Take Off The Mask

[Alric Kuhn]

He took the ration bar and slowly began to eat it.

There wasn't any point to saying anything. Conversation with them had either been one sided or rather filled with banter, and right now Alric didn't feel like having either of those. So instead he simply sat and watched the sunset.

Truthfully it was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. There was something untoward about it, something off putting. Perhaps it was because Alric had never see twin suns before, perhaps it was because of the situation in which he was in, but there was something...off putting about the sunset. The cold began to settle in, and from his bag he pulled the woolen blanket that had been so well preserved within the Star Destroyer. He placed it over himself, then began to shift closer to Danger so she could share in the warmth.

After the night before, he no longer even thought about it.

The silence continued, the first of the suns of Tatooine set behind the far ridges, and Alric stretched his arms out, his hand accidentally touching Dangers. A thought occurred, a thought of what had all started this. An amused smile came on his face, the thought of telling Danger the truth. She would very likely be infuriated...

"I never even wanted it you know." That would seem entirely random, but he explained. "Blas-Tech. Didn't want it. It was a tool to be used. A Bargaining chip."

His fingers fidgeted for a few seconds. "You can have it."

 

[Danger Arceneau]

Danger almost didn't catch what he'd said.

"What?" she found herself uttering, her voice caught between a surprise and aghast. There was a portion of the ration bar hovering over her lips, as if she'd been in the brink of eating it when he caught her off guard. She didn't even catch the way his hand would brush over hers.

If there ever was a more candid reaction for Danger Arceneau, this was it. Her head would cant towards him, looking at him with a baffled expression. Oh anger wasn't even there -- yet. This was more her trying to wrap her mind around the play he just made.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

He smiled.

It wasn't his typical smug smirk or grin, it was a simple smile of joy. While she panned to look at him, Alric only watched the last remaining sun slowly set over the crested ridge. A sigh escaped his lips, forced as a way of measuring something. His hand closed, brushing against Dangers palm, a wave of pain rushed over his back an instant later and he winced slightly.

Phantom pain.

It was a phenomenon that he knew about, and now realized he would experience quite often.

"Blas-Tech was always a means to an end. It was a piece in the game." He said quietly as the pain slowly faded away into a dull throb. "Part of the it, but not its end goal. Now that I've achieved that goal the piece can be removed."

The way he spoke about a trillion credit industry must have seemed wanton, even stupid, but Alric truly did not care about Blas-Tech.

 

[Danger Arceneau]

Her fingers would curl around his.

It was unconscious really, a reaction to the touch. She caught the grimace, tucking that information away. But she didn't miss the smile.

Perhaps that is what affected her more. The simple genuineness of it as the last setting sun would cast shadows over his angular face. Her mind would wrap around what he'd told her. Trying to comprehend it.

A means to an end? A piece of the game?

"Achieved what goal?" came her careful query, each word slowly emphasized, her eyes narrowing upon the man. A dreadful churn at the pit of her stomach would start to shift, a dark forewarning. Perhaps it is because she was expecting the worst. She couldn't help it. Ten years made her cynical and jaded enough to be wary of what could be too good to be true.

[member="Alric Kuhn"] just told her she could have BlastTech.

What exactly did that mean?

And why?

 

[Alric Kuhn]

He didn't look at her.

The slight smile on his face told a story however, what exactly that story was was impossible to tell, but the slightest crook, the tiniest smile that grew on his lips told that he had indeed won that particular game. Blas-Tech had just been a way of gaining fame and quick fortune, of producing an air of success around himself.

It had been a way to prove to the unseen that he was more than worthy of inheriting Titan Industries. Of course there had been other factors, but the taking of Blas-Tech had been an important one, one that had displayed competence and a fierce business acumen.

He laid down, sliding against the Star Destroyer and using the bag as a pillow, unconsciously he took her with, pulling on her arm until she cooperated.

“Titan.” Was all he said before yawning.

 

[Danger Arceneau]

Funny, all it took one word to strike and mark a line of demarcation. The before and the after. Granted, this rather poignant moment was half bled into a rather comical splay of Danger tugged right there beside him.

Laying on her side, facing him, she could only stare at him with a blank expression of shock. She almost didn't understand him right, but the word was there, and there was no missing it. Not with what kind of inkling she already had tickling along the nape of her neck some long minutes prior.

The cogs began to turn. Faster and faster like a well oiled machine. Facts were being strung together, twisting and forming into thick ropes of awareness.

She shot up in a half sitting, half lying down with her palms to the ground, one still half intertwined with his. Hair went all kinds of directions, but the growing flush sputtering over her face was enough to make anyone amused.

"Titan?!" she half was washing she wasn't going to get the answer she already knew. It all made sense now. She was smart as a whip and there wasn't no fooling her anymore.

"As in Titan Industries?" she would repeat straight through clenched teeth. Oh by all that is --

Oh she was miffed.

Only thing she wasn't certain about was if she was more miffed that he got her to play his game or that he managed to pull the wool over the eyes of the 'Verse and her in a manner that damn well impressed.

Much the less, that he also tossed about BlastTech as if it was nothing.

"Gorram it!"

It all came out then. She couldn't help herself. Not now. She was all spitfire and temper that she was, and it culminated with a sharp shove right against his shoulder. Probably not the best idea, but well.. it was clear that he managed to stir her. That she lashed out like so meant far more than would meet the eye; she wasn't holding herself back behind a mask no more.

No, emotion flared out like a pyre.

"You've any idea what I've blasted gone through the past two weeks 'cause of you!?

Her hands went as if to give him another shove. Hey, at least she had a mind to realize she shouldn't punch him. That was telling to say the least that she didn't actually want to hurt him as much as she was simply frustrated by him. She had been worried sick... and he'd made her feel utterly vulnerable and confused.

"Utter wretch thinkin' that all I worked for will be going down the drain and you didn't even want BlastTech to begin with!?"


Oh the dam broke.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

A smile smile crept on his face for a few moments, though it quietly slipped away as she began to berate and push him.

Her words stung him slightly, though he had no idea why. Yet there was no logic behind them, not in the game that he had been playing, not in the mindset that he had been in. As she went to shove him again his hands shot up with lightning quick reflexes, he grasped her wrists, and then pulled her close so that she was practically on top of him, hovering only a few inches above him as he held her in place.

“It was never personal.” Alric said, his voice gruff. “It only got personal”

He was referring to the incident at the expo, what they had gone through, what they had experienced with one another. “If you hadn't sent a droid we could have talked about it, I could have explained.”

There was a cold logic to his voice, though in his eyes it was very clear that this went far beyond logic. He may not have held the same rage as Danger, at least not anymore, but it was obvious that he held some passion for this.

“I never wanted to hurt you.” Sure he had wanted her off balance, but he had never meant any true harm. “I didn't want to destroy your business or ruin your work. All I wanted was for you to take off the mask.”

He spoke without thinking.

 

[Danger Arceneau]

Strands of crimson would fall from their bindings, flanking her flushed face as he held her in his grip. She fell half on him, her face a scant six inches from his, so close that in the waning light she could see the ferocity of his bright blue eyes.

Her throat caught. Hands would fist in his grip.

She was breathing hard, chest heaving and one would say she had a lot of fight in her. However, looking past the anger, at this proximity, one couldn't avoid the tremble of her body nor the look of vulnerability that lay there in the shadows of her eyes.

He was right. It got personal. Too personal. Raw and cut to the bone.

He'd hurt her, even if it was unintentionally. It was a stark reminder of her place in things and just how foolish she'd been.

Take off the mask.

It was almost like being struck. A bloom of fire to the cheekbone at that.

"Then I hope you are right well pleased with yourself." she'd say in turn, a catch in her voice that would say he was successful in his goal, having successfully forked her. That's why she sent Six. That is why she had her HRD go to him to finish what she'd started.

She couldn't continue without that mask he'd successfully shattered in one night, not with how she was feeling. Not with her confusion. Not when she just --

Droid.

She froze. He mentioned a droid. Six.

"... How did you figure out?" Six was made to be a seemless and neigh on perfect double of the Trade Queen. Down to mannerisms and personality, it was her.

How did he...

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Danger Arceneau"]

“It wasn't you.”

Alric said in that calm tone.

His grip on her wrists lessened, and the pressure that he had been exerting to keep her hovering over him slowly lessened, allowing her to get closer so that she was almost laying on top of him. It was difficult to explain of course, his hunch, the look in the HRD's eyes that had told him it wasn't the real Danger.

Of course it could have just been luck, it could have just been a good guess.

But it hadn't been.

“A copy is a copy.” He explained to her. “No matter how much it tries to be the real thing. No matter how much it looks, acts, and even sounds like it. It's still a copy.”

He knew that she likely wouldn't be very satisfied with that answer, that it was really all just nonsense, babbling about copies and not being here. His eyes closed for a moment, obscuring frozen lakes. He thought back to the moment he had been assured. “It was the eyes.”

Alric's owned fluttered open.

“They had no flame.” That was silly of course, Sixes eyes were the same as Danger, but it was the best way to explain it. “They didn't have that fire, that heat that fights so desperately to conceal.”

It was the only way he could explain it.

 

[Danger Arceneau]

Warmth pressed and would saturate where they lay against the other. The seconds went ticking past, his words striking a cord.

It was the eyes.

Nox told her as much years ago. Her tell was all in the eyes. No matter how sweet she'd play, for those who knew her well, it was all in the eyes. That Alric Kuhn had so happened to catch that between her and Six was chink in her armor she didn't expect.

That sense of vulnerability only would heighten.

Her gaze would rip from the man under her, fingers curling and uncurling in her confusion, wrists now lightly held in his grip. The delicate contrast of her wrist to the calloused strength and size of his hands was a reminder of the differences as much as one that said she wasn't omnipotent or infallible.

Her lips drew thin. It was evident he took offense to that. But why? He'd made it clear that no matter what she offered he'd not sell it.

"And if you were not going to sell to me or to her, then why are you here?"

 

[Alric Kuhn]

He looked at her.

The answer to that question was so obvious, so easily found, he had thought she already knew. He had thought that the reason she had sent six was to avoid the very reason why he had come here. Maybe she was simply confused, distracted, or maybe she just hadn't thought of it.

“To talk.”

Alric said finally.

 

[Danger Arceneau]

No. She knew the reason. She just had wanted to avoid it. Avoid him.

He brought to a head things she hadn't thought in a long while, a sense of vulnerability that she thought she left padlocked, dead and buried in her past.

She was a different woman now. Had to be.

A knot grew in her throat and she felt a pressing need to flee.

"Came a long way to talk. Especially since you found out about Six... Meant I didn't want to. "

Well there was no avoiding it now. Not when they were both here in each others faces, close enough to feel the tangible heat of each other and after everything the past week on Tatooine had cast their way.

"Six was a compromise."

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Danger Arceneau"]

He didn't move.

“I don't do well with compromises.”

It wasn't much of an answer, but it was a truthful one. Alric either got his way or he considered things a failure. There was no compromising with the Titan, no compromises with Alric Kuhn. It was that simple. To him, Six had never been much of a compromise anyway. Sure he could have sold Blas-Tech, but it hadn't been at all what he wanted.

Again he let her sink a bit lower against him, if only because eventually even she grew too heavy for him to hold up.

 

[Danger Arceneau]

So Danger sank onto him, from breastbone to hip, half on and half off.

It got personal. No, no. It was already personal. Both knew it well. Only difference was is that they were actually starting to talk about it. It was as tense as it could be. Akin to two Nexu prowling back and forth, eyeballing the other only to turn round and pace the other direction.

“Sometimes one has no choice.” Danger would say in turn, her voice dropping an octave, attention stuck on the horizon but not truly seeing it.

Finally she would turn her head to face him anew. Well there was no avoiding it now.

Things had gone past the line of intimacy with what had happened between them since the Expo and now.

“But you got your way, Kuhn.”

Dark forests would latch on those frozen lakes.

“Say what you need to say.”

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Danger Arceneau"]

He paused for a moment, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

“I...” He had been so angry, so enraged, so mad at her that he had never actually thought about what he was going to say when they got to this moment. Alric frowned slightly, and then suddenly let go of her wrists entirely. She pressed against him, falling onto him, his arms sliding around her in a warm embrace.

For a few moments he simply lay there with that same startled expression.

“I...” That same odd beginning. “I can't think of anything to say.”

Alric began to chuckle, grinning like an idiot.

 

[Danger Arceneau]

Danger blinked. Once, twice.

That’s when she began to shake. Not due to her own devices, but because Alric had clearly lost his mind. Had to be. But there he was, his arms holding her in place as amusement would roll across his body and shaking her own.

She could only look at him in disbelief.

“...You.” she began, clearly baffled by how he went from being so determined to talk to her, to this. Lost at what he had to tell her. “... can’t think of anything to say?” she would ask incredulously.

“So all of this… this…” she began to sputter, her arms sliding down to brace herself against his chest, pushing herself up a bit to get a good look at him.

“You did all of this without a gorram clue on what the heck you were going to say?!” there wasn’t anger in her tone this time around. No venom. Just bewilderment.

What kind of man…

The lunacy of the entire situation was just too much. She couldn’t help but start shaking her head, more so with him going on like he was.

Before she knew it, her own shoulders were starting to shake. There came a slow chortle, a matching chuckle that turned into full blown laughter.

“You’re a gorram idiot, Alric Kuhn.”

Came her breathless reply in the midst of her own cathartic release. By then her forehead found the curve of his shoulder, body shaking in tune to the mirth that would dance across it.

“And so am I.”

 

[Alric Kuhn]

They laughed.

They laughed together, though about what Alric wasn't really sure. It all seemed to stupid now. The pain that he had endured, the torture, the suffering, the very near breaking of his mind. The chase he had given Danger, and the rescue she had performed.

It all seemed to be for nothing.

Perhaps it was because neither of them were very good when it came to the regards of emotions, or perhaps it was because neither of them really knew how to talk, Alric certainly didn't. Yet he found himself not caring. All he wanted to do was laugh, all he wanted to do was relax, all he wanted to do was...fall asleep.

Slowly, as his laugh faded off into a chuckle his eyes drifted closed.

Perhaps the words would come in his dreams.

 

[Danger Arceneau]

So they lay entwined.

Sleep would coax them both into oblivion for the next few hours, the cathartic laughter relaxing their bodies and souls into a restful sleep. Odd as it was, there was a comfort to it. Perhaps therein lay a need and desire neither of them would voice aloud, much the less explain. This time there was peace to the silence, and perhaps the truth and more important factor of the actual conversation lay in what went unsaid.

Who knew. Perhaps the words would come in time.

Either way, Danger would find her own odd peace within the warmth of Alric's arms and the soft steady rhythm of his breathing.

Morning would rise from the east with the faint trickles of rays of light. Uneventful for now, but unlikely to be so in the future. As the first of the Twin Suns would crest the horizon, so too would the distant dark figures of sapiants upon speeder bikes.

They would no longer be alone.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

To say that Alric was out cold was an understatement.

The night passed on by quickly, and even though the danger of sleeping on top of a Star Destroyer out in the open was massive, neither of them seemed to care. Alric especially gave this no thought, he slept deeply, perhaps the deepest sleep he had ever had in his entire life.

They were warm, relatively comfortable, and tired.

The heat of their bodies and the blanket that lay atop them allowed them to make it through the night no worse for ware, and as the two of them slumbered, Alric dreamed of the future. They were oddly peaceful dreams, though probably false.

When morning came, Alric did not wake, even as the speeders approached and the suns began to rise he continued to sleep, his body demanding rest.

 

[Danger Arceneau]

The hum of speederbike engines would soon draw Danger from her slumber. A half frown would draw over her forehead, furrowing her brow. An arm would lay heavy round her middle, but if she was surprised about that she certainly didn't show it.

No, her attention was elsewhere. Alarm would wash over her face as she would half roll into a semi sitting position. The withering dawn would illuminate the plateaus and the desert dunes in the distance, already the temperature rising. The sound in the distance would grow louder, and the sudden jerk of her head towards the direction of the Western dunes seas.

Several trails of dust and sand would rise in plumes as those speederbikes would near. Shit.

Waking up [member="Alric Kuhn"] would not be a gentle endeavour; there would not be a good morning kiss nor the gentle coaxing to pull the Tetan from slumber. Instead, a sudden shake and push would briskly attempt to awaken the man, a low voice whispering harshly.

"Kuhn. KUHN! Wake up!"