Vicrul

Ap'lek's eyes unfocused, staring at nothing for a moment before he blinked, and went back to his data pad.

"Kylo?" I guessed.

He hummed in affirmation.

"He found Rey?" I guessed again.

Ap'lek took a breath. "Yes, he did."

Down, past my sore feelings and wounded pride, I sighed in relief. "And, they're on the way back?"

"Should be back within the hour." He confirmed.

"Well," I said, hauling myself off of our couch. "I'll be on my way."

My brother gave me an annoyed glare. "Really, Vic?"

"What?"

"You can't avoid seeing her again." Ap'lek said. "You live here, and so does she."

"Technically." Cardo said from where he lounged on the couch. "I live here, and all of you are just a bunch of squatting freeloaders."

"I'm not avoiding her." I insisted, ignoring him. "When she and Kylo get here, they're going to have a much needed, and probably very heated conversation, and I don't want to be here when they hash this out."

Cardo looked up. "You think they'll fight?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Uh, yeah."

"I agree." Ap'lek said, eyes back on his data pad. "Things between them have been festering long enough. They either need to fight it out or fuck it out, and with all things considered, I don't think it'll be the latter."

I gave a nod of agreement, patting my pockets to make sure I had my wallet and keys.

"Shouldn't we be here, then?" Cardo asked. "Just in case it gets violent."

Ap'lek and I both stopped, and slowly turned to look at him.

"Violent?" Ap'lek echoed.

"Ky would never-" I started, but Cardo cut me off.

"I'm not talking about Ky!" He hissed. "You know pregnant women get all crazy and kill people because their, uh, hormones or whatever, like, control their minds."

We stared at him, blinking.

"Did you…." I said, after a long, silent moment. "Really just say that?"

"It happens!" Cardo insisted.

"No it literally does not." I walked past him, and opened the front door.

"Someone should at least be here." He countered. "That's all I'm saying."

I looked back at him. "Well then, Cardo, you stay so that when they get here, you can tell Rey that she's crazy and hormonal."

His eyebrows shot up as Ap'lek let out a low laugh and I smiled, winking at him as I walked out.

I ended up at a sports bar on the Southside, nursing a warm beer as I stared at the massive flat screen above the bar. As the hours, and the game, dragged on, the patrons grew more inebriated, and subsequently, more belligerent. I paid my tab, and was walking out when I heard a glass break, then the angry shouts of drunk men.

'Keep walking.' The tiny voice of my battered conscience warned me. So, of course, I did the complete opposite and turned back around to see what was going on. I saw a man about my size, the left side of his shirt wet, his hair dripping. He was screaming at the waitress, who'd apparently been unable to steady her tray, and spilled beer on him. His friends were trying to calm him down, and seemed to have gotten him under control when I saw him grab the waitresses arm, and pull her to him when she tried to get away. She was so much smaller that I couldn't see her wholly, only knowing she was a waitress by the uniform she was wearing.

"Hey!" I yelled, over the noise, moving through the crowd to him. He looked over his shoulder at me, and his friends on either side paled, their eyes growing wide as they shrank away. "Let your friends take you home." I said, enough authority in my voice to let him know it wasn't a request.

"Fuck off." He spat, then grunted in pain. The waitress, while his attention was on me, had hit or kicked him in an attempt to get away. Probably a nut shot, if I had to guess, but I wasn't sure, which of course only pissed him off further. He shook her, and I grabbed him. I'd wrapped my arm around his throat in a headlock to pull him away, when a pair of wide, russet eyes locked with mine, and I swear every bit of air went out of the room.

I threw the man aside, I didn't give a shit where he landed, and went to her, not quite believing that she was in front of me. "Kid?"

Her nostrils flared in irritation. "Are you stalking me now?" She demanded.

"Stalking?" I repeated, my eyebrows shooting up. "I saw a drunk meat-head grab a waitress, and I came to stop him! I didn't know it was you!"

Someone grabbed my shirt and spun me around, just as a punch landed on my jaw. The drunk meat-head in question.

I heard Beau scream my name, and when I charged toward him, fist raised, I saw his friends dragging him away from me.

One was between us, his arms outstretched, showing me his palms. "Please." He begged. "He's drunk, he doesn't know what he's doing. Please."

I sighed, relaxing my stance, and gave him a quick nod toward the door, watching as they wrestled him out of it. When I turned back to Beau, a short man in a stained white apron was talking to her.

"Just give me another chance." She pleaded.

"That was your last chance, Red." He reminded her, and her shoulders slumped, her head lowering. But, she nodded, untying the apron that she'd had secured around her hips. She handed it to him and he turned, disappearing back into the kitchen.

She moved past me, through the crowd and out the door, and I followed. "Wait!" She didn't, wrapping her arms around her waist as she continued down the street.

I noticed that she wore a tight white tshirt with the name of the bar printed on the back, and the shortest pair of black shorts I'd ever seen, the fabric barely covering the curve of her ass. "Wait!" I called again, jogging to catch up with her.

"Stop following me!" She yelled, stopping and turning on me so quickly, I skidded to a stop to keep from plowing into her.

I held my hands up in surrender. "Look, Kid, I swear, I had no idea you work there!"

Her face darkened, turning red with fury. "Stop calling me Kid!" She shrieked, stomping her foot, the messy bun on the top of her head jerking with the movement. "I am twenty-two years old, I am not a kid!"

Twenty-two still put a decade between us, but I showed her my palms. "Alright, fine, I'm sorry."

She blew out a breath, her temperature cooling. "And, I worked there. Past tense. As in used to. Did you not see Enrique fire me?"

"No, I saw it." I admitted, awkwardly shoving my hands into my pockets. "It wasn't because of me, was it?"

"No, it wasn't you!" She snapped. "He fired me because I'm a terrible fucking waitress. That's the third person I've spilled beer on this week."

"OK, then." I said, because I didn't know what else to say.

She reached up and took the elastic out of her hair, combing her fingers through it as it fell. "If you didn't know I worked there, what were you doing there?"

"Watching the game." I said, as if it should have been obvious.

An awkward silence settled over us.

"Well," She said, turning to continue down the street. "Night."

But, I didnt want to let her go. Especiallysince I didn't know when, or if, I'd see her again. "Let me get you dinner." I called, sounding desperate, even to myself.

"Not hungry." She immediately shot back.

I let out a frustrated sigh. "Then, let me at least walk you home."

"No thanks. It's just around the block." Her footsteps didn't slow.

My stomach tightened, but I ignored the anxiety swarming there. "Did you want the contract your father had for you?" I asked, and she stopped, flipping her hair as she gave me a furious look over her shoulder.

"What?"

"I dont know!" I said, my shoulders rising with a shrug, then I was saying everything all at once. "You just shut down, you shut me out after that meeting with your father, and you're so fucking angry with me, and you wont talk to me, and the only thing that I can think of is that you actually wanted that contract and I ruined it for you."

She turned to face me. "Of course I didn't want the contract."

"Then what did I do?" I begged.

She closed the distance between us in a few strides. "Why did you tell him you'd taken me to bed?"

"I panicked!" I admitted. "It was the only thing that I could think of that would for sure get you out of being sold again."

"It ruined me!" She yelled.

I recoiled as if she'd slapped me, and my brows creased in confusion. "What?"

She took a breath, and shook her head. "I'm not doing this with you."

"No!" I protested, catching her arm as she tried to turn away. "You can't just say something like that and then not explain."

Her eyes glinted with unshed tears. "You knew what that lie would do!" She snarled, snatching away from me. "You knew exactly what you were doing when you said it!"

"What did I know?" I demanded, my voice several octaves higher.

"You knew that going to bed with you would label me as a whore!" She yelled, pointing at me. "You knew that no one else would want me because of it, you knew that anyone who would want me would be too afraid of you to try it, and you chose that lie specifically to stake your claim on me!"

I stared at her blankly as I tried to piece together what she'd said.

"Don't you dare try to deny it!" She seethed.

"I dont have to try to deny it." I said with a shake of my head, and she snorted, crossing her arms over her chest. "I've had way too many concussions for my brain to be able to plot that all out." I wasn't sure if I should be flattered or offended that she thought I'd be capable of something so intricate.

She straightened, her face relaxing its scowl. "What?"

"You're not labeled as anything." I told her. "Elmi would want this to literally go with him to his grave, why would be tell any body?"

Her eyes lowered as she considered.

"And, as far as me, how'd you say it? 'Staking my claim'? Was I not present for the claiming, because I don't recall there being any claiming going on."

She glowered up at me.

"It just seems like something I would've remembered." I said with another shrug.

"The alternative," She sighed, bringing her hands up to rub her face. "To you meticulously planning this out, is you having the decision-making skills and impulse control of a twelve year old boy."

I shrugged a third time, because it wasn't like she was wrong.

"Maker above, Vic." She groaned, then suddenly let out a savage curse. "That means Kylo was right, that rat bastard!"

Rat bastard. Well, I guess there were worse things she could call him, since I mwas technically speaking to his ex wife. Or, former wife. Past intended wife.

"I should have heard you out," She said, pulling me out of my idle pondering. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well," I looked down at our feet, noticing the black, slid-resistant shoes she was wearing. "If the situation were reversed, I wouldn't have heard me out either, so-"

"You wouldn't?" She asked.

I shook my head.

"Why not?"

I kicked at a rock on the road. "Because even if I didn't - plan on any of this happening, it still did." I looked back up at her. "I still cost you your title, and your home, and…" My throat burned, and I swallowed so that I could force the last words out. "I cost you your mother."

Her bottom lip trembled, and she but down on it, making her chin quiver instead.

"And, I am so sorry, Beau." My voice broke, and I lowered my head, unable to meet her gaze.

She laughed, low and soft, and my eyes flew back up, my brow furrowed.

"I think that's the first time you've called me by my actual name." She wiped a hand across her cheek. "Not April or June or Sonnet."

Id started calling her those names because she was so fucking cute when she was angry. "Well, January Poem is just-" I laughed. "So ridiculous."

"I know!" She giggled.

My mood sombered, all traces of humor gone. "But, I'll only call you Beau from now on, if you want."

Her smile faded. "No." She shook her head. "No, I don't think I want that."

"Alright." I said with a nod, then gave her a grin.

"Except Kid!" She conditioned, suddenly serious.

I sighed, rolling my eyes. "Fine."

She chewed in her bottom lip, and I tried to ignore what that stirred in me. "Is the offer to walk me home still standing?"

I scoffed. "Obviously." She skipped forward and wrapped her arms around one of mine, tugging me to walk with her.

"Can I call you Trixie?" I asked.

"No." She snapped.

"What about Birdie?"

"No!"

"What about Haiku?" I asked, as we approached her door, and she stopped, looking at me with one red eyebrow raised. "You know," I told her. "Because it's a poem."

A laugh erupted out of her and she threw her head back, holding her side. Then, she snorted, and I started laughing, leaning against her door frame as she unlocked and opened the door. She sighed, still smiling, and stepped inside.

"Are we good?" I asked, standing upright.

She looked at me, her smile fading.

"I miss you." I told her, hearing the longing in my own voice. "And, I hated when you moved out, I hated not knowing how to find you, I hated not talking to you, and I just-" I sighed. "I'd really like for us to be good."

Her eyes searched mine for an agonizingly long silent moment, then she gave me a small nod. "We're good."

Relief washed over me, and I let out a slow breath. "Good."

She nodded again. "It's good to be good."

"I could - uh - come here tomorrow morning, after this thing I have with the troopers." I offered. "Maybe help you job hunt."

A smile spread across her face. "I accept your pathetic excuse to see me again."

"Good." I sighed. "Because I was kind of grasping at straws, there."

She laughed, and walked further inside. "Good night, Vic."

"Good night." I said, watching her close the door. "Beau."

I met with Cardo and Trugden the next morning, all of us in the matching black on black armored uniforms we wore. Ushar and Ap'lek were behind them, also in their uniforms, and shadows coiled around Ushar like vipers ready to strike. Fuck, he was creepy. His amber-gold eyes seemed to glow with amusement as they shot over to me. Asshole.

The troopers were standing at ease in perfect lines, waiting for instruction. Trugden's gaze went to my hand, at what I held, and his eyes popped open.

"Are you serious?" He demanded, and all the other Knights turned to look.

I gave them a half grin. "A dare's a dare. You just have to keep a straight face."

"I can keep a straight face." Trugden assured me. "You're the one who can't keep a straight face."

I brought the balloon up, and sucked a lung full of helium out of it, then turned to face the troops, holding the balloon behind my back as I stepped closer. "Troops." I said to them, my expression completely deadpan, although my voice sounded like the tiniest Who in Whoville. "Your objective-"

And Trugden burst out laughing.