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5 Years Old
When her buir asks her what her favorite color is, it’s always the same. Sarad ‘Sara’ Kryze-Wren’s favorite color is yellow. That is why her loth-cat she carries around with her is yellow, it’s why her bedroom at Keldabe Wren is an array of blues and greys and yellows. She learns during her first year of her lightsaber training that the kyber crystals can be different colors and she try eagerly tells her Master - Kix, who could not love her any harder if he tried - that she wants her lightsaber to be yellow.
Yellow reminds her of happiness. But sometimes… sometimes, it makes her sad. Yellow makes her sad when Auntie Bo takes her to the big room at the end of the hall only Daddy and her ba’vodu ever go into. The Wrens almost never go into it. She knows that because she never sees her mom and dad’s yellow armor in there. She’s being raised by an entire clan. The Mand’alor.. a clone Jedi.. she’s smart enough to know she has the biggest family in the galaxy.
But yellow makes her sad when she learns about her Auntie Satine.
10 Years Old
Yellow is her favorite color, but only the shade of her lightsaber when she ignites it for the first time. She’s learned over the years of Alrich explaining colors and their hues and each individual purpose over the years that they all have different meanings. Different ways to look at them. So yeah, she loves the color of her saber.
She also loves the yellow glow of Krownest’s sun against newly fallen snow.
Look at the stars… look how they shine for you…
And everything you do…
“Sara! Look alive!”
Yeah, they were all yellow…
Sara’s saber springs to life as Bo-Katan swoops through the skies, Westars raised as they practice blaster bolt deflection. It’s a normal thing for a Mandalorian to be trained every day. To be formed into a perfect warrior. For Sarad, however, she’s being raised by a Jedi and Mandalorians. There’s alot of contradiction there. Alot of history. Part of her has always been fearful that her auntie - her perfect, brave Auntie Bo - would come to hate her because she's chosen to call herself Jetii, but there's never been an ounce of contempt in those hazel eyes that carry the weight of an entire planet.
Sarad blocks each of her aunt's blaster bolts with ease as Bo-Katan fires off six more shots in succession, all of which are deflected elsewhere. When the smoke settles and the sun dips just behind the trees is when Bo-Katan takes her helmet off to meet her niece's eyes. "How-" Sara swallows the knot in her throat and flashes a semi-confident smile. "How was that?"
Bo-Katan's eyes soften. That's another one of her favorite sights, the way her auntie looks at her like she's always proud.
"You do me proud every day, little one."
The young Jetii eagerly bounces on the heels of her feet as she points to the most occupied spot on the roof of Keldabe Wren where Kix has been taking her stargazing since she was a baby. "Will you take me gazing tonight?" She pleads. "To tell me more about her?"
Her. With the yellow hair and the sad eyes.
Bo-Katan still has a hard time talking about her sister, but the look of wonder and joy at the mere mention of Satine - who Sarad has always called the queen with the yellow hair and the sad eyes - is just enough for her to muster the confidence to talk about her.
She reaches out a hand.
"Let me tell you about those." She points upward as dusk falls and stars begin to peer out from the clouds above them. It's a long walk back and she wants to savor every minute of it.
Sarad's eyes light up.
"Ca'tra?"
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
"Ca'tra."
16 Years Old
Sarad is sixteen when Sundari Palace is restored. Her fathers have been telling her for years that they were both looking to help her aunt regain Mandalore and seat her back on the throne, and the look of joy that flowed through Kix as he sprinted down the halls to the throne room only to see his sister sit on it was the best thing she had seen in a long time.
He was so happy. Is so happy. Alrich is the head artist on the Council of the Mand'alor and Kix sits at his sister's side, also on her council, dressed in the regal wear of Clan Kryze (he really just wanted an excuse to wear a cape) and official Senior Musician of the growing group of musicians that now live in Sundari.
Sara's favorite yellows are different now. According to Bo-Katan, Sundari had always been lacking color before the Great War. She changed that. There's now a garden on the roof of the palace dedicated to her auntie Satine. The lady with the yellow hair and the sad eyes.
Kix's Master had loved her once. She learns that way later, when they move the aay'han room from Keldabe Wren to the palace. That's the first time she ever hears of Obi-Wan Kenobi. He's just a memory now.
"I'm surprised you're in here."
It's mid afternoon when Bo-Katan finds her. Sara is stretched out across the throne, legs thrown over the side as she scribbles on a journal of flimsi that her father gave her earlier that morning. It's a song. A poem.. she's not sure yet. But she's definitely inherited the skill from Kix.
"I find my muse strikes me best when-" She whistles, clearly impressed as she motions with a hand at the giant windows to her right. "The sunlight hits the glass just right and fills me with warmth.."
Bo-Katan snorts. "I see you inherited your buirs artistic side." She muses. As she watches her niece, Bo-Katan takes the moment to look at her. "You... did you recolor your hair?"
There's a bright blonde streak curled in with the intricate braids she'd done earlier that morning before training this morning. That's another thing that Bo-Katan does. When she's had too much of her duties as Mand'alor, she hands it over to the Council so she can train her little one. Her protege. Sara's helmet had been on then, so Bo hadn't noticed the change.
Sara smiles at her aunt's astonishment. "Yes, I did." She replies. "I needed a change and I love the color yellow."
"Like I'm not aware of that." Bo muses.
The teenager turns her pad toward her aunt as Bo approaches her. "Daddy says he likes to write you songs," She said softly as she slipped off the throne to envelop Bo in the best hug she could manage. Bo loves hugs now. It took her a while, but there's nothing quite like getting from the center of a world you never thought you'd have again. "And this one is from me to you, ba'vodu."
Sara twirls a strand of what appears to be grey hair - which she doesn't mention because Bo-Katan would literally glare her to death - and swiftly kisses her cheek before grabbing her lightsaber and jetpack so she could do her daily free flying.
Bo moves to take her place on the throne but stops cold. On it is a single yellow flower. A rose. A yellow rose. From Satine's garden.
Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow
I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called Yellow
***
Everything is so gentle from then on. Sara Kryze-Wren grew up with gentle. She grew up with soft smiles and warm hugs and joy which is not something her aunt had experienced, so Sara made a conscious effort to make sure Bo-Katan Kryze had soft and gentle memories of her time as Mand'alor. She knows she's waited years for this. Sar'ika wants it to be remembered.
Yellow is her favorite color. It used to be because of how vibrant it was. How warm, so contradictory to the chill she grew up with. Snow was cold. Snow was bitter and numbing and she refuses to allow that to be the only thing she knows.
But love is warm too. Joy, peace, loyalty, devotion, all the things she's come to know through being raised by Mandalorians and a Jedi. Now there are yellow flowers. Yellow stars. Yellow force signatures. And Bo-Katan's is now almost always the brightest yellow she's ever seen.
When she picks enough flowers to make a flower crown for Bo - that she only wears because she can't stand to see distaste or sadness in her verd'ika - and the way her whole force signature lights up because of it. When she intertwines flowers in her hair in those late nights when she braids them. When the sunlight hits her eyes just right in the midst of laughing over something stupid her fathers said to her aunt over dinner.
So yellow becomes her favorite color then because it reminds her of all the good things. Of home.
Because that's the most important thing, isn't it?