Star Wars: Vode An (closed for Apollo Wilde and BewareTheDream)

Raeth spent the days leading up to the assassination quite differently than Saudaji. While she occupied her days with spa treatment and shopping and her nights with musical performance, he spent most of that time couped up in the RV staring at monitors. He did not mind, of course. The agent enjoyed, if not relished, working with one form of tech or another, whether it was for work or for leisure.

In this case, he was sitting in front of his computers for work as well as pleasure. For work, he monitoried the target, the padawan, the location of the next meeting between Xucphra Corporation and the Thyferran Blenders Union, and the key representatives, all around-the-clock. For pleasure, Raeth watched Saudaji.
He really liked watching her, and he was not at all shy in telling her so. Each time Saudaji indulged in a lengthy, full-body message, she would first receive a text message to her datapad:

"Eye in the sky. Yes? No?"

As he said he would, he let her know that he was watching her from afar. He was also asking for permission to continue doing so during her massage. If she denied him his request, he'd pout from miles away and just re-watch footage of her he had recorded in the past. But if she typed back a "Yes", he'd take a break from monitoring the person he intended to kill in order to focus on her alone.

Capturing new footage was always more fun than watching reruns.

For one of her massages, Saudaji had a Vratix masseuse. Having multiple forelimbs meant that the Twilek huntress had 4 insectoid hands on her body at once rather than only 2 humanoid ones. The Vratix's long, twig-like fingers may have taken some getting used to at first, but in the end they got the job done. Any soreness or tightness in her usually over-worked muscles were rubbed away with precision and care. Clearly this masseuse had been plying his (her?) trade for many years.

Through the cameras of one of his drones, Raeth watched Saudaji in the spa. On the edge of his seat, his face a little too close to the screen, he marveled at her body. He licked his lips as he observed her supple skin and the firm muscle underneath react to the masseuse's ministrations. When she lay on her stomach to get her back, butt, and the back of her legs massaged, he recalled how her ass cheeks felt in his hands and how it tasted when he licked her crack. When she lay on her front, her stared, wide-eyed, at her jiggling breasts, her oiled-up belly, and at the tuft of pubic hair on her mons. He remembered her with her back on the console of the Patient Pylat, its buttons and switches surely digging into her delicious skin as he plowed into her. He brought up the memory of her eyes closed and her full lips spread open in a scream moments before he kissed her.

Raeth shivered and moaned quietly. He had been stroking himself through his pants up until that point, but now he unbuttoned his fly in order to release his erection.

"Honestly, Master, is it really so much trouble to warn me when you're about to do that?" Sebastian v2 complained from the driver's seat of the RV. Raeth's moan had caught its attention, which was why it was looking back, giving him the best accusatory glare it could manage without eyelids or eyebrows.

"I can step outside and give you some privacy while you treat your body like a yogurt dispenser."

Raeth did not take his eyes off of the screen or his hand off his phallus. On screen, the Vratix had two of its hands on one of Saudaji's legs, holding it up while its other two hands massaged her glistening thigh. The insectoid fingers were tantalizingly close to her sex, and he was not about to miss that show.

"Don't pretend you don't like it," Raeth said without looking at the droid. "I wager there are times you wished I gave you the proper equipment so you could try this yourself." He laughed, because the image of a battle droid with a shiny, metallic cock walking around Xucphra City and jerking off at pedestrians suddenly sprouted up in his mind. The idea was so ludicrous he couldn't help but laugh.

"You would lose that wager, Master." Sebastian responded with the prissiness one would expect from a protocol droid. "What you are doing serves no identifiable purpose other than pleasure. I needn't remind you that you did not program me with the ability to feel pleasure."

Raeth was silent for a moment or two, partially because he wanted to think up a good response, and partially because Saudaji's breasts were jiggling again on-screen. "Think of it this way, Sebastian: what I'm doing is a way for Humans to perform a self diagnostic.

"Periodically, you test your weapon systems, correct? You ensure your targeting program and your blasters are all functioning properly? Well, this is essentially the same thing. I'm testing my blaster under safe, controlled conditions so that I know it will work during a real fire fight." Raeth chuckled.

Sebastian would have rolled its eyes if it could. Instead, it turned around, facing forward once again. " If you insist on me cleaning up after you, at least do me the courtesy of minimizing the mess you make."

Later, after Raeth finished with his self diagnosis and Saudaji finished with her massage, she had a new text message waiting on her datapad:

"I like you in violet. I like you more in jade." He was referring to her natural skin color vs. the pigmentation she now used as a disguise.

*****

It was the night before the big hit. It was no coincidence that this was also the night that Saudaji was to meet Deelio for a private show.

Raeth and Saudaji went over the details of the plan multiple times, either via on-screen chat or text message. Never in person, and always on secure channels. The two of them had not seen each other face-to-face since the Twilek fully assumed the identity of Dian’La Rosilson, and they likely would not again until after their mission was complete.

It was presently Benduday, the 23rd of Nelona. The meeting between the Xucphra Corporation, the Thyferran Blenders Union, and the Jedi mediator would take place on Primeday the 24th, inside of the Xucphra corporate headquarters. Raeth surmised that Xucphra Co. scheduled the meeting so close to Productivity Day in an attempt to appeal to the TBU's holiday spirit, as well as to put pressure on its leaders to end the strike now so that the workers can get one more paycheck right before a major, galactic holiday. He thought the holiday spirit approach was laughable, but he could see the sense in the financial burden angle.

Saudaji's job was to keep Deelio away from the meeting. The intel gathered on Master Virak indicated that while he preferred to have Deelio present during diplomatic meetings for the purpose of educating the padawan, there were times when Virak would attend meetings without him. If Deelio went missing tomorrow morning, the sheer importance of this meeting would prevent Virak from postponing or canceling it in order to find his missing apprentice.

With Deelio out of the way, it would be easier for Raeth to pull the trigger on his master.

Raeth filled Saudaji in on all the important details regarding the hit itself. She knew that Virak's reprogrammed protocol droid, X-3VO, would potentially play a big part. She also knew that her partner intended to make the hit before their target entered Xucphra HQ. If the assassination took place within view of the large crowd of protestors clogging the streets, it would surely create chaos. Raeth and Saudaji would leave the city in the ensuing chaos.

That night, not long before Saudaji went to meet with Deelio, she and Raeth conducted their last, scheduled, on-screen meeting before the big hit. The agent appeared to be excited. His usual playfulness and raunchiness was absent that night, and in its place was a focus on their mission.

"I won't ask what you plan on doing with the padawan. But I'll have eyes on you at all times." This close to mission end, the presence of his spy drones was no longer negotiable.

"This is your last chance, Saudaji. Concerns? Risks? Questions? Anything else we haven't already discussed?" Raeth wore a small smile as he awaited her response.

"If there's nothing else, jate oya. Ib'tuur jatne tuur ash'ad kyr'amur." Raeth wished her 'good hunting' in Mando'a, and followed up with the traditional saying: 'Today is a good day for someone else to die.'

The night before her big “gig” with Deelio, she was like any other performer before a big show. Several of their conversations took place while she was either in a bath or in the throes of ornate beauty treatments, and this was no different. She had the holo screen propped next to the bathroom mirror, and it was clear that her attention was on her reflection, and not him. She hardly seemed to register his excitement as she leaned into the mirror, carefully rubbing a serum into the soft flesh under her eyes.

“No questions. No concerns,” she said, distractedly, as she ran her middle finger under each eye, smoothing the serum in further. “Vor entye, Raeth.” Pulling back from the holoscreen, the smile she gave him sat lightly at the corners of her mouth. “Enigmatic” would be putting it mildly.

+++++++

He wasn’t good at lying. So he told the truth.

And, surprisingly, Master Virak had let him go. “It’s good to show that you’re a part of the people,” he’d said. “Being seen around entertainers, being seen as approachable; very astute!”

Deelio had been flabbergasted.

But quickly shut his gaping mouth, and headed out. Master Virak was staying late; going over the documents for the meeting tomorrow morning. When he arrived at the roof, his breath caught in his throat. Dian’La was at the piano, idly playing a sad tune. Her piano playing was rudimentary - perhaps she hadn’t done more than master the basics. Her brows knit as she stumbled over a key, and she pouted, stopping, and going back and performing the same musical phrase until it flowed the way she wanted. At that, she stopped, smiled, nodded to herself.

He cleared his throat, nervously.

She kept playing.

He cleared his throat again, a bit louder this time.

She still didn’t hear him, the tip of her tongue pressed against her lower lip as she continued to work out the skeleton of the song, writing and re-writing within her head, through her fingers. Taking a deep breath to steel himself, he strode forward, and tapped her on a slender, bare shoulder. The touch of her skin was slightly chill from the night air, but warm enough that his fingertips tingled. She gave a small start, the music stopping with a jolt of the keys.

“Oh, young master! You gave me a fright!” Her rapid breath left her in a harsh laugh, before melting into something softer and genuine.

“I tried getting your attention before, but you didn’t hear me.” He drummed his fingers against his thighs, then forced them into stillness. “I’m not late, am I?”

“No, not at all! So, I need your opinion on a few pieces I’m working on. I must admit, writing music isn’t my strong point. But I figured if I wanted to stay in this business, I wanted to be more than a pretty face.”

And so it went. Charming, breathless, a bubble of joy and hope rising against the backdrop of the city. She showed him what she knew of the piano, laying her hands over his, gently pushing her body into his until his sense reeled from the florals of her perfume. They’d stopped, shared a small meal, tea.

And even as he grew pleasantly tired, even as he tried to stay awake, the music she played, the things she sang, lured him further and further to the edge of dreaming….then the night started coming in fragmenting bits. Her laughing as she helped him away from the piano. Looping her small body under his as she lead him back to his room, her settling him in bed, singing something in Twi’leki as she did such things…and then he knew nothing.

Raeth almost envied the padawan. While he watched Saudaji's seduction of Deelio on a screen, a part of him wished he could trade places with her target, even for a moment or two. Yes, he knew it was only an act, but the notion of Saudaji singing to him felt nice.

Besides, it had been several days of being physically apart from her. All of their recent interaction had been through one device or another. He wanted very much to be near her, to touch her, and to smell how those lotions and bath oils she favored mixed with the natural scent of her skin and sweat.

Until they were together again, he'd have to make due with the memories of their intimate interactions. But as vivid as his memory was, it still did not compare to the real thing. Raeth even resorted to rewatching the recordings of their sexual encounters, but that somehow made his frustration worse rather than relieve it.
The agent snapped out of his musings and longings when he saw Saudaji lead Deelio away from a piano and towards a bed. He sat up, inching his face a little closer to the screen. Maybe she would fuck the Jedi; that'd be fun to watch. But, alas, Deelio lay motionless on the bed after the Twi'lek dumped him there rather unceremoniously.

"Huh. That was easy," he said to himself before glancing at the clock in the corner of one of his screens. It was just past 0200. Raeth expected Master Virak to arrive at Xucphra Corp. HQ shortly before 0900. Everything that he needed to do on his end was ready, so there was no reason to rush.

Raeth typed out a message that would appear on Saudaji's datapad:

"Ori'jate. Will stay for 3. Meet you after."

Translation: 'Ori'jate' was the Mando'a word for 'excellent'.

"Will stay for 3" meant that the RV was parked practically next door and would stay there for another 3 hours in case she needed backup. Afterwards he would fly to their main objective.

"Meet you after" meant that he would pick her up and together they'd get out of the city after their target was down.

Because there were no surprises, the remainder of that night played out as Raeth's text message suggested. He waited and watched her for a few more hours. At dawn, the RV lifted off, and the final phase of their mission began.

*****

The scene in front of Xucphra Corporate HQ was one of barely-contained chaos. There was huge crowd of Vratix choking the streets, holding up protest signs, and chanting. Local news reports estimated the attendance was well over 100,000. Multiple streets in the area had to be shut down, and even airspeeder traffic directly above Xucphra Corp. had to be diverted to alternate routes for the duration of this meeting.

The peace keeping force was a combination of Xucphra City's mostly-Vratix police and Xucphra Corp's mostly-Human security. The insectoid police wore uniforms of green & yellow, and most of them were armed with their stun-capable sidearms and other non-lethal weaponry. The corporate security team, however, wore head-to-toe armor of white and gray. And although they also carried non-lethal weaponry, they opted for the more intimidating looking stun rifles, tear gas launchers, and sonic disruptors. The city police looked like there were there to monitor a peaceful protest whereas the security team looked ready for a riot. Between the two forces, they kept the protestors away from the large steps leading up to Xuphra Corp., and they also kept a landing area clear for the arriving representatives.

Raeth instructed Sebastian v2 to park the RV 4 blocks away, which was far enough away for them to easily hightail it out of there once shit hit the fan, but also close enough for them to speed to the scene on the off chance that eliminating the target required a more up-close touch. The agent, as usual, was supremely confident that his plans would go off without a hitch and that he'd be able to get this job done without leaving the comfort of his chair.

He had several spy drones positioned above the scene providing views of the protest and the building from multiple angles. He also had drones following the three parties involved in this meeting: the Xucphra Corp. executives, the leaders of the Thyferran Blenders Union, and Master Virak. Raeth monitored all of these subjects' positions, his excitement growing the closer they came together. His eyes were riveted on the screens before him, each one feeding him different information. And he delighted in knowing that as tense as everyone was at that moment, it was nothing compared to how crazy things would get within the hour.

The first to arrive were the Xucphra Corp. executives, who came in separate airspeeders. Each speeder was escorted by more private security flying their own, tank-like vehicles. The police and the security forces both had some trouble holding the crowd back from the landing area when the execs arrived. The angry clicking and chittering from the protestors rose until it sounded like a swarm was descending upon the entire city.

Raeth smiled to himself as he watched the execs - most of whom were Human - get out of their vehicles, stare at the mob of disgruntled insectoids, then scurry up the stone steps along with their heavily armored guards. Raeth considered it ironic that these businessmen and business women feared for their lives, for they really didn't have to worry about the mob. No matter how pissed off the Vratix looked or sounded, they were still an inherently peaceful species. Hell, these beings spent their lives making life-saving bacta, which made them unlikely candidates for a bloody riot.

No, Raeth thought, the Xucphra executives didn't have to worry about the mob. If events played out as they did in his head, none of them would die that day. Well, maybe one or two of them would die or suffer severe burns, but that was unlikely. And it wouldn't be because of the protestors.

Master Virak arrived next to a much different reaction. His airspeeder landed without the crowd surging forward. In fact, the crowd nearly took a collective step back when Virak exited his vehicle along with X-3VO. The Vratix closest to Virak turned away or recoiled when the Jedi diplomat surveyed the crowded streets. The chanting by the steps grew almost quiet, too.

Raeth found the public's reaction to Jedi fascinating. To most people, the Jedi were mysterious, mystical. Very few understood what these warrior monks were capable of doing. Fewer still had any true understanding of the Force. More than a few thought that thinking bad thoughts whilst in the presence of a Jedi would somehow curse them or their loved ones. Raeth was annoyed by how ignorant people could be despite the vast amount of information right at their fingertips, yet at the same time he found it funny how the Jedi could command so much fear despite the fact their intentions were almost always benevolent.

He watched Master Virak and his protocol droid ascend the huge steps. At the top, the Xucphra execs waited with their guards. During his surveillance of the target, Raeth learned that Virak insisted that he, the execs, and the Blenders Union all meet in front of the building to exchange pleasantries. Virak convinced them that this show of mutual respect would send the right message to the thousands gathered there as well as to the countless who were watching from home. To Raeth, this public display gave him an ideal opportunity to strike, which was why he was literally on the edge of his seat as Virak and X-3VO walked up the steps.

Raeth's fingers became a flurry on the keyboard when he typed a quick message to Saudaji: "Almost time. Enjoy the show!" The Twi'lek was given access to the video feed, so she could watch from afar as well if she wasn't busy disposing of Deelio's body or maintaining her cover.

What came next happened so quickly.

One of Raeth's monitors alerted him to approach of Seeqov Klak’t and Qlaern Roqiti, the two leaders of the Blenders Union. They were a few kilometers away and closing in fast. The thing he wanted to happen would likely happen soon.

Raeth initiated a visual recognition program that his spy drones ran on the crowd. His computer had been fed images of the Vratix that were present at the Blenders Union meeting he attended several nights ago - the same meeting where he was disguised as an Ubese gun dealer who sold a crate of weapons to Qlaern Roqiti and her entourage. The crate was mostly filled with non-lethal weapons, but he had included a couple of thermal detonators as a little bonus.

Eagerly awaiting the results of the recognition program, Raeth watched his drones scan the faces and bodies of the Vratix closest to the steps. There! One of the drones found a match! A member of Qlaern Roqiti's hive-clan - Qlaern Klakma - was shouldering his way closer. Raeth zoomed in just in time to see Klakma remove a thermal detonator from a pocket of his vest.

Raeth was grinning ear to ear at that point. It was all falling into place despite all of the uncertainty. He was not certain if Qlaern Roqiti would've agreed to buy weapons from him in the first place. He wasn't certain if she or any of her group would decide to use any of those weapons, least of which the thermal detonators he insisted they take. Because of all the uncertainty, all the variables, he had backup plans in place in case it all unraveled. It didn't look as though any of those contingencies would be needed today, which made him quite pleased with himself.

Raeth took manual control over one of his drones in order to focus in on what Qlaern Klakma did. He recorded the way the Vratix shoved his way to the front of the mob. How he appeared to struggle with one last moment of doubt, one moment of hesitation, before he primed the thermal detonator and hurled it towards the top of the Xucphra Corp. stairs. Raeth was out of his seat when he trained the camera on the detonator, his eyes and his smile both wide as the bomb arced through the air, beautifully. He felt like he was watching a greenputt championship match and this was the close-up of the game-winning play, only this was far more exciting.

The agent had to admit that for a guy who probably never did anything violent in his life, Qlaern Klakma really knew how to lob a thermal detonator. The thing was headed right for Virak and the group of Xucphra executives. But he knew it would not work. Raeth knew that something as simple as a thermal detonator hurled by a disgruntled bacta blender would never come close to killing Master Virak. The target was, after all, a master Jedi.

Virak sensed the incoming danger the moment it was airborne. He spun around, and in a fraction of a second he spotted the detonator flying through the air. The first thing that he did was fling his arms to either side, which resulted in a Force shockwave that hurled the executives, their guards, and X-3VO away, safely. A handful of execs and guards were even thrown through the open front doors of the building, which was probably the safest place to be.

Next, Virak whipped a hand out in front of him as though he was preparing to catch the now falling thermal detonator. Instead, he used the Force to catch it in midair then immediately push it away. The blinking grenade flew up and up until it exploded, harmlessly, high in the sky. Raeth begrudingly admired the quick-thinking, finesse, and ice-cold efficiency exhibited by his target. For a fleeting moment he almost felt bad that he was about to kill him.

The explosive display of Force that sent people flying combined with the loud, frightening fire in the sky caused the crowd to go crazy. Protest chants were immediately replaced by the clacking of insectoid terror. The Vratix scattered in a matter not dissimilar from the way Thyferran cockroaches scatter on the kitchen floor when the lights are turned on. Their retreat was both frantic and weirdly organized; no one was getting trampled to death.

The police were busy seeing to the safety of the citizens. Corporate security was preoccupied with the people who authorize their paychecks, helping them back onto their feet and into the safety of building. No one was paying attention to the Jedi master who had just saved a lot of people's lives. No one except for Raeth, who calmly typed a quick command into his computer before watching the final act.

Master Virak was scanning the fleeing crowd and using his Force senses to try and locate the threat. His finely-tuned danger sense was warning him that something was still wrong. A Jedi of his age and skill knew never to doubt the Force, so he brandished his lightsaber and ignited it despite not seeing the threat his instincts said was there. He did not realize the threat would be his own protocol droid.

X-3VO received the signal to run the secret program Raeth had installed the night he kidnapped the droid. It picked itself up off the ground then shuffled to within striking distance of the Jedi.

"Master, may I have your attention please?" It said, politely.

"Not now, X-3! Get inside with the others..." Virak sparred just a moment to turn to his droid, which happened to be the very same moment that the bomb planted within it exploded. Virak was sent flying backwards. Much of his head and other parts of his body were vaporized, instantly. Jagged, charred shards of droid were embedded into what remainded of his torso, arms, and legs. His body landed with a sickening thud about halfway down the steps of the Xucphra Corp. building before it tumbled the rest of the way.

*****

A few blocks away, Raeth was no longer grinning. The smile on his lips was small, yet completely self-satisifed. He fingers trembled a little bit when he zoomed one of his cameras in on the smoldering corpse of Master Virak. In fact, he was trembling from his head all the way down to his toes while he recorded the proof that his target was eliminated and simultaneously admired his work.

"I sometimes can't believe that I'm paid for this," whispered to himself.

"What was that, Master?" Sebastian asked from the driver's seat.

"I said that the job's done. Get us airborne, Sebastian. It's time to pick up your girlfriend."

Sebastian sighed as it revved up the RV's thrusters. "Whatever you say, Sir."

Raeth chuckled. Finding his seat, he typed a message to Saudaji:

"Done. See you soon."

The agent reclined, threw his heels up on top of the counter, and played back the video of Master Virak's final moments. He idly wondered if Saudaji had watched the hit unfold, and if she enjoyed it at all. He would find out soon enough.

It wasn’t that she hated drugging; it had its uses. It was simply far more fun to engage in hand to hand combat.

If anything, she thought, she was uncommonly merciful. She could have outright poisoned him. She owed nothing to him. Hearing about where he’d come from, the difficulties in his training, well, that was all part of the game. At the last minute,* she’d had a change of heart, and merely drugged him. She took small consolation in the fact that the sedative, usually used on banthas, would typically be fatal if a human ingested a fraction of the amount she’d used on him.

And the beauty of it? She’d done it in full sight of Deelio. She’d kept it under the tips of each perfectly manicured nail – a little gadgetry she’d used in the past, tweaked with Raeth’s influence. From the cup of the tea, to the causal graze of her nails across the bare skin of his arm, she’d dosed him gradually over the course of the night. Her hands over his at the piano were merely the coup de grace. *She’d anticipated his heightened physical ability to subconsciously fight off whatever toxin she could have administered, and so had (admittedly) gone overboard with her application.

As the sedative was concealed under her nails, there’d be nothing to trace back to her that he’d been drugged. One of the things she had to admit that she could get used to was using stereotypical measures of femininity to subdue. *It wasn’t something that she admittedly had much experience with – at least, not like this. *

Still, lifting Deelio –and nearly collapsing under his weight; something about Hapan men seemed to make them physically denser than a typical humanoid- and nearly dumping him into the bed, she paused for moments, watching him. Studying the way his chest rose and fell with each breath. Her fingers itched, and, instinctively, she scanned the room, looking for a knife. It’d be so simple to do away with him, right now. But it wouldn’t be…right. Not for the sake of putting the mission in jeopardy, but the deep seated shame of killing a man in a less than honorable fashion. She shook her head. Trying to hang onto whatever ideals and in this new life of an assassin….one wasn’t like the other. She’d have to reconcile that.

With a long sigh, she leaned down, “tucked in” the slumbering Jedi. He should be out for nearly 48 standard hours, if he woke up at all. She still had to play the loving songstress – and that she did. She was able to slip out, undetected; everyone was consumed with the events of the meeting. Once she was back in her room, a pang slipped through her. She hadn’t been entirely joking with Raeth when she said she’d miss the carefree luxury of this “life.” The “friends” she’d made in such a short amount of time. Running a hand across the back of her neck, she glanced up at the ceiling, catching the corner of her bottom lip between her teeth. Before she could slip further into contemplation, the beeping of her datapad caught her attention.

Well, would you look at that. He praised her. She wasn’t sure if she should feel patronized or flattered. She settled into a neutral expression, and took a look around her room. Even though she knew she couldn’t be “Dian’La” anymore, there was no way she wasn’t packing the stuff she bought.

She hadn’t watched the hit go down - not that she wasn’t interested. She was sure she’d see the captured footage later, after all. But it would be better for her, especially once Dian’La had checked out, that she was in no way, shape, or form even remotely connected (or interested) in what had happened. Dian’La, luckily, wasn’t big enough for her opinion to actually matter, and, if anything, it could be played off as yet another selfish media star using a tragedy for their own purposes.

Worked for her.

Looking decidedly unglamorous, she slipped out of the hotel, her body still a luminescent violet. As she’d packed, she’d gotten…something akin to a chill, a cool feeling in the middle of her gut. It wasn’t bowel twisting stab of fear, but a shuffling towards caution. Whatever it was, she took heed to it, and was on guard. With her luggage now safely stashed away, she made her way to the pick up point where Raeth would be waiting for her.

++++++

Deelio awoke in a cold sweat.

It took him long moments, far longer than it should have, to recall where he was; what happened. Dian’La and the piano; listening to her lull him to sleep with her dulcet voice, her laughter as she walked him through playing basic keys. Odd that he should have fallen asleep on her like that. Rude, really. And now? He’d awoken when it felt like a thousand voices collectively screamed in his ear, sent lances of pain through his torso and head, so much so that he gingerly touched the side of his head, looking for blood.

Stumbling out of the protection of the bed, he staggered to the window, and jerked the curtain back. A billowing plume of smoke curled over the city. In the distance, he could hear the wailing of sirens. His blood running cold, he fumbled for words, before he moistened his lips enough to manage: “Holoscreen, on.”

Blood. Carnage. Screaming. And the charred remains of Master Virak, still smoking, as the harried police force tried to mask it from the flashing cameras, blinking lights of hundreds, thousands, endless recording devices. Deelio sank back onto the edge of the bed, eyes wide, unbelieving. It couldn’t be. Shaking, he did the only thing that he could. Folding his legs under him, he closed his eyes, steadied his breathing, and drifted into the Force.

Minutes, hours, days later - he came back to the world, and dashed out the door. He had to find her. Follow the trail of her perfume, the cloud quality of her laughter. The Force had lead him to her before. It had to be for a reason.

+++++++

When he caught sight of her, she seemed a brilliant violet gem, glistening through the panicked crowds. It hadn’t occurred to him to question why she was leaving in such a hurry. Or where she was going. The press of all walks of life, humanoid, clearly alien, kept him from getting too close to her. Every time he thought that he was close enough to touch her, to catch the line of her profile, it was like she vanished, only to resurface meters away. He had to keep trying.

++++++

Haar’chak!

She was being followed. Knew she was. Tried a few things to lose him, but he was particularly stubborn. And there was no way she was going to alert Raeth that she had a tail. That’d put the whole mission at risk. She’d get him to a safe place, somewhere she could talk it out, talk it over - and still keep within Raeth’s gaze.

Leading Deelio ever closer, she snaked into the thin press of an alley, carefully stepping over stagnant puddles of waste. She was about a block away from the pick up point, and knew she had to work fast.

Deelio, finally pulling free of the crowd, stood before her, his face flushed, chest heaving in perceptively with the effort. His eyes were wide, childish; unsure.

“Dian’La…” His voice was hesitant. “I..” He ran a hand through the close cropped burr of blonde hair, his fingers shaking. Saudaji steeled herself, took a deep breath, held it, and let it go. She didn’t have to be a Force user to pick up on the rush of emotions bleeding from him. “I…I’m sorry,” he fumbled, moving to let his hands rest by his side. Even from where she stood, she could see him trembling. “I followed you because I didn’t know what else to do. I feel something about you, something surrounds you. I sense that you know of what happened to my Master…and why.”

She’d been waiting for that hook. And she rose to take the bait, letting him see her shoulders stiffen under her cloak, the slight twitch of her lekku. She slowly shook her head under the voluminous hood of her (ever stylish) cloak, allowing her eyes to hood over as she looked timidly to the side.

“I knew you’d come after me,” her voice was breathy, tremulous. “I’d hoped you would. But you….you don’t understand.” Bait was cast. And under the uncertainty of her blue eyes, there wasn’t the slightest hint of calculation, of any change in her pulse. “I didn’t want you killed,” she said, loudly, her voice going ragged as if she was stopping herself from collapsing into sobs. She rushed forward now; threw herself into his arms. Buried her face in his chest. “I…I can’t tell you more than that. I couldn’t bear having your blood on my hands, and I know it’s forbidden for Jedi to form attachments, but..”

He stood, struggling to process what all she was saying, the fact that she was very warm and very female and very close. Slowly, he lifted his hands to rest them on her shoulders, to put some much needed distance between the two of them. This close, he could feel his senses wavering, the heady scent of her perfume, of her, tangling around him, ensnaring him. Clouding what he could sense through the Force. She looked up at him, anguish etched across her face, her eyes full of tears.

“Dian’La..” He studied her face, tried to reach out to reassure her. Struggled to make sense of the situation, of whatever thin thread of logic that he could grasp at. He was waiting, searching for the alarms to go off in the Force, something to alert him to the danger that was under his palms. But he could sense nothing. Nothing but her fear, her truth, and…her desire. He let the latter wash over him, attempting to sanitize it, pull it free from the realm of physical. It was too strong, too much – and he found himself, if only for a moment, admiring the restraint she showed in not acting on it.

“I believe you,” he said. “You would not act this way without someone telling you to do so.”

Typical, typical Jedi. No; typical man. All too easy to play.

It was a testament of her skill that her disgust didn’t show on her face; didn’t give her away in the Force. Instead, her look turned beseeching. “You hardly know me, young master. You hardly know what I am capable of.”

“That is true. But there is goodness in you. A deep light that no outer darkness can extinguish,” and he gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze.

His words gave her pause; sliced through every role she’d thought to play, cutting her to the core. The expression that came next was raw; real. Her brows knit, and her gaze drifted away from him. The corners of her mouth tightened, and her fingers lightly tugged on the loose fabric of his tunic.

“You don’t know what I’ve done, young master,” she said, softly.

“It doesn’t matter what you’ve done before – as long as you take the steps to make things right.”

He honestly believed what he was saying. She looked up at him, through the dark streaks of her mascara, and carefully posed her face into one of hopefulness.

Before they could say more, the rattling of Raeth’s “van” caught her attention, and she looked towards the opposite side of the alley. Sensing her “apprehension”, Deelio let go of her shoulders, gently pushed her behind him, reaching for his lightsaber.

“No…no…not here. We can’t do this here,” she said, and, sliding past Deelio, took his hand as she began to run towards the sound of the rattling van. The darkness of the alley spat them into the brightness of day, still pockmarked by the fading klaxon. The street in which they were now on was deserted; lined by abandoned storefronts and apartment complexes. Amazing how it didn’t take long for even the most glittering cities to start crumbling at the edges. Directly in front of them was the van. She clutched Deelio’s hand out of “fear”, and he responded with a reassuring squeeze, before moving to stand in front of her, reaching for his lightsaber as he did so.

“Show yourself!” he called out.

The RV was up in the air, just one among thousands of speeders filling the skylanes of Xucphra City. Under the orders of its master, Sebastian v2 drove a little wrecklessly. The RV wove back and forth between lanes, sometimes cutting off other pilots who would blare their horns in impotent protest. Raeth didn’t care about the horn honking, nor was he at all concerned that Sebastian’s wreckless driving would attract the attention of the police. He knew that the city’s law enforcement would be far too preoccupied with the chaos downtown and the smoldering body of a Jedi to worry about a single speeder flying above the speed limit.

Speaking of smoldering bodies, Raeth watched his latest kill in silent glee. He rewound the footage and played it back multiple times. Sometimes he watched it in normal time. Sometimes he slowed it down so he could see the explosion and witness the millisecond of confusion mixed with shock on Virak’s face right before his life was snuffed out. As parts of Virak’s face disintegrated on-screen, and then as his body flew through the air in slow motion, Raeth wondered if the Jedi diplomat had any idea what was happening when his protocol droid exploded. He probably had no idea. That thought made Raeth’s smile spread wider across his face.

A duo of beeps directed the agent’s gaze to a different monitor, which displayed a live feed from one of the drones he assigned to Saudaji. It tracked the Twi’lek as she navigated through busy streets. Sometimes she would disappear in the crowd, but each time that happened the drone – which was running an image recognition / humanoid identification program that Raeth wrote himself – would quickly relocate her, highlight her, and continue tracking.

But the *beep beep* of the monitor wasn’t meant to remind Raeth of Saudaji. No, it alerted him of the padawan of a now dead master that was on her tail. Like Saudaji, Deelio was highlighted on the screen.

“Aw, pfassk!” Raeth sat up straighter, his ass sliding to the edge of his seat. His fingertips tapped away at the keyboard a moment later. “She kriffed up! I gave her ONE farking job, and she kriffed it up.”

“What was that, Master? Is there a problem?” Sebastian asked from the front of the RV.

“Oh, nothing a blaster bolt to the base of someone’s skull couldn’t fix,” Raeth replied without taking his eyes off the screens or his fingers away from the keys.

“Very good, Sir.” Sebastian didn’t sound worried. Of course, ‘worry’ was not part of its programming.

“I’ll be sending you new coordinates. Land there.”

“Understood, Sir.” Sebastian could recognize when his master’s voice was devoid of frivolity or playfulness. Raeth referred to times like this as ‘business time’, which meant that the droid had to be ready for battle at a moment’s notice. It continued flying the RV on its present course, silently awaiting new orders or new coorindates to follow.

Raeth had already sent a text warning to Saudaji’s datapad, which was probably tucked away in her purse. He was about to break radio silence and call her on comms when he saw her turn around, spot Deelio, then continue on her way. It was clear that she knew she had a tail and was trying to lose him.

Raeth’s lips twisted into an expression of annoyance. “He’s probably using the Force to track her,” he thought. “There’s no way she’s shaking him off.”
Unsurprisingly, he was proven right. Saudaji ditched her attempts to lose Deelio, and instead appeared to be leading him him somewhere out-of-the-way.

The agent’s mind was racing, and his annoyance subsided just a little bit. There were still ways to fix this. Saudaji had stopped and was confronted by Deelio at that point. Raeth pinpointed their location on a map then gave those coordinates to Sebastian. The droid changed course, and Raeth spun his swivel chair around. He searched through the various boxes at the back of the RV to retrieve the Ubese disguise he had used earlier in the mission as well as one or two other items.

Simultaneously, he listened to Saudaji play the part of damsel in distress. By the sound of it, the padawan ate it all up and even asked for seconds.

“She’s lucky he’s a moron,” he thought to himself as he covered his head with an Ubese helmet then fastened it into place. “Then again, all Jedi are morons.” Raeth chuckled. At least there was SOMETHING funny in this situation.

*****

The RV hovered into an alley. Before touching down, Raeth conducted a scan of the area. He did not detect any security cameras pointed this way. There were lifesigns, but they were minimal. The closest law enforcement station was several blocks away. This would have to do.

The RV landed moments before Saudaji and Deelio arrived. Filthy alley water evaporated into mist thanks to the speeder van’s landing thrusters. The luminous eyes of Thyferran street rodents peered at the craft from the alley’s shadows. Those same glowing eyes shifted to the Twi’lek and the Hapan when they appeared.

“Show yourself!” Deelio ordered, so sure that the villain who was somehow manipulating the enchanting Dian’La was inside of the ugly-looking speeder van. Inside, Raeth laughed, the sound distorted by his helmet. If the Jedi wanted a villain, he would get one.

The side door of the RV slid open, and the Ubese emerged. His maroon & black helmet - with its sharp edges, opaque visor, and collection of breathing tubes - gave him a menacing look, indeed. The helmet alone did not automatically mean he had malicious intent, but the blaster that he aimed at them sure removed any doubt.

“The Blender’s Union does not want any loose ends,” the Ubese said with a digitized voice. A soft hiss was pushed out from his helmet each time he exhaled. “Neither of you are walking out of this alley alive.” Raeth grinned inside the helmet; he was really hamming it up, but he figured Deelio was too dense to realize the words coming out of his mouth sounded like something you’d hear in one of those holonet crime dramas that the brainless masses would watch before going to bed on a work night.

“The Blender’s Union? Are they the ones behind my master’s murder?! Tell me what you know, now!” Deelio’s lightsaber flew from his belt into his hand. He ignited it, and an elegant, yellow shaft of concentrated pillar emerged before the Jedi assumed one of the many fighting stances he was taught by his master. His master whose body he saw smoking on the news. The thought of his dead master, and the thought of this Ubese being involved somehow ignited Deelio’s anger like a lightsaber. It was only he presence of Dian’La behind him that reminded him to control his emotions and to remember that a Jedi was at his strongest when he was in control.

“I’ve said too much!” Raeth proclaimed melodramatically. He straightened the arm holding the blaster pistol and took more careful aim. “This ends now.” The agent squeezed the trigger multiple times. A flurry of orange-red bolts blazed through the air, each one aimed at the torso of the Jedi. As expected, not a single one landed on their target. Deelio blocked each shot, expertly, sending each one ricocheting away at various angles. One bolt clipped the roof of the RV. Several hit the walls around them. One bolt exploded near a pile of garbage from which six-legged rodents scurried. Despite the obvious futility of this attack, the Ubese continued to fire his blaster.

“C’mon,” Raeth thought to himself as he squeezed off a few more blaster bolts. “Do it already. This is getting boring.” He knew that Deelio would not charge and attempt to slice him in twain with the saber, since he wanted to question him. Raeth expected the Jedi to do one of two things: he would either telekinetically yank the blaster from his hand, which he had a plan for, or he would use the Force on him directly. He was really hoping for the second option. Whatever the result, the camera in his helmet was recording; he wanted to capture the look on Deelio’s face when that magical moment happened.

Suddenly, after deflecting a shot that ricocheted less than a foot away from the Ubese’s boots, Deelio thrust his hand out towards his enemy. He did what he had been trained to do for years. He envisioned the Force all around him, binding him and connecting him to all other living things in the vicinity, on the planet, in the system, in the entire galaxy. The Thyferrans. The Blender’s Union and the Xucphra Co. executives with whom they were disputing. Dian’La, who stood right behind him, giving him a new source of strength with her mere presence. They were all connected, and through that connection Deelio found the power to do wonders.

The young Jedi envisioned this power, channeled it, and then directed it at the Ubese who was trying to kill him. He gave the power shape through purpose: that purpose was to take hold of the Ubese. He would subdue him with the Force, and then he would find out why his master had been killed. He would also find out what danger Dian’La was in so he could protect her from it.

Invisible and almost tangible, the Force coalesced around and within Deelio. It sprung forth from his outstretched hand, as though it was an extension of his arm. Deelio imagined the Force reaching out with fingers only the Jedi could see, reaching out to apprehend his enemy…

But when those fingers reached the target, nothing happened. Well, almost nothing. The Ubese’s clothing got pressed against his body for a moment. But his arms did not get pulled to his sides, like Deelio intended. He was not immobilized like intended. Much to the Jedi’s confusion, the Force somehow STOPPED right when it was about to grab hold of the enemy. That had never happened before.

Deelio tuned his senses to his surroundings and into himself, and discovered that his connection to the Force was still there. Shaking off the confusion, he thrust out his hand again and gave it another go. The result was the same. The Ubese’s clothing visibly pressed against his body for a moment, but he was not subdued within Deelio’s Force grasp.

What happened next was equally unexpected: the Ubese started to laugh at him. The sound of boisterous, uncontrol laughter was digitized by his helmet before it filled the alley around them. He laughed so hard that he doubled over, and he had to lean against the side of the RV to keep from falling onto the filthy ground. The Ubese even slapped his knee, clearly amused by a joke that only he understood.

Raeth had never seen a face as stupid-looking as the one that appeared on Deelio’s face when he realized the Force had failed him. This was because Raeth had never before had the opportunity to reveal his abnormality to a Jedi under such perfect conditions. His face was the picture of concentration and righteousness one moment, then cattle-like confusion the next. As if it wasn’t good enough that this image would be permanently sealed within Raeth’s memory, he caught the entire thing on camera, too! This was a riot that he could rewatch or replay in his head for the rest of his life.

As for Deelio, his confusion was slowly replaced by boiling rage. This enemy was not only involved in the murder of his master, but he was now laughing at him, too. Never before had the padawan been this humiliated. In his moment of rage, Deelio found a moment of inspiration: For whatever reason, the Force did not work on this enemy. But the Force could still affect other things.

Deelio reached out with the Force again, only this time he did not try to grab the enemy. Instead, he grabbed a large garbage container, lifted it up, and then hurled it. Raeth’s laughter was cut off when he saw what the Jedi was doing.

“Ohfark!” The agent exclaimed. He tried to leap out of the way, but he wasn’t quite fast enough. The container clipped his hip. “Ooof!” He was struck with enough force to send him skidding down the alley.

“Stay back, Dian’La,” Deelio commanded. He turned back towards her. “This will be over soon.” He gave her a reassuring nod before turning around and approaching his foe, lightsaber at the ready. Down the alley, Raeth was getting back to his feet, but he was doing so slowly.

She had to stop herself from letting out a snort of laughter as Raeth made his appearance from the RV. Clinging tightly to Deelio, she allowed herself to be pushed behind him. Clinging to his broad shoulders, she allowed herself a peek over his shoulder, looking at Raeth and his disguise. If Raeth bothered to look at her, there would be no mistaking the smug look in her eyes. A part of her knew that he’d be annoyed that she’d apparently “failed” - but, to her, this was her throwing down the gauntlet.

On Raeth’s ship, he could threaten her (and yes, she still hadn’t forgotten that); point blasters at her. But her? She could manipulate a Jedi into doing her fighting FOR her. Proof enough that she was just as crafty, just as capable as Raeth was. That she could think just as quickly on her feet.

However, when the “battle” started, she let go of Deelio with a soft cry, and quickly moved a few paces behind to watch. Both were toying with one another - to a certain extent. Deelio was stressed; anger starting to leak into his control. Raeth was overly confident; snapping off blaster bolts as if a Jedi (technically a padawan) could never pose a threat to him. If anything, she was a critical observer - noted the way Deelio moved, the insolent slowness of Raeth. Already she had pieced together a few scenarios of how this would end.

All of her calculating came to an end when Raeth had no discernable reaction to the use of the Force. The Force caused a low thrumming in her lekku, a vibration that echoed in her teeth. It wasn’t quite painful, but an annoyance - if it went on for much longer, she’d end up with quite the migraine. As many questions that sprang to her mind, that she wanted to ask, she had to keep her focus on what was happening in front of her. Gritting her teeth, she reached under her cloak. Not that she suspected that it had moved; but it was good to know that it was still there. She quickly closed the gap between herself and Deelio, throwing her arms about his neck in a passionate embrace.

Raeth’s mistake was being over confident. Deelio’s mistake was turning his back on her. “Oh, young master…” she cooed in his ear, a watchful eye on Raeth as he slowly got to his feet. Deelio would be awash in the warmth of Dian’La emanating from her, from her presence in the Force growing ever warmer, ever comforting. He didn’t notice the knife at his throat until it was too late.

From behind him, with a deft flick of her wrist, Saudaji slit his throat neatly from ear to ear.

There was no deliberate, slow drag of the blade. No glory in causing extra pain; in torturing. One moment his throat was whole, the next, a great sheet of blood sprang from a thin slit across the column of his throat, little more than a paper thin line.

Deelio grasped at the wound, without looking behind him. The surprised motion seemed to jerk the wound open further, and the blood flowed liberally now. He slowly sank to his knees, looking startled at the great gush of crimson over his fingers, unheeding to his attempts to staunch it. Though the Jedi were great healers, a wound of that magnitude, with no means of help, well. Even the Jedi had limits. Dispassionately, she watched Deelio fall to his knees, before he fell forward, face down into the street. She remained where she stood, waiting for the death rattle, for the last convulsion to ripple through him. She’d learned from the mistakes that both men had shown - and had remained detached, cautious, and wary. Only when the light of life had throughly left Deelio’s eyes, did she let out a long sigh and tuck her knife back into the voluminous folds of her cloak. It had been disappointingly easy - but she had promised back on Raeth’s ship not to directly engage in combat with a Jedi. Despite having just slit a man’s throat, she wasn’t breathing heavy, and not a drop of blood had gotten on her.

Striding over to Raeth, she stood over him, looking down with an unreadable expression. Her shadow falling across him, she knelt, and offered her hand to help him up. While her face was neutral, she seemed to just…ooze a certain smugness, a certain cool confidence in her ability to easily dispatch anyone in hand to hand combat, regardless of their ability in the Force or not.

She'd leave the teasing for once they were away from the scene.

Raeth saw Saudaji sneaking up behind the Jedi apprentice, which was why he was in no hurry to get back to his feet. She had little choice but to finish what she should have finished earlier. Sebastian v2 was ready to intervene as well. It had exited the RV and waited beside it, its anti-Jedi weaponry at the ready. But a deft slice from one of the huntress’ blades and the resulting fountain of blood signaled the end of the threat, so Sebastian’s weaponry slid back into its arms and torso, and the droid entered observation mode.

On the dirty, alley ground, Raeth pushed himself up to one knee. He had one hand on his injured hip. It didn’t feel as though anything was broken, but it did hurt like a motherfarker. Whatever the issue was, it wasn’t anything that a generous application of bacta couldn’t fix. Considering what planet they were on, getting bacta was the least of their concerns.

When Saudaji offered him her hand, Raeth looked at it, then looked up at her face from behind the visor and breathing tubes of an Ubese. The smugness she silently expressed was noticed, immediately, and it irked him. He reached up, grasped her forearm so she could do the same with his, and hoisted himself to his feet.

“This is all your fault,” where the first words that he said to her in person since they separated several days ago. The helmet’s digitization of his voice did little to mask the annoyance it carried. “If you’d slipped some Raxus acid into his tea, or had simply stabbed him when he was conked out, I wouldn’t have gotten a trash bin hurled at me.

“Speaking of acid…” The fact that there was a fresh Jedi corpse to dispose of distracted him from his complaining, momentarily. “Sebastian, take care of that, would you?” The agent pointed at the now-expired Deelio, who was lying in a puddle of his own blood.

“Of course, Master.” Sebastan stepped around the RV and towards the corpse. A nozzle emerged from one of its wrists. When it stood over the body and blood pool, it proceeded to spray a green liquid over them in liberal quantities. The body and the blood both began to sizzle immediately. Within the next minute Deelio began to visibly dissolve.

“Are you picking up any calls to law enforcement?” The agent asked the droid.

“No, Master, I began monitoring local frequencies once you opened fire. I’ve picked up nothing that suggests there are witnesses.” Sebastian continued to spray xenoboric acid onto the dead Jedi as casually as a butler bot would water a shrub.

“Good. At least SOMEONE is doing their job right.” He scowled at Saudaji, even though his helmet covered his entire face. Then he turned around and made his way into the RV, trying his best not to limp. He climbed into the speeder van first, and left the back door wide open so Saudaji could climb in next. Behind them, Sebastian finished spraying the corpse and watched for a couple of minutes to ensure the xenoboric acid did its job. As expected, the acid – which works wonders at dissolving organic material but does nothing to many non-organic materials – got rid of the entire body as well as the puddle of blood. The gooey remains were washed away, easily, by the water that Sebastian shot out through a different wrist nozzle.

Thus, what was left of Deelio the Jedi apprentice was washed down a nearby drain like the filth of the alley in which he was slain.

Sebastian finished cleaning up before returning to the driver’s seat. Raeth, who had removed his helmet and settled back into his customary spot in front of a row of monitors and holo displays, used the RV’s scanners to track the lifeforms immediately around them. Between Sebastian confirming no one had made any calls to the police, the scanners picking up no signs of anyone watching them, and the earlier readings that showed no security cameras in the area, the agent felt confident that this brief, bloody encounter went unnoticed.

The agent and the huntress were chauffeured out of the alley. From there, they would make the trek to Zalxuc City, where the Patient Pylat awaited to carry them off of the planet. Their first mission together was successful, and yet Raeth found reason to complain, which is what he resumed doing once they were in the air.

As she hoisted him to his feet, her eyes drifted down to the hand on his injured hip. Before she could ask, he’d snapped at her – and her smug expression dissolved into one of childish indignation. “My fault?!” she snarled at him, all honey sweet air of Dian’La scrubbed from her voice. “Who was the one overacting and taunting a Jedi like a di’kut?! You got what you deserved,” she snorted. Dusting her hands as if she was trying to remove all traces of having touched him from her, she angrily stalked after him.

“You told me to get him out of the way,” she said, taking a deep breath to calm herself. “I did. I put enough tranquilizer in his tea to have knocked out a bantha for a week.” She didn’t know what annoyed her more now – the fact that, he was, essentially right, or that she was bothering to explain herself like a youngling with their hand caught in the sweets jar. Logic would say that he was acting out, being a osikhead because he was embarrassed – and he should’ve been. As piqued as she was, it was difficult to fight the laugh that sat in her throat when she thought of him absolutely eating it when he had the trashcan thrown at him.

“I don’t want to kill unless I have to,” she added, lowly. That was something she’d lived her life by – and now, even with her hatred of the Jedi, she felt no need to compromise it. “Something you wouldn’t understand,” she added, and instantly wanted to hate herself for saying it. It was childish, a low blow, and something that she knew that wouldn’t have upset him.

He’d have to have some sense of morality for it to sting.

As Raeth praised Sebastian, and the droid began its grisly work, she turned her head away, fighting the bile that threatened to rise in her throat. As much as she despised the Jedi…it was disgraceful, no, pathetic, to watch what was once a person be dissolved into thick gobs of matter. She’d stop in her steps, force herself to look back at what the droid was doing. She had to. Had to watch. This was the only way she’d get used to it. To remind herself what the Jedi were, at the end of the day. Unconsciously, she traced the long scar on her face, still hidden beneath the cover of Dian’La. Only when the droid had finished did she board the RV, her face an impassive mask.

Once aboard, she purposely distanced herself from Raeth, sitting towards the back instead of the passenger’s side. Wedged in between the bits of machine and the droid, she rested her chin in her palm and stared out at the city below. This had been entirely different from what she was used to. A combination of spying, of play-acting – those things, she hadn’t been unfamiliar with. This wasn’t anything she hadn’t done before. But now, she was profoundly unsettled. It couldn’t have been just the interaction with Deelio; he was just another misguided man. Was that pity that sat at the pit of her stomach? Pity that Deelio could have been something else, something more? Recognition? Sorrow at leaving behind the fast friends she’d made?

It wasn’t the first mission she’d worked with a partner, either – but that had been something different. Then, she had family with her. People they killed deserved it. Or had the right price tag attached. After all of this time, she couldn’t afford to grow a conscience. But it never hurt to occasionally revisit why she did such things. Murder, she took no pleasure in. And, that nagging voice in her stomach reminded her, that’s just what she did.. It’d be one thing if Deelio had fought against her; had attacked or had the right price tag attached. Another to slit his throat like a nuna being prepped for the dinner table.

Hypocritical, to say the least.

No. That wasn’t it. Shabla di’kut.

Was she upset that Raeth had lashed out at her? Potentially. Maybe. Just a little. But to be in a funk because of it alone? No…that couldn’t be right. Whatever it was, she wasn’t finding the answers staring outside of the window at the skyscrapers and whir of transport vehicles. Time for a good drink and better food.

And to start some serious shit.

“You know, you got a lot of farkin’ nerve, Raeth,” she snapped out of the blue. She’d boarded, after all, without a word to him. “Ever since I got assigned to you, you’ve been on my ass about being dumber than you or just waiting for me to fail when you weren’t shoving your cock into one of my holes.” Her tell-tale sign of true anger, her accent, sat heavy on her words. “And the minute you get your ass rightfully handed to you by showboating around, y’wanna take it out on me! You got what you deserved! And you need to learn that not every plan always goes the way you WANT it to. Besides,” and she was standing up now, making her way towards the front of the RV, “I’d like to see you do what I just did. You ever kill a man using your own hands, or have you always got a little machine to do it for you?”

She was standing beside him now, some of that smug superiority back in her voice, in the set of her shoulders. “You don’t have a code of honor or any sense of what’s fair in the world. Not like you’d care, though. Just give you the money, right? Why do you even do this? What’s your purpose? And don’t you farkin' lie to me or I swear to the Force I will slap the osik out of you.”

This close to him, it was clear that she could very well carry out the threat - even if it would be her last action alive. She was so pissed at this point, though, that it would have been well worth it in her book.

A scoff was Raeth’s first response to Saudaji’s remark about not killing unless she had to. “You thought that you didn’t need to kill him, and look where that got us.” He thrust a finger towards the goo that Sebastian v2 was hosing down the drain. “If you’re still not convinced that sparing him was a bad idea, I’ve got footage of him sniffing out your trail faster than a Neimoidian can sniff out a bargain. You should have known that something that works on a bantha isn’t guaranteed to work on a Jedi, and killed him the moment he was vulnerable.”

Raeth grimaced and sucked in a breath through gritted teeth when he took his seat inside of the RV. When Saudaji climbed inside, he removed his helmet and began a final scan of the area before takeoff. By the time he was ready to inspect his injury, they were in the air merging with traffic. He needed to take his pants off to get a better look at it. Because Saudaji was staring out the window at the time, lost in thought, she did not notice him slide his dark brown pants off.

When Saudaji suddenly blew up and turned around to yell at him, she saw that Raeth was seated with only his underwear and a pair of dark leather boots covering his body from the waist down. He was using one hand to pull his underwear away from his hip and upper thigh while, with the other hand, he used a medical scanner to inspect the wound. As he suspected, the thick, angry, purple bruise appeared to be worse than it actually was. Nothing was broken underneath, so a bacta bandage would suffice in healing it.

“What..?” Raeth looked up from his examination to stare right into the eyes of an angry Twi’lek warrior. After listening to only a few of her angry words, he shot up to his feet, barely remembering not to stand up straight or else he’d bonk his head on the van’s low ceiling.

He tried to cut her off mid-sentence. The two of them got so angry, so fast, that what followed was a lot of them yelling over each other.

“Waiting for you to fail?! That’s rich! Clearly you haven’t noticed that I stopped telling you what to do. Since landing on this planet, have I given you a single bit of advice on how to take out the padawan? Before today, did I tell you how you should have done your job? No! I gave you your space, I let you handle your end of the mission the way that you thought was best, and all I did was watch your back.

“I wanted you to succeed! Because if you farked this up, then my ass would be on the line right along with yours!”

The two of them were face to face, yelling at each other. They weren’t yelling at the top of their lungs, but they were getting there. Their faces were so close that they could each feel the other’s hot breath on their skin. At the front of the RV, Sebastian v2’s blocky head periodically swiveled from forward to backwards and vice versa. It switched between watching where it was flying and watching this fight between its master and the Twi’lek. It sighed, not understanding how these humanoids could get so emotional over the most insignificant things.

“What did I get for giving you the freedom to operate however you wished? I got a trash can thrown at me! If I hadn’t leapt at the last moment it probably would’ve broken something!” Like Saudaji, Raeth was no longer attempting to mask his natural accent – assuming that was his natural accent. The high-class-sounding dialect of a Core World could be heard in each of his agitated words. When he was calm, his accent made him sound sophisticated. But now that his blood was on the boil, the accent made him sound kinda snobby and condescending.

“And regarding me ‘filling your holes,’ don’t even try to make it sound like you don’t want me. Not once have you complained about my cock! On the contrary, everything out of your pretty lips makes it perfectly clear that you love it when I give it to you. Admit it! You love it when I’m up in your guts! You can’t get enough of me!”

He thrust a pair of fingers at the monitors to his right. “I’ve got plenty of footage that shows you screaming your lekku off when we fuck.” Next, he jerked his thumb back towards the droid. “And Sebastian’s had to clean up the puddles we’ve left, each and every time! You can’t fake that kind of mess, Honey…oh no! You’re wetter than Mon Cala every time we fark, so don’t tell me you don’t want me as much as I want you!”

For whatever reason, there was a moment of silence between them soon after. Raeth was breathing heavily thanks to his agitated state and all the yelling. His skin was hot enough to cause a little bit of sweat to shimmer off of his lean, white, finely-musculed thighs. He looked rather comical standing there, stooped over just enough to not bang his head against the roof, wearing nothing from the waist down except for boxer briefs and boots. His keen, green eyes were right on hers, but eye contact was abruptly broken when he stared at her lekku, which probably twitched imperceptibly with aggravation. From there, he drew his gaze down to her slender neck and any other painted flesh that her dress left bare.

Raeth didn’t realize it when he licked his lips just then. He was also only vaguely aware of the fact that he had a raging hard-on that pushed the crotch of his underwear out, obscenely.

He took in a deep breath through his nostrils. The scent of her made him close his eyes in appreciation. When he opened his eyes and stared into hers again, the first thing out of his mouth was, “You smell sublime.” What a weird thing to say at that moment. Clearly he wasn’t thinking straight.

As sudden as her burst of anger, Raeth’s lust for her exploded into action. He dropped the medical scanner he had forgotten was in his hand. Then he reached around her to grab two fistfuls of her luscious ass. He groped her through her dress, and yanked her forward until the front of her body was crushed against the front of his. Her abdomen was jabbed, perhaps a bit painfully, by his steel-solid erection.

Raeth kissed her. Without even asking or waiting for any sign that she wanted to kiss him back, he thrust his tongue between her lips. Now inside of her mouth, his tongue sought out hers. They clashed, either as two tongues that longed for the taste and feel of the other, or as one angrily evading the other. To him it didn’t matter. He needed to taste her and to feel her badly, however he could for as long as he could before she beat him up.

The longer they kissed, the longer he fondled her ass, the longer they went mashed together, bodily, the more brazen Raeth became. If Saudaji gave him any indication that she missed the taste of him as much as he missed the taste of her, he would lure her tongue out of her mouth, capture it with his lips, and suck all the sweetness out of it. If Saudaji still hadn’t fought back yet, he’d swipe the tip of his tongue against the tip of hers before guiding his mouth down to her neck, or perhaps to a shoulder if it was bare. He needed to find some bare skin, any bare skin of hers, and latch his lips upon it. That flesh, painted a color different than what was naturally hers, was massaged by his lips, massaged by his tongue, and bitten as well.

Raeth hungered for her. He showed her this by making it feel as though he was devouring her. If Saudaji did not do anything to try and end this – better yet, if she encouraged this in any way – the two fo them would end up on the floor of the speeder.

“You left it up to my judgement, and I thought he didn’t need to be killed! I wasn’t going to kill a man in cold blood, farkin’ passed out in bed! What sort of demagolka do you think I am?!” Genuine hurt slipped into her voice. “That isn’t how I do things.” Glaring at him, she added, “And what makes you the resident expert on Jedi?!”

Then came the silence. She, lost in her thoughts, trying to figure out what was eating on her, feeling it simmer until it boiled over. So caught up in her anger she didn’t notice he’d taken off his pants, and looked rather vulnerable in his boots and boxer briefs. Not that she was doing much better - in her rush to stand, her cloak fell away from her. She was, compared to the previous night and day before, “unglamorous”, “understated.” But it didn’t mean that she wasn’t dressed in a flattering manner.

Beneath her cloak, she wore a sheer deep purple linen dress that left her shoulders bare, the material gauzy and translucent. It was made moreso by the perfumed oil she’d applied under and over the dress, making it damp and cling to her. It was a bold fashion statement, but antiquated - something that Twi’lek women had worn centuries ago. She wore minimal gold bracelets on each wrist, and dainty pearl and gold earrings. Of course, fitting in the old Twi’lek style, she wore nothing beneath it, her body gloriously bare but tantalizingly out of reach.

“Yes, waiting for me to fail! You just have to be the best at everything! You keep thinking I’m some sort of utreekov novice at killing people because I do things differently!” she jerked a thumb back at herself. “I have ijaat - something you’d know nothing about. And for the last time,” she stepped forward, pointing a taper finger square in the center of his bare chest, “You deserved that trash can thrown at you!”

At his jibe about sex between them, the unthinkable happened - even beneath her violet facepaint, a hot flush could be seen staining her cheeks. She snapped her mouth shut to contain her indignation, but the flare of her nostrils gave her away. “W…Well look at you!” she stammered, crossing her arms over her chest. “You come round sniffing after me like a wild quohr! As long as it’s got a hole and it’s willing, and maybe not even then, you’re all over it! I guess you just screw your way through all of your partners, is that it?”

Her Basic broken, she continued to berate him in Mando’a, gesticulating wildly. Though her lekku had lain flush against her bared shoulders, they had twitched as she lapsed into her native tongue. Silence had fallen between them - in her case, merely because she’d run out of insults and was desperately trying to think of more- and she’d looked away, only for a moment, while she attempted to gather her thoughts. In that still little moment, she’d realized how naked he was - and despite the blossom of deep purple and blue that bloomed on his hip, her eyes were drawn to his crotch. She could feel herself begin to slide down that slope, and she wrenched her eyes away, struggling to focus hard enough to think of what to call him out on next.

When he spoke again, she gave him a bewildered look….that slipped into defiant anger as he grabbed her ass and pulled him taunt against her. His erection, unnoticed before, dug into the sheer perfumed fabric of her gown, and she glared up into his face. Before she could say something cruel, his lips were pressed against hers. She stiffened in his arms; struggled to free herself, and, to some degree, was able to wrench her face away from his. It seemed as if she was torn between slapping the taste out of his mouth and something else.

The “something else” would be what won out.

From behind her, she pulled the very same knife she’d used to kill Deelio, and with a few quick twists of her wrist, sliced his boxer briefs away from him. As the fabric fell away from him, she pushed him back against his chair until he flopped down into it. In complete disregard for his wounded him, she held him down against the chair with her palm, tossing the knife to the floor.

“You wanted it; you got it.” From the heated anger of their argument before, her voice was now cold. “You just work your way from one partner to another. Anyone’ll do, right?”

She hoisted her gown up to her hips, exposing her bare body from the waist down. Unceremoniously, she straddled him in the chair - careful, however, to maneuver her body as not to press against the fresh bruise. She could’ve said a plethora of nasty things - both cruel and scintillating, but she didn’t. What she did do was lower herself onto him, engulfing his cock into her body in one fell swoop, with the slightest of sighs as she took him into her. Reaching between them, she lifted his jaw so he could look her right into the depths of her eyes, masked by those contacts.

Settled “comfortably” on his cock, she gave a tentative wiggle of her hips, her hand not leaving his jaw. Keeping his focus on her eyes, she licked her lips, tilted her head upwards, looked down at him. Looked as if she was going to say something more, but decided against it with another tentative movement of her hips, this time, a slow lifting and dropping. She didn’t want to hurt him any further, after all. If this was what it was about between them, what everything boiled down to, she'd have to prove she could take as well as he could give.

What was left of Raeth’s clothing was sliced off, except for his boots. Yet he made no attempt to defend himself. Saudaji was so fast! And on top of that, somehow he knew that she was going to fuck him. Perhaps it was wishful thinking that overrode his sense of self preservation.

The agent still did not resist when she shoved him backwards into his swivel chair. His bruised hip still hurt like a son of a bitch; the bacta bandage he intended to apply was still inside of a medkit, left there because their squabble distracted him from his injury. He didn’t care about the pain, however. All that mattered was the armed, angry, and exceptionally sexy Twi’lek standing over him.

Saudaji tossed her knife away and put a hand on his bare skin to hold him down onto the chair, which was unnecessary because he had no intention of moving now that he saw what was coming. Raeth shivered immediately at the feel of her fingers on him. There was nothing in the galaxy he wanted more than for her to touch him with the same care and appreciation his fingers expressed whenever he touched her. He did not yet notice that none of that intimacy was in her touch now, but he would realize it soon.

When Saudaji lifted her skirt up to expose the lower half of her gorgeous body, Raeth moaned. His eyes widened. Greedily, he soaked in the sight of her her muscular legs, her tuft of pubic hair, her pussy lips being guided into position above his twitching cock. It did not occur to him to tell her this, but she was a cherished vision to him, one that was permanently imprinted into his memory. During the days-long stakeout of their Jedi targets, there were many, many times that were slow and boring. It was in these times that Raeth would run his memories of Saudaji through his mind. He would remember the taste of her lips, the smell of her skin, or the feel of her fine, toned flesh against his fingertips. He remembered how it felt to be inside of her, to be squeezed by the sinfully strong body that enveloped him. These memories of their past intimacy made even the most boring stretches of the stakeout pass quickly.

It also didn’t occur to him to tell her that his favorite memories of her comprised more than their sexual encounters. The time that they worked on the RV and listened to music together were recalled fondly and often over the past several days. If he excluded the times that they fucked, that moment shared on the roof of the RV was perhaps the only instance in which Saudaji could be in his company without somehow expressing how much she disliked him. There were times when she hated him. This drove him mad.

Now, however, with Saudaji exposing herself and getting into position above his lap, the thing that was driving him mad was how much he wanted her. They got along best when they fucked. Instinctively, his hands rushed out to her thighs. He loved how firm and toned they were. Grinning, he squeezed both of her thighs. His fingers slid forward until he got two new handfuls of hers ass. His mouth watered at the though of feasting on her flesh, which was something he had thought about so much while they were separated, each in different parts of Xucphra City.

Raeth’s cock made it so very clear how much he lusted for her, too. There was already some precum moistening the swelling tip. His whole shaft jerked, stretched, and reached for her body much like he did with his hands. When Saudaji took hold of his chin and made him look at her, she saw immediately how his entire face was glazed over with uncontained excitement.

Raeth moaned, deep and long, when she accepted his cock into her body. His body stiffened. Sweat started to accumulate on his shoulders, chest, and neck, causing his pale skin to glisten, subtley, in the dim interior of the RV. By this point, Sebastian v2 had stopped watching them. Now that Saudaji didn’t seem to want to kill its master, at least not right at that moment, its focus was once again on flying the speeder. At the same time, it briefly pondered how strange humanoids were. One minute they’re on the verge of fighting, the next they’re copulating.

It was the pleasure of this copulation that caused Raeth to tilt his head way back, grin, and close his eyes. He savored the way that Saudaji engulfed him. His body spasmed, and he laughed a little when she started doing her first, tentative movements on top of him. He assumed that she was teasing him.

Raeth opened his eyes the next time she urged him to meet her gaze with that grip she maintained on his jaw. This time, however, he saw what he missed moments before: the coldness in her eyes. Next, he realized that she although she began fucking him, there was no intimacy in her touch. The fingers she had on his jaw were not being gentle or caring. She wasn’t enjoying his body with her either hand, either. The agent frowned, blinked away some of the sexual haze that clouded his perception earlier, and studied Saudaji’s eyes and her face more carefully this time.
Following the last time they were intimate – which was also the only time they’d fucked in bed – Saudaji’s eyes had the same coldness that he was seeing now. It baffled him how she could want him so badly one moment that she encouraged him to fuck her in her ass, and then the next moment she couldn’t get away from him fast enough. Raeth hated the look in her eyes then, and he hated it now.

Although he had been on the verge of cumming an instant or two ago, he wanted to put an end to this.

“Stop. Stop! Ungggh!” It was extremely difficult, but he clenched the muscles near the base of his phallus to prevent himself from orgasming. He took a steadying breath, which caused his cheeks to puff out a bit, before gripping the Twi’lek’s hips and urging her off of him. Unless Saudaji fought him, her pussy would be lifted off of his cock. His cock wasn’t at all happy about this. Covered in her juices, his phallus spasmed and swelled to express its silent rage at being removed from the hot, soothing embrace of Saudaji’s cunt.

After a few more deep breaths, Raeth looked Saudaji in the eye. He took a moment to also replay what she had said right before she mounted him. In the heat of the moment, he had ignored what she said, but now it was finally time to pay closer attention and try to figure out why she acted so crazy. Something about his past partners? Anyone’ll do?

“Why are you doing this?” He pushed her off of his lap, then searched for his pants. His underwear had been sliced into uselessness, but his pants were still intact.

“What do my other partners have to do with anything? And what do you mean by ‘anyone will do?’ “ Raeth squirmed in his chair, and adjusted his pants to try to get more comfortable. Even with his trousers on, his still-raging erection remained quite obvious. He was still shirtless, so she could see the tightness of his chest and shoulders, as well as the sweat upon both. That tightness, the sweat, and his heavy breathing all made it clear how difficult it was for him to push her off when they were on their way to getting so hot & heavy. But at that moment, getting to the bottom of her cold treatment of him and her cryptic words were more important to him.

She’d watch his expression shift from celestial bliss to confusion, concern, irritation. But she made no move to get off of him, forcing herself to ignore how good he felt inside of her. Like coming home, like sliding puzzle pieces together. They fit perfectly, beyond what she could have potentially ever have imagined – there was a truth in their joining, one that infuriated her, confused her, scared her. Rocking her hips again, grinding him deep within her, the hand not on his jaw lightly clenched at his shoulder, the light pinprick of her nails biting into his smooth flesh. If she could just…let go, forget what she just said, allow herself to be lost, it’d be okay, it’d make sense –

And his hands were on her hips, and she pushed into them, thinking he was encouraging her, that they were falling back into the old comfortable pattern of fuck more, talk less, pushing away reality for that much longer, ignoring the reality of their situation. He was pushing her off – the surprise was clear on her face. And, despite the reflexive tightening of her thighs around him, she obeyed. She delicately climbed off of his lap, avoiding his bruise as much as she could. Standing up, her skin flushed, her own arousal flecking her cunt lips in heavy strands, she pulled down her gown with some sense of dignity, and crossed her arms over her chest, looking out of the window again, as if she’d never mounted him in the first place.

“It’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” Her voice was softer, the hard edge of combat out of it, but it was no less on guard, no less waiting for an opportunity to attack. “That’s all I’m good for, right?” She uncrossed her arms, looking at him now. “It’s what we do. This is who we are. No emotional attachments, right? Just a lot of fun on the road.” She paced slowly to the passenger’s side seat, before elegantly seating herself and, intentionally, deliberately slow, crossed her legs. She leaned over the side of the chair, her gaze locked on him.

“I know your type. Everything in the world is something to be had – and when you get bored, it’s on to the next thing, right?” Though her words were cold, the shiftiness in her eyes gave her away. For someone as schooled in hiding what she thought, it was a dead giveaway that there was something more than she was letting on. And by the way she dug her fingernails into the armrest, fidgeting, it was clear that she was wrestling with herself, wondering if she should be truthful or not.

“What is this, Rae’ika?” she finally blurted, slapping her palm down against the arm rest of the chair. “I have never, in any of my cycles, been so infuriated and so infatuated with a male. I can’t kriffin’ stand you but I have to have you. It’s this burning in my gut.” She ran her hands over her lekku, a similar gesture to someone running their hands through their hair in absolute frustration. “And you think I’m some backwater savage – you don’t get anything of where I’m from, how I live, why I do these things. And when I think I have you all figured out, when I know for sure what you want, you turn around and you turn into this other person, this man that looks like he might have some sort of heart, and you get close, and, gods, I want you closer, but I don’t know why and I-“

She stopped herself, buried her face in her hands, and let out a muffled roar into her palms. Running her hands down her lekku again, she turned to glare at him. “And I’m just waiting, waiting, for you to use me like you do everything else,” and she waved around the RV. “If I can keep myself from tipping over, using you like you use me, give before you take, we’ll get through this. I’ll get through it,” and she said the last with an undercurrent of steel, trying to convince herself more than him, as if he’d stopped existing in the same space. She took in a deep breath, held it, let it out in a strained huff of a laugh.

“I don’t know why I got this stupid farkin’ thing for you,” she shook her head, bit her lower lip and looked up to the ceiling of the RV. “I figure I just ride it out until it’s done. And it just gets deeper. Don’t get me wrong”, she added quickly, “It isn’t anything like love. Nothing like that. But it’s more than curious lust. I don’t know what it is.”

She slipped into silence now, tightening her lips as she looked out of the window. She knew what she hadn’t said – that she felt, knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that whatever she felt was entirely one-sided. And that she had to figure out what it was in order to shove it into a box; keep it managed. Had to remind herself that he had no heart, that he was amoral, the worst type of person to have a “thing” for. But here she was, nonetheless, mistrusting him in her head, aching for him in her body. Even now, as distracted as she was, she’d catch a glimpse of the hard planes of his body, the curve of his erection through his pants, and her lower lips throbbed with need.

For once Raeth was quiet. He listened to everything Saudaji had to get off of her chest without interrupting. There were several occasions when he opened his mouth to interject, to argue a certain point. For example, when she said that she knew his type, he opened his mouth and was about to blurt out, ‘Honey, there’s nobody in this or any other system that’s like me.’ But he successfully kept that comment to himself and closed his mouth. She needed to vent, and for the first time since they met he managed to remained silent.

It helped that she said that she was infatuated with him. That shocked him. Here he was, thinking that the coldness in her eyes meant that she was hate fucking him on the chair. But she said that she was so infatuated with him that it burned in her gut. Hearing her say that made him feel alive. Hearing her call him Rae’ika, a pet name that he knew represented something important to her, energized him. It took a great deal of effort not to grin ear-to-ear upon hearing these things. He kept his lips pressed shut so tightly that they whitened a little under the pressure. His lips quirked, nearly breaking into a smile when she said that she had this thing for him, and that she wanted to get closer. He had to force himself not to celebrate inside of his own head, and instead pay attention to everything else she was saying.

Soon after, Saudaji went quiet and stared out the window. It appeared as though she had said her peace. Behind her, Raeth struggled with his response. It wasn’t because he had trouble finding the words. On the contrary, there were so many words that sprang from his mind and nearly leapt from his lips. But Raeth knew that if he said the wrong thing, he was liable to cause her to shut down on him again. If he gave voice to any of the smart-ass remarks dangling from the tip of his tongue, that could cause her to give him that cold, heartless look that he hated more than anything else he had ever hated.

It occurred to him that something as easy as saying the wrong words could make him lose her, completely. That realiziation scared him. The shock of it was like taking a dip in a pool of arctic water. Because of it, his mouth was left agape again, and he paused to choose his next words very carefully.

In the end, Raeth chose to tell her how he felt. All the words that tumbled out of her just now were about her feelings for him, so maybe that meant that she wanted to hear his feelings about her, too?

“I..” He cleared his throat before starting again. “I missed you.”
He went quiet for a few moments. He stared at the back of her head, and at the lekku she may or may not have been stroking out of habit. He watched her for any signs of approval or disapproval in what he had just said. If she remained quiet, he would continue.

“I’m normally quite good at spending extended periods of time alone. Or, in this case, holed up in the van with only Sebastian to keep me company.” The droid turned its head for a moment at the sound of its name. It was paying only partial attention to what Raeth and Saudaji were saying to each other; listening to sentient lifeforms share their feelings for one another was very low on its priorities list.

“But the past several days have been different. They’ve been…difficult.” He frowned, because a part of him felt like telling her all of this was like some admission of weakness. He forced himself to continue.

“I watched you having a good time as Dian’La. I watched you perform for an audience. I saw you genuinely enjoying yourself. The entire time, I wanted to be there with you.” He shrugged. “I wanted you to be here with me. I wanted to see you smile at me the way you smiled at your new musician buddies, or the way you smiled at that apprentice.

“And before you say anything, yes, I know a lot of it was an act. At the very least, the way you behaved with the Jedi was an act. But even if it was all a lie, it was a very attractive lie. Your lies are the prettiest I’ve ever seen.”

For a few moments, Raeth stared over Saudaji’s shoulder and through the window. It was bright and sunny this morning. There had been generous cloud coverage at the beginning of their flight, but the clouds since parted, allowing sunlight to hit the window directly. The RV’s sensors detected the direct sunlight, and the windows automatically became tinted so that the occupants could enjoy the view without being blinded.

Raeth wasn’t enjoying the view, however. He was gathering his thoughts. When he was ready to continue, he resumed staring at the back of Saudaji’s head. Or, better yet, if she faced him they could make eye contact. He very much enjoyed staring into her eyes.

“I hate the way you look at me sometimes. You call me amoral or honorless, and you look at me as though I’m some monster.” Those things hurt him. He did not say so outloud, but the genuine hurt was painted upon the agent’s youthful face.
“What I want, more than anything, is for you to stop looking at me like that. What I want is to know how to make you smile at me and really mean it.”

Raeth inhaled suddenly. He had been holding his breath without realizing it. Sharing these desires, these feelings with Saudaji had been, in some ways, harder than killing a Jedi. It was unfamiliar territory. Raeth, who was certain about so many things, wasn’t certain how to proceed with her.

“So…” His lips formed a tiny ‘o’ as he considered what to say next. “Ah, hmm…” He cleared his throat again. “You did a good job dealing with Deelio. You had him wrapped around your finger - an experience with which I have some familiarity.

“I’m still not convinced that you shouldn’t have killed him the first time you had the chance. But I suspect you and I will never agree on certain details. Ultimately, the most important thing is that the job was done, and we’re both alive and able to proceed to our next mission.”

He studied her with even greater care because he was particularly interested in her next response. “You’ll stick with me for another mission, won’t you?”

The sky that enveloped them seemed to have an odd yellow beige tint. Not quite the color of bacta, which was usually processed until it was clear – it was a tint that seemed borne of industrial filth, not of a natural reflection of the planet. The wispy clouds that curved and were whipped into frothy peaks above were a greenish gray.

He’d missed her.

His admission was enough to make her pulse quicken, but she kept her gaze trained on the window.* A sliver of her imagination, that last bastion of girlhood, wanted to take the tidbit of information and run with it, conjuring up thousands of images of them together, just being, enjoying each other. Foolish, foolish things. She swallowed, tilting her head up.

Truth be told, she hadn’t had the time to miss him – so engrossed had she been with her cover. But she’d let him view her, spy on her, whenever he asked. She’d enjoyed his voyeurism, moreso, enjoyed the fact that in a sense, he was there with her. Sharing the suite wouldn’t have been so bad. To have revealed that to him, though, would have been to give him the upper hand in whatever game this was shaping out to be. He could be lying to her now, taking advantage of her emotional vulnerabilities. She’d cried in front of him, after all. She still couldn’t believe that she’d done that.

It was her turn to be silent, contemplative, as he spoke to her. She kept her eyes on the city beneath them, her fingertips resting against the window. Anything to distract herself from the utter depths of sincerity in his voice, from the tone that tugged at her, that screamed in her ear that he was indeed telling the truth. That he was struggling, struggling with something new. That she challenged him. They were coming at it from two different places; it seemed to her that he was dealing with a world that was changing around him, and* her, what was she dealing with? A primal desire that she’d never once experienced in her life. With Mahoroba, he’d had time to “grow” on her; year after year with his challenges, never backing down, until she was forced to respect him, and then, like watching a seedling sprout, it had turned into something deeper, a magician waving a hand and making sparks appear.

This was different. More mature. Deeper. A bond that tied her to her, caught under her skin and she had no means to pull it out. And she wasn’t about to go on about how intense it was for her, that she didn’t fully know how or why, just that she needed to act around him, that she needed to possess him. That possessiveness was new – it scared her, there was no way she was going to let him even have a whiff of it.

“…It wasn’t all a lie,” she said, softly, almost lamely. It wasn’t – at least, not to her. She had grown up listening to Err Kitt; had honestly loved her time with Frank’e. She would miss him. How could she explain it to him?

“Do you know how I learned how to sing?” It was an abrupt shift, almost as if she hadn’t heard his last admission about wanting to know if she’d work with him again. She turned to face him, her hands behind her, pressed against the frame of the window. “My mother taught me. My biological mother.” Leaning against the window, she crossed her legs demurely at the ankles, pressing her thighs together. Still slightly damp from her perfume, her gown clung to her, the deep purple threaded through with a pale gold shine, clinging lovingly to the whorls of pubic hair, the erect points of her nipples. “At one point in her life, she was a very well known and respected Twi’leki singer. Or so they told me.” Who “they” were, she didn’t elaborate.

“I was born and raised in a brothel. I was meant to be a high end courtesan.” That would explain much about her ability to “honey pot,” as he’d put it before. “The Mandalorians put an end to that career.” For a moment, it looked as if she wanted to tell him further about what her life had been like, but thought the better of it. “While I was Dian’La, I wasn’t a warrior. I was that little girl singing for credits all over again. I haven’t sung in years…. ‘Eye in the Sky.’”

That was a lie.

She’d sung – until her throat bled, to drown out the sounds of what the Mandalorians were doing during their raids. To erase the look of her mother’s eyes growing dim. To drown out Saboten’s shrieks, then worse, to fill in the spaces that her resigned silences created, and then, at long last, to lull Saboten to sleep. She sang along to the radio, to the girl groups that covered the songs her mother had pioneered. She sang when scared.

Looking up at him, the smile that crossed her lips was gentle, genuine. All that he’d asked for. Aware that his admission had perhaps embarrassed him, but wanting to acknowledge the new air of calm between them, she chuckled softly, and changed the subject, looking over her shoulder to the sky again.. “It didn’t feel right killing a man while he was unconscious. Call it my sense of honor,” and she gave him a wry grin then, turning playful around the edges.* “Didn’t feel right just watching him turn into that…mush either. So you may have been right.” But she wouldn’t give him the entire credit; she’d swelled his head enough.

And as simple as that, she seemed to have dropped the thread of what they may have “meant” to each other; not quite as abrupt as if it hadn’t happened, but for the sake of…decorum.* Of acknowledging that for two dangerous, damaged people, what had happened would have to be enough. For now. Who knew that someone so rough around the edges would be capable of such diplomacy?

“So…” she said, gently mocking him, “where do we go next?”

Raeth blinked at Saudaji in mute awe. She was smiling at him! It was there on her lips, and it also touched the corners of her eyes. She was genuinely smiling at him, and it was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. He committed this moment to memory, where it could be recalled any time he needed his mood lifted.

Who would’ve thought that being honest could lead to such a reward?

But the territory was still unfamiliar. At any moment, Saudaji could flip the switch and act apathetic towards him again, or worse act disdainful. The agent, who had been so brazen that he laughed in the face of a Jedi earlier that morning, showed some trepidation in dealing with her. He did not want her to stop treating him nicely. When she opened up to him a little, shared important details of her past, he sat there quietly and listened. He absorbed the info in a manner similar to the way he absorbed the sight of her smile.

“I actually don’t know where we’ll be going next,” he said after a while. “I have a list of targets that are high priority to our employers, but until I receive new orders I don’t know which one they’ll want scratched off next. It’ll take some time for those orders to arrive. Sometimes the boss takes days to get back to me after a mission.

“You know how they are…always waiting and watching from the shadows. It’s taken them centuries to get to this stage of their plan, so as you can imagine getting them to hurry can be a challenge.” Raeth had a habit of only uttering the word ‘Sith’ when he really needed to.

He swiveled in his chair to check something on the monitors. His eyes were back on her immediately after. “For now, what I know for certain is that we’re getting off this planet ASAP. I’ll fly you back to Zeltros so you can reclaim your ship and pay a visit to Saboten. I’ll get in contact with you once I hear from the higher-ups.”
A brief silence fell between them again, only this one wasn’t awkard. It was almost comfortable. Raeth was staring at her, openly, because he was entranced by her gentle, even playful demeanor. Before this morning, the only times she didn’t act like she was a one comment away from disemboweling him were when they fucked. Being on her good graces when they were both clothed was a pleasant change, to say the very least. He didn’t want this to end.

“I’ve got the footage of Virak’s death.” He pointed at the monitors behind him using his thumb. “We can watch that if you wish.

“I’ve also got footage of Dian’La’s performances. Or, if you’re the type of performer who doesn’t enjoy watching herself on stage, I recorded the Vrelt Pack’s performances, as well.” He had seen how well Saudaji, as Dian’La, got along with Franke and her other new, musically-inclined friends. Perhaps she would enjoy reliving those nights spent in song- and smoke-filled clubs?

If Saudaji liked the idea of watching any of the footage he had recorded over the past several days – of which there was plenty – he would smile at her and gently beckon her to roll her chair in front of the rows of monitors, right next to him. During the remainder of their flight back to the Patient Pylat, they could watch whatever footage she chose, together in comfortable silence.

During that time, Raeth felt the urge to hold Saudaji’s hand. He resisted, but he did not stop himself from staring at the side of her face on a few occasions.

*****

The two of them made it to Zalxuc City - the location of the Patient Pylat - without incident. When they weren’t watching some of the recordings that Raeth collected during their mission, they switched on the news.

The media coverage played out as Raeth expected. Based on witness accounts and some footage captured from less-than-ideal vantage points, it was clear that a lone Vratix was the one who hurled a thermal detonator towards the front steps of Xucphra HQ. This lead to early speculation that the Vratix was either a member of the Thyferran Blender’s Union, or at least a sympathizer. It was also speculated that Master Virak was not the intended target; the Xucphra executives were. The Jedi’s death was the tragic, inadvertent result of his courageous intervention.

Not even a full day had passed since the attack, and already the media was jumping to conclusions. This brought a smile to Raeth’s face. Between the TBU getting blamed for a fouled-up assassination attempt and Virak getting hailed as a hero, there was nothing that could even begin to point towards him or Saudaji.

Raeth observed Saudaji while they watched the news to see if she appreciated his genius as much as he did. She probably didn’t, which was okay as long as she continued treating him kindly.

When the RV pulled into the star port the housed the Patient Pylat, Raeth emerged dressed as his freight hauling alter ego, Bawb Archeen. As Bawb, he paid the various star port fees and secured permission for the Patient Pylat to lift off the planet.

The RV was parked inside of the Pylat’s cargo bay, which was just barely big enough to contain it. Raeth, who was glad to be back behind the controls of his super-sweet ship, had them off the planet and into hyperspace mere minutes later. Destination: the pleasure planet of Zeltros.

“Mission accomplished, and only one bruise between the two of us. We’ve earned our pay and then some, wouldn’t you say?” Raeth and Saudaji were inside of the cockpit. The interior lights were set to low, so their surroundings took on the same eerie, blue-white glow of hyperspace, which could be seen blazing brightly through the huge, transparisteel viewport.

Raeth had on a plaid shirt, denim jeans, rancher boots and wide-brimmed hat – all the customary garb of Bawb Archeen. But he didn’t bother talking with Bawb’s accent. From the pilot’s seat, he looked up at Saudaji, clearly pleased with how their mission turned out, bumps and all.

“ I was thinking about taking a shower.” He reached for her hand, still a little tentative, for he was still unsure if Saudaji would suddenly start to hate him again. He fought through the little bit of trepidation to take hold of her fingers. Staring up into her eyes, he drew her hand to his lips in order to plant a soft kiss to her wrist.

“Would you like to join me?” His lips touched her wrist again, then the heel of her palm, then the inside of her bare forearm. “Yesterday, I picked up a bottle of that body wash you like. We can take turns lathering each other up.” Eyeing her, hopefully, Raeth carefully extended one of her fingers, put it into his mouth, and sucked on it, softly.

Settling in the passenger’s seat, she rested her chin in her palm, listening to him speak. “I wouldn’t know,” she said, leaning back and resisting the urge to prop her feet up on the dash of the RV. “I’ve never worked with…their kind before.” Though she had a fair idea of why they’d gone after her. She had killed one of their own years ago; truth be told, when she was first contacted, she was surprised that they hadn’t come after her to kill her. Having a non-Force user kill a Sith couldn’t have gone over well. Or looked good to whoever was in power at the time. Maybe they figured that she’d died; she sort of had.

Metaphorically speaking.

Okay, maybe literally (a little) as well.

Listening to him speak, her mind started to wander. Not away from the conversation - but more towards the man in front of her. So much of their time had been spent at each other’s throats that she realized that she knew nothing about him. Now that they weren’t snarling at each other, perhaps it would be easier to find out more. Her curiosity threatened to boil over at any moment - how long had he been doing this? Why? And moreover, how was he able to resist Deelio’s use of the Force? She’d allowed him the dodge of questions before; they were asked in the heat of the moment, and, annoyed, he never would have given her a straight answer.

“Thanks,” she said, coming back to the here and now, when he mentioned going back to Zeltros. It was tempting to add something in about her relationship with Saboten, to try and do some explaining about that particular sisterhood, but caution closed her mouth. She’d wait until she heard more about him, his family dynamics, before she started the process of entangling him in her own. At the end of the day, she wasn’t sure if she could trust him beyond the mission. Though her usual impetuous nature would have her tell him everything, she’d grown in the brief time they’d been together. And after telling him how she felt, it was as if she’d taken that weight from her shoulders and tossed it into the heavens. Even breathing felt easier.

His staring, though…was unnerving. And flattering. He was looking at her as if he was seeing her, really seeing her, for the first time. All it made her do was smile all the wider, all the more entrancing. She appreciated the attention, at the very least - though it was difficult to turn off the part of her mind that would have her proceed to manipulate him to her best advantages. While they worked together, he deserved a fair shake. None of those games here. Besides - the last thing she needed to know was that his open eyed, boyish stare was having much of the same effect on her.

“I’ll pass on seeing Virak blasted to bits, if you don’t mind. No stomach for that sort of thing.” That was the honest truth; she’d seen the results of close range explosions before, and it still turned her stomach. To a certain extent, she knew she was opening herself up to teasing from him - a squeamish bounty hunter. Didn’t seem like she’d be able to do her job. In the moment, in the heat of battle, when it was kill or be killed, she had no problems with fountains of gore, wading through broken bodies. That was a necessity. And when it wasn’t a necessity, she’d prefer to do without. It seemed the merely practical thing to do. “And I’d prefer not to hear myself sing,” she added, deciding to go ahead and prop her feet up on the dash. She smoothed out the folds of her gown across her navel, before linking her hands on top of it.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing some of Errrkitt, if you managed to record it?” There was a hopeful note in her voice, in the quirk of her eyebrows.

And Raeth, hardly one to disappoint, pulled up the footage of the performance for her. She rolled her chair next to his, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. With her chin in her palms again, and the wide smile she wore, she looked all the world for a little girl watching someone she admired.

Halfway through the performance, she pulled her chair closer to his, so subtlety, so quietly, that it would seem that she simply appeared next to him. With Errrkitt’s purring voice between the two of them, she gently bumped her thigh against his, and gave him a tempered smile. She didn’t need to say her thanks; she felt he already knew.

+++++++

She caught the news over his shoulder. She didn’t want to focus on it - instead, she was waiting. All of the attention was on Virak - and that was troubling to her. It was well known that the master had been traveling with an apprentice, and not one network seemed to note that the man had gone missing. Though she went about the RV trying to busy herself tidying here or there, or going through the bag she’d brought with her, the frown on her lips sat heavier and heavier.

Had she messed up more than she originally thought?

What was she thinking, to have even tried to keep Deelio alive? It wasn’t that she cared for the dead Hapan; far from. But he was a loose end. Even his murder, or his sudden disappearance, would leave more loose ends. She’d have to discuss her concerns with Raeth. He didn’t seem worried in the slightest. Maybe he’d figured out an angle that she hadn’t. As a result, she moved in silence, seemingly trapped in a dense fog.

Unfortunately for Raeth, it seemed as if she was angry - apparently, her thoughtful face was one that looked angry. It wasn’t until they boarded the Pylat and he spoke to her that she visibly snapped out of it, as if waking from a dream.

“I suppose,” caution laced her voice as she flopped down heavily in the seat next to him. Being back inside of the Pylat was a relief; a return to normalcy.

“Here’s what’s bothering me, Rae’ika-” Oh, that was good news, wasn’t it? Looked like the nickname was there to stay. The diminutive could range from warm and loving to deeply insulting, depending on how it was spoken. Though she’d called him that before, lost in a haze of deep lust, falling headlong into the fierce pull between them, now and the prior time, when she’d explained how she felt, it was used as personal nickname - less formal than his name, not as intimate as the “Bot’ika” used for Saboten.

“In the bits of the news I picked up, I did not hear anything about Deelio. And it was well known that he was traveling with Virak. This is what troubles me,” and she tilted her head back in the seat, looking up at the ceiling. “This is one of the reasons why I did not want to kill him - if he suddenly vanished, which he did, won’t that draw attention to us? And,” closing the gap between the two of them, “That’s one hell of a bruise.”

And she still thought he deserved it.

He mentioned the shower, and her brows lifted. She looked at him, mildly incredulous, before letting out a short bark of a laugh. Her hand was given to him willingly, and as his lips closed against the pulse point fluttering against the painted violet of her skin, she shivered ever so slightly.

“I never should have told you how I felt.” Her tone was sly; bantering. As much as her next move - which was to pull closer, to let her finger slide from his mouth, trail down his lower lip, caressing his chin.

Now it was a struggle - should she take him now, impatient, eager, or wait for things to naturally play out? It was only with a deep, held breath that she stood up, exhaled. Turned her back to him. And then looked over her shoulder, a curious look on her face.

“Aren’t you coming?”

+++++++

One of the many things she had to give Raeth was the luxury of his personal quarters. Under the spacious shower, under the spray of water, she let out a long moan of pleasure as the hot water cascaded over her, taking long strips of violet with it. Part of her “prep’ work before the shower was applying the solvent to take off the body paint; water alone would have never removed it. Now, as her jade flesh showed through, marked by the occasional raised scar, she felt as if she was truly becoming herself again. The contacts had long been discarded, and her eyes were their natural coffee bean brown again.

Letting the water run over her, she waited to hear Raeth enter behind her…

Saudaji didn’t have the stomach to look at the charred remains of their first target? Her admission ALMOST caused Raeth to make a quip at her expense. His lips parted, and it appeared as though he was going to say something. But he stopped himself at the last moment. When he saw her looking at him expectantly, he realized that she was prepared for him to mock her, yet she told him anyway.
Was she testing him? Baiting him with an opportunity to say something mean – funny, yes, but still mean – so she’d have a reason to hate him again? Or perhaps she shared some of her vulnerability, willingly, because she now had faith that he wouldn’t use it against her?

Fark, things like ‘trust’ and ‘feelings’ were complicated. It’s no wonder he didn’t bother with them until now.

Raeth cut the comment off and smiled at her instead. Saudaji then asked to watch Errrkitt on screen, so he eagerly obliged. “For you, my dear, anything.”

Several minutes later, while Errrkitt sang about loving a man even though he had done her wrong, Saudaji scooted her chair closer to his, just like he wished she would. His pulse quickened, his dick shifted within his pants, and he began to stare at her again. Raeth knew that he was letting himself get out of control with her, but the part of him that said ‘just go with it’ overruled the cautious part of him that kept him alive all this time. When Saudaji smiled at him again, even the cautious part of him had to admit that it was worth it.


*****

Raeth and Saudaji were aboard the Patient Pylat, which was lifting up away from a busy star port and soaring high up into the sky. It entered hyperspace almost immediately after exiting Thyferra’s atmosphere. During takeoff, the agent did notice Saudaji acting troubled, which concerned him. Much to his relief, she soon revealed that her behavior was caused by the way they disposed of Deelio.

She was right in thinking that Raeth was barely worried at all about this possible loose end. “I’m not worried, yet,” he clarified. The agent emphazied that word ‘yet’ by raising his index finger right when he said it. Before explaining what he meant, he took a seat at the Pylat’s data station and conducted a quick holonet search.

“Hrm…ah, here we are.” A few light taps on the keyboard brought up yet another news story about the Xucphra attack. On one of the data station’s many displays, a Quarren newscaster talked about the event in lightly-accented, slightly-slurred Basic.

“…QBC News attempted to get in contact with Yent Virak’s apprentice, Deelio Spier, but Jedi Spier has not been found for comment. Additionally, there has been no official word from the Jedi Council or their representatives. Stay tuned to this channel for more on this story, as it develops.”

Without warning, Raeth grinned, turned to Saudaji, then jerked a thumb towards the newscaster. “The only news she’s suited to report on is the catch of the day. Am I right?” He was, of course, referring to the Quarren’s squid-like appearance. If Saudaji didn’t laugh, Raeth’s grin would fade, and he would take note of the fact that speciesist humor wasn’t her cup of tea. Fair enough; that joke was low hanging fruit, anyway.

Raeth returned to talking about more serious matters. “Anyway…although the identity and presence of Virak’s apprentice was hardly a secret, practically everything else about the Jedi is. It’s been that way for centuries. And the media, like most people, give the Jedi a wide berth. This reporter claims that her station attempted to find Deelio for comment, but I would not be surprised if all they did was make a call to his hotel, find out he wasn’t there, then quit right there.”

He went into a pedantic explanation of the media’s relation with the Jedi. Saudaji quickly learned that when it came to asking Raeth for information, she would either get too little or too much. He was a wellspring of knowledge; when tapped, this particular wellspring offered either a drip or a deluge, but rarely anything inbetween.

“You see, the public’s reverence of the Jedi Order, combined with the Order’s secretive nature, makes certain aspects of our job laughably easy. Take, for example, the news. Every channel is reporting the story the same way – this selfless Jedi sacrificed his life to save a bunch of suits.” To illustrate his point, Raeth switched on another, 24-hour news channel. This one happened to be reporting on Yent Virak’s lifetime of diplomatic, humanitarian, and/or charitable service. The broadcasters went the extra mile by putting together a montage of his career highlights: negotiating peace between two warring tribes on the planet Bimmisarri; negotiating a deal that brought shipments of ice, seed, and farming equipment to a desert civilization desperate to grow their own food; using his powers to rescue children trapped in a school that partially collapsed during an earthquake; so on and so forth.

“Hmph. Makes you almost feel sorry that he’s dead, doesn’t it?” Raeth said, sardonically. He glanced at Saudaji to see if she gave of any hints of remorse. There was no issue in having a partner that didn’t want to look at a smoking corpse. But a partner who felt sympathy towards the Jedi could be problematic to say the very least.

The agent turned off the tribute and continued with his explanation. “The media has latched onto a narrative that the public is already responding to. Any outrage will be aimed at the TBU, who in turn will say that the Vratix who threw the detonator was not with them, or that he’d gone rogue. I haven’t heard anyone suggest that Virak was the true target. So we’re in the clear, there.

“As for Deelio, no reporter or police officer is going to try looking for a missing Jedi apprentice. Did you know that many Thyferrans actually think that Force users are able to project their astral presence anywhere in the galaxy? Some think that they’re somehow connected to Hyperspace, and that it’s the source of their powers. To people like that, it’s plausible that Deelio could be meditating in a higher plane of existence as a means of coping with his master’s death. They don’t know how the Force works, they don’t know what the Jedi are capable of, and they’re too afraid or too in awe of their heroes to get close enough to find the truth. We’re in the clear there, too.

“However, what I am concerned about is who the Council sends to investigate Virak’s death. The only people who stand a chance of uncovering the truth about Virak and Deelio are Jedi investigators. Thankfully, the Order tends to do things very slowly, so we’ll be long gone before such an investigator arrives on Thyferra. When I find out who is sent to dig into this, I’ll let you know.”

His lengthy response seemed to please Saudaji, for the time being, because the next thing she commented on was his bruise. Raeth had been back in nothing but his underwear at that point, and he was applying a bacta bandage to his hips. “If the bacta works as it’s supposed to, the bruise will be gone in 2 days; 3 at most,” he assured her with a smile.

His suggestion for some quality time in the shower together came next. Raeth grinned like a maniac when Saudaji headed to the shower first and beckoned him to follow. “I’ll be right there!” He had to run to the RV to pick up the bottle of body wash he promised her. As he raced throught he corridors, he yanked his shirt up off of his body and threw it aside. Once he retrieved the body wash, he jogged towards his quarters and the Twi’lek within, kicking off his boots and tugging off his underwear along the way.

Behind him, Sebastian v2 picked up the discarded clothing and grumbled.


*****


Raeth was completely naked, except for the bandage on his hip, before he entered his quarters. His heart was already racing, but it raced quicker at the sound of the shower. A ready, willing, and non-violent Twi’leki temptress was just a few steps away, and the mere thought of her caused his erection to spasm in sweet anticipation.

The first thing he saw after sliding open the shower door was Saudaji’s ass. He couldn’t help but moan. From her shapely ass and hips, his eyes ventured up along her sleek, toned back, as well as to her lekku, which either hung down her back or draped over her shoulders. It was then that he noticed her body paint running off of her succulent body, thus covering her in uneven stripes of violet and jade. He smiled anew at the sight of her true skin color.

“There’s my new favorite color,” he said as he stepped in, finally, and shut the door so that no more water could splash onto the bathroom floor. Now it was time to touch her.

Raeth ran three fingers down the center of Saudaji’s back. The tip of his middle finger caressed her spine from her shoulders down to where her tailbone would have been if she was Human. On either side of his middle finger, his index and ring finger stroked her skin.

He stepped in even closer. Immediately, the underside of his cock pressed against her ass, and the tip prodded at her spine. She felt his balls against her ass as well. All of his flesh was so hot for her already.

He had the bottle of body wash in one of his hands, so with his free hand he reached around her body. His palm nuzzled her taut tummy, so very low. The tip of his middle and index finger reached into her tuft of green pubic hair, and he stroked her there. As he massaged her mons, he pressed a tender kiss to her lekku before landing his mouth upon one of her shoulders. He used his lips and his tongue to massage her skin above while his fingers massaged her down below.

At some point, he had the presence of mind to set the body wash onto a shelf built into the wall of the shower. This freed up his hands, which gleefully focused on her. If Saudaji kept her back to him, Raeth would embrace her from behind. His right hand would again press against the front of her body, the heel of his palm on her belly and his fingers in her pubes. Before long, he went from massaging her mons to fingering her clit.

His left hand went straight for one of her breasts. Breathing heavily, he lifted her breast, clearly adoring the weight and fullness of it. One of his fingertips ran wet circles around and around her tit. He used all of his fingers to grasp her, grip flesh tightly. He was being a little rough up top, whereas down below he was being nothing but gentle, for now. Raeth got Saudaji’s clit between his index and middle fingers, and squeezed at it, softly. Little by little, he applied more pressure until Saudaji somehow told him – either with her body language or by telling him directly – that he was using just the right amount of pleasure on her bud. He also tried flicking at her clit to see if she liked it.

Up above, her neck and shoulder became the playground of his mouth. He licked her skin, regardless of whether it was his favorite shade of jade or still covered with a bit of violet. He bit on her neck, gently; when he nibbled on her and then sucked on her skin, he groaned because she tasted so delicious.

Raeth shivered this entire time. The water was hot, so he did not shiver because of the cold. Instead, he shivered due to the overwhelming desire for her that went unfulfilled for too long. When they were apart, he thought of her, constantly. On several occasions, he masturbated to either the mere thought of her or to recordings of them fucking. Now, finally, she was with him again, in the flesh. He resolved not to waste a single moment of this long-awaited opportunity, which was why he was honoring her flesh so aggressively, so thoroughly, with his lips, tongue, and hands. He was so focused that he didn’t say a word. He was very vocal with his moans, gasps, and grunts, but he didn’t attempt to form a coherent sentence. Saudaji already knew that the only time Raeth was at a loss for words was when they fucked.

If Saudaji turned around, his mouth would find hers right away. She would be enveloped by his embrace, her breasts would get crushed against his lean, tightly-muscled chest, and his cock would slap, wetly, against her tummy. He would kiss her, deeply; his tongue would delve into her mouth to explore. The tip of his tongue would massage the tip of hers. If she thrust her tongue into his mouth, he would suck on it, greedily.

The hand that had been on her pussy instead went to her ass in this new position. Instead of massaging her clit, he guided his index finger between her cheeks and felt for her anus. He used his whole finger to stroke the crack of her ass, and he used the tip to tickle her asshole. With his other hand, he grasped her thigh and raised that leg up around his waist. Saudaji would get pushed backwards against a wall of the shower. The showerhead was right above both of their heads, running endlessly even though its occupants no longer cared about getting clean. The water recycling unit would be working overtime tonight.

Whether they were rubbing back-to-front or front-to-front, all of this sweet friction was taking its toll on his cock. He was already on the verge of cumming, and he hadn’t even entered her yet.

She stifled a small smile as she heard him enter the shower. For the heartbeat of time that existed before he touched her, she tilted her head back into the spray of water, luxuriating in the feel of it cascading across her cheeks, closed eyelids, down her lekku which lay down against her back. Her arms were raised, palms turned against her neck.

His first touch was an almost tentative exploration of her back - despite being a Twi’lek, her physiology wasn’t much different from a human’s. As his fingers made their way down her back, she let out a soft hum of pleasure, keeping her face tilted up towards the head of the shower. This time felt different - the previous times that they’d come together, it’d been quick, heated - almost brutal in the clashing of bodies. Maybe it was like everything else - practice made perfect; it would take them some time to find their particular “groove.” And even though, in the corners of her mind, she knew she still probably shouldn’t trust him, she felt the lightest she had since she’d met him. That airing out of her feelings had certainly helped immensely.

From the way he touched her, it at least seemed that he’d missed her.

His erection comfortably pillowed between the cleft of her ass, her right hand drifted to rest atop his, guiding his fine boned fingers through the wiry glen of her pubic hair. Her touch was feather light, before she gave his hand a firm grasp, before easing again. Her left hand rested atop his left, slowing his hand on her breast. His first caress of her breast had been met with a slight shiver, no sound from her. As his eager ministrations turned a bit rough, she squeezed his left hand; purred softly.

“Easy…I’m not going anywhere.”

She’d meant it. For the foreseeable future, she’d stick with him; see where all of this ended up. Trust wasn’t something that truly existed between the two, not yet, but she was drawn by her own damnable curiosity, her drive to figure out exactly how she felt for him. Before she could get lost in her own thoughts of what lay between them, his deft fingers found her clitoris, and she titled her head back against his shoulder with a low moan. Her right hand atop his guided him through the motions she enjoyed, the ones she’d practiced on herself in the snippets of time that she had away from him. Far from his gentle pinching, she isolated his index finger, grasping at the side of his hand to guide the finger in slow, tight circles over the swollen bud, encouraging his middle finger to slip between the plump lips of her labia, to feel the rapidly slackening flesh. As his finger toyed with her, tracing her entrance, never quite penetrating her, running those lazy, ever widening circles around her, the soft counterpart of her moans met his.

Unable to take more of his teasing, she twisted about in his arms, turning to face him. Their noses bumped against one another, playfully, fumbling, until she pushed forward a bit more, her lips landing firmly on his. As he grew insistent with his tongue, she pulled back, just so. Still close enough that her breath pillowed against his parted lips, her eyelashes nearly tangled in his, water beading in them.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she repeated, reaching between them to trace the lines of his lips with a fingertip. As that finger’s journey came to an end, she leisurely wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingers running through his wet hair. Slowly, again now, she leaned forward, tilted her head up, and captured his lips with hers. Her kiss was gentle, a full press of her plush lips against his. Only in her own time did she part them, her tongue easing forward to caress his. His erection pressed against the juncture of her thighs caused her to moan against his lips, and she struggled to retain enough control not to take him into her body in one stroke. She wanted to take her time with him now; there was so much to catch up on.

However, his hand on her thigh pressed the issue.

Allowing herself to be pushed back against the wall of the shower, she kept her arms around her neck. Leveraging herself to keep steady on her one leg, she pushed her hips forward, drawing the top of her labia, the fuzz of pubic hair, against the stiff pillar of his cock. Once, twice, a third time, before she loosened her right arm from around his neck. Reaching between their bodies, her lips not leaving his, she grasped his cock, ran her thumb in a circle around the slick head, made all the more slick by the heavy beads of pre cum that oozed from him.

Teasing him until he groaned in frustration, she smiled against the press of his shoulder, gently biting the firm ridge of muscle where his neck met his shoulder. A shift on her part, a lifting of hips on his, and his head brushed agains the warm, slick opening. She gasped, surprised by the intensity of pleasure that shot through her, so much so that it caused her steading hand to shake. Catching her breath, she held it in order to steady herself; to calm her racing heart. Letting it out in a slow rush through slightly parted lips, she pressed down as he pressed up, and he entered her. With a long groan, she buried her face in his shoulder, her arms going to wrap around his neck as she held her leg up and open to him, relaxing in his grasp.

What she said caused him to gasp. She wasn’t going anywhere. It may have been his imagination, but he sensed that there was a deeper meaning to those words. Imagination or not, he liked the sound of it.

When he squeezed her left breast from behind, tightly, she had responded by putting a hand on top of his, easing his touch. He heeded that unspoken request. The next squeeze he gave her breast was tender. The fondling, the massaging that followed was steady, slow, appreciative. The tip of his thumb, moistened by the droplets of water it had swiped from her smooth, green skin, traced wet circles around her areola now and then.

Lower on her body, the hand on her pussy received more thorough guidance on how she wished to be touched. He murmured something unintelligible as his lips touched her shoulder. They slid sideways from her shoulder to her neck, where they would kiss, stroke, and suckle softly. Raeth closed his eyes, tasted her skin, and reveled in this new closeness.

Confident, dexterous fingers so familiar with tinking now pampered her senses under her guidance. Following her unspoken instruction, he switched from pinching her clit, carefully, to using the pad of his index finger to draw slick circles around her clit. For several seconds he fingered her clit like this while paying attention to the sounds she made, the reactiosn of her body, and other signs of her pleasure. They were not in a hurry; she said so herself. So he kept touching her nub until she somehow told him he got that particular touch right.

Saudaji urged him to touch her outer lips, and he gladly obliged. His middle finger caressed her labia. When she blossomed for him, his touch became bit bolder, more excited, but he forced himself to stay calm and keep his touch tender. She could her him breathing heavily. She could feel that breath upon the flesh he was licking and sucking up above. She could even feel him squirm behind her sometimes, his cock pulsing against the pillow of her ass. Parts of him were getting impatient, but his fingers took their time.

Without pausing what he was doing to her neck or shoulder, Raeth would sometimes try to look down the front of her body so he could watch his own hand on her cunt. Saudaji’s breasts were the way; he stared at them instead. He relished the swaying of her breasts, as well as sight of them covered in water. Tiny splashes of water against jade were witnessed. He promised himself that he would savor the taste of her tits, soon; that thought caused the cock nestled against her ass crack and touching the small of her back to pulse in anticipation.

For many, many luxurious seconds, Raeth teased Saudaji’s clit using slow, tight circling strokes. At the same time, his middle finger eased between the puffy outer lips of her labia to explore a little deeper within. He continued to heed her guidance, pleasuring her lips through touch but stopping his fingers before they were truly deep inside of her. He explored her, memorized the feel of her flesh and her wetness, and observed, intently, all the signs of her ecstasy. He took his time.

That is, until the huntress turned around. There was delicious friction between her body and his shaft. His twitching dick nuzzled against the front of her body. Her arms wound their way around his neck. He caught the first glimpse of her face and her plump lips since he joined her in the shower. It was all too much.

Raeth could not help but kiss her savagely at first. But again Saudaji surprised him by urging him to slow things down. His tongue had made its way inside of her mouth for only a moment or two; his taste of her tongue was all too brief. When she pulled back, she saw her lover question her with his eyes. Then she reminded him that she wasn’t going anywhere, which got him to smile. The tip of his nose bumped against hers again, this time intentionally. His eyes were closed, and their breaths brushed against each other’s faces.

She told him she wasn’t going anywhere. “You promise?” he asked, playfully. Without opening his eyes, he smiled at her. Without opening his eyes, he kissed her, tenderly. For a long while, the two of them kissed. Their wet bodies rubbed against each other with increasing urgency that he, at least, could not contain for long. Saudaji could feel his cock against her tummy, against her mound, swelling and jerking to express how much he wanted her. Yet despite that, he kissed her softly. His lips and tongue took turns in their appreciation of her lips. It was only when her lips parted in silent invitation that he eased his tongue back into her mouth.

Raeth had a difficult time deciding which he liked more: Saudaji’s juicy lips or her tongue.

Surely Saudaji would not blame him for pushing her up against the shower wall? He had taken his time long enough, right? And how could he possibly control himself after she took his dick into her hands and started to jack him off. The agent’s lean, tightly-muscled body spasmed because of what she was doing with her hand. His cock swelled so much in her grip; her thumb became coated in precum that would soon get washed away by the water that dribbled between their bodies. Raeth moaned against Saudaji’s lips, until he tilted his head back to moan towards the ceiling. This gave his Twi’lek lover an opportunity to press her lips against the flesh that connected his neck to his shoulder.

The two of them continued to discover this new groove between them. They used their hands on each other; they used their mouths on each other; they ground their bodies against each other. All of this was a slow, tender lesson in how to appreciate each other more deeply, more thoroughly. Inevitably, this exploration had to go inside…he had to be inside of her. Thus, underneath a spray of comfortably hot water, within the steam that surrounded them, within the heat that they created together, their bodies united.

“Ohhhh!” Raeth shuddered and his dick spasmed within her when he was completely engulfed by her strong, succulent body. He held himself against her, balls deep, for several long moments, luxuriating in this completeness. He shuddered a bit harder, unable to help himself from doing so. They had fucked before, and Saudaji was already the best lover he had ever had. But this was, somehow, even better. He never wanted this feeling to end.

Of its own accord, his body proceeded to move. He drew perhaps half of his cock out, only to push it back in all the way. That outward and inward motion was done so slowly, it took several seconds for his balls to press against her flesh once again. The next stroke was similarly paced. So slowly, he withdrew more of his dick this time. When only the top inch of his shaft was inside of her, he eased his way back in all the way. His entire phallus was pulsing, urgently, and spreading apart her treasured insides. Feeling so much of her heat, her wetness, her flesh was already too much. He was so close to cumming.

Fighting the desire to pound her against the shower wall, he grit his teeth and persisted in this slow, measured fucking. In and out, in and out, always so slow. Raeth’s eyes were closed most of the time; making love to Saudaji felt so good that his eyelids refused unclamp. For a long while, his face was stretched into an expression of pure bliss, and the sounds he needed to make had to get squeezed past his tightened throat. Blindly, his lips found hers again. The next time he moaned, it was down her throat while his tonguetip gently wandered, tickled it way inside of her mouth. His tongue tickled her tongue whenever it wanted to play. He sucked on her tongue the first opportunity he got.

Raeth was kissing her, deep and gentle, when he exploded. His lips stilled; his entire body clenched, except for his cock which spasmed like crazy so deep inside of her body. He channeled a muffled scream down her throat at the same time that he shot a river of boiling hot cream into her womb. The onset of his climax caused Raeth to crush Saudaji against the shower wall. It felt as though he wanted, desperately, to get closer to her, yet there was no way they could get any physically closer.

As she helped him position himself between her thighs, accommodating him, she was aware that she was holding her breath in anticipation. This time was different; certainly, there had been moments of tenderness before, when she had been grateful that she could feel those peaks of pleasure that, for a time, that she thought had eluded her. Too many partners on too many planets, under too many drugs. The act had been the same, one running into another, and once she’d seen Raeth, his cleverness intoxicating (as it was so rare that she encountered true cleverness), she had to have him. Drawn to him, repelled by him, drawn to him again.

Shifting her hips higher, in a gem of a moment when their faces were parted, she bit her lower lip, smiling all the while. It’d been good before. It was going to be better now. That, there was no doubt of. And when he finally slid into her, slick and hot and firm and slow, her head tilted forward to rest against his shoulder, a low groan slipping from her mouth. There was the slightest of shivers that rippled through her body, vibrated through her lekku. Her arms tightened, briefly, around his shoulders, slipped lower down his back, her nails bit lightly into his pale flesh, before she loosened her grip again. Now, seated deeply within her, there was a natural pause, his breath hot, heavy, against her neck, his head bowed, water cascading through it. She lifted her own head, pressed his cheek against his, laid a fumbling kiss there before he slowly began to withdraw.

She had to relax herself; her cunt gripped onto his cock, refusing to let go, wanting to keep him balls deep within her. She took a deep breath, held it, let it out, and her body loosened its death grip on him, ever so slightly. Enough for him to slowly slip out, before he was deep within her again. As his hips meshed with hers, she moaned, squeezing him tighter to her, keeping her face buried in the crook of his neck. She was wet, wetter than she’d ever been before, and with each slow stroke, she grew wetter. Her body throbbed around him, and she ached for more. Torn between enjoying his taking his time, and wanting for him to hammer her into oblivion, she would eagerly press her body back into his with each measured thrust from him. Her fingers ran through his hair, gripping tightly from time to time when a thrust would push her that much closer to the edge. The sounds he was making didn’t help her attempts to keep things slow.

His lips finding hers, the sounds they made were muffled by each other’s mouths, and a note of urgency slipped in. She needed more. So close, and getting closer with every moment…Her thrusts against him were growing more erratic, more frantic. She could feel it from him as well; he was pressing her firmly against the wall of the shower, his grip getting that much firmer with each piston of his hips. And, moments before he exploded, the world behind her closed eyelids grew darker, before exploding into color. Keening into his mouth, her body spasmed around his, gripping him tighter than before,* but she was so wet that she nearly forced him out of her at the moment of climax. Luckily enough for her, it came at the same time as he pushed her hard into the shower wall, emptying himself into her.

At this crucial juncture, the moment where the sky slipped from under her feet and she had to begin her descent back to earth, she could feel him twitching inside of her, almost in rhythm with the slow pulsing of her body. The orgasm had been intense; one of the strongest that she’d had with him. And she wanted more. She slipped out of his grip, the slickness of her skin aiding in the action, and gave him a quick peck on the lips as a reassurance. She said she wasn’t going anywhere, and she’d meant it. A* long sigh of contentment slipped past her lips, and with a slow stretch, she stood on her tiptoes, looking for the bottle of body wash, luxuriated in the feel of his cum slowly leaking out of her, white against the jade of her skin.

Locating the body wash, she poured some into her hands, rubbing them together to create a lush foam. She took a cautionary sniff, and gave him an exaggerated face. “Far too much floral in it,” she said, before shifting behind him to rub the foam on his shoulders. “You’re going to smell like quite the lady of the night.” The hands that trailed over the cords of his shoulder, his neck, down the pane of his back, were gentle, experienced. Applied pressure where it was needed, skimmed the flesh in light strokes. “But thank you,” she added, her voice drifting up to his ear. Honestly, she was tickled by his thoughtfulness – he’d gotten the brand she liked, if not quite the right fragrance. “You know, sometimes you surprise me,” she started, wrapping her hands coyly around his back as she slide around him to lather up his stomach. She’d bend down a little, working her way from his chest down. Of course, she didn’t have to bend in such a seductive manner, ass out, her torso facing the floor as if she were bowing, “You’re capable of such sweet things. Why do you have to be such an ass to me?” She looked up at him, a playful quirk to her eyebrows. “Catch more daywings with honey and all. Do you always give your partners such a hard time, or was that your round about way of telling me that you liked me?”

Her tone was light, perhaps even bantering. There was an ease there that had not existed before – an openness. Truly, her curiosity about him was piqued. She knew that the little he had said had been difficult for him to admit, and like a Togorian kit with a ball of yarn, she was fixated on wanting to unravel more of him. Her sense of self preservation still sat chill in her stomach, unmoved by their most recent coupling. She knew she couldn’t assume the same amount of infatuation or curiosity; for all she knew, this was all part of a game for him, but that would be…okay, in the long run. She’d learn his rules. Already, she was playing accordingly, she felt; enjoying herself, allowing some of that hardness to drop away. If anything, it’d make her life easier. And, at the end of the day, she could be quite indulgent in the senses as well.

Face to face with his navel now, she kissed it, her tongue lightly dipping into the shallow depression before she looked up at him, dipping to her knees, keeping her hands teasingly above his phallus.

She could play games, too.

The ecstasy of their slow coupling lead to the two of them needing to fuck each other hard. By the time they came, Raeth banged Saudaji against the shower wall much harder than he intended. He couldn't help it; what they were doing felt far too sublime for control to be maintained. His hot, firm, pale body mashed against hers - wetly, desperately - while warm water continued to rain upon them.

They had used a lot of the Patient Pylat's water supply thus far, and they hadn't even cleaned up yet. The recycling unit would be working overtime today.

Raeth, his whole body shaking or spasming, pressed his mouth against Saudaji's. While reveling in the aftereffects of a truly mindblowing orgasm, he feasted upon her lips. He even laughed into the kiss, for being with her like this and thinking that she wouldn't give him the cold shoulder immediately after made him both lightheaded and giddy. At that moment all he wanted to do was keep his cock stuffed inside of her, feel her as much as he could, and taste her tongue upon his.

During these moments that immediately followed his climax, Raeth marveled at how tight Saudaji's pussy was. Yes, this was not the first time he had been gripped by her sex, but it still astounded him how strong she was, inside and out. If he hadn't been so hard for her, he wondered if she'd be able to snap his dick off. That thought and the accompanying imagery made him laugh again while his lips fondled hers.

Unpleasant shock followed by an instant of panic were what he felt when his Twi'lek lover began to maneuver out of his embrace. She slipped her snatch - whose extraordinary wetness had not only been noticed, but thoroughly enjoyed - off of his still-throbbing cock. The sound of the shower did little to mask the lewd, moist sound of their sexes separating. It did, however, nearly mask the noise of his dick slapping against her thigh, her hip, or her belly.

"Mmm!?" Raeth wrapped his arms around her, possessively. For a moment, he thought that what she had promised him had been a lie, and she was going to treat him poorly again now that they'd both cum. His entire body tensed up. But he relaxed when she gave him a reassuring kiss. His mind was still muddled from their fucking, so it took him longer than it should have to realize she was going for the body wash.

Smirking, Raeth decided not to let her get away so easily. Saudaji's attempts to maneuver around him were partially thwarted by his insistent embrace or the way he sidestepped in front of her, using his body to block her from the bottle. His hands were on her hips, and from there they slid to her ass. He groped her beautiful ass - playfully, longingly - while he rubbed the front of her body with his dick. The stiffness and the pulsing of his meat told her he was ready for more.

When Saudaji finally got hold of the bottle, Raeth was using his lips to nibble upon her shoulder. His lips followed that little stretch of flesh that connected her shoulder to her neck. He tongued her there, sucked on it too. His embrace loosened then, not because he was letting her go, but because he wanted to slide down her body and get his face level with her breasts.

Raeth grinned like a shark as he studied her tits up close. He closed his eyes right as his lips touched down upon one of her curves. His lips and tongue proceeded to play. He nipped and suckled upon the inner then outer curves. He kissed one of her nipples, then the other. The agent nuzzled his face between her substantial bosoms and relished both her feel and her scent. It was because of this enjoyment that his erection swelled against whatever flesh it was poking at the time.

It was then that Saudaji implied that he had gotten the wrong bottle of body wash. "Hmph?!" He lifted his face from her cleavage to giver her a faux indignant look. "Too much floral? It's the same thing I've seen you use. I'm sure of it." Frowning, Raeth considered the possibility that what he picked up at a Thyferran shop may have had the right label and description, but it was probably not quite the same as the product she picked up from Zeltros. Raeth idly pondered that possibility as he gently grasped one of her breasts from underneath, lifted it, and sucked on her tit.

Much to his dismay, the Twi'lek eventually slipped out of his clutches. A subtle slump of his shoulders and a less-than-subtle, murmur of complaint told her that he wanted to keep holding her and playing with her tits. But he stopped fighting her, for now, so she could bathe him. He loved it when she touched him, anyway. He sighed, letting his eyelids drift closed once her lathered hands began to work their magic on his body.

Saudaji told him that this would make him smell like a prostitute. "Good. I was thinking about quitting this murder business, anyway. How much do you think someone would pay me to bugger them?

"And would I have to do butt stuff? I'd charge extra for that." His back to her, Raeth pressed both his palms against a shower wall, spread his legs as though he was about to be frisked - or more - and flexed his ass at her.

The agent relaxed more and more the longer Saudaji bathed him. It took only a second or two before her skillful, soapy fingers elicited moans. While she scrubbed or caressed his fine, muscular back or his shoulders, he tilted his head back so that the spray of water hit his face.

She asked him why he had to be an ass to her, which caused his laughter to fill the steamy air. "Maybe I'm not an ass to you. Maybe you're too sensitive? I've never met a sensitive killer before." The Twi'lek slipped around him, smoothly, until they once again stood face-to-face. Immediately, Raeth's hands found their way onto her hips. He kissed her right above one of her eyebrows when she began to touch his pecs or the ridges at his abdomen.

"Haven't you noticed that I've been treating you better? I gave you space so you could work how you wanted. Plus I became the one-man web and community team for Dian'La Rosilson, and made you a lot of extra creds in the process. All of it legal (more or less).

"You're welcome, by the way." Raeth watched Saudaji bend over. Despite the moisture that surrounded them, he could have sworn that his lips felt dry at the sight of her bosoms hanging down towards the drain. He couldn't help but slid his hands up from her hips, along her sides, to her breasts, which he grasped. He used the tips of both middle fingers to trace circles upon her areola. He fondled her hanging swells with a lazy sort of greed.

"Setting all of that up was a lot of work, you know. And yet you still call me an ass? If you hadn't just fucked me, I'd be insulted."

Raeth's hands gave both her breasts one more squeeze before they climbed around her body. With her bent over, it was especially easy for him to slide his hands up and down her back. Eyes closed, murmuring happily, he enjoyed what she was doing to him with her soapy hands, while simultaneously savoring the feel of her slippery body underneath his fingertips.

Gentle fingers became rough for just a moment when she asked him about his past partners. He gripped her ass, tight, and held that grip briefly. "You're mentioning my partners again. Why?" Looking down at her, his fingers resumed their gentle glide up and down her back. Sometimes they traveled along her sides.

"Why do my other partners matter?" The smile that spread across his face was both questioning and teasing. "Are you jealous of them?"

Before he could ask her more, he felt her breath so very close to the tip of his dick. Next, she dropped to her knees on the shower floor. His eyes widened, and his lips formed a little 'o'. Raeth's hands went, naturally, to her shoulders, his fingers brushing against her lekku along the way.

The urge to poke her lips with the tip of his tumescent member was resisted, but only barely. Instead, he stood up straight and stiff, his back against a wall. He watched her, expectantly.

In the afterglow of their mutual orgasms, it was easy to want to play along. So she let herself be pinned, be blocked, and would reward each action of his with a sarcastic smile, or a low huff of laughter. Still, she wouldn’t be deterred, and she was able to get the body wash. The only real hiccup in her actions was when he stooped before her, burying his face against the swell of her breasts. Under the teasing ministrations of his tongue, she paused, swallowing. She didn’t want to get that distracted.

But, still, her hand moved to run soothingly through his hair, the other gripping the body wash. Disengaging again, she raised an eyebrow as she began to create the lather in her palms. “Have you been spying on me in the shower?”

Not that she would be surprised if he had been; it seemed to be his…thing. She’d tune out some of his banter, until he paused, and changed his position, his ass nearly in her face. With a smirk, she slapped one of his cheeks with a firm pop. “I’m sure some women would want to be parted with their credits for you, but you’d need more of a selling point than just a pretty face.” Though it was said lightly enough, there was enough authority in her voice that suggested that she indeed knew what she was talking about.

“So, you did all of that just to show off? I’d hardly consider that being nice to me,” she settled easier on her knees, a soapy hand slipping between his legs to gently stroke his ball sack. Her nimble fingers slipped back and forth over the flesh, daring to trace a light circle around the base of his cock, before nestling against the underside of the globes of flesh.

Was she jealous? Not especially. She’d had her lovers in the past as well. But she did have a tendency not to mix such things with work. That was asking for trouble. “…If I told you no,” she was leaning in close now, so close that her breath against the side of his cock was hotter than the steam, “you wouldn’t believe me. But no, I’m not jealous of your partners. You and I are fucking now, so what difference do they make?” Her lips delicately closed over the rounded head, her tongue flicking against it once, twice. She pulled back, looking up at him, a grin in her eyes. “I was wondering how open you’d be for a post mission celebratory orgy, but then I decided that I didn’t want to share.”

That much was true. Though it’d be a fallacy to say that she was above jealousy, in this instance, it was much more muted. It existed, slightly, because she was naturally possessive, but whatever his past partners offered it didn’t matter. She was there now, and she was going to enjoy what was in front of her. Literally. She shifted forward, and without a moment’s hesitation, swallowed his cock in a single downward stroke. Holding it, her throat bobbed to accommodate him, before she pulled back slowly, sucking, her tongue caressing the underside of his shaft before she pulled entirely off of him with an audible pop.

Leaning forward, she pressed her cheek against the firmness of his thigh, her hand drifting down to run lovingly across his knee, down his calf. She was facing away from him now, contemplative. The stillness would be brief; she turned to face him again, pushing his back against the wall. Her hands pressing back on his thighs to pin him there, she lifted herself a little, the water cascading down her lekku, and began to lightly kiss the tip of his cock. They were soft, fluttering kisses, her tongue remaining firmly within her mouth.

An expression of feigned guilt was the first response to her question about whether or not he had been spying on her during her showers. "Noooooo...of course not. Invading your privacy like that would make me a creep. You don't think I'm a creep, do you?

"Besides, I don't need to spy on you when I can enjoy you up close and personal." Although there was much that Saudaji had to discover about her partner and lover, she at least knew him well enough to know that he loved watching her from afar, perhaps nearly as much as he loved being close enough to touch her. The drones, the cameras, the multiple monitors on either the Patient Pylat or the RV that he often stared at, raptly - it was clear to her that watching was one of his things.
Whether she realized it or not, Raeth was turned on immensely by the idea of her being comfortable with his watching. Better yet, if she liked it.

While lather gathered in the Twi'lek's palms, the agent's hands were also busy. He ran his palms up and down the sides of her body, from her hips to just underneath her arms, then down again. Sometimes he redirected his affectionate caresses to her back. He was soaking in the feel of her, languidly yet greedily, while an almost silly smile tugged at his lips. Raeth, who spent so much of his time hiding behind one mask or another, did nothing to conceal how much he was enjoying this tenderness with her.

His sigh was half disgruntled, half dreamy when Saudaji got him to turn around and face a wall. That was when he joked about getting into prostitution and flexed his ass at her. In response, she gave him her expert opinion on his chances.
"Ooo, you think I've got a pretty face?" He asked her in a slightly high-pitched voice. Looking over his shoulder, he tried to flutter his eyelashes in her direction. She probably didn't see it from her vantage point. "Tell me, what else do you like about me?" He laughed when she slapped him on the ass.

At some point Raeth turned back around, Saudaji got onto her knees, and his heart skipped a beat or two at the prospect of an impending blow job. He shivered when she washed his balls. His phallus swelled, visibly, at the first real touch of her fingers upon its base. It jutted, lewdly, as though reaching for her mouth, silently demanding that the bath and the teasing hurry up so it could get a different sort of attention.

Despite the impatience of his cock, Raeth, who was having some difficulty keeping his breathing and his heartbeat calm, continued to enjoy chatting with her in the bath. The huntress made a comment about how his fabrication of Dian'La's holonet site was him showing off, not being nice to her. He scoffed at this.

"That's gratitude for you. Can't it be both? Can't I be nice to you and show off at the same time? Does one diminish the other?"

Their shower talk progressed to the subject of jealousy. Raeth was more than a little disappointed when she told him she wasn't jealous. But ultimately it didn't matter, because she wrapped those delicious lips around his cockhead. The back of his head thunked against the shower wall, and he heaved out a smooth sigh. His cockhead swelled, joyfully, at the teasing of her tongue.

He opened his eyes and looked down at her when she drew her mouth away. He had accepted that she would tease him, mercilessly, so there was no complaint either voiced or apparent on his face. Saudaji said something about an orgy, which piqued his interest. He thought about the possibilities. The idea of watching Saudaji get fucked while he watched, either in person or from afar, had been something he had considered on several occasions. During those lonely nights in the RV, watching her party with musicians or seduce a now-dead padawan, he had masturbated to the image of her fucking any of them on his screen.

Raeth was about to mention how the idea of an orgy was quite appealing, and how he had fantastized about watching her, when Saudaji opened her full lips wide and treated herself to a mouthfull of his cock. The back of his head slammed against the wall this time. His eyes rolled up into his skull before he shut his eyelids. The front of the agent's body was covered in cascading water that trickled through the ridges of his flexing muscle. His chest, his abdomen, and his thighs all tensed involuntarily. Inside of her mouth, against her throat, his dick throbbed to tell her how close he already was to cumming.

And yet she insisted on teasing him more by sliding her lips all the way off of him. At least she licked the underside of his shaft before pulling away entirely; that lick elicited a shiver of his hips and a strong twitch of his dick. Groaning loudly, he hunched his shoulders forward. He squeezed her shoulders and leaned on them, too, for he was having some trouble standing.

Raeth opened his eyes. Because his head was tilted forward, the water from the showerhead struck the back of his head, soaking his hair. Water fell down either side of his face and cascaded to the Twi'lek on her knees before him. Instead of complaining about her teasing, he chose to watch her. This was what he wanted, after all - for the two of them to take their time in their intimacy. Besides, she was beautiful. Kneeling there, her cheek against his slender yet solid thigh, water trickling down the jade skin of her lekku, her shoulders, her arms, her back. Saudaji heard him sigh as well as felt him relax when she stroked his leg affectionately.

It dawned on Raeth that she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. This was not something that should be rushed.

"I could look at you all day," he whispered. Smiling, he reached down to touch her. There was no way he could admire her without touching her, too. First, the back of his index finger caressed the side of her lekku. His touch reversed course, and switched to using his fingertips to both sooth her skin and swipe some of the water off. Slow and oh so gentle, his fingertips traveled along her temples, her cheeks, or her lekku.

Raeth didn't resist when she pushed his back against the wall again. Quiet for once, he just stared at her and continued to touch her as she pressed kisses to the tip of his erection. Each kiss was answered by a demanding heave of his dick, which had a mind of its own. But her lover remained patient. More than that, he reveled in what she was doing to him.

She pulled away from his cock with an exasperated roll of her eyes.

“Raeth, you talk too much.”

Hoping that the use of his name instead of a nickname would work in shutting him up, she paused, waiting for a smart aleck response. When he remained silent, she gave him a contented grin, and then, delicately, took the head of his cock again in her mouth. She held him there, just the head, wrapping her tongue around it. Running her tongue under and along the ridge of his head, she paused for a moment, flicking her tongue at the dip of his head. The ooze of precum was slightly bitter - but she pulled away, licking her lips none the less.

Settling comfortably on her knees before him, she leaned forward and swallowed his cock in one deep motion. Holding it for a moment, her throat bobbed as it adjusted to his length, her dark eyes closed. A low murmur eased from her throat, and she slowly let him slip from her mouth, her tongue caressing the flesh as she eased back off of him. Grasping his ass tightly, she pulled him into her again, deep-throating him with relish.

_________

The water finally started to run tepid by the time the two of them were done.

She was toweling off languidly, waiting for him. She was pleasantly sore, and seemed to have a gentle glow to her smile and her jade skin. If her mouth wasn’t so tired, she would have attempted to hum. As things were, though, she figured her throat and voice could use a break. As she dried off her chest and stomach, she looked over her shoulder at him.

“How’s your hip?”

It may have been his imagination, but Raeth felt as though Saudaji was enjoying this blowjob more than the other ones. He was already enamored with her technique, but this time there was more care, more enthusiasm in the way she sucked him off. For this and other reasons, when he came, he did so in buckets. The bathroom and the sleeping quarters got filled by his joyous screams. And his cock swelled between her lips while his jizz flooded down her throat.

Raeth was left physically shaken. In this wobbly and uncharacteristcally quiet state, he allowed them both to use the shower for what it was actually meant for. Once they were nice and clean, Raeth did not do anything to prevent Saudaji from stepping out; but the way her partner followed her out so close that his hot breath tickled her wet lekku, she could likely tell he wasn't done with her yet. Not by a long shot.

She asked him about his hip. "Huh? Oh. To be honest, I completely forgot about it. I had other things on my mind." Chuckling, he used his towel to whip one of her ass cheeks.

Raeth's response sounded kind of like a croak. Despite fucking in the shower for so long that it made his finger and toetips look like prunes, his throat was unexpectedly dry. While drying off, he paused to lean over the sink and get a drink of water.

Raeth stared at her, hungrily, as she finished drying off. If she was facing him, she would see his gaze get fixated on certain parts of her body. When she bent over to dry her legs, he'd stare at her midsection, especially her obliques. Whenever she lifted a leg, he'd stare at her muscular thighs, or her juicy pussy. When she lifted her arms to dry her head and headtails, he'd watch the jiggle of her sizable breasts, raptly. He devoured the sight of her as though he had never seen her naked before, even though that was far from the truth.

"Let's go to bed, hm? We can get some rest before reporting in to the boss." Of course, when the two of them got to bed, they didn't get any rest at all. Instead, Raeth proved to her that he became insatiable when she treated him nicely.

The two partners in crime ended up fucking throughout what passed for night out there in hyperspace. He fingered her pussy while fucking her in the ass. He made love to her, slowly, while they tasted each other's tongues. He jackhammered her while she hung off the side of the bed, her shoulders and lekku pressed against the floor. That night, Raeth displayed considerably more sexual stamina than the previous times they reveled in each other.

Even when Saudaji was too sore in the nethers to continue, and she correctly assumed he'd been thoroughly drained, he still wouldn't leave her be. When they were both spent, he'd relish her body with his mouth and his hands. He'd do things like flip her onto her belly, then slide his lips up and down her back and lekku, softly. He slipped his hands between her breasts and the mattress to massage her sweet, rounded flesh. He'd spread her ass cheeks apart to eat out her asshole. Unless Saudaji physically pushed him away, the agent would continue to fuck her, taste her, touch her, and savor. The entire experience was quite loud, wet, and enthusiastic.

She had just shown him a hint more caring, and in return his passion went wild.

The computer beside the bed began to beep, indicating that their employer was calling. At first, the agent ignored it; what he was doing was far too important. At the moment, Raeth was sucking on her luscious tits, one after the other, while his tinkerer's fingers brushed at her pubic hair before sliding down to her clit.

Earlier, in the shower, she had shown him how to touch her pussy just the way she liked. Ever a quick study, Raeth showed her that her lesson had not been ignored. With his index finger, he stroked her clit in slow, tight circles. At the same time, his middle finger caressed her labia, gently, languidly. The touch applied to both her clit and her puffy pussy lips never became too rough or insistent. Unlike before, he was taking his sweet time enjoying her. Thus the kissing of her curves, the sucking of her nipples, and the sweet touches between her thighs continued while the computer continued beeping.

Eventually, Raeth accepted the fact that the beeping would not stop no matter how much he wished it would. With a groan that was part exasperation and part exhaustion, Raeth gave her tit one last suck; her breast popped out of his mouth, jiggling. Frowning at her, he slid his hand up from her mound to the center of her chest.

"Pfassking hell," the agent whispered, his lips still so close to her green flesh. "I was hoping they wouldn't call us so soon. I should've known better. For an empire that's been willing to wait centuries to get back at the Republic, they can certainly be impatient sometimes."

He continued to wear the frown, but his eyes - usually so empty or cold - smiled at her. With his eyes on hers, he brought his fingertips - still sticky with her juices - into his mouth and sucked them clean. Then he rolled off of her, sat up on the edge of the bed, and tapped the touch screen of his computer a couple of times.
"Yeah, it's them. They're asking for a report. Fortunately for us, it can be a text report, so we don't have to show up on holo completely bare-ass." Raeth looked over his shoulder and smirked.

"Do you want to write this report, or should I?" His fingers were already tapping away at the keyboard. "Or you can just tell me what you want to include, and I'll write it down. They're mostly interested in the results, assessment of possible threats, and next steps. We can be sparse with the rest of the details."