a/n – Some slightly zesty lemon in this chapter, but not quite the full sauce yet. This is my first time writing anything sexy, so let me know what you think.
Also, for the Huttese Dyn speaks with his contact on Watto, here is a translation:
De wanna wanga – A form of greeting
mi bookie – my boy (not sure on the spelling for this one, but it's from A New Hope)
Coona tee-tocky malia – what took you so long?
hi chuba du naga – what do you want?
Man-tah - speak
Me jewz ju - goodbye
Pateesa – Friend
Chapter 11 – Tatooine
Dyn sighed and took a deep breath. He gently pulled Ter'a closer against his chest. Her hair smelled floral and tickled his nose slightly. He smiled. He didn't want to open his eyes because that would mean he'd have to get up. Nevertheless, his brain was kicking back into gear and he started to think about what led them here…
She thought that she'd made him angry by talking about his past. He felt bad that he'd become so lost in thought that he left her for the cockpit without a word, but he was still getting used to having someone around to share his thoughts with. She'd gone to sleep and had an awful nightmare. He blinked now and opened his eyes against his will. His brow furrowed. She dreamed that the Moff had killed him and it freaked her out. He thought about what he'd seen after he first heard her screaming…
He was sitting in the cockpit checking the systems and trying to decide on how he felt about his past. Just like his thoughts about Ter'a, these thoughts started cyclically, but eventually he was realizing that he had more of an issue with the droids that killed his parents than the place where it had happened… he nearly fell out of his chair when he heard her scream. It was an awful, piercing scream like someone was trying to kill her. He couldn't remember when he'd gotten down that ladder so fast. He nearly missed the top rung and fell the whole way down… when he came into the hold he didn't see her and looked around frantically before another bone-chilling scream came from the back of the hold, followed by the new sound of her sobbing. He heart was racing now, and he ran to the carbon freezer and, as he slid to a stop on a the permasteel floor, he saw that, once again, she felt like she needed to sleep back here… why wasn't she on his bed?
She was dead asleep, but she was cowering into the floor and sobbing. She kept screaming "NOO, PLEASE!" with her face buried in the pillow. He rushed over to her, knelt down, and turned her over to try and wake her, but as soon as he touched her she squeezed her eyes shut further, screamed again, and began to hit him as hard as she could as though she were trying to beat off someone trying to hurt her. What in the hell was she dreaming?!
"Ter'a," he said calmly, not wanting to scare her more, and trying, unsuccessfully, to dodge her punches.
But still she screamed, "NOOOO, PLEASE!" and continued to sob and beat him.
"Ter'a!" he said louder this time, shaking her slightly.
"STOP IT!" she screamed terrified.
He was starting to get concerned that she wasn't waking. "TER'A!" he yelled. A coo behind him told him the kid had come to see what was happening.
She continued to flail out and hit him. She was hitting every part of him she would reach and continued to cry. Finally, she punched him hard across the cheek of his helmet, snapping his head sideways. He winced. Not because it hurt him, but because he knew that it had to have hurt her. Surely enough, he saw a deep, bloody cut on the middle knuckle of her right hand…
Desperate to help her, he finally yelled, "TER'A! Please, wake up! …." His brow was furrowed in concern, "… PLEASE, Wake up!"
Finally, her eyes fluttered open. Her eyes were dilated, she was breathing hard, and she was disoriented. Her breathing was coming harder than when they'd run for blocks on Coruscant. She was absolutely terrified of what was trying to hurt her in the dream, and he felt a stabbing ache of pity for her. He wanted to help her relax… She took a huge breath as though someone had been choking her and had only just released her.
He was still holding her shoulders and watched as she began to come back to reality, but she still had tears streaming from her eyes.
Once he saw that she was lucid again, still worried he said, "Are you okay? You were having a nightmare."
She was hyperventilating as she tried to control her panic. "Huh? What?"
"You were screaming in your sleep. I came down here to see what was going on and you were screaming and crying…" he was still very anxious.
She blinked furiously for a moment "I… was dreaming."
"Yeah…what happened?"
He scanned her features as she closed her eyes a searched her memory. She told him, very shakily, what she remembered about the dream. She'd seen statues of people, including Cara, whom she'd never met, and that Gideon had killed him with something called a darksaber. She'd said it was a lightsaber made by the first Mandalorian Jedi, and that it had a black blade. He wondered vaguely if the Moff really had that weapon or if it was just part of the dream?
He'd also apparently killed the kid and was advancing on her too when Dyn had shaken her awake, which was why she was so terrified when he had touched her to try and wake her. Then she'd started to cry again, but less than before. She was calming down a little.
She said, "He called my name, mocking me… and then… I woke up."
He shook his head and said quietly, "I called your name. That was me." He released her shoulders and sat in front of her cross-legged and she sat up and did the same. She winced as she pushed herself up.
"Let me see your hands," he held out his own.
"What?" she was finally catching her breath.
"I think you were dreaming that he grabbed you… but that was me you were hitting. You were hitting me hard. Really hard. It had to be painful…"
When she looked at her hands she gasped, and her eyes widened. She was clearly shocked to see her knuckles bleeding and swelling.
He looked sadly at her, then at her hands. He reached across and took her right hand gingerly in both of his. She sucked in a sharp breath and winced.
He looked at her hands for a moment. She had deep black, purple, and blue bruises blossoming all over her small, delicate hands. Most of her knuckles had burst open and were bleeding, including the one that had hit his helmet full force. That one was so deep that it was going to need a staple. They were all swelling considerably. He got up to get the ship's medical bag and came back. When he sat down again and looked at her, she was still in a considerable amount of shock.
Coming close enough to her that their knees were touching he gently picked up her right hand, placed it on his knee and began, carefully, delicately, to clean and bandage it. She watched him quietly as he worked, and his ministrations seemed to have a calming effect on her. As he glanced up periodically, he saw that she looked calmer each time.
"I'm sorry," she said in a tiny voice, as he gently placed her now bandaged hand back into her lap.
He stopped in the middle of pulling her left hand towards his right knee. Confused, he said, "Sorry? For what?"
"For pushing you earlier about your past." She didn't look at him.
He set her hand on his knee and began to clean it. "No worries." She seemed to take his silence after their earlier conversation as anger at her. He felt guilty.
"But I am worried… I know I made you angry," her voice was stronger now.
He paused and looked into her face. "You didn't make me angry… you made me think."
"You… you weren't mad at me for invading your privacy?"
He felt awful, now for making her think he was angry at her. Especially now after she'd had this terrifying nightmare. As gently as he could, he said, "You shared everything about your past with me. You've been open with me from the start. I haven't exactly returned the favor." He looked down and began to clean her wounds again, even more delicately this time. He felt even more awful now, after reminding the both of them that he hadn't been as welcoming to her as she'd been to him.
"Then why didn't you talk to me?"
"You made me think… I guess I was lost in thought…" He thought of his internal arguments the last few days and smiled, "Only in the last couple days has not being able to read my facial expressions been an issue."
"What were you thinking?"
He sighed as he wiped the last of the blood from her knuckles. "About whether or not I've really made peace with my past."
"And?"
"I think I need to try and get over my distrust of droids… but I'm not sure I need to return to my home planet. I don't feel like I have any unfinished business there, if you understand?"
She nodded her understanding, "Separatist droids weren't exactly known for sentience in a positive way. I always felt like they were artificial intelligence in it's most literal and rudimentary sense…"
He looked at her and knew that she knew he was smiling. "Maybe I should give real droids another chance then huh?"
She shrugged. "I won't force you," she smiled.
"There…" he lifted his hands from her now bandaged left hand. "How do they feel?"
"Like… they've been run over…." She flinched as she lifted them and flexed her fingers in front of her face.
He reached up and took her wrists gently and lowered her hands from in front of her and held them gently. "Easy. They're gunna hurt like hell for a couple of days at least… you were hitting me hard…. Like your life depended on it."
She looked down, "You weren't there… it was awful. He killed you. When he came out of the lift, you were just… there, dead…. At his feet… with a hole in your chest…." Tears were threatening to come again, and her lip trembled. Dyn would be damned if he wanted to see her cry again, he hated it when she did that. He got the feeling that she didn't cry often, and it made him all the more intent on making sure she was happy again.
"Hey…" Dyn reached up and stroked her cheek with his gloved thumb. "It was just a dream. Okay? I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."
When she closed her eyes and leaned into his hand, he smiled. He could feel her contentedness at him being here with her comforting her. As she put her hand over his she said, "I just can't get that image of you out of my mind…"
He furrowed his brow and took his hand from her face and motioned to pull her towards him. She obliged willingly as he pulled her into his lap and cradled her gently. He tilted his head to look at her beautiful face as he stroked her hair and wiped the tears from her eyes. She looked past him, thinking of nothing but his touches. When he laid her head against his shoulder and tilted his head to rest it on top of hers, she sighed. He wanted to stay like this, but his foot was starting to fall asleep and he wanted to be in the bed now.
So, with a quick, smooth movement he stood up, still holding her securely in his arms and walked to his bed. The kid followed and climbed up a box at the foot of it and curled up like a cat.
Carefully, he laid her down facing the wall before sliding up onto the bed after and scooted up close behind her.
He came to a sudden decision and didn't think about it anymore in case he lost his nerve. He whispered, "Don't turn around please," before pulling his gloves off his hands, and then the helmet off his head. He put his gloves in his helmet and set it above their heads.
It felt extremely strange to have his head exposed in such close proximity to another person. But it felt nice. His breath ruffled her hair which in turn tickled his face. He smiled.
He reached his arm up and over her and pulled her close against him. She fit against him perfectly.
She put her hand over his and it felt amazing to have the skin-on-skin contact with her. He smiled and nestled his face into her hair and closed his eyes.
… Now that he was awake again, he remembered holding her close, but couldn't remember falling asleep. He reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear. She sighed in her sleep and scooted back against him. He reached down and held up her hand. His eyes widened. It looked awful.. Swollen and bruised. She probably needed her bandages to be changed soon as well. How long had they been asleep anyway? He turned back toward the mess to see the time. By his estimate, it had been about eight hours…lying his head back down he knew he needed to check the systems and their current position.
Sighing he reached up and grabbed his helmet, removed the gloves from it and slid it, somewhat resentfully, onto his head. For the first time, he didn't want to put it back on. Taking it off to go to sleep with her so close was a big step for him. And dangerous. She could have turned in her sleep and woken up face to face with him. The kid could see his face… He found, perhaps shockingly so, that he didn't particularly care. Now, for the first time, no cyclical argument came into his head, for which he was grateful.
Just as he was getting ready to slip off the bed and head up to the cockpit, she did turn. She flipped over and tossed her arm over his chest and sighed contentedly. He sighed. He hated to wake her… but he also needed to pee now. He set his hand down on hers and heard a sharp intake of breath. He lifted his hand quickly off her injured one, feeling remorseful. She lifted her head and looked at him with bleary eyes. "Hello."
He turned his head to look at her, "Hi," he smiled back at her.
"Was I dreaming, or did you take your helmet off before we fell asleep?"
"I did. I wanted you to feel comforted after your nightmare. And I wanted a night's sleep without the damned thing…"
She smiled and hugged him, then sat up wincing. She held her hands up and furrowed her brow. "Oh my God…" He looked at her two hands next to each other. The right one was just as damaged looking as the left, if not slightly more so because of the staple he put in her knuckle. He sat up too.
"Let me see…" he held out his hands and she put her hands gingerly into his.
"Hmm… Let me go to the head and then I'll change these bandages?"
She nodded and took her hands back as he got up.
He closed the door of the head, did his business, and washed his hands. When he came back out, she was standing near the medical bag stretching.
"I need to check the systems. Let's go up there and I'll do everything there."
Nodding she turned to the ladder while he grabbed the medical bag. When he stepped beside her, she was staring apprehensively at the ladder, but then instead of trying to climb it, she jumped suddenly, clearing the whole distance and landing silently at the top like a cat. He looked up after her shaking his head and smiling and what she could do with the Force.
He climbed the ladder after her and set the bag down to do a quick check of the ship's systems. Everything was still normal, and they only had a few hours of hyperspace travel left.
Turning to her, he held out his hands and she stepped close to him and held out her right hand first. "How do they feel today?"
"Very sore. Not too painful... just very sore."
"Can you make a fist or bend your fingers properly?"
"Yes, but I'd rather not…" he looked up at her and saw her smiling down at him playfully.
He smiled back at her, but of course, she could not see it.
As he changed her bandages, she knelt in front of him. He put on more bacta gel, and spread it this time, more liberally over her hand because it would help her bruises and swelling go down faster. He thought in hindsight, and with a fair amount of guilt, that he should have done this last night too. There was also the added bonus that he got to rub her hands, which felt nice. He had to take extra care though, as they were still extremely tender to the touch, but nonetheless, her eyes drifted shut and she seemed to enjoy the pampering.
When he finished and she opened her eyes again, he was reluctant to let go of her hands…
"How much longer?"
"Just a couple hours" he said as he realized he took nearly forty-five minutes to change her bandages and rub the bacta on her hands… he seemed to have rather made a meal out of it… but she hardly seemed to mind. She nodded and turned and jumped down the ladder chute.
He turned, smiling at her Force tricks, to look out of the viewport. But he had only a moment to zone out and think about how her hands felt in his, when she was back. She gone to get the kid and jumped back up the ladder chute.
"Ahhh," laughed the kid as she handed him to Dyn. He pulled on Dyn's cloak and laughed as he handed him the knob of one of the Crest's controls that he liked so much. Ter'a wrung out her hands gingerly and sat down.
For the rest of the trip through hyperspace, they took it in turns sitting in silence, talking quietly about old stories and places they'd seen and people they knew, and watching the kid play, enthralled, with the control knob. His favorite game seemed to become trying to levitate it, after he saw Ter'a do it.
At last, the navigational computer beeped at Dyn that Tatooine was fast approaching and he helped Ter'a strap in before putting the kid in his bassinet container since she had trouble gripping well for the time being. He sat down in the captain's chair and pulled them out of hyperspace.
The whole of Tatooine's dry, tan, bulk loomed into view ahead of them. Dyn set coordinates for Mos Eisley and got a docking bay hangar to land the ship in from the space-traffic controllers.
Finally, the ship touched down and he powered everything down and stood up. He unhooked Ter'a's restraint and together they went with the kid down to the hold.
"I think we should decide if it's safe enough to leave the child here…"
Dyn turned to look at the bassinet. "Hmm. I think a better question is if it's safe enough to take him?"
"Do you?" she didn't seem convinced.
"Well, if we leave him here, he's alone, and we aren't able to watch the ship. If we take him, he'll be under our constant supervision and we can protect him…"
He saw the agreement in her eyes, but she said, "But people will see…"
Dyn nodded. "it's one or the other though… neither is my ideal choice."
"I guess he should come then," she sighed, and he knew what she was thinking: it was one thing to leave him on the ship on a civilized planet like Coruscant, where people mostly left other people's possessions alone. But here… Tatooine was literally a wild west and it was too risky.
Dyn picked up his rifle and strapped it on, before clipping Ter'a's lightsaber hilt to her belt for her. It was both heavier and lighter than he'd thought it would be. He wondered if she could wield it at the moment.
As if she picked up on his train of thought she said, "I'll be fine. Since you rubbed the bacta gel on my hands, they feel much better." She meant it.
Nodding he lowered the ramp and they stepped out into the dry air of Tatooine.
Tatooine had been the childhood home of both Luke Skywalker and his father, Anakin Skywalker… before he became Darth Vader and killed the Jedi. Including all the younglings at the Temple. Younglings she knew… she thought, annoyed. But he was dead now, and Luke Skywalker was allegedly trying to find new Force-sensitive children and begin anew.
Ter'a wished him the best. But she couldn't go there. She'd been Grey for too long, and she didn't want to taint the children, who were so susceptible, with any of the dark side…
They walked through the spaceport and out into the light and heat of the twin-suns and she said, "What's the name of this contact of yours?"
"Watto. An old Toydarian. He knows all the underground people around here."
"Can we trust him?"
"I don't."
"Great," she sighed, as they set off in search of Watto the Toydarian.
After an hour or so of asking around, Dyn got a location on the alien in a back alley a few blocks behind the cantina, so they headed there, hoping at last to see Watto.
As they rounded the corner, they heard the buzzing of Toydarian wings and Dyn spoke to him in Huttese, "De wanna wanga, Watto."
The Toydarian spun around in the air and said with the tone of one who made falsely cheery greetings regularly, "Maandoo, how are you, mi bookie!"
"Good, Watto. I'm looking for someone."
Watto gave a hearty laugh as said to Ter'a, "Always straight to business with this one, eh?"
She smiled sweetly at him but said nothing.
Watto looked back to Dyn and said, "It's been a while, eh, since I saw you last. Too long…. Coona tee-tocky malia?"
"Been busy," said Dyn cocking his head.
"What's in the container, eh?" Watto asked, looking at the child's makeshift bassinet, which was currently closed.
"Supplies." He said it in such a way that Watto didn't ask anymore questions.
"So, then, eh… hi chuba du naga?"
"I need to find a slicer who can help me with a degraded and encrypted data file."
"Information, eh?" sniggered Watto… "You know it'll cost you…" he said to Dyn patting him on the shoulder in what he obviously thought was a fatherly sort of way.
But Dyn was ready. Ter'a watched him flip some credits into the air which Watto caught unceremoniously, and said, "Man-tah."
"You want Torno. Bothan. In the cantina during "business hours". He'll give you what you need." Watto gave Ter'a and Dyn an unpleasant smile and added, "For a price…"
"Thanks, me jewz ju, Watto," said Dyn, turning away without a backward glance.
Ter'a followed Dyn back up the alley while Watto yelled after them, trying different ways of attempting to get more money.
"How do you know him?" Ter'a asked, thinking of their conversation in mixed Huttese and Galactic Basic.
"Watto always had an ear to the ground. He's been around for decades and always knows who's who around Mos Eisley…. Good type of person for a bounty hunter to know in a place like this…"
They walked into the Mos Eisley Cantina and were greeted with the rhythmic stylings of the Modal Nodes, a band that had played the cantina for decades. Ter'a nudged Dyn in the ribs as they looked for their man and pointed him out in the far corner of the cantina behind the bar. He nodded and she followed him over.
Dyn motioned her to sit down in the booth, and he scooted in after her.
"Pateesa," he said in Huttese to the Bothan called Torno.
Torno nodded but didn't speak.
"Do you speak Galactic Basic?" Dyn asked. "I'm not fluent in either Huttese or Bothese…"
"Aye."
Dyn nodded. "This is my partner, Takara," he gestured to Ter'a, using the same alias he'd given Ao on Coruscant. She nodded curtly. "We found a data file, that might be relevant to a bounty we're hunting. But the file's degraded and encrypted. We heard that you were the best in Mos Eisley to help us out."
Torno gestured at Dyn who glanced at Ter'a and held out his hand. She reached in her pack and pulled out the data file and handed it to Dyn, who held it out for Torno. He took it and turned it over in his hands before saying, "Where did it come from?"
Dyn cocked his head. "I'm sure you understand the need for discretion in our line of work," he said gesturing at himself and Ter'a.
The Bothan nodded but said, "I will do it, but for a higher fee since you won't tell me where it comes from. This information could be anything… from anywhere"
"Fine. When can you start?"
"Pay for my drink, and we will go to my workshop and I'll get started."
Dyn slid obligingly out of the booth and went to pay Torno's tab while Ter'a and the alien got up and waited. He asked her, "Is your friend always so discreet?"
She looked at him, "Mando is the best bounty hunters in the sector. There's a reason for that."
Torno peered at her and nodded his understanding.
As Dyn rejoined them she asked, "How far is your workshop from here?"
"About a fifteen-minute walk from here," he replied.
They all walked out into the suns and followed Torno up the street and around the corner. As they walked, Tatooine's twin suns became obscured with tan clouds, the wind started to pick up, and the sand whipped mercilessly at Ter'a's face. Torno turned to them and said, "There is a sandstorm coming!" She held her hands up to protect her eyes, but now the sand just bit painfully at the sensitive skin of her injured hands. Ahead of her, Dyn stopped and took off his cloak, then turned around and wrapped it around her head like a scarf. When they started walking again, he stayed next to her and held his hand up to block the sand from going into her eyes. Torno turned to them again and yelled through the wind, "We must hurry!" They all broke into a run and ran the last three blocks to Torno's shop. When he'd closed the door behind them, he ran to shutter the windows as sand came swirling into the room like angry, tan snow. Dyn helped him so that Ter'a could find some relief against the sand and wind.
Finally, when the building was secure, Torno said, "The storm will last several hours… you will have to stay here until it is over."
"We want to get back to the ship as soon as possible," Ter'a returned.
"We won't be able to get back to the spaceport in this," Dyn told her. "It's too dangerous for you. Even if we could get back, we won't be able to take off…"
"The sands will strip your skin, and clog your ships engines," added Torno, nodding.
"I have a guest room upstairs for clients. Sometimes, jobs take some time and I'm not sure how much time it will take to crack your file and decrypt it. Plus, you said it's degraded. That'll cost extra... and take a little more time."
Dyn nodded. "Whatever, you need to do."
Nodding, Torno motioned them to follow him. As he led them to the guest room he said, "This bounty must be valuable…"
Dyn nodded at him but said nothing.
They arrived at the room and Torno opened the door and motioned them inside, "I'll get started right away and let you know if I need anything. If you need food, I keep snacks and water in the guest room. Help yourself."
Dyn nodded, thanked the Bothan, and closed the door. The room was plain but Torno had styled and outfitted it it like a hotel room for his clients, likely so that they wouldn't breath over his shoulder while he worked. Bothans were known for the pride they take in their work, so Torno was obviously trying to make himself known as the best, most hospitable slicer in the Outer Rim territories.
Ter'a watched Dyn as he checked the windows for sand leaks and said, "You're going to leave him alone down there with the file?"
"He's not going anywhere with it… like us, he can't leave the house until the storm passes."
"I know, but what if he makes copies of anything he finds?"
Dyn unlocked and opened the child's bassinet and walked up to her, "I don't think he'll see anything damning in there… it should just be species information… Plus, he's not gunna get the chance to use it…"
"You mean to kill him?"
"We have to. He's got to read that file to see what can be recovered. He'll know too much… If Gideon picks up our trail, he'll come here, and Torno will be able to tell him what he knows about a little green species with big ears that's long lived. And maybe, if we're really lucky, what planet they originate from…"
She nodded. She hated senseless killing, but he was right. Just like he was about the Chiss, Sio. They couldn't leave a trail and they couldn't get sloppy.
Dyn reached up and unwrapped his cloak from her head and stepped back to take a look at her.
"Your hair's all sandy," he said. She cocked her head. He sounded… playful?
She smiled and shook her head vigorously. Sand flew form her hair in all directions and he laughed quietly.
"Let me see your hands."
"They're alright," she held them up. "They feel a little raw after the sand, but they're okay."
He looked at them for a moment and said, I'm going to see if Torno has some bacta gel for you. He released her hands and left her alone in the room with the child.
Dyn closed the door behind him. He headed down the stairs to see Torno and smiled to himself. He poked fun at the sand in her hair and they laughed about it. It was such a silly moment, but also a tender moment. He wanted to lighten the mood after discussing their plans to kill Torno after he'd finished the data recovery. He knew that she didn't want anyone to die unnecessarily. It must be a Jedi principle… For now, he intended to get more bacta to soothe her hands and get the opportunity to touch her again.
Torno gave him plenty of bacta after warning him that it would cost extra. Dyn rolled his eyes but said, "No problem."
Now, he was heading back upstairs to Ter'a and the kid.
He opened the door and saw her sitting on the floor with the him and was trying to show him Jedi meditation. He periodically floated for a few seconds before falling into her waiting arms. He watched them from the door until the kid got so tired that he passed out.
Sighing, Ter'a picked him up and laid him in his bassinet.
"What?" she asked looking suspiciously at him.
"Nothing," he shook his head. "It's just… I think that it's amazing how you can do that."
She smiled at him and he walked toward her holding up a tube of bacta gel. "Sit on the couch and hold out your hands."
She did as he asked, and he kneeled down in front of her and pulled his gloves off, setting them on the table next to the couch. He opened the tube and squeezed some onto his fingers and began to gently spread it on her dry, bruised hands.
She hissed and said, "It stings…"
"The sand and sun really dried your skin out." He smiled and said, "I guess you're not really built to live in a dry climate."
"Well, this planet's awful," she laughed.
"I know," he agreed.
They laughed quietly for a moment and then she became very quiet. The only sounds were the sand whipping threateningly on the outside walls of the house. He switched hands and began to rub her left. She remained very quiet. He looked at her hand as he rubbed it, but his mind was strangely blank. They seemed to have lapsed into a far-away moment. Then she said, "Stop."
She said it very softly. Almost like it just slipped out rather than that she had actually intended to say it. He looked up at her. She had a very interesting look on her face. It was like a cross between nervousness and indecisiveness. "Did I hurt you?" he released her suddenly looking at her hand then back at her face. She shook her head as she got up and went to her pack. After a moment of searching she found what she was looking for and came back to her seat on the couch. He saw she had something in her hands that she was twisting nervously but he couldn't tell what it was.
He looked at her. She had the same peculiar look on her face, but it was more pronounced now.
She looked down at the thing in her hands and opened her mouth to speak. "I…" she struggled to find the words…
"I… want to… try… something." She spoke very slowly to her hands as though she was afraid to talk to him.
"What? What's on your mind?" He put his hand on her knee to try and comfort her. But she was more nervous now.
She looked down with a very chaste look and made the thing in her hands more visible now. "I got this at that street vendor on Coruscant. I… thought… maybe…" she trailed off, still not looking at him. His brow furrowed. It was a sleep mask. What on Tatooine did she want "to try" with that? He was slow on the uptake as he looked at it.
She whispered in a tiny voice, "But only if you want to…" and still, she wouldn't look at him.
She'd spoken so softly that he wasn't sure he heard her correctly. If he wanted to what…?
Then, like he'd been punched by a wookiee, he was hit with a sudden understanding.
She wanted him to kiss her.
A balloon swelled in his chest. She'd bought this mask on Coruscant days ago. She'd though about this days ago. He took the mask carefully out of her hands and she finally looked anxiously at him. He looked up at her and saw that her cheeks were flushed a deep red. She was embarrassed. He smiled to try and make her feel less so, but she couldn't see it, so instead he looked down at the mask and held it delicately in his fingers, looking at it for just a second. And in that second, he came to a decision.
Looking back up at her, he reached up with both hands and slipped the mask over her head, then carefully down over her eyes. As he put it on, she sat very still, cheeks still flushed. Once he had the mask in place, he pulled his helmet off and set it next to her on the couch before putting his hands on her knees and looked at her, smiling. She looked adorable sitting there with the mask on and her cheeks flushed. "Why are you so embarrassed?" he asked her.
She moved her head. "I just… I wasn't sure… if you'd…"
He finished for her, "You weren't sure if I'd want to kiss a strong, beautiful Jedi?
She blushed an even deeper shade and smiled. "No, I just… you'd have to take your helmet off. I… I won't be the one to push you in a direction that makes you uncomfortable…"
From his knees he leaned close to her and whispered, "I took it off when we went to sleep last night."
She couldn't see so she jumped a little when he touched her elbow and ran his fingers gently down her arm, which he saw leave a trail of goosebumps that traveled up her arm and down the other arm.
"I know," she smiled.
He moved his hand to her neck. Her skin was so soft, and when he ran a solitary finger from her ear lobe to the crook of her neck, he smiled to see another trail of goosebumps, and her breathing became slightly shaky.
Not wanting to be too teasing, he stopped. He was enamored by her body's reactions to his touches, but he was bound to get carried away at some point. So, now he cupped her cheeks with his hands and ran his thumbs across her cheek bones as he leaned towards her. Her lips were parted in anticipation as she awaited what came next. He smiled slightly before closing the distance between them and placing his lips against hers firmly but very gently, in as chaste a way as he could.
The effect however, was instantaneous. For the blink of an eye, she was tense, not sure when to expect him. But then she melted against him. Her body felt like it had gone limp. Smiling at the effect, he pulled away just enough so that their noses still touched, and he asked, "Are you okay?"
She said nothing, but merely nodded vaguely and smiled dreamily. He kissed her again. This time with a little more purpose, opening his mouth a little wider. She slid her hands up and around his neck so that he felt encouraged. He kept going now, with her egging him on by teasing his upper lip with the tip of her tongue or nipping playfully at his bottom lip.
They kissed more and more intensely so that their lips became swollen and red. He sought out her tongue with his own and she met him enthusiastically.
Then, their hands began to explore too. She tangled her hands in his soft, brown, curly hair before moving them both down his neck and pushing them under his tunic to grasp at his bare shoulders. The fingers on his left hand tangled in her hair, while his right index finger slid down her neck, down her sternum before coming to rest with his whole hand against her belly near her belt.
Then both hands ran up over her shoulders and his fingertips sent jolts of electricity down her back and throughout her body, while her nails raked down the front of his armor chest plate. He wished vaguely that he wasn't wearing it at the moment, but when she broke the kiss to pepper kisses and gentle nips along his jawline, he lost all coherent thought and tilted his head back with a groan.
The feeling of her lips on his neck drove him wild and in a moment of passion he seized her around the middle and threw her backward on the couch, causing his helmet to fall to the floor. He pushed her tunic up so that her midsection was exposed and he covered it with kisses, before starting to work the tunic up higher on her chest. She twisted her fingers in his hair, tilted her head back and let out a breathy sigh which made him growl with passion. He was just beginning to stand up so that he could cover her body with his own when…
A knock at the door broke their kiss like a permasteel rod snapping in half. They broke apart, both breathing heavily and with swollen lips.
"Yes?" Dyn growled, aggravated in his current state of passion.
"I'm finished," came Torno's voice.
"Already?" Dyn looked down at Ter'a whose head was tilted toward the door. "I thought you said it was going to take a while?"
"It's been an hour. The file was small…"
"Okay, we'll be out in a moment," called Dyn rolling his eyes.
As the Bothan's footsteps disappeared back downstairs, Dyn turned back to Ter'a, sighed, and rested his forehead against hers. Still breathing heavily, he wanted literally nothing else in the galaxy to explore her body more thoroughly right now… perhaps without so much clothing on… but they had pressing, important matters. He finished the way he started, by cupping her face gently and pressing a soft kiss to her lips before pulling her tunic back down and pulling her back to a seated position. He stepped away, picked his helmet up off the floor and lifted it grudgingly back onto his head.
Then he reached down and gently pulled the sleeping mask off Ter'a's head. She looked glorious. He knelt in front of her to get a closer look. She, like him, was still out of breath. Her eyes were dilated with the same passion he felt, she had a distinct, dazzling flush that started high on her cheeks and continued to her over-pink and swollen lips, and her hair was a little frizzier where his fingers had been tangled in it. But what struck him most of all, was the look in her eyes. She had not wanted to stop anymore than he had. She looked wild and innocent but powerful and delicate all at the same time and he was here for it.
They sat in silence for a moment, catching their breath, looking at nothing but each other.
As they finally made their way downstairs with kid's bassinet closed and in tow, Dyn looked sideways at her and said wryly, "That sleep mask was an amazing purchase."
She smiled back at him as she tucked it carefully back into her pack.