The silence, the atmosphere of the room, and the emptiness of my stomach reminded me of when we would both lie awake in our bunks at the end of a long day on the battlefield, waiting for the other to suggest sneaking into the mess for something to eat. "Wanna go to the mess?" Rebel proposed tentatively. "I thought you'd never ask," I said exaggeratedly as I sat straight up in bed and smiled at her as she struggled to sit up with Ria's weight on her chest, chuckling at my eagerness. "I'll put Ria down on our way," she announced as she looked down at Ria and scooped her up in her arms, sliding out of bed and standing up. "Thank you," I said gratefully as I, too, stood out of bed and followed Rebel next door as she cradled my daughter the entire journey there. "Good night, Ria," I whispered as I kissed her forehead after Rebel had placed her down in her bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. I looked over at Rebel, wordlessly asking if she still wanted to go to the mess or if the brief walk had satisfied her and if she now thought she'd be sleepy enough to return to the bedroom and drift off, but she smirked at me and bolted out the door, darting around the doorframe and sprinting in the direction of the cafeteria. I rolled my eyes at her teasingly and chuckled as I chased after her, attempting to catch up. My attempt failed as I lost the race miserably, finally arriving huffing and puffing as Rebel was already standing in front of the pantry with the door open and scanning for snacks that appealed to her appetite. I walked over to one of the picnic style tables and sat down on the bench to catch my breath as she sighed disappointedly at the selection. She boosted herself up on her tiptoes to reach the shelves above her head and rummaged around for a moment before looking down at the ground and then over her shoulder at me. "I've gotten rather big," she said ashamedly and her knees buckled as she fell to the ground with a thud, sitting down with her legs tucked underneath her. I gasped, offended by the insult she gave her body since we shared the same genetics and also because I've always admired her beauty, so it was as if she were insulting me personally in two ways. "No!" I immediately denied her statement, automatically prepared to dissuade her from viewing herself as anything less than the embodiment of perfection. I scanned her up and down, finding that her body shape was actually quite flattering and attractive for her face shape and height. She was slightly curvier than the last time I'd seen her, her features more plump and rounded, but it suited her well and she was definitely not overweight, just a tad bit chunkier, more matronly. It was definitely better than if she had arrived looking scrawny and malnourished. I was grateful to know she had been well fed. If there was any silver lining to her circumstances to be found at all, it was that she had not been starved. "You're just…" I shrugged, not wanting to tell her an outright lie and say that she was skinny or else she'd never trust me with such feelings in the future. "Fluffy." I smiled at her, finding an appropriate, yet favorable term to describe her figure. She snorted, attempting to conceal her laughter at my depiction of her, but failed. "You're right," she conceded, nodding, and I began to stand up and walk over to her to assist her in choosing a snack since I'd caught my breath by now. "I mean," she scoffed irritatedly as I rose up on my tiptoes and opened one of the cupboards above my head to remove a bag of chips, knowing their precise location and also knowing that chips and cheese, a good duo exactly like Rebel and I, always seemed to possess the ability to cheer her up. "I couldn't workout for three years," she shrugged and I wondered why that was, if Thrawn had been so strict so as to forbid her to even jog a few laps every once and a while to keep herself healthy. "And if you take that into consideration, I look pretty good." I felt a huge smile break out across my face as I derived extreme relief from the fact that she had reclaimed her self confidence. I was experiencing such intense elation, I didn't notice the fact that the bag of chips was sliding from my grasp until they were on the floor. "Ack!" I screeched as the bag landed on the ground with a crash and I saw a few of the chips split apart through the small rectangular viewport on the front of the bag when they hit the floor. Rebel's laugh formed into wheezing at the sound I'd made. "What did you do?" She asked accusingly through her giggles. "Nothing," I quickly responded, forcing myself to sound unsuspicious as I bent down to pick up the bag which I hoped she couldn't see since the room was so dark. "Wanna make queso?" I held the full bag of partially broken chips up to her as I crouched down to her level since she was still sitting on the floor and I smiled, although I was certain she couldn't see my face. "Yes!" She answered instantly as she vaulted off the floor. "All we have is string cheese though," she said poutishly, evidently memorizing our entire inventory during the short span of time she'd been in the mess hall and I wondered just how quickly she was able to memorize items since she had apparently already visited the refrigerator and begun working on the pantry by the time I arrived. Clearly, her lack of exercise over the years hadn't at all hindered her ability to run when food was involved. I pondered for only a moment about how to use string cheese to make queso before almost immediately realizing it wouldn't be a problem if we got a little dangerous, which I knew would be no issue for Rebel. "And?" I smirked at Rebel who I assumed shared my mischievous look before giggling at how connected and in sync our thought processes were. We opened the fridge and extracted the cheese before slicing it up with a knife, the biggest one the rebellion had since it was the only one we could find, that was the dangerous part. We didn't think it was even really a food knife judging by its massive size, it might've been one of Wrecker's vibro-knives used in combat, but we couldn't be sure because we didn't dare to turn on the lights. Once we had sliced up the thin wedges of cheese and poured them into a bowl and stuck them in the microwave, I became aware of my need to visit the refresher. I departed on the assurance that Rebel would fare just fine because how difficult is it to melt cheese, really? Upon returning though, I was welcomed by the sight of Rebel sprinting in circles in front of the smoking microwave like a Nuna with a severed head. The room reeked of smoke and I began to fret as I thought perhaps the microwave had been faulty and backfired on her, but as I leaned to the side to catch a better glimpse of the kitchen appliance, I saw that its door was open and it appeared to still be functioning properly while the smoke actually billowed from the bowl sitting on the counter in front of the microwave. I ran over to the counter at a slightly slower pace than I would've if more than just the food appeared to be involved. I looked down at the cheese, if you could even call it cheese anymore, and saw a bubbling black goo, charred and glued to the bottom of the bowl. My jaw dropped as I propped my hands up on my hips disapprovingly, wondering how long it had possibly taken Rebel to burn the cheese to this extent. "How long did you put it in there for?!" I screeched as I slowly turned to her on my right when she'd finally quit frantically spinning in circles and had shamefully dragged her feet to stand beside me. "Three minutes…" she admitted, chuckling nervously as she scratched the back of her neck. I glanced back and forth between her and the cheese. "Th-three minutes?!" I stuttered as I asked, taking a step back and slapping my hand against my chest. When she nodded slowly and seriously, I ran my hand down my face exhaustively as I sighed and I waved her away from the counter. I picked up the bowl and scraped what cheese I could into the trash before placing the bowl in the sink, leaving it for whoever's turn it was to do the dishes next to deal with. After that, I removed the only remaining stick of cheese from the fridge and chopped it up again while shielding it from Rebel's cursed hands the entire time which resulted in a fun game of her periodically chasing me around the kitchen to steal the cheese from me and me trying to protect it from her with a knife in my hands…in the dark. In hindsight, we probably shouldn't have played that, but it was fun at the time. After all of the cheese had been cut up, I gathered all of the slices and placed them in a new bowl while continuing to swat Rebel's cheese murdering hands away. Once I had set the timer on the microwave for an appropriate amount of time and stirred the cheese until it was melted, I brought it to the table Rebel had claimed as 'our table' and opened the bag of chips to begin dipping them in the homemade queso. We both hummed in satisfaction as we took the first bite of our snack, but I think what had really satisfied both of us was each other's company. I had missed her more than I could possibly begin to express. "Hey," her voice was muffled as she chewed and she must've realized it because she chuckled, holding her hand up to her mouth and used the other to hold one finger up to me, signifying she'd only be a moment. I giggled and held both hands up to her, indicating she could take all the time she needed. "Thank you," she said sincerely once she swallowed and I tilted my head to one side, wondering why she was thanking me. "For raising me to be the person I am, and for saving me so many times before," she explained as she looked off to the side embarrassedly and shrugged one shoulder. "For everything, honestly." She chuckled humorlessly as she realized that truly summed up all that she was grateful to me for. "I would've lost all hope if it wasn't for you." She nodded in conclusion as she looked back up at me and dipped her head a subtle bow of appreciation. I smiled at her expression of gratitude that was unnecessary and couldn't have been farther from the truth. I'd never actually done anything for her her whole life, all I'd done was try, try to be a good sister, the kind she deserved, a good friend, a loyal follower, and a good substitute for her during her absence as leader of the rebellion, but I'd never once succeeded at any of those endeavors. My bond with her as sister always motivated me to want to accomplish those things for her, but it was always a disappointment to me when I failed time and again. "You're my sister," I said lovingly as I reached across the table to touch her hand since she was sitting across from me, but I stopped myself. "Of course I would have saved you because you've saved me countless times," I pointed at myself. Even if I didn't care for her in the slightest, her innumerable rescues of me would, on their own, be enough to motivate me to save her. Of course, there was more to my desire to rescue her than just to repay her for what she'd done for me, but I wanted to make it clear that I was the one who should be thanking her since she had definitely rescued me more times than I had her. "But I didn't." I looked down and shook my head ashamedly as my most recent failure to rescue her from Thrawn was added to the list. "What do you mean?" She asked confusedly as she sat forward. "Rebel, I've never been the one to save you." I shook my head. "You've always saved yourself." I thought of all the admirable qualities in her that made that possible. "You're so independent, and strong, and brave, and resourceful," I complimented her, telling her all of the things she was that I've aspired to mimic my entire life. "Rue," she croaked out, choking on the word as her eyes glazed over with tears. "You're gonna make me cry." She coughed out a sob as she fanned her face with her hands to dry her tears that had yet to pour down her cheeks, but I smirked already knowing I had more to say about how much I love and respect her. "Let's be honest," I scoffed as I held my flat palm out in a gesture to her. "You rescued yourself from that nightmare and even persevering this long is proof of your resilience in itself." I used my most recent failure with Thrawn as an example to show that all credit for her rescue should be endowed to her. I wished I could take the credit for her escape, not for the credit itself per say, but so that she wouldn't have had to put forth the effort to escape completely on her own because as her big sister that should've been my responsibility. "I would have loved to save you," I said emphatically, squeezing my fists. "Just to even attempt to repay you for all the hope, friendship, love, laughter, and comfort you've given me over the years, but I couldn't," I said regretfully, but she refused to accept that I hadn't repaid her as she shook her head in disagreement. Another example of my failure proved useful as I thought of a time when I'd even promised I'd save her and hadn't followed through. "I couldn't even follow through on my promise to get you out of the castle, no matter how much I wanted to," I said apologetically and I wondered why I'd fallen short so many times while Rebel hadn't. I wondered what she possessed that I didn't. "I have nowhere near as much courage and leadership as you do," I announced, discovering the answer. "Rue, it isn't a competition and you never have to repay me for anything, you know that." She shook her head as she responded exactly the way I expected her to. "I know." I smiled at her as I nodded. "I just need you to see that you have no one to thank for the way that you are, but yourself," I said as I gestured towards her. "You came to be who you are today the same way you've always done things, by the strength of your own wit," I continued, emphasizing my point, stubbornly showing that I refused to let up, a quality I'd learned by watching Rebel. "The way that you were raised has no bearing on the beautiful, intelligent, rebellious," I winked at her, highlighting my wordplay. "Selfless woman you are because how could we," I gestured to myself, but shortly thereafter realized there was no one who deserved the credit for Rebel's upbringing except herself. "How could anyone but you, possibly raise such greatness?" I asked rhetorically. "You created that all on your own," I gestured to her up and down. "You are you," I stated each word separately, pausing in between each. "Unapologetically Rebel." I smiled at her and finally decided to address the ladder part of her statement about me providing her with hope since this subject had been thoroughly covered. "So, the fact that I can be your source of hope is such a great and totally undeserved honor because we always look to you whenever we're in doubt." I don't think we'd ever told her how much we, as a rebellion, looked up to her or how much her speeches empowered us. I think that's why she must've thought that asking us to forget her all those years ago was a simple task. "You really mean that?" She asked in a small childish voice that made me grin. "Every word." I nodded. "You have no idea how much that means to me," she shook her head as she wrung her hands. "How much I needed to hear that." Her voice cracked as she now nodded instead and a tear rolled down her cheek. It made me want to hug and comfort her so badly, I never ever wanted to see her cry, but I couldn't just reach out and wrap her up in an embrace anymore because of what that awful man had done to her and that made me want to cry as well. "Can-can I?" I stuttered as I asked, stretching my arms out to her, symbolizing an embrace. "Of course," she sobbed, tears tracking down both of her cheeks now as she reached out towards me, but then patted the space on the bench next to her, urging me to sit closer to her to make it easier for us to hug each other. I jumped up and walked around the table to sit beside her and I held my breath anxiously before hugging her as tightly as I could and she did the same. It was the first hug I'd received from her in over three years and it felt indescribably good to hold her again and to have her hold me. By now we were both crying and there would be puddles on each other's shoulders since we were both propping our heads up on each other's shoulders. "You know," she sniffled. "When I said I'm not a big fan of touch anymore," she took a shuddering breath. "I didn't mean yours," she whispered. Now that I knew she was enjoying this as much as I was and I wasn't making her feel uncomfortable, I squeezed her even tighter, which I didn't know was even possible. "Well," she said unsurely. "Maybe I did at the time," she admitted. "But now I know, whenever I'm around you, I'm safe and I'm home." She hugged me harder too as she buried her cheek in my shoulder. "Me too," I sighed, never feeling more at peace. Suddenly, Rebel shivered and I wondered if the hug was lasting too long for her. "What's wrong?" I asked apprehensively as I pulled back out of the hug and held onto her shoulders, trying to meet her gaze, but her head was bowed and her arms were now wrapped around herself. "Nothing and everything," she responded confusingly as she stared at the ground.