Homeward Bound (aka Far Galaxy Housing)

AN: This is dedicated to JustKeepOnTheGrass, and our shared love for Paul Simon's music. This one is longer, several chapters planned, so stick with me, juicy stuff coming soon ! Read and review if you wish to.

I. Jyn — Kathy's Song

I hear the drizzle of the rain
Like a memory it falls
Soft and warm continuing
Tapping on my roof and walls

And from the shelter of my mind
Through the window of my eyes
I gaze beyond the rain-drenched streets
To England, where my heart lies

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Most mornings, Jyn cannot figure out how she ended up like this.

She wakes up, hears the rain falling on her Velux window, her hand still clutching her truncheons under her pillow, and smells fresh coffee. She loves the smell, even if she cannot stomach to drink the stuff. After all she has gone through since she was eight years old, she is still British enough to prefer Earl Grey tea.

She pulls herself out of bed, rubs her sandpaper eyelids, swallows the bitter aftertaste of whiskey in her mouth and crawls towards the kitchen.

Han Solo is glaring at his caf like it just insulted his beloved "Millennium Falcon" — the amount of love the smuggler has for his battered crate is ridiculous, but it's not the point. Neither Chewie nor Lando seem to be around and Jyn is relieved. Their cohabitation is hard enough as it is.

"Hi Solo. Where's the rest of your little scoundrel band?"

"Dunno kid, couldn't care less at the moment."

He is obviously more hungover than she is, but she does not care. He brought that on himself: everyone knows you cannot compete with Calrissian in a drinking contest, the guy has two livers and then some. Hell, she managed to out drink that giant oaf of Chewbacca before passing out, but she knew she couldn't go any further without ending in the nearest OR. See, she gained some sense since she ended up on the streets at sixteen, waiting endlessly for Saw Gerrera.

She finds a tea bag, and uses hot water directly from the tap. She hears distantly Bodhi yelping in outrage at the thought of a tea "with no proper infusion process", but the little shit left her to deal with her shady acquaintances for the week-end — hence the orgy last night. Her best friend would have talked her out of it, or at least made sure she did not drink herself into stupor.

There are boxes everywhere. Bodhi and she moved in the Far Galaxy Housing complex three months ago — along with Han and Chewie — but they have not settled yet. They never do, anywhere. Not since Saw abandoned her, not since Cadet Rook lost all of his relatives in a fire and dropped out of the academy.

They met by chance in Saw's Bar in London, "The Partisans". She had been fifteen and he soon to be eighteen, so both stood out between adults planning Force-knows-what. Bodhi said he was Galen Erso's messenger and even though she already went by Kestrel Dawn at the time, she sought him out. Her father was one of his superiors, and he was familiar enough with his features to instantly recognize the mint green eyes she inherited from him. Then they lost contact for a while, six months or so, and it is actually thanks to Han they met each other again, in a Scottish pub of all places.

She tried to gamble money from the American, and while they chatted on, he mentioned he and his associate just took in a pilot intern kid who had the same British accent she had. He hailed Bodhi and their eyes met. When Han tried to do the presentation — "Bodhi Rook, this is Lyra", he just smiled in this shy way of his, and said "Yes, I know, she's Jyn Lyra Erso, named after her mother. I'm still Bodhi though, if you don't mind."

It's one of the few times they found Han Solo speechless.

"What has you smiling like that, Erso?"

Han seems a bit more aware of his surroundings, and he has just cut her trip to memory lane short: it's just as well, for what followed is not worth remembering. Bodhi and she in black clothes, rain and tears on their faces, as they watch the entire Rook family being buried. Rain brings her to that fateful day a few weeks later on the Eadu platform where she lost her father to a gunshot. She hates the bloody rain with the fierceness of a thousand hells, but she can still see it drenching slowly the street below through the window.

"I just remembered the day I met Bodhi again," she finally says too sharply to chase the heartbreak away.

Her roommate lifts an eyebrow at her brusque change of tone and her sour mood, but he shrugs. That is why she likes Han, he never pushes, and he is easygoing most of the time.

Until suddenly they hear a familiar female posh voice outside their front door and instantly it is Solo's time to frown :

"It's preposterous, Tarkin can't choose to rise rent as he pleases, half the residents are already apartment-sharing due to the exorbitant price of that damn building! The management committee won't sit still for it!"

"It's not worth raging over, Lee, come on, I'll ask Father the next time I see him…" the calm voice of her blond brother intervenes.

"Vader can go fuck himself for all I care!"

Talk about Daddy issues : between Galen and Saw she is not one to judge, but Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker bring family mess on a whole new level. Twins separated at birth, the girl went to her Godfather Bail Organa in Washington DC while the boy was taken in by their uncle on a farm near the Mojave Desert in California. The mother was a famous liberal senator and the father had been a former war veteran, "the Hero With No Fear". Anakin Skywalker may or may have not known fear then, but since he took the name of Vader and became the second man in the country after Palpatine seized power, he's the one terrorizing people. That's why the twins were separated at birth (they were born on Empire Day, it's no coincidence). They only ended up sharing the flat across from theirs when their respective guardians passed away a few months ago, and their uncle Ben had brought them together.

The amount of orphans and lost souls in that building is oddly high, if you ask Jyn. Force, she hates being hangover, she always thinks too much, and gets lost in her own musings. That's why she was does not prevent Han from opening the door on said twins and growling:

"If Vader can go fuck himself, so do you, your Worship!"

Oh, they're screwed. Luke astonished face loses color when his sister reddens and her dark eyes blaze.

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah, I won't excuse you at all, you don't get to screech about your bastard of a Dad up to my bloody door. Some of us need peace!"

"I don't screech you stuck up, half-witted scruffy-looking nerf herder! It's not my fault you're probably nursing a hangover!"

The woman is so on point Jyn can't help but snort and even Skywalker has to hide a smile, his clear blue eyes twinkling (Bodhi has a thing for him, so she notices details about her best friend's crush, so she can tease him later).

"Who's scruffy? I'm not scruffy lookin' ! And who said anything about me being hangover? If I've got an headache, it's only because of you princess!"

These two really don't know when to stop… Their aggressive flirting is starting to get on her nerves, and she debates going back inside the apartment and slamming the door in their faces. The "don't leave me alone with them" vibe she gets from Skywalker is the only reason why she has not yielded to her instincts yet. It would be like kicking a puppy and Bodhi's crush or not, even she is not that cruel.

"Could have fooled us, we're near enough to have heard the ruckus you all made last night! The next time it happens, we're calling the cops!"

"Lee, could you not bring me into this, please?" The blond asks with a long suffering sigh.

"Some of us have a life, senator, and despite how much the Empire tries to crush our freedom every day, it's not a crime! You're nineteen turning on ninety, you know that? You need to lessen up."

"I hope you're not offering your services?"

For Force' sake! That's it, on a whim, Jyn reaches for Skywalker's hand and somehow pulls him back in the apartment after her. If Solo makes his move, no one needs to see that.

He stands a bit awkwardly in the doorway, so Jyn gestures for him to sit.

"Tea, coffee, milk? I fear there's not a single drop of liquor left."

"Oh, it's fine, a glass of milk would be nice, thank you."

Is this guy real? He can't have come from the same womb as Leia Organa… he's far too polite and nice and quiet. And a glass a milk, should she try to find some cookies to go with it? But well, she did offer after all.

The corridor has turned oddly silent, but that doesn't mean the coast is clear. For a few seconds, the patter of the rain that is keeping on falling on the roof is the only thing that can be heard, until he says:

"I love the rain, don't you? On the farm, growing up, it was so dry we used to long for it, my Aunt Beru and I. It's refreshing, soft and peaceful, brings back good memories."

It's really not. Rain is her mother falling on the grass of their English garden to never stand up again. Rain is her cold and wet in London, rain is Bodhi shaking in the cemetery, rain is her father gasping Stardust as she cradles his face in the middle of the Noth Sea. Jyn, let go, you gotta get out of here, murmurs an Mexican accented voice in her mind, and finally she snaps out of it.

There is something akin to compassion in Skywalker's gaze now, and once again, she curses her weakened state. When sober, she doesn't let her emotions show. She doesn't think of her time in UK at all, period.

"Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" she deflects automatically.

She refuses to bond with her neighbor more than absolutely necessary. She is not charming like Han, she is not boastful like Lando, not trustworthy like Chewie, and sure as hell not as friendly as Bodhi. She doesn't do people, people always leave in the end.

"Thanks from saving me back there anyway," he tries again with an hint of a smile.

"You're welcome. If you ask me, we'll all have to club up and rent them an hotel room. The sexual tension and constant bickering is driving every tenants insane."

"Tell me about it," he says, pulling a face, "but she's stubborn and he's dense, so this could go on for quite a while still…"

"You can crash here a bit, if you want to. I don't mind and Bodhi should be here soon."

"Oh, well, I wouldn't want M. Rook to think I'm imposing in any way, but —"

Finally, Jyn thinks as she struggles to hold back a snigger, the twins are similar, they are just as dense and obvious when it brushes feelings. The poor guy has turned beef red and he sinks further in his ramblings. It's hilarious to watch, and her spirits are momentarily lifted. As if on cue, Bodhi enters then, and between Skywalker and he, Jyn really wish she had her phone at hand to capture their identical deer in the headlights expressions.

But when she chooses to leave the two men together, pretexting the need to lay down a bit, walls close down her and she lets herself curl in a tight ball against her bedroom door. She is kind of claustrophobic — comes with experience — and she clutches her mother's crystal necklace for reassurance: Trust in the Force.

She has gone too far and too often down memory lane since she woke up, bringing back ghosts of her past, and now they are haunting her. It's still raining outside, and soon it rains on her cheeks too. Loneliness chokes her, but she can't move from her spot yet. She could go back into the room, sit beside Bodhi, watch his awkward conversation with Skywalker enfold, see if Han finally graced them with his presence, if Chewie came back… but she's struck, condemned to stare at the pitiful blotches left by water on the glass above, on her clothes beneath.

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And as I watch the drops of rain
Weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain
There but for the grace of you go I