[D5ME] ... and Friends (Karath Apartment)

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

"All those times you were going off to do... charity. I mean, I know you were also probably serving soup, and also getting out all the adolescent sexual energy the Academy denied you, but I didn't realize you were so..." she waved her wineless hand. "Revolutionary."

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus reddened, his lips twisting this way and that, as though trying to decide on an expression. It finally settled on a frown.

"That's not really how it is, Vaya." He said mildly.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

"What? You just happened to come across the armor, and kept in just in case?" She was being sarcastic, but playfully so. Definitely no hard feelings at secrets kept.

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus' forehead creased. "What?" He said again. The sudden shift caught him off-guard.

"Vaya..." He said, smiling. "Do you want to join the Resistance. Because I was just about to ask you that. That was the whole 'everyone's getting involved' thing, y'know?"

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya grimaced and took another gulp of wine, then sat silent for a while, brooding. "That... may not be such a good idea," she said at last.

[Petrus Karath]

"Oh?" Petrus asked, his eyebrows going up. "Why not? Look at how you did just now. You were great. And... you're a good person, Vaya." His lips quirked. "Better than you give yourself credit for, I sometimes think."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

“Oh, I give myself lots of credit,” she said, entirely unsarcastically. “I learn fast, I think quickly on my feet. If I charged half of what I’m worth, no-one could afford me.” She sighed, and took her first drink of wine that wasn’t a gulp. She still didn’t look at him. “But, Petrus, I’m a coward. Shut up,” she said preemptively. “Let me finish. I mean that in the technical sense. I’m afraid of pain and death. With a running start I can convince myself that I have a good enough plan to get away with doing something dangerous. But when I get cold-cocked…” she shook her head grimly. “The run-in with the, the Inquisitor,” (all her demeaning nicknames choked her now) “showed me that you shouldn’t tell me any more secrets, because all the quick thinking in the world is no good when there’s a lightsaber in your face and your brain shuts down.”

[Petrus Karath]

In fact, Petrus had just parted his lips to speak when Vaya shushed him. He subsided, sinking back into his chair. He listened, understanding slowly dawning in his blue eyes, until they lit with enlightenment.

"Ohhh." He said. "You're afraid. I see." He chewed his lip, considering. "That's my big problem too, actually. There's a lot I'm afraid of. That's why I kinda..." he waved a hand vaguely, "-retreated the last few years, I guess."

He leaned forward, resting elbows on knees, and chin on his hands. "Don't suppose you wanna hear some Jedi wisdom about it?"

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya smirked, but more weakly than usual. “Why else do I keep you around?”

[Petrus Karath]

"Because you secretly love Warrior's Heart and want someone to talk about it, obviously." Petrus said, smirking.

He sighed. "It's okay to feel things, just try to use reason instead of emotion. And knowing your weaknesses is the first step in facing them." A beat.

Petrus spread his hands. "Okay, that's probably not much. But just keep it in mind, huh?"

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya made a face, like the wine had gone off, but took another sip anyway. “I guess. And anyway, you’re a big boy, and you can take a risk on having a wimp like me as a friend. It’s just…” she fell silent, clearly struggling to talk.

When she did, her voice was very quiet. “I would have given you up, Petrus. If he had pushed more. The reason part of me can see that, from here. The only difference between the Vaya you’re willing to drink wine with and the Vaya who gave you up is, I don’t know, whatever the monster had for breakfast this morning that made him the right amount of angry to murder the guy in front of me, but not so angry as to go after me as hard as he did Jenna.” She was holding on to her wine glass with both hands. “I don’t know if that’s enough distance for you. I don’t know if it should be.”

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus took a long sip of his wine before he answered. "I don't know. I really don't know."

He held the glass in his hand, swirling the liquid around. "I've been afraid as long as I can remember. Has it only been four years? It feels like longer." He shrugged. "Or maybe I was afraid before that. I think maybe I was, I just didn't realize it."

He set the glass down. "You are a friend, Vaya, that's for sure. And you are who you are." He shrugged. "Maybe we should both try to be okay with it?"

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya thought about that one a long while, and then gave a small smile raised her glass within clink-ing distance of Petrus’. “To friends.”

[Petrus Karath]

Smiling, Petrus clinked glasses with her. "Friends." He said.

/scene!