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"Meesa has to go."
Joxer already knew it was useless - the strange metal thing that Jar Jar insisted was a ship had been fixed for months; his bags were already packed; he’d been staring at the sky much more often than usual. As much as Joxer refused to accept it, as much as he wanted to deny it, the turtle fish lizard man that had stolen his heart for the last few years was ready to go.
But he still had to try.
“You truly want to abandon me,” Joxer asked, hating himself as he watched those beautifully golden eyes flinch at his words, those long floppy ears he had spent so many winter nights playing with flattening against his head. It was wrong, he knew, to pull this kind of shit, but he had to. He couldn’t just let him leave. “You want to abandon our son?”
The two paused as the boards above their head creaked - he hadn’t meant to raise his voice but hadn’t been able to help it. He’d lost so many people already in his life - Xena, Gabrielle, Eve; he couldn’t lose his husband, couldn’t let his child lose his father as well.
“Meesa not abandoning,” Jar Jar said, his voice laced with exhaustion. “Meesa protecting you. Meesa protecting Jox Jar. The Federation will come to this planet if they can. Meesa will stop them. Meesa will protect the universe.”
“But you are my universe,” Joxer protested, taking that step to close the distance between them. “Please,” he said quietly, reaching out to take his webbed, clawed hand between his own, raising it to his lips. “We can fight them together when they get here. Just...just don’t go.” For a long moment they stood there, neither moving, barely breathing besides the occasional flutter of Jar Jar’s gills. For a second Joxer thought, perhaps, he’d been able to convince him, had changed his reptile heart to stay.
Only for his own to break as Jar Jar pulled him towards him, placing a light, gentle, moist kiss against his lips that said everything he needed to know.
Jar Jar pulled away, resting his forehead against Joxer’s. “Meesa will always be with you in the Force.” The mysterious Force that Jar Jar had talked about so many times, something Joxer had never been able to fully understand but accepted as much as Jar Jar had accepted as his Olympian gods. Even as he pressed his eyes closed, unable to to look at the turtle fish lizard man that owned his life, Joxer responded in kind.
“And may the Fates find you back by my side.”
When Jox Jar awoke that morning, Joxer was still sitting in the rocking chair by the fire, watching the door as the sun streamed in through their windows. The slight slap of his webbed feet on the stone floor only hurt his heart as he padded over, climbing into his father’s lap. Heavy arms wrapped around his half human, half turtle fish lizard man son, holding him close, gently rubbing one of his long, floppy ears between his fingers to soothe the ache in his chest as he waited for his son to speak.
It didn’t take long. Jox Jar had always been keen. Gabrielle and Xena would have loved him, had they been around to meet him.
“Meesa Papa left? He said goods-byes last night, but...”
Joxer nodded, leaning down to kiss the top of his slightly moist head. “He did. But hopefully, one day, we’ll see him again.” Whenever this Federation was defeated, whenever these Sith were gone, whenever this intergalactic war was done and over with, all these things far beyond his simple understanding; then, hopefully, they would see him again.
It wasn’t entirely easy, moving on with Meg.
As much as she cared for Jox Jar, became a good step-mother to him, it was clear whenever she looked at him she still saw the strange, the abnormal instead of the mythical, the celestial Joxer saw when he looked at his son. She at least still accepted him, had welcomed his child with open arms when their home by the river had become too much to bear, unlike so many of the others of their kind. Other humans who, despite the nymphs and centaurs and fauns that walked amongst them still saw his precious little Jox Jar and recoiled, told them to leave before they were forced. It had made opening up their restaurant hard, forced to the edges of the closest city, but with the myths of the Warrior Princess and Traveling Bard as a draw, they made due.
It was easier, he’d admit, when Jox Jar decided to return to their old home, decided to make it his own. He would have loved to keep him closer, keep him at the home they’d built in the decades since Jar Jar had left, but he understood, and let his eldest leave with his blessing. It wasn’t like they weren’t going to see each other again.
It wasn’t easy, moving on with Meg.
Even as he found comfort within her arms he still found himself looking towards the sky, waiting for that distance glint that would speak of his return. Even as the years went on, he would long for his sweet words, his gentle voice, his strong arms that had wrapped themselves around and held him through the night, leaving him safe and soaked in their bed. Even as age wore him down, made his bones creak and memories fade, as he built a new life with Meg, more children to run with Jox Jar, siblings that shared half his blood and loved him as much as Joxer himself did, even if they didn’t understand why their eldest brother looked and acted so differently, still that last kiss blazed within his mind.
It wasn’t easy, moving on with Meg. But to live a life worth living, it was something Joxer forced himself to do. It was a content life, overall, one he could look back at and be proud.
Even still, as he laid on the ground, surrounded by the long lost friends newly returned and his second son, his body cold and eyes growing heavy, Joxer still looked towards the sky and, with his last breath, waited.
In a galaxy far, far away, Senator Binks froze as pain rippled through his stomach, his pen hovering over the papers he had just been about to sign. His hand was shaking, the skin growing white as he clutched at the instrument, the only anchor he had to keep from losing himself, to keep from drowning in the sudden knowledge that everything, all of this, had been for nothing.
“Senator Binks, are you alright?”
Jar Jar kept quiet, ignoring his assistant’s concerned look. All he could do was turn towards his window, look out at the blurred stars that stood between him and his love, and weep. For he had left to protect them, had given those years he’d done nothing but long for his husband and son to try and make the universe a safer place, and in that moment, in a cruel twist of the Force or the gods his love had prayed to or whatever had seen them and decided to judge them unworthy, he’d lost what had made it worth it.
“Meesa ship,” Jar Jar finally said after a long, long while, tongue heavy and throat sore. He knew where he would find that little planet, knew how he would return - even if the man he loved was gone, he had to go back. “Ready meesa ship.”
“But Senator Binks, I-”
“Do it,” he demanded, yellow eyes flashing dangerously, anger and grief warring in his gaze. “Meesa has to go home.”