The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter Ninety-Two: Home Is A Funny Thing

AHSOKA TANO

The next morning, Ahsoka rose with the sun and immediately began readying herself made ready to leave – she had a long journey ahead of her, and the sooner she left, the sooner she could come home again.

Home. It was a funny thing for her; constantly changing. Once, it had been on Shili, in the care of the other members of Clan Tano. Then, it had been on Coruscant with the other younglings in the Jedi Temple. Then it had been wherever Anakin and their troops were... before she lost everything and was set adrift again.

Then she had found Lux, and for a brief time, home had been on Onderon at his family estate. Then the war had ended, and she and the Jedi survivors had found Cialone – the place where she had raised her four babies, and where she had taught others to survive as her mentors had once taught her.

Leaving it was always difficult – and this time more than ever – but upon having tossed a final datapad and one last change of clothes into her bag, she still left her room the same as always.

With her children high in orbit above her and her husband growing further away with every step she took down the hall, she could almost fade into the auras of all the other Force users around her and pretend she was still back on Coruscant, and that none of this – the Empire, Order 66, the Sith victory – had ever happened...

Lux caught up with her again as she was running the final diagnostics check on her borrowed A-wing. But, much to her dismay, despite the long talk they had had the night before, she sensed he still had questions she didn't want to deal with.

He cupped her face in his hands as she faced him, running his thumbs over her cheeks. "I don't want you to go, Ahsoka. You're not telling me everything about this mission, and you only do that when it's a lot more dangerous than I think and you don't want me to know. But if there's a chance you could... well, I I've lost so many people already. I can't lose you the way I lost my sister."

"Lux, this is important – we could have finally figured out how to one-up the Empire. This is the advantage we've needed for months now." Ahsoka exhaled a terse breath, turning away again. "I thought you understood."

"Stop," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You're retreating into yourself again. Don't shut me out, Ahsoka. Please, just tell me what's going on."

"It's just another mission, like I told you," she reassured him gently. But her voice sounded hollow, even to her own ears. She looked away, certain that her eyes would betray her true feelings if she held his gaze. "Just try not to worry, okay?"

"That's not how this whole husband things works," Lux said. He took her face in his hands again, tilting her chin back up so he could look into her eyes. "I'm always going to worry for you."

Ahsoka placed her hands over his, their fingers gradually becoming intertwined. They shared a smile, then Ahsoka wrapped her arms around him. Her grip tightened subconsciously as the thought that there was a chance this would be the last time they were in each other's arms like this overtook her.

That's absurd. Of course I'll see him again, she told herself, and nuzzled deeper into his sweater. I always come back to him in the end, no matter what happens.

"I love you," she whispered, pushing the idea away. "So, so much..."

"Ah'koor yim, Ahsoka," Lux replied, and placed a kiss her temple.

"You've been practicing."

"I pick things up here and there," Lux told her with a smile. "And besides, I wanted to be able to tell you I love you in Togruti, too. I always feel like I'm missing out when you speak it with the kids – you could be plotting my demise for all I know, and I would never suspect a thing."

Ahsoka laughed, brushing his cheek with the tips of her fingers as she looked into her eyes. Then, she pulled away from him, grabbing her bag from where she had dropped it beside her and tossing it into her fighter.

But she started to climb in after it, a mockingly indignant cut through the air. "What, no goodbye kiss for your husband who loves you so before you ride off into battle?" Lux called after her.

"Oh, shame on me!" she said. "How could I forget?"

Then, she twisted herself around into a sitting position on the cool metal surface of the fighter and pushed herself off. She fell only for a moment before Lux caught her neatly in his arms, pulling her in for a deep kiss on the lips. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, the corners of her mouth curling into a smile beneath his own as she leaned into it.

"Helluva goodbye kiss," Lux said when they finally parted, grinning wildly. "I think it's almost enough to carry me through the next few weeks."

"Almost?" she asked, playing along. She untangled herself from his embrace and let herself fall just enough to stand on her own two feet. "Well, I guess we'll just have to make sure you can get through the last couple of days, won't we?"

Then, she took him by the sides of his face and kissed him just as soundly as she had before. He made a soft noise in the back of his throat as he deepened the kiss, resting his hands on her hips.

But soon – too soon – she broke the kiss, looking up to meet his gaze. She knew it was time to go. "Bye, Lux," she said softly.

"Bye, Socks."

"Take good care of our babies while I'm away."

"I will. I promise."

Then, regretfully, she pulled out of his arms and scaled the side of the fighter. As she sat down inside and the canopy slid shut above her, and she started pushing buttons and flipping switches to key up the navigational display and warm up the engines.

"I'll be back soon," she told him, her lips moving but no sound coming out. She didn't bother to say them aloud, since she knew he wouldn't be able to hear her through the thick transparisteel canopy. But he got the message, and blew her a kiss as the antigrav kicked in and lifted her ship into the air.

She gave him one last look, taking in every detail of his face, from the way his hair fell over his brow to the way his smile always pulled one corner of his mouth a little higher up than the other one. In the space of a single moment, she made it her mission to memorize him by heart...

Just in case.

Then, she rerouted primary power to the engines, and with a last look at her husband, she hit the accelerator and sent the ship spiralling off into orbit.

"I'll be back soon," she murmured again to herself as the gravitational pull of the Cial system faded away, taking any last visual reminders of home in the way of readings on the screens with it. "There's no need to worry. I'll be back here with Lux and the kids welcoming me home again in no time..."

I hope.

*Parting is such sweet sorrow, even more so with the stakes as high as they are. Will Ahsoka return to the planet she has come to call home as quickly as she hopes, or might she find she has another mission that needs to be addressed? And as Aeja's Jedi powers grow stronger, what might she sense through her bond with her mother? Are there things she knows -- or will know soon -- that her father and brothers do not? And what other secrets might Ahsoka be keeping hidden from her family? You'll find out in the next thrilling chapter of The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano! 

FLUFF CHAPTER TO END ALL FLUFF CHAPTERS OH MY GODS

HELP IM BEING SUFFOCATED BY ALL THIS FLUFF

Which is kind of ironic, seeing as 3/4 of this scene has been prewritten for at least four months...

IM SORRY I SKIP TO WRITING THE FLUFF SCENES WHEN IM BORED AT 11 OCLOCK AT NIGHT OKAY

But I stand by being suffocated by the fluff, because I still had to proofread the whole thing and add the little bit of reflection/description at the beginning, so it's sort of like I was writing it now for the first time. Sort of. XD

And is it normal that I was resisting the urge to yell (in my head) REBELLIONS ARE BUILT ON HOPE as I was writing that last line? *remembers that I am a Star Wars fangirl and that this is what we do* Yeah, totally normal.

ONTO THE NEXT CHAPTER, WHICH IS SIGNIFICANTLY LESS FLUFFY BUT IMPORTANT FOR THE PLOT SO :DDD