To Making Mistakes
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Eimi, Emma
Date Posted: 10th November 2009
Characters: Birigundi, Demalia
Description: Birigundi and Demalia have a quiet drink.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 5, day 13 of Turn 5
Birigundi flopped back on the sofa with a long sigh. "I can't believe this is the first time you've been in my weyr. I thought for sure I had invited you here before."
"No, never," came the reply from the greenrider.
"Oh. Well, I'm sorry. I should have invited you over sooner." He reached for his glass, and before taking a sip from it he tapped it against hers. "To old friends, eh?"
"Old friends," she said with a smile before taking a sip herself. "How's your mother doing?"
"She's good. She has a new girl to mother over, and you know that's what she loves best." Of course, he knew she would much rather be mothering him. And his daughter. But even he had to admit now that would never happen. "How's Tapheth and Dainty?"
"Tapheth's fine for the moment, but she'll be glowing any day now. It's nearly that time for her to rise."
"Well, aren't you lucky," he grinned, giving her a gentle push with his shoulder. "Anyone special you hope to catch her?"
"There is that cute brownrider in Cyan wing, but I'm not sure he'd manage it. Tapheth seems to like blue dragons at the moment." Of course, if Biri had managed to Impress, Demalia knew she would be trying to persuade her green to go for his dragon, not that she would tell him that.
"There are no cute blueriders to tempt you?" Birigundi asked, fixing her with a suspicious stare. He wondered if she might blush if she were lying.
"Well have you seen P'onry? Tall, red hair, green eyes, freckles?" A faint flush coloured her features.
"Oh ho." His grin spread even wider. "So you _do_ like someone. Shards, I think that might be one of the first time you've ever admitted liking someone so easily. That must mean something."
"Well I think you actually might stand more of a chance than me, I've only ever seen him with male greenriders."
He snorted into his glass as he raised it to his lips. "Thanks, but no thanks. I haven't sworn off women entirely."
Demalia grinned. "How's Lyndi?"
His expression grew much softer as he thought about his daughter. "She's big. She's talking. She's so smart. So pretty."
"And Nialyn?"
Birigundi's expression turned a bit colder. He shrugged a shoulder, almost as if he were indifferent. "I barely see her. But I guess that's the way it should be. She' weyrmated now, you know. Sure didn't take her long. But at least it keeps her and Lyndi here." Being his daughter's 'second father' wasn't as bad as never seeing her.
"These things happen," Demalia said.
"And they happen for a reason," he nodded, picking at a piece of lint on his trousers. "Nia got what she wanted and I'm... very free."
"Is that what you wanted though?" asked Demalia gently.
"Yeah, that's what I want. I just... wish I could have Lyndi too. Not just on restdays and when Nia's at work." He hated having to schedule time to be with his own daughter. It wasn't... natural. "The worst thing is knowing that right now, another man is playing with my little girl. Another man is tucking her into bed. I don't care what he does with Nia any more. She made her choice. But what if Lyndi comes to love him more than me, too? I mean, he's the one she lives with. I'm just the one she visits."
"You're her Daddy though. You are the one who gets to spoil her. You'll just have to show her how much you love her, and when she's old enough she'll understand."
It was kind of her to say, and he knew she was just trying to be a good friend. He smiled to show how much he appreciated the gesture at least. But he had heard it all before, and he still didn't believe a word of it. "How about you, then? What do you want?"
"For me and Tapheth to get through the pass in one piece," she began. "And, one day to maybe be a mother."
"Well, I certainly want you to make it through the Pass whole and unharmed." He could not even imagine any alternative. "And I think you will make a great mother, Demalia. I mean that."
"I just need to find someone to have children with." Abnd if only she could tell him that once, and still sometimes she did dream about it being him.
"Who knows," he shrugged. "Maybe they're right in front of you and you don't even know it. Maybe it's that brownrider you were talking about."
"Nobody does know what's going to happen next, do they?" she said.
"Shards, if we could... Wouldn't that be nice?" Birigundi could think of a few surprises he would have liked to have avoided. And a few mistakes too.
"But things might get boring then, if you always knew how they'd end up."
"True," he conceded. "But I'd take that over some of my mistakes any day. I think I'd still decide to make some of them, though."
She decided not to ask which ones, guessing that it might be a touchy subject mentioning Rigella. "How about another toast?" she suggested.
"Sure. What to?"
"Future Mistakes and the fun we could have making them?"
He touched his glass to hers with a smile. "I'll drink to that."
Last updated on the November 15th 2009