Prompts! 112: “ Why are you bleeding?” and/or 137: “ You’re an asshole.”
First off, THANK YOU for the prompts! <3 And secondly, I’m so sorry for the wait!
The night was quiet. Tamara shivered from her vantage point atop a tall ‘scraper and drew her cloak tight around her. The merchant she’d been eyeing finished up with his latest customer and she finally turned away from the railing and headed to his kiosk. She rifled through his stock, taking advantage of a sale he had on a decent lens and a few spare mechanical parts that would come in handy to fix various things on the Ebon Hawk. The man gave her a strange look but he sold her the small lens she found anyway. She put his curious gaze out of her mind; everyone on Nar Shaddaa had something they were hiding and if she thought too long about all of it she’d never leave this place. Tam turned away from the merchant and glanced around the courtyard, debating if it was worth stopping by a cantina or if she should head back to her crew on the ‘Hawk.
A few elevator rides down, several plazas later, Tam was still not sure what she wanted to do and was almost ready to turn back to the refugee sector. She had turned disappointedly into a smaller alleyway, heading back to the ship when a figure making his way past the crowd caught her eye. The padded shoulders looked suspiciously like the back of Atton’s preferred jacket.
She wove through the crowds until she found him again, a few feet in front of her, and tapped him on the shoulder. Atton twisted back in surprise, his grimace dropping once he realised who she was. “Hey Tam,” he said, glancing around them and turning to face her, his eyes skimming past the crowd behind her and not really taking her in. “How’re you liking Nar Shaddaa?”
“Hey,” she smiled at him. “It’s hasn’t changed since the last time I was here. I’m starting to remember why I left.”
“Yeah, me too.” They began to walk through the crowd. Atton grinned at her and then did a double take, stopping and turning to look at Tam, “Uh … hey, you alright?” he gestured to his face. “Why are you bleeding?”
Tam touched her face gingerly, her fingers coming back wet and red under the gas lamps.
“Here,” Atton rummaged in his pockets for something and handed her a clean white cloth, “hold that over it for a bit. Should stop soon.”
They found a less crowded alleyway and made their way over to a secluded set of buildings on one end of the street. They both sat down on a set of steps nearby while Tam held the cloth under her nose.
“I was thinking of hitting up an old pazaak den I used to frequent back in the day but it turns out the place was lost to a fire years ago,” he said conversationally, stretching his legs. “It’s apparently a luxurious high rise now, if you can believe it.” He seemed almost offended. “Now I’m out of places to go. No one had a deal like they did. Three hours of pazaak and you’d get a complimentary glass of ale. A whole glass! They just don’t make them like they used to.”
Tamara’s shoulders shook with quiet laughter, “It has not been your day today, has it?” Her voice was muffled behind the cloth.
“Hasn’t been my month, if we’re being honest. Things started turning for the worse about the time I got to Peragus.” Atton turned and smirked at her. “I guess all that money you’re paying me for my role as pilot is just going to have to stay in my pockets for a little while longer. It’s a real damn shame.”
The cloth hid Tamara’s guilty expression, but she wasn’t able to chase the guilt out of her voice entirely. “You know, I owe you a lot for sticking around. I’ll tell you what, if we somehow strike it big I’ll give you my share of the loot after we’ve split it between the crew.”
Atton rolled his eyes. “‘Between the crew’?? Tell me we’re not giving your fanboy a share.”
Tamara groaned, “You’re an asshole.”
“Hey, it comes with the territory,” Atton said, gesturing to the alleyway around them. He leaned back on his elbows and took a deep, dramatic breath, “Never a dull moment on the Shad.”
Tam glanced over at him, “I thought you couldn’t wait to get back here.”
“Not really. Just seemed like the right place to go after everything that happened on Peragus. Nar Shaddaa is a great place to hide. You could get murdered here and no one would probably ever know.”
“What a sad way to live,” Tamara said softly, sitting up and pulling the cloth away from her face.
“I suppose. Here, that’s just normal really. Only people here are the ones that can’t get out and the ones that don’t want to ‘cause it’s worse for them anywhere else in the galaxy.”
She twisted to look at him, “I can’t imagine that at all.”
“Yeah,” he said, a far-off look in his eyes.
She brought the cloth back to her face and they sat in silence for a little while longer.
“Well,” she made to stand up but Atton grabbed her elbow, keeping her in place. Tamara glanced questioningly at him and Atton snorted. “You’re really going to make me ask?” He nodded at the cloth in her hand.
Tamara took a breath and shrugged, settling back against the steps. “Sometimes it feels good to let loose.”
“Not when half the galaxy’s after you,” he cautioned, “the whole point of coming here was that we could blend in and be invisible.”
“You sound just like Kreia,” she snapped. Tamara leaned forward and looked down the other end of the alleyway. “I can’t catch a break from her. I was hoping you’d understand.”
“Here,” she felt Atton’s hand on her shoulder, “let me take a look.”
Tamara turned to him again and pulled the cloth away. Atton seized her jaw and tilted her face up so he could see it better.
“Yeah. Looks better. Should probably get you to the ‘Hawk to clean up fully. Maybe he’ll have a time running through all your diagnostics.” Atton shrugged innocently at the glare Tamara shot him. “I’m joking. The crew will be worried though. Should probably tell them I didn’t do it just to be safe.”
Tamara chuckled, “Why, is that a worry the others have?” Something crept into his face, although he was still as unreadable as ever.
“Who knows,” he said finally. He lifted her chin to let her face catch more light so that he could inspect the cut. Her nose didn’t seem broken from this angle. “Now, who pissed you off?”
“Some Quarren doing a slave run,” she responded sulkily, making a face and wincing as he ran a thumb underneath the cut on her cheek. He shot her a questioning look and she shook her head, “No it’s fine, just sore.”
He let go of her and leaned back. “Well, it seems fine to me,” he said. Tamara shrugged and shook her head.
“I killed him but not before he got…” she took a deep shuddering breath and buried her face in her hands. “He got his guards to … shoot them all.”
“You tried to take them on alone? Come on, Tam.”
“Not entirely. I rigged a speeder to crash into them. I thought it’d take the guards out but it blew up before it hit the right target. Then everything went south.” She sighed.
“No shit-” he caught himself before finishing the rest of his thought out loud. This was probably the last thing she wanted to hear. He went for a more neutral response.
“Well, fuck.”
She sighed. “Yup.”
“Well, if it’s slavers you want I got a whole list of common routes. We could camp one until we see a few slavers and take them down, what do you say?” Atton stood up, not entirely sure why he was helping her instead of bringing her back to the 'Hawk and keeping her out of trouble long enough for them to leave Nar Shaddaa without incident.
Tam stared up at him, quiet for a moment. “I honestly thought you were going to drag me back to the ship.”
“I got more fun things to do,” he flashed her a quick smile. Tamara smiled back at him, her grin lighting up the rest of her face underneath the tiny gas lamps in the alleyway.
Atton suddenly realised why he was doing this, alarms blaring in his mind like a ship in combat. He ran through ways to backpedal out of this little adventure in his head, coming up short at her harmless smile. His brain felt like it had turned to jelly.
“You’re the best,” she grabbed his arm and started walking down the alleyway. She was so close, so warm.
“Yeah,” he said breathlessly.
Tamara led them down the alley and gestured for Atton to lead, “Let’s not keep them waiting then.”
