Bare Amusements {Azh!! Kire?}

After the long walk up from the bay, Lexony slipped into the barracks with a sigh. His was not the sound of relief, but rather a breath of contentment over a day's work done well. There had been no small amount of pride in seeing the results of his labors build up before his eyes, and finish on the sunset with a brand new dock furnished from pale gray wood. The others nearby were all dark, so his dock could always be picked out from a distance as well. It replaced one of the others that had given out overnight. There was no reason given to the humble workers summoned to reconstruct the problem structure, but there had not been any storms yet, just simple rain-- nothing to threaten an eight-Turn-old dock to the point of collapse.

But it was a mystery someone else would have to figure out. The problem had been solved, all the soldiers of carpentry could return home and rest. He paced down the broad corridor and helped himself to the small doorway to his current residence-- and Xaratenos'. His eyes snapped to the unfamiliar silhouette reclining on the room's second bed as eyes were unfortunately wont to do, widening at the pallid flash of nudity there. In fact that was the only thing that kept him from turning right back around and leaving, really: the lack of flushed skin. Such things were indicative of more than unfiltered nakedness.

As it was, Lex still searched Xarat for the position of his hands, and found them tucked securely around a sheaf of notes. Well alright then. The blond's shoulders sagged, but he sluggishly advanced into the room, making a neutral path to his own bed and chest rather than creeping around against the walls just to maintain the best possible distance from the anomaly. He did not speak, not even to greet the other Candidate, and began digging through his chest for a slightly cleaner shirt to wear to dinner. He only had three sets of clothes aside from his Gather finery, and he was wearing one of those, so it was a short search.

While pulling the new dusky brown shirt over his head, he noted that his prolonged quiet could be construed as rudeness. Lexony...did not want to be rude.

"Afternoon, Xaratenos," he said, lifting his head to look at the other young man, features just a little drawn, voice rolling emphasis on all the syllables of the other's full name. He let the top of his chest fall shut. "Seems like it would be cold for lounging." He lifted himself over the side of his bed, sitting down on the furs. Usually the free time between the end of work and the start of dinner was spent idling in such a manner. Sometimes he ran if he thought he was getting too soft on the ceaseless bounty of Weyr food that had resumed its usual course over the Winter. People got slow in the Winter even before the addition of consumable surplus, and the return of real cooking to the kitchens.

But on the fuller days of chores he came back feeling lean and sharp, even if he had not gotten stronger. The work set his blood on edge in a way lingering about in a suit of armor did not. Lexony had not come to prefer one occupation to another-- he just recognized they were different. He absorbed the change well, he thought, rubbing one wrist with the opposing hand. Next to the utter foreignness of the Weyr he had adapted to, Xaratenos' eccentricity should not have counted for anything.

He smoothed out his irritation, noticing he had not made his bed in the morning and setting to tidy that up too. Then he laid down on his back, tucking his arms behind his head and fixing his gaze on the less offensive vista of the formless rock ceiling. "What are you reading?"