Crush

Falling in love had always been very complicated for Mira. She had to get the right weapons, the right equipment and the right methods to extract anything from her target and to see his worth in credits. It may sound like hunting for some but for her, that was love. As she played with her Bothan stunner and counted her frag mines, she tried not to think about it.

She thought about Mical. He had no idea what really love is or how violent it could get. In his ideal world, love is being a knight and putting someone before one's self. He followed her, Aranel the Exile. She shook her head. Aranel seemed to have fallen for someone already. Beauties do not usually fall in love with those of their kind. They usually fall in love with beasts. Aranel has fallen in love with the beastly Atton. She would never look at Mical in the way Mical wanted. Still he did not care. Still, he followed her. Perhaps that was how he got a certain glow around him that Mira noticed: it is a certain kind of light that illuminated everyone who followed Aranel and the 'ways of the Force' as she called it. Mira was not sure if she had truly believed in the Force. If Mical's Force was the same Force that the Jedi used to destroy her home and family, she did not want to believe in it.

She continued playing with her Bothan stunner, throwing it up and then catching it as one playing with a knife. She was careful enough not to activate it.

Even with Mical following his ideals, he still did not forget about others. No, it was his ideal that inspired him to be kind to others and to help those in need. He was a doctor. All he did was heal whether friend or enemy. He spoke to everyone on equal terms. He spoke to her.

That morning, the cut on her arm got worse. Usually she did not care about treatment or sterilization. She treated herself whenever she saw fit. She did not want to appear pitiful since she was the only non-Jedi who could not heal herself. During a jungle fight, she was forced to wrestle with a cannok since she dropped her vibroblade and damaged her wrist launcher in the middle of the fray. It bit her bad arm and gave her more cuts than she had before that. She was able to kill the beast but Aranel made sure that Mical saw to her wounds.

As Mical wrapped the last bandage on her arm, he said, “You have a talent for getting these.”

“What can I say? Creepy creatures love me as much as I love them.”

“Pity you have to kill them then.”

“Not all of them, but I know at least a thousand torture methods.”

It was awkward to be in such aproximity to him. Both of them knew it. He did not smile like most guys, yet he remembered his piercing gaze. He was really examining her.

She stopped her recollection and her Bothan stunner juggling. As she turned around, she came face to face with Mical himself. Like an instant reaction, she defensively aimed her stunner at him.

He stared deeply into her eyes and asked, "Are you sure you are not falling for me?"

She struggled for words. "Yes, it's impossible. It is too complicated to fall in love."

Unafraid, he gently took the wrist that was aiming at him. With his other hand, he caressed her cheek. "I'm always here."

She smiled, and for a moment forgot about her stunner. He leaned his face to kiss her. As their lips were about to meet, Mira realized that the only thing that had its arms around her was thin air. 

Still, she remained smiling. She stopped playing with her Bothan stunner and put it down on the table.

“Perhaps it's just a crush,” she thought. “Just a crush. I don't need this...not yet. Not yet.”

She leaned against the wall and let out a sweet sigh. For a moment, as she stared out into sweet nothingness and smiled, one could have seen a gleam in her eyes. But no one saw it. She picked up her Bothan stunner and threw it up and down again.