Plotting

[galen_erso]

"Eadu has its own kind of beauty, if you disregard the discomfort," Galen says, sitting on a rock near the top of the ridge they had been climbing.

The top is pointy and wind-tossed and not for sitting.

The ridge is high, and you can see far when it's not actively raining, which it isn't now; you can see the Imperial facilities dotted over a mountainside, you can see gorges and small rivers and even the ledge where Bodhi crashed his old ship, now mostly dismantled by droids.

"If we sit here at planetfall, I think we can see a sliver of the sun before it, too, vanishes," he says.

Comments

[imthepilot]

"I want to take you back to the stars." Bodhi pulls himself up to perch next to Galen, his hip pressing against Galen's.

[galen_erso]

Galen pulls him close, leaning his cheek against Bodhi's dark hair.

"You will," he says. "One day, I will be in your ship with you, and we will get away from this together. And if we are lucky, both Jyn and your family will be somewhere in the picture."

[imthepilot]

He nods, his arm around Galen's waist. "My sisters have their own lives now. And my brothers and mother..." He shrugs. Family is himself now. The girls doesn't need him any more. "I want to be with you, and free."

He hugs Galen tight. "So how do we do it?"

[galen_erso]

"I can't take the plans," Galen says, softly. "That would be noticed too easily. I don't even know if we can get all the way to Saw. I'll have to prepare a message we can pass on before going into deep hiding, so the rebels know to find them. So Jyn knows to find them."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi nods, understanding the logic in that. "I'll reach out to my brothers. My orders are in, pending the medic's sign off on my health. My first run is to Jedha. I'll ask for a day's leave there. Given my near death experience it shouldn't be hard to get a standard day's leave."

[galen_erso]

"My brave pilot," Galen says. "But love gives us wings, and new hope. Even me."

[imthepilot]

"Not brave. Greedy. I want to be with you. And I'm willing to do whatever I have to to be with you."

[galen_erso]

Galen is quiet, stunned by how proud and happy that declaration makes him feel. The greed for him will make any bravery worth it, for Bodhi. It's quite humbling.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi rests his head on Galen's shoulder, just... holding him and watching the gap in the clouds.

[galen_erso]

It is like a miracle, or a sign -- in that gap, low among the steep mountains, a sliver of watery sunlight appears.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi looks up, taking in the slither of light and warmth that comes thought the gap in the clouds. "It's beautiful." He rests his head on Galen's shoulder, just holding him.

[galen_erso]

"Up there," Galen says, "we will go, and then far, far away."

[imthepilot]

"Far, far away." He nods. "We'll find Jyn together, I promise."

[galen_erso]

"She is alive," Galen says. "Surely I would have felt it in the force if she wasn't, the way I felt Lyra..."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi nods and hugs Galen again, "I envy you that certainty. But I trust you. You know the Force better than I do."

[galen_erso]

"I can feel you in it," Galen says. "As something special in all the weight of existence that causes eddies in its flow. It's not that magical or unusual."

[imthepilot]

"It's magic to me." Bodhi shrugs, watching the last rays of planet-set. "All I have is this." He tangles his fingers in Galen's. "And the memories we've made together. But they're enough. They'll guide me back to you."

[galen_erso]

"We have the knowledge that we belong together," Galen says softly, "and the memory of the other's voice saying I love you."

[imthepilot]

"The memory of the other's voice." He echoes, resting his head on Galen's shoulder. "I love you. They're not... good words. They're not big enough."

[galen_erso]

"We are one in the Force, and it uses us as one," Galen says, softly. "It is bigger, but starker."

[imthepilot]

"I'm not sure I like the starkness." He admits softly, "I don't trust it."

[galen_erso]

"But it's what we get -- either the bare starkness of the impersonal Force, or those personal feelings that seem to small for the power of what we are," Galen says, smiling into Bodhi's eyes.

[imthepilot]

"I choose this." He takes Galen's hand and brings it to his lips. "You."

[galen_erso]

"Me, and you, and a way out of here, until the Force has what it wants from us," Galen says, looking into Bodhi's eyes instead of the bleak landscape of Eadu. "Then we can put a picture of this place on our wall and be done."

[imthepilot]

"I should have thought to bring a capture with me." He'd like a picture of Galen too, something to keep close. For now, he looks deep into those beautiful, warm, strange eyes.