Sunshine is to Flowers

Peony

"Your wife was offworld again?" the tech said to Teo Tristaine at work. "She's gone an awful lot. I don't think I'd want my wife going traipsing all around the Outer Rim all the time. It's dangerous."

"Try telling your wife she can't visit her family," Teo said saltily.

"My wife's family all lives on Coruscant," said another tech. "I can't get rid of them."

"What are they still doing all at the Outer Rim?" the first tech asked. "Why haven't they emigrated here? They don't want to stay out there with all the pirates and gangs and substandard living, do they?"

"Don't you watch the holovids?" the second tech said, punching the first tech in the arm. "His wife's a princess. Her family isn't going to leave their planet."

"That's how you got this job," the first tech nodded admiringly. "Good work."

Teo gritted his teeth. "My wife is not a princess."

"Then why did the holovids say she was?"

"Her mother was one," Teo explained. "Not her."

"Doesn't that make her one?"

"No." Teo put down the datapad he was holding and glared at the tech. "It doesn't."

"Who was that alien she was with in that one bit I saw of her? With the art exhibit?" asked the first tech. "Was he one of her cousins or something?"

Teo felt himself getting angry. He knew something like this was going to happen the day his brother-in-law was promoted to Grand Admiral, but he hadn't expected it to happen with a different Grand Admiral. "He's a friend of hers," he said dismissively. At least, he hoped he sounded dismissive.

"She's getting in tight with the military," said the first tech. "Don't know if I'd want my wife hanging out with some other guy."

"You expect your wife to have no male friends?" the second tech asked. "That's the reason you're not married."

"I just haven't met the right woman yet," the first tech defended himself. "And even if I was married, I wouldn't want my wife to go to an art exhibit with some other man. I'd go with her."

"I don't like art," Teo said, as if the comment was directed at him. "I don't like culture, I don't like going out. When I'm done at work, I want to go home. I want to rest. I want to get away from people." Like the two of you.

"I'm just saying," the first tech said. "You know."

"You don't know," said the second tech. "So shut up."

That conversation was strong in Teo's mind as he watched his wife put on her jewelry to attend court. She rarely did so when the children had been home, but it was an increasingly common occurrence. The last time Teo went was when Zizi, his daughter, had been presented, that had been several years ago. It would be another year, at least, before Jax had his presentation at court and neither of them had any political ambitions at all. Zizi was quite content to stay closeted away in a lab doing whatever scientific experiments the Science Academy had her undertaking and Jax had a military career ahead of him, not a political one.

Sola pushed the dangly earring through her ear hole in her lobe, an awful practice common in the Outer Rim that Teo wished she wouldn't continue. It just screamed she wasn't from Coruscant. Her hair was up at least, and not in some backwater style that left it down. The evening gown she wore showed her back and her arms. She looked lovely, he had to admit. A flare of jealousy engulfed him.

"You need to be careful," he told her.

"Of what?" she asked nonchalantly.

"That you don't catch the attention of some people that you don't want."

She shrugged. "I'm sure I've been in the sights of people that I don't want for quite some time, ever since Uri became Grand Admiral, at least. But you don't need to worry," she turned around and flashed him a smile. "No one has threatened me or anything."

"I'm not worried," he said flatly.

"Good," she said. "I've heard only good things since Uri was promoted."

He wondered if that was true. She had told him about the alien comment when she had gone to the art exhibit. His reply had been, "Well, you don't look like an alien unless you're trying to. And you shouldn't be trying to." It had brought tears to her eyes, but sometimes she needed her sunny attitude knocked down a few pegs so she could see the ground beneath the clouds her head tended to be in.

"I don't want you to go tonight," he said.

She moved her gaze in the mirror from her ear to him behind her. "I beg your pardon?"

"I don't want you going tonight," he said in a finalized voice. "Take off that get up and stay home."

"No!" she exclaimed, turning around. "Uri's going to be here any minute to pick me up. He's not on Coruscant for long and he hasn't shown his face at court in a while."

"Will Thrawn be there?" Teo hissed.

Her face began to go red, the swirls barely visible on her cheeks and neck, disappearing into the neckline of her gown. The other side of them showed up on her back in the mirror, peeking out from the dress.

"Not that I'm aware of," she said frostily. "I'm going for Uri."

"Always for Uri," Teo blasted. "Flowers for Uri, meetings for Uri, court for Uri!" He grabbed her arm in a strong grip. "If you paid half as much attention to your husband as you do Uri or your family on Astarrax or the clinic or Thrawn you'd—"

"I'd what?" she interrupted.

He squeezed her arm, anger rising in his chest, before letting her go with a thrust. Her arm threw back and hit the counter of the dressing room with a thud. "You'd be happier," he hissed.

"I am happy," she said, her voice cracking. "It's you that's unhappy and won't let me help you. If you would come to court with me and let me help, you'd be director of your entire company by now!"

"I don't want to be director of the company," he bit back. "I like my job."

"It's the same job you've had for years!"

"It's a good job!"

"I'm not saying it isn't a good job." Tears rose into her eyes. "I'm saying that you're stagnant."

"I like things to stay the same."

"Nothing stays the same," she said, moving to the side to go around him. "I could help you just like I help Uri, but you don't want it."

"Sir, Madam," a droid entered the dressing room, shuffling on its metallic feet. "Grand Admiral Viita is here to retrieve the madam."

"Tell him to wait," Teo told it.

"I'll be right there," Sola corrected.

It stood, confused.

"You're starting to act like a little princess," Teo bent down and said into her face. "You're not on Astarrax."

"I am a princess," she hissed back at him for the first time in her life. "You're the one who married up."

"I'm the only one who would take you," he reminded her.

She stormed by him, grabbing the shawl that went with her gown, the tears beginning to flow down her cheeks.

Teo watched her walk out of the bedroom, the droid shuffling behind her.