Hour 1: The Galaxy Hates Me

"When I get out of here, I'm going to kill the lot of them," Mira growled under her breath.

"Get in line, sister," Atton drawled, shaking his head as he looked over the cargo hold door.

She glared at her enforced companion. "Are you kidding? This is all your fault."

"How do you figure that?" He glared right back. The Galaxy hates me, he thought. It must.

"If you hadn't been sulking around back here like a wounded kath hound, no one would have said anything, and we sure as hell wouldn't be locked in the cargo hold together! Locking us in until we 'get along' - is this someone's idea of a joke!"

"Me?" Atton sat down in the middle of the floor that Brianna normally used as her practice room. "You let Bao-Dur trick you into coming back here. Why would he send you to get parts for him when he's got T3 to do it for him?"

Fuming, Mira stalked over to the cargo hold door and pulled on it again. It still didn't budge, anymore than it had when she'd tried it ten minutes ago. "Maybe... I could blow the door if there's any mines in here." She looked back at the cargo cylinders appraisingly.

"Yeah, and maybe you can blow a hole in the ship too and kill us all while you're at it."

"At least I'm trying to get us out of here. What are you doing, just sitting there?"

"I'm meditating," Atton lied, closing his eyes and hoping she'd shut up.

"Yeah, right, Rand." She stalked back toward him, her boot heels clicking loudly on the metal surface.

"It's better than pacing around. If that droid really did weld the door shut, we're not getting out until they let us."

"I wish I had my lightsaber. I'd cut the door open." Mira started digging through the cargo bins, looking for something useful.

I have a bad feeling about this, Atton thought.

Hour 2: Boredom Sets In

Mira had tried everything short of bombing the door open – and she was this close to trying it, if she could find a mine or a grenade in the storage containers. Force powers hadn't worked. The door was welded shut, so trying to slice the locks did no good. And when she'd tried one of the spare blasters she'd found in a storage bin, her first shot had ricocheted off the door and came a few spare inches short of burning a new hole in Atton's jacket. He'd confiscated all the weapons in the hold and locked them in another cargo cylinder after that.

"Would you please stop stalking around like a caged animal?" he snapped suddenly.

She whirled to face him again. He was still sitting on the floor, calm as you please except for his outburst. "Aren't you going crazy being stuck in here!"

"Nah, I'm playing pazaak."

"What? Where are your cards?"

"I'm playing in my head."

She blinked.

"I do have a deck, though. If you want to play."

"Huh. It has to be better than going stir-crazy." She sat down, cross-legged, across from him, leaving enough room for the cards between them. "But I don't have my own sidedeck."

He offered her his deck of cards. "Pick your cards out first. I'll let you have a handicap." Atton smirked.

"Shut up, or I'll smack that grin off your face." She started flipping through his cards, looking for the best ones. "What are we playing for?"

"Republic Senate rules?" he offered.

"I didn't think you were that boring."

"Hey, I'm broke," he said defensively.

She picked the last of her ten cards and handed the deck back. "It's no fun unless you're playing for something." She grinned. "How about Nar Shaddaa rules?"

"Well, if you're that eager to take off your clothes, we could just skip the cards and-"

"Deal, flyboy."

"Okay, okay, just don't say I didn't warn you."

Atton tossed his jacket on the pile of clothes, smirking the whole time. "You had to win one eventually," he said, his tone pure innocence.

"You're cheating. You have to be!" Mira protested. She had already been divested of her jacket, both boots, and her belt.

He looked positively offended as he flipped over a ten. "I don't cheat."

"Yeah, right. You keep drawing tens! You've gotta be counting cards or something."

"What can I say? The Force wants me to see you naked."

Mira fervently wished she still had that blaster.

Atton flipped over another ten, making his total twenty. She had held at nineteen. "Pants off, Mira," he cooed.

"You are so cheating." Growling, she pulled her pants down over her hips and tossed them onto the pile.

"Nice underwear. Have you been hanging out with Brianna?"

"Shut up and shuffle. I am not going to lose."

"Hey, this was your idea. No need to get so sour about it." He shrugged and shuffled the cards again. "Although if you really want-"

"Just. Play. Atton."

He blew her a mocking kiss and turned over another ten.

Hour 4: Winning, Losing, It's All The Same Under Nar Shaddaa Rules

When the cargo hold door finally opened, it was upon a tableau that none of the Ebon Hawk's crew had ever expected to see. Atton and Mira, both clad in only looks of pure concentration and their underwear (or, in Mira's case, her halter top and undies), were sitting on the floor of the cargo hold. A spread of pazaak cards lay between them. They didn't even notice that the door had been unsealed, so involved were they in this one last, critical hand.

After a moment, Mira crowed triumphantly. "Take that, flyboy!" She was grinning ear-to-ear, her total twenty and her hand empty.

"Damn it," Atton muttered. His total was still only twelve and all he had in his hand was a plus-four card. "You cheated."

"It's good to see you two finally getting along," Bao-Dur said from the doorway.

Brianna stood beside him, arms crossed over her chest. "What are you doing in here?" the former Handmaiden asked, surveying the garments strewn around her practice space.

"Quiet," Atton snapped. His brow furrowed as he focused on the deck. If he had any feel for the Force, for luck, for the cards – for anything – this had to be the right card.

His hand moved to his deck, sweat beading on his forehead. Gently, he caressed the deck; gently, he took the top card. He raised it to his eyes with frustrating slowness.

Atton sighed explosively. "Well... " he said.

"Well what?" Mira demanded. She leaned forward, trying to get a look at the card in his hand.

"Well," Atton threw the ten he'd just drawn onto their makeshift board, "it's a good thing that the door's open!" The pilot made a break for freedom.

Mira lunged for him as he fled, grabbing for an ankle but falling on her face across the cards as Atton crowed his victory. She swore. "That slippery son of a schutta! When I get my hands on him..." She took off after him.

"Not really something I needed to see," Bao-Dur said in an aside to Brianna.

"I thought it was rather amusing," Brianna mused.

The Exile turned the corner. He wore a perplexed look on his face. "Ah... does anyone know why Mira's banging on the cockpit door in her underwear?"

Bao-Dur turned to look over his shoulder. "T3, have you got it all?"

T3 beeped happily.

"You didn't-" Brianna choked.

"We've got a holorecord of everything that went on in here. Come on, General, grab some caffe and get comfortable."