Head in the Clouds

[Vuhan Chen]

Patricia and James had been spending a good amount of time together in the last week or two. When they could get a moment without the kids they had been seeing each other more often and in a completely different light. Normally when they were around one another someone was being murdered or financial dealings were being discussed, and if it was a really good day it was often both. Either way what originally started off as painful business affair turned into a intimate and much needed night of kissing and sleeping, eventually lead to the two building on their relationship. And today was no different.

Today was a day to spend on cloud nine, and that was both figuratively and literally. The two would find themselves booked at a rather expensive hotel on Cloud City, a place of slight historic significance but mostly an out of the way tibana mining operation. So one might ask why two of the more A-list criminals in the galaxy were here on Cloud City in the first place. Well that answer was simple. The Cloud City Grand Prix was today and Patricia though it was a good idea to take James to go watch it. But knowing the spacer and adrenaline junkie the man had his own plans, and that was something Patricia really liked about James. He always had a way to take a fun situation and make it more daring, he was a dashing rogue that way.

So stepping out of the shower of their hotel room, a nude Patricia walked into the room with James and dressed herself. They hadn't really done the deed yet, but the woman grew up on Zeltros and was not shy about these sorts of things. Slipping on her classic little red dress, Patricia hooked a few earrings on as she sat down at a vanity mirror and started to work her hair and apply makeup.

"You know I paid good money for our seats. Friggen Cloud City admin was selling them for twenty K a pop. It's supposed to be this mostly glassteel luxury cloud car that lets you watch from above as it follows the racers." Patricia said as she put on a bit of lipstick.

She'd wait for her friend James' response whilst she continued to get ready.

[member="James Justice"]

 

[James Justice]

It had been a long time since James had gone this long without killing anyone. He made sure to be extra barbaric in his last execution before leaving Soceras--it had been a glorious affair that ended the reign of an exceptionally horrific ax murderer. But for Patricia it had been important for him to keep from killing anyone, or at least trying to, so he did his best. And while it wasn't easy, well he would just have to do his best. He was, however, having a pretty good time despite the lack of death.

He grabbed his datapad off the nearby table and began typing away. He was, yea, arranging things. Sometimes a man could just wave his name and cash around and solve a lot of problems. But, well, what was the fun in that? And besides, there were only so many times you could say, "I'm James Justice I'll &%$# you up, so do as I say" before you had to actually do something crazy. Parts arranged, he tossed his device back on the table, satisfied and enjoyed the show of Patricia's very small, very amazing body and getting dressed. Sometimes it was just as fun to watch the re-clothing as it was the unclothing.

James hauled himself out of bed and pulled on navy blue flight officer's pants and a silken white dress shirt. Of course, he added his worn gunbelt and flight boots, he never left home without them, before the leather Jacket of the day:

Spoiler

"Good catch," he said, zipping his jacket mostly up. "Just one problem with that--I changed me mind about watching the races," he paused, letting the words sink in, "I wanna fly in it." James stowed his flight gloves in his jacket pocket, "And I want ye to race with me."

[member="Patricia Susan Zexxel"]

 

[Vuhan Chen]

Well there was forty grand down the drain. While most people would be upset about these sorts of things, it was lucky of James that she had made a cool hundred K yesterday on the sale of a Ysalamir egg. So hey, losses recovered. Still, when James said he was going to race it threw her for a loop. She had assumed he was going to do something daring like bring a luxury yacht and invite the administrator to arrange the smuggling of tibana gas, the kind of stuff that lead to a gun battle above the clouds.

But to her surprise it was something shockingly less violent and lucrative, yet still fell in line with what James might do. With a pleasant sigh she finished applying some mascara before twisting her body around to look at the spacer and his outfit.

"And here I was getting all pretty for you." She said with a smile.

"You're still taking me to the museum of art and history for the Curusca gem auction tonight." After speaking the woman stood up and forwent the red high heels in exchange for a pair of worn red sneakers.

Once her shoes were on she grabbed a fur lined black woolen jacket and put her small body into it. Feeling it's warm and familiar hold she walked over to James not bothering to fix her hair up, since there'd be a flight helmet on top of it soon.

"You're flying if we're racing. I'll copilot but I leave winning up to you." she said with a chuckle then extended her hands out slowly.

Maybe it was just the need for physical affection, but the woman wrapped her arms around James and looked up at him with her large blue eyes. Was she starting to feel more than just a want for somebody to keep the bed warm at night? Who knew. But all she knew was that when she kissed James it felt good. Like everything crappy in her world was better if only for a moment, so that's what she did. Having to stand on the tips of her toes the woman leaned up and kissed him on the lips rather lovingly, and after a few moments broke the kiss and sighed once more.

"Alright. Let's go race some backwater gas miners." now the ball was in James' court.

[member="James Justice"]

 

[James Justice]

"Well, it'd be a step down if ye were gettin' pretty," James said with a wry smirk, "Cause ye are already gorgeous."

Was it lame? Probably. Was it corny? Almost certainly. But was it what he thought? Most assuredly.

"Of course I will take ye," the spacer said. Growing up on the crusty side of the galactic underbelly on a trashy tramp freighter meant that James had missed a lot of the finer things in life. In fact, he was mostly clueless on them. But, he would try to learn for Patricia's sake. When she kissed him, the spacer copped a feel by giving her a slight boost in the posterior quarters. His fingers squeezed playfully as he tasted her essence. There was always something about kissing familiar lips that was just comforting. Almost like coming home, James thought to himself.

He took the tiny woman's hand and led her out through the hotel through the busy street.

Katsumoto, James' trusted advisor and personal body guard was waiting with a speeder. The man gave a bow, "A ride for you and the lady, my lord."

The spacer closed the door behind Blonde gentleman-like and soon they were roaring faster-than-legally allowed through the streets to the pits. Soon they were in the garage's lobby, a holographic display stood before them of the racers and their speeders wait for perusal. While it was mostly for gambling, James had something else in mind, "Pick the one ye like best, love, we'll take it."

[member="Patricia Susan Zexxel"]

 

[Vuhan Chen]

"Oh, it's my lord now?" Patricia said with a rather audible laugh as they stepped into the back of the vehicle.

"Fancy." And then they left towards the garage.

For most of the ride the two soaked in the sights of clouds, high rises, and every day life for the city in the sky. The small woman occasionally rested her head on James' shoulder just happy to be doing what they were doing. Didn't really matter what it was, she was just happy that she wasn't alone. That she didn't have to think about Jarven and how much it hurt to have that part of her life ripped from her. It was a pain that would always be there, being married for almost ten years was something that you just got over. But it was just nice to get herself back out there and try new things with close friends.

When they did arrive at the garage, Patricia stepped out with James and he let her pick which one she liked best. Now as someone who was an engineer and had her company design speeders and other ships she knew what she was doing, especially when it came to speed. Was she someone who raced? No. But she was the person designing and crafting the cars racers used. Really she was the ideal copilot.

"That one." She chose pretty quickly.

Her finger steadied on a rather well put together Cloud Car that looked like it could take a beating and move pretty fast. The outside had a pretty good armor plating, enough to get them through any tough spots, it was small enough to be pretty great on handling, and from what she could spot the engines on it looked like they were in top shape. The whole thing just screamed at her that it was indeed the right choice to make when it came to cloud cars.

"Go on, give it a look over." Patricia said as she gave James' rear her own little pat for him to walk forward and check out their conceptual race horse.

Hopefully he'd find it as pleasing as she did. The car. Not the ass grabbing. Well, maybe a bit of both.

[member="James Justice"]

 

[James Justice]

James gave a soft chuckle, he knew she was going to be the best choice for which one they needed to buy, not only was it kinda romantic, but it was also the fact that she was a damn good engineer. At her swat-prompt he took a few trots forward, grabbing her forearm playfully, "Rawr, Patricia. I hope I'll see some of that later."

Old habits died hard. He was slowly finding flirting just as enjoyable as he once had before. And that was so nice.

He proverbially kicked the airspeeder's tires as he gave it the walk around. Oh yes, it looked pretty well put together. Of course, he would fly a tin can covered in rust with an oscillating fan strapped on it if the situation called for it, but this was state of the art, nice, and, in pretty good shape.

"Who the hell are you?" Demanded the pilot storming up, helmet in hand.

James waved his hand in front of his face, "Ye are gonna gimme ye helmet and walk away."

"What the %$#@ do you take me for? I ain't goin' nowhere sh!tface," the man growled.

James sighed, he glanced making sure no one was looking before giving the guy a heavy punch across the face. He was out cold. "Katsumoto, clean up in the hangar, I was never here."

"Yes, my lord, right away."

James looked back at Patricia with a thumbs up after he retrieved the keys, "Love it, sweetheart," he opened the door for her to get in before climbing in after her and starting the pre-flight checks, "What should we call 'er?"

[member="Patricia Susan Zexxel"]

 

[Vuhan Chen]

When the man hit the deck from James' punch, Patricia flinched slightly at the sight of the hit. She heard the audible pop that his fist made across the racer's face and it was kind of fun to watch if not a little cringy. After the man was on the floor sprawling in obvious pain, she swiftly walked up to the downed man. Now where most people would expect the kind soul of a woman to help the man up, give him some credits for the ship, then send him on his way, Patricia was not that person.

With a swift kick to the downed man's guts he buckled and shook then coughed loudly before holding his midsection tightly rocking back and forth. Looking down at the injured man, Patricia spoke in a very stern tone.

"No one talks to my boy-" She paused for just moment before correcting herself.

"No one talks to my friend like that." Patricia then began to turn and walk towards the ship.

But before she could get in, the woman rushed back and like a punter she delivered one last kick to the man's gut. He buckled once more and coughed heavily.

"One more for the road!" She said with a chuckle before stepping back into the cloud car to join James.

As she stepped inside the car she sat down in the copilot seat and began to run the preflight diagnostic checks to see if this thing could indeed fly. In about a minute all systems were coming up green and the cloud car was ready to roll.

"Green across the board." She said then looked over to James.

"And for the record, if you win this race I'll be sure you see a lot later." she gave a little wink afterwards and would await James.

[member="James Justice"]

 

[James Justice]

James chuckled and strapped himself in the pilot's seat. He wasn't used to flying with a copilot, this was going to be interesting.. When he said "relationship team building" he didn't mean sitting in the office of some creepy old guy who wanted to hold hands and talk about feelings or some stupid trust fall. No, no, this was team building.

He strapped his helmet on and offered one to Patricia with an impish grin--and a very intense good luck kiss, "I'll make sure to win then, love. Roger on all green."

He eased the speeder forward through the hanger, testing its handling ever so slightly. They merged into the rest of "traffic" into the start zone. The spacer blinked twice, bringing his contact HUD up to life. He would need it--maybe. Its not like James was known for being the most attentive driver. He let the Force flow through him, heightening the spacer' reflexes, his will, his ability to think and react quickly, but there was still something that was needed.

"3......."

"Do ye have a map of the course over there we can use?"

"2......"

"Cause that'd be great."

"....1"

With a heavy slam, the spacer rammed the gas petal down and sending them lurching forward through the air.

[member="Patricia Susan Zexxel"]

 

[Vuhan Chen]

[media] https://youtu.be/fPu99mC8ofg [/media]​

Feeling her heart flutter for a bit when they kissed, Patricia grabbed the back of James' head and made sure they remained close for the time being. She'd never been in a Grand Prix before so if she was gonna crash in a fire filled explosion, she wanted to at least get a good last kiss in. When the kiss was over she sat back in her seat and took a deep breath as the countdown began. But thankfully James broke that silent tension by asking her for a course route.

But before she could answer the cloud car gunned it out of the hanger at blazing fast speeds. Her heart raced for a moment then she relaxed slightly as what came next was something truly beautiful. The sun was out right above the clouds as they soared through open air outside of the city. It was something right out of a holofilm and she honestly couldn't thank James enough for making this executive decision.

"Yeah, I'll plug it in right now." she said a little absently as she looked out at the many clouds and endless amber skies.

Plugging in all the needed informationJames would have the circuit and how to get there along with the other racers and their profiles. She also had to ask James what their alias would be for this race, since they were not the guy who was probably being tied to a radiator in a garage with a ball gag in their mouth.

"So what are we calling ourselves for this race?" she asked James rather sweetly.

[member="James Justice"]

 

[James Justice]

"So what are we calling ourselves for this race?"

The question stirred up half a dozen responses from James that were frankly, unable to be recorded on a PG-13 board. So, to that end, the writer would have to edit out what James said initially with a wink and an impish smirk. After that deluge of flirting, the spacer took one of his hands off the yoke and pulled out a datacard from his inner pocket. The false ID had James' face on it, but then name "Jack Warbender."

"And ye are me wife," he said, placing his hand back on the yoke. If anyone checked it out, they would have found all that data check out, and they would just so happen to be a couple in the quadrillions of beings in the galaxy who had an uncanny resemblance to two massive criminals. "Miss Warbender. We are steppin' in on behalf of our friend's sudden tragic state of fallin' ill. Sound good to ye?"

He perused the data as they made their way on the brief check to the race way. The checkout and check in was brief, and a moment later, they were at the start line, cloudcar number 17. The spacer shifted the airspeeder into neutral as they waited for the others to move onto the track. James could feel a sense of both anticipation and fear at the same time. He was taking her into a fun--but dangerous--situation. He was more than confident that he could take care of her and that they would win but--

Hadn't counted on Leighlah dying either. She had been killed by an airspeeder too.

His hand absentmindedly grabbed Patricia's and gave it a squeeze for comfort. He didn't have any words to say or express the thoughts or emotions going on in his head in this moment.

[member="Patricia Susan Zexxel"]