Beyond - Legends Bloom | Renewal!verse ficlet collection | Legends, AU, L/M

Title: Bloom
Author: Gabri_Jade

Genre: could be anything
Timeframe: probably mostly Legends New Republic era; potentially Legends Saga and Legends Before
Characters: Mara Jade, Luke Skywalker, Jade/Skywalker family OCs, others

Author’s Notes: What it says on the tin: this will be a catchall thread for random ficlets from my Renewal!verse series. I generally recommend reading Renewal first. It’s not strictly necessary and I do try to make each installment in this ‘verse workable as a standalone, but things will probably make more sense that way. If you haven’t read Renewal, here’s a quick summary to help set the scene:

Spoiler: Renewal summary

When Palpatine took Mara from her family, her parents, Ronan and Nadira Jade, survived despite Palpatine ordering their execution. They spent years on the run out of fear that Palpatine might be searching for them, during which time they had two more children, Nico and Corissa. They reached out to Mara approximately six months after The Last Command, after seeing mentions of her in news reports about the new Smugglers' Alliance and its liaison. Now Mara faces the challenges and rewards of reuniting with the family she never knew.

The rest of the Renewal!verse so far:

Renewal
Fragments of Jade
Fractured
The Story So Far
And They Danced
From the Ground Up
Goes On and On

I have no idea how often ficlet inspiration will strike, but hey, I had one slightly odd standalone story to post, Mira suggested that a collection thread would be a useful thing, and she’s right, it would be handy to have a place to put future very short (or slightly odd ) Renewal stories, so here we are. Title comes from the song of the same name by Sleeping At Last, which is an L/M song if I ever heard one.


Index:

1. When You Look Like That | Ronan Jade/Nadira Jade, Nico Jade/Rielle Amalyse Jade, Corissa Jade Vasseron/Julian Vasseron, Luke Skywalker/Mara Jade Skywalker

 

Title: When You Look Like That

Genre: romance, fluff/mush
Timeframe: 20 BBY - 19 ABY
Characters: Ronan Jade/Nadira Jade, Nico Jade/Rielle Amalyse Jade, Corissa Jade Vasseron/Julian Vasseron, Luke Skywalker/Mara Jade Skywalker

Summary: You’re welcome.

Notes: Okay, seriously, here’s the thing: every algorithm I touch learns quickly that I like books, so I tend to see all sorts of even vaguely book-related content. A couple of weeks ago Threads decided to show me a post by caitlynbattellebooks that read: “My husband just walked out from the shower in only his towel and proceeded to stand there with one hand behind his head and moved into a one handed door frame lean. WHO GAVE HIM A ROMANCE BOOK?! *the men are learnnnnning*”, and because this is what our friendship is like, I promptly forwarded it to Vi and pointed out that this would be a very Ferrus move. She agreed, we laughed, we moved on.

Or so I thought.

Because on the last day of the word race, when I had 3600 words left to meet my goal and doubted I’d manage it, Vi said, “You haven’t written any towel-clad door leans yet, and you have a bunch of male characters to work with.”

Reader, she was right. And that’s the story of how I wrote nearly 3700 words in a day thanks to the inspiration of towel-clad men leaning on doors, and the chance to briefly represent the female gaze in fiction. Please enjoy the men of Renewal being clueless / seductive / awkward / nonchalant / whatever while wearing only towels. TOS-friendly, of course.

Title from Stars Turn Cold, by The Bygones. Thank you to @Mira_Jade for the summary and @ViariSkywalker for the inspiration and beta work

---

Ronan


“Nadira?”

Deeply engrossed in her studies as she was, the voice barely registered with Nadira Jade at first. The neighborhood was a noisy one, in a noisy city on a noisy world, and every Coruscanti learned young to pay little attention to the ambient sounds surrounding them unless it was of immediate importance. Slowly, though, the cadence of her own name began to penetrate her absorption, and when it came again, she pulled her attention from the page full of numbers that currently occupied her datapad’s screen.

“Na—oh, there you are.”

Looking up at last, Nadira found her husband of two weeks standing in the doorway to the living room, clad only in a towel. He was leaning with one forearm against the doorframe, his other hand behind his head, and her breath caught at the sight.

Ronan looked back at her—completely unaware, she realized with sudden amusement, of the picture he presented. “What are you doing?”

“Studying for my next level accounting certification,” Nadira told him, pushing the datapad away and leaning back in her chair, the better to observe him. “Remember?”

“Oh, right,” Ronan said, wincing a little. Somehow the effect only served to make him look more appealing. She really wasn’t sure how that worked, considering how rarely it seemed to occur to him to use his physical appearance to any advantage. Truth be told, Nadira wasn’t sure that Ronan even realized that he was attractive. He always presented himself well and neatly, but his current—well, one could really only call it sultry—pose was something he’d probably never think to do deliberately.

A pity, that.

“Sorry,” he continued, glancing back over his shoulder toward the bedroom and still somehow heedless to this whole situation: how each move only highlighted the sculpted musculature that mechanic work had given his otherwise slender form, how the towel wasn’t really fastened all that securely, even how Nadira was sweeping her eyes up and down his body with appreciation. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

“Oh no, no,” she assured him, lifting an eyebrow as he lowered the hand that had been behind his head to his hip. Right at the edge of the towel, she noted. He was still leaning against the doorframe with the other arm, the casual slant adding a wholly unexpected level to the allure. She wondered if she could come up with plausible reasons in the future to ask him to lean shirtless against things, and how she could prolong the current fortunate occasion. “I don’t mind at all.”

“It’s stupid, really,” he said, a self-conscious expression coming across his face.

He had, Nadira remembered, worn that same expression when they first met, and was just as unaware of her own interest. It was as adorable now as it had been then. “I’m sure it’s not.”

“It is,” he said with a grimace. “And you’re busy, I’ll just—”

“Not at all,” she said firmly before he could push away from the doorframe. “I insist. What is it?”

“I can’t find a clean work shirt.”

Nadira leaned an elbow on the table and propped her cheek against her hand. “That is a shame.”

Ronan narrowed his eyes at her, but with confusion, not suspicion. This ridiculous man was going to be the death of her. “The one I wore yesterday is dirty, and I can’t go to work like this.”

“Definitely not,” she agreed. “So unprofessional.”

“Un—” He tilted his head at her, which had the very nice effect of lengthening the line of his neck. Which led down to his shoulder, which led to a very nicely muscled chest… “Are you making fun of me?”

Nadira couldn’t help but smile. “Hardly, my darling. I completely agree that you should be fully clothed outside of this apartment. Inside it, now…”

Ronan finally thought to look down at himself, then back at her, a faint blush beginning to tint his cheeks. “Are you—”

“Admiring the view?” Nadira asked, letting her smile widen. “Oh, yes, absolutely.”

He abruptly pushed himself from the doorframe to stand upright, clearing his throat and suddenly unable to let his eyes rest anywhere; he glanced back at her, then swiftly away, at the kitchen, at the floor, over his shoulder again. “I’ll find it myself,” he said, and retreated down the hallway.

Nadira sighed, though the smile remained. It had been nice while it lasted. “They’re folded in the third drawer,” she called.

Somehow the embarrassment was clearly audible in his voice even halfway across the apartment, the poor dear. “I usually hang them up.”

“I’ll remember that the next time I do the washing,” she promised. “Don’t forget your pants, now.”

The bedroom door shut rather hastily, and Nadira had to cover her face with her hands to muffle her laughter.

She was once again properly absorbed in the contents of her datapad by the time Ronan emerged, dressed this time. Sneaking a peek out of the corner of her eye, she noticed with even more amusement than before that his shirt was fastened all the way to the collar rather than slightly open as usual.

“Your lunch is in the conservator,” she told him without looking up. He was flustered enough as it was; no need to make things worse right before he was going to be spending hours working with heavy machinery and power tools.

“Thanks,” he muttered, swerving almost reluctantly from his path to the door into the kitchen to retrieve it, then resuming course. “Love you.”

“Love you too,” she replied as casually as possible, waiting for the door to close behind him before she looked up to smile fondly at it, wondering idly just how many women before her had tried to flirt with Ronan and assumed him to be uninterested rather than oblivious.

Oblivious, but impossibly sweet and kind and unassuming and also really extremely handsome, especially under certain circumstances that she was definitely going to have to find ways to repeat despite his self-consciousness. She was pretty sure that she could eventually persuade him that she would make it worth his while.

Smiling to herself, Nadira returned her attention to the equations before her.



Ronan 2


“I’m home,” Ronan called as the front door opened.

Nadira had realized that as soon as she heard the speeder pull up, of course. With all the children grown and out of the house, there was only one person that arrival could be.

It was nice, in many ways, to have the house just to themselves like this, as they hadn’t since Mara’s birth. Quiet, peaceful, cozy. And the house and yard they now had, in its quiet neighborhood, was such a change from their original apartment on Coruscant. It was good to have this chance to reconnect so completely, with no distractions.

But she did feel the absence of the children nevertheless: the chatter and laughter and even the bickering. That had been their life for so long that this readjustment was taking more time than she’d imagined it would.

She’d concentrate on the good points, Nadira decided firmly. And one of those good points was that her husband was home and now they could spend the evening focusing on each other.

“Hi,” she called back.

Ronan joined her in the living room, smudges of grease staining his face and hands and even hair. “Busy day, I take it?” she asked.

“Very,” he said. “But no actual problems, and Mara stopped by to help for a few hours.”

Nadira set down her work and smiled at him. It meant so much to Ronan and Mara both to have time like that together, and it had been harder for Mara to manage it since Nakari had been born. “That’s wonderful.”

“It was,” Ronan agreed. “What have you been up to?”

Nadira’s smile turned rueful as she lifted the tiny sweater she was trying to knit. “It’s a good thing I have several more months before Nico and Rielle’s baby gets here. I’m going to need every minute of it.”

“No, it looks amazing,” he assured her. “And you used to make things like that anyway.”

“Not all that often,” Nadira sighed. “Mom was always much better at it than I was, and now Mara is.”

“Well, I think it looks great, and you’re every bit as talented as either of them,” Ronan declared. “But I’ll have to save a closer look for after my shower. Can’t risk getting all this dirt on your hard work.”

“Certainly not,” she replied with mock horror. “Off with you.”

Ronan grinned and retreated down the hall, and Nadira returned her attention to her knitting.

She was so intent on her work that it took the rather pointed sound of a throat clearing before she looked up, blinking with surprise when she did. There in the doorway was Ronan again, leaning on the frame and looking expectantly back at her, wearing only a towel slung low around his waist.

Nadira caught her lips twitching treacherously, and only just managed to keep the answering smile off her face. “Ronan Jade, you can’t just walk around like that.”

“Sure I can,” he replied easily. “The kids all have their own places nowadays, or hadn’t you noticed?”

She set her knitting on her lap and folded her hands docilely over it. “You’re dripping water on the floor.”

Ronan only lifted an eyebrow. “Really? That’s all you’ve got?”

“I have to make dinner.”

“Dinner can wait.”

Nadira leaned back and looked him up and down, lifting an eyebrow of her own. All these years together and he was still the handsomest man she’d ever seen—and he knew her weaknesses and wasn’t afraid to use them against her like this, either.

She wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Well,” she said, letting her smile break free at last as she rose to join him. “As long as we have the place to ourselves.”

---

Nico


Nico Jade stood before the fresher mirror and tucked the towel around his waist into a more secure hold, assessed his reflection, then inched the towel a little lower on his hips and looked himself over again.

It was ridiculous, this whole thing was ridiculous, he felt ridiculous, and for a long moment he considered just replacing the towel with his actual clothes like a normal person and going to make sandwiches or something instead. Who in his right mind tried to seduce his own wife in the middle of the day? And in a towel, no less?

He honestly had no idea.

Nico had never been good at this sort of thing, not ever. He’d married the first woman he’d ever really dated seriously, and they’d only actually been married for a couple of months, so attempted seduction was emphatically not something he felt confident about. He supposed that he could ask Dad for advice, but that would involve thinking about his father seducing his mother and frankly Nico would rather just die right here and now. There was Luke, of course, but that would involve thinking about his sister being seduced, which wasn’t any better than the first scenario. He didn’t feel comfortable asking any friends about such a thing either, because even if they had good advice, then they would be thinking about his wife being seduced, which wasn’t something he wanted anyone at all besides himself to be thinking about.

On the other hand, Rielle had married him despite all the awkwardness that inevitably came along with him, so that was reassuring.

And she had a few lacy things that he always quite enjoyed when she wore them, and it was only fair to return the favor, right? A towel hardly seemed to be on the same level as that, but if there were items that served as proper masculine parallels, he didn’t know about them. It was fully clothed, not clothed at all, or a towel. And if he did this properly, then it would come off as casually confident. Supposedly.

Nico took a deep breath, adjusted the towel again, ran a hand through his hair, nodded at his reflection with an assurance that wasn’t fooling anyone, least of all him, and headed out into the hallway toward the studio.

He paused just outside the studio doorway, peeking around the edge to locate Rielle within the room and also in order to gain a few extra heartbeats to gather his courage, then boldly stepped forward, lifting an arm to lean against the frame and trying to pitch his voice just a little lower than usual. “Hey, beautiful. Come here often?”

From across the room where she stood at an easel, the late morning sunshine slanting through the windows at an angle that gilded her dark hair, Rielle looked up, eyebrows raised. Their eyes met; hers widened, looking him up and down, and then his lovely and adored wife dissolved into giggles.

“Oh my gods,” Nico said, dropping the pose to stand upright and tug the towel a little higher around his waist. “Seriously? Seriously?”

Rielle made a masterful attempt to choke back her laughter, but was only partially successful. “I’m sorry, it’s just—” The giggles overwhelmed her again.

“This is not doing wonders for my self-esteem,” Nico told her, making sure the towel was securely fastened before crossing his arms over his chest.

Rielle set down her brush and palette, lifting a hand to sweep back a strand of hair that had escaped her ponytail. “I just—’come here often?’”

Nico flung his arms out to his sides, exasperated, banging the back of his hand against the doorframe in the process. “Ow,” he said, shaking it. “I don’t know a lot of pickup lines, okay?”

“Why exactly do you think you need a pickup line with me?” Rielle’s lips were still twitching, but she managed to keep her composure as she came over and tried to take the hand he’d whacked. He pulled it away a bit peevishly, but she managed to catch and examine it nevertheless. “I don’t think it’ll bruise. Now, seriously, why are you trying pickup lines in our own home?”

“Because—” Every explanation that came to mind sounded more foolish than the next. “I was trying to seduce you. I guess.”

Her lips twitched again. “I appreciate the effort.”

Nico took his hand back to point warningly at her. “Don’t start.”

“No, I do! I just don’t understand why you seem to think that you have to pretend to be a different person to seduce me.”

“I’m not trying to be a different person!” he protested. “I’m trying to be myself. Just…seductive.”

Rielle gave up her attempts at keeping a straight face and smiled openly at him. “Because you aren’t seductive without acting like some weirdo in a cantina? How exactly do you explain this marriage, then? Because you have definitely seduced me. Just the other night, in fact, I seem to recall—”

“Yes, thank you, I remember.” His cheeks were warm enough that they had to be flaming.

“So why all this?”

“Because—” Nico found himself at a loss for words. “Because I love you. Because you’re amazing and brilliant and beautiful and you deserve a husband who doesn’t take you for granted.”

She smiled at him again, her light blue eyes softening. “And that,” she said, placing a hand on his shoulder and standing on tiptoe to kiss him, “is why I married you. Not pickup lines.”

“Um.” The brief burst of eloquence driven by embarrassed desperation fled, leaving him with nothing more than that single syllable in response. “I—I guess I’ll go get dressed, then.”

Rielle caught his arm before he could turn away. “Absolutely not.”

Nico paused, eyeing her. “No?”

“No,” she said firmly. “The pickup lines, I can do without. The towel and the leaning and all that, though…” She took his arm and replaced it on the doorframe, looking at him critically and arranging him as she would a model at a live drawing class, until he was once again leaning at an angle against the door, the other arm up and bent with his hand behind his head, his chin tilted slightly down. Rielle stepped back and assessed the pose, then nodded. “Now you’re going to stay exactly like that until I get this sketched.”

Nico groaned. “You are not selling a drawing of this.”

“I should think not,” Rielle answered as she retrieved a sketchpad and pencil and dragged a stool over in front of him. “This is all mine. And afterward—” She smiled up at him again, a familiar glint in her eyes. “—we’ll see about that seduction business.”

Nico tried to keep the smile off his own face at that, then gave up and allowed it free rein. Rielle herself clearly didn’t mind, after all. Preferred it, even.

And that, he decided happily, was everything he could have hoped for.

---

Julian


“So, I’ve been thinking about something.”

Corissa Jade Vasseron looked up from where she sat on the bed, the latest issue of Contruum’s premiere ballet magazine propped on her bent knees, to find before her an unexpected sight.

It was an appealing sight, though. A very appealing one, even.

Her husband was standing in the ‘fresher door, an arm lifted to lean against the frame as he combed his fingers through his damp hair with the other hand, leaving the dark waves nearly as disheveled as before.

Clad only in a towel.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t seen him in a towel before, but it was unlike Julian to carry on prolonged conversations in such a state. He generally was quick and efficient about showering and dressing, and the towel stage consumed so little time in his day that she’d really only caught a handful of glimpses of it in the six months that they’d been married.

And that, she decided now, was a shame. An absolute shame, and something needed to be done about it. Because he looked damn good wearing only a towel. Especially when tilted at that casual angle.

“Are you listening?” Julian’s eyebrows were raised now, and Corissa collected her thoughts and kept her expression schooled to mild interest. If he realized that she was paying more attention to the lines of his chest and the subtle movement of muscles beneath skin as he shifted his weight into that lean than she was his words, he’d probably go put clothes on before continuing with whatever he had to say.

And she wasn’t having that at all.

“Sorry,” she said lightly. “Got distracted for a minute. What were you saying?”

He sighed, apparently accepting her words at face value. Good. “I was asking,” he said patiently, “when Nico and Rielle’s baby was due again.”

She knit her own brows together. What could that have to do with anything Julian would have been thinking about, beyond perhaps what they should choose as a baby gift—everything, obviously—or maybe the scheduling difficulties that might be faced to take a quick trip home after their new niece was born? “Five months.”

Julian nodded. “And Nakari’s four, and Rylan two, and Kaela one,” he said, as if to himself.

Corissa set her magazine aside and leaned forward into a cross-legged position, confused and maybe a little bit annoyed. She loved her nieces and nephew dearly, and in most circumstances would welcome the opportunity to talk about them. But right now Julian was hanging out in a towel like it was a perfectly ordinary thing for him to do, when it really wasn’t and she would really like it to be, and it was proving to be somewhat difficult to properly admire her husband’s extremely nice physique while dividing her attention this way.

“You already know all of that,” she reminded him, hoping to move the conversation on. “So what were you thinking about?”

“I was thinking,” he said, rolling his shoulders back in the sort of relaxed loosening motion so many dancers did without conscious thought but which happened to look pretty fantastic on her handsome husband when he wasn’t wearing a shirt, “that it’s a shame to be so far away when they’re growing up so fast. We’re missing out on a lot.”

“Well, yes,” Corissa admitted, a slight pang penetrating her preoccupation. “But this is where our work is.”

“It’s where it is now,” Julian corrected. “It’s not where it always has to be.”

Corissa leaned forward some more, looking at him through narrowed eyes. “What aren’t you saying?”

Julian tilted his head, but she could see right through the unconcerned facade. “I’ve gotten word about an impending shakeup in the Awalia City company. They’re planning a considerable restructuring of the whole organization. A friend of mine recommended me for the new artistic director position.”

Awalia City—home, where all of her family lived. Both of Corissa’s hands flew to her mouth before she realized it. “No.”

The corners of Julian’s mouth were twitching tellingly now. “They’re looking for new principals, too. It’s not public knowledge yet, but there are some retirements and transfers in the works. Very nearly starting from a clean slate.”

“You’re joking. You’re joking, right? I’m going to kill you if you’re joking.”

The smile that had been lurking on Julian’s face came fully out of concealment. “It’ll be almost a year before all this is official, mind. But the positions are ours if we want them.”

Corissa bounced off the bed in one smooth motion and dashed to the doorway, throwing her arms around his neck and holding on tight. His own arms went around her and he was warm and strong and solid and she loved him so much. He leaned down to kiss her and she pulled him even closer, an eternity passing before they broke apart to catch their breath.

“Thought you’d like that,” he said, grinning.

“You,” she proclaimed, “are the best husband. The very best.”

“I know,” he replied rather smugly, and she rolled her eyes.

“I just have one request,” she told him seriously. “Well, two.”

“And those are?”

“First, that you stand around wearing only a towel more often. I like the view.”

“Ah. And the second?”

“That you lose the towel.”

---

Luke


“You’re sure we have to go to this thing?”

His wife’s resigned voice was pitched to carry from the bedroom into the ‘fresher and over the streaming water of his shower, and Luke Skywalker couldn’t help but sigh himself. He didn’t especially want to attend tonight’s government banquet either, but between his status stemming from both his history with the Rebellion and his current position as one of the very few Jedi of the New Republic and Mara’s work as Liaison to the Smugglers’ Alliance plus being another of those very few Jedi, it was the sort of thing they usually got roped into.

It could be worse, of course. They could be preparing to go into battle, or trekking through an untamed wilderness while being tracked by vornskrs and Imperials, or breaking into a Star Destroyer.

On the other hand, at least all of those endeavors had been interesting.

“So Leia says,” he called back, turning the water off. He reached for a towel and wrapped it around his waist before stepping out of the shower, then grabbed another and vigorously dried his hair. In the steam-edged mirror over the sink, his reflection looked back at him, hair now sticking out in all directions. Luke made a face at himself and ran his hands through it until it looked marginally less disheveled.

“They don’t need us,” Mara continued complaining from the bedroom. “All we’re going to do is be introduced to the latest visiting dignitary and then eat dinner with a room full of people whose main talent in life is coming up with endlessly boring topics of conversation.”

Luke chuckled. “Basically.”

Her exasperated huff of breath carried all the way to the ‘fresher, and Luke temporarily gave up on tidying his hair in favor of going to the ‘fresher door, leaning his shoulder against the frame and folding his arms over his chest to watch Mara as she stood before the closet, scowling at her assortment of formal gowns. “Do you think the green dress,” she began to call, “or—” She turned, presumably for the sake of helping her voice carry, then stopped, blinking at him. “Oh.”

“‘Oh’, what?” Luke asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Just ‘oh’,” Mara said, but her eyes were no longer on his. Instead they were slipping down the length of his body, then back up again, lingering at his hips and along his chest, before meeting his own again. She tilted her head just slightly, a hand slipping up to tug absently at a lock of her hair.

Luke let his second eyebrow join the first, suppressing the smile that wanted to escape. He glanced down at himself, assessing his own state of undress, then back up at Mara—who, if he wasn’t mistaken, was breathing just a little more quickly than before, “Oh,” he said smugly.

Her eyes flashed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just ‘oh’,” Luke replied. He laced his fingers together and stretched his arms languorously toward the ceiling, then slowly brought them down again, hands clasped behind his head. “The green dress, or…?”

Mara’s gaze followed the movement; came back down to his eyes, his chest, back to his eyes. “What?”

“You were asking me about dresses,” Luke reminded her.

With an obvious effort, she looked from him to the row of gowns, then shook her head distractedly. “Never mind.” She set a hand on the frame of the closet door and took a slow breath, then turned back to him, lifting her chin defiantly. “Are you done in there?”

“More or less,” Luke said, adjusting his stance so that his forearm rested against the door frame, with his other hand casually on his hip. “Why?”

“Don’t play games, Skywalker,” Mara warned him. “We don’t have time for it.”

“You’re right,” he agreed. “We’re due to sit in a stuffy state dining room listening to boring conversation all night. We wouldn’t want to be late for that.”

“You’re not nearly as funny as you think you are,” she said, squaring her shoulders and heading toward the ‘fresher, clearly intending to march through the doorway no matter how much room he might be taking up there.

Luke waited until she was nearly alongside him, just beginning to turn sideways to squeeze past, then shifted his weight in one smooth motion so that the hand that had been on his hip was now above both their heads on the other side of the doorway and his body was angled so that they were face to face, only centimeters apart, her back against the frame.

It was a risky maneuver, he knew. Mara was far more accomplished at hand to hand combat than he was and could easily incapacitate him at such incredibly close range if she wanted to.

The flush that came to her cheeks and the sudden hitch in her breath told him that wasn’t at all what she wanted.

“Funny isn’t quite what I was aiming for,” he said.

“We have to go to dinner,” Mara told him a little breathlessly, her eyes locked with his.

He raised a hand to trace her jawline with his fingertips. “I thought you didn’t want to go.”

She bit her lower lip. “Leia will be annoyed.”

“Who?”

Her eyes had gone gratifyingly dark. “And what will we say when people ask why we weren’t there?”

Luke let his hand drift to the side of her neck, tipping her chin up with his thumb, and tilted his face low enough to graze her lips with his own. “We forgot.”

“I haven’t forgotten,” Mara whispered, despite the fact that her hands were on his bare chest now, sliding up to his shoulders.

“You will,” Luke promised, and drew her close.

 

*snags first post like it's 2003*

MIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE

 

SQUEE SQUEE! MELTY MELTY LIKE CHOCOLATE, LIKE TIRAMISU!

Thank you @ViariSkywalker for insisting that this delectable thingy was posted. !!

 

oh don't thank me, thank Gabri for being up to the challenge and for having so many OCs worth admiring. (And also for her very positive reaction to the two shirtless Ferrus scenes I wrote after she showed me that Threads post. After that I figured it was only fair for her to join in the door lean fun... ) I didn't insist, she was more than happy to oblige.

 

I love this family of your OC's. Males only dressed in towels and admired by their women. Sweet and seducing.

 

@ViariSkywalker

Look at you go

Cracks me up how much that Threads post has inspired just between us and Elli so far (Vi, I need to read those Ferrus scenes again; link me )

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha

Glad you liked it!

@earlybird-obi-wan

I love them too And they are indeed admired Thank you!

@Mira_Jade

You lay down a perfect summary like that and I'm going to use it

And I really wasn't sure what I'd do with any of it while I was writing it, but dang if it didn't just flow once I started, and then I just loved it so much that I had to post it, even if it was a slightly odd format

Heh, I only realized when you said this that while it's very clear in my head that Nadira has windows open, I didn't really say as much within the text. Whoops Anyway, yes, however insulated those buildings are, people simply have to open windows or balconies at times, and that's going to let all the noise in. When I was a kid, my family lived for a while right next to a freeway, and it was amazing how noisy it was when we first moved in, and how quickly we went to not noticing it at all, and that's kind of what I was thinking of for Nadira not noticing right away that Ronan was calling her: she's so very used to ignoring background noise, and with the windows open, her brain reflexively blended his voice into that background.

HE JUST IS

Me too, tbh

They really are newlyweds here, and Ronan just genuinely doesn't think of himself this way - it's not that he thinks he's unattractive, it just plain doesn't occur to him that someone else might find him physically appealing. And it's completely unexpected in this particular context, where he has to very soon leave for work and can't find his uniform, y'know? Nadira just took him completely by surprise, and now he's self-conscious

But he'll get comfortable with such aspects of their relationship soon enough

He's so adorable, Mira, he is the most adorable

Why, thank you

They're just such a good match, Mira And after so many stories with them playing the wise and loving parents role, it was really fun to write a glimpse of them as carefree young newlyweds

Ronan is now very self-conscious, and he's thinking about - ahem - not-work things while he still has to head off to work, and he knows Nadira is laughing at him (however lovingly), and he is flustered, Mira

It's funny that before writing that first meeting between them, I had no real thoughts as to how either of them would have behaved - but once I did start writing, it became very obvious very quickly that of course Ronan would be twitterpated and awkward and Nadira wouldn't let him get away that easily

Yes, all of this As much as I loved writing them as a young couple, it just didn't feel complete if I didn't show how they've both grown. And the whole empty nest stage seemed as worth exploring as the newlywed one

Aw, shucks

And to think that all of that came about simply because I wanted Mara's parents to have a few of her favorite childhood belongings to return to her in Renewal - that tangible connection to the life she once had was a small detail, but carried some heavy weight within the narrative - and in deciding what they would be, I thought about the baby blanket my own great-grandmother crocheted for me, that I still have. Later on, it seemed so natural that Mara would want to give that same sort of gift and connection to her own children, and then to her nieces and nephews

I sincerely have no idea why established couples get neglected so often in shows and movies and heck, even books - this is by far the most interesting stage as far as I'm concerned. And I just love Ronan and Nadira so much, and the fact that they've overcome so incredibly much and come out on the other side stronger and more in love than ever - I love that, and it deserves to be explored.

lol

LOL there may indeed be a few similarities between our introverts. Nico is less murdery, though

Nico's a bit of an overthinker

I can imagine Han doing such a thing, but the problem is that I don't think Rielle would be thrilled with Han's ideas of romance. She's not impressed with scoundrels

He's overthinking again

He IS, Mira! He's a bit awkward, and he's overthinking things, but his heart is pure and he's trying so hard

SO CLOSE

He really can't; he's his father's son And of course it makes him feel all the more awkward that this lovely and adored wife thinks his very deliberate seduction attempt is hilariously funny

lol, it's an understandable short-circuit

And that's exactly it: Rielle was always attracted to who he is, not some hypothetical person he thinks he should be.

(Right? I was thinking about how he'd react to her giggles, and he would definitely throw his hands exasperatedly to the side - but he is standing in a doorway. Ouch )

I'm pretty fond of it myself

Nico really is so genuinely Ronan's son when it comes to romance. He might be self-conscious and awkward, but he's so, so sincere, and he loves Rielle so, so much. That was a big part of what I liked best about this towel lean: Nico didn't do this for his own sake (however much he might personally enjoy any seduction ). From the beginning, his thought process was entirely what he thought Rielle might like, simply because he wanted to please her.

What can I say, the Jade women know what they want, and the Jade men are awkwardly sincere saps

Rielle fits right into the family in that sense

She is an artist, after all

The Jade women know what they want Corissa is just perhaps a little more flamboyantly outspoken about it than her mother and sister

See, Corissa can be sensible!

It was the differences in personality that made this scenario worth exploring, and Corissa and Julian were definitely fun because yeah, they've spent years and years paying close attention to the aesthetic positioning of their bodies, in skintight outfits, in front of an audience. It's not something either of them is particularly self-conscious about, and certainly not in front of each other.

Heh, "seem" is the key word here Julian notices, but he's ignoring it Because the whole towel thing is incidental; he's not trying to seduce her, he just decided this was a good time to tell her this news and didn't care about the towel himself. Corissa's right that if she let on that she was distracted enough to not pay attention to his words, Julian would just roll his eyes, go get dressed, and then continue the conversation. Seduction is all well and good, but he has something to say first

lol I'm not surprised

I'm glad it did, because that's just Corissa, y'know? She's just so completely open with her emotions that she's a very "leapt off the page" sort of character under any circumstances.

Why, thank you

She's just not shy Again, I wouldn't have bothered to write this scenario repeatedly like this even as an exercise if it was just the same thing over and over again, but despite it being the same basic premise each time, the different personalities involved made each little story unique.

This is in fact something that I think most of the profic (and a lot of fanfic) gets wrong about Luke. So often he gets characterized as the perfectly serene Jedi, even to the point of passivity, but to do that is to dismiss the entire OT. Yes, absolutely, Luke grows and matures and becomes vastly more patient than he once was, but I think it's important to remember the core of who he is, and the inherent traits he possesses that will translate to strengths or weaknesses or challenges, depending on the circumstances. Luke is impatient and impulsive and has a temper and is something of an adrenaline junkie. Just because he can be the serene Jedi Knight putting on a polite face for various dignitaries doesn't mean it's something he wants to do, or that comes easily to him.

Leia understands the importance of these reminders because she knows very well that her brother is an impatient and impulsive adrenaline junkie who thinks formal galas and their like are painfully boring and he'd wiggle out of them if he could She also knows that although Mara is better with such things, Mara also mostly thinks they're dull and would be happy to do anything else. And although Leia is best of all at handling these occasions, she doesn't love them either, and is not only pushing the correct view that Luke and Mara need to play the game and be at such functions to remind everyone of the importance of building a new Jedi Order, although that's her main argument. Deep down, there's also the aspect of, "if I have to suffer through this, so do you"

He IS

Thank you kindly Like we said, Luke is a fighter pilot jock, with all the ego that implies. He's generally good about keeping it in check; he's still basically a humble person, and he's not a playboy. But if he happens to notice that his wife is thus distracted without him even trying - well. It's going to make him smug, and now he's going to try. And Mara, of course, knows what he's doing and isn't about to lose this battle of wills...or so she thinks

He's being very distracting

I have to disagree with you here, Mira: I think that Leia will understand in the sense that no matter what excuse Luke and Mara offer up, she'll strongly suspect what the real reason was, and she will be peeved But it's too late at that point, and frankly I have the image in my head of Leia cornering Mara with something along the lines of, "I know perfectly well neither of you forgot, so what exactly was so important that you blew off this important thing that I spent so long arranging," and Mara being all, "okay, fine, well, Luke was in a towel, you see" whereupon Leia immediately is like, "STOP RIGHT THERE, I DON'T WANT TO KNOW but also you better not pull this again." (To which Mara replies, "I think you'll have to take that up with your brother," and Leia is like, "that's it I'm leaving but you'd better be at the next one, so help me")

LOLOL

Aw, I love that description, thank you

I really don't know what else might wind up in this thread, but it seemed like a useful place to potentially put a handful of drabbles or a fifty sentence challenge or another little writing exercise like this that doesn't really have a full standalone place but is still fun enough to post. Or outtakes, maybe? I don't know, but I think you were right, having a ficlet collection thread for the 'verse is probably a worthwhile thing, so thank you for the suggestion, and also for all the lovely feedback