Private Oh, Something's Quiet

[Colette]

Life.

Life had a funny way of surprising you when you least expected it.

For example, Colette had never in her life expected Corazona von Ascania, a noblewoman from Ukatis, to have given birth in a goddamned elevator of all things. And the wild thing too was that the presence of Naboo's king actually did make sense somehow. The elevator? No. The figure head of a sovereign intergalactic nation? Yep.

It had been a few weeks since then, and while you could take the Jedi from Ukatis you could never take Ukatis from the Jedi. The enclave gossiped worse than teenagers, blending fact with fiction to nearly mythologize the whole thing.

Luckily, Colette knew better than to listen. Assignments had kept her away, but the time to meet the little bundle had finally come and there was not a chance in hell Colette would miss it. Her hand rasped in quick succession against the door before she opened it herself and stepped inside.

"Cora?" Her voice rang into the home of her friend and sister as she closed the door behind her. "I made it back!"

Corazona von Ascania

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

The quiet did not last for long. In fact, Cora had forgotten what silence sounded like.

The moment Colette let herself in, she would be made privy to the pitched wail from the other room. It was a tiny voice, but somehow also unwaveringly loud and angry.

Cora staggered into the foyer. Not the prim, polished version of Lady Corazona that Colette was used to. Her hair was bundled into a messy bun. Not cute messy. Not chic messy – but messy messy. It slid down her head, partially undone. Dark rings swallowed her undereyes. Her clothes were mismatched and stained.

"Oh, thank Ashla."

There was no greeting, no bright smile. Just an exhausted Cora shoving a crying infant into Colette's arms before she fled towards the refresher.

"I'll just be a minute!"

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania

Baby: shoved.
Cora: vanished.

This was far from anything new to her. Was the baby loud? Yep! Was it understandable? Definitely. Colette took a moment to register the shock before she gently leaned the small creature against her shoulder. Her voice hummed a gentle melody as she gently patted the baby on the back to try and calm it down.

Eyes wandered around the room. The child had brought more changes to this household than she would have expected.

Baby still crying, shoulder still gently rocking, hand still patting. Colette extended her will through the force to carefully lift one small mess after the other to begin to clean up parts of the kitchen. A lot of the time childcare was just a matter of persistence. Babies had no way of speaking yet, and much like with the most macho of men — once the words ended, the crying began.

"Hush little petal, don't you cry…" Colette's voice, soft, insistent on calm with a melody she had been taught as a child. "When the rain falls you can have your fill…"

She came to a stop by the kitchen window and looked out at the view. The humming continued with Colette stuck between a state of being and non-being.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Luciana continued to cry, as babies do. At least it wasn't the ear-splitting scream she'd occasionally subjected her poor parents to.

Cora had ducked into the refresher for a precious few minutes. When she returned, she didn't look any less exhausted - just a little more relieved.

"Sorry about that, and- oh-"

Colette had been cleaning, and Cora had the sense to look a touch embarrassed. A flush of pink surfaced on sallow cheeks.

"Come here, love," she murmured to the infant as she extracted Lucy from Colette's arms. "Were you good for Aunt Colette?"

Now back with her mother, the babe's wailing diminished into a whine. Cora cooed as she reached down to wipe her daughter's teary cheek with a gentle thumb.

"Thanks," she said to Colette, simple and sincere. "I think she takes after me with how demanding she is. The problem being, sometimes we don't know what it is that she wants."

Cora rested the child against her shoulder, one hand rubbing little circles against her tiny back as she bounced from one foot to the next.

"You're a natural, you know. Looking for a job as a nanny?"

Though she teased, she was clearly grateful for the help.

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania

The child was removed from her care and brought to its mother. The whining quieted and Colette shook her head. Job as a nanny? Colette raised her brows with no small amount of amusement.

"Did I mention I regularly took care of triplets a few years ago?" She asked with a rather unpracticed deadpan expression. "I'm a great babysitter."

With Lucinda in her mother's arms, Colette could get back to helping clear up the place a little. Cora might have tried to make her stop but Colette would insist. It was her being nice, trying to ease the burden just a little.

"Don't think I've ever seen you quite like this before." Colette quipped as she picked up a plastic wrapper and threw it away. "But, it suits you."

"As in you look happy, I mean. How are you feeling?"

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"I'm more exhausted than I've ever been. But also, happier than I've ever been."

It was a strange combination, but an intoxicating one. Cora had never loved someone so deeply, so quickly. It was frightening.

"I have no idea how Valery and Kahlil managed three. We've only got one little tyrant, and she's running us ragged."

Processing information was not her current strong suit. It took a few moments for Colette's comment to land in earnest.

"I've always wanted to be a mother," Cora admitted, swaying gently on her feet while she rubbed Lucy's back. "I never pictured myself washing vomit out of an infant's hair in the middle of the night, though."

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania
Exhaustion sounded about right.

"There's a lot of things Val and Kahl do that I don't understand how they find the energy for." Colette chuckled. "They're not a fair comparison to anyone. They're strange in how much they seem to do almost."

And technically they'd managed one before the triplets and then one more after them. As far as babymaking went they were practically a well-oiled machine.

"Well, I mean, I never pictured myself getting intimate with anyone either, but things change y'know?" She shrugged at that. "I'm still not sure I'll ever be a parent, but that don't mean it's how it'll be forever."

"Right now it's just vomit, but give it a few months until you can start feeding her solid food. You'll practically beg to go back to whatever this is."

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Colette was right. Things do change - and how.

The Alliance had collapsed in less than a year, preceded by the NJO's senior leadership leaving the Order to seek another path. It had shaken Cora's faith in the will of the Force.

Privately, she couldn't help but feel what it had been; abandonment. Only a handful of Knights remained to carry the torch, and she'd all but dropped it after their defeat at Arkania. Perhaps she wasn't any better than those who'd left the Order - perhaps she was just slower to see what they'd seen.

It was a sore spot, alleviated by the tiny balm in her arms. She couldn't help but smile. Small and tired.

Something good had come from all this, at least.

"Did I tell you that I found out I was pregnant in the medbay after Atrisia?"

Cora looked up to Colette now, a tinge of amusement bending her smile. "Seems almost fitting that I had her in an elevator. Chaos from day one."

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania

Colette let out a small amused breath, a chuckle, at the kinda-sorta-joke.

"Right. As long as that elevator goes up and not down." But then she sobered, got serious for a moment. "Just, try not to have the next one in an elevator, okay?"

"I think that, uh… I think hospitals might be a better choice?" Colette's grin resurfaced.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"I'll try not to," she murmured in response. Cora's tired brain hadn't quite picked up that Colette thought she was playing along with a joke. "But we made it to the hospital eventually, after the fact."

Luciana had calmed now, and Cora looked down at the babe with a gleeful coo. "But not before scarring the King of Naboo, first! Yes we did! While I gave unmedicated birth in a stalled elevator and he caught you like a huttaball!"

It had almost seemed like something out of a holodrama. Cora herself hadn't believed it as it was happening, and there was a good chance that she still didn't quite believe it.

Unfortunately for Aurelian Veruna , that particular memory would be seared into his brain for a good while.

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania

They had indeed made it to the hospital, as was evident with Cora being here. Colette smiled at the soft moment between the child and her mother. If that was a huttaball it might just have been the most precious huttaball in the entire galaxy.

"I'm just glad you both made it out okay." Colette admitted and leaned down to pick up a bottle from the floor. "I knew you would, but I was definitely scared when I first heard."

There was a brief moment, call it one of realization, before she tilted her head in confusion.

"So wait, the King of Naboo thing was actually real?"

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"Unfortunately so," Cora's smile tightened at the memory - but there was still a good measure of mirth in her expression. Exhausted mirth.

"Ukatis recently underwent some changes regarding marriage. While I campaigned for them, Aurelian was there to make the Republic's support clear. Then, the elevator we took decided to stall."

Cora looked down to Lucy, who had curled her tiny hands into the fabric of her mother's shirt. She murmured softly, somewhere between a coo and a whine. "Then this one," Cora patted her daughter's back with a gentle hand while swaying from side to side. "Decided to make an appearance."

Cora's smile pursed up at Colette, as if she didn't quite expect to be believed.

"It was chaotic, but we were very fortunate. Alas, I think Aurelian may be taking the stairs from now on."

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania

The marriage thing was a thing Colette had voiced her own confused opinion on. On one hand it was how her own people had ‘fixed the inbreeding problem’, but on the other it was also to take agency from someone which her society had valued as well. Cora was her own person, the women of Ukatis were their own people, and to that extent she was glad that it was being recognized.

She listened when her friend spoke, chuckled when she was done.

“Call me sceptical, but I don’t see royals using their legs to reach anything beyond the third floor.” She mused and crunched a towel into a little ball that she tossed into the garbage. “So this ‘Aurelian’...”

“What’s he like? I have this image of royals, nobles, the like, being some of the most stuck up people in the galaxy.”

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"He is incredibly stuck up, yes."

The speed at which Cora's confirmation came was a little telling.

" Aurelian Veruna is an arrogant, pompous, rake of a man." Maybe that last part wasn't quite true anymore, but still. Luciana began squirming against her mother's shoulder, and her whine took on a particular pitch.

"But," came the loaded pivot, "he actually does seem to care about the Republic and the people within it. He – oh, I'm going to feed her, if that's alright?"

Cora was already lowering the shoulder of her shirt. Nearly a decade ago, she'd have nearly fainted at the prospect. But she was in her own home, Colette was practically her sister, and the baby needed to eat.

"Don't get me wrong, I was suspicious of him and his motives for a long time. He's a politician, so he feels like a snake in the grass. Which he might still be, but…" Lucy grunted as Cora tried to get her settled. "Ukatis hosted refugees after the Alliance fell, using resources from the Republic. He showed up – no cameras, no press. I almost didn't recognize him at first, given how greasy he looked."

Cora's lips twitched upward, not quite a smile, at the memory. "I think that at his core, he's a good man. There's just a lot of pomp to cut through."

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania

An mute chuckle caused Colette’s shoulders to rise and sink accompanied by a headshake. Nobility and privilege were like peas in a pod then. She’d point out how that was the way Colette saw Cora the first time they ever met, but part of her figured that Cora was already aware of that.

The mother moved to feed her child and the friend gave a nod. All things considered Colette was most likely the least prudish person around. At least in terms of the body one inhabited.

“So what you’re saying is that the king cares, but he’s afraid to be vulnerable around others?” Colette asked, always trying her best to cut to the core of her thoughts. “I guess in terms of leadership there are worse traits.”

Just don’t count on others to rely on them for sensitive personal topics. But then, maybe that wasn’t something that’d trouble a king all that much to miss out on.

“Guess there’s a chance I’ll meet some of his people soon enough.” Colette crossed her arms and rocked on her heels. “I, uh…”

“I applied for a role to work more with the Jedi Order’s supply chains.” She admitted with a nervous exhale. “They’re still going over my application, but I figured I might be able to help out with a thing or two that I picked up back in the NJO days. Still have a contact or two that I might be able to get in touch with again, if needed.”

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"Most aristocrats are," she confirmed with a murmur. "We were raised in courts of snakes; if they catch the scent of weakness, however faint, they'll strike." Cora shrugged, a gentle rise and fall of her shoulders. "I can't fault him for the armor. I still wear it, too.”

Slowly, she drifted down into a kitchen chair and adjusted her hold on Lucy. Chubby little fingers braced themselves against their mother's chest, curling into the hem of her shirt. "He's still a friend, though. He stepped up when I needed him to, even if he was out of his depth as a midwife.”

Cora skimmed her own fingertips over the dark wisps of Lucy's hair. At Colette's nervous breath, she lifted her gaze. Surprise slowly settled into the warmth of understanding.

"Supply chain," she repeated thoughtfully. "That suits you well, I think. You've always been good at allocating resources."

This was a big step, for the tribal to show interest in another Jedi Order after the NJO's fallout.

"What made you apply?"

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania
They had been over Colette's opinion on 'mean because I have to be' before. There was no need to repeat the conversation they seemed to have every single time that they met. It was better to focus on the present, and that was the new job.

"I don't know." Colette said and shrugged. "I want to go back to the routine, I guess?"

"Feels like it's the only thing that remains from my life back before the Order. I don't work for a healthier planet anymore. My pacifist ways feel like they are generally frowned upon or seen as complacency. But preparing for long treks across deserts isn't too different than allocating and budgeting resources."

"... I can do that and still be proud of who I am."

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora listened, letting Colette speak her piece without interjection. The soft sounds of Lucy feeding lingered between them in a comfortable silence.

"It can be hard to know when to fight, and when to heal," she murmured. "There are two galactic Sith powers, a revolving door of imperial empires, and countless other threats. We're outnumbered and outgunned. I think that what you're doing is smart."

There was a pause, during which Cora's brow crinkled slightly.

"Pacifism often gets mistaken for complacency, I feel. There's more to being a Jedi than just swinging a saber."

Colette

 

[Colette]

Corazona von Ascania

There was more to being a Jedi than swinging a saber.

"True enough." Colette nodded. "There's also a strange amount of balls and galas to attend as well."

Her eyes set on Corazona almost as if she was trying to find something hidden beneath her skin. Some kind of answer to a question she had barely formulated before her lips slowly parted with a frustrated exhale. She was a part of the nobility, surely she would know.

"What's up with those?" She asked, her head shaking and her brows sinking as she spoke. "It seems like they're just excuses for the rich and famous to be seen by others who are also rich and famous."

"I mean, that can't be the real reason they're held, can it?"

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora shrugged.

"Nobility love holding balls. The bigger, the better - though an exclusive, intimate setting can be just as powerful, if not more so.”

Her fingers idly skimmed the top of Luciana's head. Little hands had fisted into the mother's collar, tiny fingers flexing as she fed.

"Well, you're right, in a way. If a noble wants to stay in the good graces of the aristocracy, they throw and attend parties. Being seen at an event is like currency in that world - if you show up to something, it shows your support for a particular person or cause. Snubbing them sends its own message."

It made sense enough to Cora, but she'd been raised in it. Bred and shaped for it. The floor of a ballroom was akin to a battlefield where alliances, relationships, and business deals could be built as easily as they could be destroyed.

"Have you attended any?"

Colette