Aaron// Soleil// Jesse// Dylan// Brendan// Tasha// Bianca
candidates//hatching//weyrlings//adults//Ryslen Weyr

Jesse peered out of the window at the pouring rain. "Hope you like the rain, Diva," he told the firelizard, who was curled up inside the hood of his raincoat.

"You aren't going to take him home are you?" Dylan asked. "Most lizards don't like the rain, you know."

"Well I can't just leave him here," Jesse said, suddenly very protective of the little lizard though he couldn't quite place his finger on exactly why.

Dylan rolled her eyes. "He made it without you this long, I'm guessing he can make it another night. And besides, what're you gonna do with him? You can't honestly think you can keep him in your apartment?"

"Well who's gonna know?" Jesse challenged.

"Alright, alright, you don't need to get all Divaish over it," she held up a hand before he could protest, "you know which Diva I meant. I'm just saying it'll be hard taking care of a flying lizard."

"I'll manage," Jesse assured her, reaching up to scratch Diva on his head where he seemed to like being scratched.

Diva rubbed his head against Jesse's cheek apologetically, sent feelings of assurance and longing, an image of what looked like a big crater with holes in the side, and vanished.

"Where'd he go?" Jesse stammered, craning his neck to see if the firelizard was above him.
"Probably to wherever he really lives," Dylan suggested. "He'll be back, don't worry."

Jesse forced a smile. "Yeah, I'm sure he'll be back. Well, see you tommorow."

"Jesse, could I get a ride?" Soleil called to him as he stepped outside. "I uh, missed the bus."

"Uh, sure, why not?" Jesse replied.

"Oh don't be silly Jess, you're not going her way. You're right on my way home Soleil, I'll take you," Tasha volunteered, walking up to the pair. "That is, unless you two had plans or something."

Soleil smiled a bit too sweetly. "Oh, no, we didn't have plans. Thanks for the ride, Tasha."

Tasha flashed an equally slightly-too-sweet smile in reply. "Oh it's no trouble at all."

Jesse raised an eyebrow. "Oooohkay, I'll see you two tommorow."

"Alright Tasha, what're you doing?" Soleil asked as soon as they got into Tasha's car.

"More like what are you doing?" Tasha asked in a deceptively calm voice.

"You know what I'm doing, I do it all the time, you've never had a problem with it before," Soleil replied. A smile toyed with the corners of her lips as it dawned on her. "Tasha, do you have a crush?"

"We are not back in middle school," Tasha scoffed. "I'm just worried about Jesse. He's going to think it's love when it's really lust and he's going to get hurt. Do you really want to hurt him?"

"Tasha I will not hurt him, I promise," Soleil promised. "I just want to have a bit of fun is all."

Tasha stopped the car in front of Soleil's apartment building. "I know. Just be careful with this one, ok? He breaks easily."

Soleil didn't reply, she simply smiled and bent over to kiss Tasha squarely on the lips. She pulled back, smiled again, though this smile had a different meaning, and stepped gracefully out of the car.

Tasha sat there for a minute, one hand lightly touching her lips, before jumping out of the car. "Soleil! What the hell was that?"

Soleil turned. "What? You thought I was going to let not getting a ride from Jesse spoil my bit of fun for the day?" She laughed, waved good bye, and continued into her building, leaving Tasha standing dumstruck on the sidewalk.

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Aaron yawned as he fumbled for the keys to the theatre door in his book bag. He hadn't gotten any sleep the night before coutesy of his very loving upstairs neighbors expressing their love all night and he planned to get the few minutes of sleep he could on the greenroom couch before the rest of the cast arrived.

Finally finding his keys, he tried about five of the color coded keys before finding the right one, jamming it into the lock, and stumbling into the tiny theatre lobby. His tired eyes barely even noticed a flash of silver go by as he made his way to the door to the greenroom stairs.

As he walked down the stairs, his brain numbly noted chitterings, warblings and buglings coming from inside the green room. Aaron leaned against the door as he looked through the keys. "Green," he muttered to himself and pulled the green key out of the bunch. He opened the door and fell into the greenroom - and a whirlwind of wings and colors.

"What the hell?" Aaron exclaimed, awake the moment he hit the floor.

He pulled himself up onto the couch and gazed around the room in shock and disbelief. Firelizards in a rainbow of color, some with entire rainbows on their hides, perched on furniture, curled up on cushions, fought over food they'd pulled out of the refridgerator they'd managed to open, and looked to be greatly enjoying themselves as they tore up the greenroom.

"Get out out of here!" he ordered in a voice that had made many cocky actors cower.

The firelizards paused in their chitterings and shreddings long enough to give him a dirty look and then returned to what they were doing, Aaron completely forgotten.

While Aaron sat on the couch watching his greenroom being destroyed and trying to decide what to do about it, Jesse walked in. One of the bright pink firelizards who must have been Diva chirped and dropped a pillow he was shredding to fly over to Jesse and perch on his shoulder.

"Jesse, do you want to explain this to me?" Aaron asked after a moment when Jesse didn't seem to see anything odd about the situation.

Jesse looked up suddenly, eyes taking a moment too long to focus. "What? Oh, what is there to explain? Diva brought a few of his friends to visit."

"A few!?" Aaron exclaimed, waving his arms to indicate the dozens of flits in the room and accidently knocking two of them out of the air.

"Well I'm sure they'd go away if you just asked them," Jesse reasoned, scratching Diva's head tenderly.

Aaron rubbed his eyes and sank back into the couch. "I already did. Would you like to try? They're impossible!"

Jesse's eyes unfocused again and Diva cocked his head as if listening to a conversation only he could hear. Aaron got the eerie feeling the two were talking to eachother. Then he gave a chirp, bobbed his head, lept from Jesse's shoulder, and dissapeared. Aaron, who hadn't seen this trick, watched in amazement as the rest of the firelizards dissapeared, leaving the greenroom looking like a tornado had been through.

"Wh-Where'd they go?" Aaron stammered.

Jesse shrugged. "Wherever Diva went yesterday, I guess."

"If your lizard keeps bringing his friends back here I'll... I'll..." while Aaron was trying to think up a suitable punishment, a loud ripping, crashing sound came from the stage followed by a loud scream that sounded like Bianca's.

Aaron raked a hand through his hair. "Oh god, she's finally done it, she's brought down the theatre." He lept up and took the stairs up to the stage three at a time, Jesse calmly following behind him

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