Bad Days (1)

Writers: AL, Elyriel
Date Posted: 20th January 2009

Characters: Zelle, T'marek
Description: T'marek runs into Zelle while she's depressed and tries to cheer her up.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 13, day 20 of Turn 4

Zelle wasn't normally the kind of person to dwell on bad things. She was normally the kind of person who was there trying to cheer someone else up. She was normally the kind of person trying to get someone else to look upon things in a positive light. She was normally the person who was there for someone else when they needed someone.

But even those kinds of people had their bad days.

L'den had come to her mind that morning. That in itself wasn't necessarily an unusual thing. Nor was the fact that he had come into her thoughts on multiple occasions throughout the day. What was unusual was she seemed unable to work herself through it. Her grief had subdued her for the day and she found herself in the dining hall after drills, twirling her fork in her food without really eating it. She didn't know why she had gotten like that, but there was a tightness in her chest and a rather strong desire to simply break down and cry.

After another few moments of simply sitting and staring, Zelle pushed her plate away, stood, and made her way out of the dining hall. She was in no mood to eat. To be honest, she wasn't in the mood for much of anything.

With a frown marring his brow, T'marek kept his gaze on the floor, watching only enough to make sure he didn't run into anyone. His body craved food. He'd worked hard and now he needed to replace the energy he spent.

Lifting his head to make sure he wasn't going to run into anyone, the brownrider spotted Zelle heading toward him. About to dodge her, something about her manner gave him pause. The smile she usually wore was missing. In fact, had he not known better, the woman walking toward him looked as if she hadn't a smile in her.

Sighing to himself the brownrider shook his head. No, it was none of his business. He'd just walk on by and let her deal with whatever was bothering her on her own. So, when he called out her name and headed toward her, he was probably more surprised than she was.

Zelle stopped dead in her tracks and turned toward the voice that had called out. She was indeed surprised to see T'marek. The man seemed to barely tolerate her presence. Usually, she would take it as a challenge, try to get a crack of a smile out of him. That day, however, she wasn't even up to the challenge that she herself presented "Hey T'marek." She greeted softly, her voice flat.

"Hey." The brownrider said, coming to stand in front of her. "You okay?" T'marek asked, wondering who had taken over his body and why whomever it was had chosen that moment, because this certainly wasn't like him. "You look kind of down."

"Yeah, I'm okay." The tone certainly wasn't convincing. Zelle couldn't even convince herself. Certainly she had cried over L'den's death, more than once since it had occurred. Yes, she'd had days like that before. She would get over it eventually and be back to her normal self, though probably not before the day's sunset.

Crossing his arms over his chest, T'marek eyed her with an odd expression. "I don't believe you." Time to give her a dose of her own medicine. Although if he did this, he'd probably never get rid of her. In that part of him he didn't even look at, there was a glimmer of something warm. He really didn't want her to leave him alone. "So, you have two choices. You can talk to me, or I can trail after you wherever you go." Inwardly the brownrider winced. He wasn't very good at this sort of thing.

"Trail away." Zelle turned upon her heel and made a start down the hall. Shaffit, if she talked about it there was no way she was going to keep herself together. She'd cried way too much. When had she become such a girly girl?

"Okay, but you're going to look pretty odd with a shadow my size." The brownrider said with a shrugged and followed her. "You know, if you don't want to talk about it, maybe we could do something to take your mind off of whatever is bothering you." A confused look crossed T'marek's face. That was the most words he'd strung together at one time in longer than he could remember.

"I guess." She had been trying to do that all day and Zelle had been unsuccessful. Maybe having someone to distract her would help. "What do you suggest?"

Oh shells, now he'd have to think. Suggest... suggest... **C'mon, T'marek, suggest something.** He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again, only to open it once more and make an odd noise as nothing came to him. "Whittling." He finally blurted out. "I uh... I could show you some of my first attempts, I still have my very first one. You can see how much better at it you are than me already."

Zelle cast a sidelong glance at the brownrider. He was actually going to show her some of his work? Well, she couldn't say no to that and maybe, just maybe it would help get her out of her mopey state. She didn't think so, but she might as well try. "Okay."

Breathing a sigh of relief, the brownrider nodded. "Okay." Why he was trying so hard, he had no idea, but the greenrider had grown on him. "They're back at my weyr." Running a hand through his short hair, he felt like he'd just spent the past candlemark running uphill.

Zelle turned and followed the brownrider. Normally she would have been chatty, try to draw him out. Instead, she was silent and sullen.

"So uhm..." He tried to think of something to say, something to draw her out. She was acting so unlike herself that it worried him. "Have I ever told you about my sister?" Oh great... just what the brownrider needed, to bring that subject up.

Zelle winced. He was going to talk about his sister? Just what she needed. "No." Why did he have to talk about his sister? Why couldn't he have chosen a different topic?

"You remind me a lot of her." T'marek said, pushing large thumbs through his belt loops in a nervous gesture. "She always took the world by storm, you know? Faced everything head on with a smile. I always admired her for that." His eyes darted to her and he sighed, shaking his head. "Anyway... I uh... thought you'd like to know."

"Yeah. Thanks." It didn't help. If anything it made things worse. It only reminded her that L'den was gone, she would never see his bright smile or hear his hearty laughter again. The thought made her feel even lower and she ducked her head in an effort to hide the moisture that was threatening in her eyes

Okay, so that had been a complete failure. He really wasn't any good at this. But what else did he have to talk about? His life was pretty routine. Not only routine, but boring if you thought about it. "You know what I do when I get sad?" He buried himself in a skin of wine or four or five, but surely he could come up with something better for her to do. "I fly up to the heights and look down at all the activity of the Weyr." He had done that a time or two so it wasn't a complete lie. "Kind of... I don't know... take in everything around me, see what it is I'm here for. You know? Remind myself why I exist. Of course, Iriketh helps. He tells me how great I am, but sometimes you need to find that for yourself."

Last updated on the January 22nd 2009

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Bad Days (1)