She heard his voice, hushed and hurried, speaking with Enos outside the room. She couldn't quite make out the words, but his tone indicated he was worried, nervous.

And then Eno's loud response: "Yeah, go right in. They might be asleep, but they're both fine."

Enos. She did have a deep respect for the man; he'd been a great help to both of them during the pregnancy, especially during the final stage. He'd even stayed with her in the cabin for the past few days while Thrawn was on his way.

But despite his kindness toward both she and Thrawn, he was completely tactless at times.

She'd been napping, as she had spent much of the past few days doing when she wasn't holding the little one, who was fast asleep in the bassinet next to her bed. She pushed herself upright just in time for Thrawn to (very quietly, cautiously) creep through the door.

He looked at her for a moment, blinking. Like he wasn't sure what came next.

She motioned to him, smiling, "Come here."

He stepped toward her, "How are you fe…" He froze when he saw the little one.

She tried not to laugh – catching him off guard was near impossible. It was comical to finally see him out of his league.

She gathered their child from the bassinet, "Come here."

He hesitated, and then moved next to her, standing next to the bed, looking down at them both.

She pushed the blanket back to show the little one's soft pink face, "You have a daughter. Congratulations." She moved to the side, "Sit with us." He needed commands – it was fairly obvious his brain was not working properly.

Cautiously, he moved onto the bed. "Enos says she is healthy?"

"Yes, completely. No complications or anything. She's just been sleeping a lot."

"And you?"

"Sleeping a lot as well. I'm doing well though." She nearly shoved the bundle into his arms, "Hold her."

He took his daughter, looking entirely unsure of what he was doing, and then held her up, his fingers under her arms and around her little torso, and looked at her.

She squirmed a little and yawned, her grey eyes blinking open blearily. He squinted at her, holding her so close his nose was nearly touching hers. "She has the marks."

"Pardon?"

"Under her eyes. She has them. That is good."

"Oh, I noticed that as well. They're kind of beautiful next to her grey eyes."

He was quiet for a moment. "They are."

Nev plucked her away from him, returning her to a bundle. "I sort of hoped she'd be blue. I'm glad she at least got the markings from you."

"What have you named her?"

"She doesn't have one yet. I thought you might want to name her. To give her a Chiss name."

He was quiet for a moment. "I don't know that she will have Chiss vocal capabilities. The last thing I want is for her to not be able to pronounce her own name."

"I don't know if it's possible to mispronounce your own name." She smiled at him. "I am not going to name her. I will see her and care for her every day. She deserves a name from her father."

She woke to Thrawn sitting in a chair next to the bassinet, his fingertips pressed together and resting against his lips at a point. His eyes were focused on the little one. She was awake, making noise and reaching up out of her basket.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Her name. I think I have it."

"Oh?" It had been nearly a week; he'd taken the duty of naming her quite seriously.

"It's simple. A word from my people, but it fits the naming conventions of yours as well. And it suits her. Very well, I think. Oni." He nodded confidently, still looking at the little one. "Her name is Oni."

She moved to his side, "It's pretty, I like it. It does suit her well. What does it mean?"

He plucked Oni from her bed, holding her under the arms and looking at her closely again. He still treated her like she was some foreign object – he was nervous around her.

"It means everything."

The way her eyes lit up when she saw her father was always the best part about his visits. He was remarkably consistent, making his way to them every 8-10 weeks and usually staying anywhere from 2 days to a full week. He was there every opportunity he had; that much she could tell.

She could also tell that while Oni loved her father, it dwarfed in comparison to how much Thrawn adored Oni. Before she'd even really learned to pronounce words in Basic, Nev caught him speaking to her in his native language. When she started speaking a little, he brought her volumes of recordings and little games in his language. She was remarkably quick, and learned to speak it right alongside Basic. When he visited, he spoke to her almost exclusively in the language.

He always came with gifts, usually books and language recordings and toys. When she was old enough to realize what a gift was, she started giving them to him – paintings and drawings, little paper figurines Nev taught her to make, rocks she found outside.

He looked like he was in pain when he explained to Nev – he couldn't take any of it with him.

Nev blinked at him. "What?"

"Nev… I cannot risk anyone knowing. These were clearly made by a child. If they were found in my possession it would arouse too much suspicion."

"But it is a gift… from your own daughter of all people. How could you turn such a thing down? Do you not have anywhere you can hide them?" Maybe it was a cultural thing, but on Nivo it was considered terribly, terribly rude to turn down a gift.

"Nev… please listen. The Empire is collapsing as we speak."

She paused, remembering he'd mentioned prior involvement with the Empire. "Are you safe? Are we safe?"

"Yes, I give you my word that both of you are safe. However I cannot risk information like her existence leaking at this point. I am hopeful. The Empire will no longer exist very soon. With that threat eliminated, I think we can be less secretive about our situation. My best guess is it will crumble within two years, but we must be careful. They are most vicious while in their death throws." He looked at the paper figurine between his fingers, "Keep these for me, please? Someday I will be able to take them. Soon, hopefully."

She was four years old when he appeared at the cabin for a visit with an odd smile on his face. "Where is she?"

Nev looked at him suspiciously, "What did you bring for her this time?"

"A gift."

She didn't like this already. He was up to something. "She's in her room, napping."

He walked off brusquely. She followed.

Oni sprung out of bed when he came in, like she had some sort of radar for her father. She grinned at him and greeted him, in his language.

He sat on her bed and she crawled over to him, chattering at him in their language, fussing with some sort of imperceptable dust or fuzz or something like that on his shoulder. The affectionate neatening and grooming habit was one of her favorite things. She'd noticed Thrawn's tendency to constantly preen himself when they first met. It carried over to Oni, who picked up on it fairly quickly. It was easy to tell if she liked someone - she'd start cleaning them.

He returned the gesture, brushing back her mess of black hair. He opened up the satchel at his side to pull out… She wasn't sure what it was. It was yellow and somewhat furry and a little scale-y... In general, it was completely gross.

Oni's face lit up.

"Um… Thrawn…"

"She needs a pet." He said calmly.

"No. No no no, not that thing. What is it?" It was already crawling on her daughter.

"It's a ysalamir," he said, like it was obvious.

"A… what? No. Absolutely not. What if it carries diseases? It shouldn't be crawling on her like that…"

"They don't carry anything. I've kept several of them for years, long before I even knew you."

"Ugh…"

Oni giggled, petting it.

"See? She likes it. It will be good for her to have a pet."

"Yes but… does it need to be that thing?"

"They're loyal, and easy to train. They are smart little creatures. You will grow used to it."

She highly doubted that.

The next morning she woke early to make a welcome home breakfast for him. Everyone was still asleep when she finished. She returned to their bedroom to wake him.

The scene when she walked into their bedroom made her pause. Thrawn was still asleep, buried under the white blankets of their bed. Oni must have woken up and sneaked into their room - she wedged herself against her father and fell asleep, tucked into his arms.

In her early 20's, a fellow artist had gifted her a holocam that she never really used. She realized, feeling somewhat dramatic, that the holocam must have come into her life all those years ago just to capture this one, perfect moment. She fetched the device and returned to the room to capture what seemed to her the most pure thing she'd ever seen. It was so beautiful, such a perfect moment...

It was only after she captured the image that she noticed the ysalamir laying on the other side of Thrawn.

It only took a few days for Oni to get the bright idea to paint the little creature. It ran away from her, leaving a rainbow trail of paint all over their home.

She made Thrawn clean it.

She was in the kitchen the following day when she overheard Oni chattering at something in the main room. Her words never made sense, and they didn't quite sound like Thrawn's language. She imagined it was Oni's own language, something she'd invented to talk to herself in. The only thing she could recognize was the tone – she was frustrated.

Nev poked her head out of the kitchen to see what the matter was.

The yellow creature had its claws dug into the side of her sofa. Oni had her little hands wrapped around its middle, trying to tear it off. The creature made a disgusting noise of protest, blinking it's four eyes at different times. If Oni kept trying to rip it off, they would destroy the furniture.

She started for them, when Thrawn stepped into the room. He knelt next to her, pulling her hands from the creature. "Oni. What are you trying to do?"

"She's stuck." Oni said simply.

"She wants to be there."

"I want her off."

"Did you ask her?"

Nev frowned. So did Oni. Ask the stupid little thing?

Thrawn was silent for a moment. "You think she will not understand because she's different than you." He motioned to the creature. "But she is smart. Ask her."

Oni looked at him skeptically.

"Ask." Thrawn repeated himself.

She looked at the ugly thing and chattered something in Thrawn's language. Miraculously, the little creature took its claws out of the sofa and crawled over to Oni.

As much as she hated the monster, there was something significant about that moment. Thrawn stood from their daughter and walked to Nev. She watched Oni pet the thing. "Maybe a pet was a good idea."

"She will learn from it."

He was a good father. Nev bit the corners of her smile. "I have a gift for you."

"Oh?"

She started off for the back room; he followed after her. "I know you can't really take gifts with you… but they know you are an art collector, correct? It's been some time since I gifted you a painting."

She glanced back to him – he was smiling, just a little. "Yes, that should not arouse any suspicion."

Nev pulled the piece out of the room, uncovering it for him to see. It was a labor of love – she'd been careful to abstract it just enough that unless you knew, you'd never be able to tell what it was. Situated against a blue-green background, a golden rectangular figure stood tall, with a fiery red ball hurling at it.

True to form, Thrawn looked at it quietly, taking everything in. The texture, the lines, the colors…

"It seems appropriate that you would make Oni a ball of fire. But you did not make me blue?"

She smiled at him. "Ah. You may be blue, but you are golden to me."

The night before he left they sat in the main room, in front of the giant window, chatting and watching the stars over the frozen lake.

"When will you be back?"

"As soon as I can. Eight weeks or so."

"No more pets next time. Please."

"One is enough." He nodded with a little smirk.

She looked at him for a moment, considering how to proceed.

"You always give your daughter gifts. Why don't I ever get one?"

He looked back at her for a moment, like he was trying to tell if she was joking. "What would you like? I will bring you anything you would like."

"Mm…" she stood and made her way to him, crawling onto the chair with him. "Well, what I really want you can't actually bring to me. But you can give it to me."

His eyebrow quirked a little. "Oh?"

She kissed him and knelt across his thighs with one leg, pinning him to the chair with her other knee against his neck. He made a light humming noise.

It was a good thing Oni was already in bed.

She leaned forward and put her lips next to his ear and whispered to him: "I want another one."

He was quiet for a moment.

"Nev… are you certain?"

"Don't be coy, Thrawn. I'm not stupid." She pulled back and looked him in the eyes. "You bought us a home with three bedrooms for a reason."