Private Stomachs A-Growlin'

[Colette]

Shan

Instant mood change. Colette looked up at Shan with wide eyes.

"That's so cool." She said and straightened herself out again. "They are such fierce but proud creatures, and you just managed to ride one just like that?"

"And I mean, Ataru is trash, but tell me more about the animals right now."

 

[Shan]

"I mean...I had to use the Force, so it wasn't that cool. I mean, even you could do something like this." Shan played it down slightly, but he did break out into a cheeky little grin at how excited Colette was over it all as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Knight Si wanted Braze and I to race in whatever way we could, to get to the training grounds...and I decided to get creative. I've been working on building my connection to animals because of you, so I thought I'd try to bond with it. Let it know what I wanted to do, and let it know that it didn't have to do it. But it did, it let me hop onto it...and then decided to run all over the place."

Colette

 

[Colette]

Shan

It was as if the boy just stared into Colette's very soul and decided to speak to her heart. Consent, care and respect, clear intentions, it was all that she preached around animals and he was just so amazingly beautiful for it. Colette's eyes wandered down to Shan's lips for a moment.

Tempting…

"I…" She stammered for a moment and struggled to find the words she wanted to use. "Oh to hell with it."

Actions were so much more simpler than words anyway. Colette wrapped her arms around Shan with a tight hug and placed her lips against his. Her grip tightened with each second that passed, her teeth threatening to bite into his lip before she let him go for the sake of being able to breathe.

"You are so amazing." She laughed and wrapped him in another tight hug, this time placing her cheek on his shoulder. "Seriously, how are you just so…" Colette eased up and held Shan by each shoulder. "You?"

 

[Shan]

Shan let out a small gasp of surprise as Colette kissed him and he returned the hug. He wasn't entirely sure what he had done to earn it, but he was grateful for it all the same as Colette broke off the kiss, so the both of them could breathe...With Shan taking a few heavy gasps, having not expected that whatsoever.

"I just...think. I think about you. I think about the Galaxy. Everyone has a Will. They should be allowed to do what they want and shouldn't feel forced into it. I'm not special, just because I can think and talk on a "higher level" than most animals." Shan used quote marks with his fingers when he said the last part, before giving Colette's cheek a soft peck.

"It goes along with my philosophy of the Force as well. If I do good actions, then eventually good things will happen to me. And I mean...look. All the good I've done, and I managed to meet you. One of the best things that has ever happened to me."

Colette

 

[Colette]

Shan

"Sounds to me like more people need to think, then." Colette mused happily as Shan pecked her on the cheek. "You're one of the best things that happened to me too."

"Come on, how about we clean this up and put on one of those movies you said Ko had told you about?"

 

[Shan]

"...One of the movies Ko's told me about?" Shan's face went pale at that, giving a small nervous laugh as he tugged at the collar of his shirt. His mind going towards all of the different ones Ko had suggested to him. Rent A Droid-Friend. How Heavy are the Lightsabers you lift. Attack on Sithspawn. None of them really seemed like a great date film to watch...

"Oh. We can watch "Bubble". That's a cute one." He nodded to himself at that, before getting to work tidying up. Grabbing the plates and getting ready to scrub away at them. Sometimes classic hard labour was fun!

Colette

 

[Colette]

Shan

"Sounds great." Colette smiled and began to hand over the dishes and the pans to let Shan do the boring part of eating. That was to say, scrubbing them clean. She happily dried them off and stacked them back in the cupboards again. "Although, if he recommends anything similar to the Grave of the Lava Fleas again, you're sleeping on the floor."

That had been the first time Colette had ever cried to a movie, and it was not something that she had ever expected. It was incidentally also the time she realized that maybe there was something to the whole 'watch a movie' thing as well.

Good thing there were several cultures' worth of movies for them to catch up on then, right?

"Other than that, I trust—" She stopped, raised her brow. "Wait, it's a cute one? So you've seen it before?"

 

[Shan]

"It's called Bubble. Of course it's going to be cute." Shan rolled his eyes, breaking out into a little smirk as he debated whether or not to tease Colette about crying at films...before shaking her head. No. That wasn't a good idea. Colette was rarely emotionally vulnerable like she was when she watched films like those. So he wasn't going to tease her.

"It could be about...well...bubbles! Or Fish! Or the air. Nyoooom." Shan "flew" a plate through the air as he made silly little plane noises, smirking to himself before handing them over towards Colette so she could dry them up and he could get working on the next plate. It was a good way to clean stuff up at the end of the day. As a team.

"The only thing cuter than bubbles...I mean...Well, there's only one sight that's cuter than bubbles, but the sight is also super rare." As he washed up, Shan scooped up a bunch of bubbles from the plates...and tapped them on Colette's nose gently, breaking out into a smirk. "You. All red faced and shy."

Colette

 

[Colette]

Shan

"I…" Colette had no clever retort to that. All things considered… "No, no that's an excellent point."

Bubbles lingered on Colette's nose for a moment before she swept them away with a gentle rub of her fingers.

"The way he sacrificed everything for his sister, and yet!—..." Colette's eyes glossed just a little and she quickly stopped. "We are NOT watching a sad movie."

"Bubbles will be good. It has to be."

 

[Shan]

Shan's eyes glinted for a moment at the mentioning of siblings, glancing over towards Colette as he debated something over in his mind for a moment. Should he tell her? Yes. Yes. He should.

"...So...erh...Colette...Speaking about siblings...I think you should keep an eye on Aris." Shan rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, letting out a small chuckle. It was going to be a good way to get her mind off the film as well, at least in his eyes.

"I was...giving a friend of his, who happens to be a girl...some advice. On like...physical contact and stuff. And how if you like someone, you should ask them what they're okay with...right? Well...Immediately after I told them that...They said they should go and talk to Aris then...and well...I think you can put two and two together?"

Almost straight away though, Shan held out one of his hands defensively, in case Colette became a defensive older sister who wanted to protect Aris.

"Zaiya is great though! I'm sure we don't have to worry about her upsetting Aris in any way. They seem like great friends honestly. I just...Well...I thought I'd tell you. Telling Kahlil and Valery would be too embarrassing for the poor lad...and I'm sure Vera would tease the living Force out of the pair if I told her."

Little did Shan know himself...He had completely jumped to conclusions, and that wasn't the case whatsoever. But how was he supposed to know? He was just looking out for his family.

Colette

 

[Colette]

Shan

An eye on Aris? The sister's brow rose for a moment and was quickly joined by the other as she slowly nodded her head with a wide smirk on her lips.

"I know who she is." Colette admitted and put one of the glasses back in the cupboard. "She's a Lovalla. Their kind are very emotional, and very upfront with them. I trust that Aris is smart enough to know what to do, and if not…"

"Well, maybe there'll be another eight Nobles to watch in the near future then, huh?" She fired back. Talk of children and sexuality always made people uncomfortable she found. And just to be sure… "You know, in her culture you'd count as my mate. Apparently when she talked to others about similar things, they seemed to shy away a bit."

"You wouldn't happen to be one of them, would you?"

 

[Shan]

"I...Well...I...We...literally...had that conversation...before I came over..." Shan gave a very, very awkward chuckle at that, tugging at his shirt as Colette seemed like she was getting ready to tease Shan as he held his hands out for a moment.

"I told her you were like my other half. That I love you and I want to spend my entire life with you...but...that using the term mate...just makes me get nervous. Because I'm not ready for that part yet. I...She did say you were my mate when I said I was dating you. And it was sweet but...I don't know. That word just has a lot of weight to me. The title of it all is just...well...you know...Gah! I need to shut up."

Shan shoved his hands into his face, letting out a long groan of frustration. He felt like he was making a fool of himself...but unlike earlier, he was actually speaking out loud about it all.

Colette

 

[Colette]

Shan

A warm chuckle rumbled in Colette's throat as she leaned in to wrap an arm around Shan with a whisper.

"I'm not the only one who's cute when I'm shy and red-faced." She tightened her side hug for a moment before letting go and giving a gentle shrug. "I'm not ready for it either. At least not that aspect."

"... Not that you're not someone I would—" She let out a nervous chuckle. "Iiiit's a big deal."

"Back in my old clan, I was never even going to be considered for it. Years of… Conditioning… Just people telling me to never expect it, much less love, and a whole lot about the dangers that someone like me brought…"

"No. I am not ready either."

 

[Shan]

A rare frown came to Shan's face as Colette spoke about her clan and any nervousness he had was wiped away almost straight away as he stepped closer to Colette, wrapping his arms around her in an actual full body hug, just holding her as he debated his words carefully.

"...Screw your clan Colette. You should expect it. You should also expect me to shower you in love, for every day of our lives. Because it's what you deserve. You deserve everything I can give you and more. It's a big deal for me as well and whilst I'm not ready for it yet...I do want to. Eventually. With you. Our own family. With like fifty cats. Have everyone come along. Maybe even with Aris and Zaiya coming over as well."

With that, Shan tried to distract Colette from thinking about her clan, as he held his hand out in front of the pair.

"Imagine it. Both of us, just relaxing out the back of our house, trees as far as the eye can see. Barely any signs of civilisation around. With a little guest house or two for visitors to come and stay in..."

Colette

 

[Colette]

Shan

It was hard to just let go of nearly twenty years of being told something. In some regard Colette felt ashamed of her fear for it and the fact that she just wasn't as interested in it as others her age seemed to be. She closed her eyes in Shan's embrace and felt herself slip back to it as he built an image of their future.

It was a pretty picture, but as far as children went she just couldn't really envision it at this moment. Naturally she wouldn't be one to abandon her own child like her own mother had, but maybe it would give her answers she didn't want — or worse, make her understand why they left. Maybe Colette was just a monster all along that was living, unknowingly, in disguise.

No, that was not true. She eased deeper into Shan's picture despite how badly her mind seemed to want to pull her out of it. The idea of a home was nice, static and boring, but just about the right amount of both static and boring.

"I'd like that." She whispered and sighed. "Someday."

"... In maybe twenty years or so, when we have done our duty to help others."

"We still have many hikes and adventures to go on before I want to retire."

 

[Shan]

"Hey. Who said we had to retire? Kahlil and Valery haven't retired. Amani hasn't either." Shan teased Colette gently, and swayed from side to side as he held her, closing his eyes as he let himself imagine.

"But hey. It wouldn't all be boring. We'd have weekly races...I'd have my own little garden to prepare vegetables for dinner. Invite everyone around every month to play board games or do something together as a family. Because...we're part of one big family. You. Me. Valery, Kahlil, Aris, Vera, the other kids, Ko, Braze, Jasper, Loomi. All of them. Might not be family by blood or name, but through bonds."

He let out a soft sigh, actually smiling at the thought. Of course, his imagination of the future was slightly exaggerated. Loomi and Braze were together in his little imagination and so were Aris and Zaiya because of his little...assumption,

"I love you Colette."

Colette

 

[Colette]

Shan

Yeah, who said they had to retire? Well, obviously Colette had but that was beside the point. She let herself be led in a slow dance with the man that she loved and took the opportunity to merely linger in the moment they were sharing.

"I love you too, Shan…" She murmured in his arms and swayed along to the unsung music.

As they slowly came to a stop she didn't have much to say. It was a good evening and she didn't want to let it end. And yet…

She looked at the remaining pile of dishes and then back to Shan.

"How about we let them rest? We can do them tomorrow or once we've seen Bubbles."

 

[Shan]

"That sounds good to me." Shan had a plan anyway. He was going to wake up early tomorrow to do the rest of the dishes and let Colette sleep in for it all. The more and more he learned about her old clan and how her homeworld was, the more Shan just wanted to show her how loved and appreciated she was. By him at the very least.

"Do you want any snacks? Or should I go and grab a blanket so we can snuggle in together? Or some hot chocolate?" Shan wasn't particularly a fan of hot drinks himself, but if Colette wanted one, there was going to be nothing stopping him from getting that for her.

Colette

 

[Colette]

Shan

"I'll get the blanket, you set up the show." Colette nodded and sprung to action. Last time she had been in charge of setting up the show she had almost thrown the remote on the ground in rage. If she pressed the on button, then why didn't it turn on? If it needed to boot up first, why didn't the button say that instead?

No, she was not especially gifted when it came to tech, but that's why people like Shan were good to have around. They were at least used to the inconveniences of modern life in ways that she was not.

Colette grabbed a garish pink and lavender blanket that she promptly threw over herself and Shan as she took a seat and extended her legs onto the nearby coffee table. She rubbed her elbows against Shan, scooted forward just a slight and leaned in against his shoulder…

… Covered her eyes with her hand because the projection was WAY too bright…

"I hate this screen so much!" She grumbled before redoing the process to snuggle herself in tight against his arm. "Remember," Colette yawned. "If I cry, you're sleeping on the floor."

"Deal? Okay, deal, thanks. Good talk."

 

[Shan]

Shan went to work setting up the screen as fast as he could. Settling himself down and rummaging about with the remote easily. It always amused him at how...well for lack of a better word, incompetent, people his age could be when it came to technology. If it had been anyone but Colette, he probably would have teased them over it. Instead he just set up the film, before wrapping his arms around Colette as she sat herself down and snuggled against him.

"No fair. You'd probably cry to just get me on the floor anyway." The Mirialan joked around with Colette, tilting his head slightly before shaking his head. She wouldn't actually do anything like that. And either way, Shan was just happy to have this moment with her, resting his head atop of her's gently and just watching the screen.

Colette