You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. [Aliya]

[Lily Darksun]

Lily lounged in her t-shirt and panties on the bed, her jeans tossed on the floor. She had her earbuds in, listening to loud rock music. Basically, she was packed and ready for whatever was to come next and just chilling as she tried to decide what exactly was coming next.

She knew her parents wanted her to become a Jedi. A sense of adventure led Lily to want to do something crazy like try to become a self-made smuggler... even though she didn't even own a ship. Having her life intersect with Aliya's made her now want something more professional. She kept thinking about the previously ridiculous idea of going to college to do something with her natural math and science aptitude. And so far, Sticks had failed to purchase a ticket to anywhere. She'd remained evasive with her parents' texts, and kept focusing on how Aliya had turned her life upside down instead.

Eyes closed, she rocked her head to the raucous music she listened to, just waiting for the moment of decision...

[Aliya Tserta]

It had been a trying few days since the last time that Aliya and Lily had been together. They knew that they had scant time together until the, now, blonde Imperial would be returning to Telos for her last debriefing as a New Republic Spy and off to Bastion, finally being reunited with her family after ten years away. During this time of freedom aboard Drifter's, she and the beautiful, brilliant, redhead had gotten real close, real quick. They clicked in a way that thrilled and frightened the half-Morellian. She knew it was going to be trying, what the end result of this affair would be for the two of them. Their families were on opposing sides on a war that neither of them gave a bantha's backside about, Lily still wasn't sure what to do with herself, and now Aliya was being diverted to Corellia for reassignment and debriefing.

But none of that measured up to Aliya almost bonding to Lily when they were last intimate. Perhaps it was just her analytical mind able to decipher what was happening, wanting to fight against something she wasn't supposed to control, or because she wasn't a full blooded Morellian, she had the ability to fight it off quickly ... But it scared her, and she ran. Since then, she hadn't contacted Lily at all and it was eating away at her very soul the entire time because she had just denied the Morellian gift! Something to be ridiculed and shamed if they were home.

Aliya wasn't raised on Morellia but by their standards through her mother and sisters. And there was the terrible truth that when Lily passed on, Aliya would lose the other half of her soul, diminishing herself to a disheartening degree. No longer able to enjoy life and become a husk of her former self. What right should she bond to a human without informing Lily of the consequences?

"Frak it..." she growled softly, pulling out her comlink inside her hotel room where her bags were mostly packed.

Called to Corellia instead. Leaving tomorrow.

She hit send, staring at the screen for the reply to come ...

[Lily Darksun]

Lily rolled over and reached for her comlink. She'd sent a specific tone for 'liya, and so she already knew it was she who'd sent a message, finally.

Didn't think she was gonna.

She read the message and debated what to do about it. Lily set the comlink down and laced her hands behind her head, thinking.

No apology! Nothing! Do I even reply? How do I play this?

Rapid-fire, her quick mind ran several what-if scenarios and played them out, imagining what would happen with each choice: to ignore the text, to respond with snark, or to send a genuine, if guarded, reply. Lily frowned as the seconds ticked by, thinking about the depth of emotion they'd admitted to... and the intimacy.

But, 'liya said she does this; that she's had other partners that meant nothing. Maybe that's really all I was. Just a fun fling.

It wasn't the first time that Sticks had considered that possibility. If that was true, well, she'd deal with it and it would go to show that Aliya was her first fun fling too. But, Lily's walled off empathic senses made her feel like this was more, and that perhaps her exuberance to their lovemaking - which she now blushed to think about - had spooked the blonde somehow.

That, or I was frakking doing it wrong and she cut and ran before it got any more boring...!

With no explanation and no contact, Lily didn't know what to think after all. She sighed and picked up the comlink again, shooting a response back. With her emotions so muted by choice and habit, Lily found it easy enough to reply.

[Yeah? Deal if U get 2 tix. Buy 1 4 me & I pay U back tomorrow.]

She tossed the 'link back on the bed and closed her eyes, listening to the guitar solo. Lily had just decided, it seemed, that college life somewhere on Corellia could work just fine.

[Aliya Tserta]

>_<

[Aliya Tserta]

"Idiot Nystrom. Too informal. She won't respond back. Didn't even apologize for running out on her." She was in mid throw, link just about to leave her hand when Lily's chime went off, barely catching it! It juggled from hand to hand, Aliya finally grabbing it before it hit the floor.

She flipped it on and blinked, not expecting this response at all.

After everything that happened, she wants to go with me?

It made no sense to a realist like Aliya. Of course, this was the same realist that decided to pursue whatever it was between them in the first place.

[I'll set up passage 4 U. No need to pay back.]

They weren't going to Corellia together. It would just continue to blur lines that already were desperate for Aliya to reconcile. She felt the tug of honor of being Morellian, needing to explain and fulfill the bond, but there was the practical side of her that knew it wouldn't work! Or it could but was it worth it?

The answer was yes, but even she could be afraid ...

[Lily Darksun]

She still didn't apologize. Brown eyes stared at her comlink incredulously. That's on her, right?

Lily sighed noisily and stared at the return text.

[NVM...] she started to type, then realized she'd better spell it out in case Aliya wasn't up on text-speak fully. Backspacing, she started again. [Nevermind. Not gonna be in your debt. Be safe. Happy U'll C your fam. soon.]

Lily stared at that and hit send. She didn't know what the frell had happened the other night, but it was clear that Aliya didn't want to talk about it. She knew she was crazy about the other woman, but if Aliya was backing way off and being weird, then - after everything that had happened - Lily didn't know what else she could do to help her.

"May as well book for Telos then. If the 'rents are going to find out I bailed on the Jedi, may as well save 'em the flight time and just go home," she grunted to herself, flipping apps to start looking for passage.

[Aliya Tserta]

Her heart was pounding, waiting impatiently for the response back, tapping at the screen. Helping Lily was barely enough to show how much the girl mattered to her, but it was a start.

"And a start she doesn't want. Frak," she groused at the link, not entirely blaming her.

[Not a debt. Least I can do. I'm sorry. Please let me?]

"There finally said it. Over a damn text, but it's there..." Not that she'd think it mattered and went looking for a prices.

[Lily Darksun]

"Stanged right. That is the least you could do," she growled at the display, incredulous.

[No thx, but ty for saying sorry. Sorry 2 that this couldn't work out,] Lily wrote after a moment's pause. [Was fun while it lasted.]

There. That sounds mature. Gets her off the hook completely, which is what she seems to want. So. Yeah. Whatev.

With her emotions so muted, it barely even hurt. Lily was glad for that training for once in her life; without it, she knew she'd be a blubbering idiot and she hated that worse than this numbness. She thought.

[Aliya Tserta]

Aliya could just see the anger clearly written across the screen. There was no warmth or the familiar fun personality that she had come to adore in the redhead.

She deserves better than me. Deserves better than being bound to the mess that would be created if I had stayed...

She kept trying to tell herself that as she replied back after reading the last text.

[It wasn't just fun. It got intense fast. Too fast.]

Part of her didn't want to send the text because things were, in a way, being amicably severed as they parted ways. But Aliya wanted to explain things to Lily because she deserved to know what had happened. The text was sent. Followed by an addition.

[You're not a fling.]

She was not Force sensitive at all, but knew the girl well enough that was probably going through her mind as she sent that message.

[Lily Darksun]

Lily ripped the earbuds out of her ears and finally shut the music off. It wasn't helping. She sat up and stared at the latest texts. They made her want to cry. They also made her want to throw her comlink across the room.

[Not a fling but U're freaked & backed off. I get it.]

This was not how she imagined her first romance and break-up to go, all in the matter of days. But then, Lily wondered how else she might expect it to go?

Quickly, she added, [Ty 4 friendship & intimacy. GL w/ fam. when U get home & wish me luck w/ mine.]

[Aliya Tserta]

She was in the middle of responding back because Lily had it wrong. Aliya didn't back off because of the intimacy itself or wanting to be with Lily - it was the knowledge that she had found the one person in this gods forsaken galaxy that could complete her. How could she thrust that on her without allowing a choice for the girl, or realize the consequences of the bonding would entail. It was not something to take likely without giving her a choice...

"What?!" Aliya was beside herself in reading that Lily was going home to Telos of all places. "No, no, no ... That's not right. No." Regardless of what happened between them, her going home felt wrong. Lily came to Drifter's to find her own way and going home without a plan just didn't sit right with the spy. Thus instead of texting her back, Aliya shot off the couch, grabbed her jacket and took an air speeder to Lily's hotel. It wasn't long that there was a knock at the door ...

[Lily Darksun]

Lily muttered, "So that's it then," when no return text came the last time. Tears welled in her eyes despite her mental shielding and she wiped them away, shivering. She tossed the comlink aside, put her pants on, and set to packing.

At least the story gets back to simple for the folks, she thought, as she crammed her meager belongings back into her bag. Just didn't want to be a frakking Jedi. No need to mention my hook-up or who she really works for.

And then, there was a tell-tale knock at the door. Lily stared at her side of it, cricked her neck from side-to-side, then went and opened it. Seeing it was Aliya, she let the door swing open, implicitly inviting her in without saying a word. Lily went back to the kitchen, seeing what else from there was supposed to find its way back into her luggage.

[Aliya Tserta]

"Why are you going back to Telos?" She immediately said, closing the door and following after her. "You can still go to Corellia, Lily. Find out what you want to do with yourself."

Regardless of what happened between them, Aliya couldn't stand her going back home and being miserable.

[Lily Darksun]

She stopped cold, then turned and stared at her.

"That's your lead-off? Really?" Lily said with a sigh. "Who cares where I go. College is college. Save them the trouble of meeting me off-world."

[Aliya Tserta]

"You came here to find out what you wanted to do with yourself. Take me out of the equation, please. You deserve to do more with yourself than just ... go home." She pleaded. "if we never had even met, you'd still be here or somewhere else... but it wouldn't be home. It's all I'm saying."

She was still ignoring the why she had bolted and it would probably infuriate Lily, but she needed to not make a rash decision based upon their short time together.