Ryder was smugly contemplating how stiffly Evfra had moved in the morning briefing today, when one of his aids came into the office and handed her a datapad. They'd been for three runs so far, and though he covered it fairly well, she was sure he was feeling the effects. He had nearly groaned when his calendar reminded him of his meeting with the moshae this morning - in her office. Ryder had settled into her chair at his desk and leaned back comfortably with an exaggerated sigh as he left - several minutes earlier than usual - for the meeting.
Surprisingly, the datapad she'd been handed was a message from the moshae, asking Ryder to come to her office directly. Shrugging, Ryder started out at a quick walk, wondering what the moshae wanted with her.
Moshae Sjefa greeted Ryder herself, in the foyer of her office. She was frowning, and she was alone. Ryder felt her eyebrows rising as she looked around for Evfra.
"Pathfinder Ryder. When I asked you to see to it that Evfra had a chance to relax a bit, and get a proper amount of rest, this is not the result I was expecting!"
She sounded amused, rather than annoyed, so Ryder tipped her head to the side and waited, curious. Moshae Sjefa led the way through her office to the small veranda beyond it, motioning to Ryder for quiet. There on the veranda, Evfra occupied a comfortably padded chair, his arms crossed over his chest in his usual pose. Unusually, his chin rested on his chest, and he was snoring slightly.
Ryder's eyes widened, and she turned to the moshae. Seeing that Moshae Sjefa wasn't annoyed - she was, in fact, smiling fondly as she looked at Evfra - had Ryder setting her hand firmly across her mouth to silence her giggles. They left as quietly as they'd approached, and walked back through the moshae's office to the foyer.
"What have you done to the leader of the Resistance, Ryder? I asked him to wait for only a few moments, and this is what I find."
Ryder snickered. "I won a bet. The penalty is that he has to join me on my morning and evening runs for a week. This is only the second day."
Moshae Sjefa's expression settled somewhere between baffled and impressed. "A bet? I won't ask. I do need him to be functional during normal hours, however."
"Would you like me to wake him up?"
That earned her a chuckle from the moshae. "No, you go on back, I'll handle it. Don't tell him you were here."
Ryder nodded and turned to leave when the moshae's words called her back.
"I hope you won't push him too hard, Ryder. His self-esteem is a hard-won thing, but fragile for all that."
Ryder stared at her for a moment, certain that Efvra wouldn't thank the moshae for telling her this, and surprised that Sjefa had shared it anyway.
"Just hard enough that he doesn't have an excuse to give up on it. Don't worry, he is in excellent shape, though rather out of condition, he'll manage. Besides, he can't worry things to death while he's running; I doubt he has enough energy left to do anything but fall into bed at the end of the day - which is far earlier than he's used to, by the way, I've set our evening runs for a decent time, instead of the early morning when he usually leaves the office."
Moshae Sjefa nodded, apparently satisfied. "I do trust you, Ryder, or I would not have asked you to help with this."
Ryder smiled, and tossed her a mock salute before heading back to Resistance HQ.
Evfra arrived more than an hour later, looking rested but harried. He muttered something about his meeting with the moshae running longer than expected as he came in; Ryder gave a vague wave and kept her nose buried in the supply requests she was working on.
When her stomach informed her that it was time for lunch, Ryder set her datapad down firmly and stood up. Leaning over the desk, she plucked Evfra's datapad from his hands, smiling cheerfully at his outraged expression.
"Come on, lunch time!"
"I will eat while I work." As if to support this claim, he pulled a ration bar out of a drawer and set it on the desk in front of him. Ryder picked it up again, examined the wrapping and wrinkled her nose.
"Nope, not good enough. You're burning far more calories than usual, you need to replace them. Come on, I'll buy you lunch."
Evfra remained seated, scowling at her. Ryder offered him her sweetest smile; to his credit he looked immediately wary.
"If you don't eat properly, you won't make it through the day. Unless you want to fall asleep at your desk?"
She walked around the desk, ignoring his suddenly guilty expression, and dragged his chair out.
"Lunch, Evfra. In the tavetaan, thank you, not at your desk. How you don't have indigestion on a daily basis is a mystery - or it was, until I realized you were eating those ration bars as if they were real food or something."
He growled in the back of his throat, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at her, daring her to drag him from his chair. Ryder simply arched an eyebrow, and leaned back against the wall, crossing her own arms to mirror his pose. Leaning comfortably, she watched him patiently.
He turned back to his desk, determined to ignore her, and picked up the datapad again. He turned it on, resisting the urge to look warily over his shoulder at her. Taking a deep breath, he settled his shoulders and started reading.
After several minutes, he heard movement behind him. Hoping that she had given up, Evfra hunched his shoulders and kept his eyes fixed on the datapad. He annoyed, but not exactly surprised, when it was plucked from his grasp a second time.
Setting the datapad aside, Ryder leaned over his shoulder, one hand braced on his desk. When Evfra turned to frown at her, she was disconcertingly close. She smiled cheerfully at his annoyed sigh. He pushed his chair away from the desk to put some space between them.
Seemingly oblivious to his annoyance, Ryder took advantage of his move by hopping up to sit on his desk. Swinging her legs slightly, she grinned at him, unconcerned by his scowl.
"So, about that lunch!"
"I do not have time to go eat lunch at the tavetaan."
Ryder's grin turned into a smirk. "Ahhh, but do you have time not to eat lunch at the tavetaan?"
"That makes no sense, Ryder."
"Sure it does. I can guarantee that you won't get any work done until after lunch, so all you're doing now is wasting precious time."
Evfra grumbled, but stood up. "Fine. Lunch at the tavetaan." He leaned past Ryder to pick up a datapad. "But a working lunch. This one involves some of your settlers on Voeld."
Ryder considered for a moment, then nodded. She hopped down from the desk, a move which left her standing in the too-small space between the desk and Evfra.
His thoughts skewed sideways; a deep breath from either of them would close the slight space between them. He fought against a sudden powerful urge to take that breath.
He was still staring at her, his thoughts jumping ahead to suggest that if he leaned down just a bit, he could capture her lips in a kiss, when she slipped away and started for the door. He blinked, shaking his head to rid it of the wayward thoughts. He was standing there, motionless, when Ryder reached the door and turned back.
"Evfra? Lunch?" His eyes snapped to her face. She grinned, teasing now. "In your own time, Mr. de Tershaav." That earned her an annoyed snort, but he finally started toward the door, and followed her dutifully to the tavetaan for lunch.
He refused to admit that the afternoon was more productive following a real meal than it would have been otherwise. The walk wasn't long, and Ryder's chatter was amusing enough. Despite his stated intention of working during lunch, and the fact that he kept nudging the datapad suggestively, she kept the conversation on commonplaces. She was perfectly happy to do all the talking; though she paused occasionally for his reaction, or to give him an opportunity to comment, she was blithely unconcerned by his disinclination to do so. She required nothing of him that he was unwilling to give, and he found the meal rather more enjoyable than he had expected.
They had worked steadily after lunch, and mostly in silence. Evfra kept his attention firmly focused on his work, and was mostly successful in avoiding the realization that this focus required more effort today than it usually did. When Ryder set aside her datapad and stood up, indulging in a long stretch, he was surprised to discover that it was fairly late already.
"Well, that's it for me today. I'll see you down at the docks in an hour for our run."
She was out the door before he could object.
When he arrived at the docks an hour later, she was already there going through her stretches, much to the appreciation of the few loitering dock workers. Evfra's scowl deepened. He started his own stretches, wincing as little as possible.
"Ryder. I am… unfortunately out of shape… perhaps we should skip this run?"
"My very first day in Basic training, back on earth, I got the best advice of my career. When it comes to conditioning, the best solution for sore muscles is more of what made them sore." She smiled at his groan - rather heartlessly, in his opinion - before continuing. "Come on, you're actually in great shape, or you couldn't keep up. You're just out of condition, that's all. Easily solved." He barely had time to wonder if that had been a compliment, before she started jogging away from him.
"Come along, warm up lap. We'll start slow." Sighing in resignation, he started after her.
He refused to admit it, despite her repeated questions about how he was doing, but she'd been correct. By the time they finished the first lap, he was moving much more easily, and breathing evenly enough. She led into the second lap without a pause, picking up the pace slightly.
He was feeling pretty good by then, so he started pushing the pace; keeping so close to her that he was in danger of stepping on her heals. She looked at him over her shoulder, took in his challenging expression and smiled, picking the pace up again. He followed for a few minutes, then - still moving easily and breathing deeply but steadily - he pushed her again, running right behind her.
This time, she favored him with an incredulous look, but when he didn't back off, she shrugged, and stepped up the pace again. He finished the lap, revelling in the certainty that he was pushing her limits as much as she'd pushed his.
They were just starting the third lap when Evfra made a tactical error. He was feeling tired, but nothing like the panting mess he'd been at this point in their first run, so he moved up again, and edged in front of her. He set a pace that he was confident he could keep - if only barely - for the rest of the lap. It was the last lap of the evening, after all, and he wasn't concerned about exhausting himself.
Pleased that he had successfully challenged her, he made the mistake of glancing back at her with a smirk.
Ryder was wearing a wide-eyed, politely incredulous expression that immediately made him nervous, despite the redness of her cheeks. He had just long enough to hope (optimistically) that the meaning would be something along the lines of you must be feeling good! before she destroyed his complacency.
She smiled, then put on just enough speed to pull up next to him. It took a bit of doing, but she matched his strides exactly, settling into the slightly awkward rhythm without much obvious struggle. She was close enough now that her pumping arm brushed his with every other stride. She glanced over, and gave him the same wide-eyed look from a moment ago.
This time, he had better luck decoding it. Not 'you must be feeling good,' at all. No, this look said, 'I cannot believe you just did that.' Too late, he realized his mistake. With their strides matched exactly as she ran beside him, it would be instantly and painfully apparent if he failed to maintain the pace that he had set.
Somehow, he finished the lap without faltering. When they reached the docks again, they both spent several minutes pacing slowly and getting their breath back. Evfra watched Ryder, expecting her to make some cutting comment about his less-than-successful challenge.
She did nothing of the sort, though surely she felt his eyes on her. When her breathing had settled, she picked up the water bottles she'd left here when they started and tossed one at him. Evfra caught it easily, watching as Ryder took a long drink.
He was just lifting the bottle to his lips when Ryder finally spoke.
"Good run; I told you you were in good shape. We'll have to pick up the pace a bit more tomorrow. Don't push too hard, or you really will hurt yourself. See you at 0430!"
With a friendly wave, she walked away, leaving Evfra to splutter on his water. Compliment, threat, teasing, all in less than a minute.
She was a whirlwind - even while standing still.
