Difference between revisions of "Logs:Forbidden Fruit"

Inner Caverns, High Reaches Weyr

Within the labyrinth of interconnected chambers that make up the inner caverns, this large, long cavern serves both as a crossroads and a comfortable place for weyrfolk to sit, talk, and keep a nosy eye out for who's going where. Colorful, seasonal tapestries add warmth to the smooth walls and reduce echoes, while large niches house clusters of chairs, and a waist-high stone shelf along one wall provides a perch for drinks or work for residents on the go. Worn brass hooks often hold jackets or other outerwear with workboots stationed beneath, the transitory nature of the cavern lending itself to being treated as a sort of communal foyer where snowy or muddy gear can be kept outside of living quarters. Smaller, higher niches at regular intervals hold glowbaskets kept fresh during the daytime and allowed to dim somewhat at night.

The largest tunnels lead to the main living cavern, to the bowl and to the Weyr entrance, but it's still easy for the uninitiated to get lost within this maze.

It's so late in High Reaaches that it's verging on early, and the lower caverns are as close to deserted as they'll ever be, with folks tucked up in their beds. Unable to sleep himself, Nicky is wandering the labyrinthine tunnels alone, sloppily dressed and with slippers on his feet that make a soft shush-shush sound as he walks. The lad's curls are wilder than ever, sticking up even more on one side to suggest he might have, at one point, been abed long enough to have crushed them into that position. He pauses near the corridor that leads down to where the private rooms are, listening for a moment to the sound of someone's snores, before he snorts softly in amusement and shuffles off, hands dug deep into his pockets and eyes down on the ground in front of him.

The distant sound of quiet motion calls to the curious plantsmith through the rocky echo chamber that is the inner caverns. Though fuzzy slippers are anything but noisy, they're easy to pick up over what is otherwise almost total silence so late in the evening, even around the twisting corners of ancient tunnelwork. Rather suddenly Bones freezes in place in realization. The sounds are getting closer, and at current speed? Well, whoever the fellow night-dweller is should round the corner just about...

A discarded something or other catches Nicky's attention; it's small, roundish, and the perfect little thing to kick along in front of him. The teen nudges it along the ground, sending it skittering a few steps ahead of him, then kicking it on again. He stops to yawn, stretching his arms up over his head and rubbing at his eyes, before running fingers through his hair to brush it back from his face. His attention then is fixed back on his little game, blearily unaware of anything waiting around the corner as he kicks the bead, or whatever it actually happens to be, around the bend before turning to follow it.

Bones turns his head with a sudden jerk, like an animal trying to discern what precisely the noise was that came from behind a suspicious rock. With ear aimed up ahead to pick out the new sound, his brow pinches in confusion. How exactly to picture the sound of a teenager kicking a bead down a hallway in slippers. What exactly is one's frame of refrence for such a noise? With his choice to stop right at the corner, he'd get only a brief sample of it before it's cause came round the bend, and his chest is met with an unsuspecting candidate. Nicky. "Whoa there.." is all he has time to say.

Crash. Hitting the solid wall that is Bones startles Nicky, and not only because he's almost crushed his nose against the man's chin. The collision knocks Nicky out of whatever little insomniac reverie he was in, and he blinks rapidly up at the gardener to clear both his eyes and his mind. "O-oh!" Is that his foot on Bones', too? Nicky suddenly seems to snap awake, starting to step back as he runs his tongue over his bottom lip as his hands come up to wave apologetically in front of him. "S-sorry, sorry!"

"Sorry?" The voice is quiet, but there's a rumble to it, and Bones slowly closes up his hands in building intolerance. His knuckles crack in a sickening way at the tension his thick forearms give to the tight fists he creates on approach. "Put some damn eyes in your skull you scrawny litte peice of..." It's only after a heavy step forward and an instigating push at Nicky's chest that he recognizes the smith in the dim light. And his face softens promptly. "... Nicky. Aww man I'm sorry kid. I-I'm on edge lately on account-account of..." He tries to explain Azaylia's punishment, and ends up sounding a bit like Nicky in the process.

The push knocks Nicky backwards a step, thudding his shoulder against a cavern wall. He grunts, glowering at his bruised shoulder before reaching across to rub at it, and shifting his frown to Bones. "I've got eyes," he grumbles, brows heavy and low over them. The apology softens his expression a little, though he's left looking warily at the taller man. After a moment, he exhales softly, shoulders sinking after he shrugs tiredly. "I-it's ok, sir. I-I'm sure you didn't, um, mean it." Because that was totally an accidental push, wasn't it? The teenager shifts his weight uncertainly, not quite sure what to do next.

An honest wince tightens his face at noting the shoulder impact, stepping forward again without the malice, but stopping short of reaching out for Nicky. "Azaylia cut me off on the klah and... man it's really messing with my head. I was about ready to just... just..." his eyes briefly glaze over, looking through Nicky as opposed to right at him. "... just gnaw your face off." The words are whispered, and eyes go back into focus only after a few eerie seconds of silence. "But I'm okay now! Totally okay." He's smiling just a little too big.

The look on Nicky's face suggests he figured as much, but he gives Bones a lopsided, somewhat watery smile that's an attempt at reassurance. "S-sure," he says slowly, not entirely convinced, but not wanting to upset the klah-less man, either. "Wh-why no klah, sir? Weyrwoman A-Azaylia seems, um, n-not the type of p-person to, um, cut klah?" Suddently he seems concerned, biting down on his lip. "I-is there a sh-shortage?" Because Faranth, that would suck!

One of Bones' hands idly opens and closes again in rapid-fire clenches as Nicky speaks, the other running back through his hair in a slow wipe. "Huh?" His mind is wandering, but it peices together enough of what the younger man said to fire back an answer. "Oh uhhh, 'cuz I hit a guy. Couple of guys. Riders. Pricks." The layers of clarification are fired quick one after the other, mimicking the twitch of his hand. "It's kinda weird right? Klah usually perks people up, but I... I can't sleep without it!"

"Oh!" Relief colours Nicky's smile, and he relaxes a little. "I-I thought maybe there was, um, n-not enough, or something, a-and..." He leaves it unsaid, but there's the suggestion that that would have been a very bad thing. He smiles instead at Bones, head tilted slightly to one side. "I l-like klah, too. It h-helps me to sleep... I think because it's, um, w-warm? Or s-something like that." The twitching of the man's hands is noted with a furrowed brow, and Nicky bites thoughtfully down on his lip. "Um... Wh-what if..." A beat, as he looks around to check they really are alone. "I c-could maybe, um, get you some? N-no-one'll know... th-they're all asleep."

Glancing this way and that, Bones is intent on investigating all the flickering blurriness at the edge of his vision, the shadows playing tricks on his tired mind. It's with a sudden snap of his bloodshot eyes to Nicky's face all becomes clear again. Klah? KLAH! "Oh sweet merciful dragon tits YES!" He closes the distance to Nicky in a flash, grin wild and open as he tightly clasps a hand around each of Nicky's biceps. "You would be own personal son of dragonlord Faranth! Just enough to stop the headaches man! If I can just get the headaches gone maybe I could get some damn sleep!" Suffice it to say Bones had a problem.

Nicky wasn't expecting a reaction like that! He would raise his hands defensively when the man rushes forward, but they're stuck in his trouser pockets - and by the time Bones has his hands around his biceps there's no need for them, anyway. The candidate blinks at the gardener, leaning back a little from him, the corner of his lips twitching in a nervous sort of half-smile. "I-if you wait, I'll g-go get a c-cup - ok, sir?" Gently, he pulls his hands free and tentatively holds them up between the two of them, palms hovering an inch or so just shy of Bones' chest. "B-but you w-won't tell anyone, will you, sir? I-I don't want to g-get into trouble..." And yet he's not withdrawing his offer, either.

The big man's eyes shut tight at Nicky's stipulation for getting him a secret cup of forbidden klah. Don't tell anybody. Simple enough on the surface, but it's a subtle reminder of the nature of the deed. Under normal circumstances, stealing a cup of klah isn't something to get dramatic over, but Bones has reason to start shaking his head. "No... no. No, no, no. Can't. Can't do it. Nnfh, fuck!" Nicky's released, and one of hisfreed hands is idly thrown into the nearby stone wall in a frustrated sideways punch. Judging from the sound, it seems very likely to hurt, and yet Bones seems unphased. "It's a punishment. I gotta see it through. Told Zee she was doin' the right thing and I don't wanna be a liar."

The punch makes Nicky jump and draw in a sharp breath, but he doesn't seem spooked by it. If anything, he looks concerned, and he winces as he imagines how much it must have hurt. "O-ok," he says in his most soothing manner, holding up his hands in a 'calm down' gesture. "D-did you hurt your hand?" There's genuine interest for the man's well-being, and he holds out his own forge-roughened paw, stopping halfway to reaching for Bones', apprehensive about continuing. "I have an idea." His voice is soft, lowered to conspiratorial tones, and he remains frozen in place with his fingers still outstretched towards the older man's hand. "There w-was some, um, klah-flavoured f-fudge in the kitchens earlier... one of the c-crafters was testing a recipe. W-would that do?"

Hand is offered without thought to Nicky, the knuckles showing the redness of a scrape. The pain would likely catch up to Bones in the next few minutes. But he's not even looking at his hand or the canidate tending to it, instead putting his face into the palm of his other. Who'd have thought Nicky as being the devil on one's shoulder, beckoning him to temptation. "Klah... flavoured?" He muttered the words into his palm as he lowers it just enough for one eye to peek out between thumb and forefinger. "But... there ain't no klah IN it, right? That ain't cheatin' on my punishment?" If he had a tail, this would where it be wagging while the rest of him stayed still.

Nicky's touch gentle as he examines the man's hand, honed, no doubt, by working with runners that are far more easily spooked. He tuts softly and shakes his head, ghosting his thumb over the top of the knuckles, as if trying to test the level of hurt there. "I th-think they have to put klah in it to make it klah-flavoured. But, um, it's not drinking klah... right? Does that make it cheating, still?" That his stutter is less pronounced means he's relaxing, and he shakes his head at the gardener. "You m-may want to get some numbweed, sir."

Finally glancing down to his own hand at the mention of numbweed, Bones gives an overt scoff as he tugs his hand free of Nicky's and gives it a shake or two. "Numbweed? PFft." After those few shakes, that same injured hand is used to tightly grip around Nicky's wrist, and start dragging him down the hall. "You're going to eat fudge with me." He'd decided it wasn't cheating.

"Oh! Um... 'kay?" Nicky has no choice but to be dragged along, though he doesn't exactly seem unwilling. Anything to fill in the hours that would otherwise be spent doing... well, not much else! Sleeping is such a waste of time, when there are far better things out there to be experienced. He pads along behind Bones in his slippers, brushing his curls back from where they've bounced free and into his face. He waits until they're nearly at the kitchen, before giving a little pull with his wrist to slow them down. "Um, B-Bones? Maybe... um... m-maybe I could come by the greenhouse, s-sometime? To see your, um, f-fruit?" The teen the slips into the lead, pushing open the door to the kitchens, and holding it for the gardener to come on in after, before he leads them to where he knows that sweet, klah-tasting treat is stored. Midnight snacking at it's very best!

Even in the twitchy, tired, and absolutely famished state that Bones was in, he's not entirely oblivious to the potential double entendre. The question was, did Nicky mean it that way? Whether he did it or not, Bones fires back with a grin, and perhaps more tellingly, a firm hand to give a slap to Nicky's hindquarters. "Y'can taste it too." Dirty. "But fudge now. Fruit later."

If Nicky meant it in any sort of dirty way, and if he took Bones' reply to be at all suggestive, then the teen isn't showing it. Given the amount of blushing he's prone to probably means Nicky's near enough innocent - or oblivious. Take your pick. But a hand to his butt is hard to ignore, and the coltish teen stiffens up in surprise at the touch, going ramrod straight and looking wide-eyed at the man beside him. Comments, however, are bitten back, most likely because he hasn't a clue what to say in such a situation. "F-fudge," he stammers in agreement, grabbing a box of the stuff and setting it down on a kitchen counter so that they can both tuck in, get their klah fix, and then get to bed.