Happy News With Bad Delivery

[Doctor Azure]

Lor leaned on the wall as Rawnie washed up again.​

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"There's gotta be something you can eat. Any weird food cravings you're getting?"​

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Pregnancy cravings were a thing, right? Maybe that's what she needed to eat, then... He just hoped it wasn't anything he couldn't get at.​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Rawnie thought, and she thought hard. Honestly, she was pretty bland when it came to her taste in food. Growing up where she had, there wasn't much access to spices. She usually ate what ever was available. You ate what you could, or you died. Roots, winter berries, dried meat, sometimes they'd manage to grow some vegetables and gourds in the warmer summer months when the ground wasn't so hard. Everything else that they needed, they traded for, but herbs were used strictly for healing, and spices were a luxury they could only afford during celebrations.

"Well... I've kind of wanted seaweed. Like the seaweed smoothies they make on Naboo..."

That was far too much to ask, of course. Naboo was forever away. But maybe they could hunt down a substitute?

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lor smiled, gently pulling Rawnie into his arms and kissing her on the nose. Naboo, huh? He could deal with a trip to such a nice planet. Contrary to what most people, including his fiancee sometimes, thought of him, he could appreciate going a while without blowing anything up.​

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"Well, then, we're going to Naboo. I've only been there once, but I'll be happy to go back."​

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No matter how much she protested, there was no cutting corners where Rawnie was concerned.​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Rawnie blinked at her fiance. Really? Was he serious!?

"...Wait. Let me get this straight. I say I'm having a craving, and you want to go all the way to Naboo to make sure I get it!?"

She knew he loved her, but enough to travel all the way to another world just for a smoothie?

"...You are the greatest Fiance-husband-thing ever, you know that?

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lor gave Rawnie another squeeze and slipped his hand around hers.​

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"Well, you and your cravings are the main reason, but I have an ulterior motive."​

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He gave her a kiss on the cheek, still smiling.​

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"We're gonna be busy after the wedding, right? So... This is our honeymoon. Starting whenever we jump to lightspeed towards Naboo."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Honeymoon? That took Rawnie by surprise. Nobody really did Honeymoons where she was from, at least not on another planet. Most of them just kinda spent a few days in their hut together alone. Sometimes it lasted weeks. Sometimes they didn't come out until the new bride was pregnant. Rawnie had never thought of the need for a honeymoon. But! If he wanted one, who was she to refuse?

"Alright. Honeymoon! What, err.... exactly do we do on a honeymoon though?"

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Chuckling a little bit, Lor spun Rawnie around, and then just shrugged at her.​

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"I dunno. I'm assuming we just go do what we already do... Just on different planets. And who says we even have to plan it out?"​

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He teasingly tapped her nose with a finger and smiled again.​

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"Whatever we do, though... No bounty hunting jobs for a while, okay? Not even if Mandalore decides we have to go stick a tank up a Hutt's nose."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The echani scrunched his nose when he tapped to. She hated when he did that. It was too cute. Made her feel like a child. Like she was little Rawnie again, the tiniest mandalorian.
but she put up with it because it was him.

"Wait! No bounty hunting?" Her eyes had gone wide. "Why not? How boring! What am I supposed to do with myself? How am I going to cover the clans expenses if I don't work?"

Honestly, that was a big concern of hers. And then during the late months of her pregnancy too. She hadn't considered how she would support her people then....

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lor rolled his eyes a little, smiling crookedly. He'd expected that reaction, and he agreed with it, to a point. People whose jobs revolved around fighting got bored when there was none to be had. The Chiss was no exception.​

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"I'm not saying 'hey, let's ignore this bounty sitting in front of us'. I'm saying let's not go out of our way to get jobs like we usually end up doing. Besides, we both know I'll eventually end up helping the clan anyway. They won't let me build anything for them, so... how else would I be able to help except give them money?"​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

"No."

Her voice was very firm. Not harsh, not angry. But she had to make it clear that Clan Tal'verda would not accept charity.

"If you are going to help, wait until after we are married. Then and only then, can my people start to see you as one of their own. It's not that they don't want your help, Lor'ika. But we just can't let someone outside the clan keep us going. It's shameful."

There was so much to explain to him about their ways. Some day she would teach him everything. Maybe even teach him mando'a too, at least so he'll understand what people are saying to him... or about him.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

A somewhat frustrated sigh escaped Lor as he held Rawnie. This wasn't even really an argument. It was just him venting. They hadn't taken a real planned-out bounty since he'd figured out she was pregnant. He leaned his forehead against hers and squeezed her again.​

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"There's as little shame in it as there is in you being forced to pay for the village's subsistence. The only reason anybody in the clan can afford to be stubborn is because of you. And maybe Zandra, on some rare occasion."​

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Another sigh, and he calmed down.​

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"I'm sorry. I want you to work, Rawnie. You were my partner before you were anything else. I just feel like you should be able to work because you want to, and not because you've been forced into it."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

She was shaking her head over and over. She felt so sad, but not because she thought he didn't understand. She was sad because he was right, at least for the most part.

"But I do work because I want to," she insisted, "I want to do this. I want to carry my clan out of ruin. I want them to be great again. Like it was when my father was the Alor."

That made her pause. She knew what she could do to help. She knew what it would take. She could keep working her entire life, hunting bounty after bounty, sending just enough back to get her people by for another season. Or...

Or I can take my fathers place. Be what the clan needs.

"Lorane? I think I know what I'm going to do when I get back home."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lor smiled at Rawnie, now. That wasn't exactly what he'd been intending, but he knew what her plan was. He gave her a teasing wink.​

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"Don't get any splinters from that big chair in the longhouse, visahot. I like looking at your butt, not picking wood out of it."​

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He knew enough about leading people to tell that she'd be a good leader. She probably wouldn't need his help with that, but supporting her was something he could do if she needed it. Besides, if he'd thought it was a bad idea, he would've said so when she first asked him about it, nearly a year ago.​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Rawnie smiled, but it was a sad smile. Even his joke couldn't brighten her mood this time. She wanted to protect her clan, her family. But in order to do that...

"I have to challenge my brother, Lor'ika," she explained, "In order to take the clan under my leadership, I have to challenge the current Alor and win."

Winning was the easy part. The hard part was challenging her brother at all. She loved her brother, even if she did not think he had what it took to lead the clan. They were siblings. Brother and sister. They'd once been so close...

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lor gave Rawnie a gentle kiss on the cheek and hugged her. Of course, the whole idea of having a sibling was foreign to him. Even Serenna had been more of a friend to hang around with than an actual sister. Challenging her if he honestly had to wouldn't be that horrible for either of them. They'd both take it as a game.​

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"Rawnie, you always do what you think will be the best in the end. If a bit of an insult to Corrin's pride is all it takes, it's a good thing."​

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And from what he'd seen of the village since he'd begun living with Rawnie, she'd have no opposition.​

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"Heh. My first advice to you was completely wrong. The irony."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Corrin would never forgive her. He thought he was doing what their father would have wanted. He was trying his best. She knew he was. But it just wasn't enough. Rawnie had known she was the stronger of the two. Corrin was the special child, the gifted one. But Rawnie had all the will. She was the hard worker. She may be the younger sibling, but there were so many times when she felt like the older one.

"Lorane, do you want to learn mando'a?" she asked one more time, "I only ask because if I become Alor, I am going to be taking on a lot of responsibility. I will have to spend more time on Mandalore than before. And I will be at the front lines when the Mand'alor calls on my clan. I will need your help."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

She'd need his help. Of course she'd need his help. Lor wouldn't have let Rawnie go without his help with something like ruling her clan. And, well, when she was called to the frontlines, he'd already been coming with her. Especially after Munnilist. He looked at her and nodded with a little smile.​

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"I do know quite a bit, visahot. I just prefer Cheunh or Basic, most of the time."​

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He didn't mention that most of his knowledge of Mando'a was based on either their pillow talk or the words Rawnie said when she was sleeping. She probably already knew that.​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

"I know you understand most of what I say," she responded quietly, "but I need you to be able to speak it too."

She looked away, frowning. She didn't say why she neede him to speak the language of course. That might offend him. But the fact was, whIle she didnt care that he wasnt mandalorian, many of the people she would be working with did care. Her job was already going to be hard. Last thing she needed was opposition from another clan alor because of the mate she chose.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lor nodded, knowing the value of speaking whatever the people around him spoke. He felt like there was probably a specific reason that Rawnie was asking this of him, but there was one obvious one: It was already hard enough with him not being a Mandalorian. Why isolate himself more by not speaking the language, when she needed him to be able to take command of things and help her?​

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"How fluently, visahot?"​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

"Fluently. As if you were raised speaking it."

Rawnie had been speaking mando'a all her life. It wasn't a second language to her, it was her first language. It was what she spoke the most when she was at home. Her people could usually appreciate just the attempt to speak Mando'a, but they really didn't fully listen to you until you could carry on a whole conversation in their language.
She bit her lip. It was a lot to ask of him. He'd already told her that he would not be Mandalorian. She'd been fine with that before, even if it did go against many of the mandalorian traditions. Now though, if she took over as leader of her clan, things would be expected of her...

[member="Doctor Azure"]