The ship was silent, or at least as silent as it could be.
Eden walked the Hawk's halls, dark but dimly lit. Arms wrapped protectively around her torso, she made her way around the crescent shaped hall, pausing just before the garage. Despite her unease, she smiled at the sound of Bao and Atton muttering heatedly at one another, undoubtedly arguing: Atton all jokes and petty excuses, Bao all stoic logic and reason. Eden bit her lip, spying from around the corner of the doorway, careful not to be seen.
She did not want to be discovered yet, still unsure if she wanted to be talked to. Mical had seen how quiet she was on the ride back from Onderon. He was careful not to ask about Kavar but intuitive enough to know that a hand on her shoulder was appreciated - and needed - as she felt she might dissolve with rampant dissatisfaction in leaving her old master and their unfinished business behind. Mical was in his room now, probably poring over datapads as usual.
Upon arriving back the Hawk, she reached out with her senses, curious as to what the others were up to.l Mira and Brianna had locked themselves in the cargo bay to spar. Eden had no interest in intruding - though perhaps it was not for lack of wishing to punch something but more so a desire to leave the two alone. Visas' quiet energy had greeted her on the loading ramp, a soothing calm settling over her as if the ex-Sith knew what plagued her friend, figuring that a soothing though impersonal welcome was needed rather than one requiring a physical presence. The word friend hovered comfortably in Eden's mind for a moment, a small smile crossing her mouth before disappearing. With Mical, Mira, Brianna and Visas all accounted for, that only left Atton and Bao in the crawl space beneath the loading area, butting heads and somehow finding the time to repair the Ebon Hawk despite it.
Eden bit back another smile as a hydrospanner shot out of the opening in the garage floor like a rocket, no doubt catapulted from Atton's annoyed hands. Eden ducked out of the doorway before he could emerge to retrieve it and potentially see her there, still finding herself shy. With quick, quiet steps, she stuck into the main hold where there was only T3 for company. Her fingers itched at the sight of the droid, yearning to teach him something new as she always did when something was troubling her. It was like training a domestic pet.
Her mind could not help but return to Atton behind her. Even though she was unsure of her ability to entertain company, she unwittingly used the Force to sense that Atton was playing his perfect Pazaak game in his head for the briefest of moments before beckoning T3 to follow her to the engine room. It was getting harder to stay out of his head, if only for silly though innocent reasons. She was simply… curious. It was even harder to get Atton out of her own thoughts, as if she didn't already felt guilty enough for prying into his.
"Feel like helping me fix the hyperdrive?" she asked, as if T3 had a choice, breaking her chain of thought before she could self-indulge any further. The droid beeped excitedly, rolling back and forth like a gizka bounding on its hind legs when offered food, and followed her out of the common area.
The engine room lay in solemn shadow, though of the welcoming variety. The room was only lit by exposed mechanical panels and the many switches, buttons and valves that operated them. Soft, supple lights blinked like stars, an entire galaxy in miniature for Eden to explore… and to screw up somehow.
Eden removed her outer jacket, baring her freckled shoulders, and fastened it at her waist. The cool, dry air of the Hawk settled over her like a shroud, easing the hours of tension that had made itself home in her aching muscles. T3 began relaying the layout of the hyperdrive console to her as she haphazardly gathered her mass of dark, wavy hair into a mess of a bun at the nape of her neck and got to work.
Prepping the console was easy enough. Remove the protective cover. Check. Assess the diagnostics. Um…
"Tell me what we're looking at here, T3."
The droid repeated a set of instructions in droid binary, practically Eden's second-language.
"So I'm guessing these… valves, or whatever, aren't supposed to be glowing yellow?" she asked, placing the removable inner frame on the console behind her, poising her fingers before her tentative project.
T3 beeped regrettably.
"Green, huh? I guess that makes sense. So, what am I supposed to do?"
Eden could hear T3 hum as he searched for the answer to her query, buried somewhere in his mainframe's memory files. Her fingers itched to move with every moment that passed while the droid remained silent, buffering. Eden's hands spirited expectantly over valves that appeared as if they could be twisted and buttons that looked as if they might do with some pushing, but she did her best to wait patiently for the droid's instructions. Self-discipline, Padawan. The longer she was idle, the more the day's events unnerved her.
T3 finally regurgitated some long-forgotten instruction manual, beginning with an unnecessary preamble that announced the task she was about to attempt: "Repairing a Class-1 Unit, Dynamic class hyperdrive. To complete the necessary repairs, you must first conduct a diagnostic test to determine what has caused the damage-"
Before Eden could roll her eyes or become engrossed in the instruction's droll spell, she sensed the presence of an all-too-familiar know-it-all at her back.
"What new frontiers are we conquering today?" Atton teased from somewhere behind her. Eden didn't have to look but she knew the scoundrel was leaning in the doorway, as he often did before formally entering a space.
"Trying to get something done," she explained, already exasperated. She didn't need any distractions, especially not after her mess of a meeting down on Onderon. Without thinking, her hands took to the valve to make it look as if she were busy and could not be bothered, fidgeting with it despite not knowing what it was or what to do with it. As nice as it was to hear his voice in person again, Eden wasn't sure she was emotionally prepared for any further human interactions today - lest they, too, end in disaster and blaster-fire.
She felt Atton's eyes on her. His presence had lately cured her many uncertain moments, easing any inner disquiet she felt with a joke and a mischievous smile. And still, she feigned to know anything about hyperdrives and how to fix them, all in an effort to avoid him. She sensed Atton abandon the doorway and watched him crawl into her peripheral vision, having taken his leaning from the door frame to the console beside her, from whence he continued to judge her skill or lack thereof.
"Y'know fixing hyperdrives is nothing like fixing droids, right?" Atton said through a smile.
Eden had to admit that it was a good look for him, thinking that it was a nice change from his usual snide scowling, but fought the urge to voice her opinion, "What gave it away?"
"The fact that what you're pulling on isn't meant to be pulled, for starters," Atton's smile grew wider as he spoke, merciless in his torment. "What have you even been telling her?" he now redirected his criticism to T3, keeping it civil for once, to which the astromech only responded meekly with several solemn bleeps.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were taking a shine to the pup," it was Eden's turn to make fun, as she leaned against the open console now, mirroring Atton.
"He's not nearly cute enough to warrant the name pup," he scoffed, "And you might not want to lean on that-"
Eden jumped back, her eyes flashing to the lever, scanning the lights and the glowing tubes with fervor, almost expecting them to have sparked beneath her skin. And though Eden did grow warm, she soon realized that the warmth she felt was more likely from Atton's presence and her own embarrassment rather than some imaginary mishap.
Upon seeing that the console was perfectly fine, Eden looked at Atton with a pointed glare. He responded with a wide, wicked grin and a mirthful laugh.
"It's been a long day, alright?" she said, though no malice laced her voice.
Atton only continued laughing, which she rightly deserved. His hazel eyes lit up at the sight of her, and Eden realized just how much Atton had taken to smiling lately. Now that he was in her sights and not watching creepily from behind, she noticed the spots of grease that marked his chin and face - monuments to moments where the man probably couldn't help himself from relieving an itch while repairing the ship, no doubt. Eden almost felt the urge to reach up and gently rub them away with her thumb. Instead, she bit her lip, suppressing a smile as she shook her head, unwilling to let Atton win this time.
"Aw, come on," Atton pleaded. He nudged her arm with his elbow, lingering for a moment as his gaze flicked across her face, coaxing the smile out of her.
"You know," he continued, his voice growing lower as he cleared his throat, though the mirth was still evident in his words, "I half expected you to be moodier when I walked in here."
Eden cocked her head and looked at him with a furrowed brow.
"Why's that?"
He wasn't exactly wrong about her mood, but how would he know? Unless he-
"I dunno. Otherwise I thought that you might have, um," Atton laughed again, though sheepishly, a hand reaching to absently scratch the back of his neck as he sought the right words, "I thought that you might have stopped by and said hello, earlier. Or something."
Atton's features settled after stumbling over his words, his eyes intense and earnest. She and Atton had been increasingly friendly in her time on Onderon while Atton remained on the ship, assisting Bao, though annoying him was more likely. Atton was always eager to report back to her when she contacted the Hawk, even taking it upon himself to send her text based updates to which Eden responded to with just as much zeal. She found herself messaging him regarding matters that did not concern him, such as complaining about how unprofessional the Iziz guards were or even sending him a photo of a sad droid shop, remarking how this could have been her in a few years if she weren't being hunted by a legion of Sith. Contact with Atton had fast become the highlight of the entire mission, even when he wasn't around, and it happened to be the one thing she kept private. It was something she didn't need to discuss with Mical, and as soon as she would take out her transponder even Brianna knew to leave her be.
Atton's expression was so sincere that Eden felt her heart thrum against her chest, threatening to burst through her rib cage. She had grown so comfortable seeing Atton's face on a screen that being near him in the flesh again was suddenly intoxicating. To see him up close, to feel the warmth of him, it was as if any semblance of sentiment she had harbored over the past few months had grown ten-fold and become exponentially potent, her veins now running with an almost drunken pleasure in his presence. Something had changed in their brief time apart. She felt it in moments where either one of them, or both of them, would take longer than necessary to sign off and return to their duties, as if their growing updates-turned-conversations were still not long enough.
"I saw that you were busy," she began, watching him hang onto her every word, though she knew he fought with everything in him to deny it on his face, "And you know how I get. I get the urge to fix things when-" Eden took a deep breath, unsure of whether it was due to what happened earlier with Kavar or because of the sudden electricity she felt in such close proximity with Atton, "well, when I can't fix something else."
"Well, you're not gonna fix much of anything at the rate you're going," Atton uncrossed his arms and moved slightly, momentarily unsure of what to do with himself before moving towards her with confidence. "Here, let me show you."
Atton settled into the space at Eden's back as his hands took hold of hers, guiding them to the console and its parts. Eden's face flushed hot as her hands retracted from his, exclaiming in excuse, "Wait, what are you doing?" her voice a soft, urgent whisper, "My hands are dirty."
"My hands are dirty too, what are you afraid of?"
"Afraid?"
Atton chuckled. The warmth of his breath upon her neck set her skin on fire, but if fire felt like this she found no reason to fear it. It was… nice.
"See this thing?" he asked, his voice low, a soothing hum to match the ever-present hum of Hawk. Eden nodded, though her eyes failed to remain fixed on the hyperdrive at all.
Atton's face hovered over her shoulder. He was so close that she could almost study the geography of his jaw.
"And this, right here? Well, this locks into here, and - ah, well, just let me show you."
Eden bit back a laugh as Atton took the reins and demonstrated. His voice was gruff but still soft, somehow, and he was close enough that she could feel the gentle vibrations of his voice hum within his chest against her back. As amused as she was, she knew part of it was the nervousness, anxious that she liked this more than she wanted to admit.
After a moment, Atton stopped, laughing again himself. He looked at her, the amusement fading from his face as he, too, realized just how close their faces were as he stood over her shoulder, his face only inches from hers. His eyes darted between Eden's, travelling shyly to her mouth for a brief moment before returning.
"What? What is it?" he asked, his voice low and even.
"Nothing," she breathed into a chuckle, reluctant to tell Atton that he was being cute. If anything, he might take it as an insult. The pilot's eyes narrowed.
"Right. Anyway, once you do that, you-"
Admittedly, Eden hadn't been paying much attention to his handiwork, but whatever Atton had managed to do, she had a feeling it wasn't his intended result. The lights went out, emergency and all.
Plunged into darkness, Eden's senses resorted to the Force out of habit. In her mind's eye, she sensed Brianna and Mira going at it just beyond the barrier in the cargo hold, Bao tinkering with his remote droid behind them, and T3 in standby beside her - but before her mind could extend and settle over the rest of the ship, she ignored it. All that was left was Atton's warmth at her back and his laughter at her ear, his breath teasing the hair at the nape of her neck and the growing heat beneath her skin at the thought.
"Nice work, Padawan," Eden teased as she turned around to face him, only to find that without the Force she could barely see anything. Despite her handicap, she preferred this; she preferred to experience things as any other spacer might. There was something painfully nice about the darkness, Atton's closeness, and the fact that everything outside the vicinity of her personal space was completely unknown to her. Amid her reverie, she jolted slightly as Atton's hand reached for her forehead, his knuckles gently grazing the side of her face.
"What are you-?"
"Looks like we might have singed something," Atton replied, and Eden could sense the smile in his words despite the darkness, "Must have blown a fuse."
"You must have blown a fuse," Eden corrected.
She hadn't noticed it at first, but the pain sharpened as her mind processed what Atton had said. There was heat at her temple, her skin singing slightly from a rogue spark. Whatever minor pain she felt was soon eclipsed by the fact that Atton was actually healing her, or trying to, at least. The spot tingled, like a limb awakening from numbness.
"What do you think you're doing?" she asked wryly, though her voice escaped as an urgent whisper again.
"Not bad, right?" Atton chided, a smirk crawling across his mouth in the gloom. Eden rolled her eyes.
"You're just looking for another reason to kick Mical off the ship, aren't you?" she retorted, still whispering.
"Hey, a Padawan needs practice. And c'mon, admit it. I'm not half bad."
"Not bad," she remarked after a moment's silence, regarding his amateur healing abilities with another dramatic eye roll, despite how marginally impressed she was, "for a scoundrel."
Atton had never dared get this close, and yet his face was here, inches from hers, his left hand healing her while his right now rested upon her hip, guiding her towards him as he nursed her with complete attention. Her entire body felt flush for a moment, and not just her forehead, as Atton's healing fingers descended upon the hollow of her cheek, caressing her face carefully with the pad of his thumb.
"A scoundrel, huh?" he replied, mocking despair. The darkness was intoxicating and so was Atton, his skin electric against hers as he drew her nearer.
"Mhm," she affirmed, her mouth unable to form words.
Their closeness solidified, their many stolen moments into one. Eden's limbs hummed with anxious energy, plagued with a nice kind of nervous in Atton's unavoidable closeness. With her eyes now adjusted to the gloom, she could make out more of Atton's features than just his silhouette. His eyes reflected whatever light was in hers, and she could now see just how intent his expression was, his gaze flickering over her mouth, and back again flitting between her eyes.
A wolfish grin overtook his face as his eyes cast downward at her lips before returning, hesitant, "You like me because I'm a scoundrel, admit it."
The inherent joke resonated in his words but his demeanor was nothing but serious. His thumb traced the scar that ran across her cheekbone, stroking her face with practiced pause, taming what hungry desire he had harbored to be close to her for so long.
Unable to deny him, she replied, "And what if I do?"
Uncertainty flickered in Atton's eyes, not out of fear but of surprise, not expecting Eden to take the bait without a fight. She often enjoyed teasing him, sure, but she was incapable of playing games with what now felt inevitable. Her body fell into orbit with Atton's, their hands tugging at one another with gentle eagerness as she leaned into his palm at her cheek. Perhaps they had waited long enough.
Eden watched as an answer took shape on Atton's mouth, opening in anticipation of speaking, but he stopped himself. Instead of voicing whatever thought he had, he closed the gap between them, catching her lips before she could utter another word.
His mouth was soft, yielding, yet still she could sense his controlled tenacity as her own lips parted and welcomed his with warmth and an intake of nervous breath. Atton's hand moved from her cheek to hook around the back of her neck, reeling her in while tempering his desire to pull her in even closer. And though she muted the Force, Eden felt his longing upon her mouth, his lips seeking hers immediately upon retracting, as if torn between receiving her response and wanting more.
He paused, his mouth still hovering close enough to hers that she could feel the velvet plush of his lips against her own, his stubbled jaw brushing against her chin, as he breathed her name "Eden," like an apology, but in response she guided his mouth back towards hers, her palms cradling his jaw as she took him in again, keen on having him close. Atton caved, and suddenly his mouth was a tempest, teasing her lips with an appetite Eden was only too willing to match.
Her blood pulsed as Atton's hands moved to her waist, his fingers taking gentle but eager hold of her as he steered her closer, as if they could not be close enough… only to be interrupted by an unpleasant, self-important, automated voice.
"Mildly Apologetic Interruption…"
The mounting energy between them slowed to a soft yet reluctant halt, their lips still too close for anything other than heavy breath as if in a final attempt to avoid what potentially speechless moment would follow their physical entanglement, as the voice begrudgingly continued.
"There appears to be an urgent message requiring the presence of all crew members, which, in turn, requires that any physical mating rituals pertaining to meatbags cease."
HK's voice drawled on without emotion, though his disgust of humans was apparent. Atton muttered something about his everlasting hatred for droids before returning to himself and the moment, inhaling purposefully as his eyes focused on Eden's.
"We should, um," Atton started, stuttering. "We should probably-"
"Right, yeah," Eden affirmed, nodding almost too fervently as she moved to leave though finding herself unable to.
"I'll just, uh," Atton turned, as if allowing Eden an exit, but all they could do was pivot, still unwilling to move apart. Now Atton's back was to the panel, and Eden couldn't help but laugh at the pair of them.
"I thought this thing wasn't meant to be leaned on?" she asked, playfully raising a brow as she caught Atton's bluff.
Still flustered, Atton looked over his shoulder at the panel behind him and snickered beside himself, shaking his head, "I was, uh, testing you."
"So the student becomes the master," Eden teased.
They laughed airily, still nervous, still reluctant to part. A moment passed, their amusement dying down despite the anxious smiles still evident on their faces, before Atton broke the silence.
"We should get going," Atton said, his voice soft and suddenly serious, though his eyes remained intent on Eden's.
"Yeah, I know," Eden murmured, "I just-"
She paused, reveling in the surprising comfort of their closeness, not wishing for it to end. Atton did not protest. Before Eden could finish her thought, her mouth did the thinking for her, pressing itself gently against Atton's lips again as if it had a mind of its own. Atton obliged, but did not push further, though Eden suspected he wanted to.
"I'll leave first," she said softly as she pulled away, "Wait a few ticks before following after me."
She closed her eyes, stopping herself for just a moment, before breathing into a laugh and looking at Atton again. His eyes were wide, questioning, but he understood. This didn't have to be a secret, but there was no room for ship-wide gossip just yet.
Atton nodded, though worry lined his face. Atton may have been used to one-time things, but something told Eden he hadn't planned on her falling into that category. This time, she really laughed.
"Maker, you're pathetic."
She kissed him again, pressing her mouth against his, quelling the laugh that threatened to erupt from his mouth at her comment if she hadn't. Atton shook his head softly as she pulled away this time, his expression somewhere between amusement and disbelief.
"You're something else, you know that?"
"Oh, I know."
Eden wasn't exactly trying to be coy, and she could feel the blood rush to her face as she spoke. Or maybe it was the full realization of what had just transpired.
Atton remained in the engine room, almost dazed and wistful as she walked away. Eden wanted to laugh again, feeling somewhere between elated and nervous. Whatever she was feeling, it was worlds away from how she felt when she entered the ship. Hell, Eden almost didn't recall what had even happened earlier that day.
She inhaled and held her breath, allowing the Force to steady her again. Without thinking, she leaned back against the wall once the engine room was behind her, trying to remember what this was all like before – but for once, the past was a blur. Whatever had transpired between her and Kavar or whatever message awaited her and the crew should have had her on edge, but instead she was wondering whether Atton got the right impression, and where they were going with this.
Her hand absently reached for her mouth, putting a gentle finger to her lips, now feeling suddenly bare. She smirked and shook her head, gathering her resolve before moving onward.
Whatever would happen would have to wait. For now.