Red & Black

[Sabetha Tag]

Hyperspace​

Sabetha sprawled out in the pilot's chair. Her feet were kicked up on the dash of the freighter.

Such a pile of junk and she knew it, but there was a better than average chance what she and Hira had planned would ruin it anyway. With a cargo of anti-matter and their sights set on a data center on Sullust, Sabetha had every intention of stealin' something nicer when this was over. But having the i's dotted and the t's crossed, with legal transponders and everything, would be helpful for getting onto the previously Alliance held world. Even with the Alliance itself shattered, Sullust might be a tough nut to crack. If she were them, she would turtle right up, and demand proper ID from every little ship that came into that system. Course, she wasn't them (thank Maw), so they'd have to see how that place had faired once they got there.

Right now, however, Sabetha wasn't thinking about that.

That emerald gaze was distant, gazing out the front viewport at the streaming lights of hyperspace as they traveled. Softly, absently, she hummed to herself, every bone and muscle in her body relaxed. She'd been free for only a couple of days, but what a difference those few days had made. Cleaned up, comfortable clothes, couple good meals in her. The ability to simply get up and do what she wanted, when she wanted? She hummed the way a cat purred when it was happy, a slight smile on her face as she tilted her head to follow a particularly bright line across the view.

[member="Hira Mitsae"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sabetha Tag"]

Where Sabetha was comfortable and relaxed she would have noticed early on that Hira had an energy to her.

Wild.

Uncontrolled.

It propelled her forward and forward, never giving enough room to properly relax and settle down. Instead Hira wanted to go forward (into the breach or wherever the action was). The closer they came to the day of action, the more energy there seemed to be. Right now it seemed to be all that Hira could do not to bounce around her seat, instead focusing herself and humming to the song that Sabetha was humming as well. A lower tone, more scratchy, but accenting it nicely.

"You know." She tapped the sensor display a bit, before resettling herself for the sixth time. "I know ya said ya was gon' join me 'ere, but am still surprised ya did."

It wouldn't have surprised her if Sabetha would have bowed out.

One thing to agree to something when in captivity and freedom was a fantasy. Another when it was already in your grasp, to willingly go back to the lion's den.

 

[Sabetha Tag]

Sabetha had noticed. While the redhead had her own sort of energy about her, it tended toward the relaxed, the laid back. Potential energy, ready to move and act on a moment if needed, but held in reserve, never knowing when it would be needed. While Hira was nothing but one big ball of kinetic energy, refilled from some deep well of constant motion. Sabetha smiled to herself, wondering if it'd be possible to bottle and sell that and how much of a mint she'd make if she could manage it.

"Surprised me that you invited me, so we're even," Sab said lazily, her eyes still closed. She didn't have to see the other woman to feel her motions in the cock pit.

"Look, I like people. I like company," she continued, yawning and stretching then, arms going high and wide over her head before back down, finger tips just brushing Hira's shoulder.

"If I have a choice between company and not, ninety nine times outta a hundred I'm gonna pick another person to relax with." She shrugged then, eyes opening at the end of the yawn.

"Helps that you're good company," she added on, grinning widely, look a little sly out of the corner of her eye at the other woman.

"You, however, don't strike me as someone who craves company for company's sake."

[member="Hira Mitsae"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sabetha Tag"]

It had surprised her too.

Before Kalad she would have dropped Sabetha like a stone after escaping or hell, maybe even before it. Make one little promise and then never think of her again. That would have been her MO. Not out of spite, but simply out of deep-set... ambiguity. Why Hira did the things she did (or Pike for that matter) was even beyond her. Not something she wanted to think about too much, not someone who internalized a lot. No, there was too much opportunity for movement, for action.

Why think when you can do?

"Surprised me too." Hira admitted sheepishly as she leaned into the stroke just a bit, before shifting positions again and leaning heavily against her elbow. The one closer to Sab, das true. "Now ya just stroking mah ego, Sabby Two, dontcha think I dun' see that." But the sly grin was answered with a wink of her own.

"Naw. Can't say that I do. People are fine? Usually? But uhhhh."

A scratch of her neck. It was clear that Hira didn't put a lot of time to think about these sort of things.

"They dun' really keep up with me, ya dig?"

 

[Sabetha Tag]

"I'd stroke somethin' else but still waitin' on that verdict."

It came easy and immediate. A tease, a flirt. A serious offer in there too but without particular pressure. Hira had said the jury was out after all. Sabetha? Already interested.

Sabetha lolled her head to the side slightly, glancing over at the other woman for a moment, but not long enough to give the previous comment weight if it wasn't wanted, before her eyes went back to the dancing lights.

"I imagine yer a hard person to keep up with."

She didn't say the rest. How much of it was because Hira didn't want someone to keep up with her? How much of it was that she put on that extra speed, so to speak, instead of slowing down a half step for someone to catch up? Oh, Sabetha enjoyed a bit of back and forth, some game. But Hira, she suspected, was looking to get chased. And that just wasn't Sabetha's style. Oh, she'd follow, give as good as she got.

But Sabetha?

Preferred people to meet her halfway. Run too hard, too fast, she'd take you at your word and let you.

"Anyone manage it? Keepin' up with you I mean."

[member="Hira Mitsae"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sabetha Tag"]

"Only one is six feet down the ground on Sundari."

Truth be told Kalad had made her slow down, made her see reason and even now she wasn't sure why he had done that. Put the time into it, the effort. Just because Pike had been an excellent killer which made a perfect partner for a mercenary? Maybe. But sometimes she wondered. Why else would he have adopted her right before his murder? Oh, yeah, she had received that missive. Back-dated a week and delivered to her hands just at a moment when she couldn't do anything about it anymore.

That HoloNet missive was still burning a hole.

A snort then, when she mentioned stroking something else. "Mm, maybe I will let ya." A thoughtful pause there. "If ya survive dis, maybe I will let ya do more than da'."

Another wink there, before she settled down again.

This time Hira relaxed a bit.

"Mhm. But the ones dat can? They worth it all."

 

[Sabetha Tag]

Sabetha didn't push. Oh, sometimes she did. Just not here and now. Not with this.

This was the second invitation that had been deflected or delayed. That meant, as far as Sabetha was concerned, that ball was in Hira's court now. Continuing to push after that was just obnoxious at best. Didn't mean she wouldn't flirt- that was just part of who and what she was. But she keyed it back out of blatant invitation because of all the things Sabetha was, that kind of pushy was not it. Either Hira was interested or she wasn't. Simple as that. She wasn't a chaser, wasn't a pusher.

Besides, woman had just told her about someone who mattered that died. Sure she didn't seem fussed over it, but that was something to respect, yeah?

Of course, Sabetha read it wrong and assumed 'partner' in a very different way than they had been. But without sufficient info, that couldn't be a completely surprise.

"Wanna talk about 'em or nah?"

Her tone was easy, relaxed. There wasn't pressure there. If Hira didn't want to? That was fine. Sabetha was curious, partly because she liked Hira but also partly because she was just interested in people in general. What they liked, what they didn't, what made them tick.

[member="Hira Mitsae"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sabetha Tag"]

Had Hira realized just what Sabetha thought when it came to her 'partner' she might have choked in her candy cane.

Instead she hummed a bit, shifting, legs finding a place on the terminal where it was comfortable and wouldn't suddenly engage the turbolaser without warning. Hira wasn't ignoring Sabetha, instead she was thinking, considering really just what to reply to it. How to... explain it. In truth she wasn't the best with people. They were complicated, sometimes annoying, slow (so slow) and ugh annoying. Shysa had been one of the worst when it came to that.

Specifically because Kalad had almost always been right.

Annoying thing that.

"Kalad had my back. Literally sometimes too." That shite-eating grin when an explosion had rocked her off her feet and he caught her. "He was.... well, he wasn't good. Mandalorian, eh? Killed without much fuss an' chit, but he had 'is code. Was fierce too. One of the best fighters I have seen. Chit he could do with his tin can he calls a helmet...."

Shake of the head.

"Stick in da mud tho. Over a hundred years ol' he was, Morellian, yeah? So sharing a drink was never all da fun. Ya said ya never had a partner?"

 

[Sabetha Tag]

"Hundred years? Dang. Respect."

Her tone was a touch surprised. Oh yeah, Sabetha was entirely missing what kind of partner here.

"Eh not like that, nah. Not someone you could count on. Even the people I was with, wasn't ever like that, ya know?" She snorted, head tilting back and eyes a bit distant.

"There were a couple times I thought, maybe. Always let me down though. Learned early. Just got used to it so I made sure I had my own back, ya know?"

Own back, own heart. If you don't protect yourself no one will.

"Never give more than I can afford to, dig? Now, I got a lot ta give, but never so much I was takin' from myself. Good way to end up with all yer chit sold while you are out of the apartment."

That one was specific enough it was clear it wasn't a metaphor.

[member="Hira Mitsae"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sabetha Tag"]

"Eh, he probably would'a outlived me, dem Morellian genetics are cray."

Wasn't even a joke.

Mostly because Hira didn't really expect to live for a very, very old age, if she was honest with herself. The type of chit she got up to? Nah, not possible. Kalad had been an expert at staying alive, but that was because he had been cautious. The only reason he got himself in was because he let his heritage blind him. Figured that it was something worth dying for. Why it mattered what some schutta was doing with some throne on Sundari was beyond her, but it had mattered to Kalad.

Even if he hadn't been quite the Mandalorian soldier some wanted him to be.

A nod then. "Yah, I feel ya, Kalad came as a surprise fo'sure." She shrugged and sighed, leaning back deeper. "It took him a while to convince me we worked well together. Dunno why he didn't just give up." It would have been easier for him, that much Hira knew for sure.

"All yer chit sold... whatcha do when da happen?"

Oh, Hira might be dense in some ways, but that was waaaaaaaaaay too specific for sure.

 

[Sabetha Tag]

"Uhhhhh..... remember that 'quick stop' I had to make on Terminus, where you waited outside?"

Sabetha shot Hira a conspiratorial smirk. The redhead had come out of that stop pissed off but also self satisfied. At the time, she hadn't explained beyond 'got some work to do once we have a bit more cash, but hey, I'm buying first round.' Hira hadn't asked at the time where the money had come from, cause free booze was free booze. Once Hira nodded, Sabetha's grin grew.

"I bashed her silly face into her table and took the cash she had on hand. Dumb snit couldn't help it, addiction's a schutta, but hell if I was gonna pretend it was fine, dig?"

Hadn't been a lot of money, but then, Sabetha knew her stuff hadn't been worth that much. It wasn't the point though, how much it would cost her to get it all back. The point was that it was HERS.

Sabetha stretched again, this time her hands finding their way behind the back of her head before she leaned back again.

"That one wasn't personal. Wasn't an addict when I met her, but that's how addiction works. Can't trust most people most of the time, but addicts are a special kind of unreliable."

[member="Hira Mitsae"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sabetha Tag"]

Snort.

Hira didn't really understand the attachment Sab had to her stuff.

It was just stuff, right? It almost felt like the attachment she had to her prosthetics and other body-ware, except that those things were part of her, they were her in some ways. The amount of money she had poured into them over the years, the maintenance, the customization? At that point they were as much a part of her as her natural limbs and organs. Hell, Hira would argue that they were more a part of her, because she had chosen each and every one of them.

That gave 'em way more rights than her regular ones in her opinion.

"Naw, I get that part at least." Hira had already giggled once at the attachment chit. "If ya let it go once, word spread an' suddenly every little chit decides that they can get away with it, eh? So best to make a message right there an' there, I feel ya."

That wasn't something Hira would ever argue about.

Then something clicked.

Click.

Head tilted. "Why did ya partner have access to ya chit anyway? I'd have bashed Kalad's head in, iff'n he ever tried to touch mah gear."

 

[Sabetha Tag]

Sabetha's attachment to her stuff was complicated, but it boiled down to a pretty basic idea.

She'd grown up on the street with nothing. What little she'd had? It had been taken by the Silver Jedi when she'd joined. Not because of anything like 'attachment'. But because it had been 'trash'. It hadn't been taken and put aside or anything like that. It had been taken and incinerated. In hind sight? Yeah for sure, the clothes she'd been wearing were literal rags. They were trash. But that wasn't the point now was it? They'd had no right to take those things and throw them out without asking her. Stuff like that at a young age tended to stick with you. Sure, she could let her stuff go if she needed to, really needed to. But there were a couple of things she'd managed to not just get a hold of but hold on to.

And that meant something when in her experience the entire galaxy was out there, hoping to take something away from you.

She snorted. "My point is that she WASN'T a partner. Not like ya had in yer boy. Wouldn't call her a partner at all really, not in any way. But at the time she had an apartment and I, well, I didn't. She said I could move in. Didn't mean much to Charsi, cause she was almost never there anyway. But when the choice is sleeping in fighter cockpit and sleeping in a bed, gonna take that bed. She figured I was there anyway so why keep kicking me out when we were done. I wasn't fussed either way. Yeah I lived there but we weren't together. Not really either of our styles."

Sabetha didn't keep much back. She was what she was.

[member="Hira Mitsae"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sabetha Tag"]

There was a silence there for a moment.

Trying to piece things together, because it all sounded... very weird? True, Sabetha wasn't a mercenary like her, so maybe things were different in her areas? And yet... and yet that didn't seem to be the case. Her thoughts briefly went back to how this conversation had started and how every conversation about Kalad had gone in the past. In truth it took her way too long to connect the dots for something as simple and basic as this. She would presumably hold this in shame for years to come.

She groaned inwardly.

"Um. Sab." How to approach this as delicately as possible? "What do you exactly think Kalad was to me?"

Inwardly Hira almost gagged.

Kalad? Yuck. He had been more like an overbearing dad than anything else. Ugh. Gross. Ugh, ugh, ugh uuuuuugh. Sabetha really had her head in the gutter too much. Way too much. Clearly none of this was her fault and she had been completely clear about this relationship.

Ew.

 

[Sabetha Tag]

Sabetha too her hands out from behind her head, putting them up in front of her and shrugging her shoulders.

"Look lady, I ain't judging. You can call it whatever you want, some people don't name it at all."

With where the conversation had started and where it had gone, it was entirely logical to Sabetha to assume they'd been lovers. And if he'd died, especially kinda recently? Also explained the continued deflections by the dark haired woman. She understood entirely. Sure, she didn't get attached to people the same way she got attached to her chit (didn't own people, after all, especially not the ones you kark), she still understood what that ache of loss felt like.

All the more reason to give her that space, right? Not that there needed to be a reason. No one owed anyone reason on this sort of thing. Wasn't to say Sabetha didn't like to know, she sure as feth did.

"I think your doing great, considering wasn't that long ago by the sound of it."

[member="Hira Mitsae"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sabetha Tag"]

Oh, no.

Part of her had hoped that she was just being dumb and reading into things. That it wasn't that bad and that things weren't as... ugh ugh ugh, but nooooo apparently Sabetha was most definitely thinking that Kalad and her had been...

Seriously even the thought was enough to make Hira almost gag involuntarily.

"Sab. Sabby. Sabetha, hun. I did not eeeeeeever fuck that man." She allowed herself to shudder just a little bit. "He was like a da to me, ya? Nah. That is what he thought. More like a really fething insistent little chitty brother who thought he had it all figured out." Yeah, that fit better. Da, really? She shuddered again and then laughed. The laugh wasn't as free and hard as it could get. But there was a certain sense of joy and relief in it that this was being cleared up.

"Good feth, I am glad we sorted this out, cus... good feth."

A shake of the head.

If she was counting right she hadn't karked anyone since that Hapan Duch'a.

That had been a fun one, tho.

 

[Sabetha Tag]

Sabetha blinked and tilted her head at Hira.

For one, the level of the reaction seemed very 'she doth protest too much' for the situation. But that dove tailed into the second part where Sabetha had never once had a relationship like that with someone. Male, female, other, the familial bond had been slapped down far too many years ago and honestly Sabetha didn't remember what it felt like. As far as she was concerned people either a) screwed her over or b ) left eventually. Friends, co-workers, lovers, sure. But nothing that put emotions into if they stayed or not.

Couldn't afford it.

So she didn't really get the strong reaction here.

She respected it? But didn't get it. And that showed.

"Um, okay okay. I get it. I believe you. Breath yah?"

Sabetha grinned. "Don't choke on the chocolate, or I'll have to give you mouth to mouth."

[member="Hira Mitsae"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sabetha Tag"]

There seemed to be a hint of disbelief running from Sabetha and for some reason that annoyed Hira.

Like.

Why was it so hard to believe that she had a friend? Someone that she cared about? And he was male, yes. Hira was a lot of things- headstrong, (deadly), focused and driven, suicidal sometimes and absolutely bonkers when it came to getting a hit of the adrenaline. But. She could be nice! Really. Even if the relationship between Kalad and her consisted mostly of him cautioning her, her ignoring him and both of them being mildly annoyed with one another throughout the years.

It had worked out, no?

Then Sabetha was back to flirting with her and Hira just UGH'ed. "Oh good lord, c'mere." Her hand reached out quickly, grabbing a full part of the front of her shirt and half yanked Sab towards her. Meeting her in the middle she'd press a kiss against her lips.

Hard, deep, sharing just a bit of the hunger that always drove Hira forward.

"Dat should keep ya warm 'til the end of the mission." Detaching herself and flopping back down in the seat while smirking satisfied. Within a moment's notice her attention was back at the sensor array.

 

[Sabetha Tag]

Sabetha's eyes widened, hands coming up because to be honest, for a moment there she thought the other woman was about to hit her.

Instead?

"Murfle."

She didn't move for a second, more than a little surprised (if pleasantly so, after all, not getting socked in the mouth for being a smart arse was nice enough on its own). After a heartbeat, she returned the kiss in kind. Brief but hard, she was left blinking and offering a slow whistle as Hira let go and leaned back. Emerald eyes swept over the other woman for a moment.

"You, lady, give the most mixed karking signals I have ever encountered," Sabetha said with a satisfied smirk of her own. Shaking her head, she chuckled. With a kick of her feet, she was leaning back herself, boots up on the dash and hands back behind her head.

"As far as ways to be told to shut up go, that's a decent one. Won't work, I'll jus' talk about something else, but we can kick that topic out the airlock if you'd like."

[member="Hira Mitsae"]

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Sabetha Tag"]

Honestly when it came to Hira it could be one or the other at a moment's shift, so nobody could really blame Sabetha for being cautious right there and then.

"I thrive on being surprising and difficult to... pin down." The console beeped and for a moment Hira was distracted away from her. One eye squinted open, glanced across the readings, before grunting and closing it once more. "Gonna be there in half an hour, should probably go and get ready soon." They hadn't been using the main hyperlane towards Sullust. Instead they had picked their way through smuggler routes and other backwater paths, mostly to keep their approach as uneventful as possible. Alliance space (former Alliance) was a gorram mess these days after the Sith got done riding them. Pirates everywhere, smugglers, but some of the main planets still managed to keep order.

Mostly.

"Wanna chat about our approach? See what we do?"

Honestly, that wasn't her style. She preferred to just... wing it and see what happened, but honestly that worked better when you worked alone. Or when you were working with someone you were used to. When actions were closely aligned and synced up.

This was neither.

"I kinda want to crash the ship into their building...." Deadpan expression.