Before the Saga Paramour 54 and other lovers...

She is. Unfailingly loyal to her friends, almost to a fault.

Aww, thank you. This legitimately made me blush.

She's a bit of fun and a nice foil to Namia's empathic living force nature. Tara's the far more pragmatic one of the two, and more cynical.

I could go back in time a bit and look at him, but he's long gone by this point

I figure I'm ending up with far too many running fics but this will be good for the amazing challenges of this forum when they take a romantic bent

 

Last bit of this particular paramour

*
Paramour #22 - Winter's Dream - part 8

There was a quiet hush as she entered the coffee shop and Namia wanted to sigh. The robe effect had turned out to be useful for some things, but not for going undetected in a crowd. The drop in noise level didn’t seem to disturb Aeolyn who was fiddling with the menu edge, bending it back and forth between his fingers as he stared at the black-screened communicator on the table. Namia watched him for a couple of seconds before sliding into the seat opposite him. He looked up at the noise and his face coloured instantly. Namia found the flush, so beguiling the night before now just irritated her.

“What, you weren’t expecting me?” she asked with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“I...uh...No, I wasn’t..uh. It’s nice to see you though.”

“Can’t say I can say the same.”

“I’ve got your necklace.” He fiddled in his pockets and brought it out. Namia bit down on the urge to snatch the chain from his slightly shaking fingers. He opened his mouth, but Namia cut him off.

“Please don’t give me the excuse that you just picked it up by accident, or it got caught in your clothes or something like that.”

He shook her head.

“No excuses. I don’t really know why I took it. I think I just wanted to see.”

“See?”

“See, why my sister does what she does.”

“You mean your sister, Edlyn Ghost?”

Aeolyn gave a small start and then looked at her, eyes wide.

Namia returned the look with a raised eyebrow. She gave a tightlipped smile and a slight shrug.

“Remember my Jedi friend from last night?” Namia waved a lazy hand towards the counter where Tara stood ordering caff. She gave a tiny tug on their bond. In front of her, Aeolyn went very pale and then flushed light pink. Namia guessed that Tara, true to form, had turned and waved. Namia shook her head slightly at her friend’s sense of theatrics and continued. “Remember how I told her she didn’t bite? Well, I was wrong. She’s a lot less easily manipulated than I am and saw right through your sister’s little game. Now your sister is in the custody of Coruscant Security Forces.”

“And me?” The Prince’s face was pale.

“Well, you are an entirely different story. My friend is also an archivist. That means she can find out a lot of information very quickly about a lot of things. Including people. Including you. Stuff they won't want people to find out.” Namia flipped open the datapad and made a show of reading it. “I mean for starters, you aren’t who you say you are.”

“I...um…” he gave a shrug and then shook his head. “No, I’m not.”

“And I don’t think that either the Senate or the Coruscant Security Forces want to arrest the uncrowned King of Zeldiis.”

Aeolyn had the good grace to blush again.

“I was sent to bring my sister home,” he said, spinning the comms pad on the table top. “I found out that I was now King when we got out of hyperspace. I figured that this would be my last moments of freedom.”

He gave Namia a tiny smile and flicked the datapad over.

“I know it won’t count for much, but I am glad that I got to spend it with you.”

Despite herself Namia smiled.

“It was fun.”

“It was, but now I guess it’s over.” Aeolyn smiled sadly at her and then leant back against the back of the chair. “Remember how we were talking about family last night?”

“I do.”

“I keep thinking about it. In some ways you're lucky. You have the code of the Temple and those rules, but no ties that try to keep you stuck in one place. Jedi can go where they like, do what they like.”

Namia laughed.

“I think I warned you last night about getting all of your information about Jedi from the holos. We aren’t as free as you would imagine.”

“More free than a king?”

Namia considered this for a few seconds. The Jedi lived under far more rules then most of the civilian population would ever think about. Most of them though were self-imposed as Masters and padawans alike strived to gain a perfection of skill and understanding of the Force that Namia had never quite understood. She looked at Aeolyn’s strained and tired face and the last drops of anger from that morning evaporated.

“More free than a king. Although I thought the Zel system was relatively carefree.”

Aeolyn snorted and shook his head.

“Most of my time as King will be dealing with making sure that travelers have a good time, plus that some of the seedier parts of Zeldiis are kept under control. It’s all politics and I hate it.”

“You seemed good at it last night,”Namia pointed out.

"I hope that wasn't all I was good at."

Namia felt her face flame with heat and embarrassment. Aeolyn looked at her and the back down at the comms pad which was still spinning lazily.

"Apologies, that was out of line," he murmured.

“You’re remarkably calm for someone who's just lost their father,” Namia said, taking a sip of caff.

“I have a lot of experience pretending that everything is fine,” Aeolyn said softly. Namia watched his expression become very guarded. “It’s what I’ve been brought up to do. Everything will always be fine. The family will persist so that Zeldiis can persist. I have cried. I will cry again later. Once my sister and I are home.”

Namia gave him a half-smile. “That sounds rather familiar. You can go home, but your sister isn’t going anywhere.”

“She’s needed back for the coronation. I don’t know how to explain that she won’t be there.”

“Then that’s your first job as King,” Namia pointed out, “but she’s been charged for a number of thefts.”

“I’m sure that something can be worked out,” he said. He smiled and his amber eyes glinted. There was a wash of emotions strong enough that Namia screwed up her eyes and breathed deeply, clenching her hands until she found her center again.

“Don’t do that,” she said as she opened her eyes. “It won’t work. It’ll just make me second-guess my decision to let you go.”

“You’re going to let me go?” Aeolyn frowned, confused, “but my sister? What about the fact that I stole from you too.”

“If you get off world and don’t make a fuss about your sister then we’ll chalk it up to a mistake. Two people met and spent the night discussing issues of planetary importance.”

“Discussing? I think we-”

“Discussion,” Namia cut him off. “I don’t think either of us want what really happened getting back to our respective organisations.”

Aeolyn nodded, eyes still wide.

“I’ll give you until the end of the day,” Namia said wondering how much she could actually get away with.

Aeolyn nodded and then stood. He bowed slightly and Namia returned it. The prince, now King, took a step and then paused slightly and turned back.

“I just want to say that there are lots of things I regret about this trip, but last night wasn't one of them,” he nodded to himself and then gave her a sad smile. “I’m glad I spent my last night for freedom with you.”

Without waiting for a reply, he walked away. Namia sunk down into the seat, trying to push away the sudden pain that blossomed through her chest.

“Did you get your necklace back?” Tara asked, sliding into the seat so recently vacated by Aeolyn. Namia nodded and then winced as Tara’s face remained blank.

“Yes, I did,” she said. It was so easy to forget that Tara couldn’t see most of her facial expressions. After so many years together, their bond was so strong that most emotions passed easily but nuanced expressions were another thing entirely.

“Good. Now you’ve just got to write your report and then do one last thing?”

“Last thing?”

“Caff,” Tara said with a smile as the waitress put two cups down in front of them. “And then ice-cream, because every broken heart needs ice cream.”

 

You really get the sense of Aeolyn's sincerity about (a) not regretting any time he spent with Namia and (b) disliking the entire political/putting on a front thing.