Awkward

Summary: Daine hasn't had much experience of men; knowing the facts of life doesn't help. Embarrassing conversations are inevitable.

Timeline: Just after Wild Magic

Genre: Humour.

Notes: It's been a while since I've had the chance to torment Numair. This is only a short update, I'm afraid, not much more than a drabble. I've got heavily into my incomplete Harry Potter fic at the moment and it's made it hard to concentrate on any other fandoms. The deadline has passed for voting in the Knighthood of Ficship contest, but I haven't heard whether my stories made it into the final or not. You'll know when I do. Thanks to all who voted.


Daine had eventually grown used to being allowed to wander into Numair's rooms whenever she wanted, although she tried not to do so too often in case she was interrupting something. He had never made her feel like a nuisance, but surely it was only a matter of time. On this occasion she did actually need to talk to him, and given that it was the middle of the night it was a little strange that he wasn't in his rooms. Luckily it wasn't an emergency, but she was still curious enough to challenge him when she finally tracked him down the next day.

"Where were you last night?"

"Hmm?" he replied vaguely, looking up from his breakfast; she recognised the look in his eyes and realised that he wasn't quite awake yet. Smiling slightly, she repeated the question.

"I wanted to ask you about trimming Kitten's claws, but you weren't home."

"Oh." To her surprise he looked away, avoiding her eyes and clearing his throat. "No. I was... elsewhere."

Frowning, Daine studied her friend's profile, and blinked; he looks embarrassed. Abruptly she realised what he was implying, and felt herself blush scarlet. "Oh." Although why it should be such a surprise, she wasn't sure; she had only known her teacher for a couple of months, but she had noticed how much attention he tended to attract from women, and both Alanna and Onua frequently teased him for being a flirt; you'd have to be blind and deaf not to hear of Master Salmalín's reputation in certain areas. Fighting down her blush, she said carefully, "Maybe you should change your wards..."

"Why?" he asked blankly, apparently not awake enough to follow the change of subject.

Now acutely embarrassed, she tried to explain. "Well, surely you don't want me to, um, walk in on... anything."

To her frank amazement, he actually blushed, the first time she had ever seen him do so. "You won't," he said awkwardly, staring at his food. "I don't – ah, entertain in my rooms." After a moment he added hastily, "Trimming Kitten's claws, you said?" and she followed the change of topic with relief.


Awkward and embarrassing as that conversation had been, it was nothing compared to the one that took place a week or so later, when Numair found himself having to explain very carefully and very delicately that when they were out on the road she should let him be for a few minutes after he woke up and allow him to get up in his own time. That would have been bad enough all by itself, but Daine was still very much an innocent and in the end he was forced to be fairly blunt before she understood what he meant. She hadn't been able to meet his eyes for three days after that particular lesson. Being male did present problems occasionally.


I couldn't resist. Daine's thirteen and the only human male in her life to date was her grandfather; clearly there's a lot she doesn't know about what younger men can be like. I assume Numair tends to go to women rather than bring women home with him, for several reasons - one, most men who sleep around have issues and tend to want to keep that part of their life separate from the rest, and two, he lives in the teacher's wing - or at least, he does by Protector of the Small - and it might be a little awkward if the kiddies saw women sneaking in and out.

As for that last paragraph, if anyone missed the point I was making you should be proud of not having a dirty mind - but Numair's young and male, and inevitably he's going to wake up in a certain state. Which when you're travelling with an adolescent girl must be really, really embarrassing for both of them, and really amusing for everyone else. Daine's the daughter of a midwife and knows the facts of life (there might be another story on that theme later) but there's still a lot she doesn't know. I've got a couple of stories planned on similar themes, but I'm not really in a Tortallan frame of mind at the moment, so bear with me.

I'll keep my promise, though - if I do well in the competition, I'll write you some fluff. Patience, friends.

Loten.