Normal Conversation

Writers: Eimi, Paula
Date Posted: 16th April 2019

Characters: J'nev, Aileyan
Description: J'nev and Aileyan decide to take their relationship out of the shadows and into full view...
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 3, day 6 of Turn 9
Notes: Mentions: U'kaiah
Notes: Follows the events of m2d25 "DFW: Not a Good Idea"

J'nev tapped fingers on the table as he waited for the greenrider.
Maybe she had changed her mind. After all, the dinning caverns was a
pretty public place for a date. So far they had kept things pretty
quiet, but today they were going to be seen. On purpose. Maybe it
was too soon, he thought as he pulled at the neck of his collared
shirt he wore just for the occasion.

Aileyan had spent way too much time in front of the mirror, fiddling
with her dress and hair. It was nerves. Part of her wanted to cancel
whole thing and hide in some remote hole where nobody could find it.
In the end she got the courage and went to the dining caverns. The
time was well spent, though. She looked lovely, with a dress
enchancing her colours and her hair done in elegant curls, it was big
change from the normal tight braid.

"J'nev, I'm sorry I'm late," she gave him the big eyes.

The bronzerider's eyes glowed with appreciation as he stood to his
feet. "That's ok. I found the quietest spot I could." He hoped she
appreciated the concern he had shown for her shy nature. It was done
to impress, after all.

"Thank you," Aileyan replied and waited him to held the chair for her.

He had been raised a gentleman, and so he quickly pulled the chair out
for her, and helped push it closer to the table as well. "Shall I get
us some food and a drink?" Shards, he felt awkward being so
attentive. And yet the nervous adrenaline was starting to kick and
with a mad rush of chemicals. It felt good.

"Yes, please," Aileyan rewarded him with a smile. Despite her
childhood, she did know how to act ladylike.

"Uh... What drink?" he asked, wondering if she might want something
special on this occasion.

"If they have white wine, I'll take that. If not, juice will do,"
Aileyan replied.

"Right. Yes. Coming right up," he said and hurried off to the grab
them both a helping of dinner, opting for the fish over the porcine
and asking for plenty of vegetables. Girls liked vegetables, he had
noticed. Walking carefully he managed to get both trays back to the
table without spilling a drop out of their glasses, which was pretty
impressive considering how full he had poured the wine.

"Thank you," Aileyan said again. She felt she was repeating that too
much. "So, how was you day?" she asked, trying clumsily get some sort
of small talk going on.

"Well, I pulled watch duty at Opal Cove," he said as he picked up a
fork and stabbed the fish. "It was pretty boring. You?"

"Did sweeps over the new areas annexed from River Bluff. Nothing
unusual, but at least the landscape is new and different," Aileyn
replied. They had whole lot more ground to cover than before.

"Yeah. Real different. And hotter." J'nev thought he wouldn't mind
a hotter Weyr. One without so much snow and cold. "Maybe if they
ever reopen River Bluff we should move there."

"I don't know if I would like living in climate like that. Sure,
visiting the beaches is fun, but the constant heat and humidity?" she
shrugged her shoulders. "

"Yeah, but not having to wear so many layers... We wouldn't have to
get tangled up in blankets and sheets... And I bet I could get a Weyr
with a bathingpool. We'd have a lot of fun." He was a bronzerider
after all. In a new Weyr, he had more of a chance to move up in
accommodations!

"From what I've seen, it will take many turns before that place is any
where near habitable again" Aileyan said.

"Well, yeah," J'nev shrugged. Using his fork to point between them,
"But if this is still going on by that time, it might be something to
think about."

"I'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Aileyan said with a slight
shrug of her shoulders. She didn't do much of a plans for the future.
She was dragonrider, you never knew what was going to happen.

The corners of J'nev's lips curled into a smile as he used his fork to
stab at his greens. She hadn't shot down the notion completely. That
meant that she didn't discount the possibility of a future for the two
of them. He took that as a positive sign.

Aileyan ate her own food in silence. Frankly, she had hard time
figuring out what to say or what to talk about.

J'nev also had found small talk a bit of a challenge. Especially when
she seemed to make him do all the work. He pushed things around on
his plate without saying a word for a few minutes before the agony of
the silence got to be too much. "The fish isn't bad today."

"It is," Aileyan agreed. She was getting nervous again because she
couldn't come up with anything to talk about. What did people talk
about in situations like this? Weather?
"Do you think we're going to get a rain today?" She wondered if that
sounded as clumsy and forces as she felt saying it.

"Why?" J'nev said, the corner of his lips turning into a bit of a
cheeky grin. "Feeling like getting a little wet tonight?" If nothing
else, they always at least had that to talk about.

"I don't like flying in a rain. Warm bath, however, is whole different
matter," Aileyan replied and the corner's of her mouth did turn
upwards too.

Shards, again with the bath! He was a young bronzerider. As far as
the Weyr was concerned, J'nev hadn't earned his own private bathing
pool yet. "Well, maybe if we transferred one day I could get a weyr
with a bathing pool of my own," he muttered, ripping flesh from bone
on his fish a bit more forcefully than necessary. **Maybe she thinks
that just because U'kaiah had a big private pool all bronzeriders got
them...**

Aileyan realized her mistake too late. Shardit, this was not going
well. She couldn't think a way to salvage the situation and started to
play with the food on her plate.

They pushed food around on their plates in awkward silence a minute or
two before J'nev finally spoke up. "I cleaned my weyr. Want to come
over after we're finished here?"

"Sure, why not," Aileyan shrugged. Her tone was indifferent She was
starting to regret this whole date-idea. Apparently normal
conversation was something neither of them were able to do.

Sometimes trying to talk to Aileyan could be painful, J'nev mused as
he stabbed a finger root. Course why should he expect her to take the
initiative in conversation when she hardly took it in the bedroom.
Except before her green was going to Rise. Then all of a sudden she
sparked to life. He started to mentally tick off the sevendays in his
head since the last time Kjarliheth had Risen...

Aileyan just wasn't very good at socializing in general. She was still
trying to come up with safe subject. Asking about his family seemed
pointless, since she saw his sister more than he did.

J'nev chewed his fish slowly as the silence dragged on. Well, if they
couldn't talk about themselves. They could always talk about other
people. "Don't tell anyone I told you this, but I heard from E'tsal
that he deflowered a girl at a Hold he was supposed to be on Watch
duty at, and now the girl's pregnant."

"Ouh, really?" Aileyan was intrigued, now who didn't like juicy
gossip. "He's been watching the wrong things then. You're supposed to
look for dangers, not pretty girls." She thought about it and then
added. "I suppose a pretty girl can be a danger."

J'nev certainly agreed, but decided he better not brag about the times
he might have stepped over the line with a pretty girl. Instead he
focused on the fact that they finally found something to talk about!
"He's afraid her father's going to complain to the Holder. I guess
they're cousins or something."

Aileyan leaned slightly forward when she concentrated to hear all the
juicy bits.

Last updated on the April 26th 2019

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