Don't Be You

I had some questions after the party.

Where: Moenia, Naboo.

Feeling: Contemplative.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

I hesitated. “She’ll know it’s me. I don’t know if I can pull this off.”

She looked at me. “No, she won’t, don’t be yourself. Be...” She paused for a moment, “Be how you imagine Mal, be Bail, be a character, but don’t be you. I think it’s a simple court dance with limited interaction. Enough to do what we need and not so complicated that you can’t remember this.”

Be like Mal? Bail! What the—

“Ok, how about I bump into her, maybe do what the vir vur did for a bit, will that work better for you?” she said.

I shook my head. It was my problem after all, not Jardena’s. No, I’d take care of it my way. I moved towards the dance floor. The musicians began a new song. Bowing formally to the ex-handmaiden, I took her hand then joined the throng involved in the ritual of court dancing. Mercifully, she made little attempt at conversation and my voice was distorted by the mask when I answered. We moved through the heavily stylized steps. Throughout it all she was distracted, her eyes ever on the figure of the governor. I wanted to snatch the mask off of her face. I wanted to order the musicians to stop playing and have this out with her here and now in public.

But reason won out over the flush of anger.

When the music had concluded, the deed was done. We’d track her. We’d be sensible about this. I merged back into the crowd and finally found my way back to Jardena.

“You don’t know how hard it was not to throttle her,” I said flatly. I balled my hands into fists, flexed, then let it go.

She slipped her hands into mine. “We can leave now if you want, we don’t have to stay any longer.” She squeezed my hands. “We could go back, take a warm bath, relax, not worry about anything for a little bit.”

“We’ll do that,” I said, “but before we do…” For the second time tonight I bowed and formally asked someone to dance with me.

~~

Back in the hotel, we relaxed together in a warm bath. Again my arms encircled her, but it was easier this time without all of the clothes. And the fake pregnancy belly.

“Hey, you,” I eventually said. “You had quite a lot to say on the subject of babies tonight. How much of that was you messing with me, and how much was real?”

I gave her a light kiss on the back of the neck to let her know I wasn’t mad or anything.

“You sounded like you had our lives planned out. This is something you’ve been thinking about? If not, you really had me going there for a bit. You have a fine career ahead of you as a holovid actress in the unlikely event you ever choose to leave the military,” I said, chuckling softly.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

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