Dark Dunes

[Seo Linn]

With the change of breathing that happened to Mereel, it brought Seo out of her sleep. Not in a bad way, but being as close together as they were it was natural for it to happen. They weren't expected to be awake early or anything. She really did not have anything special planned for them to do today. Having a few ideas, she would talk to him about them first and see what he might want to do.

Yesterday had been a very important day and the night had proved he was a good man. In her own sleep fogged mind, she realized they had essentially agreed to be engaged. While it was possible this was said in the heat of the situation, she didn't think that was entirely the case.

She moved ever so slightly knowing he was awake and would rest her hand on his chest, her finger tips just under his chin. In a tone that was just as softly spoken the night before, she broke the silence between them.

"I don't think you got quite enough rest to do a day of game hunting today. Do you need any lessons on how to live in the desert?"

Something they could do ​together was explore the area around the town. While it would be familiar to her, it was all new to Mereel.

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel let out a small sigh and a short shiver ran down his back as she rested her hand on his trimmed chest. His thoughts had drifted to the night before and as a result he hadn't noticed she was awake until he felt the warmth of her hand.

He pried his stare away from the ceiling and smiled as he fell into her golden eyes. The volume of his voice lowered to match hers, "I'm only taking half of the responsibility for that." He said, regarding the short rest.

Before last night, marriage was a thought he had never entertained very seriously. Although the casual flings of his ruffian days left him hollow inside, he still figured that love and marriage were things that would eventually come later, but he assumed that would be long after he had his own family in order.

Looking at someone he loved, it didn't feel so distant anymore.

The life came back into his right hand as he brought his fingers up to graze her right cheek. He slowly moved his hand back to her temple before letting his fingers brush her hair back absentmindedly.

"I've hunted in deserts before, but never without my armor."

A bit of mischief crept into his grin, "I think I'd be fine without, but I think I'll go with the lessons if it makes you worry any less."

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

"I will share that responsibility with you without any issues."

She had never thought about marriage at all. Figuring it would never happen to a woman that was always on the move and not settling down to stay in one place. However, Mereel was a wanderer too so they would make a good partnership. Not until each of them were ready and if that never actually happened...well that was fine too. Vows did not need to be spoken to make a couple be husband and wife.

Closing her eyes when his hand touched her cheek, Seo leaned into it to indicate it was something she liked. When he answered about taking the lessons or not, she opened her eyes and looked up at him again.

"Why would I be worried? If you are confident in your ability then there isn't a need for any lessons."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Although Mereel could clearly tell she was enjoying him playing with her hair, he stopped stroking her hair back for a second as he listened to her.

A flame kindled in his eyes and he smiled broadly as she made him realize something that should've been blatantly obvious to him, "You're wonderful Seo Linn."

An old Mandalorian proverb said that 'a warrior is more than his armor'. The pragmatic people had a few good pieces of wisdom sometimes. His experience as an explorer would translate even without his armor - and he already had some of the stuff he would need to traverse the dunes in his pack. If anything he should've bet on the task being easier without his heavy gear.

He wasn't sure why he was suddenly so worried about, well, everything. It definitely wasn't his usual modus operandi, but a lot of what he had felt here wasn't exactly normal for him.

He began brushing his fingers through her hair again, this time being a little more attentive and stroking just a little deeper with his brushes, "We don't have anywhere to be, do we?"

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

She was totally lost when he commented that she was wonderful. That confusion would be totally clear on her face. A lifted eyebrow and then they wrinkled together and thought would seen going through her eyes.

"Thank you and you're welcome, but I have no idea what I did."

What ever it was, Seo felt him relax under her hand.

"What had you bothered so?"

Mereel then asked if they had to be anywhere and that was met with a shake of her head.

"Nowhere at all. Eventually we will have to eat though."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel stifled back a small chuckle as he saw her crinkle her brow and figure out that something had been bothering him.

"What? I can't just compliment you without drawing suspicion?" His tone was jocular.

He flashed her a smile, "Just forgot that I'm more than my armor for a moment. Nothing more."

The smile on his face grew exponentially when she said they didn't have anywhere to be, "And that's good -"

With his right hand still combing through her hair, his left hand went to grab the small of her back. He forgot that particular hand was cold metal for a second, but he didn't correct himself when he remembered.

He left his hand there and pulled her in closer. He let his voice take on the tone they had shared last night, ".. wanted to fully enjoy your company for just a bit longer."

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

"Compliments out of the blue are odd."

Not that it drew suspicion of anything, but she had found it curious. Once Mereel told her what he realized she nodded and kept her hand where it was on his chest.

"I've known that for a long time, Mereel Vaun. Did you just now realize it?"

A small shiver passed through her when his cold hand went to her back, but Seo made no complaint. This was a part of him and it did not matter to her. His heart and mind made him who she loved, not his arm or hand. Snuggling in tighter when he pulled her closer, she let out a small chuckle.

"As long as we want."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel understood what she meant perfectly well, but he still arched an eyebrow at her. Biting down softly on the corner of his lip, he took a second to exaggeratedly look her over, "I couldn't agree more, but I wouldn't say that it's totally out of the blue."

His chest sank as he exhaled a slow sigh and pondered her question, "It's something I've known for a while, but I tend to forget all too often."

He stopped running his right hand through her hair and let it fall over the hand she had placed on his chest. His fingers curled and wrapped themselves under her warm palm, "Thanks for the reminder."

The spark in his eyes and his smile didn't diminish at all when he felt her shudder from the touch of his hand. In fact, his mood only improved as he gave her an empathetic smile, "Just so you know, that's more or less how you make me feel whenever you use the force for telepathy."

Even though she didn't complain or try to gently move his left hand away, he pulled his hand back and simply let it rest on the bed as she got closer to him. A slight frown formed on his face as a thought occurred to him, "I should've packed a normal prosthetic in my backpack. I keep forgetting I can switch this thing out."

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

Resting there, Seo listened to what he was saying and understood what he meant to a degree. His armor could be seen as an extension of himself and thinking like that he would assume he was less without that armor.

Holding his hand he placed under hers, she gave it a slight squeeze and her chuckle remained at his comment about the telepathy bit.

All the more reason to do it then. I quite liked that and metal will warm up.​

"It's fine, Mereel. Really. You may not think so. So what do you want to do after we decide to join the land of the awake?"

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

He had seen it coming as soon as he had told her about it, but he intentionally hadn't braced himself for it.

As her thoughts entered his mind, his arms sprouted goosebumps and he felt an icy chill in the small of his back. Likely due to the nature of the message itself, it was a much more violent reaction to her telepathy than he normally received. Combined with her hand squeeze, laughter, closeness, and her earlier unintentional rebuilding of his confidence, she had hit him with a perfect storm of tension.

It only took a moment, but he felt just as invigorated as when she had first whispered in his ear the night before. Longing and mischief radiated through his eyes and grin. It was a good thing that he woke up so early in the morning while travelling - he didn't feel like them taking time out of the day to do this would mean them missing out on things they could only do while on Lorrd.

Staring into her eyes with a grin, he distractedly mumbled out an answer to her question, "Just take me on a tour of the town."

It was an incredibly brief answer from a man who normally had nothing better to do than run his mouth, but something far more important had struck his fancy. He let go of her hand and responded to her telepathy, Metal will warm up.

And with that he slipped under the covers.

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

It was unknown to either of them how long they remained in her room, but it didn't matter. They were here on vacation in a way. A family reunion and an escape for a time from the worries they had. Seo was entirely happy and Mereel would hopefully be aware of this. She kept nothing secret or hidden from him.

Eventually though, they had kicked the covers off and after resting again, Seo woke up fully. However, she didn't move and instead just enjoyed the silent company of him. Her stomach rebelled and growled at her.

"We really should get moving."

Not that I really want to.​

"Around town huh? I did that a little yesterday."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Though he tried, Mereel had found it impossible to fall back to sleep after their morning exchange. Even after closing his eyes and remaining perfectly still for what felt like half hour increments, the beat of his heart refused to let him drift out of consciousness.

Unable to sleep, he silently passed the hours by reading the lines and blips on the ceiling as Seo recovered. He could tell she was happy, which made him ecstatic - even if he was just passing the time by staring at the roof over their head.

He was pulled from his ceiling inspection by a subtle change in her breathing as she woke up, and a small smile formed on his face. She eventually spoke up and reminded him that there was a galaxy behind the four walls around them.

Like clockwork, he felt a shiver in the small of his back as he felt her thoughts creep into his head.

Mereel sighed as he looked over at her,"I've told you my greatest weakness.. and I don't regret it in the slightest."

He blew an entertained huff of air out of his nose after her 'around town' comment.

"I'm not sure if you're being literal or using the expression. If you're using the expression, yes you did."

Mereel slowly rolled himself out of the bed, "If you're being literal though, I was a little out of it when we came into town yesterday."

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

"I could certainly use that to an advantage if I ever wanted to...who am I kidding? There's going to be a lot more where that came from."

​This was said verbally and with her humor showing through in her tone. Giving his hand a final squeeze, Seo let him go to allow him to roll out of bed. When she had made her comment about the town, she had been literal, but caught on quickly to what he meant and shook her head.

"Maybe a bit of both."

Gathering up her own discarded clothes, she put them back on and allowed Mereel to get a full view as she did that.

"Why were you out of it? A simple gift of a scarf couldn't have thrown you off that much."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel sauntered over to where he had dropped his pack and his new desert outfit the night before, "Huh, surprised you didn't just tell me that telepathically."

No matter what she would use that information for, he suspected she would never be able to make him truly regret telling her that, "I definitely prefer how I can respond to your messages when we're alone. But I'm guessing you won't let me use a mental safe word for that while we're in public, will you?"

The question was mostly a joke. He was a Jedi, albeit a pretty crappy one - he still had enough knowledge and ability to reliably clear his mind with meditation techniques most of the time if needed. He would welcome the challenge if she thought she could get him to break during one of his trances.

As Mereel finished pulling on the slightly-tighter-than-comfortable trousers Aodhan had gifted him, he looked over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of Seo as she was changing deliberately. He stopped himself just before he put on his outfit's tan shirt to make it painfully obvious that he was staring.

After she finished putting on her clothes, he let himself finish putting on his own before wrapping her scarf over his shoulders.

His cheeks turned crimson as she made him think back to the speeder ride into the village, "You know that it wasn't the scarf."

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

"Mental has a more difficult time expressing tone and emotion."

At least it did for Seo.​ To her it was a skill to be used to accomplish something. When he asked about having some sort of safe word, she gave him another lost look. Even though it was clear how they felt for each other, they were still learning and she didn't know yet entirely when he was serious or joking. The same could be said about it the other way around.

Both of them seemed to take the intended enjoyment of getting dressed the way they did and looked at each other as they moved. After they were dressed, he blushed brightly and he said it wasn't the scarf that had thrown him off the day before.

"Of course not. You already knew some of my past though. Same that I know some of yours. There is still a lot for us to learn about each other and I'm looking forward to every moment."

Holding out a hand for Mereel to take, she would open the door when they were ready and head into the living room where the others were already chatting.

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

He nodded along when she said that telepathy made it hard to detect tone and emotion, but his shoulders sank when he saw the confusion on her face.

Just like last time, he would explain himself away with just a few words. Although he knew it was really just a stepping stone in an underlying communication issue - one that would only get better by spending time together.

After busying himself with unstrapping his blaster pistol holsters from their velcro shoulder mounts, he offered her a small smile as he attached them to either side of his hips, "Joking, just not very funnily."

Since plenty of time had passed for his left hand to cool back down, and since he wanted to be able to feel her touch, he took her offered hand in his right.

Both of them saying that they were willing to marry each other the night before could have easily been the noncommittal musings of two lust drunk hearts, but the honesty of what she had just said reinforced his thoughts that a relationship between the two of them could actually work. "I'm looking forward to it just as much as you are."

Everything about him conveyed contentment with the galaxy when they arrived in the living room. Before even waiting for a lull in the room's conversation, the first thing he did was single out Aodhan, "Aodhan, your outfit fits perfectly. Feel like I can bag a krayt dragon in this."

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

I am glad...​

That was sent to him as she lead him to the living room area. Her family looked up from what they were doing and when Mereel addressed her son, he stood up. His eyes looked Mereel over in a judging manner, but not with any hostility.

Seo sat down on the floor with her sisters and started to participate in the lesson they were learning. It might be something old to her, but it was rare she got the opportunity to visit. She was also paying attention to the interaction between Aodhan and Mereel. While acceptance wasn't needed from either of them, she really did hope her son would get along with him.

"It's a bit tight, but it'll do for practice. Good luck finding that dragon here though. They aren't on Lorrd."

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

For a split second after entering the room, Mereel's expression went blank and he stared at a point in the air past Aodhan. Although the room wasn't cold by any means, goosebumps had also appeared on his arms.

He quickly recovered from the blank stare before he began talking to Aodhan, but the goosebumps were a little more difficult since he had rolled up his shirt sleeves before they had left the room.

Not taking his eyes off Aodhan, he made a mental side-note to pay Seo back later as he casually rolled down his sleeves, "That's alright, unless you're a Tusken most people just hunt krayt with mines and lures anyway. Boring as feth."

Mereel shrugged his shoulders, "I can settle with going after a pack of anooba. Best to take out pests while you're hunting anyway."

[member="Seo Linn"]

 

[Seo Linn]

She wasn't going to abuse Mereel with the telepathy as much as he might think or assume she would. Right now she did more because of her knowing just what it did to him. Knowing him, he would figure out some way to get a reaction out of her. Seo actually looked forward to it. By now it was part of their interactions.

Out of the corner of her eye, she was observing their entire exchange and felt pretty confident on how things were going.

"You may want to hunt them after they have eaten."

Ok, maybe it wasn't goin​g as well as she thought at the veiled insult Aodhan had just given. It suggested Mereel wasn't as wise about hunting as he thought, she let it go though and waited to see what he would do.

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

If Seo had been expecting instantaneous payback, she was going to be disappointed. It normally took him some time to get her back anyway, but now it was the furthest thing from his mind.

Considering himself a somewhat seasoned hunter, Aodhan's insult certainly hadn't slipped under Mereel's radar. It was a good thing Seo hadn't brought a younger version of himself back to her home, if she had her son would have likely just earned himself a bloody nose.

Fortunately for everyone, Mereel wasn't quite the hot headed brawler he used to be. It was also lucky that he had partially fallen into a meditation technique in anticipation of Seo toying with him again. It kept Aodhan's insult from processing immediately.

So instead of punching Aodhan in the face, the only indicators of offense that Mereel displayed were a brief flash in his eyes, a momentary clinching of his right fist, and a very subtle change in posture.

His content smile transitioned slightly into a faint smirk, but he was able to keep his voice from sounding menacing or even remotely threatening,"I've been hunting on Dxun, I think I can handle a few starved hounds."

[member="Seo Linn"]