Space for Two

[Dante Sotari]

She let him take a taste, smirking at his reaction. She accepted the mug back, taking a deeper swig in response.

"Corellians have terrible caf. Gotta do something to choke it down."

No such thing as too early as far as Dante was concerned. Oh, she knew, logically, that wasn't the case. But sometimes a quick shot took her from barely functioning to relatively at ease. She didn't see the particular harm in it. Wasn't like she was waking up and getting drunk first thing. So what was the problem? Absolutely nothing. Wasn't even every day. Just.

Some days.

This one seemed like a perfect day for it anyway. Couple days off. Bad news. Good company.

She snorted into the mug at the next part however.

"Man, there have got to be easier ways to get some tail, Vance. Like I can make a phone call or two if that's what you're after. Rish knows someone, though I just realized I dunno if they are the right gender for you. Then again, if it's just tail anyway...." Her teasing was utterly deadpan.

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

"You can say that again," Morgan murmured with a shake of the head.

Her last bit got a teasing slap out of him, before he flopped back down into his chair. "I already got my hands full on you, Sotari, ain't got time for another tail." A wink there before he leaned back a bit and groaned at the tension in his back. Muscles whining, bones creaking just a bit against the pressure as he stretched. "Ugh, seriously though, a few days off will be perfect." He barely took the vacation days that he was owed.

Usually when Morgan did it had been to be with Dan, one way or another.

Otherwise Vance just kept working.

Day in an' day out. Little time to recharge, always throwing himself in the next mission. And why not? It wasn't like he had anything to come back to, no? Until now. Maybe. "Do we want to stay on Bastion or maybe visit a different world?"

Curious tone there- he wasn't actually sure how to do this.

 

[Dante Sotari]

She smirked at his response, but stayed standing herself, resting her hip against the edge of the counter.

"Away."

The answer came before he even finished his question. Fast and without hesitation or debate. She didn't elaborate as to why. But the answer was also not surprising. She didn't trust Jairus. Not as far as she could throw him. A man who was willing to dangle the lives of strangers over her head couldn't be trusted anywhere near Morgan if she could avoid it.

That thought brought a frown to her face.

When they were just casual Morgan was safer. Easy to blow it off if anyone tried to use it against her. But this changed those considerations. Without Jairus showing up, she might not have worried that much about it. But...

"Definitely away," she repeated. "Uh, I think we should keep.... us..... kind of under wraps." She said it carefully, not really sure how he'd react.

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

First a nod.

Then the second part came around and Morgan tilted his head.

"Any particular reason?" Just as careful, because he wasn't really sure what to think of it. His concerns immediately rose up- wondering if they did have different thoughts on what this was or what Morgan wanted it to be anyway.

He didn't look her in the eye, instead pushing his eggs around the dish a bit, trying to figure out what to do here.

Did he care? Should he care?

 

[Dante Sotari]

Her first inclination was to lie.

Well, not lie per say, but give reasons that made sense but weren't the actual reason. Her new rank fraternizing with someone below it was a legitimate ethics concern and was generally frowned upon. She could have used that as a clear reason and she wouldn't have been wrong. The excuse was halfway to her lips before she stopped. It was impossible to miss that she had been about to say something and then checked herself.

Teeth on her lower lip, she chewed over it for a moment before:

"Because I don't trust my new boss not to use you as leverage, that's why."

It was blunt and true. No games, no excuses.

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

He wrung his hands there.

Had she used that excuse Morgan would have had a more difficult time swallowing it all. Instead- a nod, frowned, but a nod regardless. "Does this come with a necessity to... keep up appearances?" The question came softly, cautiously. There was still a necessity to guard his heart, because everything about this had been... difficult. Complicated. No part of it easy and even now (with their night shared) Morgan still was concerned it might all disappear within the moment's notice.

The tea cup shattering in front of him.

It was obvious what he was asking-

Did she expect them to kark other people in the meantime?

 

[Dante Sotari]

Dante missed a huge slice of the context for him on his question. She had stopped sleeping with other people a long while back. At the time she had told herself it was just more work than it was worth. But they had never talked about it. If he had tried to bring it up, it would have gone poorly. The fact that she wasn't sleeping with other people and hadn't for the majority of their time together had simply never been part of the equation. It wasn't part of 'keeping up appearances' to her, because it wasn't part of what she had been doing.

"I think that might be best," she said with a nod, "I just.... I don't want to put you on the line because my boss is a manipulative mother-karker with boundary issues, you know?"

In this case she meant just that they didn't escalate their relationship in public.

The specter of Bea shifted in the back of her mind. She had always wondered if the public nature of their relationship had made it easier for what had happened. She had never known if that was the case, if one of them had put the other at risk. She suspected if it was, it was likely the opposite direction- that something he'd been involved in had splashed over to her. But she never had known for certain.

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

Frown deepened.

He had been afraid of this.

"Dan, I-" If it had been just about not making their relationship public? Sure, fine. It was a shame but to a degree Morgan could understand it. The less information and knowledge this Starvald had on them, the less chance there was he would try to use it in one way or another. But this? This wasn't something that Morgan felt comfortable with. But how to say that? By being blunt, no? Just come out and say it, let it be over and they could go back to a state of non-complication.

"I don't know if seeing other people at the same time is something I am comfortable with. I know appearances, but... I need this to be us." Looking up when he said that, finally meeting her eye. There was tension in his shoulders, the line of his jaw.

He was already preparing himself for her saying this was the only way for her.

 

[Dante Sotari]

His hesitation. The stop and start. Was it going to be an all or nothing? Either they shouted their love (gods it was that) from the rooftops or nothing at all? Dante didn't deal well with ultimatums. One could say if she could avoid it.... she didn't deal with them at all. Starvald was already putting her in an impossible situation. Her jaw clenched slightly. She didn't think she could handle it from Morgan as well. She could handle one complication at a time, but two?

No-

Dante blinked.

Opened her mouth then closed it.

"I.... What?"

She blinked again.

"I..... meant like, not holding hands and going 'no I love YOU more' in public."

She paused, looking over at him. She had stopped casual hook ups not long after they'd started seeing each other regularly. She took this to mean that he hadn't. It didn't bother her. They'd never talked about. She didn't have a right, not really. So she was surprised to find that the realization stung a little.

"Didn't realize you were, but hey we never talked about it, so no worries on that. But. That's good, cause that's what I thought you meant last night. So. You know. We're on the same page then I guess."

Maybe more than a little.

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

Now it was Morgan's turn to blink.

Blink blink.

Holding..... hands? "Um." I love you more. "Uuum." He scratched himself behind the ear a bit before letting out a nervous chuckle. "I didn't realize that was on the table either way." A wink there. There was relief in his chest, but the tension was still there as well. Mostly because this was a whirlwind of emotions and Morgan could only sigh after that. Then- another blink. "What?" He tried to think of her wording for a moment, before shaking his head quite firmly.

"No. I uh, haven't been seeing anyone else."

A shrug.

"Not a lot of time for it honestly, no real inclination either." More people increased the complication that was already overbursting at the seams. He scratched his jaw a bit before pushing himself up, leaning against the table and watching her.

The you? sat heavily on his tongue, but he didn't voice it.

 

[Dante Sotari]

"Well, I mean, it's not," she said, shifting self consciously. "On the table. I don't do lovey dovey-" anymore - "But I was illustrating ya kno- anyway, that's not the point...."

The shifting turned uncomfortable, and she crossed her arms over her chest.

She was uncomfortable how relieved that made her.

She had assumed that was the case, until this conversation had thrust it suddenly and awkwardly into doubt. Would it have changed anything if that had been the case? She'd stopped early on, partly because it was more time and effort than it was worth and partly because she'd simply slowly gravitated toward Morgan more and more. She hadn't stopped it for him. But it had been the end result. If she'd thought that wasn't the case on his end, she probably never would have taken his words last night seriously. Wouldn't have been able to. They wouldn't have gotten here.

She wouldn't have been upset. But she wouldn't have been able or interested in committing if it had been the case.

The you? that sat heavily in his mouth didn't get answered. Dante wasn't good at that sort of social extrapolation. Perhaps she could have been, but it was a skill not nurtured.

Instead she nodded, looking away because honestly she didn't want him to see just how relieved that made her. She didn't want to even feel it, but there it was.

"Okay, so, we both agree then, that's good cause it'd be really awkward to have a first fight less than twenty four hours in, ya know?" She smiled, but it was, well, awkward.

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

He had just been joking, but apparently that didn't have the exact... desired... result.

Morgan grimaced and hid it with a rub of his jaw.

"I know, Dan, I was just joking. I don't need to publicly announce to the world what I feel for you, you know? I am okay with just keeping it between us." Trying to salvage it as best as he could as he pushed himself off his seat again and settled next to her. Didn't quite touch her, because that might not go over well now either. Even if Morgan did want to wrap his arms around her and hold her. The amount of stress she was going through over this thing was...

Telling about what she had experienced in the past.

It sucked that he couldn't help her with it. "I don't know, maybe if we do it early on, we can avoid it in the future." A smile back to her, reaching out with his hand for her to take his if she wanted to. "Hey, look, we will do the best we can and see where that gets us. No sense in worrying too much, no?"

The fact that Morgan worried a lot was irrelevant.

Not her problem to carry around as far as Mor was concerned.

 

[Dante Sotari]

Her hand slid into his and she squeezed slightly.

"Yeah. We'll figure it out."

The whole thing was a mess, from start to finish. The timing on this was... inconvenient. Then again, if she hadn't been assigned to Starvald, would this have come to a head the way it had? Or would they have just continued the way they were? She wasn't sure.... on that or if she would have preferred that.

It would be so much easier.

And yet.

She didn't want to let go of his hand.

Turning into him, she slipped her arms around his waist, head tucked beneath his chin.

"Lemme get you a couple days, we'll go somewhere.... somewhere not here," she murmured softly. "Just.... pretend none of this matters for a little bit, okay?"

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

He almost buried his nose into her hair and settled there for the moment.

Enjoying her against him, him against her, the hug good for now. His own hands wrapped around her and held her as well. "Mhm, we are good like that." Agreeing with the agreement and nuzzling her softly.

Everything was hard about this.

But somehow Morgan didn't mind.

Not as long as they held each other hands' and were together. Then everything just... clicked and it was good. "Sounds perfect." A thought there. "Maybe somewhere warm, sunny and tropical." He murmured, leaning down and nuzzling her nose. "I have been wearing trench coats for so long I feel like they are part of the uniform." Softly joking against her lips.

"Should get some swimming clothes... I guess."

 

[Dante Sotari]

"Cool frosty drinks made from fruits we can't pronounce," she chuckled. "I'll handle our- your CO, you figure out where we're going, deal?"

Technically she outranked his CO now. The fact that had also been her CO until this morning, well. She'd be nice. Wasn't their fault this was all happening. Of course, nice for Dante wasn't always, in the strictest sense, nice.

"Bet you can find somewhere it won't matter that we don't have swim things," she said, straight faced before she kissed him.

Extracting herself from the embrace, she picked up her comm and headed into the living room with it. She hated taking and making calls with an audience, which he knew well enough by now.

It wasn't hard to get his time squared away. He was owed it, after all. While Dante had used up some of hers, Morgan had been saving it up like credits under the mattress. She took a minute when she was done to start up a query as well. What she'd originally been starting to look into first thing this morning. A pair of names. She wanted whatever info she could get, and she had no issue using the new found requisition powers of an Imperial Major to get what she wanted.

[member="Morgan Vance"]