The Usual Mr. Rekali

[Asher]

The pain in his side had not subsided by the time he had reached the cantina, and by the time he had taken his seat at the bar there was really no sign of it getting any better. For a moment it seemed to describe his entire existence, but he wasn’t quite there yet. Pain was a constant, but he wasn’t quite at the stage where he was going to complain just yet. The Mandalorians now wished him dead, or at least they wanted a part of him dead, and the closest of his family that he still had around was splintered so few and far between that Aton had given up. It all began with the death of his mother, really, and then it escalated from there. Mira was dead now as well, or at least that was what his gut said. Last rumor he had caught of his sister was that she was involved in the Mandalorian civil war and lost.

Now that was an amusing thought. Mira Rekali, a loser. He had grown up with her, it came with being twins. He knew that she wouldn’t be taking it lightly, and no matter where she was she would most likely be putting up more of a fight than anyone could ever think possible. Personally he had gotten out of Mandalorian space ever since the Resurgent Empire came knocking on the door, and ever since then he had been on the move from place to place looking for his next payday. Today was not any different in that regard. His rifle had fired a single shot today, and only a single life had been taken. A notorious darksider who compelled young women to his lair before murdering them with no hint of hesitation or remorse. A rabid creature just like the other animals that Aton hunted.

He had deserved something more than a shot to the head, but for a pro bono job it was all about expending as little of his resources as possible.

His arms rested against the stone surface of the cantina bar as a hand moved to shuffle through his hair with a relieved — even if a slightly bitter — sigh. There had to be more to it all than this. He had been content with his farming equipment among the AgriCorps, but hunting like this wasn’t bad either. Maybe it weighed on his conscience when nights grew long, but he had learned to deal with it since then.

“Borleian Hop Ale.” Aton pointed at a bottle on the wall. “No need for a glass.”

The bartender grabbed one and passed it to him. Aton placed a credit chit on the bardisk.

“Thank you.”

 

[Fiore]

This bar seemed to be the best one for people like Fiore. Assassins and the like flocked here more than she'd like to admit. Here, she would drown her sorrow for the night. The door opened and the girl dressed in tight leather bound armor walked in. A few of the men there recoiled knowing what she was and what she represented. It was an annoying factor with her line of work. She wondered if because some people knowing her, caused her to miss out on today's target.

Arms raised to remove the clip that held her hair tightly bound, brunette hair fell revealing its length from the bun. Hands ran through the locks feeling the smoothness of it and relaxing the young assassin. The bar top didn't too crowded minus a gentleman that seemed to be having a rough day. He wasn't having as terrible of a day as Fiore was, but she wouldn't poke at him. He sat in her favorite seat, but again today she would let it go. The girl wasn't in the mood for a fight.

She wandered over to the bar and found a seat. She was near the man who was in her seat, but a seat over. Looking up at the bartender, she ran her hand through her hair and sighed heavily. A smile crossed his lips as he grabbed her an ale as well. “That bad?” Fiore nodded and slipped him a credit. A hand shot up as he waved it off, “On the house, today Missy". The tips of her pointed ears turned a soft red as she nodded and sipped on the long neck of the bottle. [member="Aton Rekali"]

 

[Asher]

[member="Fiore de Noir"]

He hadn’t felt her presence as she took her seat by the bar. A curious glance shot out at the girl who took the seat next to him. Mandalorian, maybe? No, she had pointed ears like an Eldorai, and the blatant lack of any sort of machismo and the fact that she wasn’t wearing the armor made it all the more obvious that she was not here for him. Eyes kept looking at his seat though, and Aton couldn’t help but draw the most logical conclusion.

“I’m in your seat, ain’t I?” He smiled trying to open conversation. “I can change if you want, I know better than to get between someone and their seat.”

Especially with women. It was just fact. It had a tendency to hurt.

“It’s yours if you want it.”

 

[Fiore]

Fiore held the bottle to her lips and paused as she stopped drinking and looked at the man who spoke to her. Hazel eyes blinked in disbelief at his question and then his offer to switch. It was an odd thing, most people in this bar just ignored each other. Unless of course they said things that were inappropriate to her. Those that did, learned their lesson quickly. She didn't get that vibe from him, but she kept her guard up.

The bottle found a home on the cardboard like coaster on the bar top. Her slender fingers unwrapped from it and found a place next to the cold beer. The same eyes that blinked at home stared and studied him. He was hurting and seemed to be doing his best to hide it. Shaking her head softly, she spoke with a slight accent commonly found in the Empire. She may have been born there, but she was no sympathizer.

“No, you seem to need a comfortable seat for the evening. I'm okay for tonight.” Fiore nodded and then took another sip of her beer, it was odd that his face didn't register to her. Her ears perked slightly as she realized she had never seen him here before. Her body shifted and she looked at him. “You're new. I've never seen you before.” [member="Aton Rekali"]

 

[Asher]

[member="Fiore de Noir"]

She was taken aback. He wouldn’t have been a Rekali if he didn’t smirk at that, would he? He threw a quick look over his shoulder to see the rest of the people in the room. Technically they were people like him, but something told him they didn’t perhaps share his sense of idealism about it. Worn armors with dents and scorch marks were enough to get an idea of what place this was. Even the girl next to him had her marks, but other than the form-fitting armor there really wasn’t anything to note that would give her away for either one or the other.

“Well, in that case I appreciate it.” Aton shifted to look at her all the same. A slight wince tore at the corner of his lips as he did so. Yep, the guy had definitely gotten a good punch in there. “And you would be correct, I haven’t been here before. Tend to jump from planet to planet and help out where needed.”

“You know, hunting stuff.” He looked around the room again. “And given the nature of the rest of the clientele I can only assume you are much the same?”

Eyes set on Fiore again. “I’m not exactly judging here. We all have to make our living somehow.”

 

[Fiore]

A smirk pulled at the corner of her lips. He was perceptive, but also seemed to be the type to take a hit so he could get the job done. Which also meant he was probably slow. Her chuckle was hidden by the bottle as she bought herself some time to answer him. They all didn't ask questions here, mostly because you might be working for someone that someone is trying to kill. Conflict of interest was a terrible thing and Fiore remembered back when she had to kill her old drinking buddy. The man was a sith informant and was feeding Intel to the Empire from the bar on hunters and the like.

There were no hard feeling between them, but she missed his banter. “You could say, but not many show up like you.” She poked at the fact he was sitting here injured. Fiore had her beatings, but at least she licked her wounds at home. “Hunting, you make it sound so normal in a way. So if you want to talk about them as if they're large game then sure, I hunt as well.”

She took another sip of her beer and looked away from him. The odd scent she picked up from him was something she knew. Some smelled good some smelled disgusting, his smell, she was okay with it. “You're a force user hmm?” The force dead assassin was an empath when she was younger, a strong one that could rival a certain Eshan Queen. Fate had a different course of action, her sense of smell could only pick up on faint hints. Still with that and the aura of confidence he silently kept to himself, she could tell.

“You're a hunter of what?” [member="Aton Rekali"]

 

[Asher]

[member="Fiore de Noir"]

Truth told the hit wasn’t so much to get the job done as much as a screw up. Bad positioning before he pulled the trigger had caused the man to trip the hunter, Aton, to the side and left his rib open for a kick. Of course, he would never on his life admit to such a thing. And the questions that he asked was simply because at this point he had come to embrace at least one part of his Rekali heritage. If he died, he died. This woman was more than likely to be able to kill him in ways he couldn’t even dream of. Okay, that was a lie, he could think of quite many ways and none of them seemed all that proper, but at least if push came to shove he would be honest about that.

“Well there aren’t many like me either.” Aton grinned with a shrug. “And it is normal, anything is as normal as you make it.”

They both took their sips of their beers and Aton would let an amused exhale burst through his nose. His head tilted towards the woman sitting next to her. “I am indeed force sensitive, and you are quite the opposite.” Aton looked at her. “That either makes you an unfortunate Mandalorian, or an even more unfortunate former force sensitive. And truth told you don’t strike me as a Mandalorian. Your ears are pointed. Your skin isn’t pale enough to be Arkanian, and with the distinct lack of notable races with similar traits… I would say that you are an Eldorai.”

Aton took a sip of his beer. “I hunt vermin.”

Vermin. That’s what he called his quarry.

“Or beasts. Or monsters. There are many words for the same thing, you know?” He shrugged it off as something that was still entirely normal. “Things that prey on those who cannot defend themselves, either because it’s in their nature or because they can. Sometimes it’s both, and in either case there needs to be someone there to stop them.”

“Acklays, womp rats, darksiders, nexu, vornskr…” The list went on. “You get the idea. I’ll be there. Today wasn’t any different.”

 

[Fiore]

[SIZE=9pt]Fiore listened and watched the condensation of the beer hit the bar top she leaned against. He was very much like her in the most part, they both hunted things, but she listened more trying to figure out what exactly he hunted. It wasn’t these small vermin he mentioned or beasts there was something more that he wasn’t saying exactly. Another sip of her beer and she leaned back. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]He knew she was dead from the Force. She remembered Mira mentioning how she felt like a void in it. Where she stood there was a blank space, something there, but nothing there. Maybe that’s what made her so good at hunting those with the Force. She wasn’t affected by them, they would throw kinetic waves at her and nothing, others tried to read her mind, take control and they were welcomed by a void. Fiore didn’t understand it fully, but she went about her day to day life. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]Eyes blinked as he had mentioned her heritage. A smile and a nod as he guess right for the most part. “I am Eldorai, not a typical one at that. I didn’t grow up with the culture or anything of the sort. I’m also human, but I think the only obvious trait is that I’m not as tall as other Eldorai women.” Shrugging, Fiore thought back as she knew she had never seen someone like her. Eldorai seemed rare, or she was just unlucky in seeing anyone that resembled her. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“Seems we hunt the same things for the same reasons. Wild animals with no sense of humanity, they all deserve to be put down like monsters.” A final sip of the bottle and she set it down and slid it towards the top of the bar top. The bartender made eye contact with her and set down a new bottle. Her eyes looked towards him and she shrugged. “What happened today? Too slow to get out of the way?” A grin swept across her lips, it was different from her smile. She made it obvious she was teasing him. [/SIZE]

[member="Aton Rekali"]

 

[Asher]

[member="Fiore de Noir"]

Being the one in the family with the weakest of force connections had a way of granting Aton a chance to unlearn the idea of not watching with his eyes and to rely on the force. For one, the force was broken as far as he was concerned, and for second it was dumb. He knew his drinking partner was there because he could see and hear her. Didn’t need magic tricks to figure that this one was real. And even if she was a ‘void’ in the force it made her more of a curiosity than anything else. Truth told it was kind of intriguing.

He nodded at what she was saying. Sometimes the world really was that black and white, and sometimes it was just what he said to make life easier on himself. He skirted the lines every now and then, but what kind of power was there for him to seize when it wasn’t even really there to begin with? He could sense people, get bad vibes, but beyond that he really wasn’t anything special.

And then she just had to mention his ribs. Of course she had.

He let out an amused snicker and shook his head in his own defense. “Naaaah nah, nahnah. Uh uh.” He raised his beer for his lips but quickly lowered it again to look at her with a lingering grin. “Okay, yeah actually. Not going to lie, I messed up.”

“Tracked this one particular predator down to an alley off the main street a few blocks down from here.” He waved his hand towards the east with uncanny precision. “Fether kept preying on the downtrodden for no reason at all. I wasn’t exactly about to let that happen.”

“Tracked him down to a small organs dealer. He was peddling body parts for spare change.” He shook his head and finally took the sip of his beer. “Something to allow himself a sense of purpose, no doubt.”

“So, I was getting ready. Snuck right up behind him with my rifle when he just turns around as if he knew I was right there.” Aton poked at his rib with a small wince. “Yep. That’s going to sting tomorrow.”

“Anyway, he knocks me off-balance, gets me right in the ribs right before I manage to regain the upper hand again and put one between his eyes.” The beer met Aton’s lips once more and he let chug the last drops that remained within.

His head shook. “Not sure if it’s for my conscience sake or the thrill at this point.”

“... I should probably be worried.”

 

[Fiore]

Fiore listened to his story, she raised an eyebrow everything he was describing about the target, the location and what the target was put up for as a hit. Her fingers pressed around the bottle as she raised it to her lips. Staring straight ahead she continued to listen to the story as it unfolded she remembered what she had seen when she attempted to approach. The figure that was fighting the target was the man next to her - he was the reason she wasn’t getting paid. Fingers continued to press into the bottle as she chugged the entire thing. Eyes never tearing away from the wall of bottles in front of her that resided behind the bar.

He finished and the bottle returned to the counter and her head whipped to stare at him. Looking him up and down she felt her ears pull back and lay back. His clothing was familiar now that she actually looked at him, his face wasn’t seen when she had walked up, but it was really him that killed the man she was hired on to kill. He was worth so many credits and now she was here using her last few for a couple of beers. If she could, she would have crushed the bottle over his head and take the credits he would have earned for the man - but her morals kicked in and she cursed under her breath.

Anger subsided for the time being as she crossed her arms in front of her. “So you’re the guy I watched kill my meal ticket for the evening.” She turned her head from Aton as she sighed heavily. She wanted to punch Aton’s grinning face, but once again morals and all that really lame Jedi Training came to the surface. Anger still stirred, but she held it inside of her for the most part. Eyes narrowed and she stared at the man next to her. “Well, I wouldn’t have messed up - you’re lucky he didn’t kill you.” Scoffing at him, she looked at the bottle and groaned feeling her body slump into her seat more. The beer was gone and she knew she was going to start feeling the alcohol soon.

“You’re the worst.” [member="Aton Rekali"]

 

[Asher]

[member="Fiore de Noir"]

He certainly arched right back at the glare. He had seen his fair share of those over the years, he knew what it meant, and he knew to shut up and let her speak. True, she probably wouldn’t have messed up and Aton was lucky to be alive, but he’d be lying if that wasn’t at least a small part of the rush that he couldn’t ignore when it came to these jobs. His grin was gone and he looked for the floor for a second. And to think the evening had been going just fine, right? He sighed and shook his head.

“You’re not first to tell me that.” He frowned and turned back to the bar for another drink. Hand waving for another of the same drink he already had. The bartender gave him a dirty look too and Aton gave him a surprised one in return. “What, you too?” His eye wandered between the eldorai and the bartender. Once again he turned right back to his partner for the evening. “Look, I had no way of knowing that. These people don’t usually have contracts on them, and I am not one to frequent these places.”

The bartender leaned against the bardisk towards Aton, throwing Fiore a glance saying he could do it if she wanted him to.

“You are awfully close there, keeper.” Aton leaned away while continuing to throw glances between the man hulking over him and Fiore. “Look, if it means that much to you, I could buy you a meal and we will call it a day.”

“Just ease up there, big guy.” He turned for the bartender. “I know when I am at risk of a black eye and bruised ego.”

 

[Fiore]

Fiore looked at the bartender and nodded him off. The man leaned away and gave Aton a final glare then moved back to taking care of patrons. This left Aton and Fiore alone, she looked back at the Rekaili man and continued to frown at him. “So you’re one of the outliers, the guys that don’t know the way things work and they feel they kill the bad guys to keep the streets safe.” A hand found her face as she sighed into it and knew she couldn’t be too upset with him. He was someone who played by his own rules, she used to as well, but she was absorbed into this small group. The group protected each other and she learned their rules and followed them. It was how she got paid for the most part.

“I can buy my own food. I’m alright, just this was the icing on the cake to a terrible time I’m having.” A beer had appeared in front of Fiore, the Bartender had slipped it onto the counter before he had turned away to deal with other patrons. She looked at it and sighed. It was obvious there was more than the missed kill hanging on the young Eldorai’s mind. She knew alcohol wasn’t the answer, but it helped make everything hurt less. Her mind drifted for a moment remembering her encounter with Mira and how quickly her happiness returned to frustration.

“Ugh.” She took a long sip of the beer and stared at the label. “You getting your ribs probably bruised or broken pleases me enough to not want to kill you for stealing my kill.” She looked towards the Rekali man and nodded. “Most don’t have public contracts on them. Everyone has a contract on them, you, me and everyone in this room has at least one on their head.” She shrugged and took another sip. “If I killed you now, I’m sure I could find someone that would pay me for it. If you decide to kill me, you’d have several - some from the First Order, some from the old Jedi Order. They are out there, people willing to pay us to get our hands dirty.”

Fiore pinched the bridge of her nose as she began to feel the alcohol take its lovely effect. Any pain she felt from Mira, from losing the kill and just her life in general soon disappeared and she sighed with a sense of relief. “I’m sorry, like I said there’s a lot going on and you became the surrogate for my frustration. I can give you the name of the man that wanted that target dead if you wanted to make some credits off of it.”

Pausing, she looked at him and narrowed her eyes studying him. “You don’t seem like the typical bounty hunter type, you’re too clean.” She motioned towards the other men in the room and Aton would see the gangly figures, with dirt and soot clinging to them. Their hair would be greasy from being out in the field and had a lingering stench of death about them. “What’s your name?” [member="Aton Rekali"]

 

[Asher]

[member="Fiore de Noir"]

Oh she did not just call him a scrub. It became Aton’s turn to frown and give the girl a disapproving glare at being referred to as an ‘outlier’ that ‘killed’ to keep the streets ‘safe.’ He preferred to think of it as pest control. He killed because they were problems, known problems, and because he in the end knew that the streets actually would be safe. There was no make-belief that he was being the good guy here. He still murdered people in cold blood over things they may or may not have done just yet, but the results was always the same.

And true enough, Aton probably had a bounty to his name somewhere. Mandalorian space came to mind. And he couldn’t help but laugh at the way she seemed to find a small measure of comfort in knowing he had suffered for taking her kill. His head shook at the offer to turn the man in.

“No, but if you want to turn it in you could.” He shrugged and reached for his empty bottle that wasn’t there anymore. “I-” He tried to reach again before her looked over at the empty space before him. “... Right.”

“My name is-” He began but cut himself short. “Actually, what if we just don’t?” His grin returned. “Safer that way. But if you want a name, let’s just go with Ryan.”

“Like you said,” His grin twisted to his side. “Bounties. Might be dangerous for a newbie or outlier like myself to give out my real name.”

Yeah, there was some thin layer of mockery in there, he couldn’t resist it.

“And just for the record, you don’t strike me as the average bounty hunter either.” He too motioned around the room. “Everyone seems to shy away from you for some reason.”

 

[Fiore]

Fiore nodded, taking his made-up name as the truth. She knew he was right and seeing that he was smacked around by someone who wasn’t worth that much, she figured it was probably safer for him to play pretend. She wondered his story, why he did this. He didn’t give her a reason why he did it, beyond what she had already assumed. Maybe she was right about him and she chuckled under her breath listening to him talk.

He was kind of smart, he was kind of observant and she shrugged. “You noticed?” Looking around, Fiore watched as the other bounty hunters had friends or something close to it. They drank together, laughed together and seemed to genuinely enjoy each other’s company. Her hazel eyes fell back onto the man next to her and she brushed back a few stray strands of brunette hair behind her pointed ears. “Most have weird vibes when it comes to something other than a human or the other groups that tend to do the whole bounty hunting gig. If I was a Mandalorian, life would probably be a bit easy.” Musing over being in a suit of armor that they wore made her wonder if she could get one too. “Eldorai don’t do what I do. We’re supposed to be happy wonderful people. Kind hearted and welcoming to everyone in the galaxy. I’m not like that.”

A sip to quench her thirst and then she continued. “Beyond that, people know not to get close to me. If you have a number above you head, if you’ve done terrible things, if you’re a Sith – even if we’ve shared a drink, a laugh, and/or a meal…I won’t think twice about slitting your throat.” Her words cold as she remembered her former drinking mate. She thought of Mira and sighed heavily. “Only one target has ever gotten away from me, mostly because I…” Her nose wrinkled and she took a long sip of the beer. “It doesn’t matter. But yeah, that’s why they don’t hang around me – they could be next on my list.” She smiled and shrugged.

“I like you though new guy and you’d be kind of boring to hunt.” [member="Aton Rekali"]

 

[Asher]

[member="Fiore de Noir"]

He did. Situational awareness was the key to staying alive. He was aware of their disposition because that was the most prominent change when she had stepped on through. The only friend she seemed to have here was the man behind the bardisk, and even then that was possibly because she offered him patronage. Aton himself had never really seen reason to be weirded by near-humans. It was the most cliché thing to say, but he genuinely saw no race here. Just cultures, and the woman by his side was clearly not from the culture she would have otherwise been born into.

Besides, he knew a thing or two about not being who you were born to be.

“It’s an admirable separation, in a sense.” Aton nodded at his drinking partner’s approach to life. “To be able to see past what is happening and what needs to happen going forth. My family has had a few pragmatists like that in our midst to be sure, but same as before… I’d rather not talk about them. We have a bit of a complicated history.”

He too sighed. “Anyway, that target must have been special to you if you let it go.”

 

[Fiore]

Fiore nodded as she thought back to that lovely day on Hoth, which lead to another lovely few days on Kashyyyk. She sighed and shook her head. “All I had to do was do what I was told and my life would be a bit different. I wouldn’t be so stressed out, I wouldn’t be so pathetic.” Thinking about the foolish things she did to make sure Mira noticed her or to make sure Mira was safe. It angered her knowing that Mira had her by a leash, leading her around to every corner of the galaxy and never giving her what she wanted.

One would think that Fiore was used to this sort of instability in her life. Every day she had to fight to survive ever since she was young. A part of her wanted that to be over, she wanted to just have somewhere to feel comfortable enough to walk away from this life. She would give it up all Mira had to do was promise to be around, to always be there and to trust her. Still, she didn’t get that from her. The last time they met, she got something close to it which she held onto. At least somewhere in Mira’s heart she wanted to be with Fiore, but there seemed to always be something that stopped it from happening.

Shaking her head, Fiore looked towards Aton and shrugged. “I’ve chased this target all over the galaxy, just wanting them to stop running. I’m tired.” Maybe it was the alcohol finally getting to her but she continued. “Have you ever just wanted someone to care for you as much as you care for them? To give you some sense of stability despite everything? I keep reaching out for it, but when I think I’m getting close its taken away from me…” [member="Aton Rekali"]

 

[Asher]

[member="Fiore de Noir"]

Oh this was going to suck, he was going to look like a sappy idiot.

“Come on, from our conversation you seem pretty far from pathetic to me.” He kept a straight face as he winced twice over inside. She went on to explain the situation and that she had just hunted and hunted the same target over and over until the she got tired of it. Yet something in the way she said it made it seem like she still hunted it all the same, and when things moved on to some more personal matters it was all the more obvious that perhaps something was starting to crumble under the weight of said exhaustion. For a second Aton frowned and motioned for the tender to send them two new ones.

It could turn into a long talk.

“You know what?” Aton started with a small disheartened chuckle. “I do.”

“Maybe not in the same way as you, but I think I can identify it. Of all the people around me, it’s really just me and my dad who are left, and I don’t really have all that much of a contact with him anymore.” Aton grabbed the bottle that was handed to him and sipped with a distant look upon his face. “I always lived in the shadow of my — errrr, brother. He would be the good one, the strong one, the one who got into trouble and made it out alive.”

He took a big chug out of the drink. “I was relegated to the AgriCorps.”

“Anyway,” His head shook and he looked back at Fiore. “So I hunt because I can and because it’s just about the one thing I am the most at peace with. I hunt because I enjoy it.”

“If you don’t like the hunt, why do you keep going?” He asked and turned to Fiore. “If you don’t mind me asking,”

“Why don’t you just… Let them go?”

 

[Fiore]

Fiore listened to the man, he had listened to her and despite the fact he ruined her day he was making her night. She sighed softly as they both seemed to be the type everyone had tossed aside. His tossing was not so dramatic and painful as hers, but she wasn't going to judge. He continued and she nodded understanding where he was coming from. She enjoyed the hunt, she felt alive when she did it and when she thought about it she knew she could never really quit.

He spoke of giving up and Fiore paused with a hesitation on her face. Could she quit Mira, could she just give it up and move on somewhere else? These were questions she was scared to answer and even more scared to live through. Fingers tightened around the beer bottle again. She shrugged and then took a sip.

“I don't know if I can quit this hunt. I mean it's not even one at this point. It's like I'm just chasing and chasing and never getting anywhere. I want so much from her but she seems so centered upon herself and what pertains to her.” Fiore sighed again, “I understand what you mean though. I enjoy the hunting, it makes me forget all the troubles I have to deal with.” A soft chuckle and she shrugged once more. “if only life was as simple as the hunt” [member="Aton Rekali"]

 

[Asher]

[member="Fiore de Noir"]

They both had some issues to work out it seemed. Her partner was stuck chasing after someone that she couldn’t tame and Aton was stuck searching for a purpose. Taking another sip he nodded at what Fiore was saying. The hunt was always a good way to get your mind off of things, and perhaps in the end that was why it spoke to Aton. The amount of preparation and mindfulness that went into it meant that you had to push everything else aside, and until that shot was lined up and fired off there was nothing else that could be allowed to cloud your mind. It was a simple existence that suited him fine.

“Well, what if it was?” Aton perked his brow asking the question in an attempt to lighten the mood just a little. “You have this huge amount of stress on your shoulders. And I don’t know what kind of stress it is and from how many different sources, but to me it sounds like it is all sort of the small things that you are in control of.”

“This woman you chase,” If only Aton knew who it actually was. He wouldn’t have laughed if he did. But he didn’t know, and he did laugh. “She doesn’t seem to respect you and what you want.”

“Trust me, I am very far from a relationship expert,” He bobbed his head from side to side. “But I am pretty sure love is supposed to be a two-way street.”

“You can make life as simple as the hunt, trust me, but you need to be willing to take that step first.”

 

[Fiore]

[SIZE=9pt]Fiore sat there and listened to Aton and his words. The man had a point and she hated to admit it. There was no getting around the fact that Mira was something different, that she was pretty much about what she wanted and how she wanted it. Fiore knew all of this, she knew everything that Aton was saying. Amelia had told her about this and so had some of the others she had spoken to about the mysterious Jedi she chased. Everyone said the same thing and yet still Fiore ignored it all. There were so many good things about Mira that it was easy to forget the fact that Fiore was going to be forever in an eternal chase. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“I’ve been told before that this isn’t a good situation for me. Times that I work up the courage to walk away, to forget the chase and the hunt for her heart – she returns to me, tells me things that I want to hear.” Shaking her head, Fiore leaned back and stretched for the most part as if the weight on her shoulders was beginning to slide off. “So, everything is great again and I have the hope that it won’t ever return to this and how I feel.” The once strained elf seemed to soften up a bit which was evident in her ears which seemed to have a slight droop in their tips. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]“It’s just hard. You put all your hopes and dreams into a dream or a person and then it all just explodes in your face. I would have been just fine if she wouldn’t have had a vision or something. To have someone finally look at you and see something wonderful is a good feeling and I get that every time with her.” Fiore rested her head on the bar counter and sighed. “I feel like an idiot.” [/SIZE][member="Aton Rekali"]