You Are The Father ~ Tag: Duke/Ember

[Parker]

Fuzzy timed to Autumn 2048

Zayn felt like a coward. He'd been at the weyr for a bit...okay long enough to settle into a role in the archives...and he'd yet to do the one thing he'd come to New Atricis to do. Tell Bronzerider D'kellen he is his son. At first he could excuse his fear as simply not having had a chance to talk with the man, but he couldn't do that anymore. He'd had a run in with the man a few weeks ago. That had been beyond awkward. Not for D'kellen, of course, and Zayn could only hope that the man hadn't noticed how nervous and anxious he was acting. That should have been when he told him, but he'd froze up and stayed silent. After that he swore he would do it, but days passed and he didn't. Then, he had run into him again. Still...his lips remained still. There was no hiding it...he was a coward.

He was still trying to gain the courage when the unthinkable happened. The bronzerider came to the archives asking for help with a book that needed some of the passages rewritten because they were too faded. Zayn had smiled and agreed to happily get that done for him immediately. He had thought that the man would leave to do something else, but he'd wanted to stay. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he guessed the book was important to him for some reason or another.

The entire time he worked to figure out the words and then re-copy them they had shared small chitchat. Zayn's heart was pounding in his chest, but he hoped that the man wasn't able to tell. He knew now was a good time, but it was like the words were getting stuck in his throat. Before he knew it he had the job complete. Another missed chanced....

....Or maybe not.

Duke invited him to eat lunch with him. Digging deep within himself, Zayn agreed to join him with the determination that he was finally going to say something. They got to the dining hall, got their food, and found a table before the archivist was able to say anything that would steer him towards his revelation. "So, ah, D'kellen. You're...ah...originally from Fort, right?" He asked as he pushed the food around his plate with his fork.

x9 - counted

[Ember]

The work that had been done was fantastic, and Duke was pleased with the results. But as eager as he was to show the results to the owner, he first wanted to continue the conversation he'd been having with the archivist, so that naturally meant having lunch and perhaps seeing what else they could learn about one another. And perhaps, there'd been another reason for the meal time chat, he thought to himself. During their last encounter, and now this one, it had seemed as though there was something sticking to the roof of the young man's mouth, as though he had something to say but couldn't quite say it. He didn't know what it was, and maybe it was just his own thoughts getting the better of him, but Duke wondered if perhaps a little time together might help him say what was on his mind. Wojoth, the soft-heart that he was, wasn't sure if he agreed necessarily, he wanted his rider to go about things gently, but he knew he wouldn't do anything to harm the young man.

Duke looked up from his food, having been about to ask something similar of Zayn. Instead of doing so, he smiled and found himself responding to a question instead. "Yes. Fort Weyr born and raised. Impressed my Wojoth there as well, though that's a story in and of itself, to be honest. I'd be happy to share it with you sometime if you'd ever like to lend your ear for it." He heard the bronze in his head snort and couldn't help but chuckle in response. "He says you don't want to hear it, that I tell it far too much for his liking. He just wants to deny that he was ever as tiny as he was out of the shell." He shook his head and used his fork to pierce the tubers on his plate. "Why do you ask? Are you from the area yourself?"

[Parker]

"Yes. Fort Weyr born and raised. Impressed my Wojoth there as well, though that's a story in and of itself, to be honest. I'd be happy to share it with you sometime if you'd ever like to lend your ear for it."

"Of course. I love hearing the stories of how a rider and a dragon became to be together." Zayn stated honestly. The longer he stayed at the weyr the more he began to understand just why people dreamed of being riders. Simply watching the dragons was marvelous, he couldn't imagine how wonderful it was to be attached to one of them for life. However, he didn't really want to talk about dragons right now or the story of how D'kellen came to impress his bronze.

"Why do you ask? Are you from the area yourself?"

That was the opener he needed to really broach the subject. Still, he didn't want to be too brusque about it either. After all, this was a rather delicate topic of conversation. "Yes, sort of. I was raised by the lord holder of Hold Gar. My mother...she lived at the Harper Hall when she got pregnant with me." Zayn answered. It was vague information, but he still couldn't help but feel like Duke was going to be able to guess it immediately.

[Ember]

"Yes, sort of. I was raised by the lord holder of Hold Gar. My mother...she lived at the Harper Hall when she got pregnant with me."

Duke had been in the process of placing something in his mouth when Zayn spoke, and he froze as the morsel rested in between his fingers and his lips. He stared forward, eyes wide as he considered what had been said, or at the very least, just a few of the words in particular. "she lived at the Harper Hall..." He'd known a woman like that once, several Turns back when he'd been a young man himself. She'd comforted him during a rather wild night when obtained his Journey knots and been called back to the Weyr. At least that's what he recalled of the night.

Still holding the figure of shock as he started to piece together things that really, he hadn't thought of in Turns, and in response to that guilt started to settle in his belly as a result, he tried to find a way to ask a question or two of Zayn that didn't make him seem like an asshole, because he had a feeling this was going to turn into something good, but not without a couple of things bouncing back and forth between them first. "Your mother's Zaralyn?" And then he waited, as tension rolled in his belly, for the response.

[Parker]

Zayn noticed the momentary pause that Duke took as he mentioned where his mother had been from. Granted, there were many, hundreds and thousands likely, of women who had lived at the Harper Hall. He could have been speaking of any one of them being his mother. At the time, his mother had never been to Hold Gar, so there was really no connection there that the bronzerider would know of, but still... Zayn knew that the man was intelligent, likely more so than the common man, so anticipation stole him of breath as he watched D'kellen's face.

"Your mother's Zaralyn?"

Treacherous nerves bade him to fidget a little where he sat and caused his fingers to constantly twiddle with each other as comprehension grew within D'kellen. Then, there it was, the question that would reveal the truth. Zayn's heart beat frantically in its chest as he managed to look the bronzerider in the eyes. "Yes, so I am told. I'm afraid she passed away when I was too young to really remember her. She left this with my adoptive father, who gave it to me not long ago." Zayn pulled the worn and folded piece of paper out of his pocket and slid it over to D'kellen for him to read himself.