Return
🛑 WARNINGS: Spoilers to The Phantom Menace. 🛑
✨ requested by: @sazafraz
✨ Pairing: Gray Jedi!Maul x OC
✨ Summary: Maul returns to Norella after a journey of self-discovery, having kept in contact with her through their Force Dyad.
✨ Solari Says: You’ll recognize this plot, Saz, because it is one we’ve talked over before on Discord. I hope it brings you as much soft as I hope. <3 For those who do not know, Norella is the Empress of a system called Lucent Prime, a fan-made kingdom that @sazafraz has thought of and told me all about. Also, Maul had only been stabbed. Not bisected. Know this, before moving forward.
✨ Prompt(s) -
Kunzite - experiencing unconditional love.
gif credit: to the OP.
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Norella’s eyes bore into the bustling city outside of her quarters window. Her drapes were pulled apart just so that she could thoroughly observe everything that was occurring--for any sort of signs that she could possibly receive. She remained hopeful, passionately hopeful that he would find himself back on her planet once more.
She missed Maul. Her heart ached every time that they would see each other, as clear as she saw the structures that were sprouted out of the ground below--all without the physical presence that she so craved. Her hands crossed behind her back, letting out a heavy sigh as she turned slowly to finally go perform the duties she was set.
Heron, her assistant and father figure since her parents’ passing, had his arms folded behind his back properly and bowed when Norella had moved her attention to him.
“What is on our agenda today, Heron?” she asked quietly, her posture professional but her eyes just hinting at her small bit of sadness.
“Nothing out of the ordinary today, my lady,” he answered honestly, straightening out.
“Good... I do not think I can handle something out of the ordinary,” she responded, her eyes averting downwards.
It was like a switch flipped, the parental side of Heron beginning to peer through the cracks of formality. “Is there something troubling you, Norella? You seem... off balance.”
The charm of Lucent Prime was that Norella and her direct assistants were all force-sensitive. As much as it made the Empress feel more at home, it also made things much more difficult in terms of stowing emotions.
Heron had been privy to Norella’s growing feelings for Maul. She had been responsible for him when he was found, stowed away on a supply ship headed for her planet after his battle with Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was injured, barely hanging on through the sheer anger and vengeance he had stored inside. She had helped him regain himself, and during this time they had discovered the Force had directly connected them.
He began to calm down. He became less angry, less fueled by vengeance, the longer he stayed in her care on Lucent Prime. When he processed that he had been abandoned by his prior Sith master, he had decided to leave Lucent Prime in order to discover what his life was meant for. He wanted to figure out what he wanted for himself, if he wanted to build something after he had realized that no one from his past life was coming back.
It had been months now. After he had made his presence known for almost three months time, he had promptly disappeared.
She could not fault him for wanting to pave his own way, it was something that she knew he desired. A life of hatred, a life of abandonment, was something that would have drove him mad should he linger on it for longer.
She was happy to get any update she could. Little by little, she could see him change. His posture, the way that he spoke, began to change.
“I miss him,” she says simply, knowing Heron would understand.
“I know you do, my lady,” Heron responded, his eyes much softer than they had been before. “I’m sure that he will reach out to you again, in time. For now, we must focus on the task at hand.”
Norella nods her head a bit solemnly, before beginning to walk beside Heron out of her quarters. The door shut behind her, she lets out a soft exhale as they traverse the massive halls. The clicking of her heels echoed in the empty halls, as her mind began to wander during their short trip to the throne room.
When she was about to begin her ascent up the three steps leading to her throne, she pauses. There was a shift in the air, a breach in the Force that she just felt stir in her stomach. However, as sudden as it was, there was a familiar warmth that accompanied it. She places her hand over her heart in response to it, feeling it begin to pick up it’s drumming in her chest.
Maul.
She turns, her eyes much more lively as they searched in the throne room--as if he were going to barge through the door. She hears his ship fly overhead through the walls, lifting up her skirt slightly so that she may begin to move quickly.
She begins her running, her heels clacking on the floor. Her guards tried to step and stop her to due her sudden movements, but Heron raises a hand for them to stop. And they do, pausing in their tracks and watching as their Empress moved as fast as her garb would allow.
She charges through a blast door that opened up, causing the warmth of the sun to leak through and crash against her skin. She winces a little due to the sudden light change, but her eyes quickly adjust to the ship that had made its home on the landing bay.
The doors hissed open, and she could feel her heartbeat rise the lower it got to touching the bay floor. When it gently clattered, she began to approach it slowly.
She could see the beginnings of his dark boots stepping down, making her heart race just a little more. More of him began to reveal itself as he descended down the ramp. He had his dark robes on, his hood up and over his horns and tattooed skin. He paused when his eyes rested on Norella, and she could feel his content coursing through his veins through their dyad.
She picks up her skirt again, speed-walking towards him. As she drew closer, she could see the difference in his tunics that lay against his form. They were black, with intricate designs that only shown when the light hit against it. They were beautiful, and they suit him much more than the simple black that he had worn when she met him.
“Maul,” she greeted, smiling sweetly when she got close enough. She wanted to hug him, pull him close so that she could receive the physical affection she so craved.
“Empress Norella,” he greeted back, bowing in formality when she addressed him.
“I... I wasn’t sure that you would be returning,” she admitted, attempting to swallow the feelings that she could feel boiling between them.
She could feel that he missed her, just as much as she did him. That he was also starved of affection that he so craved, hungry for her presence. She watched him closely, on his body language that gave away her assumption. And if she payed enough attention, she would begin to notice more differences with him.
He gazed into her eyes, and she felt entrapped by the blue that he had. Something about the way it contrasted against his red and black skin drew Norella closer and closer to him, finding it harder to look away. “To be quite honest, I wasn’t sure if I was to return when I had left here, but... I found myself thinking of you. Often. So I reached out to you.”
“I... appreciated that, you know. I enjoyed seeing your progression, your face,” she folded her arms behind her, averting her eyes downward.
She could hear Maul step closer and closer to her, and soon his body was only about a foot from hers. She looked up at him once more, a little surprised to see his soft expression as he studied her. He felt as if it had been years, even though it was only months, and seeing her beauty in front of him was almost surreal.
Like he had been dreaming.
They didn’t need to say anything to each other, in terms of their feelings. Their dyad made it impossible for them to hide the swelling love that they felt boiling in their chests. It was almost overwhelming, as Maul reached up and placed a hand at her cheek.
She leaned into his ginger touch, the aspect of it almost feeling imaginary. Something that she had craved for so long, and finally able to receive it. Nothing that they experienced through their dyad could surmount to the moment that they were in now.
So he leaned in, his blue eyes much more gentle than she had ever seen them. She knew what he was trying to do, and frankly hurried for their lips to meet in the middle. To describe their kiss would be a cliché, but she was half inclined to agree with them; there were butterflies in her stomach, fireworks setting off between the two of them. Whatever it may be, she felt it amplified by the Force--by their dyad.
And when they reluctantly pulled away, he brought her in close so his arms wrapped around her. His palm held the back of her head, so her temple was placed against his chest. She hummed in content, her arms raveling around him as she relished in the attention she had finally been able to receive.
“I take it this means you’re staying...” she said, her voice a low mutter as she almost drowned in the feelings she had.
“I realized on my journey, that I couldn’t see myself anywhere else,” he admitted, his thumb brushing against her white hair.
And she smiled.
__
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