Shadows of Bankor

"How did I know I'd find you here?" Mia asked. She was wearing her goofy, large coat and had her hands stuffed in her pockets. She sat down next to the so-called Speed Freak and perked a brow. "We didn't get to talk so much, what with a whole squad of stormtroopers listening in on our conversation."

Astin looked up from his drink and offered Mia a smile. "Well hello there Legs." He offered her a playful wink. "Long time no see."

"You're right though, it weren't really a good time to talk with all those bozos around. A place like this makes a much better place. " He tilted his head to the side. "Can I buy you a drink?"

"Yeah, whiskey. Corellian." Mia felt the bottle in her coat. "Well, maybe I should have something other than what I have all the time."

She then shook her head in disbelief.

"Wait, Legs?"

"I'll get you some sort of surprise then." Astin replied with a soft chuckle. "Apologies in advance if it's not to your tastes though."

He waved over the waitress and placed an order. "Yeah, yours are rather long." The young man replied a playful smile on his lips. "And if I'm going to be speed freak or lover boy, well I figure a few more nicknames won't hurt."

"Eh, you seem like you know your liquor. I'd be surprised if you didn't get me something good."

Mia perked a brow.

"Lover boy? Ugh, you're getting it in your head. My sister dates a lot of guys, by the way."

He laughed at that. "It was that old lady that called me that. Honestly a nickname like that isn't quite my style."

"Plus, I'm not even sure if I dated your sister." He looked Mia over for a moment. "Maybe if she's older then you. It's a lot less likely if she's younger."

"Oh that lady. I don't know what her deal was." Mia shrugged and tapped on the counter, incessant about her drink.

"Nah, Eva is younger than me. And even if she was older, she'd still manage to be way less mature."

The drink arrived a few moments later, seemed to be a rather simple jin and tonic. "Me either, nothing wrong with a bit of light hearted flirting after all." He answered with a shrug.

"Likely it is we didn't date then. You look to be nineteen, maybe twenty and while that's not too bad right now. If she's younger and it was more then a year ago."

He smirked. "She would pretty much be a kid, and that's not really kosher."

"Glad to know you have some standards. They weren't taking you in based on underaged preferences," Mia said, picking up her drink. She sniffed it and frowned; she never was a fan of the smell and yet she often did it anyways.

"I'm pretty sure more then one person has been taken in on those sort of charges. Happy to say I'm not one though." Taking a sip from his beer Astin smirked.

"So now that we got that out of the way, can I ask where you're from? You do have a vaguely familiar look to you."

"Chandrila," Mia answered, after a few moments of hesitation. She took a swig of her drink and then set it down. "I used to be a farm girl."

"Really? That's where I'm from too!" He replied a note of excitement in his tone. "Might be that's where we recognize each other from. You ever go to ant of those Ag events? You know where there was all the contests that were just a thin veil for trying to get us kids to hook up?"

"You serious? I actually liked those," Mia commented. She closed her eyes in deep thought about all her peers whom had asked her to slip away and she had refused.

"Uh, anyways, that does explain a lot. You a former farm boy?"

"Did you? Any good at any of those competitons?" He took a sip of his drink and smirked. "I always just went to kiss girls in quiet corners, it was probably the funnest part of them for me."

"But yeah, born and raised on a farm, left it all behind years ago though. Wasn't really for me."

"You sure sound like a farm boy regardless," Mia said, "I knew you had a look to you. You've got to have siblings like me, right? Maybe it was one of your brothers that made out with my sister."

Or multiple brothers...

"Eleven of em, nine of em younger. Six brothers and five sisters of you are looking for exact numbers." He chuckled. "Wouldn't doubt that most of them spent a little time at those get togethers kissing girls."

"One of those could of been your sister."

"Huh. I'm kind of surprised my family never got that big, come to think of it," Mia noted. She took another sip of her drink and then eyed Astin up and down. "And what, you came to some random planet just to race around on your bike? Plenty of places to race back on Chandrila."

"Well it's not like this was the first destination on my list, or honestly like it was on my list at all." He shook his head. "Plus it's not like anyone ever comes to Chandrila to watch races. If you want to make a name for yourself you got to go elsewhere."

"I see." Mia downed the rest of her drink and then looked at her coat. The CorSec logos had been long stripped but it was still from the planet she was going to mention. "What about Corellia? You'd fit right in over there, so I've heard.

"Spent some time there not too long ago honestly." He finished his beer and waved over one of the waitstaff. "More then a year truth be told, but things didn't go over to well. Lots of unfriendly types around that would take advantage of a farm boy if he wasn't careful. If I'm honest I ended up getting into a mess of trouble. Leaving ended up being the best choice."

"Had met a guy there that suggested here, said I could be of some help." He shrugged. "So I came, been stuck here ever since."

"Been about eight or nine months now?"

"I hear Corellia wasn't such a great place after the Clone Wars ended," Mia said, leaving it at that. She wasn't going to so openly talk about the Empire cracking down on everything.

"You think these people would hold so big of a grudge to come for you here? It has been a good number of months."

"Never know." He replied with a shrug. "Likely as not it's more trouble then it's worth though."

"Its not exactly cheap or easy to scour the galaxy after all."

"That's true. I can only think of one group that's been targeted like that." Mia smirked at Astin, wondering if he caught her drift.

Drift was a speeder term, he had to!

But she hadn't even said drift, so it didn't count! "Yup, and I'm not in that kind of trouble." At least as far as he knew.

"Though from what I hear the efforts haven't been completely successful." Maybe he did understand after all?

"Well, you saw what I saw back on our little summer camp trip," Mia said, "People weren't so subtle then."