A Quiet Moment on the Homestead (Anija Ordo)

[Arrbi Betna]

It was winter back at the Betna homestead. Snow was piled here and there as it had drifted and flowed with the winds. It was neither overly inconveniencing, but neither was it a dusting. It was the perfect amount of snow, it seemed. At least, to Betna it was. A fire was set and burning in the firepit with a kettle hanging over the flames as it boiled water. Betna sat on the sofa before it in the karyai, alternating between tending the fire and checking the holonet on his datapad.

It was still morning and he knew his wife enjoyed a hot cup of behot in the mornings and, since he was up and about anyways, he had gotten the water on to boil for it. From the lack of sound in the bedroom, he figured she was still asleep and so he'd contentedly sat down to browse the holonet for work and news. No matter how many credits he had in the bank he always kept an eye out for the occasional job. It was just who he was, really. He'd rather earn money himself than let it multiply in a bank somewhere. The young Mando wore simple breeches and a tunic, though his armored boots were on his feet. The boots, however, were more for practicality and ulitity than for protection, though he reluctantly had to admit that there was a sense of comfort that came from wearing a well worn, well broken in pair of boots.

He glanced up from the datapad in his hands and checked the fire. It looked a little low, so he prodded it a few times and added another log. In a minute or two, the fire was back up and burning bright. He figured the kettle would be done in a few minutes, but for now he'd skim the holonet a moment more. He'd get Anija's behot ready after.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

The sun streamed through the crack in the curtains, warming Anija's face. It had been quite a while since she'd been able to sleep in... and she relished the opportunity. The blankets that were draped over her kept her warm, and yet she could feel an even warmer waft of air coming from the kitchen. She could smell the wood smoke... and with it came a hint of something else. And that hint of something else brought a smile to her face.

Behot. She knew that scent intimately, as it was something she'd grown up drinking. [member="Ordo"] had introduced her to it when she was young, and the scent of it brought back many fond memories. Slowly, she sat up and ran a hand through her rather tousled hair. She'd slept deeply for the first time in weeks. She then rubbed her hands over her face for a moment before stretching lightly to try and loosen a kink in her lower back. When she'd done that, she scooted to the edge of the bed and stood carefully.

As she moved towards the door, the scent of behot intensified, and she could smell burning wood more strongly. A fire had been going for quite a while. She paused for a moment and brushed a few stray strands of hair behind her ear before stepping out into the kitchen. [member="Arrbi Betna"] sat at the table near the fire pit, his datapad near his right hand and a mug of caf near his left. She took this all in in the few seconds it took to cross the wooden floor and lean over to plant a kiss on his cheek, her arm coming to rest on his shoulders. "Good morning, Arr'ika...." she said softly.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Good morning, cyar'ika," Betna returned. He snaked out an arm to hook around her waist and pull her into a one-armed hug. "Did you sleep well?"

Sleep was an elusive thing at times. With war constantly on the horizon for the Mandalorian people, one found sleep to be difficult at best. The fact that she'd slept in, even if only a little while, showed that things were slowing down a touch. The Protectors were large enough that the two of them didn't need to partake in the patrols personally, though they both still did on occasion. The Mandalorians were expanding their borders and seemed to have found a peaceful moment with their neighbors. Life seemed, at least for now, to be getting back to normal.

For the wedded couple, that meant planning some things out that they'd neglected so far. Betna turned the holonet so that Anija could see the screen better and tapped a few controls. In a moment, a few pages popped up on the screen.

"I've kind of narrowed down a honeymoon trip to Dorumaa or maybe Spira," he said, gesturing at each. "One's a little more dangerous than the other, but I figure that'd be more of a fun thing for us than a deterrent."

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

A contented sigh fell from her lips as she felt his arm settle around her waist. A moment later, she rested her head atop his for a moment. "Aye, I did. Best I've slept in a while, actually." She made another soft sound and lightly ran her fingers through his close cropped hair for a moment as she rested her chin atop him head for a moment longer. "I am glad that we were able to finally get the Protectors off the ground. I's something the Mandalorians have been needing to happen for a very long time."

Shaking herself slightly, she chuckled. "First time off in ages, and I'm still talking about work." She cursed softly at herself and kissed the top of his head before she slipped out of his embrace for a moment and went to pour herself a cup of behot. It was warm, and spiced just how she liked it. With mug in hand, she moved back over towards the table and leaned against him again, lightly replacing his arm where it had been. "Spira sounds nice. I just want to relax for a change." she said after taking a moment to look at both pages.

[member="Arrbi Betna"]

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"You and me both," Betna said, commenting on the Protectors. "We may need them soon, depending on how things go in the galaxy. I don't think anyone's dumb enough to hit the Mandalorians, but you never know."

Betna maximized the page on Spira and set it to scroll slowly along the pages. Images of scenic beaches and glorious ocean vistas passed by. Here and there a list of activities was given, ranging from beach lounging to diving. He spotted some other areas, too, that could be interesting on occasion. Rock climbing for one and he thought he saw something about hunting and camping, but he'd have to go look. Here and there he saw boaters out and enjoying the water. All in all, it looked like a nice, quiet place to go.

"Spira, eh?" he asked with a grin. "Well, there's a lot to do there, looks like. And more than just laying on the beach, too, though I don't mind seeing you in a swimsuit at all."

He grinned cheekily up at his wife before setting his caf on the table. If she was going to smack him, he didn't want hot beverage to go in all directions.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

Anija's eyes narrowed for a moment, and she set down her mug of behot after taking a sip of it. "Sounds like lots of fun things to do. Just for that... you don't get to see me in a swimsuit until day two!" she smirked at him and then leaned in to kiss him lightly. She settled after that though, and leaned her head on his shoulder. "All in all, it sounds like an excellent place to take our honeymoon. I'd make one request, though. Leave any comms behind. There will be absolutely NO work calls taken by either of us while we're there... agreed?"

 

[Arrbi Betna]

Betna listened to his wife and grinned broadly, a mischevious twinkle in his eyes.

"That's too bad," he said, still grinning. "Because I've already selected a spot on each world. If we go to Spira, we have a place right on the water. I was thinking we could grab dinner by the pool."

He tapped at the datapad a moment or two and brought up an image to the screen. The image that popped up on the screen showed just how literal he was being.

"It's a big place with lots of seclusion and quiet. I checked the weather there for the two weeks we'd be staying and it'll be sunny and clear with maybe one or two cloudy days. Plus, if we decide to stay another week, which is an option, the weather is perfect then, too. On top of that, the resort would be happy to let us either rent or outright buy the place as a vacation home if we really want to. As for the comms, we won't need ours. There's a comm station at the home and only the resort staff have the number and we can control who gets that number. No comms may come back and bite us, but if we make sure that only the top folks have it, we should be fine and dandy."

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

A slight smirk tugged at her lips for a moment in response to his comment, and she leaned over to kiss him again. "Well, that does sound... rather appealing..." she whispered in his ear for a moment before turning to lean back against the table next to him, gazing at him. "I would be lying if I said that the idea of having total control over who can reach us for two weeks doesn't interest me. I was honestly getting a bit overwhelmed by the amount of work requests of late." Sighing, she ran a hand through her dark hair and sipped at her behot again. "Some time away would be wonderful, frankly..."

[member="Arrbi Betna"]

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Agreed," Betna said as he touched a few more controls on the screen.

He pulled up a holonet page with a large list of travel options. Sure, they had their own ships and, sure, they could fly there on their own, but this was a vacation and a nice vacation at that. You didn't pilot yourself out to a nice vacation resort and, honestly, there was always the risk of little to no parking. On top of that, the vacation home he'd pulled out didn't have a landing pad and as much as the one down the road was nice and all, he was pretty sure that the resort staff would prefer to not have heavily armed starships taking up space on the landing pad there.

"We've got some transport options that we can go with," he said as he brought them up. "One is a straight to and from space liner that we can snag some first class places aboard that shouldn't take too long. The other is more roundabout with a three day time there and another two back, but their first class suites aren't the greatest. The last one is a full four days there and then another four days back along a couple of systems and the first class rooms are really nice. Really it's just how long do we want to take to get there and which options we like more."

While they were Mandalorians and could easily make do with sleeping in a cockpit if needed, as they have before, or even sacking out in the wild and on the ground if they had to, sometimes being able to go first class someplace was a nice change of pace. And when they had a nice, sizable amount of credits stashed away that they weren't using, it made the option ranges far larger.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

[member="Arrbi Betna"]

She spent the few moments it took for him to bring up the resort page to study his face, or at least his profile. She'd always seen him as the strong silent type. Feth, it had taken months for him to even get up the courage to ask her out. Shaking her head slightly, she grinned. It was still hard for her to wrap her mind around the fact that she was married.

Shaking herself slightly as he spoke up she then leaned over his shoulder and peeked at the screen as she considered three options. While the idea of a shorter transit was appealing, this was their honeymoon they were talking about. With that in mind, she decided for the final option. "Why don't we go with the last one? That way we can do a bit of exploring at each stopover. No sense taking a shorter route when this is our honeymoon. And, it may be the only real chance we have to enjoy ourselves for quite some time."

 

[Arrbi Betna]

Betna grinned at Anija's choice on the trip options. Secretly, he'd hoped she would pick the last one. It promised to be a nice quiet trip and with some neat stopovers at a few choice worlds. The didn't need the first class rooms and suites, but it would be a very nice change of pace to things and would allow them to relax a bit for once.

"Alright," he said as he tapped the screen a few times, making the reservations before shutting down the electronic slate. "We're set for the trip and destination in full. Looks like we'll be back... In maybe a month, possibly a little more. A nice, quiet holiday for a fairly long stay."

With that Betna picked up his empty cup of caf and deactivated datapad, stood up, gave his wife a quick kiss, and started heading towards the kitchen.

"Also, you may want to start packing soon," he called over his shoulder as he walked.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

[member="Arrbi Betna"]

She studied the images for a moment.. .at least until he close down the datapad. The thought of it was incredibly appealing to her, and she realized how much they both needed a vacation. For the last several months, the Mandalorians had been constantly on the move. They had been brining more and more worlds into their cloud of influence. And, they'd done well... considering the many setbacks over the last couple months. Sighing softly, she gripped his hand for a moment before he got up from the table. "I have to admit.... I am really looking forward to this. I can't think of the last time we took a vacation or a day off from work with the Protectors or Mandal Hypernautics."

She grabbed her mug and stood up perhaps a second after he did. "Packing... why? When did you get our tickets for...?" Frowning Slightly, she set her cup in the sink before heading into the bedroom to begin packing. She knew better than to bring her beskar'gam.... but she never went anywhere without some sort of weapon. In this case, it was a dagger-sized version of the Strill Claw Beskad, which she sheathed and set next to the clothes she was laying out on the bed. Several sets of of clothes went into a duffel, along with a bathing suit, a couple towels, and whatever personal items she might need.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"I got the tickets for tomorrow morning," he called back from the kitchen. "Well, tomorrow afternoon, really. Early afternoon, so around 01:00 or so. Gives us time to grab breakfast at our favorite caf on the way to the shuttle."

With that, he put his dishes in the sink and cleaned them before drying them and putting them away. From there, he headed to their bedroom to start packing his own things. He packed regular clothes and a bathing suit as well as his other things like toiletries and the like. Once done, he pulled out an old, beat up case and started stowing his armor inside. Sure, they didn't expect trouble and, sure, it wasn't really needed, but he liked having it around. At the very least, it was a nice, protective set of work clothes should he need to fix anything, which he doubted he would. That said, one could never expect what was to happen and it was better to be prepared. Besides, if they decided to do anything adventurous or dangerous while there, it may just keep him from serious injury or embarrassment. Maybe.

On top of those, he stuffed his revolver and some knives away. He didn't want to be without a weapon on the trip, again, just in case. For the hell of it, he chucked a few fragmentation grenades in as well. Half because why not and half because... well, why not.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

[member="Arrbi Betna"]

Feth it, if Arrbi was packing his plates, she supposed she should too. One could never be too careful. And, not to mention that they would be gone for close to a month. She smiled slightly at the thought. Come to think of it, this was probably the first real...vacation she'd had in a long time. And it was something she really needed right now. Sighing softly, she reached over to grip his hand for a moment as she thought back over the last few weeks.

She really wasn't sure what to expect, but it never hurt to be prepared. With that in mind, she again checked the other small weapons she'd selected. To these she added her twin rippers. Carefully, she packed her bag, tucking the dagger and rippers in amongst her clothing, which was folded neatly before she tucked it into the bag. Her armor went into a hard-sided strongbox, which wasn't overly large... perhaps twice the length of her duffle. A slight smile tugged at her lips as she caught at least part of Arrbi's train of thought. Finishing her packing, she set both her bags by the door before she grabbed a towel and stepped towards the 'fresher, reaching out to lace her fingers with his as she did so. "Join me?" she asked softly.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Gladly," Betna said with a grin as he held his wife's hand for a moment. As he let her pull him towards the fresher, a small twinkle came to his eye.

With a broad smile, he scooped Anija up in his arms and started carrying her to the fresher door. Chuckling, he carryied her into the room and set her down by the tub. From there, it was a simple matter of closing the door and starting the shower.

Sure, their luxury cruise started tomorrow and, sure, they wouldn't be at their resort for maybe a week or so, but for Betna, that was the unimportant part. For all intents and purposes, their vacation started now...

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

They remained in the fresher for close to 45 minutes. If Anija was being honest with herself, she hadn't truly enjoyed the pleasure of a long hot shower in.... months, really. And, she had to admit that it was made more enjoyable by Arrbi's presence. It was also a great way to get both of them to start relaxing.

Anija couldn't even begin to think about the last time she'd taken a true vacation from her duties as Interim CEO of Mandal Hypernautics. It wasn't an easy job, and not one she envied Larraq in the least. Sure, she had the temperament for it, but she was far happier to be staring at a hologram or be neck deep in designing some new piece of tech for the Mandalorians. That, was what she truly enjoyed.

Her train of thought was rather abruptly cut short as Arrbi kissed her bare shoulder, his arms encircling her waist from behind as he held her gently against him. A smile touched her lips, and she dropped her left hand to grip his lightly before turning her head to kiss him. "I love you, [member="Arrbi Betna"]." she whispered in his ear, as she lightly traced his cheek with her free hand.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"I love you, too," he said to his wife, pulling her in for a kiss.

They'd needed a break for a long while, now. Between the fighting and the wars, Ordo and the Sith, and everything else in between they'd had so little time for themselves. With things now stable, for the most part, they could relax a bit. Let down their guard. Do things they couldn't quite do before, what with the new responsibilities they had.

Things like their honeymoon, for instance.

With a grin, he kissed his wife once more and then ushered her out the door with a playful swat to her behind. It was time to pack, it was time to get ready, and it was time to continue to relax. He'd make a run out to town to grab what little they needed for the trip, if they needed anything, and then... they'd enjoy their honeymoon.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

[member="Arrbi Betna"]

With a soft exclamation of surprise, Anija made her way back into the bedroom. Once there, she shivered slightly. The air in the room was a bit chilly. Quickly making her way over to the closet, Anija sorted through it and looked for something less.... business like. Most of what she had consisted of business attire or clean coveralls and body gloves. She didn't think either was appropriate for the occasion.

After a few moments, she pulled out an outfit that consisted of a dark purple wrap skirt with a cream colored top. To this, she added some soft black boots. Once she'd decided, she dressed quickly before turning to gather the luggage.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

Betna entered the room after his wife and dressed as well, opting for a clean shirt and pants. He wore his combat boots as well, though that was for comfort rather than practicality. He'd worn them so much and liked the design so well that he'd bought a dozen pairs and often preferred them over other shoes in almost any situation.

He gathered up his luggage and set it down by the door before helping Anija do the same. Once that was done, he moved to the kitchen and got lunch started. Between sleeping in, fiddling with the honeymoon plans, and their... shower, it was well into lunch time. He got the ingredients together for sandwiches and brought it all to the table, using the meat that had been cooking since this morning on the fire to make their lunch. It was a simple, rustic meal that Betna had grown up with since he was small and it was one of his favorites even to this day. It was also something that he enjoyed sharing with his wife when they had time and she had seemed to enjoy it as well.

Soon enough, it would be time for chores, then dinner, then an early night for sleep. Tomorrow would bring breakfast and space travel and the beginnings of their vacation.

[member="Anija Ordo"]