Author's Notes: While this chapter should hopefully be able to stand alone, it is a sequel of sorts to The Art of Flirting, which is chapter 6 of From the Ground Up.

Week Two Challenge: Write a story between 400 and 800 words in which a character admits a secret to another character without directly speaking to them. Indirect means of communication are fair game.

Disclosure (Corissa Jade, Nico Jade, Mara Jade Skywalker; 13 ABY)

"I'm home," Corissa called as she stepped through the door, out of habit more than anything else. Without Mom and Dad's speeder outside, it seemed likely that she was the first one back for the day—but as the door closed behind her, she thought she heard a voice toward the back of the house. Tugging her jacket off and tossing it over a chair, she headed toward the kitchen.

Nico was sitting at the dining room table with a cup of caf and the flatscreen comm unit before him, but he glanced up from his conversation as she entered the room. "Hi, Cor."

"Hey," she said, raising her eyebrows and lifting her chin toward the comm. Nico turned it so that she could see who he was talking to, and Corissa felt a smile spread across her face. "Mara!"

"There's my baby sister," Mara said, smiling back. "How are the rehearsals going?"

"Good." Corissa blew her sister a kiss, then continued toward the kitchen, still talking. "The techs fixed that lighting issue I was telling you about. What are you up to?"

"The usual," Mara's voice came from behind her as Corissa filled the kettle with water and pulled a container of her favorite tea from the cupboard. "Training, research, occasional babysitting. We think we might be able to visit next month."

"Yay!" Corissa measured the tea leaves, then poured them into the infuser, waiting for Nico to resume the conversation she'd interrupted with her arrival.

Rather to her surprise, for a long moment he didn't. She snuck a look as she turned on the kettle and caught the slight tilt of his head toward the kitchen, where she was. She frowned, but then he spoke again, with a studied air of casualness that would have raised her suspicions even without any other gestures. "So, yeah, dinner was good."

Dinner? Corissa knitted her brows, wondering what that meant. Why would Mara care about a specific meal she wasn't part of? Anyway, Nico hadn't cooked dinner all week. He'd actually missed a couple of dinners—

"Glad to hear it." Mara's voice again, with a lilt of faint amusement. "She liked the restaurant?"

She? Corissa whipped her head back around to fix her gaze on Nico, who kept his own eyes firmly on the screen.

"She did," he confirmed. "It was a good choice. Thanks for the recommendation."

"Happy to help," Mara said. "The reviews on the HoloNet were all glowing. I'll have to go there myself one of these days."

"You and Luke should definitely take an evening from your next visit to do that," Nico agreed. "Great atmosphere—soft lighting, private tables, live classical music."

Was he describing—no, Corissa thought, surely not. Nico hardly ever dated, despite her best efforts in that area. The idiot girls in his social circles didn't know what they were missing; her brother was about the kindest person she knew, not to mention smart and responsible. And good-looking, she assumed, though it was hard to judge one's own brother that way. But he looked a lot like Mom, and Mom was beautiful, so Nico was probably handsome. By all rights he ought to have girls falling all over him.

Still, he'd always been so quiet and reserved, like Dad. Honestly, it was a good thing that Mom took some initiative when the two of them had met, or the rest of them would never have been born. Maybe Nico had gone out with a group of friends? Though it really didn't sound like a group thing—

The kettle beeped, and she had to pull her pointed glare from Nico to turn away long enough to pour the boiling water into her mug.

"Our next visit will likely fall near our anniversary, so that's definitely a possibility," came Mara's voice, and Corissa nearly dropped the kettle as she spun around.

"You have a girlfriend," she almost shrieked.

Nico finally looked over at her, and she could see the grin he was trying to suppress. "I didn't say that."

"Sure you didn't," Corissa said, rolling her eyes as she set the kettle down. "And all of that was just, what? Some sort of performance art?"

From her angle, she could just see Mara's knowing smirk on the screen. "Maybe I should let you go so you can handle this."

"Oh, no you don't," Corissa snapped, grabbing her tea and heading for the table. "You're not getting off that easy. Keeping secrets from me, the both of you, you—you—"

"Sleemos?" Nico suggested, his grin breaking free from concealment.

"You're not funny," she informed him, pulling out a chair to settle in where she could clearly see both him and Mara, wrapping her hands around her steaming mug, and beaming at both of them despite her accusations. "Tell me everything."