Title: Can't Have A Wedding Without Paint
Author: djcati
Fandom: Star Wars post-NJO
Characters: Danni, Jag
Rating: G/PG
Notes: Main idea for this fic comes from MiaTeska and her crack 'ship ideas. . .title comes from Smuggler Shidakis's observation that I am perhaps obsessed with a certain two pilots and a coloured substance. . .plot line kind of goes along with mIRC isn't just for the living, (chat log fic posted on TFN, not here)

Cameos from a couple OCs here -- I stole Gadell from -Tenel-Ka-, and Wes's two pilots are of course Jay and Lea, who are partly EnelyaSol's responsibility. Everything else belongs to Lucas. Not me. D:

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The music was cheerful, bouncy, perfect for dancing to. As Danni Quee let her gaze wander round the large ballroom, she saw at least a dozen couples making the most of it, not least the newlyweds -- Tenel Ka and Jacen Solo -- themselves. She smiled, then leaned back against the buffet table and sighed.

She wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole wedding. So, Jacen Solo had finally woken up and realised he was in love with the Queen Mother. Danni knew she should be happy for them both -- indeed, she was, and knew the service was long overdue. But there was still a part of her that wondered whether she hadn't. . .missed out on an opportunity here.

"Hopeless, aren't they?"

Danni jumped, then turned to look to the right, where the voice had come from. Someone had suddenly appeared beside her, also leaning against the table behind them both. Danni sighed -- even with his jacket half-undone, even with splatters of pink paint on his trouser legs (she didn't want to ask), Jagged Fel managed to look incredibly formal. Great.

She turned back to face the dance floor and half-smiled at Jacen and Tenel Ka. "I think it's great they're finally doing this," she said, unsure whether she was lying or not.

"It is..." Jag trailed off and paused for a second. "I didn't see you at the service," he noted, making the statement more of a question.

Danni laughed. "Yeah -- Tahiri and I arrived earlier this morning, but there were all sorts of problems landing. They wouldn't let us," she explained, glancing back up at Jag and grinning ruefully. "They were a little reluctant to let us land -- looked too much like a Yuuzhan Vong ship, apparently. You should have seen Tahiri -- she said she'd have words with whoever was responsible, all right."

Jag looked out onto the dance floor, then pointed at something on the other side of Jacen and Tenel Ka. "Is that the man responsible?"

Man? Danni followed his gaze, then laughed again. Tahiri was dancing quite comfortably with someone, the same someone who had met them at the palace hangar, indignant yet eager to see the Sekotan ship. "Yep, I think so -- Gadell Vessau, I believe." Apparently, in Tahiri language, having words with someone equated to dancing with them.

She glanced up at Jag again, surprised to see an amused smirk on his face. Then it was gone, and he continued to scan the dance floor, obviously looking for something -- or someone. Apparently finding it, he sighed and turned back to Danni. "So," he said, "you missed the service?"

"Well, we snuck in at the end of it. That Gadell guy told us to wait at our ship, but Tahiri followed him and dragged me along too, and we ended up catching the end of the service." Well, kind of -- they'd stood just outside the door, peering in and grinning ruefully at those in the back row. "Then we both came here with the rest of you."

Jag nodded. "Have you been standing here yourself the whole time?"

Danni looked away, shrugging. "Since Tahiri ran off to find Gadell, yeah. What about you?" she asked, turning to look at him accusingly. "What have you been doing? Where's Jaina?" She hadn't spoken to anyone else yet this afternoon, though she'd spotted most of them at various times.

"Dancing with Kyp Durron," Jag answered, and Danni caught some reluctance in his answer. "As for me, I don't think I, um... want to talk about it."

Danni stared at him in surprise, and noticed when he glanced down at the paint on his trousers, disgust on his face. She stifled a giggle and raised an eyebrow. "Now you have to tell me."

Jag sighed and threw her a betrayed glare, then shrugged. "I did leave myself open to that," he admitted, twisting his left arm round to glare at another dash of pink paint. "My uniform's ruined," he muttered to himself.

"Well, what happened?" Danni asked him, shifting round a little to look at him more comfortably.

"All right." He sighed again, and turned to face her properly. "Master Skywalker left me in charge of his son while he danced with his wife," he started, glancing back to the dance floor and pointing vaguely to Luke and Mara.

"You? In charge of Ben Skywalker?" This sounded promising. Danni grinned.

"Yes," Jag answered. "Me, in charge of Ben Skywalker. Well, he ran off straight away, of course, outside the ballroom and away to who knows where. I chased after him, but before I found him, I ran into -- you know Wes Janson and Hobbie Klivian?"

Janson. Ugh. "Yes. I feel sorry for you already," she assured him.

"Well, them. Carrying two open tins of paint."

"Paint."

"Yes. One orange, one pink," he added, holding his right elbow up to show Danni a patch of orange smudged into his jacket sleeve.

"Wonderful. So, what, they spilled it over you?"

"Oh no," Jag said, shaking his head and sighing -- but half-smiling, ruefully. "No, they agreed to help me look for Ben, if I promised not to tell anyone they were the ones with paint. They were planning something, I'm not sure what -- I didn't ask."

Danni looked round the room, but she couldn't see a trace of Wes, Hobbie or paint. "I assume, since you're telling me, their plan failed?"

Jag nodded, glancing at the paint on his trousers again with a frown. "Rather spectacularly. Just as we were walking back up that corridor-" He pointed to the main door and the palace corridor beyond. "-we found Ben. Or, rather, Ben found us."

Danni could see where this was going, and she tried not to laugh. "Or, rather," she repeated in a slightly mocking tone, "Ben found the back of Wes and Hobbie at high speed-"

"-and two tins of paint found me," Jag finished, nodding. "I tried to jump out of the way, but, well -- it didn't work properly."

Danni couldn't help laughing this time, and shook her head. "So where are they now?"

"Janson came in here to get two of his pilots, and I think they're trying to clean up the mess before anyone sees it. Ben's...helping...them."

Danni shook her head again, still laughing quietly. "Well, I feel sorry for you, Fel. You're probably not used to crazy pranks, are you?"

"Aren't I?" Jag raised an eyebrow. "I have several siblings...And I was on Borleias with Janson..."

Danni just looked at him cynically.

"...But no," he admitted, sighing. "And I don't like them," he added, scowling quickly.

Danni laughed again. "I don't think anyone likes Janson's pranks -- except maybe Hobbie. So, what are you going to do now?"

Jag glanced at her, waiting a second as the band started playing a new song, and held up his paint-splattered arm. "Now," he said, nodding towards the dance floor, "I'm going to convince myself not to tell the Queen Mother who spilled the paint, and dance with a beautiful woman -- if the beautiful woman agrees."

Danni flushed slightly, but nodded and took Jag's arm, smiling. "She does," she told him lightly, letting him escort her out into the middle of the dance floor. She hadn't really danced with anyone in a long time -- it wasn't her kind of thing. But...this was nice, and she smiled again.

She spent the next few songs dancing with Jag, smiling at his constant formality, then being surprised at the ease with which he adjusted to dancing more casually. Barely noticing what was going on, they ended up dancing their way halfway round the hall, ending up close to the main door.

Danni glanced out into the corridor over Jag's shoulder, and frowned curiously. Little Ben was poking his head round the door, and he grinned childishly up at Danni, waving at her. "Jag," she murmured in Jag's ear, "I thought you said Ben was with Wes and Hobbie?"

"And two other pilots," he agreed. A second passed, then he pulled back slightly and looked at her, realising what she probably meant. "Why?" He glanced round and spotted Ben just as the boy ducked back behind the door, giggling. Jag stared at the now-empty spot in the doorway, his eyes wide, then spun round again and tried to nonchalantly dance himself and Danni over into the middle of the crowd.

Danni reflected later that it would have worked much better if there hadn't been -- courtesy of Ben's fledgling Force powers -- a half-full tin of paint in the way.