[G] [C] 736.09.23 | Under the Weather

Indivara! Indivaaaaaraaa! Veeth’s normally sweet and lilting voice was pitched with panic with matched the nervous dance he was doing from foot to foot. Something wasn’t right with his rider but he didn’t know exactly what it was and he didn’t want to bother someone just in case it wasn’t serious. After all, before he went to bed, V’ler said he was fine and it wasn’t anything to worry about. The little blue flitters, Quill and Vex, didn’t seem too convinced either as they kept circling the small room above the bed or landing cautiously beside the bluerider on his pillow before the noise and movement startled them again and they took flight once more.

Veeth tried to remain calm and believe V’ler when he said he was fine but it was so hard to do when that horrible sound kept coming from him and even his mind started to be a scary muddle of confusion and distress to a point where the delicate dragon had to withdraw lest he went as crazy as he suspected his rider as being. But as soon as he heard Venseth land, Veeth took up his dance and started calling for Indivara. If anyone would know what was wrong with V’ler, she would. They spent a lot of time together and she was a clever girl so Veeth was confident she could fix everything.

It’s V’ler! He didn’t wait for her to dismount or to ask what was wrong, his manners forgotten in his worry over his rider. He keeps making this horrible noise and then he moans afterward and he’s doing it in his sleep, too! He’s already asleep, Indivara. He never goes to bed this early! Considering Indivara was in V’ler’s bed more often than not, she was the last person that needed to have the bluerider’s sleeping schedule told to but Veeth felt it deserved extra emphasis.

Indivara’s delicate features contorted into a grimace, an index finger corkscrewing in her ear at the – in her opinion – high pitched shriek Veeth planted in her mind. A deep sigh of exasperation was given, and Indivara swung up onto Venseth without waiting to see if Veeth would – there he went again, shrieking her name and elongating every damned syllable. The young woman frowned, even as Venseth crooned in concern.

It’s not like Veeth to panic, the young blue pointed out reasonably, his concern growing as his blue brother continued to panic. Indivara shrugged; Veeth was known to be dramatic, even if that drama usually and almost always came in his excessive need to be polite and catch every green ever to sprout a pair of wings.

C’mon. Let’s go see what the issue is, then.

Not a few moments later, and Venseth was carefully landing on the edge of the weyr V’ler had claimed as his own, and as a result, Indivara’s. Seeing Veeth dancing on the spot caused Indivara some small amount of worry, but also relaxed her. If V’ler had decided it was time to drop dead or do something equally un-V’ler-ish, she was quite sure dancing on the spot wouldn’t be Veeth’s action of choice. Maybe he broke his guitar and upset Veeth as a result. That certainly sounded like the type of selfish thing V’ler would do!

“Easy, Veeth.” Indivara strode across to the panicked blue, petting his nose as he babbled to her what was wrong with V’ler. His description caused her brows to furrow, though she snorted at the idea of V’ler being asleep already. Giving Veeth a settling pat on the nose, the girl made her way into the weyr and towards the bedroom, kicking her boots off as she went.

“Oi, V’ler!” Her voice was pitched low, and carried a tone of irritation. It wasn’t right for the man to stir up his poor dragon for no reason! Indivara’s arms folded across her chest and she stomped into the bedroom. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of V’ler, and she took a halting step backwards as he chose that moment to attempt at hacking up a lung. Indivara’s nose scrunched up.

Tell Veeth he has the flu. Which he would have realised, if he hadn’t been so panicked. I know he’s seen me sick before! Indivara knew Venseth would pass the message along, albeit with a little more honey than Indivara herself was prone to including. Can’t he call someone else? I’m going to get sick now, the pure whine in Indivara’s voice was witnessed only by Venseth.

You have survived before, you’ll survive again. Help your friend.

Gee, thanks. Huffing, Indivara turned on her heel to make her way into the kitchen area, digging up a clean mug and filling it with slightly stale but suitably cool water. It would have to do! She wasn’t in the mood to run to the other end of the Weyr and back just because V’ler was feeling a little icky. Especially since she knew he didn’t go that far out of his way for her when she was unwell.

Returning to the bedroom, Indivara set the glass down on the bedside table and perched lightly on the side of the bed. Her eyes brightened when she noticed the discarded cloth. Tipping some water out of the cup and onto the cloth, she let the dampness spread before laying it lightly over V’ler’s forehead.

“Hey sleepy head,” her voice was light and gentle, much like her touch before she folded her hands in her lap.

V’ler had been close to flipping Indivara off when she finally made her way to the bedroom but that required too much energy. She also managed to earn back some favour in that short time by placing the cool damp cloth on his forehead. A sigh of relief was instant and V’ler mumbled a quiet word of thanks. Speaking, he had found earlier when telling his flitters to calm down, led to more coughing. In fact, turning over led to more coughing, and coughing led to more coughing. It was a horrible state of existence he was caught up in and even sleep didn’t seem to be that great a relief since he woke up coughing.

He had yet to actually open his eyes and look at the girl that was currently his saviour and there was a moment where he almost didn’t, thinking an attempt at sleeping again seemed wonderful, but he had heard that glass get set aside and V’ler was suddenly rather thirsty. His throat was getting a bit raw as well from the constant assault brought on by treacherous lungs so he finally had green eyes fluttering open to look over at Indivara. “I told Veeth I was fine,” his voice came out a whisper that broke twice as his vocal chords tried to warm up. He wasn’t too concerned; that sort of thing happened at times so soon after waking.

As he struggled to sit up for that drink of water he craved, V’ler gave a whimper of pain. Back muscles and right in his chest between his lungs hurt a lot more than he had been expecting. It brought him back to the days he spent as a Harper going between Holds and singing songs about the dragonriders that not everyone had appreciated. He had been jumped after performances and given a heavy-handed – or booted – reminder that not everyone thought that way anymore. Shoving those happy memories aside, V’ler grabbed the glass of water and chugged half of it back which earned another appreciative sigh before it was set back down. The cloth was retrieved from his lap and set back on his forehead when he laid down again.

“I just need some sleep. A lot of it,” and with that, his own lesson about not talking too much was remembered as he started coughing again. V’ler turned his head away from Indivara, trying to cough into his pillow.

Indivara took the mumbled thanks in tow, not bothering to reply to it – after all, she’d earned it, why acknowledge it as if she hadn’t expected it? Of course, if he hadn’t bothered to show some sign of being thankful, she likely would have made a point of it. But he did, so she let it lie at that. Tucking some hair behind her ear, Indivara was distracted by the appearance of her own firelizards, little blue Saph landing on the foot of the bed near V’ler’s toes, while Queenie took roost on Indivara’s shoulder, her delicate golden tail twining around the girl’s neck gracefully. The little gold chittered quietly to herself, or perhaps to Indivara, though the girl took little notice of the creature.

“Of course you did,” Indivara’s tone was mild, but her eyes rolled none the less; Veeth could be rather dramatic at times and Indivara was quite pleased that Venseth wasn’t of a similar nature. To the contrary, he tended to simply never panic and took everything in stride. Useful, but also annoying when one wanted to be pandered to. Oh please, Indivara snorted in amusement at her dragon’s droll tone. If you wanted to be fawned over, you should have Impressed gold. It was a little unnerving when he did that, though.

“I did Impress gold,” Indivara quipped back, petting Queenie gently on the nose, and giving her chin a loving scratching. “I was smart enough to only attract the tiny type, however.” Seeing he was missing out on some loving, little Saph clambered over V’ler’s feet to bounce into Indivara’s lap, chittering happily but not very quietly, and causing Indivara to giggle as he curled up and nosed at her unoccupied hand. Feeling agreeable, Indivara settled down to stroking the little blue, but only for a moment ebfore she sent both squawking and fluttering around the roof of the weyr as she suddenly jumped off the bed.

You really aren’t being very good company to your sick companion. Venseth put in pointedly, looking up from where he was curled up near Veeth, his attempts at calming the other dragon going mostly unnoticed. You should be quiet, he added, his tone directed at the two firelizrads, both of whom squeaked before falling silent, though Queenie looked disgruntled at being told off by a blue, even if he was a dragon!

“Oh, hush you,” Indivara waved a hand in Venseth’s direction, not at all fazed by his grumbling and maturity, as she trotted around the weyr, ruffling through items and climbing onto benches to look on top of shelves in her hunt. After a bit of ruckus and making a mess, she finally found what she was looking for – dragon oil. Or more specifically, oil for firelizard hides! Pleased with herself, the young woman flounced back to the bed and scrambled onto it, sitting cross legged and near V’ler’s feet, she called Saph down to her.

“Hey, pretty boy,” she crooned, letting the firelizard stretch out in her lap, wings extended and happily crooning his delight at the upcoming oiling. “Such a good little blue!” Indivara poked Saph on the tip of his nose before scooping out a small amount of the oil, which carried the trademark lavender scent that B’jin was the original cause of, though she liked to avoid that train of thought! Smoothing the oil over Saph’s outstretched wing, Indivara hummed quietly to herself as she examined the health of her firelizard.

“The world would tremble in fear if you Impressed a larger one,” V’ler pointed out, only half listening to the conversation that already seemed halved to him. Indivara was likely talking to Venseth, at least she hoped so or he’d have to assume he was falling in and out of consciousness or going deaf otherwise. He was still thinking about Indivara on a gold dragon when the girl scampered off to do whatever mischief called to her now. Goldriders didn’t have much power these days but it’d still be more than she currently had since she could hook up with the right bronzerider and rule the Weyr through him – V’ler wouldn’t put it past Indivara to attempt such a thing even now as a bluerider.

Veeth worried momentarily over the strange thoughts but also knew Indivara was the type to let her opinion be known and decided V’ler wasn’t too delusional just yet and started to calm down. He settled down beside Venseth, mostly due to the energy crash he was now feeling from being so worked up for such a period of time. Indivara was here now and while she didn’t seem too concerned over V’ler’s condition, at least she was there. He then convinced himself that if Indivara wasn’t concerned, then that meant V’ler wasn’t too badly off and all he needed was some sleep like he said he needed.

V’ler was nearly asleep when Indivara came flopping back down on the bed. Her calling out for the ‘pretty boy’ managed to cause the Harper to open an eye to see if she was addressing him and he smirked when he saw Saph land in her lap. That was more like it. He would have questioned his sanity and whether or not he was dying if she had been calling him that. Eyes shut again and without commenting on her using his oil since it wouldn’t do any good, V’ler drifted back asleep.

It had always been Indivara’s plan to Impress bronze, purely because she had grown up in the Weyr and knew how little power a goldrider had in hand, and what was the point in riding a gold dragon, anyway? They couldn’t breathe fire, even if there weren’t any thread falling from the sky to burn up. All they could do was fuck and have babies as a result, which meant they were stuck on the Sands for nine tenths of their life. How utterly boring! There was no chance to fly around, or go exploring, or be in wing practice or anything. No, Indivara had never had her sight set on gold, ever. As such, Indivara didn’t bother to do more than snort in V’ler’s direction at his comment.

A gold would tremble in fear at the idea of Impressing to Indivara, and even Indivara knew that. She’d probably send the creature between out of horror of the inner workings of her mind. At least Venseth could handle it when she thought naughty words like ‘fuck’, or said them. Which was frequently. Your good manners were not a qualifying factor of my Impressing you, love, Venseth assured her, amused by her train of thought.

“Good to know,” Indivara mumbled, glancing towards the direction the blue dragons were curled up together in. Venseth assuring her that Veeth had settled down and was starting to relax, Indivara shooed little Saph out of her lap and smiled to herself as Queenie dropped from her shoulder down her arm and into her lap, the tiny gold chittering about her expectations and Indivara got the distinct impression that she was disgruntled at not being bathed first. Well! “We don’t always get what we want love, now do we?” Indivara was amused, and her tone belied it. Queenie huffed, but spread her wings in a very dignified manner to receive her oiling. Indivara laughed quietly to herself.

“Hey, Veeth,” Indivara’s tone was soft enough to not startle V’ler out of his sleep, but loud enough to be heard by the dragons where they were resting. “How long has princess here been sick?” The sweet blue was friendly enough with her that Indivara felt no restraints about talking to him while V’ler was sleeping, and felt it was definitely something that was needed. Depending on how long the blueriding harper had been sick, would define when Veeth had last eaten, if he needed a bath, or what dry spots were liable to be in need of oiling.

And best of all, any caretaking the little blue needed, could be used as blackmail fodder when V’ler was better!

… Indivara. Really?

Indivara smirked.

Veeth took a moment to think about any comments V’ler had made recently or how scrambled his mind seemed and finally decided on a timeframe. He mentioned yesterday that he was feeling a bit off but it didn’t seem to bother him much. It was this morning that he started the coughing and feeling a bit dizzy. He said something about a fever as well. It hadn’t been a long passage of time, but it was enough to worry the blue dragon that was used to his rider not really showing his feelings or acting oddly. He couldn’t recall seeing V’ler sick either, despite how often Indivara fell ill and slept it away in V’ler’s bed, exposing him to germs.

Will you stay the night again? Veeth liked Indivara and the fun V’ler seemed to have with her around and Venseth with a good companion as well. It was nice when the blue pair stayed and it was always odd when Indivara slept elsewhere. Veeth had almost asked her once if she was mad at them since she didn’t seem to want to be near them but V’ler had intercepted and said it was normal and perfectly okay for the girl to do things on her own or with other people. Her side of the bed was always open if she wanted it but she wasn’t obligated to stay there. That had confused Veeth at the time but he decided if it didn’t bother anyone else, then he was fine with it as well.

“Sounds about normal,” Indivara decided, using her own frequent sicknesses as a gauge was probably less than the ideal method of measurement, but it got the job done. She nodded to herself as she finished oiling Queenie, sending the crooning little firelizard to find somewhere else to nap (not on the bedding where she’d leave oily stains). Tugging her socks off, Indivara tossed them across the room in no particular direction – after all, V’ler was too ill to bitch at her about being a slob! – then paused thoughtfully at Veeth’s question.

There was no real reason not to stay, except that V’ler was sick, and in so being, was likely to pass the illness to Indivara. On the other hand, she was sick so regularly, that there was a good chance she wouldn’t get sick from him, because whatever germs he had had already passed through her system (Meaning you got him sick, probably). Either way, she didn’t like the idea of upsetting Veeth.

“Yeah, I’ll stay,” She decided. Besides; it was just about bedtime and this bed came pre-warmed up. Why get dressed and go to another weyr where a bed was less likely to be warm – mostly because Indivara knew V’ler was one of the few people who would openly share his bed with her without expecting her to spread her legs as payment! Men!

Sliding off the bed, Indivara made quick work of stripping down to her underwear, at which point she set about digging up one of V’ler’s clean shirts to wear, fingering her scarring on her chest as she went. It was an idle habit, but one she couldn’t seem to get out of; they felt weird and while she knew she was scarred, there were times when she found it bizarre to feel them. Finding a shirt, she tugged it on and hugged herself, warm in the comfortable familiarity of her friend’s clothing.

Before making her way to bed, Indivara opted to pad out to where the two dragons were curled up, giving Veeth a comforting rub to the eyeridges and a nose cuddle, she reassured him with a gentleness that was generally only seen by the dragons that his rider would be fine in a day or two. When she was sure he was less stressed, Indivara moved to Venseth, cuddling her dragon’s nose and kissing his eyeridge with loving affection. She’d take them down to the lake to bathe tomorrow, so V’ler could sleep some of the day in peace, and for a moment, Veeth could forget about his worries; while the Weyr was a long way from full capacity of humans or dragons, there were always more than enough kids to lend a hand at dragon bathtime!

Returning to the bedroom, Indivara scrambled to her usual spot, slithering under the blankets and snuggling into her pillow. After a moment, she inched closer to V’ler, picking the cloth up off his pillow and folding it back over his forehead, she snuggled up close to him, resting her head on his chest. Despite her deep temptation, she refrained from pressing her icy cold feet against his legs. It would be hilarious, but it would also probably get her thrown from the bed.

Good call.