Work Text:
"You're not a child. Stop pouting in the corner." You put down your scuffed holo pad to glare at the Zabrak across the room from you. Maul was sat neatly against the wall with his legs crossed and his eyes closed.
"Do Jedi not know what it looks like when someone is meditating? How surprising." He replies calmly, though you can sense the prodding irritation that resides in him through the Force.
"Shh! Not here!" You grip the thin blanket the hostel had provided you with and your eyes sweep over the room anxiously. Shame immediately overtakes your fear. To be afraid of being associated with something so dear to you, so integral to what you are. But you can't be that. Not anymore.
Your eyes land back on him and you're startled to see him staring back at you. The gold of his eyes nearly glows in the dimness of the room. You know that look. Whatever Maul was searching for, he's found it now.
"No. Not tonight. Literally anywhere else, at any other time. But for now can you just be normal?" You rub at your temples, trying to assuage your oncoming head ache.
"I haven't said anything." The shrug of his shoulders when he speaks does a decent job of making him look clueless if you didn't know who he actually was.
Did you even know who he actually was? No, you didn't. You had heard stories about him, repeated so many times that each one had a different version of him all together. But here, months after the order, you'd actually gotten to see past the gossip.
He was even more spiteful than anyone had ever told you. Well spoken with a quick fuse and a penchant for trouble. There was a twisted charisma about him and in the lighter moments when you weren't so struck by grief, you could have even imagined leaving him to make your own path towards your revenge. However, here in a cramped twenty credit room, it just wasn't feasible.
"You don't have to. That makes it worse." You sigh and shut your eyes. You feel the bed sink under his weight as he joins you.
The reason the room was so cheap was entirely because of the size and sleeping accommodations, but with your ship currently docked for repairs you both had little choice other than to make do for tonight.
"I'm in your head, aren't I hut'uun?" He taunts, using that stupid name he's gifted you. It's not Zabraki. You'd tried searching for it to no avail. You weren't going to embarrass yourself by asking either. Besides, you knew cruelty when you heard it.
"And if you know what's good for you Maul, you'll leave it. Now." Your threat held little weight in terms of actuality but it seemed to quiet him for now. Absentmindedly, you rubbed at the mark on your neck. It was healing, but you could still feel the small divots in your skin.
"Does it hurt?" Maul doesn't sound guilty when he asks but his words are still enough to surprise you.
"Does the wound from where you bit me hard enough to draw blood and leave a scar hurt? Are you being serious right now?" You grant him an incredulous look only to find him sprawled out on his side of the bed, looking up at you with his head propped up on one hand. The scene is so oddly domestic that you feel your stomach churn.
"Yes. It hurts, jackass."
"My apologies."
His apology only infuriates you more. You groan and sink into the bed, turning away from him.
"And now, it's your turn to sulk it seems." He teases you too casually for your liking. You flip around, raising a hand to hit him which of course he catches with ease.
"Would it make it up to you if I let you mark me as well?" As he speaks, he trails your fingers down his neck. Pressing your hand against his skin, you can feel how unnaturally warm he is.
It would be so easy to choke him and Maul seemed oh so willing. You pull away and glare at him.
"I'll pass. I have no interest in joining you in whatever this is."
And just what was this? You didn't even know yourself and trying to apply any sort of name to it made you feel nauseous. The first time you could have maybe blamed on proximity, but then it happened again and it was very hard to use the same excuse twice and not wince while doing so. You fall into a dreamless sleep trying to ignore the warm body beside you.
A thrashing besides you wakes you up.
"No! No, no, no, stop! I-I'm sorry!" Through the grogginess of sleep it's hard to tell who's speaking because you're certain that you've never heard such a voice before.
"I hate you. I hate you!" Ah. No, that was definitely someone you knew.
"Maul. Wake up." You put your hand on his shoulder and shake him lightly.
He doesn't respond but his face looks pained. His brows are knit tightly together and his teeth are barred, making you a little nervous for when he wakes up. It wasn't like he hadn't bitten you before.
"Maul, it's okay. Wake up." Jostling him a little harder, you glance around the room and he wails. The walls were relatively thin here and you were sure people could hear him. The last thing you needed was to be kicked out in the middle of the night because of some bad dream he was having.
Sighing, you sit up against the headboard and manage to heft the larger man's writhing upper body onto your lap. You breathe slowly and center yourself.
"You're okay." You tell him, using the Force to try and calm him somewhat, "You aren't there anymore. You're here. We're safe here. Wake up."
It was partially a lie, of course. With how the galaxy was now, it was likely the two of you would never be safe again. But for now, in a rundown room with the sobbing Zabrak in your arms, you would have to believe it for the both of you.
He wakes with a gasp, his grip on you is bruising and you hiss in pain but don't move to push him away. You press a hand to his head and stroke his back.
"You're alright now. Try to breathe." Both of you sit in a silence that's only broken by your gentle shushing and the few shuddering noises he makes.
"Are you okay?" You ask when his breathing finally evens out. Maul doesn't answer right away and you nearly think he's fallen back asleep.
"Why?" He asks and you can hear the sincere confusion in his voice. It reminds you of the sap cakes.
"You were having a nightmare. Why wouldn't I wake you up?"
He huffs and wraps his arms around your waist, burying his head as best he can into you without poking you with his horns.
"What do you gain from it? You are not dull enough to think I'll trust you now." He murmurs.
"You should be more careful, Maul. That was nearly a compliment." You tease, absentmindedly tracing patterns on his back now.
"I lied. You are very dull if that is what you believed I was saying." A small laugh escapes you and you flick the back of his head lightly in reprimand.
"Well for one, I gain a bed partner who is not screaming bloody murder. Two, we remain housed for the night and not stranded on a ship with no heating. Three, if I have the ability to fix a situation why should I not?" You list the reasons plainly.
He goes quiet again but with the Force around you like this you can sense he is still displeased with your answer.
"Back in the temples, when I was younger," you start, the emptiness of the night letting you feel more whole than usual, "the younglings would have nightmares a lot. It can be hard at first with the Force. Sometimes it shows you things you can't understand yet and it's scary, especially to smaller minds. After awhile you get better at comforting them."
You would kill for something as routine as that again. But what good would more blood do?
"Are you comparing me to a child?" He asks incredulously and you roll your eyes even if he can't see it.
"You are very dull if that is what you believed I was saying." You echo his words back to him.
"Do you pity me?" His question catches you off guard.
"No, I don't think so. I don't really understand you enough to pity you." The answer you give is honest if nothing else. "Do you want pity?"
"No." His voice is harsh when he says it.
"Then you will not have it."
The room goes quiet again. You try to move him off of you but he growls in response.
"I need to sleep to, you know? I'm not going to get that done if I'm sat up like this all night." Reluctantly he parts from you after sighing dramatically.
He waits for you to get comfortable laying down again and as soon as you stop shifting he wraps his arms around you and tucks you under his chin, undoing all of your efforts.
"You run so hot, how are you alive?" You groan and move to put some sort of space between you both. He says nothing but kicks the blanket off of the bed.
There were other issues with the arrangement of course but you were tired now and thoughts like that could wait till later.
"Goodnight Maul. If you have another nightmare and bite me, I'll leave you on this rock."
"I'd like to see you try." Then, much quieter he adds, "Goodnight."