For genprompt_bingo
Sep. 1st, 2020 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyofleithianTitle: i walk beside you though you do not see me
Summary: Leia tells Enfys about Bail and Breha.
Prompt: Homesickness
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author’s Notes: Title from “Citizen Soldier” by Three Doors Down.
“I never really asked about the mask,” Leia said. It was one of those rare times she actually got to talk with Enfys, ask her about things. Han’s friend, back from the old days. Before Han met her. Before he met Luke. It was odd thinking that he actually had a life before her and Luke. She was wrong about him not caring about anything or anybody, she knew that much. Han was a man with a heart so big that it was all too vulnerable to getting hurt. So he tried to hide it.
Enfys was proof of that.
Enfys seemed to be looking down. Then, “My mother had it. I just...took up the mantle.”
“What happened to your mother?” Leia said softly.
“She was murdered.” Enfys sounded too rigid, too quiet. It didn’t sound right, Leia thought. Enfys ought to sound more passionate. Louder. “I was young when I took up the mantle; I thought no one would take a teenage girl seriously.”
“They’re like that.” Leia could remember that too well, people doubting a fourteen year old could be taken seriously in the Senate.
“My mother was...serious,” Enfys said. “Kind. Devoted to the cause. I know she loved me, before the end.” If Leia didn’t have Breha, she would have felt at least a twinge of envy. Instead, she nodded. Enfys’ mother...would she have gotten along with Breha, had they met?
Enfys smiled faintly. “I think my mother would have liked you,” she said. “If we met.”
“I think my mother would have liked you. Breha, I mean." Leia sighed. “It’s a bit complicated, but...my birth mother died long ago. I can remember snippets of her but not much else.”
“What happened?”
“My father was a monster. He good as murdered my mother.”
Enfys’ eyes grew wide. Then, “I’d ask who’d do that to their wife, but there’s a lot of cruelty in the galaxy.”
Leia nodded. “Bail and Breha were more my parents. My mother, Breha...she was kind. Steady. She had that quiet strength that was like a rock. Unassailable. And my father too. Bail, I mean."
Her voice cracked. She thought of Alderaan. A whole planet blasted into a ball of fire. Her biological father, her maker if she could call him that, holding her back and forcing her to watch — had he known? Had he been jealous of her all but “choosing” Bail and Breha over him, even though she didn’t have a choice, even though Bail and Breha had been all she knew?
Enfys smiled faintly. Then, “They’re with you, Leia. Even if you can’t see them. From what you told me, they sound strong. True warriors. Willing to take a stand for the oppressed even if it cost them.”
“You believe in Force Ghosts?”
“I believe they’re here,” Enfys said. “In your blood, in your heart.”
Leia could take comfort in that, even if she didn’t see Bail and Breha there.
Summary: Leia tells Enfys about Bail and Breha.
Prompt: Homesickness
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author’s Notes: Title from “Citizen Soldier” by Three Doors Down.
“I never really asked about the mask,” Leia said. It was one of those rare times she actually got to talk with Enfys, ask her about things. Han’s friend, back from the old days. Before Han met her. Before he met Luke. It was odd thinking that he actually had a life before her and Luke. She was wrong about him not caring about anything or anybody, she knew that much. Han was a man with a heart so big that it was all too vulnerable to getting hurt. So he tried to hide it.
Enfys was proof of that.
Enfys seemed to be looking down. Then, “My mother had it. I just...took up the mantle.”
“What happened to your mother?” Leia said softly.
“She was murdered.” Enfys sounded too rigid, too quiet. It didn’t sound right, Leia thought. Enfys ought to sound more passionate. Louder. “I was young when I took up the mantle; I thought no one would take a teenage girl seriously.”
“They’re like that.” Leia could remember that too well, people doubting a fourteen year old could be taken seriously in the Senate.
“My mother was...serious,” Enfys said. “Kind. Devoted to the cause. I know she loved me, before the end.” If Leia didn’t have Breha, she would have felt at least a twinge of envy. Instead, she nodded. Enfys’ mother...would she have gotten along with Breha, had they met?
Enfys smiled faintly. “I think my mother would have liked you,” she said. “If we met.”
“I think my mother would have liked you. Breha, I mean." Leia sighed. “It’s a bit complicated, but...my birth mother died long ago. I can remember snippets of her but not much else.”
“What happened?”
“My father was a monster. He good as murdered my mother.”
Enfys’ eyes grew wide. Then, “I’d ask who’d do that to their wife, but there’s a lot of cruelty in the galaxy.”
Leia nodded. “Bail and Breha were more my parents. My mother, Breha...she was kind. Steady. She had that quiet strength that was like a rock. Unassailable. And my father too. Bail, I mean."
Her voice cracked. She thought of Alderaan. A whole planet blasted into a ball of fire. Her biological father, her maker if she could call him that, holding her back and forcing her to watch — had he known? Had he been jealous of her all but “choosing” Bail and Breha over him, even though she didn’t have a choice, even though Bail and Breha had been all she knew?
Enfys smiled faintly. Then, “They’re with you, Leia. Even if you can’t see them. From what you told me, they sound strong. True warriors. Willing to take a stand for the oppressed even if it cost them.”
“You believe in Force Ghosts?”
“I believe they’re here,” Enfys said. “In your blood, in your heart.”
Leia could take comfort in that, even if she didn’t see Bail and Breha there.
