i read your essay on the tcw disaster lineage tying into the taylor swift album and am now obsessed and completely in my feels so thank you <3 also i absolutely love your writing !! i don't know if you are still doing the bronte/austen prompts but “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will" reminded me of ahsoka, ok sorry for rambling :)
thank you for the prompt and!! also, thank you for the kind words!! :’))
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”
Ahsoka found that she didn’t actually like the nighttime. She didn’t mind it as much back when she was a Padawan—because at least when she was a Padawan, she generally went to sleep knowing that there were people around her. Friends, family. She could sometimes hear Anakin puttering around their shared living quarters, and sometimes she could hear the whispered giggles of younglings running down the corridor.
When she was on a cruiser, she could hear the distant voices and steps of the clones. Beeps and whistles of astromech droids. The hum of an engine.
And over even that all, Ahsoka would go to sleep knowing that she was safe.
Now, Ahsoka sat in a little room with old floors and even older walls. A small window that let in the faintest trace of neon lights from the other levels of Coruscant. Besides that, there was little else in the room—save for a small cot, a little table that served as a nightstand. Ahsoka hadn’t needed the nightstand—she didn’t have really anything to actually put there.
“So,” Trace said from behind. “You hungry?”
Trace smiled, jerking her head out of the door. “Come on,” she said. “I feel like I at least owe the person who saved my life a meal, don’t you think?”
“I didn’t really…” But Ahsoka stood up and followed Trace out of the room.
“You did,” Trace said. “Once, when those goons came by, and the second, when the…well. Whatever that was.” She smiled at Ahsoka, and Ahsoka found herself so easily smiling back that for a moment, she could almost pretend that things were okay.
And things were okay. Mostly okay. On their way to okay.
If Ahsoka repeated that enough to herself, then she might believe it.
“So,” Trace said as they walked out of the garage. “You got any other friends?”
“No other customers, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Ahsoka replied.
“What? No,” Trace said. “Not like that. I mean…” She gave Ahsoka a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of her neck. “Never mind. Just wanted to know if—but uh…” Trace looked at Ahsoka again. “I mean—so, are you alone?”
Ahsoka paused. “Essentially,” she replied.
“I…” Ahsoka shoved her hands in her pockets. “Haven’t seen them in a little while.” She wasn’t sure why, but a moment later, she found herself saying, “I had to leave.”
“Oh.” Trace’s voice was a little quieter at that. “Bad stuff? Or just looking for something new?”
Ahsoka looked up. She could find some vaguely familiar speeders, and she knew that if she went up any higher, she would find the upper levels of Coruscant. Find the Senate Building, find the Temple that had once been her home.
“Something new, I guess,” Ahsoka replied. Then, looking at Trace, she said, “I’m just figuring things out for the first time. Independent and everything.”
A corner of Trace’s lips twitched. “Well,” she said, “Independent and Everything, I’m glad you saved my life.”
“Now, come on,” Trace said. “I said I’m buying.”
Ahsoka watched Trace dart down the street. She paused, and when Trace turned around and smiled, Ahsoka found that she couldn’t help but smile back.
