Rogue's Candor

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tattooine was hot, even in the shade. Stepping outside forced a body to work up a good sweat, and doing hard labor in it all day certainly would take the pounds off through sweat alone.

Tatsuya didn't have parents. Not real ones. He had two foster parents, Chesire, his foster mother, and Kyle, his foster father. He had a foster brother as well, Lorii, who was older than him by three years. But he also had a brother. A real brother. A twin to be exact, named Katsuya, who had been with him since birth, and somehow they had made it together to nineteen and the hot, sandy planet of Tattooine, working for an illegal organization that supplied parts to pod racers for their illegal pods.

It was an existence. Not a very envied one, but an existence nonetheless. Chesire and Kyle didn't know what they did, they lived miles away from where he, Katsuya, and Lorii had made their homes and had gotten jobs. Tatsu and Katsu visited them whenever they could, Lorii was over there much more often, but he and Katsu could not see them as often.

They were grunts more often than they weren't, although Tatsu was one of the most smooth talking bidders in the business. It was why their pod racers had so many sponsers. He could talk anyone into betting on the racers they supplied for.

Tatsuya had learned his smooth talking from years of getting out of foster homes that he and his brother hated. He could talk a dog off a meat cart if he took a mind to, and he used that talent to get sponsers, parts, discounts, whatever they needed at the time.

Tatsuya pushed the goggles up on his head, taking a deep breath as sweat slid down his face, streaking the dirt on his cheeks. His face and body shone with sweat, and he had already unzipped the top of his jumpsuit, tying it off at the waist and letting the excess fabric hang from around his hips. He'd been working in this workshop for over six hours, trying to fix this pod.

It was messed up past his experience--they tended not to get reckless drivers that did this kind of thing, but ones that knew how to win without totaling their ride. He was charged with fixing it--was being paid quite handsomely to do so--but he was beginning to think that he might not be able to do it. Not with the way it was now.

Katsuya was at another shop about two miles from there bringing in a shipment they had ordered two weeks before, trying to keep it as low profile as possible. The parts were hot as firecrackers. Any officials found out about it, and both he and his brother were screwed. Not even their foster father's powerful pull would be able to get them out of the hole they would be in.

Tatsuya shook back some hair that was sticking to his sweaty face, and tossed away the blowtorch. It was making it even more unbearable in there than it already was. He glanced out to the work areas outside and the people milling around them, all hot, tired, ready to go home.

So was Tatsuya.

[Afton Kirkpatric]

She couldn't breathe. She was panting so hard that her lungs were hitting her ribs, she could feel it. Sweat poured from all over her body and she grunted every few beats, the heat becoming unbearable. She felt her knees shake as she went faster, harder. She could feel her body finally reaching that point to where everything rushed through her, pleasure, pain, and immense pleasure. A surge of natural endorphins.

It was slowly creeping up on her, she could feel it, she was about to explode! She bit her lower lip as she grunted, balling her fists. It was there! Almost...almoooost.....

"Oh Yes!" Afton Kirkpatric screamed out. hearing her voice echo throughout the large room. "I so kicked your butt!" She laughed lively, loving how she and Jaxson took out their aggressions every week in a very competitive, yet respectful, round of boxing. So far, out of the past six weeks, she was on a roll and had won every time. Sadly, Jaxson only had one game on her.

The sweat dripped of her chin as she watched the shirtless man lean against the ropes, his chest rising and falling, his hair slicked back due to sweat, his boxing shorts sticking to his muscular thighs. Afton laughed and sighed out, her white tank top sticking to every part of her dangerously curved body, her grey shorts hiked up her legs to the point of no return, which she was quick to fix after the two laughed for a moment, catching their well deserved breaths.

The two had just been on Tattooine for more than two days, setting up camp and getting their parts ready to head to the races in about an hour or so. Afton's nervousness in her inexperience in Pod racing finally being beaten out of her body and she was now ready to go kick more butt. She pushed a piece of her blonde hair out of her eyes, watching her partner Jaxson Tancredi do the same.

"Yeah, a chick just beat you down again, my friend." The man laughed and leaned off the ropes giving her a hug and a friendly smack on the butt, something she had told him not to do several times. "We've got a month to get this sting underway, I figured beating you quickly would have been in our best interest." The man laughed and shook his head.

"Girl, I let you win." Typical behavior from her best friend. "We can duke that out later. We got get showered up! Your debut in Pod Racing is coming up very fast! Afton knew and her stomach bottomed. She was a professional in her line of work, Galactic Special Forces Unit. And taking down a ring of illegal pod racing and parts supplying was their latest operation and they were both ready to get down and dirty.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

"Tatsu! We need you over by the track! The races are fixin' to start and we need you in the pits!" someone screamed from outside as Tatsuya wiped off his face, twisting his newly showered hair up into a bun. He furrowed his brow.

"Who'm I servicing?!" he screamed back as he moved out of the workshop and into the heat of the midday on Tattooine. He looked around for the face to match the voice who had yelled at him. After a moment or two, and ugly Twi'leck came out from behind a huge, rumbling pod, waving his hands and looking harrassed.

"Number seventy-three, some chick from off-world!" the Twi'leck said over the rumbling of the pod as he came to stand in front of Tatsu. Tatsuya furrowed his brow as he fixed his white tank and baggy jeans so that neither slid off while he was in the pits.

"Off-world? You know her?" he asked, glancing over at the Twi'leck who shook his head.

"No. Some sexy broad from Coruscant, by the name of Kirkpatric. That's all I know..." he paused to scream something at the droids buzzing around the rumbling pod. He turned back to Tatsu. "Anyway, she's a newbie, so I wouldn't be looking for her to win. She doesn't even have any sponsers and nobody's betting on her. I need you in pit three, that's where her pods parked. And call that brother of yours, he's pitting for nine."

With that the Twi'leck loped off in the direction of a gaggle of flying creatures who were having a powwow near to the pod.

Tatsu moved down and started towards the track, about a halfmile away from where he was. His pit was on the right side, and, as he appraoched it, he saw a beast of a pod parked in it, several droids scurrying around it--kicking up sand and dust as they moved--making sure no one but those with clearance got near it.

Tatsu whistled lowly as he flashed his card from around his neck to the maintainance driod and touched the hull of the beautiful peice of machinery in front of him. It was huge and stood out because of the loud, tropical yellow color it was painted. The engines stretched out before it like two bears hunched and ready to pounce on the other pods it was racing against.

Tatsu got up in the control box and put on his headset, putting all the droids on voice command so he could control their actions when it came time to fix the pod when the woman pulled into the pits.

He couldn't wait to see the face that went with this monster.

[Afton Kirkpatric]

Afton sighed out as she somehow managed to get her fat butt into the baby sized jumpsuit that was all grey with a thin black stripe down the legs. She could feel the adrenaline surge through her body, she still not recovered from her shower nor her fight against Jaxson, who was probably wondering what the hell was taking her so long. Although he had more patience than a saint when it came to her...it was like he had none at all. His anciness always getting her bothered whenever they went out on a project for the first time.

"First day jitters." She said to herself as she bit her lower lip, looking down at her stomach as she pulled up on the long velcro material that was attached to the zipper. She felt the spandex material cover her completely and she stopped a little above her chest. She sighed out and ran her hands down the sleek material and she couldn't help but feel sexy. She smiled at herself and grabbed the black riding gloves she had purchased at a shop nearby, Jaxson had the helmet and goggles. She turned around to the locker they had rented and slammed it shut, piucking up her duffel bag with clothes inside and walked out of the room quickly and headed outside in to the blistering heat, seeing Jaxson standing in a tank top and baggy camo pants, her helmet in his hand.

She lifted her arms and did a spin as she walked towards him before grabbing her hair into a bundle and pulling it up messily, not caring.

"If I weren't swaying towards men this month...you'd have to be careful of me." The man winked and tossed her the helmet. "I've heard about a number seventy-three. Your reputation has somewhat grown! I hope you plan on proving everyone wrong?" Jaxson stuffed his hands into his pockets and she put it over her head, the sleek sexy black material shimmering with cleanliness, something she knew would change right after the race.

"I didn't spend a month in crash course lessons for no reason," She glanced over at him as she grinned, flipping the even sleeker eye shield down over her face. "Everything ready to go?" The grin on Jaxson's face made her wonder what he was thinking, but the scene before her let her know. A bathhouse of half naked men sweating and fanning themselves. She rolled her eyes and knew immediately, after this race...it wouldn't be a shock if he disappeared for a few days.

"Yes." He answered lowly. "You filter on your mask is new, everything is prestine, all you need to worry about is winning."

"And all you need to worry about is not getting too involved with the male species. Besides, I don't lose." She sighed out and jogged towards the station she had been selected to go into, seeing her beautiful pod. Although she had never been one for vehicles, she had a soft spot for that gorgeous flashy racer. "Hello, my baby."

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya looked up and over as someone in their uniform came jogging over, leaving a male friend behind, to stroke lovingly on the hull of the racer. Tatsuya gave one of the droids and order before hopping down the steps, his clipboard in his hand and he strode over to the person who had come over. He grinned as he leaned around to get their attention.

"Kirkpatric..." he muttered as he glanced over the pod and checked the checklist. He spoked to her without looking at her. "Pods been cleaned and checked, everything seems to be running smoothly. This is your pit, so when you need it, pull in here, I've got my droids up to date on your pod and they'll have you back in the race in no time..." he informed her. The walkie talkie on his hip crackled and buzzed and his brother reported from pit nine to every other pit that he was there and that the racer was ready.

Tatsu glanced over at the woman and smiled.

"Don't die," he said with a nod, pulling off his walkie talkie and speaking into it. "Pit three's covered. This is Tatsuya Hasagawa and number seventy three is on board and ready to rumble," he reported as he went back to the control panel and opened the connection between he and the woman's helmet microphone. He spoke into it.

"Afternoon, sugar, this is your pit manager. When you need to pit, give me a warning a lap ahead and we'll be waiting for you to pull in. Good luck."

[Afton Kirkpatric]

She quickly hopped into the very small cockpit, started her beautiful engines and watched the energy binder spark and start her vehicle that was loud and smooth, expensive as well. She bit her lower lip and glanced at the long durable control cables that connected the engines to the cockpit.

She had found that the small and lean Podracers was much better and faster than most modern and durable racers, and although hers was still the basic model and design she had more energy surgers and had endless amounts of money to spend on the racer, which meant a lot in the world of racing. She looked over at her manager of the race and gave him a thumbs up.

"No worries," She stated to him making sure that connections were working on both ends. "I don't ever die." She slightly felt her craft hover as she switched gears, preparing it for what was to come. Sher scanned the area and saw large machines in a row, ready to go, people on the sides cheering on whoever they wanted to support. In mass of land in front of her she spotted her only supporter, Jaxson, although pretending to be interested she coudl see that he was having a hell of a time being surrounded by men with hot bodies. She grinned and felt the sun beam on her shoulders. She just wanted to get the hell out of that line and break through to the other side where she would claim the title of this race.

She heard Hasagawa talking in her ear and before long she could see the parade of flags and her hands gripped the control ready to hit full speed and win, her desire to do so more than it should have. Fueled by negative talk, adrenaline, and fear she figured she needed to show people a lesson, as well as herself. She bit her lower lip and waited and the crowd almost hushed when the main flag was raised and then waved. Before long a shot of podracers went flying south, dust being left in its wake, as well as the drumming sound of their engines and the stench of exhaust. The only thing she saw was tunnel vision and she knew that she had a lot to live up to.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya watched as his racer pulled into the line--she was on the second row--and he waved a bright yellow peice of cloth, signaling to the men in the box that his racer was in line. After two heartbeats, the race had begun and the engines roars were just a memory as they sped off at ungodly speeds down the racetrack.

Tatsu whooped and grinned as he leaned over the railing before tapping in the code and watching the race on his handheld. He glanced up, seeing his brother on the other side, waving madly at him. He grinned and waved back, turning his attention back down to the race.

He chewed his lip before turning off the general broadcasting on his headset. He watched the woman's bright pod, his breath held in his lungs.

He had withdrawn his bet for this race when the man he'd bet on broke his leg in an off-track accident. But he still loved this sport, money or no, the speed, the dust, the dirt, the grime--he didn't act like a gay man at all. He loved the dirt of this sport. The dirt, and competition, and pain, and blood that went into it.

His eyes wandered a little as he looked up to the other pits where the workers were standing on the walls, looking down the track, awaiting the second lap. Tatsuya noticed the man who had accompanied his racer standing against the wall behind him, he only considered the man's pretty face for a moment before he looked back down at the screen on which he was watching the race.

Someone had gotten too close to a wall. Their pod was destroyed, little flaming balls falling around the other racers as they sped through. The racer was certainly dead.

[Afton Kirkpatric]

Afton felt the air lap around her vehicle and the surging winds coming off the local sandstorms near the track and she could feel herself having to keep control of her vehicle. She didn't really know how fast she was going and didn't think she could handle it if she did actually see, but something she did notice was how fierce some of these racers were. She was big on safety for the most part, but she knew she needed to get rid of her conscience and become one of the illegal's who probably were running from the law anyhow. She figured she could, for the time being, and in doing so she could allow herself to be more...verminous and could get just as nasty, and more so given her experience, and haul it. She heard people bantering on the sides, thousands having turned out for the event. She felt people creeping up on her and thanks to Hasagawa's warnings she was able to make her way through a series of large mechanical racers that she knew would lose fuel fast and cause her to slow down in the long run.

In a month's time she had just learned to figure out everything and certain things were still unknown to her, things that her boss had said she didn't really need to know, although she thought that was a lie considering how many buttons were on that panel. It wasn't worth the effort freaking now, she needed to stay alive, live up to the expectation and the cocky attitude she had given both the man in her ears and the man who didn't feel like losing a partner anytime soon.

As soon as she remembered the dangers, a huge collision happened to her left, the debris flying radically and almost taking out another racer nearby. She could feel the heat of the fuel and gas and suddenly the realization that she was in this right then and there....her fear was gone and all she saw was her need to be the best she could be, despite the huge obstacles in her way up ahead, and win the race.

Afton swerved dangerously back and forth in between people, not wanting to be left behind or left for dead if someone was to lose control. The smaller vehicles were up front and she was glad for that, at least their damage, had a collision occurred, would not be as large or severe. She bit her lower lip and heard some things on her panel beep. For a moment she glanced down, it was placement, and at that moment, as she took a sharp turn to start the second lap, she was in third place. She smiled for a moment when she saw two racers up ahead. If she got close enough they could start pulling out the stops, the special NOS gases, the enhanced fuels to make their pods faster, better. Although the most feared and most well loved racer was in first and could spend ungodly amounts on his racer as well, she kept her momentum up and her sights set on nothing but winning.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya was fixing to have a psychotic break. He had climbed up and perched on the edge of the wall, standing up and moving down a little to see down the track better. They had just begun the second lap--there were only three laps--and so far his racer was doing an amazing job. Especially for a newbie.

He let out a long sigh as he stood on his toes, hiking up his jeans and vaulting from the wall down to the ground. He flicked on his microphone and spoke into it.

"Sugar, you're coming up on number one, he's nasty..." he said, pulling himself up on the wall the woman's companion had perched on because it had a better view of the track. "Take him on the left, nobody knows, but he's partially blind in that eye. And keep an eye on your fuel, you may need to pit before the last lap."

[Afton Kirkpatric]

"Noted!" She spoke quickly no need or time for chit chat. She looked at her fuel. She was in need of a stop, but she figured she could at least stretch it with the back up fueling case she had installed. It was fairly new and in the beta stages, but she didn't care, she had wanted it to make sure things like this didn't happen. If she fueled now...she'd be out. These people must have been going at God speed and she knew that with one lap left, it was not even possible to catch up.

She bit her lower lip and gripped her joystick hard and surged forward. She felt that her lip was going to bleed soon from all this nervous gnawing and biting, but she was used to it, and figured a little blood would be a good story to tell. She looked over at her opponent, this alien being she had never even seen or heard of. Neck and neck and they were tied for second, but a nasty turn could change that. She looked ahead and felt a slightly bump. She looked over to see it was time for the dirty tricks.

"Pushing me!" She screamed, not knowing if it was at anyone in particular. In all fairness she did it back, although harder than she had intended. She almost lost control, but somehow managed to keep it all inside a lane. Suddenly, they were hitting each other back and forth, and if they kept this up someone would end up dead. "Not today." She said agitated when the jerk pushed her and almost made her hit a wall. The fear she felt was overwhelmed by a power of anger. She hit him a good one and then she watched it roll on its side, the pilot losing control. It almost went into the crowd, but it landed farther off. Some ran to see the flames that exploded, others just to get out of the way.

"One down, one to go." She literally hit it full speed ahead and was trying her best to catch up, but this was where she knew her inexperience could cost her the race.

[Jaxson Tancredi]

He was holding his breath, pulling his hair, sweating bullets, paying no mind to the hot men who needed his attention more than the damn girl in the bright yellow speeder, but somehow he couldn't stop getting so hyped up over what he was watching.

He wasn't very macho, never really wanted to be, but for some reason the excitement of the crowd, the noises, the scenery, the collisions..it was all so enticing and so much fun to watch and scream at! He was holding his hair in his hands as he watched Afton get bumped around, he was wanting to just tell someone to blow him up or something, but he dind't know if that was even possible, he wasn't the one who trained to race, he was just there as a supplier, or at least that was what he was undercover as. Despite the illegal activity that surrounded this...he was finding it highly enjoyable, and daresay, addictive.

"Afton! Jeez!" He screamed out loudly, as if she could hear him, he was doing so in response to a bump she gave the man beside her, causing her to almost lose control, but being quick witted and intelligent and calm...she fixed it. This tug of war went on for what felt like hours, but was only seconds, and it ended with the alien pilot to go up in a pile of flames. He cheered on at the scene and got too into the whole onlooker scene, peopel were throwing their shirts in the air, waving them, going nuts! It was madness! Yet it was so much fun! But then he realized, as did the crowd, it was the last lap and the yellow racer was mere feet from tying first.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

"Jesus!" Tatsuya screamed over the wall at the yellow racer as she roared by, the explosion on the other side of the track blowing heat over towards him and blowing his hair off his face.

Tatsuya looked back down at his screen as the woman went by and didn't stop to refuel. She was insane, not stopping for fuel without a proven extra tank hooked on, but Tatsuya couldn't help but appreciate her insanity. It was winning her a race.

Tatsuya reached back and pulled out his yellow flag, jumping up and down and waving it around as every other person in the crowd began to. Yellow was surging over the crowd, the numeber seventy-three emblazoned in black and grey on the front. Everyone was jumping and screaming and waving their flags. Tatsuya even saw his brother fish one out and begin jumping around like a mental patient.

He couldn't believe it, she was pulling ahead of the favorite, without so much of a response from him. She was on the left side. He couldn't see her.

Tatsuya screamed so loud at the screen like she would be able to hear him. The noise from the crowd was deafening as they ungulated and surged in the stands behind him. At the betting table behind him, there was a surge of fifty businessmen to bet on the little yellow pod that was fixing to beat the favorite.

The newbie was going to win this race.

[Afton Kirkpatric]

She smiled, but barely, the small specks of yellow caught her eye and she couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride swell in her chest, but she had always been the modest of the sorts.

"Come on, come on." She said to herself as she shifted gears into full speed. The race was now on and she did not feel like losing today, not here. She saw that she was almost right up beside of him, but before she could do anything she was hit by him. She muttered a curse and suddenly she saw what the problem was.

"Right side. Damn!" She was on the wrong side. She could do one of two things...just try and go around to be first or...she hadn't ever seen it done nor ever practiced, but she figured it was worth a try! She pushed down and hovered barely within five feet of the ground, she shifted left and went flying right underneath the belly of his pod. She held her breath as she did so and the turbulence was soemthing she was not expecting and she could have, had she not at least been trained in turbulence response back at the agency she'd be squashed like a bug on the red ground that looked like death itself.

She lifted up quickly and saw the goal right ahead, the goal of winning her first and showing everyone who doubted her how good she was. The man was confused, obviously for he was looking around to his right and little did he notice that he slowed by a kilometer. She heard Tatusya scream in her ear to go full speed and that voice was just what she needed. She flipped on her NOS and anything else that could boost her energy cells and she was quick to close in on the finish line, but a very displeasing hit on the backside made her flinch. She looked over to see he was righto n her tail and trying to push her around and be backward and lose, she hit back, another ongoing struggle, but this was too dangerous if he clipped her again, she might as well sign her own toe tag. She bit her lip and apologized and hit on the last NOS for her right engine. It sparked and a fire shot out beside her and literally blew the man back several feet. He didn't crash, luckily, but it gave her to opportunity to win.

Which she did.

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson jumped up and down in nervousness, biting his shirt in his teeth, almost ripping it to shreds like some rabid dog, but he was so nervous! This was intense and the crowd was not making his feelings any better. He looked around to see the man in charge of keeping her safe and helping her, apparently he was very into this race as well, which who wouldn't be? Afton was acting like an idiotic woman! He sighed out when he watched the struggle begin with bumping and fighting and that damn move she made by going under the man...he was going to kill her if she made it alive! She was not ready to do that kind of stunt! But, needless to say, she made it.

He watched in awe, shock, and sheer happiness and excitement when she blew the guy away and crossed that finish line. He couldn't have been more of a man at that moment when he screamed loudly with happiness, waved his flag and anything else he could get his hands on, and jumped up and down and clapped...cheered as loud as he could.

"Afton! You maniac! You did it!"

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya threw both hands in the air as the crowds cheer sounded so loudly he could no longer hear the roar of the woman's engine as she passed. He threw his head set on the ground, motioning to his brother from across the way.

The railing on the stands bent and separated as people flooded down into the track, the woman being forced to make one more lap to slow her pod down enough to stop, which she did, right in the middle of a screaming, yellow flag waving crowd.

Katsuya tackled Tastu, climbing onto his back to see the woman, whom he did not know what a woman.

"Holy hell!" he screamed into Tatsuya's ear as they went through the crowd so Tatsuya could get to the racer and make sure she made it through the crowd alive. He grabbed the endge of the pod and, like a monkey, pulled himself onto the runner to help her unstrap so she could get out. He was sure she must have been trembling from the adrenaline.

[Katsuya Hasagawa]

Katsuya had never seen a race like it before in all of his life! A newbie racing like that!? It was unheard of. And it was the best thing he had ever seen. He was totally hoarse from screaming at the guy to move faster to beat the number one choice.

He watched as his brother helped the small guy out and he pushed people out of the way, yelling in Huttese that everyone needed to make way so he could go collect his winnings. Which were sure to be grand, judging from the hundreds of last minute bets and sponsers.

"Man!" he yelled at the guy over the crowd as they moved through to get to the pits and the track headquarters where he would get his money. "Dude, you were awesome out there! I've never seen a anyone pull that stunt before!"

[Afton Kirkpatric]

Afton felt like her head was spinning, that had probably been the coolest thing she had ever done in her life! She had done some pretty cool stunts and stints in her life with the enforcement, but nothing this mad or this crazy! She had to say that she would do it again in a heartbeat. She laughed and tried to breathe, her hands were shaking, she was sweating like a cow, and she could feel her knees wobble from all that tension running through her body. Talk about tense.

She felt the peopel surround them with cheer and screams of joy at her winning and it was well received, but she was feeling claustrophobic and needed air, and definitely needed a drink after that hair raising adventure. Her mind was somehow drawn to one voice in particular a guy who stood next to her manager, a smile so big on his face it looked like he could swallow the galaxy, his eyes were thin and slit, asian ethinicity apparent. He was talking a mile a minute, the excitement seen in his eyes and definitely could be heard in his voice. She couldn't help but wonder if he was blind, he had kept calling her 'dude' and 'man'.

"Me neither." She said lowly, probably only adding more to the manly sound. Her voice was deeper than most females and with a helmet he probably continued to think it was a man. They had somehow managed to reach HQ where the crowd was blocked off and allowed to go celebrate and do whatever it was crazy pod freaks did! She was just glad to feel the shade of the building. The boys voice echoed loudly as he walked beside her still talking.

She paused for a moment, she was burning alive! She unhooked her helmet and quickly pulled it off, feeling her hair stick to her. She sighed out when she felt the AC hit her face. She opened her eyes and shook her head, feeling the tie come undone and allow her blonde locks to fall in form of her face. She put the helmet under her left arm and she smiled at the boy.

"Calm down, Spunky." She said with a light hearted laugh. "Never made a move like that before in my life." She stated in his last response. "Thanks! It was a great rush."

[Katsuya Hasagawa]

Katsu's mad speaking halted when the man pulled off his helmet. And in fact he wasn't a man at all. But a pretty young woman with beautiful blonde hair, full, pink lips, and a pull-your-heartstrings smile. He glanced at his brother.

"Kanojyo?" he asked, and Tatsu shrugged with a knowin laugh, turning to sign the sheet for the woman. Katsu shook his head. "Anyway, you did great! I've not even seen the experts pull that kind of stuff! You should have seen the people lobbying for bets there that the end. It's ridiculous!"

Katsuya grinned as he bopped over to where his brother was and leaned over to help his brother with the paper work, glancing over at Tatsu who was chewing on his lip as he wrote.

"I didn't know it was a girl!" Katsu said in their native Japanese as they both leaned over the papers. Tatsu shrugged.

"Afton Kirkpatric isn't that telling a name..." he answered, standing straight and turning back to the woman. "Alright, sugar, this is my brother, Katsuya, he's gonna take you somewhere to get some water, clothes, the essentials. You'll be harrassed by some sponsers...do you have a supplier? Don't talk to them without your supplier, okay?" Tatsu instructed.

Katsu grinned and looked at the woman. He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder.

"Come on, winner, I'll show you where you can get a drink."

[Afton Kirkpatric]

Afton shrugged, her mind failing her for a moment since she had left it three laps behind her. She frowned when it hit her. Where was freakin' Jax? He was her supplier, the one who had been trained to do all that...supplier..stuff. She heard a noise coming from the HQ opening and it was apparently Jaxson, who enjoyed making late arrivals. She figured if he saw her manager for a split second he wouldn't even know his own name. She rolled her eyes at her very own thought, or correct guess actually, and looked back at the little guy who had been introduced to her by Tatsuya. That was a mouthful to say, wasn't it? She grinned.

"Sounds good." She said to him with a nod. "You lead, I follow, Spunky." She didn't know but that was just the perfect nickname to coin for just a moment. "I could use a drink!"

[Jaxson Tancredi]

"Back...man I said back up off me! I will throw punches!" Jaxson was getting highly annoyed with the rowdy crowd and he was too hot now to actually want anyone touching him, no matter how good looking they were. He raised his hands and somehow managed to squeeze into the headquarters to see Afton walking away with someone, he figured it was in his best interest to get the paper work filled out and see who was wanting to bug the crap out of her now.

Although he had trained specifically for the job and liked it, he was still envious of the attention and the fun that the racer would have had. Unfortunately he wasn't one who enjoyed being crowded by people since it was not his type of thing.

"Ah, victorious!" He cracked the silence inside the building with a laugh. "I am Jaxson Tancredi, supplier for Afton." He saw the manager adn that was who he was directing his voice to. He held out his hand for the person to turn around and shake, unfortunatley he forgot the whole point of coming there when he realized how darn adorable the guy was.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya sighed out as he watched Katsu move away with the woman. He wiped hair out of his face, hearing the door open and shut, the shouts of people outside filtering in for a moment before it got muffled by the door.

He turned at the voice and looked up just a little at the man who professed to be Afton's supplier. Tatsuya smiled and shook his hand--it was the guy who had been loitering by the walls during the race, God, he was cute. Tatsuya dropped his hand and glanced down at his clipboard.

"I'm Tatsuya Hasagawa. My business paid for the maintainance on Kirkpatric's pod. Congratulations, Mr. Tancredi, you and Afton will leave this place with a good five-hundred thousand," he said, wetting his lips and smiling again. He glanced over his shoulder at where Katsu and the woman had gone, a back room where she could get some water. He looked back at this Jaxson man and couldn't help but admire his big, brown eyes.

"I'd like to know where you found a girl like her...does she have any sponsers?"

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson admired the man in all his beauty, he had never quite seen such a delictable guy before. He was almost one of the top five he had ever witnessed personally. A sucker for eyes, this man had not only that, but a lot more going for him and it took everything in Jaxson Tancredi to not try and get a phone number out of this guy. He leaned on the counter to his right and grinned, shrugging a shoulder as if this were no big thing.

"She and I met a few years ago back on Coruscant. She was in need of finding a good ride so I helped her out. We're good friends. She is a helluva racer, huh?" He smiled and gave the man the once over, agian and again, too noticiably perhaps, but oh well, you only live once right?

"No sponsers. I'm the only one she's got, but after today...that is going to change." He smiled and frowned slightly. "Who do you work for?" He figured now would be the best time to start doing what he was really there for, sadly it wasn't for the guys number. "Always nice that Afton had good supplying on her racer."

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya watched the guy lean over and he tried to ignore the fact that just a sliver of the guy's stomach shone from under a wrinkle in his shirt. Tatsuya smiled and nodded.

"I work at the Technicks Supplier about three miles off from here," he said. "Me and my brother both. I'm their head supplier, and I book sponsers for racers we supply..." he glanced over his shoulder to see Katsu chatting up some of the sponsers to keep them busy so that the woman would not have to deal with them. "Katsu does that. Talks." Tatsuya smiled and looked back over at the man. He chewed his lip.

"What's your supply chain?" he asked. "We have some sponsers looking to book upcoming racers and Miss Kirkpatric might be what they're looking for, if you're at all interested."

Hot as the guy was, Tatsu knew he still had a job.

[Jaxson Tancredi]

"Yeah, yeah." Jaxson leaned up and raised his eyebrows, the entire time the man talked he just stood there giving him a crooked grin, admiring what he knew he couldn't touch. Forbidden fruit in a way, but everyone who knew Jaxson Tancredi..knew how much he loved his fruit.

"That sounds good. We are trying to get her name out there, but not to the point of where she can't go out without some enthusist recognizing her." He frowned and stepped a tad bit closer to Tatsuya, making this seem like friendly chit chat, when in all reality he was sizing the man up, seeing if he could tag him to someone selling illegal parts. He was looking at everything on the man's face, markings, skin tone, eye color...he'd run a check on him whenever he and Afton got back to their place for the time being.

"We want Afton to be sort of a...myth." He grinned. "I work in a small supply shop. I customize in sharing and selling. Looking to get in with some people. Any ideas?"

[Afton Kirkpatric]

Afton had literally say back drinking water watching the little guy do what he probably did best, talk. She couldn't help but grin at how spunky he was, so full of energy, so nice too. In a way it was almost blinding her from the fact that he could possibly be dealing with something much more illegal than just racing. She raised an eyebrow as she watched a few people wander around asking him questions, keeping them at bay from bothering her at tat moment. She didn't exprect this kind of mass hysteria over a silly race, but then again her boss had told her the following was huge.

She glanced over her shoulder to see Jaxson doing his work, a lot of work at that. She couldn't help but see the body language he was not only being professional, but also letting a little bit of his professionalism slip. He was hot on that guy and he probably hadn't known him for mere minutes. Then again, Jax was a smooth operator and didn't need much time for men, or women, to like him. Which was why she almost fell into his little trap when they were first paired together as partners. Luckily, she hadn't been interested in tall dark and handsome. Afton looked away figuring he could do his work without her judging him from afar, besides the view was better from where she was sitting and where Katsuya was standing in front of her talking to people.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya listened, nodding. Customized in sharing and selling, eh? He nodded again and thought a moment after the man finished speaking. He licked his lips slightly then snapped his fingers.

"Actually," he said, turning to pluck a paper from his satchel that he had left under the table they stood at. He turned back to Jaxson. He proferred the paper to him. "That's a sponser who's dying for someone to sponser. They're a small supplier, buyer, seller, on the outskirts here--" he swept his hand slightly to indicate the general direction of where he was talking about. "They're not near being as publically notorious as my business or half of the businesses around here, so if you all book with them, Afton--and you--won't have to worry about being recognized."

He paused to watch as the man's eyes scanned the paper. Damn, he had pretty eyes. Tatsuya blinked a couple of times.

"Anyway, if you need it, you can book with me, and I'll book you two to meet with them."

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jax nodded as he stared at the paper, half listening, half thinking, okay more of imagining staring at Tatsuya again. A pretty man, with a pretty mouth, and a pretty network of illegals. A grin slid across his face and then he looked up, folding the paper in his hands, continuing to run his fingers over the fold.

"That sounds like a good idea, Hasagawa." He looked him up and down and nodded. "I think we'd do our business together real good." He winked and sighed out looking over at the scene behind him and groaned, he hated crowds, for the most part anyway, and that crowd didn't look like something he'd enjoy being around. He could leave Afton to do the dirty work, after all Jaxson felt she needed to get out and socialize more, get laid more. That though amused him. He looked back over at Tatsuya and smiled.

"I'll give you a call." Whether that was meant in a professional manner or not, he had never been more serious.

[Katsuya Hasagawa]

"No, really guys, how about you all go outside and interview the losers for a little while," Katsuya said, shooing the sponsers and interviewers away, most looking fairly disgruntled about not being able to interview the winner.

Katsuya shooed most of them outside so that the headquaters were then only mingling with racers and their sponsers and suppliers. He glanced over to where his brother was, standing with a long, tall drink of water by the contract table. He looked back over to where Afton was, and figured Tatsuya could flirt fine without him.

Katsu moved over to Afton and flopped down in a chair beside her, picking up her helmet that she had deposited on the floor and running his thumb over it wipe off smudges of dirt off of it. He glanced over at the woman.

"So," he said, looking her up and down. "You from Coruscant then?"

[Afton Kirkpatric]

Afton swallowed down the rest of the water, her eyes looking out of the corner at him, looking at her helmet, wiping off the dust and dirt. She couldn't help but mentally observe how precious his hands were, the long fingers that looked delicate and soft to touch and when a piece of dirt clumped up and fell on his hand...the pale color amidst the darker tone was really, almost immaculate.

"Yeah." She said with a nod, glancing down at the emptied cup. "You from around here?" She was going to poke and prod a bit, hopefully she could get some information on him. Damn it if he'd be involved with something far worse than he already was, a pretty guy like that didn't deserve more jail time than he already was facing by being caught in the act of working and participating in pod racing.

[Katsuya Hasagawa]

Katsuya looked over and grinned. He dropped the helmet and nodded emphatically.

"Yep!" he said happily. "Born and raised. Well...raised anyway, my adoptive parents live about ten hours from here. I've worked here all my life, me and my twin over there," he explained, motioning to Tatsuya who was still standing with that pretty young man. Katsuya smiled. "And it looks like he's found himself a boyfriend. 'S about time too! He needs somebody!" Katsuya grinned over at the woman.

Katsuya talked. It was his favorite thing to do. He was great with people and loved meeting and talking to them. It was why his brother often put him on public relations when they went on a job together. Tatsu was no good with words, he got tangled around what he wanted to say and he hated crowds and being in them, which was why Katsu always dove right in to talk to the sponsers and media when the time came.

"We work at Technicks Supplier not far from here, Tatsu deals with other suppliers and I do what I am doing now!" he grinned. "Make you like us!" he laughed and pinched her playfully. "So, what brought you here to Tattooine? Just the racing, or something else?"

[Afton Kirkpatric]

Afton gave a chuckle at the dropped helmet and his empathetic nods. Then, something she was clued in right away, he liked to talk! For some reason, having disliked sharing too much information with people, it was perfectly fine for him to talk her ear off. She smiled at her cup when he trailed off onto talking about her partner, who she quickly turned to look over her shoulder to still see them chatting, a piece of paper in Jax's hands.

"Mm, so I see." She said lowly. It wasn't a surprise neither. She cocked an eyebrow. Go figure he'd start finding prospects right away. He had always been the kind of man to love 'em then leave 'em, but somehow Afton did not want to forewarn the boy next to her, whom she found herself recognizing his attractive features, probably more so than Jaxson did with the other boy.

He was still going on, and on, and on...and on some more, but she just sat there smiling, finding him adorable, loving his voice, his company, it was a rare occurence, but she was happy to accept it.

Then, when he began to ramble on about his work, she perked up and became far more interested in the conversation than she had been, since she was worrying about Jax and what he was saying and thinking about the 'twin'. She was taking every single thing he said into her mind's inventory. But she couldn't help but find herself a little bit attracted to this man for several reasons.

One, he was very nice. Secondly, he was a chatty fellow who kept her intrigued and interested. Third, he was very pleasing to look at. Fourth...he smelled fabulous. Amongst other things she was sure she'd remember later on. She smiled and shrugged. How she wanted to indulge and disperse all the truths, but she refrained, chatty never being her best quality.

"Just races." She stated simply, giving him another grin and a long glance. "I have an interest in racers and in the parts. But you are growing on me." She let that one slip. Oops. Oh well, Jax was always telling her too loosen up and she needed to if she wanted to be believable for this part.

[Katsuya Hasagawa]

Katsuya nodded.

"Oh yeah?" he laughed. "Good! We always want to grow on people and my brother doesn't grow unless someone with a green thumb comes along. So, it's my job to grow on you, and I am glad I am doing so!" then he paused a moment to glance at his brother. "We also have a lot of sponsers who might be interested in booking you! They're all really good too, Tatsu only books the best sponsers at our company. You might want to look at it!" he stopped then twisted in in his seat to grab a pad of paper off of the desk behind him.

He jotted down the name, address, and com number of their company. He tore off the sheet and proferred it to her.

"There you go! You can call, or you can give it to your supplier and you can have a chat with some of them. There are a ton of sponsers looking for up and coming racers, just like yourself. You'll have no trouble finding a sponser and probably insurance for your supplier with a bigger company, like ours," he said, winking. He laughed a little. "Well, I better go see if my brother's finished shmoozing with your supplier over there, we need to clean up your pod and put it up in the garage! You still want it in stall seven?" he asked.

"We can move it into a better stall, no cost, if you like."

[Afton Kirkpatric]

Afton took the paper, inside she was glowing with the information to make her job a lot easier, but there was a pang of guilt. This guy was too darn nice to have to rat out on. But, she knew, it was her job and to keep feelings out of it. Which she was very good at doing. She raised an eyebrow and stood up.

"Wherever you want to put it is good with me." She couldn't help but find that a little perverted and humorous. They guy's bubbly personality was rubbing off on her and she felt like she had drunk twleeve cups of coffee. She sighed out and rubbed her forehead, unaware that all this hectic activity was to happen.

"I can go drag Prince Charming away from your brother before he does something both of them will regret. Hey, I'll give you a call." She waved a hand at the guy and jogged over to Jax and put a hand around his waist.

"We gotta go." She said smiling at Tatsuya. "Thank you for everything. We will work together again soon, yes. And he'll be finding you sooner than I think." Jaxson laughed at her and she was quick to pull him away. Jax who was ready to shoot her in the face for dragging him away from potential love interests.

"Look. I got a number, address, everything we need to see if these two boys are involved with someone, I am pretty sure they are." Afton looked over her shoulder and smiled at the two in a flirty manner. "If we play our cards right, we might be able to take down more people than we originally thought."

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

"He's a hottie," Katsuya teased as Tatsu helped pull the bright yellow pod into one of the nicer stalls so that people would leave it alone.

"Yeah, and Afton's cute too, but you know what happens when you get involved with racers and suppliers and sponsers don't you?" Tatsu asked as he jumped out of the way of getting squooshed between the pod and the wall. He walked up to Katsu who jumped down from the pod and wrapped his arm around Tatsu's waist as they began out of the headquarters.

Night had well fallen, and it was time they go home and sleep. Tatsuya was dead dog tired, ready to get in the bed and get a good night's sleep before he had to get up and do it all again the next day.

"Yeah, yeah, I know..." Katsu said as they began down the walk towards their apartment. Tatsu sighed.

"Guy's hot, but he's a business associate, and nothing else. Afton's adorable, and she's a racer to you, nothing else. You remember how Poll and I turned out, don't you? I'd really prefer if that didn't happen to you, you know," Tatsu said. Katsu nodded.

"Yeah, I guess. Anyway, we probably won't see them too often, not if they book with someone outside of our district."

"Exactly. Anyway, I guess Jaxson fixing to call me tomorrow, so we'll get them booked and then not half to worry about it."

[Afton Kirkpatric]

"I can't sleep." Afton said groggily as she wandered into the pitch black living room where she had seen Jax still doing his homework on the computer, all of which revolved around Tatsuya Hasagawa. Afton coudl smell trouble already and she knew that Jax was far more involved already than need be and it was not on a professional level.

That was her biggest fear with him. He put certain things first than work and it was very threatening to their operations, then again she should talk when seh got something in her head..she unfaltering in it.

The man wearing the plastic circular rimmed glasses looked up at her, his face blue and his sunken cheek bones were highlighted by the darkness more so than normal. She had to give herself a moment to think of beautiful he was. No wonder the man had so many prospects all over the galaxy.

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson looked up and grinned seeing her wander in in just a long t-shirt and her hair pulled back, which he automatically went to run his hair through his long curled locks himself, messing it up more so than it already had been.

"Sucks for you, now doesn't it?" He smiled at his own little joke and he could feel the stare she gave him as she wandered to the leather couch and fell into it, her scent finding his senses after a beat. He couldn't see anything but her silhouette since his attention was right on the computer screen with every single piece of information he could dig up on the brothers.

"I found some good stuff though." He looked over at where he figured she was laying at and he bit her lower lip. He heard her ask what and he was happy to indulge. "Well they work with these guys who buy their parts from chop shops. It appears, not only do they work in illegal races, they all sell and buy illegal parts from other ships."

"Theft?" Afton stated in a confused tone. Jaxson was quick to nod with a disgruntled sigh. That meant that they would be in jail for a very, very long time.

"Sucks." He said as he grabbed a bottle of water he had been drinking from for over an hour. "It isn't solid evidence cause I need receipts, handwritten statements...hard facts that point to what they are doing. We can get video if I can somehow scheme Tatsuya in letting me get in with his business. I can take the brothers down as well as whoever they work with." Jax sighed out. He guessed he could get his kicks with the guy before all went down the crapper. At least the boy would have had a good memory to look back on while sitting in the holding cells.

"We can break out hidden camera's later on to prove transactions, too." He felt a bit bad for doing it, but he knew that was how he caught the bad guys.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya was sitting up on his lap top, looking up Afton Kirkpatric and Jaxson Tancredi on the site for illegal racers and suppliers. Amazingly enough, he didn't find their names. Which meant they were legit. Which meant...

"Damn it..." he said, typing in Jaxson's name to find out where he got his parts. As he looked, he saw that Jaxson got them from a very illegal shop. But...how could they not be in the business if they got their parts from an illegal place. Tatsu glanced at the sheet of paper Jaxson had given him and saw the 'Net contact he'd given him. Thinking for a moment, Tatusya glanced back to make sure his brother was asleep.

Tatsuya sent a messege to his good friend who worked for the company that Jaxson supposedly got his supplies from, asking if he knew Jaxson. Then he sent out a general warning that there was a possiblity of moles.

Jaxson was hot. He was sexy. Tatsuya would do him in a second.

But Tatsuya also didn't want to go to jail.

[Afton Kirkpatric]

"I think you are plotting more than this operation, buddy." Jax snuffed her by giving her a single snort of disapproval. She loved Jax, loved him like a brother and the best friend he was, but sometimes his desires blurred a lot of things. She wanted to be stern and professional, everything with their boss had been worked out. Everything, if they were to be checked, would come back with results that were legit and weren't suspicious, but all good things must come to an end.

Jax was too persistent and if he got involved with Tatsuya, which was more than likely because the man had a coniving and sharp tongue that could literally get any man to swoon, all hell could be busted open.

"Why are you giving me these lectures? Why now? You've never blown this much air at me before." Afton was a bit side-swiped by his reaction, no matter how true.

"Because this is important to me! If I get these guys who are dealing thos illegal chop shop junk..."

"Are you always thinking ahead? Yeah, I know! You get a promotion. Good for you!" Jax sighed out. What? Was he on the rag or something? He became very...bitchy. Then again she had seen this behavior before. He was already plotting his little scheme.

"Listen here," Afton sat up on the couch and leaned forward, pointing at him. "You can't get involved, Jax. You just can't. Hot or no...nice or no...rich..I don't care! You aren't allowed. If you do, you could put everything in jeopardy!"

"Like you care. I am not a prude, I wanna have my fun before my time is done!"

"Then have it, just not with the Hasagawa brothers." Afton didn't know why she was so stern and strick on this all of a sudden, perhaps it was because she felt herself strangely drawn to them both, perhaps as much as Jax, and it made her uncomfortable. They were barely legal, they were too attractive for their own good, and she was thinking way too much about them! Well, Katsuya.

"Do you know what is going to happen to them? Huh?" Jax sighed out and threw his glasses off, ready to argue. After all it had been a while.

"I don't care, but enlighten me because you are going to anyway!"

"Damn straight!" She said with a frown. "When we take them in, Jax, they are going to put two brothers in a galactic prison on opposite ends of the galaxy." Suddenly that being said out loud kind of made Afton a bit...unnerved. That was kinda cruel, wasn't it?

"Anyway," She said with a shake of her head. "Not only that, but they won't be able to have any connection with each other at all. That is how bad this system and what they are doing is."

"Why do I care? Huh? Why?" He shrugged his shoulders. He did care actually, he had a brother and he would die without him, but that was not what he was there for. He wasn't there to care. "Better yet, why do you care? I think you have a crush and you aren't admitting it. So you are jumping on me!"

"Am not!" Afton leaned back, a bit shocked at that revelation. "He's a child!" Jax rolled his eyes and grabbed his glasses again.

"Whatever. Look. I have work, so..why don't you go to bed or something."

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

When Tatsuya woke up the next morning, it was to the sound of his brother flishing the toilet and humming to a tune that was obviously stuck in his head. It was seven thirty in the morning, and Katsuya was awake? That was strange. Generally, he didn't get up unless dragged.

"Pipe down in there, would you?" he moaned from his bed, grabbing a pillow and pulling it over his face. He heard his brother laugh and then the sound of Katsu's door shutting. Tatsu sighed as he stared up at the insides of his eyelids. As he did, he couldn't help but see the face of that handsome supplier he'd met the day before.

What was it with that guy? Tatsu met all kinds of hot guys on his job. Hot guys who wanted him to be hung off their arm. Yet, every time before, it was easy for Tatsu to say "No thanks," and go off on his own business. But this time, nobody was even interested in him and he was having a problem not thinking about Jaxson.

Groaning and sitting up, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and got up, pulling up his exercise pants and walking into the common room of their apartment, glancing at his com base. He had a couple messeges. Clicking the button he listened as his friend rambled on about something, and then a sponser said they needed clearance before they moved Afton's pod.

Afton. The racer who had won yesterday, which lead his mind to thinking abut Jaxson again.

"God...Katsuya!" he called through the apartment. "After I shower I'm going to get food and then I'm going to head in to call Mr Tancredi and ask what he wants done with Afton's pod! You wanna come with?"

After a long moment of silence, Katsuya answered that he wasn't feeling good and was gonna sleep a couple more hours. A lie if Tatsu had ever heard one, but ah well, Katsu had vacation time he could waste if he wanted to.

As he moved towards the bathroom, he heard his com buzz. Grabbing it and going into the bathroom, he answered it as he shut the door.

"Hai, moshi moshi? Boku wa Hasagawa Tatsuya no hanasu koto," he answered as business-like as he could muster. "Watashi ha nani wo anata no tame nishite moii ka?"

[Jaxson Tancredi]

They weren't talking that much this morning, he figured because of his reaction to her words last night hadn't been the most gentle and kind. But he knew they' get over it, especially when he told her he was going to head over to see Tatsu about her pod. He had called a while ago and he was more than ready to see that man again. He couldn't wait to hear the earful Afton would give him, but strangely...she was nowhere to be seen.

He frowned and figured she was out doing her own investigation, at least he figured since Lord knew she wouldn't go out and get some action for herself. "Poor tortured body." Jaxson stated as he grabbed a cold bottle of water and stuffed it into his shoulder bag holding certain things that involved supplier conections, his files on Afton and her small town races, parts he had ordered, both old and new. Things that would make him seem more like a supplier.

He was quite chipper this morning, for reasons most known. He was going to see the cute little manager supplier and he was also going to get more information on what kind of operation he ran, which was what he needed. Unlike Afton he didn't have any long-term goals and was only getting a regular paycheck for this heist, so if this didn't work it was no skin off his back, unfortunately it was apparently for her.

He whistled as he stepped out into the blistering heat and headed towards the man's shop and was more than ready.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya took a swig of water as he pulled down his mask and fired up the blowtorch. This pod engine was boogered pretty good, and it would take a little bit to fix, but he had nothing better to do until Tancredi got there to tell him what to do with the monstrosity that was in stall four.

People--other workers and suppliers--busied themselves around the shop as Tatsu worked. He wasn't working too hard because he didn't feel that after all the work he and his brother had done--they had pretty much single handedly pulled off that race yesterday--that he needed to work himself to death again today.

After a moment, he flipped off the torch and tossed it on the table, pulling off his mask and tying back his hair. He glanced over to the door, waiting for Jaxson--a little more anxeiously than was necessary.

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson frowned, he was lost apparently it was taking way too long to find this place. He had stopped five times and almost all couldn't speak a lick of english and by god... the other times were just bad directions. But, as he figured the last drop of sweat dripped off of him, he finally found the building and he was extremely relieved. He pulled his sunglassed up on his head and wandered into the open garage and looked around, the scent of metal, oil, grease, engines, exhuast hit him like a ton of bricks. Something he was sure he couldn't fake was enjoying that smell. Hell, if his cheeks weren't red from the sun and heat already, they were just by the sickening stench.

"Hasagawa?" He called out. "Tancredi here." He hunkereddown slightly to look under parts and pods but he saw no sign of him. Was he in the wrong damn place again? He sighed out and looked aruond hoping he didn't hae to ask anyone else. "You here?"

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya jumped a little when he heard his name being screamed through the shop. Several people murmured at him that he was being yelled at. He waved his hand at them and pulled off his gloves, wiping his forehead and weaving through the parts, workers, and smoke until he could see Jaxson up ahead.

"Just stay there, Jaxson, we've had an oil spill in here!" he called just as he jumped over a big puddle of oil. Some part was leaking it like it was going out of style and Tatsu's boots were alreayd covered in it. He jumped over several more puddles before reaching Jaxson and grabbing his arm.

"Come on," he said lowly, leading the man through the shop to a little building on the side that was not only air conditioned, but didn't smell like hell. He held the door open for the man, glancing around to see no one else in there. After a moment, he turned back to Jaxson.

"Sorry about that. Someone brought in a faulty engine..." he said, knocking hair out of his face. "Okay. Afton's pod?"

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson frowned softly at the man, he liked it when someone took charge! He couldn't help but feel amused by his own thoughts, but that damn speck of grease or something on his face was not making him a happy camper. He could probably see it from space and, Jaxson being the neat freak, was so tempted to just wipe it off himself, but decided that Suppliers who worked on things, didn't do that. He bit his lower lip and looked around, as if admiring the place when in reality he was wondering how anyone could work such horrible conditions and a horribly hot job.

"I understand." He said to him after a pause too long. "Yeah, Afton's pod. What was wrong? We needed to move it? Do something? I can't really remember, my mind is just...not where it should be. Didn't get much sleep last night." He waved a hand in front of him, gesturing how his brain was somewhere inthe ether, not because of people wanting to sponsor Afton or anything, but because of the person standing directly in front of him. The cute man who had all the right things going for him.

"I was going to see if Afton wanted to head down here, but she is nowhere to be seen. She probably is out running or doing something stupid." He was trying to make small talk he figured, but either way it was keeping his mind on work instead of how bad he wanted to just rape the guy right then and there, charm him till he was naked without ever realizing.

"How was your night?"

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya nodded at him as he listened. Had Tatsu yet mentioned was a pretty voice Jaxson had? Oh no, wait. Jaxson had a pretty everything. He listened until the man finished and then he gave a light shrug.

"Alright. The brother kept me up drinking longer than I wanted," he said. Then he paused. He nodded back towards the stalls. "Yeah, her pod is in stall four, and a Hutt has requested his pod be moved there so that his racer can come pick it up..." Tatsuya paused and then wiped his hands off on his dusty and slightly oil spotted pants, trying to clean himself up a little. He had oil of his face too. He grabbed two clean towels from a stack in the corner and wiped his face off with one, then threw the other at Jaxson.

"You got oil on you," he noted, before wiping his neck and wrapping the towel around his neck. "I don't know how much you know about the power system around here, but the Hutt's take all, and even though Afton is now everyone's number one racer, the Hutt's still get what they want...so, I am in charge of her pod and I needed you to tell me if you want it in a different stall or if you want me to transport it to wherever you two are staying."

Tatsu was trying to keep the sound of friendliness out of his voice, although he was failing. He knew he didn't need to be friendly, this guy wasn't there for his friendship, or anything past what he could give Jaxson. He needed to keep it all business...

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson almost dropped the cloth an he figured he'd wipe himself down, cleanliness always being perferred. He frowned and shook his head.

"Doesn't surprise me. This place is rough and everyone who inhabits it...rough. I don't wanna tick anyone off, I just like to keep the peace so..move it wherever you want to. Afton won't mind. Well, even if she does, who cares I am in charge." He laughed lightly and tossed the towel back at Tatsuya. So far, he wasn't getting anything he didn't already know, so he figured he could let his guard down, aside from warnings having been given oth im last night by his 'mommy' Afton. He wanted to roll his eyes, but decided the mental roll would be better.

"Drinkin, eh?" He laughed lightly as he looked at Tatsuya. "I think I could go for one of those. After the rough night last night, I could use several. You up for it?" He smiled kindly at the man. Afton could yell at him later if she had the mind to, but he was determined to at least let her have a little bit of fun on this trip. Afterall, they were going to be there for a month! A person would go crazy without getting out, and Jaxson definitely wasn't wanting to keep staring at her all month long, no matter how good of friends they were.

"I could see if Afton wanted to go out. We are in need of a little R & R. You could bring your brother, she's got an eye out for him." He winked. He was being mean, he knew, but he needed to gain their trust and what better way than to have a friendly get together. "Call it a post-win celebration, huh?"

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya couldn't help but laugh at the heads up about Afton liking his brother. He shook his head and tucked some hair behind his ear. He looked back up at Jaxson.

"Well, if he wasn't hung over, I'm sure he'd love to..." he said. "But he's not feeling good. He's still in the bed at the house..." okay, so Katsu probably wasn't really hung over, but Tatsu wanted to go have a drink...with Jaxson. And nobody else. Certainly not his brother--as much as he loved Katsuya, the boy never shut up. He talked more than anyone else Tatsu knew.

"Anyway, I'd love to, and I'm sure Afton would like to," he said, balling up the towel Jaxson had thrown at him and tossing it over his shoulder into the floor with his own. Give maintainance something to do. He smiled and slid past Jaxson to open the door, the blistering heat rolling in over him. He glanced back at the other man. "When, where, I'm there, getting drunk is an art form," he winked.

"Gonna move Afton's pod to stall eighty-three on the other side of the complex, I'll change your clearance on the computer this evening...you'll have to get your card restamped, as well as Afton's. Sound good?"

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson laughed, the guy's attitude certainly change, was it to happy and upbeat? Either way, Jaxson was definitely not complaining! At least it gave him an excuse to celebrate, alone, with the man he was right on the heels of. He shrugged.

"Sounds good. I can give you a call, gotta find Afton and at least let her know that I won't be home till a little later. She can celebrate on her own, besides she would probably be a bore without her little boyfriend there." He was so going to get in trouble for putting a bug in someone's ear, whether it be true or not! If it kept her busy whenever he himself was...he'd be glad.

"Eighty-three." He echoed, taking it into note as they wandered out back into that heat that made him want to get on the ground and cry. He liked moderate temperatures, not something that would literally melt ones skin off like this planet. "How do you stand it here? It's so freakin' hot!" He sighed out and shook his head as he looked around.

"I'll have Afton come down later and get her card restamped. Perhaps your brother could stamp her card I think she'd love that a lot." he laughed lowly, he loved being perverted. It was so much fun.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya couldn't supress an amused glance. He turned a little and nodded.

"I'll make sure he stamps something," he said, smiling. He saluted the man. "Give me a call later on my com. We'll have some fun," he nodded a little and smiled. "See you."

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson laughed, that was absolutely wonderful the he could play right back with him. It made him like the man much more.

"Fun won't even describe what we'll do!" He smiled and headed out back into the blistering heat. That guy just kept getting cuter! Oh and he was gonna make sure Afton was in on the fun too, who cares about arrests and conspiracies...sometimes things just needed to be livened up! They'd get more that way!

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

_________

Tatsu left work sweaty and icky, and came out of the bathroom clean and smelling quite normal. And good, too.

Tatsuya didn't dress up not for anyone, unless it was a wedding or funeral. When he went out, he wore jeans, black boots, and a button down shirt. He never got any dressier.

By the time he finished dressing, Katsuya had left the building, leaving a note that said he was going to go out and would be back later. Tatsu smiled and shook his head. He was probably going to call Afton and ask her out. He'd talked about nothing else from the moment Tatsu had gotten home.

Tatsu flopped down at his desk to do some work in the time he had. Even though his mind wasn't really on work at all.

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson stood in the shower, shampoo in the palm of his hand, the other scrubbing away. He was doing what he did best, be annoying as possible! He screamed whatever song he was singing and it echoed with all its horrendousness through the apartment, mainly so he could annoy Afton and get her out of the house, but it probably wasn't working.

He put his head under the shower and felt the shampoo rinse out and he was glad, he figured all that sand had done a nunber on his hair and he was more than obsessive when it came to making sure his hair was clean. He thought dirty hair was the worst thing a man could do, but style...that was another thing.

He turned the water off and he could hear Afton screaming 'finally' or something to that effect, in which he simply laughed as he wrapped a towel around his waist and stepped out of the bathroom to find her pretending to feign interest in some magazine.

"What? You sayin' I ain't a good singer?" He knew he wasn't, which was why he did it more! He laughed when she looked at him that gave him the answer. He frowned as he shook his arms free of water. "You doin' anything tonight?" She shook her head after a moment.

"Why not?" She sighed out and looked over at him.

"Because I am not here to have a party, which it seems you are doing. Besides, if you aren't going to take this seriously then that means I have to" He frowned.

"God, you are such a downer!" He waved a hand at her and walked into his room. Within minutes he had on ripped jeans, a white button up shirt, boots, and his hair was dried and it was flying everywhere. Although he loved to look good, he preferred his hair to just be free, which it didn't look bad for he had silky thick hair that always looked good. Never frizzy or unattractive.

When he wandered back out of the bedroom holding a black blazer in hand he saw Afton still sitting there on the couch, reading. He stopped and had the mind to say bye and that he would see her later, but she did nothing but wave.

"Don't call." He called out as he exited the room. Lord knew how he didn't want to be bothered during a date or...whatever was in store tonight.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya was standing outside his apartment, puffing away on a cigarette. He only smoked when he drank, and before he was about to drink. He didn't know why. He had picked the habit up from an ex-boyfriend, and had just never dropped it. But Katsuya hated cigarettes--was actually allergic to the smoke--so he forced Tatsu to smoke outside and away from him.

Evening on Tattooine wasn't so bad. The two sunds were going down, and the sands were cooling off. There was a slow breeze that cooled down the landscape so that people didn't burn up at night too. Even though Tattooine was the only planet Tatsu knew, he had always wanted to go to Coruscant.

Tossing the butt of his cigarette on the ground and quickly lighting another, he began down the dusty street towards about middway between his apartment and Jaxson's hotel--they were meeting in the middle. He walked briskly, sighing smoke out through his nose as he watched his feet while he walked.

Tatsuya never formed relationships with anyone he did business with. He had already learned his lesson. But he knew that if Jaxson wanted anything, it was probably just a good screw. Which Tatsuya wouldn't mind finding someone to provide for him.

But he figured a drink couldn't hurt anything.

[Afton Kirkpatric]

Afton had yelled at Jax for no apparent reason she now realized in her loneliness. Her mind had been clouded with all the good things that was to come out of getting a promotion, but now that she had silence away from Jax she could really weigh her options that didn't seem so glorious anymore. She'd be doing the same thing she was now, except a little less dangerous, with more pay. But it would mean she'd be reassigned to a new place, a new firm, a new partner as well. She had been with the peple at G.S.F. for over three years and had been with Jax just the same. Sure they had their differences, Jax liked to be lose with his money and his love interests, but that was what kept the two so balanced. She was the patient one when he wasn't. He was the lover when she wasn't. They worked well together, they were best friends, but at times she just wished that he wasn't for it would have made certain things so much easier.

Afton was sitting on the couch listening to silence and she was incredibly bored out of her mind. Jax was probably meeting some beautiful man and having a few good drinks and laughs and he'd get some tonight and he'd be set for a week and he'd be as right as rain, while she'd still be in her misery. She wasn't really miserable, no, she enjoyed her privacy, but lately she had been more private than need be. Her mind had been wrapped around everything involved with this operation.

They were to meet a group of people on Tatooine who worked with racers and helped pimp out their podracers. The people who helped them get parts from chop shops or warehouses that manufactured illegal equipment to create the vehicles. After they had gotten in with them they were to get certain evidence and then the Galactic Special Forces would come in and take them down. She and Jax would make arrests and testify in court, if need be, and they'd watch the ringleader and all of the accomplices get hauled off to separate prisons around the galaxy. It was a fulfilling job to know you are stopping crimes, but some of the treatment and way the law handled things were a bit harsh, which was what she was stating to Jax last night.

She had done some research on the subject matter and sentencing on this kind of operation and the ten year sentence and separation from family was a bit...harsh? Afton was all for the system and their ways of handling things, but for some reason doing that to the Hasagawa brothers seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. Afton had tried her best to keep in mind that they were doing things that were illegal, but it still was creating this guilt inside of her. She had judged them too early and by doing that she had suddenly liked them. Although it was just a day, the little spunky Katsuya was just so....kind. She didn't even know what to group his personality as actually. She just knew that she had liked it for she always enjoyed happy, hyper, people. But, it was also because of how cute they had been. She had liked them the second she saw them and it was making things hard for her, especially when trying to sleep because, well, she wasn't getting any.

Afton sighed out and got off the couch from her lounging position. Perhaps Jax was right, she did need to get out and have some bit of fun. But she didn't know Tatooine at all and didn't know about the people and it made her nervous. For her to be so quick to trust the two brothers she shouldn't feel very distrustful when it came to everyone else, but she didn't want to be the one who befriended everyone. She wandered over to the laptop and searched for good clubs in Tatooine. She figured she could go have at least one night of fun while she was there, afterall she had just won one of the biggest Podraces in all of the galaxy! That made her smile, even more so when she saw that one of the hottest places to go was called the 'Pashifikku Tsuki' or Pacific Moon a few blocks away.

Within a few minutes she was dressed to impress and headed out the door. She hopped on the hover bike she and Jax had rented and followed the instructions to the place. It took her almost fifteen minutes to get there for it was hard to miss. Apparently it was in a huge building out in the middle of the desertous area and the blue lights around the place was a dead giveaway, so was the Japanese writing on the marquee. She had parked her bike and hopped off the seat and walked over towards it, the loud music thumping in her chest. It wasn't dance, but more or less rock that was slightly entrancing. She had seen a lot of people crowded around outside, smoking, drinking, socializing and she realized that this place was almost like a gothic dance club. She wandered inside, after paying a hefty cover charge and getting a stamped hand. There were black lights, dancing light displays running around on the walls, large screens showing people dancing and it was something she hadn't expected to see. She knew she could definitely find some scums here, but she realized she was there not as an officer, but as a racer looking for a good time. Hopefully, Jax wouldn't call either.

[Katsuya Hasagawa]

Katsuya liked to party. Besides drinking and working on pod racers, it was his favorite thing to do. Go out and get drunk, dance with some cute guys, some cute girls, have a good time, stay out all night, and have a hangover the next day. He knew he had partied good only if he had the worst headache ever the next morning.

But partying alone wasn't much fun.

Which was why he was sitting on the sidelines at the moment, watching the people on the dance floor, dancing hard and long to every song, forgetting that they were rubbing bodies with people they didn't even know, and not caring that they would probably regret what they did that night the next day.

The Pacific Moon was one of the hottest spots on Tattooine--mostly just because there were few dance clubs on Tattooine. It was inhabited largely by Asians, although seeing other races was not unlikely or at all uncommon. Honestly, Katsu had met some of his best friends there, and most, if not all of them, had been of another race than human.

But none of them were there right then. It was just him by his lonesome, drinking alone, watching everyone else have a good time. He would have asked his brother along, but Tatsu didn't do the club scene.

In fact, Tatsu rarely did any scene, except for the let's-work-our-butts-off-and-get-zero-respect-for-it scene. Katsuya didn't know anyone with a better work ethic than his brother. He worked himself raw, and to the bone to provide for himself, and to take of Katsu, even though Katsuya could take care of himself. Tatsuya felt responsible for Katsu, he always had, and it kept him from living the kind of life he wanted to live.

If Katsuya could be perfectly honest, he knew his brother would have rather shot himself in the face than to have to work the illegal pod racing market to make a living. No one saw it, and Tatsu never said it, but Katsuya knew that his brother felt like a failure, that he was letting someone down by not doing more with his life than he had.

And Katsu couldn't help but to agree with the thought. Katsuya wished they hadn't had to be in the situation they were in now. That they could have worked somewhere legit, never had to get into the whole mafia-like surroundings of the illegal pod racing business. It was cutthroat. A cruel, hard, disrespectful, thankless job was the one that Tatsu and Katsu had to work.

Tatsu never said it, but they were in debt up to their noses, and they were slowly drowning in it. It wouldn't be long before collectors came looking for their heads. What they didn't spend in absolute needs--food, clothing, housing--they had to put into paying for the parts they used for the pods. And they had given IOU's so many times to partners of their business when they got parts, that Katsuya didn't know how they would ever get it paid off. It would be a miracle if he and his brother didn't get either caught by some police force--universal rather than local--or if they didn't get sold into the human slave trade that was still legal in the outer rims.

Katsuya downed his alcoholic drink and waved the glass for someone to come refill it. Katsu's thoughts had been dark lately. Ever since about a week before when he and his brother had fought about expenses and living conditions. Tatsu wanted out, Katsu wanted out, they were in agreement on that. But where Katsu always had the gung ho "Let's do it now!" attitude, Tatsu had the more careful--and sometimes better--stop, think, and plan method. It aggravated Katsu sometimes because he wanted to just bust out of there, throw open the cell doors with all guns blazing. But Tatsu would have rathered wait and get out when they wouldn't get killed or caught.

But they longer they went, the better chance officials had to pin stuff on them.

The club was loud and hot exactly what Katsu would have wanted on any other occasion. But this evening, he just wanted to drown his sorrows, as it were, and pout about the riff that had formed between him and his brother. And it never helped that they now both had crushes on two people who might be their sponsers.

Katsuya knew if they got any deeper, there really would be no way out.

[Afton Kirkpatric]

Afton wandered around trying to find something interesting to look at, dance with, flirt with, touch... whatever. So far she hadn't seen anything she liked, male or female. She had taken up sitting at the bar and sipping on a few drinks, within twenty minutes of this place she was already slightly buzzed and ready to kick lose, but still there wasn't much for her to lay eyes on. It seemed this entire rock of a planet was filled with people who were up to no good and who looked liked they wanted trouble more so than anything else.

She had seen over five drug deals go down within a few feet and she was suprised she didn't care. It seemed this place was wearing off on her and the people and their behavior. Then again she was a little on the drunk side and was almost ready to cause trouble herself. She saw nothing of importance and grabbed her glass and slowly made her way through the crowd, hearing a few people speak to her to dance, but she declined by acting like she didn't understand their language or just simply ignored them. Whenever she saw something she liked she'd pause a moment and then rub bodies for a few minutes, but ultimately she would get bored and wander over to someone else, by the time she had scowered the entire area her eye caught something she wasn't expecting, a cute little asian sitting idly at table. She didn't know why but that made her grin. She drank down the blue liquid in the tall thin glass, setting it on an empty table and slowly moving through the crowd to go see the young man. She didn't figure him to be the partier, he seemed like that kind that would watch some science fiction films or play with cars... not party, which he really wasn't doing much of.

Afton passed a waitress and took a drink off her tray without her evne realizing. She had just committed a crime and for some reason that was okay with her, petty theft really. She grinned and took a sip and wandered over to his table gingerly, when he wasn't looking she slid right next to him and leaned over and whispered into his ear, well yelled actually for the music was ridiculously loud and thumping. Accidentally her lips brushed against his ear lobe, alcohol always bringing out the sexuality and sensuality more.

"Well aren't you a partier! Sitting here all by yourself doesn't look like much fun, spunky."

[Katsuya Hasagawa]

Katsuya jumped a little when he heard the voice and he turned, moving away slightly, caught off-guard by the woman sitting next to him. He smiled a little and nodded as he looked around the bar and then back at Afton.

"I guess its more fun than being raped by a drunkard," he called back, the music so loud that a normal speaking voice would have sounded like a whisper. He smiled at the woman. "Tatsu would have been here, but he went out with your supplier!" he grinned wider. After a moment, he leaned back a little.

"What're you doing here? Post-race celebration?"

[Afton Kirkpatric]

"I guess you could call it that." Afton grinned as she glanced away from the man to scan the crowd. "I was needing some time to do something unprofessional." She looked over at Katsuya and smiled.

"How about yourself? What are you doing here? You don't look like you are enjoying yourself." She picked up her cup and put it to her lips and sipped, giving him the once over. He looked good tonight, but then again seh was wondering if he ever didn't look good. She bit her lower lip after the sting of the alcohol was too much for her to handle, plus she was wanting to just come right out and say she had been crushing on the little guy since she saw him.

"You actually look like you are regret even being here. I figured you'd at least be out there on the dance floor rubbing against some hot people." She smiled at him and looked away again. "Or hot people trying to rub against you." She cocked an eyebrow and allowed her inhibitions to drop and she was on the verge of just saying she'd rub against him for a while, which her arm was slightly doing at the sudden visit she was having with the man.

"Want to share a drink with me? Unless you are with your girlfriend." When he didn't say anything for a moment she grinned. "Boyfriend?"

[Katsuya Hasagawa]

Katsuya looked over at her and grinned, shaking his head. He waved his hand in front of his face and shook his head again.

"No, neither," he said with a nod. Katsuya liked girls and guys, but generally he leaned more towards girls, and left the male population to Tatsu who was gayer than anyone Katsu knew. He nodded.

"Sure, what'cha drinking?"

[Afton Kirkpatric]

Afton deep within her chest, so he was little bit of a swinger, nothing wrong with that, at least she was in good company. She nodded with determination and waved a hand in the air for some waitress to come over and take their drink order.

"I don't know," She stated when she watched someoen wave their hand back at her indicating she would be with them in a second. Afton peered at her tall glass that was now almost empty. It was still bright blue andn it practically glowed. Very good. "I stole it off some waiteress who had a whole tray filled." She looked up at Katsuya and grinned like an idiot. Although slightly intoxicated, Afton never was a rowdy or perverted drunk, she kept it under management. However she did allow it to slightly throw her inhibitions out.

When the little alien woman appeared Afton glanced at the woman and frowned stating simply that she wanted more of whatever it was she was drinking, then looked over at Katsuya.

"What'll it be? I', buyin."

[Katsuya Hasagawa]

Katsuya just motioned to what she was having, indicating to the person to bring two of them. He leaned back on the table and looked around again at the people who were grinding against one another on the dance floor. It was hot in there and at the moment, Katsuya didn't feel like partying, even though that was what he had come here to do, and that was probably what Afton was expecting.

Speaking of, he glanced over at her to inspect her, see if he could tell anything more about her than just that she was a racer. Most racers were stupid. In fact, all of them that Katsuya had ever met were stupid. None of them had the sense God gave a goose, and worst of all, with the intelligence they had--equal to a box of rocks--they were driving things that could cause death and mayhem every day. Katsuya didn't know how this girl had escaped the stupid gene usually bred into pod racers.

She didn't seem stupid anyway. Quiet as she was, he still didn't get the impression she was at all out of touch with what was going on around her. Which was the strangest thing of all. It was almost like she was casing the place all the time.

Then again, Katsuya didn't really know what someone casing a place acted like.

"So," he said over the music. "How'd you, of all people, get into illegal pod racing?"

[Afton Kirkpatric]

Afton was trying to keep things in check, she knew she was a bit tipsy, she knew that she was doing things that were unprofessonal, and she knew that she had the hots for Katsuya Hasagawa and that was a lot of things she needed to stop. Soon. She heard the boy talking and she drew her attention away from the waiter walking away. She smiled at him and leaned on the table, flirting in a way that was seductive and dangerous. Her mind registering this she sat up and grinned.

"I had some friends back in Coruscant who talked about it. I love going fast and I loved the idea of doing something fun and exhilirating. I went and watched a few races here and there. I loved it. I wanted to do it." She shrugged and leaned back in the bench and put an arm along it, glancing at the asian sideways, enjoying every aspect of his face.

"When I see something I like...I get it."

[Katsuya Hasagawa]

Katsuya's brow furrowed a little and then he smiled. He leaned back in his seat. Was she flirting with him, or was he crazy? He scanned the dance floor for a moment, feeling a little bit more adventurous. He glanced back over at Afton.

"Do you like to dance?"

[Afton Kirkpatric]

Afton glanced out into the sea of hot bodies that dripped with sweat. She smirked a little. She had never been the type to dance, but if he was asking her to then she suddenly loved to dance. She raised an eyebrow and looked back over at Katsuya and shrugged.

"Mmm, depends on who is asking?" She smiled at him and realized she was being too flirtatious. She needed to tone it down, really. But she was enjoying being able to be adventurous.

[Katsuya Hasagawa]

Katsuya grinned, getting up from his seat and rouding the table. He leaned on the table over her, smiling.

"Do you like dancing if I ask?" he said, a little louder so she could hear him over the music, and the talking, and the laughing, and everything else that was going on in the dance club at that time. He knew that he was probably doing a bad thing by being so flirty, but he couldn't help himself. He just had to. He offered her his hand. "Dance with me?"

[Afton Kirkpatric]

Afton suddenly felt her stomach flip and then drop. Okay, suddenly when the proposition was right out there for her to see she wasn't feeling so adventurous. What would James say? He'd probably tell her to go for it right? Biting her lower lip she took his hand and figured she could runb aagainst him for a while, hell she didn't even know how to dance! She laughed lightly and shrugged.

"You got it." She scooted out of the booth and stepped next to him and was to follow him wherever he went. Her head was spinning due to the heat, the drinking, the music all of it was just getting to her, but she was wearing next to nothing anyhow so she should be feeling quite cool. She bit her lower lip and smiled. Hopefully this wasn't going to be this hard.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

________

Unlike Katsuya, Tatsuya was not feeling adventurous. In fact, he wasn't feeling anything at the moment. He hadn't said much since he and Jaxson had met up and walked down the street to the bar. He let the other man do all of the talking because Tatsu preferred listening to him rather than talking himself.

Tatsuya thought Jaxson was, quite possible, the most attractive man that had ever stepped foot on Tattooine. But for some reason, he was with Tatsuya. Who was quite possibly the ugliest man on Tattoine. At least in Tatsu's own opinion.

He wondered what Katsuya was doing. Tatsuya realized when he was without his brother just how much he depended on him. After all, Katsu did all the talking that Tatsu didn't like doing, and when he was alone in a situation like this, he was forced to talk.

And he didn't know if he loved it.

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson stopped laughing when he told Tatsuya about a story that had happened to him the pother night. Although it wasn't very important he figured it was good to fill in that silence that Tatsuya was keeping up. He bit his lower lip and looked over to the man and smiled.

"You always this quiet?" He asked with generosity, taking a sip out of the glass of whiskey he had ordered at the quaint little club they had managed to find. He thought things were going quite well, they'd chat, laugh, go quiet, talk, then go quiet. He was worrying whether or not this was going well, but he figured Tatsuya to be the shy quiet type.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya looked up at him and smiled. He nodded and leaned back in his seat and took a drink of the lightly alcoholic drink he had ordered. He glanced around the bar a moment before looking back at Jaxson. He nodded again.

"Yeah, sorry..." he said. "I don't talk much. I like listening," he answered. He shrugged a little, leaning forward, resting his elbows on the table and blinking a couple of times. "And you're interesting, so."

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jax laughed and nodded, leaning forward and closing some of the space between them, after all he considered this a date and he wanted to let the other partner know that he was very interested. He just couldn't help wonder what his other half was doing. Was she sitting at the apartment bored? Was she going to whine to him when he came home? He could have cared less.

"So what brought you into this business?" He asked, unsure if he had prior to this meeting. "Do you like the illegal aspect? The thirll of it? The power? Money? You just don't seem like the kind of person who would want to be involved in all this...madness."

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya raised his eyebrows a little before lowering his eyes to the table. For a long moment, he thought about. Jaxson couldn't have pegged him better. After a long moment, he looked back up at the man, and nodded.

"Nothing really brought me into it but life," he said, shrugging. He smiled a little. "And I don't really like it, if you want to know. If it were up to me, I'd take Katsuya and go to Coruscant..." he paused, shrugging a little. "But at the moment, my business has gotten us into so much debt to all-but mob bosses, there is no way we'd be able to get out of it now..."

He quieted, leaning on the table. It was true, every word of it. He hated his job, hated the people involved. He liked pod racing, but not really that he had to do everything illegally.

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jax leaned back and assessed the newfound situation, Cop mode kicking in. So he didn't want to be involved, but he was so deep in this he couldn't get out. It wouldn't really hold much water in court so he would have to find some more information on the situation.

"Debt?" He said with a raised eyebrow. "You seem like the kind of man who would be rolling in the money, Tatsuya." He grinned. His own personal assessment coming out. "I mean, look how you helped out my girl, Afton! She couldn't have done it without you. You are good at what you do." He took another drink after a brief pause.

"You deal with mobs?" Time for some more cop pressuring.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya laughed a little.

"Yeah, we deal with Tattooine mobs. And the only thing rolling in the money is the company I work for. We get very little of the actual salary, because there is no minimum wage here. Basically Katsu and I combined barely get enough to support ourselves..." he paused. Then he shrugged. "The mobs here generally don't take no for an answer and if Katsu and I took off...it'd be like signing our death certificates..."

Tatsuya quieted again, wondering about his situation now. It was such a problem. He had been having sleepless nights for almost a month now, this whole deal was taking a toll on him.

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson's brain was hard at work, this date turning into more of an interrogation, without the other party knowing. He bit his lower lip and slit his eyes, wondering what to do. He leaned in and glanced at Tatsuya.

"Who do you work for? Get me involved. I would love it." Although he wouldn't on a mere personal scale, he knew the only way to take down the losers who worked dirty he'd have to get in with Tatsuya, whether or not he wanted Jaxson to or not. His agenda was going far beyond the mere people he had recently met. Tatsuya didn't seem like the kind of person to work nasty, it actually seemed like he was being dragged by those in charge, perhaps he wasn't as assertive as he needed to be, which is something Jaxson wanted to jump in and help.

Tatsuya could be r olling in the money, but he figured Tatsuya would be afraid of losing his life, or worse...his brother. Suddenly the situation was trying to become clear.

"I want in! Tell me, who is it you work for. I want everything! I need to get involved with the top dogs."

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya raised his eyebrows. He furrowed his brow, then scowled a little. Grabbing his jacket off of the chair and laid down money for his drink and pulled his jacket over his body. He knocked hair from his face and pulled his satchel over his shoulder.

"Look, I don't know the 'top dogs'. It's not like its a secret, Jaxson, you can walk down the street and know who they are," Tatsuya said. He didn't want to point Jaxson in the direction of the misery he and Katsu had been living under for so long. "Go talk to some of the racers, they'll point you in the right direction. But you'll have to get into it on your own..." he paused, pushing in his chair and turning.

"Thanks for the drink..."

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson frowned and turned in the chair seeing Tatusya walking off.

"Hey! Hey!" He stood up and quickly tossed some money down on the table and jogged over to him. "Hey, whoa, why you leaving? Did I say something? Do something? Come on, why you leaving me all of a sudden?" Jaxson didn't think he had ever moved that fast before in his life, not when it came to a date leaving him.

That was odd. If a date was going well for him and hte other didn't feel it he didn't care he'd let them go, but not this guy. THere was something, other than work, drawing him to Tatsuya. It wasn't his face, his voice, his sexiness that was very alluring, it was something in his eyes, the darkness, the mystery, the quietness, the sensualism that he probably didn't realize he gave off.

Jaxson was a picky guy when it came to finding men, but Tatsuya was everything he never looked for. He wasn't big, wasn't loud, wasn't..a lot of things, but for some reason Jaxson had never wanted a guy to be with more. He could tell that he was a good guy, a man who stuck to his convictions, he was truthful caring person and he liked it. He bit his lower lip and stuck his hands into his pockets, praying to god this wasn't it, over, done, finished, if so...Afton would kill him.

"I'm sorry, Tatusya, really! Whatever I did...I'm sorry!"

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya stopped in his walking, looking down at the ground as Jaxson stood behind him. He didn't say anything for a long time, letting his mind just chill out. For whatever reason, thinking about Jaxson getting involved in all the crap he had to deal with had bothered him much more than it should have.

After a long moment, he turned around, crossing his arms and sighing. For a long moment, he didn't say anything. He was a thinking boy, and sometimes, he just assumed people could read his mind, which he knew was ridiculous. After a moment, he shook his head.

"No. Nev--you didn't do anything, Jaxson," he said, a little frustradedly. Tatsuya was no good at this kind of thing. Why was he even here? Out with someone? Someone he didn't know? This was the kind of thing Katsuya did, not Tatsuya. He was the wrong twin for this kind of thing. "Just forget it...if you go to the shop tomorrow, I'll introduce you to someone who can get you in with whoever you want...if that's what you're after."

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson frowned not really expecting that kind of response. He raised an eyebrow, for a moment he thought that the little guy was trying to stop him from even getting involved. Perhaps he could just tell Tatsuya what was going on and that they could work a way to get these scum bags who are probably breathing down the Hasagawa brother's necks! They could work together, take them down, they could even work out a deal to get a reward instead of getting caught and being involved! They would be working with the police, they would be considered heroes amongst the good citizens, although enemies with amongst the racing community. But it was a fair trade! At least, Jax thought so.

He so wanted to just ease his worried mind, make it seem like the world wasn't a heavy weight on his shoulders like Tatsuya probably thought. But he didn't think Afton would be too pleased with blowing their cover. Jax knew to think of what could happen. Tatsuya could rebel, tell everyone about the two, get them killed! Ruin everything! But he didn't seem like that kind of man to do such a thing. At least, Jaxson didn't think so.

"Look, Tatsuya," He paused. No. Jax couldn't tell him. "I won't put you through that okay? I...I can find it out on my own without getting you involved more so than you already are, okay? Come on, lets go somewhere else. Catch some food, chat about other things. Hey!" He smiled. "You can tell me about your family! Where you are from, everything I should have been asking to begin with!" He bit his lower lip.

"What to you say we start over?"

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya watched him for several minutes. Tatsu was naturally suspicious. He rarely trusted anyone, and when he did, things like this happened. They wanted him for something, to get to someone, or get back at someone. He had the mind to say no, but he wanted so much to trust the other man. It was a ridiculous urge, one he never felt about anyone.

Jaxson had struck him as a playboy from the moment they had met. But a likable one. One that would rather help you than hurt you. But in all honesty, Tatsuya didn't know all that much about Jaxson. Just that he was funny, and quite easy on the eyes. And really, Jaxson didn't know that much about Tatsuya, except that he was quiet and grumpy. Which was normally about where most people stopped.

And truly, that had always been alright with Tatsu. The less people knew about him, the less they would bother him, the less he had to worry about being bothered. He hadn't had a boyfriend in forever, because they all said he was too distant, they wanted someone who would fawn all over them. Tatsu didn't have any friends because he was outgoing enough. Actually, all things considered, Tatsuya figured he was probably considered more socially retarded than anything else. He worked all week, went home straight after, and on the weekend, he barricaded himself in his house and worked on his computer.

So why did he think that Jaxson was going to be anymore drawn to him than anyone else had? Why did he think he had a snowball's chance in hell with this guy? This looker from Coruscant? Not only had he all-but blown their date--was it even really that?--but he had probably offended him too.

After the longest time Tatsu had ever taken to respond to anyone, he looked back up at Jaxson, chewing his lip.

"I'm--" No, don't say it that way. He nodded. "Alright. That sounds good."

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson was so relieved! He got a second chance to do this date right, start it out right, end it perfectly! The excitement he felt couldn't be resisted! He jumped with a whooping holler and laughed at his action. He nodded at Tatsuya, trying not to embarass him in public for being crazy, laughing lightly and pointing down the street to a less crowded area and to a place that was a little nicer and not so...well not a place where one would want to get drunk and start a brawl.

"Awesome!" He said with a big smile. "All right! We can chat all night long about things that actually matter, not work. And you better talk to me!" He joked and began towards the way he pointed.

"For starters, where would you like to go eat? Anything that strikes your fancy? Me? I'll eat anything. But tonight, since this is a date, I will let you choose."

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya could help but blush a little at the man's action. He rubbed his forehead a little and followed Jaxson, just slightly behind him. He didn't really know very many good places to eat, honestly. He didn't like Tattooine food all that much so he never went out. In general, he stayed in and made his own food. So at the man's question he kind of furrowed his brow.

"Six of one half dozen of the other to me..." he muttered as they walked. He gave a sort of shrug. "I don't really know any place around here...if you didn't notice, I don't get out much."

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson looked over his shoulder and smiled at Tatsuya.

"That's okay, we can find something together then." He paused in his walking to walk alongside of the man who was walking a slow pace. "I eat anything, like I said, so what do you like to eat and we can work from there. Or we can just stop and ask someone where a nice place to eat is at." Jaxson didn't know why all of a sudden he was determined to make this date go so well, perhaps because now he had a certain kind of understanding of who this guy kinda was. He bit his lower lip and nodded..

"We can do that." He paused and saw a few people and jogged over to them and quickly asked. They talked quickly and pointed the way. Jaxson had never been so excited in all his life to hear that a very famous restaurant was just a block away, a place that had chained into Coruscant and Naboo. He smiled, thanked them and headed over to the cute boy standing there looking around like a lost puppy. The cuteness that radiated could not be matched and Jax liked that.

"Come on! I know this place. Really good food, nice atmosphere, we can talk there." He smiled, wanting to assure Tatsuya that he wasn't going to bite or doing anything hurtful to him. But as they walked towards the place he suddenly realized the reason he was so determined, aside from the fact he was very attracted to Tatsuya, he wanted to make the man happy because in the long run...he might not be so fortunate.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya smiled at the man's effort. He was flattered that Jaxson seemed to be trying to hard to make things go right, but he didn't really get why. He followed the man, nodding at him and looking down the street where Jaxson indicated.

Actually, he had heard of that place. But it was much too expensive for him to ever go. He chewed his lip a little bit, speeding up a little bit to lightly slide his hand in the crook of Jaxson's elbow to slow him down a little.

"It's really expensive..." he said. He wasn't indicating that Jaxson couldn't pay for it, but Tatsuya wouldn't be able to pay for himself.

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson looked at him, shocked that they paused. He then saw the look in his eyes and he smiled, taking the hand that had stopped him and put it into his own and squeezed.

"Nothing is too expensive for you! Come on! It'll be great!" He jerked his head slightly, indicating they were going. "I told you we were starting off on the right foot and this is just right where it should be going." He winked. He didn't want to come off as a man who had expensive tastes, although he did, he just wanted to show Tatsuya that he deserved the best, like everyone did.

"You can order anything you want. I want to do this for, I want you to enjoy yourself and you can go brag to all your friends that you had a great time and ate at a nice restaurant with a guy who wasn't a jerk!" He smiled and looked down at him.

"I'm not trying to play you or anything like that, if that is what you are thinking, Tatsuya."

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya furrowed his brow, a little bit of an unconvinced expression crossing his face. He sighed a little and went along. He was going to trust Jaxson for now, he just hoped the man wasn't still looking to use him for something.

He was a little surprised when he didn't let go of Jaxson's hand, but held onto it, the warmth a little change of pace. He couldn't remember the last time he had held someone's hand. After a moment he looked back up at Jaxson as they got closer to the restaurant.

"You better not be," he said, mock seriously. Then he smiled. "But I wasn't thinking that."

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson smiled, happy to be walking down the street holding hands with someone he genuinely liked, getting ready to have a good dinner and a great time getting to know one another. When Tatsuya's voice ran in his ears he felt his hear skip a beat. He wasn't using him, not really, he was actually going to help him out and Afton was going to have to deal with it. He looked at Tatsuya and smiled.

"Glad to hear that. I won't let you down." He winked at him and dropped his hand for a moment as he opened the large door for him to enter the large restaurant, the smell of some sort of steak being cooked causing his stomach to growl furociously.

"Smells good." He mindlessly stated. "We can sit somewhere out of the way. I want to know all about you without anyone disturbing us."

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya didn't answer, but nodded as he and Jaxson entered and were told to wait a moment while they checked table availability. For a long moment they stood there before the man returned and told them to follow.

They were seated out of the way. In the back corner of the restaurant mostly away from everyone else, but still feeling like they were in a restaurant. Tatsuya smiled a little at the server as he left, and he slid into the seat like a guilty prisoner on the stand. In case Jaxson hadn't noticed already, Tatsuya was not used to this sort of thing. He worked in the dirt, grime, oil, disgustingness all day, and then went home and ate noodles. He didn't go to places like this, so he felt slightly uncomfortable.

He kept his hands in his lap under the table and looked around breifly to take in his surroundings. It was a nice place, he had never seen the inside of it, and it looked expensive. Probably why the food was so expensive.

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson thanked the waiter and slid into the booth, happy to have a seat after walking a little while, even happier to be there with Tatsuya so they could begin building a relationship, which Jaxson wanted very much.

"Remember, don't worry about anything just get whatever you think would be best." Jax smiled and grabbed a menu and scanned a few things. This place apparently had connections everywhere in the universe for they had an exotic menu listing and he had never heard of half the things on there. "So, tell me about yourself. I want to know. Any family other than your brother?"

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya glanced up and then reached up to tuck some hair behind his ears. He gave a little shrug.

"My adopted parents live in the sticks somewhere..." he paused, looking up at Jaxson and chewing his lip. Then he shrugged again. "I've got a biological mother...my biological father died last year, and I have a blue million brothers...somewhere..." he smiled, chuckling a little. "Other than that, it's just Katsuya and I..." he paused. "Which I prefer. I can look after him and not have to worry about a bunch of other family members running around..."

He smiled a little, finally getting adventurous enough to look in the menu. He didn't really know anything in it. The menu was in Huttese, but none of it looked very good. Except for a section of Asian things...he might be able to get something from there.

"What about you?" he asked, looking back up, smiling a little. "Afton the only thing you got?"

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson nodded in response as he spoke, not wanting to keep saying 'yes', 'okay', 'yeah', 'uh-huh'. He watched a smile cross Tatsuya's face and suddenly he felt himself smile. That was incredible, watching him smile that was, he was very attractive and he feared that the boy didn't even know it.

So he was an adopted child. He wanted to shake his head at the thought of his parents abandoning him, he never could understand that kind of thinking or concept. Was he an accident maybe? Why had they abandoned the two? He frowned softly and heard him say how he liked it being just the two of them.

The boys face lit up whenever he mentioned his brother and it made JAxson realize how close they must have been. He was knew that the two couldn't part, which was why he had to see if he couldn't work out an agreement with Afton later on. He couldn't do this whole sting thing without at least letting the twins, who had nothing to do with this crap anyhow, get blamed for this. He didn't want them to go down and he didn't want to lie to Tatsuya.

"Me?" He said after a moment of pearing at the menu figuring he was going to get a steak and some other exotic trimmings and some wine. He clsoed the menu and looked up at Tatsuya and grinned.

"Afton is my best friend. We have worked together for a long time. She is like my sister and I would just hate it if she ever left me." He bit his lower lip. That was true. Her need to get a bump in her job was ticking him off in so many ways, mainly because he would be losing her. He sighed out and shrugged, relaxing slightly.

"I have a sister, Clarice, she is 27, two years older than me. My parents live on Coruscant. My Mom and I are pretty close to each other, as me and my sister, but...my dad.." He shook his head and sighed out with a frown.

"My parents separated and I don't know him well. We don't talk. He used me too many times in the past and we aren't really on good terms right now, never have been to be quite honest!" He laughed lightly, chuckling away his true sadness and hurt.

"But oh well, his loss right?"

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya could see the pain and hurt on Jaxson's face, even though the man tried to hide it. Tatsuya's face softened and he let his guard down for just a second or to watch Jaxson sadly. Then he nodded and smiled, his guard back up as quickly as he had let it down.

"Good way to look at it, Jaxson," he said quietly. He never spoke above a normal speaking voice--except when screaming for a pod race--and in this restaurant, he felt like he ought to be whispering. Then he decided to get it off that subject.

"So...how did you meet Afton? And how did you become her supplier?"

[Jaxson Tancredi]

He looked up at Tatsuya and smiled. He had to quickly remember the story they had conjured up to make it seem like they had met durin pod racing instead of the special forces.

"Accident, actually. She and I were walking around a corner and slammed into each other. She had some pod racing pamphlets and we just got to talking about it and then we went out to lunch and haven't separated since. We began to work together and it was really a fun time. I became her parts supplier and helped her do everything she needed. We are like best friends." He smiled speaking to quickly for his own good. It was kinda nice to have such an exciting story happen, despite it not really being true. It made their meeting a lot better than the whole 'we had to work together' story.

"We just worked well together. We can't be apart, you know." He clenched his jaw and looked at Tatsuya. In a way he could completley feel for him when it came to his brother. If he were to be separated from Afton, he'd probably go insane.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya nodded, laughing a little at the story.

"Mm. I noticed you two seemed to work well together," he said quietly. Then he nodded. "She is an amazing racer. With her talent, she is likely to get a lot of sponsers and bigger suppliers clamboring to finance her and give you supplier's insurance. So, I wouldn't be surprised if your com has a billion messeges on it by tomorrow," he warned laughing a little.

His words faded to silence as he sort of ran out of things to ask. He did that alot in conversations, just sort of lost any potential questions because he was so unused to this kind of thing. After a long moment he smiled a little.

"Katsuya really likes her."

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson laughed. He figured it.

"Afton is an amazing girl. Really and truly. I think she has a crush on your brother and won't admit it." He laughed lightly. "I think I sorta told her she should go after him. I don't think she will do so without knowing the other party is interested also. But, maybe she went out tonight and got some alcohol in her. If so, then buddy! Your brother better watch out!"

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya couldn't supress a laugh. So she got pretty lubricated and she was loose? Sounded like Katsuya. Tatsu was surprised his brother had not yet gotten date raped. If he got the right amount of alcohol in him, he would be ready for anything. Tatsu had had to rescue his drunkass from the side of the road on more than one occassion.

"Well, I am sure he will make it known to her..." he said quietly. He wished breifly he could make it known to the man sitting across from him how much he was finding himself liking Jaxson. It was a little out of character for him to be so interested in someone that he didn't know all that well. But there was just something about Jaxson that gave Tatsuya a good feeling. That Jaxson was trustworthy, and good.

Tatsu just hoped to God he wasn't misplacing his trust.

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson laughed lightly.

"Man, you don't wanna see how bad it gets. She becomes overly sexual and it is kinda hard to resist, even if you are gay." He laughed and pointed at himself.

"I, as a gay man...would fall under her spell, but since I know her well and I consider her my sister...never in the world would I get with her. But, she is very pursuasive. I wouldn't be surprised if she somehow ended up in your apartment tonight!" He laughed and shook his head.

"That, I would love to see! She is too damn uptight!"

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya smiled at his words, glancing over at the waitor, who came to get their orders. They ordered, the waitor having Tatsu repeat it twice because he was apparently hard of hearing, and then told them that it would only be a minute.

The man was on his way and Tatsu reclasped his hands in his lap under the table. He looked back at Jaxson and dipped his head.

"Well, then, I suppose if you ended up there, she wouldn't notice?" he said, winking lightly. Yeah. That was about as risque as Tatsuya Hasagawa got. That was his flirting. It wasn't much, but it was sort of there. And it made him mentally want to smack himself. He shook hair out of his face to look around the restaurant quickly before looking back at Jaxson.

"Random question," he warned. "How old are you?"

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson smiled as he glancned away. The sexiness was growing and things were getting harder for Jaxson! He was having a very hard time trying to not love this guy to death, not somehow slip in a few kisses, maybe even a night, but he knew that he would take things very slow with Tatsuya, and somehow he was okay with that and actually wanted to do so.

"Me? I am 25. How about yourself?" He smiled. "You know, this is random as well, but you really are beautiful. I'm not just saying that either! Really, you are beautiful." He felt like an idiot. But he wanted to throw it out there because it wascrowding his mind too much.

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya's eyebrows popped and he immediately wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Not that he didn't appreciate the compliment, but...no one had ever said it before. Actually, the only thing he had ever gotten was "hot" or "cute". And usually by drunkards who were celebrating after a race. Not "beautiful" from a totally sober man sitting across from him at the dinner table.

"Thank you..." he all-but whispered. He glanced down at the table for a moment to regather his confidence, before looking back up. "I'm nineteen...turning twenty in not so long..." he felt like he was under the proverbial spotlight, and he didn't like the feeling. Yet, somehow, he felt ridiculously flattered by the way Jaxson had complimented him. He really needed to get out more.

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson laughed and smiled kindly. This guy was something he had never experience before. He wasn't loud, annoying, over confident, hell he wasn't even sure if this boy had any confidence. Either way he was more than willing to throw out more when the need be, which was probably soon, but he didn't want to over do it or embarass him, if he hadn't already.

"Sorry, did not want to make you uncomfortable or anything, but I just wanted to tell you because you are so shy and..beautiful!" He laughed and shook his head. "By far the best date I've been on. You aren't rude or cocky. You are really what I've been looking for." Okay he knew he needed to stop so in doing so he took a long drink.

He sighed out feeling refreshed and he looked around then back to Tatsuya.

"So, tell me, what do you like to do whenever you don't work?"

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Was the feeling of your soul writhing inside of you normal when you were this happy?

Tatsuya did actually know, he just knew that he had that feeling. He didn't know how he was keeping from grinningl like a fool. He was grinning nonstop inside. Something about the sincere way Jaxson said what he had said made Tatsuya feel beautiful, even though he didn't feel beautiful.

After a few seconds of silence after the question, Tatsuya sat back a little to be more comfortable rather than sitting like a board in the seat, He shook hair out of his face and could now see Jaxson much better. But it probably meant Jaxson could see his slightly red face.

"Mm...listen to music and draw," he said with a shrug. He smiled a little. "Work through the computer..." he paused. "Nothing special..." What do you do, he wanted to ask. Charm Japanese mechanics senseless? But he refrained. Instead, he merely mirrored the sentiment.

"What do you do?"

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson watched the way he shook his hair out of his eyes, his dark eyes that shined with extreme brilliance. He hadn't seen a pair of eyes that beautiful, he actually loved looking at his eyes. Their shape, the deep dark color, his sooty lashes, everything about this mans face was really appealing and very comforting to look at. It made him grin to himself and by doing so he had to bite his lip to stop it from continuously growing out of liking.

He shifted in his seat and sighed. What did he do? God, did he even know? He had to think a moment. Normally he hung out with Afton and when that didn't happen he usually cooked, went out, enjoyed the clubbing scene, but then he had that dire need to fight.

"I like to box. It is more of a side job really to keep my body toned and such. I like to cook and eat. I like to sit at home from time to time, but I find that I get bored easily if I do. But I make a healthy compromise." He smiled. God, the guy was too cute and he wanted to tell him again! But he refrained.

"Draw, huh? What do you like to draw?"

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya nodded in understanding as the man spoke. Oh, so he boxed? Geez, Tatsuya hadn't heard of anyone doing that since...well, since forever ago. Well, Tatsuya could testify that Jaxson's body was toned and fit...he wanted to investigate more of his toned and fit body...

"Oh, uh, draw?" he said stupidly, his mind wandering into territory he needed to reign it in from. He smiled. "Whatever comes to my mind. I like drawing people. But no one will sit for me long enough, so I generally draw pod sketches or...whatever..." he said smiling a little wider. He leaned forward on the table a little more.

"I didn't know anyone boxed anymore...you've done it a long time?"

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson loved the newfound adventure of Tatsuya leaning a bit closer to him. He loved it in a way that nobody should, he was actually getting excited that perhaps they would be closer by the end of the night. Not in that way either!

"Yeah!" He said with a wide smile, leaning forward as well. "I've done it for a long time. My...Afton actually told me I had this huge urge to beat up people and said it'd be good to take out agression I might have in hand to hand combat, friendly combat as well!" He smiled and shook his head. "Such a rush! You might like it! You got a body for it, believe it or not."

His mind jumped around excitedly.

"Draw people, huh? Well, if you ever need someone I'd love to do it!"

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya's whole demeanor changed then. Someone was actually volunteering to sit for him? He grinned wider than he remembered doing all week. He put a hand to his mouth to cover it up so he wasn't smiling in Jaxson's face.

Once he controlled himself, he looked back up.

"I'd love it if you had time," he said. Then he nodded and proferred hand for shaking. "I'll box with you if you sit for me to sketch?" he smiled, indicating they make a deal.

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson laughed lightly and nodded, far more excited than he had ever bene in his entire life! Even when getting bonuses at work or anything! Happiness was coursing through him right now.

"Babe, you got it! We'll make a day of it! It'll be fun! You can boss me around and tell me how to pose and I will make you so mad at being uncooperative you can beat me up for it later!" He winked. This was going much better than he had ever hoped. The two were actually going to compromise and do something the other person loved. How cool was that?

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya laughed, and, suddenly, hoped that if he and Katsuya ever got out of the mess they had gotten themselves into, and were able to haul it to Coruscant, that maybe Jaxson would want to come along. Tatsu didn't know why, but the sudden thought that after everything and when the races moved on that Jaxson would follow them and probably leave Tatsu's life for good made him realize how much he didn't want that to happen.

He smile slowly mellowed to a softer one as he noticed their proximity to one another but did nothing to remedy it. He liked being this close. He could see Jaxson's pretty eyes better.

"Okay, Jaxson," he said with a nod. "Sounds like date two."

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson laughed lightly and stared into Tatsuya's eyes for a moment. God, he was beautiful! And he suddenly wanted to just blurt it all out, tell him the truth, let him in on everything! He didn't want something this good to end! Not now, not later, not ever. He was enjoying everything about this man and he definitely wanted another date, and another, and another! Never ending would be quite nice.

Suddenly he realized what he was thinking, he didn't really know him that well! He bit his lower lip and looked away for a moment and smiled.

"Date two it is. If you knock me out, though, you will definitely have to give me a third!" He winked. "If not, oh well, a third is well in order."

[Tatsuya Hasagawa]

Tatsuya nodded and smiled quietly. A third date would be nice. A fourth even better. A fifth would make his life, and a boyfriend would make him happy. But not just any boyfriend. Jaxson Tancredi as his boyfriend. But Tatsuya knew he was thinking much too far ahead. Something awful might happen to drive them apart.

But he didn't want to think about that right now. He wanted to think about the pretty face and pretty person in front of him. If he had been Katsuya, he would have just gone ahead and kissed Jaxson--with thier proximity it wouldn't have been difficult. But he wasn't Katsuya, he was Tatsuya, and so he just sat there and wished he had the balls to lean over and give him just a littl peck on the lips. He grinned.

"So if you knock me out, what's that mean?"

[Jaxson Tancredi]

Jaxson laughed lightly, looking down at the table at the food they had receiveda few moments earlier. This man sitting across from him was very different than anyone else he had ever been with. For Jaxson to be such a player who never figured himself to settle down, this man was slightly making him wonder if perhaps he should get serious with someone instead of some people. He looked back up at Tatsuya and shrugged.

"I dunno," He winked. "Whatever you'd like. Your choice."