Set between The Battleground of brothers and the Curse of Courascant
~Ahsoka's POV~
Ahsoka exchanged a glance with Intrepid, who then exchanged a look with Nava, who nudged Obi-wan, who nodded to Anakin, who cocked a brow at Padme, who shrugged and looked at Rex who cleared his throat and nodded to Cody.
The twins, watching all this, sat in their seats musingly, all eyes set contemplatively on the young war General seated to the side of Captain Rex, eyes downcast, shoulders slumped in desolation as he picked at his food with a great sigh.
The force around him was jumbled with various emotions. Ahsoka had rarely seen her friend so…Melancholy. Lux Bonteri was a champion of wild proportions. A warrior in his own right, a cheerful man and overall pleasurable influence.
Yet he was picking at the food, tender and juicy still on plate, with a look of pure remorse. It was one of the few nights where all of the gathering family members were, for once, under one roof and not on the battlefront, and he chose now to be moody.
The respite would last three days at most, if they were lucky. Lux knew this, they all did, and all of them strived to be as jovial and lighthearted as possible during these times. It was a well-known fact that one of these days; one of them might not come back.
Lux was no exception to this unspoken rule, and besides, he was not downhearted by nature. Fit to spouts of bursting emotion or brooding, yes, but not so cheerless. There was only one explanation…
"What's her name?" Ahsoka Tano piped in, since everyone else did not seem to know how to start the conversation. Lux looked up, and his dark chocolate eyes were also desolate.
He scowled at her confusedly. "Whose?" he asked. Ahsoka folded her hands before her neatly and met this new wall of silence head on. She was the former apprentice to dashing daredevil Anakin Skywalker after all. Beating around the bush was not where her talents laid.
"The girlfriend that brutally dumped you, of course," She replied with unfathomable calm. Lux's eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. The rest of the table watched in silence as anger and indignation flared in the force around him.
Ah. So she hadn't dumped him. Not yet. "When did my personal life become your business?" Lux demanded sharply. None of them reacted but with unruffled tranquility.
"Lux, we're your family," Ahsoka reminded him matter of factly. "You don't have a 'personal life' anymore. You know that. Now, what was her name and what did you do to her?" She asked again.
Lux glared at her a moment more, but the twins, misunderstanding their exchange for a hilarious joke, had burst into giggles. Ahsoka nor Lux could help it; they grinned.
"Good," Padme established, when the tenseness ion the air alleviated as if the air had taken a deep breath. "Now that's established. Lux, what's her name?" It seemed Ahsoka was not the only one who knew one of her closest friends so well. Again, they were a family. This idea of privacy was ludicrous.
Lux sighed, his shoulders drooping a bit further down and his aura becoming darker with more melancholy. "Her name is Aira. And before you ask, no, she hasn't denounced me. We're not even in a real relationship yet," he admitted. Ahsoka nodded and sipped at the glass of cold water in front of her, wondering what in the blazes was inflicting the boy then.
"You like her?" Anakin asked sympathetically. Lux nodded miserably. "Yeah. A lot. And…And I think she likes me too," he confessed, cheeks flushing rosy red at this admittance.
"So what's the problem?" Rex demanded, staring at Lux's full plate with some envy. His own rations had long been devoured, and Ahsoka could sense he liked the idea of seconds. She hid a smile.
"Yes. Why don't you invite her to dine with us one night? Or is she one of the village girls?" Padme asked, eyes softening with worry. She knew full well how it was to be in love with someone forbidden.
Their inhabitance on this planet was unknown even to the locals. They could not risk Sidious finding them. "No, no," Lux assured them quickly, as all of their faces creased in worry.
They did not want to stop him if he did have feelings for one of the village girls, but none of them knew how such a situation would go about being handled safely.
"She's part of the Alliance. She smuggles in supplies and rations to our spies. She's a natural pilot," he explained. "I like her," Anakin announced the second the word 'pilot' had come from Lux's mouth. "Alright, what is she doing here?" Intrepid asked. Lux sighed and leaned back in his seat, anxiously twiddling his fingers in his lap.
"She crashed a few miles away from the base in the forest a few days ago. Fuel ran out. She stumbled out of the forest, stopped by the market for provisions, at first, I thought she might be an Empire spy, and she looked pretty beat up, so I offered to buy her a meal to see what I could get out of her. Instead, we ended up talking and well…" he trailed off with a small half shrug, cheeks a ruddy shade of maroon.
"And now wedding bells are ringing in the air," Rex finished theatrically, with a devious grin. Lux cast him an exasperated glance, though one side of his mouth quirked up further. "I still don't see the problem with this, Lux," Nava went back to the original subject with confusion.
Lux tapped his fingers restlessly upon the large table. "She hates Jedi," he blurted brusquely, with a scowl. There was a brief silence as they took this in. Though, Ahsoka found that she was not overly surprised.
The Clone Wars had not made the Jedi look like big fans of justice or mercy. They were hated for many reasons. It was not uncommon. "You told her you lived with us?" Padme asked at last. Lux smiled ruefully in her direction.
"She's heard about The Trio. She expressed her sympathies," he said softly. Ahsoka was unsurprised at this as well, and cringed. Having been dubbed for their heroic actions "The Trio" by the rest of the galaxy, she Lux, and Intrepid were known far and wide. She gulped. She had never thought that such a status would grant Lux problems like this in his life.
"Oh," was the only thing she could think of to say. "Do you know why she hates Jedi so much?" Obi-wan asked rationally. Lux nodded. "Her father…When the Clone Wars began he signed up in the droid manufacturing company, controlling the machines, for extra pay. He was one of the only sentient beings there. The factory was bombed by Republic forces. He died in the explosion," Lux reported to them.
Ahsoka exchanged an uneasy glance with Anakin. They had bombed a droid manufacturing station on Geonosis early into her apprenticeship.
Could it be…? But no, they dared not go into the past. Ahsoka had killed many people throughout her time as a Jedi; it was an occupational hazard of being a peacekeeper for an unsteady galaxy.
"Does she even know if it was a Jedi that led the mission? It could have been a clandestine clone objective," Nava tried to intervene, helpless in the face of such loss, once more punched in the gut with the knowledge that this war, and the war before, had turned the tides in more than one way.
The Jedi were indeed guilty. Had indeed become warriors and killers in an otherwise destitute game.
Lux shook his head, sorrowfully. "It wouldn't matter," he told them softly. Ahsoka sighed fretfully and glanced at Intrepid. Once having thought herself in love with Lux, too, very long ago now, and having decided that she had been frankly out of her mind at that time, she knew the girl's attraction.
She hated that it was squandered by the meandering thought that Lux associated with Jedi; that his family consisted, just about, of Jedi. That this girl who Lux liked would extend her hatred of Jedi to include him just because he was their friend.
It wasn't fair and it wasn't right. People should not be judged on anything but the content of their character. She bit her bottom lip, contemplating. The others looked at Lux, unsure of how to help, if help was theirs to give.
There was so much that they all had to accept in their lives. Loss of love had never been one of them that any of them were willing to accept. Attachment was not love.
At length, breaking the contemplative, gloomy silence they basked in, interrupted only by the twin's munching happily away, Obi-wan spoke. "Well," he thought aloud. "You, of all people, Lux, should know that hatred is ineffective against knowledge. You were able to release your hatred when you met Ahsoka," he pointed out.
"Hey, that's true! Maybe she'll brighten up if she actually meets real Jedi! If she meets us," Ahsoka agreed, looking to him encouragingly. Lux looked doubtfully uninspired by the idea.
"Then again," he said slowly. "I didn't really just hate the Jedi specifically," he told them. "I hated the Republic in general. I'm not entirely sure she won't try to shoot you if she comes here…" he trailed off, biting his bottom lip.
"Ah, we get shot at all the time, Lux!" Anakin brushed off the worry cheerily. "I am sure we can find it in our hearts to forgive her," Obi-wan agreed, cocking one bushy eyebrow as if this should have been apparent.
Considering the fact that they were continuously shot at on the battlefield, Ahsoka had to express her wonder at why Lux would think this would anger them. Ahsoka, by now, considered it another way of greeting, as distinct and natural as a handshake.
Lux still appeared highly skeptical. "I don't know…" he trailed off, anxiously. "It's settled then," Padme said with finality, lifting her fork in the air to jab it at him. "Bring her here tomorrow night. Everyone should still be here. Obi-wan will cook, and she'll get to see the real us," Lux gazed around at them with thinly veiled horror, as if he wasn't sure if he wanted her to see the real them or really them at all.
"Alright, I'll propose it to her," he said slowly, dread evident in his voice. "But I don't think she's going to take it very well…"