Note: I realize many of you will think I'm crazy, but once I started giving this pairing serious thought, I wound up wanting it for my canon. The story you will read is purely the relationship progression of Skavak and my female smuggler, so I apologize is the telling is jarring. I imagine you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't already have an understanding of the smuggler storyline, so I'm not too worried about anyone being confused. A lot you will recognize dialogue from the game, but a lot of it is new, too. I hope you guys enjoy this even if you do think I'm insane.
As always, I don't own Star Wars, just Alico. All rights reserved. Et cetera.
The problem with hatred is that it inevitably leads to obsession. Not like love, which is pure. Or at least purer than any other emotion. But hatred is negative. It burrows deep inside of you, overtakes you, makes you angry and paranoid and bitter. Hatred is all-consuming, until all you can do is think about that thing that you hate—you eat, breathe, and live it. You become obsessed. And then what you hate the most is bound to you forever.
Chapter One – Unforgettable
His face was entirely forgettable. Skavak's. Sure, one might think the tattoos would draw a person in, but after every alien and culturally-inclined Captain Alico had seen in her life, he was average. Brown hair slicked and tied back, blue eyes, clean shaven, and a tribal tattoo on his right side—totally normal. He even started with an if-I-had-a-credit-for-every-time-I-heard-that kind of line. "Hello, gorgeous." All she saw was a cargo courier sweet-talking out of second-nature.
And then he stole her ship.
She had to admit, if he was looking to get her attention that was the way to do it. And that was the first time she really looked at him, looked at him over a holocall and memorized his face, burned it into her memory. Their first real words vibrated between her ears like a blaster shot to the skull.
"Aw, what's the matter, Coros?" Skavak whined. "Did I hurt your feelings? Be thankful you're alive, kid."
He glimpsed her over his shoulder and turned to face her, grinning like only a conman could. She took in his features, every last detail.
"Be worried I'm not dead," she told him. "Do you have any idea who you're messing with?"
"What makes you think I care?" he countered, and then bowed gracefully to her. "On behalf of Ord Mantell's glorious freedom fighters, I thank you for your blasters, your ship, and a big laugh. Have a nice day."
And then he was gone.
/
Alico climbed the ramp up to Viidu's room as Corso checked the rest of the hangar.
"I can't believe you fried Viidu, sweetheart." Skavak's voice was unmistakable. "So what if he caught you talking to separatists."
She paused at the door and leaned against the threshold, spying Syreena talking to another holoprojection of Skavak while Viidu's corpse lingered nearby.
"He threatened to turn me in to Rogun the Butcher," Syreena explained. "I had to kill him. Besides, now we can finally be together."
Alico wanted to choke. She narrowed her eyes on Skavak's face and wondered what woman could be attracted to that. His arrogance was nauseating. Personal vendetta aside, there was nothing attractive about the womp rat.
"Yeah…" he agreed casually, "and the thing is, my cargo hold is full and, y'know, I'm busy with work." He almost smiled. "I'll call you sometime, though. I promise."
Womanizer. Typical. Classic, even. She almost snorted at the great cosmic joke this was turning into. She prayed he tried his charm on her some day. She would bury the mudlicker.
"What are you talking about?" Syreena ground through clenched teeth. "You promised to get me out of here. I've done everything for you Skavak!"
When she heard Corso's footsteps coming toward her, Alico pushed off the door and silently strode into the room.
"You did it for the money—same as me. The only difference is you're not actually getting paid." Skavak looked up, saw her approach, and grinned. "See you around, darling," he said, and though he was talking to Syreena, he was looking at Alico. Her skin crawled just thinking about it.
And then he was gone. Again.
One thing stuck with her though. It was when Syreena said that Skavak could "charm the armor off a Mandalorian." At first, she couldn't help but wonder how many idiots had to the roam the galaxy to be taken in by a nerfherder like Skavak. And then she remembered the galaxy was crawling with them.
/
After the chaos of the attack on the Esseles subsided and they were back on course, Alico retreated to the passenger quarters for some deserved privacy. It was wreaking havoc on her to be on someone else's ship—shuttling to a planet she'd flown to herself dozens of times. Passenger ships were noisy. Smelly… not bad like a Hutt's slave freighter, but like a city piled with people. She was reminded with every sensation that she wasn't alone. She missed being alone. She missed her ship.
Skavak was a dead man.
Alico slipped into her bunk and pulled the sheets over her head. She drew out her holocommunicater and plugged in the chipset labeled "Hit List" where she had stored holos of everyone she planned to kill at some point in her life. She pulled up the recordings of Skavak's calls and set the projector next to her face as she nestled in to sleep. She stared at him, watched his expressions, his hand gestures, his mannerisms. She memorized them, played them back, pieced him together like a puzzle. She assimilated all of the facts, filled in the gaps she could, and guessed at the rest. She made him unforgettable.
And as her eyes drifted closed, she listened to the sound of his voice. Made it a wavelength she could never mishear. She tried to imagine how it would sound begging for mercy and screaming in death. She fell asleep sometime around the one-hundredth playing of, "See you around, darling."