Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Podracing Performance

[Lief]

Still that silence stretched, and as Cotan knelt at her side she turned her head and kept her gaze trained on him.

The blush had infected most of her face by this point, though her cheeks and the very tips of her ears remained the brightest offenders. Both burned equally as fierce, and unknown to Asha a smile had plastered itself upon her lips, though it was almost coy. No, not coy, shy. Sheepish. Filled with uncertainty, and something else...

When he reached for her cheek she had already considered it, and it was nerves alone which was keeping her from acting upon her whims. She turned her head slightly, enjoying the feel of his hand there, before locking eyes with him yet again.

For a moment there she opened her mouth to speak, though nothing came out, and thinking better of it she decided instead to take action. She leaned in as her mouth closed, just as Cotan pulled her close, and when their lips met the remaining tension and worry which had built up within her seemed to melt away instantly.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

After a few moments, Cotan pulled himself away slightly, breaking off the kiss. Contrary to what was normal for the relatively-calm Judge, his heart was racing; with a deep breath, he was able to relax himself again, just to enjoy the proximity. His eyes lightly opened, looking at Asha's, barely more than a couple centimeters away. Somewhat unconsciously, he started to pet the girl's cheek with his thumb while he thought—or, rather, tried to think—about what to say and do next.

But, for the moment, all he could really do was find himself extraordinarily pleased that Asha had fully reciprocated his affections in that moment. "You know," he started slowly, a bit of a smile growing on his face, "I think there are probably a few very sad younglings back on Ceto right now." It was very easy for him to imagine the stricken-faced young boy who had seemed so heartbroken when Cotan and Asha had just been joking around. Hopefully he'd managed to get over it fairly quickly.

Cotan stood, taking a seat next to Asha, before wrapping her up in his arms again. At the current moment, the ex-Jedi could think of nothing much he wanted in the galaxy more than to stay like that for the rest of the day. With a glance downwards he reached out, lacing his fingers in between Asha's and pulling her closer into the hug. "I can't wait until we have a day all to ourselves," he said after a moment. "No apprentices, no races, no duties, just you and me and enough fuel to go wherever we feel like."

[member="Asha Hex"]

 

[Lief]

As with Cotan, Asha found her heart racing both during and following their shared kiss. When he pulled back she found herself unable to keep an almost goofy smile off her lips, and after briefly meeting his gaze she averted her eyes downward. Upon doing so, the smile turned into an unexpected grin.

She turned her head against the touch of his thumb and allowed the silence to wash over them. Completely oblivious to his internal panic and attempts at starting up a conversation, Asha found the silence rather comforting. Though his general presence aided in that regard.

When he did speak, however, it was in the most Cotan way imaginable.

Asha scoffed, the grin widening, and shook her head. All at once she lifted her head and looked right at him.

"Goofball," she told him, leaning in to kiss the scuff of his beard against his cheek, "Probably more of them delighted than saddened, they had quite the chants going. Apparently they were rooting for us before we knew we were."

That... Wasn't exactly true. But Asha wasn't going to admit the attraction she'd felt to him way back then, because it had seemed silly to her at the time. Not because of who it was, but because of how little time they'd known one another. It wasn't as though she'd blushed for no reason, after all.

Once she found herself back in his embrace she let out a soft sigh and happily nestled in closer, her eyes closing and finding some much needed reprieve. Even in the dim light he'd set for the room they were strained in some regard.

"That would be the day," she told him, not that she minded the company of his student. Everyone needed a day or two to themselves, to recharge, heck even Rhia probably did. Though the girl being the way she was, chances were she didn't know it yet. "Drifting through space without any real purpose. Oh, the places we could visit..."

So many worlds out there that she did not yet know. So many endless possibilities.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Lief]

Rhia awoke with a start.

Though it hadn't necessarily been that long since her last - abrupt - awaking, something felt different within her. Where previously she had been able to simply fall back asleep, now she had reached the point where even thinking about that turned her stomach. Closing her eyes for too long did the same. In fact, at all moments since awaking she could feel it in the back of her throat, and disturbing her stomach, and her head thumped loudly.

Still disoriented, it took her a few attempts to get down from the medical bed and when she finally did it was not very graceful at all. In fact, she only just managed to catch herself in the end, saving herself from a whole world of pain as the alternative would have been to faceplant the ground.

The steps she took through the darkened room were haphazard, in fact she knocked right into one of the side tables and sent a bunch of things flying.

Funny thing about her species - though the girl knew herself only as human - they were terribly nightblind. Which meant that while her caretakers had thought they were doing her a great service by shutting off all the lights, for Rhia it was a living nightmare.

She could not see a thing.

Not one single thing.

And add that to her drunken gait? Well...

In the end she fell with a crash, scattering yet more bits and pieces yet what exactly they were she could not say.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Even if Asha would never admit to it, Cotan had his own suspicions about just when her feelings for him had started. However, he preferred to hold her in contented silence, rather than start another war of jokes between them at that moment, so he kept his mouth shut on that topic. Instead, he let his head drop, resting with the lower half of his face buried in Asha's hair. For a moment, he felt like saying something along the lines of 'you smell nice' but he ultimately decided against that, too.

"Maybe we wouldn't even have to visit anywhere," he mumbled. "Just float around on the ship doing—" He was interrupted by a loud crashing sound, that seemed to come from the direction of the medbay. Nearly instantly his head jerked up and over, trying to catch sight of Rhia if she made it out or any more sound from her; sure enough, another, louder sound resulted shortly afterwards, with what sounded like Rhia falling. "Well, it looks like our patient is awake," he said wryly. He quickly disentangled himself from Asha, jumping up and quickly making his way back to Rhia.

After getting there—and noticing the girl on the floor—he turned the lights up a bit and knelt down. "Everything alright, kid?" he asked gently, hoping that the answer would be that yes, she wasn't hurt and all she had was a headache.

[member="Asha Hex"] [member="Rhia Kesyk"]

 

[Lief]

Asha had already begun to agree with Cotan's statement, through a series of well placed "mhmm"s, when he was cut off mid sentence by crashing coming from the medbay.

He was quick to rise, and once their embrace had been broken Asha also stood tall; she swayed on the spot slightly, disoriented from having opened her eyes so suddenly, yet after finding her balance she followed after him in search of the Padawan.

I knew I shouldn't have stopped watching her, she internally scolded herself, though she did not regret any time she had spent with Cotan in the meantime. Had the girl been fine, she would have loved nothing more than to spend the entire day sat like that with him. But she wasn't, of course, because Asha had made her sugar-drunk.

Letting Cotan take the lead, she stood in the doorway hovering nervously and watching just to ensure there wasn't anything that needed patching up. She could hear quiet sniffles, though she couldn't tell if that was from pain or surprise or something else entirely.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Lief]

From her spot on the ground, Rhia whimpered.

At first it seemed as though that was going to be it, the only outward show of emotion she was going to give, but soon enough tears were streaming down her face. Rhia did not know if she had ever cried before, and even in her near-delirious state she was conscious of that fact. Embarrassed by it. She had seen others cry, of course, back in the Academy on Cystalsong, when they'd been struck by a particularly harsh training bolt, or had fallen over.

She decided that she didn't much like the sensation of crying. Though she also could not stop herself from doing so. It was a quiet sobbing, nothing too voluminous or pathetic, and when the lights came on her whole face was awash with red. From the intoxication, from the tears, and from the aforementioned embarrassment which only became worse when she realized Cotan had found her in such a state.

"I... Couldn't... See..." she managed to explain, between sniffles, "I'm s-sorry..."

Was anything in the room broken? That she couldn't very well tell. For her own part, though, she did have a couple of welts - one on her knee, another along her arm, and a particularly larger one atop her head - that would no doubt bruise, but there was no blood, no lacerations.

It seemed as though most of the tears had been caused by the shock more so than anything else.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Cotan reached out towards Rhia, ruffling her hair slightly—also getting a feel for the lump on her head, just to make sure it wasn't particularly large or worrisome. "Sorry, Rhia, forgot that you can't see all that well in the dark," he said softly. He could tell fairly well that the girl still wasn't sober, though she seemed to be getting a bit better. He glanced around for a moment, looking over the mess that had been made; thankfully there wasn't anything particularly fragile or important where Rhia had managed to knock stuff around, so all that Cotan would really need to do would be to just put things back where they had been.

He started to stand, holding out a hand to Rhia to help her up as well. "How about we get you back to your room, let you lie down and read a book?" he suggested. "Bottom bunk for now, though. I don't want you getting dizzy and taking a tumble." Force only knew what any other Jedi who possibly heard of this happening would think of him already, let alone if something like that happened. After helping the girl up—keeping his hand down to help steady her if she needed it—he looked over at Asha with a slightly sheepish expression.

"Is it too much to ask if you get a headstart on picking some of this up?" he asked, nodding down at the mess. "Just to make it go by faster once I get Rhia back to her room and come to clean up." Once Asha responded, he stepped out into the hallway, leading Rhia behind him. And, just to be helpful, raising the lights so that Rhia could see again, rather than letting the night-blind girl stumble around with nothing but Cotan's hand to guide her.

[member="Rhia Kesyk"] [member="Asha Hex"]

 

[Lief]

It took every ounce of willpower for Asha not to charge into the room and check the girl over, instead allowing Cotan to handle the situation which he did perfectly. He'd expressed some of his own insecurities before, whether he meant to or not, regarding raising and training the girl, but in that moment she knew that he had it. Even if he doubted himself.

As the girl was picked up off the ground and guided from the room Asha of course smiled and nodded at the request to start picking things up. "Of course, rest up sweetie," the latter, of course, directed at Rhia. Once she was alone she moved over to set a tray back onto one of the side tables, and though she couldn't recall the exact placement of the things which had been upon it she did her best to put them sort of where they should go.

Or at least, where made sense.

She glanced around the room, which was more of a mess than simply just the things which had been knocked over, with blankets and sick buckets and other random things they'd either made use of or moved out of the way littered here and there. It shouldn't take them too long to finish it up, but then Asha would also want to disinfect the area again.

Didn't make sense to use a potentially soiled room for medical purposes.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Lief]

Having finally begun to calm down, Rhia sat there while Cotan inspected the tender spot on her head which thankfully hadn't grown into a lump and let out one long and drawn out sigh. She hadn't been told off, even though she sat in the midst of a whirlwind of mess, which was a relief. Though now she knew she'd have to go back to bed.

She'd slept so much already, though she did still feel remarkably sick. So maybe it was for the best.

Grasping onto his hand she was pulled up from the ground both with her own exertion and his help. She kept a tight hold of his hand when she was standing, though, swaying on the spot and almost stumbling when she took her first few steps toward the hall. She gathered her strength swiftly, though, but for whatever reason she held his hand all the same.

Saying nothing as she was led toward her bunk, Rhia peered upward and stared at Cotan from her significantly lower vantage point. Finally, after a few moments of staring, she voiced what had been on her mind.

"I don't think I like flatcakes," she told him, deadpan, just as the door to her bunk was opened.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"I'm sure you'll get over that in a few hours," Cotan replied with a short chuckle. "We'll try again some day in the future, after I can change the recipe around so that it has stuff that won't make you sick." He quickly moved Rhia over to the bunk just below the one where she normally slept, before glancing over the room as the girl started to lay down. He quickly grabbed a book from what he guessed was her 'unread' stack, handing it to his apprentice while she got comfortable.

"Feel free to call for us if you need anything," he told her. "Or Kiss, because I'm sure the droid would love to help you out." He straightened himself, turning back towards the door. "Rest well, Rhia," he bade the girl. "Try and get back to sleep if you can, and you'll feel better before you even know it!" Then he stepped out, the door sliding shut behind him to give the small girl some semblance of privacy.

He quickly made his way back to the medbay, finding most of the items that Rhia had knocked down had been returned to their more-or-less original places. He picked up a few items that he noticed, setting them up on shelves or a table or such. "Rhia says she doesn't think she likes flatcakes," he reported with a small smile. "You think honey might make a good substitution, rather than using straight sugar in recipes like that? Nice and natural, quite a bit healthier in general..." He shrugged, reaching over and plucking the blanket and sheets off of the bed Rhia had just been on.

"Can't say I've known any Zelosians before her, though. Wish I did, they might be able to answer some questions about sugar substitutes."

[member="Asha Hex"] [member="Rhia Kesyk"]

 

[Lief]

Asha was apparently rather swift at putting the room back together, because by the time Cotan returned - and he hadn't been gone long at all - only a couple of things remained

When he stepped back into the room the girl was pushing the chairs back against the wall to ensure a clear space to walk around, since neither of them would be sitting in them any time soon, and the last of the dishes which had been left around the place - namely those which had been intended for Rhia - now sat beside the door. They could drop them into Rhia's room on the way past, in case the girl was hungry or needed a drink, she had decided. Though usually Asha would frown on food in a bunk, this was one of those times where the rules didn't apply.

Azrael was circling around her feet, no doubt having been woken up by all of the noise and chaos, and when Cotan entered the room she turned and almost tripped over her feline friend.

"How's she doing?" she asked, once she'd found her balance, reaching down to fuss the cat behind the ear, "And honey could work, it might taste better too... Any way to make a recipe healthier should be tried even for our sakes. Yeah, we should test. You should read that cookbook in your cabin, too, the one on your desk."

Maybe it would provide a little more insight for them. In the meantime, however, there was plenty that could be made that didn't require sugar. It wasn't as though Rhia was about to starve.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Lief]

As she settled herself into the bunk with Cotan's age, the girl half-pouted and half-smiled at him.

"I lied," she whispered, with a soft little giggle, "It tasted great, I just..." She trailed off, apparently forgetting where in the sentence she was, and stared up at the underside of her usual bunk. While she was definitely coming to, the effects of the sugar still lay heavy upon her and her attention span was shot.

The sight of a book, however, perked her up, and she took it from him gratefully.

"Thank you, Cotan," she mumbled, quite forgetting the need for titles and the like in that moment, "You're the best!"

And she meant it, too, it wasn't just the drunkenness talking. Placing the book down on the bed she nestled down under the blanket and, before Cotan had even left the room, her eyes were closed in no time at all. It was tiring, being intoxicated by sugar, and all she wanted to do was sleep it off.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"It probably would be a good idea to read that book, wouldn't it?" Cotan mused, sticking the cloth he'd grabbed under one arm. "Rhia's doing alright. Not back to normal by any means, she said 'you're the best, Cotan!' so I take that to mean that either she's feeling better or she's further gone than we originally thought." Cotan wasn't above some minor self-deprecation, it seemed. He kicked a chair back into its semi-original place, returning the room to some semblance of order. There were still a few things that needed to find a more proper area to rest, but for now it was good enough.

He yawned after that, as, while the stress of tending to Rhia began to dissipate, his tiredness started to return. "Think you can take the snacks and water over to Rhia, while I go drop these back in the laundry?" he asked, nodding down at the blanket and sheets he was holding. "Careful not to wake her, though; she might be asleep by the time you get in there." She certainly had seemed well on her way there after Cotan had put her to bed. Then Cotan glanced down at Azrael, who was busy being a fall hazard.

"Careful he doesn't decide to try and jump up with her, though," he said, seemingly serious. "If Zelosians get drunk off of sugar, who knows what else might mess with their system. Maybe cat hair is like Spice!" Before Asha would have a chance to shoot him a small glare or anything of the sort over the joke, he quickly danced back out of the room, calling out with a quick "I'll meet you back in the lounge!"

[member="Asha Hex"]

 

[Lief]

"I'll take a look over it when I get a chance, too," Asha said, after all she enjoyed cooking and baking even if Cotan was selfish in the kitchen, "Do you think she knew?" After a moment or so, Asha added, "That she's Zelosian, I mean. Surely she'd have told you if she reacted like this to sugar..." Most kids had that sort of thing drilled into their heads by parents or guardians, allergies were a dangerous thing to mess around with after all.

"You did good, you know?" she said, after his self-depreciation, "She's in safe hands with you."

Picking up the tray of snacks and water, Asha gave him a nod. "I'll bring them to her, you should rest when you're done. Not like we have much else to do in the meantime."

With Azrael hovering around her feet she left the sick bay and let out a soft sigh. Madness, that's what their day had become, but she wouldn't change their dynamic for the world. It was true, she had her hands full between the two of them, but it was worth it in the end.

Slipping inside the room she found Rhia softly snoring, and after placing the tray down she lightly pulled up the blanket covering the girl. For a second she simply watched her, and then with Azrael scooped up into her arms she left, venturing back out into the lounge to wait for Cotan.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

The laundry room was only a short walk away from the medbay, and Cotan reached it quickly. It had taken him a few days to get used to the layout of the new ship, compared to the personal transport he used to use—by now, however, he rather liked the grid-shaped arrangement of rooms and corridors within the main section of the ship. It certainly made getting around to every last room he needed to quite a bit easier than it had been on his old ship, where the rooms were crammed in wherever they'd fit and the corridors were designed to access them afterwards.

This new ship was much less haphazard. Didn't look as nice from the outside, though.

He deposited the blanket and sheets in a hamper, making a mental note to have K1 go re-sanitize the medbay the next time the ship was empty, before stepping back outside and walking back to the lounge. He glanced off to the side, noticing Asha step in from the direction of all the bunks. "She asleep?" he asked, although he was relatively certain he already knew the answer.

And he wished the answer was the same for him.

He walked over to the long sofa-bench-thing next to his game table, flopping onto it face first. "I give up," he mumbled, turning his head off to one side so Asha could actually hear him. "Being human is too difficult. Can I be a Bith instead? They don't need to sleep." He thought for a moment, making a somewhat displeased expression. "Although, I certainly wouldn't look nearly as good if I was a Bith, and that'd be a problem."

[member="Asha Hex"]

 

[Lief]

"I mean, you'd still have to 'meditate' if you were a Bith. Almost the same as sleeping, to some."

She grinned at that, finally allowing the stresses of the day to completely roll from her shoulders, and took a seat on the floor by his head. One hand lifted up, running gently through his hair, as she tried to both soothe him and tempt him toward a sleepier state.

"And yes, she's asleep. Just like you ought to be. Come on, why don't you go to bed for a few hours? I can bring my new book into your room so you won't be alone, we can talk and if you fall asleep? Well, then at least it will be in your bed, not out here on the sofa."

Asha didn't mind sitting at his desk to read, after all, a quiet afternoon most definitely seemed like something they needed as a collective.

"You work yourself too hard sometimes, you know that? Is there ever a point in time that your mind isn't working overtime?"

Not once did her fingertips cease as they continued to move through his hair, her head leaning against the sofa he was lay upon.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"What's this 'mind' of which you speak?" Cotan asked innocently, doing his best to sound completely serious. "I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing." Cotan closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the feeling of Asha's fingers running through his hair. Unceremoniously, his right arm flopped off of the couch, the back of his hand brushing against the floor. "Is that the thing humans use to think with? I wouldn't know because I don't feel particularly human right now."

He opened his eyes again, glancing back at Asha. "Also, I seem to recall a certain red-haired young woman who was up and about almost as early as I was. Don't you think she needs to sleep too?" Tired as he might be, Cotan's paternal instincts were still strong enough to counter Asha's maternal ones. He wasn't going to let himself be lulled away quite that easily. "Seems to me like you getting some much-needed rest while I study Zelosian biology and foodstuffs would be a pretty good use of the afternoon."

Cotan interrupted himself with a yawn, simply turning his head back into the cushions to stifle it somewhat. "Besides," he started, turning his head back outward, "If I let you do what you suggested, you might get the crazy idea to clean my desk, and then I'd never be able to find anything from it again." Which was moderately truthful; while the rest of the ship was kept relatively clean, Cotan's method of storing his personal items was best described as functional chaos.

He lifted his dangling arm up, catching Asha's hand and lacing his fingers with hers again. While his vision was slightly obstructed due to how his face had sunk into the cushion, it was still reasonably easy for him to tell that Asha wasn't making use of the extra space past his head. "Why are you on the floor?" he asked, changing topic quickly. "If either of us should be on the floor, it should be me. Not particularly gentlemanly of me to leave you down there."

[member="Asha Hex"]

 

[Lief]

"I wouldn't mess with your belongings," Asha said, with a soft tone, though she supposed that in that moment he certainly sounded comfortable enough to rest even if he didn't make it to bed. "And I can tell you're disconnected from your brain right now," that was said with a snicker, a tiny little chuckle, as she leaned back against the chair for back support.

While it was true that she had been up just as early as Cotan, she had most definitely gotten more sleep than he had. That much was frightfully obvious by the difference in their present temperament, and the fact that poor Cotan could barely keep his eyes open and stop from yawning. Asha, on the other hand, was simply relaxing.

"I don't think you could focus on reading right now even if you wanted to; and no, that's not a bet. Don't fight it, sweetheart, if you need to sleep then sleep."

Still her fingers moved through strands of hair, the same soothing motion, and with her free hand she deftly summoned For all the tea in Atrisia into her grasp. There she set it into her lap and opened the page back to where she had previously left off, shushing him softly when he tried to object to her place on the floor.

"It's comfortable down here," she told him, without looking up from the book, "And I like that I'm close to you. Closer than I would be up there. So don't worry your pretty little head."

Cotan was right, it was much better that he was human than Bith. That thought made her grin.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

I'll show you closer.

Cotan moved Asha's hand clear and let go of it, before the girl's book floated itself off to the side seemingly of its own volition; then he rolled over, depositing himself off of the couch and onto the ground, with his head now in Asha's lap. He looked up, a bit of a silly smile plastered on his face as he looked up at her. "How's this work for being close?" he asked, returning to the same innocent tone he'd used seconds ago. In actual fact, it was pretty much the same sort of close they'd been just before he decided to flop over, just in a different manner.

Regardless, Cotan had been raised on Naboo. "Chivalry" and "Gentlemanly conduct" were concepts that had been ingrained into him nearly since birth, and while he didn't follow them nearly as properly as he might if he'd never left, he still had to put in some semblance of effort towards behaving the way he'd been taught.

"Regardless, I'm afraid I have to insist. You might not look it, but I refuse to believe that you aren't at least a little tired." Dropping one form of somewhat overly-melodramatic acting in favour of another, he looked up at Asha with a very sly glint to his eyes. "You have to find your way to a bed. Captain's orders." Then he grinned, still possessed of a sense of humour despite his somewhat-sleepy state. "Which is up to you, but I'm afraid floors and desks are currently off limits to you."

[member="Asha Hex"]