Private Avoidance and Confrontation

[Aerik Lechner]

Wearing: This | Weapons: Lightsaber | Knife
TAG: Irina Jesart​

Time had passed, but it had not softened anything, and it rarely did. What it had done was remove the immediacy of the moment and leave everything else where it fell, and nothing about it had become easier to understand, only harder to ignore.

Aerik had not avoided that, even when it would have been easier to.

The days that followed had been filled with preparation and expectation, and departure was no longer something he could put off. It sat with him now in a way it had not before, tied into everything else in a way that did not leave much room to separate one from the other, including what had happened between them.

He had promised her they would talk, not to quiet the moment and not to delay it, but because he had meant it, and that alone had been enough to determine where he would be.

The maze had not changed, and the hedges were still kept with the same precision, their walls grown high and thick enough to turn you without ever fully closing you in, while each path narrowed just enough to force a decision before opening again.

Aerik entered and followed a path he already knew, his steps steady against the packed earth as the scent of trimmed greenery and damp soil lingered in the air around him. The turns came and went without hesitation, taken the same way they always had been, without pause and without second thought.

By the time the center opened around him, there was nothing in his pace to suggest it had needed to be found.

The space there remained open, shaped more by absence than design, where the hedges curved back just enough to leave a quiet pocket at the heart of it, and he stepped into it and came to a stop as the stillness settled around him without interruption.

A faint breeze moved through the maze and carried the cool of evening with it, stirring the leaves just enough to give them voice before letting them fall still again, and it brushed across his skin without drawing any reaction as it passed.

He did not reach for the bond. Aerik knew she would come when he had sent the invitation to meet at their spot.

Something shifted in the quiet that did not belong to the wind, and it came before movement and before anything he could see, settling into something familiar as it drew closer.

Her heartbeat carried through the stillness, steady and measured, and it stood apart from everything else around them once he allowed himself to listen for it.

Aerik did not turn.

“I can hear you.”

The words carried across the space between them in a low and even tone, and they settled into the quiet without breaking it.

“I told you we would talk.”

He did not look toward her or move to close the distance between them, because the last time he had done that it had not remained simple, and that had not been forgotten.

“I leave tomorrow.”

 

[Irina Jesart]

Cool evening air kissed her shoulders as she followed the familiar path, one they used to steal along in the dark of night, avoiding the steps of the academy’s guards for risk of punishment for being out beyond their curfew. It was the one place that they had been able to be just Aerik and Rin, no expectations, no masks. Just two kids escaping the realities of what lay ahead of them.

The last time they had been here, her father had been alive.

That thought brought a weight on her chest that she didn’t want, something she shoved down hard, focusing instead on the invitation, a smile curving her lips. She closed the force around her, shrinking herself as small as possible, her steps on the gravel path suddenly light and silent as she approached the mazes centre.

“I can hear you.”

Irina pouted. Giving up her attempt at sneaking up on him, coming to a stop behind him.

“Cheat.”

“I told you we would talk.”

He didn’t turn, the seriousness in his tone made her still. She had asked him to promise and she trusted him to keep his word, but now the moment was here, she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear any of it. She swallowed, stepping forward to close the gap, her head coming to rest between his shoulder blades as he hands moved to slide around his middle.

She didn’t answer him immediately, using the embrace as a moment to still the sudden race of her thoughts before she let out a sigh.

“I know.”

The admission was a whisper, that carried her sorrow at the distance that would be between them again. Her hands slipped to his waist as she drew back, moving around him, her dark eyes searching his face for a moment before she let her hands fall away.

“Where would you like to start?”

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

Wearing: This | Weapons: Lightsaber | Knife
TAG: Irina Jesart​

“Cheat.”

Aerik grinned, the expression slight as it pulled at one side of his mouth.

“It’s not cheating if I come by it naturally. It’s biology, not technology or even the Force.”

She would hear the jest in his voice, even if it carried truth with it. The maze held the sound easily, the hedges softening it as the breeze moved through them, stirring the leaves just enough to give them a quiet, constant presence without ever breaking the stillness around them.

A breath passed before he spoke again, and this time his voice settled lower, more measured.

“You have never been able to keep your heart quiet.”

There was more to it than the rhythm he could hear. She had never hidden from him. Whether that had been by choice or because she simply could not, he had always known where she stood, even when distance had been the easier path to take. That distance had not been fair to her, or to them, but it had been his to choose.

Those reasons had not changed.

A quiet exhale left him as her arms came around his midsection, the contact grounding and unwelcome all at once. The breeze shifted again, cooler now as it slipped between them and carried the scent of damp soil and trimmed greenery with it. When her head rested against his back, the weight of what needed to be said pressed in closer, even as the familiarity of her presence threatened to dull it.

She was going to ask about Skadi.

Her words from before had not left him. He had accused her of jealousy, of fearing something that had already taken shape, and she had not argued. She had accepted it. That had been worse.

It was not fair, and he knew it, but that did not make it untrue. Skadi stood beside him in ways Irina did not, in proximity and in purpose, and that closeness carried its own weight. Still, what had passed between him and Irina the night before had not been something he could dismiss or set aside. That had been different. It had been building long before either of them chose to acknowledge it.

Irina had always been just out of reach. Not distant enough to be gone, but never close enough to remain. Time with her had never been something he could rely on, and what they had taken from the night before had not changed that.

His gaze met hers when she moved in front of him, and the question was already there before she spoke it. There had been a moment where he could have avoided it, where he could have shifted it into something else, but that had never been what they agreed to.

“You know I would rather just not start.”

The truth, left as it was.

They had promised that much.

His eyes dropped briefly to her shoulder, to the place where the scar rested beneath fabric, unseen but not forgotten. It had been his fault. That had not faded with time any more than anything else between them had.

Aerik swallowed and drew a breath, steadying it before it could turn into something else.

“You have been wanting to ask a question for a long time. Since Dromund Kaas.”

His gaze returned to hers, and this time it held.

“Ask.”

 

[Irina Jesart]

He was not the only one who did not want to start, after everything that had transpired between them now she didn’t want to hear any of it. She wanted to hold on to the illusion that there was nothing beyond the hedge that rustled in the breeze, that the only thing to matter in the galaxy was them and nothing could threaten that or bring it under strain.

It was a childish notion. Aerik would never be entirely hers, Rin already knew that, it would be up to her to manage the pain and jealousy that that brought. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her mouth dry. She did want to ask, but she was so afraid of the answer…

She dropped her gaze and took a breath stealing herself before she looked back up. Whatever the answer, she wanted to see the truth in his face.

“Do you love her?”

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

Wearing: This | Weapons: Lightsaber | Knife
TAG: Irina Jesart​

Of all the questions Irina could ask, the one she chose was not what Aerik had been expecting. It settled between them heavier than it should have, not because it was complicated, but because it was not something he could answer cleanly.

Did he love Skadi?

The maze held the question in place. The breeze moved through the hedges again, slower now, brushing along the leaves before fading, and nothing about the space around them shifted enough to break what followed.

No answer came.

The silence stretched.

Skadi was his partner. They had trained together, moved together, learned each other in ways that did not need to be spoken. For a time she had lived in his space, and that closeness had become something steady, something that did not require thought.

And still…

He would be lying if he said he had not thought about being with her.

“Rin…”

The name came easier than anything else, but it did not carry an answer with it. His gaze drifted from hers, not to avoid it, but because holding it made the question harder to leave where it was.

The night air settled against him, cool and steady, and it remained there as he tried to find something that did not unravel what they had just managed to hold together.

His mind returned to his recovery, to the words he had given them when he did not have the strength to weigh them.

He had told Irina he loved her.

He had told Skadi he needed her.

Neither had been a lie.

Skadi had been clear in return. She had offered to step back if there was something with Irina, or if that was what was wanted. That was the part that did not sit right. There had been no desire to push her away. Losing what she was to him had never been something he wanted.

She was part of what he had built for himself, whether that had been the intention or not.

“I don’t know. It’s like I said already. I need her.”

The words came quieter than intended, but they held.

His gaze dropped to Irina’s shoulder, settling where he knew the scar was, and held there longer than it should have. The glow behind his eyes shifted with it, the heat settling deeper rather than rising.

“And so do you.”

Nothing in the words softened what stood between them.

Aerik knew what he had done to her. Irina, Skadi, and Torvald had all lied to him anyway, and when he asked what happened they chose not to tell him and let him believe something else. That was not nothing.

Anger flashed sitting just behind his eyes even as the rest of him stayed still.

For all of it, he did not move.

What they had shared the night before was still there, and he was not walking away from it.

 

[Irina Jesart]

The silence stretched for too long, it was suffocating, so much so that taking slow even breaths became a conscious effort as her mask slid into place, like hiding behind it might somehow protect her from the blow that was to come. When he said her name she swallowed against the lump in her throat, blood rushing loudly in her ears as everything she so desperately wanted to cling to fell away from under her feet.

“I don’t know. It’s like I said already. I need her.”

She didn’t react, not outwardly, despite the ache in her chest. How could he not know? Was it that he simply didn’t understand the full extent of his feelings towards Skadi? Or was he in denial? He wasn’t lying, that much she did know, which made it all the worse.

Her jaw tightened as anger hardened his expression.

“And so do you.”

Her eyes flared as heat shifted from her, chasing the cool air away from them.

“No, I don’t.” she replied. It was easier to be angry, easy to find her voice when she let anger override her pain. “Her ability is irrelevant. You would need her in your life regardless of the fact that she can ice you. Do not make this about that.”

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

Wearing: This | Weapons: Lightsaber | Knife
TAG: Irina Jesart​

Aerik shook his head, anger rising as Irina hid behind her own flame and temper. She knew his fear. They had talked about it the night before, and when she had shown him the scar it was all he could do to keep himself from leaving. He had tried, but Rin had stopped him. It was not fair for her to disconnect his words now, not after she had kept the truth from him.

She did not get to do that.

“And yet without her or Torvald, you would be dead right now.”

The retort came fast and sharp. It was a painful truth she would have to accept even if she didn’t want it to be. His eyes closed as he tried to get his temper under control. Irina knew how to get him to react, how to pull the stoic mask he liked to hide behind away from him. A breath, and then another, was all the time it took for him to find it again. They were never going to get anywhere if they let anger get the best of them.

Aerik shook his head again, slower this time, setting the frustration aside rather than reacting to it.

“Put the fire out for once, Rin. We are not going to figure this out if you let it speak for you. I didn’t ask you to come here just so you could burn it down.”

He turned away for the briefest of moments, not leaving, but breaking the line between them just long enough to steady himself.

“I do not know, Rin. You want me to know my own feelings, and yet how long did it take me to name my feelings for you?”

Skadi was not a question he could answer the same way. He knew he liked her companionship and that he did not want to be without her. She had his back in the same way Irina always had. The Valkyri was as true a partner as anyone could ask for. They shared similarities in their culture and upbringing. He was curious about her, about the people she called family, and the traditions she carried with her.

And still, Skadi was not really the issue.

His attention returned to Irina and stayed there. What she had said the night before had not left him. She was afraid of being alone. Rin was lonely without him, even with the numbers his father commanded.

A breath left him, quieter this time.

“That’s not what you’re really asking, is it? What are you really trying to figure out here?”

 

[Irina Jesart]

He wasn't wrong, which only made her angrier. She would have been dead without Skadi and without Torvald, but this wasn't about that. Even if Aerik had not attacked her, the circumstance would have still been the same, he would still be standing in front of her unable to name the feelings he had for another woman.

She turned away from him when he told her to put the fire out, taking a step away, her back to him as she ran a hand through her braided hair. Did he know how hard it was to douse the flame? She had been nothing but heat and anger since they uncovered the circumstance of her parents deaths and when it did recede? There was only pain and heartbreak. It might have been five years, but it never faded, it never got easier to bear.

In the quiet of nights when she was alone, when there was nothing left to occupy her the waves of grief rolled in unchecked.

When she turned back to him, the heat had faded, the cool evening air chasing behind it was sharper than before, rising goosebumps on her skin as she lifted her eyes back to his, no longer full of fire, but instead dark and full of sorrow.

"I am trying to prepare myself for how much of you I have to share." she answered, her voice small and wavering under the weight of emotion she barely held in check "Because whether you are ready to name those feelings you have for Skadi or not, I will have to accept that you will never be entirely mine. I cannot control you or the path you walk, I can only choose how much of it I can walk with you."

She looked down, swallowing the lump in her throat before continuing. "I know she cares deeply for you. And I know that neither of us will walk away. So co-existence is the only way forward. You have always been part of a pack, be it familial or one of your own making, so to you this is natural and normal, but to me?"

Rin looked up. "To me, it is like an invasion that I am powerless against. But for you? For you I endure it, even if the moments I do get you are fleeting. Because you make everything easier to bear and because without you...without you I am nothing but pain and anger."

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

Wearing: This | Weapons: Lightsaber | Knife
TAG: Irina Jesart​

The issue had never truly been about Aerik's feelings, and that was what he had suspected. Rin could ask him to figure it out, tell him he needed to choose who he wanted to be with, but that was not what she was doing. What she had brought to him was the same thing she had shared the night before. It was what had made her leave the celebration.

Aerik did not repeat what was already clear. Skadi was there. If he wanted time with Irina, he had to take it where he could. It had never been easy, and it had never been something that happened without effort. That should have been enough to say what he could not put into words. He did not understand why she could not see it. Even being here meant crossing the galaxy to find her. The hypergate made it possible, but it did not make it nothing. Hoth was still a distance.

He hated the way she called it an invasion. It sounded like a claim, as if she had decided he was hers before anything between them had ever been settled. They had belonged to each other in a way, but it had never been that simple. Irina had been his friend first. She had been there the night he shifted for the first time. They had searched for answers about her parents together.

For five years they had been apart. Gerwald had taken her, and he had been left behind at the academy. His punishment had been to remain a cohort apart from his siblings for the remainder of his time. When Prazutis took him as an apprentice, it had only deepened the distance between them. And still, when they were together, it felt as though none of that time had passed.

"She is not your enemy," Aerik said after a long silence.

He stepped forward and closed the distance between them, pressing his lips to her forehead.

"I know you think she is intruding, but even if she didn't feel anything for me, I think you would still see it that way. It's my presence with her that bothers you more, isn't it? That's what you said last night."

The truth did not need to be softened. Irina was going to have to share him. Whether anything more ever happened with Skadi or not, she was not going anywhere. That part had already been decided.

"Are you trying to figure out how much of me you have, or are you asking me not to be with her?"

 

[Irina Jesart]

"She is not your enemy,"

Irina’s eyes slid closed as he closed the distance, pressing a kiss against her forehead. She leaned into the touch, her hands coming up to his chest, the contact grounding her as she exhaled a sigh.

“I know.” she said quietly.

Skadi had saved her life, regardless of how Irina had behaved, she had come to her aid on Brosi without hesitation. She didn’t think for a moment it was because she cared about Irina, but instead it was because she cared about Aerik. She had said on Brosi that she knew what they meant to each other, so her actions to save her were to protect him.

That made it a little easier, but it did not take the pain away entirely.

“I would never ask that of you, Aerik.” she replied, opening her eyes finally and looking up at him. “That would be like asking you to give up a piece of yourself, if you care for her as much as I believe you do.”

She loved him too much to ask him to suffer for her own selfish need. “I will never not be jealous. She gets all of you, all of the time, while I have to steal moments. There is no changing that, the paths we walk are so different that distance and stolen moments will be all we ever get for a long time.”

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

Wearing: This | Weapons: Lightsaber | Knife
TAG: Irina Jesart​

Aerik let Irina feel his frustration through their bond rather than forcing it into words. How often had she been the one to push him to make the most of the time they were given? Now they stood here, spending what little time he had left on Jutrand trying to temper the fire she so easily embraced. He understood her jealousy, more than she seemed to realize, and he let that press through the bond as well.

She had to know.

"We have found ourselves again after five years. If we can do that, we can navigate anything that life, and the Force, throws at us."

Aerik paused and let his heart steady. When the rhythm settled, he took Irina's hand and pressed it against his chest, his breathing slow and deliberate as he held her there. His eyes did not leave hers as he stepped closer, closing what little distance remained between them.

She had to know the place she held in his heart.

Rin had been there for his first change. She had been there in the maze the first night he had slipped away from his siblings. They had avenged her father together and uncovered the truth behind her mother's death. That did not disappear because time had passed or because distance had been forced between them. It remained, the same as it always had.

They belonged to each other in a way that did not need to be defined.

The Force that bound them would be the same anchor that steadied them.

Aerik let her words settle instead of pushing back against them. There was nothing in what she said that was wrong.

"I know."

The words came quietly, not to dismiss what she felt, but because there was no point pretending it wasn't true.

"It isn't fair."

His grip on her hand did not loosen.

"You don't get the same time. You don't get the same place in my life day to day. I'm not going to pretend that's something I can fix by saying the right thing."

He held her gaze as he said it, not looking away from what she was asking him to face.

"But that doesn't mean this stops here."

A breath passed before he continued.

"We're going to have to decide what this looks like going forward, not just what it is right now."

The space between them had already been closed, but he did not move away from her. Instead he moved even closer.

"I'm not asking you not to feel it. I'm asking you not to let that feeling decide everything for us."

Aerik kissed her.

"I asked you here, to this exact place, for a reason, Rin."

 

[Irina Jesart]

Understanding, mingled with frustration pressed against her through their bond, that coupled with his words quieted the fire within. He understood her, he had always understood her in ways that no one else ever would.

She could not lose him.

If she had to temper her fire, if she had to find a way to exist beside Skadi in his heart then she would. She didn’t voice it, she simply let her intent flow back to him through the bond, the tension bleeding away from her.

He drew close, and Rin moved instinctively closer in response as her hand settled over his heart, the rhythm of it drumming against her fingers as her own slowed to match it, for a moment there was just the quiet rustling of the leaves as the bond anchored them both, her hand held tight against his chest.

His quiet words filled space between them, settling for a beat before he leaned forward and kissed her. It was gentle, reassuring in a way she couldn’t explain and she melted into it, her body fitting against his as her free hand moved to the nape of his neck.

When he broke away to speak, her dark eyes searched his face, her head tilting slightly as curiosity crept across her expression.

“I thought you were just being sentimental. Seeing as this was the only space we could ever speak freely.” Her nose brushed his. “Why did you ask me here?” her words were a mere whisper.

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

Wearing: This | Weapons: Lightsaber | Knife
TAG: Irina Jesart​

In some ways it was not fair the way they could simply express their feelings through the bridge which connected them. It was certainly convenient, however. The current between them carried more than words ever could, pressing thoughts and emotions across the distance without resistance. Aerik knew his thoughts and feelings were complicated when it came to the women he had chosen to make part of his little pack. He had not even broached the topic of how Irina had made Quinn feel, and he was not sure it was a discussion they were ready to have.

The pup knew his future would always be connected to the Empress and any of her family that saw fit to demand his service. Aerik had been raised with a subtle awareness of his father's oath to the wintry Echani, something that lingered in the background of everything he had been taught. What he had learned as he grew was how Gerwald's life debt shaped more than just one man's choices. It reached into him and his siblings as well, settling into the expectations placed on them. They would all serve in some way. The more powerful they became would determine what that would look like.

It was why Gerwald had sent them to Jutrand. Within the halls of the academy, among students who measured themselves in strength and survival, they would be formed, tested, and shaped for anything the Sith Order or the galaxy chose to send their way. The place did not allow weakness to hide, and it did not forgive it when it surfaced.

This was where he met Irina. It was the context and shadow which would always hang over them. The garden maze had not been built for what it became, but the tall hedges and winding paths had given them something the rest of the academy did not. It was not just a quiet place for Aerik to be if he had to change. It had become his sanctuary from the demands of what his future held. Irina had followed him into that space, and over time it had become theirs. His invitation had never been about being sentimental. They were there because it was the one place they could set aside everything else, the one place where the masks they wore for everyone else were left behind.

"Maybe, but you know what this place has always been for us."

Aerik moved toward the center of the maze, stepping through the narrow path as the hedges brushed lightly against his arms. He kicked off his boots without breaking stride, leaving them behind in the grass. An audible sigh escaped his lips as the cool ground pressed against his feet, the blades bending beneath each step. The air carried the faint scent of earth and trimmed greenery, and the quiet here felt different from the rest of the academy, softer, untouched.

Each step carried memory with it, a reminder of a time before everything had become complicated, before distance and expectation had settled in around them. No one would take this place from them. No one intruded here. It belonged to them, to Aerik and Irina, and that distinction mattered.

Orange eyes glanced over his shoulder to see if Irina would follow. He did not wait long before lowering himself onto the soft bed of grass, the coolness pressing through his clothes as he stretched out. The pup tucked his hands beneath his head and looked up at the sky above them. The stars were still clear here, scattered across the darkness in a way the rest of the city could not claim.

"You don't have to share me here."

The words settled between them, quiet but certain, carrying both an invitation and a line that would not be crossed. This would always be theirs.

 

[Irina Jesart]

Irina swallowed a sigh of disappointment when he drew away from her, watching him move to the centre of the maze, leaving his boots behind as he settled onto the grass. For a moment she was Rin before her father had passed, watching him from the edge, fascinated by this golden eyed boy she’d stalked through the maze. In him she had found her first friend, someone that she could trust, something that had been entirely alien to her growing up.

He had always seemed so carefree here, even now as he tucked his hands behind his head, everything that normally sat on his shoulders and chest was gone. Here, he was her Aerik and no one else's.

Slowly, she moved, slipping her shoes off leaving them beside his boots. She moved, standing beside him for a moment, her toes curling in the grass, delighting in the way the blades slid between her toes before she slowly lowered herself to lay beside him, her hands resting lightly on her abdomen.

“Maybe one day, we’ll build our own maze.”

 

[Aerik Lechner]

Wearing: This | Weapons: Lightsaber | Knife
TAG: Irina Jesart​

He could feel her momentary disappointment, but Aerik knew it would fade. The pull of this place, of what it had always been for them, was too strong to ignore for either of them. The pup knew nothing would erase the time they had lost. His scar was a reminder of the cost their paths demanded of them, and there was still much left unsaid between them. Quinn came to mind. His intentions with Prazutis were not completely altruistic. If Irina knew what he was thinking, she would stop him, or worse, she would want to stand beside him in it.

For now, this was theirs.

A small smile found its way onto his lips when the sound of her bare feet sliding through the grass reached him. Aerik listened as the blades shifted beneath her, soft and steady, bending and brushing against her skin as she moved. He could hear the faint press of her steps into the earth, the way her toes curled against the ground as she walked. The rustle of her clothing followed, quiet but familiar, and it told him she was finally settling beside him. That alone eased something in him. Their bond carried the rest, letting her feel the shift in his heart as it happened.

His promise that no one would ever take this place from them had not been made lightly. It was not just a place. It was theirs in a way nothing else was. Irina could have asked him to keep it from Skadi, and he would have agreed without hesitation. If she ever doubted what she meant to him, he hoped she would remember this.

“Can you imagine… How high up do you think we would have to climb to get our own maze?”

It was something they had done before, when things had been simpler. They had dreamed. It had been the first time they had allowed themselves to imagine a future that held both of them, even if they had never been able to define it. That part had never changed. There had always been a certainty that they would remain in each other’s lives, no matter what came between them.

Rin would always be part of his pack.

He rolled onto his side, the grass shifting beneath him, and turned his attention fully to her. His gaze settled on Irina, steady and unhurried, before his hand lifted to guide her jaw just enough that she would meet his eyes. He did not rush the moment. He simply looked at her, letting it sit between them before leaning in to kiss her.

The kiss was soft, but it did not lack intent.

“When I leave tomorrow… what is it you really want from me? How can I ensure that I won’t stay away forever?”

Aerik did not need the answer to know the truth of it. They would find their way back to each other. They always had. Still, he needed to hear it from her, needed to leave nothing between them that had not been said. He would not allow any doubt to linger in Irina’s heart.

 

[Irina Jesart]

It was easy to dream here, to let all their worries fall away and imagine all the things they could have if they climbed high enough. Back then it had been about the rooms, the private showers, the free space to study properly. Now it was different, the climb was harder, more perilous. Not that the academy had been lacking in it dangers, but looking back the threat of other students seemed…lacking, in comparison to what they had to face now.

The dreams were bigger too. It was no longer about creature comforts, but about what power they sought, about where they would sit in the Order's future, and more than that it was about what life they could build together.

She didn’t answer him, falling instead into quiet thought, staring up at the stars as she realised that that future would have to include Skadi. There was no avoiding it now, now she knew for certain how Aerik felt, she would have to reach out. For this to work, they could no longer be strangers.

The thought fell away as Aerik moved beside her, his fingers brushing her jaw drawing her attention to him. The maze walls rustled in the gentle breeze as she lost herself in the golden hue of his eyes. Power and bridges were suddenly forgotten, as he consumed all of her attention before leaning in.

She returned the kiss, a hand moving to rest on his cheek as he drew back, his question filling the space between them. For a moment she didn’t answer, as her hand moved to brush his hair carefully out of his face.

“I want to know that I am yours, and you are mine. No matter what comes next, no matter how far the distance or how long we are apart. I need to know that that will never change.”

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

Wearing: This | Weapons: Lightsaber | Knife
TAG: Irina Jesart​

Aerik did not answer her right away.

Her words settled into him, simple in the way that made them harder to ignore. The breeze moved through the maze again, stirring the grass around them, and for a moment he let it stay like that, looking at her without trying to force an answer into place.

Her hand moved through his hair, and he did not pull away from it.

"I am yours."

The words came low and certain.

"And you are mine."

He held her gaze, letting that sit between them without dressing it up into something else. That part had never been uncertain, not for him.

"That won’t change."

A breath passed, slower this time, as something else settled in behind it.

He remembered Quinn standing there, the way Irina had spoken to her, and the look on the Echani's face when it landed. It had not been a misunderstanding. It had not been a small thing. Irina made Quinn feel like she could not belong.

That was part of this too.

"If this is going to work… it doesn't stop here."

His voice did not harden, but it did not soften either.

"What happened with Quinn didn't just disappear because she left the apartment."

He did not look away from Irina.

"She's part of this pack."

The words carried more weight now, not in force, but in what they required. A pause followed, not long, but long enough that the next part could not be mistaken.

"You hurt her, Rin."

There was no edge or accusation to it. Just the truth.

"And if we're going to build anything that lasts… then you don't get to leave that where it is."

His gaze held hers.

"You need to make that right."

 

[Irina Jesart]

The warmth that settled in her chest was reflected in the smile on her face, his words settling between them, but something in the way her drew his next breath made her hand pause its path through his hair, her smile fading slightly, wondering what was bothering him. Then he said it and her smile vanished entirely, the warmth in her chest became icy.

Rin withdrew her hand from his hair, withdrew from him and sat up. She had hurt Quinn? Was that why she had been so angry with her when they last met? All she had stated were facts. That she and Skadi were not her peers, that they were beneath her. Aerik was uniquely placed to be her peer because of the relationship their parents had but she and Skadi? They were nobodies in the grand scheme of things.

"How does stating that Skadi and I are beneath her, hurt her?"

She shook her head.

"She despises me, Aerik. she made that much clear when we ran into each other on Ast Kikorie." She looked over her shoulder back at him. "Even if I did want to make things right," she didn't, "I very much doubt she will make the time for me to speak."

Aerik Lechner

 

[Aerik Lechner]

Wearing: This | Weapons: Lightsaber | Knife
TAG: Irina Jesart​

Aerik felt the moment Irina’s attitude and emotions shifted. He had struck a nerve by mentioning Quinn, but when were they going to talk about it if he let it slide now? It was not fair to anyone to pretend like that had not happened. Whether Irina wanted to accept it or not, the Echani would always be someone important in the young wolf’s life.

He sighed when she physically pulled away. This was how it was going to be then. Irina could accept the fact he would take refuge in the arms of Skadi, but she did not want to imagine a world where Quinn was someone that occupied a place in Aerik’s life as well.

“She was a friend and teacher long before Skadi ever came around. I’ve known her longer than I have known you, Rin. If you think you can convince me to sweep this under the rug, you’re mistaken.”

Irina would be able to hear in his voice, and feel through the bond they shared, that he was serious. She would also be able to tell that his feelings for his fiery, desert girl were strong and steady.

“Think about what you said to me the other night. You are lonely without me. Now imagine everyone thinks you’re the heir apparent. You were raised by your aunt. Everyone in your life wants something from you because of all the titles attached to your name. Imagine that when you go home and lay your head on the pillow, you are alone.”

Aerik paused to let it sink in.

“She is as lonely as you are Rin. I have done my best to ensure that when I look at Quinn I only see her, not the titles. Your comments may as well have announced to everyone listening that all you see is what she is, not who she is.”

The pup reached for the woman sitting next to him. If she didn’t shrug him off, his hand would lightly caress her back.

“How much more lonely did you make her feel by reminding her that she shouldn’t even allow the one small indulgence of friendship and belonging called Aerik Lechner? She just wants to feel like she belongs somewhere, that she is accepted somewhere and just Quinn. You took that away from her.”

Aerik was not about to say what he was also thinking. Irina had done more than take something away from Quinn. She had pushed Quinn away from him. The pup understood nothing would ever come of his feelings for the Echani. It had been made clear. That did not mean they no longer existed. For all he knew they always would. His father was certainly an example of someone that loved with all his heart and still found room to be devoted to another.

The only thing Aerik knew right now was Irina needed to make it right. It was only going to be awkward later if she didn’t.

“Quinn is not complicated. You just need to apologize.”

 

[Irina Jesart]

Shame and guilt settled heavily on her chest, it had never been her intention to ostracise Quinn. As someone who had spent her childhood ostracised by society because of her father, it was easy to understand how her words hurt. She replayed the moment in her head, how she had come in with a smile, with gentle words and how quickly she had retreated behind a mask, the same mask she often saw Aerik wear.

Irina sighed heavily, closing her eyes, leaning into the touch that trailed down her spine.

“She told me I was an embarrassment to your father.” she said quietly, looking down at her hands, “because I chose strategy and logic, wanting for us to move to a more defensible position instead of remaining exposed at the crash site to uncover the dead and dying.”

She fell quiet, the words still stung now. “It’s not that I didn’t care, I just…”

Rin swallowed and shook her head.

“Its not as simple as an apology anymore.”

Her head turned to look at him again over her shoulder.

“Why did you wait this long to tell me?”

Aerik Lechner