Private Inward

[Fatine von Ascania]

Pitched, bubbling peals of laughter floated down the grand hall of the Ascania manor. Constructed of finely carved stone and adorned in meticulously wrought metalwork and fine fibercraft, the generational home, impeccably tidy and austere, looked to be permanently frozen in some past century.

Luciana's laughter was the newest addition to such uncompromising architecture.

Behind the intricately carved door of the nursery, the babe howled with delight as her aunt, lips pressed loosely against her little tummy, blew air against bare skin. The resulting sound - loud, almost vibrating - along with the tickling sensation, drew another rising giggle from Lucy.

Fatine wasn't certain why Corazona had left as quickly as she had. Something about business in the capital, and that it was fine, it would just take a few hours, that she'd be back in the evening, and could you just keep Luciana company for now? Her sister might've given a passing explanation, but Fatine had no ear for the dry politics of Ukatis nor the self-importance of her elder siblings.

What she most certainly did not have the ear for, was the young man venturing down the hall. Bereft of the Force, Fatine could not sense the impending spiral of emotions that lay beyond the nursery door.

Bitter as she had been over the past few months, nothing could lift her spirits like Lucy.

Sprawled in her Fatine’s lap, Luciana looked up expectantly at her aunt. Fatine grinned, and bent down to blow more air against her niece's stomach. A fresh bout of laughter erupted from littlest von Ascania as she kicked her legs and flailed her arms, pleased that the game had not yet ended.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Ukatis

Equipment:
Jedi Robes | Beskar Chainmail | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

This was... a change of pace. Ace was used to being asked to infiltrate compounds, fight Sith, or generally put himself somewhere with a reasonable chance of getting killed.​

​

Babysitting was new. Still, Cora had asked, and despite having absolutely no confidence that he was qualified to keep an infant alive for several hours, Ace hadn't been able to say no. She must've been desperate to ask him of all people. Especially considering how quickly she'd disappeared after letting him inside.​

​

So, Ace wandered the halls of the Ascania manor with a holobook on childcare open in one hand.​

​

Infant Care: A Practical Guide.​

​

He'd bought it yesterday. A series of questioning chirps came from Tic padding alongside him.​

​

"I'm reading."​

​

Tic chirped again.​

​

"I'm not nervous."​

​

Ace turned the page. His clothes had changed somewhat since Cora had last seen him. The familiar dark tunic and weathered leather remained, though a subtle layer of beskar chainmail now rested beneath it. A much more obvious reminder of recent events remained plastered across the bridge of his nose: a small bandage covering what Mercy had left behind on Thyferra.​

​

Ace was halfway through a section on feeding when something brushed against his senses. Familiar... painfully familiar. His steps stopped.​

​

...Fatine?​

​

The holobook lowered by an inch. Why was Fatine here? For several seconds, Ace simply stood in the middle of the hallway while several increasingly unpleasant realizations arranged themselves in his head. Cora leaving so quickly. The vague explanation. Asking him to babysit.​

​

His eyes narrowed. "Cora wouldn't...?"​

​

Then Luciana's laughter finally registered from somewhere ahead. Ace closed his eyes and inhaled slowly through his nose. Okay. He could handle this. Probably.​

​

The holobook rose again as he resumed walking, though he wasn't reading anymore. By the time he rounded the corner toward the nursery, he'd managed to arrange his expression into something approaching neutral.​

​

Then he saw her and Ace stopped in the doorway, holobook still held awkwardly in one hand.​

​

"Uh..." He cleared his throat. "Hey."​

​

Beside him, Tic gave an unbearably smug little trill. Ace didn't look down.​

​

"Shut up."​

​

Fatine von Ascania​

 

[Fatine von Ascania]

It wasn't the shadow falling over her that roused Fatine's interest - this manor was populated by a score of attendants and siblings, after all - but the familiar whistle of Tic's trilling binary.

Fatine paused. Something akin to a chill that lacked temperature crawled down her spine. Then, her neck craned upward. The gesture couldn't have taken more than a few moments, but each second was felt thousand-fold.

Acier Moonbound was standing at the doorway of the Ascania nursery. Unbound by chains. Free. Fatine didn't even notice that was where her eyes went first, his wrists. No bindings. Her widened gaze naturally traveled next to the book in hand.

Infant Care: A Practical Guide

Her lips pursed, pinching as they stifled a laugh. Of course he would read a text about…

Luciana was still sprawled out over Fatine's lap, her onesie unfastened and rumpled up over her belly. "Ah!" she went, dissatisfied that the game had stopped. But now, her attention had honed in on Ace, unabashed and unimpressed but curious.

Things started to click into place for Fatine. Had wires gotten crossed? Had Cora forgotten? Or…

"We're doing just fine on our own," she snapped. Quickly she hefted Lucy up, and the babe, balancing on her own two feet with her hands against her aunt's chest, kept staring at Ace as though she hadn't quite decided what to make of him.

Fatine jabbed a finger in her ex's direction and spoke with saccharine vigor: "Can you say: beat it, nerfherder?"

"Awuh," Lucy declared, flinging a chubby hand in Ace's direction. Still staring, she let out a happy screech punctuated with high-pitched babbling.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Ukatis

Equipment:
Jedi Robes | Beskar Chainmail | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Ace stared at Fatine for a few moments. It had been a while since he'd seen her outside the confines of a prison. Longer still since he'd seen her like this. Hair loose around her shoulders, Luciana sprawled comfortably across her lap. For a moment, something quiet pulled painfully at his chest.

He missed her. His gaze lingered perhaps a second longer than it should have before he noticed hers drop toward the holobook. Then her lips pinched together.

Ace looked down, fingers began tapping against its cover. Tic made a series of noises beside him that sounded suspiciously like laughter, and his eyes narrowed at the droid.

Then Fatine spoke, and whatever warmth had briefly crept through him was tempered by reality. Of course she was still angry with him. He couldn't exactly blame her.

"But Cora asked me to be here." Ace calmly argued.

His head tilted when Fatine promptly attempted to recruit her infant niece into whatever disagreement they were apparently having. One eyebrow slowly climbed as she pointed at him and instructed Lucy to tell him to beat it.

Lucy's hand flung toward him alongside an excited stream of incomprehensible babbling. The corner of Ace's mouth twitched.

"That doesn't sound like she's saying 'beat it'."

He hesitated at the threshold, only briefly, then Ace finally stepped fully into the nursery. He crossed the room and lowered himself onto the floor opposite them, settling cross-legged at what he considered a sufficiently respectful distance from his ex. The holobook was placed beside him.

His attention shifted toward the assortment of toys nearby. One lifted gently from the floor and with a subtle movement of Ace's fingers, the toy floated through the air toward Lucy, bobbing and swaying tantalizingly just beyond the baby's reach.

Ace watched her reaction with considerably more concentration than the situation warranted.

"The book says babies like dangly things."

Fatine von Ascania ​