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Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Ezra + Obi-wan. Ezra+Michael, Ezra+Ariadne
What: closed prompt in comments.
When: Evening of 2/25, and also general end of the month
Where: Obi-wan's house in Cassandra, Michael's shop, Rooftops of Trench

Content Warnings: Blood, offscreen deaths, aftermath of mass battle, grief, some corruption, others in tags

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It was easy to tell she'd touched a nerve. Not intentionally. Because Ariadne never intentionally wounded. But hurt was hurt, regardless of intention.

Her expression softened. "No," she said. "Not steal. I didn't mean it like that."

At least, she didn't think she did. Her feelings were still confused when it came to the way Obi-Wan had described his youth.

"I suppose I mean they were afraid Luke would leave them. He's..." How to put it? "Well, he's a lot like me, I think. Eager to be out in the world. Or worlds, in his case."

He eyes her, still a little wary, but then he slowly blows out a breath.

"Afraid that he might be drawn to someone who...he could probably feel on some level is like him? That he may have had some form of Force bond with, just because Ben was there when he was born and was the first person to hold and soothe him? Sure, maybe. The first time I saw Kanan, my head sang. He felt it too, before he even saw me."

"Yes," she said. "Afraid that they might lose him forever." Because he chose someone over them. Not because of kidnapping or theft or anything like that. "My mother was the same way, every time someone from the outside came to visit us. She was convinced I would try to sneak away with them. And to be honest, I thought about it, sometimes."

She hadn't exactly been the most obedient daughter.

Which ultimately had saved her life. In a poem or song, it would have been the ironic twist of fate. In her reality, it just made her...kind of sad. Painful. Like an open wound.

Ariadne's eyelashes fell. Their last fight often echoed in her ears in the quiet moments. In the place between dreams. But she was wide awake, listening to it now.

"You can't keep us away from the world forever!"

"You don't know the first thing about the world!"

"I know that it's better than you!"

She pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut. Regret and shame filled her throat, nearly choking her.

He might have said something about holding on too tight not being a good solution. Or actual state out loud his feelings about Ben being Luke's family, too.

But he could feel the shift in her emotions, as much as see the change in body language. He moves back closer to drop a gloved hand over her shoulder, this time.

"Hey. We all think things we don't act on."

Ariadne nodded, feeling just a little bit silly. Trench had a way of dredging up the past. And always when she least expected it.

By the gods, she'd actually cried once. When Anakin killed Dean.

And Ariadne had vowed as a ten-year-old not to cry again.

She leaned into Ezra's touch, grateful. "I guess that's what separates us from the not-so-nice guys out there."

Shame at crying is one hang up he's mostly managed to avoid. He certainly wouldn't have tried to shame her for it.

"I think so," he agrees, softly.

"That, and trying to let the thoughts and feelings we don't want to keep pass through us and settle, when they bubble up. Instead of choosing to make them a litany, we keep coming back to."

"Some of the feelings." She wouldn't mind occasionally drowsing in happiness or contentment, like a cat who had found a spot of sunlight on the floor.

Smiling gently, she turned to look at him. "I wish I were stronger. I'd take you flying with me. It's the most incredible feeling. Like the whole sky is open and it can take you anywhere you want to go."

Like all futures were possible.

"Sabine took me up with her jetpack a few times." She was a natural pilot in a way he wasn't. He was competent in ships and starfighters, with practice, but he hadn't had enough time with the jetpack loaned to him on Mandalore to be really feel in control, much less for it to feel nearly effortless.

"But wings, no machinery - that would be different and very cool."

"It is. Very cool." She looked entirely too proud of herself for getting the word right.

At least she hoped she got it right.

She got so many of them wrong...

"It's...it's freedom." She laughed softly. "That's what it is. I miss it so much but...well...I traded it for a different kind of freedom."

Ezra asks, very hesitantly, "....traded?"

As in, a choice? He hopes she means something more fanciful.

She looked sideways at him, nodding slightly. "Traded. To be Human. Or close enough, anyway." Obviously, she wasn't Human. But most people didn't bother looking deeper than the skin. Which worked in her favor. Even if it could be a little sad, sometimes.

Ah, well. There were the rare, wonderful gems who understood better. And Ariadne so treasured them, when she found them.

"I don't regret it. Not really. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that I sometimes missed flying."

He twitches a little, in empathetic distress on her behalf. "You couldn't hide them. Your wings."

"Maybe under a very, very big cloak," she said. "But it would look a little funny and out of place. Especially in the summer."

To say nothing of the grand chambers of royal courts. When she was pretending to be a visiting lady or diplomat. Humans passed for important people. Alastrians so rarely did. And under the Red Dragon's reign...

Better not to think of that.

He's quiet a few seconds, wrestling with sadness and anger.

"You never have to pretend to be human with me. You know that, right?"

Ariadne gave him a smile, unsure what was going on in his mind. Not that it mattered. She'd come to the opinion that you didn't have to necessarily understand someone, in order to understand them.

In order to understand who they were, anyway.

And she knew that Ezra was a kind, gentle soul. That was what mattered.

"I know," she said. "That's why we're friends."

"Ok. Good." Part of his wanted to rage or apologize that she'd gone through all that. He offers a smile back.

"I'm glad we're friends. And you really should go enjoy your wings some more," he says, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

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