[G] [C] 740.06.12 | One Surprise After Another

The look on R’nd’s face when he realized who R’dal was — or really, who his father was — was actually rather entertaining, and F’drel felt a little smugness at R’nd’s momentary concern that he’d slept with a Weyrleader’s son’s boyfriend. Maybe he should have told R’dal to keep letting his dad think they were dating, though now that R’dal thought about it, he wasn’t positive R’dal ever actually had told M’ris they weren’t. Hmn.

“Don’t think you can crash a party no one’s hosting. Miri’s not supposed to Fly for another month, but here we are.” He shrugged, picking at a loose thread in one of R’dal’s blankets. “And as long as R’dal remembered to tell his dad we’re not, in fact, dating so he stops calling me to his office and asking me awkward questions, you’re fine. If he got distracted and forgot, no promises.” F’drel was never so flippant with… well, with just about anyone outside of siblings, Mylorah and R’dal sometimes included. There were rare occasions he’d mouth off at D’hys, but that was usually at least a little calculated as the sporadic clever snideness seemed to amuse him, and F’drel generally wanted to remain ‘mildly entertaining and somewhat useful’ to the bluerider. But Miri’s Flights always left his brain weirdly slow which made it take more effort to keep sarcastic remarks to himself. The words came out before he had the chance to filter them, unless the fear was strong enough to shut him up. And for some reason R’nd just didn’t register as panic-inducing the same way most of his winners did.

He snorted as R’nd made another face and mentioned Mylorah — ah, yes, of course, R’nd thought he was dating Mylorah too, didn’t he? He had essentially shown up to T’ryn’s birthday dinner as her date, so F’drel couldn’t really blame him that much. Well, he was technically her ride, but it was usually a date you brought to family events, not your emotional support friend. Whatever, he still wasn’t having sex with her. Honestly, at that point dating Mylorah would be weird — she reminded F’drel too much of his sisters.

“You and me both,” F’drel muttered as R’nd continued trying to figure out his love life. Despite being pretty simple — he had sex with Flight winners and periodically with D’hys to make sure he stayed in the bluerider’s good graces, he hadn’t had a love life since coming to the Weyr (or really ever). Still, he knew what things really were, not just perceptions based on ‘he’s a greenrider who spoke to this person more than once,’ so he was better off at understanding it all than R’nd. “Here, I’ll clear things up a bit — the only person in your family I’ve had sex with is you. Wait, no,” F’drel paused, thinking for a moment, “does Z’rin count as your family? I’ve had sex with him too.” Same reason too, because Miri had gotten caught by their blue, but F’drel didn’t feel like clarifying his statement any further just yet. He certainly didn’t want R’nd giving N’mor the impression Z’rin was cheating on him, F’drel did not want to deal with a pissed bronzerider, and N’mor especially was rather terrifying. He could have continued to say that he wasn’t dating or interested in Mylorah at all — it didn’t even occur to him in his tiredness that R’nd was thinking of T’ryn too — but wasn’t with it enough to notice just saying he hadn’t slept with any of his kids didn’t rule out dating them.