Tahiri Veila really hates shoes (barefootjedi) wrote in starnomad, @ 2015-11-04 23:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | character: darius vandreen, character: tahiri veila, date: [62.02], location: the maw |
Who: Darius Vandreen, Tahiri Veila
When: 62.02
Where: Eclipse Station, the Maw
What: Well, it's a conversation that had to be had.
Rating: Low
Status: COMPLETE.
The maw had a beauty to it that was unique and Tahiri would be lying if she didn't admit that. She still couldn't say that she liked being at the station. It was too cold, too far out from a planet, and going barefoot, while totally acceptable, didn't hold the delight that it had at Yavin IV. It reminded her of almost the opposite of Tatooine. Like it in so many ways -- lightyears from anywhere, nobody really wanted to go there, potentially dangerous -- and yet its opposite in terms of coldness and also in light. Tatooine with its two suns held so much heat and sunshine, and while the night could be cold, it was nothing like the Maw could be. If the systems on the station failed, Tahiri knew they'd all have limited times. Like when she'd been with Anakin on the station back before he'd disappeared back into the war, and she'd been left working with the Jedi on this station. And for a while as they'd been fighting around Coruscant, she could feel him, and they were a team of sorts once again - even if it was as a larger team of Jedi - but then she'd returned and been pulled back to the station. There was talk of reuniting with the other Jedi at the Hapes cluster though, for those of them old enough to fight and Tahiri planned to be on that ship. Right now she was tracing against the transparisteel panes that over-looked the cluster, her forehead pressed against the cool surface as she considered the ramifications of everything. So much had happened since Yavin IV. She knew that Rikki Barnes had taken care of something that could have been deadly to the Jedi, and she knew she should probably be grateful. But she seemed to have lost Anakin as easily in Rikki's departure as she had in her presence. Best friends or no, she could feel the difference in how he treated her and she hated it. And Coruscant falling was huge. The sort of battle that ought to have been decisively in the hands of the New Republic. And sometimes she still had dreams, and Anakin wasn't there when she had them and she was having to figure out what to do with them. And then on top of that, Darius. She traced his name with her finger on the glass trying to figure out what on earth had happened. Why had he kissed her? She thought he found her annoying. Had he just been that desperate to kiss someone before he flew off to try to save the galaxy? And if that wasn't what it was, then what did she think about him? He was cocky, arrogant, cynical and she couldn't stand the cynicism. He was always so pessimistic about everything that it was at times disheartening. But he had survived. At least, she was certain he had. She'd seen him across the bay and then she'd run here - which was... uncharacteristic. She wasn't usually one to run the opposite direction from complication. She frowned and moved her hand so that it was flat against the glass, not tracing anything. What the hell, Tahiri? she asked herself. Coruscant had fallen. It was a mantra that would echo for a long time. The jewel of the Republic was supposed to be the most heavily fortified planet in its arsenal. And it had fallen just like every other planet the Yuuzhan Vong had set their sights on. It didn't seem to matter how many of them they killed, there always seemed to be more. And now that planet, with all its layers of life and corruption, was going to be torn apart and twisted into something else and everyone left turned into slaves or meat. The only reason Darius made it back was he wasn't going to be the one to get his gunner killed. And he had made a promise to a bubbly little Jedi whom he had caught sight of across the bay. Only maybe she hadn't seen him, because it looked like Tahiri was running as fast as she could in another direction. Which given the disarray of their failure, the jedi were likely ordering her somewhere else. He'd heard brief mention of the Hapes cluster which wasn't a terrible idea defense wise. This station wasn't either as long as the Yuuzhan Vong didn't know where to find it. But them not knowing where to find something nowadays was a rarity. He followed after her, watching her press her face up against the window to stare out into space. He could hazard what she was thinking about. Even with all he had seen, the amount of destruction wasn't on the same level as Coruscant. Even having seen the Peace Brigade's hand in the fall of some planets, Coruscant was different. It had held more lives than some systems did. She was beautiful, looking out into the stars. But that beauty was clouded with the darkness that they both knew was coming. "So I kept my end of the bargain, sunshine." he offered, hands up as he finally walked up behind her. "So what's my punishment?" She ought to have known that he would find her. In fact, perhaps deep down she'd known that running away wasn't likely to hide her for very long. The thought of it irritated her a bit, and it was perhaps an unreasonable irritation, but it didn't matter. It was something to feel other than confusion and numbness, and she turned around prepared to give him a piece of her mind, but something stopped her as she came to face him, and instead a 'peace of her mind' ended in giving him a very intense look. She shouldn't have been glad to see him across the hangar. She didn't even really like him. No. That wasn't true. She did like Darius. He'd seemed down after the mission and she'd made him smile and she'd been glad to be able to do so. But he wasn't Anakin. Was that his main strike against him? He wasn't Anakin? but nobody was Anakin. Anakin was one of the bravest Jedi that she knew. His heart and his spirit made him unique among most people and Tahiri knew that. She'd known that the moment she'd spotted him in the temple on Yavin IV and she'd gone to sit down and be his friend... something that had taken way longer than it ought to have in her opinion. Not unlike Darius, maybe. She didn't much care for that line of thought and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, maybe you're a better pilot than I gave you credit for being," she said, mostly because she couldn't think of anything else to say and suddenly all of the conversations that she'd been certain they should have after having just kissed seemed impossible to find words for. This was a new look. Granted Sunshine always seemed to put everything she had into whatever she did, and the whole force of her personality was definitely behind this look. But while Darius was actually pretty good at gauging people this wasn't exactly the reaction he had been expecting. True they didn't know each other too well and Darius was still learning to read people like the Jedi, who seemed to react differently from most people, but he had thought he at least had somewhat of a handle on the girl. Apparently not. Then again a planet had just been destroyed, it wasn't as if he was expecting her to throw her arms around him. Though the world's ending sex wouldn't have been off the table for him if she was interested. "Better? Sunshine, I'm a brilliant pilot." Darius' grin lit up at her as he stepped closer, clapping a hand on her shoulder and looking over her. It looked like she was all in one piece, no major damage. Given the results of that fight it was close to a miracle. "Looks like you made it out all right too. Look at us, keeping promises." The thing about him was then there was that smile. It wasn't as if she was the only person in the world he gave it to, she knew that she wasn't. She suspected it got turned on in any situation where he might need to get someone to be slightly disarmed and more comfortable with him, but she couldn't quite help but wonder if it wasn't a little bit brighter for her. She didn't know of anyone else that he called Sunshine, and she had made him smile when it had seemed initially impossible to do so. But she didn't even really know him at all and in the moment she was furious at herself for having kissed him back. For having not just smacked him before, because now she was here trying to figure out ... everything. "So you claim, but I'd seen nothing to back that up," Tahiri responded airily, tilting her shoulder away from his hand even though she kinda hoped he'd put it back again. It had a warmth to it that was nice. Maybe nicer than it had any right to be considering how cold she felt like the station was. But how was he to even know that? She relented slightly, tilting her head towards him and not exactly smiling, but her look softened. "I wasn't sure you knew much about promises either, but here you are." When she pulled away Darius let his hand fall away naturally, not pressing further as his smile refused to dim. Tahiri was stubborn, it was one of the reasons that he liked her, and if she wanted him to actually back off she would have just told him. In fact Darius was pretty sure there was no way he could have stopped her from telling him. But that was nice, it meant that he generally knew where he stood with the girl which was more refreshing than she might realize. She wasn't telling him to leave so really that seemed like a positive sign to him. "Now that hurts, sunshine." Darius chuckled as his hands moved to his wounded heart. "I happen to be very good at keeping my word." "But now you know that I'm an excellent pilot at least, so I'll forgive and forget." he shrugged easily as he looked over her again, just in case she shifted and revealed some injury that she'd somehow hidden or that he had missed. But no, the jedi was all in one piece. "So what has my favorite Jedi decreed my punishment to be? I'm pretty good at begging for mercy." "It isn't as if I've had much time to come up with a punishment," she said quickly, trying to avoid looking at his smile. "But I'll make note that you're decent enough at piloting, and that you at least in some cases seem to keep your word." She knew she was being a little stand-off-ish, but she was struggling to know what to do with everything and she was suddenly incredibly awkward. It was like she didn't know how to break the ice and say 'but you kissed me', or 'what does that mean, were you just kissing me'? Or even if she wanted it to be something beyond kissing her. She'd never really had this problem before and it was incredibly frustrating. Usually she knew exactly what to say, in fact probably said too many things. What was keeping her quiet now? She dropped her arms to her side and glanced out at the maw and decided to just stop bouncing around things: "You kissed me." "I did." Darius let the smile slip aware, settling into a more neutral expression. He had wanted to kiss her and from the way she had reacted honestly he was of the opinion that she had wanted to kiss him back. Then again he could have been wrong. But at least she wasn't dead like the last girl he had kissed, so really he would take this awkwardness of watching her over having to leave her body behind to be blown to pieces. Still he wasn't used to seeing Tahiri look this lost. Granted the galaxy had been shaken by this battle and he had seen as much of it as he had. Add in the fact that they really didn't know each other that well and he had no reason to expect that she would be any other way. So he turned off the charm and reached out, touching her chin lightly to guide her face back to look him in the eyes. Once he saw hers, he let his hand drop. "I did. And I'd do it again if you wanted me to." Tahiri's cheeks flushed hot, because she did kind of want him to. It had been a nice kiss, and the connection had been nice, and he had a really pretty smile, honestly. But at the same time she had no idea what he was expecting. It wasn't what she'd thought about when she'd thought of her first kiss. It hadn't been who she'd dreamed about her first kiss being with - granted it seemed unlikely she'd ever get a kiss from him - but it hadn't been a bad first kiss at all. "I don't - I mean - I -" She took a step back so he wasn't so close, but she didn't drop his gaze. She had faced down things far worse than Darius Vandreen in her lifetime and walked away from them. He wasn't so terrifying, he was just an unknown, and he'd be even less terrifying if she could honestly say that she didn't want him to kiss her again. If she could honestly say that she simply didn't care at all. If she could honestly say that she wasn't still at least a little bit in love with Anakin Solo who was bright enough to light up the entire sky without any additional light. Then again, she'd grown up on Tatooine and she was used to two suns. If Darius could even be counted as a sun. "I'm not just here to be kissed," she finally found the words, and they came out with a hint of fierce determination. She wasn't a plaything and she wasn't going to be toyed with. "I don't just kiss people on a whim, because they're there." There was a beautiful crimson blush to her cheeks and Darius really could have kissed her right then. Maybe he had a little bit of a crush but really he didn't see anything wrong with that. At least this girl seemed mildly interested in him. Rikki hadn't even noticed. Then again Tahiri wasn't Rikki Barnes either, but he didn't expect her to be. That fire had burnt out and there was no getting her back. If Darius spent his time dwelling he would have died a long time ago instead of being here to begin with. "Okay." Darius held his hands up for a moment before shrugging easily. Kissing on a whim was something he was exceptionally good at actually. And really he had kissed her because he liked her, because it gave him some kind of connection that wasn't the rage that always bubbled underneath the surface now. Tahiri was a person in his life that allowed him to see something other than raw anger and revenge, it was a nice distraction even if maybe it wouldn't last very long before she was off somewhere with the Jedi and he ended up getting himself killed just like Rikki. "So." Darius turned, leaning up against the transparisteel panes and looking over to her with a comfortable smile. "What do you want then?" Tahiri blinked. She didn't know what she'd been expecting exactly, but it hadn't been that question. Maybe more teasing, or flirting, or coercing, or... not a comfortable question. She pressed her lips together for a moment watching him and being forced to somewhat reassess who she thought he was. She'd assumed that he'd just kissed her because, and maybe he had, but this seemed genuine. "Well," she licked her lips to moisten them, somehow in the flush of the conversation they felt drier than they ought to. "A friend. Someone that I can be myself with, even if that self talks a lot, and is a little bossy, and has nightmares sometimes. I want someone I can be a better person with. Someone who is the other half of a really good team. And I want someone I can kiss and trust to be there when I need them there and who I'll be there for when they need me. And I don't want to just kiss someone that isn't a friend, or isn't a partner, and who I don't trust with all of me." She stopped. This was probably way more than he wanted to hear. Well, she wasn't going to put up with him playing around. She shrugged, her cheeks heating again with the memory of his lips pressed to hers: "Even if it was a nice kiss." For a moment Darius was quiet, taking in what Tahiri was unloading. It was a lot, and a lot of expectations that honestly he didn't have the ability to live up to. For one they would require living and he'd come to terms with the fact that if someone was going to survive this war it wasn't going to be him. There were too many people that wanted him dead and they were the people who had just taken out the most heavily defended planet in the galaxy. Jacen Solo might still be alive but he had way more resources than Darius would ever have. But Darius did like this girl, more than he liked most people. There had only been one person in his life that he would have described like that though and he had left her to die because she ordered him to. "You know, sunshine, I thought we were friends." he pointed out softly as he pushed himself up and turned to face her. There was a small ghost of a smile that didn't go away, tinged with a little sadness but if he couldn't be what she wanted then he wasn't about to lie to her. Looking down at her, he knew he was crowding her space but Darius was almost certain she didn't fully mind. Instead he locked onto her eyes and thought that they really were pretty in such a unique way. "I don't really like anyone on this station except for you. But if you're looking for someone to just automatically be the perfect everything, I'm definitely not that." he offered with a smirk. "Though I am a pretty good kisser." "That's not what I'm saying," Tahiri shot back defensively, feeling a little as if she'd been scolded. "I don't expect perfection from anyone. I just mean that I don't want - I don't want just kissing. And we are friends. But I don't know you that well and you don't know me. You have no -" She stopped short. Getting angry at him wasn't going to help, and beyond that it really wasn't the Jedi way. Indignant, she could do that, but she was feeling defensive, which probably meant he'd touched a nerve. And truthfully, over the past few months, he had been consistently around. They had talked. She had given him smiles and conversation, and a moment, no more than a moment of her time. And he'd listened, and just like right now when she'd said - she didn't want just kisses, he'd asked what she did want. When she thought back to the various conversations they'd had, there was a consistent undercurrent of respect that she wouldn't have expected or anticipated, and that didn't match the idea she had in her head of what someone like him would be like. Or even the picture she'd painted for him with her flippant words earlier. Had she really ever known him not to keep a promise? Even if she hadn't had any particular reason to get a big one from him? She sighed, pushing the anger out with her breath. "We are friends." He let the anger roll off him. This was clearly hard for her and really he didn't have any idea where she was coming from. This all seemed to be pretty new to her so he was going to hazard a guess that boys hadn't really been much of a factor for her until recently. Nevermind that he'd seen the looks that she gave Anakin Solo, far too much like the looks Rikki had given that idiot Jedi. What it was about him that drew girls in Darius had no idea. The kid wasn't really all that charming in his opinion. But maybe some women went for that earnest thing. "Well good." His smile was accompanied by a gentle laugh. "I'd hate to think I'd read you that wrong." But he couldn't be what she wanted. Honestly Darius wasn't sure anyone could. And maybe it was because she didn't actually want anyone. Or maybe she was just scared. Really it wasn't Darius' place to find out, he was fine with friends. It was better than losing her entirely in his opinion anyway. Shaking his head slightly, he reached out again to rest his hand on her shoulder. "I can't promise you any of that stuff. But I like you. And if friends is it, that's fine. Whatever time's left in this galaxy, I'd rather have you around for it than not." Tahiri tilted her head to look at his hand on her shoulder. It was warm and it was gentle, and it was easy enough for her mind to go all sorts of places that up until this year she really hadn't... and then it had always been somewhere else - Anakin. Anakin was her best friend in the world and always had been, and she had wanted, maybe still wanted something more from him. Darius was far from her best friend, but she couldn't help but think that they could be better friends than they were. She'd only known him a month after all. She shouldn't feel such a sense of loss at his easy acceptance of friends. She hadn't wanted anything more, really, had she? She nodded. The silence with which she did so, the easiest clue that things were not all right. But she didn't know how to make them all right and she'd bungled this conversation royally. She'd messed it up. She didn't even know how she'd messed it up, but she still felt like she had. Yes, she wanted friends, but she wanted another kiss. She didn't really feel like what she'd asked for was so terribly unreasonable. It wasn't as if she expected it to be perfectly that way all of the time, but ideally... Was it so unreasonable? A friend with which she connected, whom she could trust, who could trust her in return? The kisses the perfect frosting covering an already delicious cake. "I like you too, Darius," she managed, feeling like she needed to say something. Something that hopefully wouldn't mess everything up more than it already was. What Darius should do was pull back and walk away. \Still it would seem that like with most of his life Darius didn't want to do what he was supposed to do. What he wanted was Tahiri, but he wasn't the kind of guy to push for something when a girl wasn't interested. But that silence held on just a little too long for him to think that she wasn't. She had kissed him back and it had been amazing. What he wanted more than anything right now was to kiss her again. So Darius did what he wanted instead of what he should do. She liked him, he knew that she did. And maybe this was a bad move but if anything his odds were the same as before and those odds had worked in his favor once already. He leaned in, pressing his lips warm and gentle against hers. She could pull away, she could push him away, or maybe she would even accept it. And maybe it was too quick, she'd just gotten done listing out all the reasons why she didn't want to be kissing him. But he couldn't deny that having the feel of her lips against his again even if it was just for a split second sent electricity through his nerves. Tahiri caught the movement out of the corner of her eye. There was time to pull away probably, to duck out of reach, or step back. It was likely what she should have done considering that she'd just told him that she didn't want just kisses, and he'd just said that he couldn't promise her any of the things that she'd asked for. She didn't think it was unreasonable to ask for a friend and a partner to kiss. But Darius had become a friend, and he'd been the one person recently who had seemed to care about her, Tahiri, and who didn't look at her scars as if it made her some sort of freak. Tahiri should have pulled away. But she didn't. Really, she didn't know how to pull away from lips that were warm and a hand that was sturdy on her shoulder, and the way everything around her blurred into a background haze and the only thing that she could focus on was gentile pressure against her lips. A pressure that said she was wanted. A pressure that followed on the heels of being listened to. And yes, okay, she'd said she didn't want kissing, but that hadn't exactly felt right either - it had mostly left her feeling as if she'd lost anything she might have wanted until Darius had pressed his lips against hers, and electricity had shot through her. Tahiri's hand went up to his neck, her slender fingers wrapping around the base of his neck to keep upright despite feeling as if she were melting into the floor. The galaxy was falling apart and the only thing she could think was she didn't want him to stop. Maybe he should have been less surprised that she kissed back than he was. The last time she had too and she had given him just as much sass as to why he was a poor choice for her. But poor choice or not Tahiri was the one person who he felt like he could actually talk to on this station, the only person he was really interested in coming back to see. And maybe she felt a little the same way because as he teased the kiss deeper she went along, hands wrapping around his neck and pulling him even closer. His arm found its way around her waist, pulling her in close till she just fit against him. The temptation for his hand to stray further was there but for now Darius occupied himself with the rushing in his ears from her lips against his. While there was still fire in his veins right now with just her pressed close to him it wasn't rage, ready to destroy and be destroyed. When he did pull away it was for air and a soft smile, a quick peck against her nose as he mapped her face in the aftermath. It'd be a sight he'd want to remember later. "Sorry, couldn't help myself." he chuckled. She likely should have punched him. She had kind of told him she didn't want to just be kissed. Then again she had said what she wanted. He'd said he couldn't do that. She'd said well, okay friends. And he'd agreed, and then he'd kissed her, and to be fair she'd kissed him back. So she really couldn't punch him. Not with any fairness behind it, and besides, his arm was still around her waist and for the first time in a really long time Tahiri had the stupid sense that she could belong somewhere. It didn't make any logical sense, not really, but she didn't want to lose the feeling either. "You have to talk to me," she said when she could finally find the words to say. She resisted the urge to lay her head on his chest, which, honestly, the desire to do so was there and it was a fight to keep from giving into it, and instead she looked up into his eyes. They were dark, and so different from Anakin's ice blue ones, but maybe they were even warmer than Anakin's in their own way. She could get used to the way he was looking at her right now. "I'm talking to you right now." Darius pointed out though even with the tricky grin he knew what she was talking about. He was far from blind, he saw how others kept their distance from her. He listened when he heard people talking behind Tahiri's back. From listening he knew a little of what happened but not all of it, half truths and whole lies really. And for a girl as chatty and friendly as the sun-shining face in front of him there were an awful lot of people that didn't want anything to do with her. Which made them two of a kind really. Keeping his arm snug around her waist, his free hand reached up to brush a curl out of her eyes. "You know you're the only person I bother talking to on this station, right?" Tahiri's breath caught in her throat as he reached up to touch her hair. Her eyes stayed on his face for a moment until she had to look down because she simply couldn't hold the gaze any longer. "I know," she said. She'd noticed. She'd noticed that he didn't spend that much time with anyone else except her, and to be honest there weren't many other people who spent a lot of time with her. With Anakin gone, Tahiri couldn't help but feel the caution from everyone else. And maybe it was unfair, but even her teachers she felt like weren't as trusting as they had been. Whether Anakin or Corran Horn had told them about what had happened when she'd gotten angry, she didn't know, but people seemed to be afraid of her. Except for Darius. "But I mean about important things. I mean, promising to tell me the truth, even if it's just 'I can't, or I won't'. I mean..." she hesitated. At one point in her life she wouldn't have doubted the things she was currently doubting. She'd grown up with the Sand People and they were hardly the type to bowl over when adversity struck. But then the Yuuzhan Vong had happened, and she'd been taken, and she'd been changed, and she could feel it, even if she downplayed it to everyone else. But there was something else inside of her - something she still didn't understand, and had nothing to do with the man standing in front of her, but he would be the one affected by it. And with his arm wrapped firmly around her waist she could find the strength to ask the question: "Why? Why are you talking to me? Why are you kissing me?" Darius raised an eyebrow at her at that question. It was valid, really, and they were questions that seemed so very her. But the truth was he didn't have a clean answer for her. There was the callous reply but that wasn't true at all. As for anything else, Darius wasn't entirely sure where honesty was. It was something he was still figuring out himself and really he hadn't expected Tahiri to give him the chance to be more confused on the subject. "You didn't really give me the option to not talk to you at first, sunshine." he teased gently, leaning in to press another soft kiss to her lips. This kiss was more like a flutter though, barely there before he pulled back with a shrug. "And I already told you. I like you. That's the only reason I really have right now." The kiss was soft and gentle, a contrast to the snug embrace of his arms around him, and Tahiri relaxed, just a little. He wasn't really pushing for anything else, and the warmth of his touch was a contrast to the coldness and vastness of space around them. With his arms around her, it all felt a little less cool and a little less vast. "You were sitting in a closet drinking the dregs out of the fuel cell of an X-wing," she made a face at him. "Of course I wasn't going to just let you sit there doing that all by yourself. And if no one else was going to talk to you, of course I was going to because you don't just let people sit by themselves and feel alone. Space is alone enough without hiding away in some corner drinking yourself into a stupor." But she didn't sense any particular deception in his statement. Which, really, when she thought about it, she couldn't really think of a time when she'd felt like Darius was being dishonest, for all he didn't really seem like the particularly honest and noble type. With her, she generally thought he was truthful, if not overly generous with information. Tonight Coruscant had fallen, and who knew about the New Republic. The Jedi would move to do something, she was certain of it, but who knew what and how much they would let her be involved. And right now she was standing with someone who liked her and who seemed to be okay with her pestering him with questions and conversation. "I'm going to keep asking you questions," she warned him as her fingers moved against his skin, and she looked up at him. Without even knowing Tahiri had gone and answered her own question and Darius couldn't help but smile at her as she did. Because while she might not know it most people did just talk to someone because they felt they could reach other. Most people walked by or never brought themselves to be involved at all. People didn't care like this woman did. Whatever it was she had done that people felt was worth driving her away, Darius was of the personal opinion that they were idiots. Then again they were mostly Jedi so that point was really already made. "Did I ask you to stop?" Darius chuckled easily, running small circles against the small of her back. It was tempting to just keep her in his arms, a distraction away from the galaxy being on fire. Maybe eventually he would have to let her go but right now they could stay like this. Maybe she would get called away but for now her attention was completely on him. "So, sunshine, what else do you want from me?" he asked, pressing another kiss to her nose. "Do I have rules to keep kissing you?" Tahiri's eyes closed with the kiss and when they opened again it was to watch his face. She stretched out in the Force, trying to sort out where he was, something that was a little challenging to do as she still tried to sort out where she was. She had started talking to him first, and it was for exactly the reasons she'd said - because the idea of anyone sitting alone sounded terrible. Maybe because she'd spent too long alone herself. A moment before she'd been wondering if she'd pushed him away again, but here she was in his arms and he didn't seem to be moving to let her go. "You didn't, but you know I expect answers. And I expect the truth, even if the truth is just that you don't know, or you aren't certain, or you'd rather not talk about it," she said seriously, her typical spirit returning with the feel of his arms around her and the realization that despite the fact that she'd royally bungled things earlier, he didn't seem to be holding it against her. "You have to keep coming back too," she pointed out. It was an obvious statement, perhaps, but he could hardly kiss her if he left to go away somewhere else. It was difficult to think when she'd spent so much time in a cockpit shooting, when Coruscant had fallen, when his arms were around her... and Tahiri breathed out and risked laying her head against his chest. It was giving in, but it didn't feel quite as questionable as it had even ten minutes ago. She was quiet for a moment, half-aware of his heart beating before she opened her mouth to say: "I'm sure there are others... I just haven't thought of them yet." "You're bossy, you know that?" he chuckled soft, his hand finding its way to her curls as she leaned against him. There was no ignoring how nice it felt to have her pressed up against him. In spite of the galaxy in flames Darius felt calm for a moment, in a way that he wasn't sure he had in months. This woman of boundless energy seemed to want him to come back and he didn't have any other recourse than to agree. Who knew if the Jedi were even going to trust him on a mission again but for now if they did, well, it was something other than the blind revenge that kept him going. Looking down at her, he pressed another kiss against her curls with a smile. "Have you eaten? I'm starving." "I'm not bossy, I have standards," Tahiri retorted, but the kiss against her hair was nice and she couldn't quite muster up the same strength of response that she'd found earlier in the conversation. And she was starving. Yes, food would mean that they'd have to stop holding each other, but it didn't seem entirely unlikely that they'd come back to this at some point. And he'd not disagreed with her either, despite the comment. "Let's go get food. Otherwise you're just going to keep kissing me," and now she pulled up and looked at him, a bright smile on her face to let him know that really... she didn't mind so much. |