"She's a dolphineer." In that way, Irabel had followed in her mother's
footsteps. At first, it had simpy been because her mother expected her
too, but Irabel found she enjoyed the craft and was good at it in her own
right. It was one of the few things she had in common with her mother. Of
course, she never could do well enough in her mother's eyes. "A master."
Another thing her mother was unhappy about - Irabel had yet to earn her
Mastery.

"I look forward to meeting her then. How long is she planning on staying?"
Thayde asked.

Look forward? Irabel didn't look forward to it. Her mother's passive
aggressiveness and underlying disappointment was bad enough in writing.
"She didn't say specifically, she just said 'a little while'." That could
mean anything from a couple of days to a couple of years. She really hoped
it was the former and not the latter.

A knock on the door announced the arrival of the breakfast and juice that
Irabel had ordered. "I'll get it." He motioned for her to remain seated as
he crossed the room, opened the door, and collected the tray from the
drudge, who looked mildly surprised to see him there. Not thinking much
about it, Thayde shut the door and brought the food and drink over.

"Thanks." Irabel's hand rubbed at her forehead and she wished the headache
would fade. Unfortunately, there was no absolute cure for hangovers, but
she'd follow the advice Thayde gave. "Did you eat?"

Thayde took his juice and reclaimed his seat. "Yes, I was up fairly early
this morning. I try to run early before it gets warm out." Running meant a
bath, and then after that he typically had his breakfast and then headed to
work.

Irabel nodded and plucked one of the sweet roles as well as a bit of
sausage. She nibbled upon the combinations of sweet and savoury. After a
moment, she procured a glass of juice and sipped at it before adding, "You
don't have stay. I'll be okay. As soon as I can function, I'll get to
work, I promise."

"Just take the day, Irabel, it is not as if you ever miss work anyway. One
day is not going to kill you. Relax, let the throbbing in your head recede,
and then go enjoy yourself. Maybe a swim that doesn't involve work for
once." Thayde suggested.

"I...I don't know if that's such a good idea." Irabel squirmed, his
suggestion not settling well. "It's bad enough that I'm already very
late."

Thayde arched an eyebrow and said in an enticing voice, "Ah, come on,
Irabel. _One_ day_."

"Master Endarin wouldn't like it." The last thing Irabel wanted to do was
to get in trouble. Besides, she needed to go over some of the inventory to
make sure ropes hadn't frayed, that medical kits were well stocked…

"It's _one_ day_, Irabel. Everyone takes off one day at some point in their
career. When is the last time you missed work?"

"Um." Irabel honestly couldn't remember. Even when she didn't feel well,
she would complete her duties. In general, she was pretty healthy so she
didn't get sick often. The last time she had missed work? "I...don't
know."

"Good. As your superior I am telling you that you are not coming into work
today. I forbid it. You're not well enough." Thayde raised his eyebrows and
smirked a little. "So there."

"But…" Not go into work? Irabel didn't like that idea at all.

Thayde held up a hand to silence her objections. "No buts, that's an order,
I mean it, Irabel. You're sick. Take a sick day."

"I'm not sick. I'm hung over. There's a difference." Irabel's protest
held little strength and she lowered her gaze as she took another small
bite of her sausage and sweet roll.

"Too bad. Not only am I your friend, which I don't take lightly by the way,
but I am also your boss." There was a bit of teasing in Thayde's voice, but
he really had no intention of letting Irabel go to work.

"But if I feel better…" Then surely she could work. Irabel wasn't
comatose.

"If you feel better then use that time to rest." Thayde finished off his
juice and stood. "I mean it, Irabel, I had better not see you working while
I'm making my rounds today."

"Thayde…"

He stopped on his way to the door and looked over his shoulder, "Yes?"

For a moment, the woman contemplated, then evidently gave up and hunched in
her seat. "Never mind."

Thayde blinked. "Irabel, what is it?"

"Nothing." Irabel shook her head and smiled a little. "Just...thanks for
taking care of me."

"Anytime." He smiled.

Last updated on the December 10th 2015

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The Definition of a Friend