Brothers

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 10th May 2007

Characters: F'naren, Jh'slaen
Description: F'naren thinks about his relationship with Jh'slaen.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 4, day 4 of Turn 4

F'naren watched the woman walk past where they sat on the sand enjoying the mild evening sun after their swim. Though she wasn't the woman who had made the comment that had stuck in his mind, she reminded him of it.

"I think we should tell everybody we're brothers."

"Huh? Why?" Jh'slaen looked away from the antics of his firelizard who appeared to be attempting to bury himself in the sun-warmed sand.
"That'd work better if we knew we _were_."

"Well, we're _something_," F'naren insisted.

"You can be my nephew, then," Jh'slaen said with a grin because neither of them had much tolerance for his eldest brother. Other than his father, only his eldest brother could possibly have fathered F'naren.
"Or we could just take a visit home and ask your mother."

"Again."

"Have you?" Jh'slaen was a little surprised by that. "I thought you didn't care?"

"I have my moments." The brownrider lay back on the sand with his hands behind his head, peering up at the cloudless sky. "I don't really _care_ though – more I just don't see why I shouldn't know."

"If you don't care," Jh'slaen said, his tone warning enough that he was in possession of the perfect response, "then why should we suddenly start saying we're brothers?"

F'naren remembered the comment the woman in the dining cavern had made the evening before. "It's not about the cotholds – it's about here. If we were brothers, people wouldn't think it so unusual that we're friends."

Jh'slaen thought of his own older brothers and pulled a face. "You're kidding, surely? Friends? With a brother? Just because you don't have any –"

"I have you."

"And we're not sure that you _are_ my brother, half-brother, whatever.
In fact, going on my relationships with the brothers I _am_ sure about, I would guess you weren't."

"That's only because your brothers are the most boring people on Pern."

"Well they certainly didn't get Searched to be dragonriders," Jh'slaen agreed. Never mind that they were all far too old when the Searchrider visited. It was simply impossible to think of his dour, humourless brothers as anything but the fieldworkers that they were.

"What _is_ this all about, anyway? We've always told people we were friends – just like your mother said we should." He looked over at the brownrider, his companion since they could first walk, and couldn't imagine that their friendship would change no matter what blood-relationship they called it.

"Huh. She didn't live here."

"She lived somewhere far more conservative and didn't let that influence her." He reached over and poked F'naren's ribs. "Come on. What happened?"

It was an explanation that was muttered under the other man's breath but eventually Jh'slaen got the idea.

"Some woman said that you and I were far too close for you to be riding brown?" He was laughing. "Why didn't you just ask her outside to meet Jzeth?"

F'naren could feel the heat in his cheeks and knew exactly why. He'd put up with taunts and teasing about his fatherless state for most of his life and been able to shrug them off. Now he was letting a passing comment by a woman he hardly knew make him want to put a name to the relationship between him and Jh'slaen. It was stupid, but the words had niggled away at him until he made a fool of himself.

"If I was a female greenrider ..." Jh'slaen began.

F'naren shook his head. "Bad choice. If you were female and we were friends, people would certainly assume the relationship was sexual."

He was right. Jh'slaen thought again. "Well, if I'd Impressed brown, do you think anybody would comment? No matter how close a friendship we had?"

The brownrider thought that over and agreed. If they'd been brownriders there would be no thought that their friendship was anything more; in fact, he could think of a number of brownriders with close friends among their peers. "No. You're right." F'naren nodded, happy to accept the argument. "People with the biggest mouths have the smallest brains."

It was another thing F'naren's mother used to tell them when people commented on their likeness, and on F'naren's likeness to the men of Jh'slaen's family.

"She knows a thing or two, your mother."

Including the answer to the riddle of his paternity, F'naren thought as his eyes drifted closed. But he'd gone back to not caring about that.

Last updated on the May 14th 2007

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Brothers