First Reply Out of Place

[Oshin Jantu]

Spoiler: Cantina Vibes (Recurring)

He reached for his glass to take it back from her hand. Half-tempted to squeeze her fingers into a fist, to make him fight for it and break her grip from the rim, she didn’t. She let him get what was his instead but he didn’t sip. His lips had a different intention. If he wanted it, he got it. Yet, if he was honest, that liquor wasn’t the object in his vision, but her, and it wasn’t his glass she sought, but him. Oh, they weren’t so alone in this bar on Nar Shaddaa.

Rather learn than just look. Oshin smirked at his words, though she didn’t show whether it was to mock them or to be lost in them. She hoped so, anyway. Perhaps her lips had since betrayed her gaze and the intention of her heart—like leaves in the dark between the stars.

So, neither person had a glass of liquor in their hand at that moment, and had only hands and eyes and whatever thoughts might cross their minds like Oshin’s thighs. She didn’t lean in this time. Didn’t squint, even if her eyes weren’t wide. Didn’t shift her hips, even as blood pumped under her skin to the motion of this music.

“I see…” She delayed, letting her speech linger between their faces like the heat of the liquor they had tasted. “Someone who sees me.” She inclined her head as if inviting him to take in her jawline with his gaze, never mind her crossed legs. “Maybe not all at once…”

She trailed off all over again, reaching for his hand as if it was a glass that beckoned her handprint. “But enough to know we’d both prefer to get to discover each other more rather than look or learn.” Her fingers found his. When you wanted to explore a mountain, you needed more than a map and a compass; more than vision and instrument. You needed action. “Your turn.” Her lips were rigid. Her eyes narrowed, though, as if to grin.

Aiden Porte

 

[Aiden Porte]

Oshin Jantu
​

Aiden didn’t move at first.

Her hand found his, and for a moment, that was the only gravity in the room, not the music, not the smoke, not the laughter that drifted like static from every other table. Just the weight of contact and the heat. His hand turned in hers, slow, deliberate, not claiming just cautious, just learning the terrain. Her skin was cool at first, then warmer as his hand was against hers..

“You talk like a soldier who’s seen too many maps.” he murmured. “Know that terrain means nothing until you walk it.”

His gaze held hers, steady, unblinking, and quiet in its conviction. There was no swagger to it, no practiced charm. Just that same restrained curiosity that flickered behind his eyes, something coiled but patient, like a blade that knew when not to cut.

“You’re right.” he said, voice low enough that only she could hear over the song. “Looking gets you nowhere. Learning, that’s only the start.” His hand stayed in hers, thumb brushing once across her wrist a pulse meeting a pulse. “But discovery…”

He left the rest unsaid. The way his breath caught told the story anyway.

For a second, his eyes dipped not to her lips, not to her throat, but to the space between them. The small, invisible distance that hummed like the last note of a song that hadn’t decided if it was ending or beginning.

“Your move, Oshin.” he said finally, the corner of his mouth curving again, voice a whisper with a pulse behind it. He raised the glass to his lips, taking a small drink, the last of it. “If you’re still playing.”

 

[Oshin Jantu]

Spoiler: Cantina Vibes

She didn’t flinch. Didn’t shift her digits. Simply let his search hers. Learn the terrain. Explore the warmth. As his fingers grazed, her eyes did the same with his gaze. At his words, she spread her lips more like an explorer who had witnessed too many mountains rather than a soldier who had glimpsed too many maps. Whatever that meant.

Sure, he was as flirtatious as her, the situation inviting it. Fascinating. The thought crossed her mind as she watched his face and listened to him talk. He was not like his predecessors—just about every other patron in an establishment like this with thoughts lost on his member and what he could get from her. Oh, no, this one was a bit different.

As this thumb brushed her wrist, skin on skin, suddenly her vision shifted. Skin for skin. Looking. Learning. Discovery. Merely semantics in the end, apparently, yet words meant anything, interpretation meant everything.

She wondered. Was he familiar with the veins? The arteries? Which position for his blade to take to slit the wrist and watch blood pump beside the wristwatch? Who was he targeting? Was she his prospect? Victim? Was he a nice guy? Or not quite right in the mind?

Possibilities. Uncertainties. Dangers. Adventures. After all, what else might a soldier and an explorer expect when it came to discovery? At least he wasn’t ugly. Her oceans flicked, took in his own blue hues as he lifted his glass to his lips to swig the last of it, and demanded the next play in this deft game of wits.

“Oh.” With that, Oshin slid his glass to the edge; a sure indication for the bartender to collect the emptiness that was left. “No.” She said with measured defiance in her lilt. “I was never playing.” Her fingers slid between his and tilted his grip so that her hand pressed above his. “This isn’t a game.” Yet there was a science to this amid the silence of expectation.

“But a confrontation.” She leaned forward toward him. “As much as a conversation.” Eyes into eyes. “With one win condition.” Her vision shifted, like a predator searching for fear in the face of its prey after learning. “You take me.” She insisted as her hand slid from her thigh to his to grip and squeeze. The music had since shifted. More or less. Did he hear it? “Or I take you.” Though, her vision didn’t shift that instant. Unwavering was Oshin's gaze into Aiden's.

Aiden Porte