Midnight Quarantine Meeting {Zen/Malin}

[nick]

Dr'ym yawned and looked around. Midnight, great. He really shouldn't have went to bed so early. Oh, well...can't be helped, he thought.

He quietly got up and stretched. Nothing much to do, Krian was gone out with wild fire-lizards...no wait...he was asleep at the foot of the bed. Claudiuth stirred slightly but continued to sleep.

He made his way over to the doorway, to look up into the sky. The moon was beautiful, he smiled. Malin had been standing here yesterday. She was a different one, but not in a bad way...or at least Dr'ym thought.

[Zenniel]

Malin never really got any sleep. When she did sleep, the dreams were erratic and uncontrollable. Even with a dragon, who, though still young, tried to help with the dreams, they would still keep coming. As a result, every midnight Malin woke up. This was every midnight, so when she saw someone else up, she worried. Maybe it wasn't midnight, and she had overslept!

Which would, for Malin, be a good thing.

But, unfortunately, the barracks weren't coated with the pre-dawn gray that always came before the sun rose. This meant that it was midnight, and that someone was awake during her time. Brangwainth, freed from her clutch on Malin's dreams, sighed and slept more thoroughly. Malin patted her dragon's head lightly, massaging between the eye-ridges. Then, as her mind snapped back to more important matters, she wondered who was up.

And who was standing at her window. Yes, her window. She had taken to that window as the Weyrlings were confined to the barracks. She daintily stood up, and daintily walked over to the window. She was right behind the person when she asked, "what captivates you, so?" She didn't know who it was, but knew it was a male.

[nick]

At the sound of a voice Dr'ym jumped and spun around. He came face to face with Malin. He was in a defensive crouch so the moonlight was able to hit her face.

Her eyes dazzled him for a second. " I..uh..Shards Malin! Scared me near to death you did." He sighed heavily.

" I was looking at the moon and the night sky, its very lovely. The moonlight sets off your eyes, dazzlingly Malin." He smiled at her

" Care to join me and talk for a while? I can't sleep."

[Zenniel]

Malin was about to get pummeled, so she took a defensive step back. She did, however, relax as he did. She put her head to one side, almost quizically, when he told her nothing but praise. Compliments, for her, were great praise. She smiled as she glanced at the moons and stars outside the window. The first moon was overhead, and the second of Pern's moons was just about past the quarter mark in the sky.

"Yes, those stars are very nice tonight. They're brighter than last night." Then she turned her eyes, the same ones Dr'ym had been enthralled with before, back onto his figure. "Talk? About what? And you can't sleep, too?"

[nick]

" Ah, i don't know lovely. Anything that we feel like talking about, this is as alone as a Quarantine gets isn't it?" Dr'ym said.

As her eyes came back to him, it was then he realized that he wasn't wearing a shirt. " Ha, would you like me to put something on Malin?"

" I went to bed too early, why can't you sleep? Come on, you can come over here...i don't bite." He smiled at her and held out his hand. Her green eyes were all that he could look at for the moment.

[Zenniel]

Malin's eyes were dragged back up to Dr'ym's face. She smiled, and said gently, and in that strange higher-pitched (than a normal person's voice) voice, "no, you look nice with your shirt off." Then, still smiling, she locked eyes with Dr'ym and said, "I don't ever sleep. I have nightmares, and wake up at this time almost every night. The sky really is beautiful at night. There aren't a lot of dragons flying about, and you can count every star."

Still smiling, she took his hand. It was warm, she thought. She suddenly shivered, and her eyes lit up. Dr'ym was very warm, and she was so very cold. But, no, she could not think about that. indeed, her mind quickly forgot that, and focused again on the stars. The sky was very much the only thing that could keep her focus. It always had been. No, she was not mentally diseased, but looking at the sky calmed her. Dr'ym, she knew, was invading her thoughts. That could be either good or bad... she was leaning toward good.

[nick]

Dr'ym lead her over to the door, smiling broadly at her compliment to him.

" Nightmares! Now, now...why would nightmares haunts a beautiful girl like you?" He found himself asking.

His eyes were still somewhat glued to hers, but he still saw the shiver. Cold? Could be...it was a little chilly...and he wasn't cold, but he had more meat on his bones.

As she came over, she looked into the sky...making Dr'ym smile. " Count all the stars Malin?" He asked as he gently laid her back against his warmer body.

[Zenniel]

Malin was suddenly pulled into a haphazzard embrace. She kind of liked it. It took her mind off the stars, which she clearly couldn't see right now as Dr'ym's warm body was in her way. He was angled just so that she could only see a small patch of light near his head, and that was only if she angled herself just so, too. She liked it, though.

"Yes, nightmares. About beasts. And things that I don't know the name of. That's what nightmares are supposed to be, right?" Then, as she considered his latest question, she nodded. "Yes, all the stars that can be seen. The largest, most times, is the Red Star." She was comforted by talking about stars. Maybe he wouldn't feel her heart uncharacteristically beating faster than normal.

[nick]

Dr'ym looked down at her. " Beasts? Surely there is something that could make it all go away." Now he was a little concerned for her, nightmares every night!?

There was a pounding, something that wasn't in his chest. He realized that it was Malin's heart...did she have feelings for him? His heart began to beat faster.

Dr'ym looked away from her to the sky. " Oh, I'm sorry Malin, here." He shifted so that they could both see the sky, but kept her in his arms.

" You know...to be honest...I...ah...nothing." He blushed. He was about to tell her that he hadn't forgotten holding her slender figure in his arms yesterday! What was he, crazy!?

No... Said a very sleepy dragon.

[Zenniel]

Malin's body shifted as Dr'ym's did. She watched as more stars came into view, and her heartbeat settled somewhat. She craned her head back when he started to tell her something, but apparently thought better of it. "What are you going to be honest about?"

Panic flared within her chest, and Brangwainth opened one sleepy eye. Nothing to be *yawn* worried about, dear-one. Watch the stars. Of course Malin did just that. The panic died down, and she shortly forgot why she was scared about in the first place. "You are very warm." She said suddenly, breaking the silence that she had let fall over the barracks. No one else moved, their sleeping forms still.

[nick]

Dr'ym thought for a minute...hmmm....what if she, ah when have I ever thought anything like this through!

" Well if you really want to know, I'll tell you. But only if you are sure." He said.

They stood there watching the stars for a few minutes of silence. He squeezed her tightly for a second and then just held her again, smiling.

" Thank you lovely, you are very pretty." He told her as he looked into her big green eyes again...mezmerized.

[Zenniel]

Again, Malin was drawn back to those eyes. Those ever astonishing, lovely icy blue eyes. She grinned, and nodded, her chin running up and down his chest. "I would love to know what you are honest about." She had a funny way of phrasing things sometimes.

Brangwainth sighed in her sleep, and rolled over. Soon she, and many other dragonets, would be up and calling for food. But now was not 'soon' and the world was theirs.

[nick]

" Mmm...Ok." He smiled as her chin tickled his chest a little.

Dr'ym suddenly began to get nervous, he was nervous around a girl! Then Claudiuth's sleepy mind was there with him, calming him.

He kept staring into her eyes, he couldn't look away. " I couldn't get that time yesterday out of my head, the time that I had you in my arms." It was like it just flew out, he had no control...not with her staring back into his eyes.

This time he shivered. He wasn't cold, no...he was just perhaps enchanted still by those eyes. His heart beat increased again.

[Zenniel]

Oh! She remembered when she had been in his arms. He had been warm yesterday, too. Why warm, she wondered to herself, but didn't have enough time to wonder as Dr'ym shivered. Malin giggled.

"You are a strange man, Dr'ym." Malin said, her voice almost the equivalent of a dragon's crooning. "But," she consempated, "I have been thinking of that, too." She had, for a little bit... until the sky took her again. She loved the sky, and loved to figure out what little things were in the sky. Clouds, she discovered, where her favorite.

[nick]

He was shocked by what she had said. Hmm, she had....interesting he thought. Her tone of voice made him almost melt, it was almost sensual...similar to a croon of a dragon but better.

" You are strange too Malin, but I like it." He said softly to her.

He laughed a little. " It attracts me more than anything else. Your strangeness, and the way you find joy in watching the sky." He ran a hand through her hair as she watched the stars.