a/n – Here's some more lemons, but from Ter'a's perspective. A little more mild than before.

Also, Takara is Japanese for treasure (according Google translate)

Please review!

Chapter 14 – New Jobs

Ter'a's eyes fluttered open but the world was still shrouded in darkness. She blinked several times trying to shake away the darkness, but after a moment it all came flooding back. She still had the sleeping mask on, and she had been sleeping more soundly than she had in as long as she could remember. She had been absolutely exhausted. Dyn still had his arms wrapped around her and they were both still naked. Sighing contentedly, she thought about the previous night. After leaving Tatooine, they both showered and patched each other up, then what? She gave him a sensuous look in the cockpit and descended the ladder. And he followed. After that, he teased her body to it's breaking point and been more than happy to let her return the favor.

She wished she could have seen all of it, but their time together had been so amazing, so wonderful, that eyesight seemed unimportant. Plus, she'd used the Force to feel it all out and she didn't really need her eyes. There had been perfectly competent Jedi Knights that had been blind, after all.

Dyn had been so considerate of her needs and her initial nervousness. She could feel his feelings of urgency when he'd lifted her up from the attention she'd been giving to his groin, and laid her across his lap. He had ignored his own sexual needs for so long in teasing her, and when she was teasing him she'd either taken a little too long, or he just reached his breaking point. She knew though that he'd reached his breaking point; between the growing need in his body, his mind's defenses had broken, and his need turned from playful desire to primal demands and he'd needed relief immediately.

Maz's words flashed in her mind. She'd always… always, told Ter'a that she should wait to give her body to the man or woman that she most felt deserved it. To the being who made her feel special. To someone who would care for who she was and would cherish her. She thought about how Dyn always seemed to consider her before himself… and last night was no different. She thought about how amazing he made her body feel. Even when he was close to release, she felt it when he denied himself to sate her thirst first. He also figured out very quickly all the spots on her body that felt best to her, as well as the methods on eliciting the most intense response, and she'd quickly found release. And after, they'd both been drenched in sweat, shaking from effort, and absolutely exhausted. She knew that she'd saved her body for the right person…

She smiled. She was ready to feel that tired again. It was worth the exertion to feel how she'd made him feel… to feel how he made her feel.

She turned into him and nuzzled into his neck. In response, he pulled her closer and tightened his hold on her but didn't wake up. But she wanted to wake him. Thinking about last night made her feel specifically needy again and she felt the moisture between her legs and needed relief from it. Reaching up, she stroked his chin and trailed her fingers down his chin to his neck, and then down to his chest where she swirled her finger drawing listless shapes. Then she reached up and ran her fingers through his hair.

These actions seemed to wake him up, as he took a deep breath and moaned slightly from her tickles. Then his fingers began to run up and down her back causing her to shiver and get goosebumps all over. He breathed out a laugh. "Good morning," he said, pushing her back and into the mattress, as he rolled over on top of her.

She giggled and said, "Good morning to you..." She could feel his erection against her inner thigh and her excitement piqued further. Reaching down between them, she wrapped her fingers around his length, and he sucked in a sharp breath before covering her mouth with his own.

She closed her eyes and hummed into his mouth. He tasted so good.

She moved her hand up and down on his length, eliciting more sounds of satisfaction from him. But soon he pulled her hand up and gathered both of them above her head with one of his hands. Then leaning his weight on his elbow, never breaking their kiss, he positioned himself at her entrance and rubbed the tip of his cock across it several times before pushing into her. They both groaned against each other's mouths with pleasure at the feeling. Then he began to move inside her, in and out, with increasing urgency. With her hands pinned above her head she was powerless to do anything, but she wanted to grip the sheets, to run her nails down his back, to run her fingers through his hair… He broke the kiss and gave a low laugh as he watched the frustration play out on her face as he stroked inside her.

Finally though, he released her hands and leaned back on his knees to grab her waist and pulled her back with him laying her bottom across his lap. He guided her hips up and down on his erection before releasing her hips in favor of her breasts, where he kneaded and massaged, and teased her already hard nipples. She panted and moaned as she lifted her hips to his tip and then brought them back down the length of his shaft. In this position, he hit a spot inside her that, every time it was touched, sent jolts of pleasure radiating out from it to the tips of her fingers, toes, and head. It caused her eyes to roll back in her head and for her voice to crack with her mewling, which had started to come out more and more breathy. She also took great pleasure in the sounds he made. As she humped him, he made low, feral growls and fierce hisses as he'd suck in a sharp breath from the pleasure.

Sitting up, she pushed him backward onto his back and mounted him. He hoisted her up so that she could position herself over him before sliding down onto his length. As she slid down slowly, he hissed sharply, while she let out a long and shaky breath. Then, she fell forward with her hands falling on both sides of his head and began to grind against him. He held her hips as they fell into a rhythm. She pulled herself back and forth across his groin, rubbing her clit against him and it felt so good that it made her arms and legs shake. Soon, she could feel her climax fast approaching and, based on his own ragged breathing and the vice grip he had on her hips, he wasn't far behind her.

Just like the night before, he had reached the end of his tether of self-control and sat up with her in his lap, and began to manually drag her whole body up and down on his cock while he took her nipples one at the time in his mouth causing her to cry out.

As they both reached a critical point of arousal, he wrapped his arms tightly around her as they moved furiously against each other and buried his face in her neck, suckling at her flesh and growling against her skin. She wrapped her fingers in his hair and leaned into him. Finally, their bodies went rigid and twitched with the climax that they'd both reached simultaneously. She felt him spilling inside her as she clamped down on him and her walls twitched convulsively with her orgasm.

Once they both came down from their climax, he released his hold on her and collapsed backward onto the mattress, pulling her down on top of him.

Once again, they were both exhausted and sweaty, but neither wanted sleep now.

For some time, they laid in the same position, holding and caressing each other. He brushed her messy hair out of her face and stroked her head and tickled her back. She played with his hair and drew more listless shapes across his body, which broke out in goosebumps in response.

Eventually, as is life, they needed to get back to their duties. So, after at least two hours of laying with each other, Dyn said, "I need to check the nav computer. We should nearly be to Corellia."

Nodding, she sat up and said, "Plus the child is probably dying to get out of that pod and eat and play."

Dyn took her face gently in his hands, kissed her chastely, and said, "Until tonight then… Takara."

She rolled off of him so he could get up, but she wondered why he called her by the alias he'd given her…

Dyn was exhausted. But there was a lot to do. He ran up to the cockpit, still naked, to see how much time was left until they'd need to exit hyperspace. He still had about two hours. Plenty of time to shower and dress…. Sliding back down the ladder, he saw that she hadn't moved, and he knew she was waiting for the all clear to remove the sleep mask. He smiled at her thoughtfulness. They'd gotten extremely sweaty last night and this morning and he wanted a quick shower. He said to her, "We're about two hours from exiting hyperspace. I'm going to shower. Once the door to the head closes behind me, you can take that off."

"Ok. Is there anything you need me to do while you're in there?"

"Do you know how to cook?"

"Not too much, but I can whip something up," she smiled.

"Ok, I'm starving… and I'm sure you are too," he smiled as her kissed the top of her head before going into the head.

As soon as the door closed, she pulled the sleeping mask off. Everything in the dimly lit hold felt exceedingly bright. As she blinked away the sensitivity, she stood up, washed her hands, and began to heat a pot of stock, before turning to chop onions, mushrooms, and other ingredients for a soup that she'd had as a child at the Jedi Temple.

She didn't bother to dress because as soon as he came out of the shower, she wanted to go in. It felt weird, cooking naked, but she didn't want to the get the clean clothes she'd worn for all of thirty minutes last night to get her dried sweat and body secretions on it.

After about ten minutes, she'd added all of the ingredients and the head door swished open. Dyn came out in his tunic, trousers, boots, and helmet. He stopped dead when he saw her standing at the hot plate, still stark naked, and cocked his head.

Suddenly, she felt very self-conscious and she tried to cover herself, but he strode over to her and pulled her into him in a crushing hug before running his hands greedily over her body. She laughed as she pushed him away. "Don't start that again, or we'll crash right through Corellia."

He backed away, not looking away from her. She wished she could see his eyes, but she knew he was smiling hungrily at her. "Watch the soup for me?" she asked. "I want to shower too, and I need you to make sure that the soup doesn't boil over."

He nodded and stepped around her, trailing his fingers across her bare abdomen along the way. She turned and kissed his helmet before walking straight for the shower.

The water felt good, and she felt so refreshed after scrubbing herself clean and washing out her hair. She didn't want to leave the shower, but she was getting extremely hungry. Wrapping the towel around herself, she did up her hair in the mirror and exited the head.

When she came back out, he'd already spooned out the soup into bowls on the table and brought the child downstairs and was feeding him bread and Corellian apple slices. The child seemed exceedingly grateful to be out of the pod, and Ter'a felt a pang of guilt at having left him in there for so long… She wasn't even sure how long it was but knew it had been at least several hours.

Sitting down, she donned her sleep mask again, and picked up her spoon. But before she could begin to eat, Dyn said, "How can you eat with that on?"

Smiling she said, "Well, this is the original purpose I had imagined for this mask."

He laughed. "Are you serious?"

Laughing back, she said, "Of course! Only after I'd purchased it did I think of… other more creative uses for it…"

He let out a breath of a laugh and said, "Ah, I see. But I still don't see how you can eat with it."

Shaking her head, she said, "With the Force, of course!"

"Show me."

Looking up at where she knew him to be, she arched her eyebrow. "You don't believe me?"

"It's not that… it's just that I want to see it." Then he added offhandedly, "I know better than to doubt your abilities with the Force."

Smiling, she called the spoon to her hand with the Force for good measure and began to eat just as skillfully as she would have done without the blindfold.

He sat down next to her and asked pensively, "Can you see through that thing?"

"No."

"But the Force lets you see just the same." It wasn't a question.

"In a manner of speaking… but not necessarily."

"I don't understand."

"Well…." She thought about how to try and explain it. "Well, it's basically like seeing through it, but it's really just trusting the Force to know what's there."

"So…" he began. She detected the nervousness in his voice and though knew the question he was going to ask. "So, does that mean you can see my face? You know what I look like?"

She smiled gently, set her spoon down and pulled the mask off her face so he could see the truth in her eyes as she answered his question. She knew that his trust would hinge on this conversation and she wanted to give him every reason to believe what she was going to say. She'd been wondering when he'd ask her this anyway. Looking at him she answered very carefully and truthfully, "Technically, yes, I can… or I could… if I wanted to," she continued, speaking slowly. "I can see your face if I wanted to regardless of this mask," she gestured at the sleep mask, "or your helmet or anything else. But firstly, it's important to me that you know that I choose not to. I know it's The Way… part of The Creed of the Mandalorian's, so I've blocked it out." She paused for a moment so he could digest her answer. "Secondly, it's not like seeing your face in person. It's more like… an… accurate shadow? If that's the right way to put it. For example, I know your hair is curly because I've touched it, but through the Force, I also can guess… rightly… that it's some lighter shade of brown… And that your eyes are very dark brown?" She said it like a question, but she knew it was true. Sighing, she finished, "I can go on from there to picture your face in my mind, but I won't. I haven't. I want to respect you and The Creed. I won't do any thing to jeopardize our friendship, partnership, or anything else you and I share. Do you trust my promise?"

She looked at him for several long moments while he stared back, mulling over her words. At last he said, "I trust you with my life. With my name. I know I can trust you with my face." He looked down at his hands and sighed. "I want to show you. I've been thinking about it for a while… I just… I don't know how I'd feel after. If I could still put it back on in good conscience."

"I don't want you to do anything that makes you uncomfortable. I'd never ask that of you," she stated firmly, putting her hand on his.

He took her hand in his. "I know. I know what the Creed says about revealing your face. I also know that there are those who share their face only with those with whom they are most intimate. You are my clan now... You and the kid…" he trailed off.

She had seen an internal argument going on in his mind in the idle hours, but hadn't known what it was about. Now, after hearing the anguish in his voice, she knew now that it was about this.

"For now," she said, capturing his head in her hands, "try not to think about it. Things are fine the way they are. This is the way. In the end, you must do whatever you feel is right, of course. Just know, that whatever you decide, I'll stand by you. It's also important to me to emphasize that I want no part in pressuring you to break sacred vows. And I'll understand…" She reached for the mask and slipped it back over her eyes, picked up her spoon and began to eat. After a moment, she heard him pull off his helmet and do the same. As they ate he said, "I want to try and get a bounty job so we can get some credits. We'll need supplies and fuel again soon enough."

She nodded and said, "I'm no bounty hunter, but I'll help you with whatever you need."

"I think we'll have a healthy amount of choices in Coronet City."

"Of course. Corellia is an excellent place to find work as a bounty hunter."

After clearing up, Dyn had kissed Ter'a passionately before donning his helmet and pulling off her mask. Then he headed to the cockpit, leaving her with the kid. As he sat down in the pilot's chair, he thought about how he was really starting to hate that damn sleep mask. Sure, it made things easy, but he had now begun to think about making love to her with it on. He couldn't see the passion in her eyes. He loved to see her face and hear the noises that he elicited from her, but he thought now of her eyes and what they would say to him if he could see them.

Rolling his eyes, he looked at the nav computer. Thirty seconds…. He was playing a dangerous game now, thinking about wanting to see her eyes locked with his while they slept together… Twenty seconds… He just loved looking at her eyes when they talked, when she fought… always so full of life and energy… let alone while they were in the throes of passion… she'd look glorious… Ten seconds… he sighed, frustrated.

Pulling the lever, he dropped the ship out of hyperspace. He felt sexually frustrated all of the sudden, as the huge blue marble of Corellia filled the viewport. Pursing his lips, he knew that at the present moment, he couldn't possibly call himself sexually frustrated, but this eye thing was going to eat at him now. He had been hoping that she'd say that she had seen his face through the Force, so he might've been able to decide more easily that it didn't matter if he really took the helmet off because she'd basically already seen him. But no, she'd had to take the high road and blocked his face from her mind. He huffed a breath. Why was he annoyed with her? All she'd done was be respectful to him and the Creed… Still… he shook his head and banged his fist on the console. Would this internal argument never end?

The ship lurched slightly as he set it down on landing pad 2187 at the Coronet spaceport. He stood, stretched and headed down the ladder.

At the bottom, he found Ter'a laying the kid in his pod as she prepared to exit the ship with Dyn. "Where are we going to find work?" she asked him, standing up again.

"There's a bar outside the spaceport. It's called The Harbor. I can usually find work there when I need it."

Nodding, she hit the button to lower the ramp as she clipped her lightsaber to her belt.

They descended the ramp with the kid's pod in tow. After the events on Tatooine, they decided that they'd keep the kid with them at all times.

He squeaked and cooed as they walked, and Dyn thought he seemed very happy to be off the ship again and not on a desert planet as dry as Tatooine.

After about twenty-five minutes' walk they stopped outside a dingy looking pub that had a flickering sign above it that read 'The Harbor' in blue Aurebesh letters. Opening the door, Dyn ushered Ter'a inside, before closing the kid's pod and heading in. The Harbor's clientele sat around the bar chatting, and the screens and consoles above their heads showed everything from galactic news reels, to sports games, and no one was interested in a Mandalorian and his travel companion in the slightest.

Dyn led Ter'a to a back booth that was occupied by a human male who was beginning to reach his twilight years. He had pale skin, greying hair, and a scar on his face that began above his right eye and ended below the right side of his lips. When he saw Dyn, he smiled lopsidedly and said, "Well! Mando! I haven't seen you in many cycles! How are you?"

"I'm fine, Dex, thanks. You?"

They shook hands and Dex said, "Oh, great! You know… work is work! Who's your friend?"

Dyn had always liked Dex. And he was pleased to see that at least one person that he introduced Ter'a to was at least outwardly respectful. "This is Takara. She's my partner. We've done a few jobs together over the years, but right now, we're working together for a while."

Nodding, Dex shook Ter'a's hand and said, "Good to meet'cha Takara! I can't believe you're crazy enough to work with this old fool!" And he laughed merrily.

"It's good to meet you, Dex," Ter'a said with a smile, "Mando talks very highly of you."

Dyn smiled at her flattery of Dex. She might not be a bounty hunter, but she knew how to play the game.

"Ah, well… he knows I pay well, hahaha. Sit! Sit down, both of you! Let's have a drink and discuss business…" he gestured them both to sit in the booth and Ter'a shimmied in, and Dyn followed her.

Holding his hand up to the bartender, Dex yelled, "Two more over here!" and the bartender brought a drink for Ter'a and Dex. "Haha, Mando," smiled Dex, "It's too bad you can't have a drink with that helmet on… The Harbor is dingy, but the bartender serves the best drinks!"

Dyn shook his head and smiled.

"Now…" said Dex, as her swallowed a big sip of his drink. "I suppose you're here for a job?"

"Yeah, Takara and I are looking to make some easy credits. What do you got?"

"Oh, well now, I got a few things…" the old man fished around in his pocket and pulled out some tracking fobs and laid them on the table in front of him. "All bail jumpers…" he said, gesturing at the lot. I can give you two or three of 'em."

"Okay, we'll take 'em. How ever many you'll give us."

Dex handed Ter'a three fobs, and she put them in her pack.

"Thanks, Dex," said Dyn, standing. Ter'a followed suit.

"Anytime old friend! You land at Coronet? That's where you can bring 'em. Come find me here, just like usual, and I'll get you your creds."

Dyn nodded and turned away and Ter'a said, "Thanks, nice to meet you Dex." And they walked out of The Harbor.

As they walked back to the ship Ter'a said, "He was the nicest contact you've introduced me to so far."

"Yeah. He's a good guy. He's one of the only honest ones I've ever had."

Ter'a nodded and they kept walking.

After a while they finally returned to the ship and began to prepare to take off again. As Ter'a pulled out the fobs and gave them to Dyn so that he could figure out where they needed to go, he realized that she seemed pensive about something.

"You okay?"

She started. He caught her in the middle of her thoughts. "Oh! Yeah, just thinking… you keep telling people my name is Takara… as an alias."

Dyn cocked his head, "So?"

"Then you called me Takara earlier… 'Until tonight then, Takara' that's what you said… I thought it was a name you made up. Until you called me that when we got out of bed."

"Mmm," he nodded.

She stopped and looked at him, curious and confused, "What does Takara mean?"

Smiling, he stepped close to her and tilted her chin up to him. Looking down at her he said, "Takara means 'treasure'. It's a forgotten language… I don't know it's origin, but my father used to call my mother 'Takara'."

She beamed up at him, blushing furiously, before looking away, embarrassed. He wanted to kiss her, but they'd need that damned sleep mask…. "Close your eyes," he said suddenly.

"What?"

"Close your eyes, I'm going to take off my helmet."

She clamped her eyes shut, and he yanked his helmet off and set it on the table next to where they were standing, before wrapping his arms around her and kissing her. Her fingers went up to her favorite place in his hair, and he cupped her neck with both his hands. Their tongues danced and they smiled against each other's mouth's before kissing some more. Then she broke the kiss and said with her eyes closed, "You've been calling me Takara since I bought the sleep mask."

"So?"

"So…" she smiled. "When you introduced me to Ao, that was the first time you called me that."

Looking down at her, he drug his thumb over her bottom lip. "I knew, even then, how special you are," and he kissed her again before putting his helmet back on and she opened her eyes and smiled at him. He saw her eyes were full of affection.

They went up to the cockpit together with the kid and she asked him, "Where to? And which one do you want to do first?"

"Hmm," he turned the fobs over in his hand and chose one at a time to see where they'd need to go.

After a few minutes he said, "Well, we can go to Mon Cala, Dathomir, or Naboo. What do you think?"

Immediately, she said, "I don't want to go to Dathomir. Let's save that one and see if they go somewhere else…"

He cocked his head, "What's wrong with Dathomir?" Though he knew Dathomir was a rough place with rough inhabitants.

"A lot of Sith came from there," she said pensively. "And the Night Sisters…. It's not a place I want to go if possible."

Fair, he thought, nodding. "Okay, how about Naboo?"

She nodded and said, "Sounds wonderful."

Dyn handed her the fobs back and punched in the coordinates for Naboo. "It's going to take two days to get there."

"Good," she said, her expression clearing. "Plenty of time to… relax."

Dyn stopped abruptly and turned his head toward her slowly. When he turned, he saw her looking back at him flirtatiously. Again, he noticed her eyes, which were filled, this time, with sensuality and desire. His internal argument flared. All of a sudden, he seemed to notice her eyes before anything else… This was going to get harder for him, he thought, as the Crest lifted off and he guided them out to space.

But, as he maneuvered them into the hyperspace lane, he thought that she was going to tire him out and he'd obliged to return the favor, and no one was going to hear him complaining.