Author's Note: I started this particular fic series for lack of any better place to put snippets like the one that follows. "Forgotten Works" is for vaguely canon-affiliated works, "TanTan's Library" for the same but of a more questionable nature content-wise . . . but I still lacked a place to put those stories that were not related to the canon at all but were too short to stand on their own as full stories. And thus, I have created yet another non-continuous series of shorts . . .
This is exceedingly random, yes, I know. I got my start on fanfic in general in the Pern fandom, RPing and writing stories for a now-defunct club called Starshine Weyr. I have very fond memories of that particular time, when the whole internet thing was just starting to hit it big, and I was just discovering its wonders . . . things like the long load times and the frustrations of AOheL are slowly disappearing in the rosy glow of nostalgia . . . ah, the wondrous internet, the reason why I did not sleep all through high school . . .
Er. This was written for the fic battle over at the saiunkoku_fic community.
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Consciousness peeked tentatively into Shuurei's fuzzed brain, as quiet and soft as the early light stealing across the stone floor of her weyr. She opened one eye and attempted to focus on the two large dragons comfortably twined together on the ledge, dark gold and silver-bronze. They regarded her right back through whirling green-blue eyes. The perpetual amused glint in her golden Kochouth's could simply have been her normal arch humor, but probably not. Her mind was sleepily refusing to identify the bronze.
*Seiranth,* Kochouth said, sounding positively smug.
Seiranth? Whose was he, again?
With that thought awareness and memory surfaced: Kochouth's waking, hungry, her kills, the scattered images of the flight- and scattered images that had nothing to do with flying, that included male bodies around her, tension, skin under her hands-
Those few times when she'd thought about Kochouth's first mating flight, she had reassured herself: she would wake up afterwards, first and early, sneak out of bed, get dressed. That would hopefully minimize the awkwardness when whichever bronzerider it was woke up; then she and the rider in question would have a serious and logical discussion, their first as the new Weyrleaders of Saiunkoku Weyr. It would be very analytical, focusing on the balance of responsibilities between them and planning their first steps as leaders. The flight itself would be put out of mind and quickly forgotten.
That was how it had been in her head, anyway. But it seemed that the reality was rather different, because her cheek was pressed against bare skin, and there was the steady drum of a heartbeat in her ear. One of her legs was inextricably tangled with a longer one, and her arm proved to be mostly under a male shoulder. Her other hand firmly held a fistful of fine and overly long blonde hair. And despite her plans to be the first one awake, it was rather apparent that she'd failed to manage it: a hand was stroking her own black hair, smoothing the straight strands into place along her back.
She discarded the immediate, panicked idea of pretending to be asleep: neither of them would be going anywhere without the other's full knowledge, that was quite clear. She steeled herself, and looked up- directly into familiar amber eyes.
It's not possible. "R'ki?" she managed, and it came out as a squeak.
"Umm," he said, his head craned down to see her, "good morning?" His eyes flickered away to the two dragons watching them from the ledge, and he smiled at a comment she couldn't hear. "Well, actually 'afternoon,' according to Seiranth."