Chemical Romance

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

The mind was not clear-cut and dry like opening a book and taking a read of it.

It had never worked that way.

He traveled through the passage created by her, his arms wrapping around her in the physical as his mind immersed itself in her psyche. This was the touch of a mentalist master, soft, subtle, flowing in and out of her while barely making a whisper. This should have been painful, but instead Raj would only feel mild discomfort as Jairus softly watched the scenes from foreign perspective. The feelings washed over him, the pain, the discomfort, then the terror next as a 'new' but familiar perspective took over.

"Until you left a part of you there." Jairus pointed out, his lips whispering against her neck for comfort. "A part that felt terror and agony at the hands of Zambrano."

Was it a coincidence then?

That those feelings were accentuated now?

Jairus did not think so and if anyone had an idea of shards having their own will it would be him. After all, his entire existence revolved around that very idea, but they did not have any certainty. They'd need to figure things out more if they wanted that.

"How are you feeling?"

 

[Kuzo]

"Pretty terrible," she admitted. "Like someone took my brain and guts out, weighed them, kicked them into a more desirable shape, and put them back again, swapped. So. All in all.... not as bad as before I died, but the worst I've felt since then."

Honestly, she kind of wanted to vomit and then curl up and sleep for a week.

She didn't move from against him at first. Dizzy, muzzy headed and nauseated, she didn't hesitate to lean fully into him, held nothing back. With her nose tucked under his chin, she stayed put until at least the dizziness passed.

It and the nausea would stick around for the next several weeks. It would take her that long to realize that, while it had started here, as that strange snapping within the Netherworld, by that time it had changed to something else entirely.

"Alright. Help me up," she grunted slightly, sitting up a little woozy. "Egad my head hurts.... let's get home. I think.... I think I want to sleep on the way."

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

She had found out that he was exceptionally careful with her a while ago.

Hands that could crush old oak beds now carefully helping her up, setting her back on her feet and then supporting when Raj seemed to become flighty on her feet. Only once she was steady again did Jai take a step back and nodded.

"The bunk is still wrecked from... last time, so I will get a few blankets for the co-pilot seat." There wasn't really anything else they could do right now.

It wouldn't be immensely comfortable.

But with enough cushions and blankets it could approach it. First Jai made sure that she got to the cockpit okay, ignoring the looks she sent back at him. Then a couple of minutes later the Sith returned, depositing the promised things on her lap.

Every inch here or there Jai would help wrap her up in the comfy.

"You look cute." Smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he settled in the pilot chair next to her after brushing a kiss against her brow.

 

[Kuzo]

She gave him fewer looks than he might have expected. Honestly, having him there and helping her was appreciated, and she recognized that, in that moment at least, she needed it.

So she let him settle her in. Let him wrap her up and was perfectly content (it was a temporary thing, after all) until-

She made a face up at him, sticking out her tongue.

"Don't feel cute," she muttered, petulant in a way that was clearly meant as a game. "Feel gross. Much ew. That's an official, medical term, by the way. Much ew. Very official and important. Don't let the books tell you otherwise."

She curled up in the copilot's seat, settling so she was facing him and could watch him as he got them ready and heading up into the atmosphere.

"I'm glad you came, Jai."

[member="Jairus Starvald"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Expression wrinkled into amusement as he leaned in and gave her another kiss, this time lower against her lips, before finally settling down in the chair.

"I would never assume any old book knows more than Lady Blackhole." Perhaps it had been back then that the first seeds of actual, genuine interest had been planted. Before it, Irajah had been a pleasant and good time, the company and the sex satisfying in all the right ways. But none of that had hinted at true companionship, a partnership where he found someone he could respect and share himself with. The realization that she was just as much a glutton for knowledge as him?

That had impressed him an awful lot.

The joke passed as Jairus started engaging the ship, running procedures for take-off, while nodding at her words. "Me too, Raj, couple of wrinkles aside..." The soft roar of Krait claiming his part of the hold and settling down only served to punctuate the point. "Was a pleasant date."

He glanced over to her.

When had this become so... right?

 

[Kuzo]

She kissed him back for that brief moment, head tilting up to meet him before she snuggled back down again.

"Next time, let's order take out and stay in," she said a few minutes later. Her voice, eyes, posture, all of it was starting to sink into drowsy. That place between sleeping and waking where things got warm and soft and sometimes silly.

"Pretend we're normal," she murmured, closing her eyes and smiling. Because they both knew she didn't mean it.

"You tell me about your day strangling people. I'll tell you about mine removing organs and seeing if I can keep them running with the Force. You know. Normal."

Her voice had gotten thick and heavy, but with the familiar weight of sleep, rather than anything alarming. She dozed in the chair beside him... and dreamed. Of a forest. A fire. A dark haired man she didn't know. And the uncomfortable, now unfamiliar weight of guilt. She muttered something in her sleep, barely audible.

How far.... to.... alliance space?

But then she settled, quieting. Her own R.E.M. took over, smothering out the connection, only available in that strange place between awake and dreaming.

She wouldn't remember it when she woke up.

[member="Jairus Starvald"]