Lost Island - Sugar Beach
Palm trees shade the fine-grained, pristine white sand, making them cool to the touch even when Rukbat is at its peak. Gentle waves from the sheltered bay lap the sand at water's edge. Crystal clear at the shoreline, the waters deepen to aqua then a rich azure in the cove's center. Further out, rolling billows break with a muted roar upon a reef of smooth volcanic rock that protects the cove, keeping the waters of the cove tranquil.
On either side the sand stretches to curve out of sight, flanked on one side by thick jungle, the other by the sea. Someone has tied a woven rope hammock wide enough for two in the shade of the palm trees and just a few steps from a rock fire pit. Nearby there is a path that disappears into the undergrowth.
Once straps are fastened into place, bags are secured, and D'son has returned with that all important bottle of the good stuff, there's a bit more conversation. Being that Thea seems to be having trouble picking a place the solution is simple. Or seemingly so at least.
"I know a place," D'had comments, "Sie'll give her the image," he adds just before the blue takes flight. Once in the air he's waiting a moment for the gold to get airborne as well. The image is shared with careful instructions not to share with her rider. Surprises are all the more amusing.
Coming out of the cold nothingness of, the air is awash with the warmth of the sub-tropics. Below the ocean shimmers, picking up and reflecting the variegated shades of purple, pink and orange of sunset. The calming lighting is still more than enough to make the fine white sand of the beach sparkle as Siebith drops, none of his death defying dives today, to glide low across the waves before touching down on at water's edge.
Thea doesn't really have time to fuss about not being given the coordinates to their destination as the two whisk Between without much of a pause. Seryth follows Siebith as if in formation, off to one side and just a bit behind. They're close enough as they emerge from Between that the blue's Rider might hear Thea's sudden intake of breath at the sight of the island. As they drop and glide towards the beach, the Junior is simply too busy gawking at the beauty below to say much of anything to the Weyrsecond. Seryth lands beside Siebith with a cheerful warble that borders on laughter. We got her, didn't we?
D'had turns a glance towards the gold and her rider once they emerge, intending to gage the reaction of the latter. Given the gawking he might just get away with that check without being noticed. Dismount is followed by removal of straps, and true to himself Siebith is soon lounging in the water while D'had is wrapping the straps into a neat-ish pile near a tree and well out of the way of high tide.
Thea just sits there on Seryth's back, sort of stunned, her eyes afar off down the beach towards the setting sun. It takes an impatient rumble from Seryth to shake her out of it and she's unbuckling, sliding down to free the gold from her harness and back away as the young queen follows Siebith out into the cove with a pleased chuff. Thea just stands there with the harness looped over her shoulders , eyes on the pair. There's a small, dazed smile on her lips.
If she thinks he's going to come over there and give her a hand with those straps she's going to be waiting for awhile. His own carefully stored D'had shucks his jacket, adding it (along with gloves, goggles and the like) to the pile. Boots are the next to go after which he finds himself sitting on the sand with no particular desire to stand back up.
Thea's not really thinking anything as she stands there, but finally feels the weight of the straps she's got looped over her and so turns from the cove to check out the beach and a safe place to stow them. She strides to the edge of the beach and just sheds them in a loose pile; she'll sort them later. For a moment, she just stands there in all her flight gear and her bag on her shoulder, unsure. Then she simply steps into the jungle until she is out of sight. When she returns, she's dressed in a soft, loose sundress, her jacket, trous and boots are all dumped on top of the straps. Her bag follows, tossed casually on the top of the pile. She steps over to sit on the beach near D'had, drawing her kegs up and wrapping her arms loosely about them.
Shirt half unbuttoned by the time Thea returns, but still D'had hasn't bothered with changing just yet as he lays on the beach, hands tucked behind his head. Eyes closed its the feeling of her settling beside him rather than the sight that has him commenting, "You like?"
"Yes. It's… beautiful." Thea's voice still has that dazed quality to it as she's eyeing the colors in the sky and the way it purples at the horizon. "Where are we?" She pushes her bare feet into the soft sand and wriggles her toes blissfully. "This place… you knew of it how exactly?"
"Somewhere north of Xanadu," D'had replies for the where. As for how… he continues on to that answer with a lazy shrug of his shoulders, eyes still closed though he does crack one lid to send a look her way. "Found it once, come out here to think from time to time."
Thea glances down at him when he speaks, "To think, hmm?" Her tone is wistful, but she doesn't press. Instead she asks, "Kept it a secret did you? I've never heard any rumors of a paradise out here that a bluerider could whisk a person to." Her tone is light as she says it, but her eyes are not so. She reaches to cup a handful of that pristine white sand, allowing the fine grains to trickle through her fingers asking softly, "Did you ever give it a name?"
That's what he said, wasn't it? "Never had a reason ta bring it up in conversation," D'had replies, shifting in the sand to make himself more comfortable. For the question of a name he pauses, "Nope. Never thought to." for all his thinking on it.
"Never brought anyone here then." Because the word would certainly have gotten out about that! "And you shared it with me." Thea continues to play with the sand, watching it carefully as she makes small cones with her trickles of sand, rather than looking at him. "Why?"
D'had shrugs, "Not unless you're counting Siebith as a someone," Which he certainly is, but not exactly the type that Thea is likely to be talking about, "but technically he brought me so…" There's a flaw in her logic. Or he's just being annoyingly picking about it. Or maybe both?
Thea eyes the Weyrsecond for a long moment as he lies there being all… whatever he's being. A mix of emotions flicker over her face before she carefully reaches over and… the current handful of sand is trickled right into his open shirt along that line of unopened buttons and up to his neck and she finishes that up by leaning over and smirking down at him, "So maybe I'll go be thanking Siebith instead of you!"
Ack! Sand! That actually does bring a reaction from the Weyrsecond, but then that was probably her goal all along. Of course leaning over him like that might not be the best idea as when that sand lands (after the long second he takes to realize what she's doing) D'had jumps from laying to more or less sitting. "Damn woman."
Thea wasn't expecting anything other than a hand-swat to the arm really, so yes, she's still leaning over him. When he sits up so quickly, they are eye to eye. She just smiles a slow smile at him, eyes dancing, "It's just sand." She graciously ignores his consigning her to a dragonless eternity. Instead she blinks at him with genuine puzzlement, "Why are ya so grouchy?"
D'had stares for a long while, of course staring could well be considered glaring just about now. "I ain't grouchy," he finally replies. "Just stuck here with you," which might more closely resemble the sort of answer she was looking for.
Thea blinks once again, this time there is pain in the clear green of her eyes. She leans back away from him slowly. "Well. I… I guess if it bothers you so much, you can just leave me here." She turns away, "Could have Seryth fly home and tell Kilauaeth she left me here. D'son would know I won't be going anywhere."
D'had blinks. Okay, that didn't come out quiet like he meant it to. Or at all like he meant it to for that matter. "Aww sweets," he sighs, catching her arm with one hand while the other reaches for her chin in order to turn her back to face him. "I ain't mad about it." Beat. "Shards, I got -ordered- to spend three days with .you. on a deserted island." Okay, so the deserted island part was his idea. "And managed an excellent bottle of whiskey off the Weyrleader in the process."
That hand on her arm stops her half-push up to rise and walk away, her chin easily turns with his pull, but her eyes have gone to flat moss when she looks back to him. Her words are clipped, "Sweets now, is it? What happened to hussy?" Someone's been pushed a mite too far. "Stuck here, you said, and you weren't sounding pleased at all. What gives?"
"I told ya babe, was pickin' on ya," D'had replies letting a breath out in something of a sigh. "Wasn't 'pleased' with sand in my shirt," he adds stressing pleased just a touch more than need be. "And yes, stuck here," he repeats as he shifts to his knees so as to be able to lean closer less awkwardly. And lean in he does, aim being to press lips to hers should she let him and yet he stops only inches away.
Thea's eyes remain shuttered, as she flatly states, "You can pick on me all you want, forget my name, call me anything you want but things like…hussy," The tempo of her breathing increases as a flare of fire sparkles in her eyes, "but I'll have you remember I am not a kitchen slut." Oh, she's not pulling away as he leans in, but she isn't leaning in yet either. Her eyes remain on his, her lips a breath away as she adds, "I am a holder's daughter, a weyrwoman and, I thought, someone you-" It ends on a question.
"I know you ain't." D'had replies, "Didn't bring ya here cause I don't," he adds for that last, though he's not saying the word either. That said he pulls back, releasing his hold on her.
Thea blinks once more as he retreats, looking a little lost. "Alright, so you know and you didn't." She simply looks out to the ocean for a time, thinking. The colors in the sky are darkening, fading to deep purple shadow, the cloak of stars just beginning to glimmer faintly above. To the waves she says softly, "Long time ago, my ma used to read to us. Once she read to us about love. The writer said something that has stuck in my head." She pauses, turns back to him, then scoots closer, meets his eyes, if he will look at her and finishes, "'Love looks to find ways to give rather than taking.'" She rests her head on his shoulder, "I'm sorry about the sand."
D'had's dark eyes are fixated on the water as well, or perhaps mostly there and still somewhat on the weyrwoman's form as she speaks to those same waves. "Its alright," he replies, resting his cheek on the top of her head when she rests there. The hand closest to her wrapping about her waist to rest on the curve where hip meets thigh to hold least she try to move away.
Thea's not moving away from that, no. Her arm slides 'round his waist, and she laughs quietly, "I seem to be able to find ways to give you plenty of irritation, although that wasn't my intent." She lifts her head to peer at him, snickers and raises a hand to brush some of the sand from his neck.
D'had chuckles, "You, my dear, are a constant source of irritation," he replies, turning that lopsided smirk towards her. And yet he still hangs around. Go figure. "No apology necessary."
"Oh am I?" Thea sits up the better to peer laughingly into his dark eyes, "In what way?" She smirks right back at him, "Being banished to an island and sand-sprinkled aside." She tilts her head, considering him with ill-concealed merriment, "And you must delight in self-punishment then."
"You are," D'had chuckles, shifting to turn from beside her to in front of, leaning in to brush a kiss against one eye while hands rest in the sand to either side. "Here, and here," he continues, brushing lips to the other eye and then the tip of her nose, "Here… and here…" the last matches with a kiss to the hollow between shoulder and neck, dark eyes turning up to watch her reaction.
"Is that so?" Thea's amusement grows with each touch of lips to eyelids, "So I guess, I should just keep those closed…" But does she? Oh, no. She must remain that constant source of irritation, right? They're glinting with a teasing light right up until his lips touch that hollow, then they're sliding closed and she shivers.
D'had chuckles, turning a grin towards her in that moment that her eyes are open and then he's switching sides, and creeping nearer. "See what a nuisance you are.." he mumbles around the kisses that traverse her neck from base to just below the ear.
"I see," Thea's saying it although she really can't see a thing with her eyes closed. "You must be," She manages to draw a breath, "terribly inconvenienced…" Under his lips the pulse in her neck leaps. He reaches that spot below her ear, "…at the moment." Her arms slide round his neck because otherwise she's going to lose what little balance she has left.
And with her hands no longer holding her up its far easier for him to walk her back to laying in the sand, which could very well have been the intent all along. "Terribly," D'had agrees in a breath.
And that would surprise Thea how exactly? But she's not complaining. Her eyes open only to get lost in those dark ones so close. Behind his neck her fingers tickle at his hairline a she breathes back, a rather smug, "Good." She can use one-word sentences too!
Having walked her back down to the sand, D'had stops with one hand on either side of her shoulders rather than where he started at her knees. Pulling back just far enough to be able to send a smirk down towards her, "I ever tell you how beautiful you are?"
Thea can't find any words at the moment as her eyes remain on his. Behind his neck her fingers become utterly still. She merely shakes her head, somehow discomfited by both the words and that smirk.
D'had chuckles. "Well you are.." he replies to her silence with a continued smirk. A smirk that falls flat as he turns, rolling to the side to lay beside her with a sigh.
Thea's eyes remain on him, although she's fighting the impulse to look away, loses the battle completely as her lashes lower. "Thank you," she whispers with a bit of a smile to his shirt collar - or somewhere thereabouts. She looks back to his face in time to see that smirk fall and she is confused yet again. As he settles beside her, since her arms are still around his neck, his roll turns her on her side to face him. Her dark hair spills in the sand, a pillow for her. There's concern in her eyes, her fingers move gently through his hair, "Something wrong?"
D'had sighs, eyes falling closes as he hits the sand. "Everythin's right," he attempts to assure. "Just you, and me, and the beach.." he continues quietly. "You sure you want this?" he asks after a long pause.
Thea's answer is to slide her arms closer around his neck, pulling him to her if she can, "I wouldn't be here with you if I didn't." Yes, because she could have fled *between* with Seryth the moment she saw the deserted island, now couldn't she have?
D'had reaches one hand for her hip to pull her closer as she tries to do the same to him. The other reaches for her cheek, drawing down to shoulder and … lower..
Cupcakes? Thea doesn't need them tonight to have her melting into that pull. Her cheek, cool beneath his hand, presses into his palm and her eyes simply slide closed as she offers her lips. The arms she has about him seeking to say what neither of them seem comfortable saying aloud. If that doesn't convince him? There's no hope for the man.
D'had has nothing more to say either, lips finding hers with a passion behind them. Hands are not content to stay put this time around. If she's opening it up he's going to take all the rope she'll give.
And she’s going to give him all the rope he needs to hang himself with too, poor fellow. Pity, that. Stuck with her on a deserted island, indeed! What was that old adage? Something about letting crazy goldriders be? Tsk. Someone has not learned that lesson.