Difference between revisions of "Logs:Bros before..."

Nursery, High Reaches Weyr

The double door to the nursery is sturdy skybroom and a good three inches thick, meant to contain the natural noisiness of young children. Beyond the doors, a complex of interconnected, glowlit caverns houses the Weyr's infants and children under seven, opening out from a gaily painted foyer where an auntie usually sits to guide visitors and keep a rheumy eye out for would-be escapees.

Two large play caverns see the most everyday use, their smooth walls decorated with layers of more fanciful paintings left by generations of rider and resident offspring. While one cavern is nearly bare, intended mostly for running and roughhousing during inclement weather, the other is lined with shelves at the right height for short legs, stocked with suitable toys, games and crafting supplies aplenty. Beyond the play caverns are two 'quiet' rooms, one with cribs and cradles, the other with low cots for use during both naptime and nighttime sleeping, each with a small sleeping cubicle for nannies on duty during the night shift.

It is a winter morning, 9:24 of day 2, month 3, turn 31 of Interval 10.

Chores, chores, and more chores! That's candidacy for you. Add to that Smithing interests (super secret special projects included!) and classes and it makes Wakizian, and other Smithly types, busy boys! He's been trying for days now to catch Nicky for a quiet conversation, but they've not had a a rest day together, and so it is that Wakizian's puppy dog looks (or just obnoxiousness of pleading) have won Nicky over into helping Wakizian with his chore of helping the nannies this morning. Wakizian is settled on the floor with the toddlers playing around (and sometimes over top of) him. "Nicky, I've been thinking." Never a good start to a conversation. There's no smoke coming out of his ears or anything! "Candidacy is just no good for our friendship. It's worse than that one time during the punching class at Smith Craft when we got double forge duty for cutting class to go riding. No time left to chat or have fun or anything. Not together anyways." His face settles into a clown's frown, much to the delight of a two turn old who's settled herself in his lap as she plays with a ragdoll.

Two days running in the nursery, and Nicky looks surprisingly unbothered by it! He's got a sleepy-looking little girl in his lap who keeps dozing off where she's leaning against him, and he seems perfectly content to just let her be where she is. He himself looks pretty comfortable, sitting cross-legged to the side of Wakizian and leaning back against a toy chest. The conversation-opener thrown out there by his friend makes his forehead furrow in concern, and the words that follow don't ease that expression. "B-but..." Despite how comfortable he is around his bestie, the anxiety gets the better of Nicky, kicking that stutter into play. "... we're just busy, Waki, it's n-not like we're not friends if we don't have time to talk." And yet, he still looks a little worried. "It m-might be worse if we get to be weyrlings... or if one of us gets to be a weyrling, and the other doesn't." He shrugs a shoulder. "We'll still be friends, anyway. Whatever happens."

Wakizian's eyes roll (which further delights the little with the doll), probably in reaction to how concerned Nicky seems to be. "Yeah, they tell me if I become a rider I might have to work through lunch!" Which is just plain wrong!! Or so Waki's mournful tone seems to indicate. "I started to think maybe I'd withdraw, deal with the shame and everything, but if I withdraw, it means that then this girl I asked on a date," His chest puffs a bit with pride at relating this bit of news, since it's the first one he'll ever have had after turns upon turns of trying, "Might break it off because she doesn't want to be seen with a coward or child, or-" and his tone changes to indicate that this might be worse: "I'll have to go on the date that much sooner. And Weyrwoman Brieli said-" Or what he heard her say. "-dating is different for riders and that riders expect-- uh," His eyes slip down to the child in his lap and he smiles pleasantly (thoroughly fabricated) over at Nicky, "--to have a sleep-over the first time you have a play date." His anxiety about that prospect is poorly masked. Can you blame a boy who's only ever kissed a girl once?

The boy who's never even kissed a girl that many times doesn't have a leg to stand on! Nicky seems relieved that the conversation isn't as heavy as he'd thought, and he breathes out a sigh of relief before smiling crookedly - and curiously - at his friend. "Who'd you get a date with? You're, um, not allowed to freak out over it if it's someone you like!" He shifts the weight of the sleeping tot, shifting her slightly to once side. There, more comfortable! The little one yawns, then her head droops onto his shoulder as she falls right back into dreamland. "Um... Brieli's... Brieli. She's kinda..." He stops, suddenly looking worried. "It's not a date with her, is it?"

"I do like her. I think I like her. I don't know her very well." The three sentences that seem to either correct in cascade or simply add detail tumble out of Waki's lips. "And obviously if the date were to go well, I'd want to-" An eye to the little who's watching his face for more funny expressions, "-plan to have a sleep over with her, but not like-- that night. I mean, what if I'm no good?" He belatedly remembers just where they are thanks to a plush toy that bonks the back of his head, courtesy of some toddler or another. "What if I make funny snore sounds? Or can't fall asleep under the pressure? Or what if I accidentally kick her when I'm sleeping?" The little in his lap is delighted because each euphemism is given its very own expressive brow wiggle, and at the end there's a hopeful look for Nicky that he caught all that. "Or what if I ruin it by not being comfortable having a sleep over so soon and she thinks I don't ever want to have a sleep over and so I never get a second date if I even want one once I get to know her better?" He seems too caught up in all the what if's to answer who this mysterious her is, despite being asked, and being asked pointedly if it was Brieli. Is he clever enough to leave out the identity on purpose?

"Whoa!" Barrage of words! Nicky holds up a hand, long fingers splayed to try and slow down his friend's talking. "Waki..." The teen looks completely lost, confused, and... well, just plain uncomfortable. He squirms (albeit gently, so as to not disturb his charge), and gives Wakizian a look. A 'hold up there, partner' sort of look. "I, um... you know I... I'm a... um... you know. I d-don't know how these things work! But... you can't be... ohFaranth, I don't know!" He shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders, cluelessly. "M-maybe someone like... like Kaeden is better. Or, um, of Xhaeon? They know this stuff... b-but why Brieli? I thought you, um... not Mave?" A disjointed sort ot delivery, but he gets there in the end. "I thought you and, um, Mave, were, um..." Nicky holds up his hand, crossing his index and middle fingers. Tight.

Wakizian heeds his friend's pulling of the figurative reins and takes a great-big-deep-breath and lets it out, eliciting another giggle from the little. If dragonriding and Smithing don't work out, he's always got a career at little's turnday parties! He closes his eyes and scrunches his face together, then wiggles his nose a little and lets out a little puff, features relaxing to their usual (no longer fervid) arrangement. "Mave?" The lad tilts his head, expression curious. "I mean, she's my friend. But, it's not like that with her." Beat. "Is it?" He is a little dense sometimes, but surely he didn't miss a girl liking him for a change. "And it's not Brieli." A shadow passes over his expression, "She's not nice." And not nice is not Wakizian's thing. "It's-uh Azaylia, actually." He bites his lower lip, eyes sliding to gauge his friend's reaction. "You didn't have your eye on her, did you?"

"O-oh, I thought... I dunno. Mave said no, but girls lie sometimes." Nicky shrugs his shoulders. "I found your glove, by the way. It's in my coat pocket. I found it... somewhere." Somewhere that shall not be named! The revelation that it's the other weyrwoman that Waki's interested in has Nicky pulling an 'ooooh!' face, which quickly changes to something a bit more frowny. "Azaylia's nice, I like her. But, um, can you date a goldrider? I thought you had to be, um... I dunno, a bronzerider, or something? Brownrider, even." Given that both golds were recently caught by browns, of course. Then his cheeks colour a little, and he comes up with a confession of his own: "I, um, like someone else. A little bit, anyway."

"She said no." Wakizian registers the comment about Mave, and indeed his face does look more disappointed than it should for one who just said the same thing. He doesn't dwell, though. "Mave had it. The mitten. I left it in the galleries." Twice. He blushes a bit, "But I'll be glad to get it back. Guess she didn't want to give it back to me herself." Again, a little more disappointed than he should. "Oh well, maybe I won't have to spy on candidates for her to get my talking to girls lessons anyway now that I have a date." Surprise touches his face for a second, "I don't know. Can I? Is there a rule? Maybe there is and I just don't know about it since dating riders is so different. But if I can't date her, do you think she would have said yes?" His expression turns serious as he looks to Nicky, "See? What'd I say about candidacy being bad for our friendship. Here I am, dumping my guts to you, and you've sat there for how long with that kind of secret?" Because it's easy to get in a word edgewise when the Smith gets babbling, right? "Spill." He demands. "Who's the lucky girl?"

Nicky's brows knit close over his brown eyes as he thinks about the rule part, head canted slightly to one side. "Um, I don't know if there's a rule, a-and maybe if she said yes then there isn't, but it makes s-sense for goldriders -- well, any riders, really, to only date other riders... because they're... um... the same? I dunno." Clearly, he's clueless. The teen shrugs, then flicks a strand of hair from face of the girl asleep against him. Distraction! "I don't know that she's lucky," he says with slow shyness, looking anywhere but his best friend, "b-but I, um, offered to teach H-Hana how to ride p-properly." Hello nerves, hello stutter! Nicky runs his tongue over his lips anxiously, his voice dropped low as he leans towards Waki. "She's like a Lady. But she, um... no. I mean, she's not going to... I dunno. I don't know what to do. I don't know if I like her!"

"Yeah..." Wakizian agrees slowly, taking his friend's thoughts clearly to heart, "The same. The does make sense. So does that mean I'm stuck with... Alida as my only dating option? Or I guess there's Lin too. Or Karshali." He wrinkles his nose. Apparently none of those options thrill him. "Maybe Azaylia accepted because I might become a rider? At first I thought she accepted because she was sure I'd Impress and wouldn't have to actually go on a date with me, but then she agreed to go on a date with me if she didn't have a weyrmate when I was done weyrlinghood, so that wouldn't be it. Unless I found someone closer to my own age I liked better, she said." He snorts slightly. "Age only matters because she's probably used to guys who know what they're doing at sleep overs." He makes an annoyed face, and shifts a bit to try to wake up the leg that's started to sleep under the weight of the toddler still amusing herself with her doll. "Hana, huh? She's pretty. And nice. Seems like a good match for you." He hesitates, manner telling more than words that there's something about what he thinks of her or her and Nicky together that he's not saying. "I don't know if I like Azaylia, but I asked her for a date anyway. I guess I thought it couldn't hurt to see if I really did. Are there rules against candidates going on dates during candidacy? I mean, I know we can't end up with--" He looks down at the little in his lap and then back at Nicky, "But what about just dates?"

The thought of dating Alida makes Nicky pull a face. Not exactly a grossed-out one, but a one that looks halfway terrified by the idea of it. "A-Alida would, um, eat me for dinner. I'm sure of it. Maybe you'd c-come out alive? Lin's ok, though, and, um... wh-what's her name? Emmy. From Telgar. She has nice... um..." His hands come up, cupped in front of his chest to indicate boobs. Nicky's talking about boobs! "Maybe Azaylia's got someone in mind for a weyrmate? I don't know how it works, Waki. I don't know how any of it works still, not really." When a real nanny passes by, he hands over his sleeping charge to her and enjoys a few empty-lap moments. He's very quiet during that time, leaning back against the toybox and knotting his fingers... then unknotting them, and then knotting them again - and over again. "Um... s-someone, um... k-kinda flirted with me. I think? I-it's, um... I don't know if h-he," by now, Nicky's cheeks are crimson and the colour's spreading to his ears, "m-meant it, but... b-but he called me adorable... um..." Help?

"I don't know about that. I'm pretty sure I'd come out of a date with Alida as chewed up as you would." His expression is a mirror of Nicky's at the thought of dating the guardswoman. "The only advantage I'd have there is that she told me what women want out of a date: respect, fun, no-" He casually cups a hand to indicate the topic Nicky mimed, "-funny business without invitation, and no runner sh-er, doody." He glances down at the little. When the nanny comes by, the little seems inclined to go crawling after her and Waki's content to let her go. He, too, scooches back to lean against the large toy chest, folding his fingers across his stomach as he slouches. He's quiet on the topic of Azaylia maybe having someone in mind for a weyrmate, expression thoughtful. "Emmy's nice, and you're right." He agrees readily enough, safer to say this first before touching the more delicate issue. "Well, someone flirting with you has to be taken as a compliment, right? Adorable is good, though sexy is probably better eventually." He chews his lower lip for a moment, "Do you think-- do you think you'd be interested in something like that? I mean, with a guy? It's okay if you would be." That last comes out in a rush, though the Smith is carefully not looking at his friend. He seems to be trying to feel out what the proper reaction for him to have is. Growing up in the Weyr, the kinds of relationships that go on between not woman-and-man couples don't seem to faze him, he's just trying to be the supportive bro.

"No." Nicky's reaction to whether he'd do that is lightning-quick, accompanied with much shaking of his head. "N-no. No, no. N-no, I-I-I... no, Waki." Holder boy habits kick in hard, and while the Weyr may have had a slight effect on him here and there, it hasn't taken hold in this particular area. He attempts to explain, or to at least just fill the silence in, by stumbling on. "Um... it's just... I c-couldn't, I mean... I... I've never th-thought about it before, and it's just... wrong? No - no, not wrong, i-if people want to do it they can, but it's-- it's-- " He shakes one hand as he tries to think of the right word, keeping his eyes fixed firmly on the ceiling of the nursery to avoid looking at Wakizian. While he looks up, Nicky chews on his bottom lip. Eventually he gives up trying to find that elusive word, and he just shakes his head at his friend. "W-would you?"

Wakizian leans slightly away from Nicky for a moment, his brows raising in surprise at the force of his friend's reaction, but soon enough he's resettling, a little bit straighter. "I don't know." The Smith's response is simple and quiet. "I mean, I've never felt that way about a guy, but I've never really been asked directly. You know me, I don't plan. Seems to make some people happy enough." Whether he means not planning or guys-only dates, it's unclear. He shrugs his shoulders a little dismissively. "I was just meaning that if you did, which you don't," He reinforces that he heard Nicky's reaction loud and clear, "-that you and I would still be just as good friends as we've always been. No girl or boy or how we feel about them is going to change that. I hope." There's a touch of uncertainty there, as Waki looks to Nicky for acceptance that if he were to be interested in another guy that he wouldn't lose his friend. "Who was the guy?" There's curiosity in his tone, but it's likely this is also to shift the focus of the topic from themselves and their own preferences to someone who seems to have shown his preference for Nicky.

"No girl. No boy." Nicky repeats Wakizian, holding out his hand with his pinky upraised; there's a promise about to be made, if it'll be accepted. "No matter who we date, we'll still be friends. Even if you're, um, shaking up with a weyrwoman." He elbows his friend with playful roughness, then shrugs as he lets slip who the guy was. "Bones. That gardener? I think he's a gardener... I, um, dropped his things off in the greenhouse for him." Nicky brushes curls back from his eyes, tucking them behind his ears - a sign they're probably due for a cut. He makes a quick change in the conversation, steering to more comfortable, pleasant topics. "What do you think it'll be like if we Impress? Has anyone told you what it feels like?"

Wakizian eyes the pinky, "You have a girly way of making promises, you know that?" The tone is playful, and pinky is met before it can be withdrawn and the promise is made. "Men spit in their hands and shake on it." He grins impishly, "Or so I'm told." Brown brows furrow, "I think I met him once in the stores." This is the only comment made about Bones, and Wakizian seems eager enough to grasp at the topic of Impression. He frowns. "I hadn't thought to ask what it feels like. Maybe I'll ask Weyrl-er, K'del. It's weird not calling him Weyrleader. He was Weyrleader when I moved here. The only one I've ever known." He cracks his knuckles in one reverse arch before saying, "They say it will be hard work, if we Impress. The whole idea of it is pretty weird. I mean, I share my thoughts with you, but only the ones I want. I guess it's more than that with dragons 'cause they're always there. I wonder if you can keep secrets from them? What if you don't like the one you get?" And the waterfall of what-if's begins to run rampant again.

"I think he should be Weyrleader still." Nicky shrugs on the K'del point, skipping forward. "It'll be, um, harder than looking after a baby in a lot of ways, I guess. M-maybe that's why we've been on baby duty so much lately? So we can get used to, um, poo, and things?" It's a theory! "I'm not sure you can dislike your dragon. Um... didn't Hraedhyth c-claw Azaylia? On the S-Sands? When she hatched?" All the questions come quickly, even if they are distinctly separated. "That would be s-something to put you off... right? But she still loves her? So maybe you don't have a choice in liking them or not, and maybe you can't dislike them even if you try, because don't they, um, become part of you? In here?" He taps one finger to his temple. So many questions, and barely an answer for Waki; Nicky's no better off in the dragon knowledge department.

"I agree." Waki responds to the point of K'del. "Too bad there's no easy way to make that happen without a gold flight. And while there are eggs on the sands, they can't even fake that one happened. And I guess they couldn't fake it after the eggs have hatched unless they wanted to make a gold look infertile, which given how young Hraedhyth and Iesaryth are is unlikely at best, but would, regardless, make the supposed Senior seem ripe for removal. Although I guess that's one way to get K'del into power, though he'd be climbing on a lot of people to do it. And I don't think he would." Maybe Wakizian's not so bad at the scheming thing as some might think. At least he thinks his plans through. He nods to the point of Azaylia's injury by her newly hatched lifemate, and contemplates in silence the idea that maybe you can't dislike your lifemate because they become a part of you, but eventually shrugs. "The poo thing has merit." Wakizian finally announces after all that thinking. And, as though add weight to the theory, just then, a nanny arrives with two babes in arms, "Aren't you boys supposed to be helping? These two need a change." Wakizian shoots Nicky a look and groans as he pushes himself up to a standing position to accept one of the babes. "Wish you weren't so right about the poo thing." He tells Nicky, which simply earns a puzzled look from the nanny before Wakizian heads for the changing tables with the child.

"K'del and Azaylia," Nicky murmurs to Wakizian as he, too, gets up and takes one of the babies. "But you couldn't date the Senior Weyrwoman... I'd, um... yeah. Just no." The farrier-to-be leads the way off towards the nappy-changing station. "I helped with the little ones at home sometimes. You get used to it - well, a bit, anyway. Dragons might be different?" Hopefully so! But then there's the icky business of having to deal with what's in front of them in the present, rather than daydreaming over the possibilities in their future. There are babies to be changed, and there's no escaping it for the boys!