Jax could tell that An was growing tired—such was the way of Ataru—as she continued to draw from her own strength and the Force to sustain her energy and stamina. On the other hand, his combination of forms was made to limit his energy expenditure, although he used more energy than a traditional Soresu user, as his parries and strikes incorporated Djem So to further wear her down. He had to admit, though, that her constant flurry of attacks was giving him a workout, as it taxed the limits of his defense and forced him to draw on Djem So frequently if he was to counter each strike.<br/><br/>Deciding to try to force the duel into a different direction to break their deadlock, he drew on Niman and reached out with the Force, pulling her to him. To his surprise, she reacted by using the Force to pull his back foot towards her, upending his balance. He recovered from his surprise and readied his saber to strike. Seeing their trajectory, though, he thought that if one of them didn’t do something, they would likely both end up injured.<br/><br/>Just before they collided, he parried her blade with his own, compromising his own strike, but preventing either of them from being struck by the other’s blade. The force of his parry would have been enough to disarm her, but the force of their impact loosed his own blade, and in the end, both hilts ended up sliding away as their owners went down. As they went down, Jax instinctively took hold of her, twisting his body so that he hit the ground and she would land on top of him; although she would likely then roll to the ground, her impact would be less than his own, which ended up knocking the breath out of him.<br/><br/>“Ouch,” he groaned, lying on his back, arms falling to his side as he did. He was breathing heavy, speaking to the effort he’d put into fending her off. “You’re as tough as ever,” he finally said when he could breathe a little easier. “Faster, though. It was a lot harder to keep up with your movements than I remember,” he admitted, glancing at her before leaning his head back against the floor, closing his eyes, and taking a deep breath. “Well fought, Princess,” he told her, a half-smile on his lips.<br/><br/><br/>-----<br/><br/>Aeris smiled lightly when Jek confirmed that this was a Star Destroyer, surprised to find archives on such as a ship. “Yeah. I was surprised, too,” she admitted. “Someone must have had it put in,” she said as she watched him take in the room. “Perhaps someone else loves to read and is prone to boredom. Or perhaps they just wanted to have such knowledge on hand for reference. Who knows,” she shrugged, only speculating. Either way, she had been happy to find it, as she’d always loved reading and learning, especially about the Force, but about anything, really.<br/><br/>If she’d ever become a Jedi knight, she thought that she probably would have been suited to be a Consular. But war had a different plan and she’d taken the path of a warrior, honing her body and her combat skills as much as her mind and Force abilities, perhaps even more in recent times. It had been out of need more than desire initially, but physical training was a great stress reliever, and fighting, weapons training, they were good ways to channel her emotions and her restlessness, so she’d grown to enjoy them. Besides, she couldn’t deny that it felt good to be strong, to be powerful. And this was certainly not the time to let her training to go waste, so she had no intentions of cutting back on her physical training any time soon. At least until the war was over.<br/><br/>When he’d finished, she’d led him back to the lift, and as she had, he felt An-Lok and Jax dueling, too. “We can have a go later, if you want,” she offered to spar with him, giving him a grin as she did before she’d taken him to show him the mess barracks and the mess hall. They’d both been relatively quick stops on the tour before she’d taken him to the final stop, which was her quarters.<br/><br/>She was quite happy when he’d stepped into her space, held her tightly, and agreed to her suggestion, that these would be their quarters. “Good,” was what she would have seen, but before she could get the words out, he’d pulled her tightly to him and into a deep and loving kiss. She giggled a little, wrapping her arms behind his neck and smiling into the kiss when he’d lifted her feet off the floor and walked her through the door so that he closed behind him.<br/><br/>Even when he’d set her down again, he’d not released her from the kiss, nor had she wanted him to. She could feel her hunger for more of her, a feeling she shared, and one she was happy to satisfy. Without looking or breaking from the kiss, she felt around behind him for the panel and hit the button to lock the door before shedding her cloak and tossing it toward the hook near the door where it usually hung. She helped him to shed his own, tossing it in the same direction before quickly removing her belt and other accessories, including her boots, leaving them all lying haphazardly near the door.<br/><br/>When he’d done the same, she put her hands on his shoulder, hoisting herself up to wrap her legs around his waist, kissing him, deep and passionate. As she kissed him, she undid the clasps of the tightly fitted leather tunic before removing it and tossing it to the side, leaving only the light shirt she wore under it—for now. She then wrapped her arms behind his neck, focusing on him. The rest she was sure would come off soon enough, but for now, she wanted his lips on hers, so she would live with the thin fabric between them for just a little longer.