J.C. An unlikely love story (Thrawnxf!reader)

The present

You were smiling to yourself inside your allocated cabin. You finally got the perfect present for Thrawn, one that you were sure he didn't have in his private collection.

You have been chasing this piece for several months since you've heard of it and now you had it in your hands. You were proud of yourself, these items are rare nowadays and sold for fortunes at auctions... The same occurred in the black market, but threats supported by a Vice-Admiral's plaque ensured you a decent discount. With the help of a few friends in the Ministry of propaganda your gift had been authenticated and restored in record time. Now you possessed a real museum piece, a witness of past times.

Despite the both of you being in your ninth year within the Imperial Navy, Thrawn had become your superior. He made a huge impression on you when he arrived at the imperial academy with the cadet Eli Vento. An unprecedented case! An alien and a rookie from the Outer Rim, popping in during the last three months of the formation and walking off as Valedictorian, with a rank of Lieutenant and a personal aid.

A lot of the military students were more than happy to strangle him and his rookie pal Many both enraged and amused at this grotesque situation, how on earth could this blue freak could lead the imperial formation? Some of them decided to test the waters and see how far they could get with harassment, needless to say some got burned at this petty game and Orbar paid for all the others.

You weren't sure what actually happened. Some claimed after his humiliation at the metallurgy lab he sent a group of his friends to ambush and frightened the duo, others said they planned to kill them all along. Everybody added their own spin to the story : it was a fistfight, then someone murmured they all had blasters, Eli would have been wounded by a blade, then he wasn't even here in the first place...The story was a mess.

The real mystery started when the three aggressors simply vanished from the imperial academy. Nobody knew what happened and everyone held Orbar responsible, although behind closed doors, there were sordid rumors: Thrawn would have shot them and simply disposed of the corpses. Even worse, maybe he kept the bodies in his room to feast on his enemies

Pure bullshit!

No need to be a genius to know that if someone came to die within an Imperial Military Academy the perpetrator would be punished in the most exemplary manner. Even Orbar with his high relationship network would endure a hard time, so an anthropophagic alien, alone and isolated...

But no, Thrawn was still free of his movements nevertheless, no odd and mysterious military task force came to dispose of him, so... Maker knows what happened to those boys!

Nobody actually believed those silly rumors, yet the thrill will always be more entertaining than the dull life in the army, and they still impacted the daily life of your friends, well future friends at that time, nonetheless.

Students were now removing themselves from his path, heads low and whispering behind his back, too intimidated by this strange being that seemed to disprove everything the Empire taught them about aliens. If Eli felt relieved and enjoyed his newfound peace, Thrawn still looked unbothered. In fact he always acts like that, whether he is despised or feared, as long nobody gets in his way he is imperturbable.

You talked about the rumors with Eli and his expression when you exposed the theories of your comrades was to die for! A mixture of surprise, shock and disbelief twisted his face in the most comedic way! You both still laugh about this conversation years later. He never revealed to you why or where the three thugs disappeared, even years later he just says it's a mutual secret between him, Deenlark and Thrawn. Never mind that, you later discovered their students files in the database of Skystrike Academy during an official inspection shortly after your promotion to Commodore.