Lesson Number One

Amber Penglass

An Atton/FemExile Snippit

Note to 'Get Lost:' Of course I realize girls under thirteen like romance, too, and of course I realizethis particular snippit isn't fit for people under thirteen. -secretive whisper- That's why I rated it 'T' darling... In case you neglected to look at FF .net's new rating system, that's the equivilent of 'PG-13.' Double-check your reasons for flaming someone before actually flaming, love. Just a tip. -Amber

"So, Goto's probably still around," Atton said, careful to keep his voice low enough that a casual refugee passerby wouldn't hear, but loud enough to ensure that the annoyingly calm Aelyn Drae, walking quickly beside him, did hear him.

"Probably," Aelyn murmured in response, distracted. Her pace was fast, her eyes darting everywhere. She had something on her mind, and it irked Atton to no end that she hadn't said what, yet…

"Then why," began the third member of their party, a certain curvatious redhead bounty hunter. "Aren't we making space-dust tracks out of this system?" She, too, kept her voice at a low hiss. Aelyn tossed Mira a glance, the corners of her lips twitching, no doubt remarking to herself on the odd circumstances that had lead Mira to join their group. Atton himself wasn't quite sure what had gone on…something to do with the Jedi guy with a 'Z' and too many dashes and spaces in his name.

"I made a promise," Aelyn answered simply. "And I think I know a way to keep it… I couldn't look into it as much as I wanted, before, and I'm hoping I have time to explore it before we really do have to leave."

"Have time?" Atton echoed, incredulous. "You must be running off a broken chronometer, Exile, 'cuz last I checked time ran out the minute we blew up the personal yacht of the Exchange boss." He was valiantly resisting the urge to grab the ex-Jedi's arm and haul her to the nearest alley and demand an explanation. He could get her to talk. He knew he could. How, was another matter, and given the still tender condition of their relationship after the beating it had taken the day before, down in the Refugee Commons, he wasn't quite sure if that was the best of ideas at the moment, or at any moment, really…

"This won't take long," Aelyn responded softly. Too softly. Atton frowned, and his brown eyes were suddenly fixated even more observantly to the resident Jedi. There was something off, about her. Just a bit… He'd noticed it earlier, too, chalking it up to something Goto had said, but now… No, whatever it was, it was tinged with apprehension and…embarrassment?

Atton's gaze flew to Mira, walking beside him. She met his gaze, and raised a questioning eyebrow, to which he responded with a simple shrug, raising his fingerless-gloved hands in a gesture of helplessness. How was he supposed to know what was up with her?

Aelyn lead them to Entertainment Promenade. Atton spared a small smile for the rodent in the corner, who returned the smile with a wink.

"What was that for?" Aelyn asked when they were out of earshot of the well-hearing creature.

"Tell you later," Atton responded with a secretive smile of his own. Aelyn's response was a mildly suspicious look. Then she shook her head, and led the way into the cantina. The fluorescent green interior made her blink for a moment, and Atton suppressed a grin. The lighting was for a purpose other than decoration- it helped identify rookies. Wherever she had been during her exile, it wasn't cantinas.

Atton expected Aelyn to approach one of the patrons, as she often did, even if only meant inviting a snarled 'space off' or two. He always wondered why she did that…sometimes it bore fruit, but most of the time it had him worried he'd have to haul her away from a potential duel-challenge, a kind of duel she'd know nothing about, he was sure. Capable she might be, space-street wise she was not. Had him wondering how she'd survived on the Outer Rims without him for four years… Conceited of him? Yes. True? Probably.

But Aelyn already seemed to know exactly who she was going for. Nearly perfectly across from the entrance, a blue-skinned male twi'lek sat at a table, a half-empty bottle of something near his right arm, a small shot glass even closer. He was poring over a pile of datapads and scowling. That scowl deepened for a moment when he glanced up at their arrival, then instantly smoothed into a pleasant visage of welcome when he spied Aelyn.

"Ah, the flower of Nar Shaddaa has returned!" their host proclaimed, standing up and holding his arms out to the side as if he meant to embrace Aelyn. Atton's hand formed a fist of its own accord. Mira noticed, and suppressed a delighted smirk. Atton set his jaw into a smirk of his own when he saw Aelyn ignore the arms. The twi'lek, pretending not to have noticed, dropped them and continued to beam at the lovely Jedi- at least he'd gotten that part right, Atton admitted grudgingly.

"So, have you reconsidered my offer? Or rather, my pleading, desperate case? Have you come to aid one in need? Or perhaps your fiery companion? Beauty desires company, it is true!" The twi'lek had looked past Aelyn to Mira. A lesser woman would have been distracted by the compliment, but someone like Mira obviously received compliments of the like by the dozen, and she thought no more of it than a breathy snort and a roll of the eyes. Atton saw Aelyn's lips twitch, and her eyes danced for a moment before turning back to look at the twi'lek again.

"No, she's not dancing for you." Aelyn answered.

"Damn straight," Mira had muttered before the full implications of what Aelyn had said hit her or Atton. When it did, the latter two blinked, exchanged glances, then returned their surprised gazes to the back of Aelyn's head.

Aelyn continued, "I am."

The shock of Aelyn's two companions was swallowed up by the twi'lek's euphoric exclamations. "Ah, splendid! My master will be most pleased! I thank you for your generosity, beautiful one!"

"No problem," Aelyn responded, dryly. "What do I do?"

"Ah, well, first, let's see," the twi'lek turned and went to his seat, beside which on the floor was a duffle. He opened it, took out a metallic case as wide as a forearm and just as long, and half as deep. He presented it to Aelyn. "You'll need to try this on, just to see how it looks, you know…"

Aelyn took it dubiously, studiously ignoring the shock-waves radiating from her two companions, and the no-little amount of seething something-bordering-on-jealousy radiating from one of them, and it wasn't Mira. Somehow, Aelyn thought when she cracked open the case and peered inside, she didn't think Mira –despite her dress habits- would be jealous of having to wear a contraption on her chest that did little more than decorate her décolletage… With a sigh, she snapped the case shut.

"If I have to," she conceded uncomfortably. Her 'agent' as it were beamed at her.

"Wonderful! There's a fresher just back here, if you'll follow me…"

"I'll show her where it is," Atton cut in with a barely suppressed snarl. Aelyn looked at him with mild surprise a moment before he shoved past the twi'lek and grabbed her elbow, hauling her back towards the highly secluded back corner of the cantina. When there was a partial wall between them and the rest of the patrons, Atton whirled her around and caught her between himself and the corner formed by the wall and the thick transparasteel window to his left.

"What," he hissed. "Are you pulling? That guy's a Hutt lackey if I ever saw one."

"Vogga the Hutt, to be exact," Aelyn answered smoothly, a hidden smile in her eyes. Atton grit his teeth.

"All right, fine," he ground out sourly. "I'm assuming you have a reason for…this?" He flipped his hand at the case still in her own hands.

"Of course," she said, suddenly disgruntled. She fiddled with the clasp on the case. "He's been having trouble getting his fuel supplies off the planet, what with Goto hijacking all his ships… I have a pretty good hunch I can convince him he owes me, or us, for Goto being gone. My plan is to-"

"Telos," he cut her off. It clicked, and he took a step back, running his hand through his hair. He should have known- this was just like her. Just like her… Except that she was doing something totally unlike her to get at it. "And there's no way a Hutt would knowingly let a Jedi in his presence," Atton muttered.

"Exactly," Aelyn confirmed. She hefted the case as evidence and said, "So, plan B." She did a funny little curtsey-bow and said, "Dancer Aelyn, at your service."

He wondered, briefly, if those words had been chosen to deliberate set him on edge- and not in a bad way. Knowing her and her not-so-infrequent bouts of demonic tendencies, he wouldn't put it past her. Wench was a sinister little tease when she wanted to be.

Atton rubbed his brow, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You'd better got get changed, then," he grumbled through his fingers. A hand was on his, after a split moment, moving his hand away from his face. He blinked when he found that she was standing closer than she had been when he'd closed his eyes. A lot closer. That secretive smile had spread from her eyes to her lips.

"You're not jealous, are you?" She asked, quietly. Her hand still held his. For a brief moment, he wondered what would happen if he admitted that yes, it made him blindingly jealous. Hell, it annoyed him when she sought that Disciple kid to meditate, but the thought of her wiggling all that he wanted in front of some giant slug? Damn near made his blood combust.

"What? No! You're nuts," he replied gruffly, and a little too quickly. "Just…we need to get off this rock, and this'll probably take longer than you think. Plus," he added. "Can you even dance?" He didn't realize until after he'd said it that it was a valid question, and she winced accordingly.

"Guess we'll find out," she answered with a sigh, moving past him to the slender door that was the fresher. She ducked inside, and closed and locked the door behind her.

He felt her a split second before she actually said anything. "Can she even dance?" Mira asked casually, leaning against the half-a-wall as she unknowingly echoed Atton's earlier question. Atton winced.

"In her words, guess we'll find out…" A thought occurred to him, then. "I'm not sure if she even plans on dancing. I think she's just using this as a way to get to him…"

"Well that'll never work," Mira snipped. "If she doesn't dance at all, Vogga will kick her out before she even says anything beyond 'by the way, I really don't plan on dancing, but can we talk?'" The redhead shook her head. "It'll never work."

"Yeah, I know," Atton grumbled, stuffing his hands in his pockets and glowering out the dim transparasteel window. Again, an idea came to him, and he flashed Mira a look. "Hey," he said. "What about you?"

"Hey, I already said I'm not dancing," she answered swiftly, raising her hands to void off the mere idea.

"Not that," he said, shoving aside annoyance at her assumption. "You're a girl-"

"Nice one."

"Shove it," he snapped, then continued. "I mean, you can dance, right? You teach her."

"Whoa, whoa, there are plenty of tricks I know to get a guy to come hither, but that ain't one of 'em, not that kind of dancing, anyways."

"Any kind would be better than none," Atton countered. Mira winced.

"Point." Mira conceded. "But, Rand, I'm having doubts the Jedi can do this at all… I mean, hand the woman a 'saber and a pack of Duro bounty hunters and, well, you've seen what she can do, she'll face down the best and the worst of them. But…shakin' it, in a dancer's outfit –and I know you've seen plenty of them- in front of a Hutt? A Jedi?"

"I know, I know," Atton muttered. On top of Mira's points, he had his own personal reservations about the whole thing, too…

"How about you do it?" Mira broke the brief pause that had befallen them. Atton raised an eyebrow at her, a quirk of amusement on his mouth.

"Well, I'll take that as a compliment that you'd think I'd look good in a dancer's outfit, but really Mira, you should know I don't swing that wa- ouch!" He unsuccessfully ducked the bounty hunter's swing, clapping a hand to his stinging ear and glowering at the shorter redhead.

"Cute," she told him coolly. "I meant you teaching her."

"Me?" Atton raised an eyebrow again. "I'm multitalented, but not that multitalented, thank you."

"You know what an audience likes to see," Mira pressed on. "You know the dos and the don'ts of entertainment dancing. You could give her some…some pointers. Just a few."

"Just a few what?" So wrapped up in their scheming, neither smuggler nor bounty hunter had heard the fresher door slip open. Atton's gaze snapped over to the door, swallowing and bracing himself to see-

Aelyn in her outer robe? Pulled shut… Swallowing again, he wasn't sure if he was relieved or frustrated by her oddly-timed sense of modesty. She still held the metal case, which most likely held her regular clothes. The only visible part of the skimpy costume he just knew lay beneath were at her feet, a pair of golden sandals laced up to disappear beneath the plain black robe pulled snugly around her form.

"Nothing," Atton answered her question, cutting of Mira even as the bounty hunter opened her mouth. She glowered at him, then reached over and pinched him viciously. He yelped, glared, but said nothing. Aelyn didn't believe it, of course, and threw both of them suspicious glances… A suspicion that increased tenfold when Atton stepped towards her, tossing Mira one last dirty glare, before backing Aelyn back into the fresher.

"Atton, what are you-"

He shut the door behind them. Freshers in cantinas were always bigger than they looked, for obvious reasons…sometimes a pair of drunk customers weren't willing to wait to get back to their rooms. There was even, he noted with amusement, a wide sort of shelf built into one wall to his right that one could sit on…or not. The designers of the place certainly hadn't been concerned with subtlety.

"Can you dance?" Atton turned his thoughts back to the matter at hand, with some minor reluctance. "I mean, really? Not that uptight court stuff you might have picked up."

The look Aelyn gave him was one of deep reproach. He noticed her hands clamped just a bit tighter on the folds of her robe, a flush rising in her cheeks.

"We'd better hope I can," Aelyn ground out, shifting uncomfortably and doing a grand job of hiding it. Atton snorted. Managing to put his male libido aside for the moment, he took two striding steps towards her, gripping the edges of that damn robe and yanked it down off her shoulders. Ignoring her protests, he turned her around and pulled it the rest of the way off her, evading her attempts to hit him away.

"Lesson number one," he told her, tossing the robe aside and following her when she took a step back; there was barely room for air to pass between them. Looking down at her he said, "Get over that embarrassment. It shows up like a neonbug in deep space."

His 'pep' talk seemed to work; she glowered up at him, drawing herself up and shedding, for a moment, all physical evidence that she was uncomfortable with being nearly naked.

Nearly naked… He put up a valiant struggle, trying to keep his eyes up, but in the end it was no use. He glanced down –further down, that is- and, telling himself it was a good lesson for her to learn if she was going to parade this in front of people in a minute anyways, he looked his fill.

The woman was a sinfully rich concoction of smooth skin, subtle muscles, rich color and velvety soft curves that ached to be traced and memorized. Her waist pinched in at a nearly impossible angle, flaring out to melt into well-rounded hips that in turn gave way to legs that were, for all their shortness, mouth-watering to admire. Surprisingly small feet gave a hint of daintiness that counterbalanced the rest of her curvatiousness, as did small and deceptively soft looking hands. Broader than normal shoulders balanced the ample hips, as well as gave a well-needed platform for a pair of…

Who would have thought Jedi robes could have been that disguising? Unknowingly echoing Aelyn's own earlier thoughts, he beheld with bewilderment the gold and ruby-red, halter style contraption that did little more than merely decorate. The matching bikini bottom with the split-skirt that was really little more than elongated 'butt flaps' covered a bit more, but not much. Twin twisty armbands of gold hugged her upper arms like the hands of a lover, and a gold, jeweled choker brought attention to the fluttering heartbeat at the small of her throat.

A small, wolfish smile playing at the corners of his mouth, he looked up again, and swore he'd never seen her so red.

"Embarrassment, exile…reign it in…"

"I'm not embarrassed, you pig!" Aelyn snarled, stepping back and crossing her arms self consciously. Grinning even wider, Atton followed her, taking ahold of her wrists and pulled them apart.

"No hiding, now." He told her, enjoying the whole situation far too much. "C'mon, not like I haven't seen you in your underwear before…"

"This," she hissed, waving a hand at herself. "Is a little different than my skivvies, don't you think?"

"Not really," he said with mock innocence. She snarled and smacked him upside his head- or tried to. He ducked, reaching out to grab her around the waist and swing her around, trapping her between himself and a corner once again.

"Let me go already," Aelyn sighed. "Lesson learned- drop the self conscious act, I get it. But have you ever tried wearing one of these things?" She shifted uncomfortably, and this time not from exposure. Atton grinned down at her.

"Sorry, I leave that sort of thing to my…other friends." He quipped. Aelyn half glared, have grinned up at him.

"All right, fine. Now let's go; need to get this over with."

"I didn't say we were done," Atton told her, planting a hand on her bare stomach when she tried to walk past, gently pushing her back into the corner. Interestingly enough, she let him push her. She could have easily pushed him clear across the room without moving a muscle had she wanted. Atton found himself swallowing, suddenly, and he wasn't quite sure why, aside from the obvious…

"What is it now?" she sighed up at him.

That wolfish grin was back when he said, "I need you to dance."

She blinked.

Once, twice.

Then she laughed.

"Right," she smirked up at him, patting him on the shoulder. "Nice try, but you get to wait just like everyone else. If you wanted a private show, maybe you could go find that pazaak twi'lek from yesterday? I'm sure she'd be willing to oblige you in another 'stimulating' activity." Again she tried to move past him, again his hand on her waist pushed her back. She looked up to meet his gaze, not moving this time despite the subtle pressure around her middle.

"Why does everyone keep assuming," he told her lowly. "That I like twi'leks so much, hm?"

"Maybe because every time we walk into a cantina with dancing ones, it's nearly impossible to get you out without you walking into a doorframe," Aelyn whispered back with a mock-conspiracy tone.

"Just a distraction," he told her.

"Obviously," she said, amused.

"Not that kind of distraction," he growled. "Use your head, Jedi…" he paused, mentally backtracking, very fast, very abruptly. "Second thought, don't. Now, where were we?"

"You were about to let me go," Aelyn told him, dismissing his odd words for a later date. Had he been implying that he used dancers to distract himself from her? Surely not.

"Right. Try using a little more Persuasion next time," Atton drawled sarcastically. His arm was still around her.

"And have you hate me from here til the next century? No thanks," she snipped. He blinked at her, then grinned.

"Aw, didn't know you cared so much," he teased, using his other hand to poke her in the ribs. She jerked, arching to the side to avoid his fingers. He grinned.

"There you go," he told her.

"There I go what?" She demanded, still formed into a human squiggle to stay out of reach of his demonic fingers.

"Do that again," he told her, and wiggled his fingers in her other side. She audibly suppressed a squeak in the back of her throat, and moved fluidly to arch the other way.

"One more time," he told her, but as he said it he slid his hands up her sides, gripping her arms gently and moving them up, holding her wrists above her head. Meeting her gaze he grinned. "Move like that again," he told her. She glowered at him, and he sighed, shifting his grip to hold her hands up with one hand to free his other-

"No, no, fine!" she protested, knowing what he was doing. On her own she moved, moving from side to side.

"Not so rough," he murmured, and he ended up releasing her hands altogether –she kept them held above herself on her own- and moved his hands to land gently on her hips. This time when she moved, he moved with her, keeping her movements from being to jerky or reflexive.

"Almost," he told her, examining her movements with the eyes of the practiced. "Move her feet a bit further apart…good. Now try again. Loosen your elbows a bit…that's it. Now look at me. C'mon, I'm not that ugly…"

She looked up at him, and his breath hitched in his throat. She was still moving, her arms held in a lazy, languid pose above her, her body swaying and curving from side to side with an eerily boneless grace. She'd caught on quick… Then it faltered, and he realized just how intently he'd been staring at her…or rather, he realized the kind of intent he'd been staring at her with, and then her embarrassment was back, and she moved to lower her arms.

He grabbed her wrists, moving them back up as he moved in closer, his own arms above him. "You forgot lesson number one," he told her, peering down into a heart-shaped, very red face.

"Sorry, Master," she murmured, her lips quirking in a mocking tease. He grinned down at her, finding himself fascinated by that quirk of those lips.

"Liking the sound of that…" he murmured, his eyes having a hard time not flitting so frequently back and forth between lips and eyes.

"Don't get used to it," she snorted softly, and he grinned that wolfish grin again, that grin that made him look hungry… Her breath caught in the back of her throat. He was looking at her mouth again…

His hands had moved, she realized, sliding down her arms, down the bare sides of her breasts to land on her hips, holding her against him. Her arms, likewise had moved, laying lazily across his shoulders and the back of his neck.

"I never get used to anything," he told her, though she hardly heard him enough to notice just how distracted his voice was. He wasn't even bothering to try to keep his eyes averted from her mouth anymore, she realized at the same time that he was moving closer…so was she, for that matter…

Something seemed to snap inside him, and he all at once abandoned all sense of caution, closing the remaining distance between them in half a heartbeat and captured her lips with his own in a shock-delivering victory that sent tremors through his blood. She met him half way, getting her own share of a staggering shockwave that shattered all coherent thought. All she knew was that she was suddenly being hauled up against a body she couldn't conceive being separated from, her multitude of exposed flesh pressed against leather and linen worn to surprising softness, though a softness that didn't even begin to compare with the moist velvet teasing her mouth.

And teasing was definitely the word. The aggressive attack had given way to feints and fakes, causing no end of frustration to Aelyn's suddenly on-edge senses. She planted her hands on either side of his face, holding him in place while she took in her fill, angling her mouth against his for fuller access to that forbidden richness that was her once-upon-a-time enemy's warm, obliging, chuckling mouth.

"Stop laughing," she growled into the kiss, a growl that ended in a gasp when his hands on her hips shifted their grip, one arm encircling her waist completely, the other one snaking down to hook beneath her bottom to lift…

And suddenly she was pinned up against a wall, her legs going instinctively around the waist of her captor, her hands on his shoulders as they pulled away for a brief moment, locking half amused, half shocked gazes before they abandoned all pretense of surprise at their actions, and met again halfway.

Emotions, side by side with sensations, flooded Aelyn's mind and senses. So this was why her kind weren't supposed to give in to pleasures of this kind…it was heady, and addicting, and bordering on darkly indulgent. Though, she conceded to herself, she had to factor in that the one making her feel this way was himself darkly indulgent…

Very indulgent, it seemed; he let his hands and mouth alike begin to roam, moving his kisses from her mouth to the side of her neck, his hands massaging the sensitive flesh just beneath her breasts. He never actually touched them…and Aelyn wasn't quite sure if this was a good thing or not. She jerked when his teeth found her ear, and his grip tightened on her, holding her more firmly in place as she felt his chest rumble against hers. Then her ear was free, only to be replaced with her lips once more. Her arms around his neck tightened, bringing him as close as mortally possible. She was finding it hard to breathe…yet she couldn't bring herself to care…

There was a crash from outside, a crash that was echoed by the sudden and complete crash of reality and emotions within the two very intertwined persons wedged into a corner of a fresher in a questionable cantina on Nar Shaddaa.

They blinked at each other, both of them breathing harder than what was healthy or normal. Heat surged through both of them, and both of them fought for control as Atton slowly and carefully released Aelyn to slid back down, letting her feet regain control of keeping her upright. She kept her hands on his chest, though- she didn't completely trust her own sense of balance at the moment… And it seemed neither did he; he kept one hand on the wall behind her. Still looking at one another, both grinned tentatively.

"Well," Atton's voice was lower and huskier than usual. "Looks like you've got lesson number one down…"

Aelyn wasn't sure whether or not to hit him, blush, laugh, growl… She settled on a soft, amused chuckle. She reached up to place one soft, brief, sweet kiss on his mouth before moving past him again, scooping up her robe and the metal case that held her regular clothes from the floor. She paused at the door, waiting for him to push away from the wall and, with a deep breath, join her in re-entering the cantina proper.

Mira was waiting for them, a tray and a serving droid crashed at suspiciously close to her feet as she fixed them with an angelically innocent expression that had Atton glowering at her, and Aelyn suppressing a fit of uncharacteristic giggles.

The twi'lek jumped up at the sight of them returning, a huge grin plastered to his blue and green mottled face. Atton resisted the urge to utilize some of his old skills on the slimy, smarmy, two-faced little… He stopped his train of thought, suddenly, when Aelyn fixed him with a severe look over her shoulder. He swallowed again- damn, he forgot how attuned she'd become to his emotions since opening him to the Force. He'd forgotten that she could feel what he felt, now, if he felt it strong enough…

"Yes, yes, Vogga will be immensely pleased!" The twi'lek proclaimed after circling the exile twice.

"I'm immensely pleased," Atton muttered to himself. Beside him, Mira choked while thankfully, Aelyn seemed to be sufficiently preoccupied with crossing her arms and trying to hide as much as possible without looking like she was trying to hide to notice his words. Atton caught her eye, mouthing, 'lesson number one.' She nodded, grudgingly, then moved her arms away from herself, confidence flowing into her limbs as a small, secretive smile of memory graced the corners of her mouth. Atton found himself mirroring the grin. Mira, beside him, shook her head.

The twi'lek led them out of the cantina and off the Promenade. Outside, a speeder was waiting, something their host must have called for while Aelyn had been changing. Briefly, Atton dared tried out some of his new Force senses, and spread them out around them to try and see if there was any treachery... If this was a trap, either for bounty hunters, Vogga, or Goto himself, he wanted to know before they stepped into it. For the moment, though, all he sensed was an uncomfortable but confident Jedi, an amused bounty hunter, a disgruntled smuggler –was that what he looked like to Force senses?- and a very, very happy twi'lek.

"Nice," Mira murmured when they approached the shiny, obviously very new transportation.

"Only the best for Vogga and his own," blue-face oiled, bowing low to let Aelyn get on ahead of him. She hadn't put her robe back on, so it was relatively easy for her to plant a single hand on the edge of the speeder and flip the rest of herself up into the seat behind the driver. It was then that Atton noticed with a frown –trying desperately to shove the brief glimpse of a well-toned bottom from his mind- that the speeder was only a three-seater. There was the driver, Aelyn…and Mr. Blue Twi'lek…

"Guess we're walking," Mira murmured, blatantly disappointed at not getting a crack at the vehicle. The twi'lek climbed up next to the driver. Atton planted his hound with a loud, reverberating bang on the side of the speeder, making it clear they didn't have his permission to take off yet. Lounging in a manner that was genuinely comfortable, Aelyn looked at Atton with a raised eyebrow. He handed her the case with her regular clothes.

"Be careful," he told her needlessly. She gave him a small smile, touching his hand briefly.

"Always," she told him. He wanted to say more, but the sudden flaring of the speeder's engines forced him to back up. Feeling awkward, he shoved his hands into his pockets after giving a brief, flighty wave with one hand. She returned it, and they sped away out of sight, her short burgundy hair whipping out behind her.

"Let's go," he groused to Mira, who fell into step beside him. They kept their pace fast, but not too obviously so. After a minute he realized something and was forced to ask Mira, rather grudgingly, "Do you know where Vogga's place is?"

A burst of laughter had his glower deepening exponentially. The smaller woman slapped him, hard, on the shoulder, still laughing as she altered their course slightly, taking the lead with mirth in her step.

"By the way," she said after a few steps. "I put the bill for the serving droid on your tab…"

End.

I realize this borders on…well, slutty, but my inner fangirl is too happy to care. Come on, I know all of you thought of something like this when that scene in the game came up. I'm surprised the development team didn't do anything more with it… Oh well. More for our imaginations!

Also, as I hope this new snippit reassures you all thatI'm not abandoning the snippit series in light of my first real KotorII fic, Orphic Verboten, though that will be occupying more of my time, so these snippits will be longer in coming than before. Just a heads up.

-Amber Penglass