Private In Memoriam

[Corazona von Ascania]

Her thoughts were scattered about, and she was too exhausted to gather them back up and put them into any particular order. Instead, she focused on the feel of his hand as it stroked the length of her hair, and the warmth of his shoulder beneath her cheek.

"Light," she rasped. "Tired."

Cora let her mind wander, allowing stray thoughts to come, unhurried. So much had changed about them and their relationship. They didn't need to outrun anything, to steal little moments anymore – but it was hard to remember that sometimes.

"There are times where I can't believe that we made it work. Through everything…we still found our way back to eachother. I won't…"

Won't leave again?

Cora had tried to push Ukatis from her mind, but with the King's health failing and a succession crisis looming, she wasn't sure what the future of her planet would entail. Her voice faded into an uncomfortable silence, and she nuzzled her face against Makko's shoulder.

"Makko," she started, looking up to him with sincere eyes and weight to her voice. "If there is a day where Ukatis draws me back in…I want you to come with me."

There were many things that Cora was uncertain of – her place in Ukatian society, certainly – but there was one thing that she knew for sure, and that was Makko's place in her heart. She wanted him in her life, wherever that took them.

"Only if you want to, of course." She added. "I would never force you."

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

“Oh…” he said quietly, clearly a little surprised. His mouth opened and closed a few times. He squeezed her hand. He had asked her about moving in when he tangled memories had put themselves in their way.

Makko sighed and he smiled. Because he couldn't form words and he didn't want Cora to mistake the pause for anything else.

“I'd like that,” he said. “I've been thinking and…well I was trying to find a way to express it. I guess I stumbled into you spending my time at my cabin."

He drew her hand up, pressing it to his chest. Cora would feel the slow beating of his heart. It had only just returned to a normal rhythm after slowing into meditation.

“So if I say it wrong. It's just me… but… you're… Cora you're like this bright, burning star. I always worry just a little that you burn too bright for me to hold forever. And…and…Ukatis almost snuffed that out. But you still care. You care so much. And that's amazing and…”

Makko had opened up the accounts and services for her to collect funds for her home world. From small beginnings she now had full time staff running the charity.

His chest was rising and falling much more visibly. All of these thoughts and questions that had been coalescing around in his mind and she had cut through them so suddenly.

“I'm so proud of what you've done for them, but a little bit of me has always been scared that Ukatis would take you away from me again. So to…ask me that…”

Makko ran out of words. Cora had been overwhelmed just a few minutes ago. Now he sat above her, eyes glistening as tears threatened to form.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

A lump formed in her throat at his soft Oh. A thousand thoughts ran through her head at light-speed; he was upset, he was surprised, he was happy, she needed to backpedal and assure him that-

His smile was like a warm sunbeam that melted away her doubts. Cora was hooked on that smile, captivated by Makko’s expression as he worked through his own thoughts and feelings on the matter. It was, she only now began to realize, a monumental question for her to have asked.

Her lips trembled into a nervous little smile of their own when he pressed her hand against his chest, feeling his pulse bound as heavily as her own.

Cora cocked her head to the side as he spoke, watching him intently. To hear that he was proud of her, after everything that had happened, brought forth a sense of peace and joy that she didn’t know could exist.

“I was inspired by you," she admitted softly. “You…you always do this thing, where you try to do the right thing, even if it’s hard. Even if you don’t know how to do it, you try. I want to be like that. Like you, Makko.”

Her smile, still anxious, grew a little wider, more openly loving.

During the reconstruction of Ukatis, she’d met an unlikely ally in Jenn Kryze . The Mandalorian had confided in her that she’d once chosen duty over love, and how she’d suffered for it.

“I want you there.” Her fingers worked between his own, lacing them together. “I know it’s selfish, but…even if it’s hard, even if we’re not sure how to make it work, I want you. I want you to keep being a part of my life, because you’ve made it so much richer.”

With her free hand, Cora reached up and gently swiped her thumb beneath his eye, wiping away a tear that had yet to fall.

“Because I love you so much, Makko. I've never been more sure of anything else.”

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

The tear on the other side of his face decided to take its chance and rolled unhindered down his face. There had been several moments in their relationship when Makko had been completely overwhelmed.

He had never felt a swell of love and affection so strong that it physically hurt. Those moments that had come before: berated by Horace at the surprise engagement, watching her getting married, her revelations in the wake of the Ukatis invasion, those were all like shadows in the light of this moment. They were scorched away by its purity.

The admission that she was inspired by his attitude, to do what she did for Ukatis crushed any protest he might have built.

“Cora… I…”

“Yes. Yes of course I'll come.”

Makko didn't know when that would be, but he was ready to throw his full commitment behind the idea. They didn't know how it would work; she was right. They would find a way. This time he was absolutely certain.

Perhaps he should have just said that instead of waffling on, but now she knew what had been going through his head. Now they could throw their weight behind what they wanted and find a way that would make it work.

“I hope you can change it for the better too,” he said, laughing briefly as another tear rolled.

“Kiss me.”

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

As she caressed his cheek, Cora thought about how touch was such a vibrant sensation, even moreso in the aftermath of untangling her memories.

Makko had been there through it all, in his own way. When she'd walked away from him and underneath the shadow of Horace, he'd extended his hand across their bond. When she'd returned from Thule, he'd been her shoulder to cry on amidst his own pain of rejection.

Things hadn't always been easy since they'd decided to try again. There were still obstacles, but now they were surmountable and less life-altering. They'd finally found a happiness that wasn't fleeting.

She pressed her lips to his own. That the kiss was chaste did not detract from the warmth and intimacy of the gesture.

Cora lingered there for a few moments.

"We should get a place of our own, first," she murmured. She’d shot him down when he'd brought the idea up for discussion before, but now she felt more certain.

Makko Vyres