Let's Have A War

[NightSister]

Aria wasn't entirely sure how she managed to lose her balance. She'd had a bit to drink by now, after all, and her brain was still moderately fuzzy from the various plot twists that'd left her reeling. That way, one moment she was grinning as she clutched at thin air. Then she felt the remote in one hand, and then she was toppling backwards, hair spilling out as she landed, still laughing, on the sofa. Then Sult fell down with her, landing on top of her, and she could see the outlines of his face up close.

And then his head ducked down and his mouth was on hers, and she'd anticipated the kiss and did nothing to stop it, and she was kissing him back without a care in the world. Why shouldn't she? She was having fun, they were having fun. It was natural, and it was nice, and it was fun.

The fingers of both hands slid up to curl around his lapels as her lips parted. She could smell traces of booze still, and the lingering scent of cigarra smoke, and that was fine too.

This was much better than getting shot at.

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Aria Vale"]

The apartment was trashed.

At least the living room was, table shattered, couch turned over like it had been used as a cover, pots smashed to pieces and there was even a dent in the duracrete of the wall right of the sofa. Smoke curled away from the tip of a lit cigarette as Locke laid there, covers of clothing and a generous amount of sofa pillows acting for support. He hated when it happened like this.

Where am I? Home.

Who am I with? A hoarse laugh sounded in his head, he could practically see the cheshire grin shining in the dark. Aria Vale... you enjoyed yourself immensely, I might add.

Locke suppressed the urge to scowl, instead taking another drag from the one thing that brought him some comfort in the now.

Who is she? You know.

Why? She was very... resilient in our playtime.

Besides him she turned slightly, a sigh escaping her lips as the morning filtered into her mind and the smoke edged her closer to awareness. The night was coming back to him, slowly - it was always like this, but usually not like this. At least he had retained his good taste this time around, there were worse ways to wake up, after all. Didn't help that it seemed his body had been broken in about several dozen of pieces.

Everything ached, but by the looks of it Vale would have it worse when she finally did wake.

 

[NightSister]

She could smell smoke.

A lot of things hurt. Quite a bit, in fact. Her eyes flickered open, and the living room was wrecked. A smile crossed her features as she remembered how it'd reached that state.

Then she tried to sit up, and groaned quietly at the effort. Last night had been fun and all, but she ached all over now. Turning carefully, Aria fished for another pillow to prop against her frame, then turned the other way to look at Sult. So that was why she'd smelled smoke. Bit early for cigarras, wasn't it? Her eyebrows raised in mild amusement, but she made no comment. Live and let live. No need to kill the mood.

It took some more fuss with the sofa pillows, but Aria got herself sitting upright. Well then. What time was it? Did she need to get up yet? She was happy just to sit there for now, though.

Something caught her eye, and she reached over to one side.

"Guess what I have."

She grinned as she twirled the remote in one hand.

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Aria Vale"]

The smoke made angles in air and Locke did not physically react at first once Vale woke up.

But the angles she made as she rose to sit were far more interesting than any smoke signs up. Memories started flashing at the back-end of his end, he grimaced slightly as he shifted his position a bit. The pain was real this time, but looking around it all... wasn't all that surprising either. What did he remember of Aria Vale? The Xiangu lad introduced them, this much was clear.

How much of a connect was there between them? Before he could continue that line of questioning in his head, she had turned to him - grin tugging at her lips and holding the remote, victory at last.

"Congratulations." Elly responded with a snort. "Pretty sure I have the real prize of the night though."

To dash any illusions what he could be talking about, he reached out and pulled her back, pushing the pillows away so they could just lay there.

 

[NightSister]

"Alright, maybe."

She grinned slightly as the pillows propping her up were pushed back, lying back down contentedly.

Satisfied that she'd made her victory clear, she set the remote back down, lying almost flat on her back. Then for a moment, Aria was content to simply lie in silence and stare at the ceiling, chest rising and falling with quiet breaths as she lay and thought. She was cheerful, unsurprisingly - a little sore, but cheerful. Hadn't gotten much sleep, of course, but she didn't particularly care or even notice.

Then a thought crossed her mind, and she turned on her side with a flinch, looking at Sult - he was still Sult, after all, as far as Aria knew.

"Missing the heist won't have caused any problems, will it?"

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Aria Vale"]

Locke didn't need to talk. Never really needed to after a night like this - but sometimes a lady had different plans or ideas, which was fine to him as well.

Didn't need to didn't mean didn't want to, after all.

"It will be problematic." The SIS agent confirmed, before turning on his side as well, to face her. His cigarette was now between his lips, while one hand brushed her chin, the edge of her jaw, it was an exploratory gesture. Glancing marks of their... interaction last night with something of curiosity.

"But I am already working on a solution."

He didn't like that he'd have to assassinate some people, but there was a mess now and he would have to clean it up. Practically could sense Sult's amusement at that.

"It involves killing people, though, so you don't need to worry about it."

 

[NightSister]

Mild apology coloured her expression - apology because she hated to cause problems, mild because their alternative to heisting had been too much fun to feel all that bad over it - and she turned properly to watch him as he spoke, perched on her elbow.

She opened her mouth, about to ask his plan and what help she could be - oh, honestly. Make a face at the thought of killing one time and some guys never let you forget it. It was true that murder was hardly her favourite pastime, but in truth, it had less to do with her moral code than the fact that she rarely felt the need or the desire to take lives. And there was the thing about the law, of course.

But Aria had no real objection anymore, and she'd found that killing could even be good fun - at least, if you didn't mess it up. If it was useful, she reasoned, then why not?

"I can help," she insisted, a grin tugging at the corner of her mouth even as she rolled her eyes. "What's this solution, then? Who's getting killed?"

[member="Elliot Locke"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Aria Vale"]

Seemed like Aria was intent on helping out anyway.

In truth he probably could use her help. It wasn't going to be easy, especially not with Sult grinning in the shadows and goading him on, it was always like this. Usually you let him off the leash and all was well, he got the job done and Locke didn't need to worry too much about the rest.

But every once in a while he karked up entirely and left him to fix the mess.

"Taking out the syndicate entirely - dirty fix, but I don't see another way." His mind was already working on the how. These guys were big, obviously.

It was why stealing the shipment and letting them kill each other had been the elegant solution.

But Locke knew that wasn't an option anymore.

"Yeah, I got a few ideas. We will plan it out in the next few days and then hit them hard. You sure you are up for this?" Curious glance was send her way, while he tried to ignore just how interesting she looked beneath those sheets.

 

[NightSister]

[member="Elliot Locke"]

"'Course I am," she replied cheerfully, not missing a beat. Nothing in her voice went against what her words said, nothing implied a flicker of hesitance. She glanced back over her shoulder, looking now for something to put on.

Was she hesitant? Maybe the tiniest bit. After all, she'd deliberately abstained from murder for a good chunk of her life, and even now it was hardly something she often passed the time with.

Did it make a difference? Not remotely.

"No plotting assassinations until I've had breakfast, though," she announced as she sat up, quickly throwing her clothes on. "I'll make eggs or something. You hungry?"

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Aria Vale"]

Elly looked her up and down as she walked over to the kitchen.

Was more about the murdering thing than the cooking thing, even if he didn't have much faith in either when it came to her. That was more him than her though. He just didn't really have faith in people, unless he knew them for quite some time already. At the end of the day, though, he would need her help - even if Locke was loathe to admit that in the first place.

Someone who got his back while he was busy cutting throats?

Yeah, that would be an advantage in the field.

"Uhuh, yeah, let's see what you got." Could be a remark for both, but this time around it was about the food, because Elly took his cooking seriously. Once she finished dressing, he followed her into the kitchen.

"Eggs or something?" A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.

 

[NightSister]

"Yep," she grinned, "or something."

Upbeat, she made her way to the kitchen and set to work at once looking for a frying pan.

"Where the hell do you keep the- oh, there they are," she said half to herself, swinging a cabinet door open and snatching a pan by the handle. "You can make the caf this time."

Without waiting to see whether he'd make the caf, she started on the eggs, cracking two into the pan as soon as it was greased. It sizzled lightly, and Aria fiddled with the heat before turning again to look at Elliot.

"How high are your standards for fried eggs?" she asked over her shoulder. "Not that you need to worry, obviously, but it's good to know. Oh, do you want toast with it?"

- [member="Elliot Locke"] -

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Aria Vale"]

Locke managed to put his pants on right around the time she asked him about the eggs.

"I got high standards for anything I do." By the time that drawl mumbled through the room he was already pressed against her, hands lightly on her hips as he watched over her shoulder to watch her cook.

"Or anyone for that matter."

A wide smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth, before he got distracted by the idea of caf. That was definitely something that Elly could go for at this point.

Without some caf starting the day he was basically a droid.

Eyes started studying the table, before localizing the caf machine. Squeeze of his fingers on her hips and then he brushed past her, reaching for the caf.

 

[NightSister]

- [member="Elliot Locke"] -​

​

Her grin widened.

"'Course." She shifted the eggs as they sizzled on the frying pan, and set herself hunting for bread once Elliot was busy looking for caf. Eggs, after all, simply weren't the same without toast on the side.

Browned slices of bread sprang up from the toaster and Aria started - the toaster somehow always managed to catch her by surprise - just as she was setting two fried eggs on separate plates. Fetching a breadknife, she cut the toast in two before she put slices on each plate and carried both rapidly to the table.

"That caf better be as good as mine," she teased as she sat down.

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Aria Vale"]

Locke snorted.

"My caf is the best." He took a careful sip, blowing first to get some of the heat out, before smiling into his cup. "Here, you can try it yourself."

He pushed over her cup to her side of the table. It did look pretty good, which was surprising to him, because Vale hadn't seemed like the type of lady to be into this sort of stuff. Breakfast, caf, sitting at the table together and eating. That seemed to be the marks of a different kind of person.

But whilst Elliot was a good judge of character, he wasn't exactly the end-all judge.

Mistakes could be made.

A bite was taken from one of the dishes, some of the eggs. Brows furrowed in surprise. "This isn't half-bad, Vale, you might have a cook in you after all."

"How's the caf?"

 

[NightSister]

[member="Elliot Locke"]

She smirked, taking the caf with a lifted eyebrow.

Then she tried and failed to suppress laughter at Locke's apparent surprise. "Well, of course." Nice as it would be to have people for making the meals, until Aria was rich enough she'd get by doing it herself. At some point you picked up a level of competence.

Cheerful, she drank down some of her cup's contents. Food was food (and caf, by extension, was caf) but Aria certainly appreciated skill with cuisine enough to recognize that this was some very good drink she'd been offered here.

"Decent," she conceded, but the grin hiding behind her mug said otherwise, reached to her eyes.

-

"Right then." Breakfast had passed with enough cheer, but soon enough neither was hungry anymore and more pressing matters floated higher up the list of priorities. Caf finished, Aria set down her mug with an air of declaration. "I guess we should make a plan now before something good comes up on the television. How much do you know about the syndicate?"

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Aria Vale"]

"Localized group, professional, but they lack numbers." Locke responded, before going in the back to get their equipment. He assumed she would follow him in to actually get geared up for what would come next. All out assault for the most part, but Elly was also considering other approaches. Some of them less destructive, cleaner, maybe with less risk attached to all of them. It would have less explosives, but they would presumably get faster done with it too.

Damn.

He really liked explosives.

"The money would have allowed them to expand." Shrug followed soon. "Nothing ever goes according to plan."

Already a sniper rifle was taken from the specialized gun cabinets. Collapsible and compact, good enough to put in a moderate brief-case and walk around with, no matter what Nar Shaddaa was... you couldn't just walk around with a sniper without getting asked a couple of questions. Or having a bullet ran through your head just to be completely safe.

"What can you do, Vale? Force-wise."