AU week 2017

[imthepilot]

OOM: On the eve of the Battle of Endor, Rebellion General Bodhi Rook is sent on a mission to extract Imperial scientists. He finds himself face to face with someone he never thought he’d see again. Someone he’d buried, along with his heart.

[Warnings for trauma, violence, potentially suicidal contemplation, serious relationship tension, and minor misuse of archaeological sites.}


“There’s should be a kitchen through here.” Bodhi says over his shoulder as he pushes the door open.

Into a room he doesn’t know. If there was a cantina attached to the base, everyone would be here and drunk by now. He steps in and to one side, his flesh hand drifting towards his blaster as the skeletal durasteel fingers of his prosthetic curl into a ready fist.

"What is wrong?" Galen asks. He doesn't know the base yet, but this place seems oddly calm. As if the Empire hadn't just fallen.

“This isn’t part of Delta Base.” Bodhi scans the room. “Stay put, I’ll find out.”


{Tag one or both, please say which so we know who to tag. Bodhi’s AU description is here. Warnings for slowtime given timezones and RL interference.}

[tinytag - Bodhi Rook, Galen Erso]

Comments

[galen_erso]

Galen stands by the door, keeping still and looking around.

The human quota is too high, for one thing, for the rebellion.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi heads to the bar, scanning the room as his hand lingers on the blaster's butt. He's presented with an explanation flyer, which he scans, shaking his head.

"Galen. I think this requires a scientist's view." He beckons Galen over, standing with his back to the empty bar, watching the rest of the room. (And Galen's back)

[galen_erso]

Galen walks over and takes the flyer, starting to read.

[imthepilot]

"That make any sense to you?"

[galen_erso]

"Yes, but it would mean that several fringe theories are not only true, but applicable," Galen says, still reading.

[imthepilot]

"You may have to dumb this down to soldier-speak, Doctor."

[galen_erso]

Galen grins at him, as Bodhi isn't nowhere near as stupid or uneducated as his words imply.

"Several realities exist, depending on choices exercised by nature, or history," Galen says. "Even the laws of nature can vary in those different universes. And it's possible to cross the borders of these rralitires, or at least cross to a place where all realities are possible, which apparently here."

[imthepilot]

"Alternate universes meeting at a crossing point?" No, he isn't that stupid but-

[galen_erso]

"Precisely," Galen declares. "And this is the crossing point. At least according to this handy little brochure."

Pause.

"Which is a bit hard to believe all at once, but seems I have to throw all skepticism to the winds."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi scans the room, taking in the mix of clothes and styles. "I think I can believe it. Lacking a better explanation."

And the rats walking past carrying trays. "Does it say anything about a kitchen?"

[galen_erso]

Galen turns a few pages, until he finds a plan, which is oddly vague in places.

"Through there," he says. "Shall we?"

[imthepilot]

Bodhi nods and investigates the kitchen. It's much bigger than he expects and he finds himself drawn to the spice cupboard. He hasn't lost that military rigidity but there's something more- animated in his movements. "What do you feel like? They have a lot of options here."

[galen_erso]

"Something in a sauce of green spice and scarif nut," Galen says.

It's still scarif nut, just as it is still Alderaan beer.

"Just not too much white chili, if that is all right. And do put me to work cutting and scrubbing things."

[imthepilot]

"Testing me." Bodhi huffs softly, pulling spices and herbs down from various shelves. "I was going to suggest as simple as an omelette. But if you say."

He opens a cooler and is shocked to find fresh Scarif nuts. "I could come to like this place."

He shakes his head to the offer. "I haven't cooked in a while. Give me a moment to find my way back to the recipe."

[galen_erso]

Galen hops up onto a tall stool. "Should I get us anything to drink?"

[imthepilot]

"Just some caf please? I don't drink." Any more.

[galen_erso]

Galen hops off his chair, gets each of them a mug of caf from a nearby machine, and then sits on the stool again, watching Bodhi.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi doesn't cook with the same flare he use to. More organised, more step by step than intuitive. But it smells just as good as it comes together.

[galen_erso]

Galen watches him, blood-warm eyes alive with fascination, taking in sights and scents.

This is Bodhi, and Galen loves watching him cook and slowly become more like the man Galen used to know. But he loves Bodhi in any version; he will get used to the calmer, cooler man he has become. No more talking a mile a minute, no more intuitively balancing everything up in the air.

[imthepilot]

He sets the soup to simmer, stopping to sip his caf, seemingly lost in thought. He leans against the bench, just watching Galen watch him. All too aware of the thick silence between them.

[galen_erso]

"Tell me," Galen finally says. "What happened. What you can tell me -- keeping personal and professional confidences, of course."

[imthepilot]

"From what point?" He asks. It's not a refusal, just a clarification.

[galen_erso]

"When we last kissed," Galen says.

He misses kissing Bodhi. Did so the entire time.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi turns his face away, trying to hide the way his face colours.

"You know, about the riot. About the boy the troopers shot. The last time we spoke." He pushes off the bench, stirring the pot. "I ran. Went looking for the Partisans. For Saw Gerrera. To give him your message."

"I didn't do it will. I thought my brother could help but- they were around. So I told everyone, anyone, hoping word would reach him. His people found me eventually."

[galen_erso]

"And then?" Galen asks, sipping his caf.