Two

Chapter 16

Meditation quickly became a part of her daily routine. She would meditate in the morning, like Maul did and then they would train. First with the blaster and then with the staff after lunch.

It took quite a few days for her to notice any improvement with the blaster. Nima wasn't sure exactly how many days, since she hadn't bothered trying to keep count. Maul somehow always knew what day it was though he wouldn't say how he knew.

“I told you that you would get better with practice,” he said. He had a smirk on his face and Nima huffed.
“I knew I’d get better,” she protested. “But it doesn’t mean I can’t get annoyed at it.” Maul chuckled and she found herself smiling.

After eating again, they stayed inside, listening to the patter of the soft rain on the room. The sun was beginning to set and Nima changed into her old, more revealing clothes to sleep in. she pulled the blanket over her.

“You haven’t had nightmares lately,” he said as he pulled some of his clothes off, leaving him shirtless and only in trousers. Feeling her lekku twist around each other, she tried to ignore them and she frowned and shrugged instead.
“No, but I have been having bad dreams.”
“Bad dreams?” he repeated and she nodded.
“Yeah. Not quite a nightmare but not exactly good either,” she said. Some of them had included bounty hunters finding her in different places, her childhood home, the attic where she slept as a handmaid and the swamp of Nal Hutta.

“So you aren’t waking up?” he asked as he lay down next to her under the blanket.
“No,” she said. She wasn’t sure if it would have been better if she had woken up from them, Maul provided reason when she was panicking. “I think I’d prefer it if I did though.”
“Why?”
“It’s easier to calm down if I wake up, and when I go back to sleep, I don’t really dream about anything, not anything bad, at least,” she explained. “If I don’t wake up, I don’t have any good sleep.”
“It makes sense.”

Nima smiled a little, glad that her explanation had made some sense to him. He wasn’t the type to lie just to be kind. He didn’t seem to be the type to lie in general, and a Sith showing kindness was surprising to her.

It didn’t take too long for her to fall asleep but quickly, her dreams of home turned dark. Her thrashing was interrupted as she stared up at the ceiling, breathing heavily.
“Wh-what?” she looked to her right, expecting to see Maul asleep as she usually did when she woke up. But instead, he was sitting upright and was looking at her.

“I could sense that you were having a bad dream.”
Nima furrowed her brow as she sat up. “Oh.” How did he sense that she had been having a bad dream?
“You said you sleep better if you wake up.”
“Yeah,” she said slowly as she nodded. “I didn’t expect you to remember that. Thank you.” Maul just nodded slightly and Nima smiled, despite how dark it was.

It was strange, knowing that Maul had remembered such a thing.
“You should sleep,” he said and she nodded.
“Yeah, I should, shouldn’t I?” Nima said as she lay back down, pulling the blanket over her. Maul lay down next to her. “Thank you, again.” Closing her eyes, Nima smiled again, though this time her smile was definitely to herself.

The daylight shone through the window of the cabin and Maul was part way through dressing when she opened her eyes.
“Oh, um,” she stuttered, looking away as he turned to look at her, still shirtless.
“Did you sleep well when you went back to sleep?” he asked as he finished dressing. Nima nodded.
“I did, thank you, again. I mean it.”
He smiled slightly as he picked up his saber and attached it to his belt. “Then your training should go even better.”