'Bout Time! (3/3)

Writers: Eimi, Nici
Date Posted: 14th September 2005

Characters: Jaela, U'kaiah
Description: Jaela takes U'kaiah out on his first excursion after his incident
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 7, day 24 of Turn 3
Notes: 3 of 3

She shook out the blanket and only peeked once while he was wading out to do just that. Sighing, she sat on the blanket and looked anywhere but at him while he walked back to join her. "I also brought wine and some bread and cheese. The cook always makes me take food because she knows I'll forget to eat. I'd only wanted the wine!"

"Food sounds good right now," U'kaiah said as he grabbed up his trousers. He shook them out before slipping one foot and then the other into them. "Can I sit up while I eat, Weyrwoman, or am I still under orders to lie down?" The corner of his mouth curled up into a smile as his eyes held a teasing glint.

"With my luck, you'd choke on the bread and cheese while lying down just to spite me..." She pulled the carisak over and took out the simple mugs, flask of wine and the bread and cheese. "Simple but filling..."

"And so much better than I would be getting in the infirmary." He grabbed up the flask of wine and opened it. "_This_ is especially appreciated. For some reason the healers only gave me juice and water."

She grabbed the flask right back. "Then that means you're only getting half a mug, bronzerider!"

He pouted. "You could be very bad for my heart if you keep breaking it the way you do."

She rolled her eyes. "Please...we know your heart is always safe around _me_." She poured him half a mug and no more before pouring a full one for herself and setting the flask far out of his reach. "We can make sandwiches with the bread and cheese..." Reaching for it, she tore the bread in half and went about the task.

U'kaiah had never felt such sympathy for a piece of bread as he did when it was ripped apart in her hands. He sighed to himself. "So you said you used to come here?"

She nodded, pleased that the cook had thought ahead and already sliced the cheese. "It's about a half hours ride from the hold. We'd ride our runners here when we could." She handed him his sandwich and concentrated on her wine and nibbling on the bread for now.
"That was in the days before I was sent to the Weyr...Jaryd loved to ride and so did I...still do really."

U'kaiah nodded as he took his sandwich. "Sounds like a nice way to grow up. I can see why you would miss it."

"Oh, it was horrible at first! I wondered why I'd been sent to the Weyr and then I got used to it, day by day." She smiled. "It was hard getting use to how...um..._open_ it was. Now, I couldn't imagine any other life...and with Calyth..." She sighed contentedly and looked out toward the water where the gold dragon still frolicked.

"You've come a long way from the little girl frolicking in the waves, I'd say." U'kaiah smiled as he wondered just what a 'frolicking' Jaela would look like, at any age.

"I'd say..." She took a long sip of wine. "Now, there's a lot more responsibility and almost everything I do or decide effects someone else." She looked at him. "Feeling better?"

"I'd feel much better if there was more wine in my cup," the bronzerider said as he looking over at the flask longingly. "I think it would have a very good effect on me if you decided to hand that to me."

"Humph, well, you're going to have to make it worth my while if I'm going to risk the wrath of the healers, Wingleader!"

"Oh? And how would you propose I did that?" he asked with an amused glint in his eye.

She opened her mouth to suggest it and shook her head, holding out the flask. "If I have to tell you, then it loses its value. You get half a mug."

"Well, I can think of a few things, but I doubt the healers would have approved," he said as he took the flask and poured half a glass for himself. Her glass was also topped off. "Why don't you just tell me what you want? Or better yet, show me."

"Hmm...." She set her mug aside and leaned forward, brushing her mouth against his lightly. The healers might not want him to overexert himself but surely there was nothing wrong with a simple kiss.

U'kaiah was not interested in a simple kiss, as he slipped his fingers around the back of her neck and pulled her into a much deeper one. He could feel his heart beating a bit harder in his chest, but for some reason he didn't care if it burst at that moment.

She wrapped her arms around him and sank into him, her mouth searching his, her small hands tangling in his tousled hair. The Weyr, their differences and even their dragons receded for a moment.

The thought occured to the bronzerider as he pulled them both down to the blanket that they should stop before they crossed any lines the healers would set for him, but it felt so wonderful to hold her in his arms again, to taste her lips and feel her skin so tantalizingly close to his. This had to be better medicine than anything they could give him anyway!

Jaela forgot completely about healers and concentrated on kissing, ignoring her pragmatic side completely. Her lips remembered his, the memory of their feel, their touch.

Though they had only experienced each other's kiss twice before, it somehow felt so natural, as did the feeling of her body pressed up next to his. It felt so good to run his fingers along her back, pulling her towards him possessively, he tried to ignore the sound of his heart pounding in his ears and just concentrate on the woman so deliciously willing in his arms.

She nibbled at his lower lip, whispered his name and returned to the lure of his lips again. His heart seemed to be pounding against hers, and although hers tried to syncronize, his was faster, far faster.

Then she remembered.

Pulling back, she rested her forehead against his and tried to clear her muddled head and relearn the art of breathing normally, too unnerved by how much her her body seemed to crave his to risk speech just then.

U'kaiah was breathless, far more than he would have expected. He closed his eyes as they lay with their foreheads pressed together, his arm still drapped over her, trying to calm his breathing and slow his heart.
"I'm sorry. Bad timing, huh?"

She managed a breathless laugh. "Unfortunately...we finally get one bit of timing down and another interferes..." She really wanted to remind him of the one time he'd had her half undressed and him healthy when he'd walked out because of stupidity but figured that would definitely wreck the mood.

"It's always... something... isn't it." An ironic smile pulled at the edge of his lips. He moved his arm to pillow her head and rolled onto his back, not quite willing to break the moment, but knowing that he had to give his body a chance to reset itself. The warmth of the sand seeping up through the blanket was as relaxing as the sun on his skin.
"Let's just lay here a minute."

"Always something..." She relaxed in his arms. "Maybe we're fated to never...well, you know..." Closing her eyes, she allowed the heat to lull her.

"I sincerly hope not," he mumbled as he leaned his head against hers.
His breathing was becoming regular, deep and relaxed. "When we're _both_ ready..."

"'Bout time..." she mumbled back, hiding a smile in the plane of his shoulder blade.

U'kaiah would have smiled too, had be not been so busy lightly snoring.

Last updated on the September 15th 2005

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'Bout Time! (3/3)