Alexsandr picked up the Lasat kit that had been following him around all morning asking all manner of questions ranging from the simple "what are you doing?" to "how did you meet Zeb?" and "why do you have no fur and live with us?". It was cute at first but very quickly could start to turn annoying so he was left with three options, one, ignore the kit and hope he got bored, two, give him basic answers or three, sit down with him for a bit of a story time. He settled on option three, getting comfortable against the wall of one of the old buildings.
"I wasn't always one of the good guys, I did a lot of bad things when I was younger. Then I met Zeb and he told me that these things were bad and that I should change. I didn't want to at first, just like how you don't want to tell your mother when you've gone to the market to buy sweets." He began, settling the Lasat down on his lap so that he could pull out the meteorite he had saved from Bahryn. "And I keep this around to remind me that I need to keep being that good person and helping people. Zeb found this and gave it to me when I wasn't good and then when I started to be a better person he invited me here." It was a much simpler view of the entire story that he figured would be enough for a child to understand but also not hiding the truth of what he had done in the past. He still felt ashamed about what had happened on Lasan, and about not being able to help his crew on Onderon, but whenever the guilt reared it's head there was a voice inside his head, Zeb's voice, that reminded him of all of the good he had done since. Working as Fulcrum, multiple missions for the rebel alliance, saving more Lasat. It didn't erase what had happened but he was doing more and more right now.
"You left the bad people to come be with us?" The kit asked after a moment, playing with the meteorite, tossing it from hand to hand like a ball. "What about your friends?"
Alexsandr couldn't help but give a small smile at the innocence of the young. "I realised the people I was with then were not my friends. When Zeb went back to the Ghost everyone hugged him and was really happy to see him, like when you kits run out to see us when we come back from trips away. The people I was with didn't even say hello to me. That's how I knew."
"And being stuck on that planet was how I knew you were better than the rest of 'em." Zeb said, lifting the kit from Alex's lap. " I wanted him to come here so he could see what having a family is like properly, and so you lot could teach him more about fighting. Think it's working?" The Lasat nodded and rested his head against Zeb's shoulder, still playing with the meteorite.
"Alex is family. He's good now."
This idea wouldn't leave me alone - something that has Alex confront what he's done but also know that he's making up for the past. And something that has him dealing with more children bc I find the idea very sweet.