Hello Commander

Fox arrives in a clone transport. It swoops in and hovers long enough for him to step off, it leaving in a hurry like it had somewhere better to be. He walks up to the wrinkled Chancellor who stood near the landing platform door. Palpatine gives him a cheeky smile, "You're as punctual as ever, my boy."

Fox gives a light bow, then parks himself next to him, "I read the report Captain Rex made about Ryio Chuchi. With someone like her in the senate, things might actually get done around here."

Palpatine adds a raised brow at him hopeful tone, "She hasn't arrived yet and the senator's already left an impression on you."

Fox looks at him, a smile in his voice, "Anyone who can stop a war in ten seconds has my approval."

"Of course." he looks up and sees a small ship incoming, "Ah, it appears she has arrived."

It lands gracefully on the platform and the pair walk over. The ship doors open and out walks a small blue lady. Palpatine waits until Fox is peeking in the ship for her senator parent before greeting the Pantoran, "Ah, my dear Chuchi, how good it is to meet you."

"It's good to be here." she says a bit nervously.

Fox turns to her extremely confused, "Are you the Pantoran senator?"

She turns to him, "Yes. I am."

He slowly wraps his brain around it, "How old are you?!"

She lets off a cute laugh and explains, "Twenty-one. I understand your confusion. It's hard to tell how old someone with a baby face is sometimes. So I get that question a lot."

"Baby face?"

Palpatine interrupts, "Commander, would you mind taking her luggage inside?"

Chuchi turns back into the ship, "I'll get my clothes." she pulls out two suitcases and turns to Fox, "You can take the box."

Fox reaches in and pulls a surprisingly heavy small box off the front seat. He slowly flips it over as curiosity started to take hold.

She orders, "Don't turn it. It has a few loose things in it and I had trouble tightening the cookie jar down. I don't want it getting on my art."

He corrects it and asks, "Cookies?"

"I like cookies." Chuchi pokes her head back in and says to the driver, "Thank you."

He nods, shuts the doors, and flies off.

Palpatine leads the way and starts talking about how good it is to have her there while Fox walked beside her. Fox looked down at her every so often and noted that she seemed to get bored of Palpatine's prattling. Fox whispers to her, "He loves the sound of his own voice."

She stops looking at the walls and whispers back, "What? Oh. I noticed."

"Pretty sure if we run off he won't notice."

Chuchi curls her lips inward as she smiles, thinking it a fun idea. Then shakes her head no, unable to hold back her giggle, "That'll be rude."

Fox smiles and returns to being professional.

They finally make it to her room and Palpatine motions he in, "I hope you'll find everything to your liking, my dear."

"Thank you, Chancellor." she bows then heads in. Fox follows her in and sets the box on the couch. Chuchi dragged her bags around while exploring the room before dropping it off on her large bed. Fox walks in and watches her. She looks at the volume, "Who needs a bed this big?"

"Senators with money."

She turns to him, "Still." she turns back to her clothes and unzips her belongings. Fox could tell from what she wore and brought that she wasn't expecting "special" company anytime soon. If anything, it looked like a child picked her clothes. Fox comes over and picks up the frilly blue dress, "If you want to convince the senate to listen, don't wear this."

She takes it back, "This isn't for working in. I figure I would need to be professional, so I packed for it." she flips open the second case, "This is my work clothes."

Fox looks at the slightly more professional looking clothes and stands down. After a minute, he asks, "Do you have any enemies?"

"I haven't been a senator long enough to be a threat. So I doubt it." she stuffs her undergarments in a drawer and notes him staring at her, "Yes?"

He snaps out of his thoughts, "Captain Rex stated that you talked down the enemy, ending a war between the 501st and the Talls. What did you say to make them stop?"

She thinks for a minute, then answers as she continued working, "I told them that to die for one's people, is a great sacrifice. To live for one's people, and even greater one. What do you choose? I don't remember if I said anything else. You may want to ask the droid that was with me about that. And it's Taals, not Talls."

Fox thinks about it for a bit, then smiles, "Not what I expected."

She smiles at him and puts her shirts away.

Fox wanders into the living room and opens the box making sure it didn't have bombs or anything hiding in it. All he found was art supplies, a jar of loose cookies, five diaries, pictures that were better than anything the senate art department could come up with, three packages of tea, and glass jar of green honey. He picks up one of the diaries and sees a title on the first page. "Loose change". Fox reads further and concludes from the introduction that she wrote books in her spare time.

Chuchi comes over and patiently waits for him to finish reading. Fox jumps when he sees her staring, then hands it to her, "It's... not bad. The dialogue is choppy, you overuse the word "over", and you should use action more often. If you need help with describing a crime scene, just ask."

"Thank you." she picks up the next one, "How about this one? I've been trying to figure out why I can't get past the second chapter."

Fox takes it and reads, glancing at her every so often through his helmet. The tiny voice in his head commenting how pretty she is. His com beeps snapping him out of it and he taps it, "Go ahead."

Another clone voice pops out, "Sir, there's a brawl in sector 78-11-29."

"Understood." he hangs up and hands the book back, "I'll look these over later." he bows, "Goodbye, ma'am."

Chuchi bows back and watches him run out of the room at full speed. She opens the book and reads it over. Inspiration hits and she starts writing.

Fox arrive in Palpatine's office nearing nightfall and stops two feet from the Chancellor. The Chancellor thanks the droid leaving with his empty cup and turns to Fox, "Ah, my boy. Senator Chuchi was asking for you."

Fox perks, "She was?"

"She realized she never got your name. The poor girl. I told her quite a bit about you. Turns out you made quite the impression on her."

Fox removes his helmet to let his bran new shiner breathe, smiling as he tucked the bucket in his right arm, "I didn't do anything out of the ordinary."

"Other than get in a fight, I see."

Fox stops smiling, "There was a bar brawl in sector 78-11-29. My helmet was knocked off and I walked into a fist."

"Ah." he smiles, "So, what is your opinion of her? Do you believe she might need a little protection?"

Fox relaxes and states, "I can't make any judgments yet as she hasn't shown me all her pages."

He raises a brow, "Isn't the phrase, 'cards', Commander?"

His shakes his head no, "Not in this case, sir. Everyone is a book. Most senators are cheap magazines full of rumors and scandals. Ryio is a novel. I need more time to read her."

Palpatine grows a large smile, "Is that your heart fluttering, I hear, Fox?"

Fox stiffens and eyes dart about as he starts lying, "No! Sir. It's just... she's just hiding things and I need to dig deeper. She's deceptively innocent. Speaking of innocent, I hear that uh everyone thought this Trandosian guy was guilty, but turned out he didn't kill..."

Palpatine interrupts, "You don't need to lie to me, Commander. I have no qualms with anyone having a crush." he puts a gentle hand on his shoulder and leads him towards the door, "Between you and me, my boy, having a crush is a harmless and healthy thing. Maybe she'll even get a crush on you."

"You think so?"

They stop at the door and Palpatine lifts his hand off, "Even if she doesn't, at least we'll all get a good show out of it."

Fox gives a light frowns at the idea, then puts his helmet on and states, "No one's going to see anything."

The door opens and they head down the halls. They spot Chuchi not that far away talking to Padme and Fox's instincts kick in. He runs, slides, checks for danger, then turns to her, "Coast is clear, senator." he then puts a hand on her head and says, "Mine." before running down the hall and skidding past a corner.

Padme laughs loudly as Chuchi stood their making confused squeaks. Palpatine walks over and comments, "What he lacks in tack, he makes up for in flare. Wouldn't you agree, senator Chuchi?"

Chuchi breathes for a minute before commenting, "He's certainly a Fox." then giggles with Padme.