Paris: GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
You are not to speak of Boba 2! And stop calling me trampire! Well, actually, I don't care if you call me trampire. Whatever. Did you actually, you know, LIKE it or anything? I don't care if you didn't....
Sorry, I know him, so I'm allowed to be all ":P". I don't just pick random reviewers to be mean to. Really.
Anyway, I like this chapter a whole lot more than the last one. Makes me kinda smile. :) Oh, and I'm going to move these lil notes to the end of chapters from now, because I think they're kinda distracting....
Chapter Eight
Saera woke, she thought, rather early, considering. A little hangover headache (she supposed), but not that bad at all. She donned one ofher new conservative "travel"outfits and exited the room. Might as well face Glynn and get the initial awkwardness over with.
Just before she entered the kitchen she heard a bang and string of curses she'd never even known had existed. Opening the door she saw Glynn gripping his hand and holding it under a stream of water from the sink. There was a frying pan on the floor.
"Are you OK?" It was obvious he wasn't.
"Just a--" he winced "--burn.I was just reheating some more nerf, for breakfast...I would think I'd be used to burns by now, what with fixing the Gaellia all the time..." he muttered some new curses. "Sorry," he apologized when he saw Saera's shock. "Don't blame me, blame my mouth." He winced again. "Could you grab the first aid kit? I think it's in that cupboard." He gestured with his foot. Seara grabbed the kit and looked for the information on burns, showing it to Glynn.
"Read it to me."
"Run affected area under cold water for at least two minutes."
"Done." He pulled his hand out of the stream of water.
"Next, take the ointment..." they sat down at the table and she assisted him in treating the burn.
"Sorry about that. I've done this before, it's just that every kit is different." Glynn tried flexing his hand. "Well, it's only on the side of my left hand. I've had much worse. I can probably get enough use by the end of the day or something to pilot--"
"No way! You know that's ridiculous! You're not going anywhere near that ship! I'll just get us another room and we'll spend another night on Bothawui. Don't move."
"My ship!"
"I'll call the authorities and ask them to hold it a little longer. I'll pay for it."
"But--"
"Quiet!" She got up and searched for the planetary comm frequency book.
"Beaten." He sighed. "Make sure to get a cheap place!" He yelled after her.
--
"This place is a dump!" Saera whispered through a fake smile as she and Glynn entered their new hotel, the Bothawui Middle Inn-come. More like the Bothawui NO Inn-come!
"Yeah, but it's cheap!" Glynn whispered back.
They checked in and were escorted to their room by a very eager owner who obviously hadn't seen that many customers for a while.
"It's a wonder this place is still open!" she whispered again, glancing at the cockroach droppings hastily swept into a corner.
"Be nice," he warned.
When the hotel owner left, certain there was nothing more his guests required, Saera opened the door to the room. "This is terrible!" she remarked, dropping the bags she'd been carrying. There was one queen bed, one armchair, and one bedside table with odds and ends on it, including and planetary comm. And one door. Saera opened it and saw a tiny bedroom with about half the space in the shower that someone would really need.
"There's no other bed! I asked specifically, 'are there two beds?' and he said yes!"
"Hm. He must have meant 'room for two people.' As in two people could sleep here..." Glynn dragged off, looking at the bed. "I'll take the floor."
"No, you--"
"Yes. I'll take the floor."
"But--"
"Just let me have the godsdamned floor, will you?" he raised his voice. He felt stupid, and was sorry for his temper, but couldn't think of what to say. "I--"
"Well, fine, take the floor if you want it so badly! But when you wake up with acrick in your neck tomorrow morning, remember that I offered you the bed, and you refused." She was glaring at him.
"Fine. I'm going to sleep." He grabbed a pillow off the bed and plopped down in the corner of the room. "Good night."
"Goodnight."
Glynn closed his eyes and a second later something soft and immense hit his head. Untangling himself from the quilt and muttering about how difficult women could be, he heard a giggle from the bathroom.
--
It was slightly unnerving for Saera, sleeping in the same room as a man she wasn't related to. Most awkwardness had been avoided, though, by the fact that he appeared to be asleep by the time she emerged from the bathroom. Don't even call it a bathroom. It's more like a sink-room or something.
In any case, all that could be seen of Glynn was a lump under a quilt and a shock of auburn hair. Which, needless to say, mare her feel whole lot better about wearing pajamas. Last thing I need is the pilot perving at me. She immediately reprimanded herself, first for calling him "the pilot" and next for thinking that Glynn would try anything like that. Well, he hadn't gotten paid yet!
Oh, quit acting like a paranoid baby and go to sleep!
--
Surprisingly, Saera woke up early enough to miss being seen in her pajamas. She was dressed by six and a half time parts, and Glynn still showed no sign of waking. She'd always slept far longer than him on the ship, so she had no clue when he usually rose. Two and a half weeks, and I still know next to nothing about this guy. And we almost kissed... She made a mental note to learn more about the man who was helping her track down her true love.
He finally lifted his head at around eight time parts. Saera was so completely bored that she was just happy to see movement that she had not directly caused.
"Are you finally awake? Or do you need more beauty sleep?"
"Well, since you asked--" Glynn turned his head to look at her. "--I could use another time part or so." The eyes laughed at her, much like when they'd first met.
"Oh, no you don't. I have been bored out of my mind for almost one and a half time parts now, and I cannot sit around for another one!"
Giving in, he rose and straightened out, flexing his hand, which was doing a lot better, and moving his joints around. "Ugh, you were right about the crick in the neck." He looked over at the clock. "Huh. That's the latest I've slept in about three years."
"Don't you ever take a day off?" she asked, incredulous.
"How can you when your office is the same place you sleep in?"
"Oh."
They hung around the room for about half a time part before gathering up Saera's bags again and exiting. The hotel owner bombarded them with free soap bars and business cards and such, with the inn logo on them, exclaiming, "Give them to your friends! Give them to your friends!"
"Uh, thanks. We'll tell everyone about this...fine establishment." Glynn grinned over at Saera.
"Yeah, it was so...so...obvious how muchcare you take in keeping a hospitable environment." She smiled dazzlingly at the owner.
"Thank you, thank you, I try." He finally opened the door and let them out. "Come again soon!" As soon as the door closed they both burst into laughter.
"Hospitable environment?"
"Well, you started it! Ugh, where can we dump this crap, the soap smells like felinx waste!"
They shoved the free samples in a nearby trash receptacle and headed to the dock where they'd left the Gaellia more than 48 time parts ago. Even though she'd only lived there for a couple of weeks it already felt to Saera like a homecoming, like she'd been on a quick vacation and was being greeted by familiar sights.
"Ah, well, Bothawui was nice, but I sure love bein' back on my own ship," said Glynn, voicing her thoughts exactly. Once he'd plotted a course for Transaddinn III, where the rebel had said the new base was, Glynn and Saera seemed to be stuck. Saera couldn't think of anything to say and, as they really talked about the events of two nights ago. As she thought about it she realized how mush she dreaded discussing the almost-kiss. Discussing feelings was just something she'd never done, and she was afraid she'd embarrass herself. She'd just have to dance around him until he brought the subject up.
Glynn was feeling the same dread, although for different reasons. Now that he knew the nature of her relationship with Skywalker he couldn't very well tell her the truth. That he hadn't been hitting on her because he was drunk. That he felt this strange sensation in his gut when she smiled at him, or even when she smiled at all...
Gods, he had it bad. He had to pull himself out of the pit before he dug it too deep.
And that's it for Bothawui! R&R, please! :)