Difference between revisions of "Logs:Fat AND Sexy"

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.

In the tradition of all great battles, a challenge was issued and accepted. A date and time chosen. It had to be after the weyrlings usual day of tasks and so it is that K'zin enters the Inner Caverns from the bathes, dressed in loose black pants and a black tunic, veed at the neck and without sleeves. He lingers, leaning against a wall, brown gaze scanning the cavern for the familiar sight of his today-only nemesis.

And in this corner-- or at least, turning one to meet the entrance of the chosen cavern: Mave, her hair looped up several times to keep it at bay, brown trousers barely grazing her knees, and with an off-white tunic not quite fitted, leaving it hanging in places where the girl's frame is lacking. She's tightly wrapped beneath, both for modesty and to keep her breasts out of the way; essentially, she's now flat-chested; too, knuckles covered-- for her own protection. Maybe she's learning to fight, but also to be more careful. A whistle calls for K'zin's scanning attention as she approaches, uncaring whether she's been spotted already or not, grinning broadly, and crookedly.

He hadn't spotted her yet. But the whistle gets his attention and his brows jump at her appearance. "You look..." K'zin starts as she draws near. Like a boy? Like you have no boobs? "Too excited about this." He decides on as the safest end to his sentence. "The cavern Alida and I were training in is this way..." He gestures down the tunnel next to where he leans on the wall. "Ladies first," He offers chivalrously. It's that kind of attitude that's bound to get his butt kicked if he's not careful.

Mave's hand, prepared to cup agreeably where there appear to be no breasts, falls short when K'zin goes a way she hadn't expected. A light surprise drifts her eyelids down as she shrugs, "Why shouldn't I feel good about learning in practice." Gestured, she strolls the indicated tunnel, though leaving plenty of pacing for K'zin to come along beside her. By the way she walks, she's already stretched, arms limber and loose as she twines fingers a foot or two in front of her. "So how've you been?" The excitable -- just as enthusiastic as for sparring -- grin turned abruptly to him fades distantly, "Or is it improper for opponents to chit chat?"

"As long as that grin doesn't mean I'm going to be seeing the healers about another broken nose..." K'zin's warning is only half-playful. Clearly he has more apprehension about this practice than she. He lopes along behind her for a moment before coming alongside, since he's the one who knows where they're headed. "We've been good," K'zin uses the 'we' unthinkingly. He's barely seen Mave since the awkward night in the infirmary, and the day and time was communicated by note passed by some helpful mutual acquaintance. Drafts of his plans for the scenery were also delivered with request for feedback via another's hands. But it's not just Mave that's been avoided; it's everyone who wasn't his lifemate outside of weyrling exercises. When they were seen, it was together, heads tucked into a book or exercising. Like a guy with a new girlfriend, he's vanished into the "we" of his relationship with his dragon. "We tested out of our remedial classes." He relays this with a quietly proud smile. So at least all that isolation paid off. "How about you? How's the play coming together?" Evidently he doesn't see a problem with the chit-chat, but probably feels his participation is enough to say so.

"Fantastic! I mean, on the classes. Good job to both of you," no lick of condescension in the generic wording; Mave's smile is true. She lifts a hand to press onto his upper arm but briefly. "But also the play. Fantastic in that it's even more than I expected, yet somehow also what I expected?" The thought confuses her, as it should, becoming more question than answer as her mouth furrows. "And mum's improving. You know, out and about. The play's gonna be her first outing, so that's exciting!" Her own pride sets her cheek aglow as she considers it, an accomplished air around her shoulders as she bites down on what is a truly indecently big grin.

"Oh, good. I'm glad." To all that she's said. K'zin's head is bobbing with nods as she speaks of the play and also her mother. "I hoped your mum would be able to make it. To see all the hard work you've put together for it. I've got the sketches done onto the backdrops that they-" Whoever, "-said to use. Going to start painting them this seven. Ras thinks he can help. Use his tail for the big sections of color. Should be interesting." The fact that Rasavyth even seems to want to help might be surprising; though surely it's just another way to test his own abilities, or to show his good-will to his rider. "You gonna come help me paint them, too? Or am I on my own?" After all, she is the producer; she might be quite busy!

"All the hard work everyone's put together," Mave corrects automatically beneath him, happy to revel in the efforts of her recruits, him included. "Rasavyth, too? Extend my thanks. And he's been-- ? Oh, right, you said 'we'." Interest in the bronze dragon's wellbeing doesn't fade immediately, though, leaving her lingering as if with hesitant question-- more like distraction, as she sidles along the cavern. "I could do that, yeah. I think..." a gentle frown nudges at her eyebrows, "E'sren's been great helping organize, but I don't want to hassle him-- any of you," weyrlings, she includes K'zin with a nudge, "too badly as flying and new classes and the like come up. Ugh, sometimes I'm so desperate to come see how you guys are, but then I remember I'm just underfoot. Did you know it took something like-- a month for N'ky and I to get to do something we'd planned that night?" Her head shakes, and she puffs out an exaggerated breath. "I'm just glad we're getting to do this now."

"He's doing great!" He did say we, but apparently K'zin is all too willing to expound upon his lifemate. "He's finally got hunting down. Just in time to spend extra hours on something else." There's excitement for his lifemate's success and continued growth, though his attention is more on the tunnel as he directs them to make a turn, followed by another, and then the tunnel starts to narrow. It doesn't make it difficult to walk two astride, but it certainly puts them in closer proximity to do it. The bronzer drops back a step after the nudge, perhaps taking it to mean that he's now too close to her for comfort, or maybe just because the confines of the tunnel have changed. "He seems like a good guy. He's real excited about helping." That's the extent of K'zin's knowledge about E'sren, so he leaves it at that. "You're not underfoot. You're always welcome in the barracks." There's a pause, "Actually, it might help if you came 'round more often. Nick's going through-- a thing. He asked Alida for a hug. Apparently." And that must mean it's bad, right? "Wait," He doesn't quite understand, "Which night?" Since her words seem to indicate some significant evening of note. "Yeah. It's a good time for me to kick your butt, before I fall off my dragon like Sabs did." The last is delivered playfully to the younger girl and he speeds up just enough to gently bump her with his own nudge. His joke comes too soon after the event in question, perhaps, but the look on his face communicates that the incident scared him.

Mave's acknowledging nods gratefully take in the info over Rasavyth's progress, her hand trailing up towards her hair, only to remember, as she plucks at it, that the bun's tightness remains essential. "It feels good to keep productive." When K'zin separates, the other hand, those guilty fingers that nudged him, reach as if to tug his shirt at the torso to rescind the escape, but she falls short without the proper commitment to the task. The narrowness of the tunnel seems to occur to her just then, already in it. More nods over E'sren, a disagreeing tug of her lip about not being underfoot, but it's the pause that parts her mouth softly as she turns to eye him, blindly taking the tunnel in order to absorb the impact of it. As she takes in a breath, he diverts with a question, and she rolls her eyes up to try and recall, "Ummm... I don't remember which specifically?" Joking easily rolls across her shoulder, limbering her to smirk, "Oh yeah? You wanna start now?" The challenge punctuated by her light jump, meaning to prod him in his own butt with the foot she kicks up -- not harshly -- perhaps because, partway through, the soberness of Sabella's situation fans the humor off her face and, stumbling a bit under her returning balance, she touches K'zin's arm to momentarily stop him. "Hey, now. You're gonna be careful," at once a reassurance -- for either of them -- a question, a request, "Rasavyth is gonna be careful." Confidence warms in her; to her, there is simply no other option. "Now, come on," off of him, her hand juts towards the cavern entrance ahead, "Broken arm pity stories aren't going to stop me from destroying you mentally and physically."

K'zin sways as he comes to a halt next to the girl, eyes dutifully on her face as she speaks. "Of course. I-- I'm not worried about us doing it right." Okay, maybe a little, his face betrays. "I just-- I was avoiding Sabs, and then she fell and could've died, and--" He takes in a breath to stop the hurried babble that was beginning and then lets it out slowly. "Nevermind. Yeah. Let's get to it." Whatever troubling thoughts erased the conversation over keeping busy and the play, and whatever night she was referencing did their job well, for his expression is stony and serious as he enters the wider cavern. It's not a huge space by any means; just a cavern used to store extra mattresses. There's a little bit of a musty smell, to the place, but nothing rotten, just an indication that these don't get used much. He moves to a tall stack and yanks a twin-sized mattress down the the ground, followed by another until he's made a tight square out of about five of them, not speaking as he works, arms muscles flexing impressively; maybe it's a scare tactic. Once they're down, he sits down to pull off his boots. "Easier not to lose balance on the mats if you don't have your shoes on," He tells the younger girl. His silence might be his preoccupation with his own thoughts, or it might be him getting in the zone for the combat that's about to take place.

Sidling in behind him, Mave's nose scrunches for the scent, but not unpleasantly; she's by far used to such back-caverns places, and only shows a sensitive sense of smell in doing. Leaning forward, she twists and turns to observe every nook and mattress-crammed cranny, nodding vaguely of approval. "Huh? Yeah..." The oft bare-foot girl needs no telling; she jabs her toes into the back of her shoes and shucks them without a second thought. "You know," it's no pestering by Mave to keep a conversation going. It's merely taken her this long to come to her conclusion. "Avoiding someone..." her tone labels her as doubtful of the tactic, "As awkward as some things are sometimes, I think that... if you care about someone, you'll want to spend every possible moment, y'know. Not just the good ones." Rather than lecture, or advise K'zin, her drifting concentration suggests she's merely musing, feeling it out: friend to friend, because: "What if we'd kept avoiding each other?" A pause as she blinks steadily in their surroundings, "Actually..." About to beat the crap out of each other may still stand. Ignore that, then! She wiggles out her shoulders and runs a testing foot over the closest lying mattress.

There's only dim light in the cavern, not being one of the more trafficked areas, so K'zin moves next to adjust the glows to give them a little more light. It's still dim, but it's the best they're going to get. It's enough to at least see the outlines of what's coming. "I--" he starts and then has to stop. His expression is searching; searching for the right words to express what he means without sounding like an ass. "I don't-- I don't know that I care about people like that. I mean, I care about them. I like them. I would even like to-I dunno- flirt with them or kiss them, but I don't-- I just don't feel like I need to be around them in every moment." He turns his brown eyes to her, "Is that wrong?" Because, clearly, Mave has the answer. "I was avoiding Sabs for good reasons. Just-- after she fell and you know, could've died..." His lower lip gets chewed over for a moment. "They just didn't seem that good anymore. I was avoiding her so I wouldn't be tempted to break the rules. I was avoiding everyone. Not just her. But maybe her especially." His look is confused; all of this is still a pretty foreign thing for him, especially the accompanying morality of it all. He moves back to the edge of the mattress-block to stretch, completing them with practiced grace and impressive flexibility for a man so muscular as he. "If we'd kept avoiding each other, a lot of things would be different. Nick might've dropped out of candidacy and handfasted you or something. Maybe you'd be having little--" He thinks, "Mavelets by now." He concludes with a grin, as though deciding that relating this alternate trail of events might somehow give fuel to the sparring fire. He steps onto the mat; ready.

"Well, for one, it'd be considerably awkward to feel like that about everyone..." Practical first, as always, Mave gnaws on her cheek without judgment. "But I don't think it's wrong, I mean. You're not me. Or the next person. Why should you think it exactly as I do?" Thus, Mave's answer, though she nods her head with a lofty teenager's knowing when he mentions reasons turning sour with revelation-- and then her own expression darkens over the concept of temptation. "If you're not tempted, how do you know you can hold up against it?" Again: purely quizzical, though more flat-toned than her previous, moodier, wanderings of thought. He's watched, shamelessly observed, by big brown girly eyes while stretching, with her appreciation kept none in check, and her curiosity following every arch. Then he-- then he paints her a picture. "M... Mavelets," she spits out, half-sputtered and wholly horrified. "Handfasted! By now! Mavelets!" All his worst offenses, clearly, though she's already snorted in her usual amused way. "Is this also the future where I've conveniently forgotten how to speak for myself?" K'zin has sparked-- well, something, alright, which she brings to the mat, squaring off versus him with an easy accepting of a balanced pose: not too obvious, except to a fellow fighter, who's been practicing the same.

"Not everyone, everyone." K'zin complains against her practicality. "Obviously, with some the feeling is sexual and other's it's just platonic. But you're smart enough to know that's what I meant and don't pretend you're not." He wouldn't believe her if she tried, his face defiantly tells her. "I've had crushes and stuff before but lately... I don't know. I just-- feeling something for one person doesn't keep me from feeling things for another." He shrugs, the way he says it though says that he's still muddling through the whole thing for himself. He does seem a little relieved that she doesn't find it to be wrong. "I said the same thing to Ras when I was hanging out with Tela the other day. Have to test it, or it's not a real test." His fighting pose is a little different than hers; slightly more rigidly defined, though no worse for balance. "Gonna throw the first punch, as usual?" He mocks, guard up, ready to block or redirect what might come. "As it happens, it is." He confirms. "Though, I'd scarcely think it would need to be for N'ky to beget Mavelets with you." From behind his guard he makes extremely childish kissy faces at her, his voice pitching high into his falsetto to say in what is supposed to be an approximation of Mave (poorly!), "Oh, Nicky, you're so tall and I just love your curls. Make sweet, monogamous love to me!" If he hasn't gotten hit yet, he's sure this will be the moment and anticipates it, starting to move his feet on the mat a little, making himself a moving target.

"I meant my way, my every moment way would be awkward with everyone." It's a quick, shot out explanation between all their other banter, but once Mave's on the mat, it's business and she sidles with her weight, keeping the fierce eye of a student on K'zin's stance-- his own weight, his muscles, conveniently exposed without sleeves. Her face contorts in horror at his impression, still singed with high humor. But raised arms, protecting her chest and aligned with her jaw, don't go to hit him; she matches both his circling and his level of maturity by adopting a heavy-set mouth and drunken K'zin-voice, "Meanwhile, I'm K'zin. Here's my entire life story, that of my best friend, and everything I ever felt sorry about. That's sexy, right?" As her joking speeds up, her voice begins to lose what cheap masculine quality she'd been enforcing, "By the way, I'm gonna be a weyrling forever because I never listen to anyone, oh, and I'm probably fat." She never claimed to be good at this.

"That's just because every liking-someone moment you have is awkward. Because you think about it too much." K'zin quips back to answer her explanation, tone still provocative. But then the tables are turning and she's pulling an impression of him that has his expression going to war with itself half deeply amused and half mocking indignation. He answers the challenge with movement, he starts with a left, the punch aiming for her low torso. "Fat, huh?" Is the only words he gets out while waiting for her dodge or block. As soon as it comes though, the rest of his bulk is moving throwing his right arm over her right shoulder and his body slams into hers, using his weight and superior physical strength to topple them both. Only once they're on the ground, him flopped on top of her, not holding any of his own weight. "Better put my sexy fat to use then," He grunts as he makes the take down. "See if I tell you about my life from now on, Miss Judgy-Pants." Reeeeal mature. Once the take down is complete and he's pinned her, he just stays; breathing hard, his head flopped beside hers.

She thinks about it too much?! But that moment is past. Any attempt to retort, "Fa-- " warps into a huffed breath, her instincts frozen half an instant too long, effectively choosing her defense for her: prepared arms take the brunt, proudly tightened to protect her torso, but prove the undoing of being trapped there when his arm swings high. "Fa-- " is now "Fa-- ranth!" Breathingly expelled along with the girlish shriek befitting her size-- short-lived when that, too, is squelched by the grunt and forced exhale of extensive weight thrust down. She hits the bouncing mattress with a thump muffled by him, nostrils flared, and head rebounding on the soft but dusty platform. Arms still tucked up between them nudge with scrawny pointed elbows into him. For a long, long, moment she can only gasp widely and blink. Both their breathing adding heavily to the heat of the dim room. "Fat!" She defends on her first able breath, chest constantly forcing her tiny weight into his oppressive one; she defends as if he were a tyrannical leader, having captured her to torture out a confession to which she only declares proudly, "The fattest bronze weyrling there ever was! You'll never fall off your dragon because you'll never make it onnnn!" Bare feet squirming, her hand joins in, writhing up his pinning chest to spread a couple of stretching fingers towards his neck-- perhaps to obnoxiously poke him with.

"But sexy!" The words are muffled, since it seems at least for a moment that K'zin has decided that he's going to remain heavy puddle o'bronzer on top of her. At least one thing is clear: he's not babying her in the least. "Yield." He demands and this one is a little less muffled, for he's maneuvering now. His right arm is trapped under her under him, over her shoulder where it had wrapped, but his legs are moving to pin hers more purposefully and his left forearm moves to block her crawling fingertips. Moving this way, however, certainly releases the pressure on her torso to some degree and she could likely free an arm on her right side. "And say I'm not fat." This last is added with that same childish sentiment that has prevailed in getting them to this point.

"Never!" Though it sounds more like 'ne-- huff, grunt-- v-- er!' The sentiment, never surrender: loosened, the arm wiggles out, sure to keep slippery so he can't re-engage, though Mave's choice to then slap her palm against his brawny shoulder appears to do her no good; desperation. Her back, too, arches into the looseness, lifting her some tiny, insignificant amount. But, a fight is a fight. Legs give good not to get got, pushing and kicking, slipping back and forth just in time: thighs and knees often bumping. "And-- " huff, puff, "I'm not-- " one of those legs abruptly has purpose. The left jerks up, rubbing along inside his till she can raise a knee, turning it out to spread-- both him and her. "Sweet and pregnant!" From the right, both the hold on his shoulder and a swing of her hip, locked against his-- space fought for not so insignificant after all, move with the bent leg to sweep him.

Where there was laughter and humor moments before, when Mave starts to struggle under his weight and there's that slap to his shoulder that's easily read as a desperate move something clicks in K'zin's brain. The whole thing, despite the man knowing that they're here to spar, just feels wrong. It's not that he thinks Mave can't take care of herself, just something about the body positions and her wriggling makes him start to shy off. Perhaps that's why her move is so successful. He'd just started to prop himself up, likely intending to roll anyway, but then her leg is getting his knee up and the roll is no longer in his control. He ends up flat on his back with Mave planted atop him. "Thank Faranth!" His words comes after he sucks in a breath, and then loses the rest of the air to laughter. "You're too young to be doing anything more serious than having a good bit of fun." Maybe that wrongness would manifest again, but he's not struggling; and he's got a good many stones on her weight-wise. Then he seems to remember that they're sparring, and his arms flex to make a grab for hers.

"Damn straight-- " Legs cradled around him, Mave easily picks up the flex of his muscles in preparation and she shimmies hurriedly down his groin and then squirrels up to her feet, jumping sideways of his legs to avoid getting her own knocked out from under. She tosses her head like a small, wild animal, just letting out energy. "And you shouldn't have turned down that picture of you," panting heavily, but managing herself; she works up to her original ready stance, lips jauntily held beside a matter-of-fact voice, "You probably look really great naked, while you still have your figure." You know. Before he gets fat. Needing to fight-- really fight-- to be freed has livened her, nerves and muscles and a brightness in her eyes on fire, anxious and not. Barely a second in, and she's dipping, throwing a focused punch at his lower right side.

Once she's slid off of him, K'zin is quick find his own feet again. He sinks back into a fairly good, if hurried stance, raising his fists to protect his face and torso. He probably would have blocked her punch to his side, except that she managed to surprise him. Not with her movements, this time, but with her words, "Did you just say you thought I'd look good nak-oof!" The question is cut off as the blow lands and the sensitiveness of the organs in that area, since he hadn't been properly tensed to take the blow, sends him stepping back a pair of paces. The assumption is now, of course, that she was just saying that to distract him. He grimaces in discomfort, taking a second to shake himself off before throwing a right of his own. It's aimed for her face, but the moments that have his brain catching up to the fact that he's genuinely trying to make contact with the girl's pretty face has him flinching, the punch going wide (unless she moves the wrong way).

Already with her hands back in line for defensive-- the jab at him quickly returned-- Mave's set to raise and block his throw, except his self-doubt causes her to overcompensate. With her arm up, hitting none of the planned resistance, she's briefly over-exposed across her chest and the sensation causes her to sidle hurriedly backwards instead of press the advantage. Safely paces away, her shoulders roll lightly, stance affected by her slight dig of eyebrows, studying him seriously. Less serious: "Well, duh... look at you," and that's that; her reflection more on his dedication. A frown's a strange bedfellow to her straight-forward, "Now come at me, pansy."

Pansy. That's not good. K'zin frowns. His expression is momentarily transparent as he steels himself; this is a sparring match, not him beating up a girl (or a girl beating him up). "But that doesn't mean you want to see me naked." He clarifies this aloud, just to make sure there's no confusion on that important point. It might also be a distraction tactic for come at her, he does. His feet work a zig-zag pattern to close the distance she put between them and he tries a low right followed by a left, exposing his jaw while his arms are otherwise engaged.

Misinterpreting his frown and, indeed, a lot in life, Mave loosens, "Oh... no, I said you didn't have to and I'll hold to it-- " the last sputtered out in a rush as she drops into hurried concentration, arms up to meet him. First swing digs into her right, getting a low 'unh' from the girl as the sensation reverberates across her muscles. True to Bones' spirit, no flinch loses her time; fool her once-- his left she side-steps, a touch sluggish but effectively, swinging for his unprotected jaw, hedging some strength, some wickeder aim she's surely been taught, to respect the friendliness of the bout, but not holding particularly back.

The hit contacts his jaw solidly, knocking his head back, but he's quick to bring it around, likely feeling the jarring sensation of brain rolling around inside it's boney cage. That's not enough to make him cry uncle. With Alida for a trainer, he's surely felt worse. K'zin's feet move feinting left before moving right, aiming to catch her off balance, hands reaching for her back while a leg moves to provide a spot to trip on; the unconventional move hoping to send her sprawling. This is surely a move of his own devising, not something guard-taught. She might avoid him entirely, and a well-timed gut-hit as he goes for the real move would be enough to send him sprawling instead.

Rather than endanger herself so near K'zin's powerful arms, Mave takes the fall-- controlled-- tucking and rolling out the other side. Her bun's beginning to feel free, but she ignores wispy tendrils as she quickly rights on the ground, hands planted, and her leg again sweeping at his-- the planted one, pushing it out and away from the one he's spread, to try and turn his own tripping method into the undoing of his center of gravity.

And so she is indeed his downfall'. He falls in the direction of his lean, forward and to the right, smooshing his face into where the edge of the flat mattress block and pile of mattress meets. "Ungh." He groans as his face gets all pushed together uncomfortably, but not painfully. His next move will be an attempt to regain his footing, but for the moment he's vulnerable, laying on his stomach, one arm trapped under his body.

Using his fall time to rise from her crouch, bouncing up onto her toes then into a ready stance, Mave hesitates-- ogling the sight of him down. Breathing heavily, and marveling, she fails to press the advantage, instead working out her shoulders and catching her breath as she waits for him to stand.

It's the second time she's failed to press an advantage they both knew she had, so when K'zin pushes up onto his feet, back to the tall stack of mattresses, he quirks a brow at the younger girl. "What's the matter, Mave?" This is asked in not the tone of concern one might expect, but in what is clearly the precursor to a jeer. "Too busy thinking about my sexy, fat, naked body to make me bleed?" He takes a pair of steps away from the mattresses and resumes himself, beckoning her with taunting fingers. "Maybe you are sweet after all, if not pregnant." That last he won't joke about in a real way.

"Well, now I'm thinking about smacking it..." Mave's mouth twists in mocking allowance; is that what he meant? Her soft gagging noise at the concept of pregnancy heralds her following his beckon in. But she only feints forward, instead choosing to once again avoid a direct confrontation with his sturdy stance, and ducks to the right, taking another blow at his stomach from the side, left fist twisting front and slight angle to try and get under his cover.

Once again she succeeds in landing the punch. For someone who claims to think Mave clever, K'zin apparently did not think to anticipate her feint. He groans as fist contacts stomach. Instead of doing as he was taught (to get out of range or dodge), he falls back on instinct. K'zin's instincts tell him to double-over, so he does. Hands going to his stomach, leaving oh-so-much of his sexy fat body vulnerable for all manner of attacks.

As before, Mave pauses-- but this time, the wait has a follow-through. She works at his ribs, one two, then takes an upper-cut swing at the underside of his jaw, all propelled by speed over strength, but not sorely lacking in the latter: mostly, though, it's a fast, constant sting than a wallop, always attempting to return her arm to her front for protection as immediately as possible. She gets over-excited, however, and pursues a punch she's not even sure landed or not with a knee towards his gut.

Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am, and can I please have another? The series of blows all land; K'zin is not exactly in the right frame of mind to dodge them. Those don't hurt so bad (they're no garden of roses, but no patch of skunkweed either). The one that gets him good is the knee to the gut. "Faranth's freaky feet!" He swears. His usage of Faranth's body parts must not be planned in the moment, but possibly his cuss words of choice from younger turns because it flows right off his tongue so naturally as he gets winded and crumples to the floor. "I give, I give!" He declares, though not loudly, and interrupted by coughs as he seeks to get his wind back.

Her own enthusiasm has her stumbling forward, almost tripping over him in her need to follow-up, before she realizes he's going downward and Mave scrambles backwards as ungracefully. A wait. Fists raise, lower. Raise... lower; she rocks forward on her feet, sidling up to him to turn an ear. "Sorry. What?" And not even a jest. She's merely not heard him, laced with asking as to his wellness, without so many words.

"You win." K'zin's face is ablaze though whether its from the embarrassment of losing to a girl or because he's having trouble getting his wind properly, it's anyone's guess, he falls to the side, on purpose now, from the ball he'd formed when he went down, then rolling onto his back and stretching out, leg kicking up to let heels rest on the stack of mattresses. The loose-fitting trousers slip a little because of the angle, bunching up near his knees, the shapely if hairy legs of Lady Smith exposed. "Guess I'll have to pester Jo about some lessons. You used some techniques Alida hasn't or can't teach me because of her guard oaths or whatever. Or maybe she doesn't know them." He muses, not seeming inclined to get up, though brown eyes track the skinny girl, lest she decide the fight is not, in fact, over. "Glad you didn't give me a broken nose this time. I probably would've ended up back on punishment if you had and I had to explain I got in a fight. Just after I got my privileges back, too." His words are whimsy, following some jangled tangled train of thought in his head that's just gotten a few good smacks.

"Oh whew..." No overly pronounced cry of victory; Mave's arms instantly drop, sagging with near exaggerated tire. "Hitting you is like attacking a fucking stone wall." Wrapping her knuckles did not entirely save them. She prods suspiciously at a few, wincing then shaking the hand out as she looks to eye him. Her insides are also quaking, jumping between left-over nerves, adrenaline, and K'zin's impact. Sinking down next to him feels natural, her hands splayed bonelessly in her lap, knees lightly bent on either side and bouncing-- mindlessly hitting his right thigh with her left knee. Eyes lit up as she realizes what he's saying, head whipping to look at him, "Hey, you did it!" Not dissimilar from the fight seconds ago, she reaches for him, but now with an open palm instead of a fist. Both press for his cheeks, her hopped up on the curve of her hip in order to get on his level to press a big friendly kiss to his lips. She pulls back with a ceremonious smacking noise. "Mwah! Welcome back-- ugh," the noise of complaint has less to do with that, as with how she flops down, hitting the mattress on her back and bouncing lightly, legs left half-cocked and lazy.

It isn't until she's whap whap whapping his with that mindless knee that K'zin pulls himself out of his laying down position and adopts a much more normal, cross-legged one beside her. His arms stretch up and Y just as she makes her realization and he freezes, eyes-closed, mid-stretch as her hands find his cheeks. Smooch! His lips (and the rest of him) were too shocked to respond, so they move too late, which is likely for the best. His eye open and hand drop to his lap abruptly, and he's left staring down at her in disgruntled confusion. "What." He starts, tone not as neutral as he'd like it to be as frustration and even a little anger seep into his words, "-the sharding hell was that, Mave?" Wasn't she the one who told him not to kiss her? True, it was not really a sexy kiss, just a lip-smacking smooch. But enough to be confusing to those who confuse easily. The look he's leveling on her isn't anger, it's plain disbelief mixed with some confusion.

Anger stiffens her like a jolt up the spine that rests on the out-of-place mattresses, pushed around from their squirming. Eyes wander wildly, uncertainly, for a second where she hopes he can't see her expression, lying as she is, until she can clear her throat and sit up, slightly more straight-faced. "You said... you said you had privileges back... it seemed like," shoulders shrug weakly. "Something to celebrate." Lifting an elbow, she sweeps her hand into her hair, catching on the partially undone bun. Tending to her hair allows her to stay rooted to a physical action, instead of overthink, eyes seemingly casually on the mattress in front of her spread legs.

"Oh, for the love of sweet cakes and hot, mulled redfruit juice." K'zin's swears continue to be colorful as she provides an unsatisfying answer. He pushes himself onto his knees, and then with purposeful moves, he leans forward, placing one supporting fist to either side of her skinny torso. He leans so his head is in line with hers and brown eyes stare intently down at her, lips set in a serious line. "Mave, you told me you didn't want me to kiss you. And I haven't. You told me you didn't want things to be confusing or complicated. So I'm just your friend. Not to mention that N'ky likes you." Which doesn't seem to be stopping that he's come this far anyway. "And then you kiss me because I've not broken rules for two months; rules that specifically apply to kissing." Rules that still technically discourage him from kissing non-weyrlings, though he doesn't volunteer this information just now. "And you say it's celebratory." He stares down at her, "Mave, you're being confusing and complicated. If you want to kiss me, then kiss me. If you don't, don't. If you want just friendship, you can have just friendship. But..." He sighs, backing off. "It's not fair to kiss me and call it celebration when you don't want me kissing you otherwise." His feet shift a little, to make it more comfortable as he sits back on his heels, hands touching his knees, fingers wrapping around the curve there.

Being crowded in by him slings Mave's chin down and in defensively, though her face remains open, generally receptive to his overtures despite a hard bitten lip to keep her quiet. A soft, worried tch of air escapes when she's not sure if he's suggesting the rules still applying to kissing or not, her eyes skating sideways to think, but hurriedly returning to him to try and look present in the moment. "It felt-- fitting, that you should celebrate being able to... kiss now," confidence drags as she watches his eyes for confirmation or not of her getting the rules wrong, "with a big fat kiss... It wasn't supposed to be a sexy thing... But. You're right." Her mouth firms. Her gaze may be more or less at his collarbone by now, but she's determined to her word, "No matter... I owe you an apology. I apologize. Do you accept my apology?"

His eyes betray nothing. They don't tell her if she's aided and abetted a weyrling criminal. K'zin is hesitating, fingers flexing nervously on his knees while she speaks. "Maybe you don't." He answers a slightly different question. "Mave, can we try something? Without it being complicated or confusing?" He scooches forward on the mattress then, moving up alongside her, He reaches down his strong hands to gently grasp her wrists, and tries to draw her up into a sitting position so he won't be towering over her again. "I just want to know the answer to one question." The man moves his face closer now, slowly, stopping just shy of where trying to meet eyes would make them seem cyclopic. "I want to kiss you one time. And I want you to tell me if-- if you enjoy it." But he's not about to force it on her, so he won't move to do that unless she gives some kind of permission.

Mave's eyes remain tensely wide since the second he refuses to answer to her apology or not. Question asked, she confesses plainly, "I'm confused," as he maneuvers her up and towards him, legs wiggling to get under her and comfortable, still strangely idle and comforting amidst the rest to just move, the sheen of sweat she's worked up hardly bothering her. But as he confesses to a single question, she settles, shoulders squaring slightly forward, attempting to be attentive as much as she owes him. To his approaching face, her chin lightly sinks again; instinct, her eyes are focused on him unhesitatingly. An answer springs immediately to her lips, parting them, but her eyes flicker, raise up. Softly, her mouth starts to close. Exhaling, then inhaling, she tries again differently, but the whole endeavor has helped to soothe a bit of the panic in her eye. Fingers dance along the floor just in front of her knees. "But I really, really, don't want you to feel bad about something later because I messed up the rules." Friendship rules, weyrling rules, life rules; the definition is unneeded: she's blaming herself, assuming the worst, and staring closely into his eyes to borrow any inkling of the certainty she doesn't have. After all, she's still only fifteen, and she respects elders of any range. And, therefore, it's not yet a no.

K'zin's head starts to shake as she speaks. "I said, without it being confusing or complicated. I want to take this moment and throw it out of the timeline all together. I just-- I wanted to kiss you once, and I did, and you didn't want me to. Now you've kissed me when I didn't want you to. I want to see if it's different when we want each other to." He explains in quiet tones, not moving his face from the proximity to the the girl's. "But," The seventeen turn old goes on, "Obviously that would require you to want me to. So I won't, if you don't want. But I am curious." And so he waits for a real answer, eyes searching hers.

She winces, a fraction, easily spotted at this distance, when he says he didn't want it now. An unconscious little tweak of her eyebrow as she stares at the side of his ear, having drifted, knocked off-course from her intention to glean from him some comfort, some sense. In her eyes, Mave must be passing by a hundred things she's currently-- and merely always-- incapable of fully considering. 'Plainly' is her modus operandi, so she runs her hands up onto her legs, rubs vigorously at her the tops of her knees and then nods, at the end lifting her chin to squint unevenly at him. "I am," she murmurs, low but certain, in a way, "Curious." Time tickers on, the air ripe for assumption: he hesitates, she hesitates. One of her bare feet, squashed by her sitting, writhes unhappily. Then her hand jumps matter-of-factly to cup the back of his neck, yanking him in to kiss.

He breathes out slowly. K'zin still watches her face intently as she thinks and then admits curiosity. But he's been wrong before; he's gotten in trouble for making assumptions and kissing her. So he hesitates. Being curious is definitely a lean toward a yes, but is it? He starts to speak, to probe for a real answer, but that's just as he suddenly has one. He doesn't resist her yank and it's a very short distance that has to be crossed before their lips meet. His lips are motionless for a moment, probably frozen in surprise, but then there's no time to be wasted in this moment in time that doesn't exist once it's passed. The one he's throwing out of the timeline. His hands come up to mimic her hold. His lips press against hers, moving gently at first and then with growing intensity. He has not experience beyond lips meeting lips, so he sticks to what he knows. He's probably not the best kisser in the world (yet), but far from the worst. He lingers in the kiss for as long as it seems she wants to before breaking away, leaning back to a more usual distance, his cheeks flushed, eyes bright with excitement. His eyes are glued to her face, trying to take in her reaction.

With her passionate but rather poor choice of yanking, it's a miracle they didn't bruise each other's noses, and there's a bit of bumping in the beginning-- an ease with angling to accommodate another person that isn't there yet; Mave doesn't possess. What's true is an artless enthusiasm, pinning her to him. Truly, when she uses her hook on his neck as an anchor, hauling her smaller weight up towards his lap like she might scramble onto him. Their funny, fumbling, wet noises fill the little cavern until the quick gasp of breath of him pulling away-- she mirrors him, a wide look in her eye like she'd spirited out of her body and just now has been thrust back into her head, tangled like a ball of discarded thread, and a horror reflecting her mistake; just not the one he's expecting: "Oh Faranth!" She gapes, apology thickening her words like her short breath, "Oh no-- " her hand flattens onto his chest then pushes out, then tightens, happy to ignore her current state, curling into his shirt, "That was me kissing you, not you kissing me-- "

Laughter is probably not the thing he should do right now, but for this moment he's relaxed and the woes of the world are far away. Initially he was concerned by the look of horror, but once she started to speak, then there was laughter. He cuts it off quickly, hands reaching to wrap around hers. "You couldn't feel me kissing you?" He queries, "I'd say we should try it again, but I might be pushing my luck." K'zin comments with a soft smile. "So... what's my answer?" His fingers shift nervously around hers, "Did you enjoy it?"

On the other hand, his mirth helps to soothe some of her harried and strange nerves, though doing nothing to cool the flush of her freckled cheeks. Staring determinedly at the hands he holds, she argues, "Yeah, but I started it." Mave's insistence on logistics cools its heels as she peeks up, a half-bitten sideways mouth to his smile. Lips part, but she looks avoidantly to the side, gathering herself more than before. A soft little sigh escapes as her fingers sidle against his, picking at his nearby shirt around his grasp. The knuckle wrapping for their fighting has come partially loose, much like the long-forsaken bun coiling loose hairs as it dies a slow death. In time, her eyes narrow and she looks forward, gaze shadowed by a slight dip of her chin, "You couldn't feel me enjoying it?" A quipping tone quivers at the top of hers. She manages casually to say, "We clearly both missed something vital."

"Yes, you started it, but I still kissed you." K'zin's response comes with a grin, perhaps bigger than it ought to be because she started it. He leans forward then, but only so he can more readily sit back on his butt instead of his heels. He scoots so his back is leaning up against the piled mattresses, head tilted back. His expression is pensive, but pleased. "I guess I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't just my imagination." He rolls his chin downward to level a warm look on her, "I've been wrong before with my assumptions. Especially when it comes to you."

An awkward hover grips Mave, with K'zin's lean in revealed to be benign, leaving her weight uneven as she attempts to shrug it off. "Well, you do seem to tend to form them quickly and then speak on them at length." War rips her meaning into two: initially, and typically, she'd mean nothing by it, but recent events-- a flicker of the burning irritation from the infirmary-- have somewhat embittered the words, though still lightened by tease. Raising her hands, Mave reappropriates her lean into planting hands on K'zin and delivering a shove, "And you didn't even fill in what the rules were, jerkwad." This, even less aggressively meant. She seems more put out by herself, as she falls onto her butt, rubbing a heel idly against the floor. "Wait-- what wasn't just imagination?"

So many things that Mave says and does has K'zin laughing. It starts straight off with a belly-laugh at himself. "You're right. I'm an ass." She didn't say that, but the way he say it, it's light with playful truth. He misses the embittered quality that snuck in. "I really need to stop making any assumptions of any kind. My life would be the better for it, I'm sure. Either that, or learn to shut up." There's a laugh for that idea too, since it's utterly absurd to think for someone who talks as much as him. The shove has him squishing back into the mattresses and more laughter comes. "Which rules did you want to know about?" After all, she never clarified if she meant the rules of kissing, friendship, weyrlinghood or what. He's grinning when he asks, but there's an easiness in the delivery that suggests he's prepared to answer if she clarifies. He's stopped laughing by the time she asks her question, though his smile is still warm and perhaps a little self-satisfied. "You said couldn't I tell you enjoyed it. I thought maybe it was just my imagination. So I asked." His brows raise up and head tilts slightly to one side, "Or did I take all of that wrong and it turns out you didn't enjoy it after all?"

"Fine, you want to hear me say it? I enjoyed it," she snorts, pushing hands into the mattress, "I was trying to be coy, but I guess that's not me." Picking at the fabric, Mave drives her hand into her falling bun, shaking it around until it's loosened where she can fiddle it back into a semblance of shape. "I want to kiss people-- " she shakes her head, correcting, and ruining her efforts with the bun; her hair tumbles, "I want to kiss friends. But not asses," a childish smirk slips onto her face at an immature double-meaning as she mocks K'zin with a face half sticking her tongue out and half biting it. But, as with the nervous pick of her fingers, there's a tinge of truth, "And not asses who are trying to change from being asses just to kiss me." In getting her meandering thought out, she's lost the purpose of seeking rules. "Anyway, I'm sorry things were confusing. When I first asked you to back off... it was still so soon, so close to when I'd still thought you were this huge bully, y'know." Staring sideways at the mattress, despite speaking to him, she shifts idly, "I wanted to get to know you, is all. I didn't mean," now she glances over, "for things to become so rigid, and so weird."

K'zin's smile gets bigger and more self-satisfied when she does say it outloud. Thankfully, it's not in the jerkish way some men have that makes a girl want to punch the look off their face, just a small amount of pride that he doesn't suck at it. "Friends but not asses?" His lips twitch as laughter is surpressed, "Oh well, then." This is said with a dramatic flare with the air of everything being settled. "Guess I'm out of the running for kissing partner." Beat. "But we sort of knew that, what with you and I not seeing eye to eye on the whole kissing and relationships thing and what with my best-friend-" Frown. "-liking you and all. I guess this just goes right along with the stellar-" Read: abysmal. "-behavior I've had as a best-friend lately. Betraying him yet again. You know, he's probably never going to forgive me for everything," This is said in a blase manner, and yet the look in his eyes is pure misery and self-loathing. It's hidden away a moment later. "In short, I'm not your type. And I don't want to cause you trouble by pretending to be. I'm just me. An ass that likes to kiss people. More than one people in a given time frame if the opportunity presents." This is nothing new in terms of information, they've been over his feelings on feelings before. But it's laid out, in case there was confusion. "That said, though... I think I like kissing you more than I should. And if things resolve between you and N'ky however they're going to, and you feel like just enjoying kissing without the other complicated stuff, you know where to find me."

More and more words come out K'zin's mouth, leading Mave to look over at him, then stare quite heavily, then roll her eyes up to the ceiling before he's done. "Oh, fucksticks," she sighs as he concludes, slapping her palms on the mattress fabric on either side of her, "Don't you lay this on me, now," despite swearing, her tone hovers within calm matter-of-fact, dipping only minorly into exasperation, "I respect that he's your best friend, I do," really, "But I'm awful tired of it always sounding like someone does or does not have the rights to me. Nevermind that you lured me in by saying this wouldn't make you hate yourself later, and you didn't even last five minutes." Toes curling in, she lingers a second before pushing up and onto her feet. Her hands flex, still working out kinks from hitting such solid matter. Sweat's dried by now, leaving just a sheen of general discomfort, enough to make her skin feel like it's standing on end and she rubs an arm. "You know, if you ever actually said anything 'in short', you might talk yourself out of chances less." She's a little wry, wriggling her nose at him and stepping over. Fingers reach for the back of his head, caressing forward to the top, "But at least you know you're not actually an ass," and she leans down to kiss his head through the shield of her hand, "Asses don't care about their best friends."

"You're right about part of that." K'zin starts only after she's finished. He trusts her, so the movements aren't noted as much as they might be with others, making him look vaguely surprised but pleasantly so when her hand moves through his hair. "You're right that I said we were going to take this moment and throw it out of time and not let it be complicated or confusing. So... done. I won't worry about it again. Promise. As for the rest, I am too an ass. Asses can care about their best friends, but I shouldn't have to defend my ass-ery to you, you know I am from all my drawings and behavior up to this point. You punched me once for it, although when I was twelve, we didn't call it being an ass." Though they might now. The kiss through her hand has him puzzling a little bit. "You don't..." He starts and then rephrases the question he had started to ask, turning his head to look up at her, "Do you want to do it again?"

"It's possible to act like an ass sometimes without really being one." Mave shrugs, so easily and simply disregarding his defense. "I'm fairly certain everyone here has been an ass at some point in their life. But if you want to be one, I guess it's not on me to stop you." It's also a convenient way to not answer immediately, but mull, mouth pressed and slipping from side to side; her tongue presses into her cheek. Finally, simply: "Yeah." Her second shrug is more of an aimless roll of one shoulder, "Once in while... you lecture at me and make me feel judged. But usually it's... comfy." She's seemed to have lost track of that she's still hovering over him, her fingers lost in his hair as if it were her own, playing and idle. The hip nearest him takes her weight. "But we can't just always be... out of the timeline. And if I convinced you to do something that made you feel bad, I'd be the ass. You should be comfy too..." A pause; her eyes glance over as she switches tracks, fingers freezing as she muses, "And, really, when I get it on with somebody, I don't want to have to convince them. Me talking is way not sexy..."

"And if I turn out to be an ass instead of just acting like one sometimes?" K'zin questions this with quiet concern, looking forward instead of up at her. His eyes return upward as he considers all the rest of her words, then a hand reaches up and wraps around her slender wrist - the one engaged in playing with his hair. It's not that he objects to the hair mussing, it's just that he doesn't want it yanked out when he pulls his next maneuver which is to give her a strong pull just when she's a little off balance from the leaning over him anyway, landing her in his cross-legged lap. "We can't always be out of the timeline, but we could for a while longer, if you wanted." He offers this with a grin. "But let's just say we do end up back in the flow of time and say I somehow get over that N'ky likes you and wouldn't want me kissing you, how would you get over that I like to kiss people? Or would you not?" Then brows raise and he gives her a resolved look, "For the record, I think you talking is way sexy. You kind of have this way of like-- I dunno-- talking until I believe whatever you say and just want to hear you talk some more? Kind of like I'm under a spell. Has Jo been teaching you how to make men speechless, too?" In addition to fighting. The way he asks this is really more a wondering out loud and not really expecting an answer.

Mave's throaty noise of surprise and escaping air's not the sweet girlish thing most imagine when being pulled into a man's arms. His strength greatly surpassing her weight, she tumbles right onto him, arms instinctively grappling; one hand clings to the upper arm he used to pull her, and the other dangles where she's draped an arm over his shoulder after catching herself on it-- and less gracefully smacked him in that shoulder a few times to re-steady. Expectations, meanwhile, well met: she stares blankly and disbelievingly at him, her lower lip driving into the upper. Her hand slips off his arm to press her palm practically across his forehead like she fears for his health, talking about her talking like that. "Speechless. You. Really. That's what you're going with..." Dry as you like, her hand hovering there before she drops it, into her lap, which is effectively almost also his. "I'm not sure about this power. You should make sure it makes sense to you, too, before you just believe someone outright. Though... I guess there are those who know better. But I'm not one of them." A thought occurs-- a rare occasion where she alights up on it in a timely fashion, forehead wrinkling, "You didn't... turn yourself in just because I said so...?" Surely not. Meanwhile, his first question's been lost in the ether, and her hand's disappeared behind his neck, where it's scouted out his hair, twisting and touching independent of the girl's half-scowling, concerned face.

"Maybe... a little?" K'zin confesses quietly. "No, I mean, I know it was technically the right thing to do, like Zay said, and then you explained all that stuff about respecting people by following the rules, and-- well, I got confused, but like, in the 'I ended up doing the right thing' way. I'm glad I turned myself in, kind of. I mean, the punishing was really-- enlightening. I never would've worked that hard if I was all-- busy-- sneaking around and dealing with my headaches on my own and everything. They're better, by the way. Just had to learn to work with Ras the right way. I still get them sometimes, but not a lot." Now' he's babbling, certainly far from speechless and trying to fill in the hole the truth dug in him talking of the whole matter. "So it's really good I did, except for the part where I accidentally ended up ignoring all my friends and made them all hate me, plus the other stuff I did that made them hate me," Now he's on an entirely other topic and seems to realize. "Anyway, we're out of the timeline right now, so I don't want to think about any of that. His arms shift to wrap lightly around her waist. "You didn't answer my question about what happens when we're back in the timeline if we want to kiss then." He points out. Because talking about that is so in line with what he just said about being out of the timeline.

Mave's exploring hand stills as he explains; the girl turns studious to listening, forgetful for that long moment that she's planted in his lap and instead attempting to focus. A half smile crests her lips for the diminished headaches, slackening as he worries over friends. Softly, she chirps a-- finally-- girlish noise as her waist is wrapped, causing her to squirm slightly with inexperience. "Which question?" is asked with practical confusion, because there have been quite a number so far. But she resolves on, "About other people? Because it's none of my business who else you kiss. Unless you decide it is." Not a request; merely a sentiment. She settles against his hands, attempting to fight how hard it is to appear serious while in a lap. "My mum says that eventually someone might come along who makes you want to change into someone who only kisses one person. Or it could never happen. Just depends."

"That one." K'zin confirms when she suggests the more specific topic and then quiets to listen, though his fingers absently pull at the material under hand, in the way that her so often do, an unthinking manipulation that channels some of his energy. His expression is thoughtful as he listens and he stays quiet a long moment mulling it over before he responds, "It wouldn't bother you?" Another question then, "Would you want to know specifically or would you be more comfortable just knowing that it happens and I keep it more discreet-like unless it comes up? So, not, like, hiding it, exactly, just not mentioning it unless you ask." He tries to navigate down some of the options of just how to handle his lack of monogamy. It's his first time having this kind of a conversation, but likely won't be his last. He seems oblivious to the fact that she might look a little silly being so serious and wise while being sprawled in his lap.

"Umm..." A second, eyes lifting thoughtfully to the ceiling, where Mave truly contemplates-- putting in her best effort, then her mouth freezes open and, eyes dropping with chin soon following, she snorts, "Wait, what is this? You keep turning me around. Or I let myself be turned around, I'm not sure. But you're not going to just 'get over' N'ky." It's levelled at him as a warning, eyebrows low in scold to the both of them equally. With a soft clearing of her throat, her hand forcibly stills, where a couple of fingers had been lightly tracing senseless shapes along the back of his lower neck. "And he's my... friend." With pointed emphasis.

Like the snap of riding straps too poorly made, abruptly K'zin is thrust back into time. A heavy sigh slips out of his lips and his shoulders droop. "You're right. I'm not." Just going to get over N'ky's feelings for Mave. No way to stay out of time for any longer, no matter how nice it might be. One arm moves to slip under the fold of her knees, and he's lifting her slight form off his lap, intending to deposit her on the mattress. Her own movements that must be an attempt to get up on her own have him struggling a touch, and it ends up a slightly more unceremonious dumping onto the mattress than he intended, but surely she can see that it was accidental? "So, we're friends then. That means no kissing, not even for celebrating." His tone is resolute, and soon enough he's pushing himself up onto his feet, making for where he left his boots.

Having attempted to helpfully rise when sensing he wanted her off, Mave accepts the fault when she's landing with a little flail on the mattress. Sinking down, she stays where she's been put, borrowing his resolve for an announced, "Yeah." Certainly, there's no celebrating now. As he moves, she stays, her lower lip protruding lightly. Legs half-bent and drifting off the mattress, with feet still bare while she ignores her shoes. Hands rub along her thighs then slip into her lap limply, while her shoulders remain slumped with an uncharacteristic lack of motivation.

"Right then." K'zin sounds like he might be in a little bit of a daze, or that his thoughts are swirling too fast for him to catch up with them. The simple pair of words seem to help make clear what the next steps should be, now that he has his boots on. Straightening up, he turns slightly, "Next time, you're going down." He attempts to make it sound light, as though nothing of significance has happened here today beyond her making him cry uncle. The words drag though, unable to shed the heaviness all this has caused. "I'll see you round." With that, he steps take him toward the door, unthinkingly leaving the mattresses spread out as practice mat.

"Then next time you better actually try to hit me!" Partially sputtered out, with a distracted Mave latching gratefully onto the echo of banter. But as she sits, hearing him walk towards the exit, her body begins to slump even worse to the side with a groaned, "Uggh..." Recovering at the last second, choosing action over surrender, she lurches to her feet, padding a few quick steps after him. "Hey, K'zin." Stopping there, feet still bare, shirt ruffled, and hair astray as it sticks to dry sweat, she waits, first, to see if he wants to stop at all, her lips parted hopefully.

He would have left it with her getting the last word in. No need to respond to her banter when he's on his way out, but then just as he steps through the doorway into the tunnel he hears his name. It's practically comedic how quickly he pokes his head back into the cavern, as though there was a part of him wishing so strongly that this very thing might happen that it was prepared to turn on a dime and come back. He steps back into the room, lingering now just in front of the exit. "Yeah?" He asks, voice soft, gaze intense as it settles on her face.

Startled by his quick appearance, Mave's chin jerks back and she swallows, measuring then reconsidering each of the words that brought her to standing there. "I don't..." the shake of her head emphasizes, or second-guesses, "Want to be someone who makes you feel confused or bad all the time." Her toe begins to work its way into the stone floor, now sans mattress but digging as if she could burrow within it all the same. Then, exhaling calmly, she defines, "I like you, and kissing you. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat, but I also," her shoulders begin to climb as she grows self-conscious even in her determination, "want to be a person who shows respect. Like to friendships. So when you bring up N'ky, I'm gonna listen, and-- " floundering between meanings, she bites her tongue, glancing aside, "... And I feel like I had a point a moment ago..."

K'zin's expression is serious as he listens, giving all of her words due weight. There is some surprise in his face when she states how she feels and that she would do it again. It makes him take a step toward her, closing the distance just a bit. Then he listens more. When she trails off, he crosses the rest of the distance and reaches down to pluck up her hands into his. His thumbs stroke gently across her knuckles as he thinks, his eyes gliding over the backs of her hands as the four hands hover between them, linking them. Then he looks to her face, and offers as a fill in for what her point may have been, "And you want to kiss N'ky also?"

"Yeah," somehow, in the small word, she manages to flit from sheepish to not. Mave's hands are not still captives, instead, after the first gentle stroke, curling to play with his fingers; her own thumb poking at him then fleeing only to return, more affectionate. "I didn't imagine I'd be talking about it this much..." her head drifts to the side before righting, "But I do. Like I want to kiss you, and like..." a shrug, without yanking her hands from him, "I probably want to kiss other people later, too. But not enough to fuck anybody over, or mess up friendships. It wasn't supposed to be this complicated this fast." Now sullenness matching her age begins to seep in and she slides a foot forward to deliver a tiny kick to his shin.

"Sometimes, it's good to talk about it." K'zin murmurs, watching her fingers as they dart and flee and play with his own. Then there's that kick. He grunts, and abruptly, she's lifted into the air by strong arms, as he presses one hand to her tiny form at the hip and uses his grip on her hands (both now caught in one of his large ones) to drag her up over his shoulder. He talks as he walks then, toward the stack of mattresses that were left about chest high when he removed those that became their sparring mat. "It keeps people from being the people that make other people upset or feel bad. Sometimes. Sometimes it makes it complicated, but I think probably in the end it keeps more people not hurt than it hurts. Especially since it can be a really good way to keep people from making assumptions about what the other one wants or doesn't want." There's another grunt, this one of effort as he wrangles her body off his shoulder and rolls her onto the mattresses while he stays standing. She really is a tiny thing by comparison to the Smith. "I'm fine with you kissing N'ky, or more, or whatever, and with whomever else you want. As long as you're fine with it," Most importantly, "And N'ky's fine with it," next most importantly. "You never told me, whether you wanted to know if I kiss other people if I'm kissing you or if you'd rather not know when things happen with other people." He chews his lower lip, considering.

A loud affronted shriek follows her up and she smacks a hand on the back she finds herself slung around. Little noises persist, offering an uneven background to his attempt at reasonable talking, all begging the question of how exactly did K'zin lose to this, until Mave lands on the stack of mattresses with a "whoof!" Tumbling at first to regain all her limbs, she scrambles up, pushing off of his shoulder at her last and then letting her legs slip over the side so that she sits importantly in front of him. A rarity, to be looking at someone, instead of up at. Huffing and puffing, she thrusts her hand up to her forehead, clearing hair and attempting to formulate a thought past 'me want down'. "You are?" It seems so alarmingly, so impossibly simple. Licking her lips, she passes a moment of silence over his repeated question. "I did. I said it's none of mine. Business, that is." A pause, then she uses her propped palm to shove his shoulder, at the same time prodding him in the side with a bare toe, "But if you learn something really cool, you better fucking show me."

A hand rises to catch the ankle of the foot that prods him. The height of the mattresses necessitates that he wedge booted toes between them in order to get to a height where a flexing of his own ankles will bring him into range for a kiss. It also brings him up against her legs. He doesn't kiss her. "Did you mean with fighting?" About showing her something cool, and then his voice drops to sort of husky tone that is all together unfairly sexy. "Or fucking?" Too bad it's discovered in the process of making a joke. The look that accompanies the word is smoldering. Then with a laugh he's leaning up to kiss her lightly, swiftly, and then stepping back off the mattresses all together. His arms rises above his head and fingers interlacing and going to behind his head. It's the kind of movement that goes with coming off a major rush, and his back stays to her a moment as he wanders forward, and then turns back and he has a giant grin on his face. "I really like kissing you."

Mave's snort laughing amidst the kiss lends it all a silly quality, but the breezy smile on her face as he pulls back shows her appreciation for the fun. "You better not be fucking anyone yet," she scolds lightly, "Or I take back all your celebration." Pointing a finger down, she draws several rapid circles, to indicate all that's come after, that's transpired here. And it's after all that, all the ups and downs, that, seeing his grin and hearing his words, presented as she is on the top of the mattresses, she blushes a little spectacularly. "Yeah, yeah, okay." With a brush of deliberate casualness, then she wiggles her butt forward, hovering at the edge of her mattress throne in order to brusquely wave the back of her hand at the entryway, "I believe I've gotten my point across. You may go now." Haughtiness goes little with her impishly round face, but she pulls off the tone, if not the imperious look, as she righteously dismisses him.

His grin leads easily into a laugh as she scolds him. "I'm not." K'zin defends, then the gaiety in his expression grows heavy and he frowns. "But I might be. Kind of soon." He doesn't sound altogether happy about it, surprisingly. "We're supposed to get our own weyrs next month. And that make it okay. And Ras'll chase sometime in the couple months after that. I don't think he's so much an early bloomer to do it right away, but he's always been interested in greens, more and more as he grows bigger." And older. His hands rise to scrub across his face trying to remove the mask of stress that has settled. "Mave, what if I make a fool of myself? So many of the women I know are-- experienced. What if I... try? And then they laugh and I don't learn anything useful? And then don't want to try again with another one? And then Ras flies and catches and I hurt someone?" His worry is written all over his face as he confesses his worst-case scenario that makes him freeze, makes him care about the order of learning. He stands, fingers curled into fists, body tense, and not looking at the younger girl. This is the part where they're friends, where he needs her counsel.

"If somebody's laughing at you? Fuck 'em." Felt so strongly that Mave's saying it before she thinks, before all the concern creasing lines of tension in K'zin reach her awareness. "Um." A slow tic of her mouth, "Wrong word." Reassessing her point, she slithers the last inch that drops her to the floor, no longer throned; now, amongst the mortals, she bites her lip, tangling a finger in her hair. Eventually, the two meet and she fits to gnaw the very ends of her hair completely off. "The point is... people who're gonna treat you like that aren't worth it. So don't give 'em a second thought." A grimace acknowledges that saying's always proved infinitely easier than doing, in that regard. All of her words have slowed as her mind labors to accompany the meaningfulness of the advice. "But, like... yeah. A bunch of people are more experienced. Lots of 'em are gonna be. It's not like you can stop them. Or like it's a competition or something. But..." A short sigh. Her hand lets go of her hair, but her teeth don't, as she runs up and through the rest of the locks. "What do I know? I think if you... um. Hurt someone? You should apologize. That seems... reasonable." Here, the obvious stutter of thought, until she fully frowns, squinting at him apologetically, "But if it's about flight stuff specifically, cause you're out of your head or something or whatever," an expert, here, "You're gonna have a class on that? You're gonna learn. Those guys're gonna take care of you."

K'zin's eyes lift to nail Mave with a look that echoes his slightly exasperated words, "Very funny, but I'm serious." Obviously thinking her first words a joke until she comments on the wrongness of her words. "Having a one-on-one lecture with a weyrlingmaster about flights and then actually not fucking it up when the time comes are two very different things. "I feel like I have to get in practice before the flights start happening, and I'm confused because I'm looking forward to it, but it's-- it's not happening the way I thought it would go. Shells, I haven't even gotten kiss anyone with tongue or touch any boobs and when I get offers, it's for skipping over all of that and no guarantee to come back to it." His face is red now with embarrassment. "I know I'm a guy, and that means I'm supposed to be, like, ready to go with whatever all the time. And other guys would probably think I'm crazy for turning down blowjobs or handjobs just because I've never-- Oh, shell it." He moves, swiftly, going to the mattress and fwomping' down on it. His arms cross and rest on his knees, feet still on the floor, and his forehead falls to his arms, hiding his face.

An allowing drop of Mave's head to one side over the issue of practice reverses suddenly when K'zin drops. Swaying back on her heels she hesitates but briefly before flinging herself forward, committed to dropping down in front of him, her own hands resting on the bunch that her knees make as they jut up towards her peeking face. "Hey," lifting a hand, she smacks him on the cheek requesting attentiveness, "You don't have to decide I'm right, but listen carefully: whooooo," her lips push out in long exaggeration, drawing out, "caaaaaaaarrreeees-- about other guys." The clarification she tacks quickly on to avoid a second 'fuck 'em' incident. "There are supposed tos, and then there are supposed tos that other people have you believin' just to make their own selves feel better. You're... right about practice," a little nod, "and talkin' being different, and I'm sorry I don't have a better answer, but..." shrug, "I'm really where you're at, too. But, like," she pushes off of her knees, taking her inconsequential height, "I do know, cause my mum said, that it's never about what other people would or wouldn't, or have or haven't. It's about you and you bein' comfy." Succinctly, she nods her head, firm in at least that: passed on knowledge.

His head tilts just a tiny bit, enough so that dark eyes can be spotted peering out from the shadow that his bent head creates. He's listening. K'zin watches her as she speaks, but his forehead falls back to his arms. Her answer wasn't the cure-all for his worries then. "I don't want to be where I'm at." This is slightly muffled, and then he's sighing and drawing his head up. "I guess I don't get a choice about it though." He lifts his head with a sigh, expression turning rueful, "You know, I'd trade positions with you if you wanted. You don't have a deadline for losing your virginity." Some of the stress ekes away, letting his shoulders start to relax, now that he's able to make things a little bit playful. "You know, you could help me out, if you wanted." He volunteers, "You could kiss me some more. Maybe with tongue. Or show me your boobs." Now he's definitely teasing, grinning at her lopsidedly, though there is a tiny bit of unmistakable hope in his baritone.

"So much for strange talking powers." Murmured with doleful humor of her own as his head drops, her mouth tugging both gratefully and apologetically; she's disappointed, but wholly unsurprised. His playfulness chases a little snort out of her, though, and she draws it out with a roll of her eyes. "You're-- " a word her vocabulary's since lost. The pfftt of her vibrating lips will have to fill in. "Maybe later," she finally supplies, fixing 'idly' at her hair, because it helps to keep her hand over where almost her entire face has gone curiously red. Pulling to her feet, she adds loftily, "Maybe when you manage to kick my ass." But when she holds out a teasingly helping hand to yank him up, her tone softens, "We'll figure it out, okay? Deadline, schmedline. I'm here for you."

"You were the one that said I should make sure it made sense to me, too." And she says he's the one that talks himself out of things. This is delivered playfully, trying to erase the disappointment. There's a grin from K'zin as he reaches to take her hand, using it only as a balancing point to bring him to his feet. He gives an exaggerated roll of his eyes, "Well, if we have to wait for that," For him to beat her, "I'll never get to see your boobs. Which will definitely go past the deadline," His look turns serious as he looks at her. "Which is a real thing." Or so he feels. "This is just-- um, I'm not meaning to sound presumptuous, just I-- I have to just say for the record that I don't want you feeling like you have to move fast because I have to. I-" He purses his lips, trying to figure out how to say things, but then just shrugs because he's told her before he doesn't want her uncomfortable.

"Shhhhhhh-- " offers Mave helpfully, lifting up her two fingers to press determinedly into K'zin's lips. With a couple of hops on her toes, she pushes up to replace them briefly with a reassuring kiss-- no tongue. Just a press, and then she's down, rocking onto her heels and rubbing her palms on her arms then her thighs. "We're comfy. Except... I'm not, cause I've been after-sweaty way too long now." A tilt of her head cracks her neck expertly, as she twists her arm out of the way to prod at the side he walloped; a wince. "And I think I ran into a big, fat wall or something." A wholly lying innocent twinkle in her eye as she pulls it out without a betraying snort, just sidling a few steps towards the entryway.

"A big, fat, sexy wall." K'zin corrects with a grin, holding up one finger between them as though to make the point physically. The kiss was responded to easily and without pressure for anything lengthier or something more. His makes a show of thinking about what she's saying, and doesn't move to stop her, or follow her, as she goes, but does call playfully after her, "So you're saying, if I follow you to the bathes, you'll show me your boobs?"

He's rewarded with the big, fat sexy sound of her blowing a raspberry before she turns the corner.