Corso explored the ship a bit. Risha had been a surprise, but the Captain was pretty happy about the prospects of the haul Risha had proposed. Risha was doing some kind of serious research now and had chased him off. This was a great ship, he had to admit. There was even a bar. He was pretty impressed and finally understood why she'd been so mad at its theft. Ryli'd kissed him when they'd stepped aboard. He shook his head; it was like she was trying to drive him crazy.

"Corso!" came a shout down the hall.

He rushed down the hall and turned into... the shower room. One of which was on. With clouds of steam rolling from it and flashes of pale yellow-green colored skin coming into and out of view through the clear plastic. Corso swallowed hard, unable to move his eyes away. That's an arm, that had to have been a leg... oh stars, that was... He finally managed to jerk his eyes towards the wall. "Problem, Captain?"

"Just wanted to brief you on what we're doing next."

"Ah, I could wait outside."

"Why? You've seen me naked before, Riggs." She sounded genuinely curious.

"Ah, well, you're, ah," he stammered.

"Getting clean?"

Oh yes, that's exactly what I need to be thinking about right now. Her scrubbing... He stopped his thoughts abruptly and tried to focus on what she wanted. Is she doing this on purpose?

"You said brief me, Captain?"

"Yes, we're heading to Taris and they have a terrible rakghoul problem, so make sure you bring a couple extra weapons. I'm going to pick up a few more blades before we leave the fleet."

"Rakghoul?" That is definitely a hip.

"Some kind of beast. I've been reading what I can on it. Unfortunately, you're going to have to do the bulk of the fighting if rakghoul blood is as dangerous as I've read."

"Why's that?" I must be beet red by this point. If she steps out and sees me... oh no, steps out.

"Because I work with knives, Riggs," her voice sounded amused. "Knife wounds shed a lot more blood than blaster fire."

"Right. Of course."

The shower clicked off and swung open before he could move. Every inch of his Captain walked towards him in what felt like slow motion. She looked even better than he remembered, if that was possible. Her hand reached out and he stared, open-mouthed, not capable of coherent thought. After what felt like a year, she said, "Riggs?"

He gulped, he could just take her hand and pull her to him. It would so easy. He'd never been so grateful for the solid durasteel armor that he was wearing, getting shot at didn't even make him this happy to be wearing it. He couldn't pull her to him, she'd hit the metal and it would be cold.

"Riggs? Hand me my towel?"

He looked behind him and there was her towel, hanging on a hook. He put it into her outstretched hand.

"Thanks," she started drying off. He'd never seen her hair down out of the carefully arranged buns before. It was long and drifted over her... I have to get out of here.

"I'll just go make sure my blasters are clean then," he said, stumbling back out of the room.

He passed Risha in the hallway, having obviously overheard him and she stopped to talk. "The Captain and I are going out tonight, do you want to come?"

Corso shook his head, his face still burning. "I'm probably going to stay in."

"Stay in and clean your blasters."

He blinked. "Yeah."

"Gotcha, have fun."

Behind him, he heard Risha say something to Ryli that made them both burst out laughing.

Ryli was cheerful that night. Corso was still playing hard to get, as far as she could tell, but Risha was good company.

"So seriously, do you think he has any idea what that sounded like?"

"I have no clue." Ryli paused, a slow grin spreading over her face, "The man can kiss, but seems to be slightly oblivious in other respects."

"You have a thing for him."

Ryli nodded, "I expected to get it out of my system early on, but he's being rather obstinate."

"So driving him mad with desire is your solution?"

Ryli shrugged, "One of us will have to give in eventually. I'm assuming it'll be him, since we both want each other and he's the only one stopping it." She raised two fingers at the bartender and he brought over two shots for them. She and Risha clicked them, tossing them back. They turned back to look around the bar. "Until then," she looked around, "I'm open to suggestions."

Risha's grin widened, "What would say to a wager?"

"What kind of wager?"

"Well, we're already pretty drunk."

"Speak for yourself."

"So, let's see how many drinks you can have bought for you."

"As in, how many drinks I can con from different guys?"

"Exactly."

"Rules?"

"What rules?"

Ryli rolled her eyes, "Can I trade a kiss for a drink? Am I allowed to lie? Stuff like that."

Risha seemed to look at Ryli for the first time in any seriousness. "Hmm, no holds bar?"

"You're on; what are the terms?"

"We won't remember who won in the morning. Whoever wakes up alone loses."

"Tie breaker?"

"Hotter guy."

Ryli glanced around the bar, catching the eye of one or two men she wouldn't be upset to wake up next to. "Let's do it," she said with a grin.