Sky Should Be High [MA D7]

[Zeno Deathwright]

"If you're interested, I'll teach you," he says with a smirk, turning to the food. "I have no doubt you'd be able to earn the patch in time. Then it wouldn't be just you and your spotter. You'd have a whole house at your back. And if you ever felt the desire to have children they'd be able to grow up within a noble house."

He chuckles after taking a first bite. "I don't know why, but I feel drawn to you. I suppose I'm mostly interested in seeing what you can become, how you could maximize your potential. More so than my attraction to you, though that is part of it too."

[Luth Khalan]

"That would be quite a jump. Still... it would be nice to have connections. Use my skills for people who have my back and I have their's... and shared experience," she mused with a smile before starting into her own food. "It's possible. I feel drawn to you as well. Perhaps I appreciate your ideals. Maybe it's just treating me like a person - a friend, even, maybe. I don't know."

[Zeno Deathwright]

"I am glad I'm not the only one of us that feels that way. I've enjoyed our time together and hope for much more."

[Luth Khalan]

"Definitely not," she chuckles. "I have, too. I'm rather glad we just happened to run into one another."

[Zeno Deathwright]

"I'm rather glad you just happen to be amazing," he says, giving her a smile an playfully bumping his foot against her.

[Luth Khalan]

She breaks into a laugh and rests one side of her face in her hand, looking at him with the revealed eye and bumping him back with her foot. "That's not a word most people use to describe me." She pauses. "Though I guess you're far from 'most people'."

[Zeno Deathwright]

"Most people you work with probably don't look at the whole person," he says, resting his leg against hers. "But I see you Asra. And I still have so much more I want to learn about you."

[Luth Khalan]

You see Asra. And that shouldn't upset me. I want you to see Asra. ... Right? "Well, we have only known one another a few days," she says, shaking her head with a soft laugh. "Though I'm really not that complicated a person."

[Zeno Deathwright]

"Everyone is complicated. That's what makes people interesting. Everyone has secrets, hopes and beliefs. I hope we can learn each other's with time," he says with a smile. "Our pasts are often as interesting, if not as exciting, as our futures."

[Luth Khalan]

"True. I'd like to learn more about you," she admits with a smile as she finishes eating. "I'm really curious how you became who you are... And all the things I don't know yet."

[Zeno Deathwright]

"Well I'm an open book. Always glad to share," he offers with a smile.

[Luth Khalan]

She considered the many approaches possible for the situation and settled for now on one. "How did you get so many scars? They're everywhere."

[Zeno Deathwright]

"Deathwright training for some, my sister's for others, picking fights for even more," he says. "There was one you may have noticed on my gut. A hollow section of metal tubing pierced my suit in a training accident. Acted like a straw leading from my insides to the vacuum of space. I lost a lot of blood very fast, but I yanked it free and put an emergency patch over it. Nearly died that day," he says.

"But fortunately I lived to meet you."

[Luth Khalan]

She looked toward him and ran her fingers lightly over when she knew one of those scars was under his clothing. "I'm happy for that."

"If I did come with you... which would also involve convincing my lord to let me go... did you have anything specific in mind you wanted from me?"

[Zeno Deathwright]

"Someone that would have my back, that I could count on. Someone that I could ask for an honest opinion. I'm not looking for a weapon, I'm looking for a person I can trust," he says with a smile. "I would not ask you to do anything I'm unwilling to."

[Luth Khalan]

"I imagine you have plenty of destructive resources you could call on if need be," she muses with a nod. "More like a partner, then? Or a hand, I suppose, if you don't plan to keep me with you all the time."

[Zeno Deathwright]

"How people would talk if a Sith had a non-Sith partner..." he says with a chuckle, taking her hand and kissing it. "Curious to find out what they might say?"

[Luth Khalan]

She smiles and lets out a soft breath. "Very." She goes through things in her mind, mulling it over. There was so much being presented here. Beyond him. She wasn't ready to deal with how drawn to him she felt in such a short time. But... she looked at their hands. High regard. A chance to develop her own hopes and dreams, and the power to pursue them. Freedom from being someone's dog or their tool. A chance to achieve her potential without constraints. The opportunity to recognize that she had potential - that she could be more than she was. Someone there who recognized that before she even had.

But there were sacrifices. The Empire was not a kind place, and these were not kind people. Backstabbing, destruction, the destruction of lives that she felt on a bone-deep level each time she killed. The insanity that the dark side drove people to. Matthias' insanity more broadly. On a personal level, she would have to abandon her old self and her old name. But was there anything worth salvaging in the last? Was the Republic's calm in comparison true or just an illusion? There were many people like him there, after all.

She was, in a word, conflicted.

[Zeno Deathwright]

As she sat there with her thoughts his smile grew. He could see it, he didn't need the force to tell him. He placed a hand on her cheek and kissed her softly and for a long time. When he finally pulled away he spoke. "If it is that confusing, if you have to question it that much, then it's probably time for a change. Leave behind doubt and believe in your future. Don't let your past chain you. Live for a freer future."

[Luth Khalan]

The kiss broke her out of her reverie a bit, and she returned it softly, but with less restraint. Just... become Asra. The idea had its appeal. The Republic had things to recommend it, but all of those were denied to her, by her own issues or by her superiors. She was raised for conflict... a person who couldn't live in a peaceful world. If fighting was her fate, why not embrace a life of adventure and excitement with someone she was drawn to and who clearly wanted so much to keep her close?

And maybe she could help the Empire become sustainable instead of something that would eat itself alive. She could accomplish something. It was a real future, something to strive for. "... I need a little more time to think, maybe to resolve some things, but... You may be right."

[Zeno Deathwright]

"Take what time you need... but I'm still going to be here to encourage you. I think that at the end of the day you're going to experience the freedom I'm suggesting and you'll fall in love with it."

[Luth Khalan]

She felt a little more confident than she had. Maybe she was borrowing some from him. Maybe she was developing her own more. It was hard to tell. "It's something I've never experienced, having someone ask me to do what they're suggesting and offering freedom at the same time," she says with a chuckle. She looked at him thoughtfully. "Sorry if this is a weird question, but... how do you feel about me? I know you're drawn to me and are interested in my development..." She didn't have any expectations about the response. But it was something she was curious about.

[Zeno Deathwright]

He looks her in the eye and thinks about it, trying to give it a name. "I believe we haven't known each other long enough for me to be considered more than infatuated. But passionate love for you may not be inaccurate. Time will tell, but I'm confident that the feeling I get when I look at you is not going away anytime soon."

[Luth Khalan]

He's infatuated with Asra, the last vestiges of resistance protested. But no. She'd never really been able to be Asra with him. He brought her real personality out and responded when she showed that rather than the taciturn and serious Asra. She smiled and nodded.

"That's about the same for me. It has been a very short time. But after some time... well, I'd be interested to see where it goes."

[Zeno Deathwright]

He lifts her hand to his lips. "Tell me what you want. What is it you hope for? What is it that you would fight for? That you would give everything for? That you want me to help you achieve..."