Kicked in the Eye {BABY!}

[blacklight]

He counted this moment as a victory, and would hold it over her head later.
For the moment, he just cuddled Teydrin in his arms and tried his best not to coo at her.
That might make Theo die from shock.
"Of course. Tomorrow. Sure," he waved her comment off, whispering curses to the baby, wanting her to grow up as mean and fickle as himself.
Only the best for his little girl.

[Nai-ru]

Teydrin opened one eye and tried to kick him again. Unfortunately, at this point she was too far away to reach his eye, so she settled for his arm. Stupid man wouldn't be quiet so she could sleep.
Bel smiled at Perdido and balanced Katidid on her hip. Theo turned to look at her, sighed, and shrugged. "Tomorrow, then," she promised. Bel nodded and wandered off, cooing to Katidid, to show her new charge to Winth, who would be delighted.

[blacklight]

C'rin grinned at Teydrin, quite proud of her kick. His arm hurt. He was even more proud that she'd kicked him hard enough that his arm hurt.
"That's my girl," he cooed, still ignoring Theo.
He turned and walked back to their room.

[Nai-ru]

Theo scowled, miffed that C'rin was hogging the baby- SHE had been the one to work for it, shardit!- and trailed after them, turning to glare and make shooing motions at the people still hanging about.
Turning again, she hurried to make up for the distance she'd lost.
"C'rin!" she called. "C'rin, you idiot, wait for me!"

[blacklight]

He paused and looked over his shoulder at her.
"What?" he snapped, "Can't you just walk faster? I'd think losing all that weight would make you move more quickly."
And yes, that was a jab at how...well...large she'd gotten.

[Nai-ru]

Theo opened her mouth to shoot something back at him, but couldn't think of anything nasty enough. Her teeth snapped together with an audible click.
"You know, C'rin," she said angrily after a moment of testing the method of counting slowly to ten (which didn't work), "I really do not understand what I've ever done to make you... to make you so.... ugh!" Sne snarled to herself and stalked forward to walk beside him, glaring into the middle distance as they climbed the stairs.

[blacklight]

Her anger made him smile, as it always did. It was so satisfying to earn such responses. He hadn't seen any for three months and he was eager to make it up. Although - he mused as he moved up the stairs slower, allowing his eyes to trail her back briefly before picking up his pace - he wouldn't deny the idea of doing more than just tormenting her.
It had been three months, afterall.
C'rin smiled sweetly at her once they reached the top of the stairs.
"You know you'd be bored if I weren't around."
I sure would be.
No one asked you.

[Nai-ru]

Theo turned her gaze to glare at him instead of the innocent middle distance, then looked at the door as they reached it.
"Probably," she admitted, twisting the handle and stepping inside, before stepping away to let him through.
And it was true. In the strangest way, she'd missed him.
He really wasn't all that bad, once you got past his constant nastiness. And life certainly was more interesting.
You are thinking nice things about the Weyrleader, Lykath taunted.
No I'm not. Nope. Uh-uh.

[blacklight]

C'rin chalked up another victory to his side and followed her through the door.
As soon as he was inside, he relaxed quite visibly, having grown used to it being empty, being his place to not have to keep up his constant aloof mean temper. That got tiring after a while.
Again he looked at her, and wondered if he shouldn't have let Bel take Teydrin afterall. Nope. He still wanted to hold her.
He moved and perched on the bed, cradling the little girl in his arms.
"She kinda looks like you," he admitted grudgingly.

[Nai-ru]

Theo snorted.
"Not at all," she contradicted him. "She's got your hair, and your face shape. Maybe my eyes.. not color.... where on Pern did she get purple?" The Weyrwoman crossed the room and leaned over the baby, brushing her hair back behind her ear when it hung obstructively in her face. "Purple..." she muttered again, shaking her head.

[blacklight]

He stiffened slightly when she leaned over Teydrin, leaning closer to him. So close that he could smell her hair. C'rin had always liked how her hair smelled, and after three months, it seemed stronger somehow. Maybe he'd just missed it.
Nah.
"Hm, she does. But I still see you in there," he commented idly, not realizing that he'd just admitted to looking at her, if not studying her enough to know what her face looked like. Normally that would have been a given with any person, but for C'rin...well, he was bad with faces.

[Nai-ru]

"Oh, so you know what I look like, do you? Didn't you say that if you looked too closely your eyes would melt?" Theo rolled her own eyes and backed away, resisting the urge to snatch Teydrin away so she could get in some cuddle time of her own.
Well, the baby would start kicking things at three in the morning. That was how she announced she was hungry. Theo almost wondered if she was mute. Honestly, Teydrin didn't make any noise.

[blacklight]

His eyes didn't move from Teydrin, but his voice did turn cold.
"I haven't seen you in three months, Theo. I'm surprised my eyes didn't melt just seeing you from a distance. I must have been too surprised that you didn't look like an overweight runner to notice it was you."
However, he was melting over how cute the little girl looked while she was sleeping. It was odd to care about something else almost as much as he cared about himself. C'rin was definately going to be one of those over-protective fathers.

[Nai-ru]

Theo scowled and resisted the urge to hit him.
All right, retraction of her earlier statement-
She had not missed this man at all.
In fact, she had spent the entire time thinking of ways to kill him off without damaging Mith, who she liked.
She had never, ever, ever thought anything even remotely positive about C'rin.
Ever.
So there.

[blacklight]

He glanced up, regarding with with thin lips but gentle eyes. Perhaps it was just left over from staring at Teydrin. Maybe.
"But you do look good now. More like...the old you," he shrugged, referring to her mood swings while she'd been carrying their child.
If he'd thought she had been difficult to keep up with before, dealing with her while she was pregnant was a nightmare. It had been the 'old her' (As C'rin so intelligently put it) that he'd started to become attracted to, not the swollen ..uh..'runner' she'd become.
Poor C'rin had actually missed her while she'd been gone.