A short time later, Jorif and Andronikos walked down the hallway towards the kitchen, talking.
"Where'd you meet her, anyway?"
"Uh, Tatooine, awhile back. We needed each other's help for awhile and then I joined her crew."
Jorif raised an eyebrow, "I've seen you do some stupid stuff, but join a Sith's crew? That takes balls, Revel."
"It was just supposed to be for kicks, you know?"
"And you ended up with a wife?"
"Well, that took awhile."
Down the hall a red-haired woman caught sight of Andronikos and squealed, sashaying towards him.
"Oh damn," muttered Andronikos, "I thought you shipped her off to a planet."
Jorif swallowed, "I did."
"Hello there, lover," the woman purred at Andronikos.
"Christy." His voice was flat.
"What, no welcome?" She reached out a hand to try to touch him and he moved out of range. She pouted, "What, no time for me?"
"I never have time for you. I also need to get back to my wife."
Her eyes changed then and her face twisted in anger. She hissed, "You'll come back to me Andronikos. You know you will."
"Doubtful. The only reason you got me in the first place was because I was so drunk I didn't even know who you were. And I pretended you were her the whole time." His voice was cold, but the honesty of what he was saying was brutal.
"We had something!" She was screaming in his face now. "And she'll leave you again!"
"She never left me in the first place."
Jorif raised his eyebrows at that and attempted to subdue the hysterical woman, who shook him off, raising her hand to slap Andronikos. At that, Jorif grabbed her hand, twisted her arm behind her back and marched her down the hallway. He shoved her at two guards and told them to take her to the brig.
He returned to Andronikos and they continued to the kitchen, Jorif jumping right in with commentary.
"Was is it with you and women, Revel?"
"They know I don't want them." He shrugged.
"Wish I could pull that off. I'd be drowning in them."
Andronikos rubbed a hand over his face, "Oh yeah, because the past year was worth it."
Jorif nodded at that. "That's true. You're a brilliant pirate, but seeing you on some of those days, like the whole world had been ripped out of you; I never want to feel like that."
"I have to tell you though, today makes up for the past year."
Jorif grinned, "Oh yeah?"
Andronikos let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, "Oh, yeah." He loaded up a pack with food, "I can't believe I left her side though."
A call came through Jorif's holo, one of the guardsmen they'd left Christy with, "Jor, she got away from us."
Jorif and Andronikos exchanged looks and bolted for the bridge.
On the bridge, an angry crew member was blocking Christy from Andronikos' quarters, but she was getting increasingly shrill.
Andronikos came very close to losing his temper, but started to walk calmly over to the situation. Before he got there, the door to his quarters slid open revealing Liri with nothing but a sheet wrapped around her.
"Can I help you?" Liri asked, with the glint in her eye that Andronikos hadn't seen in too long.
"You stole my boyfriend, you cheap slut!" screamed Christy in Liri's face.
The whole bridge stopped moving and held their breath.
Liri smiled, like a viper, and said "Can't steal something that was always mine, now can I?" Then her eyes glowed and the lightning came racing from her fingertips to electrocute the stupid girl.
Christy's body hit the floor with a thud and a wisp of smoke.
Liri looked down on the corpse and said sadly, "Any other word and I might have let you get away with insulting a Sith like that."
A brave crew member asked her, "Which word?"
She smiled kindly, "I don't tolerate the word slut. I never have." She looked down on the corpse, "As a former slave, the word holds too much pain for me."
Andronikos blinked as she revealed that much about herself to an entire bridge full of people. Then he understood as they all turned their sympathies to her and moved Christy's corpse away quickly, murmuring apologies. There were no bad feelings or resentment that a Sith had done something to one of them. It helped that Christy had made herself universally disliked amongst the crew. He felt Liri becoming accepted by his crew. She's gotten better at politics.
"Find out how the hell Christy got back on the ship," he murmured to Jorif.
Jorif nodded and Andronikos watched Liri turn and head back into his quarters.
"You got a hell of a woman there, Revel." someone said.
"I know," he answered, carrying the bag of food up to his room and slipping through the door, which he locked behind him.
"Always yours, huh?" he said to Liri's back.
She shrugged, "Am I wrong?"
He shook his head, his mouth dry. "I brought food."
She turned to him, thankfully looking amused. "I have to ask Rev; she's not your usual type. What the hell did you see in that one?"
"I didn't." He said shortly, "I got blindly drunk one night and she hit me with one of those adrenals. Hell, I don't even remember half the night." Liri frowned.
"I feel even less bad about killing her then," she said.
"She wasn't my type anyway."
"Oh? What's your type?"
"Murderous Sith Twi'leks."
"I might know one of those."
He kissed her and started pulling food out of the pack. She ignored it and started rummaging through his liquor. "There's a lot of empty bottles here, Rev."
"Liri, c'mon. I can tell you don't eat enough as it is."
She triumphantly pulled out a bottle of Corellian whisky. "And why is this here?"
"So I can get drunk in the dark and think about you."
Her face fell and then lit up, "But now, when you think about me, I'll be right here."
"Liri, if you don't come eat something, I'm using those restraints."
She crossed over to the table and grabbed some food.
They ate in silence for awhile, passing over things they knew the other liked. Andronikos grabbed glasses and uncorked the whisky, pouring them each a glass.
Liri took a sip of hers and tilted the glass back, looking at the contents.
"I hated this stuff before you," she said quietly.
"Then why'd you drink it with me?"
"So I could drink with you." She shrugged.
He looked at her and leaned back in his chair, "How long before I made a move were you interested?"
She shrugged, "I don't remember the exact moment." Sighing, she said, "At some point I just got annoyed. You kept calling me beautiful and giving me presents, but you never made a move. It seemed like you were trying to run in the opposite direction."
"I was. You scared the hell out of me." She frowned and started to speak, but he went on, "Not because you were a Sith; that was a whole other scary, but because of you. You made me that flower chain and I was gone, although I didn't know it at the time."
"I still have it."
"You do not." He grinned at her, "How?"
"I got it preserved in glass. I keep it in my quarters on Dromund Kaas as a paperweight."
"You've been torturing yourself too."
She made a face at him and he hurried to explain. "No, no, it's just that all this time I thought you were done. You've been in as much pain as I have and that's... comforting."
"Oh, so glad my pain is comforting!" she exclaimed.
"You know what I mean." He looked at her closely, "It helps that you missed me."
She stood up and crossed to him, holding his face in her hands.
"No matter what I say in public, in private I'll always miss you."
"We'll have to be apart again. Can't you just take over the raids for Darth Decimus?"
"I can't. He'd expose us to Ravage if I cut him out."
"No, I meant, live on this ship. Come with us."
"A Darth can't be involved in the raids directly, the Republic will retaliate."
"Stop being a Darth, then."
"Oh Rev, if I could, I would. It was much easier to be a Sith Lord. But I do have so much power and I promise that things are going to change. We'll be able to be together soon, just not yet."
He stared at her and then grabbed her arms roughly. "Are you crazy? You're going to take out Ravage!"
She pulled away and sat down heavily on the bed.
"You were always so good at reading me. Don't think it, don't even speak it."
"Tell me what you're planning, can I help?"
"Just let me come here, be safe here." He got up from the chair and crossed over to her, pulled her into his lap and held her.
"Crazy Sith," he murmured, "Be safe about it. I can't lose you. I just got you back."
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"Not trying to stop me or wondering whether I can do it."
He laughed, "Liri, I know you. You can kill anyone you set your mind to."
She lowered her mouth to his and talking was over for the night.