Private Damage Control

[Capris Halcyon]

Hyper space was beautiful.

That wasn't something she usually noticed. Most times she'd been ship-bound, the bleed of white and blue had been little more than a peripheral nuisance. Maybe a cosmically poetic reminder of how alone she was now and then, but not much else.

Though that wasn't really applicable anymore.

Kyric was always there now, even if he wasn't physically in the room. A flutter in her headspace, soothing like a balm or a wave of ocean water.

Capris sat curled in the ship's cockpit, knees folded to her chest and secured by her lone arm as she watched in silence. Whatever limbo this qualified as felt like the closest approximation to peace she could be deserving of. Something frail and collapsible if she breathed in too deeply, if she let her thoughts stray to everything that led her here, everything that was to come after. Despite the threats Mercy had slung around, Kyric was more or less in one piece. And while the imminent threat of capture was certainly just a light day away, they were more or less.. ok?

A simplification of things, but one she could live with for the moment. The ship hummed, Kyric's presence mulled about somewhere safe and alive, and Capris rested her cheek to her knee and watched the stars go by.

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

Wake up, kid.

The words echoed across Kyric's subconscious with the weight of a great gong. Darkness drifted away, replaced with flickering light warped by a thick, blue-green liquid which enveloped the kiffar's damaged body. He blinked rapidly to see the blurry silhouette of a man on the other side of the glass.

"What am I supposed to do with you, Kyric?" He asked with a shake of his head. "What made you think entering into an intergalactic life-or-death tournament held by the Black Sun Syndicate was a good idea, huh?"

Kyric reached forward, the unmistakable texture of bacta slowing his movements. One scarred hand pressed against the glass. The other never made it. The remnants of his arm—a misshapen stump—stopped at the halfway point. Panic welled up in his chest at the sight. Memories of the battle hadn't yet returned, but the consequences stared him in the face.

The kiffar pushed against the glass in a vain effort to force his way through. It didn't work, much to the amusement of his father.

Ryv smiled at the boy and lined up his hand with his son's. "It's alright, kid. You're safe. Capris is here somewhere, and this funky rhodian named Schmarmee is scannin' to make sure the ship wasn't followed. Rest up, yeah? The Force knows you need it." He turned away and moved for the door, stopping in the threshold to look back at Kyric.

"My final words to you kinda sucked," Ryv leaned against the frame, his arms crossed over his chest. "You're gonna continue doing dumb shit no matter what I say, so lemme try something different this time." He paused to collect his thoughts, and after a long stretch of silence, the ghost continued. "Stick around for a while. Grow old. Be with your girl. Stop chasin' shadows and turn the fuck around. The light's in reach."

With that, Ryv turned the corner and faded away. His presence disappeared in an instant, leaving Kyric alone in the confines of the bacta tank. The young Jedi Knight flexed his fingers in quiet outrage. A quiet buzzing within his mind grew louder until it rivaled that of a roaring river. He pressed outward with his will, bending reality to his whims.

The latch shifted out of place and the door to the tank swung open. Bacta flooded out, coating the floor in the blue-green goop. He reached up and tore the mask from over his mouth and nose. The incubation tube forced down his throat came next, followed by a wracking cough and a mouthful of the bacta.

Kyric stumbled out of the tank and hit the floor with a heavy thud.

"Ahh," he groaned. "Chit."

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Tags: Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

Capris's head snapped from her pseudo-stasis as if she'd splashed by water. Kyric was awake--something informed by both the bond and the distinctly human-like thud hitting durasteel.

Her limbs untangled one instant, and in the next configured themselves in a mad-dash towards the recovery room. A hand hinged on the doorframe to still her momentum as she reached it.. And there he was. On the ground, slimed with bacta, and looking expectedly disheveled.
The arm was gone. Not that she missed that happening the first time, it just felt suddenly absorbable seeing him like this. Mercy had left her scars, those weren't just mongering threats traded between them in the isolation. Capris winced, quick to bury any thought of the red-head.

She wanted to say something dumb, reprimanding, maybe with enough inflection to pass as humor. But all she could think to do was sink to her knees until they were level. Bacta tinged her pant legs but that hardly even registered in her mind as her hand brushed the strands of gelled hair from his face, one adorned with new lines of scar-tissue. Even hurting, he was beautiful.

"Ahh," he groaned. "Chit."

"Yeah." She murmured, "You do kind of look like chit." There was a mischievous tilt for added effect, still soft enough where the well of concern in face wasn't sidelined. "You'd make a very convincing wet loth cat."

Her hand extended out to grab a towel, using the force to bring it down from a hook on the wall and over his shoulders. Easy, mechanical motions that took away the need to think about anything over then his present needs. That distracted from the various things left unsaid between them.

It was then she dropped the obvious, but unconditionally loaded question.

"How do you feel?"

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

Tiny ripples rolled through the bacta like those of a still lake surface disturbed by skipping stones. Capris' presence carried an uncertain warmth Kyric knew she wasn't accustomed to quite yet. If not for the dull throbbing that covered him from head to toe, he may have grinned at the subtle touch of her emotion. Instead, he groaned. His good arm shifted beneath him, planted firmly against the liquid, where he turned over to lay on his back.

Capris sunk down beside him at that moment and Kyric found his head laid out across her thigh.

"Yeah." She murmured, "You do kind of look like chit." There was a mischievous tilt for added effect, still soft enough where the well of concern in face wasn't sidelined. "You'd make a very convincing wet loth cat."

"Haha," Kyric murmured. "Yer a real comedian, y'know that?"

Each word oozed with sarcasm, fueled by the years of endless cynicism and mistrust Capris displayed to the galaxy at large. But his good eye shone with unabashed joy at the sight of her. If not for the biting chill of durasteel beneath them, coupled with the myriad aches across every inch of Kyric's body, he may've assumed this was another dream.

"How do you feel?"

His hand rose to cup her cheek. He smiled through the pain, eye glistening from unshed tears.

"Happy," Kyric answered with utmost certainty. "Yer here with me—really here. Couldn't ask for nothin' else." He closed his eye and slowly lowered his arm to the side until it rested beside him on the steel.

"We should get married," he said without a second thought, his demeanor almost childlike. "Go see everythin' beautiful hidin' out in the Unknown Regions and leave all this chit behind us."

Kyric practically glowed with a euphoric bliss only ever known to him in his dreams—dreams shared with Capris in some of his harshest nights.

---

Tags: Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

Married? Her fingers stilled from where they'd been combing his hair, tendons suddenly flared.. She flipped the word over in her mind, front and back, side to side, trying to tease out a response that didn't sound like she'd been struck dumb.

"You want to get married?" Was all she could settle on, blinking heavy. She supposed it wasn't a huge stretch. Hell they'd already traversed time and space for each other, what difference did a shiny rock make? But never once had Capris considered that could be a reality for her. It was too soft and girlish and lovely for her mind to stray to without guilty self-reprimand.

She stared down at Kyric, mouth working out something else to say.

It was entirely possible he was strung off endorphins. His body finally given a moment's rest and desperately pulling any trick to keep him from flinging himself back into the lion's den. But some part of her really, really wanted him to mean it.

"You want to get married to me?"

And leave everything behind..That was almost every bit as tempting as the first part. Capris looked down, an incredulous half-smile on her face.

"Do you mean it?"

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

The questions took Kyric by surprise. His features twisted up into undisguised confusion, and his good eye opened up to stare hard into Capris' face.

"Of course I mean it," Kyric declared with utmost certainty. "Nearly dyin' every other week has a certain way of... puttin' things into perspective, I guess." He pressed his elbow into the floor for support and slowly forced himself into a seated position. It took longer than necessary, but with wounds like his, who could blame him?

"I ain't ever been the type to care much fer tomorrows, Capris. Ya' know that better than anyone. Ya've seen my dreams an' nightmares. My father's legacy was somethin' I intended to follow to a T. I wanted to shine bright like he did—blaze a path for those who come along after me."

While Kyric spoke, he ran his hand through the bacta and scooped up a sizeable glob of the viscous liquid. Scarred fingers closed around what he managed to collect. Some of it oozed out. Most of it remained cupped within his grip.

"But I don't think I want that. Not anymore."

Kyric peered down at his hand in deep concentration. His fingers flexed and an icy chill emanated from within. Tiny droplets of frozen bacta fell into the goop with weak, scarcely heard thuds. When he opened his hand, a simple band forged from the ice sat in the center of his palm.

"Maybe its a lil' silly, yeah. With everythin' we've been through, most folks would call me crazy. And maybe I am a lil' crazy. I dunno." Kyric looked back up into her eyes, his confidence stricken away in an instant. In that moment, he was nothing more than a shy little boy struggling to keep eye contact with the girl he loved.

"The only thing that'll make me happier than callin' ya' mine, is hearin' ya' call me yer's."

---

Tags: Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

Capris leaned back to allow space for Kyric, her hand snaking out in an offer of support--an instant, involuntary motion considering that all her processing power was still being devoted to the... proposal?

This was real, He was real. The tiny band of bacta-turned ice was real. She sat back on her folded knees, and let her arm fall limp. There was silence for a bit until she exhaled a laugh,"Yeah, no chit you're crazy." The words were said with a tiny shake of her head. Disbelief and hope, and a little bit of something else.

She looked up the next moment, staring at that one blue eye of his with unplaceable depth.

And then she kissed him.

It was a bit of a lunge at first, until she quickly stilled and corrected herself in an apologetic attempt not aggravate any of his wounds. In the end, she just placed a non offending on his temple, hair threaded through her fingers and fought off the urge to cry.

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

Kyric didn't press Capris in the silence. Not after that bombshell. He knew what he was asking of her required so much more than she ever had been capable of giving. The scars that decorated her were more than just mementos to past fights. They alluded to the depths of great suffering, forced upon her long before she had the strength to stand on her own two feet. His proposal demanded trust unbound, and an uncomfortable vulnerability alongside it. No pretty words could earn it.

After what felt like an eternity without an answer, Kyric prepared himself to face an even greater defeat than that of the Kaggath.

And then she kissed him.

As he slipped his arm around her and fell back against the durasteel—the bacta numbing the ache and pains of his body—everything felt right with the galaxy. Her lips were soft and welcoming. Her lithe frame strong, reliable, and finally within reach. His hand slid up her back between her shoulder blades, taking in every inch of her that he could.

Kyric broke away after an unknowable time. His heart rate spiked as her scent flooded his nostrils. The taste of her kiss eliminated the iron tang he awoke to. Goosebumps rolled over him in waves as her fingers danced through his hair and trailed along his scalp.

"I love ya', Capris." He couldn't look away. "I'd do anything for ya'. Just ask it of me and I'd split mountains. Hell, I'd sunder the damn sky just ta' give ya' a better view of the stars."

---

Tags: Capris Halcyon

 

[Capris Halcyon]

Mending. That's the closest word she had for it. The sudden wash of sins and worries from her mind, strong hands to anchor her, a well of love pooling in her chest. A completeness.

She pulled away in tandem with Kyric, eyes following the contours of his face. Eyes more doe-like than they'd ever been.

"I love ya', Capris." He couldn't look away. "I'd do anything for ya'. Just ask it of me and I'd split mountains. Hell, I'd sunder the damn sky just ta' give ya' a better view of the stars."

"Then keep your promise." It was said simply, softly, "No more death matches. No more sacrificial lamb." Her thumb trailed over the scars on his face in emphasis, a dull painful reverb in her chest. "Don't make me bury you Kyric. You deserve to look for your own peace instead of shouldering the galaxy."

When Capris made demands they usually came with stern, nonnegotiable flint in her eyes. This time round the sternest was certainly there but so was an undeniable plead. Her forehead came to rest on his, breathing in a shallow breath.

She stayed there a moment before a light chuckle broke past, "Then at least your folks might get on board with you getting hitched to a woman who nearly put you in the ground once or twice."

Kyric

 

[Kyric]

Damn.

He should've expected that one.

There wasn't any room to argue with her at this point. Not anymore. What peace they shared within their dreams often led to this moment. Capris wasn't afraid to challenge his single-minded death march, and Kyric didn't have any ground to stand on when she did. His devotion to his father's legacy bordered on suicidal. The patchwork of scars running across his body stood as a testament to that fact.

"I-" Kyric began with every intention to argue with her anyway, but his mouth snapped shut at the soft laugh rolling off her tongue. It sounded so pure. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to hear it again and again.

"My folks, huh?" He considered the idea of Ripley or Auteme coming face to face with Capris upon hearing the news. Ripley wasn't much different than Capris. The two of them faced their fair share of pain and walked away stronger for it. Past issues aside, Auteme would likely be happy to know the kiffar finally found someone to help ground him.

"I don't think ya' gotta worry about me runnin' off on some martyr-kick anymore," Kyric offered after a moment of silence. "I plan on hangin' up the lightsaber and steppin' away from the Order fer good. Just gotta tie up a few loose ends."

His hand explored the curve of her hip, sliding up her side to gently stroke her lower back as he spoke. From the moment Capris made physical contact he couldn't seem to pull himself away from her. Her presence alone soothed his wounds and breathed color back into his life—something he hadn't realized he'd been missing.

"There's a real pretty planet out on the edges of known space called Veridia. Maybe we can start a life there? Build somethin' new, as opposed to tearin' thangs down."

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Capris Halcyon