Two Idiots and a Deathwish

[Kuzuru]

Charlie had been standing just outside of Tier Six’s checkpoint for what felt like hours. He massaged his hands and cringed as his knuckles ached; it had been a long while since he had gotten into a bar fight. He held his last cigar between his lips and would only take the occasional puff to keep the thing lit. Spackled blood stained his jacket and hair. He sighed. His entire body ached and his head pulsed with a migraine. It had been a long day. His eyebrows raised as the main door to the checkpoint was flung open. A familiar face stepped through, sporting a shredded cybernetic arm and a shirt filled with bullet holes.

“So, how are you feeling?” Charlie asked after exhaling a cloud of smoke.

“Not so bad, those bacta tanks work like a charm,” Mallory responded and then held up what remained of his prosthetic arm, “but, this thing is toast, which sucks since I had just fixed it.”

“Yeah, but you ain’t dead,” Charles noted, “so I suppose things aren’t so bad.”

Mal nodded and asked, “so did you find our money?”

Charles chuckled and Mallory frowned.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’?” Mallory asked.

“Well I found it, that bitch kept it in her bra, right where I shot her,” Charlie shook his head and took another puff, “so it’s toast.”

“I see,” Mallory said, “what about the kids? Did we at least get their bounty then?”

Charles shook his head, “nope.”

“What? Why not?”

“I suppose I could’ve grabbed them after Ameara went down, but” Charlie trailed off and didn’t finish.

“But what?” Mal probed, “the little slimeballs betrayed us didn’t they?”

Charlie shrugged, “not sure, after you went down they betrayed Ameara, so a double-cross-double-cross or something like that, whatever it was I figured they were more trouble than they were worth and so I let them go.”

“That doesn’t sound like you.”

“We got Ameara’s bounty though,” Charlie offered.

“And how much was she worth?”

“Not 20,000”

Mallory repeated, “not 20,000… well, how much then?”

Charlie shrugged and polished off his cigar.

He chuckled and flicked the cigar across the street, “enough to get some more smokes, some food, and maybe enough left over to fix your arm.”

Mallory sighed, “so we’re not much better off than when we started huh?”

“Seems like it.”

Neither one of them said anything for a long time.

Mallory sighed, “this place sucks.”

“Yeah,” Charlie agreed, “come on, let’s get out of here.”

"Alright."

With that said the two turned around and walked into the checkpoint, leaving behind the bloody underbelly of Coruscant.