Truth and Consequences (1/2)

Writers: Clancey, Dana
Date Posted: 3rd December 2005

Characters: J'darin, Traelyn
Description: J'darin notices Traelyn left with U'kaiah, and with too much wine in him, starts a fight.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 8, day 28 of Turn 3
Notes: Part 1 of 2

J'darin

His speech made and the party going officially, J'darin settled in to enjoy some wine and company. It was painfully obvious to him that he stood mostly alone, though many riders greeted him. It pained him that it was all very formal. Was he truly so awful a Weyrleader, or even a rider?

}:We are perfect!:{ Hasaarth hurried to reassure his rider, though it didn't seem to sink in.

In this frame of mind, he found cup of wine after cup of wine in his hand, being emptied into his stomach.

It was well into his fourth or maybe fifth.. or perhaps sixth.. cup that he noticed his Weyrwoman had vanished. She should be _here_ beside _him_.
If anyone should be standing by him, it ought to be her. They had danced the first dance together, he remembered, and she had stood with him for a short time, then been swept away by all the other riders. He snorted faintly in memory. B'ram had been right, she did like to be the center of attention.

Frowning over this, he wandered over to a member of the Weyrlingstaff, asking if he knew where the Weyrwoman had gone. The answer surprised him for a moment, then he realized he wasn't all _that_ surprised. After all, she'd followed that particular bronzerider to Dolphin Cove to become his Weyrwoman.

** A bronzerider from Dragonsfall by his knots ** the brownrider had offered, curious as to why J'darin had had to ask _him_.

There was only one of _those_ here tonight.

Anger grew, then soured in his stomach and he chased it all down with more and more wine. It was true then. She didn't care a fig for him. If she did, she'd be here now. Grumbling, he let himself sink into a quiet brooding silence.

There was no rule about caring for your Weyrwoman or Weyrleader, or even sharing their bed. But at least she could be here with him _tonight_. All those times he'd tried to visit her, talk to her..

With a sigh that spoke volumes, he drained yet another cup, perhaps his tenth, and starting looking around for a dance-partner since the one he _should_ be dancing with was off tumbling with her bronzerider!

"J'darin?" Her voice came from behind him.

His frown deepened as he heard her familiar voice behind him. If he could have crushed the cup in his hand, he would have, but instead he just answered her without turning around. "Already tire of your bronzerider, Traelyn? When you were so eager to be with him, you left this party?" He said it coldly, not even with heat. That would come though, he could feel it starting to burn behind the vast amounts of wine he'd consumed.

She frowned. What was he... Wait. "You mean U'kaiah?" Of course he did. There was no other bronzerider she had gone off alone with tonight.
Her eyes narrowed as how he'd phrased his words sunk in. "What do you mean that I 'already tire' of him?" she asked quietly.

Draining the last of the wine in his cup, he finally did turn to look at her. The emotions he was feeling stood out in stark relief, brought to life by drink and too much introspection, though amazingly enough, his words didn't slur too badly. "You know exactly what I mean! Couldn't you have waited until tonight to get him alone? We have a _party_ going on here." He waved his hand back behind him, not realizing his voice was raising. "Go on back to him then, if you want to be with him so badly."
He finished.

"For Faranth's sake, J'darin, _lower_ your voice," she hissed, her frown deepening. "And no, I _don't_ know what you mean, actually."

But did he listen? Of course not. His voice stayed in the same angry -
louder - tones. "Lower my voice? So the whole Weyr won't know you snuck out of our own festivities to sleep with a visiting bronzerider? Tell me that couldn't have waited until after this! I need you here with _me_. But you couldn't bear that could you? No, you'd rather be off with _him_!" Now the heat came, and with it the obvious proof that he was quite drunk.

"_J'darin_!" Trae was mortified by his presumptuous accusations. How _dare_ he! He may be drunk, and perhaps not quite fully aware of himself, but that wasn't a sharding excuse in _her_ mind! She could feel her temper looming - rising to the angry expression in his baiting eyes. "Would you _lower_ your sharding voice?" She didn't want to yell...she didn't want to yell... She glared fiercly at him. "I didn't sharding sleep with _anybody_, so quit accusing me and _talk_ to me."

"I don't want to _talk_ to you. What was so sharding important you left my side for _him_?" A muttered grumble in his throat as he looked at her.
Jealousy was speaking loud and clear now, despite her insistence she didn't leave to sleep with him. His voice had lowered a trifle, but he was still giving off a posture of anger, and of course, envy. "I know you don't like being around me, Traelyn, but tonight was important. But maybe you were too busy spending time with everyone else to notice." He finished with narrowed eyes.

"Of course I realized that tonight was important!" she snarled, her gray eyes hard. "How _dare_ you imply that I thought otherwise!" She took a step closer, her jaw beginning to clench. Sharding, _sharding_
bronzerider... Was _this_ what he truly thought of her? Some incompetant girl who flits to and fro without giving a shard for her duties? Had he been bottling everything up inside for a month, and _now_, after more than just a few drinks, he let all his decided judgements of her loose?

"A fine way of showing it, you have!" He snarled back, nor caring who saw.
"Just _once_ I thought I might get some of your attention, your support tonight... But no, I'm not good enough company for you, goldrider. You had to go off with your bronzerider love after only one dance with me. I guess I was right all along, and all we'll ever be able to do is work together!" He finished in a right growl, and turned away from her again. The party was starting to die down a little, but music was still playing somewhere.

"_Don't_ you turn away from me, J'darin," she growled.

He turned back to her then, hurt in his eyes very obvious for a moment, then fading behind the mask of stone. Even when he'd told her he had wanted her with him, she didn't respond to it. Why had he ever thought she would? After a heartbeat of silence, he said softly. "Fine, I'll just leave you then." And he did, turning toward the exit and outside before he lost his temper any further.

Furious, she followed. Finally catching up to him in the deserted corridor, she caught his arm, then turned so she could face him, halting him in his tracks. Dropping his arm, she crossed her own over her chest and looked up at him, her hard eyes searching his. She did _not_ sharding appreciate the way he treated her! And it was quite apparent in her face.
"Is that what you think of your Weyrwoman then?" She glared at him.
"That I don't give a sharding crack about the Harper Hall, my duties? _You_? On the contrary, J'darin, I do give a sharding crack. But _don't_
expect me to drop my relations with those from Dragonsfall. It's not going to happen."

"No, no you wouldn't, would you? All you goldriders are all alike; collect as many bronzeriders as you can and decide from day to day who gets your favor. And probably most bronzeriders wouldn't care. But I'm not like most of them." He paused, glaring back at her. "Maybe I should be! You know, Traelyn, I don't suppose I expected you to drop them, but I did think you'd at least spend a little time with me. And not go running off with U'kaiah the moment he shows up here. If you want me to think better of you, then act like it!"

That stung. Her fists clenched. "How would you have me act then? Tell me, J'darin, what is your idea of a _perfect_ Weyrwoman? One who only talks to _you_? Confides in only _you_? Beds only _you_? One whose whole social life revolves around only _you_?" Her eyes flashed up into his. "Believe me, J'darin, I would love to be more in your sharding company if I didn't always get the feeling that you were _judging_ me! Even now you judge me! You don't sharding know me well enough to judge!"

His voice went cold, and soft, almost silent. "Judging you? Your actions speak loud and clear! Maybe I don't know you because you don't even let me close. You have all this time for everyone else, but none for _me_." He paused, staring at her in agony for a moment. "And you're wrong.
I don't want a _perfect_ Weyrwoman, Traelyn. I just wanted you." Oh yes, he was very drunk. Sharding truth serum, that was what wine was.

She stared at him. Then, after a moment, her expression changed. The hard lines melted away, and the look in her eyes softened, but her voice did not. "Then why won't you sharding _take_ me?"

As drunk as he was, and as much as he did want her, it didn't take much for him to respond to the anger in her voice with passion and fire of his own. Strong arms jerked her forward against his chest, and his mouth found hers, burning with an insistent need that only she could put out. Memories of the Flight and after had haunted him for days, and now they all came out as he held her tightly, the kiss turning to a deep, drowning hunger that was part of what drove women to want to be in his bed again and again, despite he himself not asking them there.

Trae's fingers clenched hard into his tunic as she responded to his kiss.
Everything she felt - all her frustration, anger, bitterness, anxiety, lust - it all was set loose. And she couldn't control it. She couldn't control herself as her body pressed up against his, her hand fisting into his hair, curling around his neck, slipping inside his tunic to touch his skin.

She remembered the flight. She remembered it well.

He felt her respond to him in just the way he wanted, and he lifted her up and back against the wall, a low moan choking his throat and he felt her hands on his skin. "I'm going to take you back to my weyr and make you forget every bronzerider but me, goldrider.." He said huskily, almost crooning. She felt sharding good, and all his own frustrations had built to the breaking point. It was time for some stress relief.. for both of them.

Last updated on the December 3rd 2005

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Truth and Consequences (1/2)