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“You didn’t tell me it was your birthday today.”
The redhead sighed, and didn’t turn around to look at Ahsoka. Not that Ahsoka needed to see her face to picture her expression - that blue melancholy, she imagined, thinly veiled by a falsified irritation.
“I didn’t want you to know, that’s why.”
Bo-Katan sat with her back to Ahsoka, on the floor, out in the courtyard to their base, looking at nothing in particular but said courtyard. Ahsoka hesitated, just for a moment, before taking the few steps she needed to to close the gap, and taking a seat on the floor beside Bo. Up close, she saw that she was completely right about the expression on her friend’s face. She hadn’t guessed about the bottle in Bo’s hands, but in hindsight, she should have.
“Well, I still think you should've told me. We could’ve celebrated!” Ahsoka gave Bo a nudge, and while the other woman still wouldn’t look at her, Ahsoka caught the slight tug at the corners of Bo’s mouth.
“We’re in the middle of a battle to get my home back from the Sith Lord who killed my sister.” Bo’s voice shook, and she swallowed. “Not much to celebrate, if you ask me.”
“I think you’re worth celebrating.” Ahsoka said the words before she had the chance to think. She mentally flinched. But if Bo noticed what she said, she didn’t let on.
“I don’t really celebrate my birthday anyways.” Bo swilled the bottle in her hand around, and, on finding out it was empty, she put it down beside her. “Haven’t since I left home. I don’t know why I should start again now. Just another year in this hellscape, isn’t it?”
Sadness tugged at Ahsoka’s heart. She frowned softly, considering a move to comfort Bo. Before she had the chance, though, to either reach for her or rebuke her claim, Bo took a shuddering breath and looked up at the sky. “I mean, at least the stars are pretty tonight.”
And Ahsoka’s eyes didn’t leave Bo as she said; “Yes, they are.”
“I guess that’s something we can celebrate. No matter what’s going on in the galaxy… who lives, who dies, who wins, who loses. The stars are always there, aren’t they?”
“Yeah.”
Bo kept staring up at the sky. Ahsoka kept her eyes trained on Bo, waiting for the slightest change in her expression or body language, ready to jump in with physical comfort the moment she sensed it was needed. And it was silent, for a while. Until Bo bit her lip and her brow creased ever so slightly. A signal Ahsoka knew to mean that she was about to impart something she did not easily talk about.
“Satine always used to make a big deal of my birthday.” Her voice was quieter than before. Ahsoka shuffled a little closer and tentatively put a hand on Bo’s back. When there was no pullback, she relaxed a little, allowing her hand to move up and down in small, comforting motions. “She would tell me it was my day… I was Queen for the day. We would only do what I wanted, we’d eat what I wanted, I could have a sleepover in her room if I wanted. I always wanted to. I preferred her room to mine. It was safer.” Bo sniffled, and took a hand to her face to catch and hide a tear that Ahsoka had caught in her voice long before it appeared in her eyes. “But birthdays weren’t really a thing in Death Watch. So I’ve never celebrated a birthday without Satine. I don’t think I’d know where to start.”
Ahsoka sat in this new information for a little, considering every word Bo had said over and over. She hummed to herself.
“Well, if you could do anything right now, what would you do?”
Bo thought for a moment. Ahsoka knew she was thinking, because the crease in her brow deepened, and she chewed on the inside of her lip. Then her expression softened into something that almost resembled a smile.
“My last birthday with Satine, she taught me how to dance. My dad had never wanted me to learn. It’s not very warrior like, I guess. But my mom loved dances, or so Satine always told me. I wanted to learn, and she taught me. And she promised me that for my next birthday, she’d throw me a ball. A proper ball, with all the dresses and the dancing and the food. Never got to happen, of course. But if there’s one thing I could do right now… I’d love that ball. Not a lot we can do about that now, though.”
Ahsoka considered. And then she smiled.
She stood up from her space on the floor, and held out her hand to Bo.
“May I have this dance, Your Majesty?”
Finally, Bo looked to her, and Ahsoka got to meet those deep and incredibly soulful green eyes that had come to feel more like home to her than the Jedi Temple even had. Bo raised an eyebrow and smirked.
“Your Majesty, huh?”
“Well, you are the Queen, are you not?”
Bo’s smirk melted into a genuine smile; though that did not stop the tease in her tone when she spoke next.
“And what does that make you, my Knight in Shining Armour?”
Ahsoka’s turn to smirk.
“If that’s what you’re into.”
Bo looked Ahsoka up and down, from her smile to her still outstretched hand. Ahsoka felt the heat of her gaze as it traveled and suppressed a shudder at the cold that was left behind in the absence of her stare.
“There’s no music.”
“Now, the person who didn’t even want to celebrate her birthday five minutes ago is being a little picky, don’t you think?” Ahsoka winked. “Come on, don’t leave me hanging here.”
Bo glanced from Ahsoka’s face to her hand, back, and back again. The smile on her face widened, just a little (but really, if you knew Bo, it was a lot), and she took hold of Ahsoka’s hand.
“I would be honoured.”
Ahsoka grinned and pulled Bo up, pulling her in close. Their torsos were pressed together so tightly that Ahsoka was afraid Bo might feel the quickening of her heart at their close proximity.
She kept hold of Bo’s hand, and placed her spare on Bo’s waist. She thought she caught Bo biting her lip as Bo’s other hand went on her shoulder.
Ahsoka took the lead.
She took little steps, swaying herself and Bo gently from side to side, dancing softly to imaginary music. Imaginary music that, very suddenly, became very real; Ahsoka so caught up in the moment, in the feeling of Bo pressed up against her, of Bo’s hand in hers, and on her shoulder, and the fact that she could feel Bo’s heart along with her own, that she didn’t even realise it at first, let alone that the music came from Bo herself.
She was singing. Ahsoka didn’t know she could sing. She didn’t understand the words - so Mando’a, she assumed - nor did she recognise the melody, but the song, and the voice singing it, were both as beautiful as this night was.
“I didn’t know you sang.”
Bo chuckled softly. It was a sound that came from deep within her chest, and sent a shiver down Ahsoka’s spine.
“I don’t, really. But that song’s a favourite of mine. Satine always used to sing it. It’s a really popular song here. Especially at dances.”
“It’s beautiful.” Ahsoka pulled Bo even closer to her, filled with a sudden confidence she thought she had to act upon before it fizzled out. “And you’re really pretty, too.”
A blush caught Bo’s cheeks, and she looked down at the ground, her bright red hair acting as a curtain to her face.
“No I’m not. My face is all wrong. It’s all… pointy and weird.”
Ah, a pep talk! Ahsoka’s time to shine.
“See, that’s where you’re wrong. I like that your face is, as you say, all ‘pointy’. It defines your features. I like that. It makes your smiles even bigger and brighter. Plus your hair really frames your face perfectly as it is.”
She was always good at arguing against people’s insecurities. Especially very, very pretty women.
But Bo, it seemed, was just as good at arguing her flaws right back.
“Ugh, don’t even get me started on my hair. It just hangs, it doesn’t do anything. And I hate the colour. I used to get teased for it all the time and honestly, I understand why.”
Ahsoka could take a challenge.
“Actually your hair is one of my favourite things about you. It was one of the first things I noticed about you. It reminds me of fire, and so do you. Plus it goes so well with your eyes, your skin tone. It matches everything about you perfectly.”
Bo looked up at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, I can do this all night, Bo’ika.” Ahsoka teased. “You’re not winning this one.”
Bo huffed.
“Okay, but my eyes are a weird shape. They’re way too big for my face.”
Ahsoka couldn’t help but laugh.
“Oh you’re making this too easy for me now. Are you kidding me? Your eyes? They’re beautiful! I feel like I’m looking at all those stars when I look at your eyes. You’re holding entire galaxies in there, Lady Kryze. Those eyes, they are my absolute favourite thing about you, and I’ll hear no criticism on them. Actually, I’ll hear no criticism on anything about you. Especially not from the birthday girl herself.”
“Hey, no fair!” Bo pouted. “We’re meant to do whatever I want tonight!”
“Oh, so you’ll get into the birthday spirit if it means being mean about yourself? I think that says a lot about someone’s self esteem.”
Bo rolled those beautiful eyes of hers, but a smile was creeping back onto her lips.
“Alright, fine, you win. Let’s just finish this dance.”
Ahsoka pulled Bo back in, closer than before. Her heart didn’t race anymore.
“That, Your Majesty, is something else I can do all night.”