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

[Apollo Wilde]

His communication had come through in a break in Saudaji’s schedule - thankfully. From training with her other tribe members, spending one on one training time with Te Ao, and some time in the fields. Not like her time with the crops had gotten any better, but it wasn’t for lack of training. And though she could hear the excitement in Raeth’s voice, there was no rush from her.

She needed time to think, to prepare herself. To touch deep within to see how prepared she would be to handle any threat - to keep the threat from coming close to the village. She paced now from the outskirts of the village flanking the ocean, through the village itself. There would be no change in her attitude; friendly smiles and waves to those who noticed her, but none would waylay her.

It was as she got closer to the Pylat that she actually began to run - testing her legs, the air in her lungs. She moved as silently as always through the dense jungle, as if the foliage were parting just for her as she moved. By the time she reached Raeth’s side, the only sign that she’d been running was the thin sheen of sweat on her face, her lekku. When she saw him, she shot him a small smile, before pulling him into her arms for a deep, though brief, kiss.

“How are you feeling?”

 

[BewareTheDream]

Their kiss may have been brief, but it sent a thrill down his spine and to places much deeper. After their lips separated, Raeth held onto Saudaji for several moments, clinging to her while breathing in her scent. From this angle, he could see her lekku glisten under the cockpit’s lights. He wanted to lick her there, and to do so much more, but they had work to do.

Pulling away without letting go of her completely, he met her gaze and smiled, big and bright. “You just shoved your tongue down my throat, so of course I feel spectacular.” He pinched one of her beautiful, green ass cheeks before finally letting go. Energized by Saudaji’s presence, he practically dashed to the pilot seat, strapped in, and fired up the Pylat’s engines.

“Sensors picked up a small starship enter the planet’s atmosphere, approach the island, and then launch something into the ocean just off the eastern coast. The ship then turned around and farked off.” He gave her this informal briefing while flipping a few switching and checking some of the read-outs on the dashboard. “I suspect the package is from Prime; probably a message. Scanners indicate it’s smaller than a torpedo, and they didn’t detect any explosive or biohazardous materials. I’ll run another battery of scans when we get closer, just to be sure.”

Raeth grasped the controls and then eased his ship / mobile home / on-going pet project into the air. Through the viewport, the towering, jungle trees and sagging, branches that were once all around them began to disappear below, replaced by the wide-open sky and the ocean beyond the green. A family of small, white-furred monkeys watched the ship ascend with wide, yellow eyes. It was a sunny day, but thick, dark clouds approached from the northeast—a storm would likely hit the island within the next day.

The Pylat’s thrusters roared, and it soared forward. Raeth was not gunning it at top speed, but it would still only take a couple minutes for them to arrive at the spot where the mysterious package had landed in the ocean.

Sebastian-v2 stepped into the cockpit, looking as though it had been recently polished or perhaps even repainted. Normally dull red, its metal body was uncharacteristically shiny today.

Over his shoulder, Raeth asked Saudaji, “Are you in the mood for some diving? I’d prefer to send Seabass down there to retrieve the object, but if you insist, I won’t stop you.” Not like I could stop her from doing what she wanted, anyway.

Sebastian chimed in. “It really is no bother, Mistress.” It had been programmed to refer to her as “mistress” ever since Raeth and Saudaji’s relationship became serious. “And if the object proves to be dangerous, I’d rather be the one to sustain any damage."

“See? Chivalry’s not dead.” Raeth chuckled while slowing the ship down. “You know, he's nicer to you than he is to me." He throttled down completely and made the Pylat hover above gentle waves. "We’re here," he said before conducting another sensor sweet. "Sensors still say the object isn't dangerous. It's also 24 meters down."

Whether Saudaji or Sebastian dove into the water to retrieve it, they would discover that the object was harmless. It was as Raeth suspected—it was a message from Prime contained within a small, torpedo-like delivery system.

 

[Apollo Wilde]

“You silver tongued devil, you.” Her hand slipped between their bodies to gently rub at his crotch, her left grasping his ass before she let go. She would be right behind him to sit in the co-pilot’s seat, bright brown eyes twinkling with excitement. It would be a welcome change from her. Even with the severity of the situation, being at home was…difficult. There was a bit of a carefree nature to her life with Raeth in the space lanes, in the groove that they’d fallen into with each mission. Now, it would be easy to fool herself that they were off to something as easy and as light.

A heavy sigh as she put her booted feet up on the console, folding her arms behind her head, her lekku draping over her shoulders. “Well, I suspect that it wouldn’t have been that long for him to find us. I guess he’s got enough sense not to stage a direct attack.” Unfolding her arms, her right hand stroked her chin, pushed her lower lip between her teeth. The last thing she wanted was to bring any sort of trouble to the tribe: they’d been there long enough to form a tenuous understanding. Though Saudaji’s adoptive family had accepted both of them back as if they’d only been gone for a few days, the rest of the tribe had taken convincing - ongoing convincing at that. Bringing an attack down would be the last thing that they needed.

“I don’t think he would’ve gone far - what’s your take?” She glanced over to him without moving her head, folding her arms back behind her head.

A rolling in her stomach. A part of her wanted to take off again - the other part of her wanted to stay put, to continue to play pretend in the little home that they’d built. At Raeth’s comment about diving, she shook her head in the negative. “It’s all up to you, Sebastian,” and she gave the droid a slight smile. She still didn’t trust the thing, but hey, it had started to grow on her. Strange how programming droids with a bit of personality could have that affect on someone.

“You know,” she said, softly, pressing her tongue to the roof of her mouth before speaking again, “The time for us to move on might be coming on sooner than later. If he’s found us here, and we’ve no idea of what sort of power he can control or command…It wouldn’t be wise to put the rest of the family in danger’s way.” A pause. “Mando or not.” They would be hard pressed to turn down a fight; that she knew.

Sucking on her lower lip, she looked down at the glittering expanse of the sea beneath them. “And just when you were getting used to farming.”

 

[BewareTheDream]

Saudaji’s kiss, her fleeting grasp of his bottom, and the enticing touch to his shaft each had lingering effects on Raeth. He could taste her on his tongue, he could feel his buttocks tingle, and he sported an impressive boner. It had been a while since they had made love in the Pylat’s cockpit—the first place they had ever fucked—and ideas of what he wanted to do to her here made it difficult for him to concentrate on piloting. Thankfully, the trip they were taking was simple and quick, so it’s not like it required 100% of his focus. His boner still stretched out the front of his shorts by the time the ship hovered over the ocean; he was able to ignore it, though it wasn’t easy.

Saudaji asked him what his take on Prime was. “He’s probably in another system. That craft I detected was piloted by either a droid or some stooge.”

He paused for a couple of beats before continuing. “In many ways, the guy’s basically me, right? Yes, the vastly different experiences mean we don’t think exactly the same, but there have got to be some fundamental similarities to our thought patterns.” Raeth enjoyed mulling over puzzles and mysteries, but his clone daddy was an exception. Thinking about Prime often hurt. At the very least, the old man was a puzzle that Raeth did not enjoy trying to solve.

“At the moment, I don’t think he’d do anything to the family, because I wouldn’t target someone’s family unless it was for blackmail or retribution. If we do as he asks—if we help him on his quest against the Sith, or whatever—the family should be fine. Monitored, most likely, but fine.

“And as crazy as this may sound, I really don’t think he’s a threat to us right now, either. He needs us. He can’t take down an entire empire by himself.”

What Raeth was unwilling to say out loud was that he had finally accepted he needed Prime, too. He had so many questions about this cloning business, and the old man was his pathway to answers. Not only that, but Raeth had something to prove with Prime. So as much as he hated the idea, he needed to work with him. And he couldn’t do that without Saudaji.

Raeth gazed at his Twi’lek love, admiring her strong legs propped up on the control console and the way the sunlight shone upon her healthy, emerald skin. He had a flash of memory, then: a memory of the two of them disguised as truckers on the planet Thyferra, and of Saudaji dressed in illicitly short denim shorts and a flannel shirt tied above her abs. His erection swelled at the image.

I’ve got to get her to wear that outfit again, real soon.

He was snapped out of his lewd train of thought when Saudaji mentioned the possibility of them moving on from the island…moving on from their life on a farm…moving on from the family. Much to Raeth’s surprise, the possibility pained him. “We don’t need to discuss that now,” he blurted out. “But just so you know, the Pylat’s ready to leave the planet at a moment’s notice.”

I’d rather stay, though.

The discussion had become uncomfortable, so he decided to change the subject. Looking over his shoulder at Sebastian—who was standing by the holo-table, still and quiet as a statue—he said, “The mistress isn’t rushing for her wetsuit, which means this one’s all you, Seabass. Get to the cargo bay.”

“Yes, Master,” Sebastian responded without skipping a beat. It then turned around and stomped out of the cockpit. Raeth flipped a switch that lowered the cargo bay ramp. A few minutes later, the droid walked onto and then straight off the ramp. Raeth and Saudaji could both watch it splash into the sea on the cockpit’s monitors. On another monitor, they could watch the feed from Sebastian’s eyeball camera.

“It’s been some time since I’ve watched Sebastian TV,” Raeth quipped.

From the droid’s point of view, they saw it sink the short distance to the seabed. The waters off the coast of Te Ika were clear. A school of monochromatic fish swam close to Sebastian, but once it began to move, they darted away almost as one.

“Turn 33 degrees to the left,” Raeth said over the comms as he checked the readings on a different monitor. “There. You should see the object straight ahead.” On Sebastian TV, he saw object nestled on the sea floor. It really did look like a small torpedo. Four-clawed crabs were already inspecting it, but they sidestepped away as the droid approached.

“Give it another check for hazards,” Raeth instructed. “If it checks out, pick it up and prepare for retrieval.” With some button presses and switch flips, he prepared the magnetic crane in the cargo bay.

While Sebastian did a danger check of its own, Raeth glanced at Saudaji. “Nice and easy, so far.”

 

[Apollo Wilde]

“Guess it’d make sense for him to want to be on the move.” Another thoughtful rub under her chin, before she started to stroke her left lekku. She wasn’t unaware of the effect it had on Raeth - but as enticing as his erection was, she had to focus on the task at hand. “You’ve always been able to think three steps ahead of me,” her gaze was distant, focusing on the expanse of the ocean beneath her. How deep did it really go? Childhood stories would swear that the planet’s core was an immense cosmic ocean, and that the water on the planet was the true form it, the land a bizarre accident of evolution. Though she’d done her shares of ocean missions, she was loathe to admit, especially out loud, that she absolutely hated them. The only water that she adored was a long shower or soak in a tub. “And I’m going to have to trust your judgement on this one.”

She’d been trying, really, and truly, to be more open with her emotions with Raeth since they landed on Mandalore - more for his benefit than her own. She figured that he needed something grounding in the midst of the chaos of their lives, and so had tried her best to provide that with being open about how she felt about him; how unique and special he was to her. That her opinion of him hadn’t changed since they found the warehouse. There were things she kept from him - she was entitled to her secrets, and after a lifetime of keeping them, it was a hard habit to break, and one that she didn’t think that she could - like how the Tribal Elders were still dealing with Raeth to begin with, his technological advances being a sticking point for many. That sort of stuff was hers to have to iron out, and more than once she’d taken on a particularly obstinate leader in hand to hand combat, emerging victorious each time. She had a sneaking suspicion that it was less about Raeth and more about them wanting to prove her mettle - either way, the result was the same. But admitting her fears, where she felt inferior to him? Still so, so hard.

It was easy, though, to try and take comfort in his words. She’d look over his way with a soft smile, a gentleness that she reserved for him and the smallest members of the tribe. “I just…I worry about them being embroiled in a battle that they can’t win because I couldn’t handle things properly. They’re already on the fringes of the planet alone,” simple geography would back her up on that, “And the last skirmish killed so many that they had to do raids for years.” It was in one of those raids that she’d been captured, though by a different tribe that apparently had the luxury of prioritizing the capture of sex slaves before replenishing their own diminished ranks. “The peace that we’ve been enjoying has only come on after decades of constant war. It’s changed drastically even since I was a youngling; even more since I’ve been gone. The homes have roofs - animals are penned. There's animals TO pen.”

Tilting her head back, she closed her eyes, sighed. “I didn’t think I could leave fast enough.” Yes, there had been the single-minded pursuit of Mahoroba back then, but something else, something deeper, than lent itself to her itchy feet, the desire to want to keep moving, to see what else was out there. A deep sense of discontent, maybe. “I didn’t want anything to do with the place, you know? And now that we’ve been back…I don’t really want to leave.” A soft chuckle, more at herself. “Strange how that works out. I must be getting old. The next thing you know, I’ll be talking about retirement and popping out a few younglings.” She leaned further back in her seat. “I never thought I’d be in a place to even think about things like that. You’ve really changed my life, Rae’ika.”

Shifting in her seat, she put herself on all fours to lean across the division in their chairs to kiss him. It was brief without the tangle of tongues, but the sentiment was carried across as she touched her forehead to his, rubbing her nose against his before she was settling back into the chair. “By the way, Sebastian looks extra…shiny. Was that your doing or one of the kids?”

 

[BewareTheDream]

When Saudaji spoke of the past troubles of her tribe—OUR tribe, Raeth reminded himself—he couldn’t help but feel bad. Anything that troubled Saudaji troubled him, and he knew that nothing troubled her quite like their family. And although she didn’t mention it, he knew that she was having ongoing issues with the other tribal leaders, and that he was at the center of those disputes. They had talked about that on multiple occasions during those quiet hours at night, when they lay in bed whispering to each other even though there was no one else in their hut. She had never explicitly stated that the other leaders continued to have issues with Raeth to this day, but he could read between the lines.

Those troubling thoughts were temporarily banished when Saudaji kissed him. Each and every time their lips touched, Raeth thanked his lucky stars. Even little kisses like the one they had just shared were cherished. Even the little ones wiped his mind out for a few seconds or more.

After a brief touch of foreheads and exchange of “Wookie kisses”, Saudaji asked him about Sebastian’s new look.

“Paikea suggested that Sebastian be shinier, so I allowed her and a few other students to give him a makeover. They finished the job really fast, which leads me to suspect Te Kohe helped, even though he wasn’t invited.” Paikea was a shy girl—much more shy than Raeth expected a Mandalorian girl would be. But over time, she had become more comfortable with her new teacher—comfortable enough to offer to work on his droid sidekick.

Saudaji joked about having younglings, which wasn’t the first time she had brought it up. Raeth, who had an opinion about everything, didn’t know what to think about having kids with Saudaji. The subject was like a black hole in his mind. What he knew for sure was that he’d do anything in his power to make her smile, and if a youngling or two would make her smile, he’d happily make that happen.

Besides, she must've squeezed enough sperm out of me to populate an entire planet, by now.

Naturally, the thought of becoming a parent with Saudaji reminded him of marriage. He had “pre-proposed” to her recently, after which they just sort of stopped talking about it. Now, gazing into her lovely brown eyes, and with a sparkling ocean stretching endlessly beyond the viewport, he wondered why he let the subject go. I want to be with her more than anything. So what am I waiting for?

The control console had a small, hidden compartment in it—it was sort of like a glove compartment. Raeth popped it open and retrieved a tiny ring box, which he handed to her. When she opened it, she’d see a ring inside. It wasn’t made of one of the prettier metals; instead, the metal was dark gray. It was unadorned by any jewel, but it was exquisitely crafted.

Etched on the inside of the ring was a sentence written in Mando’a. When translated into Galactic Basic, it read:

Your smile means everything to me, Daji’ka.

Raeth's mouth and throat were dry, and it sounded like it when he spoke. “I took a tiny bit of the Pylat’s hull and crafted that ring for you. It’s duralloy, which isn’t on any anniversary gift list I could find.” An uncharacteristically nervous chuckle bubbled out of him. Abruptly, he stopped chuckling, then cleared his throat.

“Before I met you, my ship was my favorite thing in the entire galaxy. But I’d take the whole thing apart, piece by piece, if you asked me to.

“Do you want to change each other’s lives even more, Daji’ka? Will you marry me?” Even though Saudaji had already said “yes” to his pre-proposal, Raeth still held his breath as he gazed into her eyes and awaited her answer.

Meanwhile, Sebastian sent a text message to them, which repeated on one of the monitors. “I’m ready to be picked up now.” Holding the package that was sent by Prime, it stood in the ocean directly underneath the Patient Pylat, wondering why no one up above was answering.

 

[Apollo Wilde]

“You’d better watch out around her. Word has it that she’s getting braver by the day. She’ll be asking you to a challenge in no time.” It was said lightly; she didn’t have much to fear from the girl. She was just getting used to having two digits in the number of her birth years, and Raeth was someone new and shiny. Of course she’d have a crush on him and would do all that she could to gain his favor and to linger longer around him. Besides, Saudaji knew how lethal the man’s smile was. It still made her weak at the knees and she knew every inch of him. “Pretty sure that she managed that,” jerking her head down towards the water where Sebastian was, “All by herself. Probably shooed away the others as soon as she had the chance.”

Her attention was quickly brought back to the innards of the ship as Raeth went for a spot on the control console. It was still very much his ship; she only familiarized herself with it enough to know how to pilot it if she absolutely had to. Overall, she was more than content to let him deal with the ins and outs on his own. So it had come as no surprise that there was a hidden panel - only the mild lifting of her brows as he opened it. And when he deposited the box in her hands, as carefree as ever, she couldn’t help the spreading smile on her face as she opened it.

With a delicate touch, she took the ring out, and held it up to the light pooling through the front window to get a better look at it. She was never one for fancy gems: she liked luxury, that was true, but it was less of material goods and more of experiences: good food, baths, massages. It was simple, discreet - and better yet, as her eyes were able to make out the Mando’A script on the inside, intensely personal. She had no doubt that he himself had made the ring.

Convincing herself that it was the light that was making her eyes water, she cleared her throat, struggling in vain to appear business like. The way that she was smiling so hard that her cheeks pushed into her eyes and her face hurt was a dead giveaway. “I already told you ‘yes’, you di’kut,” and slipping the ring on her finger, she leapt out of her chair and into his. In the same moment, she’d positioned herself to be straddling his lap, and cupping his face in her hands, tilted his head up to hers so she could kiss him.

 

[BewareTheDream]

Out of everyone Raeth had ever known or encountered, Saudaji was the only one who could call him an idiot and get away with it.

He loved making her smile and endeavored to do it as often as he could. However, rarely had he ever seen her cry. I don’t think I like that, he thought when he noticed her eyes water. But it’s a good sign, right?

It was most definitely a good sign when she placed the ring one of her strong, green fingers. Seeing her do that made Raeth release the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. When she leapt off her chair and onto his lap, as sure and aggressive as a jungle cat, he moaned. She had barely touched him and already he moaned. And when she cupped his cheeks and tiled his head up, he had a dreamy look in his eyes. He evaporated into that dream the moment their lips touched.

What followed was a blur of love and passion. Somehow, the two of them managed to shed their clothing and unite their naked bodies. Their hearts had been as one for quite some time now, and this was another of their amorous attempts to fuse their bodies in a similar way.

They made love in the pilot’s chair, which happened to be one of the first places they ever fucked. To Raeth, the first time he had entered Saudaji felt like it happened just yesterday, and yet he had lived an entire lifetime since then. From that first union, he had been addicted to her, obsessed with her. The love—which they freely and energetically exchanged now—came much later.

Raeth came inside of Saudaji quickly. She and only she had that affect on him. Besides, he was already so stiff even before she landed on his lap. His orgasm was so intense, it felt like gallons of cum flooded out of his tumescent mass and into her womb. If she rode him and pulled out only halfway, some of his juice would ooze out from her vice-like cunt.

It took only seconds of Saudaji’s powerful loving to drain Raeth and to cover his body in sweat. He felt dizzy, and had to cling to her as he recovered, moaning and shaking the whole while. Outside the cockpit’s viewport, a flock of multi-colored birds circled in the air a couple dozen meters in front of the Patient Pylat. Periodically diving into the crystal waters below, they fished beneath a bright sun while Raeth and Saudaji made love in the shade.

Although she had drained him on the pilot’s chair, they weren’t done, yet. They made out for a while before Raeth lifted her off the seat. When they first became lovers, Saudaji had been much stronger than him. Even now, after months of Mandalorian fitness and combat training, she still was, but it was obvious he had a much easier time picking her up and putting her down on different spots to fuck her. He knew that she did not always enjoy being manhandled, but whenever she indicated she was in the mood, he was more than happy to oblige, and to demonstrate how strong he had become.

This time, he used his newfound brawn to carry her toward the hologram-enabled briefing table and then gently deposit her on the floor. They then got into position to 69. Both of them absolutely adored going down on each other, and so they spent a decadently long while luxuriating in each other’s oral affection. The cockpit was filled with the sounds of slurping, sucking, moaning, and screaming—their screams were often muffled because he had a mouth full of her quivering quim and she had his fat rod down her throat. The area was also suffused with the smell of their sex.

Eventually, Raeth poured his cream down Saudaji’s throat. But still, he was not yet done. He felt dizzy again, he felt drained again, but he still had plenty of energy to show her how much he loved her. He moaned into her pussy one last time and gave a final sucking kiss to her clit before he stood up, picked her up easy as can be, and bent her over the briefing table. After spanking her round, hard ass and tonguing her butthole for a little bit, he fucked her up her ass. He took it nice and slow, because in his hurry to love her some more, he neglected to get any lube from their bedroom aboard the ship.

They loved and fucked and sucked and touched each other for hours, in different spots throughout the cockpit, and with plenty of short breaks between orgasms. Their bodies rubbed or collided against other practically non-stop. Finally, it ended after Saudaji drained Raeth so good it felt like he wouldn’t be able to cum again for weeks. He was doused in sweat and practically wheezing by that point, as though he had spent an entire day training in a sweltering jungle. The way the sweat glistened all over the new contours and deep grooves of his sculpted frame not only looked good, it also emphasized how much he benefited from the Mandalorian lifestyle. But as fit as he was, and despite how much he wanted to, he couldn’t make love to Saudaji forever.

They were back on the floor. She was coated in sweat and other juices, as well. He always loved seeing her like this. When he had the energy to move, he rolled her onto her breasts so he could gently rub his nose and his cheeks against her lekku. He also used his face to nudge them aside so he could lick the sweat off her spine.

“Is there any reason why we couldn't get married tomorrow?” His voice was raspy. Both of his hands were occupied with her ass cheeks, which he massaged, reverently. He smooched her tailbone, his lips smacking her sweaty, green skin noisily, and when he spoke again, she could feel his breath upon the top of her ass. “I have a sudden urge to be your husband as soon as possible.”

On the console of the communication station, a yellow light blinked and beep. Sebastian was hailing them again; he had been hailing them once every 15 minutes the entire time they made love. Once again, Raeth ignored his droid’s signal, because he had more important matters to think about.

He spread open Saudaji’s sweet, green ass and gave her butthole a loving tongue tickle. Before long, though, his face would glide further up her body so he could drizzle kisses along her athletic back. He could not stop touching her as they discussed their wedding.

 

[Apollo Wilde]

“Mmm…you’re making it hard to answer,” a sultry purr, even as she pressed her ass more into his mouth. Her voice was raw, each word she spoke heavy with being sexually sated, with the nasal brush of her accent which had deepened in the afterglow. She could barely move, her legs felt like jelly, but she would hardly refuse his attentions now. “But no. Mando’a weddings are simple, yeah?”

A lazy look at him over her shoulder, her lekku trailing down her shoulders. “We could get married right here, right now.” Though it was an effort to keep herself propped up to watch him as best as she could. It was far too tempting to collapse bonelessly into the floor, to continue to let his hands, lips, tongue, coax more bliss from her body. As the heat of his lips pressed against her lower back, she let out a low murmur of contentment, similar to a purr. She would fold her hands under her head and lay down now, her eyelids drifting shut. He had her at a disadvantage - she was unable to return the affection he was lavishing on her. Well, she could fix that.

She shifted, rolling to her side, draping her arm lazily across her body, a green odalisque. Resting her cheek on her left hand to prop her head up, she looked back at him, her dark brown eyes inviting him to inch closer to her, to lay by her side. “Nature of the Way,” she added, “Marriage vows aren’t something that take a lot of time, effort, energy.” He’d know by now, from natural observation of the goings on of the village, that “family” was a nebulous term, a broad net that was easily changed, adapted, not bound by blood by any stretch of the imagination. Saudaji’s adopted family consisted of blood relations: her brothers and sisters all shared the same biological mother and father - her and Saboten, not by blood, but by oath, by bond, and now, Raeth, simply because she loved him. There were no strange hierarchies, no skirmishes over blood inheritances, and most importantly, no risk of the village being wiped out in one fell swoop, all members killed, all bloodlines ended. If there was no bloodline to end, only a collection of ideals, of those who lived and breathed those ideals, then the village would be truly immortal. So it was for all Mandalorians, regardless of where they were on the planet.

“But if you were envisioning flowers and catering, that sort of thing would be best handled in Yukaku. Believe it or not, it’s a prime wedding spot for off-worlders. Well, half of it, anyway. Most of the business comes from the hen and stag parties,” an off-handed shrug without too much else of her body moving, “But the gardens are always primed for weddings. Depends on what you want to have done.” She sounded immaterial, less than a hand wave away. Her first “wedding” had been in the traditional manner, the vows exchanged in the heat of battle. The words a magic spell, the reality of them never settling in. She had been married, but it had been like playing a game of make believe. Would it even make a difference now to exchange those same vows, knowing how much of her life, her world, had changed? For a moment, her gaze went past him, looking through years past, thumbing through them, pages of a dusty book. “Always seemed like a lot of faff, if you ask me.” Gently, though - as not to offend him. She knew him well enough to know that if it presented a new opportunity for food, for drink, for sensual experiences, he would be interested - but as for her, it seemed like a lot of…planning and responsibility, nether of which appealed to her too much.

“Mmmg…” Her gaze snapped back to the present, to the flashing console. “Y’know, I hope that bucket of bolts is water tight.”

 

[BewareTheDream]

The disappointment Raeth felt when Saudaji rolled her sweet ass away from his hands and mouth was sharp. Her flesh was candy, and she plucked it away from him before he had his fill. But as sharp as the sting was, it faded quickly, for without a word the jade temptress invited him to lie beside her.

Giddy for cuddles and more tender, post-coital conversation, he slid into place next to her. The cold, uncarpeted metal floor caused goosebumps to rise along his naked skin; the warmth of Saudaji’s body was a lovely contrast. As always, he was greedy for her warmth, so he nuzzled his body against hers. Whether it was with his fingertips or the backs of his fingers, he caressed her arm, her hip, or the side of her leg, to and fro.

Lying on his side, Raeth watched her face and listened to her describe marriage among her people, as well as the wedding industry on Yukaku. A shift in her tone and a distance to her gaze suggested she had taken a trip far away for a moment—where she went, he could only guess. Closing his eyes, he pressed his forehead to hers and waited for her to come back to him.

She spoke of faff, and it did not offend him. The thought of marriage never crossed his mind until they fell in love, so he wasn’t attached to the idea of some elaborate, storybook wedding. He just wanted to be married to her.

Ignoring what she said about Sebastian-V2 being watertight, he ran a hand down one of her arms before taking her hand into his. Then he did something that had always been difficult for him, but was becoming easier and easier thanks to her—he followed his heart instead of his head.

“I will cherish you,” he said. Their foreheads still touched, although his eyes were now open, and his gaze was on hers. “I always have.

“I’ll cover your back, and I know you’ll cover mine. I’ll train with you, and I’ll learn how to be better with you. I’ll kill with you; I’ll kill for you. And when one of us dies, the other will either follow soon after, or live a hollow, meaningless life before eventually withering away.

“Better yet, we can die together in a blaze of glory, but only after sharing an unbelievably kick-ass life.”

Pulling his head away from hers, he kissed her forehead, then locked gazes with her once more. “How’s that for vows?” he asked, a boyish smile on his face and excitement in his eyes. “If you say your vows next, we’ll be married, yeah?”

 

[Apollo Wilde]

Her forehead pressed to his, she closed her eyes. His warmth was always comforting to her, even if she had just now gathered the courage to tell him that. But she suspected that, as always, he’d known a split second before she did. There really was no fooling him.

She caressed the side of his face as he spoke, shuffling closer on the cold floor so that her front was pressed to his, firm line of their thighs touching. “Mmm, not quite the right ones, but I think they’ll do.” Impish glitter in her eye as she kissed his forehead in return, a soft snort of laughter sealing her words.

“I’m mad I have to say mine after you - you’re much more the silver tongue than I am.” How she managed to speak was beyond her; her voice was thick with emotion, barely held together by the flicker of pride that refused to allow her to be outdone by him. The authenticity of his words were beyond question: it had been a hard road, she thought, to get him to open up, to be honest, and now she had the precious gift of his honesty.

Snuggling closer so that her breasts pillowed against his chest, she touched her forehead against to his. Her breathing eased, almost stilled - as if drifting into a meditative state. What could she say that would come close to even capturing how she felt? Mando’a vows were deceptively simple - both in word and in meaning. But responding with them would be flat, painfully so. Another deep breath, a swallowed sigh. A thoughtful “mm,” a reverberation in her throat that was akin to a purr.

“I’m not good with my words. Not like you are. But I love you,” her dark eyes opened as she put a bit of space between their faces, the better to read his bright eyes, see any instance of a smile on his face, “I will forever be your shadow, there to protect you, to watch over you. For me, there is no life without you.” Fumbling, now, unsure only in if her words were truly conveying what was in her heart. “…I guess that’s it,” she finished, with a shaky chuckle. A far cry from the eloquence that he had just shared, but what else was there?

Well.

“One more thing,” leaned in, pressed her lips to his, deeply, drinking from him, pouring herself back into him. When their lips finally parted, she was smiling. “So that’s it.”

A mischievous grin. “Now let’s consummate it.” And she was playfully tackling him, pushing him underneath her with a deep kiss, inviting him to more sexual adventure.

 

[BewareTheDream]

Nobody knew Raeth better than Saudaji, so of course she knew that he’d be more than happy to accept her invitation. More than that, he was happy that they had vowed to be with each other for the rest of their lives.

Heavy kissing and delirious love making followed their exchange of vows. Raeth filled her, clung to her, and entwined himself with her so passionately, so desperately, it felt as though he were trying to merge their bodies into a single mass—to unify their physical forms and make them akin to their hearts and minds. That wasn’t physically possible, of course, but it sure didn’t stop him from trying.

By the time the newly married killers were through, they were both flush with each other. Raeth’s head was filled with thoughts of her, and his heart was filled by his love for her—he didn’t know what a full heart felt like until she showed him. As for Saudaji, her holes oozed with his seed, for he had so much to pour into her. They consummated until the cockpit felt like a sauna, and until they both reeked of each other. Raeth’s skin had been smeared all over with Saudaji’s sweat and honey; he didn’t want to wash her off, ever.

Dizzy and momentarily unable to remember his own name, Raeth sat with his back against a wall, Saudji in his lap. After loving each other’s brains out all around the cockpit, they collapsed beside the monitoring station. His body felt like jelly; it glistened like jelly, too. Smiling, he thought how nice it would be to sit here forever with her, two jellies who loved each other.

It took a while for him to find his voice. When he did, it sounded cracked, and his throat felt like the surface of Tatooine baking under the sun at noon. “It’s not really different, is it?” He tried to swallow, but it was almost painful. Part of him wanted to get up to fetch some water from the kitchen, but most of him wanted to stay right here with her. So instead, he dragged his sandpaper tongue across his lips, which were puffy from all the making out they had done. “We might be married, but it still feels the same. I’m still crazy about you.” Raeth gave her that smile that was just for her.

“Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum.” Raeth’s pronunciation of Mando’a words had improved, immensely, during his time living with their tribe, but he couldn’t shake his Core Worlds accent from this language. But accent or none, his words rang true.

They shared a brief, chaste kiss. He then kissed her neck, then her shoulder, before resting his cheek there. His hands landed on her green flesh for a rest, too—one on her ass, one on her leg. Eyes closed, he replayed the exchange of their vows in his head, like rewatching a home video. Those words were among the most genuine he had ever spoken. Now that he thought about it, he realized it had been a really long time since he had lied to her. Lying came to naturally to him, and yet, after a hard road, Saudaji had taught him how to be honest, at least with her.

You haven’t been completely honest with her, though, have you? The meanest of Raeth’s inner voices reminded him of something he had been trying to forget for a while. But that’s the problem with having an eidetic memory—it made it hard to forget anything, including the shit he wanted to purge from his brain.

Opening his eyes, he realized that if he didn’t tell her this one thing now, he never would. It would be a permanent scar in their relationship. Struggling to find his voice again—for a different reason, this time—Raeth met Saudaji’s gaze.

“There’s something I should tell you, Cyare.” He glanced away, but not before Saudaji could catch the doubt trying to hide in his eyes—doubt mingled with terror. She then saw him steel himself for what looked like a confession. His gaze met hers once more, but not without difficulty.

“When we first met, you challenged me to a fight, so I cheated and knocked you out. I…ehm…I did something to you while you were unconscious.” His courage failed him enough that he couldn’t look into her eyes any longer, but enough courage remained for him to continue speaking.

“I injected nanobots into your bloodstream. They fed me your biometric data and your location, plus they could paralyze you—or worse—if you tried to kill me. They were my insurance policy.

“They’re not in your bloodstream anymore, though!” he said, speaking so swiftly that the words tumbled over each other. “I made them self-destruct a while ago—after we first made love…you know, really made love. It took me this long to tell you because I was afraid you’d leave me.”

Suddenly, his eyes snapped to hers. “You’re not going to divorce me, are you?” His expression made him looked like a frightened child. “You can kick my ass if you want, but please, don’t leave me!”

 

[Apollo Wilde]

“It shouldn’t be,” she linked her fingers through his. The simple gesture felt as if it’d taken years for her to do. Everything felt heavy; every movement a test of will rather than physical strength. A marriage well consummated, she thought. “We should be able to continue on, just as we are. Till whenever.” A half-hearted wave, indicating a distant future. Stringing words together in a sentence was too much work. She sighed in contentment, leaning back into him. Funny how well their bodies fit together. His cheek against her shoulder, she somehow managed to reach up to run her fingers through his damp hair, touching her cheek to the crown of his head for a brief moment. In that span of time, her head, lekku included, felt as if it weighed 100 pounds - too much to let rest on him. And too much to risk trying to pull her head up again. Why was everything so hard? Sleep was so tempting right now - even though the room fairly simmered in their sweat and fluids, humidity leeching through the cold metal of the walls, the floor.

“Mm?” A rumble low in her throat as he began to speak. Her eyes, blurry with fatigue and pleasure, struggled to focus on his. The blissful smile she wore, sloppy drunk, was slowly eased into a neutral expression as he spoke - a concentrated effort to really listen to what he was saying. She could sense as clear as day that he was panicked, worried - though surely, short of saying that he had something to do with the death of Mahoroba (which, incredibly unlikely - but something that she wondered about from time to time - it wasn’t that far outside of the realm of possibility), or plotted harm against her family, it couldn’t have been all that bad.

He mentioned the injection, the nanobots - and slowly, languidly, she blinked. Registering all that he said - and laughed. The sloppy easy grin returned, and she gently pushed him. “Is that all? Rae’ika, you had me worried for a bit!” Clumsy, playful shove turned into an equally clumsy, playful headlock, her leaning all of her not insubstantial body weight against him. “I’m not going to leave you over that. It does explain a lot, though,” a tightening of her arm around his throat, all the better to hold him in place as she forcefully ruffled his hair. “Back then, we were horrid, weren’t we?”

She turned him loose, only to drape herself back over his lap. Closed her eyes, swallowed the last bit of her laughter as she shifted. Opening her eyes to look up at him, the grin was still there, easy, reassuring. “You knew back then I could’ve killed you in hand to hand. So y’did what thought was best. Can’t fault you there. I was planning on killing you, by the way,” a nonchalant add, “If you were weak. Couldn’t run the risk of having a weak partner. Not in this line of work.” A bit of seriousness in her voice now - but it was quickly overrun by her laughter again.

“I’m still not entirely sure that the dar'jetii didn’t plan something like this out.” Hand trailed over his, moving it to rest against the curve of her stomach, his long fingers threatening to dip into the nest of her navel. “Seems too…easy.” Concerns she’d voiced before, that he’d hand-waved away. And at the time, she’d been content with his explanation. Sometimes, though, it crept back into the corners of her mind, that she was being set up. But, logic would dictate, happily, love-sotted agents were a risk. They could go rogue. Sort of like they were doing now.

“But fark it,” lifted his hand to her mouth and kissed the back of it. The paper fine healed scars from endless hours of tinkering, fresher ones from his learning to spar. “I’m happy. You’re happy. We got things to do. I don’t think it gets any better than this.”

 

[BewareTheDream]

The headlock was pure bliss. Raeth had a goofy grin plastered upon his face, because not only was Saudaji’s musical laughter one of his favorite sounds, but because it proved she wasn’t mad at him. He relished her hold on him—the feel of her muscular arm around his throat, the smell of her sweat, the smell of her skin, and, most of all, the relief of knowing she wasn’t going to leave him.

He interpreted the headlock as her way of assuring him that she would never let him go.

She did release him from her headlock, though, and when she did, he took a deep breath—not because she had choked him, but because he had held his breath the whole time without realizing it. Heart racing, it took him a while to relax again, but relax he did, with his back against the wall, his bare ass on the metal floor, and the love of his life sprawled upon his lap like a cat with head-tails.

“Yes, that’s all, ‘Dajika.” Raeth pursed his lips as though he were about to whistle, but instead of whistling he blew against the side of the nearest lekku, tenderly. Earlier in their relationship, he had struggled to figure out how to touch her hyper-sensitive lekku in a way that pleased her, but he only achieved minimal success. It was like a puzzle to him, and he became obsessed with solving it. Soon after they arrived on Mandalore, it finally occurred to him that the best touch wasn’t a touch at all.

Sometimes he blew into her earlobe. Sometimes, after eating her out until she came, he blew on her vagina as it spasmed. (He really did love watching her cum.) But now, he blew along the side of her lekku so very gently. Not for long, though; and when he was done, he rested his cheek against hers.

Saudaji mentioned how they were horrid in the past, which made him laugh. “Yeah, we treated each other like shit.” Smiling wistfully, he recalled how awful they were when they first met. He chuckled, for he realized how silly it was to remember those bad times fondly. “You know, as much as you used to hate me, I never hated you. I was obsessed with you from the start. Even when things almost got violent between us, I didn’t hate you.

“I don’t think I ever could.”

Saudaji then reminded him about her theory that Darth Azamin or another Sith had an ulterior motive for pairing the two together. Whenever she had brought it up before, he dismissed it. Now, finally, he gave it some serious thought.

“I don’t know.” Those were words that rarely ever left Raeth’s lips. “Maybe they really did have something in mind.” She guided his hand to her belly, and soon after, he began to trace her navel with the tip of his middle finger. His pinky stretched out, barely brushing against her bush, which was sticky and matted with their combined fluids.

“You know, I’m sorry that I’ve been a drukbag to you. Maybe you’re right about the Sith. I trust your instincts out on the job, but I didn’t trust them about this. Maybe you’re right and I’m wrong, but even if you’re not, I’ve got to do a better job of listening to you.

“I’m sorry, Cyare.”

Being married to her had some strange effects on his temperament.

Saudaji spoke of happiness and how things couldn’t be better. Her words put him at ease. “Yeah. As long as I’m with you, things can't get any better.” Smiling, he wrapped both arms around her hot body, snuggled into her more, and touched his lips to hers.

*****

Eventually, after much loving, cuddling, and kissing, Raeth and Saudaji managed to pry themselves off each other. Naked, achy, and sticky, he padded to the cockpit’s main console to get to the comms. The blinking light from Sebastian’s many attempts to hail them had ceased about an hour ago.

Raeth re-opened the line between the ship and the droid. “Sebastian, come in.” There was no answer at first, but Raeth assumed Sebastian wasn’t in trouble, and was instead giving him the silent treatment.

“Sebastian, come in. I know you’re out there. Can we pick you up, or what?”

There was several seconds of silence before the droid responded. “I grew tired of waiting for you, Master, so I started to walk back to shore.”

Turning toward Saudaji, Raeth shrugged. “Of course you did.” He didn’t need to check the scanners to know that what Sebastian said was true. “Well, we can pick you up now. Hold your position and we’ll be there in a jiff. Do you have the package?”

“Of course I do.” Raeth heard the extra snark dripping from the droid’s tone, and smiled. He’s learning.

“Fine work, Sebastian. We’re on our way.” Before getting dressed, Raeth programmed the Patient Pylat to hover to Sebastian-V2’s current position; he hadn’t gotten far.

As the ship turned, he picked his boxer-briefs up off the floor, and began to watch Saudaji while getting dressed. Earlier, she said that their lives couldn’t get much better, and he agreed. However, at that moment, it occurred to him that there was one, big sore spot in their lives: Prime. Seriously, fark that guy. One way or another, I’m going to fark him up so bad even his clones will feel it.

He didn’t say that out loud. Instead, he said, “Time to pick up our boy and see what Prime sent us.”

 

[Apollo Wilde]

His next words made her still on his lap. She didn’t have to strain any of her senses to hear him or what he was saying. It was in how she was going to respond. Turning through the pages of her memory, she lightly drew ever widening circles on the top of his thigh, shifting so that her breasts weren’t as crushed against the tops of his knees.

How had she felt back then? It made her cringe to think back on it: the present, or even the most recent past, was far more enjoyable to spend time thinking about. Since they came clean to each other. And here he was, still with surprises.

“…I thought you looked down on me for being dumb.” Said lightly enough, but the words were heavy for her. How could she have explained how she felt that everything he said to her was dripping with disdain? That the only way that she felt she could one up him was using her body? It’d been calculated at first; thinking to throw him off by playing the sex kitten. It was often assumed that was a Twi’lek’s natural disposition. She wouldn’t have ended up on Mandalore if that hadn’t been the case. And it had worked for Saboten - but Saboten also had the benefit of her pheromones to push things along. And Saudaji herself hated it. Not that sex couldn’t be transactional, but at worst, it felt like she was failing, using the last trump card she had. And to have instantly used it with him…

“And I thought that the only way I could ever get one up on you was by using my body. Figured if you thought I was dumb, then I could keep letting you think that. But I hated it.” A shift as she turned up to look at him, one eye playfully closed. “Not the fucking: you were always excellent at that.” No empty flattery: Raeth had, and was still, the best lover she’d ever had. His attention to detail, the alacrity he had in the smallest things made her feel, when she allowed herself to be open, cherished. Truly loved. She’d been scared at first, at how deft he was at manipulating her body. Figuring out what worked and what hadn’t. And she’d felt outclassed there, though her hedonistic leanings (which he in his own way encouraged) allowed her to go along with it, to enjoy that heady rush of perfect orgasms, or at least ones she thought were perfect until the next one he gave her proved that no, they could still be better. “But you were so farking smug. Always felt like you were looking down on me.” Traced the line of his kneecap. “And what made it all worse was that I didn’t feel like I had the opportunity to show what I really could do - and put you in your place. I was dancing on your palm all this time. But you know what else I also hated?”

She rolled over now, her back against his legs. “How farking handsome you were. You’d smile and my knees would just give out on me. I wondered for a long time if you used that smile on purpose, because there’s no way you’d do anything and not know how it’d end up.” It felt good, getting it all off of her chest. Though she’d long stopped holding a grudge against everything, the realization that they had handled their apparent mutual attraction like two idiot younglings was enough to make her laugh again. “We handled this all like younglings,” she said, reaching up to caress the side of his face. “It would’ve been easier if we were honest to begin with. But that would have been too easy, and we don’t always do things nice…” A bit of heat in her voice as her hand slipped between his legs to run lines inside of his thighs, “and easy.”

Seemed like the time for words had passed.


___

“Are you sure Sebastian can’t overcome his programming and kill us both in our sleep?” Her voice was somewhat muffled as she pulled her loose tank back on. “There’s got to be a limit to how much even droids can take.”

She’d saved her top for last - panties and pants had to be first. And to ensure that they wouldn’t be moving any time soon, she laced up her boots next. As much as she loved them, they were a pain to remove quickly. Hopefully it would send the impression that they had to keep their hands off of each other long enough to actually get to the task at hand. The routine of dressing helped her to get her mind to focus on the task at hand. The concern of an impending threat to her family - and the underlying thread that she would probably have to leave. It had been so different this time: actually felt like something closer to home. She’d missed the large family; had suspected that her inherent loneliness had driven those first few passionate encounters between herself and Raeth. But on the other hand, her feet were…naturally itchy. It was hard for her to stay in one place for long, and that was when she wasn’t trying to escape responsibilities dumped on her shoulders.

Fully dressed now, she paced back over to the pilot’s chair, leaning over his shoulder, watching the water. She hated what she had to say next, and her mind cycled through the best way of broaching it. It was too personal for her to take on the distant tones of a commander. “Do you think there are more of you out there?”

She didn’t mince her words: her underlying question was clear: Do you think there are more clones out there?

The word was foul in her mouth, her mind. The truth notwithstanding…she couldn’t think of Raeth as a clone. False memories aside, what they had experienced together was all that mattered. What made him into his own being. “Brothers,” she said, almost inaudibly, to soften it. Technically not correct, but technically not wrong, either. Then, to lighten the mood, she added, “You know, I bet if we found 5 more or so, including Prime, I bet we could make a killing on the porno holo market. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that.” A small grin, trying to keep it light, as she gently elbowed him. “We could do a whole series.”

 

[BewareTheDream]

“You needn’t worry about Sebass,” Raeth said, chuckling. “I programmed him, after all, so his code is perfect. There’s no chance he’ll go rogue on us.” Humble Raeth was already gone, and Cocky Raeth was back with a vengeance. However, he was sure to rediscover his humility and vulnerability the next time he and Saudaji made love or just cuddled, for it was in those moments of raging passion or tender intimacy that he bared everything to her.

For now, though, Raeth was acting like a jackass again. He flashed her that smile that she admitted made her weak in the knees. It looked a little different, though—it was like he trying to amplify the charm, turn it up to 11. He was tryharding it, and the result may have looked silly.

Suddenly, his smile wavered, and his expression told Saudaji that something serious had just occurred to him. He even stopped moving for a few seconds, the shirt he was about to put back on still in his hands.

“Sebastian wouldn’t go rogue because of a programming error, but he could go rogue if Prime hacked him. Fark, it would be like what I did to Virak’s droid on Thyferra.” Shaking his head, clearly displeased with himself, he put his shirt on. After his face popped out of the top of the shirt, his eyes searched for hers. “There I go doubting your instincts again. I’ll have to update Sebastian’s anti-malware; not just his, but for all of my droids.”

Raeth was so disturbed by what Saudaji pointed out, he did not stare at her like he usually did when she dressed. She had the loveliest tits he had ever seen, but for once he didn’t watch them jiggle within the tank top she had just slipped on. He also didn’t watch how she pulled her lekku out from her top, one of the many little things he loved to watch her do. Instead, he finished dressing in silence.
Then Saudaji said something else that made him stop in his tracks. His expression was blank, and it didn’t change when she spoke the word “Brothers.”

“I have no doubt there are more of me out there.” Raeth retrieved his forearm-mounted datapad and strapped it on. “The Sith love doing things big. Their secret fleet is gigantic, and it’s filled with gigantic battle ships. They’ve been constructing station-sized superweapons for ages. They’ve even had plans to build a moon-sized super weapon for a long time, but haven’t figured out the logistics. Yet.
“I’m sure that the facility we destroyed on Ch'hodos wasn’t the only one. There are more of me out there.”

Raeth shuddered, for the memory of his encounter with the pathetic, partially formed clone that slopped out of one of the hundreds of tanks they found played through his mind like a twisted family video. (That was one of the problems with having an eidetic memory—he didn’t just recall every detail of the good experiences, but the shitty ones, too.) He remembered how the clone wailed—that sound was anguished and inhuman. He remembered the stench of the slime that poured out of the tank, covered the clone’s hairless body, and dripped down the long drains built into the metal floor. He remembered that stench as though it filled his nostrils right now.

Raeth slapped a hand on the nearest console, steadying himself against the wave of dizziness and nausea that suddenly assailed him. Forcing himself to take deep, steady breaths, he waited for the dizziness to pass, which it did only a few moments later.

After he felt okay again, Saudaji attempted to lighten the mood by making a joke about clone orgy porn. Raeth usually laughed at her jokes, especially the filthy ones, but this time he stared at her without a smile on his face.

“Would you fuck another me? Would you fuck Prime?” There was no anger in his tone, only fascination. By this point, the Patient Pylat stopped flying and hovered over a new spot above the ocean, for Sebastian-v2 was directly below. But Raeth made no move; he appeared to be paralyzed by thought.

“You know how, now and then, I ask if you’d be interested in having sex with someone else while I filmed it? One of these days I would like to see you fuck another guy. Or a woman, which would be just as hot, if not moreso. I’d start a collection of videos that you and I can watch together, but only if you were into that kind of thing.

“I don’t know if I’d be jealous of you fucking another me, though. That’s…something else, entirely. And if you fucked Prime? Huh.”

The comm light blinked and chirped, indicating that Sebastian was hailing them. And yet again, Raeth was distracted.

“And if a bunch of me fucked you at the same time? Would I end up fucking myself...?” Saudaji’s joke sent him plummeting down a rabbit hole of clone sex possibilities.

 

[Apollo Wilde]

“Glad I could help…?” Technical things, outside of quickly hotwiring methods of transport, were still beyond her. Less about her ability to learn things and a stubbornness to refuse to learn them, she was more than happy to let Raeth do the heavy lifting on those things. As she trailed off, she watched his face go from smarmy to serious - and felt herself turning on the same route. It would make sense - if Prime was who he said he was (and so far she had no reason to doubt that), the idea of simply overriding everything electronic that Raeth had his fingertips would make sense.

“It’s a good precaution, but I think if Prime was really after…killing us, he would’ve done so already. He’s had the opportunity.” A flash of Raeth in the shower, bound, and she shook her head. “Though I wouldn’t put it past him to be listening in, as a way of insurance.”

So, he thinks that there are more out there. It makes sense. She kept those thoughts to herself, the only sign that she heard him a tightening of her lips. She could understand the logic of it all, admit that it made sense from the Sith’s perspective. Any attempt past that to make it more personal, her mind attempted to shut down before she could think on it further. Just the idea of more men wearing the same face, perhaps with the same memories, out there, living their lives, or on missions of their own. A veritable army, unknown in the shadows, perhaps coded, programmed, for specialities that were beyond Raeth’s capabilities. But wasn’t he supposed to be the most complete, the best of the best? So would these men be mere shadows of the man she knew, a quarter of the intellect, if even that? The galaxy was large enough that it was possible, possible to go a lifetime, lifetimes, without running into them.

And as her joke fell flat, she found her tongue again. “I was joking,” she waved her hands in an uncharacteristically panicked mood. Raeth was usually the one that made the ribald comments, things she either humored or shrugged off with a long, dramatic sigh. She’d meant no harm by it.

“I…” The start of a sentence. Of thoughts running round her head. She hadn’t thought of Prime in any kind of sexual manner. She’d seen his face, heard his voice, but the impulse to kill, destroy, and maim someone that had caused harm to her and Raeth overrode everything else. “I want to kill him,” she said, flatly. Not insulted by Raeth’s line of questioning. “He hurt you. He hurt us.” It sounded like she was dodging the question, something she reconciled with her next words: “If I have to to get closer to him to figure out where to put the knife, I will.”

A pause as she pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth. “I don’t really…” A swallow. Raeth was used to her hedonistic excesses - but the underlying fact was that they had been with him. Outside of the bubble of the two of them, in the past, sex had been transactional, something to be approached with the same chill that she took a job with. Sometimes it was fun, but most of the time it was something that needed to be done. Even when awash in the pheromones of those sentient beings that could ooze them, she showed an unnatural sense of restraint, almost as if she were immune. “I don’t mind doing these things with you,” and she emphasized her point by jabbing him with her elbow. “But if you’re not involved, I’d rather not.” The last was said with enough chill in her voice to drop the subject entirely - even if she had brought it up.

“Sebastian is hailing us,” simply said. “Better answer him. So we can focus on the issue at hand.”

 

[BewareTheDream]

Absently, Raeth responded to Saudaji’s suggestion that Prime was listening in on them. “I run multiple bug scans on the Pylat every day and haven’t found anything. Speaking of which, I’ll run another battery of scans after we pick up Sebass and the package.

“If Daddy’s spying on us, he isn’t doing it with technological means, I can tell you that much. I have no countermeasures against clairvoyance, though, but since he’s supposedly a Force Void like me, then that shouldn’t be an issue.” Another worrisome possibility popped into his head just then. “Unless he has Force seer as an employee or prisoner. Fark.”

For several seconds, Raeth stood there, stared at nothing, and considered ways to safeguard the Patient Pylat against mystical intrusion. It ended with him rubbing his eyes in annoyance. “I hate having a father.”

Even though he was concerned about Prime and, now, the possibility that a clairvoyant might be spying on them, he pushed those worries to the back of his head when Saudaji explained her stance on sex with other people. He nodded, silently telling her that he heard her loud and clear. However, he couldn’t help but imagine a handful of Raeths taking turns pleasuring her—it was a new, XXX special feature that played in the red-light district of his mind.

But Saudaji said she wasn’t interested, so that twisted fantasy would remain a fantasy.

Her elbow to his ribs caused his mind porn to shut off, for now. “Hm? Ah, you’re right. We’ve got work to do.” Finally forcing himself to focus, he left the cockpit with her to go to the cargo bay. After they left, a couple of small janitor droids rolled in to clean the traces of their passion from the floor, walls, and other surfaces.

In the cargo bay, Raeth retracted, rather than lowered, the loading ramp, revealing the crystal waters around Te Ika below. As a breeze entered the hovering ship and tousled his hair—which had grown a little shaggy since arriving on Mandalore—he spent a few moments admiring the ocean and the island. It looked like an idyllic vacation hotspot, and yet the people who lived there never really relaxed. The irony made him chuckle.

Using his datapad, he took control of the electromagnetic cargo crane attached to a rail on the ceiling. Because he couldn’t see the sunken Sebastian, he used the radar displayed on his screen to judge how to position the magnet and then lower it toward the ocean. He continued to lower it for many seconds after it submerged.

“You can stop it there, Master,” Sebastian said over the comms. Raeth stopped the crane then activated the magnet. “I’m on,” the droid announced.

Raeth grinned at Saudaji. “Hey, I hooked a giant, metal fish!” He began to reel Sebastian out of the water. “We won’t be able to eat him, but we can mount him over our fireplace."

Fat drops of water rained off Sebastian’s bulky body and splattered onto the floor after he was lifted into the cargo bay. As gently as a parent handling their child, Raeth set the droid down. He then deactivated the magnet, reset the crane, and shut the bay door.

“So, what did you bring us?” Raeth asked, referring to the black, football-sized pod in the droid’s arm.

Sebastian didn’t answer, and instead held the pod out. “As Master commanded, I scanned the pod for explosives or other threats. You two left me down there for hours, so I had more than enough time to run multiple scans. I found nothing.”

Raeth plucked the pod from the droid’s hands and examined it from different angles. “Nice job, Sebass! You know how much I appreciate caution and thoroughness. Speaking of which: It’s time for Sebastian to go night-night.”

The droid shut down immediately after hearing its owner speak the right command phrase. Raeth left him in the middle of the bay to place the black pod onto his workbench, where he began a series of his own scans. Sebastian’s scanners were good, but the scanners aboard the Pylat were much better.

While the workbench ran its scans, Raeth returned to Sebastian, popped open a panel at his back, then connected some wires from his datapad to his droid. “I’m updating his anti-malware,” Raeth explained to Saudaji as his fingers danced on his touchscreen. “What you said earlier made me realize that I should update all my droids’ software, regularly. The Pylat’s, too.”

For the next hour or so, Raeth was busy with programming and scans. Finally, after Sebastian’s anti-malware was improved, and once Raeth was sure there were no deadly surprises hidden inside the package sent by Prime, he opened it. A tiny data chip was the only thing inside.

The chip was inserted into a “burner” datapad that was disconnected from Raeth’s network. The data contained within was only a few words: Tonnover Frimkin. Tanaab.

Raeth guffawed. “’Tonnover Frimkin’? What a stupid name. Looks like Prime is sending us off on another scavenger hunt. (Hopefully this one won’t be traumatic like the last one, though.)”

Using his wrist-mounted datapad, Raeth brought up the galactic map and then projected it as a hologram above his outstretched arm. The planet Taanab was highlighted in a blinking yellow light, and beside the map was some basic text about it, like how it was an agriworld in the Inner Rim region.

Raeth tapped his screen a few times to make Zeltros blink, too. The two planets were not that far apart. “If you want, we can swing by Zeltros on our way to Taanab. I know it’s been a while since you’ve seen Saboten. Maybe you’d like to introduce her to your new husband?” he suggested with a grin.

 

[Apollo Wilde]

A press of her tongue to the inside of her cheek as she listened to Raeth speaking. She knew to trust him when it came to the electronic side: even though she was still embarrassed to admit the gap in her own knowledge, the fact that she left it up to Raeth spoke volumes to her trust in him. If Prime wasn’t listening through electronic means…

“He may not be listening in through the tech, but there’s more than one way to skin a vro-cat.”

She’d kept the rest of her thoughts to herself.

The Pleasure District was a hub of secrets - information coming in, passed from lust-loosened lips to receptive ears. It was a glittering trove of knowledge, if you know where, and who, to ask. Though the village operated largely outside of the bounds of the Pleasure District, Saudaji was savvy enough to know who to ask. And maybe she’d end up having to ask, if this turned out to be a wild bantha chase. Though something told her that it wouldn’t be.

“I’m still trying to figure out how he found us here.” Less of a question; more of an admission of her own idiocy. “Spooked us right into his waiting hands, I bet,” she growled, her fingers tightened on Raeth’s headrest. Another low growl, and then a defeated sigh. She could spend valuable time beating herself up, or coming to the rationalization that she did what she thought was best, that they were protected, that Raeth had, if not flourished, grown a bit.

She’d have more time to chew on it - while Raeth was running his scans and updating software, she would offer little by way of conversation. It wasn’t a silence that was threatening or cold, but simply thoughtful. She could run over all of the would have, could have, should haves, but she wasn’t on to dwell endlessly in the past. It never got her anywhere good. “At least the village is protected,” her loyalty, again, towards her family. “Arrggh!” She finally let out, scrubbing at where her lekku started, near her temples: the gesture would be similar to a human grabbing handfuls of hair in frustration. “I can think and think and think about all of this, Rae’ika, and get absolutely nowhere! How did he find us, how is he keeping tabs on us, what does he want? Got us just sitting here, waiting - when I get my hands on him….”

Her hands yanked away from her head, clutched in the air as if she was strangling someone. “Death would be too easy!”

An impotent, childish stomp against the floor, and a deep breath. A sigh - reconciling that she had to wait. They both did - at least, until Raeth pulled up the message. “Oh, shabla; more riddles.” Thinking of the last clue that they were left, the corner of her mouth tightened. “I don’t like it. And this is more osik on top of an already steaming pile of it,” she jabbed a finger defensively the screen, but was careful not to touch it. “Skip Zeltros. Let’s get this taken care of.” A beat - then, realizing that she could have come off as brushing off his joke, she allowed a gentle smile to cross her face.

“Saboten travels - Zeltros is one of her places: when she wants to take it easy. But she works just like I do.” Leaning down, she kissed the crown of his head. “We keep in touch."

A confession, but one still somewhat shrouded. There was the desire to want to tell him more, but held back by what she could and could not actually say. Of course she knew of Saboten's travels in the Pleasure District; that she had the ear of someone powerful. More than that, it was vague; she suspected it was not just for Saboten's safety, but for her own. Shifting, she flopped down, rather unceremoniously, in Raeth's lap. "But I appreciate the gesture." Craning her neck up, she pecked his lips gently. "We'll tell her - though maybe by the time we get back, she'll already know."

 

[BewareTheDream]

Even though Raeth barely took his eyes off his datapad, he listened to every word Saudaji spoke, including what she said about Prime finding them. “If I were Prime—well, genetically speaking, I am, but you know what I mean—I would have used Saboten to find out more about you. Maybe she came to the island while he was tailing her.

“I don’t know; I can only guess.” It was rare for Raeth to admit he didn’t know something, and Saudaji could tell that even though he was trying to be nonchalant about it, it was bothering the hell out of him. Nothing bothered him more than Prime.

“All I can say for sure is that the Pylat and everything in it is clean,” he said after updating Sebastian’s anti-malware and initiating a reboot.

Raeth was in the middle of doing some research on the planet Tanaab and the system it was in when Saudaji deposited herself onto his lap. Instantly, his research was forgotten and his attention shifted to her. A bright smile tugged at his lips, and his arms wrapped around her body, where they belonged.

Saudaji pecked at his lips, but she should have known that Raeth wouldn’t be satisfied with just a peck. His mouth chased hers, and the two of them made out for several minutes. By the time he pulled back, he was breathless and tingly. “Hrrmm.”

Opening his eyes, he admired her face, as well as her pale, jade skin. His gaze drifted to her neck, and seconds later his mouth followed. Decadently, he savored the taste of her neck while pampering it with kisses and licks. His face nuzzled her neck when he spoke next.

“You know, I’m actually disappointed we’re not going back to Zeltros. Some of my fondest memories took place there, or in orbit around it.” In his mind, he replayed their first meeting, the first time he saw her cry, and the first time they made love—the glowing planet was outside the Patient Pylat's viewport, filling the cockpit with soft, pink light, when Raeth entered Saudaji for the first time. That memory combined with the fact that he and his beloved were presently in a similar position made him stiffen; Saudji could feel his growth against her bottom.

He didn’t try to take her clothes off, however, for they had work to do. Still, he indulged himself by kissing her ear and using his tongue to tickle the inside before drawing his face back and looking her in the eye.

“How much time do you want to take at the village before we head off-planet?” he asked before kissing her jaw. "Will they want to party, by the way? I wouldn't mind partying before leaving." His hands dropped to her hips, and he pulled up on them, wordlessly asking her to get off his lap. If she stayed there, they’d likely make love again.

Sebastian, who had been standing nearby, inactive and slumped, stood up straight all of a sudden, for his boot-up sequence had just completed. He looked around, saw Raeth and Saudaji getting off the floor, and then continued scanning the cargo bay. “I do not detect any ejaculate, so I presume the two of you were able to keep your privates to yourself, for once.”

“Right you are, bud!” Raeth responded, now back on his feet. “If you would be so kind, put the package into the disintegrator. This, too.” He ejected the chip from his datapad and flicked it at the droid, who caught it in his open palm. Raeth was sure the chip didn’t contain any secret messages; all it had was the name of a person and their next destination. “We’re flying back to the village, and then we’re going back into space.”

“Understood, Master.” Sebastian stomped off to do as he was told while Raeth and Saudaji made their way to the cockpit.

On the way, Raeth pinched Saudaji’s ass and grinned. “A little while ago, you told me about marriage tattoos. What did you have in mind?”

 

[Apollo Wilde]

“Some good news, at least,” murmured against his lips as he turned her loose from the kiss. She was referring to the ship and Sebastian being clean; at least their main “hub” wasn’t compromised. Not that she suspected anything about their home being bugged - but dealing with this…anomaly was enough to make her paranoid of the most familiar things.

A mention of Zeltros; the feeling of his erection growing against her thighs. She gently tweaked his nose. A good love-making session would be welcome - it’d be more than enough to chase away the shadows starting to creep into her mind - but it simply wasn’t a good idea. Not now, at least. She’d need to be as clear-headed as possible moving forward. Though Prime had a good handle on Raeth (disturbing enough), she had to have some faith that when it came to her, she could be more of a wild card. Less predictable, save for her family. A small grimace, too small for him to catch. In her life, Saudaji had precious little to cherish: her adopted family was a rock without question. Not once had she considered them a weakness, a problem for her actually loving others. If anything pinged at her, her way of life, it was always the possibility, dim as it was, that she could endanger them.

“ ‘Party’…” She rolled the word around in her mouth. That hadn’t been what she expected him to ask. Was he referring to the marriage, or their departure in general? No point in wondering. “Are you asking if they’re wanting to do a marriage celebration?” A wrinkle of her nose; not of distaste, but as if the idea hadn’t truly occurred to her. Mando’a marriages were simple things, meant to be held in the midst of battle. The vows had been enough. “On such short notice, Moreangi could probably make her Uj cake.” The rest was a bit of an off-handed shrug; a darkening cloud of her face.

Quiet, then, as she pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth. Swallowed. Keeping her feelings to herself; she was past that.

“It’s going to be hard to leave.” She was standing now, having left his lap with his silent request. Her hand lingered, fingers laced through his, a gentle squeeze before she let go. “Just when we got the place to how we liked it…” She’d been so opposed, at first, at returning home. At all of those responsibilities laid at her feet. Like falling asleep, she’d drifted into all of those old routines like she’d never left, and more than once, when her mind was clear and the night was humming with life, Raeth dozing beside her, she’d felt settled. For once. There was still that dull itch at her feet, pushing her forward, encouraging her to move, to learn more about what all was in the galaxy, but it could be quieted easier here. The lands they’d farmed, the family that had accepted her and him, even if the latter took endless convincing. It’d been a home. And at one point, he’d wanted to know if she’d be happy, if they stopped.

“There’s things to take care of,” her voice was surprisingly broken, and, self consciously, she rubbed at her throat, trying to work away the burn of tears. She was getting sentimental in her old age, “Like who’s to watch the animals, if not flat out incorporate them into their own homesteads. I think we’ve taken good enough care of everything that it shouldn’t be a problem. Might even be able to trade for them.” A careless smile. Not that she’d ask for anything for the animals - but hey, if there was something, some keepsake to be gained out of it, a touchstone of home, she’d take it. “Tattoos being one of them,” a looping back to his question, a distraction for herself. She had to keep moving forward. “It’d just be…here,” she pointed to her chin, under the plush bottom lip. “They denote what tribe you’re from, your position, who you’re married to. For men, it’s a bit different.” It wouldn’t take long for Raeth to think back on some of the men within the tribe; how some had tattoos that covered half of their face; how Saudaji’s eldest brother, To’a, had tattoos that covered his entire face, neck, shoulders, denoting his high status. “But you know…it may not be a good idea.” Another faint crease near the corner of her mouth. “Anything that might make us more identifiable, yeah?” Shifting behind him, to reach up to rub his shoulders. “Besides, we know. And the family’ll know. That’s all that counts, right?”

 

[BewareTheDream]

“Yeah, that’s all that counts,” Raeth repeated, smiling. Although they both agreed that they had been intimate enough on the ship and it was time to get moving, he still couldn’t help but indulge himself a little. He placed his hands on Saudaji’s hips and rested his forehead against hers. Sighing happily, he embraced her, then let his hands wander over her back; the backs of his hands brushed against the undersides of her dangling lekku.

The touching lasted for less than a minute, yet it expressed something timeless.

Pulling away, he smiled at her, took hold of her hand, and walked with her back to the cockpit. Sebastian-v2 was left in the cargo bay to dispose of things that may or may not have been bugged.

“If you want me to get a tattoo, I will. Like you’ve alluded to, a face tattoo would make what I do more difficult. Not impossible, just more difficult. I could hide them under makeup, or even synthetic skin for a more long-term solution.” What Raeth left unsaid is that if given a choice, he would not want any markings on his face. Saudaji knew him well enough to know how much he enjoyed his boyish good looks. She also knew that if she asked, he’d get a full-face tattoo that same day.

“What do you think about a sleeve?” He asked while gesturing at his left arm. “Do you think I could pull it off? What am I saying? Of course I could pull it off.”

Their conversation was light as Raeth returned to the pilot’s chair and began steering the Patient Pylat back toward their village. The vessel soared past the ocean, past the beach, and was over the jungle when Raeth brought up something more serious. He had noticed that something was bothering Saudaji, and he couldn’t just let it go.

“You know, we don’t need to leave our homestead behind for long. I’m certain I could convince Te Kohe to house sit for us. He loves our big screen, so he’d probably do it in exchange for access to my vid collection and all the beer in our fridge.

“Or, if you’re afraid he’d wreck our place while we’re gone, I could ask Paikea. She’s reliable, and I’m sure she’d jump at the chance. We wouldn’t even have to pay her with beer.”

He landed the Pylat in the clearing he’d been using as a landing zone for months. The volcano husk that Saudaji had originally shown him made him uneasy. He didn’t like the sulfur smell that was especially thick and pungent there, and more importantly, he didn’t like leaving his baby parked atop the remains of a volcano, so he eventually moved the ship here. It was a longer hike to get to the village from here, but one of the sensor systems he’d recently installed was only a short hike away, and there was another, smaller clearing nearby where he planned on building a surface-to-air rocket turret to help protect the people and the place he had grown fond of.

They exited the cockpit, and then exited the ship. The heat of the jungle pressed against Raeth’s face and bare arms the instant the exterior doors opened. It took only a few seconds away from the Pylat’s air conditioning for him to start to sweat. However, unlike before, he didn’t complain, for he had grown accustomed to heat and humidity. He’d never be completely comfortable on a planet like Te Ika, but for Saudaji, he’d gladly call it home.

“Regardless of who house sits for us, we’ll be back here as soon as we can,” he said as they stepped off the ramp and into the jungle. “That’s what you want, right? To come back home between missions?”

 

[Apollo Wilde]

She snorted, half in derision, half in good humor. Letting her hand slip from his, she stopped and kissed his forehead. “Don’t worry about the tattoos. If I’d wanted to keep to tradition…” Trailed off. Glanced at nothing in particular and studied it hard. A slight crease at the corner of her mouth, before it smoothed out. “If I’d wanted to keep to tradition, I’d never left.” A small smile, false reassurance. No secrets between the two of them, right, save for the gulf that was her past. That nagging feeling at the pit of her stomach - should she dredge it all up, when it didn’t matter? Why had she made such a big deal of something that silly, until just now, it’d been wading through the past, memories of a life someone else lived.



What was she still chasing after?



She had to pull away - not in revulsion, but desperate for air. A deep inhale. She’d grown to love her home now - but was it because it was home, or because she was with him? Hadn’t he said, ages ago, that he’d wanted to stop all of this, to settle? And wasn’t this an opportunity to do just that?



“…I don’t know what I want,” it was a soft laugh, tinged with tears. “It’s home, but not home. A place I remember, missed, but not it, either.” A rough exhale. Before he could exit, she suddenly wrapped her arms around him from behind, pulling him so close that she nearly bruised him. Her fingers dug into his chest, skirting the edge of painful. A desperate grasp, a banging in her heart. “All I want is you.” A hushed whisper against his ear, said so quickly, so suddenly, that it seemed to be imagined. As quickly as she’d clung to him, she let go, put distance between them. Embarassment, maybe, at the cracks in her exterior. It wasn’t so much as being sentimental; that was normal between the two of them. It had been too deep, too raw; the youngling still at the core of her.



“We’ll figure it out.” A small smile over her shoulder, brushing it all off and away. “We’ve got to get this sorted first.”

 

[BewareTheDream]

Normally, Raeth melted whenever Saudaji surprised him with an embrace. Surprise hugs from her were among his most favorite things in the universe. This time, however, he could tell there was something wrong—how could he not, when she nearly squeezed the breath out of him? The crack in her voice—an audible hint of nearly shed tears—was difficult to miss, too.

She whispered into his ear, and he shivered for more reasons than one. “You have me, Cyare. You’ve had me ever since you first wanted to kill me.” He tried to lighten the mood with a quip and a smile, as he was wont to do, but it didn’t work.

Saudaji let go of him and darted ahead. Raeth rushed after her and grabbed her hand, trying to stop her and get her to look at him. When she turned around, he stared at her for a few moments, mouth agape but speechless. There would have been awkward silence between them if not for all the sounds of the jungle life, which surrounded them as much as the heat.

Raeth knew just what to say in most situations. Now, though, words eluded him.

“I…” While searching for the words, he raised her jade hand to his lips so he could kiss her calloused fingertips. Hers were the fingers of a warrior, but he treated them as delicate treasures. Everything about her was treasured, and he showed it with every touch.

He placed one final, tender kiss to her knuckles before lowering her hand and keeping it between both of his. “I don’t understand what you’re going through. Every memory I have of my childhood home is a lie. My parents. My village. The swamp that I swore I wouldn’t be trapped in. None of those things existed. My entire childhood didn’t exist. They were all implanted in my brain.” He chuckled, ruefully.

“But you know, because of you, I don’t really care about any of that. I don’t care that my ‘childhood home’ was some vat, somewhere. If I’m with you, I’m home.”

“If you, ah, want to talk about what’s bothering you, I’ll listen. If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine, too. Please tell me what I can do for you.”

Sebastian-v2, investigating why the ramp had been left down, poked his head outside and saw Raeth and Saudaji having another one of their meatbag moments. Shaking his head, he pressed the button that retracted the ramp and shut the door.

 

[Apollo Wilde]

Reaching up, she caressed the side of his face. Leaned in, her forehead lightly thumping against his own. “Are you trying to tell me,” soft voice now, freed from the earlier threat of tears, “That you loved me from first sight?”

Teasing, soft. Not wanting to break contact, but plumbing the depths between the two of them. And there was the answer, laying glimmering at the edge of her vision. His past had been created for him. Hers had been lived. But between the two of them, they’d started their own story, re-writing, tearing things up and out. Starting over. She remembered their first meeting different, her own feelings different, but did it really matter? Neither one of them had fireside worthy stories to be told to grandchildren. What they did have was each other: that was beyond question now.

A heavy sigh - releasing herself and him from the real and imagined weight of what was on her mind. She had to be done with secrets at some point. If she kept folding her life here, on Mandalore, deeper and deeper into herself, it wouldn’t matter. Not eventually. This had only meant to be a stop-gap, a pause for them to gather their wits. A timed daydream, and it was time to wake up.

“…When I left all those years ago, I never thought I’d be back. Not like this. It brought everything back, good and bad. Bot’ika, she never stays for long. Comes and goes, passes like the seasons. But never like this. Never sets up a home. Never weaves herself back in.” She tilted her head up, looking at the sky. Felt the weight of her lekku against her neck and shoulders, the warmth of the sun against her cheeks, piercing the darkness of her closed eyelids to paint them vividly red. Another deep inhale; the air was heavy with the promise of an afternoon shower. “I was tied here more than she was. I thought I was past the point of getting sucked back in. With you here, it was like a dream, something I used to hang onto when I was a child to make things better. To make every day felt like it was leading up to something. And it’s time to wake up.”

A shrug of her shoulders. Waving it all away. “That’s the thing about this place. As wild as it is,” a hand waved to the expanse of the jungle around them, “There’s an order to it all. You’re born here, or you’re a foundling and brought in, and you’re raised and you’re trained and you live or you die or you live and you settle with someone, or you don’t, and on and on it goes.” A wave of a jade hand, as elegant as a dancer. “I didn’t want that then. I thought I may have wanted it now. Now with you. The roles I’d been brought into that had felt like suffocating then felt tolerable now. Family. The village. Our home. Made space - being a bounty hunter, feel like something I should grow out of. But we’ve got work to do.”