{{ urbania's void - chapter 32
...tying the knot (day thirty-three / +33)
"How does this look?"
Tahiri stared blankly ahead to Gadell Vessau, who was facing her with his back to the wardrobe. He had come out from the refresher in an outfit of black, the baggy pants matching the shirt. The jacket that hung over the two pieces was deep blue and almost swept the ground, the sleeves ending in jagged points that fell over his hands. Gadell's eyes were wide and his face questionable as he stared back to the blonde sitting on the bed.
She blinked.
"Tahiri? How do I look? I want to look nice for when I bash their faces in. Blood won't show up on it, huh?"
She chuckled a little bit. He was joking around, trying to cheer her up. He could tell she was a little afraid. It was working to an extent and he was happy to see a smile on her face. Even if it was small and only a tad sincere.
"Come on now, seriously. I do kind of want to get back at them for what they did to you..." He caught himself. "All of you. What they did to all of you... Tenna, Jacen... all of you... and I want to look nice when we all give them what they got coming. I know revenge is the Dark Side and it's bad for a Jedi... but I'm not a Jedi yet, now am I?"
Tahiri giggled quietly as mischief sparkled in Gadell's calming gaze.
The tips of Gadell's hair brushed his collarbone, as the cut of the shirt let some of his pale skin show through. Tahiri stood up and stepped over to him, straightening out the shirt and flicking a piece of dust off of the jacket. Reaching down to the small table beside the wardrobe, Tahiri picked up a thin strip of leather, which she used to tie his hair back in a loose knot at the nape of his neck. Strands of bangs and random wisps of ebony hair fell from the tie and produced a slight frame around his face.
A satisfied grin as Tahiri placed both of her hands on his shoulders and nodded. "There."
After she spoke that single word, their gaze met in an awkward silence. Tahiri could feel herself calming down, which was in stark contrast to the hammering of her heart. Even with their Force powers blocked out, Gadell could feel her uneasiness... and he had no intention of making her feel that way.
"Now all I need is their blood, then my outfit will be complete." He stuck a hand on his hip and threw the other over his head, in a mock defiant pose. "No?"
Relief spilled into Tahiri as she laughed, pulling away from the Admiral. He smiled as well, stepping past her towards the bed as Tahiri's eyes landed on the wardrobe full of clothes. Gadell sat behind her and placed a hand, almost covered in the smooth blue fabric, up to his chin.
"What about you? What are you going to wear?" Gadell asked as he sat back, placing both of his hands on the velvety sheets that covered the huge carved, wooden bed. He watched Tahiri poke through the clothes on the right side of the large mahogany piece of furniture. She went past gowns, nightgowns, two piece outfits, dress tunics. A large amount of clothing, all expensive looking, all made of rich materials.
Living in a Palace, Gadell was used to that kind of clothing. But he was paying it no mind at all right now. His eyes, and his mind, were locked on Tahiri Veila.
When he had first met her, he had looked at her as a bit stand-offish. And he could admit to himself that he wasn't looking forward to working so closely with her -- not because of the way he saw her, but also because of his temper.
Gadell thought she would snip his short fuse and set it off, with her slight bits of attitude and the way she reacted to things.
He was wrong.
She was really growing on him. At first it was like a little sister type thing, they would crack the same jokes and cackle wildly at them, they would find themselves thinking the same way. It was like the way he looked at Tenel Ka.
But he felt something for Tahiri that he didn't feel for Tenel Ka.
It was like an underlying current of attraction. An innocent one. Gadell felt drawn to her for some reason. Maybe it was the fact that they were so different, yet so alike.
He had spent the past four days with her, sneaking through this tower. Her and only her. No breaks. They had snuck in the Tower as one group, got captured as one group and assigned to the same room as one group.
She had told him stories the whole way. Stories about her childhood, stories about how she loved traipsing around in her barefeet, stories about her adventures with her friends when she was younger, stories about the war. The main one that stuck out in his mind was the recollection of what happened on Myrkr. It was interesting to hear it from a different point of view. He had heard it from Tenel Ka's point of view, where most of the focus was on the mission, the strategy and the feeling of the man she loved being ripped away from her.
Tahiri had focused more on the emotions, the torture - physical and mental - and, like Tenel Ka, Tahiri also included the anguish she had felt when her best friend, and the man she loved, Anakin Solo, had died.
Anakin Solo.
Gadell had heard so many things about him. He sounded like someone Gadell would've loved to meet. He often thought about what life would be like if Anakin had never died.
Would Jacen have ever been captured by the Yuuzhan Vong? Would they have even had the wars after party on Hapes? Would Gadell have ever been saved from Ta'a Chume's madness?
Would he have met Tahiri?
"Wear that," Gadell pointed, motioning to something inside the wardrobe.
"What?" She turned her head towards where he was pointing. "This?"
The Admiral nodded.
Tahiri studied the clothing for a minute and nodded along with him. "But..." A small smile spread across her face as she looked back at him once more. "No shoes."
He threw his head back and laughed -- a sound Tahiri was comforted by and enjoyed, even in the wake of all this muted hysteria.
"Who needs them, Tahiri?" Still chuckling, he repeated himself absently under his breath. "Who needs them?"
Like Gadell Vessau, Jacen was in his room watching his roommate. Technically he was watching her silhouette, behind the changing screen that they had in their room.
Stone walls, stone floor, stone everything. Jacen's eyes trailed from the inviting curves of Tenel Ka's shadow as his head turned upward to stare at the vaulted ceiling. The bed he was reclining on was made of a cool granite, the mattress, a cushy, thick pad - full of what felt like feathers. He had his head back against the carved stone of the headboard and his hands up behind his neck, clasped together. His back was supported by numerous pillows, all stuffed with feathers as well and where his shirt and jacket slid up his body a bit, the skin at the small of his back was exposed. He could feel the cool silk of the sheets brushing against it.
Vines crept across the ceiling and down the walls, through nooks in the rock, around thin stone pillars... fabric draped from corners at certain spots in the ceiling and hung in random patterns, the opposite corners attached to the ceiling like the first. They formed thin crescents across the upper quarter of the room, swaying in the circulated air.
Watching the room made Jacen tired... so very tired.
Tenel Ka had suddenly turned into him for a moment, stealing his indecisive ways. After Jacen had changed clothes, Tenel Ka had stood at the wardrobe, leaning on the stone door of it, debating.
"They said to dress up. Find outfits we like. All that is in here is dresses. Should I aim to look dressed up? Or should I find something that would be easy to fight in?"
"Tenel Ka, I don't think we'll be fighting. We're only going to dinner." Jacen had replied.
She had spun around and placed her hand on her hip, "Jacen. We are dealing with two..."
What was Raynar? Was he a Dark Jedi yet?
"...two and a half Dark Jedi here!"
Jacen had chuckled at the joke she didn't even mean to crack and stood up, pacing over to the flustered Queen Mother.
"Anyways, sweetheart, you're Tenel Ka. You can fight in anything."
This is a fa--- what? Did I give him permission to call me that?
Her train of thought turned into a puddle of mush as he gently pushed past her and began to shift his hands through the clothing in the wardrobe. He had stopped right beside her, her face near his shoulder. She had followed the path of his arm up to where his hands brushed softly against the fabrics, breathing in his scent. He had gotten cleaned up in the 'fresher before he changed, emerging with sopping wet hair, which she later watched him comb.
He had pulled out an outfit and held it between them.
"I think you should wear this."
"You think I should wear that?"
A small shrug of the broad shoulders. "I want you to wear this."
Tenel Ka became defensive, a slight, almost undetectable twinge of playfulness in her voice. "Did I ever say I cared what you wanted?"
The General let the Solo half-grin sneak across his face, not because he knew that it would work, but because watching Tenel Ka get all worked up made him smile.
Snagging the clothing out of his hand and grumbling inwardly, Tenel Ka vanished behind the changing screen, leaving Jacen Solo dressed up, alone and a tad nervous about this so called 'catching up dinner' ...
And here he was, mere minutes later, dozing off on the bed. His legs were sprawled out in front of him, both feet clad in a pair of stiff leather, knee-high boots. His right leg was up, knee bent, the bottom of his foot on the ledge down by the mattress - his left leg flat out in front of him. His hands had shifted, his right still snuggled under his neck and his left lying across his stomach.
"Jacen?" Tenel Ka's voice drifted softly to his ears, where it settled around him like a blanket. "Jacen, I need your help."
Her head snapped out from around the corner of the changing screen, where her eyes narrowed.
Sleeping?
Her lips parted to call to him and wake him up, but for some reason the words wouldn't come. Something inside of her held them back, as her gaze lingered on his relaxed form.
His black pants were tucked into the knee-high boots, a bit loose, but not too baggy. The top half of his body was the place that her eyes seemed to be drawn to. The jacket he wore was long-sleeved and thick, it made him look a tad bigger than he really was. It made his shoulders broader, seeing as how the shoulders of the jacket were padded a bit. The front buttoned up and was covered by a flap, which reached from one side of his chest to the other. Under the deep emerald jacket, was a tight black tanktop with an intricately designed collar. It was high and reached up the back of Jacen's neck, little stiff strands of what seemed like onyx wire formed patterns up over the smooth skin, curving and snaking up -- the pieces finally fanning out a tad above the nape of his neck. His hair had dried on it's own, falling into it's normal part on the side, except with more volume. Random strands fell into his face and moved back and forth with his breath.
Tenel Ka ripped the charred nightgown from the top of the changing screen, where she had left it when she took it off, and threw it at Jacen -- not only to break him from his light nap, but to break herself out of her own reverie.
She had realized something while she was staring at him. And she had finally admitted it to herself.
Tenel Ka had forgiven Jacen.
In her mind, and her heart, she knew nothing that had happened was Jacen's fault -- now that she knew the Mindmaps were dangerous and probably shouldn't be used. All of his apologies were sincere and truthful and Tenel Ka finally accepted that.
"Wha?!" Shaking his head as he pulled his back away from the headboard, Jacen blinked a few times before looking to the fiery-haired woman hissing at him from behind the thin veil of the screen. "What's up?"
"I require assistance." She paused. "...please."
Sliding off of the bed, Jacen batted the tails of the jacket down from behind his back, where they fell to about knee-length and he turned, stepping towards the changing screen. As he was walking over, she had pulled herself back behind it and when Jacen rounded the screen into the small space, Tenel Ka was standing with her back to him, pointing to her neck.
"Can you tie this for me, please?"
Nodding quickly, "Of course," Jacen gently scooped up Tenel Ka's mass of copper hair and set the ends into her open hand. She brushed her hair forward over her shoulder, exposing the two small pieces of string that needed to be joined. Jacen took them between his fingers and stopped for a few seconds, basking in the moment, his eyes soaking up her skin, the curves of her neck. The way her head tilted slightly and turned when she looked up to him with a questioning gray stare.
"Sorry..."
She faced forward again and Jacen looked back down to the strings. A simple knot. A simple little bow.
Just tie the damn thing, Jacen.
He could hear the voice in his head, but his heart told him to do something different.
Tenel Ka couldn't stand this waiting any longer. Not really the waiting as much as the feeling of Jacen's breath on the back of her neck. She felt like Jacen could hear the loud beating of her heart -- it sure felt like it was breaking the silence of the room.
Jacen stared at the exposed patch of skin between her shoulderblades, his pulse quickening. They were about to meet the Dark Jedi who had stolen their simplest way out of Myrkr. They were about to be mentally ripped apart. And all Jacen could think about was keeping Tenel Ka close to him, in his arms...
Dropping the strings, Jacen leaned down to let his lips meet with her skin. She seemed surprised, but she seemed to be in no rush to push him away. His hands landed on the velvet of the gown she wore, running over her hips and around to her stomach as his kisses trailed across her shoulders. Not tying the strings of the gown had caused it to droop from her shoulders a bit and Jacen seemed to be taking advantage of that.
Tenel Ka could feel the smooth fabric of his jacket brushing against her back as the gown sunk a bit lower -- she could also feel the breath escaping her throat as her mind wrestled with thoughts from all directions, most of them incoherent as an overwhelming feeling of passion seeped into her veins. Her right hand grasped the top hem of the gown, and she clutched it above the swell of her breasts as she twisted around in his arms to face him, her hair whipping out behind her and cascading down her back.
Jacen pulled her as close as possible and brought his lips to hers where...
"Stop it STOPITRIGHTNOW," Lomi Plo commanded through the system in their room. "Finish getting ready. Dinner is soon."
She let go of the button and scowled, glancing back to Welk and Raynar, who both had sly smirks on their faces.
Jacen kept her wrapped up in his arms as he stared down to the Queen Mother. They could both hear the ice that crackled in Lomi Plo's voice as they were reprimanded.
"Whoops." Jacen let the Solo grin cross his face once more.
Tenel Ka let the smallest bit of a smile tug at her lips, "Yes, Jacen. Whoops."
"We'll just have to be more sneaky about it next time, huh?"
Actually letting out a quiet giggle, which shocked Jacen, Tenel Ka spun back around and shifted the gown up onto her shoulders. She moved her hair out of the way and Jacen found the strings once more, and finally tied the knot. His hands were shaking slightly. He was nervous. He could tell that Tenel Ka, and her usual set of steel nerves, were on edge as well.
Even without the Force, Jacen knew everyone else was too.
The men could tell how angry that whole scene had made Lomi Plo, and Raynar couldn't help but laugh inwardly at the thought. He let it pass after a few moments, when Welk motioned to the door of the control room. "Shall we send them up to retrieve the guests now?"
"Send them." Lomi Plo hissed, through clenched teeth.
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