Authors' Note: SGS: Yes, it has been like a year and a month since we have updated, but we have a good excuse for that---PS will now explain it to you.
PS: Um . . . yes, we have an excellent reason. School work and different colleges and very little vacation time spent in the same spot and other stuff I forget now. Anyway, we're back now, and that is all that matters. For now.
"Well, um . . . you see . . . ," Mara tried to begin, not sure of what to say.
Luke smiled at her rosy cheeks and pinched lips.
"Welllll?" he persisted.
"Maybe, when it's hot, and I don't feel like running the climate control, or when I'm alone, sometimes, yes, I have been known to wear them . . . . But don't get all excited, Farmboy. That doesn't mean anything."
"Excited?" Luke sputtered. "Me!" And for the upteenth time in Luke's life, his cheeks turned pink.
"No, the boorish, blonde, Jedi standing behind you." Mara glared.
Luke didn't dare move to look behind him.
After a moment's pause, Luke ventured with a note of indignance to hide his lack of composure, "Boorish?"
"You heard me," Mara said crossly. Her eyes had lost their furious wrinkles around the edges and softened. "And, yes, sometimes you are boorish."
Luke crossed his arms and pouted. "When am I boorish?"
"Do you really want me to explain?" She looked pointedly at him.
"Isn't it more boorish to call someone boorish than to act boorish?"
"Um . . . ." Mara looked as though she might be considering it. " . . . No."
Luke nodded, as if he were expecting that answer. "Spoken like a true boorish person."
"See, you are being boorish and argumentative right now!" Mara was getting upset. "Since when do you care what I call you anyway?"
"Ummm," Luke began, "always?"
Mara felt her flushed cheeks cool. "Luke, you are a slightly boorish person sometimes, but I blame it on your time spent on Dagobah." She shrugged dismissively.
"Dagobah!" Luke sounded incredulous. "What does Dagobah have to do with my manners or lack thereof?"
"Nothing," grinned Mara. "I was just trying to get a rise out of you, to prove that you can't be that calm all the time. Plus, I figure there are some Jedi rules that should be thrown out from time to time."
"What sort of things?"
Mara's green eyes met Luke's crystal, twinkling blue ones. He looked so hopeful; she couldn't be cruel to him now. Not when they were so close. "Oh, just some things, like the rules about passion, and love, and, you know, farmboy, sometimes fights are good."
Luke smiled at her, and there was such tenderness in his gaze that Mara shivered. He leaned over to kiss her on the cheek, and she turned, startled, only to find his lips clumsily hitting hers. Mara pulled away, her eyes wide. Luke realized he had made a tactical error and began swiftly backpedaling both verbally and physically.
"Okay, see, I didn't really-- What I mean to say is-- You turned, and I was there, and you weren't supposed-- Not that it was your fault, because it wasn't. It was my . . . . " Luke trailed off, having backed into the wall of the turbolift. Mara wasn't screaming at him. In fact, she wasn't doing much of anything.
"Um, are you going to say anything?" Luke ventured, wincing in anticipation of a scathing verbal enslaught after trampling all over her clean clothes, not to mention kissing her.
Mara took two large steps over her basket and clothing on the floor, ending right in front of him. She shook her head no and leaned in to kiss him.
"All right, Luke!" Han shouted as the turbolift doors swept open to reveal an entangled Mara and Luke half a floor beneath Han and Leia.
"No!" shouted Lando from the landing half a floor below Luke and Mara.
Luke reached over and pressed the close doors button on the wall panel. He felt Mara's grin as the doors slid shut.
Authors' Note: PS: Thanks so much for sticking through to the bitter end. We are currently throwing around some new ideas that may be posted as early as next summer! (sarcasm should be noted)
SGS: These ideas, while they unfortunately do not involve Star Wars, involve other fandoms and the exploration of the whole "tankini" mystery. Our next one will probably be Harry Potter. nudge nudge, wink wink Thanks for sticking around, yo.