AU: Bar Crawl

[last_kallig]

After the events at the Foundry, Ibani felt that both she and Ben desperately needed some R+R. There was much research and questioning of her various contacts, smugglers, pirates, spies, and other such folk for good places to drink and eat on Nar Shaddaa.

She has a list! Although her first plan is to ask Ben where HIS favorite places on Nar Shaddaa were and see if any of them exist in her when, because you never know.

In the interests of blending in, Ibani has gone for the smuggler/pirate look in brown and bright emerald synthleather with a vibroblade strapped on one hip. (She has her lightsabers too, of course, but those are more hidden.)

Comments

[last_kallig]

Ibani nods. "I think I know why." She has been to Tatooine, after all!

She flexes her own toes, then leads him through the door into the garden. It's made to look like a natural space, like a meadow with a stream running through it, a tree distantly like a Willow providing an ideal place to sit and observe near the stream. Wildflowers bloom amid the grasses, and water plants grow in between the rocks of the stream. There are no paths, only soft grasses underfoot.

"These are all plants native to Ziost," she explains. "This style is fairly popular there, one that aims to create as natural looking, as wild, a space as possible."

"Was popular," she corrects herself after a moment. "There are other places like this, gardens made by people who took a piece of Ziost with them when they left. I don't know if any of these remain, in your time."

The lighting is made to feel like a single sun, beginning to set.

[acertainpov]

"I don't know if I'd know to recognise them, if I even had the chance to see them."

Let's be honest, even as 'peacekeepers' Jedi didn't often get to see private gardens. He walks in the grass slowly, savouring the feeling of life against his skin, and one hand on her shoulder contantly.

So much of the galaxy has been lost. He wonders if any part of Mandalore exists like this in his own time, preserved despite the wars that destroyed it.

[last_kallig]

"I could tell you about these, but none of them would grow where you are, I know that."

She's glad that he's enjoying himself and she moves slowly, letting him savor the life against his skin. Their eventual destination is beneath the tree, and she invites him to sit with her.

"I like to meditate here," she confides. "It's peaceful, quiet." Ibani doesn't get much peace or quiet outside of Milliways.

[acertainpov]

"It's a good spot for that."

It beats meditating on Tatooine, but then Ben gets too much peace and quiet these days, it's nice to have peace and quiet in decent humidity.

He sits, folding his legs in front of him, and removes his hat to expose his hair to the climate controlled air.

"So what have you salvaged from the kitchen?"

[last_kallig]

She runs her fingers through his hair once the hat is removed.

"Fruit, cheese, chocolate, and a little wine," Ibani explains.

She removes the glasses and the wine first, then looks up at him, almost shy.

"May I kiss you?" she asks, flushing slightly.

[acertainpov]

He turns his attention away from the hamper and the wine, and gives it fully to her, one hand coming up like hers to lose fingers in the hair at the back of her head.

"Please do," he says, with a warm smile.

[last_kallig]

She leans in to kiss him, so gentle and so careful, as if she might break him by accident. It's new and wonderful and like flying an unfamiliar starfighter without instruments. Feedback from Ben of some kind would be very helpful.

She's more careful in the Force this time, more restrained. The love-desire-pleasure not a rising sea but the careful warmth of a banked fire.

[acertainpov]

Ben closes his eyes, and at first just lets his physical response speak for him, responsive and tender as he shifts just fto make sitting more comfortable for both of them, one hand on the grass next to her hips, the other gently nestling in her hair.

At the edges though, he opens up, lets part of his being leak out into the force: like tha sound of an ocean from far away, distant and indistinct, but the sense of something vast and deep.

[last_kallig]

Ibani shifts toward him, moving her own body to make this easier. The hand that isn't in his hair moves toward his shoulder. She's reading his physical responses, learning how to make this better for both of them, still as gentle and as tender as she can be.

Feeling the edge of him in the Force makes something in her relax that she didn't realize was tight. She'd gladly bask in his force presence like a Loth-cat in the sun, if he'd let her.

[acertainpov]

She doesn't have to worry, he can lead her, read her own desires and pleasures for the both of them, but he's also heppy to let her take the lead, to learn to read him and to understand herself. He's an old hand, but this is new for her.

He relaxes into her, eases the part of him that strained so hard against the wills of the Tuk'ata, and keeps that marginal door open, lets her bask in it all she needs: warmth and compassion and unconditional love.

[last_kallig]

She takes the lead for a while, learning to read him and to even know what it is she wants.

She sighs in pleasure as he relaxes into her, easing his strained self. He can rest and bask in her too, warmth and love, a tingle in the skin like the air before a thunderstorm.

Eventually, she pulls back a little, saying "slow" to herself and looking thoroughly kissed. She's suddenly very sure what her dreams are going to be like tonight.

Pouring wine for both of them is a a useful way to both distract herself from the remembered feelings of kissing him and an eventual cure for her thirst. Well, one of her thirsts, at least.

[acertainpov]

When she pulls back he smiles at her and his hand slides down from her neck to rest between her shoulder blades as he watches her pour, leaving that presence open to her still.

He takes a glass when it's poured and lifts it to her. "What shall we toast to?"

[last_kallig]

""Hm, good question," Ibani replies, thinking. She leans into him. "Hope," she says at last. Hope for the future of the galaxy and hope for what is growing between them. Hope that they can learn from their mistakes and hope that they can meet the unexpected challenges that will inevitably arise.

[acertainpov]

Yes, he likes that. He smiles brightly and tilts his glass to meet hers.

"To hope," he agrees.