"Well, what do you think about this one?"

"I think it's great!!" B'rand immediately chimed.

No luck. "Well, I dunno..." Lenna paced around, lost in some mental image
of what the place would eventually look like. At least he assumed so; 
after a whole day of having apartment after apartment turned down for
the most damned trivial reasons Lenna could think of, he was just about
convinced she was doing it on purpose. Were all women like this?
It had nearly been a week since they had decided to be mates, and here
they were still looking for an apartment. B'rand's patience, a fleeting thing
at best, was about to fall apart.

"Maybe if we looked at that one we saw earlier again...I kind of liked how 
the kitchen area was set up..."

"Maybe if we threw ourselves off the ledge, we wouldn't have to look at
another apartment."

"Poor B'rand," Lenna laughed. She strode to him, melting into his 
embrace. He kind of liked that...

"I want to get one we'll both like. You wouldn't want to have to go 
through this again, do you?" She softened his grimace with a kiss.

"I don't want to go through this the first time."

"Well..." Lenna looked around them with a critical eye. "This is just
about the best place I've seen. Plenty of room, although I don't know
if I want the sun shining on the doorway in the mornings."

"Like we'll have the door open," B'rand grated. "No, I think we 
might be too busy to open the door and say hello to the rest of 
the warren."

"Oh?" Lenna raised an eyebrow. "And just what would we be doing in
the mornings?"

"This," B'rand said as his lips marked a path down the side of her
neck, his hands sliding along her.

"Oh," Lenna said. "You're right, I might not make it to the door..."

*****************************

"Okay."

"Okay what?" B'rand lowered his guard, stepped back.

"Okay, you're ready. I can't teach you any more about Lenna."

"Are you sure?"

"Sure as I'll ever be. You just stick to the plan, and you should have
a pretty good chance."

"I don't feel ready."

"Good! Perhaps you've learned better then I give you credit for. 
Most of what remains is practice-drilling through the movements time
and time again until it becomes part of your reflexes. I can't help
you much there, but I'll continue to teach you if you want to improve."

"What about Lenna?"

"What about her? She's been practicing too, but now you know her
every move. Every feint, every step...you should be able to tell what
she's going to do better than she does, by now. You move very, very
well, and can remember every signal her body sends. You do me 
credit."

"Thanks, but it's just me. I've just always been good at controlling
how my body moves. Balance, reflexes, everything."

"Should make the difference. When are you going to do it?"

"No time like the present. I'm supposed to be up there now, helping 
her to move."

"Still? I thought you said you had picked an apartment three days ago!"

"We did. It's taken that long. The place is still too far up for the unjoined 
to help us out. Let's face it, Lenna has a lot of stuff. I didn't really have
much of anything when I got here."

"Guess she knows what she likes. Well, good luck." Farr'in grasped his
forearm. "Don't make me look bad."

"I won't."

***********************

Rook's claws scrabbled, held. B'rand was off his dragon almost as 
soon as he touched down, unsheathing the cutlass from its scabbard.

"B'rand, what are you doing? I asked you to be here half an hour ago!
You have a lot of things to move!"

"Maybe, maybe not.." B'rand smiled. "Have you forgotten? You were 
going to show me how you're going to kick my butt."

"Now? Right now? I don't think this is the time or place to-"

"Chicken!" B'rand snaked forward, kissed her lips before darting
back. "Damn, you're slow. If I had known you would be such an easy
target, I wouldn't have waited."

"Easy target?!" Lenna fairly danced over to the side of the room, 
drawing her sword. "If you think that doing this now is going to give 
you some kind of advantage, you're about to be sorely disappointed."

Ah, but I will, B'rand thought. I'm loose and ready after practice, and 
it's dinnertime, the worst time of day for you to fight. Farr'in said you
*hate* to fight this time of day.

They circled, traded a few blows. Steel rang, and fat sparks flew
with each blow. "I'm going to enjoy ordering you around all day,
B'rand," Lenna said.

"Talk is cheap, love." He locked his blade up with hers in sixte', 
reaching forward to tweak her nose; he danced back before she
had a chance to envelop his blade and disarm him. 

They paused, circled again. Lenna dodged, came up to him,
slashing in an intricate pattern. Anticipating this. B'rand blocked 
each of the high thrusts, slicing at her wrist with each stroke. 
Seeing her peril, Lenna backed off. B'rand followed, slashing; 
Locking their blades again, he bumped into her and spun into 
a hip throw. Lenna crashed onto her bottom and cursed.

"Uh uh, love, that's not very nice."

Lenna leapt up, then methodically began to wade into his
defense again. B'rand stepped back, grabbed the cutlass in 
both hands, threw-

-the sword spun, crashing into her one-handed guard at just 
the right moment, just the right angle. Both swords flew away, 
clattering onto the floor. B'rand dived, tripping Lenna by 
grabbing her ankle; they fell to the floor, too. Even as Lenna's
hand grasped the hilt of her sword, she felt a sharp object at her
neck. B'rand had drawn a dagger and was holding it point-first 
at her throat.

"Yield, love."

Lenna's face darkened in anger. "I will *not* yield! You cheated!"

"How did I cheat?"

"You threw your sword! You're carrying a dagger, too!"

"We didn't agree on my not bringing anything."

"Yeah, but you didn't beat me at swordplay, you tricked me!"

"Mmm, perhaps I did...sorry about that. In the meantime, I've won."

"You...you scum-eating , sneaky, cheating..."

"Nope," B'rand grinned, "I'm the winner."

"...son of a bitch!"

"...and my first command is.."

That stopped Lenna. "What?"

He began to unbutton her blouse. "Oh, I'll think of something."
_________________________

Tag, Barb! That gives them three or so days before they're caught
up to the new time, If you had something fiendish planned :)

B'rand and Rook

 




Allen Veazey
wolf@dbtech.net
	
	"I'm not really bad, I'm just drawn that way."
			--Jessica Rabbit