Guess whose POV this is? *wink wink*
Talk to her.
Don't.
Talk to her.
Don't.
Talk to her.
Don't.
It was an endless cycle, Ben thought as he looked at the forlorn girl who sat alone at one of the deserted tables. Dejected, she ate her lunch alone, once in a while glancing around to see if anyone familiar would come near.
Ben wondered if she even knew the reason for her cruel isolation.
She probably didn't.
And not for the first time, he felt regretful of his actions.
He was so cruel to her without any valid reason, even though they had a fun time when they talked in the ship. He would've liked to talk with her more, even if she looked at him funny at their first meeting. Like stars were falling out of her eyes or something. Weird, but it was sort of cute, in a way. It certainly made her an easier person to talk to unlike the other people rescued by his father. Those people talked on and on to his father, asking him how they could repay their debt.
Sometimes, he'd try to chat with them, but they always seemed to be uninterested in what he said.
Prima was way nicer than any of those people. When he talked, she listened. When he went somewhere, she would follow, so long as he said she could. She acted like those people, but instead of his father, it was him who she focused on.
Him. Ben Solo. Not his father, Han Solo.
It was a nice feeling and he made sure to reciprocate the attention to her as well. He understood why she was now confused by his misleading actions.
Briefly, he toyed with the idea of heading straight towards Prima, and just... lead her away from the stares.
"Do you think this is right?" Ben asked the boy beside his seat.
The boy shrugged, "Does it matter? I'm just going with the flow."
"You were her friend, weren't you?"
Again, the ignorant boy shrugged, "Yeah, I guess."
"Then how could you just suddenly ignore her?"
Ben must've raised his voice more than necessary, because people were beginning to look at him with curious gazes, obviously wondering if a fight was about to begin. People rarely fought, and when they did, someone for sure would halt it.
They liked to keep this place in peace and with the right amount of justice…or so they liked to believe.
Isolating someone for a reason unknown even to the person herself wasn't really something that Ben could count as "right."
Ben took one last peek at the bullied girl, feeling a fresh wave of guilt form over him when it sunk in how affected she was of their sudden treatment. In some small way, he was partially connected to the reason why Leia wanted her ignored.
Later, he consented.
When no one was looking, he would approach her and tell her why everyone is giving her the silent treatment. It was the least he could do. She washis friend, even if it didn't last quite as long as he liked it too.
Besides, none of this was her fault.
It was just his mother being paranoid and over-protective, like always.
He just hoped that his mother would understand why he felt the need to tell Prima the truth.
Finding Prima was surprisingly harder than he thought. She wasn't in her room, like he believed she would be, holed up in her bed at the corner.
Instead, he found her quite deep in the forest, back propped on the trunk of a tree, looking at the ground.
"Hey," he began quietly, trying not to scare her.
It failed. Prima was still startled, giving out a miniscule sound of alarm from the unexpected noise.
When she faced him and realized exactly from whom the voice came from, she looked as if she became even more confused.
"Ben? What do you want?" she asked, tone confused and also a bit wary.
Ben felt a bit nervous, not liking the suspicious glint in her eyes.
"Are you okay?"
Prima smiled wryly, "What do you think? No one will talk to me and I don't even know why."
Sometimes, the Resistance was just really too cruel, Ben thought. He debated on telling her himself, the things his mother told him about her parents. However, Prima loved her parents; for sure, she wouldn't be pleased to know the wrongs they've done.
"Maybe it's for the best that you didn't know." He replied, not meaning to.
"What?" Prima immediately looked up to him, hope surfacing in her eyes. "Do you know? Will you tell me? If I knew, then I could change and I could be friends with everyone again!"
Regretfully, the boy in front of her shook his head. It wasn't anything Prima could fix. In truth, it wasn't even Prima's fault; it was her parents. Thus, Prima most likely wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Her isolation was a mere result of people's stereotypes and hasty judgements.
Prima misunderstood his intentions though and her stare turned accusing. "Of course. You're just like them too! Ignoring me, so I guess you won't tell me anything, huh?"
She ran from the scene, making her legs move as fast as it could, wanting to be far, far away from it all.
"Wait!" Ben called out, not intending for things to turn out as horribly as it did. He too, ran, following the little girl with lithe steps, a result from few of his trainings with a Jedi.
Eventually, he caught up to her. She made it as far to the grassy plains, any more futher and she would be in the deep confines of a forest – a place children should not go to without the help of an adult.
"Stop." Ben ordered, huffing slightly from exhaustion. If he was this tired, then he was sure Prima was even more exhausted. Unlike him, she had no form of training and most likely had low stamina as a result.
"Let me go! I hate you!" Just like he thought, the girl was panting heavily, drops of sweat littered across her face and body. Anymore runs and she would've fainted.
"NO." he said, wanting to put his foot down.
He gazed at Prima, noted her teary red eyes, her trembling lips, her voice coarse from having cried too much. She lost her family and just when she thought she was gaining another, all this happened. Nobody deserved this kind of pain, much less a girl her age.
As he made his decision, Ben stood straighter, his back more firm and resolved himself to finally tell her.
Here goes nothing, he thought to himself.
"…Prima, your parents were Jedi. Two of the best, my father used to say."
Shocked, the girl stopped struggling against Ben. "No way…That's impossible! Then how – "
" – Father told me they quit." He interrupted, already knowing the question she'd ask as he himself had asked them. "They chose love. Over helping everyone else. For a lot of people, what your parents did was selfish."
A lot of people meant pretty much everyone in the Resistance, including General Leia Organa, his mother. Apparently, more lives than necessary were lost because of the disappearance of two Jedis when already there were few. Now, only his Uncle Luke remained.
"But why does everyone hate me?" she asked, her voice cracking at the end.
Ben lowered his head mournfully, "Most parents fear you might give the same effect to their children while the kids don't want to disappoint their parents."
"I'm sorry," he added, "I was…like them too. My mother feared that I would give up being a Jedi if I stuck near you and everything. I guess I just didn't want her sad. My mother's a general you know? She doesn't need to be burdened by worries for me anymore!"
Ben watched Prima carefully, wondering how she'd react to all the information. She looked as if someone broke her favorite toy.
"But that's not right!" he said, "I won't be like them anymore."
Prima scowled bitterly, "Why not?"
He didn't like it. That crestfallen look on her face.
He hated it.
The girl he was with on the spaceship had this innocent aura around her – soft, and gentle with a small touch of mischief – it was a glow that his father and mother told him only children had. As such, he felt guilty for having contributed to its loss, and felt responsible enough to try and coax it to once again come out.
("One thing about me though son, is I'm a man of my word." His father laughs, twirling his mother gently as they dance to music only they can hear.)
And so was he.
Prima was in conflict.
A few days have passed since Ben's declaration of "not being like them anymore". So far, he had begun to visit her room everyday, bringing toys, games, anything that could be used to pass time, vowing to do so until she was better again.
On the first day, she slammed the door on his face. Instead of leaving, he knocked – once, twice, thrice, and the next and the next and the next – he would not stop, and she had no choice but to open the door, let him talk.
It was one of the best decisions in her life.
Not that she would ever tell him that.
" – How are you so good at this?" Ben exclaims, as he picks up the pieces of fallen blocks, on a quest to form a new tower, seeing as how he destroyed the other one.
She shrugs nonchalantly; in actuality, she is secretly pleased at having won yet again. It wasn't as if she was using a complicated strategy – if anything, there was no strategy. Just put one block on top of another. It seemed simple enough. Perhaps her friend simply sucked at particular games?
No.
He was not her friend, not after he turned his back on her and ignored her like the rest.
Though at least he came back. Unlike the others.
Those people continue their cold treatment of her. Those people acted like they were the ones in the right for ignoring her, and Ben was in the wrong. Those people were the reason why she avoided leaving her room. They probably still didn't like the fact that her parents were desserters and believed that she would be like them.
Never mind that she was young and impressionable, easy enough to mold into being an honorable Jedi.
That was her goal though. Uncle Luke promised he'd help her achieve it.
"Ben, when is Uncle Luke coming back? He told me I'd go train with you next time."
"Huh? I wouldn't know." The boy answers absentmindedly, still focused on the brick tower, "He comes and goes. Your turn!" Victory is etched on the face of the said kid, as he analyzes the status of the game. The tower looked as if it was about to fall at any moment.
Fall. Huh. Maybe she was more alike with this tower than she was anything else. It somewhat described how she was always going through ups and downs. Sometimes tall, sometimes not. One wrong move and it falls.
"I'm not letting it fall this time, for sure."
She looked up at the sound of his voice, surprised. He was the same as he was a few seconds ago, eyes scrunched in concentration towards the tower. He looked completely invested in the game, his fingers were even shaking as he took on another block.
For a moment, she had thought that he was referring to her.
How childish, she berated.
But still, maybe...
It wouldn't hurt to ask, right?
Jokingly, she said quietly, "Isn't it going to fall either way though?"
With shaky hands, he set out to choose a brick as carefully as he could, from what she could see. Slowly, he eased the block from the tower until it had been removed completely.
"Not if I can help it." He said confidently, but the moment the brick was put down onto the tower, it began to crash.
Prima couldn't stop herself from giving him a disappointed half-smile, "You lost."
"What's with that face? You won, didn't you?"
"...I guess I did." She laughed sheepishly, though apparently, she was still unable to hide the disappointment, because Ben sighed all of a sudden and raised his right hand.
"What are you doing?"
"Shh. I'm concentrating."
"Why is your hand - " She was cut off by the movement of the blocks aligning themselves to form into a tower, even without the touch of a person.
"There," he said with a smug smirk, "the Force is pretty cool, huh?"
Awed, she could only stare at the repaired tower of blocks.
"You can't tell anyone I showed you though," he said, looking around anxiously, "I promised I wouldn't show anyone about this yet, but since you looked pretty bummed out about that tower, I figured it wouldn't be so bad."
She ignored him and continued looking at the tower, impressed.
"Is it that amazing? Well I guess it is, since it's me and all that but - "
She flicked her wrist and her hand automatically made the tower fall down again.
"Hey! What was that for?" he remarked, sounding affronted at her actions.
But she only smiled triumphantly at Ben, "Your turn!"
Maybe she could trust him, after all.
Short chapter and y'all deserve so much more but since next one's a time-skip, I figured I'd cut it here.
Here's a very, very brief preview lmao.
"I've been thinking about it…and was it really wrong, the things my parents did?"
lol i've been gone for awhile, but it's summer break now. i have plenty of time.
