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 Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 12:19 am
The Weyrling's Barracks may very well have missed her. There might have been those who hadn't noticed she was gone at all. Either way, Uuni wasn't missing the Weyrling's Barracks. There was more comfort here than there ever was in the wide open spaces of the barracks with half the world leering down her back.
It was most certainly early. Either that, or both she and Avery were oversleeping.
It didn't matter, the fact was, she was tired as the emotions and voices of her bonded flooded through her mind.
Uuni. Uuni you must wake up. You are being very lazy, and it would be very silly to miss betweening practice.. He'd been trying to wake her up for the past ten minutes, and by now, he'd gotten painfully insistent.
"s**t," Uuni muttered under her breath, but having been woke up early gave her time to pretend she hadn't draped her arm over Avery's waist when she'd slept, and hadn't gotten just a little bit too close for someone who'd merely wanted a casual nightly fling.
Maybe, if she was really quiet, she wouldn't wake the other girl up. She could be gone before Avery even noticed. It was with careful patience that she picked the bedrolls edge up between her index and thumb and gingerly shifted it to the side.
How much time do I have?
I think about half a candlemark. Hardly enough time to stop by the kitchen and shove food down her gullet. She still had to find all her clothes. Damn.
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 12:26 am
"Mmmmmn," came the slow, husky murmur and Uuni's dread and Avery rolled over, still mostly asleep, to slide her arm around the older girl's middle and pull her back to her side, close and firm against her warm body with an affectionate squeeze. Another sleepy shifting of her athletic frame later and she had her nose buried in Uuni's hair, voice a low mumble.
"What're ya doin', love?" It was ridiculously early, and Uuni was not typically an early riser. In fact, if she'd been slightly more awake, Avery'd be a bit alarmed by the behavior. It was probably only a trip to the latrines, and frankly, it probably wasn't that urgent. The curly-haired candidate didn't even bother to prop herself up on her elbow, content from the night prior and by the continued comfort of Uuni's form.
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 12:36 am
Dread was exactly the word for it. The arm around her middle was like death pulling her back down. A really welcome, comfortable, relaxing version of death. Uuni bit her tongue and let herself get pulled back down, sucking in a deep breath as she felt the contact close to her neck.
A heavy sigh later, and she had stayed for a few more moments, her eyes on the wall, but with no desire to move.
Uuni. Makereth's voice was pressing, and although it would have been more to her character to have skipped and dealt with the reprocussions later, when it came to going between, Makereth needed Uuni's full attention, and she needed to be there.
"Uhh," Uuni started, her fingers tickling down Avery's arm until she reached the woman's hand and began to pry it from her waist. "I'm," she began again, unable to come up with a good lie as she ignored all protests and swung her legs out of bed.
She was dizzy, too, and she was sure there was an onslaught of a headache that was just going to be fun. "I have to practice with the rest of the weyrlings," she informed quietly as her eyes scanned the area for her dress. "We're leaving in a few days." She clenched her jaw. Wasn't that just lovely, casual morning conversation?
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 12:44 am
"Mmmkay, come back when you finish..." Avery trailed off as she began to wake up from the blast of cold air due to Uuni disturbing their cot. She sat up on an elbow as Uuni located her shirt, one hand tightly wrapped in the sheet she held against her body as she sent a clearly irritated look the paler girl's
way.
It was far too early for new information and/or misleading statements. A slight pursing of the mouth and a furrowed brow accompanied her growling, still-sleepy tone. "Wait, what? Leaving where? Some sort of bonding trip?"
Somehow she didn't think so, not with the way those blue eyes avoided hers. "Come here. Talk to me." She tried to keep the slightly pleading, nervous note out of her voice and only halfway succeeded.
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 12:53 am
The first three questions, Uuni ignored for the time being. The clothes she absolutely needed found, she pushed herself drearily to a stand and shuffled her way to it. She was quiet the whole time she slipped the garment over her head and it was only the sounds of her fingers tightening leather that interrupted her thoughts from there.
The nervous tone that was maybe a little too easy to distinguish caused her to inwardly wince as she looked over.
To go over or not? Her mind said, no, but there was that strange, nervous pull that made her return to the edge of the cot and sit down.
She contorted her face and then offered a slight smile. "Some place called Ghenza." There were so many other things to add. How she wouldn't be coming back for a while because of the plague, that if Makerth didn't make it going through between, that Uuni didn't think she'd want to come back herself.
Faranth, why did she have to look like that? "Just until the plague-threat has passed, right?" She gave Avery a half-hearted wink. If the plague passed.
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:00 am
Avery could handle this.
It was all just fine. She and Uuni didn't get along very well in the first place. When they did, it was fun. That was it. That was all Uuni said it was.
She didn't breathe. She sucked it all in, tight, one inhale, and held it, her eyes dropping and her face turning slightly, toward those ugly rock walls Uuni hated and Kess found charming. Her face felt hot, burning, and she blinked rapidly, squeezing her eyes shut to try and remedy the heat she felt welling up in them. It didn't help. Opening them, she forced herself to stare at nothing. It worked. No tears. What reason was there to cry?
"Oh," It came out strained, controlled, and she took one short, shallow breath. "Alright." Suddenly, the gossip she'd only caught bits and pieces of before finding Uuni and Kesslan made sense. Why hadn't they told her?
Her gaze remained locked on one particular piece of the stone, jutting out slightly with a crack running through it. Focusing. "Don't be late," she cautioned.
Avery could handle this. No problem. No big deal.
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:09 am
Uuni wathced her for a moment, unable to guess what was going on in the mind underneath those long, looping curls. She knew Avery was struggling with something. With what, she couldn't determine.
Or, she could, but she didn't want to think about that. Not right before she had to leave, shard it all.
The 'Oh' might have been a kick to the gut. Uuni raised both her eyebrows and adjusting the dress around her legs. She couldn't wait to get out of it and into something clean that didn't smell of Avery, Kesslan, and last night.
"Right," she said, when Avery told her not to be late. She stood then, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she picked up shoes. She didn't bother to put them on. They were too nice, would hurt her feet in the sprint down the hall.
A deep breath and she'd managed to pull herself back into her original routine. "Catch you around, Ave. Don't miss me too much."
The instant she said the words, and forced her lips into a smile, she regretted it. She took the steps over to the door, but she paused, letting the candlemarks melt by, debating an additional action before she left Avery all alone again.
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:17 am
She flinched, at the nickname and the casual goodbye. It was crude, insensitive, they both knew it. Avery could feel her chest compress, like it was being compacted by a heavy weight. The fake smile added to it and Avery couldn't hold it back anymore.
The first, choking sob was muffled, hard, by her sheet-wrapped fist and the former-beastcrafter shifted, closing herself off to Uuni. Their pain wasn't ever something they shared, not in an acknowledged sense, and she was realizing that she'd made herself more vulnerable than she'd ever intended. Vulnerable enough for Uuni to hurt her.
Her free hand came up to provide an extra shield for her face, and she didn't respond to the paler girl. She just wanted her to go away, to stop existing. She just wanted her to come back and hold her, kiss her, promise to stay.
Faranth, she hated this damned ice weyr. She hated everything. It wasn't a far stretch for her to consider the idea of never having come to attempt, and fail repeatedly, to Impress. Was it even worth it? Perhaps, since Uuni was so content with just Makereth, now. Content enough to leave with a last ******** and a smile.
Brilliant.
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:30 am
The muffle did not go unheard. Loose fingers clenched and Uuni tipped her head back and gave a long, heavy, yet silent sigh.
Her eyes moved to the side, just catching the pained look of Avery's posture in the corner of her eyes. There was an upwelling in her chest at the same time her gut sunk.
The voice that disturbed her made it much worse. I will meet you at practice. Tell Avery a joke. I don't like that she's unhappy..
They didn't judge each other, she and Makereth, but this time, their thoughts matched up. Uuni didn't like it either. And the door was right there. It was cool underneath her fingers as she pulled, and took the step forwards. She could still get --- Oh, ******** the food.
The door slammed back closed and the step she took was back into Avery's chamber. This was stupid. Avery was stupid, but that didn't stop her from taking the heavy steps to return to where she had rested and sliding back until she was close enough to wrap both her arms around the girl and pull her in tight.
No, she didn't kiss her, or make promises. That was something she didn't have the heart to do, but she stayed quiet, refusing to let Avery pull away should she consider it, and she rested her head against the girl's shoulder.
She was just going to have to skip out on breakfast. "Hey, High Reaches doesn't need another lake." That was one of Makereth's worst ones, she thought, but she smiled despite herself. Hopefully, Avery wouldn't find it heartless. There just wasn't anything else to say. Seemed like cheering people up was a talent neither she or Makereth possessed.
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:37 am
Avery's voice was clearly tearful, but her sobbing had subsided after a few long moments of Uuni's touch and she carefully put herself back in control before venturing to speak. "I don't know what you're talking about." A bit of a haughty sniff made her attempt a valiant one.
Tan fingers found pale ones and squeezed, entwining only briefly before a shuddering sigh wracked the younger woman's body. Straightening her posture, she had clearly regained her composure and nodded to Uuni. "Get out of here."
Avery certainly didn't want the stupid to get into trouble, simply because she'd gotten something in her eye. Her voice was resigned, and she reached out to tuck a few stray strands of hair behind Uuni's ear. The words were there, right in her throat, and she stared at the brunette.
I love you.
They wouldn't come out. She swallowed them hard. A half-hearted nose wrinkle and she glanced away quickly. "You're starting to stink up my room."
She would deal with... All of this... Privately.
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:52 am
The words, though they almost stung in a way, had never been better to hear. They had the strange, ridiculous sass that Uuni hated about Avery so much. This time, she snorted, the breath escaping in a loud 'tch' through her teeth as she grinned a true smile.
There was a moment, for one second, where she was out of her comfort zone again, about to say something, but like most of the moments that had happened the night before, and during the night, it passed without drama or words.
And, although she'd never admit it, she felt a great deal better than she would have had she simply left. There was a brief nod from Uuni as if to assure that she was following Avery's orders and not leaving of her own mindset.
Uuni's toes were almost to the floor, but she'd glanced back. It was enough time for a shudder to travel down her spine and her gaze to catch on Avery's.
Somebody was supposed to say something before they did something really disgustingly romantic like have a goodbye kiss. Uuni pressed her lips together at the thought in the same moment that Avery glanced away.
"Yeah, yeah," she answered, finally getting on her feet. "I'll go infect the rest of the Weyr instead." Yeah, she definitely felt a lot better.
"Kesslan'll let you know what day I'm out of here. Lump needs a babysitter." With that, she slipped out the door, and it closed behind her with a barely audible clunk.
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