Here have some writing feat. Fin being a gay disaster, his batchmate Comb (part 2 of the cool hair gang), and also cameos by Shev who i will rant about in the tags and also Runi, a Trans Icon and my actual daughter.
“Hey, vod, what are you doing out on this fine night?”
Fin didn’t look up. “Nothing,” he said, a little too fast, and winced.
Comb’s arm came around his shoulder. “Not here to look at a certain… someone, are you?”
“No.” Fin tried not to tense and failed. He dragged his eyes up to his brother, who was grinning broadly, an almost-empty glass in his hand.
“So you won’t mind if I go over there and offer that Mikkian by the door a drink?”
“No!” Fin said hurriedly, leaping up from his spot. Comb’s grin widened, and Fin sat down again. “I mean - uh, I - If you want to-”
“So you do have a crush on him!” Comb crowed. “Shev said you’d been hanging around here rather than 79’s, and he said it was because of him-” he jerked his head to the Mikkian standing by the door.
“Keep it down!” Fin hissed, feeling his cheeks heat up. He glanced at him again, before turning back at his brother, frowning. “When have you ever believed anything Shev said, anyways?”
Comb shrugged. “Runi confirmed it.”
Of course she did. “Fine.” he looked down, but found his eyes drawing up again to look at the figure by the door.
“Well?” Comb said, almost bouncing in his seat. “Have you talked to him?”
“Yes,” Fin said, smiling softly. “He was a technician on that survey ship we saved near Ryloth, remember?”
“That time we got held up by pirates?”
Fin nodded. “Yeah. Runi and I were stuck in the same escape pod as him.” He didn’t even have to look at Comb to see his grin. “When we dropped him back on Coruscant, he…”
“Yyeees?” Comb said, leaning forward.
“He said… that he really liked working with me. And then he kissed the side of my bucket. And then told me to meet him in this bar, but we wre redeployed, so i didn’t get to go-”
“And so you’ve been hanging out here, hoping he’ll notice you? Aww, vod!” Comb hooked an arm around Fin’s neck, almost sloshing his drink all over Fin’s greys.
“Stop, stop!” he hissed, glancing between comb and him near the door. “He’ll hear!”
“So?” Comb said. “Go talk to him, vod! He’s been waiting here, all this time, just for you to return!”
“I - I can’t, he probably thinks I turned him down-”
“Ah, he works on a ship, he’ll understand!” Comb stood, placing his glass on the bench behind them. “Here, look, I’ll go.”
“No! No, Comb, don’t, what if he doesn’t want-” Fin rushed after his brother, but to no avail - Comb was striding purposefully across the bar, and had already gotten the attention on the people near the door, and he was turning, smiling politely.
“Hello! My vod here says that you were stuck in an escape pod together-”
“Comb! Comb, please-”
He had gone from smiling politely at Comb to peering over his shoulder, and as his eyes fell on Fin, they lit up. “Fin! Oh wow, I thought you had forgotten!”
Fin froze. “Uh - Hi, Mateo.”
Mateo grinned, his head-tendrils flicking behind him. “How have you been? Runi said you had been redeployed, which is why you couldn’t get to meet me-”
“Runi - Runi spoke to you?”
“Yeah! We exchanged comm codes on Coruscant. I thought she passed it on to you, but maybe she forgot…”
Fin grinned, reaching up to rub the back of his head. “Yeah. Guess so.”
Mateo tilted his head, smiling. “I believe I said I’d get you a drink?”
“Yeah. ‘The best drink on Coruscant’, you said.” Then, trying to ignore the fluttering in the bottom of his stomach, he added, “I doubt you could beat one of 79’s cocktails.”
“We’ll see,” Mateo said. “If I’m wrong, you’ll just have to take me to 79’s, next time.”
Next time? Fin’s stomach flopped, and he resisted the urge to jump in excitement. He grinned at Mateo.
“Well,” Comb said, clapping a hand on Fin’s shoulder, making him jump. “I’d love to stay, but Runi has threatened grievous bodily harm if I do. You too lovebirds have fun. Make sure you’re back before dawn to tell me all about it.”
Comb saluted a little sarcastically, before backing out of the bar. Fin turned to Mateo, who held out his hand. “Shall we?”
“Yeah,” Fin said with a grin, biting his lip to hold back a wild shout of glee.
