fingertips pressing insistently against temples, padmé’s gaze fell blank, staring into oblivion as chiding, a fuzz of sound beyond her unfocused ears, formed a constant, two-toned static. perhaps she should have withheld that snippet of information, held how near to financial ruin this wager tipped her. it was yet another worry to fill their heads, one of hundreds surely. so often, she attempted to mask the danger she existed under, paint a sunnier image of her duties than needed, but they always discovered the truth eventually. it was as if she were a child, attempting to befriend a carnivorous fish, all over again. inevitably, someone would slip, whether her or another, or some article would be written, and her parents, even sola, would know all.
❝ i know… ❞ the voices fell silent as the senator straightened, one hand still fastened to the ache blooming within. ❝ i know, but it is done. he’s here, and if he runs, i will have to manage. ❞ more so, she wished they would stop speaking of it. there was only so much time a boy could spend in a fresher cleaning up, let alone a near midager as boba was. eventually, she would have to explain to him the conditions of his release, but now, having only now pried him from sola’s room, she loathed the prospect of shoving him back into it. not with actions, but words. she cannot imagine any situation where the boy, with his upbringing, in the places and scenes he must have witnessed, would ever take kindly to the ruinous amount which exchanged accounts.
it brought up uncomfortable memories of a little boy in a cluttered junk shop… someone who would surely make the same connection which her mind held.
no, she had not bought him. it was a bond, nothing more, a massive weight to hold her to her word. …but that is what that furious, exhausted, skittish child would think. it would be what she would have thought, had she ever been forced into a like situation by a powerful stranger who was there when her father…
pain sparked beneath too thin skin as she buried her face into her palms, a swift and stuttering breath pouring between lips. she could only pray to the goddesses that he, so much more capable in the world than she at the same age, had at least as much courage, if not more.
a soft clearing of a throat caught her before she could descend too deeply, padmé glancing over her shoulder to spot boba, cleaned and dressed, appearing much like a shaak in the speeder lights at the sight of their three identical gazes. her lips part, prepared to smooth feathers, but mothers were always faster.
❝ ah, there you are, young man. finally decided to emerge from your den? ❞ her mother, paragon that she was, was awhirl, softened warmth seemingly glowing from her. before she could blink, it seemed, a plate was plucked and a thick, still steaming slice of five blossom bread was deposited upon it, set at the end of the counter closest to the boy. and her mother was yet again by her side, a hand stroking down her spine. ❝ padmé just finished baking that. it’s her specialty, not something you’ll get to taste often when she’s off busy being a senator. ❞
❝ mom! ❞ the reaction was almost automatic, heat rising in her cheeks at the incredibly subtle scolding masked in compliment. cinching her composure back into something more calm, she placed a smile, albeit tremulous, on her lips. ❝ you can't keep shoving food at him. ❞
a dark raised brow met her disapproval, the former queen deflating under her reproachful gaze. ❝ i’ll continue to ‘shove food at him’ until he chooses to eat it. honestly, padmé... ❞ sola snickered softly at her mother’s words, earning her a sharp and narrowed glance, smile still pinned on padmé’s features, from her younger sister.
no, the youngest felt grateful for her mother’s determination. from the way the garments hung on him alone, she could tell he dearly needed the fattening her mother seemingly was scheming. it wasn’t an athletic wiriness which faced her, but something far more dire. ❝ boba fett, ❞ the words fled her lips like they were of another’s, ❝ this is my mother, jobal, and my older sister, sola. ❞
𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐃𝐈𝐏𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍, boba maneuvered through the door so that his back never faced the senator or the open hallway. even over the threshold, boba kept his peripherals slanted where he knew she might appear. what would padme amidala do if she’d followed? didn’t matter, the survivalist within him promised any angle unscrutinized was a shade of death.
boba.
he was halfway to the refresher when an emphatic voice stopped him in his tracks. the threat of tears burned boba’s vision as a single syllable fell silently from his lips. spinning in a circle, boba expected to find the voice’s owner standing behind him in a regalia of matte steel. but the hall was empty save for himself and his angular shadow.
with a sigh, boba stuck his head back into the bedroom. amidala was still there, right where he left her only seconds before. ❝ thanks, ❞ he muttered before shutting the door. this time the ghost stayed silent.
vaporous heat enveloped the sanisteam’s spacious cubicle. suffocatingly thick, it transformed the tiled confines into a hellish sauna with a visibility level of nil. it filled the lungs, blurred the eyes, even potent enough to make ears feel stuffed full of bantha fuzz. but it was in that deprived state that boba fett finally relinquished himself to exhaustion. he’d picked a corner and sunk into it. limbs netted together in a protective cocoon, boba buried his chin into his chest, letting the water burn away the knots under his skin.
it’d been awhile since he last cried but with a screen of artificial mist protecting him from the galaxy, an outpouring of clogged feelings came in hiccuping waves. sometimes in silent waves that shook his shoulders. other times, his grief was so violently loud he sunk his teeth into his arm to avoid being heard. but only here did his depths of his agony feel safe enough to expunge themselves. no witnesses, evidence seamlessly drained away with the plumbing and treated with the same fanfare.
spent, boba’s awareness melted like the puddles of prison grime. not asleep but not wholly there, he drifted thoughtlessly in haze till he reluctantly willed himself back. no matter how welcome the ether, he couldn’t let control over himself slip away. boba was in enemy territory. and with jango gone, he always would be.
without looking, boba slapped at the controls till the constant stream of boiling water waned to a dying drip.
a full body groan escaped from the boy as he lay flat on his back on the floor. arms stretched out to the side, legs slack, warm tiles slowly cooled beneath him as boba stared up at dense particles of grey.
❝ she didn’t say where the karking kitchen was. ❞
reluctantly, boba rolled onto his feet. it didn’t take long to dry off ( his hair was as present as his willingness to be here ) and he dragged his steps to where he’d left his new clothes. surrounded by steam, boba had to feel around. his fingers eventually found the yielding fabric among the hard surfaces. trousers went first, holding off on obscuring his sight, even for a second.
boba hopped around, tugging everything on till only the tunic was left. it hadn’t looked as big as felt as the boy slipped it over his head. he was blinded for brief moment, but as his head cleared the collar, boba found himself face to face with a stranger.
eyes widened then narrowed, his muscles reacted in an instant as he postured himself for a fight. one arm readied to deflect an attack while the other felt the walls for a tile loose enough to weaponize.
she lied. of course she lied. boba had seen the way the young jedi looked at her. skywalker, he’d been with windu on vanqor, he’d been there when the kel dor and the togruta delivered him to manacles of the republic. manacles skywalker’s senator would benevolently deliver him from.
it was all a lie, a fraud, a farce, a ploy, a scheme, a trap, a —
reflection.
brows bunched together, boba cautiously approached the stranger who didn’t hesitate to mirror his steps. boba got close enough to see his breath on the glass. still clinging to disbelief, boba raised a hand to his cheek, its skin moist from the lingering steam.
the stranger did exactly the same.
he didn’t look like jango’s son. feirfek, he didn’t even resemble a run-of-the-lab cadet. what boba saw was a sleemo some senator scraped off a coruscanti prison floor.
❝ huh, guess green’s not my color. ❞
putting as much distance as he could between himself and the mirror, boba returned to the hallway. despite the clean skin and crisp clothes, his mood was just as sour as before. he guessed which direction a kitchen would most likely be and shuffled on with the liveliness of a corpse.
with no one around and time to spare, boba did a bit of cursory snooping. he counted doors and corridors. took mental measurements of the walls, huttballing how thick they were and what materials they were made of. there was no one to ask what he was doing but if someone did materialize to pester him, boba had a legitimate excuse: he was never actually given directions to the glorified food dispensary.
it was boba’s nose that eventually found its way. following an aromatic trail, boba came upon the kitchen where the first thing he noticed was not the loaf of fresh bread or the architecture, the strident lines across amidala’s skin.
her back to him, boba was reminded of her ordeal in the arena. a reminder that she survived while others did not.
easing himself the rest of the way, the young fett was met with instant regret when he realized the senator was not alone. there were two other women with her; one older, the other a similar age as amidala. that made a total of three women. women who were nothing like taun we or zam, and certainly not like aurra. a league of their own, entirely alien to the boy. he couldn't pin what it was that set the trio so drastically apart but boba felt — for the first time in his short life — outmatched.
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