Miss Me?

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He looked at her, startled for a moment. He hadn't expected a question like that, especially so suddenly and after they had already decided to talk about it later. Sure he had been nervous about it, but he hadn't wanted to bring it up until she was ready. For a moment Kurt simply gaped, confused, watching her. The answer of course was a simple one, and Kurt would tell her the truth. He wouldn't lie to her, especially not about this, especially not now.

"Yes." Kurt said simply, though the word was slow, almost as though he didn't want to say it. "But not since we've been together."

Again, the truth.

He'd never told Jamie that he hadn't slept with Kaile, though the subject had always been avoided and glanced over before. "Is that what you were worried about?"

She knew his reputation, or rather, she knew what he had been like. Perhaps she had tried to block it out, perhaps she was just now finding she had an issue with it, either way Kurt felt the pit in his stomach grow deeper and deeper.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

One leg began to bounce beneath the table, an involuntary nervous tick of sorts. It wasn't like she believed any other answer would be given, but she had just a glimmer of hope that it wasn't true. Solidifying that truth was only part of the bigger picture though. It was simply the tip of the iceberg that awaited beneath the surface. She looked away, out the window gazing for a moment, all the while that same leg, up and down, again and again. Was it getting faster? Jamie didn't even notice.

"More than once? Not an 'Oops we were drunk that was a mistake sorry.' kind of situation? It was intentional, and multiple times."

The questions were really rhetorical in hindsight. She could very well guess the answers and have about a ninety percent confidence she was correct in her assumptions. But that wasn't the point, none of the questions were what she was particularly after. The entire line of questioning was simply one big setup for the actual, real root of the problem.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He understood this rabbit hole, and knew exactly where it was going.

There was an important factor here though.

Kurt had been an entirely different person once, or rather, a part of him had been. A huge chunk of his life had been spent womanizing, running around the galaxy and sleeping with as many girls as he possibly could. He'd never quite kept count of them but...well the number was significant. He'd never really thought about it before, at least not in any detail, it had simply been part of his routine. Now of course it was something that was being dredged up, something that Jamie would wand to be familiar with.

Or did she?

He frowned for a moment, then slowly leaned forward. "It wasn't like what we have."

Kurt tried to explain. Though Kaile was his friend, perhaps his only friend, their...extracurricular activities had never been the same as it was with Jamie. It was simple for him, the differences were night and day.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

There it came. The eye roll. It was very slow and intentional. A reaction reserved for the most aggravated of responses.

"That's not what I asked." She said quietly, her eyes finally falling back to Kurt's. The girl's jaw shifted from left to right before finding the words to continue speaking. "Though you did answer it, without having to use the words." Both legs were now going in tandem. "You've slept with her however many times. Clearly it wasn't an accident. Obviously nothing has gone wrong in that department. You're both still very close."

This was the part where she felt both angry and guilty at the same time. On one hand she recognized that Kaile was Kurt's best friend. They were already together, in some form or another before she came along. They were still together in some form or another, regardless of whether or not Kurt saw things differently. But at the same time, he had just asked her to move in with him and this girl she hardly knew anything of, aside from the base fact that it was clear the two had great sex.

"Why would you ask me to move in with her? That makes me feel..." Her nose scrunched up indignantly. "Like, I'm part of some collection." That sounded awful, and dirty. "You want me to share the same home as someone you very obviously have enough feelings for that you had sex with them on a regular basis up until some point, and think I wouldn't have a problem with that?" Her voice started to elevate a bit, not out of anger, but anxiety. "Who would be okay with that Kurt? Every single time she's around I'll have a trillion what-ifs in my head whether you want it or not!"

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt watched her for a moment, unsure of how to answer. He knew where she was coming from, understood what she meant, but on the other side he...didn't. To him this wasn't an issue, it wasn't a problem. He hadn't slept with Kaile since he and Jamie had gotten together, he'd hadn't even thought of it in truth. Jamie had been his world for months now, all thoughts going to her. He frowned slightly, shifting awkwardly in his seat as he searched for some kind of answer to a question that he wasn't quite sure was even being asked.

In truth, Jamie sounded more accusing then questioning.

"She..." Kurt paused for a second, looking around, confusion in his gaze. "She's the only friend I have."

His goal wasn't to make Jamie feel bad, it wasn't even to defend himself, it was more of making the statement of why he'd never considered such a thing would even be an issue. Jamie of course wasn't part of any collection, she wasn't any sort of prize or trophy to be collected she was...she was Jamie. She was the woman that he loved, the first woman that he had ever loved. That was special, that was above everything else. Wasn't that enough?

Wasn't that difference enough? "You're not...you're not a thing. I don't want to collect or own you."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie dropped her head down, thumb and index finger extending over her forehead to allow the rest of her fingers to cover her eyes. There was a burning, stinging feeling behind her eyes that she was familiar with. If there had been away to wipe clean the thoughts and discussion of this topic she'd have taken it. To just forget about it entirely. Kaile was Kurt's one true, best friend. Was it selfish of her? To not be comfortable with this person, who, being only a friend, despite having that same physical connection with slightly differing emotional ties to be living in the same place as she?

That was a question that she wasn't sure she could answer, nor one Kurt could answer. It was an impasse for sure.

"I know she is." Still looking down. "But that's how I feel." There wasn't exactly another way to say it. The most bothersome of the subject was that he hadn't thought twice about how she would feel about the idea, and that he had already considered the whole thing before telling her, even when he had been given the chance.

"You didn't consider my feelings, you were just going to do it. And not to throw salt on the wound or anything but I didn't kark my friends and then ask you to come spend a part of your life with them."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt froze for a second, watching her. "Jamie..."

How was he going to put this?

How was he going to make this right?

"Jamie..." Kurt repeated her name as though that would somehow bring the words to his mouth. "You're the first girl...you're the first girl that I've ever felt about like this. The only one who has be constantly thinking about her, the only one I've ever even considered owning a home with. The only girl who has made me want to stop running."

He realized that sweet talk wouldn't be enough here, but maybe honesty would be. "You're the first girl, the only girl that I have ever loved."

"Something like this." He continued on. "Problems like this...It's new territory for me. It's not something I've ever thought about, not something I'd ever thought I'd need to think about. I never expected to fall in love with you...but I did. I'm sorry that I don't know...how to fix this."

Kurt trailed off, unable to explain himself any further.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Maybe it was that the two came from such contrasting backgrounds that what was normal for one was abnormal for the other. Hardly something either could fault one for. That understanding though served little to change how she felt about it. Her teeth had been biting down into the flesh of her lower lip for some time without much thought to it. The revelation came when a bit of blood began to pool in her mouth, gravity pulling at it with her head still tipped low. The moment she opened her mouth to say something several drops fell and splashed atop the table, which she quickly attempted to wipe away with her free hand.

Jamie knew he cared about her. She cared about him equally. It wasn't as if that was in contention. All that served to accomplish was to puff her eyes a bit, and threaten to release the water that had been, to this point, withheld. Her breathing was stuttered as she struggled control over her eyes.

"It's not fair." Her voice was an almost tremble at this point. She could feel the small bumps along her skin rising and the tiny hairs on the back of her neck raising as she heard herself speak. "Saying that just makes everything all the more difficult." The blonde raised her free hand and wiped a bit of blood away from her lip. "I don't know what to do."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He looked at her, pain his eyes and a hurt growing in his chest. What was he supposed to do? What were they supposed to do. Of course the solution was obvious, but it wasn't one that Kurt could take. Kaile was his friend, his only friend, the only real one that that he had ever had. He couldn't just throw her away.

Just like he couldn't let go of Jamie.

It was an odd sensation of being stuck in the middle, of having no real way to either lean left or right. Part of him wanted to just get up and leave, to run away from his problems once again, but when he looked at her, when he saw the way that she looked at him he knew that it simply wasn't an option. Kurt couldn't leave Jamie anymore than he could stop breathing, that much he knew for sure. His chest rose and then fell as he took a single heavy breath.

"Do you love me?" Kurt asked her, his eyes wandering to find hers.

This problem didn't have a solution, not a clear one anyway, but Kurt was confident that they'd find something, he just needed to know the answer to that question.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Pulling her hand away from her face her eyes looked to Kurt for the first time in several minutes, though now instead of looking like a sparkling blue sky they were a watery, salty mess. Her cheeks had reddened due to the embarrassment of being in public for this discussion. Patrons were bound to notice, had they not already. Kurt wasn't the type to care what others thought of him, but Jamie was incredibly conscious of that outward appearance. Her family had ingrained that self-awareness in her, making it impossible to forget.

Using her shirt as a tissue Jamie wiped her eyes lightly on either side before taking a few breaths to answer Kurt. "Yes. Of course."

That was seemingly the easiest part of the entire conversation, telling him she loved him. "This wouldn't matter to me otherwise."

That much was true. If she didn't care as much as she did she would have just went with the flow. That wasn't the type of person she was though. That wasn't the environment she grew up in. Her life was drastically different from carefree living. Her whole world was structured, organized, laid out. She knew exactly what she was doing, and where she was going every step of the way. Kurt may have felt a bit out of his element, but Jamie was treading unknown water just as well. Kurt had so many more advantages in a worldly sense than Jamie ever had, and this was likely to be a small bump in the road despite the severity of importance it seemed at present.

"I love you."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

That was enough.

No matter the issue, no matter what the cause of their fight or anguish, they at least had that. It was enough. It was enough to make him believe that they could push through this, that they could solve whatever problem came at them. Perhaps right now they were stuck, and maybe they would be for weeks to come, but they would get over it. He was sure of that now. For a moment more Kurt simply sat there, then he stood. HIs back pained himself slightly, anguish shooting up his spine.

Slowly he moved towards her, two steps, both of which caused him to flinch with pain.

Kurt sat himself down on the same bench as Jamie, his hand slowly wrapping around her and his arm tugging her close so that she was pressed against him. Almost as if out of instinct her head leaned against him just as he leaned his own back. "Then we'll be okay."

He said it with confidence, knowing it was true.

"We'll figure it out." They would find some solution, some way to make this work. "I promise."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The optimistic confidence that Kurt had for the situation wasn't entirely shared by Jamie. To her this was simply pushing the issue down the line further. It was hardly a solution at all. But was there really any point in dragging the issue out any further at the present time? While the blonde mulled over Kurt's response in her head the waitress suddenly appeared by their table side and set down the plates full of food with a smile.

"If you two need anything else don't hesitate to give a shout!" The woman likely could tell they were having some kind of private moment and hardly wanted to disturb, so she quickly scurried away, off to the back of the restaurant somewhere to likely gossip with her coworkers over what Jamie and Kurt could have been talking about that had them both looking rather flustered.

"Okay." Jamie finally said after moments of quiet inner reflection. For now she would follow Kurt's words that everything would somehow be fine.

Maybe.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

There was a solution.

There had to be.

This wasn't a problem that Kurt had anticipated, in truth he didn't even know that it had existed. It seemed rather obvious now, but the entire thing was a big tribute to just how Kurt actually thought about the world. Romance, Love, everything in that order wasn't really in his wheelhouse. He had never expected to fall in love with Jamie, much less anyone else. He'd never thought that something like this would happen to him, inf act he'd thought it would always be something that he'd run away from.

Now that he was here...well, he had to put his mind to finding a solution to a problem that he had never knew would actually exist.

He frowned slightly, shaking his head and gently squeezing Jamie's hand. He knew that there was something that he could do, some way that he could fix this or make it better, he just had to find out what.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Turning her head to look at him through strands of blonde hair that covered one eye she forced a small fractured smile. It certainly wasn't genuine, more out of acknowledgement of his squeezing her hand. Again she wiped the small remaining bit of blood from her lip before looking back down at the table to the food. Without a word she reached forward, dragging each of them closer to herself and Kurt, followed by the utensils that had been left wrapped in napkins. She passed one set to Kurt and kept the other for herself.

There was a simple elegance to the manner in which she conducted herself in unraveling the napkin, setting aside the fork, knife, and spoon that accompanied one another in a neat and orderly fashion. Another product of her upbringing one could imagine. Structure. Tidiness. Even in the smallest of tasks these tendencies shone through. The napkin was placed neatly on her lap, and the girl sipped a bit of water before setting it to the side. Perhaps eating would simply calm the tension in the air.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

There wasn't much else that he could say right now, there wasn't much else either of them could say actually. Part of him wanted to talk about nerves, talk about what caused this or how long she'd been thinking about this, but he realized that would only make all of it worse. He frowned slightly, shifting before finally opening his mouth again.

"Tell me about your family." He asked.

It was an odd subject, but one that would come up sooner or later. He didn't know a lot about Jamie's parents, or her siblings...or whether or not she actually had any. They'd never really spoken about it before and if...when he eventually met them all it would be important. He'd already had one run in with them, but then again he would hardly qualify that as an actual meeting. He didn't know if they were nobles, how wealthy they were, or what exactly they did.

Perhaps now was a good time to learn.

At least it would distract them both.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Mid chew Jamie looked over at Kurt. For a second she had an empty stare, her mouth still working on the bit of food before swallowing. She blinked. Twice. Jamie's family was what initially got the two of them together and started this whole relationship. On one hand it was sort of ironic that they had him arrested and locked away on suspicion of kidnapping her, yet here they were, on some foreign world eating breakfast with one another, together.

Jamie shrugged. "They don't usually have people arrested who visit them. I suppose I should get that out of the way first. You were an exception." Stabbing another bite of waffle she swirled the piece around in the sweet, sticky syrup before raising it to her mouth. "My parents are ambassadors and dignitaries of the Naboo royal court." Pulling free the waffle bit from the fork she chewed some more, swallowed quickly, and continued. "Both of my parents come from generations of nobility. They date back as far as any records I've ever seen." Taking a sip of water she gently placed the glass back down to the table. A clank resonated as it touched down against the wood. "They both travel a lot. Mostly to worlds that are affected by war, or famine, or disaster. They do a lot of good for the less fortunate. Back home my parents debate laws and such."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Oh." So they were humanitarians.

Well that was something at least, it also meant they might not exactly hate him. It wasn't like Kurt was convicted of war crimes or even a terrible person. Sure he had done some morally questionable things, but that was behind him now...mostly anyway. He wasn't a smuggler or anything, so at least that should go over fairly well. He mused for a moment, trying to think of what that whole situation would be like when he and Jamie actually ended up going to Naboo.

"Has anyone in your family ever been Queen?" Naboo's monarch's were elected, even he knew that much. "...Or King."

Naboo had a lot of royalty, and most of the time the transitions were rather peaceful.

It wasn't like other planets where the monarch's reign tended to end more...violently. On Tatooine there wasn't any such thing as true royalty. There were the Arceneau's, and the Hutts of course, but they didn't rule the planet by any means, they simply had the largest presence.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"No, I don't think so." Jamie set down her utensils and shifted in her seat so that she could more face Kurt. "My father's family has been a bit more prominent than my mothers in terms of wealth. His name goes back far longer than I could trace my mothers. Sometimes I wonder though, if it upset him any that his only child is a girl and not a boy, but he's never spoken anything would lead me to believe that."

Truth be told Jamie got along far better with her father than her mother anyway. He was always the more calm, collected side of that equation, whereas her mother was occasionally frantic and shrill when flustered. He had been the only reason she was allowed to take up the sport of fencing in the first place. "Though my mother always said sword fighting was not a lady's occupation, he was the one who encouraged it. That aggravated her that my father let me take it up. It was the source of many arguments between the three of us."

Leaning forward the blonde took another sip of her glass of water, the space within her mouth had begun feeling dry from the chit-chat.

"We have a pretty large estate that has belonged to my father's family for generations just outside of Theed, to the south. It overlooks the city from a distance. It's gorgeous. There's a flower garden there that he had built for me after I was born. It's my favorite thing, and what I miss the most."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Estate.

There was a word that Kurt had never used before.

Somehow, he had forgotten almost entirely that Jamie was rich, or rather, that her parents were rich. It was obvious of course, and he had known that she had money, but he'd never really thought about it much. His parents weren't wanting for anything, but compared to most people that didn't live on Tatooine...well he was in the poorhouse. Of course on his latest adventure with Kaile that had changed a bit, but even then he had never even thought of having an 'estate'.

The culture shock struck him, and for a second Kurt was dumbfounded. "I see."

Suddenly he found himself worrying about an entirely different aspect of their relationship, mainly one concerned with money. Would her parents think he wanted Jamie for her money? Would they think he was too poor? His stomach turned, and The Pilot forgot about his food.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie gave a nod and a partial smile, biting into another piece of syrup drenched waffle before scooping up a slice of toast to add to the combination of flavors. This time it took her a minute or so to chew, though when she looked back over to Kurt and noticed he had a bit of an awkward look on his face, and his lack of eating she stopped chewing entirely. Blue eyes wandered from Kurt, to his plate, and back to Kurt once more. A big gulp to swallow the partially masticated food. A small wince and nearly a choke later she wiped her hands on her napkin and prodded Kurt.

"What is it?" She couldn't quite understand why he was looking the way he was. Did I say something wrong? "What's with that expression?"

[member="Kurt Meyer"]