NOVA-HEART.

      As expected. At first, his response to her query is simply an arching of his brow and the slight quirking of his lip at the corner of his mouth. Is he? Perhaps he should wait, consider it some more. Tease her with this morsel of secret knowledge that he knows, now that she’s aware of it, she would kill to have. It’s strange, he realises, how things have been reversed: at home, a Chiss’ full name is given to all but the core name only to those they trust. Here, in this galaxy, the opposite had turned out to be true, if only for the sake of those he worked alongside having an easier name to call him by. It has given his full name a weight and sacredness he would never have thought it to bear. And, as he thinks on it some more, he finds himself wishing to hear how it would sound on her tongue.

      “Thrawn is my core name,” he explains to her. “My people have a core name and their full name, the latter of which is composed of the core and family names. But they have proven difficult for humans to pronounce.” The amusement in his expression softens into something more serious, and in it he hopes that she can see the trust he is placing in her. “My name is Mitth’raw’nuruodo.”

they  listen  carefully,  intently,  rolling  the  name  over  in  their  mind  and  silently  mouthing  it  to  get  the  feel  of  it  on  their  tongue.  it’s  a  good  name,  they decide  —  they  like  it.  there’s  trust  in  his  gaze  that  sends  warmth  to  the  centre  of  their  chest,  and  that’s  enough  for  them  to  make  their  first  attempt.  ❝  mith - mitth’raw’nuruodo.  ❞  they  wrinkle  their  nose,  decide  that  their  pronunciation  is  too  off  (  too  much  emphasis  here,  too  weak  of  a  delivery  there  ).  they  try  again,  only  to  get  their  tongue  twisted  around  the  syllables.  ❝  sorry,  it’s  —  my  first  time  with  a  name  like  yours.  there’s  a...  lot  going  on  there.  ❞  but,  they’ve  dealt  with  complicated  names  before  (  artists,  historians:  their  names  had  been  difficult,  too,  but  they  had  learned  ).

      “And what has led you to conclude that this is so?”

when it came to light that sabine made a weapon used against mandalore literally everyone pitched a fit about how sabine - a literal child at the time - should have known better

when heroes of mandalore happened people said sabine didn’t deserve a redemption arc / should have apologized and made things right (they did, but whatever)

these are the same people that applauded kallus’ redemption arc

y’know. the same man who committed genocide and laughed about it

that later got a bullshit redemption arc where he got to live on the second planet of the people he killed 

               ❛  SABINE ?  ❜  EVEN  THOUGH  THEY’VE  YET  TO  approach  him ,  kanan  speaks  softly ,  as  if  afraid  the  world  will  hear  the  weakness  behind  his  question  (  it’s  not  weakness ,  he’ll  tell  himself  later ,  only  to  make  the  same  mistake  again .  )  he  knows  them  by  the  sound  and  weight  of  their  footsteps  now  and  even  though  his  vision  and  perception  are  accurate  and  honed  to  such  an  extent ,  there  is  still  one  thing  he  is  blind  to  —–  and  luckily ,  sabine  will  be  able  to  help  him  with  that .  

              ❛  I  have  a  favor  to  ask .  ❜ though  the  winds  of  atollon  help  him  IMAGINE  some  part  of  it ,  as  does  the  warm  rays  of  the  orbiting  sun ,  there  is  nothing  and  nobody  that  can  help  him  picture  colors  like  sabine  can ,  and  thus  kanan  depends  on  them  now .  ❛  mind  telling  me  what  the  sunset  looks  like ?  ❜     ╱    @starbyrd !

there’s  something  to  be  said  for  the  quiet  moments  between  them,  however  rare  those  may  be  these  days  (  everything  is  different  now,  but  they’re  thankful  that  the  comfortable  silence  residing  in  the  space  between  them  remains  the  same:  it’s  the  little  things,  they  decide  ).  though  sabine  has  never  —  will  never  —  been  uncomfortable  around  him,  there  is  a  heaviness  that  overcomes  them  as  they  fall  into  place  beside  him.  times  like  these,  they  hate  that  they  know  him  so  well  (  they  have  half  a  mind  to  scold  him  for  acting  as  if  he’s  okay,  to  bring  to  light  the  hypocrisy  there;  they  end  up  staying  silent  on  that  front  —  it  can  wait  ).

❝  anything  for  you.  ❞  they,  too,  keep  their  voice  quiet,  if  only  to  keep  the  weight  threatening  to  seep  into  those  words  out.  his  request  instantly  sends  a  tightness  to  their  chest,  but  they  hum  in  confirmation.  ❝  ‘course,  no  problem.  ❞  they  shift  in,  and  let  their  arm  brush  against  his.  they  give  themself  a  moment  to  take  in  the  horizon,  and  then  nod,  satisfied. 

Person B:... *Flexes*

so, here’s the thing — canon wants us to believe that sabine actively likes being alone, but i’m here to tell you right now that that is a load of garbage. they don’t like being alone, but they’re used to it. when ketsu left them for dead, they were alone for years before kanan recruited them, and it was easier to just. isolate themself and pretend like they just liked having private time (that much is true to an extent - they like having privacy, and they like being alone with their thoughts and their paints and having sabine time). 

but, here’s the thing - sabine hates being alone. because, well, isolating yourself and keeping people out is... a really, really lonely existence. but it’s easier to just tell people to leave you alone, that you want to be alone, etc., because to sabine, letting people in is just... opening themself up to get hurt again when people inevitably leave. 

sabine and the idea of being alone is just. a safety net to them - you can’t get hurt if you don’t let people in, you can’t get hurt if you’re alone. 

“ sabine wren — are you trying to make an honest woman out of me ? ”

“ i don’t have enough money for chicken nuggets. ”      OPEN.

     ❝ stop! i could’ve dropped my croissant!  ❞

❝ ——— alright, you had my interest, now you have my attention. ❞

     ❝ do you … do you need a napkin?  ❞