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Aketho leaned back in his chair, rubbing the bridge of his nose. No matter how many times he looked over the file, he couldn’t see anything he might have missed. This was his fifth passover of the information, and the words were starting to blur together. He set the holopad down and sighed. He’d have to think of another way to track the target down--perhaps he could contact Ardun and see if the SIS had any information on them. The target was not Republic-affiliated, so he hoped it wouldn’t be too much of a problem for the old Jedi.
He was just about to make the call when he heard the footsteps of someone in heavy boots approaching from behind. He paused and turned his head just enough to let whoever it was know he heard them.
“Agent, you got a moment? I’ve got a question for you,” Kaliyo said as she sauntered up to his desk, leaning against the wall with her shoulder.
The Chiss sighed and looked up at her with wary red eyes. She had that mischievous tone in her voice, which meant one of two things: one, she was about to ask Aketho for a favor he’d probably regret later, or two, she found fodder to tease him with.
“What is it, Kaliyo?” Aketho asked, resigned to whatever fate the Rattataki had in store for him.
“It’s about that Republic spy--Shan, was it?--that you teamed up with on Manaan,” the anarchist replied with a gleam in her pale eyes.
He mentally sighed--teasing it was then.
“What about him?” he prompted when she didn’t continue, keeping his face and voice neutral.
She crossed her arms and nonchalantly asked, “He’s rather handsome, wouldn’t you say?”
The agent raised a dark eyebrow at her.
“What? You disagree?” Kailyo asked as a smirk crept across her painted lips.
Aketho sighed audibly this time, which only made her smirk worse. “I agree; he is very handsome,” he said, picking the holopad back up to make himself look busy, “Why do you ask? Looking to upgrade your spy boy?”
“Nah, all those Republic rules and shit, no thanks--plus, I’m fairly sure I’d break the poor bastard before I could have any sort of fun with him,” Kailyo replied with a snicker, “And I wouldn’t want to get on your bad side by doing so.”
“Kaliyo,” Aketho chuckled softly, shaking his head. He looked back at her with a small smile. “I’ve told you before that you’re free to leave whenever you want. I’m not about to try and chain you down to this team.”
“As if you could in the first place,” she snorted, rolling her eyes as if annoyed, but Aketho could see the smallest of grins on her lips. “Anyways, that’s not what I meant.”
“Fair enough. What did you mean, then?” he asked, leaning back and crossing his arms.
“What I meant was you being pissed at me for trying to steal your boy toy,” she said; that mischievous tone was back in full force.
Aketho couldn’t stop the soft blush from blooming across his cheeks even if he tried. “He is hardly my boy toy, Kaliyo,” he snorted, “Sure, I’ve been flirting with him, but...”
“Flirting? Please, you’ve been eye fucking him from the moment you met him,” Kaliyo replied, bearing her teeth in a wicked grin.
Aketho really wished his face didn’t suddenly feel like it was under the heat of Tatooine’s twin suns. He could just hear his older sister now, teasing him relentlessly about how adorable she thought he looked when he blushed. His father would be disappointed, though--the story of his life--for not keeping better control of his expression. Not that it should matter in front of his crew on his own damn starship. He very much wanted to roll his eyes at the thought. Thankfully, he was able to keep from doing so--no need to give Kaliyo the wrong idea.
Still, he could only imagine how he looked at that moment.
“Kaliyo, really? You weren’t even there on Manaan; how do you know what I was or was not doing with my eyes?” the Chiss sighed, exasperated. He had an inkling how she found out…not that she was right, of course. It was just flirting with the extremely handsome SIS agent--there was no eye fucking to be had…uh huh.
“I didn’t need to be there to know--especially not with that blush of yours. It’s a lovely shade on you, by the way,” she cackled, looking as pleased as a nexu with a fresh meal. Pushing off the wall, she patted him on the back as she passed. “Just wanted to confirm a rumor. Thank you, Agent. I’ll be seeing you around.”
Aketho cursed at her in Cheunh as she slid out the door, laughing that laugh of her’s. Tossing the holopad back on his desk, he leaned on the arm of his chair and buried his face in his hand. Letting out a frustrated groan, he took a deep breath and slowly released it. If he was lucky, the anarchist got her licks in and would leave him be.
He highly doubted it, but one could hope.
Peeking up at the holopad on his desk, Aketho groaned again and buried his face back in his hand. He seriously needed a break…and maybe a good drink. A vacation would be better, but he wouldn’t hold his breath in getting one any time soon. With a soft grunt, the agent pushed himself up from his chair to, at the very least, get a drink.
One Corellian whiskey and a holocall to Ardun later, Aketho was at the terminal in the common area, pulling up the file the former Jedi sent him. He shook his head and snorted. It figured his target was involved with the Shroud. That man was an irritating thorn in his side…and somehow worse than Hunter--Aketho didn’t even think that was possible. But then the Shroud did like to boast he was better than everyone else--apparently, that included being irritating. At least he didn’t have a strange obsession with him and tried to ‘flirt’ while using his conditioning.
Aketho physically shuddered at the last thought.
A few more minutes passed before someone else entered the common area.
“Kthira'keth'omi?”
The Chiss couldn’t help but smile at the sound of his full name--it was rare to hear outside the Ascendancy. Turning around, he looked at his Joiner crew mate with a grin.
“Your pronunciation has improved, Vector,” he complimented.
“Thank you, Agent. Ms. Temple has been helping us with it,” Vector said with a thankful smile. That smile waned with his following sentence. “We feel we need to apologize to you.”
“Apologize? For what?” Aketho asked, furrowing his brow in confusion as he tried to think of a reason the former diplomat needed to apologize.
“Kaliyo,” the Joiner said by way of explanation. “We discussed our observation of you and Agent Shan with her…we did not think it would cause a problem, but apparently, we were wrong.”
Aketho rubbed his forehead and sighed. So, his inkling was correct. Vector was the only person he brought with him on Manaan…
“Aketho, we… I’m-”
“It’s alright, Vector,” the Chiss cut him off, chuckling softly, “Don’t worry about it. I can handle Kaliyo’s teasing--I’m sure it will be no worse than it was with Cytharat…” He trailed off when the Joiner got a peculiar look on his face. “Why do I have a feeling that may not be the case?”
Vector cleared his throat and shifted on his feet. “This observation with Agent Shan was very different from the one we had with Lord Cytharat…”
Aketho was almost hesitant to ask. “How so?”
“When you were with Lord Cytharat, we observed your aura brighten and begin to sing sweetly--indication you were happy during your time with him,” the former diplomat explained, “With Agent Shan, we saw something very different…truthfully, Aketho, we’ve never seen your aura react to anyone in such a way before. Both of your auras’ sang in harmonious union, and they danced with colors of passion and joy. At least when you were near each other, they only diminished slightly when you were apart...”
The agent stared at Vector, wide-eyed and blushing madly--he was also reasonably sure his heart was trying to escape his chest at that moment with how hard it was beating. It took the Chiss several long moments to find the words to respond to such a statement. Aketho cleared his throat as he looked away. “Well…if that’s what you told Kaliyo, I can understand her choice of words now…”
“Agent…”
“It’s alright, Vector. Thank you for telling me,” Aketho said, looking back at the Joiner. He gave him a soft smile even as his mind reeled with the information. “I’ll just need some time to think about what you said…at least it was only Kalyio…”
The sudden, sheepish look Vector gave him made Aketho sigh in resignation.
“Who else?” he asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“Ms. Temple was there as well…”
“Lovely,” Aketho said, shaking his head. “At least that explains the glances I’ve been getting from her…I was worried she was plotting another blind date--which reminds me, I need to talk to her about that...”
Vector cleared his throat. “Again, we apologize, Agent…and we know we do not have to tell you to use caution, but…”
“Please still fuck that spy boy into a mattress,” Kaliyo cackled as she entered the room.
Aketho was torn between being annoyed with the Rattataki or correcting her on who would be the one being fucked into a mattress. Instead, he decided to focus on the small device the woman had in her hand and spare Vector from further blushing.
“Kaliyo, what do you have there?” he asked, nodding at the device.
“Found it doing that sweep you asked me to do,” she replied, tossing it over to him.
Looking at the device, Aketho moved toward the conference room. He recognized what it was, and if he was lucky, he could trace it back to its source.
“What is it?” Vector asked as he followed.
“A homing beacon,” he replied, setting it down on the console as he triangulated the sent data. “Someone is tracking us.”
“Can we find out who?” the former diplomat queried.
“Not directly, a homing beacon sends a broadcast, not a direct signal,” Aketho explained, “But I can use the transceivers picking up the beacon’s signal to triangulate the origin of the person collecting the beacon’s data…there!”
He pulled up the planet on the small holo projector.
“We don’t believe we have ever heard of this planet,” Vector stated, tilting his head.
“Rishi?” Kaliyo spoke up, stepping closer to the projector. “I know it. It's a backwater planet full of pirates and all that. Never been, though.”
Aketho couldn’t help but grin when she said backwater planet, thinking back to his last conversation with the Sith lord and Republic spy.
“Lana, when you’re done, we can start picking out backwaters to go lie low in.”
“Well, Kaliyo, it’s your lucky day then,” he said, “It looks like we’re going to Rishi. Set a course for the planet.”
“Yes sir, captain sir!” the anarchist said with a mock salute before heading toward the cockpit, Vector following close behind.
Aketho rolled his eyes at that before looking back at the holo, his grin turning into a soft smile. “How very coy of you, Theron,” he murmured, “There are easier ways to get my attention.”
He stepped away and moved to get his gear pulled together, pausing briefly at the door to add…
“…See you soon.”