"In Need of Wings"
Chapter the Sixth
It was late evening on Coruscant. The light was fading and the city nightlife stirred in the lower levels. Ahsoka kept the window shades closed at night and light from traffic leaked through, adding to the hanging light above the small table where they ate. Her apartment had a musty smell to it, along with the scent of cheap perfume and makeup. Both of them now carried the scent of cigarette smoke. Ahsoka's cold beverage had turned lukewarm, the ice cubes long melted. Music played from her pod on her bed, blasting the latest Top Forty hits.
Ahsoka's curiosity was picking and nagging at her. But for Ahsoka, curiosity was usually inevitable. Especially when she had been in the company of someone she hardly knew for just over a month.
The truth of the matter was, she hated Cad Bane's guts. But she wanted to know why she hated him.
Who knows, maybe by hearing about all the things that made Cad Bane so easy to hate would help Ahsoka feel better about herself. Then she would have fewer reasons to push herself down all the time. It wasn't the right thing to do, but in this circumstance, Ahsoka did not have a problem with it.
She had a job now at the shipping yard…it was exhausting, but she was grateful to be working again. And over the past several weeks, she had learned more than she ever cared to about all the things that went on in the city, and how to survive in it. A lot of it still intimidated her, but on the other hand, she had come very far. Now no one could swindle her with a poor speeder anymore.
She could finally stand on her own.
When their takeout arrived, Ahsoka was deliberately wearing her tank top with the tooka doll covered in green blood and the caption "Nice Playin' With Ya." The scowl on Bane's face when he saw it made the trouble of changing outfits more than worth it. Ahsoka had made it a habit to put that shirt on whenever she knew Bane would have to drop something off or stop by her apartment.
"Who even wants to be a bounty hunter? You could have been a singer or an accountant or a pilot. But no. You had to take a job where you hurt and kill people for a living. I mean, what sort of chemical imbalance in your brain made you choose that?"
"Chemical imbalance?"
She was treading dangerous waters, she knew. But she wanted to see if he would offer an explanation on his own. Testing Cad Bane's patience had become Ahsoka's new favorite hobby. She stuffed her mouth with noodles and began talking with her mouth full.
"Yeah. I just don't get you. I don't think I want to."
He groaned. "Younglings."
Ahsoka swallowed her food. "I'm seventeen!" she snarled.
"Proves my point. You're just a kid."
"You still haven't answered my question. What got you into bounty hunting?"
"Ugh, who cares?"
"I never said I cared, but I'm curious." She held out her fork like she was going to stab him and grinned playfully. He was too much fun to annoy.
He frowned and his mouth twisted into a scowl. "I got into bounty hunting because stealing is fun and killing people is easy."
Her smile dropped at the words 'fun' and 'easy.' "So you enjoy killing people?" she pressed.
"I said it was easy, not enjoyable." He leaned back in his chair. He was no longer looking at her but out the window. "Sometimes it is, though, but you probably knew that already."
"I guess so…" She ate some more noodles. "So stealing is fun?"
"You have no idea. But that comes easy too."
"Why's that?"
"I've been doing it since I was a kid."
"A kid as in, seventeen, or younger than that?" For that matter, Ahsoka discovered, Bane had a tendency to call anyone younger than him a 'kid.'
"As in, this high." He gestured to just above his knee. "I learned how to steal before I learned how to count to twenty."
She thought for a moment about what he just said. "Sounds like you stole because you had to. Even though you were just a little kid."
"I guess you wouldn't understand that. Being raised in the Jedi Temple, three squares meals a day and a roof over your head."
"Hey, watch it." But he was right. Her life had been fairly simple and easy up until she became Anakin's Padawan and was suddenly thrust into a war far bigger and more devastating than she could imagine. Right now, she could understand what it was like living hand to mouth and having to break the law in order to survive. She tried to imagine what such a lifestyle would have been like when she was far younger. "Tough, Bane. That's real tough," she said dryly.
"Do you want to know what I think?"
"You tell me." She munched on her dessert.
"I think you should have stayed with the Order. You shouldn't have left on your own unless you had a place to go." He sat up straight.
"Where is that coming from?" she demanded.
"You're just a kid." He turned to look at her; he didn't look happy. "A month ago you barely lasted on the streets. It was only a matter of time before you would have wound up in real trouble."
"What kind of trouble?"
"Use your imagination. Kids shouldn't wind up on the streets, because the rest of the galaxy won't see them as kids. They only see a way to make easy money. Kids who can't fight back or say No."
She frowned. Now she knew what he was talking about, but why bring up something like this, after she asked about what his childhood was like?
"I couldn't stay with the Order. Not after what happened," she said quietly.
"Then I'm glad you had the freedom to make that choice, Little Bit. Not everyone does."
Ahsoka slowly stood up in her chair, studying the Duros with a new level of curiosity. There was something about what he had said that felt like it rang deep. Like she had struck a chord that hadn't been touched in a long time.
Gods, Bane, what happened to you? Were you kicked around when you were a kid? How bad was it? Did it make killing easier? I don't dare ask…
"Hey, Bane…" she said quietly, "I don't know what happened to you when you were a kid. It doesn't come near to excusing the awful things you've done. It never will. But…"
He glanced up at her.
"I know what you're trying to tell me. You did take this job because you cared. You didn't want something horrible to happen to me."
"It's not like I asked Skywalker for the job—"
"You do care!" She smiled. "You knew you'd feel better if you were sure I was okay. Ha! Not so cold and ruthless now, are you?"
"Teenagers…think they know everything," he muttered.
"That's because we do, old man!" She was smiling even more.
"Shut up!" He got up. "I'm leaving. Take the day off tomorrow, I have more important things to do than spend time with you."
"I knew you cared. Even just a little." She crossed her arms and smiled smugly.
He stormed out the door. Ahsoka's smile faded as soon as he was gone. She certainly had a lot to process now.
Two mornings later, Ahsoka was awoken by the buzzer at her door. Blanket wrapped around her shoulders, she stumbled over to the door and opened it.
"Can we not today?" she muttered as soon as she saw the Duros. "I'm sick." She sniffed the air and detected the aroma of doughnuts and hot caf. "Did you bring me breakfast?"
"Don't get cute. I know you skip meals on purpose to save on cash."
She rubbed her eyes and looked up at him. "You didn't have to do that." Now that she better understood why he was going out of his way for her, it didn't bother her so much. At least she didn't get the sense that he was mocking her financial woes by giving her handouts.
"I came to give you news. Picked up breakfast on the way, so don't start thinking I took extra time out of my day to do this for you."
She frowned, annoyed by how much he refused to admit he cared about her. She leaned against the doorway. "Ooo-kay. What's the news?"
"Skywalker said my work is done."
It took her a moment to process what he said. "Wait…what? You're done?"
"Sent in the latest update on how your lessons have been going. He said I don't have to look out for you anymore." He shoved the bag of breakfast food in her arms. "Congratulations. You've graduated."
"Yay for me, official graduate of Cad Bane 101," she muttered. "So Anakin thinks I don't need your help anymore?"
"That's what it sounds like. So I'm gone." He handed her caf and stepped back. "Good luck."
"Hey…wait! That's it?! 'Good luck'?"
He paused and frowned at her. "What else am I supposed to say?"
"It's just…that was almost two months you were teaching me stuff. I've learned so much. I'm much better off now and I really can take care of myself."
"But we're done now."
The idea of being on her own again—being alone—began to scare her. Wasn't bad company better than none at all? And what if Bane didn't exactly qualify as 'bad company'?
Color her crazy, but she didn't want Bane to leave just yet. Not if they parted ways with no more than a 'good luck,' anyway.
"Oh come on. There has got to be something you still have to teach me," she tried to joke, trying to think of something that would provoke Bane to stay a little longer.
"Like what?" he asked, sounding annoyed.
"Like…cards. Show me how to cheat at cards. Anakin wouldn't have thought to bring that up with you."
Bane sighed and glanced at a crack in the ceiling. Ahsoka was still having a hard time reading his nonverbal gestures. It really bugged her. If he was confusing her on purpose, it certainly worked. "You're just lucky that I don't have a job lined up for a few more days, and that I'm stocked up on supplies."
"So you will?" She brightened.
"Did you know that cheating at cards is illegal?"
"That's why I'm asking you to teach me, duh."
"All right, your choice of place."
"The caf shop. Caf's on me too. It's only fair because you get me breakfast all the time."
"That's the other deal with teenagers…they're so stubborn." He scowled.
"And you're not, old man?" She smirked.
"Watch it or no deal on the card game." But he didn't sound like he meant it. Ahsoka watched him leave and thought more about what he had told her the previous night. She thought about all the near-misses she had had over the past three months from very dangerous, fatal situations. She thought about the war still going on.
It was a lot on her mind…but now she could take this one step at a time. She was closer to leaving Coruscant for good, starting a new life all on her own.
Things were finally starting to turn for the better.