Galen knocked on the door to Raya's room on their Paladin-class freighter New Horizon. "Raya, it's past o'eight hundred. C'mon, it's time for breakfast."
No return sound greeted him. Frowning, he knocked harder and repeated, "Raya? Raya, are you okay?"
He didn't hear a response, but he faintly heard a rustling sound on the other end. Stepping back, he glanced around, and once he was sure neither Tapi nor HK-77 were walking down the hall, he turned back to the door. Lifting his right hand, he focused on the door's inner mechanisms and used the Force to unlock it. There was a whoosh sound as the panel slid back, and quickly stepping in, he blinked to readjust to the dim lighting as the door shut behind him. Looking around, he opened his mouth to speak when a muffled snore caught him off-guard. Facing the direction of the cots, Galen felt his mouth hang open as his eyebrows shot up to his hairline.
Before him, lying half on and half off the bed in nothing but loose night clothing, lay Raya Karimi. An arm dangled off the side, her long brown-black hair obscuring the lower half of her face while her intricate braid trailed down her back. She was barefoot, and midway through a snore she subconsciously lifted her head to swipe at her nose before returning her arm to it's limp position. As she resumed snoring - the sound of which reminded Galen of a hoverbike with a small engine - one would hardly have guessed Raya were descended from the old Zakuulan nobility.
Galen stared at her, then reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose as another, though far quieter, snore escaped her. Apparently, she had stayed up later than he'd realized on decoding the old treasure maps they'd uncovered last week. To be fair to Raya, she was less interested in profit and more invested in the possibility of an uninhabited planet holding relics from the Old Republic Era from four thousand years ago. Her insistence on it being important finds against the Empire and a preservation of galactic history, coupled with her pleading kath hound puppy eyes, had made him relent in their debate on it last night.
Evidently, he should have known better than to leave her unsupervised with said historical artifacts. Or at least, Galen should have joined her in it. Then she would have been more susceptible to honest sleep when she had a partner's rest to account for.
Removing his hand, Galen sighed through his nose and walked around to the other side of the bed so that he was more or less face-to-face with her. He looked at her for a moment, briefly torn about waking her or not. Force only knew when she got to sleep, and they'd been run ragged for ages.
If I'm being honest, she looks kinda cute when sacked out that hard.
Okay, that did it. Galen had been thinking things about her that bordered beyond friendship for a while now, and after his - his loss, courtesy of Vader - he wasn't ready to dwell on those thoughts.
Time to give Raya a wake up call.
Crouching down, he reached over and tapped her shoulder. "Raya, it's morning. Wake up."
No response. Rolling his eyes, Galen lightly shook her shoulder. "Breakfast. Now. Or I'm giving Tapi yours," he threatened.
What sounded faintly like "get vacuumed" left her mouth before Raya turned her face away from him. For added effect, she hunched her shoulders as if attempting to bury herself under some nonexistent covers.
Galen set his jaw. Fine. If she wasn't gonna answer to her food going to the felico, he'd give her something to wake up to.
Standing up, he marched toward the wall that held the room control panel. Scanning it, he found that the light and air conditioning were right next to each other. Giving a mischievous smirk he hadn't shown since he'd reprogrammed PROXY to mock his first pilot, Galen half turned to look at Raya's prone form. He hovered his palm over the dual buttons, counted down from three, then slammed his hand on the controls.
Immediately, the room burst into bright light, followed by hard blasts of air from the vents directly above Raya and himself. No sooner had he squinted against it did Raya scream, and he saw her half jump up on the cot, her hanging arm suddenly gaining purpose and grabbing something from down below. His danger sense blared, and Galen's eyes widened as he saw her snap into a half defensive position and throw a tool right at him.
Letting out a shout of surprise, Galen dove for cover, the wrench clanging solidly against the wall. Scrambling up, he looked back to see Raya roll off the bed, then pop up and thrown an empty coke bottle at him. Galen moved his head to the side, the cold metal making a cartoon-ish whizz sound as it missed his ear before bouncing off the wall and noisily rolling across the floor.
In hindsight, this was probably not his wisest idea.
Moving to a stand, he ducked his head as Raya chucked a loose sock at him. "Raya, wait, it's me!" he yelped, then realized that the air was blowing loudly above them both.
Throwing out a hand, he quickly lowered both room settings to a reasonable rate as he saw Raya roll across the room in his peripheral vision. Instincts kicking in, he turned and saw her yank out a blaster, turning to him and hurriedly setting it to kill with wild-eyed fear.
Yeah, he was never doing this again.
"Raya, stop!" Galen shouted, reaching out and telekinetically pulling the blaster out of her hand and into his.
Raya shrieked as the weapon flew from her hand, though the grip she had managed to keep meant she stumbled forward a few feet. Fumbling, Raya braced her hands against the floor to keep from falling, then looked up at him as he turned the blaster back to stun. Blinking rapidly, her fear was soon replaced with exasperation and sheer frustration as he tossed the weapon onto her cot.
"Galen! What the kriff were you doing?!" she demanded, breathing hard as she staggered to her feet.
"You wouldn't wake up, and it's two hours beyond your usual routine," he shot back, though traces of sheepishness were evident in his voice. "You wouldn't wake up when I shook you, so I just...tried the room settings."
"Do you have ANY idea how many times I've woken up to enemies trying to break into my place?" Raya retorted vehemently as she straightened her shirt. She blinked and looked down at herself, then swallowed and pulled some of her hair foward so it covered her front. Realizing what she was doing, Galen quickly darted his gaze around the room before finding her eyes again. Although there was still a fair bit of indignation in her brown eyes, there was a hint of amusement in them as she hissed, "Seriously, I've had to do more duck and rolls and grandma throwing tactics than anyone just to keep my head attached."
Despite the absolute absurdity of the situation, Galen couldn't help but find her now broken facade of anger funny. And adorable.
Clearing his throat, he answered, "Sorry, I didn't think that far ahead. Um, anyway, HK was saying something about maintenance, and I made breakfast, so...I'll let you get changed."
Turning on his heel, he marched toward the door, stopping as it opened before looking back and adding sincerely, "Sorry about the uh, fiasco. Won't happen again."
"Thanks," Raya replied, her voice somewhere between flustered and pleased. Facing the doorway, Galen exited the room, but the door didn't close before he heard her muttering, "Ex-Imperials...Force, they're one of a kind."
Galen wasn't sure what to make of that, but he didn't fight the content smile it brought to his face.
