Week 12 (09.22.06) (UDC 1) (Luke and Mara)
56. good
"Mmm…" Mara leaned into the kiss, not wanting to pull out of the moment and let reality take over. [Can we just stay here?]
Luke's only response was to pull her in tighter and let the dance of thought and sensation continue. He didn't want it to end, either. All too soon, the comm sounded and reality crashed down around them like a shattered window. Mara sighed as she answered the comm.
"Mara?"
"What?"
"We should have brought Dark Star."
Mara snorted under her breath. "Right… then it would have been a meow instead. Control, this is Jade's Fire…"
57. evil
Mara frowned at the man as she stepped off the boarding ramp and produced their credentials. He barely looked at her as he inspected them, then nodded decisively and gave them back to her. "Will that be all, sir?" Her voice was calculated, deadly as she asked the question.
"It is," he muttered.
Luke watched as the spaceport control officer walked away, and then looked sideways at Mara. "That was evil, you know…"
"He interrupted us and I can be as evil as I want," she told him playfully.
Luke fought the urge to laugh at that statement.
58. dream
"Are you sure this isn't a dream," Mara wondered as they sat together in the darkness of the x-wing's cockpit.
"Yes, Mara. I'm certain this isn't a dream."
She snuggled in closer to him and they watched the molted sky of hyperspace for a while. Then she craned her neck to look back at him. "You're right… way too cramped to be a dream."
"But it's private…"
"…and no bugs, either." They both shuddered at the memory of a river of bugs in the dark, filing past underneath them.
He bent to kiss her. "This is much better than a dream."
59. nightmare
She woke up in the small hours of the morning, a silent, unreleased scream on her lips, wanting to break free of the hands that held her from behind. Unmoving as she blinked in the darkness, reality slowly slid back into place and she was suddenly very glad that she'd fought the urge to break free.
"Mara," a very sleepy voice said from behind her. "Go back to sleep."
"Did I wake you, Luke?"
"No… in and… out…"
She smiled as he trailed off and drifted back out with a soft snore. Just what she needed for her nightmares…
60. truth
Luke didn't want to look at her. Didn't want to admit that there was some truth in what she had laid out to him here in the darkness of the cave. It was easy to let it stay unsaid, to not say that he had been wrong to go to Byss, and wrong to try to beat the cloned Emporer at his own game…
He never did figure out where the strength came from as he raised his head and looked into her eyes. Her expression was neutral and she nodded once. Nothing more needed to be said about that.