Moving On, Moving Forward

Writers: Devin, Bree
Date Posted: 4th February 2007
Series: Saving Each Other

Characters: Talryne, N'vanik
Description: Talryne and N'vanik unpack boxes in Talryne's new weyr.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 2, day 14 of Turn 4

Talryne

N'vanik

It took more effort than she wanted to admit to step over the threshold, but once inside it wasn't as bad as she'd thought. There were no memories here, and more importantly no achingly empty couch where Ysanth should have been curled up...

Talryne cleared her throat. "Thank you for moving everything."

"No problem," N'vanik said. "You know you don't have to leave right away, if you don't want to." While part of him wanted her to take this important step towards independence, there was another part of him that didn't want her to leave. **Shards, what's happening to me?**

"Well, maybe we can take a few days to set everything up..." A few more days where she could sleep curled up next to him with his deep, steady breathing lulling her to sleep. She sat down on the couch and pulled a box toward her, opening it up. "I suppose I have to see what all of this stuff is."

A few more days would be nice. "Haven't seen some of these in a long time, huh?" he asked as he sat down next to her. Talryne pulled out the first item and held it up, smiling a little nostalgiclly. "It's the blanket I knit for myself when I was five," she admitted. "Mother was sick in bed a lot, but she could still knit. I used to sit on the bed with her and she'd show me how."

N'vanik chuckled. "You knitting. It's a little hard to imagine."

"I was actually pretty good at it," she admitted, setting the lumpy blanket carefully aside. "When I could sit still long enough. I preferred being outside, but that wasn't always appropriate for a young lady."

The bronzerider snorted. "Yeah, you were supposed to learn how to cook and clean and otherwise take care of us men."

"Pretty much." The box held several more blankets, each one showing slightly more skill. "I was terrible at cooking and poked my fingers trying to sew, but I was always good at working out the patterns for this sort of thing in my head. It was just about the only womanly thing I ever managed to learn."

"Depends on what you consider womanly."

Talryne was startled into a laugh. "Fine, it's the only _lady-like_ thing I ever managed to learn!"

N'vanik smiled. "Getting you to laugh is even better than getting you to smile. I'll have to do that more often."

Feeling a little self-conscious, Talryne smiled shyly at him. "I didn't think I'd ever laugh again," she admitted. "Life is full of surprises." He leaned over to kiss her cheek.

"I suppose it is." And the biggest one was the man sitting next to her. He'd started off as the dangerous man that she couldn't quite resist toying with, but had ended up being the only safe thing in her life. "So what else do you have stashed away?" he asked, leaning back.

"I can hardly remember..." She draped the blankets over the back of the couch and reached for another box. She'd already opened it and pulled out the first item before she remembered why this particular box had been packed away. She carefully didn't look at N'vanik as she regarded the somewhat scandalous piece of clothing. "Well, it's too cold to wear this here."

N'vanik cleared his throat. "Well that's . . . very interesting."

Talryne tucked it quickly back away and closed the box. She'd unpack _that_ box when she was alone. "You're finding out all sorts of new things about me today, aren't you?"

"Uh-huh." He was trying not to picture her in that outfit, and only partially succeeding. **Think of something else. Food . . . riding straps . . . fat drudge naked. Ugh! Ok.** N'vanik slid another box over. "Let's see what's in this one."

This box was quite a bit safer, with the most embarrassing item being an overly sentimental romantic tale. "I used to read that whenever I was having a bad day," she admitted, setting it down on the table in front of them. "Hmm, maybe I'll have to read it sometime," he said with a teasing smile.

A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of Talryne's mouth as she pulled a stack of knitting patterns from the box. "You find tales about romantic bronzeriders to be soothing?" "No. I want to know what's so good about this book that you had to read it so many times."

"Well, I wouldn't say it was _good_..." Her expression grew the faintest bit embarassed as she sorted absently through the patterns. Maybe she could spend some of her free time learning how to knit again... "It was silly and sentimental, but it was comforting." "You liked silly and sentimental?" N'vanik snorted and leaned over to pick up the book. "Now I'm gonna have to read it, to see how bad it is."

Talryne couldn't help herself. She rescued the book from him and held it protectively against her chest. "I don't think you'd enjoy it." Besides, she wasn't sure she wanted him knowing the intimate details of her romantic fantasies. Especially not the ones involving handsome bronzeriders.

"You're just making it seem more interesting." He reached out to grab the book. With a surprised noise, Talryne jerked the book behind her with one hand and planted the other in the middle of his chest. "Go find your own book!" she retorted, but the smile was tugging at her lips again. "But I want _yours_," he said, trying to reach behind her. She wiggled back until the book was trapped firmly between her back and the couch, slapping at his hand. "No. Now you're just being nosy."

"So?" With a wicked grin, N'vanik started to tickle her. Trapped as she was between him and the couch, there was no good way of avoiding him. Within moments Talryne found herself laughing breathlessly as she tried to squirm away from his devious fingers. "Not--fair!" she gasped, trying to get a hand free to return the favor.

N'vanik alternated hands, tickling with one and reaching for the book with the other as she squirmed. "Give me the book, and I'll let you go!"

"No! Now you can't _ever_ see it!" She attacked his undefended side and threw one leg around his waist to keep him from squirming away once she finally reached a ticklish spot. With the other hand, she tried to defend her poor book, which was probably going to end up crushed beneath them.

Now under assault, N'vanik started squirming and found himself trapped. With him squirming on top and her wiggling underneath, things suddenly got a little too interesting. "Truce! Truce!" he gasped and stopped tickling.

Talryne collasped back against the couch, still more than a little breathless. "I guess I need to start exercising again, if I want to keep this book safe." It seemed like a safer topic than her change in mood and how it was suddenly not so easy to ignore the press of N'vanik's body against hers. "You planning to run away next time I go after it?" N'vanik asked, leaning back.

"Maybe." The book was poking her in the back uncomfortably, so she shifted to lean against N'vanik, letting her head rest on his shoulder. "I can't remember the last time I really laughed..."

He smiled and kissed the top of her head. "I can't remember the last time I fought so hard for a romance book."

That made her smile. "You mean there _was_ a last time? I didn't know you liked them so much."

"You better watch it. You're startin' to get sassy." It was good to see her so alive. "I feel a little better today," she admitted. As terrified as she'd felt at the idea of leaving N'vanik's weyr, there was something comforting about being in a place where she didn't feel like an intruder. "That's good." People kept telling him that Tal was doomed, and here she was, moving in to her own weyr. "We don't have to unpack everything today, do we?" Not that there was that much there, but she wouldn't mind the excuse to have one more night before she had to face being on her own.

"No. We have plenty of time for that." **It should be nice to have the weyr to myself again,** he thought. Yes, it _should_ be, but he wondered if it might be a little . . . lonely.

Last updated on the February 9th 2007

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