Table for Two (Lemmy) [Oatara]

[Fromikeable]

The answer he got made Horst chug his glass of wine again, resisting the urge to burp as the fine liquid was dumped down his gullet. "All the stops" seemed to be working about as well as using a stick to swat a fly; he could swing all he wanted, but he'd just be flailing around until he got really tired.

Damnit, I gotta' try. That much he knew, and Horst didn't know much.

But still... that tone... it made his skin crawl a little. It confirmed exactly what he knew he was doing to the poor woman; locking her down. She didn't deserve to be there, unhappy with him, his crude ways, generally unimpressive life, and personality. And yet she was trapped by her conscience that wouldn't let her break his heart. That got his blood boiling lightly; it was right, and he knew it.

"Ya' know Ervi, I ain't 12." He tapped his fingers against his wine glass, now empty again. The glassware made a ringing noise with each tap, light as could be.

"I ain't experienced with women, I'll give ya' that," he nodded, sitting up and clearing his throat. "But that doesn't mean ya've gotta' be here just because yer' worried 'bout me 'r somethin'."

There was silence then, both of them not saying much. The waiter arrived during the silence, placing before each of them silently their selected meals; a garnished fish of some kind for Ervisa, covered in a creamy sauce and roasted vegetables, and for Horst a juicy steak, succulent and thick. Both dishes steamed lightly, clearly perfect in almost every way.

If only Horst didn't feel like throwing up.

Picking up his silverware before placing his napkin on his lap (one of the only things he did know about fine dining), Horst finished with a final, unusually quiet line. "I can take it if ya' wanna'... ya' know." He cut off a slab of steak and stuck it in his mouth in a bid to both settle his stomach and keep his mouth too preoccupied to keep speaking.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Horst kept up his reminder that she didn't have to do this, that blah blah blah. It didn't matter to her what he said, because she knew the facts. The bottom line was that if she dumped him and left, he'd hurt, and badly.

Ervisa knew the look in his eye, the expression on his face, and the very feel of his heart. There was an intangible quality about him, like a scent on the air that she could taste. However, while some tastes remained a mystery, this one wasn't. The Mirialan woman knew it inside and out.

It was that look where you were hopelessly set on someone, to the point you didn't want anyone else. In fact, if anyone else came along, you might not pay them the time of day because they didn't compare to that certain someone...

Ervisa stared at the plate put before her guiltily.

She was taking it out on Horst. All he was guilty of was not being Asyr. He was a good guy, a solid man, and she didn't give him the time of day because he wasn't her dream man. That wasn't fair to him, it wasn't fair to her. No one could fit some impossible standard, and if she held out her whole life for that, it'd never result in happiness.

The Mirialan woman closed her eyes for a long minute before she screwed her courage to the sticking place, or whatever the saying was.

"Hey, Horst..." Ervisa began slowly, her voice wobbling between serious and a forced casual.

I'm sorry I've been so demanding. You deserved better, and I want to be a good girlfriend. I'm going to change, and things will get better...

"Do you want to just grab a cheeseburger instead?"

Not classy, not what she'd intended to say, but it was what had come out, and she stuck with it.

[Fromikeable]

Horst blinked at Ervisa's response. There was no chastising him for speaking the truth, or any sort of defense for him, or even any recognition of what he had said.

Just "let's get a burger", plain and simple.

Just the way he liked it. "Oh HELLS yeah." Standing up, Horst undid his tie so quickly someone might have thought it was a noose around his neck. As soon as the strip of fine fabric was but a pair of undone pieces of silk hanging in-front of his shirt did his hands zip for his collar button, which he popped with a sigh that was a little more audible than he thought it was. Finally sitting down again, he was clearly more relaxed, at ease, and generally a little less nervous.

Breathing-restriction tended to make the difficult more draining still.

It occurred to the Engineer just what this meant about him, that Ervisa would rather skip out on fine dining with him around in favor of just some beef in a sandwich. Was he really that simple? Hell, was he really that easy to figure out? Horst had never by any means been complex, of course, but was he seriously that easy a book to read?

A friggin' 5 year-old could figure me out. Biting his cheek, Horst drummed his fingers on his chin in a rare moment of consideration.

"A' course... if ya'd rather stay... I mean, beef's beef, but this is classy, ain't it?" He waved a hand around, indicating the restaurant. The image of him in a tuxedo and her in a dress eating burgers made him feel almost a little... childish. Then again, he could see them in any other scenario doing it; Horst had never been cut out for the life of the suave, rich, and fancy, and from Ervisa was telling him (not that he totally believed her), neither was she.

Doesn't mean she doesn't deserve it. Horst was determined not to let her settle for him or the things he did just because some stupid Romeo had dropped a bomb on her heart. He swore, if he ever met that guy... whatshisname...

... there'd be hell to pay for wrecking her heart. Horst marked his words, and his words weren't marked lightly.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Ervisa's reaction to Horst's reaction was rather mixed, because she couldn't decide on what to feel. There was a brief moment of embarrassment, before it sank in that she didn't really care. However she quickly settled into the dominant reaction, which was mirth.

There was something very comical about the way he stood up and cast away his tie like a superhero about to change in a booth and go out to rescue the damsels in distress. While she doubted he was going to thwart any supervillains today, she did predict he'd be eating a cheeseburger, and it was funny to be so excited over that.

Like water in the desert.

A pang of guilt did come back to roost in the Mirialan woman's heart though, as she realized that in order to have had such a dramatic reaction to something so simple, there had to be a sad truth in it. Horst hadn't done this evening, hadn't come to this restaurant, because he wanted to. He did it for her, wanting to give her a special experience.

And she'd been an ungrateful fool.

Ervisa downed her glass of wine and snagged the bottle off of the table, patting Horst on the shoulder with the best smile she could.

"You deal with the tab, I'll be waiting outside."

The Mirialan woman headed out promptly, abstaining from sipping the bottle, which was somewhat of a miracle. It was enabled only because of the presence of another smoker a few feet from the entry, who provided her with a cigarette she could puff on gratefully as she mourned leaving her pack and her lighter behind at the chopper.

And there, Ervisa leaned against the wall, pulling an errant lock of raven hair off of her emerald face, despite the fact it was sticking to her skin in the oppressive heat and humidity.

[Fromikeable]

Horst nodded at his instructions, a giant smile etched across his grizzly, muscular face. As Ervisa grabbed the wine, he reached into his wallet and flung out a handful of credits, not even caring enough to count the amount, only ensuring that he had enough left over to afford some burgers and fries. As the waiter came out (amid whispers of confusion and surprise from the other patrons), he put on his finest stance and strolled quickly over to Horst, his tone very obviously unhappy.

"Was something wrong with your evening, sir?"

Horst looked at him, smiled wider, and chuckled so loudly he swore that he could feel the restaurant shake. All in all, the place was lost on him; he could see that it was supposed to be elegant and refined and all around proper, and to be perfectly honest he didn't give a damn.

What good was a place you couldn't laugh in?

"Stuff it snooty. Ya' got a pay-phone around here?" He grinned, patting his wallet back into his pocket, the credits tossed carelessly onto the table.

The waiter scoffed, holding his chin up as if there was something balancing on the tip. "There is one outside... thank you ever so much for dining with us." He made a mock bow, but Horst simply chuckled again, slapping the snooty bastard on his back hard. "Life's a lot better when there ain't a stick up yer'-" Another patron gasped, and Horst was quickly walking out of the restaurant, nodding at Ervisa as he bounded through elegantly-painted wooden doors.

Seeing her finally lighting up, he smiled. He wasn't sure what sort of "normalcy" him and Ervisa had developed, but he knew it had something to do with him being loud and obnoxious while she puffed away. It was an odd truth, but a truth all the same.

So he smiled at her, looking happier and more relaxed than he had all night. He still had to pull out all of the stops, but at least now he could do it without a tie choking him. "Just gotta' make a quick." He winked, then walked over to the pay-phone, sliding in a credit chip before dialing a local number. He had a brief conversation with a man he sounded like he knew. The words "favor" and "that time with the sharks" were thrown around, and eventually Horst hung up, still smiling.

Operation Pull-Out-All-The-Stops was right on track.

Retrieving Ervisa, Horst lead her down the street at a leisurely pace to a local burger joint, where he ducked inside and came back out holding two brown, slightly grease-soaked bags, one containing burgers, the other fries. Food in-hand, he lead her to further down another street, and then down another, until finally the Waypoint docks stood before them. The docks were wooden, fashioned out of the same wood as the tree surrounding the town, giving them a slightly red color. A multitude of water-craft bobbed up and down lightly as they remained tethered, most of which being angler's craft as well as the occasional recreational small yacht.

Horst led Ervisa to neither, instead walking across the swaying water platforms to a mid-sized sailboat, about 40 feet long, shining in the moonlight. He smiled at the boat, then Ervisa, and then the sky, checking for clouds. It was a clear night, and the water looked nice and calm.

Perfect.

"Ready fer' yer' surprise?" He hoisted himself up onto the boat's deck, offering both hands to her to aid her effort to do the same.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Ervisa wore her heels for the first leg of their journey, but by the time they reached Big Blorno's Burger Shack, her high, high heels were being carried in her hands, and she'd returned to her normal, and plenty tall, five feet and ten inches.

Horst insisted on carrying the burgers, and her repeated attempts to find out where they were going fell by the wayside, until finally she deduced from her knowledge of Waypoint that they were going to the waterfront area. Why exactly they were going to such a place, she didn't know. After all, boats were just boats. They didn't fly, they didn't turn lead into gold. Ho hum really. And the place where they were kept? Dingy, rusty. Kind of scary actually.

Luckily for Horst, she knew this wasn't a rape date.

Still, she was a little apprehensive, and when their trek ended at a sailboat, a rather large one actually, Ervisa couldn't help but let a skeptical look leak onto her face.

Boats. His master surprise was a boat? She'd never been on one before. Hell, the only ships she'd ever seen were prefaced with the word 'space.' because her domain was the black tides of night, as some dead poet had once said. Probably. Maybe. Likely.

He held out his hand, and he looked so incredibly proud of himself...

Ervisa banished the look from her face, as she didn't want a single thing to upset Horst's romantic plan. Even if she'd never been on a boat before in her life, she'd put on a smile and be there for him, like she should have.

The Mirialan woman herself had already implied that Horst would be quite the catch for some other girl. A nice guy with a great income, rippling with muscle, and gifted below the southern border. Horst was great all right, though why she'd fought so hard seemed to be fading from her mind faster and faster.

That was the way things went with Ervisa. She tended to focus on single bulwarks, and when they failed, she failed as well, not even trying to pick up the pieces. Already she was beginning to adapt to the impending failure of the anti-relationship bulwark. That much was apparent in the way she took Horst's hand and slid down onto the bobbing boat, finding herself a seat on the stern when her legs felt a little wobbly. Or the boat. Yeah, the boat.

It was night now, and it didn't seem like there'd be any further disruption in weather. Waypoint was a hell of a lot drier than the Spearpoint base, and not even a drop of rain would spoil Horst's special outing. And if rain wouldn't, then neither would Ervi.

"A boat. Surprising for sure," Ervisa said drily. "Most guys would just settle for diamonds, but then, you're definitely not most guys."

When she realized that could be taken the wrong way, the Mirialan smiled and added her caveat.

"That's why I like you so much."

[Fromikeable]

Horst grinned at the look of skepticism he caught on her face. To be sure, a boat was strange, most of all a sailboat. He imagined that he looked down-right insane right about now; a grinning nutjob on top of a floating metal antique with a bag of fried food on a jungle planet with a beautiful Mirialan.

Lock me up n' a padded room, I don't care. Life was no fun without that little spark of insanity, and if Horst managed to pull this off, this particular spark might end up looking like something else.

Something... better. Something worthwhile.

Ervisa remarked that most normal guys wouldn't be taking her onto a boat at the dead of night. Horst nodded at that, reaffirming his insanity. Most guys would have just gone out and taken her to a park, or maybe gone out to sit and see some romantic view of the city (if you could call Waypoint a city). Those were both, in Horst's opinion, average, boring as hell, and twice as unoriginal.

He was striving to make an impression; go big or go home.

Helping her onto the boat, Horst chuckled at her amendment. Still, a part of him was surprised to hear it. He wasn't sure... but he couldn't remember another time in their relationship that Ervisa had said, word for word, that she liked him.

That made him want to sweep her up and dance for joy. He settled for a close second, pecking her on the lips with a smile. "Don't like me yet; we ain't even there yet." Smiling broadly at her, he immediately set himself to work tying ropes, untying others, and unfurling the sails. Within a couple of minutes the sailboat was under-way, gliding out into the sea at a calm, steady pace, the moon guiding them into the vast unknown.

Well, not too far. Tossing the anchor off the port side as Waypoint was reduced to a small cluster of lights in the distance, Horst finally sat down next to his date, wiping a bit of sweat from his brow. He hadn't sailed in a coon's age, and for the first half of their trip he'd been remembering as he'd gone. Now, with the sails drawn back up and the ship firmly stopped, he sigh, satisfied with the fruits of his labor. Smiling at Ervisa again, he looked up for a few minutes, staring at seemingly nothing in particular.

"... I know I'm lookin' pretty crazy right about now, but look." He looked back down at her, a kind, almost soft grin etched on his face as he played his trump card.

All or nothing. He pointed up at the night-sky, a myriad of stars poking through the darkness as crystal-clear white lights, varying in intensity from a dimming glow to a raging intensity. The stars all seemed to stare down at them, as if they wondered what it was like to be person just as much as a person could wonder what it was like to be a star.

"That's my gift to ya' tonight."

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

It was only a quick peck on the lips, but it set Ervisa at ease. The Mirialan woman felt the tension of the day slide fully off her shoulders, and she loosened up considerably. As Horst set about sailing the boat, Ervisa took the opportunity to roll down her stockings and place them next to her shoes, letting her long legs sprawl out along the bench, glimmering dimly in the moonlight.

The boat sailed on, bobbing gently up and down, and with each motion, a care seemed to fade away. What if they got lost? Irrelevant. What if the boat sank? Pointless. What if the Sith invaded? Who cares.

Ervisa quickly decided, as she was so wont to do, that she liked the ocean. To be fully honest, she'd never given it a thought before. Sure, she could swim, a skill honed in pools and ponds across the galaxy, but never before had she seen the grandeur of a full ocean. It seemed to extend for a great distance, and she could see the lights of Waypoint, now tiny, quite clearly. What she also saw was the green landmass of Oatara's single continent, bathed in silvery moonlight, which mingled with the enormous blue light cast by the gas giant the moon orbited around.

It was a bright night, but she felt brighter still.

The boat came to a stop, and Horst pointed up, and said something that was simultaneously idiotic and freakishly romantic.

There was just something magical about Horst Stellar. Normally he had a tongue of lead, but on occasion what issued from his lips was pure gold. There was some kind of alchemy that came up when push came to shove, when she wanted to bail. And he always drew her in closer.

So when Ervisa stared up at the sky with a smirk over the cheesiest damn pick-up line she'd ever heard, it died on her face.

While the Mirialan woman was no astronomer, and she couldn't name even one constellation in the sky, she did know one fact with absolute certainty: It was gorgeous. A countless number of diamonds thrown into a velvet sky, all punctuated by the enormous sapphire that was the system's gas giant.

"Wow," Ervisa said after a long moment of silence. "That's a damned good gift."

The statement was completely devoid of sarcasm.

[Fromikeable]

Horst watched Ervisa with bated breath as she looked up at his present, glowing even more than they were. Had he been at all poetic, he might have remarked about that, but since he was about as opposite a Shakespeare as could exist, he kept his trap closed, instead eventually joining her star-gazing with his own, watching the night sky glow.

There was only one thing that had ever really given Horst cause to stop and stare for a while, and it was the night sky. When he had been little, Rorry had taken him out every summer to a differing agricultural world for a camping trip. They'd show up on the planet, afford some cheap transport to one of the most remote places they could find (they weren't exactly rich, not that either of them particularly needed to be), and then would hike out until they found a nice spot to set up a tent and their sleeping bags.

The night would be spent full of stories, legends, laughter, playful fighting, and most of all, star-gazing.

The stars were also one of the only things that Horst considered truly beautiful. Of course he loved the sight of a burning, charred battlefield as well as a handsome woman, but art and other forms of sentient-created beauty were about as gorgeous to him as what he flushed down the toilet every morning. The stars, on the other hand, were unmatched; a natural, expansive, immeasurable portrait that never got old or boring to see.

Well, maybe they were matched by one thing tonight...

Ervisa's dead serious response made Horst smile wildly, his mind doing a jig for joy as Operation POATS resulted with success. His trump card, it seemed, was worthy of the name (which was a good thing, considering it was at the bottom of his deck).

But why was he playing all of his cards? Rule number one in the rules of war was to always play your cards close to your chest, wasn't it? Perhaps it was, but Ervisa seemed to draw out the best in him, like it or not. He wasn't normally a bad guy, but he could be downright arrogant, haughty, and overall moronic at times.

Whenever she was around? That beautiful, enchanting Mirialan woman who could go all night and look just as sexy the next morning, puffing on a cigarette? In small sparks his tongue of lead turned to silver and even gold, his heart escaping from its usually crude, war-mongering crust.

He was a lock, and Ervisa, it seemed, was his one and only key.

He turned to her, smiling warmly, the moonlight bouncing off of his hairs and whiskers, giving the impression that he was just a mystical.

"Wanna' see tha' best part uv' yer' present? It's got a story to it." He looked up again, quickly searching the myriad of bright lights. He'd checked the star-charts for Oatara, and to his delight heavenly body still held its shape in the skies of the jungle planet.

"It's kind uva' sad story," he admitted, "but it's got a nice endin'."

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Ervisa took the opportunity to delve into the bag of burgers and fries, as Horst proposed a little story that went with the stars. That happened to be the most unexpected thing yet, even more so than the boat. After all, she wasn't a child in a nursery begging for a story.

There wasn't really anything about Ervisa that screamed 'tell me a story,' so she figured this one was more about Horst than it was her. Still, she wasn't about to shut him down.

"Yeah, I'm listening," The Mirialan woman said as she unwrapped a cheeseburger, lifting the bun to pick out the onion and tomato. She tossed it over the side before replacing the bun and taking her first bite.

While she could be gourmet at times, like Horst, Ervi was perfectly content with a greasy burger and some fried vegetables. They had a surprising amount in common, and when she wasn't fighting...

Well, they got along pretty well at those times. It was hard to believe a few months ago he'd wanted to choke her to death for the lightsaber she wore. Now he was in love with her. How exactly that had happened, she didn't quite know. But Ervisa felt guilt, as she had the sensation deep down that she'd teased and goaded him into it.

There was no going back now.

Ervisa contented herself with the burger, and nestled up by Horst, untying her braid as she sat by him, occasionally reaching for a fry and interrupting the task.

[Fromikeable]

Horst's stomach grumbled as the scent of friend food wafted up to his nostrils. In his bid to sail them out and his joy at the fact that Ervisa actually seemed to be enjoying this for a change, he'd forgotten all about the burgers and fries. Leaning across to pluck one out of the bag, Horst promptly wolfed it down with a few bites, forgoing the napkins included in favor of wiping his mouth on his arm, his sleeves already rolled up.

Ervisa didn't sound like she knew what to think of his offer, but to be fair neither did he. All he knew was that there was a final part to the trump card; an exclamation mark of sorts. As she settled against his side, he smiled up at the stars, moving his arm to pull her near to him. She felt warm, and suddenly everything else, the wind, the boat, even the moonlight, felt cold in comparison.

Was he in love? If he wasn't, he was damn close.

"This story's kinda' old, n' I haven't told it in a while, so, uh, it might be kinda' choppy." Reaching out the arm not holding Ervisa, Horst searched the stars for a moment, his finger pointing to each and every one he looked at, trying to pinpoint the specific ones he was looking for. After a moment, he discovered his target, and after quickly tracing out what he was after with his eyes, he smiled down at Ervisa and pointed to his chosen cluster of starlight.

"See those stars there? Tha' shape they make?" He traced the shape again, this time with his finger pointed skyward. It was a little difficult to make out, but the shape resembled some sort of long-necked creature hunched over, a few stars seemingly falling from its head.

"S'called tha' Weepin' Acklay. S'the only constellation I know..." He paused for a moment, remembering back to the night Rorry had shown him the same constellation all those years ago. Back then, though, it had just been some story and a cool shape made with stars.

Nowadays it was something a little more symbolic.

"There wassa' big Acklay a long time ago, on Felucia. N' he wassa' knarly, nasty lookin' thing; tha' kind that sends kids runnin' n' screamin'. N' everythin' else in the jungle hated him 'cause he was so scary lookin'." He squeezed her to his side, still smiling upwards. "But... then one day a ship landed... and on it was the prettiest Twi'lek tha' Acklay'd ever seen. N' he watched her, best he could, tryin' ta' just see what she'd do. N' she'd go out inta' tha' jungle n' help tha' other animals, treatin' their wounds, curin' tha' sick, bein' nice. But he'd never get ta' see her 'imself 'cause he was so afraid that'd she'd hate 'im too."

Horst wasn't usually one to admit that he was afraid... but he could be, simple as that. Horst wasn't superman, try though he might to be one. He wasn't indestructible, he wasn't invincible, and he certainly wasn't unbeatable.

Horst was just a man trying to not to be so worthless; trying not to be just some number or rank on a battlefield that was only good for getting shot at. At the end of the day, he just wanted someone to be at his funeral, however close it might be.

A pitiful wish, but a wish all the same.

"... n' so for a long time, tha' Acklay'd watch 'er, 'till finally one day, while he was sleepin', she found him n' left 'im a gift. When he woke up, he found a little piece a' fruit from this tree, high above all tha' other trees in tha' forrest that nobody could reach, 'cept for tha' lady. N' when he tried it, he loved it so much he never ate another livin' thing again." Horst sighed, taking a breath. "N' so this went on fer' a few days, until tha' Acklay thought uva' gift ta' give ta' her. N' so tha' next time she showed up with 'n apple, she found a little piece a' wood he'd carved with his teeth, made all fancy n' engraved." He chuckled softly. "N' she loved it too, n' so every time she'd bring 'im an apple, he'd leave 'er a carvin'.

But one day when tha' Acklay woke up, there was no apple, n' his carvin' was still there. So he shrugged it off n' tried again, but still nothin'. N' after a week, he went out lookin' for her. 'N when he found her, it turned out she'd gotten older over tha' years n' couldn't make tha' trip up tha' tree any more, n' didn't want ta' break his heart. She was afraid she'd break 'im, make 'im cry n' wail n' hurt."

Horst sighed, starting to realize how unintentionally close to the truth he had gotten. Still, he smiled at Ervisa, looking at her with eyes as stark and clear as the stars above.

"So ya' know what he did?" Horst squeezed Ervisa again, hoping he wasn't sounding like a total and complete fool. A nagging part of him screamed that he was, but then again that part of him was pretty constant whenever he was around her.

"He moved from his spot in tha' woods, n' lived right next ta' her ship. He still made 'er a wood carvin' every mornin', fer' tha' rest uv' his life. N'... I dunno." Horst sighed, his mind settling on the idea that he did indeed sound stupid. A children's legend about a constellation? Really? That was his trump card? That was supposed to leave an impression? She'd actually been happy tonight, or at least as close as she was going to come to happy with his sorry mug around. And now... now he was trying to woo her with parables...

'Least I tried. At the end of the day, that was all Horst had ever done, could ever do, and would ever do. The day he did something different was the day there was a bullet in his skull.

"I guess he just got a lil' less scary."

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

At first, Ervisa Therani wasn't sure what was going on here. Some story about a Twi'lek and an acklay? It was straight out of a children's book of fables, though she'd never been raised on such tales in the Jedi Order. Her childhood had been devoid of fairy tales, fables, and ghost stories; all of which had conspired to create a grown woman with no fear of the supernatural, and with no romantic attachment to the stories of the stars.

What she saw, despite not being the brightest crayon in the box, was that Horst was using a parable. Whether it had already existed, or he'd just made it up, the story wasn't about the stars; it was about him. Or rather, how he thought of himself.

By the time he'd finished, Ervisa's hair was unbraided and loose over her shoulders, the burger was gone, and the fries were somewhat fewer. Also, Ervisa had finally settled on what she deemed were just the right words to say.

"Horst, you're no acklay."

If she'd been good at sticking to a planned course of action, Ervisa might have left it at that and given him a kiss, but she couldn't leave well enough alone, and she continued, winging it as best as she could.

"You're a big, sometimes dumb, Corellian teddy bear, and I love you for it."

The Mirialan woman looked away and stared into the constellations reflected in the black water, cognizant of the fact she'd just used The Phrase. That was the phrase she hadn't used since, well, Asyr. And it had hurt her badly, and left her with a few extra scars, like some kind of botched surgery.

To be saying it again just felt strange and awkward, and she couldn't even look him in the eye now that she was thinking about it. All she could do was stare into the water and try not to be sick.

[Fromikeable]

Horst rubbed Ervisa's shoulder, his fingers sliding over her soft emerald skin and under her sleek black hair. A teddy bear? She was right, he wasn't an Acklay; he was a Rancor, raging and wrecking and generally roaring like a drunken moron. He demolished everything he touched, hurt everyone he knew, charged at every unknown...

He was just as likely to shake someone's hand as to get them shot. Yeah, some guy to cuddle up against and call a teddy bear.

Horst was about to relay all of this when his mind registered the last few words of Ervisa's sentence. Confused, Horst brought his other hand up to his ear, sticking his pinky in and trying to clean it a little. It figured that of all nights, his ear-canals had chosen tonight to contort noise and make him hear things.

After all, it sounded like she'd just said that she loved him...

...

... Holy sh*t. Horst stared out at the water, shocked. Of every phrase in existence, of every single possible combination of noises, grunts, and whistles a sentient being could make to communicate, the last possible combination Horst had expected to hear that night, or ever for that matter, was the phrase "I love you" coming out of Ervisa Therani's mouth directed at him.

For once, he was speechless.

Even his gut was at a loss of any and all activity, just as stunned as his mind. That was almost enough to make him panic; his gut was his go-to sense, and when it wasn't working? Something major had to be afoot...

... Luckily for him, it woke up quickly, and the first thing it said he followed without question, the rest of the world barely registering.

Kiss 'er ya' dope! Gently guiding her chin away from the direction of the water towards his own, Horst proceeded to give Ervisa the most passionate, tender and loving, and absolutely confident kisses he'd ever given anyone. Their kiss on Taris paled in comparison; this one was 10 times as strong and 20 times as absolutely amazed, Horst on a sort of auto-pilot. Had his mind been functioning, it might have added to his list of surprises how well he actually managed to fumble his lips, delivering quite the intense lip-lock.

And after a good 2 minutes of getting his point across, Horst separated them, looking into Ervisa's eyes with his own deep blue ones, wide with shock and awe. He didn't know... ah screw it. Who needed to know things, any way? All he needed was her...

For a handful of seconds, he was quiet, his gut not giving him anything to say. Finally, a simple sentence came out, his gruff voice almost a little soft as it turned its volume down.

"... I love ya' fer' a lotta' things." It was corny, unimpressive, and hackneyed, but even if Horst had been in a fully-thinking capacity, there wasn't really a better chance of it sounding a little more... refined.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Ervisa was still staring at the water when Horst gently guided her face up to his and kissed. At a loss for what to do or say, the Mirialan woman simply kissed back and wrapped her fingers around the back of Horst's neck. When he finally broke off, she stared at him with a pleading and confused look.

Her grey eyes seemed to beg for answers, for some kind of knowledge, advice, or wisdom that would give her a sense of purpose.

In that moment, Ervisa Therani knew nothing. If she'd been asked who she was, she would have shrugged and said 'I don't know' with absolute certainty; because that absence of knowledge was the only sure thing she had.

She'd said The Phrase. Had she been serious? She'd said it after all, it had just rolled off of her tongue and out into the air, and now she didn't know what to do with it. Did she really love him? Was it too late to say 'in a physical way?' and make her faux pas disappear?

When he repeated the sentiment to her, Ervisa knew she was in too deep, that there was no way out. She'd committed, and that scared her big time.

The ex-Jedi stared out glumly over the water and suddenly wished she was drunk. Deeply drunk, without a care, happy as a clam. Instead she was sober, and she couldn't dismiss this all as a dream.

Ervisa Therani was in a romantic relationship, and she couldn't stop it. It was going to take time to adjust.

"What next?" She asked as she stared out at the lights on the shore, resting her angular chin in the palm of her tattooed hand.

[Fromikeable]

For a minute, they were both quiet, Horst lightly holding her face, Ervisa seemingly at a loss of any and all things to say. The stars shined downward, the lights of Waypoint glimmered in the distance, and the pitch black sky above gave the impression that the future was waiting to be seized.

Then Ervisa looked off glumly, and Horst's shock was replaced with absolute embarrassment. She stared off, and he curled up his knees and proceeded to slam his forehead into them, sighing lightly.

What had his trump card been again? Something about stars? Apparently not, as it had resulted in the only thing Horst seemed to be capable of producing:

A grade-A, catastrophic, why-are-you-even-trying, quit-while-you-still-can screw-up.

Horst banged his head on knees repeatedly, like his knees were a drum and his forehead a mallet. It figured; the rest of his deck was nothing but catastrophe and disaster. Why shouldn't his trump card be? Why did he have hope at all anymore? What reason did he have? There wasn't a point to it any more, was there?

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending), Horst wasn't a man to let logic rule him before, and he sure wasn't about to start now. He knew why he tried; he had to, simple as that. Even still, it was downright saddening; he was ruining Ervisa's life by the minute, and the forecast only included more horrible things to come. No matter how happy she made him, he could never do the same in return.

Always a debtor, never a debtee.

"Next I slam my head inta' somethin' metal n' make ya' find someone who's best shot ain't crappy stars." Horst rubbed his eyes, staring up at the stars one last time. Damn shiny things. Weren't they supposed to be wise or something?

"... I'm never gonna' be able ta' make ya' happy Ervi. I'm never gonna' be able ta' be funny, 'r... r' smart, 'r... 'r anythin'." He sighed, resting his own chin on his knee this time. He glanced over at her, his face it's usual brand of gruff honesty.

"Just some hairy guy on n' old boat lookin' at tha' sky."

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Ervisa blinked, and sat there with her jaw hanging open like some kind of grazing creature in between mouthfuls of grass. She looked downright dumb actually, which was about how she felt.

Here was Horst, having a little breakdown about not being good enough, and all she was capable of doing was sitting there next to him looking like a big, green, moron. That was hardly how she envisioned herself. She could see a metric ton of things wrong with herself, but standing there doing nothing like a damn fool didn't mesh with her self-conceptions at all.

Her sense of panic started to build as he went on and on about not making her happy, until finally she couldn't stand any more. The last straw had been pulled, and it was short. If Horst couldn't deal with this on his own, then it just fell to her.

The Mirialan woman's hand drew back like lightning, and she slapped Horst across the face. Hard. Hard enough to leave a red mark. Then she stood up dramatically.

Now with a guarantee that she'd got his attention, Ervisa dug deep within and started to pour out unplanned words, just saying what she felt to the best of her abilities.

"ENOUGH HORST!" Ervisa snapped angrily. "I am sick to death of this 'I'm not good enough' crap. Do you have any idea how little I deserve? I'm not the one getting shortchanged; you are. You think I'm some perfect saint, and that the very ground I walk on must be angelic. Well I'm not. I've done a ton of things I'm not proud of, and not a day goes by that I don't think back on them. You think you're not good enough for me? It's ME who's not good enough for you. I'm practically an act of goddam charity for you Horst. You just had to pick the one girl in the Outer Rim with the most problems. The very least you can freaking do is to take me off the damn pedestal, because I dont deserve it, AND I DON'T WANT IT!"

With her rant done, Ervisa turned and walked up the side of the boat to the pointy part in the front, and sat on it, dangling her long legs off of the bow. Her toes just barely touched the water. Only then did she let out a very long sigh, slumping over and placing her elbows on her thighs, cupping her sharp chin in her hands.

I don't deal with emotions very well, do I? The Mirialan pilot mused softly.

[Fromikeable]

Horst's flash of pity was broken by an even more powerful flash of something else entirely.

Red, stinging pain.

As his head was slapped to the side, his cheek left with a nice, red imprint of the Mirialan's hand, a small part of Horst couldn't help but smile. He'd been expecting this for a while. In fact he was amazed that it had taken her this long. He was absolute hell to even remotely deal with; like trying to force a horse to water, perform a ballet, and then get it to understand hyper-dimensional physics.

If anyone could even get Horst to pronounce hyper-dimensional physics.

Sitting there, allowing the pain and the sting to sink in, Horst was quiet for a good long while. Why couldn't she see it? Why couldn't she see that he wasn't some knight in shining armor? Sure, he'd never been a whore, or never been addicted to spice, or never been arrested (try though people might). But it wasn't like he was Sir Arthur come to save the day, wielding Excalibur and saving princesses.

Not unless Sir Arthur had an accent as thick as the Oataran fog, the mouth of a sailor, and the vocabulary of a dictionary mashed through a meat grinder six or seven times.

After a good 20 minutes, Horst finally stood up. Still staring at the stars, the man sighed, reaching into his back pocket and producing a small paper box of cigarettes and a small plastic lighter, still wrapped in plastic and straight off the shelf. One of the other cards in his deck, prior to his crappy, crappy trump card, had been a back-up package of smokes and something to light them with.

He'd known that she would need them. For once he'd been right.

Meandering over to sit next to Ervisa, he looked out at the horizon. The continent wasn't quite the spectacle the stars were, as far as his opinion went, but at the same time there was something to be said for the beauty of the moonlight bouncing off of the jungle canopy. The jungle, in contrast to the stars, was far more alive; it was uneven, natural, and over-all breathing with the creatures and organisms it contained. The stars were more like stoic guardians; giants moving at a snail's pace above a flurry of life in the jungles below.

Two different worlds.

Horst held out his palm, holding up the cigarettes and lighter.

"'Bout time." He smiled at the continent. "I ain't gonna' win this, am I?"

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Ervisa sat there leaning against a forward railing for a long time, and sat, and sat. An interminable amount of time seemed to pass, and all she was left with was the paralyzing fear that maybe Horst would come back, and the even worse fear that he wouldn't; that he'd just stay back there and turn the ship around himself.

In the end, one of her fears was realized as he walked up to the bow next to her. He bent over and held out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

While the Mirialan woman debated slapping them into the water, the idea of letting various native fish have all her nicotine wasn't appealing, and she took them. Her slender fingers unwrapped the package and pulled out one, which she lit up and took a very long drag on.

Only then did she reply to his comment.

"Win what? You collected all the box tops, and now want to redeem them for one commemorative Mirialan?" Ervisa said in a voice that was slightly snide, but mostly very tired.

The whole idea of winning and losing seemed utterly worthless to her. Win or loss, it was all just terms slapped onto a manufactured contest to make someone feel happy when everyone was just as much of a loser. Her own experience certainly didn't have any win in sight.

Either she would wind up in a serious relationship and wind up raising children, or she would die alone in a trailer full of cats. Lose, lose. Either she settled down and lost her independence and her freedom, or she wound up with no one but herself. Losses.

What was Horst's endgame? What did he think he was winning? It was questions like that she should have asked, but instead what came out was far less productive.

"What do you want me to say? Just tell me so I can say it."

[Fromikeable]

Horst closed his eyes, taking in the sea-borne air. So pure, so fresh, and even so crisp, it revealed a nice thing about the water; it had no problems. Everything in the ocean was as it should be. The seaweed waved in the currents, the fish ate the seaweed, the bigger fish ate the fish that ate the seaweed, and occasionally a few of the big fish were caught and eaten by the sentient inhabitants above. Overall, the sea didn't have a care in the world.

Friggin' lucky bastard. Horst had no idea what he wanted to hear out of Ervisa. He had no idea what he needed to say or what he needed to do. He had no idea what he thought he was doing. He had no idea what he thought he was thinking.

He just had no idea in general.

"... C'mon Ervi. Yer' not just a cheap toy kids get fer' eatin' all their cereal." Horst's gut quickly reasserted its control, making it clear that if he didn't know anything, he'd better not go and do something stupid like thinking. He wanted this to end well, after all.

Not for their relationship and potentially the ship to sink to the bottom of the sea.

Still, it was a stress he usually didn't handle well. It was one thing for him to instruct himself to not say anything stupid. It was a matter of a whole other caliber to actually prevent it.

Horst sighed. "How 'bout... somethin' simple." The lumbering man sat down next to her, the boat leaning a little more toward their side as the weight skewed the deck slightly.

"Like... I have no idea... that yer' not just here 'cause ya' hafta' be?"

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Ervisa kept her chin cupped in her free hand, loosely holding the cigarette in the other, smoking it periodically as she mulled over Horst's statement. Request. Ultimatum. Thing.

Why was she here? That was the underlying issue, even if not directly what he'd requested, and it was not something she was enjoying. On the list of subjects she wanted to talk about, her own emotional landscape was about as high as the Sluissi tax code or hemorrhagic fevers found in the Outer Rim.

The Mirialan woman shot out a reply as fast as she could without dwelling.

"I'm here because I have nothing better to do with my life anymore."

Naturally that statement prompted a deep and unpleasant thought back to her least favorite topic of all: not being a Jedi.

Guardian of peace and justice, descended to skank, descended to smuggler, descended to prostitute, and now leveling out at mediocrity. No battles to stop the Sith, no great duels, no wisdom, no High Council, no nothing. Just settling down with a hulking ex-soldier who couldn't argue his way out of a paper bag.

And the damnable thing was that Ervisa still found it preferable to most other things. She wasn't happy with her newfound mediocrity, but she could live with it. That was the worst part, the idea that a beautiful and adventurous woman could actually see herself settling down into some kind of domesticity.

It was terrifying to think that her future could descend into debates over wallpaper or what brand of breakfast sausage should be bought. That wasn't what a vixen was supposed to do.

Horst was a threat to her lifestyle, but she couldn't say no to him, and deep down she didn't WANT to say no.

The Mirialan woman took a long drag of her cigarette before letting it out in an audible sigh.

"This isn't the way my life was supposed to turn out. I was supposed to be someone else, someone better. Instead I'm just... This."