Private When the Haze Lifts

[Kyra Perl]

"Come back with me."

Breathless words. Vibrant colors rippling the fabric of time. Caresses, lips, erratic hearts beating in sync with music.

Kyra opened her eyes to wallpapered surface of a hotel wall, her thoughts still as water as reality descended upon her. Her head throbbed, last night's vices pulling out of her system like nails on a chalkboard-- slowly and with great pain.

Everything she had repressed came back tenfold in that moment, the incessant chatter of of the minds around her blending into an indiscernible haze. She groaned, coiling tighter into the pillow she shoved over her face.

Why was detoxification always harder when you actually needed it?



A pale pink hand fumbled out, squeezing a half drank water bottle and dragging it back to the mass of pillows. Water was always a solution, the pillow chucked off as she downed the whole thing. Spills be damned. The relief was subtle, but pronounced as she sat up for more. It was in that moment, hung over, undone, and undressed that Kyra realized she still had company.

"Oh."

Swimming pool, light reflecting off a sharp smile.... falling... a chill, dancing. She stared at him blankly, trying to find a name inside the spotty images.

"You're still here."

Aeric Kaze

 

[Aeric Kaze]

His features scrunched up tight, contorting his features as he was drawn out from the depths of his dream.

His nightmare.

Always the same.

Always the pain.

His consciousness rose to the forefront of his mind before his eyes opened, awakened. The unfamiliar feeling of the beds mattress that he was sinking in to. Unused to the warmth, his eyes snapped open, gray orbs finding the nightstand beside him and his jacket. Carefully folded over itself multiple times over, one of his hands reached out from the comfort of the bed and reached out to feel for the sole thing that would jeopardize him.

For a moment he paused, until he felt the cylindrical bulge of his lightsabre wrapped up protectively. Sighing in relief, a glance was shot over his shoulder at the other occupant in the bed. A few moments of deliberation. The steady and slow breathing, she was still asleep. A moment later the memories of the previous night flooded back into his mind. The Club, the drinking... Of course he'd accept coming back with her.

Idiot.

Carefully, he lifted the comforter and swung his legs out from underneath it.

Sparing a look over his shoulder, he waited to see if Kyra Perl stirred before he pushed off from the bed and started to redress himself.

Pants... Pants... Aeric thought while shifting through their discarded belongings. Spotting one of the legs underneath her dress, with his foot leading the way he nudged the discarded dress out of the way. The pile of clothes split apart and out dropped her wallet. Crouching down at the foot of the bed, he reached to his pants, staring at her opened wallet.

"Perl..." He mutters lowly. Shaking his head, he didn't even hear her stirring in the bed behind him. When her voice cut through the silence, he spun about, dropping her wallet in surprise, and spun about to face her, pants in hand. "Huh? Oh... Yeah..." Tilting his head as he searched her face, a hand came up to brush through his mop of hair.

"You... Okay?"

 

[Kyra Perl]

Her lips twitched. "Yeah. Fine," she dismissed, killing any concerns in their cradle. Feth she'd do it all over again, tonight, maybe? She rubbed at her face, groaning in melodramatic protest of her pain. "Actually, get me that bacta, bottle, will you." She gestured to the dresser across the room, the surface cluttered with the contents of half a drug store. All new. Most not even opened. Makeup, brushes, bandages-- and bacta pills. The expensive ones.

She fumbled for the edge of the bed, kicking off sheets and finding her footing towards the mini fridge. Her foot hit her wallet along the way, reconition following suit a full ten seconds later.

She turned, energy drink in hand, and stared at the wallet again.

Thump, repeated the memory.

She cradled the cool can to her temple and reached out for a robe. She picked at the tags, starting slowly.

"And you? Feel free to take something, if you need it..."

 

[Aeric Kaze]

Kaze's lips raised upwards into the slightest of curves.

Fine.

It didn't seem it, but who was he to know better? His lip threatened to lift up further into a sneer, but he suppressed the instinctive draw to antagonize and instead bobbed his head solemnly. He was tall, more than a foot taller than her and built. He may not have been an avid drinker of alcohol, but its effects were hardly noticeable on him. Hundreds of hours of studying and hospitalization saw him become a well practiced user of Detoxify Poison.

It also helped that he didn't drink nearly as much as she had.

"Huh? Sure," Aeric replied, twisting about almost mindlessly to where she directed. It flet robotic, what with being as close as he was to being caught snooping through her belongings, but... She still seemed to be out of it, at least partially. With his back turned, his nostrils flared. Perl. Perl. Perl. He thought repeatedly, committing the name to memory. Once he got to the dresser, he ran his hand over the bottles, index and middle fingers combined to act as a leveler for his line of sight as he read the labels. "Here it is," he mutters softly and reached forwards to collect it.

"Take-- Oh, uh, nah, I'm good." Kaze fumbled for a moment. Traversing the room back over to her, the bacta bottle in hand, he held it out to her, sheepish smile flashed. Giving a look around, he moved to look around at the messy room. The room looked better off than she did, with a few pieces of furniture out of place, they had undoubtedly bumped into a few things the previous night before they had found the bed.

"Actually... Got any food?"

Kyra Perl

 

[Kyra Perl]

She grabbed the bottle from him on an arching path back towards the bed, juggling several needs all incompatible with each other. Robe on. Drink opened. Pills in mouth.

She spilled across the comforters, her legs woobly as she fumbled to find the correct order of actions. Feth, you know how about just going back to bed? She would have, her eyes half lidded, but hostess instincts kept her fighting against it.

"There's pizza in the fridge," she murmured, teeth occupied with ripping off the robe's tag. She half slung it over her shoulders, leaving the ties to puzzle out after the drink... the pills... the sudden urge to piss. "Ugh," she continued to complain. Why was life so complicated.

He was left to a comfortable silence, the girl not speaking until the can cracked and the bottle rattled. She chugged back the drink, impatient for the relief. She gave him a distant once over, panting as she chunked the empty can away. Drunk goggles had not made a victim out of her.

Not this time, at least.

"...You got a name?" She rasped.

 

[Aeric Kaze]

At the edge of his mind he could feel her frustration flaring. Was this what it was like when you drank too much?

The appeal to it seemed to be less and less with every passing moment that he observed her.

At her answer, he traveled to the fridge. "Oh chit," he mutters when he looked down to the shirt. Inside out, he just stood in front of the fridge as he put the shirt inside of itself and pulled back. Meanwhile, her eyes were on him. Adorning his back were the trophies of countless scars, much more than any regular person should have. Some were self-inflicted.

Others were an attempt at Sith Magickz, always on the hunt to put an end to the dreams that haunted him. Mindlessly, without the focus of murder and battle at the front of his mind, he was... Normal. Food. Slipping the shirt back over his head properly, he looked into the fridge before fetching out the box of pizza.

Flipping it open and nudging the fridge door closed behind him, he ventured over to what would equate to a dining room table. "You want?" Warm or cold, it made no difference to him, and he parted one of the already cut slices. Taking a bite, he shot a glance over his shoulder at her, brow raising at her question.

"My name?" Kaze replied surprised. It felt like a slight, as if he were... Less, in a way, and then he remembered who he was in the presence of. Not that he had forgotten it, he had just been content with ignoring the truth of it all, at least until later in the day. Give himself... Give them both a chance to reset it all. "Call me Dag," he answers. As far as she knew, it was his brother who was forgettable. Amused, he turned added, "Kyra, yeah?"

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra visibly went ashen at the thought of food. "No-nono." She wrapped herself tight in the robe, as if that would lock her stomach down and keep the meds in.

Silence dipped back in, her curiosity over his back dampened a general lack of care. She had scars too. She had a whole metal arm. Didn't really feel out of the ordinary anymore. She'd forget his name as soon as she heard it, her thoughts already shifting beyond this room.

"Kyra, yeah?"

"Mhm," she confirmed, flopping onto her back. What day even was it? Her holopod was where? She needed to get the sim removed, no doubt her mom was already tasking Yula to back trace the signal. Last thing she needed right now was family at the door.

Maybe it was time to move hotels.

She was pulling from her own money, a settlement Kana Truden had helped her win from a museum incident years prior. She didn't get why a rich kid like her could even need an account fill of credits like that. She was grateful for it now.

It made her harder to track.

She smelt like pool water. She crinkled her nose as she stretched out a lock of matted hair. "You in the area long?"

 

[Aeric Kaze]

After devouring that first slice of pizza, he felt his stomach flop. It wasn't the food, but it definitely wasn't helping the unsettling feeling. "One second," he says. Both of his hands planting onto the table. Drumming across its surface, he contemplated just... Scrambling her brain in that bed while she could. He could kill her then.

Force Pull his saber out of his jacket and cross the room in a second.

Strangulation too. That should've been the first thing he had done when he woke up. Make her feel how he had, so many times... But, a part of him that was needlessly honour bound said otherwise. Everybody deserved a fighting chance. His eyes rolled, and he rose up from the chair, his gray eyes landing on the Zeltron.

"Uh, no. Back home... for me," Aeric said. He had been close to mention where he was from again, but he already deduced she had forgotten that part too. Besides, he hadn't been there in years. For him, it was back to somewhere in the Sith Empire. Ziost, where most of his things were, or his temporary home on Thule. Plenty of time to choose, public transit would only take him so far before he had to hijack, or otherwise coerce a pilot into doing what he wanted.

But either way... It was time to go.

There was a clock ticking down somewhere before she was tuned in with her senses again, and realized he was not the regular guy he was posing as.

"Gotta go," he says, getting to the nightstand and picking up his jacket, cradling it carefully. "If you're ever on Ruusan -- Look, uh, me up." He says, marching straight to the door. "Not everything was destroyed." He adds, unable to help himself. Naturally, most of the city had already been ruins, but artillery likely didn't help its state. Flashing a smile before heading out the door, his pair of shoes snapped to his hand with a call of the Force, and then he was gone.

Kyra Perl

 

[Kyra Perl]

"Bye," she murmured half-heartedly, not caring either way.

Kyra had no grasp on who he was. She had no clue on just how close she had come to someone with a bone to pick with her family. Her dance with death was subtle and unnoticed, her hair dropped back over her face.

The faint ring of the force hit the air. She startled belatedly, sitting up just as the door clicked closed.

"..."

And the stranger walked away. She furrowed her brows and fell back.