A Little Envy

Writers: Jane, Kaysea
Date Posted: 14th August 2007

Characters: R'harne, Treya
Description: Treya asks for help with her equipment, from an unlikely source.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 5, day 16 of Turn 4

Frustration tinged her mood, as she tried to wrangle the new straps through the brasses, before the next days Fall. "Shellcrack!" she huffed, and threw the long leathers aside. "I'm never going to get this done," she fumed. Her temper had gotten the better of her for the last few days, ever since she had been told of her mother's death. Close to tears one minute and flashes of anger the next. Her fingers fumbled, once again, with the leather which refused to thread through the buckles properly.

Despite still wary around the clingy greenrider R'harne thought he ought offer her some help before she took a knife to her riding straps. Certainly her muttered comments indicated that she was getting angry enough to try that. He cleared his throat. "Do you need a hand?" he asked cautiously.

"What?" she snapped the word out, before realising how harsh it sounded. She looked up, and schooled her face to not show how angry she was, "Oh, R'harne. Sorry." she flipped the straps in her hands, "I'm just - I'm..." she felt the sting of tears behind her eyes, "Shards! Look at me, would you." she roughly swiped her hands at her face. "Yes. Help!? I'd appreciate some." she nodded finally.

Crying was marginally better than hunting him down and trying to establish a relationship with him in front of his weyrmate. Just. "Look, let me. It's one of those things - once it's gone wrong once it just keeps going wrong."

"As does everything these days." She swiped at the tears that had formed in her eyes, and gave him a lopsided smile. "I appreciate the help. I was coming close to taking to the whole lot with knife. I'm just all thumbs at the moment." She felt a shudder run through her body. "Have you ever had one of those months were sharding nothing goes right for you?" she asked.

"Not usually whole months," R'harne admitted, working the new leather to make it easier to thread through the fittings. "What's going wrong?" he asked, wondering if he was setting himself up for a long complaint about the men of the Weyr.

"Life in general," she shrugged, "but I thought the new man in my life may have remembered my birthingday, and he didn't. And then the man I least wanted to remember it, my stepfather," she supplied hastily, "did, and chose that day to tell me my mother had died."

She paused for a breath, everything seemed to be tumbling out at once, "Just when you think things are going swell, something sharding well happens and life just jumps back up and bites you on the a- " she flushed, realising just what she was saying. "Sorry R'harne, I do waffle on."

She did, as a rule, but this had been fairly focused. "No, that's fine. I'm sorry to hear about your mother. Hold-folk, were you?"

"Yes. A long time ago - or at least that's the way it feels now." she nodded, looking first at his face, and then to his hands, "You work well with the leather, I wish I could. But today.." she gave a scattered gesture with her hands, "I'm all fingers and thumbs."

"Some days are like that for everybody. Is it just your mother's death that's upsetting you?" he asked, sure Teykara would be amused by his 'good' behaviour around the other greenrider. The situation was vastly different from the debacle in the dining cavern, though, and perhaps a little of Teykara's scolding about his treatment of Treya might have taken root.

"Mostly - I guess." she shrugged, "It was the last thing I wanted, or expected to hear, but I think it was more the way it was delivered, and who the messenger was. I never thought he would be able to hurt me, ever again, and yet he did - here of all places. The one place I have felt safe for the first time since my real father died." She looked down at her hands, fingers entwined.

She took another deep breath, and then suddenly looked up and met R'harne's eyes, "Shards, I didn't mean to -. Sorry - waffling again."

"But you are safe here, Treya. You're a dragonrider."

"Yes, I am. And I should feel safe - I _did_ feel safe..." she shook her head to clear it of all thoughts of her stepfather, "How're those straps coming R'harne? Supple enough for me to work with now?" she asked, wiping at some stray moisture the was sitting in the corner of her eye.

"I'll finish them off, Treya." He smiled and added: "Then you can check my work."

"Oh R'harne, Teykara is a very lucky woman." She smiled up at him, "I'm permitted a little envy, yes?" she asked, a small twinkle of mischief brightening the corner of her eye, he was a better distraction than her stepfather.

R'harne nodded. "As long as it's just a little, and just envy, then I can stand to be flattered by it."

"Good - and..." she looked back up at him again, a genuine smile of friendship on her lips, "Thank you. Thanks for this - " she waved her hand at the strap he was mending, "and for the patient ear you've lent me today. I appreciate it."

"You're welcome, Treya."

Last updated on the October 11th 2008

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A Little Envy