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It had been several years since he saw his friend Han smile. Not that he could blame him. Tsiri had felt what happened to the new Jedi Temple before the news ever reached Han and Leia. For once, he had been glad Tsiri’s past had made her wary of joining the new Order. He felt guilty though. While he was feeling relieved to still have her, Han had lost his son to the darkness Fay knew once consumed his mate.
He did all he could do. Tsiri did her best to console Leia, in a way only a fellow Force-user could. Still, that didn’t stop Han from leaving. But he never expected… How long ago was that? 8? 10 years? And Han still hadn’t come home to his mate. His wife, rather. Humans were funny about that title. They needed some elaborate ceremony to proclaim to the rest of the world that they were in love and they weren’t going to be seeing anyone else. As if mating wasn’t proof enough of their bond. He assumed they did that, anyways. They had a son, after all.
Fay expertly guided his sleek old freighter down on the familiar Cloud City landing platform. He gently nudged his sleeping copilot to consciousness, then placed his lips against her temple. “I’ll be back soon, my love.” He whispered. Once he stepped off The Direwolf’s ramp and onto solid ground, he was greeted by a weathered, but familiar face.
“Heyyyy, my man Fay, how have you been my friend? You look good!” Lando’s eyes creased at the corners with his classic smile.
“As do you!” Fay lied, politely. Not that he looked unwell, the man was quite healthy for his age, and his charismatic demeanor was still all there. He just looked… old. It always made Fay uneasy to see humans start to wrinkle and grey. It was a sickening reminder that in just a few short decades, he would be forced to watch his closest friends face mortality, while he would live on for a thousand or more years without them. It didn’t mean they weren’t worth meeting, of course, but the eventually of experiencing that pain of loss so familiar to Tsiri made him feel sick inside. It took her years to recover from that hurt. Would he be the same way?
“Ah, didn’t Han and I teach you how to lie better than that?” He joked, pulling him into a warm hug that Fay gratefully accepted. “And you, you haven’t aged a day!”
Fay shrugged it off, not really wanting to compare lifespans at that moment.
“What’s he up to these days that he needs a ride?” The Pau’an asked.
Lando sucked in a breath. “Ohh, you are not going to believe this one.”
“Try me.”
“He lost the Falcon”
“What?”
“Yup. He didn’t even lose it in a game either, it was stolen!”
Fay’s surprise was palpable. Han must have still been in a serious slump if he let his prized ship get stolen.
“And he’s still…?”
“Still what? Grumpy? Not talking to Leia? Not over what happened? No. Did you expect anything else?”
He shook his head and sighed. He couldn’t imagine going more than a few weeks without seeing his mate, and they had hundreds of years to spend together.
“Well, let’s see him then.”
The pair walked inside Lando’s home. It was less pristine than he remembered it, but more- alive. Full of warmth. He could hear the giggles of two almost-grown girls in another room. The last time he was there, they had been infants that almost fit in one of his hands. He felt guilty for not stopping by sooner to visit. Lando asked about how things were with Tsiri, what they had been up to lately, all those common questions.
“So when are you going to marry her and start popping out little ones of your own? I’m not going to live forever you know. I need to see some god-children!”
He laughed in response. “Come on now, you know Pau’an don’t marry.”
Lando crossed his arms. “And why shouldn’t they? You had fun at my wedding, didn’t you?”
Fay smirked, memories of that night were highlighted with pure joy. He’d hold onto those forever, long after the people in them faded away. “Sure. But the Bachelor party was even better.”
The old man’s smile was infectious. “See, we need to get you married so Han and I can throw you a party of your own!”
“I am hardly a bachelor, Lando, I haven’t been for many years.”
“I know, I know.” He clapped the taller man on the back. “It’s just… For the fun of it.” He winked.
They continued walking until they approached the door to the guest bedroom, which opened before Lando could even knock.
“Took you long enough.” A grey-haired man with deep frown lines huffed. The roar of a familiar Wookiee seemed to agree with him. Fay tried to smile for his friend, but clearly the loss of the Falcon was like losing another family member to him. And in such a short time, too. Lando just gave Fay a look of, “I told you so”.
They walked back to The Direwolf in near silence, except for Chewbacca’s occasional chatter. At least he hadn’t lost his manners. It didn’t take long to get Han and Chewie settled in. After all, they didn’t have many belongings that weren’t kept on the Falcon. Fay briefly saw Tsiri stick her head out in greeting, but Han was too focused on his own grief to notice. After letting his old friends retire to his ship’s extra bunks, he returned back to the cockpit to rejoin his mate, stewing over his visit.
At last, flight checks were finished. He got the ship up off the landing platform, through the atmosphere, and up into hyperspace so that he could relinquish control for a bit. He sighed, and rested his head in his hands. Tsiri was quick to place a gentle hand on the top of his head and rub down to massage his neck. A gesture he perhaps had never appreciated so much before.
“Tsiri?” Fay mumbled at last. “What do you think about getting married?”
She let out a small laugh. “Why? We aren’t humans…”
“Well,” he bit his lip, “you are half-a-human.”
Her eyes rolled. “I have a feeling this isn’t about that, Fay.”
He recalled his conversation with Lando to her, remembering how they had felt on that night. How all them had felt, he and Tsiri, his friends, Han, Leia.
“I just… I want to live that again. One more time. I want them to smile and laugh and make lewd jokes and dance. I want to remember them how they were when they were young, Tsiri. You know… For when they’re gone.”
Tsiri blew out a breath of air, reclining back in her seat. She knew how tough it was for Fay, someone raised only in the company of other Pau’an, who had lived his years without seeing the face of death, to admit that it was a necessity of life. It was a foolish notion, that somehow having one more celebratory moment with them would dull the pain of their passing any less. But at the same time, she would have given just about anything to see her father like that one last time. Besides, anything that would keep her mate happy, as he had always been for her, was worth it.
“And it would make you happy, getting married to me?” She asked.
Fay turned to her with one of his priceless, full-toothed smiles. “Nothing would please me more than to call you both my mate and my ‘wife’.”
“Well then,” Tsiri nodded, unfurling her legs and moving to sit on his lap in the cramped pilot’s seat, pressing her lips against those outlining his sharp, white teeth.
“Let’s get married.”