#yes i would love to watch you fumble your way through a presentation of incorrect information for 30 minutes

[eroticfriendfictions]

I had two meetings at work today and the first meeting was such a train wreck that the second meeting was changed to just talking about how badly the first one went.

[crqstalite]

part 13, alone together. (elara & xev’heng)

finished off the trooper storyline for the second time and it only gets better! i know i’ve said this about other romances, but elara dorne’s romance is the best and you can fuckin’ fist fight me about it. she’s so precious and this game was meant for cowards that when (and if) i run synntai she can’t romance her.

written: 9.1.19. words: 2,864.

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character song: love you like a love song, selena gomez

character file: xev'heng lumere, major of havoc squad.

-

three years ago.

when she asked to be given some time alone, xev'heng wasn't sure exactly what she was implying. and, it seems as if elara didn't either.

seventy-three minutes. tops.

xev'heng will be the first to admit he rarely knew what to do with downtime. reasoning being? he never has any. havoc takes up so much of his time that besides his scheduled sleep (starting at 22:00 and ending at 5:00, usually.), he's always working. hakio keeps him busy, not to say she isn't always busy herself, but like her, he likes to stay that way. his days have been captured with training ryean and synntai (both more chaotic than they seemed, hence why the result outweighed the calculated risk of taking another demolition specialist and commando on to havoc) and keeping himself in tip top shape. general rakton isn't going to wait for him to finish his holovid. the faster they can take him down, the safer the republic is going to be.

that's...also to say maybe he's let his budding relationship with elara take the backseat.

hence why he's pacing back and forth in his own quarters waiting for her to return (most likely changing out of her armor), pondering on what to spend their time doing. his mind flickers for a moment before returning to more, pg themes. what does elara like to do? she's always happy to see him, sparing any moment to be with him, even for just a minute. any other time, he catches her working on something. it's not to say he assumes she doesn't relax at all, but then again...

what do aric and hakio do? he almost shakes the thought from his head, before really considering it. he and the others in havoc are all aware of their relationship, but have never been privy to any pda they may have engaged in. they're always rushing around to do some sort of mission, working alongside each other and trusting the other with their lives. his commanding officer seems so put together, he's sure their relationship is rock-hard stable.

but how? and why? both of their tempers run so high, he's curious if they've been leading the crew on that they're really together. but, he's never caught them arguing with one another. it's always compliments on the other's shot, fixing things together, going on early morning runs together when they stay on coruscant. the cathar and cyborg woman always seem so happy with each other, like nothing could go wrong and there's no possibility they could die tomorrow.

he's shaken out of his intruding thoughts when he hears a light knock on his door. "sir?"

he tries not to seem too excited when he gets up, slowing his steps when he reaches the door. it slides open after he presses a button, and he steps aside to prompt her to enter. she does so, and gives him a nervous grin in response. "the captain isn't exactly enjoying these forms. he grumbled all the way back to the weapon's locker."

"and the colonel?" he asks jokingly. how would hakio react? the hot headed woman never exactly enjoyed forms or doing things legally when she could get away with it. updating all of her forms would definitely make her a lot more irritable later.

"she gave me a knowing look and mentioned something about her distracting the captain long enough to fill it out fully." she chuckles, "i believe that means my original guess may have been incorrect."

"guess we have more time than we thought." they both stand awkwardly for a moment, unsure of their next moves. "seventy three minutes or more...we could watch a holo for a bit? it'd be over long before jorgan's finished with the forms."

"that sounds nice...xev." she fumbles with his name for a moment, rather foreign on her lips. spoken with such a beautiful articulation of an imperial accent, he smiles. elara doesn't often refer to him by anything but his title, and it sounds..pretty, even. "did you have one in mind?"

"not exactly. would you rather pick?" he asks, sitting on his bed as elara turns to the small terminal he has. "i haven't watched anything in years."

"i'd like that." she says, softly sitting next to him before he prompts her to sit back next to him against the pillows. it's a long while before the decide on one, a muted action flick neither admits to seeing before. it's been so long since xev'heng sat down to really watch one that he misses when he and vscyla used to watch them together as children. how she would shush him from time to time when he asked too many questions, when she made them snacks. when she smiled with a gap through her two front teeth, and said she'd earned the gap from a fight with a monster.

he tries not to frown at the thought as he tries to relax.

it isn't until halfway through the movie that he lets his eyes wander from the terminal to the blonde woman next to him. she's let her hair down from it's usually severely tied bun, and the curls fall around her shoulders. as typical as it is, her lounges are clean and stitched from where they may have ripped. she holds herself carefully, sitting up straight as her eyes remain glued to the blue projection. sometimes without her armor, xev'heng sees a fragile woman. he sees her scars that the durasteel hides along her arms and face. he sees the sky blue eyes that have seen the world a million times over, and the delicate but worn hands that have patched up people and simutaneously said goodbye to those who left the galaxy much too soon.

she's beautiful.

it's not like this is the first time he's been alone with her her. they've been off and on...'together', but with both of them being the medic to a less than cautious team (he can't even count on both of his hands how many times their CO has come back with some catastrophic injury and shrugs at it until she collapses, or worse.) and just being part of havoc pulls them away from each other. somedays, he forgets. somedays, he doesn't walk by the medbay just so he doesn't have to tell her he doesn't have any time left for her.

somedays, he doesn't want to tell her he's hurting, that another injury has put him on the sidelines. that someone's died he was unable to save. he wants to see her smile, he wants to see her relax.

just, something about her makes everything better.

he doesn't mean to stare, but her colbalt blue eyes catch his and her pale cheeks turn a rosy shade of red. "did you need something, xev?"

"n-no." he says (y'know, like the liar he is), as she turns back to the terminal. he tries to focus again on the holo, but every little shift, every little hair brush reminds him that she is beautiful, and smart. a warrior on the battlefield, well-versed in medical history and knowledge.

and she took time out of her day to watch some old holovid with him.

his hand moves from where it was beside him to hook into hers, lacing their fingers together. she tenses for a moment, first looking at their hands and then up at him. a shaky grin crosses his face as she leans against his shoulder. holo forgotten, she relaxes against him and tightens her grasp. xev raises her knuckle to his lips, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand before allowing it to drop back to her side in between them.

it's the small gestures that get him. he likes to feel her warm hand in between his as quiet explosions rage across the projection. her hair tickles his lekku welcomingly, and his typically cool body is warmed by her presence.

"i love you, elara." he whispers. at first, he's not sure she's heard him, but she turns to face him in answer.

"i love you too, xev." she responds. she presses a light kiss to his cheek before returning her head to his shoulder. he smiles, and leans back a bit into the pillows. "i promise you that i always will."

"and ever, and ever, and ever?" he asks, grinning as she chuckles.

"and ever, and ever, and ever." she nods, as he turns to kiss her, pressing herself into him further. there's no real intention behind it, but somehow she ends up in his lap, arms around his neck as she presses her forehead to his. he calms immediatly before she looks at him directly. "i did my research."

and somehow, he knows immediatly what she's talking about.

and he loves her for it.

-

present time.

"cipher, are you sure this was the brightest idea?" he can hear a hushed imperial accent as he begins to regain consciousness, head pulsing as he tries to keep any food down. he's nauseous and exhausted. "he is little more than a figurehead, we suppose we'll garner attention we do not wish to have."

"i don't believe that is the case, vector. research says he is a war hero. we should be cautious." another, more feminine voice answers.

"bugboy's right, cy. as much as i want to say this was a good idea to get this off your chest and all, your personal problems shouldn't come in contact with us, or me specifically." another, non imperial female answers. "rubi's gonna kick your ass if she ever leaves her room and finds out about this."

"then let's make sure she doesn't, yes, djannis? cipher nine needs to know nothing about this in her current state." another imperial accent, but this one diluted by another accent. as if they are new to imperial space.

wait.

"not to mention, i'm sure rakton will be pleased we've captured the man who took him into custody in the first place." the same voice answers as he opens his eyes, the dark light of his surroundings blurring most of his vision. trying to stay as still as possible, he finds his hands are bound behind him and feet tied together. the footsteps move in the opposite direction, and they haven't taken his armor off of him. his canon is gone, obviously, as he shifts a bit. "you're sure we weren't followed, ensign?"

"i'm quite sure, cipher." the other imperial voice answers, almost begrudingly. "no republic ships have entered the system since we've taken him aboard."

"is he bugged?" djannis asks skeptically, "don't republic soldiers have armor cams and kriff?"

"doubt it. he took a beating when he came in from the butt of my rifle. if he does, it must be glitched out by now." the main voice, the cipher's answers. "now all of you leave the room. i'm sure he's been listening. when he decides to reveal he's come around, i want to be the first person he sees."

the shuffling of boots across the ground and the closing of a blast door accompanies a finger under his chin as he tries to shrink away from the foreign touch. his eyesight is slowly returning, and a tanned yellow twi'lek stares back at him. "eoh nerra, it's been so long. it would be that we meet on opposite sides of the war, yes?" her voices is deceptively soft, deceptively soothing.

eoh nerra.

"vscyla?" her name flies out of his mouth in a panicked whisper. "what-"

"shhh, eoh nerra. i wouldn't want the others to find out the real reason you're here." his eyes clear fully now, as her yellow skin and lavender yellow eyes twinkle in the darkness of the room. she's dressed prim and proper in an imperial uniform, the black fabric stretched taut across her form as red and blue pins rest on her chest. her lekku hang around her neck, as she used to always have them when she'd been wearing a helmet for an extended period of time.

used to.

when she used to wear the republic's colors.

"why am i here?" he says darkly, struggling against his restraints as they dig into his armored wrists. "i'm a major of the republic military!"

"my, my. you've gotten so far in the galaxy since i saw you last, xevvie." she says, musing as she pulls a vibroknife from a sheath on one of her thighs. it glints in the low light as it dances between her fingers, sharp and deadly. "a major in the republic? nearly my own rank within intelligence i suppose."

"you're a defector!" he says loudly, hoping her companions will hear him, and know of her true nature. to his surprise, she only laughs.

"i am, yes." she smirks, running the blunt edge of the knife under his chin. "they know, everyone knows. and no one cares. i'm one of the most successful cipher agents of this generation, and i didn't need to be brainwashed to do it." she responds, the last sentence a whisper as she switches the way the blade is facing. the silver just barely touches his neck, but with malicious intent behind it, he fears for his life.

he doesn't know what scares him more, the fact she admits it whole heartedly and that there is no cipher among her words to be found, or that her imperial accent sounds so...so natural.

like every part of his milry numa was gone. replaced with that of an imperial soldier.

"what is it, xev? afraid of me? of what i can do to you?" she questions. "what i am?"

"what choices you've made aren't for me to judge." he says, keeping one eye on the knife and another on her. her forehead raises, if she had eyebrows they would raise as well. "these were your choices that you made, to turn on the faction you fought for!"

"you mean the faction that left me to die!" she says, a fire blazing behind her eyes, as the knife digs just a bit too far and punctures his skin. "you mean the faction that thought i didn't matter enough to send an evac for. you mean the faction that saw me as replaceable. the faction that saw me as little more than just a sergeant in the military with no life without them. the faction that was going to let me die on some backwater planet!"

xev'heng doesn't answer, grunting as the blade presses against his neck, leaving a line of a cut across his throat. "i won't forget balmorra. the imperials gave me a way out of an operation that would've gotten me killed. they saw me as much more than just expendable. they saw me as an operative. they saw me as worthy. they took me, trained me. gave me the tools to succeed."

"you're committing treason." he answer as she pulls the knife away, trying to ignore the stinging pain the cut leaves, blood dripping onto his armor as vscyla wipes the vibroknife on the shirt of her midnight black uniform. "they were coming back for you, you just ran out of patience."

"tell me, major. have you ever been stuck in a trench, wondering whether your faction was coming back for you? without rations, watching as your fellow soldiers fell like flies around you? wondering whether the last thing you said to your loved ones would be your last words to them?" she says, her voice and eyes hardening.

"every. damn. day."

"now imagine being twenty. fresh out of the academy, terrified for her life. tell me, eoh nerra. when given the chance to live, even with the chance of defecting, to fight for a faction that cared about you and what you did for them, would you switch sides?"

"no." he grits his teeth as he answers. "i fight for the republic, and always will!"

"blind obedience then. you're little more than a kath hound at heart." she answers, resheating her knife. "as always. it seems you've never changed."

"and if i haven't?"

"i suppose you could be convinced, little one. that, or i could have the likes of vector and the doctor have their way with you." she said, and a shiver ran down his spine at the thought. who was vector? he'd been in the room earlier, vscyla had mentioned his name. but a doctor? was there one? and what would they do to him? "stay there, and don't move a muscle. i'd be disappointed if my present escaped the phantom before i could gift it."

-

scy'arla's only thought was that in the time she'd gotten to know cipher nine's companions since her arrival on the phantom was that vector was too much of a sweetheart to do any real damage to her younger brother, and the doctor wouldn't know where to start with the likes of him. however, she could nearly feel the childish fear radiating off of the major, and she smirked. she still had power over him, as she always had.

and this? ran much deeper than fighting for her faction.

blood was always thicker than water.

-

translations (in ryl):

eoh merra - little brother

milry numa - older sister

and the forehead touching thing that elara researched? a bit of a headcanon i found while writing this chapter, which is here << i thought it was rather fascinating, and included it. it seems elara would research such a thing for her lover.