"Oh relax will ya?" Fira sighed as they walked out of the small spaceport.
This place was one of those little worlds, mostly hidden away in one of those mostly 'off the radar' pockets of space. Sort of place you tended to end up when you didn't want to be found.
But unlike some of those places this one was mostly clean, quiet and even downright pleasant. It looked more like somewhere a farming settlement should be than anything else.
"Sorry, Fira." Corso chuckled, sliding an arm around her waist. "Can't blame a guy for bein' nervous."
"Don't see why you are, he's not my father," She stuck her tongue out.
"Well, he's kind of close to that right?" Corso chuckled, "But then back on Ord this usually would happen before you'd even think of getting married."
She chuckled, "You can take the farmboy out of the farm..." She mock-sighed rolling her eyes.
The pair of them walked in companionable silence hand-in-hand until they reached the cantina.
They entered, it was fairly quiet unlike the amount of noise and bustle Fira usually associated with cantinas, or at least the kind she ended up in. And surprisingly clean too.
A few patrons looked up, but not out of suspicion, which was a welcome change as they made their way to a back table.
A man was there, sitting with the heels of his boots just touching the table, a wide brimmed hat on his head and a duster that had clearly seen better days thrown over the back of the chair behind him.
"Hey old man,"
"I've finally grown into that name..." He spoke with a voice that sounded fairly Corellian, but had a twang of something else to it.
He tilted his hat up and smiled, grey-blue eyes sparkling, "Lark,"
He took off the hat to reveal dark blonde hair streaked with grey, he had a generally 'weather beaten' look to him.
"You've been busy, haven't you?"
"I'm guessing Kexi filled you in?"
"Yeah, but I've been keeping tabs on you too, I'm impressed."
"Thanks,"
He titled his head, "And this must be Corso."
Corso extended his hand, "That's right sir,"
"Sir? No need to be so formal," He snorted, "I'm just a spacer, same as you."
He shook Corso's hand anyway.
"Names Jal Revys, although I'm betting Fira's been telling you my name is 'Old Man'" He shot her a withering glance.
Fira shrugged, "Hey,"
"Anyway," He motioned to the seats around the table, "Sit, not polite to let guests stand the whole time." He refilled his glass with whiskey.
Corso noticed the smell was similar to the kind Fira tended to drink.
"And, it's gonna take a while to get through all those stories, I gotta know just how you pulled some of that stuff off kid,"
He nodded at a green skinned Twi'lek waitress and she came over. "The usual?"
He picked up the bottle, "Nah, still good, but for my friends here... how about some of that spicebrew?"
The waitress nodded.
"Ah, didn't order me a Ruby Bliel this time?" Fira smirked.
"Well... pretty sure you're old enough to drink now," He chuckled. He turned to Corso, "So you come from Ord, kid?"
"Yeah,"
"Aint been there in quite a while," He knocked back some of the whiskey in his glass, "Heard 'bout Viidu, shame that, never met him but he seemed a good guy from what I heard.
"Yeah, he took me after I lost just about everything... that seems a real long time ago now."
"Tell me about it," Fira laughed before taking a sip of the spicebrew that had been ordered for her. "I'm still surprised you decided to stick with me, amount of times you've had a chance to bail out."
"Well," Corso put his hand over hers, "You know if I was going to run out on ya I would have done it a long time ago,"
"Ah," Jal raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Thought as much."
"That obvious?"
He shrugged, "Call it a hunch,"
"A while," Fira suddenly felt somewhat sheepish, "We're married, actually, still sinking in a bit though, right Corso?" She placed her hand over Corso's free one that was resting on the table.
Both Jal's eyebrows rose, "Well you didn't mention that in your messages,"
"Well, can't really say anything about that in a holo or message, kind of impolite." Fira shrugged, before taking hold of Corso's hand again.
"Well..." He raised his glass, "I'll drink to you," He knocked the rest back.
"You've really come a long way from that smart mouthed, scruffy little thing on NarShaada,"
"Hey I weren't that scruffy,"
He snorted, "I beg to differ, Lark. I remember you with that oversized orange jacket, and the hair,"
"What was wrong with my hair?"
"I remember you had it kinda long, in a ponytail, and I remember you complaining just because you got just a bit of gunk in your hair when I was showing you how to fix an engine,"
"I didn't complain… much. And I liked that jacket."
Corso chuckled. "I can't see ya with long hair,"
Fira ran her hand through the layered back of her hair. "I was a kid anyway."
"I know, I know and I was much younger" Jal sighed, "Though of course I've always been old to you. Haven't I?"
"You're not that old,"
"Well, that's a change in tune,"
"Hey, I've grown up, remember?" Fira said sipping a bit more of her spicebrew, "Anyway, I thought you didn't want to talk about the past."
"True, I want to know what my little Lark's been up too, well most of it anyway." Another shot of whiskey.
The rest of the time was spent with Fira telling about just about everything that happened since Ord with input from Corso as needed and by the time they were done she may have drunk a few more spicebrews.
She only drank half of the last one. She knew when to quit.
Whilst that brew wasn't immediately potent it seemed to be the sort of one to sneak up on you after a while.
"So yeah, that's just about everything that's happened,"
"You know," He played with the now empty glass, "If anyone else told me this I wouldn't believe 'em, but you've done more past few years than I've done in ten, hell even my whole career, you've really come a long way,"
"Hey, I learned from the best,"
"I only taught you so much; rest of it's all you kid, like you were born into this." Jal smiled.
"I always put it down to luck,"
"Luck, skill either way kid, you've got something good going on here."
"Well," Fira stretched slightly, putting her arms behind her head, "I'm not quite hanging my blasters up yet,"
"I know, and you've got one heck of a partner here."
"Me? I ain't..."
"Ah shucks kid, if you've been able to stick with her this long you really got something special 'bout ya."
"Hey!"
He chuckled, "In all seriousness, I've always liked you Mantellians you have this kinda grit about you, don't see much of it anymore. Galaxy needs more of it."
Fira smiled, twining her fingers with Corso's. "See, told ya farmboy. Couldn't have made it through everything without ya."
"Alright, you've made your point." He playfully sighed, and Fira kissed him on the cheek.
Fira laughed. And Jal just shook his head.
"Crazy kids…"
"Okay now you really sound like an old man,"
It seemed that barely any time passed before they had to go back to the Lark's Fortune.
She hadn't expected Jal to do so but he walked back with them to the small spaceport.
"It was good to see ya, Lark." He said as they stood near the entry ramp for the ship.
"Same, believe it or not, I've missed you."
"Same," He smiled. "Even if you were a brat at times…"
"And you were a grump; you've mellowed with age though."
"Hey, watch it I can still run with the best of them"
There was a slightly awkward pause, "I know you aint good at goodbyes,"
"Eh, this is not goodbye; I'm guessing I haven't lost you that easy,"
"Nope, got to keep checking up on you, make sure you're behaving yourself,"
"Darn it," He turned to Corso, "It was nice meeting you, I'm glad to see Fira's fallen in with some good folk."
"Might have to bring the rest of the crew along next time,"
"Look forward to it…" Jal put his hands in the pockets of his duster, "I'd be best getting back, don't get in too much trouble, alright?"
"Feels weird the ship being so empty, don't it?"
"Yeah," Fira sighed, "Funny thing is I got so used to it pretty much being me on this thing for so long… then things went sideways and now…"
"Hey, I'm sure we'll be back to the 'good old days' pretty soon,"
"Mhmm, I think everyone needs a break." She paused, rubbing her chin, "But, there's advantages to the ship being kinda empty right now," She breached the space between them by reaching for one of the dreads that framed his face.
"Really?" He grinned. He chuckled and grabbed her around the waist pulling against him, he kissed her, one of her hands wound into his hair and she pulled the tie from his dreads.
Fira pulled lightly but somewhat impatiently at one of his hands.
Fira woke up, and was quite glad she'd stopped drinking that spicebrew when she did. She was nestled into Corso's side, although somehow she'd ended up near the edge of the bed, one of her arms dangling down the side of bed, and she had been using her other arm as a pillow. One of his arms was draped across her waist holding her lightly.
She intended to go back to sleep but a slight beep caught her attention. With a sigh she retrieved the comm that had ended up on the floor.
There was a message, but it was a text one.
She blinked focusing her eyes as much as she could and began to read:
Lark,
It was really good to see you again, been too long.
But I just wanted to tell you something before you head off. Never been that great at this sort of stuff so take the word of an old spacer for what it's worth, okay?
What you've got, is something pretty special. Not a lot of people find it (me included, but past is past as they say…).
Galaxy's a pretty rough place; we both know that all too well. But you also know for all the bad there's twice as much good to make up for it. And I want you to keep believing that, since I've sort of forgotten how to.
You look after that kid alright? And you let him look after you.
Scratch that, just look after each other, alright?
-"The Old Man"
Don't worry, I will. She thought.
She put the comm down intending to go back to sleep. She heard shuffling next to her and the arm around the waist pulled her a bit closer.
She turned herself so she could see him.
"Morning," He drawled kissing her on the forehead.
She twined a dreadlock between her fingers again. She was tired, but it was a nice tired.
She shivered slightly as his hand trailed up her back.
"I love you," She smiled.
"I know," He kissed her warmly, "I love you too,"
They shifted so she was lying with her head on his chest; it was quite nice just lying there. One of her hands rested on his chest and she felt the rise and fall, and he just held her there and it was as if she was right where she wanted, well it was that but it also felt like where she needed to be.
Her eyelids were getting heavy again.
She was quite content to stay there, not like they needed to go anywhere.