Private Rust & Hunger

[Lily Rhodes]

“Aww, come on, that was funny!”

Lily thought it was at least, she threw her hands up in mock despair before moving to catch up with him. He was so serious, a little laugh might actually do him some good. Maybe he’d forgotten how. Well, Lily had the whole night to poke at him, maybe she’d make him crack…or maybe he’d throw her through a wall, it really was anyone’s guess.

The noise got quieter, the press against her barriers easing as they shifted to a part of the Vergeworks that felt off the beaten track, or as much as it could do on an industrial planet. The safe house was unremarkable by design, Lily didn’t need to know Ace to know that.

It was clean and functional which was the best Lily could really hope for. She slid her own jacket off as Ace moved for the kitchenette, gently setting it on top of his as her eyes scanned the shelves, most pieces she recognised. She’d never been much of a mechanic, but she’d spent the last few years learning. Maintaining and repairing your own ship saved a lot of credits.

Every street kid had to find their own way to survive. For Lily, it had been about being fast, about reading the room and seeing the fight before it broke out, and about being able to spot the valuables worth lifting. Acier? A scrapper. In both senses, she was willing to bet. The way people thought about him when they passed said he had a rep before he claimed whatever seat he was sitting in now.

"If you tell anyone about this, I'll have to kill you."

Lily blinked and looked round at him. “Acier Moonbound, did you just make a fucking joke?” she put her hand to her heart, mock surprise on her face. “I might die of shock.”

She dropped her hand grinning before moving to the kitchenette, helping herself to a glass and following suit with the Slush, before settling herself onto the sofa and kicking her boots off.

“You grew up here a scrapper and now you’ve come back to what? Call yourself king of the shithole that made you?” She took a drink, watching him, the blue glow from the datapad illuminating his face. “Why?”


Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace simply glanced at her for a moment when she commented on the joke. The look lingered just long enough to acknowledge it before his attention returned to the datapad.

The faint blue glow reflected across his freckled features as he continued scrolling through reports, messages, and figures. He heard her drop onto the couch behind him and kick off her boots. A few seconds later came the question.

Ace's thumb paused briefly against the screen.

"Reading my mind again?" He asked dryly, the sarcasm subtle but unmistakable.

He resumed scrolling. For a moment, the only sounds were the quiet hum of the safehouse and the occasional tap of his thumb against the datapad.

"I killed the guy who ran this city a while back. It left a power vacuum I didn't know about until a little while ago." His tone remained matter-of-fact and detached. "So I came back and fixed it."

He didn't mention of Tessk, the bounty, or the responsibility that had settled on his shoulders the moment he'd realized what his actions had left behind.

Ace scrolled a little further before continuing, eyes remaining on the screen. "Vergeworks is the most stable it's ever been. Lot of orphans'll get to have an easier time growing up than I did."

That was all he offered. No speech about justice, no grand vision, just a statement. Finally, he set the datapad down on the counter and turned enough to look at her properly.

Brown eyes studied her for a second. Then one brow lifted slightly.

"You trying to make conversation." He asked, "Or is there an angle here?"

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily shook her head and tipped her head against the back of the sofa. "I don't need to read your mind or anyone else's to figure that one out." Her eyes moved around the room again listening to his answer.

The way he spoke like it was just business, emotionless and detached from it all. Yet what he spoke of should've meant more. To kill a kingpin that no doubt had sway over his life growing up and then to stand in his shoes...that wasn't nothing.

She lifted her head up at the mention of orphans, watching him again, wandering if he was actually reading what he was looking at or if he was just using it as a way to hide.

"I see." She said slowly, reading between the lines. A power vacuum meant chaos, the next layer of command all vying for the same spot, schisms, gangs wars. Suffering for the people at the bottom. Because it was always the people at the bottom who suffered most when power waged war.

As former bottom feeders, they knew that better than anyone else.

So the question was, did he feel guilty about the mess he'd made and stepped up to asuage it. Or was there something else driving it, some grand vision where Bonadon was more than just a scrap pile at the edge of the Galaxy.

She met his gaze with a small smile on her face. "Well, one of us has to make an effort, if you had it your way we'd probably be sitting in silence all night and that would be boring."

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace studied her for a moment. Her small smile, the ease in her posture, and the fact she'd somehow reached the point where she was actively trying to pull conversation out of him. She was getting too comfortable.​

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The answer that followed wasn't amusing in the slightest. A resigned sigh escaped him and he finally rubbed a hand through his ashen locs, pushing them back from his face.​

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"Yeah, of course you'd say that." There was a faint edge of irritation in his voice now. "After dealing with people all day, you think I wanna spend my time off doing more talking?"​

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He pushed himself up from the desk before she could answer. The datapad was abandoned entirely as he crossed the apartment toward the kitchenette.​

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"You've seen this place."​

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He opened one of the cupboards and pulled out two packets of instant ramen a second later.​

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"Half of what I do is solving someone else's problem."​

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Ace filled a kettle and set it to boil, then glanced back over his shoulder.​

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"You're an adult." The statement was delivered with complete seriousness. "You can't entertain yourself?"​

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He turned back toward the counter before she could throw something at him and began preparing the ramen like the question he'd just asked was perfectly reasonable.​

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Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily’s smile faltered, a brief flicker of sadness crossed her expression at his attempt to shut her down before it vanished just as quickly. “I actually think you’ve probably said more in this room than you have all day. Pretty sure you typically live in the realm of monosyllabic responses and use single words like they are a whole fucking sentence.”

She wasn’t backing off, if anything his dismissal and his refusal to give her any kind of conversation just made her more determined.

“I am entertaining myself.” That little smile widened ever so slightly. She pushed herself up off the sofa, moving to lean against the desk and plucking up the datapad he’d been looking at, skimming idly through it.

“Literally everywhere I have gone since you got my off Coruscant I have run into one piece of shit or another from your little cult. Except Naboo, but I just got harassed there,” her mind drifted to Cora and she smiled “mostly anyway...”

The datapad bored her and she dropped it back on the desk folding her arms and watching Acier busy himself with making ramen. “Are you not even a little bit curious?”

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Bonadan - Vergeworks

Equipment:
Apprentice Attire | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm

Ace continued working without looking at her. Water simmered softly in the pot while he divided ingredients, and a sigh escaped him. She was exhausting.

What she said about the way he talked wasn't exactly wrong. Most people seemed to think he was quiet because he disliked conversation or didn't know how to hold one. The former was partially true, but mainly, it was because Ace spoke when he thought something was worth saying. That habit had been forged long in him during childhood.

On Bonadan, silence had been survival. Watching mattered more than talking, information had value, so did attention - drawing the wrong kind of attention could get you hurt.

It was just part of him now. Not that he intended to explain any of that to Lily.

Ace glanced over his shoulder when she added that she was entertaining herself. His eyes narrowed slightly. She was leaning against his desk and reading his datapad. Actually skimming through it. The sight alone made something tighten behind his eyes. The balls on this girl.

He turned back toward the stove before he said something. Behind him, Lily continued talking. Covenant this. Covenant that. Running into another piece of shit from his "cult". Naboo. Harassment. More commentary. The words blurred together.

The ramen was finally finished. Ace reached for two bowls and portioned everything out evenly. Only then did he turn around.

"I don't care." The answer landed flat and immediate.

His metallic hand lifted one bowl while the second rose from the counter on its own. The bowl drifted smoothly across the room under the grip of telekinesis, stopping a short distance in front of Lily and hovering there expectantly for her to take it.

Ace kept hold of his own, shifting his gaze from Lily, to the datapad, then back to Lily again. The look in his eyes had changed, and the easy indifference was gone.

"Just a reminder." His voice remained calm, which somehow made it worse. "You're a guest. You don't live here. Don't ever touch or look through my private shit again without asking."

Ace held her gaze. There was no smirk, no dry humor, no teasing. Nothing to soften the words.

"You understand?"

Then, after a moment, he grabbed a fork and began eating - his easy indifference returning.

"You need an off-switch."

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

"I don't care."

Lily’s smile faded, slipping behind an equally stoney facade as she regarded Acier. If she took it at face value, it was believable. His tone, his delivery, the indifference that came so easily to him. It was believable.

Maybe her first assessment on Coruscant was right, she was just something to offset the guilt, that was the only reason he saved her. Her eyes moved to the bowl, which she took without taking her eyes off him, the unspoken threat regarding snooping in his privacy landing heavily between them.

For a moment, she said nothing, leaning against the desk with the steaming bowl of ramen in her hands, the heat slowly seeping through the ceramic to warm her fingers. Only when it became unbearable to hold anymore did she finally move, sucking in a hiss of breath before shifting the sleeves of her top to protect her hands and moving back to the sofa.

“Thanks.” She muttered.

She lifted the fork and started eating, keeping her gaze down. Apparently, Acier had found the off switch, and Lily was absolutely sulking about it.

Acier Moonbound