Chapter 61.

Guess who's back? Back again! Fabe is back, tell a friend. OK, but for real. We're gonna finish this.

The funny thing about being in space is that your sense of time goes awry. Your body loses its natural circadian rhythm and that kriffs with your sleep. Torian had watched Raidre struggle with it every time a mission sent them into space for prolonged periods of time. This time had been no different.

Torian never let her suffer the insomnia alone. He knew all too well how it could mess her up. The anxiety for never being rested, and how that could devolve into paranoia… But he had also discovered the cure.

Which was lucky, because he also loved the cure.

She slept, cradled against him, skin on skin and it had been a full 8 hours. He pulled her close, squeezing tight, knowing he would have to wake her up but unhappy about it.

Raidre protested the squeezing with a groan.

"No…"

"It's 0530." He whispered.

"5 more minutes." She said turning to him and nuzzling into his embrace.

"Cyare." Torian kissed her face.

"Duumir ni duhoy, Tor." She sighed.

"Cheater." Torian breathed as he kissed her nose.

She finally opened her eyes and looked up at him. They were big and full of sleep, their usual sharpness absent. He touched the tip of his nose to hers and she smiled.

"Glad you slept."

She grinned. "Yes, thank you for that."

Torian grinned back as he pulled her for another squeeze. "Happy to oblige."

Raidre smirked. "Oh, I bet you are.

She moved away and he groaned. Her absence left the bed very cold. He leaned on an arm and watched her as she walked through their room naked to the fresher.

Their.

The door hissed as it closed, much like a snake would tasting air, and yet his mind hung on the 'their'. It hung on the 'their' so much that he could feel his heart rate elevate from it's cool 55 BPM. He stared at the door as he collected his thoughts, but the 'their' hung over his neck ominously. Raidre was the kind of girl that would sleep in until the last minute and be ready in 5 minutes flat, a practiced snoozer. Torian knew he didn't have a lot of time to collect his mind, but he couldn't get his mind to move on.

The door hissed again. There she was drying her hair with a towel, naked as the day she was born as she moved unabashed to her clothes. He was staring but his mind was elsewhere.

"Something on your mind?"

He looked up, eyes wide, face relaxed. She quirked a brow.

He sighed, as he admitted it to himself. "I'm in love with you."

The silence hung over them, heavy and omniscient. His heart beat as if he had run 3 miles as he realized he'd said that out loud. Her face softened with her kind smile.

"You just figured that out? I could have told you that." She said, her voice gentle and warm.

His heart beat and he could breathe again. "I've known for a while. Just trying to figure out if I've gotten us both in trouble with Mandalore."

He looked away, remembering the gathering, how she had stood up for him and had been ready to shank anyone who spoke ill of him.

"But maybe I'm only causing trouble for me." He added as he bit the inside of his cheeks.

She came back to sit by him on the bed and touched her forehead to his.

"I love you, stop worrying." She whispered as she kissed him.

"Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum." He whispered back. "However long forever turns out to be, I am yours."

She pulled her hands out from under his, and he let her. Her hands rose to cup his cheeks, thumbs running along the scars on his cheeks, her eyes shone like stars, she pulled him to her, lips caressing his in a different way. So tender, so soft, as if this moment was fragile and she was afraid of breaking it. His fingers found their way to her, hair soft like down. His fingers got lost in her mess of a hair as they kissed. His body wanted more, so much more, but his heart was content in that moment. He now belonged to her and her to him.

"Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum." She said back as she cupped his cheeks and ran her thumbs over the scars under his eyes.

Her touch was light, the pressure tender. She held him as if he were fragile and precious, as if she feared of breaking him. He smirked and put his hands over hers. How long they sat together in bed pressing their foreheads together, he could not say. But when the alarm went off to wake up Raidre, they both groaned. She got up and he made sure to smack a bare cheek before it walked out of reach.

"How long will this take?" he groaned.

"Shouldn't be long. Just gotta pick up some guy who stiffed our client. Grab 'em and bag 'em, you know the type."

Torian nodded, his mind hearing the words but not registering them as she picked out her kute and under garments and dressed. He shook his head and sat up straight.

"We're still good to make the hunt with Clan Ordo?" he asked.

Raidre snorted as she pulled up her pants and fastened them. "I wouldn't miss it for all the creds on Hutta, but I also have a very excited Mako making sure we're good to go tomorrow."

Torian smirked. "Well, Corridan did invite us."

Raidre grinned as she pulled down her shirt. "So now I'll get to meet all your friends?"

Torian rolled his eyes. "You've met most of them already, but yea."

Raidre grinned. "I'm really looking forward to it! We get to go hunting for a week, and then feast on what we caught for another week!"

Torian sighed. "Yea, it's gonna be great."

Raidre pulled on her kit piece by piece on the bed next to him. "You good with the job with Gault?"

Torian snorted. "What job? The delivery thing? We'll have plenty of time to pick up supplies when we're don't."

Raidre grinned. "I love that you can read my mind like that."

Torian quirked a brow. "Read your mind? No, just know you, Cyare."

Raidre shrugged as she pulled her chest piece on. "Kind of amounts to the same in the end, though, doesn't it? I know when you're about to shock some one, you know when a rocket punch is coming, I know when you're gonna say 'Toast', you know when I need more grenades. It's pretty awesome."

Torian rested against the pillows of their bed and crossed his arms, the muscles bulging. "Thinking I'm lucky that your idea of vacation and mine are the same."

"Oh, they are, and I can't wait!" Raidre stood and grabbed her helmet. "See you tonight."

Torian blew her kiss. "Don't forget the Garlang, I need it for dinner."

Raidre grabbed the kiss and fanned herself. "And you cook."

"You say it like it's new." Torian laughed.

Raidre backed to the door. "I say it like it never gets old." She blew him a kiss as she walked out the door. Torian looked at the door for a while. Gault was not an early riser, so he had hours before he needed to be up. Their mission was short and really, it was grabbing goods, taking them through a bad place to someone else. Easy job. Over with quickly.

Their room.

He looked around.

She hadn't had a lot of stuff either, so when it became clear they weren't sleeping apart anymore, she'd asked if he wanted to move his stuff in.

It hadn't taken long; he didn't have a lot of stuff either.

He had his side of the bed; she had her side of the cabinets. Whoever left last, made the bed. This was their room; they had their routine and they were sappy idiots when no one was around.

And he felt like an idiot that it had taken him this long to realize that. He grinned and got out of bed.