Waves...

Who: J'yce
NPCs: B'ron
Author: AJ
When: 3295.02.17
Where: A beach in Southern Boll
What: A painful anniversary reminds J'yce that closure doesn't always soothe the ache in one's heart.

~~ 3293/3294 Turnover - Southern Boll Hold - Sunset ~~

With a hypnotic sound not unlike the soft rumble of distant thunder echoing down a valley, the foamy turquoise waves climbed onto the ocean's shore to lap at the greenrider's bare feet. Sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest, J'yce lost himself in watching them roll in. That caressing rumble of the waves breaking added to the water's own hypnotic effect as its edge first raced towards him only to be pulled back out to sea by some unseen hand.

Though lost in it, he was aware of the arrival -- a return really -- of another to that isolated stretch of Southern Boll beach. The arrival brought with it a yearning and anticipation. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" J'yce whispered, a smile blossoming on his face as well-muscled arms wrapped around him from behind. He leaned back into the embrace, bare back resting against bare chest, and sighed. "I missed you," he murmured, covering the other man's arms with his own. "What kept ye?"

"I wasn't gone that long, was I?" murmured the other.

"Long enough... too long for me."

"Sorry, I'll try not to do it again." Lowering his head, he kissed the right side of J'yce's neck just behind the man's jaw, a sensitive spot that he knew very intimately, sending a visible chill through his weyrmate. "Hmm... you liked that, didn't you? Should I stop there?" he breathed huskily against the kiss-moistened flesh. A shake of a head and whimper of pleasure was the only encouragement that he needed to claim the handsome greenrider as his lover right there under the setting sun.

~~ 3294.02.17 - Northridge Weyrhold - Dawn ~~

Death rattle. What a strange term for it. To J'yce it sounded more like a little child trying to suck every last drop of juice out of his cup through a straw. And, in a way, that was exactly what it was. B'ron was trying to suck every last drop of air that he could into his lungs. It was a valiant struggle, but a losing one. With each breath now J'yce could see that his chest rose less and less.

And then it didn't rise at all.

Clutching B'ron's body to his chest, J'yce rocked him just as a mother would rock her newborn babe to sleep. His weyrmate's suffering, J'yce knew, was over, and that should have been of some comfort, but how do you find comfort when a dragon-size hole has just been ripped out of your heart? For J'yce an eternity crept past in the brief instant it took for Zanath's anguished keening to begin echoing through their weyr in reaction to Jaleth's going *between*. Alone.

~~ 3295.02.17 - Southern Boll Hold - Dawn ~~

With a hypnotic sound not unlike the soft rumble of distant thunder echoing down a valley, the foamy turquoise waves climbed onto the ocean's shore to lap at the greenrider's bare feet. Sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest, J'yce lost himself in watching them roll in. That caressing rumble of the waves breaking added to the water's own hypnotic effect as its edge first raced towards him only to be pulled back out to sea by some unseen hand.

Though lost in it, he was painfully aware of the emptiness of that isolated stretch of Southern Boll beach. That knowledge brought with it a yearning and grief.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" J'yce whispered, tears streaming freely down his cheeks as he longed to feel those strong arms around him just once more. Arms that were gone forever. Arms that all the tears in world could never bring back. "I miss ye," he said, staring down at the blue-jade ring on his left hand, a ring he'd given his weyrmate as a token of their love. "I still love ye, B'ron," he whispered, his voice was choked now with emotion.

~*~ THE END ~*~