Taking it slow

Aittera sat at the small dining table with a datapad in hand, trying to focus on the information scrolling across the screen with little luck. She had gone to meet her contact for a new job and found an old friend - Jean Schramme - looking much better than the last time she'd seen him. He had a new contract, a new girl, and even a new eye (the last thanks to some wonder drug); and he seemed so much more the confident, strong man she had first met a year or two before. 

And then, she had watched one of the few people in the universe that she had true respect for lose whatever respect he'd had for her in return. It was nowhere near as crushing an experience as when it had been Selus, but it still struck a damn nerve. 

She'd confided in him about Kol. Not everything, of course, but enough to bring the same kind of reaction she would have had were the circumstances reversed. She wondered how she could even imagine she really knew what she was doing. The pragmatist in her screamed every reason that she had for calling everything off while another part of her - one she thought had died a long time ago - fought back every one with 'But I need this. I want this.'

The door chime sounded, and she looked up from the datapad as Kol - his armor discarded for a simpler set of black robes - stepped into the flat and smiled at her. The pragmatist fell silent at the sight of that smile, and the other? The other rejoiced. This simply just had to work. She needed him. She wanted him. 

Aittera frowned thoughtfully as her eyes drifted down over his clothing. "We're going to need to go shopping. I need you to look like you belong on a supply freighter."

He walked over to the table to take a seat beside her. "You mean you're going to scum me up?"  

Putting his feet up on one of the other chairs, he looked over at her. "I guess I can live with that.  As long as I'm wearing clothes, I don't want to look like one of those idiots that run around with just a trenchcoat on with no shirt.  It's one thing for a girl to do - it's sexy, and you wear yours oh-so-well - but a guy?"  He made a face.

For a moment, she just...stared at him blankly; and then, suddenly, Aittera was laughing so candidly, it was like watching a complete transformation from hard-hearted smuggler to simply beautiful woman. "No trenchcoat. Check. How about a jacket you can hide your lightsaber in?"

"I could go for that.  Guess wearing it on my hip would be a giveaway, better to go with a blaster."  Kol looked over at her with a playfully devious grin. "I could also not wear any weapons and look like either a complete fool, or a total badass."

"We'll put a blaster on your hip. Only right if we're scumming you up." She set the datapad down and leaned over to give him a warm, tender kiss. It was so natural and easy, it felt like something she had done for her entire life. "So...the rest of your life is on hold now?"

"Not quite.  I've called in someone to support my apprentice during her time running the Avenger, I don't want her to feel like she has no one watching her back while I am away.  I've made most of the other arrangements though.  I will have Khor relay a message to his mother, rather than make the trip back to Kaas."

"I met with the coordinator for this job. We'll have official paperwork to make it look like what we're doing is legal, but the Cartel is known for conducting random searches. If that happens, we'll have to play the part, so for purposes of this trip, we're partners that have worked together for a couple of years. We'll figure out an alias for you."

"So I shouldn't just off them if they try to search us?"

"Definitely not. Especially on our first run. The government-in-exile is staging a rebellion, and if we tip their hand, they're going to have a much worse time of it," she explained in case he wasn't joking. "On top of that, my reputation will be kriffed, so let's try not to do that."

Kol sighed. "Fine, no killing.  Unless they're searching the ship and one of them looks at you like he wants to bend you over.  Then I'll have to 'slip' and break their neck.  Deal?"

Aittera smirked, answering with a firm, "No. If I can charm us out of trouble, settle for dirty looks. We're trying not to draw any attention, not get detained for killing a customs official."

He frowned for a moment before his lips curled into a charming grin. "I suppose I'll have to settle for making you scream for me during this trip."

A touch of color brightened her cheeks, and she stood to move nearer to him, leaning her ass on the edge of the table. "I think that's a fair trade. In the meantime, you can take me to dinner, and we can talk about what wasn't in the intel we poured over while we were trying to---well, while I was trying to kill you, and you were..."

Kol reached for her hands, using them to pull her down across his lap. "Resisting your efforts brilliantly?"

"I was going to say trying to drive me insane, but let's go with that. Makes me sound a lot more formidable and not at all like a gnat trying to kill a fly-swatter."

"I am rather good at swatting things.  I could flip you over my lap and demonstrate if you would like?"

Aittera gave him a playfully scandalized look. "No! Dinner and...talking. Talking!" 

Grinning, she leaned in to kiss him, raising a hand to cup his cheek with her palm. Once again, everything in the moment felt right...easy - so much so that she forgot to worry about all of the very bad ways this budding romance could go, and she melted against him like she had in so many of those dreams.

(( Added to Aittera and the Dark Lord ))