A Bad Joke

Writers: Aaron, Heather
Date Posted: 3rd October 2019

Characters: F'aen, T'ner
Description: T'ner plays a bad joke on F'aen after the latter pulled one over on him with T'kala.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 12, day 18 of Turn 9

T'ner had a lot to think about. But he was beginning to think that perhaps he could actually talk to Ayressa. He had no idea what she was going to say, but they had to be able to communicate if this was ever going to work out between them now.

But.

Until then.

T'ner was going to see whether he could have a little bit of harmless fun at F'aen's expense for trying to set him up to "practice" with T'kala. Of course, everyone understood that this practice had to wait until he made senior. But that did not mean T'ner could not pretend otherwise.

"Oh, F'aen!" he said, pretending that he had simply wandered by rather than that he had sought him out on purpose. "I wanted to thank you for sending me to T'kala." He wiggled his eyebrows. "It was a very, ah... enlightening conversation."

F'aen looked up at T'ner. "Are you feeling better then?" the greenrider asked.

"Oh, I'd say I've never felt better," T'ner answered in his best double entendre voice. "You didn't say T'kala was so good at demonstrations."

"Well, unless you watched him have sex with someone I can't imagine it was much of a demonstration." F'aen said with a dry laugh.

"What makes you think it was with someone else?" T'ner asked, winking and letting his grin widen.

}:I don't think he's buying it, you know...:{ said Lehystrath.

**Yeah, well. We'll see.**

}:Are you trying to make him jealous?:{

T'ner then choked on his own saliva and began to cough embarrassingly.

F'aen winced and slapped T'ner on the back. "Careful there, your own body is having a hard time believing what you're saying. T'kala might be a messy slob," and the blue rider was, "but he's not breaking rules to have sex with a junior Weyrling."

"Thanks..." said T'ner, now laughing in between coughs. "Guh," he grunted once he had recovered.

"I guess I should have thought of a better prank than that to play to get you back for sending me into the great wild feline's den, eh?"

F'aen laughed with a shake of his head. "What do you mean? 'Into the great wild feline's den'?"

"You told me I was asking for advice," said T'ner. "But then he wouldn't tell me anything, just insisted he had to show me. Once I made senior, of course."

"Now, I don't want to sound like I'm actually upset. I'm just messing around. I mean. I... Assuming that's... I thought maybe we knew each other well enough to do that kinda thing. Mess around. With jokes."

}:You *were* trying to make him jealous.:{

**Not now, Leh!**

"It wasn't a set up," F'aen insisted. "I just thought a bluerider might be able to empathize with your situation more than I can. T'kala was right, though, I mean, the mechanics can be talked about but you won't really know until you do it.... Pun intended." He elbowed T'ner in the ribs.

"I can't just... do that with someone. I'm... I know the law says I'm not married any more, but... I'm still married in here." T'ner touched his chest and sighed.

"I really do appreciate you sending me to him, though," he said. "We talked about relationship stuff before we tried the sex stuff. Talking about the sex stuff, that is, of course. And I think that really helped."

"Don't look at it as though you are betraying what's in there," he said, tapping the same spot on T'ner's chest. "It's a part of your Weyrling training and then what happens in flight rooms doesn't count anyway. It's the best way to protect you and the rider in your flight."

"I don't think she'll think that's a very convincing explanation," said T'ner softly, finding that he wished F'aen had left his hand where it was, kept touching him.

"I can almost believe somehow that if I'd come home to her and said, 'I need to practice bedding greenriders,' and they were all women, she'd accept it. But if it's a man, that's somehow different. I don't understand it, but... It doesn't seem different to me."

F'aen smiled sympathetically, pushing a lock of his blond hair away from his forehead. "If you believe she is as serious about the vows she made you as you are, then she'll love you either way. Right?"

"She will love me either way," said T'ner. "I just don't want her to hurt over it. Or to regret it." He sighed, smiling at F'aen. "Or to decide that she can't be with me no matter how much she does love me."

"Sometimes love hurts." F'aen had found that out the hard way. "But there's a lot of 'what-ifs' in your thinking. Just talk to her and find out. You might be stressing over nothing."

"I hope so," said T'ner. "And I will the next time I get the chance to sit down with her." T'ner had never once thought love had hurt so far. At least, not the kind he had with Ayressa. Love had him missing home, missing his family. But it was all supposed to be a dream come true with Ayressa.

Who knew. Maybe it still could be.

"If everything turns out, I'll owe it to you."

F'aen's eyebrows shot up. "Me? I haven't really done much."

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, as they say. You set me off in the right direction," said T'ner. He smiled at F'aen and blushed. "And that'll have made all the difference."

"Well, I hope you're right and I hope everything works out the way you want it to." F'aen noticed the blush but felt unsure as to its cause. "So to change the topic, how is Lehystrath? Behaving himself?"

"He thinks he is very clever. So far, he seems more likely to say something he shouldn't than to do something he shouldn't," said T'ner, smiling at his dragon despite his words.

"How is Scarleth?" he asked reflexively.

"She is well, finding a warm spot on the beach at the moment." F'aen declined to say that he thought she was due to rise any day since they had just left the touchy subject of mating flights.

"That sounds lovely," said T'ner. "Leh stayed pretty close to me for a long time. Kinda funny to think of it that way, like it was such a long time ago – actually, it's only been about a month so far since he hatched. I guess it's been a long, long month... But now he's starting to wish he could go wherever he wants, whenever he wants. Like to the beach."

"Just wait until he starts flying around on his own. That honestly helps with them being so clingy because they can go off and entertain themselves."

"He already thinks he owns the sky, and he's never even been there," T'ner chuckled. "Oh, I can't wait until my boy is old enough to fly. I'm going to show him the whole world."

"It'll be here before you know it." F'aen assured the Weyrling. "Look," he said going back to the prior topic, "I am sorry if you felt I was dishonest sending you to T'kala, it truly wasn't meant that way. I just knew he would be easy to talk to."

"No, not at all!" T'ner hurried to reassure F'aen. If he had considered that F'aen might actually be offended by his poor attempt at a prank, he would never have done it. "No, if I was mad, I would have just said so. Sorry, I guess I thought that whole bit was going to be a little funnier... But you didn't buy it for a second!" He laughed, but then his laughter faltered.

"Is messing around before we're supposed to *really* that serious? Y'all aren't just trying to scare us?" He had not yet suggested a quick trip someplace private with Ayressa, especially with being so tired and things having been weird between them, but that did not mean he never would have.

"It is really that serious, so don't even think about it," F'aen said, his teasing tone replaced with a more teacherly tone.

T'ner nodded, his eyes moving back and forth as he reconsidered the conversation in light of F'aen's assurances the ban on intimacy was no mere exaggeration.

"Then... I'm sorry I said that. I never meant to say anything that might really get T'kala into trouble. I'm glad you didn't believe me."

"It's fine, just be more careful in the future." F'aen said.

T'ner nodded. "I will," he said. He really still had a lot to learn.

}:You didn't think you'd have it all down in only a month, did you?:{

**Hush.**

Last updated on the October 14th 2019

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A Bad Joke