Reunited and Loving It (part 1):

Still high on the thrill of battle, having personally dispatched fifty-seven Imperial TIEs on their one way trip to the frigid graveyard of space, and then the (not really) even more fun job of ferrying a cargo hold full of unconscious prisoners to the Kryze stronghold on the other side of the planet for processing, Ketsu landed the Shadow Caster as close as she could get to the big camp that was out in the desert, not too terribly far from Sundari but not in seeing distance either. The camp was surrounded by a large herd of diversely coloured ships, almost all of which were manufactured by MandalMotors, just like hers.

Unfortunately, her parking spot happened to be on the opposite side of the camp from Ezra's red and black Kom'rk and the Clan Wren Jai'galaar.

Also unfortunately, she'd already spotted at least two ships painted in the Clan Onyo colours of purple, gold, and brown, and that was without actively looking for them.

Which left her with the choice of walking right through the camp and possibly running into someone who would recognize her (and not in a good way) or walking all the way around it and still running the risk of the above.

Being a 'what the hell' kind of girl, she chose to go right through.

She disembarked her prized possession and wound her way through the haphazard parking lot until she came to the back entrance of the walled camp. Even from here, she could easily hear the hundreds of voices talking, singing, and shouting as people fought to be heard above the others. The guard at the gate leaned against the wall, looking as disgusted to be there as a person could get while wearing a helmet, which she found amusing in a 'haha, glad it's not me' way. I bet he's wishing he was partying with the others. Hopefully they rotate him off duty soon, because he looks like he couldn't give a flying frag who walks into the camp, she thought with a mental eye roll as he waved her past without even asking her name. Now that's just sloppy. He should be recording every person who enters, just in case something happens.

Oh well. Not my problem.

She walked past a small village's worth of tents and then stopped at the edge of the gathering area. As she scanned the crowd, looking for her petite and vibrantly coloured best friend, Ketsu cursed herself for not wearing her helmet, knowing that someone was bound to recognize her if they looked long enough; there weren't that many dark skinned and purple eyed Human Mandalorians running around out there. And all of those that were, were all descended from the Count of Clan Onyo who had the same colouring. The Count who just happened to be her father.

Ketsu still cringed when she thought of the day he'd disowned her for going AWOL from the Imperial Academy in the most dramatic way possible with Sabine. In punishment for bringing dishonour to the clan name, he'd beat her bloody and to the point where she could barely walk, and told her if he ever saw her again, he'd kill her. Ketsu believed him.

I really, really hope he isn't here.

Just as she was about to give up on finding Sabine in the main area, Ketsu's hopes of avoided her sire for the rest of her life were dashed to smithereens. Not only was her father here, he had just sat down at one of the outer edge tables and was facing her way.

With only half a second to think, Ketsu improvised on the spot.

Turning and running was out of the question because that would draw his eyes to the movement. That left her with doing something that most people will look away from out of courtesy.

Ketsu spun and grabbed the arm of the first male warrior she saw and turned them so he was between her and Count Kean Onyo. She barely took the time to notice her scapegoat had startled looking but striking and familiar grey eyes and chocolate coloured skin before she grabbed the back of his head and pulled it down to hers as she plastered her mouth to his.

While she was kissing the poor (or not?) guy breathless, she was also blindly pulling him with her as she backed up until a tent was once again blocking her from the view of her father's table. Feeling safe again, Ketsu moved to pull away from her unwitting accomplice, but he had other ideas.

The man wrapped his arms around her and tugged her closer, taking over the kiss and stealing her breath in return. Ketsu's heart and stomach fluttered as pleasure zinged through her and she hummed in pleased surprise. This is turning out quite well, all things considered. He's really good at this.

And familiar. Why does this feel familiar? Like coming home?

Who cares. Figure it out later. More kissing is good.

She wrapped her arms around the man's neck and pressed even closer to his hard frame, drawing out the suddenly mutual kiss even longer. She writhed not so subtly against him, feeling his impressive manhood harden against her stomach as their kiss turned downright hot, with tongues dueling madly and moans of passion sounding the air.

She was maybe two seconds away from jumping on him when someone passing by whistled loudly and called out, "Hey, Bullseye! Why don't you strip and give us a real show!?"

Without looking at him, Ketsu pulled away from her new lover - well, close enough anyway. She had every intention of dragging the body attached to his talented mouth to somewhere private for a little more than just mouth kissing - and turned to see a group of clan Vizsla warriors leering at her, mugs of ale in hand. Swaying her hips as much as possible, she slinked over to the cocky looking one who stood out as the leader of the pack of young males and walked her fingers up his grey and blue chestplate teasingly. "Oh, you want a show, do you?"

He grinned and nodded, eyes undressing her already. "We'd love one, Bullseye. Especially if you have more art on you in more interesting places."

She smirked back and patted his cheek softly. "Wouldn't you like to know, adiik…" The late teens looking male inhaled sharply at the insult "…but I don't perform for children who wouldn't know how to treat a woman right even if they had an instruction manual and took a twelve week course."

As his gang laughed uproariously at their leader's expense, Ketsu spun away and basically strutted back to the man who'd just made her blood sing like no other. At least not since she'd left the…

Holy shab!

Ketsu froze only a few paces from the grinning male in front of her, who had his arms crossed over a chest that had definitely widened and filled out since she'd last leaned against it. He was also a good deal taller and his face had thinned and hardened a bit, emphasizing the handsome bone structure even more. But it was unmistakably Jett Hark, her first boyfriend that she'd once believed to be her cyar'ika until she'd had to leave him behind when she fled with Sabine from the Academy they had more than kinda blown up.

Stars, he's even hotter now than when he was at sixteen.

"Jett?" she breathed, walking up to him as if mesmerized, the still laughing boys behind her long forgotten.

"The one and only," he smirked, moving his arms so that one could wrap around her waist and pull her back into his personal space, his hardon still like another weapon between them. "Who did you think you were kissing?" he asked curiously, free hand coming up to rub a thumb over her kiss-swollen lower lip.

"I don't know," she shook her head helplessly, overwhelmed at the knowledge that Jett was here. Right here, holding me just like he used to! I was so sure I'd never see him again. "Just some random warrior, I guess." She gave him a sweet smile and rubbed her hands over his firm chest, learning his more mature form and loving it. "The stars were shining their fortune down on me when I grabbed you instead."

Jett chuckled and leaned down, nuzzling his nose against hers. "There was no luck involved, babe. I was following you."

"You were?"

"Yep. Walked out of a tent and saw you just in front of me. Your beautiful long hair was gone, replaced by that very badass haircut and intriguing bullseye, but I recognized your body and confident walk instantly."

"You did?" Her heart skipped a beat or two at the admission.

"I did," he husked, then feathered a sweet kiss over her mouth before grinning at her, white and even teeth flashing, and his gorgeous, thickly lashed eyes shining like silver credit chips. "And man, was I ever not surprised to discover that the infamous bounty hunter with a bullseye on the back of her head who lives by the motto, 'always on target', was my shebs kicking missing girlfriend." And then his expression sobered as he rested his forehead against hers and whispered, "I'll always recognize you, my Kets'ika. I've waited a long time for you to come back. A very long time."

Guilt swamped her as he kissed her again, long and deep, because she hadn't waited for him, not by any stretch of the imagination. She'd thought him lost to her forever, so had consoled herself with meaningless one-nighters with way too many people over the last seven years or so.

She tore her mouth from his, unable to lose herself in the kiss like she wished she could. "I'm sorry!" she gasped. "If only I'd known you didn't hate me like everyone else, I would have come and found you long ago. I've been so…" Slutty, was the word that came to mind. But she couldn't make herself say it.

"It's okay," he whispered understandingly, cupping her cheek with his big hand. "My waiting was more of a wishing than anything, to be honest. I wasn't even sure you were alive. I tried to move on a few times too, but none of those relationships ever lasted because none of them were my soulmate."

"None of them were you, either," she whispered back, tears glistening in her amethyst eyes.

A sad little smile quirked up one side of his mouth slightly. "Well, we have each other now. And you have another think coming if you believe I'm ever letting you go again."

"I don't want you to," she breathed, wrapping her arms even tighter around his neck and clinging unashamedly as she buried her face in his broad shoulder.

"Good," he rumbled, hugging her tight and rubbing a hand up and down her back in a way that should have been soothing, but instead sent electric currents of pleasure through her body.

"Shab, I missed you, Jett'ika. Miss how everything just feels so right with you," she admitted softly.

Jett somehow managed to hug her even closer, lifting her up onto her toes a bit, cheek on top of her shaved head. "Me too, Bullseye. Me too."

She snorted once with laughter, positive that she'd never live down the new nickname and not even sure she wanted to. The way his deep voice caressed it, like the sweetest of love words, made her want to hear the previously annoying moniker indefinitely.

They held each other for at least a minute, the silence comfortable and comforting.

And then he put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back a few fractions so they could see each other's eyes again. The look in his narrowed ones made her think, uh oh.

"Sooooo, why WERE you kissing what you thought was a random guy?"

Mando'a translations:

Adiik – A child between 3 & 13.