Star Wars Fan Fiction

In The Blazing Heat

By Kraven Ergeist

Chapter Three

Finding a job with someone as eye-catching as a Lethan Twi'lek was so easy, it should have been illegal (in fact, in certain systems, it probably was). Hiring only under the conditions that Kellen be hired as well made the first few would-be employers turn their noses up, but eventually, they found a cantina that needed new servers.

Kellen had never waited tables before, but that hardly mattered. He needed the money, and the customers were so fascinated by Talia that barely anyone paid Kellen much attention.

Talia wore Kellen's holo-pad strapped to her belt, along with a fancy skirt and blouse that revealed almost as much skin as her slave girl outfit. Dee would automatically translate for her and her customers, which made things less complicated, and by the end of the day, Talia had pulled in enough tips to pay for the food she'd eaten from Kellen's icebox five times over.

"You did very good today, Talia," Kellen said, patting her shoulder. "Now, what do you say we take you shopping for some nicer clothes?"

Talia looked down at the waitress outfit she had taken home (it turned out Kellen was responsible for laundering all work clothes). "No good?"

Kellen smiled. "Good. But is that all you want to wear, all day and every day?"

Dee translated.

"She says that she always wore the same clothes when she was in training."

Kellen crossed his arms. "Talia? What did I tell you about being a slave?"

Talia winced. "Not slave. Normal girl."

Kellen's expression softened. "I swear, sometimes it's as if you want to be a slave. Would you prefer it if I whipped you every time you did something bad? Would you prefer it if I didn't feed you out of my own larder and give you nice clothes to wear?"

As Dee translated, Talia's eyes widened and seized his wrist.

"No! Happy! Happy not slave! Happy with Kellen!"

Kellen weakened under those pitiful eyes and rubbed her head.

"Now, do you want to go clothes shopping or not?"

Talia smiled and nodded. "Yes!"

xxxxx

"How is it?"

Talia opened the dressing room door and came out wearing a long yellow dress.

Kellen bit his lip. "Is that really practical?"

Dee had to translate.

"I like," was Talia's answer.

"But where will you wear it? That's a formal dress, you couldn't wear that outdoors."

Dee translated and Talia blinked. "I like."

Kellen scratched his head. "How about this? We'll get you some outdoor clothes, some indoor clothes, some shoes and some pajamas, and then, if we have enough money left over, we can get you that dress?"

Dee translated and Talia went over the list in her head.

"What 'pajamas?'"

Kellen blinked. "They're clothes that you wear when you sleep?"

The idea seemed alien to Talia. "Sleep with clothes?"

Kellen blushed. "Yes, sleep with clothes! Because you can't be naked when you sleep. And speaking of sleep, tonight you sleep on the couch."

Dee translated.

Talia's eyes looked sad and hurt. "Kellen…sleep alone?"

Kellen groaned. "Yes, I sleep alone. It's not proper for civilized men and women to sleep in the same bed."

Talia looked confused. Befuddled. Like what Kellen had said had challenged some universal truth.

Dee had to translate what she said.

"She points out that lovers sleep together frequently."

"Well, we're not lovers," Kellen blurted out before he could stop himself. "I mean…"

Kellen wasn't prepared for the look of hurt on Talia's face. But even less so when Talia suddenly ran out the door, not even giving him a chance to rescind his words somehow. He was so stunned, that it took him a full three seconds to react.

"Hey, wait!"

Dashing after her, Kellen almost made it out the door when the storeowner, a powerful looking Bothan, clasped his shoulder tight.

"Hey!" the furry clerk grunted, unamused. "Is she gonna pay for that dress she was wearing?"

Kellen groaned, realizing he wasn't getting out of this, paid the man for the dress. It nearly wiped out his credits. Afterwards, he ran out the door.

There were crowds of folks, all of them different, none of them Talia.

She was gone.

"Stang!" he cursed, following what he hoped was Talia's footprints down the sandy streets. But soon, the footprints became lost in obscurity, and he had to rely on luck.

xxxxx

It was nightfall by the time he caught sight of her, sitting in an alley under a ventilation system.

She was crying.

"Hey…" he said gently, sitting next to her.

Her eyes were tear-filled and swollen red – a different shade than her skin tone, which made it all the more pitiful.

"You hate me…" she sobbed.

"What!?" Kellen stammered, taken aback. "That's ridiculous! I don't hate you!"

"You don't hate me?" Talia looked up fearfully. "Then…you love me?"

Kellen hesitated. "I…"

Talia looked away, sniffing. "You take me away from man with cages…you give me food…you give me bed to sleep in…clothes to wear…"

Kellen took Talia's hand in his. "I did all those things because I didn't think you deserve that life."

Talia gave him a challenging look. "Then why not buy other Twi'lek? Why not other human? Why me?"

"I…" it was Kellen's turn to look away.

"Because I pretty?" Talia asked, almost sardonically. "Because I wear pretty clothes? Because I look nice?"

Kellen shook his head, face red. "No…"

Talia sounded angry now. "You buy me because you want me. Because you like looking at me."

Kellen groaned. "Talia…"

"Then why not sleep with me?" Talia challenged. "Why not look at me without clothes? Is what you really want! Is what you bought me for!"

"Damn it Talia, I'm starting to wish I hadn't!"

Talia's eyes widened. But Kellen's were hard and piercing.

"Damn it, I'm not perfect! I have drives and selfish desires of my own, and sometimes I delude myself into thinking I have to do the right thing because no one else does! I may not have bought you for the right reasons, but I'm determined to make it right! And if I sleep with you, it will be like that it was all I wanted in the first place! And it's not! I want you to have a good life!"

Talia looked stunned. Dee was still translating for her.

Kellen took her by the shoulders, interrupting the protocol AI.

"I don't hate you. I don't love you, but I do care about you. You're an important person to me. And I don't want anything bad to happen to you because of me, and that includes taking advantage of you by sleeping with you."

Talia blinked away tears. "But…I want to-"

"You think you want to, because that's how you were raised," Kellen scolded. "Sleeping with someone is the best way you know how to make people happy. But there are other ways to live, Talia. You don't have to sleep with someone in order to make them happy…or to be happy yourself."

Talia looked heartbroken. Kellen hadn't let go of her. Her yellow dress was muddy and covered with sand.

"Then…" Talia began. "Sleep in same bed, with clothes. Like night before?"

"No," Kellen rolled his eyes. "That bed is too small for both of us."

Talia blinked, like she suddenly realized how obvious that was. "Oh…then…if Kellen gets bigger bed, we can sleep in same bed?"

Kellen sighed in exasperation. "Beds are expensive…" He held up his credit cards. "Lots of money. And you know what else was expensive? That dress," he pointed at her soiled yellow outfit. "Why don't we get you home so we can wash that for you?"

Talia got to her feet, suddenly chipper again. "Okay! Go home, wash dress, then sleep, then work, get money, buy bigger bed!"

Kellen sighed as he got to his feet. It was amazing how this girl's thought processes worked sometimes. "We'll have to work a lot more than one day to afford a big enough bed. And don't forget to put dinner in that list of yours."

Talia touched her chin, thinking back to what she had said. "Oh, right! Go home, wash dress, then dinner, then-"

"Right, right," Kellen took her hand as he lead her back out onto the street. "Let's just go."

Seemingly satisfied, she clung to his arm as they made their way to the housing unit.

xxxxx

After working double shifts each day for an entire week, Kellen and Talia had enough to last them the rest of the month. It was exhausting work to Kellen, though Talia's presence made it tolerable. Perhaps purchasing her from that slaver hadn't been his worst idea after all. Once she had gotten the message that he wasn't going to be…copulating with her anytime soon, she became much more cooperative in helping out in other day to day necessities, and was genuinely curious and anxious to learn as much as she could. By the end of the week, she didn't even need Dee to translate for her anymore, though her Basic was still somewhat broken.

"Bantha steaks for dinner?" she inquired on their way home one day, fixing Kellen with an adorable look that she had learned very quickly to be very effective on him.

"We'll have to pick some up at the market, but sure thing, why not?" Kellen shrugged. Though he was exhausted (working an eighty hours week was not fun), he had more money than he'd ever had working on the farm or any other of his short lived careers here in Mos Espa. Talia made just as much as he did, and his rent was bare minimum. Though the living conditions were scant at best, at least they could afford to keep themselves fed. Other than food, water, and rent, he and Talia hadn't really needed to spend much else, though the day after the yellow dress incident, he had taken Talia to buy some practical clothing.

During their frequent visits to the market, Talia invariably came down with a case of the gimme's, asking if they could buy everything in sight. Once Kellen had priced about the cheapest double bed he could find and shown her the price, however, Talia very quickly stopped trying to be so spendthrift. She'd even opted for more work time. Kellen had originally only wanted to work regular hours, but every time their Dugg boss offered Talia more work, she invariably accepted, and Kellen wasn't comfortable with Talia working alone just yet, so he always ended up working a double shift as well.

Even when he wasn't working during her shifts, he was in the cantina, keeping an eye on her. The result had been six days non-stop work, leaving them finally with a day off. Which, in Kellen's mind, was reason enough to celebrate with a little expenditure. Talia, of course agreed – though in her mind, anything in the world was reason enough to celebrate.

He purchased the bantha steaks, and, at Talia's insistence, a candy stick that was for sale at the register (he swore she could be such a child sometimes) which she ate with delight on the way home.

Kellen didn't own a blaster, though he did keep a stun baton in his bag at home. He'd be remembering to bring it with him from that day forward after the events that transpired that evening.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?"

When something had clasped his arm and dragged him into a nearby alley, the exclamation was all Kellen managed to get out before a fist struck him in the stomach, and knocked the wind out of him. He dropped his grocery bags, doubling over against the wall, clutching his stomach in pain.

He couldn't make out the dark shapes in the shadows, but from the laughter, there were at least three of them. He heard a mash of Basic and Huttese, and he thought he saw one of them carrying a blaster.

"Just give us your money, pal," one of them said in a gnarly voice.

Another of the conspirators added a comment in Huttese.

Kellen's mind was a blur when his head turned towards the direction of the street before he could think. There, staring down at the three men trying to rob him, was Talia, looking confused and scared.

"Kellen?"

His attacker's looked up to make out her shape.

"A Lethan Twi'lek?" he heard one of them say in disbelief.

Stang! Kellen thought to himself, before trying to get to his feet.

"Talia! Run! Get out of here! Go! Now!"

He had hoped getting up would distract them long enough to give Talia the half second she needed to bolt. Twi'leks were known for their running speed. But Talia just stood there.

"Kellen…"

A large arm wrapped around Kellen's neck, and all of the sudden, he couldn't breathe. He was lifted off his feet, and suddenly, his vision began to get blurry.

"Talia…" he grunted with the last of his breath, as he watched helplessly as two of his attackers, a Human and a Weequay, seize Talia by the arm and drag her into the alley.

Why wasn't she running? Why wasn't she resisting them? Surely she recognized the danger! Why were her eyes locked on Kellen, looking to him as though he was the only one who could get them out of this?

He'd failed her, he realized! She'd be sold back into slavery for sure! And he couldn't do a thing about it! Tears began to well up in his eyes. Whether it was out of pain or shame, he couldn't tell. His vision began to cloud, and then he couldn't see at all. But he could still make out the vague sounds of voices as his mind slowly went numb.

xxxxx

He awoke to Talia's fervent prodding, her terrified expression meeting his gaze as she anxiously shook him awake, tears in her eyes.

It took Kellen a few seconds to remember the events from before he lost consciousness, and when he tried to jump to his feet in a start, he barely managed to roll over.

"Kellen!" Talia's voice sounded relieved as her arms clasped around him. He still couldn't see very well. The room they were in was too dark to…no, wait, they were still in the alley. It was nighttime!

Kellen tried to speak, and got a hacking, sputtering fit for his trouble, which seemed to somehow give him the necessary energy to right himself, sitting up in Talia's arms, his head spinning.

He felt like vomiting.

"T…Talia…"

The Twi'lek was sobbing now, her brilliant red lekku twitching in sorrow. Both their clothes were a mess, and their groceries lay a few meters over, still contained in their freezer box. A thought occurred to Kellen and he checked his pocket book.

Still there.

He looked around, but it was too dark to make out anything else, save for the traffic of foot and speeder out by the streets. His head still felt dizzy, but it wasn't a terribly long trek back to his place. Good thing they had the day off tomorrow.

"Come on…" he touched Talia by the shoulder, causing her to lift her tear soaked eyes. "Let's go home…"

It took them a while, but after Talia helped him to his feet, he managed to get walking. Talia was still shaken, and every time Kellen asked her what happened, (or any other question in Basic) she just shook her head. The shock must have rattled her too much for her translate her fears into basic, so Kellen eventually turned on his holopad.

"Dee, ask her what happened after I got pulled into the alleyway."

The holographic projection of the protocol droid's head relayed the message in Twi'lekki. It took some repeating, and some words of encouragement, but Talia eventually spoke enough for Dee to formulate a translation.

"I…could be mistaken, sir, she's leaving out a lot of words…but it seems from her description that when the strangers you met started hurting you, she tried to save you. When they inhibited her progress, she demanded that they leave you both alone. And then, for no reason that Talia can determine…they left."

Kellen blinked. "They left? Just like that?"

Dee's holographic head nodded. "That is what she claims. Though she was more focused on your safety, and admits that she may not have noticed whatever scared them away."

Kellen looked at Talia, who was still shaking in his arms. They were leaning on each other for support, though his legs worked just fine, and he was supporting her more than she him. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying, and it looked as though she might burst into tears once again at the slightest provocation.

He would ask her himself later, he decided. Though it seemed odd that they had gotten off so easy, he didn't feel like looking a gift bantha in the mouth. He was just glad they were safe.

But once they had gotten behind their door and locked it, Kellen still couldn't help the nagging feeling he felt. How had they escaped? Had they been rescued by someone? Were there security guards nearby or something? It seemed so unlikely that they had left just because Talia had asked them to.

Kellen had a bad feeling about this…