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Ah, yes. Right. A'nos had been one of the revolutionary members, the ones to have stormed Malvren and others, over throwing the place. He'd have been one of the ones after Iachixth when she'd still been just an egg and on her way to Natai. She always forgot he'd once been one of Them -- the figure in so many nightmares to the masses. It'd be too easy to imagine A'nos fighting, killing, speaking pretty words even then to draw in and keep others.

At least, that's what Natai thought he'd likely have done. Harper turned Bronzerider hardly screamed a boxing champion or revolutionary. Everyone made mistakes. She'd just like to pretend his didn't involve killing another person.

Natai laughed regardless, soft but audible. "It fell. That is my story and I am sticking to it. Off with you, A'nos." She waved him off, still laughing, and smiling even when she went back to her Weyr.



True to word, Natai made both tea and space at her work table. Nedais' scrolls and scribbles went to the girls box of possessions, all straightened out and tucked away carefully. Tea, cream, sweetener with mugs in place and glows strung up above for proper lighting. Each end of the medium sized table had a chair with Nedais' smaller one to one side, Natai's paperwork in stacks in front of her chair.

Mess was pushed into the private area of the weyr and the divider shut. As tidy as Natai liked to be, sometimes a six turn old windstorm rushed through and mussed everything. She'd simply... hide that, for company. The weyr screamed books and soft corners regardless; the chairs had their own pillows, a dark rug under the table with all things heavy or sharp too high to be reached and sharp edges discreetly draped with something plush. A child lived there.

A fast child.

Truffle chirped from his spot near the tea kettle. Natai whisked it away from it's heat source and poured it over the leaves just in time for A'nos to knock in both forms.

"Music?" Natai pulled open the door to her weyr, an amused twist to her lips that was not yet quite a smile. "Sir Junior Weyrleader, who knew you were the sort to serenade a lady with such spontaneity." Her attempt at batting her lashes could kindly be ridiculous but she opened the door more to let him in, stepping back. "And hello to you as well, Symphony."

Truffle chirped again, if only to be heard, but didn't budge from his roost. Natai paid him no mind, putting small plates on the tables beside ink and writing supplies, small napkins with paper rings rather than spoons. "It's been some time since I've heard you play. Have you had enough time to yourself to keep up with it?"

"You cad." She chuckled softly with him, waving her hand at his designated seat as they spoke. It wasn't so much a 'sit down now' as much as an indication of yes, yes he sat there when they chose to sit. "Does it take only a sevenday to lose her favor? Although I suppose anything ignored for so long is bound to get rather... tetchy." Not that she would know. Of course not. That'd be preposterous. ... At least she managed to keep her tone considering rather than wistful or bitter. Even if she'd not been able to hide it so well, it'd not have been aimed at A'nos.

"Do you consider yourself a Harper still, first and foremost? And no, of course not. The world would be a duller place without you," The tease ended with a small laugh and Natai pouring him some tea. She offered him the mug before pouring her own. "That is definitely the tea. Taste it first? Just so you'll know if you want to put anything else in it. I fancy a bit of cream for this one, myself."

She peered into the mug and took a dainty sip.

She settled into her chair and nipped a bit of cream. The question drew a short laugh and a spoons clink on the cup edge before she set it down. "My sister and her husband met a man who grows a few different sorts. They sent the only one their son didn't think smelled like grass." She smiled into the cup and took another small sip. "I suppose he has good taste for someone not yet a Journeyman."

A'nos' voice carried a curious quality. Natai reached for some gingerbread, her eyes on him in silence while he spoke. Being used to an A'nos who smiled with his whole being or, alternatively, with the same sort of Public Smile she did made the lack of either of them somewhat ... sad. Not even the small eye-crinkles existed, even with those lovely words.

"To fortunate circumstances and good friends," She agreed. The nibbled on gingerbread went to the plate for Natai to raise the tea Manaan sent her in toast. "And to knowing it's perfectly fine to mourn the things you never had, no longer have, or will never have while still being happy with your world."

A token sip and the tea returned to the table in favor for the gingerbread. "This is delicious, by the way."

"Liberating baked goods isn't stealing. If they weren't going to eat it, you were simply making sure the efforts of other Crafters weren't going to waste." Her lips twitched, cup half-muffling her next words. "Semantics, my friend."

Wording could end or save lives. Natai firmly believed in choosing ones words carefully in most situations; let others do the blurting out and being 'charming' about it. She may never be a great orator that stirred the masses to action such as some Riders she could name but at least she wouldn't worry about the exact nature of her words and whether or not they carried subtext she never intended. (Although she still worried. Often. And spoke less for it.)

"You want me to cheer for a Wing without my dear Harper Euclid companion? A'nos, you shock me," Natai pointed at him with her tea, the chastising tones absent in the ace o her faint smile. "Although I do suppose betting on another Harper friend with a dashing Crimsonriding Wingleader would do just as well. I suppose it depends which dragons you station at the different locations. The stamina flyers for the long distances, the speedy ones for shorter lengths. Those sort of things. Would you really want the flattery by default of your charming smile?"

She laughed and let him talk, dipping her gingerbread in the tea before eating it, eyes bright. The cup went up in a toast with the obligatory sip. "Showy would be taking the last stretch. What I find absolutely gaudy of her is that she allows you to be on the team. It's bad manners to flaunt such a strapping, clever, talented rider in the face of the entire Weyr. You should be disqualified on the grounds that your smile would send the masses swooning and thus cause panic in the ranks.

"You endanger us all just by the gift of your presence," She finished, her voice high and feminine and tragic. Natai put the back of her hand to her forehead in a mimicry of swooning before she smiled again at him and nicked another bit of gingerbread. "Did that help restore any of the lost pride I may have chipped off with my unkind words? I could continue but it'd likely end terribly."

"Once or twice, when I was younger," She mused on the memory even with the rather wide smile he received in return for his beam. "I was always rather good with... well, you've seen me with other people. I fancied the writing and the numbers, the order of everything, words that sounded like a Harpers tale rather than the Harper themselves. I don't think Mother believed me; Harpers are supposed to be outgoing and interesting. Regardless, family obligations happened, then the baby, then Iachixth." The smile softened to something a bit more distant and wistful. She blinked it away and shook her head, smiling properly again. "Rather than documenting history, I made it, humble as that may sound."

It was a bad life choice to take a bite of gingerbread dipped in tea when A'nos opened his mouth. Natai nearly choked on the crumbling baked good in an effort to not laugh, her long graceful fingers over her mouth to hold in both laughter and gingerbread.

"You are a terrible man," She said at long last, laugh/coughing against her fist. "A terrible, horrible man. We'd get you one of Nedais' bright pink ribbons to hold you to your dragons eyebrow ridges or some such. It wouldn't be dignified, sadly. Perhaps if it ever happened, someone could insult you for a slow deflate? Best avoid altogether but backups plans are good."

Whether A'nos meant it to affect Natai as much as it did or not, he unwittingly gave her one of the highest compliments she'd received in over twenty turns. No one save Nedais thought she was interesting as a person; that title fell towards the people more like Narissa or Nedais or anyone that didn't find joy in paperwork with proper notations, all color coded and titled. Sometimes people used it as an insult but that didn't count.

Natai blinked twice, parted her lips to speak, and blinked again. She smiled after that barest heartbeat worth of fluster, reaching for the teapot. "Thank you, A'nos. That's kind of you to say. Maybe in another life and it will be glorious."

She filled her cup again and gestured to A'nos' with an eyebrow arch of question. Like a polite host, she didn't even joke about accidentally pouring it onto his lap or his smirk. "We would just have to put you out with the whers," She said mournfully, a smile half-twisting her lips. "The small ones, no teeth. Just so you could stand guard with them, teach them how to terrify the wherries. Do you draw? Little wherlet portraits and search out brave new lands with your brilliant floating head and small attached body."