Title: Idiot's Array
Fandom: Star Wars
Characters: Jaina Solo, Jagged Fel
Timeline: Sometime during the events of Rebel Dream and Rebel Stand
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Jaina Solo, Jagged Fel and the rest of the SW galaxy do not belong to me. They belong to Lucas, Del Rey, respected authors, etc.
Summary: Jagged Fel should really learn better than to bet against a Solo.
Author's Notes: Thank you, Sarah, for letting me take that one sentence story you wrote and turn it in to a whole fic. It was really fun to do. And means that this astral line-
Jag couldn't remember iwhy/i he'd wagered his virginity on this hand – it probably had something to do with the empty bottle of Whyren's on the table next to him – but the look on Jaina's face as she laid down an Idiot's Array suggested he wasn't going to forget it any time soon.
-doesn't belong to me. It's still possibly one of the funniest things I've read in a while.
"Your bet."
"What?" Jagged Fel blinked and stared at his girlfriend in confusion. The room seemed to be spinning now and that Whyren's bottle on the floor next to them seemed hells of a lot emptier than it was last time he had checked. He shook his head, trying to get the wavering table to disappear from view. Jaina was asking something. He should pay more attention.
"Your bet," she reiterated, rolling her eyes at him. "Remember? I just wagered doing your reports for the next week, Fel. Your turn to pick something."
He nodded slowly, remembering now. After that briefing with General Antil - no, Uncle Wedge – he and Jaina had snuck off to play a few rounds of sabacc before retiring for the night. What Jag hadn't counted on was the bottle of Whyren's Jaina had liberated from Calrissian's stock somehow – actually, that was probably something he would have been better off not knowing.
"Right. Wager." Jag paused and rubbed absently at his chin as he thought it over. What would match doing reports for a week, aside from obviously matching the favor? He smirked slightly and nodded. "Goddess worshiping for a week?"
All that response got him was a couple of sabacc chips in the chest. "You do that anyway. Come on, Jag. Think of something better."
Five different bets and seven rounds later, Jag couldn't remember why he'd wagered his virginity on this hand – it probably had something to do with the empty bottle of Whyren's on the table next to him – but the look on Jaina's face as she laid down an Idiot's Array suggested he wasn't going to forget it any time soon. She was gloating, and not just gloating, but beaming. That lopsided grin of hers seemed permanently fixed to her face and it was all Jag could do to bite back a loud groan.
He looked down at the cards displayed proudly in front of him – the Idiot card, two of sabers, and three of coins – and then back up to Jaina's brown eyes, sparkling like the last drops of Corellian brandy the had consumed earlier in the evening, and this time he did groan. He was space debris. Worse than space debris, come to think of it. Maybe it was something closer akin to the vapor trail left behind by a comet hurling through space. Whatever it was, Jag knew now that he was in deep trouble.
He knew it especially when Jaina moved from her sitting position on the floor of the little-used conference room that had become their personal hideout from the chaos of Borleias. Now she was kneeling, on all fours, and slowly move closer and closer to him.
And then, Jagged Fel actually gulped.
It's not that he didn't want to give up his virginity to Jaina Solo. To be honest, Jagged Fel had imagined a dozen scenarios in the past two weeks – ever since he found the courage to finally kiss her – involving such a situation. The two of them passionately making love underneath the waterfall of some tropical planet, following some romantic candle-lit dinner, or even underneath the stars somewhere remote and safe from the threat of war.
Chiss or not, he still was a full-blooded Corellian man. And Jaina wasn't exactly what one would consider homely. But he had never, ever imagined their first time to be anything like this. It was supposed to be romantic, meaningful. A declaration of, while maybe not their undying love, something – something important. Like in all those old holofilms he had grown up on.
The last thing that had ever crossed his mind when Jag had imagined finally sleeping with his goddess definitely iwasn't/i some two-bit loss on a drunken sabacc game in a conference room. Even if Jaina was looking at him like that, in that certain way that always sent shivers down his spine.
"A bet's a bet," she whispered softly, breaking the silence that had filled the room ever since Jaina had placed the Idiot's Array down for all to see. For a moment, Jagged could have sworn that the lust in her eyes had vaportated, replaced instead by a hesitance and uncertainty possibly equal to his own. It was then he realized that his virginity wasn't the only one he had put down on the betting table with that vaping drunken wager. "And you lost that one."
Jag took a deep breath and reached a hand out to brush Jaina's shoulder, now easily within his grasp. He steadied the small woman, stopping her trek towards him. His green eyes met her brown ones, and he refused to let himself smile. Not with the seriousness of this situation. All of the sudden, Jag was sobering up, making the bet so much harder to comprehend.
"Are you sure?"
His question clearly took Jaina by surprise; he could tell by the long stare and slight cock of her head. She blinked again and Jag's breath hitched: she wasn't sure after all. Careful not to ruin any of the sabacc cards, Jag moved closer to her and forced Jaina in to a sitting position, then wrapping his arm tightly around her.
"It's okay if you don't want to do this, Jaina," he said softly, stroking her arm as he talked. "I'd understand."
Jaina shook her head and reached out with her free hand to his cheek, pushing his head downward to better look at her. The couple sat there for a long moment, studying each other carefully. As much as he knew Jaina liked to hold true to wagers made in a game, and as much as he wanted her even if it wasn't his ideal scenario, there was no way in the Corellian nine hells Jagged Fel would go through with this unless he knew, beyond a doubt, that this desire was one shared. And with the quiet, considering way Jaina was looking at him right now, that pit in his stomach moments ago filled with desire was quickly replaced by a slight disappointment.
"Jag," she finally choked out, once again breaking the long silence that had fallen between them. She blinked – were those tears in her eyes? – and then nodded, smiling crookedly at him.
"Jagged, I think I want this. Yeah," Jaina adds after a pause, chuckling softly, "I'm sure."
This time, Jag couldn't help but smile broadly. It still was not the way he had imagined this would happen, but it still would happen. Soon. Tonight. His kriffing reckless wager to give up his virginity to Jaina in a sabacc game would be working both ways any moment now. He wanted to laugh. No, he wanted to go tell the whole kriffing galaxy that he – Lieutenant Colonel Jagged Fel of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force – was soon not just to be Jaina Solo's boyfriend, but her lover too.
He opened his mouth to respond, to laugh in joy, but before he could utter a single sound, Jaina pulled his face closer to hers and clamped her lips down on top of his. It took him a second to realize what had happened, that that tongue protruding between his lips wasn't his. But quickly enough, Jag moved his hand from her shoulder to her neck and snaked it upward in to her hair, clinging to the silky strands for life. He wasn't a man to believe in heaven, but the taste of her, the way their tongues battled for dominance, the way she fit perfectly in his arms definitely felt like heaven to him.
Finally, the need for oxygen became too great and Jagged pulled away from her, resting his forehead on top of hers and smiling down at her. She was beautiful like that: all flushed and breathless from their kiss. He couldn't wait to see what she looked like after – the thought got him to grin wider – after they made love.
Her hand reached out to touch his lips and his smile just grew. He couldn't help it, just couldn't help it. Even if grim was a normal state of being for Jag Fel, right now, with Jaina half-way in his lap, with everything going on, any conceptions of being grim had flown right out the small window in the back of the conference room. And he couldn't care one bit.
Jaina's giggle got Jagged's attention and he looked down at her, green eyes quizzical. "What?"
She shook her head and traced the smile on his lips once more, a teasing smile of her own clearly coming in to view. "Don't know what you're smiling at, lover boy," she said, testing out the new nickname cautiously. "We have yet to try out this whole kriffing thing."
Now it was his turn to laugh and shake his head at Jaina's bluntness. He stood quickly, picking Jaina up along with him, and then enveloping her small frame in his arms. It was perfect. Drunken sabacc game or not, he knew that from this point on, tonight would be perfect.
Maybe, Jag realized slowly, that betting his virginity wasn't such a bad idea after all. Maybe he actually knew what he was thinking despite all the glasses of Whyren's consumed. Because in this war, a part of him knew that any moment with Jaina could be his last. Maybe her spontaneity and her love for life were finally rubbing off on him. And, if this – if having her all to himself – was the result, Jagged Fel couldn't care less.
"Don't worry, Goddess," he replied. "I have every intention to make this a night you will never forget."