(no subject)

[idontneedluck]

It's a long day. A long day with little to show for it, despite his best efforts. The traffic through the square has been steady, travelers passing through on their way to or from the spacedock, but...

No matter how he smiles or calls, no one seems to hear hima, no one wants their fortunes read today. His bowl, usually at least a little full, is empty.

He hopes Baze had better luck, their pantry is starting to develop echos. He sighs as he hears stalls nearby starting to shut down for the night, and slowly gets to his feet, tucking his kit away. The sand crunches under his feet as he trudges homewards, moving with the crowd.

He's nearly home, in the smaller square outside their apartment block, when the ground seems to shift under his feet. He stutter-steps, grounding his staff to keep his balance, but his stance refuses to steady. Earthquake, he thinks. Shock blast.

There's no screams, no sounds of falling masonry, no terror in the Force. There's no Force, his usual tenuous grip even weaker still and fading by the second. His knees bend without him telling them to do so. His fingers feel forever away, belonging to someone else, and he hears his staff hit the ground, the soft grinding of sand when it lands loud. Everything is too loud, and too soft.

Chirrut crumples in the middle of the square, a heap of blue and red robes.

Comments

[iprotectyou]

Baze returns to Chirrut's side, feeling lighter than he has in months. The larger Jedhan notices that the smaller one still hasn't gotten around to eating the rice ball Baze left in his hand.

Baze purses his lips, and plucks the food up. He breaks it in half, and settles his armored bulk on the bed, gently pushing the rice against Chirrut's lips.

"Eat, my friend. I won't have you fainting again."

[idontneedluck]

Chirrut eats, biting at Baze's fingers as he accepts the food.

"Fainting? Really? That's... embarrassing." Mortifying, really. He can't help feel that he could have somehow tried harder, and not caused this much fuss.

[iprotectyou]

Baze shakes his fingers out. Surely Chirrut didn't mean to bite him.

"It was out of your control," Baze says, offering his friend the other half of the rice ball. The cloth bundle of them is still next to Chirrut's head, and Baze plans to feed Chirrut all of them.

"We can't make the tea, because our water was shut off. I'm sorry."

[idontneedluck]

Chirrut frowns as he chews. His thoughts chase each other around, muzzily, but he knows this is bad.

This could be very bad.

"Can we make it up? What we owe, to turn it back on?" He asks, eventually.

[iprotectyou]

Baze looks away. He knows Chirrut can't see his expression, but Baze doesn't want to be caught frowning like that.

"I... I don't know," he says, the words dropping into the space like pins in a lock.

[idontneedluck]

"We need water." He knows Baze is already aware, but he's tired enough that the words slip out, scattering to the winds. They need water, so they need funds, and here he is, more useless than ever, unable to even care for himself.

Shame burns in his belly, turning his appetite.

[iprotectyou]

Baze stops trying to force Chirrut to eat after he looks green around the gills.

The larger Jedhan sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "We need water," he agrees, setting the rice ball aside.

"But we do have food. Here, I should put it all away."

He stands from the bed, leaving the rice balls where they lie just in case Chirrut is still hungry later, and crosses to the table. Baze finds the plate of roasted mushrooms and the plastic box of curry, and places them both in the ice box. The cloth bundle he was handed by the woman, however, clinks oddly when he picks it up.

"Chirrut," Baze says, his voice tinged with wonder.

"This is full of credits."

[idontneedluck]

"What?" Chirrut tries to sit up again, stubbornly hitching himself up bit by bit. "How much? Why didn't she say?"

[iprotectyou]

Baze sifts through the bundle with two fingers, counting up the money rapidly.

"Enough to pay the water bill and some leftover, for rent," Baze says, his awe still threading through his voice.

"I don't even know her name. I know most of our neighbors, but I've never seen her before in my life."

[idontneedluck]

"She must be a relative, a niece or cousin." Chirrut suggests, not voicing the thought loudest in his head - the Force did provide, as it always has. He doesn't want to ruin the happiness in Baze's voice.

"Track her down later - come eat, come eat."

[iprotectyou]

Baze has tried to ignore the grumbling in his stomach, tried to make sure Chirrut got fed first, but now that Chirrut insists...

Well, Baze is ravenous, there's no denying it. He's literally starving, his muscles beginning to atrophy.

He sets the credits bundle on the table and crosses to the bed. When he stuffs a rice ball in his mouth, he makes an undignified noise. Tears prick his eyes and start pouring down his cheeks.

"That's so good."

[idontneedluck]

Chirrut leans against Baze, taking one of the rice balls and nibbling on it. His poor heart, crying at the taste of rice. Chirrut resolves to do better - he must do better. Baze deserves better.

"So tomorrow we can get the water turned back on, and there will be tea, and all will be well again." This is... a little bit of a lie, but things will be as well as they can be, at the moment.

[iprotectyou]

Baze settles his armored bulk on the bed, taking the last rice ball and wrapping his free hand around Chirrut's shoulder.

Baze has found something rather disturbing: choking down the entire ball of rice made him horribly nauseated. It was the first taste of food in a while, so he stuffed his face with it, of course, but that was a terrible idea. He decides to eat his next one more slowly, and takes a small bite.

"Yes," Baze says, wanting to agree with the lie more than anything.

"And we have curry or roasted mushrooms for tomorrow. Unless you wanted to eat some of that tonight."

[idontneedluck]

"This for tonight, I think. Then we will have food for all of tomorrow, and things won't be quite so desperate." Besides, he can feel how his guts clench around the little he's given them so far, and doesn't really want to find out how upset they'd be about a large meal.

Deteriminedly he doesn't think about the feasts once held at the temple. There's... so many reasons, not to think of that.

"But I'll have another rice ball."

[iprotectyou]

Baze presses the remains of the last rice ball into Chirrut's hand, smiling at him.

"I'm glad you're eating. I don't want you to faint again; that was frightening. We'll have to pay our neighbors back somehow. When things are better."

Because they will get better, right?

[idontneedluck]

Of course they'll get better. Eventually the Empire will tire of them, steal everything worth stealing, and find other worlds to subjugate. It's a big universe. Even the Empire cannot exert heavy influence on all worlds.

"I think a thank you will suffice for now."