0920

Yana sat down in what was a comfortable chair once upon a time. This apartment lobby looked like it was nice back when it was new, but after years of deferred maintenance and the victim in a game of Hot Potato between bad business owners, the entire apartment building smelled of rotten upholstery and industrial air. A foot path wore down the carpet to threads between the main entrance and the elevators. Someone had carved several sets of initials in the side table by her elbow. Yana was uncomfortable down here.

But it was better than being upstairs. One of her roommates started the day with blaring music that pumped through the walls to Yana's room. Yana was awake anyway, but it made it impossible to rest longer. Telling the roommate to turn it down would require, of course, a means to communicate the request.

Communicating took too much work and often left her frustrated that she wasn't heard or understood. At work, thankfully, the supportive office staff began teaching each other sign language so they could understand her better, but most of that was related to work topics. Even with the sign language or datalink at the ready, it was too inconvenient to slide in a suggestion before someone else did, and impossible to make any kind of quiet quips to lighten the mood. Yana wasn't an outgoing person to begin with, but this added complication made it even more difficult for new people to get to know her. Five months now without a voice - Yana was finding an uncomfortable acceptance that new people quickly wrote her off as aloof, cold, and unsociable.

Two neighbors strolled by, chatting lively from the elevator to the main doors. She'd seen them and smiled polite hellos at them on several occasions, but today they walked right by her chair and didn't give her a glance. Yana dropped her eyes to her lap, smoothed the calico skirt over her knee, and crossed her legs.

She glanced at the wall chrono.

923

She looked over her choice of 'everyday clothes'; Light shoes, summer skirt reaching just below the knee, a pale sweater in case they went some place cold, and a fat stretchy band over her brown hair to cover the bald spot on her temple. She adjusted the band by her ear, her new self-conscious fidget, checked her fingernails, folded her hands together on her knee, stared at the stained carpet... Her eyes flicked up to the wall.

924

She wondered if she should go get a book from upstairs. She wondered if she should go change into pants. She wondered if she should snack first. She wondered if she should check the burner link again. No. No don't do that. If he was going to link, he would have done it already. He's out in Coco Town anyway. He's probably already in the air.

926

Last night, Yana warned herself about hoping for too much. After the madness at the South Base Warehouse, after Ren Entada flew her back to her speeder so she could finally go home, Yana booted up the burner link to find no messages. Wedge spent the whole crazy evening snatching glances of her between moments of drama and tension, sometimes adding an uncomfortable grin when he was caught, but he never said anything.

Yana tried to give him the chance too. As bodies shuffled goodnights, and Ren offered to give Yana a ride, she glanced back at Wedge. The man met her eyes, but his face was expressionless. She paused a beat, giving him the chance to step in and say, "No, I'll take her back," or, "See you tomorrow?" or anything, but Wedge never said a thing. Not one word.

She lay awake into the wee hours trying to remind herself that she had no solid evidence it was even him on the other end of the burner link. The nightly chatting on the links were great- she felt like she was getting to know him, and she felt a strange comfort in the suddenly ability to talk in the same capacity as the person she was talking to. She delighted in the ability to have a balanced conversation with someone.

But that didn't mean it was Wedge Antilles. And even if it was, it didn't mean Wedge Antilles wasn't just another Mintalo.

931

At least she'd know. In less than 30 minutes, she'd know. She'd know if it was really him. And by the end of today day, she would know if he was just another Mintalo. First dates said a lot. Yana was ready for any contingency. She had a small bag with lip balm if it got sunny, the sweater if it got chilly, a comm link so she could Morse Code for help, a remote public link up so she could look up transport stations, and a burner datalink that had been on -but blank- for three days.

935

She considered again going up to get a book to read, just so her mind would quit over-thinking this. Instead, she dug into her little bag to see if she could pull up a periodical from the internet link up, then ended up pulling the burner link out too.

W On my way.

Too bad it didn't record timestamps. She had no way of knowing when he sent it, save that she checked it when she got out of the shower three hours ago.

937

Yana took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down, but she ended up looking at the link in her hands, resting on her knee, staring at the words. She felt like a teenager with a crush, an amateur... She closed her eyes and gathered her maturity and wits.

In a moment, she opened them again.

W Hi.

Her brows flitted. Her eyes popped up.

Wedge Antilles stood two meters away from her chair, black slacks, navy tunic over a clean gray shirt. The cut made his shoulders look big and his stomach look flat. His black hair was trimmed, his face was clean-shaven, all done since she saw him last night. He stood in front of her with feet spread apart in confidence and shoulders curled over in concentration. Eyes glittered, mouth grinned, and thumbs hovered over the keypad of the twin of her burner datalink.

Yana smiled big and breathed bigger. She bit her lower lip and typed back.

Y Hi.

Their eyes shared the humor in silence. She gathered her things back to her purse but he stepped up and motioned her not to put the link away yet. He typed more.

W I'm not going to say anything when you can't say anything.

W So if I'm flying or walking and can't read the link... He shrugged acceptance at his own self-discipline.

Yana read it and understood. It was a kind gesture, and she nodded appreciatively of it. He flicked his head for them to go and grinned to walk with her out of the building.

She expected him to fly some kind of hot rod, but Wedge had a little used commuter speeder with a few vague scratches that were probably already there when he bought it. It was clean though, and comfortably cool, and his little dash comm played some standard music station at low volume. He flew politely through traffic, eyeing her from time to time with a grin on his face, and eventually turned up the music when an old funky song came on. "You can hum, though. Right?"

She put out a hand and waggled it back and forth. Wedge bobbed his head in silly fashion and began humming to the old popular tune, and he kept eyeing her to encourage her to do the same. Yana chuckled at his goofiness and gave in. She couldn't hold a tune to save her life, but she managed to keep up with the playful little hum as they flew across the city.

He stopped humming to pay closer attention to the GPS and lowered them down into the city center of the University District. Public parking garage. Wide, grand steps down to the plaza on the surface. The pointed towers of the University itself were visible on the horizon, but Wedge led the way across the plaza to something else. Ancient trees grew out of antique planters, spreading their canopies so wide the leaves nearly touched each other over the plaza walk. Yana's eyes shifted to take in clues, trying to figure out where they were going. The Imperial Museum? The Cultural Center? The Coruscant Zoo?

But he didn't turn for any of those places. He strutted slowly, and she walked patiently, to an overwhelming building at the epicenter of this entire University District neighborhood.

The Galactic Core Library

a.k.a. Book Nerd Mecca.

Okay, so maybe this guy did do his research.

She saw the sign before they came out from under the trees. The round building was a large as the Senate Dome and rose a dozen stories over their heads. This specific section copied the building design of Bakura. That was what made the historic site so iconic: the pie-shaped building was sliced into twelve sections, each tactfully representing the architectural style of one system in the galaxy. The building was rumored to reach all the way down to the earth floor of Coruscant itself. Each level housed a circular kilometer of books in all forms, and each level built atop the last honored twelve more galactic cultures in its architecture, making the place a bit of a Mecca for history and anthropology nerds as well.

"Wow, this is so cool," Wedge crooned quietly.

If there was a point system, he would have already racked up too many to be realistic. A point for arriving early. A point for being well dressed. Two points for somehow getting his hair cut and chin professionally shaved between midnight last night at Oh-Nine this morning. A point for breaking the ice by making her hum a tune in the speeder. A point for a clean speeder. A point for whatever cologne it was she kept catching a whiff of. She expected she'd eventually to catch the hot shot, medal-wielding, fighter pilot to be faking his interest while taking a first date to a library.

What does he expect us to do in there? Sit around and read?

... Not that I'd complain, but...

Yana glanced over, expecting him to be faking this, but she found his neck cranked until his mouth fell open, and eyes of childhood glee looking up the façade as they approached the big entrance. "This must be the Bakuran side." He said and pointed. "See the paisleys in the iron work?"

She glanced, grinned, and ended up stepping ahead of him as he tried to look at everything on the way in, momentarily more interested in the place than in her. Inside, he blinked and skipped back into action to get ahead of her. He pulled something out of his breast pocket and motioned her to come with him to the front desk to check in.

"Wedge Antilles with a guest," he told the droid.

He already had a library chip too? Yana's eyes narrowed with grinning suspicion that he was laying it on a little thick.

Still, it was an amazing building to visit. The inside was quiet and cool, with a breeze blowing through the open front doors and out the open back doors. She didn't know it until now that the center of the circular structure was hollowed for a grand courtyard. More trees glittered with white lights. Black iron tables and chairs scattered about a mosaic-tiled plaza littered with students and politicians and professors and families being tourists. Yana began to step over to the directory to see what there was to see here, but Wedge touched her elbow and motioned her to keep going with him. He pulled out the link and paused his feet a beat to type.

W We'll tour it a little later. First, I want to show you something.

He led her out to the cheery courtyard and then to a sophisticated food booth. Fancy coffees and interesting mixes of juices. Fresh fruit-and-nut finger nibbles and artisan pastries. Once armed with a classy breakfast, he motioned her over to an empty bench under a tree. He set down his coffee and pastry on the bench, motioned with both hands for her to sit down and stay put, and marched away.

Yana sat down and crossed her legs, curious, but still a little frustrated that she couldn't chat through all of this. He hardly said a word so far. She suspected she probably seemed icy, aloof, and unsociable to him. After a few minutes, she began to look around to see where he'd gone. And she began to fish out the burner link from her purse to see if he sent a message. But Wedge came back, eager and energetic, now carrying a library tray of checked-out datacards and pads. With it, he straddled the bench to face her.

Yana was done with all this. She pointed at him and flapped her fingers like a quacking duck. 'You. Talk.'

Wedge lifted an index finger with a scold equaling his lifted brow. 'Wait a second.'

He sipped his drink and fidgeted his lip with his teeth as he flipped all the datacards over so she couldn't read the labels. He set that down between them, set his hands on his knees, and paused.

Yana shrugged her hand.

He smirked. Eyeing her with delight and nerves, he inhaled deeply through his nose, scrunched one eye shut to think hard, and lifted his hands from his knees.

And he signed.

'I am still learning so you must be slow with me.'

Yana blinked over bulging eyes.

Wedge reached over, loaded the two datapads with two of the cards, and handed her one.

She took it and read the title. Beginner's BSL Dictionary

Her brows scrunched. Green eyes leered. Are you for real?

After a brief stare back at her of what could have been smugness, or it could have been butterflies, or it could have been trapped breath, he pinched his mouth to think for a moment, and lifted his hands again.

'I do not want to be only talking.' His eyes lifted to think some more. Clearly, he'd practiced these phrases and was trying to remember them now. It was adorable that he was missing a few words in his sentences. 'Library good place to learn.'

Yana shifted sidesaddle on the bench and pulled up the dictionary, thumbing through it a moment, thinking too to figure out what she wanted to say. Smiling, blushing, she signed back, 'What do you want to talk about?'

He smiled from ear to ear, one eye tightened with a devious glitter, his mouth moved as he pointed. 'You.'

If there was a points system, Wedge just blew it out of the water.

They nibbled and sipped and tried to figure out how to sign what they wanted to say, often ending up referring to the datalinks to spell out a word the other didn't recognize. The topics were as simple and as innocuous, just as they had been so far on the links, but now they could see each other's expressions and body language, they could see each other smiles. Now, little jokes and silly faces became possible. They played with similar signs carrying vastly different meanings, then started signing crazy sentences just to see of the other caught it. 'Let's walk to hyperspace,' and 'I cooked a droid for supper,' and 'My speeder is wrinkled.'

Wedge realized his patience was finally rewarding him when Yana tossed her head back sounded her voice in a bright laughter. Her eyes glittered at him like gems. She often bit her lower lip as if trying to stop smiling, watching him carefully as if she was waiting for the other shoe to fall. Wedge was well aware of it, and respected it, and did everything in his power to prove there wasn't 'another shoe'.

Three hours flew fast. And they didn't realize it until they returned to that food booth to now find it serving lunch-like stuff. After another nibble, they returned the books and the tray, and Yana registered for her own library chip. They strolled around a inside to peek at the museum bits of the place. They wandered through two more of the pie-severed structure designs, then went up a level to stroll through two more. For this part, she said it was okay to just use the datalinks to talk as they walked and looked around. Wedge easily complied for a while, but then he burst into excitement again, that open-mouthed, childlike wonder, to look up at an archway between this section and the next.

He skipped to it and smiled back like he just found a treasure chest, "This is the Hildern Arch!"

Yana shrugged and shook her head as she stepped forward. He touched her shoulder to lean closer and aim her eyes down the length of his pointing finger. "They were big into building with solid stone, but they didn't use any mortar. See? These sections, they're smooth enough so they sit flat, one on top the other. You can't even fit a cotton thread in there. And up there, those pieces are loose."

Yana studied the smooth gray stone arching a perfect half circle overhead. Stone? Overhead? She signed. 'Heavy?'

"Very heavy." He stepped closer to it so he could gesture at the different parts of it. "They cut the pieces at perfect angles, then built wooden rafters to hold up these arched sides, and then lowered down that center one, there. That's called a 'keystone'. Once that's in, it presses the rest of them outward, and the whole thing sits together, perfectly secure, without mortar or cables or ties or anything."

Yana eyed the low-tech engineering wonder a moment, and then shifted strange eyes to the back of Wedge Antilles?

Staring at this renaissance architecture with giddy excitement?

He flashed a smile, "Isn't that neat?"

But he did a double-take when he saw her expression, and he quickly cooled his excitement about the archway. He shrugged guilty, grinned bashfully, and dashed his head. "I guess I should admit I didn't just bring you here because I thought you'd like it." His eyes returned to the archway in continued interest. "I've always wanted to see the place." His eyes scanned over the perfect seams of fine-cut stone. "My um..." he half-turned to her, embarrassed, "My senior project in secondary school was on this building."

Her disbelief deepened. Yana lowered chin and scrunched her brows.

Wedge looked sheepish to admit it. "I wanted to be an architect when I grew up."

She blinked back.

"Yeah, I know. It's dumb." He shrugged it off and turned to continue their stroll.

Yana stepped quickly up to stop him by the elbow. When Wedge looked back, she tightened one eye a little more. Really?

His answer was a hard plea, "Don't tell the Rogue Group guys. I'll never live it down."

She coughed a little voice out of her smile. She shook her head slowly, eying him hard, and signed. 'Not dumb.'

Brown eyes shined. "No?"

And greed gems glittered back. She shook her head.

He shifted his feet. "What did you want to be when you grew up?"

She rolled her eyes and flushed, and she signed it by spelling out all the letters. 'Interplanetary Cultural Anthropologist.'

His smile glowed with wonder... and then his eyes flicked up and away with an idea. He angled his head, tightened his eyes, and peeked down at her. "Y'know what?"

She flicked her chin. What?

"I can't think of any reason anyone would want to hack a speech implant for an Interplanetary Cultural Anthropologist."

Unable to fight a giggle, she rolled her eyes.

He touched his mouth with his fingers in mock deep thought. "I wonder... on what system you could find a career doing something like that?"

This one, of course. As Yana chuckled at his insinuation, she gave him a scolding eye and wagging finger.

Wedge dropped the act and spread his hands with a confident smile. "Hey. you gotta give me points for trying."

Yana didn't reveal her thoughts. Don't get greedy; you already have too many points.

With shining eyes, he offered his elbow. "Let's go see more."

Yana took his arm.

They strolled and looked and stopped and read and chatted and made silly faces. She held his elbow for a little bit, then she held his hand for a little bit. She kept peeking for expressions of boredom or impatience, but only found brown eyes full of happiness and play.

The sun was setting by the time he flew her home. He walked her into the lobby but stopped his feet on that threaded carpet long before they reached the elevators. He slid his hands into his pockets, locked his knees, and smiled goodbye. "Thank you for today."

Yana flushed and nodded. Was he going to try to kiss her? Was he going to try to come upstairs? Not even a hug? She had to admit he'd earned enough points to get him something.

But Wedge was smarter than that. His hands stayed in his pockets when he asked, "Dinner next week?"

Her cheeks hurt from smiling so much, but she couldn't stop.

Yana nodded.

Wedge turned his feet, eyes glittering back as long as he could manage, "Good night."

She watched him until he disappeared out the lobby doors, but then she dropped backwards like falling tower onto that old chair behind her. She smiled at the ceiling with a little squeal of glee.

Outside, Wedge climbed back into his speeder and dropped his forehead on the bars before starting it up. He sighed big, sat up, controlled his breath, and murmured through a smug little grin. "Mission success."