More Trouble Than They're Worth

Writers: Bree, Eimi
Date Posted: 30th October 2005

Characters: Abrei, U'kaiah
Description: Abrei decides to tell U'kaiah _exactly_ what she thinks of men. All of them. In drunken detail.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 8, day 28 of Turn 3

Abrei

Abrei opened the door at U'kaiah's knock and gave him one annoyed look before turning and stomping back into her rooms, leaving the door open.
"Finally! I thought it was going to take you all day to get here!" Her weyr was a mess, and Abrei kicked a path through a pile of clothing and flopped back down onto her couch without looking to see if he was following.

U'kaiah looked around the disaster of a weyr before following along the path she had cleared and flopping down on the couch beside her. "Sorry, I came as soon as I got your message. What is it you need to talk to me about?"
The bronzerider felt a bit guilty. He was pretty sure he knew the answer.
He was sure it was about Kalamath winning Talryne's green the day before.

The Weyrhealer reached out and grabbed a half empty wine bottle from the side table. After taking a generous swig, she handed it to him. "It's a very special occasion. I'm about to admit that you were right. You might need a drink."

The bronzerider's eyebrows shot up as he took the bottle from her. So this wasn't about the girl... He took a mighty swig and handed it back. "Are you intending to get me drunk so I will forget your admission tomorrow?"

"Hopefully," Abrei replied, taking another sip from the bottle. "And maybe if I'm drunk enough, I can forget about my admission tomorrow." She slumped down in the couch, stretching long legs out in front of her and kicking at a pair of boots that got in her way.

"All right, then why don't you just admit... whatever it is that you want to admit, and then I can help you forget it, huh?" He took the bottle back.

Abrei sighed. "You were right about all of it. The fighting, the relationships... all of it. I don't think there's any sex good enough to make up for all the misery that comes with emotional involvement."

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Really? Why? What happened?"

She reached out and rescued the wine bottle, finishing it off in one very unladylike swig. "The fighting finally got bad enough so that the making up wasn't good enough."

"I'm sure it's only temporary," he said reassuringly. U'kaiah wanted to put an arm around her consolingly, but he wouldn't be fool enough to try it that bottle in her hands. It could prove dangerous if she thought he was making advances...

"I don't think so," Abrei said sadly, surprising him by leaning into his side and letting her head fall onto his shoulder. The bottle, however, was still clutched fairly tightly in her hands. "I suppose I have to clean my weyr now..." As hard as she tried to make her voice sound light, it was clear that she was holding back tears by stubbornness alone.

U'kaiah was surprised, by the lean as much as by the tears he could hear in her voice. "Well, first thing, why don't you give me the bottle."

"Uh-uh." Abrei clutched the bottle tighter and she pulled her legs up onto the couch and curled them under her. "I'm going to use it to defend my honor against you. Unless you can find a full one somewhere... then you can have it."

"Your honor is safe with me, bottle or no. Please, just don't use it on me," he said tentatively as he slowly reached his arm around her, watching the hand with the bottle carefully.

Abrei gave a tired sounding sigh. "I feel so miserable that I don't even want to hit you. I can't remember ever being too miserable to hit you before. Obviously life as we know it is over."

"I still think you're over reacting, Abrei," he said as he pulled her a bit closer. "I'm sure everything will be all right. R'han could be such an idiot to lose such a smart, gorgeous woman like you."

Suddenly annoyed, Abrei struggled to sit up. "Who said it was his choice? I don't care _what_ he says, I'm not going to go back there and wait for this to happen again! This is my absolute _last_ day spent drinking and sniffling over him!" Abrei banged the bottle into his leg for emphasis. "All right, I get it, it's your choice. Of course, if that is what will make you happy then never see the old man again." Shards, his leg was going to have a nice bruise.

"I wish I was drunk enough to think one of these choices would make me happy," Abrei replied, letting the bottle slide to the floor.

"I know it hurts, Abrei," he said as he put his arm around her shoulder, a bit more confident now that she had no bottle in her hands. "I've been there. I know. But I also know it will go away."

"I know." She tucked her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes. "I hate men. You're all so much trouble." The temptation to cause a little trouble of her own by climbing into his lap had seeped into her with the alcohol, but she was mostly sure that she would think that had been a bad idea when she sobered up. Besides, she hated men.

"I know we are. We're just a bunch of big jerks," he conceded as he rested his head against hers.

"Every last one of you." She relaxed a little into him, though it was obvious that she wasn't completely comfortable. "I don't need a man anyway.
I have too much to do."

"Well, surely there is _something_ men are good for." Though he was pretty sure, from what he had heard of her bronzerider, she knew that pretty well.

"I lived perfectly well for ten turns without a man," Abrei replied in a grumpy voice. "Somehow I doubt a few months is going to end me." Though now that she truly knew what she was missing, it might be a little harder to go without it.

"Well, it's good to know that you haven't sworn off men completely."

Abrei laughed and pushed herself back upright, knocking her head into his chin in the process. "Not yet. I'll wait until I've decided if _any_ of you are worth it. Though I fully expect to come to the conclusion that men are more trouble than they're worth!"

"Trust me, women have their moments too," the bronzerider replied as he rubbed at his chin. A little harder and he would have lost a tooth, he was sure!

"We have every right to them, considering that we have to deal with men." It was the kind of circular logic that made her head hurt, so Abrei pushed herself to wobbly feet and picked her way to the shelf that held her stash of wine. As a healer she knew better than to drown her misery in wine, but it seemed to be the only thing that worked sometimes.

U'kaiah rolled his eyes as he stood to follow her, not wanting to see her trip over a pile of something and fall face first into the ground.
Surprisingly she made it to the wine without the least bit of trouble.
Opening the wine bottle, however, proved to be a challenge. "Here, let me open that."

Abrei handed the bottle over and watched him open it. "You know what will happen if you let me drink that, don't you? I'll be highly intoxicated and then I'll profess undying love and then I'll pass out and drool on your leg before we can share our perfect kiss."

"'Our perfect kiss'? Was that part of the plan for the evening?" the bronzerider asked with a teasing smile before taking the first swig from the bottle.

"I thought that was the way it always went," Abrei replied, reaching out to grab the bottle from him. "The important part is that I get to pass out."

The bronzerider laughed. "Well, you have always known that I am not opposed to kissing you just as long as you don't break my nose or something."

Abrei took another sip from the bottle before starting the dangerous treck back across the room. "Considering how wobbly I'm feeling, there's a danger I might break your nose by mistake. Maybe we shouldn't risk it."

"Yes, I think if we ever do kiss I would rather you were sober, willing, and most definitely without a heavy blunt object in your hands."

Abrei laughed and hefted the wine bottle in a menacing fashion. "Coward.
Your reputation as a womanizer is obviously all talk. A real ladies man wouldn't let a possible concussion stop him!"

"My life goal was never to be a womanizer, Abrei. But I do enjoy pretending it is." The bronzerider eyed the bottle warily. Abrei was, after all, known to throw things.

"Well, you pretend well enough." Abrei flopped back down on the couch. "And stop looking at me like I'm going to hurt you! You're taller than me and probably twice as wide with all that sharding muscle... I think you'll survive somehow."

U'kaiah laughed. "Not with a drunk healer trying to stitch me back together. How do I now you would remember which end of my nose was up to begin with?"

Abrei snorted and then glared at him, cradling her bottle of wine. "Stop making me laugh. I'm supposed to be crying my broken heart out drunkenly on your shoulder."

"Well now, that I am willing to risk a concussion for." U'kaiah traversed the piles and flopped down on the sofa next to her. "Here is my shoulder.
Just don't hurt me too bad."

Abrei passed the bottle back to him with a sigh. "You ruined the moment. I don't want to cry anymore. I want to..." She had no idea what she wanted to do. R'han had showed her a side of life that she'd probably miss, loathe as she was to admit it. She just couldn't think of anyone else she particularly wanted to share that part of life with.

"What? You want to what?" he asked as he took the bottle and drained a bit more out.

"I don't know." She met his eyes, her expression sad and a little lonely. "I just don't know. Shards, U'kaiah... he was the most stubbornly determined man I've ever met and even he couldn't put up with me. What are the chances anyone else could?"

"Oh, I think there are a few men out there who could put up with you," he said as he slipped his arm back around her. "You're smart. You're beautiful. And you can be a pain in the ass. But there are men out there just waiting for the chance to put up with you."

She picked at the label on the bottle of wine and sighed. "I suppose. I just want things to be nice and logical. I hate things that I can't learn how to do."

"Well, I wish I could teach you. I'm still learning myself."

Abrei glanced up at him. "Do you really think this sort of thing can be learned? There's no logic or reason to it that I can find."

"No. I think the only thing we can learn to do is try to forget what we are feeling long enough to see what the person we care about is feeling." That was something U'kaiah had never been good at. He wondered how many times Syntara had tried to tell him, and he was just to full of himself to listen.

"I never even know what I'm feeling," Abrei replied, turning her attention back to the bottle. "And it always just seemed easier to not think about it.
Maybe that wasn't the best tactic."

"No, I guess not. Maybe that is something you can learn to do." U'kaiah sighed as he leaned his head back into the sofa cushions. "Maybe R'han was a learning experience."

"Maybe." With the label in tatters, Abrei sighed and set the wine bottle aside. "Thank you, U'kaiah. I'll be all right. You don't have to stay."

"I don't have to _go_ either, if you want me to stick around and keep you company."

Abrei managed a smile for him. "Yes, but if you stay, we're risking that drunken kissing and passing out episode... or possibly a worse one where I don't pass out and ravish you and murder you in the morning when I'm sober."

"You're so sure I wouldn't wake up first and run away?" he asked teasingly as he pulled his arm away.

Shifting slightly, Abrei brought her face close enough to his that he could feel her breath on his face. "U'kaiah, I am a master of human anatomy who has no idea how long it will be before she has a man in her bed again. By the time I was done with you, I doubt very much you'd be able to stand up long enough to _find_ the door." She pulled back and smiled at him. "You're cute, U'kaiah. I don't want to have to hurt you."

"But I'm a womanizer who wouldn't let a little pain stop him," U'kaiah smiled back. However, he knew he valued his friendship with Abrei far more than he did the thought of kissing her. But only slightly. He got to his feet, shaking his head at the thought of letting such a wonderful opportunity pass him by. "All right, temptress, I'll go if that will make you feel better."

"Mmmm..." With the couch freed up, Abrei sprawled onto her side with little grace, stretching her legs out. "I'm lonely and I'm drunk and I like you too much to take advantage of you. It's not that you weren't helping and all...
but I think I should pass out now." Her last words were lost in a yawn as she closed her eyes and snuggled down into the couch, looking like she was moments away from unconsciousness already.

"You should sleep then." He smiled down at her as she lay there, looking comfortable, and peaceful, and almost tame. U'kaiah couldn't help it. He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and stepped back before she could react. "Good night, Abrei," he called back over his shoulder as he stepped over the piles of stuff as quickly as he could, before she found the energy to throw something at him.

Last updated on the October 30th 2005

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More Trouble Than They're Worth