February 24, 2003
R'hyn and Serri enjoy the waterfall pool during the latter end of her first trimester.

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You head off toward the foliage and the pool at the falls.

Serriena is in the pool of water, standing beneath the waterfall, her face uptilted to let the small cascade pour over her. She's got a smile on her face when she steps out from beneath, pushing her wet blond hair back on her head.

R'hyn's shoes are missing, his feet bare, and even his breeches are rolled up towards his knees, showing off hairy legs. With a curved smile, he notices Serriena, approaching quietly around the edge of the trees.

Serriena wipes water away from her eyes, perhaps why she doesn't immediately spot the barefoot Weyrleader. She squeezes water from the end of her hair, and then turns, her back to the rocks, looking at the waterfall in the shallower part of the pool.

Nor does R'hyn - immediately - alert the Weyrwoman to his presence; he continues on his way around the pool, finally, with exaggerated care, sitting himself down upon a rock, feet dunked into the water. He watches her, smile amused.

Serriena turns at something from the corner of her eye and pushes back in the pool, her head jerking back in surprise. Her eyes are wide open, to enormous dark blue depths and she says, "Good grief R'hyn you startled me!" She peers at the Weyrleader with accusation.

"Are you going to accuse me of stalking you, now?" wonders the soft-spoken Weyrleader, refraining from a direct apology, as he stretches out his legs in the cool, clear water. "You looked so peaceful, I didn't like to interrupt."

"Of course I don't think you're stalking me," Serriena says with a smile. She swims towards R'hyn now that she know where he is. "Just that it was unfair of you not to announce you were here." She stays in the water coming up to smile up at him. "You coming in?" she invites.

R'hyn sticks out his tongue in childish pique; he's long since learned to relax in the company of Serriena, which means there's often a great incongruity between the two R'hyn's, public and private. "Whomever said that life was fair, my dear Serri?" he wonders, as, after a pause, he shakes his head. "No, no, I'll just watch you swim."

"Oh no you won't," Serriena grins mischieviously. She pulls herself up a bit from the water and reaches up to take R'hyn's hand, gripping him by the wrist and part of the forearm. Quickly she tugs at him, using her strength to try and pull him into the water with her.

R'hyn's slow enough, today, that Serriena's reaction isn't one he expects; with a great splash, he ends up in the water, fully clothed, and spluttering. "Serri!" he whines.

Serriena turns around and just laughs. "Yes, I think that better suits you," she intones and gives a playful splash. She hops up out of the water, pulling herself onto the rock and looking down at R'hyn in the water, amusement sparkling in her eyes. Droplets of water run down her skin, pouring onto the fashioned rock seat. "Ah much better." She gives that impish grin to him.

"What, now you're going to watch me?" R'hyn rises up out of the water, the water running off his sodden clothes in great rivers, as he struggles with them. He strikes a pose - for all of a moment - then shakes the water out of his hair. "You must be hormonal or something."

Laughter escapes as Serriena says, "Perhaps. I seem to remember getting some very proddy urges around my fourth month." She stands to her feet and strikes her own pose. Just a nice rounded bulge under her swimsuit. "So how do I look Weyrleader?" She tilts her head at him, trying to give him a sultry look with that pose.

Worry flickers on R'hyn's face - not serious, just nervousness at this whole pregnancy thing, and then fades. "Shouldn't that be R'hyn? After all, it's Serriena that's concerned with the pregnancy, not the Weyrwoman. Right?" His smile broadens, as he takes several struggled step back towards the rock. "Wow. So... Less than half a turn to go."

Serriena nods and sits back down. "Yes, sorry about that R'hyn." She slides into the water smoothly and says, "Swimming is easier for me than running because I feel lighter in the water." She turns on her back and glides on a backstroke away from the rocks. "But I'm taking good care of her.. or him.. it." She smiles. "Whatever the baby may be."

"Sprog," names R'hyn, decisively. "I think 'it' is horribly impersonal, don't you? I mean, this is going to be a child. A person. A..." He trails off, looking delighted. "/Real/."

"A real person," Serriena agrees happily. "R'hyn you must bring your mother by to visit me. I'm sure she'll want to see her grandbaby growing at more than just a distance." She clucks her tongue and waggles a finger at him for shirking duty. "You know Derien is already telling stories about me to Mechelle and how big I am."

R'hyn treads water, slicking his hair back with one motion of his hand - it's dark, and tightly curled, when wet. "I'll do so," he promises. "She's so excited that it's almost kind of hard to make her wait so many months. Is he?" he adds, laughing. "And you're not big at all, yet."

"I didn't think so either," Serri is mirthful as she agrees. "But apparently he told Mechelle I was eating pickled packtail and lounging on the couch all day. I could have switched his hide for such tales." She makes a face. "I don't even /like/ picked packtail." Yet she doesn't quite deny the lounging on the couch part.

"And pregnant women are allowed to lounge. They're supposed to be coddled." R'hyn has quite possibly just stuck his foot into it, and just hasn't realised it; he smiles, paddling closer.

"Oh no," Serriena shakes her head, "I shall not be coddled..." she pauses and then adds, "Well not too much. It is not good for a woman to stay off her feet all day because she grows even more round than Niaryth when she is full with egg." Serriena glances down. "I'm not too tall, so I'd look like a shipfish if I gained so much weight."

R'hyn runs a finger through his hair again - it's springing up again, going frizzy. "Then we'll keep you moving, I promise. Or... I guess you know what's best, more than me. But if you need anything, I do want to help."

Serriena gets that impish grin again, "Is that a promise?" she asks cleverly and then pulls herself out of the water again to sit near R'hyn. "I could use a back massage you see," She places a hand to the small of her back. "The baby puts pressure right there, and if someone could just rub and alleviate the pressure, it'd feel ever so much better..." her voice trails off suggestively.

R'hyn squeaks. "If it'd help," he says, hastily, paddling up to the edge of the pool, and sliding out. "I mean, I don't want you to go through all the annoyance of carrying the baby, and my not helping..."

Serriena tries to hide a smile as she says, "It's not an annoyance R'hyn. It's a pleasurable time." That healthy pregnant woman glow is about Serriena. "And I want you to spend as much time with me as you want to spend. This is your baby too." She looks at him with that impertinent grin, "I didn't make this thing all by myself you know." Teasing him lightly.

"But you get big, and it makes your back hurt, and..." R'hyn has been listening too much to his sister, who likes to complain. "I just... No, you didn't," he concludes, shifting himself so that he can get in a position to deliver the rub. "I don't want to stifle you, I guess. I mean, sometimes you surely see enough of me when we're working."

"Your company is not entirely unagreeable," Serriena says in her own defense. "And I think that it is good for the Weyr that we present such a friendly union," She sighs comfortably, leaning forward for the anticipated back rub. "After all it's been hard on our people to go through losing Alyssa as Weyrwoman, then losing Llilian and dealing with the loss of the Weyrleader.." she gazes up at the sky a bit. "So if we are in each other's presence a bit more, it shows what a solid working relationship we have together."

R'hyn's not particularly skilled, nor practiced, at giving back-rubs, but he tries, querying quickly with a "Like that?" as he gets into the swing of it. "I suppose," he assents. "I hadn't really thought of it like that. But it has been over a reasonably long time, surely."

Serriena nods. "It's been over a turn now R'hyn. Our weyrling dragons we watched hatch on the sands will be nearly a turn and three months in a few days." Serriena seems pleased with that. "They've grown so fast.. it's hard to keep up with every single one of them."

"It's all too fast," says R'hyn, shaking his head as he continues to rub Serriena's lower back. "Just a turn and a half ago I was just me, a normal wingrider. Now I'm Weyrleader, and I'm going to be a father. I feel all grown up, now."

Serriena lets out a small laugh at that admission. "You weren't grown up before?" she tilts her head, looking back at R'hyn from beneath her dark lashes with a sly look, "Could have fooled me," she teases, "In fact.. you felt very grown up to me." Yep she's still one to try and draw a blush from him with well chosen words.

Squeak. Flush. R'hyn ducks his head. "/Different/ grown up," he mutters, avoiding Serriena's gaze.

"I know," Serriena reaches back and touches his hand comfortingly. "You feel wiser and more mature." She pauses, "I feel the same way. Dealing with the things Llilian and T'rrent did, makes you more aware of the fragility between each weyr and hold, to maintain the balance of Pern." She gives a small breath, "Say the wrong thing and you've offended the wrong Lord Holder or Weyrleader..." So much to worry and fret over.

R'hyn's blush fades in time, and he nods. "It's not surprising, I suppose. Ista's small - but it's still a /weyr/, during the pass. There's none who could not recognise the responsibility involved in leading. Every nuance is important." The touch of his fingers is cool - still not practiced, but soft.

"Mmm that feels good," Serriena's voice is slightly thick as she says this, her eyes closed and her head bends forward as she gives herself up to the not-quite-expert but still rather nice fingers. "R'hyn," she says somewhat quietly, "Have your feelings towards me changed in any way?" She backpedals away from that to say hastily, "I only ask because you seemed to indicate that I should not want to be around you when not working." Okay insert foot into mouth... and start a conversation going somewhere it may not want to go.

R'hyn's fingers stop abruptly, when Serriena begins to speak again. "I..." he says, then shakes his head, regardless of the fact that she won't see him do so. "You're my friend, Serri, and I don't mean it like that at all. I don't mind spending time with you - I /like/ doing it. I just don't want you to feel like you always have to spend time with me."

Serriena gives a small dry laugh and her voice is rather saddened as she asks, "Well what else am I going to do?" She looks down at her hands and then admits, "I'm afraid outside of Niaryth, the boys and now you, Arisvath and this baby - my life has taken quite a boring streak to itself." She brings her head back up and turns to look at R'hyn. "I suppose in a way I think of all of you as my family here at Ista."

R'hyn starts rubbing Serriena's back again, after a pause, lifting his other hand up to smooth some of her hair as she turns. "Oh. I... I don't mind you thinking of me as family. I suppose, in a way, it's true. I suppose I always assumed that you had lots of friends you wanted to spend time with."

Serriena shakes her head, "Most of them have moved on." She gets quiet contemplating, "Although I suppose some have come back, like A'son, R'kel and Falina." She pauses, "But Llilian hasn't been the same since the accident, Mechelle and I are on tender eggshells around each other, I don't even think I see Belena anymore.." she pauses, "It just doesn't seem the same.

"Oh, Serri," begins R'hyn, dropping his hand again. "I'm sorry. I think that's... Just the way things are? But I know. I don't see any of my friends, anymore, except people like you, and my sister, not that I ever had many. They're down south, and here I am."

Serriena nods. She moves away, turning around to say, "Thank you for the back rub." She stretches slightly and says, "I think that helped alot." She takes his hand and agrees, "That is the way things are aren't they?" She smiles at R'hyn for a minute and then releases his hand with a squeeze. "I think I'm getting tired though so I shall go back to my weyr for a nap."

R'hyn's fingertips maintain contact with Serriena's for a moment after she lets go from the squeeze, and he nods. "You need your rest. I'll see you later, Serri."

Serriena nods. "You too." She stands to her feet, gathers her things and quits the area.

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