Location: Ballroom -
Mezzanine
Tag: [member="Gerwald Lechner"]
Naedira smirked, faintly, when Gerwald admitted that he could indeed dance. Truthfully, she hadn’t required that he admit it. She knew. It wasn’t just from the fact that she was vaguely aware of him metaphysically, moreover, it was the way the he moved in general. He was lithe for a large man. She had seen him fight, she had sparred with him, of course, she was aware that he didn’t have two left feet.
“Mmhmm…”, she responded closed-mouthed, mostly, because it was full of pilfered fruit from his cocktail. No one wanted to see half-masticated food.
“Maybe you should have been…But I’m glad you weren’t.”
Her smile grew a little pale when Eshan remained a topic of discussion. The inquisition of Kuat had turned ugly, but that, was like shooting fish in a barrel. There wasn’t much to do unless a Republic toady in civilian clothing decided to make a move. There was no real way to tell civvies from the real enemy. The Republic hid behind the people of Kuat. Used them, disgustingly, as shields. Space was one of the few places where the fighting got extremely heated, aside from a few explosions, and a couple skirmishes going on here or there.
“It’s not the carnage that bothers me. War is war and blood will have blood. That’s the way it’s always been…The way it will always be.”
The Knight paused, briefly, reaching for the back of his hand. She placed two fingers there and left flashes, brief glimpses, of Eshan that would flicker in his minds eye like a holo-vid. The ship crashing down. Echani younglings, clinging to their dead parents in the streets. The shield made of flesh that Centaris had strung together out of the dead, in the last moment, to survive an explosion. It would be distant for him. From her perspective, tainted, with the rapid-fire beat of her heart.
Despite her bravado—he would feel it in the recollection she bequeathed him.
“No one deserves to witness, or, be part of that just because they’ve had to act aggressively in the past. It doesn’t make my stomach turn. Wolf or human…We are what we are. We’re both predators, only, a different kind. This…All of this… It’s just part of the job.”
Yes. Naedira had an eye for detail. While some people missed the little thing, she did not, and it was something he would have long ago noticed. She laughed softly, despite herself, when his face contorted over the sweet beverage she had procured.
“Thief…”, she trailed off, motioning toward his drink, while he stole her whiskey. The frilly drink, as he called it, floated to her waiting hand. There was no sense in letting good liquor go to waste.
“This is what it means to take one for the team. You owe me.”
Naedira didn’t like drinks like this,
but, she could stomach it. Next time—Two whiskeys. When he mentioned taking her back to Stewjon she chuckled softly and motioned for him to keep the drink.
“I was there, on Stewjon, before. Awhile back. Helped re-train and set up a small local militia so they could eventually vet and train new personnel.”
They really hadn’t liked a woman telling them what to do. But, she wasn’t one to be denied, and the Knight had still completed her assignment. How well had it held up? She didn’t know. That wasn’t part of her mission.
She played with the toothpick in the drink absentmindedly while Gerwald began to describe what it was that was devouring his happiness. What it was, that left him so wounded, that he had begun to retreat even from her? Naedira had treated the wolf-man as an equal, expecting, that he would do the same. From that their friendship had grown. She respected him, he respected her.
“Time is needed. Not only for you, but, for anyone else involved. All you can do is be honest and upfront.”, Nae trailed off gently, trying, not to accidentally pry. It wasn’t often that he spoke on this subject and she didn’t want to spook him or make him feel as if he ought to regret it.
“You can’t help how you feel, or, when you feel it. You might have handled things a little awkwardly but everyone makes mistakes. No one is immune. You either love whom you’re with—Or you don’t.”
“Take breath so you can figure it out for yourself. Don’t let guilt or obligation steer you. Don’t let the pain of someone else become your own.”
Naedira let the topic die when Gerwald looked away. It wasn’t as if she was the best person in the galaxy to be giving advice on matters of the heart. She only knew, from experience, what it was like to love and lose. It hurt. One some occasions it felt like she couldn’t breathe, while her heart ached, and her chest tightened. Regardless, she would never, want to be with someone simply because they felt guilty for hurting her feelings. She was better than that.
They deserved better.
She took a sip of the sweet drink. It wasn’t as bad as Gerwald made it out to be but it was a fair cry from what she was used to. When he asked her to dance, she raised a brow, but didn’t decline.
“Only if you want to. I’m proud of you for coming out tonight…That’s enough. You don’t have to push it.”
Eventually, she wound up setting down her glass on the table. It seemed that he actually did want to dance, though, she suspected it was partially to get away from the current conversation. Naedira acquiesced and held her hand out, but, instead of letting him lead them down the stairs to the dance floor she stayed where she was.
“Let’s compromise. We can still hear the music from here. I know you don’t want to be surrounded by people just yet—So let’s dance here.”
“When you feel comfortable, or, when I get enough whiskey in you…We can go down there.”
She turned her hand in his, offering a comforting smile, before stepping into his space. Her fingers of her right-hand rest neatly, hidden in his, while her left curved around his shoulder. The typically assertive Knight let him lead, though, the song was a slow one.
Even a wolf-man with two left feet could handle this.
