Private Celebration of home

[Diarch Rellik]

The laughter and music of the hall still echoed when Rellik reached out and took her arm, his touch gentle but sure. "Come with me," he said, voice quiet, carrying none of the formality from earlier but a hint of mischief. They slipped out through one of the side corridors, the hum of Aurora Station softening around them. Passing a rack of officer's coats, Rellik tugged the military cap from his head and tossed it onto the corner of a console without a glance back.

The hangar greeted them with low light and the polished hull of his shuttle waiting near the bay doors. He guided her up the ramp, pausing only long enough to open the cockpit door for her. "Up front," he said with a faint smile. "I don't want to ruin any surprises."

Once she settled in, Rellik turned away, boots echoing down the corridor to the back of the ship. When he returned, his jacket was undone, a few buttons loosened at the collar, the rigid lines of uniform fading away to a relaxed demeanor.

In one hand, he held a chilled bottle of wine, condensation glinting against the dim cabin lights. The other two wine glasses paired against each other.

He leaned against the cockpit doorway, the faint hum of the engines filling the silence. "Figured we did not need to stop our celebration on our way down to Bastion. I have a gift for you tonight in my chambers within the spire to celebrate your promotion."

Iandre Athlea

 

[Iandre Athlea]

The echoes of music lingered long after they'd left the gathering, fading into the steady hum of the station. True to her word, Iandre followed Rellik without hesitation when he suggested they leave. Her part in the event was done, and she was content to slip away with him into the quiet.

When he tossed his hat aside, she let out a soft, amused laugh. "You'll regret that later," she teased, brushing her fingers against the brim of her own. She wasn't about to part with hers.

Their steps carried them through the corridor until they reached his shuttle. The faint vibration of the docking bay thrummed beneath their boots as they boarded. He led her to the cockpit and asked her to wait, earning a curious tilt of her head. She complied, though the faintest spark of anticipation crossed her features. Watching him go, she turned toward the viewport. The lights of the bay reflected softly in her grey eyes—sterile and bright, yet somehow distant.

When Rellik returned, the glint of two glasses and a bottle of wine in his hands drew an unguarded smile from her. "A gift and wine? You're spoiling me," she said lightly, her tone carrying that quiet warmth she rarely showed in public.

"You look good like this," she added after a pause, her gaze holding his. "Relaxed. Yourself. And I don't think we need to stop celebrating just yet. Care to share the wine?"

Unless he stopped her, she rose from the pilot's seat and crossed the short distance between them. Taking one of the glasses from his hand, her fingers brushed his—a subtle, deliberate contact that lingered for just a heartbeat too long. The soft lighting of the cabin painted her features in gold and shadow, the usual restraint in her expression tempered by something gentler.

For someone so used to structure and command, these quiet moments with him always managed to disarm her. Around Rellik, her guard lowered in ways she couldn't quite explain. The silence between them wasn't awkward or uncertain—it was comforting. Real.

As the shuttle's hum filled the air, Iandre let herself breathe him in—this stillness, this warmth. The galaxy outside might have been distant and cold, but here, in this fleeting quiet, she felt something close to peace.

Diarch Rellik

 

[Diarch Rellik]

Rellik watched the reflection of the cabin lights slide across her features. The gold traced along her cheek, softened against her eyes, and he simply enjoyed it. When her fingers brushed his, the faintest spark of warmth passed through his hand. Rellik steadied the bottle before it could slip, a quiet grin forming despite himself.

"To you." He uncorked the bottle, the soft hiss breaking the calm, and poured. As he handed her the glass, his own still in hand. The rims touched with a muted clink.

He leaned against her as he walked beside to the cockpit, his shoulders loosening as the first stars of Bastion's upper atmosphere came into view. "You know," he added, "I like it when we are both in uniform. It is a good look."

Turning his gaze toward her again, the faint light painted the gold in his eyes. "Finish your drink," he said, a smile returning. "I'll take us down to the Crucible." He sat down and began manually piloting the ship to the landing pad.

Iandre Athlea

 

[Iandre Athlea]

The glass was cool in her hand, the reflection of the stars bending across its surface. Iandre turned it once between her fingers before meeting his gaze, a faint curve touching her lips.

"To the Diarchy, the Lilaste Order" she said softly, then after a heartbeat, her voice dropped, warmer. "And to us."

She took a slow sip, the faint burn grounding her. When he brushed against her shoulder on the way forward, she didn't move away. Instead, her hand found his arm briefly—light, deliberate—before falling back to her side.

"You always say that as if you forget how well it suits you too," she murmured, following him toward the cockpit. The sight of him at the controls, calm and in his element, eased something quiet in her chest.

She leaned lightly against the frame of the viewport, watching the stars stretch into the familiar glow of Bastion's orbit. "I'll finish it," she said, holding up the glass slightly, amusement flickering through her tone. "But only if you promise not to crash while trying to impress me."

The light caught in her eyes as the Crucible came into view, soft gold reflecting against blue. For a moment, the soldier, the Diarch, the Jedi—all fell away, and there was only Iandre beside him, quiet and entirely at ease.

Diarch Rellik

 

[Diarch Rellik]

The shuttle slipped into Bastion's upper atmosphere, its hum deepening as the controls shuddered gently beneath his hands. Below them, the lights of the Crucible spire rose through the cloud cover. Her comment drew a quiet chuckle from him. "Impress you?" he said, a faint grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.

The shuttle gave a calm and fun slight rotation as Rellik brought it unto the pad. Nothing that would cause her to spill her wine but enough to know it was not a normal landing.

The glow of Bastion's atmosphere bathed the cabin in dim orange light, softening everything between them. Rellik powered down the console, got up and walked directly to Iandre. Leaning closely to her. "I will never stop trying to impress you. That first crash landing when we met doesn't count.". Right after his words he gave a short laugh that weaved through his smile.

He held out his hand. "Let's go home my dear."

Looking her in the eyes he thought of the soldier, the survivor, the woman he loved. A glint, sharp and hungry flickered through those golden orbs. A pull of longing and wanting.

Iandre Athlea

 

[Iandre Athlea]

Iandre stepped off the shuttle, letting out a soft laugh as the familiar shudder beneath her boots reminded her of Rellik's less-than-graceful landings. "Honestly, Rellik," she said, amusement threading her voice, "you really should take some landing lessons. I'm starting to think the universe has it out for your shuttle."

Her grey eyes sparkled as she remembered their first meeting—him plummeting from the sky, sprawling across the ground in a heap, laughing even as he tumbled. Some things never changed. She shook her head with a fond smile, stepping beside him, the memory lingering like sunlight on the horizon.

"You still manage to impress me, even when you crash more than you land," she added, letting a small chuckle escape. She nudged him lightly with her shoulder, playful but warm, and her hand brushed his as they walked. The contact lingered a heartbeat longer than necessary, her fingers grazing his with a subtle thrill that made her pulse quicken.

Her gaze flicked up to meet his golden eyes, catching that sharp, hungry glint he always wore when he looked at her. A small, almost imperceptible shiver ran through her, and she felt a faint, fond flutter in her chest—a quiet acknowledgment of just how much she adored him.

"One day, you're going to land without making me worry," she said softly, a grin tugging at her lips. "But somehow…I think I'd miss it if you did."

Her grey eyes held his for a moment longer, light and warmth dancing behind their calm surface, a playful, affectionate glimmer that mirrored the pull she always felt in his presence. She let the moment linger, savoring the closeness, the easy banter, and the undeniable spark that always ignited between them.

Diarch Rellik

 

[Diarch Rellik]

Rellik stepped off the ramp beside her, the Bastion night wind stirring faintly against their uniforms. Her laughter pulled a low hum of amusement from him. "The day I land perfectly," he said, intertwining his fingers lightly against hers again as they walked, "is the day I hang up the cockpit entirely."

The private landing pad fed directly into a stone archway carved from the mountain itself. He led her through it without hurry. Their footsteps echoed softly along the polished obsidian floor, each step taking them deeper into the upper spire.

His thumb brushed once across the back of her hand. "These halls feel completely different with you at my side." They were still casually moving through hallways. All of them adorned with quaint lighting, banners of the Diarchy and other bits of art. "Anywhere you are, the air feels lighter." The Diarch's eyes glazed over slightly. He was deep in thought but whatever he was thinking; he seemed peaceful, happy.

Going up one flight of stairs, there was a small platform and a door. Rellik stepped up and the seams of the door began to glow with a soft red before opening. Revealing a large suite. An open space with some furniture, a kitchen nearby, a beautiful view that showed everything from the training courtyard to the edges of Ravelin. Rellik leaned his head back towards Iandre. A smirking smile across his face. "Welcome home."

Iandre Athlea

 

[Iandre Athlea]

Iandre's lips curved into a soft, easy smile as Rellik led her through the familiar corridors. The Bastion night air stirred faintly, carrying its usual chill, but it hardly mattered. With him at her side, each step felt lighter, the polished obsidian floors and banners more like a backdrop than a destination.

"These halls…even after all this time," she murmured, her gray eyes glancing up at him, "they still feel different when you're here."

She let her hand squeeze his lightly as they ascended the small flight of stairs. When the door to the suite opened, revealing their shared space, a small, fond chuckle escaped her. "Home," she said softly, stepping inside and letting her gaze roam over the familiar furnishings and the sweeping view of Ravelin. "It still surprises me how…perfect this feels."

Her hand found his again, fingers intertwining, and she tilted her head slightly, gray eyes warm. "You always manage to make everything feel… lighter," she added, her voice intimate, calm, and appreciative. "Even after long days, after everything we've seen… being here with you…it's enough."

She let herself take a slow breath, glancing toward the view once more before meeting his eyes again. "I suppose it's a good thing I'm not going anywhere," she said softly, a faint smile tugging at her lips. "Not when this feels like… exactly where I should be."</color]

Diarch Rellik

 

[Diarch Rellik]

The door slid shut behind them with a soft, final hum, sealing the mountain chill out and leaving only the warm quiet of the chamber. He looked Iandre over, her silhouette framed against the lights of Ravelin, the faint rise and fall of her breath, the calm written into her features because she felt safe here.

Safe with him.

He stepped closer, slow and sure, until he stood just behind her. One hand came to rest lightly at her waist, the touch gentle, reverent. The other brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"I always thought I was fated to lead," he said quietly, voice steady but carrying something deeper than he had ever let her hear. "Fated to build the Diarchy. To bring order. Justice. Peace. All the things my father pointed me toward."

He inhaled softly, as if letting something go.

"But somewhere along the way… it stopped being his dream. Or anyone's dream but mine."

He turned her slightly so he could see her face in the warm, amber light.

"I'm not doing any of this for legacy anymore," he murmured. "I'm doing it for the people I love. For the woman I love."

His thumb brushed against the back of her hand, slow, deliberate, full of meaning.

"Stay with me," he said, the words low but sure. "Here. In this home. Let me stand beside you not only in battle, but in every quiet place between them. At the hearth. In the kitchen. In the soft hours before dawn."

He leaned in just enough that she could hear his breath, but he didn't steal the moment, didn't close the distance further. He let the words do the work.

"Live with me, Iandre," he whispered. "Let me wake up to your smile every morning. Let me hold you before the sun crests the world. Let me love you in the light and in the quiet and in all the days to come."

He didn't look away.
Didn't soften the intensity in his golden eyes.
Didn't hide the emotion there.

Iandre Athlea

 

[Iandre Athlea]

For several stunned heartbeats, Iandre could only stand there, staring up at him as if the moment itself had stolen the air from her lungs. The warmth of his touch at her waist, the soft brush of his fingers at her ear, the vulnerability in his voice—none of it was something she had ever expected from the man who stood like iron before armies. Rellik, the Diarch, the warrior who carried the sky in his bearing…speaking to her with a softness that felt too sacred to disturb.

The room seemed to grow quieter around them, the distant lights of Ravelin shimmering through the windows as though the whole city had paused to listen.

When he turned her toward him, when she saw that earnest, open expression in his golden eyes, something inside her broke and healed at the same time. She felt her pulse catch, her breath stutter, her heart surge in her chest with a mixture of shock, fierce love, and something she couldn't quite name. Iandre had stood before death, before droid armies, before walls of flame—and none of it had made her feel as unsteady as this. As wanted as this.

"Rellik…" she breathed, the syllables escaping her before she could restrain them. There was no mask, no composure, no battlefield steel in her voice—only the raw, trembling wonder of someone overwhelmed by the depth of what was being offered. She swallowed once, steadying herself as best she could, though her voice still wavered.

"I… you surprised me. I wasn't prepared for anything like this."

Her hand rose almost on instinct, fingers brushing along his jaw, tracing the warmth of his skin as though grounding herself in the reality of him. The softness in his eyes—the love she saw there—felt like something she had never dared hope for and yet had always somehow been walking toward.

She drew a long, slow breath, her lips parting as the truth formed, bright and certain in her chest. "But Rellik…I have never been more sure of anything."

She leaned her forehead gently against his, closing her eyes as the swell of emotion rushed through her—joy, relief, longing, and the quiet, steady certainty that this was where she belonged. His warmth felt like dawn breaking across a cold battlefield, like a promise finally given form.

Her fingers slid into his, lacing with his slowly, deliberately, as if sealing something sacred between them. When she opened her eyes again, there was no hesitation left—only devotion.

"Yes," she whispered, her voice soft and luminous.

Then she repeated it, letting the word settle into the space between them with all the strength and tenderness in her heart. "Yes. I'll stay with you. I'll live with you."

The smile that bloomed across her face was small, warm, and radiant—the kind that came from a place deeper than happiness. "I want the mornings with you. The quiet. The life you're offering me."

Her thumb brushed over the back of his hand, slow and full of meaning. "You are my home, Rellik. And I want every moment of that with you."

And finally, one more time, steady and full of love: "Yes."

Diarch Rellik

 

[Diarch Rellik]

The word yes still hung in his heart. Every slight movement and word from Iandre he focused on. Imprinting it to his memory. The warmth of her forehead against his, the trembling edges of her breath, the light in her eyes. Slowly, he drew back just enough to see her fully. His hand rose to her cheek, thumb brushing along her skin with a reverence.

"Iandre…" he whispered, his voice sounding deeper. The weight from his chest rising to his tongue. His hand slipped from her cheek, trailing lightly down her arm before he stepped back half a pace. Quietly, without any fanfare beyond his eyes never leaving hers. Rellik lowered himself to one knee.

From the inner pocket of his undone uniform jacket, he drew a small glowing band. One that looked ethereal with some slight runes on it. Simple, elegant, glowing faintly as the room's light hit the dynamic moonstone set at its heart. The stone shimmered with shifting blues and whites, a thin diagonal streak of brighter silver cutting through its center like a bolt of lightning frozen in crystal.

"This," he said quietly, "Is the most certain I have ever been in my life. You challenge me. You steady me. You sharpen me. There is no life I want to build that does not begin with you. I never believed I would have a home like Reign and Nocturnes. I watched us all together. I watched you. And this thought has not left me since."

His breath steadied.

"Iandre Athlea… my love… my equal… my light. will you be my Diarne and marry me?" There was no fear in his eyes. They were full of hope and love. "I'm not asking you to stand beside the Diarch. I'm asking you to stand beside me. Forever."

Iandre Athlea

 

[Iandre Athlea]

For a long, suspended heartbeat, she stilled.

When Rellik lowered himself to one knee, something inside Iandre stopped moving—her breath, her thoughts, even the faint tremor in her fingers. The soft glow of the moonstone ring cast pale light across her grey eyes, catching the widening of them as her world shifted in a way she had never expected, never prepared for. She had survived war, loss, abandonment, the collapse of everything she once knew… but nothing had ever struck her with the quiet, overwhelming force of this man kneeling before her, offering not command, not duty, but a future. A life. A place at his side chosen out of love, not necessity.

Her lips parted in a soft breath as she stepped toward him. She didn't stay standing above him—she lowered herself down until she knelt with him, knees brushing the floor, joining him at eye level as if anything else would disrupt the fragile sanctity of the moment. Her hand lifted, trembling as her fingertips touched the line of his jaw, brushing along his cheek with reverent care.

"Rellik…"
His name left her like an exhale—full of awe, wonder, and a softness she had rarely allowed herself to feel.

Her thumb swept gently across his cheekbone as she leaned in, resting her forehead against his. The warmth of him steadied her breath, anchored her, wrapped around her like a truth she had been waiting her entire life to claim.

"I never thought someone would love me," she whispered, voice quiet and trembling with honesty.
"Not like this. Not truly. Not after everything I've lived through."

Her fingers curled lightly into the fabric of his uniform near his shoulder, grounding herself in the man who had undone walls she once believed immovable.

"And I never believed I would ever love like this. You are the first person I have ever given my heart to."

Her grey eyes opened, luminous with emotion, meeting his without flinching, without hiding.

"You gave me something I thought was lost forever. A future. A home. A life not shaped by war or survival."
"A place where I can be more than a weapon…more than a relic of a war long gone."

Her hand drifted down, touching the glowing moonstone ring in his palm, her fingertips brushing it as though it were something sacred.

"And I want to build that life with you. Every morning. Every night. Every quiet moment in between."

Her breath steadied. Her voice softened. And then it strengthened, carrying the weight of a vow.

"Yes."
Her forehead lowered against his again.
"Yes, Rellik. I will marry you."

And then, softer still, with a quiet, certain finality:

"Yes…forever."

Diarch Rellik

 

[Diarch Rellik]

He lifted her hand ever gently. Her fingers cascading over his. Thumb softly brushing her ring finger. With slow, deliberate care, he guided the moonstone ring onto her finger. The faint glow kissed her skin. A small smirk formed as the pride in noting the correct size and everything filled him.

"Thank you," he proudly said quietly, sincerity shaping every word. "For everything you do for me. For the strength that guides me to always being the man I should be. The warmth you put into my heart. For loving me."

He leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. He let the moment breathe, lips resting there long enough to carve it into memory. His hand resting ever so slightly against her cheek. With her fingers on his jaw the two slowly beginning to become intertwined.

When he drew back, the Force stirred with him, soft as an exhale but one that rippled in the moments wake.

A quiet melody drifted through the chamber, the notes familiar. The song they danced to the first time they spent time together in the markets of Bastion.

A grin broke across his face then, that crooked, boyish smile he never bothered to hide around her. Too earnest to be regal, too bright to be anything but real.

"I love you," he said, simple and sure.

His arms gathered her close as he laughed, that warm, delighted sound that belonged only to her. With a playful tug, he fell back with her against the floor. soft music dancing around them, their laughter dissolving into their embrace.

A tangle of closeness.
Hands clasped.
Smiles against gasps of breath.

Friends.
Lovers.
Husband and wife.

The world beyond these walls could wait.

Here, in each others arms, wrapped in quiet music and the glow of the moonstone on her hand, they faded into the moment laughing, breathless, absolutely each others.

Iandre Athlea