No Sympathy for the Stranded?

The skin-tight suit was good. Him stripping it off was better. Yana's thick eyebrows climbed up her sloping brow, and she actively pulled aside errant hair from her field of vision, just to better enjoy the view. Of course he didn't seem to relish being exposed, and pulled on the new clothes in rapid succession. It was, though, a good fit. Rather fetching. He looked like he fit. In fact, he looked like he should stick around for twenty or thirty years, preferably closely. Intimately really. Yana blinked her way out of staring.

Fantasize later, she lectured herself internally.

Of course he paused at the doorway, and looked at her. Then, he thanked her. Most importantly of all, he used her name. That brought a smile to her face, because just maybe things were going somewhere.

The air outside was cold now, and wind picking up. Yana'd pulled a long leather coat around herself, and with her hands buried in the pockets she trudged her way down the long slope. Her boots kicked pebbles and sand alike, but her eyes flitted about a little nervously. They were a couple blocks away from Hope's Garage. And she'd ask questions big time. In fact she was beholden to her for honest answers, so sooner or later she'd have to explain all this. Dad though, she could spin a little yarn there. And, step by step as she drew closer she cultivated it.

Then, ahead in the dark was it.

It wasn't beautiful. Not at first glance. Nor at second. In fact even by the third it was a pretty ugly mud building like everything else here, with a few arches and nothing else to distinguish it whatsoever. The best feature was the channels carved into the tall vertical portion, to catch wind and funnel it in for fresh, cool air. One of the archways was lit by the familiar warm glow of light, and the sound of raucous laughter and the clinking of glassware. Smashing in some cases. There was some lilting string music coming as well.

"OK," Yana said, turning to the trooper. "Follow my lead. Don't say anything dumb."

The subtext of 'do' was evident too. She pushed in through the doors, and into the interior of the tavern.

It was dirty. Benignly so. What was interesting was that mixed with the tan boring interior behind the bar, the seating areas were actually quite pretty. Well, 'were' at one point. The interior was more whitish, and there were orange and yellow tile bits that were artistic, despite being grimey. There was a fireplace at one end, with a fire lit in it, and a few people by it holding their mugs. Substantially more people were at the opposite end and a small stage, on which a minimally-clad dancer was twirling about. Somewhere in between was the main bar counter, and Finn.

Finn Ishale Sularen was a short, powerfully-built man. His nose had been broken a few dozen times, he had eyebrows that could have been caterpillars and crawled off his face, thick mutton chops, and an exposed paunch that somehow managed to look intimidating. His arms looked like a gorilla's, and were covered in tattoos. He smiled, revealing a gold tooth, and waved Yana over.

"C'mere girl, who's yer friend?" He asked friendly. He was in a good mood.

"Dad, meet, uh, Teek Mal-Cona, he's a merchant. He broke down in the wastes and had to walk all the way here," Yana replied, bullshitting a name from his designation and the brand of clothing she'd stolen for him. It wasn't the worst fake name she'd ever come up with.

"Frell," Finn whistled appreciatively, eyeing the clone while he rubbed a dirty glass with a slightly less dirty rag. "Probably damned tired," he admitted. "Get 'em some food and show him upstairs. He can pay later."

Yana let out a held breath and smiled to the trooper. But Finn held up a hand first.

"Also, my name's Finn, Finn Ishale Sularen. Welcome to Dar Ulwan, best little shadowport on Saleucami. You keep me in mind next time yer looking for goods."

Yana grabbed the trooper by his elbow, and tugged him along behind the counter, around the corner, and up a flight of stairs. She pushed through a curtain, then into another room, sliding the door shut behind them. It was the guest room, rather than hers because if Finn were to find him in her room it'd probably turn out worse than if she'd just introduced him as "Imperial Stormtrooper I found."

Mind you the spare room was cleaner. Cleaner mostly in the sense it was less cluttered with things. It had a nightstand with a light, a bed, and a dresser. The blanket atop had a colorful geometric pattern on it, but like most everything in the tavern had seen better days. It was still warm enough. There was a window over it that looked out over the minimal night-lights of the caldera. It was a good view though.

Yana sat on the edge of the bed, one leg draped over the other, and tried to look vaguely fetching. She wasn't that great at it, but the certain way she leaned back and shed her coat was supposed to entice the red-blooded sort into a little feeling.

"That was pretty awkward, you don't usually talk to people apparently. But, uh, now that I think about I've got a lot of questions. Sit down, it might take a while," She encouraged, patting the fabric beside her, ever so optimistically.

Of course she didn't delay in her questions.

"Why were you here anyway? This place has absolutely nothing the Empire could care about."

He did sit. But he leaned forward so she could barely see him, and didn't seem too receptive. No, instead he just described what Yana could only possibly interpret as the worst possible ways to promote the Empire. Before she'd been inclined not to ever do anything with it because it was pushy and had too many rules. Now she was convinced not to because they were homicidally deranged. In fact it was a hell of a time he'd had.

Walking through the desert after all that, it was damned unpleasant. At least this way he had a safe place though. From what it sounded like, the Empire sure as hell didn't want him back. They were liable to just shoot him again.

Of course after that he leaned back, to match her, and looked her square in the eye and asked why she saved him.

Yana was silent, thinking for a few seconds. She kept fishing around for something that sounded good. Everything churning in her mind sounded like absolute bullshit. Oh you have good in you. Oh you needed help and it was the friendly thing to do. Oh I'm so loyal to authority. Not a lick of it she could even let touch her tongue before she'd gag on it. Nope, honesty was about all she could do.

She rolled on her side a bit better to face him, unruly black hair falling over one eye in the process, and grinned a little sheepishly.

Here goes nothing...

"Because you're really, really hot. Like seriously good-looking. And maybe I was kinda thinking, y'know the story. Boy wanders desert, girl saves boy, boy romances girl..."

She blew the hair away from her eye with a huff, and the sheepish look just increased further. She cleared her throat awkwardly and made a hand gesture highly evocative of putting a thing inside another thing.

"Yeah, you get the idea."

Yana's face turned about as red as it could get, which mercifully wasn't that bad. TK started stuttering and the words were all a jumble, also he was a super pink shade as he sat forward looking alarmed. He did find words though, and he explained rather badly that he wasn't experienced, that he was just a soldier, that maybe he couldn't really please her. Of course if he'd been banking on sending the message 'no' it didn't come out well.

In fact the way Yana interpreted was pretty straight-forward, he was a virgin, and was nervous about it. That also raised a gleeful little note because it upped the romance of it all if she was his first. It'd be sweet.

Her left arm slid around his back, and she leaned up against him.

"It's okay, everybody has to have a first time. I'll make it good for you, you don't have to really work for it or anything. I mean, you can just follow my lead, and the rest just comes really natural."

The sound of the door practically gave Yana a heart attack. She bolted up off the bed, and immediately started pointing at the lamp. Her heart pounded in her throat, and she started talking as naturally as possible.

"So your lamp's right here and, oh hi dad," She waved.

"Silly girl," He rebuked in mock gruff tone. "Forgetting to bring the guy some grub. This oughta perk him right up. Bring the tray on down when he's done Yana."

She nodded. He put the tray down, it was full of some kind of subtle spiced bean dish, with little pieces of bread, and a big jug of mild ale. Good solid food. She swallowed as he walked out, and then listened for receding footsteps as her father left.

"Oh shit that was close," She whispered. "Don't let dad know, he'd freak out. He doesn't even handle it well when somebody grabs my ass."

Yana returned to the bed, sitting cross-legged atop it and watching him eat. She had a thoughtful kind of expression, a curiosity in her green eyes. She was still optimistic despite the close call. In fact nothing could trump her goals now. The fact her dad had almost walked in had just been a thrill, she had the excited feeling that only solidified her decision to make it happen.

And there was the fact he sounded willing to learn it. Good to hear his male instincts were still there, ready to be encouraged.

Of course it would help if he ate a bit first. Didn't want to spill the tray and raise questions.

"What, dad?" Yana sounded skeptical. "Well yeah I suppose you'd be wary. We're not exactly the kind of people the Empire cares for."

As one of the universe's light touches of irony, she sidled up to the trooper, her own warm skin against him as she delivered that comment. At least one imperial was liable to like them before the night was up.

"I mean you probably don't really get to talk to a lot of people right? Just you, behind your helmet, it's got to be a little lonely."

Yana's bronze-skinned hand rested neatly on the trooper's inner thigh, and she leaned in a little closer to him. The fact was, she'd started out with shallow motivations. In the process she'd found there was actually some deeper interest to this. They'd had very different lives, and somehow that just made her all the more curious. Or possibly that made him even hotter. But was there really much of a difference?

Yana really wasn't paying much attention to the details of what he was saying, about alcohol and Empire and various little naive confusions over her real world. The net result was just that he was even cuter when confused, and she nodded slowly and let out a few 'uh huhs' while she moved the tray out of the way, and then the jug when he was done sipping. The whole 'batchmate' comment was barely registered, and she really didn't care either. It was all part of the quiet subtext that she'd dream up later lying in her own bed, brow knit, querying 'I fucked a clone?'

By the time he'd finished, Yana was ready to make her move, and the lithe young woman straddled the clone, resting herself atop him, and she gently drew closer, and pressed her lips to his. It was something like a hurricane coming in that had just been downgraded to a tropical storm. You knew it wasn't harmfully forceful, but nevertheless she came in fast enough and with enough force to make it abundantly clear she meant to go all the way. Landfall was being made.

It was appropriate to say she gave him the mother of all kisses. She had a lot to prove, and in particular wanted to make sure his first kiss was also the very best one he ever had. In fact if this kiss didn't curl his toes, she'd be disappointed. What was more, she'd been anticipating this moment herself for quite some time, namely all day, and she was well-motivated to enjoy it to the fullest. So she breathed her warmth into him, exploring him, and only when she came up for air did she find new ways to go forward, pulling off her halter top, and going back in for seconds.