The smells of dozens of different foods drifted before him. Delicacies from a thousand worlds, for a number of different tastes and textures. Some smells were sweet and delicate to intrigue him and caused his stomach to growl. This was tempered however by the pungent stench that arose from the rotting meat preferred by other races. He looked carefully at a platter of uncooked wampa rats and swore he could SEE the stench rising from the grotesque platter. Jersh wandered around the crowded mess hall, but although it was crowded it was still clean and well organized.

‘Like any other Imperial Facility’ Jersh thought to himself and allowed a sarcastic smile to cross his face as he looked along the different meals being served. Almost as if it were a buffet, he saw people wandering from station to station with a standard plate and creating a collage of their favorite foods. With a sigh Jersh reached to take a plate, pulling back just before he burned his hand on the overheated plate. With a sigh at malfunctioning machinery, he got a dish and utensils from another station and pilled it with what appeared to be some sort of rice and noodles he did not recognize.

He sat down at a far table, preferring to sit alone and enjoy this meal of ‘Lo Mein’.... he wondered what planet it originated from. There were vegetables mixed in with pan fried noodles and bit of beef. It smelled delicious..... well.... he imagined anything would when compared to rancid meat. With a sigh he took a small bite of the food and raised his eyebrows, it was better than he thought it could have been. This was his first meal in the mess hall since joining...... and it was his first non-instant meal in many....many years.

Jersh looked on in awe as he watched her devour her salad. Apparently she had been starving herself again to the brink of death. Jersh sighed and then his look softened as he continued to watch her eat, ignoring his meal for the time being. She seemed to notice he had stopped eating, or that she was being gazed at so intently. As Jersh’s eyes stared at her, some emotion that neither of them were used to flickered in his eyes. A blush fell over Saphira’s cheeks and her lekku twitched slightly. She had seen men look at her in that way before.... but.... it was different than those. “W-what?” She finally asked, wondering just why her eating a salad was so interesting.

“Oh, nothing, nothing my dear” He said with that smile of his that seemed to turn a simple question into an enigma. Saphira silently cursed his as he did not answer her question. She knew he enjoyed confusing her, he had always said that she looked ‘cute’ when she was confused. Thinking that thought again made her lekku twitch in irritation, she would get Jersh back when they were alone.

“I told you not to call me that” She finally huffed and took another bite of her salad, her eyes sweeping the room incase someone had heard them. The others were all too busy with their own meals however and did not even pay attention. As she was looking around she felt something touch her lips and whipped around to see Jersh’s finger retreating. A little bit of dressing was on his finger and he smiled at her evilly.

“You missed a little” He whispered and sucked on his finger, tasting the dressing of the salad. “Hmmmm...... a tad sweet......and the dressing is not bad either” he said quietly so only Saphira could hear. She almost rolled her eyes at that overused line, but somehow..... it made her happy that Jersh cared for her so much. She refused to let Jersh see that however and just growled at him for doing such a thing while surrounded by people.

Jersh finished his food slowly and ended about the same time that Saphira finished her salad. He leaned back sighed, glad that his hunger was sated for now. He raised his eyebrow quizzically at Saphira and he received and shrug in return. “What should we do now M’Lady?” He said, wondering how she would respond to this new pet name.

A chair came sliding towards Jersh and he almost fell over the projectile in his path. He tossed the plates into the air as the chair collided with the back of his shin and caused the leg to buckle. He placed his hand upon the chair and pushed up into a quick once-armed handstand, his back arching to complete a forward flip over the now stationary chair. His hands whipped up in front of him to catch the tray once more, the dishes rattling loudly, but somehow they had remained on the tray unbroken as well.

A chorus of stares greeted him when he finally managed to straighten himself and he looked over at a bald-headed human with his foot stretched out at the precise angle the chair had hit him from. Jersh set the trays down in the recycled area and walked over to him, the entire hall in silence. “Nice try” Jersh congratulated the burly man before his reverse roundhouse kick dug his heel in the man’s cheek. He heard the satisfying crack of bone as the man spun over the surface of the table to land in a heap atop the table, which groaned over his weight then finally collapsed under him as well.

Jersh walked over to Saphira, who stood at the Mess Hall doors with a slightly amused look on her face. He could tell that she had enjoyed the whole scene as much as he had enjoyed receiving some of the stress that he had been building up from all his studying lately. Only after they left the hall could he hear an uproar coming from behind the closed doors as Jersh walked along side-by-side with Saphira.

“You are going to get it from Doc now Jersh” Saphira remarked with amusement, she found it funny they were just having a talk about getting into trouble when the incident happened. She looked around and noticed there was no one else wandering the hall and edged a little closer to him.

“It was clearly self-defense” Jersh replied, a chuckle escaping his lips as he thought about the damage the man’s jaw must have suffered. Even more so, the man’s ego must have been shattered just like the bones. He smiled at that thought, perhaps it would teach the idiot some humility. He wondered how fast it would take the news to reach Doc that he had injured a fellow trooper. He also wondered just what shape the story would have been perverted into as well. He was not afraid of punishment, he was in the right and he knew it. He would tell Doc to give both him and the accuser a truth serum and question them if it came down to that. He would never back down to being intimidated by any being.

He sighed and cracked his knuckles, looking over at Saphira and realizing that she was taking the lead. Jersh raised his eyebrow and wondered where she was leading him to.

Jersh pondered where Saphira was leading him until they came to what was as close to a spa as the facility would ever see. As soon as he entered the thick steam of the entry room his headache eased slightly as his muscles began to untense. He moved a little closer to Saphira and ran his fingers over her dampened lekku, sending shivers down her spine and causing a slight moan to of pleasure to escape her lips.

She leaned in to kiss him deeply and shrugged off her clothes to reveal a very revealing bathing suit. He raised his eyebrows wide in surprise that she had planned this from the very start. He gave her a subtle wink and slipped away from her to the pubic lockers to find a pair of shorts he could wear and put them on as quickly as he could manage. He stripped off his wet shirt and threw it into the pile of dirty clothes before grabbing a couple towels and walking back into the room with Saphira. He threw her a towel which she caught with a grin on her face.

“Lets go into the steam room first” Saphira whispered to him, grabbing him and throwing him into the sauna and throwing him inside before closing the door behind them to keep the steam trapped inside. Jersh could feel the warmth already causing him to sweat as he sat down on the old-fashioned wooden paneling. Saphira smiled and came over and sat down on his lap, resting her back against his chest. He could feel her fingers tracing his scars, this seemed to be something that she enjoyed greatly. He ran his hands along her back and massaged her muscles, wondering if they were as sore as his were. He had never experienced a massage before...he had never trusted anyone to get that close to him.

He hoped that he was not doing a horrible job, but he attempted to massage her shoulders a little more. He wondered what else his ‘dear’ had planned for today.

“I do things every day that are a lot more dangerous that devouring food that you describe as ‘poison’ M’Lady” Jersh said and pinned her against the wall, playing a little rough because he knew a fighter like her enjoyed it greatly. He kissed her, slipping her a little tongue just long enough to have her kiss him back before taking her in his arms.

“Put me down you scruffy nerf herder” She taunted, playfully hitting his chest, but not hard enough to cause any serious damage. He shook his head in denial and kicked open the sauna, carrying Saphira through the doorway and into the showers. Finally Jersh decided to put Saphira down and she gave him a slightly evil look before turning to grab some soap. He turned them on and they were immediately surrounded by an ice cold shower of water. Jersh immediately started shivering and Saphira emitted a startled yelp as the chill hit her sensitive lekku. Jersh quickly adjusted the heat of the water, sighing in relief that it quickly warmed up to tolerable levels to wash away the sweat produced by the sauna.

Saphira hit him on the chest again, this time hard enough to draw a small bruise. “You did that on purpose!” She accused him, but her accusation did not seem to carry much weight with a huge smile spread across her face. He ran his hand along her lekku then wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her close to him once again.

“You know I love you... right?” Jersh whispered to her, water dripping down his face from the shower. She nodded and leaned in to kissed him, it felt almost as if they were kissing in the rain. He smiled evilly took her back into his arms and raised his eyebrows in wonder when she snuggled into his chest. It made him feel all the more evil when he dropped her into the hot tub.