Private Just Checking In

[Cato Harth]

"That's yeah- a good way to put it," He chuckled, "Now if everyone else would just finally get the idea to leave, my job would be a lot easier." The lip bite and the wrinkled nose stirred something in him. Cato's look turned impish, and he leaned in to meet her halfway.

Once again, only she registered the outside distraction, and he blinked before turning around to see the absolutely nightmarish creature playing voyeur. Cato made some indiscernible noise of dissatisfaction, then turned back to Inanna, "Yyyyeah, I'm just gonna pretend like I didn't see that," With the Force, he waved a hand to shut the cover back over the window.

Then, he dipped Inanna over into a deep kiss.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

His reaction and the subsequent closing of the cover coaxed a giggle out of her. She was still grinning when he kissed her, though her smile melted away in the ensuing heat of the moment. Wrapping her arms around him, she pulled him closer, her lips pliant against his.

She almost didn’t want it to end. But eventually they had to stop, at least to come up for air.

“I just remembered… Here’s a belated answer to your question from earlier,” she began, her voice even huskier than usual. “Cais ned’jin doesn’t mean anything, really. It’s an exclamation of surprise or dismay, a little like ‘Emperor’s black bones’ or ‘by the Force’.” It was one of her favorite expressions, suitable for many situations.

“If I was going to call you something in my language, it would be… mudha, which means ‘idiot’, for trying to jump in front of me the moment you saw a stranger with a gun. Or arranda, which means ‘worthy of love’...” She kissed his neck, worrying the soft skin there with her teeth.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

As much as he would've preferred otherwise, their kiss inevitably came to its end. He pulled away, but kept his face close to hers. Close enough to still feel her warmth, her breath. His eyes flicked back and forth between her eyes and her lips. When she broke into an explanation, he couldn't help an amused smirk, "Cais ned'jin…" He tested the word for himself with a chuckle, knowing full well that his pronunciation was off the mark.

The tickle of her teeth against his neck made Cato shiver, "'Idiot, worthy of love'. That might as well be the title of my biography." He wrapped his arms around her waist a little tighter, "Save the sweet talk for when we're on the ship, eh? It'll last longer." He whispered into her ear, his cheek grazing against hers.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“Maybe I’ll write your biography someday…”

A short while later, a familiar chime put any further proceedings on pause, signaling their arrival at the docks.

Inanna raised her head with a sigh. “All right, lead the way,” she murmured, thumbing the mark she’d left behind on his throat. “I’m looking forward to uninterrupted sweet talking.”

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

"Who better than you?"

That same interruptive chime as before rang out not long after, signifying their arrival. The yacht was much more romantic, but they had places to be. At least the spaceship would let them multitask. And like Inanna had said earlier, they'd have a couple days in transit. Just the two of them.

"My pleasure," He took her hand, and quickened his pace out of the yacht and across the deck. There was some undisguisable eagerness to his efforts.

Once back to his ship, Cato would give an exaggerated bow, "After you." It was a chunky, old-fashioned thing. A freighter of some kind. It's age indicated by the weathering on its brown and gray hull. The inside was more of the same, albeit with at least some effort put into niceties. Some of it thanks to Cato himself. The main cabin and the cockpit, namely, with a bit more color and a bit more padding.

"Is it as lovely as you imagined?"

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

She picked up on the eagerness that drove Cato, an enthusiasm that echoed within her. Once again she felt the tiniest inkling of guilt, as if she was having too much fun, enjoying herself more than any person in her position had any right to. But she pushed those feelings aside, basking in the euphoria of new love.

Cato’s ship was, admittedly, a piece of junk. She touched the hull on her way in, and some of the paint flaked off on her fingers. It smelled old and musty, though not as much as it could have, given its age.

“Wow,” she commented, brushing off her hands. “I think this thing is even older than I am.”

At his question, she winked. “As long as it can fly, and the bunk is big enough for two.” A pause. “It can fly, right?”

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

"I'd ask how old you are, but I hear that doesn't usually end well," He scoffed, heading further into the ship.

To her question about the bed, he winked back in confirmation. As for flying, he shrugged lackadaisically, "Had to get here somehow, right?" As long as it made the trip back in one piece.

Cato headed into the cockpit and began starting up the ship. It made a strange whining noise as the engine flared, to which he shot Inanna a sheepish grin, "Ignore that." It lurched off the ground and ascended gradually into the sky. Initially it suffered a slight bout of turbulence, but once they had begun to pass through the atmosphere, their sailing was smooth.

"We'll count that as a success."

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

"Two hundred and three," she answered with a casual shrug. "Would it be in bad taste to ask how old you are?"

The ship stuttered, then sputtered to life. Inanna took that as a sign that she should sit down and strap in. As the vessel rose from the ground, it struggled against turbulence, but exited the atmosphere and finally took to the stars with no further issues.

"That was fun," she said, cautiously unbuckling her crash webbing. "I think…?"

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

"Twenty-five," He said without missing a beat. "Er- Maybe twenty-six now. Not sure. Keeping track of time on Nar Shaddaa is hard."

Once they were off in space, and the hyperdrive engaged, the stars outside the cockpit view stretched into ribbons of blue and white, as they would remain for some time. Cato jumped up and cracked his knuckles.

"Don't worry, landing will be more exciting," A chuckle escaped him. They'd deal with that when they got to it. "Sure enough, looks to be a couple days travel. In the meantime, it's just you, me, and the endless yawning chasm of space." He waltzed out of the cockpit and into the central hold.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

She was a bit surprised at his lack of a reaction to her age. In the past, she had gotten everything from shock and horror to astonishment and amazement upon proclaiming her age… to the point where she had felt compelled to lie about it at times. Cato had been dealing with the long-lived Shi'ido for quite a while now, so maybe the shock value had worn off. Either way, she found it endearing.

"Landing," she murmured, with a slight shudder. Standing up, she followed Cato out of the cockpit.

"And here I thought all the excitement would be found in-between..." Her stomach growled. "I trust the consumables aren't as old as your vessel, captain?"

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

"That a challenge?" He purred, only to glance down at the source of Inanna's rumblings. "I should hope not, cause I've been eating them." Cato spun around and led her to a small galley, opening up one of the cabinets to reveal a small collection of food, largely nonperishables, with a few junk foods snuck in between.

"Can't say much of it's gourmet, but, help yourself," He flailed an arm at the selection, grabbing and taking a bite out of a small candy bar.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

"That a challenge?"

Inanna nodded once. “Yes.”

The cabinet full of food was received with much gratitude. “Thank you.” She took another candy bar and ate it with gusto. “Do you cook, or is this… the extent of the typical Cato Harth diet?”

Depending on his answer, she might offer to cook for them in the future. But she had another question lined up as well.

“Why Nar Shaddaa? I mean—did you grow up there and want to go back and clean the place up, or did you just stumble upon it and decide it needed your help?”

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Inanna nodded once. “Yes.”

Cato had nothing more to add there beyond a big, dumb grin.

The question of his diet earned a bit of a scoff, "I like to when I can. Wouldn't be able to keep this physique without some healthy eating, after all. But sometimes my lifestyle forces me to take the easier choice over the better one." Fighting crime on Narsh was busy work. Add in that he had to do scrap work to make actual money, it left relatively little free time. "That said, I hardly knew anything about cooking until I went to Nar Shaddaa. Jedi Temple took care of most meals, or my sister did," He admitted with a shrug. "Can't claim to be the greatest chef in the world, but I like trying."

To her next question he leaned against the table and gave it some thought. Why Nar Shaddaa? "Not quite. I was born on Bonadan. Which, honestly, isn't too far off, if you replace the cartels with megacorps." Felt like the same thing, as far as he was concerned. One was just smart enough to disguise itself as something legal. "Guess it did remind me of home in that sense. Maybe that's why I stayed. But I came here sometime after the Concord took control. They wanted to crack down on the crime rate while they were working out a deal with the Hutts. I was pretty skeptical there was any good deal to be made with 'em, but I offered to take part in the culling anyway. Worked a few cases and realized that the way the Concord was doing things simply wasn't working. Too many things slipped through the cracks, and the cracks just got bigger. Think after a while even they started realizing it. Quietly declared the moon a lost cause and loosened their grip. Now- here we are, with a brand new Consortium stepping up to rein things in."

Only their way of reining things in was less of a crackdown and more of a consolidation. Criminal activity was thriving, because under the Hutts it didn't matter what you did as long as it didn't piss them off. "Cops and courts don't mean anything there. The 'right' way doesn't mean anything. So I started taking matters into my own hands."

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“I figured. Although I have been surprised by the eating habits of some Jedi.” She’d encountered the Huttaburger-and-pizza types, that is. “I’m not that bad myself. We should do a… a cooking duel one of these days.” There was probably a more proper Basic term for what she was suggesting, but she couldn’t think of it at the moment.

She listened as Cato explained his motives. “It probably won’t ever get better, but someone has to make a difference,” she said, her tone sympathetic.

“You mentioned that you had a sister. Where is she now?”

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Cato responded with a guilty smirk, "A cheat day every now and then never hurt anyone, right?" The concept of a cook-off seemed agreeable, and her description of choice earned a quiet laugh. Cute, "A cooking duel, eh? Sounds like fun. You're on." A welcome escape from the more literal kinds of duels he usually found himself in.

"Nyeah, probably not," He admitted. One man against an entire moon's worth of criminal activity? The odds weren't exactly in his favor. But her sympathy earned an appreciative smile, "It ain't all bad, at least. My landlord doesn't charge me rent, ever since I saved his ass from some 'debt collectors'," He put air quotes around the term. Just thugs trying to squeeze a few extra credits out of someone who couldn't fight back. It made Cato's life a little easier, but was just more proof of why his work meant something.

At the mention of his sister, he nodded slowly, "Naria, yeah. She's… still with the Silvers. I'm assuming. I haven't really met with any of those guys in a long time…" His brow furrowed, and he seemed to grow pensive, before shrugging, "It is what it is."

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“Generosity repays generosity.” She paused. “Some of the time, anyway.”

Naria seemed to be a bit of a sore spot for him, so Inanna didn’t pry. That said, she was a Shi’ido—understanding family and clan relations was part of how you got to know someone in her culture. “What about the rest of your family?”

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

"Parents are still on Bonadan… I'm assuming," He repeated, frowning, "Haven't seen them in even longer. Stuck working as cogs in the great megacorp machine." Like so many others on Bonadan. Slaving away for some fat cat on the other side of the galaxy. Upward mobility was… rare, at best. "But they're good folk. Salt of the earth types."

"We were pretty poor growing up. When it turned out my sister and I were Force-sensitive, my parents practically threw us into the arms of the Jedi. I didn't understand it at first, and I spent a long time feeling resentful. But finally I realized they were just trying to give us a chance at something better." Somewhere they could find a higher purpose, free of street gangs, polluted skies, and greedy overseers.

There was a moment of quiet reflection before Cato turned his eyes to Inanna, "...What about you? I've already met a few of 'em." He smirked, but was almost hesitant to inquire, knowing from before that her family situation was something of a mixed bag, to put it mildly. All thanks to the Maw. Nonetheless, he asked. She would tell him however much she wanted to.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

While Cato spoke, Inanna had found a seat on a rather comfortable couch. It seemed more inviting than the table where he had perched himself… or maybe she was the one doing the inviting, as she stretched out upon it.

“I’m glad you learned to appreciate it.” She hadn’t, but then her circumstances had been different. His parents wanted him to have a better life; her father had wanted her to turn out just like him, or so it seemed. “You’re a better Jedi than most, as far as I’m concerned.” She smiled. “Well, aside from the ‘no attachments’ thing, but most Jedi don’t seem to bother with that anymore.”

She shrugged as he turned the question on her. “You met most of the ones who are left. Aside from Ash and Pygar, there is my mother Lilith and my other brother Hieronymus, although I haven’t seen him in a very long time. He is an anthropologist—he travels the galaxy, taking the forms of different species so that he can blend in and observe them up close.”

Her expression grew more contemplative. “Before the war, my family disowned me. I won’t go into sordid details, but I made many well-intentioned mistakes. My father would have died gladly if it meant he was doing the right thing, but I couldn’t sacrifice the ones I love. So I cut all ties with them, left, and made a new family. But now so many of us have died that we have little choice but to cling to whoever is left. It doesn’t make the past go away, of course, but…” She chewed her lip. “I’ve tried to make up for it by helping people. Even though it made me and my loved ones a target.”

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Not long after he had finished speaking, Cato headed over to the couch in turn, smirking as he telegraphed his smooth slide in beside her, "Old fashioned notions, if you ask me. There's a difference between controlling our feelings and suppressing them. Somewhere along the way that got lost in translation." But as she had said, nowadays the majority of Jedi had accepted a more moderate interpretation on the Code of old. He certainly wasn't complaining. "I'm glad at least somebody appreciates my exemplary model." Cato joked, dipping his head briefly in thanks.

As the conversation turned to Inanna's own family, Cato returned to his quieter side, letting his hand graze over hers as she spoke. Once she finished, he smiled faintly, "Well, it seems to me like you're doing a pretty good job of that so far. Not everyone can." It was a difficult position to put oneself into, even more so when close relations were involved. Not too different from his own path, in that sense. "How'd you end up in this particular sort of role anyway? Before you said you were a novelist."

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

As soon as he sat down next to her, Inanna promptly laid her head in his lap, appropriating it as a pillow.

“Oh yeah, very old-fashioned,” she murmured, looking up at him through heavy-lidded eyes.

“Thanks.” The heavy-lidded look was accompanied by a lopsided smile and a quirked eyebrow. “I had some experience working in government, but really I just happened to know the right people. I was already living on Erakhis, and I was able to convince the government there to set up a refugee camp, though they did a pretty lousy job…”

She shrugged. “Before I was a novelist, I worked for Aerarii Tithe—uh, not when he was Chancellor, this was back when he was a Moff. And before that, I was a… uh, well, let’s just say there’s a lot of demand for someone who can look like anyone or anything.”

Cato Harth​