Rain... ((Sometime after the Chancellor's death))

[Aeré Jupal]

It is raining. Rain always falls hard on Coruscant. Like a thick, grey blankett. Ready to hide everything on the face of the planet.
The nearby structures are nothing more but grey obelisks. Not even the faint light from the windows can break through the rain.
It is this type of weather, where you would hide under a blankett inside with a warm cup of tea.

Aeré is not.

The Senator is sitting on her balcony, her back resting against the fence behind her. The city of Coruscant is behind her, not drawing her attention. The steelgrey eyes are looking up at the grey sky covered by grey storm clouds. Her elegant silk dress is completely drenched from the rain, but she seems to pay no attention to the cold, she must be feeling. Her silver hair is floating down her back, for once not controlled.

This is a good place to be right now. She closes her eyes against the heavy rain.

[Seth Vall]

Seth is a polite man, raised by parents with good manners. He usually keeps his nose out of other people's business, not interfering with other peoples' lives. Especially the people he is tasked to protect.
He knows that accepting a bodyguard was against Aeré's wishes, and so he is doing his best to be invisible, to make it easier for her. That is part of the way he does his job.

But sometimes he has to put such principles away. Like when she has been sitting outside in the rain for too long.

"Senator, you'll catch a cold." His voice is calm and not very loud, but strong enough for her to hear him. He is standing in the doorway to the balcony, a grey shadow in the grey world of Coruscant.

[Aeré Jupal]

Aeré opens her eyes and looks at the man in the doorway. The pair of intense, steelgrey eyes would have frozen like a lake in the winther by the sight of an intruder in her private moment.
But she is too tired.
He is grey. Just like the rain. Just like anything else on this planet. They fit together. Aeré sometimes - in those weak moments - wonders, why she had to leave Naboo behind and go to Coruscant. Her staying here has brought her nothing but pain and losses.

"I like sitting out here," she answers in a low, soft voice. "It feels like the whole planet is crying."

[Seth Vall]

Seth looks at her silently, thinking about her words. He has never thought of her as emotional or sentimental, and yet he is not truly surprised by her sad statement. She is, after all, naboonese.

"Is something wrong, Senator?"

[Aeré Jupal]

Aeré looks at him for a long time. The grey shadow in her life. The grey shadow always following her.
"I am tired, Seth, that's all."

[Seth Vall]

Seth shifts his weight to the other foot, sighting silently.
"Tired people sleep. It's the worried and depressed that sit alone outside in the rain."

[Aeré Jupal]

Aeré leans back against the fence, looking at the sky again.

"Then what am I, Seth?" she asks with a weak smile.

[Seth Vall]

"You tell me, senator. But I'd go for worried." His voice is still calm and gentle. "You don't strike me as depressed."

[Aeré Jupal]

Aeré looks at him again, her long silver hair falling down in front of her face. "I am worried, Seth. Sad, you might call it."

[Seth Vall]

"For a specific reason?"

[Aeré Jupal]

"Yes. I always have a reason." Aeré closes her eyes. The rain drops are running down her cheeks, like tears. But she never cries. "The death of the Chancellor."

[Seth Vall]

"The Chancellor's death is a hard strike at the Republic. In many ways." Seth's eyes follow the grey shadows of a few transports gliding through the half dark beyond the balcony.

[Aeré Jupal]

"I knew her." Aeré looks down on the floor tiles beneath her feet. "I have talked to her so many times. Even outside the Senate."

[Seth Vall]

"Did you consider her a friend?" Seth is not nearly as skilled as Aeré when it comes to conversations and reading people's emotions. Humans and their problems are just not his thing. But that doesn't mean he can't try and comfort her a little.

As long as she stays calm and doesn't burst into tears, he doesn't mind talking to her.

[Aeré Jupal]

"A friend?" Aeré tilts her head. "She was like a menthor to me. I admired her."
She shivers a little. Perhaps the cold is hard to ignore, after all.
"I knew of the Fallen. But I didn't think that they could come this close."

[Seth Vall]

"No one could foresee that. Not even the Jedi. And that is probably going to give them a hard time now."

He steps out the door, now standing just in front of the heavy curtain of rain. "Why don't you come inside and change to something a little less wet?"

[Aeré Jupal]

Aeré shakes her head. "I like it this way." She smiles cooly at him. "The rain makes me think that I have tears running down my face."

[Seth Vall]

Why would she want to feel like that? Seth never cries. Not if he can help it. To cry is to show weakness.

"And how long do you plan on staying out here?"

[Aeré Jupal]

Aeré looks at him again. "You really want me to come back inside."
That was not a question, but she expects an answer.

[Seth Vall]

"Bearing in mind the last time you had to stay away from work because of your health, yes, I'd prefer if you'd come in before you catch a cold."

[Aeré Jupal]

Aeré looks thoughtfully at him for a long time.

Then she slowly stands up and walks towards him. She hasn't even bothered putting shoes on her bare feet.
"There." She stops beside him, looking more like a sea nymph than a Senator. "Better?"

[Seth Vall]

Seth looks at her calmly. "It's a beginning. But you need to put on something dry."

"Go change, I'll make you some coffee,"

[Aeré Jupal]

Aeré nods once, before she makes her way through the dimly lighted living room and down the hall to her bedroom. She runs her long fingers through her soaked hair in a slow movement, as she walks like a sleepwalker.
Without even saying one word about him being to overprotective. Not even trying to argue. Not saying anything - at all.

[Seth Vall]

Seth looks at her for a moment. Then he walks to the kitchen, to make some coffee.

[Aeré Jupal]

Aeré returns shortly after, having changed her wet clothes to a long, midnight blue evening robe. Her wet hair has been collected in a single braid hanging down her back. Her face is as pale as before.

She sits down in the couch, resting her hands in her lab.

[Seth Vall]

A steaming cup of warm coffee is placed on the table before Aeré. "Anything else you need, Senator?"

[Aeré Jupal]

Aeré closes her cold fingers around the warm cup and takes a sip. Perfect added with milk and sugar. How does he do that?
"Someone to talk to would be nice," she mumbles, looking down into her coffee.

[Seth Vall]

"Someone in particular?" Nothing shows on his face, as always. No sign that the woman in front of him is not at all acting as she normally does.

He actually understands her mood quite easily. But you'd probably have to know him well to figure that. He has feelings too, way too many he'd say. He just rarely lets them show. Never lets them control him like that.

[Aeré Jupal]

"You will do for now," Aeré answers silently. "At least I hope that you know how to talk to the ones, you are protecting?"

She looks up from her study of the cup in her hands to look at him.

[Seth Vall]

"That would depend on the person, I am protecting" he answers. "But we are talking now, are we not?"