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

She did end up shoving him away two, three times - simply long enough for her to catch a breather. Raeth was relentless; she hadn’t encountered a passion like his in ages. In her much younger days, she’d muse to herself, as she stretched some of the soreness out of her muscles. Perhaps she was getting too old and out of shape for an endless sex buffet.

She could hear Saboten clicking her tongue at her in her head now.

Truly, though, Raeth was an indulgent, thoughtful lover. It felt like up until this point, their fucking had been the result of tensions coming to a head. Something that they did to pass the time, to deal with that odd attraction. Since she’d “confessed”, he’d been…more attentive than usual. If she didn’t “know” him like she did, she would have been instantly put on edge. Now, laying on her back, his face hovering attentively over her breast, she realized that perhaps he was…just a little stilted. Maybe that wasn’t the right word. For someone that enjoyed talking as much as he did, he wasn’t particularly skilled in communicating.

Not that she was one to talk.

Emotional. Occasionally irrational. Too big hearted - these were things that she felt were fairly apt descriptions of her. Really, they were things that generally meant that she would be terrible at killing people. Funny how these things worked out. Whenever Raeth would pause, even for a moment, she would regard him coolly, though not unkindly. She was busy trying to work out the man in front of her, her partner - what he was about, what she could get out of the relationship. Well, maybe not “get”, but how much of herself that she could invest in him. It was hard to argue not to fall for him completely with the way he’d spoiled her over the hours, but….

“Mmmph,” she murmured, as he lifted his head from her breast. Her fingers were carding through his thick brown hair, content to touch him like this as he took his pleasure from her. She was pretty sure that if she tried to stand, her legs would have simply given out on her. So she stayed just where she was, taking the opportunity to sprawl ungracefully as he moved forward. Her own voice was raspy - though it had recovered immensely from the acrobatics from earlier in the “night.” There were times that, rather than a howl of orgasm, Raeth would only hear the faintest of squeaks.

She cleared her throat; grimaced. Swallowed, and winced. Her voice was shot. She had enough of one to sigh a long sigh, and gestured to the slender column of her throat. What came out was the faintest whisper.

“I don’t think there’s much for me to add.”

It wasn’t her being lazy; it was her being realistic. From start to finish, the operation had essentially been the brain child of Raeth. All she essentially did was play dress up and pretend for a few days. Whatever credit that there was to be doled out for the mission, she considered that he was entirely worthy of it. And, truthfully, his way was..easier. Less stressful. The level of planning was immense, but something he delighted in.

“…You know,” she rasped, wincing the while, “I can get used to this. You doing all the work, me only doing one or two things. Only downside is getting fat.” She smiled over at him, one eye closed.

"Come, now, don't belittle your contribution to the op's success," Raeth said without taking his eyes off of the screen. He filled out the report to Darth Azamin while talking with her, the tippity-tap of the keys like background music to their conversation.

"You were Dian'La for several days straight. I know how much concentration it takes to be someone else for extended periods of time; I know how exhausting it can be, too. That's why whenever I adopt a different identity, it's usually for only a few hours at a time.

"On top of that, you had a Jedi fooled the entire time. You did well."

The agent stopped his typing to turn around and smile at her. His eyes widened, a little, in appreciation when he saw her sprawled on his bed. "Mmm..." His smile turned into a wide, close-lipped grin. He committed that sight to memory. In addition to that, the cameras that Saudaji was probably already aware of had recorded their entire night's escapade, so Raeth could rewatch whenever he wanted.

But it still wasn't enough for him.

"Stay right where you are," he said. He swiveled the compact, bedside computer so that the screen faced her, directly. Then, he scooted aside, pressed a button, and took a picture of her using the computer's camera.

"I'm going to make this you my new desktop background." The agent made a noise that almost sounded like a giggle before he did what he said he'd do. When her picture was up, he leaned to the side so she could see herself on his screen, sprawled out in all her glory. He tittered again before getting back to work.

The contents of the report had to be concise, because, as Raeth explained it, Darth Azamin had the attention span of a Loth-cat when it came to reading.

Master Yent Virak: Eliminated. Death pinned on violent protestors; current news reports are supporting this narrative.

Padawan Deelio Spier: Eliminated. Killed by S. Death originally not a priority, but proved to be a necessity when padawan became a security risk. Body was chemically deconstructred and disposed of.

"Yeah, I literally flushed him down the drain," Raeth thought to himself with a chuckle.

Operative identities intact. No injuries sustained.

Additional Notes:
S. proved to be a capable combatant and imperative to mission success. Recommend continued employment.

Next Mission:

Raeth was about to type in where they would be going next, because he had already decided who their new target would be. But he stopped himself when something made him reconsider. He typed, 'TBD' beside 'Next Mission,' encrypted the report using an algorithm he wrote himself, and sent it.

"That should keep them off our backs for a few days." The agent picked up a nearby datapad, called up some information, then handed her the pad. "Now, Saudaji my sweet, it's time to choose where we'll be going next. Take a look through that and tell me if anything strikes your fancy."

On the pad was a list of targets and locations: A Jedi who was serving as a bodyguard to a Republic senator; a master training padawans in the Jedi temple on Devaron; a high-priority, non-Jedi engineer located on a deep space station. There were a few other targets she could scroll through, as well.

While Saudaji read, Raeth crawled over her, then settled in behind her, nice and comfy. He wanted to spoon. He read over her shoulder, which was treated to gentle kisses. Sometimes he'd try gently caressing the top of her lekku with his lips. But if she indicated she didn't like what he was doing to her headtails, he'd return his mouth to her shoulder and snuggle close to the green-skinned temptress.

“It’s not ‘belittling’ - it’s being honest. I didn’t do much. Not compared to what I usually do.”

She rolled onto her back now, looking up at the ceiling. Not for the first time, she thought about why she was picked for the job. Why she’d agreed to it wasn’t a mystery - but just how the Sith found her…

When he mentioned Dian’La, she snorted. “It wasn’t being someone as different as you might think. She was essentially what I was raised to be.” She rolled back onto her stomach, folding her arms under her chin as she watched him. “Or did you not listen to what I was telling you not that long ago?” Her voice was playful; she was teasing. She hadn’t expected him to remember. Or, to a certain extent, believe her. Who’s to say that she hadn’t been lying about her entire life, just like him?

Of course, she wasn’t - she was a horrific liar -, but she hadn’t expected him to remember or care all that much. After all, she’d tempered her own curiosity with him to keep strictly to whatever could affect their business relationship. She allowed herself to know, to probe, what little she could about him and then withdrew as much as she could. Anything further could be…complicated. Even though she knew that, knew it as clear as the air she breathed, it hadn’t stopped her from developing some sort of emotion towards him. What that emotion was, past blinding, instant lust, she still wasn’t entirely sure. She didn’t want him hurt or killed. She didn’t mind when he was around (and was less “chatty” than usual), as she found his silences to be much more telling and comforting that the incessant sound of his voice. He wasn’t bad to look at, and, when she least expected it, he could be surprisingly thoughtful.

And space was lonely. She’d be the first to admit that.

Taking the pad from him, she gave it a cursory glance before she set it down on the bed next to her. She didn’t move when he slipped into bed behind her. If anything, she pressed back lightly against him, her body molding against his. She waited until he was comfortable against her before she picked up the pad again.

“Raeth…” she said, after a long moment of staring at the names and not registering a single one, “do you ever wonder why they picked me to pair up with you? What were you able to find out about me?” Though it was meant to sound like a question, it was a statement. She knew, just from the short time that they’d been together, that he would have probably researched whatever he could find out about her. As much as she could, she’d covered the trail of her personal life - those who wanted to hire her would only know that she was of Mandalore. And probably thought she was a man. Not like she did much to disprove that; it was far easier to move and kill when people made assumptions about you.

“I’m curious - hasn’t it ever crossed your mind that the Sith manipulated this whole thing for a greater end? Don’t you ever feel like a puppet to them?”

"Mreh." That was how Raeth responded when Saudaji questioned whether or not he was paying attention when she told him about her past. Of course he heard. Of course he remembered. He wouldn't necessarily tell her this, but he paid attention to every personal tidbit she was willing to share. In fact, he paid closer attention to her than to almost anything else.

Raeth turned around and was about to take a verbal jab at her, but the sight of her - on her stomach, on his bed, staring at him - gave him pause. He stared into her eyes for a long moment. When he recognized that she was being playful with him (which was a vast improvement from the way she treated him when they first arrived on Thyferra) he kept quiet, gave her an appreciative, little smile, and turned back around to finish the report.

When the report was done and handed to her for one final review, Raeth made himself comfortable as her big spoon. He hopped onto the bed and slid behind her with unmasked excitement. And when the Twi'lek's back molded against his front, he murmured, happily. Surely, Saudaji felt how he shuddered, and felt his growing member nuzzle against the cleft of her ass.

Raeth, still speechless, pressed a hand against her abdomen while his lips pressed kisses to her shoulder. The tip of one or two of his fingers traced her abdominal muscles, silently marveling at how toned she was. When he wasn't kissing her shoulder, he was carefully drizzling kisses to her lekku.

Saudaji was the one to end the silence. He listened to her questions without ending the touching and tasting of her.

"I actually don't know much about your past. All I know is what you tell me." Raeth said with his mouth hovering a centimeter above her lekku's skin. He gave her headtail the tiniest of kisses before moving his mouth back to her shoulder. He sucked on the jade skin there, tenderly. When his mouth retreated, a hickey was left behind.

"The information I was given before we hooked up is pretty much all I was able to find about you, online. Admittedly, my initial search could have been more thorough. But based on what I saw, your trail is rather sparse. If that's because you were careful, then kudos to you. If it's because Mandalorians are notoriously bad at record keeping, then you still benefit.

"Is that something you're concerned about? How much info there is on the holonet? I can do a more thorough sweep later, then show you what I come up with. I can then wipe away or edit whatever you want." His mouth touched down on her neck this time, and he attempted to leave another hickey. But Saudaji asked him another question. He gave her neck one more suckle, and a lick, before raising his head. His hand, however, did not leave her stomach. He liked how warm her flesh felt against his palm.

"I always think about what the Sith are up to. They've spent who knows how many centuries manipulating interplanetary governments, so of course they'd manipulate the affairs of one or two operative without a second thought, if there was reason.

"But when it comes to you and me, I actually think they're keeping things simple...as simple as they can get, that is. They keep me on the payroll because of my unique talents (or lack of talent, depending on how you want to look at it), plus I get the job done. As long as we continue to get the job done, together, then that greatly reduces the chances of us getting backstabbed by our own employers."

Smiling, he gave her neck a kiss while simultaneously tickling her belly button. "Still, I admire your paranoia. It'll keep both you and me alive. And rest assured, I have contingency plans in place in case things go sour. These plans include both you and me."

Raeth finally took his hand away from her belly. He lifted it up to her face. Taking hold of her chin, he gently turned her head so they could see each other, face to face. He smiled before bringing his lips down to hers; it had been far too long since he tasted her lips or her tongue.

She winced. Moving her lekku away from his mouth, she gave him a look. “Careful,” she tutted, though not unkindly. Settling back against him, she indulged in the attention he lavished upon her. Her hand draped over his comfortably settled on her stomach.

“Not in particularly,” she hummed, after a long moment of quiet between them. “I tend to cover what little tracks I leave behind well. I was curious - curious, knowing your… knack for combing the holonet for every scrap of information. Curious as to what you actually knew - and what the Sith told you.”

Though there was no change in her supine form, her tone of voice made it clear that she wasn’t comfortable. Not so much with Raeth - she was coming to an easy peace with it - but with the situation itself. “Between us…” severity tiptoed into her voice, and she pressed back against him further, as if seeking comfort. She stopped herself. It wouldn’t do to have him know her fears. Not yet. Perhaps not ever.

“Nothing. Forget I mentioned it.” Not that she would have much opportunity to further elaborate. He turned her face towards his, and she was silenced by his lips on hers.She held the kiss for a mere moment, before breaking away and letting her forehead rest against his.

She had severe doubts about his abilities to keep them safe. If things went to osik, which they inevitably would -only to be expected in this line of work-, they wouldn’t survive. As the thought crossed her mind, her facial expression grew severe. Was it worth it? Was this another example of her jumping at an opportunity without thinking it all the way through?

Raeth’s hand against her stomach pulled her from her thoughts. Reaching down, she took his hand in hers, and pressed her lips to his knuckles. Held it against her mouth, then let go. Her words were warm against his fingers when she spoke next.

“I’m not entirely convinced that the two of us together like this isn’t some sort of set up.” Before he could answer, she changed the subject. “What would you do, if not this?”

Raeth flinched when Saudaji winced. He still hadn't figured out how to touch her lekku in a way that was pleasurable to her. Not only that, but the texts he had read about Twi'lek physiology said there was no evidence that head tails were an erogenous zone. Normally the agent paid attention to what medical experts said, but this time he ignored it. Maybe he'd try once or twice more before giving up on this experiment.

Later, when Saudaji ended their kiss after only a moment, he grumbled his displeasure. It was now obvious that she was bothered by the Sith, all of a sudden. As far as Raeth was concerned, he was much too good a kisser to not have an affect on her, so her worries about their employers were the only possible reason why she'd break her lips away so quickly. Pouting, he rested his chin on her shoulder and tried to focus on their conversation.

"You have strange taste in pillow talk, Saudaji." His little laugh was accompanied by a soft nuzzle of his mouth against her neck. He really was trying to focus on the conversation, but her jade skin was too tempting for him to ignore for long. His concentration was tested further when she kissed his knuckles. That gesture made him smile.

As distracted as he was at that moment, Raeth still managed to ignore Saudaji's attempt to change the subject.

"Since you're worried that we're being played, let's work through this: What could they possibly gain from the two of us being intimate? Hm? To them, emotional attachment is a weakness. At the very least, it's an unnecessary distraction. It's no coincidence that the highest-ranking operatives have no families. It's also why the closest thing to family that Azamin has is his apprentice, and I fully expect her to try and kill him within the next year or two. That's how these silly bastards advance in rank, if you can believe it."

Raeth laughed again, then went off on a tangent. He talked about the Sith as though they were a cult of idiots rather than the most dangerous religious order to ever stalk the galaxy.

"When you think about it, it's something of a miracle that the Sith and the Jedi continue to exist at all, let alone grow. All of their teachings go against the preservation of their order. You can't feel, thus you can't love, thus you can't have children. Yet it's common knowledge among them that the Force is passed on from parent to child.

"Almost every other religion throughout history has - whether they'll admit it or not - encouraged the spreading of their religion through fornication. They want their followers to keep having babies, to keep expanding their families, so that their beliefs can be passed on from generation to generation.

"Abortion is evil. Contraception is evil. You've gotta keep on fuckin' to supply our churches with an endless supply of worshippers. In many religions, refusing to have offspring is tantamount to sacrilege.

"Yet the Sith and the Jedi think differently. They discourage their followers from having *any* sex, which has caused their numbers to stagnate or dwindle in the past, and will surely cause them problems again in the future. Exactly how they keep finding more Force-sensitive worshippers is a bit of a mystery to me, but I know their good fortune can't continue forever. Frankly, I think they're morons for adhering to tenets that harm their orders' chances of long-term survival."

If Saudaji grew tired of Raeth's tirade, she only had herself to blame. He was more than content to quietly run his hands and mouth all over her in bed, but she wanted to talk.

Eventually, Raeth would pull himself away from his criticisms of the Sith as a religion, and return to her concerns.

"Where was I going with this.....Ah, yes. If anything, our employers wouldn't want us to fark each other's brains out. If we become too attached to each other, it'll make us sloppy, and then it'll make us dead. They want us and all their other operatives to be efficient little droids, and nothing more. (In fact, I suspect if they could make a droid that was as good at blending into a crowd as good as me, I'd be out of a job.)

"With all that in mind, what would they have to gain from us being together?"

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she sniffed, putting a fraction of an inch of distance between them. “Would you rather me shower you with sweet words on how much I love you?” Though her tone was light, there was a faint hint of irritation there. At times, he appeared to have a one track mind.

She listened to everything he had to say, her face impassive. After all, in remaining silent, she’d be able to catch more information about the man in bed with her. She wasn’t surprised by his utter disdain for the Sith - and his broad understanding of the Jedi wasn’t entirely inaccurate. But, she waited until he was done before he said anything.

“…Not all Jedi follow the same teachings. My husband, after all, was a Jedi. He started his training after we were married.” She moved to rest her chin on her palm, looking at nothing in particular on the wall in front of her. Her eyes glazed over, lost in memories. “So I would hope to believe that you would know of the differences. I didn’t know much about it myself until after he left.” She didn’t seem to be looking down her nose at him - her tone was gentle, informative. But clear that the subject of her husband was something not to be discussed. “It’s like translating something. The gist may remain the same, but the details are different.”

She shifted closer to him, and decided to let the other shoe drop. “That’s part of my point. Out of all of the people in the universe that they could have picked, they deliberately picked me. They’ve worked with you for years, I assume. Don’t you think it’s a little…odd, to say the very least? And speaking of odd,” she shifted now, rolling over. Rather than her back to his torso, she was now face to face with him. “How did you get caught up with this to begin with?”

"Why not? Give it a try; we may both like it." Spurred by the playful tone in her voice, Raeth chuckled right into her ear. Before launching into his tirade about Jedi, Sith, and sex, he kissed her neck. Since she had been holding his hand, his fingers started to play with hers, lazily.

"Yes, I'm aware of the differences," he said minutes later, his tone indicating that he had taken a little offense at her statement.

Of course he knew the differences. Clearly Saudaji didn't yet appreciate his encyclopedic knowledge about both the Jedi and the Sith, which he had accumulated during his years as an agent of the empire. For fark's sake, he had been a successful Jedi assassin for years; you don't get to kill Jedi for a living without carefully studying your enemy.

He frowned a little, but stopped himself from commenting directly on what he perceived to be an insult. But he did not stop himself from letting this go completely.

"Your husband is, shall we say, something of a fringe Jedi, correct? Do you agree that the concept of Jedis marrying is not something the council or other masters would look upon kindly? Did your husband ever bring you to the temple in Coruscant, or any other temple, to introduce you to his Force-sensitive buddies?"

If Saudaji wanted to debate the nuances of the Jedi religion, Raeth would be more than happy to oblige. If, however, she let it go, spun around in bed to face him, and continued her line of questioning, he would simmer down. Looking directly into her eyes, he couldn't help but cool down, smile, then press his forehead against hers.

"I don't find your selection to be odd at all. I need someone fast and deadly as my partner, because as terrific as I may be at what I do, even I need help now and then." His eyes twinkled.

"Although the net doesn't have much data about you, there is enough about your past successes as a mercenary to get you on the Sith short list. You're good, and so you were hired. I don't see what's odd about that."

His little smile broadened into a grin when she asked about how he got started with all this. "Really? Is all of this conspiracy theorizing just your way of asking about my life story? Ha! If you want to know anything about me, just ask, Sweetness." Speaking of sweet, he just had to have a kiss. Even if it was just a quick one, he'd take it. But if Saudaji was in the mood for some lengthy making out before the Q&A really began, he'd be down with that, too.

When their lips parted and their eyes once again met, he said one more thing:

"I'm an open book." Raeth said this without any irony.

She rolled her eyes at his impish response. Not that she would have expected any different. She thought about scoffing aloud at his suggestion, but ended up clicking her tongue at him instead. While she had a unexplained fondness for him, she wouldn’t go that far.

Hearing his tone, she sighed. She hadn’t meant it like that, but she was also quickly learning that when Raeth went on a tangent, there was no pulling him back from it. And, this time, she held her tongue. At first, it was out of not wanting him to talk more. Once he mentioned her husband, her expression grew frosty for the briefest of seconds. To be fair, she’d opened that door herself for him to prod at, and this would be her hasty attempt at closing it again. She didn’t like to talk about Mahoroba in general, let alone to someone who’s bed she was currently occupying.

“What I meant,” she added, her forehead to his now, “Is that the fact that we’re instantly in bed, after not very long of knowing each other doesn’t strike you as odd? Or do you do this with all of your partners, and that’s just a thing that the Sith know to look for?” There was no hurt, no glib sarcasm in her words. She was asking seriously, and out of a place of concern. There was the faintest fear that he might consider her “superstitious,” or even dumb for such a line of thought, but it was in her experience that the Jedi were not to be trusted. Their powers of manipulation went beyond her own imagination - and their ability to be patient enough to play a long game made their every move suspect.

And, in the few quiet moments she had to herself, she found herself wondering why she was so attracted to Raeth. It had been a while, that was true, but to be acting like a love struck youngling wasn’t her style. Never had been, even in those salad days when her and Mahoroba first fought one another. Raeth was something different entirely. Witty, urbane, sneaky, and downright shifty, he should have been someone she avoided, or kept a frosty distance with. But it felt like since the first time she saw him, she’d merely tumbled head over heels into some strange thing with him. Her body craved his touch, even when she knew that she shouldn’t trust him. Could he be Force-sensitive as well - and manipulating her for his own means?

She quickly dismissed the thought - that was farfetched, even for her. However - he had drugged her; it was entirely possible he could have done something to her back then. She would have to test that theory the next time she was on planet. But even then, what could he have used that was so long lasting?

“I’m just saying,” she said at long last, “That this whole thing might be calculated. Maybe you’re in on it,” and she raised an eyebrow playfully at him. She returned his kiss lightly, but wouldn’t allow the promise of his lips to deter her from her line of questioning. Not when she finally had him on the hook.

“It’s hardly ‘conspiracy theory,’” she sniffed. “It’s examining every angle - something I thought you’d be a little more familiar with. Have you never honestly thought about who they assigned to you? And yes - how did you start this business? Where are you from?”

Saudaji's comment about examining every angle was what finally snapped Raeth out of his affection mood. For now. His whole body was still humming from their physical intimacy, but he tried to ignore it in order to focus - really focus this time - on her questions.

Licking the flavor of her kiss from his lips, he rolled onto his back, then groaned. "Mmrrrr. Fine. We'll take a closer look at all of this." Abruptly, he vaulted out of the bed, then gave her shapely ass a smack. Although he had mustered up enough willpower to get out of bed, away from her, he did allow himself a moment to gawk at her butt cheek jiggling. Raeth grinned as he walked into the bathroom.

"You'll have to get dressed though. I can't concentrate with you pressing your pillowy bits against me. And we'll talk in the dining area. I don't know about you, but I could use something to nibble on." He talked over the sound of the running water he used to clean up before putting some clothes on.

*****

The two of them sat across from each other at the dining table. According to the Patient Pylat's clock, it was morning, so Sebastian v2 was in the kitchen whipping up a breakfast of scrambled gorak eggs and roasted, diced potatoes. Both the eggs and the potatoes were seasoned with malla petals, and the eggs also included tiny chunks of gorak meat. Raeth found a perverse sort of delight in the possibility that the eggs contained bits of the same bird that laid them.

Raeth was dressed in billowy gray pants and a matching long-sleeved shirt. Both appeared to be made out of the same light, shimmery material. Saudaji would learn that he often wore clothes like this for either sleeping or working out in the Pylat's gym - the room where he had drugged her shortly after they first met.

Admist the sounds of sizzling coming from the kitchen and the occasional clanking of Sebastian's feet hitting the floor, the two of them resumed their conversation about conspiracy theories and Raeth's past.

"All right, so you're wondering why we hooked up so quickly, and you're worried that our employers are somehow involved. No, I don't find it odd that we're attracted to each other so intensely. You're that damn sexy, and I am that damn charming. It makes perfect sense to me." That little, boyish smile was there, as it almost always was, but his tone was serious.

"As far as 'you know who' selecting you specifically for this outcome, I don't think that's the case. As I've explained, they frown upon intimate relationships. I've considered possible benefits, possible goals for playing us in some sort of long con - as you're suggesting - and I simply don't see any. They've invested a handsome sum for our first mission, and they've invested considerably more to keep me active over the years," Raeth made a gesture to indicate the Patient Pylat and everything in it, which clearly must have cost a fortune. "To them, intimacy is a threat to our continued success, and I don't see any endgame that could be more valuable than what we're doing.

"However...just because I don't agree with you on this doesn't mean I'm discouraging you from being paranoid. Far from it! Paranoia is a friend of mine. It's helped keep me alive this entire time."

Sebastian came by to drop off two plates of breakfast. It was wearing the 'sexy rancor in a bikini' apron that Raeth insisted it wear whenever it was in the kitchen.
"Do you require anything else, Master? Any condiments?" The Human and the Twi'lek already had a pitcher of juice and two glasses between them, it didn't ask about drinks.

"No, I think we're good, Sebastian." Raeth's smile was broad, and he looked genuinely excited to dig into their meal. "I've told you before, but I'll tell you again: you work magic with gorak eggs. No sauces needed. If you weren't so good at violence, I'd keep you in the kitchen 24-5.

Now get out of here. Saudaji and I are trying to have a conversation." Raeth gleefully attacked his breakfast while Sebastian returned to the kitchen. Even though droids had no facial expressions or much in the way of body language, Sebastian still, somehow, conveyed annoyance as it lumbered away.

Raeth paused his devouring to make sure Saudaji was enjoying her meal. He also needed to resume his train of thought.

"Speaking of paranoia, you probably already guessed that we were being watched on Thyferra. They have eyes everywhere. I THINK I was able to identify a few of their spies - I was suspicious of a couple who attended some of Dian'La's shows - but even I can't be certain just by watching.

"There's something you need to know: I'm not especially concerned about Azamin turning on us; I'm even less concerned about him turning on me, specifically. Can it happen? Of course. Look at who we're talking about. But for as long as I've known him, he does not harm those who are valuable to him. Once someone is no longer valuable - or even worse, once someone poses a threat to him - then..." The agent made a clicking sound with his tongue to accompany the thumb-across-the-throat gesture.

"As long as we keep doing what we're doing, he should leave us alone. No, the real threat is Caethia Yavariik - his apprentice. That witch has been giving me the evil eye and worse ever since I began to prove that I don't need Force abilities to kill those who have them. Azamin treats me with a level of respect he shows to no other 'non-Sensitive', and that chafes her asshole something fierce, let me tell you." He grinned. Clearly he took pride in getting under Caethia's skin.

"SHE'S the one you really have to look out for. I wouldn't be surprised if the spies I spotted on Thyferra were hers. Now, as long as Azamin is her master, and as long as we stay on his good side, then she won't openly come after me or you. But rest assured, she's got me in her sights, and thus you're in her sights as well."

Raeth resumed enjoying his breakfast, half-expecting Saudaji to once again ask him about his boyhood or something like that, rather than ask about this Sith who was gunning for him.

She met him in the dining room.

If he was expecting her to sex-kitten it up for him, he had quite another thing coming. She was dressed in baggy black pants, and a sleeveless, loose, red mock neck shirt, held closed by yellow frog ties. The whole outfit made her seem like she’d stolen clothes from an older, larger brother. Either way, she was wonderfully comfortable, and it showed. As cat-like as her gait usually was, there was an additional, sloppy approach now.

Of course, it didn’t mean she was any less dangerous or efficient. If anything, she could be considered moreso now because of that added level of comfort. Flopping down across from him, her breasts bounced visibly underneath the red fabric. The fragrance of the food caused her stomach to growl audibly, and, without much sense of propriety, she dug in, looking up at him as he spoke.

Chewed, swallowed, was going to say something, but was quickly cut off by Raeth’s stream of thought talking. Savoring the taste of the eggs, she figured that it would be in her better interest to wait until he’d stopped talking before she tried to contribute to the conversation. And, to a certain extent, there was much to learn from him. He’d dealt with these Sith for longer than she had - and, in theory, had spent more time trying to keep himself alive. But it didn’t get rid of the underlying question - which he’d yet to answer. It seemed like he kept finding something else to talk about, more theories to navel gaze about.

“Not once have you answered my first question,” she finally broke in, after shoveling a last bit of eggs into her mouth, chewing, and swallowing. “How did you get mixed up in all of this to begin with? How did they first contact you? Why did you take this job?”

Huh. She’d been so caught up in her performance and on her target that she hadn’t thought, let alone even imagined, that she could have been watched by anyone else than Raeth. At his mention of it, a cold chill traced up her spine. Rather than succumb to the fear, she smiled. It seemed that things would be getting interesting. However, to ensure that Raeth would actually answer her last question, she remained silent, her brows raised, expectant for an answer.

It was true that Raeth wanted Saudaji to join him in sex kitten mode. He was hoping she'd appear in nothing but her undies. Or maybe she'd wear a lace nighty. Or better yet, she could've put on the short shorts and country girl top she wore when she was Lula-Lee. Yeah, Raeth really wanted to fuck Lula-Lee one of these days.

Alas, Saudaji chose comfort over sexiness.

It was okay, though. Raeth had brand new porn, starring Saudaji, added to the collection stored within his mental vault. He played her latest, greatest hits in his head while they conversed over breakfast.

He laughed when she scolded him for dodging her first question. "Patience, Sweetness. Patience. My story can't be rushed; it needs time to be savored." He winked at her, and somehow maintained his playful smile as he finished what was left on his plate.

"Okay, the wait is over," he announced, nudging his plate away from him. He then leaned forward to rest his forearms on the table. He was getting comfortable, which Saudaji knew was a sign he was about to launch into a lengthy story. She'd better get comfortable, too.

"I've been working with them since before I was an adult. I started doing this job because I knew early on that it would lead me away from a life of utter shit and take me to all sorts of marvelous places. Since I'm now in my own ship, sitting across from the hottest Twi'lek in the galaxy, with both of our bellies full of eggs cooked by my slave droid, I'd say I've been right all along." Raeth grinned, proudly.
"Much like you, things didn't start off too peachy for Baby Raeth. It's not because my parents beat me; far from it. I don't even know who my parents are. All I know about them is that they ditched me in this horrible little town situated at the edge of a bog on Dromund Kaas.

"Have you ever heard of Dromund Kaas?" He already knew that she hadn't, because nobody outside of the Sith Empire knew about Dromund Kaas. "Remember the name. It's an important planet, and it'll become especially important in the coming years.

"I was taken in by a family that saw their own children as nothing more than employees that didn't go away at the end of a workday. As a youngling, I was much like I am now - devilishly smart and handsome. But do you know what they had me doing, despite my obvious gifts? Harvesting peat! Can you believe that?! I was teaching myself how to program while the other kids were learning how to read, yet my foster family couldn't think of anything better for me to do than muck around in a bog. To this day, I detest wetlands, and I'm not particularly fond of the outdoors in general. And because unprocessed bacta smells vaguely like peat, my skin would crawl while we were in Thyferra." Raeth didn't often grimance, but he wore a grimace while sharing that story.

"Naturally, I got out of there as soon as I could. For months I scavenged materials around town, which I used to rebuild a little, one-seat speeder. I named her Fancy Free. With Fancy Free as my chariot, I sped my way to Kaas City. It was there that I hooked up with our current employers.

"Before I continue, let's go to the cockpit. I'll regale you with the rest of my story while we watch the stars." This would likely be one of the only time outs Saudaji would get, so if she wanted to steer the conversation in a different direction, now would be the time. If not, then Raeth would explain what happened in Kaas City after they settled into the pilot and co-pilot's chair.

On their way there, Raeth would slide his arm around Saudaji's waist, pull her close, and give her neck a kiss. If she was in the mood, they would make out a little in the corridor. Her kisses would inspire him to tell an even better story.

At his “patience” jibe, she shot him a look that was harder than carbonite. He was “building” up to it, perhaps, but it seemed strongly to her that he was dodging. Again.

However, he did get to his story -eventually-, and she listened with undivided attention. It wasn’t quite what she expected; she couldn’t imagine him harvesting peat, let alone, come to think of it, actually being a child. Little details stuck out to her, though - the mention of other children, the early capacity for mechanical tinkering. So, even someone like him had a family.

His grimace did not go undetected - and, not for the first time since she’d met him, she thought about how well he’d covered his distaste on their last mission. Had he not just told her about it, she never would have guessed. Though, in her own defense, she explained it away by reminding herself that she had been otherwise occupied. What she was beginning to recognize was that Raeth made her feel unprofessional - something she didn’t like, but was unsure of how to deal with. Without intending to, he was pointing out every single shortcoming she had on this past mission, and it rankled her. Well, her ego, at least. She had enough sense of self to recognize that - and to quell it appropriately. Ego got you killed. She simply filed things away, and told herself that she would need to be much more observant. This was a new challenge; a way of handling problems - and she needed to adapt.

She stood up, as he mentioned he wanted to move to the cockpit. Shoveling what was left on her plate into her mouth, she nodded. Finishing, she wiped her mouth on a napkin and padded after him. She lagged behind him briefly in the hallway, before catching up to him. His hand slipping around her waist, she paused in step. Looked at him, her thick brows raised slightly. A smirk on her lips, she shook her head. He had it bad - potentially. Grinning, she leaned in, gently touched her lips to his. It wasn’t enough to enflame his passions, but it was enough to be sweet - encouraging. Now that she was getting a story out of him, she didn’t want to do anything to derail it.

That was, of course, assuming that he was telling the truth. At this point, she wasn’t entirely sure - but how long could her distrust for him last? Still - there was much that she didn’t know - and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was in over her head. How much time could she personally agonize over this, or would it be better to keep moving ahead?

“So you were how old when all of this happened?”

Fark. Saudaji didn't want to make out. Raeth was disappointed, but he found some solace in the notion that she did not want to lock lips with him only because she was too interested in his story. The brief kiss she did give him felt sweet, though. In it, he sensed a promise for more, later.

"Let's just say that when I escaped a life of mediocrity, I didn't even have my first pube yet," he answered with a chuckle.

After the two of them entered the cockpit, Raeth didn't go straight for the captain's chair. Instead, he went to the information center to check some of the monitors. Then he went to the primary console to check the screens there. Hull integrity, engine power, hyperspace field stability, and other such metrics were all given a once-over. The Patient Pylat was the closest thing to a child that Raeth had, and what he was doing was sort of his way of mothering it.

He talked as he hovered or fiddled with the panels.

"On Dromund Kaas, everyone knew of the Sith. Even uneducated, backwoods hanadak wrangers like the ones from my home town knew enough to be scared of them. One thing that everybody knew is that young Sith started their training somewhere in Kaas City.

"If you can believe it, that's why me and Fancy Free went to Kaas City in the first place. I wanted to become a Sith. What can I say? I was only a youngling; I was stupid. I knew that I deserved a life that would literally take me to the stars, and back then I thought that my best shot at that was with as a Sith. Besides, being able to bend people's wills with magical mind powers sounds appealing, doesn't it?" He wiggled his fingers at her to simulate how Force-wielders use their hocus pocus.

"Learning how to get into a Sith facility for training wasn't easy. After all, you can't just go to SithSchool.net and enroll online. Actually getting evalulated by one of their recruiters was even more challenging. But once they discovered the Force does NOT affect me at all - which was as clear as day to any of them - the rest was easy peasy."

Raeth finished reviewing the ship's status. Finally willing to relax, he sat down at the captain's chair, gave her a smile, then looked through the viewport at the tunnel of stars through which they were hurtling. He left the interior lights off so that the cockpit was illuminated solely by the eerie, white light pouring in through the transparisteel. He soaked in the experience of flying faster than light.

"Ironically, it was my inability to be touched by the Force that got them to pamper me all these years. Within weeks I was meeting with members of the Dark Council, like Azamin. There are people who've worked within the Empire for YEARS who have never so much as been in the same building as a councilor, yet here I was, a youngling that spoke with them on a regular basis. Years later, I was given important missions by them. I'm sure my VIP treatment ruffled many feathers, but such is the price of greatness, right?"

"After that, it was years of training. Instead of the Force training that I originally expected, I trained in machines, combat, piloting...I trained in acting and all those other, fun skills that keep people like you and me alive. I found a teacher whenever there was something that I couldn't effectively teach myself. Eventually they set me loose, and I put all that training to good use across the galaxy.

"And now, here I am with you." He beamed. Intentionally or not, jokingly or not, he made it sound as though everything he had done in his life was a lead-up to them traveling through space and killing together. He leaned towards her, took hold of her hand, and brought it up to his mouth. He nuzzled his lips against her knuckles, mimicing what she had done to his hand in bed earlier that morning.

"I won't tell you about my past missions. Not yet. You'll have to earn that part of my story.

"How about this: Look through the prominent Jedi who have died over the past - shall we say - five years, and figure out which were mine. I promise to tell you which ones you get right. Get 3 right, and I'll get you a present."

Raeth looked her right in the eye and grinned, wolfishly. "Before you do that, though, you wanna fuck?"

*****

If Raeth had it his way, the two of them would spend much of the next two days fucking. He bent Saudaji over the pilot's console and drilled her from behind while she stared at instrument readings, hyperspace, or both. He ate her out on the table where they had eaten breakfast, indulging in her body as though she was the sweetest delicacy in the galaxy. They got hot and sweaty on his bed, which was still a mess from their last night of intimate abandon. And when Saudaji retreated to the shower to freshen up, Raeth would follow her inside to continue the fun. He really did have it bad for her.

By the time they returned to Zeltros, they had made a sticky mess in multiple areas of the ship, which Sebastian had to inevitably clean up.

Raeth and Saudaji did other things during their travels, despite how much he insisted she never put her clothes back on. They made use of the gym, where they exercised together, sparred, and used small, hovering droids for target practice. Raeth was loathe to admit it - even to himself - but she was not only deadlier than him at shooting and hand-to-hand, she had a talent for these things that he simply did not. She was shockingly strong for someone shorter than him. Plus she consistently proved to be just a hair faster, and just a hair more precise with a blaster.

Raeth would never tell her that she was better than him at something he took seriously. At the same time, he couldn't help but admire her mastery of the killing arts. She made something so ugly look so beautiful.

Eventually, they left hyperspace and entered Zeltros' atmosphere. As the Patient Pylat descended towards the spaceport where Saudaji's ship was kept, Raeth said something to her that almost sounded sad.

"You do realize I've been dreading this moment, don't you? You'll likely want to pilot your own ship, and you'll leave me all alone here. All those nights in hyperspace are going to be difficult." He gave her a sidelong glance, perhaps hoping she would tell him she would fly through space with him, always. Maybe she'd reveal her plan to sell her ship and move all her stuff into the Pylat. Or, at the very least, she could give some kind of indication that she would miss him as much as he would miss her.

Her face was passive as he continued his story. It seemed that he was around the same age as she was when she was taken by the Mandalorians. Perhaps a bit older. Not that her memory was all that secure when it came to that particular period of time.

While he started to check the ship’s information, she stood in the cockpit doorway, arms crossed. She’d never be able to stand in this room without thinking about the first time they’d fucked - right over…there. Her eyes drifted across the console, and she smirked a little.

As he mentioned wanting to be a Sith, she literally gaped. Why…anyone would want that lifestyle was completely beyond her. Why anyone would want to be..one of those, not just a Sith - but perhaps it made sense in his case. He hadn’t mentioned growing up and seeing them as threats - and, furthermore, he didn’t seem the type to actually build relationships. Nothing to lose, she supposed.

“Well,” she said, with a bit of a sigh, “That explains a lot.” Now, what all it explained about him, she wisely kept silent on. It was partially to help quell the sudden feeling of pity that swelled in her heart. That, she certainly wouldn’t mention. The only gesture that came close to how she felt was her hand, tenderly caressing the side of his face. As they locked eyes in the midst of the moment, there was an unfathomable expression in hers. For the briefest of moments, she appeared to look deep into him, past the bluster, as if she’d found that little boy. Then, just as suddenly, she broke the contact.

“…I’m not interested in your past missions,” she said, with incredulity that he would even humor to think that she was interested, “just you,” she added, flatly. “One dead jetiise is no different from another. You are the only thing that remains constant. You are the only one here with me.”

The admission was slightly embarrassing for her to admit (although she already knew she was at an emotional disadvantage - he knew far more about how she felt than she would have liked to admit) - and, she figured if she’d said it in a softer tone, he’d tease her relentlessly about it. Her statement, as luck would have it, coincided with his kissing her knuckles. She snorted - glad that his mouth ruined whatever little moment they could have had together.

To answer his last question, she gave him a simple smirk that spoke volumes.

__________

For a while, she was beginning to think that she would never get the taste of Raeth’s cum out of her mouth.

Not that it was necessarily a bad thing - but it was beginning to interfere with her sense of taste. Seemed like a trivial thing, but in their line of work, all of her senses needed to be functioning at their best. Thankfully, whenever she was reaching the end of her sexual ability, Raeth was attentive enough to give her time “off” - the time they spent sparring, or shooting. It was at those times where she felt that she was back in her element. She took to sparring with him with great alacrity, and, though she would never admit to it, she withheld her punches and her full abilities. Raeth was good enough to keep her on her toes, but their fighting styles were quite different. She was more adaptable - had the ability to read the situation and respond without thinking. Being a Twi’lek, she also had the advantage of flexibility that most humans did not have.

But she’d be lying to herself if she said that the sparring didn’t help her repair her wounded ego.

As their time together in hyperspace came to a close, she’d been wondering about the best way to handle their parting. She said she would check in with Saudaji - and, at this point, she was itching to have a good spar-, but then what? It would be easier to use one ship, true. Her ship was her home, though - more home than she had in years. She couldn’t just abandon it. And, for practicality’s sake, it would be better to travel in two, at least to have one as a back up. As much as she enjoyed her time with Raeth, she also needed time to herself - something he hadn’t really given her.

To be fair, though - she’d never given him reason to suspect that she occasionally needed her space. Or that she hadn’t immensely enjoyed the time that they were intimate. The funny thing was, as they got closer to the planet, Raeth seemed to be more…tender? Maybe that wasn’t quite the word for it. But he had changed - he clung to her tightly, spent more time just…tracing the lines of her body, as if he were trying to memorize them. Her suspicions were confirmed when he spoke.

She wasn’t sure how to react. Raeth was infuriating, childish, dodgy. But (always, always, always the ‘but’ with him!), there was a sincerity in him if she took the time to look. And after hearing about his childhood, a lot more about him made sense. If anything, it forced her to be a little more patient with him - to be more understanding. Perhaps he was dealing with emotions he hadn’t particularly felt before; he didn’t strike her as someone that would have a few true loves scattered across the galaxy. It was presumptuous as hell for her to assume that he cared for her in that manner, to think that he could be fumbling towards love -

But it was a possibility that made her heart tremble all the same.

For long moments, she was quiet after he spoke, her focus on the blurred blue white of hyperspace in front of them. Soundlessly, without taking her eyes off of the scene in front of them, she moved closer. Threaded her fingers through his, and rested her cheek on his shoulder.

“It would be safer to keep to two ships,” her tone was uncharacteristically gentle. “Have to think about all that may happen.” Putting her thoughts together, she spoke again: “Unless you can think of some way to pilot my ship remotely. Use it like a satellite. Figure out a way that it can be close by.”

There was an undercurrent of confidence in her voice - she had no doubt that if he honestly wanted to, he could find a way to do it. After all, wasn’t he a genius when it came to that sort of thing?

“I have someone waiting for me here,” she added. “My sister. I told her that I would check in with her.” Mahoroba’s face flashed in her mind, and she closed her eyes. She wasn’t going to think about him. His role in her life was complete. She’d seen to it the last time they saw each other. “It’ll only be for a few days - or did I misunderstand?”

Raeth had, indeed, been clingy, especially during those last hours before they dropped out of hyperspace. Saudaji may not have realized it, but when she slept in his bed, he stayed awake just so he could touch her and watch her. Although they had been intimate so many times between Thyferra and Zeltros, and although he had already seen so much of her, for some reason he just couldn't keep his fingertips or his eyes off of her.

He knew that time apart from her would be torture. What made it especially torturous was the possibility that the next time they were together, she might be cold to him again. Raeth never felt worried about engaging the Force-sensitive - who could potentially be the most dangerous beings in the galaxy - in combat, yet the idea of Saudaji being cold to him again concerned him, deeply.

On their final approach to Zeltros, Saudaji wrapped her fingers around his, and pressed her cheek against his shoulder. She could feel Raeth, who had been sitting tensely, release a long sigh, then relax. He closed his eyes, tilted his head, and touched the top of one of her headtails with his cheek. He soaked in this moment with her, and for once he wasn't the one to break the silence. In fact, he remained mostly silent throughout the landing process, guiding the Patient Pylat with only one hand so that he could keep the other's fingers comfortably laced with hers.

After they had landed and after the Pylat's engines were powered down, Raeth sat with Saudaji, unmoving. It was as though he was refusing to move, refusing to end their closeness. Thus, she would have to be the one to take her fingers away from his and stand up, first.

Once she did, Raeth sprung to his feet, abruptly energized.

"You mentioned piloting your ship, remotely. I actually DO have a way to do that. Multiple ways, in fact," he said, cheerfully. He was back to his usual, smiling self, at least for now.

He stepped between her and the cockpit's exit. "Before you take care of your personal business, please, let me show you something.

"Pylat," he said a bit loudly to get the computer's attention. "Send the Baron in here, if you would, please."

The ship's computer chimed, acknowledging the order. Raeth gave Saudaji a smile that basically said, "You're going to love this." A minute or two later, the cockpit door whispered open, and an astromech droid rolled in.

Like most astromechs, this droid had the shape of a trash can, it was less than a meter tall, and it rolled around on a tripod of wheels. Its paint job was eye-catching: most of it was a glossy red, while its trim was gold. Its chassis was polished so well that Saudaji could see a distorted reflection of herself on the swiveling dome that served as the droid's head.

It rolled up to them, then chirped a greeting. Raeth, grinning, gestured down to it.
"Saudaji, allow me to introduce the Baron. Baron, this is Saudaji. Impress her, and she might become your new master."

The Baron chirped and stood up straight. It looked and sounded almost aristocratic, somehow. It gave the impression that if it had hands, it would have saluted her.

"Like all of my droids, the Baron is of my own, personal design," the agent explained. "It isn't limited to only copiloting duties; once it interfaces directly with your ship's computer, it can pilot it all by itself. Take-offs, landings, docking, hyperspace navigation...the Baron even does some combat flying. It can't compare to a living pilot, of course...no offense, Baron."

The Baron beeped, indignantly. Raeth continued.

"After all, it lacks the finesse and the fighting instincts of an organic pilot. But it can conduct basic, evasive maneuvers, plus it can take control of any of the weapons hooked up to your computer.

"At the very least, it can follow us in your ship, thus ensuring it's there whenever you need it."

Saudaji may have gotten the impression that Raeth was trying to sell her a fancy, new speeder. But behind his salesman's pitch, she could probably tell that he was desperate not to see her go.

"What do you say?"

She eyed the droid with the same amount of suspicion she eyed any electronic device. However, conceding that Raeth knew what he was talking about, she gave the red and gold droid a fumbling smile. It would be difficult to give up the comfort of her own ship - after all, it was her home away from home. Wherever “home” was nowadays.

Glancing over at Raeth, she found herself smiling, feeling the same tickle in her chest. She did her best to hide the expression, fixing her gaze down on the ground before looking at the droid again. It was a step in the right direction. Maybe. It was difficult to tell with him - and as much as her self-preservation wanted her to keep her distance, she was edging ever closer to something deeper with him. Something she knew she wasn’t quite ready to admit to - it was silly. How could something like this happen to her, of all people? Even with Mahoroba….she shook her head, imperceptibly, and stood up. Now wasn’t the time.

“Well, Baron,” she naturally took on the tone of someone addressing a beloved, younger child, “If you think you handle my ship, then it is yours to pilot.” She gave Raeth a meaningful glance as she straightened herself up to stand up straight. “Let me know what you need from me to leave this in the Baron’s capable…hands.”

Well - that was certainly something big. Saudaji had an immense distaste for droids and robots, preferring to do things hands on. It wasn’t that long ago that she was threatened by Raeth’s droids - and now, she was willingly turning over a good portion of her livelihood to him. Without saying a word, she was putting her trust in him. She leaned over, clapped Raeth hardily on the shoulder. Squeezed gently before she let go, and started preparing to leave the Pylat.

____________

It wasn’t hard to find Saboten.

Saudaji had retraced her steps back to the Paradise Cantina, and there, at the bar, talking with Anita, was her sister. Much as she’d left the Cantina the last time, Saudaji was dressed in her ‘teenage fashion plate’ style again - shorts, stripy midriff bearing top, and knee high red and white platform boots. Over the whole affair was a large deep violet furred jacket, making it seem as if she’d wrapped herself in the pelt of a wampa that had a dye job.

Anita was the first to look up from the conversation, wiping down a glass. Saboten looked up second. Her hands stilled on the glass in her hand. Then the glass was on its side, knocked over as Saboten launched herself at Saudaji. Catching the smaller woman easily in her embrace, the conversation dissolved into exclamations and sobs in Mando’a, Saboten not giving Saudaji a chance to speak. Anita merely grinned, continuing to wipe down her glass.

Pressing her lips to Saudaji’s forehead, Saboten finally held the Twi’lek out at arm’s length, taking her in. Then her smile took on a sly edge.

“You’ve finally discovered it, haven't you?”

Saudaji rolled her eyes, and simply pulled her sister in for a tighter hug.

______________

The next week simply, for lack of better words, flew by. The sisters spent their time pampering themselves at the various spas on Zeltros, dancing from nightfall to daybreak, nursing hangovers, catching up, and sparring. Despite Saboten’s “pampered existence,” she was still quite formidable in hand to hand combat.

It was during one such session that Saboten had called a time out, panting heavily. Saudaji stood to one side, wiping the sweat from her forehead. Her breathing was even; she’d barely exerted herself at all. Flopping down, Saboten let out a long sigh, before laying down on the floor. They’d taken over a dance floor under going renovations in the club, leaving only the two of them to work through. The club lighting remained the same, and the two women had sparred under flickering lights of red and yellow.

“You always were a fighter,” Saboten mused, pulling herself to sit up. Pacing across the floor, Saudaji sat down next to her, brushing her shoulder against Saboten. With a muted smile, Saboten rested her head against Saudaji’s shoulder, before sitting up straight again. “I’ll never forget the day we met.”

Saudaji hadn’t forgotten, either. She’d remembered hearing screams, the meaty sound of a slap. The screams muffling down into sobs - before the tent flap parted, and inside, she caught a glimpse of the prettiest girl she’d ever seen. Her skin was pink and luminescent, even with the bruising and cuts. Yanking her arm free from the hand that was holding her, Saudaji had run to the pink girl’s side, and, without a weapon, stood, fists clenched tight, in front of the pink girl. In that moment, Saudaji, young as she was, had seen something, someone that needed to be protected. The role of “protector” had continued to define her - in ways that she didn’t always warm up to. It was said that there was truth in wine - and in one of their binges, she realized that she’d come to the same conclusion about Raeth. She wanted to protect him - though she wasn’t entirely sure if that was because of a need to prove her worth to him, or because she’d “adopted” him just that quick. On the outside, he didn’t need protecting. He was constantly outfoxing her. But those moments, more common now, when he showed something…all she wanted to do was gather him up into her and never let him go.

Reaching over, Saudaji engulfed Saboten’s hand in her own. Threading her fingers through Saudaji’s, Saboten sighed.

They didn’t like to talk about how they became Mandalorians.

It wasn’t uncommon for the Mandalorians to go on raids. Through the centuries, the Mandalorians liked to re-write their history to whatever suited their narrative - though Saudaji would be the first to poke any holes in any ‘glorious retelling.’ The ugly reality was that the two had been taken to be sex slaves - and discarded as soon as they’d gotten to be too old. Saudaji had been spared the ignominy of being a sex slave because she hadn’t stopped fighting since they picked her up. No matter what punishment they meted out to the young girl, she’d fought back. Apparently the young Twi’lek had a warrior’s spirit, something to be nourished and cultivated. Saboten, a few years older, was a much more timid child, and, like Saudaji, had her race working against her. It was only mere luck that saved the both of them from being killed when another Mandalorian group raided their original captors, and, horrified at the treatment of the girls, had taken them both home. By that time, the two girls were inseparable.

Now, years later, Saudaji could hardly blame Saboten for leaving as soon as she could. Though their adoptive mother had been kind, and the two girls had been raised as if they were her own, it did little to erase the horror of the first years with the Mandalorians for Saboten.

Saudaji, under her breath, began humming. Catching the tune, Saboten snuggled closer, an unspoken request. With a smile, Saudaji began singing, softly. It connected them together - always had, always will. And in her song, there were all the words that were unspoken between them. It was as close as Saudaji could promise that she would return, that she would always be Saboten’s sister. That even though Saudaji defined herself as a Mandalorian, that she hadn’t forgotten what her adopted people were capable of - and that she would never stoop to such lows.

___________

By the time Saudaji arrived back at the Patient Pylat, she was sporting one hell of a black eye.

She seemed entirely unbothered by it - as if the massive, blue, black, and violet swelling was as natural as an eyelash on her cheek. She was dressed much more causally this go round - baggy black pants, knee boots, and a midriff bearing top. She’d made the rounds earlier on “Splendid Place”, packing whatever garments she had in a johnny sack slung over her shoulder. Not that she ever had much by clothing at any time - if anything, she could be accused of half-way slovenly in her personal habits. At least when it came to clothing; she was, after all, a meticulous bather. But somehow, that sense of luxury didn’t cross over into clothes.

“Yo!” she exclaimed, high-spiritedly.

The week away from Saudaji was difficult. Raeth had promised that he would stop spying on her - that his drones wouldn't have their cameras directly on her unless their mission required it. So while Raeth did have eyes on the outside of Saboten's cantina or whatever other building Saudaji occupied, he did not send them inside to watch the sisters catch up.

It was the inability to see Saudaji for so long that threatened his sanity. He got into the habit of pacing back and forth in front of his monitors, a habit he did not have before. Sebastian, noticing its master's agitation, watched in silence rather than verbally sparring with him. It was programmed well enough to know there was a right and wrong time for things.

The agent tried distracting himself by watching footage of he and Saudaji together in the throes of passion. Mostly, he reviewed the newer scenes because of how much more intimate they were compared to before. He masturbated as he watched, yet found no calmness after doing so.

He did, however, manage to quiet his mind a little by watching Saudaji sleep. There was hours of footage of the two of them sleeping together. Often they were naked. Sometimes they were clothed. Sometimes they were under the covers; sometimes not. Each time, they were pressed against each other, if not in each other's arms. As he watched, he remembered how she felt, how she sounded, how she smelled. He recalled how comfortable her body was; how her breasts felt like pillows when he rested his head against them. He thought of how her skin smelled of either sweat or those oils she enjoyed using in her baths. Sometimes she smelled of both. Raeth watched them sleeping together for many hours; time he should've spent sleeping.

At one point, Raeth sat in the captain's chair, staring out the cockpit viewport at the the starport's ceiling without really seeing it. He thought about the moment when Saudaji agreed to have the Baron pilot the Splendid Place, which meant she would be traveling aboard the Pylat. The memory got him to smile.


*****

Raeth was rendered speechless. He was not confident that Saudaji would let the droid control her spacecraft. He certainly did not expect her to accept the offer immediately. For several moments, he did naught but stare at her, mouth slightly agape. The meaningful look she gave him did not snap him out of it. Neither did the squeeze she gave his shoulder.

It wasn't until the Twi'lek turned around and took a step away that Raeth moved again. Abruptly, he reached out to grab her wrist. When she turned around, Raeth looked as though he was about to speak for a moment. He opened his mouth, searched for the right words, yet failed to find them. So he just gave her a goofy smile, and nodded, mutely. He let go of her arm only after he had a chance to touch her fingers a little.

Eventually, Raeth regained the ability to talk.

"All we need to set things up is 10-15 minutes aboard your ship. Let me aboard, temporarily disable any security measures, and I'll take care of the rest. Baron will treat the Splendid Place as carefully as he would the Pylat."

If Saudaji agreed, then that would've been the first time that Raeth set foot inside her ship. They went straight to the cockpit so the Baron could interface with the onboard computer. The setup was quick and easy. As a bonus, the agent ordered the astromech to analyze the ship's systems in search of any areas that might need improvement. Raeth offered to do some work on The Splendid Place while she was on Zeltros.

He also took the opportunity to take a gander at her living space. He didn't snoop around when she wasn't looking; no, he asked her to give him a tour. He checked out her sleeping quarters, he bathroom, her dining area, all to get a better idea of the things she liked. He also tried to lure her into some fun in her own bed.

"What do you say? Give the ole girl a nice send-off before you become my prisoner?" Cartoonish eyebrow waggling accompanied his offer. He had his hands on her hips, pulling her close, while she decided whether to get hot and heavy one more time, or not.

When they departed, they left the Baron onboard so it could do its thing. Shortly thereafter, Raeth and Saudaji said their farewells for now. She would have likely noticed that he was especially touchy-feely in their final moments together. She might have sensed that there was a bit of panic in their last kiss, which he insisted be a long one.


*****

Raeth awoke in the Pylat's captain chair. Blinking, it took him a few moments to realize that he had fallen asleep while thinking of her, and that it was now morning. He supposed it was a good thing; he hadn't gotten much sleep the past couple of days, so maybe this was his body's way of getting him to take one, full cycle.

Stretching away the morning stiffness, Raeth played back the memory that was foremost in his mind right before he dozed off. An image of Saudaji's room flashed in his head, then something occurred to him. He stood there, still as a statue, for a few moments, formulating a new plan. A smile crept onto his youthful face; the more he thought, the bigger the smile became.

"Sebastian!" He called out, excitedly.

The droid entered the cockpit a moment later. "Yes, Master?"

"Get me a list of the 10 highest-rated home improvement businesses on the planet. We're going shopping."

Raeth and Sebastian thus got started on a project that kept him busy for the rest of the week Saudaji was gone.


*****

The Patient Pylat chimed to alert Raeth of someone approaching the rear ramp. A monitor showed it was Saudaji. Raeth nearly fell out of his chair when he realized it was her. After fumbling out of his seat, he bolted to towards the ramp. His heart was racing, and a big grin he wasn't aware of was spread across his face.

When he got to the rear ramp, he looked around before opening it. The ramp lead into the storage bay where, among other things, the RV was kept. It was also served as one of his workshops. Raeth dashed to his workbench, donned a thick, protective jacket, heavy-duty gloves, and a big, black welding mask, and then he picked up a welder. Once he felt he was ready, he called out to the computer:

"Open ramp."

The Pylat's rear ramp slowly lowered while Raeth welded together two pieces of metal that didn't need welding. After a 10-secound count, he stopped welding and lifted his mask right when Saudaji entered. Despite his attempts to look cool, he could not the huge, silly grin that appeared at the sight of her. This was the first time he had seen her with his own eyes in a week. The sight made his heart jump.

Still doing his best to seem cool, he took the helmet off his head completely, removed the gloves, then approached her with what he hoped looked like a calm, confident swagger.

Once Saudaji was within arm's reach, he put his hands on the flesh bared by her revealing top. He could not stop himself from sighing, gratefully, now that he had his hands on her again. His palms settled, comfortably, on her sides, right above the curve of her lips.

Like the time she told him she'd allow an astromech to pilot her ship, Raeth opened his mouth to say something, but he was rendered momentarily mute. For a long moment, he stared at her face. He looked at her eyes. He saw the bruise, but did not comment on it, yet. He stared at her lips, longingly. All the while he smiled.

Finally, after his adam's apple bounced up and down from a swallow, he found some words.

"Whoever gave you that," referring to the bruise. "Did you kill them?"

Saudaji tried not to have any down time while she was gone. The minute her hands became still, when she wasn’t moving, her mind instantly went to Raeth. She wondered what he was doing, if he was eating well, if he was getting rest. What he was working on. She thought back on how he’d looked when she told him that Baron was free to pilot Splendid Place.

His expression told her everything.

Maybe she wasn’t as silly as she’d felt she was.

So, this is what it takes to make Raeth speechless, she’d thought. I’ll mark this day in my calendar.

And that smile! It was enough to send a very uncharacteristic quiver in her knees - and it took all of her internal strength to fight off the giggle she felt.

Shabla! I’m acting like a silly ade!

Hoping that he hadn’t noticed her slip, she simply smiled back at him, the expression bringing a light to her eyes that hadn’t been there before. Or perhaps it had, and had merely been more of a secret.

The tour of Splendid Place was mercifully brief. The ship simply was not as expansive as the Pylant, and certainly not as much as a technological wonder. There was a quaint rustic-ness about the whole thing. Ornate carvings adorned each entrance way - various Mando’a designs. Before he could ask, she explained what each one meant - on the right side, her adoptive mother, on the left, her adopted father. Their mothers and fathers. A lineage that spanned back centuries that, despite her obvious adoption, that was part of her family now, no questions asked.

“For daughters,” she explained, “your most important family is your mother. Father is second. It’s a little different from clan to clan, though. These were gifts when I left,” and she stopped there, letting her hand lovingly trace over the lines of her family.

It spoke volumes that she was explaining it to him. She had been notoriously closed-mouthed about her family, and now, she was explaining to him, in as much as she could, where she grew up, and what it meant to her. And Splendid Place, now, was revealed to be a traveling heritage site. Now, the “sparseness” of her home made sense - it was made to reflect the life she’d been used to back home.

As he insinuated wanting to be intimate in her bed, she shot him a look. It wasn’t an unkind one, but one that suggested that it wasn’t quite the time for that. Even she knew it was silly, this little hang up of hers. She felt that if she took him in her bed, in her home, now - she’d never want to let him go. She’d want to further braid his life into hers. And she wasn’t sure if she was ready for that. Wasn’t sure if he would understand - and knew that it was asking much of him.

Their parting kiss was long and tender - full of things she couldn’t bring herself to say to him. Not yet. To ease his fears, as the kiss parted, she trailed her fingers down the side of his face. A reassuring caress; a promise that she would be back.

____________

It was maddening, in the sweetest of ways, thinking of him. The way that he continually stole into her thoughts, distracted her from friendly conversation with Anita, Oshodai, Saboten.

Saboten, of course, had noticed. Initially, the pink skinned woman hadn’t probed much. The nature of Saudaji’s work was usually highly sensitive and secretive - and though there was an unwritten trust between the two, Saboten knew that Saudaji would prefer not to talk about “work” if she didn’t have to. Still, someone had the Twi’lek head over heels (as much as Saudaji could be about someone - Saboten was convinced that Saudaji had not actually been in love before) - and her curiosity was eating at her the more that time went on.

“So, who is he?” she finally asked, over frothy beers in a local sports joint. A smash ball match played on the various screens in front of them, largely ignored by the two women. It wasn’t the best place for a “romantic confession,” Saboten figured, but it would be enough to make Saudaji comfortable.

“What?” Saudaji shouted back.

“I said, ‘who is he?’”

Saudaji, in her long years of fighting, still had a few tells that dated back to when she was a little girl. The fact that she set down her beer to nervously fidget with the end of her lekku spoke volumes to Saboten. Looping her arm in the green skinned woman’s, Saboten slid off her stool, placed a few credits on the table, and dragged Saudaji out with her.

Outside of the bar, the night air was surprisingly quiet. There were quiet-ish spots on Zeltros, if one knew how to look for them - spots that catered more to locals and those who had long grown used to the hedonistic shock of the planet and longed for something a little more stable. Saboten, for all of her seemingly outgoing ways, was a private woman - something that she had developed when she was a child, and never quite shook off, even in the company of those who shared her same species.

It was something that both her and Saudaji had in common.

For a long while, the two of them walked through the streets, wandering from bar to bar, as idle as bees drifting from flower to flower. Down the winding alleyways, from where permacrete gave way to quaint cobblestones.

“So, Daj’ika, who is he? Who is the one that’s put those stars in your eyes?” Her voice was tender, gently coaxing.

Saudaji sighed. Leave it to Saboten to be able to uncover things she could barely understand, thought that she had hidden. Unable to hold her tongue further, Saudaji began to talk.

Dawn streaked the sky in pale yellow by the time she had finished, and the two had finally made their way back to the Paradise Cantina. Stopping in front of the back entrance, Saboten grasped the tops of Saudaji’s arms firmly, and turned her to look at her. The shorter woman met her gaze fearlessly (as Saboten knew she would), but she was still able to detect the uncertainty, the fear, there.

“You love him, Daj’ika. You love him and you take every moment you can with him while you can. Do not let Mahoroba haunt you.”

Saudaji opened her mouth, was about to protest, add something, anything, and Saboten tightened her grip on her shoulders, her mouth going firm. Speechless, Saudaji merely nodded.

___________

She smelled acrid burning metal before she saw him, and she smiled, ducking her head low for a moment. In the short amount of time that she was away from him, the smell was wrapped in memories for her, bringing a heavy wave of nostalgia. Memories of them working together on the RV, how he would tinker when he couldn’t sleep.

He approached slowly, and she did all that she could to calm her own giddy smile after her spoken greeting. She had hoped it was causal enough to dispel the fact that her heart was pounding, threatening to burst through her rib cage as she saw him. That his smile made her trip over shoelaces that she didn’t have.

Osik.

The moment his hands settled on her hips, she felt an unmistakable throb between her legs, and her mouth was suddenly very, very dry. She somehow found the strength to look up at him, into his green eyes, willing herself to also be patient.

“We played get’shuk,” was all she managed to get out before she pressed her lips fiercely to his, tangling her fingers through his hair.

There was something in her eyes that finally quieted his mind. For the entire week, he had been restless. Things had been dreamy between them since they completed their first mission. When she prepared to leave, he was worried that, for some reason, she would be gone for good.

But there in the cargo bay, Raeth saw something in Saudaji's eyes that told him she wouldn't be going anywhere. For once, his mind was at ease, and he felt elated.
Their mouths met, needfully. If she hadn't been the one to initiate the kiss, he would have a millisecond later. Through their tongues, through the insistent pull of her fingers in his hair or his arms around her athletic body, through their shared breath, they told each other things that they were both struggling to understand. They were fumbling through uncharted space together. The act of discovery was proving to be so sweet. Raeth didn't know it yet, but what they would find would be even sweeter.

Raeth pushed Saudaji against the side of the RV. Pinned against the side of the speeder van, she could feel his hardness pressing against her belly or against the front of her baggy, black pants. Their passionate desperation then dragged them both down to the floor of the bay. Whether it was her body atop his, or him on top of her, they continued to touch, continued to kiss. Sometimes, he dragged his mouth down to her neck to lick or suckle. Once, he pressed his mouth to her ear to tickle it with his tongue.

Inevitably, though, his mouth went back to hers. Raeth took hold of both of her hands, entwined his fingers with hers, and pinned both of her arms above her head, against the floor. He held her and kissed her like this for a long while.

Sebastian lumbered into the cargo bay at some point, because it had been alerted of the fact that the ramp was left open for no discernable reason. It saw the Human and the Twi'lek writhing on the floor together. Sighing, it walked right past them, went to the ramp, and pressed a button to close it. It waited for the ramp to close, completely, before conducting a patrol of the ship's interior. While these two were doing what they were doing, someone or some thing may have snuck onboard.

Raeth was trembling a little. He needed Saudaji back so badly, and now that he was with her again, all that tension, all that pent up emotion was unleashed in ways he could not control or anticipate. One thing that wasn't unexpected, though, was how rigid his dick was. He was hard the moment he first put his hands on the naked flesh above her hips. He actually came a little while they were kissing and grinding on the floor.

Surprisingly, though, he put a stop to things before they got naked. He let go of her hands, pushed his head up, and looked her in the face. She would look up into one of those boyish smiles of his.

"I've missed you," he confessed breathlessly. "You have no idea how much I want to taste you all over, right this instant, but there's something I want to show you first."

Still trembling a tiny bit, he struggled to get off of her and back on his feet. He took hold of her hands, again, to hoist her up. Once she was on her feet, too, he gave her lips another kiss - this one short and sweet. Next, he pulled her by the hand out of the cargo bay and into the corridor that lead to the crew quarters.

"I suspect your decision to leave the Splendid Place in the capable 'hands' of the Baron was not an easy one. I wanted to do something to ease the sting of that decision," he explained in the cooridor, that smile never leaving his face. He exuded an energy reminiscent of a child showing off an art project he'd worked on. It was a weird energy to exude at the same time he was sporting a huge boner.

They entered the cabin that she was given but had rarely used. What she found was that it was nothing like it was before she left to visit Saboten. Raeth - who swept his arm across the room in a showman's gesture - had transformed it into a replica of her room aboard the Splendid Place.

The walls had been repainted to match the interior of her ship. The bed had been replaced to one of similar dimensions as her own, and it was covered in sheets and pillows she would find familiar. Overall, the room was not a perfect replica, but it was impressively close. Raeth had captured many details just from the one tour she gave of her ship. He didn't see every little thing, but what he did see was memorized and duplicated while she was on Zeltros.

"Now, I know what you're thinking: It's not authentic. I wasn't able to find the fabrics or other materials native to Mandalore. At least, not in under a week. But I got the patterns right, wouldn't you say?" He picked up a corner of a blanket to run the pad of his thumb along its woven design. She would see that the design is the same as the one she looked at whenever she went to bed on her ship.
"Also, there's this...it's a work in progress."

Raeth gestured behind her, to the doorway. To one side of the door was a carved figure similar to the one she had shown him the previous week. During the tour of her vessel, Saudaji showed him carvings that represented her mother and father, as well as their mothers and fathers. Raeth memorized the carvings, guessed what they were made of, and sought to replicate them here. So far, only one carving was close to complete - the one that represented the matronly side of her family. The base of the carving was smooth, untouched, meaning he probably needed another day to finish it. The carvings that represented her fathers were absent, and that space beside her door was left empty for now.

"I did these by hand. I could have had both done, quickly, using machines. But knowing the Mandalorians never use machines in their carvings, I chose to follow what tradition dictates."

Eagerly, expectantly, Raeth watched her face. He wanted to see any indication that she was pleased by something he did.

"There's more." He gestured towards the bathroom door. Inside, Saudaji would find that the bathroom had been completely remodeled to look like her original one. The tiles and fixtures all match what she was used to. Before, there was a standing shower like the one in his quarters. He ripped out the shower and replaced it with a bath tub. The tub not only looked identical to her own, but it was also lined by some of the lotions, soaps, and oils she typically used. Not everything she used could be found on Zeltros on such short notice, but there was enough there to keep her fresh and fragrant for weeks.

"I know how much you love your baths," Raeth said, still waiting for her to say or do anything to indicate how she felt about her new room.

Kissing him was food to the starving man, water to a wanderer in the desert.

All of her fears, her apprehensions, uncertainties, vanished the moment her lips touched his. Her heart lurched against her chest again as she pulled him closer, the emotions finally boiling over and spilling out. More than the animalistic pull of lust, she gave herself over to him, letting him guide her, letting him pin her. Her form was lithe and pliant beneath his own, melting with a sweetness she hadn’t shown him before, with a sweetness she hadn’t known she was capable of.

Her head tilted, moved to allow his lips further access. In the brief moments when she had the upper hand, her kisses were no less desperately reaffirming, her arms encircling him and pulling him closer as if she wanted to pull him into her body, her hands tracing long, joyous lines down the side of his face, his throat, his hair, memorizing him through the pads of her fingertips, with an urgency that spoke volumes on how much she missed him. Her fingers finally intertwined with his. Like a small flower bud that had tightly curved in on itself, she finally was blooming.


Her body burning, when he pulled away, let her fingers go, she looked at him through unfocused eyes. Her eyes were heavily hooded, nearly lost under the long fringe of her eyelashes, and her mouth was reddened, parted. She didn’t whine at the loss of contact, but for a while, sat, completely dazed and overwhelmed by the intensity of it all. Letting her eyelids finally close, her cheeks grew damp. It took her a few minutes longer to raise her fingers to her cheeks and realized that, so overwhelmed, she’d been moved to tears. Rapidly wiping her face, she hoped that Raeth hadn’t noticed. In order to further cover it up, she grasped the sides of his face gently in her hands, and touched her forehead, her nose, to his. Once, twice. It was an old, old greeting she’d seen when she was a little girl - and one she hadn’t used in decades. But now, it seemed fitting. Against her, his forehead was warm, slightly damp from the helmet. Her brows knit, her eyelids trembled with this new closeness, a new rush of emotion, and a fresh trail of tears made their way down her cheeks.

When she spoke next, her voice was broken, before gathering strength. Then she lost it again, unable to speak. Unable to say what rushed through her.

As he stood up, her hand took his, her other quickly wiping at her eyes again. She, like him, was trembling. Trembling so that even he could notice it - and she made no effort to hide it. Let him tease her about it as he will later.

Not that she had much time to linger on it - he was speaking to her about Splendid Place, words that were slowly coming into focus as her heart was beginning to slow down. By the time that she had found words again, they were stolen from her the minute she saw her cabin. The fact that it wasn’t “authentic” hadn’t crossed her mind for a moment the minute she set eyes on everything. His words were now a buzz in her head, the pounding of her heart drowning them out. She’d never felt anything like this before - was trying desperately to make sense of it. But the logical part of her brain was completely blank.

He barely finished the description of the bathroom when she gently tugged him back into the bedroom. Without a word, she stood in front of him - repeated her earlier gesture. Pulled his face to hers, pressed her forehead to his, her nose to his. And, now, her lips. Slightly damp with the new tears she shed, she didn’t allow him to speak. Her kiss was long, and the gentlest that she had ever kissed him. Beneath the feather touch of her mouth, there were eloquent words and poetry, expressing all that she wasn’t quite able to say, not just yet. Fumbling to keep her lips on his, she let go of the side of his face, ran her hands down the front of his chest. Each touch reverent, thoughtful. Nothing like the hurried nature of their couplings before.

Breaking the kiss with a whisper of breath against his lips, she put enough space between them so she could undress. She took off of her boots first, a certain charm in how clumsily she sat down to remove them, then her pants, her top. Each bit of clothing was removed as slowly as she could, her fingers trembling. Buttons gave her problems. There were moments of impatience when it seemed that she would simply rip something off - and each of those moments were followed by her visibly calming herself down so she could proceed in the way that she wanted to.

Naked before him, her eyes caught his. There was a dash of fear there, nervousness. Uncertainty. Only for a moment, though, as her mouth grew firm in an unspoken resolve. So she couldn’t say it yet. That was okay. She could show him. Moving forward, she pressed her naked body against him, asking him to join her, refusing to speak and chase away the purity of the moment. She wanted to take him to bed - and she made her intent quite clear in the way she kissed him now. As delicately as she kissed him before, she did so now, her tongue slipping across the lines of his lips, asking for permission before her tongue entered his mouth. Before, when they kissed, there was always an air of competition, of heat. Now, there was nothing but tenderness. She was inviting him into her, wilting under him, asking - no, begging- for him to let her love him in the only way she felt comfortable with now. Each airy touch against the hem of his clothing was an unspoken question, an unspoken plea.

Saudaji was the only person in the galaxy who could render Raeth speechless. She did it again in her new bedroom.

Earlier, in the cargo bay, Raeth didn't notice her crying. He was so caught up in the moment, so excited to have her back, as well as so excited to show her her new quarters, it was easy for him to miss.

What he did not miss was how differently she kissed him. How differently she moved against him on the floor of the cargo bay. He was still struggling to understand what was happening, but he had enough clarity to feel that something momentous was happening between them. That change was evident in seemingly little things, like the way she touched her forehead and nose to his and held them together like that, gently.

Saudaji was showing him things he had never been shown before. It excited him and confused him at the same time.

Inside her remodeled quarters, he finally saw her tears. He didn't understand why she was crying. Any worry of something being wrong was dispelled by her newest, tender touches. Again, she touched her forehead and her nose against his, and immediately felt at ease. His sighs turned to moans when her lips rejoined with his. Gratefully, he accepted her tongue, as well as anything else she wished to give him. It would all be taken, it would all be cherished.

When they first had sex, Raeth didn't tremble. His hands didn't sweat. But that night, when Saudaji pushed him down onto the foot of the bed and began to undress, Raeth shivered with nervousness. Here he was, a man who had no fear of Jedi and not enough fear of the Sith, afraid that he'd do something wrong. He recognized something crucial was happening, and he didn't want to mess it up. That's why he shivered. That's why his palms were sweaty. And that's why all he could hear was blood rushing through his ears.

Raeth sat there, wide-eyed and jaw hanging open, while Saudaji stripped. He had conducted many, thorough examinations of her body before - from her lekku all the way down to her toes. Yet she still excited him, profoundly. Especially now that they were turning a special corner, he knew that she would never stop exciting him.

She bared herself to him, fully. She was beyond exquisite. Even the bruise that she sported did nothing to dampen her beauty. For several, mute seconds, Raeth could do nothing but stare at her in awe. Once, maybe twice, he lifted a shaky hand to touch her, but he stopped each time. For once, he was unsure of what to do.

Thankfully, Saudaji didn't let his uncertainty linger, long. She used her lithe, solid, body to push him down to the bed. She used her thick, juicy lips to gently assure him as well as elicit a sweet moan from his lungs. Her silent pleas were answered right away. He unbuttoned the protected jacket he had put on to do some pretend welding, then let it drop to the floor. His shirt came off next. Then his shoes. Lastly, his pants and underwear gathered on the floor.

The Human and the Twi'lek lovers lay together, both baring their bodies and so much more to each other. Over the past week, he had been so distracted - first by separation anxiety, and later by the remodeling project - that he barely ate. Raeth had minimal body fat by nature, but that day he appeared even thinner and more toned.

Much to his amazement, feeling Saudaji's naked flesh against his - so hot against his - felt better now than it had before. And being with her before was already the best he had ever known.

Raeth stopped being uncertain of what to do. He had to touch her, and so he did. But there was none of the roughness, none of the animalistic lust. Not right now. He touched her as though he was exploring her for the first time all over again. Her wet cheeks brushed against his moments before her lips were caressed by a sweet, sweet kiss. Even their tongues played, more tenderly than they ever had in the past.

His trembling hands stopped trembling when they found her body. At the moment, she was on top of him, her pussy gently grinding against his tumescent shaft, moistening it. His fingertips traced the curve of her ass, feather-light. From her rear, he caressed his way up to her shoulders. Along the way, his knuckles brushed her lekku carefully. It took several seconds for his fingers to reach her shoulders. Once they got there, they immediately began a slow descent back to her ass. Up and down, up and down, he stroked her like this, lovingly. Throughout these touches, their kiss continued.

They rolled around on the bed until he was on top. Like before, in the cargo bay, he pushed himself up, lifted his face above her. This time he didn't intend to stop, though. He never intended to stop.

Instead, Raeth looked at her face, and smiled, shakily. Never before had he looked so boyish. There was always something a little too mishievous - if not downright sinister - in his eyes. What was worse, often Saudaji would see a dangerous emptiness in his gaze. Not that day. He was looking at her differently. There was reverence in the way he looked at her. Reverence, elation, and something more.

Remaining uncharacteristically speechless, gave her lips a soft, short kiss. Then he began to worship her body. As he did, all she would hear from him would be heaving breathing, moans, and sighs.

He started with his hands. While his gaze followed, he ran the back of two fingers down the middle of her body. The caress started at her collarbone, traveled between her full breasts, and continued down her abdomen. Saudaji could see great appreciation conveyed by his eyes and his face. More than once, he sighed, dreamily, as his hand tenderly traveled down, then up, the front of her body.

He couldn't decide what part of her he loved more. He loved how toned her tummy was. With the tip of his pinky, he traced the outline of her abs. His eyes were transfixed on her stomach, for he was studying how the muscles moved in response to his touch. Licking his lips, he pressed his hand flat upon her belly and caressed her using a slow, circular motion.

The moment he lifted his hand off her tummy, his face descended. He pressed a kiss to her belly button. He stuck his tongue out a little, and tickled her navel by drawing wet circles around and around. He sucked on her navel, once, before tracing her abdominal muscles with his tongue. Now and then he would press soft, suckling kisses to her tummy.

Soon after, her breasts received his affection. First, his cheek brushed against the underside of her tits. Then, a shower of ascending kisses rained along her curves. It took many seconds for his lips to find one of her green nipples. It was taken into his mouth. He moistened it, teased it with his tongue. Once it got as hard as it could, he sucked on it, slowly, constantly.

The more he touched her, the more he tasted her, the more his familiar boldness returned. Down below, one of his hands lay on top of one of her thighs. He gave her thigh these little, gentle squeezes. Long, precise fingers delicately curved along the inside of her thigh to squeeze again. That hand slid up, and with a lone finger he dared to stroke her slit. He traced outer lips so gently. The heel of his palm, sticky with her juices, brushed against her matted pubic hair. While he kissed and licked her other breast, Raeth continued to stroke her pussy lips with great care. He brushed the sides of her clit with his fingertip without touching it directly.

He lifted his mouth off of her breast and lifted his face above hers. He wanted to see her face - to see what she wanted him to do next. If her body language was telling him to continue, then he would use his mouth and his hands on her more. He would keep doing this until the day turned to night, if she it pleased her. But if she told him, somehow, that she wanted something else, he would gladly oblige.

She gave him enough space to undress. And, resting on the bed, she watched him undress. There was no predatory hunger in her eyes - just a simple appreciation. A fascination to watch himself turn into something new, something almost fragile in front of her. She had to stop herself from instantly getting up and pulling him back down to her.

The burning in her was an inferno - one that threatened to overtake her. With shaking fingers, she ran them down his pale side, feeling the muscle beneath the skin. Across his chest, down his stomach, the curve of his thigh. Shifting to lay atop him, her body nearly hovered over his own, as she kissed his forehead, the bridge of his nose, the tip of his nose. Each cheek. The side of his jaw. His lips, finally, then the top of his chin. She smiled then, her lips parting as if she was going to say something, then thought better of it. Cupping the side of his face in her palm, she continued to kiss him, continued to caress his tongue with her own, slow like honey, enjoying the bittersweetness of him.

His hands against her elicited the sweetest of moans from her, and her body noticeably eased under his touch. Against him, the plump lips of her labia were already singing a song of her desire and her want for him - she was damp, nearly dripping already, hot and thick and warm against him, and though every slight touch of his phallus against her made her shiver, she resisted the urge to plunge herself down onto him. However, she was only human - and when she thought her resolve would finally break, he moved so that he was on top. She sighed a little in relief, and then, her eyes caught his.

Her breath caught in her throat.

Those eyes of his. She…she didn’t know how to respond. How to deal with the sudden swell in her chest. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him, off of his own. Maybe it was some sort of dream, seeing what she felt, or maybe the beginning of what she felt, in his eyes. It surely couldn’t be real. There was no way. With shaking hands, she held the sides of his face, not daring to do more. His lips met hers for an instant, and then, his warmth traveled down her body.

Not Saudaji had been quiet before in their trysts - she was quite vocal with her appreciation. Now, though, there was a hushed quality to it all - anticipation cutting short every soft moan or breathy sigh as he moved down her body. His lips on her navel caused fire to pool there, and the skin trembled under the silken touch of his mouth. She did her best to lay still, to allow him to take his time with her, but as soon as his mouth descended on her breasts, she arched eagerly into him with a soft cry. She was unraveling, slowly, then rapidly, as his hand traced lower, lower, pressed against the cleft of her body. She was shaking openly now, her breath leaving her in soft, quick pants.

When he stopped, looked at her, and they were again face to face, her face was utterly undone. Her cheeks were flushed, her pupils blown wide by desire. With shaking hands, she reached up, caressed the back of his neck. Beneath him, she spread her legs, and gently coaxed him between them. She licked her lips, looked as if she was searching for the right words. They didn’t come. She ran a hand down his back, imitating the way that he’d touched her, not that long ago. Gently, now, she pulled him down on top of her, spreading her legs wider to accommodate the width of his body between her legs. Once he was atop her, she shifted, her hips grazing against his, asking. She buried her face where his neck met his shoulder, her eyes now closed, holding her breath, waiting for him to join them together.

From very early on in their relationship, Raeth knew that he wanted Saudaji more than he has wanted anything else. But at that moment - with his face hovering above hers, their gazes locked, her hands pulling on his back, and her legs spreading in a silent invitation - he wanted her so badly he felt as though he would shatter.

Shaking as much as she was, he eased his slender body between her opened thighs. He gasped when she buried her face between his neck and shoulders. He gasped again, more sharply, when the tip and underside of his phallus delivered an upward stroke to her dripping pussy. The head was already soaked by a copious amount of precum. Her juices soaked him all the more.

Raeth felt nervous, and for the life of him he couldn't understand why. They had done this many times before. What was different about this? Why did this feel so...heavy? Why was he worrying so much about farking this up? Why was he shaking?

He closed his eyes in an attempt to block out these unfamiliar questions, these doubts. The first thing he saw with his eyes shut was Saudaji's face from earlier, when he saw something there that told him she would never leave him. He exhaled, suddenly. There was gratitude in that exhale. Gratitude and relief. Once again, he quieted his mind, and pushed inside. Their bodies merged.

They had fucked each other so much before, yet this felt immediately, profoundly different. It was a physical shock that rocked him from his scalp to the tips of his toes. His body combined with instinct combined with gravity took over once the thick head squeezed past her puffy, juicy lips. Down and down he dived into her heat. He felt like he was spiralling out of control, and he welcomed it. Moaning loudly - practically screaming without realizing it - he pluged in until he filled her, utterly.

He couldn't move. All he could do was shake, throb, and marvel at how good she felt. Choking out pleasured, stuttered noises, he started to cum. Staggered jets of semen spurted into her. Gritting his teeth, he somehow mustered the will to tighten those muscles beneath his pubic region and cut off the flow. Thus, the reason he couldn't move was because he knew the slightest motion, the tiniest friction would get him to empty inside of her.

For a long while, Raeth remained as still as he could, pinning Saudaji to the bed. Eyelids clenched tight, his jaw clenched as well, he soaked her in. When he finally felt as though he could move without cumming, he carefully - so very carefully - rolled to the side. He slipped his hands over her thick, muscular ass, to hold her body against his as they rolled. The rolled until he was on his back and she was on top of him. Huffing, puffing, and fighting not to cum, not yet, Raeth lay still for a moment. He gathered his resolve. Then, exhaling through a tight 'O' formed by his lips, he pushed off of the bed, into a seated position.

The Twi'lek now sat upon her lover's cock. She was impaled by it as it pulsed against her hot, hidden flesh. Raeth's hands gave each of her cheeks a squeeze before they climbed up her back. The sides of her head were taken into his grip, and he pulled her face back. He needed to see her face and see what it had to say. Enthralled by both her beauty and how good it felt to be inside of her, he kissed her lips. Her lips were so soothing. Their tongues teased one another as their bodies began to grind, slowly at first. Raeth couldn't help but moan into their kiss.

The mouth parted, but not before he had a chance to softly suckle on the tip of her tongue. He looked at her face again. He kissed the tear-streaked cheek that wasn't bruised. He kissed the tip of her nose. He pressed his forehead and his nose against hers, copying the gesture of adoration she had shown to him twice today. With their faces so close, Saudaji felt his hot breath brush against her skin, against her lips. His breathing was erratic.

His hands climbed back down her body to reclaim her ass. Moaning in appreciation, he fondled her rear. He gripped her firmly. With that grip, he pushed and pulled on her body in time with his pelvic grinding. In this position, they were kept so close together, it felt like they were fused into one. Only one or two inches at the base of his cock slid out of her, then back in, back and forth. He made love to her slowly, but that didn't last long. Within moments, he began to thrust into her with more and more urgency. His hands pushed, pulled, and squeezed with unveiled desperation. His cock, so slick because of their juices, drove into her again and again.

"Ahhh! Saud...ahj! Heeee!" Raeth tried to scream her name, but his throat tightened up on him. His lips covered hers in a fierce kiss. The next series of outcries poured around their swirling tongues.

Raeth leaned Saudaji backwards a bit. One of his hands stayed on her ass while the other pressed against the middle of her back. With her body now at an angle, he slid his mouth off of hers and down to her neck. Aside from her kiss, there was nothing more delicious to him than her green skin. Thus, he fastened his lips to the side of her neck to feast. He suckled on her. He licked her. His tongue became a brush that painted wet symbols upon her cherish flesh.

So close to orgasm - hell, he'd been close to cumming ever since they started making out in the cargo bay - Raeth abruptly realized how happy he was to not only feel her, to not only taste her, but to smell her, too. The familiar fragrance of her sweat mingling with her bath soaps comforted him. Suddenly smiling, he dealt a loving, suckling kiss to the skin that connected her neck to her shoulder. Her shoulder was peppered with kisses to. Then his mouth descended to one of her breasts, which was far too tempting a target to avoid.

Raeth was sucking on one of her tits when he started to cum again. He knew right away that he wouldn't be able to hold back again. With a loud pop, his mouth relinquished her breast. Shuddering, groaning, he buried his face against her chest and hugged her, tightly. Then he lifted his face up to be level with hers. He willed his eyes open. He wanted to see her face again.

Their gazes met, if even for just a moment, when he erupted. The ecstasy he experienced with her was unlike anything he had ever known.

It was odd, the sudden rush of memories that overwhelmed her as they looked at each other. Thinking about how infuriating he was when she first met him. How she wasn’t sure what to make of him, that she knew that she had to keep on her guard. That doing so had proven nearly impossible - how her attraction was so sudden that she was concerned that he’d drugged her. All of the doubt was washed away in one smooth stroke of his hips, and the breath she didn’t know she was holding rushed out of her, ending in a pitiful little cry.

Her nervousness was no longer there. It had been replaced by that burning desire, the one that prowled round her gut and radiated through the rest of her body. As he seated himself fully into her, her cunt clenched round him instinctively, not wanting to let him go. It was only through counting backwards that she managed to relax herself around him, to loosen the legs from around his waist that she hadn’t realized that also caught him in their grasp. Just the feel of him, finally, inside of her, was enough to make her eyes nearly roll back in her head. If she wasn’t wet enough, a new torrent of thick honey from her flowed around his cock, oozing between the two of them. The anticipation of the moment couldn’t measure up to the mind shattering reality, and for a while, she fairly shook beneath him, her fingers tangling in the sheets as she panted.

They were so close, that even though she was soaked, she could feel the impatient throb of his cock inside of her, and her sigh shuddered, hitched. Sounded like she was on the verge of tears again, her cunt squeezing him, refusing to part with him now. She was winding tight in on herself, squeezing tighter and closer to an explosive orgasm, one that was more of a dream. If he just moved, just a bit more, more against her damp lips, across the plump pearl of her clit, the spiral would break, and her body could scream -

His hands traveled over her body, and she moaned, the sound little. Every time he touched her, it felt like the first time. Not the first time he’d touched her - but the first time that anyone had touched her, the first time anyone had taken her to bed. Dimly, she recalled Saboten’s words, her knowing look, and the realization of how she truly felt tumbled across her shoulders. The words sprang to her lips, but before she could let them go, they were moving, and she was now on top of him. The new angle that he reached inside of her made her let out a long whine of a moan, and the strength left her. Before she could lay down on top of him, he was sitting up, his arms securely around her. Her legs instinctively folded loosely around his waist, crossing delicately at the ankles to secure herself around him.

Finally, finally, she could kiss him again. Though she wanted nothing more to slam herself against him, to feel the orgasm that was so tantalizingly close, that teased her clitoris and made her inner walls involuntarily flutter around him, she forced herself into patience by focusing on his mouth, his tongue. No less tender than before, her returning kiss was a bit more erratic, closer to coming undone, broken by her gasps as he rocked his hips into hers. Unable to restrain herself further, her walls clamped onto him, held him firmly, only giving him the slightest amount of give so he could move in and out.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her face going to the side of his neck again, only broken when his hands found the side of her face, and he repeated the long forgotten greeting to her, forehead to forehead, nose to nose, lips to lips. His fingers dug into the flesh of her ass, moving her to his liking, and she nearly melted on the spot there, her body still clinging to him, her cunt refusing to part with his cock for more than an inch or two. It seemed to work out all the same, as he seemed reluctant to let her move any further off of him. She pulled her legs in tighter to him, using her shaking thighs to aid him in the lifting and falling. She was so wet that there was an audible slick slap each time they came together, wet clear down to the cleft of her ass.

The desperation in his grasp was met by the closing in of her thighs, the erratic nature of her thrusts back down onto him, the way she tightened further, the way her nails bit lightly into his shoulders. She wasn’t one for leaving marks, and she would be immediately apologetic should she leave red crescents behind in the wake of her fingers, but now it didn’t matter. It was the only way she knew to hold on, to keep herself from exploding from every ecstatic stroke of him. He filled her so completely - beyond any man that she’d experienced before, and, if she were being honest, any man would after him - should there be an “after him.” Deep down, she knew, with each thrust from him, he was ruining her for all others.

His lips were frantic against hers, their moans meeting in their mouths. He leaned her back now, and she went willingly, pliant in his grasp. Loosening her grip on his waist so she could move easier, she quickly locked her ankles round him again, using the new angle to pull him eagerly back into her, into her own erratic thrusts. Her quiet whines and whimpers were escalating now, into breathy, fearless moans, easing from around their mouths, punctuating the air with each movement of their hips. It was a joyous sound, full of affection, of wonder at what she was now feeling. Dimly, through the haze of ever growing pleasure, she could feel his lips on the side of her neck, his tongue trailing lower. Her breasts, open to him, his mouth, were caressed, and her eyes fluttered close, the sensation alone nearly shoving her over the cliff. But, still, she hung on, wanting to feel him explode inside of her before she could let herself let go. She needed to feel him, needed that blessing.


Her answer would come. He pulled her close, closer, his face buried in her chest before it lifted to her own. Her eyes were heavily hooded, but sparkled with an openness that she’d never shown him, an openness she’d never felt until this moment. And when he came, in several, long denied bursts, she gave him the most beatific, grateful smile - and allowed herself to tumble over now. Well, it was less of “allowed” and more of her body couldn’t hold out any longer. She squeezed him as tightly as a glove, milking his cock of any semen that he could have denied her. A series of shivers developed into full on shaking, and her orgasm overtook her in, her body shaking. She did not scream his name - nor was there a loud moan from her. It was felt too strongly through her whole body, gone rigid on his lap. Her head was tilted back, and a flush glowed through her body, deepening the green hue of her body.

When the rush of orgasm left her long, long minutes later, she collapsed over him, her face neatly fitting in the crook between his head and his neck. Her body pulsed erratically, her cunt clenching and relaxing, fluttering around his cock as a mix of their fluids lazily slipped from her, slow like honey dripping. Sweat coated her body, her face, added a shine to her lekku. Long shuddering breaths left her now, and she cuddled closer, burying her face in the side of his neck. Muffled by his skin, and barely a whisper from her, she let the words come. Because she still had some sense about her, she spoke in Mando’a, knowing that he wouldn’t understand, but, trusting that if he had heard her, he’d be curious enough to find out the meaning on his own. Enough to realize what she’d etched into his skin by her whisper - but still not brave enough to tell him to his face.

“Raeth, I think I’m in love with you.” No pet name now to potentially hand wave away the weight of the words - it served the added benefit of perhaps making it that much harder for him to discern what she said.

With the words out there, she physically seemed to relax, her body melting further around him, she, feeling particularly boneless, but through sheer tenacity held onto his body. From the way she stirred around him, it was clear that it would not take that much longer, though as intense as this orgasm had been, before she could be up for more. The way that each subtle movement sent aftershocks through her stoked her desire further, and she knew she’d fallen over the edge. She wanted more of him, as soon as she could, as long as she could.

Lifting her face from the side of his neck, she began to lay feather light kisses against his cheek, the line of his jaw, the corner of his lips. She wasn’t trying to coax him back into another round of lovemaking, not quite yet, but was expressing her thanks, her affection.