Please Hold your Applause

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Rawnie shrugged in response. If she was going to be around a drunk, she needed to drink too. She couldn't really handle drunk people without alcohol in her first.

"So will you on the couch tonight then?" she asked, "I doubt this ships big enough for two bedrooms."

Rawnie would be fine enough just crashing out here, honestly. She often slept on the floor of the cabin by the fire back home. Wrapped in furs, she was just fine. Besides, the hard wood was good for her back anyway.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane nodded a little bit drunkenly, and smiled at Rawnie.​

​

"There's enough space to house like, six people. That room's just the only one with furniture in it."​

​

He finished his bottle and practically fell off the couch, onto his back on the floor.​

​

"Y'know what? I'mma sleep right here. You get the bed. No different than me sleepin' in a chair at my workbench every night."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

"You can not possibly be drunk already."

She finished off her bottle, knowing that in about ten, maybe twenty minutes, she'd certainly be drunk at least. But Lorane? He seemed like he at least could hold his liquor.

"Alright, if you really want me in your bed tonight-" she cut herself off. Phrasing. "I mean, sleeping in your bed."
No. Still no good. She cleared her throat and tried again.
"I mean using your bed. To sleep on."

Better.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane groggily pointed at Rawnie and a sideways grin wormed its way onto his face.​

​

"I'd agree with you, 'cept I've been drinking since the bar opened this morning..."​

​

His eyes narrowed as his drunk brain had another thought.​

​

"... Wait, was that a failed double entendre I heard? Bad Icy. No more booze for you."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

"Wait, wait, wait, wait... wait. Wait."

She waved her hand, words starting to slur a little.

"Are you sayin', you were already drunk when you flew the ship? You were drunk flying?"

It was almost enough to sober her. Almost, but she was only getting sillier by the second.

"No more of that, k?"

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane poked Rawnie's leg, laughing as only the drunk laugh.​

​

"I fly all sorts of places drunk. I mean, these boots were meant to fly me 'round. Chit, I mess around with machines when I'm drunk. Being drunk is a pretty uplifting experience for me."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The mando wasn't going to accept this again. She'd fly Bluebird herself if she had to, but she was not going to die in some stupid drunk flying accident.

"You've got some problems, you know that?"

Of course he did. Everyone had problems. Not most of the time, people didn't decide that the way to solve these problems was to stay in a constant state of drunkenness.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane grimaced as he sat up and pulled another bottle out of the fridge.​

​

"Yeah. I'm quite aware of that, Rawnie. I'm my problem. I ran off to Chroma Zed to be a useless drunk, and ended up as a trigger-happy maniac of a drunk. And then I had a girl who liked to flirt with me, get me smashed, and then steal my stuff. Then she disappeared, and I ended up lying around on Zed again. This was the first time I've been on this ship in almost a year, and the last time was to chase after her for stealing my other ship."​

​

He looked at Rawnie and felt himself almost crying.​

​

"Y'know, the only part of myself I don't loathe is the part that makes me build things to shoot people with. I even hate my goddamn medical license, because my parents put me through it, and then I left."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Rawnie wished she could say why she did what she did next. Probably the alcohol. Yes. She liked to blame it all on that one bottle she had. Maybe she wanted to do something to stop the tears. Rawnie did hate crying. Or maybe, for some reason, explainable, she felt... something. Anything at all. For him. Friendship was odd. But for whatever reason she did it, Rawnie leaned in to wrap her arms around him.

"Let me tell you a secret, Lorane," she whispered, "Everyone has problems. The key is figuring out what yours are. Looks like you have that much done, at least. I'd say you're in much better shape than most of this Galaxy."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane put down his bottle to hug Rawnie back. It didn't really feel as weird as he'd thought it might. His voice dropped to a whisper as he answered her.​

​

"Knowing that you're sick doesn't help you not be sick. It just makes sure you can't ignore it anymore. I miss ignoring my problems and just stealing whatever the frak I wanted. And, y'know, I miss drinking for fun. Now I do it to keep myself from getting mopey. Clearly failed at that, because you somehow ended up comforting me."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

And now they were hugging. It was practically cuddling at this point. She didn't know what to do now. She was not trained to handle social situations like this. She awkwardly pat his back.

"I don't mind comforting," she expertly lied, "It's what partners are for."

Yeah. Partners. Just partners. Keep it professional.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane shrugged as Rawnie answered him and he gestured towards the bottle of Gargle Blaster still sitting near his leg.​

​

"I think partners might also be for stepping on my arms and legs until my hung-over ass wakes up in the morning. Comforting is wonderful, and important, but you gotta make sure of other details... like getting me up for work."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

So, kicking his shebs awake in the morning. Alright. She could do that. It was a fair trade off for his help. She nodded and quickly let go of his, breaking the embrace. Now she felt awkward. Awkward and drunk. Great.

"I think I've had to much..."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane nodded with somewhat drunken understanding. He gently nudged Rawnie towards the couch, and then leaned his back on the bottom of it.​

​

"Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, that tends to happen around me. Everybody just spontaneously becomes smushed... Errr... smushed? That's not the word. Words are hard. Like, y'know... bullets?"​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Rawnie wasn't really listening anymore. She curled up on the couch, woozy and sleepy now. As he jabbered on about... words, Rawnie felt her eyelids get heavy. She closed them, slipping off into sleep before he had even finished talking, her head nestled in her arms, curled up like a nexu.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane looked up from his drunken reverie.​

​

"Rawnie?"​

​

The Chiss looked up and saw the blonde Mando on the couch. He clumsily undid his coat and dropped it over her like a blanket.​

​

"Sleep tight, Ice Girl."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Sleep always came easy for Rawnie. She was good at banishing the guilt of the day, keeping her mind clear so that sleep would find her easy. She did not dream that night though, or at least, if she did, she had no recollection of her dreams in the morning. Whatever counted as morning on a ship, at least.

But when she awoke the next day, the first thing she noticed the the coat draped over her like a blanket. The second thing she noticed was the distinct scent of it's owner. Not a bad scent, of course. It was pleasant, in fact. Unique. The only way she could think to describe it to herself was; Distinctly blue.
She smiled, pulled the coat all the way up to her chin, adjusted her position on the couch and closed her eyes again.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane somewhat regretted the fact that he'd fallen asleep next to the couch. Not because of Rawnie breathing into his ear. That was okay. Even though he pretty much didn't want to sleep with her, she was still a cute girl with violent tendencies. Awesome. What he was regretting was his relative distance to the room that he'd converted into a kitchen. He needed coffee.​

​

The Chiss crawled towards the kitchen, managing to pick himself up off the ground by leaning on a counter. He hit a remote, and the coffee machine began to whirr pleasantly. Cool.​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

She heard movement. Him. So he'd been alseep out here too. Why didn't he go take the bed when he realized she'd passed out on the couch? Well, it didn't matter. He was nice enough to lend her his coat for the night. It was plenty warm for her. Rawnie was used to sleeping in cold places with even less than this.
She opened her eyes.

"Morning. Hung over?"

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane smiled tiredly at Rawnie as he grabbed the mostly-full carafe of coffee.​

​

"Not like I need to be hung over to drink coffee, but yeah, I'm plenty hung over. You?"​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​