Stuck With Me: A Cad Bane Novel

Chapter 31

Warnings: canon typical stuff, kinda shit dialogue ngl

Word count: 1.3k

You snuggle into Cad's cool embrace, your head resting against his bare chest as the two of you lean against the wall beside the bed, the blanket tucked around both of your shoulders. Closing your eyes, you let a smile play over your lips at the feel of his slender fingers stroking up and down your skin, and you curl your arms around his slim waist. Burying your face between his firm pectorals, you breathe in his scent and etch the sound of his deep chuckle into your mind as he threads his fingers into your hair, pressing his lips to your forehead; with a yawn, you snuggle into his side, and his chest rattles, quiet, content, protective. You rest your hand over where the sound came from, and he covers your fingers with his.

'Ya alright there, izrin?'
You nod, turning your head to trace your lips down his collarbone. 'Yeah, I - I feel safe with you, Cad.'
He's quiet for a moment before he speaks. 'I don't - I don't think anyone's ever told me that before.'
You grin up at him. 'Well, now someone has.'

Gripping your chin between his thumb and index finger, he tilts your face up and kisses you, a sweet, soft kiss, but still inherently him, still a little bit too hungry to be wholly innocent, still not quite modest when his teeth grazing your bottom lip. You smirk against his mouth, and he chuckles into yours, his fingers coming up to caress your cheek. Eventually, you break apart, and when you look up into his eyes, they're a little brighter than normal.

'My fullua,' he murmurs softly, more to himself than to you. 'Izrin. Beautiful.'

You jolt upright and find yourself still lying prostrate on the concrete floor. Slowly, it comes back to you, and you sit up, devoid of the hopelessness that you fell asleep with. Maybe it's because of the surfacing of one of your favourite memories with Cad in your dream, but you feel defiance rise up in you when the Gamorrean at the door - a different one from the one before - switches off the forcefield and points his axe at you.

'The Great Jabba wants to see you,' he says. 'You will come with me with compliance or you will be forced.'
'Pleasant fellow,' you mutter to yourself, but stand up and brush yourself off. 'I guess I don't have a choice, then.'

Sighing, you hold out your hands, and the Gamorrean guard slips cuffs onto your wrists; not modern ones, you notice, but old, iron ones with a chain attached so he can drag you along if he needs. As he leads you through narrow, damp tunnels to what you assume will be the throne room, you think about his words. The Great Jabba, he'd said. Interesting, to say the least. You know now that Jabba must have been part of the sabotaging of your hunt, but you're not sure if Ziro actually lost his jewels or if Jabba faked that too. Ahead, you can see that Jabba's throne room is full of bounty hunters and lesser crime lords, and you find yourself scanning for a familiar hat. Before you can complete your search, you're shoved into the light and find yourself staring up at Jabba, his wide mouth stretched into a drool drenched grin as you squint up at him.

'The Great Jabba demands the room is cleared,' the droid by his side announces, and you watch as any potential allies filter out of the room like dirty water down the drain.
The Hutt's eyes glint with malice as he speaks, the droid waiting a beat before translating. 'Welcome to Tatooine, changeling.'
You sneer. 'How did you find me, slug?'
He makes a face. 'How could I not, since you are all the Kanji can brag about recently as they try to recover the pride you took from them.' As he talks, he gestures grandly, his fingers like oily market sausages. 'Now, you must want to know why you are here. I have a job for you, changeling, and it will pay more than triple what the Kanji paid you - if you agree.'
You huff. 'I don't see why I had to be kidnapped first.'
Jabba chuckles, and the Kowakian Monkey Lizard by his side echoes the sound. 'Well, judging by your past, schutta, you won't want to agree to it. My best Twi'lek dancers have been stolen by pirates, and I want them back, but I want it kept on the low.'
'And if I don't?' You snarl.
He smiles, baring his gums at you, and it chills you to the bone. 'Then we kill your little Duros friend, Cad Bane.'

You'd like to say that you didn't believe him for a moment, but for a second, just a second, you suddenly feared that Cad was down in the dungeons, being tased every time he tries to escape, his pained cries silenced before they can reach your ears. But then you remember Hutt politics, and you drop that thought before it hurts you. Cad works for the Hutts one job out of three, and there's no way Jabba would be allowed to jeopardise a partnership with a hunter like him for a display of power over the Kanji. Raising an eyebrow, you glare up at Jabba.

'You're going to have to find better leverage than that, slug. Bluffing doesn't work on me.'

Jabba snarls, spitting out something in Huttese while pointing to the door, and the Gamorrean guard behind you yanks on the chain attached to your cuffs and drags you away. You assume that you're being taken back to your cell, so you slow your pace a little, dragging your feet until you're out of the guard's line of sight. Now you know that escaping out of the cell is futile, you need a way to get out of the cuffs before you end up behind that damned orange force field again.

Mind racing, you try to imagine what Cad would do. Get rid of the guard, or get out of the cuffs? Or both, but which first? Strangle the guard with the chain - no, too risky, since he holds the other end and is armed... Get rid of the restraints first, then, and then use your helpful Shi'ido heritage to stop the guard raising the alarm. So, how to get out of the cuffs? Try to trick the guard into letting you out, break them, or slip out of them? You need the quietest option, so you choose the last.

Swiftly, you shift into a Dianoga, sliding the cuffs off your front two tentacles and staggering backward, feeling as if you're suffocating due to the lack of water around you. Gasping for air, you shift into your Trandoshan form, yanking on the chain that the oblivious Gamorrean still holds, dragging him towards you and smashing his head against the wall. You wince at the thud the resounds through the air, catching the guard before he crashes to the floor and gently lowering him down, ensuring he makes no sound.

You're not sure what you're doing, but you play it by ear, retracing your steps and pausing just out of sight of the guards stationed beside Jabba's throne room. The guards won't be a problem, but you know that if you enter in the form of an animal or anything that seems too subtle or too out of place, the Kowakian Monkey Lizard will spot you and warn Jabba.

A grunt sounds from around the corner, and you freeze, holding your breath. Faintly, you can hear the drip drip drip of water off the ceiling of the cells; you can hear voices from the throne room. Honing in on the muffled noises, you cock your head, trying to make out words. It's as if you're underwater, everything is quieter and harder to distinguish, dampened by the roaring of your nervous blood in your ears, but you catch one thing of importance: a name of a ship, and that it's landing.

And that ship's name is the Justifier.

It's then that inspiration hits you.