I Want U 2 Want Me

[Preliat Mantis]

[member="Aditya Amadis"]​

​

​

​

​

​

​

By the ancient gods of war and violence, he was actually doing it. He was sitting there.​

​

And staring at a menu, wearing a nice jacket and slacks (no armor).​

​

And waiting on a woman. ​

​

​

A part of him wanted to call his mother and finally tell her the good news- her son wasn't totally focused on wholesale slaughter and warfare, he finally found time to- well, he made time. Being a Field Marshal, he had significant sway in his schedule. He had delegated tasks, ordered, and downright beat a man to force a week off. He blinked, looking up at the waiter. His hand instinctively reached for the knife at the side of the table when he hurriedly approached, but Preliat soon remembered that wasn't in a combat zone, nor was in he in any sort of danger from a 19 year old Zabrak kid who wanted some spending money for his time off. Blinking, he leaned back in the chair. He ordered a tall glass of wine. He needed the liquid courage.

"How the feth did I get here..."

He asked himself in a hiss, realizing that he may have been out of his mind. Preliat Mantis. The wolf of the desert, the savage Mandalorian- any of those titles could make people say 'no, I'll pass on a date', but she somehow said yes to his proposal. Maybe it was desperation that drove him to ask finally, or the unbearable loneliness that he had. It was hard to lie down at night and realize that the only thing that you had to look forward to was getting up and going to fight someone, shoot someone, stab someone, club someone, beat someone, or blow something up. Believe it or not, the routine became monotonous and even painful.

He had acquaintances- friends was a term that was foreign to the Field Marshal, if not, wholly alien and exotic to say. He had no real friends to speak of. Mando'ade was one thing, but besides a friend he had violently beaten for caring too much, he now had minus one. So that made zero. He tapped his fingers on the table. He liked the jacket- black cotton with only a few pockets. Brown slacks that he had been told would look good on him. A gray V-neck that showed just a bit of his new tattoo. Not that Aditya had seen him without his armor. He looked up at the waiters passing, the other patrons, noticing how they interacted. He noticed everything, took in the details of the room. The exits. The kill zones. The defensive positions. He couldn't shut it off, only around her.

Her.

Her in question, being one miss Aditya Amadis. Her stunning beauty was not limited to her fascination and seeming habit of physical beauty, but her inner workings that made her so unique. The galaxy was filled with stunning beauties, but Preliat had failed to meet one that met the criteria of Aditya, being that she may have been the most inventive and dedicated people he'd known. He met her through the Army Of Light, back when he was doing what he did best- though he remembered that he hadn't even made Rally Master at that point. And she was still married, and he was married to war and the fighting. He hadn't quite made the decision to divorce war, but maybe Aditya could convince her. That is of course, if she arrived. Then again, he was at least ten minutes early.

Punctual man, Preliat. Punctual, powerful, precise- and savage and barbaric and possibly one of the most violent men in the galaxy.


But he had a soft spot.

 

[Ginnie Dib]

Something was burning. The scent! The musky odour! It was darned annoying and it had gone on far too long. Aditya'd gotten a call through the second assistant of the third engineer of the freighter she'd been holed up in working on a new propulsion emulsion for long-range transport engines. Somehow the second assistant of the third engineer ended up crawling through the rubble and slag of her violently deconstructed lab to heft Aditya out in time for her date.

Date.

Date! "Oh gosh, oh gosh outa my way, shortstuff! Move it, Princess! Waugh!" Maybe she should have changed before she went to meet [member="Preliat Mantis"], 'cause her heel just snapped and there Aditya Fitz-Kierke went, spilling to the floor. At least she got to take one of the sommeliers with her. "Oof! Hands off, Jack." Cantering back to her feet, Aditya fixed her hair, took a step and tripped.

"Wha-oh my sweet zippy. Borrow this? Thanks." She grabbed the corkscrew bottle opener from the sommelier's pocket, slid it over unbroken heel and yanked. The heel popped off to the floor and she passed the corkscrew back. "Appreciate it."

"Ah, Ma'am? Ma'am!"
"I'm almost late, another time!" What was that burning smell?
"Ma'am!"

Onward! The only direction for Aditya was onward. Still, one would think a place like this would watch it on the burning sm-"Oh ow!"
The last few steps to Preliat's table had Aditya's heart flutter, her lungs sucked in air, she felt warm, comforted that even though the lab blew up and her new emulsion failed utterly she could have a decent meal with a man in armour who . . . wasn't in armour. "Wow."

It was enough to make a woman go wild. Or. . "Oh gosh what is that sm--oh! It's me! Oh my giddy aunt!" Her shoulder was on fire. Literal fire! Embers from the emulsion had expanded and standing right at the table, Aditya patted it out, grabbing the nearest water glass and dousing her shoulder. The fabric smoked and Aditya sat down. "At least I'm on time!" She said to Preliat.

"I should have taken the extra five minutes and dealt with. . . this, shouldn't I?" She motioned to herself with a huff and glanced over at her date. Was he a soft spot? "Sorry I'm . . I was. . . there was work and I was trying to make engine fuel and I think I made a new kind of foam explosive. So! H-ho-hhhh." She rubbed her cheek with the back of her hand and stared at the lines of tattoo peeking from the collar of his shirt. "If I ask how you've been am I going to get a series of action movies, or should I pick some other mode of conversation?"

She couldn't help it. Her chin drifted to the back of her hand, her elbow to the table and she sighed happily across the table from the bloody, violent warmonger.

 

[Preliat Mantis]

A lot of things and a lot smells occupied his senses for a moment. In response, he could have laughed, he could have gotten angry, but instead, he just blinked. First, he heard her coming in, then he smelled her. Fuel. Burning clothes and hair. He stared at her for a moment, before she asked him what he had been up to- admittedly in a strange way. The Field Marshal leaned forward, more of the tattoo poking outwards. It looked fairly intricate, to say the least. It was a different style compared to most, darker inks with fewer colors to accentuate his darker skin tone, and to match his jet-black hair.

"You'd get a lot of stories about betrayal and pain, to be honest. But I've also been promoted. And I have a few interesting stories. I think I made a friend."

He spoke bluntly, and was still soft-spoken. When they first met, he wasn't even a Rally Master, let alone had been in a real engagement. But since then, he had witnessed and aided in the destruction of the Sith Empire, destroyed the throne with Mand'alor, and had repeatedly gotten into engagements and fights with a number of foreign armies. All of which, were fairly interesting topics to say the least.

"You seem to be keeping yourself busy, Aditya."

The name rolled off his tongue, less formal and more personal than before. How the woman made him swoon, though, for Preliat that meant it wasn't a scowl but instead a sort-of slightly happier look than what he usually had. But, as the evening went on, it would probably improve. Especially around [member="Aditya Amadis"], the girl that had been in his heart for quite some time now.

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"Oh that kind of 'how you been'. Great. Sorry life's been so lame but hey! Promotion! That's cool and sweet and probably means a lot more war, but as long as they're not backwoods pirates I think you'll be okay." She smiled at him and absent-mindedly pointed at a glass of wine when the waiter came by, "I'm up for interesting stories. Tell me one. Maybe by the end of the night I'll let you tell me two. Whose the maybe friend? Anyone I know?" She winked and sat back, dusting her hands off on the napkin and tossing the dirtied cloth on a passing waiter's tray of dirty dishes.

"Have to keep the company afloat and with the wars going on, we've taken a few hits. The biggest problem seems to be fuel consumption. Special interest groups are building more longer super star destroyers and fleets to arm up, and there's a huge gap in the market for accessible fuel to power the beasts. I was working on a foam fuel source with a higher, longer burn to use less weight and save overall costs, but it well, you saw. Quite literally blew up in my face. Would explain the ringing in my ear. Back to the holoboard. I was surprised to get your call, thought you'd forgotten about little Epicanth me."

For a brief second, she glanced at the menu and pointed at something vaguely food-shaped before sliding it to the edge of the table. "You look well. Very well. . . I mean, sure it's great for a girl to gawk but you must get that a lot. What's the tattoo?" [member="Preliat Mantis"]

 

[Preliat Mantis]

"It'd be hard for me to forget about an Epicanthix, considering I am one. That'd be an interesting day."For the briefest of moments in the career of The Wolf, he had shown humor that wasn't dry and sarcastic. He nodded at her explanation of her drive to produce a new fuel source. How clever- supply someone with something they need. Plenty of people he knew personally and otherwise would pay handsomely for the chance to have a fuel that was lighter than what they had already and burned slower. She used the term 'Special Interest Groups' but he perceived the term as 'threats'. Threats that needed bigger weapons to take care of- the arms race in the galaxy was a never-ending struggle to arm each side with something bigger and better. Fortunately for the Mandalorians, they had maintained a strong presence both on the ground and in the naval aspects.

"I helped Mandalore himself destroy the Sith throne on Dromund Kaas...let's see. Oh, as for the 'friend', bit...Ashin Varanin. She gave me a rather fitting name as well. She called me The Wolf. That's what everyone who knows me calls me nowadays."Preliat turned to the waiter, and ordered a surf and turf. How long had he eaten in a restaurant? The answer was a very long time. He leaned forward, folding his hands."I'm a Field Marshal now- and that means I only have one place to go if I want to get promoted. Which, may or may not happen. How about that- would you see me as the Mand'alor- the sole ruler?"He smiled, picking up his glass of wine and smirking at [member="Aditya Amadis"] and her pretty Epicanith features.

"It's a tattoo of something that hurt a bit when I got it."

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"I see you as the man who took a job and carried it through the best you could. Success, survival, it's the same thing. Field Marshal or Mandalore? Whatever job you're given you'll do. Full hearted and exposed." Aditya again had no idea what she'd ordered, nor did she care. Food was food. Some of it tasted a lot better the rest, but in a place like this, where every meal was bound to be right good what did it matter which one of the tasty things she got?

"You have been busy. It's . . . wow in all that you remember a mind freaked engineer from the backwater moons. I must be some kinda girl. Or is it my work in fuel economy and engineering? Fickle me thinks 'huh, maybe he's a scout. Maybe someday he's going to bundle me off to Mandalore to choose a side and a flag to live under. Varanin, huh?" She clicked her thumbnail on the handle of the knife, watching [member="Preliat Mantis"]' face. He was feral and a visceral threat to anyone and anything 'in the way' and she felt the thrill of the Nexu nest. "The Wolf. Varanin gives you a nickname and it's the Wolf. That's . . . that's epic. Incredible! Want me to call you Wolfie, or is sexy dude enough of a name?"

The wine wouldn't drink itself and Aditya wasn't one to cry 'lightweight'. She had it in her hand and drank in long sips. Maybe a little too long for propriety's sake. "Tattoos are supposed to hurt, aren't they? Is it still painful?" Was she talking about the tattoo or the reason behind it? Aditya didn't know herself. There was always a shadow of doubt and gravitas surrounding the man, secrets and horrors and traumas his eyes whispered at but nothing else brought forth. Enough mystery to keep a girl interested.

 

[Preliat Mantis]

"I prefer Preliat in the company of those I care about."He replied, almost coldly. The name bothered him- but only around her. It was as if she was a reflection of his sins, a culmination of avoidance and regret that he eventually had to face, and he was facing them over dinner. He leaned forward, resting his hands on the table."You are indeed- some kind of girl."He smiled a broad smile- a rare sight for those who knew the Mandalorian.

"The pain wasn't too bad. The itchiness was the part that I couldn't stand. And I suppose sometime that you'd like to see it in it's entirety- correct? And as far as I'm concerned- I don't want you to come to Mandalore. You'd have an aneurysm going cuckoo over all the gear and tech and ships and engines and armor we carry around. You might have one if you looked inside my helmet or my new armor, come to think of it."

He waited for the explosion of questions from [member="Aditya Amadis"] about what exactly he meant. How he could listen to her talk- for hours upon hours.

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"Nice to know I stand in the cared about category." Aditya couldn't let the wine glass go, not yet. It was far too warm and comforting a liquid.

"Hoh-hoh-hoooh! I'd have a techno-coma would I? And what makes Mandalore such a fetish for m-mhh forget I . . . wait don't forget! No way! I could totally handle Mandalorian technology, I'm a freaking techno wizard. Wizardess? Sorceress. No those all sound hokey. What's with the new armour? Proprietary secrets? What's it with the ship engines? Is the crazy captain dude still on Mandalore? I might have a techno-gasm ever second step but would that not be worth it? Why can't I see? You could see. . . the face. The face you have not seen." Aditya sat triumphant, then burst out in a pattern of giggles.

"Aneurism. That's a great way to run amok on a girl's heart, you know? Goading me into having an interest in Mandalorian space and ground and planets and all. Or are you afraid I'll take a look and steal all your Mando tech? Or that I might get in a fist fight with the wrong Mando?" She held her fist out, knuckles as busted and covered in knicks and scars as they were in perpetuality, this time lines and dashes of burns and a blister on the side. She blinked and yanked the hand away, grabbing a pair of gloves from a pocket and putting them on with a sniff and stifled hiss. "I would like to see it in its entirety. How'd you guess? My wandering eyes or the fact we're here, like this, at a fancy dinner and I haven't once looked at my office comm?"

 

[Preliat Mantis]

"Partly- I'm worried that you might win in a fist fight with the wrong Mandalorian. You're tougher than you look-"He smiled as the waiter brought him a bottle of red. He was obliged with another half-glass, and he smiled at [member="Aditya Amadis"]."Though it's most likely fair to say...pirate killing is better left to me."He sat forward, folding his hands, setting the glass of wine on the table, staring directly at her brown eyes."If you're referring to [member="Captain Larraq"], he's not insane or crazy- he's just one of the scariest people I've ever met."He said. And he wasn't kidding- anyone who was willing to do what he did was in fact, one of the few people who could earn Preliat's respect and hold it.

He smiled when she mentioned the face."I think I'm looking at a rather beautiful face."He said quietly, his hands reaching to grasp hers- though not in a rough or sudden manner. With a gentle sliding motion, he started to remove the gloves. His hands were as scarred- or perhaps more than hers. His CQC trainer, a gruff man named Tracyn, called them the beauty marks of the pugilist.

"If you want to go there, I can take you."

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"What, an angry Epicanthix will demote the morale of the entire planetary affiliation? Mandalorians are fragile if that's the case. Sticking in armour. . . still it's worth the protection. Of course I'm tougher than I look. I'm a ballerina. Do you know how tough that is? Standing on your big toes doing all sorts of dancing? Muscle. Tone. Enough said. For now." Aditya snorted and rolled her eyes, biting the inside of her lip. "Yeah you did pretty darn great until you knocked yourself out. It's okay though. You killed the pirates, I dragged you to safety. We can call it a team effort and let me tell you, Mr. That armour wasn't light."

The woman shrugged. Crazy was as it did she supposed and Captain Larraq was one of those sentients on her watch list. Although it was foolish to attempt any sort of corporate espionage on the Mandalorian, Aditya wasn't above a bit of bodging to figure out what made the man tick and his weapons and ships tock.

As her gloves came off, Aditya clenched her fist in an attempt to halt the process. If her mother could see her now. . . well first she'd be appalled at Aditya's choice in dinner date and then she'd probably rap her cane on the table to get Aditya to stay in perfect posture and then probably start talking about the next ballet routine before she noticed the sheer lunacy of her daughter's hands. Aditya gulped. It wasn't dignified, hands like hers. Too many people figured she was just a pretty face with a rough attitude when the gloves were on. Off? Well now, that was the question.

"Wouldn't you be worried I'll use my eyes and that half a brain I reserve for engineering to deconstruct half your home world for my own devices? 'Cause I'm not beneath a little engineering homework. Innovate or be annihilated, as the saying goes. Or were you planning on keeping me busy?" The glove popped off and onto the table. Aditya put her hands on her lap.

 

[Preliat Mantis]

"Planetary? Our borders extend beyond Concordia and Mandalore. I don't think you know how actually being in a war is tough. I don't think you've ever actually even fired a weapon- but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong." He smiled as their food was brought over to them by a waiter, who told them to enjoy their meal. Of course he was going to enjoy his meal- it wasn't a ration, after all."I don't think I was even a Sergeant then..."He tapped the fork against his chin, before leaning forward, staring at the woman across the table from him. She seemed to tense up- though it wasn't too much of a surprise for Preliat to see her tense up. There was more to [member="Aditya Amadis"] than he liked to admit, though he wasn't quite sure exactly what it was. He'd found out, eventually.

His eyes flickered upwards, the same way he'd use them to inspect or berate a soldier for failing a weapons inspection.

"Your hands, Miss Amadis. Why all the hiding?"

 

[Ginnie Dib]

Aditya was halfway through drinking from her wine glass when [member="Preliat Mantis"] mentioned her civilian status so profoundly. She choked. "No, oh no. Never been in a capture-the-flag territorial gridlock won and lost by the conglomeration of hundreds of soldiers and gunners on each side. I've survived an invasion where a couple of Force Users threw super star destroyers and buildings on top of my people, watched a cannibal play a man like a puppet while my buddies shot at her-slash-him and I blew her-slash-him up but oh, he-slash-she ended up surviving and gutting them anyway, ahhh, I didn't run a pirate ship after running away from a very promising career in ballet by the age of 17 and I certainly didn't do my fair share of firing the blasters and beating the poor sods who wanted my husband's bounty over, and over, and over, and over. Oh, and I didn't string up two twi'lek twins by their pigtails until they gave me what I needed to save Kei's rotten life again and I totally wasn't on Bimmisari or on that Chiss world where I defused a series of warheads and chemical weapons while a legion of 'your side my side' soldiers were firing away at my ears, with nothing but a fork, a hair pin and the contents of my pockets, mind you and I totally haven't --you know what? No. I'm not a soldier. Not everyone whose fired a gun or fought for their lives with their bare hands has to be a soldier. Not all of us are Mandalorian trained from childhood to take it. So I got out. I became the engineer Senior Prefect. And I kept my fine backside out of the fighting 'cause I can't compete with the two thousand force users per square inch, but at least I know they can't survive explosive decompression or deadly, deadly poisonous gas. Unless their name is [member="Manu Xextos"], but he's some sort of freak of nature Echani who after eight hundred years still won't die. I'll fight if my life is on the line, but I find it ruddy terrifying and I don't want to have to fight for my life. I want to be loved and protected. I want to know that I can go to sleep at night without worrying that there's an assassin, or a Sith Lord, or a flying building coming my way . . or . . . or a sudden burst of fire from some bounty hunter's flack cannons after us for the third time in as many days and the engines combusted and we're dead in space but 'Ditya fix it, darlin! You got four minutes'."

The whole tirade had Aditya leaning across the table, her backside still firmly in her chair. Both hands gripped the sides and she whispered every word. Her black and red eyes seemed to swell with an inky riptide, the conglomeration of moisture threatened to overthrow the edges of her eyelids but Aditya Amadis would not allow herself a good cry. She shouldn't have answered more than a laugh and praise for Preliat, but as her food came and her gloves were off, the slip on her conscience and resolve were buried in the fabric of her gloves.

She was a killer without the taste for it, a woman who had in many separate times done what had to be done and lived afterward by keeping busy. Maybe her ridiculous work hours and absent minded behaviours would be seen with a clear eye, maybe she'd been ruined for Preliat Mantis or maybe he'd see a kinship in her. Aditya didn't know. She hadn't yet figured out how to stop the words from seething in whispers out of her pretty, scared mouth.

"You tell me how someone would get plasma burns, broken knuckles, sheared skin and mashed digits on the hands of a ballerina engineer. I'm making a life for myself that doesn't have to do with blowing people up. And like I learned from my infinitely social-climbing mother, debutantes and polite society don't have ruined hands. So I wear the gloves. Call it a coping mechanism, but in my experience once people figure out I was once on the 100 Most Wanted List they either turn around and walk away or they call it in. I want a life, Eli. A good one. The Galaxy is exploding and I'm waiting out the shock waves. I know deep down that some day someone's going to knock on my door and say 'pick it up and start fighting' 'cause of some moral choice or patriotism but I don't have a faction to belong to, I don't have a planet to call home. All I've got is a couple of work-ruined hands, a company, and you.

And I'm not even sure I have you, 'cause I am pretty sure you're going to walk out on me 'cause I'm not some plain perfect silly broad who says 'yes dear' and I'm secretly a badass who wants the chance to look in the mirror without feeling the chill of someone's blood on her hands. And that makes me a coward or something. And it's Ms. Not Miss. I've been married then divorced then the son of a queen died so I'm not Miss anymore, I'm a Ms. Did I just spoil any chance of this relationship going anywhere?"

 

[Preliat Mantis]

He did what he should have done a long time ago with Aditya. He did what he should have done with his brothers and his sisters, he did what he should have done with all those he had failed to do it with. He leaned forward, and listened. His heartbeat and her words became the only sound in his world, the passing by of the waiter's feet, the jingling of their pens against their cotton blouses, the clicking and the clanging of metal on porcelain plates. He listened as the couple next to them spat out words more vicious than the verbal beating that he was receiving. Preliat could not recall a time when he was more wrong, when he had been so assuming of another person that he had become so inherently wrong. He flinched, after she was done. [member="Aditya Amadis"] had just beaten him to a bloody pulp with her tirade.

So, Preliat did what he did not do often, if at all. He was quiet, he was thoughtful, and he ate his food quietly while thinking of an answer. He truthfully didn't have a response, he honestly didn't.

"I wasn't always a Mandalorian. In fact, I was a fairly successful Null-hockey player. I had a family who loved me, sponsors who loved me more, models, a decent amount of money, a nice apartment on Coruscant...and after it went away all too quickly...I had nowhere to go."He sat back in the chair, and didn't look her in the eye."I went back to Ordo-"He waved his hands for a moment, adding emphasis to the casual nature of the sentence."I was born there, but never associated with the Mandalorians on it. And then, I met a man on the street, who asked me what I did for a living."He paused, thinking on either the details or the consequences of his response."I told him that I didn't do anything. And he asked me if I wanted to do something."His eyes finally met hers. He pushed away the plate of admittedly good food, folding his hands on the table. They were cut, badly. Beauty marks of a pugilist who had been fighting his whole life. Against his brothers. In the ring. In the sands of the desert. In training. In battles. Against friends. Against enemies. He stared at her, leaning his head forward."I said yes. And then, it all happened so quickly. It was just before the Dark Harvest."His hidden pain became visible."I dream about it every night. The awful reality of it- that I will never be able to escape it."He stared at Aditya a while longer before speaking once more.


"Killing is the routine. And I don't mind the routine anymore. The routine is normal, the routine is good, the routine is necessary. I don't kill because I have to, I don't kill because I like to, I kill because it is the only thing I'm good at it. I have no skills outside fighting, Aditya. I have no skills other than knowing how to kill a man sixteen ways with a pencil. I don't know how to build a ship, repair a tank, build a house. I cannot create."He became very serious."I can only destroy. You worry about your mother and your hands- you have nothing to hide. And you never should."He leaned back in the chair, adjusting his hair, before turning back to Aditya.


"That depends, did I spoil it going anywhere?"

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"I was repairing Kei's ship during the Dark Harvest. . . that thing needed endless repairs. . . Tossed it into a star with Kei's body on it for his funeral. . . I missed the bodies and I'm so glad. When I'd have nightmares, Kei wouldn't wake up. He'd keep sleeping or pretend to be sleeping so I'd think 'no big deal' but it really bothered me that he wouldn't wake up. That he could sleep so well when we were doing less than scrupulous things. I could never sleep. I still can't, not really. You think maybe someday we'll escape our menacing dreams?" Was there a hope and prayer between the two of them?

In the silence, Aditya ate. What possible good was it going to do to let fantastic food go to waste? That was a sin. Whisper-yelling at her date about her scarred up hands? Not so fantastic. But he took it. He took it and it made Aditya flinch inside. It made her want to put herself inside the pair of gloves and be that pretty princess her mother tried to make her. Because ultimately? Looking back at her rebellion and her running off to engineer for the stars and the pirates and the battles, it had been the wrong choice. Aditya had yet to make peace with what she knew was fact: Mother knew best and Aditya should have stayed a dancer.

"Don't kill me. Can I be the one person you never kill in a million years? 'Cause I'd like that." She mashed her lips together and slid her messed up hand across the table. "I don't know how to kill anyone with a pencil. . . but I can repair a tank and build a ship and a house. If you want me to. The food is really good."

Aditya slumped back in her chair and stuffed her mouth, chewing and swallowing her bite.

[member="Preliat Mantis"]

 

[Preliat Mantis]

The hand that slid across the table, found itself wrapped around with a warm, gentle touch from a cold, hard man. He leaned forward, but his hand remained in the same position. He started to think about what he did during the Dark Harvest. Taking the city. Attacking and holding back the hordes of infected while Gil fiddled away with the hangar controls to close the doors. He remembered standing at the door, shooting. So much shooting, watching them fall through the door like dominoes. He remembered running out of ammo for his assault rifle and then having to switch to some dingy shotgun.

The shotgun was the worst part. The way it tore people apart, the way it dismembered and ripped people who he didn't know were still alive or dead apart. And he just kept pulling the trigger. That's when his childhood was over, that's when all his innocence was gone."My nightmares have never stopped. I can't tell you how many times I just...don't sleep. I remember having a panic attack with Triam. I lashed out and beat her. I felt...empty inside after that. More empty than usual. People always say they feel empty inside, but I'm not sure that a lot of them understands what it truly means to be empty. Sometimes I wake up and I don't even remember what happens that day. Some days I just remember the times falling asleep and waking up. I can't recall the inbetweens anymore."He tapped his hands on the table, and started to be honest.


"I haven't stopped thinking about you since the day I met you, Aditya. I don't think I could ever, ever hurt you."

[member="Aditya Amadis"]

 

[Ginnie Dib]

The only sound that came from Aditya was the scrape of her chair across the floor. The chair scraped in an arc until the petite Epicanthix was side to side with [member="Preliat Mantis"]. "Strength in numbers? Two's got to work better than one. Maybe if we tackle it together we'll have a better chance, eh?" Her hand, that wonderful, blistered and scarred hand folded inside Preliat's as Aditya put her head on his shoulder. Exposed and in the open, she felt the listless void of missed happinesses and lifetimes the 'normal folk' had on their worlds of plenty away from all war. She pulled her plate and fork over and tucked into her meal in bird-like bites, her head still on his shoulder.

"I'd gone to get that Phrik in a last ditch effort to save my marriage. Never told you that, and maybe it was wrong not to, but by the time we got back Kei was gone and he'd left behind divorce papers. I never saw him alive again. I knew before we'd even touched down. . . but it was worth it to get the Phrik. I still have it, you know. Never did anything with that darned Phrik. I've got plans for it eventually, but. . . thinking about that day on that stupid little world of pirates was like dreaming in colour. It was the most living I'd done in a while, and it was just one day. Thank you for thinking about me since then, Eli. Thank you for not letting me get lost and bitter in my labs."

 

[Preliat Mantis]

He looked out the window, as she moved. And he saw her reflection, and his own. And he saw the reflection, as she sat next to him. The restaurant had grown more and more empty, with the other couples and hungry patrons satisfied and leaving. And he was reminded, that maybe he was alone.


Except, now, he wasn't anymore. He blinked when she lay her head on his shoulder, before he smiled again. Twice in a night. What a woman."I went because you were cute and I wanted to hurt the Sith in some way."He rest his other hand on top of hers when she spoke about him again. He really did hurt her- though he couldn't anymore. At least, not directly."Universe has a funny way of just sorta...working out eventually, doesn't it?"He smiled when she thanked him for thinking about her.

He turned to the waiter, and ushered him over. He spoke in a quiet voice, and the waiter looked dumbfounded for a moment before Preliat gave him a reassuring nod. He gulped and went outside. Preliat turned back to Aditya."That was the best day of my life, Aditya. The day I met you."The waiter came back in, holding the Beskar'kandar helmet in his tiny, 17 year old hands. The boy trembled as he gave it to Preliat, the heavy weight of the mighty helmet getting to him. Preliat turned it upside down, and reached inside of it.

And pulled out a picture, an actual paper print of one [member="Aditya Amadis"]."I've kept this in my helmet, every helmet I've ever worn, or on my person, wherever I've gone to."He held it out for her. It was cracked and faded, and bent from folding and unfolding. He looked over at her, and smiled. And his smile said more than his words could. Preliat had become a man of few words to most, but he opened like floodgates to Aditya. She had that effect on him.

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"Guess the Sith've rebounded since then. Aw, I didn't care about the Sith. All I cared about was trying to make my marriage work, when I knew it wasn't. It was forced and love-less. I kept thinking 'what am I doing wrong? What more can I do to help him love me'. Wasn't in the universe to save it, but then it flew in my face and what did I do? Run and hide in engineering. Somebody's got to keep the ships and gear in good form, eh? Is it enough?"

It wasn't like she wanted to get involved in the inner workings of the galactic war machine. The waiter left and came backs with Eli's helmet and the Epicanthix thought maybe that meant it was time to go, but instead it was time for a reveal. It felt strangely fulfilling to be out in the open with the Mandalorian enforcer. She felt safe.
"Eli," Her lips pouted together, she pulled her eyes from the picture to his face. "I had no idea."
He'd been keeping a picture of her all this time. Right there in his helmet in times of war, and there had been much war. "No clue you'd been feeling like this." Since the first time they battled pirates for Phrik, there'd been something about Preliat that stuck. Aditya hugged her arm around his, pushed her lips onto his shoulder and couldn't stop the bubbling grin that burst onto her face. "I like it. We might want to get some more pictures for you."

 

[Preliat Mantis]

"If you'd let me, I'd love you- unconditionally. I wouldn't let us fall apart."He looked up, setting the helmet on the table. Unlike [member="Aditya Amadis"], Preliat was not only a part of galactic war machine, he may have been one of the more crucial parts of the diabolical machine. The awful, savage, monstrous part. He hated looking at his reflection for too long, he began to think about what he had become. And he hated that. But, the woman at his side, maybe could become his better half. It'd be nice to have something, someone, to make him feel like a person again. And not a soldier.

"Can we go outside?"It was an innocent enough question, but Preliat had never been so nervous in his entire life. He was going to take a chance, take a jump that he had never really taken before."I need to do something."He grasped his helmet, and gently removed the picture, and placed it in his helmet."I'd put every picture I could in there, if I could."

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"Ah." Aditya stuttered, her cheeks felt hot, she wrung her fingers around his hand. Nerves? Was she ready to love and love deeply after all that [member="Kei Amadis"] had done? After he ruined her trust and broke them apart - would she last? Intimacy was a word to run from, a currency Aditya had closed. . . but the way he looked at her. The way she felt like a saviour in his eyes, an absolute miracle of nature was compelling enough to let the flickers in her spine wind their way to her heart. "Wouldn't you? No, I suppose you wouldn't. You are my Eli, after all. Got my picture in your buy'ce and everything."

She smiled over at him and put down her fork. "Sure... sure we can go outside." Food seemed like the strangest quest of the emotionally revealing and raw-hearted evening. Aditya stood up and dusted off her clothes, inwardly miffed that more than a little dust came off than had ought to on a big date.

What had turned it into a BIG date? But it felt large in magnitude. "I might be able to rig up a piece of flimsy to rotate through a series of shots. I wouldn't want to be a distraction in battle, though. What if my picture changed and you got shot? Or worse? I'd never forgive myself, Eli. . . Maybe I'm nervous and over thinking things, but you do need to come home, you know. Maybe I need you to."

Looking away as she talked, Aditya paced outside in her heel-broken shoes and took a deep breath of the crisp, comfortable air. The air ran through the holes in her shoulders and she pulled her arms across her chest. "It's beautiful out here. . . what's up Eli?"

[member="Preliat Mantis"]