He remained still and mute when she approached, so Mara leaned down, hand resting against his chest just to touch his bare skin, kissing him lightly on the forehead when he still didn't move his hands or lift his face to her.
"I have to go." she murmured simply and he nodded, preoccupied.
Mara set across the still-darkened room, curious as to what had instigated his detached, withdrawn mood. She was three paces away, passing the polished expanse of his work-desk, when the glint of starlight on metal revealed why.
Thrown onto the desk were the two surveillance lenses she had installed into the 701st's docking bay, their shattered transmitters and Mara's viewer beside them. She'd left them on - damnit, when she'd chased after the unknown visitor in the 701st's hold, she'd left them active - and so traceable. Mara faltered to a stop, unsure what to say.
"Oh, don't forget those." he said casually without turning, "I'm sure you'll want to use them again."
His voice was completely even, without the slightest emotional tell, and it left Mara cold, uncertain of what he would do.
"I wasn't watching you." she said at last, though even she heard the petty distinction.
"You were watching mine, which amounts to the same thing." he stated, his cool reserve unnerving.
"I was charged with providing numbers of the 701st, that's all." Mara defended. She'd never been caught out before- not like this; by Luke.
"You could have simply asked." he said evenly, still turned away from her, the atmosphere charged.
"Could I?" Mara said, tensed slightly in reaction to his cool manner, though she felt under no threat. Rather, she felt energised- walking this close to danger, to untamed, unpredictable, raw emotion. Always daring herself to step closer still. "Fine, then here's a question; a man arrived in an Intel 420 Skipray last night. He stayed just over an hour then left- who was he?"
Which was not the direction Luke had expected this to go; he'd been livid- incensed that she'd set surveillance on his troops then have the gall to come here and lay beside him- and now, suddenly he was on the defensive, and he knew it.
Considering how and when they'd found her equipment, he knew she'd ask eventually, just not now. It was after all a surveillance sweep because Karrde's ship was in the hangar bay which had turned up the devices, simply because she'd happened to leave them active - presumably when she'd tried to get a better look at the unknown visitor. If she'd deactivated them before setting off, they would still be there, undetected.
But now she'd put him on the back foot by asking a question which he had no intention of answering; Karrde and his contacts were far too useful. Nor did he want to make a big issue out of refusing to answer, which would only draw more attention to the fact, particularly when he'd just told her to ask him such things- if for no other reason than to control the answers.
The only path left to him was to try to take her off-topic and to hide the avoidance behind a bigger statement. He shook his head, turning to look at her, having no real problem summoning a sense of restrained offence. "You're unreal, you know that? You spent hours last night spying on me - listing my every move so that you can go and report it all to Palpatine - and then what? You send your report, you walk over here and you just climb into bed with me without missing a beat."
She stared at him, eyes ablaze, wounded and outraged in the same moment.
Knowing her as he did, it was so easy now to just push her over the edge; "What's wrong Mara- didn't get enough information? Or is this just another regular surveillance job for you - long hours but at least you're not on your feet all day."
"You son of a barrig!" Mara stepped forward, hand pulling back to deliver a blow, but rather than the open-handed slap that most women would give, hers pulled into a tight fist, all the strength of her shoulder behind her arm as she roundhoused the blow forward.
He stepped up and in quickly, right hand out to block the blow, then at the very last second he brought his left hand in, grabbing at her arm and yanking her forwards and down so the blow missed, dragging her to him, using his own bodyweight to stop her as she barrelled into him.
His own outrage welled up in him, both at his own words - a provocation yes, but tinged in truth - and at Mara's reaction; indignation she had no right to adopt, to his mind. Darkness answered, as it always did, dropping his voice to a threatening whisper as he leaned closer, still holding her by the top of her arm, mouth so close to her ear that her hair fluttered as he hissed, "Come on Mara- you're faster than that."
She yanked her arm back intending to catch him a backwards blow across his chin with her elbow but he was too fast, leaning back and twisting away from her though he didn't release her arm.
"Please- you would have lied." Mara accused as she twisted her arm free, aware of the blind anger rising from his cool detachment now. "That's what you do - which is why this is what I do - why Palpatine put me here, you know that."
He loosed a feral grin, head tilted in warning, pale eyes hidden by twists of dark hair. "And you know what I do when I catch people who do this."
Mara had backed up two steps before she even realised it, his manner for the first time linking Luke and Palpatine in her head, but she stopped; made herself hold her ground as his whole demeanor changed, stance subtly aggressive.
"You think you're the exception? You think you've bought your immunity? Those aren't the rules Mara, you know that. If it's still okay for you to spy on me then I think I'm within my rights to retaliate, don't you? Business as usual, that's what you just said; Palpatine places his spies and I stop them- remove them. "
Mara turned to leave, aware that this time some line had been crossed, that this had slipped from argument to antagonism, from spirited quarrel to genuine, unpredictable danger. Luke sidestepped with her, slamming his hand against the wall to the side of Mara's head, blocking her exit.
Fixing his menacing gaze with an unimpressed glare she backstepped, but he stayed level with her and slammed his other hand to the wall behind her. Mara's fiery temper flared and she twisted lightening-fast to trap the hand in a pressure grip, bending his wrist against the natural movement. He reached out, grabbing her arm and twisting his own hand free in one smooth move.
She launched out with the heel of her free hand toward his face and he brought her arm which he still held across to bat down against the inside of her own elbow, stopping her blow before it made contact. Moves she'd taught him, strike and counter-strike, flawlessly timed.
It was a fast, controlled fight at very close quarters, no room for Mara to manoeuvre pressed against the wall, carried out in absolute silence, Luke using speed and strength against Mara's greater experience, the only noise that of skin contacting skin. The flurry of movement only stopped when Luke finally got a good enough hold on one of Mara's arms to pin it to the wall at head-height, wrist out-
Something hard pressed against Luke's stomach and looked down. Mara had drawn the holdout blaster from her hip and held it levelled at his midriff. He looked back up and she arched her eyebrows pointedly, "Back off."
Luke remained where he was, still holding her pinned. "You're going to shoot me now?" he asked levelly, and she held her resolve, chin lifting.
"Back off." She repeated, very serious.
"Do you really think you can hurt me with a gun, Mara?"
She felt a momentary flare of panicked doubt pressing in on her, blanketing her thoughts, and struggled free of it, realising that it wasn't her own, that he was placing it there. Setting her head to one side, she raised her eyebrows as she pushed the muzzle against his bare skin, sense as wild as his own now, outraged and furious and deadly serious.