Disclaimer: I do not own any of the quotes from the following films: High Sierra, The Big Sleep, and To Have and Have Not.

"If I'm not back by 'den, something probably went wrong."

"So you can signal me. Maybe with a whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Cad Bane? You just put your lips together, and blow."

.

.

At the back of a long, dark hallway, three guards decked up in Republican armor had just lit a fresh round of smokes, as was customary once they had finished a game of pazaak. One of them was chuckling to himself about his winnings, while the other two whispered to each other that they were certain he had cheated. But they knew they would never be able to prove it. This man had been a well-renowned captain of the death-row prisons for several years and had earned the right to boss the others around.

Out of the three of them, he was the most used to watching executions of prisoners.

"How is it done?" one of them had stupidly asked his first day on the job, to which the hard-faced veteran had replied in a techincal tone,

"Usually electrocution if he's just a simple criminal. More bad things done, more bad ways to die. Hanging is popular among the crowds, too." The veteran had then added, much to the discomfort of the two shinies, "Now, if you go to a public execution on Nal Hutta, you get to see some real creativity. The Hutts sure know how to show their audience who they hated most..."

A creaking sound came from down the hall. The dim lights flickered above. The veteran and one of the shinies bristled and stood up straight, while the other played it safe and rested an elbow on the cell door behind him.

A woman in a dark cloak appeared. She slowly approached them, her face concealed by the hood. The insides of her thighs rubbed against each other in a simply-seductive but playing-innocent sort of way.

"You'll have to leave, ma'am, no one comes down here. That's your first and last warning," the veteran warned, hissing through his two front teeth.

"All right, all right, no need to shove, sailor. I can take a hint." But the woman kept walking towards them, not breaking her stride. In fact, she was beginning to pick up the pace.

The veteran's shoulder muscles hardened. He knew this type. He smelled something funny.

"Ma'am, you stop right there or I'll—"

A blast shattered the silence of the underground hallway. The veteran stopped mid-sentence, eyes widened, as he realized he had just eaten a laser bolt right into his heart. A second blast from the woman's pistol, which was hidden in the long sleeve of her robe, brought him to the floor.

"Fierfek!" one of the guards shouted, and he lunged for the woman with his electrocuting staff.

In a flash, she had skipped to the side and struck him upside the head in a fist-elbow combo. He felt a long, skinny, and ivory arm coil over his neck and pin him against her front. The other guard jumped up, but was far too late. The woman let out a chuckle. As she pressed him closer to her, she flicked off the sleeve and fired three shots. The other shiny fell to the floor in a heap.

"Don't scream, sailor. It'll just make your final moments noisier," she murmured at the side of his head, her lips tickling his ear lobe.

He felt his eyes roll back in their sockets, and he managed to blurt out,

"Wh-who the hell are you?"

He never got an answer, for she snapped his neck and let him drop down like a rag-doll. She glanced down through her hood, a calm smile already spreading on her face. Then, in one movement, she reached down, plucked his cigarette off the floor where it fell out of his mouth, and took one long drag.

"Sing. Aurra Sing," she said.

Then she tossed away the cigarette and approached the cell door the three guards had been blocking. The hood, nasty old thing, finally fell off behind her and let her long ponytail go free. As she undid the lock and the door slid open, Aurra listened to the faint noise above. What a ruckus they were making just for one. Unless her research on the death-row prisons had been off and there was a multiple execution happening today.

Either way, she had to hurry.

Aurra stuck her blaster in its holster as she stepped through the doorway. Inside, the hum from a containment field as well as its eerie blue glow filled the small room. A figure's eyes cracked open, as if just waking up from a shallow sleep. Then, not to her surprise, she heard a dark, raspy, Durosian chuckle.

"Hello 'dere, Slim."

"Howdy. Lovely circumstances for a reunion, don't you think?" she asked.

"I'm not 'de picky type."

Aurra smiled as she dipped her chin down onto her chest. Her sultry eyes fluttered and glanced up at him, Cad Bane, as he hung suspended from his wrists in the containment field. His expression showed he obviously hadn't been expecting to see her, but it was wearing off pretty quickly as it should. Although they had taken away his breathing tubes, he still wore his own shirt, pants, and boots, but they had recently accumuluated plenty of deliberate wear and tear. He looked about three to four levels past the status of 'exhaustion'—perhaps the guards had been using the containment field and all its accessories to keep him awake for a long time.

Good for them.

"Seems like they had quite a few lessons they felt convicted to teach you. My, you're a mess, aren't you?" she muttered, glancing him up and down.

Bane tried what must have been the hundreth time to move his numbed shoulder muscles, but it was to no avail as always. He glanced away from her for a moment—even holding his head up was tiring—before his eyes locked on hers again.

"Guess 'dis is your idea of saying goodbye, huh, Slim. For such a heartfelt little parting gift, you made quite the entrance." If he wasn't immobile, Bane would've gestured outside to the three corpses.

"You don't have to act with me, Bane—you don't have to say anything, and you don't have to do anything. You're facing the noose or the chair or something even worse. And I'm free as a bird. Isn't this a very interesting situation we have here? And you can't do a thing about it. Not a thing."

"I'm starting to get 'de feelin' you want te do some'ting, uh, in 'dat case you have about fifteen minutes."

Aurra let out a small snicker and licked her lips and stepped closer to him. From where she stood about a foot below him, Bane knew he should be wary about that look on her face that was starting to spread like a cancer. And whatever it was, he found himself catching it.

"Is it very uncomfortable up there, Bane?" she murmured, and two of her long, skeletal fingers playfully tapped his chin.

"Ouch," he muttered sarcastically.

Damn, he wished he could move! How did Aurra always end up getting to tease him like this?

He felt Aurra's fingers tighten around his chin and pull his head down so far it strained the back of his neck. She tilted her head to the side with a cold gaze turning her blue eyes to ice. As she leaned in closer, she grabbed the collar of his shirt with her other hand. Then he felt his mouth collide with hers.

Even if he had been able to move, the moment would have frozen him stiff just from how taken aback he was. He couldn't detect what exactly she was doing, especially given the situation. But as her hands dug deeper into his flesh, Bane could not help but play along. At first, he let Aurra graze his mouth before he politely nibbled down on her lower lip. She felt their teeth touch, and the tip of his tongue explored the roof of her mouth, to which she felt something in her suddenly jolt and hunger for more. Her mouth folded over and began to taste the inside of his. As he slinked back and allowed her in, Aurra was delighted to find nicotine from a cigarette as well as some spice from an old shot of brandy mixed with whiskey. He let out a painful but satifised grunt that she felt go all the way to the back of her throat.

Aurra's lips tightened over his mouth one last time before she pulled back. She continued clinging to his collar but her other hand sank down to his chest, which she tapped impatiently.

As if she should be the impatient one, Bane couldn't help but mentally add, as Aurra's warm, well-seasoned taste lingered on his tongue.

"What did you do 'dat for?" muttered Bane.

"I've been wondering if I'd like it."

"What's the decision?"

"I'd like more," she said with a smile.

"If you really 'tink you can use a stupid kiss as a bargaining chip to bail me out, you got another 'ting—"

"I'm not finished yet." Her face turned to stone. "Remember who's on which side of the fence, here. I could let you go right now, but first I'd—I'd like to know what'll be in it for me. I never bail someone out unless they got something to hand back that's cold and hard and fresh."

"Well, were you expectin' a new starfighter, or more like a ten-minute blowjob?"

Her eyes turned a darker shade with anger as she pulled back, as if disgusted.

"I don't like your manners," Aurra hissed hotly.

"And I'm not crazy about yours. I didn't ask to see you. I don't mind if you don't like my manners, I don't like them myself. They are pretty bad. I grieve over them on long winter evenings."

"You go too far, Bane." Aurra slowly narrowed her eyes, only to part her lips once again. "But, uh...maybe it isn't so bad this way after all. I'm just a few more of those guards away and we're off. I could get something cold and a lot of it before the month is over."

"I bet you could," said Bane.

"Is that a guarantee?" she asked hungrily.

Bane smirked again at the expression on her face. No matter how much she would insist he owed her for this, he'd always have an old ace up his sleeve he could pull on her if she got too touchy. Besides, there was more Aurra Sing probably desired than simply money. Maybe an old score she needed to settle with some pirates, a question or two she'd love to run by him—a dance she'd like to try out in a cheap hotel. Really, with Aurra, the possibilities were seemingly endless.

"I'm hard to get, cowboy. All you have to do is ask me."

"You know whatchyer getting into," he replied.

Aurra's smile spread again, and Bane should have detected that as a warning of what she was about to do, but he didn't. As a result, when she reached behind her and flicked a switch on the console, he was in no way prepared when the containment field let him free. His arms dropped from above his head and his feet hit the floor so hard it made his knees buckle. He went down completely. The sudden return of gravity felt heavy on his aching, bruised muscles. And as if the hard ground was merciful on the side of his face and his hip-bone as well. Bane heard Aurra scoff to herself.

"That's for your bad manners."

"Damn it, Slim," Bane hissed between his teeth. "'Dis is how you treat a man who's plannin' on facin' 'de hot seat in less 'den five minutes?"

"I always took you for the type who'd be able to handle it," she snapped, her eyes still a darker shade.

He looked up at her and let out a sharp chuckle that stung his sore throat.

"Butchyu know I still wouldn't give two credits for a screwy dame wit'out a temper."

She let out a small harrumph. Bane wanted to pat himself on the back. Beating his Slim was fun.

They heard some guards beginning to bustle on the upper floor. Aurra knew she hadn't caused any alarm by sounding the blasts, for she had timed it perfectly with the guard change. But there were still the patrols plus some work about to be done. She took a step back and glanced out the doorway to double-check that it was still clear.

Bane wrapped his hand over the edge of the console to pull himself up. A bit of dizziness had begun to come about as a side-effect of the sudden lack of support from the containment field. Something shot through his leg and he stopped.

"Hey, Slim, I 'tink 'dey broke one of my legs." No wonder it had hurt so much when he was dropped.

"I got something for ya." She slipped outside the cell and grabbed a staff and a blaster rifle from one of the guards. Then when she had returned, she dropped the staff at his side and pulled out her pistol. "See if that'll help. You will have to help me clear a path upstairs and out to the main hangar. If you can manage it, of course."

With the staff supporting his weight under his arm, Bane slowly stood up and limped to the side of the cell door. Aurra tossed him her pistol and he easily caught it in his free hand. She picked up the guard's blaster rifle and briefly checked out its scope.

"'Dose guards didn't have any grenades on 'dem, by any chance?" he asked, his back against the wall.

"Checked already."

"'Dat's all right, I haven't forgotten how to improvise."

They could both hear the guards beginning their descent down the stairs. In less than three minutes, all hell would break loose in that area of the prisons. However, in all honesty, Bane felt himself looking forward to a little rough-and-tumble again, even—especially?—with a woman like Aurra Sing at his side. He knew he would have to keep an eye on her in case she decided to bail out on him before it was over. But, somehow, something told him he wouldn't have to.

Perhaps Slim wasn't just doing this for a reward. Was there something else she was in this for?

As if on cue with his thoughts, Aurra backed up against the opposite wall before replying,

"You also haven't forgotten how—how to steal a girl away with just one kiss."

What...?

Bane double-glanced at her before wrapping his finger around the trigger. She stared ahead down the hallway, with no sort of emotion visible on her face accept the anticipation of combat.

"You sure you're ready for some action, cowboy?" she asked.

Funny. It was as if she didn't even know what she had just confessed to him.

Poor kid, thought Bane with some amusement, still chewing on her prievious statement. Out of all the surprises she had held in store for him on the day of his 'execution', that one had been highest of all on his Least-Likely list. Slim, is this the gal he met because she tried to steal his damn wallet?

Holding it against her later, especially if she still acted as if what she had said about a kiss was nonexistent, could prove to be quite entertaining on his part.

"Watch gotchyu so into action on my part?" he retorted.

She didn't miss a beat.

"You whistled for me, Bane. I heard you whistle."

Cad Bane was the first to fire at the guards, until all hell broke loose.

And one kiss just made Aurra-kriffing-Sing a little girl again.