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"I think that we should consider it." You say, skipping another rock across the lake.
"You would have us become bounty hunters? May I remind you that both of us actually have bounties and are actively being hunted." Maul rests on the stoop of your shared ship and you can feel him watching you. It's not easy to ingnore persay, but you've gotten so used to feeling his eyes on you that it would honestly be more concerning if he wasn't looking at you. You search for another flat stone on the beach.
"We're both skilled at using the force to cloak our presence and don't have chain codes. Besides each time they do find us we deal with them." You brush off his concerns with ease.
"We do not 'deal with them.' You run away. It would be far more effective to elimate the threat all together." He huffs.
"That's too short term of a solution. Needless deaths will just drive up our bounties and send even more people after us. Lying low is better." Your reprimand is met with another sigh.
"And collecting bounties won't raise the price on our heads? If I didn't know you better, I would say you were just looking for a reason to get into a fight." He moves to stand and you hear the crunch of the pebbled shore beneath his feet as he approches you.
"I don't need someone to fight. I fight with you plenty. It just a better way of getting us credits."
It was easy enough to launder the new Galatic Empire's credits through a few tweaks at any automated banking structure, but transactions like that left a trail. It wouldn't hurt to have a way to make honest money. Well, as honest as blood money could be.
Spotting a smooth stone you reach down to grab it, only for Maul's gloved hand to take it before you could. It forces you to look up at him. His brow was furrowed and his mouth downturned; a typical look of his. You didn't think that you'd ever seen the Zabrak have a pleasant expression on his face.
He was searching for something—he was always searching for something when he looked at you like this—but this time you couldn't figure what it was. You also didnt care enough to peer into his mind to try and figure out. Instead you stood and stuck your hand out to him.
"My rock, please." At your ask, Maul rolls his eyes and turns towards the lake. He throws the stone quite harshly and it's a miracle it doesn't immediately sink. In fact it skips suspiciously far.
"So then, we are to be thugs for hire. How very un-Jedi like of you." His words come out in that drawling tone that he uses specifically to annoy you. It was a shame really. He had a great voice, he was just never saying anything that was worth listening to. You completely ignore his taunting.
"Did you use the Force to skip your stone further?"
Maul was someone who had spent years controlling every part of his nervous system. Even when fighting for his life he was in control of every aspect about himself. Yet now, for the briefest moment you watch him falter. You couldn't help but laugh at the silent confirmation.
"Wait! Maul, come back!" You hide your raucous grin behind a hand as you follow after him. "Do you not know how?"
"My master made little time for me to indulge in such childish nonsense, which is to say there was no time for it at all." He hissed, not looking back at you while he stalked off to the ship. It was your turn to roll your eyes.
"Just say no next time." You grab at his sleeve and tug him back towards you. It does little in terms of quelling his anger but he does stop walking. "I'll teach you."
Your offer is sincere and perhaps it's that sincerity mixed with the fact that you know something that he doesn't that causes him to lash out the way he does.
The smell of ozone is nearly unfamiliar to you but the heat of the blade pointed at your chest is more than enough to realize what's happening. A light saber like his in close quarters seems like a bad idea for both parties, but Maul does not show any hesitation in his threat.
"I see." You say, the words stick to your throat and have to be pulled from your mouth as you're forced to remember just who you've partnered yourself with. You won't apologize—there's nothing to apologize for besides maybe a poor sense of judgement on your part—but you do feel a sort of embarrassment. Like somehow you've over stepped an unspoken boundary. Your hand slides off of his robes. He does not lower his blade.
"Are you going to release me?" Narrowing your eyes at him you don't even attempt to reach for your own light saber. You keep it tucked away in the ship for safe keeping, too afraid of losing it now. Maul had scoffed at you for doing so and in this one moment you were inclined to agree with him.
"No. In fact," he tugs you closer to him, adjusting the sword just so that the heat of it nearly becomes unbearable, "I think that if we're going to be forced to hunt for a living, that you should get some practice in."
With no warning, he shoves you back with the Force and you stumble onto the shore. A second later your light saber is chucked at your feet. You ignite it just quick enough to stop his downward strike.
You slide a leg underneath his own and while you know you cannot topple him like this, you can at least try to offset his balance briefly. It works and you take the opening to roll away from him and stand up into a readied position.
"I should have expected you to cheat." Maul is unaffected by the insult. His grin is vicious and you feel yourself, not for the first time by any means, unsettled by the Zabrak. He couldn't actually mean to kill you, could he? However, relying on anything with him other than his ongoing conquest for revenge was a stupid idea.
You had fought before of course, there was hardly avoiding it with the war. But it had been months since you had to rely on anything but your wits, a blaster, and perhaps if you were feeling especially centered that day, a guiding hand from the Force. The practice was certainly needed but with Maul as your partner? A sinking feeling dragged your heart into your stomach.
"When defeat is conceived in their mind, your opponent has already lost." He lunges at you while delivering a lecture at the same time. Lovely, if he was as adept at giving unhelpful advice as he was with his weapon you actually might die here.
You barely manage to get your saber in front of you to block his oncoming blow. It feels like there's an electric current coursing through your body as you try to keep up with each of his attacks. Your mind is too clouded to focus on the Force, to ask it for any help.
Maul, of course, was yet to show even a slight sign of exertion. In fact, when you swing at him in a wide arc he has the audacity to grab at your wrist and pull you down towards the ground. He tsks, positioning himself above you all too easily. If you hadn't been so scared, you maybe would have been able to feel embarrassed for being overwhelmed so easily. Instead you were trying to make sure his blade didn't sever your head from your body.
"Look at the state of you." He sighs, parrying another attack from you with ease. "And you wanted to be a hunter. Pitiful."
He drops down, his knees on either side of your hips, and leans his full weight onto you now. Your own lightsaber cuts into the bottom side of you jaw and you yelp, trying to squirm away from it to no avail.
"What now? Come on. Figure it out." His words are so soothing it makes you sick when you hear the undertone of glee beneath each one. This is possibly the most content you'd see him and it was just about when he was going to kill you. One of your hands scrambles against the rocky beach looking for something to grab.
Finding something that feels heavy enough, you reach up and slam it into the side of his head as hard as you can. It hits one of his horns but does the job well enough as he hisses and is thrown off balance once more by you. Using the momentum of the moment, you push him to the ground and scramble to be on top of him. Effectively flipping your pervious position.
Slamming your blade down near the junction where his neck and torso met, Maul stops you only just. He doesn't seem phased by the pain or the new arrangement unfortunately and you can feel the opposite end of his lightsaber inch closer towards your thigh. In doing so he'd hurt himself too, but it was obvious he didn't care what damage he did to himself as long as you went down with him.
Recklessly, you flip the ignition key off of your weapon. You press the still warm handle directly to his neck and feel your heart trying to escape from your throat. Neither of you could move without the other killing each other. Maul's grin returned.
"How…dishonorable." It was true. To shut off your blade in order to get closer to your opponent was frowned upon in both Jedi and Sith teachings.
"I hardly think honor matters when someone is attempting to kill you." You try to even out your breathing, thankful that your voice doesn't waver as you speak. "Besides you attacked me without my former knowledge. It was never going to be a fair fight."
He concedes at this at least and shuts off his own blade. You don't relax, keeping the hilt of your lightsaber on his throat. Maul pays little mind to this, his hands coming to rest atop your hips. It's an act of familiarity that has your stomach turning.
"How can you even use that thing?" You ask.
"It is a weapon that is as dangerous to it's opponents as it is to its user." He replies proudly. "Would you like me to teach you how to use it?"
His choice of words does not go unnoticed by you and the gleam in his eye reminds you that before anything else, Maul is a bastard. Before you can think better of it, you lean down and bite his neck. Hard.
The taste of copper explodes in your mouth as his blood leaks out of the sides of your lips. He scruffs the back of your neck and yanks you back, hissing between gritted teeth. Those yellow eyes fix you with a glare that might paralyze others with fear, rightfully so. Instead, you lick the corners of your mouth and don't miss how his gaze follows the movement.
"Just returning the favor." You mumble, sneaking your hand up to trace the edges of the bite now. You have no problem prodding at the tender flesh and when Maul groans at the sensation, you want nothing more than to deepen the wound.
His hand sneaks up to your lips and you part them enough for him to slip two fingers inside. You can feel him move over every ridge of your teeth and you have half a mind to bite him right there. He pulls away before you can give into the urge.
"Are we even now, hut'uun?"
"Hardly."
Something darkens in Maul's gaze as he looks up at you.
"Good."