Xanadu Weyr - Tejra's Room
Tejra's quarters at Xanadu Weyr are in shape and size, unremarkable. A pair of connected bubbled caverns meant to be used as a smaller entry that leads to a wider living space behind, but in this case, the Journeywoman's choice for furniture arrangement is counter to everything the space implies. One is hardly in the door before they are knees to the edge of a full size bed that ill-fits in this small, foyer space where surely no bed was ever meant to be. Across the space tucked in the other corner is a desk and book case, cramped but functional while a narrow walkway between the two spaces leads to the second spacious chamber that is… empty.
Well, no, that's not quite true. This space has generous lighting in tracks around the room in recessed nooks, a switch fitted to the wall at the entry. The only other objects in the room are tools of Tejra's craft. There are thin rush mats folded carefully on a small lofted frame against one wall and a bar running the length of one wall, an obviously new addition. On the opposite wall are a pair of massive armoires, which eat up more space than is truly ideal, but there's little that can be done about that. There are a few worn and faded scarves draped on those pieces of furniture, perhaps to add a little color to the room. Ultimately, it lacks something, having an unfinished feel, despite the few items spread around that would assist her in the upkeep of her craft that assure any visitor that Tejra definitely lives in her unusually arranged space. At least there's plenty of space to dance.
It's evening, maybe a little later than a normal person would go showing up unannounced at someone else's room. But V'ro's schedule is still largely made by his baby dragon's various states of consciousness, and he's apparently free right now. He's clean, though, his curls still damp, and he doesn't smell terrible, so that ought to account for something when he knocks on the door and waits precisely one second for a response before he knocks again.
Being that it's a little on the late side, it's probably no great surprise that there's initially immediate response. If he's patient though, the door peeks open a crack, pale eyes, skin and a slice of loose and wavy red hair are visible just through. A brow quirks when she takes in the weyrling standing there, probably gathering all the details she cares to know in that first glance. A beat later the door shifts wider, Tej's body pressing along its edge as she steps back in silent invitation of entry. She wears a man's shirt, large enough that it grants her torso a shapelessness her usual choice of dress doesn't mimic. It looks soft and worn, comfortable. Her pants are as different from her usual daywear as her top, but in the opposite way. These are tights that hug every athletically muscular line of those long limbs. At least the shirt is long enough to come to mid-thigh so it's not too revealing. She'll wait until he steps within to lean on the door and let it close with her weight, which might put them in the close quarters of being between doorway and foot of her bed in this awkward arrangement of furniture that she has going in this too full, too cramped foyer-turned-bedroom space.
There's a smile for the redhead when she opens the door, brief but conveying that 'happy to see a familiar face' feeling. He might glance over the rest of her when he accepts the invitation to enter, but green eyes don't linger, especially when there are other things to look at once he's inside. "Huh," is his take on the bed. "Not quite what I was expecting, I'll give you that. Suppose I should've expected that." Never mind that V'ro just stands there, close, looking at her like it hasn't occurred to him to move. Or say hi.
"You know…" Tej drawls to the non-greeting, instantly small-talking weyrling, looking at him from hooded eyes, "those who get to leave after they've seen my inner sanctum generally consider themselves among the fortunate few." Tej's deepens her tone to the ominous though she doesn't quite manage to keep the sardonic humor from creeping in. It really could be just that Tejra doesn't allow many in to see her private domain, but maybe it's that she EATS HER VISITORS ALIVE, or something equally vile. Well, no, probably not that. Not here. There's no sign of blood in this tiny front room. Maybe in the back? Tej considers the young man a moment before she sighs and brushes past him to crawl onto the bed and stretch out, patting the space beside her. She might offer him another seat and there is the one chair by the desk, but it doesn't look terribly comfortable.
"I know you wouldn't do anything to hurt Koth." V'ro might be scared of Tejra, but not for his safety. "She's thought about you, by the way. You made quite an impression." Just like she did on him! Well, not just like, but impression all the same. He watches her as she brushes past him, eyes her on the bed, then joins her, sprawling out luxuriously beside the redhead. "Faranth, I need one of these." A real bed.
"Tch," the redhead makes the annoyed noise but sighs as one much put-upon. "Well, for Koth," Tej pitches her voice very low indeed. "I've thought about her, too. I'd have come by, but…" But what? She doesn't finish the sentence. It's possible Tej expected him to sit and not sprawl, but she doesn't make a point; it might be a touch hypocritical of the chaos-inclined redhead complained about someone doing the unexpected (she'll save that for another time). "Get a better knot and you can have one. Unless that's not how it works for you," she lets one hand rise and fall in a fluttery gesture to indicate the mystical unknowns of riderhood (that she almost definitely does know because she's a Harper posted to a Weyr). She shifts so that she can lay her head on her pillow and adjusts a little more so she's comfortably curled on her side, arms loosely hugged around her middle. "Shouldn't you be back in the barracks instead of invading the room of a strange redhead?" It's just a question really, there's no tone that would imply she's displeased to see him or that he should go despite the content of her words.
"But you can't bear the thought of seeing me and not being able to sit on my face," says V'ro theatrically. "I'm sorry for having put you in this situation, Red." But not sorry enough to leave. "I think I can put whatever I like in my weyr once I get my own. I hated the communal living at first, but it's kind of grown on me?" Kind of. "I'm not sure what I'll even do in my own space." V'ro tucks his arm behind his head and glances over at Tejra. "I spent the afternoon wearing her out so I'd be able to leave the barracks for awhile." It's kind of an afterthought when he really looks at her this time, "You don't mind, do you?"
Two can play this game, V'ro. "Give a girl ideas and then leave her unsatisfied. Do you treat all of your admirers so cruelly or just the ones with cunts?" Tejra bats innocent lashes at the greenrider. Really, those sorts of words coming out of these sorts of lips… it's a bit of a brain-crush for some. "Whatever you want that you can afford or what's in the stores," she intones. "Of course, some people know how to 'supplement' an income." She raises her eyebrows at the young man. "Does the Weyr have policies on prostitution or thievery?" It's a bold ribbing, but he wouldn't have come if he didn't like that kind of thing. Maybe it means she doesn't want him here? But no, she takes off her play face to give him a more genuine smile. "I don't mind. But I usually go back to his place. So you'll just have to return the favor some day." That's how friendships and really all relationships work in Tej's experience, isn't it? Perhaps not all, but nearly.
"All of them, really. Riles some people up in fun ways." Character flaws are engaging, right? "That hasn't actually come up in our training, believe it or not." Or if it did, he's going to pretend it didn't. "Anyway, they both need connections that I don't really have, so I suppose I'll just make do when the time comes. But you're welcome to come lay in my bed once I have a bed to lay in." V'ro is a good guy like that. Fair's fair and everything. "How are you doing, Tej?" he finally asks, broadly, but with a look of genuine interest in the harper's life or wellbeing or something.
"Ah, so an equal opportunity failure. Did no one ever train you well?" Tej quirks a brow at him. It's banter and maybe something more. She considers him a long, silent moment before she lets the word, "Well," get caressed on its way out of her mouth as though she were tasting it. "I suppose you'll have some sort of pay from the Weyr if you wish it. Although some might say that there's an awfully long time in weyrlinghood to make connections if that were your desire." There's another contemplative silence before she adds, "Having a dragon might be advantageous to cultivating certain connections, were she the right sort. Your Koth seems to have fairly flexible thinking." Given the way she's focused the conversation on him, the fact that she gives a little shrug despite the fact that she's lying on one shoulder and snugged up to a pillow at that might not be too surprising. "Is there something particular you're looking to find out or just casting the widest net to see what comes up?" The Harper makes both sound like fair techniques; maybe she's distracting him or maybe she's just trying to sort what answer would suit the question best.
The face he makes suggests that V'ro has, indeed, never been trained well. But at least he's somewhat self aware. "She better be the sort. It's one of the reasons I agreed to stand in the first place." But perhaps not the most important. "She's pretty… flexible's a good word. Especially compared to some of the others." Don't tell anyone that he rolled his eyes. "I was just asking how you are because I enjoy you as a human being. We're friends, aren't we?" Him laying in her bed like this might be awkward if they aren't.
"We are." Tej will give him this one. She won't even be difficult about it. She won't even reach over and make things awkward. Unless you count the hand that goes to start petting his hair - curls are fun that way, after all, and there is perhaps a little too much feline in the Harper. She's not really looking at him so much as his hair while she does this. "Just desperate for news of the outside world, I suspect, poor lamb. Trapped in that barracks with only baby dragons and sleep deprived weyrlings for company. Not a sane person for all the looking you could do." The Cheshire grin she gives him is not reassuring that he has found a sane person here, either, but if she's not, then she's a high functioning sort. "I took a trip home. It wasn't pleasant. I came back. This isn't terribly either. Not this," the bed, him, her, talking, but more generally. "But this," her eyebrow twitch indicates he Weyr on the whole. "I'm thinking of arranging to ride a circuit out to some of the cotholds in the sweep so I don't have to stay here when I'd really just like to go away. I might be able to wrestle a day to get out to that one beautiful island in the middle of the sea, but it'd have to only be for the day, so I'd need a dragon to drop me off and come back." She sighs a little and shrugs. "And my commission for mirrors still has four more payments on it before I can get my hands on things worthy of the room back there," she nods toward the open space in the rock that leads to the adjoining chamber that is, presently, dark. "That's me. Now you." She went first this time, V'ro. Your turn: spill.
Is it more or less awkward that V'ro seems to like the petting? He closes his eyes for a few moments to really soak it in. "I feel like you're mocking me, but that's exactly what it's like." He listens to the rest, thoughtful. Maybe slightly concerned that Tejra is going to get a taste of being away and leave him here alone. But mirrors are difficult to move, so maybe that reassures him. "Is that what that is? Your own little studio?" As for him? V'ro is at a loss. "My days have just been a blur of dragons, lessons, and people I can hardly stand to be around." For better or worse. "Koth has been both more demanding and more independent and she gets frustrated when I don't know which she is at any given moment." Ah, babies. "Sometimes I feel like I don't even know who I am anymore."
"It's more than a studio, for me," Tej will grant this one (AND ONLY ONE) confidence tonight that is deeper than anything she's offered thus far. She doesn't, of course, explain what it is to her, but she will allow that it's more important than just the dance space it will be. "But something like that. I'm likely to be at this posting for some turns yet, and there simply isn't a space with mirrors on the right scope." Not to satisfy her spoiled ass given what she was used to back at the Hall. "There's not enough dance-specific apprentices here for the Hall to pay for it and I couldn't come up with a reasoning the Weyr should have to and frankly I don't really want to share, so there it is. A large investment." Something about that makes her lips pull down in a little frown. "Maybe if I bet on the next hatching, too, I'll end up being able to pay them off and get them here faster." She flips that idea over a moment, two, then shifts so that her long frame is pressed lightly along his side. If it weren't for Koth, she probably wouldn't ask, "Is this alright?" She's not, notably, coming onto him, but she probably noticed his reaction to her toying with his hair. "Probably much of what you're going through comes down to lack of sleep, darling. You're wrecked for real sleep, still." Tej has never dealt with babies that anyone knows of, but perhaps sleep deprivation comes not only to new parents and riders. It does sound like she knows at least something about that. "And this isn't forever." She doesn't offer any advice about his currently mercurial lifemate because she has no experience, which at least means she's not giving him any more really awful advice like the last time.
"That sounds nice." And V'ro seems to mean it. A space to do the thing you love, presumably, that you don't have to share. The cost doesn't seem to weigh on him too much, but does a thief really understand the value of material things that well? Then Tejra is pressed along his side, and V'ro is quiet, pensive even, for several moments before he looks at her, "It's good. It feels good." Something's not quite right, but he doesn't say that. "You're right. It's not forever. I'm sure I'll be able to get plenty of sleep one day." Never mind that he could have been sleeping instead of ending up awake in someone's bed.
Maybe something of that something is translating to V'ro's frame because a moment after he's finished speaking, Tejra is placing a hand on his chest and using it to press herself up, her other hand going to brace her next to his shoulder. Her red hair forms a cloud around her pale face and her pale gaze searches his face, expression unreadable. "You could be sleeping now," she points it out aloud, helpfully. "But you're here." See, narrative, she's got you covered. Let no topic be too awkward or too taboo. "And I don't need to touch you. I don't want to upset Koth." She is not, probably, similarly concerned about upsetting V'ro. "What do you need tonight, Riddle?"
Whatever that something is, V'ro looks up at Tejra like he's suddenly worried that she might kick him out or something. He does relax when that doesn't happen, but he does have to think about what it is that he needs. And whether or not he wants to acknowledge it. "I want you to touch me. Just… can I?" And if she'll let him, he guides her back down alongside him, but this time he's wrapping his arms around her, pulling her close, a leg hitched up on hers, and his head tucked against her breast.
Tej resists for half a breath as she continues to search his face, perhaps not wholly satisfied with what she sees there, but if that's the case, her expression is not saying so. When he aims to guide her to where he wants her, she settles. It might be awkward for a moment because there are rules, and there might even be other considerations, but after a few heartbeats she shifts to slip one arm under his neck so she can crook her elbow and let her hand settle in his hair, a gentle scalp massage ensuing while her other hand curls lazily around his middle and just rests there, loose and not moving. It's not quite a hug, but it's not far off.
Holding Tejra like a very alive stuffed animal might not be her best version of a good time, but it's just right for the green weyrling right this moment. With her fingers against his scalp, the rhythm of her breathing, the warmth of her body, V'ro is very likely to doze off without even meaning to.
There are many choices Tejra could make with a trusting, sleeping man in her bed. There are even many, many choices she could make with a trusting, sleeping man who is also a weyrling in her bed. But, for whatever reason, she lets him sleep. Her heartbeat is a steady thrum under his ear and she holds vigil, silent save for her breath, playing with his curls. After about an hour has passed though, she does shift, does press her lips briefly to the top of his head and nudges him with her thighs. "Khav. You need to go back to Koth," it's quiet in his ear, gentle, but she doesn't want the green to wake without her lifemate near.
When V'ro wakes up, it's slow at first, and then a full jerk into consciousness when he remembers where he is, and who he's with. "Fuck," is obviously the first thing he murmurs, groggy. "Fuck, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to— Fuck." He shifts away from the oh so kind Tejra, rolling to sit up on the side of the bed and rub his hands over his face, maybe adjust his pants just so. "She's still asleep," he assures himself probably more than the redhead.
"V'ro," Tej says his new name on purpose, to draw his attention, even as she shifts and slips one of her leg to each side of him, settling in against his back, arms slipping around his middle to hug him, like she did that time at the jumping cliff. Her cheek presses her back. "Everything is fine if Koth is fine. If you're fine." She doesn't mind, V'ro. It's really okay with her. If she noticed his need for pants adjustment, she's kind enough in this moment not to point it out. She probably has been with enough people to recognize a natural body reaction and to know that it probably has nothing to do with her. "I didn't let you sleep too long." That's almost apologetic. "I didn't want her to worry."
He sort of half glances back, but there's Tejra all around him again. One hand settles on her arm, the other casually covers his lap for no reason. V'ro takes a deep breath, lest his brief panic wakes Koth prematurely, and just slightly leans back into Tejra's presence. "No. Thank you. I shouldn't, you know, sleep here. I owe you one." There's a pause before a short breath of a laugh. "Maybe two."
"Pastries," Tej clarifies, as he had once offered to pay for her. "Redfruit," she adds just so she can put on a very hoity-toity picky voice about something. She smiles into his back and gives him a squeeze before scooting back to release him. "It's alright to come, if you need it." She tilts her head to look at him. "It's alright not to, too." Just in case he felt like he had to make this some kind of ritual now that he'd done it once.
"Pastries," repeats V'ro like that's probably not what he would have asked for, but he won't judge her decisions too much. "I think I can manage redfruit pastries." Released, he half turns back to look at Tejra. "I'll be back. You're my favorite Harper, after all. One of my favorite people, honestly." The last he admits with an apologetic sort of sigh.
Her red hair shifts as she tilts her head to look at him. "You once offered to pay pastries for me. After the meat pie, it's a step up." Tej teases, a smile playing across her lips. "Besides, if I really want something from you, I'll ask. I already have your friendship," which is worth something to her, apparently, "So there's that." And no take backsies, V'ro. Finders keepers. She moves to sit beside him on the edge of the bed. "Poor lamb. You don't know many people do you." If he did, surely she wouldn't hold such an honor. She pats his thigh with one brisk hand. "Ah, well. There's time, if not hope for you yet. Your taste is abominable." She says it was a straight face even.
"Right, I remember. And… good." That, Tejra admitting to being his friend, makes V'ro smile at her. "I know plenty of people. But my taste really is just awful." He will totally own up to that, she doesn't even have to joke about it. "I'm not sure where you are on that scale just yet. The people who tell me I have terrible taste aren't usually the people I have issues with." So there. And then, with a sigh, "I suppose I should get back to the barracks, hm. Can still probably get in a few hours if I'm lucky."
"As it pleases you," Tejra replies, shifting so that she can sprawl back on her bed, red hair a wild cloud against unbleached sheets. She doesn't need to leave the bed, you see, to close the door after him should he forget. She doesn't need it to lock the portal either. It's just that close. There are advantages to her current set up. She's not kicking him out though. That will have to be something he comes to on his own. When he's ready.
V'ro is standing now, looking at the redhead on the bed in a way that can only be described as confused. But then there's something like a wince in his expression - stirring baby dragon? - and he's looking away, clearing his throat, and turning to let himself out. He will close the door behind him, at least. Bye, Tej!