Cat Scratch Fever

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

The beat of the music was thrumming deep within her body as she twisted and danced, arms in the air and head flung back. She gyrated seductively, her hips conducting the males around her with careless precision.

It felt good to be alive!

The half-breed felt hands on her shoulders, and a body dancing close behind. She turned to face the off duty officer, her green skinned hands caressing his face and locking behind his neck as their bodies synced with the music. Rai'raa sighed blissfully, leaning in and pressing her nose against his neck where the blood beat just under the skin. He was hot, almost feverish, and she opened her mouth and traced a line up his neck with her pink tongue, tasting his salt as his grip on her tightened, nearly crushing her against him.

The half Falleen, half Cizerack, female rubbed against him, feeling his excitement as her pheromones drove him wild for her, and then she was out of his grasp, sliding away with surprising ease. Her Cizeri blood gave her strength that was easily greater than that of an average human. Rai'raa slunk off the dance floor, leaving the dancers in her wake even more frenzied than before.

"Did you hearrr anything?" She purrred, picking up her drink and sipping it daintily through the tiny straw.

"No," pouted her companion. "jYou'd thjink that jyou'd be able to get jinforrmatjion about a ssmugglerrr on Cloud Cjitjy, but apparrrentljy the jImperrjialss have rrrecentljy put the fearrr of Prrrossecutjion jinto them."

Rai'raa traced one of the other's stripes with a lazy finger. "We'll find him. I prrromised you, didn't I?"

[Saarrreeaa Raurrssaatta]

"Hmph," grumped Saarrreeaa, but she couldn't stay upset, not with Rai'raa around. The sixteen year old Cizerack downed the alcoholic beverage she'd been nursing along, and used the tiny straw to stir the ice around. She couldn't hear it clinking over the thump of the music in the club.

"He'ss been herrre jin the passt. But no jobss on rrrecorrrd jin monthss!" Frustrated, Saa tightened her grip on the glass, her cocoa knuckles whitening. After a moment, however, she relaxed, her eye catching sight of a well dressed hyu-mann on the dance floor.

Rai'raa's finger on her shoulder was tracing a soft circle, and the half-breed murmured, "Mmm, that is a nice one. Shall we?"

Saa grinned toothily, flipping her long blonde hair over her shoulder and hopping to her feet. "We ssshall." She grabbed Rai'raa's hand and the two females ran onto the dance floor, flanking the attractive male and giving into the heartbeat of the music.

[Kale]

Kale was already a richer man that he'd been walking into the club. A forged ID got him past the bouncers at the entrance, and he'd just enjoyed an iced Mutant Zombie Cooler on the tab of a Twi'lek gentleman in the foyer who still didn't know he'd made the donation. A trip across the dance floor earned him a large credit stub and a gold rank pin from an Imperial officer who was still nuts over some young tail he'd seen slinking by. Even on Imperial Bespin, Kale made a living on the margins. It was amazing how comfortable you could be when you didn't officially exist.

Coruscant was a lifetime away. Even the Jedi were a distant memory, an adolescent phase where he thought making a mark in the galaxy meant risking his life in some damn-fool idealistic crusade. Well, frell that. Kale was the seasoned age of nineteen now, and he had better things to do than to waste his talents on some bunch of navel-gazing monks. He had abilities that other thieves would kill for. And with great power came great profitability.

He danced alongside a pretty slip of a thing with a red dress and equally red hair, matching her gyrations to a tee. Delighted at the attention, she started singing along to the music, horribly off-key, and closed her eyes as she belted out the chorus into an imaginary microphone. When she opened her eyes, the slim, brown-haired human she'd been entertaining was gone. So was the string of glow-pearls around her neck, but a voice she was pretty sure was her own had just told her she wasn't wearing them this evening. She must have forgotten them on the nightstand in the hotel room.

The pearls joined the gold pin and a few other sundry treasures warming the inside pocket of Kale's leather jacket. Life was good. And about to become better, if the two scandalously clad figures walking his way were any indication.

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

Rai'raa winked at the young human male, trailing a hand down his chest as she danced. He was a good dancer, and she flooded the air around him with pheromones, capturing his complete attention as the half smile on his face grew. "Grrreat song!" she shouted over the music, turning him around and dancing close behind him as Saa did her work, gyrating and shaking her tail for him.

Saarrreeaa gave her a wink over his shoulder, and Rai'ree goosed him with her tail. He jumped and Saa giggled, laughing and running her hand over his chest.

[Saarrreeaa Raurrssaatta]

The half-breed distracted him, and Saa carefully dipped her hand in his inside jacket pocket, where she'd noticed there was something heavy. Possibly his ID and credit chits; she removed them and had them stuffed in her bodice before he was done jumping. They danced a little longer, then Rai'ree nodded her head towards their table and Saa slipped her hand in hers and they left the cute male on the dance floor.

"jI need anotherrr drrrjink!" Saa said loudly, to be heard over the music as it was carefully mixed into another bass thumping tune.

[Kale]

Either girl would've gotten Kale's attention, but the way the green-skinned felinoid moved was downright hypnotic. His eyes eagerly plumbed every curve she cared to show him, and there were plenty - she knew what nature had given her and just how to work it.

It wasn't until they sauntered away with a flick of their tails that Kale realized he'd completely lost track of the other one. Instincts kicked in and told him his jacket was lighter than it should've been, and his face burned as he closed his hand on an almost empty inside pocket.

"Krasst!" he muttered. His own game. His own damn game! A few weeks of easy marks had left him soft.

He could easily have left it alone - frell, that load had been the work of fifteen minutes. But he couldn't stand the idea that he'd let his guard down so easily. And, anyway, if tracking down the pair of thieves meant getting another eyeful, he couldn't really complain.

They weren't hard to find. The green one stood out, even in this crowd - Kale just had to follow his nose.

"Ladies, please, drinks are on me," he said, inserting himself between them. "Oh wait - you already took care of that, didn't you?"

He ticked his eyes toward Saa's generous cleavage. "Your bodice is glowing."

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

She looked at him through hooded eyes, still sipping her Corellian Sunrise. Sure enough, Saa's cleavage was glowing, and the younger Cizerack shrugged. "jI don't carrre jif jit jiss."

Rai'raa laughed at the other's audacity, and leaned into the man, her own assets brushing against his arm. "I grrrew up on Zeltrrron, flyboy, and I have some grrreat moves I could show you, some place... prrrivate." Her hand was getting intertwined in the hair on the back of his head as she talked.

[Saarrreeaa Raurrssaatta]

Saa took a moment to peek down between her breasts while he was looking the other way, and pulled out the glowpearls. She dropped them into her clutch and snapped it shut, then returned to her drink.

He didn't stand a chance against Rai'raa's considerable charms. In her mind Saa had already dismissed the forrrda and was scanning the club for another mark.

[Kale]

The tan girl was being sly about it, but Kale knew exactly where the pearls were. And he knew he'd have them back before the evening was out.

But there was that intoxicating aroma again that threatened to reduce his brain functions to cottage cheese, as if the fingers in his hair and the hills of green at his side weren't enough. It took some concentration, but he found he could rise above it if he put his mind to it.

"Falleen meets Carshoulis by way of Zeltron? Oh, you were made for this, cabbage patch. I've been conning people since I was ten. You pull one over on me, you must be pretty good."

He pulled his gaze away from her long enough to flag down a waiter and order himself another Zombie.

Then, so as not to stretch his self-control too thin, he turned to the lesser of two Cizerack. "I'm Kale. You two got names?"

[Saarrreeaa Raurrssaatta]

"Saarrreeaa," she purred smiling up at him. Her mother would certainly not approve of this conversation, but then that was sort of the point. "And sshe'ss Rai'raa." To punctuate the introduction, the half-breed rubbed his earlobe between finger and thumb.

Saa sipped her drink through the ridiculously tiny straw, looking up through her lashes at Kale. "No one'ss everrr come afterrr uss beforrre. jYou musst be prrettjy good jyourrsself."

[Kale]

Kale shrugged theatrically. "Oh, I don't like to brag, but..."

Ignoring Rai'raa's advances for the moment (no mean feat), he tilted his head and said to Saa, "Don't you hate it when you get a really bad itch in your eye?"

The Cizerack girl's eye started watering, and as she blinked to clear it, Kale turned to block Rai'raa's view, and Saa's little purse slid of its own accord into Kale's hand. He popped it open and had the glowpearls wrapped around his fingers in a flash.

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

"Hey!" Saa was blinking furiously, trying to relieve her eye without damaging her makeup. She dabbed at it with bar napkin, and snatched the clutch back, tucking it under her arm.

Rai'raa saw that the younger Cizerack was getting angry, and laughed, "Neat trrrick, Kale. Almost as good as yourrr dancjing."

"Yeah, almosst," pouted Saa, crumpling up the napkin and letting it fall to the ground. She signaled Rai'raa with her hands, fingers making the signs for get out of here. The half-breed shook her head imperceptibly, and Saa raised an eyebrow, then looked at Kale.

Then looked at Rai'raa. The pair began to smile in unison.

"If you rrreally want to prrrove how good you arrre," Rai'raa turned and leaned one elbow on the tall table, facing him, "Why not pick his pocket?" She indicated an off duty officer, drinking at the bar a few yards away.

[Kale]

Kale made the pearls disappear again - this time he buried them deep in his pocket so he'd be sure to feel it if someone made a grab for them again. Then he followed Rai'raa's eyes toward the officer.

"Are you kidding? Captain Starch Pants?" He gave the mint-green halfbreed a dubious look. "You want to give me something that's actually a challenge?"

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

She huffed, eyes narrowing as she looked at the human. "Fine." She leaned into him, and pointed across the room. "Then them." A pair of Stormtroopers entered the club, part of a routine sweep. Since the Empire had come down hard on Cloud City, all places of pleasure and of dubious military value were carefully monitored for criminal activities.

Saa followed the conversation, looked down Rai'raa's arm, and giggled. Rai'raa ordered two more drinks from the serving droid that came by with Kale's Zombie. "Well? All talk I suppose?"

"Mosst maless arrre," said Saa. She was starting to get that look in her eyes, a sign of her kree-rrou asserting itself. "Too bad, thjiss wass gettjing fun."

[Kale]

Kale rolled his eyes. "Sure, I'll pick the pockets in their Blastech armor. If I'm lucky, I might get, oh, a spare blaster cartridge..."

He was losing their interest rapidly, he knew. Frell, why did he even care? He'd already taken back what they'd stolen from him, so who did he need to impress?

"Look... you ladies want a show?" He glanced from Saarrreeaa to Rai'raa. Both were being coy, but there was something in the eyes of the younger one that gave him a sense of urgency.

So he locked into those eyes and flashed the coolest smile he knew. "Order yourselves some Gamorrean snack crackers."

He drained the last of his cooler and walked out into the crowd. He bumped into the officer the girls had pointed out and patted him on the shoulder with an apology while he dropped the glow pearls into the man's back pocket. And then he found the woman in the red dress who was distressed over something she'd forgotten and was absently rubbing her naked collarbone.

"Hey, miss," Kale said, striking just the right concerned citizen face, "didn't you come in here with a string of glow-pearls?"

[Garth Carvey]

As much as he wanted to smack the younger man for bumping into him and placing a hand on the veteran stormtrooper's shoulder Garth kept his anger in check and continued to drink his Corellian ale. He came here to relax and get drunk first after all, then get rowdy with the locals - it was just more fun that way.

Garth was halfway through his fourth drink when the greasy human mechanic standing next to him shouted drunkenly at his face, "Hey, bud. Yer ass is glowin'!"

"What?"

"Say, bud, I'm tellin' you that yer ass is glowin'!" the mechanic repeated even louder as others at the bar began to stare.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean, do you want to lose the last of your teeth?" Garth replied as he clentched his right hand into a fist, the knuckles cracking.

"Huh, n-n-no sir!" the man stuttered as he saw the fist and sized up the soldier less than a foot away. "Look though, I'm serious, yer back side got somethin' weird goin' on."

Garth raised his arm and glanced at his back pocket where sure enough there was on odd glow emminating from beneath the fabric. He dropped his fist and reached into the pocket to pull out the string of glow pearls. He raised them up to eye level to get a better view.

"Where did these com-"

"Theif," screamed a woman in red as she burst from the crowded dance floor. "Give me my pearls you bastard!"

"Ah hell." Garth groaned as he stepped to the side dodging the young woman as she swiped at his hand holding the pearls.
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[Saarrreeaa Raurrssaatta]

Saa laughed at the sudden uproar, clapping her hands delightedly. "Oh, oh, well done." She grinned and leaned back to the taller half-breed, "He'ss mjine. Forrr tonjight at leasst."

Rai'raa winked agreeably, and Saa felt her skin getting hotter. If she didn't find a release soon she might just explode. During kree-rrou it was almost a biological imperative that she mate regularly. Not that she didn't want to. And she'd just managed to escape Carshoulis before her mother set her up with some doddering old manservant and ruined her life for good.

Sanis, of course, was the reason for their financial ruin in the first place. Which is why she was singlemindedly searching for him and her mother's former manservant, Cirrcheeto or whatever his name was. And going to exact some revenge, and perhaps collar her first manservant in the process.

Saa realized her eyes were glazing over as she was lost in her thoughts, and blinked a bit to refocus on what was going on. The Stormtroopers by the doors were now shoving their way to the bar to quell the bar fight that was just a thrown punch away from starting.

[Kale]

Few things could unify the flow of attention in a crowded room like some broad screaming, "Thief!" Garth and the red-haired woman had become center stage, and people crushed in their direction for a better look. Real life drama, after all, was better than holovision.

Kale made his way to meet the uniformed Stormies and pointed them toward Garth. "Thank goodness you're here, officers - I think that man's an imposter!"

"We'll check it out."

Mind tricks were a funny thing. You couldn't make someone do something against their will. You had to fool them into wanting to believe the suggestion had come from their own heads. Kale had only fed their natural suspicions.

And as the stormies waded toward Garth, Kale fed the crowd's voyeuristic interest: "Do you see that? I heard that guy's some kind of con artist. Maybe he's a spy."

The rumors trickled out like ripples in a pond. And while Kale moved around the outskirts of the spectacle, he kept on collecting goods from the spectators.

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

Saa looked like she was about ready to rip the clothes off the first biologically compatible male to brush up against her. Rai'raa was curious to see who that would end up being, as their new acquaintance Kale was stirring the pot by the bar.

She lost track of him in the crowd, but the tunes were still bumping so she started dancing by their table, moving sinuously to the music.

[Garth Carvey]

"Asshole," the young woman said as she steadied herself, "give me my pearls."

It was at this point after the crowd had clued in that some started to take her side, verbally at least. When Garth scanned their numbers he noted two white domes moving through the group towards the bar. Smiling, he reached for his drink with his left hand and downed the remainder while twirling the beads around his index finger far from the woman's reach.

"Lady, if you want these pearls, you can have them." At which point Garth tilted his right hand forward and flung the string of pearls over the crowd to the opposite side where they smacked some poor scrub in the face.

The woman's jaw dropped and in a flash slapped Garth hard across his cheek. He looked down and sucked his teeth at her. She cursed him once more before running into the crowd after her pearls, a few people parted to let her by while others stood firm still craning to catch a glimpse of what was going on.

The two Stormtroopers had now managed to muscle their way up to the bar. They were tailed by a shorter man that looked to be a concerned patron who, sure enough when he spotted Garth, pointed at him and spoke to the troopers. The both of them turned their gaze towards Garth and closed in.
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