Mondder

"Perhaps we should just remove them then," she replied, more calmly than she would have otherwise been due to the presence of a wonderfully concealing fog. Suiting her own actions to her words for the most part, she then sank below the water level and reappeared seconds later right beside her Zabrak companion. Green eyes blinked up at him merrily as she relaxed in the comfortable heat. Among other things, that coffin had not been heated, the room she'd been left in without her clothes had been carved out of stone, which was also not conducive to staying warm. So, for the first time in several hours, Jade was actually thawing out, and she liked it.

Jade was at peace, content with herself and the world around her for now, though her awareness of it had shrunk to the confines of the room she was in and more immediately to Z'har himself. The ramifications of what they'd done would be dealt with later: she was a Jedi, he was a Mandalorian. Currently they were supposed to be at war. Though, Jade reflected, this was perhaps a different kind of contest. She settled herself more comfortably in Z'har's arms, leaning back against his chest as she watched the rain hitting upon the hydrostatic bubble that kept the room from impersonating a lake. Perhaps it was an odd sensation, but she felt a bit as if she was under water. Finally, she spoke, "You like storms too, then?" Something about the untamed wildness of nature at war with itself must appeal to the warrior spirit. There was a rush of adrenalin that came from facing the Elements in their raw beauty.

Kamino. Now there was a wet planet to be sure. Rain in moderation was nice, but Jade would probably not enjoy living on a world where it rained for months at a time and the sun was rare. In fact, climate had been only one of the factors in her decision to leave Galantos, a minor world known only for its vast deposits of chromium ore and composed of an oddly gelatinous core leading to unpredictable gel-quakes that destroyed buildings regardless of the trouble taken to erect them in the first place. It was surprising however that he had managed to accurately and succinctly sum up her own feeling that quickly. She tilted her head to look up at him briefly before responding in a semi-vague fashion, as if she was thinking out loud. 

"Well, short version, I've been bumming around the galaxy wondering how to make a difference." She frowned, thinking that seemed needlessly angsty and immature. "I did not realize it at the time, but you added a spice to life on Galantos, reminded me that something was missing." She began absentmindedly stroking the back of his hand with her fingertips. "It is easy to get settled into a rut of mediocrity without noticing it, and then when the chance does come to accept a different path...often it is easier to pretend that choice isn't there and just deal with what one knows." He had indeed surprised her several times. Firstly on Galantos. Secondly on Osarian, when he followed her with a different purpose in mind. She had learned to 'live' more and think of the future less, instead doing what she felt led to do. "Anyway, that horrible world is so different from what I am used to and enjoy that I discovered I needed to leave. Mind you, this was not until after a Sith invasion---" The corners of her lips twitched upward in a steely grin. She'd resoundingly won that encounter. Not without loss of course. But she had thoroughly routed them. Her dangerous lifestyle had served its purpose. "I live on Corellia now, in the Jedi Temple there. Selaya likes the hunting." 

Naturally, Jade returned said kiss with interest, so a few minutes later as soon as they were relatively unoccupied again she responded in a similarly playful fashion, "I've always been partial to cinnamon..." Right now, making a giant difference in galactic politics was probably the last thing she wanted to focus on, but even so, she attempted to provide at least a semblance of a cohesive answer. "I suppose it is more that I am living my life instead of waiting for some vague future to come to pass. Sometimes, I think I belong on Corellia...Serrin and I have a rather lengthy history, but aside from that, and the occasional frustration caused by the nearness of Jedi a bit more rigid in their Code than I am...well," she shrugged expressively, "I've never been orthodox. I think that is because I was a warrior first, and introduced to the Jedi Code later. What about you?"

Ah, yes, I regretted the MMP, but I was not going to apologize for it in so many words. It wouldn't serve to any purpose, and yet, I had preferred it when he seemed relaxed with me. I knew this wasn't something that happened often. Neither of us were the type to be at ease around others really, not ill at ease per se, but generally guarded. Still, I understood.

Jade was quiet for a few minutes. "I don't have any children to expend my efforts for," not anymore, she reflected, "just a friend and possibly one other." That was not really something she was particularly proud of, but that was the reality of it. "You are lucky in your family." She didn't say it, but she didn't have any family, not blood family. Not that she acknowledged anyway. She'd carved her own path for over half a century. And if she was given the opportunity to go back in time, she would still make the same choices that had led to where she was today, well not literally today, but with a few minor exceptions, her major decisions would have remained the same.

These days 'family' often meant a collection of close individuals that one gathered around one's self. "Sons... aren't they truly the unpredictable ones?" she queried ruefully. In fact, this was the first time she'd thought about her original family in years. She smiled suddenly. They'd haunted her for a long time, perhaps she was finally moving past the ghosts. Being raised in a culture that valued family allegiance above nearly ever other bond out there, being disowned had been a traumatic experience even though she was fully adult at the time. The final breaking...her rupture with her son had happened just before she'd wiped their dust from her boots for good, left her homeworld, and never looked back. He had not survived the encounter.

A warm silence descended around the two of them, broken only by the soft sounds of the falling rain outside. Jade looked over at her belt lying on the floor and tugged on one of the two knives sheathed there. She levitated it to her outstretched hand moving slowly enough to make it obvious that she was not threatening the Admiral. Instead, she contemplated the intricate carving on the hilt. Centuries of use had worn edges and details that were originally sharp and clearly defined into a smooth blend that faded into the dark blade, still kept sharp. She flipped it over in her hand and passed it behind her to Z'har. "This is the only thing I have of my family. It was my birthright, and they weren't stupid enough to try to take it from me. Besides, their conduct would dishonor it." There was one other thing she had that could be considered as from family, but it was more of a cultural thing. And, she had already opened up a lot, telling Z'har things she had not spoken of to anyone for decades. She felt that it was right to trust him, and she wanted to, but putting these things into words was difficult for her, and the only way to show him was evidently not an option now. The power she'd used to defeat him once was technically a two-way door.

She curled up into the warmth of the Zabrak's closeness, tired after a very long day, and looked up at him for a moment or two before closing her eyes and falling asleep with someone beside her, a position of complete vulnerability and trust--not something that was normal for her. Jade's guardedness was not necessarily a good habit, but it was one she'd learned in order to survive.

Since Jade had not slept well in weeks it was a good thirteen hours before she woke up blinking in the vague greyness of a Corellian pre-dawn. She flinched at the weight across her midriff, then recalled the events of the previous day and realized that the perfectly normal explanation for it was Z'har's arm around her holding her close to him. She listened quietly. He seemed to still be asleep. Then, she realized he wasn't 'there.' "Z'har?!" she exclaimed in surprise, turning to contemplate his face. He looked the same...but different too. She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair before running through a couple rudimentary breathing exercises to calm down. This was probably some part of the 'side effects' he had mentioned the day before but not fully explained. She only hoped he didn't know about her initial panic.

Grinning in a most terrifically mischievous fashion she considered the best method of revenge for tricking her like that and slipped her arm further under the covers. Never one to dally when the options were clear, she had decided to seize the only advantage at hand---the element of surprise.

"I don't know that I am the excitable one, Z'har, but it worked. I have your attention now...don't I?" She winked in a most roguish fashion, squeezing him firmly in a hug before relaxing with him.

A bit later she ran her fingers through her hair, attempting to bring some fashion of order to her unruly locks. "Look," she directed his attention to the red and pinks streaks of light shooting across the undersides of the clouds outside as the sun rose above the horizon.