[center][color=darkred]<<< [b]Mar[/b] >>>[/color]
[b][u]Sweet Child of Mine | Tortuga Shipyard | Ship's Halls[/u][/b]
[i]"There's a first time for everything. Including apologizing for reacting badly after a first time."[/i][/center][hr]

In the meeting room of the [i]Sweet Child of Mine[/i], Mar fidgeted as she stood from the hard chair that she had claimed for her own. It wasn't unusual to see a pilot look nervous after hearing about a questionable assignment given to them by shady people. But the assignment wasn't what had the tall, four-armed Shree look distinctly uncomfortable as her four, milky-red eyes glanced out into the hall, or clench and unclench both her true- and false-hands. No, what had her fidgeting was the prospect of talking to Mary, the ex-Pirate fighter pilot on the crew.

Not but a week ago, the two had gone out for drinks and Tsi'vaan--the "Mind-Crawler" lizards that Shree ate for a recreational high as opposed to getting drunk on alcohol--while on shore-leave at Tortuga Station. And after she had thoroughly overindulged on the tiny, hexapedal reptiles and they had gotten into a bar fight at the Dead Orbit, the two had a one-night-stand. One that Mar could only vaguely remember, and had been something of a first for her. The Shree was rather casual as far as sex went, but usually only with men, and [i]never[/i] after having twice as many Mind-Crawlers as she was normally comfortable having at any given time. She preferred to be clear-headed in bed. Meanwhile, Mary seemed to have enjoyed it thoroughly.

All of which had made things awkward between the two. She liked Mary, sure enough. The Terran cyborg and ex-Pirate was, oddly, the one person she liked the most on the crew, even with her notable prejudice against Pirates. That, and they were both the best pilots on board [i]The Sweet Child of Mine[/i], which gave them something in common. And, if Mar was honest with herself, it wasn't the sexual encounter that she took issue with. It was the fact that she had been under the influence and could barely remember anything after jumping the human woman.

But she heaved a sigh as she stepped out into the hall and followed Mary to what was presumably going to be a more private corner to talk in. The way she had asked to talk made Mar feel distinctly guilty. It was clear there were hurt feelings. The fact there were told her that perhaps Mary hadn't planned that one-night-stand to be just that, a one-night-stand.

Once they were in an out of the way corner, Mar raised a six-fingered, upper true-hand to keep Mary from saying anything.

"Before you say anything," she started with a quiet voice that came through her translator, "I know, I've been... Distant. And I wanted to apologize. What happened on Tortuga wasn't... I didn't plan that. And I didn't handle things afterward well either."

Mar heaved a sigh, and the smooth features on her dark-skinned face twisted in a rather pained expression as she continued, "Which isn't fair. To you. And it makes me a Terran equine's hindquarters. So I wanted to say that I'm sorry, and regardless of what happened on Tortuga Station, I still consider you to be a friend."

A moment passed before she let out a harsh bark of grunting laughter and leaned back against the hallway bulkhead, crossed both lower false-arms across her barrel chest, and shook her head. One true-hand reached up to rub at her smooth scalp, and she looked at Mary with what could only be described as a look of dry amusement.

"I go and overdo things in our little bar and club crawl, then I went ahead and made things awkward. Really, that was something of a first for me. I normally go for males." she said.