In For a Surprise [Indivara]

R’vi still had no idea why Indivara had sent Saph to him with a message to meet. It was all very cryptic though at the same time, it was rather standard. Since the reappearance of firelizards, they had taken to using them as messengers to pass along when and where to meet to replace the old fashioned way of actually showing up and dragging the other somewhere. They still did that of course, but now that they had dragonets like their other friends, the responsibilities had piled up and random dragging here and there were harder to do.

Word had been sent back through the adorable blue firelizard that he would be at the designated spot at the proper time. He was extremely curious but also relieved to get away from the hustle and bustle that life had become with weyrling classes and the new Weyr being built. Even the rumours of returning North at any minute were starting to become overwhelming but that was something to think further on at another time.

Are you even able to keep track of what you’re supposed to be thinking about right now? So many tangents are happening all at once. R’vi smirked at his dragon and then laughed. “Not really. There really is a lot happening though, huh? But it can all wait. Di should be just up here.” They followed the path that would one day be too narrow for Vydoriath to take but for the time being he still trotted along without issue.

With his thoughts focused on what Indivara could be up, R’vi entered the little orchard of fruit trees and glanced around for the girl or a blue hide. When neither Indivara nor Venseth were spotted, R’vi frowned and briefly wondered if he had been suckered into some kind of prank. Indivara hated being late and was usually early to everything. Hopefully she wasn’t sick again but one of her flitters would have shown up to tell him if she were.

Shrugging, R’vi went to the stump of a tree that had fallen over long before he had ever come to the area, likely from a storm and lightning strike, and sat down, drawing his legs up under him. Vydoriath plopped himself down beside the stump, within reach of R'vi so the man had no choice but to reach over and stoke the dragon's head. He certainly didn't mind and in fact enjoyed the quiet moments with his dragon and still marvelled at it all every time. It was also a good way to distract himself from the worry that wanted to creep up on him if Indivara ended up being any later than she already was. After all, R'vi had already been running late despite Vydoriath's best efforts.

Indivara hadn’t meant to be late, and she was certainly irked that she was, but it was almost worth it. Kind of, maybe… Kerrin had grabbed her as she was making her way out to find R’vi, and dragged her back to his room so he could force her to put on the new outfit he was making – simple shirt and pants – so she wouldn’t look like such a drowned rat in the oversized clothing she’d resorted to stealing off her friends. The landslide had taken her clothing, when it took her family and their home. Unfortunately, Kerrin (Indivara didn’t think she’d ever called him by his honorific, not when he was more girl than she was and girl’s didn’t get honorifics anymore!) got carried away and after being first accidentally and then purposefully stabbed with pins for moving too much, Indivara had suffered through her fate – and being late – with filthy glares. Venseth had watched curiously.

When she had finally been released by the little green bitch from hell, Indivara had kicked Kerrin’s shin – just to make sure there was no question about her displeasure with being delayed – and the girl had fled, almost too fast for Venseth to keep up. After she was sure she was not going to be nabbed by anyone else, Indivara had settled into a more dragonet-friendly pace, though her strides were bouncy and almost skipping. Her dragonet considered her curiously, as he trotted along.

Why are you so pleased? A moment ago, Indivara had been a ball of fury, ready to kill; now she was just about ecstatic with glee. While Venseth had quickly learned that such mood changes were perfectly natural for Indivara, her bubbling and smug pleasure was slightly strange. But just slightly. The sly, wicked look he got in answer from the girl warned that nothing good was going to come of this adventure, and Venseth sighed softly. While Indivara’s mind was a perfectly open book for the dragonet, he was smart enough to know when he was supposed to be surprised, too, even if he was somewhat worried about what kind of trouble was about to be caused.

Leaving Venseth to pick his way over at his own pace, Indivara dashed ahead, and after some very quick mental calculations, threw herself over the top of Vydoriath and onto R’vi, sending them both crashing to the ground, miraculously without any injuries. With R’vi suitably detained, Indivara sat up, perched on his stomach as Venseth trotted the last of the way over, and peered down at them both with a shake of his head. Turning, he made his way to a nice shady spot, and lay down calmly, watching curiously to see what Indivara was up to.

Patting R’vi on the chest, Indivara made herself comfortable with very little regard to how uncomfortable her friend must be sprawled on the ground, probably with rocks and sticks poking him all over the place, and peered down her nose at him, looking insufferably smug. “I have a present for you,” the tone of her voice was somewhere between sing-song and smirk, and promised he wouldn’t like it. “I don’t need it anymore, but apparently you will, soon enough.” If there was a slight edge to her words, it was lost in the malicious smirk that formed on her lips, as Indivara produced a small item from her pocket. Dropping the very delicate and soft blanket she’d used for Varlea over R’vi’s face, Indivara stood up with a sneer he wouldn’t see and stepped back two or three paces, arms crossing over her chest.

Indivara had no idea if Tavynia had managed to corner R’vi yet, or if he would be utterly confused by her actions, but Indivara knew whatever the response, it would be well worth the effort. She’d found the blonde bimbo hurling her guts up a few days prior, and, after pointing out she had puke in her hair (which Indivara didn’t actually know if she did, she hadn’t gotten that close) it hadn’t been hard to put the pieces together. Tavynia would not have ever looked that smug if she was battling with a tummy virus.

Of course, Indivara was certain the stupid bitch thought getting pregnant would win her points with Ryvian, which the girl found hysterical. R’vi was many things, but Indivara had a lot of trouble with the idea of pinning fatherhood on him, never mind dedicated mate or whatever the blonde bitch had prancing around her air-filled head. Maybe when R’vi was older, maybe, but Tavynia should have angled at N’vian if she wanted someone who would bow to more traditional expectations!

Venseth watched on, his expression displaying his disapproval for Indivara’s actions and attitude, though he refrained from speaking; he hadn’t mastered the ability to make sure R’vi and Vydoriath didn’t hear him, and Indivara could be unreasonable, particularly when embarrassed.

The air had been knocked out of him and a particularly sharp little stone dug into his right shoulder blade but neither of those counted as the most uncomfortable thing right then. It had taken a moment but once he had been allowed to sit up, look at what had been tossed on his head, and attach Indivara’s words to the blanket, R’vi decided the topic that kept getting sprung on him won as most uncomfortable thing. “I guess you heard, huh?” Of course she had; it wasn’t like Indivara just went around giving out baby blankets to everyone just in case they needed one or as motivation to get knocked up.

He patted Vydoriath when the blue came over to nose at him, checking for injury. The blue wasn’t stressed and actually found the way Indivara vaulted over him and tackled R’vi to be amusing but nothing was said on that matter. He already knew when to stay quiet when it concerned Indivara and R’vi. They had such a strange friendship!

“I’m not sure I’ll need it but uh, thanks, Di!” R’vi smiled brightly, as if the idea of being a father didn’t freak him out. He busied himself with folding the little piece of soft material and set it on a knee and soon leaning an elbow on the other. He wasn’t sure if he should actually tell her his doubts and confessions but if she had already found out about the pregnancy than it wouldn’t be long until Indivara paid closer attention to what Tavynia did. It wasn’t like they were mated so R’vi didn’t care, especially since he still had had an extra casual hook up here and there as well. It was just the way of things.

“We weren’t exclusive, you know? So it might not be mine and I told her as much as well. She’s pretty convinced it is though and yeah, I guess. We did sleep together a lot more than she would have been with anyone else.” That still didn’t mean he had to be the father but R’vi had a feeling he was. Still, it didn’t mean he had to raise the kid and he didn’t think Tavynia would either. She was already furious she was pregnant and would get fat. The only silver lining in the entire situation was one he wouldn’t tell either of the girls in his life. If the kid turned out to be a boy, maybe one day Varlea and the boy would have a solid friendship like Indivara and R’vi and possibly even end up together, unlike their parents.

Indivara tossed her head, the action both regal and disdainful, sending her thick blanket of dark hair fluttering down her back once more as she narrowed her eyes at R’vi with a very unladylike snort to accompany the otherwise extremely feminine action. She watched silently as R’vi collected himself and thanked her for the blanket. Indivara’s nose scrunched up a little, her eyes narrowing distrustfully, but she did not say anything; she simply continued to watch silently. Venseth shifted uncomfortably under the tree where he was curled up, eyes shifting from human to human to Vydoriath and back again, waiting for the explosion that was building up in Indivara.

Indivara shifted her weight slightly, licking her lips slowly as she considered R’vi, lips pursing after the motion to dampen them. Her eyes remained narrowed, suspicion lingering in the blue depths; was her friend really that stupid? Indivara growled out a low and hissing sound, before throwing one arm out viciously as she glared down at her friend. “She’s not convinced it’s you because she thinks it’s you,” Indivara snapped, scowling. “She’s convinced it’s you because she wants it to be you.” The girl continued to scowl at R’vi, wondering if he would understand that at all, or if she’d have to explain it in smaller words and with punches. Boys were so stupid.

They’re not the only ones. Venseth’s tone was drier than the fallen leaves of midsummer, his voice a dusty whisper against the minds of everyone but aimed for Indivara. The girl threw a bird in his direction, but did not remove her fiery gaze from R’vi.

R’vi watched Indivara carefully, waiting for the explosion. He knew the signs and knew he was close to being punched for something. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he had said something wrong. Eyes widened in surprise when he wasn’t attacked physically but only verbally and only blinked at Indivara for several seconds as he sorted through the puzzle she had spoken. It made sense, kind of, but he wanted to make sure he had it entirely sorted out before attempting a reply. No doubt he’d be jumped regardless of what he said but it was worth a shot.

“Di, I know. She fucked other guys and so did I. We even shared one, so I definitely know she was spreading her legs for other men.” R’vi paused after admitting to that, wondering what his friend would think of that. As far as he knew, despite her old ways of flight mothing, Indivara was somewhat reserved in sex and wouldn’t have joined in for a group setting. Then again, who knew what her kinks were now that she was mated to V’ler, the bluerider that had slept with most of the Weyr already thanks to winning and losing flights.

Quickly, he continued talking so she couldn’t jump on that tidbit of too much information. “But it still seems like I’m the most likely candidate given how often we’ve had sex. But I don’t think she’d want it to be mine just because I’m me. She has dreams of Impressing gold and being mated to a bronzerider. She’s better off chasing my brother for that dream.” It really didn’t make much sense the more he thought about it. Tavynia liked him, he knew that much, but she wouldn’t say the child was his when it wasn’t because she wanted to trap him into being with her forever. Then again, other than D’hys, he suspected she only had one or two other lovers that were both blueriders as well so in the end, it wasn’t like she had many options to go with.

R’vi frowned. “It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m too busy with Vydoriath to keep up with a kid.” Vydoriath cocked his head to the side and eyed R’vi a moment and then gave every indication of a pout. But playing with kids would be fun, I think. R’vi raised a brow at him and then shook his head as if the bickering wasn’t worth it. “You’re more than welcome to play with them when you’re older if you want to but I don’t think I’m likely to follow suit.”

Indivara's expression flattened, her eyes narrowing as she glared at R'vi, lips twisting with disgust. She had heard as much gossip about R'vi, N'vian and their various habits as anyone else within the Weyr, both things she found believable, and things that she was quite certain were the wishful fantasies of men and women both. She knew the twins were sluts, and she'd known they were into rather interesting things, but to hear the other weyrbrat state such without so much as a pause and certainly without shame, made Indivara's hackles raise. The words she was going to spit at her fellow weyrling were swallowed, and instead she hissed between her teeth as he picked up the conversation without giving her room to get any words in – or at least, not any that he'd hear.

Indivara sneered. “You weren't Impressed when she started,” she pointed out, “N'vian was. She'd have expected you to get bronze and you were still available to fuck.” N'vian was as out of the equation at that point in time, as R'vi was now. Indivara's attack on dragon colours was pitiless, and as blunt as ever. She rolled her eyes and snorted. “Goldriders are completely capable of keeping pet blueriders.” She added, not bothering to name but clearly referring to Rhaedalyn and Z'ia.

“You're such a fucking idiot,” Indivara hissed, throwing a hand out in disgust and frustration – and accidentally hitting Venseth square in the face, making both girl and dragonet yelp in surprise and pain. Eyes wide, Indivara twisted and dropped to her knees, petting Venseth gently on the face and muttering softly as she soothed him; she completely missed the way he gave R'vi a pointed look over her shoulder. He would have spoken, but he hadn't mastered his volume or control yet.

R’vi winced as Indivara pointed out everything he had already thought about and more. He knew everyone thought he’d Impress bronze as well – assuming he managed to Impress at all – and had to wonder how disappointed people were. Surely a large portion of the population had lost on what they assumed would be an easy bet and like Indivara said, Tavynia thought they would be the perfect ruling couple. She should have gone after N’vian but it was hard to seduce a weyrling that couldn’t even hold hands if the dragonet was too sensitive so she was stuck with the twin that hadn’t Impressed yet. Then he went and bonded to a pretty blue.

What he hadn’t thought about, however, was being a goldrider’s pet. It wasn’t like he was looking for a long term commitment and surely Tavynia wouldn’t be the one he saw himself with for the rest of his life but wasn’t he more than some pet bluerider? D’hys already referred to him as a toy and now he was on his way to being a pet. Why did everyone want to place ownership on him? R’vi simply wanted to be himself and to be free enjoying whatever he liked.

“I am,” R’vi agreed easily when he was insulted but despite that, he knew enough to keep his mouth shut when Indivara accidentally smacked her dragonet and started to coddle Venseth. Given the girl’s temper, making even the slightest comment about her dragon would result in the fool not being able to speak for days after a punch to the mouth. “Guess that’s why I’ll keep living day by day and maybe tell her again I’m not interested in being a dad, being in a relationship, or being a pet bluerider.” There couldn’t be much else ranked higher on the stupidity list than telling a hormonal woman he had different views than her.

Indivara threw a dirty look over her shoulder at R'vi when he agreed with her vaguely after she insulted him. She was too invested in making sure Venseth was okay in that moment to pay R'vi too much extra attention. “Ugh,” Indivara half grunted, half snarled the word as she sat down on the ground, and Venseth carefully settled himself so he was occupying a great deal of her lap and the surrounding area with his growing body. If Indivara realised she was being contained by the young dragon, she was oblivious to it.

“You really are a fool,” she snorted, her anger seeming to fade away for the moment as she took to petting Venseth soothingly, as unaware of him plying her with soothing emotions as she was of his careful placement on her lap. “Tell her that and she'll get ideas,” Indivara pointed out, her tone in realms of reasonable as she ran gentle fingers over Venseth's eyeridges and then eyed a spot critically for dryness. Blue eyes lifted from her dragonet to peer at R'vi with a scowl. “Unless that was your plan,” her tone then spoke volumes about what she thought of both that, and R'vi.  Her nose curled and Venseth gave R'vi another irritated look before setting back into the effort of soothing Indivara's emotions.

“I think Venseth has a dry spot,” Indivara mumbled, though whether to her companion or herself was left to the reams of individual perception.

R’vi did nothing but stare at Indivara. His mind was reeling as he tried to keep up with her strands of conversation and he currently had no idea what he was and wasn’t supposed to do. What would encourage Tavynia? Did he want that or was that a bad thing? He groaned in frustration and both hands went to his head, scratching at his skull and ruffling up his hair. A sigh was puffed out, blowing some of the wayward strands of hair around and he peered through them to Indivara. “Di! I have no idea what you’re talking about now. I’m going to end things with her am I not supposed to now? Is that going to encourage her to keep chasing me for daddy duty?”

Utterly defeated by the topic and trying to figure everything out, R’vi flopped back to sprawl on the forest floor. Women were way too difficult, perhaps it was time he focused solely on sleeping with men. There seemed to be a lot less drama with those lovers. Vydoriath took advantage of the new position to lay his head on R’vi’s stomach and the twin easily took to stroking the dragon’s neck. Despite being new to being a real dragonrider, dragons were something R’vi was currently a bit more confident in and latched onto the distracted comment from Indivara. “It is getting late so we should probably get back and tend to them before bed.” A bed that would be very much lacking in anyone else for quite some time and given the headache forming already from the talk and what the future could hold for him, R’vi wondered if the bed should simply stay that way forever.

Indivara’s gaze lifted very slowly from Venseth’s hide, and the dragon’s eyes flashed red with the sudden flare of Indivara’s emotions as the girl he was mostly sprawled across drifted dangerous blue eyes along the ground until her gaze was travelling up R’vi to meet his own with a sneer across her lips. “You’re so stupid!” She flared, though the words themselves contained as much exasperation as they did anger. Puffing again, the girl pet Venseth’s head gently, running light fingers over the dragonet’s eyeridges as the blue eyed R’vi and Vydoriath for a moment. His eye angled at the pair gave every indication of a wink before he tilted his head to look at Indivara. I think you need to spell it out for him, love. Indivara gave a dramatic huff.

Pushing Venseth off her, Indivara rose absently and brushed dirt off her behind as she meandered her way over to R’vi and offered the young man a hand to help pull him onto his feet, her expression long suffering. “Tell her those things and the stupid whore will think you’re offering up reasons for her to latch onto for you to be together.” The girl shrugged, muscles tensing as she hauled her friend to his feet. “Why do you think I didn’t tell Val about Varlea?” Of course, she’d nearly cried from relief when the bluerider wound up in proximity during her labour but Indivara didn’t feel like attempting to explain to R’vi that the other bluerider made her feel safe. Indi was still trying to figure it out herself.

“C’mon,” she added, linking her arm lightly around R’vi’s waist and visibly delighting in her fellow weyrling’s confusion. Venseth sighed softly, and trotted over to walk just behind the pair, his nose at Indivara’s thigh.