Private Color History

[Zaiya Ceti]

Enroute to the Oseon system
The Centrality
Outer Rim Territories
Outfit: x x x x x | Equipment: x x x x x x | Weapons: x x x | Companion: Domxite
Interacting with: Aris Noble

The soft glow of hyperspace streaked past the viewport, endless ribbons of blue and white twisting into infinity. Zaiya let her gaze linger there for a moment, letting the hum of the shuttle and the steady pulse of the stars lull her thoughts before she turned back to the silver haired teenager sitting across from her, observing that quiet, unreadable expression of his, his own cards held loosely in one hand. Zaiya watched him, thinking to herself how the light hit his face just so, enhancing his dark complextion.

He was getting even cuter by the day -- so-o not fair! Yup, she couldnt help watch him with a silly smile.

They were playing pazaak, well, trying to, at least. It was supposedly fun, and to be fair, it was fun, even if Zaiya was objectively terrible at it. Not that it stopped her from being competitive -- or from making bets.

Speaking of bets...

A brief flicker of memory hit her -- the Ferris wheel, the rush of air, the weightlessness of it all. The way her heart had pounded for entirely different reasons than just the height. Her bioluminescence betrayed her before she could stop it, coral warmth blooming across her skin. Zaiya quickly lifted her cards, hoping the soft glow of the holo display would hide the telltale blush.

Focus. Pazaak. The game. The bet.

She glanced down at her hand, then grinned.

"Almost at twenty!" she teased, slapping a card down onto the table with dramatic flair. The sum ticked up to fifteen.

Not quite there, but close enough to make it interesting.

They still had time before they reached the Osean System, where they were finally -- finally --meeting the Nova doctors, the deep space Lovalla researchers who had just returned from deep space exploration, and the best shot Zaiya had at getting real answers. Answers about how Lovalla bonds worked, what they meant.

And, more than anything… what that meant for her and Aris.

Zaiya swallowed, hoping -- really hoping -- that this trip would give her something solid to hold onto. Something to make sense of it all.

For now, though, she had a game to win...

 

[Aris Noble]

Card games had some skill in them, in knowing when to hold and fold, but it was mostly chance. Chance on which card would be played next, on if they could hit twenty if the other already had to tie it up. It was interesting. More than that, it was fun. Pazaak wasn't the type of game he usually played, but right now, he couldn't help but have a lot of fun playing it.

That, and he was playing it with Zaiya, so.

Every now and then he glanced up towards her, smiling ever so faintly. Then quickly looked back to his cards. He couldn't keep looking at her, especially now. The memory was clear in his mind. The kiss, the fireworks. How fast his heart had been beating. How fast his heart got whenever she was nearby. He glanced again to his hand as the next care came out.

Seventeen.

He squinted. She could easily beat that, especially if she had the cards in her hands he did. "I'm closer. What do you plan to do? I'll win at this rate."

Zaiya Ceti

 

[Zaiya Ceti]

Outfit: x x x x x | Equipment: x x x x x x | Weapons: x x x | Companion: Domxite
Interacting with: Aris Noble

Zaiya pursed her lips, twisting them to the side as she stared at her cards like they might magically give her the answer. She needed a five to win. Exactly five. Anything more, and it'd be a bust.

Across from her, Aris sat at seventeen, looking way too calm for someone who was just a few points from victory.

She tapped her forefinger along the edge of her cards, then glanced up at him, narrowing her eyes. He looked relaxed, but she knew better. The tiny twitch at the corner of his mouth? That was him enjoying himself. Her expression softened and the corner of her mouth perked up, sending a shimmer of joyful blue and teal.

"It's a game of chance! The odds are equally in my favor," she declared, though a part of her wondered if someone could technically count cards in Pazaak. Maybe if she paid attention to what had already been played…

A second later, Zaiya exhaled sharply, puffing out her cheeks before letting the air out in a slow, deliberate breath. Okay, okay. Decision time.

Her gaze flicked to her side deck, then back to the main pile. If she drew a five, it was over -- her win. Anything higher, though? She'd crash out.

A thought struck, and her lips curled into a mischievous grin. "Double or nothing?" she challenged, lifting a brow.

The overhead speaker crackled to life, it was their pilot droid. They both didn't quite have a pilot's licence yet, especially to fly this far off from the Jedi Temple. [ Exiting hyperspace in fifteen minutes. ]

"Oh, almost there!" appropriately distracted, Zaiya glanced away from the cards. Nervous and anxiety colored her mottled spots in tell tale hues.

No pressure or anything.

 

[Aris Noble]

"Double or nothing, huh? So you'll have to kiss me twice when I win?" He said it. Aloud. His mind had been distracted by their last bet, but this wasn't the current bet at all. They'd talked about who'd make the meals during the day if they ended up staying for longer, nothing about a kiss. His brain seemed to just.. Short circuit on that fact, though. He smiled none the less, as if he hadn't said anything. Focused on the game, on the next card, not on the rush of heat burning his ears currently.

"Flip your card, and we'll see, won't we?"

Zaiya Ceti

 

[Zaiya Ceti]

Outfit: x x x x x | Equipment: x x x x x x | Weapons: x x x | Companion: Domxite
Interacting with: Aris Noble

Zaiya's brain completely crashed.

For a second, she just stared at Aris, her bioluminescence flickering wildly between bright coral and shimmering gold like a short circuited glowpanel. Her mouth opened. Closed. Opened again before she tried to recover, scrambling for something clever, something smooth.

What came out instead?

"...Don't -- I don't need to win a bet to kiss you!"

Oh blast.

The heat in her face flared, and her lights flared right along with it. Another spark of gold shot through her patterns before she panicked and snatched up a card, flipping it over with a little too much force.

Two.

Seventeen. A tie!

"Hah! Tied!" she declared, maybe a little too loudly, as if sheer volume would drown out her own mortification. Her fingers curled against the table as she gestured in a silly flutter of a hand at the score, as if that was the most important thing happening right now. Not the way her bioluminescence was still betraying her.

 

[Aris Noble]

She- didn't need a bet to kiss him? Wait, did that mean he did? Did he need to win a bet to even have the courage to try and kiss her? Thinking back, he didn't even end up kissing her to begin with, did he? She kissed him, after he used the bet to get whether she wanted to or not. Embarrassment flushed through his mind as he looked between his cards. His ears burned, the back of his neck burned. He didn't want to be a coward in his feelings for Zaiya, did he?

He wasn't even listening or paying attention to the fact a three came out on his side, giving him the twenty he needed to stand and keep his hand. Instead he'd summed up his mind and just leaned over the cards to steal a quick kiss from Zaiya. A brush of his lips to hers before he settled back down. He wasn't scared of a kiss. He was nervous, sure, but he wouldn't be scared of Zaiya or kissing her.

Aris blinked though, glancing to the cards finally.

".. Oh hey, Pazzak."

Zaiya Ceti

 

[Zaiya Ceti]

Outfit: x x x x x | Equipment: x x x x x x | Weapons: x x x | Companion: Domxite
Interacting with:

Zaiya's brain short-circuited. Again.

Her spots flared in a dizzying burst of pinks and golds, her entire face practically glowing with flustered delight. He kissed her! No fear of bad breath or unsanitariness involved! And this time, there wasn't even a bet involved! Just a stolen, confident little kiss right over the Pazaak cards like it was the most natural thing in the galaxy.

Her mouth opened, closed, then opened again -- only for an indignant squeak to escape when Aris casually blinked at his hand and declared he was the first to get Pazzak!

"I .. wait what?!" she sputtered, torn between laughter and wanting to bonk him with the nearest pillow.

"I...You...That -- oh blast!" she huffed, crossing her arms, puffing up in faux outrage, but the way her bioluminescence still sparkled with giddy pink betrayed her.

"Alright you won -- this time." she muttered, failing miserably to stop the ridiculous smile on her face. So she would be up for chores then, but that was no big deal.

What was, however, was the little nagging question now in her mind. Well, several, like what it meant, were they still trying not to resonate, what dating meant for them, and did this mean he was her boyfriend -- all the questions that fueled the reason they were going to meet the Nova Professors, but this particular question popped up after his kiss.

"So...does this mean we may kiss each other anytime we want?"

 

[Aris Noble]

Cute.

It was the thought that ripped through his head, numbing him to the fact he had even won the first hand. There were still two rounds to go, but he couldn't stop himself from smiling as he watched her. Her question though brought a much more visible blush to his face. Right. What.. Did this actually mean for them? Could they just kiss each other when they felt like it? Was that normal?

"I think I'd like that, personally. But if you don't, then we can figure something out? Honestly, I don't really know how any of this works. But.. Well- ..." A blush took over as he looked back down towards the cards, gathering them up to start a new hand for them both. ".. Am I your boyfriend?"

Zaiya Ceti