Dinner for Two

Writers: Clancey, Heather
Date Posted: 3rd March 2012

Characters: J'darin, Devyn
Description: J'darin and Devyn head to the Dining Cavern for a dinner date.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 5, day 14 of Turn 6

J'darin

Devyn

Clad in warmer clothes for the cooler Dragonsfall evening, J'darin
made his way out to the Bowl at the appointed time, waiting for Devyn.
For a change, he had not had any alcohol the entire day, and his
headache had faded with a little exercise and good strong klah.
Hasaarth approved, he could tell.

Oak was wound about his neck, but he hoped to feed him some bits from
dinner and send him to curl up with Hasaarth for the evening.

He had chosen a nicer tunic than normal, and soft black pants tucked
into his Gather boots with fine stitching. But that was about all.
But, he was looking forward to very relaxing evening. He thought
briefly of what other riders might say; he was never seen out with
anyone. Never. Low profile, indeed! If he hadn't been
Weyrlingmaster, no one would know who he was, no doubt.

Either way, Devyn deserved a nice evening for even agreeing to go with
him, and he would give it to her.

Devyn normally wasn't the type of woman that had a problem choosing
what she wanted to wear. This evening, however, she found herself
standing in a pile of clothing that she'd pulled out of her trunk and
then just as quickly discarded. **It's just a casual dinner date.**
She kept repeating to herself as she tried to choose between breeches
or a dress.

Finally deciding on a simple black dress that gathered just beneath
the swell of her breasts and fell in a straight wave down to her
sandled feet, Devyn ran her fingers through her short hair, slipped on
a simple bracelet and then headed down for the weyrbowl. The chill in
the air was enough to bring chill bumps to her arms, but she was sure
as soon as she was in the Dining Cavern she'd feel fine.

"Good evening." Devyn called out with a smile as she approached
J'darin in the weyrbowl, her eyes quickly assessing his appearance and
finding him even more attractive than he'd been earlier.

He was handsome; he was honest enough to admit it. But he was also
arrogant and full of self-doubt and had not been out with a woman for
the evening in more months than he cared to remember.

Bright blue eyes took her in with delight and his smile warmed his
face. She was stunning in that dress. And she'd put on a dress...
for him? He would have blushed if he thought too long about it, but
instead, turns old practice and training from his father took over.

He moved to her and took her hand in his, gently, and kissed the back
of her hand softly. "You look beautiful Devyn. Wet, with a green
dragon for background, you were lovely, but you are even more so this
evening. Come, lets hurry into the Dining cavern. It is cold out
tonight." But, oh. His gaze was warm. _Very_ warm.

He slipped an arm around her easily, guiding her with gentle pressure,
though surely she was quite capable of walking by herself.

There was that ill-spent youth at work, again. Women were to be
treated with care and respect. They had the babies, and babies were
very important.

Turns as a dragonrider, even a bronzerider, had taken away almost all
of his Hold prejudice, but none of his Hold 'manners'.

Devyn, like any woman, enjoyed J'darin's attention and she didn't fail
to notice the appraisal his eyes gave her when she approached him. Not
that she wasn't doing the same in return. As they walked together
Devyn took in everything, the weight of his arm around her, the feel
of his hip bumping against her, and the smell that was uniquely his.

When they walked into the Dining Cavern Devyn's nose picked up the
delicious smell of evening meal and the twisting sensation in her
stomach made her realize how long it had been since she'd eaten last,
"I'm so hungry everything smells delicious." She admitted to J'darin.

J'darin grinned and nodded, agreeing. A day without alcohol had also
increased his own appetite, he found, and he couldn't wait to enjoy
the generally wonderful cooking of the Weyr. "Its amazing how hungry
_not_ drinking can make a man..." was his comment.

He steered them through the crowd, probably drawing a few curious eyes
here and there, but all unknowing to him, and found them a semi-quiet
corner to settle.

"How about you find us something to drink and I'll fetch us plates? If
everything smells delicious to you, I can hardly go wrong choosing,
right?" His smile was quick but still warm. He found he needed some
time to collect himself for sitting down across from her.

His mind and thoughts, and even his heart, had been so full of
Cardella for so many months that he found himself a little unsure, and
even nervous. He wasn't sure Devyn was _that_ much older than
Cardella, but surely so. She seemed so. And she was not his
student.

Truthfully, neither was Cardella any longer, but he had decided to try
...something else. And Hasaarth seemed to approve. And that meant
that he wasn't having to listen to his dragon nursemaid lecturing him
on the finer points of human behavior, seen through a dragon's eyes.

"You've got yourself a deal." Devyn smiled back as she stood to go
grab them something to drink. When she arrived at the refreshment
table she hesitated for a moment. Instinct would have her choose a
skin of wine since it was evening meal and a little red wine was nice
at the end of a day. However, with J'darin's earlier comment about
drinking she wondered if it might not be smarter to just choose klah
instead.

Deciding on klah, Devyn grabbed a small pitcher, stacked a pair of
cups together, and then wedged a bowl of sweetner between her fingers.
**How do drudges do this?** She wondered briefly. It seemed that some
of the drudges could carry ten plates, and a whole table's worth of
drinks and here Devyn was wondering if she could make it back to the
table with her meager fare.

Arriving back at the table before J'darin, Devyn set up their cups,
poured them each some klah, and then stirred a little sweetner in hers
while she sat and waited fo him. Scanning the Dining Cavern with her
eyes, Devyn soon found the object of her thoughts. J'darin. Although
she'd heard of J'darin prior to meeting him, she didn't know very much
about him other than that he was the Weyrlingmaster. Now, however, she
wished she knew more about the man.

He arrived a few moments later and set his full plates down. Somehow
he'd carried a small third plate with treats and sweets for later.
In the process, he'd had to send Oak out of the way because the little
brown kept accidentally dropping his tail into the plate.

He smiled when he saw Devyn waiting for him, meeting her eyes with a
twinkle of mischief. "I hope you like it ..." He waved at the
collection of tidbits, from meatrolls to wherry steak to tubers and a
mix of greens. He had gotten a little of all there was spread between
two plates, to make sure he had what she liked. He took a moment to
just look at her. He wasn't sure he remembered how to talk to a
woman, honestly. The last one had been Zelle. And she had been
gifted at making him feel.... like himself. He felt a little of the
same honesty in his speech with Devyn, though they admittedly hadn't
talked very much today before he had - for some reason - asked for
this evening.

He decided he wanted to get to know her, this greenrider who liked to
keep a low profile. He liked the way she smiled at him, and he loved
that she had put on a dress. He found a strong desire to be that man
... be that J'darin... that was really him. And hoped she might
like that man.

He joined her at the table, and soon Oak was curled up around the back
of his chair again, crooning for a snack.

He ignored his flit for the moment in favor of his dinner guest, and
grinned, almost like a little boy, when he saw the klah. Klah
instead of anything alcoholic. "Thank you for bringing klah, Devyn.
I suppose you gathered I was trying to quit drinking? Even if you
hadn't, I appreciate it. I made a promise... and then broke it last
night.... but that cannot happen again, even with such pleasant
company has you, lovely greenrider. So thank you." He lifted his
glass of klah to toast her and smiled. If she wanted to get to know
him, he'd tell her... whether he wanted to or not. He was not really
capable of hiding who he was from a woman. Not really.

He found he wanted to tell her, too. It would be a relief to have
someone else examine him that didn't know him. Maybe he wasn't as
bad a person as he thought. Maybe he was just ...normal.

And he wanted to get to know her too. Just being out with a _person_
made him remember that he had used to have a few friends, and that
they made the dark times, brighter. And the bright times, even
moreso. And she fairly shone from her place at the table, in his
eyes. Beautifully.

"Here's to new friends?" He added, his glass still in the air.

Devyn smiled at his toast and raised her cup of klah, gently touching
it to his before echoing, "To friends." As she brought the cup of klah
to her lips Devyn had to admit that klah had never tasted better. She
had to admit that it was probably not the klah itself, but her
excellent company for the evening.

J'darin's comments about the choice of klah over wine made Devyn feel
better about her choice.

"So tell me, J'darin, what has kept you from being in the social
light? You're the Weyrlingmaster, after all, I feel as if I should
know more about you than I do."

He was going to talk too much to this lovely greenrider, he could
tell. When she asked him that question, a flicker of sadness and
pain went across those eyes, but it was soon chased away by the warmth
in her voice and the sincere interest he was picking up from her.

He was quiet a moment, just appreciating the view, then finally said,
"Well, if you really want to know, I'm not good at making friends...
or being "in the social light" as you call it. I went from being a
Weyrleader - always hard to make friends - to being seriously injured
and losing the Weyrleadership - to being a Weyrlingmaster again. In
the midst of that, it never seemed that anyone would want to be
friends with a grouncy, scarred bronzerider." He smiled to take the
sting from it, and shrugged his shoulders eloquently. His right arm,
scar and all, wasn't visible underneath his long sleeved shirt, but he
took a moment to pull up the sleeves and show her. "I'm not the kind
of bronzerider that chases girls for his bed, either, and that keeps
me a bit... ahh... what do we call it? Low profile?"

"And, when you're in charge of people - be they riders or weyrlings -
its very difficult to make decisions about their lives and futures if
you're emotionally involved ... with friendships, and the like." Now
the pain was clear as he remembered the day he'd had to send 15 turn
old riders into the Wings because Dolphin Cove needed them, if more
riders were not going to die. "Or at least, it was for me. It was
hard enough sending them to die... Maybe thats why I'm no longer a
Weyrleader."

He shrugged again, forcing the words to stop before he depressed her
completely. He didn't talk about how none of the weyrlings he'd
trained had ever sought him out after they graduated. None of the
women in his life had stayed there long. And how even though he'd
changed, and changed drastically, since the Scoring, no one seemed to
have noticed. They just thought he was the same man that had been
Weyrleader.

Though, for the first time since he'd met Cardella, he thought that he
might see that man, living deep inside him, and he could feel that man
clawing his way to life, seeking the brightness of the greenrider next
to him.

It made him smile, an odd expression, given his words.

"You can run away from my depressing self now, if you like, Devyn."
His smile widened. "Or you can tell me _your_ story in exchange for
mine. I feel that I've missed something special not meeting you
before now." He was suddenly less hungry for the food on his plate
than for words from his companion.

Devyn tried to take in what the man told her, but when the world
"Weyrleader" came into play, something clicked in Devyn's mind.
_Weyrleader_ J'darin. That certainly rang a bell much better than
"Weyrlingmaster" had. Bits of gossip came floating back to the
greenrider's mind now about the former Dolphin Cove Weyrleader who had
been injured during Threadfall, and unable to keep his position at
the next gold flight. So _this_ was the man that she'd heard whispers
about back then. Having been a young dragonrider herself and not
familiar with Dolphin Cove, Devyn had thought very little about what
other dragonriders had been saying.

It didn't change Devyn's opinion of J'darin, now that she could
finally place where she'd heard his name before, if anything it
intrigued her more. J'darin had been through a lot, and for the man to
sit across from her now, with a smile on his face said more for his
character than words.

"I'm afraid you'll find my story incredibly dull," she smiled as she
began, "I'm from a cothold, so small it doesn't deserve a name. I was
raised by my father, and I have an older sister, Evalyn, who is
perfect in every way," there was a hint of sarcasm there as she took a
moment to help herself to a forkfull of the greens on her plate.

Once those were down and out of the way she tilted her head a bit,
"Before Impressing Ellyth I was in the harpercraft, specializing
mostly in gitar," she held up her hands and wiggled her fingers, "so
you're looking at some talented fingers right now."

He laughed and reached out to grasp those wiggling fingers gently in
his own calloused ones, though admittedly, her's showed the callouses
of any dragonrider, too.

He grinned at her description of her life, summed up in so few words,
yet turning out such a lovely person. And his story of just the
latest happening to him had taken longer... Shards. He was no man
for such a bright lady.

But he didn't let that stop him. He'd decided on this new course.
Really, the "new" course to get back to the "old" J'darin, wherever he
might have wandered.

"If you ask me, Devyn, there is surely no way your perfect sister can
be so perfect. The dragons didn't take _her_ did they?" His grin
widened. Oh, if only some of those at Dolphin Cove could hear him
say that! Still holding her fingers in his, he added, "Will you play
for me sometime? Music is something I've never mastered, though I was
a Woodcarver."

Here, he let go of her fingers and wiggled his own.

"So I've my _own_ set of talented fingers to match yours! You play for
me, and I'll carve you something. I've been needing a reason to
carve again." Maybe you're it, he added silently, though hard after
that realization came the choking reminder of reality. What would
she want with him anyway? No one else wanted to be around him. Would
she, after tonight? Even still, he never let that show on his face.

He was just getting to know her, and she, him. The future would take
care of itself.

Hasaarth's sharp affirmation to that made him bite back a laugh, and
his eyes were sparkling again as he looked at Devyn, pushing a piece
of wherry steak into his mouth.

Devyn certainly liked hearing what J'darin had to say on the matter of
her sister, although, she relented, he might change his mind if he saw
Evalyn- tall, leggy and blonde. The greenrider decided not to dwell on
that, after all, by Impressing Ellyth and living at the Weyr she'd
finally gotten out from under Evalyn's shadow.

"Allright then, bronzerider, you have yourself a deal. When you hear
me play gitar you'll think you're listening to the Master Harper
himself." She teased, leaning in to bump her shoulder against his as
she lifted her cup of klah up for a sip. Devyn had always found it
easy to be friends with men, certainly easier than women, but
something in her hoped that J'darin didn't want to be just friends.

He laughed at the thought, pleased. "I have no doubt of your perfect
skills, lovely lady."
A gentle touch of shoulder to shoulder made his smile widen even
further and he slipped an arm around her and pulled her comfortably
close. As comfortable as possible with the seating arrangements in
the dining caverns.

He most definitely did not want to be _just_ friends. But it was a
good place to start.

"If you play for me, I will carve for you. Perhaps a likeness of your
Ellyth. I used to be able to carve fairly good dragons." He glanced
about the crowded dining cavern and considered.

He wanted to ask her to his weyr for a drink, but he did not want her
to think he was going to throw her in bed. How did one do that? And
especially, how did one do that when one didn't intend to drink
anything stronger than juice or klah?

He tried for honesty. "Devyn...I find that I want to retreat from all
these people and perhaps listen to you play...but I don't want you to
think I want to take you to my weyr and ahhh... toss you in the furs,
so to speak. I really would like to spend more time with you,
talking."

He grinned sideways at her. "Maybe you can tell me about your perfect
sister..." And then he tried to duck away from a smack he was sure
was coming.

Just as J'darin had expected, Devyn leaned away from him and directed
a smack to his shoulder, "Oh I'm sure she'll come visit if she finds
out I'm spending time with a bronzerider. Then you could see the
perfection first hand." She laughed as she finished her plate and
pushed it away, "And I think retreating to your weyr sounds perfect.
I'll need to swing by my place and pick up my gitar though. Do you
just want me to meet you there?"

J'darin smiled warmly at her and nodded. "If you please." He was
once again, stunned, that he could have this much fun and be this much
at peace with no wine to speak of in his system.

This pretty greenrider was _just_ what he needed.

Last updated on the March 4th 2012

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Dinner for Two