Author's Note:Kudos to djkauf for betaing this for me. Pic Credit: Darth Hell. Star Wars and recognizable characters from that universe belong to George Lucas et al. This chapter is a tad bit lighter, well, not at the beginning, bit still.

I normally don't post on Mondays, because Mondays suck for comments. However, I inadvertently cliffed the last chapter and I didn't want you to suffer until tomorrow, because I hate cliffhangers as much as most of you do. The reason I didn't consider it a cliff was because I knew what was going to happen and it isn't cliff-worthy. Enjoy.

Chapter Six

There was a large wall clock hanging at the far end that let me know twenty minutes had passed since I’d arrived. After my brief meditation, I poured myself a glass of water and took a single sip before setting it aside.

Another five went by before the door opened and vomited forth several suits, much like the doctor and a few guys in lab coats. They took their seats, randomly, I guessed. The last person through the door was a girl that couldn’t have been any older than me with really long blonde hair.

She was dressed in a woman’s version of a plain business suit. She seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place the face. Her seat was directly across from me.

The monitor in front of me lit up like it was coming out of sleep mode and I saw a program being initiated.

While someone readied their presentation, I looked from face to face. Some of their eyes were on me, looking at my lekku or my face. I’m sure the tattoos were interesting to them or something.

“Miss Walker,” said Doctor Doomah. “Do you know why you’re here?”

I took another sip of water and set it aside. “Visiting with the Department of Defense? I have a few ideas. Care to enlighten me?”

The blonde girl scribbled something on the notepad in front of her and slid it to the side. An older woman in her mid-thirties looked at it briefly and then her eyes ticked up to me.

Giving them a very slow blink, I reached out to picture what was on the pad.

Why isn’t she intimidated?

The screen flashed and up popped my formula from the previous day. I smirked and leaned back.

“Wow; that was quick.”

Doctor Doomah tapped his pen on the table absentmindedly. “You mentioned to your friend that you were expecting us.”

I shrugged. “Or someone like you. I figured it might be NASA or the Department of Energy, but Defense makes sense.”

“Curious,” he said. “Why the Department of Energy?”

Leaning forward I laced my fingers together. “Because in order to make that formula work, you’ll need, at the bare minimum, a fusion drive. It’s something that we haven’t quite gotten the hang of yet, have we.”

“Are you implying you know how to make one, a fusion drive, I mean.”

I shook my head. “No. I don’t.” Well, not off the top of my head. I could always access the GH. It might know.

The blonde was scribbling again.

She’s playing around. Cut through the BS.

“That’s too bad. Miss Wal…”

The blonde’s friend held up her hand, forestalling the doctor’s next question.

“Miss Walker, what exactly do you need in order to make this work?”

I smiled. “Depends on what you need it to do.”

That brought up several voices that I hadn’t heard from. The general consensus was I was full of crap and stole the formula from someone.

The blonde stood up and banged on the table. I was impressed with the way it moved when she hit it. The girl couldn’t weigh more than a hundred ten pounds, wet, and the table shuddered under her assault.

“Everyone out,” she said.

I raised my hand. “Can Doctor Doom stay?”

The blonde’s lips quirked. “Why?”

“He’s been polite to me, and he has a cool name.”

The person in question ducked his head and coughed into his fist. I think I embarrassed him.

“Doctor Doomah?” The blonde held her hand out to the chair beside her while the rest of the people filed out. Some were still grumbling the entire way.

Once the doctor was seated, the blonde sat back down. “This is Doctor Sharon Rosenthal, you’ve met Doctor Doomah, and I’m Courtney Carter.”

I reared back with a closed-lipped smile. “That’s where I’ve seen you. You’re American Dream.”

She gave me a quick nod. “We need to know where you got the formula. Did you do it yourself or did it come from an outside entity?”

That was a tricky question. “It came from my own brain.” That was true enough.

“And you acquired this ability to do… this stuff after your transition?”

“That’s right. I’m not some physics or engineering brain if that’s your next question. I just know what needs to be done in order to make certain things work.”

“You mean you can’t explain the science behind the theory?” asked Doctor Doom. He sounded heartbroken.

“No, I can’t.”

The lady doc was next. “What did you mean when you said; it depends on what you need it to do.”

Leaning back in my chair, I shrugged. “I meant do you want to explore space, mine Jupiter, start an intergalactic war, or something simple like invading other countries from space.”

“Exploration, surely,” Doomah said, truly believing what he said. I liked him. He was a little naíve, but still.

Courtney held a finger up and punched a few things into the keyboard in front of her. My screen changed and a profile came up of me. Before and after pictures, all my medical records, even the report by the lady from STAR Labs was present.

“Oh, this is yours, by the way.”

Courtney slid a manila envelope across the table and I opened it up. Inside was my new ID. “Ah, I was wondering what was holding this up.”

“I check out all the local talent,” Courtney said. “You told the SL doc that you didn’t have any powers.”

“You call thinking outside of the box, powers?”

She leaned into the table. “I call any ability you didn’t have before you changed, powers.”

After I closed the envelope back up, I looked at her. “I’m just a citizen of these United States. I’m not a meta. Instead, I’m a victim of circumstance. I’m sure that’s in your report also. So technically I’m not under your purview, and I don’t think I’ve broken any laws, so what’s your point?”

She didn’t say anything.

“Oh, you’re doing the intimidation thing. Is this where I grovel and offer up everything I know for good ol’ US of A, apple pie, and an autograph from everyone’s favorite superheroine? I’m sixteen and haven’t broken any laws. This is considered kidnapping whether I agreed to come with you or not.”

Doctor Doomah’s eyes widened. “No, we’re not threatening you.” He grabbed Courtney’s arm. “We’re not threatening her, right? Tell her. She could…”

Courtney turned her head and glared at him, held up a single finger to her lips and said, “Shh.”

Doctor Rosenthal gave me a conciliatory smile. “We’re not threatening you, Aayla. What is it you want for your information?”

I looked up and thought about it for a moment. “A place to call my own, private and secure, so I can make things. No accountability as long as I produce.”

“No accountability?” Courtney said.

I ran my tongue over my teeth and then smiled brightly. “Miss Carter, I have knowledge enough to make this country impenetrable from any weapon known to mankind. I can provide plans to build a generator that could power Texas, by itself, and it wouldn’t leave any waste material. In fact the material it uses for operation would be common household trash. That one alone would make me an instant billionaire.”

She was looking at me coldly.

“Want to drop oil prices down to pennies a barrel and make the Middle East insignificant? Want me to build you a…”

“Enough,” she said as she stood. “Take her home.”

“What?” Doctor Doomah nearly crapped himself. “But…”

Courtney walked around the table and stopped at the door with Doctor Rosenthal on her heels. “Aayla, I’ll be watching you.”

I sighed. She would have never given me what I wanted.

~O~

Doctor Doomah wound up driving me back home alone. Apparently I wasn’t a possible threat anymore.

He kept muttering to himself, in a foul mood.

When we reached the house, I invited him inside.

“I have to get back to base,” he said without looking over at me. Instead he was picking at his nails.

“Want something for free?” I said with a little teasing.

His head snapped around with renewed interest.

“Come inside.”

We went down into the basement. When he took the last step off the stairs I turned around and concentrated on him.

“Can I trust you not to reveal this to anyone else?”

He blinked and nodded. “As long as it’s not against the law.”

I shrugged my head. “It depends on who you’re talking to. Knowledge itself is useless without application.”

“True,” he said like he was trying to justify not saying anything to see what I had. “We know how to clone someone, but as long as it’s theory and not…”

I smiled at him. He was a man after my own heart, pliable.

“Close your eyes.”

It took a second to talk him into doing so, but close them he did.

Using the Force I called the lightsaber to me and extracted the battery before sending it back to its hiding place.

“Okay, open.”

He saw what I was holding. “What’s that?”

“It’s a powercell… a battery.”

He took it in his hand. “The design is odd, but what makes this any better than what you can buy at a retail store.”

“Lasts longer and it’s rechargeable.”

His face fell. “Miss Walker, if this is some attempt at humor…”

“One charge lasts about a decade of high energy output.”

“What’s the core?”

“Xenon gas.” Actually it’s called Diatium gas in the galaxy where it was made, but I doubted the good doctor had ever heard of it.

He examined it further, poking at the top of the cell. “What’s the crystal for?”

“Focusing discharge.”

“Hmm, interesting to be sure, but not really the kind of thing I’m looking for.”

I shook my head. “No, this is for me. This is the kind of thing that I want to build. I don’t give a crap about the money or the prestige, Doctor. I just want to make things that interest me.”

“My sympathies, Miss Walker; truly.”

The bait was thrown into the water; it was time to see if I could reel in the fish.

“What do you want, Doctor, if you could invent something, I mean?”

A melancholy look came over his face. “My wife… last year she was involved in an auto accident; drunk driver. She lost both her legs and one arm.”

“I’m sorry,” I said with as much empathy as I could pour into the two words.

“When she was well enough to return home, they’d fitted her with prosthetic limbs. She was… inconsolable. A month later when I was at the grocery, she killed herself.”

He handed me the powercell. “What would I invent? Realistic artificial limbs that look, act, and feel like the real thing, Miss Walker. Valeria thought she was a freak with the things they prescribe to patients these days. Good day.”

He turned and as his foot hit the step I said, “I can do that.”

Doctor Doomah turned around and blinked at me in surprise.

“You’d never be able to tell the difference between it and the real thing.”

His face hardened and then eased back.

“I didn’t know about it until after I changed, Doctor. I couldn’t have helped her, but I can give you the ability to help others in her name.”

He chuckled. “I have no soul to sell, Miss Walker.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want your soul, Doctor. I want a battery charger. I don’t have the materials or facilities to make one for myself.”

The look I received was measuring. “I wouldn’t consider that a fair trade, and then there’s the government to keep track of. They wouldn’t allow me to use their materials.”

I sighed internally. “Come see me this weekend. I’ll have the information you’ll need by then.”

“I couldn’t…”

“I’m not asking you to commit. Just come by and take a look at what I have. Saturday morning.”

~O~

No matter how good my memory was, Talon didn’t teach me about cybernetics, so I had to go to the GH. I spent the better part of the day transcribing so much incomprehensible gobbledygook. Mostly it was just generation of artificial skin. And it couldn’t be direct transcribing, oh no, nothing could be that easy. I had to stop and figure out certain chemical compositions. Almost everything that could be found out there in space could be found on Earth, it was just a matter if figuring out what it was called here. It seemed like everything had a different name.

The special super-duper crystals that made a lightsaber work and gave the blade its color? Out there they’re called lightsaber crystal — original, huh? On Earth they are called precious stones: Rubies, Sapphires, Jade, and the like; maybe you’ve heard of them.

By the time I started the mechanical portion of the diagram, Lyshaa opened the door to the basement.

“Aayla? You down there?”

“Yeah.”

Her heels clicked quickly on the steps. She’d only been wearing them as of this morning and she was a pro in high heels. It made me wonder how long Jesse had been wearing them before the change.

“What happened? Did they arrest you? I was freaking out all day.”

I folded up my work. It was obvious I wasn’t going to be able to continue. “They just asked some questions and I met some scientists. He might be able to help me with something. It wasn’t anything bad.”

“Are you sure?” She seemed really worried.

I didn’t get it. We barely knew each other.

“Uh-huh.”

Lyshaa held her hand over where her heart used to be. I guess it was habit. I told you that her heart is on the other side of her chest now, right?

“Whew. Good.” She bounced in place and her grin brightened. “Eric held my hand!”

I received the blow by blow account of how one of my best friends helped her up from her chair in one of her classes and never let go while he escorted her to her next class. It wasn’t world-stopping news or anything, but it seemed to make Lyshaa’s week. I just hoped that she didn’t feel the need to go into such detail on their first date or their first romp between the sheets.

She was rambling on like an eight year old on a sugar high; believe me when I say I can tell you exactly what that’s like. Two weeks previous Kenny found my mother’s chocolate stash and ate half of it.

“… have to find you a nice outfit for Saturday night.”

My eyes refocused on her at that statement. “What?”

Her eyebrows bunched together. “Have you been listening to me?”

While I hate being thought of as rude, sometimes it’s true. “Sorry, I’m being distracted about that thing today. What did you say about Saturday night?”

She patted my hand and looked very concerned. “You need to relax more, Aayla. You’ve had a rough week. I was telling Eric about it and he thought we could double date on Saturday with you and Matt.”

I blinked. “Me and Matt?”

“He’s taking you to the Junior Prom, right? He’s your boyfriend?”

“Uh… where did you get that idea?”

Lyshaa knew she was missing something; I could see it on her face. “The way he was talking about you today. The boy is smitten. He’s not your boyfriend?”

I shook my head.

“Oh. Sorry. My bad.” Then she made a really weird face, like she’d done something I wouldn’t approve of. “I kind of committed you. You know, like you did for me. You were really nice and set me up with Eric and I kind of did the same for you with Matt.”

See what helping people does for you? It complicates things. If I had just let Lyshaa deal with her own personal issues then I wouldn’t be in this mess.

“What did you do?” I said rather seriously.

She swallowed when she saw the look on my face. “They’re taking us to dinner and then dancing at The Money Shot. Matt was really looking forward to it. Did I do something bad?”

She was trying to help. I couldn’t be mad at her for that. “Lyshaa, would you sit down please.”

Her body was always moving a mile a minute, but she took a seat and contented herself with bouncing her foot.

“Do you remember how I told you that I didn’t want to change into this?” I panned my hand down my body, and she nodded. “You like guys, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I liked girls and I’m still trying to figure out the whole sexual orientation problem I have going on right now. Setting me up on a date with one of my best friends is a disaster waiting to happen.”

“Oh.”

“What if I decide that I have no attraction to him? Blow him off? Then I’ve just lost one of the only people that accepted me for who I was and who I am.”

“I thought he was your boyfriend, Aayla.”

I sighed. “It’s okay. I’m not mad at you. I just don’t know what to do now.”

She looked like she was thinking really hard for a solution. “Go out on the date, but talk to him first.”

My fingers found their way to my temples and I absentmindedly rubbed at them. “Talk about what?”

“Just be straight. Tell him you’re trying to figure things out and if it doesn’t work out then you don’t want to lose him as a friend. He should understand that.”

I made a scoffing noise. “He’s a guy and he has his sights set on a girl he thinks is hot. He’s not going to settle.”

Lyshaa shrugged. “Maybe he won’t, but he’ll understand if you don’t find him sexually attractive. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t though. He’s definitely nice looking, and he’s smart, and he comes from a good family.”

“You know his family?”

She nodded. “His mom’s my dentist. She’s really sweet.”

I stewed about the situation for a few more minutes while Lyshaa waited for me to say something.

“I don’t know how to dance… I mean I do, but just as a guy.”

A second later she was bouncing in front of me and pulling me up. “I’ll teach you. First we need some club music.”

~O~

If I hear one more Britney Spears song I’m going to shoot someone. Talk about a good reason to go evil. Lyshaa worked with me for three hours. In that time I learned that I possessed a pair of hips and the problem was that I had to empty my mind and just use them. That’s more difficult than it seems.

The last thirty minutes I seemed to get the hang of it. Kinda.

“Stop, stop!” Lyshaa said as she turned the volume down. “What was that?”

“I thought…”

“Stop thinking; just do.” She came over to me. “Okay, pretend I’m your dance partner. Dancing is just another word for sex, standing up, with your clothes on. Okay?”

I nodded and she walked back over to turn the volume back up. “And remember, you’re on the receiving end of that sex. You’re the pumpee not the pumper.”

After licking my lips I nodded again. The volume went up and she returned, placing her hands on my hips. By the end of the song I was so incredibly horny that I couldn’t stand it. Lyshaa was behind me, pressing her hips into my butt and her hands were caressing me in all sorts of places.

“Much better!” She bounced and clapped her hands. “What were you thinking about?”

The stereo was shut off and she turned around.

“Sex.”

“That’s it. You’ve got it. Just think of that all night while Matt’s dancing with… Aayla?”

I didn’t feel so good. My nipples were rock hard and there was something that felt like a knot in my lower abdomen.

“Wow, your eyes are really dilated.”

My lekku tingled and I felt lightheaded. “Bed…”

Lyshaa took my hand and led me over. I dropped down on my butt and reached for my shoes, but I couldn’t concentrate very well.

“I’ll get them.”

Before I knew it, I was lying back, staring at the ceiling.

“Did you get overheated? You’re not sweating. Do Twi’leks sweat?” She worked at my shorts, pulling them down. “Let’s get you into bed. It’s late anyway.”

I nodded and Lyshaa helped me out of my clothes and up into bed.

~O~

The alarm woke me up for the first time since I’d changed into a Twi’lek. Somehow we’d wound up much like the day before, with me on my back and Lyshaa half on top of me, and we were both somewhat lacking clothes of any type.

I killed the alarm and felt my bed partner squirm against me. “Morning,” she mumbled.

I lifted the covers to make sure I wasn’t wearing anything. “Did we…?”

Lyshaa lifted her head up. “What?”

“Did we have sex?”

She brushed her hair out of her face and smiled. “You don’t remember?”

I shook my head.

“No, we didn’t. Though you were a little more affectionate than normal. Got me kind of worked up. I hope Eric is taking his vitamins, because I’m going to drain that boy dry come Saturday.”

After palming my face, I tried to get that visual out of my head.

While we started our morning routine, Lyshaa kept looking at me with a guilty face. Once I was dressed properly, I stopped and faced her.

“What?”

She sighed. “I think it was my pheromones… last night I mean.”

It finally clicked to what she was saying. “That’s why I got lightheaded.”

“I’m getting better, Aayla. Sometimes I just get really… worked up, like when we were dancing.

Since she was into boys, I didn’t really think I turned her on that much. “Maybe you should spend some time on Saturday taking care of a few things, if you get my drift, so you don’t start some massive orgy at the club.”

She cringed. “Okay.”

~O~

By the time the weekend came, I still hadn’t seen Matt, but Lyshaa and Eric were busy telling me how stoked they were for our double date. My roomie had bought me a dress, or at least I think it was a dress. There wasn’t all that much material involved, and it was black. The heeled strappy sandals matched.

I’d been practicing pretty much every free chance I had dancing in them so I wouldn’t look like a complete freak on the dance floor. This is why I was wearing them when Doctor Doomah arrived at nine in the morning.

Lyshaa had a salon day planned for herself. They couldn’t really do anything for me at that establishment so she had to go alone.

Dad was out back mowing the lawn and Mom gave me a wondering eye as I escorted the good doctor downstairs.

It took me the better part of a new notebook to write everything out, but I did. When I handed it to him he got a look on his face.

“I can’t make any promises, you understand.”

I nodded. “Call this an offering. If you decide you want to work together we’ll make it semi-formal. If not, then you still get to keep the notes. It doesn’t have everything in there. I’ve withheld a few key pieces that will make most of what I’m giving you here useless, but it should be enough to show you that I’m very serious about my intentions.”

He frowned a little at that, but nodded, taking the notebook.

Doctor Doomah flipped to the first page and started reading the notes about artificial skin, while I went and stared at the dress I was going to wear that night. It was a leather push up bra dress, with crisscross straps on the back that left it open all the way to the lower curve of my back. The rest of the material barely covered my butt and hung down two inches past, if I was lucky.

Needless to say it exposed a lot of skin. I think Lyshaa was trying to get me laid or something.

“I’ll get you your charger,” the doctor said as he made his way back up the stairs without looking back.

I hurried to follow and see him out.

He was kind of standoffish, but I was encouraged. Seeing him at my home at all let me know that he could be swayed, him taking the notebook let me know that he really wanted what I could give him, and with the mention of the charger I was fairly confident that he wouldn’t flake and back out somewhere along the line.

“Who was that, honey?” asked Mom as she was drying her hands near the kitchen.

“Doctor Doomah, he’s helping me with some ideas that I have.”

She looked at me warily. “What kind of ideas?”

“Something to charge up the stuff I have.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?”

I nodded. “It’s useless otherwise and I really want to get some of this tech out there. I just gave him some info on artificial limbs to see if he can make it work for people that need them.”

Mom blinked and a smile came over her face. “Aayla, that’s great!”

While I didn’t live for the sole purpose of positive reinforcement, my mom’s words warmed a place in my chest. It made me a little ashamed of the real reason I gave the information to the doctor; bribery. There I was, lying to my mother about my true motivations. Well, it wasn’t a lie; I’d classify it more as obfuscation, which Jedi were masters of, so it was okay.

“I’m going to go work on my meditations, Mom.”

When I walked by, she beamed at me and kissed my cheek. “I’ll make sure you’re not disturbed, sweetie.”

“Thanks.”

~O~

I was relying less and less on the GH for guidance, only bringing it out for things I didn’t understand and for information, like the cybernetics info for the doc. Truthfully, I was already tired of being preached to by a Muppet. There’s only so much repetitive diatribe a person can take on the need to meditate. I’m sure you’re sick of hearing about it at this point and you’re not even there for the actual process itself. Imagine what it’s like for me.

Darth Talon infected my brain with the dark side. I get that, more than most people would. I know how easy it would be to just reach out and take whatever I want. Nobody would ever know. Anyone with enough knowledge could throw on a Force Cloak, walk into a bank, fill up a really large bag, and walk out without anyone the wiser.

My family’s money problems would be over. Don’t think I don’t know how much my new wardrobe cost my parents. Girl’s clothes are expensive.

I could even do it legally, by selling what I know to the government or to some corporation.

I was telling the truth when I told Courtney Carter that I could be a billionaire, but money doesn’t really get my motor running anymore. I had bigger things to think about, like Junior Prom.

That was a nightmare just waiting to happen. I had visions of Carrie, buckets of pig’s blood, and everyone laughing at me in the dress Lyshaa and I bought. The outcome would probably be much the same: lots of telekinesis thrown around, screaming, Force Lightning, people choking to death, you know, the usual nightmare scenario.

Date night was going to be a decent measure of the big event. I think that’s one of the reasons I chose to accept Matt’s offer.

Guh. That’s another issue.

Judging by the nagging tightness in my lower abdomen, I was expecting this Twi’lek heat thing sooner rather than later. I think being surrounded by Lyshaa’s constant pheromone assault was bringing the issue to a head, kick starting the whole mating thing before I was anywhere ready for the implications that it brought.

The ringing of my cell phone brought me out of my inner musings. Picking it up, I looked at the caller ID.

Speak of the devil.

“Hello, Matt.”

“Hey Aayla. Busy?”

I took a seat on the bed. “Just looking at the dress Lyshaa wants me to wear tonight.”

His smile was apparent even over the phone. “So we’re still on?”

I didn’t answer, and instead, I swiveled the subject a little. “Can you come over?”

“Uh… right now?”

“Yeah,” I said, somewhat subdued.

“You okay?”

That was an easy answer. “Not really, no.”

“Give me twenty minutes. I need to take a shower.”

“See ya,” I said.

I changed my clothes. Don’t judge; it gave me something to do. I didn’t pretty myself up. Instead, I just switched to workout shorts and a sports bra. There was an aching need to work out starting to seep its way into my bones.

The rest of the time waiting was spent pacing, trying to work out my problems. I didn’t really come to any solutions, other than the obvious ones. Reaching under the bed, I pulled out the GH to ask Yoda if there was any way to postpone the inevitable. That was when I heard the doorbell ring.

I dropped the GH and it rolled back underneath the bed.

My hands started shaking as I looked over toward the stairs. Instead of just kneeling there by the bed, I scrambled up and took a seat on one of the camp chairs. As the door opened, I crossed my legs and realized what I was wearing. There was so much skin showing that I might as well have been naked.

“Fuck,” I whispered.

Matt was at the bottom of the stairs before I knew it. “Hey.”

His eyes flicked to my legs and my breasts, but I could see he was at least putting forth effort to look me in the eyes.

“Hey.”

Looking to the bed and then to the other chair, Matt wisely chose the chair to make himself comfortable on.

“If this is about the date tonight, we can cancel. I mean if it’s bothering you,” he said.

I shook my head. “No, but thanks for offering.” My eyes couldn’t meet his. “This is about something else.”

“What’s up?” He leaned forward, his hands on his knees. “Whatever I can do to help.”

A quick, abrupt laugh shot out of my mouth. “Straight to it then.”

Not being able to look at him was starting to grate on my nerves, so I stood and walked over to mess with some of my books that I set up on a shelf along the wall.

“I need to ask a big favor…”

Matt interrupted me. “Sure, what do you need?”

Turning to my side I held up a hand. “Just listen first before you commit, okay?”

He nodded and I turned back to the books. “I found out some information about Twi’leks that… um…. Their biology is different from humans.”

The sound of a low chuckle made me look at him. “I kind of figured. I mean… alien, you know?”

I nodded. “Anyway. This one’s a little more radical than lekku, Matt.”

His eyebrows, neatly plucked by the way, bunched. “You need a blood transfusion or something?”

With a dramatic sigh, I glared at him. “I need sex.”

I’m so glad that he wasn’t drinking anything. “Whu?”

“Twi’leks go into heat every fourth month, for almost an entire month. If I don’t pick someone to have sex with, then I’ll pretty much hump whoever is closest when it happens.” My eyes found every single thing in the basement fascinating as long as it wasn’t Matt. “I’d prefer it if it was someone that I knew and not someone I bumped into at Gamestop or something.”

“Okay.”

That response was a little quicker than I imagined it would be which brought my attention around to him sitting there with his knee bouncing like he’d had too many energy drinks.

I frowned. “I’m talking an entire month of sex here, Matt. Every single day at least.”

“I said okay.”

What I couldn’t understand was why he agreed so readily agreed. It was a big task. I could probably talk Eric into helping out, with Lyshaa’s permission that is. Hell, she’d probably want to join in.

“You don’t even know what’s involved,” I said.

Matt smirked. “I’m thinking there’s going to be sex involved somewhere along the line.”

Oh, that’s why.

I was obviously thinking way too hard about the subject. Teenage boy equals massive sex drive. That was reason enough for him to say yes. What took me off guard was that he stood and started taking off his shirt.

“What are you doing?”

Matt stopped with his head half in-half out of his shirt. “Uh… you said…”

“Not now!” I nearly screamed. “When it starts! And you need condoms, lots of condoms. I don’t even know if human birth control will work on me, and I’m damn sure not going to be pregnant any time soon.”

His body seemed to deflate at the mention of no immediate sex. “Oh.”

My eyes were drawn lower to the tenting he was doing to his shorts. “Jesus Christ,” I whispered as I faced away.

“Sorry.”

It was times like these that I missed my hair. My hands itched to do something along the lines of pulling it out.

“Um…” he started. “Don’t you think… I mean…”

Testing the road, I looked back at him and at least his shirt was back on. “What?”

He cleared his throat. “Maybe we should see if we’re… you know… compatible.”

“I’m not stripping, Matt. Everything down there is female enough to get the job done.”

His eyes widened. “No, I don’t mean that. I figured everything… nevermind. Um, I meant maybe we should test the way first. We might not even like each other that way, or maybe it’ll be too weird and you’ll need to find someone else.”

My shoulders dropped. “Are you saying you want to make out?”

Matt shrugged.

The first words out of my mouth were derailed by my brain. Remember what I said about a good rationalization being needed to do unpleasant things? I stood a really good chance of being on all fours in the near future with Matt holding onto my lekku like he was riding a horse. Sluttish behavior was going to be had whether I liked it or not.

“Fuck.”

“Look,” he said. “If you want to wait, I guess…”

I shut him up by crossing the floor and grabbing his head, pulling it down the couple of inches needed to make his lips contact mine. All I heard was a muffled note of surprise and then his hands were on me, deepening the kiss I’d started.

It was a lot different than kissing Blue, let me tell you. For one, my lips were a lot bigger and his were pretty big, so there was a lot more surface space for contact. Then there was his hand on my butt, lifting me up, supporting me, and pressing me into his hips to feel what waited for me when I was ready.

Thankfully he left my breasts alone for the time being, but that didn’t stop his free hand from caressing the length of my tchin, my right lekku. Shivers rolled down my skin at the feeling that induced and I knew I was thoroughly screwed if I thought I wouldn’t enjoy having sex with my best friend.

At that, I pushed away roughly and put a lot of distance between us.

Matt was nearly flung across the room, and probably would have been if not for the bed which he landed on.

My breathing had changed, deepening.

Dammit. It was happening. The heat was building, but not quite there yet. My strength had increased. I wouldn’t have been able to toss him like that without assistance from the Force, which was one of the warning signs that my mating time was imminent.

“Whoa,” gasped Matt.

“Matt, you need to leave,” I breathed.

“What? But we just started, and you taste like cinnamon. I love cinnamon.”

I shook my head. “You need condoms, and I have to get ready for our date, and Lyshaa will be home any minute.”

I was reaching for anything to get him out before he pushed me any further down the road of somewhere I really didn’t want to go.

Backing away, I put the cool surface of the cinderblock wall against my back as I watched Matt get up off the bed. He moved closer to me and I grit my teeth.

“Matt… please. Not right now.”

He lightly shook his head. “I just want to give you this.”

Holding out his closed hand he said. “I’m a monogamous type person.”

With that, he turned his hand around and opened it. His class ring was sitting in the palm being offered up to me. I knew exactly what that meant. He was asking me to be his girlfriend.

I couldn’t fault him for his values, and I’d expect the same thing if I was in his shoes, so I took it without saying anything else.

Matt ducked his head down and brushed his lips across mine in a parting farewell before he turned and made his way out.

“Frotz.” Twi’leks can cuss in their own language too. God knows I’d probably be cussing a lot more in the near future.

~O~

“What’s wrong?” Lyshaa said when she stepped off the stairs and saw me staring at a blank wall in thought.

She came over and kneeled beside me. I opened my hand and she saw the ring then sucked in a mouthful of air.

“Is that Matt’s?”

I nodded, dumbly.

“Oh my God, Aayla,” she nearly squealed. “I’m so happy for you.”

In a second she was up again hugging my neck. “This is perfect! We’ve both got steady boyfriends.”

Then she started her bouncing. I swear the girl must be part rabbit or something.

“Stop it,” I said.

Her abrupt halt did weird things to her breasts which didn’t help my situation at all. Lyshaa looked at me and her whole body dipped forward like a marionette with its strings cut.

“You’re not going to be all emo are you? This is great news, Aayla.” Before I could stop her she grabbed my hands and pulled me to my feet. “Come here.”

A quick shuffle later and we were standing in front of the mirror to my dresser.

“Now look at that.”

I glanced at us. It was our reflection. “So?”

“There are two seriously hot girls in that mirror, and they both deserve the best that life can give them. That means money, a mission, and a couple of really cute boys to share it with.”

I glanced at her in through the reflection and it was annoying how upbeat she was.

“I’ve got Eric and now you’ve got Matt. Both of them are very cute. Thanks to you, I’m loaded, so we’ve got money. And you’ve got your Jedi training, so you’ve got a mission.”

Trying to find a flaw in her plan, I pointed out that she didn’t have a mission.

“I’m your assistant, of course. Your mission is my mission. I’ll be like your squire or something. You need someone to make sure you’re in the latest fashions, someone to give you a rubdown after a particularly hard day, and someone to make sure you’re properly equipped for any situation.”

The rubdown seemed like a pretty good idea, the rest was questionable.

“You’re not my squire, Lyshaa. I keep telling you that you don’t owe me anything.”

She just smiled at me like I was retarded. “Aayla, you saved my life.”

I watched as her arms encircled me from the back and felt her face lay between my shoulder blades. “I would have tried anything there at the end, even jumping off the roof of my house, trying to get that metagene to jumpstart. So, you’re stuck with me. You saved my life, so you’re responsible for it.”

That had to be the biggest load of crap I’d ever heard. “I’m not responsible for you.”

She pulled away and started bouncing again. “Are too, are too, are too, are too!”

With a scowl directed in her direction I tried to bring to mind the most evil thing that I could in order to get Lyshaa to stop being annoying.

“Is that a pimple?”

She jerked to a stop and gasped, quickly looking in the mirror. “Where? Oh my God, not today!”

Yes, it’s true; the dark side of the Force is with me.

TBC...

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