Survival With A Pyne

[Cenric Marus]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

Cenric wanted to scream.

Why? Why the kark did this have to happen now? Why not later? Why not never? Why couldn't they just have avoided each other for the rest of the trip and just gone on with their lives afterward. It would have been so much easier, it would have been less embarrassing and just...he wanted to die in that moment. More so than before.

The Padawan face immediately turned bright red, the medical supplies crashed to the floor as his hands immediately shot up over his eyes and onto his face. ”I'm just going to shoot myself out the airlock.”

His voice was muffled behind his hands but would be more than audible to Mariya.

The Padawan turned on his heel one hundred and eighty degrees, not uncovering his eyes but still seeing the image of a very naked Mariya.

He was pretty much done for.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

Seriously?!

Could she not catch a break in this damned galaxy? Not even for a single day?! Was this some kind of punishment for something she’d done? Why did everything conspire against her at every turn? Just once all she wanted for something to go smoothly. Even something as simple as a flight. It wasn’t asking too much, was it?

Sure seemed like it.

It wasn’t even that she was embarrassed. She wasn’t any more modest now than she had been when she had willingly showed him. It was just the principle of the matter. Effort was made to avoid Cenric, and yet for some reason, whether this was an example of the supposed will of the Force, or some other divine intervention it was impossible to evade the Jedi.

It took every ounce of restraint in her not to berate him right there. If she did, the situation was going to get even worse than it was now, and now it was bad. Really bad. Somehow worse than before. How was that even possible? Closing her eyes she took a deep breath and perhaps reacted in a surprising way.

She didn’t yell at him. Oddly, she made a joke of it. There wasn’t even a harshness to her words.

”Does the Force will you to see me naked or something?”

[member="Cenric Marus"]

 

[Cenric Marus]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

Cenric stopped in his tracks, hands still covering his eyes facing away from Mariya. ”No!”

Would the force do something like that? Could it do something like that? Cenric actually really wasn't sure.

It seemed utterly and completely ludicrous as an idea. Cedric had taught him about the will of the force before, how it had a penchant for interfering within the large details of life. The Padawan however was entire positive that this was not supposed to be one of those times. There was nothing grand going on here, nothing life changing, he was just embarrassing himself in front of this gorgeous woman over and over again.

Perhaps it was supposed to be a lesson in humility, but he'd thought that had already been taught on Celanon. ”I don’t know!”

He added, not wanting to make a liar out of himself.

Cenric stood still, facing away from Mariya and staring into the blackness of his palms. At that moment he wasn't really sure of anything. Which included himself.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

“Okay, well, I’m going to use the refresher. So you’ll have to wait a few minutes.”

The only way to prevent this situation from becoming the most awkward experience in the galaxy was to try and just force her way through it and pretend that it wasn’t as awkward and strange as it actually was. “Why don’t you just see about fixing the door while you wait? That way this doesn’t happen again.”

Hopefully he had some measure of mechanical ability.

The brunette turned away from Cenric and opened the partially frosted glass door leading into the shower and closed it promptly behind her. Shaking her head and with a sigh she activated the sonic. No running water, no escaping Cenric, no idea if Naboo was safe, a failed smuggling run. How could anything get worse for her?

[member="Cenric Marus"]

 

[Cenric Marus]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

Was she serious? She wanted him to stick around and fix the door? While she was in there? Naked??

The Padawan didn't understand it. Not one bit. What was she trying to do? Prove that this situation wasn't weird? It was weird! He gulped slightly, frowning with his hands still covering the better half of his face. Would she get mad if he just left? Would it be more awkward? There were so many questions running through his mind and Cenric didn't have any answers.

It felt like he'd had none for the last two days.

”O-okay.” He finally answered as he turned around again and removed his hands from his face.

He saw her silhouette behind the frosted glass, eyes bulging and teeth sinking into his lower lip for just one second before he cast his eyes towards the ground and stepped over towards the stuck door. He was no starship mechanic or anything, but he'd fixed the machines back on the farm plenty of times.

He could figure this out, do what she wanted and then…

Then he had no idea.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

Once the sonic was activated Mariya simply closed her eyes, imagining the feel of water rushing over her body, rather than the sound and feel of copious sonic waves. It just wasn't the same. You couldn't just stand in the sonic and forget about your troubles like you could soak in a tub with aroma bubbles and wine. One of the few things Mariya picked up from Jamie was that particular pleasure. Bubble baths and wine might have been an overly girly thing for Mariya to take interest in, but even the tomboy in her needed a way to recharge.

Here it was just the sound of Cenric's voice and the sonic humming.

How lovely.

"How's it coming?!" She shouted from behind the glass.

[member="Cenric Marus"]

 

[Cenric Marus]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

When Mariya spoke Cenric half looked up, his head smacking against the outcropping of the metal door above him. "Ow!"

The Padawan ducked down slightly, rubbing his head and letting out a loud sigh of contemplation. His eyes closed and he pinched the bridge of his nose.She...was talking to him. He wondered if she was now getting back to trying to embarass him as much as she could. For the life of him he couldn't figure it out. Couldn't figure her out.

"It's..." Was he really doing this? "It's fine. I can fix it."

Cenric opened his eyes, just briefly glancing towards the shower. "It's the primary hydraulic plunger. Got jammed I think."

Doors weren't all that complex no matter where they were, be it starship or barn. Really the only thing that was keeping him from fixing this in the next five minutes was the thought of a beautiful girl being separated from him only by a thin pane of frosted glass.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

I know what it is she thought to herself. I fix things regularly.

It just so happened that he was in a better position to do the fixing, given their various states of dress at that moment in time. Besides, she also really wanted the snarls out of her hair. It was starting to really grate on her and the sonic was at least good for that. Mariya remained quiet for the few short minutes the machine worked, though these machines always tended to give the poor girl a headache -- Just another reason she preferred a water shower to these inferior machines.

Perhaps the next upgrade to the old freighter would be a plumbing system and an actual bath. That would be nice, even if a typical shower took longer than the few minutes a sonic did. It was the feeling of clean versus just the act of it that made the experience actually refreshing. The machine shortly powered down, yet she could still hear Cenric working on the door. Whatever damage she'd done to the boy was already done. Twice he'd seen her, what honestly was the difference in a third? Very candidly the brunette opened the door to the sonic and stepped out. She briefly looked over at Cenric still working on the door, and then proceeded towards the small cubby where her clothing had been placed in order to start dressing.

[member="Cenric Marus"]

 

[Cenric Marus]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

When there was a noise to his left Cenric couldn't help but look, his eyes once again falling on Mariya's bare skin. The sight, as it always did each and every time pulled his thoughts and attention away from the task at hand. Everything else was lost, there was only her.

As Cenric lost his focus on the door, his hand slipped and pushed the doors plunger back into place. The instant he did the ancient door went through with it's original command, which was of course; closing. The heavy metal suddenly pushed forward, catching Cenric and pushing the young Jedi Padawan forward. The steel slammed against him, stopping only once it had begun to pin the poor young man against it's opposite side, safety features only barely kicking in.

He let out a yelp of pain, the metal door hitting him hard enough to cause no small amount of hurt.

The good part was that at least for the moment all thought of Mariya slipped from his mind. The entirety of his attention being redirected back towards the door which was now pinning him against it's own frame.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

Mariya turned sharply upon hearing the boy cry, frantically letting go of the piece of clothing that had been in her hand due to the startling noise. "Oh!" She shouted, "Not good!" She rushed towards the door and slapped her hand against the button on the panel, releasing the door back to its open state. Cenric fell forward, and the smuggler made an effort to stop him from falling onto the unforgiving durasteel floor beneath them. Unfortunately, not only was he nearly a foot taller than her, he also weighed nearly seventy pounds more than she. Catching him was much less of the term and instead was more like him simply falling onto her.

In which case they both hit the ground with a rather resounding crash.

Though her head slammed against the ground and would likely be leaving a sizeable welt, she didn't lose consciousness. Small silver linings.

"If you're not broken could you please get off of me?" She asked from beneath his much larger frame.

"You're kind of crushing me."

[member="Cenric Marus"]

 

[Cenric Marus]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

Kill me. The thought floated through Cenric's mind as he landed on top of Mariya, the fates aligning to return him to the absolute height of his embarrassment.

His face landed nestled inbetween the rounded curves of her chest. Stubbled cheeks gently brushed her skin, lips unintentionally pressed against her.

The Padawan froze, purely out of fear and dread. Her skin touched his, her breath fell onto him, and his entire world was spinning. The padawan wasn't sure if it was the pain in his shoulder, abdomen, or the fact that he was now quite literally on top of the object of his desire, but either way Cenric was entirely sure he was done for. His hand pressing against the cold metal floor as he pushed himself off of Mariya and rolled to the side of her, landing on his back with a hard thud.

He didn't move beyond that, instead his eyes closed. His body ached, but more than that he felt utterly broken. Emotionally. Physically.

"I'm done." He said quietly. "I'm done, Mariya."

Cenric repeated the phrase meekly, then spoke again. "You can just kill me now."

 

[Mariya Pyne]

Her hand reached back to feel the spot on her head where she'd crashed onto the floor, just in case luck would have had it and she split her head open or something. Thankfully all was well enough that she could breathe a small sigh of relieve. Of course, Cenric was busy having his own panic attack for falling into her. True enough that earlier she'd had a bit of a meltdown over him suddenly kissing her, and now, well, in a way he'd arguably done so much worse.

Deep breaths Mariya...Deep breaths...

This was certainly a first. Had anyone told her she would end up naked on the floor of a refresher with a Jedi in her chest she would have surely laughed at the idea and called them crazy.

After a moment she sat up, holding herself with the assistance of her hands while she looked over at the Padawan. "Are you okay?" She asked with a measure of concern. "You know, that's first base twice in a day now."

[member="Cenric Marus"]

 

[Cenric Marus]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

Cenric remained quiet for a second.

He really wasn't entirely sure how to answer her, mostly because he felt like anything he said would end up culminating with him just making a fool of himself. Then again, that seemed to have been the pattern throughout today, and perhaps even before. When they'd met he'd made a mess of himself, and even then she had been tolerable of him. It was commendable really, and perhaps had been entirely forgotten within the terms of their flight from Celanon.

Slowly the padawan took a deep breath. His eyes opening and head slowly turning as he looked at her. For a moment soft amber eyes simply gazed at her, and then he finally opened his mouth to say the stupid thing he'd been wanting to say. "You are breathtakingly beautiful."

The words slipped from his lips with little effort. It was a compliment from a man of no great charisma or experience.

Cenric was beaten, bruised, and probably more than a little bit broken. He was tired, but most of all he was sick and tired of being embarrassed. She had already rejected him once, and she would likely do it again. It was really the logical thing to do after all he had put her through, but he was woozy enough not to care.

A smack to the face would probably do him good right now.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

That is not the answer to the question.

How hard had he taken that fall? It couldn't have been due to lack of cushion... Clearly however, his mind was anywhere but the door, or his own condition. Mariya sighed, pushing herself up off of the floor while leaving the Jedi to fend for himself. Picking up the underwear that she'd dropped while attempting to help Cenric the girl began to redress herself. "I'll take that as a yes then." She said as she clasped the midnight colored bra behind her back. "You can use the sonic now. Thanks for fixing the door."

She then put on the bottom half of the set, scooping up her shirt and pants to take with her.

"I'll be in my room."

The brunette then stepped around Cenric, exiting through the door that was now open and made her way across the hall to her quarters. She tossed the clothing onto the bed and sat down at the small table with a mirror off in the corner where her blaster had been taken apart. From the drawer she retrieved a brush and began to tediously brush away at the length of her locks, all the while trying to figure out why the kark he would have said what he said when he said it.

[member="Cenric Marus"]

 

[Cenric Marus]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

Cenric did not leave the floor for quite some time.

It was a good ten or fifteen minutes before he managed to push himself off the ground, using a nearby cubby as a way to leverage himself. The first thing that he did was look over his wounds. The master score on his abdomen, the now bruise on his shoulder, and everything else that he'd managed to acquire over the last two days. When he was done the Padawan stripped himself down and stepped into the shower.

There he leaned his head against the wall as the vibrations slowly kicked the dirt from his skin. His breaths were shallow, and slowly as he recovered his mind turned. Sci towards the last few minutes.

A range of emotion hit him, but this time he was less embarrassed and more simply...frustrated. He had acted the fool once again, but all of this was new to him. Quite literally all of it. He didn't understand half of what he was feeling and the constant rush of emotion didn't help.

Particularly since he'd spent the last few months suppressing all of those emotions.

Cenric stared at the wall in silence. Unsure of himself, his thoughts, and his next move.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

Several minutes of furious brushing had finally managed to straighten out most of the hair, or rather turn it into semi straight waves.

Setting down the brush she stared at herself in the mirror for several long seconds, wondering just what the hell was going on, and why this had been the most difficult, trying, and completely absurd job of her life thus far. Nothing had been worse, not the time she had the First Order chasing her for quite literally jumping into hyperspace in the hangar of one of their stations, or that time she'd shot a Hutt boss on Nal Hutta for trying to alter their deal when she needed fuel to make it out of the system, or even the time she needed to jettison half of her haul of phrik because she'd flown too close to a pirate raiding party and the ship wouldn't have been able to outrun them otherwise.

Why did he say that!? He doesn't even know me!

The smuggler reached back into the drawer and pulled out her nanoheat straightener to begin finalizing the process of fixing her out of control hairdo. While she waited for the device to heat up she began putting the blaster components back together piece by piece, until finally the weapon was whole again. She had become quite good at assembling and disassembling weapons now that she could do both before the straightener had finished reaching temperature.

[member="Cenric Marus"]

 

[Cenric Marus]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

After a time Cenric stepped out of the sonic shower and into the small bathroom once more. His clothes were still on the floor, tossed there before he had gotten in. He scooped them up, though by now they were little more than rags. He wondered briefly if he would be able to get new ones on Naboo. Somehow he doubted that Mariya would want to again buy him some new ones, but perhaps he could connect with the Jedi there somehow and get them that way.

Not that it was important right. Slowly he pulled his underwear and pants on, flinching slightly at the pain that was produced from his wounds. Then he quickly picked up the dropped medical supplies before applying a bacta patch to his burn.

Last came his shirt, the hole in it still quite obvious and the large grease stain from the door now more than plain. He frowned slightly as he looked at himself in the mirror. He looked ragged and disheveled. Two days worth of stubble on his face, hair no longer slicked back, clothing that wasn't much better than what he had started out with. Cenric shook his head slightly, frowning and slowly running a hand through his hair before he let out a loud sigh.

I have to talk to her. He thought to himself. Don't I?

He couldn't just leave that comment in the air, not like that...not without explaining himself. He frowned for a moment, giving one last lingering glance before he headed down the corridor.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

The straightener beeped one long mid-tone, indicating it was ready shortly after it was turned on.

Section by section the brunette slowly ran the device down the length of her hair, repeating on occasion to ensure that it would maintain its hold. While her elder sister had naturally curly hair, hers was less curls and more waves, not quite straight but not quite curled. Her hair was also much thicker and heavier than Jamie's, which further slowed the process down. Whenever the brunette decided to invest the time necessary to the task it always became a process. This was certainly an area for which she felt envious of Jamie. Her sister took much less time and effort for a much better style and look than she could muster on a regular basis.

All throughout the process she kept hearing Cenric repeat that sentence. Why he would have said that was beyond her understanding. Was he just acting on some kind of impulse and hoping for a reaction? Was he trying to unsettle her? Was he hoping for something to happen between them in that moment? Nothing made sense to her, and the more she thought about it the more it confused her. Every time she had tried to right the situation he had taken and re-escalated again.

Was he intentionally trying her patience?

Is this what Jedi were about?

[member="Cenric Marus"]

 

[Cenric Marus]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

What is wrong with me? The thought rang in his mind as he walked down the corridor towards Mariya’s room. Oddly enough there was no pit in his stomach this time, just a calm feeling of steady dread. He knew what he was about to do was foolish, he should have just left it alone. But he couldn't. I barely know her.

Yet despite his best efforts he couldn't peel his mind away from her.

It was strange, and something he just wasn't used to. Even back home the girls had never really interested him this much, and at the Temple most of his attention hadn't been drawn to any of the fairer padawan. He had always been too busy with training, too busy in his own little world. Cenric didn't understand this, any of it. His mother would have told him he was smitten, but the Padawan didn't have the sense to figure that out for himself.

They had met less than two days ago, and in that time Mariya had seen more range of emotion from Cenric than many others had ever seen.

Celanon had been bad. His accusation towards her after had been worse. Their game had been horrid, his own reaction somehow even more terrible, and now they were faced with what had happened in the refresher. None of it really made any sense.

The Padawan was a fool, and he knew it.

I should just leave it. She already thinks im an idiot and this will just make it so much worse. The thought came to him, but he didn't stop walking. Instead he moved on ahead through the corridor and finally reached Mariya’s door.

A heavy sigh escaped him, and once again he knocked.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

The knock at her chamber made Mariya's eye twitch with nerves. What in the galaxy could he possibly want now?

"What?" She shouted from across the room and behind the door, though she continued to focus on what she had been doing for the past several minutes, taming the wild locks atop her head.

If we could just make it to Naboo in silence that would be fantastic at this point.

The confines of this freighter were beginning to eat away at her. Back on Celanon it had been different only because they were in a life threatening danger and there was nothing to talk about except for how to escape and survive. Now that they were alone and confined to the few rooms aboard her ship everything was painfully awkward and their two personalities were not meshing well.

How far out from Naboo are we?!

[member="Cenric Marus"]