Why Must We Fight?

[Jamie Pyne]

Pulling her legs up onto the couch she promptly crossed the beneath her and sat atop them.

"How are you not very good with men?" Her brow raised curiously, tucking her hands beneath the crooks of her arms. "They're not overly complicated. They like when you tell them how strong and charming they are."

She laughed, continuing. "They like being your only focus, feeling like you're enamored with them and everything they say and do." Jamie had mostly shrugged off the ones she'd met, namely because they were interested less in her as a person and more so because they saw shiny credits next to her name, or because she was physically attractive to them. The only time she'd met anyone from Naboo who had shown genuine interest in her had been one of her closest friends. That however was quickly put to rest as their family heads did not see eye to eye on things. The complications were simply overbearing to pursue, and so they had remained friends.

Jamie was generally cognizant however of when most anyone had some kind of romantic interest in her. "Are you shy or something?"

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Uh." Aela began with a slight scratch of her cheek. "Not exactly."

The truth was, well, she hadn't really ever been interested in that sort of thing.

There had been boys, and more recently men, who had been interested in her in that sort of way, but she'd always rejected them out of hand. Her concerns had been more focused upon the Galactic Alliance, The Covenant, and taking down the Sith. Of course they had done so in a way now, The One Sith were broken and bent, unable to really make war anymore, but Aela in that achievement she had rather left the pursuit of other things behind.

Particularly boys.

She didn't really mind it actually. Aela had always been of the opinion that if she was to meet someone they would come to her and well...simply make it obvious to her that they were the one. Sweep her off her feet for lack of a better term. That may have been naive, but it was one of the small allowances that she let herself have.

Aela glanced towards Jamie. "Let's just say that men haven't ever really been my focus in life."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie leaned forward, her hands on the cushion of the couch that separated the two, her head tilting to the side slightly. Her eyes narrowed a bit, as if trying to pierce Aela's soul and see her innermost thoughts.

"Do you like girls then?"

Jamie was hardly judgemental. Whatever someone preferred was their prerogative. "I mean that's fine if you do. I don't judge. Everyone has their own preference."

The way Aela hesitated when asked made Jamie wonder if that was the case.

"Of course that might make things a bit strange if this guy shows interest in you."

She laughed, sitting back on her side of the couch, her legs extending outwards, feet crossing over one another on top of the small table.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She gave the girl a bewildered look. "No."

The word was firm, but there was a hint of hesitaiton to it as well.

"I don't really care about the gender." It was true enough. She'd never really thought about it, while she was more inclined to being wood by a man she supposed that it hardly mattered if it was a woman that swept her off her feet. For Aela it wasn't about that sort of thing. She of course wasn't foolish enough that sex wasn't going to happen, but she found that most of her own...personal thoughts on the matter didn't revolve around the actual mechanics...so much as the passion of it.

"My parents are probably the most in love couple in the galaxy." At least they'd give any others a run for their money. "After more than twenty years my father still sometimes just randomly sweeps my mother off her feet and carries her into the ocean. He's...they're both still in love with one another. They do little things for each other, buy flowers, laugh, sing to each other...stuff like that."

She shrugged. "That's all I want from a man...or woman. I figured if someone who would do that for me ever comes along it would be obvious who it was."

Again, it was naive, but it was the small allowance that Aela gave herself.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Her tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth a few times, trying to figure Aela out. At first she wondered if she simply wasn't interested in bedroom activities at all, or she just didn't know she was. Then it seemed as though she was more focused on finding some kind of magical soulmate that would call out to her like a beacon of love, fireworks igniting in the sky and bells ringing to usher in this grand revelation of eternal happiness and purpose. She blinked. Again.

"I see."

Jamie thought back to how she met Kurt, and just how pleasant that went. "I don't know if that's how it always works." Her nose wiggled, scrunching her face up a little bit. "I hated my boyfriend when I first met him."

She giggled at that, hearing herself say it. "He was a colossal jerk at first." She raised and dropped her shoulders. "But I warmed up to him. And he's really very sweet." She also had to consider the circumstances of their meeting as well, as that was a bit of an anomaly in and of itself. "Then again, our initial meet was a bit...Unique." Still, Jamie felt inclined to offer her own, hardly scientifically proven advice.

"Just don't wait forever for magic to happen. If you're both waiting, you'll never find each other."

There was a genuine, friendly smile. From what she'd gathered of Aela thus far on their trip she was a quiet, genuinely serious person but she had a good heart.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"How did you meet?" There was no harm in asking really.

They were supposed to be practicing, but both Adder and Jacen had taught her on their other trip that every now and again everyone needed to relax. Working too much stressed the nerves, and if you were stressed you were unnatural, and if you were unnatural then no one would believe the act you were putting on.

It made sense in a way.

She herself was a lot less nervous this time around then she had been going undercover as a criminal. For one, this time she didn't have to traipse around half naked in public. Aela didn't mind showing off a little but that had been...torturous. Of course the reactions hadn't helped either, though once she'd gotten the hang of it all there hadn't been much difficulty. She frowned slightly, and then shook her head as she refocused herself on Jamie.

"If you don't mind my asking." She didn't want to pry. "I don't actually get to hear these types of things often."

Most people she surrounded of herself weren't really dating.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

That was a loaded question with no short answer that wouldn't invoke a dozen more questions.

"On a station. I had recently left Naboo. Was waiting for a ship to take me to Cartao. He..." She took her feet from the table and laid bent her knees, tucking her feet behind her. "Had just been arrested on kidnapping charges." Before she could continue on with the story Jamie suddenly burst into laughter. "He went there to deliver a package. The package, oddly enough, was for me. Except I wasn't on Naboo, and my parents didn't know I had left." She drew her lips back to the left, straining her neck muscles a bit into an ouch face.

"They had him arrested on suspicion of kidnapping. He was innocent of course, but my family had no idea where I had gone, and then suddenly this stranger shows up."

It was all very silly, really.

"So by sheer coincidence he made a stop on the same station I was at, and by even more coincidence somehow managed to run into me."

That was the quick run down, but things had been more complicated. She left out the part where a few thugs nearly killed them in the diner, and a few other details.

"He then proceeded to make my life miserable until I fell in love with him. Romantic story, right?"

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She smiled a little. "I've heard worse."

That wasn't exactly a lie.

Aela had really only ever actually only heard one other story of a couple meeting, and that was her parents. Oddly enough, it wasn't exactly the greatest romantic tale either. That should have been a relatively good way for Aela to realize that something wouldn't just come to her, but for some odd reason that lesson didn't quite stick. Her parents had actually met for the first time during a battle, a battle where her mother had ended up tackling her father.

They wouldn't get to together for many years to come, but still, not very romantic either.

"What's he like?" Aela asked with a smile. "Your boyfriend I mean."

She was probably prying just a bit too much, but now that they were on the subject Aela couldn't help herself. It wasn't a subject that she could ignore forever, and in truth she'd grown more curious ever since she'd embarrassingly realized that she really only had one or two actual friends. She knew that she couldn't live alone forever, and although ti was never on the forefront of her mind, Aela had thought about it more than once as of late.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie snort-laughed at the question. To define Kurt was to navigate a black hole. Theoretically possible, but it was going to be an adventure.

"He's..." She smiled, shaking her head, strands of hair falling to partially cover the left side of her face. In the time that she'd known him, he had put her through just about every emotional feeling one could have. "Unique."

That was the simplest way of putting it. If she needed a single word to describe him that was surely it.

"He can be full of himself. Hard headed most of the time. Stubborn like you wouldn't believe. He makes me want to scream and tear my hair out at times."

Her left hand pushed back the rogue hair. "But he's also very caring, and supportive. I never feel like I have to question if he loves me."

Jamie looked up towards the skylight, considering for a moment what he might be doing at that very second. "We're very different in almost every way and where we come from. But I think that helps give us both more perspective. I grew up my entire life as a rather sheltered noble girl. He was a modest living Tatooine boy that spent time in the military and pod-racing. I studied civic duty and was a fencer. He was a pilot, I never left Naboo. So there is occasionally some disconnect between our ways of life, but we make do and learn more about each other all the time."

She realized she was starting to ramble, her face blushing while she quickly moved to finish her monologue.

"He understands me though, and I like to think I understand him. We make it work. We love each other despite our shortcomings."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"I see." Aela said quietly. That stark difference seemed to be very common. Her mother and father were the exact same way. She was a Jedi her entire life, he was a Sith Lord at one point. She was ignorant in many ways of regular life, and her father had lived a hundred lives. She was good, kind, and he was...well not cruel, but cynical. It was safe to say that her parents were opposites, and yet they were worked so well. Perhaps the old saying was true.

Opposites attract.

Aela wondered briefly what that meant for herself, and she also began to wonder if she hadn't let opportunity already pass her by. The thought made her head hurt, though oddly enough it didn't make her sad. She frowned for a moment, then slowly a thought crept into her mind.

"Have you..." She trailed off. "Have you uhh..."

The question was an inappropriate one...but well...Aela had never, and she'd always wondered...

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Several seconds passed. Jamie blinked a couple of times, as if waiting for Aela to finish her question. Maybe she was having trouble thinking of the word she wanted to use to complete the question. But the longer she waited, the longer she realized that was the question...It was like she wanted Jamie to play fill in the blank with her for some reason. Jamie's eyes shifted from Aela to the floor, to one of the passing soldiers, and back to Aela. There was an awkward period of silence where neither person said a word.

Finally Jamie shrugged, her head shaking slightly, as if giving up on the game. "Have I what?"

She was hardly a mind reader, after all. And having known Aela for this short of a period it was unlikely that she was going to know what Aela meant by Have you uhh.

Odd.

"Have I...." She dragged out the I as she thought of potential questions. "Told him I'm Force sensitive? Met his family? Introduced him to mine? What is it you're asking?"

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Had sex with him." Aela blurted out.

The quesiton wasn't a very subtle one, but then again that was probably for the better. Aela of course hadn't ever slept with anyone, though that didn't mean she was completely ignorant on the subject. Much like most people she had done some...exploring in her life, and when she'd been younger she'd often read more romantically inclined novels that had that sort of thing plainly featured. She knew the idea behind it, had even thought about it, and well...

She grew a bit red as she realized how direct she'd been.

There had probably been a better time to ask about this, or perhaps it would have been better not to discuss it at all. There were a few things after all that one shouldn't really be discussing openly, it was just...well the line of conversation had gone in the right direction and Aela had been curious.

She was only human after all.

One couldn't blame her.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

If there had been a drink in hand or a sip taken, she'd have spit it all over the place. Fortunately for both Aela and Jamie that wasn't the case. Instead she just twitched a bit, caught off guard by the sudden and rather forward question. Though right away she could see Aela's face redden, as if she was the one to be embarrassed. But why? She had been the one to ask the question.

Ohhh NOW I get it.

Jamie hadn't been entirely aware that Aela had never been with a man. That gave her a rather mischievous idea.

There were a number of ways she could go about answering this, given the opportunity presented. Jamie was relatively private when it came to most things and most people. But she didn't exactly have anyone to confide in herself. Her mother and father were, well, not open ears about most things. Given that she'd be spending a substantial amount of time with Aela going forward, she figured the girl would eventually learn her just as well as one could.

Besides, even if she tried to lie, Aela knew she was an awful liar. So there would be no way to not answer the question truthfully even if she hadn't wanted to.

Turning to the girl she again got a bit closer, placing her hands on the cushion between the two and smirking. "Many times." She said in this oddly sultry, yet comedic way. "He's rather..." She paused, contemplating how to say what she wanted to say to make it both humorous for her, and to make Aela's face redden even more. "Well, let's just say he makes me sore."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Oh." Aela said for a second, face scrunching. "Ohhh."

She wasn't dumb.

The novels she'd read had often gone into...details, but the thoughts that Jamie placed into her mind very briefly caused her face to turn a little more red then usual. Her eyes wandered for a brief moment, then slowly settled back on her padawan. She realized that this conversation had...derailed entirely from their original topic of conversation, but honestly she couldn't quite help herself from picking at the subject. She'd never really spoken to anyone about something like this.

Not even her own siblings. "I see. Isn't that...uncomfortable?"

She tried to stay in that same stoic sense that she always carried herself in.

"Was he your..." How best to put it. "...First?"

That was usually what people said...right? For some reason Aela really wished that this wasn't such an odd topic for her, that she could be more free with it but in all honesty the entire think made her turn the color of a Manaan lobster.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie burst into laughter, leaning back against the arm of the couch nearly clutching her stomach.

About two minutes would pass before she was finally able to compose herself enough to speak and answer Aela's questions. She had never had a conversation like this with anyone. Generally she was more of the socially awkward person. Being on the other end was very amusing to her. Seeing Aela's face redden like a starship's emergency lighting was rewarding in its' own way for Jamie. There hadn't ever been a time where she had met anyone more reserved in their own skin than she.

"I'll answer the second question first. Yes, he was my first, and only." That was something she was quite proud of. She had been cautious with herself always, and so by opening herself to that kind of vulnerability with Kurt was a huge deal for her. Had he tossed her away like many of the boys did with her friends back home she would have been utterly devastated, and likely very spiteful going forward.

"As for the first question. That's also a yes, but also requires some...Explaining." There was a long pause. "Foreplay helps in the beginning. Also, it depends on how uh--" Her lips thinned for a minute, though there wasn't really any other way to say this. "Rough he is during it." Of course that wasn't all. A few other factors came into play as well. "Then there's how long we do it for. Or how many times. But yes, mostly afterwards I'm a bit sore for a while. It goes away though, and it's always worth it."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Eventually Aela threw up her hands and began to shake her head. "Okay."

"I think that's enough for now." She could hardly feel her own face with how red it was by now. "We should get back to work."

The talk had been an...enlightening one.

She of course knew how it all worked, she didn't quite need it explained to her...but well getting first person perspective always helped. She was still a tad bit more curious about...details, but it was hardly appropriate to talk about and they still had quite a bit of work to do in regards to their actual mission here on Bastion. "We won't be getting anywhere near that here."

That was assured.

"If this scum even thinks about it he'd find himself on the hot end of a lightsaber." That was extreme exaggeration of course, Aela would never kill anyone. "We play coy."

That at least she could do, thanks to her previous mission.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

This had been extremely entertaining for Jamie. It was rather difficult to stop herself from laughing during Aela's figurative mental breakdown. Her face was beat red, and she was clearly having an episode of over stimulation in the brain. The girl was flustered beyond belief. For a second Jamie realized that this is how Kurt must feel when he does this to me! It was genuinely funny for Jamie to see Aela that way. After another minute or so she managed to calm herself back into a more serious composure, shaking away the laughter and brushing away the golden locks of hair that fell in front of her eyes.

"I apologize for laughing. It's just that you have more sexual tension than I thought even I had a few months ago."

In fact, she was still working it out even after the many, many times Kurt had relieved her. Either that or she was now simply addicted to him. The latter was just as likely.

"I imagine however that Tommus is likely to be only thinking about it. I can't imagine him as much of a hopeless romantic type. He's a typical scoundrel it sounds."

The perfect definition for a man like him. A scoundrel.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"I wouldn't call it tension." Aela said flatly. "More curiosity then anything else."

The Jedi Marshall slowly leaned back in her chair, frowning slightly. Jamie was half right. It was a subject that she hardly ever considered in the past, and now that her small realization had come about friendship...well it wasn't like it hadn't crossed her mind before. She frowned for a moment, shifting slightly in the chair before she refocused herself on the task at hand. They could talk more after they were done here on Bastion...maybe.

"I have no doubt." She said towards Jamie's other comment.

"He'll just have to enjoy the chase however." As terrible as that sounded. "We get close to him, avoid the sisters, and..."

She frowned for a moment and looked towards the other datapad where a picture of the head of the family still hovered. "Try and get eyes on him. I doubt he'll attend the Ball, he'll make some excuse, but if we see him we need to try and see why. Who he speaks to, what he does."

He was the target after all.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"I get the feeling that's his favorite part." His type were animals after all. The figurative prey was the girls he was hoping to swoon. Be it by cheesy pickup lines or the fresh scent of expensive wine on his lips.

Jamie gave a quick affirmative nod. "Right." It was back to work, back to the actual reason they were on Bastion. "Do we have any reason to believe his kids are in any way involved with this?"

That seemed a reasonable question. Just because they were rich, uptight nobility didn't necessarily mean that they were all bad people. Most folks sponsoring terrorism rarely acted as a family.

Then Jamie happened to notice a detail missing in the file. "What about his wife? I don't see her here."

It could be that she was dead, or of no importance, or maybe he was just divorced. Either way, Jamie felt it important to ask in the event that it for whatever reason came up in passing discussion.

"Do we have any idea how many will be attending this ball?"

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"She died a few years ago. The families public statement claimed it was natural causes, sickness, but SIS determined that one of the other families had her killed. Everyone in the family is intimately familiar with what they do, even the youngest daughter." It was nice in a way, everyone was included. "Politics on Bastion is very much a family business."

She frowned for a moment, figuring that she may have to explain. "Bastion's biggest claim to fame was as the Imperial Remnants capital world after the fall of the old Empire. The Moff Council arose here, and those that were on the Moff Council obviously had increased standing. That increased standing eventually developed into...well this. Obviously the Moff's who were in control then wanted to stay in control, so positions fell to family members and it sort of developed into this heritage system."

Aela had found it odd, but apparently it was quite common.

"Bastion's actual government has changed half a dozen time in the last decade. The Sith Empire, The Primeval, now the Mandalorian Crusade." It was odd how it had changed so often so quickly. "But the real power has always been here, these families, and of course in order to keep that power...the entire family has to be involved."

They didn't have the luxury of choice. "We know there will be at least three hundred people, they don't tend to keep these things small."