"Well, I wasn't aware of that, so you're one up on me."

He waits for Asha to speak. 

"So! What did you call me about?"

"I was curious what the hook would be, mostly." 

"No hook! Come talk to me whenever about whatever. Try to get me to reveal the Sith's secrets. Talk about cookies. Gossip about which Jedi secretly have four kids. Whatever you want."

Uh-huh. 

"Is it true you aren't Force-sensitive?" The curiosity in his tone is honest. 

"Yep! They tested me. I'm as Force sensitive as a rock. Or your droid friend."

"I'm impressed you still have both your hands, then." 

"Reports that you have to be Force sensitive to have a quick enough reaction time to use a lightsaber have been greatly exaggerated."

"The number of people who cut off one or both of their hands would seem to indicate otherwise." 

"I'm very good."

"Yes," he agrees. "That's why I'm impressed. What kind of employment benefits did Count Dooku offer a non-force-sensitive?" 

"Lightsaber training, unfathomable wealth and power, a legal setup so my girlfriend can own herself and if I die she won't be sold for scrap. The usual."

"Your girlfriend." 

It's not that there are no humans who date droids, but it's — not generally the sort of thing you advertise. 

His face is soft.

"Thought I'd mentioned her, she's the same kind as your droid. Her name's Ayar. She's great." 

"Tell me about her?" 

She specializes in the Early Republic period! She knows so many things and it is so interesting to listen to her! Her hobbies include Bothan opera and molecular gastronomy and writing sonnets! He is going to surprise her for her creation day with several valuable artifacts that, reading between the lines, were definitely stolen from a Jedi ship!

He really loves her. 

.....he's going to have to close this line earlier than he thought he would. 

"Thank you," he says. "For the recipes, mostly, I should really be getting back." 

"All right!" Asha says. "Feel free to call whenever you like, it's an excuse to skip boring meetings."

"I'll do that." He won't. 

He ends the call. 

"What was that all about?"

"I wasn't assigned to neutralize the threat, I was assigned to investigate it. I doubt I can get more useful information out of him and I know I can't tell how much he's reading from me, so I'm going to go back to Coruscant and give that data stick to the Council." 

"I recorded the conversation to my permanent memorybanks."

"Thank you." 

The flight back, like all flights back, goes faster than the flight there. 

Elvee is quiet and pensive for most of the flight, and halfway through he says, "I'm scheduled to have my memory wiped every three missions."