"What's your in?" Lando leant backwards in his chair, a deck of sabacc cards gracefully shuffled from one of his hands to the other over a mountainous pile of credit-chips which you could barely thanks to the dense layer of smoke that swirled and danced in the air.

"5,000 credits." You said sternly, eyeing up the competition before pulling a chair out from under the table.

"5,000 credits? Come on now, this isn't day-care, 10k or nothing." That smug grin of his appeared on Lando's face.

"How about 5,000 credits and if you win, I'll let you take me out on a date, you can even buy me dinner and everything." He looked over at the other two players and then back towards you, with a flick of his wrist they begrudgingly left, both shooting dirty looks as they did.

"I haven't seen you in these parts before, you knew here?" Casually, you tossed 5k worth of credits into the middle of the table.

"This is my first time in this part of the city, thought I would check out all this fuss about a Mr. Calrissian."

"Well, it looks like you managed to find him, If I win, I get to take you out, what do you get if you win?" He mirrored you and tossed his credits onto the newly formed pile.

"Don't worry, even without the credits not having to go on a date with you is enough of a prize."

"Ooh, a feisty one... I presume you know how to play Sabacc?"

"You could say that, now are we going to play or are you going to interrogate me?" He raised his hands in apology, gave the deck of cards one last shuffle and laid them on the table. Almost painfully slow he dealt out two cards each and laid the rest of the deck adjacent to the pile of money.

"Fifteen." You called out, followed by a swift 'twelve' by Lando. The tension in the room, both between the players and emitting from the audience was strong and encapsulating.

"So I know you aren't just here for a low-roll game of Sabacc, what do you want?"

"Win that date and you can ask me all the questions that you like." Lando's hand reached over and pulled a card from the face-down deck, he slyly smiled but tried to hide it by taking a sip of his drink. Looking down at your hand, you decided not to do anything, and stuck with fifteen.

"Fifteen." You called out once more, laying your cards out in-front of you.

"Twenty-four..." Lando's hand spread out in front of you.

"Ah, sorry buddy." You scooped up your winnings and pushed yourself out from under the table.

"I can't entice you into another game?" A chip ran across his knuckles before wrapping around and cascading down over and over again.

"Depends, make it worth my while and I'll consider it."

~*~

Written by Aaron.