Fira cringed and willed herself to go back to sleep trying to bury her head further into her pillow with little success.

She winced and blearily opened her green eyes to look at the chrono by her bedside and sighed at the time, it was way too early but she felt she wasn't going to get any more sleep and she knew from experience laying around staring at the ceiling would just be aggravating.

With a sigh she groggily stood up noticing the oversized shirt she'd somehow remembered to put on before she crashed out on her bed last night. And she for a moment made some promise she knew she wouldn't keep about not drinking ever again. And she also tried not to think too hard about how much of a wreck she probably looked right now.

And then realisation hit her causing her to sit down and put her head in her hands and cringe.

I made a complete idiot of myself last night, kriff.

With a sigh she ran her fingers through her red hair, maybe if she just grabbed a cup of caff or something from the galley she could come back here and then deal with what happened when she was actually awake.

She stood up and walked her feet hardly making a sound on the floor of the ship. So far no one else seemed to be around, she didn't spot Risha she was quite glad of that, not that she didn't like her but she knew that she couldn't deal with her band of gossip this early in the morning.

She stepped into the galley, stopped in her tracks and one word came to mind, well two words.

Kriffing hell.

She thought about just turning on her heel and going back to her cabin but something kicked in.

For Kriff's sake woman, get a grip.

So she did, and confidently or as confidently as she could manage stepped into the galley.

Corso was standing there and he wordlessly passed her a cup of caff with a friendly nod. Fira held the cup and thought about just going back with it yet she stood there with a rather uneasy silence between them as she toyed with the cup.

"I'm sorry," She said with some difficulty, "About last night"

"Captain, I dunno why you're apologisin' I'm the one who stepped outta line,"

And right then she wanted to tell him how much he hadn't stepped out of line and that she was perfectly willing to pick up on where they left off, right now.

"Corso," She sighed trying to think how to get the words out when Risha popped her head around the door, speaking in a tone of voice that was far too upbeat for so early in the morning "Hey Captain, got our next lead, come to the cockpit and I'll tell you since you're both up so bright and early,"

She sighed and downed a large amount of her caff.

She would decide later if the interruption was a good thing.

Ever since Risha had told them where they were headed next she had seemed uneasy. She'd also been avoiding him, but he didn't blame her after last night.

He winced at what he remembered from the night before. And he hoped he hadn't stuffed things up between them.

He was worried about his captain.

She was sitting in her captain's chair, however she wasn't sitting in that boot on the console, jacket over the back of the seat stance she usually took. The stance that seemed to show she was staking ownership over the area and she was in control.

Instead she was sitting there fiddling with a datapad and trying to look like she was busy.

"Hey, Captain," He didn't step any further than the archway into the cockpit however as he wasn't sure how Fira would react to him.

"Hey Corso," Fira said not looking up from the datapad.

He felt slightly emboldened and took a few more steps until he was standing halfway there. "You okay?" He asked and then tacked on "I mean, you've not been yourself today," rubbing the back of his neck.

Fira laughed weakly, putting the datapad on the ships console and turning her chair around, "Is it that obvious?" She sighed, "Let's just say NarShaada and I go way back, and I was very glad to see the back of it"

Something connected in Corso's mind.

"You were born there?"

Fira shrugged, "I have a feeling I wasn't but yeah I grew up there… " She turned around again to place her hand on part of the ship's console as if anchoring herself.

She mentally cringed, this was the second time in a very short space of time she had been openly vulnerable.

That was bad, this wasn't her. And she really needed to get a grip, she was a starship captain for kriffs sake not some child. But then she actually didn't seem to mind this happening around Corso, she hardly knew the guy but something told her she could trust him.

"There's not much down for me there apart from memories and old scars, it wasn't home,"

Old scars

Corso thought to the scar over her eye. He hadn't really noticed it much before now. Well he had, but he'd not paid much mind to it. But now he wondered, and he had a feeling however she'd gotten that scar that the story behind it wasn't good.

"Sorry if brought up bad memories, Captain,"

Fira shrugged, "Past is past, can't change it. Have to face it sooner or later, right?"

There was a pause again; however the silence wasn't as uncomfortable as the one from this morning. Corso thought about taking his leave.

Instead he walked closer and slipped his hand over hers, he was hesitant to do so not sure if maybe he was stepping over a boundary, especially after last night but it seemed the… right thing to do.

To his surprise Fira lightly squeezed his hand in response.

"You gonna be okay?"

"Ah don't worry about me Riggs, I'm a lot tougher than I look." She chuckled weakly. She squeezed his hand again this time linking her fingers with his.

"Besides, I've got you coming with me and there is no one else I'd rather have by my side right now,"

Oh look finally an update!

For this one I essentially combined two of my older oneshots for this one and then expanded and rewrote and whatever.

I'm currently working through a replay of Fira so there may be a bit of a delay with the next few bits as I catch up to that point in game.