An Irresistible Invitation

Posted on Sun Jun 26th, 2016 @ 7:50pm by Ronin & Rhian & Warrant Officer Awf

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Saturnalia

* The Cherry Pit *

Rhian closed the channel on the public terminal with a smile. She had just sent an urgent message to Awf, insisting she had to see him right now. There was no emergency of course, but she knew it would light up his curiosity like a supernova. The thought made her smile widen as she turned and retraced her steps to the square outside Saturnalia. Stopping at one of the market booths, she slipped a bottle of perfume into her pocket unseen. Moving away and losing herself in the people congregated there, she sprayed it lightly on her throat, then returned the small bottle to her pocket. One of the bartenders was just arriving to work and she pulled him aside to talk. He nodded immediately, then hurried in. Finally, she turned to survey the square as she waited for Awf.

Just like she had figured his curiosity had indeed been piqued, and he was running with a reckless abandon nearly jumping up and down the walls in the hallway if that were at all possible so that he could soon get to the club. Once he was comfortable inside, he looked around for Rhian, figuring that he had everything in order. There was nothing left for him on 900, and he was out of uniform. Whatever urgent thing happened, well, that didn't really matter since he'd be there to help.

She saw him streak past and followed him inside. Once there, she stopped at the bar where the bartender gave her the drinks, free of course, and she carried them to Awf’s table. Leaning over his shoulder, she placed one in front of him and whispered at his ear.

“Glad you could make it.”

Once he finally took a seat, almost skidding into it, Awf seemed a bit surprised that drinks were served seeing as there was a pretty urgent message that went out to him at the moment. Grasping one of the glasses and stirring it a bit, thus causing the ice to jingle at the sides of the glass, he looked into her eyes rather confused. "What happened? Like I thought you totally called me down here with somethin' big goin' on!" Then of course he grinned, not looking too disappointed.

“What? Seeing me isn’t enough?” She pointed to her throat then. “New perfume, what do you think?” She leaned in closer so he could get a whiff of it.

Considering his slightly heightened senses, Awf's elf-like ears were soon wiggling, "Believe me, a fragrance like that is more than worth the urgent message." He grinned brightly, "Seeing you is worth the galaxy to me."

“Aww, you’re so sweet.” She dropped into the chair beside him and sipped from her glass. “Did I interrupt anything? I thought you were off shift, at least that’s what I remembered and I was sure you’d like to get out and have some fun.” She finally stopped to take a breath. “What did you do last night?”

"You know very well that soon I will be off shift permanently, but I wasn't busy now." The Ocampa grabbed the front of his shirt and smirked, illustrating that he hadn't even been wearing his uniform at all. "Heh, I figured you'd know how I spend my evenings honestly too when I don't have you around to have some fun with."

“Business has kept me..well…busy the last couple of days.” She leaned in close once more. “Poker, to be exact. I won, though a couple of them were a little annoyed that what they called ‘a little girl’ beat them. Are you saying you missed me?”

"Skateboarding was how I spent my night." At this point, Awf had assumed that she would probably have already figured that out. "Of course I missed you. I'd sit in on a hand of poker too if you wanted." He smirked, wondering if he could have sensed other cards in the slightest.

A slight frown settled on her face now. “Ro made me promise not to play anymore for a while. He’s afraid they’ll think I cheated and it will cause an uproar and get dangerous. Actually, if they thought I had, it would get dangerous. They take their betting seriously and I won a bundle. So I’m being good, at least for a few days. He even took me to the Nexus last night for dinner, partly to keep me our of here.”

Laughing for a moment, Awf shrugged softly, "Would you be not allowed to go in like any of the chanceries here?" He figured they could have had a night on the town, so to speak, in some other establishment possibly if she had wanted. "Otherwise, I can think of...other things to do." The Ocampa laughed a bit, "Like so what did you want to do to totally blow the next few hours?"

A faint blush crept up her cheeks and her smile returned. “Well, that’s part of why I called you. What would you say to getting off this station for a day or so?”

"I thought the plan was to eventually get off the station permanently. Where did you have in mind?" Awf grinned as he sipped as his drink, leaning over a hand as he gazed at her.

“We’re taking the new pilot and the new engineer we hired out for a run to give them a little time to get used to the Ning’Tao. It’s a quirky ship and Ro thinks they could use a warm-up. You too if you’re serious about this.” She ran her finger lightly up and down his arm. “What do you think?”

Started to lean over, clearly enjoying the physical contact that she was offering him at the same time, but soon enough he was getting vocal once more. "Serious? I'm ready to go off with you right this moment and never look back. You know that." He grinned, imagining what his new life was going to be like at her side.

“Very good. I think you’ll love not having so many rules to fence you in and --”


“And just what are you doing, Rhi?” A large hand settled on her shoulder and the movement was followed by a soft curse. “Stop that.”

“Stop what?” she asked innocently as she looked up to see Ronin beside them. “Hi Ro.”

“Hello.” Ronin replied. “Hi Awf, how are you?”

Looking up with a bit of a smirk, Awf's eyes soon turned down toward Rhian's fingers, indicating that he didn't care for that caress to have been interrupted, "Well, I'll admit I was doin' a bit better a sec ago."

Rhian snickered as Ronin spoke again. “Uhh, yeah, I bet.” He looked back to Rhian, his hand still on her shoulder. Scoot off to the bar for a few sweets. I need to talk to Awf. I’ll make it up to you for the interruption.

She nodded. You will. “Be right back.” She tapped Awf on the nose, then rose and wandered through the tables towards the bar.

Ronin settled into the seat at Awf’s other side. “Sorry about that.”

"Don't be too long..." Awf's eyes were trailing her as she went off to the bar, though he was soon again focused back toward the one who was still there with him. "So how's it hangin'?"

A long, slow breath came from Ronin. “It’s been..interesting.” His gaze settled on Rhian for a moment and he shook his head. “That’s a vast understatement. How about you? I take it she mentioned our run? You coming with us? I spoke to Isa and she is agreeable, as long as you are as good as I told her you were. She knows nothing of that little mission we did together, by the way. That will stay between us.”

"I figured we'd keep it on the down low, but..." Eventually Awf looked up toward him with a bit of a smirk, "You'll learn how good I am soon. I might not have had the most traditional career in Starfleet, but I'm one heck of a pilot. Did you want a little demonstration of what I could do before we leave?" He shot a glance back at Rhian. "Hopefully not before I get a chance to enjoy my night, though, but anyway it was going just fine before you got here really."

“Yeah, about that.” Ronin paused to decide how to best bring this up. He decided not to get into his current issue with Rhian after some careful consideration. “Rhian is….how shall I say this….a tempest? Trouble with a capital T?” He smiled. Dangerous was a better word. “Think about it this way - what if ten magnetic storms erupted in Saturnalia? That’s pretty close.”

"What, do you think that I'd be comfortable with a safe woman? You're talking to a guy who flies a shuttle on manual at speeds in excess of that of light, comes home like it's nothing, skateboards off the wall and then enjoys an orbital sky dive. I don't think I'm concerned about her being a tempest." Awf grinned for a moment and leaned in, "Actually I think she's my tempest now." He was very ill-prepared for the truth of the matter it would have seemed for certain.

“I see. Just be careful and remember one thing - she is the crew’s thief and that includes hearts,” Ronin warned him. “Now, about this trip. We’re leaving in about three hours. It’s a day long out and back is all to give the engineer and Paz some time to get used to the ship. You and Paz will switch off in four-hour shifts and Joe will be in and out as needed on the bridge. Rhian is coming because I am terrified of the station imploding if I leave her here alone.” It was going to be tricky, Ronin knew, with her being in such close quarters with both himself and Awf, but he intended to be very busy on this trip.

Looking around for a moment, Awf smirked. "Well, I honestly don't think she'll be stealing it considering I already gave it to her, but thanks for the heads up anyway. Believe me when I say that I can handle a shift like that." Well, the Ocampa wasn't really trying to be cocky, but he didn't feel that this would be the serious test of skills that it had looked like Ronin was making it out to be either. Tilting his head, he seriously wondered if there was some secret part of this that he wasn't being told about just yet.

Ronin nodded. “I’m more concerned about those two we’ve just taken on. I know what you can do.” He smiled for a moment. “I don’t foresee any problems since we’ll be in the immediate area. Do me a favor though? Keep her away from the poker game in the back? If that goes bad, I don’t want you caught in the crossfire.”

"Actually, I was already asking like for her to play poker or somethin' but she said you told her to stick her head out of the game. I'll make sure we have somethin' else to do." Eventually, though, he looked at the other and smiled. "I appreciate it, and I won't let you down, honestly." Awf was completely speaking from truth when he had said that. He had no intent to let any of them down at all. When he offered someone his word on that, he kept it as best as he could.

“Thanks.” Ronin glanced towards the back bar and found Rhian perched on a stool talking to one of the regulars. She must have picked up on the attention as she turned and smiled at him. Ronin was silent a moment, then his eyes widened slightly. “I gotta go. See you two in three hours.”

"I'm sure that I'll find plenty to do in the meantime that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with cards." Eventually Awf smirked and half-heartedly waved toward the other before he turned around, focusing his attentions again on Rhian for the time being as he had seemingly hoped to get her to return with his glance in time. That being said, he wasn't entirely sure that a gesture like that was going to work at all.

Seeing Ronin depart, she excused herself and hopped off the stool to make her way back to Awf. She settled in her seat with a smile. “Everything alright? Ro seemed to be would a little tight.”

With a shrug, Awf grinned a bit and finally laughed, "Actually, like I just thought he was so totally always like that!" It had made sense to him, considering that he had behaved that way the few times that he had met him after all.

“He has a lot on his mind lately.” Rhian shrugged. “I’ll check on him in a little while, see if he needs me to do anything before we leave.” She propped her chin in her hands as she looked back at Awf. “So, we have about two hours, what do you want to do?”

"Hey, wait, he told me to meet up in three hours, are you trying to shortchange me some of the time we've got together?" Awf grinned a bit and threw his hair behind his ears in the process, hoping that he could milk the minutes for what it's worth.

“That gives us a little time to get whatever we might need tossed in a bag and get to the ship,” she reminded him. “It’s only twenty-four hours or so but I’ll need a change of clothes, toothbrush….you get the idea.” She reached out to trace the curve of his ear with her fingertip. “Plus any last minute orders from Ro. I do need to see him before we go.”

"We're encouraged to bring things rather than replicate them on the ship? Some people like to save power by not replicating, others like to save space by requiring it." Awf grinned and shrugged a bit, "I'm trying to think of what things I'll need. I travel light anyway."

“You have to remember, this is an older Klingon ship. For this, just throw in what little you’ll need. I usually take care of things in the mess hall when we’re out so the food will be decent. You can use my quarters for now if you need to sleep off shift. Anything else you need to know?” she asked.

Shaking his head, Awf finally grinned, though he actually had looked a bit disappointed, "Nah, that sounds fine, I'll go get my things and end up at your quarters, sound good?" He figured that he was going to get more of a chance to spend time with her, hence the disappointment.

“Later. We still have two hours remember.” Rhian looked around, then took his hand and rose. “Let’s clear out of here though. How about the Arboretum? Better place to talk and not have to shout or be overheard.”

Taking her hand, the Ocampa smirked with a nod, "Ronin warned me about something, you know. He told me that you are a thief, and that you can steal away hearts just as easily as anything else. Is there truth to that?"

“He said that, did he?” She was silent until they were out of Saturnalia and walking across the square. “What brought that up? I suppose I should be flattered though.”

"Well, I sorta admitted that I liked you..." Considering the fact that he was now admitting this out loud again to her, Awf was soon curling his hair around a finger to perhaps help in alleviating some of the awkward nature of it. That would be an ideal solution; well, no it wouldn't, but it had worked in his mind anyway.

“Then I suppose I am,” Rhian admitted. She reached out to stroke his cheek. Things had gotten more complicated suddenly. “I think you’re very special too. Just...watch your back. This is a different world from the Fleet.”

Nodding, he looked into her eyes as he finally found himself totally standing up, trying to throw his arms around her if she would have allowed him to do so. "It might be a different world from the fleet, but I can still handle it you know. I could take on any challenge that you wanna throw at me!"

“I hope so. Let’s get to the Arboretum before we run out of time.” She remained in his arms a few moments, then pulled away. “Time is fleeting.”

Enjoying the hug for a moment, he then looked into her eyes, just silently wondering about what he had been told before. He didn't know if it was true, but perhaps there was a chance that she could steal hearts too. "Yeah, let's rock!" He looked excited to go there quite quickly with the time that they had left.

******************
Rhian
The Thief Of Hearts

Warrant Officer Awf
The Thief’s Mark

Ronin
The Mark’s Guardian