Mysterious Strangers

Writers: Bree, Eimi
Date Posted: 11th February 2007

Characters: Isaline, V'lorn
Description: While avoiding R'alt, Isaline stumbles into V'lorn's weyr and is quite taken by her new friend.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 1 of Turn 4

Isaline was avoiding R'alt.

The problem was avoiding R'alt without letting R'alt realize that she _was_ avoiding him. The last time he'd figured it out, he'd cornered her and unleashed the sort of seductive wiles that he apparently had reserved for other women before. Maybe in another man that would have been attractive or enjoyable... but it was _R'alt_, and girlhood crushes aside, it had been highly disturbing to have the boy she'd known all of her life turn into someone else.

Avoiding him had caused her to do any number of foolish things, and she had just done what might have been the most foolish of all. After seeing him coming around the corner, she'd swung to the right and darted into the closest weyr with no idea in the slightest who it belonged to.

"Shards, are you lost," the bluerider to whom the weyr belonged said as he propped his feet up on the table. "Well, you're this far in my weyr.
You might as well come in the rest of the way."

Isaline jumped, turning around and pressing her back up against the closed door. "I'm sorry! I must have the wrong weyr..."

He raised an amused eyebrow. "Well, yes, that's obvious. Whose weyr were you looking for?"

"Uhhm..." Isaline tried to listen for footsteps in the hallway that would tell her R'alt had passed, but she couldn't hear anything through the door. "Well, I wasn't looking for anyone in specific, actually. But I'm sorry I intruded!"

"It's all right. Want a drink? I was just about to pour myself another one." He lifted up a half full wine skin. "While you wait for whoever you're hiding from to pass?"

Isaline's cheeks turned slightly pink. "Who says I'm hiding from anyone?"

"You just picked a random weyr to just pop into for no reason?" He patted the sofa cushion next to him. "Come on, I'll even give you the glass. And you can correct me if I was wrong."

It seemed harmless enough, so Isaline slipped across the weyr and perched on the edge of the couch. "Fine. I'm hiding from someone."

"I see. May I ask from who? Or for what purpose?" He filled his glass full of wine and offered it to her.

Isaline took the glass, holding it cradled between two hands. "You'll just laugh at me if I tell you. It's silly."

"Maybe. But maybe not. Come on," he said, giving her ribs a gentle nudge, "you came into _my_ weyr. Doesn't that seem even _more_ silly?"

She wrinkled her nose before taking a sip of the wine. "Maybe. Maybe not... I was hiding from a boy."

"You don't like boys?" he asked curiously.

"Of course I like boys," she replied far too quickly. Her cheeks flushed again and she took another sip of the wine. Explaining this to a complete stranger seemed like an odd thing to do, but the bluerider seemed friendly enough. "I just... things are awkward with this one. And he can't understand that I just want a little time to think."

He chuckled softly. "Awkward? Relationships with men shouldn't be _awkward_. Why are you even bothering?"

Isaline gave him a pointed look. "I'm _not_ trying. I'm hiding from him.
In the weyrs of complete strangers. Which is the part that makes me silly."

"I think its more silly that you feel you _need_ to hide. I mean, you're a beautiful young woman who must have several young men chasing you around the Weyr. Why do you even feel you need to _hide_ from them?
Chose the ones you want and tell the others 'Look, it's not going to happen, leave me alone', you know?"

"I tried that," Isaline replied, bracing herself with another sip of wine. "And then he got all... smug and touchy and seductive and I sort of forgot that it was awkward until the awkward part came around again."

He turned slightly to see her a little easier, leaning his elbow against the back of the sofa and his head on his hand. "Why does it get so awkward?"

Isaline sighed, staring down into the wine glass. "It's complicated.
We've been friends since we were kids, but he always thought of me as one of the boys. And I thought I didn't like it..." But now that she saw how he treated the girls... well, R'alt was a pain, but she liked her annoying friend more than she liked that slick seducer.

"Yeah, I always thought friends make the worst lovers," he chuckled. "Actually, the best lovers start out as total strangers."

Thinking of R'mer, Isaline smiled a little. "I suppose that might be right. Nothing's ever been quite this awkward before."

"It certainly doesn't have to be," the bluerider smiled, pouring a bit more wine into her glass. "You need to learn to forget the friend and just find a man who is attractive and mysterious, and peel back his layers one by one and just enjoy the experience of getting to know someone new."

"I _was_ doing that," she insisted before taking another sip of wine. It was quite good, and rather soothing for her nerves. And if she wasn't mistaken, the unknown bluerider was flirting with her. Another sip and she decided she might as well start flirting back. After all, he _was_
adorable. "But maybe I need to find a more mysterious man!"

"Hmmm... And where would you find one of those?" he asked with wide, innocent brown eyes.

"I suppose I could wander into weyrs at random until I stumble across one," she replied, winking at him. "That certainly is one way to find one. Wandered into anyone's weyr lately?"

Isaline drained the wineglass and handed it back to him. "Yours is the first, I admit. I suppose it's gone better than I expected, though!"

"Well, it seems you have a golden opportunity before you," he smiled as he set the glass down on the table and inched a little closer. "I'm sure we can think of a few ways to make your first encounter with a mysterious stranger whose weyr you happened to stumble into even better."

Leaning a little closer to him, Isaline gave him her best wide-eyed look. "You know, I think you might be trying to seduce me a little bit,"
she whispered.

"No, I think you're wrong. I think I'm trying to seduce you a lot." The bluerider leaned in to softly kiss the base of her neck.

"Lucky me," she replied softly, her head tilting to give him better access. "I was sort of hoping that was going to be what came next."

"Trust me," V'lorn grinned as his finger came to rest on her upper thigh, "there's a lot coming next." That was encouragement enough for Isaline. Abandoning restraint, she slid into the bluerider's lap and let her knees dig into the couch on either side of him. "That's good. I would have been disappointed otherwise."

Last updated on the February 17th 2007

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Mysterious Strangers