Mouse Trap

[Xin Boa]

[member="Delila Castillon"]

Xin followed up the stairs. On the way he tried not to be offended about Brak's comments on his card game. The lizard had said he was out of practise and Xin hadn't gone for him hard. Cheeky bastard.

Dells turned off the stairs only a corridor that led to an open balcony. The elements once again assailed them but Xin was fond of the sea air. He was certainly happier with it than being sand blasted on that dried up rock he'd met Dells on.

Their three rooms faced the balcony which in turn overlooked the far tower, as expected. The sun was starting to dip towards the smooth ocean horizon.

"Wonder what de place will look like at night," Xin mused out loud. There were lots of lights hung from the rafters in ornate carved cases. At least he hoped they were real and not purely decorative. If they were real the one closest to their rooms would have to have an 'accident' so their silhouettes wouldn't be visible looking down at the far tower.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Xin Boa"]


"Little less creepy then I first imagined."


Rucksack was shed, leaving it on the side of the balcony for a moment. Delila came to lean against the balcony, staring out at the sunset. Bathed in oranges and pinks, it was probably one of the more beautiful sights she had seen in years. Yes, she was on assignment. Yes, there were rooms to check and equipment to drag out. Right now Dells just wanted a piece of normalcy - a quiet moment before getting back to work.


Yet work was dragging in her mind. Both her 'real' job back on Coruscant and the one currently in front of her. They were supposed to be watching a suspected arms dealer. Delila had smuggled in a blaster that was uncomfortably tight against her thigh right now. Why not eliminate the target? She could do it. Had done it before.


Perhaps it was something to bring up to Xin. Brak would be all too willing to agree with her.


With a sigh she tore herself away, glancing up at the lights. They were going to have to disable a few - but not all. Couldn't draw attention if a typically well-lit balcony was suddenly dark. Hand grabbed the loop on her rucksack, digging out the room key she had kept and moving to check it out.

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Delila Castillon"]

Xin tilted his right shoulder towards the floor and swung his bag to the ground. Resting his forearms on the wooden railings he looked out towards the sunset. The ocean formed a smooth horizon. It was easy to trace the smooth curve of the planet from the line. By contrast he wasn't thinking about the mission at hand yet.

It reminded him of the homeworld of his species. He hadn't even been above the surface of that world often when he had lived there. As it had then, it gave him a rush of vertigo to look out across the endless oceans, to be able to see all the way to the horizon.

"Hmm," he went absently. He turned away from the view before some part of his mind could conjure some form of homesickness to plague him.

Delila was heading for one of the rooms. He took the loop at the top of his bag in two fingers and stepped away from the balcony.

"Did you..."

He trailed off as he could feel Brak watching him in amusement. They would need to sleep in their downtime.

"...want to share?" He finished.

 

[Delila Castillon]

Keycard was sliding into the door access as [member="Xin Boa"] came to spoke to her about possibly sharing. Delila slipped her backpack over one shoulder to have better access to open her door. Brak was watching expectantly, and from what she could tell, with amusement in his features. Blue-green eyes looked over the Nautolan, pushing through the door into the room.


Delila was letting him sweat a little. Door creaked open and she entered, turning around to look at him.


"Yeah, we can share. Come on in."


After waiting for him to enter, Delila shut the door, needing to talk. Bag was dumped near the bed for now. Silently the button on her pants become undone, pushing the fabric down her hips a little, revealing a strip of black lace. Yet it wasn't a show for Xin. Blaster appeared after a few moments, tossing it on the bed as clothing was adjusted back into its place.


"I'd be willing to eliminate our target. Shouldn't have any problems. Watch them and confirm our suspicions. After that its nothing a little sweet talking and cleavage won't do to get close. Won't even know what hit them, poor saps."


"Thoughts? I didn't get Brak's thoughts, we're too similar. He would be all for it, I can tell."

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Delila Castillon"]

He had half turned away from the door when she spoke. Xin caught the glimmer of amusement in her eyes as he passed. There was no time for trying to respond with an amusing quip for being made to wait; after dropping his bag he turned to find her unbuttoning. The nautolan blinked once and then reappraised the situation. It would have seemed a little inappropriate to make a start so suddenly, but he could see that wasn't what was going in here before the blaster was thrown down.

"Nuh concerns bout dat really," he mused as he looked from the blaster back up to Dells. He canted his head to one side which flicked out the headtails on the other. "Well, would prefer ef I had one miself. But..."

He sighed and sat down. "De man who runs our group...Wesseq. he scares mi," Xin gave a subtle shrug. "But when he spoke about dese two I could tell there was more. And he was scared."

Xin's lips parted into a broad grin as if that notion didn't concern him as much as it did. "So sure, but we be careful about it and watch first."

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Xin Boa"]



"A guy that bullies around refugees should be scared."


Delila was certain there was more to the story than what was on the surface. Wesseq or whatever his name was could be scared for a number of reasons. Blackmail. Perhaps he owed money to the two persons they were trailing. A penchant for shooting first and asking later? Either way they had planned on being cautious to begin with.


"Safety first is always a good motto to have. I'd rather be a little cautious than get riddled full of blaster bolts right away."


Dells moved to join Xin, legs hanging over the edge while she laid on her back. There was a small yawn as she stared at the ceiling. Legs stretched experimentally before letting them rest back against the edge, trying to wrap her mind around getting close enough to perform the task at hand. She was certainly jumping ahead of herself - they had to observe their targets first.


"I better go help Brak set up that empty room, we can use it to watch. I guess I will volunteer for first shift as well. I'll have to see if they have more caf around here."

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Delila Castillon"]

Xin gave a shrug. It irked him that Wesseq had unapologetically coerced him into his first job for the Fleet. Seeing the desperate state of the refugees took some of the edge off that. Wesseq was a cold, hard calculating man. Xin hadn't worked out why he seemed to be so determined to keep the refugee fleet going instead of running some division of imperial intelligence.

He turned and watched Dells carefully, nodding at her reasoning. Yet he wasn't thinking as much about the mission but her. She was a force of nature when she had her mind set on something. Back during that heist she'd made a plan and gone and found Kinsey before he could stop the angry twi'lek shouting at him.

He'd never been particularly good at anything. Last time he'd checked 'getting yourself into trouble' want classified as a vital skill.

"How'd yuh get into this?" He asked, seemingly out of the blue.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Xin Boa"]


Delila was still stretched back on the bed, listening to Xin. Mind knew she really should be moving to help Brak with the equipment - even had some in her bag to share. She was trying to tell herself the Barabel was probably relaxing a bit himself, maybe grabbing another caf or bite to eat.


"How did I get into this? Well, I had sex with this Nautolan kid. I gave him my contact information, why I don't know. Probably because he was very eager to please - I appreciated that. Anyways I get this call and I figure its some booty call and I debate on answering it but I go ahead. Next thing you know I'm crossing a rope bridge and thinking about assassination."


She moved her knee to nudge his side, clearly teasing Xin. Dells of course knew what he meant. She was trying to buy enough time, to figure out what details to share. There was a sigh and she lowered her leg back down on the bed, done teasing for now.


"How did I decide to become....whatever I am?" Tough question, Delila would do her best to keep it on the surface for now. Not dive deeper into her reason for continuing the work. "My parents owned a freighter repair yard on Ord Mantell. I was good at the work but I didn't have the heart to take it over, didn't feel right. So my twin brother owns the place now, runs it with his kids and keeps the family tradition I suppose."


"Anyway...I didn't know what to do so I joined the military. I'm not really good with anything else besides destroying things so I stuck with it."

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Delila Castillon"]

"Well I'm actually a spy and my goal all along was...wait you debated answering?" Xin's tone and smile had told that he was gearing up for teasing in return before realising what she had said about the call. He gave her a nudge back.

There were other questions he had in mind: which military had it been, had she been an officer, why and how had she left. They had things to do before night fell.

Xin laid back and rolled onto his side. In a rather familiar gesture he place the flat of his hand on his midriff and offered an apologetic shrug.

"Maybe next time I mek a social call an nah cuz we need to shoot someone?" His thumb brushed up and down against her before he pushed himself back up to his feet.

"An maybe yuh won't mek me call dree times before answering!" He added with a sly look over his shoulder.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Xin Boa"]


"Social call? Thats what we're going to call it?"


Delila couldn't help but laugh as they teased one another. Social call could have meant anything but she naturally had to tease Xin. It was in her nature to give him a hard time as often as possible. Teasing seemed to be over for now as he got up and she followed, stretching a little as he seemed miffed by her debate over actually answering him before.


"What can I say? I like to make you sweat a little. Otherwise there isn't any fun in it for me."


Grabbing some of her brought along equipment from her bag - macrobioniculars, recording equipment - Delila drifted to the room next to theirs. Brak was already busy sifting through his own things. Delila looked around before glancing out of the window facing the next tower.


"Sorry, Squidly wanted to complain about my lack of promptness when answering his calls. Thinks he ranks number one on my priority list."


There was a grin thrown back to Xin.


"Anyways, I was really telling Xin I'd like to kill these two. After we confirm what is actually going on of course. I brought a blaster in, got in back in the room. I figured you out of all of us would be on board."

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Delila Castillon"]

"No fun?" Xin didn't have eyebrows to arch, but the way the several of his headtails twitched would have conveyed the same to another nautolan. There was another follow on comment about that he wanted to make, but not in front of Brak. Opportunity for humour wasted.

"What?" Brak asked. "Hadn't realised squidly was the centre of the squidverse?"

"No!" Xin interjected. "Dat is nuh becoming a word."

Brak ignored him and kept his gaze on Dells. "Out of all of us? Because I'm a barabel and love the hunt?"

"Oh come on! Yuh can't shout 'squidverse' and den play indignant at made up speciesism in da same breath!" Squidly protested.

Brak cocked his head and looked down at his nautolan companion. "The objection is fair," he chuckled. The back and forth with Brak didn't stop when Dells was around. Xin just found himself outnumbered. "But so is the idea. Will have to see if one blaster is enough. I'm not expecting to see these two alone. Never much needed one to cause trouble myself but what's Xin going to do? Look at him. Swim around and leap out of the ocean as a distraction or ooo we could get him another hat..."

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Xin Boa"]


"Scratch that, out of the two of you, I feel you're more qualified. Whats Squidly going to do? Summon sea creatures?"


She hadn't expected Brak to react a bit negatively. Delila knew the barabel species was known for their work as soldiers at times. Did they live for the hunt? She thought those were trandoshans? Also, squidverse?If Brak hadn't suddenly put her in a bit of a negative mood she might have laughed.


Something to use privately with Squidly later on.


Arm looped around Xin, leaning into his side. She gave a light squeeze before dropping her arm.


"You two get some rest, I'll take first watch.I'll wake whoever wants the next shift in eight hours."

 

[Xin Boa]

Xin returned the squeeze without even thinking about it. Brak noticed the corner of Xin’s mouth turning upwards, but didn’t remark on it. Instead he turned towards Dells and gave a slow nod.

“I’ll take the next one then,” he said.

“Really? De night shift?” Xin asked as he stepped from Dells’ side.

“Yeah?”

“It'll be cold. Yuh’ll get all slow-witted you overgrown rock lizard. Slower-witted.”

“I can't wait until we have another trip somewhere hot dry and sandy,” Brak muttered. “Cards for a bit so I can steal your creds before she can? Just for an hour though. I need some rest and to...warm up before the night shift,” Brak admitted.

Xin turned to offer Dells a grin. “Shout ef yuh need us! See you later.” As he turned away with Brak he lowered his voice slightly. “Sometimes you're not very good at making it clear you're trying to be funny…” he muttered towards Brak. At least he wouldn't be outnumbered two to one in word games for a little respite.

---

It was a rainy night on Coruscant. The wipers of the airspeeder swished back and forth as quickly as they could but Wesseq had to drive carefully. Some of the more expensive models used fields to keep the view clear, but in these conditions visibility was poor for everyone. Better to have the rain, Wesseq thought, than be down in the lower levels and just have drips from the ceiling to let you know it had rained some time in the last day up above.

His companion turned around and placed an arm on his seat. The human sat in the middle backseat. Wesseq couldn't sense emotion as the Sith seemed to be able to. But he could read them so well that he didn't even know the signs he was reading. To him it might as well be an extra sensory perception. Right now anger radiated off the boy in waves. From under thick curly hair he seethed at something imaginary out of the window.

“You’re doing the right thing,” Kello said. The boy didn’t even respond. “They can help you. You’ll never be helpless again.” There was half a nod in reply. Kello gave up and twisted to face forwards again.

Wesseq brought the speeder down carefully. To their right was a dark, angular building. Standing before the great doors was a silhouette of a figure in robes. Water poured from the front of the hood, but Wesseq couldn’t make out the features of the one who wore them.

“She’s waiting for you Trextan.”

The boy grunted and pushed out of the door. He jogged through the downpour towards the gates Wesseq couldn't hear or lipread the conversation, but a few seconds later the Sith turned, placed an arm on the boy’s shoulders and led him into the temple.

“Kello…”

“Yes?”

“You remember when we used to topple the regimes of dictators for sport?”

“I know what you’re thinking…”

“And now we find and manipulate desperate kids for the Sith to train.”

“Wesseq, we’ve just got to ride this wave. Then we’ll get back to the game. Right now, where we are...we do what we’re told.”

A few seconds passed before the speeder pulled away. Wesseq had grown up with them both. They’d always been of a similar mind and even now he knew they found the work as distasteful as he did. But he could feel a rift growing between them. One that was probably just going to get bigger as time passed. It made him nostalgic for the old days, but he tried to force those emotions down for the time being. They couldn't be afforded in these dangerous times.

---

Xin laid flat on his back on the bed. His headtails spread out around his head like a halo. Brak was trying to catch some sleep now, having turned the heating up in his room to full blast. He was like a battery in a way, soaking up heat now so that he could keep functioning in the cold.

Xin was in a pensive mood. There were advantages to working for the Fleet. He didn’t trust Wesseq, he didn’t like Hirrau, he certainly didn’t enjoy the company of the nautolan captain who kept trying to convince him that he should live with other refugees from his homeworld. But he liked Brak and he really liked Dells. Which meant it was only a matter of time before they did something that would hurt him.

It was the time in prison, he told himself. So much time in segregation and away from people and he was too easily attached to good company. Thinking about it wasn’t going to change anything, he told himself. Instead he set a quiet alarm for ten minutes before Dells’ shift ended and tried to get some rest.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Xin Boa"]



Equipment was setup,all she had to do was actually hit record if something were to happen. Datapad was brought out and get feet were immediately propped on the windowsill. Bent legs created an impromptu desk for her work for the Alderaan Embassy. Blue-green eyes kept an eye out across the way, the towers lit in the semi-darkness once the sun had set. Delila had kept the lights off in the room, her datapad screen the only illumination. If their targets were looking it would just appear to be a guest watching the holovision.


Yawning her eyes caught movement late into her shift. One target was moving on the balcony across from them. 'Record' was immediately hit and her work stopped. Datapad tossed to the side the macros were focused in on their subject. Which revealed....nothing spectacular. The target had come stumbling to the door, opened it, shut it and hadn't been seen for a solid five minutes.


Delila guessed he went to sleep. Or was purposely laying low.


The last hours of her shift ticked by and she returned to her datapad, more focused for the mysterious being that never reemerged. Brak had come to take over watch and she stretched, filling the barabel in on all the 'excitement' of the night.


----------

Yawn escaped her as the door key opened the adjoining room. One of the bedside lamps were on, casting a pale glow throughout the room.Squidly was sprawled on the bed, seemingly taking up every inch of space on the mattress. Eyes rolled slightly, moving to set her datapad down on the bag that still laid on the floor, propped against the wall.


Mattress dipped slightly as knelt on the edge with one knee. Other leg remained on the floor as she leaned over Xin. Delila was fighting back exhaustion, resisting the urge to fully join the Nautolan and curl into his warmth.Kiss was placed on his lips before a questioning look was directed towards Xin.


"Get some rest?"


Another yawn.


"I'm going to get breakfast...or dinner....You want to come?Hopefully something is open."

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Delila Castillon"]

Xin had only been lightly dozing for the last half an hour. As soon as he felt the mattress shift under her weight he started to wake up fully.

At her kiss a smile spread across his lips before his eyes opened.

"Hmm?" Was his first response as his mind worked its way completely alert. All he saw at first was her looking down at him, her face framed by strands of red hair. Blearily, he blinked his inky black eyes and brought up one hand against her cheek. She felt cool, probably from being sat up in the night air instead of tucked away.

His fingers pushed between some fronds of hair and tucked them back. He remembered one of their first conversations about meaningless complements for hair colour. But he found hair slightly fascinating in general, especially to touch.

"Yeah, why not?" He replied. Xin didn't know if anywhere would be open at this hour, but it was a stretch of the legs if nothing else. He was shirtless unseat the quilt and was probably going to need a jacket at least if the wind was still up.

His hand lingered for a moment before he rolled for the far side of the bed to collect his garments.

"Anyting of interest?" He asked.

 

[Delila Castillon]

Delila stared at the intricate tattoos trailing along [member="Xin Boa"]'s shoulders as he rolled away from her. Face was still warm where Xin trailed his hand along her face. Dells was hoping red didn't creep into her cheeks in the form of a small blush. No doubt he would have teased her about it if it was the case.


Still half-kneeling on the bed there was a temptation to stop him. Gaze drifted over his body, thinking of their last encounter. It was immediately followed by disappointment as he slipped a shirt over his head. Delila couldn't stop an barely audible sigh as her little private show ended. As much as it was tempting to persuade Xin (not that he would need much convincing) they had more important things to do.


Pushing off the bed, Delila went to her bag and retrieved her own jacket, shrugging it on.


"One of them entered, never re-emerged. It was all extremely exciting stuff. Mainly just caught up on work for my real job."


Yawning again, Dells opened the door, letting the cool ocean breeze in as she waited for Xin to follow.


"How about you? Anything exciting go on?"

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Delila Castillon"]

"The game of cards went as predictably in Brak's direction as expected. I saved a few credits so you could clear those out too," he sighed in mock frustration. He pulled his boots out from beneath the bed and started lacing them. "Other than that had a snooze so I could catch you on the changeover and didn't dream a thing. So nothing to report."

He grinned as he stood up. Confusion flashed across his face and he turned back and forth. "Ah," he went as he spotted his jacket. This side of sleep his mind was less pressed going round in circles about being let down by those he grew close to. Once he had tried to explain that and been called an "awful cliche for a smuggler." He hadn't done it since.

Now he wore an easy smile on his face as he passed her at the door. Being woken that way had buoyed his mood. He stepped through, let her shut the door and then walked beside her through the chill night air.

"If you ask," he started tentatively. He'd gone through a minor internal debate about revealing that he'd seen her eyes tracing the lines of his tattoos up his shoulders. "If the tattoos mean anything. I'm afraid I know you'll see through any lies and I'll have to admit the truth. That I thought they'd make me a very pretty squid." He cast a sideways glance hoping she would find that amusing rather than weird.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Xin Boa"]


"Is 'pretty' the word you want to go for Xin? We've already been on this road before. Good thing Brak isn't here because you'd never live that down." There was a grin, clearly teasing Xin about his comments. "I wasn't going to ask about the tattoos, I figured it was personal."


They had been physically intimate yet she felt emotional or personal questions were still off the table in many regards. Delila wasn't hiding anything - in fact she had little to hide from anyone. It was the fact their relationship , by nature, was a ticking time bomb with a short shelf life. Xin was young and Delila was realistic. At this point she wasn't interested in sharing too much to watch someone walk away once again.


The redhead was certainly walking a tight line.


Dells took his arm as they walked, leaning into the Nautolan from time-to-time. She had done a bit of research during her shift and was wandering towards a seedy twenty four hour diner. From what it seemed it was their only option, the odd wooden sea town was all but shut down. Only a few people wandered the streets.


"You'll be happy to know we don't have to cross any weird rope bridges. I think even I'd have a hard time summoning the courage right now to cross over one in total darkness. We might end up starving first."


There was a chuckle and she rounded back to their original topic as she thought of something.


"Back to your tattoos, I was checking you out Squidly." Hand squeezed his arm a little, teasing. "Trust me, it took a great deal of effort not to violate you again. I thought better of it though, I'm hungry and tired. Don't want you feeling I'm just using you for your body. You'd have to do all the work this time."

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Delila Castillon"]

Xin merely chuckled at the thought of Brak powering along with the self deprecating use of the word. The Barabel was at his worst when Xin sported colourful feathers and more intricate binds on his headtails. It brought to mind their earlier conversation, a few beers down, about brightly coloured hair. Brak had compared him to a species of bird where the male tended to show off bright colours, but get eaten for their trouble more than they managed to mate. He wondered if red and orange hair was the same for humans or if there was some planet of five-foot high trees with peach bark and red leaves where it was the perfect camouflage.

"Why du yuh tink I was resting?" he said with an easy grinned. "Opportunity missed." The expression hid the way his breathing became more shallow for a few beats. Easy to act casual, but he couldn't help the slight spark of excitement at the thought of what that might have entailed. She could have just laid back, let him take control and sigh his name into...

Xin cleared his throat and took a step ahead to get the door. There was a slight charm to the diner on the other side. The tables were wooden, if worn. That alone gave it slightly more class than the dockyard joints with plastic tables that carried an air of disinfectant. There was a pot of caf on behind the bar that looked like it might have been brewing for a week.

"I bet yuh get to eat out at some nice places working fah royals," he mused.

 

[Delila Castillon]

"Opportunity missed indeed."


Confusion crossed her face for the briefest of moments as [member="Xin Boa"] picked up his pace, drifting away from her. She watched as his hand grasped the door for her, ushering her into the well-worn but warm and cozy diner first. Expression quickly returned back to a neutral one yet she was still surprised by his action. Xin had nothing but manners between the sheets so why was she so surprised about a simple door?


"No, not at all."


Delila picked out a booth, sliding into one side. She purposely sat in the middle and effectively made Xin sit across from her. Sitting next to one another was incredibly annoying in her opinion, too cutesy and nauseating. Sticky menus appeared before them and Delila was already pondering what to dive into. After ordering hot tea - the caf looked scary - her conversation with Xin continued seamlessly.


"When you're on personal security detail you are essentially at work. No sitting down and eating, its standing, walking around to check on all the guards below you, making sure your charge is comfortable, recognizing threats and so on."


There was a slight pause, by now Delila had picked up a sugar packet and was playing with it.


"Most of my work occurs in or around the Embassy though. Almost always an event going on there but again we're working. If I'm lucky the kitchen will have leftovers that everyone tends to swarm over after their shifts. I can't cook - I swear I burn water so those days are a lifesaver."


Hot tea was set in front of her, the waitress mumbling something about giving them a minute. The girl didn't seem into her job considering the lateness of the hour and the distinct lack of customers. Hand stopped playing with the sugar packet and she moved to dump the contents in her tea.


"Xin" Delila paused, unsure. Another sugar packet into her tea. "Why am I here? You could have picked anyone off the Fleet..."