Private Lonely Are The Brave

[Tansu Treicolt]

Immediately following the events of Humans...

CAER LOTA STATION | OUTSIDE THE COREWORLDS
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Beep. Beep. Beep.

Over fifty, or was it sixty? — Too many hours had passed since they'd arrived. She stopped counting when time meant anything other than a countdown to Talsin waking up. Every waking hour was lonely, and only interrupted with touch-and-go updates from the medical practitioners.

Talsin's family's private station had a medical hall unlike anything she'd seen in the Core hospitals. Vaulted transparisteel ceilings gave way to a sweeping view of the expanse of stars all around. Treatment bays curved along the perimeter in perfect symmetry, their walls made of softly glowing duraglass, shifting opacity at a hand's gesture for privacy. Medical droids glided on near-silent repulsors, their silver chassis trimmed in the deep navy of House Lota, and every surface gleamed as if dust as a concept had been outlawed.

The bed he lay in was suspended a few inches above the floor on an anti-grav cradle, fine-tuned to reduce muscle strain. Banks of holographic readouts hovered in the air at his side, displaying pulse, oxygenation, skeletal mapping, and projected healing timelines in rotating aurebesh. There was no expense spared here, no technology absent. Except the one thing that would have made this easier: Bacta.

It's not that it wasn't onboard the ship. Any other patient would have benefitted from it, but Talsin could not.

The care team had known instantly, of course, that Duke Lota's allergy made standard immersion impossible. And his body didn't seem to be taking the alternatives as readily as they'd hoped. She'd overheard the practitioners muttering to each other about tissue rejection rates and compromised recovery curves, their words meant for one another, not for her.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Thankfully Auteme 's intervention had prevented severe neurological trauma. Tansu had overheard them: No catastrophic swelling, no motor function loss, no deep brain trauma. They'd repaired the dental damage, set fractures, reinforced cranial plates. Through each step, the medical staff held great reverence for the Jedi Master's intervention, and more than once, expressed how dire the situation would have been without it.

For the first few hours, Tansu had mostly been in the way, asked to move aside, get out of the room — always polite but firm. The care team needed space to work and they couldn't afford distractions. After all, she was just a Jedi companion. Partner to a job gone wrong. Nothing more in this world. She couldn't say she was family, she couldn't say she was anything other than worried and give an explanation of what happened. Here, she wasn't his girlfriend. Couldn't be known as such. And it really sucked because maybe, just maybe, she'd stop getting weird looks if they only knew.

Fingertips fiddled with his fingers, deftly avoiding the pulse oximeter.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"You just had to make a point, didn'tcha." She murmured, chin in the crease of the blanket and body stretched from the chair she'd positioned next to his bedside. "Not hit back. Not even a little."

She sighed and buried her face directly into the fabric, muffling the exasperated noise that came out next.

For all this time, after a horrible apex in her life, she had nobody to talk to about it. No Talsin, no Talin, no Vyrin, no Jon, no Kyric. Not even Amos; the sanitation protocols barred her cat from the medical hall as though his fur was a biohazard.

And there was so much to say. So much to unspool from the knot twisted up in her chest. So much to think through. Every time she looked at Talsin she wanted to cry. And inevitably, her thoughts would go back to her twin. What was she doing now? Where had she gone? When she'd lost her arm, is that when she'd lost some other parts of herself? Everything had seemed so wrong, so off. Tansu wanted to reach out to her, to message her, but at the crossroads of furious and concerned, she was steering toward furious the longer Talsin stayed unconscious.

"Couldja please wake up?" Her voice cracked again and she brought both hands to cover his, fully pleading, either to the machines, The Force, or his subconscious mind. Either and all that'd listen. "Please?"

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

Tansu Treicolt

Her connection to his was the closest there could be, a Force Bond that had been formed across years. Even when they were younger and stupid, it hadn't fully faded. Just laced with enough pain that both had withdrawn from it for their own sake.

She had felt him through that connection during his coma too.

Shards, splinters and figments of his dark dreams. Sometimes they were pleasant enough, she'd get a shape of a meadow and laughter, the two of them. But sometimes it was darker, harder. Screams, sobbing, sharp edges that cut deep. The echo of words that sounded like a mixture of Talin and Jon, you couldn't save her. You would leave her to bleed. And then still their voices but words they had never spoken. You can't save anyone. You are weak, soft, everyone you love will die because you can't act.

Those were the most difficult moments and they were often accompanied by his body weakening. As if it was turning in itself, to try and shield its mind from the macabre horror shadow-game splayed on the walls of his brain.

The extreme edges were far in-between however. More often than not... it was just silent. A quiet dream, immersed in an oily dark ocean, where sound did not penetrate. It was rest, except rest you woke from, whereas this was decay and rot in motion. His body breathing, but his mind not registering a single thing.

This was one of those quiet moments, until-

"Couldja please wake up?" Her voice cracked again and she brought both hands to cover his, fully pleading, either to the machines, The Force, or his subconscious mind. Either and all that'd listen. "Please?"

It started as a little twitch of his hand beneath hers.

Then it spread as awareness seemed to crackle alongside of her. The shape of his existence seemed to curl, not into itself, not away from her, but into her with softness.

Eyes flickered open but they hadn't seen anything in a long time. Even that flicker was enough to first make him moan in pain, then a coughing fit as lungs restarted into activity. From the slow and languid, to trying to catch a breath. The pain ran through his body as limbs that hadn't been used began to twitch. Needle pricks of dead sleeping limbs coming back to life.

"T-T-" Talsin couldn't get the words out, his mouth hurt, his teeth did too, his mouth was so dry and his throat felt like the desert. Where was he, what had happened?

The first thing he remembered was also the last thing he experienced.

A cruel fist in his face, not against, but breaking into skull and flesh.

"W-wh-hat..." Trying to cough through it. "Wh-e-whe-re a-a-m I?"

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Her eyes had been closed, as if in fervent prayer, when she felt the first twitch.

Hope hit her like a shot to the ribs, and she sucked in a sharp breath, every nerve snapping awake. Her gaze flew to his face, desperate and unblinking.

​

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon." Unintentionally, she shook his hands like dice. Maybe she shook the words right out of him, all incomplete and tryin' so hard to be whole things. Like he wasn't quite ready yet but he was trying so hard anyway. He felt so delicate, and she welcomed that fragile curl of consciousness with everything she had, pouring herself into the space between them. Willing warmth where he'd gone cold and blank.

Then he coughed and she was up on her feet, looming over him with placating hands over his chest, and then wrapped around his shoulders the second the question was out. She felt the irregular stutters of his breathy fit from his chest right through her own ribs and she squeezed tighter.

Finally, after something like sixty hours of holding it together cracked all at once. Her tears came hot and relentless, soaking into the crook of his neck.

"Fethin' chit, Talsin." She sobbed, raw and wet, "You're back. You came back to me."

Again she squeezed, and something beeped in protest. "You're safe. With your people on yer very own station."

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

Tansu Treicolt

Somehow, a wonder really, he managed not to cry out when she hugged him deep in a bear-hug.

But she felt his pain laced through their connection. Flared up as he hugged her back, or at least attempted to embrace her. But his arms felt languid like they were stuck in pudding.

"S-safe... b-back..." Agreeing there quietly, into her hair as he shivered. Even breathing hurt. His nose had been reset, but it would never be that perfect angle anymore. That little turn up as if to punctuate how haughty and arrogant he could be. But his face was full of scars like that, some would heal, others would stay.

The perfect face was gone... who knew what would come in its wake once everything was healed up properly.

His hand softly reached out, cupping her face.

"Hurt... you?" A grimace there, no, that's not what he wanted to ask. "Are... you... hurt?" He remembered being so terrified that they would hurt her after they had hurt him.

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

She shuffled back a bit, embarrassed. She'd overdone her hug and felt his flash of pain. Sheepish pink crossed her face and she hung back, slackening her arms so he could see her face. "Sorry 'bout that. I'm just so happy to hear you."

Was she hurt?

Worse than she'd ever been in her life. But in the context of their surroundings, all medical and sterile, she was fine. Untouched.

Tansu shook her head no.

"No," she whispered. He didn't deserve the deluge of everything she wanted to share right now. Not when his brain was unmushifying for the first time since Atrisia. "I'm alright."

Another breath sucked in, unsure where to go from here. She knew he needed time, space, but she didn't want to give him either. Tansu had no idea how to be delicate, or gentle, or patient. "I love you. I'm so happy to hear your voice and see your eyes lookin' back at me again." Her hand slid up over his and gave a squeeze.

His voice! It sounded so rough and hoarse.

"You're probably thirsty," she lamented, and twisted as awkwardly as she could to keep his hand on her face while also reaching for the bedside table with the glass of water that had been sitting there. The nurses had diligently refreshed it daily, in case he woke up. Otherwise all fluids were intravenous, but that did nothing for the cottonmouth. It rocked in her direction and she ended up cheating, using the Force, to keep it from falling and floating to her hand.

"Here, the nurses warned me you'd have a mouth dryer than midday Tattooine when you woke up." And in case he couldn't use his arms, she volunteered to tip it slightly for him.

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

Tansu Treicolt

She knew he felt past her words. Her pain was there for him to feel, even if she was trying to push it down.

Not physical pain, mental. Spiritual.

He couldn't move his hands fast and when he did they shook. So Tansu was forced to help him drink.

Once he managed to keep down a few gulps he sighed. Squeezing her jaw softly again to ground them both in the moment.

"I am... So sorry." Talsin said softly. "I didn't think it would... Go that far." Finally being able to talk. His voice still reedy-thin but at least it didn't make him cough every two seconds anymore.

"I never assumed they'd ... Be able..." And he stopped there.

Maybe not of Talin at least. That had been the greatest surprise. Not just the punch but the blaster afterwards. If he hadn't been shocked, maybe he could have avoided Jon's first hit.

"I never wanted you to hurt... I just..."

He grimaced and then groaned because even grimacing hurt.

"I guess I don't know what I was thinking."

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

With the cup set down again, she was back to balancing precariously between leaning totally into him and not suffocating or putting too much weight on him.

"Shh," she murmured, leaning into gently press her lips to his. He tasted faintly antiseptic. Her face twisted a bit at the bitterness and rest her forehead to his cheek.

"Don't apologize to me. Nobody coulda known. Nobody but them chose to push it as far as they did."

As featherlight as she could manage, she swept some of the sweat-slick hair from clinging to his face, gentle not to rip at anything bandaged or healing.

"It wasn't your fault. If anyone's, it's mine. You were just tryin' to do the right thing. And I madeja wait, I didn't realize how much waitin' for someone else to do the right thing was eatin' away at you.

And I haven't been —" she looked up and across the room, blinking away the last of the tears that had fathered "I dunno. I don't know about Talin I just don't know."

She bit her lip, eyes roaming over his weary form.

"We can talk about this later. I ain't goin' anywhere and neither is anything else."

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

Tansu Treicolt

There they went, apologizing to one another again and taking blame that didn't belong to anyone other than those not in the room currently.

He wanted to ask more. So much more. What had happened to Jon, to Talin. Ren and Tilon.

But before he could ask, the nurses and doctors suddenly flowed into the room. They had finally seen the change and shift in his vital signs.

That was when Tal got a quick glimpse at the amount of respect Tansu was getting, which currently was nothing.

It broke his heart all over again to see her pushed to the side. He tried to say something but them hushed him, as they began their tests.

But he promised himself this was the last time

They had been fighting so long, thinking about what could be that they had lost sight of what already was. What did it matter if there was scandal?

They could have died. One of them. Him certainly.

Talsin realized it couldn't go on as it had all this time.

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Getting asked to leave had become a familiarity. And this time, she couldn't tell if it felt easier or harder now that he was awake. She just wanted to keep talking to him, feeling the wakefulness of his presence, the warmth of his skin. But she was shooed out and she didn't protest, only asked how long they'd need.

Alone again, in an enormous space station, Tansu wandered. Her first stop was Amos — he wasn't allowed anywhere near the medical facilities, so she'd left him aboard the ship. After a sufficient amount of pets and feeding, she kissed him goodbye and looked at the chrono. How much longer had their said?

The speech therapist had said something about reflexes testing, getting him to write, speak, all the standard tests to ensure there was truly no unseen neurological damage. She dared an invasive pry, reaching out to sense Talsin's general disposition, and found him busy. Which meant she still had time to kill.

Since arriving, she hadn't really explored the station. Her orbital range had been only feet from his room, going further to the docking bay just to check on Amos. Now that Talsin was awake, she took some liberties to look beyond the cafeteria to other food options until she found something she could bring back for them both. Once found, she checked the chrono again, and decided it would be best to simply loiter, lest she miss the opening she could slip into the room again.

And when she returned, the attendants were just leaving.

Hastily, she pushed back into the room, immediately talking: "You on painkillers now?" She asked, "How many? Did they say when you could walk again? Or if walking was good for you? Maybe get some air that feels a little less cycled? Did you pass your speech therapy test? Do you have to do more? Did they say anything that freaked you out?" When did atrophy set in? Bed sores? All the attacks had been to his head, so his legs should be fine so long as his brain still told them how to work.

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

Tansu Treicolt

She would find him by the viewport.

The hover bed had been moved there so he could look out into space. The stars beyond, the heat of the sun in the system, ships moving back and forth assisting with the refugee crisis occurred after the whole Core had fallen to the Empire. But he didn't answer her questions, not a single one, and didn't look back to her.

The only reason she knew he was still awake was those eyes open and the way his fingers reached out to lace into her hand when she came to sit down next to him again.

"I feel like I have been slowly, but surely, losing parts of myself since they died." He couldn't bring himself to say murdered. "I don't remember the last time I laughed without having to push down the guilt of knowing I have the luxury of laughing and they do not." His hand squeezed hers, drawing strength from their connection.

"I don't remember the last time I took my bike out for a ride just for the fun of it or even just worked on it with my own two hands." He finally glanced to her. His face battered, swollen, hurt. But his eyes were clear for the first time in what seemed like forever. "They died and a part of me died with them. And every loss afterwards, be that Teta, be that my little brother and sisters crying because they aren't there anymore to hug them. The Drop. Teta again. Jonath Kago and Talin Treicolt ... I keep carving pieces off of myself just to keep going."

It took effort for him to speak, but he had asked the doctors to give him a few stimulants, so he could think.

"I have been trying so hard to keep my two titles separate. A Duke, a Jedi Knight. First world problems, maybe. But I thought if I kept them apart, I could protect both, so those worlds would never clash." It was why they couldn't be boyfriend and girlfriend in public when he was a Duke. It is why he wasn't using his ducal resources to assist even more as a Jedi.

The strain of it all, trying to balance it, trying to keep everyone happy had been too much a long time ago. Lirien constantly reminding him that his duty was to his House, first and foremost. The galaxy constantly exploding and him always being too late to help.

"It can't go on like that anymore. I need to accept... that I am both. I can't walk away from either responsibility... and I can't pretend anymore that separating the two is helping anyone. I am just putting everyone in danger because I am not using everything I have to its fullest."

Again a squeeze of her hand.

"Gruesome as it was, I think I needed to have my face rearranged. It... crystallized what matters to me." Gently drawing her hand to his lips. Kissing each finger tip softly, with such care.

"I will be okay." Tal finally said, leaning back into the cushions. That whole speech had taken a lot out of him. "I think I will finally be okay."

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Is this how Talsin normally felt? Unable to get a word in edgewise?

At first, her heart sank at the somber reflection. None of it was untrue. They'd fallen in love fast, bonding over thrills and mutual affinities for risk and danger. Laughter had come easily and often. They hadn't any need to think of anyone but themselves. But since he'd lost his parents and he'd inherited his title, things had changed. Subtly at first, he grimaced through it, until their breaking point. And in their years apart, she watched him be angry. At the galaxy and himself. Now, together again, she could feel his relief, his love, and glimpses of his joy — albeit infrequent and hardly as boisterous as before.

She squeezed his hand back and kept her eyes steady on his until he finished.

It was a lot.

Barely taking a breath between, he'd decided to bridge both his worlds and all their differences. It wouldn't be an overnight effort, or easy, but if anyone was determined enough to take a stand they believed in and make something — it was Talsin.

And he had the scars to prove it.

"I'm happy to hear you say that."

On top of the revelation, a selfish realization glimmered. If his worlds were no longer separate, she could matter in both.

Or the opposite.

But that…didn't feel likely. There was nothing in their bond that suggested he was holding back a giant anvil with which he planned to drop on her and crush their relationship.

That would also mean then, she couldn't hold on so firmly to her bumpkin attitude.

She'd already drawn part of that conclusion each time she was ushered away from him over the past few days — that she didn't belong here the way she was. An outlaw, gambler, wayward cowgirl, and rogue Force practitioner rather than full-blown Jedi committal.

Her mind, with all its spare time, had even gone so far as to consider reaching out to that pretty Corazona von Ascania she'd seen at the Midnight Council. She was a Jedi and a princess — at the very least, she could maybe give Tansu…lessons? Tips? On how to navigate the courts.

But she'd never tell Talsin. That would be too embarrassing.

But she did have to make some commitment beyond the life she and her sister had been living, all adventure and no responsibilities. It had taken that a stranger, Tydeus of Tion , to remind her that she had a bloodline of galactic impact. Why did she shy from it so? Not seek to fulfill more of her own potential?

In her reflection, she made a small sound at the back of her throat.

If he could choose, so should she.

"How're you gonna do it?" She asked, touching thoughtfully at a bandage that stretched across his chin, barely brushing a cut of his lip with her fingertips. He'd been split open so emotionally for so long, and now physically — finally, after both, he found clarity.

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

"How're you gonna do it?" She asked, touching thoughtfully at a bandage that stretched across his chin, barely brushing a cut of his lip with her fingertips. He'd been split open so emotionally for so long, and now physically — finally, after both, he found clarity.

He leaned into her touch slightly, the grimace of pain worth it, because it meant he was closer to her.

"Easy to say what I wanna do, harder to decide how to actually do it, yeah?" Talsin said with a rueful chuckle. "I will mobilize House Lota. I have been... busy with the idea of that for a while anyway, but Lirien dissuaded me from it. You shouldn't pick sides so aggressively, my Lord. The Houses of Tetan are already against you for your father's support of the Alliance. If you move to-" He stopped mimicking his old mentor and chamberlain with a grimace because nothing Lirien said was untrue.

But it didn't take priority anymore.

"Teta is gone. As far as I can see the Empire is digging in deep and I don't know how long it will be before we return to our ancestral house. But House Lota has always been diversifying... and it's time I put the whole House to work on it. We will start targeting Sith and Imperial interests throughout the whole Galaxy. We will stop just defending what we have and begin identifying what they do, and how we can best take it away from them."

He squeezed her jaw again, she was real, he had to remember that.

"I will publicly proclaim that I have... a partner. Who is dear to me... and that her name is Tansu Treicolt." A soft witty smirk there. "That's gonna give Lirien a bad fright, we might need to reserve him a spot in the hospital."

"You are mine, Tansu. It's time for the rest of the Galaxy to know that too."

Tansu Treicolt

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Everything about the moment felt transformative. Maybe from the atmospheric afterglow of the stars, the clarity in those hazel eyes, or the surety with which Talsin spoke. Maybe it wasn't just one thing, but all parts to create the perfect sum that Tansu recognized as precious and powerful.

"You have been thinking about this for a while." She observed quietly, daring to find a way to scoot onto the bed beside him without causing too much fuss. But the bending over was feeling awkward and like a weird dynamic. She was settled by the time his hand fell to her jaw and he looked at her all sincere and searching, full of promise.

Honestly, she thought she was fine with the semi double life they'd been living. But hearing him profess that she was his, and he'd leave no room for discussion puddled up her insides.

It was not a frivolous choice he was making, she understood it the same way she understood why she'd been a secret in the first place. With this step, Talsin would sacrifice his eligibility for political advantage and bartering — and lessen the chance for an arranged marriage to create harmony between houses. Tansu would be a political detriment for an otherwise eligible bachelor. And in a climate where House Lota might need it most.

But he knew that. And she'd never talk him out of it, at risk of winning the one argument she'd never want to be the victor. She swallowed slowly, face caught by his grasp. Entirely dazzled by this announcement — even just between the two of them.

"And you should know how proud I am to be yours."

If, no, when he did that, he'd enable her to officially help alongside his House.

"I'm going to need you to heal up as fast as you can, your Grace. Because I wanna kiss you real hard real bad."

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

"You have been thinking about this for a while."

She tried to scoot in and he made place for her as much as he could. Suppressed a groan or two, but that was worth it, because eventually they were curled together and Talsin could breathe out.

"Yeah, I have been. Guess it just took some external stimuli to shake it all out into an understandable mass for me."

"I'm going to need you to heal up as fast as you can, your Grace. Because I wanna kiss you real hard real bad."

​

Talsin laughed and it hurt, but it was the good kind of hurt. The one that reminded you that you were still alive. His head shifted, brow against brow, nose to nose.

"I am sure the doctors won't mind if you are extra careful with your Duke." A little tease there before their lips pressed together. It couldn't be too intense, too hungry, his body was still chasing after his head and his head was swimming. From her, from this, from the moment itself. But for the first time in a long time it felt like things were falling together.

There was tragedy, yes, but maybe sometimes that didn't mean there had to be an abyss at the end.

Once the kiss broke he leaned back again, eyes closing. For a while that went okay. Eventually, though, Talsin couldn't help it.

"Have you talked to her?" He asked softly.

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

“Very well,” she smiled, tempered by the affection. Her pointer finger brushed his nose, reset and changed, to give a boop like a punctuation. “More to come on all fronts then.”

She’d match his pace, keep themselves gentle, soft and simply let gratitude lead.

For once, stillness and silence were okay. She could feel the soft rise and fall of his chest and not feel the fear that he might be drawing his last breath. He'd pulled through. More than that, he found clarity and purpose on the other side. She kissed the place where his jaw and ear intersected, proud of him. Inspired by him.

Nestled in as much as she could without something beeping in protest, she let contentment settle.

Then he asked the question she'd anticipated and she made a low, groaning noise and buried her head into the side of his pillow.

"No." Emerged, muffled by the plush. When she pulled her face up, it cracked with distress.

"I don't know what to say. Or how to say it. She was ready to kill you Talsin." Her voice went small, lips wobbled: "That ain't my sister."

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

"No." Emerged, muffled by the plush. When she pulled her face up, it cracked with distress.

"I don't know what to say. Or how to say it. She was ready to kill you Talsin." Her voice went small, lips wobbled: "That ain't my sister."

Nodding there too and Talsin was glad that their thoughts aligned here.

If she had said 'oh, no, actually I can totally see my sister point blank executing a man on his knees for not doing anything besides try to arrest her murderer-friend', they'd be having slightly different problems.

"I don't get why she said all that she said." Tal said softly, stroking her hair as he thought back to those painful moments. "Pretending like I was stealing you, taking you way?" He was not aware that Talin and Tansu's bond was (or had been) so strong that they could listen in on each other the way Talin had in one of the conversations Talin had with Tan.

So it didn't even pop up in his mind that his idea would have caused it. That the very fact of suggesting to Tansu that maybe she needed a break from it all and figure out who she was herself could have been corrupted so badly.

After all, Talin was doing her own thing regularly.

"And... was it just me? Or did she seem to take my words very personal." Brows furrowing. When he had been berating Jonath Kago , Talin Treicolt had reacted almost as if Talsin had been talking to her. It didn't occur to him that he berated Jon for one murder, when Talin had committed many more, because he also couldn't imagine Talin doing that.

"Do you think there is something between Jon and Talin? Trying to arrest someone's lover... could maybe?" Still seemed like an overreaction, but Talsin was grasping at straws here.

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Tansu closed her eyes and tried to think, probing through all she'd felt from her sister, seeking to find a point that stood out as the node of betrayal. Talin had been speaking from a place of conviction, not hypotheticals. Something had occurred where she truly believed that Tansu could be taken from her, that their relationship could be damned by an external force when in reality, the only thing that could break the girls apart was themselves.

"I do not know." She admitted, turning on her side to face him and keep her chin on his shoulder.

"All I can think of is —" and then she blinked. Struck by inspiration. The girls had never kept secrets from one another mostly because they were always together, but when they weren't, they could be.

"Maybe she evesdropped at the wrong time—" She used her elbow to prop herself up, placing a hand on his torso to ensure he didn't get jostled or unsettled by her quick motion. "—We've done it before. Stretch through a distance to see through the other's eyes. But...never.." they'd always been on the same property, or the same planet. And the only planet that Talsin, Talin and Tansu had shared in recent events, prior to Atrisia, had been Denon.

Tansu gasped.

"The night after the drop! That's when she stopped answering all my messages. When you and I were talkin' 'bout.." her hand fell oer her mouth, eyes wide. That had to be it.

"She misconstrued. She had to have misconstrued, and then made it biger in her head than it was, got all wound up and —" which was very believable based on Tansu's own behaviour. If the girls were left to their own devices, with their big, huge, emotions, it could mean disaster for the meek. "That's gotta be it."

Nails to teeth now, an anxious bite and a whispered: Feth.

Her agitated mind was still racing when he asked the follow up question about Talin and Jon. Her eyes drifted from the stars to his face, considering the implications.

"Maybe. We all grew up real close, and after The Drop those two paired off.." Now everything pinched together in thought, brows sloped down, lips pinched up. "But Jon ain't a thing of evil. He looked..completely bewildered. Like he didn't realize what he'd done until after it was over. Something was so off when you were unconscious. I didn't pay much attention 'cus, well," she tilted her head at him, "But he ran off all flustered, didn't get arrested like that little Fox promised, and — I dunno. I think there's something more.

I felt darkness in her Tal, like real darkness. Just at the edges. Somethin' I've never felt before."

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Talsin Lota
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[Talsin Lota]

Tansu Treicolt

Tansu gave him answers, but instead of satisfying his curiosity, it only seemed to be creating more questions.

Jon had pounded into him like a crazed man. Totally and utterly snapped. That was the other sign why he had assumed the two of them might be lovers, because why else would he have gone through it like that? When Talsin thought about himself, thought about Tansu, that was the only way he could imagine ever snapping like that.

If something happened to Tan.

Either way, he nodded. "It wasn't Talin, but it was Talin." He bit his lip and hated that there wasn't an easy answer to this. "Could it have been..." Brows furrowed.

"-no, that's a fancy of flight. It was Talin... and we have seen her be cold before. Remember Coruscant?" Talsin didn't want to remember, because that had been the mission he was on while his parents were being murdered. But Talsin had decided he was the kind of man who could handle it. Now he just had to convince himself of that.

"Maybe... we have been closing our eyes, Tan. Trying to pretend something wasn't happening because that was just easier than dealing with it. Maybe you should talk to her? She is your sister, even if she-"

He grimaced as his mind summoned the image of her fist landing straight in his face. Followed by minutes of meat beating on meat, until he was no longer fully there.

"-even if she made mistakes. She hasn't done anything yet that can't be walked back from."

Not like Jon, at least.

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Tansu felt equal measures of both not wanting and really wanting to talk about it. Like the sheer complication of it made her brain recoil.

"Of course I remember Coruscant." She murmured, looking past the slope of his nose and at the stars. The moon had slivered down to a curved shard outside the window. Her fingers worked mindlessly with a knot of fabric, anxiously fidgeting.

"I want to talk to her.." slid out the admission, "But I keep turning over and over in my mind what I'd say. And I...I can barely get past you being at the wrong end of her blaster." Hands untangled from the blanket and slid over him, resting at his neck to not affect the bandages around his face. "And I just got you back. I don't see talkin' to her until you're walkin' out of here. I'm too twisted up about it."

She flushed and half-smiled sheepishly. "No pressure on your recovery or anythin'

And yeah, yeah it's an excuse but.." the heaviest sigh she'd ever exhaled "—I think I'm just scared about the worst that could happen being worse than this."

____________________________________________________________
Talsin Lota
____________________________________________________________
​

 

[Talsin Lota]

Tansu Treicolt

He felt her teetering on the edge. So many emotions flowing through her and for understandable reasons.

Gently Talsin cupped her jaw again and leaned in to rub his nose against hers. That often helped soothe her, make her a bit more centered in the moment instead of in the how and what's of a murky future.

"Then we wait. The doctors said I will need some physical therapy. My body is mostly okay, just my head being used like a boxing ball. But before Auteme got in there, there was apparently some internal bleeding in places you don't want internal bleeding." Which was anywhere, but especially in your brain regions.

He glanced back to the viewport.

"They say I will make a full recovery baring some extraordinary things happening, but they want me to go through a full cycle of therapy, make sure none of the nerve endings suffered any permanent harm."

All of that to say-

"You got time to figure things out. No need to rush into how you wanna approach it, you know?"