Third Time... Lucky? (2/2)

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 15th January 2019

Characters: A'vel, R'nar
Description: A'vel wakes up with his best friend, R'nar.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 3, day 23 of Turn 9

After the explosive energy used up in a flight, participants tended to
doze for a bit. Tsogath was still curled up with her chosen mate
Iorath on his ledge, drowsing in the warm sun and occasionally
flicking the tip of her tail.

Inside a flight weyr, A'vel lay on a bed, slowly drifting back to
wakefulness. The first thing he became aware of was a sense of lassitude
and contentment that felt strangely doubled. The second thing he became
aware of was that he was lying on his stomach, rear up in the air. The
third thing he noticed was the fact that the cot had someone else in
it, he could feel the warmth of another body right by his. And the
last thing he noticed was as he was waking up and remembering what
*had* happened, his body was starting to think about round two.

That all added up to one conclusion: Tsogath had risen again, and he'd
wound up with...

Shards, he hoped the answer was neither J'ackt or N'vanik. He could
roll over and look, which seemed like an overwhelming amount of
effort, or he could stay here with his eyes closed and his face in the
mattress, and find out from Tsogath who it was. The young greenrider
reached out mentally to get her impressions, and then groaned to
himself when he recognized a very familiar bronze hide.

Iorath. And by extension, R'nar. His best friend during weyrlinghood.

Aw, feck.

When the sound of A'vel's breathing changed, R'nar thought it safe to
ask, "You awake?"

Part of him had hoped maybe he'd mid-identified who Tsogath had
picked. Maybe recognizing another dragon's hide through dragon's eyes
was more difficult than he'd thought. That was in fact, R'nar's voice,
the final confirmation. Well, if he was awake, and R'nar was awake, he
shouldn't be rude and ignore him until he went away. He might as well
face the performance.

So A'vel rolled over, and blinked up at the unfamiliar ceiling above
him. "Yeah, I'm awake," he mumbled.

"Everything... okay?" R'nar asked, unsure of what else to say really.

There was probably something right to say at this time, A'vel was sure
he'd been *drilled* in it, but he'd also completely forgotten. "Iorath
flew Tsogath well," he hazarded, pretty sure that was the right thing
to do, to compliment his friend's dragon. It was true, since the wash
of contentment he was feeling was so strong.

"I feel all right. Uh...you?"

"Oh, yeah, I feel, um, great. You were... it was... nice." R'nar
winced inwardly. Nice? That didn't exactly describe how great his
first flight had actually been.

A'vel wasn't sure what to say back. Did he say it was nice for him?
Had it been nice for him? His body seemed to think so, he was...well,
he was sore, but it wasn't like things were *hurting*, he just kind
of...ached and knew he'd done things. It was kind of a warm, pleasant
feeling he had all over.

}:Contentment,:{ Tsogath half-said, half-imaged, at him.

"Yeah, it wasn't bad. I mean, it could have been, but."

A thought came to mind, a joke he could make, to try to defuse any
awkwardness that was building up. After all, he and R'nar were
*friends*, nothing more between them since they were both guys and
R'nar was a bronzerider and he knew what that meant. Maybe it would
have been awkward if A'vel had a crush on R'nar, any feelings of
romance or attraction however one-sided, and this had happened. Which
he didn't. He decided to go with being a bit more sincere instead.

"You're not J'ackt. That's good. If Tsogath is going to keep picking
bronzes, she could make way worse choices..."

R'nar tossed his arm over his eyes and barked out a humorless laugh,
"Not J'ackt. Well, that's... something." He sighed a little and then
turned his head, arm sliding away from his eyes so he could look at
A'vel. "Well, to all of your female greenrider colleagues, _this_ was
the best flight of your life," he teased.

"Look at you, you are way more attractive than he is!" A'vel said. "I
can tell them that with all sincerity."

The bronzerider laughed, awkwardness easing up as he sat up and
grabbed his pants, "I will, of course, brag of how grand Iorath's
first catch was.... Which isn't untrue."

"Tsogath is certainly thrilled about his performance," A'vel says.
"Hopefully she ran him a good chase."

R'nar searched his link with Iorath, "Well, he seems quite pleased, so
I think she must have." He stood and tugged on his pants before
scooping up A'vel's pants, which had been across the room, and tossing
them to his friend.

"Well, then that makes it more impressive that he caught her and you
can brag about that." If that was the kind of thing riders bragged
about. Of course Iorath would brag about catching a gold he was sure,
but maybe a green wouldn't be as impressive.

"Thanks," A'vel says. He catches them and then - well he wants to put
them on, but... He shifts around slightly, squirmily. Shardit.

R'nar tugged his shirt over his head, causing some disarray in the
dark mop of curls on his head. He noticed that A'vel still hadn't put
his pants on, and it dawned on him.... "Oh, and your shirt," he tossed
that to A'vel as well before purposefully sitting on the end of the
bed with his back to the greenrider while put put on his boots.

A'vel took that as well, wishing that his body wasn't having quite
this reaction to R'nar, of all people. On the other hand, it was
certainly a lot less awkward waking up to him than it had been to
J'ackt, who. Well. Was J'ackt, all snarly and all dangerous and a lot
of scary. Or to N'vanik, who was his mentor and Weyrleader,
intimidating because of those things. Those both had potential for
some long-term awkwardness.

On the other hand, it was awkward right now because R'nar was his
friend and he wanted to keep being friends. Would having seen each
other naked and having done flight things change that? Like, what if
R'nar thought that Iorath had won Tsogath because A'vel was harboring
some secret crush? Which he wasn't, was he - he just thought of him as
a friend, not a partner *like that*. Any stirring his body was doing
was just because of the flight residuals. He hoped.

When R'nar turned he started pulling on his clothing so they could
both vacate the cot and leave it free.

Last updated on the January 21st 2019

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Third Time... Lucky? (2/2)