What's it to You?

Continued from Pile UP

Cold Stone Hold - Barn

It's a barn. With all that goes with such rooms… animals, hay, the sounds and the smells. You get the drift…


Thea pauses inside the barn, having followed Tharen inside now seems at a loss as to what to say to her brother. She leans against the door frame irritably, watching him go check on whatever it was he had to go see to. Looking for an argument maybe, but now reluctant to start, she opens her mouth several times to say something only to stop herself. Finally, "What's on your mind, Tharen?"

Tharen isn't really checking on anything, though he's certain to make a show as if he were, checking feed and bedding in a few of the stalls. All for his sister's viewing pleasure of course. At the other end however he stops, turning around to lean back against the ladder that leads to the loft. "What's it matter to you?"

Thea eyes this newfound diligence of his askance but without comment. She shrugs one shoulder irritated at the question. "Matters." Her answer unusually brief as they eye one another across the barn. "You didn't exactly sound like you believed me out there." She raises a brow, "You have something you wanna share?"

Tharen might be lazy when he can get away with it but that doesn't mean he's unobservant. "Believe you," he replies, "Just don't believe him. And don't know what you see in that weyrmate of yours." He uses the 'proper' title for the bluerider even if it sounds foreign on his tongue. "Why did you have to bring me back here anyway?"

Some of Thea's annoyance fades with those words, "Well, he can speak for himself." She dismisses the healer with a flick of her fingers. At his comment a subtle smirk curves her lips, a mischievous light shines in her eyes, "He's hot?" Flippant is she and he knows she's deeper than that and she knows he's persistent. His last has her sending him an 'Are you daft?' look, "To see Ma."

"Yeah?" Tharen questions the fact of the healer speaking for himself. "Seems pretty to himself to me. And don't tell me you didn't catch that look he gives you." He rolls his eyes, raising a brow as he states the obvious, "Yeah, but seeing Ma involves seeing Da. And since when do you hookup on 'hotness'?" A smirk of his own follows the words however, playing on that mischievousness in her own expression.

"Yeah, I noticed." Thea's brow lowers in a slight frown as she steps over to one of the pens and stares inside in an unfocused way. "We're good friends… not many people understand him." So that really doesn't explain it , but she seems to be searching for words and failing to find them. Unusual for her, that. There's a sigh for having to see their da. "Can't punish Ma for Da's… ways." Kindly using a more positive word for their father's overbearing rule. There's a return grin to his last, "I don't, but he is." Again she struggles with summing up her thoughts, "He was persistent? He was there when I needed him. He's…hmm… kindhearted and strong in here." She points to her own head. "I trust him, and Tharen, that means everything. And he… " She trails off, a troubled look settles on her face.

Tharen shoves off the ladder, but he doesn't move more than a step from where he started. "I guess.." He might not sound so sure about that, but he's not pressing the issue any further. She seems to realize what he was getting anyway. "And I know that," he adds in mention of their parents as he makes his way over to look into that stall as well. "Just cause he wants me to take over, doesn't mean I want to. Glad you found someone makes you happy though Thee."

Thea snorts at the doubt in his tone, "I seem to attract broken people, what can I say? He'll.. sort it out." She rests her arms on the stall door, smiling gently into the space, "Thanks, he does make me happy. I hope I do the same for him. Wish he would talk to me more, but…" She shrugs, then turns to blink at him in surprise, "You… don't wanna take over here?" The wheels turn and she grins, "What's her name and why haven't I been introduced?"

Tharen rolls his eyes. She would put in on a girl. He gives a one armed hug, taking up the space beside his sister at the stall. "Thea, you know I'm not good for this place. Should have been yours." The fact that she ran off and got herself impressed isn't mentioned.

Thea leans into that one-armed hug, then turns it into a shoulder nudge as she snorts, "Like Da would have given it to a -girl-! You know Da." She snickers and adds, "Didn't tell him about the weyrmate. He'd flip." There's a laugh of disbelief, "He… he told Ma he has plans to marry me off to that holder over yon." A hand waves in the direction of the next mountain range. "He… doesn't get Weyr life. Thinks a gold dragon would make the deal sweeter!" There's a sobering and apprehension colors her question, "Was that what he was going on about in the office today? You… staying to take over?"

Tharen snickers. "You marry him?" Something about that he finds far too amusing for his own good. "Won't they be surprised when they find out you're one of the Juniors at Xanadu and there won't be a wedding." The last question is met with a long pause on his part. "Well.. not take over just yet. Learn under him until for a few turns. Go to the gathers up here, meet some girls he has in mind. You know." So he was listening more than he first let onto.

Thea's arm lifts from the stall door casually. She's just stretching, right? If he isn't onto her, that hand will move to smack him on the back of his head for that amusement of his. "Oh they would, but Da… he needs to wake up to the times we live in." She smirks, then mutters, "Should have Seryth talk Siebith into a mutiny during wing drills." This, for some reason causes her to snicker, a wicked glint to her eyes. His last has her blinking, "But… but… you're not going to? Are you?" Sounds like the responsible thing for him to do, but it has her dismayed.

Responsible has been the furthest thing from Tharen's middle name most of his life and if no one else knows that Thea certainly should. "Ow," he mutters, rubbing the back of his head for that smack. "Why would you..?" Nevermind that, he doesn't want to know. "You're the one who brought me here."

Thea lowers her arm slowly, staring, ""Yeah, but, but… " She doesn't know what to say to that. "Can't ya stall him?" No wonder he's so annoyed to be here. His offhand question sinks in and that wicked grin returns to her lips, "For dinner. And… you know. To annoy Da." Of course! She has to explain. "And because with me gone, he's probably wandering the Weyr sleepless." Those are the reasons she's giving him. He's her brother after all. Some things… just can't be shared with a pest of a younger brother.

She never wondered if there was a reason for his leaving in the beginning did she. "Working on that Thee," Tharen replies. ".. Yeah, that'd probably do the trick of annoying him." Reasons are nodded to. No there are some that shouldn't be shared with younger brothers, and likely he wouldn't want to know those anyway.

Thea muses, "Ya can't just run off again. That would kill Ma." She mulls stalling ideas for a moment or two, then shifts that to the back of her mind as she smirks, "Yeah, well a little payback is due him. And… maybe he'd back off his other…" another handwave towards that other hold. She drops her head to think, the toe of her boot idly kicking the stall door with a soft tapping sound. The silence in the barn is suddenly shattered with her shout. "I've GOT it!!" There's a sudden expression he's oh-so-familiar with when she gets her bright ideas.

"What do you.." Tharen starts to ask, not quite sure if he even wants to open it up to that. "Might work.." he agrees with a shrug on her idea to have the Weyrsecond visit home. Just as long as he doesn't have to be here for that dinner too. "Don't go there Thee." Ideas. Does he want to hear?

Thea snickers, lost in her own plotting on two fronts. "Da's all about profit, remember?" She tilts him a sideways look, adding after a second or two of silence to stretch out the suspense, "There are no camelid herds in Xanadu…" She watches him to see if he gets it. About the dinner… she knows him well enough not to comment as to how he is a master of avoiding unpleasant situations. His absence is a given.

Tharen nods slowly, narrowing his gaze towards Thea. "Right…" He pauses as she continues, "And your're thinking they need one?" Somehow that sounds like a lot of work on his part just to stay out of their father's sight.

That suspicious look of his delights Thea no end as the satisfied ring to her quiet laugh plainly tells. "No, but I'm thinking Da will think so. A breeding contract for his prized stock with Xanadu?" Her look says, 'are you kidding?' He ought to have thought of it first, being the beastcrafter. "What's freedom worth to ya?"

Tharen shakes his head, "You aren't working me into one of your schemes again. It just isn't going to happen." He'll say that anyway, even if it might not end up staying that way. "How about you deal with your dinner first and then you can work on my problems. Hmm?"

Thea reaches a finger over and flicks him lightly on the shoulder with it. "This scheme would work out well for all." Dinner. She eyes him. "D'had can handle Da. You, however, can't. Off in the pastures selecting breeding stock would get you off the hook for that meal." She's smug as she shrugs, "Ah, well. Your loss if ya don't do it. Dunno what you're worried about - I'd be right there in Xanadu to help you with it."

Tharen narrows his eyes at her. "Not worried about. But how long is that going to keep me off the hook. He's going to call me back sooner or later and you know that as well as I do." Its not a long term solution. His leaving, that worked. "Can't hurt to see what he thinks though."

Thea blows air through her lips in slight frustration, ruffling a few stray hairs hanging over her forehead. "Yeah, yeah you're right it won't. It's only to stall. You'll be on that hook as long as he's alive, unless… unless!" Her eyes open wide and she chortles. She's got another bright idea as she turns that sparkling look on him. "Part two…" Grin.

Tharen shakes his head, "No. I don't want to hear it." Her and her ideas, always getting him into trouble. "Just, no," he repeats taking a step back from the stall. "I'll deal with it myself. Okay."

Since when has him not wanting to hear ever stopped Thea? She follows, stepping after him. "Get you a son." She smirks. Is she serious? Maybe. She waits to see if he's following her logic.

Tharen stops, blinks, and is completely caught off guard by that suggestion. "Are you listening to yourself Thea??" That just might be her most ridiculous scheme yet. "Not like I can just go out and buy one. Besides are YOU going to be the one to tell them?" Parents that is.

Thea merely nods, that smile still there. "Have ta get you a wife first…" Her eyes narrow as she taps her chin with one finger, lost in the possibilities. "So many choices. There's Cenlia. No, no her booze would.. yah no. Phylicia… " She waves her hand, dismissing the topic for now. "Can fix you up later." She blinks at him, "Won't have to tell him. It takes turns to establish a good herd. Da knows this. By that time you son would be old enough to apprentice to him." What could go wrong?

Tharen just stares. "Are you listening to yourself?" he repeats separating each word this time. "A wife? And a son? And establishing herds.. You're sounding just like him!" he waves a hand towards the hold proper.

Thea's smile fades completely at that as she just stares back at him for a long minute, then turns away to lean back over that stall door, her shoulders slumped. "Yeah… I…wow." It's a whispered agreement. "Didn't mean to, wasn't gonna make ya do it." Like Da would. "I just…"

"Thea…," Tharen starts apologetically when she turns way. He knows she wouldn't make him. He follows, leaning beside her and trying to catch a look at her face.

"You're right though, Tharen." Thea's eyes are on that sleeping beast and her babe in the stall. "It's a scary thought, though I was trying to help." She adds, "Didn't want you to disappear or have to leave Xanadu. But… You'll come up with something."

"Told you you're the one who should have it," Tharen comments with a smile that's an attempt to make her feel better about it all. "I know you were sis, we'll come up with something. Worst comes to worst you and Seryth just might have to come visit here."

She eyes him, "Wouldn't mind coming to visit but… " She leaves it unsaid that he didn't want to be here. He'll have to handle it his way. "Might could have a son someday and get you off the hook." She nudges him with a shoulder. Teasing, obviously, for her grin is back.

Tharen leans back at that nudge, giving her one right back. "Or you could," he teases right back. "But I think we've stalled enough for now. Hopefully he's headed for bed already." And that right there could well have been his reasoning for heading to the barn in the first place. He's headed for the door as he explains. Time to call it a night.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License