Revered and Reviled

"The mask is a bit ... theatrical, isn't it, Revan?"
The door closed, and Revan sank into the couch before pulling off the mask and tossing it aside. "Indeed, it is, Alek. But that's what a war like this calls for. No one wants to see a tiny blonde girl at the head of an army." She laughed suddenly. "Well, no one except you."
Alek smiled grimly. "I'll follow you, Revan. I know you will see this to the end, no matter what." He gazed at her, drinking in the sight of her face, her eyes. "You've changed so much, Revan, and yet.... Is this really what you want?"
Revan sighed, and looked up at him. "No, my Alek, but they want war, and they need a warrior to lead them. Someone fearless and fearsome, someone they can all follow. And I want them to win, so I will do whatever I have to. I will give up my face so they don't have to worry about my emotions, and they can just follow my commands."
"What did you call me?" he asked curiously.
Revan blushed a little. "What did it sound like? I lisp sometimes, merge words. It's how I got my own name as a child."
"You called me Malak," he said softly.
"Yes," she said, her eyes drinking in his face, so changed, and yet so familiar. "My Alek. They ruined your hair," she said sadly.
"I don't want your pity," he said calmly, forcing himself not to snarl. "I just want this wrong righted. I want the Mandalorians stopped, once and for all."
"I want that too," she replied, calmly, but her eyes were dark and inscrutable. She was blocking him from sensing her emotions. "You're going to stay with me, Malak? You're not going to leave me to do this alone?"
He nodded. "I will stay if you want me, Revan."
She stood up, without answering. Walked over to the window, and looked out at the ruins of Cathar, but seeing none of it.
"You've shut me out, Revan. Do you not trust me anymore?"
"I trust you, Malak. I have to, and I chose to. But you've changed too, Malak. So much has changed. Stay with me, let me learn you all over again." She turned finally, but didn’t meet his eyes.
He nodded, not sure if he truly understood. But it seemed that the mask was more than a bit of theatre. Revan really had changed.
"We are going against the wishes of the Council," she said suddenly. "They will permit this, but they won't like it. Are you prepared for that?"
Malak set his jaw. "The Mandalorians must be stopped, Revan. They were trying to find a way to negate the Jedi ability to manipulate the Force. There is no way the Council can allow this - "
"We won't," she said shortly, cutting him off. "I won't."
For a split second, he could feel her. The bond between them, usually so well-controlled, unexpectedly unlocked. He could practically taste the anger, the burning need for vengeance eating away at her.
Not for some unnamed Mandalorian who had tried to stand up to a vicious leader, not for some barely known race almost completely wiped out by the Mandalorian need to prove their strength. No, she wanted vengeance on the Mandalorians because they had dared to lay hands on him. On her Alek.
Through their friendship, through their love, even separated by years and their respective Masters, she had remained connected to him. Through the Force. "Revan!" She had been connected to him the entire time.
She backed away from him, tried to close the connection between them again, but he refused to let her. "No, don't shut me out, Revan. Don't! Please," he said desperately. He pulled her into his arms, "Please, Revan, please."
Revan let him hold her, and with a soft cry, as if in pain, opened the bond between them to the fullest, letting him drink in her love, her passion, her hunger for him. She wrapped her arms around him, pulled him close to her, let herself be lost in the physical contact as her emotions washed over him. All those years, she had loved him, protected him, watched over him, even when they had been parted by the rules of the Council and their Masters for fear that they would grow too close. But their rules had come too late, and fallen too short.
"Revan! You were there - " he couldn't even say the words, he just held her, and let himself know. In his darkest hour, she had been with him. Given him the strength to resist the pain and the suffering. "And I never knew!" he gasped, suddenly ashamed of himself.
She laughed. "You knew, Malak. You just didn't want to admit it." She put her arms around him, let her head rest on his chest, and slowly closed the bond, lowering the intensity of their connection.
He could feel her regaining her equilibrium, the release washing away the worst of the anger, leaving only a stern determination to stop the Mandalorians. He held her more tightly. "Revan, you..." Words were so useless here. He kissed her instead, letting her drink in his love, his gratitude, his adoration, with every kiss and every breath. For a moment, they were one, wrapped in each other and the Force. "I love you, Revan."
A light seemed to shine from within her, and she smiled at him. "Malak! I've waited to hear that for so long." She kissed him again, joyous and thrilled at the confirmation. Revan pulled away slightly, met his eyes. "Are you sure you want …. We will definitely be punished for this. Censured, at the very least."
Malak laughed. "At least, let us earn this punishment then. And at the end, we will face them together and take what comes." He lifted her in his arms, kissed her again. "I will stand by you, Revan, whatever happens."
She smiled, ran her hands over his head, tracing the outline of the tattoos, before drawing her hand slowly down the side of his face. She drew her fingers carefully over his brow, touched his cheek, traced the outline of his lips. He bent down to her, kissed her again. Her hands moved up, pulling his head closer to her.
He walked over to the couch, and lay down with her on top of him, still locked in an embrace. She pushed away his robes, kissed the bare skin of his neck, his shoulders.
"You are mine, Alek?"
"From this day forward, I am yours, Revan. There will be no other," he vowed. He could feel it in her soul, a slight twinge of jealousy at his words. "Forgive me, love. I did not wait for you. I did not know."
"You did not have faith," she corrected him. She smiled, ran her hands over his chest. "I suppose it is for the best. Now one of us knows what we are doing."
He laughed, and sat up a little so that he could shrug off his robes completely. "The Force does work in mysterious ways." He kissed her again, trying to convince her with his touch what she would not believe from his words. "I am yours, Revan. I am, I belong to you. There is no one else!"
Revan sat up, so that she could look down at him, his exquisitely muscled body. She ran a hand over the sharply outlined muscles of his chest, then his arms. He slid his hands beneath her robes, so that he could caress the sleek, lithe muscles of her thighs, her curves and her softness. She smiled shyly at his touch.
"You are very beautiful, Revan," he whispered hoarsely, his voice tinged with passion.
"And you are quite the man, Malak. You were not so… big, when you were younger." She touched the muscles of his arm again, her eyes admiring the overtly masculine shape, the strength evident there. "But you were always handsome."
He moved his hand up, just brushing over the entrance of her body on his way to undo the belt of her robes, and was pleased to see her flush slightly at the contact. She moved her shoulders, sinuous and graceful, and the robes fell away completely. She was wearing an expensive camisole beneath her robes, rather than the utilitarian tank so common in the Republic. Malak smiled, and tugged gently at the laces.
"Your secret love of luxury. I'd almost forgotten about that."
She smiled, amused that he would comment on it, now of all times.
Malak undid the lacing, slowly slid his hand up between her breasts so that the camisole would fall away. "You're very, very beautiful, Revan." He gently cupped one of her breasts in his hand, caressed her. "Very, very beautiful." He moved his hand to her back, her hips, then back up to her shoulders, and pulled her down to him for another soul-searing kiss. The touch of her bared breasts against his chest was electric, charged with all the power of the Force bond between them.
"Malak," she murmured, just to hear the sound of his name. "My Alek, my own."
"Revan?"
"Malak?" she answered mockingly.
He laughed. "What does your name mean, then?"
She smiled, and kissed the muscles of his chest. "When I was a child, I couldn't say my title and name correctly." Revan sighed at the memory. "The Most Holy and Revered Anastasia. It's a bit pretentious, isn't it?"
Malak stroked her back. "And yet, very appropriate. Anastasia," he murmured, thrilling to the sound of the unfamiliar name. "It suits you. It is a very beautiful name." He pulled away the ribbon that held her golden hair in place, and let it fall to her shoulders. Pulled a lock of her hair to his lips and kissed it. "Revered Anastasia."
She took his face in her hands, kissed him, madly, passionately, as if she would never let him go. "You are mine, Alek! Mine! I've waited so long for this," she murmured, "I want you so badly."
He smiled at her sweet, fiery possessiveness, so unlike her normal coldness. Malak rejoiced at knowing that she was his, and his alone. In all the universe, he was the only man that Revan desired, the only man that she would ever touch. He slid his hands down her body, pushing away her clothes.
Revan kissed him, touched his arms, his shoulders, the rippling muscles of his chest, delighted by his strength and physical perfection. "So wonderful," she whispered. "What a man you are, Alek!"
Malak kissed her again, touched her body, naked at last. She was lithe, curved, built for speed rather than strength and yet, she was in no way weak or helpless. She pressed herself against him, instinctively moving her hips over his hardness. She moaned, uncertain how to ease the burning need inside her. Malak smiled, and sat up so that he could lift her in his arms again.
She laid her head on his shoulder, held him tightly, thrilled by his display of physical strength. Kissed his shoulder, tasted his skin. The taste of his sweat made her even wilder, and she bit him on the neck, dug her nails into his skin as if she would draw blood and drink it.
Malak laid her down on the bed, shoving the pillows out of the way. She shifted herself beneath him, her arms still clasped behind his neck, her legs sliding along his body. Malak braced himself on his arm, moved her legs apart so she was open to him. She gasped at the first contact, and he held her gently, whispering to soothe and reassure her. Revan closed her eyes, dug her nails into the muscles of his arms as he worked himself into her.
"Malak," she gasped, her voice wild and passionate. "Oh, Alek, so wonderful!"
Malak kissed her desperately, hungrily, as he thrust into Revan's body, into her warmth and tightness. The sharpness of her nails digging into his flesh, the feel of her teeth on his skin, drove him on, made him wilder, gave him strength. He was amazed at how their bodies fit together so perfectly, as if they had been made for each other. Her legs were wrapped around his hips, locked behind his back. He pounded into her, feeling her muscles tighten around him with every stroke. Revan's cries of passion excited him, thrilled him. Her nails dug into his back, leaving passionate welts and making him shudder, thrust harder and harder.
Revan couldn't control her body anymore, she belonged here, with Malak inside her. She arched, screaming, into his pounding, clasped her legs tighter around him, pulled him closer. Her body quivered, and she seemed to melt as he thrust one last time into her. Malak sank down on top of her, burying his head in her breasts, panting.
He recovered after a few minutes, and pulled himself away from her. Revan watched him, her eyes warm and soft, still half-dazed. She laid a hand on his arm, let it trail away as he stood up. Malak smiled down at her, then leaned over and kissed her again.
"My beautiful Revan," he murmured.