#bubububuu the most self indulgent but it was nice to think of

[uldren-sov]

lesson

Just some comfort writing after having some fun stretching out across writing genres lately

Not set in “current” day but definitely some day.  :)

Karo Caya is the lovely @damarlegacy‘s, thank you as always for letting me write him. Elora is mine

The soft patter of rain lent the only sound that pierced the silence of the room. The wall of reinforced windows revealed the streaks of gray and softly rolling gray clouds. It was early evening, the rain slowly starting to let up, as two Sith sat in a red sand covered area. A square of what was once a section of dangerous training implements and complicated obstacles was now a shallow pit covered in the red sands of Korriban. An unfortunate but necessary change for the Sith’s current partner, especially when the Sith wasn’t … quite a Sith. Not for about a decade yet. No, from beside her, Elora felt her partner fidget and sigh and make frustrated hums instead of use the time to start concentrating on some form of control in the Force. Even though this was, most importantly, to start winding down from the full day they had.

But it seemed that’s not going to happen tonight.

She peeked an eye open, spying on the child beside her with a smile. The young girl, now four - and a half, as she liked to remind them - was screwed up in furious concentration before sighing with her whole body, deflating and letting her hands slap down onto the sand. She sagged, grabbing a handful of it and watched it fall through her fingers. Dusty dark brown hair was done up with a french braid, the only thing that kept her bangs in check, and a big red bow that she now pulled off to play with instead now that the sand was boring too. Elora made a motion, just subtly shifting and bumping her side. At that, the girl immediately straightened back up, neck long, eyes closed, bow discarded, and shoulders square. It was all she could do not to laugh as she saw her daughter turn and cautiously check on her. She stared right back and arched an eyebrow in a mock stern look.

“I’m done meditating, mama,” she said without hesitation, apparently changing her tactics in the face of potentially getting caught.

She didn’t even look sheepish, just clear blue eyes watched her expectedly. The cheek and attitude she was growing into gave her such a strange mix of pride and affection. Maybe she should have a bit of worry too, but she couldn’t be bothered to care when she was so amazed to see the ways she changed each and every day.

“You are? Did you think real hard about something?” She said, settling down to sit on her heels as an eager nod was her reply. “What did you think about?”

“I thought about the rain, and I thought about the plants that use the rain to grow, and I thought about the gym-nas-tics and-and how teacher used me to show an example!” she got up halfway to show the run for the fourth time that night, but she stopped herself. It was an improvement, this time was to be still and quiet, not training. She did slowly slide down into a split, resting her chin on her propped up hands to sit back down.

“And I thought about Zathrian -” she continued, Elora had to remind herself it was a boy from the same group under her maths tutor “- and how mean he was today.”

“What happened with Zathrian, dear?” A chill settled in the pit of her stomach, a subtle dread of consequence. While her relationship still wasn’t advertised, certain, vetted, people still knew about them. It didn’t take a clever person to know who had a hand in her birth, not with the green undertones to her already olive skin.

Karo and her were lucky with their daughter, it was true, but still she worried for her sake and just what she’d have to face.

“He thought my bow was stupid and said he was smarter than me,” she huffed angrily, glaring at the memory as a small snarl curled her mouth. The relief was immediate, but even so, a problem was a problem.

“Darling you know that-”

“And he shoved me too!” she snatched her bow up again and started to tie it back to the bottom of her braid. It quieted her for a moment. The answer to Elora was clear, whether or not it was the right one … she’d have to see.

“You know I told you that-”

“You told me not to hurt other-!” but Elora held a finger up in a silent ‘wait.’ A gentle reminder she had to also wait her turn to do things and listen. For Elora, it was just a bad habit to start making her aware of.

“Listen to me,” she said gently, “you are very gifted, and it’s true you should not attack the kids to show off or play around. But, if this Zathrian - or anyone else - wants to shove you? Or hurt you? You fight back, okay?” With that she saw those bright blue eyes start to light up with recognition. No doubt she’d be looking back at this moment and kicking herself for it but that was a problem for another day. “What they’re doing isn’t nice, and if your tutor isn’t doing anything about it-”

“He’s not!” Which might be the correct way to approach this further, going forward; just why was this tutor allowing it in the first place?

“-then you shove him right back. Why?” she asked. Having since turned to her, she fixed the bottom tie of her hair with the bow once again. Big, red, satin, with a pattern on it - belonging to her favorite stuffed krayt dragon and she kept it with her when she couldn’t bring the krayt dragon to tutoring or any other of her studies and practices.

“Because, because it was bad. And if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you,” she recited that half of the simplistic rule.

“That’s right.”

“But if I shove him, isn’t that also a bad thing?”

“No,” she wavered, scrambling as she cleared her throat, “because you did it as the thing that followed the bad thing. It doesn’t count”

“Oh, okay,” and then a pause. “But-” thankfully the front door chimed in a familiar tone and her little head whipped around. Gasping in delight with the biggest smile on her face, she just checked once with Elora. With a wry nod her daughter scrambled out of the sand and sprinted full tilt out of the room.

Thank the stars she wouldn’t have to keep up that line of questioning.

She brushed herself off as, within seconds, there was commotion from the front of their penthouse. She smiled to herself, following the sandy path out the door, down halls, and to the front room to see their daughter had crashed into Karo’s legs, clutching on as she grinned wide in the face of his smile.

“Baby girl, I was just gone for an hour,” she heard him say as she emerged into the room. They found each other’s gaze. A shake of his head and he looked like he was just about to burst with the onslaught of affection as their daughter still held onto him.

“I know! But I did really good tonight! And I wanted to tell you before I went to sleep!” She shot her arms up to be held. Something that they were trying to break her of doing since she was two but still, she was picked up and immediately small limbs were thrown around him. There was a shared look between Elora and him but whatever, it wasn’t a big issue.

“Yeah? You did what mama said?” he said, finally allowed to walk. They met halfway into a quick kiss, it might have only been an hour on a business call but business was still business. His line of work would never not have dangers in it - no matter how good he was. He jerked his head toward the corridor and she nodded: was it time to put her down? Yes it was, the two of them were done for the night.

“Yeah!”

“Yeah?” Elora adjoined with the all-too-innocent answer.

“Well … Sorta,” and at that she looked to her approval; both of them did. Elora gave a half-hearted nod in reply.

“I’ll give you a sorta. So long as we try a bit harder next time?” she said. Karo led with their clutched daughter into her own room, Elora following in tow.

“Okay. Papi, I’m going to shove Zathrian!” She pulled back, looking triumphant as she met Karo’s gaze; the same gaze that slid from their daughter to now pin her with a look. She, on the other hand, didn’t quite have her daughters nerve, instead just holding her hands up slightly. Just wait.

“Why would you shove him?” He masked whatever displeasure he might have had well as he put her down and went to one of the chests of white and orange drawers, pulling out a long pajama shirt which she quickly snatched away. He simply closed the drawer as she got ready for bed all on her own - now that he was here.

“Because he shoved me! And if someone does a bad thing then bad things happen,” she said, a surprising amount of steel in her voice and an impressively righteous look on her face. There was a pause from Karo and an enduring nod. Again Elora shared a look with him, smiling to herself.

“That’s right,” he said as he bent down and kissed the crown of her head. “You did everything? Wash your face? Brush your teeth?” She nodded and he clapped once, rubbing his tattoed hands together. “All right, bedtime.” A quick rush as she scurried to get under the covers. Karo leaned over, tucking her in tight, putting the stuffed and badly worn, thoroughly mended, krayt dragon by her side, and gave a kiss to her cheek. “I love you.”

“Love you. Love you, mama!” she called as Elora still hung by the door and blew a kiss.

“Love you, dear. Good night, sleep tight,” she smiled and waited for Karo to take her hand and lead her out the door before turning the lights off and letting the door close behind them.

“You can tuck her in, you know,” he said, both of their hands finding each others as she arched an eyebrow.

“No, I can’t. Because you do it better, so only you can do it,” she recited their daughter’s words wryly and he responded with a huff of a laugh. “Everything work out all right?”

“Same shit as always, not sure if it’ll be worth it but we’ll see when I get an actual contract,” he said, “I’ll make sure I won’t get calls around this time though.”

“Thank you. Now come here, she’s not the only one who missed you,” she teased warmly, drawing him into her. It didn’t take much for that warmth to spark again between them, as she drew her hands up his arms and pulled him tighter against her, walking him back against the wall. She felt the pads of his fingertips draw along her back to her hips as what was at first, just something playful, started burning into something hotter. She pulled away, dragging her fingers through his hair.

“You don’t mind what I told her?” she had to check for sure, though, before anything else.

“No. She’s gotta defend herself,” he gave a bit of a frown and a shrug, “for better or worse. Might as well start it when it’s starting to happen.”

“My sentiment exactly,” she said before curling her fingers over his scalp and dragging him back into a kiss. Leaning into him to keep him pressed back, she kissed him until he moaned, until he ducked down to tug her leg onto the curve of his hip.

Invariably there was now always the thought of how, well, now one was out of the way. What about one more?

But siblings were a tricky subject for both of them and, as they managed half-dressed, to make their way into their bedroom, she figured that could be a conversation for another night.