#ALSO HELLO NAR SHADDAA MENTION I WON

[naur-shaddaa]

is it just me or does The Acolyte feel like you're watching a stage play?? why is everyone so awkward

[crqstalite]

pt. 7, counting stars (corso && ghenkl)

ewww this part is kinda really bad near the end with my botched attempt to be a little nsfw. didn’t work but i tried.

anyways! ghen is on the hunt for kiv while planning her wedding, plans on inviting hyperion & co. and speaks with her old partner in crime, theksevoy!

written : 7.8.19. published to tumblr : 7.15.19. word count : 2,761 ════ ⋆★⋆ ════

character song: counting stars, onerepublic (totally made for corso and a romanced female smuggler. change my mind.)

character file: captain ghenkl riggs, corso riggs.

-

“dress?”

“i dunno.” she says, chugging down another glass of whiskey. “white?”

“ghenkl, you know what i mean.” risha says. “you have a pile of credits you put away for this, and all you can think of is ‘i want a white dress’?”

she thinks for a moment, “ruffles?”

“stars, you are impossible.” risha puts down the datapad as she takes a sip of her own drink.

“well, why don’t you do it? you seem to know a lot more than i do.” she responds, as risha sighs. “let’s not forget that i’m a gunslinger, not a wedding planner.”

“don’t you have even a small idea of what you want though? you’re getting married, captain. for most women they can only dream of having a fantasy wedding like yours.” risha deadpans.

“i’m also legally able to officiate weddings on my ship.” ghenkl offers, shrugging.

risha rubs her temples. ghenkl is a little apologetic, but also mildly tipsy. she had been out the day before, sometimes doing some charity work, but mostly just drinking until risha had to come and get her. she wouldn’t say she had a real problem, even if it was borderline addiction. of course, a nice corellian whiskey every couple of days sated it.

but ghenkl never was a girl to fantasize her weddings. as a little kid she was aware her parent’s marriage was rocky, and when kiveqil was born, it only got worse from there, leading them to have been divorced. their father just made their lives a living hell, leading her to run away to the bowels of nar shaddaa with a preteen kiveqil to keep her little brother safe.

didn’t always have the best idea of what a good romance was supposed to be like. hence her more, player like attitude once she got off ord mantell. weddings? you might as well take her back to school.

“well, i suppose you don’t really have to have one. who are you inviting anyways?” risha questions, running a hand through her hair. it’d been a difficult morning, ghenkl found that because she wasn’t hugely picky, apparently that made it harder on the selected woman to plan her wedding.

“didn’t think too hard about that.” she looks down in her glass before brushing her hair out of her eyes. “risha, you remember me telling you about my brother?”

“depends. which time?” she smirks, and ghenkl breaks into a sweat. she’d only told risha once about her family, at least that she could remember. “one where you were sober, or when you were blackout drunk?”

sheepishly, she smiled. there were a lot of situations where she wasn’t fully conscious of things she told risha, and this might’ve been one of them. “while i was sober.”

“well, you did. you told me that the last time you saw him, he was carted off to the temple. you also mentioned you’d been watching over a girl named ana'la at the time before she also was kidnapped. you mentioned you’d never had the time to really sit down and search for either of them.” ghenkl’s surprised she remembers, she doesn’t even remember ever telling that much to risha. then again, she’s having a hard time remembering ord mantell too, it’s been a long time since she’s been back. “i’m assuming you’re still looking for him?”

“been trying to. reports are too scattered, and the council doesn’t exactly give out  brochures when you ask about their masters.” she’s getting a headache, just thinking about the conversation she’d had with a togruta master, kiiwiks, or something about kiveqil’s current location. 'everywhere and nowhere’ was the frustrating answer she’d gotten from everyone, as some locations were dated from years ago, and others seemed impossible. but no one knew where her little brother was right now, and if it weren’t illegal and morally questionable, she’d shoot everyone who was hiding where he was. “apparently ran off with some carsen girl after his trials. got himself a ship and has been helping out 'round the galaxy. took out the emperor at some point, so he’s got that goin’ for him i guess.”

risha cocks an eyebrow. “i-what? what exactly is he?”

“a jedi master. why?” she asks, looking over to her female companion as she pulls out another datapad. “not exactly huge in the news, if that’s what you’re looking for.”

“you said you haven’t seen him in years?”

“not since i was seventeen.” risha shows her the datapad, a quick drabble written about who she’s assuming to be kiveqil with a gathering of four other humanoids and a droid. “where’d you get this?”

“apparently he received commendations a while back on coruscant. he could still be on planet.” risha responds. “looks like he got himself a crew. the carsen girl you mentioned is a jedi knight.”

“risha, this was three years ago.” she says, sullen as she hands it back. ghenkl does smile a bit at seeing her brother’s face. he still has that chilidish grin to him as the two humans (one kira and the other only listed as 'doc’) have their arms around him with cheeky grins. scars here and there, particularily around those amber eyes of his.

they look like children. children forced into a war much too quickly. she sees it in corso’s face everyday, and it makes her so sad. “it’s outdated, and i’ve already seen it.”

risha rolls her eyes knowingly, “did you read it all?”

“of course i did.” she grumbles.

“well, then you would know he’s also a battlemaster. my guess is that’s he’s on the frontlines somewhere.” risha answers. “we could start looking there, a little slicing here and there and we could locate someone from his crew. the carsen girl i’ve never met, nor the sergeant, droid or sith lord. but i have heard of this 'doc’ before. tracking him down shouldn’t be too hard.”

“and with the doctor, we find his patient.” ghenkl muses. “you are a genius, risha.”

“i’m aware.” she responds, taking another swig of wine. “now that i’ve got that out of the way-”

“my next guest is that major i was talking about.”

risha’s face fell into one of confusion and mild disappointment. “you plan to invite major hyperion to your wedding?”

“yes, of course. why do you look so sad?”

“she could arrest any of us for the multiple crimes we’ve committed the last couple of years. she’s a soldier and holds fast to laws. those things we rarely if ever pay attention to.” risha deadpans. true, she’d broken a few laws that finally caught up with her on voss, but hakio had yet to arrest her, so she figured she was somewhere in the 'tolerance’ chapter of the major’s book.

“who says we have to admit to things we did?” ghenkl shrugs as risha sighs. “besides, we’re like best buds now!”

“she didn’t even remember your name the last time she saw you.”

“given! it was six in the morning and we all were exhausted.”

“sure.” risha responds, skeptical. “we’ll put that on the list of maybes. anyone else?”

ghenkl thinks for a moment. finding ana'la in time would be impossible (for a fleeting thought, the gunslinger didn’t even know whether she was still alive or not), and finding kiveqil was priority number one. the major would probably reject her invitation, but she’d send it anyways. “rogun?”

risha is silent and just drops her head in her hands. “you’re impossible.”

“that’s only another type of possible, risha.”

-

she’s bored. corso’s already gone to bed, and like any good smuggler, she doesn’t exactly follow good sleeping habits. so instead of lying awake in her husband’s arms, she’s in the communal area near the holoterminal, splayed out on the couch watching a holodrama on the lowest volume she can.

so in all, not unusual in the slightest.

however, her personal holocom immediatly begins beeping as she slips off the couch with a pained 'ow’ as she rubs her knee where it connected with the ground. slipping it out of her pocket, she pushes her hair back so she doesn’t look like a swamp monster straight out of hutta to the person on the other end of the line. “hello?”

“good to know your com code is the same as always.” her face brightens through her exhaustion. the person on the other end is none other than her partner in crime (and also ex), theksevoy li'ui, who’s standing with his arms crossed but a smirk on his face. “got a job.”

“what else is new?” she asks, blinking a couple of times to focus on the projection of her friend. “you’ve always got some violent job, li'ui.”

“true.” he shrugs. theksevoy has always been an off and on again kind of partner, when they were much younger (she was twenty-five, he was nineteen) they’d met on balmorra while she was doing a gun run. originally, neither had known the other’s faction, primarily because ghenkl was never hugely patriotic and thek had yet to enlist in the imperial military. eventually she did find out, but neither really cared either because they weren’t tied to their faction the way the military or force sensitives were. there was a fling when she was twenty-seven and he was twenty one, but it didn’t go anywhere and they remained just helping each other out with staying out of trouble with the fuzz. be it lying or murdering, they were a good team. without morals, yes, but that was okay. “how you doin’ this time of year?”

“well, it’s twelve r.s.t*, so i should be sleep. but y'know the usual, supply runs, outrunning the fuzz, earning credits legally and illegally.” she answers, leaning back on the couch. “you? heard you won some big comp a while back.”

“you’re lookin’ at the grand champion of the great hunt, gorgeous.” he winks, and she rolls her eyes. he’s still a huge flirt, and it makes her laugh everytime he tries it. he has some woman she doesn’t remember the name of, and she has corso. but no one said they couldn’t keep being chaotic together just because they got tied down. “won me a nice sum of credits, some serious recognition out there.”

“as always.” she says. “that’s what makes the galaxy go 'round, right?”

“you got it.” he says. they make observations about each other, about how one of her horns is missing (shot off by a just missed shot by some gangly sniper), how he’s wearing a not-so intimidating manbun, and just about life. ghenkl loves her crew, but there’s something so inticing about a man halfway across the galaxy and aligned with a different faction. maybe if she didn’t have corso, they’d be together no questions asked, a deadly power couple with insane accuracy. but they’re not, and she’s okay with that. “wait, go back a second.”

“which one?” she asks, turning back towards the projector. “growing out my hair?”

“no, you said you’d tied the knot with someone.” he says suspiciously, raising his eyebrows. “didn’t take you for the marrying type.”

“oh yeah. cap'n ghenkl riggs.” she’s about to answer when the man himself answers instead. corso brushing sleep out of his eyes, and yawns. “thought you would’ve come to bed by now, ghen.” there’s a touch of jealousy in his voice, and her mood plummets. this must’ve looked odd, talking to a man over the holo in the middle of the night in sweatpants and a sports bra, who wasn’t her fiance.

“i couldn’t sleep. i was watching holodramas until thek called.” she answers, sitting up. “thek, this is corso riggs, my fiance. corso, this is theksevoy li'ui, one of my partners in morally questionable crime.”

“nice to meet you, kid.” thek bids him hello, and corso is mulling over his response. thek turns back to her, “really though? color me surprised.”

“don’t you have a girlfriend too?” she asks in response. “or did you break up with another one of them?”

“i’m perfectly capable of romancing a girl without making it a one night stand, ghen.” he says, cracking a grin. “except for you, of course.”

“ha, i know that.” she says, as corso shifts uncomfortably, frowning visibly. she’d never told him about any of her previous relationships, especially the one with thek. it lasted longer than she wanted it to, one day they’d be all over each other, but the next they’d be at each other’s throats. it wasn’t healthy for thek, who she knew was still a bright-eyed kid at twenty, and it wasn’t healthy for her either, stressing about not only not getting him killed but also tying herself down much too early. “what’s this girl’s name anyways? wanna call her and make sure you haven’t driven her crazy yet.”

“mako. hasn’t left me yet so-”

“who are you talking to?” she hears a high pitched voice, which immediatly sets off an alarm. how old is this girl? she doesn’t sound any older than ghenkl did at sixteen. however, she appears on the projector as well, and taking stock, she figures the girl is maybe somewhere over legal age.

hopefully.

“old friend of mine. ghen, this is mako. mako, you’re talking to the captain that runs port nowhere at the moment-”

“whoa, captain ghenkl delux? you’re like, one of the most inspirational women i’ve ever heard about.” ghenkl taken aback by this. no one’s ever called her inspirational to date, but mako’s smile is infectious. “sorry about that. yes, my name is mako.”

“nice to meet you.” she says, sitting back next to thek. “what were you talking about?”

“nothin’ mako. isn’t it late where you are?” thek asks, as mako pulls out a datapad of her own and furiously begins typing.

“it is.” she shrugs. “you can tell me all about that job tomorrow, cool? friends don’t let friends pass up opportunities for a big payout.”

“you got it, cap'n.” he does that wink that probably swooned mako straight into his bed, and she smirks back before she shuts her holocom off, leaving her and corso in the darkness as she stretches her arms over her head.

“you wanna head to bed, corso?” she asks, moving to get up. he’s silent, but before she can utter an apology, he yanks her back down so that she’s sitting a little awkwardly, but he shifts her to be sitting directly in his lap. “alright, what’s gotten into you?”

“who was he?” he asks, and a part of that gruff voice that only comes out when he’s trying to flirt with her. “why was he calling you in the middle of the night?”

“it happens. i.s.t is nearly the exact opposite of r.s.t, sweetie.” she responds. “just an old work friend, and he’ll give us details for a job tomorrow.”

he looks unconvinced, but she changes that as she leans down to press a kiss firmly on his lips. “you’re mine, and i will be yours. now and forever.”

“i know you will cap'n.” he responds. he smiles at her, and she grins. something about corso always makes her just that much more giggly, and she has no idea why. however, her grin turns a bit darker as she rolls her hips over his.

“how about you show me just how much i belong to you?” she asks, glancing at him through lidded eyes as he shifts to get her off of him.

“ghen, you’re gonna be the death of me.” he responds breathlessly, as she gets up. “why do you do this?”

by that time, she’s already got her sports bra off, arms over her now exposed chest as she sits next to him. “because i can, that’s why, corso.” one of her fingers traces her breast lightly, biting her bottom lip. “well? don’t leave me wanting.”

he’s not pale, but stars can she see his face go red in the dark of the ship as his eyes meet hers. he’s soft, and is always looking for a reaction before continuing on, kissing her roughly before tracing his nips down her body.

to say the least, they have one of the best nights ghenkl thinks she’ll ever have in this lifetime or the next. now, marriage isn’t sounding nearly as bad as when she was six or seven. especially if she gets to spend it with a man who not only knows his way around a blaster, but also knows full well how to woo his wife.