Verbal Keysmashing [Kerrin & Erisi]

It was late into the morning and R’nd was surprisingly up though it was debatable about how awake he actually was. He was currently curled up in one of the chairs in his living area, wearing only a pair of black cloth pants that were typically worn while lazing around his home. In hand he held a mug of klah, rejoicing in the cinnamon scent with every deep inhale and rejuvenating with every long swig of the hot drink. His gaze drifted to his bedroom where he left the door open and part of the bed could be seen, though the current occupant was hard to make out due to the furs R’nd had piled on the man. Last night had been wild and waking up next to one of the Harper Candidates still tucked in beside him was a bit of surprise. That was until he recalled how worn out they had been and how his euphoric-addled mind had suggested Erisi stay right before they passed out anyway.

The guy had been a good lay and R’nd wasn’t averse to sending him on his way with a morning romp and an invite to find him again sometime; no accidental tripping required. The only requirement, however, would be to either meet with less clothing on or tone down their enthusiasm in stripping it off. The main room of his hut had their clothes tossed around, mostly near the entrance, but it would still require sorting and that delectably petit body proudly strolling through his home nude, acting all the more temptation than it already was.

Speaking of that temptation, he should probably wake Erisi soon. Who knew what the Candidate was close to missing or already had from sleeping in. Maybe after he finished his klah. From what he heard, Erisi probably wouldn’t care if he missed a chore or lecture on Weyr life.

Unlike with R'nd, in Kerrin's case it was not unusual to see the teenaged weyrbrat up and about in the earlier hours of the morning, for he was of the sort that liked to get all of the unpleasant stuff out of the way as soon and as quickly as possible so that he could spend the rest of his day on a nice, long nap. Of course that wasn't always possible, but habits stuck, and this one had a way of making the boy surprisingly productive compared to many of his similarly-aged peers... on days he felt like being productive, anyway. Today just happened to be one of those days, which explained why Kerrin was aleady awake, dressed, fed, and soon to be on his way to the Craft Hall - after a bit of a detour, that was.

"Morning, Ayyonth!" Kerrin called to the blue dragon in his hovel, unsure if the beast was still sleeping but definitely suspecting that he had likely already heard him coming. If he hadn't been awake, he certainly was now! And of course he expected that the blue would do the usual and warn his rider of the impending intrusion on his home, for today was also one of those very commonplace days that saw the weyrbrat flinging open the door of R'nd's hut without so much as a perfunctory knock.

"HEY R'nd," Kerrin prefaced his usual mid-morning mile-a-minute, "I just came to see if you had anything that needed tailoring, since today I'm gonna help 'em sort out the mess that the Stolens made of the clothes making chore, you know how they..." the boy trailed off, amber eyes taking in the (also not terribly unfamiliar) sight of clothes strewn about the bluerider's hut. Honestly though most of the time at least R'nd managed to keep them in the general vicinity of the bedroom, not all over the sharding entryway. The weyrbrat tutted, toeing aside a pair of pants - he could see that the previous night's visitor was apparently male - as he invited himself into his friend's home and shut the door, regardless. If R'nd wanted to do awkward things then he could just feel awkward, Kerrin didn't care. He did, however, make a sweeping motion towards the offending mess of clothing with a dubious raise of one brow. "Seriously Randy, did you do it right up against the door or something?"

His blissful sleep was interrupted by a voice that distinctly reminded him of creeling dragons. It was unlikely that Kerrin's voice actually sounded that way, but Erisi tended to be melodramatic when his morning sleep was intruded on. If the young Harper had his way, he would have slept for a good while longer. The dragonrider's bed was sizable, and there was a comforting warmth in the weight of furs draped over his body. One would think that Erisi was the type to steal all the furs for himself - he was a greedy type of person when it came to the simple comforts in life. Surprisingly, he was a polite bedfellow, and a better lover.  Unsurprisingly, Erisi would rather be awakened by the smell of hot klah than a fellow Candidate. He recognized the voice, which only annoyed him more.

Closing his eyes for a few moments, he tried to return to his sleep. That didn't work. Kerrin wouldn't stop talking and Erisi grew irritable rather than content. He should be happy after a good night's lay, and he had been. His body was sore in all the right ways, and the walk back to his own room would have reminded him of the night before with each step. It was a good way to start his day. It would have been a good way to start his day, if not for Kerrin. Finally he let on to the fact that he was awake, rising to sit up in the bed with the furs clumping over his lap. He glanced across the bedroom, to the crack in the door in which he could see R'nd through.

"On the wall next to the door," Erisi responded in a tone that was decidedly cold in comparison to last night. He knew how to be charming to get what he want, but he was as irritable and short-tempered as a wher on most occasions. People usually liked sleeping with Erisi more than they liked sticking around to talk to him before and after. He used to have numerous sex partners, and very few friends. "Shells, that's what I was supposed to do. Clothing. They're probably better off without me anyways." Deciding to at least avoid more conflict than he had already tried to start, he grabbed a fur off the bed and wrapped it around his waist, walking into the main room with R'nd and Kerrin.

"Oh, hey."

“Hey, Ker,” of course Kerrin would show up, when didn’t he? R’nd should have expected it given his friend made the same trip on a regular basis around the same time but it had been a good night and he simply wasn’t awake enough to compute such basic facts. He had no issue with his friend finding the clothes scattered everywhere since that was pretty much par for the course of being a bluerider. Perhaps he should have at least closed the bedroom door to avoid waking Erisi. Before he could do more than grin at Kerrin’s assumption that it was the door that had been used, the Harper went and proved his line of thinking correct by waking up and sounding extremely miserable that it happened. So much for a quiet morning.

“What he said,” R’nd grinned behind his mug before taking a long drink of klah, feeling like he was going to need the energy to deal with whatever was about to come. Erisi joined them in the main room then wrapped only in furs with his hair dishevelled. That would have normally had a positive effect on R’nd but given Kerrin was still there and probably about to lecture him on sleeping with his classmates, again, he nearly continued sipping his klah in his relatively comfortable chair.

“Morning,” he certainly wasn’t about to call it ‘good’ anymore but he wasn’t about to ignore his freshly woken guest either. He may lack in modesty but manners he still possessed. “Sleep well?”

Oh shells, he knew that voice. Kerrin was usually quite good at simply ignoring whoever happened to be occupying R'nd's bed on any given day, as he was well aware of the temporary nature of his good friend's flings and therefore investing any significant amount interest in remembering the names and faces that made their way through the bluerider's hut would be a waste of his time... especially since one could simply figure that if the person in question were reasonably attractive and not weyrmated, then R'nd had either slept with them or had it on his to-do list. That was all well and good, and Kerrin had long since accepted this fact as part and parcel of the bluerider being... well, a bluerider.

This, however, was different. That much was immediately evident in the way the boy stared at Erisi, as the fellow candidate emerged at last from R'nd's bed clad only in the borrowed furs, with amber eyes narrowed warily and his nose scrunched him just slightly in what could easily be interpreted as barely-restrained disgust. It wasn't that Kerrin particularly hated Erisi, per se; as far as the Stolens went, the weyrbrat ranked the snarky Harper somewhere between 'not that bad' and 'actually okay.' Unfortunately, the fact that Kerrin actually kind of liked the guy only made the sudden mental image of the shameless bastard romping around naked in his friend's bedfurs even worse.

Did R'nd not realize that Kerrin had to spend all day with these people?! Where was the respect for his sanity! "Shells, R'nd!" the weyrbrat exclaimed, his voice sharp with incredulity and all of his attention redirected to the dragonrider, as if Erisi himself had become wholly irrelevant in that instant. "Are you trying to make your way through my whole class?!"

Erisi glanced down to the cup of klah in R'nd's hand, wanting some himself, but he was far too dignified to outright ask for it. Wasn't it proper manners to make sure the person you slept with the previous night was well fed and treated before shipping them off to a day of mind-numbing chores? Perhaps Erisi just expected too much, but it would have been far more nice to wake up to the smell of klah wafting towards his nostril than Kerrin's squeaky voice. Erisi could very well imagine his perfect morning after a good romp, and this was not turning out to be it. Sigh. He should really stop expecting things to go his way, considering where life had taken him so far.

"Well enough," Erisi responded in his typically cool voice. Their night of passion was over, and Erisi found himself stuck in the awkward stage of wanting to leave, but also wanting to defend himself against Kerrin. The Weyrbrat was not eying him favorably, so Erisi assumed that he was either friends with R'nd, or really good friends with R'nd. He could find out, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to get tangled up in this mess. He wanted a nice night of no-strings attached sex, and now there looked to be a few strings wrapped around his fingers that he had no idea were there before. If only he had developed the tendency to wake up early. He could have slipped off and not have to deal with Kerrin's sudden outburst of disgust (or jealousy, Erisi couldn't decide which).

"Are you?" he questioned loftily, arching a fine eyebrow high on his forehead at R'nd. The way he spoke was hardly serious, rather an almost playful inquiry. "If so, I'd advise avoiding Lymsleia. I think the poor girl's desperate. Talian too, you might break him."

His gaze flickered back over to Kerrin, an effortless smile gracing his features. "Have you gotten around to Kerrin, then? Looks like he might need it." Was he baiting Kerrin? Why yes, he was! Was he doing it maliciously? Actually, no. If he had to get up early in the morning, he was going to have some fun at another's expense. Besides, he was fairly confident Kerrin probably wanted it anyways. He might as well make the open suggestion for the both of them. He could almost be convinced to stick around if R'nd did decide to make his way through the candidates, starting with Kerrin.

Almost.

He wasn't sure he'd ever come to terms with the tone of Kerrin's voice.

R’nd found himself chugging back the remainder of his klah to avoid laughing at Kerrin’s outburst although he was admittedly a tad nervous of how that statement would be received and how everything would be played out. Thankfully, Erisi didn’t seem to mind or wasn’t awake enough to make a bigger deal out of it and only ended up joining in on the questioning. That wasn’t a good sign. If those two ended up agreeing and joining forces against him, R’nd suspected he would be in for a world of torment and since Kerrin would be the instigator, Ayyonth would jump teams and help the weyrbrat make his life miserable. “I’m not doing it intentionally, Kerrin. You just have some gorgeous classmates,” he shrugged at his friend as if to say it was unavoidable that such events have occurred and then gave Erisi a playful grin to go with the compliment.

At Erisi’s advice, R’nd cocked a brow, intrigued by the two Candidates singled out. It seemed clear that the Harper liked one and not the other so he didn’t question the association Erisi had with either. Besides, it really wasn’t relevant to their tumble around his hut last night and the potential sexual relationship that could come from it. “I’ve met Lymsleia. She’s rather excitable. I don’t know Talian, though, but now I’m a bit interested in finding him. I take it he prefers something gentler than you do?” R’nd could do gentler though he wasn’t sure how sweet this Talian kid would need but it was a bit of a moot point anyway since he was teasing the two young men. He really didn’t go hunting down their classmates! It just sort of happened that he stumbled upon them and they wound up in bed.

But when Erisi brought up sleeping with Kerrin, R’nd suddenly found himself lacking in playful comments and only looked down at his empty mug. “I need more klah,” he announced as he strode with a purpose to his kitchen area, hoping that thread of conversation was dropped or Kerrin answered it himself in any way he wanted. When a flight was involved, everyone knew who you were sleeping with but outside of that, R’nd tried not to boast about his lovers since some didn’t want that level of attention but given his reputation he was probably already associated with more people than he actually had slept with.

Kerrin's frown of disapproval only deepened as R'nd seemed to take Erisi's advice into consideration, until his expressive features bordered on a full-fledged scowl. He knew he was being melodramatic, of course, especially since he wasn't naive enough to believe that the bluerider was really asking about Talian in earnest. R'nd loved to tease, especially when it seemed as if the tables of advantage were turning on him, and his deliberate poking at the weyrbrat's alerady volatile temper was no doubt just a tactic to keep his upper hand in this... altercation, if one could call it that. The problem was that of course Kerrin knew that there was nothing he could do or say to convince his friend to respectfully keep it in his pants when around the people the youngest Candidate had to live and study with day in and day out. Nothing, that was, except be a nuisance about it until R'nd got tired enough of his complaining to actually listen to what he had to say.

It was a routine he was quite used to, and the weyrbrat was notoriously tireless when it came to keeping it up - this time, however, Erisi was there to interrupt with exactly the right thing it took to shut him up. And oh what a secret it was, because there was very little else on all of Pern that could have Kerrin's jaw snapping shut almost immediately when he'd already opened his mouth to say something else obnoxious about the bluerider's latest list of sexual conquests. Naturally, the teen knew Erisi was simply baiting him, and no doubt casually rooting around to find out if the Kerrin's own name graced that list... but if R'nd's sudden departure from the conversation were not enough to clue the Harper in on the fact that he had somehow touched upon a nerve, then the series of expressions that fleeted across the weyrbrat's easily-read face would surely be enough: first a flood of relief that his friend did not seem too eager to join in on the teasing, and then just the slightest shadow of hurt that the dragonrider had simply abandoned him there to fend for himself when the topic at hand obviously involved the both of them.

Awkwardly, Kerrin looked at Erisi for a long and silent moment, brows drawing together as he floundered for a response that would be neither lame - because he so hated to lose a verbal battle, regardless of how outrageous the situation - nor revealing enough to leave him open to more of the other Candidate's teasing. Ultimately, the task apparently proved too difficult for him, because it was without a single word to the grinning Harper that Kerrin turned a scowl back in the direction to which R'nd had escaped.

"What about your guests, huh?" the weyrbrat called loud enough for the rider to hear, sounding deflated but still unhappy enough with the current situation to muster up a suitable amount of petulance. "Did you at least offer him breakfast? You're horrible about that you know," Kerrin added, clearly avoiding the use of Erisi's name even despite his reluctant acknowledgement of the other man's presence.

"Have at Ly-slime-ah. I think she's pretty desperate for some dragonrider favor, anyways. She'd be easy." Erisi was thinking it'd do the Weyr a favor if she got knocked up and was thus distracted by raising a baby. Then again, her spawn could be just as bad as she. Weighing the benefits and downfalls to the idea, he decided that it would still be better for her to get knocked up. Maybe the offspring would get lucky, and not turn out to be as annoying as its mother. The other Candidate he mentioned, however, he cared a bit more for. So much so that even though he knew R'nd was teasing him, his feathers got ruffled regardless. He liked R'nd enough not to argue with him, so he devised a more playful maneuver to state the boundaries put on Talian. "He does, but I like to imagine that I'm more fun. You'd enjoy yourself more coming to me rather than seeking him out." Oh, the sacrifices he made for his friends! Great stories would be told about how Erisi sacrificed his own body to save his friend's. Of course, the part about him actually enjoying said sacrifice would be left out. It'd make the story far less dramatic, and no one ever listened to a story that lacked a dramatic air.

Normally. Erisi would have departed by now. He would be gone, too, if things suddenly didn't get interesting. He was a Harper, for Faranth's sake, and the discomfort R'nd was displaying and Kerrin's sudden avoidance fed a need to figure out what was going on and gossip about it. Of course, he had his suspicions, which was why he smirked at Kerrin. The weyrbrat may have dodged one issue by saying nothing, but by not speaking, he said a whole lot more. While Erisi had been merely baiting Kerrin, things were far too interesting for him to drop the subject. The Harper seated himself in a wooden chair, letting the furs wrapped around his body pool at his hips. If he was trying to seduce R'nd again, that probably would have been a good way to go about it. Alas, instead Erisi practically radiated with a smug sort of confidence.

He liked knowing what was going on, and Kerrin was even easier to read than R'nd. It was comforting, really, to have enough insight to see that Kerrin obviously had a thing for R'nd. If he felt particularly daring, he would have suggested a threeway to get the two more intimately introduced. But, Erisi was a bit of a stickler when it came to that sort of sexual encounter. He was the type of partner who enjoyed having all of the attention on him. He didn't take well to sharing. It took a particular amount of convincing and circumstance to win him over with such an idea. "I think you really should get around to it, R'nd," he purred sensually.

Ah, his rude awakening was becoming less irritating now. He'd call it a miracle.

"No, he didn't," he continued, acting mildly affronted by the knowledge that R'nd wouldn't even treat him to a cup of klah after the previous night's vigorous activities. Really, he was just allowing Kerrin a small reprieve from his teasing, going along with the desperate change of subjects. "I wonder if that doesn't bode well for me. You'd think that if he enjoyed it, he'd have at least woken me with the aroma of breakfast, rather than a jaded weyrbrat." Okay, so it wasn't that much of a reprieve. But, he was trying?

R’nd was actually a bit surprised at not hearing Kerrin give any sort of explanation to their friendship and beyond but also appreciated it. He knew that was tricky grounds to navigate and while he most certainly enjoyed the Harper and even found his wit and biting commentary amusing, he hadn’t yet earned the status of being privy to all of the inner workings of the bluerider whose bed he landed in. But just because the weyrbrat held his tongue once didn’t mean it would become a regular occurrence and when he took to shifting focus back onto R’nd being a poor host, R’nd grabbed two more mugs from the shelf. As he prepared more of the hot drink, it was easy to hear that the two young men were just baiting each other though Erisi was doing a slightly better job at it.

With a mug in each hand, R’nd returned to the main room, glad the Candidates were where he had left him and one hadn’t moved silently across the room to kill the other. He first went to Kerrin, placing a mug in his hands, which the brat better drink given the fuss he kept making about what a proper host should do, and then went to Erisi to give out the other mug of klah. “Don’t listen to him; he’s likely trying to get you poisoned. Not waking up to the smell of my cooking is the far better option.” R’nd leaned down so he was eye level with Erisi and grinned while fingers traced over an exposed collarbone that anyone could tell had clearly been lavished with attention the previous night, “I did enjoy you and I had been considering waking you properly and inviting you back another time when Kerrin arrived.” Even with his bratty friend watching the show, R’nd went in for a kiss, letting it linger with teeth nipping at Erisi’s lower lip before pulling back and straightening up.

Feeling far more in control of the situation once more, R’nd all but strutted back to his chair, grey eyes leisurely going from one Candidate to the other to see what they made of things. Then again, given his luck where Kerrin was involved, he had only set them off further but as long as he ended up intact and both men didn’t do more than the usual punishment of ignoring him for a sevenday, then R’nd felt all would be well.