The whole tradition of shopping was never something Kess understood. When she went to buy clothes in a new place, she'd spend thirty minutes perusing ads for the different stores to see who had the kind of stuff she liked to wear, and if she found one, never tried any place else until she moved again. It worked on Coruscant too. Now that she had to wear civilian clothes all the time, she spent the standard thirty minutes, found a place within walking distance, and only bought enough to survive a week without needing to do laundry. Most of her clothes now looked like new versions of Mos Eisley city-wear: brown or black pants, bone or tan colored tunics, and undershirts in the occasional army green or camo just for old time's sake.

When she explained this method to sophisticated and book nerd Yana and to the denim and sparkle wearing-eleven year-old tom boy Tayla, the two looked at Kess like she had a bug coming out of her nose. Kess tried to defend her methods on the account of budget, and not just for everyday wear, she also had to dress humbly for the Senate Ball. If the Jedi got too decked out for the press event, criticism of the non-profit spending would ensue. Yana spread her hands and began to speak her complaint out of habit, but when the words didn't come, pulled out the datalink to say. So rent a dress.

Kess blinked at the screen.

Yana snatched it back to type more and shoved it back into Kess's hands. You don't have to *buy* it.

"I didn't know you could do that," Kess said sheepishly.

Yana and Tayla exchanged an eye roll and immediately took command of the situation. They visited three different places. Kess was ready to pick an okay option at the first place and be done with it all. Yana and Tayla insisted they keep looking until they found something perfect, especially since Yana was looking for the perfect dress for herself as well, and Tayla was enjoying her sparkling imagination that she might get a chance to wear this stuff someday. The chore was further frustrated with repeated quizzes to Kess about if she 'liked this one' and 'why or why not' because Yana was also trying to figure out what the wedding style was going to be too.

Tayla was thrilled to assist with all this and became Yana's right-hand-woman to go pick out matching shoes or find the right size of something. Even the stuff that was simpler than everything else seemed too fancy in Kess's opinion, and she kept complaining that the girls were trying to overdo it.

Eventually, they got her in a dress that she looked uncomfortable wearing, but they shoved her in front of a mirror before she began to take it off again.

Kess stopped short. She looked at herself up and down in the reflection and cocked her head. "O-oh! Well..." she put her hand on the flat belly and looked at it sideways. "Well, okay then."

Tayla brought over shoes and put them down for Kess to step into. Yana reached up and began to untangle the fraying braids from her head until dark gold locks fell free. All the while, Kess looked at herself in the mirror, and herself in the dress in the mirror, and tried to 'get to know it'.

Once the long hair fell down her back in waist-long kinks and the pale shoes sparkled from under the floor-length skirt, Kess admitted defeat. "I am so getting laid that night."

Yana and Tayla shared a high-five behind Kess's back, and Yana sat down to take off her own shoes, motioning orders to Tayla. Yana had no problems with sparkles and frills like Kess did, so Tayla was particularly delighted to see this shimmering wad of rhinestone stars on somebody. Yana let her hair down and tossed the head-wrap aside. She stepped into the dress and motioned to Tayla to zip up the back. Now the shoes. Tayla got on her knees to put them on like she was dressing Cinderella. Once fitted in it, Yana stepped confidently to the mirror beside Kess and dropped her wrist to hang on Kess's shoulder like a bad-ass gang.

Kess's eyes widened. Even in this get-up, she looked simple compared to Yana, which was what she wanted, but now grew jealous of her friend's natural color and confident beauty. "Maybe you'll get laid that night too." She said it as a compliment.

Yana eyed herself up and down in the mirror and shook her head. Tayla brought over the datalink for her and stood as a group with the two women. They looked at themselves in the mirror together. Yana typed with her thumbs and shoved it in Kess's shoulder to make her read it. The woman was already walking away again when Kess's eyes danced across the words.

I don't have a date.

Kess spat a loud whine, "He still hasn't commed you!?"

"What do you mean you still haven't commed her?!" Luke spat in a loud whine.

Wedge rolled his eyes and buttoned up the sharp-starched shirt. "Disengage."

"Are we talking about the redhead?" Nik asked as he grimaced at a senatorial-looking garb. "The one with the brain damage."

"Yes." Luke hissed.

"No." Wedge insisted.

Luke whipped the jacket off and threw it on the bench. "I defended you too. I did everything I could to buy you more time, but it's been almost two months now. You'd be lucky if she still wants a comm."

"She already doesn't, Luke," Wedge turned away and started stripping this stiff piece of garbage.

Luke set his weight on one foot and opened his mouth-

Wedge stopped him with a hard palm and harder eyes. "And don't give me any of your You Can Sense That She Does crap, because I'm not buying it."

Luke snapped his mouth shut and turned to the next overstuffed suit he was supposed to try on.

As the other two stepped away from it, now Nik stepped up to the mirror and cocked his head at what he looked like. "Well, my wife kicked my ass out, so if you're not going to comm her-

"No." Wedge barked.

Luke lifted a brow over at Wedge. Wedge just flattened his mouth. Busted. And he turned his back to both men.

Nik sniggered silently and grinned over at Luke, "See? There's more than one way to hit a womp rat."

Luke saw Nik's intent clearly now, and it had nothing to do with comming Yana. He snorted out with fresh laughter.

Wedge stepped up again in a different jacket this time, "If you guys don't get off this topic, as the First Man in charge of your attire at this thing, I'm gonna dress you up in hot pink tights and bright green wigs."

Luke chortled even more at the sight of that. Nik turned his feet to face Wedge. "Oh yeah? That's sounds like a throw down, son."

Wedge shook his head.

Luke stepped back and sat down on the bench, grinning at all this. Even more so that Nik and Wedge were getting along like a house on fire. Nik tried to dare Wedge that he'd wear any wild bullshit Wedge would come up with if that's all it took to hammer the man about being gun shy. Wedge just threw it back at him without hesitation that he was also in charge of the groom's pre-nup party and "there will be photocaps you won't want sent to your wife."

Luke enjoyed this camaraderie immensely. He once grinned in the mirror and thought of Han and Lando with a bittersweet smile. Somehow, it felt those guys were here too, wanting to rub the farm boy's face in all this, scramble his hair, and tease him about sex. He sent out his Force thoughts to assure them their duties were well represented.

"Do we even know what colors we're supposed to be in?" Wedge finally bitched.

From the bench, Luke gestured wearily. "Don't look at me! You know who you need to comm for that data."

Wedge tried to flatten his mouth at Nik to share his impatience. Nik straightened his shoulders in the senatorial looking robes and offered it like he was done with this bullshit conversation. "You want me to comm Kess and ask her?"

Wedge nodded deeply. "Yes. Please."

Luke coughed disbelief at Wedge's back. Without turning from the mirror, Wedge raised a hand to his shoulder and flipped him off.

Nik pulled up his comlink from his real clothes. "Yo, Kay Kay, you guys almost done?"

Her voice filled the men's dressing room. "Yeah, I've had about enough of this for one day."

"You still have your crew with you?"

"Yeah."

Wedge glanced over his shoulder at the other man, his black brows now knitted with distrust.

Nik didn't bat an eye. "Let's all meet up at Tee Dee Q's so we can compare notes."

Wedge turned and glared.

Smugly, Nik stared him down.

Kess's voice came back. "That's an excellent idea. If you get there first, make sure you get a table for six."

"Ten four." Click.

Luke clopped his palms in laughing success. He pointed at Nik, "That was wizard."

Wedge's jaw rippled from clenching his teeth. His tone came out icy. "Guys, I may have a well-earned reputation of logging my share off-duty mission objectives, but I have never, ever, pushed my presence where it wasn't wanted."

Nik spread his hands at the man. "And you're not. This is wedding party fodder. Don't want to talk to her? Don't talk to her." He turned to the mirror to take one last look before taking this thing off and turn his back on them for the bench. "But if you don't talk to her, I will."

Wedge hitched to respond, but stopped himself. Luke grinned at him and Wedge realized that Nik was only saying those things to get a reaction. He wiped his face with both palms and groaned, "This is going to be a long kriffin' night."