Private Trouble in the Canals

[Leliana]

Leliana was also worried about the guards, knowing their states would raise numerous questions. Mainly suspecting they had been close to the initial attack. She was no stranger to interrogation, but she was in no mood to deal with them. So if they could avoid them all together, the better.

Fortunately, Natima came up with a plan to help. Leliana barely had time to give the redhead a curious look, before she raised her arms to catch her. With ease; helped by Natima’s lighter frame, the assassin was able to carry her. There was a surprising amount of strength there, making evident just how much of a physical fighter Leliana was.

“Oh dear! Yes, please go inside, rest! Someone will be available if you need something.”

Leliana didn’t hesitate to start walking, heading towards the hotel’s entrance.

“Ma’am, we really shou-” One of the guards tried to speak up, but the receptionist cut him off.

“Enough of that, they’re guests at our hotel and clearly need some rest. Leave them be.” It seemed to satisfy them enough, probably knowing they’d be able to get in touch if they wanted to talk later on. Not like either assassin was going to let that happen.

They walked into and through the lobby, catching no end of attention from those inside. Leliana gave them no attention, instead solely focusing on keeping Natima in her arms. It was until they were finally in the elevator, that the assassin relaxed. Although, she didn’t let the redhead down onto her feet.

“You just used that as an excuse to be in my arms.” She grinned slightly at Natima, a faint blush across her cheeks.

Natima Vando​

 

[Natima Vando]

Natima felt a rush as she found herself being carried in Lil's arms, feeling the muscles of the woman cradle the body of the Shi'ido; as if Lil needed to do anything else to steal her heart. She went limp. doing her best not to signal to the guards that she was faking her distress, focusing instead on the woman holding her at the current moment. Lil was ticking all the boxes on her chart, and all while in the midst of danger; could there be any worse combination out there? She certainly couldn't think of one. Being whisked away under such dangerous circumstances, how could someone not fall in love on the spot? Well, alot of people could resist the urge, but Natima always struggled with encountering those situations.

As they slipped past the guards, resisting the urge not to grin as they tried to argue for a reason to interrogate the two women, Natima could feel the gaze of the hotel guests being laid upon herself and her lovely assistant. She found the struggle to not smile a tad difficult here, though she persevered, knowing that slipping up would put both their lives at stake. Still, the thought of herself and Leliana being the center of attention here was...amusing to say the least. It was when the pair were allowed to remain in the confines of the elevator, that Natima finally let the rouse slip; giggling as Leliana called her out for the stunt.

Natima certainly knew how to pick them.

"It worked, did it not?" Natima smirked, looking up to the assassin, seductively biting her lip at the sight before her. "And I can't help but notice you still haven't set me down." She winked, her hand tentatively moving to squeeze Lil's bicep, snickering at what she uncovered. "You must work out, I'm quite a fan of your program." She remarked, before resuming her act as a decoy, as the elevator doors soon opened up. At first glance, there appeared to be no security on this floor, though as Leliana would move closer to the room, she would catch a glimpse of two security officers on patrol; though the two guards paid the woman little mind. The assassin would be allowed to continue on to the room without issue, allowing the pair some genuine peace as they could actually rest for once.

Leliana

 

[Leliana]

After this was all said and done, Leliana would look back on this and wonder how these events unfolded. Going from being on a simple, boring mission to recon a target. To being caught in a terrorist attack, now carrying a lovely redhead in her arms. If someone told her about this during her time in The Facility, she would’ve laughed. And that was from someone with a very active imagination.

“Mhm, I won’t argue that.” Natima had indeed played the card perfectly, allowing them to get by the guards with no issue. Exploiting the caring and concerning receptionist to get them off their backs. She looked down just as the redhead bit her lip, and Leliana immediately looked away. Her cheeks are burning even more. The wink that followed didn’t help either, as Natima had waited the perfect moment as Leliana glanced back.

She shook her head. “That’s only because we’ve still got to reach the room.“ The deflection wasn’t particularly effective, when the Assassin had a smile on her face. It was plain as day Leliana had no qualms with keeping the redhead in her arms. The elevator dinged open before she could answer Natima’s question, and the pair walked out. Initially, there was no one to be seen but a pair of security guards did appear as they drew closer to their room.

Leliana let out a relieved sigh when the door locked behind them, leaving them in the warmth and safety of their room. The assassin was tempted to just jokingly throw the redhead onto the bed. But Leliana had a sneaking suspicion she’d be wind up pulled onto it in the process. Not that the idea wasn’t appealing, evident by the rising blush across her cheeks. But they had other matters to focus on.

“You can thank my Master for that,” she said, answering the prior question. Leliana carefully let Natima down onto her feet. “She made it a point to ensure I had the strength to back up my fighting.”

Not that Leliana had been majorly slacking when she had been discovered. But Darth Ophidia had certainly seen fit to increase that kind of training along with her Sith teachings.

Natima Vando​

 

[Natima Vando]

Natima enjoyed every moment of making the beautiful woman turn bright red, it was rather fun after all. Though as fun as it all was, Natima knew it had to come to an end when they reached the room. A degree of comfort came over the Shi'ido, as they were finally in a place of genuine safety. Being set back on the floor, the Sith fell back onto the bed, chuckling at Leliana's explanation. "Well, give her my regards. I'm very much a fan." She commented, sighing as she drew out her dagger and set it on the nightstand beside her. Unfortunately, they had to move on from flirting and on towards more important things. Taking in the aches that her body was filling her with, Natima groaned and turned to face Leliana. She would much rather call their mission here, make sure that the two of them got far away from here, and possibly try and make a pass at the woman once again. "Take a rest, you deserve it. We got alot of things to figure out going forward." If Lil was anything like herself, she would probably stress herself out devising a plan of attack. And a pretty face like that shouldn't have to stress herself out.

Looking to the ceiling, Natima groaned, grabbing a pillow and placing it over her face. Running into the sewers to try and murder some crazy terrorists wasn't her idea of a good time, not to mention she was a tad concerned for her lovely companion; which probably wasn't very Sith of her. Removing the pillow, Natima sat up, having got most of her frustrations out of the way. "So, how did you want to go about this Lil? I'm guessing you're still wanting to go stabbing everyone down in the sewer, right?" Natima questioned, fiddling with her hair as she inquired as to their plan of attack. Which reminded the Shi'ido, she was going to need to get a shower after that dip in the canal.

Leliana

 

[Leliana]

Unlike Natima, Leliana didn’t have a weapon on her to remove. Instead she simply stood and stretched. The assassin could feel her body aching, several areas worse than others. Her back in particular, after having been knocked backwards into a wall. She cursed quietly, knowing this was going to impact her mobility from here on, until she could get properly rested.

But then if they kept things moving, not giving their bodies a chance to settle into the aches and pains…

No, that wasn’t going to work. Leliana could feel the last dregs of adrenaline slipping away. Any chance of just leaping into the fray again was gone. Even if the assassin wanted to right now, she’d just fall flat on her face at any attempt to chase or run.

She glanced over, watching in amusement as Natima grabbed a pillow and held it over her face. No idea what the redhead was doing, but it was a somewhat entertaining sight. “You would guess correctly, but I think we both know that’s no doable right now.”

First order of business was getting cleaned, changed into some fresh clothing and maybe some measure of sleep. Leliana would be content with two of those three working out.

“First, we should contact and report to the Overseer.”

Leliana crouched down by the bed’s side, reached under it and pulled out a portable holoprojector. Her arms feeling somewhat heavy, Leliana opted to just shuffle it along the floor with her foot. She stopped once she felt it was close enough to the room’s center. Crouching down once more, Leliana started up the device, and inputted the codes.

“You think I look...presentable enough?” She asked, with a joking tone. Right now Leliana could care less on how she appeared. All she wanted to do was figure out their next steps.

After a few minutes the holoprojector finally crackled to life. Seated behind a desk was Overseer Keysk. There was the barest flicker of recognition from the woman, given the obvious bandages that were around the two students. “Leliana, Natima. Report.”

“Our assigned mission was a success, but before we could leave a suspected terrorist group launched an attack on the city.”

Overseer Keysk looked away, her face betraying no emotion; if there was any there in the moment. “I see, yes. There have already been a number of news reports,” Again she looked away from them, presumably her attention shifting to a screen. It did eventually return to the two students. “Natima, what else have you discovered?”

Natima Vando​

 

[Natima Vando]

Well, there was a bit of good new there. They weren't going to go chasing terrorist through the sewers. "I mean, I'm not going to cry myself to sleep over that." She chuckled, sitting up as Lil brought up the fact they needed to call in the overseer; to which the amusement immediately faded. The thought made Natima's stomach hurt, as she quickly dropped herself back onto the bed. "I am not a fan of that woman in any way. It's like all her emotion went outside and shot itself. I feel like I have productive talks with that coffee machine in the lobby." She probably shouldn't be saying things like that, but truthfully she didn't give a feth what some old crone thought, and besides, Lil seemed to be cool enough to keep a secret.

Sitting back up, Natima could see that her companion was already pulling out the holoterminal for that horrid call awaiting them. Grabbing the pillow she had nearly smothered herself with earlier, Natima gripped it tightly in her hands, dreading what Keysk would open up with. Probably accusations of failure on their part. 'Two weeks in torture training', 'You'll have to retake assassination 101.'. A handful of rather annoying selection of past exchanges came to the Shi'ido, as she could only sit and ponder about what was coming their way. That was until Lil asked if she looked presentable, to which Natima couldn't help but grin. "Well, if I found you outside my door, I wouldn't even think about turning you away. So, I'd say you're very presentable. Does that help?" She asked, bounding up off the bed as she joined Lil in the waiting game, waiting for the Overseer to stop choking out an acolyte and pick up the call.

Natima had nearly given up and gone back to laying in bed, when the form of Keysk came to life. Of course she had to open up with her lovely tone of voice, barking at the two for information. Oh what Natima wouldn't give to throw a knife through her head. Letting Lil speak first, Natima felt she might be in a world of trouble given how the mission had gone. "Well, if I had to guess the terrorists have done a number on the city, and there's a chance that our target might be the one behind it. Other than that, no that's all I have for you." She was expecting to get chewed out, after all, she knew Keysk had no love for her. She was an alien after all, and a rebellious one at that. "You do something to your hair Overseer? It looks great today." She added, smiling just a tad, knowing it was going to get her into a world of trouble; but why should she care, Keysk would probably forget all about her misbehavior by the time they got back home.

Leliana

 

[Leliana]

Leliana had held a degree of disdain for Overseer Keysk ever since the first day she had been assigned under her ‘care’. The woman had shown no restraint in holding the assassin’s failures over her head. Namely the fact she had been sent back to the Academy to learn, after having failed her master. It was very rare for Leliana to get truly pissed off, but Keysk managed it at times.

And the assassin just kept coming back for another round of verbal punches. Overseer Keysk always found something else to try and knock Leliana down, but the assassin always stood her ground and shoved her successes and top grades into the overseer’s face.

Much in the same way as how Leliana currently wanted to reach through the hologram and hit Keysk in the face. Though, most of that was the exhaustion talking. She had zero energy to even be bothered talking to the woman, let alone tolerating that just emotionless stare she was currently aiming at Natima.

“Your new objective is to investigate and discover if your original target is indeed connected to these terrorists.” Keysk spoke, completely ignoring what Natima had said. It was one thing Leliana would give the overseer. Devoid of emotion most of the time, but she got straight to the point.

“Understood, we’ll report back in when we have more information.” Leliana stepped forwards, and before Overseer Keysk could say anything else, the assassin ended the call. She let out a heavy sigh, before glancing over at Natima.

“First order of business, we both need a shower. You go first, and I’ll see about trying to get us something to eat. Our best option to investigate this will be at night, so we should be able to get some decent rest in beforehand.”

Natima Vando​