Robyn yawned again, falling backward onto the bed.
Rone shoved her. “Hey, go to your own room if you want to sleep.”
Robyn reached behind her, grabbing one of the pillows and hiding her face with it. “Nooooooo,” she groaned, muffled by the pillow. “I don’t have enough energy to get up.”
Rone wrestled the pillow away from her, then smacked her with it. “Yeah, probably because you need sleep.”
“Probably, yeah.”
“Wait, other related question—” Rone leaned over, squinting in concentration—“when was the last time you drank water?”
Robyn turned her eyes to the furthest corner of the room. “Ummmm… if I say I don’t remember can we both assume it was recently?”
Rone flicked her nose. “No. Earlier this evening you mentioned feeling dizzy, now you’re exhausted, and I can tell your lips and eyes are drier than they should be. You’re dehydrated.”
“What are you, a doctor?”
“In training, yes.”
“We don’t even have water.”
“Oh, because someone didn’t have time to pack?”
Robyn rolled her eyes. “Partially.”
Rone stood up and extended his hand toward her. “This is Iarani territory. It's fine to drink water from the tap—which, by the way, is why there is a cup on the sink.”
Robyn took his hand reluctantly, hanging limply but letting him yank her to her feet. She looked towards the sink, chewing her lip.
“Look, if I had any bottled water I’d let you have it. Hydrophobia aside, you really do need to drink water. It’s kind of important to life.”
“I don’t have hydrophobia,” she muttered, and strode towards the sink.
Rone watched as she took the cup in her hand, stopping with it under the tap. “Oh?”
“I just don’t like it, and not all water.” She twisted the tap on. “It’s falling water. That’s different.”
“The lengths you go to to avoid it would hint otherwise.”
“I don’t…” Robyn sighed, then raised the now-full cup in a mock toast. “There. Happy now?”
“Drink two cups and then I'll think about it. Maybe."
Robyn snorted. "You'll think about being happy?"
"Look circumstances aren't the best right now. And unless you're planning on sitting down and actually talking about what happened, I'm not likely to be happy about you, specifically, anytime soon.
Robyn grimaced. “Yeah, I think I’ll just stick to drinking water for now.”
This is the absolute top-tier friendship that I never knew I needed.
They would be best friends instantly. Between being used to living as the sole possessor of the Common Sense Brain Cell™ in their respective families, as well as being perpetually stuck internally screaming at their brother's and best friend's awkward inability to see each other's feelings, and just general dislike of fighting despite fightsy family members, they would have a lot of reasons to get along.
Tresha would love that he's working on becoming an Inter-Folk intermediary through means like diplomacy and making people talk to each other and all those kinds of things. While she is a staunch pacifist, she also recognizes that sometimes you have to protect yourself, so she wouldn't have a problem with his occasional fighting. She would also learn pretty quickly that he has a strict no-kill policy, which would help (except with samontros but that's because they're extremely dangerous to everyone around them, no longer sentient, and too far gone to help). She would also be very curious about his telepathy and how it works.
Rory would appreciate her graciousness to those around her--I mean, she's a pacifist in what eventually becomes a family of military officers, but without letting that get in the way of her relationships-- as well as her kind sternness. He would also love her herb garden. If there were any lingering difficulties, it would vanish pretty quickly if he had any of her cooking.
They would just chill and garden together, probably, share tips on how to deal with the more traumatized of their acquaintances, and (affectionately) smack talk their siblings.
Robyn closed the door behind her, leaving Rone alone. His smile dropped instantly.
Slowly he fell back onto the bed, and buried both hands in his curls.
Seems like we’re in a bit of trouble, eh? He thought towards his brother, addressing him out of habit. Can’t tell that to her, though, now can I?
All the half-truths and optimistic suggestions were nothing but ghosts of hope when held to the light. They were cut off from everything and everyone. Rory was too far away to receive any telepathic signals. The only kind of wireless connections down here were linked solely to the Iarani system, and in as small a place as this they would definitely notice if a stranger—one of exactly two strangers in the vicinity—tried to contact someone outside that system. Any and all transportation was inaccessible to them, in shipyards through flooded tunnels; even if they could get there, he had little faith in his ability to drive one, and less in his ability to drive one faster than any Iarani that would pursue them.
He had told Robyn to play along for now, because there was nothing else that they could do. No other escape route.
This had been designed as a trap, and oh boy had they succeeded.
Rone lay there, unmoving, far into the night, mind spinning itself in a labyrinth of circles until he fell into a troubled sleep.
