The Dark Academy on Korriban

"I fear if I did that I wouldn't be awake much longer," she said with a light resting smile. Looking generally, passively, toward where Sylvain was even though her eyes were closed.

"I don't mind, I enjoyed watching you sleep last night." He said with a warm smile.

He patted the spot next to him on the bed, "Come on over, I can finish that massage from earlier. It's been another rough day."

Luckily for Sylvain perhaps Kristal wasn't in the position to push him in response. "Sylvain Torsin," she said standing and turning about, "you are treading on dangerous ground."

Walking over she looked down to him, thinking. Unsure of herself in the moment. Thinking back to the moment with Shaisha, the discovery she made. Then she saw Sylvain there, looking up at her. It wasn't something she knew how to react to properly. Instead she just looked back at him as she stood there. Then her thoughts were back again, she thought of her father, how she felt when she thought he might have very well betrayed one of his oldest friends. So much betrayal, so much death, with her it would stop and she'd carry that burden, but it was heavy.

He smiled kindly at her threat and replied, "Come on Kris, if I can't talk to other people about you, you gotta at least let me tell you how I feel."

Reaching up from the bed he tried to grab her fingers gently with his own. Seeing her serious posture he took on a look of concern, "Still don't want to talk about it?" He asked, sensing something about the way she came in was still bothering her.

Letting her hands hang her fingers were easily in reach of his own. Not once pulling away. Subtle gestured that just looked to feel something other than the hardship, yet part of her was hesitant.

"I need you to tell me you will never betray me, if you choose to love me," she said with a need to hear it.

Part of her felt strange, seeing Sylvain there looking up at her as she said those words. Then there was another part that felt it was one of the few things that could make sense. Yet, another part still that delved to the darkest parts where she almost considered the fact that this was all a facade of some kind. How he too would become lost or betray her as well.

Sylvain pulled gently on her hand slowly lowering down to sit on the bed beside him. Wrapping his arms around her tightly he sat there for several moments just breathing. The warm feelings of his affection for his friend were evident in the way that he held her. It was a welcoming embrace, but firm and supportive.

Then pulling away for a moment he brought his hands up to her cheeks and looked into her eyes, "I don't know what paths we will end up taking, but I will never consciously betray you. You have been and will always be my closest confidant. There will never be a day where I don't see the Empire as better for having you in it. Without you the Empire... and more importantly my life would be immeasurably worse. I will look out for you, for your interests, and will do whatever I can to protect you. Because I know, more than anyone else, that you would do the same for me."

He smiled, "And if you choose not to love me, nothing will change. You are my friend and I don't take that lightly."

Damn Sylvain was always good with words. Perhaps she would see this as a mistake one day, but right now she didn't quite care. Right now she needed something else as she sat beside her friend who was well, honestly, the only one near she could have some sort of faith in.

Perhaps that was why she willfully made one of the biggest mistakes in her life.

It happened in about an instant. At first she thought she had fallen, but she hadn't. No she was suddenly forward. Lips founds his in a sudden surge of something. Need, perhaps. It wasn't until she was there that she realized she was. Not far parted from his lips as she barely opened her eyes again. Looking down over his cheeks as she slowly gave herself room to see. Having little space between their noses when she held there. Looking for words to use to explain it, perhaps to herself.

Sylvain was surprised by the sudden lunge towards his lips by hers and for half a moment his eyes widened in wonderful astonishment. Getting grasp of the importance of the moment he fully returned her kiss with all the affection he had in him. His hands came up to cradle the back of her head as their lips met.

After several wonderful seconds their lips broke and Sylvain kissed her left cheek, then her right cheek tenderly, then leaned his forehead into hers.

"I can't tell you how long I've waited for you to do that." He said in a whisper.

Passion, certainly the Jedi were wrong based on their rejection of that alone. How could one live without it. This was a different type to that which she had experienced in the past. It was warm, hot even, like a fire burning. Intense in every slight feeling of touch. It had taken her breath away. Feeling his lips, that kiss, it gave her something she desperately needed after all of the hardships of the last few days. The chance to let down that shield she carried with her, the sense of honor and projecting self put aside for a moment. A moment of warmth to combat the cold that nearly crippled her heart.

"I never believed I would," she replied honestly. Her voice little more than a whisper. Carried on the softest breaths and yet held strongly from the base of whom had spoken them.

He smiled widely and replied, "I'm glad you did."

He then leaned in for another passionate intertwining of lips as he slowly leaned into her. Their natural momentum would carry them softly side-by-side on his bed. His open hand gently cupped her cheek as they shared several more moments of youthful bliss.

Breaking their kiss again he gently brushed back her hair, tucking it behind her ear before smiling and saying, "Boy am I glad you did."

There was nothing Kristal truly bowed to, but that natural momentum had a rather persuasive way about it that inspired her to lean with it. As he cupped her cheek there was a natural smile that filled the space. Then another as he brushed back her hair, revealing what of her cheek that was normally hidden by it.

"Hmm," she vocalized as a thought, and a smile, came to mind.

Slipping away Kristal was off the bed and stood at the center of the room. Bringing her hands around to her front as she started fiddling with something.

"You offered to finish that massage before," she reminded him.

Once Kristal had kissed him there wasn't really any sense to letting trepidation about it lead her. Kristal naturally assumed the lead, it was in her nature. Thus she did so here.

"Stress is a killer," she continued.

Rolling her shoulders slowly as she slipped the shirt from her shoulder. Looking over the right as the shirt fell to the floor, parted from the frontal buttons. Revealing the normal grey undershirt underneath. One he had seen before.

Stepping back over to the bed she sat down near him again, removing her boots. Then finding him over her shoulder once again, turning her body to the side for the moment. A light smile worn on her expression. Something that was rather hard to inspire and yet it had been.

"May you indulge me?"

Sylvain smiled with interest as she stood and removed her outer layers. When she came back to his side he kissed her amorously before replying, "I'd love to Kris."

Coming behind her he began to press on her muscles with a kind of practiced skill that would soon help her feel more and more relaxed. Occasionally in contrast to the the rhythmic motions of his hands, a sudden and gentle kiss would grace the nape of her neck, first on one side and then the other.

His hands worked slowly down her back, stretching out the muscles one by one. When he came to the area just above her hips, his warm hands slipped underneath her shirt to knead her skin firmly and tenderly.

Sylvain's lips left a lasting impression on her as his hands went to work. As he would soon find out there was a lot of tension held. Not that it was surprising everything considered. Making every effort he put all the more appreciated as he worked out a spot. Relieving that tension. Kisses on her neck felt gentle, warm, like she wanted to feel. Just above the belt that still held her pants to her body his hands slipped underneath her shirt. Causing her shoulders to raise and her chest to puff up. Like as if he had placed an icecube on her lower back. It wasn't cold, but felt foreign to her to have someone touch her lower back in such a way.

"You've had practice," she stated the fact with a little teasing to her tone.

"Not as much as I claim to have had." He said with a smile and another kiss on her neck.

"And even then... it's different now somehow." He said in a whisper. And to be honest it was the truth. He had never cared about his partner so clearly. It made every touch and every moment all the more fulfilling.

After working the last of the knots out in her lower back, he left his hands inside her shirt as he started gently brushing the tips of his fingers up and down her sides. He leaned in closely and let his lips pay further attention to her neck.

Kristal smiled more from the admittance than the kiss. Something about the idea of him having had spent less time with woman than he's claimed soothed some, what she would likely call a childish, worry in her mind. There was a bit of anxiousness, bringing a little tension to her shoulders as hands remained under her shirt, brushing at her sides. It was all still very new to her after all.

Leaning her head forward she gave him plenty of room for his lips to play on her neck.

"If you had told me when we were younger," she said with a light and warm smile donned on her expression. "I think I would have teased you about it. Or perhaps I even still did without thinking much of it?"

He smiled, making his teeth brush up against the nape of her neck momentarily. He slowly moved his hands forward around to her stomach, gently caressing her mid section and the area directly underneath her breasts.

Moving his kisses up her neck to her left earlobe he began to gently chew and kiss her ear. Then whispering he asked, "Still making fun of my abilities inside your head?"

There was something frightening and exciting about it, bringing her skin to life as he reached his hand around and caressed her mid-section. Fear, however, was not something this dauntless warrior bowed to once in her life. It could shake her, make her doubt, but it would never stop her in her tracks.

One arms crossed over her lap and the other just to the side for support on the bed she sat there. Turning her cheek toward him as he kissed up her neck. Unthinkingly placing her ear in his path, an unexpected boon as it were. "Always," she teased, but there was plenty evidence elsewhere to the contrary.

He smiled and continued to work on her ear until he felt the strong warrior begin to melt a bit in his touch, moving his hands the last little bit up her shirt to more sensitive parts he released her ear and whispered gently, "You're a terrible liar Kris."

He pulled her down with him to the bed as he began to let the passion guide his actions; feel it take over as he enjoyed the sweet interaction with his beloved Kristal.

/ftb? (if she's ready for such a daring leap)

With his hand venturing up she let a little gasp out. Then, to the words, gave a half smirk as she rocked her head to the side. Never once had she successfully lied. Which suited her perhaps. There was a wound, a hole in her heart from earlier tonight. If this wouldn't be the adhesive to mend it, it would at least work as a painkiller to numb it.

But that was being a bit dramatic, in truth it just felt good.

/ftb