4/18/2
"You sure?" Finn says to Rose, who gives him a look. Yesterday, Poe brought them three weather satellites, from Ren. Tomorrow, he and Chewie and Jacen are taking them to Achc-To, to set them up, and begin getting started on finding somewhere to live that isn't testicle-shrinking cold.
Today, they're in the hold of the Falcon, with the satellites, and his wife, and Rey, who are both 'checking them' to make sure that no little bugs came for a ride with them.
He sighs. "Look, I know… I'm not saying…" Because he can feel the way Rey is watching him, and how less than thrilled she is at the idea that he might think that Kylo did something to muck up the satellites. "Just because he wouldn't mess with the satellites, doesn't mean that there aren't a million people on the Supremacy who wouldn't leap at the chance to find out why Master Ren wants three weather satellites, or where they're going."
Rey does have to incline her head in agreement with that.
Chewie's voice rumbles with Good point.
Rose nods a bit, and says, "I'll double check." And she and Rey get to it.
He's working with Chewie on the engines, when he half-hears Rey say… "Yeah, day after tomorrow. When he gets back."
That snaps his attention onto Rose saying, "That works."
"Great, I'll tell him."
"Me, too."
He's got the sense that something just happened, and from the way Chewie's grinning at him, it's likely something good, but… He blinks. Right. Rose covered for Rey while they went out and did… date night stuff… (Which is as close to contemplating whatever the hell it is Rey and Kylo do on date night as he needs to get.) which means Rey has agreed to take Paige for an evening and let the two of them go out and have several uninterrupted hours of baby free time.
Suddenly, Finn's universe got a whole lot brighter.
4/19/2
Jacen's looking at the navi chart. His expression is somewhere between confused and stunned. "Is this… a hell of a lot closer than it should be?"
Chewie shrugs and Finn just sort of looks at him before saying, "I wouldn't have guessed Luke's super-secret hideout would have been an hour from here at hyper speed, but… Unless you've got a chart with the path through the Heln Nebula… That ups it to what, nine days?"
Jacen keeps looking, and figures the track if you had to go around. "Yeah, at least. And there's no good route in four other directions, too. Okay. I guess that makes sense. It's not so much on the edge of nowhere, as in the middle of a lot of where."
Finn smirks.
Okay, Flyboy, get us there, Chewie says, strapping in.
Jacen grins, slipping into the pilot's seat.
Technically speaking, the trip is an hour in hyper speed, and twenty minutes in not-very-hyper-at-all-speed through a thin spot in the nebula, but… Well, that'll be the interesting part.
Finn offers up a silent prayer to the Force, and straps in his own belt. Flying with Jacen is… exciting… in a way he doesn't always enjoy. That said, the kid is fast, and the sooner they're there, the sooner those satellites are placed, and the sooner he's home with his sweetie.
Plus, the sooner they're there, the more time they have on this first pass for just… looking around. They likely shouldn't pick a place until they've got at least a full orbits' worth of data, but… Doesn't hurt to look.
"So, what are we coming up on?" Jacen asks, which makes Finn nervous, and Chewie growl at him. "I'm paying attention. I can fly and talk at the same time."
Both of the adults are skeptical of that. Through the nebula isn't through an asteroid field, but there is enough stuff, packed closely enough, that he's got to fly it by sensor and eye.
You fly.
"Fine, but maybe you could talk while I do it? You've been there before, what's it like?"
We didn't circle the whole thing, not below the cloud cover, but… Lots of water. Most of the planet is covered in ocean. Didn't see any big continents. Lots of little islands though. Small rocky mountain tops, worn down and covered in grass.
"The part where Luke was…" Finn leads.
Cold, wet. Tall. Million steps to the little settlement. Tiny little beach to land on. We hit that thing with maybe three meters to spare. And it's clear by that, that if Jacen doesn't stick the landing, Chewie will be disappointed.
"I'll land her."
"Of course you will. Sooner or later, it'll touch down. Question is, will we be in once piece?"
Jacen flips Finn a rude gesture. "I'm already better at this than—"
"HANDS ON THE CONTROLS!" Finn yells.
Stuff it. Pay attention to the—And they all jerk to the right, feel their bellies drop as Jacen pulls up fast, and the universe spins as he twists them into a tight corkscrew turn to get them past a collection of asteroids.
"I told you I can fly and talk."
Just fly. Finn finds the deals. You fly. I shoot the sons of bitches who look like trouble.
"Yeah, fine. Islands?"
Finn's clutching the armrests and muttering about how maybe the long way wasn't a bad plan. "Nine days. What's nine days compared to dead?"
His voice is low and they pretend not to hear him.
Lots of them.
A long, deep inhale, as Finn makes himself calm and not focus on the way Jacen's whipping them through space. He peels his fingers off the armrests. "So maybe we go looking for a cove of them or something. Find a quiet bay, surrounded by a few of them, and set up as we like."
"I could see that," Jacen says with a grin, not minding the idea of him and the rest of the teens having their own little cove.
"Yeah, well, we're already lax enough about looking after you older ones. You're not going to get to build orgy island, okay? Some adult will be somewhere nearby."
"I'm an adult!"
Finn and Chewie snigger at that.
"I'm literally flying the ship." Another swooping curve. "You've put your lives in my hands." And a hard right. "How much more adult can I get?"
Chewie mutters something that Jacen understands to mean You could have a… cruchalak… and three cubs, and it could be your job to make sure they eat every night, and have a roof over their heads.
"I'm remarkably unlikely to be making cubs of any sort, anytime… ever."
Yeah, pull the other one, it's got bells on. That's what Han thought, too. And that one. He nods to Finn. And Lando. And Wedge. And-
"That's not how I meant that, Chewie."
Chewie looks confused for a moment, as Jacen pulls them in a corkscrew roll through a few more tightly grouped asteroids. He glances to Finn, still confused, and Finn says, "He prefers boys."
Jacen sighs. He doesn't feel like he's even remotely subtle about his preferences, but… Well, it's not like he's got a boyfriend, and it's not like he's had time to cruise when he's been on these trips, so he supposes that Chewie just didn't notice.
Chewie blinks and then growls. Oh, well then. Maybe not for you then. Maybe.
Jacen rolls his eyes, but doesn't get pissed off about it because it's clear that Chewie's mental map of how human sexuality works has some big holes in it, likely because it doesn't work exactly the same way as it does for Wookies, and adds, "And what's a cruchalak? You use it to think about Han, but also in places where I'd stick spouse, but you don't use it to think of Finn and Rose, but you do use it to think of Kylo and Rey, but only in one direction. Rey is Kylo's cruchalak, but he isn't hers, so…" and another stomach jumping into the throat drop as they miss a chunk of floating debris by meters.
Later kid. Just get us there in one piece, okay?
"Yeah, fine."
They break atmo twenty-seven minutes later. Finn swears he's got his first gray hair, but they are there, in one piece, and did it in sixteen fewer minutes than the Navi said they could. (Jacen looks stupidly proud of himself about that, and Chewie mutters something about fourteen parsecs.)
Once they've got a view of the place, "Why the fuck are we freezing our nards off on Lirium?" comes out of Jacen's mouth. Though he only beat Finn by a tenth of a second with that thought.
Finn's just nodding, slowly, in agreement. Blue, glittering seas roll under them, dotted with a million small craggy islands. It looks… idyllic.
Just keep her steady kid. We want geo-synch while we drop the birds, okay?
Jacen nods. He keys up his sensors to locate magnetic north. "I've got it. Want one in the northern hemisphere, one on the equator, and one in the southern hemisphere?"
"Sure," three separate orbits should give them decent coverage and a better feel for how the climates work on this planet. Just because it looks idyllic doesn't mean there isn't a nasty season hiding in the reserves. Maybe several ones. According to Magiit, it was awfully warm and sunny on Lirium when they got there, too.
Chewie drapes a hand on Finn's shoulder indicating, it's time to work. He glances back to Jacen. Figure the orbit while you're at it, okay?
Jacen rolls his eyes at that, too, but given why they're here, it's not an unreasonable request. "Yeah, sure."
While they're working, Jacen's plotting. He's got a great view, and he's got the controls set so the Falcon is doing all the real work. (He's keeping an eye on the stabilizers. After all, they're opening and closing the jettison hatch, and mucking with the pressure can cause some interesting hiccoughs, but, for right now, everything is smooth.) So, he's got the mapping equipment, feeding a scan of what's under the ship into the start of a globe, that they'll eventually be able to use to plot the what and where of Achc-To.
While that's going, he's got the navi plotting the orbit for Achc-To. Problem with that is, he's not exactly swimming in data points, so the orbit's going to be sketchy. Still, if the bloody thing is an oval, they'll know sooner than later.
His best guess is that he's at least a thousand klicks off when he feels it. His brain, his Force, his… everything just knows where they've got to go.
Where he's got to go.
Maybe.
There's a need, and a pull, and… almost a revulsion. Something down there… doesn't sing to him. And something does.
And for once, he's fighting his immediate, knee-jerk, go-see-this, reaction. For once, he's feeling very young, and very inexperienced, and… He wants to come back here, but he wants to come back with at least Rey and Kylo, and with the other Maji, as well.
Whatever it is below them (And he can see the island getting closer. He just knows which one it is.) that's… not a place for him on his own. That… doesn't feel like a good place to be alone. It'd pull him if he let it, too light or too dark, maybe swinging in between, vacillating wildly.
He knows, that in himself, he's fairly well balanced, but down there… Isn't.
No, the closer they get…
He knows it, feels the flash. They'll go there. He'll likely go there… not a lot, but more than once. But he won't go there alone, because it's not a good place, not for a Maji, and not one on his own.
He's more… himself… by the time Chewie and Finn are back in the cabin. Granted, it's an hour later, and they're on an entirely different hemisphere of the planet, so, that helps.
"Thought the first, even if it's not where we're going to live wherever it is forever, we should move, soon," Jacen says.
"You hate snow, don't you?" Finn replies.
"Yes. And unlike one of us, I'm also not covered in a thick pelt of nice warm hair, so I'm not going to start liking it anytime soon."
Chewie smirks at that. He doesn't love Lirium's climate, either, but it certainly doesn't bother him the way it does the humans. Honestly, for him, summer was vastly more of a problem than winter is. He's built pretty well for cold, and not so well at all for keeping cool in 55 degree heat and 99% humidity.
"Thought the second?" Finn asks.
"Okay, I've got a rough map set, and… There are… some sorts of sentients on this planet. What if they don't want a pile of humans showing up and hanging out?"
That's likely a relevant question. Chewie's about to say, 'Doesn't matter. We grab what we want, and that's that,' because that's how they do it back on Kashyyyk, and that's part of that whole adult thing Jacen was asking about… finding, taking, and defending your home and family, but… Finn's on top of it, with a more 'human friendly' (or more likely to be Rey-approved) answer, and says, "I think the first thing we're looking for is going to be places that don't have other sentients on them. Which is likely also part of not moving tomorrow."
Jacen sighs at that. "Yeah. And, I'm not great at this, but at least some of the islands look like they've got some big critters on them. Big enough that there's tracks visible from orbit, so…"
"Attack turtles of doom," Finn rolls his eyes. "Great. That's another reason to not just plop down tomorrow."
Jacen shakes his head. "I saw at least five hundred islands that I'm sure we could land on tomorrow, set up some solar panels, a few water processing stills, and be significantly more comfortable than we are at home."
Finn shakes his head. "I am not camping with a toddler. NO! You and your crew might be under the impression that you can take a swim in the ocean and all is good, but my ass is not landing anywhere that doesn't have functional indoor plumbing."
Chewie nods, emphatically, at that, and he doesn't even wear clothing, or like showers all that much, but humans are pretty damn smelly to begin with and they get downright unpleasant if they're kept away from bathing facilities for too long.
Also, you've got no idea what the local insects are like.
Finn makes a loud, "OH!" sound at that. "Right. Not camping part two. BUGS." He squirms with a shivery look. "We were… Shit, I don't remember, one of the Resistance hideouts, and it looked great, until the sun went down, and then the ground started to wriggle, and a billion bugs crawled out. We lucked out, they only eat nectar and whatnot, but all night long everything rustled, and if you tried to get out of your bunk, every step would crunch, and they'd crawl all over your feet."
Jacen's wriggling in disgust at that, too. "Fine. Climate studies before we move. But we're getting more heated blankets before we go back home. You can snuggle up with Rose and stay warm, but my poor ass is just in a bunk all by itself, and it's cold."
They look at the planet under them. At bright, shiny oceans, at islands. So many islands. No big continents, nothing the size of the landmass they're on on Lirium. The biggest one Jacen caught on the mapping scan came in at 800 klicks across. As they zip along, the go past islands covered in greenery. Past islands with snow capped mountains. Past islands with smoldering mountains, and steaming flows of lava into the ocean. Past low, flat islands, and tall, jaggy ones. Some are just swathes of sand or rock, some are small grasslands. Every sort of biome Jacen's ever imagined is down there, somewhere.
For one of them, the largest one they see, at probably a thousand klicks across, Chewie brings them closer down, and they zip over a huge herd of… something. They're big and black-brown, shaggy, quadrupeds, and they try to race the Falcon.
Chewie's nodding. I could call this home.
Finn looks pleased, too. "You going to find a place to land and see if Waldo and his mates want to visit home?"
Jacen can feel Chewie's a little sad at the idea that the Porgs might leave him (he mentally pats himself on the back for successfully empathizing), so Jacen rescues him. "I felt Luke's island, and… I wouldn't mind not getting too close to it without Rey or Kylo."
That surprises Finn, because he can't believe there's anything in the universe that Jacen would be willing to admit not wanting to tackle.
Jacen shrugs a bit. "It's not bad, but… It doesn't feel like the kind of place I want to go without some other Force sensitives. There's something… there."
Chewie nods. Even for me… That island's… intense.
"Okay, not checking out Jedi-land," Finn says, though as he does, he sees something. "Jacen, I want a closer look at that one, okay?"
Jacen nods, and pulls them lower, doing a sweep over an island maybe twenty klicks long and five wide, curving into a gentle cresent. There's not much, from what they can see in the air, on it. Mostly sandy beaches, and a swath of grass turning to high jaggy peaks in the middle.
"Put her down, okay?" Finn asks.
"I thought you wanted scans and stuff," Jacen says.
"I do, but… I'm not looking to settle here, just have a picnic. After all, tomorrow's date night, and it's been a long time since I had some quality time with my lady on a nice beach."
A moment later, The Falcon is on a low, level swath of grass. Finn, Chewie, and Jacen are out of the ship, poking around, and the Porgs go streaming out of the hatch as soon as they smelled the air. They're trilling with pleasure, happy to be home.
It's a little warmer than ideal, at least according to Jacen, but nothing that pulling off his boots, rolling up his trouser legs, and wading in the surf won't fix.
So, he does it, and moans in pleasure as his toes curl in the sand. Hot at first touch, and cool and damp deeper down. He's read about beaches before. He's imagined them. And seen some images, but the closest he ever got was a boardwalk carney show, on the far side of a collection of buildings blocking the view, close enough to smell the sea, not close enough to see it, let alone set a toe on it.
He wriggles his toes in the sand, feeling it shifting under his feet, before heading down to splash around some.
"I know you don't want to camp," he calls across the sand to Finn, who's digging down, making sure no unexpected insect guests will be joining his picnic, "but I'm pretty sure the rest of us could make do with this."
Chewie sniggers something about being nose blind and young, but he'd have to admit, it feels good to have ground under his feet that isn't frozen solid, and air that smells like sea and life, and also isn't whipping by at ninety klicks an hour.
"So, check one. Things actually live on this planet that aren't massive turtles or grass. It's got to be at least okay for us," Finn says, having found no critters. He wanders off into the grass. "Grass, flowers, nests, so I guess some sort of bird probably hangs out here when we aren't tromping around. You see fish?" he calls to Jacen.
Jacen looks down, the water's pretty clear. "All I see are toes."
"Okay."
"You swim?" Jacen calls out to Chewie.
Yes, but you won't like it.
"Why not?" he yells back.
"Force! No, Jacen. Wet wookie is not a smell you want to encounter."
"Can't be worse than Critt with Hiffa."
Finn inclines his head. "Okay, I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm also not saying you want to spend a few hours in the Falcon with a slowly drying wookie."
Chewie rolls his eyes and says, Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you fart sunshine and roses. Kid's trying to be nice.
"I am. And unless you need me right this second," he pulls off his shirt and tosses it to the sand, heads out of the surf, then starts on his trousers, "I'm getting a swim. And since opportunities to swim are thin on the ground back home, maybe you want to join me."
Chewie shrugs a bit, unclasps his bandoleer, and goes racing toward the water, leaping in, making a huge splash.
A minute later, Finn goes streaking past them, into the surf, yelling in pleasure.
And though none of the three of them say it, sometimes, there's something very nice about having the kind of job where you get to decide for yourself when you have to work, and when you can play.
"Let me fly the next leg, okay?" Finn says as the three of them lay on the sand, basking in the sun, drying off.
Jacen smirks a bit at that. "Gray hair is distinguished. You'll look fine with it."
Finn sighs, debates gently punching Jacen, decides that involves moving more than he wants to (basking in the sunshine is awfully nice) and then says, "If this is date night," and it does seem to be a very nice place to spend a few hours on their own, "then I don't want to need you to get me and Rose here. So, let me fly it. Yes, it'll be slower, but…" And left unspoken is that Finn can fly now. And he's competent. In fact, for a guy who didn't test into the First Order's pilot program, and has only spent two years learning, he's doing really well, but excellent piloting, when done without the help of the Force, requires years of training, amazing spacial recognition, and lightning fast reflexes.
So, if he needs an assist on the way back, because the route they're using is tricky he wants to know that before he's attempting to get Rose there.
There are several flavors of excitement he's hoping for with date night. Just about getting killed because a huge asteroid came out of nowhere and he barely had the time to pull the Falcon out of the way is not among them.
"Sure. Go for it." Jacen glances to Chewie. "Where to, next, Boss?"
Cloud City. You and I are going to spend a bit of time increasing our operating capital, and Finn'll go home and have fun.
"What are we going to do?" Jacen asks, liking the sound of increasing operating capital.
Chewie nods to Finn. The plan is, we're going to pay for this, and he gestures to indicate the settlement that will be by going out and cheating at cards. And it occurs to me, you read minds, too.
Jacen lights up in a huge grin. "Chewie, you just made my year."
Yeah, I thought you'd like that. Just like Poe teaches, we're going to lose, a lot.
"Yeah, but we're going to win when it matters."
Fuck yeah, kid, we will!
For a moment, Jacen's feeling really good with that idea, and then… "Shit… Maybe we should have done some more scans. My skin feels weird."
Finn sits up in a rush, a little alarmed, and looks at Jacen, tries not to laugh out loud, and calms down. "What sort of weird?"
Chewie's also sitting up, and trying not to smirk.
"Hot. You don't… I can feel you both mentally giggling. What?" He sits up and looks at himself. He's bright pink all over. "FUCKING HELL! What's the in the water here?" He's on the verge of really concerned, but neither of the other two are, so he holds onto some calm.
"You're a ginger, Jacen."
"Yeah. Know that. Have known it since the first time I looked in a mirror. Why do you think that matters?"
Sunburn. Is this the first time you've been out and about, naked, in a bright sunny place with a yellow sun?
Jacen knows that the naked bit is an absolute yes, and he's less sure about the yellow sun part. "Probably. What's sunburn?"
"It's not the water here. It's the sun. Pale dudes like you have a hard time with bright sunlight from yellow suns. Go back to the Falcon, get a cool shower, and rub bacta on everything," Finn says. "You'll feel better in about an hour."
"Why just me?"
Chewie shrugs. He's got no idea why this only seems to happen to pale people.
"I'm dark. Dark skin can burn, but it takes a lot of effort. Pale skin, pale eyes, red or blonde hair, you guys spend too long in the wrong kind of sun, you turn pink, or red."
Jacen rolls his eyes and stands up. "Fucking lovely. Is there a way to keep this from happening?" As soon as he starts moving his skin starts to hurt. "Eh… Oh, I do not like this!"
Yeah. They make goop for it. Ben always needed it, too.
"He's got dark hair and eyes."
"And really pale skin," Finn adds.
Jacen gingerly bends down to grab his clothing, and then limps toward the ship.
Once he's out of earshot, Finn says, "We're you actually planning on going to Cloud City?"
Chewie shrugs. As good a time as any. You want the bird for yourself. I've got the kid, might as well see what the two of us can do. Sure'll be slicker than anything Han and I came up with.
"You two were cheating at cards, too?"
Chewie's smirk indicates sometimes.
Finn shakes his head. "I think you like breaking laws just for kicks and giggles."
So, you're paying attention. What's new about that?
Finn looks back at the ship. Jacen's out of earshot. "You ever worry about being a bad influence on the kid?"
Chewie gets a little more serious. More than you think I do. Less than I did about Ben. I think this one's pretty solid, so all I'm doing is giving him options he might not have otherwise considered.
"Options that might get him killed young."
It's Cloud City. The gaming tables there are practically respectable. We won't even be wearing weapons. Chewie makes an exasperated sound. It's a terrible thing when a proper pirate gets civilized. The stories I could tell you about Lando...
Finn waves that off. "Just… I don't know. That one's got a shot of not running from the law all his life, maybe we should… encourage that."
Chewie just gives Finn a long look.
"We've been over that."
Uh huh.
"I've got to build up more of a nest egg before I can go legit."
You spend too much longer with me, and the option might fade away.
"Rose tells me that, too."
If Canto works for getting this place built… It'd work for setting up a stake for you and her and something where you don't have to pray your fake ID holds. An extra hand or two at the rate they play, that'd be mighty comfortable if you're wise with it, and I know you and her would be.
"Yeah, I know."
Chewie stands up, and shimmies to get the sand out of his fur. You coming?
Finn lays back down on the sand. "In a bit," he looks over the water. "Figure the sun'll be down in an hour. Going to enjoy it, and the figure out if I need to get torches or something for our picnic. Should be well past dark when I bring Rose here."
The ride out of the nebula is not exciting. It's also two hours long.
They going to take Paige all night? Chewie asks when they're finally free of the nebula and zipping toward Cloud City.
"Maybe. I'll talk more with Rey when I get home." He's half wondering if maybe Rey and Kylo would take Paige all night. It's been a damn long time since the two of them got a full night, alone, together… Well, one when they weren't wishing they were dead from Hiffa. Enough time to have a real conversation, and a good meal, and not rush the sex, and sleep… His voice is practically dripping with desire as he says, "Maybe…"
It's a few moments later when it occurs to him that he's contemplating giving his child to Kylo Ren for an entire night, and not breaking into a cold sweat at the idea.
Jacen's just sort of grinning at him, and Finn rolls his eyes. "Yeah, he's not the devil, and even I can see it, great. Shut up."
"Not saying a thing."
Finn lifts off, leaving Jacen and Chewie on a landing pad overlooking candy fluff clouds in a variety of pinks, oranges, golds, and whites, threaded through with long, verticle oblong dwellings, pricked through with long, vertical windows, looking out on hundreds if not thousands of other ships zipping along on their business.
For a moment, Jacen just looks around. "I mean. I heard you say the name, but… I didn't think it would be a literal city floating in the clouds."
Chewie smiles at that.
"What do they do here?"
Pretty much anything and everything anyone does in any city. But, it started out as a mining colony. Lando won it in a game of cards, and… The rest is history. Turns out he was good at running things.
Jacen does a tight spin, looking in all three hundred and sixty degrees. "Well, Boss?"
Chewie nods, and leads him toward one of the buildings.
People know Chewie here. That's the first thing Jacen notices as he's moving through the crowded hallways of the building they're in. (Housing, businesses, shops? Jacen's not sure what people do here, but a lot of them are doing it. He's hoping they cut out on playing early enough that he'll have some exploring time.) Now, it's true that in any given place where Wookies aren't the majority species, people (especially human/humanoid ones) are going to notice the huge, furry guy with the big ass weapon moving through their space. People who don't notice that tend not to survive long enough to add their DNA to the next generation's gene pool.
But here, people don't just notice, they know.
And they respect.
Jacen's not actively looking for other people's thoughts, but Chewie's so Chewie that when people notice him, they tend to think loudly about it.
Eventually, they're in front of a door, that Chewie opens with his hand print, and slips inside.
"You have a flat here?"
Chewie nods, and hangs up his bowcaster and bandoleer. The Falcon's always been home, but from time to time, Han needed it on his own, or I did, same for our other ships, so it was always good to have a place to land.
Jacen spends a moment looking around. It's not a huge flat. It's probably a bit bigger than the cottage he shares with Critt. It feels smaller because the furniture is Wookie-sized, so it eats up more of the space.
The room they're in now is a combination sitting room and eating space, and he can see a hallway leading to what he assumes is a sleeping quarters and refresher.
"It's nice."
Thanks. Lando wanted to do us up with penthouse suites up in the expensive part of town, where he and his cronies lived, but… We tried that, and it never really stuck.
"Tried it with Leia?"
Chewie nods. Lando leapt into the deep end and swum. We hopped in and drowned. He said we had the wrong attitude. We kept thinking we were poor people dropped in the wrong world. And he thought he was a millionaire born in the wrong world. That's why when he got to the top he flew, and we fell.
Jacen contemplates that, but doesn't have enough experience with… well… anything to know if that's right or not. "Oh."
That's how Han reacted.
Jacen nods. "So, now what?"
Get cleaned up, put on your decent clothing, and we'll go see if we can scrounge up a game.
"That easy?"
That easy.
It's not that easy. Cleaned up and in his 'good clothing' meaning a shirt, vest, and trouser that actually fit and look decent on him, Chewie's just staring at him.
But he's thinking of the other men they're going to play against.
And wondering.
Is there any way you can be less pretty?
"It's not going to break my heart if one of them makes a pass at me."
Chewie scratches his chin. He's not worried about someone making a pass Jacen's happy to accept. He's worried about the ones Jacen's not interested in. The ones unlikely to take 'no' for an answer.
"You know enough about guys who go for other guys you're worried about this, but you're still thinking I might end up with kids one day?"
Lando did.
"Okay." He tucks that into his mental map of Lando, and decides that he likely doesn't need to set Chewie down and explain the finer points to him.
Plus, Chewie's still eyeing him and wondering how protective he needs to be. This was never a problem with Han. They went some shady places with sketchy people, but he also was always wearing a blaster and knew how to use it. Plus his… Hanness… tended to make people decide not to push their luck in certain directions.
"I don't need a blaster, Chewie. Not for this. Trust me, I say 'No,' and they won't press."
Chewie's thinking about the scars on his back.
"It took a droid to do that, and if another droid is showing up with bad plans, I trust you to shoot his ass before he's trouble, okay? I fly, you shoot the bastards, and we both clean up at the table, right?" Jacen says with a smile.
Chewie shakes his head a bit, slips the bandoleer back on, but doesn't grab the bowcaster. This is a no-weapons game.
I clean up. You watch my back and tell me when and how to bet. You're playing my young, new help, just learning the ropes.
"So, myself?"
Yeah. And if anyone gives you a drink, you do not drink it, okay? You can pretend to, but don't actually swallow.
For a second Jacen's confused, why the hell would anyone try to poison him? And then he's not confused, "Oh."
Your voice has to work for your 'No' to work, right? Unless I hand it to you, or you get it directly, for yourself, from the bar, don't drink it, okay?
"Yeah, okay."
Let's go.
After that set up, Jacen's expecting a dark, dingy, somewhat dirty nook in a wall with sketchy men and furtive deals. Not this wide open, glowing gently orange-pink from the candy fluff clouds reflecting the starlight around them, expanse of tables and chairs and card games.
The tables are clean. The men at them are… Honestly… Old. (Chewie rolls his eyes at that assessment. Though part of that is that to Jacen, anything over thirty-five is old, and to Chewie, anything under two hundred isn't.)
The place smells like alcohol, cologne, and not the cheap stuff, but not the expensive stuff, either, a trace of excited sweat, smoke, and anticipation. The hunt for the next good hand. The exhilaration of the win.
Jacen likes it here. (He'd like it better if the men were younger, but… Well, nothing is ever perfect. Still, if someone vaguely Jon-like were to wander in, it'd make his day. No one does.)
He thinks to Chewie… How long has it been since you got back here?
Which would be when it occurs to Chewie that it's probably been at least a decade. He thinks more and realizes the last time they were here was when they were trying to get Lando to help them get Ben back, and it's been... Shit... Thirteen year, and humans age fast. A lot of the guys at these tables may have grown out of their dangerous ages. Maybe. Old coots can be more slippery than the young ones. Less likely to get fussed about stupid shit, but once they decide to kill you, they're more likely to succeed.
Decade or not, they seem to expect Chewie, and welcome him.
"If anyone would know, that one would," they hear a moment after walking in, then a voice calls over, "Chewie, come settle a bet."
Been here for thirty seconds, and you're already dragging me in? Chewie growls to the quad of old guys at one of the tables as he and Jacen head over.
"Stroke of luck. That Ren guy, making a big deal of himself with the Order, rumor has it he's Solo's kid, you know what's up with that?" He's got decent posture, and a comfortable hold on his cards. His eyes are bright, hair gray, and a fine collection of wrinkles and scars. Chewie doesn't introduce him, nor does he introduce himself.
Chewie pulls back a chair for himself, settles in, and waits for Jacen to settle in, too. Then he looks expectantly at the place in front of him, which currently does not have a drink.
"Yeah, fine. I remember, nothing out of you without a little liquid enticement," Gray Hair nods and a drink comes for Chewie and Jacen.
Jacen watches the bartender pour it, and bring it over, and hand it directly to Chewie, who gives him one of them.
Okay? he thinks the Chewie.
Yeah.
Jacen sips his, cautiously. He's glad he did, too, from what he can tell, it's straight lighter fluid. The only thing he'd do with this at home is clean industrial grade lubricants off of the joints on an engine.
Chewie shoots his back, offers something of a grin to his companions and then says, Been out for a bit, what's the gossip?
Gray Hair, who apparently has dealt with Chewie before, repeats himself. "They say Ren is Solo's kid. If anyone'd know, it'd be you, right?"
Chewie looks to the bartender who sidles over with another drink. This one he sips. Yeah, he's Han's kid.
That gets a lot of excited chattering around the table, and two of them jump up to go make calls.
"You think he'd make good on his old man's debts?" the other one who stayed at the table, also with gray hair, and wrinkles, but no scars, bright green eyes, and the kind of hopes Jacen expects get dashed a lot, asks.
Chewie smirks, The kid was never stupid. He makes good one one of them, and every con man in the fucking galaxy is going to show up at his door claiming Han owed him. Jacen laughs at that.
Which is the first time anyone else at the table pays any attention to him.
"You get yourself a new pet?" This one is just coming back from whatever he did with the intel that Ren is indeed a Solo. He's got dark brown hair striped with gray, and squinty eyes. "What happened to the dark fellow?"
"I'm not a pet!"
"It speaks," Gray Hair says.
"It's name is Jacen M'Gy, and I'm not a pet."
Stripy Hair snorts a laugh at that, sips his drink, and says, "Yeah, well, you're not a partner, and you're obviously not his kid, and… Oh… Wait… Shit. What was her name? The pretty redhead?"
Chewie shakes his head. I'm training him up. Finn and I need a good pilot, and I know one when I see one.
Stripey nods. "And let me guess, grown-up ones are too fucking expensive."
They're sure as shit not getting any cheaper. Chewie replies.
Who's the woman he's thinking of? Jacen thinks to Chewie.
Han's last girlfriend. Chewie thinks back. And no, you couldn't be theirs. He hooked up with her fourteen years ago. But these sots are so drunk their grasp of time is off.
Okay.
"So, Ren really is Solo's kid?" Gray Hair asks again.
Chewie nods.
"Did he… know?"
This would be when Jacen comes face to face with the fact that a lot of the galaxy doesn't seem to know what happened to Han Solo, and that Chewie doesn't seem to feel a need to enlighten—wait… They do know, they're just wrong about the how part of it.
Chewie nods at that, too. Yeah, they… talked, before the end.
Jacen doesn't let the shock show on his face. He really doesn't let it show when he senses what else is going on here, now, and that Chewie's doing this, saying these things, because he's got an awfully good feel for what Han wants people to know.
"His Mama know?"
Chewie rolls his eyes at that. Yeah. He took off the mask, and she disbanded the Resistance. You're hooked in enough to know that, right?
"You mean right after he more or less promised to start running the Order like a Republic?" Stripey adds.
Right after.
That gets more nodding. "Rumor has it," Hopes-Dashed says, "that she got him in, and used him to take out Snoke. That it was a deep cover fake the whole way through."
Chewie laughs at that. Then he shakes his head. Just Ben being a tit. Worked out okay in the end, but... Even Leia wasn't going to do that.
"She gonna come around? Been a long time since we've seen the old lady. I know she and Han had some rough spots, but, for a Princess…" He offers Jacen a little grin. "Probably shouldn't be telling tales, but you expect a Princess to be all hoity-toity, too good for the likes of jumped up scum like us, but she could put it back just as fast as we did, and there wasn't a dirty joke ever written she didn't know."
Jacen likes the idea of that, and it shows on his face.
Chewie's howl indicates that Leia's going to do whatever it is she's going to do, and that's that. Then he looks at the cards. The other men at the table settle back. "You got the credits for this, or are you hoping we'll stake you on goods?"
Jacen knows, from talking to Chewie that most of the contraband left now is just not worth the risk, so… Weapons? he thinks.
Chewie thinks back, Nah, not here. Lando's woman doesn't like canashish. I've always got a few kilos of it when I come by. Jacen sees him lay three fingers on the table, and Stripey nods.
And it's illegal here? Jacen thinks.
Chewie thinks back, Yeah, and twenty-times the price of anywhere else. She won't raid my ship, so… I take advantage. Never bring in enough to make her decide she's got to take notice, always bring enough for a decent bump in the coffers. He says out loud, Was hoping you'd stake me on goods. And thinks to Jacen, One way to move hot goods, and wash credits, is to win them at a place like this. He'll bet the going price, I'll bluff, he'll fold, and then later one of his skaks'll pick it up and take care of it.
Ah. And after that? Jacen thinks back.
We'll be lucky.
Sounds good to me.
Torches, check.
Blanket, check.
Basket full of goodies, check.
Music cube, check.
It's been a while since he and Rose have had a proper date, but Finn is ready, willing, and able to do this up right.
It's just… Flying back to Achc-To, and his snazzy little island picnic spot, it's a really long trip. And as much as he enjoys any flavor of alone time with his wife, spending four hours of their precious alone time flying back and forth…
If only there were a way to skip that.
There is. He shivers a little at the idea. It just seems… wrong. One second you're in one place, the next you're in another… but…
Poe does it, and it doesn't seem to have done him any harm. And… well, the last time they talked, he mentioned that Ren could just take the image out of his head and port right to his ship, so…
Anything Ren can do, Rey can do, too…
And… it would cut a lot of the transport time out of the deal… And… He supposes if he could just leave the Falcon on the beach, just do it one way… But that'd give up the surprise, so it's got to go home with them, but…
His eyes narrow a bit as he continues to ease the Falcon back through the nebula, and think of how he's going to set up his surprise for Rose.
Two hours and twenty-three minutes. That's the run from Achc-To to home. That's just… Even if they have all night, that's longer than he wants to spend.
The things I do for love…
He heads over to Rey and Kylo's place.
Rey answers the door, ushering him in, listens to the plan, grinning. "That's awesome, Finn!"
He relaxes, pleased to see she enjoys the idea, and then steps over the ledge. "The traveling time's the issue. Uh…" He looks uncomfortable, but musters up to say, "Could you port us there? I'm thinking I'll ask her to come to the Falcon, and then you'll remember something on there you want before we head off, and then once in, you port us, okay?"
"I don't have a problem with that, except, I've never been there, you know?"
"Well… Poe says Ren ported him back to his ship, bedroom, where he'd never been, by pulling the image right out of his head, and…"
"Do you want to ask Kylo to take you?"
Finn looks a little panicked at that, but covers fast, "He's not—"
"I'm in the bedroom," Kylo says, stepping out, and going over to kiss Rey.
"I swear we were alone when I got here."
"You were. I just got here and felt you being very certain I wasn't here. What's going on?"
Finn explains again, and this time points out that, "And, look, I know you," he glances to Kylo, "already know how to do it, but… There's absolutely no reason why I'd take you with me to the Falcon. Rose'll smell something is up the second I even think about suggesting it. It's got to be you, Rey, or otherwise the surprise falls apart."
Kylo's listening to that, and nodding. "He's right. It's… Okay, I was about to say it's not hard. I didn't find it hard, but, we can practice." He glances to Finn, "You've got a good image of it, right?"
Finn blinks, starting to feel the creepy sense of something about to happen wriggle through his spine, and then Ren nods, takes his hand and Rey's, and then they're on the beach.
"See?" Kylo says.
Finn rolls his eyes at Kylo. "Show off."
Kylo rolls them right back at him. "Like you don't do fancy stuff to impress Rose."
That gets another little eye roll, because he absolutely does, if the opportunity presents itself. Though he assumes Kylo's in the same ship with him, long enough together that impressive feats of being awesome are getting fewer and further between.
Kylo nods at him.
Finn shrugs a bit, sort of a 'what can you do?' gesture.
Kylo nods at that, too.
Rey's not paying attention to either of them. She's looking at the ocean lapping against the smooth beach, everything lit silver-blue by the moon and stars overhead.
"I can feel it's the right planet," she nods to Kylo who also seems to have twigged to something. They're both looking in the same direction. "But… we're far away, here, aren't we?"
"We're in the southern hemisphere. We put the satellites up today," he says to Kylo, who's also checking out the surroundings. "Chewie and Jacen took off for some gaming at Cloud City, and I've got the Falcon to myself for a few days."
Rey turns from the water to Finn, "So, we set a time, and I'll come get you?"
Finn nods. "Are you," he's already been over this with Rey, but it's probably polite or something, to ask, "okay with taking Paige all night. Rey said yes, but…"
Kylo leaps on that with both feet. "Of course!"
Finn blinks at that. He knows, intellectually, that Kylo likes Paige, but except for the few minutes she was in Rey's lap and Kylo was making funny faces at her the last time they all talked, he hasn't really seen Kylo interact with her.
"She gets up at 04:00."
"Are you trying to talk us out of this?" Rey asks.
"You know, no. I'm really not. Just… Babies can be a lot."
"One night. We can do a night," Kylo says, grinning at the idea. He glances around at Finn's set up. "It's nice."
Finn's not sure what to do with that. Part of him wants to bristle at it, but… Kylo's not being condescending, he genuinely seems to think this is nice, and appears to be thinking about how to do something similar for Rey. "Uh, thanks. Our… wedding night was like this, on Lirium, but the beach there is probably under ten meters of snow and frozen solid, so…"
He sees the way Kylo's watching Rey, who's looking out over the ocean, wind gently ruffling her hair. "I was there," Kylo says. "I mean… Uh… Not that part. But…" He swallows and runs his fingers through his hair, memories of what he and Rey were doing that night, on a different chunk of the same beach dancing through his mind. "Yeah, if it wasn't frozen… Good beach."
Finn sniggers a bit. "You're blushing, aren't you?"
"No."
"Uh huh." Banthashit! Finn thinks.
I heard that, Kylo replies, also mentally.
I know.
Kylo's eyes narrow a little, but he returns to speaking out loud. "I missed the main part, but… The part I saw. I liked your wedding."
"Yeah, Rey said. Gonna find your own chunk of beach for the private one."
"That's the idea. Feels right, where water meets land, and sea meets sky, dusk or dawn, one slipping into the next… "
Finn smiles at that. "Yeah, feels right."
Rey (who just may have, possibly, wandered off a bit to give the two of them some time with each other) moseys on back. "What time are you hoping to head off tomorrow?"
Finn thinks about that. "Uh… What time can you start?"
"I'm done with meetings at 18:00, so 18:30'll work for me," Kylo says.
"I'll fob dinner onto Poe and Critt, so 18:30 will work for me, too."
Finn smiles at them. "Great. Now, tell me something you want me to 'pick up for you' from Cloud City that I could have left in the Falcon."
Rey thinks for a moment. "Uh… Camera specs. Something about different kinds and what to look for and what to buy."
"You're… thinking of getting a camera?" Finn asks. That's outside of his idea of Rey or Kylo.
"Yes," Kylo says.
"Oh… Uh… Well, we've got one. When you've got Paige, play with it some, and see if you like it. It's pretty basic, but it'll take images and holos, and that's pretty much all you need."
More nodding, and Kylo's possibly developing plans for after Paige goes to bed.
"But I'll make sure to tell you that I've got some review magazines," Finn says with a smile.
"Gods, kid! Tell me you're a better pilot than a card player," Stripey, who's actual name is Settheroth, says.
"Nobody's worse pilot than he's playing tonight," Jiffery, another of the old, white-hairs replies.
Jacen smirks, and pushes his last two chips into the pot. "Unlike the cards, I can make the ship do what I want." That said, he's been playing shit poker tonight. He's intentionally bluffing loud and stupid, and throwing away decent cards, and just… Well, playing like shit. "These little bastards just hate me tonight."
This has done two things, completely distracted from the fact that Chewie's winning an unusually large number of hands, and also means that Jacen hasn't had to spend any spare attention toward trying to figure out what to do to win his own hands.
The third benefit is, when K'Rzznk (Gray Hair) wins this hand, he'll be out, so he can sidle back, relax, sip his drink (he asked for sweet fizz, which just about had the men wetting their pants they were laughing so hard, but this is a situation where he wants to look as small and harmless as humanly possible, and honestly, if he attempts to drink another one of those 'whiskies' he's going to end up under the table drooling on himself.) and begin to really play.
After all, right now he's using his ability to watch the cards in everyone else's hands and report to Chewie who's got what. In a minute, (where, shock of shocks his Emperor high card does not win the hand) he's going to start, subtly, encouraging some of the other people at the table to get a little less guarded in their playing style and a tad more exuberant in their betting.
"For someone who just lost everything, you look really pleased by yourself," Shufty, one of the old gamblers who goes 'way back' with Han and Chewie, who's a little sharper at this than Jacen would prefer, says.
"I stayed in for three hours. This is my first time playing. So, yeah, I lost, but… Shit, do you guys even remember the first time you played? How'd you do?"
He puts a little extra emphasis onto 'How'd you do?' and suddenly he's able to sit back, relax, and listen to a lot of detailed, and somewhat entertaining lies about glorious gambling careers. He listens attentively. There's something about a 'kid' listening intently that makes a certain kind of man (over the hill, used to be dangerous and important, and might, in a pinch, if they really, really needed to, could maybe do it again) talk.
Chewie's very pleased with how Jacen's running the game. Sure, the stakes here won't be too high. He knows how far ahead to get when he quits. But this should wrap them up a nice twenty-five thousand credits in addition to the fifteen thousand for the canashish.
Forty thousand in five hours. Not a bad night, Jacen thinks to Chewie.
Chewie smiles.
And two hours, and a lot of losses, but some very good wins later, they're ambling off, back to Chewie's apartment.
Jacen knows enough not to talk about, with his voice, what they did. He may not be experienced when it comes to this stuff, but even he knows that you never, not for sure, know who's listening when, and since he doesn't have to add his voice to his thoughts, it's better off not getting past his lips.
But, they'd talk, right? It wouldn't just be silent and go to bed. So…
He thinks for a moment.
"Cruchalak… Now a good time?"
Chewie looks… not annoyed, but it's clear he'd hoped Jacen would forget.
We'd normally talk some, right? Especially after a night like that. We wouldn't just go straight to bed.
You think they're listening? Chewie thinks.
Don't know, but… You want to come back here, right?
This time he howls instead of thinks, Yeah. Sure, Jacen. What'd you say? I use it in places you'd use spouse, but it's not… how you think that works?
"Yeah. Uh… Spouse, it works both ways. Cruchalak, doesn't?"
It can, and often does, but it doesn't have to. He flops into the sofa, and stares at the ceiling for a moment. Life debt… That's part of it. But it's not just, did you save this person's life, because Rose saved Finn, and he probably saved her, and they aren't cruchalak to each other.
"But—" He's about to say Rey is to Kylo, but remembers that he doesn't know if there are ears on them, "Han was to you? And you were to him? And… Uh…" He rubs his lips together. "I… uh… maybe don't know everything there is to know about being married but…"
Chewie laughs at what Jacen's desperately trying to not say about him and Han.
Oh, kid! Yeah, 'not my type.' And vice versa. There's life and there's life, and there's what you're willing to do to cherish a life, and serve it, and… The most basic level involves saving someone's life. Han saved me from Imperial slavers. And I saved him from… A bloody shit ton of stuff. But that's just the one level.
Chewie looks sad, and Jacen can feel Han behind him, though he doesn't turn to look. Apparently, he can turn up in places other than the Falcon. Jacen's never been sure if he was bound to the ship in some way, but apparently not.
He didn't just save my life. It wasn't worth all that much back then. He saved me to the point where I could have a life worth saving. Picked me up, literally out of the mud, and metaphorically out of… A lot. And I did it for him, and…
"Saved your soul?"
Yeah. Probably the most easy way to understand that.
And that's why you call Rey that for Kylo, and not vice versa? Jacen asks in his head.
Chewie nods. Someone does that for you, they stick with you, and you stick with them, and you become family, and yeah, spouse usually has… connotations… that certainly weren't true for Han and I, but family you chose, that you'll defend to the death, that you belove above all others, spouse is an okay name for that.
"Or… cruchalak."
Or cruchalak.
He thinks about Critt for a moment, and how he used his powers to talk his parents out of not immediately running off with him. For a second, there's a romantic, and proud feeling that maybe that counts. But then… No, it likely doesn't. That was… just being a good friend.
Would Kylo be mine? He thinks to Chewie.
Chewie looks a little confused at that, but then realization dawns. He shakes his head, and thinks back, Usually, it'd be a personal thing. You saved yourself, kid. He just gave you a place to land once you got free.
Jacen nods at that. He's a little tired, but not too bad. "You mind if I go wander a bit?"
Chewie smirks at him. The market is three floors up. Stay out of trouble, and call if you need back up. Hell, call if you don't, but think you'd like it.
Jacen smirks back at him. "I'll be fine, Dad."
Yeah, you will. Key-code is 6678.
"Got it. Ta, Chewie," And with that, Jacen's off for a bit of exploration.