Quantum Entanglement: Howzer and Aurelia

20. Reckoning

The insistent pinging of the datapad on her nightstand finally broke through Aurelia's thick sleep. She blinked blearily, feeling around for it in her morning stupor. Light was streaming through the windows and the sun looked as if it were almost directly overhead. Her head ached, and her stomach felt as though she were nauseated and starving at the same time. She finally found the datapad and brought it in front of her face, squinting to make out the words.

As the information sunk in, she dropped her head back to her pillow, casting the datapad off to the side. Fired. Dishonorably dismissed from the Empire. No chance to return. No recommendations for any future endeavors. It was a complete shock, but the process of thinking felt like attempting to wade through waist-deep mud. Why was she fired? She'd remembered being a good sport about Gowden's stupid dinner idea... and couldn't remember anything after that.

Since she had nowhere to be, she got up, used the refresher, closed the bedroom curtains, and flopped back into bed, falling asleep surprisingly quickly. She had a myriad of scattered dreams... speeder bikes over Coruscant, the foreboding lights of the doonium mine, her father reading poetry to her and her brother around a fire, clones knocking on the bar at 79s.

The knocking persisted, however, as she resurfaced into consciousness. It was still daytime, though the light had a distinctively more golden hue to it now. She trudged through the living room to the door, peeking through the hole in the middle and feeling a quick shock as she saw Howzer. She ran to the refresher, attempting to run water through her short hair to rid it of the undeniable flatness on one side and wild mess on the other. Another knock, and she ran back to the door, wincing at the throbbing it caused behind her eyes.

She hit the button and it slid open, allowing Howzer to stroll in, helmet at his hip as usual. He smiled, and she rubbed an eye with one hand, searching for any excuse for looking the way she did. She was still wearing her clothes from the day before, and her usual edgy fauxhawk was an asymmetrical billboard for the fact that she'd been in bed all day. Embarrassed as she was, she still felt happy to see him.

"Feeling better?" he asked, setting his helmet down and leaning on the counter nearby. "I was starting to think you weren't going to wake up."

She hadn't even looked at the clock, and a quick glance at a nearby appliance caused Aurelia's mouth to drop in shock. It was evening. "What happened?" she asked, turning to venture back to the living room and flopping onto the couch. "I got fired. My head hurts. I'm starving but feel sick. And you're here."

"I'm here," Howzer repeated, following her in and taking a seat on the opposite side of the couch. "And the firing isn't much of a surprise, unfortunately."

"It kind of freaks me out that I can't remember anything past dinner... Weren't we going to go see some cool place you found?"

"Yes... We were... But you decided to ingest a dangerous amount of spice, make out with your boss, get rescued by me, and then confess your raging desire for me." Howzer had clearly been waiting to drop this all on her, and he raised his eyebrows with a smirk as he watched her reaction.

"Wait..." she said, grimacing and clapping her hands to her face. "What?!" She looked up in surprise, as various phrases began to register in her brain. She didn't even know where to begin.

"Yep," he said brightly, folding his hands behind his head. "So I guess I'm just here to satisfy your all-consuming, carnal lust for me."

A hint of his old spark. She laughed at that, still reeling from the sheer weight of it all. It was too much to process to even feel as mortified as she knew she would later. "I do not do spice," she said, turning more serious, "And what the kriff did you say about my boss?"