After waking up, for a long mont, I didn’t know where I was. But... There was a new kind of warmth at my side, radiating outwards, making feel like I was in pure bliss. It was followed by a steady rhythm of breath, running against my neck and tickling my collarbone, making shiver, but in a good way. As my consciousness returned... I could feel that my arm was pinned under sothing soft, and a hand that was not mine curled loosely over my chest, holding . I blinked a few tis, registering the sensations I was feeling... Yeah... I was still ho, in the academy, at Yavin 4... but the ceiling above curved with a slightly off pattern, telling this was not my room.
Oh... Right. I'm in Vila’s alcove...
Thinking about it, my head turned slightly, and there she was, snuggled up against as we lay on the one-person bed, making the feeling way more cozier than it had any reason to be. Her legs were tangled with mine, one of her lekku draped across my shoulder like a purple scarf, resting on . She wore simple gray pajamas, and her face looked.... Peaceful. One thing I could tell was that... Even without focusing... That she wasn't having any nightmares now.
And then I realized sothing else: She was smiling in her sleep. There were no twitching, no muttering, and no flinching like I did when I woke up from being lost in the Force and tried to rest in the following days. She was just breathing softly, contentedly, her lips curved upward ever so slightly, enjoying her sleep.
I didn’t move, of course, because I didn’t want to ruin her dreams. If I could bottle this exact mont and live inside it for a while, I would... So I made sure I morized it, hoping it would help too in the past, whenever I feel... overwheld. Then, as if realizing I had woken up, her eyes opened only minutes later than when I began thinking about our current situation. She did so slowly, not like soone waking because sothing disturbed them, but in a natural, satisfying way.
Yawning a little, she looked up at , still lying there, her head resting on my chest, and of course, her smile didn’t fade at all. It seems that I was the only one who felt a bit shy at the mont.
“This…” she muttered, licking her lips, her voice still hoarse with sleep, “was the first ti... The best ti... Ever.”
"Um..." I tilted my head, brushing her forehead lightly with my nose as she began adjusting her pose. I was trying not to turn into a tomato, probably without any success, “First... Of what?”
“First ti I slept like that,” she chuckled. “No bad dreams... Not waking up in a cold sweat. You know... All that jazz. It is a good feeling not to bolt upright from so weird mory that my brain tries to make rember. It was just…” She snuggled up to closer, eyes fluttering shut again. “Peace...”
That hit deeper than I expected. Her voice wasn’t teasing, not even a little, and I could feel that she was honest in the way Vila rarely let herself be. I learned early on that she had built a wall around her actual thoughts, and although she made friends with others... That was still different as they couldn't see all of her sides, just the part that she was comfortable sharing. Right now, she was probably even more honest, because she now knew I would be able to tell everything anyway...
And she let in instead of building that wall even higher.
"Well..." I smiled in the end, running my finger on her back, gently caressing her lekku, which made her shiver... Um...I shouldn't... do that? Wait... how was it for twi'leks? Ugh... I was unsure, but she didn't pull away... So... it should be fine. “I guess I’m pretty useful, then?” I added, pushing down my thoughts.
“Mhm,” she nodded, “I just might keep you.”
"Happy to provide, eh?" I let out a soft chuckle, shifting a bit so my arm didn’t fall asleep under her. “You know, 3PO would have a ltdown if he walked in right now.”
"Nah," She cracked one eye open at again. “This is my private abode. He has no reason coming in... Duh, he doesn't even co to this part of the Temple... Idiot...” She pursed her lips, realizing I was just teasing her.
In the end, we stayed like that for a little longer, doing nothing, just lying there quietly and thinking of nothing in particular. It felt like the universe finally paused to let not focus on anything and just... be. It was a surprisingly good feeling.
And then… it hit . Just one, simple thought, catching like a rock to the head, causing to sit upright, my eyes widening.
“Oh no—!”
"W-what?" Vila blinked, looking up at , suddenly startled. “Kael?”
“HK!” I gasped. “I never reactivated him!”
“...” She just looked at , like I was an idiot... and I felt like one. "Ahahahaha! So what?!" She laughed so loudly that it resonated throughout the room, making it sound like multiple Vila were laughing at .
"Damn, I just... zoned out! Thinking about C-3PO made realize I never went to pick him up!"
"Really?" She continued to laugh, but let climb out to dress up. After watching find my clothes, she also began to change, "Never even thought about the ol' rust bucket? Cruel."
“I was in a coma! Then you kissed into oblivion! My brain got scrambled!” I complained, but neither of those sounded actually convincing.
“And you didn’t think of him at all until now? Pft~!”
“I’m a terrible droid dad,” I groaned.
"Like he looks at you like a dad!" She giggled, following out of the room, constantly chuckling whenever she looked at , making grumble again and again.
Ultimately, it took twenty minutes to find where he’d been stashed.
He was in storage bay nine, under the Temple’s southeast wing, next to an entire collection of broken training remotes, recycled droid components, and half-assembled speeder parts. All the usual stuff that got broken by the padawans and then ended up here to be fixed in due ti. Or as a lesson for the more technically gifted. I found HK-01 leaning against a wall like soone had sat him there politely before abandoning him forever.
Wait... wasn't he... taken away by the Masters? But then again... Ah, doesn't matter. If they put him here, that's fine. Checking him, everything looked good, even a little fixed up. Its head, torso, and arms were all right, and only its legs remained that of a different model. And that left arm. Will we ever find them? Who knows... but he was in a good, operational state as far as I could tell.
"Here goes nothing..." I murmured, glancing at Vila, who just stepped back, watching turn him on. I shouldn't need to ntion that he looked offended... and he wasn’t even powered up completely yet. “I’m so sorry,” I muttered, standing beside him as his photoreceptors began to readjust, and he booted up, just like when I first t him. With a sharp click, his systems buzzed to life, its servo joints whirring as his red photoreceptors flared online, snapping directly at .
He stood still for a beat, then tilted his head even closer toward , looking directly into my eyes.
[Statent: Power levels restored. Systems rebooted. Internal chronoter synchronized. Ti since deactivation… Error. Confirming… Recalibrating… Confird.] He paused... [Accusation: Four months, four days, seventeen hours, and forty-two minutes. You left offline for over a standard season, atbag.]
"Ugh..." I winced. “I know, I know. I was... Unconscious... look, it’s a long story, okay?”
[Indignant Reprimand: I was left in a closet, surrounded by the robotic corpses of retired cleaning units and juvenile droid parts. Unacceptable. Aggravated Remark: Do you have any idea how humiliating that is for a superior assassination unit like myself?]
“I didn’t an to—!”
[Sarcastic Simulation: ‘Oops, sorry HK, I had a coma and then forgot my oldest and most deadly asset ever existed.’ Sarcastic Addendum: 'You protected , I am so indebted to you unless it's about reactivating you!' How convenient, atbag logic.]
I had to admit, the way he mimicked my voice, to perfection... made wince.
"Um..." I held up my hands. “That’s... almost exactly what happened, actually. As I said... I was in a coma... And I am indebted to you for fighting back there... Really!”
[Incensed Declaration: I could have been lted for scrap! Or, worse: repurposed as a protocol unit!]
“You are in a protocol droid body,” Vila reminded him gently, "Partially that is."
[Scandalized Retort: That is temporary. And offensive, atbag.]
"Look," I began, but he wasn't listening, and he began pacing, or rather, clanking his legs. I was sure he was intentionally putting more force behind his steps, walking back and forth, muttering loudly in binary while throwing the occasional glare in my direction.
[Mocking Statent: ‘HK, I’ll never abandon you. HK, I trust you with my life. HK, watch my back while I flirt with the Twi’lek.’ atbag nonsense. Untrustworthy biological anomalies. I knew it the mont you two started sharing oxygen via the mouth that I could not rely on you two.]
"Hey!" Vila snorted loudly, stomping in place, before I raised a hand, trying to calm her down.
"HK!" I sighed, “You know that’s not fair—!”
[Petulant Complaint: While you were snuggled up in atbag ecstasy, I was deactivated next to a broken mop droid!]
"Drop the mop, please!" I pressed my hand to my forehead, finally getting annoyed, “And please stop repeating ‘atbag' and 'ecstasy’ in the sa sentence.”
[Defiant Refusal: Never. Observation: It brings you a significant amount of sha. Statent: I will continue to do so until I am satisfied.]
"If you want, we can reprogram you to be indeed a janitor. I think you could suit the role perfectly fine!" Vila shot back at him, making him finally stop his angry march, just looking at her murderously. Not that he had any other expression on his droid face.
“Oh, you really pissed him off,” I added, whispering, but Vila just continued to grin, slowly fingering her lightsabers.
"He is a big, old tal child. A spanking is in order..."
[Spiteful Observation: Just try it.]
"I may!" Vila grinned, not backing down. “Hey HK.”
[Grudging Acknowledgnt: What?]
"Are you going to keep moping around like an actual mop droid, or pull yourself together?" She smirked, nudging . “Take it as if you had a good, long sleep. Be happy, because there was a serious possibility that you would have been lted down to scrap tal if not for Kael.”
"..." I said nothing but what surprised ... I didn't feel like she was lying. What did I do? Because of ...? What? I missed sothing... I definitely missed sothing...
[Begrudging Conclusion: I am not going to say thank you.]
In the end, I watched him clank away into the corridor, muttering to himself like a drama queen.
“I think he’s going to need a full day of tantrums,” I murmured, watching him ignore us.
“Oh no,” Vila said, patting my shoulder. “This will last weeks. Good luck, he is yours, not mine!”
"Err... thanks?" I sighed and started following HK. “Guess I’ll be sleeping with one eye open while he gets placated to an acceptable level.”
[Statent: You should have thought of that before locking in a tomb of broomsticks, you flesh-lump of betrayal.]
"Well, he didn't call a atbag anymore?" I turned to Vila. “Improvent?”
"Maybe," She smiled and looped her arm through mine. “Absolutely not, though.”
"Wait... that's..."
"Co!" She pulled on , "Let him be a little sad droid for a while. Clearly, he is not that great of an assassin if this makes him act like a atbag child."
As we left, I could swear I saw HK look at us, maybe even a bit stunned. Oh well... He should cool off soon. I guess... I hope...
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