Merrin looks out the window across the snow-covered landscape of Ilum through the window trying to comprehend what she was seeing, because, quite frankly, there wasn't much to see at all.
There was just cliffs and ice and smaller ice shavings covering everything. Not to mention it was freezing outside. Who would want to spend so much time on a place like this by choice? Apparently Cal.
The Mantis was making a stop on Ilum in order to do some repairs from their last encounter with the Empire. The ship hadn't been damaged too badly but Greez insisted on fixing them anyway just to be sure. And Cal was excited to return because of something about a "Life Day" tradition he experienced as a youngling the last time he came to Ilum on this Holliday.
Merrin still did not fully understand this Holliday even after the crew explained it to her but nonetheless she would support her crew mates and support them. Even if it meant staying on this freezing cold planet for a little while. The Empire had left the Temple alone for now but who knows when they would return. So Greez got straight to work making the repairs and cooking the food for Life Day and Cal should have been helping him but instead he insisted on doing something else outside with BD-1.
"What is he doing out there?" Merrin asks as she looks out the ship's window.
Cere smiles at her question and looks outside to see the Jedi forming the snow into a ball and shrugs before turning to Merrin.
"Why don't you go outside and ask him yourself?" Cere asks and Merrin groans at the thought of going outside into the cold but her curiosity trumps that discomfort.
Merrin takes one step outside of the Mantis and instantly shivers. This climate was much colder than what she was used to. She wraps her arms around her waist, hugging herself to keep warm and wondering what in the world Cal is doing rolling the frozen ice shavings he called "snow" around the ground into a ball.
BD-1 was doing something similar. Although he was sitting on the ground and trying to push the snow into a ball with his two appendages. Then he attempts to push the ball while scooting on the ground. Merrin couldn't help but smile at the adorable sight. But then he accidentally pushes too hard and the ball collapses.
Merrin gasps and feels her heart break for the poor little droid as he trills and kicks his legs in frustration.
Cal looks up from his own ball, noticing his droid's distress and goes over to calm him down.
"Oh no, did it break little buddy?" Cal asks and BD-1 nods. "Yeah. Making snowballs has gotta be tough when you don't have hands."
BD-1 trills sadly and looks down at his s-comp links and lightly taps them together.
"Cheer up. I'll help you make another one." Cal says and the little droid jumps up and scampers around the Jedi excitedly.
Merrin watches as Cal helps BD-1 form the snowball to help the snow pack together better. She never thought that one could feel such compassion for a machine, but BD-1 had scampered his little way into her heart with his adorable beeps and little hops. Not to mention how Cal treated him as if he were his own son. If he was this good with BD-1, perhaps he could be a good father to a child one day? And perhaps she could be the mother of that child? She shakes her head at the thought. A girl could dream, she supposes.
"Okay so now what you should do is try pushing it with your head instead of your s-comp links." Cal instructs and BD-1 trills happily and hops a few times before pushing against the ball with his head.
It rolls forward and the droid lets out more happy trills and beeps and hops around while Cal cheers for him.
"Yeah just like that you've got it little buddy!" Cal praises and BD-1 beeps as he pushes his ball towards the larger one that Cal made.
Merrin smiles as she watches before grimacing and shivering as a harsh gust of wind blew past her.
Cal notices her standing there just in time to see her shivering so he immediately rushes over to her, taking off his poncho along the way so he could give it to her to attempt to ease her discomfort.
"Merrin what are you doing out here?" Cal asks.
"I was curious about what you and BD were doing so I thought I would come watch." Merrin says simply before shivering again.
"Well you could have at least put on something warmer you know?" Cal asks.
"No I couldn't. These are the only clothes I have remember?" Merrin reminds him.
Cal gives her a small smirk before looking down at the poncho in his hands.
"Yeah I know." He says. "So wear this for now."
Merrin feels her cheeks flush as Cal holds out his poncho for her.
"Won't you be cold without it?" Merrin asks before her teeth chatter from the cold.
"Not as cold as you are right now. I'm used to the cold from Bracca and here as well as some other places. Not to mention I'm a Jedi so I can tolerate this a little bit more." Cal explains and Merrin ducks her head to allow Cal to place the poncho over her.
Merrin lets out a sigh of relief once the fabric was covering her.
"Better?" Cal asks.
"It's so warm." Merrin notes and rubs her hands together under the poncho.
"Yeah, it's waterproof so the cold snow won't soak into it and make it cold, and it's an insulated material too so as long as you're body's warm then you'll be warm." Cal explains.
"Well it's very warm. I guess that means you are warm." Merrin deduces and smiles at Cal.
"Yeah I guess so." Cal says and runs a hand through his hair. "Back when I was a youngling and my creche-mates and I came here to get our crystals, and on our way into the cave we would huddle close together to stay warm."
"Oh to share body heat right? So, like this?" Merrin asks and steps closer to Cal, pressing herself up against him, causing the young Jedi to blush, and Merrin as well when she realizes how close together their faces are.
"Uh…yeah. Pretty much like this." Cal says and wraps his arms around her waist to hold her close.
They both stare at each other, wondering where to go from here.
For awhile now, Merrin had been having feelings about Cal, feelings she hadn't felt since Ilyana. She suspected that she was falling for Cal but she had no idea how to tell him. She and Ilyana were only children. It's not like they had gotten very far with each other so her experience with romance was very limited, and she was an adult now. Adult love didn't feel entirely different from the love she felt as a child, but it felt different enough that she didn't know where to go from here with Cal. Especially since she wasn't sure if he liked her back. It was scary enough to let herself get close to him after she's lost everyone she's ever loved when Greivous killed her sisters. Now she felt like she could love again, but she feared the heartbreak that could follow if he didn't love her back.
Cal had similar thoughts running through his mind. The last person he felt like this with was one of his creche-mates, a boy named Caleb. But both of them were kids and they weren't sure what either of them were doing. And this love for her felt different than what he felt for Caleb. Maybe it's because he's older now but what he was feeling for Merrin felt deeper than what he felt for his old creche-mate. Not to mention the walls he'd put up around his heart after the Purge wouldn't come down easily. After coming aboard the Mantis, those walls had started to fall as he dealt with the trauma of his past. But letting himself have friends was one thing, opening up his heart to love, especially if he wasn't sure Merrin felt the same, was a whole other story.
So they both looked at each other in silence, trying to read each other's features to guess what they were thinking. See who might make the first move. And slowly, their heads started to get closer together, their courage building and hope surging in their hearts as- a high pitched trill from BD-1 breaks their trance.
They both turn to see the droid sitting in a pile of snow, looking dejected with a pile of it on top of his head and surrounding his body so only his legs stuck out of the pile that his snowball had collapsed in on top of him.
Both of them laugh at the sight before turning to each other with a smile.
"It looks like he needs your help again." Merrin says.
"Yeah. I don't think Cordova ever taught him how to build a snowman." Cal says.
"What's a snowman?" Merrin asks. "Can Jedi create male life forms out of these frozen ice shavings?"
Cal bites his lip to keep from laughing as she kicks up some of the snow with her foot like she's wondering how you could possibly make a living being out of snow.
"Or do you have your own spell of resurrection that you can use to raise fallen Jedi here from the snow?" Merrin asks.
"No we can't do either of those." Cal explains. "Raising the dead isn't exactly our thing. A snowman is when you pack the snow together into three balls and you decorate it with rocks and stuff to make it look like a person."
"Oh so it's like an art sculpture?" Merrin asks.
"Yeah! Do you want to try?" Cal asks.
Merrin had mixed feelings about spending time in the cold snow, but Cal looked so excited to have her join him and his droid. How could she say no, especially when he looked at her like that (Cal has the best puppy eyes).
"Sure!" Merrin agrees.
Cal shows Merrin how to form the snow into a ball with his hands by demonstrating it for her.
"So you need to put it together like this…" Cal says and packs the snow together in his hands.
Merrin looks and frowns as she attempts to push the snow together, pulling her hands back into her sleeves to keep her hands from getting too cold from the snow.
"It's very small." She notes as she looks at the little ball in her hands that looked more like crumbs stuck to her sleeve.
Cal laughs a bit from her struggle before moving to help her.
"Here give me your hands, I'll show you." Cal offers.
Merrin's face heats up as Cal moves to sit behind her and takes her hands into his as he guides them to form the snowball. Merrin should be paying attention to the instructions he was giving her. But all she could pay attention to was the warmth from his body making her feel cozy and safe against the harsh cold air around them.
"And now you've just got to roll it around and you'll pick up more snow!" Cal instructs.
He gets up to leave but Merrin hooks her fingers into his rigging vest and pulls him back down.
"No stay." She requests. "It's cold and you're keeping me warm."
Cal smiles and laughs as he sits back down and pulls Merrin close to him.
Their faces were close together again and that tension from earlier returned.
"Better?" Cal asks.
"Yes." Merrin says. "Much better."
"Good." Cal says then his gaze shifts to her lips.
Merrin looks at his and her hand starts to move to his neck as she once again wills herself to close the distance between them and-
"Whoa BD-" Cal exclaims as BD-1 jumps in his face.
Merrin let out a sigh as the little droid interrupted them again. She was disappointed but only slightly. The right moment would come eventually. She just had to wait a bit.
"What is it little buddy?" Cal asks as the droid hops on his shoulder.
He points one of his appendages at a medium sized snowball next to Cal's.
"Whoa you did it!" Cal exclaims excitedly and rushes over to see BD's snowball.
He gets up so fast that Merrin gets knocked over into the snow. She looks up irritated and shivering from the abrupt cold she felt after feeling so warm and happy in Cal's embrace. But when she sees Cal hugging BD-1 and praising him for his achievements she can't stay mad. Damn the two of them for being so adorable.
"You finally did it little buddy! I knew you could! I'm so proud of you!" Cal exclaims and hugs BD-1 close while he trills happily in his arms.
Then Cal feels a tug on his sleeve from his droid.
"What is it?" He asks.
BD-1 points and Cal gasps when he sees Merrin sitting in the snow looking unhappy.
"Oh…whoops." Cal says and smiles sheepishly.
She frowns and chucks a chunk of snow from the ground at Cal.
It hits his chest and she smiles, thinking she got her revenge. But then Cal smiles and sets BD-1 down and forms the snow into a ball and chucks that ball at her.
It hits her arm and she lets out an offended gasp. And when she sees his mischievous grin, she feels her own playful side awaken.
"Oh you're going to get it now Cal Kestis!" She declares and charges at him.
BD-1 watches as Merrin and Cal chase each other around in the snow, throwing snowballs at each other. He decides to join them and runs around behind them, kicking snow at whichever one of them was closest.
Cal gets ready to throw a snowball at Merrin but then she giggles and teleports away so the ball gets chucked through the green mist she left behind.
"Hey that's cheating!" Cal exclaims.
Cal looks around as he hears Merrin's laugh, trying to see where it was coming from. He finally spots her waving at him as she sits on top of the Mantis. He smirks and walks over to her.
"Looks like I have the high ground now Cal Kestis. You have a good arm but can you throw a snowball all the way up here?" She asks.
"Well, seeing as how you used your magick…" Merrin's smile falls when she notices Cal move his hand and and the snowflakes start to swarm together in a flurry. "I guess it's only fair if I use the Force."
He sends the flurry up at her but she teleports away again and appears behind him, but she didn't account for BD-1 being in the way so she trips and Cal turns around just in time for her to fall onto his chest and send them both down into the snow.
BD-1 trills in worry and runs up to where their heads lay in the snow as they giggled together.
"Let's call that one a tie." Cal suggests.
"Alright. But I will beat you next time Cal Kestis." Merrin says and sits up, pushing her bangs out of her face.
As she sat up, her hairpin which had loosened in the snowball fight, fell out, letting her hair loose.
"I can't wait." Cal says then stares when he realizes her hair is down.
Merrin finds her hairpin in the snow and slides it onto her sleeve so she doesn't lose it. Then she looks up and notices Cal staring at her intently.
"What is it?" She asks. "Is there something on me?"
"No it's just, uh…I've never seen you with your hair down before." Cal says and the corner of his lip curls slightly into a small smile.
"Oh." Merrin says and blushes.
She looks away to try to avoid becoming flustered under the handsome Jedi's gaze but she can't help but feel herself burn up under the fiery red-head's hot gaze.
"It's nothing much to look at I'm sure." Merrin says.
"No, it's nice. I like it. It's pretty." Cal says and Merrin flutters her eyelashes as a flood of warmth spreads through her chest from his compliment.
"Oh." She says again and looks up at him. "Thank you. And it would appear I'm not the only one who's hair got damaged during our battle."
Merrin reaches forward and takes a lock of Cal's hair that fell loose from the usually slicked back style it was in.
Cal laughs and runs his hand through his hair, feeling the loose strands and attempting to move them back into place with no avail.
"Yeah. That gel I use is only so strong." Cal says. "I started using it back on Bracca to keep my bangs out of my face. Scrapping is dangerous enough without your hair getting in the way of your eyes. You don't want to add more danger than necessary."
"That makes sense." Merrin says. "So normally your hair would come down like this?"
She reaches forward and takes a lock of his hair and pulls it down over his forehead.
"Oh my." She says and both she and Cal laugh. "That certainly looks…interesting."
"Yeah I haven't had bangs since I was a padawan back when I was thirteen." Cal explains. "It's a look I grew out of."
"Well I'm sure you looked adorable as a child." Merrin says and smiles at him. "But I think this looks much more handsome."
Cal blushes from Merrin's compliment as she runs her hand through his hair, pushing it back.
BD-1 trills teasingly at Cal.
"Oh…thanks." He says and smiles at her.
He stares at her adoringly, leaning into her touch a bit until BD-1 beeps something to him that makes his eyes widen.
"BD!" He scolds the droid.
"What did he say?" Merrin asks.
"Oh uh, it's nothing." Cal says but then BD keeps beeping and Cal's face gets redder.
"It looks like it's something." Merrin says.
"It's not." Cal says and BD-1 beeps in disagreement.
"You're just confused little buddy. That is not what's going on here. She's just being nice and complimenting my hair."
BD-1 beeps again and stomps his s-comp link into the snow.
"What's going on now?" Merrin asks, watching Cal frown at the angry little droid.
"He just wants us to finish building the snowman. Come on little buddy, let's finish this thing up and go inside for Greez's tip yip." Cal says but BD-1's beeps of protest as Cal picks him up and carries him away from her and back to their snowman balls would suggest he may have mistranslated.
"You're lucky she can't understand all of those suggestive things you're saying." Cal says as he uses the Force to stack the snowballs on top of each other.
BD-1 beeps a reply.
"Kissing counts as suggestive stuff BD. I can't just kiss her. What if she doesn't want to do that? I don't know if she likes me like that. How did you even learn that stuff?"
BD-1 beeps a reply.
"Okay no more holonet for you until you learn how to use it responsibly." Cal scolds and BD-1 lets out a sad trill.
"Aw, that snowman you two made looks adorable!" Cere compliments as she looks out the window.
They used some rocks that Cal had collected from the planets they visited to make the face, and some sticks that found their way stuck onto the bottom of the ship from Kashyyk made the arms.
"Thanks. The three of us worked really hard on it." Cal says as he hands his plate to Greez who was washing dishes.
The others had offered to clean up for him since he already cooked for them, but he insisted it would go faster if he did it because he has more arms.
"Yes. I enjoyed it. It would appear that there is something enjoyable that can come from snow." Merrin says.
BD-1 trills in agreement before prancing across the table, pushing the Life Day presents that everyone got for each other to the center of the table. He even got into the festive spirit by wearing a red cloth cap with white fur around the base and a white fur pom pom on the end of it (Yes it's a Santa hat. I know there's no Santa in star wars but I thought that would be a cute look for him).
Greez opened up his presents first and all of them were cooking utensils. Cere got some sheet music and accessories for her halikset. And of course, Cal got ponchos from everyone. Except Merrin's was a bit different.
"Wow this is interesting." Cal says as he looks over the red poncho. "You can see all of the stitches, they're huge! And the cut looks a little uneven."
"Yes, that's because I sewed it myself." Merrin admits shyly, feeling embarrassed by how it turned out. "I got some fabric from one of those places you buy things at one of the planets we visited. I was trying to make myself some new clothes but it didn't turn out great. Thankfully I don't have to wear those since the ones Greez and Cere got me were much nicer." She says and smiles at them. "But I thought making a poncho would be easy and I thought it would make a nice gift."
Looking at it again, it didn't seem nice at all. How could she give the man she was crushing on a gift like that!
"I know it's probably not as good craftsmanship as the ones you wear but I thought I would at least try-" Merrin stammers before Cal hugs her, cutting her off.
BD-1 trills excitedly while Cere and Greez exchange looks knowing looks as a blush blooms on Merrin's face as she slowly hugs him back. She wonders if this is how he must have felt after she hugged him when he woke up after Nur. Minus the pain she had accidentally caused him of course.
"It's amazing Mer. I love it!" Cal exclaims and Merrin smiles.
The look of joy on Cal's face infects her heart and she can't help the huge smile that grows on her face as she watches him excitedly put on her poncho and twirl around in it.
"It looks great on you Cal!" Greez compliments.
"Yes Merrin you did an excellent job." Cere compliments.
"Thank you." Merrin says, blushing from all of the compliments.
"Now I have the perfect thing to wear to blend in on Dathomir." Cal jokes. "And speaking of Dathomir..."
Merrin arches an eyebrow as Cal hands her a gift concealed in wrapping paper.
"I got you a little something too." He says.
Merrin carefully unwraps her gift and gasps when she sees what's inside for her.
"Cal...how did you...where did you..." Merrin starts as she looks at the clay bowl and grinding stick in her hand.
"You mentioned that you and one of your sisters Ilyana would go down to the stream to make potions together, so the last time we were on Dathomir I thought I would go ahead and try to see if I could find anything down there and I found this bowl and mixer and had a sense echo of you and Ilyana making potions together so I fixed it up and figured I'd give it back to you!" Cal explains.
Merrin carefully sets the bowl and mixer down before throwing her arms around the Jedi in a tight hug. She couldn't see it but Cal's cheeks had acquired a light pink tint to them and he smiles at her as he gently hugs her back.
When Merrin pulls back she was tearing up for joy.
"This means so much to me. I-I don't know what to say!" Merrin exclaims and Cal's grin widens from seeing how much joy this gift brought her. "Oh I could just kiss you Cal Kestis!"
His cheeks bloomed pink at her statement and Greez and Cere exchanged a quick glance to each other before turning their attention back to the Nightsister and the Jedi to see what would happen next.
"Well, if you want to kiss me you can-" Cal starts before Merrin cuts him off by wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her lips to his.
Greez and Cere gasp and smile while BD-1 trills a noise that sounds like a wolf-whistle and jumps in the air for joy.
Cal's eyes went wide before he closes them and kisses her back.
When Merrin pulls back she can see that his face has turned almost as red as his hair as he smiles and rubs his hand on the back of his neck.
"I was gonna say you could kiss me on my cheek but uh-" He starts before Merrin gasps and covers her mouth from embarrassment.
"Oh no! I'm so sorry! I should have let you finish what you were saying but I was so excited and happy and gosh I'm so stupid for assuming you meant on the lips I-" Merrin rants before Cal stops her by holding his forearms in his hands.
"Mer it's fine. Really. I liked it." Cal says and gives her a small smile and Merrin feels her embarrassment fade away.
"Really?" She asks.
"Yeah. Really." Cal repeats. "Besides, BD-1 has been begging me to try and kiss you for awhile now." He looks at his droid who nods his head in acknowledgment. "You were just brave enough to go for it first."
"You're very brave too Cal. And very cute." She adds and looks shyly at the floor.
"Really?" He asks.
Then BD-1 hops on his shoulder and beeps to him.
"Yeah, I know you told me so but I wasn't gonna believe you until she told me herself." Cal replies to his droid.
BD-1 beeps again and Cal sighs.
"Yeah okay, I'll have more faith in your relationship advice from now on. Clearly you're more observant than I am." Cal admits.
Merrin laughs, finding it amusing how she could only understand what BD was saying through Cal's reactions and replies. She wraps her arms around Cal's neck again and pecks a kiss on his cheek. Cal smiles at her and wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her in closer to him while Greez and Cere come over to join the embrace in a group hug.
This was the best Life Day any of them could remember. Because for the first time in a long time, they got to spend it with the people they love.