Author's Note: Thanks again to everyone who reads and comments! I'd be lost without you there for me every chapter. You have really encouraged me to not leave this story unfinished, and you have my sincerest gratitude.

If you have any tips writing tips, please feel free to comment.

As always, I continue to hope that I am doing justice to the spirit of Star Wars as well the respective authors and characters from which I borrow. Again, I gratefully accept constructive criticism as a means to help me develop my skills further as a writer.

Mandalorian (Mando'a) words

Buy'ce (BOO-chay, BOO-shay): helmet; Colloquially: pint, bucket

Ika (EE-kah): diminutive suffix written as 'ika - also added to a name as a very familiar or childhood form, e.g, Ord'ika - Little Ordo

Mir'sheb (MEER-sheb): smartass

Ner vod (nair-vohd): "my brother/sister"; colloquially also "my friend"

Riduur (ree-DOO-rok): partner, spouse, husband, wife

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Chapter 64

You took an oath to be one of us, and outside distractions lead to sloppiness. If you wanted a normal life, you should have stayed a civilian. Here, we don't have the time or the luxury for courting. Your sole obligation is to the royal family, not finding a mate. If you find you changed your mind and want to live the home life, you tell me up front, and you'll receive an honorable discharge, but you'll forfeit ever being one of us again.

Davi Saun reiterating the relationship policy with newly sworn-in palace guardians

Tochin Moon III, 87 Days after Order 66

Dusty looked up after he had moved the tunnel grate aside, his eyes catching Jas and Les'ika as they exited the building and moved towards him. Dusty saw how obvious it was that Les'ika didn't recognize him in his Bhen Shipley disguise just by the way she crept closer to Jas. 

Dusty watched her eyes then dart towards Tarj as though seeking some kind of approval from the former clone commander before she brought them back to him once more. It reminded Dusty very much of how she reacted when they all had first met after that crash landing in Hazar's escape pod and how she didn't know who to trust due to her sheltering. 

What didn't help then either was the trauma that Hazar had brought upon her and now Dusty figured she would always have that skepticism about others. It was the mark she bore from having her life violated, and it was probably the reason why her trust was so pure once someone earned it. 

Jas had been the only one able to look beyond the title above her head and see past the trauma that she had endured. And, with that thought, Dusty realized why Les'ika had grown so fond of his brother.

"It'll be nice to have my personal RubyFruit chef again," Dusty said with a smile, bringing up something he was certain would spark a memory for her. Just coming out and saying, "Hey, it's me, Dusty," wasn't his style, and he was still determined to maintain his cover just in case something went wrong so that he could at least walk away safely and try to come up with a new plan for getting them free. "Do you have any idea how hard it was to try and share the RubyFruit in those care packages?"

Arlesse felt herself relax now, realizing that only the men in Crimson would know about her RubyFruit and the care packages she used to send. She knew that Gath and Mouse were sadly dead, and that meant besides Jas, only Dusty could have known about the way she cooked the berry-like fruit for them.

Dusty had noticed the way Les'ika's forehead now creased in recognition at his comment; however, his smile couldn't last nearly as long as he would have preferred. He knew as well as the rest of his brothers that they needed to get moving sooner rather than later. "Unfortunately, Les'ika, we need to cut this reunion short."

Tarj perked his head at the name that Dusty had used for Arlesse, and he was reminded of the morning that Crimson had to leave Tochin. Jas had just pleaded with him to protect Arlesse, and in doing so he started to say something in reference to her. However, Jas had cut that name off before Tarj could hear it in full, and Tarj had never questioned it again. Now, he knew what Jas nearly slipped on saying that morning. 

Even Tarj knew during Crimson's mission that their orders were to not address the princess in any way that would allow for recognition of her because of Vollan's fear that it would have sparked interest with any other enemies who might have been lurking. Tarj was curious how they came about the name for her, but he knew there would be a better time to inquire about that later when they were free.

"Now, Les'ika, we have a whole new adventure waiting for you," Dusty continued in his gentle way of issuing orders to the young princess by making certain he wasn't harsh with his words. He had learned quickly that a lighthearted way was how she responded best to him, and he knew it would be better for her to relate to him that way again. "The travel brochure offered a chance to experience the world of a mole-ant, complete with all the dirt and rocks you could ever hope to see."

Dusty finished his improvised advertisement with a practiced smiled and moved his hand to grandly gesture at the opening in the ground.

Arlesse glanced towards Jas, and he wasted no time as he moved the two of them closer to the hole. She could feel the urgency in Jas' movements, as he wanted to get as far away from the Imperials as he could, and she could only imagine that it was because of the multitude of things they discussed only moments ago. Between telling him that Harkin had very expertly tried to make her betray Jas and then offering him new knowledge that her mother was a Jedi, Arlesse was certain that Jas was more on edge than he had been when he first reunited with her in the inventory room.

"Always the mir'sheb," Tarj muttered from beside Dusty, calling him nothing short of a smartass, as they moved into position to help with getting Les'ika into the tunnel.

"Palace life dulled you down ner vod," Dusty chided. "It'll definitely do you some good to get out in the galaxy again."

Jas decided that he would have time for verbal banter after they were all safe, and he took the initiative to move into position at the opening. He dropped to the ground and lowered his legs into the opening. He looked to Les'ika, telling her, "I'll go in first and help you down. It's not a long drop, but some of the handholds have disintegrated over time. Also, it's not easy to see much of anything once you're down there."

Arlesse watched Jas disappear, her heart racing at the reality of what she was actually doing. It was probably not the life her father wanted of her, to be a fugitive on the run from the Empire while trying to flee from an Imperial moff whose affections had developed more out of political necessity than anything natural. 

However, she could also not see her father denying her this choice either. She knew that Vollan Psach had let her mother free out of love for her, and she was certain that if her father were still alive, he would encourage her to leave Tochin and hide from the Imperials before they destroyed her, too.

Tarj's hand on hers awoke Arlesse from her mental wanderings, and the man who had become her bodyguard and her older brother helped get her balanced on the edge of the tunnel entrance. Jas offered up a quietly shouted acknowledgment to let Tarj and Dusty know that he was ready at the bottom of the eight-foot drop. Arlesse allowed Tarj and Dusty to help lower her down into the ground, and when she felt Jas' hands wrap around her waist, the men above released their grasp so that she could lower her arms, finding that they naturally wrapped around Jas' neck.

As Jas brought Les'ika to the ground and the darkness around them, he could only stare at her in the soft glow of his buy'ce's lamps and know that she couldn't see him behind the visor. Jas found there was something intimate about the moment, and realized that his thoughts had become even more emboldened than he had previously allowed. 

He believed it had to do with the fact that she couldn't see his inexperienced desire to be alone with her developing in his eyes. Becoming Les'ika's riduur, her husband had changed him in a way that made him freer than he had ever known, and this new intense want of her was just one way his thoughts had grown more liberated.

Then, Jas quickly got his thoughts under control and steered them in a direction he often fought to suppress. During the war, it was always too hard to think about being safe with Les'ika in a domicile that they called home. He wanted to envision it and wanted to believe that he would really be with Les'ika in a normal setting like he had seen on the holo-vids or when passing through civilian territories, but he had never allowed the image to cultivate. While on missions, he couldn't take the chance of allowing his daydreams to cause him to lose a brother or himself. 

However, he knew now that their progress out of the novel shop proved that they were getting just a fraction closer to freedom and his newly developed concept of home. As a result, in this brief moment, while Jas held Les'ika close to him and imagined an intimate moment in their future, he found everything about it comforting and peaceful. 

This was how he defined home, and although he was certain the passion in the darkness that they would eventually share would be even more fulfilling, just being with Les'ika where they would be safe to share laughter, food, and warmth was the vision Jas had finally allowed to believe their home would be.

"What's wrong?" Arlesse asked softly when she felt Jas' hands press tightly around her waist.

"Nothing," he answered, keeping his words quiet as he heard Dusty moving down from above. "I was just...wasting a moment while I could."

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