With her own ship and nothing holding her on Coruscant, Soniee is finally heading back to the Mandalore system. She's not quite sure what home is anymore but at least she'll be able to see Momma and Lagos and maybe somebody else will be eager to see her too...
Guilt gnawed at her every time he gave her that sad smile but having Fox here helping her pack was better than the fear she had felt when she stepped out of her bedroom after changing into something more appropriate and he'd been gone.
"Fox, where are you?" Soniee commed.
He chuckled through her helmet's speakers. "Getting your ship of course. Wake up the droid and get all those pretty clothes ready to go. Lagos needs her sister around right?"
"Y-yeah."
1K0 could not have been more pleased that her mistress was headed back to Mandalore. They worked quickly to put all the clothes back into the crates that they had come in when Almec had given them to her.
And then Soniee had heard the sound of a ship coming to dock at the balcony and she ran out to see. It was a magical experience to see the freighter, her ship, hovering there.
Fox stepped down off the ramp and spread his arms triumphantly. "So what do you think?"
She was speechless. He reached out and grabbed her hand and pulled her aboard. The speeder bike he'd flown to the hanger was in the cargo hold.
"I'll back that out and we can start bringing your stuff in."
Soniee squeezed his hand. "Thank you, Fox."
He led her through the narrow corridor with a cabin on each side. When she looked into one of them and he touched her shoulder innocently she got a flash of a vision from his mind. Fox had imagined the two of them together on that bunk. She blushed and backed out of the cabin.
"It's nice."
"I hoped you would like it." He lowered his gaze as if he knew he'd been caught. "The cockpit is up this way."
Now this felt like home. She sat down in the pilot's seat and couldn't believe it was hers.
"You look like you belong there."
She smiled and then leaned forward to study the controls. There was a separate gunner's station but she could manage by herself if necessary. "Did you say the weapons had been neutralized?"
"That's what they said at the hanger."
She frowned and bent to look under the control panel. "Ah! Thought so, just deactivated." She flipped a few switches and then sat up again and watched smiling as more lights blinked to life. "Only a single laser canon but Momma will feel better about me flying it if I have some way to protect myself."
"So will I." He cleared his throat. "The shields are pretty decent though."
"Yeah, and Momma and I can always add to the weapons array."
"You like it then?" he asked.
"It's the most amazing gift I've ever received." She answered quietly.
"Well it wasn't really a gift. It's just a replacement for the one you lost in the bombing."
She looked up at him sincerely. "But I wouldn't have even thought to ask about getting a replacement and I surely wouldn't have gotten it so quickly."
He nodded. "We should get your things aboard so you can be on your way." There was more he wanted to say and she could sense that in the close quarters of the cockpit there was more he wished to express without words.
Neither of them spoke much while they loaded the trunks of clothes into the cargo hold. Soniee kept a few things out that she arranged in her cabin, but she didn't have much else to pack. She hadn't arrived on Coruscant with much. She had her helmet that she was still keeping close to her at all times. It had become a habit more than anything. And there was her display visor which was kind of redundant now but she was still sentimental about it.
She wondered what had become of the notebook she had left behind at the academy. More than likely it had been destroyed along with everything else. It seemed strange to be headed back to Manda'yaim but not back to the Academy. It had been her home for almost half her life. Momma had made contact with Bo-Katan so she knew where she was going in Keldabe but it wasn't home.
1K0 bustled around as cheerful as Soniee had ever seen the droid.
"Glad somebody's happy about you leaving," Fox grumbled standing at the bottom of the ramp. "But I - I guess that's about everything."
"Yeah." Soniee sighed. Now that it came down to it she didn't know how to say goodbye. It was goodbye, though. She knew it would be wrong to leave him with any hope. "Please tell Lux and Padme I'm sorry I didn't say... anything before I left."
"I will." He nodded. "And, uh, comm me when you get into Mandalore space so I know you're safe."
She also nodded. "Alright." She would send him a text. She couldn't think of seeing him again in a holo but even so she gave him the traditional Mandalorian goodbye that literally meant, Maybe we'll see each other again. "Ret'urcye mhi, ner al'verde."
"Ret'urcye mhi, Son'ika." His eyes lingered on her lips for a long moment and then dropped to her neck and he actually smiled. She was sure he was going to try to kiss her once more but instead he just reached out a hand and touched the point where her pulse was hammering in her throat. It wasn't until later when she was sitting in the cockpit with 1K0 that she realized what he'd been smiling about.
"You're going to want to cover that with some make-up before we see your friends," the droid observed.
Soniee put her hand to her throat where Fox had touched her and then looked at her reflection in the dark viewscreen. The lovebite he'd given her when he had arrived on the balcony that evening was dark and very obvious just above her collar. "Osik, you're right. Maybe when we're in hyperspace you can help me with that."
She had reached orbit above Coruscant and was keying in the coordinates for the first hyperjump, when the comm in her helmet chimed. She didn't even look at the ID, certain who it must be.
"Hey Lagos, I'm on my way. Got a ship. Just about to activate the first jump..."
"Soniee?"
She stopped dead. It wasn't Lagos. "Korkie... is it really you?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing."
She couldn't believe it. It was him. It was really him. "Oh Force, I've missed you so much!"
"I missed you, too. Soniee, I- I love you."
Tears streamed down her cheeks and fogged up the inside of her helmet's visor. "And I love you."
"Then tell me you'll marry me."
"Yes. Yes, of course. I tried to tell you before. Oh, but Korkie. You must forgive me. There was... there was someone who loved me and I..."
"Cin vhetin." It was Korkie's voice but he pronounced the Mando'a words more clearly and confidently than she had ever heard him before.
"What?" she asked.
"Cin vhetin. It means..."
"I know what it means." she was smiling through tears. "And you really..."
"We start over right now, a clean slate. I do... have one question though." His doubt was evident in the tone.
"What is it?" she asked warily.
"Your mother said you accepted my proposal almost the moment you arrived on Coruscant but I didn't get the message. I know you would want to honor your word, but... is that why you're choosing me now? I need to know. If you hadn't already said yes to me, if you felt you were free to choose when you met him, would you still..."
She was quiet for a moment and then she answered. "Yes... Yes, with my whole heart, I love you, Korkie, then and now, and always!"
"Then let's not wait another moment." That was the old Korkie. He didn't waste any time once he had put his mind to something. "Mhi sol-"
"Wait! Korkie I want to see you when we recite the vows, not just hear your voice, and," she had a sudden inspiration. "and I want to show you something. I'm about to make a hyperjump. I'm on my way home to you! This jump will be about half an hour. Is there a holotable or something there where we could see each other properly?"
"Yeah umm, here's the ID." he programed it in and she saw it come up on her HUD.
"Okay."
"Soniee, your mother is here in the city. Would you like her to be there when we say our vows, and Lagos and Auntie Bo?"
"Yes. I'd love them to be there."
"Then they will be. Soniee, Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum."
"And I hold you in my heart, Korkie."
"Well then, make that hyperjump. I'll be waiting."