"Kriff!" Syal Antilles, defeated by her datapad flying game, threw it across the room and watched it bounce off the wall with satisfaction. Picking up the remote to the holovid player, she thumbed through the myriad of channels available aboard the Errant Venture. Just as she found a suitable, guilty pleasure holodrama, the doorchime buzzed. She wondered who it could be and instantly regretted her urge to spend the day, ungroomed, in her loungepants and one of her father's Rebel Alliance shirts.
Sighing in resignation, she headed for the door and pulled it open, prepared to tell whoever it was that her father wasn't home, and, instead, broke into a smile at the sight that graced her doorframe.
Valin Horn stood propped against the wall, grinning wide and holding a plate covered in flimswrap.
"Hey, 'Lysa'." Valin's mocking use of her alias, made her giggle while he, in a dramatic sweeping bow, offered the plate like a sacrifice, "I heard, upon my arrival on this fair vessel, that you made plans to vegetate today, and assumed that you might welcome an intrusion so long as it came prepared with ryshcate."
"That depends," Syal mirrored his earlier pose leaning, with one arm outstretched, on her side of the door, "who made the ryshcate? We all know you can't cook, Horn."
"Nah. My mom made it last night. I risked my life to snitch this from my dad this morning." He rose from his sweeping bow as she took the plate from his hands, and turned to allow him access to the apartment. He stepped over the threshold and she turned.
"Did I say you could come in?" She crossed to the far side of the kitchen island and placed the ryshcate on the counter. "I only recall consenting to your baked goods, not you, CorSec Junior." She teased him with his childhood nickname, which belied any malice in her words that her smile didn't already destroy. He instantly assumed a contrite expression.
"My apologies, dear Syal, if you had plans that did not include my awesome self, but since your attire would indicate otherwise." She tossed a nearby spoon at him and he caught it easily, laying it back onto the counter.
"Yeah. You caught me, Val. I was just gonna watch "Space Pirates on Sullust" and eat some of that surifruit dipped in chocolate that Booster found Force knows where. Ryshcate may just be a reasonable addition to the plan, and I happen to know that you love "Space Pirates, and so, taking pity on you, you can watch with me if you want." She bent over the refrigeration unit and turned to offer Valin a canned juice. He nodded and she tossed him one, before taking one for herself.
They walked to the couch and sprawled, unceremoniously with the casual ease of long-time friends, each picking at the bowl containing the tiny, slightly sour surifruits and watching the adventures of the pirates on screen. Eventually, they turned their attention from the rollicking exploits of the fictional miscreants and, as usually happens, to talk of mutual friends.
"So, did you hear about Talon Donos? He's making quite the sniper out of himself."
"Yeah," Syal nodded, sipping her drink, "but his sister is no slacker either. I think Ben Skywalker has a little crush on her." She grinned at the mention of their younger, red-headed friend.
"Well, you know how those Skywalker boys are. Give 'em a woman with a blaster and they're down for the count." Both fell silent for a moment as mention of Mara Jade brought the cold reality of the war into the room for the first time since Valin's arrival.
Syal, sensing the atmospheic change, decided to restore the easy calm to the room and snorted in a truly unladylike fashion.
"True, true. He'll get over it, though. He's too young for that nonsense, and that girl has the tendancy to open up a big-ass can of crazy."
Now it was Valin's turn to snort.
"Yeah, I guess. I mean, he is almost 16, though, and I wasn't much older than that when I had my first kiss." He shrugged.
"Oh yeah. Odessa. Odessa Milar. I remember her. She had you flummoxed six ways from Firstday. You really liked that girl. When she kissed you before you left the Jedi Academy, you came and found me the minute you were back on Coruscant and poured out your little CorSec Jedi heart to me. You were adorable." She laughed and threw herself dramatically across his lap. He smiled good naturedly at the ribbing and pushed her onto the floor. She crawled back up onto the counch, still laughing. "I could have hit my head, you insensitive ewok!"
"Nah. I was watching."
"Oooh, what were you gonna do? Use your levitation skills to—oh, wait… you don't have those, do you?" She sniggered and he lunged towards her, pinning her back against the opposite arm of the sofa.
"Maybe not, but I'm faster than you." Syal twisted beneath him and he suddenly found himself on the floor with her sitting across his stomach.
"That might be true, Horn, but I'm just generally fantastic." She stood up and offered him her hand to help him up. He took it and they flopped back onto the couch, slightly winded after their impromptu wrestling match. Their attention briefly returned to the space pillaging of Captain Menku until Valin broke the silence moments later.
"Keep in mind, Antilles. I was there during the Tovin Lasro phase. I remember how terribly depressing that point in history was from the outside perspective." He clasped his hands under his chin and batted his eyelashes in a decidedly feminine manner. "Oh Tovin's so cute. Tovin's such a good pilot. He is so patriotic. He is the greatest freakin' thing to ever exist in the galaxy." He did a fair imitation of a swoon, and she shook her head.
"I wasn't that bad. And besides, he never kissed me. He didn't even know that I was alive. My first kiss wasn't until I was 19 and joined the military as Lysa Dunter." She turned to face the screen and shrugged. "No one wanted to kiss Wedge Antille's oldest daughter. I may as well have been a leper."
"Ha, yeah! The great Wedge Antilles, killer of deathstars and men who look twice at either of his little girls." Valin smirked, and again, the room descended into comfortable silence.
A standard timepart later found Valin and Syal acting out the melodrama unfolding before them.
"Oh no!" Syal threw a hand, upturned across her forehead, speaking the words along with the sickeningly emaciated ingénue on screen. "What ever shall I do without my beloved Captain Meku. He will forget all about me while he is away!"
"I fear that this is true, my lady!" Valin came bounding onto the "set" they'd constructed, by moving the heavy coffee table out of the way. "Although, how any man living could forget your beauty, I will never know." He swept a mirroring, ridiculous bow of that on the screen, and approached Syal, wrapping his arms around her from behind. She stepped away from him and turned, apparently horrified at his presence.
"Lowell?! My husband's trusted lieutenant! What do you mean by this outrageous betrayal?"
Valin approached her yet again, striding as only a ham of an actor can move, and took her hand, pulling her toward him again.
"Lady Artes, I love you more than you can ever know, can ever see! Surely, you know how I feel about you!" He wrapped his arms around her and she made a vain, but unrealistic attempt to escape.
"I know, Lowell, oh how I know, but you know as well as I that we cannot be together!"
'Lowell' grinned rakishly and tipped her chin up to face him.
"Ah, but we can, my love, my heart, my whole existence. Simply tell me that you love me, and I am confident that we can survive all, together!"
'Lady Artes' demurred for a moment, but then suddenly drew her attention back to him as if in some invisible thrall, and she opened her mouth to respond.
"I love you. I love you as I love the stars and the sky. I love you as the soil loves the rain, and as the rain loves its home in clouds!" 'Lowell' tipped her backwards valiantly, and, in mirror image of what was going on on screen, kissed her. Then, for the next several minutes, even after their on-screen counterparts resumed their fight for life, love and liberty, he continued to kiss her much longer than necessary, wrapping his arms tightly around her and feeling her respond in kind.
Suddenly, Valin and Syal once again became Valin and Syal, and realized what it was that was going on. Both scrambled backwards and sat stiffly on the couch, several meters apart.
"I—I should probably go. I mean, Mom said to be back for dinner." Valin rose unsteadily, and headed for the door.
"Yeah. Yeah, you should, I guess." Syal knew she should stand to see him out, but she couldn't seem to will herself to move.
"Umm.. unless… never mind." Valin stopped, halfway to the kitchen.
"Unless what?" Syal cringed as her voice sounded much more shrill than she intended. This was Valin for kriff's sake. Why was she acting like such a gundark?
"It's… nothing. I just..." Valin started to leave again, but turned suddenly, as if coming to a major decision. "Did that… did you feel that?" Sensing her hesitation to respond, he continued in rushed tones. "I mean, if you didn't, just let me know and I'll never mention it again, but that… that felt… that felt really good, Syal. Didn't it? Tell me I'm not crazy here."
"I…" Syal looked at her hands, "I just don't know, Valin. I mean… what if I say yes. Won't that change everything?"
"Oh yeah." Valin nodded, but seemingly emboldened by her response, he inched closer. "But, maybe that'd be a good thing. I mean… what if we… what if we were… a we? We've never thought about it, but neither of our love lives have ever been particularly successful, as we discussed earlier." Valin sat on a stool at the edge of the kitchen area and leaned back against the wall. "Maybe… I don't know, Syal… maybe the Force is trying to tell us something." Valin shrugged, and she looked up suddenly.
"Valin, what if we end up hating each other? I've seen it happen. And… I have never even considered—that is, I never thought about you… well… in that way."
"Me neither." He shook his head, and leaned forward. "But, I'm starting to wonder if that just makes me completely insane."
"I… I just don't know." She sighed heavily, and Valin prepared himself for a last-ditch effort. He didn't care what happened to him at this point, if she didn't agree to this. He'd never felt anything as fantastic as kissing her, and he was nearly dying to feel it again.
"Look, just do me one favor?" He wheedled shamelessly, using the leverage of just over two decades of friendship to win points for his side.
"What?"
"Let me kiss you again? Just once more, and if you feel nothing, then we can walk away, and I promise never to mention it again. Ever. On my word as a Jedi Knight." His heart sped up to the point of pain when she stared straight ahead for a moment before nodding slowly and resolutely, the way she always did before she took on a particular challenge.
He crossed the distance to her so quickly, that had he thought of it beforehand, he might have been worried about startling her. But, she looked no more disturbed by his speed than she was by his initial suggestion. And when he leaned forward to touch his lips to hers, he found himself suddenly met halfway.
Yep, he thought somewhere in the back of his dazed mind, there it was again. That sweet, winding feeling that was slowly working its way into his brain as if it had always been there, but was just now coming awake. He could feel her, suddenly, in the Force, and even though she was not a Force user, her presence suddenly seemed brighter to him than even his sister or father. He felt almost as if he could swim in her energy and never resurface, and when she pulled away after what must have been decades later, he found himself suddenly feeling as though his entire life hung on the importance of what was going to say.
"Well, Valin," Syal sat back a bit with a grin on her face, "I think you're going to need a knife." This was the last thing that he expected to hear and he snapped his head up to look her in the eyes.
"What? Why would I—"
"Beacause, oh dense one," Syal suddenly smiled at him wider than he'd ever seen before, and with a purposeful gleam in her eyes that suddenly had him almost completely unable to breathe, "I think we finally have a reason to cut that ryshcate."