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The lights had been dimmed and switched to a soft, dilute yellow-orange throughout the freighter. Nightcycle, predictable and untouched by the pilot even in the endless abyss between systems. Kanan was amazed how smooth the transitions were, how perfect the Twi’lek’s coding skillset was. Hera had done a remarkable job.
He never noticed that the lighting had begun to change right away, the fade like the setting suns of hundreds upon hundreds of planets in the galaxy. He found it a much welcomed change from his previous location.
One complaint he had about the lighting was the fact it signaled Hera would be working in her room for the rest of the day. Working, sleeping, talking to whomever she spoke to often. The voice was modulated differently each time, but they always had the same name.
He stumbled over a mess in the hallway, careful to make his reaction as quiet as possible. Hera had left her tools out and a panel off next to his cabin. A glint of daytime lighting reflecting on the overly-polished, tossed aside hydrospanner caught his attention.
Someone had left the refresher lights on. Likely himself. Waste of fuel, Hera would explain again and again and again. He was not used to being in a private fresher without automatic energy saving lighting or water rationing. It would take him a while to remember.
For now? Hera would be frustrated with him. It had been a long time since she’d had organic companions. He assumed, before joining her, that this was due to the fact she was picky. While that was true, Kanan couldn’t help but assume her rusting, antique, bitchy excuse of a droid was another reason. He nearly feared the orange menace.
The thing was a holy terror and Hera never even batted an eye at the droid’s actions. He’d told her that he could see murder in the C1’s photoreceptors and she had just laughed. She even snuggled the thing on occasion as if it were some sort of tooka.
Stop overthinking shit and turn out the light.
He stopped before tapping the light controls, just now realizing Hera was standing in the room, digging through a small case of first aid supplies. It was late to be bathing and caring for scars, but considering how fogged up the mirror was, this hadn’t really been for bathing.
She would not have used scalding hot water for that. This was a distraction. Possibly from a nightmare, or from anxieties built up during the day. He had done the same when showers had been available.
Her cap was off, and she had on a tank top and soft pants that Kanan greatly enjoyed seeing. Loose and non-restrictive in comparison to her daily uniform, it was surely a welcome bit of comfort for her. Although, currently, his eyes were drawn towards the root of one of her partially dried headtails.
It was terribly bruised and swollen. Hera reached up with bacta gel and began applying it, controlling her breaths with her eyes clamped shut. He was confused for only a moment before realizing what it likely was.
An injury from Vidian.
Vidian had grabbed that headtail and thrown her across the room with it and she hadn’t told anyone about how badly it had been injured. She had let out a yelp, but anyone being thrown by anything randomly would have reacted in that way.
It looked nearly bad enough that he wanted to take her to a medcenter. She needed help. It was obviously incredibly painful and she couldn’t see to evenly place the bacta. "Hera, do you-"
She freaked out and tried to cover her head. "What the fuck?! Get out! Get out! I don’t have my cap on!" He was shocked, first at the fact that she could control the tails as they stabbed in towards her back, and then at her startled response.
He closed his eyes and tried to run to his cabin, but he hit the closed door on the other side of the hall. The auto-open was off, quite possibly the thing that was being repaired.
"Kark! Ouch, what are these doors made of?!” Hera held back a laugh as she put her cap back on, Kanan sliding down the wall to sit. "Doonium?" He couldn’t help but laugh with her a bit as he held his forehead. "Doubtful."
She huffed a bit. "You never know. My ship is extremely high quality. Maybe I stole some from-" She sighed and stopped. "Cap is back on now." He observed her, she looked ready to pass out from exhaustion. He decided to push a bit, anyway. "Ryloth?"
She raised an eyebrow and didn’t answer. "What? There are doonium mines there, and you are a Twi’lek. Despite not having the accent, I have been assuming you are likely a citizen of Ryloth. Or were." She was getting agitated. "My species doesn’t really give me any leeway, now, does it?"
Not a direct answer, but enough of one. Kanan opened his mouth to respond and was cut off immediately. "Now, tell me why the fuck you were watching me in the refresher when it was obvious I was not fully clothed." He ran through his thoughts and short term memories. She had been clothed. He had not even been looking for her.
"I was walking around and thought someone had left the light on, but when I got closer, I realized that you had the light on because you were in the room. I saw you were injured. You looked fully clothed to me. I wanted to help." She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay. Whatever. You want to touch my lekku. You aren’t going to. I’m not that naïve."
He watched her. Her headtails, her lekku trembled. Had they been that expressive the entire week? "I did not know you could move them separately like that. I did not know they were something private. Sorry." She looked down at him as he remained in his spot on the floor.
"Trying to convince me you’ve never seen a Twi’lek? I know for damn sure you have, and I know you have likely fucked one. You know what lekku are." He had fucked a few. He had known a few well at the Temple years before that, even. Both of those different experiences hadn’t taught him about them.
Training with his friends never involved lekku. Fucking Twi’leks, he now knew, he was likely terrible at if the tails were supposed to be involved. "I do know and have known many. I swear to you, I did not and still do not have any idea what the headtails are. The lekku? They are lekku?"
"Are you serious, Kanan? Seriously? What are you-"
"Human?"
"I meant, what are you, 22? 23? I can see you. I know you are a human." She sighed. "Not really your fault, anyway. I should have had the door closed. Not used to this yet. Sorry for the drama."
She walked around him and to her cabin without another word.
********
Kanan sat on his bed, upset at himself. He still wasn’t sure exactly what he had done to hurt her. He sighed and picked up his still-new datapad from the wall side of the bunk, determined to figure out what the lekku truly were. He searched for Twi’lek headtails and was shocked at the first pages to pop up.
He shouldn’t have been. He deleted his search and reworded it, hoping Hera would never find his search history.
********
She drank her caf slowly, her feet up off the floor, comfortably curled in her chair. "Hera?" Kanan stood in the open doorway and waited. He looked as if he hadn’t gotten a bit of sleep, not the best way to start a busy day. "Good morning. Why are you waiting for permission to enter the galley?"
He walked in, fidgeting with his pajama pants. "I am sorry I walked in on you and I am sorry I offered to put bacta on your lek. I was not aware of exactly what lekku were and I assumed they were to be somewhat equated to hair in humans."
Hera stood up and walked over, placing her mug on the table. "You never offered to put bacta on them. But apology accepted. Still not sure I fully believe you, but I believe you enough." He couldn’t blame her trepidation. "I am not asking you to believe me. I just wanted you to know that I am sorry."
He seemed stupidly genuine. "You’re fine, Kanan. It was my fault for having the door open. Not all Twi’leks keep theirs covered. I do. It was silly of me to think you would automatically just know I was one that did."
"Why?" It slipped out before he had a chance to even think. "Wait- I did not mean to ask that. I will leave now." He turned to walk out and felt a firm hand on his shoulder. "Kanan. I’m not mad. You’re just- or you appeared to be- overly sexual and hedonistic on Gorse. You have to understand how terrifying that is to a young Twi’lek."
"Terrifying? Why-" He remembered the holonet pages. He remembered thousands of nights spent in cantinas. He obviously knew her species and how they were treated, he just hadn’t let it click that she had to worry like the rest of the galaxy’s Twi’leks. "Oh. Oh, kriff. I was sure you could break my appendages in half if you wanted, so I didn’t really think things through. Well, not with my brain, anyway. I am so sorry."
She’d been bothered at the time, but now, honestly, the awkward flirting was entertaining to her. She could sense through pheromones that it was genuine. Also, she had to admit, she was very curious about him. "I prefer when you think with your brain. Get more done that way."