Either I'm gonna kill him or I'm beginning to like him.

[Q. Samus Dage]

He was intently aiming for his molars, the toothbrush angling for a deeper scrub. One eye was partially squinted as the other was wide open, concentration focused on that singular task of removing overnight sock-taste from his mouth and seemingly off of his teeth.

When her tail found a 'home' in between his legs, the sudden sensation was enough to make him nearly choke on the toothbrush while at the same time nearly jumping half-up on the counter.

He coughed, sputtering out a spray of spit and toothpaste foam onto the fresher mirror in a lovely splatter pattern.

Shoulders hitching back, Samus shot a look down to the tuft that was poking out between his legs, practically cuddling up against The Chancellor.

He blinked.

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

It took effort not to laugh at how ridiculously effective that was. Instead, she managed to keep it to merely a very-pleased-with-herself grin while she continued brushing. The sonic stopped. T'yeellaa spit and rinsed, and rose again, daubing her face with a wash cloth.

"Everrjythjing alrrjight, dearr?"

[Q. Samus Dage]

With a deliberate motion, Samus reached one hand back, finger taking hold just below the tuft while making sure that a stray fingernail didn't send him crashing to the floor in a curled-up ball of pain and dry-heaving. He slowly pulled T'yeellaa's tail out from between his legs.

A cough, a spit, and he ran a tongue over his front teeth before casting a sideways look her way.

"We're a little too far past that chance, Kitten," came the good-natured rumble.

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

T'yeellaa managed to pull off a how did that get there face as Samus delicately de-goosed himself. She pulled her tail back close to her, now looking almost apologetic.

"Oh Goddesss, jI'm sso ssorrrjy! jYou know sshe'ss got a mjind of herr own."

She tried to keep it deadpan, but eventually a chuckle escaped as she laughed at her own corny joke.

[Q. Samus Dage]

A single raised eyebrow, and Samus punctuated his expression with a last spit into the sink. He reached over to give a gentle tug of one of her ears. Nothing to hurt, but enough to let her know that he was on to her game.

He leaned to the side and down to deposit a soft kiss to her temple.

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

It was wine and bad holos night. Every third saturday of the month (deployment permitting) no fewer than three hours were roped out of their busy schedules to crowd on the couch, open a (not greater than) twenty credit bottle of wine, and watch the steamiest, stinkiest cinematic turd available on HoloFlix. Honestly, the wine was optional. T'yeellaa took her awful movies seriously. She could be a sommelier of bad movies. The sorts with scenes that needed to be edited in half, with bad squib work and worse makeup, and the occasional boom mic hanging in frame.

"Hurrrjy up jin therre! Come on!"

What was taking him so long, anyway? He said he was going to get a snack from the kitchen. Snack implied grab and go, not a lengthy preparation. The only problem with watching bad movies was that it was a terribly co-dependent exercise. She wasn't going to watch a bad movie alone. Who would she make snarky and sarcastic comments to? Herself? That was the saddest and loneliest thing she could think of.

Gonto - Ithorian Justice was at the title screen and ready to go, and T'yeellaa was nearly finished with her first glass of wine. She leaned foward on the couch, craning her neck to get a glimpse of whatever Dage was doing in the kitchenette.

[Q. Samus Dage]

Bent over the wooden cutting block, Samus concentrated. Every slice had to be perfect. Every slice had to damn near be just the same: almost wafer thin, so that there was nowhere for the flavor to hide. It was for maximum tastiness.

"I'm almost done," he half-called back.

"Just a little bit longer, Kitten, I promise."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

"jIt wass almosst done fjive mjinutess agooo!" T'yeellaa retorted in an impatient patrician lilt she'd learned from living a childhood split between a dozen villas and wanting for nothing.

She pulled her blanked up to her shoulders, noting with some irritation that it meant that her bare feet were now uncovered from their resting place on the caf table. With nothing better to do than wait, T'yeellaa sniffed the air for any redolent clues as to what the damned hold up was. She neither heard nor smelled the tell-tale signs of cooking.

[Q. Samus Dage]

Perfect.

Utterly proud of himself for each expert slice, Samus smiled as he set aside the knife. A small, square white plate was pulled down from an upper cabinet, and he arranged each one in a staggered overlay that would allow him easiest access to every delectable morsel.

Looking upon his plated creation, a single finger went out to nudge on of the slices in the middle of the row, putting it in line with the rest. Ah yes, satisfaction.

With a triumphant smile, he took up the plate and left the kitchenette, making his way into the living room. An easy step over T'yeellaa's resting legs, and the rangy blonde lowered himself to sit beside her.

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

"Arre we rreadjy now?" she asked sarcastically as he settled in, punching the play button as the lights dimmed automatically. A high pan over the Coruscant skyline lit up the space in the room as a bombastic electric guitar intro played.

"I'm Gonto. I'm a cop." came the hard-boiled voice-over in Ithorian stereo. "A ninja cop."

T'yeellaa's trashy heart began to race. With a lead-in like that, this was going to be so wonderfully terrible.

sniff

A frown formed.

sniff sniff

The frown deepened. Something smelled. Not at all in a good way. She eyed her bare feet on the table, suddenly worried that the distinctly foot-like aroma and her exposed toes might be...

...absolutely not. And yet, how insecure was she? Was she about to pull a foot in front of her face and give a cursory sniff to confirm? There was absolutely no way to do that in a casual sense.

"The Emperor's dog has been kidnapped. And I'm a bad enough dude to get it back."

Focus! If there was anything that stunk worse than what she was smelling, it was this glorious display right here!

[Q. Samus Dage]

He leaned back comfortably into the cushions, one arm going around T'yeellaa as the plate was balanced on a knee. His free hand plucked a slice of cheese, and almost daintily he popped it into his mouth as the voice-over continued.

There was a certain amount of joy that he took in being here, on these nights. With T'yeellaa, he usually found himself watching her more than the bad acting and terrible dialogue anay, even if it was only side glances that he stole.

He chewed, swallowed, and reveled in the afterglow. Yes, this really was wonderful, and his splurge at one of the deli stalls on Jovan was right then and there deemed worth it.

A smile, and he leaned in to deposit a kiss to her cheek.

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

She felt his shift and approach. And while she enjoyed her gai'tou's random acts of sweetness, the cruel fact of the matter was that whatever pungent and foul aroma she'd caught wind of was increasing exponentially the closer he got. The kiss landed on T'yeellaa's cheek awkwardly, and it's recipient remained frozen in ambivalence. Another audible sniff, and her ambivalent expression became visibly disgusted.

"Ssamuss..."

She scooted an inch away from him, momentarily forgetting the scenery chewing in the holo as she squared her shoulders against her boyfriend and his plate of the unknown.

"...what arre jyou eatjing?"

[Q. Samus Dage]

For a moment he held his place, the grin on his face growing only with the closeness of T'yeellaa and the delectable snack he'd cut for himself. Life really couldn't get much better than this.

"Just a little bit of cheese, Kitten," he offered, leaning back finally to settle himself a bit more on the sofa.

"Don't worry, I only cut enough for me."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

Cheese.

The insane alien foodstuff had confounded her before. It was made from milk, which she knew from previous bad ideas on Syragor that Cizeracks really didn't digest well at all. And it looked like something that should never ever be considered food at all. She'd passed a cheesemonger shop on the station during a previous excursion (when she discovered that Samus shared the same obsession that most humans did over the stuff). Everything in the window was in blocks, wheel shapes, or in some manner of crock. There were weird colors and textures. Some cheese had holes in, which made T'yeellaa think that maybe some vermin had gotten into it. A good look was all it took for her to know that she wanted no part of it at all. That was fine. It was okay and natural for couples to have their own interests; their own boundaries. She ate live songbirds. He ate something that used to be milk and had now...fermented? Rotted?

T'yeellaa tried to look stoic. She tried. All she could manage was a grimace as she squeezed against her armrest on her side of the couch, putting as much distance as she could between herself and that thing that looked white except for where it looked blue.

"Don't eat that." she blurted out without thinking of a proper rationalization.

[Q. Samus Dage]

A look of mild surprise danced over his features as he leaned back. The holo was instantly forgotten as his eyes went from his delicious snack to T'yeellaa. Snack. T'yeellaa. Snack. T'yeellaa. Finally he blinked, his features scrunching up in incredulous puzzlement.

"Why?"

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

There wasn't any real way to answer that without coming off as selfish. Or a hypocrite. Or both. And yet there was no way T'yeellaa was going to suffer this silently. It wasn't just the offensive smell or what looked like mold. It was the impending dread that she'd soon be kissing the same mouth that was eating that...that...

"jIt'ss blue."

The words kind of fell out of her mouth, and T'yeellaa's face held in unguarded awkwardness as her brain moved to catch up with her own stupidity. Too late to retract, she was all in.

"That'ss not norrmal."

[Q. Samus Dage]

Dage gave her an almost incredulous look, then sent his eyes to his oh-so-carefully prepared snack.

"Well... " he pulled an odd face as his gaze went sideways back to her.

"... sure it is."

He reached over to give a give a light finger-tick to an ear tuft.

"It's what makes it good."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

"Ugh!" T'yeellaa recoiled from the contact, pulling down her afflicted ear as if cradling a wound. "Don't get jit on me!"

The trashy movie had been nearly forgotten at this point. Tonight's show was clearly horror. It Came From the Fridge!

[Q. Samus Dage]

He made a face at that, more than a little bit confounded at her reaction.

"Oh come on, it's not as if I'm making you eat it."

His eyes remained on her, and the horror her face displayed. Finally, Dage let out a long sigh. He really did hate to see her giving him the look she was giving him at this particular moment. It didn't happen very often, and in order to keep the peace, the blonde knew it would be best to try and fix this the best he could. And if that meant putting a hold on his enjoyment of his cheese snack, then so be it.

"Would you like me to put it away?"

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

T'yeellaa glowered. No, he was not going to play the martyr. If she told him to pack it up he'd trudge to the fridge and have a hangdog expression on his face for the rest of the night. And she'd be the bad guy.

"No..." she sighed with a puff of breath blowing a strand of hair to the side. "...go on and eat jit."

Wary eyes moved back to the cheese platter and T'yeellaa's nose wrinkled with stoic dread.

"Jusst...brrussh jyourr teeth thrree tjimess when jyou'rre done."