We have returned with another tale from Clan Xiv! This one is quite the adventure! Enjoy!


Part 1- Chapter 1- The Reception

The troop transport had landed with its fighter escort and disgorged its personnel an hour or so before, so they were already entrenched at the site. Oppie, Sasha and Viran had arrived earlier to scout the place out and make preparations, and Kyr and Cien were the last to arrive on the scene. Stepping down the Shadow Runner's ramp, Cien looked at the unfamiliar settlement. She had never been here before, and never really been someplace like this before. Such a rustic setting, and chill air fogging their breaths as she tried to walk silently, a reflex for how nervous she was. Kyr was at her side as they made their way in. The light snowfall helped disguise their movements as well as the sound of their passing, which suited her just fine.

"You ready?" Kyr asked quietly.

"I don't know." Cien said nervously as they made their way along the street, her eyes darting around warily as she took in their approach. The streets were quiet, the late afternoon driving people indoors to seek more hospitable climes, and the outpost itself was relatively quiet anyway since it was depopulated due to the season. Which would, at least, make their evening a little easier to get through since there would be less people uninvolved in the situation that they would have to account for.

"We can't really back down at this point." Kyr stated quietly, sensing her tense mood. He checked the blaster at his hip mainly out of reflex for how tense she was. But he kept it holstered, waiting to draw it until needed.

"I know." Cien said.

"Plus this was your plan originally." Kyr added as they stalked the streets together.

"I know." She said annoyedly. "That doesn't make me any more comfortable with it."

Kyr smiled lightly. "Don't worry about it, things will be fine."

"I've never done anything like this before." She said nervously as they came within sight of the target building. Her hand swept across her lightsaber hilt, taking comfort from its presence. She couldn't draw it… Yet.

"Op, Sasha and Viran already cleared the building." Kyr added, "so it should be safe." He said quietly. "We're just here for the cleanup."

She shot a glance at him and rolled her eyes. They had to cross a wide open square, and they kept to cover, making their way around it and sticking to covered walkways and the shadows around the edge. Cien watched for any movement around them, out of reflex, her eyes darting to the roofs around them.

They finally got to the door of the building, and Cien swallowed nervously as she prepared to enter it. Out of reflex she took point ahead of Kyr, ready to breach.

"Ready?" Kyr asked quietly.

"Yes." She replied tensely.

"Showtime." He said with a smirk as he reached above her head and threw the door open. Leaving her standing in the now open doorway. She shot him a glare as he smirked back at her.

The alehouse was bustling. Of course the alehouse was always bustling at this point of the day, but today was under different circumstances. Normally, the alehouse would be filled with patrons who were visiting the planet for hunting purposes or just stopping in to resupply and refuel. But since it wasn't the hunting season and traffic had actually been rather slow today it worked out that the ale house was crowded for other festivities. The Xiv Clan had rented it out for the night to celebrate the marriage of Kyr'Prudii and his wife Cien with not only their family present, but also a few select members of the 19th including the entire crew of the Copperheads from the New Republic to join in as well. They were all inside the alehouse enjoying drinks, food, and each other's company waiting for guests of honor.

Viran, who was dressed in a nice shirt and his cleaned bomber jacket, approached them with a smirk. "Look who finally decided to show up," he said teasingly. In his hands, he held two glasses with drinks in them. "Well come in, you're letting the warm air out." He gestured with his head in towards the crowd as he turned and headed for a nearby table where Sasha was sitting in a nice blue blouse and skirting that gave her a Naboo look. And on her lap in a blue dress with a matching bow in her hair was Lana. He leaned over and whispered something to her before moving off to another table.

"Let me take your coat." Oppie said as he walked up to Cien.

"Thanks." She said with a slight scowl as Kyr walked in behind her with a big smirk still. As she removed her jacket her dark burgundy blouse and black skirting ruffled slightly from the movement, and the golden circlet belt she had her saber hanging from jangled slightly. "This place is just like I remember it." She observed wryly.

"You came here without me?" Kyr said, shocked.

"No, you were there." She said with a sweet smile before hurrying off to go join Sasha.

Sasha looked up from where she was feeding Lana baby food and smiled at Cien. "Hey, glad you guys finally made it," she said. "You both look great."

"Thank you." Cien said as she sought refuge with her friend. "Kyr couldn't decide what to wear so we were held up for a while." She took a sip of the drink that Viran had given her, sparkling cider. He still hadn't wanted to wear his armor, which felt like an obvious choice, so he had settled on the same sort of somewhat formal wear that Viran and Oppie had. And actually ended up borrowing a shirt from Op since he didn't really have a lot of clothes other than his armor and flight suits.

"That doesn't surprise me since he only ever wears his armor," Sasha mused with a smirk. She then looked past Cien to Kyr and Oppie. "However, now he and Op really do look like twins. I mean they always have, but it's more striking now. Like if someone came in who didn't know them right now, I doubt they could tell the difference." She chuckled at that.

"That is weird." Cien said, looking between her husband and Op. Both of them were over talking with Scamp and she smiled slightly at that. "I wonder what Scamp thinks of seeing the two of them. Probably the first time he's encountered two people in a room who are identical to each other, but not to him."

Sasha actually snorted at that and clapped a hand to her mouth to cover the laughter. "By the Force, you're right," she said through a series of giggles. "This is probably really rare for him. And I think he is enjoying every second of it." She said that as she noticed the smile painted on the actual clone's face.

Lana was laughing too. Sasha smiled at that.

"Hey hun!" Admiral Sulam said coming over and pulling Cien into a hug before she could react, which flustered her a little.

"Hello." She squeaked in reply.

The Admiral stepped back with a laugh, "I was just visiting here with Lana while we waited for you guys, and she's just the cutest little thing." She said reaching down and playing with the child.

Lana giggled at the Admiral as Sasha adjusted her in her arms, beaming at them.

"One thing we have learned tonight is that Lana is not shy," Sasha said with a chuckle. "She has wanted to say hi to everyone."

"Well don't forget who brought you the cookies, little one." The Admiral admonished as she giggled playing with her.

"Oh she definitely won't," Sasha chuckled. "Thanks again for those, Admiral."

"Oh no problem. We'll need to see if I can beat Op." She replied with a wink. She turned pointedly to Cien as she continued playing with Lana. "So how's married life treating you?"

"Uh, good." Cien said, a little nervously.

"You guys gotten a proper honeymoon yet?" She continued her interrogation.

"No, we were going to leave tomorrow for a small trip now that Kyr is feeling better." Cien admitted.

"A small trip?" Nadiera eyed her questioningly.

Cien looked around, "Yes, just a couple of days, a week or so." She admitted.

"He taking you somewhere nice, or is he taking you to a warzone or something?" The Admiral said, eyeing Cien with a bit of bemusement.

"We're going back to the… Uh... Beach that... " She said.

"Well good!" The Admiral said with a big smile. "I was worried that boy would go all Mando with it and want to take you someplace where you had to use your armor."

Sasha chuckled at that. "Don't worry, I had a very serious brother-sister conversation with him that told him not to do that," she joked. She then looked at Cien. "I'm kidding. It was actually your idea."

"It should be a nice, peaceful trip." Cien observed as she took a sip of her cider and smiled lightly.

"I hope so." The Admiral replied. "It's nice to see you both smile."


"Well you look strong enough to rip ears off a gundark, Colonel," Scamp commented with a smirk as Kyr and Oppie joined him next to the bar top.

"Well thanks, Scamp. It's nice to not feel like the Gundark that had its ears ripped off." Kyr said, taking a sip of his drink. "And you look as factory perfect as ever."

Scamp snorted at that. "Thanks," he said before taking a sip of his own drink. "But it's been a long time since I felt that way." He chuckled. "Anyway, nice of you guys to invite us down here for this little get together. Some of these guys really needed a break from patrolling."

"No problem, the 19th didn't have trouble sparing you?" Kyr asked.

"Not at all," Scamp said, shaking his head. "We've been deployed for a while. We were all due for some leave. This just so happened to work with our schedule." He smirked.

"So how have things been since our visit?" Oppie asked.

"Quiet at first," Scamp said as looked around the noisy bar setting. "But we found an Imperial cell a couple weeks after you guys left and dealt with them real quick. Other than that, not much else has happened."

"Oh?" Oppie asked.

"What was it made up of?" Kyr asked, interested.

Scamp took a sip of his drink and leaned his back against the bar top. "Mainly just some Stormtroopers that thought they could play sheriff to an innocent town. That was primarily it. They were working on their own. No officers or other higher ups to boss them around," he explained.

"Cute." Kyr said with a smirk.

"That's what we thought too," Scamp said with a chuckle. "Now what about you all? How have things been?"

"Not a lot." Oppie said with a smirk.

"Yeah, I've mostly been cooped up in the house." Kyr said with a roll of his eyes. "Everyone's being super overprotective."

"Oh?" Scamp asked with a raised brow then reached over and gently patted Kyr's arm. "Well I'm sure they are just doing what families do best and that's watch out for each other. And besides, I'm sure you'll be back to the action soon enough." He said encouragingly, but still shot Oppie a glance.

Kyr looked down at the arm patting him and then back up at his former XO. "Are you patronizing me there commander?" He asked with a narrowed gaze.

Scamp dropped the arm and went to an immediate salute. "No sir!" He responded as if talking to a commanding officer, which he was.

"Good." Kyr said, "otherwise I was going to tattle on you to your wife." He said jokingly as he took a sip.

Scamp lowered his salute slowly as he gazed at Kyr with a brief look of fear before glaring at him. "You are mean, sir," he said with a snort.

"You keep being mean to Scamp, I'll tattle on you to your wife." Oppie said, patting Kyr on the shoulder as he stepped away with a grin to go look over the food offerings.

"HA!" Scamp said before bursting into laughter. "Man, that was amazing. I knew I liked Op for a reason."

"Yeah you would, shiny." He said with a glare as he took another sip of his drink.

"Very funny," Scamp sarcastically said as he took a sip of his own drink.

"So did you guys or the Republic follow up with Ceros on Caranas?" Kyr asked, curious.

Scamp hesitated for a moment then looked away. "Yeah, the NR sent a small team to look into it initially," he said simply. "They found out the cartel is kind of a mess right now without a figurehead to lead them. They then sent in more to aid the militia in dealing with the cartel. They seem to be putting up quite the offensive against us and there is also quite a bit of infighting as well. It's all kind of just chaos. But it's nothing you need to worry about."

"Well, I guess the irony is we went there originally just to scout out the situation and see if we could call you guys in if it was more than we could handle." Kyr said with a slightly troubled smirk. "So on that count our little scouting expedition went off exactly as planned."

"Yeah I guess so," Scamp agreed.

"Thanks for not walking around on eggshells around me about it." Kyr said, "everyone else is and it's getting a little annoying."

"I could understand that," Scamp said as he looked at Kyr. "For a while after 66, no one talked about that day around me even though I don't have my chip anymore. But at some point I had to let them know it was a fine subject to talk about." He then looked out to the bar. "Your family is just worried about you and what you went through. Being hunted then tortured. Believing everyone you love to be gone. That's a lot for anyone to take. Mentally and physically." He looked back to Kyr.

"Yeah." Kyr said quietly. "It's a lot, having to deal with all of that." He said with a troubled look, "my leg still twinges a lot, and my arm is still stiff, and the rest of it still hurts." He smiled a little. "But the weird part is everyone having to be worried about me, it's a reminder of what happened in its own way."

"Have you told them about any of this?" Scamp asked.

"Nah, didn't want to make them feel bad." Kyr said, taking a sip. "Plus the last month has been really nice just being with everyone so I didn't want to ruin the mood. Been fun in a way, especially doing physical therapy with Cien's help." He said with a smirk.

"Fair enough," Scamp said, smirking as well. "Just make sure that if it does become too much, you tell them okay?"

"Sure thing. Thanks for listening to your older brother grouse about everyone being too nice to him." Kyr replied with a smirk.

"Of course," Scamp chuckled. "That's what brothers do."

"Let's go see what they have to eat in this joint." Kyr suggested as he started to turn.


Kelce sat at one of the high tops in the bar, watching the crowd as they all enjoyed drinks, food, and socializing with the Colonel's family. He took a sip of his ale when he heard someone clear their throat to his left. Glancing over he saw Nova there with a smile and blush on her face. He blushed too.

"Oh hey Crynity," Kelce said as he straightened up in his seat. "What's up?"

"Not much," Nova said with a shy shrug. "Just chatting with people and all. But I saw you were hanging out here by yourself, thought you could use the company if you want it."

"Sure," Kelce said with a nod. "Pull up a chair."

Nova nodded and took a seat in the chair next to him, setting her own drink down on the table top. The two sat there in a slightly awkward silence as neither knew what to say to the other. Especially since Kelce learned how Nova felt about him, he had been a lot more… Nervous around her.

At that moment, Sasha and Cien walked over.

"Hey guys," Sasha greeted them with a smile.

"Hey Sasha," Nova said, returning the smile. "Hey Cien."

"Hello." Cien said with a smile. "How have you two been?"

"Pretty good," Kelce answered.

"Yeah, nothing really to write home about," Nova said.

"How have things been with you all?" Kelce asked.

"Things have been good," Sasha said. "We've all been staying home primarily."

"Helping Kyr with his physical therapy, and also just relaxing at home." Cien said, nodding. She looked for the bartender, Viran had finally introduced her to mead a couple of weeks ago and she was hoping to get one of those.

"Speaking of the Colonel, how is he doing?" Kelce asked, a hint of concern in his tone. "I mean he looks like he is doing great, but I'm still a doctor."

"Fine." Cien admitted, "still a little quiet but I've found ways to make him talk." She said with a slight smirk.

Sasha snorted slightly at that as she too was looking for the bartender to flag down.

"Well that's good to hear," Kelce said with a chuckle. "But these things take time. He'll be back to his old self in no time. Especially with you helping him out."

"Yeah." Cien agreed. "I'm hoping our trip tomorrow might help a little."

"Oh where are you guys going?" Nova asked, curiously as she took a sip of her drink.

"Oh, a uh, nice…beach we know of." Cien said noncommittally.

"A beach?" Nova asked. "Huh, the Colonel never struck me as the tropical type, but sounds amazing. I hope you guys have a wonderful time."

"Yeah." Cien said, looking forward to it, "he discovered it years ago but he keeps the location secret. I'm not even completely sure about the coordinates." She said, "Maybe I can convince him to share it with you two." Cien said sweetly, "in case either of you needs a nice vacation."

Nova and Kelce turned bright red at that.

"Oh, no you don't have to do that," Nova squeaked out.

"Yeah, it's your guy's spot. We wouldn't want to intrude," Kelce piped in with a higher tone than his voice normally is.

Sasha snickered at that as the bartender finally came over to take their orders.

"Well as long as you didn't share it I'm sure he wouldn't mind. You just don't want to be there at the same time, though." Cien replied thoughtfully. "As us, I mean."

"Yeah," They said at the same time. Kelce and Nova shared a glance at that and they turned even redder in the face at that.

"So what're we drinkin'?" Shades said, coming up to the bar with Wynnie in tow.

"Hey Shades. Hey Wynnie," Sasha greeted them as the bartender made up both her and Cien's drinks. "I'm having a Starchaser and Cien's having a mead."

"I've just got my usual," Kelce said as he showed them the bottle of light ale.

"What about you Nova, see anything you like?" Shades asked innocently.

Nova glared at her as she knew what she was alluding to. "I already have my drink," she bit back before taking a large swig of her ale. "Thank you very much."

Shades smiled, and looked over at Sasha. "What's a Starchaser?"

"It's a cocktail," Sasha explained. "One I used to make all the time back on Vestora. There have been very few bars that make it. I actually introduced it to them here a while back. It looks like a star cluster." As she said that, the bartender set the cosmic drink down in front of Sasha. "Thanks." She thanked them as they set the mead down in front of Cien.

"Oh, damn that's fancy." She said, eyeing the spectacular display of alcohol. "I want one." She told the Barkeeper, then looked down at Wynnie. "What are you getting?"

Wynnie looked over at Cien, "what did you get?"

"Mead." Cien answered simply.

"Huh." Wynnie replied.

"What?" Cien asked flatly.

Wynnie just pursed her lips and said nothing, then looked at the barkeeper. "A shot of Corellian whiskey."

Sasha did a double take at that. She didn't expect the younger and smaller girl to order such a strong drink.

"Oh, I see," Cien said flatly, eyeing the tiny redhead.

"See what?" Wynnie shot back quickly.

"Nothing." Cien said flatly.

"Fine then." Wynnie replied. "Because there's nothing to see."

"Wynnie -" Shades tried to cut in.

"Well I'm glad there's nothing to see." Cien said, cutting Shades off.

"Me too." Wynnie replied flatly.

"Do we need to fight again?" Cien said in a challenging voice.

"Yes. It was a lot of fun." Wynnie stated sharply.

"Well unfortunately I'm leaving tomorrow so I can't do it this trip." Cien replied.

"Next time then." Wynnie answered.

"Yes." Cien said. "And thank you for the tip about aiming my blaster at things I hate. It has improved my aim quite a bit."

"I'm glad." Wynnie replied. "I know it has kept my aim nice and sharp as well." She said, eying Cien.

"Yes, I really hate watermelons." Cien replied as a slight smirk threatened to break through.

"They are a terror." Wynnie said as her own facade slipped.

Sasha leaned over towards Kelce, Nova and Shades as they all watched the exchange go down between Cien and Wynnie. "What the hell is happening?" She asked them in a low and very confused voice.

"I don't know," Kelce admitted, just as confused yet amused by all of it.

"Should we blow some watermelons up?" Cien continued the spar.

"I always enjoy that." Wynnie said as the barkeeper put her shot down on the counter and she slammed it back.

Kyr came over at that point and was a little confused as to what was going on, but he saw Wynnie trying to hold back a smile which was a novel experience for him. "Uh… This a bad time for me to steal you away?" He asked Cien.

"No." Cien replied.

"Yes, we were just finished." Wynnie answered.

Kyr looked between the two of them and had no idea what was going on. "Oh, Doc, Super, great to see you guys together." He said as he grabbed Cien by the hand and pulled her away from the bar to go meet a former Copperhead he wanted to introduce her to.

"We're not-" They both started saying at the same time. That was the second time they did that.

Sasha held back a snicker as she took a sip of her drink. "I should get back to Lana. She is probably due for a diaper change," she said as she moved away from the bar. "See you guys in a bit." With that, she moved back over to the table where Lana was in the Admiral's arms, playing with her. That left Kelce, Nova, Shades and Wynnie alone at the bar top.

Shades looked between the other three. "Y'all are weird." She said, scooting away from the scene to see if she could go find Bubbles.

"That's news to you?" Nova questioned as she watched Shades go.

Kelce looked down at Wynnie. "What was that about with the Colonel's wife?" He asked her, amused.

"Just chatting." Wynnie said as she stepped away to go join Scamp's side. She stopped and looked back at them and worked up the courage to say something funny. "Your cheeks are really red Nova, might want to have Kelce check you out in case you had too much to drink." Then she turned and left.

That made Nova turn redder. "Wynnie!" She squeaked as she was taken aback by the blunt teasing from the girl.

Kelce chuckled under his breath even though he was just as red.


Shades wandered over to where the pilots were, Bubbles, Hassen and Viran. "I get to see the Starferrer this trip?" She asked, coming up during a lull in the conversation.

"Yeah, the Forerunner is parked over in the landing field with your ships," Viran said with a nod as took a sip of his mead. "Maybe before this partys over I'll give you all the tour."

"Sweet, you got all the mods installed?" Shades asked as she took a sip from the cocktail.

"Most of them, yeah," Viran said, smirking. "Still a few to tweak here and there, but she's almost done."

"Done?" Shades asked incredulously. "How could she ever be done?" She asked with a laugh.

"Good point," Viran laughed at that. "How's the U-Wing doing?"

"Doing good, I'm still trying to mull over what my next mod might be." Shades replied.

"Maybe better repulsors?" Hassen asked innocently.

"The Admiral didn't complain when I showed my signature hot landing to Sport here." Shades said with a raised eyebrow.

"No it was awesome!" Bubbles squeaked.

"That was really cool," Viran agreed as he remembered it. "Maybe chip the engine? Give that baby more power?" He suggested.

"Maybe… Incom came out with some new turbos for the T-70s I'm also eyeing, seeing if I can make them work on the 'ol bus." Shades took another sip.

"Now that would be awesome," Viran said with a smile.

"Speaking of which, some of the T-65s are going up for surplus sale, you getting one?" Hassen asked with a smirk.

Viran took a swig of his mead before shrugging. "Potentially. I've been eyeing them since they went on the market. I've just got to convince Sash to let me get one," he said. "That's also a lot of credits for one of those too. So I might wait until I see a smoking deal on one."

"Get one of the two seat trainers, then it's a family fighter." Bubbles said with a giggle.

Viran chuckled at that. "The thought hadn't crossed my mind, but," he glanced over to the table where Sasha and Lana were talking with the Admiral and Scamp. "Lana's not old enough yet for flying. It might be a while before I start teaching her how to fly like me."

"Oh come on, she's like, what, a year old? Gotta start at some point." Shades said good naturedly.

"She'll be one in a couple of months. And as much as I would agree, I'm sure Sasha would kill me if I started teaching her now," Viran responded with a chuckle.

"Spoil sport." Hassen declared. And Bubbles nearly spit out her drink.

Viran just laughed at that.


As the evening turned into night, the party continued to go off without a hitch. Everyone was drinking and talking with each other. Sharing stories as the two families connected. However, as the night was getting later, they all knew that they needed to wrap this up soon so the newlyweds could venture off on their belated honeymoon. Around that point in the evening, Kitsu got up onto the bar top and turned to the crowd of people.

"Hey, can I get everyone's attention please?" She asked the loud crowd.

They didn't quiet down. Kistu was about to ask again when suddenly Illara let out a loud whistle that silenced the whole room.

"Thanks," Kitsu said to Illara before turning to the crowd. "Hey, everyone. I just wanted to say thanks for coming to celebrate the marriage of my cousin, Kyr and his wife Cien. I also wanted to take this opportunity before the night ends to say a few words." She cleared her throat. "For those of you that don't know, I have known Kyr since we were kids. Even though he is my cousin by blood, he has always been like a brother to me. I remember when his sister and I would play pranks on him a lot as a kid. He was always so easy to mess around with. That is until he got taller than me and her. Then we backed off on the pranks, but there was still plenty of teasing. I also remember him teasing me and Illara the first time I brought Illara around the family. I nearly skinned him alive for that," she said with a chuckle. "But now I've been getting my revenge by teasing him and Cien. Sorry guys." She added.

"Xiv's are mean!" A voice called out that sounded suspiciously like a not sober Cien.

"Hey!" Both Oppie and Kyr's voice rang through the alehouse.

That got a laugh out of the crowd.

"Anyway," Kitsu continued once the laughter died down. "I have watched Kyr grow up over the years." She paused for a brief moment. "When we lost our family to the Empire, it was hard. For both of us. I was just grateful that he was alive and even more grateful when we found out Oppie was too. It made me feel like I still had family despite everything. But I admit I never expected our little family to grow so quickly after Kyr sent Op to find me in these woods." She gestured outside. "I didn't expect that after that first official meeting with Op that soon he, Sasha and Viran would become a part of this family. Now I can't picture our family without them or Lana." She then found Cien in the crowd. "Or Cien." She looked down with a smile before continuing. "I remember the day we went to take down Dracul. We were all lined up on a ridge overlooking the army that was beyond the tree line and Cien wanted to get a better look. So Kyr handed her his rifle without question. For those of you that don't know, the weapon a Mando carries is their life and we rarely trust it to anyone who isn't family. Hell, we hardly trust family with it sometimes. But when he did that, I admit I was surprised. Though now it makes sense."

"During the war against the Empire, I knew how he felt about Cien and how hard it was to leave her after the rest of our family disappeared. That was probably the first time in my life where I didn't have the heart to tease him about something. But seven or eight years went by and suddenly Cien returned to our lives. Maybe not in the way we expected, but it ended up working out for the best." She paused. "During those three months where we thought they were gone was really hard for us all. But when they suddenly returned one day out of the blue, I wanted to deck Kyr for scaring me like that. Then I saw how he was acting around Cien and it just… clicked. I had never seen him so happy before and that still holds true today." She grabbed her drink from Illara then raised it up. "So Cien, thank you for making my cousin so happy and we are so glad to have you a part of the family. And I'd like to propose a toast. To Kyr and Cien!"

"Hear Hear!" Oppie yelled.

The rest of the bar followed in suit as the sound of clinking glasses and mugs were heard. Kitsu downed her own drink.

"You're all welcome to stay and continue partying," Kitsu added. "And thanks again for coming."

With that and the help of Illara, Kitsu got down from the bar top as people resumed their conversations.

"That was a great speech," Sasha commented as she approached with Lana asleep in her arms.

"I didn't remember about the rifle." Cien admitted as she came walking over with Kyr.

"I did." Kyr said. "Thanks ori'vod." He said, pulling Kitsu into a hug.

"Of course, vod," Kitsu said, hugging him back. She then pulled away after a moment. "Well you two should get back to the party before all your guests leave."

Cien pulled Kitsu into a hug. "That was beautiful." She said with a sniff. "You're the best cousin I ever had."

"Thanks, Ci'ika," Kitsu said as she hugged her back. "And I'm happy you're a part of our family. Thanks for everything you've done to make Kyr happy." She added in a whisper before pulling away.

"And I'm sorry I called you mean." Cien said as she pulled away a little tipsy.

"It's fine," Kitsu chuckled.

"We should get you some water," Sasha butted in as she placed a hand on Cien's shoulder. "Before you get too drunk. Like last time."

"I'm not drunk." Cien said defiantly as she let Sasha lead her away. "I only had one mead and some orange stuff."

"I know," Sasha said with a chuckle as she led her over to the bar to grab some water.

"Alright, we're going to go say hi to a few more people before we call it," Kitsu said once Sasha and Cien were away.

Kyr nodded, "Thanks again Kitsu." He said, as he turned to head back over towards the bar, where Nova was sitting. He settled against the bartop next to her, waiting for the barkeeper to notice him after he got Cien her water.

"Hey Super." He said with a smirk.

"Oh hey Colonel," Nova said as she perked up from her drink. "That was a really nice speech Kitsu gave."

"Sure was." He agreed with a smile. "Where's Kelce?" He asked, looking around.

"He's talking with Dravis, Scamp and Oppie," Nova stated as she looked back to her drink. "I just came over here to get another drink."

"Same." He said, leaning back against the bartop. "Kitsu brought up a lot of memories, I had kind of forgotten that bit about handing Cien my rifle." He said with an amused chuckle.

"Yeah I was surprised by that too," Nova said with a chuckle. "But if anyone was going to catch onto something like that when it came to you, it was Kitsu."

"Definitely." He said with a chuckle. "I remember, now, she ended up teasing me right after when Cien did something pretty impressive with her saber that kind of caught us all dumbstruck, and Kitsu said 'I see why you like her', that was the first time I officially realized I kinda did."

Nova smiled at that. "That's very sweet." She said simply as she looked at him.

"Yeah. And right after that she got injured, so I stayed with her for a while to make sure she was safe. But I ended up having to leave because I fell for her, and I didn't think she'd ever reciprocate that." He said sheepishly, and then took a more serious tone. "All those years after during the war, it gnawed at me, never getting to tell her how I felt about her. Even if she hadn't returned those feelings, at least I would have gotten to say the words. That regret was a terrible burden." He said a little wistfully, almost like the somewhat more stoic Colonel she knew during their time together all those years ago. "And when I found out last year that she had felt the same way, it was like a wonderful miracle. And my only regret was not telling her sooner." He said, glancing at Nova. "So if there's something you ever need to tell someone like that, don't wait too long. The only thing worse than not having it returned, is never saying the words and never knowing." He finished quietly, glancing back over to her.

Nova looked at him before looking over her shoulder to Kelce who sat in a booth with Dravis, Scamp and Oppie. All of them talking and laughing. She turned back to her drink.

"Do you really think that will work?" She asked him quietly. "I mean I know it worked for you, but…" She glanced again in Kelce's direction. "I don't think he sees it as more than just a friendship."

"Worst he can do is say no." Kyr advised, "but that's better than never asking, never saying the words, and never knowing, right?"

Nova sighed. "I guess you're right," she said. She then finished off her drink and moved from the bar.

"Also he's been making goo-goo eyes at you ever since that night I got out of recovery and we all had dinner together, not to mention the way he looked at you all the years previously." Kyr finished in a more teasing tone. "And I had no way to treat the nausea since it was the Doc that was causing it." He said with a roll of his eyes.

Nova blushed at that. She looked over at Kelce again and this time he caught her staring. She turned back to face Kyr instantly. "You're not just saying that to tease me, are you?" She asked sharply. "You're serious?"

He stepped forward and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Super, I'd never tease someone who's an expert in explosives. I'll tease Kelce all day, but I know my battlefield priorities."

Nova found herself smiling at that. "Thanks, Kyr. That helps a lot."

"No problem Cr...ynity." He said. He almost called her Cr'ika but that sounded way too close to cyar'ika.

Nova didn't seem to notice as she turned to face the rest of the bar. "Wish me luck," she said as confidently as she could before she walked over to the booth Kelce was at. She whispered something to the medic and then the two of them moved off, away from the crowd and away from any wandering ears.

Kyr watched that with a smile, "oya, vod'ika." He said quietly as he went to go over to Sasha and Cien.


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