InsaneJournal

“You’re an easy woman to find, for someone who clearly doesn’t want to be found.” Lomea sidled up to the bar and into a stool, ordering a drink before swiveling to face Isabela. She wasn’t robed in her usual robes, but instead wore a top that was halfway between a tank and a bikini, and tight pants, both in white.

“But then, I can sense many things through the Force.”

Isabela let out an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. She took a sip of her drink before turning her attention to Lomea. “If you’re going to try and give me advice or lecture me or something, don’t waste your breath.” Isabela herself was clad in a bikini top and short shorts.

“I am here to drink in solidarity,” Lomea replied. She took her drink as it was presented to her. “Emotions are a pesky thing, are they not? My people revel in them, overly much at times. And yet, they can still ruin one’s day.”

She took a sip. “At least, when those emotions are because of someone you got too close to. There is a reason people call it a weakness.”

“Thank the Maker. I’d probably have punched you if you tried to give me advice or something.” Isabela down her drink and ordered another. “I don’t find them a weakness, just incredibly annoying, and I want no part of them.” That was a lie, but Isabela was trying to convince herself that Lara would find someone better. Maybe she’d go back home and hook up with Sam.

“Love isn’t for people like me anyways. I’d rather just make a home here on this planet. This place is right up my alley. Pleasure all day every day? I’d be set for life here.”

“Mm.” Lomea knew a lie when she heard one, but she let Isabela have that for now. “I think I’d get bored eventually. It would all be the same in the end, at least on the ship one might visit different planets.”

She stared down into her drink. “There are really only two choices. Love no one, or love them as hard as you dare, lest they be gone the next day. I do not recommend the option that lays in the middle.”

“I’ll opt for the love no one, thanks.” And Isabela drank to that when her new drink arrived. Of course, it was easier said than done, but she knew it was better this way. “A life of debauchery is what I’d been living before showing up here. It was good enough for me. Though I could use a ship of my own to make it complete.”

“We could take over the Enterprise,” Lomea suggested. Like many things she said, it wasn’t entirely clear as to how serious she was. She took a long sip, and then stared up at the ceiling and the sky past the skylight.

“Her name was Elsa. I took her as an apprentice, but she… tempered some of my darker impulses. She meant enough to me as a friend, that I delayed in sharing my true feelings until it was too late. The nebula took her back.”

She looked at Isabela out of the corner of her eyes. “Be alone, and forever wonder what might have been. Or take a chance and enjoy something, no matter how fleeting it might be.”

Lomea wasn’t exactly someone who shared her feelings that easily, but she’d already had several drinks before she’d come here. Seeing people enjoy themselves, imagining talking Elsa into a swimsuit...She’d needed a drink.

She snorted, suddenly. “You know what I miss most? Our talks beneath my tree.”

“The Enterprise is a ship beyond my skill to pilot. I only understand how to pilot ships that have sails and are on the water.” The one Lara had gotten for them was way beyond Isabela’s understanding.

The revelation about Elsa was unexpected. Isabela eyed Lomea. Lomea was quite the force of nature, one she could respect. She just hadn’t thought that she’d had such feelings for someone here. But Isabela had learned that Lomea seemed to keep her emotions close to her chest.

“Alone, please. Definitely not the first time I’ve run away from such feelings.” It probably wouldn’t be the last either. But the truth of the matter was that Isabela was afraid of being loved. She’d never really experienced anyone loving her, at least not when she felt the same for them. She definitely didn’t deserve it and knew she’d just end up breaking Lara’s heart. Breaking hearts was one of the things Isabela did the best.

“Sounds like you had quite the talks with her. There must’ve been a lot for you both to discover about each other, as I assume given the nature of the nebula, that she was from a different world than you.”

“Much different. More primitive, but primitive doesn’t always mean bad,” Lomea pointed out. “Wooden ships still, like you the Enterprise was a hard adjustment.”

So Isabela would run away. “You should be selfish. Have her, then run away.”

A regret, and yet, Lomea would never have done such a thing. She could easily have used the Force to have what she wanted, but then… she wouldn’t really have had Elsa would she? It would not have been real. Or about as real as the holodeck.

“Was that a pun? Because that definitely sounds like a pun,” Isabela commented on the use of ‘hard adjustment.’ Because of course she’d try to make a joke out of that and turn conversation away from emotional things.

“No, she doesn’t deserve that.” And back went Isabela’s drink. “I thought you were here to drink in solidarity, not wade into emotional shit.” Because it was emotional shit where Isabela’s emotions were concerned.

Lomea gave Isabela a narrow look. “It was not a pun, but I should have expected you to react like that.”

Really, it was just easier to assume nearly everything Isabela said or did either had a perverted meaning to it or involved thievery. She really, really reminded her of her pilot.

She raised her glass. “So lets drink.”

“I can turn any statement into something dirty, believe me,” she smirked. Not taking things seriously also helped when she needed to ignore her deeper feelings. Like right now. A new drink was placed in front of her, and Isabela raised the glass to Lomea.

“Drinking makes everything better.” It didn’t really, but at least it could keep her focused on something else for a while.

“Yes, it does.” If only it really did. She clinked her glass against Isabela’s, then knocked the rest of her drink back. At least it made her feel slightly less pathetic for having feelings for a woman who would never return.

Isabela took a long drink, then looked at Lomea. “So, what fun have you discovered here? And I’m really enjoying your clothes. You make them look sexy.” She winked at Lomea, more than taking the opportunity to flirt to help turn the conversation onto less emotional things.

“Honestly? I have been bored out of my mind.” She even sounded bored as she spoke, turning her eye onto the other woman. “Perhaps you have a better idea of how to entertain me?”

“A hot woman like you being bored? Well, that’s definitely something we should fix.” Isabela smiled. “I have more than one idea, so perhaps something will stick?” That was almost certainly a pun.

“Or be rather sticky,” Lomea countered. She put her glass down and got to her feet. “Shall we?”

Smirking, Isabela finished off her drink and stood up, looking Lomea up and down. “Yes, let’s.”