He saw the man enter the shop behind him. Tall. Fair. Nice clothing, nice armor. Boba knew he was being watched, but none of the Mand'alor's previous spies were this obvious. Then again, they were the only two customers in an expensive oil and perfume shop. Maybe he was interested in something else.
He was about to find out.
"Can I help you?" The clerk was a young Zabrak with striking mottled skin and horn buds parting her hair.
"I need something for sex."
She didn't even blink. A true professional. "Right this way." She gestured at a shelf with a row of colorful bottles. "These are all safe and natural lubricants. Any particular scent or flavor?"
Organa hadn't specified. "Some lube and a bottle of alcohol," she'd said. The alcohol part was easy. He didn't generally drink and didn't like the taste of tihaar, but he thought he might be able to get away with feigning a sip here and there.
He picked up the closest bottle so he could see the price on the bottom. From the looks of it, the tihaar was going to be a lot cheaper too. "I'll let you look," the clerk said tactfully and busied herself elsewhere. Only half of Boba's attention was on his selection anyway, the other half was occupied by the man edging closer to him.
"The green one's nice. Doesn't have as strong a scent as some of others."
"That's helpful." Boba favored the man with a sideways glance. "Have we met?"
"No, but I think we have mutual acquaintances. I'm Korkie Kryze."
The Mand'alor's nephew. That made sense. "So you are watching me."
"Of course." There was no hesitation in his response.
"Can I borrow thirty credits?"
That caught him off guard, but only a for moment. He looked like he was trying not to smile. "For-?"
Boba jerked his head at the oils. "I'm out of work right now."
"You know there are cheaper places to get that kind of thing."
"My wife likes nice things. What kind of husband would I be if I didn't try to get her what she likes?"
"Well. When you put it like that." Kryze reached into his belt and handed over the credits.
"I'll pay you back."
"Don't worry about it. No reason we can't be friends, unless of course you're here to murder my aunt."
"Is that what she thinks?" Boba picked up the green bottle off the shelf. "If I was contracted to kill her, I wouldn't be here. I'd find someone close to her, someone who isn't happy with their position and thinks they could do a better job." He looked over at Kryze. "That's how they got you, right?"
Pale blue eyes met his, his gaze as sharp as the blade of a knife. "She's my blood. I would never hurt her. My recent... associations are about what's best for Mandalore."
"So we can go our separate ways."
"We can try." Kryze's smile was hard. "Ret'urcye mhi, Fett."
Boba watched him leave before taking the bottle to the clerk and handing her the credits.
"Here's your change," she said. "You could have asked him for twenty."
"His fault for not doing his own shopping." Boba slid a credit back across the counter. "That's for not saying anything."
She took it with a little grin. "Hope your wife likes it."
Organa didn't say anything when he showed it to her. She nodded and whisked Ben away to bed. Boba took the oil and tihaar into the bedroom. There didn't seem to be any point in putting on his sleeping clothes, so he stripped naked and got into bed, sitting upright with the blanket over his lap. It wasn't like she hadn't seen everything, but he got the impression last night that she wasn't entirely comfortable with it.
When Organa entered the bedroom she was wearing her sleepshirt. She sat on the bed beside him and held out her hand. "Alcohol."
He gave her the brown earthenware bottle that contained the tihaar and she sniffed it first. "Smells like an orchard." He realized too late that he should have warned her that it was a painfully strong liquor. Her first swig left her coughing until her eyes watered. "Kriffing hell. That...that should do it."
"It's very traditional."
"Oh, good. Cultural immersion. An important part of any language intensive."
He didn't know what the hell she was talking about, so he settled his back against the headboard of the bed and waited.
She took another drink and shuddered as she swallowed it. "Do you want to watch some porn?"
"If you want."
"It might...I don't know." Her shoulders lifted in a shrug. "Find something Mandalorian to go with the tihaar."
He picked up the console control on the table beside the bed. "Mandalorian" wasn't a porn category that he was aware of, but after a quick search he found one that was recorded on Concord Dawn. The setting was some kind of temple ritual with very fake looking props. The woman had long dark hair and her captive was a fair-haired man who was bound to a faux-stone column with glittering cords.
"Interesting choice," Organa remarked.
The woman began to rub her body against the man. "You're mine now," she cooed. "You'll never break free of my magic."
Organa laughed, a sound he'd never heard from her. "Sorry," she said. "It's just...silly." She passed him the bottle and he faked a drink while the woman in the porn removed her top and opened the man's pants.
"A man wrote this," Organa announced.
Boba held out the control to her. "Pick something else."
"No, no. I'm starting to get into it." She took another swig from the bottle and hummed.
Boba stopped watching the porn and turned his attention instead to Organa's bare leg next to his own. The dramatic moaning faded into the background as his eyes traced the line of her calf, from her ankle to her knee and then up to where the edge of her sleepshirt rested on her thighs. Last night she wasn't wearing any underwear.
"I think I'm ready for the other bottle."
His gaze swiftly returned to Organa, who set the tihaar down beside the bed and settled back on her knees. She grasped the edge of her sleepshirt and pulled it over her head in one motion. "It's okay," she said when he averted his eyes out of habit. "Visual stimulation. They're not as big as hers."
They were not. But they were, without a doubt, stimulating. Boba slid his hand beneath the blanket covering his lap while Organa poured a little oil on her fingers.
"Oh. That smells nice. I'll do me and you do you." She passed him the bottle. "And maybe I should be on top to start." Her cheeks and her throat were flushed, her breathing irregular. At the moment she was far more interesting to look at then the woman in the porn.
"Ready," he said.
"Yes you are." Her hands found a place on the headboard behind him as she straddled his lap. "Well, here goes nothing."
Suddenly he was halfway inside of her. Fek. His fingers curled into the sheets beneath them as she adjusted her hips before taking him further in. "There," she murmured. "I knew we could do it." Her breath was hot on his cheek and smelled faintly of overripe plums from the tihaar.
Boba had no response, mostly because the roar of static that currently filled his head didn't allow for speech.
"Okay," she said. "I'm going to lay on my back now."
Her heat left him, making it all too easy to follow her. Her eyes shut and her hips rolled into his with a sharp inhalation that was almost a moan. It set his blood on fire, and from there it was all heat and rhythm until he came. He pushed himself off of her and rolled onto his back. His arms were karking shaking like he'd just scaled a sheer cliff face.
Organa drew her knees up to her chest and sighed. "Good job."
He could speak now, but he wasn't sure what to say. Thanks? Same to you? You're the first person I've ever done that with and it was better than I thought it would be?
In the porn, the woman and the man were still going at it. "I'm gonna cooooome," she wailed. "Oooohhhhhh." Boba turned his attention back to the woman on the bed beside him. "Do you you need…" Something? Anything? Privacy? Help?
"No, that's not necessary." She took a long deep breath. "I just need to lay like this for a few minutes, and then I'll be ready to go to sleep."
"I'll go wash up." He sat up and gestured at the porn. "You want me to turn that off?"
"Yes. I think I can guess how it ends."
By the time he returned from the 'fresher she was under the blanket with her eyes closed. He fell into bed beside her and fell almost immediately into a deep sleep. He woke up when he heard Ben moving around in the kitchen. Organa was still soundly sleeping, she didn't even stir when he slipped out of bed and put his sleeping pants back on.
The boy had climbed on top of the counter to reach the shelves and was now sitting on it cross-legged, eating fruit and crackers. Boba still remembered the first time he realized he could reach the top shelf by putting an armor crate on top of a chair. His dad had woken up to find him finishing off the last box of cookies and couldn't seem to decide between annoyance and pride.
He always seemed to consider it a fun game, to try to out-think a child and to allow himself to be surprised. Boba wondered what kind of child he could make with Leia Organa. If they would have her swift mind and resolute nature. If they would let nothing stand in their way. He was warming more and more to the idea. He could be a father. Maybe it wasn't in his original plan, but plans could be altered when new opportunities arose. And once his job here was completed, he would have more than enough money to take some time off.
He switched on the caf maker and nodded at Ben's crackers. "Can I have one?"
The boy took a moment to decide which cracker to sacrifice before he handed it over. "Where's mom?"
"Still sleeping."
"Can I go outside and play with my shaapkad?"
"Are you allowed?"
Ben's eyes shifted from left to right quickly. "Yes."
A truly terrible sabacc face. Not hard to believe he was Han Solo's kid. "No." Boba picked up a handful of grapes. "I'm going to shower."
He was getting dressed when he heard voices in the main room. Fek. Had Ben gone outside anyway and gotten into some kind of trouble? He paused at the door and his shoulders slumped in relief. Arla. But she wasn't alone. As soon as he walked out he saw General Cody admiring Ben's wooden sword.
"I did it," his aunt was smirking triumphantly. "I found you a sponsor on Concordia. It's even someone you know from Kamino."
Boba didn't look at Cody, but the man remained fixed in his peripheral vision like a migraine. "Another clone?"
"Nope. Fenn Rau. He's doing some security shore-ups at an old base and he needs men."
Rau was one of the younger trainers who worked mostly with the fighter squadrons. Boba didn't remember much about him, but at least he wasn't a clone. "When can we leave?"
Cody folded his arms over his chest. "Today, if you like, and you don't mind an escort."
"What's going on?" Leia stood blinking in the bedroom doorway, her hair mussed and the wide neckline of her nightshirt askew enough to bare one shoulder.
"Sorry to wake you," Arla said, one brow arched. "Bad night? Or good night?"
"I had a little too much tihaar," she answered with a grimace.
Cody gave a short bark of a laugh. "First time?" Boba gave him a swift look before he realized that the general was talking to his wife. "The first time kicks like a skipjacked hyperdrive."
"It's better the second time," Arla assured her. "And even better the third. There's nothing more Mandalorian than a shot of tihaar before a fight. Makes you feel invincible." She thumped her chestplate with her fists, her eyes bright.
"Pack your things," Boba told Organa, who still looked a little confused. "We're leaving."
Her eyes widened. "We're-"
"For Concordia," he clarified quickly. "Arla found me a job."
"It's a shift job," Arla told him with a shrug. "Lots of walking and standing, not a lot of action. But it comes with housing and there's a school nearby." She nodded at Ben. "You get good marks and I'll get you a set of plates to go with your shaapkad."
The boy's eyes widened. "I'll go get my stuff."
As soon as he left the room, Arla's expression sobered. "It's a chance," she warned them. "That's all it is."
Boba shared a quick glance with Organa. "We'll take it."