How's That Position?

Xanadu Weyr - Hot Springs
The warmth that flows from this cavern is almost overwhelming for some, the steam rising from the shimmering pools as thick as the morning fog that rolls in off the ocean. Numerous pools are scattered here and there with ribboned walls that are natural in their construction. The water has a somewhat green cast to it, but it is merely a reflection from the ethereal light which is the glow down here that was so noticeable from the tunnel leading here. People can often be found down here washing themselves or just relaxing.
Situated along the walls are various racks covered in fresh towels ready for those who step out of the warm waters. A set of shelves have been installed towards the back wall, allowing people a place to put their belongings while they rest in the pools, and despite the white color that these have been painted, they are cast with that eerie green glow. Then, it's obvious. The ceiling of this cavern is covered in the fluorescent phosphorous matter that glows are made off. The mossy substance almost glitters and appears quite lovely.
A sloped tunnel leads back to the main caverns, a single branch carved out along it to detour down into the laundry room. It allows the passage of people, but even more importantly, it allows for metal pipes wrapped with insulation that run along the ceiling to carry heated water back and forth to where it's needed.


D'lei is in the hot springs. D'lei is half asleep. These things are somewhat related, and also may be connected to the fact that he did the Weyrleadery task of riding with a wing today, and that wing was S&R. Also, it was a somewhat blustery day, and the riding was a training exercise with lead-lines out in the mountains nearer Honshu. So yeah, he came to the hot springs afterward, to remove all his clothes and apply hot water, and he's still here. Maybe he'll decide he's willing to move again before he completely melts. Maybe.

THEN THERE IS RISALI, who is not in the hot springs in the sense that she is not in the water, but is very clearly here with every intention of getting in the water because her hair is tied up, and she's collected a towel, and she's doing stumble-hops with questionable balance as she - with much exhaustion to her features - makes her way back, back, back and pulls off her boots. There are only two things that can stop her now: a missive from on high, wherein we mean somebody important summoning her back to her duties as a Weyrwoman (though her office hours are OFFICIALLY CLOSED for the day, so that will come with MUCH ANGER), and then… that. Risali falters midstride, nearly tripping over her own feet in the seconds it takes her brain to catch up; when grey eyes fall on D'lei who she probably knew would be here (and, let's be honest, has seen here (and in other settings just as disrobed) a thousand times), but perhaps forgot to prepare herself for the extent that his hereness has an effect on her. It's a very rude advantage, one that leaves Risali focusing for much longer than one might deem polite before she can manage to get her body moving again. But she does, because moving is her specialty, and it means that eventually she's both FREE OF CLOTHES and sinking into D'lei's side of the springs without any real attempt to call his attention to her entrance (not that she is trying to hide it) or to disturb him. She just sinks. Into the water. Right until just her eyes are peering out at him and then she stares. You're welcome, D'lei. You probably bagged the oddest weyrmate you could have possibly found.

How dare he, really. He's just sitting there, as if the steam rising from the water was a coincidence and not an after-effect of his presence. D'lei could have gone anywhere, and yet HERE HE IS. Sitting. And soaking. And being a hazard to navigation, at least when it's Risali doing the navigating. He doesn't move, because he's too busy seeing how close he'll get to melting, but the part where she slides into the water does bring some little waves splashing over to him, which stirs him enough to think that, hey, maybe, there might actually be someone here. Which might mean he should know who it is, because while it probably isn't someone who needs him for a meeting - they would have stayed on the edge to not get the paperwork wet - it might be someone turning red for reasons that aren't to do with this water. Sooo… he should open his eyes. Really, it's the most sensible course of action. Just open those eyes. …. ….. …. Okay. Just one eye. He'll open one eye, and… c'mon… okay. There's a lift of eyelid, just far enough to expose enough of the amber-ringed dark of pupil for him to make a positive identification of the lurking water-creature staring at him from the heated depths. Confirmed! So yeah, the eyelid shuts down once more, but at least his lips curve up in a smile instead.

IT'S A RISA MONSTER! Dundun. Dundun. Dunadunadunaduna - EEEEE! Just kidding. Risali has held her breath long enough, and the moment that D'lei manages to get an eye open long enough to identify that she is, in fact, a Risali, and that only some of that flush about her features can be blamed on the water, she brings her nose and mouth back above water for a breath - or an exhale, to expel the rest of what was in her longs, and then a breath. It doesn't really matter; what matters is that Risali pushes towards D'lei through the water until she's at his side, and then maybe ruins (or helps along) the melting by pressing in against him, by bringing her lips to his temple, and then his cheekbone, and then his jaw where she breathes out, "You'll drown." A beat, a curve of her lips that can't be seen, but can be felt given proximity, and probably heard in her voice when she whispers, "And then who am I going to transfer all of those complaints about Leirith to, hmm?" IMPORTANT THINGS. YOU CAN'T MELT OR DROWN YET. YOU STILL HAVE USES. Other than just short-circuiting Risa's brain and making all that steam rise. Metaphorically and not so metaphorically.

"Mmh," D'lei says, that smile curving a bit more deeply. "…only if you hold me under." Which, okay, is maybe not an ideal rejoinder, but he's coaxing one of his arms into enough motion to put it around her shoulders, pulling Risali closer in against him with the buoyancy of water as aid. "Y'can send them back to Leirith." Yeah, because that will go so well to resolve them. "Tell 'em… she's your secretary." Or maybe Leirith is just the muzak in the waiting room. D'lei grins, and - still without opening his eyes - he reaches his other arm over to curl around her and give a tug as well, using the floatiness of water (and their size disparities) to unfair advantage in pulling her not just to him but over him.

"That can be arranged," is Risali's rejoinder about holding him under water, because of course it is. But it comes with a soft huff of laughter, her arms instinctively going around D'lei's shoulders as he CHEATS and uses WATER and SIZES and HIMNESS to his advantage. A beat. "Well there's a thought. If Leirith is my secretary, I'll probably never get any messages again." NO COMPLAINTS, NO FORMAL REQUESTS, NO D'MERIAL REQUESTING THE INVENTION OF SEX JUICE, TO BE SERVED WITH EVERY MEAL. And possibly no D'lei, whose repositioning of her person cuts Risali off mid-muse just like it cuts off her breath halfway to her lungs. The water's hot (and SO'S D'LEI), but there's a shiver that wracks her body regardless, that has her fumbling for breath a moment, then forcing it out as grey eyes fixate and then blink away heat and tension because D'lei is tired and… well… Risali, no. Now she's pressing into him and leaning, to retrieve sweetsand in a last ditch effort to not give rise to YET ANOTHER SCANDAL and busy herself with washing his hair instead. Nevermind that her voice is a little breathless when she asks, "How was the sweep?" That's what he did, right? Her brain is somewhere between Faranthyespleasepleaseplease and D'leiD'leiD'lei with a dash (BADUM, TSH) of playitcool to keep her from thinking proper.

D'lei just slides his arms right in around Risali, holding her there like he isn't on the verge of causing scandalous incidents that will make D'merial whine all the louder about how they do it so why can't he, and besides if the healers are going to provide that tea to everyone, surely it's only fair to also help everyone take full advantage of the opportunities so afforded and… yes. Willpower. It's a thing. So is washing hair, which is at least … well, if she's going to be running her fingers through D'lei's hair - and he's going to be making soft noises like 'mmh' and 'ahh' - there are at least far more scandalous ways that they could be doing it. So. About them sweeps. "Mountains're cold already. Didn't see much… maybe it's all frozen down for the winter." As nobody dares leave lest they be turned to icicles. "Th' new cranes need more work, though." Untangling tangled lead-lines in the cold air? Not the best of tiems. At least they were just testing them instead of trying to actually use them for a real rescue.

Okay, so now that reddish-pink is absolutely D'lei and maybe 5% the water's fault at this point. IT WAS A BAD IDEA. It was a really bad idea. Worse, one might even say, than any of D'merial's ideas, and it's probably why Risali is pausing the ministrations of her hands to press her forehead against D'lei's. It's why she's closing her eyes, and silently invoking queens with lips that move but don't make sounds because THEN her plight would be obvious. And listen, she knows that D'lei is not oblivious to her attraction to him, and she knows that he knows that she knows that he knows exactly how to fray those already-tenuous strands of self-control when it comes to him and her and moments like these. BUT SHE TRIES. She grasps at bits of control as she nods her head, listening while D'lei speaks, willing her brain to keep up and her ears to listen over the deafening chant of moremoremoremore that's singing in her blood and - "I hate you." It's a whimper of sound as fingers grip in his hair, and then loose; as lips come too close to a kiss and then pull away as she lifts her head and squeezes her eyes closed a moment (two, three four) longer. A thump of fist to his chest (gently) as if in protest, a bit of water getting splashed for her efforts, and then she forces herself to speak. IT'S GOOD PRACTICE FOR THOSE MEETINGS WITH PEOPLE SHE WANTS TO MURDER AND CAN'T. But you know, if it was sexyfuntimes instead of Business As Usual. "Do you miss it?"

Bad idea…. or BEST IDEA? Because there is definitely a part of Risali's brain that is asking why stop, and that part of her brain has a GREAT MANY IDEAS of just how it is that things could continue from here. For one - well. There's her. And for another, there's him, and there is rather a lack of clothing that might prevent her from being aware that he is aware that she is here and that he is also attracted, to her, and that his body is - as such things are - responsive to such a thing, because while his muscles may be fatigued and tired and melting from exertion, not all responses of the body are muscular in nature. BUT. D'lei smiles, with a slight duck of his head as his eyes open - both of them, this time, the gleam of amber beneath brows. "I know you do." He smiles, regarding her through those half-slitted eyes, and as she punches him, he counters with his fingers on her back shifting in a meltingly slow caress that she - somehow, SOMEHOW - manages to maintain SOME form of focus through. Enough to make real words, none of which refer to any sexual acts or organs thereof, and in fact are innocent as long as you ignore the context and undertones. D'lei quirks one corner of his mouth in alteration of that smile, a moment's consideration - a trace of a fingertip above the water's surface, bringing wet with it along Risali's back - and then a mmh. "Sometimes. It can be… satisfying." Another tug at his mouth, this one wry. "Or terrible."

Risali's entire body undulates as if to escape the very real threat of fingers… or to press into their caress, the goosebumps prickling along her arms and across her entire body reiterating what that hitch of breath in her throat already says. It's a whimper of want, and need and yesyesyes that has her biting down on her bottom lip, that has hear chin going up to expose her throat and those fingers in D'lei's hair curling and pulling as she forces herself to not make an Already Precious Situation worse by shifting her hips and rocking slow, teasing, taking sensation without any real give. BUT SMACKSMACKSMACK MUSES. SLOW YA ROLLS, no more thinking about needs or the press of what could become more as Risali attempts to concentrate and not be distracted by amber eyes, or the gleam in them, or those smiles that send electricity sparking through her ENTIRE BEING. (STOP IT D'LEI.) Instead she grasps as those words, and blinks grey eyes open, and pretends that D'lei can read something other than don'tstopkeepgoingpleaseyesyesyes in them. "Why terrible?" It's another breathless whisper, the kind that says SHE IS STRUGGLING. AND POSSIBLY LOSING, even if - up to this point - she's managed to hang on for dear life.

Because D'lei is terrible, clearly. TERRIBLY TEMPTING. It would be so easy - and, okay, yes, innocent minds could walk in and be scandalized - and, sure, it could be D'merial walking in and that would be even worse - and yeah, this is a public place, but drowning those voices turns about to be only slightly more possible than actually drowning D'lei, even if you'd think that all the rush of blood would help instead of doing the opposite. It's like it drowns the brain and floods… uh… NEVER MIND. Concentrating on words and eyes, here! And on other kinds of terrible, which make the wryness of Dash's smile tug deeper. "Because sometimes you don't win." The words are soft, the shift of his mouth a momentary wince as his hands go still and his eyes shift serious. "Sometimes people die, because you couldn't help them. Sometimes, you wonder if it's your fault. Sometimes… you know it isn't. That it can just… happen. To anyone."

SEE, RISALI? PERFECTLY REASONABLE, PERFECTLY SERIOUS CONVERSATION. And maybe it hits her, because she shivers again, and she swallows hard, and then she blinks eyes back to amber and holds. One, two, three, and her brows knit in as she focuses on what he is saying instead of WHAT HER BODY IS TELLING HER TO DO (it's hard - NOT LIKE THAT), and then she leans forward to press a kiss against his brow. Fingers drop from his hair to his shoulders, hesitating only a moment before they knead and press in against muscle. "But sometimes you do," Risali breathes, her eyes jumping from her hands, to his lips, back to amber. "And more often than not, you save lives. Maybe not everybody, but…" a pause, as one hand lifts to trace the bridge of D'lei's nose down to the tip of it, dragging against his lips, to his chin, and then falling back away, back to his shoulder, back to work. "Everybody you could." And then she's leaning forward to hug him, to offer comfort, or understanding, or a combination thereof. "Did something happen?"

"Sometimes," D'lei echoes her, and his lips brush back to her fingers before returning to a position a little more relaxed, a bit more upward in their curve before he gives his head the slightest of shakes. "Not today," he replies to that concern, and his own arms tighten in answer to that hug. "It's just… that's a part of it." An exhale, and then he turns his head to kiss her hair along the way to tucking his chin over her. "It's part of Weyrleader, too, but… Search and Rescue has it more direct." He's quiet still, not upset but… thoughtful, and not about the sort of pleasant distractions bodies urge. "I don't see faces, in the office. Just requests, reports… but they've all got people behind them, even if I can't see those faces."

That, 'Mmm,' of concession is muffled against D'lei's neck, because it seems that Risali has found a comfortable spot and she's not moving. But Risali's quiet a long moment after D'lei is done, hesitating over words and the proper order in which she might deliver them so that she has the best chance of making sense. "I'm sorry," she whispers, muffled though it is between flesh and lips, given to the small space between them. BECAUSE THIS IS HER FAULT - the weyrleader-y part, anyway. Or, well, it is Leirith's fault, but hers by proxy. And Garouth's. Mostly Garouth's. We're just gonna roll with Garouth. And now she's hugging him a little tighter, struggling for words again and settling on, "Do you wish it was more personable?" A beat, and softer, "Do you want to go back?" Because 'miss it' and 'return to it' might be the same thing, but they are also VASTLY DIFFERENT.

D'lei understands how it works with those comfortable spots. They're why he was stuck here, until Risali came to invade (and then become stuck on top of him). Which is also a part of why he remains content to stay here, those arms tucked around Risali as she tucks in to him, and have his thoughts just float and drift like that steam until she speaks. He hehs faintly for the apology, a verbal echo to the wry quirk of lips she can't exactly see, but then the expression sobers again as he tightens his arms around her in a returned squeeze. D'lei is silent another moment or three, after those further questions, and then hs tilts his head to give Risali's hair a kiss and spek with lips close to it. "I wonder, sometimes, if… I'd make the same decisions if I could see the faces. When I - when we… wait and see…" The grimace tinges the tone of those words with particular images. "What really happens? Who's getting hurt?" Such important and also nebulous questions… and also, nebulous answers. "I feel like… I can do more, here… but it's harder to know if I've won."

And now it's Risali's turn to be quiet, to listen to D'lei's words while she absorbs touch, and presence, and the intimacy of shared spaces. It's only once D'lei's finished speaking, after a hesitation that spans the duration of one, two, three heartbeats, that Risali draws back. Hands pull from D'lei's shoulders, fingers splaying as she drags them up along his neck to his jaw and then forward, so that she can cradle his face in her hands as grey eyes study amber, then fall to delineate his face while she speaks. "You've already seen their faces, Dash," it's a quiet whisper, one that comes with a pull at the corner of her lips that's lacking humor. "So you already know what happens, and who gets hurt." And now she's pressing a kiss to one 'brow, then the other; to the tip of his nose before brushing lips against one cheekbone. "And that's why there's nobody better suited than you to lead them. Because you've already seen the outcomes, of other people's decisions." Another shift, a press of her thumbs against his cheeks as she smiles, the emotion captured quiet, and adoring, but fierce. "And you're a good man, so you'll always try to make the right one." But as for knowing whether or not he's won, well… Risali's gaze drops, her fingers sweeping back towards Dash's hair, curling over his ear. "The man leading the harpers has to turn his back to the crowd, D'lei. That doesn't mean he can't hear them." Or that they can't see him. Which is a really roundabout way of saying she knows, but the ripples of his successes are still there.

D'lei smiles, though it's further up on one side than the other. What if there are more faces. Or that's what his face might say, if it were making words instead of merely expressions. But…. "Yeah." He does know who gets hurt… and even if he doesn't know all the faces, he knows enough that he can imagine the rest. Which, okay, can also bring some sleepless nights, but… Risali knows all about those, too. (Really, why is it that the children never seem to wake up and scream for their parents on the nights when one of the three is already awake?) D'lei's hands shift down, resting against lower back in an embrace as Risali traces his face and draws out a more earnest smile with her touch. "They're not throwing tomatoes yet," he says, the playful sneaking back into his words as more serious concern ebbs enough to let it. "And it's not even because they're starved enough to eat them instead."

There always will be more faces - faces that repercussions touch regardless of whether you are the man giving orders, or the man whose blood, sweat, and tears sees those orders through. And now D'lei has been both — it's an insight to both worlds that not many get. Still, Risali's smile echoes D'lei's - a twitch at the corner of her mouth, a hint of her nose scrunching as she smiles. "They're not," she concedes. "Though it might be because, next to me, you look even more desirable." IT'S A JOKE. SELF-DEPRECATION IS HER JAM. But she's hugging him again, squeezing tight as she rocks her body back and forth just slightly — a gesture parents USE TO COMFORT. FIGHT HER. "I know it's hard to see from the inside looking out, Dash, but they trust you. I trust you, and sometimes there's no good choice, but I know that you'll choose the path that means the least amount of damage. We…" A beat. "We can't save everybody. It's one of those intrinsic failings of our human conditions, and it doesn't change whether you're looking into the face of one person, or staring down the needs of many from a distance." Not that the one person is any less important, but that there are other faces too that D'lei can't possibly see when he's focused on one. SQUEEZE. "But I can still hold you under the water. If, you know…" She is JOKING. "You should probably wash it out anyway."

"That," D'lei acknowledges, "Or because they're just afraid you'd come after them with tomatoes of your own." He grins, just for a moment, and leans in to kiss at the corner of her mouth with a soft brush of lips as she squeezes and rocks to him, and his arms shift up along her back to squeeze her more solidly back to him. "I'll try, at least." Which is the somber practicality that believes and tries but also acknowledges that he is not actually always capable of having things turn out the way he wants. But he tries, and while that still won't save everyone. "We both do." Try, he means, and he ducks in with another kiss for the side of mouth before he shifts with a further rotation in that direction so he can dunk his hair back under the surface of the water, his hands sliding down to rest against Risali's hips as he does. "Keeping everyone's head above the water." A smile, and then his eyes close and he dunks his head further back, letting the water wash over his face entirely as the hair floats up around.

Risali's brow comes up, a slow smile pulling at her lips that says he isn't wrong. "They'd be really, really big tomatoes." Because she is STILL FIERCE, despite the setbacks of… what she knows now versus what she thought then. And then her humor quiets, a trace of one finger back down the bridge of D'lei's nose, to tap gently at the tip. "I know." A hitch of breath in ode to not just one kiss, but two, and then another squeeze because Risa doesn't trust herself to do anything else. 'We both do.' Risali's smiles goes muted, says something her mouth won't voice but that her eyes do. It's nothing good, nothing D'lei doesn't already know is directed inward, towards those little, quiet voices that whisper doubts and reminders and go unremarked upon even as D'lei starts to sink. Risa drops her hands to his shoulders in tandem with his hands finding her hips, because BALANCE, and then she huffs laughter as he smiles and goes under and… she distracts herself. BY BEARING HER WEIGHT DOWN ON HIS SHOULDERS. He probably can't hear more than muffled noise, but it doesn't stop her from saying, "JUST A LITTLE LONGER, BABY. WE'RE ALMOST THERE." Because… of course he can overpower her, and of course she's not being serious anyway.

THOSE FACES staring up from beneath the water's surface, which would probably fit pretty well as one of Garouth and Leirith's eggs, all creepy and drownedlike and not nearly so sexy anymore. Don't mind Risali, she's just drowning the Weyrleader, who is also her weyrmate, because she's a problem solver and he's got a lot of problems (ARGUABLY INCLUDING HER), and this is absolutely a way to (not) fix them. So yes, she holds him under, and he blub-blub- with the big bubbles of air that come up from his exhales, aaand… then he cheats. Because he's D'lei, and that's what he does; and there are these hands of his, right against her hips, and from there it's an easy route up to her sides, to a curve in of fingers instead of just a press, and… the tickles. CHEATER. What sort of drowning victim even does that? And then he goes and takes advantage of it, of his absolute inappropriate drowning-response, to just stop being drowned and sit back up again. JERK.

It's probably quite the sound (and scene) for all those other INNOCUOUS WEYRFOLK (or visitors) getting clean or relaxing in the hot springs - not that it would stop Risali, or that a majority of those POOR SOULS haven't adapted to navigating the not-at-all dignified stunts of their Weyrwoman. And, by proxy, their Weyrleader. WHICH IS TO SAY, that jostling of body and indignant shriek-laugh that CHEATING FINGERS inspire is probably momentarily jarring, and then not at all surprising because of course it's Risali, and so of course the knee-jerk suspect is that she's rough-housing with the Weyrleader. WHICH, AS YOU CAN SEE, IS NOT INCORRECT. But when he comes back up for air, Risali is cuddling back up against him, slipping fingers past his lips at the very corners so that she can tug (gently) and smile around a bite down on her lower lip. "I almost had you. You're losing your touch, bronzerider. Three more seconds, and you'd have been a gonner." SO WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT?

What's that rule about no rough-housing near the water? …one of the ones that gets blithely ignored, that's what! Okay, yes, someone might slip and fall, and that would be a bad idea, and they both do kind of know it, buuuut there are still limits to how responsible they can be on any given day. SO. D'lei laughs, then turns it into a grin as Risali tugs his lips up that way, and puts his arms around her in a hug once more. "Probably. But you'd have regretted it when they came to make you fill out the paperwork for my untimely demise. You'd have to find someone to threaten into giving you an alibi and everything." SO MUCH WORK. This is how he stays alive - by reminding Risali of all the effort that would go into actually murdering him properly. (Or, y'know, because she loves him and would be immediately regretful and apologetic if he wasn't laughing at this point in the roughhouse, but shhh. She has to keep her reputation alive somehow!)

LIES (truths) AND SLANDER (truthy truths). "I would just make Leirith eat everybody and then I wouldn't have to fill out any reports." She would just, you know, be a rogue goldrider on the run, dodging authority by way of manipulating her Extra Special Beast's powers. … Which is probably all the more reason it's a good thing that Risali is actually not a bad person (even if, sometimes, she puts on her armor to show people just how tough she can be). "Though our children might not be quite so understanding…" SHE IS PUT UPON BY THIS, tugging D'lei's lips in the OPPOSITE direction and mimicking the frown she creates. And then it comes, "I want a girl." Blink. "Another one, I mean. I remember being the oldest, biggest sister and…" A soft huff of laughter. "I guess I wish I had a sister when I was a little younger. There's something about sisters and brothers that's… different." She is talking about Selene, of course, being the lone girl in a PACK OF BOYS. Which is not a bad thing, but sisters. They change dynamics and bring a different kind of bond that brothers just don't. "Anyway, it's not important. I think there's… too much happening right now to focus on that." A press of lips to D'lei's as she withdraws her hands, and then taps his upper arm as if to tell him SHE NEEDS FREE. So she can do what she came to do and wash herself. INSTEAD OF OGGLE AND BE WOO'D BY HER WEYRMATE. "You should probably go home and get some rest, though." A hint of a smile. "Kyzen's probably waiting for you on the couch." AWWYEAH. SHE CAUGHT YOU TWO A-SNUGGLIN'.

"Until she ate you," is D'lei's rejoinder about Leirith's extra-special murder-hiding powers. "Once she gets a taste for that life…" A sad shake of his head, because something something poetic justice, and it is SAD which is why Risali is making him frown. Clearly. And also because, "You couldn't afford enough cookies for their forgiveness." Because, yes, their children can be bribed for many things with sufficiently large amounts of sugar, but also D'lei VALUES HIMSELF HIGHLY and thinks it would take very, very large amounts of that sugar to replace him. Enough sugar that nobody would want to deal with the hyperactive little terrors that would be its consequence. Which, of course, is a natural enough segue to the idea of children and more children, and D'lei… laughs. "You may have to have a talk with yourself on that one." He's just saying, she's the one who's three-for-three on boys. He has had a pretty even split! "But we can certainly try." D'lei leans in with a kiss, and then a crooked smile. "There'll always be something going on. But…" A grin. "Maybe after Bethari forces us on vacation." MAYBE EVEN DURING. Aww yeah, vacation sexytimes! Tropical (or wherever) SUN AND FUN. For now, he undoes the tangle of his arms and lets Risali go, with a heh and nod. "Can't have him wondering if I've drowned or something." Not that there was any risk. Of course not. NOPE. D'lei grins, and runs his fingers back through his hair to get the wet drapes out of his face before he stands up and… okay, yes, gets ogled, but he at least climbs out and over to the towels, so Risali only briefly has to exercise her self control to not go RIGHT BACK TO IT. CLEAN THOUGHTS, RISA. CLEAN THOUGHTS.

"She would miss me too much," Risali offers, somber and ignoring the fact that Leirith chooses just then to boom into their skulls with LAUGHTER. "And I could. I could get so many cookies that they'd never want for cookies again." Notice she would not bake them, because she is not trying to murder their children while she's at it. And then she's tilting her chin up just a little and smacking his shoulder because, "I refuse to acknowledge any role in that." Having BOYS she means - even if, yeah, okay. She's not quite so lady-like, and probably wouldn't know what to do if she had a little girl that tended towards prim and proper. BUT SHE WOULD FOSTER THOSE LITTLE NUANCES and she would LOVE AND ENCOURAGE. OKAY. That kiss is returned, a soft noise in her throat denoting agreement, or anticipation, or a combination of the two… and there D'lei goes. And yeah, okay. She oogles. BUT HAVE YOU SEEN THE MAN? OF COURSE YOU HAVE. It's why Risali's biting down on her bottom lip and then THINKING PURE THOUGHTS. PURE AS UNDRIVEN SNOW. NOTHING TO PLOW. … NOPE. Better just scrub in sweetsand with haste and hope the grit on skin is distracting enough. And yep, Risali's under the water, fighting with that too much hair that she let down because THERE IS A LOT OF IT. THICK, AND CURLY, AND UNREASONABLY LONG that sticks to arms, and chest and stomach (and face and back) when she surfaces to look like she REALLY IS A MONSTER. But she navigates out, and she gathers one of those towels to wrap around herself, and then she throws one arm over D'lei's hips and juggles her belongings with the other because she totally is about to walk through the weyr PRETTY MUCH NAKED. What? The cool air on her skin will help her to think. And DAMN IT, DASH. SHE NEEDS IT RIGHT NOW. ONWARD!


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