nofalternofailure:
He just listens as she speaks. Yes, she is rambling; if the mood between them was as it used to be long ago, he probably would have cut her off by now. But things are different now. The decades feel like they are catching up with him. The weariness is a blanket that hangs upon his shoulders, luring him into a still silence. Yeshuo props his elbow against the countertop while he listens to speak of kindness, of suffering and unity. And of guilt. At the mention of that, the Yuuzhan Vong closes his eyes, and he actually finds himself nodding.
If not in agreement, then at least in understanding. His people have always found unity through struggle and sacrifice and suffering.
Yeshuo collects his thoughts before he speaks. This is the longest he’s just sat and talked to anyone in a time he cannot measure. His eyelids crack open, just a little. Dark eyes focus on the Twi'lek again, and he’s looking over her like she’s a stranger. Like she’s not the same person he met years ago.
But then, neither is he.
“ Kindness is a hard thing to find, and a harder thing to hold on to. In your galaxy and in mine. From the second we are born, my people are cut off from it. Babies are not suckled, not held, not touched by their mothers, to say nothing of their fathers. We are assigned a creche, a routine, and a purpose. Orderly. Simple. ”
The Yuuzhan Vong stops to take a breath. Cruel as it was, the worldship was home– is home, and he always can feel his heart tug in its direction when he speaks of it.
“ Kindness is as foreign to me as anything else here. I have only known it once. Briefly. And then it slipped through my fingers, no matter how much I tightened my grip. ”
Does he want to say more? Of course. He has never spoken the name of the one that haunts him to another, never divulged the nightmares that plague him at night. He shakes his head, trying to fend off the nagging thought like a bantha shrugs off a fly.
“ It is not for me. For you, perhaps. But not me. ”
“Perhaps eet may just not be for you right now. People change. Dheengs change. People come and dhey go...” Her eyes become glazed, covered with a shiny sheen of water that threatens to overload and trail down her cheeks in salty crystalline tears. But she sucks that vulnerable expression in, biting the inside of her cheek until it bled so that those tears would stop before she’d end up crying in her food. Inhaling through her nostrils, she clenches her fists, her muscles tightening for a second until her grip releases.
“My family I do not remember too well. Dhey were found out, sold as slaves. I became slave as child. Life was not fair to me when I finally became woman and no longer child.” Her mind drifts back to that ugly man, his starry eyes, how he looked like he had the head of a fucking fly. It always disgusted her.
“I refuse to be small scared woman I was before owner died. He ees reason why I haff scars. I own dhem.” Her lip twitches into a snarl, the scars over her mouth starting to light up in pain that only makes the Twi’lek’s nails sink into the counter, sharp nails desperately trying to claw into the surface below her palm like she were some kind of wild beast.
Conversation was always a good way to pass the time. A good way to bond. It’s why she’s glad that she’s finally gotten the chance to speak to the man who always had a bone to pick with anyone and everyone.
The timid waitress from before comes forward, holding one large steak in a plate with both hands. Her smile is kind, and her brow is sweaty, while her pupils were dilated. “Here is the first one! My apologies for what took so long!” She places the plate right down in front of Jade, who slides the rather large slab of meat right next to her, right in front of the Yuuzhan Vong. With a polite smile, she merely gives the young girl a wink again.
“I can wait. Can hear hees stomach rumble so loudI thought ground was rumbleeng.”
She only nervously smiles, nods, and heads back into the kitchen, as Jade turns her attention to her newfound friend for the night, sliding him the knife and fork that came with the dish.
“Should taste good. Dhey do not play when comes to food here.”
