Fic: Saving What We Love (Star Wars, Leia & Rose, PG-13)
This was my entry for Chocolate Box this year. I haven't ever written Star Wars before, which is ironic considering it was my first fandom as a kid. I was expecting to write Venom or Good Omens for Chocolate Box, and really only offered Star Wars as a stretch goal, not expecting it to match, and certainly not on Rose! But it turned out that was the only match I had with Melody_Jade's requests. I'm glad it worked out that way, though. I'll no doubt write more Venom and maybe even finish my Good Omens WiP one day, but I only have vidding ideas for Star Wars so who knows if I'll ever write it again. But once I read Melody_Jade's prompts, I really wanted to write Rose. Leia is my fave, so it was a delight to have a go at writing her as the General, and it was really interesting finding out about Rose as I wrote her.
They are both awesome and fun. Plus, together, they fight crime wars!
Title: Saving What We Love by
cupidsbow
Fandom: Star Wars
Rating: PG-13
Relationship: Leia Organa & Rose Tico
Warnings: None
For: Melody_Jade, Chocolate Box - Round 5
Summary: “Tico!” Lazslo, the head tech, strode out from the shuttle’s main bay where he'd been working on the internal wiring, giving her dirty appearance an approving once-over. He was a great believer in the virtues of hard work. “The General wants you.” He held out a cleaning-pad that was already showing signs of use. “Better hop to it.”
Rose was covered in grease. She could feel it, thick and sticky on her overalls, her gloves, the back of her neck. The old GX1 shuttle she was working on still wasn’t fixed, even though her tech team had been cleaning out rust and replacing parts for the last three days. Swiping the sweat from her face with her least greasy arm, she pulled up the work order to check what still needed to be done. Oh, flea-ridden rancors! The next job was fixing the docking tubes. Rose hated docking tubes. They always pinched her fingers.
“Tico!” Lazslo, the head tech, strode out from the shuttle’s main bay where he'd been working on the internal wiring, giving her dirty appearance an approving once-over. He was a great believer in the virtues of hard work. “The General wants you.” He held out a cleaning-pad that was already showing signs of use. “Better hop to it.”
Rose gratefully accepted the cleaning-pad and hastily wiped off what she could as she trotted over to the cave housing the command ship. It loomed out of the jungle, full of bustling pilots, droids and techs.
The General was standing off to one side, speaking to Poe Dameron. Rose tried not to stare at the neat coils of General Leia’s hair, so unlike the way the elder women on Hayes Minor had worn theirs. It had been engrained in Rose since before she had words that short hair was safe hair in the mines. Leia’s hair was indulgently long; sleek and pretty, shot with white that shone in the sunlight, like a princess in a holodrama. It drew attention, a distraction from the General's eyes, which were shrewd and clever, much like the Hayes colony grandmothers who had watched over and scolded a curious, skinned-kneed Rose. (All of them dead now, those wrinkled, clever grandmothers, and everyone else who raised me, a thought Rose shoved down before it could take hold, ignoring the prickle in her eyes. A blink and the pain was gone.)
General Leia smiled as soon as she noticed Rose approaching. Rose smiled back. “You wanted me?”
“Yes, Rose.” Leia motioned for Rose to follow, and led her towards the edge of their landing ground. Poe trailed along too, shooting a big smile at Rose, as though he knew what was coming and was delighted by it. “Commander Dameron brought back a present for you.”
Commander Dameron's grin got even toothier and he winked at her. "I saw it and thought of you."
“A present?” Rose swallowed. (The last time Rose had been given a present, it was a birthday gift from Paige. There would never be another. Rose could still count the distance between them in days, but not for much longer. Paige was falling further and further into Rose’s past. Soon it would be months between them. Then years. Rose’s arms would never be long enough to breach the gap, even if Rose lived long enough to become a grandmother herself. If she could have any present in all the worlds, oh, how she would wish for the gift of more time.)
The General paused, those clever brown eyes taking her in. Rose couldn’t help but meet that gaze, as she'd been taught to do. (She saw kindness, tempering the cleverness, deep as a well. The kind that grew out of pain and loss. Rose thought the grandmothers would have liked Leia. The irritating prickle of tears returned and Rose blinked it away again.)
“More of a challenge,” the General said, overwriting the word present, striking it out. “I think you're ready for it.”
They rounded the Millennium Falcon, and sitting behind it was a T-85, beat to Dagobah and back, with a hole through one x-wing and no landing gear.
“Took a bit of work getting the old girl back here,” Commander Dameron said. When he gazed at the ship, he looked fond instead of cocky and Rose liked him better for it. “We're all hoping you can work some magic on it.”
Rose circled the ship, letting Dameron's running commentary about how they salvaged the ship flow over her. She winnowed out the colourful bits -- a Hutt stole it from the Defense Fleet and then lost it when it was jettisoned by a smuggler? Sounded fake, but it made for a good story -- and mentally noted the technical specs Dameron dropped during the telling. Even a quick walk-around made it clear the ship was a nightmare. Coolant drips stained the T-85’s chassis. Some kind of fungus caked the vents. The fusal engines were covered in laser scores.
It was beautiful.
Working off a glove, Rose laid a hand on the fighter’s scarred side. “Hello,” she said, the way her mother taught her (and her mother's mother, and back, and back, to all those grandmothers in her family who spoke to machines).
She leaned against its skin. It leaned back, steadying her. She waited patiently, letting the shape of the ship's damage flow through her. She could feel the ache in its bones, but it wasn’t quite done yet. It was a fish, darting through the starlight rivers of the void. It was a mynock, eager for the taste of other ships. It was broken, but it could still be made whole. Words hovered behind her teeth. Sweetheart. Darling. You’ll save so many lives once I’ve rebuilt you. You'll save the people I love, won't you?
The General moved near and placed her hand next to Rose's. A vibration went through the ship. Rose could feel Leia's presence through the metal under her palm, fizzing like power through wires. The ship's whisper became rumble, speaking to them in the way of made-things, ready to fulfil its purpose, eager to be a starfighter again. It just needed a little kindness, a lot of hard work, and a small moon's worth of grease.
"You can fix it," The General said. It wasn't a question.
"I can," Rose agreed.
"Good." When Leia lifted her hand, the ship went quiet. "Then pick a tech team. You're in command," she said, turning away to meet the squawking figure of C3PO, scuttling towards them complaining of an urgent problem with the solar array. This entry was originally posted at https://cupidsbow.dreamwidth.org/457578.html.