Bad Blood

Chapter 24 - The Enemy of My Enemy

Boba raised the ramp on Slave I, then crossed to the bunk and slumped down on it. Prising off his helmet, he raked his fingers through his tangled hair, sighing. "That could've gone better." He flopped onto the mattress so that he was lying on his back.

Astéri looked up from where she was fiddling with the blaster that she had stolen from Olena. "No kidding." Boba watched her through his semi-closed eyelids as she crossed over to the bunk and sat down. "I thought you said this was my bunk now."

Boba grunted. "I'm tired and it's comfy. We're sharing."

He heard Astéri chuckle, then shifted sideways to allow her to lie down next to him as he felt the mattress dip. He wrapped his arms around her as she snuggled into his chest. Boba idly twirled strands of her hair around his fingers as he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Astéri sighed and curled in closer to him. "Boba?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think we should?"

"Should what?"

"Go after Olena."

Boba frowned. "She's a killer."

"So are we."

Boba propped himself on one elbow. "I don't see that we have much of a choice. What else could we do? Let her kill more and more people?"

"No!" Astéri jolted. "No, not that. But we could- I don't know. Set up defences around villages. Seal off the catacombs that she uses to travel. I just don't really want to tangle with her. This whole thing seems off; there's something we haven't been told."

"I know." Boba agreed. "By all rights, Olena shouldn't even have come up on the Empire's radar. This is a trap of some kind. But sometimes the only time to disable the trap is to spring it."

Astéri sighed and thumped the wall with her fist. "You're right. I don't like it, but you're right."

"I don't like it either." Boba replied. "And don't punch my wall."

"Our wall. I live here now." Astéri corrected him, cracking one eye open to glare at Boba. "In fact, I think I should have a legal claim to this specific bit of wall."

Boba chuckled. "I'm too tired to argue. Let's sleep on it; then we can draw up plans on how to deal with Olena in the morning."

"Fine, but take off your armour first. Knowing my luck, I'll bash my head on your chest plate in the night or something and end up with a concussion."

Boba rolled his eyes and struggled out of bed, prising off his armour, and went to throw it in one of the badly organised cupboards. He also stripped off his shirt and tossed it into a pile of laundry he had been meaning to get around to washing. He walked back into his room in just the lower half of his blacks to find that Astéri had changed out of her bodysuit in favour of one of his other, and cleaner, shirts. Seeing that it came down to the petite girl's knees, Boba had to suppress a laugh. Climbing back onto the mattress, he tugged the blankets around himself and wrapped his arms around Astéri.

She was a comforting warmth against his bare chest as he drifted into sleep.

Boba woke to find his movement severely restricted. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and peered down to see that Astéri had tangled her limbs with his, with her legs knotted in the blankets and her arms clasped firmly around his waist.

So she's a hugger. I can appreciate that.

"You're very clingy, you know."

Astéri extricated one hand from under the blankets and flipped Boba the middle finger before wriggling firmly back into the warmth.