"I love you." Aaron winces after he says the words. He busies himself removing the formal, heavy, itchy, way-too-hot robes in hopes that having his hands busy will take the sting out of Sailens's scolding. When they don't come and the only sound in their bedroom is the shuffling of cloth and the quiet whir from her voice droid, Aaron dares to turn back to his new wife.
She has his back to him and is using both her hands and the Force to pick the many pins and ribbons out of her hair. Her own formal clothes are in a heap by her feet. She meets his eyes through the mirror. "Congratulations?"
"You're not… angry?" He moves up behind her to remove the last gold pin at the back of her head. Aaron drops it on the vanity and puts his hand on her scarred shoulder. His dark skin is a sharp contrast against hers.
She tilts her head up to meet his green eyes directly. "Pointless ceremonies aside, I am pleased with this arrangement. And short of the birth of our child, we are quite done with them."
"You're not going to lecture me about the dangers of being in love?" He moves his hand to her cheek and brushes his lips against hers.
"We're not Jedi. Our passions make us stronger." She pats his cheek, her polished nails glinting in the dim light, and then turns back to the mirror to strip off the last of her jewellery.
Aaron rests his hands on her shoulders and watches her movements in the ornate mirror. "It's more than just passion. I love you and everything we are together. It's steady and stable. Calm."
"Does your Zeltron blood make you a poet?"
"No more than my human blood makes me…" He struggles to find a word and then breaks out laughing when he sees his wife's expression. "See? I'm no poet."
"As long as you don't start prattling on about 'the power of the Darkside' you can say whatever you like, Aaron Sa'alle." She smirks at him, blue eye sparkling.
"More like Sailens Cerar."
"A wordsmith now?"
"Cerar was my father's name. I found it in Rencarn's records." He rubs her cheek with his knuckles. "Our lives are public since we're Sith, but this can be… private. Just for us."
Sailens turns and looks up into his face. "I have a name. A true one, from my blood father. Cassandra Cerar."
Aaron leans down and kisses her.
Sailens hisses when Aaron dabs at her stomach with the sterilizing gauze, but she does nothing to stop him. Her hands ball into fists in the duvet on top of their bed.
"Why does she do this to you? You're more scars than skin." Aaron bites his lower lip and keeps trying to clean the wound, but the burned scraps of fabric are fused to her skin. "Rencarn-"
"Rencarn has something planned for you and you're going to waltz into it!" Her droid's mechanical voice turns shrill. It rocks back and forth loudly on the shelf over their heads.
"Sai, I'm worried about you. What if you get pregnant and she does this?" He bites his bottom lip and stares at her.
Despite the pain, Sailens freezes under his hands. Her eyes go wide and her hand snaps up to grab his wrist. "That's the point."
"What?" He turns to look her in the eye and puts his hand over hers on his wrist.
Her nails dig into his skin. "She's a human supremacist. She doesn't want us to have a child."
"But she arranged this marriage with Rencarn."
"But we don't know why. And Rencarn is coddling you, but torturing his other students. You're being prepared for something and I'm just another tool in your preparations. Once you do that, Sa'alle will kill you and force me to have a child with a pure human."
"Sai, you're jumping to conclusions. Maybe the torture has finally-"
"What do we have to gain by playing their game?"
"Sai-"
"Answer the question."
Aaron sighs and pulls his hands away from hers. He places fresh gauze over her stomach and lays down next to her. After a moment, he laces the fingers of one hand through hers. "We play their game because there's nothing else we can do. They're Sith; we're their apprentices. We do what they want."
"No, Aaron. I'm not going to let Rencarn and Sa'alle use you for their own ends and then kill you off." She squeezes his hand.
"You're just being paranoid." He turns his head to the side and kisses her temple.
"Sa'alle's motives only make sense if you are going to die soon. If she expected you to live, she'd simply force me to take a lover. Instead, it's this indirect mess." She digs her nails into the back of his hand.
"We don't have a choice, anyway, Sai. This is our life." He pulls her hand to his mouth and kisses her knuckles.
"Why don't we just leave?"
"We can't. We have no where to go. No way to get there."
"My father, my blood father, would take us away." She sits up, groaning at the pain in her stomach. Sailens holds a hand over her belly and looks down at him. "We don't have to do this. I don't have to watch you die."
"I don't know your father. Would he even help me?" He lifts a hand to her cheek.
"I love you. That will be enough."
Aaron presses his lips together and his eyebrows knit together. "Are you sure it's necessary? This is… the only life we know."
"I can't leave you in this danger."
"Okay. Okay. We'll go."