Disclaimer: All belongs to George, Dave, et al. The Tal'ka mercenary clan, though, is my invention.
but love is not
She wasn't looking to fall in love. It hadn't ended well in the past, and at this point she figured it was safer to avoid it all together. Safer for herself and her children.
Suu didn't have any illusions about her body. She couldn't afford to. It was a hard galaxy for any woman to live in, but for a beautiful Twi'lek woman it was a constant maze of assumption and entitlement and danger.
She made sure that she was more dangerous than anything she might face.
Cut was not dangerous, not when she met him. He was sick and weak, but she could see the marks of combat on his body. His mind wavered in and out of presence for the first few weeks, and during that time he let more slip than she imagined he might have, if he were whole.
She didn't need to hear it, though. Suu was very familiar with the landscape of running. She bore similar marks herself.
Weeks later, when he told her he was a deserter from the Republic army, she wasn't surprised. He seemed to be waiting, though, as if he expected her to do something about it, turn him in.
The children were asleep, and there was more than time for this conversation. She laughed.
"Let me show you something," she said, and brushed aside the hem of her shirt. A small, fierce bird with wings of fire showed dark red against her hip. She saw Cut's eyes widen, and knew that he recognized the mark of the Tal'ka mercenary clan. She felt a fleeting, unreasoning surge of pride, that even a raw, new Republic soldier knew what that mark meant.
"You're a deserter, too," he said. There was a kind of wonder in his voice that made her forgive his obvious statement.
She shrugged, expressive and meaningless, and turned away from him to gaze out over her fields, green and vibrant pink in the fading light. It was loud here in the dusk, the night insects and the croaking amphibians and the rustle of the wind forming an ever-present wall of background noise, but it was a different kind of loud from laser fire and explosions. It was a loud that was quiet, really.
Cut moved slightly in the dusk, the bandaging on his arm shifting. His eyes met hers, but he didn't say anything. She thought he understood.