(no subject)

[imthepilot]

Bodhi can't help but get up and fiddle. He's slept so much since the accident, he finds it hard to stay still for too long. Even if holding Galen in the afterglow is magnificent.

Instead he investigates Galen's little kitchenette, seeing what he might have to work with. He's starving!

Comments

[imthepilot]

"Right. And they're useful for lots of things - like keeping smoke out of your eyes in the clean up."

[galen_erso]

"If you survive the visual blackout to even clean up," Galen nods. "Whoever thought of such a thing?"

[imthepilot]

"Imperial standard equipment." Bodhi shrugs. "I guess they expect to be able to throw them out and requisition a new pair straight away. Or just stroll up to a supply cupboard." No-one in command thinks about conditions on the rim.

[galen_erso]

"They're still very far away from the idea of the well-ordered empire where not one single combat boot gets lost," Galen says, smiling.

[imthepilot]

"And every research outpost has all the medical supplies it needs." He gives Galen a worried look. "The doctor says you gave up your bacta for me."

[galen_erso]

"I didn't need it," Galen points out, "and you did. I had to re-prioritise for her a little. Not that she needed much prodding. She is good people."

[imthepilot]

"You know, in all the time she was caring for me, I never thought to ask her name." Bodhi muses, feeling foolish. "I should cook her something, to thank her."

[galen_erso]

"I think she might like that," Galen says. "Especially as she has realised about us so we won't have to try and be careful."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi nods, his eyes a little distant as he considers a menu already.

He strokes Galen's knuckles almost absently, loving the feel of the raised scars and muscles.

"You said you were a rock climber?"

[galen_erso]

"Had to be, on the worlds where I lived," Galen says. "Lyra was much better at it than I. Why?"

[imthepilot]

"I use to climb when I was younger. Jedha city is on the top of a rather steep promontory. I haven't climbed in years."

[galen_erso]

"I'm sure you still can," Galen says. "Is there any place you'd like to climb to?"

[imthepilot]

"There one spot back on Jedha but I don't know that I'll ever get the chance." He ducks his head. "Things there are getting worse. But, at least I know my brothers are alive. For now. We had a fight, just before I flew back in this run." With the explosion it had all but slipped his mind.

[galen_erso]

"So it wasn't their blood on that crate," Galen says. "How did you run into them?"

[imthepilot]

He shakes his head. "One of their friends. A boy I knew." He sighs, "I went looking for them. I had a rotation's leave and wanted- I needed to know for sure. They... weren't happy to see me."

[galen_erso]

"I'm glad you made it out again," Galen says.

He strokes the back of Bodhi's hand with his thumb.

[imthepilot]

"It wasn't my brothers who cut the deepest." He breathes. "It was my mother."

He shakes it off, trying to push that conversation to the back of his mind. There's a reason he was raised by his grandmother. "Things on Jedha are getting worse. Shipments are being attacked, haulers bombed. There's talk some big name Rebel has set up a base there. I heard chatter a Star Destroyer's being reallocated to loom over the city." He gives a shrug, as if trying to make light of it. "Half the people will be glad of the shade."

[galen_erso]

"They will miss the light," Galen says, grimly. "It's very painful to see a world treated like that. Which is why..."

[imthepilot]

"The Jedhean sun isn't always friendly. My sisters inherited my grandmother's light colouring. It was one of the reasons I worked so hard to get them off world. The SolJedha may be cold, but it burns harshly."

He cocks his head. It isn't like Galen to trail off like that. At least in his experience. "Why...?"

[galen_erso]

Galen closes his eyes, and shakes his head.

Not yet, not here.

"I know Jeddha," he says. "I've been a few times, with Lyra. It was still free then."

[imthepilot]

"Galen, look at me. Please?" Bodhi waits till he has Galen's eyes. "I understand. I understand you can't talk about your work. I get that there's a lot that goes on here that I can't know about. And I'm okay with that. I don't want you to ever feel like you're lying to me or anything, because there's stuff you can't tell me." He rubs his thumb over Galen's knuckles. "I love you. And I trust you."

[galen_erso]

Galen looks at him, his maroon eyes infinitely sad, and infinitely happy with love at the same time.

"I love you," he says. "And I trust you. I will trust you on the other hand of a rope on the rocks out there, too. As you wanted to try."

[imthepilot]

"I'd like that. If you would. The doc mentioned that getting out in the air would do me good. If it ever stops raining here, even for an hour."

He cocks his head. "What was Jedha like, when you visited? I've always thought the view must be very different for pilgrims compared to the people who live there."

[galen_erso]

"Completely," Galen says. "It was bright dust and a wild flurry of people interspaced with scarlet robes, and faces that seemed to have seen millennia, and then of course the kyber crystals. I first came to study them."

[imthepilot]

"The temple. I use to love sitting outside and watching peoples' dazed expression when they came out. The way it seemed to freak them out."