Difference between revisions of "Logs:Hair-stick No. 1"

Questionably Painted Weyr

At the back of the weyr the cavern branches into two good-sized back rooms with a double-sided fireplace occupying the wall they share. The weyr even comes already decorated. It has an ornately carved bed and press in both of the rooms; the front area offers a polished rectangular table and six matching chairs, a set-up perfect for entertaining. Rugs are scattered across the floor, their colors bright and cheery to match the walls.

But oh, those walls! Some artistic hand has painted mural on every wall, filled with bright colors and bordered by mixed fruits and vegetables. The mildest murals are filled with exuberant scenes of dancing people, but most of them are of a more... questionable nature. They're certainly not the sort of thing any concerned parent would want their children to see, though they give the weyr a definite party atmosphere.

The evening has drawn late as shared study time was squared away and small academic accomplishments celebrated with a rousing romp through the toasty, quilted landscape of K'zin's bed. It wasn't long after they fell back onto the covers after round one that K'zin rolls on the bed, reaching for the nightstand drawer. "I almost forgot." From the drawer is drawn out a grungy looking polish cloth, that seems to have something slender and solid inside it. It's wrapped, but not neatly. "I finished it yesterday. I wanted to say thanks, somehow. For all of your help getting caught up with the leadership stuff. I know how much work you have and I just-- wanted you to know I really appreciate it." A gift! How quaint. There's enough light from the fire still crackling in the hearth to see, the golden metal hairstick with its flower-shaped charms and coral and slate blue beads dangling from the base.

"Mmm," is Telavi's scintillating reply to that 'almost forgot,' for it may not have been long thereafter but it's still been a long day, and if she crosses her eyes just right then she has an extra four fingers on her left hand when she holds them up to be silhouetted against the flames. But he's moving, and starting to say more things, and so she yawns and rolls into some of that abandoned space to... well, not actually sit up on one elbow, but angle in that direction, and actually open her eyes that little bit more. Cloth. She looks at the cloth, and the stuff that seems to have been rubbed into it, and the line of his wrist, and then the crook of his elbow, and wait. Back to the cloth. She's smiling, and that's before the cloth comes off. "Wait," she says, though she does have to stifle another yawn in the pillow before trying this waking up thing again, her voice lazy and warm. "You mean to tell me, you've had time to do things other than... What about cross-referencing that last set of notes?" She peers over at K'zin for a long blink. "Also, you're welcome." And then she starts to look at the actual thing he's got and... shiny! She reaches out to draw it closer for a better look, and the hand that comes with it, too.

Well, that was unexpected. The hand traveling with the gift. Does she know it's not a package deal? K'zin's leaning awkwardly and eventually slides the rest of his body over so he's not as stretched out. Obviously, reclaiming his hand is not an option to him (or at least, it wasn't the first one that came to mind). "I--" He's suddenly sheepish, "I haven't quite finished with the cross-referencing, but I will, soon. I did it mostly on my rest days. It took me sevens for being so small a thing. If I were still a Smith, it'd taken a day maybe." His expression is thoughtful for a moment as though contemplating the different life he might have had. "Anyway, I thought that once weyrlinghood is over and you can remind everyone you've got beautiful hair, it'd look nice in it."

It's unlikely she'd keep his hand on the wall to replace the sporks, it must be said. Tela's dimples show briefly as she bats at the dangling charms with a fingertip, bat-bat to prove that they move, that they aren't soldered down, that they can and do go every which way as she tilts it. She rises up a little more, then, enough to kiss his fingers before giving them back, and then returns to lying on her back with the hairstick held above her, the better to examine it more closely. "Thank you," she says, possibly to imply the cross-referencing as well, because there go those dimples. She turns the hairstick, clearly intrigued by how the bits are arranged, how they connect, and even protects it from the smaller yawn that escapes next. "Sevens." It's hard to imagine weyrlinghood will be over, even though I suppose we're hurtling towards it. Do you think about that much? Afterwards?"

The arrangement of the beads hang on small interlocking oval-shaped chains. The piece isn't perfect, it's got the character of one who wasn't a jewelry specialist, but understands all the basic concepts. The beads are blown glass with whirls of color in a transparent background that give them the overall drawl of it instead of a solid tone. He watches her observe it, and volunteers, "I traded jump ring spirals to one of the glass smiths for the beads. I'm not that good with blowing glass. The Journeyman teaching that class said I lacked delicacy. Which is probably true." Although, the hairstick looks fairly delicate. "I'm better with the solid stuff. Like the windchimes I made for N'ky for his weyr. Did I tell you about those?" He can't remember. His eyes rove across her face, captivated in the moment by her fascination with his creation. It's very similar to the look he got when she looked at his drawings. "I don't think too far. After all, we still have to survive between to get to life beyond weyrlinghood." He makes the final phrase sound dramatically mysterious, going so far as to raise a hand into the air and look toward the ceiling before letting it fall away again. There's nervousness under the humor. It worries him enough, though, that he's seeking distraction, this time in the form of shifting over next to her to let his fingers start to wander across her skin. Obviously, he's moving toward round two.

Traded brings out one of her smiles again, this one a warm, quiet curve to her mouth even as she carefully tilts one of the beads towards the hearth like a miniature monocle, the better to see what the backlighting brings out in it. "Do you want 'delicacy'? I don't... think you did say, about his chimes," something tangentially interested-sounding in the timbre of her voice as she checks out the next bead, and then the charm that lies next to it. She does look away just long enough for all that drama not to be wasted, but the smile it kicks up in the corners of her mouth isn't exactly long-lived. "I'm not looking forward to it." The admission is so quiet, any further away and he'd miss it. Which doesn't stop her from leaning back into him, and it's not much less quietly but in a subtly different tone that she 'warns,' "If you keep that up, you might distract me from your project," as well as between. Just in case that's a problem.

"Yeah. N'ky was worried, since he's never had a place to himself, that he mightn't be able to sleep for lack of snoring. He asked-- He asked to move in together. Not like that but you know, one of the roommate weyrs." He gives a glance towards the door to his room. Probably thinking about the still vacant one next door. Obviously this space would comfortably accommodate two if it were desired. "I said I wanted a space of my own." His expression is distracted now and his fingers have paused and do not yet resume their stroking. Things between he and N'ky had seemed to smooth out again for a time last month, and then get businesslike all over again; a way of being that they've maintained carrying on into this new month with N'ky in the lead of Flurry. Then he is distracted from his own introspection by something; probably Ras being helpful. "You're going to be okay. Betweening." He says this with certainty and his hand moves again to caress her. "Are you worried about-- things -- with you and Solith?" He hesitates only because he knows he's bringing up a sometimes sticky subject. "I do like distracting you..." He murmurs this thoughtfully, but in this, it's not really a weighing of whether he should continue or not, but rather a way to communicate to her that she can choose; talk or round two. He's not going to force her either way.

Do they have to be exclusive, or might they manage serial, these days? For the moment, Tela appears to be weighing in on that talk option with her murmured, "Thoughtful," though there's no guarantee of the other coming up thereafter. "I'm not sure if you'd have suited him even if you had said yes," and here she reverses the hair stick in her hand, the better to trail the charms delicately across the breadth of his chest. "You might not snore quite enough." Perhaps her hint of a smile is for that, perhaps for his reassurances, or his touch. "Which... things, with Solith? Specifically, I mean," because there can be so many. Her voice stays quiet, and now a touch shy, when she asks it.

"Well, I do get an attractive and occasionally noisy visitor from time to time." K'zin comments, "Which, the hope of that was certainly one reason I turned him down. The other-- well..." He takes a deep breath. "Tela, have you ever been with a woman?" It relates! His look promises it anyway as he chews nervously on his lower lip. "I don't snore. Ras says. He doesn't lie." At least not about that. "Just... you know, I know things are better what with flying together. A--" He takes a breath, "A while ago, Solith mentioned something to Ras about getting to know you better, and I just-- between is sort of scary to me, but at least I know I'm with Ras, and I wasn't sure if you felt --" He starts to realize that he's getting into very muddy territory for someone hoping for round two. So he just shuts up.

"Clever," Tela murmurs, pointed but quiet and quick, too, the better to not distract. With K'zin's next question, the touch of the charms pauses momentarily, but her reply is easy enough, her smile bemused as she peeks at him through long lashes. "Yes?" This isn't a trick question, is it? He's not going to ask how many, is he? "Of course. It's fun." He likes girls, she likes girls, it's just about the same! It can't be hard to piece those things together, and a stretch slides her toes over towards his ankle, curling there, only to... stop. "Did she." For all the finality those two words should hold, her voice slows and loses more of its clarity of diction, uncertain about that too. About all of that.

Maybe K'zin should have been expecting this answer, but apparently he wasn't because his eyes bug a bit and he's leaning closer, "Really?" Is his first intelligent question. He's momentarily distracted by this rather than the track that his conversation had been meaning to take when he asked that question. "How did you know you liked them? Have you always?" are his next, which at least isn't 'how many'. Then he's chewing on his lip and leaning even closer, shifting to try to snake an arm under her neck so he can better draw her against him. "Yeah. Ras thinks that she's confused about how to handle you, the way you said you didn't know how to handle her. This--" He quickly adds, "-was a really long time ago. Before--" And he goes sort of blank for a moment. His eyes scan the space in front of him as though reading, then he's back here in the moment and says with exactness, "It was the day we were in the hatching galleries. When I was getting sand for the game. So long before you guys flew together." If that helps, his tone seems to offer.

"Can't we just... one thing at a time?" Tela can't help but exclaim, although when K'zin draws her close like that, yet again it winds up drawing her in figuratively as well. She sighs, smiling despite herself, and briefly tilts her head to kiss the muscular swell of that arm before settling in to listen, making certain that nobody's going to get stabbed by the hair stick along the way. Her hair stick. That 'reading'... what she can see of it may not get quite the same intrigued look with which she'd investigated the hair stick's charms, but it's close enough to be a cousin. Eventually, a little wonderingly, "It... feels like forever ago. Already."

"Sorry," K'zin's apology comes sheepishly, curling his other arm around her waist to snuggle a little bit closer. "Lady's choice. Do you prefer to tell me about you and women or talk about your relationship with Solith?" There's a pause as his fingers sneak across her stomach once and back to resettle as he leans down to murmur in her ear, "Next time you want to talk and-" His hips shift against hers to fill in the blank, "I'm going to remember you like only one thing at a time." His tone is teasing, to help keep things light with such serious topics on the table.

What does she prefer? What would anyone prefer? "Prefer," Telavi begins to say like she's about to question his very verb, only it turns out she's started to relax far too soon, because, "K'zin." She nips at his neck for his temerity, too, following it with a huffed-out breath that could just as well be pushing out temptation to clear that table off. That's easier than this, after all, though she's smiling when she teases, "Much more fun to talk about girls than relationships, wouldn't you say?" She doesn't seem to need to leave a pause. "Let me think. Girls, girls, girls." Now her reply comes more slowly, thinking, filtering just a little more. "Girls were always fun to play with... though, was it like this for you too, your body started changing and you started noticing how everyone else was too? I started to get breasts, well, my best friend did first, and then they were popping out all over. Like weeds. It's like when you finish a new red shirt and start realizing how many other people have one, too."

A little nod confirms that K'zin would much rather talk about relations than relationships. His attention and the way he watches her lips curl around the word girls grows more intent with each repetition. "So you were always attracted to them?" He questions thoughtfully, and it's easy to see that while his attention might be expected on the physical between the girls, he's distracted by the choices behind. "I mean, I've always been attracted to girls. I used to pull girls' hair and stuff. And I had a crush on Quin back when I was close with her younger brother when we were 'brats together." His lips purse, "But guys... I don't... know? How do you know? You just are or you aren't? and does liking one mean you have to like them all or could you just be curious about just one? Does it make you gay if you are?" His questions spill like a waterfall once he's started. Clearly, this isn't a topic often broached and he's got plenty of questions and confusion; curling closer to her, his need for intimacy in this vulnerable moment is apparent. Should she look, his face is full of a crimson blush that reaches to his ears.

"Not... I don't know. Some other girls were? I think? but if I did, I didn't think about it," and really, how much thinking is it likely that Telavi did in those early days, about anything other than, maybe, what she could do with her needle? "And of course you would crush on Quinlys, and I'm sure that never has gotten awkward at all," but despite her words, what Telavi's voice is saying is that it's okay, it's okay. She's close, she's still close, she's holding him and his questioning even as he holds her. He can talk. He can ask. He can not know. And it's interesting. "I don't see why you couldn't just be curious about one? It might start that way, it might peter out. Did you..." Tela hesitates. "Never mess around? You boys."

"Well, yeah. Quin was hot even then. And I was like... ten. So. You know. Serious business that crush. It might have been part of why she let me Stand when I asked her. And at the same time she sort of asked me. I don't know. It was weird. And then I was a candidate." That's enough of that story K'zin seems to think, even as he looks a little more confused on that account. "No. I never did. I don't see anything wrong with it, of course. I mean, being raised here in the Weyr, it's kind of hard to wrap my head around how anyone can think that. It's just-- never-- I don't know? Maybe it does appeal to me?" Not knowing? Check. "I kissed Nick." He blushes even more now, though perhaps hard to see as he buries his face in her hair in the space between her shoulder and head. "More than once now. I can't ever seem to sort out if I actually like doing it because it's with a guy, with Nick or if I just like it because it's kissing and if I wouldn't prefer it with a girl." Then, a beat later the very quiet admission: "I think I am curious. About going further. About seeing what it's like. And not just so I don't hurt someone during a mating flight."

"Very serious," Tela murmurs. "Asked," but she's easy, she goes with skipping past that story for now, just roams one hand down and down the muscles of K'zin's back as he talks, slowly, like she'd soothe out tenseness there. At least, until... yes, that spot's still ticklish too, but she's drowsy enough and he's apparently unintending it enough that her breath just goes ragged for a moment. She holds him. And maybe it was tighter for that moment, but it doesn't have to stay tight. For all that, eventually, "Curious." Softer, accepting, maybe curious in her own right, her hand in his hair now. And for the other revelation, "I'd... wondered why things got... well, different, between you." Where just anyone could see. It's connecting the dots, but not quite assuming in so many words.

"Well, I think if kissing and stuff was the only thing that changed between N'ky and I, things wouldn't've gotten so different. But it's much more than that. He sees me differently. Ever since I impressed Rasavyth and he, Cailluneth. That part is-- a lot more complicated than kissing and stuff." K'zin takes a deep breath and lets it out. "I guess it happens though, people who've known each other for turns and then they're changing and growing and sometimes they grow together and become better friends and sometimes they just grow apart?" Is it normal? He doesn't seem to know. Mostly he just seems confused. But he doesn't want to focus on all that, anyway. "So. I guess I'll find a guy to get with and see how I like it. If I like it." Settled. "Now. Tell me more about you and these girls." His interest is suddenly back on her, and her very interesting experiences with the one gender he knows he likes!

"And..." Telavi can guess, anyway, "that's why you said you wanted a place of your own, instead of the roommate kind? Visitors aside," and that last more teasingly said. "I think that happens a lot, actually. It's been worst with people I knew who Impressed... and then there was the girl who got pulled out of our caverns, apprenticed to Weaver, can you believe it? Discovered. Some people I write to more than others, and sometimes not who I'd have guessed." She plays with his hair a moment, and is any of it long enough to try out the hair stick with his? "But no, no girl stuff yet," with the heady implication of, if not now, soon. Potentially soon. "Who's to say any guy will do? Unless it's just friction. I mean, take N'hax, let's say. Does one smith turn another's crank? Or might you like harpers? Redheads? All sorts of possibilities."

"Yeah. That." K'zin's cheeks color at the admission. "It's been so weird anyway. Up and down and up and down. I'm not sure how to stop the cycle. I know I'm at fault for a lot of it, but knowing that doesn't make it easier to stop it." He reaches up a hand to push her hair gently back from her face, toying with it as he asks thoughtfully, "Do you write many people from home?" Then his brow furrows, "You know, I'm not sure I know where home is for you. You used to be at Benden, right? Was that Weyr or Hold? And is that 'home' for you?" For someone he's come to know so intimately, he's suddenly finding he doesn't know much about her. The hair on his head might be used to try the stick, but only if she bunches it together, not that he would stop her. "Whhhhhyyyy?" He complains when she denies him a bedtime story appropriate, surely, to the art on the walls. "Soon." He demands, and the sense is that his answer to this question comes with her stories as a price-tag. "That's the thing though. I've never felt attracted to a guy. I mean, there was this rider in Snowasis one night that like touched my leg and whispered in my ear and stuff, and he was good looking, but..." Here the blush redoubles. "But he looks like K'del and K'del is like... the dad I don't have, but like, a million times better."

"'Up and down.'" It could be naughty, the way Tela's voice naturally likes to say such things, but at least she thinks to help it seem more benign partway through. "Sorry. That might not have helped... I wish I knew, K'zin. Maybe it's a matter of figuring out who you each are on your own and coming back to each other, if," and she can laugh briefly at herself, right before she presses her cheek into his hand, "that isn't too, I don't know. Auntie-y. Do I strike you as a holdgirl?" That's honest marveling, right there. "Not that I was born there, but just about, and ever since. And no, no whining," for all that it's funny, that it makes her laugh. This time. "Soo-oon." Singsong. And then stalling, because she might reply to the first part of what K'zin says next but then he goes on. "Your... dad?" Has she ever sounded so horrified? Probably yes, if possibly only that time he found her having to clean muck out of her braids. Possibly irrelevantly, "I heard he broke his nose." Probably not R'co. "Well," deep breath, "if you don't feel even a little bit attracted, don't bother hitting on him, all right? Unless men have started liking it when things don't work when I wasn't looking. Just, I don't know, start looking at men more. Or have you? I'm not saying to steal someone's old underwear from the laundry and giving it a good sniff or anything, in fact I'm definitely not recommending that, but... what have you tried?"

"No. It didn't. But I'll forgive you. This time." His tone turns a little playful, though edged with helplessness. At least K'zin tries to joke about it. And at least he's not crying. "I don't know. I haven't known many holdgirls. If you are, then you're among the most interesting I've met or heard about. Did you ever Stand there, before? Or just here?" He's curious, though why he's curious about this right now is anyone's guess. It's certainly a little out of left field. "Yeah, I heard that too," He entirely misses the horror in her voice. "I was going to send him flowers or something; something that a son does for his dad, only, I don't really have any idea what that is, and Ras and I are pretty sure it's not sending flowers." Then there's more talk of boys. His blush is still there, perhaps even more prominent now. "I haven't really tried anything. I mean. I just keep waiting to notice a man the way I notice, say, you. Or another pretty girl." Of course, that Tela was attracted to him was a fact totally lost on him for so long, she probably would've had better results using a frying pan to the head as a flirting technique. "What should I try?"

"I'm sorry." Quietly, and not for the couldn't-help-it teasing or at least mostly not, and so she kisses him. Of course, not long after K'zin continues to talk, Tela then extricates herself just enough to sit up and look down at him. "Yes." She's Stood. It might be that, it's brief enough, and that she's moving on could fit either way. "A message? Or a good drink, a game of cards, I don't know." She doesn't ask if K'del wants another son. She doesn't linger there at all. She does flip her hair forward over her shoulders, backlit in loose braid-crimped waves. "Among the most interesting of not many, K'zin, I'm so glad I have a healthy ego." At least she's smiling?

Sitting up? Wait. sitting up is the opposite of round two. K'zin sits up, looking a little confused, maybe wondering if he verbally misstepped. Does it taste like foot? He licks his lips, but that doesn't seem to help . "I send him messages a lot. This wouldn't be anything different. I guess I could get him a bottle of whiskey though. That's what he gave me some of when I asked him--" He stutters, blushing. "Er- when I asked him for advice about having sex for the first time." He can tell Tela anything, right? "My dad was gone by the time I had those sort of questions..." He starts to try to explain and then cut himself off awkwardly. "He said he thought it'd be turns before he had to have that talk with his own sons, but-- it helped. I think." His glance goes to her questioningly almost to ask if he's doing ok in the sack, but clearly he must be since she hasn't run screaming from his bed anytime since the first time. Then he's shifting so he can face her, reaching up to run his fingers through her hair. "You've met Jo. She's a holdgirl. And Alida. You're the 'most interesting in a good way'. They're pretty interesting in terrifying and terrifying-er ways." He strokes her hair a moment more and his face gets a funny sort of conflicted expression. "You... you... know you're special, right? To me? I mean." It's an awkward delivery of a sort of sweet but awkward sentiment. Round two (though he probably doesn't recognize it yet) is likely to be a forfeit before it's even begun.

She hasn't clutched the covers to her or anything, so there's that, though given that they're on top of them, that may not say as much as it might. With K'zin sitting up too, Telavi glances over the edge just long enough to snag what turns out to be his shirt, draping her lap with it and then leaning slightly forward. Maybe she's cold. Secondary evidence would support that. Certainly she seems to be listening to him, and closely, her expression not quite inscrutable. Bemused, maybe. Any screaming, with laughter or horror, is going on inside... which doesn't mean that Tela doesn't blush as well, slowly and gradually, first her cheeks and then down her throat and lower yet. When K'zin looks at her, she tries on a smile in return. "Then I'd say," she says, "if he gave you that, don't give him the same sort of thing back. But," her teeth show a little more, not like she's smiling but more as though they'd like to press down into her lip but don't. "Did you mention me?" Tell her the truth, her eyes insist, right until her head dips into the touch of his hand. She doesn't wholly lose his expression, not after that first helpless blink, but it's a little hazy now. "What if I wanted to be terrifying," she eventually murmurs, mutinously, but her voice even so hints at something not too unlike a smile. "You... look a touch terrified now, like you didn't want to say that."

"No?" K'zin looks confused. The blush is probably not visible in the firelight. He reaches to take her hand, folding one in both of his. "I told you, Tela. This is for us. I told Nick I wasn't a virgin anymore, but I didn't tell him who. The only person who does know found out by accident." And now that feline is fighting it's way out of the bag as he chews on his lower lip, momentarily indecisive. Deep breath. "What I'm saying is I didn't have any reason to tell K'del that it was you specifically." Especially, since at the time, he'd come after a successful date with Zay and didn't know it would be Tela he'd end up asking. "Now before you ask, let me tell." He's going to fess up. He knows her well enough to know that 'who' found out isn't a topic that will be left alone. "Tela, I have to apologize to you. A lot. Actually. I probably need to make you a million more hair sticks just to make up for it. But. I broke my promise to you. I--" Hesitating, his brown eyes dance to anywhere but her face. "I sort of-- no, I totally did draw you. I couldn't help it," The explanation begins to tumble, "You're just so--" He makes a face and his hands pull away from hers to make a grasping motion mid-air. "Gorgeous. And when you're naked... I don't know that I've ever seen anything more beautiful. And you got stuck, up here," his finger taps his temple, "And I couldn't get you out of my head except when I put you down in pencil. I burned it. The drawing. Only, Jo accidentally saw it first. I'm sorry, Tela." Now his eyes find her face, expression pleading. Pleading for the sex life he's only just begun to have. Terrified? He definitely is now. "And it's not that I didn't want to say that you're special I just-- it sounds dumb outside my head. Or something." Definitely or something.

Some days, he starts explaining and things get worse. Some days, well, better, and this might just be a new record. At least, for the first few sentences. At least, until confession time. Tela's all wide eyes then, her hair knotted about her other hand. There's no way she's interrupting, not until she just can't help but insert, "So... drawable?" for his missing word. Apparently it will earn her terrifying points, sitting there, but surely she could get even more by frowning or glowering or, who knows, growling. Alas, instead she's just taken aback. "Burned?!" That's her 'that is bad' voice.' "Jo?" More shock than anything. And then there's that cocked brow for the very last, right until she rubs her hand across her face and her hair with it, because she's got to process.

The questioning in her tone prompts more talking. Probably not what she intended if she needed processing time. K'zin stutters and his cheeks are red with his own blush. "I didn't want anyone else to see them, the drawings-" So there's been more than one that met the same fate, "Because I felt terrible about drawing them, but I couldn't not draw you. I swear I tried, Tela. I really did. And then Jo showed up while I was sleeping and then I was showing her the art I've been working on of not real people and learning to draw women sexier, and the sketch of you fell out of the book and I fought her for it, but she won-" Any surprise there? Jo always wins. "And I had to trade her to get it back so I could burn it, and she promised not to tell you, but now I'm telling you because--" Why's he doing that again? Probably because Ras couldn't stop him. "Because I -- I feel bad about it." So he can feel something, and articulate at least some of those feelings. "Please don't hate me, Tela." And he makes that face that Sabs hates. The sad puppy face. The face so full of worry that it makes some women just want to snuggle him right up and take his apology no matter how big an ass or how stupid he's been being.

'Hate' might not be it for Telavi, but she's still so much not those women. But then, who is? She's been peeking through her hair all this time, and it's quite possible that if she still keeps quiet, she might even learn even more. On the other hand, there could be sniffles. And he's had ample chance to learn of her lack of patience, and this is another of those times, because then she's rising on her knees, reaching to push him back into those pillows, the better to climb up and straddle him and stare. Her hair's hanging loose about them, loose and starting to tangle here and there. "You burned it. What did you trade for it?" She's quite, quite stern.

And back K'zin goes. Really, she's got him in a place where she could ask anything of him and probably get it. Getting pushed back into pillows and straddled isn't running screaming from the weyr, so he's all too happy to concede her this. Then at her words, he's looking thoroughly perplexed. "I-- I thought you'd want me to? So no one saw them?" Only it didn't work out that way. "I can-- I can draw you more?" He's so confused. Bewildered really. So in this state he dumbly answers, without thinking about what he's saying. "I had to tell her about one of my sex dreams."

"It didn't work out that way," Tela notes on cue, sitting straight up to make the most of her relative height, even as she looks down. "And this means I didn't get to see it, I'll never see it." And then she's staring, all over again, one hand knotted in her hair again and tugging it straight up as though that could fully express her disbelief. Oh, K'zin. "Oh, K'zin. She talked you into that? Which dream?!" She can't laugh.

Poor K'zin! The man looks like his brain might be about to explode from the sheer volume of confusion it's trying to retain. "Wait, wait, wait, you're upset not because I drew you after I promised not to, but because you didn't get to see it?" Then he's answering her other question in just as off-handed a manner, because clearly getting to the bottom of his confusion takes precedence as he stares up at her. "One where we sparred and fucked. I told it better than that." Apparently, Tela gets the abbreviated version. "We don't," He adds hurriedly. "Fuck, I mean. I just -- dream about it sometimes. Because she's hot."

"I didn't say that," Telavi's quick to clarify, and gives him frowny brows before she gets back to listening. Her murmured, "I'd hope so," shows up right on the tail of 'better than that,' no later, and when he's done, for a moment she doesn't say anything at all. Of course, she's also busy quashing a traitorous dimple that would so very much like to emerge. "I'd say you have very good taste," especially considering where she is right now, "if I weren't still so perturbed." Except she's leaning forward, the better to pin his shoulders with her hands, and not quite smile.

It's still so confusing! "Then what are you saying?" K'zin's lower lip juts out and wobbles a little as he looks up at her. "Obviously I have fantastic taste. I'm glad we can agree on who's hot." Then his eyes bug as a thought comes to him that makes everything else completely unimportant. "Have you gotten with Jo?!" Obviously, this is the critical question. Nothing else can be answered or responded to until he knows (or is otherwise distracted; attention span of a finicky green firelizard this bronzer).

That lip of his, it demands being nipped, but Telavi refrains with an arch of her brows and an arch voice to go with it... that absolutely does not address the Jo question at all. "I haven't decided yet. I feel," she says, "that I should get to decide later. After you draw me again, when you really can't help it, and this one I get to keep." She has such a secretive smile. "Maybe you can visit it, once in a while."

"So you want to decide later if you're upset?" K'zin clarifies, still looking perplexed. Then, "You want me to draw you when I really can't help it?" It's very difficult, she must understand, to process any of this when she hasn't answered the critical question, and he's wrapping one strong arm around her waist and with a thrust of his hips, he's flipping her back onto her back, careful to make sure her head lands on the pillows and not, say, against the headboard. He leans his weight against her, eyes intent as he stares down at her. "Telavi. Have you or haven't you gotten with Jo? How am I supposed to fantasize about it properly if you don't tell me? If you answer this question honestly, I'll give you any one question you want that you can ask and I have to answer honestly." Bargaining then, not that he wouldn't answer most questions honestly, but it sounds fair on the outside anyway. One honest answer for another.

"That's not what I said either," Tela points out unhelpfully. To which she adds, "I never said I didn't," just to compound matters, so really, can he be blamed for resorting to such measures? No crashing against the headboard or the wall, no impaling upon her hair stick, but there is the laugh he surprises out of her, plus a moment's freeing of the hair she's landed on. And then, her tone a warmer mirror of his as she looks right into those brown eyes, "K'zin." Just so he knows she's listening, just so he knows she really has heard him and his would-be bargain. She has a half-smile, and she still doesn't drop his gaze as slowly she shifts against him, starting with her hips. Just how much room does she have to maneuver, could she slip free if she liked, just that easily? Not that she so much as asks him to let go, of the question or of her, not even for pretend.

"Telavi." He answers her back, so she knows he knows she's listening. It's frowny face time, for sure. Not when she moves her hips, but after. "Do you think I'm really that easily distracted?" K'zin questions, even as he shifts his weight so one hand can start working it's way across her; his touch carrying intent. Obviously, he misinterprets the move of her hips to determine escape options as an interest in round two. "Jo. Spill. I need to be able to properly fantasize. A man has needs, Tela. Needs." He's playful with this still. Underneath it all, there is a genuine burning curiosity, but there's the sense, too, that if she were to 'get serious' and tell him to knock it off, he'd gladly distract himself with something else. Round two, maybe.

"Is 'yes' the wrong answer?" Telavi inquires limpidly, even as she essays a trial stretch to double-check. No. Pinned. Her lashes drop, hiding the look in her eyes for a moment before they sweep that much wider, and by then she fairly embodies a lazy smile there beneath him. "Keep in mind, I could have been much more subtle... or, you know, less." Lucky girl, she has two hands free, one just right for alluding to just how unsubtle she could be, then for threading her fingers through K'zin's, the better to attempt to guide his hand across her body and up over her head... the better to arch him over her. With the other? She's biding her time. She's also playful right back. "I thought the whole point was to improperly fantasize. How could I let you think that I'd take advantage of dear, sweet Jo? Besides..."

"Yes." K'zin confirms the wrong answer, starting to frown in earnest now. He looks as if he might go, as if the balance of questions to answers has started to become too great, but then she gives him an answer. Or a partial answer. It's enough to keep him where he is. "And here I was thinking it would be she who took advantage of you. Maybe it would be you-" Plural. "-taking advantage of each other. " His smile starts to curl back into place, leaning down to kiss Telavi. "And I need stories. I'm a poor, sheltered craftbred boy," Who lived in the Weyr since he was eight. "Take pity on me, Tela. How do girls even do each other?" He gives it thought. "How about this. " Another bargain. A better one? "You tell me the story and I'll act out all the parts I have the equipment to do." His eyes drift down, down, down. It's certainly no secret from Telavi how much he enjoys foreplay when they've the time for it.

So much time have weyrlings, Tela's apt to yawn near-incessantly in the morning. But first, once she seems to have gotten past most of the tension that that deepened frown had slid into her muscles, even if she still isn't as immediately playful as she was before, "Yes, craftbred boy who never, ever, ever set foot in a Weyr before Quinlys whisked you away in a blaze of glory," revisionist history for the win! She reaches to rumple his hair with one hand, thoughtfully, then reaches back beneath the pillows, fishing for... the hair stick, yes. "In a minute," she says, "I'll tell you a story.. if you hold still for just a little tiny bit first." She has his hair to bunch up in two hands now, the hair stick to set in place just so she can see how his design and her colors and the metal's gleam look against its darkness.