Chapter Text
Thrawn awoke before the sun rose, and for a long while, he lay there in the dark, staring up at the ceiling, unmoving lest he disturb Ziara, the woman fast asleep and tucked beneath his arm, her legs entwined with his and her head pillowed against his chest, possessively clinging to him even as she slept. Occasionally, he'd shift his gaze to look down at her, her body radiating heat in a pleasant glow in the dark of the room, her own temperature moderately warmer than his, though with her laying atop him, he could feel and see that his own temperature was slightly elevated from his baseline.
It had taken some time for him to sort through the mire of emotions that churned through his mind, long enough that the sky had begun to lighten with the threat of dawn, and though by now, were he in his own quarters, he would have already completed his morning exercise regimen, he remained still in Ziara's grasp, deciding that self-reflection was of the utmost importance. After all that had happened between him and Ziara the previous day, after opportunities and life experiences he thought would be forever out of his reach and interest suddenly became a reality, he had finally come to a conclusion on how he felt about the whole thing after being so eagerly swept along by Ziara's enthusiastic guidance.
He was...disappointed.
It wasn't that he hadn't enjoyed his time with Ziara. He had. The experiment had been interesting, to say the least, and physically pleasurable in ways that he hadn't expected, given how touch adverse he could be. And Ziara of course had been right in that they would feel closer for it, not because they were physically entwined, but because of the careful care and respect she had treated him with when it would have been so very easy for her to simply take what she wanted without any consideration of him. In that respect, this experiment had been an unqualified success. It had always been difficult for him to navigate socially, unsure and uncertain of where he stood with others, but now, for the first time, he had not just been able to see it, but felt it as well.
Which was part of the problem.
Despite all that, despite what this had meant to Ziara, despite what Ziara meant to him, this was all just an experiment, and while he had obtained some unexpected successes with the venture, its original purpose was a failure.
For a moment, Thrawn thought that, perhaps, Ziara could fill in the missing part of him, could correct the pieces of him that had been broken since birth. But even now, his eyes raking over the naked, objectively appealing woman draped over him, he felt...nothing. No sudden pull of attraction, no physical desire for further intercourse, as he was certain most any male would have felt with such a woman available to them. He was certainly not opposed to the experience again, if the conditions were correct, but that desire and that need failed to manifest like he had been hoping it would. Even after all the care Ziara had shown him, he was no less broken than he had been before, the character flaw remaining with no hope of correction.
We are what we are, Thrawn thought as he stared up at the ceiling. He was a creature of the military and nothing more. His mind operated in tactics and strategy, everything around him analyzed and codified as assets to be used or preserved as needed. There was nothing wrong with it, Ziara had said. But Thrawn knew that she deserved better...
He needed to get out of there before people began waking up and leaving for training or classes. If a junior cadet was seen leaving the senior cadet dormitory, he'd invite trouble upon them both, and while he was no stranger to reprimand, he had no desire for Ziara's stellar record to be put at jeopardy because of him. Again.
He wasn't entirely certain how he was going to extricate himself from Ziara's grip without waking her up.
He failed at that as well, when the moment he had so very, very carefully took hold of her hand to loosen her grip around him, Ziara pulled her hand away, wrapped her arms even tighter around him, and resolutely snuggled against his chest.
"The alarm hasn't gone off yet," Ziara grumbled, her voice muffled against his chest and her breath warming his skin. "You are not getting me up before I have to be, junior cadet..."
"It was not my intention to wake you..." Thrawn said quietly, and Ziara peered up at him when she could hear the slightest strain of apology and guilt in the man's voice.
"It was your intention, then, to leave without saying goodbye?" Ziara asked, smirking slightly at the wince that crossed Thrawn's face. That wasn't his intention either, she knew, but even after everything, teasing him remained among her favorite things. "It was my intention," she drawled as she slid her fingers into his disheveled hair, "for us to leave together. One of my classmates down the hall has been making eyes at me for months now. I want to see the look on his face when he sees me with you."
"...will we not get in trouble?" Thrawn asked, and Ziara rolled her eyes as she gently kneaded his scalp and placed a kiss to his neck.
"I'm sure he'll be offended, but I've seen him spar. You can take him."
"That is not what I meant," Thrawn said flatly, and Ziara sighed, rolled on top of him, and rested her chin upon her hands as she looked him in the eye.
"If you mention the cohabitation regulations, I'm going to make you late for your first class," she said coyly, a mischievous grin coming to her face when she felt the boy tense beneath her. "Besides, spending the night isn't the same as cohabitation."
"...is it not?" Thrawn asked, his brow creasing and some of the tension leaving his voice.
"The regulation implies something a bit more permanent," she said, her finger slowly tracking along a long scar that crossed his chest, one of several that were cut into his royal blue skin across his torso. He hadn't yet seen combat, so the presence of so many was unusual to say the least. She promised herself she'd ask about it later. "Anyway, the regulation itself is rarely enforced, unless the accused are being particularly foolish about it."
"Would flaunting such a thing to your classmate down the hall not be considered foolish?"
"No!" Ziara said indignantly. "It isn't foolish, it's spiteful." Thrawn's gaze flicked away from her, and Ziara frowned, reached up to stroke his cheek, and the man involuntarily flinched away from her. She expected something like this, but it still hurt. "Hey..." she said quietly, brushing her fingers against his cheek anyway. "You doing alright?"
"Of course..." was his reflexive response given just too quickly, and he flashed her a tight smile that fell far short of genuine. It faded quickly when he saw he hadn't fooled her, and he exhaled a shuddering breath he didn't know he was holding.
"How are you feeling?" Ziara prompted when Thrawn remained silent and his heart rate jumping beneath her fingertips. He flinched again, startled by the broken silence, and Ziara quickly laid her finger over his lips in a demand for silence. "Think before you answer," she said quietly. "Accuracy is more important than speed."
At that, Thrawn huffed out a small breath, and Ziara could feel the tension in his chest release some, an unsteady, grateful smile upon his face for a moment before dropped into his thoughts, impassive and expressionless and calm as he so often appeared, though Ziara could feel his anxiety beneath her fingertips in the way his heart raced. She didn't have to wait long before Thrawn's eyes met hers again, the tension of pain there that she had seen in him at one moment the night before, and before he said a word, Ziara knew exactly what it was about.
"I feel..." he began, the words sounding awkward and foreign as if he had never spoken them before, which Ziara expected that he hadn't. He stopped himself quickly, looked away from her, and began again. "I do not feel any different..."
"Of course you don't," Ziara scoffed as she reached up and slid her fingers through his hair. Her tone would have been seen as dismissive to most, she knew, and she'd been with some men who would have taken offense at having their feelings so quickly brushed to the side, but not Thrawn. "We just had sex, Thrawn. This isn't some life altering event where everything is suddenly different like it is in the vids." His eyes widened slightly, his head tilted slightly to the side, his jaw slack, and Ziara couldn't keep the smile off her face. She had hit the mark exactly.
"...is it not?" Thrawn asked quietly, and Ziara shook her head, yawned, and kissed his chest as she sunk against him, her ear pressed to his chest so she could hear the beating of his heart.
"Of course not," she muttered tiredly. "You know how vids are, they exaggerate everything. They wouldn't be fun to watch otherwise."
"Really? There are several documentaries that I find particularly riveting-"
"Shhh..." Ziara placed her hand over Thrawn's mouth, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. "You're doing it again, Thrawn, you're missing the point..."
For a long moment, even after Ziara removed her hand from his mouth, Thrawn was silent, his breathing deep and his heart beat slow and even, and Ziara could feel herself drifting back to sleep. There was still time for her to get some more rest before her alarm went off and she was forced to get up in preparation for the day's classes and-
"I thought I would have been corrected."
There it was. She knew it had been there, but she thought that just maybe, the notion that his initial assumptions were incorrect would have been enough for him to reevaluate. Apparently, it wasn't.
"There's nothing to correct," she muttered as her arms tightened around him, and she sighed when his heart beat sped up. He didn't agree. Of course he didn't.
"I am missing something," he persisted. "Normal-"
"If I wanted normal, I'd pair with the Chaf down the hall, or I would have accepted any one of the perfectly adequate men that my father selected for me to match with," she huffed as she opened her eyes and glared up at him. "And for that matter, if you were normal, Mitth'raw'nuru, you'd never had scored so highly on that simulation that you were accused of cheating on, so we'd never have met and you'd just be one of a thousand unremarkable junior cadets." Her eyes narrowed, a frown on her face as she pushed herself off his chest to look down at him. "Do you think I deserve anything less than the exceptional?"
"N-no, I-"
"Then I will hear no more of this," she huffed as she indignantly plunked herself back down on his chest. "Being exceptional in one area will lead to a deficit in others. I will happily take that over mediocrity."
Again, there was silence, but this time, after a moment, she felt Thrawn's fingers gently trace down her back before he carefully embraced her. Sighing in contentment, Ziara settled against him, committed to use the remainder of their time before the alarm to get as much rest as possible.
The alarm went off a moment later.
Ziara groaned, reached over, and knocked the alarm off the side table, and beneath her, Thrawn began to stir, but he swiftly fell still when she pressed her hands firmly against his sides, her fingers slotting into the groves between his ribs, and with a sigh, kissed at the strong, flat planes of his chest.
"Ziara..."
"We have time, Thrawn..." Ziara muttered, a slight smirk coming to her lips as she kissed at the pit of his neck and felt him quietly gasp. "Just a few more minutes..."
"I just..." Thrawn began, and immediately bit down on his lip when the woman glared up at him, an indignant pout upon her lips. "...Ras'kleoni instructs my first class. I have already made a poor impression, and I do not wish to make it worse by being late for the first class of the term..."
"Does it take you three hours to get ready in the morning?" Ziara asked, her hands slowly dragging over his body and feeling at the fine cut of his muscles, which, she decided, she would never get tired of. Nor would she get tired of the way Thrawn's breath hitched as she touched him. It was hopelessly endearing.
"N-no, of course not..." Thrawn stammered. "But my exercise regimen-"
"Was last night not enough of a workout for you, cadet?"Ziara drawled with a sly smirk as she eyed the suddenly tongue tied man as his body heat quickly rose. "Next time, I suppose I'll have to work you harder." She frowned, pushing herself up on his chest and looking down at him with a thoughtful frown. "That is...if there is a next time..."
"...do you not wish for there to be?" Thrawn asked in a voice that sounded unusually small and unconfident for him, and Ziara sighed and stroked back his hair, immediately regretting the way she had asked when she felt Thrawn tentatively hold her hip.
"I do, of course I do," she said dismissively. "This is about you, Thrawn. Was I good for you?"
"I do not have a baseline with which to judge your quality as a sexual partner."
With a heavy sigh, Ziara collapsed back on his chest, her fingers drumming lightly over the ridges on Thrawn's forehead for a moment before she slid off him and got out of bed, stretching for a moment before she scooped up the junior cadet's clothing and tossed them to him.
"I can assure you, Thrawn, that as far as lovers go, I am considered to be excellent."
"I believe you," Thrawn said quietly as he sat up, a slight, shy smile on his lips as he watched her scoop up her own discarded clothing. "I...found the experience to be..." He stopped, frowning as he considered how he felt, what he felt, and unable to put his finger on it, he huffed out a small sigh and stared at the clothing on his lap. "I am not opposed to engaging in intercourse again. W-with you, of course," he hastily added. "I do not believe I would be capable with..."
He stopped only when Ziara rolled her eyes and strode the few steps to stand before him, take his face in her hands, and press her lips to his.
"You don't need to explain it," she whispered when she broke away from him, her thumb gently running over the crest of his cheek. "Now, being the first week of the new term, I think we'll both be too busy to spend any significant time together, but I'll try to make time midweek to meet you for lunch or in the dojo before classes. Good?"
"...good," Thrawn muttered, his fingers lightly brushing Ziara's hips and sighing quietly when she held his head against her chest and gently stroked his hair.
"Now, we're going to shower, and we'll get breakfast before your first class, and I'll coach you on how best to leave a positive impression on Ras'kleoni." Taking his hand, she pulled Thrawn off the bed and led him into the bathroom.
Thirty minutes later, on their way down the dormitory halls, Ziara locked eyes with the Chaf boy who had been vying for her attention and, with a devious smirk, she winked at her scandalized classmate and intertwined her fingers with Thrawn's.
Ziara was just about to finish codifying and filing that days's rounds of aptitude tests that she had administered when someone dropped into the seat opposite her at the desk she was working at, and couldn't help but roll her eyes when she glanced up to find a mischievous face smirking at her, a thing that Ziara had never known to mean anything but trouble.
"Well, if it isn't senior cadet Irizi'ar'alani..." the lilting female voice said in a slow, teasing drawl. "It's the end of the week. What are you still doing here?"
"Getting these aptitude tests sent to the Admiral's office," Ziara said with a sigh as she held up her questis, and the other woman's nose wrinkled with a small, almost petulant sneer.
"I can't believe you let them rope you into all these administrative tasks. They never ask me to play care giver to a bunch of first year cadets."
"They might if they saw any potential or ambition in you, Kiwu'tro'owmis," Ziara gently chided, and across from her, the girl simply grinned.
"Oh, I'm content to leave all the ambition to people like you," Wutroow said with a casually dismissive wave of her hand. "Afraid I'm not high blooded enough for the kind of ambition needed to collect all the duties the professors don't want."
Ziara snorted at that. Wutroow was blood of the Kiwu, one of the Great families, which may not have been so prestigious as her own Irizi blood, but it was certainly nothing to scoff at. With her family connections, she could go far in the fleet, and with her consistently high marks despite her deceptively dismissive attitude, it practically guaranteed it. More than that, the woman had a certain gift for pointing out absurdities and for bringing levity to tense or particular serious situations, which not only was an indicator of a cool head, but it was a quality that put others at ease, which was a fine quality in a commander.
Ziara had noticed that in their very first class together when they were first year cadets, and ever since, she and Wutroow had been near inseparable.
"Well, every aid assignment you don't take is another one I pick up," Ziara muttered as she returned to logging the information on her questis. "If you think about it, it's really your fault we get a late start on the weekend."
"Or your fault that you don't pass the task off to someone else," Wutroow said flippantly, and immediately pouted when Ziara very calmly held out the questis to her. "On second thought, you better do it yourself," she said with a shrug as she leaned back in her chair to put as much distance between herself and the questis as possible. "It's the only way you'll know it gets done right."
"Well, I thank you for being so gracious."
"But hurry it up anyway," Wutroow said as she crossed a slender leg over her knee. "You know how fast the cute boys get snatched up. Take too long and there won't be any left for us."
Ziara paused in her work, though she carefully managed not to show any expression on her face.
Somehow, Wutroow noticed anyway. She always did.
"Or not..." Wutroow said slowly, her eyes narrowing as she looked her friend over. "Something happen over the sabbatical you forgot to tell me? Oh!" she gasped when Ziara couldn't keep the wince off her features. "Oh, oh! Did your father finally manage to match you? I heard rumors to that effect, but..." She shrugged. "Can't put too much stock in the ravings of the Aristocra."
"That's true enough..." Ziara quietly agreed, feeling her face warm slightly as she switched off the questis, the work finally complete. No, she hadn't told Wutroow about what had happened. Not yet. "And no, my father didn't match me, though he certainly tried hard enough to do so."
"Typical..." Wutroow sighed. "Don't know why he's wasting his time. You're perfectly capable of disappointing him without him having to embarrass himself in the process."
"Yeah..." Ziara said through clenched teeth. "About that..."
"Irizi'ar'alani, if you're about to ruin our weekend plans because the rumors my fool cousin was spouting are true..." She trailed off, giving Ziara a chance to object or deny the rumors she must have been aware of, but the woman's face remained resolved, and Wutroow gasped as she conspiratorially leaned in, her elbows upon the desk. "Ziara, do you have a match?!"
"No!" Ziara scoffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest and biting down on her lip. "Not exactly, in any case..."
For a long moment, Wutroow stared at her, her eyes narrowed and suspicious and examining and her lips pressed in a tight, studious line, her entire expression a degree of serious that Ziara had rarely seen upon the woman. Finally, she leaned back, her nose wrinkling in mocking distaste and disapproval as she finally understood.
"Really, Ziara?" she asked flatly. "That first year that's been following after you like a lost whisker cub? The Mitth, was it?" Wutroow shot her a pointed look. "That one?"
"That one, yes..." Ziara said with a sigh. One way or another, Wutroow was bound to find out about it eventually. It was senseless to hide it. "He's odd, I'll give you that, but he's not so bad..."
"Good enough to match with?"
"We aren't matched, you know how my family feels about the Mitth..." Ziara grumbled. "And with that little scandal of his last semester, it's unlikely the Irizi would even consider bringing him into the family, even if he was detached from the Mitth." She huffed softly, her finger lightly tracing one of the ridges on her forehead as she felt a whole new wave of irritation at her father coming on. "We're just..."
"Lovers?" Wutroow added in a teasing voice that was not at all helpful. "A drunk, weekend mount?" Her grin widened at Ziara's disapproving glare. "Or just another scandal waiting to happen? I'm sure all our professors will love to hear that their star pupil spends her time seducing innocent, unmounted underclassmen..."
"Why is it that when you say things, they always sound worse than they are!" Ziara snapped, sounding more defensive than she intended. "And you can't claim he's unmounted when you don't know anyth-"
"He's unmounted," Wutroow interrupted, a sly grin spreading across her face as Ziara's body heat continued to steadily climb. "Or at least he was, before you got to him."
"So help me, Kiwu'tro'owmis..."
"I'm sure you've seen him," she said flippantly. "A bit clever, maybe, but awkward as a Rentor boy in the Syndicure. Bit of an art freak, yeah?" She grinned. "Maybe he has a painting or a sculpture he rubs up against, but otherwise, if that boy had been mounted, I'm a yubal."
With a groan, Ziara's head hit the desk. "...he was unmounted..." she finally conceded, and she could practically feel the wide grin on her friend's face. "Look..." she muttered, looking up from the desk at infallibly smug Wutroow. "This wasn't a one time thing. I care for him. More than I thought. We're...a pair, I suppose." Her eyes narrowed as she sat up and pointed an accusing finger at the other woman who was now trying to look as innocent as possible and, much to Ziara's chagrin, was succeeding. "So if your weekend plans involve us seducing some poor idiot for a bit of fun before our classes resume, you may count me out of it."
"Sheesh, no need to get all uppity about it..." Wutroow said with a roll of her eyes. "I swear, you hook a boy once..." Wutroow waited expectantly for Ziara to respond, either by defensively denying the subtle accusation or smugly confirming it, but this time, she didn't take the bait. They had never been shy when it came to the topic of sex, but mounting a boy and hooking him were two very different things, one considerably more intimate and personal than the other, and Ziara was likely tired of being teased. She had pushed her far enough, for the moment.
"We'll just do something else," Wutroow said. "You could have just said so from the beginning and saved us all that time."
"Noted," Ziara said as she stood from the desk, her friend quickly following suit. "What do you want to do instead?"
Ziara regretted it as soon as she said it when a devious smirk slowly tugged up the corners of Wutroow's lips.
"I want," she said in a painfully slow drawl, "to meet your little Mitth."
"You're doing this to me on purpose!" Thrass wailed as he sunk down into his oversized chair, his drink sloshing over the side and landing upon the ground with what Thrass decided was an insulted splatter. "You did that on purpose too!" he snapped, pointing at the spill on the floor which only made more of his drink spill. The theatrics didn't seem to have any effect on his audience what so ever, the man remaining expressionless and disinterested as he quietly sipped the drink that hadn't spilled on the ground at all.
"As I have mentioned before," Thrawn said calmly, "the new term has begun. I cannot clear my schedule at a moment's notice because Mitth'ras'safis, Trial Born of the Mitth, cannot stomach the thought of touring the countryside without a companion."
"This is a family matter!" Thrass said with an exasperated sigh. "I signed and submitted the documentation myself! You already had permission to leave, they can't punish you for missing classes when there are family matters at hand!"
"And I did not wish to ruin my perfect attendance record because of the whims of the aristocra," Thrawn said flatly. "My classes are important."
"And family isn't?"
"I am here now, am I not?" Thrawn asked as he gestured around the room of Thrass' flat and took another sip of his drink. "My classes prepare me for a future in defense of the Chiss. That is of the utmost importance."
"Oh please..." Thrass said with a roll of his eyes. "Like they couldn't put you in command of a warship tomorrow and have you come back covered in glory by next week..." He pointed an accusing finger at his brother as he snatched the open bottle off the side table. "Just know, Thrawn, that I'm offended."
"I have never known you to lack for company, Thrass," Thrawn said in a voice that would have bordered on mocking if Thrass didn't know any better. "Are you losing your touch?"
"Ooh, ooh, I'm constantly reminded why you shouldn't drink!" Thrass said as he made to snatch the glass from Thrawn's hand, only to have his younger brother effortlessly move the glass out of his reach and resolutely down the rest of it. "If you must know, there's no good companionship here!" Thrass snapped as he threw himself back in his seat and took a long drink from the bottle. "Nothing but stuffy military types and self-important cadets too busy for their own brother, Thrawn!"
His attempts to drag a reaction out of the younger man failed entirely, Thrawn merely shrugging as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his legs, and with a heavy sigh, Thrass poured himself another drink and put the bottle to the side.
"How was your week, Thrawn?" Thrass muttered over the edge of his glass, and he rolled his eyes when Thrawn sat up straighter, like he was about to give a report, which, he supposed, he was. Thrawn never changed.
"I find my classes both interesting and engaging," Thrawn said evenly. "Three of my classes are upper level, so I am predominantly with senior cadets, and-"
"I'm hardly surprised..." Thrass scoffed. "I suppose you're sitting next to Irizi'ar'alani in those classes," he said with a smirk, attempting to rile his brother again as he had the week before, but instead, Thrawn just smiled - actually smiled - and shook his head.
Thrass felt like the air had be kicked straight out of his lungs.
"We do not share any classes together, no," Thrawn said with a calm that made Thrass grind his teeth. "But we did meet for meals, and yesterday after classes we sparred together."
"Thrawn dear, there's no need to be coy..." Thrass said in a slow, teasing drawl. "You don't need to call it sparring. If you let this Irizi mount you, you can just say so."
"I said what I meant, Thrass," Thrawn said flatly, and Thrass sighed and took a long drink. It was not nearly the defensive, flustered reaction he had hoped for. "As students of the military, it is important for us to keep our physical combat skills sharp, making regular sparring practice a vital part of our training." He shrugged, his finger slowly tracing around the rim of his empty glass. "We engaged in sexual activity after."
Thrass inhaled the rest of his drink.
He coughed and sputtered against the intrusion of alcohol into his lungs, the sting making his eyes tear up, and when his chest finally stopped convulsing, he looked up at his brother, and even through the tears that blurred his vision, he could see Thrawn's damnable calm, his ankle crossed over his knee and completely at ease, content to watch his own brother suffocate.
"Shut up!" Thrass finally managed to wheeze, searching his brother's face for something, anything to indicate that he was being messed with, that studious, serious Thrawn was finally getting back at him for the way he relentlessly teased him just last week for the mess that Ziara created. But he could see nothing, just his stupid brother's stupid face, as expressionless and calm as always.
"No, no, stop, shut up," Thrass said quickly as he stood up from his seat, the pleasant buzz in his mind swiftly evaporating as he glared at the other man. He pointed an accusing finger at Thrawn, started to say something and quickly stopped when words failed him entirely, his brother's indifference suddenly seeming overwhelming. "Well?!" Thrass finally snapped. "Why aren't you saying anything!"
"You told me not to speak," Thrawn said calmly.
"Sh, stop, just shut up for a moment!" Thrass hissed, holding up a hand to silence the man and pacing swiftly before him, his thoughts racing far too quickly than the alcohol should have allowed. "Are you serious, Thrawn?!" Thrass finally said in a voice that bordered on shouting. "You're having sex with the Irizi girl?!"
"Last week, you seemed pleased by the idea that I was sexually active."
"Last week you were a big stupid virgin and teasing you is fun!" Thrass snapped as he reeled on Thrawn and jabbed an accusing finger against his chest. "You're on record with the Mitth Syndics as not being involved with the Irizi! And now you're letting one mount you?!" He swiftly covered Thrawn's mouth when he began to speak. "And worse, dear brother, the one you get yourself involved with is the very one that caused a panic about exactly this? Are you out of your mind?!"
"...perhaps the panic was caused because she was genuine in her intent, not just to scandalize her family," Thrawn offered when Thrass took his hand from his mouth.
"And this was just settled!" Thrass wailed as he resumed his pacing, entirely ignoring his brother. "Being related to you is political suicide, I'm never going to be a Syndic with the way you're carousing around!" He shot Thrawn a hard, examining glare. "You serious about this?" he asked. "You're actually involved with this girl?"
"As of the past five days," Thrawn said quietly, and gasped when Thrass took his face between his hands, his fingers gripping hard to the side of his head.
"You will be the death of me!" Thrass said between tightly clenched teeth. "I am so proud of you! But really Thrawn, you couldn't find yourself a reasonable woman?! Maybe someone that isn't an unqualified political disaster for the family?!"
"...I do not see what politics has to do with-"
"Everything!" Thrass snapped as he let go of his brother's head. "It has everything to do with politics, she is Irizi blood! Or did that fact seem to elude you?!"
"I am aware that she is Irizi..." Thrawn said quietly, his gaze dropping to stare at his now tightly clasped hands.
"Any other family, Thrawn..." Thrass bemoaned. "Any one of the Great would have been fine. You probably could have gotten away with an Irizi Merit Adoptive, or a Trial Born, but blood?! Honestly, brother..." he sighed as he slid back into his seat. "...well, I may as well have the details..." Thrass muttered with a wave of his hand. "Come now, Thrawn, tell me all about your seductress..."
"As before, brother, I am certain you could requisition her records from the Academy," Thrawn said flatly. "Or even easier for you, perhaps, Syndic Mitth'yen'illest has my official statement on Ziara."
"A statement that is now dreadfully inaccurate!" Thrass snapped.
"It is not," Thrawn said firmly. "I stand by the statement I issued on Ziara's character. The nature of our relationship has not changed that."
"...so how is it?" Thrass asked, and Thrawn tilted his head.
"How is what?"
"The sex, Thrawn, what else!" Thrass groaned, running his hands over his face and rubbing at the ridges on his forehead. "Is this why you were avoiding me? Because you're getting ridden so hard every night that you're too exhausted to see your own blood? If your grades drop because she-"
"I was not avoiding you, Thrass," Thrawn huffed, his patience with his brother's dramatics clearly wearing thin. "As I said before, I have classes that require my attendance, and I do not spend every night with Ziara." Thrass glared at him, obviously expecting him to continue, and Thrawn sighed. "If you must know, we have engaged in intercourse twice."
"An arrangement you no doubt intend to continue," Thrass said, and Thrawn gave him a slight but certain nod. "So you're suddenly not concerned about getting into trouble?" Thrass asked. "She's a senior cadet!"
"I have been assured that engaging in such a relationship is not a punishable offense," Thrawn said flatly. "By you, brother."
"I'm going to stop telling you things..." Thrass growled. "Nobody turns information into a weapon quite like you do." He gestured almost helplessly. "The sex, Thrawn. Is she good?"
"I do not have the experience necessary to make an informed decision, but I enjoy my time with her, and she assures me that her sexual skill is above average."
"Yeah, I bet she did..." Thrass grumbled. "Trust my brother to make talking about sex into a data readout. You know, most people get excited to talk about sex!"
"Ziara likes that I am not like most people," Thrawn muttered, and Thrass groaned and gestured helplessly at nothing at all. "She says she would not hook me otherwise."
At that, Thrass froze, the frustration gone from his face and replaced with disbelief, his jaw slack as he stared at his absolutely oblivious brother.
"She what?" Thrass hissed, the intensity of the withering look in his eye enough to make Thrawn's pervious confidence falter, and he shrunk back against his seat. "Please tell me that my baby brother isn't being hooked by some Irizi bitch!"
"I...we are a pair, Thrass..." Thrawn said meekly. "This is not...she is not just a curiosity, she..." He sucked in a sharp breath, felt his body heat rising, and averted his eyes from his brother, suddenly feeling extremely exposed, and said nothing more.
"Well what's it like, Thrawn?!" Thrass said sharply as he leaned forward in his seat. "I've never been hooked! Can you even believe the absurdity of that!"
"I can," Thrawn said calmly. "You do not have intercourse with women."
"I don't if I can avoid it, but I have!" Thrass snapped. "Not one of them hooked me! Me!" He scoffed. "Have you seen me?!"
"Yes..." Thrawn muttered cautiously. "I do not...I do not understand why you are upset. You are not even attracted to women."
"Neither are you!" Thrass said reflexively, and Thrawn visibly winced. Thrass never felt so awful. "I'm sorry, brother..." Thrass said as he slid off the chair to kneel before Thrawn and took the other man's hand in his. "I know it's been hard for you, and I'm happy for you, I really am..." He squeezed Thrawn's hand. "But did it have to be an Irizi?"
"Yes," Thrawn said quietly, his voice firm and even and a slight smile on his lips, and Thrass felt relief spread through his chest. No damage done.
"The family's going to love this..." Thrass said with an exaggerated roll of his eyes as he stood. "Honestly, Thrawn, it's like you exist to make my life difficult. You really weren't thinking about me at all when you allowed this Irizi to drag you to bed, did you?"
"Not once," Thrawn said as he rose from his seat.
"Typical..." Thrass scoffed, draping his arm over his taller brother's shoulders. "Well, I suppose this will be over soon enough. She graduates at the end of this term, doesn't she? We may be able to keep it secret for that long."
"Actually," Thrawn said in a tone that Thrass could only describe as smug, "barring any unforseen circumstances, I do not see any reason why her graduation should end our pairing."
"Well, you can't very well be seeing an officer of the fleet, cadet!" Thrass said with a laugh. "She'll be up among the stars, you'll be on Naporar completing your studies, to say nothing of the fact that it's absolutely against Defense Fleet regulations for an officer of the fleet to be carrying on a relationship with a subordinate."
"I was under the understanding that there were exemptions in place for pairings that were established before the rank discrepancy was established," Thrawn said, and Thrass glared up at him, his face impassive, but his head was held a little higher than usual.
"You think you're clever for finding that loophole, don't you..." Thrass huffed, and Thrawn shrugged.
"Ziara brought it to my attention."
"Of course she did..." Thrass rolled his eyes. "Better get you back to the Academy before little miss senior cadet decides I've kept you too long and calls down a war fleet against the Mitth."
"She is a cadet, brother, she does not have the authorization to-"
"She is blood of the Irizi, no doubt she knows somebody in the Defense Fleet willing to spill blood on her behalf." He stopped them at the door, placed his hands on Thrawn's shoulder and gave him a hard look. "I get the feeling you two are going to be nothing but trouble."
At that, an actual, unambiguous smile crossed Thrawn's face.
"You can count on it."
"Oh, Ziara..." Wutroow drawled. "He's beautiful!"
Ziara sighed and hung her head, watching her friend lean over the rail of the observation deck to get a closer look at the man running the obstacle course, the rich blue skin of his exposed chest seeming to glow in the dimmed night cycle lighting. At first, Ziara had an excuse not to let Wutroow meet Thrawn. His last class at the end of the week was before midday, and he was being picked up by the Mitth to spend the day with his brother. But he had called her an hour earlier to tell her that he was returning from the Mitth headquarters and would spend a few hours on the course before he would come to see her.
Unfortunately, Wutroow had been there to hear the conversation, and so, Ziara's excuse evaporated. Her best friend would meet her new lover. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but she had kept Wutroow from the last man she paired with for a reason. Wutroow's teasing could quickly escalate to something akin to feeling like an orbital bombardment if she saw the opportunity to make some poor boy squirm. But then, a boy that couldn't handle Wutroow wasn't worthy of her. The last one certainly wasn't.
"From the way you described him," Wutroow continued, "I thought he'd be some small, skinny thing that lived inside a book and had never seen outside a research post. I thought he'd be..." She scoffed to herself. "You know, studying to be a data analyst on some light cruiser."
"You don't think a data analyst can be handsome?" Ziara asked coyly, and Wutroow glared at her.
"You know the type and you know what I mean," she said flatly. "Your weird, socially inept, art obsessed underclassman sounds like a loser. He doesn't sound like he'd be tall, strong and breaking the course record!"
"Don't pay it any mind," Ziara said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "By next week, he'll just break it again."
"Unless his face is unfortunate up close..." Wutroow muttered, leaning further over the rail and nearly losing her balance. "If you love me, Ziara, you'd share him. I want to mount him too!"
"Don't ask these things before you meet him," Ziara said with a yawn. "He's every bit as awkward as I've said, perhaps even more."
"Once you get a boy sex stupid, that hardly matters," Wutroow said, her eyes fixed on Thrawn as she watched him begin the course again. "At that point, it's just the body that matters..."
"You're not woman enough to handle him," Ziara said with a shrug, and Wutroow flashed her a tight, wolfish grin.
"I'll accept that challenge," she said swiftly. "So...that's a maybe?"
"Not a chance, Kiwu'tro'owmis."
"You never let me have any fun..." Wutroow pouted as she backed away from the railing and plunked herself down in the seat next to Ziara. "How long is he going to be at this?"
"The mind and body are linked together," Ziara muttered, and waved her hand dismissively when Wutroow gave her a questioning look. "Something Thrawn says. Physical exercise drives the meshwork that links the mind and body, which stimulates the brain and frees one's intellect."
"He talks like that?" Wutroow asked, and snorted when Ziara answered her with a glare. "He sounds riveting. I bet you've been sleeping well with him around to bore you."
"Thank you, I have been sleeping well," Ziara said with a smirk. "Not because he's boring. You should try it some time."
"I was planning on doing exactly that!" Wutroow protested, the frustrated girl crossing her arms over her chest. "Tonight, in fact, but you had to go and pair yourself to an underclassman you won't share!" She scoffed when in the field below them, Thrawn finished the course, immediately returned to the start of it, and began again. "He's doing it again, Ziara..." she muttered as she leaned in toward the other girl, and Ziara shrugged.
"We spent last night together. He only had time to get in half his daily workout before we had to leave for class."
"...you rode him too hard, Ziara, that's what this is, he's avoiding you," Wutroow said as she stood up. "Well I'm not waiting for some single-minded idiot to decide he's done running in circles to get away from you." She hit Ziara on the shoulder. "Come on. I want to get a closer look."
With a sigh, she followed her friend as she quickly made her way down the long stairs to the training field, Ziara's pace slow and measured to make impatient Wutroow wait for her, and when she finally reached the field and her pacing friend, they made their way together toward the obstacle course. Thrawn sprinted past them just as they got to the edge of the course, slowing to a jog as he checked the monitor strapped to his wrist, and Ziara could hear his frustrated sigh as he began the course again, vaulting over a high wall and landing in a dead sprint on the other side.
"Where did you say he was from?" Wutroow asked absently, and Ziara shook her head.
"I didn't say," Ziara said as she watched Thrawn. "Rentor."
"Rentor!" Wutroow scoffed. "They sure do breed those backwater boys big. I'd have thought that he'd be from Csilla, looking like he's carved from ice like that."
"You really need to mount someone..."
"I know, that's what I've been saying!" Wutroow said in a voice just short of shouting and gestured to Thrawn as he crawled through a small tunnel built into the course. "Does he even know we're here?!"
"I'm sure he's noticed us, there's very little that gets past him," Ziara said as she crossed her arms. "But when he gets focused on something, he's like a missile."
"Only stoppable with concentrated spectrum laser fire?"
"Basically..." Ziara said with a shrug, watching Thrawn as he sprinted toward him, and when he was close, she casually put her foot out on the track and caught Thrawn's leg. The man tripped, fell forward, and rolled back to his feet, his full sprint barely interrupted by Ziara's efforts to stop him. "As I was saying," she said as she gestured helplessly toward the man as he completed the course, slowing to a jog as he checked the monitor. Stopping for a moment, he turned away from the course and walked toward the pair of women, his skin bright and flushed and his eyes glowing vibrantly.
"Ziara," Thrawn said quietly, his voice calm and even despite his multiple runs through the rigorous course. "Did you need something?"
"Yes, actually," Ziara said as she laid her hand upon Wutroow's shoulder. "My closest friend wished to meet you. Kiwu'tro'owmis, this is Mitth'raw'nuru."
"Wow..." Wutroow said quietly as she watched Thrawn respectfully bow his head to her. "Your face isn't unfortunate at all."
"Wutroow..." Ziara warned in a low voice when Thrawn's eyes hesitantly flicked to look at her, a quiet plea for understanding on his face.
"What!" she scoffed. "It's a good thing! If you fell in with an ugly man, I'd never let you hear the end of it!"
"I am pleased to have met with your expectations, then, senior cadet," Thrawn said quietly before Ziara had the chance to explain to him that she was teasing them both, and Wutroow looked at her, a devious grin upon her face. Like so many things, her teasing had gone right over Thrawn's head, and Wutroow was taking it as a free pass to tease him as much as she liked.
"Ziara's told me a lot about you, so I have a great deal of expectations, actually," Wutroow said coyly. "I hear you like art." Thrawn's posture straightened.
"I study it..." he said slowly, again glancing at Ziara when Wutroow's grin widened.
"Well, you picked a strange place to study art!" she said with a laugh. "A military academy's not really suited to the artistic!"
"Actually..." Thrawn said with as much calm confidence as he ever had, and Ziara groaned and rubbed her temples. "Art and tactics are deeply intertwined."
"Oh, really?" Wutroow said, throwing a look at Ziara who was pointedly ignoring her.
"Yes," Thrawn said quickly as he took a step closer to the two girls. "By understanding a species' art, you understand their culture, their patterns and their military tactics-"
"You don't need to explain yourself, Thrawn," Ziara said tightly as she glared at her beaming friend. "Wutroow isn't smart enough to understand."
"Maybe not, but I'm terribly interested..." Wutroow drawled, her grin widening when a small smile touched Thrawn's lips. "Oh look at him, Ziara, he's just adorable!"
"Alright, that's enough!" Ziara said in a commanding voice that made Thrawn snap to attention, and at the absolutely devious look in Wutroow's eyes, she grabbed hold of her friend's arm and pulled her away from the shirtless man she had crept just too close to. "We're interrupting your training, Thrawn," she said apologetically. "We'll let you get back to it."
"I was just finishing when you arrived," Thrawn said. "If you allow me a moment to collect my things, I shall accompany you."
"Yes, please!" Wutroow said before Ziara could object, and with a slight now, Thrawn turned and jogged off, leaving the two women alone on the field.
Which was ideal, Ziara thought. She didn't want any witnesses when she murdered her best friend.
"Ziara, he's perfect!" Wutroow said excitedly as she watched the junior cadet run off. "He's every bit as odd as I'd hoped! And better yet, he's completely clueless-"
The rest of her words were cut off by a startled gasp when Ziara's hands balled tightly into her shirt and dragged her up, leaving the shorter girl standing on her toes as Ziara loomed above her, her eyes glowing with fury.
"Now listen here..." Ziara said in a soft, dangerous whisper. "I like this boy. I plan on keeping him, and if you do anything to get in the way of that, Kiwu'tro'owmis, you, like my father and so many others, are going to learn the hard way that nobody - nobody - stands between me and what I want."
"Ziara, I just-"
"I know where you sleep," Ziara hissed, her hands tightening and pulling the girl higher up. "I know the code for your quarters, and when you least expect it, I will bring the full wrath of the Ascendancy down upon you." She grinned, a malicious thing, as she slowly released the other girl and delicately smoothed out the wrinkled clothing around her shoulders. "Now," she said sweetly, "you will be properly respectful and remember that Thrawn is a member of a Ruling Family, even if he doesn't seem to know it. Am I understood?"
"P-perfectly..."Wutroow stammered with a small, nervous laugh. "Give it ten years and I swear you'll be ruling the Ascendancy..."
"Another reason to keep on my good side, hm?" Ziara looked over Wutroow's shoulder to see Thrawn approaching, and she gave him an appreciative look as he pulled on his athletic shirt. "Are you ready to go?" she asked Thrawn, and he gave her a quick nod, gestured for the girls to lead the way, and he easily fell in step just behind them.
"So, Thrawn," Wutroow said after they had walked across the training field in silence, giving a glaring Ziara a tight smile before she looked back at the junior cadet, her pace slowing to fall in step beside him. "I hear you're something of a pilot."
"I am certain I do not know," Thrawn said quietly. "I have nearly two hundred hours logged in the simulations, but I have only flown a patrol craft once."
"But what a once it was!" Wutroow said triumphantly, as if the accomplishment were her own, and she grinned at Ziara as she fell into step beside Thrawn and clung to his arm and gave her friend a warning glare. "The way Ziara tells it," she drawled, "your flying was so spectacular, the Admiralty believed it couldn't be done. That you cheated to make the impossible happen."
"That is not exactly how it transpired, no..." Thrawn said as he glanced at Ziara. "The professors believed that I had manipulated a simulation in order to obtain a high mark. The actual flying, senior cadet Wutroow, was done afterwards, and is entirely possible."
"Talented and modest!" Wutroow said as she flashed a grin at Ziara. "I suppose you'll be training to be a pilot, then?"
"I am training to be an officer of the Expansionary Defense Fleet," Thrawn said flatly. "I will serve in whatever position I am needed."
"Oh, so you're just going to be an expert in everything?" Wutroow asked, giving Ziara a skeptical look that was returned with a silent warning to watch herself.
"Yes," Thrawn replied without hesitation. "A proper officer should be able to take over any position should the need arise." He paused, his brow creasing as a slight frown came to his face. "However, I should like to be assigned a position that best suits my talents."
"...piloting?" Wutroow asked.
"Tactics and strategy," Thrawn said quickly. "I suppose you are hoping for an assignment as a weapons officer when you graduate." Wutroow's step faltered, her eyes narrowing slightly as she looked the man over, and though she could hear Ziara sigh, the woman had a faint smile upon her lips.
"Ziara's spoken to you about that?" she asked, and Thrawn shook his head.
"She mentioned no such thing."
"...then, how..." Wutroow stammered, and the smile on Ziara's face became unmistakably proud. Thrawn just shrugged.
"It is difficult to explain-"
"Try me," Wutroow said in an uncompromising, commanding voice that made Thrawn straighten up. He looked down at Ziara, who gave him a slight shrug as she gently stroked his arm, and he turned his attention back to Wutroow.
"It is in the way you look at things," Thrawn quietly explained. "The order and cadence in which you observe your surroundings falls in line with the pattern of seeking targets, then weaknesses that is necessary for all skilled weapons professionals."
"Alright, that's creepy..." Wutroow muttered as she leaned away from the man and gave him a long, hard look. "So...you think I'm talented, do you?" she asked coyly, flashing Ziara a tight grin when she frowned at her.
"Not as a weapons specialist, though you are certainly adequate to the task," Thrawn said evenly, oblivious to the offense on Wutroow's face. "Your talents make you more suitable for command."
"Oh, Ziara, he's flirting with me!" Wutroow said with a nervous laugh. "You hear him? He's flirting."
"Thrawn doesn't know what flirting is," Ziara said with a small, teasing smile.
"I understand the concept..." Thrawn said thoughtfully, his eyes unfocused and distant for a moment before he looked back at Wutroow with a shy smile and turned his gaze at the ground.
How is it you always get the good ones..." Wutroow pouted as she gestured to the junior cadet dormitories as they approached them. "We dropping him off?"
"I cannot very well see you safely back to your dormitory if I abandon you before we arrive," Thrawn said quietly.
"And he'll be staying the night with me," Ziara said smugly, and Wutroow groaned and rolled her eyes.
"I am?" Thrawn asked, and Ziara took his hand in hers and squeezed it.
"It's the weekend, of course you are."
"...I was unaware that this was the current arrangement," Thrawn said slowly, his eyes fixed on Ziara as she scoffed.
"Of course you're not aware. We haven't had a weekend since we became a pair." She frowned as Thrawn's gaze darted quickly to Wutroow before he stared directly forward, his hand tightening in hers. "Do you disapprove?" she asked, and Thrawn took a sharp breath, as if the question startled him, and gave her a quick, tight smile.
"Not at all," Thrawn said evenly as he took his questis out of his pocket and held it up. "I have the relevant study materials with me. I do not think the location of my studies should make a substantial difference."
"I somehow don't think that studying is what Ziara has planned for you..." Wutroow drawled, meeting Ziara's ferocious glare with a teasing grin. Thrawn, predictably, missed the innuendo entirely.
"She promised earlier this week that we would go through the advanced tactical drills together," Thrawn said, slightly shrinking back as they approached the senior cadet dormitories before Ziara urged him forwards. "I wished to see her solution to the third set."
"Does her solution even matter?" Wutroow scoffed as they walked inside the dormitory and logged their IDs. "The third set is meant to be unwinnable."
"That is what they say," Thrawn said calmly as they stepped into the lift.
"Trying to cheat off Ziara, junior cadet?" Wutroow drawled as she keyed their floor, and she glanced suspiciously between the other two Chiss, a small, knowing smirk on Ziara's lips and Thrawn as unreadable as he'd been since she met him. "...what, you don't think you solved it, do you?"
"Perhaps..." Thrawn said with a shrug. "That is why I wish to see Ziara's solution. I would like a different perspective." He tilted his head as he looked the agape woman over. "...are your quarters on the same floor as Ziara?"
"She's right next to me, in fact," Ziara said with a smirk as she patted speechless Wutroow's cheek. The lift door slid open, and she stepped out into the hall, pulling Thrawn by the hand after her. "Let's have a look at that tactical, shall we?"
"What, that's it?!" Wutroow asked, belatedly following them down the hall. "The little awkward genius here says he solved an unsolvable problem and we're not gonna make a big deal of it!"
Ziara shrugged as she entered the code to her door, gently pushed Thrawn inside and flashed Wutroow a small smile. "You get used to it."
Just as she was going in, Wutroow reached out and grabbed her arm, and Ziara turned to face her, a serious expression on her friend's face.
"You're serious about this, Ziara?" Wutroow asked quietly, all mocking and teasing and joking gone from her face and voice.
"I am," Ziara said, leaning over to look in her room at Thrawn as he settled down with his questis in hand before she turned back to her friend. "He's going to be trouble, I'll give you that, but I have a good feeling about him."
"You two are going to have a hell of a time of it," Wutroow muttered. "You being Irizi and he being Mitth is the absolute least of it." She squeezed Ziara's arm, patted her shoulder, and pushed in the code for her own room. "If you ever need a distraction so you two can slip away, or if you need something unfortunate to happen to someone that's giving him trouble, well..." She shrugged. "Just know I've got your back."
"I never doubted that for a second," Ziara said quietly. "Goodnight, Wutroow."
"And don't ride him too hard!" Wutroow called after Ziara as she turned toward her room. "I plan on actually getting some sleep and I can hear you through the walls."
"No promises," Ziara said coyly as she walked into her room, the door sliding closed behind her.