Private Bated

[Asha Seren]

She'd somehow sent for him?​

​

Perhaps she wasn't quite so cut off from the Force as she'd imagined. Perhaps it was a pleasant side effect from all they'd endured together, and all they had been before her passing. There were no lies to be had, and after a slow intake of bracing breath she closed the distance between her hand and the saber and grasped at its hilt.​

​

It was real.​

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She could feel the Force pulsating through it, and her eyes instinctively closed in response. So long had passed since she'd last held one that she wondered if she'd even remember how to wield it.​

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When her eyes opened she settled her gaze upon him again.​

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"I shouldn't have" she whispered, a long and sorrowful sigh escaping her lips as she handed him back the saber. "I shouldn't have called for you... It's not safe. I... I'm not safe."​

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One step back from him, perhaps she should have turned tail and run but she couldn't. It was like a dream, one which had always turned nightmarish while she was held within the cells upon Panatha, only nothing bad had happened yet.​

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What if it did, though?​

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What if she was the cause of it..?​

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Still, she'd missed him; she couldn't bear the thought of walking away. A battle existed within her expression. Asha was more than torn.​

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Tracyn Ordo ​

 

[Tracyn Ordo]

"You weren't. But now you are."

A long silence. A pause, with silence saying more than he ever could. Tracyn was never one for words, long speeches. But he had to say something to make her believe it wasn't some foul, cruel trick.

Her expression was one of being torn, distrust and reasonable paranoia- his was of desperation, disbelief. His eyes looked down at his hilt- beskar made, with a leather from his Kama around it, dangling only slightly.

"Turn it on, Asha."

He stepped back, hands up. The blade needed to speak for itself. And he needed to make sure she was just as real as he wanted her to be.

Asha Seren

 

[Asha Seren]

She stared at him with uncertainty. Did he really believe that? Could she believe that?​

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If she was ever going to be safe, feel safe, surely it would be with him... But everything she knew had been turned on its head, and caution was only a natural response to such. Right?​

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Following his gaze toward the saber, Asha let out a slow and steadying breath. He relinquished it back to her when she tried to hand it back, and stepped away himself. Gave her the space to do as he'd requested.​

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She swallowed down her doubt, a lump forming in her throat, and then nodded once. She thumbed the ignition, and watched as the blade ignited once more - only this time at her behest.​

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Tracyn Ordo ​

 

[Tracyn Ordo]

"It's yours, as much as mine. You were there when I built it, remember? We had to get someone to turn my armor into this..." He turned it on it's side, gently grasping her hand, closing the distance between them. His hand disengaged the lightsaber, the blade retracting into the hilt.

"I'm real, Asha. And so are you."

He hadn't been this close to anyone in years. Since her. He interlocked his fingers with hers- and leaned in, his lips meeting hers.

Pure bliss.

Asha Seren

 

[Asha Seren]

That memory was from a long time ago. There was much she couldn't recall in the days leading up to her demise, and blank spots even beyond that, but some things?​

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Some things remained.​

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She smiled, only the faintest hints of a somber undertone coming through the act, and allowed herself a moment to remember not just that but more of their time together. They had been Padawans together... It felt like another lifetime ago, entirely.​

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The saber was deactivated as he closed the space between them once more, and she found herself less resistant to it all; no Vornskr had crept from the shadows of the Academy, so far nothing untoward had happened. Maybe he was right, maybe she was safe. Here, with him, at least.​

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"I've missed you" she breathed. She hooked the hilt to her belt to get it out of the way, and then reached up with her free hand to brush delicately against his cheek. Returning his kiss, she allowed everything else to fade away and existed solely in that moment.​

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Somehow, some way, the Force had seen fit to reunite them.​

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Tracyn Ordo ​

 

[Tracyn Ordo]

Across the Stars

The most awful pain was that of nostalgia, for sure. But he wanted that pain. He wanted to remember. There was nothing else, nothing but them together, alone in the temple. His hands, so afraid to touch before, reached up and grasped at her arms, holding her tightly when their lips met.

He broke after a while.

"Do you remember the first time we kissed?"

Asha Seren

 

[Asha Seren]

"Tython" came her quiet reply, the memory coming to her as though it had only just happened. "We found a clearing... I think we were training."

They'd been Padawan's back then, just teenagers struggling to adjust to their strange new lives with the Jedi. Neither had been born to it, they'd been brought in later than most.

"They were so mad when they found out..."

Tracyn Ordo

 

[Tracyn Ordo]

X

"It was the gardens, on the Temple grounds. You were the first person to look past my upbringing, did you know that? One to look past the big blonde Brute that- wandered in."

He grasped her hands, and one hand fell to her waist. He twirled her around, smiling down at her.

"Can I dance with you, for a moment? Just- the two of us. I could put on some music, too. Just. Never really got to dance with you."

Asha Seren

 

[Asha Seren]

Had it been the gardens?

It had been so long ago... So many lifetimes ago for her at least. It only made sense that his memory of it would be clearer.

The smallest of smiles crept over her lips, and then she nodded.

"I owed my life to a Mandalorian," she explained, "And I wasn't raised in the Jedi either. I guess all that helps, right? To see past, uh... Stereotypes..."

When he twirled her and asked his question, she tilted her head to one side and regarded him solemnly for a moment. Had they really never danced before?

More and more she found some of her prickly defenses beginning to wane. It really was him. They were together again... And Kaine had not yet appeared to tear them apart once more.

Maybe things weren't as dire as she believed them to be. Maybe there was... Hope?

How long had it been since she'd felt that?

"I don't know how to dance" she confessed, a deep blush coming into her cheeks, "But... I'd like that..." If nothing else it meant she'd be close to him again, right? She settled her head against his shoulder, and let him lead.

Tracyn Ordo

 

[Tracyn Ordo]

No, they never really got to dance, did they? They didn't get to do a lot of things. But that was alright, in the end. They were here now. Not even the ugliest thing in the world could tear them apart.

Pressing against him, he ran his hand up her forearm, before interlocking their free hands together, the other around his waist. He held her close, slowly shifting side to side, before swaying.

"Too bad. You're not terrible at it." He said with a wry grin. The only thing absent was music, though their company together was just as fine.

"Can't buy this or get this anywhere, can you?" He said happily, glancing upwards at the temple, marveling in it's beauty.

Asha Seren

 

[Asha Seren]

Following his lead, she flexed her thumb against the back of his hand as he took hers in his and swayed back and forth.

There might not have been music but it didn't seem to matter at all. It's absence was barely even noticed, at least by Asha.


"Not bad?" She inquired with a small shake of her head, "It's like I have two left feet..."

Normalcy.

How long had it been since she'd had a sense of normalcy?

Eyes closed, she exhaled a sigh of relief. Her free hand clung to the back of his shirt.

"Don't go" she breathed, voice little more than a whisper, "I can't lose you again, Kobe..."

 

[Tracyn Ordo]

"Me? I'm not going anywhere. Without you there, of course."

He stood there for several minutes, no words, nothing. He thought what they had missed, but more so of what they could do now. Now that they had time.

He spoke after a while.

"I love you, by the way. Just in case you didn't know." He smirked again. Tracyn never did lose his sense of humor- it was part of what got him through it all.

Plus, he just wanted her to say it out loud again.

Asha Seren

 

[Asha Seren]

Letting out a soft sigh of relief, she continued to move with him without the need for any more words between them. Dancing to a silent tune, to an audience of none, it was honestly rather freeing. More and more she was beginning to feel grounded, which compared to the strange sense of floaty autopilot she usually experienced was a welcome change.​

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When he spoke to confess his love she couldn't help but smile, and she shifted her head enough to peek up at him without breaking the connection. Her cheek was set against his shoulder as a result.​

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It had been too long since she'd heard those words. Even before her death they'd been somewhat estranged due to the tragedy of the twins. She gave him a gentle squeeze, and then nodded.​

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"I love you too. I know I haven't said it enough... But I do. I've missed this. Missed you."​

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Tracyn Ordo ​

 

[Tracyn Ordo]

It all washed away, in those precious few moments. Those fleeting moments of pain, the loss, the heartache. Gone like the darkness at dawn. He leaned back, taking her for all that she was, eyes looking over the frame of the woman he yearned for, for so long, for so many years, for so many weeks and nights and days.

What a thing for heartache to end.

He twirled her, extending her out from him, only to draw her closer back to him.

"I don't want this moment to end. Can we stay here, for eternity? Just you and me, and this old temple. Maybe we can find a garden to kiss in again."

Asha Seren

 

[Asha Seren]

She didn't want it to end either. If she could, she would have suspended that moment in time for all eternity, locked it away within some whimsical snow globe where it could be safe and untouched. Oh what she wouldn't have given for that.​

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For a moment she genuinely wondered if they could. Why not? People started fresh all the time. They might have been limited with what was available to them on this backwater planet, but there was shelter, and food sources, and...​

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The lightsaber moved against her leg, pulling her back to reality. There were duties which had been assigned to them. Duties she had been kept from for too long. But she couldn't carry them out anymore, she couldn't touch the Force without becoming physically sick.​

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"I wish that we could" she whispered, though already some of the spell she'd fallen under began to shatter. When he twirled her back toward him, Asha slowed to a halt. Now it was her turn to cry, and she sank to her knees before him. Her head bowed, shoulders shook. "Force, I wish we could."​

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Tracyn Ordo​