Shiarayn wasn't exactly sure when her frustration and yet teasing behavior had become something more. She hadn't really expected anything when she had found the scoundrel locked up in a force cage on Peragus. But somewhere along the line, her feelings had changed.
When everything had first started, it was simple. She had needed him to get off Peragus and then she knew that he would probably take off as soon as possible. And yet he hadn't. He had stuck around for some reason or another. She should have known when that fact had made her heart beat a little faster. But she had pleasantly ignored the feeling and chalked it up to the fact that it was always nice to have company that could help out in a fight.
And yet she had completely ignored the other little hints that had been thrown in along the way. Her open smile around him, how she trusted him despite his past and how he acted, and how she had grown to depend on him. She had never depended on anyone before besides maybe Revan. And that relationship had been…complicated, to say the least. Yet whenever she was around Atton, things just seemed easier. And then the time came when she had finally figured it all out.
It had seemed a simple enough moment. Atton was leaned back in the pilot's chair, his legs up as he played a game of pazaak by himself. The red-headed exile had stepped inside the cockpit silently and sat herself down beside in the co-pilot's seat. He didn't say anything, so she didn't see the need to say anything either. There they had been, content just to be in each other's company when they both decided to look at the other.
Their eyes locked, his chocolate brown clashing with her own sea-green. Silence had reigned for what could have been seconds or hours and everything stopped. Shiarayn's blood stopped pumping, her heart stopped beating, and there was nothing in the universe that mattered beside that moment right there in the cockpit of the Ebon Hawk. Nothing else in the universe mattered besides Atton Rand and Shiarayn Taim.
And that was when everything clicked into place, and the realization stole the exile's breath.
She was completely and totally in love with the man sitting right next to her.
The moment passed, they both smiled at each other as if they knew what the other was thinking, and they returned back to their previous actions. The universe moved on, time went forward, and everything went back to normal.
But maybe now was just a little bit brighter than it had been before.