Try Again and Again Pt 2

Writers: AL, Suzee
Date Posted: 19th February 2013

Characters: Y'gel, Briata
Description: Y'gel and Briata move forward in their relationship.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 12, day 18 of Turn 6
Notes: Pt 2 of 2

Y'gel

Briata

For a few moments, the only thing Briata could do was sit there.
Despite the gentleness with which he had passed the babe on to her
even in the midst of his upset, Brigel awoke and began to fuss.
Briata took a few moments to calm him and get him back to sleep. Then
she stood and made her way over to the armchair across from the couch
and lowered herself into it. She didn't say a word. Not yet. Not
with him hiding behind the pages. She glanced down at the baby whose
head turned ever so slightly, but didn't awaken. Then she leaned back
and simply just sat there - and waited.

He wasn't really reading, He couldn't focus on the page in front of
him at all and when she stayed quiet and came to just sit nearby,
things became even more uncomfortable. All he could think was he had
just blown all the careful work he'd done over the time since Brigel's
birth. Finally he quit pretending and closed the book letting it fall
into his lap.

"Sorry," he said. He couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Talk to me Y'gel." Briata studied the man in front of her, brow
furrowed. She felt bad that she had hurt him, it was the last thing
she had wanted to do, but she didn't want to just leave things. They
needed to talk. Not just hint, but really talk. She felt like she
should say something else, but she wasn't sure what so she left it at
that and hoped that he would.

Y'gel didn't quite know how to put his feelings into words so he
thought if he'd already ruined his chances there was no _more_ harm he
could do by just telling her how he felt. "I love you Briata," he
said in a low voice . "I know most dragonriders rarely get a first
chance at love, let alone a second chance and I want to thank you for
that." For once he didn't try to hid the depth of feeling in his eyes.
"What I've done for you, I've done out of love."

Briata looked down and away from Y'gel, her eyes automatically falling
once more on the child she held in her arms. She knew he had cared
for her, but she hadn't thought it _love_. "Do you truly, Y'gel?" A
second chance at love. Did she have a second chance? Her heart still
ached at the loss of B'lamick, but she also knew that she cared a lot
for this man who had come into her life after such a loss. Did she
love him? B'lamick had been easy to love, but so was Y'gel.

Tears stung in her eyes and her hold on the baby tightened a little.
"Why didn't you say something before?"

"I do, I really do." he said softly. She was confused. He could see it
in her eyes, the way the slid away and just her posture. "I never
meant to press you about it. He thought about her question for a
moment before he shrugged. "You're so much younger than I am
sweetheart. You're beautiful and young and you were so in love before.
How could I begin to hope you might have those feelings for me. So, I
took the advice of a friend and tried to make myself indispensable to
you. I was telling you with actions instead of words."

Briata managed a small smile through the crowd of emotions on her
face. "I know you care for me. I always knew that. I just...didn't
realise to what extent." And what did she feel? Shards, it wasn't
easy. "I...I don't know what to say Y'gel." She took a deep breath.
"I do care about you...a lot."

"You don't have to say anything." He half smiled. "Just understand why
I want to provide the best for you and Brigel. And maybe just give me
a chance."

"A...courtship then?" Her life seemed to be taking a route that it
had already done once before. And yet, while the situation was
similar, she had to admit it was rather odd that she was living in a
man's weyr and talking about courtship. "Although...in truth that's
what you've already been doing." And truly, she did care about him.
He obviously cared about her. Briata watched the man across from her.
He was older, but she had no qualms about that. Did she love him?
She did...but was it in the same was a B'lamick? Was it the sort of
love that made a marriage...well, a weyrmating?

It came down to a choice. Her choice. She had chosen to love before.
Once she had been rejected. She had been accepted the second time and
lost the man. Here she had a third chance with another man who had
already admitted his love for her. And what would she choose? "Do
you still wish to weyrmate?" She asked softly.

At first he was willing to go with her styling it as a courtship, it
really was what he'd already been doing just phrased as a holder would
see it. Only she hadn't really noticed.

"I do," he closed his eyes an nodded. "I've never taken it back, nor
did I intend to."

"But...what if some day you change your mind?" Briata had to admit
that was a fear. She'd already had one man turn his back on his vows
- and while weyrmating wasn't exactly like marriage, it was the
closest thing the Weyr had to marriage - and Briata considered it much
the same, even if others didn't.

He smiled and looked at his son in her arms. "And what if some day you
changed your mind about loving Brigel? Do you think that's possible?"

"No." The answer was immediate - how could he even suggest something
like that? "That is impossible."

He simply spread his hands to show the answer to her question.

Briata slowly rose to cross the short distance between her and Y'gel.
Her hand captured one of his splay ones and she gave him a smile as
she looked down upon him. "Then, if you will still have me..."

Y'gel rose to his feet and enfolded the both of them in his arms where
they belonged. "I'll gladly have you sweetheart," he rumbled. Then
with a finger he tilted her face up to his and gently lowered his lips
to hers.

Last updated on the February 21st 2013

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Try Again and Again Pt 2