T'rell sits on a dropcloth which covers a section of the rugs, both riding straps and Brencia in his lap as he works over the wherhide with the usual soap, showing the girl how it's done. "No, I don't think that's for eating," he's in the process of telling her, gently removing a section of straps from her curious grip.

"She probably loves the smell of it, like her mother does," Kae suggests as she lifts her gaze from the book in her lap, and gives each of the pair a smile. "Either that or she's trying to mimic you, which is possible, I guess." Pages are slowly flipped through, scanned, and flipped again, but the harper isn't really paying attention to it.

T'rell chuckles, glancing up to smile at Kaeryn. "I don't usually eat wherhide," he points out, again removing the strap from her mouth. "C'mon, I can't let you help if you're gonna eat these things," he scolds lightly even as he attacks the section of harness with a cleaning cloth.

"Well, maybe she doesn't understand that you don't have to put it in your mouth in order to smell it?" Kae replies with a shrug of her shoulders and a wrinkle of her nose. "She loves your jacket, and has a tendency to curl up on it and chew on it when you forget it here, you know... I guess it just reminds us both of you." Book is closed and pushed aside, and she leans back into the pillows that rest behind her.

T'rell quirks his eyebrows, suddenly dropping the straps and reaching to pull his jacket sleeve over to examine it. "So *that's* what this is." He points out tiny milk-teeth marks in the already-scarred hide. "Did you bite my jacket?" he shows Brencia the sleeve, and she immediately reaches for it, giving it another large dose of baby-saliva. "I guess so, eh?" Hoisting the girl off his lap so she can lean against him and chew on his jacket without inhibiting his work, he picks up the strap again while she pauses in her gnawing to beam up at her mother.

"It adds character, I think," Kae points a finger at the jacket sleeve and lifts her shoulders in a shrug, "I mean, how many people in your wing have teething marks on their jackets? It's her way of showing off your dad status."

T'rell snorts softly. "A badge of honor, is that it? Just don't let her eat too much ash." He glances briefly to the side to check on the baby, chuckling at her unabashed joy at being in the middle of such a mess.

"As if I would let her chew on a dirty sleeve," Kae rolls her eyes skyward and turns so that she's leaning over the edge of the bed, her fingers tickling at Bren's feet. "Now, if Sejith was chewing on it, *then* you'd have a problem, or when she gets a little older and her teeth are actually getting strong..."

Brencia gurgles, more of a giggle than ever, with a delighted and contagious smile engulfing her whole self. She squirms, alternately pulling her feet away and pushing them back toward Kaeryn, unable to decide whether she wants to be tickled or not because it's too much of a fun game to play.

T'rell exchanges one piece of sturdily-stitched wherhide for another, drenching his rag in an already cloudy bucket of water in a vain attempt to rinse and wring it out. "If Sejith were chewing on it I wouldn't have much jacket left," he agrees with a wink to Kaeryn. "But he assures me that he wouldn't do such a thing."

"I'd offer to help, except for the fact that I *promised* Vivian never to sew again," Kae's fingers continue to tickle at her daughter's toes and the harper carefully slips from the bed and crawls forward, which is a difficult task in a skirt as long as the one she's wearing. "I tried to help her mend a few things once, and after that....disaster, I'm no longer allowed to touch a needle or thread. Couldn't paint for *days* after, my fingers hurt so much." So even Kae can admit that she isn't the perfect woman..

"I wouldn't wish mending on my worst enemy," The rider assures Kaeryn, a silver lock of his randomly-arrayed hair slipping to cover his sideways glance at her. He brushes it back into any old place with an arm, his hands covered in soapy water and dragon dirt. "But just your luck, I'm not mending today," T'rell grins coercingly. "Just cleaning."

Kae laughs and scoots a little closer, reaching out to flip one of the straps over and study it. "See, I think if *I* mended, you'd probably be safer without the straps, but...cleaning, that I can do." Shifting enough so that she can reach T'rell's face, she brushes another strand of his hair out of the way, and pinches his cheek teasingly, "You're so cute when you're doing all this...stuff, you know that?"

T'rell eyes Kaeryn dubiously. "Have a rag." Unceremoniously, he grabs a spare rag and, dunking it first in the water and wringing it out, plops it wet and slimy into her hand. "Soap?" He offers kindly, picking up the misshapen block and holding it out to the harper.

"Ugh," Kae cringes as the wet, slimy rag is placed in her head, "It's worse that my oil paints, slimy and not at *all* pretty to look at." Complaint being logged, she reaches for the soap and smears it all over the rag before picking up a nearby strap and getting to work. "I hope you plan to return the favor," she teases quietly, childishly sticking her tongue out at him, which causes their daughter to giggle.

T'rell laughs with a nod. "Sure, I'll scrub your paintings for ye," he offers easily. "Teaching her bad habits already, are we?" Brencia, mimicking mom, has stuck out her own tongue and is waiting for parental approval.

"Augh! No, not the paintings," Kae reaches a soapy finger out and nudges T'rell's arm with it, then leaning down and planting a kiss on the infants forehead. "But at least she's cute when she does it, right?" she tries to fix the 'problem' with a happy thought, at least. "So she'll be a little more like me than you would wish but... is that so bad?"

As Kaeryn kisses Brencia, T'rell plants a kiss on Kaeryn's forehead. "Well... nah, not so bad." He frowns, then removes a long, golden hair from his beard. "Let's cut her hair more often, though."

"So she's not going to have long hair like me then?" Kae puts on a frown for T'rell and tosses her head like a runner, causing her own long hair to flip back over her shoulder. "Afraid you might have to take care of it on your own, or something?"

T'rell pauses in his work to admire Kaeryn's hair -- that's not so bad, either. "Not until she's old enough to brush it herself. You won't have any time left for painting after you get done with it," he points out.

Brencia, apparently aware that she's the subject of discussion, grins curiously back and forth between Kaeryn and T'rell as they speak.

T'rell once again pauses -- not much of his strap has been actually scrubbed yet, with all this distraction. "Why?" Trying not to be judgemental, nonetheless his tone is almost plaintive.

"Easier to take care of," Kae offers as her only reasoning for taking such drastic measures. "I guess I understand now why so many of the female 'riders have just given up on long hair completely. S'just a hassle when you've got so many things to do each day," her words as spoken, trying to convince both T'rell and herself that it is actually a good idea.

"Oh." With a look of mild consternation, T'rell applies rag to straps while next to him, Brencia tugs in various ways on his discarded jacket.

Kaeryn's pale blue gaze shifts to look down at the golden curls that have made their way back over her shoulder, and she frowns slightly. "So apparently neither of us like that idea all that much, hmm? But it just seems like it might be easier.."

T'rell glances back up, still working at the caked-on grime. "If you want to, don't let me stop you. Your hair is beautiful, but I'm sure it'll be just as beautiful any other way you want it, too." His brown eyes rest on Kaeryn's face, not the curls that frame it.

"I don't really want to, but I was speaking with Teza the other day, and she mentioned how much easier it is to care for her hair with it being so short," Kae explains, wiping her hand free of the water and soap so she can run her fingers through the curls. "Said she couldn't imagine how I can stand having so much hair to deal with," she pauses and gives Bren an adoring look, "of course, she also said she can't imagine being a mother.."

T'rell's eyes twinkle with a smile. "If you don't want to cut it, don't cut it." A simple answer for a non-existant problem. He shrugs. "Teza's wearing a helmet most of the day, you're not."

Kaeryn pauses long enough in the scrubbing to shrug, and gives T'rell a confused look, and teases gently, "Just *how* do these things get so dirty. Are the two of you rolling around in the firestone before and after 'fall to make them *this* bad?"

T'rell casts a guilty look down at the floor, not meeting her gaze. "Shells, I knew you'd find out sooner or later." As he puts a hand around Brencia to steady her against his side, he bends over her and covertly winks to her. "Let's see if we can fool Mom," he whispers ever-so-quietly, then resumes his contrite posture.

Kaeryn can't help but laugh, shaking her head as she does, "You and Sejith...and Brencia, what an interesting group of trouble you'll be together, I do believe."

T'rell chuckles as Brencia laughs too, a chortling giggle that delights in shaking her tiny form. "Won't you join us too, Kae? It just wouldn't be the same." Meanwhile, he tickles his little girl with soapy fingers, making her squirm and push at his fingers.

Satisifed that at least this portion of the straps are clean, Kae dips her rag into the bowl of water to clean it, wrings it out, and sets it on the cloth on the foor. She leans back against the bed, pulling her knees up to her chest in her usual 'Kae' position, and watches quietly as father and daughter enjoy each other's company.

"Thanks, Kae." T'rell tickles Brencia with only one hand, using the other to pick up the newly-cleaned strap. "Better than I usually do." He puts it down again, then wipes both hands on one of the scattered rags and, scooping up the tiny girl, rises to a standing position with varied poppings of joints. "Been sitting too long." He shakes his head, then does so again as Brencia mimics him, her fine brown curls tumbling every which way.

Kae laughs as their daughter continues to mimic every movement that her father makes, fine creases appearing around her eyes as she smiles. "I think she wants to be just like you, you know, not that it would be such a bad thing if she is..." Fingers slip through her curls again, and she stares as the strands slip one by one from her hand, floating back down to her shoulders.

"She wants to be like everybody who walks by," T'rell corrects with a completely charmed smile at his daughter. "Don't you?" He nods his head, and she nods hers too. "See? You want to be like Mommy, too, eh?" Again, she nods her head, copying the movement. Slowly, though, his expression changes, passing through the ranges of curiousity to discovery. "Ah. Your turn to change her, Mommy." With a wry chuckle, he sits down on the bed next to Kaeryn, ready to transfer over her daughter.

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