You Belong With Me (Al and Xander)

"Let's see..." Allistair said as he removed part of Noodle's paneling to take a look inside the little droid. He'd finally decided to take a look at the little thing, and was now crouched down beside Noodle, using his left arm to keep himself steady as he took out another bolt with the hydrospanner in his right. The bolt came free and stuck to the magnetized end of his tool as he moved it over to a small pile of bolts before dropping it off. "You've been stuttering something awful lately, y'know," he said to the droid. A sudden thought got a chuckle out of him and spread a boyish grin on his face. "I hope you haven't been running into the worktable again. That made you pretty looney last time, if I remember right." That had been rather amusing. Noodle was just a little to tall to move underneath one of the worktables in the garage, and a while ago, one of the wires that ran from his photoreceptor had gone bad. Well, the little droid couldn't see straight, and a way of running into the table at near full speed in such a way that he'd just get knocked flat onto his back. Allistair had laughed. He'd even let it happen two or three more times, and he got as much of a kick out of it those times as he did the first time. But he'd fixed Noodle right up, and the little noisemaker had been just fine. Until recently, anyway.

"I haven't b-b-b-een doing that," Noodle replied, with what Allistair decided was a notably petulant note to his voice. "Honestly! R-r-r-running around like I'm some drunken f-f-farmer!"

Allistair only smiled at that, though he tempted prodding some of the wires around in such a fashion that Noodle would get a little shock, though clearly not enough to be harmful to the droid. "If you say so," he said as he came up a little bit, throwing his arms out to either side of him as he stretched and took a quick glance around the garage. It was the late afternoon, getting into the evening, and another long day of work was coming to a close. Golden sunlight slanted in through the small windows along the top of the garage doors, falling down onto him and Kabira. They'd spent most of the day working on various things in the garage, as usual, and they'd made some good progress through the seemingly always-growing list of things that needed their attention. He sighed to himself and went back to working on Noodle.

He murmured unintelligible things to himself as he worked, as he had a tendency to do, and for a time he didn't notice anything else going on in the garage. That was until he noticed Noodle move a little bit. That made Allistair look up. The droid had turned a bit, so that his lone photoreceptor was looking in Kabira's direction. No, he seemed to be looking at Kabira. Allistair glanced over at her. She was turned around, working an engine that hung from the ceiling. Nothing out of the ordinary. Allistair's gaze returned to Noodle and he shook his head. "I swear you need a memory wipe sometimes..." But he knew that would almost certainly never happen. If it did, Noodle would more than likely loose most of the 'spice' that there was to his attitude that they all so enjoyed. Allistair shook his head again as that grin returned to his face. Noodle was safe. For now.

He kept on working, looking for what could be the culprit that lay at the heart of Noodle's stuttering problem. Suddenly, he heard noise over from Kabira's area and looked back to see that she'd apparently chosen the wrong bolt and had become a bit irritated. His brow furrowed in thought as he went back to his work on Noodle. She did seem to act odd at times. And from what he could gather from what other people had told him, it really seemed to only happen around him. Strange. There'd been a few time where he'd thought he'd seen her looking at him... differently than normal, but there couldn't be anything to that, right? Merely youthful hopes. Flights of fancy, things like that. Right? After all, what was there about him that any woman could possibly want? He was healthy and strong, yes, but anyone who grew up a farm as he had tended to be the same, and there were certainly stronger men around the Homestead. He liked to pretend that he was at least mildly intelligent, but there were smarter. And looks? There was a Zeltron strutting around the base, how could he possibly be competitive against that? No, his thoughts that Kabira might actually see something in him were merely youthful hopes. Nothing more, nothing less.

Aha! he thought as he found the source of Noodle's problems. There were areas on two adjacent wires that had worn away, and the exposed metal beneath had no protection when the they bumped together. "Let's see... Noodle, have you seen Bosco around anywhere?"

"Just follow the trail of g-g-g-g-g-g-g-" Allistair couldn't help but snicker. He'd pressed the two wires together as the droid talked, and his hunch had been proven correct. "I hope you're having f-f-fun, grease monk-k-k-k-k" Al pressed the wires together and affixed the droid with a playfully warning look.

"None of that from you right now, Noodle," he said as he released the wires and started to look around for some electrical tape to wrap them in. He couldn't find it. By the Force, he thought as he pushed himself to his feet, stretching out again as he did. "Hey Kabi," he called out to Kabira, "have you seen the electrical tape anywhere?"

Kabira had finally managed to get the panel off and was staring blankly at the wires within it with a look of consternation on her face. The engine wasn’t a model she was familiar with but it was close enough to a THVI Repulsor that Kabira could figure it out if only her brain were functioning correctly. Instead she found herself simply glaring at it, having forgotten entirely for a moment why in the world she’d even peeled that panel off. Her mind seemed to want to focus on only one thing at the moment and it certainly wasn’t the inner workings of a Sith engine. She huffed and growled at her own stupidity. “Look at you,” she mumbled to herself, quiet enough to hide her voice from anyone else, “fawning over someone who hasn’t so much as held your hand in seventeen years. Get a grip, girl.” For a moment, Kabira could almost hear her father’s voice in that statement. He would have told her to either say something to Al or get over it and move on. She sighed for what seemed like the umpteenth time that hour and gave up staring at the engine in favor of wiping down the tool she had been using. “Really. It’s not like he’s going to just walk over and profess his undying..”

“Hey Kabi, have you seen the electrical tape anywhere?”

Al’s voice suddenly cut through her thoughts and she jumped a bit, letting the tool fall from her grasp to clang loudly onto the floor. “Graceful,” she muttered sarcastically, slapping a palm to her forehead, before bending down to sweep the tool into one of her pockets. She stood and turned to face him, unable to help the ridiculous smile that immediately plastered itself onto her face at the sight of him stretching. “Tape?” Oh wow…look at his arms…. “Uh….yeah…yeah I think it’s uh…” He’s smiling. Oh he has SUCH a nice smile….he has DIMPLES. “I think I saw it over by Nikki’s bike. I’ll grab it.” Kabira spun around and headed straight for the worktable she’d been using the day she’d helped Nikki fix the power cable on her bike, her own current task of working on the Sith engine having been completely forgotten at that point. She rooted around for a few minutes in her search for the electrical tape while chiding herself for devolving into some sort of mental patient any time Al’s attention was focused on her. It wasn’t fair that a single smile from him could leave her completely unable to form coherent sentences.

Kabira finally found the small roll of black tape hidden under a pair of extra work gloves on the table and she brandished it triumphantly as she made her way across the garage to where Al was waiting with Noodle. The little droid rolled its photoreceptor up to Kabira as she approached and she shot him a look that said she’d happily kick him half way to the Republic if he said so much as a word about her behavior. Her eyes were drawn back to Al and she found her breath hitching in her throat and a shy smile worming its way onto her face as she took in the afternoon sunlight playing across his dark eyes. He had such nice eyelashes. Her knees suddenly felt like they were made out of jelly and she stopped a few feet from him, tossing the tape his way when she wasn’t sure if she could trust herself to get any closer. She wanted so badly to just run her hand through his hair even once but she didn’t want to cross that invisible line that might drive Al away. How would he react if he knew one of his mechanics had a crush on him? Would he freak out? Would it make things in the garage awkward? If Al wasn’t comfortable in the garage then one of them would have to leave and as head mechanic it wasn’t going to be Al.

As Kabira stared at those big beautiful eyes, she thought for a crazy moment that maybe the risk was worth it. What if Al really DID feel the same way and all she had to do was say something? Wasn’t what she’d felt on the bike worth the risk? Kabira opened her mouth, the words forming on her tongue. She needed to tell him. She needed to just blurt out that she thought he was the reason the sun came up in the morning. She needed…

“I gotta get back to the engine,” she said suddenly. The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them and she turned on her heel to head straight back toward her workspace. Perhaps she could just bang her head against the metal until merciful unconsciousness took over and spared her from her complete inability to just talk to Al like a normal human.

It was yet again another beautiful day on Dantooine, the sun was shining nicely out, the sky was a bright blue, and a lightly red tinged man was now half dancing half walking ever closer to the DLA's garage. It was such a nice day infact, that Xander had decided to take the long route, dancing his way down the beaten path that led to the big garage door with his headset on, playing some random dance beat while wearing tight, faded and purposely torn blue jeans, brand new sleek white tennis shoes, and a skin tight neon blue cut off sleeve shirt that even showed the lines of his rather well developed stomach muscles.

The usual 5 minute walk turned into 20 minutes, something that most would say was stupid and pointless but they either didn't or wouldn't understand the fact that....well....half dancing half walking the entire way to anywhere took time, and time well spent at that......to Xander atleast. Music still playing and moves as smooth as water, the zeltron finally made it to the garage, thankfully, the door was thankfully open and with that, Xander moonwalked in, eyes closed and a smooth smile on his face as he removed and turned off his music player. Upon opening his striking golden eyes, Xander set his sight on Allistair and Kabira, two young pups he had come across on multiple occasions, both were enjoyable to be around.

"Well hey there Al, Kabi, ain't it a beeeeaaauuuutiful day? Shouldn't you two be...ya know, out and about playin or whatever? Maybe hangin with yer boyfriends or girlfriends or somethin?" At the word boyfriend, Xander gave Kabi a subtle, knowing smile and a quick wink. As he passed Al, he gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder "I'll never get what you two get outta workin with all this stuff....oh well, to each his own i guess." With a sigh, Xander walked up behind Kabi and poked her in the sides before resting his jaw on her shoulder "So, how ya been girly? hmmm?" His teeth now showing slightly as he smiled, pheremones pouring out like a river finally breaking through a dam. "Want me to tell him for ya? Seein as ya can't articulate whenever he says somethin to ya?" It was just too much fun, it was as if the Sith weren't even occupying the planet and Xander was just on some luxery vacation.

With a laugh, the handsome zeltron man ran his fingers through his silky smooth hair, standing up and stretching, his shirt rising up enough to show his abs. "So Al, ya get used to the Ripper yet?" He was of course talking about the Mandalorian disruptor pistol he had given to Allistair a week back. After a moment or two, gold eyes turned back to the girl to his side, a whisper only audible to her and himself "And yeah....he DOES have great hair don't he?" It was a good four days since Xander gave Al a few of his hair products and from the look of things, they were workin. Xander just snickered to himself at the swirl of juicy and rather....*cough* inappropriate emotions leeked out of Kabira, something only a zeltron could ever pick up, something that the young mechanic would soon learn to hate....well....not hate, maybe uh....well...yeah...hate.

Allistair's eyebrows lifted a bit when Kabira jumped at the sound of his voice. There she goes again, he thought as she muttered to herself and picked up the tool she dropped. Is it true? Does she really only do things like that around me? He shook his head slightly. Nah, Allistair, stop looking for things where there isn't anything to be found. She likes you as a friend. Nothing more. But still, if he thought about what others had said about the way she acted around him... It couldn't be... There were certainly better men than he around the base. Like Xander...

He caught the tape when she tossed it through the air and grinned at her. "Thanks, Kabi," he said as he nodded at her in thanks. He ran a hand through his dark brown hair, which had become a bit less unruly since he'd started using some shampoo Xander had given him a few days back; though, that wasn't really saying much, since his hair was always unkempt and would probably never be 'neat' looking. But it had helped, if to do nothing more than get some of the grease that was almost always in his hair out of it.

"I guess I'll get back to Noodle, then," he said with a bit of a chuckle after she hurriedly turned around to go back to her work. He turned around and made his way back over to crouch down by the little droid again and got back to his work. "She can be funny sometimes, Noodle," he muttered under his breath as he wrapped one of the wires in tape. He picked his head up to glance over at her. She seemed to be doing fine now with her work now. Allistair returned to looking at his work on Noodle with a soft sigh and a shake of his head. "I wonder what it could be."

"Oh, well, I could probably tell you if you wanted me to," the droid replied.

"Yeah?" Allistair asked. "What if I do want you to?"

"Well, grease monkey, it's probably...." Noodle trailed off and Allistair looked up at the droid.

"Oh come on, Noodle, now's not the time for your teasing," he muttered in irritation. "Spit it out."

The droid was silent for a moment, and though Allistair wasn't aware of it, the stored images of Kabira's threats were running through his electronic mind, all adding together to form one emphatic conclusion: pissing her off would most definitely be bad for him. "The smoke," he said suddenly.

Allistair just grunted in confusion. "What, my smoke?" he asked. He smoked from time to time, but as far as he knew, he'd never done it around Kabira. He picked up Noodle's missing panel and started screwing the bolts back into place. "How would that make he-"

"Not that, you grimy moron," the droid butted in. "The... engine smoke! Everyone knows it makes meatbags like you go bad in the head!"

Allistair could only stare at the droid in amazement before screwing bolt back into Noodle's chassis. "Maybe you do need a memory wipe," he muttered as he stood back to his feet. He stretched again, and felt his back pop as he leaned back. That felt good, and had him smiling like an idiot for a second. "Well, Noodle's done," he called over to Kabira. "Mind if I come over there an lend you a hand with your work?" And, before Kabira could answer, some company arrived in the garage.

It was Xander, the Zeltron. Allistair liked the guy well enough. After all he had just given Allistair a wonderful new disruptor pistol. How could he not? "Hey Xander," he called with a smile for the lecherous Zeltron's greeting to both of them. Xander went over to talk to Kabira for a moment and Allistair smile faded just a bit. Now there was a man that Kabira probably swooned over. After all, he seemed to be better than Allistair was in almost every way. He certainly had more money that Allistair did, and while Allistair's figure was fit and lean, Xander's had been even more refined over the years. And then there was the fact that Xander was a much more capable fighter than Allistair was... Not to mention those pheromones... How could Allistair possibly compete with that?

But he didn't hold anything against the older man. Xander was friendly and helpful, and Allistair liked him for that. He looked up when Xander asked about the gun he'd given to him a few days ago and grinned. "Oh yeah. She's a sweet piece of equipment, Xander." In fact, Allistair had--in private so far--taken to trying to learn how to fight with one of his pistols in each of his hands. Dual wielding. It could be done, though it would take a lot of work, and he was far from the point where he'd be able to use it effectively in a fight, but with some time and patience...

"So," he said to the Zeltron, trying to strike up some conversation, "what brings you around here Xander?"

For the most part, Kabira had gone back to the engine and was making a good show of at least pretending to get on with her work. Her mind was still reeling and she found herself grinning like a idiot under the brim of her hat at the smile Al had given her. It was so strange the way he could make her heart race just by being near. It always felt as if she’d just stepped off a particularly fast speeder when she walked away from him, her heart fluttering away in time with her stomach. She chewed her bottom lip and smiled to herself as she pulled out a rag and started to wipe down the internal wires inside the panel she’d removed. There was some sort of thick gunk that had settled into the end caps which was probably sapping power from the engine to at least some extent and the young woman was so engrossed into trying to wipe the gunk away that she barely registered Al’s offer of help at first. It took a minute to sink in and her mind wrapped itself happily around the excuse for having Al close again when suddenly Al’s attention was turned away to someone else.

It wasn’t until Xander called out to them in a chipper voice that Kabira paused and turned to glance at him. She was immediately sorry she did as her jaw dropped a little at the sight of his perfectly sculpted abs catching the afternoon light. The light red hue of his skin did nothing to detract at all from the well built muscle there and Kabira’s stomach flopped nervously again. She turned away quickly and tried to pretend she hadn’t heard him, locking her eyes onto the wires still in her fingers and trying not to think about how tight those jeans had been. She couldn’t help peeking back over her shoulder one last time at the mention of boyfriends and girlfriends and it allowed her to catch the wink Xander threw at her. She turned back to her task and frowned. It wasn’t funny. Xander had guessed how much she liked Al; he shouldn’t tease her about it since it was pretty obvious so far that Al didn’t feel the same. Kabira wiped again at the stubborn goo that had wedged itself between two of the wires and was at that moment sticking them together. It looked like someone had at one point put electrical tape on them and hadn’t done a good job of cleaning when they’d eventually removed it.

The sudden poke to her ribs caught Kabira utterly off guard and she squealed in a most girlish way, wrenching her body forward to slap against the side of the engine in her attempt to get away from the offending fingers. Without so much as thinking about it, Kabira’s left elbow shot out in a strike aimed at Xander’s stomach, one he was most fortunate to dodge, and she wheeled on him to throw him an open glare before turning pointedly back to her work. She couldn’t bring herself though to do much more than blush furiously when his chin was suddenly settled onto her shoulder. No one ever got that close to Kabira and she found herself suddenly uncertain how to react. She felt her fingertips tingle unexpectedly and suddenly Xander’s breath was against the shell of her ear in a way that made her bite off a small whimper. She felt like her face was going to explode from all the blood that rushed instantly to her cheeks, flushing her face red all the way to her ears. She risked peering over at Xander and found her heart stopping dead in her chest as her eyes met his, as golden as the afternoon sun in a face that beamed with angelic enjoyment and promises she didn’t even yet fully understand.

Kabira swallowed audibly and turned forcibly back to her work, irritated now to find that her hands were actually shaking. Suddenly the weight of Xander’s chin on her shoulder was gone and while she breathed some small sigh of relief, she also found herself missing that closeness and the soft heat of his breath when he’d spoken and she chided herself for feeling that way. She wasn’t sure why but she felt the desperate need suddenly to curl against Xander’s chest just to see if the rest of him was that warm. The thought surprised her and she reached up with unsteady hands to pull her hat down lower in an attempt to hide the slightly panicked look that had come across her face. She could hear Xander stretching behind her and she squeezed her eyes shut to keep herself from being tempted to look. She knew somehow that if she looked, she’d want to touch and then what would AL think? Confusion wracked the young girl’s brain as she tried to work out what she was feeling. Xander was gorgeous, of course, but she cared about Al, right? She couldn’t understand why it was that her body wanted to react so strongly around the other man when all she’d ever been able to dream about day and night had been Al. A little guilt rose up in her chest at the thought. It felt like betraying Al on some level to feel that way around Xander. Only Al himself had ever been able to make her that nervous before.

Kabira found herself suddenly wanting to bolt from the room under the flurry of emotions and confusion she was feeling. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to turn around and kiss Xander or jump on Al and profess her love for him but both were becoming a fast possibility if she didn’t get out of the area soon. Her head was spinning a little and she couldn’t seem to stop the flurry of mental images that popped up unbidden. Al in his tight orange shirt, Xander in his tight ripped jeans, Al’s arm around her waist, Xander’s chin on her shoulder, Al’s smile in that afternoon sun, Xander’s bright golden eyes, Al in Xander’s current outfit…taking off his shirt….

Kabira’s eyes went wide at that last one and she leaned forward heavily to thump her head on the engine again in a desperate attempt to drive the image from her mind even as Xander’s sultry voice wafted across the space between them once more. She could only nod mutely in response to his question as she hid her beet red face from view. Had anyone seen her at that moment, she could have easily passed for a Zeltron herself, if not in body, then at least in skin tone. She could hear Al walk up to join them even over the blood pounding in her ears and a look of utter panic settled across her face. Now she was trapped between the two of them, their heavy, rich voices drifting back and forth behind and beside her and she wasn’t sure what to do at that point. Kabira had been raised with very little physical contact and she had never in her life so much as kissed a boy much less acted on any of the many things running through her head right then. The last time she’d even held anyone’s hand was when she was very young, tagging along behind one of the older children or her father and holding hands was the last thing on her to-do list at that moment. The first thing on that list was AL. Kabira sighed into her arms and thumped her head on the engine casing again. It just wasn’t fair.

Oh how fun it was to play the emotional confusion game with teenagers. Xander always got a kick out of the raging tornados better known as teenage girls and boys. "What's wrong Kabi? You look a bit red.....scared to take a risk...?" Xander whispered into the young mechanic's ear, his own hormones starting to go a bit crazy as he leaned in very close to her pretty, grease smudged face, her lips looking veery tempting. With a gentle hand, Xander placed his pointer finger on her jaw line, getting ever closer to something forbidden, his pheremones going crazy. With a quick yet subtle snap to attention, the zeltron man instead passed her lips and whispered even quieter in her ear "I'm going to help you."

A mischevious smile formed on his face as Xander stood up straight and walked over to Allistair and put an arm around his shoulders "So big guy, can i get a word with you for a sec in private?" The brief image of kissing Kabira was quickly dismissed from his mind, him deeming it inappropriate even for him, who was he to disrupt a blossoming love like these two youngins. "So.....Al......you got yourself a girlfriend YET?" Xander asked as soon as they were outside in the sun. "If you aren't.....ya know....Kabira over there....well...she's a nice girl ain't she? Why don't i ever see you two smoochin eh? You guys'd make a good couple." Perfect white teeth gleamed in the sunshine as he smiled at the young man. "That's all i guess.....oh, and do you want me to help you out? The gun i mean, help using your gun." In a flash, Xander whipped out his own mandalorian ripper. "I can teach you how to do this in no time" with a flick of the wrist, a bolt of white energy blasted out of the pistol, directly behind the zeltron, hitting a passing bird who was unfortunate enough to be flying low. In an instant, the bird's head was nonexistant. "So.....interested?"

Al tilted his head to the side a bit as he watched Xander whisper something into Kabira's ear. There was no telling what it was the man had said, though. Surprisingly, he felt a pang of jealousy in the pit of his stomach as when he saw Xander run his finger along Kabira's jaw. So perhaps there was something between them... or perhaps Xander, being a Zeltron, was just being... Xander. But still...

He looked up when Xander walked over to him, and when the older man threw an arm around his shoulder, Al found himself being whisked outside of the garage. The Zeltron's first question, which was marvelously blunt, got a bit of a nervous laugh from Allistair as he felt his cheeks starting to warm a little. And did his ears deceive him? Did Xander say Kabira? "Haha, well... y'know..." Al said as he looked idly off at the setting sun over the sea. "Kabi... I mean..." What did he mean? He sighed and looked up at Xander, though for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to meet the man's eyes. Strange, that. Al normally didn't have any problem being direct with anyone, even Xander. Why was that he couldn't make himself do so now? "She's nice, yeah... And I even like her..." Al shrugged weakly as he made a dismissive expression. "But she can do better than me, y'know? I mean... really, all I'm good at is fixing things. There are people around here that look better than me, or can fight better than I can." That little voice of doubt in the back of his head whispered to Al that Xander fit both of those descriptions. "There are people who are smarter, or stronger, or faster than me, or people with more money than I have..." He noticed a strange thing within himself as he spoke: he was getting a bit angry, though it wasn't outwardly evident. Not at those who might be better than him in some aspect--that was part of life--but at the fact that what he was saying sounded a lot like he was just making excuses. Another thing he almost never had a problem with. But why now of all times? Al grumbled incoherently under his breath in irritation as he pulled his pack of cigarras out of his back pants packet and let one up. "Point is," he said as he blew out a small puff of smoke, "I'm nothing special."

He perked up a bit when Xander asked about his gun. And then he found himself having to close his mouth when Xander whipped out his pistol and (casually!) shot a bird in the head without looking at it. Xander could teach Al how to shoot like that? Come to think of it, Xander could probably teach Al a thing or two in almost any area of combat... "Sure thing," he said in response to the question. He blew another breath of smoke out from his cigarra as he walked over to look at the dead bird's body, which was now lacking a head. Amazing. "How'd you do that, anyway?"

Kabira flinched as Xander leaned in to once again whisper in her ear. Her heart was pounding so hard she was certain the zeltron could actually hear it and his voice in her ear made all the hair on her arms stand on end. She only barely suppressed the shiver that raced down her spine as his breath traced the shell of her ear and then his face was suddenly so very close to her own. Kabira wasn’t aware that she’d turned her head to look at him, only that she was suddenly staring into gold eyes so close she could see her reflection in them looking something between scared and hypnotized. Her lips parted to let out a ragged breath as she stared at his, her mind succumbing totally to the hormones she didn’t know he was releasing at that moment. His finger touched her skin like electric current and she found herself leaning in toward him almost against her own will. Fortunately the more intelligent parts of her brain at that moment were strangely silent and all she could think was that he smelled good and she wanted to be closer.

Then, in an instant, Xander’s far too tempting lips were no longer hovering just centimeters from her own. He whispered again in her ear and then moved away, his absence suddenly making the air around her feel cold. Kabira shivered and closed her eyes as Xander moved off with Al. It took a moment for her body to bring itself back under control but when it did, her eyes snapped open with a look of sheer horror. What was I THINKING??? she screamed at herself. She had just come very close to kissing some other guy right in front of Al. If Xander hadn’t walked off, she would have been locking lips with him and the thought shook her considerably. She didn’t even KNOW Xander all that well. What could have possibly been wrong with her that she would come so close to ruining what meager hope she had of Al ever wanting her? If he had seen her kiss Xander, what would he have thought? She knew without doubt that he wouldn’t have wanted her then, that her chances with him would have been shattered if he saw her kiss someone else right in front of him. Kabira had never kissed anyone in her life. She liked Xander enough, more so than she had any right to sometimes, but her eyes had always been only for Al. If she wanted anyone to be her first kiss, she wanted it to be the dark haired boy with the dimpled smile and those perfect eyes.

Kabira thumped her head against the engine mount a few times. She could hear Xander’s mellow notes drifting in from the open door but she wasn’t catching anything being said. Her eyes snapped open in an instant and her body tensed to alertness at the sound of the blaster shot, her hand going right to the grip of her own blaster before she even knew what had happened. She turned to look out the door where Xander and Al had gone but both men were still there and still in one piece. Xander was putting his weapon away and she frowned heavily. What was that about? Did he have to threaten to shoot Al in his attempt to ‘help me’? Kabira snorted and turned back to the engine she’d been working on, fishing the dirty rag out of her pocket again. As she scrubbed at the lines, her mind wasn’t really on the task. She couldn’t help replaying what had just happened over and over again only now that Xander wasn’t so close to her any more, her mind was more than happy to supply Al’s voice in her ear and his finger along her jaw. She smiled in spite of herself and chewed her lip to try and keep the grin from spreading as her whole mind warmed to the idea. In her head though, Al didn’t pull away and walk off.

"Excuses excuses.....Ya know, excuses are like an a**hole, everyone's got one." Xander gave a small smile to Allistair, projecting a small bit of happyness towards the mechanic. With a flick of the wrist, the zeltron tossed his ripper pistol to Al "My old man told me that one once........he also told me that two is ALWAYS better than one. That one i know for a fact holds true in what he was refering to, but, i think i can safely apply it to weapon wielding." A laugh bubbled out of his perfect mouth as he ran a hand through his hair.

"As for how i made that amazing shot, it comes down to three things, well.....two really but the third is quite essential." Xander waved his hands around a bit as he talked, finally putting up three fingers "First, practice. Practice makes perfect after all, that applies to most, if not all things though. Second, confidence. If you don't have confidence in yourself, you will always have the preconception that you'll fail. And third, you need luck." Xander put down a single finger after saying what each of the three things were, he ran his fingers through his hair once more "Really, some might say that there ain't such a thing as luck, mostly jedi say that but hey, what do they know? Not a whole lot really." With a pat on the back, Xander took a couple steps towards the garage.

After a small sigh, the pink hued man dug his hand into his pocket and produced a pocket watch, one that was made of a specially cut corusca gem connected to an emerald green phrik metal chain. It was a thing of beauty really. "I suppose.....it's about that time huh? My body won't train itself will it?" The lecherous man then stopped for a bit and thought to himself as he glanced at the sky "I don't suppose you'd be interested in joining me would ya? I can teach ya how to shoot like me ooooor how to beat people up beautifully." A smile grew on Xander's face as he thought more about training Al. "You can call it learning how to "defend yourself" if ya want, but, it's all basically the same thing ain't it? Anyways, come on, lets go check on Kabi shall we?"

With Allistair at his right, Xander walked into the garage and half stepped before he realized that he had a question. "So, either of you seen Saerith around? I haven't seen her since last night, she left before i woke up..." Images of the previous night swam through his head, a dreamy smile on his face as he quickly snapped to reality. Xander then pulled both Kabira and Allistair in close, an arm around both of them "I know you both are begging for me to tell you bout her so i will....." He paused for dramatic effect before continuing "...Saerith.....shags like a Dathomiri space weasel." With a look of almost comical seriousness, the lecher known as Xander Seraph remained silent for a moment, as if waiting for a response before heading for the exit before either mechanic could say a word, headphones back on over his ears and dance music blasting.

"Training starts at 9:30 tomorrow morning Al, try not to be TOO late....although, i'll understand if you're a bit too preoccupied to be there on time." Xander gave a smile as he took his first step outside, his smile getting bigger as he glanced at Kabira, giving her a very subtle wink as he turned back around, waving as he did. "See ya then big guy, and I'll see YOU soon too i'm sure sweetcheeks." With a chuckle, Xander was gone, already dancing back to continue his day of random flirting and boundary breaking fun.

(Xander exit)

Allistair nodded as Xander spoke. The Zeltron was right enough. After all, making excuses wasn't something he normally did, and it wouldn't do to start now. He was who he was, and there wasn't anything wrong with that. Besides, no matter what one did, there would almost always be someone better at something; it wasn't anything to fret over. Then, Xander tossed him another Ripper, and Al could feel his mouth opening in shock. Did the man just keep all of these weapons in a storehouse somewhere? How many did he have, to be able to give them away so freely? AL certainly wouldn't complain, though. "Thanks, Xander," he said with a genuine grin as he blew out another breath of cigarra smoke before turning the weapon over in his hands to look it over. It was solid, and well made, just like the last one Xander had given him. Perhaps he'd keep this one in storage in case something happened to the first one Xander gave him or for if he ever needed another one. He could always just drop it off with Grizz at the weapons tent; she'd certainly keep it in good condition until he needed it. But that could wait 'til later.

Xander went on, and Al nodded in agreement. The three things the Zeltron said were true enough; Erle had told Al the same things when he was younger. But the offer of training... Al trained with Dutch often enough, but it might be good to take a lesson or two from someone else... After all, it was always good to learn things from multiple angles or something like that, right? "Sure thing, Xander. Sounds good to me," he said as he blew out his last little cloud of smoke before throwing the cig on the ground and stamping it out with his foot.

With that, both of them returned to the garage to Kabira. At the sight of her, Xander's words a few moments ago flooded back into Al's mind. " ya know....Kabira over there....well...she's a nice girl ain't she? Why don't i ever see you two smoochin eh? You guys'd make a good couple." But was she really interested in him? that same little wave of doubt started to rise up within him, but he put it down this time. No, no, if she saw something in Al, then he'd more than likely know soon enough... Besides, it's not like he didn't want Kabi... She was cute...

Al blushed a little as he put those thoughts aside and returned his attention to Xander. Searith? Come to think of it, I haven't seen her i- Did Xander really just say what Al was thinking he said. If so... Allistair could feel his cheeks heating up more at that mental image and he sighed as Xander left. "Thanks, Xander, that's... good to know...." After the Zeltron was gone, Al turned his head slightly to look at Kabira. "He's an odd one, isn't he, Kabi?"