Sail With Me

[Mereel Vaun]

Whistling a tune with his shoulders held high and a spring in his step, Mereel made his way through the Iviin'yc's hallways. After a brief discussion with a friend, everything was in order. Well, almost everything.

The door to his quarter's opened with a hiss, and a smile formed on his face as he crossed the threshold. The lights in the living room were still on, as was the single overhead light in the kitchen. He gave a cursory glance around the room but didn't see who he was looking for right away - although she could've been in either room and just out of his line of sight from where he stood.

"I'm back. Are you ready to head out?"

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

Pretty much at the same moment Mereel entered the cabin, he would hear the sound of the refresher door opening. A familiar blond head appeared from around the corner and the rest of her soon followed. Having just taken a shower, her hair was darker and plastered to her head. However, the Jedi was dressed and as ready to go as she could be.

Her clothes were the familiar shades of the desert, something that never changed with her and woven into the mix were some gold threads to match her eyes. She was quite happy and had a glow about her that could only be explained as her being pregnant. That was something they had only recently learned about when she was recovering from nearly dying on a mission dealing with his sister.

Wondering if this outing was going to deal with her as well, Seo was ready to resume helping.

"Almost, just need to get my saber."

Walking up to him, she planted a kiss on his cheek, smiled at him and went to look for the item in question.

"Do you know where it is?"

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel's eyes lit up as soon as he saw her matted down hair. Something about her made her seem radiant to him, and he flashed her an equally warm smile as she approached. For less than a fraction of a second, the warmth of his smile altered into a sly grin at the mention of her lightsaber, but he snapped back into his original smile quickly.

Returning her peck on the cheek when given, he stood in place for a moment, waiting for her to walk off and search for her saber. His own lightsaber was resting on the dinner table, right where he had left it before he had left to go on a "scouting trip" alone to the casino.

"No.. haven't seen it around in here. Maybe it fell in between one of the couch cushions."

This outing had absolutely everything to do with Seo - and him, but if either of them needed their lightsabers, it meant that his planning for the night had failed spectacularly. Still, that didn't mean he wasn't going to return her lightsaber.

Walking over to the dinner table, he leaned over it like he was searching for her lightsaber. Picking up his lightsaber with his right hand and clipping it to his belt, his left hand rested where his lightsaber had been. Out from the left sleeve of his jacket, gravity and a touch of the Force pulled Seo's lightsaber down onto the table.

"Found it. Over here. It was on the dinner table."

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

Running her fingers through her hair for a moment, Seo turned to search through their bedroom again. When she didn't find her saber there, she did as he suggested and started to look around the couch area. Right at about the time she was going to pull the first cushion off, he called from the galley that it was in there. Shaking her head, she shoved the partially moved cushion back into place and moved to join him.

"Odd, that's not normally where I keep it. How did it get here?"

Seo suddenly felt like her mind was going. It wasn't something she liked the thought of.

"I seem to be forgetting so much lately. Do you think I'm losing my mind, Mereel?"

There wasn't a small bit of fear or concern in her voice, but a huge amount. As if she was about to burst into tears, she looked at him. Her thoughts on the matter and feelings for once clearly painted in her expression.

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Lying was not and had never been Mereel's strong suite, and he was even worse at telling believable lies when he didn't want to lie to the person. Seo was definitely someone he did not want to lie to, but if he told her why her lightsaber had moved from its normal spot, he would blow the surprise of the night.

The look of anguish on Seo's face and the terror in her voice made him feel that maybe spilling all of the beans was worth doing. Sauntering towards her to bridge the gap between them, he reached out to hug her and give her a small kiss on the forehead. His mind was racing for possible ways to tell her the truth without telling her the whole reason for it the entire time.

"No, you're not losing your mind. I moved your lightsaber this morning, right after I woke up.

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

For once Seo was oblivious to his tells and couldn't see the deception on his face. With the ups and downs they had recently, she never would have expected Mereel to lead her wrong. When he hugged her and gave her a slight kiss on her forehead, she relaxed when he said he had moved it that morning.

Maybe she had another nightmare and her saber had found its way into her hand or the bed. When he woke up, Mereel had removed it and set it on the table. That was where he kept his saber normally and it made sense for him to put hers with it.

"I hope I didn't almost hurt you, myself or anything else."

Taking the saber from him, she clipped it to her belt and was ready to go.

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Feeling Seo relax in his embrace, the tension left his shoulders and he started to feel at ease too. She must have really been having an off day, since normally she would have been able to read him like a book - especially without his helmet. Or maybe she hadn't pried further about her lightsaber being moved out of trust. Either way, he was determined to make up for his little white lie by making the rest of her night better.

After she took her saber from his left hand and clipped it to her belt, he took a step back and rested his right hand on her cheek. For the first time since she had walked over to him, he was able to make his eyes meet hers and hold contact. "No, you didn't, and you shouldn't worry about that. The only way you'd hurt me is with your nails, and I'd wake up before you could hurt yourself."

The bedroom had more than a few weapons in it, but they were all concealed. Even the pistols stuffed under the mattress would take a fair amount of consciousness to properly pull out, far more than he thought Seo or himself would be able to muster while having a nightmare.

With that taken care of, he let his hand fall from her face. "Well, I'm going armor-less for this one so we're both ready. Just got to get one more thing, but he should be ready in the hall."

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

That was something else that came being pregnant. A faster growth of nails and hair. Taking a quick look at her nails, they were still within an acceptable length for her and her look returned to Mereel.

She was aware of the hidden weapons in the bedroom, but had not contributed any of her own. The only one she had was her saber and now that it was on her hip again, everything was fine.

"What is the plan for tonight? You have been gone most of the time this week. Did you find a lead on your sister?"

While just such a lead had taken her into a bacta tank, Seo was still supportive of his search and wanted to continue to help him. Then she thought on it. If it was a lead, he wouldn't be going without his armor.

Shaking her head, she kept that to herself as she answered the question herself. He mentioned bringing one other thing and that it was person.

"Captain Tucker? Whatever you have planned with all of us is going to be interesting I'm sure and I'm looking forward to it."

That being said with a smile, she pulled away to start heading to the door of their cabin.

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel followed Seo as she walked to the cabin door. "Oh yeah, we struck gold here. Just one more issue of business to take care of before I can say we've wrapped things up."

A single bead of sweat formed on his forehead. Technically there were two things that needed to be taken care of still. The first and most important to him was finding a good time to propose tonight, but the second was arresting a cultist named Portia Jolan - hopefully discretely enough to avoid causing a scene and ruining the night. Mereel bit down on his lip and his eyes broke away from hers for a second as he began spewing out his next lie of ommision.

"Found one of the ringleaders of the pirate group we ran into on Argonaar. The only thing we need to do is detain him without causing too much of a scene."

As Seo and Mereel approached the cabin door, the metal door slid open with a soft hiss. On the other side of the door was an old man in a suit jacket, vertically slumped up against the ship's hallway wall in an unmoving daze.

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

"We're that close to your sister?"

Having spent so much time with Mereel, Seo now openly displayed her feelings when they were alone. In the presence of others, she was still rather closed. Much like she had been when they first met. That had quickly changed though and Seo would not do anything to have the past changed.

Her question had come early and he told her they needed to quietly capture one of the ringleaders and question him. Running a hand across the back of her head, she nodded and lowered it when the door opened.

On the other side was Tucker and she gave him a rather friendly smile and nod.

"Captain, it is good to see you again."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Joshua Tucker]

Tucker was pulled from his thoughts by the sounds of a door hissing open and the tones of a voice he had been talking with a scant few moments before now.

"No, I don't actually think she's here. There is good news though, I have no doubt that our target is connected to the pirate captain that intercept Brieda's ship at Aargonar."

"The boy is saying is that we're close."
The captain pulled himself from the wall and arched his back to present himself to his company for part of the night with proper posture.

Tucker's blue eyes met Seo's and he offered her a small smile of his own in return. "Please, the pleasure is mine, Ms. Linn."

Eyes pivoting to Mereel, Tucker quickly dropped his smile, "- as for you. Well, you already know."
A knowing spark ignited in Tucker's eyes and he flashed Mereel a quick smile as he looked the man over. Vaun's choice of attire was different from their previous outings, a grey suit and pants worn in place of the Mandalorian's normal vibrant red jacket and mismatched black helmet. Tucker knew perfectly well why that was.

Returning his gaze to Seo, Tucker gave her another, slightly larger smile, "I'll stay out of you two's hair as much as possible, just know that he's criminally underselling the potential of this lead."

And with that Tucker turned to begin walking the trio through the hallways that would lead them off of his ship.

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

She might be a bit forgetful, but those were more short-term memories than any of her older ones. From the time she could communicate, Seo had learned how to read people and she did not miss the spark or look Tucker gave to Mereel. The true meaning behind it she did not know and went out in the night without that knowledge.

Looking between the two of them, Seo kept her hand on Mereel. Narrowing her eyes just slightly, Mereel might know this as a sign that she knew something was going on.

"What isn't he telling me, Captain Tucker?"

[member="Joshua Tucker"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

His thoughts already centered on the future of the night, Mereel was only loosely following the conversation between Seo and Tucker as the Captain lead them through the hallways and down the ship's main boarding ramp. Mereel's shoulders nervously tensed when Seo's question pulled him from this thoughts.

His brain scrambled for an excuse, but before he could say anything Captain Tucker spoke up from in front of them. "Oho, you're not missing much. It's just that our target spends a lot of time in a casino."

Any nervousness Mereel had felt left his body, replaced by a genuine curiosity over where Tucker was going with this. Tucker's tone turned teasing as the older man lead them to a taxi station and hailed the party a ride, "Tell me dear, have you ever seen Vaun gamble?"

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

It was probably a good thing for Mereel that her attention was on Tucker since she had just been speaking to him. Seo did not notice the tensing of his shoulders and he did not allow it to travel through the rest of his body.

"Do we have a name for our target?"

So far they had yet to provide one to her. The only information given was the target was male, a ringleader and liked to spend his time at a casino. She wondered slightly if he went to any others or if it was just this one. Something to find out. If he went to others, then those should be investigated as well.

Giving Tucker a little bit of an odd look, Seo shook her head and then gave voice to her answer.

"Not at all, Captain."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Joshua Tucker]

Tucker stared back plainly at Seo. He hadn't predicted that Vaun would have done any sort of gambling around her, but he was still surprised that Seo didn't seem to know what he was getting at.

"Well, I'll just say there's a good reason Mereel isn't a professional poker player and leave it at that."

As Tucker finished his sentence a closed-cab airspeeder hovered into the station behind him. Holding out a palm to ward off Seo and Mereel, Tucker's other hand opened the passenger side door.

"Our person of interest is named Portia Jolan. Human male from Jabiim in his mid-fifties."
Sitting down in the speeder, Tucker quickly shut the door and told the driver the name of the casino.

Rolling down his window, Tucker yelled to Seo and Mereel as his driver slowly began descending the speeder. "Your cab will be along shortly!"

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

The early absentmindedness of a pregnant woman was something Seo did not like the feeling. Her inability to connect the dots totally with what Tucker had said and her reaction to it was just a part of it. If her mind had been working properly, then she would have caught on quickly without him having to explain what he meant.

"I already know that..."

This was something that had become clear almost on the day they had met. It was something that made them different and she liked that about him. Around people, she was comfortable with, she was almost an open book and with the amount of time spent with these two, she was open.

Rolling her eyes as Tucker took off in his own speeder, she turned to Mereel.

"You have any additional information to share?"

[member="Joshua Tucker"] [member="Mereel Vaun"]