Private A Lever for a Lady

[James Lanvarok]

​

The suns sunk between the dunes of Tatooine.

Browsing through wires, propulsors and other parts, James mused over the stock at a local marketplace. He had been getting the odd customer, just the odd one, no more, and decided to buy some new bits and pieces for the old freighter he was patching up. His bottom lip hanging open, he furrowed his brow as he put down a control panel, sighing as tried to remember how many credits he had.

Maybe he could get back into speeder racing to earn some extra cash, it could be worth a try.

Huffing, he looked at the price tag of the mainframe for a navicom and groaned, then put it back. As he stood at his full height, a flash of red caught his eye. Sitting at the foot of a pole, was a young woman who looked around his age. She had red hair. Nasty, not his thing, but she had a pretty face and her boobs weren't too bad either. Eyes widening, James leaned against the bench and breathed in.

She looked all alone, and had a lever in her hands. Had she just bought it? Did she need help figuring out how it worked? A bunch of questions crowded his mind and withdrew his hand from the table, inhaling as he ran a hand through his matted, wavy hair. He was wearing what he usually wore, jeans, runners, a white t-shirt with a starship on it and a light blue, flannelette shirt with the sleeves rolled up over the top.

James' eyes were wide as he approached. Icy blue and crystalline, they were particularly unsettling when he stared. Hand on his belt, he walked forward, clumsily, like a small bear and stopped directly in front of the woman. She was sitting on the ground, so he couldn't see how tall she was, but decided not to think about that. He tried to smile, but couldn't, he just couldn't, and instead, raised his chubby hand in a half-hearted wave.

"Hi," he slurred.

"I'm James, but you can call me Jim if you like, I don't care," eyes trailing towards the skyline, he shifted awkwardly.

What if she called him Jimmy? Girls never called him that unless they were taking the piss out of him.

He breathed in, looked back around and pointed to the lever in the woman's hands, "you know what that does?" He asked, his voice slurred and lacking in refined articulation. He rested his hand on his belt and looked at the lever, waiting anxiously for her to respond.

[member="Willow Fae"]

 

[Saraya Arenais]

[member=James Lanvarok]​

Tatooine.

Another dry, sandy planet. When she’d first discovered the seemingly scientific miracle that was sand it had been accompanied by emerald seas. That sand had been white then, and so fine to touch that it had clung to the tips of her fingers like a balloon charged with static. This sand was different. It was coarse and orange, it was dry and stung her eyes as the wind whipped it up, it wasn’t paired with the soothing sound of waves crashing against the shoreline. No matter, it was still intriguing. A whole planet filled with the stuff. Willow wouldn’t have thought it at all possible, but here she was.

[member=Seren] had wondered off to finish up his business, leaving her with a handful of credits and the entire Mos Eisley marketplace to explore. Right now, the slim silver coins were burning a hole in her pocket, and she was desperate to ease their pain. The slender young Vahla had paced the long length of the stalls several times already. There were many interesting things to absorb. The intricately decorated shop fronts designed to attract customers, the shouting and bellowing of the market stall owners attempting to entice people in, even the smells had stolen her attention. Yet, on this occasion, it wasn’t food that the little spider was after. Since Seren had changed the rations on their ship from the grey, often only slightly lukewarm sludge to proper food that had an expiration date… food rarely interested her.

What she was interested in on the other hand happened to be sold in the market place she was standing directly in front of.

Three or four tables covered in oil-stained cloth, absolutely jam-packed with all kinds of metallic things that caught the bright sunlight and shone fractals of light across Willow’s face. Now, this is what she could get behind. Despite more than half of the things being totally unknown to the little spider, she could still sit for hours trying to figure out what their purpose was. She reached out of the nearest object, a lever of some kind that only moved in two directions. When she pushed it, the satisfying click it made as it locked into position was something to memorize. ‘You gonna buy that, or just stand and stare?’ The gruff voice of the market stall owner sounded out over the cacophony of other noises. The fiery redhead shrugged her shoulders in response and replied without taking her eyes off the lever. ‘Maybe, maybe not. Can’t imagine you get enough business to gamble on it though.’

This seemed to shut him up, and left Willow with the opportunity to simply admire. She lowered herself to the floor, burying one hand into the sand and placing the lever on her lap to inspect further. On the underside, wires hung out from all angles. Red, blue, green, yellow. What could one thing need so many wires for? Surely, with one lever, there was only one real use for it. Red brows knitted together to declare her confusion to any that might have been watching. It was some time before a dark shadow cast itself across her lap, indicating that someone was blocking her light. When Willow turned up to face whoever it was, she was mildly surprised to find the illuminated outline of a man, face shaded by the sun he placed his back too.

‘Hi…’ She responded in a slow, cautious voice. Seren had always told her to be cautious of strangers, and she was in no mind to ignore his advice. Still, it seemed whoever it was wanted to dive further into the complexities of conversation, and right now Willow had no choice but to oblige. ‘James. That’s a nice name. I’m Willow.’ Though she commented, it was merely idly, her mind had gone back to its curious questioning of the lever she had picked up from the junk spread out across the tables. It was as though the stranger had read her mind. ‘I have no idea. I took it for some kinda lever that opens a loading ramp, or maybe a different kind of door? Or maybe not even a door. Maybe it turns on a light in a hanger bay or something, like a giant light switch.’ Willow wrapped her small set hands around the bulk of the lever and rose it above head height, brandishing it for the stranger to see. ‘What do you think?

 

[James Lanvarok]

[SIZE=15x]The way the woman responded was slow, hesitant, as though she was already disgusted by James' presence. It was a tone he was all too familiar with. Girls usually used it when they wanted him to get lost. As she shifted her eyes, he recoiled into the collar of his shirt and rubbed his arm awkwardly. He remembered how Sebastian had kept telling him to smile when he talked to girls, but every time he did that he ended up looking like a serial killer. It was the last time he had taken advice from a six foot two gay dude about women.

James' nerves relaxed after the girl said that he had a nice name.

"Nghehehe," he laughed, awkwardly, "thanks," he hung his head and murmured.

She liked his name, that didn't necessarily mean she liked him. Head lowered, James kicked the sand and blew hair out of his face, "don't get ahead of yourself, Jimmy," he thought to himself.

Willow. It was a pretty name and it suited her. James raised his head and managed a rare, terribly uncomfortable smile. Willow hadn't turned up her nose or walked away, and she didn't seem too bothered by talking to him. Good sign.

Then...

"A pretty name for a pretty girl."

There, you ruined it Jimmy, well done.

A pause followed, filled by the blue of James' eyes as he stared. Swallowing a gulp, he realized what he had just said and breathed in, his stomach suddenly turning. The ends of his mouth pulled down, he shifted his eyes and scratched his backside, wracking his brain for something to say. She asked about the lever, so he would oblige.

"No, uh," he almost laughed, "it's a clamp for the accelerator, stops the ship from veering off course when you slam the breaks," hand on his belt, he breathed in as he chuckled, chest heaving up and down. He had almost yelled at her for getting an acceleration clamp mixed up with a lever for the door, but she was so cute and clueless, that he couldn't bring himself to get angry and if there was one thing James liked in a girl, it was when she didn't know as much about ships as he did. He liked for one to know a little bit, just so he could talk about them and she knew what he was on about, but no more, or else she would humiliate him.

"It only goes in two directions because you can only increase or reduce friction," scratching his butt, James kicked the sand and shrugged, his eyes on the ground.

[member="Willow Fae"][/SIZE]

 

[Saraya Arenais]

[member=James Lanvarok]​

His laugh made her grin.

Not a lot of people found the slender redhead amusing in any way. Despite her height, they always saw her as childlike, innocent to the point of jokes being sweet and adorable instead of her intended funny. Of course, she wasn’t exactly sure what she had said that caused him to laugh, but he did. So, she smiled up at him. ‘You’re welcome.’ When he complimented her back, she was already staring intensely at the lever, but she did have the courtesy to allow a fine blush to spread across her cheeks. ‘Thank you, I’ve always liked it. I think it’s supposed to be after some kind of tree? I wouldn’t know though. Only trees I’ve seen are metal and stone!’

When she said those words, she had intended them to be a joke, but they sounded more depressing than funny. In haste to move the conversation quickly on, she was grateful when James commented on the lever she held in her hands. ‘Oh…’ Her red brows knitted together in confusion or frustration… it was hard to tell. The line between the two was so thin. ‘So I was way off base.’ Willow blew a fine stream of air upward, sending a lock of her flame-red hair flying up wildly. After a brief moment of allowing the fresh knowledge to sink in, Willow shrugged her shoulders. ‘I suppose you can’t be right all the time, can you? It’s a good thing you were here actually. I would have spent my whole life thinking this was a light switch.’

The notion clearly amused her, so she laughed out loud, leaving behind a silly grin. This time around, she had the mind to turn up to James and flash it toward him. Finally, Willow decided to stand up from the sandy ground. Partly because her legs were growing numb, and partly because the cloud of sand James had just kicked up was heading straight for her face. When she was on two feet again her hand idly tossed the clamp (or was it an accelerator?) onto the table in front of her. ‘I guess that ends my escapades into trying to figure out what random bits of junk do.’ Her hands folded behind her back, and she pressed her lips together.

A heavy stare was being directed at her from the market owner, and if looks could have killed this one would. She knew it was time to move on, but James striking up a conversation had placed her in a precarious position. Willow didn’t want to appear rude. She knew how far she could push the strangers back in Hutt Space, but she had no idea about the strangers in the rest of the Galaxy. Rude was one thing she wanted to steer clear of, and she still had plenty of time before Seren came back. ‘So… I was planning on checking out the rest of the market stalls then going for a drink.’ That was sort of an invitation, wasn’t it?

 

[James Lanvarok]

As Willow turned the leaver over and over, James smirked, almost charmed by her clueless fascination with it. Hands in his pockets, he rolled back and forward on his heels, laughing awkwardly as he looked at the ground. As he kicked the ground, sand billowed into Willow's face and James froze, horrified. He stammered what sounded like an apology, but it was so confused and slurred it was impossible to understand. Willow explained that her name meant some sort of tree, which didn't really interest him beyond the fact that it was pretty, like her.

He smirked, "name meanings don't mean chit, I just think it sounds nice." An obnoxious shrug, and he kicked the sand with a hefty shrug.

He forced a laugh at her corny joke. It wasn't funny, but he laughed anyway.

"Not a lot of trees out here." He looked around, brushing a few strands of matted, wavy hair out of his face as he did so. It was the only thing he thought of to say to the Willow's chitty joke.

He did laugh genuinely when Willow admitted to being totally wrong about what the lever did.

"Yeah, heh," James chuckled.

A stray little bout of confidence rose in chest when Willow thanked him about correcting her. Most girls would have told him he was rude and scolded him for his honesty, but she didn't mind being corrected. James liked that. When she said that one couldn't be right all the time, the end of his mouth kinked upward and he smiled, impressed by how humble she was. She laughed, and it was the sweetest thing James had ever heard. Heat rose to his cheeks and a layer of sweat dampened the back of his neck. Crystalline, blue eyes widened, he breathed in and exhaled, raising a hand to run his fingers through his hair.

A pause held the air between them, filled by the drone of craft as they took off. Willow shifted, then rose to her feet. James froze all of a sudden, his eyes widening as she stood at her full height.

And...

Oh.

Oh no.

She was a few inches taller than him.

James recoiled into the collar of his shirt. Kark, that was embarrassing. His cheeks turned scarlet. Hand on the back of his head, he took a few steps back and shifted his eyes, awkwardly avoiding her gaze. Willow put the lever back, as it hadn't been what it had thought she had been. The shop keeper shot her an angry stare and she turned around to face James, who was still staring, mortified, at the ground.

Then, something amazing happened.

She asked him out for a drink. James scoffed, confronted by what he had just heard.

"Sure, I mean..." He paused, "really?"An eyebrow raised, he screwed up his face and stared, his eyes piercing the wall behind her.