Cantina adventures that take a turn

[notallofus]

For all that the climates of different regions and planets are vastly different, there's something comfortingly the same about every cantina Kanan's been in.

Maybe it's the smell.

Maybe it's the grumbling of pilots and criminals the galaxy over, insults and friendly banter jumbling in and over each other until a body can't tell which is which.

Maybe it's the drink.

And the drink -- and the cheap food that isn't protein paste -- is what gets Kanan to leave his seat at the table with Hera to go fetch them some more of both.

"I'll be right back."

Comments

[for_everyone]

"I don't want to have to talk about it."

Her smile has faded. Hera looks from the stars down to her hands, the white moonlight highlighting the pale blue of the flowers in her hands. "But I think it might - help if we ..."

She sighs. Nothing sounds right. "... thought about our strategy."

[notallofus]

He's already missing her smile.

"I can do that," Kanan says promptly. (Is he relieved at the thought that maybe there's something he can do to make this less awful? Or to make his contribution . . . something that doesn't make everything worse? Yes. Yes he is. Theoretically.)

"Do you . . . do you have a strategy in mind? I can come up with some, but I'd rather do what you want, with this."

[for_everyone]

"Maybe I'm just questioning myself."

She looks over, glancing to him in the moonlight. "I'm glad that you listen to me, that you don't try to fight this kind of thing over me. But I wonder if I'm right. Not to engage."

[notallofus]

Kanan's quiet for a moment, taking a breath to tamp down the misplaced anger that such a slimeball of a person could, in aggregate, make Hera doubt her own choices.

Dammit.

"I think it comes down to what you need in the moment. This time it was not engaging. A lot of times it's not engaging. But I bet if you'd seen someone there who'd be helped by you making a fuss, or taking a stand, you would have."

[for_everyone]

"If there was someone there," she agrees.

"But would he think twice the next time he sees a Twi'lek in a cantina, if I had now?"

She shakes her head the moment she finishes saying it. "And I know, that can't be my responsibility. Maybe he would, maybe he'd think it was a great story, maybe it'd just put me in danger."

[notallofus]

"I think," Kanan says, after another moment of silence, "that he's the kind that will see you as an individual when you're doing something he doesn't like, and then go back to looking at all Twi'lek as if they came from his favorite holovid as soon as you're out of sight."

He rubs his face with one hand, hoping he didn't pick now to say the wrong truth.

[for_everyone]

"No, I know."

She lowers her head, thinking it over. "And I can't afford to make a scene. He might just be some scoundrel, but next time I could be giving an Imp a Twi'lek he'll remember."

[notallofus]

"Someday we'll give the Imps a lot of things to remember. You've got that coming, and more than."

A lot of people in this galaxy do.

[for_everyone]

"Someday," she repeats, and a smile does flicker across her face again.

"And if I have to fight," she says it slowly, feeling out her words, "I'd rather fight for that."

[notallofus]

His smile is crooked.

"It's on you -- I mean, us -- to win the war? Or, I guess, to make sure we're fighting a war that's worth it."

[for_everyone]

"I don't think we'll be winning any wars alone."

Hera shakes her head. "I just meant..."

But her voices fades, and she looks back down to the blossoms.

And then she speaks, quick, spilling out: "I meant I don't understand, going to some cantina and looking for a fight." Hera takes a deep breath. "I know it's not the same, I know someone like that has it coming. But it's not some game to me, it's not something I'll... take halfway. It's to the -"

She stops herself, choosing this word a little more carefully. "- end."

[notallofus]

There's something familiar in that philosophy, something he didn't think about for a long time, but --

"It's a similar reason why my 'saber is . . . what it is. There's no room for play with it. If you're lifting it for battle, you're ready to do some very serious work. If you're lifting it at all -- I know it's not the same, but I get it, a little bit."

[for_everyone]

"I hadn't thought about it," she says, quietly. "But it's true."

Her eyes still down, "Maybe I just wish I had some kind of answer."

[notallofus]

"I wish either of us had one, to make it so that people weren't . . . like that."

To Twi'leks, yes. And to other species that get the shit end of the stick -- and did even before the Empire was in charge.

"I'm sorry."

[for_everyone]

Hera lets out a breath, and then raises her head once more.

"Thank you."

[notallofus]

"Yeah, well."

He wants to take her hand and hold on tight, or clasp her shoulder, but given earlier (and the walda blossoms she's holding) --

Kanan just smiles a little, instead.

"I've got your back."

[for_everyone]

Hera also smiles, looking back up to him.

By this time, however, they've nearly reached the Ghost, or at least close enough for Chopper to be rolling out across the rocks toward them. Her smile quirks.

"We're coming, Chop."