Still half asleep, Solasta reached over to turn off her alarm and when it didn't stop chirping at her she realized it was her holo-comm trying to get her attention, and not her chrono. Reaching for the holo instead, she answered it and the image of Tasa appeared.
Grinning from ear to ear he said, "Solasta, guess what came?"
"Mmmph... what time is it Tasa?" as she laid back in bed.
"It's only 06h30, guess what came?" he asked again.
Lying there, eyes closed, she said, "I don't know... what came?"
"My acceptance letter. I've been accepted to Coruscant after we graduate."
At this Solasta sat upright, wide-eye, and held the holo with both hands close to her face to look at the miniature image of Tasa, "Seriously? That's awesome!" she said before asking, "How soon after school's done before you leave?"
"I'll have just under two months before the next cycle of classes begin," he said.
More awake now, Solasta said, "so depending on when I ship out we should have time together after graduation."
"Probably, now go back to sleep and we can talk at school," he told her and after a quick exchange of "I love you," they disconnected.
Lying back on her pillow she let her mind drift and began to dream she was a kitling again. In her dream she was only in her Fifth or Six Season and walking around alone in a large field that was littered with garbage. She didn't feel threatened by the strange surroundings, and as she walked from one mound of garbage to the next she would occasionally stop to pick through the pile as though she was searching for something. This continued until she reached a mound and picking through the odd assortment of discarded items, she became overwhelmed with a feeling that she had found what she was looking for, which only made her dig faster and she began to panic the item she found was slowing drifting out of reach, when she was jolted awake at the sound of her alarm going off.
Reaching over and shutting off her chrono, she laid there trying to piece together the dream but the details evaporated away like breath on a glass pane. Left feeling confused by the dream, she put it out of her mind and decided to get out of bed and get ready for school.
When she got to school Tasa was already waiting for her. Hopping out of her speeder, she ran to Tasa to throw her arms around him and hug before they affectionately rubbed cheeks. Walking into the school Solasta asked, "why did your acceptance come so early in the morning?" and shrugging his shoulders Tasa replied, "I dunno, guess the time difference between Coruscant and Ord maybe?"
Reaching the main hallway, Tasa kissed Solasta on nose quickly before they let go of each other's hands and walked in the opposite directions to their morning classes. Most of the teachers had begun final reviews for the upcoming exams so the morning was uneventful, and as usual Solasta paid keen attention to be sure nothing was missed that could affect her grades.
They met again outside the cafeteria at lunch, and holding hands went inside to get something to eat. When they had their trays and found a seat, Tasa asked, "my Dad was wondering what you're going to do with the house... with it being in a retirement community."
"I hadn't really thought about it, are your parents looking to retire?" and Solasta laughed at her question.
"I bet they wish they could, but you're much further from retiring than they are," said Tasa
Solasta thought for a moment, "I guess it would make sense to sell it with me joining the Army. It could be a long time before we're settled in any one place." Looking at Tasa she asked, "What do you think I should do?"
Tasa shrugged his shoulders and said "It's up to you, but selling the house and investing the credits will only benefit you... us, in the future."
The warning bell sounded, and they agreed to look into selling the house after school as they carried their trays to the dish room conveyor before heading to their afternoon classes.
When classes were finished for the day, Tasa followed Solasta in his speeder and they stopped at the Stronghold Commissioner's Office for the region where she lived. Inside the office Solasta spoke with an exuberant and chatty Sullustan man who took her information and explained that a Sales Agent would contact her to arrange a house appraisal and conduct the sale on her behalf.
That evening the Agent contacted Solasta to introduce herself. After some pleasantries and a brief explanation of the process, and a confirmation of the Agent's identity, Solasta keyed the her information into the home security so the Agent could show the house when Solasta wasn't home. Over the weeks that followed Solasta kept the house spotless, which was easy since she was at Tasa's house most of the time while they studied for final exams. The Agent would always contact Solasta in advance when she had a potential buyer scheduled to look at the house, and after the third week a buyer made an offer that Solasta accepted.
The new owners, a retiring factory working on Corellia, needed another month finalize the sale of their apartment and organize shipping of their belongings, so Solasta arranged for the transfer of the house security to Sales Agent in case there was a gap in the period between her leaving for Basic Training and the new owners arriving on Ord Mantell. She took the credits from the sale and invested a sizeable portion, and the rest she put into an account that would pay the monthly cost of a storage unit close to the mainland Forces Base where she could put the Desler and everything else she wanted to store while she was away.
Just as the Commander and she had done before, Solasta went through the house to donate anything that could be useful by those displaced by the Separatists and held onto only the items that had sentimental value. The pressure of trying to do this through exams helped her to focus her decisions and she had this done in a matter of a few days with Tasa's help. When they were done the house looked barren except for the boxes that Solasta would be storing, her Waveboard leaning against the family room wall, a small table and some chairs in the kitchen, and the bed in her room.
On the final day of exams Solasta and Tasa waited in the atrium with the other Twelfth Form students for the display boards to present the final results of their school year. As they waited, Solasta told Tasa the story of her experience with the ACE's and how her named displayed 'See Office' instead of a result, and how she was pretty sure she would die if it happened again today.
The students all began to navigate to the screens on the wall when the Admin Droid announced, "Greetings students, the Twelfth Form examination results have been calculated and your graduation status will be displayed momentarily. Those students with a 'plus' symbol beside the name have met the Honour Roll requirements. Congratulations to those who have graduated and will be attending the ceremony in the summer. Your full transcript of marks will be available online shortly."
Solasta and Tasa made their way to a spot where they could view the the screens, and waited patiently for the results to display. As the names flicked and the results appeared a collective sigh of relief could be heard as the room exhaled. Solasta was looking at a board to the left for 'Dinn' while Tasa was looking to the right for 'Kosit' and it had just barely registered the word 'Graduate' was beside her name with a 'plus' sign when Tasa squeezed her hand sharply.
"Hey! That hurt!" she exclaimed. Turning to see the smile on Tasa's face, he said, "I made Honours," and hugged her.
They celebrated that night with dinner at Tasa's and Solasta spent the night so they could go to the Forces Recruitment Office early the next day, as she had agreed too. After they ate Tasa's mother chased Atan and Cudu to the tub for their bath, and they could hear the holo inside from the porch where they sat while night fell.
Tasa sat reclined on the bench with his legs stretched out on the porch while Solasta curled up next to him with her head resting on his chest to listen to his heart beat. They both were relaxed and listening to the sounds of the night when Tasa, who had been tracing the seam along the shoulder of her shirt, casually ran his hand down over her shirt and traced the contour of her bosom before moving down over her stomach and began to slide his fingers under the waist of her shorts.
Solasta let out a low purr of enjoyment, and without opening her eyes dug her claws into the soft inseam of Tasa's thigh and whispered, "Don't start something you know neither of us are ready to finish."
Tasa whispered back, "I know... besides my parents are just inside anyway," and moved his hand back to rest on her stomach.
Sitting up and taking Tasa's hands in hers, she looked him in the eyes and quietly said, "When we know what my schedule is, I promise we'll get Soul-Bound the first chance we can. This waiting is killing me too, but it will be worth it when we're bound together for life - I promise," and kissed him.
Snuggling back under his arm with her legs drawn up they just sat there until it was time to go inside for bed.