Too Long

[Jaron Lesan]

Jaron had been too long without a decent pilot, and rumors had been circulating about the return of particular pilot Jaron had found himself rather fond of once upon a time. To say she was the best pilot he'd seen would be an understatement. What had made [member="Daska Tess"] a great pilot was her willingness to participate in whatever mission Jaron had needed her for. It was rare she sat idle on the ship twiddling her thumbs. He'd ensured that there was always some kind of trouble to get into.

He'd always known where she was stationed, or at least where to find her. His missions, training Ren at the Bastion, and spending time in hiding because of the betrayal of his master had kept him from searching her out. After many failed attempts of finding those he could rely on, Jaron decided it was time to break the ice once again.

A message had been sent to her, not through usual channels as Jaron had his own ways of communicating. He wasn't sure whether she would meet him, but he also figured she wasn't going to turn down a drink of brandy in the officer's lounge. Naturally he had a good story to go along with his disappearance, but excuses for why he had been so quiet since his return. There would be some explaining to do.

He waited at the bar counter, dressed casually. His robes were without the flare of his cape, and looked more like his battle gear than formal Ren cover. There was no need for the mask he wore as Daska knew his face. Jaron would be found with a glass of water as he was waiting, a bottle of brandy, and two empty glasses. He wasn't overconfident, just very sure she would be too curious to ignore his request.

 

[Alleycat]

Daska had narrowed the culprits down to three who would have, could have pranked her on Joker's Day, but didn't have actual proof to provide official misconduct charges against the perpetrator, just hunches that had served the Flight Captain well in the past. It might have been funny if it wasn't for the fact she missed deploying with her squadron for a sorte during the Anoth mission. Tess had taken the blacklash from the wing commander rather than explain the circumstances for which she was late; her towel and clothes being stolen while taking a shower thus leaving her stranded. The naked walk back to her quarters had been quite the laugh for some, enjoyment for others. The dutiful Imperial hated the fact that anyone would stoop that low and be so disrespectful, but the Ice Princess would be patient.... and deal with it in her own way in time. Force help the person or persons if the truth comes to light.

The golden blonde climbed out of the top hatch of the spherical cockpit of her TIE Defender, then eased herself down the ladder from the rack platform that housed the fighter high above in the hangar bay. Tired beyond tired after doing a lengthy recon mission, Daska was looking forward to some uninterrupted sake time. But upon opening up her locker in the pilot locker room a flmsi note fell out onto the floor. She picked it up and read the message in handwriting of one known to her a long time ago.

How about that brandy I owe you? I'll be waiting in the lounge. - J ​

​

Daska hadn't seen [member="Jaron Lesan"] since the Battle of Lothal, when she had piloted the Prime Shadow, a prototype stealth ship, for him and his master at the time, both Knights of Ren. It had been right after that the elite TIE pilot had been tapped by then Grand Admiral Kalast for a top secret mission that would take her deep into the Unknown Regions where Tess would be later be deemed MIA/KIA because she simply disappeared. The truth was her ship had crash landed on a remote planet leaving the pilot stranded for nearly a year before figuring a way off. And being that his mission was under the radar, no rescue was ever initiated.

The return to the First Order had not been easy. Most of those Daska knew were either dead or had moved on. And her professional, mostly icy facade made it hard to make new friends amongst her peers In the Starfighter Corps. She was curious to know why the Corellian had chosen this time, this place to finally reach out to her. Had he missed her, or was this all a ploy to steal her away for another private mission of his own?

The Bastionian quickly changed out of her flight suit and into a pilot day uniform; the trousers indicating she was with the 181st TIE Fighter Wing with the red stripe running down the side. The tall blonde entered the forward officer's lounge on the tenth deck of the Star Destroyer and spotted the Dark Jedi standing at the bar. He hadn't changed a bit still tall, dark, and charismatically handsome with that cocky smirk of his plastered on his face.

"Greetings, Knight Lesan," Daska addressed wth a respecful cant of her golden head, then added with the smallest of smiles adorning her otherwise profession demeanor. "It has been a while since we last spoke. I hope you have been well."

 

[Jaron Lesan]

The smirk on Jaron's face stretched into a full smile when Daska walked into the lounge and toward the bar. Her uniform was perfect, her posture immaculate, and her cadence in rhythm. No part of her had changed with the exception that her icy cold expression seemed a little colder than usual. Something happened, and recent. Jaron hadn't heard she'd been stranded in the shower with no clothes, nor was he aware she walked naked to her quarters. He just knew that he didn't want to press the wrong buttons. However, he also knew he'd never done anything to suggest he would.

He poured the brandy as she greeted him. Without even looking up at her he spoke. "I believe we've already covered this, but Jaron, please," he said lifting his eyes to meet hers as he handed her a glass of the perfectly dated liquid. He nodded indicating he had been well, though curious if she had heard. It was a question he wasn't sure he should bring up or not. They had both been missing.

He took a drink from the glass he'd kept for himself.

"I've been well. Now that the dust has more than settled from my master's betrayal I feel free to move about in the open again," his words came in a way to explain his absence, and why it had taken him so long to pay up on the drinks he had owed her. Still he rolled it off his tongue as though everything was now right in the world and looked at the pilot as though they had never spent the better part of a year away from the other.

Setting his glass on the counter he motioned to a table, then picked up the bottle of brandy and the glass. He walked toward it indicating that Daska should follow.

"What about you? I've heard you spent some time missing as well?"

[member="Daska Tess"]

 

[Alleycat]

Daska took the offered drink with a small smirk gracing her lips, then brought the glass up to her mouth and took a sip of the dark amber contents, relishing in the rich flavor and comforting burn. "Mmm.. A very good year, and I believe we did, though that was a long time ago, Jaron. It is better to be proper than not just in case the same isn't true to date."

The tall, blonde pilot followed the Dark Jedi to a table. It was off the beaten track so they would not be in the middle of the lounge where prying eyes and ears would so readily set upon them. Had she missed him, perhaps a little. The Corellian was hard to forget if Daska was honest with herself, which of course she wasn't. Total denial of the fact the two had become close during her tenure as his pilot. Thank gods though they had not acted on it. The Ice Princess didn't like messy, complicated affairs and that would have been just it. The career military woman in her couldn't take that chance to be swept up in a scandalous nature. Though that left the Bastionian in a lonely state of mind, and body for way too long.

"I heard of that, and the Grand Admiral's demise as well upon my return," Tess answered, taking a seat across from [member="Jaron Lesan"]. "Yes, I was away for a time being... but I am back now. How are the Knights of Ren? Have you an apprentice?" she asked curiously.

Once upon a time, the Flight Captain had a special role to play with them, but that was no more. Her old squadron had just been reactivated due to the war brewing with the Galactic Alliance. There was much work to do with Saber Squadron, if Daska was to bring them up to their former glory amongst the Starfighter Corps. This was the first time though in her stellar career that the Imperial-trained, elite TIE pilot wasn't so sure of herself or her capabilities any more. And, that fact bothered her to no end.

 

[Jaron Lesan]

"I am never going to be one for formality in a personal or private context, Daska," he used her first name to make his own point. The Corellian was never going to abide by a rigid system of propriety. Even his refusal to take the title of Ren had shown his own rebellious streak could not be tamed by the dark side. If anything it only fed his rebellious nature, one that he knew bristled the prim and proper captain at times. Jaron admittedly enjoyed ruffling her feathers to a degree. She'd seemed to enjoy it too, though did her best to hide it under the icy cold facade she always wore.

His eyes surveyed her form as they sat down at the table. He'd missed letting them roam over her body. They had always maintained a level of professional tension between them, and at every turn Daska had ensured her defenses were up. Despite their closeness, and knowing it, the two had never crossed the line which would have certainly complicated things. Perhaps that line no longer existed that she wasn't his pilot. Jaron was unsure of his motives, though he did have work for her if she was interested. In truth, he missed her company even if it had always been perfectly immaculate.

"So it is true then. I'm sorry I could not have been there to help you," he stated with all sincerity. Jaron hated when people hid their motives. He was never one for false flattery either. If he said something, Jaron meant it.

His glass was lifted to his lips again, and the contents drained. A smirk tugged at his lips thinking about the recent apprentice who became a Knight.

"My apprentice was recently knighted. There isn't much to teach her anymore, though she is always eager to learn. Unfortunately I have yet to learn how to allow my guard down low enough for anyone to reach past the surface. Even my apprentice knows little about me."

Jaron had kept a high guard ever since his relationship with Sasha Voss had come to an end. Daska was the only one who had managed to work her way past his first layer of defense. No one had managed it since either.

"Enough about my flaws... what are you up to now? I see by your uniform you're flying again..."

[member="Daska Tess"]

 

[Alleycat]

"You could not have helped me, Jaron, but thank you for your concern overall," she nodded wth a small smile gracing those full lips of hers before bringing up the sniffer glass to them and taking a more generous sip of the aged brandy provided by [member="Jaron Lesan"].

The Corellian always cut to the heart of the matter. He still cared, but did she? There was no room in her professional life for distractions of what the man had always intended come of them. Seemed time had not tamed that wild desire in him nor events sour it either.

Steel blue eyes gazed out the transparisteel view port of the forward lounge on the Star Destroyer as the white lines of hyperspace streamed by momentarily before flicking back to the Dark Jedi sitting across from her as he spoke about his apprentice and how she did not know him.

"You have always kept things close to the chest as they say. Aloof and mysterious, though I think you rather like the facade. It feels safer, doesn't it? I understand that theory only too well," Daska smirked, before taking yet another sip of the drink. The good alcohol was helping to ease the tension she was feeling earlier.

A long, slender finger lazily played with the rim of the brandy glass as the Flight Captain thought about how to answer the question about her.

"Yes... though it too much longer than I had hoped to get me back into the pilot rotation," Tess replied with a bit of a disgruntled tone. "I have been given my old command back as the 181st Fighter Wing was reactivated due to the war brewing with the Alliance. Saber Squadron is awaiting further orders. I must say I am missing my former XO though. Things are not running as smoothly without him, but that is neither here nor there... I understand the Ren have done well for themselves with a new citadel in place is it on Virgillia I believe?"

 

[Jaron Lesan]

Jaron wanted to dispute whether he could have helped her or not, but was wise enough to let it go. It wasn't that she didn't think him capable, but the situation had been what it was. He didn't know, nor could he. Jaron simply took in a deep breath and let out a small sigh. Her smile was well worth remaining quiet. He'd forgotten just how disarming it could be, even if that was never her intention.

They were too alike in how closed they remained. Jaron kept things close, Daska had her wall. The two were quite the pair in that respect, and yet Jaron still felt the need to try. They had been friends who had ignored the tension, a tension that seemed to remain. Perhaps he cared because she was the only one who had made him feel as though he was not alone. There had been other attempts, those who he hadn't been intimate with, but none had been able to quench the loneliness he felt inside.

His glass found more drink. He'd never understood working as a team. Jaron had always been his own man. Even when Daska had been his pilot she'd been held to what her use could be as such. The relationship she seemed to have with her XO was something Jaron did not understand. "Carter Flaa? He seemed to be like a brother to you, yeah? it was a statement as much as a question. He simply nodded about the bastion they had discovered for the Ren. "I was part of the team which cleared and discovered it." She didn't need to know yet that he'd since found his own bastion of sorts.

Jaron let her answr however she would, and let the conversation slip into an awkward quiet. His head was pounding as he debated within himself whether he should say what he was thinking. His thumb and forefinger lazily turned the glass on the table as Jaron leaned against the back of his chair.

"I've missed you," he finally said opting to be vulnerable for once.

[member="Daska Tess"]