AU: Alderaan

[last_kallig]

Ibani has not only made plans, she's made PLANS, plans for supplies, transport, the ideal location, ideal weather conditions, and several other factors besides.

Excessive for a picnic? Probably. It could even be excessive planning for a picnic that, energy and mood of all participants permitting, might include seduction. Ibani does not care.

Besides, she might as well USE that enormous patch of wilderness that came with the title of Lady Kallig and that nobody's allowed to build structures on for SOMETHING, right?

She's slipped into Milliways in the hopes of finding Ben.

(OOC: Warning for adult content)

Comments

[last_kallig]

Ibani just savors the contact for a moment. "We're headed to a wilderness reserve area. Well, technically an area inside a wilderness reserve. Came with the title, not allowed to build a structure on it even if I wanted to, so it's still wild."

She grins. "And when we get where we're going we should be the only sapients for at least 100 kilometers in any direction."

Ibani is a much better pilot than Anakin, at least in the not terrifying passengers department. The trip is smooth, easy, as they go down the road and climb up into the Jural mountains.

[acertainpov]

Ben grins as well.

"So no chance of surprise kidnappings?"

[last_kallig]

"I hope not!" Ibani grumbles. "Between your luck and my luck..." Seriously, IS the multiverse out to get them?

They pass through trees, many a hundred years old or more and reach a small glade. "Here we are." There's a spring fed pond in the middle of it, rocky shelves leading like steps down into the water. A giant Alderaanian oak spreads its boughs out and provides dappled shade at this time of day.

There are no people, but there are wild things hiding around the glade, insects and birds and herbivorous animals.

"

[acertainpov]

Ben dismounts from the speeder, and does what he often does on reaching a planet that isn't Tatooine: he shits his eyes and inhales, drinking in the space. Then he turns around to help unload the picnic.

"And this is yours?"

[last_kallig]

"Technically," Ibani replies. She unfolds a truly enormous blanket, the size of the top of a queen sized bed, and puts it down under the giant oak tree.

"Seems a waste, considering how little time I'm ever on Alderaan, but at least the wildlife can make good use of it."

There's also a large basket on the back of the speeder, from the sounds it makes when Ben picks it up, it contains food, wine, and glassware of some kind.

[acertainpov]

It's heavy enough that Ben uses the Force a little bit to help him carry it, but he manages to make it look like he's carrying it all himself as he sets it down.

The illuion is rather shattered when he sits down near the oak tree and just waves a hand to open the basket, starting to set out the food from where he sits.

[last_kallig]

Ibani sits next to him, smiling, then leans against him. Her Force presence relaxes a little, expands, the psychic equivalent of letting your hair down.

The wine is cold and sparkling, the various foods bite sized, ideal for eating with a single hand or feeding to someone else. Ibani's glad that the food is calorie and nutrient dense, now that she's seen that Ben in underweight.

"The breeze feels nice," she says, head on his shoulder. The sunlight filtering through the canopy softens the silver of her hair.

[acertainpov]

Ben wraps an arm around her as she leans, tilts his head towards her and inhales deeply, bring in the small of her hair along with the smell of an Alderaanian summer: summer flowers and scented trees and the distinctive tang of living Kriin trees.

"Mmmm," he agrees. It's nice to have a breeze that cools, rather than bringing more hot sand.

He doesn't move to eat yet, just enjoys the sensation of sitting here.

[last_kallig]

Ibani can't resist the urge to kiss him as his head is tilted toward her and he inhales, so she does. Warm, soft, gentle, everything one would not expect from a Sith.

She reaches for him in the Force, wanting to feel him there. Some part of her has trouble believing he's real, when she can't sense him in the Force.

"Hm. Tempted to put my head on your lap," she murmurs. She remembers how he held her on Hoth, when the backlash hit. It was nice, but it will be better without all of THAT, she's sure.

[acertainpov]

It takes the gentle nudge of her reaching for him to remind Ben that he's safe, and he stretches out into the Force like working out tired muscles, slowly making himself known to her.

It will take a few minutes but he starts to drop his defences.

For now he smirks, quirks a grey eyebrow at her, unable to resist the temptation of making that dirty.

"You don't waste any time."

[last_kallig]

A part of her she didn't know was still tense relaxes as she can start to feel Ben again.

Ibani blinks at his comment, confused, and that echoes in the Force. Then, she realizes what that must be referring to, and blushes.

"I wasn't thinking of that, although that might be an idea for later," she muses aloud, her expression and the Force speculative and considering.

"Food first? Or that Force trick I learned from the Voss that I mentioned on Hoth, the one for wear and tear? This would be a good place for that, plenty of light and fewer distractions."

She's not going to say NO distractions, because Ben is very good at being distracting all on his own.

[acertainpov]

Ben's grin is on the soft edge - it was only a joke, flirty as it is, and he's more interested in other things even when they get to that.

"Food," he decides, because that's what he's more hungry for other than just to sit here for a while.

And luckily, he doesn't have to move to get any of it. "What did you bring?"

He can see, but he wants the tour.

[last_kallig]

"This is sweetened oro bark," she says, pointing to the sweets shaped like small sticks. "I'm honestly not sure what the rest of them are, precisely. I asked the proprietor to pick their favorites."

There are tiny flatbreads wrapped around meat and vegetables, a grape sized fruit next to warm chocolate for dipping said fruit, a vegetable/lentil fritter of some kind, and tiny cakes with differently colored layers of fillings.

[acertainpov]

Ben chooses the flatbreads to start, reaches out and summons two of them, one floating to him and one to Ibani. He picks it apart slightly with his fingers and smiles at what he finds.

"Nerf," he says. "Only Alderaanian chefs can turn this meat into a delicacy."

[last_kallig]

Ibani thanks Ben as he floats the flatbread to her.

"I've seen those, big, placid beasts." She chuckles. "Still feels a little strange to encounter animals that don't want to eat me on sight. Never met any until I first found Milliways."

The various vegetables with the nerf are crisp tender still, providing contrast to the soft meat in flavor and texture.

Ibani makes a 'mmm' noise as she chews carefully.

[acertainpov]

"Someone was herding nerfs in Milliways?"

That's as surprising as her never having seen one before. In Ben's time the damn things are ubiquitous, and never prepared as well as on Alderaan.

[last_kallig]

"Oh, no, I meant animals in general that weren't trying to kill me on sight. Korriban's wildlife is universally extremely aggressive. An unarmed first year acolyte wandering around was liable to wind up down something's throat inside of two hours."

"Although I wouldn't be surprised if someone HAD tried to herd nerfs at Milliways." Milliways is weird like that.

Ibani finishes her flatbread, then shifts position to lay on her back with her head on Ben's lap, barring any objections from Ben.

[acertainpov]

"Still, even at Milliways you need to be careful," says Ben. "The wildlife in the lake will kill you given half the chance."

He has no objections at all: stretches out his legs to give her a suitable pillow and starts to comb his fingers through her hair.

With his other hand he continues to pull over food, some of which he offers to her.

[last_kallig]

"Ah yes, I've met the giant squid, very grabby," Ibani replies, smiling.

Her eyes half close in pleasure as Ben combs his fingers through her hair. It feels good, safe, to be held and touched like this. If she were physically capable of purring like a cat, she would, and the Force echoes that.

The fruit dipped in chocolate is sweet-tart, too tart for most people to consume plain. Very juicy too, as it turns out, when Ben feeds her one and some of the juice gets on his fingers.

[acertainpov]

"But sweet when you get to know him."

Ben glances down at her, lying in his lapand staring up, and he smiles. He gently lowersa finger, dripping in red juice and smeared in chocolate, down to her lips.

[last_kallig]

"Yes, very sweet. And quite happy to play some Earth game called volleyball."

Ibani's eyes sparkle with heat and mischief and she wraps her lips around his finger and removes the juice and chocolate with her tongue. Possibly Ben has been a terrible influence on her.

[acertainpov]

"Now that, I've never tried."

Maybe he will,if he can find someone to teach him. Or the squid will teach him himself.

But for now, Ben grins, turning his finger in her mouth to make sure she can get all the food, and lets the pleasure of the sensation spill out into the Force.

[last_kallig]

Ibani drinks in his pleasure in the Force. It would be confusing, if she hadn't been sensing what other people felt all of her life. There's no difference in intensity, but she can easily distinguish what sensations are her own physical body versus what she's feeling from Ben. When she lets go of his finger, it is clean of juice and chocolate.

Warm desire curls faintly at the base of her spine, but she's in no rush for more.

"I think it's supposed to be a team sport, although it ought to be possible with two people," Ibani explains.


"Can't let you do all the work," she remarks, smiling up at him. Ibani reaches for a fruit herself, using the Force to move it into the chocolate and then her hand. She swears slightly as she grasps the fruit a bit harder than she means to and it oozes juice. She reaches up, offering it to Ben. (And if she's cheating a bit with the Force to keep it from dripping past her hand, well wouldn't you?)

[acertainpov]

Ben catches her wrist in his hand and holds her as he carefully cleans the fruit and the juice - lightly and affectionately and just basking in the intimacy. Where it's dripped down the side of her palms he covers with a chain of gentle kisses.

"Have you ever done anything like playing sport?"

He hasn't.

[last_kallig]

Ibani shares her own basking in the intimacy in the Force as well as her physical pleasure. So much of what she's discovering with Ben is new and wondrous, even as old as she is. (When she was on Korriban, even in her most optimistic dreams she never expected to live long enough to reach 30, never mind 40!)

"No, I haven't," she replies. "I've heard the expression of sport being a substitute for war, but I've been rather busy with the real thing."