Private Hollow Gold

[Srina Talon]

Location: Castell [Shu Mai City] - Rented Apt
Tag: Darth Empyrean
Aesthetic: X

It only took a moment.​

​

The curve of his lips against her own was enough, more than enough, for her to want to twist her body around and kneel in the chair so she could reach him. Even when Maliphant smiled against her skin. There was nothing quite like it when his arms fell around her as sure and constant as the sun slipped below the horizon each day. There was a feeling of surprising vulnerability coupled with a surging tide of warmth that blurred and drowned critical thought into nothingness. When he pulled away, her mind was slow to settle. She didn’t want to think.​

​

Was he so sure they needed to eat?​

​

“You know how I feel about you. Thinking nothing of it…Not an option.”, she responded, truthfully, while her eyes glanced down to watch his fingers move across her skin. Away from her. It was slow. Deliberate. Enough that she had to force her gaze to return to the computer terminal with her half-finished report blinking ominously. She cocked her head to the side in vague annoyance before she began to type again. The lighted keys mocked her displeasure, surely.​

​

The pale woman did not respond while he rationalized his obligation toward her save to internalize the sentiment. She had no words to elucidate how often she felt like some sort of strain toward the end game he sought with his affiliation to the Sith Eternal. It wasn’t something she chose to think of. He had assured her often enough that nothing would allow him to betray her; but they were Sith. It was the name of the game. To betray, to lie, to acquire. His audible sigh caused the smallest smirk to touch the edges of her lips. “Had I known you were coming; I would have prepared better.”​

​

Maliphant enjoyed the finer things that life had to offer. Srina, favored survival. If it had the required nutrients and tasted vaguely better than dry cardboard, she wouldn’t make a fuss. She kept typing while he perused the kitchen and for a few moments she lost herself in the situation she had come to this backwater world to deal with. It was frustrating, but, a necessary evil. If a Confederate Exarch couldn’t weed out some lowly pirate scum, what, exactly, was her worth? When her companion informed her that she should consider coming to visit him, she paused, thoughtful, before responding definitively. ​

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“They do not hold me back.”​

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Would he even really want her there?​

​

For the same reason, he had avoided looking over her shoulder she was still connected to her Master. Their people as a whole weren’t exactly enemies, but it would be more than a stretch to call them friends. What she saw, experienced, Darth Metus would sense it the shadows. That had more implications than she wanted to wade through…But the desire to be near to Maliphant had only emphasized since he had crafted the golden rings they both wore.​

​

It wasn’t enough to feel his heartbeat through cold metal.​

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She refused to admit aloud that she needed anyone, for any reason, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know the truth. Perhaps she was growing tired of the stressors of an entire nation telling her war stories like ghostly whispers to keep their children both patriotic and well-behaved. Perhaps, she was breaking beneath the weight of her station. Words could not describe how disappointed when she woke in the morning, opened her eyes, and discovered that he was not there. “Would I even be welcome?”​

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“Though…I’ve not yet filled my quota for being arrested or shot at yet this year.”​

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An attempt at humor. An attempt at hiding quiet bitterness that had begun to eat away at her. She was gone for so long. So often. Most men would have moved on by now. Most, would have grown tired of a cold bed and what felt like an eternity of absence.​

​

Srina submitted the report, logged out, and slid from the chair. She was done. Bare feet padded near silently across plush carpet and the svelte Echani wrapped her arms around his middle so that her cheek could press against his back. Her hands ran lightly along his abdomen, before linking, very aware, that he was rather busy. She held on neither too loosely nor too tight. The bi-directional line of communication that ran between their rings would be jumbled, confused, but seemingly overflowing.​

​

There was always too much unspoken, unsaid, in her silence. She nestled closer and let a thousand words pour forward, swiftly, in one embrace.​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

The timer dinged as the food was brought to plump moisture once more - allowing him to finally take it from the rehydrator, break the seal, and rest the fillet onto a pan he had already heated. It seared nicely, trailing bits of meat flavored smoke into a vent hood overhead. His voice broke through the popping and crackling of cellular fat in the hot pan;

"You would be welcome because I say you are.", he said almost flatly - as though he were threatening anyone who would dare to say otherwise. Though it quickly turned upwards to a slight jest, as though and afterthought occurred to him;

"And I suppose because you could demand it, but surely it would mostly be due to my efforts.", he laughed.

Then her arms wrapped around him - pressing skin to skin, nails digging ever so slightly in to find traction in the lines that covered his body. Sculpted like a marble statue, she'd feel the warmth of his body through every inch they touched together; while the rings hummed ever so vibrantly at the touch. He paused to enjoy it, glancing back around him with a slight grin;

"You know I'm busy, don't you?", he said with a cock of his brow. Obviously she knew, she just didn't care - and neither did her.

He flipped the fillet once more as his free hand moved to cover those interlocked around him - letting the rings tap together. They formed an almost electric current between them, as though they were one for a moment; a feeling they had become somewhat used to in their time together, and one Maliphant always seemed drawn to come back to. While she couldn't see it, he offered a broad smile - mixed with the smell of smoke in the air, and the gentle hum of her breathing, he could say this was likely the most comfortable he had been in some time.

Even despite the assassination attempt only a few hours ago.

"These little moments...", he offered her as he adjusted the cut of meat in the pan.

"... They make it worth it.", knowing her worries through the ring and their proximity.

"In time, when our stories are told and our names are carved in the marble slabs of history - I hope we can enjoy many nights like this. Many and many.", he said as his thumb gently glided over her wrist.

Srina Talon

 

[Srina Talon]

Location: Castell [Shu Mai City] - Rented Apt
Tag: Darth Empyrean
Aesthetic: X

“Because I say you are.”​

​

The kiss of her mouth twinged at the silvery thread of confidence that exuded from the Sith Lord that stood in her, for all intent and purposes, humble kitchen. His laughter caused some of the shadows in silver eyes to lighten, though, she kept her own. She could only imagine what terrible things would occur if she arrived at Korriban in an official capacity and demanded entry. Not even the above it all Worm Emperor would be able to forgive a dreadnaught and its accompanying fleet sitting like a dark cloud in orbit unannounced. So, she could demand it. Could, and should, were two very different things.​

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“I believe your efforts would primarily revolve around encouraging your Emperor not to open fire.”​

​

Few things could draw the ire of her Master so swiftly, nor, wake up the people they had pledged their loyalty to. The Mandalorian Empire had discovered that on Eshan, moreover, they had scattered to the winds once the flames of war cooled. The Sith Empire took credit for their destruction, but the Clans of that regime had been broken long before. In this instance? They’d merely handled the clean-up. Srina longed for many things. A reboot of that crusade? In her name?​

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No.​

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Instead—She nestled her cheek closer to his spine, breathing him in, while fully ignoring his statement about being busy. Her response involved turning her head so that she could press her lips against him before giving a quick, almost playful bite, that was muted from his clothing. The arms that wrapped around him shifted when their rings met, briefly, causing her to freeze. It wasn’t uncomfortable. It wasn’t an unwanted sensation, but it was akin to drowning. It made her forget herself.​

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He was her strength, her weakness, and all things in-between. It wasn’t as if they had really hidden their affections in recent history, but it was still something many of their peers were hardly ready to accept. Some would assume it was merely an entanglement of convenience. They wouldn’t know that he had piqued her curiosity long ago, enough, that she had sought him out in a dingy dance club in the middle of nowhere. Parts of her wished she had pressed forward then. Danced, in a white dress beneath shining electric lights in the arms of a man she hardly knew.​

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Things had been different. Srina was nothing if not loyal, always kept her word, and in those days, she had been promised to someone else. Her pedantic nature wouldn’t allow the thought of anything else. ​

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When their rings touched, she could feel everything he was. It was overwhelming, beautiful, but equally invasive. There were parts of her that he didn’t need to see. Worries, fears, and doubts that she felt made her less than what she was. Simply, because he knew. “…I—”​

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“—I hope it’s enough.”​

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“I hope I’m enough.”​

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Enough, for an ambitious man. It was an oddity. She understood war. She understood the attack on her person not long ago. Leaving an alleyway full of bodies left her feeling empty. She felt nothing. They were merely obstacles that she had no qualms in burying. Standing there, with Maliphant, she questioned her every breath. She had never been adept in delicate matters; nor was she skilled in the apparently fine art of courtship. It was delicate. ​

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After a moment he would feel her shift and sigh while her form rolled and muscles loosened to relax. She hadn’t realized how tightly wound she’d become until that moment. Coiled, like a snake. Mentally defensive for no reason. It was nothing Maliphant had done and had nothing to do with her faith in him. It was simply her experience piling up. If she kept everyone out, family included, she couldn’t be hurt.​

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Srina Talon thought. She did not feel.​

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“Perhaps I will design ways to place myself in danger more often. If you come running every time some hired assassin gets a lucky shot off our evenings together could increase sooner rather than later.”​

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She was teasing, again.​

​

Mostly.​

 

[Darth Empyrean]

His thumb stroked across her hand, letting skin pass its warmth between them as his other hand seared the food as much as he could without burning it. The Force moved a stick of butter into the pan and he tilted it as it basted it; careful not to spill anything near them. His eyes, however, were unfocused; imagining her form against him from the third person.

"As much as I love our evenings, I can't help but think we'd raise a bit too much suspicion leaving a trail of corpses in the wake of our passion.", he said with a simple grin.

He used the force to flip the food and tightened his grasp upon her hand.

"But I'd do that much and more if you'd ask it of me, Srina. Never doubt that - I love you, and I won't betray that for anything."

His thumb was no longer stroking at her hand, instead squeezing her own with a reassuring pressure. As though his hold on her would contrain any doubt she held for herself, for the confusion she felt for him - that it would all melt away under the heat of his hand.

Srina Talon