A Guy Like You

[Scherezade deWinter]

Scherezade shuddered. Gerwald's voice usually made her feel nice, but right now it was making her feel tingly nice, especially when he was leaning so close to her. She felt the blush rush to her cheeks, which in turn made her blush even more deeply. She had been sure that the blushing part of their getting to know each other was over, but it seemed the young Sithling had been wrong - there was much more blushing to be had. And now suddenly, despite her bare midriff and the flimsy material of her crop top, she felt abnormally warm.

"Of course I am!" she almost spat back at him.

A second.. Was this the second or the third? She didn't know. She didn't care. "There are a lot of things a person can do under the table, Mr. Lechner," she mumbled, holding the next mug in her hand. She was going to have to down it as well. She couldn't let him win. That was not going to happen. Not ever.

Scherezade chugged the entire thing. It took a few more seconds than the previous attempt, and somewhere in the middle of it all she thought her tongue had forgotten how to swallow, some of the mead spilling down onto her shirt.

This time, there was no holding back. She leaned forward and let a huge burp escape er mouth, and then jumped in surprise at herself, covering her mouth, a complete look of horror taking her face over.


[member="Gerwald Lechner"]

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

"Try all you might... no one has bested Gerwald Lechner of Stewjon yet...."

Another mug after another... though he smirked at her comment. There were plenty of things one could do under the table, and he had too much alcohol to ignore it.

"Shall I show you what I can do under the table..."

There was no way he was going to let Scherezade drink more than him. She was going to black out before she new what had happened. Gerwald knew that there was one way this was going to end, but it was going to be fun. This would be a story they would laugh about later, especially now that she had belched.

"WHOA!!!! Now that's a roar!"

Ger downed another mug ensuring he allowed plenty of air to come with it as he chugged the mead. He belched loud, proud, and rude. It had put hers to shame, despite how impressive it had been.

"That's how you belch..."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"I will best all the Gerwalds Lechners of all the Stewjons of all the places and all the yets," came the grammatically odd sentence out of her lips. He wanted to show her what he could do under the table.

Scherezade peeked under the table. There wasn't much room there. She supposed there wasn't much he could do given that teeny tiny space constraint.

And he... He complimented? Her burp? No, belch. And the he did it too.

Scherezade openly glared at him.

"Nope, nope, nope," she mumbled repetitively as she started to move in her place. Gerwald was a tower of a man. She wasn't a tower of a woman, but she was taller and heavier than most of the human females she knew. And in a very un-elegant way, sometimes swinging more than she intended, she somehow managed to climb on top of Gerwald, straddling his hips, facing him.

She couldn't sit still. Her shoulders moved her upper body in tiny circles. She had no clue that this was going on. A world was supposed to spin anyway, right? There was nothing wrong with being so acutely aware of it spinning.

Scherezdade inhaled deeply, then downed her next mug. She leaned in for a hug and looked up to the sky, letting the next burp, no, belch, rip towards the ceiling. The mug almost dropped from her hand but she managed to slam it down on the seat next to Gerwald.

"Like this?" she asked, blinking. Her eyes felt shiny. Her body felt warm. Gerwald's scent was intoxicating. And even this mead thing was starting to grow on her.


[member="Gerwald Lechner"]

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

She was already drunk. One or two more and this was going to be over. Maybe he should have stopped this, but it was too much fun. She had scared him half to death when she had jumped from the ledge and if this is what payback looked like then so be it. Besides... why stop it when she was getting on his lap. He had too much alcohol in him to tell her no, and besides... if she wanted to be there it was her lap to sit in.

Another belch...

"That was good," he smiled... "Do it again!"

Gerwald put his hands on her hips and let go another belch.

"How about we get this back to the ship before we black out..."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

His hands were on her hips and she purred, ready to lean in for a kiss, when he belched again. She half jumped backwards, bursting into laughter. The world wasn't spinning now, it was swimming, and she was drifting in it like a dead fish. Like a dead but very happy fish.

And then Gerwald suggested they go back to the ship before they blacked out.

"Ammmmmnott blacking outttt," she purred into his ear as she leaned forward, her lips almost smacking against his ear lobe, "besidessss," she added, pausing only to giggle, "if we stopppppp, if we stoppppp now then,"

Scherezade suddenly leaned backwards, almost lying on the table. She grabbed the next mug and downed it with the same lack of grace as she had the ones before that.

"I win!" she screamed and held her hands out like a little girl. "I also don't know whihhhhh way to the sheeppppp!" Wait that wasn't right. She pointed at Gerwald's nose. "That way!"



[member="Gerwald Lechner"]

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

"You can't win... I won't let you."

Gerwald thought about that statement, and realized that the only way to keep her from blacking out was letting her win. She was in his lap, and honestly he had too much alcohol in his system to ignore the urges and desires that he was feeling. They had to get back to the ship, and sober up before the rest of their trip was spent nursing a massive hang over.

"If we don't leave now you will black out, and the headache you will have is going to suck."

Ger picked her up and dropped some credits on the table. He waved at the bartender on his way out the door and hailed a cab.

"Do you remember where we parked the ship?"

Gerwald had forgotten where it was at.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"Weeee willlllll weeeeeeeee willlllllll rock you!" Scherezade clapped, and repeated the line. She was singing her little heart out while holding on to Gerwald, using the moments to grab a breath also to inhale his scent. When she was done she pushed herself a little away and held up her hand in a \m/ shape. She'd won! Another contest won! Last time she'd won, Gerwald had had to clean her ship. Now she was going to have to think about something way better.

She yelped and purred somehow at the same time as he picked her up. "Can you feeeeeeeeeeel it?" she half gurgled and half whispered into his ear, "the world is turning... Spinning... Wheeeeeeeee!"

Frankly, at this point, if Gerwald wasn't actively holding her, she'd have just fallen splat on the ground. It was good for once to be the one who was being protected and not the one who was trying to cause maximum damage. She wanted this feeling to last and last and last forever.

When Gerwald asked about the ship, she leaned on him again, her lips smack against his neck. She could feel his pulse like that. Big, strong pulse. Good puppy.

"The docks," she somehow managed to answer. But Coruscant was a huge pace, and there was more than one 'docks'.

Suddenly Scherezade jumped in his hold, almost hitting his chin with her forehead. "Let's go to the Penthouse!" she almost screamed, "big shower! Big bed! Soundproof walls!"


[member="Gerwald Lechner"]

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

The cab driver nodded. Penthouse wasn’t the most descriptive of locations, but cabbies knew everything and seemd to have the capacity to impress with their knowledge. It swerved in and out of all the traffic. Finally they arrived back at the penthouse where they had started the day’s adventure. Now all he had to do was sneak them past the blind woman and hope they did not get caught.

That was going to be hard.

Gerwald was only light on his feet when he needed to be, and he was too drunk to do that now. He was laughing.

”Let’s get through here... your bedroom... lots of fun to be had once we get there...”

He chuckled as he propped Scherezade up against him.

”Shhhhhhh before we get caught. She will be made if she finds out I got you drunk!”

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"I'mmmm, I'mmmmm," she tried saying before bursting into a fit of giggles, "I'm not drunk!"

No, this wasn't drunk. Drunk was not being able to stand. Gerwald was carrying her, so there wasn't even a need to check that. Drunk was not being to talk. She talked just fine. Drunk was not being able to comprehend thoughts. She knew what she wanted.

The Penthouse was dark inside. A droid wheeled here or there, but there was no other movement. The drunk couple was too drunk to notice the form sitting there in the darkness, judging them harshly. But the form said nothing and moved not, and it would require concentration neither of them had to notice she was even breathing. Judgement could wait until morning.

She was still entirely wrapped around Gerwald as they made her way to her room. Her mouth found every part of him that she could kiss, lick, or gently suckle, without needing to force him to put her back down. She didn't want him to ever let go.

And then the world turned and suddenly she was in her bed, and Gerwald was on top of her, and this was a whole new experience. It was a damn good thing that the walls had been sound proofed too.

As the two lay entwined together and sleep threatened to take her, Scherezade held on tightly to Gerwald. She thought the loud noise and big activities had made some of the alcohol's effect lower. She wasn't sure. She was going to have to research into the matter the next day, if she remembered to.

For now though, she merely held on to Gerwald and inhaled deeply, taking in the smells of the two of them mixed together after... Either three hot minutes or all night long, it was hard to tell when you were intoxicated.

"Oh my Force I think I love you," she murmured into his ear, "and-"

And with that, she fell asleep, her breathing falling into an even pattern almost immediately.


[member="Gerwald Lechner"]

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

Scherezade was more than handsy as they made their way to her bedroom. By the force the house had been flat, so they had not been caught. The cleaning droid got an eyeful into odd human behavior, but Gerwald was quick to get them to the room before they got caught. There was way too much ale and mead in both of their systems to think they weren’t going to be using the bed. It didn’t take long for them to toss their clothes aside and make a mess of the sheets.

Whether the walls were sound proof or not bad not been a concern for Gerwald. She was too drunk, and he was too innthe moment forany thought about it. Sleep was going to come soon, but not before Scherezade said something that changed everything about what their relationship had been at the this point.

Gerwald was speechless. He didn’t know what to say. She thought she loved him... so did she, or not? People were so honest when drunk. Scherezade has been thinking about it. Now she put voice to it. Gerwald couldn’t deny he had feelings, but they were very complex and complicated. Could he ignore the pull to the woman she called ward to accept what was growing for him as well.

”I...” she was asleep. She wasn’t going to hear what he would say. If she remembered they could talk about it in the morning. He was going to have to help her nurse her first hangover. It wasn’t going to be pretty.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

It wasn't pretty. When she opened her eyes, hours later, many more hours than she usually allowed herself to remain unconscious, even when Gerwald was with her, the first thing she wanted to do was close them again. Her room was dark but somehow there was too much like in it. She tried to move her head, but that brought a wave of nausea with it, and she managed to make it stop just before she vomited all over the bed.

"Gerwald," the young Sithling whispered, the fear all too evident in her voice.

This wasn't normal. This was not how she woke up. She was always laser focused, sharp, ready to roll a second after awakening. Right now... Right now she was too terrified to even move her head.

"Gerwald don't move!" she warned, her voice still a whisper, but a very commanding whisper at that. Her head was on him. If he moved, she'd have to move. She didn't want to move. Everything was bad.

Scherezade blinked. Why did her eyes feel so puffy? She closed them again. Her mouth was dry. She wanted to call a droid to fetch her something but the mere thought of the droid moving made her want to stop being alive.

"Gerwald I think something is wrong," she whispered a third and final time, and now was right about when she started calculating whether or not she could make it to the bathroom on time before last night made its way up.


[member="Gerwald Lechner"]

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

Gerwald was stuck. Hungover Scherezade was very messy. She’d gotten pretty drunk that night, and this was to be expected, but Gerwald heard the gurgling in her stomach. Even though she didn’t want him to move, Gerwald had to.

He rushed her to the fresher and held her hair back.

”You’re hungover. I’ll get you something to help.”

Gerwald called for the droid to bring him a few ingredients. She wasn’t going to like the flavor, but it was the cure all for a hangover she was experiencing. He wasn’t sure if this was going to make her want to kill, but he had to help. Also... did she remembered what she had said or not? Gerwald did.

He wasn’t about to bring it up, because if she didn’t he didn’t want to make things more awkward. What better time to talk about it than when she was puking in the toilet.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

When she opened her eyes again, she was over the toilet. The contents of her stomach expelled themselves and she found herself panicking as her airways were blocked. Perhaps later, she could laugh at herself for it being another first time that was shared with Gerwald, but for now, it just kept coming out, and although she couldn't breathe, the smell was overwhelming.

Her hand reached out to flush the water but her head kept hanging over the toilet. She couldn't find the will power to raise it.

He had said a word earlier. Hungover.

"I... don't... approve... of this," she rasped, "hangover. Make it... go... away."

Even talking made her feel horrible. It was as though every cell in her body had come together to make sure she felt fragile and weak, barely able to even keep her eyes open. It felt like an eternity before she managed to raise her head and looked up. And now that she did, she wondered how awful it would be to trade it and just put her head back down and go back to sleep while cuddling with the toilet.

With more willpower than she thought she'd ever had, Scherezade pushed herself from the toilet and leaned against the wall, eyes glaring at Gerwald.

"Let there... be... no... mistake," she rasped again, breathing hard, "I still... won... last night."


[member="Gerwald Lechner"]

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

”I’m working on it...”

Gerwald started mixing the hangover antidote. He hated the smell, and the flavor. Scherezade was going to hate it as much or even worse. The roots and spices that went into the mixture did not have a pleasant taste. Nothing about them were nice, but it would settle her stomach and deal with the dizzyness and the throbbing she was experiencing. Most of all it would keep her from throwing up anymore.

He handed her a glass.

”Plug your nose and drink this... just trust me...”

He needed her to be able to to fly. Gerwald had just barely learned how to take off, and Coruscant was way busier than Ryloth. There was no way he was flying out of the city without crashing into someone else. Sure he likely could do it, but they didn’t have much time. Gerwald needed her to feel better, and hebwas getting nervous that if she was this much a mess that the hangover solution may not work. It had never failed him before though, so he was trusting it to work.

”Just chug it fast!”

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Even taking the glass was hard. Her hands didn't feel like they wanted to cooperate. Certain memories began to surface in the back of her mind but she forced them down. There would be time for memories, but not now. Now was the time to feel like crappe and trust Gerwald, even though the sole reason she was in this situation to begin with was because of him.

So no, she decided, she didn't trust him. She would not plug her nose. Instead, she sniffed it, made a face, and took a small sip.

And almost spit it out.

Krak.

She really was going to have to chug it. Her eyes never wavered from Gerwald, her rage open to him in all its lovely glory. She pinched her nose shut just as she had with the mead, and chugged, still glaring right into his eyes. She was glad she didn't know how to burn with her eyes, otherwise there'd surely be burning holes in those beautiful pale eyes of his.

Scherezade slammed the glass on the floor, almost shattering it. And blinked. She had to admit, she was feeling a lot less worse. Maybe that was the idea behind the drink, make it so bad and so horrible in both taste and smell that just being near it made you not feel that hangover thing anymore.

And then the memories surfaced again.

"A glass of water for every mug chugged gives the body sufficient hydration in order to avoid the hangover, which is the result of dehydration caused by the alcohol," she said, her tone very formal, very... Shut up, grandma!.

She looked at Gerwald again. They had not showered after coming home last night. They had jumped straight to the bed and to the stuff and then-

Oh.

And then she had said things that were better left unsaid in such a situation. Her timing had been completely, completely, so very completely wrong. This time, she searched her memories on her own. Maybe not all was lost. Maybe she could pretend to have forgotten it entirely and then wait for a better time to bring it up, and then not fall asleep a second after that. Not that it wasn't true... She was just pretty sure that it was much too fast, much too soon, and that those were words that carried a certain weight with them. She was only now beginning to understand the weight of that, and had been looking for was to go around the subject without saying it like that.

"Your hair is all tangled," she finally said, the glare entirely gone from her eyes, the same happy face that he was used to receiving from her there again as though it had never left, "come here," she motioned for Gerwald to sit with her. She wanted to detangle his hair with her fingers. If noting else, it would be a good excuse to keep touching him.


[member="Gerwald Lechner"]

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

It wasn’t meant to taste good. It was just meant to work. Of course water would have helped them, but Stewjon was full of proud and stubborn people, often too proud and too stubborn for their own good. Gerwald was among the most proud at times. His will to drink people under the table often found him nursing a hangover he had never wanted. Fortunately for him this time around, Scherezade didn’t need too many glasses of mead to make her so drunk he had to carry her out.

”Yeah, you kinda made a mess of my hair last night...” Gerwald grinned. ”How much of it do you remember?”

The question was genuine. He hoped she remembered having fun, especially the chase. If she did he could inform her the hangover was his way of getting her back for the heart attack she gave him when she leaped off the building they were now in. Gerwald also was fishing for whether or not she remembered what she had said just before nodding off to sleep. He did. It was a conversation he wasn’t ready to have, especially considering the reason he had left Stewjon and joined the Confederacy in the first place.

He sat where Scherezade asked him to. There was no sense in rushing past the morning. They needed to shower, again, brush their teeth, and all the other things to get ready for the day, all without getting caught on the way out. The Knights Obsidian would be expecting Gerwald back, and from what was coming down the rumor mill, he was going to be getting a promotion.

”So let’s nit get that drunk again... not for a while. Also next time you jump... warn me. I don’t know what I’d do if you got yourself killed...”

Gerwald meant that. Whether he could return the sentiment she had shared last night or not, Gerwald knew he would be beside himself if anything happened to her. He cared, at least, and had already decided she was part of his pack. Sure it wasn’t an official pack, but it was his family away from home. His world was her and Katrine, and he was sure there would be others that would find themselves in his close circle. For now... she needed to know there were others she needed to live for, and be careful that she did actually try to stay alive.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

She had made a mess of his hair? Scherezade squeezed her eyes and tried to remember such a thing. His face was in most of yesterday's memories, but his hair had become a tangled mess only after the fall-chase. And it had remained that way after that. She hadn't cared the night before, her everything sang for him in whatever state he was, but...

Now that he was sitting she shuffled just a tiny little bit so that he sat between her legs, but with his back to her. His back was bare and Scherezade gulped, forcing her eyes to go up from the muscles beneath his skin up to the hair that had wanted to touch. She really was feeling better now. Not great. But better. Mostly, she didn't feel like she was about to die anymore.

Her fingers came up and first curled in his mane. Even dry and tangled, she would've had to fight herself in order to stop. Slowly, she began to work at the ends of his hair, gently undoing the knots. It would take time, but it would ensure that he could actually brush his hair without needing to rip half of it out.

"I remember everything?" she asked, "we went to the Ursu district, and we went to a bar, and I had my first drink." Her fingers worked gently, but quickly. "We had a drinking competition and I won." Although he couldn't see it, she was ginning from ear to ear. "And then we came here and did what we usually do."

Scherezade leaned forward, her lips coming against the nape of the back of his neck, and kissed him there, leaving her lips on him as she deeply inhaled his scent.

"And you'd do what everyone else will," she said with a careless shrug as she leaned back again, her fingers resuming their with his hair, "pretend to cry at a CIS sponsored funeral and then move on."

She blinked, wondering where that sentence had come from. It had certainly not been in her head before she'd said it. She supposed it was true, though. They had spent the most amazing time together. She had told him how she felt. And from everything she knew, everything she scanned in her mind of her grandmother's knowledge, none of it assured anything.


[member="Gerwald Lechner"]

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

She remembered everything, that meant she wasn’t bringing it up... on purpose perhaps. Did she want him to? It felt soon to have that conversation, but Gerwald didn’t know. His mother, well he would have had them getting married by now because of his Lupine genetics. The assumption would be that Scherezade was pregnant by now. Gerwald nearly sighed thinking about his mother. She likely would be the ruin of anyone that he would ever think to bring home.

”Pretend... do you think I would have to pretend that losing you would be painful...”

Gerwald wasn’t sure about many things at this point. His life and world was so new that he didn’t know what to do, but he knew one thing was certain, he would not be faking any tears if anything happened to the sithling. They were much to close to fake anything. It didn’t matter that she had won the drinking game at this point. Gerwald was more concerned about how she felt about what his response would be.

He sighed.

”Does it have to do with what you said last night?”

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

She didn't answer his first question. There was nothing to answer. Now that she'd had a few seconds to think it over, she realized how silly it as to unload her insecurities on him. Perhaps, if she had thought about things earlier, she could've said it in a cynical tone, or make a joke about it, or anything else. But the truth was, Scherezade was confident in many things, but not in anything that came to other people. It was a fact that people just didn't like her. She could sway the direction of a battle, she could make the best sausages, she could wear a dress, and still people didn't like her. The only common thing between all the instances was that she was present. So obviously, the problem was her. And it wasn't a problem she actually new how to solve.

Her fingers were still working through his hair. She had undone most of the tangles now, and while it still needed a good wash, it was already showing its former softness and major glory. She absolutely loved his hair. She would've kept on touching it, letting her fingers run through it, undo all the knots that were still there and then just keep going for as long as he let her.

But instead her fingers froze and she realized that within itself was an answer to his second question. Scherezade had told Gerwald the night before that she loved him. And then she had fallen asleep. If he had said anything about it, or anything at all, she had been too swept up by a alcohol induced sleep to know about it. She hated it. She hated the alcohol. She was never going to drink again.

"I... I was... I was drunk," she stuttered, trying to will her fingers to move again. They wouldn't budge. She wished someone would stumble into the bathroom and try to kill one of them. That would've made her been able to move again, she was sure. And now that the silence hung between them, she knew it was just an excuse. She might've been drunk, and it was probably what had made her say it, but it didn't make it any less true. "Apparently being drunk makes you say things you're not quite ready to voice just yet," she admitted at last, her hands dropping. She was gripping her knees now. She wouldn't have been able to bring her hands up back to his hair now, even if she wanted to.

If he turned around, he would see the same blush of their first meeting now overtaking her face once again. Scherezade could feel the blood spread beneath her skin. She had been certain they were done with it.

"You don't have to say it back," she added quickly. Her tongue was working fast now. She was going into full mumble mode. "I mean, you can, if you want to, but you probably don't, I mean, it's always one sided, right? So like, you really don't have to lie and say it back. I mean, I'd rather you be honest if there was nothing on your end but I don't really know how to read people and every time I think I know you a little bit better you turn around and surprise me, but really, every time I see you I'm happier and I'm less lonely and I want to hug you and smell you and just be with you and I want to play with your hair and stroke your fur and I wanna be near you whichever shape you're in because it's always you and when you asked me that first night if I wanted the man or the beast I said I wanted you and I didn't know just how much it would end up to be the truth of it as time progressed and-"

Scherezade took a deep breath. Her voice was shaking. That was probably it. This was probably going to be the last of it. He was going to laugh at her, and get up, and leave. Only he had no way to leave, because she was his ride back to Ryloth.

"And I'll take you back to Ryloth anyway," she said, "I'm not gonna leave you stranded here. Whatever else happens."

She inched backwards, wishing she could just vanish into the wall, and hugged herself with her arms. Her own hair was a mess; now that Gerwald's hair was detangled, she was the only one who still looked like a wild stinky fur monster. She was going to need a shower. And it was hard to take a shower when you were currently too scared to even look up.

[member="Gerwald Lechner"]

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

"You were very drunk..." Gerwald replied before Scherezade unloaded everything about how she felt.

Every word hit him like a ton of bricks. He didn't know exactly what to say, but he did know he was not going to lie to her. She was too important to him to just make up some reason or story as to why he was unsure about whether or not he could tell her the same thing.

Ger took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He needed to explain things, and hoped she understood, and do so in a way that was not going to create a mess. She was too important to him to lie to, but she was also too important for him to lose because he told the truth in a massively hurtful way. Besides, everything for them was so new that time could simply be what all this...

"But I need to say something, Scherezade," Gerwald turned to look at her. This was too important to say without looking her in the eyes. "I could never be anything but honest with you. Which is why I don't know what to say. I like being with you. The adventures have been amazing... other things have been amazing too. You deserve to know why I left Stewjon though. It wasn't just because I needed to, and it wasn't just because of training. I met Katrine that night... another Lupine, when I was told my family was the last of them. The moment I caught her scent, I was drawn... and when I met her... I can't explain anything well enough, and it is different than what we shared when we shared that heart, but also similar. My whole life had become a lie in that moment... She holds part of the truth. At the same time there is something very authentic and genuine about being with you... that I cannot explain either. I love following you around the galaxy and experiencing knew things. You've shown me that I am the wolf and the man, not one or the other... I can never be able to repay you for that. You are one of the only consistent things in this new life I have, and I understand if the rest of the uncertainty around it is an issue..."

Another sigh escaped his lips. He felt like he needed to kiss her, so he did.

"The truth I know is I would loathe my life if you were not in it, and I don't know what that means exactly......."

Gerwald held his breath... He knew this could probably... He didn't know what this was going to do.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]