This Black Dog: A Day in Bed.

[Santhia]

Santhia sighed happily, waking up in the comfortable bed of her hotel room. She nuzzled into the chest of the man sleeping soundly beside her and grinned. She had spent many wonderful nights with the Jedi she had met in the bar. She was beginning to enjoy having him around, enjoy spending time with him.

"Zeke...time to wake up." She kissed his chest, working her way up to his chin, and giggled. "Cmon, baby, time to get up '

[Zeke]

Zeke tingles at the teasing of her lips and meets kiss with his own as she reaches his face.

"You wake up too early, Santhia...Look, the sun..."

Well, the sun is up. so much for that complaint.

"Yeah...time to get up..."

[Santhia]

"If you had your way, lazy Jedi, you would stay in bed all day!" She gave him a playful punch, rolling out of bed. She grabbed his shirt off the floor and pulled it on, walking into the bathroom. "I don't see how you got promoted to Knight when all you do is sleep!"

[Zeke]

Zeke yawns.

"It was easy. I did my training, saved the people and upheld the ideals of the Order non-stop from 12 noon until 11 at night. The rest of the time I slept."

He stretches with another mighty yawn. They could never do this with his box. It'd be scrap by now.

[Santhia]

"You're still lazy!" She stood in the bathroom doorway, toothbrush in her mouth. She gives her teeth another brushing before smirking at him.
"Or maybe I've just worn you out." She rinses her mouth, spits and places the toothbrush back on the counter. Making faces at herself in the mirror, she frowns, pulling back her hair, arranging it atop her head. "Do you think I'm pretty?"

[Zeke]

"How could you be anything but?"

He stands and walks over, wrapping his arms around her from behind, lurking over her shoulder.

"I think you'd look better without that shirt o' mine, though..."

[Santhia]

She giggled, putting her hands on his arms. She pressed her behind against him, and sighed. "You'll have to be going soon. I bet you have Jedi things to do today."
She turned to face him, her arms going around his neck. She let her lips brush his gently before kissing him. Her tongue slipped into his mouth briefly and when she pulled back, her lips had formed a pout. "You should stay with me today."

[Zeke]

"I think I will."

He smiles and returns her kiss.

"We've got more than enough Jedi to get business taken care of. What do you feel like doing?"

Zeke wants to go back to bed. Today is a lazy day; he feels it in his bones. It's a carefree day, the kind best spent lounging and basking in one's own leisurely procrastination.

[Santhia]

A sly smile replaced the pout. 'I can think of a few things..."
She slipped out of his arms, moving into the bedroom and pulling down the blinds. The room goes dark, and Zeke can hear the rustling of clothing coming off and the sheets being pulled back, followed by a sexy little giggle. "Come to bed Zeke!"

[Zeke]

Yeah...that's what Zeke's talkin' about. He moves carefully through the room, careful not to run into anything, and takes his place in the bed, stretching with another yawn.

"Care to put me to sleep again?"

[Santhia]

"Hmmm, I dunno..." She pulls him underneath the sheets. "Maybe it's your turn."

She giggled, pulling him close and kissing him hard on the lips.

[Zeke]

"Ok...let's see what I can do to wear you out..." he says between kisses.

He places one hand on the back of her leg and pulls her to him, pressing her body to his, feeling the steady beat of her heart against his chest. Zeke pulls away from her momentarily, just long enough to say three little words.

"I love you."

She gets no chance to reply; any sound she makes is muffled by his kiss.

[Santhia]

"Mmmhmmmhmmph!"
She wriggled underneath him. She heard him say those three little words...but she couldn't believe it. But, soon she isn't concerned with talking, as he pressed against her gently, kissing her. She kissed him back, pulling the covers up over them.

[Zeke]

Hours later, Zeke stirs. Just as he promised, Santhia is sound asleep. She looks angelic, lying in a small ray of light that has filtered through the window's coverings. He brushes a stray strand of hair from her face, smiling at the look of contentment it bears. The Jedi Knight rolls onto his back, staring at the plain white of the ceiling. He told her he loved her. But does he really? Did he mean it, or was it simply brought on by his desire?

[Santhia]

Santhia stirs a little as he brushes the hair from her face, wrinkling her nose, but remains fast asleep. She rolls over and nuzzles against him.

[Zeke]

Zeke heaves a sigh. He's still supposed to be dating Torriana Marx. He knows what he's doing cannot end well. Zeke can't date them both; someone's going to have to walk away with a broken heart. He turns his face away from the girl lying with her head on his chest. He can't find it in his heart to hurt either of them, but knows he will eventually.

[Santhia]

Her eyes open slowly "hmmm?"

She rested her chin on his chest, looking at him with heavy lidded eyes. "What's wrong?"

[Zeke]

He turns back to her with a smile.

"It's nothing...go back to sleep."

Nothing, right. He puts an arm around her an hugs her to him.

[Santhia]

She frowned a little, giving him a light bite on the chest. "Sure, nothing. Whatever."

Santhia sighed and rested her head on him, listening to his breathing.

[Zeke]

Zeke sighs.

"Ok...maybe it is something...but it's not important."

Actually, it's very important. But he doesn't want to worry her with it.

[Santhia]

"Something is wrong, I know it. Why don't you just tell me?" She sat up, letting the sheets fall from her body. She looked down at him with a frown. "Tell me."

[Zeke]

"I..."

Zeke falters. Now is not the time to tell her...now would be a bad time to mention Torriana. He searches for an excuse, something to say to either deflect her attention from him or something seemingly minor, that would not affect her.

"I'm ok. Just forgot something is all."

[Santhia]

"Uh, alright..." She slips out of the bed, walking around the bed and going back into the bathroom. "Um, I'm going to hop into the shower...I'll be right back."

She closed the door behind her, leaving Zeke to lay in bed with his thoughts.

[Zeke]

Zeke sits up and looks about for his clothes. He finds his boxershorts and puts them on, then moves to the sink to brush his teeth. He makes unwavering eye contact with his reflection, running the consequences of his actions through his mind, deciding on a course of action. He spits, rinses, and goes back to the bed. This is hard...

[Santhia]

Santhia returns to the room, dripping from the shower, towel drying her hair. She wrapped the towel around her, grabbing a brush off the dressing.

"So...did you remember?"

[Zeke]

"Yeah...sorta..."

He sighs. This is too important a decision to make in such a short time, but he has a feeling that even if he dwells on it for days, months, even years, the outcome has already been decided.

"Yeah...I guess I did."

[Santhia]

"And?"

She continued brushing her hair, staring at him. She turned to face the mirror, starting to braid her hair in her normal Garou style.

[Zeke]

"And I know what I've got to do."

He can't say he looks forward to doing it though...especially after all he's been through with Torriana...the rescue from Fiend, the moments in the Bar and Grill...he sighs, and looks to where Santhia sits braiding her hair.

"That's how Xazor wears hers..."

[Santhia]

"Mmmm, most Garou women wear their hair in these braids, real warriors do not wear coins, only the upper-class can afford to," she murmured, tying the ends of the braids so they wouldn't undo. "The coins make too much noise, you can't hunt with them in."

[Zeke]

"You're a Garou? I didn't know that."

Zeke rolls onto his side and watches her.

"So...you're a fighter, then?" he asks, taking into account her comment on warriors.

[Santhia]

"Mmmhmmm, that's me.' She opened the dresser, pulling out clothes and slowly getting dressed. "There was a lot of fighting between the Garou and Cizerack tribes back home, lots of us were raised to be warriors since we were little children."
She finished dressing and sat down on the bed beside him. "So, I've been fighting and hunting for my whole life."

[Zeke]

"That's bad. You shouldn't have had to go through that..."

He sits up and hugs her from behind.

"Kids shouldn't have to fight or hunt. They should just do what they want, playing and having fun. It's not right."

[Santhia]

"I guess so..But we had to, it was how things were. I didn't have much choice."

She smiled a little. "It's alright, I'm fine with it."

[Zeke]

He kisses her lightly. If she's really ok, he has no problem...though he still thinks it's a shame.

"If you say so."

[Santhia]

"mmm," she kisses him back and smiles wider." Get dressed, let's go out. I'm hungry, let's go get food."

[Zeke]

Zeke rolls to the other side of the bed and gets his clothes, taking his time about dressing. He still doesn't want to get out of bed.

"Ok...where to then?" he asks with a stretch and yawn.

[Santhia]

"I dunno, somewhere good."
She grabbed a jacket off the bed post, slipping it on. "You live here, you should know a good place to eat. Silly Jedi."

[Zeke]

"I...guess..."

Zeke hasn't eaten in many places besides Yog's or his room, but he can dig something up.

"Well...there's a pizza place down the block..."

[Santhia]

"Okay, well, whatever you pick is fine with me."
She stood by the door and watched him finish dressing and getting ready.

[Zeke]

Zeke sighs and slides his hands in his pockets. He hates when girls do this to him...he always chooses wrongly. The room is on the second floor, so it doesn't take long to get out. The air smells damp, and the sky is overcast. Looks like rain.

"We'd best hurry."

[Santhia]

"Too late."

A few drops begin to fall. Then, a downpour. Santhia laughed as they hurried to the nearest awning. Both of them were already soaked.

"So much for our day out." She grinned, pulling Zeke close and kissing him softly.

[Zeke]

"Maybe not," he says as he pulls back. "I think I could run us both there though, without getting totally soaked."

Of course, it's almost too late to prevent that, but they won't be frozen if he's as fast as he'd like to think.

"Think I can get us there?"

[Santhia]

"Hmm, I dunno. You can use your Jedi powers to dodge the raindrops?' She grinned. "And we're already soaked."

[Zeke]

"I know, but mebbe we can be...I dunno...not as soaked as we could be. I dunno about dodging raindrops, but I can run faster than the speeders."

[Santhia]

"Really?" She raises a brow then grins. "Show me.'

[Zeke]

Zeke gathers her into his arms and takes a deep breath. The Force surges through him, and before Santhia can blink, they're out in the elements, with Zeke dodging pedestrian traffic. True to his word, the speeders crawl by to their left, unable to keep pace with the Jedi's speed. He ducks into the pizzeria and throws the wet hair from his face with a shake of his head, grinning as he set his passenger down.

"There it is."

[Santhia]

He sets her gently down onto her feet, and she giggled softly.
"Hmmm, you're full of surprizes Jedi."

[Zeke]

"I try. It makes life interesting."

The place is full; they'll have to wait for a table. There's a padded bench right next to them, but it's almost full as well. There's just enough room for one more person. Zeke squats next to the door, gesturing for Santhia to sit.

"We'll be here for a while."