Kess sat back down and sighed a smile of disbelief. Luke's light was like a wailing siren on the Force. Even with all these people, all these bright emotions and noisy thoughts, Kess sensed him approaching the pub on foot. He wasn't in a bad mood, but he wasn't entirely in a good one either. He was ... business. After their run-in today, Kess felt a little insulted that he would be coming here on the momentum of 'business'.

As much as she sensed him, he sensed her. His eyes found her through the bodies as soon as he came through the door. Yet Luke didn't bother to mask who he was and nearly everyone around recognized him. He smiled and shook hands with old war buddies, he shared a joke with a stranger who called his attention. Polite and friendly, his feet made his way through the crowds to get back to where Kess sat at the central bar.

There were no available stools. In fact, Kess only managed this one with a Force Pursuade she'd never admit. And the crowds were so tight that Luke only had enough room to lean one elbow on the bar beside her, close enough that his chest bumped her left shoulder. He was offered his free drink and gave his fake hand to receive the stamp. Then he waited, and she waited, until the droid moved away, and the crowd around them finished commenting on their presence and moved onto other topics.

"I've been trying to reach you on the comm," Luke murmured, his eyes gazing over everyone else in the crowd but her.

"I was about to come home anyway," she admitted.

He rubbed his lips and nodded, eyes scraping over the crowd, and finally turned to her with a lower murmur. "We're actually on mission right now. Leia received a report of saboteurs here tonight."

Kess's mood shifted to instant business. She hid her words behind her shot glass. "What do we know?" She sensed out, as he was, but found only the busy room and busy minds.

"Not much," he admitted, and finally met her eyes. "We're just going to have to sit here and observe."

She nodded again with full understanding. Their clearing of the air was going to have to wait until later, but that was okay. "Is that why Yana is here with Ren?"

"Yep." He brought the drink to his lips.

"And why Wedge and the pilots are here with Nik?"

Luke's eyes shifted over. "No." He looked around. "Where are they?"

"That side. And Ren and Yana are on that side." She told him. "If we're worried about a terrorist attack or bomb threat, why aren't we just clearing the building?"

"Because Leia wants them caught, not just thwart them."

"If it's a remote detonator, we're not going to sense them anyway."

"Yeah, but they're not going to risk blowing up their own people. The only thing we know for certain is that it's a couple of Imperials. Now that I see the place I know why they picked it. I know it's going to be here. They can get a whole troop of us while they all stand around and gloat from the other side of the room."

Kess angled her head to give him a look, but she kept her voice especially quiet under the pumping music. "Well since everyone and his slave droid recognized you when you strutted in here like a Living Legend, you may have already thwarted whatever they had in mind. I guess the best thing we can do is sit here and pretend we're just out drinking together until we sense someone is about to make a move."

"Come to think of it, you and I have never had a drink together. So, another first for us," he said as he motioned to the bartender to come back. He adjusted his elbow against the bar beside her and looked her in the eye. "It's nice to know we have a few of those left."

Lightly humored, she could only smile at it. "I'd like to think we have a lot of those left."

The bartender droid set down two more shots of retago on the bar. Luke picked up both and handed one to her. Kess had never seen him do something like this before, and never suspected he would do so willingly, of his own idea, and with a light-hearted mood to boot. She was charmed anew, and took the shot glass, raising it a few inches. "To the fallen."

He started to smile, eyes grazing over the crowd once more as to keep on the mission and not get distracted by this moment, but he smiled warmly at her, like she was the only one in the room worth looking at, and lifted his shot too. "To the fallen."

She sucked down the shot even though she didn't want it, and watched his face scrunch when he drank his. She laughed as he coughed. And he laughed a little too as he set down the empty glass. In love all over again, she giggled. "One of these days, we should take a real night away and get truly plastered."

Luke sniffed, grinning, and murmured comically back, "Let's put that on the calendar when we get back to the office."

Kess tossed her head back and laughed loud.

Frequently, their eyes grazed the crowd, and their senses were wide open for danger. The press release of their engagement was old news now. Quite a few people spiked with recognition at them but those moments passed quickly. The Alliance in the room only took a moment to pause and grin at the two of them out in public as a pair. The Imperials in the room rolled their eyes, grumbled, and stepped away to hang out away from the Jedi reach. And the non-veteran general public, which there were far more of that than the other two, looked on Luke and Kess as if they were the same cheesy museum decor as the dusty old uniforms and shells of fighters hanging from the ceiling.

Soon, the woman in the barstool beside them looked over her shoulder to see who it was that kept bumping into the back of her. Luke glanced over his shoulder and gave the woman a smiling 'sorry', but she looked at him with mild alarm.

Then stretched her neck to see the other Jedi to which he was crowding close to talk to.

Without a word, she climbed off the stool and motioned him to have it. Luke tried to politely decline, "You don't need to do that." But she insisted with another gesture and disappeared in the crowd.

Luke shrugged and took the stool before someone else did.

Kess recognized Luke wasn't trying to flirt with the woman, but the symbolism of one quick contact causing the lady to scurry away... Kess snuck in a quiet joke, "Picking up women at bars isn't quite your forte, is it?"

He smiled bashfully, looked around, and murmured back, "Obi Wan didn't get the chance to cover that particular Force trick."

"And yet, people without use of the Force at all seem to do it better than you."

Blue eyes shifted over, full of truth. "I got what I wanted. It's not a trick I need."

Kess flushed a little. How was it they were in a fight a few hours ago and now they were back to flirting like the last six months of stress never happened. She didn't understand it. She liked it, but she didn't understand it. Clearly, they still needed to talk, but she knew this was not the time or place to clear that air. Patience. She had faith they'd work this one out.

Again, another mutual moment of pause to note the people in their surroundings, to sense out for the emotions happening in the side rooms they couldn't see: lots of strangers meeting and chatting and becoming acquaintances, a few first dates enjoying the music and flirting over gambling, several old pals finding each other for the first time since the Battle of Coruscant, and the occasional eruption of a boldly exaggerated old war tale...

The bartender droid came up and offered two more free drinks of their choice, pointing at the vid screen built into his chest where the South Base Warehouse New Management - the old codger who used to run the Mash Pit back on Yavin 4 - simply gave them a thumbs up and hit his remote button to flash the command text, ON THE HOUSE.

Luke and Kess smiled, waved at the little screen, and ordered low alcohol ales.

Yavin 4. The good old days. Both individually reminisced for a moment, sipping the new full mugs, and thought about that Rogue Group party where they were prompted to light up and duel out that One-Two-Three-Block on the dance floor just so the gang could see them in action. They hadn't sparred since they left that little moon. They hadn't gone running since they left that little moon. With the overwhelming population here pumping emotions in through every window and wall, they hadn't really had a moment to be truly alone since they left that little moon.

"I have a confession to make," he said quietly, adjusting himself on the stool so he could face her as he talked. His eyes remained on his beer mug for most of it, watching his finger play with the froth dribbling down the glass. He seemed to struggle with it, hesitant to admit it, but he said it anyway. And he met her eyes when he did. "I knew."

Taking it as it came, Kess leaned an elbow on the bar and rested the side of her head in her palm. "Knew what?"

"What happened that night before the launch," he admitted. "It was an accident. I was wondering why you were late and sensed out to see if you were on your way. And I cheated because I should have just commed you, but I guess I'd gotten lazy with it."

Kess rubbed her lips and retracted them.

"And then I messed up even more, because when I sensed your emotions in that moment, I got jealous, and angry, and I should have asked you about it when came over that night, but I didn't." He cleared his throat.

Kess struggled between guilt, anger, and fear. "What did you do instead?"

Luke stared at his mug for a moment before meeting her eyes, and admitted it with a self-depreciating grin. "I looked at the security feed."

She nodded slowly... and her mind quickly put it together. The man had top secret access to anything he needed, sure, but he still needed a data admin who knew how to find what he was looking for. Kess already knew the answer, "And who helped you find the right security feed?"

Luke angled his head with a tight grin. "Guess."

Kess dropped her eyes in her palm and whispered a cuss word.

She tried to imagine the moment: Luke asking Yana's help to see the feed, and the two of them staring in shock at what they saw. Of course, Yana couldn't say anything to anyone. That was her job. And she was very practiced at it. But now Yana's hesitance and continued distrust of Wedge made a lot more sense. Especially when Kess - who did have the right to talk about it - never brought up the incident with her best friend and First Lady to be able to clear the air.

Finally, Kess gestured her fingers away from her face. "Does Wedge know any of this?"

"He knows I know." Luke told her. "I threatened to kill him on the Mon Icarus. I know I shouldn't have said that, but it needed an answer." His eyes grazed the crowd again, not forgetting their primary purpose here, and came back to her. "He doesn't know that Yana and I heard what he said."

Kess's eyes flicked away and came back. "When? What did he say?"

Luke smiled at this. "You don't remember?"

She met his gaze with truth. "Honestly, I don't think about it much."

Luke smiled more and shifted, "He said, as he walked away from you, he said, 'You take good care of him.' And you said, 'I will.' "

Kess thought back and tried to remember that part. She nodded. It sounded right.

"So I knew it was a 'goodbye' all along. Disturbing. Worrisome. Since I didn't know what led up to that, but I knew it wasn't going to become a continuing matter. I didn't bring it up to you because I tried to meditate it away. The only part that I couldn't meditate away is why you didn't tell me about it, especially with you spiking with guilt every time he came up in conversation. So I knew you didn't forget and I just didn't understand why you wouldn't come clean."

"Because I didn't want to worry you," she noted flatly.

He nodded. He sighed. And he looked her in the eye as he nodded some more. "Just don't do that anymore. Please?"

Kess burst with laughter, "Of course not!"

Luke grinned with relief at her instinctive answer. He sipped his ale.

She squinted one eye over, "Did you really think I was keeping something 'in reserve'?"

"No," he angled his head to look her in the eye and hooked one hand to hang on the back of his other wrist. "That part came from me."

She scrunched her face. "How do you mean?"

"We were about to launch. And it was going to be the biggest battle in the war. I didn't bring it up to you that night because we didn't have time. I didn't want to spoil our last night together. But after I learned for certain who it was, and what you guys said... I guess a part of me made a decision not to say anything." He dug his tongue into his molar for a moment, and forced himself to admit it. "Because if something happened to me... Wedge is the only one I would approve of to replace me."

Grinning softly, and eyeing him strangely, Kess studied him for a long moment, complimented by his sentiment. But she doused the seriousness of this with a joking dare. "Not Lando?"

Luke burst into a snicker and laughed even more than that, shaking his head. "Nope! Not Lando!"

Kess tossed her head back with full laughter, soon falling against his shoulder to half-cuddle as she did. She and Lando didn't have compatible personalities to get romantic anyway, but Luke's frantic protection of her from falling for the smooth-talking smuggler was an innocent button of hilarity. Luke set one arm around her back, smiling at the joke, but used his other hand to raise his beer to the sky. "Sorry, man!" He sipped and set his beer down, now holding her hand between their bodies, and added off-handedly. "But I suppose if both me and Wedge went down in that thing, Lando would have been my third choice."

"Funny. You think more about who I would date after you than I do."

He glanced over. "Why? Who would you pick?" His question was an honest one.

She looked him in the eye and shook her head. "I honestly haven't given any thought."

"Well, good. Let's keep it that way."

She tittered anew. "You're the one that's doing all the thinking!"

Luke rolled away a bashful grin.

"One, love," she sniggered hard.

And Luke threw his head back for a real and strong laughter too...