Chapter Text
“How’d you manage this?”
“Forgive me if I am using the phrase incorrectly, but I ‘have a few tricks up my sleeve,’ as it were.” The Chiss cocked his head at the grin that bloomed, flower-like and involuntary, across Eli’s face. “Was that the proper idiom?”
“Yeah, it was.” Eli couldn’t begin to imagine what “tricks” Thrawn had up his sleeve (favors called in, maybe, or little gifts from superiors who liked the non-human, if only in secret). It didn’t matter, really. Shore leave was shore leave, and in a military that granted it so rarely, Eli took what he could get.
Even if it was as Thrawn’s aide.
Maybe someday he could actually do something by himself for once.
“Where is it?” Eli asked, pushing the thought aside as he had many times. He’d do anything for a chance to sink his feet into the sand and hear the cries of seabirds over rolling waves, and maybe even feel the sun directly on his skin and not through the fabric of a uniform!
Thrawn pulled out his data pad and started to scroll, the red glow of his eyes softening. “I had the choice of several planets, and several locations within those planets—” How? “—though ultimately, I chose the capital city of Theed on the planet Naboo.” He turned the pad around, and the sight of the blue-green domes of what appeared to be a palace overlooking a cliffside dashed any visions of beach relaxation Eli had harbored.
“It’s beautiful,” Eli said, though clearly not as enthusiastically as Thrawn had hoped.
“Have I made the wrong choice?”
He put some ardor into his voice, perturbed by the slight slump in Thrawn’s shoulders. “I didn’t mean it like that! It really is beautiful. I think I just had some preconceived notions about what ‘shore leave’ was.” He trailed off into a mumble. “Like…that there would be a shore involved.”
Thrawn turned the data pad’s screen back to face him, his brow noticeably tighter. “Naboo, especially in Theed, venerates peace, beauty, and fine art. There is a rich history and a vibrant culture to be explored there. I thought it would be a change to the dark metal of the inside of Imperial ships.”
“Well, when you put it that way, it sounds like a dream.” Eli reached out to put his hand on Thrawn’s shoulder, thought better of it, and crossed his arms. He met Thrawn’s gaze with what he hoped was a warm smile. “Don’t worry. You’ve sold me. It’s gonna be great.”
Thrawn’s eyes hovered on that smile for a few moments. Then his own lips turned up a little, and he went back to scrolling through pictures of Naboo, his obvious anticipation growing with each one he brought up to show Eli. Facts about Theed poured from him, and Eli raised his eyebrows as he realized this was the first time he had ever seen Thrawn this openly passionate about anything. It really did mean a lot to him.
It was infectious. “When can we leave?” asked Eli as his own excitement swirled in his chest.
When Thrawn looked up from the pad, he was almost beaming. “There is a shuttle waiting for us now. I have already packed my things; after you pack yours, we can leave immediately.”
*
Naboo lost none of its verdant color as the shuttle lowered into the atmosphere. There was no lack of sunshine glinting and flashing up into Eli’s eyes off the surface of Theed’s waterways. He was sure Thrawn would drag him off to every art gallery, museum exhibit, and historical building he could research, and to his own quiet surprise, he wasn’t upset about any of it. It didn’t even rattle him when he found only a single room had been booked for the two of them, not after he saw how elegant and plush it was (especially after the stiff, plain quarters he was used to; besides, he’d shared a room with Thrawn before). It had wide floor-to-ceiling windows that let in the sun through sheer curtains, it had a balcony overlooking the city with a canal that flowed directly beneath, it had the biggest bed Eli had ever seen sitting in the center—
—There was only one bed.
They considered this for a second or two.
“Is this standard Imperial procedure for shore leave?” Eli muttered.
Thrawn put a hand on the mattress and pressed down. “It seems comfortable,” he admitted, “and there are many pillows, both on the bed and among the room’s furniture. If it makes you feel more at ease, we could line up some of them in the middle to prevent us from accidentally touching each other during sleep.”
The thought of falling asleep back-to-back with Thrawn sent the strangest sensation radiating through Eli, but what he said was, “You don’t have to go through all that trouble. It’s fine.” He smiled despite himself. “Don’t expect me to rock you to sleep, though.”
Thrawn had no reply to that. He had discovered that behind the curtains, one of the windows had a latch on it and could be opened as a door to the balcony. The window swung out with not so much as a creak of hinges, and the curtains danced around Thrawn in the sudden breeze, silhouetting him through translucent sheets of white. The wind took a few strands of his hair and sent them fluttering down around his forehead. His eyes smiled more than his mouth did.
“Yes, this will do,” Thrawn murmured.
“I guess it will,” said Eli entirely to himself.