uncertain_dume | From A Galaxy Far, Far Away to A Galaxy Not All That Far Away At All, Thursday Evening, Fandom Time

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From A Galaxy Far, Far Away to A Galaxy Not All That Far Away At All, Thursday Evening, Fandom Time

It wasn't that Kanan had been in any hurry to part ways with Hera and Zaluna; really, the opposite couldn't have been more true. But, besides the fact that he had to leave a trail placing him on Gorse through all the previous action so that he'd be just another suicide flier who'd left the planet when work dried up, he'd come back to this galaxy with a plan in mind. He would be damned if after all of that, he went back to Fandom without his ship. Especially now that the Expedient was space dust at best, having been at ground zero when Forager blew. The planet that they'd relocated Zaluna to was quiet. Kind of pretty, actually, for a sparsely populated agricultural world. The sun was warm, different from anything Zal would have experienced in a lifetime on Gorse, and the locals were pleasant.

Hell, even Kanan found himself enjoying the walk to Zaluna's new home from the spaceport where he'd parked the Escape. And he couldn't help but smile as he approached Zaluna's new home to see her making her way up a pathway toward a large tree.

"Keep walking, Zal, and you'll bump into it."

Zaluna smiled. "You're still here, Kanan!"

"Enjoying the weather. Gorse was a steam bath," he placed a guiding hand on her shoulder. "You doing all right?"

"Better than ever." With his guidance, she navigated her way around the tree. "What do you think of my garden?"

"It's good," Kanan replied. He hesitated for a moment, and then ventured, "You know you can get those eyes treated, right? To get your sight back."

"Like Vidian?" Zaluna chuckled and shook her head. "No, I think I've seen enough. I have a place to live, and a little girl who visits daily to help me with things. But I'll be helping myself soon." She gestured backward. "And look! I have a tree!"

Kanan laughed. He couldn't imagine possibly being in such good spirits himself, if he were in her shoes. But she seemed to be taking the loss of her sight not only in stride, but as something of a blessing. He had no idea how she did it.

"I'm thinking it's Skelly's tree," Zal continued. "A nice monument, don't you think?"

"Well, there are some twisted clinging vines over there I would have thought of instead."

"No," Zaluna turned her face skyward and sighed. "Skelly's ashes are probably still back there, raining down on Cynda. I think he'd like that."

Kanan was silent for a moment, and then: "That works, too."

	Hera came up the walk from the house and found them there. “I’m ready to go." She hugged Zaluna. “Take care—and thank you.”
	Zaluna walked to the edge of the gravel road with them. “And now,” Kanan said, “I get the pleasure of walking this gentle lady back to this mysterious starship of hers.” He'd heard so much about it. Or, rather, he'd gathered so much about it just by how much Hera had been frustrated by the late Expedient that the suspense was killing him, now. “I see,” Zaluna asked. “Are you traveling together?”
	“We haven’t discussed it,” Hera said quickly. Zaluna smiled. “You’d better take him with you,” she said, “or I’ll put him to work.” She turned and walked back toward the garden.

	“I think she’ll be fine,” Hera said for the third time as they walked toward the little town where she'd rented a hangar. The medic had said Zaluna was healing nicely, but she couldn't help but fret a little. As they came up on the hangars, she asked Kanan without looking at him, “So what’s next for you?”
	“Well," Kanan said, shrugging his shoulders, "you know me. A force always in motion.” Though really, with the possible exception of Kasmir and Kleeve, at this point Hera probably had a better idea of that than anybody else in the galaxy. Like Kasmir and Kleeve, Kanan figured he could trust her with that.
	“I do know you.” She kept walking. “So what do you think about what Zaluna said?” He could do a lot of good if he came with her. She wanted to grab him and insist, but as she'd said earlier, forcing people was the Empire's way. If Kanan just wanted to keep himself alive, she couldn't make him care.
	“What, going with you?” Kanan shrugged, blowing out a breath and smiling wryly. “Well, you know what I’ve said. You’re great company.” He eyed her. “But I don’t think you’re looking for a traveling companion, are you?” She was looking for a revolutionary. And that... that, he wasn't. He'd already fought his war.
	“Not like that.” Hera stopped outside the door to the closed hangar and looked up at him. “What’s happening to the galaxy is serious, and I mean to do something about it. If you mean only to mind your own business,” she said, offering her hand, “then I wish you luck in your travels.”
	He looked down at her hand, and then at her. His mouth had gone dry, and the idea of shaking her hand and seeing her off on her way seemed... wrong. The way turning his back and walking away from Kasmir had felt, a twisting feeling in his guts that left him almost short of breath. “I still haven’t seen this ship.”
	“And you won’t," Hera said. "The fewer people who see it, the better.” What Kanan didn't know couldn't be coerced out of him.
	He had to be caught before he could be coerced. He scratched his beard. “It sounds pretty large. Must be a lot on it to keep up.”
	Hera stared at him for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, there is.”
	“You might need a crew for something like that.” He looked at her pointedly. “Not a traveling companion. Not a revolutionary. Crew.” Clearly he had lost his mind. That was what this was. He'd just gotten his own ship back. She was some kind of revolutionary looking to start war with the Empire, and he was a not-quite-Jedi on the run, trying to avoid notice by that very same Empire. Even so, he thrust his hand into hers.
	Hera flashed him a shrewd smile and shook his hand. “I can live with that.” She could use crew. And if he wanted to pretend he wasn't getting involved, well, he'd been doing that all along - and he'd still helped. "Welcome aboard."

[OOC: This one's mostly NFB because spaaaace, though if you want to mention that a ship landed in a junkyard and out came Hera and Kanan, that's cool! Once again, some bits were pulled straight from A New Dawn, and preplayed with

futurespacemom! Other posts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine! That's all there is, there isn't any more! For about another six years. Hera and Kanan are gonna keep nattering on in the comments, now. Thanks for being patient with my canonspam.]

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"There's a bank you can get those exchanged at," Kanan replied, smiling a bit sheepishly as he deposited the last of the caf, and then reached into a pouch on his belt to pull out some loose change that had somehow survived multiple explosions and an ass-kicking or two by a homicidal cyborg. "The money here is a mix of coin and paper, of all things. They call it the dollar."

The way he said it pretty much said it all. He thought it was kind of absurd.

"Paper? Huh." Hera shrugged. "Well, as long as I can get it changed, then." You were sweet, Kanan, but Hera believed in pulling her own weight.

Which right now meant pushing twice her own weight in melons, meat, and caf. "Get your hatch open, and we'll load this in," she told Kanan. "And then," she added to Chopper, "when I say so, you can loose the clamps."

Kanan's pride, at least, would have been thankful to know that she wasn't calling him sweet to his face.

Eliot had him figured out. He was so fifteen, sometimes.

"Hatch, open," he echoed, tripping around Chopper to do just that. "Been a long time since I loaded anything in here like this."

Never groceries, though.

That just meant he'd never been a fast enough smuggler. Perishables got top price!

Hera pushed the cart up to the hatch, gently moving Chopper back out of the way with a muttered, "Be nice."

"Well, it's not exactly a cargo hauler," she said with a shrug to Kanan. "I'd like to see what it can do, though."

Starting with if it'd actually fit the cart, sure, but that wasn't exactly what she meant. She figured Kanan would get that.

Yeah, but spice was where the real credits were at.

"Oh, she can do plenty," Kanan said, because... she could. Escape was a damn fine ship. He hadn't seen her better in maneuverability yet. There was a reason he'd fallen in love with her at first sight. "I can stay in the copilot seat, if that was a request."

Only if you were willing to run it and didn't mind working for Hutts.

"I thought you were a permanent passenger now," Hera teased. She hesitated. "I'd love to, but I can put her through her paces later. And only if you don't mind."

She liked Kanan enough not to just grab his ship, anyway. And right now she mostly wanted food, stretching, and sleep. And maybe an actual shower with water.

"Direct me in?" she asked, nodding at Escape's tiny hold.

"There aren't many people I'd trust with my ship," Kanan noted, as he waved with one hand to help guide her. "I've seen you fly. I think you're basically it."

Like he'd said before: He was good. She was better.

"But maybe another time."

"Another time," Hera agreed.

She got the cart in and locked it down, then hopped back out to close up the Ghost. "Chop, take care of the ship," she said seriously. The droid saluted. "And once we're in and the engines are on, then you can undock us, okay?"

He gave a series of disgruntled but agreeing beeps.

"Thank you," she said, smiling at him. "I'll see you later."

"See ya, pal," Kanan added, giving the droid a little grin. Hey, he appreciated all the not undocking his ship and leaving her to the tender mercies of Earth's gravitational pull, if nothing else. He climbed his way up, opening the cockpit, and then offered Hera a hand. "It's a bit cozy in there, but it's a short trip."

When he'd said 'copilot seat,' what he'd basically meant was that he'd stand in an awkward half-crouch behind the only seat that was in there. At least she was short enough that she wouldn't have to do the crouching part, if she chose to stand?

For a brief moment, he was tempted to say something altogether inappropriate about letting her sit in his lap, but after the week they'd had, he figured she deserved at least that much more respect than he afforded most.

Given the height Hera was at as he helped her up, it was just as well for him he didn't make bad jokes.

But for now, Hera'd let him have his ship, and stand behind the pilot's seat. From the distances she'd seen, it'd take longer for her to learn the ship than it would to get where they were going.

"Ready when you are."

"Hera, I am always ready."

That was actually mostly not even false. Kanan gave a little smirk over his shoulder, closed the cockpit, and started the Escape's engines. Now there was a sound he was never going to get sick of. A few moments later and the ship was undocked, the landing gear was up, the wings were down, and they were headed... well, maybe not directly for the MCA. He wanted to at least do a quick lap of the island first. But more or less right there.

"Fandom Island," he shared, as he flew. "The big building over there is actually a school. They teach some of the weirdest things there. The preserve is basically the least dangerous forest I've seen in my entire life, and there's the causeway to the mainland. Or wherever."

He'd explain the causeway's 'or wherever' some other time, unless she absolutely needed to know how.

"And this," he said, bringing the Escape in for a landing where Expedient used to park before, "is, for lack of a better term for the time being, home sweet home."

"It's a building with - I'm assuming - no bombs," Hera said. "I love it already."

"I'm also assuming there are no bombs," Kanan declared, cutting the engines and opening the cockpit. "If I find out otherwise, there'll be hell to pay."

He was serious, Fandom. No bombs.

He did have a closet with a box full of bear traps and another full of really, really ancient surveillance equipment, though. Zal would have gotten a kick out of that stuff.

Well. Not the bear traps.

Closets were for clothing, Kanan. Maybe some trinkets and junk. Not large-animal traps.

Hera scrambled out of the cockpit and dropped down to open the cargo hold. "If I find out otherwise, I'll sic Chopper on whoever brought them. I am not putting up with another Skelly."

He'd been a good man in the end, but far too explosive-happy.

For what it was worth, he'd been taking them off Eliot's hands! And it had been shortly after he'd run into a giant homicidal monster version of himself up on the roof of this very building, so it had kind of made sense at the time.

At least the bear traps were on the top shelf, where Stance couldn't accidentally get into them?

"I lost count of the amount of times he nearly blew us up," Kanan admitted, making his way around and taking it upon himself to handle removing the cargo, this time. "I try to keep the number of times I almost get exploded to death at a minimum each day, and he more than hit that quota."

"He did good in the end, though," Hera said softly. She sighed. "Well, let's get this inside and eat. Not that I didn't appreciate the bar food, but it was only slightly better than the rations."

He did good in the end. Kanan managed the faintest bit of a smile, something a bit more tired than he normally cared to let on. He'd felt Skelly die, knew without a shadow of a doubt how he'd gone. Of course he had. He'd opened himself up to the Force only minutes before.

He did good in the end.

"Hey, I've eaten many a meal at Drakka's just so I didn't have to call picked-over bar snacks my meal of the day," he noted, heaving an armload of food up over one shoulder, and then going back for more. Easily an impossible amount all at once, now. He didn't have quite so much to hide, here. "And I saw you stocking up on meiloorun back there."

That was fine. Kanan had stocked up on jogan, after all.

Edited 2017-02-24 03:02 (UTC)

Hera blinked at that - if Kanan was hiding...

Okay, she wasn't going to ask anything just yet. In privacy, maybe.

Instead, she hefted as much as she could carry, too. "Well, if they haven't got it, I don't want to have to make too many trips back and forth." She waited for him to lead the way, and followed him down.

"They don't even have caf," Kanan replied. "They have something close, and it's not bad, but it just isn't the same."

He paused outside his door, fumbling for a moment for his keys, and then opened it and stepped inside.

"Home sweet hidey hole."

It was definitely an apartment! There was a couch!

There were clearly more amenities for the dog than for Kanan, mind.

Hera looked around. "I don't know if it'd be better or worse if those are your dishes on the floor. Do you even have a table?"

Kanan blinked her way, then grimaced faintly.

"I did say it was sparse. The table's in the kitchen. Folded up- there was a wobbly leg I've been meaning to fix."

He sighed and slipped inside to set the groceries on the little coffee table by the couch, obscuring the view from the doorway of the holocron that was sitting there. It wasn't as though he'd been expecting company, after all.

"What you see is basically what there is. And a bed and a nightstand in the bedroom."

Jedi living and fugitive living were kind of similar on that whole 'minimalist' point.

"Still not planning on staying, then?" Hera asked. She followed him to put her packs down. Don't worry, Kanan; she wouldn't know a holocron to see one.

He was still ever so casually picking it up and tucking it into the deep pockets of his long coat all the same. You know. For reasons.

"Staying had never really been the plan," he replied, shrugging it off. "I spent five months on Gorse, and that was the longest I'd been anywhere, besides here."

Or the Temple. But he wasn't talking about the Temple.

"Why? What else does it need?"

Place to sit, place to eat. Place to sleep. Place to keep his, like, two personal possessions. Check.

Hera shrugged. "A place to put your clothes, to keep food. A holoterminal. And please tell me you have a water shower."

"Clothes go in the closet, food goes in the fridge, they don't have holotechnology around here and I have nobody to call anyway, and the shower," Kanan gestured toward the bathroom, "came built-in as a feature."

Thank everything.

"If you want to go clean up, I can get a start on food. I'm probably about as starving as you are, anyway."

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