Mouse Trap

[Delila Castillon]

[SIZE=9pt]Delila felt Xin tense for a moment, nearly pulling away until his hand came to squeeze around her arm. The Nautolan was quiet for a long moment. Silence stretched between them but it was far from uncomfortable. Hand came up to give a small squeeze to his bicep as they approached the mechanic shop. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“I need to stop and get a new shirt first. Nothing fancy, just something without the bloodstains. Seems to put people off, don’t know why.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]Grin flashed in his direction. As they approached she let go of his arm to handle business. The old man, Pops, was looking over the invoice behind the worn counter. Scurrying around the back for parts and tools was the teenager who just visited the ship. Pops put on a pair of glasses and looked over.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“Should take five hours, somewhere around there. Payment?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“Charge to Wesseq, the owner of the vessel.” Delila used her good arm to drag out her comm, pulling up a credcard account linked on the device. “If the charge to the owner of the vessel doesn’t go through, go ahead and charge to this account.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]Wesseq didn’t bother her. Delila would go straight to the man to get her payment back. The only thought was not creating too many waves : Brak and Xin still lived there. Sadly. Elderly man scanned her payment in with a deal to delete if Wesseq could be charged. [/SIZE]

 

[Xin Boa]

“Wesseq?” he asked curiously as he tapped away at his terminal.

“Will be unda Giacore Industries,” Xin said. That seemed to placate the old man who must have already pulled a record up.

“Old Corellian company?” he asked.

“Old Corellian ships still flying together,” Xin chuckled. It was sort of a shell company for what they did. It was, in a way, still a legitimate one. They Fleet was just a bit more flexible about how they earned the credits to keep themselves going. They'd been stationary for several days recently whilst they worked through the problems on one of the old war frigates that had been converted into a civilian transport.

“Don't look Corellian,” he muttered, but he had headed into the back to direct the kid. No one looked into details too much. He had probably just been decided if it was easier to charge Dells’ account and pretend the other one had been declined.

“Yuh might find fancy is all dey have,” Xin chuckled. “Depends what people have traded in on dem way through.” he lowered his tone to a conspiratorial whisper as they walked away. “ Might find what dey have on sale comes with free bloodstains…” It all depended what kind of ships had come through. Semi-honest traders or pirates.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[SIZE=9pt]Pieces of information about Giacore Industries and the Fleet were slowly going into a mental file inside her head. Delila didn’t trust the intentions - a fact she had made very clear to Xin. However she didn’t completely push the issue. For whatever reason he seemed attached to the fleet. The offer of the [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Crimson Dahlia[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] still stood, a way out. After returning from being marooned out on a planet she had been helped out, seemed only fitting she would do the same for Xin. Paying it back so to speak. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“Free bloodstains huh? That’ll match my other blood stains.C’mon.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]She purposely ignored his statement about fancy. Wasn’t her, although if thats what they had. Dells was confident there would be something relatively normal, just had to ignore Xin’s commentary. [/SIZE]

 

[Xin Boa]

“Gotta have bloodstains…” he added as they headed further into the station. Places like this had history. Even in the age of repulsors it wasn’t cheap to raise this much metal from a rock. They tended to last for a long time, or get melted down in space and used again. Who knew how many functions the place had been through or how many ships its titanium had featured in. Xin liked old places.

To his surprise there was a store built into the main walkway that looked almost like an honest endeavour. They had what appeared to be a range of simple, spacer clothing. He had only expected to find odds and ends in the random trading spaces around the floor.

With a nod of the head he steered her towards it. A young woman was reading from a datapad behind the counter and barely looked up to acknowledge them. Xin wondered how tedious it would be to work on this station. If it was opened out he could probably sprint from one end to the other in under a minute. His thoughts went full circle to his own life. He mostly lived in cramped little metal boxes. The difference was that he went interesting places, whilst perhaps on this station interesting characters and stories came to them. Perhaps not as different as his first thought suggested.

“Stain free,” he said as he took back his arm and pulled something out from a rack at random. The woman behind the counter gave him a quizzical look and ten returned to her reading.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[SIZE=9pt]Eyebrow raised at Xin and the shirt he was holding up. It had ruffles on both the collar and sleeves. Considering the Nautolans eye for fashion - straw hats and flowers - it wasn’t a big surprise for her. Also being of the male species shopping tended to be a bit more interesting than it was for others. She chose to ignore Xin’s declaration of ‘stain free’ and drifted a couple of feet away.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“I can get that for you maybe. I don’t want to be seen with you when you wear it though…”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]It took a few moments but Dells found a parchment colored button down shirt in typical smuggler/spacer style. She tended not to be picky about clothes - the pickiest she had ever been was with her purple dress that had gotten ruined when they were flushed out through the water system after that ‘adventure’. Never would find something that framed her breasts that way again but what could one do.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]Eyes fell on another rack, a wheat colored upside down cone. Xin’s freakin’ straw hat. She had noticed the one he had picked up on water world was missing. Hand snagged that and turned back to him.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“Mission accomplished. One shirt, one odd straw hat.” There was a pause. “You’ll have to tell me the story of the straw hat soon. As in, why.”[/SIZE]

 

[Xin Boa]

“Ah wasn’t suggesting…” he started to protest, but seeing her expression he just shook his head and let it swing back into the rack with the rest of the clothes. Xin was quietly plotting when he could wear his most effeminate - by human standards - head tail dressings around her when the hat appeared.

He looked down at what she held in her hands with surprise. And horror.

“It’s nah a long sto….” he trailed off. There was a triumphant look in his eyes. “Aha. I did nah tel yuh dat mi used it to get de ship back! De second one,” he added with a shrug. “Cos just thought could blend in wid it. But in de dark dey could nah see I was green!”

Xin looked quite pleased with himself. Then his expression turned to one of resignation.

“You’re gonna mek me wear sat suh yuh an Brak can mek more jokes?” What one of those was doing here was beyond his imagination. They had been stacked high in piles at the space dock they'd just come from to sell from tourists. With a grin he took it from her and tried to throw it onto his own head. It didn’t go very well and he nearly crashed into a rack of clothing.

“Happy?” he chuckled.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[SIZE=9pt]Eyes blinked towards Xin, staring. Part of her wasn’t sure if Xin was pulling her leg. Trying to fit in. She was referring to the first time, when they were crossing bridges and trekking towards their room. Apparently that was for fitting in as well. She didn’t suspect at the time it was for fitting in. Delila was waiting for some laughter yet Xin just looked pleased with himself. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“Congrats on getting the ship back, you guys did good. Uh….you shouldn’t have come back for me though. I would have been okay.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]She took in his look of resignation and felt like a complete idiot. Of course her and Brak made fun of their ‘Squidly’. A way of bonding if she looked at it. Maybe they shouldn’t push it too much in the near future.Wouldn’t want their favorite Nautolan developing a complex. Arm reached up and removed the hat,shaking her head. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“Nah, you look better without it. C’mon, lets get this shirt so we can get this show on the road. Wasting valuable time here Xin.”[/SIZE]

 

[Xin Boa]

He canted his head to his left as she took the hat away. Sometimes he wished he couldn’t pick up on emotional cues quite so well. Knowing that she felt concerned about his reaction didn’t mean he understood why.

He gave a broad shrug, “it look terrible, yeah. But it kept him amused.” Sometimes he didn't know when to drop a subject and stop talking.

As she went to pay he continued, now the smile was obviously more forced. It had been a decision he'd swung back and forth between several times in the mere moments he'd been afforded to make it.


“I know. Well, I didn't know yuh would be okay. Not fah sure. I didn't want to go. Are yuh annoyed we came back?” he asked earnestly. His voice had slowed from his usual babbling in his rich tone.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[SIZE=9pt]I didn’t know if I was going to be okay either.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]Delila had paid for the shirt as was busy trying to roll the sleeves up a bit, difficult task when her arm didn’t want to cooperate. There was a bit of a struggle but a determined look on her face despite being still stuck on the first sleeve. The timbre of Xin’s voice slowed. By now she was starting to learn a few things about Xin. When he stopped babbling and making conversation and let sentences linger it meant more, as if he was probing deeper. The babbling seemed to be either a way to fill silence or to keep himself likeable in a crowd. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]She could be wrong. Never was good at reading people. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]First sleeve rolled to a three quarter length, she turned to the other. Silence stretched between them as she thought of the correct way to answer. A few thoughts swirled around her head. The conversation could easily lead them down a rabbit hole if she answered in a certain way. That trail wasn’t something she wanted to explore in public. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“No. I’m not annoyed. On one level I’m appreciative. On another level I did it to help you and Brak escape. Uh, on places like that it is typically hard for non-humans to escape. As you know, treated differently and perhaps profiled or scapegoated for the incident. “[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]Sleeve was finally done and she was gingerly slipping her injured arm in first. Probably would be the easiest but it didn’t stop the wince from crossing her face. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“There’s more to the story but I don’t feel comfortable discussing the topic in public to be honest. Its a bit...difficult.”[/SIZE]

 

[Xin Boa]

Xin took a step to put himself behind her when she winced. He took the nearside of the shirt and tugged it around and passed the arm hole to her other hand so she didn't have to twist and tug at the fresh wound to put it on. Xin rather deliberately did so with as little fuss as possible.

“Alrigh’,” he replied. His more human expressions were always less apparent. Like a ghost of an emotion. Nautolans relied more of involuntary movements of their head tails and being able to pick up chemical signals. He still managed to appear thoughtful.

“It were a gud plan. Nuh even a silly straw hat can really hide mi in a sea of pink humans,” he said. Even for a human world there had been a lack of diversity. Not many colours of hair or skin and Xin knew there were quote a few variations. Zeltrons were a hot pink instead of the peachy shade of pink. They went right into shades of cream and browns too. Nautolans did have varieties of green. Even blueish, but there were less of them spread across the galaxy. Less time on other worlds to evolve genetic diversity like that.

“Food den,” he declared, taking her hand rather than arm. In contrast to his earlier plan they could eat fairly quickly and get some time together out of everyone's view. It wasn't like they needed to strip the hull from the freighter. He hoped.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[SIZE=9pt]“Yeah, there wasn’t much diversity on the planet.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]Dells buttoned up the bottom of the shirt once Xin had helped her out. She did her best not to shrug his help off. Something that was always hard for her. The redhead never expected help or asked for it and once it arrived she often didn’t know what to do with it. Xin was just being nice. Another foreign concept. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]Buttoned to about the middle of her chest, good hand went to tuck in the shirt but Xin reached out to grab it before she could complete her task. There was a light squeeze, tugging him along outside the store. Gaze regarded him curiously as if she was going to ask a question. Blue-green eyes lingered for a moment before leaving Xin’s form to focus on the surrounding station.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“Food sounds great. After the station, where are we going? I do have to return to my regularly scheduled day job shortly.” [/SIZE]

 

[Xin Boa]

Xin followed smell more than sight. There was food cooking nearby. He imagined they would find a diner much like the one on that tower. Perhaps less quaint. Xin wondered if they had stabilised that tower by now. For all he knew the damage could have been so bad that it could have slipped under the waves.

“One of de Fleet ships is waiting on us. Specifically Brak and a part we got. It's broken down and holding up de convoy.” Xin thought he was quite a good mechanic but the barabel could make machines sing.

“Could talk about de offer yuh made?” he asked, trying to sound as humble as possible. His enthusiasm was well bridled by concern that he might be taking advantage of her generosity on the matter.

The food he had smelled was a street stall. Miscellaneous meat Mince being flavoured with spices and chopped vegetables and wrapped in something. It smelled nice but he thought they would probably both rather sit down.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[SIZE=9pt]Dells couldn’t help but tense at the mention of the Fleet. If she had to be perfectly honest, the redhead didn’t want to set foot anywhere near the Fleet. Especially not without backup and a crateful of blasters and explosives to get her out of a jam. Once it came time to leave she was going to have no choice but to part ways with Xin and Brak and stay on the station. She’d figure out a way to get back Coreward - either paying or working on a vessel headed in that direction.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]She wasn’t going to tell Xin now though. Too painful. Easier to rip the bandage off right as he had no choice but to leave. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“Of course we can. Still stands.” Gaze looked over the street vendor. Looked clean enough, smelt great and the stand was busy. All good signs in her book. It would meant standing or finding a quiet corner but Dells had eaten in worse conditions. “How about here? Looks good and they have caf. All wins in my book.”[/SIZE]

 

[Xin Boa]

“It does look gud,” he agreed as they joined the back of a small group waited to be served. The vegetable and spice mix hissed every time it was thrown down on the hot metal surface for a few seconds before it was scooped up and deposited in a wrap with meat. Hiss. Five credits please. Thank you. Three times over before they were served. Rather than a caf he took a bottle of a well known juice rather than caf.

Silence reigned for a few bites of their foil covered wraps. They meandered into the area they hadn't been to to look for a spot to stay.

“I'd pay a proper lease,” he said. “And the insurance fee. I'd still be putting parsecs on de hyperdrive. And yuh could fit a tracker so yuh knew where it was.”

It was easy to fall into the assumption that he had to convince someone that he wasn't a vagabond who would steal property; he spent a lot of time doing it.

“I tink it wud be good to be mi own boss fah a while.”

 

[Delila Castillon]

[SIZE=9pt]Caf was held with her injured hand, wrap in the good one. Caf was way too hot to bother drinking at the moment not that her mouth was going to let her tear away from the wrap. Simple ingredients but Delila suspected the spice must be the secret to the delicious flavors contained inside. She was content to wander around for a moment, gaze taking in the station until Xin started speaking. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“I trust you. Otherwise I wouldn’t have offered.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]It would be hard to steal a crimson painted vessel. Delila had appreciated the irony of having a stealth capable vessel in such a bright color. When she originally got the vessel it was going towards a possible merc and security business. That never actually panned out but Delila had held onto the vessel just in case. Never knew when her current job would end or she was too old or injured to continue. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]Ignoring the fact he mentioned the tracker - she really saw no reason to have one, or bring it up - Dells continued to focus on the positive.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“I think so too. Told you that when we first met.” Not really, Delila had wanted Brak and Xin to work with her. Still basically it would have been liking being their own boss. Both were capable. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“I don’t want you worrying about paying me, at least for a couple months and a couple of jobs in. The [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Crimson Dahlia [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]was a gift from a friend. I was a General with the Rebel Alliance, the real one that had popped back up, not these imitators. I was fairly horrible at it but when my friend made a line of these vessels he named them the Castillon-class in honor of my time served.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“I was homeless at the time when the [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Dahlia[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] was gifted to me. Just came back from being marooned. It was a life saver, even though I still had to figure out fuel but thats what odd jobs were for. My long, wandering story is to make the point of…...paying it forward, in a way. I’ve stood in your boots Xin. More than once.”[/SIZE]

 

[Xin Boa]

Xin didn't have a huge amount of pride. The way his life had gone he couldn't afford a great deal of it. It extended about as far as skin deep: to his decorative braids and tattoos. He didn't have enough to argue against a couple of months lease free.

So once upon a time she had a cause of her own? She was young for a General. But she must have been doing good work for someone to name an entire class of ships after her. Unless he had been her lover. Xin felt a brief twinge of jealousy he had no right to.

Xin was caught between humility that she would do such a thing for him and downright joy at the freedom that was suddenly within his grasp. The net effect was a nautolan that swung back and forth between trying to seem suitably humble and bubbly over excitement.

He awkwardly planted a kiss on her cheek whilst trying to avoid dropping his food and drink.

“Thank you,” he said quietly and earnestly. That big grin broke out suddenly. “And I think I know a first couple of jobs. I know it's not imaginative but the Fleet is short of contractors bringing spare parts in. If you've got a quick quiet ship you can make the run to Skor or another scrap yard and make a good margin and then I can build…”

He stopped rambling as quickly as he had started, gave an apologetic smile and took a large bite of his wrap.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[SIZE=9pt]“Don’t mention it.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]Dells practically waved off the thanks. The redhead didn’t think what she offered was earth shattering. Would have offered it to anyone she trusted. The vessel was just sitting around, collecting dust and dock fees at this point. Xin was babbling on and there was a contentment to listen while she ate her wrap. It was endearing to watch, the struggle between various emotions until excitement burst through. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“I didn’t know first jobs had to be imaginative? Boy, I wish someone would have told me years ago.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]Good shoulder bumped into his playfully, careful not to spill the still piping hot caf. Silence stretched as they ate, curiosity creeping into her thoughts. Gaze went to Xin once more.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“Am I allowed to tag on once in awhile? I promise to earn my keep Boss.”[/SIZE]

 

[Xin Boa]

“I'll be honest here. I'm probably gonna mention it again. And sure. Yuh can be in charge of security and making sure de captain can barely walk in de morning,” he suggested with a cheeky sidelong glance.

“I wud like dat,” he said in a more serious tone. “It means… sorry, not mentioning it,” he corrected himself before he could start thanking her profusely again.

“Like, what did yuh do when you were ah general to have a ship named after yuh?” he asked curiously before returning to his food. Xin knew she had been a soldier and turned to a private career but now he was trying to picture her calling the shots as a general of a rebellion. Who had she rebelled against, he wondered.

 

[Delila Castillon]

[SIZE=9pt]“In charge of morale? Not sure if that's the best position for me. Might get fired real quick.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]Delila couldn't help but mentally groan. Typically she kept her whole former General thing to herself. News had to be let out of the bag considering Xin's aversion to actually leasing the vessel. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“Don't know honestly. I wasn't very good. Merrill makes ships, he was probably running out of names for what's being turned out in ORC space. Just a limited line. It's not a big deal, most people won't ever see one.”[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]Dells took a sip of caf.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“I prefer not to talk about it. It's not important Xin.”[/SIZE]

 

[Xin Boa]

“Sorry, yes,” he muttered. It meant a lot to him. Luck didn't tend to shine on him very often. But this wasn't luck, he told himself. This was Dells choosing to do something nice for him.

He mentally rallied himself, pushing down the excitement and trying not to focus on the question of whether he'd upset her by bringing that part of her career up.

“Yuh mean Jorus Merrill?” he asked. “Got to meet him once. Rather difficult circumstances and he thought it was funny I got a bit starstruck.”