Beginning of a short fanfic based on the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic. This is my first attempt to make a Star Wars fanfiction.

English isn't my first language, so please don't be too harsh with the quality of my writing for the grammar, punctuation or anything else concerning the language.

LIFE IN THE OLD GALACTIC MARKET

Ria stood before the bar, drinking her nautolan drink deeply and slowly. She needed it after this hard week. It remembered her of her home on Glee Anselm. She and Nik left it many years ago to come on Coruscant, seeking a new life. Sadly, they discovered quickly the planet wasn't the place where it was easy to accomplish their dreams. Coruscant was the center of the galaxy, the capital of the Galactic Republic, but it was one huge big city covering a planet whose population was about a trillion people. To say people lacked space would be an understatement. It was entirely different from the watered planet Ria knew in her childhood.

However, the lack of water or anything natural didn't bother Ria so much. She and Nik knew how the planet was when they came. They chose to live in a big planetary city and they wanted it, but they didn't expect life to be so difficult here. And they didn't expect war to reach this place so quickly, or even to reach it at all. They should have known when they left their world. The Republic and the Empire had been at war for nearly thirty years when they moved to Coruscant. When they arrived, riots caused by starvation because of the Sith blockade had just ended. She and Nik used what they saved on their homeworld to buy a house. Sadly, the Sacking of Coruscant happened not long after. Their home was destroyed in the bombardment by the Sith fleet. Ever since, life had been a hell for both of them.

She and Nik were refugees now. They lived as they could, taking the jobs they could get, fighting to keep their little corner in the Old Galactic Market. Sometimes they had to search the garbage to find useful things to have heat, power, or to sell items in order to get money. By luck, up to now, they never had to search the garbage for food. At the end of each week, they allowed themselves an evening in a cantina. That was their moment to relax and they would never turn their back on it.

"Hello, beauty."

Ria turned to face a yellow Twi'lek. He was a little taller than her, and she had to admit he was quite handsome. However, she wasn't going to fall for a handsome face so easily. She knew what kind of men these could be, but it could also be only a game for this one. She decided to play the game. It would be entertaining and would help her to think about something else than her precarious situation.

"Hello, guy. What can I do for you?"

"Let me buy you a drink." His voice was seductive, but Ria thought she heard some kind of amusement in it.

"Alright, I won't refuse one by a handsome guy like you."

The Twi'lek smiled and ordered two corellian beers. He was quite a good company. His name was Nessos. They laughed together for some time and Ria soon learned he wasn't making a pass at her for real. He made a bet with some friends in a corner that he would be able to get a kiss from her. If that was all he needed, Ria had nothing against it. It was only a kiss. That wasn't as if it meant anything. They didn't kiss immediately, that would look suspicious in his friend's eyes. They both played their part. Ria made the girl who laughed at each of his jokes and allowed him to put his hand on her thigh or her hip a few short times. Then finally, when they thought they had his friends believe it enough, they exchanged a long kiss.

"Thank you, beauty," Nessos said as he left her, right after the kiss. Ria could see the friends he talked about in a corner. Nik chose this time to stop the guy on his path.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing? It's my wife you just touched."

Nessos was rather drunk. He had ordered them drinks three times during their discussion. Nik was drunk as well. She could feel it wouldn't end well.

"Relax, my friend. I did nothing wrong. It was only a bet I did with my friends. That was nothing serious."

"Nothing serious! You just touched and kissed my Ria." Nik gave him a push on his shoulder.

"Hey, calm down man. I did nothing wrong. You can ask her. She'll tell you. She agreed to do that. That was only a game."

"I don't believe you. Ria would never do something like that. She's not like this. You forced her to do it."

Ria rolled her eyes and walked towards the two guys. Nik's jealousy really was annoying sometimes. She was old enough to protect herself. She wasn't a child.

"Hey, Nik! That's enough. He's telling the truth. He did nothing to me. Let him be. Anyway it's time to leave now."

"Out of question! I won't leave before I deal with this rapist." By all water that exists. This is going to get wrong.

"Rapist! Are you calling me a rapist? Is it of me you're talking?" Nessos was obviously angry now. Drunk and angry.

"Yes, I'm talking of you, piece of shit!"

The brawl started as Nessos hit Nik right between the two eyes. Then he grabbed Ria's husband by the chest and pushed him towards the bar. Nik collided with it, but seized a bottle and smashed it on Nessos's head. Both the men struggled together and exchanged punches and kicks. Ria feared for a moment the Twi'lek's friends might come to help him, but they just stood aside and looked at the show, just like everyone else, until the cantina's guards separated them and threw both Nik and Nessos outside from different doors.

When Ria went outside to find Nik, he was all bloody and had a hard time standing on his feet. That was all his fault. He looked for trouble.

"You really are an idiot, you know." She gave a kick in his ribs as he still laid on the street. "Now stand up. We go back home."

Ria had to support her mate through all the streets until they reached their apartment. They were lucky to not encounter any undesirable people. In his state, Nik wouldn't have been able to defend himself, and Ria wondered if she would have been able to defend both of them on her own. She let him drop heavily on the mattress they had in a corner of the only room of their "house". Their apartment was all dirty, full of vermin crawling in all corners. They couldn't even afford a bed in their precarious situation. They barely managed to have enough food to eat. Ria looked at the generator. It was near exhaustion. She would need to find new batteries tomorrow and alone. Nik may not be able to rise in his state.

"Are you alright?"

Ria boiled in anger at her mate's question. "Am I alright? Of course I'm alright! You should ask this question to yourself, damn idiot! Have you any idea what you look like?"

"I was only trying to protect you," he pleaded.

"Trying to protect me! I didn't need protection, Nik. I was perfectly safe. The guy did nothing to me."

"He kissed you against your will. I saw him."

"That was only a bet he made with friends. He was only playing and I played the game. There was nothing serious in all that. You really are a pain in the ass when you want."

"I just don't want you to get hurt."

"In this case, you should have stayed at your place while the guy was going back to his table. Nothing of all this would have happened if you remained quiet. Instead you made a scene and started a fight."

"He's the one who punched me in the face first. I was only defending myself. I was defending both of us."

"If you hadn't called him a rapist that would never have happened."

Nik remained silent for a moment. "I was only trying to protect you, my love."

Ria sighed. "Next time, do me a favor: don't try to protect me. I can defend myself when I'm in danger. Now rest. You're injured, and you need to not move if you want a chance to stand up on the morning."

Nik didn't speak afterwards. It wasn't long before he fell asleep and Ria could hear his snoring. She went to sleep at his side after a moment. She turned her back on him. Life had been insufferable for Ria during the last three years. At the beginning when they arrived on Coruscant, it wasn't so bad. Of course, they had trouble to get the first necessities ever since the sacking, but they managed to live all the same despite this. Everyone didn't have this luck. However, their situation had become worse as time passed. The Migrant Merchant's Guild slowly established racketeering activities and now everyone had to pay for their protection.

It wasn't their precarious economic situation that bothered Ria the most. It was Nik's behavior she couldn't support anymore. He always was very protective and obsessed with her. At the beginning, she liked it. She felt like someone special in his eyes. However, it started to bother her with time. Nik always wanted to be there to protect her, to watch over her, and with their difficult situation he had become worse. Ria could barely speak to someone else now without Nik looming to defend her from some supposed danger. Ria wanted to have some life, and Nik denied it to her. He wanted to control every part of her life for her own "safety". She was old enough to take care of herself, but Nik didn't seem to understand this. She wondered for how long she would be able to support it. She fell asleep on these thoughts.

Please review

For everyone who like Game of Thrones and/or A Song of Ice and Fire, I have another fanfic in writing process, longer than this one. "A Shadow and a Wolf".