The Ardent Warrior

It starts with Revan accosting Kira when she walks out of another Very Important Jedi Meeting:

"Let's go for a walk," he suggests, with the girls no where to be found - they're napping and he has a monitor to hear them if they wake.

Kira may have left Milliways abruptly, but Revan stayed for a good while longer, chatting with Bastila. It's an hour or so later then when he gets back, slipping through the door that leads from Milliways and into their house as quietly as he can.

The sitter's long gone, Kira probably sent her home as soon as she got back, and he's thankful for that. He's only hoping the girls are sleeping so he has the chance to talk to Kira with no distractions.

Up the stairs Revan goes, two at once to catch up to Bastila. He doesn't call out to stop her though. He actually has no idea why he's following her or what he could possibly say to her anymore.

So maybe that makes him a bit masochistic then, as he rounds the corner in time to see her disappear into her room. It's not only hurting her to keep at this, after all. Or maybe he just doesn't want to give up that easily. They might not have known each other very long – only six years at the most (and he was gone for four of those) – but they have too much history to try and not salvage what friendship they could still have.

In any case, he reaches her door as it closes, coming to a stop as the lock clicks into place. He raises his hand to knock.



Only, he hesitates as a thought comes to mind. He rests his forehead against the doorframe, dropping the barriers he'd put up and opening himself to their Bond instead.

By the time Revan and Kira got back to the Hawk, Ranthus having to return to duty later that night, Ellia and Kaelyn were fast asleep. It was a long day for the little ones, after all. So they were promptly tucked into their makeshift cribs and bestowed kisses and good-nights.

Revan, on the other hand, is not tired at all. Nor very talkative either. It was a long day for him too. Instead, after the girls are all settled in, he heads off without a word. He eventually ends up in the main compartment, looking over the navigational charts with a frown.

His mind is not really on planning a route home though.

It's not all that often that Revan receives packages. Especially ones that come as complete surprises to him from someone he hasn't talked to in ages now.

So naturally he happens to be frowning over the plain, ordinary box that's been on the dining room table since that morning. Maybe if he actually opened it, he'd understand it better (and there might even be a note inside!).

For now though he's content at just continuing to frown over it while jostling Kaelyn from hip to hip as she shakes her noisy toy in his ear.

There were too many rings, far too many to choose from, and Revan stood, looking around at all of them, with no idea where to begin. For one, all the rings looked the same to him. And he was not even certain what he was doing in the shop to begin with.

No, that was not true. He knew what he wanted and what had turned him into the store, but Kira never brought it up and he had no idea how she felt on the subject. That is, other than the one time she had said she had not wanted to marry because she was pregnant and not even he had wanted to be married then, but that conversation had been five years ago for Revan.

Revan might not seem like the marrying type, but it seemed like the logical conclusion to him now: babies, house, and marriage. (Not that it was always in that order, and even when the babies had not arrived and the house had not found or bought yet.)

And so he moved to looking at another ring that seemed identical to the last seven.

"May I help you?"

Revan looked up from the small cut ring to the young Alderaanian man standing behind the counter. "I was looking for a ring for my..." He trailed off; the man was now blinking at him, as though he was trying to recall where he had seen Revan before.

His brow furrowed. "Are you...?"

Revan sighed. "No, you have never seen me before in your life," and the gesture of the hand was almost unnoticeable.

"No, I guess I've never seen you before in my life," the young man repeated, his stare blank before he turned his attention back to the rings. "You were looking for a ring?"

"Yes, for my girlfriend."

It was almost amusing how the young man's demeanor shifted to being one of elated, his eyebrows rising and a small twinkle in his eyes. "For an engagement?" He was hoping for a big sale, Revan knew.

There was something about the word that made Revan frown though. Engagement. Commitment. Entrapment. His brow furrowed. "Yes. I think." He was not certain how Kira felt about being tied down to him. But he knew what he wanted.

"...You think?"

"No. I mean, yes. Yes, that it is for an engagement."

"Then you do not want these rings," the man said, walking around the counter to lead him to another. "What you're looking for is over here."

Revan frowned at the case he had been to; these rings looked no different than the others he had been looking at with the exception of the stone maybe. "It is?"

"Yes," the man sighed. "Trust me. Now, do you know if she has a favorite setting, a cut, what sort of band she prefers...?" But the man trailed off at the look on Revan's face. "No, I should've known. Do you know her ring size, at least?" Again, the man sighed at the look on Revan's face though. "We can always resize it later, if we have to."

Revan watched the man as he keyed open the display case, reaching in to pull one of the many rings out. It was huge, too huge of a stone, and Revan found himself laughing; the ring would probably cost more than the Hawk, he knew that much. "I don't think so," he said before the man had even finished taking the ring out of the case.

"Right, something more demure then?" And this time the man pulled out a much smaller ring, but Revan found himself wrinkling his nose at it; there was too much going on with it, he wanted something simpler. But not even the next ring the man pulled out was simple enough.

"I see this is going to take awhile," the man grumbled beneath his breath and Revan tried not to smirk.