Luna smiled up at her sister, her eyes swollen from all the tears she had shed since arriving at Enoch's village. Her body was warming up besides the large central campfire, her dirtied and tattered clothes had been replaced with something new and the softness of the material felt pleasant against her raw skin. The Miraluka had shared all they could with the young Kryze, after her time in prison, their food of fruits and bugs was the greatest thing she'd ever eaten and, although their medicines were concoctions of the forest, she could feel her pain easing. She did not even question the blindfolds they wore.
Luna was lying on a soft blanket of fur, her head resting on Satine's lap like she had done when they were still children, when war and torture were only experiences lived through history books. Satine had her hand running through her sister's freshly cleaned hair, her eyes watching the embers crackle within the fire, the scent of burning wood surprisingly soothing.
"I still can't believe you're here." Luna whispered, shaking her head as she refused to look away from her sister's face. The months apart had left Satine looking wearier, premature creases had formed on her face and a new hardness filled her eyes. So many stories she could tell, if only they had the time.
"Well, I can't believe you are alive." Satine spoke gently, the loudest noises made her sister jump and she smiled down softly, revealing just a hint of the girl she had been before the civil war had begun. "Surviving the Nydak and the cave-in? And the rebels' imprisonment?"
"Bo's alive too." Reminded her Luna. "We were kept apart but I heard them speak of her. She's alive, somewhere."
"And we will find her as we did you." Satine promised, Luna's words confirming what the Captain had told her before he'd died, and she even knew where to look.
"We Kryze sisters don't seem to fall that easily." Luna attempted a smile but her body wrecked into a fit of coughs, they sounded pained to Satine's ears but the Miraluka's miraculous medicine could do little to help but ease her into a quiet sleep.
"You should rest now." Satine gently urged, feeling the exhaustion of the last few days also weighing on her shoulders.
"I-I don't want to." Luna admitted when her coughing stopped.
"I will still be here when you wake up…"
"It's not that… nightmares." Her sister didn't have to elaborate, Satine's own dreams were plagued, most nights, by the torments she'd endured. She could barely fathom Luna's own experiences, who'd suffered from such dreams since she was a child.
"Then let me help ward them away." She whispered, closing her eyes as she tried to recapture a shard of her old life. She began as a low hum, its tune soft and gentle. Luna smiled again, instantly recognising the song to be a lullaby their mother used to sing to them as children, back when their family had still been whole.
Satine began to sing the words in Mandalorian, describing the beautiful landscapes of Mandalore before the wars- of flowers so big they could be used as teacups and leaves so large and long they could be used to keep away the rain. She sang of soft furred creatures and singing birds and of safety and family and home.
To Satine her voice sounded hoarse and rough, it had been scraped raw by her recent encounter with the Donari, it sounded nowhere as refined as when she had sung to the injured back in Sundari . However, Satine's self criticism mattered very little to Luna, as her eyelids began to droop.
So preoccupied by her song, Satine had failed to notice the number of captivated gazes that had fallen on her, the elder Miraluka, remembering the world she described. But none were more captivated by the young woman than Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was standing in the doorway of one of the only huts within the village, having just finished cleaning and bandaging his wounds and had attempted a short session of meditation, to delve into the Force to try seek answers to the emotions that he failed to subdue.
That kiss- it seemed to have set his very chest on fire and no amount of cold water would extinguish it. Simply remembering the brief encounter brought echoes of her touch across his skin and lips. The mear memory plagued his mind, making him unable to think of anything else. Even now, as he watched her in silence, her body glowing slightly in the firelight, her features given an almost ethereal hue, his heart sped and no amount of training he'd received could calm it.
However, as her soft voice was carried by the gentle wind, allowing all to hear her song, it was only then did Obi-Wan, fearfully, name the emotion that had been tormenting his being for so long. If the Padawan was being honest with himself, he'd most likely known what it was for some time however, he'd feared that giving it a name would make it far more real- too real. It was something thought against by the Jedi order and yet he'd had no control in its formation- love. He knew that was the only thing he could describe it to be, not some primal physical attraction conjured up by vanities but something deeper and more rooted, built on a foundation of trust that had grown over time, something that is only created when one's trusted one's life in the hands of another without a second thought.
That would explain the guilt he'd felt earlier, after the kiss. All his life he'd wanted nothing more than to be a Jedi, to become a guardian of the galaxy. Many Padawans, during their training, had toyed with the idea of leaving the Jedi Order, but Obi-Wan had never had such doubts. He knew the path the Force intended him to take- until now, that is. Watching as the woman finished her song, gracefully caressing her now sleeping sister's face, he felt a conflict within him. A crossroad had involuntarily formed before him, whose destination was clouded with unknowns. He had grown to love the woman before him as much as he wished to become a Jedi but, a fearful part of him worried, that the two were not on par with each other.
"You should rest as well." Jem'ah suggested, silently walking up towards Satine and her sister, she had been close by, checking on the sick.
"I want to be here when she wakes." Satine admitted, imagining all the times her sister had woken up screaming from nightmares and she had not been there to console her.
"And you will." Jem'ah insisted in a kind, almost motherly, voice. " But you must also recover from your ordeal."
"Thanks to your medicines, I am fine. " Insisted Satine. "And we cannot move her, she will wake."
"The forest is safe tonight." Miraluka insisted, her blindfolded face looking at the duchess . "The fires will keep the predators of night at bay and, you and the Padawan, have dealt with those we could not. Go rest, we will make sure nothing happens to your sister."
It was with reluctant, yet tired, nods that the duchess agreed, carefully lifting her sister's head off her lap and allowing it to rest on the soft ground as Jem'ah covered Luna with a blanket made of fur.
"Now go rest." The Miraluka insisted, pointing with her chin to the hut Obi-Wan had disappeared into.
Enoch had told Satine that the hut, being far sturdier than the tents they normally lived in, was used to protect the people and stores from rains and wind, when they threatened to wash them away. But, since their arrival, the people of the forest had allowed Satine, Obi-Wan and, now Luna, to stay within its shelter so Satine was not surprised to find Obi-Wan waiting for her as she entered, quietly closing the door behind her.
"She's finally asleep." Satine reported, as she looked up at the young man who was looking at her with an unreadable expression, leaning against a wall, arms crossed.
Obi-Wan nodded his head, glad to hear the girl was resting though, unbeknownst to Satine, he had emerged from the hut during her lullaby, and had seen the girl drift off to sleep, choosing to allow this innocent conversation to play out for just a little longer.
"I think I may also-" But Obi-Wan interrupted her, unable to keep it to himself any longer.
"I think we need to talk."
"About what?"
"I hope I don't have to explain about what."
Satine felt her cheeks flush as she remembered the kiss back on the platform. She had been so overwhelmed by everything, with finding her sister, she never had time to explain her actions to Obi-Wan for they had never had a moment alone to talk- until now. She could only imagine how confused he'd felt, she surely did.
She suddenly could not look him in the eyes. "I know I shouldn't have done that, I know the Jedi have rules against such physical intimacies. I just couldn't find the words to express how grateful I was. I shouldn't have pushed myself on you like that…"
"You didn't." Obi-Wan said in a surprisingly close yet hushed voice. Satine looked up, only to find him standing before her, so close that, if she dared reach out, she could touch him. She looked up at him, his crystalline eyes never leaving her own. There was something in them that she'd never seen before, not anger or contempt, just something else.
"But I shouldn't have." She whispered, unable to look away, his face like a portrait in the torchlight, each handsome feature emphasised in the firelight. "I know you cannot… I cannot… we cannot…"
"And yet." He whispered as she felt his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him, until she was pressed against his chest and his mouth was upon hers, kissing her gently. Satine's shock only lasted a moment as she closed her eyes, allowing her hands to drape themselves around his neck, pulling him in closer, allowing their mouths to take the form of the other, their actions unknown territory for the two of them. They parted, the duchess and Padawan looking at each other, their breathing shaky. Satine allowed him to hold her, wishing silently to kiss him again but she resisted the urge for, at the back of her mind, she knew the teachings of the Jedi and would not push the Padawan against his code just as much as he respected her title of Duchess.
Every inch of Obi-Wan was burning again, his heart was pounding so strongly it threatened to suffocate his thoughts. He was a Jedi Padawan, she was the Duchess of Mandalore, her honour and integrity could not be questioned and yet... she hadn't pushed him away, had not looked away, her arms were still around his neck, her eyes refusing to leave his own.
Obi-Wan kissed her again, this time with a little more pressure, one of his arms running up the spine of her back, far more gently then Satine wished, the Padawan remembering the recent injuries she'd been inflicted with. His touch caused a flurry to erupt within her stomach as she kissed him back, moving her arms slightly, allowing her fingers to tangle themselves within his soft hair.
Their moments of separation became more brief, neither one wanting to part from the other more than to simply draw breath. Satine felt Obi-Wan kiss the side of her cheek, her neck, her chest, each touch sending pulses of electricity through her body. A moan-like breath left her lips, momentarily feeling embarrassed by her own response, but that was burned away by his touch easy enough. Her slender fingers fell to his chest, feeling the course material of his tunic under her fingertips. Obi-Wan only stopped in his movements as she felt his hands rest on the thread that kept her dress in place.
"Are you sure?" He whispered into her ear as, momentarily, she nuzzled her face into his chest, allowing his comforting scent to fill her nostrils, her hands still resting on his chest. There would be no turning back beyond this point, Satine knew it, Obi-Wan knew it. Each had their role to play in the galaxy, their own rules to abide by but, if they took this next step, they'd be burning those rules with Mandalorian Fire.
"Are you ?" She whispered back, looking up at him.
"I've never done this before." Obi-Wan shyly admitted, allowing his hands to fall back to her waist.
"Neither have I." Quietly confessed Satine, "I've only read about it in books."
Her last comment caused Obi-Wan to give a low, nervous chuckle, kissing the top of her head affectionately.
"I must question the education you Mandalorian duchesses are given." He teased, causing her to giggle.
"Then we take it slow." Satine answered, still smiling at his comment. " And only If you are certain."
Obi-Wan removed one hand from her waist and gently gripped one of her own, forcing her palm to slide under his shirt and allowing her fingers to feel his racing pulse in response.
"Only if you are certain." Obi-Wan echoed. Satine removed her other hand from Obi-Wan's chest, gently holding his free hand, the other still clutched hers against his chest, and led it towards the ties of her dress in reply.
"Then we do this together." He whispered into a deep kiss as his hands fumbled with the leather chords of her dress and Satine slowly began to undo the belt that kept his tunic in place.
The pair collapsed on the the blankets the Miraluka had previously prepared for them to sleep in, all fatigue lost as they fell into the soft pelts in different arrays of undress, forgetting the scars and injuries that crossed both their skins in the flickering light, allowing their hands and lips to chart the unknown regions of each other's bodies.
It was nowhere near perfect, they knew that, and yet it felt perfect. Their bodies fit together as if they had always meant to be, two pieces, separated across galaxies, finally becoming one. And, as the ecstasy faded, the pair collapsed into the furs once again, the chill night air a pleasant sensation against their bare, damp skin. All that remained between the two was love, not one built on the amorous experience they had just shared, but one that had blossomed before that and that had remained as Satine rested her head against Obi-Wan's chest, allowing his heart and his breathing to finally lull her to sleep. His strong arms wrapped around her, keeping her warm and safe.
And chapter 35 is done! Hope you guys enjoyed the update, I think it has been a long time coming 😅 Feel free to drop a comment, next update will be out next week 😁