You've been Hit by a Smooth Criminal [Lucian]

[Muffinzky]

“No! No no no. NO!”
The otherwise feminine voice echoed between the walls. But it sounded more like an angry growl.
“You fool! You DO NOT hit a female bystkyn in the face!”. An Exchange worker crashed through the window into the wall outside. His teeth were clenched as he held his shoulder that seemed to hurt. Refira stepped gracefully out of the now broken window after him. The glass crunched under her boots. In her hand she held her stiletto knife in a tight grip. Would she murder her co-workers? No. Would she bash their brain in to teach them a lesson? More than likely.
After all.. This individual didn’t seem to use it anyway.

“No one wants to buy an apple if someone has taken a bite from it! Do you think someone would want her if you break her nose? Think again, boy. A woman’s face is one of her most important and attractive traits”.
The highly insensitive comment that objectified the bystkyn woman didn’t seem to impress her, as she throw a stone at Refiras face. It was small and the throw wasn’t hard enough to create an impact on the Hapan slaver. But it was enough to make her feel it. She froze in her movement. The ice blue eyes seemed to stare strictly out in the air, as if piercing it. Then she slowly turned around again. Her attention went from the Exchange slaver to the bystkyn. It couldn’t be seen since the dark veil covered it, but Refiras lips curled upwards in a devilish grin.

“You know… I was only trying to help you, boy. Let me teach you something. If you want to make an example out of someone like her…”
With a slight jump, Refira ended back in the little backroom where she came from. The targeted look in her eyes and the way she moved towards the bystkyn slave was enough to make the girl move backwards to get away from her. But Refira proceeded.

“No… If you want to make an example of filth like her, you go after the lower area of her belly”. Refira placed a round kick at the pelvic area of the bystkyn, and she dumped into the wall behind her, screaming.
“You see? That is where her uterus is”. The way the dark-haired slaver explained, was very calm, her voice was sweet and didn’t at all reflect her mood. She pinched the back of her nose.
“There are far too many of these creatures. It would suit them with some population control... But then again. Maybe our cute little friend here didn’t quite understand the message. I must make sure that she does. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Bitch. Especially never mine”.

She withdrew the whip from her belt and ran her shock gloves across the long wired surface. Slowly, caressing it as if it was a long lost lover in her embrace. A muffled grin escaped her lips. She stretched the wire, holding it tightly between her hands. Then she turned on the mechanism that ran the electrical stream through the whip. It hissed and buzzed and cast a blue-ish light up at Refiras body, creating a dark shadow over her eyes. The way the material of the shock gloves and the whip worked together was almost beautiful. The electricity didn’t affect her, but she could feel the heat…
How she loved it. The very sound sent shivers down her spine. It was delicious. The only downside was that bystkyn and other humanoid species with fur always smelled horribly like melted fibres when she was done.

[hugo]

Nar Shadaa couldn't be anymore different from Javis. Lucian's homeworld was idyllic, with rolling plains, lush forests, and acre after acre of cultivated earth, teaming with agridroids variously tilling, harvesting, and planting fruits of the earth. As towering spires and dark ghettos zoomed by the viewport of his transport, Lucian fidgeted nervously. The journey had been long, so he had already read and re-read every relevant dossier he could. He had been up since 0400 that morning, long before the small ship entered Nar Shadaa’s orbit, doing his best to dispel the nervous energy that crept up on him from time to time.


Earlier, he had sparred and exercised strenuously, hoping the strain would relieve him of some of the anxiety. It had failed, so then he tried to meditate. That had also failed. His mission was of great importance, the lives of innocent Tapani citizens as well as the political stability of the Mecetti regime was at stake, but that wasn’t what was gnawing at the young nobleman.


His contact was one Refira Na’Zoa. According to Mecrosa records, she was a mid-level handler in the Exchange’s slaving operation here on the Smuggler’s Moon and her origins were unknown. But Lucian knew her long before she caught the Order’s attention.

Nearly ten years ago, before the War had changed everything, they had been lovers. Young and bored with the stuffy opening ceremonies of the Governor’s Ball on Fondor, the nobles had snuck out and smoked cigarettes on the balcony and talked for hours. As the week’s festivities went on, they continued their misadventures, nearly having their illicit affair discovered once when a maid caught Lucian slinking out of the Hapan delegation’s apartments.


Of course, he was well on his way to becoming a Mecrosa then, but he didn’t tell her that. It was freeing to play normal, to simulate what his life would have been like should the Mecrosa had never discovered him, if he were born normal, without so many goddamn Midichlorians swimming around in his bloodstream.


He had seen her once more, after the War had ended. For a few days, they relived their youthful fantasy on his estate at Mount Hayg and caught up. She had slipped out of Hapes’ iron grasp and landed among the killers and slavers at the Exchange. He had slain countless soldiers, some his age and younger, for the Republic and then for his own King. She sold men, women, and children into a lifetime of bondage for profit. They didn’t judge each other for the lives they led.


While the pile of bodies in his recent past didn’t bother Refira much, his force sensitivity had. Sbe threw a major fit when she found out, but Lucian had expected as much. Many peoples were suspicious of his kind, and the Hapans were especially distrustful of what they saw as freaks of nature. Even so, the feelings they had intermittently explored together lingered, and after their time on Javis together ended, Lucian still found himself thinking about Refira from time to time.


But sweet memories of the bygone past weren’t what drove Lucian to this wretched corner of the Mid Rim. Duty had. A Mecrosa operative in the Freeworlds had intercepted an illegal shipment of disruptor weapons, confirming the Internal Security Division’s long held suspicions that outside arms dealers were smuggling weapons and supplies into Tapani space. His colleagues there were searching for the destination, but Lucian had been tasked with finding and eliminating the source.


That was a fine enough excuse, he reasoned, to contact Refira. The Exchange dealt in weapons, and it would be in their mutual interest to take out its competitors. Of course it occurred to him that the Exchange may be behind the whole thing in the first place, but he doubted it. Their powerbase in Hutt Space was far from the Tapani Kingdom, and their contacts in the upper echelons were convinced the Exchange wouldn’t risk that kind of operation.


Lucian imagined she was rather surprised to hear from him, and even more surprised to hear from him on a business call. If she was surprised, he couldn’t tell from their brief correspondence, but she had agreed to meet so long as he came to her on Nar Shadaa.


A few hours later, the transport had docked and Lucian made his way to the rendez-vous point. The streets were crowded and dirty. The unfamiliar stench of poverty was off-putting, and the constant din of activity he felt through the Force was a little overwhelming. He wasn’t worried about being discovered, as his presence in the force was tightly shrouded and he dressed himself modestly. Besides, if there was trouble, a revolver hung heavily from his left hip and his lightfoil was hidden discreetly in the breast pocket inside his jacket.
  In his left hand, Lucian carried a briefcase with several of the confiscated pistols and what little information the Mecrosa had on the smugglers.

As he arrived at the rendez-vous, which appeared to be Refira’s “offices,” Lucian sensed the anguish and pain of a dozen slaves before he smelled the unmistakable scent of seared flesh and hair. Someone had sprayed CzerkaFresh to try and mask the scent, but had only succeeded in creating the equally unpleasant mixture of cheap air freshener and singed fur. Slavery wasn’t pretty, but neither were war or political assassinations, so Lucian reserved judgement.


She was expecting him, so he would wait to be summoned.

[Muffinzky]

Refira turned her back to the mess behind her. The slave was still alive. Yet unconscious. She had curled together on the floor in foetal position. Softly Refira pushed the young bystkyn with the tip of her boot – just in order to check if she was breathing.

“All of this mess-“ An eloquent look was sent to her co-worker. “Is your doing. Do you get it? And if you tell someone – We’ll have plenty of opportunity to proceed this little game later. Now be a dear and clean it up for me, will ya, love?”
She exhaled deeply and slid the whip back. It was about time for her to leave. He would arrive soon…

Even though she wouldn’t admit it, she had been a bit more sensitive today. It didn’t take much to push her limits and enrage her. But in reality, it was more of a nervous twitching that she felt on the inside. It fluttered around in her diaphragm and wouldn’t let her be. And the slave had been her escape. Refira had kept flogging the slave’s back until her arm started to hurt. It was a cheap escape. And unjustified.
But Lucians visit was bothering her. It made her feel restless. Her hands trembled when she walked down the hall and tried to collect her thoughts. To make it stop, she removed the gloves and buried her long almond shaped nails into the plump meat of her palms. There she kept pressing till they drew subtle juicy marks of red. She couldn’t show any kind of weakness in the Exchange. She couldn’t!
At least… That’s what she kept telling herself.

For Lucian made her uneasy… Excited? Happy? Maybe even… Frightened? She couldn’t tell. It was one big complicated mess. -Her relationship with Lucian, that is.

Rewind! Refira placed a hand on her forehead. Rewind!

She remembered that night. The ball where they met. The dreamlike lights. The noise of music, people that talked. How bored she was. The question of WHYYYY she -by the stars!- agreed to go along with her parents on another of their political arrangements, had crossed mind maybe a hundred times. It was always the same. Smile! Smile and nod. Keep smiling. Even if your cheeks ache.

Lucian… He wasn't the first to approach her. And a part of her considered kicking his shinbone, just to make him go away! When he spoke to her she wasn’t impressed at first. He was a very obvious flirt. She had seen how he had wandered around before he went to her. But there was a certain spark in his blue eyes, an intelligent one that seemed different from the Hapan noble puppets she was used to. The two young people were alike. He was a man - by all means – He was under Refira as a Hapan woman. But it was a match with someone at her level. That spark was a rebellious glow that she immediately recognized from herself. And when they spoke, to her great astonishment, the conversation lasted passionately and more than 3 minutes. Lucian had caught Refiras attention back then, and they ended up sneaking out into the night, where Refira could spend some time in Lucians company – alone. He wasn’t her first man. But he certainly was one of the few nobles she ever had felt a connection with. And the time she had spent with him was her beacon before she had to return to the suffocating air of Hapes, and what she knew was in wait for her. Those early memories of Lucian were warm, and her chest ached a bit with jabbing longing when she thought about them for too long.

When they met again at his estate, what met her was – relief? Nostalgia. Like seeing an old friend all grown up. The spark was still there, and it ignited furiously.
Yet… Indeed. She was enraged when she received the truth, the news. She felt betrayed. Disgusted even, when she found out that he was force sensitive. He could have met her painted in blood. And it would be less of an issue for her. She had raised her voice, tossed expensive vases around. Broken stuff. Shouted and called Lucian names. She even pushed him. Until his patience broke and he stopped her… by using the force.
Resulting in a deeply terrified Refira. And a wakeup call for the Hapan lady, that Lucian WAS capable of hurting her. And she probably needed to show the man more respect.
Till this day she was still marked by Hapan propaganda and had problems coping with the fact that she had shared bed and tender intimate moments with a force sensitive.

As such… Lucian of the Mecetti house, eyelash in her eye, admiringly chaotic prince of her youth, her Luu, was a very weird bittersweet flavour that Refira couldn’t entirely place on her taste palate of sociological association.

Like a spaceship caught in a planets orbit, she was drawn to the door where she knew he would be waiting. Refira stopped for a moment: Confused. And somehow… lost. She took a deep breath. Then slapped herself to retain her composure. This was business! VERY serious business!
…
Refira, NO!
Business!

The door slid aside and she entered the room confidently. Her arms crossed. However, when she saw him she couldn’t help but chuckle quietly and raise an eyebrow.
“Hello Sir Lucian... Fenando... Orega de Mecetti”.

[hugo]

Seeing Refira's face quickly brought a smile to his own.  She was beautiful, and that was always enough to make Lucian happy.  But it was more than that, he felt an urge tug longingly at his abdomen.  For whatever reason he felt a nervousness around Refira.  He was eager not to disappoint her in an odd sort of way, and that puzzled him.  But that didn't much matter:this was work.  Failure would not be taken lightly on Obulette so he had to focus.  That proved difficult as she began to giggle when greeting him in that familiar mock-formal tone.  He smiled widely.

In a few swift strides, he was right in front of her.  "It's been too long milady," he said taking her hand and kissing it in the formal, Tapani way.  He followed her past the door and walked alongside her.  

"Refira it's a grand occasion every time I manage to lay eyes on you, but I'm here because I've got a problem and I have reason to believe that you can assist me in finding a solution."

Of course, Lucian felt a little ridiculous showing up at Refira's workplace out of the blue.  Even so, he had convinced himself that her Exchange contacts would be a good place to start as any for information about these galactic gunrunners.  Besides, what harm could there be in coincidentally reconnecting with an old flame in the middle of a possibly dangerous covert operation?

[Muffinzky]

If it wasn’t for the fact that Refira had deactivated her weapons, she would assume she experienced some electrical impulses of her own. Her eyes met Lucians and were locked there as by magnetism. His greeting wasn't very personal, but it made her emit a smirk with delight.
“Milady?” cooed she in an approving hum. “It’s certainly been some time since anyone has called me that”.

Whilst her confidence was unaffected by it, so was it many years since she could don herself in Hapan attire. That he still treated her as such after all this time, despite the skimpy outfit she wore, was flattering, if not refreshing. It wasn’t an attire by choice, but rather a necessity she faced. Life was rough on Nar Shaddaa. She had to expect the worst. At any day. At any given moment.

The dark veil that covered her face were tugged down slowly around her neck. She had no reason to hide from Lucian. He had prior to their meeting expressed that he was there on official business – and in spite of that she didn’t exactly expect any differently, she couldn’t deny that Lucian knew her far better than she would confess. From every little inch of her skin and how she liked to be touched, to her background and little secrets she once whispered in his ear. He wasn’t a threat. Not like that anyhow. She had no reason to hide. They weren’t formal strangers – despite the way she playfully addressed him.

Refira listened with a visible curiosity to the words of the Tapani, but a little acidic tone became present in her otherwise calm voice. Still, she kept smiling.
"Oh, you think so? That we can help each other... I was almost tempted to believe that you had forgotten everything about little me".

The slaver narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked up at him and pouted her lips. It HAD been a while. Although she didn’t refuse to cooperate, nor threw a temper tantrum, she made sure to demonstrate that she was VERY disgruntled by the way the dark man had stayed away from her for so long. And his awfully sudden reappearance! Like that she proceeded to walk beside him, bullying the Mecrosa assassin by bumping her hip slightly against his thigh to push him. The pace of her steps changed. She walked faster, making sure that he followed her speed, then she snuck in front of him and stopped abruptly. Lucian were being placed exactly where any man should be with a Hapan lady. – Behind her.

From there Refira started to walk again, eyeing Lucian over her shoulder, swinging her hips slowly to tease him in the process.
“Yet you expressed that your problem was of a veeery urgent matter...”

She lead Lucian into a smaller room with a table and some chairs. Instead of taking a chair, she chose to place herself on the table and raised her nose hesitant in the air.
“Well, you have my attention. Speak! Sugar”.

[hugo]

Lucian smirked his peculiar little half smile. "Nonsense. A lady yesterday, today, and tomorrow."

 Everything about Refira had changed since they met a decade ago except for her tone.  She still spoke like her time was more valuable than yours, like she expected to be first in line everywhere she went.  That was no surprise to Lucian.  He'd met many spoiled aristocrats and they all had that same demeanor, almost as if they wore their self-importance around their shoulders like a fur scarf.  But Refira was different than the others.  She may have been hot-headed and at times a little out of hand, but she had a spark of intelligence that her pampered cohort lacked, a sort of glimmer of independence that shined through her brilliant blue eyes.  Refira could have accepted a genteel life, confined to Hapes with a brainless, rich husband and a small herd of sticky-fingered but well-bred offspring, but here she was roughing it out with the criminals and freaks of Nar Shadaa.

Lucian peeked subtly at her frame as they went down the corridor.  She sure hadn't gotten shy about herself in their years apart, but why should she?  Personality wasn't the only thing that drew Lucian towards his unlikely lover, nor the only thing that teased his mind on the loneliest of nights.  When she was done speaking he looked over towards her.  "How could anyone forget about..." he quickly looked her up and down, "you?"  He smirked again.  Her pouty expression had its charms, even if it did make him want to force push her into a wall from time to time.

 She bumped her waist into his thigh once, then twice.  Lucian thought nothing of it, the corridor was terribly narrow after all.  Her hip brushed against him a third time.  Now she was toying with him, and it was working.  For all his years of focus training and more experience in a war zone than most men yet alive, Lucian always had a weakness for certain distractions, particularly hers.  Certainly he hadn't been at his most gentlemanly in recent years when it came to Refira, and he really was sorry he didn't do more to reach out.  But it was a dangerous time.  They were in dangerous fields of work.  His loyalty, dedication, and attentions had been focused on the Order for all of his life, and he couldn't afford to split them.  Still, when she took the lead a mere few inches in front of him, he couldn't help but stir a little.

As she climbed on the table, Lucian placed the duffel on the table, the metallic disruptors banging noisily against one another and the durasteel tabletop.  Reaching behind him, he pulled up a nearby chair and sat a few feet across from Refira.  "Well, you know what they say about sugar, it's sweet, but if you have too much of it, you'll crash."

He motioned towards the cloth duffel next to her.  I brought you a little something special."

"As much as I'd love to be on this resort world of a moon paying you a social call, those are Class 8 disruptors.  Easy enough to get your hands on in this corner of paradise, but highly illegal in Tapani Space.  Some associates of mine managed to intercept a KDY freighter loaded down with them after it slipped through customs and showed up in the Freeworlds.  Now aside from a life sentence each, they pack quite a punch and eat through just about any kind of body armor, shields, or what have you.  We have suspicions that this is part of a larger operation that's running guns from outside the Kingdom to a partisan group holed up near Fondor.  As you can imagine, my superiors want that stopped, yesterday."

Lucian leaned back a little more in his chair and tucked a stray lock behind his ear.  "So what I need from you sweetheart, is information, and I have reason to believe that your...organization can be of assistance.  I need a lead of some kind.  I'm not talking about a shipment here or there; I need to know who's calling the shots so I can have a chat of sorts with them.

[Muffinzky]

As Lucian dumped the duffel on the table, Refira laid her hand against her chest in a theatrical manner and waved her long eyelashes at the Tapani, as if struck by surprise
“For meeee? Oh my. You shouldn’t have”.

Her demeanour, however, became more serious as he spoke about the metallic contents. And the Hapan slaver looked from Lucian to the duffel and back again many times, her eyebrow raising with wonder. It wasn’t unusual to her that these things happened. After all – the Exchange made them happen. All the time. For huge amounts of money. What made her bite the tip of her finger was rather the fact that it managed to get that far. She knew the Tapani sector and how strict they were with their security. But would the Exchange mess with stuff like that? She hummed darkly, not sure what to believe. Refira wasn’t quite convinced yet.

She took the freedom to open up the duffel, and as told, those were disruptors. And some rather impressive ones at that! Refiras eyes widened, almost like a child in a candy store, and the very sight made her whistle flirtatiously at the objects. Those were gorgeous!
”Ooooouh… This is the good stuff. These are deactivated, right?”. She didn’t wait for an answer, nor did she ask for the Mecrosa assassins permission before she had to try to lift one up, pretty much without care for how it could blow her, or her lover to bits in a slow and painful fashion. As mesmerized, she turned the disruptor in her hands, tapped her nails delicately against the surface and smiled with a mixture of reverence and excitement. “Majestic”.

It didn’t take long for the sass queen to return from space, and she carefully placed the disruptor on the table.
“Lu-uu. What kind of wookie did you make angry this time?” she snickered.
Despite the severity of the situation, Refira didn’t refrain from rolling down on her back with a mischievous grin, playing with her braid while looking Lucian in the eye and waving her leather wrapped legs in the air. There wasn’t a moment of doubt that the Hapan woman knew what she was doing, and she enjoyed the little game with the man.

“Also, how were these smuggled into the Tapani sector again? Someone isn’t doing their job! This is rebellion material. Some brutes must be really displeased with your government form. Better smack them back into place before it becomes a habit… Some people are so stupid. They wouldn’t know what to do without a god-given hand guiding them. Ungrateful – as they are. Yet, they still try to implement change in the natural caste of society. So sad”.

[hugo]

"Well ah... no" Lucian said as Refira toyed with a disruptor.  The safety was on at least.  How odd it was, the sight of a Hapan noble toying with the weapon as if it were a mere plaything.  They both well knew that the slightest mistake could discharge a burst of pure energy that would put a hole through him and probably the wall behind.  That was Refira. She seemed so unaffected by the gravity of the situations she found herself in.  Perhaps it was aristocratic arrogance, but she always managed to maintain the same, cavalier air. Even when she'd learned of who he truly was, Refira didn't throw a fit because of the mountain of morally reprehensible things he had done in the line of duty, but because he had the audacity to keep it secret in the first place.  

"Yes well.." Lucian started to say something when he noticed what Refira was doing. Now she was really playing with him. He shifted in his seat a little, wondering why he thought this would be a good idea.  Refira, his on again off again mistress, knew how to get to him in more ways than one.  

"Rebellion material and then some.  We've launched an investigation into our customs agency to try and figure out whether it was incompetence or corruption that let these bad boys slip through undetected."  He sat back in his seat and absently pulled at a stray lock of his long brown hair, feigning relaxation.  "The intended recipients of these fine works of underworld craftsmanship are a small but dedicated cell of Republic-sympathizers intent on regime change, so you can see why our people responded so urgently.  I don't know if the damned fools are aware of just how futile their insurrection really is, nothing in the Tapani Sector has ever changed through revolution, and that's not going to change anytime soon if I can help it." 

Refira was still lying tauntingly prostrate on the desk in front of him, causing Lucian to flush a little.  He was by no means a bashful man, but seeing her lie in front of him so casually brought many memories, memories of the stormy days they'd spent together at home on Javis, and beyond that, the youthful dalliances they'd shared almost a decade ago. 

"By the way, is there anywhere to get a drink around here?" 

[Muffinzky]

It was not that Refira didn’t listen. Oh, she listened all right. But it was so much more amusing to watch the little signals that revealed how she was affecting the warrior with her very presence! Refira’s aura shifted from the more passive and innocent looking to that of a predator, as she crawled to the edge of the table with a smirk and sat there. His question seemed to create little sparkles in her eyes. She licked her lips slowly and cocked her head slightly to the side.

“Plenty! But of course – not with many spectacular options whatsoever. The drinks they serve here – or rather, the sludge – It isn’t very tasteful. But it works fine if you want to rinse your oesophagus. Or feel like burning a couple of houses down”. The Hapan stopped in a rhetorical pause.

She sent Lucian the elevator eyes, then reached out for him. As if it had gained life on its own, her hand caressed his cheek and jaw line without much thought behind the movement. It was such a long time since she had the opportunity to touch him.
A voice in the back of her head screamed that she shouldn’t. It was the same voice that also told her not to trust him. That she should run. That she shouldn’t trust a force user. The voice that wanted her to forget him. It told her that she shouldn’t get involved with someone like him. To be on guard… But it was too late. Refira was already involved with Lucian. She had always been involved with Lucian. The tentative beginnings of their relationship were built on lies, as the Tapani had been a Mecrosa affiliate from the first time they met and long before that. Still, of all the freaks and murderers Refira knew, Lucian had never hurt her. He had ratheeer… corrected her behaviour – something she as a Hapan woman would never admit to. Why would he damage her after all this time?
She couldn’t stay away. Her attraction to Lucian was far the most dominating voice in her body. And it had actually grown bigger after she discovered what calibre of a man he was.

“Are yooou-” Slowly, she placed a finger on Lucian’s Adam's apple and slid it down his neck.
“Asking me out?” Her hand proceeded down his chest. There she dug her long nails lightly into his skin, scratching him through his garments.
“Lucian?”

[hugo]

As an agent of the Mecrosa Order, Lucian had the benefit of a wide berth.  His missions were not closely supervised, and he was generally left to his own devices when Fondor issued its directives.  It was simple, Lucian thought.  The leadership cared about results, and found it best to promote independence in its assets.  That meant Lucian could indulge himself when distractions arose, so long as he performed when it counted. Some distractions, such as a gentle caress and a not-so-gentle eye up from a lost passion of youth, were more pressing than others.  

When Refira touched his face, Lucian could barely help from flinching.  It wasn't that her touch was unwelcome, indeed it was warm and familiar, it was simply that Lucian hadn't really expected it.  In an instant, it made him feel strange.  Their relationship, for indeed it was a kind of relationship, if not pubic, appropriate, or overly serious, was like a fine red rose.  It blossomed suddenly and vividly, and seemed natural as anything the galaxy-wide.  But distance and destiny wilted that rose, like a frost that arrives early in the fall.  The war changed him.  Even if it hadn't, it took him away from a life where Refira fit. 

Looking at her now, and where she was, it was clear to Lucian that she had changed too.   Even if the rose had wilted, the thorns remained, and Lucian liked the thorns.  He figured she did too.  They were not good people.  He was a killer and she was just as bad.  Needless to say, they were no longer the restless, spoiled kids they had been when their feelings first blossomed.

As Refira ran her finger down his torso, Lucian looked at her for a moment before gently stroking her fight cheek down to the jaw and chin.  He looked at her again, curiously, before abruptly pulling her towards towards him and catching her lips in his, using the Force to throw her off the table and onto his chair.  

"I'd say the drink can wait." 

[Muffinzky]

Lucians’ familiar touch made Refira immediately push against it. She placed her hand gently above his and closed her eyes, enjoying the returned gesture. It wasn’t as much the touch itself. If Refira wanted a man, she usually found the means necessary to get to him. Some more tiresome and protracted than others, but she had a way of peeling the shell of most men with no concern of species and cultural differences, if she liked them. It would be excessive to say: Refira was not a woman that was starved for touch nor an innocent individual. She had never been. Rather she always had an interest in those that were unique. And as such, it wasn’t the gentle caress itself that made her bend, but because it was Lucian that granted it to her.

She wasn’t prepared for the feeling of being grabbed by the invisible hands of the Force. The times she had felt it, it had ended unpleasantly for her, like a puppet being controlled in the air by strings. Had she angered him? Had she-

Refiras’ hands pushed towards Lucians’ chest to support herself in the fall. Then their lips met. It was a pleasant surprise that the first few seconds made her square her shoulders up. Though subtle and way too short, the kiss melted away a lot of the tension she had felt about their meeting and she didn’t resist. When he stopped to speak, she smiled.
“Let’s not get all sentimental, daddy o’, shall we?”

But she didn’t turn away from Lucian, she moved to sit more comfortably on his lap and wrapped her arm around his wide shoulders.
Who was she kidding?

“Okay, maybe just a little”, she whispered.
It was a reply for her own statement and his, as she carefully nipped a cuspid against his neck and brushed her lips against his skin. When she reached his jawline, she moved to reunite their kiss more greedily than what he first attempted. And she didn’t give him any opportunity to protest against what he had started.

[hugo]

A brief, but not embarrassingly brief, period of time later, Lucian gathered himself off Refira's table. Fastening his trousers, he drew a fresh handkerchief and dabbed at his forehead, sweat-matted strands of hair clinging to his flushed skin. That had certainly been something. After so many years apart, he was sure their old spark had well gone out. He had to admit to himself, however sheepishly, that the possibility did cross his mind once or twice, and he hadn't exactly resisted his most basic of urges.

Refira was to his left, and to his right was the duffel bag he'd tossed onto the table earlier. Reaching into the side pocket, Lucian drew out what looked like a hand-rolled cigarra and a lighter. He hopped off the table and strode over to the nearest window, cracking it open slightly. With a boyish grin and quick glance over at Refira, he lit it, filling the room with the acrid smell of Smuggler's Moon Rocks.

"Care for some SMR, like the good old days?" he said, still smiling as wisps of blue smoke fluttered out the window. The rank smell and warm buzz brought back a lot of memories. One in particular was when he and Refira had ditched a masquerade ball on Fondor to smoke on the ballroom roof.

Even with their diversions into nostalgia, Lucian was still here on business, but he knew Refira wouldn't let him leave without giving him an answer. He offered her a lot of credits, and judging from where he had found her, she was interested in making as many credits as she could. Besides, when had she ever told him no before?

[Muffinzky]

Refira was still wrenching in the afterglow of their union and trying to catch her breath. She watched as he moved to the window. Her skin felt heated, so to cool it, she placed her hand on her forehead.
What did she expect? She wasn’t sure… But it was no surprise. That was one of the things that attracted her to him in the first place: They had a preference for the same lifestyle. So, it was womanizer that met maneater. And thus, almost inevitable for it to progress once their lips touched. Just maybe she didn’t expect it to happen so soon. She had barely got to wonder if she should lock the door to prevent interruptions. Or think in general. It just happened.
Though, she didn’t mind being squished between Lucian and a table some other time.

Picking up her pants from the floor, Refira wriggled and jumped to get her curves back into the leather before she walked over to Lucian and leaned towards the wall beside him.

“Do you still smoke those?”. She laughed and placed a soft kiss on his cheek.

“Why am I not surprised… You haven’t changed much, you old fox. You are still as good a kisser as I remember you. Ha, and the other thing wasn’t bad either”.

Waving her fingers at the cigarra in a ‘come hither’ motion, she returned the smile.
“Gimme! Hand them over, love”.

The ice blue gaze wandered to the duffel and the disruptors, but she didn’t radiate any signs that she intended to get busy. Quite the contrary.
“They don’t look like any of the designs that we are dealing with, Luu. Not from what I’ve seen. But I can check up on it for you”.