Put It On My Tab, Bartender

[Nei Laa]

[member="Joran Del-Finn"]

Nei scowled at Joran. "Only if honour be what you eat, sleep, and breathe," she retorted. "Otherwise, it's what keeps one from being grouped with lowlife scrum who murder on a whim." The last bit was almost spat out with distaste. It didn't matter what she did, when it came to smuggling she always tried to be as trustworthy to her clients as possible, for her captain.

She took another swig from her glass as her scowl deepened. "Not true, not true. I ordered you a Reactor Core, first thing. Used a favour with bartender. That counts as payment. So, no more free drinks for you." Nei smirked at the human, pleased with herself.

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

[member="Nei Laa"]

Clearly he had struck a nerve. Joran, himself could be considered a murderer. Hell, he thought of himself as such, but he did not take her words personally. It was hard to get offended when someone told the truth.

“It, aint so bad being, scum.” he finished his glass, opened the new bottle and poured himself a new one.

Her response about the drink was another good one. The girl was clever enough. She was probably a damn good smuggler.

“Ah, who is the cheater now, Love?” he returned her smirk.

 

[Nei Laa]

[member="Joran Del-Finn"]

Kark, the liquor might be a tad slow on the kick, but when it kicked it kicked hard. Nei could feel the alcohol in her veins, and felt the buzz beginning to build up in her head.

"Says the scum himself," she retorted, taking another drink despite her better judgement.

At Joran's comment about her being a cheater, she couldn't help but snort. "Nooooo, a cheater is someone who plays dishonestly to help themselves. I still played by the rules, and lost a favour I held. Not the best exchange for a free drink, eh?" Nei finished off her ale, protesting only a little when the server droid gave her a refill.

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

[member="Nei Laa"]

“Aye, says the scum himself.” his tone was harsher than it had been. He had another sip of his drink. He shouldn’t take her words personally, and truly he didn’t, but insults, no matter how true they were, wore on him much faster after a few drinks, and so far he has had more than a few.

 

[Nei Laa]

[member="Joran Del-Finn"]

In a decidedly immature gesture that was unseemly for someone of her age, Nei set down her glass and, in a rare moment of seamless synchronization, not only gave Joran the double Nei salute, but also stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry.

Yep. Nei was starting to get drunk.

The Nautolan had no idea what made her do it, outside of the usual "booze makes me lose rationality." Perhaps it was the fact that she detected the resentment within his pheromones. Perhaps it was the fact that she picked up on his harsh tone.

Perhaps she merely wanted to see what would happen.

This was why Nei didn't drink with people she knew, especially if the drinks kept coming. Things went south, and then someone either left with a black eye or a snipped friendship or what-have-you.

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

[member="Nei Laa"]

“This, your first time out drinking?” he laughed at her. You would think, she’d never been drunk before and if this was how she acted after a few drinks, it would be surprising if she ever found work.

 

[Nei Laa]

[member="Joran Del-Finn"]

Crossing her arms grumpily, Nei glared at Joran. He clearly wasn't fazed by her gesture, which irked her mightily. "No," she snipped. "I've gone drinking plenty of times before. I just make 'em last."

As an afterthought, the female bared her teeth in an attempt to look menacing. "And don't laugh at me. I don't like it when people be laughing at me."

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

[member="Nei Laa"]

“I’ll stop laughing, the day you stop me, Love.” that was his life, her life too if she would think about it. Do what you want, until someone convinced you other wise.

 

[Nei Laa]

[member="Joran Del-Finn"]

"Nei," she said, gritting her teeth. Suddenly, a malicious smile began to spread across her face as an idea came to her.

He wanted Nei to stop him? Well, alright then.

She gripped the edge of her seat and, using all of her strength, pushed herself underneath the table. As she slid under, the Nautolan lifted her legs up and held them straight. Her goal was to get a gut kick or something, and hopefully not jar her ankle on the opposite seat.

"This outta stop you," she grunted.

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

[member="Nei Laa"]

He heaved hard as she drove a heavy kick into his gut. He could feel his insides shift and compress, the liquor threatening to come spewing back up. Still she proved how far ahead she thought. Sure she caused him a great amount of pain and discomfort, but how she was sitting now was not very good, all slunk under the table, and with her armor sitting back up would be difficult. He sacrificed pain for position. While she struggle to get back in her seat, probably smug at he small victory, he had pulled a small holdout pistol from the inside of his jacket and aimed it at her head.

 

[Nei Laa]

[member="Joran Del-Finn"]

Nei smirked as her foot made contact with flesh. Si'hklesi foh, she thought. That'll teach him to laugh at me. AND not wear armour.

Retracting her legs, the Nautolan struggled to push herself back up into the seat. She let out a soft grunt, managing to wiggle her head up. As she worked, though, she caught a slight movement out of the corner of her eye. Looking up at Joran, she froze.

The sight of the pistol aimed between her eyes sobered the Nautolan immediately, and she remained still. Not even her tresses twitched, though her mouth formed a faint "O". Though her face was blank, Nei's mind was moving furiously, attempting to calculate the best way to escape.

There was none. At least, not without a sudden connection to the Force. Even if I manage to get my visor down, there's no way I be surviving point-blank range. The thought not only sent a small bead of sweat traveling down her back, but also affirmed her opinion on dating drinking with people who bested her in fights: don't.

Inwardly, Nei was screaming every insult she'd ever heard at the human. Outwardly, though, she merely eyed the gun. "Guess we came full circle, eh? Well, what you be waiting for?" Under most circumstances, it wouldn't have been smart to goad the man holding the gun into shooting. However, her life was now in Joran's hand, and Nei knew it. And she would be karked if anyone thought she would beg for her life.

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

[member="Nei Laa"]

She sat there stone faced and defiant. Idiot, girl. First rule is always survival, if that meant begging, lying or cheating, staying alive was the most important. What was he waiting for? She asked, he didn’t want to kill her, it was just another lesson for her to learn if she was smart enough.

Joran stood up and slid out of the booth pocketing his pistol once more.

“Can’t be scum all the time, Love. Drinks are on me.” Joran dropped a few hundred credits on the table, that should cover his bottles and her drinks as well. And then he left, he didn’t look back or pause, she could think of him what ever she pleased.

 

[Nei Laa]

[member="Joran Del-Finn"]

"That's it?!" For some reason, Nei felt disappointed. After all, the man had just pointed a gun at her. But now, he was just leaving as if nothing happened?!

The disappointment was quickly followed by indignation. Surely she deserved a little more respect? Grumbling, she squirmed her way up from the table and downed the rest of her drink. Snorting-sneezing as the liquid burned her throat, the Nautolan stood up and staggered over to the human.

Before she reached him, the Nautolan suffered a sense of deja vú -- Another bar, another human. But heated words had still been exchanged, and the human had still left. Funny how things worked out like that.

Jerking at the memory, she lurched forward and caught a hold of Joran's arm to steady herself. She then swung herself around so that she was in front and grabbed his other arm. Squinting up at the man, the beratement she had been planning to deliver died before it left her lips -- something in the back of her mind told her that pushing any more buttons would result in her death.

So, instead, she grunted, "Fine. Fine. You not scum. Lowlife? Maybe. How should I know? But you not scum. Okay? Okay." Nei fell silent then, waiting to see what the response would be. If it was fairly decent, then she would continue on to her next question -- something which she wouldn't have asked had she not had any drinks in her system.

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

[member="Nei Laa"]

She stumbled over and got right in his face, she looked as if she was going to start another fight between them, before thinking better of it. He looked her full in the face, she was a cute girl if you could get past her shit attitude and the fact that she smelled of a distillery.

He was scum and that was the truth of it. Clearly she misunderstood, what exactly it was she did wrong. Was it his place to teach her? It was his place to do what ever he wanted, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to teach her anything. Every lesson he imparted, she ignored.

He thought of tearing into her, of hitting her, of kissing her. But why? He figured this was the closest she could come to apologizing and it would be unbecoming to turn her away or throw it in her face.

“Alright then, yeah.” his tone wasn’t quite as jovial as it had been, but it didn’t hold anger or resentment either.

 

[Nei Laa]

[member="Joran Del-Finn"]

"Good."

And, without further ado, Nei asked a question which she rarely asked others: "Teach me," she blurted out.

Ah, kriff. She'd have to explain what she meant, else things would get messy. "What you did. That move. Moves. When we fought. Uh." Her courage dwindling, Nei released one of his arms and snatched a drink off of a passing server droid. She drained the glass and coughed slightly before setting it down on a nearby table.

Ignoring the looks that the other patrons were giving them, she continued, "Those leg moves. And the flip thing. Teach me."

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

[member="Nei Laa"]

He watched her as she fumbled about asking him for fighting lessons, it was clear the only thing she did less than apologize, was ask for help. It was cute-ish, in smile doses it could probably be overlooked by someone who cared enough to do so, but it could also get very annoying if one had to rely on her, he supposed.

“Aye. I can do that, not tonight . Tonight I think, we would be in business for whole different set of leg stuff, yeah?” he smiled, back to his ever charming self.

“You, get a hold of me, when your sober and you tell me, if you still want me to, ‘teach’ you, right?”

 

[Nei Laa]

[member="Joran Del-Finn"]

Nei scowled in confusion. "What other leg stuff?" A halfbeat later, though, she shook her head. "Never mind. It probably be something I don't wanna know."

Nonetheless, her tresses twitched slightly in satisfaction when he agreed to teach her. Maybe, in due time, she could even beat him in a match. "Good. Good. Um." Not knowing what else to do, she patted his arm awkwardly, if a bit hard, and let go, staggering back some. "Bye."

With that, she turned, pausing a bit as her surroundings spun some, and began to somewhat drunkenly sashay out of the hovel. I hope I make it back to my ship.