Private Late for Life Day

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Ukatis - Axilla

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Coruscant had been claimed. Folded into the Covenant's rapid expansion in territory and power. The skyline had survived the worst of it, spires scarred but upright, transit lanes rerouted instead of erased... but the planet was still rebuilding. Quinn's storm still clung to parts of the city like a bruise that refused to fade, pressure in the air that reminded everyone of what had transpired. And what was yet to come.​

​

And as a consequence of all that, Ace had earned his place as Arris Windrun's apprentice. He was closer to the top. Closer to seeing what the Covenant's next movements were first hand. Closer to putting them down for good. At least that's what he told himself to make everything he'd done feel worth the cost.​

​

Then there was Sibylla. He'd visited her on Naboo after what had happened on Corellia, checked in on her following... his rough introduction to Aurelian Veruna. After that, there had been nothing urgent left. No fires to put out. No orders waiting. No city actively collapsing on his head. Just time. Time and the hollow ache that accompanied it.​

​

Ace hadn't informed Fatine he was coming. It was the simple, selfish need for something good. He wanted the surprise. Wanted to see the moment her expression shifted, the instant recognition sparked, the smile that always hit him harder than it had any right to. He needed that like he needed to breathe.​

​

The tiredness clung to him anyway, deep in his bones, deep in his spirit. Carrying too much, for too long, without setting any of it down was beginning to eat at him. Even now, standing on solid ground, there was a sense of being… unfinished. He pushed it aside anyway.​

​

Axilla's streets were alive with evening movement when he reached the Aesop Theater Company. Voices. Laughter. Well-dressed patrons moving in loose clusters. He stood out worse than he did the first time he'd been here.​

​

Ace was leaning back against a low pillar near the entrance, posture casual. He didn't reach for the Force. Didn't scan for threats. Didn't calculate exits. For once, he let himself simply be there.​

​

In his hand, held carefully despite the gloves, was the gift. Late. Embarrassingly so. Life Day had come and gone but he'd kept it with him anyway, all this time, tucked away through hyperspace jumps and collapsing headquarters and quiet moments he hadn't trusted himself to linger in.​

​

He watched the doors and waited. For the first time in what felt like forever, Ace let himself hope that, just for tonight, he could exist somewhere untouched by what he'd been through.​

​

Fatine von Ascania​

 

[Fatine von Ascania]

Was it possible to sneak up on an acolyte?

Fatine liked to think so. At least, she liked to think that Ace would humor her. So when she glimpsed him lingering at the edge of the crowd, she abruptly turned tail back into the theater. Making her way from a side exit, she crept up slowly from behind the pillar.

A red silk scarf was thrown around Ace's neck. Fatine gripped both ends and twirled around to meet him with a shriek of laughter.

"Acier!"

Giggling, Fatine beamed as she let the sheer red thing rest over his shoulders. Her hands found their place at his chest, anchoring herself in familiar warmth. She'd missed him, but only now she realized by how much.

Even swathed in dark clothing like he was trying to melt into the shadows, the streets of Axilla felt more awash with color than ever.

"When did you get here? Did you see the show?!"

Words began to bubble forth, but Fatine held her tongue when she got a good look at his face. Her brow crinkled, and her joyful tone shifted sharply into concern.

"Ohmystars, are you hurt??" She took his chin between her thumb and forefinger, turning his head this way and that while examining him with a critical eye. That was far too many bandages for comfort, but in truth, she was just glad that he'd made it out alive. How many times had she waited until Lysander or Cora pinged her after a battle to begin breathing again?

She'd watched coverage of Coruscant, but it had quickly become too violent for her to stomach. Fatine didn't share Force sensitivity with her siblings, so she'd been hopelessly in the dark until after the clash had wound down. "You didn't do anything too stupid, did you?" Her lower lip jutted out in an exaggerated pout.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Ukatis - Axilla

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace had felt her before he saw her.. Fatine's Thread didn't behave like that of a trained acolyte or a noble scion raised on composure. It was bright and forward and unapologetically there, a warm, buoyant pull that didn't bother masking itself or smoothing its edges. Utterly intentional. Loud in the way a laugh was loud. Brazen in the way joy refused to ask permission. Braided together into something vivid and unmistakably her.

Ace smiled to himself before she even rounded the pillar. So when the red silk scarf snapped around his neck and tugged him back, he let his shoulders jolt, breath hitching as he played the part of someone surprised and caught momentarily off-balance. The act cost him nothing, but the sound that followed, her laughter, more than paid him back.

She twirled in front of him, the scarf settling across his shoulders as her hands came to rest against his chest. Despite everything, despite how near they stood, how easily she fit there, she still called him Acier. Not Ace. His full name, spoken like it belonged to them alone. Oddly… he liked it.

Her giggle hit him like a stimulant straight to the bloodstream. Ace didn't answer right away. He just looked at her, at the way the lights caught in her hair, the confidence she wore like costume jewelry, the sheltered brightness she tried so hard to pass off as worldliness. Beautiful, in a way that didn't need polish or pretense.

His hands slid naturally to her waist, thumbs settling where they fit as if they'd always known the place.

"I just got here." He said at last, voice low, steady. "Wanted to surprise you." Then, softer. "Wish I could've seen you on the stage."

Then he felt a shift before she spoke again. The moment her Thread tightened, concern sharpening into focus. Ace's expression faltered. He deflated just enough to be noticeable, head turning away as guilt crept in. He hated being the reason her light dimmed, even for a second.

Then her fingers were on his chin, guiding his face back toward hers, and his attention snapped to her completely. When she pouted and asked if he'd done anything stupid, his answer stalled, gaze lifting, unfocused, skimming moments better left unshared: freefalling from a transport shuttle into open air, carving through a fighter squadron with nothing but a lightsaber and the Force, the brief fight with the Mandalorian in Coruscant's skylanes, the ISB archives collapsing behind him as he outran it by the narrowest of margins.

He swallowed it all. Ace's hand rose instead, gentle as it brushed her cheek.

"It's nothing that won't heal." He said quietly. "I'm okay. Promise. Me and Lysander both."

The intimacy of the gesture registered a heartbeat too late. His hand dropped almost immediately, concern flashing across his face... had that been too much? Too close?

Before the moment could settle into awkwardness, his other hand lifted. A small pendant placed in her view, the metal catching the light as it swung slightly on its chain.

"Hey..." He added. "Remember that transmission I sent you?"

A faint smirk tugged at his mouth

"Kept my promise."

Fatine von Ascania ​

 

[Fatine von Ascania]

The lines of Fatine's pout deepened.

She knew what Ace was doing. He was reviewing each and every step that had led to the bandages over his face, and then he minimized them.

Then his thumb brushed her cheek, and those concerns started to melt beneath his gentle touch.

"Yeah. You and Lysander can both be pretty dumb, though," she grumbled.

His hand fell away, and the cold air that rushed in made her skin tingle unpleasantly. Fatine wrinkled her nose.

"Well," she chirped, an edge of wariness to her tone that insisted she didn't quite believe him, "at least you're well enough to have the good sense to come and visit me. I forgive you."

Without delving exactly into what needed forgiving, the girl seemed to brighten. She'd missed him more than she'd let on, and worried for him in a way that startled her. The sort of worry that sank into the marrow of your bones and weighed you down.

She'd seen the sort of company Lysander kept. Dangerous company. Where did Ace fit into in all that?

Then, he lifted the pendant. Fatine's eyes followed the bauble as it swayed, like a nexu with a toy.

"You didn't have to!" She nabbed it with a level of force that said: but it's a good thing that you did.

Fatine was all giggles as she held the pendant between two fingers for observation. "Oh, it's so modern looking. Do they wear things like this in the core?"

She handed the necklace back to Ace, turned around, and brushed her hair over her shoulder.

"I want to try it on!"

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Ukatis - Axilla

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace let out a quiet laugh through his nose at that, head tipping just slightly as if conceding the point without surrendering the argument. He preferred reckless, personally.

When she said he was well enough to have the sense to visit, something in his chest loosened and tightened all at once. At this point, even if the galaxy was crashing down around his ears, and... truthfully, it felt like it was, nothing would've kept him away from her. He'd have found a way.

Because Fatine wasn't just a reason to come back. She was one of the reasons he was still there. Embedded in the Covenant. Walking deeper into rot and shadow with eyes open. Working, slowly and quietly, to snuff it out before it ever reached her. Before it blackened whatever bright, unguarded thing she carried so effortlessly. She felt like one of the only pure things left in the galaxy, and standing this close to her, Ace couldn't escape the sense that she was the only thing keeping him from drowning in the dark he'd been wading through for far too long.

Her reaction to the pendant pulled him back. When she asked if they wore things like that in the Core, Ace huffed softly, just shy of a smile.

"Wouldn't know." He said. "I made it myself."

He took the necklace back when she offered it, stepping closer. Gently, he fastened the clasp at the nape of her neck. When he was done, he didn't step away. Instead, he caught her hand, softly guiding her to turn back toward him.

Ace smiled properly, eyes meeting her brown ones. For a moment, he just looked at her. Cherished her. Then his hand came up, fingers closing around the pendant resting against her collarbone.

"It's… not just jewelry." He said.

He rolled the cylinder between his fingers, demonstrating without flair.

"Everything's mechanical. Nothing that can glitch or die at the worst moment."

He twisted it subtly, barely perceptible.

"There's a small pick in there. For latches, cuffs, things that aren't meant to keep someone in forever."

Then Another motion.

"A filament cutter. Light duty. And a flat edge driver for access panels, quick fixes. Nothing dangerous."

His thumb brushed over the smooth housing as he continued, quieter now. "It won't help you in a fight. It's not meant to. But it'll always be on you. And it won't draw attention."

Ace let the pendant fall back into place, hand lingering for just a moment before dropping away.

"Figured you should have something pretty. And useful. All in one."

Fatine von Ascania ​

 

[Fatine von Ascania]

These little moment frightened Fatine for how heavily she felt them. Even brush of his fingertips against her collar had no right to stir such butterflies in her stomach.

Fatine was a flirt - there had been no shortage of playful banter with handsome young men in her life. It was harmless fun where she, a young woman living in a staunchly patriarchal society, was in control.

Ace never took control. He didn't take away anything from her. He only added onto what she already was.

And strangely, since they'd met, she didn't feel like carousing around with other men. When she held the arm of some Ukatian dandy, it didn't feel like Ace's, and she found her interest falling away.

Men competed for her fickle attention. Somehow, Acier always held her focus without even trying to. In fact - Fatine had been so lost in the sharp lines of his face that she'd forgotten to listen to his voice.

…a filament cutter?

Fatine blinked as she was drawn back into the present. "Wait, so it's like…a mini tool kit?"

Her brow pinched, but not in displeasure. "What, you think I'm gonna get myself into trouble?" The laugh that followed ended up with a knowing quality to it.

"Okay…fair," she relented. The fingers of one hand wrapped around the oblong cylinder, suddenly reverent with the knowledge that Ace had taken the time to make this for her.

No one, aside from Lysander, ever really saw her like that. As more than just another face in a bustling noble brood.

"Thank you," she whispered. "It's too pretty not to wear every day."

Maybe, it would make her feel a little closer to Ace during those long stretches of time where they had to be apart. Which brought to mind…

"Everything went…alright then? Lysander is okay, too?"

Alright wasn't the word for it, not for what she'd seen in the news. Fatine might've been naive, but she suspected that what he'd gone through had been far worse than the coverage cycling on every station.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Ukatis - Axilla

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace caught it in her face before she spoke. The slight drift, the way her focus slipped sideways even as she stayed right there with him. He'd learned the difference by now. Learned when her attention wandered because she was thinking instead of listening. He loved that about her.

The fact that she still tracked the gist of what he'd said was enough. When she blinked and asked if it was basically a mini tool kit, a corner of his mouth tugged up. He nodded once, easy.

"Yeah, basically." He said.

When she brought up him expecting her to get into trouble, Ace lifted an eyebrow at her in a silent, but amused really? He didn't argue it out loud, Fatine swiftly relented.

When she said she'd wear it every day, something warm settled low inside him. The idea of it resting there, of something he'd made staying with her even when he couldn't...

Then she asked if everything went alright. Ace's smile faltered. His gaze slid away as his hands came to rest on his hips, posture shifting almost imperceptibly into something more familiar. Guarded. Measured. The ease he'd let himself have a moment ago retreated, replaced by the detachment he wore like armor when things got complicated.

"Lysander's okay." He said first. "Even got promoted for it." Then he paused for a few seconds. "Coruscant was…"

He stopped. The words didn't come, because any word that fit would either be a lie or an invitation to worry. And he wasn't willing to do either. Ace turned back to her then, really looked at her. His eyes found hers and stayed there.

"I'm worried, Fatine."

The word sat strangely in his mouth. Worry wasn't something he'd ever named aloud before. Not like this. Not about someone else.

"I'm worried about where this is going..." He continued quietly. "I'm… scared that it's going to reach you too."

He exhaled, slow and controlled, like he was holding himself together through sheer force of will. His expression stayed composed, but there was strain underneath it now. Cracks he didn't usually let anyone see.

"I don't want anything to--" His voice caught, then hardened, resolve snapping into place. "I won't let anything happen to you."

It wasn't a promise meant to comfort. It was a vow.

Fatine von Ascania​

 

[Fatine von Ascania]

Fatine was not accustomed speaking of serious matters. They unnerved her. Made her uncomfortable. She wouldn't admit as much, but tended to charm her way out of awkward situations.

Even all of this with Lysander, it made her uneasy. She still wouldn't talk about it, because he still made an effort to be the brother she knew.

And now, her question had unearthed something in Ace. Something raw and real.

Fatine swallowed and send her gaze elsewhere. To the dusty, shadowed corner of a pillar. That didn't meant that she wasn't listening.

"I don't…really understand it," she admitted in a low, wavering whisper. The girl shuffled on her feet, trying to make sense of it all. Ukatians were no strangers to war. The planet had its own bloody history, and recently had become the target of external interests. "It's like…so much destruction. So much war. And for like, what? It's always the little guys that get hurt."

Frowning, she brought her focus back to Ace and tilted her chin up at him.

"I don't understand why you have to be a part of it. You and Lysander. Why does it have to be this way?"

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Ukatis - Axilla

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace saw the way her gaze slipped off him. The heat that had sharpened his voice a moment ago cooled fast, replaced by something steadier. Had he pushed too far? Shown too much? The vow had felt solid in his chest, but maybe it had sounded like something else to her. Maybe he'd scared her.

When she finally spoke, quiet and unsure, the tension in him shifted into something heavier. She didn't understand it. So much destruction. So much war. And for what? His jaw tightened because she was right.

Even without the full picture, without the briefings or the politics or the rot he'd seen first hand... she was right. The ones who really paid the price were never the ones standing in war rooms or pulling strings from orbit. It was the workers in the lower levels. The civilians. The families who didn't ask for any of it and had no say in how it unfolded.

The little guys...

His eyes dropped for a second, then lifted when she did. When her chin tipped up and she asked the question that actually mattered. Why did he and Lysander have to be part of it?

Ace exhaled through his nose, the sound quiet but weighted. The walls he'd thrown back up out of instinct began to lower again, slowly. He reached for her hand and took it gently in his own, it was as grounding for him as it might have been for her.

"I wish I could explain." He said, voice softer now. "And one day, if you'll let me… I will. I promise."

Right now, it was too dangerous. He wouldn't drag her into the specifics, into allegiances, into shadows, into the kind of knowledge that would force her to choose between him and her brother.

"But I'm doing this for you--"

He paused, a flicker of awareness crossing his face.

"For everyone I care about." He corrected quietly. "I'm trying to keep you all safe."

The words settled between them. He let the silence stretch instead of filling it too quickly. Let her feel the weight of it without pressing harder. Then, warmth returned to his expression, a conscious redirect away from the edge they were standing on.

"But hey." He said gently, thumb brushing once against her knuckles, "Tell me about your show."

Fatine von Ascania ​

 

[Fatine von Ascania]

It was the silence that Fatine hated the most. The long silence between messages, and now the silence that stretched between her question and his answer.

It might've only lasted a handful of seconds, but it was enough time for her mind to spiral into a thousand directions at once.

He hates me. No, he's just worried. Don't make this harder for him. Don't give him more reasons to worry. No, you deserve answers. What if he's not all that he seems? What if he's only showing you the side that he wants you to see?

No, he wouldn't. I know him better than that.

Right?

But then, Ace took her hand. His answer was unsatisfying, but his touch wasn't. Fatine huffed.

"Safe?" Her brow crinkled severely. "Is that the opposite of what they do?"

Fatine tore her hand away, just to jab Ace in the chest with the point of her finger, sharper than any blade.

"You can't keep us safe if you FETHING DIE!"

The crowd milling in their immediate vicinity hushed, but not completely. Several pairs of eyes turned to see the couple's fight, perhaps anticipating an encore of this evening's dramatic stage performance.

A pair of roosting birds took flight from the roof of the building. Even from above, their distant caws filled the awkward silence.

Fatine didn't escalate. Not here, not now. She wasn't against making a public scene, but she'd also missed Acier so fiercely that she didn't want to chase him too far away.

"The show went fine," she grumbled. "Not great. Not terrible. Just fine."

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Ukatis - Axilla

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Fatine's question stalled him. Ace's head turned slightly, gaze drifting past her shoulder instead of meeting her eyes. He weighed the word she'd thrown back at him. Was that the opposite of what they did? The Covenant. The war. Him. She wasn't wrong, but he didn't answer. Couldn't.

The sudden loss of her hand caught him off guard. The sharp jab to his chest even more so. It wasn't enough to hurt, but it landed. The motion was so similar to another recent argument that it pulled a flash of memory to the surface. Sibylla. The same pointed finger. The same anger edged with fear.

But this felt different. Concern over his wellbeing had never really unsettled him before. Sibylla's worry hadn't. Lorn's hadn't. They cared for him and he cared for them, but he always stood strong in his convictions. Much to their dismay.

Fatine's worry, managed to reach a part of him he believed unreachable. The words that followed hit harder than the jab.

Ace didn't even register the crowd going quiet. Didn't hear the birds scatter overhead. The world had narrowed to her expression, the heat in her eyes, the tremor beneath her anger. Right now, she was all he saw. All that mattered.

When she muttered about the show; fine, not great, not terrible, he heard the lack of enthusiasm immediately. He could've let it go. Normally he would have. Normally he would've stepped back, allowed space, let tension cool on its own.

Not this time. He started to reach for her again out of instinct, then stopped himself halfway. His hand lowered, hovering uncertainly at his side. He didn't want to crowd her. Didn't want to smother what she was feeling.

"I'm sorry..." He said softly, then exhaled slowly. "I know it's… scary. And my life's one big… hazard."

That almost sounded like a joke, but it wasn't.

"But I'm always going to try." He continued. "To come back. To you."

The space between them felt heavier than it should have. Ace closed it carefully this time, lifting his hand and resting it against her cheek once more. A grounding, yet affectionate gesture. His thumb brushed faintly against her skin.

"I--" He caught himself, from confessing something he couldn't take back. "Please... just trust me, okay? Trust that I know what I'm doing. That everything's going to be okay."

Then, his hand lowered, taking the pendant he'd made into his fingers.

"This is my promise to you."

Fatine von Ascania​

 

[Fatine von Ascania]

Ace would feel the heat of Fatine’s frustration as his fingers rested against her flushed cheek.

For once, she hated how the gesture made her feel. Warm. Sparks danced beneath her touch. Even anger couldn’t dull what she felt for him, and it would be a while before Fatine would work out just where that anger had come from.

Fear. It was rooted in fear for Acier - because to Fatine, the Force wasn’t some great gift or higher calling. It was a thief that had stolen her siblings and molded them into something strange. And now, it was taking him.

Maybe time and experience had a part to play, too, but it was easier to hate the Force. After all, Ukatis had been attacked twice due to Jedi feuds.

Fatine’s expression softened, slipping from sharp anger into something a little more anguished.

“Just trust you…” she murmured, eyes dropping and cast to the side, suddenly morose. “Do you know how many times I’ve heard that, Acier?”

Fatine lifted her eyes once more, and now that sullen expression met his own.

“I’ve spent most of my life behind closed doors. Told that I didn’t have to worry about anything, shouldn’t have to dirty my dainty little hands with heavy burdens.

“Do you really know what you’re doing? Or are you just saying that so I won’t be upset?”

Fatine frowned as frustration crept back into her expression. Not as sharp or as heavy as before, but tempered with somber fatigue.

“You throw yourself in the fire and expect to come out alive every time. What is it all for? Why won't you tell me?"

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Ukatis - Axilla

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace's thumb stilled against the pendant when she spoke about closed doors and dainty hands. His gaze drifted away; there it was, the old weight, the one she'd carried long before him. The one he'd never wanted to add to. He had never meant to make her feel small. Never meant to rob her of agency the way her world had done so casually. This wasn't that, wasn't him deciding she couldn't handle it. This was something else entirely.

When she asked if he really knew what he was doing, or if he was just trying to keep her from being upset, his eyes returned to hers.

"It's both." He answered, without flinching.

As she pressed on, he bit the inside of his lower lip, gaze slipping away again when she demanded to know what it was all for. Why he wouldn't tell her. He stepped back and his hands went to his hips as he began to pace. He exhaled hard through his nose, fingers dragging through his white locs before settling again at his waist. The composure he usually wore so easily felt thinner now.

He stopped in front of her, shoulders squared, hands braced on his hips.

"I don't want to put this on your shoulders..." He said, voice lower, strained. "If the time ever comes, I don't want you to have to choose between me and Ly--"

He cut himself off abruptly, shaking his head.

"That's not fair. That's not what I'm trying to do."

He drew in a breath that felt too tight in his chest.

"What I'm doing's dangerous, Fatine. You just knowing me's dangerous." His eyes lifted, locking onto hers with unguarded intensity. "Not the kind of dangerous like me teaching you how to use a blaster. This is--if anyone finds out what I'm doing. What I'm really doing. And they find out about you… about how much I care about you--"

His voice caught.

"What if they use you to--"

He couldn't finish it. Both hands came up, pressing against his face before dragging down slowly, as if he could wipe the thought away with friction alone.

"I shouldn't have let it get this far..." He muttered, more to himself than to her. "Shouldn't have let myself get this close to you. It was selfish and stupid and now--"

Now he was trapped. Between his mission and between how he felt about her. Now she was leverage. Now she was a weakness someone could exploit.

His hands dropped, but he didn't move away again. He just stood there, breathing heavier than he wanted to, every careful layer of detachment he'd built over the last few months splitting at the seams.

Fatine von Ascania​

 

[Fatine von Ascania]

Fatine wasn't typically observant, but the way Ace paced before her - hands at his hips, then through his hair - had her drinking in every detail, as if she could glean even a whisper of an answer from body language alone.

That tense silence only reigned for a few seconds, but to an exasperated teenage girl, it truly dragged on.

Then, he spoke, and Fatine's expression pinched.

This…hadn't gone where she was expecting it to. Lysander's name slipped through the conversation the way grains of sand fell from between fingers. Ace was scattering little breadcrumbs before her, not explanations.

Why was she in danger? What was he really doing? Whatever it was, it was causing him distress. Fatine wavered between angry and sympathetic, uncertain of which side of the line she wanted to fall towards.

She hated being kept on the dark, treated like a delicate maiden or a child. Ace’s secrecy wasn’t meant to patronize her, and the way he looked now - torn, guilty, frustrated - tugged a space on her heart she didtt know existed.

"You're right," she sniffed, turning her nose up at him. "You are being selfish and stupid!"

Heels clicked against the pavement like a storm, and suddenly, she swept Ace into her arms.

"You are selfish and stupid and I hate you," she grumbled, words muffled against his chest.

The line of Fatine's shoulders trembled once, and she tightened her embrace.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Ukatis - Axilla

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace's head turned away the moment she agreed with him. The words stung, but not unfairly, if anything, the sting carried a strange kind of relief with it. Maybe this would make it easier. Maybe if she saw it the way he did, if she understood how reckless this was, how dangerous it was to be anywhere near him... maybe ending it here would hurt less.

"Yeah." He said quietly, still looking away.

Then he heard the sharp rhythm of heels against pavement, closing the distance fast. Ace's brow creased faintly and his head turned to faced her just as she reached him, just as her arms swept around him. His breath caught. For a second he froze, surprise knocking the air out of his thoughts. Then her muffled words reached him and something in his chest loosened.

"I know." He murmured.

His arms came up around her without hesitation this time, pulling her closer. He felt the small tremor run through her shoulders and the reality of it settled into him like gravity. She hadn't walked away... despite everything he'd just said, Fatine had chosen to stay. With him.

Ace rested his chin briefly against the top of her head, anchoring himself. Clarity came quickly after. This was stupid. Selfish. Dangerous. Every instinct he had told him he should stop this now before it went any further. But standing there with her arms around him, he realized something with uncomfortable honesty.

He couldn't.

After a moment he gently pulled back, his hands settling on her shoulders. His eyes studied her face quietly, the frustration still lingering there, the vulnerability she was trying to hide, the stubborn fire that made Fatine… Fatine.

Ace knew exactly how reckless this was, the cost it could carry. But the idea of walking away from her suddenly felt worse than the consequences.

His thumbs shifted slightly against her shoulders. For a second he hesitated, something almost shy flickering through his expression, an unfamiliar uncertainty for someone who usually moved with such deliberate control.

Then he leaned forward. The distance between them disappeared as his lips met hers, tentative at first, like he was still half convinced the moment might vanish if he moved too quickly. A quiet, reluctant surrender to the thing he'd just been trying to run from.

Fatine von Ascania​

 

[Fatine von Ascania]

Fatine didn’t have to hold her breath when Ace embraced her back.

Was it possible to both hate and love someone in equal measure? A confusing storm of feeling churned within her, and the only certainty she had was that being held by Acier felt like being embraced by the sun.

He didn’t buckle, not when she threw at him whatever she was feeling in the moment. Acier took her joy, her sadness, her anger and affection in equal measure - all parts of her that an aristocratic lifestyle had tried to force her to temper.

The gentle weight of his hands slid from her back to her shoulders, and Fatine pulled back just a tick. Something unfamiliar - hesitance? - had crept into Ace’s expression.

Despite her social nature when it came to men, Fatine had never kissed anyone outside of a stage performance. They were almost clinical gestures, devoid of warmth or even a spark.

Suddenly, she understood what she’d been trying to capture. The intimacy, the affection, the way everything that wasn’t him just seemed to fall away.

Fatine stilled. Her confidence, often unearned, faltered for a few critical moments. An unfamiliar heat bloomed across her cheeks.

Then, she melted. She kissed him back, certain that Ace could feel the heat of her flushed cheeks and the tremble of her lower lip. Being caught unawares was never her strong suit, and the teenager often tried to put on more mature, worldly airs. Ace had knocked her off kilter.

And, perhaps, most of all, she didn't mind.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Ukatis - Axilla

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace felt the world fall silent the moment his lips met hers. The restless noise that had lived in the back of his mind for months now: the war, the Covenant, the constant calculation of danger and consequence. All of it simply… stopped.

For a few fragile seconds there was nothing but her. He felt the warmth of her cheeks beneath his skin, the faint tremble of her lower lip when she kissed him back. The uncertainty that had lingered in his hesitation began to fade, replaced by something steadier and certain.

Ace's hands rose slowly, until they framed her face. His fingers settled gently along her jaw, holding her there as the kiss deepened just a little.

Eventually he pulled back, the movement slow, reluctant. The distance between them barely widened before he leaned forward again, resting his forehead lightly against hers.

Ace didn't smile, but something in his expression had softened. The tension that usually lived behind his eyes had eased, replaced by something quieter and a little lighter. Like some weight he'd been carrying had slipped off his shoulders without him noticing.

This was new. Before today, Ace had never kissed anyone. Intimacy had always been something distant, something other people chased while he kept moving forward toward the next fight, the next mission, the next problem that needed solving. It had never interested him, there had never been time. But Fatine had changed that the same way she seemed to change everything else in his life.

His breath slipped out in a quiet exhale.

"…What now?"

The question was soft, almost thoughtful. For the first time in a long while, Ace didn't have a contingency. No plan. No next step already mapped out three moves ahead. All he knew was that he had chosen her.

And whatever came next… he would face it with her.

Fatine von Ascania​