Half-Moon Glow

Lake Shores

Aurora questioned whether she preferred the opulent, elegant Passacaille hotel on Coruscant over the chilly air, swaying leaves and cloudy skies of the forest she currently sat on.

She felt the dirt and dry leaves, cool against the soles of her bare feet. With her knees hugged close up to her chest, her gaze shifted between the green spruce trees and the bright clouds, never finding even a glimpse of blue in that misty sky. The singing of the birds in the background magically complemented the occasional drip and drop of the lake before her, its shore starting not five meters from her, all entwined in one beautiful melody of peace.

"You'll get dirt stains on your uniform," the voice of her beloved filled her ears from behind.

Not looking at him yet, Aurora smirked. "You can always pat me down to get it off."

"Is it possible for you to already be such a tease this early in the morning?" Crosshair chuckled as he sat on the ground next to her. "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing and everything," Aurora replied. "The absence of anything human made is kind of the appeal of this place."

"Yeah," Crosshair agreed as he too gazed at the vast nature before him. Being the sniper that he was, he was more used to seeing the broader landscapes a planet had to offer than the average soldier, usually from atop a cliff or a tree or a tower, always ready to look into his scope at the slightest of movements. Being there on the ground with Aurora made him reminisce of that, but it also could not have been more different.

"Where are the others?" Aurora whispered, almost as if she were afraid to break the silence.

"They went to set up the comms antennae," Crosshair said through gritted teeth, having started to chew on a toothpick without Aurora noticing. "So much for having nothing human made in this place."

"I'll take it," Aurora spoke in a normal voice. "Sending us here for that sole purpose while we waited for another mission was probably the best order we could have gotten."

"Well, it's an order we actually followed," Crosshair smirked. "That ought to tell you."

Aurora giggled and looked over at Crosshair while he kept examining the landscape, finding herself at a loss for how the sunlight filtered through clouds made him somehow seem warmer.

"I see you looking," he muttered.

"Do you?"

Crosshair shrugged and leaned back, resting his weight on his forearms on the ground and crossing one leg over the other. "I know, I'm gorgeous. You can't help it."

Aurora laughed and extended her legs too, shifting her weight closer to him. "Well, that you are, even if you're a proud—"

"Ouch," Crosshair groaned in fake pain.

"-arrogant," Aurora continued.

"What did I do to deserve that?"

"-insufferably cocky—"

"Last I checked, you didn't have a problem with any of that, darlin'," Crosshair purred, flicking the toothpick aside.

"Flattering yourself much?" She leaned in to kiss his snarky grin.

Crosshair gave a deep chuckle into the kiss as he felt Aurora's hand brushing his chest over his armor, and to add more heat into the kiss, he sat up so that he no longer had to rely on his arms to hold his weight, allowing him to instead wrap them around her waist. It was one of the things he loved doing the most, to hold her soft curves in his hands where she would be close to him, where he could feel she was his.