[Lyseil Panteer]

"Mm," she nodded, knowing that Zanebry had lost people too. He could probably relate well to that feeling.

"Oh? Sure." Unlike earlier when they were still not very familiar with eachother, she might've been more sceptical, but right now, Lyseil completely trusted him. So she placed down the instrument and accepted his hand. "I admit, you got me pretty curious now."

[Zanebry Varliss]

"Well, since we're kind on on the topic, I thought I'd show you that medal, as well as a few other things." He offered in explanation as he led her deeper into the ship, to the door he always pointed out as his.

It slid open with a touch, revealing the interior, bed meticulously made, a desk cleared of nearly everything, except a picture of a young blonde woman, wearing what looked to be one of his jackets. A discerning eye might note she was looking at a datapad across the room. The walls held pictures, some of Z in uniform, alongside other soldiers, though he looked quite young. And others from when he was older, in plain clothes along a Wookie and a Bothan woman.

He didn't explain those as he walked to the desk and opened the drawer, revealing a little over a dozen small containers with various objects inside, a button, a earring, even a lock of hair. Each seemed to be labelled as well with a name and a date. "I suppose it might seem a bit morbid, but this is how I keep track of those I've lost, at least the important ones." Z said as he reached into the back of the drawer and withdrew a rather ornate medal. "Right where Niall said it would be, isnt it?"

[Lyseil Panteer]

Stepping into someone else's room was always an... interesting experience, at least their real rooms, not the barracks at the base or the cramped rooms on the Valiant Star. A room revealed much about a person. So Lyseil did find her attention drawn to the pictures, seeing the people he chose to remember - as well as the points in his life he wanted to remember. The wookie earned a raised eyebrow and a quirk of her lips, as he figured there was probably a story to that one. Well, all of them, really.

"Morbid? Not really," Lyseil's lips predded together briefly before parting in a grin. "Archaelogists are among the few people who get excited over finding skeletons, you know." It was a pretty bad joke, she knew, but it was one she had heard often in the field and she couldn't help but to find it amusing.

She leaned in for a closer look at the medal, then glanced back to the other items in the drawer. "The medal tells a much clearer story than the others. Though I do have the advantage of knowing the story there already. Why do you keep it in a drawer, I wonder? Wouldn't most hang it on the wall or something?"

[Zanebry Varliss]

The joke earned her hand a gentle squeeze and a nudge of her shoulder with his. "Next thing you'll tell me is that you like looking for them in closets." That was a bad joke too, but she probably deserved it.

"Well it's too damn ostentatious for one, it doesn't match the subdued decor of bulkhead and vacuum seals all the well." He joked, trying to avoid the heart of the matter at least for the moment. "But I suppose that's mostly just an excuse, I really just dont think I deserve it. I really didn't do what I did for the people I saved... Well, part of me did, but not the whole thing."

"Then there are the mistakes I made, it caused people their lives... You really shouldn't get a medal for that."

[Lyseil Panteer]

"Maybe?" she said with an almost-innocent smile. Judging by the work she had been doing lately, she might as well start looking for that too. Investigators seemed to be in demand in this place.

"Hmm..." Lyseil paused, pushing her hair back as she thought about her words carefully. "I don't know. Thinking about the jedi you told me about, I think she'd believe you to be worthy of it. You saved a lot of people too, put in all the work to stop that terrible project that could've hurt so many more people." Zanebry could probably feel her hand squeezing his in return now, in a kind of reassuring way. "I think you deserve it."

Lyseil looked at the walls around them. "Though I might agree it clashes a little with the decor." A playful smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

[Zanebry Varliss]

He chuckled at that. "Maybe might be right, at least as long as you keep poking onto mine." She really had only put her foot in the door at this point.

That earned her a smile, and this time he didnt stop himself as he leaned in, in order to steal a kiss from her lips, that is as long as she allowed him. It would last only a moment though, before he slowly pulled away. "Thank you, Lyseil." Zane offered, his eyes drifting towards the floor.

Shutting the drawer, he tugged at her hand. "Maybe if I ever have a proper study I'll put it up then. For now though, should we return to music?"

[Lyseil Panteer]

Lyseil didn't stop him, even if it caught her by surprise at first. Her lips were sweet with taste of lemon and peach from the drink, soft to the touch. As he pulled away, she took a deep breath even as she could still feel the lingering taste of him on her lips...

"Ah, yes... I believe it was your turn to play a piece, but you technically shared something now. Hmm." Her face were tinged with pink as she moved on. Though with Zanebry's gaze lowered, Lyseil saw an open guard and slipped his hat off his head. "Steal a kiss, and I'll steal your hat," she laughed and flipped it in her hand before putting it on.

"How do I look?"

[Zanebry Varliss]

That had been dangerous, and if he hadn't looked down, he just might of tried to steal another. The theft of the hat luckily distracted him, and there was a sly smile on his lips as he looked towards her. "Are you sure you want to make those the rules of engagement, Lyseil? Steal a hat, steal a kiss, or vice versa?"

At the question he stopped to look her over, his smile playful. "I think it makes you looked a bit like a scoundrel, a exceptionally beautiful one, but still a scoundrel." His tone was teasing to match his smile, as they moved back into the common room.

"Perhaps we'll switch off? I'll play while you talk, then repeat it the other way? It wouldn't be quite fair for me to skip a song."

[Lyseil Panteer]

Lyseil placed a finger to her lips in a mischevious pose. "I don't think you'll catch me unawares again, Z." A small part of her wanted to push the boundaries a bit more by blowing him a kiss, but she decided against it. For now. Maybe some other time.

"Well then, if I get tired of being a princess or a doctor, I'll try my hand at being a scoundrel?" she chuckled warmly as they returned to the instruments. "Hm... that sounds like a fair deal, yes-yes. So my turn to tell something, and your turn to play."

Her hand squeezed his once more before letting go of it. As fun as it was to hold hands, he did need it to play the piano. "I didn't say it earlier, by the way, but you play the piano very well."

[Zanebry Varliss]

"I wouldn't underestimate me if I were you. Anyways I might of been referring to the kiss you'll owe me when I steal that hat back." There was laughter behind his eyes as he teased her, though he made no effort to retrieve his hat just yet.

"That's an idea, though I have to warn you the pay isnt always the best." Usually it paid in thank yous and kisses, and things of that nature. At least in his experience. As their hands parted he shot her a warm smile, before moving across the floor.

"I enjoyed your violin as well, I'm almost encouraged to play as an accompaniment later tonight... if you know any pieces that could use a pianist." She likely did, though it never hurt to ask. Settling in his seat, he looked in her direction, waiting for her signal, before he began to play.

[Lyseil Panteer]

"I never understimate anyone," she smirked, "but perhaps I'll just hold on to the hat. Or owe you a kiss at a later time."

Lyseil tipped the hat forward slightly, so it was even more in the style Zanebry would wear it. "I'm sure I can think of a piece that could use an accompaniment." And if they found that chemistry with the instruments too, maybe they could do something like the jizz night for folks at the end of the campaign, but with a live performance instead.

As he began to play, Lyseil listened quietly at first to just enjoy the melody as she sat down again.

"I suppose I could say that my 'smuggling' career started at the Academy. There were a few things the teachers disapproved of us having, as it wasn't considered proper for young ladies. Some of that included some of the glossy women's magazines from Coruscant, and eventually as we got older it was things like alcohol and cigarettes. I didn't care too much about it myself as such, apart from the principle of the matter that it was a rule I thought was unfair. Me, and Rayne, and some of the other girls, we started practising all sorts of tricks to bring these items back to the dormitories. Everytime there was something we wanted to bring with us, we'd start thinking if it was small enough to hide on our person, like say a pack of cigarettes is pretty small so that was never really too much of a challenge," she chuckled and picked up her glass. "Bottles were a bigger challenge. Some we'd manage to strap to our thighs if we were wearing long skirts, and the bottles weren't too big. But for the bigger ones... I can't remember which one of us had the bright idea to customize our purses, and the casings of our instruments like you saw, but it worked remarkably well!"

At that she had to laugh a little. "I remember we were stopped once, all of us carrying an instrument case each as we were heading back just before curfew. We said we'd been too caught up in practising, we forgot the time. And I honestly can't believe how the teacher bought that, and actually started complimenting us on taking our lessons so seriously. Or rather, we thought she bought it. I suspect she knew since she started calling on us all the time in music class to show the results of all our hard work!"

"Goodness, that woman was devious."

[Zanebry Varliss]

That caused a laugh to roll from his lips. "I suppose time will tell." He mused watching her for a few moments as she adjusted the hat, still staring would be rude, and after a few moments he had to turn away. The song required his attention anyways. "Perhaps will try it, a bit later this evening." Getting a better handle on each others skill would help them both if they decided to attempt it.

The music came to a end soon after her story, Z's eyes fully on her again. "I would of never took you for a smoker, Lyseil." Zane replied with a soft chuckle. "Though it seems you've long since kicked the habit." He at least had never caught her with one, and he likely would of by now if she still smoked. Though I think I like this teacher of yours, I think a little deviousness in a instructor is a good thing." You didn't want to make things too cut and dry for the children... There wasn't much fun in that. "Still, I like the ingenuity, we didn't have to go through those kinds of lengths back when I was at school." Though home was something of another story.

"Anything in particular you'd like to hear from me? Or should I surprise you?"

[Lyseil Panteer]

"Oh, goodness no, I don't smoke. Tried it a few times when I was younger, since the cool girls were doing it, but I didn't manage to be cool," she admitted with an honest laugh. "Still, I didn't mind smuggling it in for my friends who did smoke."

Lyseil sipped her drink as she considered what sort of story to ask for, as well as what to play.

"Surprise me, perhaps? You seem to be good at that," she winked as she out down her glass and reached for the instrument. "Maybe I'll surprise a little too."

At least she hoped she did so by choosing a more modern piece, one that she had heard accompanied by a piano before, but a violin often worked well on it's own.

---

https://youtu.be/4azhFOdv_8c

[Zanebry Varliss]

"A fine friend you are then." He paused a few moments thoughtfully when she asked that he surprise her. "I think I'll skip the one where I danced with a Sith Lord, and her girlfriend sent a load of goons after me." That seemed like a tale for an entirely different night. "Perhaps something along the lines of your school days shenanigans?"

Her musical choice did surprise him, and he raised an eyebrow, before giving the younger woman an appreciative nod. "My own school wasn't a private one, so sneaking in booze and cigarettes wasn't a problem, finding someone willing to buy them for you on the other hand... Well that could prove to be a problem, especially when I was younger. Money could also be a problem, especially when like me your allowance was rather pitiful. You found ways to get extra credits though, odd jobs, card games, stupid stunts. things of that nature."

"That last one, ended up with more broken bones then anything." Zane continued with a soft laugh. "Which brings us to the story. On my school yard, there was this old tree, it allowed a fairly skilled climber access to the roof tops; something we occasionally took advantage of to skip classes and smoke a cigarette or something." He had a few bad habits even then. "Well, one day we were up on the roof, and someone got the bright idea to make a bet. You see there was an adjoining building near by, maybe fifteen feet away, and we all figured one of us could leap that gap." He pointed his thumb towards himself. "It was yours truly that volunteered to try, the forty credits offered was a heck of a prize."

"So I took a few steps back, got a good running start, and as you can imagine I didn't make it. We'd underestimated the distance my a good bit, and I ended up going face first into that opposite building." His lips curled into a wry smile. "I was lucky not to break my nose, or anything else for that matter, but I had scrapes and bruises all over. Both from the hit and the landing... That cheap wine I bought with my winnings almost made it worth while though."

[Lyseil Panteer]

Lyseil flashed a grin, "I've been told I'm a dependable friend." A story of a jealous Sith Lord did give him a raised eyebrow, though somehow, she wasn't too surprised that he had entangled himself with something there in his adventures.

Still, it was interesting to listen to what his school days had been like. Quite different from her own, and yet the same in their own ways; it seemed children no matter where they were pushed boundaries. Though the story was drawing her attention, and she had to focus to not forget herself with the instrument at the same time.

It was hard not to laugh at the conclusion of the story. "My word, I'm surprised you didn't seriously injure yourself with that kind of stunt. Seems like children do a lot of silly things though, regardless if it's a private fancy academy, or a public school. I'm sure your parents weren't terribly impressed with your jumping skills either?" Lyseil smirked. It was also a free question to find out more about what his family was like. Or had been like.

"I hope you enjoyed that piece? I at least enjoyed the story."

[Zanebry Varliss]

"I believe those are the very best kind." The type that often as not, got into trouble with you, and a small smile graced his lips as he thought of the pair of then having a few adventures of their own in the future.

"No, not at all." He shook his head. "Well, Father wasn't around to be unimpressed, but Mother was, and she probably would of tanned my hide, if I wasn't all bruises already." That was one thing about his mom, she didn't really feel the need to add bruises on top of bruises. "I was grounded for a few weeks though, which was bad enough for me at least at the time."

He pursed his lips. "Though I suppose half of that time, was because I tried to lie to her at first, and tell her I fell down the stairs... I really didn't have much of a silver tongue back then." As the topic turned back to music, he smiled once more in her direction. "It was quite nice, and not entirely what I was expecting. Though I suppose I should be expecting surprises out of you at this point."

His hand came up, finger tapping against his lip for a moment. "Though at some points, it seemed like it could really use some accompaniment."

[Lyseil Panteer]

She chuckled, imagening what it must've sounded like with his mother yelling at him and keeping him grounded for weeks. She wasn't sure what to think if the bruising though, but figured he was probably exaggerating the details.

"Exepcted something more classical?" she mused. "Hmmm... yes, it's originally a piece that's accompanied by piano. That violinist, she was rather famous back home when I was younger, but she had many original works that were accompanied by piano, or modern beats. I listened to it quite a lot when I was learning to play, since I enjoyed a lot of her work more than the classical pieces."

Turning the bow in her hands, she picked up her glass of Envy and finished it. "So, was it a suggestion for playing something together, or did you want to hear something else about me? I feel I'm more of an open book with only a few pages filled in, compared to you."

[Zanebry Varliss]

It probably was, but then a little embellishment never hurt a story, well so long as it never carried it over the top.

"I thought that was likely how you were trained, classicly that is. Though It makes sense that you grivated towards something more modern and catchy." It seemed to fit her personality a little better.

"It was more something I noticed, listen to enough music and you can tell when a bit is missing." His own drink was finished as he studied her for a few moments. "It wasnt a lie when I said you can tell a bit about someone from hearing them play, and that goes double for playing together. If you're ready to put questions and stories on hold, I would like to see how we mesh together."

"If we're better together then apart?" He shook his head a amused smile painting itself onto his lips. "Though if you want to try one of those modern pieces together, you'll need to help me learn it."

[Lyseil Panteer]

"Mm," she nodded, "most of my training was focused on the more classical works, yes-yes."

It was all the expectations of being able to know the classics, after all. Not that she minded them as there were many beautiful pieces there too, but she did enjoy the variety.

Lyseil looked up briefly in thought, before lowering her gaze back to Zanebry. "Really? Hmm... I admit you have the upper hand then, as I don't think I've been able to analyze you based on the way you play. Maybe a duet will make me think differently. Though, I'm fine with going for a piece we both know then. I can always give you a copy of these more modern ones for another time...?"

[Zanebry Varliss]

"You said it yourself, you're a bit of a open book, where as I've had enough people call me mysterious the last few months to know it's likely not just imagination." Perhaps he was pushing things a bit too fast. "I suppose I should leave the decision in your hands though, I'll even play a piece while you think it over."

His eyes moved towards their empty glasses. "Perhaps you can mix us a pair of drinks while you think? I'd like to see what you believe suites my tastes." He let his fingers settle on the keys at that, as he changed up what he had been playing as well deciding something a bit more playful was in order. "Think of it as your contribution instead of a story.

[Lyseil Panteer]

Lyseil gave a small nod, "alright. That sounds fair." She eyed the glasses, knowing she probably should not get wasted so early in the evening, but... one more drink couldn't hurt.

"Oh, aren't you afraid I'll poison you?" she chuckled and moved towards the bar. Sabine had been quite the chatterbox after they started bunking together, and had dropped that particular tidbit about Z and sugar. The playful mood of the piano made her smile, and she started to think about what sort of drink she could mix that she knew she could manage easy enough.

And that wasn't too sweet for her host.

"Never cared much for sweet, or is it a recent thing?" Maybe I should stick to one of the classics? she wondered as she eyed the bottle of vermouth.

[Zanebry Varliss]

That brought a light laugh from his lips. "No, I'm not afraid of that, though I was hoping you would notice I was drinking a dry martini. So maybe I exaggerated a little" His lips curled into a playful smile. "I think I'd have more to worry about from, Niall anyways. Does he even know how to measure?" He teased.

"It comes from when I was young, Mother believed in a balanced diet, and sweets very seldomly were a part of it." There weren't very many things in the way of cakes and pies in his home. "So I just never really developed a taste for sweets. Though I dont mind it from time to time."

[Lyseil Panteer]

"Heh, I just saw it was a martini glass with what looked like lemon in it, so I figured it was a Lemondrop?" she looked over her shoulder at him briefly before turning back to the bar and settled on mixing a vodka martini. Stirred this time. It was another one that she felt was easy to make, without too many pitfalls - and it was a classic!

Listening to his childhood, Lyseil couldn't help but to chuckle. "My, my, you make it sound like I in comparison gorged on sweets every day. It's not like I had ice cream, cake, and pie available all the time - my parents were rather strict with us when we were younger. So for me, having something sweet is a special treat... which I admit I indulge in more now that I'm an adult and don't have people telling me not to eat it," her warm voice was tinged with amusement. "I suppose I have a weakness for sweets."

While stirring the drinks, Lyseil looked back to Zanebry. "...Did you have anything in mind for a piece to play together?"

[Zanebry Varliss]

"Dry martini, no olives with a twist of lemon. Though I suppose I can understand the mistake." There were lemons in lemondrops after all. As the song ended he tainted to watch her work, taking a few moments to try to guess what she was making, before turning back to the instrument.

"I'll remember that should I ever need to bribe you." Zane returned with a soft chuckle. "Treats for me were mostly fruit though, desserts were saved for major holidays." And then only in moderation. "I suppose we have that in common though, strict parents."

He paused thoughtfully at the question. "Something classic, and maybe a bit playful. I'm fairly open to suggestions though. It's been years since I've had the chance to play alongside a viloin."

((I'll look when I get the chance, work interfering at the moment though.))

[Lyseil Panteer]

"Ahh... I see now," Lyseil nodded. "My bad then about the drink choice. Though I give Niall full responsibility for the measurements." A soft chuckle as she finished stirring. "He was telling me how when he was a junior officer, he'd be the one who had to mix the drinks for his superiors - and he admitted her used to be pretty generous back then with the ingredients - saying the officers usually got more than their two drinks limit from one drink made by him."

Picking up the martini glasses, Lyseil turned around and presented a pair of stirred vodka martinis. "I hope this will be fine?" she smirked as she offered one of them to Zanebry.

"Hmm... Spring Sonata I. Allegro was written for violin and piano to work together?"