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The hatching feast has been a blast. So many new weyrlings, new partners, new soulmates. It was a beautiful thing and exciting. Lute had been enjoying herself and jumped at the chance when T'rel asked her to dance. They twirled, spun, and swayed. Then all of a sudden in the middle of it all, he up and ran off! It had kind of left her reeling. She had been quite wrapped up in the dancing to do much in the way of talking, but she had been enjoying herself and she assumed he had been too. Lute had seen T'rel when offended. It wasn't that. After sort of standing there stunned for a moment, she slipped away from the dance floor. What good would it be for any of the other dancers if a woman was just standing in the middle of their dance space?

Satisfied with the answer, the queen chirped, took to the air, nosed the greenrider's cheek and was off again.

Well...It certainly put a bit of a damper on the feast. Lute didn't leave right away. Instead, she got herself a drink and made the rounds congratulating the new weyrlings and giving hugs to a few folks. Rumith had been enjoying being around the new young dragons, so so was content on her own. After a while, Lute returned to her weyr, changed out of her party outfit and into some bum around clothes. A nap felt like it was in order and so she sprawled across her bed furs with her two little boys blue, one on either side of her. While a nap would have been nice, her mind kept her from easily drifting off. Man, that dance. Laughing and smiling, feeling as though she and T'rel flew over the dance floor, and then she stood alone. Breathing a sigh, she folded a forearm over her eyes and drew her knees up. Seeing him, her dearest friend, fleeing from her through the crowd of people hurt her. It really did. Why had he run? She hadn't said anything offensive or hadn't been treading on his toes or anything. No. Did she do something else? This didn't feel like some trick or jest. She didn't care that she had to awkwardly mosey off to the sidelines while others continued their own dances. Not a bit. The greenrider felt almost deprived. It had felt wonderful and then it ended abruptly.

To take her mind off of its current train of thought, Lute focused on the two bodies nestled against either of her sides. Ovo and Bur had fallen asleep and could feel their deeper sleep breathing. Unexpectedly, the woman felt something drop down on her raised knees. Lifting her forearms, she blinked at the sight of a familiar flit. It was G'non's gold, Little Wing. Upon their eyes meeting, the little queen chirruped a greeting . Lute muttered a polite greeting and reached out to give her head a rub. After a pet or two Little Wing crooned and gave a few flashing glimpses of T'rel's weyr along with some feelings of urging and encouragement.

"You want me to go, eh? Does G'non have anything to do with this?"

On this, the little Gold was less than forthcoming and just scratched under her chin with a hind foot.

Lute sighed and propped herself up on her elbows. Well, she wouldn't mind some answers. Maybe find out what's the matter. Maybe something was upsetting his stomach or something? "Eeh. Alright, you go on back to G'non or wherever. I'll go." Ovo and Bur hadn't been disturbed in the slightest. Carefully sliding to the edge of her bed, she rose, slipped on a pair of sandals, and headed off in the direction of T'rel's weyr, a path she could have probably navigated in her sleep.

Before too long, there she was on the bronzerider's ledge, forehead against the wall beside his open door. Some part of her felt hesitant, but she had walked all the way to his door. It was too late to forget about it now. Taking those extra few steps, she moved to stand in the doorway but not going in much farther. "T'rel...You up for company? Are you feeling okay?"

Lute leaned against the door frame, her arms folding about her waist. She looked to T'rel and felt a bit of an arch from her eyebrow at the flare of his nostrils. He really was a terrible liar, especially seeing as she knew every last one of his tells. "Your father cares for you. I don't think he'd harass you with malicious intent. He knows you're a grown man, so I doubt he'd meddle as much as you're making it out to be." Probably. Heh. His pouting was kinda cute, like he was flashing back to his teenhood or something.

"I'm a big girl. I can handle getting sick if whatever you have is catchy. I just want to know what's the matter. I don't think I've ever seen you run off like that. It was almost as if I had burned you or something..." Her voice trailing off softly. So fidgety. Gracious, he seemed to be on a roll. "What's bothering you, bug or otherwise?"

She chuckled and shook her head, a wayward strand of her warm deep brown hair fell forward across one of her cheeks. "No. Little Wing did, specifically. Came in and perched on my knees."

All the fidgeting. More lies. She knew this, but still she frowned. But what happened at the feast had been so nice. It was freedom, relaxing and letting go. Just enjoyment. And he didn't want it to happen again. Just...let it go? Ugh. There was that ache again. Tightening her arms around herself, Lute bowed her head forward. She swallowed the feeling of a choke in her throat. The greenrider turned so that her back rest against the door frame. She didn't leave but she turned away from him. This issue needed to be settled even if it was uncomfortable.

"Is it so wrong for me to worry over you, to be concerned? It's not something that I can help, T'rel." She swallowed again to fight that choke again. Lute brought a hand up to rub her fingers over her eyes, pressing lightly. It wasn't just because she was tired.

Dropping her hand back down, she angled her head back to rest it against the door, her eyes downcast. "Maybe...Probably, but I didn't have to come. I wanted to. Her asking was just a nudge to get me going..."

"I can't help it. Not after so long. I just can't..." She spoke softly. Lute blinked up at him when he turned to face her, leaning her head into the hand against her cheek. "You're worth worry, you know. And you've got it whether you like it or not." Shards, worry wasn't fun, but it was true and real and it wasn't always bad. It just sucked a good portion of the time.

"This? What can't you let happen?" His consolation did little to dispel the threatening tears that clung to her lashes. Like it was the missed out dance that made her feel so wretched. No. It was the feelings that she got from it. She could dance any old time. Alone, with T'rel, with whoever. However what she felt wasn't something she could readily replicate. That was something different. Something special. Her brows furrowed. "I'm trying not to..." She just barely squeaked as a heavy tear quickly streaked down her cheek and dripped off of her chin.

Her arms loosened from around herself when T'rel pulled her into his arms. Lute wrapped her arms about his torso and pressed her forehead to his chest before turning her head to rest her ear over his heart. In doing a couple of small wet spots formed from her wiping her face against his shirt. Thump thump. She listened. Thump thump. To be beating of his heart. "I love you too."

"You never wanted..." Lute gave a sharp huff, looking to T'rel with an arch of her brow. "Well, tough." She said pointedly, looking to him. It wasn't terribly surprising. Not really. His hesitation was half expected. T'rel had lost a great love of his and he didn't know either of his blood parents. Death taking his mother and distance, chance, and willful interference from a certain relation kept him from his father until relatively recently. But nothing had taken her away. She had been around since she and him had been in the Hall.

T'rel's withdraw from her caused her to frown. She placed a hand at the curve of her waist, the other folded behind her back, her fingers finding a loose thread at the hem of her shirt. "Might as well tell me to stop playing music, to cut the strings of my lute and set it aside for my little blue boys to roost in or something..." Lute shifted her weight from one foot to the other and sighed. "What about you? Can't let me do this. T'rel, I'm a big girl. I have no intention of going anywhere anytime soon. I don't intend on going anywhere or dying any time soon. Shards, I have plans on living to one hundred turns if I can manage it." She said with a hint of a grin. Kind of a joke, but also a bit of reassurance, hopefully.

Lute's fingernail stopped flicking and picking at the loose thread. She dropped her hand to rest at her side. The woman sighed as she moved to sit on the edge of his bed. She listened to him go on. He was stressing so much over this. How much thought and fretting did he put into his overthinking? Seemed like over thinking to her anyway.

"Well, I do. You won't hurt me. I know you won't." The greenrider drew her feet up, scooting back a little from the edge, to sit cross legged on T'rel's bed. "I doubt that there's much that could be done to make me stop smiling. Especially for you." She reached out a hand, wiggling her fingers as a gesture of 'come here' with a pat on the empty space next to her with her other hand. "Sit next to me? Please?"