Regardless of what else happened in that conversation this morning, Dhel is pretty happy that she's got a pile of cookies to show for the morning's work as she swings by the ship. It's definitely been nice having her own room, even if the walls may as well be cardboard as far as blocking sound. Despite the unrest and shifting forces in the city, this - more than the oddly active group she's hanging around the edges of - that's been lifting her spirits lately. She can't remember the last time home really felt like home, but somehow, for a little while, this does.

Code entered, up the ramp, slap the switch to close it and look around to see who's in, before continuing on.

"Whoosh, whoosh! Vreowwwwwwwww!" Manny's voice could be heard coming from the area of the cockpit.

It probably wasn't the first time that Dhel had heard these sorts of sounds. Manny liked to practice flight maneuvers; for all his goofiness, he did actually put effort into things that he was interested in. However, they didn't have a very good simulator program, so Manny had to do most of the special effects himself. He wasn't that great at it.

Yeah, that was normal now. Dhel grins and heads to the cockpit, pausing for a moment to watch Manny zipping through and around...something? She wasn't a pilot and the simulator being what it was she couldn't tell if it was supposed to be asteroids, or other ships. But he was doing a decent job of it, by all appearances.

She leans agains the entrance frame while he finishes the run, taking more than a few of those moments to admire the poster hanging off to the side. She's particularly fond of the Zabrak posed with just enough of one of the three Twi'lek in front of him for modestly.

When it's reasonably obvious the simulation has run its course, Dhel slips on a practiced smile and pays little attention to things like personal space as she perches on the edge of the pilot's chair, waving the small sack in front of Manny. "Ready for a break? I made cookies."

In truth, Manny couldn't tell if the obstacles were rocks or ships or angry blobs either. It really was a bad simulator.

"Phew!" He sat back with a sigh as it finished, only to straighten up again as he realized he wasn't alone. He turned, a grin lighting up his youthful features.

"Hey, Dhel!" He brushed a hand back through his hair, just a little damp with sweat; training was hard. "Really? Cookies? Oh, man." His grin got even brighter. "You're the best. Like, seriously."

He started to rise, grunted, and then undid his seatbelt. "Let's head to the galley. I mean, cookies, we should get some milk, yeah?"

Dhel shifts as Manny unsuccessfully tries to rise the first time. "So long as by 'milk' you don't mean eggs. There's already some in the cookies, they don't need more."

When he's up, she presses back a bit so he can pass and lead the way, reaching up to just brush at his damp hair with a grin. "Refresher before or after? Never realized that flying these things was a workout."

"There's probably some milk. Y'know, behind the eggs." Manny grinned back as Dhel toyed at his hair. "And refresher after, I think. I mean, yeah, I could probably use it, but cookies!" He pointed to the bag, eyes wide. "Cookies! Seriously. The best."

He nudged her playfully with an elbow as he passed, leading the way back towards the galley. "I guess I was going at it pretty hard. What time is it?" He shrugged, going on without waiting for an answer. "But I figure it's something I should get better at. I mean, if I mess up a magic trick, worst thing that can happen is I get egg on my face." It wasn't clear if Manny was speaking literally or figuratively. "If I mess up when piloting we could, y'know, all crash and explode. That's super bad!"

"That would be bad, yeah." Dhel follows behind. "Don't want to hear someday about this ship with a weird gravball name crashing out there." Assuming she even heard anything. More people just vanishing into the maw of the galaxy.

But she's not here to be sad and bring folks down, so she doesn't take long to shift conversational gears. "So...yeah, keep practicing hard. All the good stuff takes practice...speaking of which, are we doing a show sometime? Or are you all too busy with important stuff?" She drops the paper sack on the kitchen counter when they arrive. Leaning back against the counter to watch Manny find milk in the dubious organization of the ship's small fridge.

"We should do a show sometime!" Manny's voice could be heard echoing from deep within the refrigerator. Sure, it wasn't big, but Manny could fit his head in all kinds of places. "Hah! No, wait, expired. Ah, here we go!"

He came out, grinning, holding two bottles, one of which he casually tossed into the recycler. Then he frowned, looked at the one he still had, and sighed in relief. "I mean, we're a team now, right! You, me, Sholua... some kinda awesome sexy team or something!" His forehead creased a little uncertainly. Still, it didn't stop him from getting out two cups, and pouring blue milk into each of them. With a flourish, of course.

Dhel shakes her head a bit at the tossed milk. That sort of waste would have...well she'd probably have just found a way to use the spoiled milk anyway. But she's smiling by the time Manny turns back and fetches cups. She unrolls the top of the sack, then rolls the edges down. No sense getting a plate dirty just to set out cookies that were just as tasty out of a sack. She pushes it along the counter toward Manny.

"They've got chocolate in them, and were supposed to have oats like ground into flour. But I didn't have anything to do that with so I kind of minced them up." She makes mincing motions, then massages her right wrist. "A lot of mincing"

After taking her own cookie, she considers this team thing. "We could be if we get on stage. Otherwise, you and Sho are the ones actually doing stuff that pulls in real credits. I've mostly just got the sexy to offer." Her expression says that she's happy to offer it, even as her tone is clear that it's not really equal to the rest. "Long as that's enough for you, then yeah...team sexy it is." She grins, slipping her free hand around his waist.

"Mmmm!" Manny said as he cheerfully bit into a cookie, munching happily. "These are great!"

He smiled, briefly putting an arm around her shoulders... "Wfht, hng nn." He disenaged, gulped some milk, and put his arm back. "Better. But hey, being a musician is great! I mean, I tried to sing once as part of a show, and the audience threw eggs at me. More than I could catch! Although it did give me an idea for a trick..." The trick was eggs.

He took a more modest bite of cookie. "And one time I got a slitherhorn to play, but it broke in three pieces after like a week. I guess it did only cost like ten credits. Anyway, the point is, you're just as much a part of the team as anyone!"

None of the examples really illustrate that point, but Dhel's starting to find that pretty normal, talking to Manny.

"Yeah? I've heard you sing, and it's not really egg-throwing bad, so that was just a mean crowd. But...maybe some more training before that's part of your stage act would be good." Her own cookie is gone in two bites, the chopped oatmeal added more texture that normal, but really not affecting it otherwise. "You'd probably figure out drums just fine, if you really wanted to play something though. Or," her clawed fingers dance along his hip in demonstration, "one of the things with a keyboard. Quick fingers and timing, you've got."

She reaches for her drink, squeezing him a bit for balance. "But...fair enough. Just let me know if you're getting bored with my part of the teamwork there though, so I've got some time to pack, eh?" Looking up as she licks away the blue milk mustache, she adds "It's polite and all."

"Hey, well, you know..." Manny grinned at her, leaning a bit closer. "They do call me Both Hands." After a moment, he cleared his throat. "Although mostly I heard that when Vex said 'if you don't get out of here right now I'll have Mallory break both hands', but never mind that."

He tilted his head, looking at her, holding her arm as she held him. "But, I mean, you can stay here as long as you want. Once you're part of the crew, you're part of the crew!" He frowned suddenly. "It's a good thing more people I know don't want to stay here. I'd run out of rooms."

Now it's Dhel's turn to frown. "It's just...that's always kind of been the arrangement. Have to trade *something* if you're not dropping some credits for rent. You know?. Looking up at him, fur rippling across her shoulder blades in synch with her gentle confusion. "So you never expected..." she pauses, thinking about how that was about to sound on his end.

Deep breath. "OK, that's unexpected. And I mean, it's fun, and I like you and all so...probably would have happened anyway," her hand strokes anxiously along his back. "might have just been a little longer before sharing your bed, ok. It's not that getting to stay here's the only reason I'd do that!" She laughs a bit nervously, "Just...kind of the usual expectation I've been working with."

"Yeah, totally." Manny nodded sympathetically. There was a brief pause. "Wait, what?" He frowned, trying to put all that together.

His eyebrows went up as he suddenly got it. Probably. He was like 80% sure.

"Oh. Hey. No. Yeah. Uh. That's cool." He flashed her a smile, nervous himself, his shoulders a bit tense under her touch. "I mean, whatever you like. You know, we're in the same crew, so we'll be there for each other, but..." he made an awkward face "-that doesn't mean we have to be there for each other, y'know?"

He tilted his head, smiling at her. "But it is fun, and I like you too, so... yeah."

Dhel's own shoulders relax in some relief at that, and she grins, then starts to giggle, burying her face against his chest. "I'm sorry...that face...and..." Stepping back, she wipes her eyes and scoops out another cookie to hand over. "OK Yeah, We'll still be there for one another. I'm gonna take a bit wrapping my head around this no strings attached place to stay, but I can handle no strings making out and all."

"Ah...and someone should mention this to Sholua...unless she's already picked that up faster than me."

"Right! No strings!" Manny said, smiling as he accepted the cookie. "Not of any kind." There was a brief pause. "You know, there was this girl I was with once who wanted to tie me up, but, well, I'm a magician. I was out of the ropes in seconds." He brushed a hand back through his hair. "I know that's not what you meant, but I guess I just thought of it."

He rubbed his face in her hair, then froze. "Sholua. Oh. Oh! Ohhhhhh." Manny cleared his throat. "Yeah, good idea. Ummm... is this a Bellionas thing? Or..." He frowned. "When Leah let me stay with her, should I have offered to...?" He bumped his fists together twice.

Dhel considers the rope anecdote with a grin "ok...I want you to show me how you get out of those sometime." That seems like a really useful skill to pick up. "And if...you know, there is something I can contribute to the place...just let me know."

She keeps giggling at the fist-banging. "Oh..oh no! I don't think...well, I mean, I don't really know what the situation was then, you know? But hmm..." Pulling back a bit to look up at him, she thinks about his reaction to her suggestion a while back that he could do a pinup poster.

"OK, I think probably no, she didn't expect you to offer that. And I'm pretty sure it's not just a Bellionas thing cause I get plenty of it with folks passing through." She grabs another cookie for herself, and a moment to think, "For Sholua and I it's more that...when you're on stage doing something that's just blatantly sexy like Sho's dancing, or where sexy gets you better tips so you add some in, like me...people kind of assume you're ok trading sex for other things they have to give. Credits, a room, a drink and a meal..." She shrugs. "It really helps the tips go farther."

"Sure, no problem!" Manny nodded earnestly. If there was innuendo to be picked up there, Manny didn't.

"Huh." Manny said, frowning thoughtfully, or at least as thoughtfully as he could manage. "I know when I wanted more tips, I thought I'd try wearing something more awesome, so I got my shiny vest. But that didn't really help, so I got my really shiny vest. That didn't help either, but now I have stuff for special occasions, anyway."

He looked at her, the frown turning from thoughtfullish to serious. "But I've seen how people see a lady dancing, or being all sexy up on stage, and think they own her or something. You're not mixed up with anyone dangerous are you? Because hey, if you are, I've got your back." He nodded, as earnest as when he'd offered to show her how to slip out of ropes.

For once, Dhel is being rather innuendo-free...that all really would be useful to learn. She grins at Manny's hopes of shiny vests magically drawing in tips. "Yeah, clothes help...and maybe we could get you a little sharper. But sexy or funny seem to do better than just having nice clothes." She looks him up and down with a grin. "And, while I'm not complaining, you need to work out more, or differently, for stage sexy. Funny was probably a good way to go, for you."

She nods a bit at the end. "I appreciate that. Sometimes things get kind of weird like that. There've been folks that didn't much want to take no for an answer, but none of them have been around recently." After a thoughtful moment, she decides that if this isn't the kind of arrangement she'd thought, maybe it's ok to mention other current entanglements. "There's a Upper city boy that's a lot of fun lately, but every now and then he gets kind of...intense? But like...the kind of intense where I hope he gets bored before I do so things are less messy? Not intense like 'this kid's going to try locking me in his basement to keep,' if you know what I mean?"

Manny frowned down at his body. "I guess I don't have abs for days like that poster that one of you put up in the cockpit. But it's cool, I'm wiry." He nodded, satisfied.

"Huh..." Manny considered that, crossing his arms. "Well... yeah. I mean, hopefully that turns out well. I'm not really friends with any of my old girlfriends, but I'm not really... not friends with them, if that makes sense? Like, if I saw them anymore, I'm sure we'd get along great!" Manny said brightly. "They just, y'know, end up going other places." That made him silent for a moment.

He waved a hand. "But hey, I'm glad you're not in some sort of trouble like that. Seems like..." He frowned, putting the thoughts together, "-unless they were born lucky, it's hard for people to make it anywhere without ending up in some kind of trouble."