Author's Note: Hello! Thank you for your patience with this chapter. Your kind reviews turn me into a warm puddle of goo. ;_;
xxx
After shooing away the three bickering droids from the galley with a bit of vigorous prompting, the two remaining occupants continued forward with their drinking indulgence for the evening.
Todo was less than thrilled about having to spend more time with the other two droids so soon again, and he made quite a fuss about the matter before he was inevitably shooed out by his master.
Once Scarlett finished properly cleaning the two drinking glasses off from their previous dirtied condition, she moved back across the room to place them atop the small table before sitting herself down in the empty booth across from it. The worn leather of the seating groaned in protest against the movement, but it sliced the quietness that was now settling in the somewhat small space.
Without the obnoxious droids arguing about every other thing in the room, things had considerably calmed down again. The room was much more quieter now compared to before, with most of the sound stemming from the usual background noise of the ship's interior lulling it into a gentle hum.
Bane was on the other side of the galley, fishing around in some random scrap armor compartment where he stashed away his best and most favorite drink of choice. It wasn't that he ever expected anyone to go looking for it since he was usually flying around as a lone party of one along with his droid, but he erred himself on the side of caution. He kept the high shelf stuff hidden away in a location most people wouldn't really search, as the alcohol was reserved usually only for himself when occasions called for it.
Either that or guests he mostly got along with. Which was also an incredibly rare case for him.
He looked between the two bottles in each hand; one being of his most favorite types of whiskey and the other being labeled as 'Syrspirit'. Red eyes looked back and forth, before he eventually shrugged and decided both would do well enough for the festivities tonight. If there was ever a time to get completely hammered, then hearing the unfortunate news about his ship's sabotaged condition was certainly the best case for it. His injured pride could be healed with a few too many drinks.
He briefly thought about the recent arrival of his red haired drinking partner.
Okay, maybe that too.
The Duros moved to stand back up after balancing on the heels of his feet, cursing loudly under his breath when his bones creaked and cracked in protest from the prolonged strained position they were put under. His age for his species was starting to show in more ways than one, but he hardly let that get under his skin too much. If anything, his infamous reputation for being at the top of his game was far more telling that his older years were hardly much of a hindrance.
Shutting the case with his metal-lined boot, he walked back over to the table and set the two bottles down with a thud ringing across the stained surface. Reaching up, he threw his hat down to join the mess of the tabletop before pouring the two glasses to the brim with the whiskey. The amber colored liquid was poured expertly, not a single drop being wasted.
Scarlett cleared her throat, carefully reaching forward to grab the filled glass before holding it up. "A toast then", she began with a coy-looking grin, watching the bounty hunter quickly follow suit and raise his own glass up with slight skepticism. "That I'll most definitely be winning this little game of ours."
Bane tapped a finger against the glass, exhaling some noise of disbelief from his mouth. They hadn't even set the rules of this supposed game of theirs yet and she was already declaring herself a winner. "Bold move. Doubt it though", he said back confidentially, clinking his glass together with hers before she even had a chance for a rebuttal. He downed the contents of his drink back without so much of a flinch at its strong taste.
He was already pouring himself a second before his competition had even finished their first.
Scarlett let out an overconfident chuckle of her own before mirroring his actions and doing the same to her own filled cup. But unlike the stronger willed Duros, she struggled to hold back the immediate repulsion from showing on her face the second the whiskey hit her sense of taste with a burning sensation in the back of her throat. It wasn't that she was anything of a lightweight, but strong tasting alcohol hadn't been on her agenda for quite some time now. Overly expensive wine and lonely nights by herself within her apartment had more of an adverse effect on her than she originally thought.
Bane smugly sat back down in the booth with a chuckle, his second drink in hand while he moved to comfortably rest his boots atop the table. He could instantly feel the glare being set upon him for his lack of manners, but he didn't budge even the slightest bit out of his own stubborn jest. While he wouldn't say it out loud, he mostly did it just because he knew it would piss off the person across from him. He was greatly amused to see the woman sitting there desperately trying not to cough up a spell while also not making a remark about his filthy footwear. being placed where it shouldn't be.
"Still the same drink ya' had before many times before during our many times together", he explained with a bemused grin, reaching out to grab the bottle and reading over the labeling again. "Guess ya' really have been away for too long."
With a poorly masked cough, she placed the cup down on the table with an empty clinking noise.
Bane looked over, slightly raising his right scarred eyebrow with an unimpressed stare. He moved his feet back down, grabbing the bottle and topping off her now empty glass. "Well then. Care to share what sorta' rules ya' had in mind for this game."
Scarlett blinked away the tears threatening to gather at the corner of her eyes from suppressing the need to cough. "I'll need a few more drinks to decide, then I'll let you know", she said. Although she had a pretty good idea of where this was all going to lead, there was still a pressing question she wanted to ask before her memory started to become too fuzzy.
She moved the conversation to something else of importance. "Before we get to heavy with the drinking thing, what about the ship part that needs to be replaced? Do you have any idea how you're going to get your hands on the manifold thing?"
Bane's eyes immediately narrowed at the mention of his still lingering problem. He let his head fall back atop the back of the booth's seating with an annoyed growl reverberating from deep within his chest. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk about it at this moment, but rather it was because he wasn't even sure himself how exactly he wanted to press forward with solving it.
He idly scratched the bottom of his chin with his finger, lightly swirling his drink around in his other hand. "Still thinkin' bout' that myself. I can contact local junk traders to see what they have in stock, but I ain't pressin' to dealin' with folks that are gonna' waste my time."
Scarlett hummed aloud, idly drumming her fingers across the table in deep thought. She knew the Duros well enough by now to know he was usually impatient and greatly valued the majority of his time, so his rather blunt answer hardly came as surprising.
Although she herself was somewhat versed within the hover car sort of business with all of its related machinery and parts, starships were a different problem algorithm since they were primarily used to travel between different planets and hyperspace. The internal machinery of the two craft were quite diverse between one another, as one was strictly limited to where it could travel and the other had nearly limitless capabilities within space. If this had been a simpler hover car part to replace, she easily could have gotten something from her father's business.
But things were never that simple.
She thought back to previous locations visited in her lifetime, her mind branching to one in particular that was sticking out among the pages of memories. There was a very particular hangar she remembered spending some time within. And it was in that hangar of a certain pirate base that had a whole assortment of different ship parts just laying around. Whether or not they were acquired legitimately could be argued about later, but she doubted that sense of good standing morality would even be taken into consideration if someone like Bane was looking to purchase them.
"You know who probably has that particular spare part you need?" Scarlett suddenly asked, knowing how much the answer was immediately going to piss him off. She watched as all notions of taking the second drink more slowly were completely thrown out the window as he quickly downed the amber drink colored without so much as a visual showcase of emotion.
"Don't say it", Bane sneered behind grisly sharp teeth, his head snapping back up. Since he already knew the answer he was about to hear, he moved to quickly start refilling his third glass.
"Hondo Ohnaka probably would", she replied with a bemused grin of her own, shrugging off the absolute lack of enthusiasm coming from the person across from her. She put her head into her palms while her elbows remained atop the table, reveling in the absolute scorn the man was displaying at the mention of that particular name.
"Would rather waste my time with slimy con artists than deal with the likes of that pirate again…", the bounty hunter replied from the rim of his cup, distantly looking away at the wall behind the woman.
"Oh, come on now. I didn't think he was too bad", she continued, further poking the renda bear in a literal sense. "He was quite the host while we stayed there for that little mission of yours."
"Cause ya' only met him once", Bane said with a frown. "And just once was more than enough."
"That may be, but you also don't get along with most other people", Scarlett said, moving to stand up from her spot and walking around the table to join her other companion on the other side in an effort to make her new point. "But the encounter did bring us just a little bit closer together, right? That has to count for something at least."
Bane was immediately made aware of how close the woman was now to him as the sudden rise of temperate was like a burner. The seating was meant for only one person on each side, which meant Scarlett was practically up against and in his lap already. Though he wasn't too keen on arguing about that keen observation. He grumbled something under his breath, shaking his head and deciding to move away from their current line of dialogue.
As much as he didn't want to admit it, Scarlett did make a fair point about where to potentially acquire the needed ship part, and his clever brain was already ruminating about how that next step was going to progress with the least amount of hiccups possible. Meeting with the scallywag of a pirate wasn't within his favorite deck of playing cards, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
"You gonna' share what the rules are now?", he commented, looking down towards the second drink she was currently still nursing. If they were supposed to be matching each other in alcohol consumption, then she certainly wasn't making any sort of attempt to keep up with him.
She hummed aloud, slumping herself up against the inlet under his arm slung over behind the seating. A satisfied-sounding hum left her mouth upon nearly being entrenched within his familiar sense of his aroma again. "Bold, aren't you?" she replied with an air of mischief, mirroring what he previously said to her in the same sort of tone.
Bane scoffed in disbelief upon hearing the answer, rolling his eyes and shaking his currently hatless head. Instead he focused his attention on waiting for the right timing to make his next move. Although the woman had proven herself on more than one occasion to be quite clever with her supposed little advances towards him, he could always prove himself to be one step ahead. He waited patiently, putting on a feint of appearing bored while waiting for her to move the cup back to her mouth again to take a drink.
Just as she went to take a sip of the whiskey, Bane slyly moved his right hand down under the table before giving a short squeeze on her upper thigh. The action immediately caused her to let out a surprised yelp from the ticklish area being squeezed, and she tumbled into a coughing fit on the wasted alcohol.
Between a few coughs, she craned her neck around to glare at the person responsible for her apparent mishap. "That was a dirty move…"
He raised an eyebrow, acting as though it was hardly anything too out of the ordinary for his character. He waited until she turned around again before letting the smile crack through his emotionless mask.
Scarlett looked to the table, her eyes scanning the muddled surface for any sort of cloth to wipe her mouth and chin with. Had he been wearing his usual long coat, she would have resorted to using the coattails as a temporary napkin instead. But he was without it in his current armored getup.
With a bothered sounding sigh, she grabbed the collar of her shirt to wipe away the spare droplets of amber staining her chin. There were a few odd grumbles, most of which were about how bounty hunters were proven to be quite the scoundrels when they wanted to be. Ignoring the pair of eyes feeling like they were carefully observing every little bit of movement she made, she finished cleaning up the mess and pulled her shirt back down before smoothing it back out to the best of her ability.
"Ya' missed a spot", he remarked quickly.
Her brows immediately drew inward together with visible confusion on her face. "What? No, I didn't-"
Before she could even finish her comment, his mouth greedily was upon hers. The much stronger smell of whiskey enveloped her smell, the musky combination with cigarette smoke making it a nearly hypnotic combination. She was completely caught off-guard by the gesture, but it immediately silenced her and left her wanting so much more. Giving in, she pressed her own mouth back against his as the familiar areas of his scarred lips moved in tandem to her synchronized movements. Her eyes closed, momentarily losing herself to the tender moment from someone she once thought was impossible of showing such fleeting gentleness.
He wasn't too opposed when she just barely broke away from the kiss before shifting herself around to straddle the front of his lap from the previous side-by-side position. The bounty hunter moved his hands up towards the sides of her head, his palm flattening against the rapidly fluttering pulse beneath it His calloused thumb brushed up and down the skin there, reveling in the fact he was the one responsible for its fluttering excitement.
Before such heated things were allowed to progress too quickly for his own tastes, he pulled back from the embrace. He used his thumb, wiping away the stray droplet clinging to the side of her cheek. "See? Right here."
She slightly sat back and crossed her arms across her chest, shifting herself atop him only just slightly with a less than amused look on her face.
Neither were planning on much sleep happening that night.