Sparring Partners

[Jeng]

The living quarters aboard the Ne'ta Prudii were far from ample, making it a short stumble from the doorway to the bed. Jeng shrugged out of his sleeves, the upper half of his bodyglove slipping down to his waist.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She ran her hands over his bare chest and around to his back as he found the zipper to her bodyglove, tugging it down and exposing her back to the air. Lilaena hesitated for a moment, holding him close so that she couldn't be peeled out of her clothes. His hands returned to her skin, fingers on the thick scars that criss-crossed her back, and he kissed her again, with the same urgency as before.

Lilaena pulled him down to the bed.


***

She lay gasping for breath as Jeng collapsed beside her, their legs still tangled together. Lilaena turned to her side, letting her eyes take in his muscular form now that the frantic urgency of the last half an hour had abated.

"I didn't know it would be like ...that," she said, a smile tracing her lips.

[Jeng]

“No?”

Jeng lay on his back, his head propped up on one arm, his chest rising and falling with long, slow breaths. He shifted a little, so that he could meet Lilaena's smile with one of his own.

“What were you expecting?”

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She shrugged. "I don't know... I knew the mechanics of course, but to do it..." Her voice trailed off.

Lilaena sat up abruptly, crossing her arms over her breasts. "Do not tell anyone about this," she said, a warning in her tone as she pulled the sheet up to cover herself while she looked for her underclothes.

[Jeng]

Watching as Lilaena struggled to keep the sheets around her body while she picked up her hastily discarded clothes, Jeng suppressed a grin. He felt no need to be modest about his body, not when it had been flush against hers a matter of minutes ago, but he bit his tongue and kept the thought to himself.

“I won’t. Ori'haat,” he said instead, pressing his palm to his chest, over his heart, as he sat up.

“Should I... get the ship started?”

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Elek, vi ru'kir slanar."* Lilaena gave up on her clothes and sat on the edge of the bed, looking sideways at him with the sheet still clutched to her.

"Then vi liser vaabir bic tug'yc..?"** She raised an eyebrow, her body already stirring at the thought.



*Yes, we should go.
**then we can do it again..?

[Jeng]

Later…

The mess hall of the Haran rang with laughter. Cups and crockery rattled as they were settled down onto one of the long tabletops. Choruk stood over to the table where the rest of Mand’alor’s honour guard sat, carrying a broad terrine dish. “Fill your boots!” he said, grinning, as he placed the dish of hot, fragrant stew in front of Hel, Jeng, and Obed.

Jeng passed out spoons to the others, while Obed sniffed at the contents and feigned a look of mock distaste. “I see you’re still hell-bent on using engine grease for stock.”

“Only the best for you, ori’vod,” Choruk agreed, as he slid down onto the bench beside Jeng.

Opposite the tall blond, Hel merely lifted an eyebrow, her expression dry as old mythosaur bones, and shook her head, while beside her Obed grinned a grin so dumb that Jeng couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of it.

Still smiling, Jeng’s eyes met Lilaena’s as she entered the mess hall. He lifted his chin a fraction, then nodded down at the table, as if to say: you're welcome here.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The mess hall was nearly empty when Lilaena walked into it. She had visited it many times in the past - a few faces would turn toward her, there were nods of respect, and then everyone returned to their meals. She never stayed, usually eating alone in the conference room off the bridge or in her quarters. But today...

She caught Jeng’s eye and crossed the hall to join her honor guard, her vod, sliding onto the bench beside Choruk. There was a moment of surprised silence, in which she reached out and broke off a piece of the warm, crusty bread that Tal in the kitchens was so good at making.

Lilaena dipped it into the communal dish, bringing it to her mouth. As she chewed she spoke around the mouthful.

“Greasy.”

She grinned, and the Mando’ade laughed with her, their surprise at her arrival quickly fading away.

[Jeng]

“What did I tell you,” said Obed, both eyebrows lifted, gesticulating with a chunk of bread to emphasise his point. Choruk happily shovelled in another mouthful, clearly pleased to have Manda’lor partaking of his cooking.

“The trip went well, then?” Hel asked, eyes shifting between Jeng - who was rather inelegantly chewing a mouthful of stew - and Lilaena.

“You sorted out that… old business?”

[Lilaena De'Ville]

“Yes,” Lilaena said. Testing the waters with an old ally to see if she had a new enemy at her back. “The situation was not as bad as I feared it might be. He will not oppose us.”

She caught Jeng’s eye as she reached for more bread, keeping the smile off her face that she felt in her heart. How would she keep their...their whatever it was a secret if she couldn’t treat him the way she always had?

”Confronting a potential enemy is always better than leaving them to lurk in the bushes,” opined Choruk sagely. “I prefer a straight fight to being stabbed in the back.”

Lilaena let the talk of the others fill the space as she ate. It was strange to sit with them, these warriors she had lived among for years, and begin to finally let her guard down. Strange, but... good?

She grinned at a joke Obed told, helping herself to more stew.

[Jeng]

Their talk meandered about the topic of old enemies and grudges, and drifted as inevitably as it always did to momentous victories.

“Look, none of you were there, but I’m telling you it was two fully grown boma - big, meaty bastards - and I took them out with my bare hands,” said Obed, who then threw his hands up in the air, as if to say: this is the truth, take it or leave it.

Choruk almost choked on his stew, laughing.

“What about you, alor?” Jeng said, with a knowing smile, first at Obed and then at Lilaena. “You must have some stories.”

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena’s knowing smirk froze at Jeng’s question, and her eyes widened a bit. Stories? Her?

There was the time she found a planet full of dead bodies. Not a victory. Also, terrible for meal time.

The four Mando’ade sitting with her had been present for most of her recent victories. But before that...

“I killed a drexl on Dxun,” she said, a serious expression on her face. “Singlehandedly. Outside the beskar tomb of Freedon Nadd.”

Silence fell at the table. Dxun figured hugely in their myths and history, usually a subject of reverence (if only for its extreme deadliness).

”What about you, Jeng?” she asked, quickly taking another bite of stew as her eyes met his.

[Jeng]

Did he believe that Drexl story? She certainly looked serious, and it wasn’t too difficult to imagine… Jeng lifted an eyebrow as Lilaena caught his eye. “Me?”

He paused and, looking down, took a moment to dip a particularly tough bit of bread crust into his soup. He gave a little shrug of one shoulder.

When he looked up again, it was right at her, still smiling. “I don’t like to brag.”

“Bollocks!” Hel cut in, right away, and once again Choruk had to clamp a hand over his mouth as if coughed through his laughter.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena’s eyes stayed on his, Choruk cough-laughing between them, and she raised an eyebrow.

“I’m sure you can think of something,” she said, trying to keep it light while her eyes told him you better not start bragging about anything recent.

[Jeng]

Jeng tipped his head to one side, weighing up his answer.

“Snuck up on a Dxunian stalker once, ripped the stingers right out of its tails.”

That earned an approving nod from Obed, although not with the same look of almost dumbstruck reverence as Lilaena’s drexl-slaying story. It was no small thing to surprise a Dxunian stalker, but they weren't winged beasts of death.

“But... all of this pales next to the time I beat Hel at a drinking contest. That was a truly momentous victory,” he added, grinning down the bench at Hel.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Hel snorted, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. “You must have hit your head when you slipped off your stool. I remember that night quite differently!”

The good natured ribbing continued until all the stew was gone. Lilaena joined in as best she could, but it did not come easily. It reminded her of her time in SpecForce with her unit. Back then she just let the jokes and camaraderie wash around her. Here, she found herself trying to take part and realizing she didn’t know how.

Obed cleared the dishes while Choruk excused himself to check on the besu’liik. Hel looked at Lilaena and then to Jeng.

“I will catch up later,” she said, picking up a dish to assist Obed.

Lilaena found herself walking out of the mess hall with Jeng.

”Good meal,” she said, just to fill the silence. “I... hadn’t realized what I’ve been missing by being alone.”

[Jeng]

“Choruk is a decent cook,” Jeng conceded, serious at first but then letting a smile creep into his expression.

“You can eat with us whenever you like. No reason to be alone, when you can have some company," he added, with a sidelong look at her.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She side-eyed him as well, finally cracking a smile and looking away.

It felt strange to finally own her place here among the Mando’ade. To be doing what she wanted to do.

Lilaena rubbed her temple, closing her eyes for a moment. There was no one to command her but herself. No master to whip or berate her, to send her across the galaxy on a mission for their needs. She led these people, and they trusted her to be there for them.

Perhaps it was time she began to trust them as well.