This You Can Keep

[Cassandra Paige]

Slap

She'd taken one look into his eyes. It was all she had needed.

The woman hadn't been an ex. She didn't need him to confirm it or deny it. There was a cold anger in the redhead's eyes, her lips a thin line as her hand came down.

It was after Corbos. She had barely spoken two words to him since they had departed, not entirely certain how she wanted to broach this. Not how to do it, but how she wanted to. Of course, once they were actually alone, it was no longer a question. He'd slept with the blue queen and it had been since they were together. Cass simply didn't know one thing- besides why he would ever lower himself like that, but that was beside the point.

Standing in the living room of his apartment she put her hands on her hips.

"When."

Her voice was flat and deadly. Not had he. Simply when.

While as far as she was concerned he deserved the slap either way, the answer to that would tell her a lot about how the next few minutes would go.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

The slap was hard, unyielding and even jerked his head to the side for a moment.

From there everything was slow.

His hand moving up to rub a line of his jaw, the touch to his bleeding lip, a drip of it brushing the tip of his thumb. Looking down on it and then shifting his attention to her, while pushing that thumb between his lips and sucking it clean. "The next one I hit back, love." Tash calmly stated. Not as a threat, no, it was clear from that quick flash of murder in his eyes when the slap hit home. He had considered it then already, but moved away from it for different pursuits.

Only then did he allow the situation to revolve around her issue.

"When what?" It wasn't enough to have the silence between them suggest. No, Itash wanted her to say it outloud, make it real. Make her taste the words in her mouth one syllable at a time. This storm had been brewing from the moment Filiae showed her face and decided to become a complication.

But Tash hadn't decided on a course of action, until she slapped him.

That was when the path had been set in stone.

 

[Cassandra Paige]

It was satisfying. But not very much. Not as much as she'd hoped, honestly, especially considering his reaction. She ground her teeth together, keeping her voice deliberately flat.

"When did you kark her, Itash?"

She hated it. Hated saying it. It might have been one thing if she'd been human and attractive. That at least Cass could have understood. But she was an alien, bald, half metallic- those eyes, ewgh.

Right now, Cass was reining in her anger, hard. Partly because the answer to this question would give her the answer to how angry she was allowed to show- not to be, but socially what was acceptable. She had spent years perfecting how to fit into a society she had no natural inclination toward, how to play the games and pretend to the proper emotions at any given time. They had never spoken of exclusivity, not really. If it was before Raykka, well, the conversation moving forward would look different.

A matter of differing expectation rather than betrayal.

But if it had been after.

Then it was no longer about expectations. Certain words had been said, if not returned yet. They kept toothbrushes at each other's apartments now, for crying out loud. The assumption of exclusivity now was not shocking.

But until she had an answer, other than the slap, she kept the few emotions she ever truly felt in check.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

Oh so satisfying to Itash to hear her say it.

The grinding of her teeth, the disgust she felt, the controlled rage skin-deep and barely kept in check. Tash hadn't karked [member="Darth Filiae"] for that reaction, but had he known the intensity of her wroth... he might have simply done it for that already. Oh, this was inconvenient, but they were playing a game and this only made the stakes just that much more interesting.

His touch brushed the ferocity that was slowly drifting up from her mind, caressing and leading it further.

Anger was the easiest emotion to manipulate. The deeper you made it, the less they realized they were being toyed with. "Why?" It could encapsulate a great many of things, but in essence... why do you think you are worth that knowledge?

Even if it relayed more like wondering why she needed to know that.

He didn't deny it though, even if he didn't rightly confirm it either. Part of the game... part of testing her boundaries and her patience.

 

[Cassandra Paige]

Cass had no idea he was using the Force on her. It wasn't the first time- a non-Force user herself, with very little familiarity with what was possible, it was subtle enough to not even gain notice.

Even without that subtle tug on her anger, his response alone would have done the same thing.

Her nails dug into her palms, leaving small white half-moon crescents in her skin.

"Because it matters."

It gave her the information she needed to decide how to react to him.

"How?"

She just stared at him for a moment. Her lips were set in a thin line, grey eyes flat and deadly. She spoke carefully, enunciating each word separately.

"Because that was humiliating, Itash, and you can either answer me or I am walking out that door and I will not be coming back."

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

He met her eye level and without glancing away.

Part of him figured it would be more satisfying to push the envelope here too, but it was too early... certainly. No, her walking away wouldn't have been conductive to what he was trying to accomplish here. From here on out every word exchanged was added to a subtle dose of mental interference, deepening out that anger inch by inch as they lost themselves in the words.

"During the mission to Umbara." Itash said, truthfully.

It had certainly been possible to lie about all of this.

Why not? It was his word versus that of a Chiss that she hated. It wouldn't be the last time a woman would try to claim to be intimate with him for their own purposes. Oh, it was clear that she just wanted to pull up her reputation.

Well, that would have been the argument anyway.

 

[Cassandra Paige]

Umbara had been after Raykka. After he had said he loved her. She hadn't said it back because part of her had been oddly reticent about lying to him, in that moment, about that. She did not love him- that was not to say that she did not appreciate him, want him, enjoy him. But in that one thing, at that particular time, she had done the opposite of what she normally did. She had chosen to not lie.

He had saved her life.....

"I guess you could say I saved his life, and vice versa."

Cass was very still. For a moment she didn't blink or breathe. And then a soft breath, exhaled.

"Were there others?"

She hadn't been loud before, but this was quiet. She wasn't certain if it mattered. But she had to ask.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

Internally Tash rolled his eyes.

The sheer concept of Filiae saving his life rather than just being a handy distraction was hysterical to him.

But this was neither the time nor the place for that. Her line of thought did present him with opportunities- feeding into that and strengthening her potential even more than he already was.

Now that second question was not something that Tash had been expecting. It seemed odd to him how much Cassandra seemed to care about all of this, it wasn't really all that strange for a man to have more women in the Core worlds, was it? As far as Itash knew it was simply the thing to do as a noble. The Tapani Sector was rife with these sort of exploits and nobody ever batted an eye.

What a bother.

"No." Not because he hadn't wanted it or because Filiae was a mistake or anything of the sort. No, simply because there hadn't been a time, an opportunity, a place, where that would have been beneficial to him. "Does that matter?"

 

[Cassandra Paige]

"Yes," she said simply.

In a way, it was almost worse. If he had simply slept with anything that wiggled at him, then it would be easy to dismiss the chiss as merely that. Oddly, if he had said yes it would have been easier.

Of course it also would have been easier if he were not meddling in her anger, drawing it out, inch by inch. For now, she was still in control. This was not the angriest she had ever been. No, that was reserved for her mother. If she could keep her temper in those moments, well. Tash was no contest.

She was quiet for a long time.

When she did speak again, it was clipped. Very clear. The way she might explain a GenPals process to someone not in the business- something he was familiar with. Business Cass. For now, all he was accomplishing with deepening her anger was her putting the mask more firmly into place.

"You and I clearly had different assumptions about what this was. And if that is the case, I accept that. But I will need some time to rearrange my expectations."

What a waste. Of her time. Of her energy.

Inwardly, Cass snorted to herself. She had believed him. Of course she had. Well. Spilt milk.

Sure.

Secretly, she was annoyed with herself that she had accepted his words then at face value. But she barely had the luxury of admitting that to herself, let alone more.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

So many thoughts swirling through her mind.

Each one providing an angle of approach, some effective, some satisfying, plenty that were both, but once you had this many options... what would you go for? Which angle would infuriate her the most? The one inspiring the most rage from her, perhaps to break that cold fury and make her snap for him. There was a goal in his mind and it was solidifying by the moment as enjoyment increased.

"What assumption was that?" Tash asked curiously as he took a step towards her. "You have the honor of being with a Lord of Tapani, miss Paige, there are costs to that."

Head tilted as he took another step.

"In your defense... I did my best to blind you, but-" His smile appeared, the infuriating one as he tugged at her anger every word that was pronounced. "-I didn't think you'd be that easy."

He pushed hard at that last one.

 

[Cassandra Paige]

The arrogance she could handle. That was easy. The majority of the people she had grown up interacting with had it. Indeed, she had it and she knew it (even if she didn't think it was unfounded, but then, few people did of their own).

"When I am with someone, I am with them, Lord Mecetti," she replied immediately. She had not missed the switch from their private, familiar form of address back to Miss Paige. "And I at least expect to know the cost going in. My mistake."

In truth, it was something she could have dealt with from the beginning. She'd had opportunities to explore other avenues and had turned them down- partly because they weren't particularly interesting, and partly because she had invested a certain amount of energy in the pursuit - specifically in making it appear as his own pursuit- of the dark haired man standing before her. If the price had been on the label, so to speak, she would not have invested as heavily as she had.

All of that she could handle.

Besides, she didn't have to tell someone it was an honor to be with her. Anyone who needed to say that out loud only had something to prove.

But the second part.

It had been her mistake for not clarifying- part of her game was never seeming *too* needy, balanced carefully with allowing someone to feel *needed*. But to have him brazenly note that he had not only deliberately kept it from her but that she had been easy to fool.

"Well, now I am clear." She managed.

Time to go. Time to leave. There was no staying and keeping a lid on her fury. She had learned the cost of lashing out, and had been so careful since that one mistake gone over the edge. Words and words and words roiled about in her head as she turned away from him and pointedly headed toward the door.

"You might consider reworking your definition of what an honor being with you is," she directed over her shoulder as a parting shot. "Or else stick with alien kark boys. Do the rest of us a favor."

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

"Mm, yes, Filiae. She was quite shocking." Tash chuckled at that little joke of his. Behind her she would hear his footfall grow closer as he approached her without much in the way of worry. He was calm, relaxed, there didn't seem to be a shred of anxiety within him as they played this game.

Well.

He was playing a game anyway.

The anger was there and he could feel it. Whatever her mother had done... it had dulled her killing instinct, made her pack it up in a little box and try to shove it under the metaphorical bed. Because there were consequences and much like a child touching something searing hot, that sort of impressions were made to last. It didn't matter how old you got or how far away you managed to run, it stayed with you.

Always.

"I did not have the impression I gave you leave to go, miss Paige." Tash finally said calmly while letting those barbs pass him by.

 

[Cassandra Paige]

Cass made a disgusted sound in her throat.

At this point, it wasn't even that he'd slept with someone else. Handled differently, she could have over looked it, even forgiven it. Knowing if that was the expectation she could have made the decision to continue as she had been, or start to look elsewhere. But now he was shoving it in her face (though she did not catch the entire picture of that comment, which was probably for the best anyway). It was crude, unnecessary and deeply disrespectful.

It was rude.

And of course, with each step toward the door, her fury deepened. Only part of it was natural response, but it was done slowly enough, each time either of them spoke, for it to build naturally combined with his words.

"I don't require your permission, Lord," she let out a small, derisive laugh, the 'lord' sarcastic.

"You lost the right to make demands on me," some of the mask slips and he can hear the hint of a snarl in her voice. "You gave them up with my assumptions."

She opened the door, knuckles white on the handle.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

He barely managed to let the satisfied smirk slip as the snarl slipped her.

Just before Cassandra could open the door further, his hand came down and slammed it shut. The anger was palpable now. This close proximity enough to almost feel it on his own skin, but this wasn't the time for that. "You never gave me that right. I took it and I haven't given it back." Through it all the pressure on her anger increased, letting it grow, letting it slip from the lid she had placed firmly on it so many years ago.

Every word was neatly picked, but through it all the fire was fed further though his mind.

She was a tough nut to crack, after all. Few things truly had any effect on her when it came to words. It was one of the things he liked about her, but right now it was one of those things that would have made this frustrating if not for the Force.

"You know I was surprised when I discovered you fled from mommy dearest, but little did I expect running had become an instinct to you."

That last bit came almost as a purr to her.

 

[Cassandra Paige]

The motion jarred her shoulder, straining the joint where flesh and cybernetics married. The slam reverberated through her entire body, and everything tensed, waiting for a further blow that never came but that she could almost feel skittering across the surface of reality.

When it didn't come, however, Cassandra laughed. Not pleasantly. Beneath it was a line of ugliness she rarely let out into the open.

"Congratulations, you have just confirmed that you think more highly of yourself than I ever did."

She pulled at the handle, but he held the door fast. He loomed behind her, hand on the door, his breath hot on her neck and she was disgusted that she'd ever let him touch her.

It wasn't just his action that kept her still then.

The comment about her mother froze her. She had never told him anything about the events surrounding that. The 'deal' the elder Cassandra Paige had offered to her daughter. Leave and succeed or remain and marry as directed. As would most benefit the family.

"How. Dare. You."

She didn't know how he had found out about it, but she assumed her mother had idiotically confided it to the written form in some fashion and he had dug into that with Didact.

"Go to hell, Tash. You know nothing about that or what happened," she snarled, not turning to face him.

"Let go of the door, now."

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

How very dare.

But the door was as unyielding as the man keeping it shut as she tried to force it open once more. "I know mommy thought you were useless for anything other than breeding the next generation of bratty Paiges." Tash murmured softly, as if he was sharing a little secret... one she already knew, of course. "I know mommy is watching your every move and laughing at the fragile empire you are making out of cardboxes."

"I know you ran from mommy all the way to the Corporate Sector rather than just deal with your problem head on." Head tilted at that, as if a thought suddenly appeared, spurred on by that last mention.

"Mm, almost like how you are running now."

He smiled sweetly.

 

[Cassandra Paige]

SLAP

This time it wasn't with her left hand, of flesh and bone. This time with her right- instead of powered by merely indignation, now it was fueled with anger. She had turned around, all of the force of the pivot going into the strike across his face, her eyes sparking with anger and cheeks flushed with it.

"My mother is a queen balanced atop a family of phonies and liars holding desperately onto a company that is dying with Coruscant as surely as everything else on the planet is," she snarled.

"There is a difference between running and saying good-bye, Lord Mecetti. This is the later. The mistake was that it took this long."

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

This time it was the other side and its force made his head jerk back.

Like the first time there was blood.

This time around he just let his tongue snake out and take a snip of the trickle, tasting it calmly, before looking back at her. "No wonder Queen queen thought you were better as a breeder." The top of his hand slammed against her face next. "You have a difficult time remembering things." In truth there was little anger behind his own touch against her cheek.

Tash was controlled, focused, he was enjoying this.

But he had explained to her that there would be consequences for touching him again and this was it.

 

[Cassandra Paige]

That 'touch' snapped her head to the side, leaving her head ringing- she'd seen it coming and had moved just enough to keep it from splitting her lip, but only just- and not enough to keep teeth from tearing the inside of her cheek. It was good he had only matched her force, rather than her intent- she had hit him as hard as she could, and was honestly lucky he hadn't done the same.

Turning her face back to him slowly, she very carefully spit blood onto the ground at his feet. She had considered, briefly, spitting it in his face. But the last time she'd done that, well.

Cass was capable of learning.

"Better a queen queen than your whore, Itash Mecetti." It hurt to speak, but that was worth it.

"You warned me. Now it's my turn. Touch me again and I will kill you."

It wasn't a threat.

It was a promise, spoken low and tight and furious.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Cassandra Paige"]

Oh, but that warning was exactly what Itash had been looking for this entire time and all it did was seal the next action. All of a sudden his fingers were around her throat, slamming her into the door and curling there tight. There was a message there, I can touch you whenever I want, it said and underlined that he merely made a choice not to sometimes.

As she struggled Tash laughed and leaned close against her, his nose brushing her neck softly before leaving a whisper in her ear.

Then as quickly as the moment came, it went again, with him throwing her back into the room.

"You were saying something about warnings, love?"