[G] [P] 743.05.02 | Cousin Cuddle Comforts

Zory let out a soft grunt as he flopped his bony shirtless body across his cousin who was just trying to read on his cot. That was fine, he was fairly sure that Larnell could read and listen at the same time. Even Pit, caught up in the same melancholy doldrums she was picking up from her master, tried to get in on the cuddles, trying to wedge her little pistachio colored body somewhere in the mass of limbs and torsos. Once the firelizard was comfortably settled (at least that was what he assumed since she seemed satisfied enough to stop squirming at least), Zory turned his head up to pout at his cousin. "I think K'dar is angry with me for some reason. He's been acting weird!"

That was a bit of an understatement really. There had just been so many things in such a short amount of time. Maybe Zory had offended him somehow? Maybe he'd forgotten something important for K'dar while he was so focused on trying to get the scarf finished for T'ryn's birthday. Or maybe K'dar hated his own birthday scarf and was jealous because the other one was so much better? Zory frowned and shifted his weight again to cling even more to Larnell in his search for comfort. The firelizard gave a small disgruntled chirp until he settled back down. "Sorry, Pit," he grumbled. "Anyay, I think K'dar is mad and I don't know what to do. He's been acting super weird and avoiding me ever since Malvayth's flight. He didn't even give me a ride back! I had to ask for a ride from someone else. A greenrider I think." Not that there was anything wrong with getting a ride from a greenrider, he just had been so distracted and confused by K'dar suddenly bailing on him with a flimsy excuse that he didn't remember who exactly had taken him back.

With one more flop he sighed. "What should I do? Have you noticed him being weird or anything? I don't know if you spend a lot of time with him or anything."

A small sigh of exasperation pushed past Larnell’s lips, and his righthand fell away from where he’d been twirling a lock of hair as he read. His gaze shifted from the pages of his book, to frowning down at his cousin with furrowed eyebrows. There were elbows and legs everywhere and Larnell wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to extract himself from under Zoremet. “Zoremet!” Larnell grunted, his tone clearly exasperated, as he dropped the book on the floor beside his cot and wriggled around so he was lying on his back, his cousin now sprawled across him. Larnell sighed.

“Really?” Larnell asked, trying not to show his amusement at the idea of K’dar being angry about, well, anything that wasn’t directly related to someone insulting one of his family members. Larnell liked the bronzerider, and got along quite well with him he thought; they read together sometimes, exchanging books and stories and sitting in companionable silence. Larnell especially liked when they could snuggle up with K’dar’s bronze beastie and read while the dragon overlooked them (or napped, either or).

Rolling his eyes to himself, though the action was fond, Larnell relaxed into his pillow and idly stroked Zoremet’s hair as the younger squirmed before getting comfortable again. Larnell listened to his woes in silent amusement. He really didn’t think it likely K’dar was mad at Zoremet, and honestly couldn’t think of anything his fellow candidate could have done to upset the bronzerider. Larnell patted Zoremet on the head when he finally asked his last handful of questions, and considered for a moment how to reply.

“I have not,” Larnell said slowly, considering back to the last time he’d seen K’dar. It hadn’t been that long ago; they’d exchanged some books – which eh had been quite happily reading until Zoremet showed up – and the bronzerider had seemed fine to him. Not that they’d talked much, just a quick exchange and gone on their way, both (assumedly) eager to bury their noses in the new adventures. “Did you try sending him a note with Pip asking if he was upset?” Larnell asked reasonably, already quite sure he knew the answer.

Zoremet felt bad about interrupting his cousins reading, bit he felt worse enough about the situation with K'dar that he couldn't bring himself to apologize yet. At least Larnell wasn't shoving him away and the cuddles and hand stroking his hair were helping to calm him down at least somewhat. He tightened his cuddly grasp on his cousin as he shook his head. "No, I haven't yet, and if I did I think he'd lie and say he's fine. He's been acting weird since... since T'ryn's birthday."

Still, he supposed he could try to send the letter anyway and see if that worked. Zory didn't want to move though, instead maintaining his cling as he rambled, "I don't know why he's upset with me. I found him during Malvayth's flight and just did what we usually do. But then he left before I even woke up." Zory sniffled slightly, not quite tearing up but bothered enough that his nose was starting to run. With a shake of his head he said, "I'm worried. Even if he's not mad at me, what if something is wrong?"

Zory gave another small flail before curling back up on Larnell like a scrawny man shaped limpet. Pit, absolutely done with that nonsense, gave a soft annoyed chirp before climbing up to rest safely on Larnell's shoulders. "See! Now Pit is mad at me too! Maybe it's just me."

Okay, Larnell would give Zoremet that – it would be likely that K’dar would lie and say everything was fine, even (if not especially) if it weren’t. It was a rather solid family trait, that apparently spread to even those not actually related by blood. That said, Larnell was fairly sure just being in such constant contact with all of his cousins was more than enough to rub off on anyone. Though it seemed the girls took after his mother, more than his uncle. He hadn’t seen Mylorah or Casa squirming with unimaginable amounts of guilt over nothing. Funny, how that seemed to have worked out.

“I still think you should send him a note,” Larnell said, giving a lock of Zoremet’s hair a gentle, teasing tug. “Let him know you are worried.” Communication was an important skillset, but especially between friends and family. Something Larnell was quite sure his piece of shit father was too stupid to comprehend. Hopefully his cousins wouldn’t be as dense. Larnell sighed, however, when the firelizard got snippy, relocated, and set Zoremet off into another wave of self-pity. Honestly.

“Well, it could be,” Larnell said, adjusting his long limbs where they were being squished under his cousin, so he could get some blood circulating to his feet again. The hand not petting Zoremet’s hair brushed his own long blonde locks out of his face. “But making assumptions has never helped anyone.”

Zoremet let out a soft grumble in protest, hand feebly batting at his cousin when his hair was gently tugged. "If I say I'm worried then he might just get angrier or become worried himself!" Still though, it wasn't a terrible idea even if it was much more confrontational than Zory liked. He'd rather just have someone else handle it entirely and magically make things better but he was sure even Mylo would have tried to get him to talk to K'dar directly. Or worse, send K'dar to talk to him. Just the thought of his grumpy older brother coming to talk to him about something he'd done sent a shiver down his spine.

"I just don't want him to be mad at me," he whined again hoping in vain that Larnell wouldn't push for him to just send the letter. Maybe he should have asked Zelana about it. If she didn't just go straight to K'dar to question him she could have at least asked A'tay to look into it for her. But no, Larnell was making some sense in a very reasonable way that Zory didn't really like. He groaned, burying his face against his cousin in frustration. "Why can't you just ask him?"

Except even Zory knew that wasn't really fair. This was something he'd done, so he should in theory be the one responsible for it right? So with another grumble he pushed himself up to just sit on his cousin's lap, shoulders hunched forward with nerves. "I guess I can try to write a letter. Did you bring any paper or anything? If not can I cuddle you for a bit longer until I get the nerve to go find some and do it later?"

“Well, I could ask him for you,” Larnell said mildly, watching as Zoremet sat up and grumbled to himself before asking if he could snuggle some more. Larnell didn’t answer him yet, because he was busy working on how to tease his fellow candidate. “But…” he drew the word out, lifting his eyebrows and brushing his hair off his face again; the long locks tended to get everywhere. “What if I spoke to him, and he told me he was upset with you, but he told me why he was upset… What if then I got upset with you?” He widened his eyes, and leaned up on his elbows, Zoremet still on his lap. “Then you would have two of us upset, and that does not sound fun at all!”

Larnell bit his full bottom lip, before bursting into a soft laugh and he sat up fully, wrapping his arms around Zoremet and hugging the poor kid tightly. He rested his chin on Zoremet’s head, and held his cousin tightly so he couldn’t wriggle away, until he was sure Zoremet had caught on to the fact that Larnell was definitely teasing him, and he didn’t expect anything K’dar said to actually make him upset with the kid. “I can talk to him, if you would like me to.” He said, his tone serious as he shifted so he could look at Zoremet’s face, his expression now as serious as his tone, no longer teasing him. “I can likely get a lift with Uncle R’nd,” he added, thoughtful. It wouldn’t take much to get to wherever K’dar was currently hiding. Probably the bronzerider needed someone to talk to, anyway, if he was genuinely upset. If nothing else, Larnell could convince him to talk to someone.

“Would you like for me to talk to him?” He asked, seriously. “We can send Pip with a note to Uncle R’nd asking if he is free tomorrow.” Honestly, it would probably get more answers out of K’dar if he showed up at the guy’s Weyr than if they sent Pip with a note. Like Zoremet said, the bronzerider would probably just lie. It was a lot harder to lie when someone was staring at you, and to boot, Larnell was well trained, and could spot a lie pretty easily.

The more Larnell spoke the more horrified Zoremet became. What if he was right?! What if there was some horrible thing that he'd done to make K'dar angry, something so horrible that even his cousin would be mad at him too? Zory was visibly shaken by the idea, the distress plain on his face as he tried to figure out the best solution.

And then Larnell was laughing and he realized that it had been a mean joke. He pouted through the hug, but didn't pull away since he was at least getting something nice out of it. "Ugh. I know you were joking but now I'm worried you were accidentally right and more people would get mad at me if they knew." Zory sighed, melting in a helpless boneless heap to lean heavily against Larnell. "I guess I'll try to talk to him later. I'll send a note tonight or tomorrow maybe, try to talk in person after the hatching if it's not better by then."

He hated every part of this, it was making him nervous and anxious and his heart was fluttering enough that he stayed firmly affixed to his cousin's warm body for comfort until he finally felt himself calm down. "I don't like talking to people who are upset with me. I don't even like talking to people when I'm upset with them!" He glanced up to see Pit peering down at him curiously from atop Larnell's shoulders, so he reached up and gently touched her nose. "Maybe Pit will help me feel brave about it or something."

Zory could have sworn the firelizard shrugged in response but he was positive no one would believe him. They weren't that smart after all. Supposedly. He grumbled and adjusted himself to be a bit more comfortable on top of his trapped cuddle partner. "Could you at least help distract me for a bit until then? I'm sorry for interrupting your reading earlier... maybe you could tell me about that. Or what dragon you want to impress-oh no! If I impress how can I talk to K'dar?!" He hadn't even considered that as a possibility! If he impressed he'd be too busy to talk to his brother! But... maybe that would be a good thing. He frowned thoughtfully as he considered it.