Family?

[Adron Malvern]

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A few days after the events of Bah Humbug​

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Adron's Penthouse​

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Lifeday had come and gone with little excitement. Well, little as far as The Confederacy was concerned. The celebration on The Fortressa had easily been the most stressful moment of the entire past year...and Adron nearly died more often than he cared to count. It had started off simple, a party on one of the Confederacy's prize shipsm but what had ensued had not been something Adron could foresee. No, it was an incredibly difficult evening. The Exarch had decided, some time ago, that he wanted to form a new life with [member="Alessandra Creed"]. Following their entrapment on Illyria he was assured of his love for her and wanted only to solidy it. When the woman declined he had been beside himself, so much so that he'd put an inch deep crack into the floor of the main spine of The Fortressa. His master had been furious and Alessandra refused to explain herself.

It the end it had been The Force that revealed the truth of the evening. Alessandra was pregnant. It explained just why the woman had been acting so odd that evening. Adron figured the shock behind that revelation must have been something difficult for her to contend with, matched with the weight of his proposal...He had given her more than a hard enough time.

Now that the damages had been repaired and Metus' anger was quelled it was time for the Exarch to speak with Alessandra. He'd invited her over to his home in Golbah City, hoping she would spend the next few days with him. There was still so much in his mind that he could not quite fathom. Chief among him was the fact he was going to be a father. He'd always known he would have children, he had to as it was his duty as the head of his House, but now it was something more than he had realized. In the past he saw having children as a necessary duty, something that had to be done for his family and his vision to survive. Knowing that Alessandra would be the one to carry the child gave him a different feeling. Happiness.

He wore a navy blue suit, with a pristine white shirt under the blazer. The man sat on his couch, gazing down at the ring he had crafted for Alessandra. He'd no clue how this evening would end, yet he would see it through to an end and finally have this resolved.

 

[Alessandra Creed]

Tag: [member="Adron Malvern"]

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Alessandra stood outside of the penthouse, wrapped in a dark coat, while uncertainty lingered in chocolate eyes. She hadn’t seen Adron since the incident on the Fortressa. She hadn’t spoken to the Vicelord either. The half-epicanthix couldn’t bring herself to use the hand scanner to announce her arrival, though, the Exarch likely already knew she was there. The private skycar that she had taken to get to this location after work pulled away. A stylish suitcase hovered just a few inches off the ground.

It didn’t have much. Just necessities. A few changes of clothes, something to sleep in, cosmetics, and pre-natal injections. Pregnancies between human and epicanthic partners could be troublesome from time to time and the young Minister didn’t want to leave anything to chance. She had a new crystal around her neck that hid her condition from the rest of the world—But for Adron, it was too late.

She knew that he knew. Oh, he knew.

A soft breeze came through from the simulated weather on Geonosis and long raven hair tossed. It pulled on the edges of her jacket, causing her to sway, but she remained standing with her hands in her pockets. Her jaw was set tight. Adron had asked her to stay the weekend with him. Part of her still felt like she ought to run away. All she could think about was protecting the little peanut shaped lifeform that was slowly taking over her life. Everything she did revolved around her unborn child. Everything.

Ale didn’t know any other way to react.

Eventually, she reached out, and lay her hand flat on the panel by the door. A small chime came from nowhere and the portal snapped open. The flat was similar to her own, though, decorated vastly differently. Adron had a taste for lavish, as did she, though color schemes tended to vary. She had more shades of purple. Alessandra pulled her luggage inside, effortlessly, though she left it by the door.

She didn’t know if she was staying yet.

Lead filled her shoes while she took off her coat and passed it to a protocol droid that turned around to hang it.

“Where is Adron?”

“The living room, Mistress Creed.”

She nodded her head and reached up briefly to fix her hair, stalling, before she began to follow the familiar hallways. Alessandra had spent more time here than in her own flat as of late. The closer she got, the more she felt his presence, though her mind remained shielded. It was unusual. It would always be harder for him to access her thoughts simply because of what she was. Now, it would feel as if doors had closed, as if they had been locked, and buried. “…You called.”

“Here I am, Exarch.”

Alessandra remained in the doorway. She was wearing a fitting sheath dress. The top was purple, sleeveless, while the bottom, had a rather royal appearance of a checkerboard. The asymmetrical neckline was just enough to show her particular flare. A pair of extremely pointed black high heels wrapped around her feet…If he hadn’t felt her, certainly, Adron would have heard her.

The wrong words would send her, very quickly, back the way she came.

 

[Adron Malvern]

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[member="Alessandra Creed"]​

Adron had been holding his hand to his lips, gazing out the window with many could perceive as an uncertain expression. They would be right. Perhaps what the man had loved so much about Alessandra was her perfection. Of course, the woman had mortal flaws that could be picked and judged by any, however those were insignificant to Adron. No, she was truly perfect for him. Her demeanor, her affection, her mind, her disposition, her body, her upbringing. It was all perfect. Now that perfection had possibly been altered? Or, perhaps not. That was what had Adron in a moment of confusion, the unknown factor. Usually he enjoyed unknowns, as he could often anticipate just how they would come to pass. Not with his beloved.

Her presence was soothing, as it always was. Yet, she had closed herself off to him. This caused his expression to sour. His face, which usually looked to her with a warm smile was now a mixture between neutral and a bit of a frown. Exarch. A title that had never once held weight to the woman before him. They had already been together when he had taken over the position of Exarch and abandoned the office of Minister of War. For a moment they didn't speak, he didn't speak. Instead he turned back to the windows and considered his words. "Alessandra. Come sit with me." He gestured to the spot beside him on the couch, scratching his cheek idly before he turned his eyes back to her. He did not need his senses to know the life that was within her. He had learned much that day, much more than Alessandra likely believed he knew. When he pressed himself into her mind he found so much more than the life within. "You protect it." He muttered, gesturing to the woman's womb with a slight bend of his finger. "That's why you were so....I don't really know what to call it. You were afraid I would dissaprove?" He asked her. His voice was even, a bit diplomatic even. If Alessandra would sit beside him or even if she would stand, it did not matter.

"I'm sorry." He would bend down before Alessandra, placing a knee on the ground while his hand would rise. Slowly it would fall over the woman's stomach. He pressed ever so softly, wishing he could feel it again. Feel the life that was within her. He glanced up to her necklace with a brief look of interest but soon disregarded it. "I had hoped it would be later." He admitted. His words were probably not making sense. To be fair, he didn't really know what sense was right now. Everything was so muddled that he was sure wrong and right were no longer true concepts. So, it would be better to just lay it all on the table.

"Alessandra. You know i lost my family when I was young. Almost everyone I knew was wiped out and I was left alone. Until Kainan and Francesca were found I had no family. All i have ever wanted is to take back what I lost. On the Fortressa when you told me no...I thought I was losing it all over again..." Adron kept his hand on her stomach until finally he pulled back and sighed at the woman. "Amazing..." He had some time to consider what this meant, but in the end it was something he was still confused by. "Alessadra, it was not long ago i came to the realization that I want you to have my child. That is why I wanted to be married to you..." His crystal blue eyes peered at the woman closely, as if searching for something that was there but he merely could not see. He remembered the future he was meant to have, he remembered the name. Alessandre Eva Malvern. It was their future to have, together.

 

[Alessandra Creed]

Tag: [member="Adron Malvern"]

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It felt like an eternity passed before Adron broke the silence. When he did, the simple request stunned her, and her jaw tightened a little in defense. “I’ll stand.”, Alessandra replied, stubborn, because it was the only protection, she had against him. That thought bothered her. When had things gotten so wrong that she could stand before him, but only, with her mind shielded? When had it gotten to the point where she was afraid of what he might do? Even when he raised his hand, reflex, caused her to place her hand over her stomach. He questioned if she protected the small thing, the little life, that was so faint she sometimes wondered if it was really there. ”…I do...”

Adron asked her if she had been standoffish on the Fortressa for that reason and she slowly nodded her head. “You didn’t ask for this. I should have realized on Illyria that the timing of my contraceptives were off due to the crash. I couldn’t agree to your proposal with…This. I won’t be responsible for trapping you. I’ll take care it. It’s mine. You don’t need to worry about it coming back to haunt you.”

So many women would have gladly taken the chance to trap an Exarch into marriage due to a child. Alessandra would never be that person. She was strong, independent, and scarcely needed anyone. As the Minister of Commerce her offspring would want for nothing. If the nation suddenly crumbled, she could always go home, back to Brentaal IV, or, the Pacanth Reach. They would be protected by her Father. Gunther Creed would never let anything happen to his child, not willingly, nor any younglings they bore. It would already burn him that she was over a month along and hadn’t broken the news.

Then, Adron apologized.

She did everything she could not to back up when he approached. The display of power, his anger, on the Fortressa had frightened her. Not that she was willing to admit it. The raven-haired woman had always felt safe with him. Always. This child…She loved it. It was hers. It made her anxious about everything and everyone. Her body felt like such a fragile container. He placed his hand on her stomach and she remained still, so still, that it seemed like she barely breathed.

He hoped it would be later?

She continued to listen in silence while he began to explain his response. Slowly…Ever so slowly some of the tension in her shoulders seemed to ease. He pulled back. Her hand move, crossing her arm over where her womb would be, and her expression would be…Conflicted. She protected her unborn youngling out of instinct. Blind, pure, instinct. Alessandra knew it was an irrational response, but, it couldn’t be helped. Perhaps it was the epicanthix in her combined with a new mother’s love.

When Adron admitted that part of the reason, he wanted to be marry her was to build a family, her eyes met his, though they remained unreadable. Did he mean it? She wanted to believe it. Slowly her eyes closed and she peeled back the layers of protection that had shielded her mind from his. She couldn’t completely undo it, due to natural resistances, but he would be used to that. Alessandra reached for him on a metaphysical level. When their consciousness touched, it would be the breaking of a floodgate, and he would feel…Everything.

Fear. Pain. Anxiety. Loss. Loneliness in his absence…And beyond that, little glimmer of warmth, and even a little hope? Love? She loved him…And she loved this child…

It was killing her to think she had to sacrifice one to benefit the other.

 

[Adron Malvern]

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[member="Alessandra Creed"]​

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She was as strong as she was beautiful, wasn't she? He could not help but flash a slight smile at the woman he had fallen in love with. Even though she was being exceptionally stubborn, he could not help but respect that about her. The man leveled his eyes against her for a moment, yet he the smile did not fade, through it did wilt some. He took a moment to consider what she had said. He hadn't asked for this. No. They had not had time to sit and discuss if this was what they wanted, most especially before they had even gotten married. In reality for the woman to bare a child to him out of wedlock was embarrassing, and perhaps a bit tarnishing to his title. When Alessandra spoke next, the Exarch shook his head in response.

"This life is ours." He said, simply. It was the truth. Their lives had always been fated to be intertwined, the Lord had seen it so long ago and he was eager to see it come to pass. Even with his hand upon her abdomen he felt that she was so far from him, it was so different from what he wanted.

The barriers between them fell. It left a brief quake in the nether around them, but soon it settled and the Exarch did something he seldom did. The mental barriers, that he had surrounded around his psyche ever since he was a young boy, every one of them came crashing down. Every lie, every false mask was undone by Alessandra's will and he relinquished his mind to her. He could feel the fear she felt as if it was his own. Fear of losing, fear of making the wrong step. His own emotions within were like a calm storm. Thousands of thoughts, calamities that would take his new family away from him. An attack, a wrong decision made, an oversight by Adron that ended in the death and destruction of that he held dear. These fears were real, they were there. They had always been there and they would never leave.

Every moment he looked into Alessandra's eyes he saw the pain of loss and he feared it as much as she did. He was a Sith Lord, a master of darkness who had, quite literally, overseen the deaths of thousands. To the world around him, he was a sophisticated man of regal upbringing. Nothing could outmatch his class and decorum in most situations. However, to Alessandra, the woman who was able to strip all of that away, he was a man. He wanted a family and love, just as many other beings in the galaxy did. His master had once warned him that such things lead to weakness, but Adron found the contrary to be true.

His family was his power.

He stood over Alessandra, pressing a reassuring hand to her cheek as he smiled down at her. "Alessandra, this is what I wanted, for us to make a family."

 

[Alessandra Creed]

Tag: [member="Adron Malvern"]

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His smile was damaging.

It wasn’t his fault. He couldn’t know how it made her feel when he left her with emotions that she didn’t always know what to do with. She was used to being on her own. Fiercely, independent. The way he reacted to her made her feel even more defensive. Her hand never moved from a fixed position along the flat of her stomach. The peanut sized life that was growing, every day, was all she could think about. It consumed her. When he corrected her on whom the unborn child belonged to—Her jaw clenched.

She couldn’t help it. The raven-haired Minister had grown so accustomed to calling the youngling her own that it bothered her to think of giving part of it up. Alessandra was also afraid that the noble blood in him required him to claim what was his. Not because he wanted it, or her, but because it was what was expected of him. It would solidify a power base. Extend his family line.

Chocolate eyes flickered over his face, pulling along every line, and finally landing on blue eyes that she knew so well. For a moment she felt breathless. Struck, by how much she had missed him. There was an ache in the back of her heart that she’d refused to acknowledge. Seeing him again? It reminded her of everything she had fled from. Every glance, every kiss, or the feeling of his skin against her own. He claimed that the life within her belonged to them both. “…Does it?”

As the barriers of her mind fell, crashing down, she didn’t expect that the Exarch would do the same. Adron always held his cards close to the chest. Even when she slept beside him, at times, he could be a mystery. She was able to sift through his memories and fears as if she were turning the pages of an episodic book. She could feel his uncertainties. His reservations. She breathed in deeply when his had touched her face. Not only from the contact but because of the memory it evoked.

Being with him the first time on Illyria. Wholly, completely.

“…Do you really want this?”, she asked, knowing, that truth was staring her in the face. Even still, she needed to hear it. The smile he gave next made her knees threaten to buckle. She couldn’t help it when her cheek nestled into his palm. Slowly, but surely, Alessandra leaned forward and finally seemed to lessen her guard. Everything he was seemed to call to her levels she couldn’t describe. “Me?”

“…Our baby?”

Vulnerability. So much so that her usual decorum seemed to disappear. She wanted this child, she wanted, to love it, to raise it, but beyond feeling overly protective she also found herself uncertain of the future. Afraid of not knowing how she could ever do this alone. The Minister reached up and let her hand settle against his chest, where his heart would be, and she relished in sensing the rhythmic beat she had come to know so well. “These are words you can’t take back. This is a choice you can’t run away from. If there’s any doubt I haven’t seen—I should leave now. I want to be with you.”

“I need you to want the same. To want us. Forever.”

 

[Adron Malvern]

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[member="Alessandra Creed"]​

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It was no simple task for the Exarch to lower his mental barriers. They had been so expertly amassed and crafted over the years that he often forgot they were there. For a split second he wondered just what Alessandra must have thought of that. Did she believe that he was trying to lock her out? Keep her from his most guarded thoughts?

As Alessandra rested against the palm of his hand, he could feel some of the tension in her finally wane. She looked up to him with eyes of chocolate that nearly consumed his every being. She was so incredibly remarkable. Physically, she was practically flawless, however it went ran so much deeper than that. When she leaned forward, the Exarch leaned down a bit to close the gap between them. She asked her question and he offered her a smile. It was not cold and scornful as it often could be to others. No, this smile was warm enough to melt her away and reassure her of all he knew to be true. "I love you." He said, his voice proud and even as his hand moved to cup her chin. His eyes, which were two pure amethyst crystals gazed down at her with certainty. "And I love our child. All I want is us together, as a family, forever." He assured her, his hands running down the center of her back as he spoke.

A small part of Adron was taken aback by Alessandra's words. How could he not want a life with her? A beautiful child to raise as their own? In fact, the irony was that was exactly what he wanted. Yet, still she could not fathom it? The man's voice was even and seemed to hold the weight of the only emotion the Sith Lord was still partially ignorant to. Love.

"I will love you forever. Our children will be born into a family of unity and strength and they will know a mother and father's love. Nothing, nothing in this galaxy will ever come between us and I will never abandon our family. Alessandra, this is what I want. You by my side..." His hand pressed against her belly, ever so softly before he smiled at her once again. "There is nothing we cannot do when we are together."

Adron ran his hand into his pocket, once again showing Alessandra the ring that had been crafted to represent their union. He eyed the small bobble for a moment before looking to her and taking hold of her hand. He pressed his lips to the back of her hand before sliding the ring onto her ring finger and speaking softly. "And we will be together forever." He promised her, before his hand came up to caress her cheek once more. He leaned forward, speaking softly into her ear. "Alessandra Eva Malvern....My Alessandra Eva Malvern." He spoke, remembering when once she had spoken those very words to him. Of course she would not remember such a thing.

 

[Alessandra Creed]

Tag: [member="Adron Malvern"]

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He loved her.

It wasn’t the first time he’d verbalized it. She’s always heard him, always believed him, but a child certainly complicated things. Alessandra couldn’t stand the thought of a man feeling like they had no way out simply because nature and life had a tendency of finding a way. This was no different. She knew that Adron had been married before, long ago, though she didn’t know the details. Regardless—She knew that it had ended. She didn’t want that. She didn’t want the complicated marriage that her parents had. They belonged to one another, and yet, they did not.

“I hope you mean that. I want what I want, and you should know by now, that I won’t change my mind.”, she started off slowly, moving into the circle of his arms, as she had so many times before. The wall of his chest was familiar to her, intimately so, and his scent caused her to relax against her will. Being surrounded by him like this…It was both cruel, and kind. Cruel if he changed his mind. “I’m also very possessive. I don’t relinquish what is mine. And I won’t tolerate sharing.”

Not with anything.

A lot of marriages were little more than farces these days. Alessandra was jaded. Likely a little more than Adron had actually ever realized. She could feel and see that he was speaking from the heart, now, but that didn’t mean circumstances would change. If he took her hand? If she changed her name? She wouldn’t give it up, nor, would she ever look back. It was a massive commitment. He believed it now. Would he believe it in ten years? Twenty? Her eyes grew dark, soft, and serious when he rest his hand against her abdomen. “…If you do this…”

He seemed so confident.

Did he know that she would take his freedoms? That a child would eat up the smallest amounts of time he actually had to spare? She let him pull back long enough to reach for something in his pocket. She recognized the box. A lump formed in her throat and her breath caught in her throat just as it had on the Fortressa. Just like before, more than anything, she wanted to accept it. He didn’t wait. She could feel the cool metal on her skin and the tickle of his breath against her ear. Breathing her name. Twining it with his.

Normally, she would have bristled at the possessive phrasing. In this case?

Alessandra rewarded the soft words with the only thing she could. A kiss. She leaned close, pressing crimson lips top his chin, briefly, before her arms slid around his midsection. The Minister had missed him more than air. He would never, ever, know how hard it had been to stay away from him. To feel like she had to choose, to save one, to save the other. Her only love for her only child. “I love you.”

It was cleansing, relieving, and breathtaking to know she didn’t have to choose.

That she could have them both.

“I love you.”