Chapter 1: Gazebo
Chapter Text
The evening was cool, and the shadows of the branches stretched long over the stream and over her. The sky was edging pink above the darkened trees. She closed her eyes, savoring the moistness in the crisp air as it filled her lungs.
“May I join you?”
She startled out of her reverie, turning to find who had approached. She nearly startled again when she saw it was the handsome stranger from before. The foreign diplomat...from the stars.
She nodded in assent. He gave her a small smile, inclining his head respectfully in return.
He had been halted with his boot upon the step, and now he approached, joining her at the railing at a courteous distance. She tried not to look nervous.
“It’s pretty,” he remarked, looking out to the branches overhanging the channel.
“…Yes,” she agreed shyly, “…I really l-like it here.”
She blushed at her stumble, but he just smiled warmly, and said mildly, “I can well imagine why you might. …Do you come here often, Highness?”
She nodded in assent, replying, “Um, c-call me Ciri…”
And a big, happy smile blossomed all across his face and up into his pretty blue eyes. She felt something sparking spring from deep within her. Color quietly crept up her neck to the tips of her ears.
Then he murmured, “Thank you, Ciri. Call me Luke,” and after a moment’s hesitation she finished answering him, “…A-a-and yes, o-often. …I mean… m-most..days.”
There followed a little lull, during which he looked out upon the woods and she tried not to sneak glances at him.
“So, do you ever go inside, Ciri?”
She hesitated, still a little struck by how he’d beamed at her, before answering. “Y-yeah, definitely. I’ve… kinda been all over.”
“How big is it?”
“Um, it’s.. Maybe 5 miles square?”
She heard the breath whistling slowly between his teeth. “What’s it like in there?” he asked, almost reverentially.
“Beautiful,” she responded more easily, “Wild. There’s parts of it that are dark all the time, the trees are so thick. And bright waters through little clearings. It has gates, to allow beasts passage through the wall. They stand open. As long as I’ve known.”
“…Beautiful,” he agreed, a strangely wistful note to his voice. “I’ve never seen its like. It feels… I can feel its wildness. Its life. I’ve never seen such enclosed by castle walls before. Ciri, can you tell me why it was built?”
“I-it’s a religious thing. There’s an old shrine, in the center. No one goes there. The whole thing is for the god of the shrine, and they think that he protects the rest of the castle in turn. …D-do you mean, feel it like… Luke, a-are you a wizard?”
He laughed softly, near soundless, with such kindness in his eyes that she felt comforted by the response. “No, I’m not a wizard, Ciri. I’m a Jedi. I have a connection to the Force… one that’s… much stronger than it is for most beings.”
“Wh-what’s the Force?”
He looked at her a moment, considering. “The Force is… an energy field, permeating the universe, and everything in it. All things interact with it.”
“An energy field? …and you interact with it more strongly than others? …What does it do?”
He smiled, “The Force acts to maintain the balance of life and death in the universe. I’m able to use my connection with it to…well, to mold the field, a little. To do what looks to many like magic. …like this.” He held his hand over the water and spread his fingers, and presently the water’s surface was parted by a small polished stone, rising up from the waters to hover under his open palm.
She gasped in astonishment, then grinned widely, breathlessly. “Wow,” she whispered, “wow…you really are like a wizard! Th-that’s amazing!”
To her significant surprise, he blushed. “You know as a Jedi, I should really be less flattered… Thank you, Ciri. I’m glad you think so.” He turned his palm, and the stone floated over to her. She gently plucked it from the air, turning it over in her hands. It was quietly pretty, covered in mossy green veins and worn smooth by the water.
“What’s it like? B-bending the Force. What do you have to do?”
He turned to face her, leaning back on his elbow over the sill. She shyly raised her eyes from the river stone, to him. “It’s like… it’s like I have to take a step backwards, out of my mind, and then look back into it, carefully watching everything that passes. Then if I pay attention closely enough I can notice the part of it that’s shaped by the Force, and watch it, and then I just…. …well, I guess I don’t know how to describe actually bending it. I just… reach out. I don’t know if any of that makes any sense…” The color still tinging his pretty cheeks deepened. She felt something inside of her come alive and ache at the sight.
“It makes sense,” she assured him. “You must be pretty good at explaining, I figure, to give someone an idea of something they’ve never known or sensed at all.”
He smiled at her. “You’re kind, Ciri… thank you.” Now she flushed, as warmth blossomed in her chest.
She paused, to recover herself.
Then out of nowhere, she found herself saying bashfully, “I uh — I heard, um… they say you’re like a war hero.”
He grinned again at the slight tremble in her voice, then blushed and quietly laughed as he acknowledged softly, “Yeah, so I am… forgive me if I’m a bit self-conscious to say so.”
“Oh… sure, ‘course. …Y-you’re self-conscious about being a hero?”
He chuckled, gazing into the ground, lost. She took the opportunity to look at him… he was unutterably handsome. Her heart seized to imagine that she was speaking to him.
“Um, yeah…,” he admitted, “I guess it’s just a little too far off from what… I expected, from life, or… you know.” He gestured vaguely, then explained, “I grew up a poor farmer on a desert planet, I didn’t think I’d be… respectable in a social hierarchy, one day.” He looked up to find her eyes on him and smiled at her shyly. Her breath caught at his intimate and candid manner… his pretty smiles…
“Oh. I see. That makes sense. …W-what was it like, growing up somewhere like that?” She had never considered that an entire planet could be covered in a desert, before. It was bizarrely intriguing.
He smiled easily, and answered her readily, “Dry, hot, and beige.”
He laughed a little, and so did she, a little awkwardly. Then he continued. “Tatooine, was its name. It was just sand, as far as the eye could see. Some of it was loose, in dunes that slowly shuffled across the land, driven before the wind; and some of it was hard-packed into rock and sculpted. There were great storms of sand, sometimes, so my uncle’s compound was set into the ground, with most of the entrances hidden at the bottom of a basin. —My aunt and uncle raised me. We farmed moisture,” he laughed, “Nothing would grow! Not out of doors, anyway. My aunt did have some hydroponics… We farmed the air for water and sold our excess to passing traders, and in the nearest town. It was… boring. And it was peaceful. I miss it,” he admitted quietly, “I didn’t think I would. …I miss them.”
She hesitated, then… “You can’t go back?”
He shook his head. “No, they’re dead. The Empire killed them. That’s why I left. Why I joined the war.”
Suddenly somber, she said quickly, “I — I’m sorry, Luke. I — I shouldn’t pry so. Forgive my poor manners.”
He looked up at her in mild surprise, “Oh, no… Ciri, it’s fine. I’m enjoying talking with you, and I like remembering them. …So if this is prying, then I like it, and you have my permission to continue.”
She flushed. “O-oh. Ok… t-thanks.” He just smiled warmly at her.
“Wh-what were they like?” she asked quietly, after a small silence.
“They were kind. They raised me as their own, from a baby… They loved me, and each other, very much. They were survivors… they made a lot, from very little. My uncle was very protective. I didn’t realize what he was trying to protect me from, at the time. The last couple of years there, I was butting heads with him constantly… I wanted to leave, be a pilot. He didn’t want me to go. My aunt was more… willing to accept change. I never told him… I didn’t get to tell either of them goodbye. Or to thank them for what they did for me. I spent so much time wishing to get out of there, off that planet… to have my big, flashy life as a pilot. Then when they were gone and I had to go… suddenly I didn’t want to, anymore.” He laughed, in irony, and finished wistfully, “Now, I miss the peacefulness of that life. The rhythms to it, the quiet pace that everything had…”
“…I think I know what you felt like,” she offered quietly, “wanting to get out of your peaceful, boring life.”
He looked at her with kindness. “Do you feel kind of… cooped up here, Ciri?”
She nodded. “…Yeah, I guess I do.”
“Do you ever leave?”
“N-not really,” she admitted.
“Not at all? Not even for… for a time? To visit relatives, or something?”
“N-not… I’m not really supposed to. And all my relatives live here, in the palace. I’m not supposed to have any reason to be anyplace else. Because of my… b-because I’m the princess. …Well, maybe because I’m the only princess,” she finished quietly.
“You mean, because you’re an only child?” She nodded agreement.
“Your father, my uncle…,” he mused, then looked at her closely, a little conspiratorially, and nodded toward the enclosed forest. “What about the gates you mentioned in there? Could you get out through them?”
She blushed, and falteringly admitted, “Well, y-y-yeah I c-can… s-sometimes, for a little while.”
“Good. I’m glad.”
She realized what she’d just done. “—D-don’t, d-don’t tell anyone!”
He gave her a big, sparkly grin. “Don’t worry, Ciri. I wouldn’t dream of betraying your confidence. Your secret is safe with me.”
She blushed. “T-thank you, L-Luke, I-I’m sorry if I sounded…”
He didn’t let her finish, cutting her off with his fingers lightly brushed against the side of her hand. “Don’t apologize. You sounded like a person who has something to lose, and who’s exposed it to someone you’re not completely sure of yet. It’s perfectly reasonable. …but I don’t wanna take anything away from you, Ciri.”
He had such a look of earnestness in his eyes that she had to swallow and glance away. His fingers softly left her hand, and her skin seemed to miss them terribly.
“Th-Thank you, Luke,” she managed, through a dry throat.
“You know, you won’t be stuck in here forever, Ciri,” he assured her quietly, “Things will change… that’s how life goes. No circumstance lasts indefinitely.”
She returned her gaze to him, and smiled gratefully. “Thanks, Luke. That’s very kind of you to say.”
He smiled back, “It’s just the truth, Ciri,” and she blushed.
“So… what does the princess do to occupy herself, while she’s all cooped up in her castle?”
For some reason, his referring to her as ‘the princess’ sent a frisson through her stomach. “Um… I…,” she interrupted herself with a nervous laugh, then pronounced as though it were a confession, “I draw, and… I read, and I go into the woods.”
“I’d like to see your art,” he said easily, then seeing the unsurety on her face he added, “Sometime. If you wouldn’t mind sharing it with me, that is… No pressure.”
“Um, y-yeah, that’d be alright. If you’re… if you’re sure you really want to…I mean, it’s — it’s nothing special.”
He gave her such a big, sweet smile that she almost forgot to be embarrassed, looking at it. “Yeah, I’m sure I want to see it, Ciri. It’s lovely of you to permit me. Thank you.”
“S-sure…. …Um, can I ask… W-why do you s-seem so interested in my boring life, anyway?” she asked hesitantly. He was a great mage — Jedi — and a hero. He’d traveled between the stars. She was just a girl who couldn’t leave her father’s property.
“Because you’re an interesting person,” he responded simply.
“Um, n-no Luke, I’m… I’m really not.”
“Well, I think you are,” he said softly, and she looked up at him despite herself. She found him gazing at her with eyes as gentle as his voice, and swallowed nervously. He continued speaking to her, “…you know, I’ve been to a lot of palaces, Ciri. My sister, the Chief of State, has sent me to welcome many governments into the New Republic, since the war. I meet a lot of high-ranking people. A lot of… court-folk. Honestly, I find the majority of them duplicitous and shallow. And I’ve never met anyone who’s seemed less… at home in their role, than you. Please don’t let my words offend you, Ciri, I don’t mean to insult you. I just mean to say… that you intrigue me, and I want to know more about you. I feel out of place… in this job. It’s nice to meet someone who seems to feel the same.”
She blushed, hard. His words made her feel like soaring through the air and sinking into the ground simultaneously. “O-oh… I see. OK. Yeah, i-it’s nice…I mean, I-I’m glad… I’m glad to meet you too.
Y-you really feel out of place? Y-you seem so… confident…” she trailed off into her flush.
He smiled. “Moisture farmer,” he reminded her.
“O-oh, of — of course,” she stumbled out belatedly, flushing deeper still.
“Don’t worry about it.” His fingertips were back, grazing the skin of her hand where it rested on the wide railing. His eyes were so deep and kind…
“Will you show me your woods, Ciri?” he asked after a silence. His fingers had left her bereft once again. “I’d be honored to receive a tour from someone who knows them so well.”
“O-of course!”
“Thank you, Ciri.”
“Um, i-it might be kind of hard… to show you the whole thing. In just one day. A-although you probably don’t even want to see the whole thing, it’s all basically just woods…”
“I’d like to see as much of it as you’d like to share. And it doesn’t have to be all in one day. If you’d just allow me to accompany you sometimes, when you go out walking…”
“W-well, if you really want to, then yeah, I’ll… I can show you everything. You can come with me anytime you like, Luke.”
He smiled warmly. “Thank you, Ciri. I appreciate it. —Listen, I wish I didn’t, but I have to go… but before I do… When you said you come here a lot, did you mean you come to this place specifically?”
“Y-yeah, it’s… sort of like my spot.”
“Would it be alright if I started coming here, too?”
“Y-yeah, yeah of course.”
“Thank you. I’ll find you here then, sometime soon. Tomorrow, or the next day. I’d be more specific but I’m not sure what your father has planned. If you aren’t here, I’ll meditate, so… no need to worry.”
“S-sure, I’ll — I’ll meet you here.”
“Thanks. I’ll be looking forward to it.”
“M-m… me too,” she managed weakly. He smiled at her so sweetly…
Then he took her hand and softly squeezed her fingers. “Good night, Ciri. Thanks for talking with me. It was so nice to speak informally for once.”
“G-good night, Luke.” He smiled again, before letting go of her hand and returning down the steps, striding through the verdant grass back to the castle. She watched him go. There was no way a man that beautiful was looking twice at her… but the way he’d smiled at her, nearly made her forget that.
When she eventually left, she was still holding the stone.
Chapter 2: Woods
Chapter Text
The next day, she got out to the gazebo first thing, with her pack on her back just in case. The whole time she was walking over there, she told herself that he wouldn’t be coming that day. Or, that early, on whatever day he did come. And that she wouldn’t spend all day there, waiting. But she still couldn’t help but sillily hope to find him.
At least she thought it was silly, until she approached close enough to discern a figure hovering between the railing and the roof.
It was him, of course. As she drew nearer, she could see that he was seated cross-legged, upon nothing but the air. And as she hesitantly came closer still, she noticed a field of little rocks and debris that were suspended all around the structure.
She paused to marvel silently, then cautiously came up the steps and perched on the railing next to his hovering form.
“Good morning, Ciri,” he murmured with his eyes closed.
“G-good morning, Luke,” she whispered, still reluctant to disturb him. As she waited, she curiously looked around at the floating detritus, periodically glancing up at him. His face was placid. Her eyes wandered from his cleft chin and generous mouth, up the smooth, gently lined planes of his cheeks to his hair-kissed brow — then she snatched them back in circumspection.
In a few minutes, he drifted back down to the railing and let himself sit beside her. Simultaneously, the stones and bits of things steadily lowered themselves to the ground and the water.
“You’re here early,” he remarked with a warm smile, turning his head to look at her.
“Y-you’re here earlier,” she replied. She really hadn’t expected him to already be there when she came.
“I like to meditate with the dawn,” he explained, then laughed lightly in embarrassment. “Well, I kinda thought that I was going to finish up before you got here, and then that I’d go poke around the grounds so to disguise my waiting for you… then once you arrived I was going to sense you here in the Force, and appear with mysteriously apt timing. …But instead here you are now, so I’m confessing.” His cheeks were pleasantly reddened when he looked at her.
She blushed as well. “Well, I — u-usually don’t get here q-quite so early…,” she confessed in turn, not fully understanding why she did.
As his grin intensified, his smooth cheeks dimpled and split with laughter lines. His blue eyes sparkled as he asked her, “So, Ciri… what did you have in mind for us for today?”
“Um, h-how much time do you have?”
To her surprise, his flush deepened. “Um, well… I kind of told your father that I was tired from my long journey and wanted to rest before speaking with him and his ministers at greater length. …Though actually, I’m not tired at all. So… I have the whole day.”
She blinked, smiling cautiously, and laughed a little. “Y-you’re… you’re ditching on my dad?”
He nodded, a little sheepish. “Um, yes, I suppose I am… Please don’t tell anyone…”
“O-of course not! Um…Luke, is this normal for you? N-not that I’m judging, j-just… curious..”
He laughed lightly. “No, I don’t do it often… Then again… I usually don’t have a reason to.” The very tips of his ears had gone appealingly pink.
She quietly blushed.
Then she remembered his original question and stammered, “…U-um, w-well I… I thought I could show you… I-I thought we could go for a walk. I-in the woods.”
“I was hoping you’d say that… and I noticed your pack, too. You came prepared,” he said, smiling happily at her, “I can’t wait to see them.”
“Great! T-then, shall we?” She popped herself down off the ledge and he followed, and they began strolling together down the steps.
“Can I carry that for you, Ciri?” he asked politely.
“N-no, I’m fine,” she refused, irrationally wanting to keep control of the pack… in part because it held her notebook.
He smiled easily. “Offer stands if you change your mind. …How do you usually get in?”
“There’s bridges… the closest one is down there a ways,” she said, pointing downstream.
They ambled across the springy lawn, still dewy from the dawn, following the course of the stream. It was strange to be walking with someone out here… she was always alone.
She had a feeling that he was shortening his strides to remain alongside her.
“S-so do — do you always… float like that, when you meditate?” she asked, to break the moment.
He laughed quietly. “No, not always… just usually. I always use the Force somehow, when I meditate… it helps hone my concentration. I hope I didn’t startle you… I sometimes forget that it can be a strange tableau to walk in on.”
“Y-you didn’t startle me, Luke,” she assured him, then flushed and admitted, “—W-well, I guess you actually d-did, but… I really enjoyed it. I-I mean, it’s like the most interesting thing I’ve ever.. s-seen, so.. And, I guess I’m just really curious, about anything… Force-y.”
“I enjoy your curiosity, Ciri,” he said, looking sidelong at her with a warm smile and kind eyes. She flushed again. “Others might be frightened, or disturbed — and believe me, they have been frequently enough — but you, just… I appreciate the way that you approach the world.”
“Um— th-thank you. …H-honing your concentration…makes sense. …Y-you were floating so much stuff! Is it hard?”
“Not exactly… the more I focus on the Force, the less difference there is in using it to change something small, and something large. Or between one thing, and many.”
“Oh… w-wow. That sounds… you must be very powerful.”
He let out an embarrassed laugh, blushing. “I suppose that I am…”
“What’s the biggest thing you’ve ever floated?” she asked in some excitement.
“Well… probably my X-wing. —My ship. I had to lift it out of a swamp, once.”
“Wow… you mean, your starship. It must be huge!”
“It’s not that big, actually, for a starship… it’s just a snubfighter. But yes, it is large and very heavy.”
“Oh! Is it… somewhere on the grounds? I didn’t notice it…”
“No, I left it a little ways off. I… usually kind of conceal it,” he admitted sheepishly, “…Old habit. I’ve… landed in a lot of places where I might not be welcome.”
“Oh….,” she said, wishing she had the grace to clear the disappointment from her voice.
“Would you like to see it, Ciri?” he offered.
“Um… well y-yes, but… I mean, I don’t… i-if it’s hidden, I probably shouldn’t—”
“It’s fine, Ciri,” he interrupted her gently, “I trust you. I don’t mind taking you there.”
“B-but you barely know me…”
“Call it a gut feeling, then. Besides, you’re trusting me. You don’t agree to show your favorite places in your wood to everybody, I assume.”
“Well… n-no, I haven’t shown anyone, but… i-it’s not quite the same…”
“Isn’t it?”
“I-if something happens to your ship, you’re… you’d be stuck here, wouldn’t you?”
“Well… for a time. Until the New Republic sent someone for me.”
“Oh. Th-that makes sense. Good.”
It sunk in that he’d offered to take her to see his starship. And it wasn’t on the castle grounds. —And it could fly!
“You’d really take me to see it??”
He grinned widely at her enthusiasm. “Of course, Ciri. It would be my pleasure. In fact I imagine I’m going to enjoy showing it off to you a bit more than what’s seemly.”
“Well I’ll definitely be impressed! Thank you!” she practically chirped, making him laugh. A buoyant spring entered her step, and a happy grin plastered her face.
~
The trees on the far side of the stream retreated from the bank near the bridge she led him to. As they passed under their branches, she heard the familiar sough of the breeze through the canopy above. The littlest currents of the air, here, always appeared amplified by the twinkling of the leaves within their grasp.
As they proceeded, the trunks rapidly densened around them, the undergrowth thinning in step with the light. The air cooled, becoming moist, and taking on a musty, leafy redolence. He paused, to take in a deep breath and hold it, savoring its aroma. She stopped, looking back.
“I like wild places,” he explained when he exhaled and noticed her watching. “Places dense with life… and decay. You can taste it, in the air, here… they always go together, hand-in-hand.” He resumed walking, and so did she, remaining slightly ahead to direct their course. As they moved, he continued, “The cycle of life and death enriches the Force. I used to train in a swamp — same one I pulled my X-wing out of — and in a jungle. Now I rarely see a leaf that isn’t manicured. This place may not be quite as thick with life as… a Dagobah, or a Yavin, but… it’s a far cry from a well-tended lawn.”
“There’s more life than it seems, at a glance. You have to be still to notice it… it’s cautious.”
“I can sense it… all around me like a hum, but, if I focus in it disambiguates, and then I feel… trees and ferns, and rodents and bugs and birds… and the smallest life, that never really disambiguates. It’s always left humming, like… a sheen, over and under everything. A thick one, out here, some spots. There’s something bigger nearby, too. …A ruminant, I think… about half a mile that way.” He gestured off to their right. “…Actually, several.”
Her jaw dropped, and now she was the one to stop walking. He turned to look back at her, with a slightly sheepish smile.
Gradually, she collected herself, and continued. “Y-you can sense such a lot… I’m a little envious. I-I’ve spent hours out here, perfectly still… waiting for things to forget I’m here and walk by…”
“Well… while I suppose that if I really needed a creature to walk by me, I could impel it to do so… I don’t like doing that sort of thing when it’s not… mandatory for me too, so, I’d have to just be still and wait, like you. …If it makes you feel any better.”
“U-um…,” she laughed. “I-I mean, not really but, I do appreciate the companionship.”
And after another moment she asked carefully, “Did… d-did you mean that you could float a creature to you, or… were you saying you can control minds, too?”
He took a moment before answering. “…It’s more like, I can make suggestions… that the weak-minded find themselves unable to ignore.”
She glanced at him, to find him watching her sidelong, a slight hesitance in his features.
“Well that’s even better than making things float,” she quipped, with a dry throat.
“…Does it bother you?” he asked quietly, still watching her softly. “…I don’t usually tell people, because they generally find it worrisome.”
She huffed out a laugh, and smiled at him, trying to look reassuring. “Um, i-it… definitely takes a little getting used to, b-ut… um, no, it doesn’t bother me. You don’t seem worrisome, to me.”
He looked away from her and smiled to himself, a smile that seemed so tender and private that she politely turned her gaze.
Then she laughed again, with more confidence. “…It’s kind of amazing, really. Guess it’s the most amazing thing you’ve told me yet… I wonder… how it works…” She became lost in conceptualization, for a moment. “Makes me feel like… there’s something about minds that I don’t understand. —And obviously there would be, but… something about having one, I guess, makes you feel like you’d know how they operate.” She looked up at him again, finding him giving her his small, sweet smile, and considering eyes. “Well, I suppose you might actually know how minds work. …Do you?”
There was a little pause, then, “…No,” he offered with a slowly widening grin. “The Force does the legwork… I just know how to feel out what I want, I don’t know the mechanisms it occurs by.”
She grinned back. “Figures. Well… at least some mysteries remain closed to you.. that’ll have to console me.”
“…You’re fun. I knew there’s a reason I wanted to talk to you.”
She blushed. “T-that I’m a loner, wasn’t it?”
“Well, I have to feel it’s a good sign that you don’t fit in with the sort of people I don’t tend to fit in with,” he replied with a laugh, “But I meant, that you can take me to the woods and tease me about mind control.” His grin was happy, and his eyes seemed to sparkle, even in the shade.
She smiled and flushed, dropping her eyes. “—D-do you really need me to take you out here? It kind of sounds like you’d be just as fine guiding yourself…”
He laughed lightly. “I can sense life, but I still don’t know the land, Ciri… so yeah, I could wander around out here and find my way back to the large concentration of sentients at the end of the day… but I’d never really know where I was going, without you.”
She smirked. “Then you don’t know where you’re going, now.”
“That’s true. Where are we going, Ciri?”
“It’s a secret.”
“Mysterious…”
“Well, if you’re going to know where the deer are, then I at least need a couple of secrets.”
He grinned. “I didn’t know they were deer… that’s something, right?”
“It’s something,” she agreed, feeling unaccountably pleased to know things he didn’t.
~
She was taking him to her favorite tree. —To one of her favorite trees. The woods thinned some along the way, so that light filtered down through the canopy, and dappled the underbrush that rose to meet it. She led him along a deer trail through the brush.
Presently, the cheerful little sounds of water traveling through a small channel rose through the air to join with the birdsong and the sighing breeze.
Soon after that, the trees halted their march, and a small oblong clearing unfurled before them, centered about the little brook. To one side, a large cherry tree hove into the air, its branches weighted down by a dense carpeting of pink flowers. The grass of the clearing was dotted with fallen petals, which thickened to a lake of matte pink around the tree. The birds chirped, and insects hummed, and the crick burbled; and the sunlight saturated all the colors and their eyes and seemed to have almost a physical presence, after the closeness of the trees.
He stopped walking, and raised his hands to run his fingers through his hair as his shoulders heaved and a deep exhalation left his body.
“Wow,” he murmured after a moment.
She grinned, and knew she’d chosen her spot well. “Yeah,” she agreed out loud, “It’s just lucky that you got here during the bloom… I always love this place, but it shows its most impressive face for just a few weeks a year.”
“Impressive is right…,” he breathed, then teased, “…and you said they were just woods.”
She blushed. “Well… maybe mostly just woods.”
He turned his gaze upon her, smiling gratefully. “If it only lasts a few weeks… then there’s little hope I’d have stumbled on this spot in time to see it, had I been out here on my own. Thank you for bringing me here, Ciri.”
Her blush deepened, and again she had to drop his gaze briefly before replying, “Y-you’re welcome, Luke. I’m glad you like it.”
“I love it.” And she could see in his eyes that he did.
~
They spent the better part of the day there, sandwiched between the blossoms — some covering the ground where they sat, others hanging over their heads and filtering the sunlight above them — and lunched on nuts and dried fruits and jerky from her pack.
She ended up taking out her notebook and moving off a space to draw the blossoming tree, while he meditated beneath it. Her breath caught when she noticed him hovering there, with the cherry petals all caught up in his field, suffusing the air around him.
The cherry bloom had accentuated his beauty. She could imagine him as a spirit of the old tree, manifested to accompany its flowers. Her chest felt tight as she drew his serene face, dappled here and there with pink. When she had done, she hesitated a moment, then quietly turned the page and moved in a little closer to draw him again.
Eventually she heard his voice. “What are you drawing, Ciri?” he asked softly.
His eyes had drifted open just a little, to regard her through slitted lids. His face remained placid.
Hers flushed brightly red. “U-um… um, y-you…,” she stammered weakly, inwardly cursing her lack of composure.
“Me?” His lips had curled into a hint of a smile. “May I see?”
Her heart rolled into a ball and hid inside her chest, and she didn’t know why she said what she did. “Um, y-yeah… —i-it isn’t… q-quite done yet…”
His lids fell closed once again, but his smile briefly intensified before he schooled his expression back to an uninterrupted calm. “Thank you, Ciri. That’s perfect, because I’m not quite done either.”
When she finished and he hadn’t dropped back to earth yet, she inwardly struggled with herself, biting her lip and her pencil and frowning, then quickly began sketching him again in the corner.
This time she had just about finished when he lowered himself to the ground, and allowed all the suspended petals to flitter down around him in a fairy-like shower. She watched the cascading pink curtain, hardly daring to breathe, until she realized that he was watching her, an inscrutable expression on his face. She gulped, and his face flowered into a visage of supremely soft kindness.
“Did you finish?” he asked gently.
“Y-yeah.”
She came over to him and sat down, and passed him her notebook opened to her first drawing, that showed the tree and his figure suspended amidst the petals underneath. He scooted to place his back against the tree, before accepting it. She worried at her lip as he studied her work, curled up against the trunk with his booted ankles crossed and his knees raised and her notebook rested against his thighs.
Presently, he slipped his finger under the page and lifted it, pausing to catch her eye. “May I?” he asked respectfully. She nodded assent, and he turned the page to find the sketches more centered on him.
She’d thought she wouldn’t dare to watch him looking at these. But then she glanced at him, and he was turning delicately red, with a tender smile curving his lips and his eyes gone all soft, and somehow she just didn’t look away.
It felt like he looked at the page for a long time, but she couldn’t be sure because everything felt like it was lasting a long time. As though time were dilating, under the burgeoning branches.
“These are amazing, Ciri,” he breathed.
She blushed, and allowed conservatively, “…I like them.”
“Sush,” he replied, “I’m starting to think you don’t know how to toot your own horn. These are amazing.” He flipped back to the first drawing. “This is such a well-rendered scene. Something so ethereal, yet you’ve recapitulated even that so perfectly…” Then he returned to the others. “And these… you made me look so pretty. And peaceful. Even the sketch captures it…” He raised his gaze to hers, with a sweetly crooked little smile. “Is this what I look like when I meditate? I’ve never seen…”
“Um, well y-yeah… it is.”
“That’s a bit better.”
“Huh?”
He tilted his head and stretched his neck luxuriously. “You just acknowledged your drawing skills… albeit indirectly.”
“O-oh…oops.”
That made him laugh, and grin at her with his soft, sweet eyes. “Well I don’t know much about art, Ciri, but my understanding is that landscapes are different from portraits. Skillset-wise. And I’d guess you don’t do many portraits, if you mainly work out here. But you drew me so well.”
“I-I’m used to drawing what I see,” she responded with embarrassment, “I’m… not like, trained or anything.”
“Training is for those who need it, then.”
She snuffed, and smiled. “You’re kind.”
“Can I see the rest?” he asked, light sparking in his eyes, appearing totally relaxed.
She nodded without hesitation. “S-sure.”
He grinned in triumph, and flipped the page, moving backwards through the notebook toward the beginning. “Thank you, Ciri,” he murmured, as his eyes found the next illustration.
He spent a long while going through her work, smiling frequently to himself with a dreamy look in his eyes. She brought her knees up to her chest, and wrapped her arms around them. She had briefly thought of sitting next to him to lean against the tree, and had immediately discarded the possibility in favor of the continued opportunity to observe him, from where she was. She couldn’t believe the sheer quantity of time she’d been able to spend looking at his face, that day.
“There’s notes…,” he said after a while, “Can I read your notes?”
“Yeah,” she answered readily.
Presently his brow creased slightly, even as his lips quirked upward. “Ciri… what exactly is this?” There was something conspiratorial in his tone.
“I… w-what do you mean?” she asked in small confusion, “I-it’s my notebook… I draw the plants and wildlife that I see out here.”
“This note is about the nesting habits of this bird. And you’ve drawn the nest. And… the young? Did you climb a tree for this?”
“Y-yeah…” She didn’t know why it felt like an admission.
“And this note is about the development of the hatchlings.” He flipped another page. “Then this, is a description of the bird’s… courtship dance, with illustrations… Ciri, are you a naturalist?”
“Um…” She had never really thought about it.
He raised his eyes to hers, biting his lip against his smirk. “You told me, that you like to draw. And that it was nothing special. Now I find this notebook, full of gorgeous illustrations, highly detailed and I don’t doubt accurate, and many of them seem to systematically consider their subjects… like you’ll have a forest scene, but centered on a particular tree, and then in the margins you’ll have added close-up sketches and descriptions of the leaves, and bark, and flowers and seedpods. And the notes you’ve made further the information in the drawings. It doesn’t look like an artist’s sketchbook. It looks like the observations of a naturalist.”
“Um… I-I guess… yeah, I — I make observations. I...haven’t really thought about… what I am, I suppose.”
“You make observations…,” he echoed with a smile that seemed almost to adore her. “Well, you’re a naturalist, Ciri. An amateur naturalist, if you’ll insist.”
“I… guess I’d have to.”
“I can’t believe you…,” he said quietly. His expression had turned wistful. “You’re so skilled, and so dismissive of it. Telling me you like to draw…”
She blushed, and had no idea how to respond.
His eyes returned to her notebook. “There wouldn’t have been anything wrong with it, if you did just make casual art. Even if you weren’t very good. I still did want to see it. This is just… so far past what you had led me to expect. I can’t believe you…,” he trailed.
She resettled her chin in her arms and continued watching him smiling to himself over her work.
***
As the days crept past, she kept seeing him, kept running into him by her gazebo, seeming anytime he wasn’t needed by her father. Some days she’d see his cross-legged form in the air below the roof as she arrived, and some she’d get there first, and turn to find him approaching with his long, lanky steps. Each time she did, her pulse would quicken. Each time he gave her that big, wide open smile in greeting, she’d feel something surging inside her chest. She never made it past his smile without a blush, but eventually it was evident to her that he didn’t care. He wanted to do things with her, simple things, any thing, things that must have bored him… but he never looked bored, when she looked at him. He’d look relaxed, caught sidelong in peaceful moments gazing into the trees, or happy, turning his adorable grin onto her and laughing, or intent, studying something she’d pointed out to him, or drawn. They wandered the castle halls together, and sometimes he’d take his meals with her, simple kitchen fare. They went back to the cherry tree, savoring its bloom before it faded; and they visited other clearings she knew, and hollows, and streams. They took little game trails under the trees and tried to sneak up on animals he would sense, and he would summon little breezes under the tree limbs to tuck their scent away while she sketched furiously. And one afternoon, she took him up into the tower that housed her rooms, and let him look through the volumes she’d filled with her drawings and notes, the pages pulled from her notebooks and organized by degrees of their subject’s relation, as well as she could deduce. She fidgeted semi-covertly on the couch across from his while he read, envying how the act seemed to put him to ease…and when his eyes would suddenly flit up from the pages to meet hers observing him, and he’d give her such a shy, sweet little smile with his eyes gone all soft in a way that was difficult to describe… she didn’t fully know why, but she’d get this little catch inside and turn all warm, and like to stop breathing. And when he’d had done, and begun praising her… she nervously accepted it, and found that she couldn’t meet his eyes, for her blushing. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees and resting his chin in his palms, and watched her blush in satisfaction, reaching out once, carefully, to brush her knee with the back of a knuckle and prompt her to look up at him, whereupon he gave her the biggest, sweetest smile and made her laugh to be so embarrassed with him. Afterwards, she took him to dinner, and made him laugh, with stories about the people they saw.
She thought about him, and tried not to think about him.
A few days later he brought her a gift. He blushed bashfully as he handed it to her. She unwrapped the plain, neat package to reveal… some sort of strange device? She looked up at him with curiosity. “Luke, what is it?” she asked, quiet and a little breathless.
His grin was gorgeous. “It’s a pocket-scope, Ciri. It bends light. If you look through it, the very small appears large.”
Her eyes lit up. “Really?” she said in excitement, as she carefully lifted the scope and examined it.
“…I hope it may show you a new world,” he said, watching her, “Things look very different, on a much tinier scale.”
“Luke, thank you!” she said with sincere gratitude, then stopped in embarrassment. “…b-but… but I have nothing for you!”
He dropped his gaze and flushed. “You’ve been gifting me your company, Ciri,” he said, voice soft, “stintlessly.” Her eyes widened to hear his response.
“…I…,” she started, but faltered and had to stop. No one had ever said anything like it to her before. Nor hardly brought her a gift, outside set occasions. She had to consider how to respond.
“…T-then, please grant me some more of your time, tonight, and teach me how to properly use it, Luke. I’ll treasure it.”
A shy little smile played with the corners of his lips, and his eyes lit up. “It will be my great pleasure, princess.”
And so they passed a couple of hours, comfortably side by side, as he explained everything about the scope to her that he could, and meanwhile she took notes.
And over the coming days, a new type of sketch began to appear in her notebooks.
Chapter 3: Party
Chapter Text
Her stomach fluttered when she caught sight of him, then fell as she took in his companion. Olandria. She considered just leaving, at least until later; after all Olandria couldn’t be by his side all night, could she? ….Well, on second thought, she probably could, if she wanted to. And which courtier wouldn’t want to hang on the arm, or the word, of the heroic blue-eyed gallant from the stars?
But just as she was turning away, she heard his voice calling her, “Highness!”
She froze, feeling a bit caught, then hesitantly turned back.
He had approached, Olandria beside him with a subtle sneer. She was not actually on his arm; he had not made it available. He didn’t notice her expression, as his eyes were fixed onto Ciri. “Highness, I wasn’t certain I would see you this evening. What fortuity we enjoy, that you’ve graced us with your presence.” The formality of his words made her gulp. He was good at this… the polite posturing of politics. “Don’t you agree, lady Olandria?” he asked, turning to his companion, who smoothly schooled her expression.
“Indeed… fortuity,” she agreed blandly, on cue.
Luke returned his attention to her. “How do you find the soiree?” he inquired of her.
“It’s… nice enough,” she commented weakly. She had no stomach for events, though the pomp was pretty.
“I suspected it might not please my lady,” he responded with a smile, “so I am grateful to find you in attendance. But perhaps there is something here you may enjoy? Do you dance, Highness?”
“Certainly not,” she said quickly, and a little too forcefully. His face quirked.
“That is well, if my lady’s wishes are against it. Please accept my apology… I did not intend to offend,” he offered.
“I-it’s fine, L— uh, sir. I didn’t mean to speak so abruptly.”
He smiled kindly. “Please, say nothing of it.”
“I dance,” Olandria cut in, “if sir would like to. There is no need to refrain because her Highness does not enjoy it.”
The smile Luke turned upon her was rather different from the one Ciri had become so used to seeing offered her. “Forgive me, lady Olandria, if I must refuse. I would not feel right, leaving my lady to her devices when her nature renders her less suited to this affair than we. But please, do not let me dissuade you from seeking a partner.” He gestured generally at the crowd.
Olandria was skilled at keeping her feelings from her face. The porcelain mask showed nothing of disappointment as she smilingly accepted the rejection. “Perhaps in a moment, sir. I would while with you and our lady yet.”
They talked of little things, and of the court. He described something of the war, at Olandria’s encouragement and to her obvious titillation. It was strange, seeing him this way, after how he’d been with her when they were alone. She could not relax, with Olandria by his side, and him addressing her so formally. She had not been caught in a conversation with the woman in some time. It was terribly awkward, but anytime she faltered Luke would favor her with that same, sweet smile, smoothly elide her misstep, and pick up the words’ thread, and she would feel reassured.
Eventually the discussion meandered to romance, under Olandria’s prodding. “Does my lord have a family awaiting his return?”
“I do not… beyond my sister, who no doubt awaits me, but who is also the cause of my departure from her. Have you, lady Olandria? A family, that is.”
An image of perfectly poised regret came onto her face. “I have not the time. At least, not as yet.” Her expression brightened. “But I am not yet through with dalliance… there is much good to be had, by making capital on one’s favorable opportunities, I have found. And yourself? I imagine more… temporary entanglements must suit a lifestyle such as yours. Darting from one kingly court to the next, with nary a one to call berth. Besides that one to which you rarely may return, where your exalted sibling awaits.”
For the first time, a glimmer of uncertainty crossed his fine features. “Dalliance does not frequently meet my taste,” he said simply.
“Oh? Surely you must have ample fine opportunities, my lord?”
“I suppose.”
“Astonishing...such austerity! You are a truer Knight than the most, my lord, if I may speak so. But none would hold you to count, for answering the calls which your position and your manly nature dispose you to receive, and enable you to respond… …Now her Highness, here, is situated rather differently. Who can say where her preferences lie? She cannot answer such a call, would she or no, for not a one has ever been forthcoming for her!” Olandria finished the revelation with a snide smile, just for her.
Ciri’s heart dropped through her stomach. She wanted to sink to her knees, and flee, in about equal measure. She could do naught but stand silently, color blooming on her cheeks.
Luke startled, appearing heavily taken aback, but quickly recovered himself and turned his attention fully onto her. “Well, I have to say, my lady, that I have the deepest respect for your position,” he began quietly, a silent entreaty in his tone and a little of the formality shedding from his words. “I know as well as any with eyes and understanding, the sort of callers who swarm around those who wield power. To have rid yourself of them entirely, is remarkable, and a testament to the fine caliber of your character. I wish I had half the grace that you possess; it would have brought me an easier road. …And I know that one day, you will find someone who merits your attention.”
Meanwhile, Olandria’s smile had flagged with disappointment.
She looked at him gratefully, feeling her embarrassment slightly recede. “…Th-thank you, Luke,” she said quietly, too shaken to call him properly, “Um...please excuse me, I think I’m going to go.”
…And her tormentor’s smile ever-so-slightly returned.
“Of course,” he replied. “Would you care for company?” There was something hopeful in his manner.
She smiled a little in spite of herself, and agreed, “Yes, thank you.”
His answering smile was sweet and soft and grateful… and it frosted over as soon as he turned to face Olandria. “Please excuse us, lady Olandria,” he said stiffly. “I believe something you have said may have soured our lady’s taste for this evening. Not to worry, I will see that her spirits are buoyed. Perhaps you may now seek out that dance.” He turned and stepped past her without waiting for a reply, and Ciri followed after him — and as soon as he was clear of their former little circle, he halted to await her, extending her his arm with a gentle smile. Hesitantly, she took it, and permitted him to guide her from the hall.
Once they were clear of people and out into the night, he sighed. “I detest that woman.”
She snickered, despite her lingering embarrassment. “Yeah, me too,” she agreed.
“I said I’ve met a lot of court people I don’t like, but… most have at least the good sense not to insult their betters to their face.” His tone softened, “I’m sorry, Ciri. She was unbelievably rude.”
A short laugh huffed between her teeth. “Why should you be sorry? Trust me, she’s always like that. It’s nothing to do with you. …W-well…I-I guess normally she does exercise better discretion than that in public, but… still, it’s just how she is.”
He looked back toward the hall with an expression of mild disgust, as though he could know where Olandria was just at that moment, and his voice hardened. “She’s always like that? She’s treated you this way before?”
She nodded hesitantly, embarrassment rising once again. “Um, yeah, s-she’s… I-I guess she’s kind of a bully. And sh-she hates me. Always has…since we were kids.”
They approached a balustrade, and he paused before reaching it, to turn his face to meet hers and say gently, “I regret very much to learn that, Ciri. You deserve to be treated with much finer respect. …I have to confess, though, that I do think I may have had something to do with her… not scrupling to discress, tonight.”
She blinked to find that he was blushing. “W-what do you mean? I don’t see how you could have…”
He dropped his arm, and she released him, not without some measure of regret. He stepped to the railing and leaned his forearms upon it, and she followed, companionably close to his side. “Well, I… I just don’t think she liked the way I looked at you.”
Now she was blushing, too. “Oh…. H-h-how were you.. l-looking at me…?” she asked weakly.
He turned his gaze to her, and she nearly dropped hers away. She would have, no question, but that he was so disarmingly flushed and he was looking at her that very way, again. With something unnameably soft in his eyes. “Couldn’t you tell?”
She did drop her gaze, then, abruptly fixing it out onto the darkness beyond the railing. “I’m sorry, Ciri,” she heard him apologizing gently, “I don’t mean to be coy,” …and slowly raised her eyes back to him. He was watching her quietly. “I believe I was looking at you like you’ve been holding me captivated… like I could fall into you without moving, and wouldn’t even try to stop myself.”
She gasped, softly. Her eyes felt frozen on his beautiful, reddened face. Gradually she blinked, as an, “o-oh…” drifted dazedly out of her throat.
This time, it was his eyes that fell away. “So…,” he continued, looking back up at her in a moment with a wry little smile and that softness in his eyes, “I think that may have made her feel a little jealous.”
“Oh,” she said, with better strength, “Y-yeah, m-maybe. I think… I think they’re all a little dazzled. B-by you…”
“Yeah…,” he blushed, looking down again, “I think you may be right. Whereas I’m just dazzled by you.”
She laughed nervously. “C-come on, don’t…d-don’t make jokes.”
“I’m not making a joke, Ciri.” And nothing in his manner seemed jovial, at all.
There was a pause, as she tried to digest that. “You’re famous!” she finally exclaimed, “You’re storied. And you’ve been everywhere, to the stars, to places we can’t even imagine! And you’re— handsome, and smooth-talking, and you can do magic — at least as far as we can tell, even if it’s just because we’re too small to understand. It makes sense why everyone is amazed by you! I’m no one special at all. I have a special dad. That’s it, and even he is no one compared to you. There’s no reason for you to look tw—”
“Did you know,” he interrupted her, “that out of all those fancy places in the galaxy I’ve been, meeting overlords and presidents and potentates, no one has ever, once, invited me to call them by their first name? But you did, instantly. …I’m so tired of being famous, Ciri. I’m tired of my special story following me around everywhere I go. I like the way you treat me. I like you.”
A silence fell between them. She was taken aback, working the information over in her mind. Eyes searching the darkness.
After a moment, he sighed. “A long time ago,” he said quietly to the darkened grounds, “when I was new to this… to fame… just after we’d won the war, while my sister was cobbling together a galactic government out of chuba chips, I… I let myself be caught up, in the swirl of my admirers. I let them wine me and dine me, let myself be shown off at ritzy parties… and I let…,” he trailed off, swallowing, looking down at the ground. She waited, stilled, and then he softly continued, “I let them do things with me… ‘dalliances.’ Like what Olandria was talking about. …And I can’t tell you, how I regret it. ….…You’re different. I like the way you make me feel.” After a moment, he delicately raised his eyes back to hers.
“I… Luke, I don’t know what to say,” she managed quietly. She cautiously reached out to him, and placed her hand on his forearm.
“Say that you believe me, when I tell you how I feel. Say that you like me, too.”
“I-I believe you… and I like you too.”
He gave her a slow smile filled with such gratitude, that she nearly felt guilty to receive it. “Thank you, Ciri.”
“A-are you alright, Luke?” she asked quietly. His vulnerability was making her heart hurt.
But he smiled at her so fully that she nearly stopped breathing. He gently put his hand over hers, and lightly brushed his thumb over her knuckles. “Yeah, I’m fine, Ciri. Thank you for asking. Just bad memories… but they’re distant, now. ..How about you? Are you alright?”
She found herself nodding. “Yeah, I’m fine too. Um, th-thanks for being so nice to me, back there. I-I… I don’t know what I would have done, without you there to… take over, the way you did.” Then she said, “…Luke… we could talk more, a-about memories, some time… a-anytime, if you wanted someone friendly to talk to.”
He smiled prettily, lightly squeezed her hand, and said softly, “Thank you, Ciri. ..I might take you up on that, later.” Then he released her. “…Well, without me there I imagine you would have been less embarrassed in the first place, too. And she probably wouldn’t have said anything either, anyhow. …But I’m glad I was able to help.”
His tone was confidently casual. She wasn’t much for social cues, but it seemed to say, that he’d like to move on. So she packed up the worry in her chest for later, and did. “Well, I-I guess I… I probably wouldn’t have come, if you weren’t gonna be there, anyway. I mean I… I nearly never d-do,” she admitted.
His face split and beamed with happiness. He rested his chin on his hand and rocked forward on his elbow, joyfully. “You really do like me… I’m so flattered to hear that, Ciri. And I’m glad you did.. even though she was so awful to you, and even though it was weird talking to you in um… in court-speak. It made me so happy to see you.”
She smiled, slightly timidly, under his delight. “It — it was weird, talking to you that way. It kept throwing me off, n-not being able to call you by… and how you were addressing me! —A-and, you know, just with her being there…I always avoid her, I haven’t had to really talk to her in so long… B-but you… you’re so good at that stuff. Everytime I… g-got— got lost, you..you made it be OK. H-how do you do that, anyway?”
“It’s just lots and lots of practice, Ciri. I really have no natural talent for this at all. I used to be more like you…blushy, stuttery, unsure. I would always be flubbing up. But when you’re so… whatever I am, to people, it makes them remarkably forgiving. So I got in lots of practice.”
She had flushed deeply and looked away at having her awkward tells pointed out, and now she felt his hand gently cover her arm. “..Please forgive me if I was overly blunt, Ciri.” She sensed him leaning in a little closer, and then his voice began again, soft and low and near, “…You know, you don’t need to be embarrassed about this… I like you, and I like you the way you are. You’re sincere. Your feelings are always showing on your face. It’s so refreshing to me...like I’m talking with a real person, in a room full of animated masks. You put me to shame. And… I like it that when I’m with you, you make me blush, too. No one else makes me do that, anymore.”
“I’m… I’m the only one?”
“You’re the only one, Ciri.”
She peeked up at him. His lips were slightly parted, his smooth cheeks flushed with color. “W-well… I guess that could make me a little special, m-maybe.”
He grinned appreciatively. “It sure makes you special to me.”
She gave a little laugh, blushing and looking up at him happily. He made her feel so comfortable, and so uncomfortable, at the same time. She glanced down and half-subconsciously closed the tiny gap between them, and leaned against him.
He leaned slightly into her in return, then opened his palm and murmured, “Give me your hand…?”
Her heart skipped, and she did it immediately, placing her hand palm up on his. He gently curled his fingers down between hers…then brought up his gloved hand too and clasped hers in his larger pair…
He turned her palm downward, his fingers still wrapped through hers, and tenderly cradled her hand in both of his. “Thank you, Ciri…” he breathed. She simultaneously lost control of her exhale, and her breath roughly skittered out. She felt briefly embarrassed. She felt him squeeze and softly rub his thumbs along her skin; then she leaned her temple against his cheek, and closed her eyes...and felt a little better.
A moment passed, during which she tried to get used to the sensation of his skin on hers.
“Luke?” she asked, eyes flashing open, suddenly anxious again.
“Yes, Ciri?”
“Um, is it w-weird if… I’ve n-n-never… n-never.. if, I’ve, n-never, held hands, like this, before?” she stammered out shyly.
He smiled wistfully, where she couldn’t see, and gently pressed her hand, and warmly reassured her, nudging slightly into her hair. “No, Ciri, I don’t think it’s weird… I think it’s innocent. …And I’m delighted to be the one who gets to hold your hand, princess.”
She smiled, biting her lip with pleasure at his answer. A long moment passed, during which she felt almost nothing but his closeness. He shut his eyes, his head rested against hers.
“…And you know something else, Ciri?” he murmured presently.
“What is it, Luke?”
“I’ve never held hands like this, either.”
“—Oh! —r-r-really?” she said in surprise. She was sure he’d done everything…
“Really. You’re my first. …but that’s not as innocent, coming from me.”
He sighed. “…I really like how you make me feel, Ciri, I mean, really. Like, I get to walk around with these butterflies in my stomach, and blush like a farmboy while I hold hands with the pretty girl who put them there…” He laughed, quietly, “I wanna do such sweet, silly things with you.”
Her breath caught. “W-with me? …I-I mean, I’d like to, too! —O-oh, um…” She blushed terribly.
“Did you just have second thoughts about being sweet and silly with me?” he asked with a smile in his voice.
“Um, no I — I just…” her voice dropped to a tiny whisper, “It’s just, Luke, I don’t know what I’m doing… I-I don’t really know what to do…”
He soothingly squeezed her hand and whispered back, “Try not to worry about it, Ciri. It’s alright. There’s nothing in particular that you have to do… it’s not a performance, or a game. There’s no wrong moves. You can’t mess it up. Just be yourself, with me.”
“O-OK…” she quietly sighed. “um, ok. thanks. I can do that. Luke…,” she was still whispering, “um, n-no one thinks I’m pretty.”
“I doubt that, very much. I think people just don’t know what to say to you. But even if it were true, it doesn’t matter. I know you’re pretty… and I think it’s about time you started hearing so, if you haven’t. You’re beautiful, princess. I’ll tell you again, later.”
She flushed. “Th-th-thanks…,” she trailed.
A moment passed.
“…Ciri’s such a pretty name, too,” he remarked, his eyes closed again and a small smile on his lips. “It’s so pleasing to say…”
She laughed in embarrassment, “Um, th-thank you…,” and a satisfied hum escaped his throat.
“So… you came to this thing just for me… do you really not want to dance with me, Ciri?”
“I… I couldn’t, n-not w-with… and I don’t know how to dance, Luke,” she confessed.
“I could teach you.”
“B-but… not with… I-I can’t, in front of…”
He squeezed her hand. “We don’t have to be in front of anyone. I can teach you to dance when we’re alone.”
“Oh…,” she breathed, then flushed. “I-I guess that… that would be alright, then.”
She could hear the warmth of his smile in his voice. “Perfect. …You know, I usually don’t enjoy dancing very much either, I only learned it for work… but I’m really looking forward, to dancing with you.”
She huffed a nervous laugh, blushing yet again, and quashing the impulse to remind him there was nothing so special about her. “J-just don’t expect… I-I mean, I’m probably going to stomp on your toes or something terrible…”
He chuckled. “Like I said, Ciri… there’s no wrong moves here. So stomp away. My boots are tough.”
She smiled, feeling flutters in her insides, and laughed a little nervously, “Well.. alright. I’ll t-try not to make you regret saying that….”
He laughed, gently. “I’m sure I won’t.”
Time passed in the glow of his body heat, and then she asked, “Luke? W-why do you always wear that glove?”
“Oh… well, here… I hope I’m not about to creep you out…,” he muttered as he gently released her hand to tug at his glove, “but it’s to hide the hole in my prosthetic…”
She almost regretted speaking, to lose his hands on hers, but she watched with interest as he removed the glove and turned over his hand, revealing a hole in the back, with oddly deformed and blackened edges, and darkness in its center. She blinked at it.
“Oh,” he said with light embarrassment, then retrieved a penlight.
When illumined, she could see that the hole was filled with a mass of wires and metal struts. She leaned in curiously, and he flexed his hand. She saw the struts sliding smoothly past one another. Her mouth fell open, and she gasped. “Oh m— …oh.. Y-your hand is mechanical??”
And she hesitantly reached out to touch it, lightly brushing the skin. It felt surprisingly real, except… it was cooler than his other hand. She watched its innards shifting as he extended and flexed his fingers, her mouth slightly opened in wonder.
“I lost it… in the war. My hand. Got a great prosthetic, though…”
“Yeah, it’s amazing!”
“Except for the hole, I can barely notice a difference. It’s got a full range of movement, neural control, somatosensation… everything.”
“You can feel, with it?”
“Yeah, basically like normal.”
“What happened to it? Th-the hole, I mean.”
“The synthskin was damaged in a blasterfight, and I just never had it replaced.”
She delicately brushed her fingertip over the edge of the hole; then gasped and yanked back her hand. “I-I’m sorry… m-may I?”
He grinned with lambent indulgence. “You may… please feel free.”
Her fingertips returned to the smoothed and slightly bulbous melted edge…
She slowly slid her hand down over the back of his, feeling the smooth texture of the false skin and the corruption of the hole.
“W-why didn’t you… replace it?”
“I wanted a reminder…,” he said slowly, “…of— of who I am. Or… who I can be.”
His voice sounded a little distant. She stopped exploring the hole, to look up at him, and focus fully.
“What do you mean?” she asked curiously, then quickly remembered her manners, “I-I mean, you don’t… obviously it’s personal, you don’t have to explain.”
A moment went by, then…
“In the war…,” he quietly mused, “It was my father. Who took my hand. I thought he was dead, but..he was fighting on the other side. He was… he was a great Jedi, who fell to the dark side. And he wanted me to join him. He thought that he could leave me without other options, I suppose. …All that time, on Tatooine… my uncle had been protecting me from him… But I wouldn’t turn.
“In the end… I went to confront his master. The Emperor. And we fought for him… my father and I. I couldn’t understand why the Emperor kept laughing… I was filled with anger, and desperation. My friends were in danger, dying… it was our best chance to beat the Empire and we had risked everything for it, and the Empire was going to win. I let my anger guide me… I defeated my father, and I took his hand, in turn. And when I looked at the stump as he lay there on the floor, I saw nothing but the charred, smoking ends of wires. …He had been in a terrible battle, long ago, and most of his body had been replaced by machinery. He couldn’t breathe, without the machines. Couldn’t do much of anything, but die…
“I don’t know what came over me, exactly. I looked at his stump, and I looked at my false hand, and I realized that what I was doing was wrong. That’s why the Emperor was laughing. He thought that by killing my father, I could be pushed to the dark side. …So I threw my weapon away and refused to fight. And the Emperor began killing me… he was much stronger in the Force than I. I had barely finished training. He had been a great lord in the dark side of the Force, since long before I was born. I didn’t have a chance.
“…My father saved me,” he said quietly, “My father sacrificed himself, to kill his master, and save me… People like to say that I defeated the Emperor, but it isn’t true. I helped my father come back to the light, and then I watched him die…” his voice dropped to a whisper. “No one understood… He was about the most feared man in the galaxy, so I guess it makes sense, but… I had to build his funeral pyre alone.
“I keep this hole, to remind myself of him. How I nearly became him… how the compassion I showed him returned him to the light. That I always have two paths before me, and one of them is his.”
They were silent for a space. Then she softly took his false hand in both of hers, clasped and squeezed it tight, trying to offer him comfort. The edges of the hole made an indent in her palm.
“Luke, I’m sorry…,” she whispered, “No one should have to… face a parent, that way. Turned against you…I can’t even say. I’m sorry you went through that. …and that you had to grieve him alone. Someone should have been with you.”
He smiled ruminatively, and his fingers gently nudged between hers. “Thank you, Ciri. …It’s alright. I saw his ghost once, you know. And it was the real him, without all the machinery… He lives on in the Force. All the strong lights do… He’s there with my old masters. I think he’s at peace. I think he feels freed.”
She felt a sad smile, as the thought settled in. “That sounds nice…,” she murmured, “I’m glad. I’m glad you got to see him that way.” He smiled at her sidelong, in pleasure.
“I am, too.
“…I haven’t told that story very often…and not at all for a long time. Most people don’t know how to feel about it. I guess it makes them uncomfortable…because of what my father did, after he fell. …It feels good, to share it with someone who doesn’t see it through that lens.”
She smiled, and was silent, thinking. She had gotten his hands back, and wondered at the difference between them. He hadn’t replaced his glove. She let her fingers almost subconsciously try to learn the synthskin from the real thing.
“Luke, does that mean that.. you’re going to be a ghost?”
He laughed, softly. “I imagine that I will.”
“Amazing… I wonder what it will be like…,” she trailed off, then gave a small laugh. “I always thought it was so silly to believe in ghosts, and now…”
“…And now you’re like, friends with one,” he supplied.
“And now I’m like friends with one,” she echoed with a grin.
“It’s a strange galaxy.”
She laughed, knowing a different version of the phrase. “You’re so worldly, Luke,” she complimented, making him laugh, too.
They stood like that for some time, intermittently chatting, he now and again carefully squeezing her palm or absently rubbing his cheek against her hair.
Presently, she began to yawn, to her chagrin.
“…Can I take you home, princess?”
“I’m fine,” she protested, yawning again.
He chuckled, grinning luxuriously, and murmured softly into her hair, “You know Ciri, I’m gonna be here tomorrow, too. ….I know where to find you… and I wanna spend the whole day together, just you and me.” Her heart pulsed, as her guts liquefied.
“S-s-sure,” she agreed, “Y-yeah I’ll… I-I’d like to, too.”
“Then it’s a plan. …And until then… it’s fine to get some sleep tonight, you know.”
“Um,” she said through a yawn, “Yeah, OK. In a moment.” He tightened his grip on her hand in acknowledgement, and she gripped his back. They breathed together, quietly sharing each other’s heat. He slowly pressed a kiss just above her temple, and her heart leapt.
At some point her tiredness became unignorable, and she let him urge her to bed. He offered her his arm to walk her there, but instead of taking it she slid her hand back into his. He practically beamed with happiness as he squeezed her palm, while she blushed up at him with a careful little smile and they began walking.
When they'd climbed the stair to her rooms and halted in front of her door, she found herself not knowing what to say or do. But before she had much chance to dither, he stepped in closer to her and brought her hand up between his, and gently stroked across her knuckles, then softly squeezed. “I had an absolutely wonderful time with you tonight, Ciri… and it was such a privilege to be given your hand. Thank you…,” he murmured.
She gasped quietly to feel her palm being lightly fondled, and instinctively brought her other hand up to place over his, looking up at him with big eyes, a timid smile, and a blush. “I-I had a great time, too, L-Luke… Thank you.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Ciri,” he whispered to her fingers, then softly kissed them and released her, with a shy smile…
He stepped back. She shakily turned, and opened her door, and stepped inside. She got one more chance to see his smile as she closed it, then she heard his footsteps retreating down the corridor as she collapsed against her door.
He’d said they were friends, but she was starting to feel more and more certain that he didn’t want to just be friends. The realization was deeply overwhelming.
Despite how tired she’d been, it was hard to sleep.
Chapter 4: X-Wing
Chapter Text
She still got out to the gazebo early. He was meditating, and probably waiting for her. He lowered himself to the rail as she leaned against it next to him.
“Hi,” she greeted him as his eyes opened, and quickly his face split into a big grin.
“Hi, Ciri. I’m so glad to see you. Did you sleep well?”
“Um, not really… guess I might have been a little too.. e-excited,” she admitted sheepishly.
His grin widened. “…Well then I have to apologize, Ciri,” he said after a moment, “cuz I’m trying to be sorry about that, but it’s not really working. I think I might be a little too excited, too. …Is it bad?”
“N-no, I’m fine, it’ll probably just be a bit of an early night.”
“Well I am glad that you’re alright…”
She smiled, in enjoyment of him.
“I was wondering if you could help me with something?”
“Sure! What is it?”
“Something new I want to try with the Force… but I can’t practice it, by myself. …You’re curious about what the Force feels like, right? …You’d want to know what I feel through it?”
“Y-yes, absolutely!” she exclaimed, unconsciously standing straighter.
“Then this is something I think you’re going to like… Assuming I pull it off.”
She grinned with anticipation. “OK, great! Let’s do it! W-what should I do?”
“Great, thanks… Hop up here next to me...” She did so, sitting next to him on the wide railing, almost close enough to touch.
“Alright. And now…,” he held out his arm to her with a wink and lopsided grin, “an added bonus.. I get to hold your hand, again.”
She readily placed her palm in his. “…Um, you d-don’t really need an excuse, you know, L-Luke,” she told him softly, flushing, and his grin bloomed into a radiant smile.
His fingers closed around hers. “In that case,” he murmured, “I’ll be hanging on to this for a while… and you can just let me know when you’d like it back…alright?”
She recovered and nodded yes with enthusiasm, feeling her heart thump. Gently smiling, he drew her hand into his lap, and held it firmly.
He settled, facing forward. “Alright then… Now, just close your eyes, and relax… and clear your mind…” A little noise burst out of her, because that was going to be difficult with him so close to her. “…Just do your best,” he amended, with light amusement.
She tried to comply, and felt him still beside her. A moment passed, and another, and then minutes had gone… and finally she felt his deep, steady breath begin to rise and fall through her awareness, like a buoyant wind.
Her breathing appeared to synchronize with his of its own accord. Then she lost track of the difference between his breath and hers, and then of the whole of her body, and their breath became the firmament.
And then she felt light, and water, and shade, and green sugar, and then she felt a tiny, tiny pulse… rapid, so rapid, and slight… She felt warmth, and darkness, and companionship, and hunger’s little naw… there were three little hearts beating together, and tiny rustles in the darkness…
Then within an instant the connection severed, and she jolted into her body and nearly fell back. Instantly, his arm was around her, gently supporting her. Her senses were solely her own once again, as she heard his voice speaking to her, “Are you alright, Ciri? Sorry about the dropout. Was it too much?”
“N-no, I mean— yes, I — I mean…. Luke, thank you, I’m fine. I’m… I’m fine…” She probably was a little overwhelmed, though, because the next thing she did was to sag against him and rest her head on his shoulder.
He lightly held her. A large breath heaved through her, and she took a moment to steady herself by focusing on her own breathing. It felt oddly pedestrian, after the sensation of his breath rushing through her entire body.
Then she sighed and whispered, “Luke, thank you…”
“You’re welcome, Ciri. I’m glad you liked it” he whispered back.
“W-what was it? I mean… what were they?”
“Baby rodents… some type of squirrel, I’d think, from your collection. They’re nesting in that tree.”
She registered which tree he was pointing to, and searched its canopy. As she rested against him, an animal bounded up one of the branches and disappeared from view in the tangled limbs.
“Red squirrels… probably,” she identified, then hesitated. “…Is that what it’s like for you… a-all the time?”
She felt his soft chuckle pass through his ribs. How strange, for his laughter to be only in his body, for her to feel it indirectly, as external. “No, not all the time. Only when I focus.”
“Wow… I don’t think I really understood, before. You’re… you’re superhuman.”
He blushed intensely, and mumbled bashfully, “aw Ciri, I’m not, I’m…,” he tailed off, and sighed a little ruefully. “Well, I don’t know, maybe I am a little.”
“You are. Luke, you’re incredible… wow, I’m so glad I know you...”
He grinned, then after a moment, he said quietly, “Is it cheating if I try to use the Force like this to make you like me?”
“No!” she said strongly… then more quietly, “—I-I mean, no… I like a lot of things about you.”
“..Good,” he breathed. “—I’m glad I know you too, you know… and I think there’s some pretty incredible things about you. Like how fearlessly curious you are.. and how grounded and kind you are. …You’re not like any other person I know.”
She flushed under his praise, then kicked her knees out and became slightly sarcastic. “Yeah? Do you like how awkward I am and how I never know what to do?”
He smiled kindly, with a light laugh. “I do like it that you’re shy, actually, Ciri… I don’t know, it seems earnest, to me. And it’s just so gratifying to watch your pretty face blushing at something I’ve said. So there.”
She had to chuckle, even as it made her redden the more. “..Ok, point accepted.”
“…And I like how you’re innocent,” he added in a moment, “I used to be innocent, and I miss it… but you make me feel that, again.”
She raised her head to look at him. He was gazing down at her with perfect tenderness, and the sweetest little smile. She blushed just looking at it, and didn’t know what to say.
“You’re alright?” he whispered, reaching over to gently take her hand, “Feeling a little more steady?”
“Y-yeah, I’m… I’m good. Thank you, Luke.”
Her fingers curled between his.
“Good… I’ll get better at it, if you wanted to do it again, sometime.”
She smiled giddily. “Yes, Luke, I’d love to do it again!”
His own smile blossomed as he murmured, “Wonderful.”
“…Um, y-you’ve really never done that, before? …S-shared…like that?”
“No, Ciri, I haven’t… The only person I would have with, is my sister… and she’s strong in the Force as I, so there’s no need. With anyone else… well, the thought just didn’t feel quite right, if it came. But you… you’re so open and curious. ..You make me wanna share a lot.”
She blushed, and had to glance away with a laugh before looking back at him. “Y-you make me feel so.. s-special.. …well, I-I like it, when you share with me, Luke. Thank you.”
He blushed, smiling happily, and squeezed her hand. “You know, I feel the same way, when you share with me.”
“You’re a.. really good first-timer, too…that was incredible!”
Still blushing, he grinned fondly, and chuckled. “Thanks for thinking so…,” then, whispered conspiratorially, “Hey, Ciri.”
“Y-yeah?”
“You know, you’re absolutely gorgeous, princess,” he whispered, with that impossibly soft, sweet smile and just a little bit of mischief in his eyes.
She couldn’t stop blushing, it seemed, and she had to look down to stammer, “Th-thank you, L-Luke..” When she raised her eyes, she found it had only made him smile the more.
He gently brought her hand to his lips, and kissed it carefully, his eyes lidded. His lips were incredibly soft. Then he whispered, “Ciri? Take me to your woods.”
She gulped. “S-sure, of course…” And as his arm dropped from her shoulder, he released her hand and let her get down.
“Um, did you have somewhere specific in mind?” she asked at the bottom of the steps.
“I want to see a beast gate… preferably one that’s kind of… that way,” he answered, gesturing just above east.
This time when they walked along the grounds to the wood, their fingers were fondly interwoven.
~
The gate she led him to was long overgrown. The trees marched up directly to it, and continued on the other side with barely an interruption for the wall itself. A permanent twilight hung under the canopy. The wall was thick, and the gate tunneled through it. The stones lining its sides were mossy and damp.
The gate couldn’t be seen from any appreciable distance. Long familiarity with the wood was the only way she knew it was near, before standing practically before it.
He released her hand as they reached it, and stepped forward to run his palm along the beginning of the arch.
Then he turned to her with a mischievous grin and stepped backward into it.
She watched him steadily receding until she could no longer make him out through the gloom. Then she smirked and followed him under.
She met him somewhere nearly through. Their fingers touched in the darkness, then slid past one another until their hands were clasped. She felt like she could almost sense him smiling.
The shade lightened enough on the other side for her to see that he was. He stopped walking first, so that she inadvertently closed the gap separating them.
“Have you been through this one?” he asked softly, barely inches away.
“I’ve been through all of them,” she returned.
“That’s my girl…,” he breathed, and she flushed with pleasure. “Have you been to the base of the big hill?”
He was referring to the hill that rose up to one side of the castle. It was much higher on the far side, where an escarpment dropped it down into a large depression on the surface of the land.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Will you take me there? …To the base of the hill on the far side from the castle.”
“O-of course,” she whispered. “Why do you want to go… Luke, are you taking me to see your ship?”
“No…,” he answered with soft innocence, “you’re taking me to see my ship. …I don’t know where I am.”
She grinned in delight, and bit her lip, and squeezed his hands. “Thank you Luke!” she said triumphantly. And she wanted almost desperately to give him a hug.
—Then she was doing it, dropping his hands to quickly throw her arms around his torso, and squeezing him close. She heard his breath suck in and catch.. then felt his hand ease onto her waist and up her side… Then both his hands were running over her back, and he was hugging her too. His fingers curled into her clothing. His breath shuddered, and she felt the vibrations running through her body, almost like they were still connected through the Force. She just sighed, and relaxed against him, not remembering to feel that she shouldn’t. He was amazingly comfortable and had the softest, warmest body, and a delightful musky scent that made her want to drown, and he was holding her close, his chin resting atop her hair. His heart was beating strongly in his chest.
She hugged him for so much longer than she would have thought possible, because he didn’t dislodge her or do anything else except cradle her close, as his breath gently rustled her hair.
…Then she remembered his starship, and what was happening, and came back to collect herself. She gently loosened her arms, and pulled back, blushing at how long she’d held him for. He let her go, but he didn’t drop his hands from her body just yet. Instead they settled upon her waist.
“I-I’m sorry I… j-just…,” her cheeks flushed to admit what had just happened. “…for so long,” she finished quietly.
“No… you don’t get to apologize for that,” he protested softly, “it’s not fair.”
“O-oh…”
“It’s fine to be embarrassed, Ciri… but don’t apologize. I enjoyed that too much to hear you say sorry for it.” His hands were still on her body.
“Oh, I… s-sure. y-yeah, me… m-me t-too…”
“well, good… for me..”
A moment passed as she gazed up into his eyes.
Then he began to gently murmur, “Ciri? …Is it cheating? If I try to use my X-wing to make you like me?” His voice held a note of vulnerability that wasn’t normally there.
“I-is that what you’re doing?”
A moment passed.
“…No. I’m showing it to you because I like you. But I do want you to like me. And I do have an X-wing. I think I just got hugged for it.”
“I don’t think it’s cheating, Luke. N-not when I already…. I already really l-like you a lot, Luke. I… I w-wouldn’t have just… for so long, o-otherwise… I-I’ve never…” She was blushing terribly.
He breathed, his smile gently returning, seeming shyer than usual. Or maybe it was just the low lighting. His hands on her waist squeezed. “Good… ok, that’s good. …I’ve never, either, Ciri. Thank you.” He leaned down slightly, and pressed his lips against her forehead.
Then he sighed, and his hands slowly dropped away from her body. She missed them, instantly. “Um, I guess we’d probably better… get going…”
She nodded, a little reluctantly. “Y-yeah, um...p-probably…” And he refound her hand.
“Hug me again sometime, Ciri.” He looked directly into her eyes, and squeezed her palm. “….I’d like it.”
“I…,” she swallowed. “O-ok, yeah, I — I will,” she whispered.
The corner of his lip twerked into a smile. “Thank you,” he mouthed, near soundless.
He held on to her hand as she led him into the trees beyond the wall.
~
When they got to the hill, he took over navigating, and soon located the spot where his ship was hidden. The scree of the hill petered out as the ground leveled, being replaced first with low vegetation and then forest. The trees were sparser, here. As they approached, she made out a rough impression of something large crouched just within them.
When they got closer to the mass, she saw little glints of metal through foliage, and realized he had covered it in branches and fronds broken from the surrounding greenery.
“Hold on,” he said, then raised his arms. As he did, she gasped to see the camouflaging vegetation lift into the air, exposing the clean lines of his ship. It was long and tapering, more bulbous at the back, with straight, flat wings jutting out to either side from its hindquarters. They were decorated with thin spurs of metal at their tips. A red stripe ran down the side of its nose.
He spread his arms to the side, and the hovering vegetation floated off to either side of the ship and settled to the ground.
“Wow…,” she breathed.
“She’s a beauty, isn’t she?” Luke murmured appreciatively beside her.
She grinned, and tore her eyes from the ship to look at him. He was gazing at it, a small smile on his lips. “You’re proud of your X-wing,” she accused teasingly, and he blushed. “All these incredible things about you, and that you’ve done, and I feel like you’d rather no one knew… but this one makes you proud.”
He bit his lip and clasped his hands behind his back, and looked at her with a grin and sparkly eyes. “Yes, Ciri, I’m proud.”
She smiled and told him, “Well, she is beautiful.”
He practically preened, making her giggle.
Then she jogged to the ship and held her hands up to it, running her palms along the smooth, cool metal of the nose. The surface was periodically marred by pocks and streaks of something like charcoal.
“R2?” she heard him call from behind her, and to her surprise there was an answering trill from the ship. She jerked her hands away and stepped back.
“No, we’re not leaving. Why don’t you come down here, there’s someone I want you to meet.”
It sure didn’t sound like he was talking to her. A quick series of electronic beeps responded.
Then he raised his hand, and an object lifted up from the back of the ship. It was short and cylindrical, with a domed top. She swiftly returned to his side, as he lowered the object gently to the ground. She felt his other hand come to rest reassuringly on the small of her back.
“R2, this is Princess Ciri. She’s a friend.”
The domed cylinder twittered, presumably in greeting, and stepped closer, using the struts attached to either side of its metallic body as legs.
Her mouth fallen open, and feeling deeply odd, she said, “H-hi…”
“Ciri, this is my astromech droid, R2-D2. He takes care of the ship…”
A loud blat came from the droid, and Luke laughed. “…and he’s my friend, too. R2, you didn’t let me finish. …He’s been my companion for many, many journeys.”
“N-nice to meet you… Artoo?”
The droid’s dome swiveled slightly, seemingly to regard her, and a cheerful beeping trill rose from the unit.
“R2 says he’s pleased to meet you, too.”
She hesitantly approached the droid, dropping to one knee before it. “May I?” she asked, with her hand raised. R2 beeped, and Luke translated, “He says you may.” She gently lowered her hand to his dome.
R2 began twittering and lightly shifting back and forth on his struts. “He likes you,” chuckled Luke.
“You just stay on the ship?” she asked R2, “Don’t you get bored?”
R2 released a loud trill, followed by softer beeps and chirps. “He really likes you… and he says that’s why he’s been staying in low-power mode,” Luke conveyed, then added, “…Actually he usually comes with me, but… most places we go, droids are nothing unusual to look at. Here… It just seemed more prudent for him to remain hidden.”
“Ah… well hopefully you’ll get back to a place like that soon, Artoo,” she told the droid comfortingly. Then she realized what that would mean, and looked back to Luke with something like worry.
He grinned. “It’s alright, Ciri… my business here isn’t nearly concluded, and R2 doesn’t really notice the passage of time when he’s powered down. I’ll be here for a long while yet, and R2 won’t suffer in the meantime.”
She blushed, and smiled back. “Good.”
She spent a long time pouring over his ship, inspecting it, asking questions about everything. Some of them could only be answered by R2, and many of the answers she didn’t fully understand, but she was beginning to build a basic comprehension of the ship’s operation.
At last she summoned the courage to ask her most important question.
“Luke… d-do you think… c-could you… could we, maybe… could we fly in it? I-it wouldn’t have to be far! But, maybe just a little?”
A happy little thrum emerged from his throat. “Ciri, I’d be delighted to take you anywhere… and we can go somewhere far. It’s a fast ship… we can be gone and back in a day, easily, from a lot of places. Anywhere on the planet.” He glanced down, hesitated just a little. “…And I’d take you further… you’d need a proper flight suit, but.. possibly we could reach another planet in this system, quick enough not to be noticed. R2 would know. …And if we had more time…I could take you further still.”
She distantly heard R2’s affirmative beep. She’d stilled. “…Luke, really? You’d take me to another world?”
He looked up, and gave her a pleased smile. “Really, Ciri… it would make me very happy.”
Something happened to her knees, and suddenly she was sitting on the ground.
Her lips parted, as she hung back her head to gaze up past the ship and the trees, into the pearly sky. The stars were concealed by the light of the sun. She knew that some of them were planets, orbiting the same star as her planet. Part of the same system, he would say. She knew which ones they were and where to look for them in the night sky each season of the year. She had no idea what even one of them was like.
She belatedly realized that Luke had taken a seat beside her. Blinking, she withdrew her attention from the sky above.
“S-sorry, I just… guess I got a little overwhelmed. I’ve never… I’ve never been farther than a day’s hike from the walls,” she said quietly.
“Don’t apologize…,” he said softly, resting his chin in his palm with such a sweet, gentle smile that her breath caught to look at it. “…It is overwhelming. Many would shy away from that…where I just see you being interested, and excited. …Ciri, it would bring me great joy, to help you explore something more of the galaxy.”
She smiled, a little bashful. “Thank you Luke… I can’t tell you what it means to me.”
“Maybe not… but I do understand a little.”
“Right,” she said, “…Moisture farmer.”
“Yeah.”
She smiled, then bit her lip and sucked in a breath to ask hopefully, “—Could, we go somewhere now?”
He grinned, chuckled, “Sure. Somewhere you had in mind?”
“N-no, nowhere in particular. Anywhere!”
“Then I think maybe I know just the spot… Um, but Ciri..,” he hesitated, then sidled in a little closer and said, “…there’s something I have to tell you about my ship, before we go anywhere in it.” He leaned in a bit closer still, and she listened carefully, watching him intently, wondering what it could be, as he watched her. “…It’s a single pilot fighter,” he murmured softly, “…one pilot, one seat. I am pretty confident we’ll both fit, but…. if I take you flying in it, you’ll have to sit in my lap.”
She flushed brightly red, and mouthed, “Oh…”
His head cocked slightly. “…It doesn’t exactly bother me. Does it bother you?”
“N-no… it’s… not a bother…”
He gave her a sweetly conspiratorial grin. “…Good.”
R2 released a lengthy, vacillating tone with an oddly condescending edge to it, and Luke blushed. “—R2 is admonishing me for flirting with you.”
“O-oh… um, i-it’s ok…,” she breathed, dazed by his choice of words.
“…then perfect,” he said softly with a tiny smile, then turned his head to the droid and called, “You heard that, R2? I have permission. Means you get to keep your opinions to yourself.”
R2 emitted a blat.
Then he stood, and offered her his hand. “Well, princess… shall we?” She smiled and took it, suddenly feeling a bit embarrassed for the droid to observe them. He pulled her to her feet, and again they ended up bare inches apart. He offered her a shy smile. “Don’t worry about R2,” he said gently, “he’s just trying to look out for you. …Which, by the way…” he raised his voice and looked at R2 to finish, “...is so unnecessary!”
R2 twittered derisively.
Luke snorted, and switched which hand he was using to hold hers. “Back into the ship, R2.” He raised his free hand, and the little droid lifted into the air and settled back into his socket on the ship.
Luke squeezed her hand and turned back to her. “Ciri…,” he began gently, then smiled and seemed to become a little lost, as he gazed down at her. He recovered quickly. “…Come on,” he said with a smile, and led her to one of the wings of the ship. It jutted out a bit above the level of her head.
“In a proper hangar, they’d bring us a ladder… in the field we just kind of scramble up the S-foils. Here, let me help you.”
He positioned her with her back to the wing, and placed his hands around her waist. Her own hands ended up on his forearms, almost of their own accord. They spent a moment paused there, gazing at each other and breathing, before he tightened his grip and lifted her high above him, settling her easily onto the wing. She gaped down at him, in disbelief. “How are you this strong?”
He grinned, reaching up and gripping the wing next to her. “I’m not,” he said, and in one smooth motion pulled himself up to sit beside her.
“Oh…,” she said, realizing he must have been using the Force to augment his strength.
“It’s possible I might be attempting to impress you,” he admitted with a small smile, making her laugh. It felt alien, for someone to try to impress her.
“I-I can’t believe you’d ever need to impress anyone. —I mean, t-that you’d actually have to try.”
R2 warbled, and sounded not at all impressed. “Please, ignore him…,” Luke beseeched, climbing to his feet before helping her up too. “You flatter me, princess. ..Consider me a sucker for it.”
Then he raised the canopy and stepped inside, and began fiddling with some of the many controls that she saw lining the bay. The seat slid backwards a space, and he straightened, fitting a small device onto his head. “Comlink,” he explained, “it’ll let me talk to R2 while we’re off the ground.” Then he held out his hand to her.
It was a little awkward getting in… she took his hand and stepped into the cockpit, nearly stepping on him in the process. His hand immediately found her waist to steady her. Then they had to sidle around each other in the narrow space so she could be in front. Nervous laughter rose from them as they bumped into each other, and the surrounding bays of controls, and then she was in position and standing alone for a moment in the cockpit as he sat, before following suit.
As soon as she got settled, with her back against his chest and his legs rising up on either side of her, the awkwardness abruptly changed its flavor.
At once the only sensations she had any particular awareness of, were those emanating from his body’s contact with hers.
The canopy sank closed on top of them, and she barely even noticed.
She could feel his breath, gently lifting her as it lifted his chest, and stirring her hair. She could feel his warmth, as it bloomed into her from seemingly almost every direction. She could feel the pressure of him, against her back, on her hips and thighs. Her breath caught, and she tried to release it in a quiet sigh. She felt his chest begin to shudder, and realized he was laughing.
“—What is it? A-are you u-uncomfortable? …Is this… not going to w-work…?” she asked with bashful concern. There were a lot of buttons and switches in front of her that she wasn’t sure he’d be able to reach… and a stick rising up diagonally between her legs to end in an ergonomically designed handle a short distance from her stomach.
She felt his answering hum pass into her almost uninterrupted, both felt and heard him as he murmured, “Mmmm, no, Ciri, I’m not uncomfortable at all… are you?”
“N-no.” The space was snug, but it was impossible to be uncomfortable with him so close.
He exhaled, “good… Don’t worry, this is definitely going to work. …I was laughing because…” his voice dropped and wavered a little, “you’re ah, really distracting… more so than I anticipated… and, I think it’s about to be a bit harder to fly than what I’m used to…”
She flushed intensely, and whispered back, “W-well I — I am blocking a lot of the controls, aren’t I?”
“You mean these controls?” And she watched as several switches in front of her flipped of their own accord. “You’re not blocking anything, Ciri… you’re just warm and close.” Tingles fled across her body, to hear him say so. “It’s a good thing..,” he continued, reaching out to flip another switch above her head, “..that I’m a fantastic fucking pilot.”
She smiled to hear his description. “So I heard.”
“Mmhmm… you heard correctly…,” he interrupted his bragging with a chuckle. “—Although actually, R2 can fly this thing pretty handily himself.”
“I like you so much, Luke,” she whispered, because suddenly she had to.
His nose gently nudged into her hair. “Me too, Ciri. Really much.”
“—And I don’t at all like you just because you can take me places and make things float, that’s just a bonus, you know that, right?”
His chest thrummed. “Yes, I know that… but thank you for saying so…. Hey, Ciri. — you know that I don’t just like you because you’re a princess and you’re very pretty and I’m negotiating with your father, right?”
She laughed. “Yes, Luke, I know.”
“Perfect… Now, buckle in, princess.” Using the Force, he raised a harness before her, settled it over her, and fastened it behind her so that it covered them both. She couldn’t raise her weight off of him now if she tried.
He toggled a few more controls, and she heard an electronic whine, and then felt a rapidly oscillating hum roar to life around them, and knew it had to be the engines powering up. She gulped, her heart suddenly beginning to pound.
And his arm wrapped her stomach, over the harness. “Shh…,” he whispered to her, “…it’s alright, Ciri. I wouldn’t agree to take you if I wasn’t confident it would be safe.”
She relaxed into him, nodding, placing her hand over his. “I know, Luke. Thank you.”
She felt his exhalation rippling through her hair. They spent a moment breathing together, soaking in each other’s warmth with the engines thrumming all around them. Her heart began to steady as she briefly closed her eyes. Then he whispered, “Well I am going to need that hand back, unfortunately… You can hold onto my legs, if you’d like. Feel free to squeeze me hard. Let’s see… I think I’m gonna need to…” he threaded his arms under hers, so he could reach past her and grip the throttle. “There. Perfect.” She settled her hands onto his knees and nodded.
“Ready?” he asked.
“R-ready,” she confirmed.
“R2?” he said through the comlink, “We’re ready.” She heard R2’s answering warble crackle over the link.
“Great. Here we go…” Then he huffed quietly. “Oh, and Ciri? Don’t touch anything that isn’t me.”
She didn’t mention that she wouldn’t dream of it, because the vibrations from the engines had intensified, and she could feel them rising into the air. The trees around the little clearing seemed to fall away, and as soon as they had cleared their tops, Luke was moving the throttle, rotating them to face away from the hill and out to the broader landscape. She saw the forest canopy sweeping gently away to the horizon.
Then the engines punched, and she gasped at being pushed hard into his chest, and they were speeding out over that landscape, inconceivably fast, hugging to the treetops as greenery passed underneath in a blur.
Her heart skittered, and her fingers on his knees clenched, as within about a minute they were farther from the walls than she’d ever been.
“I wanna stay low,” she distantly heard Luke explaining, “so no one will see us. Just gotta get out of sight of the castle… and well, probably of everybody. Luckily for us, the scanners show this area is pretty uninhabited for miles around.”
Within just a few minutes, she made out a linear break in the trees, and realized it must be the river. She’d never seen it — it was miles from the castle, many too many to be covered on foot in a day — but she knew it was there and that all the streams in and around the castle drained into it.
“Hold on, princess. This is going to be a bit rough,” Luke warned her, and she gripped his knees tighter in anticipation.
He slowed the ship as they approached the break. Then they were out over the water, and the river was huge and brown all laced over with white, and their weight slammed forward into the harness as he rapidly decelerated the ship. He twisted the stick and the ship’s nose rose swiftly to point straight into the sky, and then the engines punched again and she was knocked back into his chest as they shot directly up over the river into the clouds.
He didn’t stop climbing once they’d pierced the cloud cover. Instead, the craft gradually began decelerating as the sky thinned, and then gently went dark, because they were leaving it behind.
He turned them upside down over the planet, and set them to slowly spinning, so that as she watched spellbound through the starship’s canopy she saw the distant green-brown patchwork of the land continually falling away, then the brilliant glowing edge of the atmosphere rolling against the dark, and then just the dark, the stars spangled glittering across it… and then the atmosphere and the ground would rise again, in an ever-repeating cycle. Though she could see the spin, she could not feel it. They were weightless. She laughed.
She felt certain that just 10, or perhaps 15 minutes before, she had been standing on solid ground outside her father’s castle. Now she wasn’t even on the planet.
“R2, keep us in orbit,” Luke instructed, and the droid’s affirmative bleep sounded over the com. He relaxed his grip on the throttle.
“Luke… Luke thank you!” she said as her giddy merriment was slowly replaced by wonder, “I… I can’t thank you enough, for this… you’ve — oh, gods—” she suddenly had to stop talking and hold her breath, lest she begin to cry.
“Shh, Ciri…,” he murmured to her tresses, lifting his fingers to stroke along the underside of her forearm, “It’s my pleasure, and you already have.”
“—I haven’t,” she gulped.
“I promise you that you have, Ciri… believe me…” his voice dropped to a soothing whisper nudging into her hair, “it’s ok, Ciri… shhh, it’s ok…”
She nodded and relaxed into him, placing one hand on his and squeezing, feeling him squeeze back in answer. “ok…” And she focused on her breathing and his presence, until the feeling passed.
Eased, her mind returned to the vision laid out before her. She felt suspended in space, absorbing his warmth on one side and the vast cold spectacle on the other. It was a lot to take in.
“Why are you always so comforting?” she asked mildly, after a space. She didn’t think it had been so obvious, how close she’d been to tears.
“Um, welll…” He sounded embarrassed, and she felt him reach back and disconnect his com with R2. “I can sense your discountenance. In the Force. —I’m not trying to read you, Ciri, it’s just… certain things, strong emotions… can kind of force themselves on my awareness. …And for some reason, it’s been happening more than I’m used to, with you. I-I’d guess it’s something to do with.. how I feel about you, that’s making your presence in the Force more… salient, to me. But, I don’t really know..why…”
“Oh… OH.” Abruptly her curiosity was replaced by mortifaction, her cheeks flaring red. “S-so y-you can… w-when I’m all, um, I mean… ..a-a—round you.. y-you’ve been…”
His voice came gently to her ears. “…I can tell what effect I have on you… to some extent. To be more exact, I can feel how nervous and heart-poundy I make you, but it’s hard to know why that is exactly without… reaching for more information. Which I wouldn’t do, with respect. But, it’s not so hard to put together… by more… conventional means. …That’s part of why I’ve been trying to make how I feel obvious, too. So we can be on more even ground, with each other. ..Because you make me heart-poundy, too, and I like you, too. …um, I-is it… is it ok?”
“..Um,” she laughed in embarrassment. “Um, y-yeah, s-sure, just…”
She stopped to collect her thoughts, and he waited with outward patience. She was chagrined, of course. But…
Somehow her mortifaction had already cooled, to chagrin. Wasn’t that funny. How should a person react? Surely not.. like this.. And yet.
She had been bared before him, more embarrassingly than in front of any other person ever, already… Olandria had seen to that. And what had come, of her exposure? ..He had treated her, with greater sweetness and consideration, than any other person, ever. And in the end she’d had… Simply the most wonderful night, in his company, and it had all been perfectly alright.
…More than just alright. Lovely enough even to consider thanking Olandria.
“—It t-takes a little getting used to…the idea, but… I-I guess it’s just.. part of getting closer to… y-you…” Her voice nearly failed her on the final word. Could what he’d said about his heart, really be true?
His fingers laced through hers and squeezed, as he breathed in deep and exhaled behind her, with something like relief, and her entire torso gently rocked. “Ciri, you’re unflappable.” His voice became a breath slipping into her hair, “Thank you, princess…,” and he pressed a kiss to the back of her head. “I was worried… that you wouldn’t like it… because people never do… but I can’t turn it off, so, I just.. chose not to mention it? I… think I owe you an apology, for that. I’m sorry, Ciri. I should have been more forthcoming. …You would be well within your rights, to find it disturbing, or me.. um, dishonest.” His voice fell on that last word, disappointedly.
“N-no, um, it’s fine, Luke,” she said, blushing, “I understand. …I-It’d be such a weird thing to have to bring up, I sure wouldn’t know how… and.. And well, if I’m fine with it happening at all, I’m fine with not knowing about it immediately. I mean, I… I trust you. I don’t think you’re dishonest.” She smiled to herself, realizing as she said it the reality of how much she did trust him, even after knowing him for just a few weeks. His presence at her back felt comforting and safe. Things he might sense about her, didn’t change that. His fingers slid down hers to the major knuckles, and he squeezed, swallowing.
Suddenly, she wanted to be facing him, to be holding him like she had been earlier. She had to content herself with clinging to his hand, and his knee, biting her lip as she did.
“Thank you, Ciri,” he whispered, his head ducked against hers and his voice a little thick, “Your acceptance feels amazing… in a way I can’t fully describe.”
“Well you’re easy to accept, Luke,” she whispered back. He sighed peacefully.
Gradually, the tension drained out of their mutual grip, and she refocused on the stars.
“…Luke?”
“Ciri?”
“There’s so many…I-I… I don’t recognize them, like this..”
“Some of them are obscured, by the atmosphere… groundside,” he explained.
“I…” she confessed, “I was going to try to impress you by showing you the planets. In my head.” She laughed, “They’re indistinguishable, now…”
“mm.. Ciri, I’m already very impressed,” he softly told her hair, “So there’s really no need…”
“—There’s one!” she exclaimed, and pointed. “…I-I noticed a constellation.. The brightest stars are the ones you can see from below. There’s the Wintry Hart; but I’ve never seen it at this time of year. The left antler points towards Noxur.”
Now he was laughing, the vibrations passing through her back and into her torso. “Nevermind. You’re more impressive than ever…”
She blushed, internally preening, and feeling so very pleased.
“…How long can we stay?”
“As long as you like… back down there, sunset is in, say… 5 hours. When will they miss you?”
“N-not till morning, I would guess. But the woods become almost impossible to navigate after dark.”
“Darkness doesn’t bother me… I have other ways to see. —But you’ll be tired...”
“We’ll see,” she replied, doubting it. Then something caught her eye, down below. “I think… Luke, I think I know that shape…!” She pointed out the canopy, to an inland sea shaped like an aster, far below.
“It’s the Sea of Cytheae! P-eople think that a great spirit fell from heaven, there, and that’s why it’s shaped like that. ..They always want to make up reasons, for everything. They even make pilgrimages there. …I-it’s amazing… seeing things all the way up here, that I’ve only seen before on maps…”
“I wondered if you’d recognize anything, down there,” he softly told her hair. “You know your geography.”
“I know a lot of things… a-about a few things.”
“You are my scholar,” he murmured appreciatively, and she flushed proudly. “What else can you see, Ciri?”
He stopped their spin, to make the planet’s surface easier to study. She realized that the maps she had studied were distorted, not quite accurate. The mapmakers had been unable to properly account for the world’s curvature. Nonetheless, she pointed out the landmasses and large bodies of water they passed over, and worked out the names of most of the big mountain ranges that were visible, and rivers.
Then she had him turn the ship so the canopy pointed out to the emptiness yawning spaceside, and she searched the stars for the other planets, slowly pointing them out to him too, one by one.
~
Eventually, with slight reluctance, she had him bring her home. They reentered the atmosphere above a large cloud bank, then punched back through it right over the river, to come back up the slump they’d left by.
She said goodbye to R2, and watched as Luke re-covered the ship in its foliage. It felt oddly strange, to stand upon the ground. A sense of motion was missing that she’d hardly been aware of, above. Her stomach growled. The light was fading, the western sky growing brilliant with orange fire.
When the light failed and they were inevitably still in the woods, he knelt down in front of her and had her put her arms around his shoulders, then hooked his hands under her knees and lifted her on his back. He carried her, asking sometimes for her direction, and stepping over roots and around trunks in their path with uncanny ease. When she worried about being too heavy to carry over such a distance, he just laughed, saying it was just like training with his old master, and reminded her that size didn’t mean much, in the Force.
As they cleared the woods he released her. They wandered to the stream, pausing there in the grass to share the food she’d brought in her pack, then held hands and quietly basked in the night, before crossing the bridge back to the rest of the grounds.
Finally, he brought her yawning up the stairs, back to her door.
As they halted and he turned to face her, he brought up her hand and cupped it in his. “Ciri…,” he whispered softly, stroking his thumb along her knuckles. She looked into his pretty blue eyes, and swallowed as he sweetly kissed the back of her hand.
“Luke…,” she started quietly, “T-thank you for this… for today. …I-I can’t even…,” she huffed a laugh at the futility of explanation. “—I feel like you showed me things that I can barely imagine, even after knowing them. Thank you.”
He smiled shyly, blushing in pleasure. She blushed too, to watch him do it, then suddenly she couldn’t bear the idea of sending him away without a parting hug, after the day he’d shared with her. With a slight frown and an indrawn breath she dropped her hand from his and caught him up in her arms.
This time he hesitated in surprise rather less before wrapping his arms firmly around her, and returning her embrace. She squeezed him tight as she could, and felt his face nudge into her hair.. felt him swallow. Gradually, his fingers began to stroke her in slow, sweet little circles, wherever they touched her. Nose in her hair, he peacefully breathed in.
She could hardly believe she was being held this way, so comfortably and sweetly, with such care and seeming need, so she hid her face in his chest, carefully adjusted her grip, rubbed her arms along his lithe body, and held him back.
They stood there wrapped in comfort, as the minutes ticked by.
~
Eventually she recalled how she needed to tell him goodnight and go inside to her bed, and stirred reluctantly in his arms. He swallowed audibly as he felt her slowly pulling away… but she didn’t go far, and he didn’t take his hands off of her.
Instead he gently ducked his forehead against hers, and sighed. A slight husk marked his voice, as he spoke. “…Ciri… there’s something that.. I’m not used to… in the way that you hold me… and Force, it’s enthralling…”
She gave a tiny embarrassed laugh, and blushed, her eyes turned down. She had left her hands upon him this time, too. They rested on his waist, mirroring his on her. “I-I-I think I might, f-feel it too…,” she ventured quietly.
He delicately squeezed her body in his hands, and rubbed his forehead against hers just a little, causing her to gasp lightly and rub into him back. He breathed, “Mhmm.. I can sense your contentment. …That sort of emotion, usually isn’t so loud… But mine is loud, too. You just can’t hear it…”
She involuntarily gasped as she felt a flush travel along her entire body, from her cheeks to her calves, to have him know just how inordinately special it was to her to be so close to him. She pulled back her head, and looked up at him with her mouth hanging uselessly open, and no clue what to say.
Taking in her reaction, he sucked in a breath and winced.. flushed appealingly, as he raised a hand nervously to run through his hair. “Um. I’m sorry, Ciri.. I’m embarrassed. I should have asked you if it’s alright for me to, um. Talk about what emotions I’m picking up from you. …..Maybe you’d be more comfortable, if I didn’t…?” he offered, with an abashed, contrite look.
“N-no,” she said quickly, accidentally pulling on him by his waist. “Um…,” she continued quieter, “Y-you didn’t make me, u-uncomfortable. I.. didn’t know what to say b-back, but.. I’m fine. I was just a little surprised. I… um, I think maybe I kinda like it, that you can hear me.. f-feeling, actually. So, I think that… in the future, I’d w-want you to, talk about it, if you want to.”
He stared. The air hung between them. Then, “You like it?” he said breathlessly into it, “….it’s, it’s that ok?”
It was. It was surpassing strange, and yet.. Every single time, she’d been embarrassed, or felt exposed before him, he had made it be alright. …And it felt nice, after all, to have him see her, and it be alright. “Y-yes, Luke, I like it. It’s OK. Entirely Ok,” she softly admitted. His proximity was alternatingly causing her to feel easement and an exciting agitation.
She could barely hear him sigh out a faint, “oh…”
Then he met her eyes, something strangely hopeful and vulnerable marking his face. “..You really don’t think this is weird, Ciri?” he asked hesitantly, “…I’m not… I’m really not too much?”
“You’re perfect,” she answered without thinking, and saw his reflexive blush. Then, “U-um—,” she stuttered, “um, I mean, no, y.. you’re not too much. …and I don’t care, if it’s weird. —I guess that it is. Obviously. B-but, I like it. You’re strange, and, I like you. ..Maybe I should be uncomfortable, that you can tell what I’m feeling, but… I’m not.”
His lips held a secret little smile. “You’re not…,” he echoed softly, “You like it…”
Now he’d ducked his head down toward his boots, and was smiling that same little smile from so many days before in the forest, and it seemed so private, like it would flee on observation… but somehow this time she didn’t feel it was the only proper thing to look away. Maybe because of how close they were standing, their hands rested on each other… as though his fingertips on her back marked out an inner circle, and she stood within it, privileged to share secrets. She drank his expression in, as she answered quietly, “I’m not. I… well, I guess I f-feel like it’s safe, with you.”
For some reason, his blush was intensifying, spreading across his whole face, and spilling up his ears. “You feel safe with me?” he asked gently, looking up.
“Y-yeah.. completely.”
His smile suddenly broadened so happily that it stole her breath away, and then his arms rose up and pulled her back into him, so that she lost her breath all over again as she made contact with his warm torso. He squeezed her and susurrated out into her hair, “Kriff…I’m glad… …Ciri…. I hope you’ll always feel that way, princess…”
He sighed. “I never thought,” he mused softly, “I never thought… this could be something someone might like. Or, ah,” and he broke off to wryly chuckle, “—associate with safety, in any capacity.” He swallowed, and let his head rest against hers, whispering, “..Thank you, Ciri.”
She blushed, and instinctively tightened her grip on him. “I-it’s nothing to thank me for, Luke, I’m not doing it on purpose. I-it just is…”
His eyes slipped open, and he relaxed his arms, letting his hands fall back to her waist. “I know.. it’s just because of who you are. I’m still thankful for it.”
She returned his gaze. “…Um, well… i-in that case, you’re welcome. I… well, you are an unusually safe person, you know. You should get to feel like it. …I-I mean, the other day I think I even heard you according rights to deer. …Few would bother..”
He smiled gently, and snuffed, “All living things should be treated as such.”
Then his brows drew, slightly. “…And well… I kinda have to be unusually safe, because of what I can do. …Ciri, I can kill with a thought. With just a bit of focus. That doesn’t bother you?”
She blinked. “Why? My father’s men-at-arms can kill with a sword, should that bother me?”
“I guess, to most people, the means make a difference.”
“Not to me. Plenty of people in this palace can kill and no one ever does it. That’s part of civilization. And so are you…”
He laughed, suddenly. As though it had burst out of him. “Oh. You’re remarkable. I’m…”
Then he swiftly wrapped her into a quick close squeeze with his eyes closed and his cheek tucked against her crown. She smiled, clutched him back, and reveled in it — tried not to be disappointed, when he relaxed his embrace again.
As he released her she yawned, and looked away and raised her hand from his waist to cover her mouth.
“I’ve kept you up too late,” he observed, “I’m sorry…”
She gave a dismissive laugh. “No you didn’t. I was having fun.” Her voice softened, and she hesitated a little before she asked, “…w-will I see you tomorrow?”
“You’ll see me tomorrow,” he confirmed warmly. “And tomorrow, and tomorrow… I’ve got some things to do that unfortunately I can’t get out of…and I’ll come find you when I’m done. …I’ll find you, wherever I feel your presence. …Go to bed, Ciri. Sleep in. I want you feeling well-rested.”
She laughed. “You’re mother-hening me…” He blushed, laughed a little too, and she finished, “…it’s sweet.”
He smiled gently. “I’m glad you think so.. I like you so much, princess. You leave me undone…”
He squeezed her body as he left a soft, careful kiss beside her brow, then slowly withdrew, and stepped away, from her grasp — and she quickly reached out and caught his hand.
“L-Luke, thank you again, for today. No one’s ever done anything for me that’s remotely comparable.”
It earned her another sweet smile. “It was only my pleasure, pretty Ciri.” He gently squeezed her hand. “…Good night, princess… and thank you very much for the hug.”
“Y-you’re welcome,” she stuttered with a blushing smile, reluctantly releasing him at last, “G-good night, Luke.”
She stepped into her room and closed her door, then put her hands over her face as she leaned back against it and sank down to the floor, hearing his footsteps retreat. Having had him so close all day had left her feeling kind of smashed up, a bit knocked loose, inside. Losing his hands upon her, and leaving him, had been so hard to do. It was overwhelming.
…She thought that she wanted to be overwhelmed by him, in every possible way.
Chapter 5: Dance
Chapter Text
The next day, she did sleep late, and was out at the gazebo when he found her. The air was cool, and the colors dulled by shade. She was a mess at first, having difficulty putting their physical contact the day prior out of her mind, but thinking it could probably be weird of her to hug him again so soon.
Her nerves gradually loosened as they talked, and he gently played with her fingertips.
But by the end of the night she hadn’t quite amassed enough courage.
***
And by a few nights later, she still hadn’t. She was curled up on the railing at the gazebo, her arms around her knees, thinking about him. Trying to be confident in the nature of his interest in her – trying to trust that he could, like her, like her, though no one ever had.
..The way he looked at her was so overwhelmingly warm. And some of the things he said, seemed to permit of really very little other interpretation.
…But it didn’t fit. She had been alive for over two decades, she knew well how her world worked and who she was within it.. how others saw her, or didn’t. And the possibility of this man’s attraction, just… didn’t, have a place, to fit.
So that a sizable part of her mind found it more likely that his words had no knowable interpretation, at all.
It had been a surfeit of emotion and impulse, that had driven her to hug him, before. She would never have suspected herself to be so bold. She hadn’t expected him to be… so very responsive, either. …She had never been touched like that. Her father and a couple of governesses and even a kindly older noblewoman had hugged her, before, but… not like that. Not just.. almost indefinitely, like that. And not… intimate, like that. —It felt almost presumptive to use that word, but she didn’t know how else to describe it to herself. He’d been… gentle… slow… more expressive, than others had been, before.
Somehow, this is what filled her mind. Not space, stars, and the laid-out planet. Not the mental experiences of the forest animals. Just this.
She swallowed. She wanted it, again. But she was too nervous and in her head to touch him, impulsively, like she had..
“…Hey, Ciri.”
She stirred, starting, and looking around to find him, as he came up beside her. ..No matter what may have just been in her mind, seeing him was always lovely..
“..H-Hi, Luke,” she smiled, slightly nervous in his presence, even as the ache of waiting for him finally ebbed.
He put his hands on the railing, and leaned on them. “..You thinking about something?”
She flushed, much more brilliantly than she’d like, though luckily it was turning towards dusk, and glanced down. Obviously she couldn’t possibly discuss it with him.. right? “Um, y-yeah…kinda… um, n-nothing much,” she said, internally wincing as the deflection sounded lame even to her ears.
He gave her a soft look, and a small, kind smile. “…Well I only ask, because you feel agitated to me.. a bit differently, from usual.” Then he blushed. “I hope everything is alright. …Maybe I can help take your mind off of it?”
She hesitated, then smiled.. Sort of relieved he was respectful of her reluctance to talk about it. “M-maybe you can,” she allowed, bashfully.
“Wish me luck.”
A chuckle escaped her.
“…No, seriously,” he said, his tone sounding not very.
Her chuckle came louder, and she indulged him, “O-ok, good luck, Luke.”
He grinned. “Thanks! …So, I kind of outed myself today.”
“Outed? Yourself?” she asked with curiosity.
“Yeah. Do you know Puske?”
She nodded that she did. “Yes, some.”
“…Well, he was coming into the conference hall this afternoon with all these documents, big scrolls and things, in his arms… I think he could hardly see around it all… and I had my chair a bit further back than everyone else, and he tripped, on the chair leg. ..Um. And I caught him, with the Force. All his scrolls and everything, that were flying. …He, uh… he eeped? …He was all thrown forward, off his balance, foot up in the air, scrolls half out of his arms already, just frozen there, and he made this frightened little noise… I felt bad, for scaring him, but.. I would have felt bad for letting him fall, too. Especially since it was my chair. …And I kinda had to right him, too, as I put him down, so he wouldn’t just collapse.. Which was awkward.
“..So I apologized, for tripping him, and for scaring him, but.. He didn’t know what to say I guess, he… um, well, he didn’t say much of anything, really, mostly he just bowed, which was a struggle with all his stuff, and got off to his seat as fast as possible. Like he’d inconvenienced me, almost; I felt so bad… And then I looked around and obviously everyone is just staring at me. So I apologized to the table.” He laughed, in embarrassment. “Your father said it was fine, but… …Somehow I don’t think they’d actually understood, before?”
She was laughing, worries for the moment quite forgotten. “Oh…Of course not! How could they?”
“..I think Puske might be a little scared of me, now,” he said dejectedly.
“Aww, Luke.. well, maybe so, but I know that man. He’s an idiot.”
He chuckled, quietly. “Ciri..!”
“He is! He relentlessly fails to understand how the princess would be able to dress this way, practically, and even after years I still sometimes hear him yabbering about it in my father’s ear. Give up! ..I-I’d like to say..”
“—Really? I should have let him fall,” he said, indignant.
She smiled broadly, pleased by his support. “…No, it’s better this way,” she assured him, “He’ll never forget this. Thank you, Luke!”
He laughed. “You’re welcome, Ciri. ..Any other persistently rude people I can scar, for you?”
“Well…” she pretended to consider.
“—I mean, besides the one,” he clarified, with faint distaste.
She chuckled. “Actually just her would be enough. …Kidding,” she added, just in case.
“Right,” he agreed, “I wouldn’t…not on purpose, anyway. Wouldn’t want to ruin my welcome, in your court. ..It’d make it harder to see you, I can’t have that.”
She sniffed, with bashful amusement, both flattered and taken aback. He’d come here for her father and his ministers, not for her. Yet that wasn’t how he made her feel.
“…You’re feeling better,” he observed.
“—Y-yes, I am, Luke. Thank you. You’re very effective.”
“Just doing my best.”
She grinned, feeling so very pleased to know him.
“You’re a star,” she said, half by accident, and wished she hadn’t.
He chuckled. “You’re flattering me..”
She blushed. “M-maybe.. Um, well no, I… r-really..” she struggled to finish admitting the remark had been genuine, for honesty’s sake, “m-meant it, I guess..”
“—Aww.. Ciri, thank you,” he rescued her, warmly, “you’re very sweet to me.” And he put his hand over hers, beside her on the railing.
She flushed stronger, somehow.
He was watching her kindly, head a little cocked. “…um… So, there’s something I was going to ask you, tonight.”
She struggled to keep her voice level.
“..Y-yeah, Luke?”
He looked down and blushed, opened his mouth, then smiled ruefully at himself and his bashfulness. When he blinked and spoke, his voice had suddenly become almost cautiously soft. “…Would you like to dance with me, Ciri?”
She gulped, loudly she was sure, and stared.
His face was marked red, brightly, from his cheeks to his ears. Somehow, it made her feel a little more confident.
“Right.. right now?” she confirmed, faintly.
“Yeah…now.” He laughed, sheepish, and briefly ducked his head, then looked up at her with a small, inviting smile. “…Promise that it’s not that bad…I’ll make it painless…”
She flushed with blood, hearing that promise.
“um… Y-yeah, s-sure,” she managed, in a low voice.
“Yeah?”
She nodded.
He grinned so widely, splitting his face into smile lines. Almost like a happy puppy. She couldn’t help but laugh, a little.
“Thank you, Ciri! I know it probably seems strange. But I promise not to make you regret it.”
She snuffed, at the cuteness of his eagerness.
“..Don’t worry, I trust you completely.”
For some reason, that just seemed to make him more embarrassed, stopping up his words temporarily and sending his face into a mask of unreadable, yet unmistakably tender, emotion.
He cleared his throat, as he recovered, and laughed at himself. He was truly reddened, now — all the way up to his forehead. “Ciri, you send me into fits,” he explained, then asserted, “..It really isn’t fair. …Now, please come here.”
Composing himself, he stepped back, into the gazebo’s center, clearing the way for her to disrail… then holding out his ungloved hand, as she quietly approached.
She took it. He was warm, as always, and it made him smile.
“OK… Stand about this close, for now,” he said hushedly, as she drew in nearer him. “So our toes don’t quite touch… And put your free hand on my shoulder.” Meanwhile, his fingers clad with hers, and his gloved hand slid onto her waist. “Great. ..Now we’re ready. Simple, huh? Not hard at all..”
..It was actually kind of a torment, to be so close to him, her hand upon his form, and not be closer still.
She snorted. “T-this isn’t even the dancing part, Luke,” she said instead.
He blushed, and grinned, a little lopsided. “No…I guess it’s not. ..You’re right, the hard part is yet to come. But I’ll teach you something simple.. Follow my lead, princess. …When I step forward, you step backward, to match me, Ok?” His voice was soft, and sweet.
“Y-yeah, Ok..” she managed.
“Great. Look down, to our feet. And here we go… First we’ll do your left,” he breathed, then moved his booted foot slowly forward, and she stepped back to shadow him. “…Then your right…”
“And again… and again…”
And she matched him, again.
She glanced up, at his face. He caught the peripheral motion, lifted his eyes to meet hers…and gave her a cute little smile, with just the corners of his lips. “…Now to the side, beautiful,” he said gently, and she blushed, and looked back down, to mirror him. “We’ll go left… once… twice…”
His instructions softly continued, “And now back… with the right… and the left… And sideways, to the right…,” and their feet stepped in sync, around the gazebo floor, according to his direction. As the simple pattern to their path emerged, the steady rhythm of the dance slowly settled in.
“…Do you remember it?” he asked quietly.
“Yeah, I think so…”
“Show me… look up..?”
She did, into his limpid, soft blue eyes, and gulped. His lips gave her just the suggestion of a smile, on one side… Then he breathed, “Back on your left…,” and she realized that down below their locked eyes he was stepping forward, and quickly stepped back, catching up. He grinned. “On your right…”
She kept up more diligently, and he gradually spoke softer, let her rely more and more on memory, as they went around… until his whispered instructions were so quiet she could barely hear them.. and then they had dropped beneath his breath, and only the periodic motion of his lips told her, that he was speaking them to himself, still.
His eyes made her almost breathless. Normally she’d never let hers… linger, so long, on him… But there seemed little else to do, but to look. He was looking at her… something open and soft, was waiting for her, in his pretty eyes. The skin of his face had settled, to an appealing pink flush, highlighting his cheeks, nose, and ears. With those eyes and lightly lined cheeks and that blush and the little cleft in the center of his rounded chin… he was positively adorable.
…She realized he’d stopped counting out their steps. His lips had stilled, slightly parted, as he gazed…
And soon after, she choked up. Her breath catching in her throat, she had to stop moving, dropped his gaze, and started sighing at herself.. a little ruefully.
“..It’s Ok, Ciri,” his voice nudged in warm reassurance, his fingers gently pressing her hand, “That was great. ..See? Not so hard… I told you you’d get it…”
She smiled, gratefully, and looked back up into his pretty, gentle face. “Y-You think I did Ok? …Y-eah, not so b-bad…,” she agreed.
“You were wonderful,” he confirmed, smiling with soft sweetness, “..At least, if you made a mistake, I was much too caught up looking at your pretty face to notice. …Do you like it?”
“Th.. The dance?”
“—Dancing.. with me,” he corrected, with a downward glance and a blush.
“I… um y-yeah, I l-like it..” she admitted, with an embarrassed laugh, “It’s… it’s kinda great. Weirdly. Um…f-fun..”
She saw pleasure pass over his face, and settle into a happy smile. “..I like it, too,” he said gently, “…I haven’t really appreciated it much, before… But it seems you make things different. I guess your partner really does matter.”
She blushed, strongly. “You can’t even… do something more complicated than a square, with me,” she protested.
“Please. I’m sure you can manage other shapes, that was just the simplest one to start with.” He hesitated, then suggested with a shyly sly smile, “..Would you like to try something pretty complex?”
She laughed. “Um, Luke, I don’t think you heard me…”
He chuckled, gently, and his smile broadened. “I heard you, princess… but I was kinda thinking, that you could stand on my boots.”
“S-Stand…on you…?” she echoed faintly.
He smiled, with confirmation. “Yeah. —You wouldn’t hurt me, if you’re worried about that.”
She snuffed, with embarrassed laughter. “O-ok.. ..And, y-you’re going to help me stay balanced? ‘Cause…”
“—Of course. You have my word.”
That made her smile.
..Then she laughed, at herself, and at the situation. Surely she’d look a buffoon. “…L-Luke, i-isn’t this..kind of a lot? I mean, d-don’t I..seem like a burden, a bit?”
He blushed fabulously, eyes falling down. “You’re never a burden,” he said softly, his earnest tone making her laughter still.. then he bashfully admitted, “….Well, um.. I guess what I’d really like to do here is, close up these last few inches, between us..? they’re niggling at me. and you getting on top of me sounds like a perfect plan to do that, so..”
She felt a hole poke through her stomach, leaving its contents to begin messily leaking out.
“O-o-oh.. um, oh, I see,” she stammered, uselessly.
“So..,” he smiled, crookedly cute, in embarrassment, “..if, that’s, something you might be up for…”
“..u-um, y-y-yeah, I, it is, ah..”
“…then my boots are available.”
Blushing brilliantly, and tightly biting her lip, she nodded.. then lifted her foot and placed it, experimentally, over his. “—Luke, are you sure about this?” she couldn’t help but ask, quickly, before she put her weight down.
“I’m sure,” he confidently confirmed, then promised, “..If you’re heavy, or unbalanced, I’ll support you, with the Force.”
She huffed an awkward laugh. “Alright, then…” And she stepped up, onto him… his hand smoothed over to the small of her back, holding her in place, and she located her other boot over his.. and then there she was. Propped up on him, and very close, indeed.
Trying to breath evenly, she watched the cartilage of his larynx bob as he swallowed… then she felt his arm around her tighten… Just enough to pull her body the rest of the way in, flush against his. She accidentally gasped, as she made contact. He was stunningly warm.. and.. real seeming, somehow. His shoulders were broad and strong, under her arm, which had wrapped round behind his neck of its own accord. His breath gusted gently across her forehead, as he sighed. “There…,” he mouthed almost silently, “…now, how’s that?”
“y-yeah, i-i-it’s g-great..,” she offered, when in truth, she was in ecstasy.
He smiled, pleased with her response, and gently nudged against her forehead. “It is great, I quite agree..,” he breathed, with soft humor. Their fingers were tightly clasped, in their other hands. He smelled… intoxicating..
“..Now…That we’ve got the important part worked out… I’ll support you, pretty Ciri, so please don’t worry…just stay loose..and flow, with me. We’ll start on your left… are you ready, princess?”
She had the presence of mind, to nod for him. “..Mm… Mm-hmm..”
“Alright… Here we go… forward…” And he started moving, his foot softly stepping back… and almost to her surprise, hers followed easily forward.
He kept his pace slow and steady, and softly called out the steps as they went, in his low, kind voice. “Back… back… forward… back… now a turn, left, sweeping, 180 degrees…” She let his legs move her, as he stepped. Her body seemed to melt fluidly along his lines. She felt so stable, up against him…lain out along him.
Even though he was the only one really moving, he was still reporting the steps to her, and did it with reference to her left and right, not his. How considerate, this man who’d captured her interest was, she had cause to be noting yet again.
…She tightened her arm, about his neck, and tucked her head in, against him. The sedate, almost rocking quality to their motion, his soft voice, his warm body, his animal scent, were soothing…in a way she’d very seldom experienced. It made her sigh, shudder, and relax… and still, he quietly narrated their steps, as he smoothly danced her ‘round, and time passed on and on.
~
“W-what is this?” she eventually asked, in a hushed whisper… after they’d danced it, for some time, so that she’d gradually gotten a feel for its lilting patterns.
“It’s Alderaanian,” he replied, gently, “A grand, old waltz… From my sister’s vanished home. ..Do you like it?”
“…I like it, Luke,” she answered, “very much.”
“…I told you, dancing would be fun. Not to gloat, but.. Well, maybe to gloat just a little.”
“I-I don’t mind, i-if you gloat..”
That made him grin. “hmm…you’re cute, Ciri. I’m gloating…”
Her face flooded, with heat, and her heart picked up its rhythm. He squeezed her tight… and she realized, he had probably felt her response. That was oddly relieving… perhaps because it meant, that there was less to hide, than she might fear. His breath lightly ruffled her hair.
In a little while she had recovered, and spoke softly, “You said her home… disappeared?”
“Yes.. Alderaan. It was destroyed… by the Empire, during the war. The entire planet, all gone. To hear her speak of it, it was beautiful beyond compare… and a last stronghold of the cultural heritage of the Old Republic. Now all that remains.. are these fragments, bits of culture, passed on by survivors who were offworld.”
Her grip on him had tightened, as she tried to conceptualize the scale of the loss. “Luke…,” she started, but didn’t know what to say.
The waltz moved on, softly, around her trouble.
“…Luke, I’m sorry,” she tried at last, “…I-it’s too sad, for me to say it’s sad. …A world shouldn’t..die like that…”
“Everything dies,” he whispered in reply, “Though, not usually.. unnaturally, like that. …You’re right. It’s too sad.”
“I’m glad your sister was safe,” she said quietly.
He smiled, a little. “..Me too. In fact.. most of the galaxy has cause to be glad of that.”
“She sounds amazing, really..”
“She is.. There wouldn’t be a New Republic, if not for her.”
She paused..then laughed, quietly. “What a family of overachievers.”
He started chuckling. “Force, for good or ill, I guess we kind of are…”
A moment passed, quietly.
“…Leia would be pleased… for this step to be practiced, in this place,” he murmured softly; and then he smiled, a small, secret thing. “Maybe I’ll tell her…”
“I-if, it would make her happy..”
“I think it would.”
As silence fell, she wondered what he might say, exactly… if he’d tell his sister anything about her, and if he did.. what would it be?
“…You make me happy,” he whispered into the quiet.
“I..I do?” she whispered, startled out of her thoughts.
“Yeah… You make me happier than I’ve been in years.”
There was a pause. “…You make me happy too, Luke. V-very, very happy..,” she admitted softly.
He grinned, gently, up where she couldn’t see. “It’s good..the feeling’s not one-sided…That would be very unfortunate..for me..”
She blushed. “…o-or… me..,” she eventually managed.
His eyes lowered. “Well.. there’s no need to worry about that,” he breathed into her hair, “..I’m captured, Ciri.. My interest is fixed.”
“f-f-fixed…?” she stumbled, a question frozen in her heart. Time floated on, around her.
She was acutely aware, of each and every point and sheet of contact between them. His body was excruciatingly warm, and… soft-yet-firm…gently breathing…and it was him holding her stomach up against it so securely, arm tight around her lower back, as he guided her around the gazebo.
“Yes…. After all, what percentage of my time, these past few days, have I spent thinking about.. just, maybe twenty minutes or so that you had me in your arms, one day last week..?” he mused, softly rhetorical. Her breath indrew and caught. For him to say a thing like that…
She didn’t know what she should say, in reply. Her jaw felt weak. Though he’d told her at the time it’d been.. special, to him, too, she hadn’t guessed… that he could possibly be thinking of it, like she had. Almost obsessively.
“I.. I don’t know..?” Her voice sounded small and unsure, to her ears.
She felt his breath exhale in a slow snuff, at her response.
“…I don’t know, either, I wasn’t actually keeping track,” he admitted, “But I can tell you that it was a lot.”
“…A.. a lot. …R-really?” ..And she wished to have eased the hopefulness in her tone.
“really.. I know I mentioned this before, Ciri, but…” He sighed, and shifted slightly. “..this is just so comfortable, and sweet, to me.. It gives me a sense of peace. ..You touch me very differently, from how I’ve been used to, princess. And I’m a fan..”
Her heart pounded. “o-ohh?” she stammered.. Him, a fan. To imagine.
He hesitated, then his nose nudged into her as he added quietly into her hair, “..will you have me think up more excuses for it? You know that I will…”
Her breath came out, audibly, and she trembled a little. His arm tightened upon them, in response. She cast about for a reply, but what could she possibly say? She was far out of her depth.
He bit his lip, where she couldn’t see.
“..Forgive me, Ciri, if I’ve over-stepped. I don’t mean to be pushy.”
The withdrawal knocked some words loose for her. “—Y-you’re not,” she began, in protest. Then she paused. …Then went with the truth, “—I haven’t.. I-I haven’t ever been..,” and her voice dropped, “t-touched.. much, Luke.. J-just my governesses, or.. dad, have.. h-hugged m-me…um, ..so…it’s kind of w-wonderful, and I-I’ve been.. th-thinking.. about it, too..”
She felt him swallow, his cheek rub along her head and his arm tighten reassuringly, around her back.
After a moment, he breathed, “..You know princess, you’re much too kind, sweet, and intriguing, to be so alone.”
She blushed uncontrollably, and helplessly hid her face. Her palm, in their clasped hands, tried rubbing against his, and he reciprocated. His shoulders under her arm felt dependable and solid, as his breath. He smiled faintly. “…and I haven’t been touched at all either, in quite a long time.. by the way..,” he added gently.
Truly? When he was so, surprisingly cuddly; and always so pleasant. “…w— …why?” she hesitantly enquired.
“…I’ve been…,” he started, then trailed away… and finished more firmly, “…I haven’t really known anyone, whose touch interested me, in a long while.”
His explanation, made her feel a little sad for him, somehow.
“Oh…I-I don’t understand, w-what would make me.. so different,” she whispered carefully, after a while.
He smiled warmly. “..I guess it’s hard to describe. ..perhaps I’d just say….,” he delicately sighed, “..that you touch me, like I’m really here.”
She swallowed, with a frown, intuiting a little, of what might lay in his past. Gently, she slipped her fingers from his, and slid her arm around his body, to hold him better.. and squeezed him determinedly, her whole might engaged.
He stopped moving, tucked his freed arm in around her, and held her almost as tightly in return.
“..Well I think I’d rather not be touched at all, than it be l-like.. like that,” she told him quietly, “I’m sorry, Luke. ..You deserve much, much better.”
Face ducked into her hair, he sighed, “…I’d rather you not be touched like that too. Thank you, Ciri. We both do.”
“...are you Ok?” she whispered.
And she felt his snuff vibrate up from his throat, and his cheek rubbing against her, as he nodded with a small smile. “Yeah, princess, I’m Ok. There’s no need to worry, really.. I’ve been feeling fair wonderful, for weeks now, actually. so thank you..”
She blushed, and exhaled a tiny snorted laugh, through her nose. “k. I really do, care, about you, Luke..”
He buried her, in his body, so tenderly that it took her breath away. “..And I care about you.”
Slowly, some of the tension ebbed out of her muscles, and she started stroking him, gently, experimentally, with her palms. ..If his little shivers were any indication, he seemed to enjoy it.
~
Eventually, he eased up on her. He cast his eyes down, drew back and placed a sweet kiss, in the center of her forehead. “I’m having the most wonderful time, with you, as usual. How about you?”
She laughed, against her will, and tried not to hide her face against him in embarrassment. “I-I am too, Luke,” she shyly confessed.
“..Wanna see something new, my lovely princess?”
She nodded, smiling. “Yeah…I think I would.”
So he showed her another step.
She felt almost glued to him, by the time the night was done… yawning, in his arms, and lightly closing her eyes. “Let me take you home, pretty Ciri,” he whispered with soft amusement, when he noticed she’d almost started dropping off, on him. “..mm,” she nodded, against his chest.
“sorry, to keep you out so late,” he whispered, to her hair.
“mm… naw, I don’t mind,” she protested.
“you’re practically napping on me,” he returned, amused.
“..y-yeah, maybe almost, sorry… you’re.. You’re comfy.”
“no apologies,” he sniffed, “I don’t mind…. But, I feel bad. It’s selfish of me.. keeping you out like this, just to hold onto you longer. ..I’ve gotta get you into bed, princess.”
She giggled at that, drowsily. And roused, and nudged herself more awake, in his arms.
Then came the unfortunate process of separating from him… he held her while she stepped down, to the ground. It felt almost unaccustomed, to support her own weight, after all that time spent letting him move her and trusting in his embrace.
He was looking at her gently. It made her blush, and smile, and glance down.
“You Ok?” he prompted her.
“Y-yeah, I’m good.”
“K,” and he softly removed his hands from her waist. She swayed a little, not having realized how she’d been relying on him for balance.
He grinned, steadying her. “You can walk, or should I carry you?”
She blushed. “I’m fine, Luke, I can walk,” she laughed lightly.
“K.” He waited to see that she was, then reached for her hand… delicately clasping her fingers. “Let’s go, Ciri,” he breathed. She grinned at him, and walked close by his side, down the steps and across the lawn.
“..I feel like you get less sleep than me, and are also less tired,” she remarked, waking up a bit from the walking.
“I’m an oddity.”
“It doesn’t bother you?”
“…Sometimes I use a Force-trance, to rest more efficiently.”
“Lucky.”
“It comes in handy,” he allowed. “My apologies… for any adverse effects I’ve been having on your rest, princess.”
“It’s fine,” she smiled, blushing, “W-well worth it.”
That made him smile and cast his eyes on her, fondly.
~
When they arrived before her door, he lifted his fingers delicately to her cheek, and swept a bit of hair carefully behind her ear. He leaned in, and brushed his soft lips gently against her forehead…
“I had so much fun tonight.. I couldn’t even describe,” he murmured, bellyless.
“N-not as much…as me, I bet,” she replied.
He smiled, affectionately. “Wanna compete to see which of us enjoys the other the more?” he offered with amusement.
“N-not really,” she admitted.
“Probably for the best,” he admitted back. “…are you going to be alright, Ciri?”
“..Y-yeah, um…of course.”
“Kay… you’re all filled up, on affection?”
She blushed, strongly, and chuckled, and smiled… reached out and grabbed his hand. Loving to be treated this way. “Yes, Luke, I think I am…thank you, for that.”
“It’s my great pleasure, princess..” And he bent, to her ear, to whisper, “I really hope you’ll sleep well, tonight, Ciri. ..And I’m already looking forward to seeing you, tomorrow.” He grazed his lips, on her temple.
She put her arms around him, gave him a real tight squeeze, and, emboldened by his manner, rose up onto her toes to press a simple kiss to his cheek. His skin was warm, and soft..
A soft sigh rose from him, as he swiftly turned his head and returned the gesture. “Thank you, Ciri..”
She blushed, both embarrassed and pleased, for him to have noted it so. “Y-you’re welcome, L-Luke.” And she nuzzled, lightly into his chest, and swallowed, with a frown.
..Would she feel too nervous to touch him again, tomorrow?
He seemed to realize something of what had suddenly troubled her, for he whispered a teasing promise into her hair, “..If you feel nervous, later, Ciri.. don’t worry about it. I’m sure I’ll think of another excuse to get close to you again, soon..shy girl..”
It made her gasp, and tighten her grip. What did a person say, to that?
..In the end, she knew she had to be brave enough to encourage him, if she could. “…P-please do,” she whispered, a little hoarsely, and he grinned toothily in pure pleasure.
“Of course.. my princess, leave it to me. I will not, disappoint..”
She flushed, with anticipation. Somehow, she had become the luckiest person in the castle.
In a few minutes, she reluctantly relaxed her grip, and softly raised her head to blink up at him. He wore a warm blush. He smoothed his palm against her cheek, and kissed her forehead.
Then she let him go. “G-good… Good night..”
“Good night, Ciri,” he said with a gentle smile… his hands softly returning, to his sides as he stepped back. His smile was the sweetest thing… She returned it, her chest brimming with affection for him.
Then she went in to her door, and left him.. pushed back against it as it closed, and sighed, letting her head roll to the side.
Their relationship, was the most peculiar and wondrous thing, she’d ever known. It was almost exhausting.
Chapter 6: Lake
Chapter Text
The days following were easier. Her mind relaxed, somewhat, and permitted of other thoughts. One morning when she got up, she packed her bag and went into the wood, traipsing lightly through it to the lake. Willows hung back a ways from its grassy banks, and on one side of it rose a little hill, whose sheer flank loomed raggedly over the waters. On the hill’s crown sat a spring, and its pellucid effluence sheeted down the rockface into the lake below. She sat down in the grasses bordering the lake, and took out her notebook.
At some point she moved to the tree line and positioned her back against a trunk, viewing the lake through a curtain of trailing leaves. Part of her wondered if he could really find his way through the wood just by her being there, and part of her knew that he would, or she wouldn’t have come.
The day wore on, and she didn’t realize he’d found her, until he spoke.
“It’s beautiful.”
She gasped and straightened, dropping her pen, and looked for him. He was leaning on a willow, a ways off to her right.
“Sorry,” he said with a sheepish grin and a blush, “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Luke,” she said, and smiled, “you found me.”
He strode forward to her side and dropped into a seat. “I’ve been finding you… haven’t I?” His voice held amusement.
“W-well, sure, but… somehow it feels different, out here. It’s farther. And… I’m not at a landmark, you already know.”
He supported his chin with his hand, and said easily, “You’re a landmark I already know, in the Force. It’s easy for me to feel your presence, when I search for it. Even from a distance. Hi, Ciri. You’re beautiful, and I missed you.”
“H-hi Luke. Y-you’re… um, I missed you too.” She’d almost complimented him back, but chickened out at the last moment. The whole thing caused her to redden.
His face had split into a big, happy smile anyway at her admission, and the tips of his ears had gone pink.
“What were you drawing?” he murmured.
“Um…,” she passed him her notebook. She’d filled the page with sketches of the ducks floating upon the lake.
He made an approving sound in his throat, looking at her work. “You’re so good at this, Ciri…” She blushed.
“Thank you.”
“So how many types of bird are on this lake, right now?”
“Four.”
He looked at the lake. “I see three… blue, green, and grey-brown. Which is the fourth?”
She laughed. “No, you’re seeing males. Ducks are sexually dimorphic. The blue and the green are males of two species, and the grey-brown are females, but there’s four different kinds.”
“Which are which?”
She scooted closer and leaned into him, then pointed, so her arm would be aligned with his head. “Well, first, that one, that one, and that one have spots on their undersides, that you can kind of see creeping up their sides.”
“Oh yeah…”
“They’re two species. There’s different patterns to the spots, but you can’t see it well while they’re in the water. Their bills are shaped a little different, too. They eat different things. …Then there’s that one. It has a different shape to its wings, similar to the blue male, which prevents it from taking flight easily, and neither can walk well on land. They’re the same species.”
“…OK, very observant.”
“And then there’s that one… it has a thinner bill, and it’s bigger than the others. It’s the female of the fourth species, and the green is the male. He’s bigger than the other male, too.”
He grinned. “Ciri, you’re so smart,” he mused appreciatively, then quickly turned his head and kissed her temple.
She flushed, giggled a little, and dropped her arm. “Th-Thank you, Luke.”
“You have them categorized?”
“W-well, yeah.”
“How are they related, do you reckon?”
“I don’t know, but.. I’ve placed the larger species with one of the spotted ones. They have similar feeding habits, and their bills are closer in shape. I think the poor flyers are more distant. …Of course, I could be wrong.”
“Well, I’m sure it’s not easy to infer relationships. ..Do you ever see new species on the lake?”
“I have, but not for a while now. There’s lots that migrate so they’re only here part of the year.”
“Where do they go?”
“I-I don’t know… If I could travel and learn more regions, maybe I could find them again.” It made her a little sad, to think of being stuck there.
He reached into her lap and held her hand. “I’m sure that one day you can get to know all the biomes on the planet. …Maybe not quite as well as you do this one.”
She smiled at him, pleased. “I like your confidence.”
He grinned, easily, “I am absolutely confident.” Then he looked out over the water.
The light over the lake was dimming, as the day waned away. The western sky was light above the trees, rays tracing down to the water.
“Hey, Ciri,” he murmured with a grin.
“Luke?”
“Wanna help me practice that Force thing again?”
“Oh, yes!”
“Great.” His eyes sparked as he grinned, and a blush spread over his fine features.
“So, I had this theory…,” he announced, “This theory that the closer we are, the easier this is to channel. ..So…” He bit his lip, cocked his head, and asked slyly, “…Wanna get in my lap?”
Then with a snuff he admitted, “—Um, I can’t lie — this is primarily a shameless bid to have you in my lap.”
She blushed intensely red to match his, feeling her heart speed. “Y-y-yeah.. I’d.. I’d like that…” She laughed briefly in embarrassment as he beamed broadly with happiness, then uncrossed her legs and scooted in closer, a bit uncertainly.. and then something unseen was taking over, smoothly scooping her up and depositing her between his legs.
His warmth blossomed against her back as he settled her in, and his arms wrapped around her. His cheek rubbed along her temple, and they both spent a moment, oh-so-comfy yet tension-tingling, recovering from the lurch into awareness of the other’s proximity. ..He’d placed her notebook carefully on her pack.
“It’s always a little bit shocking at first, just how nice this feels… isn’t it, Ciri…,” he breathed gently at her temple.
“L-Luke…,” she whispered, hesitating, almost death-gripping his arm.. then admitted, “y-yes, it is.”
“…Well, I’m going to be really embarrassed, if I can’t do this as well after telling you how good it’s going to work…”
She smiled, and laughed, in spite of herself. “..D-don’t w-worry, you were fairly noncommittal,” she reassured him.
She felt his answering chuckle ripple through her back, and shivered with the pleasure of it. “Ok, good…,” he murmured. She couldn’t believe her luck, that he enjoyed touching too. Or that he kept making ways to do it, when she didn’t have the courage. He’d been right — he didn’t disappoint.
Then the ducks took flight.
“Look at the wings!” she said, pointing, “The tips of those two are blunt.”
“Ciri, can you really see that?” The world had become dim, as dusk burgeoned.
“Oh… Well, maybe not right now, I suppose.”
“We’ll have to come back during the day.”
She laughed in embarrassment. “We don’t have to do that, Luke, I-I’m sure it’s not that interesting…”
“I’m interested. ..You know, bodies of water are still some of the most exotic things I’ve ever seen.”
She laughed, thinking how unlikely it was that something pedestrian to her would be anything special to him. “I won’t make you wait, then. Let’s go this six-day.”
He delicately kissed her hair. “Let’s go seven-day. I’m taking you somewhere, six-day.”
“Y-you are?”
“Mmhmm,” he confirmed enigmatically.
“Where?” she laughed.
“Back to my ship, at first… from there, it’s a surprise.”
“Luke..!” and her throat clenched.
“..Ciri?” He sounded so soft and cautiously curious, it made her heart pang to be the one he spoke to.
“..L-Luke… Thank you… A-all of this kind of means the world to me… a-and I can’t really understand how I got so lucky, all the sudden.”
“…Well, you didn’t,” he told her plainly. “You’re yourself, that’s all. I’m lucky I happened by, to see you there…all in your woodsy leathers, surrounded by the fancy court-folk, standing so uncomfortably by your father’s side looking like a forester’s daughter… How could you not catch my eye, looking so out of place? ..Lucky I took that walk, that night, too.. my recluse. ..Though…I know I was going to find a way to talk to you, regardless..”
“…W-well..,” she blushed, brightly, mind flashing back to the handsome man lankily crossing the grass.. to speak to her, in private. “M-m-maybe we both…got lucky, that you came, then.”
“I’ll go with that,” he agreed.
She smiled, and took a moment just to breathe.
“…W-we… we lost our ducks…” she observed.
He chuckled. “We did… that’s alright, princess, I’ll find us something else to listen to. …why don’t you just… curl up and get comfortable.”
He leaned back against the tree trunk, and she did as he suggested, curling up in his lap and resting against him as his arms readjusted around her. One of his hands found one of hers, and their fingers twined, and he briefly pressed a chaste kiss into her hair, and sighed.
“Ah,” he murmured after a moment, “This is going to be more difficult… but interesting.”
She waited, but he didn’t continue.
“…Are you going to tell me what it is, or is it a surprise?” she asked in amusement.
“Of course it’s a surprise…,” he trailed, “Now… relax and clear your mind, pretty Ciri… as best you can…”
She found his presence around her comforting, as she tried to empty her mind of stray thoughts. It was easier to do, by letting him fill her awareness, than it had been, just being next to him, before. Then, she focused in on her breathing, matching it easily to his, which had been gently nudging her whole upper body with each inhalation.
Presently, his breath expanded in her awareness… She felt herself rising and falling in it like a leaf suspended in a pulsating column of air… and then she became indistinct from the column.
Then there was coolness, and darkness, and silvered light, and a yawning lake of air… and finally, a great, rolling wave of scent descended… must, and water, and moist decomposition, and flowers… many flavors of flowers… close, far, strong, many, delicately scattered, a wild, dizzying, uncountable array, variegations on sweetness and poignance of incredible fineness and breadth… and motion, this field of fragrance perpetually in motion, a single light hanging steady, scents failing and rising stronger, one rising strongest….
And then it faded, and she was in her companion’s arms, and felt like she could barely smell at all.
She swallowed, and gripped his arm, and curled up tighter into him with her eyes squeezed shut.
“Ciri…?” he breathed, “are you alright? …I tried to let you down a little easier this time…”
She nodded against him, felt his arms rising closer around her. “Thank you,” she whispered, “I’m fine. It was beautiful… beautiful…”
Silence descended into the comfortable thrumming of crickets.
“—Luke, what was that?” she asked quietly.
“It was an insect… one of the big fluttery nectar-eating ones.”
“A moth…,” she said, “a moth… I didn’t know…that they could smell like that… I need to know which moth, can they all do that? where should I add it…”
He gave a slow appreciative smile, above her head. “My scientist…,” he softly hummed. “Well, next time I’ll let you identify the creature first, so you’ll know where to put it. No more surprises.”
She nodded. “Thank you, Luke. You know I appreciate this.. much more than I can say.”
He snuggled her in against him a little closer, as they relaxed into the quiet susurrations of the night.
“I know exactly what you mean,” he returned in a murmur.
***
That five-day, he started asking her questions, about the planet and what she knew of it. What she knew, of course, was only from books and maps — he wanted to see them, so she brought him back to her rooms at the end of the day and showed him. He was interested in the planet’s ecosystems, but her maps focused primarily on settlements, trade routes, and the geographic obstacles to them. She told him what she could, from her readings of travel logs and natural treatises. He chose the biggest map, a great folding thing which purported to show the entire globe in some detail, and made her promise to bring it, and her notebook, with her tomorrow.
The next morning, they went out to his X-wing, and he had R2 scan it into his memory banks. “Pick a spot without people,” he told her, so she did, her belly trembling with excitement.
And he took her there. The spot she’d chosen was on the eastern continent, in the middle of a great steppe, far from any settlement large enough to have been noted by the mapmakers. R2 complained vociferously about the fiddliness of the map’s dimensions, but the droid found it for them, anyhow — comparing the coastlines and distant landmarks on the page with observations taken from orbit. The ship’s sensors assured that they were alone, and they set down, amidst undifferentiated, gently rolling grassland.
The land stretched to the horizon in all directions, equally. Ripples ran across it, before the wind, as though over the surface of a sea. For a long while, she simply gazed into it. Something about the vastness of it all made her feel small enough to be just another blade of grass, tossed by the wind. And in merging with the landscape, in that way, she felt herself expand, perceptually… Until it was she, who was unbounded on all sides.
He smiled at her. “It’s not what I’d thought you might pick,” he observed lightly.
“I’ve never been somewhere I could see so far,” she explained, “it’s the most opposite, of a forest.. Except I guess a desert.”
“Do you like it?”
She could only nod.. unable to convey just how much, with language.
Presently, she set to filling her notebook, with as much of it as she could. Focusing on the great sweep of the landscape, at first, and then on the little details — the grasses, at her feet, discovering with pleasure that they were in their specificity as varied, as the overall impression from a distance was not.
Though the steppe was at first blush home only to flora, there were insects, in the grass, and occasional birds, that traced large circles high in the air. And in a little while, he touched her shoulder, and pointed, and very, very slowly parted the grasses a short distance off, with his mind… To reveal a small rodent with spindly, prominent hindlimbs, and a face elongated into a ridiculously pinched nose.
She stifled a laugh, and drew it swiftly, before it became aware of its exposure, and sped away into the stalks.
That day, she was brave enough to hug him, again. Seemingly very happy for it — happy enough, to make her feel guilty, for having taken so long to find the courage — he let it last for as long as her nerves would allow her to let it last, and thanked her for it sweetly, when she at length, and with a kiss on his cheek, let him go.
Chapter 7: Darkness
Chapter Text
He slid into the bench across from her, and greeted her cheerfully, “Ciri!”
She startled, raising her head from her book to look at him. He was wearing a delightful smile that broadened as her attention turned upon him. She sucked in her breath, and flushed. There were a few people around, at other benches, and none of them would ever have approached her, similarly… or at all. Now they were all being treated to the confusing sight of the court’s latest most interesting man favoring the king’s weird, outcast daughter with his attention.
The knowledge made that attention just a little bit harder to accept, just then, than when they were alone.
Head cocked, he noticed her hesitation, and softened his manner. “..Good evening, princess,” he said gently, his voice quietly pregnant. His blue eyes sparked for her in the lamplight.
And she became lost in their glowing pools; and the sweet, dark resonance of his voice… Until abruptly she forgot the people around them and just grinned happily at finally seeing him — after having waited the entire day — seated there rocked forward on his elbow and looking boyishly eager with his big pretty eyes trained on her; and at last she found her voice.
“Hi, Luke! You’re here…,” she breathed in pleasure. And she blushed, at being so glad to see him. “..H-how was your day?”
“Great,” he responded immediately, gazing into her eyes — and then he blushed too, and corrected himself with a lopsided grin, “—Um, I meant, now it’s great. Earlier it was alright. —How was yours?”
“Um,” she replied, blushing back, and almost unconsciously reached out to take his hand. He grinned at her, pleased, as he squeezed her back. Holding onto him, made her feel reassured. It was so unexpected, the way that happened.. “W-waity,” she answered, “…it was OK.”
His grin grew into luxuriance, and he lightly stroked his thumb across her knuckles, sending a frisson along her arm. His chin nestled in his other hand. “Sounds tedious… At least I had work to distract me. …um, well. —Still thought about you pretty much all day anyway, but.. it helped. Poor princess… but I bet I can help you turn it around.”
She developed a big, dopey grin at that, and there was nothing she could do about it. Something in his tone or eyes had also caused her to experience a full body flush.. he’d been thinking of her too. She let her knuckles travel against his warm palm. “I-it was kind of tedious..,” she allowed shyly, feeling like she was basking in his presence. “..I’m happy you’re here now…”
“Me too. —You know, I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen you smile so big. …It’s a really pretty smile,” he murmured, with a dreamy gaze.
She laughed embarrassedly and blushed. “…Th-thank you, Luke.”
“Is that all for me?” he breathed, a little mischievous, with reddened ears and cheeks.
“U-um, well,” she laughed with embarrassment, “W-well.. yeah..,” she allowed softly.
He gave her a silly, sparkly grin. “How flattering,” he concluded happily, “I don’t know how I got so lucky…,” and she laughed again, and had to look away as her bashfulness experienced an overload.
“So, what’s my princess been up to today?” he asked softly, cocking his head, “…while she’s been waiting on little old lucky me…”
“I… u-um—” she suddenly flushed differently and had trouble to continue. For the truth was, she’d done almost nothing but think of him, obsessively, and the many signs of affection he’d given her, and how it felt to be close to him, all day long… And even if he’d been thinking of her, it was still embarrassing, for him to know.
…He was captivating, sweet, flirtatious, and gorgeous — he was doing it right now — and there was something about his presence that consistently unset her abdomen. And despite how close they already were, she wanted more with him. More than she knew how to make happen. How did people do these things?
As her desire to deepen their relationship grew, she’d found herself falling into an unfortunate cycle… of feeling powerful trust and safety in their connection, so long as he was present — and doubtful anxiety over it, when he was not, and thoughts of risk, and probability, and past knowledge, crowded her in.
After all, she’d never even really.. seen people flirt before — how could she be so sure what it looked like? What if she was misreading everything — What if all of this was in her head, and he viewed her simply as a close friend? —Maybe this was how he treated his close friends. Was she sure enough, that it wasn’t, to risk the whole relationship? Her most important relationship.. And if—
“—Hey,” he cut in, “hey…”
She startled out of her spiraling thoughts and looked at him. Both of his hands were now clasped gently around hers, his smile near gone, and his eyes were tender. “Hey…,” he whispered soothingly, delicately stroking her skin, “it’s OK. Forget I asked. I didn’t mean to make you anxious… forgive me, Ciri.”
She looked into his eyes, felt him softly squeezing her hand.. and nodded.
“Are you OK?” he asked gently.
She nodded again, swallowed, blushing, “Yeah. S-sorry to…”
With a shake of his head, he broke in, “—Don’t apologize. There’s no need. —Besides, if anyone should apologize, it’s me.. I’ve been teasing you. You’re kind of adorable to tease, but…” he briefly glanced down, and gave her a small, apologetic smile, “…obviously it isn’t fun anymore if it makes you feel anxious.”
She smiled a little, cautiously. “O-Ok. …Y-you’re really, really sweet.” She gripped his hand more tightly, and began to feel comforted.
He smiled, too, a little bashfully. “..You heard me say I was teasing you, right?”
“Yeah. I— I don’t mind,” she confessed.
He flashed her a big, fun smile, and quietly mouthed, “..Well, great news. I’ll continue gently toeing the line, then..”
She stared at him, lips slightly parted and a flush upon her face. Her heart pounded.
Then she licked her lips, looked down at the tabletop, and collected herself. She wanted to at least try, to be a little bit forthcoming with him, since he always was with her.
She squeezed his hand, first, before she could begin. “Um, so… well today I… basically just… wandered around paying little attention to anything and, th-thought about… u-us,” she confessed weakly.
“…Then we had very similar days,” he murmured, gazing at her intently.
Then he picked up her hand, carefully separated out her index finger, slightly turned his head and chastely kissed her fingertip. “Was that hard to say to me?” his voice nudged against her skin. “…I bet it was. I think you’re very brave.” He continued making his way through her fingers as he spoke, “—You know you really didn’t have to answer… but I’m glad you did… and I thought about us too, Ciri. Your dad caught me not paying attention to his ministers like twice and I had to awkwardly cover for myself.” When he’d done with her fingers, he tenderly kissed her palm. “…You’re really compromising my professionalism.”
“S-s-s-sorry…?” she managed to squeak. He lifted an eyebrow.
“—Ciri, are you?”
“Umm.. m-maybe…?”
“Well I hope you’re not sorry,” he breathed, voice gone silky, “I’m not sorry.”
“U-um, well… no, I-I guess not really…”
And she watched his spreading smile, transfixed.
The way he spoke to her sometimes, was like to have her melt, and her insides run down her legs. It sure didn’t feel like she was mistaken, at moments like that.
“C-can we go somewhere…?”
“Wanna get me alone?”
Her breath almost stopped up. “C-could be..”
He grinned. “Yeah, let’s go somewhere…You know I’d love to be anywhere, with you. Where do you wanna take me?”
“Umm…”
Her mind had been filled with an image, of them sitting close in shadowed black, and the water lapping by and the lights shimmering across. It made her heart pull, like she could pull him to the other side of a veil, and share him only with herself.
She rose her eyes back to his. He was a vision, sitting across from her. Flushed, and disastrously lovely.
“Um, well, you’ll see. …I’m taking you to the other side of the riverbank, just.”
“Alright.. Lead on.”
He let go her hand and rose, stepped to her side of the table and held out his hand. She took it, allowing herself to be guided to her feet.
Then their fingers linked, and she took him from the square.
~
They chatted as they walked, speaking of little things, hand in hand. Where enclosed, the path was lined at shoulder height with little strung lights, that made the stones of walk and wall warmly glisten. Lush ferns marched beneath the lights, beside them, and beyond. They passed other squares, and courtyards. Overflowing flower pots hung from entryways in asymmetric patterns.
They were amicably strolling, slow and close together, their hands held, past one such entrance to an adjoining plaza, and his eyes were fixed on her with a fond, familiar look, when raucous laughter burst forth, and her eyes responded by orienting its way.
Olandria was there. That was an unwelcome surprise. She had her gaggle with her, casually conversant and draped about her table. That was the laughter’s source. Their eyes caught, Olandria’s and hers, and she gulped as a matter of reflex, while Olandria glanced down and back up, and showed her a snide, knowing smile full of teeth.
The moment stretched improbably in her perception, and then they’d passed by.
And the little adverse cycle kicked off again, as she reflected on what Olandria had just seen. The way he’d been looking at her, leaned in close? Their clasped hands?
And what would Olandria make out of that?
That they were… doing whatever she’d be doing with him?
That she was too pathetic to possibly be doing anything with him…
The thought made her shrivel a little, inside.
Then he rubbed his thumb along her hand and squeezed, and she remembered the reality of him, by her side.
Gentle and patient, cute and familiar, kind and compassionate… he was unnervingly wonderful, and he treated her, like none else had. She squeezed him back, and nudged her head lightly against his shoulder. He continued affectionately toying with her hand.
“…She’s a sour face,” he remarked, “She can hardly manage to look at you without being rude.”
“Y-you noticed her?” she asked.
“..I noticed you noticing her,” he replied mildly.
“—Ah. …Yeah, she’s.. pretty sour. …I’m never really expecting.. to see her, somehow…”
“…Are you OK?”
“Um, yeah…I’m OK.”
“Really?” he remarked, with a skeptical brow, and she remembered again that he was an empath.
“…W-well… maybe not, entirely..,” she admitted, after a pause. “…She just makes me so… unsure in myself. Always has. …And I always avoid her, you know, but I feel like I’ve seen more of her in the past month than I have in the preceding year.”
They walked a few steps in silence, as he considered.
“…I’m sorry she takes you that way, Ciri,” he said, his voice soft, “And for what’s happened in the past, for her to do so. She’s low, and mean. …You’re a different sort of animal, entirely.”
She smiled, to herself, and sniffed. “…Well, thanks.. For thinking so highly, of me.”
“Well.. It’s not exactly a choice I made.”
She blushed.
“—And I’m sorry…if I’ve brought you more friction, with her,” he added, more softly.
“Oh…don’t worry about it. …I-I mean, —maybe it’s that? Or, maybe it’s something else. —But i-if it’s you, I don’t care.. You’re.. you’re worth it,” she told him…. her heart beating with the honesty of it.
He smiled, hearing it, and nudged against her side. “Aww… you’re sweet.”
She grinned shyly, and gently nudged him back. He was blushing, and it was adorable.
His smile faded, a little.
“I felt the way you felt, back there…,” he said softly, “She affects you so, just by a look, and I…. well. Ciri, would you prefer me to be more circumspect?”
“..Wh-what do you mean?”
“—I mean, I don’t exactly try to hide how I feel about you, when we’re in public. ..So...perhaps that’s part of why she’s been taking more interest.. Lately. ..I could be more discreet.”
“No!” she answered immediately, making him glance at her.
It was her turn to blush, and she continued, a bit more evenly. “…N-no, I… I wouldn’t wish to give that up, L-Luke. I.. I like the way you treat me.”
She might not be able to convince herself of what it meant, exactly, but she knew that she liked it, better than anything she’d ever known… so she had to speak up for it, without equivocation.
He smiled and looked down, suddenly seeming very happy. In that moment it seemed incredibly silly not to be certain. He leaned in and kissed her temple.
“…k, princess,” he breathed as he returned to himself, squeezing her hand. “Thanks. I like it, too.”
She squeezed him back, smiling and blushing to herself.
..And when next she looked up she realized, that they were about there, now, and she was about to have him, all to herself.
She stepped ahead, turning to him. “—W-We’re far enough,” she announced, and pulled him from the path.
He came easily, with a look in his eyes.. almost puppyish. It made her a little weak, in the knee, to have him following her, like that.. and she wanted him out of there, somehow all the more.
So she smiled, and tugged again. “C’mon,” she insisted. He snuffed, and was grinning broadly.
Then she turned, almost at a small skip. She heard him laugh, as he opened his stride, keeping pace.
She brought him swiftly from the lights, across the sward.
~
Soon they heard the river… and soon after that she took him across a little bridge to the clearing on the far side, and then into the cattails she knew grew thick upon the bank. Tall river grasses rustled, and fallen stalks lightly crunched under their step, as they passed.
She led him around a bend, and through a willow stand, and around another. Noises faintly reached them now, distant yet more emphatic than the ripple of the waters, as they made their way up the bank, treading carefully in the near-darkness.
Finally, she brought them under the eaves of a young willow, and stopped at its base. He fetched up into her, warmly appearing against her back, his hand rising reflexively to brace on her waist.
“sorry, princess,” he mouthed.
“D-don’t be,” she assured, slightly turning her head as though to look back at him. “Um.. we’re here.”
“..Mmm,” he hummed in acknowledgement as he looked around. A small space had formed around the tree, freed of reeds. Shorter grasses grew there in their stead. To their left, faint lights tinkled, catching at the edges of rush and leaf.
“..So.. where’ve you brought me, beautiful?” He hadn’t let his hand drop, from her waist.
With a pause and some reluctance, she turned and stepped away from him, and held out her arms, to part the reeds. “..Look,” she said.
She had revealed a tableau of light, across a span of darkness.
Over the river and a goodly stretch of lawn, lay the open plaza they’d just left. Light streamed toward them over the grass, and played mercurial over little ripplets in the surface of the stream. Muted, softened sounds reached them better now, of silverware upon plateware, of speech.
People were visible.
She felt his shoulder behind her, and there was a rustling as a swathe opened up in the great river grasses before them. She dropped her hands, to her side.. he was holding the grasses back now, though his arms hadn’t moved — and much more broadly than she could.
“..It’s them,” he observed.
“It is,” she agreed.
Silence fell, for a moment. They searched out details in the distant nightlife. Much more was visible now. His warmth was a welcome presence, beside her. She watched an older pair clink their glasses together over a board game, and thought she recognized Lady Mallaby.
“What does it feel like, seeing them from out here?” he asked into the silence.
“Feels…” she trailed off and studied it..the enjoyment she took in being nestled out here and having a vantage on the folk.
“Feels safe,” she breathed eventually. “It makes me feel safe to be able to watch them, from a place they don’t know exists.” She blinked. “…Gods, that sounds sort of bad, huh?”
“I don’t think it sounds bad,” he said quietly, without hesitation.
“..It sounds like I had a.. tortured childhood or something,” she said with embarrassment.
“..Did you?” He looked at her.
“No… I’m just… sensitive, I guess.”
“Sensitive… That sounds like you did have a hard childhood.”
“N-othing that bad happened.”
Another pause settled in.
Then, “Tell me something that did happen,” he prompted her gently, “Good or bad.. anything.”
“Um,” she laughed nervously, and didn’t know what to say. “There’s not much that would be interesting..”
He laughed softly back, shoulder giving her a faint nudge. “I don’t care if it’s interesting, I’m interested in you. Tell me something boring.”
..So she sat, and he swiftly seated at her side, his leg lightly brushed up against hers. For a while, she thought quietly… looking out between the reeds, while he watched her instead.
“..O-one time my dad gave me a flower,” she said hesitantly, not knowing why the image of it had come into her head. “It was a crocus. It was beautiful. Just, this starkly vibrant yellow. They don’t grow here, I don’t know where he got it. I didn’t know it was exotic at the time… Probably some merchant gifted it to him.
“…I had just failed my fourth-year recital,” she noted, “…I-I mean, I didn’t… I didn’t even give it. I couldn’t play the piece. I… r-ran away, instead. The other girls were laughing at me and I just ran out. …Girls of station are supposed to learn music, but I couldn’t. Or, wouldn’t take the time. As you like it. ..And Olandria was saying how the princess, the girl of the highest station, had the responsibility to s-shine the brightest… I knew that she was right. I wasn’t ever meant for this.” She stopped, her jaw working, as her eyes lightly stung. When the memory of the flower had first come into her mind, she hadn’t immediately recalled the less pleasant remembrances that were connected to it. He waited patiently.
Presently, she mastered herself.
“Well, anyways, my dad came and found me… I mean… well, it’s more like he caught me while I was trying to sneak bread out of the kitchen, because I was too embarrassed to eat in the hall with everyone after I had run out like that. And I expected him to scold me, but instead he gave me the flower. I don’t know if he’d even been told yet, what had happened.
“…It’s a bulb plant. Related, anyway. I tried to propagate it. It lasted the whole season… but the next spring, the bulb didn’t sprout. I still have my drawings of it... they aren’t very good, I was pretty young.”
“…How young were you?” he asked quietly.
“I was eight.”
Silence fell. The distant courtfolk tittered and tinked.
Then he said into it, “When I was eight the most on-the-spot I ever was, was shooting practice rifles at womp rats with my friends. No adult structures, and no expectations.. Real friends. And I was good at it, because I had the Force guiding my aim. —Not that I knew it, I just thought I was a hotshot. …Your childhood doesn’t sound so easy to me.”
She looked back at him. Something had lodged in her throat, at his assessment. Her eyes glittered.
He was watching her carefully.
“Wanna cuddle?” he asked softly.
“…Y-yeah,” she heard herself saying, softly, back.
And he smiled kindly, and shifted back a short ways, so the trunk of the willow was at his back. “Come here,” he invited, holding out his hand.
And cautiously, she climbed into his lap.
Warmth enveloped her. His strong arms wrapped around her and held her up close against his torso, where his heat blazed along her back. She felt him nuzzling lightly into her hair, and it made her smile. She curled her legs up, and relaxed her muscles into his care, and sighed.
“Gorgeous Ciri…,” he was gently praising, “so sweet and smart… and you’re an iconoclast, too. Not even good at music. Trashing everyone’s darlings. It’s hard to go against the world, princess. Even by running away. ...You’re strong.”
She huffed out her breath and huddled back into his chest, shut her eyes, and held his arms tight. “Wh-what a way to see me,” she commented wryly.
“I love what I see,” he replied. And held her patiently, while she blushed.
“…Look at them,” he whispered after a time, and she opened her eyes, from her place in his warm embrace. “You’re still their princess. They’re your courtiers.” He squeezed her, to emphasize his point.
“they’re my father’s,” she protested weakly.
“—Please..none of that,” he gently insisted, “They’re yours, just as well. You could dismiss, most any of them, you know. …But I’ll bet, you’ve never even thought of it.”
“…n-no,” she admitted. “..You think I could?”
She felt a chuckle, ripple his chest. “I know it, Ciri.. You live here. They’re just staying over, for your family’s entertainment. They’re literally here to keep you company…” He laughed, “—they’re doing a terrible job.”
She thought about it. ..She supposed in a way, it was true — at least, she did live there. Courtiers’ families were always from somewhere. She hadn’t ever considered, why exactly they were there. “…Maybe..,” she eventually allowed.
She felt the breath run through him, again, felt him squeeze around her, felt his mouth press her hair. “You could. ..The point is, just.. That you should keep things in perspective, princess. There’s no need, for you to ever please them. They’re fortunate, you are who you are, and not someone more vindictive.”
She studied the brightly outlined figures, across the spread. She’d largely made her peace, with most of them — by ignoring them, which was simple enough. ..What would it be like, to shed the feeling of being a failure, by comparison?
“..Thank you, Luke. ..I.. I guess you’re right. I’ll try to keep that in mind.” She swallowed, and added quietly, “…You’re very sweet to me, you know? …I’m grateful.”
“I’m grateful..,” he whispered back, “…I love it, that I’m the one, you’ll lead out here, to hide with you in the dark.”
“..I-I still can’t fully imagine having someone I.. w-wanna do that with,” she delicately confessed, “I n-never, h-have… before.”
She blushed, as she realized she was essentially confessing that he was her first real friend.
“…I hope you know how pleased I am, to challenge your imagination in that regard, my princess,” he delicately breathed against her hair, eyes slipping shut, “..To be wanted, by you, is such a privilege..”
She blushed deeper, her heart skipping to hear him say that.
Something about the baldness, of her confession, and the wondrous warmth of his response, drove her to speak again.
“…Luke, are we friends?”
“..‘course we are..,” he whispered into her, tightening his grip, “you’re a very good friend of mine…. Although.. ..I do hope we’re not just friends..”
“—n-n-not, j-just..?” Had she heard him right?
He hesitated. Then, “…you don’t wanna be just friends with me.. do you, Ciri?” There was something almost plaintive, tinging his voice.
Something about it drew the secret word right out of her. “—n-no,” she admitted.
“…good..” he breathed, while she blinked, in surprise, “..me neither. I don’t wanna just be friends, at all.”
“oh— ohh..!” she breathed, air slipping out of her in a rush as her stomach unset.
“..is this what you’re really asking me?” he whispered carefully, beside her ear, “..if we’re friends, only?”
How had that happened, so easily? After all that worry and bother.. “…y..yeah..?” she trembled in acknowledgment, “…y-yes, I— t-that’s what I’m asking.”
“mm.” Delicately, he pressed his lips to the shell of her ear. “..well we’re not, Ciri. we’re not just friends. …I’m, courting, you.”
She swallowed, heart pounding. “o-oh! Oh-ok,” she managed.. smaller and different than she would have wished.
“—princess?”
“Y-yeah?”
His voice was warm, and soft. “...is that alright? —are you alright? ..you seem, a little anxious..”
“..y-yeah, I’m good, I’m—” she halted herself, then switched tack, “….I’m.. w-well, I’m not really sure what I’m d-doing, L-Luke, and I have t-trouble… i-interpreting things, sometimes.”
A low grunt softly sounded, deep in his chest, and he answered, “…I’ve kept in mind what you said that night, you know… after the party. and I haven’t wanted to pressure, or frighten, you, pretty girl. ..so I’ve just been trying, to let you know, that I’m available. And I’m patient.. and I’m easy-going… And I’m smitten, as hell.” His voice had gone a little ragged, on those last words. It made her shiver, in his embrace. “…so, if you want… I’d be thrilled, to help you find out what you’re doing.. bit by bit. Slowly, as you like..”
She swallowed, as she realized that many of her troubles over the past weeks need not have nettled her so at all, and her heart quietly fluttered. “..yes, I-I want that,” she breathed, in acknowledgment. And he softly kissed her ear.
He husked gently into it, “…there’s never a need to be nervous, when you’re with me.”
“Luke, I…” she paused only briefly, and finally confessed, “—I can’t stop thinking about you. I feel.. um, weird, everytime you leave..? L-Like, I can’t stand to be so separate.. And, e-e-everytime you’re near.. —When you’re near, s-somehow I feel, the same? like, even so close, sometimes it’s not.. enough.. i-it’s hard.. to tolerate, sometimes.”
“…Ciri…. ..is it enough, right now?” His warm breath, was softly blushing upon the skin of her ear, and it seemed to bloom inside of her too.. heating up her bones, from within. Of course, it wasn’t.
“…um. ..w-well..,” she tried, “..I-I can’t, s-see you..”
“..why don’t you turn around.”
Her stomach emptied out, and became buoyant. This was more, than anything she ever could have imagined, happening to her.
She twisted, in his lap..felt his hand upon her thigh, helping her. She slid her hands onto his chest, felt its heave, underneath her palms. He pulled her in.. until she was close, so close, straddling him.. and she looked hesitantly into his face..
She’d never seen him, so close. Moonlight traced delicately along his cheek, and brushed over the adorable cleft, in his chin. Her eyes played over it… ..and up into shadows, that fell over his brow..
She would have thought that it would be terrifying.. but somehow, instead it felt oddly comfortable, sitting on him there, and looking into his face, openly, at last.
“hey,” he softly mouthed, under his breath.
“..h-hey,” she mouthed back, letting her eyes flick back and forth across his features.
..And after a moment’s consideration, she gave a small smile. “..I-I can’t see your eyes,” she lamented, “and they’re s-s-so.. p-pretty..”
That made his lips quirk, into a gentle grin. “…Remind me to show you, during the day.”
And that made her blush, a little. “..W-well, what are you looking at?” she asked.. hushedly playful.
He gently raised his hand, to her face, to brush along her cheek. “…I’m watching you blush. ..I like it when you blush, at me,” he breathed back.
That made her redden deeper, and blink.
“C-can you even see that? I-isn’t it kind of dark..”
He grinned, etching in his smile lines. “Caught me,” he whispered, “..I’m just betting that you are.”
“…y-you’re so pretty,” she said, biting her lip. She’d thought it for so long, without telling him, and he always told her. ..As though it were some deep secret, she’d kept wrapped up inside.
He smiled, in pleasure, and confessed, “..I feel a little vain.. but I’ve so hoped, for you to think so.”
“…I’ve always thought so,” she assured him.
“always?”
She nodded. “I-I’ve had to try, not to.. s-stare at you, too much.”
That made him softly snuff. “..I may have noticed you doing something like that at some point. …Well, you don’t have to try, not to look at me, princess. …you get special dispensation.”
She smiled, and momentarily ducked her face. “..Thanks, Luke. I-I’ll try to be brave enough to use it.”
He laughed happily, his smile lines pulling back into concentric grooves.
..Gradually, they relaxed.
“…Ciri..?” he whispered, and something new had stolen into his voice.
“y-yes?”
“..are we close enough, now?” His words were so small..
..And she’d always wished, to touch him. To run her fingers, over all the little valleys and gentle gyri about his mouth, that she knew only by how they caught the light.
“a— …almost,” she said back, smally.
And let her hand rise, to his chin, so that her fingertips could brush, lightly over its cleft… and again, a little more firmly, with her thumb. She’d wanted to, for so long.. His skin was smooth, and warm…and the little divet caught, and seemed to unexpectedly cup, her fingerpad..
Her brows tweaked. “it’s cute..” she breathed quietly, pressing lightly into the slanting sides of the cleft.. thoroughly exploring its circumference.
A stunned sort of giddiness, birthed itself within her, and came to softly crackle, over all her surfaces.
“you’re cute,” he returned, lips scarcely moving, eyes lightly lidded. “…I like that..,” he observed, barely audible, just so she’d know. Shyly, she smiled.
…And delicately fingered just up to the edges of his lips.. careful not to impress upon his flesh, in such a delicate spot.. then aside, over the contour of his dimple.. her belly aflame, with the intimacy of it. Moving laterally out from his mouth, she traced lightly up the track of his nasolabial line.. and the smaller smile lines beyond.. and he held still for her, breathing softly as she did it, one arm wrapped snuggly about her back and a welcome hand closed possessively over her thigh at the hip.
When she was done, she returned to the center.. that prominent cleft in his chin. She let her eyes fall closed, just briefly, savoring the sensation of their bodies touching, and his soft skin, under her fingertips… and in that space, she felt her thumb accidentally hit up into his bottom lip. Her eyes flitted open, lips parted in surprise… it had deformed, easily, and as easily sprung back..
..Succulent, is what he was.
She felt his arm, tightening, firmly about her waist.. and his hand, left her thigh and rose to close about the back of hers. ..He brought her hand in to his mouth and held it in place, as he kissed it… and it was as no kiss he’d ever given her. Wet, and sweet, and slow, and… and his tongue, was moving openly against her palm, shockingly soft, and saturated, leaving behind a trail of saliva. Her face and chest flared red, feeling it, and a soft noise of surprised pleasure, made its way out of her throat. “Ciri..,” he mumbled, brows knitted, into her palm…When he released her, she slipped it aside onto his cheek and jaw, and held him, and impulsively kissed his pretty mouth.
She was clumsy. She pressed too hard, hastily, and her lips on his didn’t really seem to fit, and their noses awkwardly bumped.
..She didn’t have time to worry, because he kissed her back.
He was sure-footed… he tilted his head, so their noses wouldn’t clash, and let his lips match softly against hers, so that her bottom lip was trapped.. And then instead of letting her go, he lightly applied suction. She whimpered, helplessly, into his mouth, as something inside her pelvis released.
His hand rose to tangle in the hair at the base of her skull, and he opened his mouth and kissed her again, deeply. She felt his tongue, dip into her mouth, run past hers and over her teeth.
She was trembling, with the surprise of it, when he let her go. His hand in her hair relaxed, and she sat there, trembling in his lap… a pile of halfway substantiated goo, with four silly emergent sticks.
..He gently brushed his thumb along her cheek. “..is that alright, my princess?” His voice was velvety soft.
Things about him, that couldn’t have a texture, were velvet.
She nodded to him, desperately blushing, experiencing a heat that sizzled all over, and penetrated straight through, her form. “u-uh— h-hah— v-v-very..” Her lips tweaked into a tiny, giddy smile, and his thumb, stroked across her cheek again. “k,” he mouthed, near silently, smiling crookedly back.
And he pulled her closer and carefully placed a sweet kiss, just there, at the corner of her mouth. “..you know I’ve been wishing, for you to kiss me, Ciri,” he breathed, against her cheek.
“..y-you have?” her voice, was hardly loud enough for herself to hear.
“mmhm,” he acknowledged sweetly.
..She turned her head a fraction, in his direction, encountered his mouth.. and hesitantly tried, to give him another.
Again, his lips were soft, softer than possible, and plush. And then, he opened his mouth, and there again was his tongue… svelte, and warm, and thoroughly wet, and it left her, feeling about to come apart, on his lap.
There was an agitation, inside of her, that was so remarkably new.
She tried to be careful with him, to do it slowly, and to let him show her how. …And he was matching her, readily.. beat for beat. Somehow letting her take the lead, while still guiding their mouths gently into place, each time.
She let her fingers travel, to cup his jaw, and splay out along his neck. He felt so real… solid, dependable, beneath her. He was squeezing her, in his hands… There was a humming sound from him, as she got a little sloppy and slipped and accidentally used her teeth — and he returned the favor, biting down gently on her lower lip.
..Their noses rubbed, and it seemed that he had directed it, for the pleasure of it. It was simultaneously the cutest, and most lascivious experience, of her life — to rub noses with him and then share his saliva. She had never felt so close to him.
She thought, that she would never stop doing this, willingly.
~
…Till at last her lips began to sting, from the accumulated little scrapes and suckles his mouth had given hers. It surprised her — that such a thing, should happen. She pulled back a little, to gasp gently in the night air.. slowly reconstituting as herself. She felt him doing the same beneath her, gently lifting her each time… the pattern of his breathing disturbed, as hers. The pricking of her lip was soon complicated by the pointillescence of his saliva, beginning to evaporate all around her mouth.
She couldn’t stop stroking him… as though the only way to confirm his reality, was to lay hands upon it. She wanted to memorize every topographical detail. She traced the swells and lines of his skull..jaw, cheeks…and up carefully into the shadow of his brow, feeling his bangs brush against the back of her hand. He was so comely.. and he was leaning, into her touch, his breath still trying to compose. She could feel his eyelashes, against her palm.
—Had she really, just been kissing him? She’d been dreaming of him quietly for months.. It made her heart tighten, to think of.
“-thank you,” she whispered faintly.
“-for what?” he whispered back, breathless.
“..l-liking me,” she said smally.. and watched a change, come silently over his face. His eyes opened, focused on her keenly, and he lifted himself from her palm.
“...Ciri, I’m gonna have you taking that for granted by the next cherry blossom,” he managed, at last. She stared.
Her eyes watered, abruptly, and she caught her breath. There was a pain, strangely, inside her chest. —The next blossom?
“—r-r-Really?” she scraped out, into a frozen moment. He was watching her, carefully.. brow knitted into a frown she could only partially see.
…And then he was moving, underneath her.. Rising up, slipping his fingers into her hair, and kissing her, assertively, with tongue and teeth.
The sensation was still so strange, and new. It made everything inside of her fall still, and attend.
“—Yes.” he stated, plain and firm, when he was done. She reached out for him, brows rising.
Then she was seeking shelter against him, burrowing her face into his shoulder and neck, consuming his torso with her embrace.
..And he was returning it. She felt him, stroking her back.. sliding his palm up to her neck, then down again along her spine, and back up, letting his fingers linger, and gently sushing. Comforting her, without question.
“...w-what about.. w-w-what about.. what about the n-next-next one?” the question trembled out of her, deep and intense and sounding a little raw.
It had always been a silent given, in the basement of her mind, that he couldn’t last forever.
“…the next-next one… my pretty girl,” he sighed, and kissed her hair as he stroked her, and maybe he realized, the source of her question, because he whispered, “who knows? ..maybe by then, you’ll have gotten so used to me, you won’t even be able to picture me, not right here.”
That answer made her clench, on him.. brow furrowing, arms and thighs clamping tight. He responded with a strong, decisive squeeze, and a soothing “shh..”
She hesitated, roughly biting her lip, before asking him, “..b-b-but, w-what about… ..S-space?”
He was quiet, a moment.. considering, his response. In the meantime, he cradled her back, smoothing his palms comfortingly, up and down.
Ultimately, he chose a playful misinterpretation, “…do you mean, perhaps we might miss the bloom, because we’re in space? …I suppose that could happen. It may depend, on how diverted you are, wherever we’re at, my princess.”
She blinked, stunned. ..Could he possibly be suggesting, that he pictured her with him, somewhere off in the stars? ..That he might take her with him.. when he left?
And of course, that was something, she hadn’t ever considered.
“…L-Luke..?” she asked, hesitant, and confused.
And he elaborated, softly kissing her ear, breathing, “—Ciri, I think there’s something you should know… I haven’t ever, really done this before, either, sweet girl. ..I haven’t ever had a.. real relationship... romantically. ..And this means something, very special, to me.”
She was snugged, against his chest, his warm body smoldering soothingly around hers, and his hands, steadily rubbing along her back… and she thought, about someone like him having been single, always, and frowned. “—you h-haven’t? w-w.. —why?”
“…I don’t know, why,” he answered softly, “..didn’t meet anyone, I suppose. and my…early sexual experiences left me, very picky. …or, careful, or… whatever. Not interested in pursuing anything with anyone I didn’t have a strong feeling about. …and, years went by, and… and I didn’t meet anyone like that.” He cast his eyes down, to her.. stroked his thumb along the nape of her neck. “..but now, here I am. with this.. Pretty, shy girl I met, who’s so smart and enterprising, who’s so incredibly sweet and accepting towards me…” his brows drew, and he sighed, and kissed her hair, “..she makes me feel very strongly.
“…the point is, princess.. I wouldn’t be doing this — I wouldn’t be getting close to you, like this, if it didn’t mean something serious, to me. ..You don’t need to worry, about next-next year, or space.” He ran his hand up her neck, and carefully found her ear, to whisper, “..you’re not gonna lose me, in space.” And he pressed his lips to the shell of her ear.
“Luke—” she started, and stopped, swallowing, and squeezing him vice-tight for an intense, heart-stopping span. Her mind whizzed with the information, and the whizzing expanded, until her thoughts had nearly shut.
“—Thank you,” she whispered.
“you don’t need to thank me for this, precious,” he murmured, bellyless, stroking her back.
She kept hold of him, tight as she could, until her strength gave out. As her grip relaxed, she felt his fingers, slip into her hair, and tenderly hold her up, just enough to give her a slow, sweet kiss, his lips gently bracing hers.
He was gentle enough, to bring tears to the corners of her eyes, and when he let her go he nuzzled his brow into hers and told her softly, “I know, that not many people, have come into your life, sweet girl.. I’m one of them.”
A couple of those tears escaped her eyelids, to track down her face, as her abdomen clenched.
“y-you’re..your—..” she echoed dazedly. She felt like she was skimming the top of something deep, within her, and a few more droplets fell.
“princess…” his brow rubbed hers, and his tone betrayed his concern, “sshhh… what’s wrong, Ciri?”
“—I-I don’t know,” she said, quietly helpless, clenching a hand in the shoulder of his tunic. “—I-I a-always thought you’d g-g— go—”
He stroked her jaw, and ran his thumb up through the wake of her tear, and then kissed it… calm, and gentle, and slow. And he whispered, “I’d like to correct that impression, Ciri. I won’t. I’m sorry I left you under it. I really don’t know, what I’m doing, either. It’s not my wish, to cause you hurt.
“..I know, and I promise you, that there’s no reason, for us to have any less future than anyone else.. And I don’t intend to let you just slip through my fingers. So you can go ahead, and get used to me. it’s…safe.” He cupped her cheek, and looked into her eyes, “I’m, a safe place, for you to invest your emotions.”
..Imagine, a thing like that, being true. She bit her lip to stop its trembling, returning his gaze, and wanting him with every last piece of herself. She held his wrist.
Then his jaw, and was kissing him, aggressively, despite that she was crying. He responded, measuredly, squeezing her tightly, and frowning, a little. He allowed his hands up into her hair, and held her carefully as he broke from the kiss to lick the trail of her tear, all the way up her cheek, then returned to her lips to give her several more, slowly, and gently. His saliva sparkled on her skin.
He nuzzled his nose into her, after. “…here… ..let me try to comfort you.. hmm?”
She nodded, “m— mmhm..,” holding his arm. He was massaging her.. And he kissed her one more time, long, and soft.
“..why don’t you just curl up on me, my pretty little Ciri, and rest,” he whispered, “..if you cry on me, don’t worry about it. ..but I’ll tell you something cute, and I’ll hold you close…and we’ll see if we can’t get you, just a little steadier.” his lips tweaked, as he thought of it, “..mm. I’ll tell you about some fuzzballs I met, in a forest once, how ‘bout.”
She smiled, and snuffed half a grateful laugh, and gave him a nod… and with his assistance, she resituated in his lap, and wound up nestled comfortably into his chest, his arms cradling her in, and his cheek tucked against her head. She burrowed her nose in, and inhaled his sweet, musky scent.
Every time she got close enough, this intoxicating scent made her feel like an animal, safely curled in its den. Her eyes drooped shut, and her fingers first clenched in his tunic, and then relaxed, as her body fair swooned. Meanwhile, he stroked her, tenderly fingering the hairs beside her ear.
“there you are, my princess.. now how’s that?” came his voice, low, and patient.
“…‘s-‘s w-wonderful, L-Luke,” she answered him smally, and it was. The entire night had been all too overwhelmingly wonderful, and his presence now was more of the same.
“..perfect,” he breathed quietly, and slightly turned his head to kiss her hair. “…you’re so important to me, Ciri,” he mouthed against her, and kissed her again, and she pressed herself into him.
“now… it was on a moon… a big one. Big enough to hold its own atmosphere… and grow forests. …they were massive… the trees stretched up rod-straight, past the eyesight, with trunks, bigger than both our armspans put together. You would have loved it, I think..”
His voice was low and soothing… and somehow, everything about him was warm and soothing and soft…from his tone, to his body, to the way he was giving her fond little squeezes as he stroked her back and arm. She did cry, facing down her long isolation at last with the prospect of its coming to a close, and when he noticed he paused to kiss her forehead and nuzzle her sweetly… and then continued, voice somehow even softer than before, in a way that she found instinctively reassuring.
The fuzzballs did sound terribly cute, as he’d promised. He mentioned he’d been there for the war and little else about that, but described everything of their way of living that he could. Many details she didn’t catch, awash as she was in feeling and sensation, but the familiar sound of his voice, remained a surprisingly comforting backdrop throughout.
And when he’d said all he could, he moved on and spoke about something else. “you know, the womp rats back home were kind of cute, if you squinted,” he began, and proceeded to tell her all about it.
Meanwhile, gradually, she did feel steadied. He was warmth incarnate…and despite her expectations it had become difficult to imagine him not with her, already.
As her emotions settled, drowsiness rose in their place, and she found herself drifting sultrily, in and out against his chest, while he stroked her and continued softly speaking.
~
At some point he realized she was asleep, and stopped talking, and simply sat and thought for a long while, her form gently cradled in his arms.
Chapter 8: Afterbirth
Chapter Text
When she opened her eyes, she was in her bed, and light, was streaming in through the curtains of her great windows. Comfort, suffused her form.
..Then as she blinked, and came more aware… She realized his absence, and abruptly ached.
He’d been holding her…. he’d exposed something, he had gently uncovered something painful and oozing in her, and then he’d held her, and spoken to her, in a way that had slowly sopped it up. —Something about that, was so special, like it was a form of magic. Special like his Force.
—She’d kissed him! He’d kissed her.. Finally. Thoroughly. It had been, the most enjoyable thing, she had ever experienced. And then he’d spoken to her, and held her like that, and she’d drifted off, into the universe’s most comfortable glow.
And now he was gone.
She blinked in confusion at the ache, and shifted. The movement made her realize that she was still wearing her leathers. Only her feet, were unclad.
She sat up, and looked around. Her things were as she’d left them… her notebook, there upon her writing desk in the corner; the clothing, strewn over the chair and the doors of her leaf-carved wardrobe. The light was magnified by its passage through the weighted glass upon her desk, and shone in a bright circle cast over the papers there.
There was a note, and a strange object, on the table beside her bed. The object was roughly oblong, of silver and black; small enough to fit easily in her hand when she palmed it. The note was on her paper — and doubtless of her ink. She picked it up.
It read,
Ciri,
Thank you, for spending your evening with me. ..I hesitate to write down, just what it meant to me. I’ll have to tell you in person. As ever, I crave your companionship above all else. I hope the good outweighed the sad, from your perspective. …You fell asleep, and I didn’t want to wake you. So I brought you back, and did my best to tuck you in; I hope you don’t mind, and that you sleep alright. I’ll find you, soon as I can.
I left you a comlink. It’ll keep us connected. I’ll show you how to use it, soon. Maybe tonight?
..Wherever I am right now, as you’re reading this.. I miss you.
—Luke
She looked to the item nestled in her hand… the comlink. It was a bit different, to the one she’d seen him use before. And she thought back again, to what had happened, the night before.
She blushed, there alone in her bed, and raised her fingers to her mouth.. as though there might still be some evidence, lingering. But his saliva had long dried.
..And he’d told her…
He’d told her she wouldn’t lose him, in outer space.
She looked again at the comlink.. hefted it, closed her hand around it… Laid herself back down in bed, and curled herself up around its promise.
..It was oddly hard to think he’d not go, now that she had reason to… though she’d so quietly longed for him not to, when she’d must needs believed that he would.
~
When she rose, she gathered a few things in her pack and went out to the woods, and spent the rest of the morning picking flowers for him.
As she passed under the darkened trees, she thought of him…reliving memories of him, again, in a whole new light, turning him over like a favored stone within her mind — And with each turn, he seemed all the more precious to her. She wanted to hold him, or speak to him, in just the right way, to express that.. but feared she wasn’t large enough, or gifted in tongue, enough.
Now and again, she’d seen a hopeful man present a lady of the court with flowers… she thought to mimic that gesture, though she didn’t know where those gentlemen’s flowers were from. ..The palace grounds boasted many big, showy beds, carefully maintained and exotically sourced, of great beauty.
But it didn’t seem right, to present him those cultivated blooms… Instead, she picked the little wildflowers, from the sunny clearings and inbetwixt the smaller trees. They were beautiful too; you just had to look a little closer to see it. The delicate pale blue points of the western meadowstar, the tiny complexity of the red pixie twizzler; and the little purple rory, whose mouth was dotted all about with yellow anther — all that, she found in just the first clearing she visited. In the next were more… And by the creek she found the stands of clover were flowering, and she carefully, carefully dug one out and urged the earth from its roots, and introduced it gently to her waterskin, which she had filled and was using as a sort of vase.
She thought of him as she worked, without even a trace of anxiety, for like to the first time… his smile, and his voice, and the gentleness of his hands’ touch. His warmth, against her. And his words, and his taste. She looked forward to seeing him again… And that did give her a whole pit of nervous little butterflies, at last, and she really didn’t know what she’d do or say.
After all, she’d kissed him last night. What did one do, after something like that?
She’d always kind of assumed she would die without doing such a thing. So thinking past it, was proving a little bit impossible.
…Well, hopefully it just didn’t matter, is all. After all, she’d been nervous with him before, and in the end it hadn’t mattered. So. ..She just hoped he’d like it. —The flowers, that is.
And she moved on, from spot to spot, through shade into sun, her selection slowly burgeoning. And when her arrangement was finished, she wandered.
Her steps led her to the gazebo…she hopped up on the railing with the flowers beside her, and settled in to wait.
The water gently lapped, leaves fluttered in an occasional breeze, and time passed beyond mind, as the dappling of the greenery upon the river’s surface slowly shifted. The tranquility was effacing. She vanished inside of it.
~
She heard the thud and creak of his boots on the wood, first, and came alert, with sudden surprise. What would she say? —What should she—
“Hey Ciri!” he exclaimed cheerfully, taking the steps up two at a time and swiftly crossing to her. ..Her mind was still racing when he suddenly materialized against her back, making her gasp and interrupting her thoughts, as without hesitation his arms wrapped around her ribcage and pulled her securely against his torso. His cheek rubbed into her hair.
“—How are you today, beautiful!”
His good cheer was infectious, and despite herself, she burst out with a laugh. “I-I’m good, Luke!”
The uncertainty she’d felt rise, at the imminent prospect of meeting him again, was dissolving swiftly in the sunshine of his bright mood.
He kissed her temple. “That’s wonderful to hear!”
“—But Luke, wait..!” she gasped, recalling the skein of flowers she still held. “There’s something I… I made something, for you.”
“..oh, Ciri..” he soughed, with plaintive curiosity.
He released his hug with a kiss pressed to her hair and stepped back, giving her space. She missed him, instantly.
But she turned round on the railing, and hopped down, his flowers carefully clutched in her hand.
Her concoction was pretty, despite its short stature, dotted all over with reds and purples and blues, accented with delicate fungi she’d found bursting from the bark of a fallen tree, and with the clover providing a backdrop and tumbling down over her hand, and almost a halo of tiny silvery pleandrons waving in the air around it, stems left long… His eyes fallen to it, she watched as his cheeks began to bloom with a delicate pink…that soon spread up his ears and out to the tip of his nose…and deepened to red, as she began to speak.
“L-Luke Skywalker,” she announced — and he gulped, adorably. Unwilling to lose her momentum, she held the waterskin up to him. “I’m so grateful for everything you’ve done for me! Thank you.. and I appreciate you, so much!”
For a moment he simply gazed upon her offering, flushing fantastically. His eyes were soft, and when he blinked, she saw in the light reflected off their surface that they’d gone wet. ..What had she done?
“..Ciri Sturmgirten…” he murmured gently, and he delicately collected his present from her proffering grasp, “—These are beautiful..! Thank you..”
He carefully raised the flowers to his nose, and inhaled their scent. The sight of his reddened, softly lined cheeks and satin lips spangled with the tiny petals nearly stopped her heart.
He raised his eyes, and they shone — Nothing she’d given him could match their crystal blue.
“..No one’s ever given me flowers, before, princess,” he said smiling. And she’d never seen a smile quite like that — happy, almost embarrassedly so, yet just the tiniest bit sad, too. “I don’t know what to say.. I love them!”
Things were strange, inside her chest, thanks to those flowers.
“—Will you watch a holo with me?” he blurted out… and his manner was such that she began nodding her agreement immediately, though she hadn’t understood his question at all.
She laughed, at them both. “W-what’s a holo, Luke?”
The look on his face was positively victorious. “It’s a story people watch! And if you watch one with me, I am gonna hold you so close the entire time..!”
His naked enthusiasm turned her stomach to mush, and any residual tension she might’ve harbored followed suit. She would love, to be held again by him. “Yes, please!” she chirped, and if she’d thought he was smiling a lot before… she reevaluated that assessment.
He suddenly surged forward, put his arms around her and squeezed her very tight, his face tucked into her neck. “—Thank you, Ciri!” he breathed insistently, voice intense with barely restrained emotion.
It was deliciously comfortable, but once she’d recovered from her surprise she didn’t have time to properly respond, or to hold him back, because he was releasing her already, with a kiss to her forehead. “C’mon..!” he urged, and reached for her hand, and she gave it to him readily.
He pulled her, and she came, with a smile.
As they walked, he spoke not a word of holos, but immediately began asking after the bouquet’s components.. wishing to know each flower’s name, and something that she knew of it. She obliged him, and it seemed to please him greatly.. And his pleasure, made her insides sing.
As they drew closer, they began passing the grand palatial flower beds. The contrast between the delicate wildflowers he held in his hand, and the fist-sized, brilliantly colored roses, and tulips, and so forth that they passed, was something to which he seemed utterly oblivious — so much so, that she herself forgot to feel sheepish.
~
And presently, they were strolling down the halls on the way to the pantries — for she meant to collect him a proper vase, before any else.
Chatting, making each other laugh, and each with eyes primarily for the other…they did not notice until late, that they were not alone.
Luke was the first to glance up. “Majesty!” he exclaimed. —Ciri’s head shot up too, hearing that title.
Her dad was there, surveying them from just a few feet away. They’d all come to a halt.
Luke greeted him with a polite bow, to which he inclined his head. She never bowed to her father. He looked directly at her as he greeted them, “Master Skywalker. Daughter… I had report you two were getting along.”
Her hand was still in Luke’s. She didn’t know why, her father’s presence made her want to tighten her grip, and press herself to Luke’s side.
“—Y-you heard correctly. We’re friends. H-hey, dad.”
It wasn’t a lie. She didn’t know how to tell him, the full truth. She was hardly sure how to state it to herself, concisely. Precisely…
“I see,” he remarked, “It’s unlike you, to take an interest in someone… Surpassing strange..”
“Well, I’m very grateful to be an exception, Majesty,” Luke stepped in to reply, with an easy smile, “Your daughter means a great deal to me.”
“Does she? …As you say…” he acknowledged. The look on the king’s face was inscrutable..
“—Luke’s been showing me the Force!” she blurted, into the ensuing silence.
“Oh..? How do you mean?” And she could tell that his curiosity was genuinely piqued — not an easy feat, with her father.
“He can sense where the animals are… a-and he showed me h-how to.. meditate.” —She’d realized, in time to stop herself, that her father might find it concerning to know of Luke’s ability to eavesdrop on other minds.
“Well…you must enjoy that,” her father allowed…referencing the animals, she was sure. The interest in his tone waned quickly as it appeared that she was not, actually, learning how to use this strange ‘force’ magic.. only searching the woods for critters and sitting quietly.
“…I’ve been able to learn much, of the local flora and fauna, from her,” Luke chimed in, “Ciri is quite educated on the topic.”
She flushed. “..N-not formally,” she stipulated.
“Self-educated,” Luke countered, glancing her way with a friendly smile, “All the more impressive. —Have you seen her work, Majesty?”
Her father had. He’d glanced it over, now and again. “Yes. Quality drawings,” he declared, “My daughter is a talented artist.”
“With respect, you may wish to look again someday, Majesty,” Luke suggested, “It is a compendium of the local wildlife, organized as a simple phylogeny.”
Her father laughed. “Truly? I didn’t make much of it past a woodsy girl’s sketch book,” he easily admitted.
“—I-It’s just a hobby,” she put in, embarrassed.
“Ciri, please..,” Luke protested lightly with a squeeze of her hand, “don’t undercut yourself. ..And after all, the origin of science is in rich men’s hobbies.”
Her father inclined his head in acknowledgment of that. “Perhaps I had too quickly judged.”
She swallowed, a little uncomfortably. Luke shot her an encouraging grin. “I have…t-tried to be accurate,” she allowed.
“That, I had observed. …And what are you up to, now, daughter?” her father asked her.
“…g-g-Getting.. A vase,” she answered haltingly, feeling somehow exposed, and subconsciously nestling further into her companion’s side.
“..Did you pick those, Skywalker?” her dad asked, voice casual but, somehow, she felt, almost deceptively so.
“They’re a gift,” Luke corrected him happily, “from Ciri. Aren’t they beautiful?”
“..Hmm. I see. They have their charm.” He paused, seeming to consider his words. “…Do be kind to her, Skywalker,” he concluded, a light warning in his tone, and eyes fixed on Luke.
“—Luke’s very kind!” she protested.
But Luke just replied, with an agreeable incline of his head, “Of course, Majesty. Your daughter’s well-being is my top priority.”
She looked up at Luke, a little confused. When he turned his eyes on her, they softened, and he smiled, tenderly. ..She hesitated, then returned it.
Her father nodded to himself, looking at them. “…Good, then. ..Well. Enjoy yourselves,” he dismissed.
“Thank you, Majesty,” Luke returned, with a short bow. She looked back to him, saying, “Bye, Dad,” automatically.
“Evening, Ciri,” he returned.
He did not commonly use her name.
..The king had already resumed walking. She glanced after him wonderingly, then turned back to Luke, who smiled at her sweetly, with full eyes… and then she grinned at him back, and knocked familiarly against him, and they were on their way again, too.
As they passed out of earshot, she asked him with some uncertainty, “Luke..? What do you think that was about? ..He was acting… kinda weird.”
He looked down at her with a smile. “Your dad’s worried about you, princess, that’s all.”
She frowned. “..Worried? Why?” Surely her dad should merely be happy, to see her with someone.. With anyone, but especially with someone so respectable as ‘Master Skywalker’.
Luke seemed to be considering his response. “..He could tell how you feel about me, Ciri,” he said gently, at last, “..He was telling me not to play with your heart, when he told me to be kind.”
She felt herself flush. “O-oh…” she mouthed, a little weakly.
Her heart wasn’t something she thought of, much. ..But it was true, wasn’t it, and hadn’t she just brushed against the truth of it last night — that her heart had become rather inextricably involved, in their relationship. Is that why her father had been strange? Is that why she’d felt strange, before him?
She frowned again, with obstinance. “—How would he know, how I feel?” She barely saw her father anyway.
That made him laugh, lightly, and stop walking. He turned into her, leaving his flowers floating in the air beside them, and slipped his gloved hand gently onto her neck.. allowing his leathered thumb, to sedately stroke her jaw, as he gazed into her eyes, with his warmly brimming blues. The lopsided grin pulling at his lips was full of amused affection. She felt herself caught, suspended, within the sweetness of his attention… as though it were a veil, closing off the world.
Voice velvety soft, he grazed, “..You were holding my hand, and pressing yourself up against my side, like I’m the one you’re trusting to keep you safe…princess..”
Cheeks flared and mouth slipped open, she gawked — unaware that particular impulse had been so legible, to others. She managed an edified, “—O-o-oh..!” that made his grin pull the wider.
“I love your innocence, precious,” he whispered… and leaned in till his lips softly pressed her forehead. Her heart fluttered.
“..Th-th-thanks..!” she tried, through still-burgeoning embarrassment..flattered despite herself, and very happy to be given that appellation by him, once again.
…But as he drew back a little, letting his gloved hand fall, her disconcertment grew… It was agonizing, a bit, to have her feelings for him laid bare before another.
..He seemed to realize it, for he squeezed her hand, and returned to rub his forehead lightly against hers, murmuring, “It’s Ok, Ciri… Don’t be embarrassed, princess. It’s alright. …I thought it was adorable. And an honor.And your father… Well, even if he’s worried, I know part of him is also happy, to see you happy.
“…And, well… I know it makes you nervous, but I was sort of glad for him to recognize… you, looking for security, in me. Because.. because I hope it makes him think well of me. …It makes me think well, of myself. —And though it doesn’t matter, everything will just be simpler, logistically, if he does. …So.. I couldn’t help but find myself appreciative...I hope..that’s alright..”
She bit her lip, and held his hand very tightly back.
For her father, to think well of him… Of course, she wanted that, too.
—And no matter any embarrassment, really, she supposed upon reflection. He was worth it and more, and she was uncountably blessed, to have him at her side. What embarrassment would she not suffer, to hold him there..even a little longer? She made a small sound of acknowledgment, and gave him a nod, returning his hand’s squeeze. “…I-I.. Um, well, I hope he does, too. I-It’s Ok,” she concluded quietly. She heard his soft exhale… and felt his lips brush her brow.
And in a moment she was able to proceed. “…s-so, it was…Good, then, you think?” she asked of their just-past interaction, looking up into his handsome face.
He smiled at her, with such sweetness. “You know him better than I do, Ciri,” he reminded her gently, slowly resuming their stroll. “—But, I think so.”
“—You do?” she asked hopefully, keeping pace by his side.
“Mm-hmm,” he mused optimistically, “…He said, ‘good, then’. —That sounds good, to me.”
“..Yeah…”
“Do you disagree?” he asked curiously.
“N-no, I… I just, am a little out of my depth here, Luke. Y-you both.. were having almost a different conversation, from me.. at the end..”
He looked at her sympathetically. “Maybe a little..” he allowed, “..but, you still told him what he wanted to know..”
“—That you’re kind? He must already know that..”
He smiled. “There’s only so many opportunities to demonstrate that trait at a conference table.”
“..Well. So. Now he’s had it from t-the.. horse’s mouth. I guess you’re right, then. It’s good.”
He swiftly dipped back in to kiss her temple.
~
She took him to the pantries, and commandeered a vase — a little one, of crystal, with geometric patterns cut into its internal walls so that it nonetheless remained smooth to the touch. Then walked with him back to his rooms, where he transferred his bouquet, careful not to disrupt its arrangement or the clover roots. He placed the finished product proudly on the table beside his bed, with a smile, and her heart twinged for it to be kept there, so close to him. He kissed her forehead, and thanked her for it sweetly once again.
Then he hunted up some equipment from his bags, and they left, for hers — for upon his query, she’d told him it was her preference.
And as they arrived, he slipped an arm about her waist, softly kissed her temple, and queried her further, asking lowly, “..Well, Ciri? Where do you wanna cuddle up?”
She blushed intensely, thinking of the spot she desired most, and almost chickened out… but mentally squared her shoulders, and wouldn’t let herself. “T-through here,” she said with a confidence she didn’t fully feel, and led him… Back, to her bedroom.
He followed. When she glanced back to him, he was blushing redly. She stood by her bed and pronounced, “H-here,” gesturing to indicate it so that there could be no doubt.
Rosy cheeks notwithstanding, he couldn’t contain the mischief in his smirk. “As my princess wishes,” he murmured playfully, kissing her forehead — and promptly plopped down onto her duvet and began removing his boots.
That had been easy!
She followed suit, and set to building them a pillow mound, to lay against. —Next thing she knew, he was using it.
And soon, she was nestled between his legs, his broad chest warm at her back and his strong arms pulling her in securely against it. “Comfy?” he checked, and she nodded happily, an affirmative thrum sounding in her throat. “Mm-hmm!”
He chuckled, and gave her ear a familiar kiss. “Me, too. Super comfy.” Her heart squeezed, for him to be there, in a space that was so hers, and she was so glad that she’d been brave.
One of the objects he’d brought and left on the duvet, lifted into the air of its own accord. “Put out your hands,” he suggested softly. She did as he asked, and he let the item come to rest within her grasp. It was nondescript in its exoticism — a mess of minor surface features she did not comprehend.
“It’s a projector,” he murmured, “—This is the front.” The projector gently urged itself round into the correct orientation within her hands, making her smile. “It will project an image out the top…push the center button?” His voice vibrated quietly beside her ear. Both of his arms were wrapped snugly about her middle.
She pushed the button he indicated, and the unit flickered on. A cube of light appeared in the air above it, just as he’d said. Streaked with dark lines, it was static, a pale blue-grey, and improbably 3D. She blinked at it. ..Then he showed her which controls adjusted the image’s size, and position. “We’ll optimize it in a moment,” he concluded. She nodded. She loved the way his voice felt, susurrating against the shell of her ear.
He sighed, breath flaring warmly against her skin, as he reluctantly released one arm from around her abdomen, squeezing her tighter with the other in compensation. She briefly closed her eyes and rubbed her head against his cheek, and felt him respond… Somehow, cuddling with him today was even more delicious than normal. She felt almost cocooned by him. Meanwhile the second device floated over and came to rest upon her thigh. It was wide, flat and smooth.
He touched its black surface with the fingers of his freed hand, and it kindled to life, with cold blue light. “This one’s my datapad,” he enlightened her, “it stores and processes information.. it can do a lot. Including access the HoloNet. And play our holo.”
“—What’s the Holonet?” she asked curiously.
“It’s an intragalactic communications network,” he answered, with a fond smile. His fingers were moving on the screen, as he spoke, the images displayed changing in response. “..It allows the exchange of data, over distance.. Through a system of satellites… Large amounts, audio, and visual… I don’t use it much, except for messaging. But, that’s where we’re going to find this thing. —I’ll show it to you in more detail, if you’d like?” he paused, for her answer.
“mm. Later…”
“Of course.” She felt his nose, and then his lips, buss her ear. “…I already picked out, what I wanna watch with you… I’m hoping it won’t be too bewildering… and that you’ll like it.. It is for children,” he murmured in admittance.
She smiled. It was cute of him, to have chosen a children’s story. She felt utterly surrounded by him, and so cared for. “Sounds perfect,” she said warmly.
He grinned, where she couldn’t see. “Great.”
Then he was showing her how to feed the datapad’s output to the projector and optimize the projection, and using the Force to position it down by their feet. Finally he set the datapad down beside them and started it up, rewrapping his arm around her with a kiss.
The block of greyish light in the air above them, was swiftly replaced by vibrant colors, which formed into an image and began to move, while an unfamiliar music issued from the projector’s little speakers.
~
The holo he’d selected for them was funny, cute, and entertaining. The story structure was very simple, which was good, because the universe depicted was full of things that were totally novel to her, and his soft, low voice was in her ear frequently, explaining them. His explanations — and the picture she was starting to build, of the galaxy beyond the night stars — were entrancing. Now and again, she asked questions.. at least once, purely from a desire to feel the velvety hum of his voice brush her skin, yet one more time. It made her shiver, in his embrace, and that made him follow up his words with sweet little kisses, his lips seeming merely to be the natural continuation of that hum.
By the time the story ended, happily with a family reunion, and the projected light filled with his people’s strange crawling text, she thought that she knew both more and less about his world than she ever had.
“..well, my lovely princess? What did you think?”
She was overwhelmed, was what. In a way she could not describe, and very much enjoyed. So she started laughing, quietly, in his embrace. “You know you’re so special, Luke.. I love every moment that I’m with you.” She rubbed herself back into him, indulgently, and felt his whole body tighten around her. “Thank you for teaching me about where you come from!”
“Ciri… you’re sweet. I have never been this happy…” he sighed. Then amusement entered his voice, “—Was I that transparent?”
She laughed again. Probably somewhat more than half of the holo had played without his voice in her ear, explaining something. —To the point that at times she’d felt she was watching something educational, before a child’s story. “Only a little!”
“..Then I’ll have to be 10% more mysterious, in the future,” he stated with warm satisfaction. “..Did you like the story, though? was it too childish..”
“It was fun. You’re cute. —I don’t know how to separate them, right now. Yes, I liked it very much!”
That made him chuckle, and nuzzle into her ear, giving her a slightly wet kiss. “I’m very glad to hear that, sweet girl.. you are absolutely adorable..” And he nibbled lightly on her neck, just beneath her ear, making her laugh delightedly — which only encouraged him.
Once again, despite his heat and the solidity of his body all around her, she felt that she simply could not get close enough to him. ..It caused her a brief twinge of frustrated need, and then she was doing something about it.
She squirmed in his arms until she was sat atop him, straddling his hips and lain out upon his chest.. his hands had assisted her, unquestioningly. She supported herself with her forearm along his collarbone, and let her other hand drift up to gently brush his cheek. He smiled at her, fondly. “Hey there.. pretty girl..” his voice whispered. She felt his palm, smoothing up her back.
“hey,” she answered him. “—Y-you know.. I think you’re really pretty! W-when you blush..”
Her heart beat faster, to speak to him so, and the color kindled all across his cheeks. “thank you.. for saying so,” he breathed shyly.
She delicately laid her palm flat against his reddened skin… and discovered it burning, with his blood. It made her smile.
“You’re warm,” she said.
Her observation caused his blush to intensify. “—I’m..” He seemed to hesitate, his tongue briefly appearing between his svelte lips, his eyes closing… Then he deliberately nudged his cheek, into her hand, and fixed her with his gaze. “I’m putty, in your hands,” he announced.
Those words made her lips come apart, made little sparks race down her torso and gather at the pit of her belly.
Blinking, she closed the small distance between her mouth and his, with a kiss.
…How, was he so soft?
And in a moment he was moving against her, too… slow and smooth, like water.. tenderly meeting her affection, with his.
She let her tongue slip over his lip, before their next kiss, and he deepened it, in reply.
She felt his fingers enter her hair and run along her scalp, until he firmly held her skull in his palm. His tongue entered her mouth, and ran alongside hers. She whimpered, and it made him sigh. His arm had wrapped around her back to hold her and pull her up into him, while she clutched his clothing.
She tried to lick her tongue along his bottom lip and back into his mouth and missed, swathing down onto his chin instead. He laughed brightly. Surprised, her chest tightening and cheeks flaring with embarrassment, she abruptly let him go.
But as she drew breath to apologize, he reached out and licked her in return, boldly running his tongue from the point of her chin all the way up to the tip of her nose, as she sharply gasped… A gasp, which shortly turned into a giggle of delight. Laughter rumbled lowly through his chest, in reply.
She caught a brief glimpse of his furrowed brow, as he reclaimed her lips, kissing her harder and more deeply than before, suckling her lip strongly into his mouth and near crushing her to his body.. Almost sucking her breath away.
He released her, after, so they both could draw down air. Her gaze seemed hazed over… and his, matched… his blue eyes cloudy and darkened, in the daylight.
Now, she reached up, to touch… delicately, his chin, its deep cleft, his soft lips, his smile lines… his skin was smooth.. but where graven by the two little scars, just there at his mouth… his breath softly exhaled against her fingertips, and his eyes fell closed.. and he swallowed, cartilage bobbing in his throat. He was beautiful. Beyond measure. The way he behaved only made it stronger.
She briefly brought her other hand up to her chin… and felt the lingering moisture of this beautiful man’s saliva.
Then she let her hand travel down, the column of his throat.. careful to touch him utterly gently, here, over the cartilage of his airway. It was a piece of animalistic intimacy, in a way that kissing him wasn’t.
She let her fingers find his collar, and track along its middle till she could get her grip onto each panel of his tunic, and pull. The stays holding it came undone, and just like that she had exposed a triangle of his chest, and made him whimper with surprise.
They both blinked, as she eased her palm onto it, and felt his velvety skin… His fingers had clutched, strongly, into her clothing. He was glancing, from her face, down to her hand on his bared chest, and back. “is this.. Ok?” she whispered. He nodded swiftly, wordless.. so she slid her hand slowly along his sternum. She twisted her wrist so her fingers brushed under the side of his tunic and up onto the gentle swell of his pectoral.. He watched her, dazedly, and gulped. Tiny catches were audible, now and again, as he breathed. The muscle was warm, and firm, and yielding, and dimly she thought that his responsiveness to her shy, inexperienced touch was the most exorbitant privilege she might receive.
“C-can I..” she started.
“—you may touch me howsoever you desire, Princess,” he husked, before she could finish. Her eyes widened…for surely he couldn’t mean that..
She felt as though her entire body was blushing, as she gripped more of his tunic and pulled it open, to expose his bare torso. His hold on her hips and the small of her back was tight, like an anchor. She could see his chest gently moving, in time to his quickened breath.. Carefully, she let her palms rest on his pectorals, and then delicately explored downwards…identifying the curving muscles’ lower borders, and then passing over the shelf of his ribs, onto the softly sloping, mobile plain of his abdomen. He was slightly biting his lip with his eyes lidded, color blazoned across his face. She passed back up across the boundary from the other direction…arrested by the abrupt transition in the foundations beneath his skin, formed by his bones. Like the continental shelf of a landmass, bordered by the roving, roiling sea.
And presently, she moved to finish pulling apart his top, exposing his belly. No sooner had she done it, than he was rising from the bed.. lifting her with him until they both were sat upright. His nose bumped into her cheek, and then his lips were on her, kissing her, softly insistent. He sucked her lip deep into his mouth and gave her his teeth. He made her whimper, and did it again, and again, and again.
Gradually, she let her fingers splay up into his thick hair and close, grasping a firm handful of his golden-brown strands… letting that grip ground her, as he explored her mouth with his. A groan dragged out of him in response as she tugged him. It felt like she’d wanted to touch him like this forever. His mane was cool and silky-smooth, and everything she’d imagined it could be. His wet tongue dipped into her mouth. This amount of closeness with him was shocking…
When he released her, sucking in deep breath and looking half dazed.. it was only to pull his tunic back off his shoulders.
..She realized he was trying to remove it for her, and watched his muscles rippling in speechless anticipation.
He got stuck while trying to shimmy the sleeves down off his arms, and struggled briefly before abruptly losing his balance and collapsing backwards onto the bed with his arms trapped underneath him.
She heard his laughter’s clear tinkling ring out from the pillows, and couldn’t help but join in. For him to be clumsy, was nigh unprecedented.
Her mirth gradually settled, into an awareness of him. ..It was him. The man she’d wanted, the one who was too beautiful to hope for, and who’d been too kind to avoid. Now, somehow, he was half-naked in her bed, looking frankly like a god. Surely, this was morelike unto a waking dream, than reality.
Her hand tentatively reached out, so that her fingertips brushed against the gently pitching surface of his belly. His breath left him, as he felt her touch, her palm sliding fully onto him and cupping the lightly rounded skin. He relaxed, back onto the duvet.. no longer even trying to free himself from his tangled shirt. His surrender was so sweet…like receiving trust. Her fingers teased around his belly button, which seemed to her surely the very center of his vulnerability, and a soft moan issued gently from his throat.
She bit her lip, everything about the situation converging onto her heart and squeezing it tight within her chest. Her hand rose almost subconsciously to cover her mouth, as the fingers she’d lain upon him stroked and felt his skin shiver…marveling, that this was hers to do.
Careful to touch him only lightly where he was so soft, she delicately explored the gentle topography of his stomach, tracing its rise and fall with each tremulous breath. He watched her through lidded eyes, and let her do it.
After a time, she bent over and kissed his skin, wetly, letting her tongue move against it and feeling it tremble underneath her splayed hands and hearing the sharp intake of air into his lungs. He was delectable. She did it again, and again, licking down his abdomen to his belly while he so quietly vocalized, and when she reached his belly button she couldn’t stop herself from trying to suck the skin just beside up into her mouth, which pulled from him a soft, broken moan. “th-thank you, Highness,” he offered her, plaintive and polite, as she released him.
Those words, his stutter, that tone — it did something, to her guts. Tied them up into a cute little bow, mayhap. She rose, running her hands up his body, and leaving a trail of small kisses, until she reached his head and found his mouth. Moving on instinct, she gripped his hair and gave him a deep, messy kiss, carelessly smearing saliva onto his cheek and chin.
“—Thank you for what?” she asked, careful to hold herself up over him and not put extra weight onto him while his arms were caught beneath him.
His cheeks blossomed with embarrassment. “m-marking me,” he breathed, delicate and shy.
“—Did I?” she said in surprise. ..Flushed and utterly beautiful, he nodded, “I’m sure..”
She sat up, on his pelvis, and looked. The spot she’d sucked on had filled in with pink. She raised her hand to her mouth. “—Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t realize I was..”
He frowned, and she felt his hips pitch underneath her as he struggled with the sleeves of his tunic.. then heard the fabric yank and snap, as he abruptly pulled it off his arms with the Force. Freed, he swiftly sat up and tugged off the glove covering his prosthetic hand, tossing it carelessly aside…then ran his hand into her hair, holding her jaw, and kissed her.
Thoughts of guilt over hurting him momentarily dissolved, in the urgent heat of his kiss. She returned the gesture… And for a time thought of nothing else, but his lips, and his tongue, and his teeth.
When he eventually released her, and they shared tremulous breath, he bashfully corrected, “well, please don’t— Please don’t apologize… a-fter all, it makes me.. incontestably happy, to have you leave reminders of you, upon my body.”
“..b-but, doesn’t it..hurt?” she asked, a little miserably, despite how winsome he was being.
“..it’ll bruise..” he admitted, “it doesn’t hurt.”
She was mortified, to think of that little spot on his sensitive belly turning colors as the blood she’d unwittingly released from his capillaries degraded under his skin. Despite his assurances, she looked at him with big eyes, in silent apology.
The corner of his pretty mouth curled into a grin. “shhh… sweet little princess..” He nudged his nose into hers, cutely. “so sensitive, my precious girl.. but it’s alright. …you didn’t hurt me…” And he gently, gently kissed her.. as though she might be made of crystal, and shatter.
“b-but your pretty tummy..”
“aww..” he sighed, at her description, and snuffed with delight. “…please trust me, Ciri..” And he claimed her lips, with another soft kiss.
Blinking moisture from her eyes at how he made her feel — treasured, damnably — she nodded, her acknowledgment. “k… st-still… I’d rather..” she trailed off.
Then, she reached into her tresses and plucked a few strands. She twirled them together into one, and wordlessly tied them about his wrist, while he watched curiously. Their eyes met, when she was done.
His had cleared, to limpid blue. The wan light streaming in through her windows filled them up, and made them glow. …It was strange, how that despite his eyes were so brightly colored, yet sometimes they seemed so pale as to pick up and mirror whatever ambient light had wandered into them.
“..Well, so h-here’s a reminder, that’s not.. U-um, s-so bruising.”
Eyes going wet, he slipped his arms about her and gathered her in, and resumed his soft kisses.
He leaned back onto the bed, carrying her down with him, being very careful with his mouth on hers; and soon after he rolled them over, onto their sides, and pulled her tight in against his chest, curling himself around her. “thank you, sweetheart,” he whispered into her ear. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him, tight.
~
Time slipped along, but enclosed in the heady circle of his body, she barely noticed. …It felt so very different, hugging him like this. With his soft bare skin, everywhere underneath her hands. ..She touched every bit of it, sides and shoulders and back and arms and chest, every bit of him that she could. He was miraculously smooth, and warm, and pliant. She loved feeling the structures of his bone and muscle as they shifted under his skin, like ghosts. She took time to divine their nature. His hands carefully roamed her in return… remaining respectfully atop her leathers and away from her chest, but sumptuously squeezing her wherever they fell, nonetheless, in a way that sought to make her know what it was to be squeezed. And she kissed him, leisurely, all over his mouth and face and neck, and he let her do it..let her, direct his head, however she wished it, and always kissed her back whenever he’d been left within range. …Meanwhile the sun gently set, and the room’s light lowered.
“…I was nervous, a little,” she confessed to him quietly, later, gently stroking his face after having spent the entirety of the sun’s remaining light caressing him to her heart’s content.
He’d reached out with the Force as the room grew dark, to switch on her bedside light. Now its warm glow bathed his skin in gold.
“…nervous about what?” he whispered back.
“...that things would be…,” she searched for the right word. “…That I wouldn’t know, h-how to be, with you.”
He paused, considering. The cool fingers of his prosthetic lightly stroked her neck, and ear, and gently teased into her hair. His other arm was wrapped tightly around her, holding her against him.
“…you were worried about that, last night, too,” he observed. “..yet, here we are…”
She smiled. Yes, here they were. “Looks like I’m doing alright,” she agreed.
“Looks like you’re doing great,” he returned. “..I couldn’t possibly complain..”
She grinned, pleased. Then lightly grimaced with embarrassment. “—I could have been doing this the whole time, huh?” she asked, a little ruefully, and only half in mock.
His returning grin sparked crookedly with mischief. “Basically,” he admitted.
“…But.. I have very much enjoyed, slowly growing closer, with you,” he added softly, more serious, “—I wouldn’t change a thing..”
For some reason, the comment filled her with appreciation.
“good… M-me too! ..even if it was a… l-little hard, at times.”
His pretty face tightened in a wince. “—Well, except for that. ..I’d take your worries back, if I could, Ciri…”
She snuffed and shook her head, “no, don’t worry about it. I-I really don’t think that would be realistic.”
His gaze flicked over her face, studying. After a while he mouthed, “…k.”
A moment passed, as she pondered how the little lines of his cheek, limned in the light.
“..I suppose…” he added quietly, a small smile playing gently at his lips and deepening the lines, his eyes gone soft, “..I have kinda enjoyed some of those hard times… for myself.”
She sniffed, and smiled nonplussed. “—what do you mean?”
His blue eyes watched her, as a blush stole into his cheeks. “…it’s been a bit tantalizing… the way you’ve made me ache.”
Her face reddened, in turn… to think of him aching, over her. “..o-oh… y-you’ve, y-you mean you’ve… —Um, y-yeah.. I guess that has been rather nice. ..I hadn’t really thought of it, l-like that, before..”
“…well I’ve spent kind of a long time, hoping to feel that way over someone, and not,” he said wryly, grinning lightly at her discomfit.
“I guess I’d…not. h-hoped..” she said quietly.
He tenderly thumbed her lower lip. “..We are so similar, in our difference..” he breathed.
She gazed into his eyes, captivated.
Then his mouth tweaked in another cute grin. “so… Are you still nervous?”
She gave him a shy grin back and shook her head, no. “n-not.. Right now, anyways..”
His grin broadened. “..Well, don’t worry about it, princess,” he teased, “—When I see you next I’ll just give you a kiss, and hold you real tight, and you’ll remember… what it felt like, right now.”
She chuckled, bashfully. “T-thanks.. Good looking out.”
“My pleasure,” he said proudly, and her laughter deepened, making his smile blossom triumphantly.
He cupped her neck, and carefully silenced her, with a kiss.
“….what does it feel like?” he breathed, afterwards. “..my fake hand..”
“it feels good,” she breathed back simply. It made his face tinge pink again…
“…I meant, is it different? ..from my other. My real one.”
She nodded, against the smooth synthskin of his palm. “It’s cooler..”
“..Is it uncanny? Your skin feels so warm…”
She shook her head, careful not to dislodge him, then took hold of his wrist, and turned her face to rub into his palm. “No…Just different,” she said. And she kissed it, the way he’d kissed hers, the night before. She felt a shudder pass through him, and watched his thick lashes fall languidly closed. …He truly was a delight, to behold. She knew that he was incomparably strong, and yet he seemed so delicate, sometimes..
Teasing, she lathed her tongue wantonly across his prosthetic palm, wetting every fold. And watched, his lips part and breathing hitch. She gave him a nibble, at the base of a finger, and it made him laugh…which made her snicker, lightly, then she ran her face back into his now-wet palm, covering herself in it.
—She realized that she wasn’t used to seeing him, in this temperature of light. She usually saw him in the bright light of the sun, or the failing shadows of dusk; but not in the yellow-orange manufactured glow of cozy indoor spaces after sundown. It made him seem…homey.
Actually, the entire room had never seemed so hospitable to her, before. And it was her room.
His eyes slitted open. The yellow had kindled them to sapphire. “..What are you thinking?” he asked her softly. The hand she’d just kissed lightly caressed her jaw, and brushed her bottom lip.
She blushed. “That it’s nice having you here. …Um… you m-make my room feel cozy,” she confessed, soft as a breath.
He blushed back, color stealing richly into his skin, as he slowly blinked.
“I do?” he asked quietly, such a soft poignance in his voice that it seemed to run through and tug directly on her heart.
Silently, she nodded.
He smiled, to himself, with pleasure. “I don’t know what to say… it’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me, Ciri.”
“oh,” she emitted smally, “s-surely it’s not..”
“..sweetheart.. But it is. …you know, it made me feel very, very special, when you wanted to cuddle here, with me.”
That made a neat little fire kindle, within her belly, and invite her to warm herself at it. She smiled, and knew that it had to be dopey. “I… I’m very, very glad to have you here too, L-Luke.”
His face split, sunnily, and his nose nudged hers. “I’m thrilled,” he replied, before tenderly finding her lips, once again.
And when he released her, they spent a quiet moment just looking at each other, feeling peaceful.
“…so..” he breathed after a time, his brows tweaking up cutely, “while we’re on the topic, of coziness…um, t-there’s something, that’s always seemed like it would probably be so cozy, to me...”
He was blushing, fiercely. His bashfulness made her grin bare, with enjoyment. “oh, Luke.. you’re terribly cute,” she couldn’t restrain a happy little laugh, “what is it, pretty boy?”
She heard his breath softly flutter, at her teasing, and blushed, realizing what she’d just called him. Then she forgot to worry, because he was tightening his grip around her back, holding her jaw and gently, slowly licking over her lips and kissing her, with a humming sigh into her mouth, “..pr'tty girl..” She deepened and returned his kiss… And he took charge of her lip, and hung on to it, as he drew back, til it popped out of his mouth, wetly, and he grinned, in bare-faced satisfaction with what he’d done.
Then as she recovered her heart and he recalled his question, his smile softly retreated and he ventured smally, “…u-m, well… watch a horror holo, with me?”
The contrast of that uncertain little request, with that kiss.. It was adorable. Still a little breathless, she couldn’t stop from smiling appreciatively at him, “—what’s that?”
“..It’s a holo, that’s supposed to be scary,” he whispered.
She was puzzled. “..Would a story really scare you, Luke? You’ve lived through… so many real things..”
She knew, that he’d seen terrible things. ..Done terrible things, even, when necessary.. Though for the life of her she couldn’t imagine this sweet man, ever being angry, or violent, at all.
“..Um, the point is more, to scare you,” he admitted sheepishly.
“Me?”
He nodded. “…And then I squeeze you, and make you feel better,” he breathed, innocently anticipatory. Her skin warmed, uncontrollably.
And she nodded, quietly.
The corner of his mouth tugged, gently up. “Yeah?” he confirmed, with sly pleasure.
“Y-yeah,” she agreed.
His face crinkled as it split, into a big, happy smile that traveled all the way up into his bright blue eyes. “thank you, Ciri..! ..It’s…,” he broke into a sheepish laugh as he explained, “—it’s something I used to hear about, back on Tatooine…b-but, I never had anyone, I wished to comfort, just for fun.”
She felt her blush deepen. She’d rarely ever been comforted, before him. Since he’d come into her life, it was becoming a matter of routine…and now, even of entertainment? The reversal was stunning.
“It’s fun?” she asked innocently.
He nodded. “it’s fun,” he confirmed.. then clarified, “—It’s fun, when you’re not really that upset.”
“…you’ll need to not really let me get scared, then,” she teased.
“sweetling, I won’t,” he promised somberly.
She blushed. She was acquiring terms of endearment faster than belief.
“…so, d-do you have… Something already picked out, for this, too?” she asked, by way of recovery.
He smiled, and shook his head, “Not for this… I thought we could look at teasers?”
She nodded, unquestioningly.
“great…let’s get ourselves resituated, shall we princess?”
..They had to untangle, a little, in order to sit up, again. She fixed their pillows, which had become strewn during their canoodling. Then he gathered her into his lap and kissed her neck, and picked up the datapad.
…All that beautiful skin of his, that she’d so bravely uncovered, was now at her back, where she quite disappointingly couldn’t feel it. She dithered a moment, in her mind, while he navigated the Net.
When she gave his encircling forearm a tug, he gave her a kiss and easily released it. “J-just a moment… I’ll be right back,” she said, scooting off the bed. He hummed his acknowledgement.
She grabbed a couple of garments from where they hung over the door of her wardrobe, and went into her bathroom to change. She emerged in a set of soft sleepclothes, more comfortable and very much thinner than her leathers, which she’d tossed aside.
He beamed at her as she reclaimed her spot, between his legs, and he repositioned his arm around her, drawing her close up against him. “..better?” he asked her ear.
She agreed, “m-much better.”
“I quite agree… You’re much warmer, like this.”
She blushed, and smiled with pleasure. “So are you.” He sucked on her neck.
“…I’ve got a few of these things cued up now, cutie… So let me know, if something catches your attention.”
She nodded, and he switched off the lights and began playing teasers for her on the datapad, rested across her thighs…the name turned out to be fairly self-explanatory.
They were on an island, now, she felt, in the black. One built out of softness and their shared body heat, its edges defined by this strange little light that spilled onto their faces and hands but couldn’t travel past. She wanted to hold something of his, so she slipped her arm around his leg and hooked his inner thigh. It made her heart beat faster, to do it, and he didn’t seem to mind it at all.
“..I don’t think I’ve felt anything succeeding on you yet,” he murmured after a few.
“Um, I’ve been… a little more interested, than frightened,” she admitted.
“Need to find something uninteresting… I get it,” he mused playfully. “—Well, we’ve barely scratched the surface.”
They went through genres, until her stomach clenched and she realized that she was viewing more effective material. ..She was surprised that it was a supernatural teaser, they were watching. —Because she had always looked down on people who held such beliefs. But something about the unnaturalness of the imagery was potently unsettling.
When he noticed what it was doing to her to watch it, he grinned happily, “I think we may have found your kind of horror, princess.” Then he leaned in to whisper into her ear, “I think it’s kind of cute… that it’s this that makes your heart pick up its pace… I know what you think of this sort of thing. Sweet little scientist.”
She blushed, unclenching her fingers from his pantleg. “A-atheist, you mean. ..I-I don’t really understand it, myself,” she said.
“Well, where I’m from most people I know are atheists. It doesn’t seem to impair the genre’s popularity at all. Let’s look at some more of these,” he said, and proceeded to select several others.
She ended up choosing a horror-thriller set in an isolated locale, undergirded by a sinister mystery heralded by ghosts. He rerouted the image to the projector, and set it on the covers before them. She shifted in his lap, as it began, and rubbed against him contentedly as she felt his arms wrapping around her and snugging her in tight. He pressed his lips to the shell of her ear, and she put her arms over his, holding him back.
“..Ciri..” he whispered, before the opening text had concluded, “may I..?” His hand had found the hem of her shirt, and one of his fingertips quested up underneath it.
Her stomach filled with anticipatory flutters. “Y-yes,” she invited, “—P-please.”
…And his hand snaked under the fabric, to cup her bare abdomen, in his palm.
..It was his true hand, and astonishingly warm. Against her will, she heard the breath whine quietly in her throat, as he deliberately rubbed his thumb along her stomach…alongside his ragged sigh, into her ear. “..what a cute little belly..” he whispered, and lightly bit the lobe. And he gave her a gentle, yet assertive squeeze, eliciting a delicate whimper from her lips, which she promptly bit to restrain any future such utterances. Something had kindled in her innards, underneath his touch, and absolutely refused to go out. She’d been right, about the vulnerability of that spot. She felt as though her entire self rested in his palm, not just a little piece.
This, surely, was the ultimate indulgence. She’d thought that touching him was nice.
“—thank you, Ciri,” he breathed, with a frankly teasing kiss, “..I love this, more than I knew I would..”
She gulped. It almost sounded, like he had thought about this, before. “Me…M-me, t-t-too,” she stuttered faintly, needing him to be aware.
“I know,” he whispered, like a promise.
…It was some minutes, before she was able to return her attention even somewhat to the holo, whose opening sequences were now playing.
And as it progressed, his constant touches and softly brushing lips made it decisively difficult for her to become truly frightened, just as he’d promised. That holo never quite got 100% of her attention, as a result. And the fire in her belly, never ran short of fuel.
There was far less for him to explain, this time around, partly thanks to all the common things he’d already gone over, and partly due to the limited scenery in play. But everytime something unfamiliar appeared in the projection, she would eagerly anticipate the hum of his soft voice in her ear, and carefully focus her mind on what he was saying — she didn’t wish to be a poor pupil, only because of how he kept touching her. …And this time, the kisses he placed on her ear and neck to follow up his explanations were very forward, indeed; full of tonguings, and nips, and suckles.
Everytime the holo made her tense, anticipating a scare, he’d tighten his arms and stroke her, running the backs of his knuckles familiarly across her tummy, and ‘shhhh’ soothingly into her ear. That would stop the tension in its tracks, leaving it to dissipate to tracers faithfully following his knuckles along her skin, and when reliably a grotesque spirit would pop from out of nowhere into close view soon after and make her jump from surprise, as though trying to escape backwards into his bare chest… he’d squeeze her tightly in, happily laughing — not bothering to conceal his enjoyment. He’d lick and nibble her earlobe, and neck, by way of distraction. Then he’d assertively palm her soft belly, and she’d recall that she was there, in his hand, and nowhere else, certainly not threatened by anything, and she’d relax gooily back into him, and the moment would pass. His warmth penetrated the fabric of her shirt as though it were nothing, yet couldn’t match the burn of his skin touching hers.
The final jump scare, cheesily marking the precise end of the tale, made both of them laugh as it faded into scrolling attributions.
“…w-well, I hope taking care of me was as rewarding as you hoped it would be, Luke,” she ventured with minor insecurity, as they calmed.
“—Are you kidding? It was much more rewarding than that,” he said with naked self-satisfaction, and she couldn’t help a pleased laugh. “…What about you? Worth it, being frightened for my amusement?”
She still felt half spineless, pooled in the warm cradle of his body. Obviously, she had to acknowledge that it was. “Super, super worth it.”
“Wonderful,” he affirmed, “—Those kids on Tatooine knew what they were talking about, after all, hmm?”
It made her snort. “You’re a good deal more innocent, sometimes, than one might think.. yourself,” she told him.
He chuckled. “I am? Well. —You make me feel like a farmboy, I can’t help it. I love it..” his voice went soft, and he sucked on her earlobe, in recompense.
It made the breath leave her, messily. “y-you make me feel… like an entirely different person,” she mumbled.
“..I hope that’s a good thing.. what do you mean?”
She blinked through the haze of a blush.
“..Y-you make me feel like someone, w-wantable,” she confessed. Someone, she had always known that she was not.
He paused, and she felt him swallow. “that’s not someone different, Ciri,” he declared. Then he flipped back on the friendly yellow light, ending the holo’s lingering spell, and shifted with preternatural ease out from under her, depositing her onto the bed…and swung himself over her, straddling her hips and supporting himself with an elbow above her head…pressing down onto her, enough to let her know he was there, without crushing her. She blinked, in surprise, looking up into his pretty blue eyes; feeling his torso acutely, along hers.
His neck dipped down, to kiss her, fervidly. His free hand cupped her face. She moaned into the kiss, helplessly. “You are who you are..” he mumbled against her lips, “..if you weren’t, I wouldn’t be attracted..” And put out his tongue, to use inside her mouth.
She briefly lost track of her surroundings, as all of her focus was consumed by him, and what he was doing, and doing it back.
~
“…You make it awful difficult for me to leave you alone in this bed, little princess..” he murmured finally. It had grown terribly late, she was sure. His use of the diminutive made her tingle everywhere, underneath him.
“O-Oops,” she joked, quietly.
Then, “—y-you don’t have, to do that,” she couldn’t help adding.
He bit his lip.
“..I think I do..” he replied at last, “..I don’t wanna move too fast, on accident, sweet thing..” She sighed. He laughed, and stopped her with a kiss. “..don’t worry about it, Ciri. Ask me later. When you really want to. Everything’s gonna work out.”
“…well, at least let me walk you home,” she suggested — then flushed at her use of the word. This wasn’t his home. The truth was, she had no idea what place he might consider home, or where it might lie, with regard to her little planet. Did he ever get to spend much time there?
“mmm… I’d be honored,” he said, giving her one last, searching kiss… and sat up.
She missed the weight of his torso, instantly.
“..Luke?” she asked.
“Ciri?”
“Where is your home?”
He hesitated.. then shrugged. “I’m not sure I know. I have rooms in the Imperial Palace on Coruscant. That’s where Leia lives. ..But I feel more comfortable in my X-wing.. I’m used to being on the move, I suppose.”
“…that’s sad,” she said softly.
He smiled at her, faintly rueful. “..I’m a sad man.”
She swallowed, and sat up.. let her fingers run into his hair and pulled him down, and kissed him gently. And he whispered, “..you haven’t noticed, cuz you’ve been keeping me so happy…thank you, Ciri…I’m in your debt..”
“posh,” she protested. He smiled.
“..just promise I’m seeing you, tomorrow morning.”
“you know you are..”
“..thank you, sweetling.”
“you’re very polite.”
His face split, crookedly. “—That’s my job!”
She smiled, and laughed. “..let me take you back, cute boy.”
Eyes soft, he just about preened. Nodding, he scooted off of her, so she could move, and retrieved his boots… Then his tunic, and once she’d gotten her own boots on she stood, and handed him his glove.
Then something she’d forgotten, occurred to her. “—Oh, Luke, your comlink!” she blurted.
“..You mean your comlink,” he corrected with a smile. “—Bring it, tomorrow. We can test it out. And your notebook.. I just know, you’re gonna wanna take notes..” He finished pulling back on his glove. He’d put on his tunic, as well, but hadn’t bothered closing it.
“k…,” she trailed, momentarily distracted by the slitted flesh of his chest.
When she looked back up at him, he was lopsidedly smirking. She felt her cheeks heat.
He stood.
“—Y-your projector, and..,” she mumbled, as he stepped in to kiss her.
“keep it,” he mouthed, “..mess around with it, if you wish. I don’t think you can break it.” He gave her another wet, indulgent kiss.
She nodded. “o.. ok!”
It made him smile, again, the lines on his cheeks pulling taut. —He seemed to enjoy, what he was doing to her, she reflected. She laughed at herself, quietly, and took his hand.
..She grabbed a cloak from beside her door, to cover over her sleepclothes with, and they left her room and made their way down her stair and through the hallways to his. It felt odd, to be walking him, rather than the other way around… Somehow, she rather fancied it. Though she didn’t relish, the prospect of the return journey, alone.
She reflected that it was a journey he made, routinely, and wondered how he typically felt, along the way.
When they arrived at his door, she held up his hand to her lips, as he’d done so many times with hers, and delicately bussed his knuckles. Something flowered, in his eyes…some poignancy. He stepped in closer, and nuzzled in against her. “..thank you for my day, Ciri,” he murmured gratefully.. and then his hands were on her… touching her waist, smoothing up her sides, pulling her in, and finally slipping round her back to anchor her against him. “..Thanks for watching silly holos with me, and inviting me to your bed, and for touching me.. And thank you for my flowers.”
She shivered, hearing his thanks.
And hugged him back, possessively, running her arms under the panels of his shirt, to feel the bare skin of his back one more time. “y-you’re welcome, Luke..” she mumbled shyly.
“..you’re gonna be ok?” he checked softly, tightening his grip… then he added, teasingly, “—You’re not gonna have bad dreams, from that horror holo, are you?”
She laughed, “—no, I don’t think so, Luke.” And nodded, “..yeah, I’ll be fine,” and sighed, against his skin.
“..k.”
“…what about you?”
He nodded. “..Me, too, Ciri. I’ll miss you, but….” he trailed off.
And he kept hugging her, quietly, for minutes.
~
…Eventually she couldn’t restrain a yawn.
He stirred, gently releasing her, with a rueful chuckle.
“Sorry to always do this..”
“always do what?”
“..keep you out past your bedtime, sweet princess,” he answered, gently teasing.
She snorted. “Don’t mention it.”
—He kissed her, rather than mention more.
And when he let her go, he took up her hands and kept close to whisper a confession into her ear, “…I love, how it’s so exhausting, to have every night I spend with you be the best night of my life.”
She burned, quietly.. stunned. ..Meanwhile he was kissing her cheek, and pulling back.
“Good night, Ciri,” he said gently, and gave her hand a squeeze, “..I’ll see you tomorrow, princess.”
She recovered herself in time to squeeze back, and return, “G-good night, Luke..! S-sleep well..”
He smiled, affectionately… And stepped back, into his door, which opened behind him on its own behalf.
..He winked, before the door’s closing removed him from sight.
The walk back to her quarters was not near so long as she had anticipated… occupied, as she was, with what he’d said, at the last. Was this what he’d meant, in his note? What he hadn’t wished, to commit to paper.. had he just obliquely committed it to her ear, instead?
The improbability of the sentiment, alone, was enough to make her blush.
…Though it was very certainly true, the other way around.
Chapter 9: Contumely
Chapter Text
When next they met, he made good on his word. She blushed just from the sight of him, stomach rapidly disintegrating into a mass of insects fluttering desperately to escape, as her mind filled with the impossible things they’d done the day before and reason squeezed shut; whilst for his part his face split into a big, silly grin from ear to ear, and he rosily flushed back.
She wished to cross to him, but her feet wouldn’t move. —How would she greet him, if she couldn’t even approach?
But the moment he was close enough he had her wrapped up in a hug…and after squeezing her tight just long enough so her insides recalled their place… He relaxed his grip, ran his hand up her neck, fingers splaying into her hair and thumb laid out along her jaw, and directed her upwards into a soft, slow kiss. …It lasted forever, long enough for her world to decompose around it and slowly rebuild, and when it ended he gave her another, and another. “..hey Ciri,” he rasped quietly, when eventually it was done, and he had allowed her to slip away. She struggled to regain control of her faculties and answer him, with a breathy, bashful little, “h-h-hi, L-Luke..!” —while her head spun, that this was her reality, now. Meanwhile his lips curled into the cutest little smile, and his thumb stroked her cheek, and he lightly nipped at the tip of her nose…. And she laughed, and it was true: he’d made her remember what it was to feel easy with him.
She held his hand, and took him into the woods…
…To a sunny little clearing, unexpected in the midst of close growth in a way that made him laugh, when he saw… They laid down and looked up to the little patch of sky above, and then he rolled over to look at her, and she kissed him. …They touched a lot more, that day, than most… more, and differently. The way he pulled her up into him, was new. Waves of disbelief kept trembling over her, that she’d be able to share this sort of intimacy with him.. And the sensation continually extinguished, in the palpable want imbuing his lips and hands…over and over, as it arose. It was a strange way to feel… in the end almost frazzled, by pleasure and comfort. Frazzled enough, to be loose with him, and to squeeze him back… finding his muscles, and his bones, under the clothes…searching, for the things she’d discovered yesterday. ..Shyly building a mental map.
And as the sun finished crossing their little bit of sky, they crossed to the big tree, by clearing’s edge, and he held her there before him, put their hands up against its bark, and had her concentrate whilst he did the same… And showed her the slow movement of its sap, the gentle reverse trickle of water from root through trunk to limb and leaf, the tree as a silent spring of water disgorging into the air; the parts of it that were something else and the parts of it that were dead.
And below, in the dark, where the roots fanned out…their minds sought for an end, that never came.
Branching instead, branching, pushing, branching, a skein… sugar flowing, ruffled suddenly by new input… and then joining, all channels teeming together, rising higher…and the warm glow and openness of air, once again…
—And then the air moved and existence dissolved into the trembling of uncountable leaves across a vast span of space.
…When he let it go, and she gasped and swayed, he ‘shhhhed’ into her ear, and held her steady.
Why did everything that happened between them make her feelings for him grow stronger?
That night, he kissed her to distraction, outside her chambers’ door. And whispered something so sweet into her ear, before he let her go… That when she got into her room, she eeped into a pillow.
In bed, she experienced the most peculiar mixture, of longing, loneliness and warmth, and curled around her stomach, like to shelter it.
***
The coming days passed in a blur; of lips, saliva, and body heat. Each time they met he greeted her thus, were they alone. —And were they not he’d reach out for her hand and squeeze it tightly in both of his, and softly kiss her temple, letting his nose bump into her…briefly lingering. And every day for at least a week, she noticed a little splash of color upon his breast as he would approach… And once he got in close, she’d identify one of the flowers she’d given him, stem trimmed and carefully pinned to his black tunic. It was mightily endearing.
When she realized that others were likely noticing her flowers, too, she was blushingly embarrassed… and then somehow deeply, profoundly pleased. As though…
As though someone might also notice, he’d been claimed.
…Not that she might have the power to do such a thing, of course! —She semi-frequently had to remind herself. Only, as though. But it was still, so gratifying, even just thus…
She started to notice things about him, too. New things, as they settled into a new dynamic. He wasn’t ever shy about putting his hands on her, any longer. He liked standing close to her, if he wasn’t in her way; very close. And he liked keeping a hand on her, around her back, or on her waist, or clasped upon her thigh, if they were just talking. He liked nuzzling into her and punctuating their conversations with cute little kisses. He liked pulling her into his lap. She’d thought that he was cuddly before, but now… She wondered anew, at how very warm he was, and how affectionate. To think, that this side of himself wasn’t something he had gotten to indulge..
…To think, that it was she who’d become the beneficiary of his affection. Life was only more outlandish.
So she’d finally ceased her hesitance to hold onto him, when she wanted. Which was a lot..! …She had started to view him, with an almost visceral sense of comfort. That was silly, she thought — that nervous buzzing would rattle her innards at the mere sight of him, and the moment he approached she’d seek to soothe it by nuzzling into his chest… His warmth would fill up her senses, then his fingers would be softly seeking her jaw, and a new excitement would begin, as she tasted him..
The ease of this closeness, left her in awe.
***
He took her flying again, in his X-wing, to an unmarked spot of her choosing, from her map. This time it was a western edge of the great southern continent, far from any river, or road. She had never seen the sea. He flew them in over it, releasing the harness to accommodate her, and she sat forward as far as she could in the cockpit, gazing out the transparisteel canopy to the endless blue-grey waters.
The beach they came in at was wide and flat, shallowly sloping, broken periodically by scrapings of rock. He set them down securely above the tideline, and she hurriedly stripped off her boots and strode swiftly down the moistened sand to the water. She walked until the tips of the spent waves were running up past her ankles, and stood staring at the shifting line of their crashing. ..Presently he came up from behind her and slipped an arm about her waist, pulling her snug against his chest, to kiss her ear and stroke her belly. The wet air held an unaccustomed edge, born of the waters’ foreign chemistry, and the sky above the darkened ocean was rendered pale opaline by a diffuse layer of cloud. “..Luke, I will never get over this,” she said.
“I love the ocean, too,” he said softly.
She despaired of expressing what she felt. “everything is bigger than me..!” she whispered, “but you make me feel warm..”
He turned her gently in his arms, at that, urging her round to face him. His eyes were solemn. His hand came up, to smooth along her jaw, and R2 became the first sentient to see them kiss. —They heard his distant warble of surprise, and Luke let her go with a blush, and a bashful expression, as though he’d forgotten the droid’s presence. ..The sight of him made her heart beat. She raised her fingertips to trace along his pretty cheek.. and pointedly kissed him again… and he sighed, and clutched her closer.
..Later at her behest they went walking across the sands, and where the beach became patchy with rocks she made a discovery — little pools amidst the crags, filled with seawaters abandoned by the tide. Creatures dwelt there, of surpassing oddity. She would not have been surprised to encounter their representation in one of his holos — such was their estrangement, from all the life with which she was familiar. Colorful, tentacled, bespiked, bearing far too many appendages or many too few… Some, she couldn’t see how they were able to move, or direct themselves, and yet they did; others, she had taken for rocks…till a bit of organic crud drifted them by, only to be snatched.
Careful to avoid slipping in, she clambered up a slick, more-or-less flattened rock and delicately perched upon its crown, and took out her notebook. He joined her, and watched curiously over her shoulder as she drew; and eventually he meditated, his back pressed comfortably against hers.
..At some point, she glanced round and gasped aloud, to see a field of heavily globed water floating in midair above sand and surf.
—But at her gasp, the field burst into tiny tinkling pointilescence and collapsed, splashing onto the wet-packed sand.
“—Oh! I’m sorry!” she exclaimed.
“..Please, don’t apologize,” he responded evenly, opening his eyes, “Distractions are practice. …Water is hard. It doesn’t want to stay with itself, that way..” And he twisted to kiss her forehead, “It was spray, from the waves. I’ll get it back, princess, don’t worry.”
..They remained there through the tide’s return, retreating reluctantly before its approach, and supped on the beach, defending their food against wayward sand as they could — laughing, when they couldn’t. Afterward he took her into his lap, and kissed her, indulgently… and somehow she couldn’t stop herself, from telling him he was wrong, about the water.
“..It does like to stay with itself,” she whispered.
“What does… water?” he whispered back.
She nodded, and he smiled, amusement thrumming up through his larynx. “How so, little scholar?”
“I-I read so,” she blushingly informed him, “It sticks to itself. T-That’s how it can form droplets. Most things don’t. You should try.. with something else, to compare.”
He gazed at her a moment… and then he nodded, with an appreciative little smile, “Thank you, Ciri. I certainly will.”
They left, only after watching the sun’s fiery fall and vanishment, across the waters. She was so tired that night, she near toppled into her bed, when she found it.
***
And somehow, even in light of all the esoteric forms both large and small filling out the newer pages of her notebook, the most unusual thing in her life now was how she got to kiss him, and how he did it back.
…He liked licking her, when they kissed. It felt almost like he was marking her…leaving these broad strokes of his saliva across her skin, to glisten in the sun and tingle. He liked suckling on her lower lip.
..And she liked tugging on his. She liked the edges of the teeth inside his mouth. She liked the hollow beneath his plush bottom lip and the prominent cleft in his chin below that. He’d laugh when she messily tried to bite at it.
She tried to be delicate, with him, usually, but when she was accidentally rough he didn’t seem to mind. And he didn’t mind it, when she was clumsy. Or if she made an embarrassing noise…or about anything. Instead, he would grin, or groan, or nuzzle her, and kiss her deeper; and when she became especially flustered it would cause him to laugh, a light, cheerful sound that somehow never failed to help her feel relaxed, and never ever made-fun-of. ..It was surreal.
And she caught herself daydreaming about him, betimes.. Him, and the galaxy he came from. As though the looseness and ease in the time she spent with him, crept into her imagination now, as well. She’d imagine them walking through the landscapes she found on his datapad, or.. strolling down a crowded futuristic promenade. —Whenever she noticed herself doing it she’d stop to blush and frown, feeling an anxious little tugging from the base of her abdomen, straight down, and an instinctive urge to disengage. But…. His words, that night. They’d left her without the power to stop.
…She wouldn’t lose him, in space.
His comlink, and her notes on its use, occupied a locked drawer in her desk.
…And the way she missed him at night grew ever more poignant.
She would sit, cross-legged in bed with her hands cupped together in her lap… when his absence felt like a negative space, sucking at her edges. She’d focus her breathing, as he’d shown her how. She’d picture what lay between them, as a little seedling she sheltered there in her palms, and watched grow.
Hadn’t she all that she could want with him? Why this pulling, at her heart?
***
One nondescript evening a few weeks past found her awaiting him, leaned over a balustrade just out of doors near her father’s conference rooms — having spent the entire day poking idly about his datapad whilst thinking of him, and not wishing to spend a single moment alone, beyond the barest number necessary. …Now finally, the sun had set, leaving the grounds draped in obscurity, and she knew she had not long left to pass.
She was becoming antsy with the knowledge, when the silence broke.
“—What do you suppose he wants with you?” an all-too-familiar voice asked, from behind.
Needless to say it was not the man she wished. Ciri bit her tongue from replying, and looked pointedly directly out to the night, not acknowledging the presence.
Unbothered, Olandria went on to speculate. “…Tongue-tied as you are, you don’t exactly make for good conversation. —And how could you, even despite? You don’t know the first thing about anything. …And, I mean…. Look at you.” Those last words, she practically spat.
Ciri set her jaw, cheeks burned against her will. …Though she’d heard it all, before, still Olandria knew how to sting. The stone of the balustrade gripped her forearms, with friction.
“…You know what I think,” she went on, “I think he’s a bit of a freak.”
And at that, her blood began to quietly boil.
It was pedestrian enough, the insults against herself. She’d never dreamed to hear Luke spoken of so.
Olandria was still speculating, “—I think he enjoys turning the head of a brainless little ugly duckling like you. He has a predilection for the unappealing, I suppose. Peculiar. —Or, his is a more dispassionate game, and even better that you’re royalty. Funnier that way, when he leaves you behind. And either way… A freak. It is fair freakish, such interest, don’t you think?”
That internal boil bubbled over, and she whirled to face the woman. “—You don’t know anything about him at all,” she bit bitterly, “When have you even spoken to him? At the dance? When you were pestering him for entertaining stories about his friends dying at war?”
…But Olandria only laughed, seeming to enjoy her risability. “I know more than you, little princess,” she said with condescension, “—Remember, I’m not a forest hermit like you! I talk to people… and I know, how people are. —What do you do, by the way, when you need advice on men? On the only man who’s ever deigned speak to you? —Ask a squirrel??” Any further remarks didn’t survive her fit of laughter.
Ciri was scowling, outside and in. “..I certainly wouldn’t ask you!” she said diffidently.
Olandria ignored her, and presently composed herself to continue, more levely, “…It does surprise me, rather. He seemed so… Ascetic. Uprightly moral, I would have said. …Yet here he is, spinning a simpleton’s head full of tales like a common scoundrel, or worse, as though it were the choicest entertainment…” Her tongue tsk’ed. “Shameful.”
Ciri had unwittingly balled her fist. “Now look here!” she exclaimed, “I’m just about used to you, you know — I’ve heard just about everything you could think to say to me! —But just you keep your.. nasty, mean-spirited thoughts to yourself, if they’re going to be about him! He’s much too decent t—” she cut off, stumbling asudden, over her own vitriol. “..t-to be spoken of, by you,” she concluded, less forcefully, turning her gaze away.
There was a silence.
It was surprising — despite her words, she hadn’t thought Olandria might heed her request.
After a moment, she couldn’t help herself. She looked up, at the woman’s face… And found her, looking back, with a huge, sly grin.
“My… The mousy little princess really is smitten, isn’t she? ..You haven’t spoken up like that, in…” Olandria trailed off to laugh derisively, “—why, in ever!”
Ciri stared.
“…Poor, little waif… I’m only trying to help, after all!” Olandria insisted, voice dripping with false concern.
Ciri scowled, looked away. “..why do you say things that aren’t in the slightest believable, if you want to be taken seriously?” she muttered resentfully.
Before Olandria could sneeringly reply, as she no doubt shortly was intending to, a new sound questioningly cut the brief silence. “..Ciri?”
It was his voice.
Her head whipped up, and around, her chest fluttering anxiously. He was there… he’d materialized, as though from nowhere, or she had not paid attention. His pretty face held a look of frank concern that contrasted so intensely with Olandria’s, it took her breath away, and she gulped… As somehow at seeing him, she filled with a longing more intense than that that had driven her to wait for him at that terrace at all, though that her feet had taken root.
“Is this courtier bothering you, my Princess?” he asked — and without waiting for answer, he moved deliberately to stand between them, cutting Olandria off from her view. “Someone like you, should never hear a harsh word.. May I assist you?” He gently took her hand in his, handling it with easy familiarity, and bringing it to his lips to softly kiss, “..Your Highness?”
At his touch, she started and came unstuck. Held his hand… looked up from it into his kindly, worried face. …Then stepped forward and burrowed into his chest, trapping their clasped hands between them, and feeling his arm come up around her to curl securely about her back.
She clenched her grip on his hand, fierce and needy, and he reassuringly matched it back, with decisive strength. ..There was something comforting, in that… like an expression of gravity.
He dropped his head to whisper, directly into her ear, for her alone, “it’s alright, sweet girl… I’m here.” She shivered, to hear it, and gently urged herself tightly in… felt him respond, with a strong, affectionate squeeze. He kissed her ear, then her temple, and susurrated “sshhhh..”
She swallowed, and closed her eyes, as her innards sweetly unknotted. He was here, finally… He was very like hers.
At least, that’s how he always made her feel.
It was his warmth. —More than just body heat, it was in his voice and his eyes and the quality of his touch. ..If he didn’t always stroke and squeeze her like he did, if he didn’t always treat her so… she might believe it would wear on him. To be close to her like this, as much as she liked. But he never failed to demonstrate that he wanted it, too. She felt a little swell, rising up in her chest, as his grip tightened and his palm eased its way comfortingly up and down along her arm. His hand clasping hers was giving back as good as it got, holding on tight, while his thumb sedately rubbed the side of her hand. He was… he was caring. So caring.
Slowly, her breathing steadied.
For someone like her, to have someone like him… Of course, she hadn’t believed Olandria. But… It was far past ordinary, after all.
She was unfathomably fortunate. Her mind never failed tracking back to it.
Blinking moisture from her eyes, she raised her head and kissed his gorgeously plush lips. Just once, and briefly… but still, the doing of it for a moment made her feel almost like another person to herself. Someone assertive. Someone confident, who knew what was hers.
When she released him, he gazed down into her as though lost, dazed in surprise…
Then he beamed, like the rising of the sun, and for a moment she truly did forget that Olandria was there, or had ever been.
And he asked her, with calm, soothing resonance, “Would you like to get out of here with me, your Highness? ..I hate to see you keeping poor company.” His eyes were on her, steadily, as though she was all that was…
She gave him a small smile, and nodded up to him gratefully.. and found herself able to speak, softly. “—Y-Yes, Luke, I really would.”
His own smile broadened if possible, eyes tending soft. “Wonderful..”
He dipped in swift and smooth to nudge his nose into hers and cutely kiss her cheek, then her brow, making her laugh in a gentle stutter to be fussed over so, and whispered smilingly into her ear, his svelte voice pitched low just for her, “c’mon, my darlin’..let’s go. Hold onto me..”
His other arm, meanwhile, snaked up around her shoulders… And then she felt herself lifting, as something tightened gently around her thighs and pulled them up into the air, slipping them to his side, her knees tucking together. Nothing supported her, and she understood that it was him… using the Force to carry her, just so he wouldn’t need to let go of her hand. His arm was solid against her back, and she was pitched into his warm chest. All of her upset had quite dissolved in his affectionate gaze, comforting touches, and gentle words… And now here she was, given fully over into his keeping. She gazed into his eyes, her own large and briefly rounded with surprise… and softly brought her free hand to cover over his, so tightly gripping hers.
He bent down his neck and kissed her forehead, and started to walk, and Olandria stood there boggling at their backs.
~
He brought her quickly down a set of stairs and out onto the grass, to find seclusion in the darkened grounds… while she closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder, and let him take her, where he would.
Presently, he stopped. She opened her eyes to find that in the darkness, all eyesight of the balustrade had become impossibility. Wordless, he gently lowered her knees and let her feet find ground, then aggressively swallowed her into a tight, comfortable hug.
…..She felt his nose nudge into her hair… felt his steady breath, rustling the strands… And she sighed, and snuggled gratefully into his chest, as his heat seeped into her.
Then he was softly murmuring, “..I felt you getting angry.. don’t think I ever have, before. …And for a moment I was confused, on top of worried — but then of course I arrive to find her. …Ciri, baby… what did she do?”
Her mind tracked back to the encounter just past.
“..S-she was… she was a little c-cruel about you, Luke,” she confessed. “…I-I.. I got mad.”
“..About me?”
He waited…and when she didn’t say more he prompted her softly, “…Anything you’d like to talk about, with me, sweetling?”
Her first thought was that she didn’t wish to sully his ears.
“…um..I-I don’t… I don’t wanna make the air feel gross.. repeating it..” she trailed into his tunic, unaccountably sheepish.
He pulled back to look at her, cupping her cheek, and made a face. “..That bad? No wonder you got angry.” A moment passed, as he studied her, gently stroking her cheek. She gazed back, taking in the contours of his expression, traced over in starlight. He was dear, indeterminably.
Her next thought was that it was hard, weirdly, to hold it to herself. Her jaw worked, as the wish to for once, share something of Olandria’s words fell upon her, and she fought with it.
“…I don’t like it,” he said quietly at last. “I dislike it, so much.. —Her, being able to say anything to you that makes you feel.. ‘gross’.”
“…s-she said you’re a freak,” she revealed, in a small voice, “f-for.. for liking me.”
…And she watched his jaw knot, as a sadness overcast his eyes.
“Ciri…” he breathed… swallowing, glancing delicately down, then back up to meet her, “….it kills me, that you should have to hear such things.”
He stroked his fingers along her face, with perfect care.
“You are incredibly, irresistibly likable… and I find my affection, perfectly ordinary.”
Feelings for him, welled in her chest, trapped inside its bony walls.
“..well, I have to say I don’t,” she whispered back, when she could.
“…give me the time, sweet girl. I will make you, see how commonplace my feelings truly are.” And he dipped, and gently pressed his velvety soft lips, to her brow.
“…Luke…” she faintly protested. She didn’t wish, to see that kiss, or his sentiments, as commonplace.
But in the end she couldn’t say more. She wanted him, to spend all the time in the world. Would give practically anything for it. How funny, to know such extremity.
“…Luke, thank you,” was all that she could manage.
His thumb tracked softly across her skin. “..thanks for telling me..” Every bit of him, was welcome.
She nodded, in acknowledgment, gripping his waist tightly to pull herself snugly in against him. “I haven’t really…g-gotten, to..before..,” she euphemised.
“..does it feel any lighter, getting it out? ..Is the air gross, now…”
“n-no.. um, It does feel better, actually. Somehow. E-even just the saying it..was nice. ..That’s funny.”
“..well it’s nice to confide, princess,” he said with a kind smile, “I’m not so surprised.” ..In a moment his smile gently faded, and he leaned his forehead against hers, and murmured, “…what else, did she say, little darling?”
She blushed, to be telling him this. “..S-she said, that I make poor conversation.” A snort sounded lightly and he muttered under his breath, “..repulsive woman…I vouch you’re much the superior conversationalist..” She couldn’t help a little smile, feeling grateful, blessed there with him… before she finally had to finish telling him embarrassedly, “…a-and that, I have to ask..s-squirrels for advice, on..”
Her voice became faint, “on, m-men..”
He was silent, for a time, as she hesitantly bit her lip. It was uncomfortable, to confess… because of course, it was true. Whatever else could be said of her, Olandria did not frequently miss her mark.
“…could they answer, that would be very cute,” he at last replied, in a gentle whisper, “..and I’m sure they’d have the better advice.” And though it was actually not surprising, she found herself struck yet again, at his kindness. He never failed, to treat her vulnerabilities with care. ..His lips had parted, as though there were more he would say, but nothing came out. Something soft, and almost sad, was in his face.
He at last found words to express it. “…I hate, when I have something pointed out to me, by her cruelty. This is the second time now, and it’s at least thrice too many. …..Would you like advice, on me, Ciri?” His jaw worked, lightly, as his eyes flicked across her face. “…because, I could set something up,” he mouthed, finally.
The offer startled a single, surprised and insecure laugh up out of her throat. “—W-What?” ..She blinked and composed herself to ask more completely, “W-what.. do you mean?”
He blushed. “..You might wish, to have someone to speak to about me, other than… me. It would make perfect sense. ..You could speak to Leia. Or Han… Both. That would be best. And R2, if I get a translator. 3PO would be good. ..He’s very accommodating, scrupulously polite, you would find him easy, to talk to. You could ask anything you wish. They’re all the ones who know me best. Anything you.. Anything you’d wish to know, but would maybe be reluctant, to ask me. Anything at all. They’d love to speak with you. I will put them at your disposal.”
She stared. All these people, from his life… just what was he suggesting? She hesitantly licked her lips, “…you… y-you’ll.. you will? What?”
“…Leia wants very much to meet you, anyway,” he expanded quietly, “and there’s no need to be nervous… She’s very kind, and I’ve only said good things.”
It brought her up short, all anew. He’d…? “…y-you mean you’ve… T-talked to her, about me?”
His eyes met hers in surprise. “Of course, I have,” he mouthed, almost silent, “You’re… You’re the girl, I’m…” He trailed off and looked down, helplessly, and she was sorry, to have put him in such a way. When he finished, his voice was fragile, delicate like a glass. “You’re who I wish, for.. my partner. Of course, I told my sister. …it’s… it’s kind of a big deal, for me.. E-even just to want, someone.”
She wished to ask more — ask after just what he’d said, ask after… Everything…. —But, his face. His voice. She couldn’t.
…Instead, she reached out to him, and lightly ran her finger along his gently sloping cheek… so that his eyes rose back up to hers. “Thank you, Luke. I appreciate your offer, very much… though I wouldn’t know what to ask, or what to say. I’ll have to think on it. I’m… I’m beyond flattered, and so very happy, that you spoke to your sister, a-about me.”
It won her a gentle, gratified little smile.
And he nodded, in acknowledgement. “..Yes, please think about it. And let me know. …I’ll ask again, later, in case..it’s hard. …Maybe… It might be easier, to start with the droids? Since you already know R2. And 3PO is a protocol droid, he won’t… He wouldn’t fail, to be meticulously helpful — though he’s a little out of touch I’ll admit — and he will definitely like you, very much. You’re just his sort. Sweet, and..” He smiled, warmly, looking at her.. Then cupped her cheek, and kissed her nose. “..Sweet, and kind, and polite, to all. He will love you. I…. I would love, for you to speak to him.”
She wondered, at his manner. It seemed to mean so much to him. “I won’t fail to, then.”
He nodded. “Thank you, Ciri… That makes me very happy. ..Are you alright?”
She nodded, readily. “..Are you?” —For it had seemed, for a moment there, that it was he, who needed comfort.
But he nodded, in turn, lightly stroking along her skin, with a smile. “Yes, princess. I am,” he quietly assured. “..Though I’m…” The ghost of a laugh escaped him, weakly, “—I’m so resentful…of her speaking to you.. of anything, she might try, to touch.. us.”
“…Luke..” she whispered, raising her hand to close over his, “..I’ve been ignoring her for years.. Thank you for coming to get me. And for comforting me. It’s beyond wonderful, to have someone do. ..But please don’t be concerned, about that…That’s not something she can do.”
He hesitated, then nodded. “…I know,” he acknowledged, with a blush, “I still don’t like her to try. Thank you, for reassuring me.” He glanced down, briefly. “…Are you truly OK? she was… Very cruel.”
And upon a moment’s inventory, since he was so persistent, she nodded, with a smile. “Yes, Luke, I am, now. I promise. Thank you for it. ..N-normally, I…” she trailed off.. then lamely finished, “…well.”
He waited, but she didn’t elaborate, so he carefully tongued his teeth and guessed, “…normally you wouldn’t wait by a balustrade right by the halls, where she might come find you. Normally, you’d be in the woods. Avoiding her. And everyone.” ..She nodded, somehow lightly sheepish. He paused, before quietly continuing his thought. “….Normally, if she caught you, you’d have to comfort yourself.”
The words made her gulp, and look down. It was true. …It was somewhat painful. His brow creased, in empathy, and ducked lightly into her, as his fingers slid between hers and squeezed. He tightened his arm about her back. “…Ciri, I am so, very sorry, my princess,” he murmured, “It’s my sincerest wish that your life may never be this kind of ‘normal’, again.”
She glanced up to him, wonderingly.. saw his lightly parted lips, silken-soft, near as breath. Then down to their clasped hands. He was the one element in her life, that separated all normality from everything strange, and lovely, and new. So….Never?
His sister wanted to meet her.
“..L-Luke, you…”
But she wasn’t sure, how to put what she felt.
She rubbed her forehead against him, and at last said quietly, “..You’re the sweetest thing I know. Thank you for coming to get me… I really do mean it.”
He kissed her cheek, and replied steadily, “…I will always, come get you, precious. ..So please don’t mention it.”
She blushed, even as her innards grew warm, in the light of what he’d said. Words from a pure fantasy. Something she actually might have dreamt of, once… when she was comforting herself, alone.
Was it any wonder, she found him hard to fathom?
“I’ll.. I’ll try,” she promised conservatively, fighting off the urge to thank him again right then, just for existing.
“Perfect,” he assured, “…and I’ll try to stop asking if you’re ok.” His lips twerked into a sheepish little grin. “—somehow I kinda wanna do it again, even though you’ve told me multiple times.”
She smiled, with a little laugh in spite of herself. “Your concern is so cute, Luke,” she observed… then sighed, and dropped her brow into his cheek. “I completely adore you.”
It made his face split open into a broad, delighted smile, cheeks crinkling, as the breath audibly soughed out of him, and he blushed, floridly. “..I am so thrilled, by your endearments,” he remarked with soft embarrassment, “..thank you, for saying so, Ciri. —You know that I adore you, too.”
His reaction very nearly filled her with guilt, not to say such things more frequently…not to have been saying them, the whole time, with most of her breaths.
But of course, he was so radiant, that it had been hard… Hard, for a small person, shelled over in mediocrity, such as herself.. to put her feelings at risk, by exposing them to the light of his observation.
“if…I’m brave…I-I’ll t-tell you, more often,” she offered.
But he only smiled, and shook his head, softly laughing, “no… Tell me the amount that comes naturally, Ciri. It’s enough. —It’s perfect. You’re perfect, to me, as you are.. And it’s the fact that my shy, quiet little girl, just couldn’t help but tell me she adores me, that thrills me so. …I missed you, precious. I’m so happy, to see you again.” And he dipped down, and kissed her… Soft, and careful, but firm.
His fingers wended into her hair, as the kiss deepened, and he suckled her lip into his mouth, with light insistence…giving her the greeting, he had missed; and she returned it, in kind. ..She had become privileged past privileged, to receive such affection, so freely, from him.
“little baby…” he sighed, as they parted, and the heat flared across her body.
“t-the way you call me that, i-is so different from her..” she breathed, looking up at him with big eyes.
“—Baby?”
She shook her head no, with a smile and an accidental laugh.
“..She called you little?” he said, quietly offended.
Silently, she nodded.
“She doesn’t get to call you that…” he declared.
“she c-calls me much worse..” she said, lightly amused.
His expression was briefly pained. “..yeah, but that one’s mine,” he eventually returned, “I want it, to call you by, for myself…and only for myself… So she can’t have it. She can butt out.”
It made her feel treasured. So that she smiled, as she said, “..well you’ll have to tell her so. Little purpose in it — you’ll only encourage her.”
…He nodded, somberly. “..An outrage,” he observed.
She commiserated, “The idea, that Master Skywalker should be forced to accept outrages..”
“—I can accept anything you have,” he insisted immediately, in solidarity. “…I will meditate on it, though.”
She smirked. “Is that how you handle your anger?” she lightly teased.
“It’s how I handle my anger,” he agreed.
And suddenly, she hugged him very close. “..Don’t be angry on my behalf, Luke. You make me very happy.”
He squeezed her tight, in turn. “I’m angry on my behalf, princess,” he wryly observed. “—But please don’t be troubled.. it’s not very Jedi-like, to feel this way, and I intend to keep myself, well in hand. …And I am so excited, to begin my evening with you, my beautiful girl..” he trailed, as he found her neck beneath her ear and gently kissed it. He let his nose nudge her..then kissed her again, openly, with his tongue. She felt his teeth lightly scrape her skin. “..so what is it, your sweet heart desires to do with me, pretty one?” he husked.
Her exhale was a little rough. “…C-come..come snuggle with me, Luke? ..I-it’s been a long day. I want you.. someplace private.”
He smiled beatifically, as he lifted her face up for him to kiss her mouth. “..Lead me, lovely.. I’d love to.”
So she obliged… reluctant as always as she slipped from his grasp. She slipped her hand into his as though it were second nature and pulled him away, toward the light, and he came, easily.
“…Why’d you call me that?” she asked as they ambled. “‘Highness’… You really don’t need to, you know.. i-it’s just Olandria..”
He answered with firm assurance, “—In front of her? I mean to set the example of being respectful.”
She flushed. “…O-oh..”
“…Thanks for kissing me back there, by the way, Ciri,” he took opportunity to add, softly.
“O-oh!” she blushed further. “Um.. Well of course! It’s.. I wanted to. I-I mean, I was sorta frustrated… n-not to..”
He smiled, toothily, “..Me too… well, kinda wanted to take you in my arms and just kiss you till you didn’t remember what was going on, actually. Fix it that way. —But, I didn’t wanna.. overstep, or.. embarrass you — Shy girl. …So it made me feel extra happy, when you went ahead.”
His description made her blush. “—Th-th-that’s good!” she stammered out. Then belatedly added, “…Um.. A-and, um, I’m sorry..”
He lightly snuffed, “—What? Why?”
It had not occurred to her, to reflect that he might not wish to be kissed before Olandria’s eyes, before she’d impulsively done just that. “I… um, well I didn’t really think a-about, h-how you might feel, Luke, um, b-before..”
“—Ciri,” he laughed, “I’m no longer even half so shy, as you. You don’t need to worry, about embarrassing me. Not ever. —You made me feel proud. If anything.”
She was silent a moment, turning it over in her head. “..Oh.. O-Ok. —Proud?”
“Incontestably.”
…Coming to a conclusion she blushed and seized his hand, extra tight. “..In that case, I… well, I guess I kinda like, for her to know… th-that you like me, Luke..”
He turned soft eyes upon her. “—Well I like it too,” he murmured, quietly pregnant.
“Ciri.” he said.
Something in his tone stopped her steps, and she looked up — smoothly, he leaned in to take a kiss…bringing his hand up to brace her jaw, as his lips embraced hers.
She gave him a silly, pleased grin, after.
He returned her a sparkly little smile, letting himself gently thumb her bottom lip before he let go, the pretty lines flanking his mouth gently graving. “..Since you like it, princess… Would you come to a party, with me?” he asked hopefully.
“—H-huh?” she stumbled, with a laugh.
Eyes gleaming, he said, “I wasn’t sure how to ask.. But, Ciri, I’m asking you to be my date. To Sonenfest.”
She hesitated in surprise.
“…Your dad expects me to go,” he explained, at her hesitance, “—and I don’t know what to say to get out of it and spend my evening with you, but I don’t wanna be there without you.. —And I’d wait for you there and hope that you’d turn up like you did last time I had to go to a party, but….” his lopsided smile relaxed, into a meaningful expression, as he finished, “..but, I find I prefer to arrive with you, from the beginning, as your escort. —Or, with you as mine - whichever. Both. ….so.. Accompany me?”
She blushed, and cast her gaze shyly down between them, holding his hand very tightly and fighting down the sense of unreality perfusing the situation, as an image of her sweeping into a crowded hall on his arm entered her mind. “People will think it’s so weird…” she murmured, thinking of Olandria and a dozen lesser faces.
He raised her hand, between them, and placed his free palm gently over it. “Of course I will go alone..and just hope.. if you feel too nervous, princess. —of course. —And even if you said yes, you can always just back out — Seriously, there’s no pressure. …But I don’t care what they will think. I will think, I’m the luckiest man in the room.”
She looked up, into his soft, warm eyes. He was so improbable… He brought her knuckles to his plush lips and kissed them, softly, and whispered, “…and well, to be honest… whatever else they may think, I wish them to think.. I wish them to see, me.. captivated by you.” She gulped, hard, at his choice of phrasing.
Color had filled his cheeks, and now made its way up his forehead and out to the very tips of his ears, reddening them adorably. “..It’s… a rather silly little fantasy, of mine, I suppose,” he softly continued his confession, “…Something about… something about the way they all admire me, even here.. just for being. —While you, they’ve so ignored… I want them to see me, doing the opposite. …I want them to see me enthralled.”
A startled laugh caught in her throat. ..His admission was very forward. Thinking about it, made her surfaces grow plump, with blood.
She was nothing to admire. All of them knew it. Only he, was confused on that point.. and she was loathe to correct him.
..Composing herself, she lightly snuffed, “W-want some of your stardom, to rub off on me?”
His cheeks blazed. “Something like that.. Yes,” he confirmed softly, “…Do you find my fancy… crass?”
“No, L-Luke.. Of course not. Nothing about you is crass. I— I’m very flattered, for you to feel that way, about me. …A-and of course, I’ll come.”
He gave her a shy, hopeful little smile, and asked cautiously, “..yeah?”
She nodded, and firmed up to confirm, “Y-yeah.”
Suddenly he beamed, from ear to ear, brightly sparking even through the shade. “Thank you, Ciri!!” he said fervidly, “I promise I will do everything.. to make sure you don’t regret this.” He blushed, as he admitted, “..I know.. That it’s not exactly your cup of caf.”
“..Y-you’re my cup of caf,” she replied softly.
“..That’s right, I am,” he gently grinned, meaning that differently. He rubbed his face against her palm and kissed it, and kissed her — several times for good measure, then resumed walking with a pleased grin, and a lilt in his step.
He did things so frequently, that made her wonder, in more ways than one.
Chapter 10: Sonen
Notes:
This chapter is now complete, after months of uncertainty and toil. Phew!
Chapter Text
On the afternoon of Sonenfest, she turned up to his door as he’d asked, to keep his company while he made preparations — she had nothing in particular to do in that regard, herself.
As she walked the halls to his rooms, she couldn’t help but reflect on what she was doing. True, she’d braved a party for him before… Drawn in merely by the allure of his attendance, though he’d been naught but her handsome, kindly friend. —But then, she’d hoped only to see him… pass some moments in his company, rather than miss him alone. ..Where this time, she’d need to speak to people. Other, people.
It was only his manner, that had caused her to agree. —And, that he’d asked. …And…
…She flushed, all over again, all alone in the hall. She was not the type, to achieve the effect he..seemed under. It was perplexing. And something about the earnestness of his pleasure, rose larger in her estimation, than the daunting social prospect ahead.
..Thoughts dimmed welcomely, as she approached his door and didn’t even need to knock, before it was opening before her to reveal his prettily smiling face. He was indeed worth doing very much for.
He greeted her warmly with a kiss, practically sighing her name into her mouth…which made her giggle, briefly, in delight, between kisses. Her giggle made him chuckle, and he picked her up in his arms and pulled her inside, and the door shut behind.
“Little nervous, princess?” he checked in.
“..C-can’t help it..” she agreed.
“..Well I can’t tell you how grateful I am for you to be doing this, for me..” And he sealed those words, with a deeply indulgent kiss, letting his fingers up into her hair to tangle.
“..Th-that’s, w-why I’m here,” she shakily acknowledged.
“Thank you, Ciri..” His next kiss ended with him sucking determinedly on her lip.
She rose onto the balls of her feet and held onto his neck, and returned the favor, pulling his lip into her mouth and not letting go… as she let herself slowly sink back down, until he popped out with a little noise, of surprise.
He grinned at her dazedly, after, his cheeks dissolved into wrinkles. She couldn’t help but chuckle… that someone like her, was able to make him, look like that. “..So what are you up to, in here, pretty boy?” she asked him warmly. …His obvious desire had this knack of bolstering her confidence, and occasionally getting her to say things, she ordinarily surely would not.
The moniker earned her a hum, from deep in his throat. It briefly struck her as funny.. how they were both evidently so gratified, each by the other. “Nothing so much… Come see,” he invited.
….And led her back to his bedroom, and into his bath….
…Where she soon wound up standing beside him at the counter, looking over his few toiletries as he combed through his hair.
She liked the domesticity of it… of being with him in such a mundane, private space, for a mundane, private task. It surprised her, that she swelled up so with pride, to be included with him there. When he was done he turned to her with fond warmth welling in his expression, and caught her in a kiss.
One turned into another… his lips sweetly, softly brushing and clinging to hers, as his breath meaningfully exhaled through his nostrils. Her hand meanwhile idly discovered his collar, and the skin underneath.. and lingered, spellbound by its warmth.
She smoothed her palm up his neck, and felt him relax against it, and sucked on his bottom lip, making him grunt. He shivered as her touch wandered into the soft, short hair at the nape of his neck, a softly shuddered breath escaping his throat. It felt..oddly powerful, still, to touch him like this, and have him react so, with such easy surrender. She kissed him again, assertively, and he relaxed into it, and she softly pulled his hair, the way she’d discovered that he liked, and he gave her a nibble. Her fingers slipped luxuriantly through his locks, massaging along his scalp, and a little rumble vibrated through his chest, and his kiss deepened…
—Until a beeper sounded off harshly, and his body jerked against her in startlement.
He reached down to his belt to silence it.. then sighed, “frag..”, as he relaxed back against her, nuzzling in. ..And in a moment he released her, then took her shoulders and gently turned her round to face the mirror, burying her again in his arms as he looked himself over in the glass and laughed. “I’m mussed,” he observed with amusement.
“S-sorry!” she apologized, reddening. His hair was tugged wild, rather more so than before. She’d been utterly unthinking.
“—No, I don’t think so,” he rejected smoothly, hugging her tighter, “I much prefer my hair this way, and I loved you pulling on it, princess… please, do it again…” he placed a soft kiss on her neck, just under her ear.
“..Unfortunately, I do need to do something about it, for tonight,” he whispered, giving her another, lightly sucking kiss, “..mm.. gotta get a different tunic, too…”
“..o-ok,” she stammered, squeezing his arm in her hand, “..Y-you should? Did you wear… s-something different before?” She meant, at the previous party.
“Yes.”
“R-really?”
“Did you really not notice the clothes your crush was wearing?”
She flushed. “um…”
He laughed, gently, and sweetly kissed her temple. “It’s alright, Ciri, I’m teasing. It wasn’t… that different. If I’m honest. You’ll see.”
She smiled. “K. I’ll pay attention this time.”
He grinned, “Sure,” then paused, looking directly into the mirror. “…Ciri…?”
“What?”
“..Let’s not stay so long. Turns out I still wanna be alone, with you, tonight.”
She sighed, and leaned back into him, relishing his answering squeeze. “..You k-know that works for me… H-how long… were you thinking? I don’t know how these things work, like.. professionally.”
“…Mmm, well, I’m told there’s a ceremony..”
“..It isn’t much. They watch the sunset.”
“Ah. That’s nice. —You don’t?”
“I always watch the sunset. ..Just not with them.”
He smiled. “..Of course. My cute little loner… Well, then we needn’t spend so long. …An hour, a little more… we’ll tour around the room a bit, say hello, to people… Mostly to your father, and some ministers… Be seen. Then we can go. Where I’m from they call this sort of thing, ‘networking’.” She groaned, just a little. His breath warmed her ear, sending tingles sparking along her spine, as he whispered, “…Remember you can still back out… Or, I can leave you somewhere secluded when I make the rounds. But if you do come with.. I’ll take care of you, precious. Promise. Don’t worry.”
His voice in her ear had made her lightly gasp, and that in turn made her blush. He nibbled her earlobe, and kissed her neck, soothingly.
“I… k-kinda c-can’t help being nervous, Luke, but..” she sighed, lightly squirming against him, and shut her eyes.
“—I know..”
“..B-But, if you’re with me, I’m sure it’ll be OK,” she finished up, a little more firmly than she felt.
He nuzzled her, lightly. “Mhmm.. It will be OK,” he confirmed. “..I treasure your trust, beautiful girl. Looking out for you is a privilege..”
She huffed, and smiled. “gods, listen to you..”
“Well, it is. —And if you want to take a breather, or even just leave, before we’ve gotten to everyone, we will. In the middle of a conversation, even, or their ceremony, I don’t mind. It’s not that important. Just squeeze my arm real tight, and want it, and we’ll be gone.”
She emitted a nervous, flattered little laugh. “Y-you’re so accommodating.. wouldn’t that be rude? ..Wouldn’t you get in trouble..”
“I’m a rude person.”
Her laugh deepened. “You certainly are not! I don’t think I’ve ever seen you be rude…”
“..That’s because I’m a little bit at work. —Though I did lie to your father to spend the day with you, right after I arrived, didn’t I? ..Rude. ….And I am taking his only daughter off the castle grounds behind his back, semi-routinely… Some would find that well past rude.”
She flushed. She hadn’t quite considered it, that way, before. “Oh… W-well, true..”
“…The truth is that I snub people frequently when it suits me, Ciri, and I don’t care about social conventions, at all. …And for you, I would snub anyone.”
She blushed. “A-Anyone? I-I’m so special…”
“Yes,” he agreed, “You are. ..Anyway the only person I could get into trouble with here is your father, and I think I could make him understand.”
“…Luke, I will never not be amazed over you,” she breathed, quietly, “thank you, truly.”
And he fastened his mouth to her neck, and lightly tongued her skin.
She clenched his arm tight, where it wrapped around her stomach. She couldn’t hold back a gentle groan, of helpless delight, as she felt her skin being sucked into his warm, wet mouth, and grazed with his soft tongue.
“…W-what… what am I like?” she whispered, with curiosity.
“Like salt…,” he answered huskily, as he licked, “…you’re warm, smooth, yielding, firm.. you’re a little bit salty, you’ve got the perfect amount of friction, and spring, and you smell like something I wanna drown in… you’re delicious, Ciri…”
She giggled, in total embarrassment. “I’m.. I’m all of that?”
“mmm.” He gently bit down and sucked, then lathed the area with his devilishly soft tongue. Her breath shuddered.
“L-Luke, you…” she sighed as his mouth worked on her. “you feel so good…”
His breath gusted on her skin. “Ciri, I feel amazing,” he quipped.
She laughed, feeling half-drunk, her neck where he’d tongued it nearly ablaze with cool air. She relaxed into his warm chest. “W-what am I going to do… a-about you…” she half joked, and half wondered.
“Whatever you want. I’m wearing your bracelet. …Princess, let me look at you..?”
She turned gradually in his arms to face him, looked up at him and lightly shut her eyes as she felt his fingertips grace her face and softly stroke her hair behind her ears. “You’re incredibly beautiful,” he reported quietly, and it made her blush. Then she felt his lips press against hers, and instinctively returned the kiss. “Let me fix your hair… you look like I’ve been playing with it.”
She sniffed and nodded, then felt his lips lightly brush her skin, over her cheek… then she heard a noise, and opened her eyes in surprise at the teeth of a comb tugging gently through her hair, as he did as he’d promised. “..Hey there, pretty Ciri,” he whispered as his eyes met hers, soft fondness filling his face.
“N-no one’s brushed my hair since I was a child,” she whispered back, as he teased the comb through the hair beside her face.
His grin went crooked. “I would think not…
“…now turn back around for me, my princess..” She did as he asked, offering him the back of her head, and stood still while he carefully continued, biting her lip and feeling silly, yet enjoying being fussed over by him nonetheless.
Presently he sighed, “There,” and finished.
“T-thank you, Luke,” she said demurely, fidgeted briefly, then gave a big grin. “—Now you!”
“hmm…,” he eyed himself in the mirror, and ran the comb swiftly and easily through his locks. Then blew air out his cheeks, and did it again. A number of strands had declined to fall in line. “well I usually put something in it to keep it put…,” he muttered, with a little laugh.
“This?” She reached for a little glass tub containing some sort of cream, on the counter. There were not many items there to choose from.
“mmhmm, but…” he demurred.
“But what?” she asked curiously, examining the tub.
“But you’ve been touching my hair. And that’ll make it stiff..”
She blushed, to hear this man apparently worrying over whether his hair would be too stiff for her to play with. “Oh, well, you don’t have to… c-change anything just on my account..”
He snuffed lightly in surprise, “What?” and dropped his hand to palm her stomach, lightly pulling her against him. “..princess, why shouldn’t I change something on your account?”
She blushed harder. “Oh, u-umm…” She wasn’t sure what to say, now that it came to it.
“I-I guess I’m just not… used, to wanting something like that,” she came up with, presently, “I usually… avoid people rather than ask things of them.”
His thumb rubbed deliberately along her tummy, through her jerkin, palpable even through the leather. It was such a sensitive spot.. He was holding her into his warm chest, generating wonderful tingles as he stroked. She gulped with pleasure, and wished perilously for his hand to slip underneath her tunic. “Well, Ciri, you aren’t avoiding me,” he whispered against her hair. “…I’m yours to ask things of. I’m unlikely to refuse. But you can at least give me the chance. …And in this case, it’s my preference to keep my hair in a state where you’ll like to pull on it.”
“Oh-h, S-sure..” she managed.
“Is there anything you’d like, sweet one? You could practice asking me…”
“..I like you touching me,” she said before she could stop herself.
His breath quickly soughed against her hair, and his fingers upon her stomach lightly tightened, and he scruffed, “I’ll be sure to keep touching, then.” He let his mouth dip to her ear, and sucked in her lobe, eliciting a gasp. “…Is there anything else, my princess?”
She smiled as he gently kissed her ear, then temple. “I-I don’t know, Luke,” she laughed, “I’ll have to think about it…”
“..Keep it in mind, princess. I’d love to accommodate you. And you absolutely have the right.”
A flush passed over her. “…I-I will do my best,” she offered, then turned to meet him, moved in and kissed him. He kissed back, deep, and held her up against himself with his arm around her waist.
And he delicately touched her cheek when it was done, and broadly smirked, his eyes creasing with happiness. “Thanks for not avoiding me, Ciri. …Thanks for letting me spend so much time with you.”
She gave him a contented, blushing smile back. Then had to break gaze, for a moment, at the situation. “I-I couldn’t have avoided you,” she admitted shyly, “I liked you too much.”
“Then I feel like I’m the luckiest person you have ever met.”
She laughed, “Maybe just the nicest person. ..Umm. W-we’ll be late, Luke, your tunic…”
A long, low sigh came from his throat. “…right,” he breathed. Then gave her one more, slow kiss.
And he slowly relinquished her. The distance between them increased to something almost normal and polite, as he stepped back. He gave her a shy little smile. “I almost like the way I don’t like this part of hugging you.” She blushed, huffing out a laugh… even as her whole body ached with his absence.
And then she collected herself. “I don’t care for it,” she said mildly, “Aren’t you a little peculiar?”
“I’m a lot peculiar,” he said with a crooked grin. It was true. “Come sit, princess,” he invited her softly.
And boyishly cute, he took her hand and drew her to his bed. It made her stomach flutter, a little, to follow him.
His room was spare, but not neat. It was dominated by the big, comfy-looking bed. She sat, sinking into the mattress and fluffy white duvet, grinning up at him shyly. His eyes sparkled as he returned her smile, then she watched them slip shut as he kissed the palm of her hand.
…Then he backed away, turned and smoothly stripped off his tunic, tossing it aside. The muscles of his arms and back rippled. He was beautiful.. sleek, and strong. She blushed, to notice herself feeling so possessive of him, in that moment.
He stepped to his wardrobe and pulled out a replacement garment, slipping it on and fastening it as he turned back around. It was also simple and black, but was of a more symmetrical cut and featured fine gold hemwork. It didn’t register with the eye as much of a change… though the gold was highlighted by the burnished gleam of his hair, under lights. She realized too, now, that his pants sported a thin gold line running down each leg, in match to the tunic.
Then he raised his eyes, and saw her watching. A playful smirk touched his lips, and he blushed.
“See?” he said quietly, holding his arms out for her inspection, “Not so different.”
“Y-you like black,” she observed with a grin.
“You like it too,” he countered. It was one of the few colors she preferred in her own wardrobe, dominated by earthtones.
“Black’s nice.”
He stepped over to her, held out his hand. “I’m not supposed to wear it,” he remarked.
She giggled, as she took it. “But it’s the only thing you wear!” He drew her up.
He grinned. “I know… Obstinate.”
She stepped into him, and put her hands on him, lightly. “Says who, anyway? Not even I get told what to wear… successfully..”
His hands went to her waist. “I’ve noticed that about you. No one, really.. It’s just Jedi tradition. Black symbolizes the dark side.”
She rolled her eyes. “Black means darkness? Shouldn’t symbolism be a little less direct?”
He laughed. “Maybe. The Jedi may have lacked somewhat in…creativity.”
“I’ll say. ..So, what are you supposed to be wearing?”
“Um, like… several layers of brown and beige robes.”
“Hmm. —I think I like this better.”
He grinned, cheeks creasing. “Me too… tho sometimes they’re nice.”
“I wanna see.”
He laughed, almost under his breath, “Then I’ll show you sometime, princess.”
She carefully held his cheek, and kissed his soft lips. He yielded to her, readily. “Thanks, Luke,” she said when she’d finished.
He smiled, stunningly, eyes warm and happy. “Come to this dumb party with me, Ciri.”
~
They left his rooms hand in hand, and made their way through the corridors to the great hall. He chatted with her as they walked — holding the butterflies in her stomach at bay. As they approached the entrance he gave her his arm with a warm grin and the invitation to tuck in, and then leaned in to murmur reassurance, “just hang on to me, princess, as tight as you like..I’ve got you.”
Their eyes met, and understanding passed between them, as she gently smiled up at him, squeezed his arm and nodded, and then they swept into the hall.
It was crowded, and everyone was finely dressed. The walls and pillars were hung with the decor of midsummer. Music was being played on the far end of the hall. A banquet was laid out at its opposite, burdened with simple summer fare, bread and cheese and above all, fruit. All of the great floor-length windows along the hall’s outer wall stood open, and the people spilled out onto the broad patio beyond. The sun hung low in the sky — despite their lollygagging, they had not after all arrived too late.
A serving boy drew near, and Luke collected them glasses. The glass he’d passed to her was filled with sweet, light mead, spiced with summer herbs — the traditional drink for the occasion. She favored it. Most years, though eschewing the party, she didn’t fail to obtain some from the kitchens.
He took a sip and she watched his eyebrows rise with a smile. “It’s good,” he said, “interesting flavor..”
“It’s goatweed,” she explained, “They think it’s the sun’s, because they say it makes people happy, like the sun… So they brew it, into the Sonenmead.”
“And does it? Make people happy?”
“..It does something,” she hedged, “It’s not quite so simple. …It…. I like to walk in the moonlight, when I drink it. The woods feel different. Closer.”
“Hmm.. Intriguing. ..Would you like to walk the woods with me tonight, Ciri?”
She smiled, chuckling. “Y-you wanna go with me on a goatweed walk?”
“I would,” he confirmed.
She thought about it. “..K. But we’re gonna need more mead.”
Now it was his turn to chuckle. “More than what they have here? How much do you usually drink?”
“Um, a bit…” she said vaguely, “..I like to drink as I go along.”
“Mmm.. K. And do they have ‘a bit’ held back in the kitchens, do you think?”
“I think so..,” she confirmed, lightly playful, “We can go get it, after.” He grinned, gave her a nod.
Something was niggling at her, though. “Luke..”
“Yeah?”
“—W-we need to start with the sunset, though, is the thing.” She was embarrassed to say it. Was it because it meant that she had a ceremony, too? “So, um..”
He smiled, to see her bashfulness. “..So we should go a different night?” he smoothly inferred, “—Of course, my princess. Whenever is your wish.” He transferred his glass to the hand whose arm she held, so he could place his freed hand over hers. His eyes were warm, as he added, “Thank you, for sharing your tradition with me…And for forestalling it, to be here with me tonight.”
She smiled gratefully up at him, wishing for everyone else to vanish for just a moment so she could nudge her forehead into his breast.
“I..guess I haven’t missed a walk on Sonen in a long time. But… I.. Y-you have a pull on me, that I guess the goatweed can’t match.”
It made him beam, broad and sillily happy. “..Better than goatweed, am I? Must be something pretty special..”
“Very special,” she agreed, blushing despite herself, before all these folk. “…W-well I’ll be interested, to see how the two of you mix.”
“..I usually prefer to keep a clear head,” he murmured, “But I guess, you have a pull on me..”
“Oh! Well, D-don’t let me corrupt you..,” she stammered — reflecting that of course, a Jedi would prefer sobriety.
He bared a rakish grin, immediately, and she realized belatedly how she may have set herself up. “But, I would so love that..” he protested.
…It took her a moment, to recover from the prospect.
“..W-well the goatweed isn’t so intense, as all that, after all,” she tried, “You’ve nothing to fear.”
He was still grinning like a cat. “..I think I just said as much.”
“L-Luke.. you mustn’t,” she complained plaintively, gripping his arm, and liking too much the look of him, “t-there’s still all these people, to speak to… i-it isn’t fair.”
His face tweaked in a sympathetic wince, before his features schooled themselves compliantly. “Of course,” he said contritely, “I take your point. My apologies, Highness — consider me chastened. I will conduct myself, with finer comportment. ..Are you alright?”
Now it was his solicitousness, that unseated her. “..I-I’m fine,” she emitted amid half an embarrassed laugh… and drained her glass, to make it so. Her mention of the people, had caused them to take on substance.
“…Are you sure?” he asked, eyebrow arched. A server passed by beyond her reach, and a glass lifted off his tray and floated over to her nonetheless, while Luke collected her empty. He was consistently impressive.
“Th-thank you, I-I’m sure, Luke. —O-obviously, I’m nervous,” she admitted. It gave her small relief, to say, but only because it was he who heard. “B-but it’s alright,” she finished.
“..You could still back out,” he reminded her, “I could take you out and tuck you into the balcony’s end, down there, with a glass…Come back to you after every minister. With a glass.”
She sniffed, “Don’t tempt me,” and he grinned. ..The density of people shifting around them felt foreign. She was tempted by his offer.
But she remembered how he’d looked, as she’d agreed to accompany him, here…
“—Mm, no, I’ll give you a run, Luke,” she said bravely, “Then we’ll see.”
“—Ready to get your feet wet already?” he asked, in small surprise.
“..J-just a little,” she allowed, “B-best, not to delay, and..let me psych myself out.”
His soft, slow smile was fond and treasuring. “…You’re a trooper,” he praised, “..You’re my darling. I adore you.”
It made her heart flutter, in her chest, for him to say so.
“S-stop,” she advised, through her flush. “G-give me 30% less flattery, or I’ll chicken out.”
“30% less, coming up… You’re a trooper, only. …OK soldier, let’s go this way..” he said with a gesture, “and get into this. I see Thrackmaw.”
Lord Hershel Thrackmaw was her father’s master of accounts. He stood a small distance down the great hall, with his wife.
Ciri’s body cavity began to buzz, as they approached. Her fingers tightened on his arm, unconsciously. —Luke looked down at her, and she knew that he was asking her one last question with his gaze — so she tried to look back at him reassuringly, and gave him a nod. She got a smile in exchange… and then they were there.
“Lord Thrackmaw,” Luke greeted, with an incline of his head for the man’s companion, “Lady Thrackmaw.”
The Lady Thrackmaw lightly curtsied before them. “Oh! H-Highness!” she stuttered as greeting, eyes gone wide and voice high.. seemingly more occupied by her presence, than Luke’s.
“L-Lady Yulienne,” she nervously replied.. and remembered to turn her eyes to the lady’s companion, “S-sir.”
“..How lovely to see you, Highness,” Lord Thrackmaw responded with a bow, having recovered himself from a slight initial offset. “Master Skywalker.” He tacked on a nod for Luke, but continued speaking to her, “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
Ciri blushed, certain that it was not such a pleasure.
“Her Highness has graciously permitted me to be her companion tonight,” Luke smoothly stepped in to say, “—so it is thanks merely to the pity she’s taken on me.”
“Ah..” echoed Sir Thrackmaw.
“t—To pity!” toasted his wife, knocking loose from her surprise and raising her glass.
Luke loosed an easy smile. “To pity,” he agreed, matching her. ..Ciri uncertainly followed suit, and watched Lady Thrackmaw drink deep.
“We seem to be slightly late.. How is the fest?” Luke queried.
“—Oh, it is positively stifling,” Yulienne replied, “—The temperature, that is! And an overcast, has concealed much of the afternoon.. I fear for the sunset. ..Last year the weather was much more cooperative,” she groused.
“A-at least, th-there’s the mead..,” Ciri observed, quietly and less confidently than her wish. Luke flashed her an encouraging smile.
Lady Thrackmaw looked at her strangely, almost as though seeing her for the first time. “Yes,” she agreed, “You’re quite right, Highness. There is the mead. And but what a joy that is! —We ought drink to it.” She lifted her glass in yet another toast, Luke chuckled, and they all joined her, if just a little less enthusiastically than she.
It made Ciri smile, and she offered, “—A-and I th-think, the wind has been coming in from the southwest… it may yet clear the sky.”
“You will be our deliverance, my lady!” Yulienne said, “Pray that it is so!”
“You are an astute observer of atmospherics, Highness,” Luke put in with a note of pride.
“S-sometimes it pays… t-to be on top of, out there,” she explained, embarrassed.. referring to the woods and realizing belatedly that might not have been clear.
Whether it had, did not seem to matter to the Lady Yulienne. “—Well, isn’t that just marvelous?” she opined, “One might suit one’s dress to the day’s impending weather!”
A grin tugged at Ciri’s mouth, though Hershel had nearly rolled his eyes, beyond his wife’s view. “..I-indeed.”
Their small talk proceeded some little ways further. Luke’s presence at her side provided a comfortable anchoring point from which to venture comment, and she surprised herself by somewhat enjoying the conversation. Presently the music stilled and a clear, silvery bell tinkled over the murmurings in the hall. “—Ah! The sunset is upon us,” Lady Yulienne pronounced, and they joined the large mass of others making their way to the great opened windows onto the raised patio.
The sun’s round had just begun to touch the treetops and bastions, outlining everything in gold. The sky was angrily orange to the west, paling through lilac to a delicate porcelain blue where the castle sat at their backs. It was an arresting view, and she’d been right about the clouds — Lady Thrackmaw graciously murmured her as much. The servers moved amongst them, refilling glasses.
It was traditional to give toast at sun’s fading, on this the year’s longest day, and to drink of the mead, made from honey of bees fed on all the pollen nurtured in the light of the sun’s long waxing. The honey had been carefully collected all growing season, since the bees’ first harvest after the cold, and saved for this purpose — and that youngest which had not time to ferment, lent its sweetness still. A hush fell as all glasses raised, and she drank deep, liquid entering her like the last golden rays spilling down her throat.
And as the final burning sliver blinked out beyond the horizon, the music began anew — a colorful, jaunty tune, and Lady Thrackmaw came alive and took her husband in to dance, cheerfully bidding them farewell. Many were following suit.
He took her hand, carefully slid his fingers down hers, as the two of them remained to linger in the slow fading of the sky’s glowing bowl. “She really likes you,” he murmured.
“D-does she? B-but surely.. she was only being polite.”
“Thrackmaw, was being polite,” he said dryly. “Yulienne likes you. And mead. —She likes, that you like the mead,” he finished with amusement.
She grinned. “She did like mead didn’t she? Even more than me, I think..”
“She seems a bit of a lush,” he agreed, “Drinking friends are fun..”
She looked at him. “I thought you prefer a clear head..?” she enquired.
He laughed. “I wasn’t always a Jedi, you know… I was young and irresponsible once, too. ..And yes, I had drinking friends.”
“What did you drink?”
“You would hate it. We called it Jawa juice, for the scavengers who brewed it… From grain and leather, I heard tell. It was not so delicious.”
“..Brewed from leather?” she laughed, “I can imagine.”
He grinned, baring his teeth. “We would have drank it, were it brewed from their banthas’ piss,” he confessed, “—we were not fine folk.” Her laugh deepened. It was hard to picture him, like that.
“…I’d like to have known you, then,” she said, a little wistful.
His lips were on her forehead. “I’d have liked that, too.” Raucous laughter, and a fiddle, drifted out to them from the hall.
“..D-do you think, you’d still.. like me?” As the possibility occurred to her, he might not. He’d liked zippy speeds and trash alcohol. Maybe he’d have liked fast women, too, or at least.. women who’d be recognized as pretty, by anybody.
A chuckle sounded in his throat. “Ciri, I would have liked you. Not necessarily for all the best reasons… My pretty, smart female friend. ..That’s what I would have seen. I couldn’t have resisted. —And I would have had no idea at all, what to do about it.”
She couldn’t help a blush. She liked it much better than she should, that he thought so. “Th-that’s.. I’m very flattered.”
His laugh deepened. “Flattered? …You might have to have seen me, first…I might not have been so appealing.. as a scrabbly little desert rat,” he teased.
She shook her head, simply, and smiled. “You’d still be you.”
“..I’m afraid I would have blushed at any woman who looked at me. I had never been off-planet, not even into orbit. I didn’t know how to fly — could hardly have taken you anywhere. You would have known more about everything than me… —And I didn’t, wear black.”
She grinned, casting her eyes down as she chuckled. “Terrible shortcomings,” she agreed, then insisted, “—But I could have seen past. I’m sure I’d love you, as a scrabbly desert rat.”
—Then her cheeks warmed and the candleflame in her heart abruptly wavered, as she realized what she’d said.
…But, when she hesitantly looked up, he was smiling at her… with such sweetness, and dreamy puppy eyes, that the flame steadied.
“…Now it’s you, who flatters me,” he murmured gently. He leaned in, and carefully placed a soft kiss, there on her temple. “I’d scrabble into your heart, any chance, precious,” he breathed.
She felt that heart, skip.
And favored him with a big, delighted smile, for now her candleflame was roaring.
He straightened, returning her a supremely satisfied grin. “…So…,” he said warmly, squeezing her hand, “…How are you enjoying yourself, my lady? How do you find this party..”
“..I-it’s.. Not so bad.. It’s pretty. ..It’s stressful. But, I like you next to me..a-a lot..” she bashfully replied.
It made him smile, gently, sweetness softly unfurling in his face. “Yeah? ..Do I make the stress, more bearable..?”
“Infinitely,” she assured him, tightening her grip on his hand.
“…well I was hoping, I’d do alright,” he murmured, in pleasure… slipping his free hand over their clasped pair, as he gazed at her with his eyes gone all soft. …It flattered her no end, for him to enjoy looking after her so, and she smiled. “Very alright, Luke. ..good boy,” she breathed, daring. He blinked, as his skin swiftly flared red.
…And she watched his face melt, into a mask of purest satisfaction, all crinkled and creased… And her tummy melted, to match.
How infinitely adorable, that reaction…
“..mmh,” he eventually murmured, “Highness… Ciri. …I would do just about anything, to merit being called that, by you, again..” he quietly professed. Then he bit his lip.
“….It’s a terrible tragedy, that you call me that, for the first time, here… And not when I’ve got you alone.”
There was mischief, dwelling in his eyes. Her cheeks and entrails silently smoldered. She’d love, to be alone with him…
“..Th-then..” she tried, “..E-escort me. ‘Cause, I-I don’t really wanna, have to say it here next, too… i-in the bargain..”
“…Are you saying you’d like to get out of here, with me?” he checked lowly.
She nodded.
—Though surprisingly, she didn’t wish to leave, just yet. She’d discovered something, layered under her social anxiety… Something she didn’t fully understand, but somehow she was pleased, for all these fancy nigh-strangers she’d shrunk and shied from for years to observe how his favor draped her.
“—But, you were supposed to convince everyone I’m so amazing tonight, by association, weren’t you?” she asked. He smiled in a way that showed he knew it.
“…Maybe you have to do that, first.” she suggested.
He laughed, bellyless, lightly helpless… pleased. “Highness… Certainly. Please, accompany me.. Allow me to earn the right to take you home, gorgeous.”
She smiled, nodding her agreement. …It felt good, somehow, to tease him like this…
…He was so biddable.
He chastely kissed her cheek. “..Permit me to distract you a space, first, Lady,” he offered, and at her nod, he dipped his chin, and let fall one of his hands, to take her delicately out to the railing, and speak to her…
He told her a story about Thrackmaw, that made her laugh. She traded another back, and they looked back to the hall to find which other minister was closest and she told him what she knew of that one, and soon her heart was light, and easy, and she glided smoothly above any dismay at not being alone with him, she might have harbored.
He offered her his arm. “…Well, my princess? May I interest you, in some more dry conversation with an officious schmoozer, and his lady?”
She laughed, as she took it. “Yes, you may,” she returned, feeling so confoundedly happy… her chest filled with something very warm, and large.
Returning her enamored smile, he guided her in.
~
The light, and noise of the hall swallowed them, and for a moment all was trilling music and twirling fabric, and voices… before her mind made sense of the scene.
Her father was deep in the hall, surrounded by a cluster of nobility and hangers-on. He held a glass, and she distantly heard his guffaw. They’d need to circle round the dancers, to reach him. Luke refilled their glasses, and set them on their way.
Their path saw them stop and give greeting to several groupings of folk where persons of importance stood, or to those who approached them, and he helped her faithfully in every encounter… Guided each conversation, included her in it; stepped in anytime she faltered, and spoke up to bolster her. He tactfully changed the subject if he sensed her growing uncomfortable. Then he smoothly ended their interaction with each group, and moved them on to the next, whilst whispering sweetly in her ear and attending to her glass.
He felt steady and trustworthy beside her, like a ship.
Each circle’s members dealt differently with the relative surprise of her presence. Most tried to hide it, to varying degrees of success. Some were less fazed… who’d noted them about the grounds, over the weeks. A few people were nice, said it was nice to see her. It even felt nice to hear it, although she wasn’t always sure if she should believe it. …And for his part, Luke did not fail to give each group to understand how happy he was she’d agreed to exchange pleasantries with them, just for him — not necessarily using so many words.
She wouldn’t have guessed so beforehand, but it made her proud, for him to be so proud. He was smiling, broadly, and frequently, at everyone — especially at her. He’d be looking over at her, listening to her speak with a big doting grin, and soft doey eyes that vanished the instant his gaze flicked to someone else. She was the living center of his attention, to all who viewed them. It made her feel happy. It made her feel so, very special. It insulated her against every shocked, strange face.
Her father, too, was surprised to see her hung on Luke’s arm as they approached. She could pinpoint the exact moment he caught sight of them, by the change in his demeanor.
The small crowd he’d gathered, parted for them, upon perceiving the object of his gaze.
“Your Majesty,” Luke greeted him with a bow, as they drew near.
“Master Skywalker…,” he remarked, “Daughter. How unusual.”
“Her Highness has done me the honor of allowing me to accompany her this evening,” Luke explained.
Her father laughed. “Isn’t it she who accompanies you? My daughter has not attended a ball since last her governess forced her.”
She blushed, and to her surprise, so did Luke. “..It may be so,” he allowed, “But the honor remains mine, Majesty.”
“…Well said,” the king returned. “—It pleases me to see you, daughter. …You choose your companions well, when you do.”
“T-thank you, father,” she replied, a little uncertain under his compliment.
“How are you finding it?” he asked of her.
“..B-busy,” was all she could think to respond.
Her father quietly snorted, looking over to Luke. “And Skywalker — how you?”
“The ceremony was beautiful, Majesty..”
“—It’s simple,” her father stated.
“I appreciate such things,” Luke returned. “..As for the soiree… I can say it is the best, I have ever attended.”
“You flatter us, Skywalker.. A bit overmuch.”
“Not at all,” Luke protested, “After all is it not so, that the quality of any gathering is defined chiefmost by those gathered… And here I find myself in the best company, I could possibly hope to keep.” The look Luke turned on her, as he finished speaking.. was one of gratitude, most tender. She couldn’t help but blush.
There was a brief pause, and then her father barked a laugh. “Well that it seems she thinks so too, is it not, Master Skywalker?”
“Very well,” Luke agreed, gazing at her still.
“..Get her to dance, and I’ll be in your debt,” the king continued jovially… and her grip on Luke’s arm tightened, as she felt her insides cringe.
…The night she’d danced with him had been amongst the sweetest, of her life — challenged for the title only, by others they’d shared. She could not consider sharing such sweetness, here, before an audience.
But Luke showed her a soft, reassuring smile, and she felt something unseen gently press her hand. …And he raised his gaze to her father, and changed the subject, “I am already far too deep into hers, to dare. —And in any case Majesty, I have been much too diverted this evening to think of aught else. Her Highness has many interesting tales, of your court. I’m afraid I’ve heard one about Sir Thrackmaw, that will not allow me to look at him in quite the same way, again.”
Her father began chuckling. “I believe I know what you refer to. —Daughter, pray you don’t reveal state secrets, further. How will we deal with Master Skywalker here, on even ground?”
Luke grinned, looked to her. “—Highness, please tell his Majesty one on me, so to set the balance straight.”
She looked up at him in surprise.
“Yes, please do,” her father concurred.
“I-I c-couldn’t..!” she protested to Luke, “..W-what would I possibly say?”
“Tell him about the speeder and the bantha poodoo,” Luke suggested. Her eyes briefly widened.
But Luke only grinned down at her with insouciant confidence… So she swallowed her unsurety, and began.
It was among the stories he’d told her of his childhood, on Tatooine. —He’d bragged to his friends for a week about a flashy trick he insisted he could pull off, involving a canyon wall and a landspeeder. His friends had wisely disbelieved him, and so he’d been obliged to sneak off with his uncle’s to prove it them… Except, that he’d fallen out mid-arc, and landed face down in a pile of bantha fodder. He’d had to slink back home covered in it, to face his uncle’s wrath over the dented, hijacked speeder, and his recklessness. His friends had never let him live it down.
Her father was laughing uproariously, by the time she was through. “Very good, Skywalker! That is even, now — and I’ll not soon forget it!”
“Well and good, Majesty — Just don’t tell Thrackmaw,” Luke requested with a smile and wink.
Still laughing, her father waved his hand at them. “We shall see.. I might wish something to hold over your head… Now go enjoy the ball, and we shall see..” —And the king buried his good humor, in his drink.
~
And that was that. They drifted back outside. The night air was cool after the hall, heated with so many bodies. The sky had darkened finally to black as they’d made their perambulation, and the midsummer stars had emerged to twinkle. The music came out to them clearly, through the opened glass. He brought them to a secluded end of the great curved patio… Well beyond the light spilling from the party, and the shadows cast by fronds of the great ferns flanking each window.
They were alone out there entirely, and pleasantly veiled by the darkness. He rested his forearms on the balustrade and sighed, letting his eyes slip closed. “Well that was a little bit wonderful, I’m afraid. …I have never had so much fun at one of these things, as with you at my side. ..Thank you, Ciri!”
She’d spoken to more people, in that short span, than she had in ages — maybe ever. Almost everyone had smiled at her, when she was with him. …It felt strangely conflicted… fake, yet flattering still. She laughed, and rubbed in against him, and he kissed her temple..then rose up and pulled her in, positioning her between himself and the stone, bare inches apart. “I mean it… thank you for doing this for me, Ciri,” he whispered again, “…I know it wasn’t easy. And I’m so very grateful, and.. And proud. To receive the privilege.”
His far hand had filled with her hip; his other took her hand and delicately pressed her palm. He was tantalizingly close.
“..Well you owe me now, privileged boy,” she murmured teasingly.
“..I owe you, more than I can say, for everything,” he sighed expansively, and she chuckled, and shook her head. “No, you owe me for this specific thing.”
He returned her chuckle. “K. Sorry to obfuscate… How shall I repay you, sweetling?”
“…I don’t know. Maybe you’ll just owe me. Indefinitely.”
“Mm.. Well I would love to be in your debt indefinitely, princess, for this specific thing.”
The earnest underbelly to his tone, made her laugh again. “You’re such a glutton, Luke.”
It made him snuff. “You’re not wrong..” he confirmed, “..Well I relish all my ties to you, is all.” She smiled warmly, at that.
A brief pause descended.
“..You don’t actually need, to repay me or anything, you know..” she said quietly into it, “I was just joking. And besides, you’ve done very much for me, already..”
“No..,” he protested, low and gently plaintive, “That’s not fair…I tell you how I like my ties to you, and you cut one? ..no fair..”
She gulped, lingering playfulness draining away fully, and considered him — there was nothing conflicted in her feelings about him. She’d worn him that night, like a shield.
She put her arms around him, and hugged him close, face pressed into his collar… and sought only to mollify him, however that she might. “..D-don’t worry, Luke. There’s plenty. You couldn’t possibly run out. I-I’ll give you a new one, soon.”
Satisfied, he smiled, and tucked his head in against hers. He smoothed his hands along her torso with slow, meandering leisure, until he was squeezing her back. “Well, alright then, Ciri. Thank you, princess. …That’ll do nicely.”
She didn’t let go of him, for a long, long time.
~
In fact, she still had not relinquished him, when an unwelcome voice cut through their comfortable silence, some small time later.
“Are you her sitter, my lord?” Olandria asked.
He sighed with reluctance, as her innards reflexively knotted… But he didn’t, let her go. “Lady Olandria.” He managed to make the honorific sound tired. “How ill-mannered.”
Olandria ignored him, to say, “It must get rather time-consuming, comforting her all the time.. weak-bellied as she is. What patience you must have. Did you hone that as a Jedi?”
For a moment she couldn’t believe, the woman had spoken to him thus, openly. It was the most brazen, she’d ever been — except before her own friends.
…It took him a while, to answer. He’d clenched his jaw and hugged Ciri closer..
Then he was slowly exhaling.. nudging his face into her hair, deliberately relaxing his jaw, rubbing his knuckles softly along her form. Her organs gradually unspooled, along with his touch.
“..You’re mistaken,” he flatly corrected, at last. “Your princess is comforting me.”
…His voice dropped, and he added soft as thought, into Ciri’s ear, “…And I am more comforted by her, than I’ve ever felt in my life.” —And he pressed her ear, with a sweet kiss.
Ciri felt warm, everywhere. By his hands, his torso, his breath.. his words. And Olandria was there like a cold wind out of doors. She’d never felt so insulated. It was fantastical. …She tightened her arms, around him, pressed in beside her cozy fire… and found herself content, to let him handle the woman, how he would.
…His assertion, seemed to have given her pause, anyway, since she wasn’t speaking further.
“….You know your jealousy does not befit you, Olandria,” he resumed momentarily, “..It will only bring you ill.”
“Jealous??” she exclaimed, “—You think I’m jealous?!”
“..it’s obvious,” he agreed… sounding a tad recalcitrant to discussion.
“—Of just what, exactly? Of you, buzzing around her, incessantly?? You think too highly of yourself.”
He smiled, against Ciri’s hair, cuddling her closer and kissing her tresses. “Maybe of that, a little… But I’m sure, that the more you knew me, the less of me you would want.” There was a pause, and Luke stroked palms comfortingly along her back… then gave answer, vaguely amused. “…Of what. Don’t you know?”
“Surely I do not,” Olandria stated precisely, then struck cruelly, “—Were you referring to her poor grooming? Or to her utter isolation?”
Luke swallowed, against her, eyes slipping shut. —Could Olandria tell, how he was clutching her very, very close, fingers taking purchase in her clothes? ..This closeness was everything to her.. was the precise opposite, of isolation.
“..I’m referring to her Highness’s position, as you well understand. I doubt you are truly so unreflective as that.”
“—hmmh,” Olandria tossed noncommittally at the prospect, “..It’s true she’s rather ameritorious. ‘Jealousy’ though… that’s a stretch.”
Her words ended with a bit less enthusiasm, though, than how they’d first begun.
“…Spending your focus on what your princess has that you think you would better deserve, does not benefit you, Olandria. …Haven’t you noticed? Doesn’t it sting?” He spoke in a tone born of Ciri’s presence in his arms… somehow calm and soft, yet ruffled by an impassioned undercurrent.
Uncharacteristically, Olandria was silent. ..Was she actually thinking about it?
“…You could let it go,” he suggested, after a space.
Olandria’s jaw clenched, “—I told you there is nothing to let go of.”
“…all the easier, then,” he insisted, quietly dogged.
There came another silence.
And then Olandria’s harsh “tsk,” uttered at the top of a sharp turn and her departure.
The silence gradually grew back in comfort, afterwards.
“…you sent her away,” Ciri eventually broke it, softly.
He sighed, shoulders heaving. “..I did my best,” he permitted.
“..I’ve never been able to send her away,” she mused in dawning amazement.
“..I— I couldn’t have known, that she would leave, Ciri,” he whispered into their embrace.
“She doesn’t, leave,” Ciri informed him, “I leave.. Thank you.”
“…I’m sorry, for what she said,” he mouthed, with a frown she couldn’t see.
“…it’s… It’s alright, Luke. I-it’s… sad, a little, for you to hear. B-but, you make me feel like… Y-you, make me feel, um." —She thought, blinking, about how to express what she’d felt.
He’d made her feel exquisitely safe, and protected. He also made her feel…the urgency, of her need to keep him. It made her nervous, because she couldn’t control it. Long had she avoided, setting anything into anyone’s hands. Feeling the care he took with her now, was… Wonderful, yet frightening, all at once.
She couldn’t help trusting him.
“You make me feel, like… I-I’m OK, if.. if, I’m with you,” she said smally.
He pulled back, a wave of feeling spilled across his pretty face…
“…Ciri… that… You—”
—His words cut off with a frustrated little sound dying in his chest as he stirred, frowning, and kissed her with pressing indelicacy, as his fingers wound into her hair.
“—You, mean quite a lot, to me, Highness,” he husked, when he finally let her breathe, “you mean very, very much.”
Then he seemed to realize what he’d just done, and abruptly released his grip. “—S-sorry,” he stuttered, “Ciri, I—”
She gulped…feeling as possessive of him, as she ever had. She grabbed his collar in her fist and pulled him down, and very nearly tried to crush him with her arm around the small of his back, as she returned the kiss. A surprised little sound startled in his throat, but he did not resist…
“Luke..,” she began, when she was done.
“..yes?” he answered, voice thick, the word dragging through it.
His closeness was heady enough, for her to dare risk it.
“…Will you stay with me, tonight, Luke? I-I…. I long, to remain in your company.”
It was truer than she knew how to express. She waited, as insects eclosed en masse in her stomach, for his reply.
It took but a moment.. And then he was nodding, somberly. …He was looking at her intently with those big, soft blue eyes, that wetly reflected the distant starlight…
And very, very carefully he began leaning in… until he was kissing her, just once, and slow, and gentle, his satiny lips purposefully caressing hers, as his palm cupped her skull and thumb rubbed over her ear.
“..I would, so love to,” he breathed, brow pressed to hers.
A warm anticipation spilled over in her chest, leaving her drenched.
“Th-the- —the whole night, right?” she stuttered quietly, needing it to be fully explicit.
He softly huffed, and blushed, and gave a gentle smile. “y-yes, Ciri,” he nodded, “..the whole night.”
“..T-then… T-then, take me out of here? ..I think this party’s done, or I with it.”
“yes, Ciri,” he mouthed, obediently.
And bit his lip, as he gradually, almost reluctantly loosened his embrace…let his hands slip down her body…
Relinquishing her, he stepped back, to compose himself. Watching her all the while. “..All the sudden, my heart’s beating so fast,” he remarked, barely audibly.
It knocked loose a short, shy laugh from her chest, and she nodded. “—M-mine too,” she concurred.
The corner of his mouth twitched up. “I know,” he confirmed on a breath. It made her blush. Of course he did.
He cleared his throat, as he straightened his back and held out his arm. “..Highness, please allow me to escort you home,” he offered politely, and she nodded gratefully and took it.
~
He led her back through the party, wending through the crowd and around the carousing dancers in the hall’s middle, to the entryway…
And abruptly they were alone, besides a couple of guards; and the sounds of music and chatter that had loomed so clear and present were muted, behind masonry, and distance.
He looked over to her with a sweet, slightly shy little lopsided smile. “At ease, soldier,” he murmured softly — absolutely, adorably cute. As she chuckled, he let his arm gently drop…his fingers slid down her forearm, into her palm. She squeezed him back, firmly, fingers interlocking his.
She grinned at him… And he blushed, gratifyingly.
…And as they walked, she thought about what she’d asked him for, that had made him so bashful.
Somehow, despite how affectionate and flirtatious he’d been with her all evening… She couldn’t believe he’d said yes.
…She wouldn’t have to tell him goodbye. It was the hard little ending, to every day… completely commonplace, and never just that easy. But one simple question and tonight, all the sudden… it wouldn’t come.
Her mind kept terminating there, in warm heat.
“…What are you thinking of?” he asked softly. His pretty cheeks were still pink.
Her own abruptly bloomed, with hot blood.
“I… I’m thinking how unfortunate, th-that I sleep so far,” she offered… Not wishing to lay her thoughts entirely bare, just then, there in the hall.
He huffed a laugh, and gave her a gratified smile. “Bad planning,” he lamented, “…Who’s responsible for this? You ought to fire your architect.”
She smiled at the joke… then something occurred to her, that threatened to fill her with chagrin. “..You don’t know the half of it,” she warned, her steps slowing.
“Oh no,” he observed, with mild trepidation.
“Yes…,” she stopped walking, “Luke, we’re going the wrong way…. We have to get the Sonenmead, first.”
“Oh no…,” he repeated, more seriously, “…It can’t wait?”
“..T-they’ll finish it tonight… It’s bad luck, they’d say, o-otherwise.”
“..It’s bad luck I’m not holding you, yet,” he gently groused. “—Well, to the kitchens… We’ll hit them fast. —Ciri, your house is too big.”
She laughed, as they reversed their path down the hall.
They found the plain stair down to their destination, as he asked with warm humor, “—So, they’re supposed to finish all of it tonight… Am I getting you into trouble? …Having you smuggle out the special decoction…subverting the ritual… —Will the harvest fail, because of us?”
Chuckling at his irreverence, she shook her head, “No… J-just keep your mouth shut about it and we’ll be fine…”
With a laugh, he agreed, “Understood, princess. One shut mouth, coming right up.”
“I-I didn’t mean it like that,” she protested.
He grinned. “I know, Ciri. Don’t worry, I’m very talkative… yet aptly discreet.”
He was, and when they got to the kitchens, she grabbed a couple of large wineskins off the rack and crossed to the great mead barrels, trading a couple of greetings on the way. She filled their skins to the mouth from the barrel currently tapped… There were two more besides, yet untouched. The party they’d left was still young, measured so. It was a prodigious volume to consume of an evening, but she knew the kitchen staff and any interested maids and groundskeeps and even guards were handily helping out on the backend, and by morning the job would be well and done.
They climbed the long stair to her rooms swiftly, taking the steps two at a time, until she inevitably tired — for though well used to her daily ascent, she had never attempted it so quickly, before. …When she stopped to draw breath and recover, he put an arm about her shoulders, hooked the other behind her thighs, and easily scooped her up into the air.
She struggled to regulate her disordered breathing, as she found herself suspended in his arms, held close against his chest.
“..Is that better?” he asked, a glint in his eye.
“..Y-yeah,” she breathily confirmed, cradling the wineskins even as he cradled her.
With a grin, he leaned in to friendlily nuzzle their noses…. and as she giggled he resumed the climb, huffing deeply but still maintaining his prior pace.
..Her chuckling eased, replaced with wonder. She had failed to keep up carrying herself, at this pace. Now carrying her wasn’t even slowing him down. …She was embarrassed, to have so much less stamina than him.
“…L-Luke, are you using the Force..?” she asked hushedly, “...Or.. is this how strong you are?”
He barked out a laugh. “I’m using the Force a bit,” he allowed between breaths, “…You live very high.”
She smiled. …She was a little guilty, to be mollified by the labor of his response.
When at last they reached the level of her rooms, he drew a deep breath and leaned against the wall to recover — though he declined, to let her down. —She watched him, until he peaked out at her from under one eyelid, and made her laugh.
…Her door opened accommodatingly before them, as they approached.
Her sitting room was darkened.. lit only by the warm glow of her corner lamp. She heard the door quietly click closed behind them.
“Mission accomplished,” he commented.
She flushed, and nodded. “Very good, Skywalker. You’re the treasure of the team.”
He chuckled, lightly embarrassed. “This team is nothing without you. ..Where shall we drop this?”
She pointed to her coat rack by the lamp, and in a step he stood before it, so she could hang the skins.
And then he carefully set her down, at last… He ran his hands down her sides and smoothed out her leathers, then let them trail back up to hover, just above her jaw. His breath remained lightly agitated. The warm, pink-tinged light of her lamp draped his cheeks…
His soft fingertips delicately touched her skin.. then his warm palm…
His thumb gently wandered into her soft bottom lip and she heard his breath catch, watched his mouth go slack and blue eyes dilate to black under his lowered lids. The change wrung out her insides.
Without a word, he let his fingers wend into her hair, and gave her a single, deep kiss.
She returned it, letting her tongue shyly into his mouth to brush along the top of his. She heard the air forcefully exhale out of his nostrils, felt it gust against her face — and then her bottom lip was being tugged into his mouth.
It moistly slipped free. “…You have no idea how much I wanted to do this tonight, princess..,” he husked… and she realized, that she was blushing.
Before she could reply, his hot, velvety mouth dipped to hers again, tongue licking over her lips and gently in between…
She ran the border of her hand up under the angle of his jaw to hold him, and messily kissed him back… to which he responded, with easy enthusiasm. He surprised her by indulgently lathing his tongue up the side of her face, causing a small startled cry to rise in her throat, then chuckled with merriment as he reclaimed her mouth. He held her firmly and kissed her with methodical hunger, sucking air in through his nose as he pressed himself to her.
…And at last he released her, to loudly draw down breath.
Their exhalations mingled, in the little space between their mouths… His spit was smeared messily across her mouth, and hers on his. Shivering, she looked up at him…
Perhaps it was the mead, but she’d never seen him, quite like this. His face sheened in the pinkish glow of her lamp. His pretty blue eyes were all blown out and overcast. A hedonistic languor had come over his expression, softening his fine features like a veil… He was beautiful, past reality.
A moment passed in pregnant silence, as he considered her in return, with those darkened pupils. And then he almost ruefully muttered, “…I don’t know how… I found it at all manageable, not to kiss you, all the time, before…”
The comment caused a surprised giggle to stop up in her throat.
..And a small smile curled the corners of his lips, setting his beauty, and her heart, alight. He lifted his hand, and scrolled his thumb along her cheek, dreamily, patiently searching her face.
There was an undercurrent in her, of the most intense safety and satisfaction… yet she couldn’t shake the upswellings of nervousness.. which then frilled off as excitement, or sometimes vice versa, to end against the horizon of his body heat. He was practically hers, this night..! At last. It was nearly a torment.
..She composed herself sufficient to inform him helpfully, “L-Luke, you… Y-you know you can manage anything you set out to.”
That made him grin and look to the side, huffing a bashful laugh, his blush deepening.. and was so very worth it. “—Well, I managed to attract you,” he acknowledged, slyly looking back.
—And that marked it her turn to blush. She broke his gaze and cast her eyes down to her toes. “..well s-surely, ‘s.. not really much accomplishment..” she mumbled.
He nudged his brow into hers, “..I think it is.”
“—y-you didn’t even h-have to, try..” she protested smally, hands involuntarily knotting in his fancy clothes… then admitted to his chest, “I-I’ve been, a… L-Luke, I’ve been a-attracted, from the first time you…. s-smiled at.. m-me..”
He gently lifted her chin with his finger.. His cheeks were dissolved into one of those pretty smiles, again. …And then he dipped his neck, and kissed her, soundly.
“..is that what it was..?” he murmured, against her mouth, “I wasn’t sure…”
His voice dropped lower, “…in any case, cute little princess.. I actually did have to try. …I’ve been pursuing you, near so long… you’re shyer than I could dream. ..It was not easy, to have you feel easy enough, to kiss me, at last. …I am not about, to relinquish, this accomplishment…” —And he sealed his words, with a searching kiss, frank and full of his tongue.
A scintillating buoyancy threatened to flip her heart. The way he spoke of her timidity, made it almost seem… desired.
—Embarrassing, how well she liked that prospect.
“..I-I.. well I d-don’t know where I got the.. the c-courage.. t-to do that..” she breathed when she could. Her belly was smoldering.
Doubtless, it had been one of the most personally anomalous moments of her life.
He grinned, rakish. “—Well, you’re brave. I keep telling you… But also, I made you feel very, very comfortable,” a note of soft pride entered his voice, “..hence the accomplishment.”
She play-cautiously smiled up at him, and gratefully agreed, “Y-you always do.”
His smile widened. “Wonderful. —See?”
She laughed, in spite of herself, “a-alright…S-so it is, then. Um. An accomplishment.”
And for a moment, he appeared incredibly self-satisfied.
A pause descended.
She couldn’t believe this sweet man was here.
“..Thanks, for.. a-accepting my invitation, tonight, Luke,” she said into the lull, wonderingly.
“thanks for extending it, beautiful,” he answered her, soft and immediate. …Then he glanced down between them, cocked his head and gave her a lopsided little grin. “..well, and you can always kick me out, you know. No hard feelings. ..Just to say.”
Breath harshly left her chest, “—as if.”
He blushed. She watched the color rise.
She gathered her courage. “..I um, ..I-I miss you… at night, Luke,” she confessed bashfully. “…A… A lot. So.. I-It’s very nice, to have you.. h-here.”
His blush deepened; his eyes softened kindly. “..I miss you at night, too, Ciri,” he mouthed, near silence, “..It means a lot to me, to be asked to stay.”
She nodded, swallowing, and didn’t fully trust her voice.
Presently, he grinned, and pulled her into him, tight about the middle, “…well, and so what d’you wanna do with me… Now that you’ve got me here, pretty girl?”
She nearly blanched. “..I-I’m not sure I know..” she laughed faintly — abruptly confronted with the monument of her inexperience.
…But he twirled a lock of her hair, beside her cheek. “..you don’t know at all..?” he gently teased, and cocked his head, “…Well, where would you like me to sleep? —I could lay guard at the foot of your bed…”
She startled, “—w-what?”
—And knocked out of her unsurety. “—W-with me, obviously!” she answered swiftly amidst a tiny frown, hands tightening in his tunic.
His grin broadened, and he chuckled happily. “—I was hoping, you’d say so. …Well, so you do know, something, at least..”
Breathy laughter skittered out from between her lips, “yeah, I know something.”
He brought her in closer, with his arms. “what else? ….what do you normally do in here, sweet girl? …What would you be doing, right now, if I wasn’t here..”
“..I-I’d be, thinking about you,” she hushedly admitted.
“aww… Ciri..” he breathed, in tone almost of protest.
“…well, I would… I’d be stood right here by the door.. th-thinking of you..” She was lifting, slightly, in his arms… He pulled her up into a softly silencing kiss, and her thoughts cut short. “…that’s very flattering, Ciri..you’re the sweetest little thing..” He gave her another, fingers in her hair.
She reached up to gain a handhold in his, and aggressively tried to eat him in exchange. He laughed merrily as her teeth scraped his chin.
“you make me so happy… What else do you do, when I’m not here, precious?”
“nothing..” she said. He kissed her swiftly once more, “..be serious.”
“..n-nothing interesting,” she corrected, “I brush my teeth and ch-change and, get into bed.. …well, I used to read, but…”
He nipped the tip of her nose, so that she giggled. “—but what?”
“..I don’t have time, or mind for it, anymore… I’m always coming back here so late, and tired, a-and then I’m…” Her mind cast back to those first few moments after closing her door… during which her subconscious seemed to gradually come aware, of his absence. “…w-well, like I said… I just miss you.”
He acknowledged it with a nod, a tiny frown troubling his brow. “..I’m sorry for your reading time, Ciri,” he offered.
She huffed. “You’re… —Don’t be. I’ve read, lots, a-already.”
“…k.”
His brow eased.
..And he sedately leaned in to place his lips beside her ear, and whispered deliberately, “I wish I could say I’m sorry for you to miss me, sweet princess, I really do… but I’m not….”
Somehow, those words sent a wave rolling through her innards, gelling them… leaving them there to thicken.
“th-th-that’s ok..Luke..” she faintly remitted.
He gave her a slow, toothy grin, and took a lengthy kiss. “...thanks for your understanding.” He murmured after. He gently reached up, and tucked the hair he’d twirled behind her ear. “…anyway, I’m here, now, precious… so we can both count, the missing-each-other part, as done, yeah?”
“L-Lucky us,” she managed through a warm haze, feeling it deeply.
“Yes.. Very lucky, for us,” he agreed, nudging her brow, and whispered, “…um. And well, I don’t know just when you wanna do all that… With me. Bedtime stuff. …But maybe, it makes sense, to plan?”
She nodded, guts softly quivering with a sudden onrush of heady anticipation… to have a bedtime coming up, with him. “..y-yeah, l-let’s plan,” she tried to keep her voice steady.
He gently smiled acknowledgment, waited a moment.. then said pregnantly, “..how do you feel about the inside of my mouth?”
She flushed darkly, and involuntarily squirmed. “I-I… I h-hope you know I love it, Luke,” she answered in a bare squeak.
Now he blushed, and gave half a pleased laugh. “no, I meant… in connection with your toothbrush, princess. Sorry…to be unclear.”
Her eyes widened, slightly. “—Oh! ….um.. oh. ..w-well, I feel fine about it, Luke. Y-you can use my toothbrush… i-if, you feel fine about it, too..”
He nodded in confirmation, and said earnestly, “I trust your mouth completely.”
It made her laugh, and relax, and he smiled, feeling it.
Then he thought, for a while, lightly biting his lip.
“…well, what do you wear?” he asked finally, bellyless… almost silent.
She blushed. “y-you saw..”
He made a little noise of acknowledgement, in his throat. It seemed he knew exactly what she was talking about… That alone, was enough to send a little flare of heat, rushing over her form. “…cute,” he breathed, and a little puff of air started out of her throat.
A moment passed, as his lambent eyes considered her.
The tip of his tongue lightly touched his lip. “….and, what… What, would you like me, to wear?”
“—u-um!” she squeaked.
His eyes flicked down, then back to hers, and he blushed, floridly… But past that he only waited for her, with seeming patience.
She’d thought about this, betimes, already. What he might wear.. to bed. —Not seriously, of course. And surely she would never dare tell him to wear anything, other than whatever he normally did… But then she realized, that whatever that was, he didn’t have it. Not with him, here, in her private rooms.
“I, um… I… H-Have some shorts, that.. might f-fit you..” she offered him shyly. They were baggy, on her… She had to use the drawstring, to wear them.
“..thank you, Highness,” he whispered, demurely, meeting her gaze with a little smile, “that’ll do nicely.” Her heart flipped, in her chest.
Because that meant, didn’t it, that she would see…
She dropped her eyes down, in anticipatory embarrassment.
..They found his fancy gold-hemmed tunic, and the seam where it opened, down the front. …And she remembered the body, underneath it. She couldn’t help it. He was so beautiful… And all the sudden, tonight, possibly… probably.. Most Certainly, she would see, touch… More, of him, than before.
It was completely overwhelming to her comprehension.
Impulsively, she reached out. Her fingers met fabric, instead of skin…but she could feel the gentle give of the muscle underneath, when pressed. ..Dimly she remembered she ought to say something, probably. “sh-shall I… go get them? ..you could see..,” she offered, near soundless. His eyes had cast down.. watching her.
Her fingertip lightly caught on one of the delicate clasps, holding closed the tunic, at its seam. …She looked at the little clasp, and briefly pictured undressing him. His chest slowly uncovered, and brought to light, before her eyes. ..There was more than one way, to see him as a gift. Her cheeks warmed at this reflection.
He let time pull into an exaggerated pause, before answering.
Then he licked his lips.
“only… if you aren’t busy, gorgeous..” he carefully intoned.
She thought about that. “..b-busy..” Of course, she wasn’t busy. With what, would she be busy?
—She blushed.
…Surely, he didn’t mean..?
His voice held a gentle waver, underneath. “..you seem, like you might be.. a little bit, busy,” he helpfully suggested, “…I-I.. I would fain, interfere..”
She looked into his face, gauging his expression. ..He had on a look, of almost vulnerable wanting…his blue eyes rose to meet hers, then deliberately fixed down, on her finger upon the clasp, and stayed. ..She blushed all over again, seeing it.
…And pulled out the little clasp, from its placement. He swallowed.
And she slipped her knuckle into the slit…almost experimentally, lightly brushed the back of it against his soft sternum. His eyes fell shut.. A tiny sound, rode his exhalation… She let her fingers fall, to another clasp. It shared the first one’s fate…
Soon she’d opened enough, to easily fit in her hand. ..The svelte flesh of his belly, trembling beneath her touch… She gently stroked her fingertips across it, till they found the little divet of his belly button… stayed, to tease the rim. He accidentally gave her a plaintive little whine, teeth bitten down upon his bottom lip.
“R-right.. for the soft spot,” he breathed, after. His face was aflame, with blood… His reaction, nearly had her choke. —Was this real?
“s-sorry.. n-not to wait..” she sheepishly apologized, feeling hopelessly decadent.
“well please don’t say that,” he whispered breathlessly, “please.. just. please put your hands on me..”
She would do anything, to ease the tone she’d heard.
Swiftly, she undid the rest of the clasps.. let his tunic fall open.. Almost reverently, her fingertips returned to grace his skin. She briefly closed her eyes. …This warmth, smooth friction… it was just what she’d wanted, after all…
She let her fingertips gently track up over his ribs, to his chest. Lightly exploratory. Her palm, made the journey back. She remembered the way, still… from before. There was the ridge, underneath his ribs. It curved, as it traveled down his sides. He breathed haltingly beneath her touch, eyes fallen shut as his hands clenched upon her hips. Hers to observe.
“..w-what do you n-normally wear, Luke?” she asked him softly, as she stroked down his belly.
“..m-my… my underwear,” he bashfully revealed. Her innards swelled with heat.
…For, if that was so, then.. maybe…
Her palms paused, flat against his ribs, and she hesitated.
…It made his eyes slit open to study her, dazedly careful.
“..um, s-so then… so then, would it be ok if…” …But embarrassingly, she lost her voice.
He swallowed, hard. “..I don’t know what you could be about to say that I wouldn’t eagerly consent to, Ciri,” he murmured helpfully — and she flushed, imagining that.
“w-well, what if.. I d-didn’t g-give you a.. a s-s-hirt, L-Luke?” she hushedly, and very bravely asked him, with bright red cheeks.
His own cheeks flowered, as he nodded his assent. Tongued his lip.
“please, Highness..” he whispered, “..I wish to be your doll. ..dress me, just exactly as you desire.”
That did make her choke, to her utter chagrin.
..How on earth did he say such things?
She gave up the ghost of a bashful laugh, trying hard to right herself. “o-oh! ..I n-never.. p-played with.. my dolls,” she whispered lamely, looking down, “my governess always said… i-it was, such a waste..”
Somehow, that silly comment earned her his smile. He snuffed, and raised his hand, to softly stroke knuckles along her cheek. “well I hope you find me more to your liking, my liege..”
And he dipped his neck, let his thumb carefully caress over her lips, and slipped his mouth onto hers…
Why did she get the feeling, he was trying to comfort her, with his kiss? ..Why, was it working, so well?
“t-t-thank you, Luke,” she husked softly when he let her go, “..I-I.. I v-very much more than like you, I h-hope you know..”
It made him grin, sunnily abrupt, with pleasure. “You are in my heart, precious,” he breathed, and gave her another sweetly deliberate kiss.
..He released her, to softly clear his throat. “And, um… well, it won’t much matter, if you give me another shirt, if… if, you don’t finish taking off the old one… will it?” he quietly suggested.
She could only blush, as a tiny surprised meep issued out between her lips.
She slid her hands up his warm chest, underneath the panels of his tunic… over his collar bones and onto his strong, solid shoulders, pushing the fabric up before her.
She pushed it back off of them, and it fell to hang from his arms.
He kept an arm securely about her, as he let go with the other, and offered it her. Understanding, blushing.. she tugged on the sleeve, helping him out of it. …Then he switched arms, held the freed one out straight and let his tunic drop off it onto the floor.
“..there…thank you, Highness… is this better?” he sighed, wrapping both arms tightly around her, to hold her in close.
Not trusting her voice, she nodded against his shoulder. “uh…h-huh..”
He smiled, gingerly… nudged against her, “..I think so… you know Ciri, your hands feel incredible..”
..She’d let them slowly begin to wander him, again. Her right was just then easing laterally across his ribs, just under his pec.
“s-s-so do.. y-yours,” she breathed back, momentarily.
“…and I’ve thought about this,” he continued softly, “…Ever since the day you first did it.”
She gulped.
“y-you have?”
His brow knitted earnestly, as he nodded his head, yes.
“..I-I haven’t been brave enough, to do it again,” she breathed.
“..you’re doing it, now.”
“...y-you used to think of excuses, to h-hold me,” she said, remembering.
“I couldn’t think of an excuse for why I need you to take off my shirt.”
Her laughter barked. “o-o-oh…f-fair.”
…His grin, slowly faded.
“…what about you? ..what are you wearing under this, Ciri? …can I undo this..?” He gave a little tug, on one of the straps holding together the sides of her leather jerkin. She gasped, quietly, in spite of herself…and swiftly nodded.
…His fingers softly undid the buckle, releasing the strap. The fit of her jerkin loosened.
His fingers trailed up to find the next strap.
“I h-have… A-a shirt, —u-underneath,” she managed to answer him at last, her throat gone dry.
He blinked, nodding. “…I didn’t know…how much was ok to take off…that night. so I just did your boots. ..May I?”
She nodded, immediately. He undid the next strap’s buckle. Her garment loosened further. “Y-you c-could have t-taken off… th-this part…th-they’re not comfortable to wear…w-without something under..”
“…sorry you had to sleep in it.”
She laughed abruptly, in embarrassment. “…i-it’s o-ok..” She couldn’t even remember which one she’d worn.
“…can I do the other side, too?” His fingers were already testing the lowest buckle.
“o-of course..”
So he undid the remaining straps. Her jerkin now sat in front-and-back halves, hung loose upon her frame. …Softly, his hands parted the halves, to find the cloth of her tunic, underneath… He squeezed her sides, and she heard his roughened exhale… Then he pulled her up into a kiss…holding her tightly against him, with his arms wrapped about her back under the back half of the jerkin. She held his neck and shoulders, ran fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck, and kissed him back.
…When he released her, let her sink back down… it was to gently tug at the front of the stiff jerkin. “how does this work?” he asked, blushing bright red, “I think I might have messed up..”
She laughed, feeling like she just might be in a dream. “y-you’re supposed to open it from the front, Luke… t-the sides are just to adjust the fit..”
He chuckled. “…Ciri, you might have told me..” he lightly complained. His fingers went to the jerkin’s front center, and searched out its laces. ..They were concealed behind a clever leather panel run down the length.
“I-I was… um, I guess I was a little too d-distracted, t-to.. stop you.. S-sorry.”
He sighed as he found where they were tied at her collar, and undid the bow. “..apology accepted, sweetheart,” he murmured, and kissed her lips, his fingers wrapped in the laces.
…Then he began methodically pulling them out from their holes. His other arm still wrapped around her back, supporting her faithfully.
He remarked with humor, “..there’s such a lot.. you do this everyday?”
“w-when I wear the ones that have it,” she acknowledged, “y-you get used to it..”
“and I thought Jedi robes were bad…” He was careful, touching only lightly, selecting and then tugging out each lace…she hardly felt a thing, as he undid the jerkin over her breasts, and then her belly…. And at last it hung off of her, fully individuated into its panels.
He sighed welcomely, as he let his hands onto her, indulgently squeezing hips and sides and back, over her shirt…and kissed her openly… He casually nudged the jerkin off of her shoulders, and it dropped to the ground behind her feet. She held herself against him, hands searching out purchase on his bare back… his torso was blazing warm… But not so warm, as his mouth. “this is better,” he sighed between suckling kisses, “this is soo much better..” It made her tummy flutter, to hear. She nodded her agreement, as well as she could. The fabric of the shirt shifted across her skin, driven before his hands. She grabbed a handful of his hair, and gently bit his plump bottom lip, and he gasped and returned the favor, squeezing her up to him.
He kissed her to nonsense, while her insides flowered for him.
~
It felt a long while, before he released her… to pant gently, in the dim light…
Her lips lightly stung. He was accommodating her, carefully.. gentling his touch, smoothing her body slowly and sweetly up against his, then nudging his face into her tangled hair and inhaling her scent like he needed it. His arms wrapped her as though she was potentially fragile, and assuredly precious. She could feel his chest, lightly heaving with his breath. She sighed, in amazed contentment, and relaxed into him, fixing her arms about his bare back and lightly snuggling into his skin.
That skin, had a scent. She turned her nose into him, and breathed it in deep…then couldn’t keep herself from licking him, a little.. trying to taste, that smell. She was full, inside. Security thrummed through her, and something else… Something high energy that periodically squeezed her heart, according to an unstable waveform. …He was cuddling her, his muscles gently tensing around her in time with the very same rhythm. ..How was that happening? Was he feeling that, too… She sucked him into her mouth, felt his rumbling sigh..and dimly remembered to let him go, sooner than she wished, lest she bruise his perfect skin, once again.
“..Ciri, you’re soft,” he whispered. She shivered and flushed, everywhere, under his hands.
“y-you’re.. You’re warm,” she shyly returned. He licked the side of her neck, up to her earlobe, and suckled on it, wetly. “..tha’s good,” he mumbled thickly, “…I’ve thought about this, too… how soft you are, underneath those leathers…”
She felt her stomach grow buoyant, as her breath abruptly decompensated, skidding out.
“Luke..” she said plaintively.
“little princess..” he agreed.
“um,” her voice sounded tiny in her ears, but she gathered her courage. She really didn’t wish, anything else.
“..I-I’d be softer, in… I-I’d be s-softer, in bed, y-you know,” she suggested shyly.
She heard the air between his teeth.
He raised his hand, to gently lift her face. He wore a cute little grin, that made her heart speed, and curled his fingers against her jaw, and let his brow nudge hers. “..do I take it, you’ve figured out what you’d like to do, with me, my lady?”
She nodded acknowledgment. “y-y- —Y-Yes..I have.” …It was embarrassing, not to wait. To want it, this badly. But she couldn’t help it.
His voice was softly pregnant, “then.. May I take you, off to bed, Ciri?”
She blushed, and nodded, “p-please,” she invited him… her voice sounding embarrassingly eager, to her ears.
His breath huffed out. “—‘nough said, pretty girl. let’s go find me those shorts.” And just like that, her hips were lifting. “..legs up around me, darling.. I’ll carry you,” he whispered.. and, tummy fluttering, she obeyed, wrapping her legs about his waist. He was eager… it eased her abashment. His hands held her securely up against him… His pretty mouth had ended up hair’s-breadth close, so she kissed him, clung to his smooth shoulders, and had him sigh. The kiss had not yet ended, when she felt him surge, forward…
His stride’s steady lilt was as the movement of the world, or a ship on the sea… taking her back, to her bed. She felt their passage through her bedroom doorway as a brief stricture of space.. and soon he stopped. Shifted, turned… and they sank…
Her legs tucked up, shins brushing something soft. He’d taken a seat, on the edge of her bed.
She kissed him, insistently… urged herself down closer onto him… licked him, closed her fist in his hair and pulled it. His breath broke, in a tiny whimper — and she lightly bit his plush lip. He gasped in air, when she let him go.
A moment passed, as she let him catch his breath and returned to her own senses…awareness, of her perch upon his lap. “—w-where’s.. my shorts, little princess?” he gruffed hazedly, similarly affected.
She answered him softly, still a little dazed, “…I’ll go get them.”
But his fingers seized, in her shirt. “—don’t go..”
She giggled, involuntarily, “Then what do you want?”
“you,” he mumbled emphatically, “don’t go.. just.. wait… just wait.” His eyes slipped shut, and he nudged his face into the spot where her neck met her chest..nose nestled against her jugular notch. …She slowly ran her fingers through his silken hair, and otherwise was still.
His breathing gradually stilled.
..And after a moment he sighed comfortably, murmured against her skin, “I think that mead might be affecting me. ok…I’m ready, now. Where are they, Ciri? Let me do it.”
“th-they’re in, my wardrobe… Bottom-right drawer,” she responded unquestioningly.
“k..”
She blinked in mild surprise, as she heard little sounds of movement, followed by a soft scraping, and looked ‘round to see…
That one of her drawers had removed itself from its rungs and lifted into the air, and was approaching them.
She started giggling.
His lips graced the base of her neck. “..call me silly, baby…But help me work through this.”
She turned back to him, softly chuckling, “—silly.. Luke, you’re cute..!”
The drawer came to rest helpfully beside them, on the bed. He gently nipped her skin, “Ciri, shorts,” he urged.
He could not be more endearing. She felt so warmly wanted, set there on top of him…she let her fingertips fondly scrape along his scalp, and smiled, in luxuriance. “of course!” she chirruped.
She rooted through the drawer one-handed, sidelong… refusing, to remove her other from his hair. Near the bottom, she uncovered the garment she sought. “Here they are!” she held them up, triumphantly.
..The shorts were dark gray worked over in plaid, and supremely soft. “Perfect,” he replied, twisting his neck to see, “thank you, sweetheart..”
“..a-are they… to your liking?” she asked, suddenly bashful.
“Perfectly,” he warmly agreed, nuzzling her with his nose, “..Though it’s more important, they are to yours..”
..But her mind short-circuited, each time she tried to picture him wearing them.
“y-you are my liking, Luke..” she shyly replied.
“cop out,” he mildly accused, retrieving his face from her neck, to regard her, “want me in them?”
She gulped, and felt her innards surge. “…y-yes, I do,” she acknowledged quietly, deeply flushed, “…r-r— rather m-much..”
He smiled, gently, and reached up… ran his hand up her arm, and over her palm.. till he was lifting the shorts, from her fingertips. “..then you will get, what you desire..” Calmly, he licked over her lips, and kissed her.
“..now hold on… this is a bit delicate, and you’ve made me a mess..”
She waited, as the drawer retreated across the room, admiring the planes of his face. His eyes were fallen closed, again. His mouth, was all too kissable. Obediently, she kissed him not even a little.
Meanwhile he carefully lined the drawer up with its runners, and slotted it back in its place.
For some reason, it made her smile. “that can get tough, even from up close,” she observed.
“—not the master for nothing, ey?” he approved himself, eyes slitting open with a playfully lopsided grin.
She greeted those pretty blue eyes, with a kiss. “not for nothing, at all,” she agreed wholeheartedly.
His grin peaked, then slowly faded. “..where’s your sleepclothes, Ciri?” he whispered, earnestly, “..You’re changing too, right?”
“I-I expect so.. Th-they’re on the chair, beside the wardrobe.”
“mm.. …Are they this?”
It was. She reached out, plucked them from the air. “Yes, thank you….
“Um, s-so are you ready? ..for letting me g, go?” she teased. —Although the truth was, she was immensely gratified by his clinginess.
“Well, I won’t ever get you any closer, if I don’t… so. Yes, I think so.”
She smiled. ..Then whispered, “…so, who goes first?”
“Lady’s preference.”
She blushed, and prevaricated, “..B-but, I asked you.”
He glanced back to the entrance to her room, appearing to consider.. tongue caught cutely between his lips.
“…then, how ‘bout.. Both of us?” He looked back to her. “..You take the bathroom, I’ll change in your sitting room. You’ll be extra soft and snuggled up with me in half the time.”
She smiled, and nodded. “Very efficient. Good work. Both of us, it is.”
“..are you ready, Ciri?” he asked, soft as breath.
“I think so..”
He smiled back, “Then here we go..”
He stood, and set her carefully on her feet. She disentangled herself, braced herself on his arms, as she stepped back, a couple paces..
…And shivered. Everything was cold, from out here. Her insides ached. It was ridiculous to feel this way, so near him. She held her arms in disbelief.
…Meanwhile he grinned, indulgent yet bashful, and murmured, “..Forgive me, but I sort of like the way you don’t like that…”
She flushed. “..I- I’m pleased to amuse.”
He shook his head. “Amusement isn’t it, precious. Not at all. ..You gratify.” …He took a deliberate step forward, and carefully leaned in to her ear. “…well I can fix it, baby. ..Soon as you’re dressed.”
He was close enough to tickle the little hairs beside her ear, with his breath… And his promise hooked her, like the gills of a fish. Something inside her was undergoing palpitations.
She nodded, swallowing, and pulled herself together.
“V-very good, Skywalker,” she announced, nodding. “—Um.” …And, summoning up the image of an authority that felt alien, she raised her arm and pointed imperiously to her bedroom door, through which her sitting room lay.
He grinned, suddenly sheepish, and laughed, the blood marked high and bright on his cheeks. He stepped back, bent and snagged his shorts from the bed. “At once, Highness,” he agreed, obediently ducking his head. It made her blush deepen.
…He lifted his fingers and let them trail down her outstretched arm, as he stepped past, looking back at her with that shy, gentle grin. She snuffed, and laughed, her composure breaking.. And squeezed his hand, when he was about to be past. He squeezed back, gave her a great big smile that warmed her heart, and a wink. ..Then he was gone.
She spent a moment just stood there, eyes fixed on the closed bedroom door.
Then she gulped.
And turned, and marched into her bathroom.
She changed, fecklessly, her movements perfunctory and imprecise.
Until she stumbled, hopped and near-collapsed while putting her second foot through the waistband of her shorts, catching herself just in time on the counter… then spent a moment standing there just clutching it.
Her heart pounded away in her chest. …She recognized that she had never been, so buzzingly excited. The mead was gently softening all the outer world’s edges, but couldn’t touch these internal.
All those lonely nights… Now, it seemed that he would fall so easily into her bed.
She couldn’t believe how little she had given him to wear. Her body blossomed, with warm censure. How dare she? And only so that she might see more of his pretty, pretty skin, how base was that…
..But then, he’d said..he said he usually only wore underwear. Her flush deepened. ..Well shorts were more than that, at any rate. Perhaps she was not so crass.
…In any case he hadn’t been put off by her suggestions. Not in the slightest. Rather, he’d been…. faintingly eager.
She felt a little faint herself, reflecting thus.
She breathed, deliberately, and deep… calmed herself, some… and finally finished dressing, with more care.
~
She emerged to find him seated in her bed, the covers drawn down and pooled about his pelvis. He was arranging her pillows. It instantly made her smile.
He looked up and returned her grin, his face breaking apart into sparkly warmth. “Did I do ok?” he asked softly, gesturing to indicate the pillows.
At first she could only nod, her throat closed off. She didn’t give a tinker’s dam about the pillows.
He was such a heady admixture of extremes… his intensely cute, disarming mannerisms, to which she’d grown so accustomed, in that moment seemed almost contradicted by the beautiful masculinity of his muscled torso. He’d made her bed over into something fantastical, something so far from ordinary, just by sitting in it… And yet, he seemed to belong there, effortlessly.
Her shorts were just visible on his hips, poking out above the covers.
She put her hand to her mouth, tried to stop staring at his belly. He was there. “—Y-Yes, Luke,” she managed to croak, “very well.”
He grinned broadly, as he patted the spare space on the mattress beside him, gazing at her expectantly.
..Her legs began to work, carrying her to him.
“You’re so pretty..,” he murmured, dreamily quiet, scanning her up and down as she neared. She huffed in embarrassment, and mounted onto the bed. “I-I don’t hold a c-candle to you.. You look like a.. a-a dream..” she blushingly confessed, as she reached for his hand. ..He laughed gently, taking it, “you make me feel so special..”
“—you are special, Luke..”
“..but I’m just a man. And this, is no dream…” He held her waist.. and drew her in…
Her thigh slid against his beneath the covers, and the softness of skin on skin gave her a jolt. Despite herself she gasped in surprise…
He grinned, knowingly, and pulled her up against him. His heat seared along her body. “..I like you in your pj’s, Ciri,” he husked. “I don’t know if I told you before..how much. —Very much.” Then he dipped his neck, and gave her a deep, measured kiss.
..She had only ever thought of her bedclothes as comfortable. Never likable as in… Like, how he seemed to mean.
…They were, thin. His proximity had made her poignantly well aware, of that.
“th-th-th-thank you, L-Luke,” she meeped.
Her discomfit made him chuckle. “..You’re so sweet and cute.. my bashful little girl…” …And his satiny mouth, found hers, once more..
She didn’t understand, why she loved for him to think of her this way. Sweet… cute… bashful… They were not the descriptors she would have wished for herself, ever before. Now the light of his appreciation was imbuing them with some new attraction. She fixed her arms about him and hugged, trying to hold as much of him, as she could.
As her heart beat, he leaned back, into the pillows, taking her down with him… sparing a hand briefly to yank the covers up over them, covering them in shadow. Then he gripped her hip and confidently pulled her in…so that her legs parted, around one of his. She shuddered, and eeped, waves of pleasure washing over her as his meaty thigh slid up between hers. She clamped on it. She couldn’t help it. Her helpless moan died inside his warm mouth, alongside his appreciative sigh.
She quickly lost her bearings, under the sheets. His body blazing along hers, and how she twined with it… that was what she could feel, the only thing she could orient by. He was become North. She kissed him messily, pressed up against him…rose her hand up his body into his hair, and let herself squeeze him, along the way… Now she had a proper grip, on her compass. She wriggled her glowing groin into him, and he tensed his arm and urged her snugly in, by reply.
“is it better like this, baby?” he whispered teasingly.
Her world was composed of soft fire. “y— y-you k-know that it is, L-Luke,” she accused plaintively.
“I know it,” he agreed huskily. “I like to hear you say it…,” and he suckled her bottom lip, powerfully, into his hot mouth. “it’s.. it’s b-better, L-Luke,” she stumbled, “m-much better.. t-thank you..”
“so polite.. you’re very welcome, baby.” He kissed her again.
..His big, strong hands were kneading her, through her shirt, making her tingle..
..She was about to come apart. She was sure of it.
She thought again, of how he was mostly bare skin, beneath her.
…And, curiously — even, as he might say, bravely, she trailed her palm, down his side… to his hip, to the curve of his cresting ala… and followed its ridge, as it plunged… Down, into the waistband of her shorts.
Something about the soft fabric beside his smooth skin made the moment seem, hyperreal. —Meanwhile he was sighing and wetly kissing her mouth.
Trembling, burning up inside… she dipped her fingertips beneath the waistband.
Under it was more fabric, and her fingers quickly found their way likewise beneath that. His hip lay underneath. …Exquisitely conscious of his soft skin stretched over his pelvic girdle, the light friction between it and her questing fingertips, she searched deeper…. Until his waistband was ridden up against her lower knuckles.
Then he ran his tongue along her jaw, up into her ear — And abruptly she returned to her senses, somelike, and realized what she was doing, and blanched.
“S-s-sorry!” she stuttered, yanking back her hand. “I— um, I’m— s-s—”
Protest rumbled in his chest, as he raised his hand, to gently stay her arm, from moving any farther from his waist. “ssshhh…,” he whispered, calming, “don’t apologize.”
“—um? n-no?” she asked tinily.
“Touch me however you like, I said… I meant it, princess.” He softly slid his fingers up her arm to lightly twine hers, and she seized his hand, firmly. “You far from disturb me.”
“o-oh.. s-so..i-i-is this…?” she began.
…He carefully placed his lips, beside her ear, and breathed, “…I’d like to wrap myself up with a bow, and have you undo it.”
It was as though he’d filled her chest with volatile fumes, and lit a match. She tried not to whimper, or rub herself against him.. as she bit her lip and loosed her grip, returned her hand to his flesh, and let it trail back down, into his shorts, into his underwear. Where she palmed his bare hip.
…His whole hip, skin and fat and muscle wrapped over the buried head of his femur. She rubbed her thumb across the crest’s diving ridge, to make sure of it. His glute was under her fingertips. Inches below her hand, his thigh emerged from the shorts she’d given him. If she was touching him here, he might as well be wearing nothing.
And inches to the side…
She may well have been ignorant and sheltered, but she knew what it was that lay, just inches to the side. Thinking of it was making her unbelievably warm, and only slightly intimidated.
He swathed the shell of her ear, with his tongue, and gently teethed the cartilage. She focused back on the flesh she held in her hand, and began massaging him… letting her thumb press into his musculature…
She had to bite the inside of her cheek, to keep herself quiet.
“Ciri..” he rasped.
“—y-yes?” she answered weakly.
“let me? Let me touch you too… Underneath this,” he implored, catching up the cloth of her shirt in his fist.
—No sooner did she comprehend, than she was nodding emphatically, in the most encouraging way she knew how, anticipation roiling in her pelvis.
“mm—Mm-hmm!” she made sure to squeak, in case.. Just in case, her nod had not been affirmation, clear enough.
…And he hummed acknowledgement, kissing her deeply, and his hands slipped gently up under her shirt.. onto her back.
She felt his shaky exhalation, and shivered, at the warmth… as his palms squeezed… and rubbed… then slid slowly along her skin, up her spine…
She lost control and whimpered, recklessly, into his neck, roughly squeezing his hip —provoking his roughened huff, “Force..!”
It was warm; so warm, and…
Intimate.
She wanted to press up into them. His warm hands. They were continuing to rise, fingers tracking sedately back and forth across each vertebra as they went; soon they had traveled so far up her back, that his forearms were begun wending under the shirt, too… She felt almost…
She felt almost naked.
“L-L-Luke,” she stuttered, and steadied herself by gripping him tight. His arms were touching so much of the surface area of her bare back…. No one had ever, touched her here. Not in her living memory.
She blushed, realizing this might be how he felt, about her hand on his hip, still fondling him inside his clothes.
“—Ciri baby,” he grated, husky and low, his voice rumbling right through her core, “—why is it that every kriffing inch of you is so kriffing perfect—!”
She sweltered. He thought so?
His hands didn’t stop rising, until his fingers found her shoulder blades. Her shirt had been pushed halfway up her stomach, to admit his forearms, by then. Tingles were racing down along her back, from each point of contact between his skin and hers… sizzling out by her sacrum… She nuzzled forcefully into him, biting her lip, clamped her thighs firmly around his, and trembled, in the heat. He wetly sucked on her neck.
“..oh, Ciri..” he softly gulped, as he released her.. and let one hand track deliberately, all the way back down, to the small of her back. He squeezed her side, fingers slowly massaging. The synthskin of his prosthetic played cool counterpoint, to the heat of the real thing — she could feel where it ended and the flesh of his forearm began, just by the temperature differential. Then both his arms tightened, clutching her close up against him. His teeth lightly scraped her skin, then his tongue soothed the spot. And his hoarse whisper reached her ear, “you’re so soft..thank you, baby..”
It almost made her cry. She wanted..to belong to him, so badly.
..Being with him like this, felt like dissolving.
“L-Luke,” she whimpered piteously… much more pathetically than she had meant. “..yes, precious..?” he returned in a solicitous whisper.
“k-k-keep me,” she begged wetly. “awww,” he sighed, and breathily, huskily laughed, “—sweet little girl, I’m going to.”
Then there was movement. He was rolling them over, so he was the one on top. Supporting himself with an elbow above her head, he pressed down onto her. He was solid, and heavy, and warm… His other hand was still beneath her shirt, familiarly squeezing… His thigh, still nestled up, spreading hers. He let himself press her with just enough weight, so not to curtail her breath. Her body was practically crying, underneath him. Especially… Especially one particular spot. Between her legs.
“Now kiss me.”
She lifted her neck, and did.
His lips were velveteen. She ran her tongue into his mouth and swathed the top of his. As it ended she pulled his bottom lip into her mouth, then dropped her head to the pillow.
He followed her down, and returned her kiss, sweet and soft… and blithely kept going…
Swiftly, she was lost in it. That soft mouth, its heat, the sough of his breath between kisses.. The way his body very firmly rubbed hers, under the sheets.. The way his hand, couldn’t quite decide where to squeeze… He was sweet, ever so sweet, and gentle, and he didn’t stop… carefully brushing, licking, and tugging..until little whimpers were hushedly dying in her throat..
..She tried to be delicate, like he was with her, but her heart felt trapped, surging up against a ribcage one size too small. So she pressed harder than him, and grazed her teeth on his chin, on accident… and when she tried to mimic the light, delectable pull of his mouth on hers she overshot and tugged his poor bottom lip so decisively..
A low groan rumbled out of him, in response, and suddenly she thought that he was trying to mimic her, as he caught her up strongly in an open, sloppy kiss that started somewhere on her chin and ended with her lip slipping reluctantly from his mouth. A surprised little sound rose in her throat… An answering grunt came from his. He shifted his arm over her head, so his fingers found her hair. Her sharp gasp was swallowed by his deep, searching kiss. Her scalp pricked, as his fingers tangled in her tresses and held her in place, for his tongue to lap, messily, over her chin, and into her mouth. His teeth scraped her lip. She could feel his heart beating, roughly, powerfully, in his chest. It was like a lifetime hoard of sensuality, was thawing there, as his kiss heated… spilling out his lips and down over her chin, abetted by his soft, wet tongue.
…As far as she could tell it, he kissed her for forever. She lost the ability to so much as attempt composure, and — only half aware of how she was engaged — writhed her hips as close as she could get against his groin, and moaned lowly in her throat, provoking him to sigh raggedly back and massage her ribs as he despoiled her lips.
…The moments feverishly blurred by…
…And eventually, their kisses eased back into sweetness…
Until at last, the waters drained, and were stilled.
~
Her lips stung. He had rolled them over once more, onto their sides. They were folded into each other, like two parts of the same animal. She could feel his breath, in the steady expanse and recession of his chest… and in the little zephyr, rhythmically emerging onto the tip of her ear, from his mouth. Every so often, he would kiss her, or his arms would tense, and give her a great, big squeeze, and her core would swell up, with her satisfaction.
He had pulled the duvet down to more reasonably shy from blanketing their heads, and turned out the light, across the room. A bar of weak pink, entered the room through her ajar bedroom door. Summer starlight shone in, through her windows.
She was tangled up in him, surrounded by him… breathing him, even. Lost in the haze of his warm body, under her sheets. He formed a tingling, porous border everywhere, around her…and she stroked him, peaceably; tiny, careful little strokes, with the back of her knuckle. Going slowly…and savoring…
In the enchanted silence, they didn’t even need to speak. He smiled, when she softly touched his cheek.
They did nothing else, the whole evening. Didn’t even share her toothbrush. Or watch a holo. —There’d been something she wanted to show him, that night, in her quarters; something that could only be appreciated, after dark… but she didn’t. Somehow, there just wasn’t the time. There was only time, for this…to be snuggled up close, to lose where she stopped, to stroke him.
..Eventually, to sleep.
Chapter 11: Scope-room
Notes:
It seems appropriate to mark this occasion, as I have finally done it.
I have succeeded in having my characters tacitly acknowledge the existence of sex.
When I first began this story, about 3 years ago, I naively thought that it would probably turn smutty pretty quickly. Imagine my surprise when it took 3 chapters and came to me as a major accomplishment merely to have them hold hands! Well, we have now rounded the bend; although I am assured it will remain slow sailing from here on out.
Chapter Text
When she awoke, the world was light, and soft. Something warm and smooth surrounded her. She sighed and shifted against it, in relaxed experimentation. Gods, but it was warm…
Her eyes opened. It was him. Him. He was beside her, in her bed, holding her, arm draped heavily over her side. For a moment, she just couldn’t believe it.
Something was bubbling up, inside her ribs. She remembered last night.
..She could not have imagined, how intense it would be… to share a bed, with him.
Now they were snuggled up in the morning sunlight. For the first time in a long time, she had no motivation to get up at all. The best thing on this earth was already beside her.
She looked up at him. His face was serenely beautiful, its topography limned in white. His eyes were closed, the lashes laid long against his cheek. He looked so peaceful…
The corner of his mouth twitched upward as she watched, and his generous lips softly murmured, “..good morning, Ciri..”
“g-good morning, L-Luke..!” she stuttered automatically, in surprise.
His mouth pulled into a gorgeous trademark grin, as his blue eyes slitted open, and his arm tightened about her middle, pulling her in extra close. “..fancy seeing you here..” he teased.
It earned her laugh. “Y-you’re in my room, mister..” she corrected lightly.
“So I am. —Your bed is super comfy.”
She chuckled, again, “I-it’s the same as yours, isn’t it?”
He shook his head. “—Not even close! …I’m always there alone, you know. Your bed has you in it.. You, are pretty, kriffing comfy.. pretty girl..,” and he pulled her up into a soft kiss…
She melted into his greeting affection, and ran her hand indulgently up his bare body, following every curve… until she was slipping her fingers up into his hair, and holding his silken tresses. She let her tongue into his mouth, to find his.
The breath sighed out through his nose.
…She broke the kiss to breathily euphemize, “—I’m glad you were with me.. you’re— Y-you’re very comfy, too..”
He grinned. “yeah? You like being wrapped up with me?”
Her mind flashed back to the hallowed dark they’d shared. ‘Like’ failed to describe it. “y-you.. You must have felt, m-me..”
His smile glinted mischievously. “Sure. ..Just trying to gauge my chances of being invited back.”
She laughed, lightly disbelieving.
“well, th-then yes, Luke, I liked—” she stopped herself, then corrected, “—I-I mean… Um, no, I mean I loved, everything about this.. A-And I definitely…w-want you back..” her voice had turned weak, and serious, by the end.
“that’s good,” he returned softly, meeting her gaze. He gently raised his hand to her face, and slowly stroked her cheek.
“l-last night was… Last night was really special to me,” she whispered, blushing at how badly it felt like an understatement.
“..to me, too, Ciri. It was…” he trailed off and seemed to reflect.. then smiled, and blushed. “..It was so very special to me, too,” he finished, a little helplessly.
“you… y-you didn’t mind my lack of imagination, t-too much, I hope..” she asked with quiet insecurity.
“what do you mean?”
“..I um.. I s-sort of just sent us straight to b… bed… didn’t I…”
He looked at her with mild surprise.
“In bed is the only place I wanted to be with you,” he said simply.
And lightly bit his lip.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed… that I’m just as touch-starved as you.”
She blinked, as the word pricked her heart. There was.. a desperation to it, almost. It fit her, like a glove, and she instinctively wished it wouldn’t.
…Except for.. that it was so nice, to share things with him. Like…
…He deliberately pulled her in, and rested his forehead, gently against hers. Softly, he murmured, “Feel this… Us, right now. We’re so close. ..It’s different, with such little clothing between us, isn’t it? My whole torso, the only thing I feel is you, pressed against me…warm and soft. Your thigh against mine… your skin, is so smooth. Your hands… Every place you touch me, I just… I tingle. I could melt.
“..Isn’t this incredible? Doesn’t it feel amazing… I’ve wished for, and daydreamed about this. But I couldn’t have imagined… what it would really be. —I’m not looking forward to getting out of this bed.”
…Somehow her eyes, had gone moist. She dropped her head to bury her face in against his collar bone, and wrapped her whole self around him, sequentially, a little tighter.. arms first, and then legs. He curled around her, in turn, and kissed her hair. “..So, no, little one… I don’t think you’re unimaginative, at all. Please don’t suggest it..”
She nodded, against him, softly. “I take it back.”
He smiled. “Wonderful. Perfect. ..Thank you, for last night, Ciri.. our first night. it was, everything, I could have wished it to be. I will treasure it. —I’m in your debt, thank the Force, again already.” Laughter huffed in her chest at that — involuntary, and slightly rough. He rubbed her back, and gave her hair another sweet kiss.
Voice feather soft, he asked, “…and…as for today… Wanna spend the day with me, precious?”
She nodded, again. There was something in her throat that made it momentarily hard to answer. “y-yes please, Luke..”
“awww.. baby…” He gently retrieved her face, and kissed her. “how are you this adorable?”
And abruptly that lump dissolved, into happy chuckles. He made her feel so special..
“um, w-well you bring it out in me. Your fault. Thank you, Luke!”
And she pulled herself together. “Um. …Um, well, do you need to meditate?”
He shook his head. “Already did. Some. —It kinda felt like a distraction, from holding you… though I guess I’m supposed to see it the other way round.” He grimaced, “My Masters would not be pleased.”
“..Is that what you were doing, just now? ..with your eyes closed..” He nodded. She smiled. “I’m a bad influence,” she lamented.
He laughed. “Not so bad.. Don’t worry. I’ll put in extra time tomorrow, if it makes you feel better.”
“You didn’t get to lift things..”
He blushed. “I practiced something else.”
“What was it?” she asked curiously, “I didn’t see..”
Inscrutably, his blush worsened considerably.
“U-um…,” he laughed, “I’m a little embarrassed..”
For him to blush at her, was nothing new. But he never hesitated to share. “Really?” she laughed, “gods, what could it be… —Were you rooting through my stuff or something..”
He snuffed, involuntarily. “No. I was… um.” He paused. Then looked at her, with his brightly reddened face, took a breath, and shyly, carefully explained, “…I was modulating blood flow. …Th-through…through my groin. So.. so you wouldn’t have to.. wake up, to a man with, a-an erection..in your bed.”
A heavy flush washed over her, as she comprehended him. An… An.. An ****
…The way it’d sounded! That word… ..emerging from his velvety lips in that soft, velvety voice…
“..I-it seemed.. an inconsiderate way, to treat a princess,” he offered bashfully, to her open-mouthed silence.
Inside, her mind was reeling. ..That meant, it was possible — meant that there was some universe in which, she could’ve woken up that morning to find his… ?
Pressing.. Pressing into her?
She was feeling hot. Was it all the sudden very hot?
The blood was all the way up his forehead, and out to his ears. “..perhaps, I should not have said..? i-it’s maybe, a little uncouth..?” he asked, softly uncertain.
“—N-n-no!” she protested, coming unstuck. “—I-I mean… I mean, Yes. You should have. Th— …thank you for answering me. I… um…. U— um..”
She swallowed, and gathered all her wits to say something that was probably very, very important.
“Um, M-maybe, don’t do that… N-next time.”
He stared.
“…no?”
“Right. No. —I… I-I don’t want… I don’t want, for you to change yourself, or.. N-normal things about you, f-for me. A-and this, in particular… Definitely not.”
His face was a reddened mess. —It honestly was very pretty, the blood contrasting with his eyes’ bright baby blue. His cute nose, all crimson. Sunlight gleaming in his hair, that she and sleep had muddled.
“o— o-ok, Ciri. …I won’t,” he mouthed obediently.
She cautiously reached up, to finger his fetching cleft chin. “t-thanks for your consideration, th-though,” she whispered back, “y-you’re very, very sweet.”
He flashed a tiny, sheepish smile, and faintly laughed. “you’re.. y-you’re welcome, Ciri,” he said helplessly.
“..um…” She bit her lip.
“..y-yes?”
Her curiosity was immense. It overtrod her manners. “—um, s-so… it’s, um, a-always, or… I-I mean, D-do you u-usually, or….”
He waited, then softly finished her sentence, “…usually.. wake up like that?”
She nodded.
..He nodded, too, still flushing, still.. offset. “..y-yes, usually. …not sure why. but yeah. i-it.. usually just goes away, a-after a little while.”
“Oh.. I see.” How peculiar. She was becoming enlightened.
“—um, —i-is it rude for me, t-to be asking questions like this?” she found the decency to check.
He smiled, shyly, and reassured her, “you can always ask me questions, Ciri.. about anything. You couldn’t be rude. Forgive me if I’m bashful.”
She weakly huffed, “please, it’s..o-obviously, pretty private. You s-seriously don’t have to..”
“—I want to be an open book,” he insisted.
For that, she was always grateful. ..Her sweet, forthcoming space wizard. Even when he was obviously quite embarrassed. She did have more to ask. And she was just curious enough to do it. ..Some of it. Starting with something easy. “…um, O-Ok then… I-is it hard?”
He barked a single, harsh laugh and stuttered, “..u-um… it..c-can be..”
She reddened darkly. She had misspoken. “th-that’s not um, not what I… —Um, w-what I meant is, i-is it difficult, to… to.. ‘modulate’.”
“oh..!” he understood, and somehow deepened a shade, “—um, right. yes.” He cleared his throat. “Of course. Sorry, for the misunderstanding. ..Yes, it’s… It’s intricate. Definitely, not so easy to pull off.”
“—is it dangerous?”
“I’m a professional. …but ah, probably. …something could go wrong, yes.”
She frowned. “Don’t ever do anything dangerous for me,” she insisted, guiltily.
Laughter soughed through his teeth. “I’m.. Ciri, please, I’m a war vet. I’ve lived plenty dangerously. ..Still here. Mostly intact. I know my limits.”
—Of course, he did. She was a little embarrassed.
Still.. “w-well, I… I-I just don’t want you getting hurt, being chivalrous. ..h-how would I forgive myself, if…”
“—if something happened to my dick?” he couldn’t help teasing, despite that he was still so floridly red.
…And she marveled all over again, at the strange, alluring word spoken in his familiar, dulcet voice. Marveled, and flushed, and heated. “—t-to any part,” she clarified.
“I promise to be careful.”
She eyed him. “..th-thank you. …A-and, And you won’t…” She had to be sure.
“…in the future, I will let nature take its course,” he pledged.
“K— K. thank you.” She relaxed.
He smiled fondly. “..your concern is touching,” he observed.
“I-I.. I’m glad you think so,” she suggested.
He hesitated. Then asked delicately, “…is there.. Anything else? You’d wish to know?”
There was. Very much so. But she wasn’t sure she could wrangle the words. “…n-not.. Not right now. I’ll… C-can I… leave you on notice?”
He nodded, with a gentle smile. “of course. I’ll be here.. Ready to answer, whenever you’d like to cash that in.”
She softly touched his jaw. “I-I’ll let you know.. t-thank you, for accommodating me..”
“don’t mention it,” he smiled wryly.
“..s-sorry I’m too chickenshit to put a question together,” she bashfully joked.
“what?” His face tweaked dismissively, “you do just fine.”
A small silence ensued, as they studied each other’s reddened faces.
..He broke it. “…Um. ..so, um… you were a little.. um, agitated, just now… Are you ok? ..I haven’t, like.. Shocked you, too badly, have I?”
She blushed. Her ‘agitation’ had not been at all unpleasant. “…sh-shocked is a strong word. I’m, I’m fine.”
“..k.”
“…y-you didn’t… you didn’t upset me, Luke. a-at all,” she added.. then underlined for good measure, “N-not, Not at all, at all.”
She wanted to be as open with him as he was with her, but somehow it was just hard, to say certain things directly.
He gently smiled. “ok..,” he said quietly.. and maybe he understood her meaning, because he carefully gathered her in, a little closer, something nameless entering his eyes. “ok..that’s good to hear. I’m really glad.. that I didn’t upset you, Ciri..” He raised his hand, to lightly brush her cheek, and slowly gave her a soft, chaste kiss.
His mouth was multiply sweet. She kissed him back, gently… then again… and again, deeply, holding his neck.. and from there, their kisses were less chaste…
When at length they parted, he rubbed their noses, and made them both giggle. “there you are, pretty girl… easy, again,” he murmured, happily. “You’re cute,” she accused. “Your fault,” he returned with confidence.
And, in a tone saturated by satisfaction, he changed the subject, “..Now, why don’t you tell me about breakfast.”
“breakfast..,” she grinned, “..breakfast lives downstairs.”
“Some monarch, you are,” he grumbled, “Stairs. Figures.”
“you don’t like my stairs?”
“I like everything you like,” he insisted. She laughed, “you don’t mean that..”
“it’s metaphorically true, Ciri,” he announced airily, “If you like your stairs then I can’t wait to climb them. Twice. ..I guess.” She looked at him skeptically — and he relented with a snuff, “…Maybe I don’t like them very much, they’re in my way. I want food to materialize here, magically. I don’t want to put on clothes,” he concluded with a kiss, for good measure.
“I’ll go get you food,” she offered him heroically, “You can wait here in bed.”
“I can’t send you out there all alone,” he protested.
She laughed. “I live here.. What’s going to happen?”
He kissed her again. “I’ll miss you,” he complained between kisses, “You’ll be gone, so, long..”
“..life is full of compromises, treasure,” she told him kindly, when she had the breath.
He smiled happily, all the way up into his eyes. “treasure.. I like that..” he murmured, and kissed her again, so sweetly…
Meanwhile her heart beat. Some insanity, had had her say it. Fortune if he liked it. Great fortune.
He released her with a sigh, and concluded, “—Well then I’m coming with you, and you can just undress me again when you want to, deal?”
She blushed, and accepted, “D-Deal,” …and hoped very much to have the guts to follow through.
Perhaps he foresaw her. “..Don’t make me live this day without touching your skin, just because I wanted to eat, princess,” he softly teased.
Her voice was so much weaker than she’d like. “I-I.. I-I won’t, Luke.. p-promise.”
“k. Thank you, darling..,” he couldn’t resist another kiss, “you know I’m counting on you.. and I promise to make it easy..”
Her breath got stuck. “Y-You’re— You’re not making this easy!”
He pulled away, with an unrepentant grin. “Sorry princess… But how do you think I feel?” he asked, relinquishing her, and sitting up. “You take me to bed one time and I’m lost..”
Her jaw worked. He’d brought her up short, yet again. “—You’re so bad..” she observed at last, “..Such a tease..”
“I’ve only ever teased you with the truth,” he said softly.
The remark left her blinking.
Doubtless, it was true. Never would he speak falsely. —The odd white lie on her behalf, aside. But the truth was something she sometimes struggled to perceive.
…But now was not the time, to indulge such thoughts. She had this incredible man in her room, all to herself; her guest, and he was hungry. “I-I— wouldn’t doubt you,” she assured, “…Now, out. L-let’s go get you, that breakfast.”
He grinned… scooted out from the covers, and stood.
Her body longed for him, without her will. The spot he’d vacated was still warm. She could feel it.
…And also, for the first time, she could see… his body, clad in the comparatively small strip of plaid cloth she’d given him. His hooded belly button lay just above it, and below.. Meaty, muscled thighs. She sat up, and received a better view, as he was stretching. …She liked the shading of his knees, skin over bone, contrasting with the fleshy muscle arising therefrom…
He eyed her sidelong and gave her a crooked, rakish smile. Crossed round to her side of the bed while she watched him, spell-bound. And offered her a hand, “Help standing, princess?”
“I’ve— I’ve got it,” she stammered.
He grinned, cockily. “Meet you in the next room then, precious.” He bent over her, for one last kiss. “Take your time,” he murmured, “Don’t put on too much. Pick a top with fewer laces on it, maybe.”
…And then he left her there, to change, and think about what it could mean to be lost, if you already knew perfectly well where you were.
~
Per his suggestion, she put on a jerkin that fastened with just a handful of buckles, up the front. Then she took him down to the kitchens, uncommonly quiet after the night of carousing just prior, where they shared a simple meal of festive leftovers. After, she selected some foodstuffs to carry up for later, and they reascended to her rooms…
Where they finally did brush their teeth, laughing in her mirror… and then true to his word, he made it very easy for her to peel his tunic back off. She blushed at the pleasure he seemed to take in her doing this, and he blushed at her back, as her hands tracked over his skin.
…The tunic was not the only thing she wanted off, of course, to regain access to the warm, cuddly body she’d woken up to that morning. —However removing his pants was an entirely different matter, and she obviously would never have dared. …But that he whispered, quite deliberately into her ear, that he actually had not bothered taking off her shorts, but only pulled his pants up over them, and that he would very much like to be decent for bed again, fully… At which point she undid just his top button, secretly savoring the sweep of her knuckles against the soft flesh of his lower abdomen — and then ran entirely out of courage, and he had to kiss her and inform her how cute she was and take over.
—And as it happened, she had done the very same thing as he, hastily donning her leathers and shoving her sleepclothes down into them before breakfast, so that he was once again afforded the opportunity to remove her jerkin, and asked her very politely how she felt about her trousers. Nearly fainting inside, and requiring the support of her bathroom countertop at her back…she nodded and let him undo her stays, and gently urge her trousers to the ground…whereupon he carefully helped her step out of them.
They promptly spent the rest of the day, lounging in her bed. This was fantastic. Not like any day spent lazily in her room, she’d ever had. From now on, such days must surely seem like labor, by comparison. He had her retrieve his datapad and projector, and showed her how to play a game called sabacc while flamboyantly snuggling her, and she touched him back and kissed him absolutely every time that she liked, without denying a single impulse all the day long — once right in the middle of his speaking to her, for which she did guiltily apologize immediately after, although he laughed and did not seem to mind.
She was good at sabacc. In fact, she beat him within three games. “You didn’t just let me do that, right?” she checked, slightly suspicious. He chuckled, “Do I seem like I would? —No, princess, you’re just good at this… What would you like?”
“What do you mean, what would I like?”
“What would you like, for winning? ..Ask me for something.”
She gave a small, nervous laugh, “A-are you serious?”
“Yes, princess. ..Indulge me,” he insisted with a teasing lopsided grin, “Practice.”
“—U-um…” Her voice faded, and she blinked.
She didn’t want a lot of things. She wasn’t that type of person.
…Except, she supposed, for just a few, very big things. ..Her nightly imaginings drifted unbidden into her mind.
—She pushed them aside. Something little. That, was what was wanted. Something small, and reasonable, and doable, soon, or right now. She cast about, so that she would not have to ask him simply for a kiss.
…The blood flowed into her face, as a desire surfaced.
“..What can I do for you, liege?” he softly teased, seeing her expression. That address made her flushing worsen.
She had not been able to forget, nor cease thinking of, the night they’d watched the horror holo. And what he’d done, as they’d cuddled.
“..um.. P-p-put…” she struggled to give her longing voice, “..P-put, your hand.. u-u-under, my s-shirt?”
..Her heart beat as the request, that had been so difficult to make, momentarily hung in the air.
An enchanting smile grew upon his handsome face… and without teasing her any further, he did.
His real hand. The warm one. His fingertips, lightly walked up her abdomen…and then his palm laid flat against her belly, and pushed. “..lie down, Ciri,” he urged her softly…and, biting her lip against his sweet touch, she did. He pulled himself up on an elbow beside her, bent over.. licked over her lips, and kissed her, friendlily thumbing her belly’s swell.
She tried to be quiet, as she kissed him back. She raised her hand to his jaw…
…Minutes went by without numbering, and she thrilled under his every stroke and squeeze.
~
He gently bit her lip, before he let her go. His hand was familiarly settled, his thumb fondly rubbing. Her breathing was unset…her belly gently pitched, beneath his palm. He grinned at her, in perfect pleasure, and lightly teethed his bottom lip. “You’re perfect. Did you know that?”
She couldn’t suppress a laugh. “th-thank you, Luke..” she returned uncertainly.
“—And I love, touching you here.”
She put a hand to her face, to cradle her bashfulness, as she laughed and blushingly beamed. For this man to feel this way about her…
He came in closer, bare inches from her hand and blushing face. “Pretty girl..” he breathed, with plaintive innocence, “..let me put my mouth, under this shirt?”
Her eyes went wide, and her exhale came out in an audible rush.
..Then she nodded, wordless.
He grinned broadly in triumph, pretty cheeks a mess of lines, and dipped in past her shielding hand to give her a deep, grateful kiss.
..Meanwhile his hand found the hem of her shirt, and pushed it up her ribs, exposing her stomach to the air.
His expression stilled, as he lifted his head and saw.
…His hand followed the underside of her ribcage and caressed slowly down her side, while he simply stared, lips parted, smile fallen away, and color deepening in his cheeks and brow. She watched him in turn, hardly daring to breath. Wondering desperately what was in his mind.
“..you make me feel like I’ve never seen a woman before,” he mumbled at last.
That made her blush, fiercely. She really never had seen a man, before him. —That was different, though. He was very, very pretty…. while she, was just…
He brought his fingers to his mouth, and decadently put out his tongue. She watched in fascination, as he wet the pad of his index finger, and dropped it to her torso… Shivered involuntarily, and gasped, as he used it to trace a wet circle, around her belly button. His spit cooled rapidly, leaving her belly to softly tremble in the chill. He quieted her with his warm hand laid out flat across her tummy..then bent down and licked broadly across her skin, fixed his mouth onto her, and sucked.
..Her breathing swiftly became disturbed. She half-absently put a hand down into his hair and grasped a bounty of the smooth locks, by way of steadying herself.
…Meanwhile, he continued to lick, suckle, and lightly bite, at her belly, while his thumb massaged under her ribs.. fully unperturbed by his hair being pulled. She clapped her other hand tightly over her mouth when the sensation had her moan, and looked helplessly up to the thick wooden beams of her ceiling…
Hearing her noises become muffled, he spared her an upward glance…had to briefly raise his head, to see her clearly over her bunched up shirt and chest… —Then smirked, descended, fastened his mouth directly over her belly button, and deliberately blew a raspberry onto the sensitive skin. —She exclaimed loudly, looking down to him in surprise, in time to see him teeth at her and blow another, and she began to giggle, her attempt at composure fully punctured. His shoulders shook, as he laughed too, and he seized her hand and kissed it.
…In that way he devoured her abdomen, to his heart’s content…until he was satisfied, and simply rested his head there, cheek upon her skin and lashes fallen shut, as she smiled down at him and comfortably stroked her fingers through his hair.
~
And later, once the day’s light had failed, she remembered what there had not been time for, the night before. “…Luke..,” she began.
“Ciri,” he answered, warm confidence suffusing his tone.
“..There’s something I haven’t shown you yet,” she revealed.
“Yes, please, Ciri,” he agreed immediately, in a high-trust, low-latency way that made her blush. ..He followed suit, soon after, cheeks blooming red. “…I meant… that I would love to see it,” he corrected himself, “What is it?”
She smiled, shyly. “…Well, have you ever wondered what that pull is for?”
A soft rope hung from the ceiling, in the open space by the head of her bed.
He looked at her with a sly expression. “Summons servants?” he guessed. She made a face, and he chuckled, rising from the bed and stepping to it.
He pulled the rope, and a sturdy wooden stepladder unfolded itself from its housing in her ceiling.
He laughed, now in surprise. Its setting was skillful, near-perfectly concealed when retracted, but for the tell of the pull. “I knew it wouldn’t be servants, when breakfast was stuck downstairs,” he allowed, “—but I wasn’t expecting this.”
He stepped to the bottom of the ladder, looking up… into darkness. “Where does it lead?”
“Go up,” she suggested.
“What about you?”
She smiled, standing. “I’m right behind you. There’s a hatch, at the top.”
He grinned back at her, “You’re so mysterious, my darling.. See you up there.” —Then he clambered up, raised the hatch at the top, and entered the space beyond.
She followed him up.
It was a room, perched upon her tower’s roof, lowlit by the moon. The walls were plated in floor-length shutters, in various states of closure; and the centrally recessed floor was littered in carpets, cushions and throws. A telescope, its counterweighted optical tube nearly the length of her, stood to one side. The hatch was offset near a wall.
She pulled on a line run down the wall beside it. The wooden slats of the room’s ceiling began cleverly folding back, revealing the starry night sky above.
He looked up to the stars, and softly started to laugh.
Meanwhile she crossed the room, drawing back the shutters along each wall. They accordioned into each other, revealing castle rooftops and crenelations, and dark forest beyond. —She paused, before the final line, that controlled the shutters which would reveal the main bulk of the castle at their backs; and demurred to pull it, in respect of his state of dress. She hadn’t thought to have him reclothe. Fortunately the night was warm.
“…Ciri… What is this?” he asked, hushedly.
“It’s my solarium. ..Do you like it?”
He smiled. “I like it..,” he confirmed.
..Then the corner of his mouth pulled up into a lopsided grin, and a tiny note of accusation crept into his tone, “..How, have you not shown me this till now??”
She blushed, looking down to her feet… unexpectedly abashed.
“…U-um…”
She heard his chuckle. “…That’s alright, Ciri, it was rhetorical. You don’t have to explain. Anyway, last night we were.. busy.” He sighed, “…It’s wonderful, really…. …And now I know why, you live in a tower..!”
She smiled, sheepish. “..Yes,” she agreed, “…I-I moved up here, when my father had it built, for me.. For my 18th birthday.”
“Your dad knows how to gift,” he said admiringly. He was inspecting the telescope. “—May I look?” he asked… unfailingly polite.
“Yes, Luke, of course… And yes, that he does, when he wants to.”
He bent down, to the ocular. “…What’s up with you and your dad, anyway? He seems nice, but…” he trailed off, looking through.
She slightly blanched, and hesitated. “Um… I-I don’t know.. Sure, he’s nice, he’s just.. ..We don’t have much in common, I guess,” she finished lamely. She hadn’t spent much time analyzing the relationship, was the truth. That wasn’t really her way. So…
So she didn’t know, just quite what was off, except that she was a bit of a disappointment and they had always led largely separate lives.
He straightened from the scope, and crossed over to her… To slide his palms, up her neck to her cheeks, and tease her skin with his fingertips. The sensation soothed her. “..You don’t see eye to eye, often?” he murmured curiously.
“…n-not much…” she whispered, letting her eyes slip closed. “…he’s… more traditional, than me. ..I’ve never been what I was supposed to be..”
“..That’s the very first thing I liked about you.” It made her smile, with gratifaction.
“…Still… he seems to accept you, as you are, now.. for the most part.”
“He.. Didn’t always. But… I spent much more time around my governesses, than him, anyway. And.. he’s never been.. c-cruel, like..”
His eyes shifted, slightly.. loosening. “…like her?”
She nodded, wordless.
“…I’m sorry, Ciri,” he whispered, softly fondling her jaw.
..He lightly touched the pad of his thumb to her lips and mouthed, “….pretty. ..sweet little girl… What a state I’ve found you in..” …And as she thought about that, he bent his neck to softly take a kiss… And his tongue deftly wiped clean, anything somber that had seeped into her mood.
When he released her, she smiled, gently. The moment drew on as he tenderly returned her expression… Until at last he blushed, and gave her a shy grin. “…um, so.. what’s in the scope?”
She grinned back and chuckled, somehow pleased that he’d been the one to lose composure. “It’s Silura. ..Or it was, a couple nights ago.”
“It’s still there… It’s pretty.”
“It is,” she acknowledged. The planet was brushed in cool swirls. It was the most attractive of all those visible through her scope.
“I bet you come here all the time.”
“Pretty frequently,” she agreed, “A bit less, lately.”
He grinned, dropping his hands softly off of her. “You’ve been spending all your time with me,” he suggested.
“All I’m able,” she agreed readily, and reached up to fondly tousle his hair.
“…I-I wondered..,” she started, “..if you might recognize anything, up there?” For she had thought, to point her scope at it, if he did.
He winced, “Probably not.. The stars change, from every planet. …Plus, I’m always relying on a nav system.”
She nodded, understanding. “Ah.. well, that makes sense.”
“..But..” he spared a glance upward for the heavens, “I can at least point you towards the Core…”
He stepped round her, to her back, wrapped an arm about her middle to hold her up against him. “Let’s see… turn to the left?” She let him guide her. “..Not that.. you couldn’t figure this out for yourself… Much better than I ever could have on my own, but..” He reached his free hand down to take hers, then raised her arm towards the sky. She accommodated him, curling her fingers but for the index, to point. “..It’s this way.” She couldn’t help but chuckle — he’d pointed her to the brightest part of the sky. “..Yeah, I guess I could have figured that out,” she allowed, as their arms dropped. “—But thank you. ..What’s in the core?”
He wrapped his freed arm around her, joining his other. “Coruscant. And many other powerful worlds…”
“..Where is Tatooine?”
“Clear across, in the Outer Rim on the other side of the Core.”
“S-so you’re… literally from the other side of the galaxy?”
“I am.”
“gods..” she breathed.. vaguely sensing the immensity of the gulf that should have lay between them.
“….D-do you know which side? Of the core, Coruscant is on, from here?”
“It should be on the left.”
“The left..” she mused. She was destined to spend some quantity of time, scanning that part of the sky… wondering, whether the planet’s star hung somewhere within her lens’ field of view, she knew.
She wondered if Tatooine had ever been anywhere close. The distances hidden up above yawned open, in her imagination.
…In a moment his voice returned, soft and delicate. “…um…. so, did I do a good job, Ciri? Last night…At the party. Did I take care of you..? even with everything…”
“You know you did, Luke,” she said, blushing. “Very well. Thank you.”
“..would you trust me, to do it again? someplace new..”
“Yes,” she answered immediately. “..w-what do you mean?”
“…I… I wanna take you on a trip. ..Up there.” He spared a hand to point, up to the sky.
“Up there?” she echoed disbelieving, pointing too. He nodded, against her hair. “..To a… glitzy, trade summit thing, my sister is hosting…. the Intragalactic Banking Conference. ..I’m expected to put in an appearance. I don’t wish to leave you behind, when I do.”
“Really?” she laughed, incredulous.
“…would you trust me, to look out for you, in a room… on a world, full of strangers, aliens, where the only thing you know is me?”
Up there..? To one of those glimmering points of light, impossibly far away…
…It should have seemed a questionable prospect, if a prospect at all. She should be afraid, to think of being in a place where she would be helpless, and truly, cosmically lost, but for him.
“..I will always trust you, Luke.”
He smiled, and nuzzled her hair.
She bit her lip. “..y-you’d.. You could really take me? What about my dad?”
“Leave him to my sister. …I told her, if you said yes… that I want you by my side. In matters of diplomacy, she will always be the master.”
Somehow she felt like she was processing his words, only superficially… while their full meaning, slipped her by. A trip.
Meanwhile, he had continued speaking. “….Um… I can’t lie,” he muttered, “This thing, it’ll be terrible. There’ll be a big..party, to kick it off. Lots of fake, coiffed rich people drinking and..conning.. You’ll hate it. And…it is not exactly normal, for me to show up to this type of thing, accompanied. You’ll be pestered with sycophants, because you’re with me. ..And you won’t be able to answer, many of their questions. Because my business here, is sensitive. Secret. You can fall back on me, but.. you won’t be able to be honest, about where you’re from.” He paused, to let that sink in, before continuing, “…but.. no one will be rude, and I will get to show you off, which at least is a plus for me. I won’t have to miss you.. ..And, after…. After, I’d like us to be gone, for a little while, Ciri. I wanna take you someplace nice. Show you something beautiful. Just the two of us.”
Looking up at the stars, for a time she could not speak.
“I’ll go, Luke.”
He released his breath, audibly, and she realized he’d been holding it. “—you will?”
She nodded. “O-of course! …Of course, I want to go.”
He tightened his embrace. “Thank you, Ciri… I promise, that I will take care of you, scrupulously, and I will make up for every tiresome moment with a— fantastic, vacation at the end. I’m going to make sure it’s something special..”
She laughed. —Then had to stop because abruptly, accidentally, she’d almost cried. “a-any part of it, would be special, to me..” she said quietly.
“Then, better than special,” he quietly bragged, “I mean to show you the time of your life.”
A noise choked in her throat. —What a ridiculous thing for him to say. “—Luke, but for you I’d never have been past this spot,” she reminded him. ..Then tried to speak a moment and failed, mouth hung uselessly open.
Finally, “—I-I don’t think you understand,” she managed roughly, “that even just what to you will be the most terrible part of what you described, to me will be the time of my life. …I-I can’t believe..
“—Like, you really mean this, right?” An unstable edge, had intruded on her words.
He frowned, where she couldn’t see. “…I wouldn’t toy with you, Ciri. You don’t need to ask me that,” he answered, softly somber.
“—Right.” Her hand rose, almost unconsciously, to her mouth. Her eyes still held captive on the night. “—Of course. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean… ..Sorry. Yes, Luke, I will go. Thank you very much for the invitation. ..W-When is it?”
“in a standard month. …Witumon, on your calendar.” That was 2 months out and change. Part of her mind continued to process information just fine. His arms about her middle were tight.
“—But you’re sure about my father?” Breath huffed as she remembered, “…I used to ask to go on merchant caravans.. Wealthy ones, guarded, he thought all of it was dangerous..”
“…I’m sure, sweetheart,” he murmured soothingly, “This is not some caravan. Leia — the New Republic, will officially request your presence. Your father is negotiating with us to receive a load of tech that on this world does not exist. You will be my companion, an official guest of the New Republic, under its protection and guarded by its.. greatest hero.” A note of something.. Sad, almost cynical entered his voice, as he named himself so. ..It cleared as he concluded, “..You will be in no danger at all. He will not refuse.”
He kissed her hair, and gently whispered, “…I do understand, something of what this might mean to you, sweet girl. And I wouldn’t float this to you if I thought it wasn’t solid. I’m not that kind of tease.”
She nodded. Cleared her throat and wiped at her eyes, then nodded, again. “I.. I know,” she whispered acknowledgment. “..I-I think I… need to sit down.”
“Of course.” He cast eyes about the floor, and summoned a selection of cushions and blankets to their back. Releasing her carefully, he sat. “Come here,” he invited, patting the cushion beside him.
She took a seat by his side, while he watched. …Then twisted, to move around some of the bedding, and laid herself down, so to look at the sky without craning her neck. Still watching her, he followed suit. She reached out for his hand, found it and held on tight.
Something was unusual about the skyscape, tonight. It was bigger, maybe, than normal. The reaches between the stars had grown. For a moment, her grip on his hand seemed to be the sole point holding her back from slipping up in between them, like vapor.
Time passed, and she didn’t know what to think, or to say.
“…s-sometimes I think about the future,” she ventured smally, at last.
“…what about the future?” his soft voice came to her from beyond her view.
Her voice nearly vanished, into the warm night air. “o- ours..”
He let go her hand and raised himself onto his elbow, the better to look at her. ..Losing that grip was briefly distressing, and then he refound her hand with his other, and firmly squeezed, and she stabilized. He rubbed his thumb along the side. “..will you tell me something, you think about our future, Ciri?”
She flushed. …What she had imagined was so vague, in the end. Just pictures, really. And feelings.
“I.. …um, s-simple stuff. I imagine us, together on a street, sometimes. L-like.. the ones, y-you’ve shown me, in..” she trailed off.
It was only small, but such a large hope, for her to reveal.
…In time, he picked up the thread. “…I usually picture us, someplace natural. …like, I imagine taking you to see the waterfalls of Akar Kesh, sometimes. —well, I haven’t shown them to you. —Please, don’t look them up. ….I haven’t shown you, half the places I think about taking you..”
—She smiled, insides swelling with the buoyancy of an ineffable pleasure, and turned her head from the sky to look at him.
“t-that’s…that’s lovely, Luke,” she whispered.
He smiled at her, back. Careful, and kind. “—I can take you to a street, too, though. Of course.”
Her pleasure nearly hurt.
“..I would be very happy to go anywhere, with you,” she told him quietly.
He raised her hand to his lips, and kissed her knuckles, for answer. Then passed the back of her hand, smoothly against his cheek.
“…Ciri?” he asked softly, in a moment.
“yeah?”
“..come closer?”
She nodded, and scootched into him, even though he was already very near… and he wrapped his arms around her and gathered her up into his chest. She nuzzled against his skin, and felt him stroke through her hair and kiss her brow, and sighed… Exhaling the immensity of the night at her back, drawing down in exchange his familiar, comforting scent. There was an immensity to him, too.
“…how are you, precious?” he breathed, “..how’re you feeling…”
“…u-um. ..I-I think, I might be.. a-a little o, overwhelmed..”
His fingers sedately massaged her scalp, in calming little circles. “yeah..? ..I know, that all of this is a lot. ….but I can’t tell you how happy it makes me, for you to imagine a future that has me in it, Ciri. I’m so, so pleased..” He pressed a kiss, carefully to her hair.
“..I-I.. I’ve been so nervous, t-to…” she quietly confessed.
“..can I ask, why you’ve been nervous?”
“..I j-just… It’s habit. I-I don’t think about the future. It’s just not something I do. B-but now… n-now that, y-you..” she struggled to say it out loud, “c-could be..could be there.. —I can’t stop. I don’t know how to turn it off. It… it’s nervous-making, Luke..”
He sighed quietly, “..princess… I wish I knew, how to calm your worry, sweetling.. would that I had something better to offer. ..But the only thing I can think, is to have time pass..” He kissed her temple. His fingers slipped through her tresses..
..And his voice softly went on, observing, “…For a while now, before I came here, I hadn’t been thinking about the future much, either. It’d started to seem, somehow..nondescript. I never wanted to be alone.
“..And now…? ..Now I think about our future, all the time. I don’t want to assume anything… But I am slowly trying to make the things I think of, our reality.”
She considered it, nose in his chest.
“..i-is that why, you’re.. t-taking me…?”
He confirmed it for her, easily. “Yes. It is. And it’s why I asked you to Sonen with me, too. —In part. …And, it’s part of why I want you to talk to Leia and Han, and the droids, and even part of why I like us watching holos. I am weaving us together, precious. I hope you don’t mind.”
She blinked. ..Then laughed, quietly, half in surprise. She never would have guessed, such premeditation.
“…I-I don’t mind,” she understated grossly, with a happy little smile.
“Great,” he grinned. Then soothed, “..I’d tell you not to be nervous, baby.. But I know that’s not how it works. ..So.. just trust me, and let me do this. We’re gonna be fine. We’re gonna be OK. —Ok?”
..She nodded, against his pectoral. Something inside of her felt giddy. “—O-OK, Luke!” He had never let her down.
“Thank you, princess,” he breathed.. Then let his hand find her jaw, and softly lifted her face..and gave her a sweet, gentle kiss.. and another… and another…
She tried to put her gratitude, there into her mouth, for him to discover.
…Later, as her easy joy in their companionship restored and the night seemed less serious, they re-situated, and he had her cuddle into his side and rest her head upon his shoulder, whilst she pointed out the summer constellations and told him their stories, and they tried to deduce which among them might contain the galactic capital. Her belly was gently abuzz, as the invitation she’d received gradually assimilated into her guts, and the stars seemed both farther, and closer than they ever had.
~
And after some length of time, she yawned.
“..getting tired, princess?”
“..maybe a little,” she allowed. “….U-um…”
“..yeah?”
“…d-d’you think… W-would you stay with me, again, Luke?” she asked, hesitantly hopeful.
He grinned merrily up at the sky. “I’d like that. Very much. Thanks for asking me.”
“g-Great!” she responded happily.
…Then he had a thought, which caused him to snuff with stifled laughter.
“What is it?” she inquired, curious.
“—I have to ask a favor of you, Ciri..” he responded archly.
“Of course!” She was all too happy, to do him any favor.
His voice held amusement. “..I need you to go to my rooms and get me some regular clothes so your father doesn’t think I’ve just come from Sonen, tomorrow.”
Oh?
Ohh… —Oh.
“—R-R-Right..!” she exclaimed, as comprehension dawned. …From Sonen, to her father’s council chamber two days later, by way of…. If not his rooms and the change of clothing they held, then doubtless that left — hers.
…How would her father react? He would perhaps not enjoy the knowing of it… Technically, she realized now, what she’d done by asking Luke to stay was in likelihood inappropriate. Despite that they hadn’t…
She reddened despite herself.
…She wasn’t used to her father having meaningful input, on her activities. —Beyond her limitation to the castle, of course. Not for some time now. She had not even thought, to consider his perspective.
“—O-of course, I can do that,” she determined firmly.
“Thanks!” he replied, “You’re a life-saver.” She huffed — she’d become quite the clandestine operator of late, what with their journeys afield, and now this.
..Was kissing him in the woods clandestine, as well?
But holding hands in the halls, and everywhere else, wasn’t. Taking him down to share meals in the kitchens wasn’t. Being by his side all night at the ball wasn’t.
Interesting.
A small silence passed.
…Then he emitted a somewhat more deflated, “..Oh..,” rousting her from her thoughts.
“W-what?” She asked it with more trepidation, this time.
“…Well I just realized we probably shouldn’t do this again, for a while, Ciri. —After tonight, that is; I’m definitely staying tonight.”
—She quelled her disappointed protest.
“..um… B-because of him?” she said instead.
He nodded, and exhaled. “Yeah… Because of him. —He’ll think… Well. —He might get the wrong idea.”
She blushed deeply, apprehending in a basic way which wrong idea he was liable to be speaking of.
“..th-th-that we’re.. u-um..” she stammered, in contribution.
He smiled, reddening to match. “….Just so, princess. He’ll think that we’re, um. …He might not like it. Being protective, and all.”
She experienced a flash of annoyance, at her dad, amidst her embarrassment.
“….s— s’not really fair..” she groused. After all, they hadn’t..
He grinned, and joked, “No, it’s not. ..I’m not even getting credit, for being such an amazing gentleman.”
She snorted. “..well, I s-sorta think he does see you that way.. He seems to think an awful lot of you…”
“..Generally,” he agreed. “..And yet… He probably wouldn’t believe I can be trusted in your rooms overnight. So. Not nearly credit enough.”
She flushed. “Not nearly enough,” she agreed.
..And, in a moment she offered, by way of bashfully making up for it, “..I-I’ll give you credit..”
He laughed in surprise. “Nope,” he rejected, “I wouldn’t look for credit from you, Highness. —You should be taking it for granted, what a fabulous gentleman I am. ..Take it as a baseline. Never accept anything less.”
She smiled, chuckling gently, and butted her head upon his chest’s flank. “Fine, then. ..You’re alright.”
“Thanks for thinking so, Ciri!”
For some reason, it made her laughter deepen.
…Until her humor stilled, and she bit her lip.
“H— how long is a while?” she asked cautiously.
“I don’t know..” he mused, and lapsed into thought.
…Then he announced, with quiet confidence, “..But don’t worry, princess. I’ll figure something out, before too long. Count on it.”
…She nodded. She did trust him, after all. “k.”
~
Soon after, they descended the ladder back into her bedroom, and she swiftly donned her leathers and pack and went out to fetch his standard blacks, leaving him to wait with a heartfelt goodbye kiss.
..When she returned and set down the now-burdened pack, he was stood by the wall of bookshelves in her sitting room, perusing one of her books. The sight of him there, wearing what he was.. all that beautiful bare skin colored warm by her lamp with his nose in a book…
…After a lengthy moment she picked her eyes, up to his face, and found… Him, watching her quietly, over the pages. He grinned, pleasedly, as she reddened.
“G-g-got it..!” she announced, to say something… and he closed the book and set it down.
“..Thank you, Highness,” he murmured, stepping toward her, “it’s very good of you..”
“3-30% less! f-flattery, Luke..!” she protested unsteadily as he approached.
A cocky grin dawned on his face. “But… We’re alone,” he reached her side, reached up to let his fingers into her hair, and kissed her, deeply, with his tongue. She responded helplessly, and he kept going… and teased her, softly, between kisses, “—less, even though we’re alone? ..what a travesty.. how am I.. supposed to deal with that?”
She answered his facetiousness with a low grumble, gripped his hair and kissed him back.
And soon he was sighing, “put your legs around me, baby.. lemme get you in bed..,” and she was nodding and doing just that, as he lifted her into the air. Her legs wrapped around his waist. His hands held her securely up against him…friendlily squeezing, back and thighs.. Whilst his soft lips assertively kissed her mouth. She moaned quietly, as her body seemed to dissolve around him, and in his hands…and he carried her back…set her down…and softly removed her jerkin, revealing her bedclothes still underneath it. “Ciri?” he checked gently, their kiss broken and the waistband of her trousers caught in his grip… and she nodded, not trusting her voice. He undid their lacing, as she gripped him tightly for support, and wondered at how much he seemed to enjoy this.
…And finally, he lifted her into bed, and set to kissing her, lavishly.
When their amorous caresses eventually had settled, he spent the night there, warmly snuggled up. He held her close, and let her strangle his torso.
***
The next morning she awoke, to find his warm body pressed against her back… and a stiffened protuberance, nestled into her butt.
She spent some time there, in simple cognizance of its presence. —Then, fighting back an insane, growing urge, to press herself back into it, rub…and discover its dimensions more fully…
…Until he greeted her, in that soft velveteen voice of his, and she turned herself over, and held his neck, and began kissing him; and he delicately reciprocated.
…It didn’t go away, for some time, and his florid red blush lasted even longer. And somehow, that made the whole thing sweeter still.. like a cherry on top.
Chapter 12: Sunlight
Notes:
Light warning that some of the less happy tags become more relevant in this chapter. However, I think I managed to still keep it fluffy.
Minor updates have been rolled out to previous chapters as well. In my master-file, nothing is ever truly considered ~done~ :/
Merry Christmas!
Chapter Text
The morning after.. when she opened her eyes, the day was cloudy. The morning light filtered wan and even through the skyborne screen.
For once, he had not woken before her. She studied his placid face. His prettily lined cheeks…plush lips, cutely rounded nose…and that adorable little cleft chin. He looked vulnerable. And dear.
…She wondered briefly how many women, it had been.
And in all their number, was not a single one who’d looked on him with the desire to tenderly cuddle him up, and keep him warm? She considered it.
The thought process of these nameless girls, was utterly foreign to her. She couldn’t even be jealous.
…He’d been hurt. All at once, then.. little by little, possibly on accident. Then he’d.. wandered…
…And recently, that had all somewise changed. Thanks to…meeting her. Who wanted to cuddle him, very much.
This was strange information. It would surely necessitate considerable time to assimilate.
She carefully stroked the back of her knuckle, along the soft underside of his jaw.
He shifted, in his sleep… his arms tightened, his body contracted around her, reflexively. His stiffened member pressed into her thigh.
She smiled. He was gorgeous. He felt like hers. His body was warm and smooth and soft, beneath the sheets. He trusted her, and she trusted him back.
…Comfy as a cat.
That was her, in his bed.
~
…In time, he opened his eyes.
“good morning, beautiful,” she murmured greeting, when she saw.
He blinked… And slowly smiled, squeezed her tighter still, luxuriously nuzzling his face down into her hair while pulling her firmly up against him, arms wrapped about her torso. She sighed in contentment, as she returned his full-body hug.
…When at length he eased up on her, she held his jaw, and stroked her thumb along his cheek. “beautiful,” she whispered to him, and he blushed. “sweet..,” she kissed the tip of his nose, “..precious.” And she claimed his soft mouth.
His pretty lips were hers. He moaned, delicately, into her mouth. Her handsome farmboy, with his soft warm body and his hard dick.
“..how are you, my sweet, pretty boy?” she breathed when she’d done. He blushed deeply scarlet, breath disordered. Glanced down to their merged bodies with a quiet, bashful laugh.. then raised his gaze with a cute little smile. “..I’m well, Highness. thank you.. for favoring me..”
—Now that made her blush, but it hardly had time to register, before he was dipping back in, taking another kiss… Slowly..yet hungrily..
..She was scandalously aware, of his erection.
“..b-be serious, sweet,” she urged him, when she’d breath.
…He smiled, happily, and nuzzled her, “you have so many pretty names for me..
“…Ciri, I’m well,” he assured, “you’ve kept me comfy..” he sighed, “..You’re so nice and warm..n’so good to wake up to…” He gave her a squeeze and kissed the side of her nose, wetly cute…then dropped to her lips.
She couldn’t help her gratified smile.
“you’re..f-fair comfy, yourself,” she managed to reply. Yes, and scintillating, too.
Breath exhaled through his nose, as he grinned, and gently took another kiss.
“thanks for staying with me..,” he whispered.
“..I always want to stay with you,” she said truthfully, kissing him back.
“…I’m working on it..” he mumbled to her mouth.
“..What are you doing?”
He pulled back from their kisses, and crookedly grinned, “Spying. —Counterspying. On the places whose windows, you can see the sides of your tower from.. I’m thinking to come down from off the top when no one’s looking.”
“—What? That’s crazy..”
“—It is not,” he defended, “..It’s a great idea. I’ll take up meditating at the base. No one will think twice of me walking around.. but that I’m down there pining for you, maybe.” —She snuffed, thinking about the unlikelihood of people thinking that. “—Which, I will be,” he underlined in response, “..you’ll see, baby. This is a fabulous plan.”
That made her smile. He was so earnest.
“Thank you for your efforts, sir Jedi.”
“anything for the cause, my lady,” he confidently returned.
..Something about it made her think about him, always coming out to her gazebo, to talk to her.
“..Thank you, for everything, Luke,” she added full-heartedly.
He smiled, tenderly. “It’s been nothing but my pleasure, Ciri..”
“You’re deadly sweet.”
..He laughed at that, sheepish.
“..You’re adorable,” she followed up, “I just adore you, darling.”
“such pretty names, from a pretty little girl,” he sighed, and kissed her luxuriously. That appellation struck her, in a whole new way, given the rod that was ridden up against her down below.
She felt so close, easily possessive of him..
“you’re my good little boy,” she whispered to him, and abruptly an involuntary moan choked thickly in his throat. “—yes, Highness,” he rasped, pulling her in decisively against him — and his mouth was on hers again, kissing her messily, and deep.
She felt herself in a cage, of pure titillation…and wantonly kissed him back, rubbing into his encircling form. Saliva smeared, everywhere. His erection was trapped between them. She was intensely aware of its precise position, impressed into her thigh. It rolled slightly, as she convulsed thoughtlessly into him, and his soft gasp, “—mmph!”, was smothered in her mouth.
She had become a fiery mess. In the confusion, she couldn’t tell which one of them, or both, was quietly whining.
~
…The heady, pleasurable wave gradually crested, and passed..leaving them both clinging tightly to each other’s forms..kissing more tenderly..
..And finally just clinging, incredibly tight.
Eventually, the existence of time, and the day outside this bed, unhappily dragged itself into her mind. “…do you have to go, today?” she asked his chest softly, knowing that he did… and probably soon.
He lightly grimaced, and nodded against her hair. “..but technically you don’t have to.”
“no?”
“..this is an empty hallway. it’s on the way to nothing…there’s no other visitors. Just me. I’ve hardly sensed a single person, here.. no one will come by.”
“..you’re our guest, doesn’t my father send you a maid?”
“your father’s people are a little bit scared of me, actually. And I don’t generate much need for tidying, anyway.. someone will come while I’m out, at the end of the week.”
She frowned, and protested, “they’re not scared.. they were practically cheering for you, just the other day.”
..He smiled, fondly gentle. “The kitchen staff, aren’t afraid… and I’m sure I have you, to thank for that, beautiful. Most of the rest of them find me somewhat ominous.”
“come now..,” she chided, “..you’re fascinating. And well-mannered. And gorgeous. You’re not scary.”
Amusement filled his voice, “..darling, I may have to invite you to consider the possibility that not every person views me as you do.”
As she opened her mouth to protest, he continued softly, “..I know what it’s like, to stand with men and women who fear me, Ciri… Even if it’s subtle. …Even if it’s not enough to carry through in the Force. You still come to notice.. It’s in the shift of their weight. And their gaze. They can’t help it — it’s just their knowledge of the power I hold. ..It follows me, across this galaxy, like an aura…and even here.. —Well, I’m strange. I suspect I may bring unsavory folktales to mind..”
She swallowed. There were tales, of fickle ancient spirits, taking on the shape of men, to ensorcel the unsuspecting and unwary. “you aren’t scary, Luke,” she insisted.
He smiled. “don’t trouble yourself over it, little one. you’re with me.. All is well.”
…She nudged a nod, into his chest.
Something still entered his voice. “you’re with me. ….I crossed the galaxy to find you. …think about that..? This little planet, is in the Unknown Regions of space…” He huffed a soft laugh, “—I thought I was from a backwater. ..The merest of accidents, brought me here…”
“…I have thought about that,” she acknowledged softly, “so far away…it’s hard to believe. —But, in a way, no harder than that you’re not from here at all. …That you’re from space, that you’ve got mind powers, that there’s beings made of metal… It’s only one impossibility more.”
…She didn’t add to the list, that you like me.
It had come into her mind, like a reflex, but was rebuffed.. by his delicate proximity. She saw the poor farmer from the trackless desert, more than ever. He was more impressable than she could have imagined. More… in need of her, too.
All that time, he’d so patiently flirted with her… It hadn’t only been, for her slowness responding.
“..right,” he was whispering, “now that I can’t imagine. Not really. I’ve always known… What lay beyond the night. ..I grew up with legends of the Force..the way your people did with their myths and folkstories..” He bit his lip.
“—You’re bold, to be with me the way you are.”
She snuffed. “You kept being so unbelievably kind to me, farmboy. ..Anyways, powers and alien technologies and whatnot or no, we’re here on my home turf.”
..She thought about leaving the planet. She knew she couldn’t imagine, how far from home she’d be then. A spark of trepidation briefly flared.
He noticed it. Tightened his arms, “..I’ll keep you safe, when we’re not. …keep you by my side. —Won’t let anyone speak, or even look at you, if you don’t want.”
That made her laugh, in his embrace. “And how will you do that?” she teased.
“—With my magic powers. I’m a powerful warlock. Haven’t you been told?”
“—You wouldn’t.”
He grinned in admittance, “no, I guess not. …With credits, then. …I’ll rent out whatever, so that my lady and I can be tourists, without all the other tourists.”
“Oh?”
“..I’ve never lived as ostentatiously, as I could.. After everything. ..Suddenly I kinda like the idea of throwing my weight around a little, just to impress you. ..Wow, I could make you think so much of me..”
She snickered. She could not imagine, him doing any such thing. Trying to impress, or living ostentatiously. “I’m ruining you..” she lamented.
“..tempting,” he affirmed, “—Yes, please do.”
She huffed — hushed him, with a kiss. “behave yourself, pretty boy.”
“….be here, when I get back, Ciri… let me come home to you..” he implored her mouth. It filled her with longing.. —And then he blushed, at what he’d said.
“I-I mean.. You don’t have to, of course. There’s not much here, to occupy you..”
“—I’d love to.”
—He stopped his backpedaling and smiled, sunnily. And kissed her.
“Thank you, sweetheart.. You spoil me so..”
“..yet not nearly enough.”
He hmphed, happily.
Then sighed with regret, rubbing his face into her neck. “..I have to go… I’m so sorry, little one… —Get into my stuff today, please. Touch everything. I want you all over it. ..Your essence, absolutely everywhere, on everything I own..”
It was somehow voluptuous, for a domestic little fantasy.
“baby, I’ll miss you,” she promised him, “and I will do my best.”
“—Force, you’re so perfect.” He rose above her, gave her one more deep, pressing kiss. “I…” he stopped. For a moment, he seemed lost, gazing down at her..then his eyes cleared, flicked with life once more, and he smiled, and whispered, “I’ll come back to you, darling,” and sweetly kissed her brow.
..And reluctantly he released her, disentangled his limbs, and rose. …She took the privilege of watching him dress from within his bed, then kissed him goodbye.
She hugged his pillow tight and tried to smell him, in the sheets, after he was gone. Let the tide of her sudden loneliness, gradually ebb.
…And after a time she arose, and explored his rooms.
She found pen and paper, in his sitting room, and began to sketch. His bed, where they had slept. His clothing. His accoutrement. The various foreign implements, jumbled together in his bag. She lifted each one out, with an appraising eye, thought if she’d seen it in a holo.. tried to deduce its purpose. Pictured its role, in his life, that he had chosen to pack it. She found some kind of terrible trail food, and ate an entire bar, puzzling over it. She tried out his hair goop, on a lock of her hair, and was somehow so surprised, when it made her hair stiff. She wished with brief, tragic intensity that she could draw a smell…then found his tunic from the day previous and buried her face in the armpit.
When he came back, she was on the floor in his closet with her knees up, sketchwork braced across her thighs, and the shirt, hung over her shoulder where she could smell it… sketching out his dress boots.
He moved through the apartment directly to her location… and appeared, leaned in the closet door frame with a big happy grin and his arms crossed and his eyes shining, and greeted her, “Hey, Ciri. How’s my girl doing today?”
Her heart leapt a little at seeing him, then ached comfortably, and she smiled warmly up at him, “Well. I’m glad to see you—! ..How about you?”
“Glad to see you, too.” He knelt, before her.. A mischievous smile, crooked his lips. “..Is that my shirt?” He settled, at eye level..
She blushed. “..I c-certainly think so.”
..And he was leaning forward, reaching out, with both hands, to brace on the wall of the closet and to let his fingers into her hair, cupping the back of her skull. He gave her such a soft, slow kiss.. “..What else, do you have there..?”
“..I drew all your stuff,” she announced.
He laughed, happily. Her chest flared, at the sound.
“Ciri..
“Thanks, darling. You’re sure good, to come back to, too,” he gently remarked. She smiled, and rubbed noses with him.
***
She interpreted him differently, after that night. The possibility of his vulnerability was no longer merely vague or theoretical. When he softly sought her hand, or gave her a gentle smile, or nuzzled into her… She understood he could be hurt.
She had a responsibility, to him… In a way she perhaps, hadn’t fully appreciated, before. It was also her job, to keep him safe. Even if she wasn’t strong, like he was. Even if that was insane.
She hugged him more tightly, in the wake. She strove to shower him with her affection.. such as it was. She brought him more flowers, and practiced her leather-braiding, slightly secretively. And when she — somehow, however improbably — made him happy — every time she elicited his light, cheery laughter or earned his pretty, sunny smile… it struck her, like a blaze of light, to her chest, and she was pleased unto contentment.
She discovered herself feeling intensely protective of what passed between them. She didn’t expect she would ever discuss him with another person, again.
***
Soon after, he brought her a gift. She was waiting for him out at the gazebo, her whittling already packed away.
..She saw him coming, cross the sward, and admired his lanky strides… Then bit her lip, and ran out to him, unable to wait.
He was ready for her, catching her with a laugh as she reached him and flung her arms about his shoulders. “Highness,” he murmured to her hair, “baby, I missed you.”
She nodded, in his arms, rubbing her face enthusiastically into his shoulder, until he laughed.
…Minutes later, her grip loosened and she caught his mouth in a kiss.
“..I brought you something,” he whispered to her lips.
“Aww!” she exclaimed, and he blushed, air involuntarily snuffing through his nose.
“w-what is it?” she asked, shy at his embarrassment.
“A token of my affection,” he said softly, reaching down to his belt with one hand and retrieving an object.
It was a small, hinged box. He held it up to her. Looking wonderingly from the box to his handsomely reddened face, and back, she reached up to accept it…and opened it.
Her eyes widened. There was a gem inside, of purest white.
She watched it, fascinated by the hints of color faintly shifting in its depths.
Lightly biting his lip, he reached into the box behind the gem, and lifted out a delicate silver chain, upon which it was hung. It flashed brightly in the full sun.
“..I’m a bit embarrassed to give you this,” he murmured bashfully, placing it over her head and gently retrieving her hair from the chain, “because I’ve never seen you wearing jewelry, or known you to value..valuable trinkets. And.. when I was thinking about this, my mind did touch on plenty of other keepsakes that would suit you better.” He lifted the gem up before her, turning it to show her how it sparked. She softly reached up to it, her fingers tangling with his as they handled the setting. “…A bit of moss, or a twig, from some foreign world, cased in epoxy,” he suggested with a fond smile, “That would be perfect for you. Or maybe a vial of sand, from..Tatooine. But… None of those things felt right to just send for. I would have to have retrieved them myself. So…. So this. A corusca gem. I thought you might appreciate its beauty, in any case.”
He cupped her hands closely over it, concealing it fully from the sun, and she gasped… The gem gleamed, from within the shadow. Tiny flecks of rainbow were cast upon her palms. How was that…?
…It was a star. A tiny star, caught in silver.
“I hope.. you like it,” he said sheepishly.
He was like a star.
“i-it’s beautiful,” she told him. “J-just like you.. It’s perfect. I love it! —Thank you, Luke!”
She tore her eyes from the shining white gem and up to his reddened face. To think, of being embarrassed to present such beauty. She could scour the entire world with the value of her father’s kingdom in currency upon her back, and fail to find a gift its match.
She did not allow herself to think too long, nervously, of what plain, earthly thing she was preparing for him.
Instead she rose up onto her toes and kissed him, earnestly.
***
She wore his gem, constantly after that. She did not even take it off to sleep. She reluctantly removed it, only to bathe…lest water, or soap disagree with the chain’s metal. When she missed him at night, she would curl up around it and cup it in her hands…gazing into its pure light, shining in the dark.
…She was able to smile, when she missed him, now. The ache had become comfortable, after all. She trusted his presence.
People she passed in the halls and on the grounds couldn’t help but spy the light upon her breast. Olandria shot her an ill look. She almost dropped it beneath her leathers, to alleviate the attention…but forced herself, not to. It was his mark. The kitchen staff were agoggle over it — and for them, she did not mind. They gathered round as she shielded it from the windows, demonstrating its internal fire.
She brought the Sonenmead from her rooms one afternoon, and they took their walk, from sunset into the moonlight. She slung one wineskin over her shoulder, and they passed the other back and forth between them. She always started the perambulation from the gentle crown of a small hill on the lawn. There was a crossing point nearby, over the stream and into a portion of the woods where the trees stood farther apart, than most. She wouldn’t dare the deep depths, at night.
…The light failed, and the shadows of the trees rose longer and knitted them in. Little shafts of light meandered down to spackle them, and ferns brushed their calves. Now and again they passed into clearings, under the stars. The night felt close and wide at the same time. She held his hand and kissed him, in the dark.
***
At some point, too, her father sent for her.
She turned up nervously to his receiving room, to find him seated in his great chair, pouring over a sheath of papers.
“Hello, Father,” she greeted uncertainly.
“Daughter. Very good,” he said, looking up. “I take it you know of this?”
“..O-Of what?” she blinked.
“This.. ‘Intragalactic Banking Conference’. …I have received a most unusual missive, on the topic. Your presence has been requested. By this foreign polity’s ruler. ..Personally.”
“—O-oh! —Yes, I am aware. I… would very much wish to attend,” she suggested with hopeful caution.
“—It is done, then. Attend you shall. The Republic will send a.. ‘ship’, for you, I am told.”
She blinked, again. “Really?” So easily?
Her father fixed her with a look. “Really. ..And I wish to have it from you… What you see, with our friend, Master Skywalker.”
“W-what do you mean, what I see? I see the same as you, I’m sure…” she returned, hesitant under his gaze.
Her father’s gaze flicked to the gem, upon her chest.
“..You are making quite the waves, with him. This is only the second time his royal sister has deigned speak with me — Undoubtedly, she does so on his behalf. So, what do you see, with him.. In your future, daughter?”
The question ought to have been entirely predictable. Somehow, it took her unawares.
She struggled to give voice to an answer. “I… I h-hope, to know him a very long time, yet,” she offered, conservatively.
The King shifted, in his chair. “So little? Is that all?”
She felt the color creeping to her cheeks.
“..u-um….”
Her father was direct. “Do you wish, to take his hand? ..And do you think he feels the same?”
Somehow, she deeply resented his line of questioning. It was private. Could she not have this, to herself?
She wanted, and maybe needed, to watch their flower unfurl, sheltered from external observation. To question what hid at its throat was not toward.
So she knotted her jaw. “…I-I.. I decline to answer.”
Her father blinked, in surprise.
“You ‘decline to answer’?”
“..y.. —Yes.” She stood straighter.
…Belatedly, she wondered if her obstinance might not impact her father’s response to the invitation.
“Well.” The king remarked. “…Well. Perhaps Skywalker will be more forthcoming.” —He meant to ask Luke? Her brow knitted. ..She had no place to stop him.
..What would Luke reply?
Meanwhile her father continued, “In any case, I expect this ‘ship’ within the month.” His tone turned toward dismissal, “…Represent us well, daughter. I anticipate, Chief of State Organa maintains a tremendous court.”
She felt light… even a little giddy. “I.. Shall do my best, Father,” she promised.
He nodded, his agreement…though he had to know, that on this score her best was not likely very good. She didn’t dwell on it, however.
Her head was swimming, as she exited the royal chamber.
***
Something new happened between them, one evening as they were cuddled up, watching a holo in their skivvies, under her sheets.
—The holo was a horror, and it was not very good. It failed to hold attention, even partially. Which left her attention, straying entirely onto him — nestled warmly against her, and nearly naked in her bed. He had his arms wrapped strongly about her torso, and was sedately nuzzling her hair, as the opening scenes played out. Her fingers stroked meditatively along his forearms.
..Soon enough, in the projection, a particularly annoying side character explored an abandoned colonial trailer and received an unpleasant surprise. She didn’t even flinch, as a clawed hand descended from darkness, poised dramatically for just a moment, and struck — unceremoniously dragging the screaming offender from view, and hopefully, from this mortal coil.
At her lack of response he chuckled, rumbling against her temple, “oh no.. Have we picked out a dud?”
“—Maybe,” she turned her face from the projection, and squirmed, turning over against him, and caressed his chest.. The holo might be bad but it was still an incomparable treat, to be snuggled up with him like this, skin to skin. She squeezed his warm pectoral, testing its give, and impulsively put her mouth on it where it bulged between her fingers…nibbled, and sucked, careful not to go too hard. He sighed decadently.. stroked his hands along her back and arms.. pushed up into her touch, and let his eyes slip closed…
And soon she carefully, curiously trailed her fingertip, just beyond the edge of his areola...darkly brown, and the one part of his chest, she hadn’t thoroughly fondled.
To touch him there had always seemed… too salacious, to be polite.
“—M.. May I?” she asked him now, glancing up to his face.
Without looking, his lips curled into a smile. “..Highness, what have I told you?”
Of course, she did remember. “..th-that I can, t-touch—” she cut off bashfully, before verbalizing fully the dispensation he’d granted her. Anyway, it was too large, to just take. “—But what if I.. w-went too fast? Or..”
He rolled his head to the side and let his eyes slit open, to peer down at her. “..Then I’d stop you, sweet one. ..I’m not an ignorant boy past his depth, anymore.” He resettled his neck, with comfortable assurance, “..But there’s no need to fret over it, in any case. …I like your pace.”
His smile grew luxuriantly, as his eyes dropped shut again, “..Your pace, leaves me very comfortable, and satisfied, indeed..my beautiful girl..”
The forgotten holo made background noise.
And she gulped at his easy indulgent manner, and let her fingertips stray, lightly onto his areola.
It was soft. Tenderer, than the rest of him. Of course it was…
…He perhaps didn’t realize, how much she thought about what sheltered within his underwear.
She thought about it, near every day. That stiff, hard length… the precisely 2 mornings she’d had it butted against her, were seared into her mind. Into her imagination.. She might not even be so sweet, as he supposed. She was beginning to suspect there was a part of her that was.. profoundly prurient.
So she still couldn’t let herself just take, the permission she’d been given.
“..my pace… You trust me, so much,” she observed, trying to maintain her composure.. as she delicately traced a circle over his silken areola, around the nipple’s nub.
His breathing was a little less relaxed, than it had been.
“—I trust you, implicitly.”
“..what if I surprise you?”
He grinned. “Then I’ll be surprised.”
She let her fingertip cross up onto the nipple proper.
It was hardened. Much more so, than hers. Such subtle, intriguing difference..
She pulled her fingertip back across it..then pushed it around in a little circle, pressed upon its peak. Heard his hiss, and felt his arms tighten, upon her. Pulling her into him, by the small of her back. His hot, cool hands crept up under her shirt.
Tingling, she stuck out her tongue, and lathed the entire thing. His hardened tip dragged across her tastebuds. He tasted, like himself. Her heart beat.
“What if I shock you?”
His breathing had become labored.
“—Ciri—
“—I wonder if you’re assuming, that I don’t want you back?” he rasped.
She hesitated. Did she?
“I.. I-I don’t know..”
“—Well I absolutely do.” His head was lifting.
“..w-want, how?” she stumbled.
“..want you, the same way you want me, pretty girl,” he emitted plaintively, and her entire body responded to that tone…
—Then he ran his hand up under her jaw, and commanded her into a deep, urgent kiss. “—but my concern is for you,” he husked, and kissed her again, “You don’t know what you’re doing,” his hot mouth was on hers, undoing her, “so you need to touch me, the way that you want to..,” he ran his tongue, deep into her mouth. Kissed her soundly.
As her lip gradually broke free from his mouth, she was left breathless. Struggling to fully process what he’d said… exactly, the same?
—Her mind discarded it. As soon as she had her breath she kissed him back, vengefully, making an urgent little noise, into his mouth.
He returned her energy. She suckled his lips. They feasted on each other, hungrily… And as soon as she discovered sufficient presence of mind, she squeezed his nipple deliberately between her thumb and forefinger, and enjoyed his roughened gasp. She teased the tip..and squeezed him again.
His entire body pulsed, against her, in a wave.
She’d been right about the nipple. It was incredibly salacious.
She ran her leg up in between his, and shifted her hips…trying instinctively, to position her center over his thick, delicious thigh. She was warm there, to distraction. Burning, even. His arm crossed the small of her back, hand fastening on her hip, and helped her on. She experienced a surge of gratitude, as his thigh both helped and made things worse. Her hands clenched upon his shoulders as his leg pressed against her, just there…
“Force, you’re warm,” he grated, between messy, needy kisses. His teeth scraped her lip, and his tongue soothed it on its way back into her mouth, and she… she rubbed. Rubbed herself down onto him, and he groaned and helped.
And as their hips moved together she felt some instrument rise from nowhere to swiftly push into her, and then recede…
With the next heartbeat, it rose again…
She realized directly what this shy, approachful thing must be, pressing into her before vanishing.
—It wasn’t like feeling it in the morning. Not with the way it was doing that… that pulsing, thing… She felt about to swoon. She let her fingers up, to tangle in a handful of his hair, and kissed him, the way she wished to touch.. touch…
Her hand dropped automatically to palm his smooth hip, dipped just within the waistband of his underwear before the remnants of her manners halted it…tantalizingly close to that place.
Soon, his hardening member’s imprint no longer disappeared, during its recessions. Still it pulsed, swelling out fuller and fuller with each surge against her pelvis.
“is.. i-is this, ok?” he voiced, small and unsteady.
She squeezed his hip, hard. Let her other hand down from his hair to his nipple, and squeezed that, and he released a delicate whine.. His skin was smooth, and warm… “y-yes, beautiful,” she euphemistically assured him.
He made a strangled little noise, in response. And soon, he had swollen to his full stature against her, and pulsed no more.
Was this how it was? It was sweet, and shockingly lascivious. She wanted it. She pushed into it, but had no leverage. So she wrapped her arm around the small of his back and pulled herself tightly, insistently against it, and he whimpered deliciously.
They both groaned together, roughly, as she hugged his back and rubbed up against the flagrantly hardened length of his cock — and he hesitated only a moment before tightening his grip on her and following suit, grinding his hips into her with a ragged plea, “—Ciri—!”
His poor erection, crushed in between them..!
—But he, did not seem to mind. Nor did his steely dick seem compressible. Gripping just above the swell of his butt and using it to her advantage, she tried her best to compress it… to no avail.
“Ciri, baby,” he roughly hissed… her fevered mind faded as he insistently took her mouth, and simultaneously rode his thigh up into the fiery place between her legs. She whimpered piteously, and squirmed against him, as though he might put that fire out. —Then he filled his big palms with her butt, squeezed her authoritatively— she swelled with the liking of it— and ground her flaming center decisively on his leg, just so— once, pleasurably, twice— as her breath loudly halted and hitched, thrice, and then— Something ripped through her, and she doubled over on him as seemingly every muscle contracted at once, loosing a helpless, keening wail as whitehot sensation blotted out everything. She only felt him clutch her tight, and dimly heard him grate, “frag, Ciri—!!”
~
…Her mind slowly returned, to discover her body trembling against him, whilst softly being stroked, cheek upon his chest, strength fully gone and limbs draped over him nerveless and lax, and both of them panting, their breaths struggling to normalize. …At the edges of her awareness, the holo continued to play.
She gulped, blushed, and nuzzled her face shyly into his pec. ..What had just happened?
His fingers caressed behind her ear, tucking in her hair. “Force, girl..” he tremulously husked, “..are you alright?”
Probably. She probably was. She tried to say so, but instead all that happened was that she hugged him, desperately close.
…He curled up around her, in reply. His arms wrapped tightly about her back, the fingers of one hand tangling in her hair, and his chin, nestled in atop her crown. He sucked down a breath, and shuddered. “..sweetheart?” he asked, soft and needy.
This time, she managed to reassure him. “y— yes, Luke, I.. I-I’m alright.” And gave him a tiny little nod, to go along.
He squeezed, in acknowledgment.
“…that was..” he breathed.
“..i-intense,” she finished smally. And felt his nod.
“…L.. Luke?”
“yes, my sweet little girl?”
“w— what happened?”
He stilled, and held himself carefully in abeyance. She felt it, in the cant of his jaw, against her hair.
“…was that… w-was that, your first..?”
She blinked. “…first, what?”
He harshly bit his lip. “..You had an orgasm, Ciri. Have you not..? I-I… I hope, that what I did was Ok..”
“Oh..”
She probably should have realized, that.
She felt powerfully naïve.
“U— Um. Y-Yeah, um, it was… I-it was Ok, Luke. —I-I meant, OK to do..! ..The, uh… t-the, w-whole thing was um.. v-very much better than OK. V-very, very, very… very, very, much..better..” Words were failing her disastrously. What he had done, had been…had been utterly perfect. How had he known, to do that exact thing..?
But she felt him relax around her, with relief. “..yes, I thought so, too,” he murmured euphemistically.
He sighed, and snuggled her closer. She wriggled in, back. —The movement, made her realize… the place between her legs, had become absolutely drenched. She flushed, with embarrassment. There was… little prospect, that her underwear was not soaked through. Gods, what a mess..
“—Ciri?” he inquired of her embarrassment.
“..um…L-Luke, I.. I think I… m-might have made a m-mess…o..on you…”
He exhaled calmly, relaxing once again, and nuzzling her hair. “Yeah, me too, little girl. Don’t worry… I love your mess.”
Well, that was fortunate. She thanked the stars, internally, for her many blessings.
And it occurred to her, that there could be multiple ways to interpret his statement.
“Y-you, um, you too? Y-you mean..?”
“mm.. You took me over with you. —That’s never happened, to me..! …It’s.. safe to say, that we will both be changing underwear, tonight,” he observed with warm amusement, “..Me, a little later than you, I suppose…”
…Because he, would need to walk back to his rooms, first. She shuddered, sympathetically. “o-oops..”
He chuckled, “It’s no bother, princess. Worth it, in the extreme. —Don’t you dare apologize to me, if you were thinking of it.”
..She smiled, in gratifaction. Happy to be headed off.
—Then tried not to suck down her breath, too quickly, as her mind fully finished processing, the import of what he’d said.
“..um..,” she became curious, “i-is it, um.. The same? a-as me..?”
“Not exactly..”
“..H-how so?”
He blushed. “..um, well… I, ah.. I spurt. When I..finish.”
“what?”
A thing like that had just happened, in his underwear? That.. temptatious shaft she’d felt grow, had…
A tingling shiver, danced over her skin. She smoothed the back of her finger, down his sweet, soft tummy, biting her lip. She reached the waistband. “C— can I..?”
“..Reach into my pants?” he guessed, teasing, “Only, if it’s for science, Your Highness.”
…So she demurely pulled back the waistband of his underwear, over his midline, and hooked a finger into it…making sure to press firmly into the fabric, not daring to risk brushing the.. wondrous thing, that dwelt inside.
She didn’t have to quest far, before her finger encountered something warm and wet.
She withdrew, with her prize. Rubbed her thumb on her finger, investigating its texture. ..It was.. sticky..
…Cautiously, she raised it up, and stuck out her tongue..
Salt. And something else…
Shyly, he asked, “..what am I like? alright?”
“I-interesting…”
He snuffed. Blushing badly, beyond her view. “interesting.. Is that good or bad?”
“..I-interesting is its own good. W-wouldn’t pick to eat it. But it’s not bad. Sticky.” She thought about his precious member spurting sticky stuff everywhere and blushed. “..M-maybe, sticky is pretty nice. —I like you.”
“..You know how to reassure a man,” he commented wryly.
“I like you!” she tried again, earnestly. “I.. I really do, r-really like you, L-Luke.. I-I don’t, I maybe don’t know how to tell you, h-how much I..” Her voice failed her, as she contemplated admitting.. or how she could even pick words to describe, the powerful fascination his sexuality held for her.
“..it’s Ok, Ciri… I’m being bashful. I know that you like me. I, ah… I can feel it, on my leg.”
Her face flooded.
“n..no fair..” she said weakly.
“..not to mention, in the Force. Sorry, Ciri,” he murmured, to her hair, “…would it be fair again, if I told you that I like you too, just as much?”
“…i-it.. it might be..”
“I like you very much, little girl. ..I’ve never… like that, before. In my pants, without even being touched. ..You drove me a little bit mad. I like you dearly.”
Her blushing skin was not cooling, as he spoke.
Her voice caught, embarrassingly. “ha- —u-um, t-thank you..”
“Thank you.”
—A banging started, from the little speakers at the foot of the bed, startling them both.
She chuckled, as she recovered, and he huffed. “—is that still going?” he muttered, “..give me a moment, baby..” He squeezed her tight, and the projector switched off. The room fell quiet, and dark.
For a while, they lay there, comfortably entangled, and simply breathed, and shared their skin.
“..Ciri?” he asked her eventually.
“yeah, Luke?”
“..can I ask you.. Something personal?”
She blushed, premonitionally embarrassed, but affirmed, “o-of course.”
“..was that.. really your first?”
She nodded, against his chest.
“..can I ask.. why?”
“..w-what do you mean, why? I haven’t.. You k-know I haven’t been with anyone, Luke.”
“..I suppose I’m asking, why you haven’t.. why you don’t, touch yourself.”
“touch.. m-myself? ..y-you mean, d.. d-down—” She couldn’t say it.
“..Yes. Why don’t you touch yourself, between your legs, Ciri?”
She flushed. “P.. People do that?”
“..I thought everyone does that.”
“You do that?”
“I do that, while I think about you,” he revealed, gentle, yet matter-of-fact.
“o-o-oh..!” she stammered.
…And that was something, she was going to have to think longer on, later.
“…u-um, I-I guess… it never really occurred to me..” was all she could offer, in explanation.
“..hmm,” he declared, and lapsed into thought.
…He thought about her? ..What had he said about fantasizing, earlier.. was that this? ..And was it like tonight, did he.. swell up, and..spurt? Sticky stuff?
How did he do it?
..What did he think about, about her?
“..I’m starting to realize, how innocent my precious little girl really is..” he murmured softly.
Innocent, was a way of saying ignorant. She blushed.
“..I adore you, Ciri,” he gently reported, “I hope you feel that. Because I care for you, very deeply. You’re safe with me. I’m going to take care of you, in every possible way..so please don’t ever worry.” And he pressed a careful kiss, to her hair.
The words warmed her, to the bone. She snuggled in gratefully.
“..you know I’m going to match that, Luke,” she promised him, “However I can. Y-you’re..my star.”
“aww…but I’m caught up in your gravity well, little princess. ..So I guess we must form a binary system.”
She laughed, helplessly, “You’re so sweet..!”
“I better be. You deserve nothing less.”
His chest expanded, as he deeply drew down a breath.
“..Ciri? ..I don’t wanna leave you…,” he said haplessly… then complained, “—I hate not sleeping with you, I hate it. And, especially tonight, after we… I just don’t wanna go.”
She softly smiled, in empathy.
“aww…,” it was her turn, to say it back. “You know I want you with me. ..How’s the counterspying coming, sweet boy?”
“..Not badly. There’s a couple likely windows of opportunity. I need more time, though, to be sure of them.. Apart from early morning. Well before dawn, when everyone’s asleep. I could…I could leave you, then.” He frowned. “..You wouldn’t get to wake up with me. But it would be something.”
“I like something,” she agreed. “Something is much nicer, than being here all alone.”
“—I hope you realize that we’re going to share a bed every night when we’re away. Including in the shuttle bunks, where there’s hardly going to be space for it. You’ll need to sleep on top of me.”
She grinned, in anticipation. “I had hoped..that would be the case.”
“K, good. Looking forward to it.”
“Very much.”
..Did she want to share a bunk with him, where there really wasn’t room? Did she ever. Did she want to spend time with him alone, just the two of them, somewhere far away…
Her excitement burned. The days were counting down, but not fast enough.
She was only rarely intimidated, when she thought of their trip — past the stars, and into the unknown. With a gauntlet of rich space aliens strewn, somewhere along the way. —That was how perfectly, he treated her.
Something else popped into her mind, thinking of it.
“Luke? ..Did my dad… t-talk, to you?”
“About us leaving? Briefly. He had me swear to your care. I promised him, graphically.”
“..um.. N-not just about that. About… ‘intentions’.”
“Oh..yeah. He did indeed. You knew?”
“H-he.. A-asked me, too.”
“What did you say?”
“I didn’t answer him.”
“—At all?”
“N-no.”
He laughed, quietly. His chest shook. “my pretty darling… You’re royalty, after all. Refusing to answer the king..”
“..W-Well, what did you say?”
“I told him I wasn’t going to discuss formal arrangements with anyone but the person directly involved. ..He didn’t love that. …I wanted to reassure him, and I do need him a little, plus for work I guess, so.. So I did tell him — That my presence by your side is at your pleasure. Always. …Um. ..I..hope, this isn’t news to you..?”
She couldn’t help her smile. “N-no, it isn’t news.”
“K, good. We’re alright, then, yeah?”
She nuzzled her nose into his chest. “Yeah. Th-thanks, for not..”
“—Don’t mention it. …And try not to worry about it, either, Ciri. …I trust everything to unfold, in its time.”
“mm,” she agreed, and nodded. “perfect.”
~
…As the night gently wore on, they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
At some point predawn, she gently nudged half-awake, as he disentangled himself, kissed her brow, and rose. She grumbled in her throat and reached for him…something soft entered her embrace, and she squeezed it and dropped back off.
She awoke later, to find herself sweetly hugging a pillow.
She lay there, and let her upset swell, and ease… then lifted her head, to find his note on her bedside table.
Darling,
Trust me that I can’t keep my thoughts from you, today.. And that I’m coming for you, soon, if not soon enough.
—Luke
She smiled, and collapsed back in bed, hugging that pillow.
…Soon the great happening of the previous evening entered into her mind, and she blushed.. deeply.
He’d known just how to grab her. Just how to…pull.
And she didn’t know anything, hadn’t even the courage to touch him where she wanted, yet he’d still…
Goodness.
When he came to her, after his day’s duties… She blushed awfully, and something entirely tender transformed his face, as they entered each other’s field of view. He gently, carefully folded her into his arms, and sweetly stroked through her hair…and then slowly, softly kissed her, with such patient deliberation… “my sweet, sweet little girl,” he whispered to her, and she flushed with pleasure, and gave herself over into his care.
***
Later that week, he asked her up to her rooftop. He had her close all the shutters, so that the room fell dark. They’d assembled a small pillow cluster in the center of the floor, and she smiled in bemused anticipation as he had them sit in it cross-legged, facing each other. He produced the projector, fiddled with its settings with his penlight held in his mouth against the darkness, then set it down between them. Finally, he inserted something into his datapad.
“Watch,” he invited, with a pleased grin.
The air of the room filled with a hazy network of minuscule bright points, like dust.
It took her a moment, to recognize them as stars. And as soon as the realization dawned, she sat bolt upright, alertly looking about.
They clustered brightly in the room’s center, above their heads. Long snaky arms, like one of the tentacled beasts she’d found in the tidepools, trailed out from the nucleus in all directions, curling towards the far rims of the room.
“..It’s the galaxy,” he said.
She got up, and began to slowly pace around the recessed floor.. through the tinkling motes. He watched her, with a small smile.
“..Where are we?” she asked in a moment, breathless.
“That way,” he pointed. She approached the direction he’d indicated. “..Which?” He grinned, standing to follow.
“..It won’t be easy to find, without some assistance. We’re.. In that arm, along the inner edge, a bit more than halfway out.. in a small cluster, of stars. ..It should look like a little poof…”
She closed on that part of the projection. “..A poof…”
Some of the little pricks of light might be organized into poofs. They thickened as the ‘arm’ grew into its own, becoming indistinct. Along the edge, the stars skeined, their spacings varied…
He materialized, at her shoulder. “..I had R2 program us in,” he murmured, “..here.” He touched the datapad, and a vaguely balled grouping of tiny stars, a small bulbosity along the arm’s border, changed their shade, shifting red.
“This is.. our cluster?” she asked, “..What’s a cluster? ..What makes it separate, from…e-everything else..?”
“These stars are gravitationally bound, to each other. They were born together.”
“Oh… How does a star get born?”
“From an accumulation of space dust, falling into itself.”
“—From dust?” Surely something so large, should not come, from something..so small.
His arms wrapped warmly about her middle, and he nodded, against her hair, “Giant clouds of dust, floating in space… You can see them, when you look towards the Core, at night. It’s the dark bits, blocking some of the light.”
“..O-oh… I guess I.. thought that, the stars were just..thinner, there..”
“Their light, does not penetrate the dust.”
“..Stars are born from dust…” she echoed.. Mind incorporating the information.
“..Where the cosmic winds, blow it densely enough. All these stars, condensed in the same cloud…”
“Where is the cloud? Now.. Can we see it? Is that, what’s in front of the core?”
“No. That’s.. All the other clouds, and general debris, caught in the galaxy’s plane, between here and there. Your cluster’s cloud, is gone. The stars of your cluster blew it off, once they formed. ..Once the youngest of them, died.”
“Stars die?”
“Everything dies.”
She considered that pronouncement, differently now. “..Even the galaxy?”
“Even the galaxy..”
“..How does it die?”
“When it loses all its dust, and the last of its stars fade away..”
She said nothing, for a time. Gazing into the little star formation, that was her home.
“..It’s sad,” she said in the end.
“..Yes, I suppose it is. …Jedi are supposed, to take a more detached view.. Death brings life. All things must end.. that the new may arise.”
She softly bit her lip. “..Very philosophical..”
“We try.”
“What life comes out of a dead galaxy?”
He shrugged. “..It will one day collide with another, and contribute its remaining matter.”
“..That’s more like prolonging the life of something else.”
“Not to the new stars, and planets, that will be formed from the disruption of its corpse.”
“….Ah. True,” she conceded, “..but…”
She trailed off, to think.
“..Where do new galaxies come from?”
He smiled, against her hair, “From dust.”
“..Dust. Again. Dust…”
He nodded, “Bet you never would have guessed, dust could be that important.”
She agreed, “Never, in a million years… What about the dust that my star cluster blew off? ..What about the dust that gets lost, from a galaxy? What happens to it?”
“It drifts… In the wide empty spaces. Maybe something comes by, and scoops it up. Maybe, it just drifts…” She shivered slightly, in his arms.
That vastness he’d shown her, from orbit… how black it had been. How far, and how empty. ..That was just nearby.
“Then aren’t you losing dust? Overall..”
“Yes.”
Her brow drew, as her mind traced out the eventualities.
“….Luke? What will happen? In the end? ..When all the dust is lost, and all the stars are dead..”
“..At the end, when everything is spent, the Force will gather every dead, lost thing back together, and a new universe will begin.”
“Hmm.” She held his forearm, leaned back into him, and thought.
At last she said, “…Now I understand. What you meant, when you said the Force keeps the balance, of life and death. ..Aren’t you misusing it?”
“..Maybe just a little,” he nuzzled at her ear, “I won’t break it. Promise..”
“..It’s strange. For the energy that’s going to restart the world at the end of time, to be.. bringing me pillows and turning off lights. Or, letting you find where I’m waiting at, or..any of it..”
“..No stranger, than the dust.”
She smiled, granted him, “That’s true.”
“Do you think I’m being irresponsible? ..Frivolous..”
She laughed. “I don’t know… maybe just a little.”
“And when I used the Force to destroy the Death Star? ..When I used the Force, to call my lightsaber, and kill the wampa..?”
“—Of course not.”
“But in the scale of the universe, what does it matter, if a man lives, or a wampa eats?”
She closed her hand tight upon his forearm, and frowned, “It matters, to me.”
“—And to me. ..But it does not matter, to the Force.”
“..But.. you saved billions, when you destroyed the Death Star. Threepio said..”
“..mm. Billions. …And I killed, about a million, who were on board. ..What are a million people, or a billion.. Or a planet?” He touched the datapad, and one of the red-shifted points, flared green. “..This is your star. Here we sit, upon one of its five planets. We can’t even see them, at this scale…we can barely make out the star, that gives us the day. Look at the arm. We’d really have trouble, if yours happened to be one of the billions, deeper in…. And this entire map, is but one galaxy, out of trillions….”
She swallowed, thinking about it.
He kissed the shell of her ear, and gently murmured, “..Our little lives are frivolity, all the way down. I can no more impact the Force, than can an insect change the orbit of a planet, by walking upon the ground.”
There was silence, as she digested his words.
“..I.. Take your point. …And I retract my criticism.”
“So then, am I free, to use the Force that binds this universe, to bring you cushions, my lady?”
She smiled, despite herself, “Yes. You may.”
“Excellent decision,” he kissed her neck.
“Luke..”
“hmm?”
“..Do you ever feel…” she trailed off, unsure of which word was right.
“…Unreal?”
“..In the face of it? No.. I am one with the Force, when I meditate. ..Have I saddened you, a little?”
“..Not quite.”
“..You could meditate, with me. I could show you..”
She smiled, wistfully, and nodded. “I’d like that. Can we?”
“..Sit down with me, precious.”
He summoned a cushion. Sat under the galaxy’s arm, and she settled into his lap. He resecured his arms about her midsection, kissed her ear, and whispered, “Breath, with me… Release your thoughts.”
She knew how it went, by now. She relaxed into his warmth, let his chest move her…let the feel of him, fill her mind.
Her breath synchronized with his, and vanished, into the generalized sweep of motion, running through them both.
…This time, it was different. She became aware of the density of little things. The air was neither empty, nor uniform. A buzz of whizzing particles, filled it up..larger encrustations, were born aloft on their currents. At air’s edge, thicker things loomed…particles hemmed in, and vibrated in place.
..But that was just the beginning. Movement entered — the motion of perspective. Everything shrank, and shrank, and shrank, as awareness’ horizon broadened, and new territory rushed in, on all sides… And all, was naught but varying consistencies of swirling, vibing dots.
One thing was quite like another. The particles were different sizes, that was all.
Minutes passed by, and this shrinking expansion did not halt. Scale ceased to exist. Dots drifted, spewed, were spread thin or crammed together thick, and that was all.
Limitless motion, and silence. The jiggling, pinging stuff of the universe hove more and more, sucked into knowing more and more and more…
Time became lost, in the zooming.
And eventually, the sweeping motion of the universe’s dust returned itself, to breath.
~
For a while, her eyes would not open. So not to finally break, eternity’s spell. His breath gently nudging her torso felt larger, smaller, and more peaceful, than it ever had.
When she let her lids rise, her gaze was met with the suspended dust of the map, and that one green flash amongst the numberless formation.
She watched it, in silence.
At last she whispered, “what do your people name my star?”
“NRSS12-420-1242.”
“NRSS1242012..42?” she repeated, faintly dismayed.
“a star survey designation,” he softly explained.
“..It won’t do..”
“…Give it a name, princess. A real one.”
It was a lot, to name a star. Her people simply called it…Sun. It had been worshipped. Personified in deities, down through the ages, whose names all meant, in some kingdom’s tongue — Sun. It had given life, to all the lonely corners, and every last bit of the land.
Every species must call their sun, Sun.
“…I’ll have to think about it,” she concluded.
“tell me when it comes to you, sweetheart,” he kissed her hair.
She stared at her star, a moment longer.
“Luke? ..Thank you. I think now I understand.”
He smiled, gently, and nodded. “..Everything will be alright.”
“Yes, I suppose that it will.”
***
Soon after, she completed the work she’d labored over daily, for weeks. She wrapped it in muslin, and placed it in her pack.
She went out to the cherry tree, and took up residence underneath it. Its flowers had gestated tart red fruit, in which the birds were taking interest. Insects buzzed amongst the wildflowers dotting the tall grass.
She remembered how he’d looked under the branches that day. ..She’d been so pleased, by his company.. And so intimidated, by his beauty. Her fingers half-absently toyed with his star, about her neck, as she smiled over the memory.
As the day was aging past noon, he came.
“Ciri,” he greeted.
She opened her eyes — she’d been practicing her meditation — and smiled up at him, where he stood before her. He was early.
“Luke,” she replied, satisfaction filling out her tone, and patted the grass beside her, “sit down next to me, pretty boy.”
He grinned, and did, settling in at her side. “..I remember when you first brought me here. You were nervous to look at me. But you made me feel so relaxed..”
“..And you made me so embarrassedly happy, when you called me a naturalist.”
He laughed, “—Only you could be that dedicated to something, and not acknowledge it.”
She began to chuckle, “Maybe. I’m lucky to have you, always talking me up.”
“Someone needs to.”
She smiled.
“..I made you this.” She handed him, the cloth-wrapped packet.
“—Ciri,” he murmured softly, almost a protest, as he accepted it. “baby..”
As he began to unwrap it, for the first time she felt the butterflies in her stomach stir.
He grinned, took her hand and squeezed her palm. “..You’re getting nervous. But you could bring me anything, princess, and I would appreciate it, if it’s from you.” He raised her hand and kissed her knuckles. “..You could bring me a dead rodent carcass like a loth-cat, and I would be on board.”
She couldn’t hold back her laugh, at that. He was very sweet to say so, even if it could only part-way be true.
“..D-don’t worry, this won’t rot,” she returned.
He smiled, kindly, as he unwrapped the muslin, with one hand. His other was still busy, clasping hers. “I’m sure you could keep a rodent carcass from rotting…Somewhere in all those books you must have learned the art,” he teased.
Meanwhile, he finished uncovering her gift… and his manner stilled, as he gazed down in study.
It was a plaited choker, woven from 4 strands of leather in a traditional knot design. —The pattern was that for travelers, upon long journeys. Hints of foliage from his homeland were pressed into alternating strands. Woven into the center was an emblem of a womp rat, graven in bone. She’d used his datapad, to search out references.
He passed his fingertips gently across its surface.
“..they’re funnel flowers,” he murmured, reverentially quiet.
“a-and, desert sage,” she confirmed.
“we used to..” he trailed.
“I know.” It was the cause, for her selection of the flora.
He turned his attention to the pendant. “…a womp rat,” he breathed…and a tiny smile, curled the corner of his lip.
“I-I like it.. for your charge.”
“my charge..” he echoed blankly.
“a symbol..for your standard.”
He smiled, secretly.
“..it’s a good symbol for me,” he finally endorsed, “..the Tatooinian rat..” he laughed, bellyless and silent.
“…I love this, Ciri. Very, very much. It’s beautiful. And it reminds me of home. …And so do you..”
She hesitated, only an instant.
“…I love you, Luke,” she offered him.
He raised his gaze to hers. Studied her, with a slow, soft blink.
“I love you too, Ciri baby,” he whispered.
Breath came out of her in something akin to a giddy, airy laugh. She smiled down, to their tightly clasped hands.
They shared a moment there.
A soft chuckle, sounded in his throat. “..You know I’ve thought about saying that to you, before,” he muttered ruefully, “ ..Caught myself, even, just beforehand.. a couple of times.”
She blinked in surprise.
“Why.. why stop yourself?” she asked quietly.
He gave a shake of his head, and flashed her a crooked, penitent smile. “..I didn’t want to put pressure, on you, or…us. Since we’re so.. new, or..” He stopped, and bit his lip. “…Now it seems pretty foolish, doesn’t it?”
She blushed, and wasn’t sure why. “I-I don’t know.. I probably wouldn’t have been brave enough, b-before.”
“..Well I think you’re very brave, Ciri. ..Here I’ve been… falling for you ruinously, thinking how I can embed you in my life.. And in the end, you’re the one to say it first.”
“..well..” she said with a short, quiet laugh, “You made me trust, u-us, enough. You make.. you make me feel loved, you know?”
He smiled, at that.
“…Come sit in my lap,” he invited her, gentle and earnest.
She nodded, and he carefully set her gift aside upon its cloth, and pulled her onto him. He raised his knees, pitching her into him, and wrapped his arms around her, making a cage, of his body. She curled up against him, and snuggled in. He ran his palm along her arm, leaned his cheek against her hair, and sighed, slowly, “..I love you, little girl. I’m sorry, if I should have said so, before. ..You’re the only thing that makes me not feel lost.”
Throat thick, “—I love you too, Luke,” was the only thing she could reply, roughly. “..I love you, sweet boy..”
He smiled, and pressed a kiss to her hair. “shhh… everything is well, little one.”
She smiled too, closed her eyes, and nodded.
Time passed, in the tree’s shade. It was a sun-warmed afternoon, outside their bower.
“..you made this for me..” he whispered, musingly, in time. She nodded against him. “..I can’t believe it. I didn’t know, you know how to carve. Or.. Any of it. ..It’s so beautiful..”
He looked out at the clear blue sky, visible through the laden branches. The world beyond the tree softly hummed.
“..I’ve tracked so far across this galaxy…to find berth on the other side..”
He smiled, about it. “..Kiss me, baby. Won’t you? ..And put this on me.”
So she shifted in his arms, raised her head, and her hands. Her fingers closed, in his collar, in the soft hair at the nape of his neck. His pretty blue eyes watched her.. then fell shut, as she leaned in, and gently kissed him.
..They nuzzled noses, after, and giggled, soft as breath.
Then she cleared her throat, and picked up the necklace. Held it to his throat, as he shyly bit his lip, and his fingers burrowed into her clothing.
“..I hope I judged the length right,” she softly remarked. “—I can’t even guess at how you tried,” he murmured. She wrapped the two ends around his neck and felt for the workings of the clasp, on the other side. “..For a long time I couldn’t either.. —I used the tunic with the turtleneck thing, when you left me in your rooms. ..There, how does that feel?”
“Good and proper. Thank you, Ciri..”
“Good,” she smiled with relief, letting her hands drop to his shoulders. Her eyes flicked over him, studying.
“How do I look?” he grinned sheepishly, blushing.
She’d always liked the look of that tunic, with its collar that sheathed up his neck.
“Handsome. You’re so pretty! ..Your eyes are..so pretty.. —And now I just have to hide this tunic,” she did so with her arms crossed over his clavicles, “..and you could be on a farm, any farm. ..My sweet, pretty farmboy.”
He laughed, eyes sparkling. “..I wish I could see.”
She could curse her lack of foresight. “I should have brought a mirror.. We could go back..”
“Not yet. Stay here, with me, a while. ..I like this spot.”
She smiled, and nodded her agreement.
“Get comfy,” he murmured, and she squirmed back around, so to be cradled again against his chest. He wrapped his arms about her and squeezed her tight, and she let her hand find his and lace his fingers, and sighed and closed her eyes, indulgently nudging into him.
“..I love you, Ciri,” he whispered carefully beside her temple.
Her ribs felt full, to overflowing. She closed her eyes, as her lips curled up, into a too-happy smile. Around them, the universe was buzzing.
Chapter 13: Quickening
Notes:
Ladies and gentlemen, we have lift-off (smut).
Also, if you feel like you recognize a little part of this from the last chapter, that's because you do. You're not crazy, I moved it.
Chapter Text
The morning after.. when she opened her eyes, the day was cloudy. The morning light filtered wan and even through the skyborne screen.
For once, he had not woken before her. She studied his placid face. His prettily lined cheeks…plush lips, cutely rounded nose…and that adorable little cleft chin. He looked vulnerable. And dear.
…She wondered briefly how many women, it had been.
And in all their number, was not a single one who’d looked on him with the desire to tenderly cuddle him up, and keep him warm? She considered it.
The thought process of these nameless girls, was utterly foreign to her. She couldn’t even be jealous.
…He’d been hurt. All at once, then.. little by little, possibly on accident. Then he’d.. wandered…
..And recently, that had all somewise changed. Thanks to…meeting her. Who wanted to cuddle him, very much.
This was strange information. It would surely necessitate considerable time to assimilate.
She carefully stroked the back of her knuckle, along the soft underside of his jaw.
He shifted, in his sleep… his arms tightened, his body contracted around her, reflexively. His stiffened member pressed into her thigh.
She smiled. He was gorgeous. He felt like hers. His body was warm and smooth and soft, beneath the sheets. He trusted her, and she trusted him back.
…Comfy as a cat.
That was her, in his bed.
~
…In time, he opened his eyes.
“good morning, beautiful,” she murmured greeting, when she saw.
He blinked… And slowly smiled, squeezed her tighter still, luxuriously nuzzling his face down into her hair while pulling her firmly up against him, arms wrapped about her torso. She sighed in contentment, as she returned his full-body hug.
…When at length he eased up on her, she held his jaw, and stroked her thumb along his cheek. “beautiful,” she whispered to him, and he blushed. “sweet..,” she kissed the tip of his nose, “..precious.” And she claimed his soft mouth.
His pretty lips were hers. He moaned, delicately, into her mouth. Her handsome farmboy, with his soft warm body and his hard dick.
“..how are you, my sweet, pretty boy?” she breathed when she’d done. He blushed deeply scarlet, breath disordered. Glanced down to their merged bodies with a quiet, bashful laugh.. then raised his gaze with a cute little smile. “..I’m well, Highness. thank you.. for favoring me..”
—Now that made her blush, but it hardly had time to register, before he was dipping back in, taking another kiss… Slowly..yet hungrily..
..She was scandalously aware, of his erection.
“..b-be serious, sweet,” she urged him, when she’d breath.
…He smiled, happily, and nuzzled her, “you have so many pretty names for me..
“…Ciri, I’m well,” he assured, “you’ve kept me comfy..” he sighed, “..You’re so nice and warm..n’so good to wake up to…” He gave her a squeeze and kissed the side of her nose, wetly cute…then dropped to her lips.
She couldn’t help her gratified smile.
“you’re..f-fair comfy, yourself,” she managed to reply. Yes, and scintillating, too.
Breath exhaled through his nose, as he grinned, and gently took another kiss.
“thanks for staying with me..,” he whispered.
“..I always want to stay with you,” she said truthfully, kissing him back.
“…I’m working on it..” he mumbled to her mouth.
“..What are you doing?”
He pulled back from their kisses, and crookedly grinned, “Spying. —Counterspying. On the places whose windows, you can see the sides of your tower from.. I’m thinking to come down from off the top when no one’s looking.”
“—What? That’s crazy..”
“—It is not,” he defended, “..It’s a great idea. I’ll take up meditating at the base. No one will think twice of me walking around.. but that I’m down there pining for you, maybe.” —She snuffed, thinking about the unlikelihood of people thinking that. “—Which, I will be,” he underlined in response, “..you’ll see, baby. This is a fabulous plan.”
That made her smile. He was so earnest.
“Thank you for your efforts, sir Jedi.”
“anything for the cause, my lady,” he confidently returned.
..Something about it made her think about him, always coming out to her gazebo, to talk to her.
“..Thank you, for everything, Luke,” she added full-heartedly.
He smiled, tenderly. “It’s been nothing but my pleasure, Ciri..”
“You’re deadly sweet.”
..He laughed at that, sheepish.
“..You’re adorable,” she followed up, “I just adore you, darling.”
“such pretty names, from a pretty little girl,” he sighed, and kissed her luxuriously. That appellation struck her, in a whole new way, given the rod that was ridden up against her down below.
She felt so close, easily possessive of him..
“you’re my good little boy,” she whispered to him, and abruptly an involuntary moan choked thickly in his throat. “—yes, Highness,” he rasped, pulling her in decisively against him — and his mouth was on hers again, kissing her messily, and deep.
She felt herself in a cage, of pure titillation…and wantonly kissed him back, rubbing into his encircling form. Saliva smeared, everywhere. His erection was trapped between them. She was intensely aware of its precise position, impressed into her thigh. It rolled slightly, as she convulsed thoughtlessly into him, and his soft gasp, “—mmph!”, was smothered in her mouth.
She had become a fiery mess. In the confusion, she couldn’t tell which one of them, or both, was quietly whining.
~
…The heady, pleasurable wave gradually crested, and passed..leaving them both clinging tightly to each other’s forms..kissing more tenderly..
..And finally just clinging, incredibly tight.
Eventually, the existence of time, and the day outside this bed, unhappily dragged itself into her mind. “…do you have to go, today?” she asked his chest softly, knowing that he did… and probably soon.
He lightly grimaced, and nodded against her hair. “..but technically you don’t have to.”
“no?”
“..this is an empty hallway. it’s on the way to nothing…there’s no other visitors. Just me. I’ve hardly sensed a single person, here.. no one will come by.”
“..you’re our guest, doesn’t my father send you a maid?”
“your father’s people are a little bit scared of me, actually. And I don’t generate much need for tidying, anyway.. someone will come while I’m out, at the end of the week.”
She frowned, and protested, “they’re not scared.. they were practically cheering for you, just the other day.”
..He smiled, fondly gentle. “The kitchen staff, aren’t afraid… and I’m sure I have you, to thank for that, beautiful. Most of the rest of them find me somewhat ominous.”
“come now..,” she chided, “..you’re fascinating. And well-mannered. And gorgeous. You’re not scary.”
Amusement filled his voice, “..darling, I may have to invite you to consider the possibility that not every person views me as you do.”
As she opened her mouth to protest, he continued softly, “..I know what it’s like, to stand with men and women who fear me, Ciri… Even if it’s subtle. …Even if it’s not enough to carry through in the Force. You still come to notice.. It’s in the shift of their weight. And their gaze. They can’t help it — it’s just their knowledge of the power I hold. ..It follows me, across this galaxy, like an aura…and even here.. —Well, I’m strange. I suspect I may bring unsavory folktales to mind..”
She swallowed. There were tales, of fickle ancient spirits, taking on the shape of men, to ensorcel the unsuspecting and unwary. “you aren’t scary, Luke,” she insisted.
He smiled. “don’t trouble yourself over it, little one. you’re with me.. All is well.”
…She nudged a nod, into his chest.
Something still entered his voice. “you’re with me. ….I crossed the galaxy to find you. …think about that..? This little planet, is in the Unknown Regions of space…” He huffed a soft laugh, “—I thought I was from a backwater. ..The merest of accidents, brought me here…”
“…I have thought about that,” she acknowledged softly, “so far away…it’s hard to believe. —But, in a way, no harder than that you’re not from here at all. …That you’re from space, that you’ve got mind powers, that there’s beings made of metal… It’s only one impossibility more.”
…She didn’t add to the list, that you like me.
It had come into her mind, like a reflex, but was rebuffed.. by his delicate proximity. She saw the poor farmer from the trackless desert, more than ever. He was more impressable than she could have imagined. More… in need of her, too.
All that time, he’d so patiently flirted with her… It hadn’t only been, for her slowness responding.
“..right,” he was whispering, “now that I can’t imagine. Not really. I’ve always known… What lay past the sky. ..I grew up with legends of the Force..the way your people did with their myths and folkstories..” He bit his lip.
“—You’re bold, to be with me the way you are.”
She snuffed. “You kept being so unbelievably kind to me, farmboy. ..Anyways, powers and alien technologies and whatnot or no, we’re here on my home turf.”
..She thought about leaving the planet. She knew she couldn’t imagine, how far from home she’d be then. A spark of trepidation briefly flared.
He noticed it. Tightened his arms, “..I’ll keep you safe, when we’re not. …keep you by my side. —Won’t let anyone speak, or even look at you, if you don’t want.”
That made her laugh, in his embrace. “And how will you do that?” she teased.
“—With my magic powers. I’m a powerful warlock. Haven’t you been told?”
“—You wouldn’t.”
He grinned in admittance, “no, I guess not. …With credits, then. …I’ll rent out whatever, so that my lady and I can be tourists, without all the other tourists.”
“Oh?”
“..I’ve never lived as ostentatiously, as I could.. After everything. ..Suddenly I kinda like the idea of throwing my weight around a little, just to impress you. ..Wow, I could make you think so much of me..”
She snickered. She could not imagine, him doing any such thing. Trying to impress, throwing weight around, or living ostentatiously. “I’m ruining you..” she lamented.
“..tempting,” he affirmed, “—Yes, please do.”
She huffed — hushed him, with a kiss. “behave yourself, pretty boy.”
“….be here, when I get back, Ciri… let me come home to you..” he implored her mouth. It filled her with longing.. —And then he blushed, at what he’d said.
“I-I mean.. You don’t have to, of course. There’s not much here, to occupy you..”
“—I’d love to.”
—He stopped his backpedaling and smiled, sunnily. And kissed her.
“Thank you, sweetheart.. You spoil me so..”
“..yet not nearly enough.”
He hmphed, happily.
Then sighed with regret, rubbing his face into her neck. “..I have to go… I’m so sorry, little one… —Get into my stuff today, please. Touch everything. I want you all over it. ..Your essence, absolutely everywhere, on everything I own..”
It was somehow voluptuous, for a domestic little fantasy.
“baby, I’ll miss you,” she promised him, “and I will do my best.”
“—Force, you’re so perfect.” He rose above her, gave her one more deep, pressing kiss. “I…” he stopped. For a moment, he seemed lost, gazing down at her..then his eyes cleared, flicked with life once more, and he smiled, and whispered, “I’ll come back to you, darling,” and sweetly kissed her brow.
..And reluctantly he released her, disentangled his limbs, and rose. …She took the privilege of watching him dress from within his bed, then kissed him goodbye.
She hugged his pillow tight and tried to smell him, in the sheets, after he was gone. Let the sudden tide of her loneliness, gradually ebb.
…And after a time she arose, and explored his rooms.
She found pen and paper, in his sitting room, and began to sketch. His bed, where they had slept. His clothing. His accoutrement. The various foreign implements, jumbled together in his bag. She lifted each one out, with an appraising eye, thought if she’d seen it in a holo.. tried to deduce its purpose. Pictured its role, in his life, that he had chosen to pack it. She found some kind of terrible trail food, and ate an entire bar, puzzling over it. She tried out his hair goop, on a lock of her hair, and was somehow so surprised, when it made her hair stiff. She wished with brief, tragic intensity that she could draw a smell…then found his tunic from the day previous and buried her face in the armpit.
When he came back, she was on the floor in his closet with her knees up, sketchwork braced across her thighs, and the shirt, hung over her shoulder where she could access its scent… sketching out his dress boots.
He moved through the apartment directly to her location… and appeared, leaned in the closet door frame with a big happy grin and his arms crossed and his eyes shining, and greeted her, “Hey, Ciri. How’s my girl doing today?”
Her heart leapt a little at seeing him, then ached comfortably, and she smiled warmly up at him, “Well. I’m glad to see you—! ..How about you?”
“Glad to see you, too.” He knelt, before her.. A mischievous smile, crooked his lips, “..Is that my shirt?”, as he settled, at eye level..
She blushed. “..I c-certainly think so.”
..And he was leaning forward, reaching out, with both hands, to brace on the wall of the closet and to let his fingers into her hair, cupping the back of her skull. He gave her such a soft, slow kiss.. “..What else, do you have there..?”
“..I drew all your stuff,” she announced.
He laughed, happily. Her chest flared, at the sound.
“Ciri..
“Thanks, darling. You’re sure good, to come back to, too,” he gently remarked. She grinned, and rubbed noses with him.
***
She interpreted him differently, after that night. The possibility of his vulnerability was no longer merely vague or theoretical. When he softly sought her hand, or gave her a gentle smile, or nuzzled into her… She understood he could be hurt.
She had a responsibility, to him… In a way she perhaps, hadn’t fully appreciated, before. It was also her job, to keep him safe. Even if she wasn’t strong, like he was. Even if that was insane.
She hugged him more tightly, in the wake. She strove to shower him with her affection.. such as it was. She brought him more flowers, and practiced her leather-braiding, slightly secretively. And when she — somehow, however improbably — made him happy — every time she elicited his light, cheery laughter or earned his pretty, sunny smile… it struck her, like a blaze of light, to her chest, and she was pleased unto contentment.
She discovered herself feeling intensely protective of what passed between them. She didn’t expect she would ever discuss him with another person, again
***
Soon after, he brought her a gift. She was waiting for him out at the gazebo, her whittling already packed away.
..She saw him coming, cross the sward, and admired his lanky strides… Then bit her lip, and ran out to him, unable to wait.
He was ready for her, catching her with a laugh as she reached him and flung her arms about his shoulders. “Highness,” he murmured to her hair, “baby, I missed you.”
She nodded, in his arms, rubbing her face enthusiastically into his shoulder, until he laughed.
…Minutes later, her grip loosened and she caught his mouth in a kiss.
“..I brought you something,” he whispered to her lips.
“Aww!” she exclaimed, and he blushed, air involuntarily snuffing through his nose.
“w-what is it?” she asked, shy at his embarrassment.
“A token of my affection,” he said softly, reaching down to his belt with one hand and retrieving an object.
It was a small, hinged box. He held it up to her. Looking wonderingly from the box to his handsomely reddened face, and back, she reached up to accept it…and opened it.
Her eyes widened. There was a gem inside, of purest white.
She watched it, fascinated by the hints of color faintly shifting in its depths.
Lightly biting his lip, he reached into the box behind the gem, and lifted out a delicate silver chain, upon which it was hung. It flashed brightly in the full sun.
“..I’m a bit embarrassed to give you this,” he murmured bashfully, placing it over her head and gently retrieving her hair from the chain, “because I’ve never seen you wearing jewelry, or known you to value..valuable trinkets. And.. when I was thinking about this, my mind did touch on plenty of other keepsakes that would suit you better.” He lifted the gem up before her, turning it to show her how it sparked. She softly reached up to it, her fingers tangling with his as they handled the setting. “…A bit of moss, or a twig, from some foreign world, cased in epoxy,” he suggested with a fond smile, “That would be perfect for you. Or maybe a vial of sand, from..Tatooine. But… None of those things felt right to just send for. I would have to have retrieved them myself. So…. So this. A corusca gem. I thought you might appreciate its beauty, in any case.”
He cupped her hands closely over it, concealing it fully from the sun, and she gasped… The gem gleamed, from within the shadow. Tiny flecks of rainbow were cast upon her palms. How was that…?
…It was a star. A tiny star, caught in silver.
“I hope.. you like it,” he said sheepishly.
He was like a star.
“i-it’s beautiful,” she told him. “J-just like you.. It’s perfect. I love it! —Thank you, Luke!”
She tore her eyes from the shining white gem and up to his reddened face. To think, of being embarrassed to present such beauty. She could scour the entire world with the value of her father’s kingdom in currency upon her back, and fail to find a gift its match.
She did not allow herself to think too long, nervously, of what plain, earthly thing she was preparing for him.
Instead she rose up onto her toes and kissed him, in earnest.
***
She wore his gem, constantly after that. She did not even take it off to sleep. She reluctantly removed it, only to bathe…lest water, or soap disagree with the chain’s metal. When she missed him at night, she would curl up around it and cup it in her hands…gazing into its pure light, shining in the dark.
…She was able to smile, when she missed him, now. The ache had become comfortable, after all. She trusted his presence.
People she passed in the halls and on the grounds couldn’t help but spy the light upon her breast. Olandria shot her an ill look. She almost dropped it beneath her leathers, to alleviate the attention…but forced herself, not to. It was his mark. The kitchen staff were agoggle over it — and for them, she did not mind. They gathered round as she shielded it from the windows, demonstrating its internal fire.
She brought the Sonenmead from her rooms one afternoon, and they took their walk, from sunset into the moonlight. She always started the perambulation from the gentle crown of a particular swell of the lawn. She slung one wineskin over her shoulder, and they passed the other back and forth between them. The sky flared, as they traded draughts, and soft, easy words.
…The light failed, and she led him off upon their way. There was a crossing point nearby, over the stream and into a portion of the woods where the trees stood a bit farther apart, than most. She wouldn’t dare the deep depths, at night.
The shadowy underbelly of the forest rose, and gradually knitted them in, cooling the air.. hastening the dusk. She led them down a deer trail through the undergrowth, until losing it, in the dim.
The dark held a newness. The mead had bestowed it onto the air all around them…as a material quality.
…As the night deepened, the night’s light glimmered. Gentle shafts meandered down to spackle them, and ferns brushed their calves. Now and again they passed into clearings and crossed little meadows, under the stars. The night felt close and wide at the same time. She held his hand, and kissed him, in the dark.
***
At some point, too, her father sent for her.
She turned up nervously to his receiving room, to find him seated in his great chair, pouring over a sheath of papers.
“Hello, Father,” she greeted uncertainly.
“Daughter. Very good,” he said, looking up. “I take it you know of this?”
“..O-Of what?” she blinked.
“This.. ‘Intragalactic Banking Conference’. …I have received a most unusual missive, on the topic. Your presence has been requested. By this foreign polity’s ruler. ..Personally.”
“—O-oh! —Yes, I am aware. I… would very much wish to attend,” she suggested with hopeful caution.
“—It is done, then. Attend you shall. The Republic will send a.. ‘ship’, for you, I am told.”
She blinked, again. “Really?” So easily?
Her father fixed her with a look. “Really. ..And I wish to have it from you… What you see, with our friend, Master Skywalker.”
“W-what do you mean, what I see? I see the same as you, I’m sure…” she returned, hesitant under his gaze.
Her father’s eyes flicked to the gem, upon her chest.
“..You are making quite the waves, with him. This is only the second time his royal sister has deigned speak with me — Undoubtedly, she does so on his behalf. So, what do you see, with him.. In your future, daughter?”
The question ought to have been entirely predictable. Somehow, it took her unawares.
She struggled to give voice to an answer. “I… I h-hope, to know him a very long time, yet,” she offered, conservatively.
The King shifted, in his chair. “So little? Is that all?”
She felt the color creeping to her cheeks.
“..u-um….”
Her father was direct. “Do you wish, to take his hand? ..And do you think he feels the same?”
Somehow, she deeply resented this line of questioning. It was private. Could she not have this, to herself?
She wanted, and maybe needed, to watch their flower unfurl, sheltered from external observation. To question what hid at its throat was not toward.
So she knotted her jaw. “…I-I.. I decline to answer.”
Her father blinked, in surprise.
“You ‘decline to answer’?”
“..y.. —Yes.” She stood straighter.
…Belatedly, she wondered if her obstinance might not impact her father’s response to the invitation.
“Well.” The king remarked. “…Well. Perhaps Skywalker will be more forthcoming.” —He meant to ask Luke? Her brow knitted. ..She had no place to stop him.
..What would Luke reply?
Meanwhile her father continued, “In any case, I expect this ‘ship’ within the month.” His tone turned toward dismissal, “…Represent us well, daughter. I anticipate, Chief of State Organa maintains a tremendous court.”
She felt light… even a little giddy. “I.. Shall do my best, Father,” she promised.
He nodded, his agreement…though he had to know, that on this score her best was not likely very good. She didn’t dwell on it, however.
Her head was swimming, as she exited the royal chamber.
***
Some days later, he brought her to a desert.
It was her world’s deepest. Its basin lay recumbent near the equator, hidden from the rains by a line of mountain peaks.
They set down beside a low outcropping of rock, upon a slowly sloping plain. As the canopy opened, she blinked, in the sun. For a moment, silence reigned, and everything was bright. ..Then the air brought her ears a rising hum.
It faded, back near silence….
Before intensifying yet again. She stood, into the sun.
She felt strange, scrambling down the S-foil…somewhere new, but she couldn’t stop thinking about him. The land seemed to be breathing, all around her…with that slowly pulsing hum. Her boots hit the sand, and broke through a hardened crust upon its surface.
…She delicately held out her hand, and felt the heat of the air. —A wind abruptly gusted, blowing heat into her face, and she gasped, sharply — she had never before felt one, that failed to cool.
She squinted into the distance. Squat, rude bushes dotted the gently sweeping landscape, interspersed by rocks and tiny tufts of something like grass. The crystal sky shimmered. The wind had failed to nothing, swiftly as it came. The mountains were dimly visible, peeking darkly over the far horizon.
She heard his boots, strike earth.
She turned, “I-is it, like…?”
“..It is. Some,” he murmured. “..a little. Tatooine was…harsher.”
She looked at him, wordless.
For once, he had eschewed black. Cream was his choice, in its place…and he had brought along a length of pale cloth he’d found, with a slack, open weave, wrapping it loosely about his head and upper body.
Now his golden brown hair and gently tanned skin blended with the draping cloth. The wind blew again. It must be an insect, making that hum.
She knew he’d described a fully barren landscape, where this still had its little bushes and death-hued tufts… but she couldn’t imagine, harsher.
“..Something is alive out there,” she commented finally, upon the hum.
He smiled, softly, “..The desert hides more, than you would think.”
He approached gently, and put his hands upon her shoulders.. lightly turning her, to face it.
“It’s hard to believe, it’s the same sun, isn’t it?” his voice came to her. For once, he had shied from pressing his body against hers.
She nodded, swallowing…and put her hand out again. The sun felt closer, here — or bigger.
“..It’s like it’s your enemy, but sometimes I felt it like a hug,” he mused. The wind rushed them, then died, into whatever bug’s growing thrum.
“..A hug?” she echoed, in small surprise.
“Yes. It’s like, everything is warm here..hugging you.” And now he snaked his arms around her and finally did press himself fully against her back. He spoke against her temple, “..Sometimes I felt, like I could lay myself down on the earth and give over to it, like a..crucible, and a bed.”
She closed her eyes, in the heat, feeling it. The humming slowly throbbed, and energy entered her, from all sides and every surface.
…Eventually, they walked, directionless across the landscape.
He’d swathed her in another length of cloth, the twin of his, and the sun bathed her less fiercely through it. At his advice she’d brought excess water, in her pack.
She crouched by a wizened bush and drew it. Its leaves were tiny, held sideways like blades, against the sun. Dried, crumbly droppings had collected amongst the fallen detritus, at its base. …On an instinct, she thrust her fingers into the sand beneath the bush’s mulch…and for the first time since arriving, felt a temperature cooler than her body.
“..Something larger is here, that made these,” she observed.
“We should stay until twilight. That is when the land will come active.”
She thought about that. “Everything is hiding from it.. The sun. Even this plant is doing its best. ..In the woods, nothing can get close enough…the trees and undergrowth fight each other, for a shaft…”
“…On Tatooine, almost nothing withstands the open suns. The plants find crevices, and shadows…”
—She sharply in-drew a breath, “Look!”
..Her eye had caught the movement of a beetle, skittering betwixt vegetation, across the desert’s hardpack. Its long legs held its body securely above the heated sand. Surprising to her eyes, it was black.
He chuckled lightly. “Told you, there’s more than meets the eye..”
“I wish I could find whatever is making that sound.”
“Shall I find it for you, princess?”
She smiled gratefully, “..Yes, please, Master Jedi.”
..So he closed his eyes, and stilled, to placidity.
In contemplation, she watched his face. …Somehow his beauty had become the more special to her, as more familiar. Like a delicate, irreplaceable piece of crystal, or glass… This land was not a place, for anything delicate. Yet his home had been.. more that, than this.
…And after some time they arose, and continued their pace…periodically taking water, from the skins in her pack.
He led, and she could not believe, how far they had to trek, to encounter the humming’s source. The X-wing was but a glint in the light at their backs, by the time it had swelled, to clear presence nearby.
It was a bug. A single, solitary, winged bug, perched beneath a bush’s branch. She crouched down, and watched it closely. Its thrumming blotted out all else, each time it built towards peak. Initially she could observe no hints at all, as to the method of its generation…but upon finding the right angle she was able to note first its abdomen twitching… and then a small structure tucked just under its wing, that vibrated into homogeneity each time the sound engaged, and resolved into curving ribs during each silence. ..Was it calling for a mate?
She sketched it faithfully, wishing it a companion.
—Then looked over to hers, crouched across from her.
He returned her gaze, with a gentle smile. ..She swallowed.
—And rose, needing to hug him.
…He stood to meet her, and held her back, with calm strength…softly stroking.
“..I-I think that bug is lonely,” she quietly confessed.
He smiled, against her hair. “..Perhaps another has already heard its call.”
…Then he sighed, and closed his eyes, “…A girl sweet enough, to wish the bugs well… exactly, the girl I need. ..Be with me baby..”
—She nodded, determinedly, against his chest.
…And as she steadied, under his patient caress.. she raised her head, to look up at him. “A-are you Ok?” she asked gently. He laughed, brightly sudden in the sun.
And kissed her, with care. “..darling, as long as I’m with you…” he promised, “—Are you?”
She nodded stubbornly. “…Does this place remind you of it, really, at all?”
“..It does,” he affirmed. “…I haven’t been avoiding deserts, you know. I’m alright. ..But..it is different, now… seeing it with you. More pointed, somehow. —Not in a bad way, it’s just.. ..you seem to bring home, closer to the surface.” He tightened his arm about her back, and warmly pressed a kiss to her brow, “..please, there’s no need for concern. I’m very happy, to show you this place, my princess.”
..So that she smiled, and felt better. “O-OK. Thank you, Luke!”
He fondly handled her cheek, and assured her with a saturated smile, “..The bug can find a mate. I found you.” And he gave her a deep, passioned kiss.
…He held her hand, as they made their way back…as the sun crept towards the horizon, and the day subtly waned.
Sandstone gently outcropped above the ship. They spread their meal out there on their head-cloths. The sky, annihilated in abject brilliance, as the sun fell past the boundary of the world.
She had never seen such a sunset.
…Afterward, the desert gently wakened. He gathered her in between his legs and wrapped an arm about her stomach…using his other to direct her attention, as needed, into the slowly dimming twilight.
Beetle crossings of the open spaces became more frequent.
A low bird’s call, sounded from the distance.
Out on the far sands, he made sure she noted a rabbit, nibbling the desert grass. “..not dead after all,” he whispered of it, and she smiled, glad.
And at length a rodent emerged from a hole at their sandstone’s base, to pick through the bits at the bottom of a nearby bush… searching for seeds.
…She made a final sketch, of the entire cooling landscape, before they left, at the last.
***
Something new happened between them, one evening as they were cuddled up, watching a holo in their skivvies, under her sheets.
—The holo was a horror, and it wasn’t very good. It failed to hold attention, even partially. ..Which left her attention, straying entirely onto him — her pretty man, nestled warmly against her, nearly naked in her bed. He had his arms wrapped strongly about her torso, and was sedately nuzzling her tresses, as the opening scenes played out. Her fingers stroked meditatively along his forearms.
..Soon enough, in the projection, a particularly annoying side character explored an abandoned colonial trailer and received an unpleasant surprise. She didn’t even flinch, as a clawed hand descended from darkness, poised dramatically just a beat, and struck — unceremoniously dragging the screaming offender from view..presumably, from this mortal coil.
At her lack of response he chuckled, rumbling against her temple, “oh no.. Have we picked out a dud?”
“—Maybe,” she turned her face from the projection, and squirmed, turning over against him… and caressed his chest..
The holo might be bad but it was still an incomparable treat, to be snuggled up with him like this, skin to skin. ..She squeezed his warm pectoral, testing its give, and impulsively put her teeth on it, where it bulged between her fingers…nibbled, and sucked.. careful not to go too hard. He sighed.. stroked his hands along her back and arms.. pushed up decadently into her touch, and let his eyes slip closed…
…And soon, she carefully, curiously trailed her fingertip, just beyond the edge of his areola... darkly brown, and the one part of his chest, she hadn’t thoroughly fondled.
To touch him here had always seemed… too salacious, to be polite.
“—M.. May I?” she asked him now, glancing up to his face.
Without even looking, his lips curled into a smile. “..Highness, what have I told you?”
Of course, she did remember. “..th-that I can, t— touch—,” she cut off bashfully, before fully verbalizing the dispensation he’d granted her. Anyway, it was too large, to just take. “—But what if I.. w-went too fast? Or..”
He picked his head up and let his eyes slit open, to peer down at her. “..Then I’d stop you, sweet one. ..Easy. ..I’m not an ignorant boy, past his depth, anymore.. You wouldn’t hurt me.” He resettled his neck, with comfortable assurance, “..but there’s no need to fret over it, in any case. …I like your pace.”
His smile grew luxuriantly, as his eyes dropped shut again, “..Your pace, leaves me very comfortable, and satisfied, indeed..my beautiful girl..”
He was leisurely stroking her back. The forgotten holo made background noise.
And she gulped at his easy indulgent manner, and let her fingertips lightly stray, onto his areola.
It was soft. Tenderer, than the rest of him. Of course it was…
…He perhaps didn’t realize, how much she thought about him… And how.
…With what frequent reliance, her mind returned to… What she knew, lay sheltered even now, within his underwear.
She thought about it, near every night. Will-lessly. …That mysterious, stiff, hard length… the precisely 2 occasions she’d had it butted up against her, were seared into her mind. Into her imagination…
She might not even be so sweet, as he supposed. She was beginning to suspect, there was a part of her that was.. profoundly prurient.
So she still couldn’t let herself just take, the permission she’d been given.
“..my pace… You trust me, so much,” she observed, trying to maintain her composure.. as she tenderly traced a circle over his silken areola, around the nipple’s nub.
His breathing was a little less relaxed, than it had been.
“—I trust you, implicitly.”
“..what if I surprise you?”
He grinned. “Then I’ll be surprised.”
She let her fingertip cross up onto the nipple proper..and had to bite her lip.
It was hardened. Much more so, than hers. Such subtle, intriguing difference..
She pulled her fingertip back across it.. the soft areola.. the bumpy, abrupt firmness of its side… then pushed the nipple around in a little circle, pressed delicately upon its peak. —Heard his hiss, and felt his arms tighten, upon her. Pulling her into him, by the small of her back. His hot, cool hands crept up under her shirt.
Tingling, she stuck out her tongue, and lathed the entire thing. His hardened tip dragged across her tastebuds. He tasted, like himself. Her heart sped, as she instinctively, suckled him into her mouth.
His breathing had become labored.
Her cheeks burned, as she released him. “W-What if I shock you?”
“—Ciri—” he rasped,
“—I wonder if you’re assuming, that I don’t want you back?”
She hesitated. Did she?
“I.. I-I don’t know..”
“—Well I absolutely do.” His head was lifting. “..w-want, how?” she stumbled. “..want you, the same way you want me, pretty girl,” he emitted plaintively, and her entire body responded to that whine…
—Then he ran his hand up under her jaw, and commanded her into a deep, urgent kiss. “—but my concern is for you,” he husked, messily kissing her again, “You don’t know what you’re doing,” he rumbled, hot mouth on hers, undoing her, “so you need to touch me..the way that you want to..” —He ran his tongue, deep into her mouth.
…Kissed her soundly, as she unconsciously moaned into it.
…And as her lip gradually broke free from his mouth, she was left breathless. Struggling to fully process what he’d said… but exactly, the same?
—As soon as she had her breath back, her mind discarded it. She kissed him, vengefully, instead, making an urgent little noise, into his mouth.
She suckled, and bit his lip; he returned her energy. She put her tongue into his mouth, found his, found his teeth… Greedily sucked down air, as he licked her chin, before entering her mouth again. They feasted, hungrily… And, as soon as she discovered sufficient presence of mind, she squeezed his nipple deliberately between her thumb and forefinger, and enjoyed his roughened gasp. She teased the tip..and squeezed him again.
He moaned, as his entire body pulsed, against her, in a wave.
She’d been right about the nipple. It was incredibly salacious.
She ran her leg up in between both of his, shifting her hips…questing instinctively, for his thigh.. to find it, thick and delicious, upon her center. She was warm there, to distraction. Burning, even. —His arm crossed the small of her back, hand fastening on her hip, and helped her on. She experienced a surge of deepest gratitude, as his thigh both helped and made everything worse.
“Force, you’re warm,” he grated, between messy, needy kisses. Her hands clenched upon his shoulders as his leg pressed against her, just there… His teeth scraped her lip, and his tongue soothed it on its way back into her mouth, and she… she rubbed. Rubbed herself down onto him, and he groaned affirmatively and helped.
And as their hips moved together she felt some instrument rise from nowhere to swiftly push into her, and then recede…
In another beat, it rose again…
She realized directly what this shy, approachful thing must be, pushing into her before vanishing…and pressing anew.
—It wasn’t like feeling it in the morning. Not with the way it was doing that… that pulsing…. Oh, no, she wanted it, instantly..badly— Could be about to swoon, for it… She let her fingers up, to tangle tightly in a handful of his hair, and kissed him, the way she wished to touch.. touch…
“is.. —is this, ok?” he voiced, small and tender.
—She nodded, a confirmative grunt sounding in her throat as she kissed him, fervidly. Her hand dropped thoughtlessly to palm his smooth hip, dipped just within the waistband of his underwear before the remnants of her manners halted it…tantalizingly close to that place.
Instead she squeezed his hip, hard. Let her other hand down from his hair to his nipple, and squeezed that, and he released a delicate whine.. His skin was smooth, and warm… “..y-yes, beautiful,” she euphemistically assured him, aloud.
He made a strangled little noise, in response.
Soon, his hardening member’s imprint no longer disappeared, during its recessions. Still it pulsed, swelling out fuller and fuller with each surge against her pelvis. His labored breath was catching, with each and every exhale. His cheeks blossomed redly, eyes lidded helplessly, piercing blue from under his lashes contrasting the scarlet. —No, it was too adorable, for him to look like this, when what was happening was happening, to him down below. She sloppily kissed his ear, his neck, possessively swathing him with her saliva.
And then, he had swollen to his full stature against her, and pulsed no more.
..Was this how it was? It was sweet, and shockingly lascivious. She wanted more. A desire had set upon her, that she didn’t understand. She wanted to make the haplessly panting man, cry.
This time she was going to bear into it. Politeness, was too far gone to stop her. ..She pressed into him, but found no leverage. —She wrapped her arm undissuaded around the small of his back and pulled her pelvis tightly, insistently against his length, and he whimpered deliciously.
They both vocalized together, roughly, as she hugged his back and rubbed up along the flagrantly hardened length of his cock — and he hesitated only a moment before tightening his grip on her and following suit, rolling his hips into her with a ragged plea, “—Ciri—!”
His poor member, crushed in between them..!
—But he, did not seem to mind. Nor did his steely dick seem compressible. Gripping just above the swell of his butt and using it to her advantage, she tried her level best to compress it… to no avail.
“Ciri, baby,” he roughly hissed… her fevered mind faded as he insistently took her mouth, and simultaneously rode his thigh up into the fiery place between her legs. She whimpered piteously, and squirmed against him, as though he might put that fire out. —Then he filled his big palms with her butt, squeezed her with profound indulgence — she swelled up with the liking of it— and he ground her flaming center decisively on his leg, just so— once, pleasurably, twice— as her breath loudly halted and hitched, thrice, and- and then— Something ripped through her, and she doubled over on him, seemingly every muscle contracted at once, loosing a helpless, keening wail as whitehot sensation blotted out everything. She only felt him clutch her tight, and dimly heard him grate, “aww, frag, Ciri—!!”
~
…Her mind slowly returned, to discover her body trembling against him, whilst softly being stroked..cheek upon his chest, strength fully gone and limbs draped over him nerveless and lax, and both of them panting, breaths meandering down to normal. …At the edges of her awareness, the holo continued to play.
…She gulped, blushed, and nuzzled her face shyly into his pec. ..What had just happened?
His fingers caressed behind her ear, tucking in her hair. “Force, girl..” he tremulously husked, “..are you alright?”
Probably. She probably was. She tried to say so, but instead all that happened was that she hugged him…desperately close.
…Her sweet, strong farmboy curled up around her, in reply. His arms wrapped tightly about her back, the fingers of one hand tangling in her hair, and his chin, nestled in atop her crown. He sucked down a breath, and shuddered. “..sweetheart?” he asked, soft and delicate, seeking assurance.
This time, she managed to give it. “y— yes, Luke, I.. I-I’m alright.” ..And even found him a tiny little nod, to go along.
He squeezed, in acknowledgment.
“…that was—” he breathed.
“..i-intense,” she finished smally. And felt his nod.
“…L.. Luke?”
“..yes, my sweetest girl?”
“w— what happened?”
A muscle in his side twitched, and he stilled…and held himself carefully in abeyance. She felt it, in the cant of his jaw, against her hair.
“…was that… w-was that, your first..?”
She blinked. “…first, what?”
He harshly bit his lip. “..You had an orgasm, Ciri. Have you not..? I-I… I hope, that what I did was Ok..”
“Oh..”
…She probably should have realized, that.
She felt powerfully naïve.
“U— Um. Y-Yeah, um, it was… I-it was Ok, Luke. —I-I meant, OK to do..! ..The, uh… t-the, w-whole thing was um.. v-very much better than OK. V-very, very, very… very, very, much..better..” Words were failing her disastrously. What he had done, had been…
What he had done with her, had been utterly perfect. How had he known, about doing that exact thing..?
..But she felt him relax around her, with relief. “..yes, I thought so, too,” he murmured euphemistically.
He sighed, lengthily, and snuggled her closer. She wriggled in sincerely, back.
—The movement, made her realize… the place between her legs, had become absolutely drenched. She flushed, with embarrassment. There was… little prospect, that her underwear was not soaked through. Gods, what a mess..
“—Ciri?” he inquired of her embarrassment.
“..um…L-Luke, I.. I think I… m-might have made a m-mess…o..on you…”
He exhaled calmly, relaxing once again, and nuzzling her hair. His breath caught in a tiny chuckle, “—Yeah, don’t worry, little girl. Me too…. And I love your mess.”
Well, that was fortunate. She thanked the stars, internally, for her many blessings. Her discomfit eased, back into glow.
…It occurred to her, that there could be multiple ways to interpret his statement.
“Y-you, um, you too? Y-you mean..u-um?”
“mm..,” he acknowledged, “You took me over with you. —That’s never happened, to me..! …It’s.. safe to say, that we will both be changing underwear, tonight,” he observed with warm amusement, “..Me, a little later than you, I suppose…”
…Because he, would need to walk back to his rooms, first. She shuddered, sympathetically. “o-oops..”
He chuckled, “It’s no bother, princess. Worth it, in the extreme. —Don’t you dare apologize to me, if you were thinking of it.”
..She smiled, in gratifaction.. swelling with it, inside her ribs. It was too lovely to be headed off.
—Then tried not to suck down her breath, too quickly, as her mind fully finished processing, the import of what he’d said.
She’d observed so much of his member’s ethology… yet hidden, behind soft cloth.
“..um..,” she became curious, “i-is it, um.. The same? a-as.. as me..?”
“not exactly..”
“..h-how so?”
He blushed. “..um, well… I, ah.. I..spurt. When I.. finish.”
“what?”
A thing like that had just happened, in his underwear? That.. concupiscent shaft she’d felt grow, had…
A tingling shiver, danced over her skin. She smoothed the back of her finger.. down his sweet, soft tummy, biting her lip. She reached the waistband. “C— can I..?”
“..Reach into my pants?” he guessed, teasing, “Only, if it’s for science, Your Highness.”
…So she demurely pulled back the waistband of his underwear, over his midline, and hooked a finger into it…making sure to press firmly into the fabric, not daring to risk brushing the.. wondrous thing, that dwelt inside.
She didn’t have to quest far, before her finger encountered something warm and wet.
She withdrew, with her prize. Rubbed her thumb on her finger, investigating its texture. ..It was.. sticky..
…Cautiously, she raised it up, and stuck out her tongue..
Salt. And something else…
Shyly, he asked, “..w-hat am I like? alright?”
“I-interesting…”
He snuffed. Blushing badly, beyond her view. “interesting.. Is that good or bad?”
“..I-interesting is its own good. W-wouldn’t pick to eat it. But it’s not bad. Sticky.” She thought about his precious member spurting sticky stuff everywhere and blushed. “..M-maybe, sticky is pretty nice. —I like you.” She rubbed it into her skin, between her fingers.. and wondered how much was there.
“..You know how to reassure a man,” he commented wryly.
“I like you!” she tried again, earnestly. “I.. I really do, r-really like you, L-Luke.. I-I don’t, I maybe don’t know how to tell you, h-how much I..” Her voice failed her, as she contemplated admitting.. or how she could even pick words to describe, the powerful fascination his sexuality held for her. —She butted her face into his chest, instead.
He raked between her tresses and stroked along her scalp…tightening, his other arm. “..it’s Ok, Ciri… I’m being bashful. I know that you like me. I, ah… I can feel it, on my leg.”
Her face flooded.
“n-no..no fair..” she said weakly.
“..not to mention, in the Force. Sorry, Ciri,” he murmured, to her hair, “…would it be fair again, if I told you that I like you too, just as much?”
“…i-it.. it might be..”
He squeezed her close. “I like you very, very much, little girl. ..I’ve never… like that, before. ..In my pants, without even being touched. ..You.. drive me..a little bit mad. I like you dearly.”
Her blushing skin was not cooling, as he spoke.
Her voice caught, embarrassingly. “ha- —u-um, t-thank you..”
“Thank you.”
—A banging started, from the little speakers at the foot of the bed, startling them both.
She chuckled, as she recovered, and he huffed. “—is that still going?” he muttered, “..give me a moment, baby..” He squeezed her tight, and the projector switched off. The room fell dark, and quiet.
For a while, they lay there, comfortably entangled, and simply breathed, and shared their skin. The glow inside her torso was tending into joy.
“..Ciri?” he asked her eventually.
“yeah, Luke?”
“..can I ask you.. Something personal?”
She blushed, premonitionally embarrassed, but affirmed, “o-of course.”
“..was that.. really your first?”
She nodded, against his chest.
“..can I ask.. why?”
“..w-what do you mean, why? I haven’t.. You k-know I haven’t, been with anyone, Luke.”
“..I suppose I’m asking, why you haven’t.. why you don’t, touch yourself.”
“touch.. m-myself? ..y-you mean, d.. d-down—” She couldn’t say it.
“..Yes. Why don’t you touch yourself, between your legs, Ciri?”
She flushed. “P.. People do that?”
“..I thought everyone does that.”
“You do that?”
“I do that, while I think about you,” he revealed, gentle, yet matter-of-fact.
“o-o-oh..!” she stammered.
…And that was something, she was going to have to think longer on, later.
“…u-um, I-I guess… it never really occurred, to me..” was all she could offer, for explanation.
“..hmm,” he declared, and lapsed into thought.
…He thought about her? ….And.. was it like tonight, did he.. swell up, and..spurt? Sticky stuff?
How did he do it?
..What did he think about, about her?
“..I’m starting to realize, how innocent my precious little girl really is..” he murmured softly.
Innocent, was a way of saying ignorant. She blushed.
“..I adore you, Ciri,” he gently reported, “I hope you feel that. Because I care for you, very deeply. You’re safe with me. I’m going to take care of you, in every possible way..so please, don’t ever worry.” And he pressed a careful kiss, to her hair.
The words warmed her, to the bone. She nestled in gratefully.
“..you know I’m going to match that, Luke,” she promised him, “However I can. Y-you’re..my star.”
“aww…but I’m caught up in your gravity well, little princess. ..So I guess we must form a binary system.”
She laughed, helplessly, “You’re so sweet..!”
“I better be. You deserve nothing less.”
….His chest expanded, as he deeply drew down a breath.
“..Ciri?
“..I don’t wanna leave you…,” he haplessly complained, “—I hate not sleeping with you, I hate it. ..And, especially tonight, after we…. well, I just don’t wanna go.”
She softly smiled, in empathy.
“aww…,” it was her turn, to say it back. “You know I want you with me. ..How’s the counterspying coming, sweet boy?”
“..Not badly. There’s a couple likely windows of opportunity. I need more time, though, to be sure of them.. Apart from early morning. Well before dawn, when everyone’s asleep. I could…I could leave you, then.” He frowned. “..You wouldn’t get to wake up with me. But it would be something.”
“I like something,” she agreed. “Something is much nicer, than being here all alone.”
“—I hope you realize that we’re going to share a bed every night when we’re away. Including in the shuttle bunks, where there’s hardly going to be space for it. You’ll need to sleep on top of me.”
She grinned and nudged him, in anticipation. “I had hoped..that would be the case.”
“..K, good. Looking forward to it.”
“Very much.”
..Did she want to share a bunk with him, where there really wasn’t room? ..Did she ever. Did she want to spend time with him alone, just the two of them, somewhere far away…
Her excitement burned. The days were counting down, but not fast enough.
She was only rarely intimidated, when she thought of their trip — past the stars, and into the unknown. With a gauntlet of rich space aliens strewn, somewhere along the way, and this famous farmboy at her side. —That was how perfectly, he treated her.
Something else came into her mind, thinking of it.
“Luke? ..Did my dad… t-talk, to you?”
“About us leaving? Briefly. He had me swear to your care. ..I promised him, graphically.”
“..um.. N-not just about that. About… ‘intentions’.”
“Oh..yeah. He did indeed. You knew?”
“H-he.. A-asked me, too.”
“What did you say?”
“I didn’t answer him.”
“—At all?”
“N-no.”
He laughed, quietly. His chest shook. “my pretty darling… You’re royalty, after all. Refusing to answer the king..”
“..W-Well, what did you say?”
“I told him I wasn’t going to discuss formal arrangements with anyone but the person directly involved. ..He didn’t love that.. …I wanted to reassure him, and I do need him a little, plus for work I guess, so.. So I did tell him — That my presence by your side is at your pleasure. Always. …Um. ..I hope, this isn’t news to you..?”
She couldn’t help her smile. “N-no, it isn’t news.”
“K, good. ..We’re alright, then, yeah?”
She nuzzled her nose into his chest, “Yeah. —Th-thanks, for not..”
“—Don’t mention it. …And try not to worry about it, either, Ciri… I trust everything to unfold, in its time.”
“mm,” she agreed, and nodded in contentment, “..perfect.”
~
…As the night gently wore on, they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
At some point predawn, she gently nudged half-awake, as he disentangled himself, kissed her brow, and rose. She grumbled in her throat and reached for him…something soft entered her embrace, and she squeezed it and dropped back off.
She awoke later, to find herself sweetly hugging a pillow.
She lay there, and let her upset swell, and ease… then lifted her head, to find his note on her bedside table.
Your Royal Highness,
Trust me, that I can’t keep my thoughts from you today.. And that I’m coming for you, soon, if not soon enough.
—Luke
She smiled, and collapsed back in bed, hugging that pillow.
…Soon the great happening of the previous evening entered into her mind, and she blushed.. deeply.
He’d known just how to grab her. Just how to…pull.
And she didn’t know anything, hadn’t even the courage to touch him where she wanted, yet he’d still…
Goodness.
When he came to her, after his day’s duties… She blushed awfully as soon as she saw him. …And as he her, something entirely tender transformed his face. He approached with soft eyes and an easy stride… and gently, carefully folded her into his arms…sweetly stroked through her hair…and then slowly, softly kissed her, with such patient deliberation…
“..my sweet, sweet little girl,” he pointedly whispered to her, and she flushed with pleasure, and gave herself over into his care.
***
Later that week, he asked her up to her rooftop. He had her close all the shutters, so that the room fell dark. They’d assembled a small pillow cluster in the center of the floor, and she smiled in bemused anticipation as he had them sit in it cross-legged, facing each other. He produced the projector, fiddled with its settings with his penlight held in his mouth against the darkness, then set it down between them. Finally, he inserted something into his datapad.
“Watch,” he invited, with a pleased grin.
The air of the room filled with a hazy network of minuscule bright points, like dust.
It took her a moment, to recognize them as stars. And as soon as the realization dawned, she sat bolt upright, alertly looking about.
They clustered brightly in the room’s center, above their heads. Long snaky arms, like one of the tentacled beasts she’d found in the tidepools, trailed out from that nucleus in all directions, curling towards the far rims of the room.
“..It’s the galaxy,” he said.
—She got up, and began to slowly pace around the recessed floor.. through the tinkling motes. He watched her, with a small smile.
“..Where are we?” she asked in a moment, breathless.
“That way,” he pointed. She approached the direction he’d indicated. “..Which?” He grinned, standing to follow.
“..It won’t be easy, to find without some assistance. We’re.. In that arm, along the inner edge, a bit more than halfway out.. in a small cluster, of stars. ..It should look like a little poof…”
She closed on that part of the projection. “..A poof…”
Some of the little pricks of light might be organized into poofs. They thickened as the ‘arm’ grew into its own, becoming indistinct. Along the edge, the stars skeined, their spacings varied…
He materialized, at her shoulder. “..I had R2 program us in,” he murmured, “..here.” He touched the datapad, and a vaguely balled grouping of tiny stars, a small bulbosity along the arm’s border, changed their shade, shifting red.
“This is.. our cluster?” she asked, “..What’s a cluster? ..What makes it separate, from…e-everything else..?”
“These stars are gravitationally bound, to each other. They were born together.”
“Oh… How does a star get born?”
“From an accumulation of space dust, falling into itself.”
“—From dust?” Surely something so large, should not come, from something..so small.
His arms wrapped warmly about her middle, and he nodded, against her hair, “Giant clouds of dust, floating in space… You can see them, when you look towards the Core, at night. It’s the dark bits, blocking some of the light.”
“..O-oh… I guess I.. thought that, the stars were just..thinner, there..”
“Their light, does not penetrate the dust.”
“..Stars are born from dust…” she echoed.. Mind incorporating the information.
“..Where the cosmic winds, blow it densely enough. All these stars, condensed in the same cloud…”
“Where is the cloud? Now.. Can we see it? Is that, what’s in front of the core?”
“No. That’s.. All the other clouds, and general debris, caught in the galaxy’s plane, between here and there. Your cluster’s cloud, is gone. The stars of your cluster blew it off, once they formed. ..Once the youngest of them, died.”
“Stars die?”
“Everything dies.”
She considered that pronouncement. “..Even the galaxy?”
“Even the galaxy..”
“..How does it die?”
“When it loses all its dust, and the last of its stars fade away..”
She said nothing, for a time. Gazing into the little star formation, that was her home.
“..It’s sad,” she said in the end.
“..Yes, I suppose it is. …Jedi are supposed, to take a more detached view.. Death brings life. All things must end.. that the new may arise.”
She softly bit her lip. “..Very philosophical..”
“We try.”
“What life comes out of a dead galaxy?”
He shrugged. “..It will one day collide with another, and contribute its remaining matter.”
“..That’s more like prolonging the life of something else.”
“Not to the new stars, and planets, that will be formed from the disruption of its corpse.”
“….Ah. True,” she conceded, “..but…”
She trailed off, to think.
“..Where do new galaxies come from?”
He smiled, against her hair, “From dust.”
“..Dust. Again. Dust…”
He nodded, “Bet you never would have guessed, dust could be that important.”
She agreed, “Never, in a million years… What about the dust that my star cluster blew off? ..What about the dust that gets lost, from a galaxy? What happens to it?”
“It drifts… In the wide empty spaces. Maybe something comes by, and scoops it up. Maybe, it just drifts…” She shivered slightly, in his arms.
That vastness he’d shown her, from orbit… how black it had been. How far, and how empty. ..That was just nearby.
“Then aren’t you losing dust? Overall..”
“Yes.”
Her brow drew, as her mind traced out the eventualities.
“….Luke? What will happen? In the end? ..When all the dust is lost, and all the stars are dead..”
“..At the end, when everything is spent, the Force will gather every dead, lost thing back together, and a new universe will begin.”
“Hmm.” She held his forearm, leaned back into him, and thought.
…At last she said, “…Now I understand. What you meant, when you said the Force keeps the balance, of life and death. ..Aren’t you misusing it?”
“..Maybe just a little,” he nuzzled at her ear, “I won’t break it. Promise..”
“..It’s strange. For the energy that’s going to restart the world at the end of time, to be.. bringing me pillows and turning off lights. Or, letting you find where I’m waiting at, or..a-any of it..”
“..No stranger, than the dust.”
She smiled, granted him, “That’s true.”
“Do you think I’m being irresponsible? ..Frivolous..”
She laughed. “I don’t know… maybe just a little.”
“And when I used the Force to destroy the Death Star? ..When I used the Force, to call my lightsaber, and kill the wampa..?”
“—Of course not.”
“But in the scale of the universe, what does it matter, if a man lives, or a wampa eats?”
She closed her hand tight upon his forearm, and frowned, “It matters, to me.”
“—And to me. ..But it does not matter, to the Force.”
“..But.. you saved billions, when you destroyed the Death Star. Threepio said..”
“..mm. Billions. …And I killed, about a million, who were on board. ..What are a million people, or a billion.. Or a planet?” He touched the datapad, and one of the red-shifted points, flared green. “..This is your star. Here we sit, upon one of its five planets. We can’t even see them, at this scale…we can barely make out the star, that gives us the day. Look at the arm. We’d really have trouble, if yours happened to be one of the billions, deeper in…. And this entire map, is but one galaxy, out of trillions….”
She swallowed, trying to comprehend.. scale, past her cognition.
He kissed the shell of her ear, and gently murmured, “..Our little lives are frivolity, all the way down. I can no more impact the Force, than can an insect change the orbit of a planet, by walking upon the ground.”
There was silence, as she digested his words.
“..I.. Take your point. …And I retract my criticism.”
“..So then, am I free, to use the Force that binds this universe, to bring you cushions, my lady?”
She smiled, despite herself, “Yes. You may.”
“Excellent decision,” he kissed her neck.
“Luke..”
“hmm?”
“..Do you ever feel…” she trailed off, unsure of which word was right.
“…Unreal?”
“..In the face of it? No.. I am one with the Force, when I meditate. ..Have I saddened you, a little?”
“..Not quite.”
“..You could meditate, with me. I could show you..”
She smiled, wistfully, and nodded. “I’d like that. Can we?”
“..Sit down with me, precious.”
He summoned a cushion. Sat directly under the galaxy’s arm, and she settled into his lap. He resecured his arms about her midsection, kissed her ear, and whispered, “Breath, with me… Release your thoughts.”
She knew how it went, by now. She relaxed into his warmth, let his chest move her…let the feel of him, fill her mind.
Her breath synchronized with his, and vanished, into the generalized sweep of motion, running through them both.
…This time, it was different. She became aware of the density of little things. The air was neither empty, nor uniform. A buzz of whizzing particles, filled it up..larger encrustations, were born aloft on their currents. At air’s edge, thicker things loomed…particles hemmed in, and vibrated in place.
..But that was just the beginning. Movement entered — the motion of perspective. Everything shrank, and shrank, and shrank, as awareness’ horizon broadened, and new territory rushed in, on all sides… And all, was naught but varying consistencies of swirling, vibing dots.
One thing was quite like another. The particles were different sizes, that was all.
Minutes passed by, and this shrinking expansion did not halt. Scale ceased to exist. Dots drifted, spewed, were spread thin or crammed together thick, and that was all.
Limitless motion, and silence. The jiggling, pinging stuff of the universe hove more and more, sucked into knowing more and more and more…
Time became lost, in the zooming.
And eventually, the sweeping motion of the universe’s dust returned itself, to breath.
~
For a while, her eyes would not open. So not to finally break, eternity’s spell. His breath gently nudging her torso felt larger, smaller, and more peaceful, than it ever had.
When she let her lids rise, her gaze was met with the suspended dust of the map, and that one green flash amongst the numberless formation.
She watched it, in silence.
At last she whispered, “what do your people name my star?”
“NRSS12-420-1242.”
“NRSS1242012..42?” she repeated, faintly dismayed.
“a star survey designation,” he softly explained.
“..It won’t do..”
“…Give it a name, princess. A real one.”
It was a lot, to name a star. Her people simply called it…Sun. It had been worshipped. Personified in deities, down through the ages, whose names all meant, in some kingdom’s tongue — Sun. It had given life, to all the lonely corners, and every last bit of the land.
Every species must call their sun, Sun.
“…I’ll have to think about it,” she concluded.
“tell me when it comes to you, sweetheart,” he kissed her hair.
She stared at her star, a moment longer.
“Luke? ..Thank you. I think now I understand.”
He smiled, gently, and nodded. “..Everything will be alright.”
“Yes, I suppose that it will.”
***
And at long last, she completed the work she’d labored over daily, for weeks. She wrapped it in muslin, and placed it in her pack.
She went out to the cherry tree, and took up residence underneath it. Its flowers had gestated tart red fruit, in which the birds were taking interest. Insects buzzed amongst the wildflowers dotting the tall grass.
She remembered how he’d looked under the branches that day. ..She’d been so pleased, by his company.. And so intimidated, by his beauty. Her fingers half-absently toyed with his star, about her neck, as she smiled over the memory.
As the day was aging past noon, he came.
“Ciri,” he greeted.
She opened her eyes — she’d been practicing her meditation — and smiled up at him, where he stood before her. He was early.
“Luke,” she replied, satisfaction filling out her tone, and patted the grass beside her, “sit down next to me, pretty boy.”
He grinned, and did, settling in at her side. “..I remember when you first brought me here. You were nervous to look at me. But you made me feel so relaxed..”
“..And you made me so, embarrassedly happy, when you called me a naturalist.”
He laughed, “—Only you could be that dedicated to something, and not acknowledge it.”
She began to chuckle, “Maybe. I’m lucky to have you, always talking me up.”
“Someone needs to.”
She smiled.
“..I made you this.” She handed him, the cloth-wrapped packet.
“—Ciri,” he murmured softly, almost a protest, as he accepted it. “baby..”
As he began to unwrap it, for the first time she felt the butterflies in her stomach stir.
He grinned, took her hand and squeezed her palm. “..You’re getting nervous. But you could bring me anything, princess, and I would appreciate it, if it’s from you.” He raised her hand and kissed her knuckles. “..You could bring me a dead rodent carcass like a loth-cat, and I would be on board.”
She couldn’t hold back her laugh, at that. He was very sweet to say so, even if it could only part-way be true.
“..D-don’t worry, this won’t rot,” she returned.
He smiled, kindly, as he unwrapped the muslin, with one hand. His other was still busy, clasping hers. “I’m sure you could keep a rodent carcass from rotting…Somewhere in all those books you must have learned the art,” he teased.
Meanwhile, he finished uncovering her gift… and his manner stilled, as he gazed down in study.
It was a plaited choker, woven from 4 strands of leather in a traditional knot design. —The pattern was that for travelers, upon long journeys. Hints of foliage from his homeland were pressed into alternating strands. Woven into the center was an emblem of a womp rat, graven in bone. She’d used his datapad, to search out references.
He passed his fingertips gently across its surface.
“..they’re funnel flowers,” he murmured, reverentially quiet.
“a-and, desert sage,” she confirmed.
“we used to..” he trailed.
“I know.” It was the cause, for her selection of the flora.
He turned his attention to the pendant. “…a womp rat,” he breathed…and a tiny smile, curled the corner of his lip.
“I-I like it.. for your charge.”
“my charge..” he echoed blankly.
“a symbol..for your standard.”
He smiled, secretly.
“..it’s a good symbol for me,” he finally endorsed, “..the Tatooinian rat..” he laughed, bellyless and silent.
“…I love this, Ciri. Very, very much. It’s beautiful. And it reminds me of home. …And so do you..”
She hesitated, only an instant.
“…I love you, Luke,” she offered him.
He raised his gaze to hers. Studied her, with a slow, soft blink.
“I love you too, Ciri baby,” he whispered.
Breath came out of her in something akin to a giddy, airy laugh. She smiled down, to their tightly clasped hands.
They shared a moment there.
A soft chuckle, sounded in his throat. “..You know I’ve thought about saying that to you, before,” he muttered ruefully, “ ..Caught myself, even, just beforehand.. a couple of times.”
She blinked in surprise.
“Why.. why stop yourself?” she asked quietly.
He gave a shake of his head, and flashed her a crooked, penitent smile. “..I didn’t want to put pressure, on you, or…us. Since we’re so.. new, or..” He stopped, and bit his lip. “…Now it seems pretty foolish, doesn’t it?”
She blushed, and wasn’t sure why. “I-I don’t know.. I probably wouldn’t have been brave enough, b-before.”
“..Well I think you’re very brave, Ciri. ..Here I’ve been… falling for you ruinously, thinking how I can embed you in my life.. And in the end, you’re the one to say it first.”
“..well..” she said with a short, quiet laugh, “You made me trust, u-us, enough. You make.. you make me feel loved, you know?”
He smiled, at that.
“…Come sit in my lap,” he invited her, gentle and earnest.
She nodded, and he carefully set her gift aside upon its cloth, and pulled her onto him. He raised his knees, pitching her into him, and wrapped his arms around her, making a cage, of his body. She curled up against him, and snuggled in. He ran his palm along her arm, leaned his cheek against her hair, and sighed, slowly, “..I love you, little girl. I’m sorry, if I should have said so, before. ..You’re the only thing that makes me not feel lost.”
Throat thick, “—I love you too, Luke,” was the only thing she could reply, roughly. “..I love you, sweet boy..”
He smiled, and pressed a kiss to her hair. “shhh… everything is well, little one.”
She smiled too, closed her eyes, and nodded, in relaxation.
Time passed, in the tree’s shade. It was a sun-warmed afternoon, outside their bower.
“..you made this for me..” he whispered, musingly, in time. She nodded against him, again. “..I can’t believe it. I didn’t know, you know how to carve. Or.. Any of it. ..It’s so beautiful..”
He looked out at the clear blue sky, visible through the laden branches. The world beyond the tree softly hummed.
“..I’ve tracked so far across this galaxy…to find berth on the other side..”
He smiled, about it. “..Kiss me, baby. Won’t you? ..And put this on me.”
So she shifted in his arms..raised her head, and her hands. Her fingers closed, in his collar, in the soft hair at the nape of his neck. His pretty blue eyes watched her.. then fell shut, as she leaned in, and gently gave him a kiss.
..They nuzzled noses, after, and giggled, soft as breath.
—Then she cleared her throat, and picked up the necklace. Held it to his throat, as he shyly bit his lip, and his fingers burrowed into her clothing.
“..I hope I judged the length right,” she softly remarked. “—I can’t even guess at how you tried,” he murmured. She wrapped the two ends around his neck and felt for the workings of the clasp, on the other side. “..For a long time I couldn’t either.. —I used the tunic with the turtleneck thing, when you left me in your rooms. ..There, how does that feel?”
“Good and proper. Thank you, Ciri..”
“Good,” she smiled with relief, letting her hands drop to his shoulders. Her eyes flicked over him, studying.
“How do I look?” he grinned sheepishly, blushing.
She’d always liked the look of that tunic, with its collar that sheathed up his neck.
“Handsome. You’re so pretty! ..Your eyes are..so pretty.. —And now I just have to hide this tunic,” she did so with her arms crossed over his clavicles, “..and you could be on a farm, any farm. ..My sweet, pretty farmboy.”
He laughed, eyes sparkling. “..I wish I could see.”
She could curse her lack of foresight. “I should have brought a mirror.. We could go back..”
“Not yet. Stay here, with me, a while. ..I like this spot.”
She smiled, and nodded her agreement.
“Get comfy,” he murmured, and she squirmed back around, so to be cradled again against his chest. He wrapped his arms about her and squeezed her tight, and she let her hand find his and lace his fingers, and sighed and closed her eyes, indulgently nudging into him.
“..I love you, Ciri,” he whispered carefully beside her temple.
Her ribs felt full, to overflowing. She closed her eyes, as her lips curled up, into a too-happy smile. Around them, the universe was buzzing.
Chapter 14: Space
Notes:
In case anyone may be particular like me, here is a .pdf of all this whose font I prefer, hosted on Dropbox: Dogfight pdf
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
On the day that the New Republic’s ship came, all the castle’s folk gathered on the lawn.
She watched its approach, spellbound, with Luke stood by her side and the king upon her other, and the entirety of the court, guards and staff ranged at their backs, at a safe-seeming distance. Some errand boys had shimmied up the lamp posts at lawn’s edge to see above the crowd. She clutched Luke’s hand.
The ship was much larger than Luke’s, which had never before seemed small to her eyes. And it was gorgeous… Bladed wings slung low beneath its slim body, offset by a third cresting high into the sky above. As it set down upon the lawn, the ventral wings lifted to flank the dorsal, like spires on a crown.
The gangway descended amidst smoke.
And a golden man-shaped droid emerged at its top, to shuffle down its length to the grass. A murmur passed through the crowd, as the sun caught brightly in the metal of his cranium.
“Master Luke!” the droid greeted emphatically.
“3PO!” Luke cheerfully returned, from her side.
3PO’s metallic voice was somehow warmly resonant. “And Princess Ciri! How wonderful to see you! ..And King Sturmgirten, I presume. Allow me to introduce myself. I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations, and I am at your service, great sir!” And the golden droid bowed, before the king.
Her father, for his part, maintained his composure well. “Accepted,” he said simply.
Meanwhile, another figure had appeared atop the gangway, and paused there with his arm raised and hand braced against the ship’s frame.
Luke spied him, “Han!”, and strode forward as the man descended, with a great, roguish lopsided grin. The two embraced, partway up the ramp. “I didn’t know they were sending you,” she heard Luke say. “—Surprise!” returned Leia’s husband.
Their hug relaxed, and Luke turned to her, extending his hand. “Han, may I present Princess Ciri,” he introduced her as they came down the ramp. “Your Highness, meet Han Solo.”
“Highness,” Han greeted, and she wished desperately for a less formal setting. The word sounded…subtly unnatural, maybe almost sarcastic, from this former smuggler and miscreant.
She put her hand out, and he took it amiably, flashing her that grin. His handshake was strong, and firm. Luke had returned to her side and rested his hand on the small of her back, and she took comfort in the proximity. “I’m, p-pleased to m-meet you, sir.”
“Just Han will do. I’m not ranked like you.”
“—And the Princess’ father, King Sturmgirten,” Luke added, gesturing to her father with an incline of his head.
“Your Majesty,” Han greeted, “it’s an honor.” He said this with an almost insouciant obsequiousness that made her blush, and stuck out his hand.
“Majesty, Han is my brother-in-law,” Luke explained.
“Ah! ..Truly?” her father exclaimed, ultimately accepting Han’s handshake, though it was not commonly heard of to shake the hand of the king.
“Don’t worry, I’m sometimes still surprised myself,” Han joked, and her father laughed, and all was well, between them.
They briefly conversed. The king extended an offer of a place to stay and rest, before setting back out. Han politely declined. “I’m a man on the clock. You know how it is,” he bemoaned, “the wife insists.”
Soon after they were saying their goodbyes, and 3PO had begun making his shuffling way back up the plank. Surrealism set in as she bid her father farewell, with a rare hug. Then a very broadly smiling Luke took her hand and led her onto the gangway. —She paused at its base to search out the kitchen staff amongst the crowd, and waved to them — which they enthusiastically returned. …Then she shared one last, slightly more stately wave with her father, and turned to walk up the ramp. The day dimmed as the ship took them.
The boarding ramp lifted, at their backs, sealing her world away. ..An energy thrummed to life in her stomach.
…And Luke stepped in close.
His warmth filled up the tiny spaces, in between them… and she instinctively steadied. He murmured, by her ear, “you’re the sweetest thing I know. —I am with you, my Princess. I’m going to show you everything.”
She took a deep, steadying breath, and sighed it out. ..Nodded, and smiled, in trust, “Yes, sweet boy. Show me.” —So that he grinned eagerly and kissed her temple, in pleasure.
…Then he led her through the ship’s small body, past a round table and benches built into the bulkheads, to the cockpit. Han was already there, and she heard an odd snuffling noise in response to something he’d said.
As they reached the threshold, her grip on Luke’s hand seized. She saw—
There was an alien in the cockpit. Sitting in the front across from Han. Tall, muzzled, and coated head to toe in shaggy brown fur…it looked at her, and tilted back its head, and issued a long undulating, bestial vocalization.
Dimly, some segment of her mind put it together that Luke had told her about this… about this being. ..Chewbacca… ..this was Chewbacca. ..The preparation didn’t matter. Stunned, she didn’t notice her mouth fallen open.
Luke hove close to her side. “Chewie! It’s good to see you too. —Meet Ciri!”
Chewie responded with an affable growl, and rose from his seat. —She gulped. He was much taller than she had supposed. He was reaching out with lanky, furred appendages as he stepped towards them…and then he was wrapping them both into a hug.
His arms were long enough that he could completely hug both of them at one time. Luke hugged back, one arm around each of them as far as he could get it.
“—Chewbacca!” admonished 3PO in a tone of electronic dismay, “This is no way to greet royalty!”
…Buried within the furry threeway hug, her surprise melted, and she laughed. Chewie’s foreign scent melded with Luke’s familiar one, and she felt warmly welcomed, indeed.
Chewie released them both, snuffling a complaint. Luke let his arm drop to securely wrap the small of her back and hold her to his side. She smiled. “H-Hi, Chewie. L-Luke told me about you. N-nice to finally meet you!” She felt Luke’s earnest kiss on her temple. Chewie took her hand in his furred paw, and answered with a kind of low honking bark. “Chewie says he’s very glad to finally meet you too,” Luke translated, “..And he’s thanking you, for looking after me.” She blushed. “O-oh! I-I.. s-surely I haven’t..”
She couldn’t admit how much she wanted to do just that, in this room of people who knew him well, and whom she’d barely met.
Luke’s brow nudged her. “..Thanks for looking after me, Ciri,” he gently insisted. Her color worsened, against her will.
“—OK, how about you lovebirds strap down, and we can get outta here?” Han interrupted from the pilot’s seat.
She felt Luke’s sighed smile, “Yes, Han,” as Chewie sat back down.
Luke directed her to the seat behind Chewie, knelt before her and showed her how to fasten her harness. …Something in his eyes as he gazed up at her after, had her put her hand upon his cheek. He smiled winningly at the gesture, kissed her palm and winked. ..And reluctantly retreated to his own seat, across from hers. 3PO had strapped into a corner seat, just offset behind Luke’s.
“Alright, Han. We’re all ready,” Luke announced.
Insects took flight with sudden urgency in her stomach, as Han engaged the engines. Luke reached out and settled his hand comfortably upon her thigh and squeezed, and she gratefully placed her both her palms atop it.
They lifted off. She watched Han working the controls, and the shifting view outside the cockpit, with fascination, keeping Luke’s steadying hand tightly gripped. The ground swiftly dropped away, the crowd gathered outside growing miniscule, then vanishing with the trees, as the ship’s blunted flat nose rose up and they began ascending through the clouds…
…Until soon enough they were past those, too, and the black of space descended.
They didn’t enter orbit this time, of course. Didn’t change direction at all, but kept pressing forward…striking out, for deeper space. She understood from holos that it would not be possible to jump to.. hyperspace, without clearing the planet’s gravity well.
She swallowed, and wondered what her homely planet looked like… growing smaller and smaller, at their backs. The winged beetles filling out her abdomen determinedly hummed, as the emptiness swallowed them.
Presently, Han spoke. “Brace yourself, Princess. We’re about to enter hyperspace.”
She clenched Luke’s hand, and nodded, not thinking to think that Han could not hear her gesture. She glanced over to Luke, and found him gazing at her, something mysterious behind his eyes. He offered her a gentle smile, and mouthed, “it’ll be alright.” He squeezed her thigh in assurance.
—Then her eye was drawn by movement at the front, as Han gripped a large handle and pulled it back, and simultaneously all stars outside the cockpit elongated into thin streaks, and they were all pressed back into their seats as the ship seemed to leap, into an alternate reality, of indistinct light.
..The forces pressuring them eased. Han released his harness and adopted a lax posture, and she laughed in amazement.
“Pretty, ain’t it?” Han grinned back at her. She enthusiastically nodded her head, mesmerized by the shifting blue light. “Very!”
“I used to think the kid was sheltered..” Han muttered wryly. “Luke better not let you out of his sight.”
“I don’t intend to, Han,” Luke said, undoing his harness. She began searching out the mechanism on hers. Luke rose from his seat and crouched before her, placed his hand over hers and gently guided her to it. “Like this, beautiful,” he murmured softly, and depressed her finger over the release. ..Then he stood, and helped her to her feet.
“Han, give us a minute. We’re gonna tour the ship.”
“Sure thing, lover-boy.” The color rose to her cheeks, as Luke lightly grimaced.
“..He’s going to be like that the whole time, probably,” Luke muttered to her ruefully as he led her from the cockpit, “..Please.. Try to ignore him.”
“—I heard that!” Han called back to them, and meanwhile 3PO started in on him, “Master Solo, do you really think it’s appropriate—” and she couldn’t hold back a smothered laugh. Luke pressed a panel and the cockpit door slid shut, cutting off the rest of the droid’s admonition.
The ship wasn’t large, internally. Besides the little table there were storage bins for cargo and a bay of seats for additional personnel. The back walls harbored bunks. Luke showed her to the tiny bathroom, which she recalled from holos his people called the ‘refresher’. He demonstrated how to use everything in detail, and had her explain it all back to him to ensure she remembered.
He smiled at her adoringly when she did… Pulled her against him by her waist, and nuzzled her brow. “Excellent. You’re so good at this…”
“Y-you’re a good teacher,” she softly told his skin. He snuffed, into her hair, and insisted, “You’ve a knack.”
…Then he sighed, “..We’re finally on our way, baby. How do you feel?”
“I can’t tell we’re moving. This little box is strange… I-I’d feel scared, if you weren’t here.”
“..We’re gonna be stuck in here, a little while. ..Thank you for coming with me..I can’t tell you how much. This is about to be a very boring ride, in the littlest space, you’ve ever been.” He smiled, wryly, “..I’ll be sticking close.”
She was already more dependent on him, than she’d ever been. ..It was not an accustomed, feeling. If he were any else… It would not be a welcome one.
But it was him. She returned his little grin, and lifted her fingers, to softly touch his smile lines. “..you, my sweet, pretty boy.. will make this boring ride in the strange little box worthwhile, if I get to touch you during it.”
He sighed, eyes lidding, his lips lightly parting, “…ohh.. yes, please touch me baby,” and she rose onto her toes and gave him a greedy, suckling kiss.
…When she let their lips part, he released a lengthy, shaky breath…
Then recovering, grinned down at her, sunnily mischievous — and stifled a small giggle, pressing his brow into hers, and she couldn’t help giggling back. He was an untold delight, and they were together.
“..Alright, again,” he murmured warmly, returning to business with light in his voice, “…explain it all to me again, my pretty darling.” —and she did, walking him carefully through the use of the facilities. He beamed with pride as she concluded. “Perfect. It’s perfect. ..Do you feel confident, smart girl?” She nodded, “I do.” “mmh… Wonderful… ..Then come and pick out a bunk, with me.”
…So that they next wound up at the back of the ship, where she chewed her lip over the bunks while he stood at her back, hugging her midsection against his torso. The bunks were set back into the bulkheads, behind the ship’s entry. They were stacked 2 high, and each had its own little light and a shelf on the ‘mattress’ padding’s far side. A pair were far outsized in length — no doubt, fit for the likes of Chewbacca. “I bet you’ve never slept in a bunk,” he murmured to her ear. “I have not,” she confirmed, clasping her hand over his. “Well what are your instincts telling you, gorgeous? Are you a top bunk kind of girl, or a bottom bunk girl?”
“hmm… Top bunk,” she opined.
“I knew it,” he returned, kissing the shell of her ear. She smiled, and challenged him, “How?”
“You have the heart of an explorer.”
She doubtfully laughed. “Explorers want top bunk?”
“..Explorers want to be high. The better to see the land.”
“You’re reaching.”
He tightened his grip, pressing her into him. “..Reaching for you, maybe,” he mumbled against her ear. Now she reddened, and didn’t know what to say. She twined her fingers in between his, turned her head and kissed him.
“..Practice getting into it,” he urged after, “…You have to hold the handle above it while you’re up on the ladder, then kinda swing yourself in, one leg at a time.”
So she nodded and practiced climbing in, a couple of times, till it was a little less awkward. Then she lay on the narrow padding on her stomach, and leaned out to him. “It’s comfy,” she approved, “..gonna be snuggly, with both of us.” He mounted onto the ladder’s lowest rung, wrapped an arm through it and let the fingers of his gloved hand into her tresses. “I’m looking forward to it,” he promised, as he softly guided her into a kiss.
“me too. …thanks for helping me like this, Luke. ..I feel kinda like a know-nothing..”
He nudged into her, with reassurance. “You’re learning very fast. —I can’t imagine, how I would have felt… entering the type of scene we’re about to, without any of my experiences since leaving Tatooine. ..Without even knowing the basic tech.
“I’m the only thing that’s familiar to you, here… Please, feel entitled to rely on me. I’m with you, baby. I’m gonna teach you everything I can, and take care of everything I can’t.”
She grinned, “I will, then. Try, at least. I’m very grateful…” He kissed her, before she could say more.
“..lemme down,” she instructed, and he promptly released her and dismounted the ladder, allowing her to descend.
She seized him, at the bottom, in a tight, needy hug, and he wrapped his arms around her in turn and squeezed, with a satisfied sigh. “I love you, Luke,” she whispered, and his chest thrummed and he nodded gravely and kissed her hair and whispered, “I love you, too.”
They let the moment stretch.
…Until she felt a little guilty for the other people in the ship, relegated to the cockpit.
She stirred out of their tight embrace, and he relaxed his grip and nuzzled their temples, bussing her cheek.
“Let’s let them out,” she suggested.
“You feel settled?” he checked.
She smiled, feeling cared for in the extreme. “I do, thank you, sweet boy.”
“K,” he smiled in return. …And he carefully released her, holding her jaw for one final kiss..
…And released the cockpit door. It swooshed up into its housing. He stuck his head in. “Ok, tour’s over.”
“Whaddya think?” Han asked her, “How weird is it?”
“..M-manageable,” she replied. With Luke’s help, it was so.
“Did you show her the best part?” he asked Luke.
“Which part is that?” Luke wondered.
“—The dejarik table. We had them put it in special. ..After all, it’s gonna be a long trip.”
Luke gave a laugh, “Very forward-thinking of you. No, I didn’t… but I did, teach her how to play.”
Chewie whuffed.
“—You play dejarik?” Han double-checked, gaze flicking to her. “S-some,” she confirmed. The Wookie loosed a pleased whrarrll.
“—It’s his favorite,” explained Han. “—What about sabacc, did Luke teach you that?”
“H-he did.”
“Well alright! This ride is shaping up to be better than I thought. …The kid did well.”
“Thanks, Han,” Luke put in with amusement.
“Don’t mention it,” Han said blithely. “…What are we waiting for then, let’s knock out a few rounds.”
She laughed, and assented, “S-sure, let’s.”
Chewbacca issued a vacillating, modulated bark.
“—Sabacc, Chewie, dejarik is only 2 hands,” Han answered, and she intuited the question.
“I-I’ll…be happy to play you l-later, Chewie,” she offered, and the Wookie gave back a whuff.
“—There you go, Chewie, happy?” said Han. He vocalized, and it seemed that he was.
So they all gathered in around the little table — even 3PO, to her surprise. Luke kept her close to his side, with his arm tight about her back, and she leaned into him, grateful for his steady presence. He kissed her hair, and she tried not to blush about it, while Han brought out cards and began to shuffle. ..She had never played with real cards before, only with Luke’s hologramatic representations.
Han grinned, impishly. “I was gonna suggest a tutorial round… But since you already know how to play, wanna make this more interesting?”
Luke snorted. “Han’s a gambler,” he explained. “..Careful, Han. She’s better than me.”
Han’s grin only grew, “She’d have to be. ‘Sides, what’s small stakes among friends, eh? Nothing wrong with that.”
“I-I’ve never gambled,” she revealed uncertainly.
“‘Course not,” Han agreed with her, “Not very ladylike, and all. Trust me, you’re gonna like it.” Chewie snuffed.
“—Master Solo, really,” put in 3PO.
“—Can it, tin can,” Han cut him off without a glance. She restrained an empathetic flinch.
Luke felt it, nonetheless. “Han, be nice,” he enjoined.
Han appeared innocently mystified. “What? …Anyway, whaddaya say? Stakes?”
She couldn’t help a little snort at that expression. “A-alright. Stakes. ..I-if I win, you can’t call Threepio names, the rest of the way to C— Coruscant.”
Chewie loosed a series of short, softly resonant huffs.
While Han sat back in his chair, dismayed — she hoped, performatively. “Small stakes, I said. Didn’t I?”
Luke laughed, “Well I’m with her. If I win I want the same thing.”
Han looked over to Chewie for support. “Are you seeing this?” The Wookie’s consonant-less response was unintelligible, but Han did not seem pleased. He pulled back with a grimace, “..You too, eh buddy?
“..Alright, I can take a hint. …Fine, then. And if I win? I was gonna bet credits..like a normal person.” He shook his head, “..But credits ain’t gonna cover this.”
“W-well, what do you want?” she asked. Luke’s warmth against her…his breath, lightly rustling the hair atop her head, was giving her confidence.
Han chewed his lip, thinking, for a time.
Eventually his eyes fell on Luke. “If I win, you have to address me the way he does,” he gestured back at the droid. “‘Master Solo’, proper respectful-like. For the trip.”
Luke grimaced, but assented, “Done.”
“—And I mean, for your whole trip. Not just this boatride.”
“That’s not fair..” Luke protested.
“Fair? If the three of you are gonna bet against me, I’ve got three chances to lose and one to win. It’s plenty fair.”
Luke sighed, and tightened his grip about her torso, pulling her into his side and troubling her hair with his exhalation.
“..Alright, done.”
Han gave a satisfied grin and agreed, sounding in much better spirits, “Alright.” Then turned to 3PO, “What about you, Goldenrod?”
That name wasn’t as bad. More like a nickname, it sounded. She wondered if Han knew that goldenrod was a lovely flower.
“Master Solo, I couldn’t possibly engage,” the droid said primly. ..And she realized belatedly that the style of betting she had initiated might contradict protocol droid programming.
“Can’t play without stakes,” Han insisted.
“—I-if he wins, I’ll give him a hug,” she volunteered, thoughtlessly.
Han turned back and fixed her with a look. “..Aren’t you precious.” —Meanwhile Luke was pulling her in and rubbing his cheek against her hair with a fond, happy smile, which she could not see. ..She tried desperately not to blush, with no success. What had inspired her to offer that? Han moved on, “…Alright then, bets are placed.. Time to play. Ladies first.”
She used a classic opening Luke had taught her. Play proceeded leftward from there.
She swiftly discovered that the strategy she’d developed for 2-player sabacc was not well suited to a 5-hand game. Han did win, in the end…and to his credit, gloated with what she suspected for him was the utmost restraint. “Master Solo cleans up again,” remarked Luke. Han grinned, cockily, and she chewed the inside of her lip… thinking of the fate that awaited her sweet man now, thanks to her immoderation.
“So… You’re here, Master Solo. Where’s the Falcon?” Luke asked, as Han gathered the cards and shuffled the deck.
“Left it on Ipso Kan. We gotta go get it… And your things.”
“..What do you mean, they’re not here?”
“—Tailor sent word, she didn’t finish, we gotta pick it up. So, no. No problem though — Sure she’ll be done by the time we arrive, at this thing’s pace.”
“Hmm.” Luke mused. “..Sorry for the inconvenience.”
“eh, you brought me a card player, don’t mention it,” Han waved off.
Luke had collected her measurements, some time ago, and informed her…that she would require less obtrusive clothing, so as to deny a modicum’s fodder to the mystery he predicted sparking over her origins, once they were seen publicly. No doubt, that this was the tailor’s work to which they both referred.
“..My apologies to you, too, my lady,” Luke murmured to her hair, “..This box is both smaller and slower, than Master Solo’s ship.”
“Box?” Han grinned.
“Ciri’s term,” Luke explained, and she reddened.
“A lady after my own heart,” Han approved.. easing her embarrassment.
“..I-it’s.. No trouble,” she tried to assure, “I can last.”
“..You haven’t even had to try the food here yet. ..I should have put in the order with the tailor sooner. I really am sorry.”
She gave a short snort, “If it’s what you had in your bag, I th-think I can imagine. D-Don’t worry, Luke. I’m fine.” With his arm around her, nestled comfortably into his side… she was hardly even dismayed, at the extension to their journey.
He chuckled, back, “—Got into that, did you? ..Alright.” And he planted another kiss, upon her head, “Thanks for your patience, princess.”
Afterward, they played several more rounds, betting credits — Luke’s credits, in her case. Her showing gradually improved… She ought to have saved her bet about the name-calling for later. She might have won it. …Presently, at Chewbacca’s instigating whuff, Han fired up the table’s projector and for a time they took turns attempting to beat him at dejarik. And at some point Han brought out some more of their people’s strange, dehydrated trail food, and they all had repast.
Periodically, their play was interrupted by a beeping from the cockpit, and they would all file back in and strap down, and Han would pull the ship out of hyperspace in the aimless depths of the void, precisely line up a new heading, and reenter. “Badly charted space,” he explained when she asked, “we go till the ship’s sensors detect a gravity well. Then we pop out, and let the navcomp calculate us out the next jump. …Things’ll speed up once we’re back to the hyperlanes.”
She restrained herself from asking about everything else in that interesting compartment.
…And as the ‘day’ wore on, she eventually grew tired, and began to yawn, over her sabacc hand.
As they finished that hand, Luke announced on her behalf, “Alright, everyone, good game… Ciri and I are going to turn in. Give us some privacy, won’t you?”
Motion followed, as the pot was split and winnings were gathered. “Which bunks are you taking?” Han asked, as he absently reconstituted the cards into their deck.
“Top left,” reported Luke.
—3PO stood and bowed, politely bidding, “Good night, Your Highness.” Chewie whuffed something, stood too. “Chewbacca hopes you sleep well,” the droid translated.
They retreated to the cockpit as she called back, “N-night!”
Usually, the only person who told her goodnight was Luke…and before him, no one. The situation was oddly odd.
..Meanwhile, Han’s gaze shifted back and forth between them. “…You know, you can have your own bunk, Princess,” he said at last.
Luke intervened before she had to answer, “—No.”
He tightened his arm protectively about her waist. “..Thanks, ‘Master Solo’, but we’re fine. Definitely going to share.”
Han looked to her doubtfully. “They’re not that big,” he made sure she realized, and she flushed.
“They’re big enough,” Luke returned, lightly annoyed.
She gripped Luke’s gloved hand, and nodded through her blush. “..W-what he said. S-sharing, d-definitely.”
“Got it, Master Solo?” Luke followed up, firmly.
Han raised his hands and eyebrows placatingly, “Alright, alright… I get it. You lovebirds are gonna share. Forgive me for tryn’ta help.”
“You’re forgiven. ..Now scram,” Luke insisted.
Han stood, hands still raised, and backed away, grinning with sarcastic unctuousness. He bowed his way out.
She’d never seen someone make politeness look so impolite.
Luke depressed the door control with his mind, closing the hatch to the cockpit.
Then he kissed her temple and sighed, whispering, “..sorry about that.”
“Y-you’re… you’re different with him,” she observed.
“With Han?” She nodded. “..Well, there’s only so interested in his nose in our business I’m gonna be. …Told you I can be rude.”
“S-sorry…about the bet,” she winced.
He snuffed, “‘Master Solo’? —Don’t worry about it. I couldn’t possibly get that irritated over it… not when I’ve finally got you, here at my side, offworld..,” he rubbed his cheek into her hair, contentedly exhaling. …And mused, “…Sitting here with you, hardly feels real… —I hope you don’t mind, keeping up close to me like this…so I can reassure myself, you really exist.”
She blushed, and breathily chuckled. “You’re very sweet… O-Of course I don’t mind. I feel much better keeping close to you, too, you know..”
His mouth curled into a smile, and he pulled her fully into his lap, “mmm…I hoped you would..” he caught her lips in a soft kiss.
…Leisurely, she took several in exchange, smoothing her palm up the nape of his neck.
“..I know it’s not as comfy as your room back home.. but the bunks have privacy hatches, and I will be clearing this room out again when we wake up,” he whispered after, “..So please feel free, to wear your pj’s, baby.. No one else will see.”
He was taking very good care of her, indeed. She was very much looking forward, to spending this night with him.
“Thank you, sweetheart,” she expressed — wrapped an arm behind his shoulders and let the fingers of her other hand fully up into his smooth hair, and gave him a deep, grateful kiss.
…She was going to get to sleep with him, every night, for a while. Just like this.
The starship was small, strange and sterile. Every surface here felt foreign, and she missed the way the light had filled up her room up through her windowpanes, and the birdsong, gentled through the glass.. Already.
…But he was here, beside her — beneath her… and he, she would not have to miss… As had been her wont each eve, back home.
He was going to be close to her, all night. Every night..! —And this part of their cramped shuttle ride, was too perfect. She sucked his lip into her mouth, and teethed it for good measure.
He was grinning sillily, when she let him go. “..up and at ‘em, darlin’. I’ll meet you in that bunk.”
She grinned back, and nodded, “mm!” Then she scooted off of him and grabbed her pack from the storage bin, and retreated into the refresher.
She still remembered how to use it. She got changed and emerged, to find him standing leaned against the bulkhead, beside the ‘fresher door. She laughed, “Are you my guard?”
He grinned cutely, “Of course I am.”
“Thanks for looking out.”
“It’s what I’m here for. —Princess, you’re so pretty,” he insisted, keeping pace by her side as she crossed to the bunks. She chuckled bashfully, at the assessment, and climbed into the bunk, pulling down its sheets and slipping under.
Then she watched, smiling to herself over him, as he restowed her pack and stripped off his shirt. He balled it up and tossed it up to her, and she caught it handily. Meanwhile he was tugging off his boots…then pulling off his pants. She caught those, too. The boots got stowed, while his clothes she pushed into the bunk’s shelf.
He released the cockpit hatch and stuck his head in, informing everyone there of their free movement, before coming to her.
…Finally he joined her in the bunk, sidling in next to her, as she made space for him by turning herself sideways. He depressed a panel above their heads and a barrier slid down from the bunk’s ceiling, closing them off from view. ..Then he turned into her, reached out and gathered her into his chest, sighing gratefully… and found her mouth and kissed her. Their legs slid together, and she wrapped her arm about his back, reveling in the feel of her man’s skin beneath her touch. ..She pulled his lip into her mouth, and for the first time ever, heard him properly stifle a groan, rather than give in to it. It made her grin, and stroke his neck, and kiss him sweeter. “I love you, baby,” she promised him softly. He nuzzled into her tightly, helplessly mumbling, “Force..”, and she squeezed him close.
“….I love you, too,” he breathed, barely audible, into her skin.
They whiled some time, snuggling each other carefully, kissing lovingly, and gradually adapting themselves to the small space.
And as their breathing slowed and her eyes grew heavy, he reached out with his mind to switch off the little bunklight… and they passed into what passed for night, out amid the stars, all cuddled up.
***
The next ‘day’, she asked about the ship. She sat in the cockpit, Luke perched across from her, and inquired after each control panel’s function. Somewhat to her surprise, Han was rather forthcoming, and seemed to enjoy her interest.. while Luke lounged behind him, allowing him to explain everything, with an inscrutable gentle little smile. —Soon, Chewie relinquished his copilot’s chair, and she moved up to ask after the flight controls directly. Han explained the piloting of the shuttle, and she related the controls to those of Luke’s X-wing as well as she could. To her pride, Han was mildly impressed by her preexisting knowledge, and promised to show her his ship — and she recalled with excitement, the Millenium Falcon had figured prominently in 3PO’s tales. Chewbacca raurrled his agreement. When she looked back to Luke, he was beaming.
The ‘day’ after that, she began to feel unmoored from the passage of time. As though time itself were also created by the sun. ..As though the stuff of it had no current, but the solar rhythms… and she were but a mote, nonmotile, awaiting some current’s return.
When she mentioned it over the dejarik table, Luke held her closer to his side and promised her the day back soon… And Han, began relaying stories of space madness and hyper-rapture.
Later, in the bunk, she and Luke stroked each other’s tummies while trading whispered memories of the woods left far behind, whose closest spaces felt wide-open in comparison to their little sleeping box. She pressed her nose in between his pecs and inhaled his musky scent, and felt comforted. Good animal.
And the waking after that, they finally emerged into traveled space.
The wayworld where Han had left the Falcon was a blue-brown marble. Its atmosphere burned against the dark. She watched their approach with fascination.
As they penetrated its sky, the brown began sprouting infrastructure.
And soon, the closest of it became a city.
..There were more buildings on this world, than she had ever seen in her life. They stretched to the narrowing horizon. They were blocky and ugly, and she didn’t care.
They approached a large, sprawling complex riddled with holes, descended into one of them to land. Han called it the spaceport, and she mentally called up her knowledge of spaceports.
Han distributed them all hooded cloaks, once they’d berthed. He had scarves for Luke and himself, which they wrapped about their faces, covering their mouths. He was bound for another spaceport, in another city, where the Falcon was apparently docked. 3PO and Chewie were to follow independently. She quietly wondered at all the secrecy — just how recognizable were these people, in a galaxy of untold trillions?
And funnily enough, for the first time she began to wonder — what her impoverished little world, which Luke had called a backwater, might possibly contain, that required silence and concealment to protect.
She had not thought on it, previously. The only thing that had ever mattered to her about Luke’s presence in her father’s court, was his presence.
…But if she would ask after it now, it must needs be later. She and Luke were bound now for a particular shop, which Luke explained was used by New Republic Intelligence, for certain discrete purposes — and where their tailor’s work was to be found. After this errand, they were to join Han and the others; and be on their way into hyperspace, and towards Coruscant, once more.
She dropped her gem under her leathers, and Luke pulled his hood down close over his face. He gently reminded her under no circumstances to address him by name or let go of his hand in the streets, tugged aside his scarf briefly to give her a kiss, and they were ready. Her body cavity buzzed.
They descended the gangplank first, with Han to follow after some goodly time. The scent of unburned fuel struck her nose.
The circular space in which they’d berthed was dark, at its margins. Shaded equipment lurked against the dun walls. Here and there, small running lights pierced the gloom, illuminating nothing. ..A panoply of mechanical sounds filled the air, like the chatter of birds. She gripped Luke’s hand tight.
The day beckoned from beyond an archway in one wall.
“..It’s gonna be crowded,” Luke quietly warned her, “—and strange.” She nodded, understanding, and not. Her chest was tight. She was either excited, or frightened — or both. “…I’m with you,” he reminded, and she turned on him a grateful look. His eyes smiled at her as he gave her hand a strong squeeze…
And they stepped under the arch and through a cloud of chemically-tinged steam, and emerged, into the busy sunlit streets.
…She had never been amidst such a bustle. They wended slowly through the traffic, and she tried not to stare at every new shape of sentient that walked by. Snippets of conversation in strange tongues whirled indistinctly around them. Everything was unfamiliar, and something acrid was in the air. She stuck close to Luke’s side, and he periodically gave her a gentle nudge, and nodded toward something she might especially wish to see…leaning in to lowly offer her explanation, as she tried not to ogle too obviously.
Eventually, they arrived at the shop. The door swooshed shut behind them, and Luke put down his hood.
“Master Skywalker!” greeted the clerk. It seemed they were expected.
The shopkeep was a young woman, dressed sharply in leather and silk. Bright silver bands clasped her arms, and glinted in her dark hair.
“Cassha,” he returned, “Good day. Is everything I asked for ready?”
“Yes, just as you requested! …Our apologies for the delay, but I think you’ll find the results well worthwhile. —Unfortunately Sinniya isn’t in, but I will be delighted to take you — and your honored guest! — through everything.”
“Great, we—” His sentence was interrupted, by the buzzing of his com. He checked it. “..Give us a moment, I need to get this.” The shopkeep nodded.
He pulled her to the side and answered the com. “What is it?”
Han’s voice crackled through the connection. “I’ve found a great deal on some power converters, Rondo. ….You really oughta get over here… They’re going fast.”
Luke scowled. “—Seriously?”
“…Yes, Rondo,” Han carefully drew out and enunciated each word, “Seriously.”
Luke hesitated, briefly closing his eyes amidst his frown.
At last he seemed to reach a decision. “…Alright. Where are you?”
“Tankin’s Cantina. By the spaceport.”
“…I’m on my way,” Luke closed the connection.
…Then gently, guiltily met her eyes.
“…I’m sorry,” he murmured, and squeezed her hand, “He ran into trouble. Needs my help. …It’s… It’s probably better if you wait here, it could be…” He glanced toward the clerk, then back to her. “..You’ll be safe here. This place is trusted. I’ll have Cassha lock the door. And I’ll be back..as soon as I can.” He bit his lip, brow knit, “..Is it.. is it alright?”
Gradually she nodded, mystified by the cryptic exchange — assuredly out of her depth and nervous at the prospect of being left alone. …But if Han needed help, and there was trouble, it was what it was.
She could last on her own for a little while in safekeeping, surely. “Y-yes, it’s OK.”
His frown only deepened. “I’m sorry, darling. I know this is not what you bargained for.” He stroked the hair around behind her ear. “..I hate leaving you.. I won’t take an instant longer than necessary, you have my word.” And he braced her neck and placed a kiss on her forehead…Then pressed his brow against hers, in farewell.
“Cassha, I have to step out. Show her some things from the order for me, would you? And don’t let anyone in but me.”
The shopkeep had politely been ignoring their exchange. “Of course, Master Skywalker! We’ll be fine here, until you get back.”
Luke nodded his gratitude, met Ciri’s eyes one last time… and left.
The door hissed shut, in his wake, and Cassha came over to press the button that locked it.
The woman turned to her with a smile, and she held back a gulp…feeling naked without Luke by her side, already.
“Welcome! ..Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll be back soon. I believe I have some things for you, in the meantime. I’m Cassha, as you heard. ..What’s your name?”
“C— Ciri,” she managed.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance, Ciri! Please, follow me.”
She did, as Cassha led her off through racks and racks of clothing, and into a corridor in the back of the shop.
“..We have everything prepared, as requested, of course. And there’s something rather special. I understand you’ll be in attendance at the banking gala?”
“Y-yes,” she confirmed.
“Very good. —And that means, you’re going to be needing one of these, doesn’t it?”
They’d arrived at a plain door at the corridor’s back. At the press of a button, it slid smoothly aside, revealing a dressing room.
Much of one wall was occupied by a line of fine gowns.
Anxiety flared within her breast, as her breathing faltered.
..She hadn’t.. could not, have reckoned on something like this.
“…They’re all to your measurements, and in the style of the season. You may take whichever you wish!” the shopkeep reported blithely.
…Ciri glanced hesitantly back and forth between the hanging dresses, unsure what to say. ..She wished that Luke were there, now. Dearly. Was this part of his order?
Surely he would have warned her.
….But then, it shouldn’t have been hard to see coming, should it? A gown, for a gala.
“..Please, take your time,” Cassha continued, at her silence, “Try on any you like. Call me, if you wish assistance.” And she quietly stepped back, and let the door swiftly hiss shut.
Ciri was left there staring.
The room was plated in mirrors along three walls. Gowns were reflected everywhere… Benches flanked the door.
In a few moments, she was able to walk down the line of them, studying them more closely, trying to evaluate….
……What?
Color… What she could see of their shape? ..Their garnishing decor? Their.. sparkle….
They were all straighter, less unwieldy, than the ballgowns of her homeworld.
And they did sparkle…as she paced by, the angle between her and the fabrics’ myriad teensy facets continually shifted, differentially reflecting the overhead light. Some emitted bright, distinct flashes… Some, a more subtle pointillescent sheen.
One of them was green, rich and dark, like the forest, tiny sparks dying in its shade. Another, cloudless, gay sky blue. One the deep sapphire of the lake, glinting with encrusted yellow crystals like the sun off its surface. ..The earth’s beloved brown, was not amongst them.
She bit her lip and hugged herself. They were all lovely. She felt a little sick.
……At last she picked the darkest gown in the line. One that reminded her, of cold empty space, hard punctured by starlight.
She had to take off, more clothing than she wished, to get it on.
The fabric was smooth and slinky.
It felt alien, shifted disquietingly against her skin. Her innards squirmed sympathetically.
The parts of her it didn’t cover, were almost worse.
She thought about someone who wasn’t Luke, seeing this much of her.
..She thought about Luke, seeing her like this.
….She frowned and held her arms.
..Shouldn’t he like it? …Didn’t she wish him to.. …to think her beautiful in it? If she could stand straight, and lower her arms, and carry herself, more properly…
All women, wanted men to find them pretty, in their pretty dresses… she knew enough to know.
……She wished for him to hate it. ..But it was so, so beautiful…
—A commotion sounded outside, rudely interrupting her distress.
Through the door, she dimly heard voices raised in argument — Luke’s? Her heart quailed.
She did not feel ready, to face him now.. like this. —She tried for some composure, to shake her feelings loose, by beginning to pace.
The voices rose higher, closer, and then the door was sliding open and Luke was striding in. He saw her and spent a moment frozen, disbelief on his face.
…His jaw set and he turned back to toss a harshly clipped command, “—Wait in the front.”
He hit the panel and the door abruptly fell shut.
—Then he swiftly crossed the room, and swallowed her wordlessly into a strong embrace.
…One arm securely held her back… ….While the other gently cradled her head into the crook of his neck… and fingers soothingly stroked her scalp…
“…I’m sorry, Ciri,” he offered at last in a silent whisper, “……I didn’t mean this to happen…. …I should have been here.” —And he tightened his grip, as his brow drew into a scowl, in emphasis.
She had surrendered, to his hold…letting her face press into his neck, frowning and biting her lip against..crawling, inside.
The parts of her, that he was clasping, felt…. ..Felt almost rescued, embarrassingly. Secured. …Other parts.. were still exposed to the air.
..She made an unhappy fist, in the stuff of his shirt.
“..h— how’s Han?” she had herself check, quietly. Trying to keep her voice steady.
“—Han’s fine.” His tone did not sound pleased. “..He got himself into some stupid trouble and I got him back out. I… Force. ..maybe I should have taken you with me.” he second-guessed.
“..do.. um, d-do you uhm…so do you, not like it,” she asked quietly.
“—Like it?” he bit harshly, in surprise. “—What’s to like?”
He briefly considered his words eyes searching the room from over her back. ..While keeping her held tightly, tightly close.
“I… I felt you. A couple blocks away. I was so worried.. I ran the last bit. —That woman was completely clueless. I had to fight with her to get in here… And here I find you. Like this. Looking like you’d like to shrink into your skin and die. How, am I supposed to like it??”
…A short, heavy breath rocked her shoulders.
She clutched him, intensively..
…..And was able to breathe, a tad more easily, on the other side.
…She was shaking, softly. He smoothed his hand along her back, “shhhh, sweetheart… ….were you worried, I.. I might?”
“a— a little,” she acknowledged.
“…I like your leathers,” he whispered slowly, carefully tracing little circles with his fingers along the exposed skin of her back, “…I like the way you look, normally. I like the clothes, you feel comfortable moving in.” He slipped his hand, under her jaw..and gently retrieved her face; and he kissed her, deliberately slow and soft. “I love you, the way you are, precious girl,” he breathed, “..I love that no one in that forsaken place has been able to force you into your uniform.. I love it that they’ve mostly given up.” ..And then he frowned, and a little of the vehemence crept back into his voice, “—I hate it, that some stupid tailor’s clerk on Ipso Kan has had you put this on, while I wasn’t watching.”
She tried to smile, blinking, in gratitude, and didn’t fully make it. …Then tightly burrowed her face back into his chest. “—Luke, thank you,” she mouthed to his tunic.
“…here,” he offered, low, and gentle. And his cloak unhooked, and his embrace slipped, to her distress.. But he was only shrugging it off and swinging it fluidly over her shoulders. “..precious little girl…let’s get you covered up,” he breathed, as he fastened it closed in front, and smoothed it down, over her arms. He wrapped his arms back around her, tightly, once more… and measuredly rubbed her, through his cloak, like to warming her. “..is that a little better, sweetheart?” he softly nudged.
…It was. It was a lot better. The room’s light chill was gone… The lining of his cloak was surprisingly soft, in a comfortable, fuzzy way entirely unlike the preternaturally smooth cloth of the gown. She began to nod.
……And sighed. Some of the tension, she’d hardly realized she’d been carrying in her core, began to unknot.
She snuggled into him gratefully.. he was indelibly sweet. So entirely deserving of trust. —She worked her arms around his waist and squeezed him tight. “thanks for coming to get me,” she mouthed, “thanks, so much..”
“shhhh, baby.. of course I did. I’m so sorry, I left you..”
“w-what.. what happened to Han?”
“Han got robbed. Almost. Had to call me in to Jedi mindtrick his way out of it cuz he’s not allowed to make a racket here.”
“What??” she exclaimed, raising her head in alarm.
“shhhh..” he quieted, nudging his brow into hers, “..it was no big deal. just some petty thief. Han could have handled it himself, if he was allowed to use his blaster.”
“are…are you alright?”
A hint of a smile, tugged the corner of his mouth. “Of course I’m alright, sweet girl. I sent him on his way. Everyone is fine…”
“e-everyone is fine?” She felt guilty, to be troubled over clothes, when real trouble was afoot.
Luke was nodding, against her forehead. “everyone is fine. there’s no need for worry. —I love you..”
She put her head down on his chest.
“I-I love you too..”
He worried at his lip. Then whispered, “..let me take this off? I hate it. may I take it off of you, baby?”
She blinked, “..off…?”
..Then her mind, put it together. She exhaled — surprised, by how good that sounded.
Comfortable. And.. and.. a tad intriguing. …In that way, that only he, struck her.
She nodded, in agreement, “yes.”
He gave her a tiny, ghosting smile, “thank you baby..
“let go of me, for just a moment.” She did, releasing her hug about his torso.
Then she felt the dress’s flimsy strap, slip off her shoulder, underneath his cloak…followed shortly by the other one. The gown began to tug. “…I might have realized, they’d come up with something like this…with the thing coming up. Sorry I didn’t see it coming. …here… I’ll be careful… let’s get you out of it..” he mouthed beside her ear, as he patiently eased the dress down her body, with the Force.. It was making her skin flare, under his cloak.
…Soon, the fabric pooled at her feet, and she was bare but for her underwear, and his soft fuzzy cloak…and the warmth of his strong body, wrapped around her. “there… is that better, precious?” he whispered gently, and she nodded, that yes, yes it was, and pressed into him, and rehugged him tightly, with relief. ..It really, really was.. She felt secure, and somehow less naked, without that slinky thing. “b-better,” she softly acknowledged, “much better. thank you, Luke..”
“it’s my pleasure, little girl.”
He bit his lip, and exhaled, nuzzling against her..
“..There’s something I did envision you wearing…” he suggested presently, “I had them prepare it in your size. See if you like it?” She nodded, in agreement. “..k..” he breathed.
His eyes dropped shut, and his breathing became deep, and slow.
Time passed. And then she heard muffled noises, outside, while he cuddled her, and then the door, as it hissing open and shut. Something heavy touched down onto the floor. She looked over, to see it was a crate.
Something lifted out of it. He swallowed softly. “First the shirt… Let me put this over your head, princess..”
She raised her head, and the garment slipped down over her face, coming to rest upon her shoulders. ..He gently tucked it under the cloak, with the Force, while she waited, looking up at him with bated breath.. hardly believing she was being dressed by him. “there..” he mouthed, touching her forehead, with his. His arms shifted, down to her waist. Releasing her torso. “now… Hold up your hands? ..Up by your shoulders, for the sleeves…”
She did so, under the cloak, as he closed his eyes, and she felt the cloth brushing softly over her skin as the arm holes sought out her hands.
The only sound was the cloth rustling, and their breathing. She could practically sense him concentrate. She could feel his exhalations on her skin. His hands firmly gripped her waist…
He swallowed, audibly, as he finished with the sleeves.
“..good… Ciri…” he breathed, as he began to unfurl his pick of shirt down over her body, making her shiver all over… keenly aware as the soft fabric tugged out over the peaks of her breasts, then down, covering them.. moving steadily onwards, over her stomach. The garment was close-fitting, yet stretchy, soft.. comfortable, where it clasped her body. His breathing was notably disturbed… And the periodic hitches in its pattern, matched with the little flares and crackles, thrilling across her body, converging at the base of her spine.
She gulped, and it caused her to notice that not all the small sounds of disordered breathing in the air, were his.
…When the shirt reached the part of her he held, he released her, reached into the cloak, and finished rolling it out over her hips with his hands, as she gave a small, involuntary squirm up into him, and both their breaths hitched, and he..squeezed..
His hands were on her, closing on her through the shirt, and she felt his cheek moving, and his lips had found hers… He was giving her a deep, and patient kiss, and sighing contentedly, as he did. And another, and another. She melted into them, and sucked on his lip when she emphatically kissed him back.
..Until, sated, he released her..to rest his brow on her temple and gently pant.
She looked up to him, tingling awfully. He offered her a sweet smile, hushedly laughed and nudged her nose. “..how is that, pretty girl? ..does it feel Ok?”
“y-yes,” she managed to answer him. “i-it’s soft and snug, and.. And comfy. I like it.” The truth was, that just between her legs, flanked by his hands upon her hips, was a puddle of warm goo, thanks to what he’d done.
…She realized that he probably understood that.
“good,” he affirmed, squeezing her sides, “..baby, I’m glad to hear it. …Ready for pants?”
She nodded, “Yes!”
He grinned, cutely, and kissed her. “K. Lift your left leg…,” and he slipped something over her foot, and kissed her again. “k, put it down..? ..And, now your right..”
..And soon, he’d paused in his kisses to urge the trousers up.. up her legs, and thighs, with his mind, to her hips… and when they were fully risen, his strong hands found the pantwaist, to button it. “—Wait,” she stopped him. “hmm?” he questioned. “..Not tucked in,” she corrected. He blinked, and then blushed, as he understood, “Oh. —Oops.”
Directly he recovered himself. “…alright. I can correct that,” he breathed, and brought his glove to his mouth, bit the fingertip and used it to tug the thing off. He tucked it into his belt, and deliberately let his hands back down to her hips, to pull the shirt back up…making full contact with her underwear and skin, and giving her another deep kiss. His prosthetic’s synthskin was cool against her pelvis, in contrast to his true hand’s warmth.
She moaned into the kiss, with accidental indelicacy.
…Then he buttoned the trousers, and she was dressed.
They had a loose fit, and were of sturdy cloth.
“there,” he announced, with satisfaction, letting his arms circle her waist, once again.
She smiled. Nodded, and sighed, putting her arms around him and wriggling into him, holding him close.
His false hand, began stroking up along her spine. “how have I chosen, Your Highness?”
“—much better,” she confirmed with relief.
He smiled, against her hair, “..so far so good?”
“mm-hmm!”
“I’m very glad to hear it. …And there’s just one thing left..”
“mmh? What’s that?”
She heard the grin in his voice, “…a poncho.”
She couldn’t help a little giggle. She’d only ever heard of these, from him.
Something about her movement reminded her, and her laughter failed.
“…u-um, n.. n-no actually,” she informed him shyly, “..there’s not just that.”
“Oh?” he asked interestedly.
“um, w-well. Well, I had to t— take off my, b-breastband, you see. ..T-the.. the dress w-wouldn’t.. wouldn’t go with it..”
He considered.
“mm. Of course. ..I don’t know how I overlooked that. ..Should I..let you?”
Her arms tightened on him reflexively. “—No. ….I.. I don’t want you to go,” she stated frankly.
..He nodded, flushing warmly, breath thrown a little off. “..k… I can.. I can do it, baby. ..h— how does it close?”
“I-it has clasps, i-in the back.”
“..k.”
Then the discarded band was rising from the floor… snaking, into the cloak…and up under her shirt…
The familiar article felt less so, gliding against her skin, under power other than her own.
It smoothed up onto her breasts… straightened itself out across their fronts… And then tugged, gently down, unfolding over their curvature. Till the hem made solid contact with her ribs, at their base.
“..like.. like this?” he asked thickly… hushed.
..It was almost as though, he were touching her, there. She couldn’t decide how close to that, it really was. She didn’t trust her voice.
So she nodded, instead. “mn — mhmn..”
…He tightly bit his lip, closed his eyes and tucked his head in against hers. And she felt his mind working at the clasp.
…Presently, she felt it latch.
“..th— there..” he remarked, a little breathlessly.
“th-thank you, Luke,” she whispered smally, wishing very much for something better to say. The type of inflammatory thing he might come up with, perhaps.
“..if it turns out I, um.. did it wrong.. feel free to fix,” he murmured bashfully.
She would rather him fix it.
..She wasn’t brave enough to say so.
“o-of course,” she murmured back instead. “..feels like you did it alright.”
He raked his teeth over his lip.
“…I am looking forward, to getting off this world, and off of our ship, my lady,” he enunciated each word, with careful deliberation, “..I would very much prefer, to spend this time with you, alone.”
She warmed, precipitously. “m-me too, p-pretty boy,” she whispered fervently.
..He kissed her, deeply, letting her feel his teeth.
She returned his kiss, greedily sucked on his lip… He gave her back an assertive bite. It elicited her soft, quiet moan, as her hands ran up and down his back. He let her feel him up, while his own hands sedately, powerfully massaged her hips, through her clothes, and ran up squeezing to her ribs, and his mouth commanded most her thoughts, and she whimpered into it. She wished dearly to be truly alone with him, now.
…Eventually, he released her, to pant into the air, and recover. She looked up to him with a trembling lip, to find his eyes, lidded with bliss. He offered her a wanton, mischievous grin, and bumped his nose into hers. ..And cleared his throat, “..a— anyway, Lady, while we’re just stuck here.. How’s about this poncho?”
She laughed, roughly, and butted her face into his chest. “Please. Yes.”
So he let his fingers gently find the clasp of his cloak, at her neck, and undo it. It tugged off her shoulders and fell. “raise your head, sweetheart,” he murmured, and she did and the poncho came down over it, and draped over her body. He held her neck and jaw and kissed her, firmly, once again.. Then stepped back from her, a pace, and gestured to a mirror, “What do you think? Are you comfy? How does it look?”
…She missed his body, is what she thought. But she gazed into the mirror, and found herself wearing a light brown poncho with a geometric pattern in darker brown banding about its hem, over a pair of well-pocketed, practical dark olive fatigues. She lifted the hem of the poncho to discover the plain cream of the soft, tight-fitting shirt underneath. In sensation the shirt’s fit was welcome like a hug, but visually it revealed a little more of her outline than she might wish general people to see — but the poncho covered that entirely. And, could be removed and packed away, were she to find herself in dense brush.
She sighed, with relief. “This is good. I like this, very much. ..Thank you, Luke.” She was uncountably grateful, for his intervention.
He grinned, with satisfaction. “..I snagged some boots for you, too.” He floated them over, with socks, and she sat down on a bench and pulled them on.
As she finished, he knelt before her and rested his hands upon her thighs. With careful emphasis, he stated, “..You do not have to wear, anything you dislike, while you’re here, princess. Not ever. ..I will be happy to arrive at any party matching you in whatever, if anything. And as a matter of fact, I was sort of planning on having something special made up, along those lines. Once you know your favorite things.”
She put her hands out to cradle his jaw, and swallowed, hard, nodding gratefully. ..He was behind her, all the way.
“…There’s a few other every-day things I had them prepare that I think could be up your alley. ..Check it out with me, and then let’s get out of here, what do you say?”
She smiled, and nodded, her throat momentarily thick. “..Yes, please, sweetheart.”
He smiled, adoringly…took one of her palms, and rubbed his face into it, “..Thank you, pretty baby..”
So they went through the rest of the contents of the crate. With each new piece of practical, comfortable-looking clothing, she somehow felt like she loved him a little bit more. —When they were done, she had to hold him, and profess him her affection. …Which made him smile, and laugh lightly with pleasure, and kiss her sweetly as he could.
He had almost forgiven Cassha, when they left the dressing room, crate in tow — and she found that she had entirely. The woman meant well, anyway. “Have this sent to Klingor Spaceport. Bay 34. Rushed,” Luke instructed her coolly.
“O-of course!” she replied, putting in the courier request. “..And the gown? Which is your pick?”
“We don’t need a gown. ..Are they the reason the order was delayed?”
The shopkeep hesitated. “But.. The gala? She’ll need…” —He cut her off with a look.
“We don’t, need a gown.” He enunciated more firmly.
She looked blankly confused. But relented, “..Ok…”
Ciri felt him relax. “Thank you, Cassha.”
“..My pleasure,” Cassha returned, nonplussed. ..Then recalled his prior question, “..Ah, and yes, Sinnaya wanted to make sure…all bases were covered, with what we prepared you. ..Hence the delay.”
“Tell Sinnaya, that I appreciate her efforts… but I would also appreciate, the letter of my order being followed, next time.”
“Of course.”
Luke nodded.. pulled back up his hood and replaced the scarf, and they left the shop, as the clerk returned to her work.
~
They took a transit shuttle, to the next spaceport, across the countryside. He’d stopped them at a food stall beforehand, and purchased something strong-smelling and roasted on a stick, and gave it her to eat on the shuttle, promising, “you’ll like this.” Strange spice and juices filled her mouth as she bit into it, and she sucked in her breath in surprise. It was meat. It was nothing like the fake-seeming trail food they had been surviving on, aboard. She sighed with pleasure, finished the piece and pulled another off the stick with her teeth. ..His eyes sparkled at her, crow’s feet wrinkling…and, shifting towards her and shielding himself from the other passengers with his shoulder and hood, he hooked down his scarf and popped a chunk into his mouth.
She smiled at him. He was cute. She felt safe at his side. She could practically snuggle into him… —Except, for the alien world outside the transport’s window.
..She spent the rest of the trip with her faced pressed to the transparisteel watching the dull landscape blur by, and his hand clasped protectively upon the inside of her thigh.
…And at last, they found themselves standing in another circular dock, before a ship round and flat like an oversized coin. A pointed extrusion on one side, paneled in transparisteel, contained Chewbacca. He waved.
Han appeared atop the lowered boarding ramp and welcomed them. “Look who it is,” he called.
Luke grimaced, as they ascended. “I’ve a bone to pick with you.”
“What?”
“..It isn’t his fault,” put in Ciri, realizing where this was going.
“Of course not,” Han agreed immediately, “…What’s not my fault?”
Luke ignored the question. “You were supposed to come here directly. Not stop at a cantina. Or pick up a mugger.”
“Hey, it was just a quick pitstop. How was I s’posed to know it would be my lucky day?”
“You should be more careful. I had to leave her.”
“…I-it’s not his fault, Luke,” she reiterated.
“She knows what she’s talking about, listen to her,” Han suggested.
Luke’s mouth thinned into a line. “You should be more careful. ..Master Solo.”
“…Alright, alright… No fun undercover. By the book,” Han relented, already turning away. “Clean living. ..Clear mind…” He disappeared down a curving passageway. “—By the way, your stuff got here!” he hollered back to them, “We’ll be leaving in 10.”
Luke turned to her, pressed his lips against her hair. “..sorry baby.”
“I-it’s alright, now. Don’t worry,” she assured him, “You fixed it. ..I love you.”
He sighed. ..Closed his eyes, and rested his cheek upon her head, one arm about her back.
“…OK. Let’s go get strapped in, for lift-off. And then I’ll show you around.”
She nodded to him, cupping his cheek…then reaching up on her toes to kiss him, upon which he gave her a little headbutt and a smile, and whispered warmly, “I love you too, my princess.”
~
Somehow, the Falcon was much homier than the shuttle..despite that it was equally metallic and cold. It felt lived in, more. Its panelings and upholstery were worn, scuffed and dinged. Chewie’s dejarik table was half-surrounded by a comfy-looking wraparound couch. Han proudly showed her some of his modifications to the ship’s hyperdrive unit, and she did her best to stay abreast of his descriptions… while Luke leaned himself against a strut, giving her the warmest, most brimming smile, something almost elegaic in his eyes. “Han, when was the last time this thing busted?” he asked.. looking at her like that, when she didn’t know why.
“Hey, she’s perfectly reliable. It’s been a good while.” Chewie put in something, and Luke emitted a soft laugh. “..Let her watch you fix it a time or two and she’ll be a better mechanic than me.”
“Well that’s not hard,” Han shot.
“I-I’d love to learn,” she volunteered, just slightly confused. Luke was still looking at her that way that was making her chest hurt.
“..Sure,” Han agreed, “—And no one better to teach you. If the kid’ll spare you I’ll have you outshining him in no time.” Chewie rarrlled, and Luke’s smile somehow grew just a little sweeter. Ciri crossed to his side as soon as it seemed meet, as though he needed comfort, and he buried his nose into her neck.
“—And you’re supposed to be remembering something, aren’t you?” Han reproved.
“..Sorry, Master Solo,” Luke offered him, contendedly, and she winced.
…And, after a dejarik game or so, he told the others they were to rest, and bundled them off to the bunkroom he’d claimed them for their quarters.
He sighed, and folded her into a big, long hug, in the middle of the room.
“L-Luke, are you alright?” she asked him gently, holding him in turn.
It took him a little while, to answer.
“…Yeah, I’m fine, sweetheart. I’m…” his breath caught.
“..it’s weird, but I’m finding myself a little….” he trailed, in a whisper. “..I don’t know. ….I’ve spent so much time on this ship… everything is new now, that you’re here. It’s making me sort of nostalgic, or..
“…I’m so grateful, to be with you, Ciri. You make me feel..so warm..”
“aww,” she softly exclaimed, “Luke..”
..He bent his neck and silenced her, firmly, with a wet kiss..then delicately redirected, “..baby, are you ok? This day, was…”
She drew down a deep breath and sighed.
“..This day, was,” she agreed, and wasn’t sure what to add.
Everything had happened, this day.
His brow butted hers. “..I want, so much more with you, than what I can have, aboard this ship, sweet girl. …Take a shower for me. Hot. Do you remember how? I think you’re gonna like it. Unwind, some… And come lay down with me, and talk to me about it, precious thing..”
She swallowed.
She was tired. And she was overwhelmed. The thought of water, streaming over her, reminded her of…ground. Outside. Earth. The spring down the rockface. Natural, earthy things. Sunlight, she’d seen today, but hadn’t lingered… Space was not a place for the living.
Coruscant was not a natural place, she knew. Yet she yearned to arrive.
She nodded, and kissed him…the most proper, breathing thing, within uncounted miles.
As she left his embrace she briefly wished that he might join her — then blushed at the impropriety and wondered whence the thought had come.
She took her pack into the ‘fresher and turned on the shower as he’d shown her how.
She let the warm water ease her body and mind alone… tried not to think about him, waiting for her just outside.
It had been a long day. Not temporally, but.. psychically. She’d seen…
So much.
And she’d… The dress.
….She shivered, under the water.
But then… he’d held her… he’d brought her good clothing,… he’d.. ..Oh—
How it had felt.
..How..it had.. felt..
Safe. Good. Caring. …Verging.
..She longed, to be alone with him.
—She finished up and dried herself off, then went out to seek him. He was waiting for her just outside the door, already undressed, and took her familiarly into his arms, nuzzled her with his fingers in her hair and gave her a kiss… sweet, and soft. Sometimes, his entire body was like a promise. He whispered a promise into her ear, “I love you, little girl..”
They piled into a bunk. It was deeper than the ones on the shuttle, just by a little. Their bodies met and softly melded, beneath the blanket. He cutely tucked the cover in behind her far shoulder, and snuggled into her… cupped the back of her skull and gave her a long, longing kiss.
…She held his hair, returning it full in kind, as her muscles relaxed and she melted into their bond.
Then, “..tell me about the day, precious..” he whispered, solicitous.
“..big… It was big, Luke,” she summarized softly, gripping his bicep. The air was close between them…with him all around her, their little space, reminded her of a den. “The street was… so much, to look at.
“…I saw more on that street than in my whole life, back home,” she reflected quietly.
“..how did you feel, about the crowd?” he breathed.
..Was he subtly asking her, about aliens?
“f— fascinating. a-a tiny bit.. dazzling.. I hope I didn’t stare at anyone, too much.”
He smiled, breath snuffing out his nostrils, “..leave it to you to worry about being sufficiently polite when you’re on a street full of aliens for the first time.”
She blushed. “it’s rude,” she defended.
“…and you’re very polite.” He kissed her brow. “..it must have been hard for you not to whip out your notebook and start drawing everyone..”
She laughed. “..n-now you’re teasing me..”
“I like teasing you,” he agreed. She toyed at his chest, smiling to herself about that. “what did you think about the Troig? ..the two-headed guy.”
Her throat made a noise. “Which one is in charge? How can that work? Do they each control half… How do they walk… —Is it two people??”
He laughed. “You make me feel incurious. I never thought so much about it, the first time I saw..”
“—But Luke, that’s not even the weirdest thing,” she discarded her previous questions, “…Why do so many of them have faces? And two arms and legs?”
“..what do you mean? why shouldn’t they have faces?”
“..I saw more things that don’t look like me in the tidepools. Why do they all have eyes and mouths? Why do they move like us? ..it’s like.. It’s like they….
“—But didn’t we evolve independently?”
He was silent… gazing at her.
“…I don’t know, why,” he said eventually. “I’ve never.. Never wondered.”
..Time passed, and he bit his lip.
“…The history of the galaxy is old. Many species have lived for forever on worlds they aren’t.. probably aren’t, truly native to. …..On Coruscant, I will take you to the Academy. And find us a scholar, who can answer,” he concluded finally.
She nodded, momentarily mollified.
…Then had another thought.
“…what about my world, Luke? You and I… we’re the same. Am I… Are my people, not really from there?”
He blinked. ..And softly thumbed her lip. “..I can’t ask the scholars that, darling. …but I can ask, where our species is from, originally…and maybe they can answer.”
She nodded. Delicately, she touched his pretty cleft chin. ..He had brought secrecy to her mind, yet again.
“…Luke..? What is your business, with my father?”
“..kyber crystals,” he answered quietly, holding back nothing, “There are kyber crystals, on your planet. ..Kyber forms the heart of my lightsaber. Your father’s kingdom houses a high-grade weapons deposit.”
“..o..oh…” she breathed.
This was why, he had entered her life.
Why her entire world had changed. …For.. Jedi weapons matériel..
“..Don’t tell anyone. State secret.”
“O-of course. ..Thank you for telling me.”
The corner of his mouth crooked into a smile, under her grazing fingers. “You have my absolute trust.”
“..the world is so strange..” she whispered. “we’re somehow all connected, yet, so far-flung and lost… and the wars of some unknowable foreign order brought you, to me…”
He blinked, softly.
“…I take very much for granted,” he breathed in return, “…but not you. ….There are no more wars. ..Not now. Only precautions, and security. And I’m uncountably grateful for it.. It delivered you, me. Kyber has brought me one last gift. I wish to gift you myself…
“When we reach Coruscant, I will be by your side, openly. I will take you everywhere you wish to go. Slowly. ..Properly. ..This strange galaxy, has much more to show you..”
Something was in her throat.
“these are idle questions. the only thing I wish to see is you,” she voiced tinily.
His eyes grew wet.
He gave her a small, gentle smile, and cradled her into his chest, with relaxed strength.
……Then his arms, tightened.
“ohh, baby, I’m sorry for today… I never want to feel you feel like that, again.”
The dress rose briefly back into her mind. …She recalled, how helpless she had felt, crouched inside of it… until he’d come.
She shook her head. His embrace sweetly mirrored the tender moments that had followed back to her, now…. Utter safety, and her body pressed against his. “you saved me,” she thanked him, “you were so wonderful. I love you, so much.. …!”
He tangled his fingers in her hair, bent down and pulled her up in his arms, and gave her a wet, deep, tongue-filled kiss. “I want you, little girl,” he husked, and kissed her again so deeply, breathing her throat.
She tried not to cry. She wished to dissolve, into his cocooning body.
Notes:
...Plus a few more edits rolled out, to the previous chapter.
The truth is, I don't know what I'm doing. ..Everything past Sonen I view as just slightly suspect, so possibly subject, to revision.
I wonder what comes next?
Chapter 15: Coruscant
Chapter Text
They arrived over Coruscant soon after.
The Falcon dropped out of hyperspace above the dark side of the planet. Rings and rays of golden light marked out its surface. Vessels came and went, like insects from a field. As they approached, the brilliant line of day burst forth and drew near.
They crossed over, and settled into the atmosphere, within its grasp.
A cacophony of skyscrapers pierced the clouds and plummeted into plains and canyons, below. Ship traffic intensified in neat ant lines. She’d seen this place hovering in the air above her bed, or lit upon a screen. Now… It was a reality, past all her imaginings.
Luke had words with a crackling voice from the cockpit speakers, and they gained clearance to land upon a private pad, atop a shining tower midst the fray.
Han and the others dropped them off. Luke levitated his bag and the crate, in which she’d stashed her pack, at their backs.
“See you soon!” Luke called. Chewie roared back, and Han sketched a salute. She waved.
The Falcon lifted off. And then they were alone.
She slowly turned, taking in the swelling city all around. The day’s light was tending gold. High-rises and spires dotted the skies…sight lines revealed glimpses of a kind of ground, metal and duracrete infrastructure, riven in orderly crevasses. Vehicles of all descriptions zoomed glinting amidst the architecture in a complex overlay of flight paths. In the middle distance, a massif of mounting pinnacles loomed, casting its shadow over all that lay before it.
In all that she could see, was not a single living thing… Until she completed her circle and found him, stood across from her, watching her silently.
The corner of his mouth lifted gently. “Highness,” he addressed. “…Do you like it?”
She had not words to say.
“A-ask me later,” she replied.
..He winced, knowingly, and calmly stepped her way.
“…I do not look for you to. It is merely a waypoint… to what I truly wish you, to see. …Welcome to the Galactic City, my liege. I have rented out this building top, for us. Will you accompany me, inside?”
She couldn’t help granting him her smile.
“I will.”
She took his hand, and their fingers laced fondly. Smiling secretively, he leaned in, to press a kiss upon her forehead… And then led her towards the far end of the landing pad, where it terminated with a half-moon curve into atmosphere.
As they neared its edge, he halted.
A concealed circular platform silently disengaged from the neck they’d just walked down, and began to descend, at a stately pace. She startled, a little, at movement’s initiation…he squeezed her hand, and held her steady in his gaze.
The lift halted before a section of plain wall, concavely curved in complement… Which promptly retracted into itself, and revealed a wide vestibule.
She stood immobile a moment. Plants lined the walls, in gigantic earthen bays. ..Something had risen inside her, at the sight of them.
Their leaves were dark and large as shields, unlike any she’d ever known. Hidden running lights unobtrusively illumined the space’s beckoning depth.
“my lady,” he murmured solicitously, at her ear — and asudden she came alive and breathed and stepped forward, pulling him along with her hand gripped tight on his. He grinned, gesturing with a finger to bring their stuff.
At the entry’s far side, the wall split diagonally into a pair of triangular doors, rising into the ceiling and falling into the floor, in admittance.
The space beyond brought her up short.
It was capacious. It brimmed, with greenery and sunlight.
To one side, a foreshortened beige wall discretely harbored a door. To the others…
Couches sprawled, flora erupted tumbling from planters low and high. A solid column, counters and a line of high seats were visible in the distance, a thick wooden table near to. All was trimmed in dark-stained wood and green leaves were everywhere… And most of the ceiling, and every outer wall, was glass — Long, curving panels of it, flowing continuously from floor to roof, interspersed by delicate strutwork. She clapped a hand to her face, restraining a laugh.
She heard his chuckle. “..You can stop yourself from exclaiming, but you can’t hide your pleasure… Not from me, Lady.” She whirled her head to look at him, “—Luke..!!”
He wore a supremely satisfied smile. “..I hoped that it would feel less sterile, than…the rest of this place, and what has passed for our accommodations, so far,” he said, slightly sly.
She let her hand drop from her lips… Reached up and grabbed a handful of his hair, and used it to pull him down, into a determined kiss.
He hummed, in his throat, as she helped herself, to his pretty mouth.
..And when she was done he sighed, “..Now, won’t you relax here with me, sweetheart?”
~
She spent some little time exploring their suite. In addition to all she’d glimpsed before, around the corner of that rare solid wall by the entrance was a carpeted dais fringed in gauzy curtains and bearing a massive circle of a bed which had her snort — where was the front? …Past that closets, and by far the biggest refresher she’d ever seen.
She looked doubtfully at the wide open glass encasing that portion of the apartment — and he promised her, “One-way transparisteel. …You didn’t notice it, on the way in, right?”
…Right. The building had been unremarkably opaque, during their approach. She let out air and nodded. “—Plus, there’s this,” he touched a control panel on the wall, and the apartment’s glass went dark.
In the sudden black, little lights populating the various panels and devices scattered about the place shone out clearly for a moment. ..Then he reversed the change in the transparisteel’s transmissibility, and daylight restored. She smiled at him, fully reassured.
After exploring the innards of the place to a first approximation, she turned her eyes outward… And slowly paced the entire exterior wall, making a study of the buildings and traffic lines neighboring.
…Her perambulation ended at that ridiculous bed.
An outer corner there by the ‘fresher complex bubbled into a sort of transparisteel lozenge overlooking the vast cityscape, and housed a plush, bowl-shaped chair.
He spilled into it with a sigh… swiveled it round her way and extended her his hand, in invitation.
—She smilingly accepted, piling in atop him and snuggling in. He hummed, as he felt her nuzzle.
…They sat there curled up together, as the light gradually waned — slower, seeming, than what she was used to.
“so, we made it, baby,” he whispered, into her hair, “..we’re finally here. thank you so much for coming with me. how do you feel?”
She released her breath, leisurely.. contentedly rubbed against his shoulder. “‘s nice…it’s nice here.. with you..”
A dearth of pinnacles before them created the likeness of a sizable plain. That massif sat crouched out there, amidst it. He’d told her on her walk-around — it was the Imperial Palace. His sister’s government had reclaimed it, yet it would not be renamed. She watched the little ships crawling in and out of its influence, and the shadows of the skytowers creeping gradually across the… ‘land’.
Seemingly familiar features, like ground itself, were rendered esoteric, in this peculiar place. She felt something like a laugh, trip up in her chest. “T-This is not at all what I imagined, when I thought about leaving home..!”
“I’m sure, that it is not… my brave girl..”
“You’re taking good care of me,” she assured.
He had slipped his arms beneath her poncho. It felt extra intimate and close, as he sighed..squeezed, and kissed her hair. “I’m glad to hear that,” he murmured, “..I’ve been waiting for this… I haven’t truly felt satisfied, aboard the ships. —Though it’s been lovely, sleeping so close. And yet….”
“…hmmh. ..I think I know what you mean,” she picked up. “…We were never fully alone. —And I missed the ground. ..It was weird, to be together so long, sleep together even, but not be alone…” Like both having him, and not.
“It was,” he agreed meditatively, “…We got so used, to having so much time, to ourselves… Your father’s castle spoiled me.”
She smiled, at the unlikelihood of that. “You could be so much better spoiled anywhere else out here, surely.. We have nothing, like this. I’m still not used to the doors doing that thing…”
He grinned wryly, “I was spoiled, by your presence there, in your native state..pretty princess. You in your woods is perfect. What do I need, with the things they have here?”
She snuffed out a laugh. “..Well I wish I could say it’s not that bad. —I-I mean, it’s fascinating, of course! And.. And beautiful… But I wasn’t prepared for how relieved I’d be, just to see plants. …How do people live here, without anything that can grow?”
“Some people run hydroponics. The planet imports most its food.”
“..gods…” she breathed.
“Indeed..”
“Where is the ground?”
“…I’ve never been down, that deep. I’d hesitate to take you. Your father would kill me, if he heard..”
She laughed, at the bizarrity. “—He’d kill you, if he knew you took me to see the dirt?”
“He’d kill me, if he knew I took you to the seediest, most desperate place in the Core…to look at some dirt.”
…She mused on that, for a time.
“This is nothing like my castle…”
“..Does it displease you?” he asked gently.
She chewed on it, in his arms. Light glinted off the diagonal red stripe of a passing air speeder, out of walls.
“..No,” she decided. ..Closed her eyes and rubbed back into him, felt his sympathetic squeeze. “…Not this building top. And from here, I will be happy, to explore… More, of what this world has hiding. —With you with me, that is.”
“..Consider me conjoined,” he softly murmured, “Nothing could induce me to leave you, after…”
“And nothing could induce me to let you. Next robbery, I’ll just have to come along with.”
His chest rumbled, sending vibrations through her frame. “..Mmph. Pity the poor robber.. His life will be in his hands, if I have you to protect..”
..For some reason, she blushed.
“..M-more so, than with Han..?”
He released his breath into her hair, disrupting its strands. “..I don’t know. Maybe not. ..Han I don’t worry about, so much, even if I’m saving him. Seen him in too many scrapes.”
..3PO had told her, about some of those scrapes. They felt almost real, out here.
Such things were alien to her.
“…I-I’m not used, to having..”
She searched for a right phrase.
“um, a-a… A guard dog,” she tried.
..It made him smile. “You have one now. …and a faithful dog, I can be… Just ask Han.”
She gave a little laugh. “..good boy,” she praised quietly.
Breath soughed through him at that, and he pulled her in tight… suckled her earlobe down into his mouth and tugged it in his teeth, making her breath catch and tummy leap, as her hands clenched onto his arm… “Highness… How you make me delight..” he whispered.
She cast about for something else of the ilk to say back… but nothing came to mind. So she twisted about just enough and sought his mouth.
His lips were plump. She tried not to think of herself as eating a delicious, juicy fruit.
“L-Luke, I—” she whispered to his mouth.
—He sealed her lips over with his.
She reached out and pulled his hair, frowning, and bit him. His hands were massaging over her stomach.
…He released her and sighed, through his nostrils, eyes lidded, brow rubbed up against her. “Ciri baby.. I’m just so fragged happy to have you here, princess… I’m intending to be guarding you very much better, from now on.. My pretty girl.. May I serve you well.”
He drew her into one more long..searching kiss.
“..Luke.. You’re the only thing here that feels real,” she whispered in confession.
“I can’t believe I’m here with you, either.”
“th-thank you..”
“—Shh…you know that that runs just, the opposite way ‘round.”
His eyes were fallen shut, leaving her to smile shyly at his beautiful face. She touched his jaw… And his lids gently rose, as something seemed to occur to him, and he murmured, “..and Ciri?”
“mm?” she hummed in answer.
He grinned, and entreated, “..How about, letting your boy take you out on the town, tonight..?”
—She gave a doubting, stopped up giggle, “Tonight?”
“—Not, the way you’re thinking, sweetling.” he clarified, “..Let me show it to you my way..”
“..mmm…And what way is that?”
He looked somehow so self-pleased, as he announced, “Without leaving. ..Close your eyes, precious. …And empty your thoughts…”
—She bit her lip, in sudden anticipation, as her abdomen tensed. “—I love you, Luke..!” she couldn’t help but exclaim. He beamed, laughter soughing happily in his chest.
…Then he calmed, and calmed her, “..Sshhhh, pretty Ciri… Relax, into me. …Let your agitation, drift away…”
So she snuggled back into him with a smile…and released her muscles, into his nestling warmth. She let her head relax against his shoulder, and softly sighed… Closed her eyes…
And her breathing matched with his.
…Time passed.
….And they vanished, into air.
..And then sight resumed, and motion, and they were looking at the skyscrapers, from outside building walls. Light burned the air.
Wind rushed them eagerly. The freedom of flight bore them aloft. Massive walls sped them by; the day’s dying sun sheeted off of them, blinding… A gracile, grey creature with long leathery wings marked out in brilliant purple stripes and bearing a predatory beaked face appeared in view just below.. and then another, and then… It was a flock.
They winged out ‘cross the gleaming plain. Darkness beckoned from a momentous circular pit, below.
—They dove, between lines of vehicles, straight down into the cavern. Around them, their companions kept apace.
Space opened up all around, within. The powerful light of the sun struck down in obtusely slanted shafts, dotting off into the dim distance… Other openings.
Spotlights, running lights, neon lights illumined the buildings below. Skimmer engines glowed. A great girder of incomprehensible mass hove up from the depths, bearing aloft the cavern roof. Traffic swept, and they whirled. A rawkish call pierced the darkened air.
..They swooped up upon a track smeared out in bright yellow, on the girder’s great side…wings flared, stalling flight as they reached out with tiny, cruelly clawed feet to seize a soft body from the duracrete surface, wrenching it off and releasing it to the air… Their beak shot forward and expertly snapped it up.
Delicious warm juice filled their mouth, as yielding flesh sawed between their tiny teeth, and was consumed.
Everything was cooled, here, by eternal twilight. The air sped by pleasingly.
A canyon of light and color burgeoned, shooting its illumination up above its walls. They dropped into it.
Streets stuffed with slow streams of sentients lined the buildings down inside, a riot of color and shape suspended from the facades above the walkers’ heads. Deep, rhythmic noises pulsed out of openings.
They dropped past. And past. And past.
…Eventually, the noise and light faded.
Darkness ruled. The temperature had dropped in the murk. Vibration in their throat — they were emitting a soft, piercing sound, and vision stabilized, and grew clear. They stroked the air and swerved past a band of cables, crossing their path.
…A prodigious pipe running below glowed a deep, powerful red, and they leveled out to soar at its side. The air in its vicinity was delightfully warmed.
More light, appeared ahead, against the darkened walls. ..Another yellow track, and another, and another, gleaming brilliantly now, in the dank. Another tasty morsel, and another. Flockmates’ voices chittered..
Then the pipe turned down, and they dove alongs—
—Connection severed. She gasped, aloud, greedily sucking down air and jolting upright, as she arrived back into herself.
..Her hands clenched his forearm, like the claws of the beast she’d just known…
…He was squeezing her, and sushing, “Shhh.. Shh… I’m sorry, Ciri. I got lost in it. They flew out of range…I didn’t see it coming. ..Are you alright, love?”
…Her mind was on the air, yet. Everything was dull, and.. And too still.
The sun had fallen farther and its setting was blaring across the city’s canopy…but it was muted, somehow.
She’d sat up, and so had he. His arm circled her waist. She breathed, steadily…Trying to accept, the grounded thing she was.
…And presently, she was able to relax, some… Leaned back against him, and rediscovered his soft warmth. He kissed her temple, and let them both sink back into the chair.
…Warmth was nice. The flyer had liked it, too.
She drew up her legs and curled up in his lap, and his arms wrapped her in, soothingly stroking.
…She buried her face into his shoulder, and let her body lapse against him, with a shudder.
..He was softly shh’ing above her hair, beneath breath.
“…t..th-that was..different,” she tried smally.
“…I’m sorry, for the jar. Are you alright?” he asked, again.
“..I-I’m…I’m alright,” she offered, “…I’m… alright…”
..She trembled, in the passage of something unnameable.
“..baby… I feel a little bad. I’ve overwhelmed you.. I didn’t mean to.”
She laughed, a small unsteadiness troubling it. “No..” she defended.
“I have..”
“..N-no, it’s just… I can’t see good. And… I.. d-don’t, know why my body is shaped this way.”
A soft tremor rippled in his chest. “..That isn’t overwhelmed?”
“um…
“..n-no. …n-not, in a bad way.”
“..alright,” he accepted. “…You’re really alright?”
She nodded, rubbing into his body.
“..I’m really alright..” she echoed softly.
His arms squeezed. “….k. …did you like it?”
“..I— yes, of course I liked it. —I loved it! I’ve never… Y-you’ve never shown me, something that.. Um…”
She considered her words.
“..C-conscious?”
“…mm.. I would say, that I’ve never shown you something, whose consciousness is so close to our own.”
She digested that.
“…What are they?”
“Hawk-bats. ..Dramatic creatures, aren’t they? …The legends say, that they were here, even before the city..”
She shivered. “t-they were going, so deep.. i-it’s so dark down there.. i-it didn’t feel scary, when I was..o-one of them..”
He smiled. “They’ve a reputation for bravery. They’re used as namesake, for it… And they haunt the lower levels. The city welcomes them, because they eat the silica parasites, that eat the duracrete.. —Those granite slugs we had didn’t taste too bad, either, huh? Bet you wouldn’t like one, now.”
She huffed. “..Probably not. …Thank you, Luke…truly.”
He kissed her hair. “..I think you’re brave, too, you know, Ciri.. Who else could come here, for the first time..and mind-meld, with some strange creature, and like it? You are my hawk-bat.. —Maybe just a little less predatory.”
“aww..” she smiled, and closed her eyes, against him…surrounded by his arms, and his people’s insane city. “y-you’re very sweet. You’re the only reason, I’m not overwhelmed.”
“..Then, I am doing my job,” he said softly.
Beneath her breath, she huffed a laugh.
—A flock of winged creatures raced by their tower. She gasped, lifting her head, “—It’s them!”
…They had already peeled away… wending between high-rises as the twilight descended. He smiled, chuckling.
She watched them disappear into the distance.
“…It’s kind of amazing, actually,” she said.
“What is?”
“The city..”
He smiled. “I’m glad you think so. …It’s not a reasonable place. But, it has its moments..”
“I can see why you don’t care to live here. Definitely. …But.. I’m glad we came.”
Acknowledgment hummed in his throat. “Tomorrow, I will take you into it. I know just the place, to bring you..lovely princess. Tonight… Be cozy, with me, tonight, Ciri. I wanna eat. I wanna bathe.. Then I want to snuggle you up in that bed, and watch something cute.” He let his eyes drift closed, a small smile forming at the corner of his mouth. “..I want you, warm, wearing little, right up against me… I am looking forward, to the best night here, I have ever enjoyed. ..And tomorrow, I will take you to see this city… more conventionally.”
His description of the evening had made her warm, in anticipation. “Y-yes, please, Luke..” she said, lightly plaintive. —Then her tummy grumbled.
His smile, gently grew. “Precious, you’re too adorable. Are you hungry?”
She was. Those vicariously eaten slugs, had stoked her appetite. She nodded. ..Then sucked down a breath, “—Luke, are we done with trail food??”
He laughed.
“We are. ..Here they have room service.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ll see.. Hop up and go check out the kitchen.” She did…
The kitchen was centered on the beige pillar in the middle of the room. Cupboards clung to one side, whilst greenery coated the far flank. A polished counter partially encircled it, bearing strange gadgetry and elegant stoneware, and interrupted on one end by a cozily boothed nook, beside the vine.
He had followed her, and approached a smooth black panel set into the pillar’s near side. Buttons dotted its lower margin, and the panel came alight at his touch. “You put in orders here,” he explained, inputting some kind of text, “..Trust me to pick for us?”
“..I think I’d have to.”
He turned her a slightly apologetic smile. “For now.. maybe so. —I’ll strive not to show that misplaced. Think you’re gonna like this, anyway… it’s popular in the mid-levels.”
“Is that where people have good taste?”
He laughed. “Kinda, yeah… The upper-crust have a tendency to make their food decisions based more on status than palatability, I’d say, and you don’t want to know what they eat on the lower levels.” A beep acknowledged the completion of his entry. “..Now we wait.”
“..What do they eat on the lower levels?”
He grimaced, “..Algae slurry and krill paste.”
Her mouth came open and she made a face.
“..You can gene-edit it to taste better,” he offered her expression.
…She tried a nod of acknowledgment.
“…This is a bizarre place..,” she murmured with a look out to his city.. not for the first time.
“Profoundly. ..Want some tea?”
She nodded, “Sure.”
A tea set numbered amongst the items upon the counter. He set out a couple of the cups, then added teabags from the small container beside the set. “This tea is called ardees. Very traditional among the well-to-do here.” He took up the teapot. “Left-hand spigots are for water, usually. Motion-activated,” he explained, filling it.
Then he set it on a darkened portion of the countertop, and gestured for her to approach, “Come here, princess.”
She did, and he wrapped her in his arms, smoothly slipping ‘round behind her as they both faced the black square on the counter. “..Run your hand over this, pretty girl,” he murmured, and she did… its surface was glass, in contrast to the smooth stone of the rest of the counter, and her fingertips could detect faint ridges.. arranged as several sets of concentric rings, within its borders. The teapot must be located within one such pattern. “Don’t ever touch the rings,” he gently warned, “when they glow. They’ll be hot. Now… turn it on… Each quad, has its own controls.” He guided her hand, to the correct set, and the correct button.
..Bright red bars appeared on the control panel, and rings of red light began to glow under the pot.
“..and this knob, adjusts the heat,” he whispered, directing her to it.. turning it with her. The number of bars displayed on the panel increased. “..there,” he breathed…and kissed her temple, while her tummy fluttered.
They were set to wait now, twice over. She turned her head, and encountered his mouth. Their lips softly met.
…One kiss, turned into another…
…And soon, he interrupted their lips’ press to turn her to face him, and pick her up, by the waist. He took a step and settled her, up on the counter a ways down from the range. Her knees spread to admit him, and her arms embraced him, pulling him close. Her throat, issued a tiny noise, which didn’t make it past his mouth.
..He licked her, from her chin up over her lips, making her breath catch in surprise, then took a deep, needy kiss. Her fingers played up his nape into his smooth, golden-brown hair…
She wanted more of him. More of that pretty, supple skin, and how squeezable he was…
She tugged his tunic open, at the top. Enough to let in her hand, to run along his clavicle and onto his strong shoulder. His fingers tangled in her hair, while his other hand, pushed up under her shirt to stroke the bare skin of her back, making her shiver. He groaned softly betwixt their kisses, as she undid a few more clasps, and let her hands onto his chest. She squeezed his pectoral, not too hard…he sucked her lower lip into his mouth, and briefly held it captive.
Finally, finally..they were all alone. She’d been cuddling this man’s bare body for most a week’s worth of sleeping cycles…and waking up, to his glorious erection. And she’d been able, to do nothing about it at all. ..But she could touch him, now…
..She tried peeling his shirt off of his shoulders, but swiftly ran out of slack. With a grunt he briefly spared a hand, to callously undo all the rest of his stays, enabling her to finish. His hand was back on her in a flash, squeezing her side with her shirt pushed up to admit him. His mouth was hot, and wet, and greedy. She pushed his tunic, back off his shoulders…getting it stuck, upon his arms. She sucked in his lip…let her hand run along his bared chest, held him to her with her other. ..Her fingertips skirted the edge of his areola. On the next pass, would she skirt it again? Or would she…
—A bright whistling intervened. He released her… cheeks reddened, lightly gasping.
…He reached out and turned off the heat.
Drew down a breath..and let it out, as the whistling fell away… letting his head rest in against hers, just beside her temple. Her hand was stilled upon his chest. He breathed, feeling it…letting himself steady.
…Then he poured the heated water into their teacups, with the Force.
“…Ciri..?” he asked smally, when he was done.
“L-Luke?” she answered.
He sighed quietly, and nudged, “..I wanna be your pet.”
It sent a warm shiver, startling down her spine…to end, just alongside his hand, gripping her. A tiny noise, meeped in her throat.
…She hugged him tight, urging her legs back ‘round his thighs… lowered her face, and lightly bit his neck. She felt his shoulders shake with laughter, quietly. “eat me,” he whispered encouragement. She picked up her head, and looked at him. The blood was marked out high across his cheeks.
…She stroked him, so that her palm brushed downward over his nipple… Then she caught it between her fingers, and gently squeezed, and he whimpered, delicately. His blush deepened.
…And she felt him, pulse, in his pants.
“..g-ood boy,” she praised him, and his lashes fluttered, and he closed his eyes, and carefully bit the inside of his lip…as his dick, pulsed again.
…She rolled his nipple, just a little.. His breathing was perturbed. She took hold of his jaw, tenderly kissed his lined cheek…and then the side of his nose…and then his plush mouth, and he responded, wetly…and meanwhile, down below, he continued filling out.
This was too fantastical. This handsome man, completely docile for her, and to feel his hardening dick, here in the kitchen, beside a stovetop. —It was an alien planet, sure, but a kitchen was always mundane. His arousal was magic.
If he was truly her pet, she would unbutton his pants, pull down his underwear…and let him out. Just to see.
…She silenced the traitorous thought. A pet, he certainly was not. He required finer respect. ..She kissed his lips lovingly, and tenderly fondled his scalp. “you’re so pretty, baby,” she whispered to him. He made a vulnerable little noise, and she softly kissed it better.
…Just as he finished swelling up in his pants, there came a swish from off to the side, over by the ordering panel, and a low tone.
..She finished their kiss, and reluctantly let him go.
…He sucked down a deep breath… shakily letting it out. His color had not at all settled.
“princess, you…are so sweet, to me. thank you..” he emitted.
It made her flush. Was she truly?
He really couldn’t imagine, what she thought about doing to him, sometimes..she reckoned.
“..not half so sweet as what you deserve,” she promised softly.
He huffed, a tiny laugh. “you don’t know how..that sounds. sounds so silly. look at me,” he rested his head against her, “I’m such a..m..mess. ..I’m so turned on, and..” he sighed, deeply, “..I feel so safe, baby…thank you. I love you,” he wrapped his arms around her, tight… swallowing her in a hug. She could feel his stiffened length pressing through his pants. —Her chest swelled, with her emotion over him, and she hugged him determinedly back.
…In a couple minutes, he quietly mouthed, “..that was the food, by the way..” She giggled, shortly, at how waylaid they’d let themselves become. “..I’m sure the tea’s steeped by now, too,” she put in.
He sighed, “—Force. …You wanna eat this with me, baby?”
“Yeah, pretty boy, I do. …u-um, but, …But, w-will you be OK?”
He snuffed, with warm laughter, tightening his embrace, “I’ll be fabulous.”
She blushed, and shook her head, “n-no, um, I-I meant.. um, your, uh..”
“..Oh,” he abruptly understood. “—Yeah, of course. I’m…bound to just go soft in a bit. No need for concern.. it’s..just like in the morning.”
She nodded, bashfully, “A-alright.”
“..your worry is cute,” he whispered.
“—y-you feel nice, Luke,” she had to let him know.
…It made him smile, stunningly. “..I’m so glad you think so..,” he rubbed their noses, adorably, “..I think you feel great.” …He cocked his head, and bit his lip. “….Will you be alright, precious girl? ..If I back up, and let you go…. and go grab us some dishes?”
She hesitated, thinking seeming. …Then smiled, “..Yes, I believe I will…sweet boy. ..If, you don’t go too far.”
—He laughed, in his delight. And graced her nose with his lips, “..I wouldn’t, darling,” and likewise grazed her temple…and gave her one more soft kiss…. gently relaxed his grip, and stepped away.
She immediately missed him and his dick.
..She hopped down from the countertop nonetheless, clearing her throat.. as he shrugged his shirt back up onto his shoulders so as not to impede his movement, grinning at her knowingly… Then retrieved them both bowls from the cupboard.
Gathering her wits, she removed the teabags from their tea. ..And tested its aroma.
…Delicately complex.. ..Slightly floral? ..Meanwhile, he’d pulled down a sliding door beneath the food service panel, and lifted out their dinner.
“It’s nuna congee,” he reported. She smiled, nonplussed, “What’s that?”
“Nuna is like… your chicken, maybe. Bird, commonly eaten. Grain is cooked in its broth, to make the congee.” He pulled out forks and a serving spoon, and piled dinner into their bowls. “Bring the teas? Let’s sit in the nook.”
She scooted into the inwardly curving booth, setting down their cups on the little table. It was a much cozier arrangement than the carved wooden dining table, set off on their flank. He followed her in, with the bowls. The city had fallen dim, outside… Rows of lights dotted up and down the buildings, and along the floating traffic. A hanging lamp cast warm illumination down upon them in a circle.
She raised a forkful of the congee to her mouth.
It was savory, somehow earthen in its spice… Delicious. Something tangy popped between her teeth.
He was watching her. “How is it?” he asked, as she swallowed. She sighed, and favored him with a pleased smile. “Thank you, Luke. This is fantastic.”
He grinned lopsidedly, lifting his fork, “No more trail food.”
She chuckled, muffledly grateful, nodding while working on another bite.
…They shared their meal, and sipped their tea, and watched the skimmers and ships flying past. The sky had darkened, but not to black, and no stars emerged. Instead a dull grey, purple-tinted, was settled in above.
“There’s no stars,” she observed in a little while.
“The city is too bright. It outshines them.”
“..mm.”
She directed her look up, through the transparent ceiling. “…If the people who lived here…before the city, made constellations… They’d be gone now, for good,” she mused. “..It’s sad, somehow.”
“…If the people who were here before, had anything like that… The knowledge of it would be long gone by now, anyway, I’m afraid,” he murmured. “This city is older than your father’s kingdom. Much older. ..Almost nothing has survived, from that time.”
“..Except for the hawk-bats?”
He smiled, gently. “Except for the hawk-bats.”
She retrieved her gaze, back to him. “Can we learn more about them?”
“Of course,” he assented easily, “I’m sure we’ll have no trouble finding a docu-holo.”
She chuckled briefly, “..Is that a holo, that’s like a document?”
He returned her amusement, “I guess, kind of… It’s a holo, that documents. …Rather than makes stuff up.”
She blinked. “..You mean, you’ve been using holos to teach me about where you’re from, and you never decided to show me the kind that doesn’t make stuff up?”
He laughed. “Guilty. ..It’s more entertaining, when it’s some story… And plus, then I get to do the teaching.”
…She smiled at him, utterly enamored with her space farmer. “..No argument there. I love you teaching..”
He drained his cup. “Lucky me,” he declared confidently. For some reason, she chuckled.
…He grinned back at her, slyly. “So… We could get into bed. Watch that holo…”
She sighed, “..That sounds nice..”
“…We could take a soak, first. Did you get a load of that tub?”
She had only realized that was what it was, because of where she had found it. Gods knew what she would have thought of it, otherwise. She laughed, “I couldn’t miss it.”
..Then bit her lip, as her mind drew back to the shower, she’d wished not to take alone.
“..We could go one at a time, of course…if you’d rather not deal with..tub-clothing,” he offered her hesitation.
—That certainly was not her desire.
…When part of her had briefly just imagined, both. …Soaking with him, and not dealing with clothing.
—As though she’d know how to voice that. “N-no, Luke,” she said instead, “I would prefer, we be together.”
He smiled, pleasedly. “Great. Lovely. ..I cannot pretend, to not be happy.”
She flushed, “N-nor should you.”
It only made him beam the more widely.
“…You could try out the swim stuff.. Or, whatever you brought from home.” Some of the things he had shown her, in that crate, had been of a strangely smooth, stretchy material he said was meant for getting wet.
“Mmm… I’ll have to see..”
“Please take your time, princess. ..I can make us some more tea, in the meantime.”
She nodded, acceptance, “Yes, please. It’s good.”
“Isn’t it? Ardees is one arena, where the wealthy have not gone off track.”
She leaned back and stretched in the padded booth, smiling. “It’s so hard to picture what class you’re from,” she commented, “You act… Refined, sometimes, then silly… in a way no courtier would permit themselves. ..You speak of the tastes of the wealthy as though they’re someone else’s, but here we are lounging in.. what must be the most ridiculously priced quarters..”
He smiled, with gracious indulgence. “..I come from no class at all, Highness. You know that. ..I’m the biggest social climber of the century. Apart from Han. ..And my father.
“…And I could say the same, about you, you know. Your royalty shows… you’re very respectable. But you don’t shy from getting dirty outdoors.. or from being silly with me, at all.”
She blushed. “..M-maybe we’re just about right for each other, then.”
He scooted in near. “Oh… I know we’re perfect for each other. I am very excited.. To be here alone, with the perfect girl.”
Somehow, him calling her that, was too flattering. He’d drawn close enough she could feel the presentiment of his warmth, and she leaned into him, longingly..as he bent to take her mouth…
“..I love you, Luke,” she whispered as he finished.
She felt unsteady. In a way that could only be fixed, by him. His eyes cast down into hers, and he whispered back, “I need you, little princess.. to be wearing much, much less. Please help me..” Her breath hitched.
..Then he was kissing her, slow and yearning, again.. A shudder passed through her, as her pelvis glowed.
…She nodded, on its heels. It was all she could do. He grinned, miscreantly, cheeks creasing. She tried not to tell him that she loved him, again.. though her form was full of it.
Instead she kissed him, assertively, with her teeth impressing upon his sweet, soft lip.
..And then scooted out of the booth.
She stood, a little shakily. Missing him.
He was right where she’d left him, grinning crookedly up at her.. eyes sparkling her way. She breathed, steadying herself with a hand on the table. “I-I’ll be.. R-right back,” she stated.
“Call me if you need me,” he offered devilishly.
The breath huffed out of her. ..It was not fair, to tease her like that. The dressing room was still in her mind, also.
“I n-need you.. to discover a bare minimum of decorum, while I’m trying to walk.”
He winced sympathetically, and reformed. “Sorry, princess. Didn’t mean to be trouble..too much. ..um, I hope it wouldn’t be too indecorous, for me to mention.. that I can help with that, too?”
…She smiled at him, softly. She couldn’t help it. “..Thank you, I can manage. ..You just look after your job, for a moment. ..I’ll be back.”
~
She went to search through her things on the large ottoman in the oversized closet, then changed in the ‘fresher, into a black swim top that fully covered her chest while baring shoulders and middle, and matching shorts… her mind filled with the memory of her breastband sliding across her skin, in the dressing room on Ipso Kan, the while.
Upon finishing, she became distracted by the tub.
It was massive, more than twice the size of hers back at home. It had a stepped entry and a broad padded incline along one wall, and no visible faucet. It was set into a large alcove, surrounded by solid walls and warm lighting in strips on three sides. A vine with gay, white-streaked leaves tracked along beside the lights, and a deep emerald moss was clung to it and hung down in delicate overspills, and the distant buzz of the night sky shone down through the transparent ceiling. She sat on the broad rim and investigated its control panels, searching out any similarities with the sonic-shower units from the ships — but there were none, she could be sure of.
Meanwhile he entered with the tea, floating the mugs to rest on one of the low shelves inset around the tub. “Here..,” he said, and knelt down to show her how to set the water temperature and turn its flow on and off. Water began spilling in, in a line all along the tub’s far wall, and he added, “Also… wanna try bubbles?”
“Bubbles?” she echoed curiously, trying to picture his intention.
“..If you don’t mind, I’m gonna take that as a yes,” he declared, and pushed a button beside the main control. “…They’re not very ascetic..that is to say, not very Jedi-like. But I hear certain people like them. And I think they look cute. ..You’ll see, if they are or not. Once they get going… Push this again if you hate it. I’m gonna change, be right back.”
She smiled at him and nodded, and he kissed her temple as he arose and left the room.
..When he got back, the bubbles had gotten going, and she had not chosen to turn them back off. They were teensy, and teeming into gentle hill-ranges, driven by the wall of pouring water. She’d picked some up, and was experimenting with their strange collective cohesion and yield between her fingers. He grinned, as he saw. “What do you think?”
She gently pressed the mass of them together between her palms, then stretched them out into a column connecting her spread hands. “Very weird!” she judged, “..I like them.”
He mounted up the tub steps, and descended into the water on the other side. “I hoped you would approve,” he commented, settling in to the corner where by she perched.
Bubble drifts swiftly crowded in, disguising his form.
“How is it?” she asked him.
“Nice and toasty,” he affirmed, “Super pleasing. Wanna join me?”
She nodded, and shifted on the rim, placing her legs into the water. He backed up, allowing her space…and she lowered herself into its warmth, fully.
“Oh..” she sighed, eyes dipping shut, as a shiver crossed her shoulders, “that is toasty.”
..The tub was approaching full. She remembered to reach back out and turn off the inflow.
The sound of plunging water ceased… in its wake was left the ephemeral fizz of the bubbles… tinily bursting.
….She opened her eyes, and reached for a sip of delicate ardees. He’d reached out with his mind, and lowered the room’s lights. Leaving only those, marking out their alcove, and the glowing night, high above.
It was all so deliciously peaceful….
“…for some reason, I wanted to wash your hair, yesterday,” he murmured.
She stifled a surprised laugh, “Wash my hair?”
He blushed. “..Something about… That thing at the tailor’s. I wanted to comfort you, by it, somehow..”
“..aww,” she said softly, and scooted in his direction. She had wished him with her, too..
She reached out.. touched his yielding chest. The water had climbed it handily. —He looked extra adorable, emerging from the drifts of bubbles, with his cleft chin and his big blue eyes..
She came close enough to kiss him. Held his jaw steady, and accidentally got bubbles on it. “..you’re very sweet,” she assured him, “You comforted me handily. …Not that I wouldn’t have liked this, then..”
“..May I wash your hair, Ciri?” he asked softly.
“Yes, sweet boy,” she found herself answering him. She just couldn’t deny him, something he wanted…certainly, not lightly.
He pulled her into his lap.
..And for some moments, he kissed her, only.
…Until at last he called over a spouted vessel from the shelf, dipped it beneath the water’s surface and filled it. “Close your eyes, darling,” he whispered. And he wet her hair.
He held his hand out under a small spout set into the tub’s rim, and received a viscous substance into his palm.
Then his fingers were delivering it, to her tresses…working it in, while gently massaging little circles into her scalp.
..She sighed, and he took her lips…for deep kisses, all slow in a series…as her hair gradually became inundated with frothy soap.
She had not imagined, how nice this might feel. She squeezed his muscled shoulder, and slipped her other hand under his arm, ‘round to his back, and fitted her lips to his, in return.
He continued lathering, well past the point of completion.
…And when eventually he was done, and had released his final kiss, there was nothing she could do but to let her arms finish enclosing him, and tightly hold him to her, jaw rested on his shoulder, looking dimly out at the tranquil, handsomely trimmed wall and gay white-spattered leaves while she clutched her man close.
…She felt him sedately stroking her back, and across the straps of her top, as he held her in turn. ..She knew him, as an aching within her ribs, and externally, as the world’s most tangible warmth.
Their hug lasted past its completion, too.
…And when at length she relaxed it, he cupped her jaw, with a soft, kind look..gave her one more gentle kiss..and whispered, for her to please close her eyes.
And he used the little vessel to wash the soap away.
Possibly, she was too comforted. Her feelings over him were softly throbbing. Their eyes met, and he lightly touched his fingertips to her chest, over her heart, and gently urged, “sshhhh..”
..She shifted round to straddle him, gulping. Delicately, she raised her hands into his hair, which she’d been making wet. “..Luke, I love you,” she offered him, and he smiled, and nudged her nose, in warmth, “..me too, Ciri..” “..Now let me do you,” she suggested, and he nodded.
…And so she washed his hair in turn. And when she was done they leaned back against the tub’s padded slope, and watched the subtly malleable sky and the ship traffic crossing over their little patch of airspace, and soaked in the warmth, until their fingers had pruned, and the bubbles had nearly gone.
~
She dried herself with the suite’s plush towel and changed into the sleepthings he had brought her — exquisitely soft, so that when she first had touched them straightway she had to put her face into them, and gratuitously rub… And smile, laughing. And they cuddled up in the big broad bed with a pillow mound behind and the city’s shifting night lights all round… and he brought out his datapad, and searched out a hawk-bat holo.
Lounging warm and soft and newly-dry in his arms, she listened to the narrator’s voice explain the hawk-bats’ love for the Galactic City’s warm pipes and bounteous silica parasites, their heightened senses, their stubborn ferocity when threatened, their precocious young who emerged into the world ready to hunt and kill, and their seasonal migrations, which they carried out faithfully even in the depths beyond the reach of the year’s rhythms…driven by an instinct which his people’s scientists believed predated the labyrinth.
…And after learning thusly about all their ways and habits, he found her a serialized children’s holo featuring anthropomorphized depictions of the creatures as main cast, and she hugged his arm and smiled over them, to herself. Their antics drew out her laughter and his chuckling, and as the introductory storyline drew to a close she had begun to yawn, in the midst of a most delightful relaxation and contentment.
…In the concluding scene, the serial’s young hawk-bat protagonist at last succeeded in returning home to his family’s abode in a lower-levels pipe, soaked, bedraggled and chilled from his misbegotten adventures, to be met by his mother and a cup of something piping hot. “Tarine makes everything better,” she advised sagely, and her wayward offspring steeped his beak into the proffered cup and let his slight, sloping shoulders heave visibly with relief… and veritably exulted— “Warm.”
..And as a comforting concluding melody played atop the credits, she sighed in satisfaction, and, pleasedly smiling, Luke carefully whispered the little hawk-bat’s final word into her ear, “..warm.”
She smiled, agreeing with her whole heart.
…The projection equipment shut itself off and shifted off the bed, as she turned herself over into him and nuzzled into his meaty chest. “warm,” he whispered it again, his arms closing about her and cradling her in. She sighed against him, nodding, and felt his earnest kiss, pressed into her hair.
“warm,” he breathed once more, and she softly hummed, “I love you Luke..,” squeezed him and sultrily relaxed… as all was right, with her world too…
And not long later sleep came down to claim her.
Chapter 16: Umate
Chapter Text
She awoke in the light, surrounded by his body.
…Her other surroundings were so novel. The mattress was different, firmer, than hers at home, and the sheets were oddly smooth and gliding, and the buzzing scenery in the background was simply not heard of.
This bedroom-that-wasn’t-hers made her realize it, somehow. Her home… She’d truly left.
She never could have imagined she’d manage to travel so far. All the strange sights and movement, outside the transparisteel, briefly seemed to stretch and bristle.
…She turned her mind away from it and bent her focus to the very nearby. She was comfy, and he was beside her.
..His form up against hers… That was well familiar.. and well welcoming. Out here on this metallic planet he would be her hearth.
Cozy. Soft and warm — but for the hard part.
And as for that hard part…
She was gradually becoming used, to its greeting her, each waking.
..It seemed it would be part of her daily life, out here on travel…much to her happy consternation. —But this morning, they were not pressed together in the cramped and narrow ship-bunk, with others surely not far off, just past the hatch.
This morning, they were snuggled up luxuriantly, room enough to stretch and spare, and not a soul further in the vicinity.
…She didn’t only feel that special part of him in the mornings now, either, she reflected with a blush. He had swollen up to hardness..last night, in the kitchen. Like…
…Her mind cast back to that first night, he had done so. When she had tried to squeeze him even a little, with her body pressed against his groin…and been utterly rebuffed, by his stoutness.
That night, had been very, very special, indeed.
…He’d…with his hands, and thigh…. gods.
..It had been so nice. He was so nice to be next to..!
And she wanted rather much, just now, to reach out her hand, and carefully to feel him.
A person wouldn’t even have to take him out. Actually. She could touch him, enough, to discover him, just through his shorts…
How would she do it?
..She could run her hand down his length to search out his base where it emerged between his legs. Thence perchance up to the blunt distal end of his member.. and then, a bit further down, she could let her fingers part around the stem..to take its precise diameter. …She could even grasp him, there, and squeeze..and try again, but better this time, to make absolutely any impression on him at all.
—She flushed, cheeks swollen up with blood, to think so about it. He was like a forest nymph she rudely wished to disrobe.
…Perhaps he would forgive her. She trailed the back of her knuckle down from his clavicle along the smooth swells of his chest and side, instead. He was so handsome…
…She wondered again how he touched himself, when he did.. And just what he thought about.. Exactly. And.. And how it was, when he..spurted. All these things she didn’t know. Her palm lightly held his hip… Then she came back up and slowly, made another pass. She let her knuckle press into each opportunity on his body, as it went by.
..As she was drawing up again for another, his arm shifted, against her…and she felt his fingers, slip beneath her shirt and delicately graze her side in return.
She pulled her gaze from his torso, up to his face… Found him resting peacefully, eyes still closed, with one side of his pretty mouth turned up into a cute, fond smile.
She couldn’t help beaming back, even if he couldn’t see.
…She let her knuckle track back down over his chest…brought it crossing up and down over the lower border of his pectoral, sedately…carefully watching his smile.
His fingers tenderly smoothed over her hip…squeezed her, with purpose… and she thrilled, and delicately handled the underside of his pec, in exchange.
…They quietly traded touches in the morning sun.
At length he broke the pleasant silence to breathe, “this really is soft..”
Her thumb was just then upon the ridge atop his ala.
“..what is?” she whispered back.
“this sleepshirt.” He was stroking along her side. The back of his hand must be brushing against it.
“…it is,” she agreed, “thank you for it.”
“I’m glad you like.”
…She gnawed her lip.
..She needed to tell him, at last. So wanted to… hated it a secret. ….But.. hesitated, words caught in her throat.
“…. —I-I’m,” the confession popped out abruptly, and then tumbled plaintively over its own heels, “—I’m so curious about you, L-Luke..!”
…She watched his smile grow gloriously… cheek wrinkling up, even as his eyes remained shut.
“...you say that like it’s a spot of trouble, you’re in. But I would love, to help you satisfy… Your curiosity, pretty girl. ..so please.. ask me, anything you like.”
—Again, she caught at her lip.
At last her question burst forth, as she unconsciously seized his hip, “—Well then tell me how can you get so hard?”
…He blushed in the sunlight and laughed, his eyes finally fluttering open.
“…I hope it won’t gross you out…” he offered, “It’s blood.”
She met his pretty eyes. Felt her own cheeks flushing with it. “Blood?”
..It was in his face, also.. coloring his skin. Her farmboy paused, briefly.. and nodded, “It.. um, f-ills me out, and..creates pressure.”
A tingle passed over her skin, at his talking about himself, like that. Her mind considered pressure.
..She really ought to have guessed, something of the sort. He’d mentioned blood flow, after all. …Somehow she just hadn’t.
She had wished to yield him. …How much blood, was necessary, to create that kind of pressure?
“…th-that… That doesn’t hurt?” the question drifted out of her.
He bloomed a little redder. “..It does not.”
She frowned.
“But you’re… H— How not?”
…He offered her a small, shy smile. “..It just doesn’t, Ciri. I don’t know, any better than that…”
She tried to reconcile it.
“so...does that mean that you do? ..think it’s kinda gross?” he asked cautiously. His arm wrapped about her back.
“N-no,” she averred, “t-that’s not it. I’m just…I’m just, s— surprised, is all, and I..I.. um, I f-feel kind of guilty, I guess.”
His brow knitted lightly. “Why guilty?”
Her cheeks swelled rosily, and she had to look at his chest, to explain. “I-it’s just that.. I k-kinda tried to, c-c-, c-compress you… t-that night, w-when we um… t-together? I tried to… I w-wasn’t thinking, or…I-I was more c, curious, than…th- thinking…”
She trailed away and bit her lip. “I— I’m sorry.”
…But when he snuffed and she hesitantly glanced up, he was only grinning, and shook his head.
“Don’t be sorry, princess!” he announced gayly. “..And please don’t worry. You can’t hurt me, so easily. That night, it felt lovely…what you did against me, with your hips. I leaned into it, too… remember?”
That was true. Somehow she hadn’t thought about that. “…I-I… I.. um, yes, yeah I remember..”
“..well..” he leaned in, and dipped his head… and gave her her morning kiss…deep, and leisurely.
…Carefully, she let herself relax into that assurance, and greet him back.
…And when at some small length, their lips parted..their noses rubbed, as if by instinct. He was grinning broadly — and she chuckled, in a kind of bashful relief. “my pretty little girl…so concerned, with hurting me. …when you only, make me feel so nice..”
How flattering.
“u-um..” the blood was marked out high on her cheeks, “s-so, so does that mean.. s-squeezing…f-feels nice?”
“Very nice, Ciri… Too nice.. —just kidding, about that last bit,” he grazed his nose against hers, as he softly claimed her mouth.
His tongue was wet velvet.
“..o-o-ok..” she trembled delicately, on her release, “t-thank you..” He sighed, and held her hair, “you’re so damnably cute..” —His face dipped aside, and her earlobe suckled decisively into his hot mouth, making her throat, gently gasp.. while she silently thought about his hard dick feeling too nice…
If it was anything like what she had felt, that night, it could be too nice indeed.
She ran her hand up his neck, behind his ear, fingers in his hair… tugged him and turned her neck and took his soft lips.
…He ran his tongue, over her teeth — he was being sloppy, with her. She rubbed into him, and he pressed in back…warm, and solid, such a cuddly man, holding her back, nice and close, his erection wedged in between them…
She pulled his hair, and he mumbled to her, in his throat. —She bit his nose, to hear his sweet laughter erupting in his chest, and then didn’t let him finish, before greedily drawing down upon his mouth, and cutting him off. “..want you, Luke,” she confessed to their kiss. “..mmh come an’ get me, baby,” he found breath to answer it.
His mouth stole all hers..then, “..can’t,” she whispered back, “disrespectful,”
Air briefly snorted through his nostrils — and he sucked her lips, into another kiss. “—is it? ..you must do what you think is respectable.. of course..”
“..y-you’re not.. concerned.. ?”
“not really..” And he pulled her lip, into his wet mouth.
..Could she do it?
What if she could?
Bravely, she let her hand track back down..to his tantalizing hip, then…then slowly forward… her heart beat faster, was she really going to..? oh..
…Yes…. !?
—No.
No, no, her courage was not enough.
But..
..But it was enough at least for something.
She reversed direction and firmly gripped his ass.
He sighed in satisfaction, through his nose.
The relaxed muscle was fleshy and yielding, even through fabric, and a little noise happened in his throat, as she squeezed.
…A feeling of immense pleasure welled up in her chest. Her hand was very comfortable, and she was very accomplished, indeed.
She tugged his hair, held him there, and softly grazed upon that pretty mouth…
Air was whistling quietly, in his throat, as she touched him this way. It touched something in her, somehow, deep within. Made her want to keep handling him…and to be gentle. She fondled him, tenderly..softly inspected, his dimensions.
“..I.. I might not know enough,” he breathed with delicate urgency, “a- about respectability…is it respectable, if I do it, too..?”
Heat in her face.
“..I— I think it’s, probably perfectly respectful,” she informed him, in a whisper back.
“hmmh..” he hummed in relief. “..mmhmmh….fabulous information..” …He smoothly slid down a hand, filled it with half of her butt…and quite deliberately squeezed.
—She laughed tinily, helplessly to the crook of his neck, as she enjoyed it, so much… Lifted up her face..and encountered again his velvety lips..
His kiss was deeply insistent, full of tongue. She cupped her hand around the back of his thick thigh, ran up her palm, to his underwear, and then gripped him firmly at the base of his glute, pressing up suggestively into his flesh.. He nibbled on her lip, and let his own hand switch sides..
She wanted to press up into, the way he was handling her. Her breath was roughened, by the time he let her go.
His palm smoothed lightly over the globe of her behind.. This was making her heart quail with pleasure.. —Then he indulgently clenched his grasp.
“..can I start doing this, sometimes, Your Highness..do you think?” he begged her permission. Her arm seized up, about the small of his back.
“Please do,” she immediately returned…then flushed, at her eagerness, as he husked a happy little laugh, and pulled her in.. “c— can I?” she requested in turn, breathless.
“mmm well what do you think I’m going to say?” he returned through his satisfied grin.
Her brow briefly troubled, as she wished to speculate in the affirmative while her confidence wavered. “I-I.. I don’t know..”
“aw, baby..” he murmured, gently chiding.. dipping to give her a soft, comforting kiss, as he slipped his hands up to squeeze winningly upon her waist…then wrap about her back, embracing her close… “I’m going to ask if you remember what I’ve told you..about touching me… do you remember?”
—One did not forget. “..Oh.. um, uh.. oh, y-yes, I r-remember. ..It.. h-hasn’t changed?” She was struggling to answer him, through her terrible enjoyment.
“It isn’t going to. —But feel free to keep checking, if it pleases you, Lady.”
“I think….I-I’m going to need to..”
“As you wish.. You’re my precious little girl,” he kissed her, once more, pulling her up into him.. then dropped his palms down to cup her butt, and at last she urged herself back into his hands, and he responded with frank massage.
“..y-you don’t know how good it feels, to hear you say things like that..” she whispered, barely above breath. The place just next-door to where his kneading hands held her, burned for him.
“baby, you don’t know how good it feels to have you push into my hands like this..”
Electricity sparked deep in her pelvis. His mouth melded hers.
“..I-I…um..” she bit her lip.
How could she ask him, for what had happened the last time he’d grabbed her this way?
“…I…l-like, y-your thigh, a lot..” she at last found the audacity to imply.
He smirked, with utter satisfaction. “I thought you did… Do you think, that what I did with it, last time, was respectful, princess?”
Air whistled noisily through her throat.
She hadn’t been considering it in those terms.
…She had loved it, unreservedly. He made her feel carefully watched after, always. So, “..y-yes.”
“well that’s good…I didn’t check with you, exactly…so I’m awful glad, I didn’t mess up..”
“y-you couldn’t.”
“I couldn’t?” he checked in only half-mock surprise.
“I-I… I mean.. um, n-no, I-I don’t.. guess I don’t think you would..”
“…then can I ask you something, Ciri?”
“uh- uh-huh,”
He whispered, “…if I was gonna do that thing again…would you like it?”
She considered how to say, ‘yes!’ “I… —I would. l-like it, Luke,” she mumbled, feeling somehow just beside herself.
“..then….”
She felt his knee nudging up between her legs…and spread them to welcome him…and his thigh slid up, and filled the space, to lodge snugly on her hot core. “..then maybe I’m definitely about to.”
She was struggling to hold onto her breathing, in any reasonable way. A titillating anticipation was brimming up inside of her, threatening to have her lose breath.
He beamed with knowing pleasure…and teased, “don’t try for your composure too hard, Highness… you know, I enjoy you without it.. And I’m excited for this, too.”
And as she found her breath knocked decisively off course, by that remark, he bent down, and kissed her…firm.
His thigh between hers…she’d never been so aware of anything. She hugged the small of his back, and made fists, in his waistband, clamped it and pressed herself onto it.
…And his hands on the globes of her ass gently urged her up along his quadricep, and she gulped, with liking it. “..I was surprised that you came from this…last time…” he sighed, as her breathing wavered… kissed her strongly, and rocked her up onto him again.
Last time had been almost like an accident. His plain intentionality, this time…
The feeling of the pressure surging on her molten core made it somehow more difficult to concentrate on what to say, yet easier to reply. “L-Luke, I l-like you,” she stuttered. He suckled on her neck, agreeing with his breath, “mmhmm..” His hands indulgently fondled…and drew a circle on his thigh, with her. She moaned accidentally.. “..w-w.. w-what d’you m-mean, ..s— surprised?” she tried to ask.
The words seemed to cost her, their coherence. He felt, so strong, rocking her along… and there was just this one, specific spot, that let out a yelp!..every time he pressed into it. ..If it wasn’t for that spot, maybe she could keep quiet, instead of moaning, soft and involuntary, as he deliberately rubbed over it..
“..woulda thought, there’s not enough, to catch against.. in the right spot, for you, this way, baby…” he explained duskily, “you must be very, very horny, my pretty little girl…,” squeezing her and rubbing her hot, bothered center along his thick thigh, with both hands, “…I wonder…if I’m gonna be able to make you do it again..? just like this…”
Vocalizing softly, she couldn’t manage a reasoned reply. “p— please..” she told him instead, and he caught her lightly emitting mouth with his and didn’t let a single sound further escape, as he ground her into him..
—And he was right, last time’s burning sun had not dawned so quickly this time as it had…yet still she felt an…urgency building…he was squeezing and moving her just so and it made her want to cry, that little spot was yelping — she wished she could have finally touched his sweet dick, she’d been so close…. she tried to rut upon his leg, but was too caught up in his firm grip…a pleased response rumbled in his throat.. —She clenched her fists in his underwear, as she felt that sun break horizon — then keening, as that particular spot kept getting pressed, and pressed, and the sun fully rose. “ohhhh, Ciri, yes!!” he grated out to her, into the blinding light….
….Then all was cuddling, and sweet closeness, and a spring of vulnerability birthed in her chest, and came to be tenderly contained in the pool of their embrace…and lap against his arms and shoulders and chest… She shuddered, like to cry, and he soothed her with softly stroking hands, and his gentle voice, “shhhh….shhhh, little baby..I love you, precious..” …and all she could do was clutch him to her, needily.
“I.. I love you, Luke,” she plaintively tried to reveal the deep need for him she was discovering at the core of her being, now that her lower core was sated and glowing.
“I’m right here, baby.. I’m all yours. it’s alright…I’m here.”
“..I-I feel so…” she mouthed, almost silently. …He nodded. “..I’ve got you,” he affirmed, “it’s alright, little one…sshhh…”
He was being so comforting. …Gradually, she felt herself calm…into his peaceful embrace…
…And her breath contentedly sighed.
She was warmly cradled, in his arms. Her gut retained the memory of being shaken.
…Presently she gave him a wry little laugh, “..w-why, do I feel so.. so clingy..a— after..?”
He sweetly kissed her temple. “…I feel it, too,” he whispered to her, “...I never have, before..
“..Maybe, because it’s very, very intimate.”
He ducked his brow against her, wearing a cute little grin. “—I can’t tell you how happy I am, to have you be with me like this, Ciri. …I think you’re so sexy. ..’n’ I wanna make you feel, so safe..’n’ so good, with me..”
…She buried her face into his chest, arms locked tight about his ribs. And tried, just about, to merge with him…the source, of her security.
“…you know I treasure you, precious..” he sighed softly, into her hair.
~
..Eventually, her feelings loosened…And so followed her embrace, and she was able to lay comfortably relaxed with him, and he with her. She stroked her thumb along his lightly lined cheek, and smiled.. His eyes were so lovely, in the pure sunlight of this new-world eyrie. Pale, as clear pools. He really was hers… He smiled at her, back.
His hand ran lazily along her spine.
…And in time when her tummy grumbled and she asked him about breakfast, he grinned and kissed her and rolled out of their bed to order it.
She’d never been in the position to ask him about food, before Coruscant. —The ship food had not been enticing enough to ask after.
He’d never been in the position to seek out food in his underwear, before, either…she reflected with a meek little flutter.
She rolled out after him.
…She judiciously paced out her approach, so better to absorb the sight…of her man in his underthings standing at the room service panel, in a bright space-age pseudo-arboreum.
..He finished entering their order and slipped an arm around her, as she arrived, giving her a kiss. “..Food’s on the way… I gotta go change, sweet thing.
“…Um.”
He bashfully teethed his lip, cheeks marked out red. “..I might have to work on, building some kind of mental separation from you, while we’re.. intimate, like that. …Maybe. ..Although… although I really like, being able to feel when you’re enjoying yourself..pretty girl.” —The air choked up embarrassedly in her throat. “..But ah, I may be a little.. too sensitive, to you..?” he continued, “…I can’t um. seem to keep your orgasm separate from mine.”
..He’d.. again?
..His underwear was very frustrating.
—But what should she respond? “w-well…um, w-well… Um.” ..She was speaking in place.
He kissed her, and ended her trouble. “..Just mentioning it, cuz… cuz if you have any thoughts about it, one way or another…I wanted to ask you, to turn them over, till you’re ready. And share them with me, sweet girl. Yeah?” ..She paused.. then nodded.
She could do that. No doubt. …He gave her an extra-careful kiss…
…Then whispered tenderly, “are you gonna be ok here, while I’m gone?” —For some reason, she felt the blush bursting, in her chest. “y-y-yeah..” she stammered.
He smiled, “Come get me, if you aren’t..”
She couldn’t tell, to what extent he was teasing. Her brow knit, and she urgently rose up on her toes to give him a very possessive kiss.
…His breath was slightly shaky, upon his release, and this somehow mollified her. He hesitated…just a moment, breathing — then pulled her into a tight hug.
She gripped him intensely, back..just for a space.
…And as her strength slackened, he gently pulled away, pressing his lips to her forehead.
She watched his retreat.
…And then retrieved the tea pot.
She would think about what he’d proposed. Later, definitely. For now, it was enough to ensure to herself her accurate learning of the space-stove and water spigot, from the night previous.
~
…To her embarrassed pleasure, he emerged still wearing just shorts.. kissed her sweetly in the kitchen, and ate with her in the snug little nook, so casually semi-clothed. They both changed properly after.
And took the lift up to the landing pad, where an airspeeder waited to one side. The day before, she had hardly even glanced at it…so absorbed had she been, by the scenery beyond. It was a cute little thing, an open-air two-seater with gentle curves and twin turbines run through the frame, painted brightly.
“Wanna help me fly?” he suggested confidently.
She gave a nervous laugh. “Here? A-are you sure?”
“Sure I’m sure! Trust me!” He hopped into the driver’s side and spread his legs, patted the spot in between them.
Blushing, she stepped into the craft and slotted herself into place.
He instantly wrapped his arm about her midsection and kissed her neck.
“Perfect place for you to be, my darling,” his murmur came to her, “..Now..show me where you should put your hands, once we get this thing turned on.”
So she placed her hands upon the yoke.
“This?”
“Yes, sweetling.. Very good. And? Can you find the thrust?”
…She cross-referenced the controls interface before her with her mind’s remembrance of those from the Falcon, and his X-wing.
“—Is it this?” She pointed to an ergonomically molded lever to the yoke’s right.
“mmhmm..” she felt his chest hum, “perfect…now, hold them.”
She did, and he closed his hands warmly over hers.
“..Your thumb is over the brake,” he added. “I’ll guide you…Ready?”
“—what if I push it on accident?”
“Just relax, and let your fingers follow mine. …But if you do, and it’s a problem.. Don’t worry, princess. Let go if I say and I’ll take over. I promise to keep us safe.”
She looked out across the span of air past their landing pad, to the graceful grey curves of a vaguely neighboring skytower. Breeze ruffled through her hair.
“..OK,” she told herself, “Ready.”
..He pressed his lips to the spot just beneath the lobe of her ear, and gently whispered, “..the engine startup is here at your left.” She looked, and saw him press the short series of buttons, from back to front… the little HUD panel came alight, their craft lifted higher into the air, wobbling ever so slightly, and the turbines spun up, filling the vehicle’s frame with a restrained vibration. “power on…repulsors up to flight strength…then primary ignition. ..And now we can go. We’ll join up into that skylane headed north. You can see it, on the HUD.”
The transparent panel was displaying a set of gently angled lines that must represent the skylanes, before them.
…And he gently pressed her finger down onto the thrust, and subtly angled the stick, so that they smoothly flew off their landing pad.. and into traffic.
Her heart beat as empty space opened up beneath them. Then worse as they approached the lane in question.
“Steady,” he murmured, “We’re fine. Look at the HUD.” He depressed a button and toggled a small stick switch, with his mind, and a bright spot appeared on the skylane’s line, on the screen. “We’re synced up with Coruscant Traffic Control. I just requested entrance to the north skylane…that’s our spot. Now we just have to hit it. Let’s speed up a little..” He pushed their hands on the throttle forward, and the craft picked up speed. She let it happen and tried not to think. Soon they matched the skylane’s traffic, and he eased them up. “Good.. Now we’ll just.. slip in.” As he spoke, he gently pushed the stick, and they pulled left…she looked swiftly to the side, sighted the speeding skimmers looming large now beside them…
And then they were behind the closest. Its engines burned blue.
“There we go,” he announced, in satisfaction, “Not so bad, hmm?”
“—Luke, gods..” she didn’t know how to finish.
“You’ll get used to it, precious. Promise. ..I’m gonna have you flying in practically no time, you’ll see.” She laughed, in half disbelief. “—You’ll see,” he defended with a grin, “..Now, for now, why don’t you just relax against me, darling…and feel this. The stick barely needs to move at all…”
The rest of the flight passed smoothly, as she tried doing as he suggested, and rather than thinking of all the things to hit and ways to die that they came across, or the interminable tumble awaiting just beneath the speeder deck, she focused on his steady warmth at her back, his hands over hers manning the controls, and the HUD like a flattened-out holo showing them Traffic Control’s vision of their path.
Soon, he was showing her how to change lanes into a vertically descending column of craft, and from there he set them down in a public speeder dock. With her hands on the controls, the open slot between the duracrete barriers seemed much too small to fit into… Yet with his managing hers, they did so handily.
He walked her through reversing the startup sequence for landing, and shutdown.
And as the engines spooled down she exhaled a wave of unconscious tension, and leaned back against his chest.. as he chuckled, and praised, “Great flying, princess.”
A laugh sooshed between her teeth. “Mister..” she protested.
He firmly kissed her neck.
She drew down a deep breath and sighed, and murmured, “Thank you, Luke. It’s wonderful you’re so certain I can learn this. Thank you for helping me.”
“Thank you for being my pupil..my love..” he softly whispered, to her ear.
“..you charmer..” she accused.
“..kiss me, I’m charmed,” he secretly soughed.. And so she twisted her torso, and did…found him soft, and willing..
“Ciri..” he softly called her.
“Luke?”
“..You’re with me. I really got to take you out here with me, baby..!”
She smiled. “…I l-left my father’s house after all. You were right. ..Though this was never what I had in mind…”
His arm tightened upon her. “Thank you for being here, princess,” he whispered. “I know it’s strange.. I’m so happy to have you here. Makes this whole place feel kinda special.” He nibbled at his lip. “..And..up ahead? I’m gonna show you something, I know you’re gonna like.”
So she teased him, “You think so?”
“I think I know so,” he proclaimed.
She giggled, despite herself…feeling anticipatory. Then held his neck and gave him one more strong, possessive kiss. “K. ..Show me.”
And he did. He led her to a turbolift, which they took down to a large, wide street suspended between buildings. Humans and aliens of all descriptions traversed along it. He held her hand, and smiled down to her, and then they started to walk.
Ahead she seemed to glimpse a larger space.
As it opened up, she slowed her pace…the better to look around.
Monument Plaza, he named it. It was immense. Possibly her castle could have fit inside. Building walls bordered it on all sides, sloping or stepped, some ending in delicate pinnacles far above. Imposing statues rose at distant points round the ring, and smaller structures of abstract formulation were interspersed throughout its midspace. Banners in many colors draped the far walls, above lines of shops. Merchant stalls, benches, and people dotted the arena.
In the center, hefted a great mass of stone, pierced through a circular hole in the pavement.
“Is that..?” she questioned, disbelieving her eyes at the unnaturally natural material.
“Mount Umate,” he supplied, “..Coruscant’s tallest mountain. This peak is the last remaining bit of surface…peeking through the city.”
She brought her fingertips, to her face.
Then they crossed the great plaza.
The mountain peak slowly grew…
Until it loomed above them.
…Rocky, cragged, it was impossible to believe that it was what it was…but the tip of something that should have dwarfed the towers she had seen.
On her world, a mountain range was a formidable barrier. A line of them could be seen, from the castle towers, to the north. Their peaks were frequently snowed. No trade came that way.
Partway round the circle that surrounded this peak, a red-robed monk sat in what she recognized as a pose of meditation, his palm outstretched to the stone. They had passed a handful of individuals in similar attire, on their approach.
“A Flame of Umate,” Luke leaned in to murmur. “Their sect worships the planet’s spirit. This is the only place they believe they can contact it…as he is attempting to do now. ..They also guard the mountain, against the tourists.”
“Guard it? Who would harm it?”
“There are those, who might like to knock off a chunk.”
“..Oh..”
She stared up at the ragged stone. ..Then reached out to touch it, in turn. Its mottled grey surface was cool, and rough. So few surfaces had been, since she’d left home…
…She let drop her hand, and stepped back.
“..Feel anything?” he asked, with the hint of a smile.
—She looked back at him and pursed her lips.
His grin grew. “..Sorry, princess. Of course not,” he supplied his own answer.
She returned to the mountaintop.
“..It’s sad,” she said contemplatively. “…Somehow..it’s almost more sad like this, than if it weren’t here at all.”
“..You would rather there be nothing to remind, of the true planet, beneath our capital?”
“…Maybe. …Maybe not. I’m glad…someone’s looking out for it. So…. Maybe not. ..Still.”
“..I think I see what you mean. Some things are easier.. to forget.”
They spent a space more, in Umate’s shade… before strolling across the plaza.
To one side they passed a wet stretch of duracrete, darkened by the effluence of an array of tiny water jets which burst on and off as children ran between them, laughing and shrieking. Some had strange faces, and exotic honkings mingled with the peals of familiar laughter.
There were trees, on the far end, flanking an avenue which he informed her led into the North Garden.
It was a pleasant place. Broad tree-limbs stretched out over the paths, shading them. Flower beds spread beside, bearing denizens both strange and less so…stranger still. Large ball-shaped blooms with petals curled into the likeness of tubes, in purple and black, contrasted with swarms of small pink spritzes, dusting even up the tree trunks. Invisible nozzles cast a delicate mist into the air, and the pavement beside the beds shimmered where the sun poked through. The constant hum of skimmer traffic faded, some, behind the leaves. They meandered through it, as he explained a bit of the Plaza’s history. Finally they sat on a bench, in view of Umate… And watched the red monks, conduct some kind of ritual, before its base, coordinated by a blowing horn whose deep voice rolled out to them, across the span.
She took out her notebook, and began to sketch, leaned comfortably against his side. His gloved hand rested upon her thigh.
He was wearing a poncho of his own, over loose, nondescript, earthen streetclothes. With all the trouble they’d taken to avoid recognition on Ipso Kan, she’d rather expected him to draw some sort of attention, here, in public… But she hadn’t noticed anyone give them so much as a second glance.
His legs were stretched out in relaxed pose. She was finding them a little bit distracting.
Something so remarkable had happened to her, on that precise spot, that very morning.
Presently he seemed to notice her sidelong glances. “What’s up?” he asked, with a gentle smile.
—She blushed, and removed her gaze. “U-um. N-nothing,” she misdirected.
“Nothing?”
“..Much. Nothing much.” she corrected. To her chagrin, she felt her blush deepening.
…A smirk birthed on his face, and gradually broadened.
“..Nothing much, at all, my lady.”
Forcing herself to boldness, she turned her eyes upon him. …He was too lovely, with his cheeks all wrinkled in that big, pleased-looking grin. It stunned her briefly that he was hers. “It’s not polite to press a lady who doesn’t like to say more,” she told him primly.
“I wouldn’t dream of it. My apologies,” he said, but his expression did not change.
..Treacherously, she thought of.. Moving closer, into his lap, pulling on his hair, and chasing that pretty smirk away with her lips on his. And making him groan.
…She turned back and finished her depiction of the monks’ ritual, with flushed cheeks. ..Then drew some flowers, besides.
Afterward she found herself peckish, and let him lead her from the garden, to one of the food stalls dotting the plaza, where he purchased for them, something meaty wrapped portably in a flatbread.
They carried their meal to a spot populated by viewfinders topping metal poles… which he fed with credits, and urged her to look into.
Putting her face up to the device, the day’s light was blocked out… And she perceived a field of dense stars, splayed out upon the artificial night. “It’s a projection of the planet’s starscape,” he explained.
They sat upon duracrete blocks before their viewfinders, comparing stars and composing constellations — The Skimmer, The Skytower — while slowly eating their lunch.
After that they walked to the Galactic Museum, some small distance off. As they proceeded down the broad pedestrian street, warded from speeders by a line of short domed pylons, with aliens in bright garb all around and skimmer cross-traffic high in the air above filling the space with a constant zoom, she reflected that the vision she’d yearned after, those months ago, of the two of them in just such a place — had come true.
—A green-skinned man in a reflective jacket full of pockets accosted them from one side. His large pupil-less eyes dimly reflected the sky, in a small face smoothly sloping to a sillily puckered mouth. “Shiny gift for the shining girl!” he confidently proclaimed, “You’ve never seen art like this!” As he spoke, he smoothly produced a small ball from his jacket and twisted till it clicked. It hummed, spinning up and beginning to hover in his hand. Light projected from it, forming into the likeness of a tiny little spindly-legged cat with great big ears, which darted curiously round in a circle — before vanishing into mist.
..The cat soon reappeared from its ethereal cloud, cautiously peering about… before bounding out for another round. She laughed, in delight.
“Holo-spinners! Beautiful toys for the lovely offworlder!” The man was already retrieving another from his jacket-front, activating it to reveal a gorgeous rotating nebula like the iris of an eye, splashed out in prismatic hues. “One-time-only deal for the pretty couple — 10 credits! 50% off, excellent value!”
“..We’ll take them both,” Luke agreed, retrieving a credit-piece from his pocket.
“Excellent choice! Best of taste!”
No sooner had the man been paid, than he was hurrying off, spinners left in her keeping. She laughed, “Did we just get hustled?”
The vendor could already be heard, extolling his wares to some fresh tourist behind them.
Luke grinned, “You’re gonna make me a mark for every junk-vendor on Coruscant,” he joked. ..Then pulled her into a kiss, with his fingers twined at the base of her skull. “..I love you, offworlder,” he whispered.
..She stashed the holo-spinners in a pocket, so she could use her hands to nuzzle him, and fondle his ear, “I love you too, farmboy.” He smiled.
…And within the Museum, they wandered down cavernous halls filled with relics of bygone worlds, for hours… Until she feared they would be lost, so far had they strayed, down branches and around corners, from the scarce-remembered entrance.
“You can get us out of here, right?” she asked him, half-trepidatiously.
He grinned, “Of course. If I focus I can sense the turbolifts, if nothing else… by the life-signs moving vertically.”
“k!”
“..This place is gigantic. It goes 50 stories deep, you know. …I’ve never looked at more than a bit of it..”
She had to stop in her tracks and gasp.
…There were artifacts there, of stone, and of metal and electronica beyond her people’s ken. And there were tech-laden suits, of armor or ceremony, sized just-so to fit a man, and she wondered how deep her people’s history truly stretched, and why… why, and when, and in what manner such things had been lost… by her own forebears, who must have come to what she regarded as her world long ago, well-equipped and from far away.
They had read near the entrance that the Museum itself was 12,000 years old. The history works in her personal library did not reach back nearly so far.
A long column of duracrete, earth and stone traversed the floors, housed in a recurring circular chamber near the main turbolift bay… preserved within transparisteel. Its placards explained it was a sediment core, taken from the planet’s strata, in the city’s lowest levels…and extending beneath. Interactive holographic labels displayed over items of significance caught within it. They checked in on it, with each opportunity.
By the time they meandered back to that long-lost entryway, her legs felt good and full, as of a long day’s hiking. They took a rest, upon a public bench, and she admired the touristy sentients spilling through the broad doorways. They had come to see the exhibits, and did not realize the attraction they were to her. She watched two youngsters, with three eyes set onto the ends of stalks, playfully pulling some bauble back and forth between them, until their harried parent confiscated it. “Gran,” Luke murmured helpfully.
Somehow it did not feel so rude to people-watch like this, from a bench. A mural mosaic covered the far wall. Its colored tiles shifted abstractly, as the museum-goers walked past.
And as the light grew long, they left, to find again their speeder. Umate’s shadow splayed across the Plaza, on their return — she lingered by it briefly, and bid it farewell by a press of her hand against its cool frictive stone. By the time they arrived at the speeder dock, they both were well ready to have their wanderings conclude, and relax.
She took the passenger seat this time, and studied the passing lights as he flew them home.
Their tower-top suite obliged, impeccably. They shared a decadently indulgent dinner, creamy morsels in a sharp brothy sauce, then sprawled together on a couch, lazily watching another episode of the hawk-bat serial on the big, in-house holo-projector… and at last, snuggled up in their big circle of a bed.
It had been a day, full to bursting. She burrowed into his chest.