#starwarsfemslash

“Please, no more promotions!” he declared with a final squeeze. Stepping back, they sized each other up. His hair had grown longer, his high fade now higher, sharper. He’d aged only a little, maybe a new wrinkle around his eyes when he smiled. She wondered if he’d think the same of her. He’d swapped out the brown jacket for a black one, and a new tool hung from his belt now, a pipe-width cylinder the length of a blaster, dull black.

“Nice hair cut, sharp as Undonian ice,” Jannah quipped.

“And yours! You didn’t cut it, did you?” He responded, flipping her cap back off her head to reveal a few errant curls on her forehead.

“No, just braided up.” She recovered the cap and tucked the hair back in. “A certain someone would kill me if I cut it.”

Finn raised both eyebrows. “So…that’s still happening?”

Jannah shrugged, grinned, looked at the ground.

“That’s good. I’m glad.”

“Yeah, me too. And this is happening?” Jannah pointed at the cylinder on his hip. “Jedi?”

“I’m not there yet, but I’m in progress. I, like everything, am in progress.” He smiled proudly. They hugged again, just enjoying a moment between them.

“What brings you out to our sleepy station?” Jannah asked, she started walking to the station office. Finn fell in beside her.

Finn gestured around the chaos. “Sleepy? You’ve been here too long, Jannah. This place is a fighting pit.”

“Best run fighting pit in the sector,” she responded.

“I’m sure. I’ve met the pit master. She’s a <em>machine</em>.”

“Seriously, you here on vacation?”

“No, brought over a new squad of pilots to take those rebuilt fighters off your back runway.”

“Finally! We were going to have to re-rebuild them if they sat out any longer.”

“Hey, getting around to these things takes time. Especially…” Finn trailed off. Jannah stopped walking, fixed him with her hardest eye.

“Especially…”

“Things are going alright, Jannah, but not great. There’s way more EffOhs out there than we’d like.”

She nodded solemly, clapped him on the back of the neck. “You’re fit to get them in line, Finn. You’ve got more help every day.”

He shook his head. “Not organized help though. Everything is moving at cross purposes. This sector wants to restore the senate, that sector wants a kingship system, those guys over there want nothing to do with nothing but yes please keep sending us food…it is a mess.” He sighed, “I get tired.”

“We all do. What do we do when we get tired? We put it down and someone else in the company picks it up for a while. That’s the secret the EffOhs didn’t want us to know, remember?”

“Yeah, we’re never alone.”

“Not ever.”

“Which reminds me, I do have some serious business to discuss with you…we should talk some more. Dinner?” He offered.

Jannah waffled her head side to side.

“Bring her,” Finn said, bumping her shoulder with his. “I’ll bring Poe.”

“Is <em>that</em> still happening?” Jannah asked with a smirk. It was Finn’s turn to look shy, but he did answer.

“Yeah. Too late to get out of it now.”

“I’m glad.”

“Me too.”

“Ok, I’ll see if she wants to join up for dinner. I’ll hit your comm by…an hour after dark?”

“Aye. I’ll look forward to it. And bring your drinking hand. You know how Poe gets when he sees old friends.”

“Will do.”

They hugged again, parted ways at the station office door. Having friends like Finn and Poe, friends she knew were doing everything to keep the galaxy safe, encouraged Jannah to her core. She’d been alone out there with Company 77 for all those years, doing what they had to, never knowing there was anyone else fighting. Even then, Finn and Poe had been fighting. And would keep fighting as long as there was breath in them.

The station office was a melee. The lobby was packed with folks checking arrival and departure screens, with more standing in line, waiting to yell at someone for something. Jannah squeezed through the press to the front.

“Hey, no cuts in line!” said a particularly tall alien that Jannah couldn’t identify.

“Not trying to skip the queue, I work here,” she said, pretending to flash a badge. At the desk, she pulled up to her full height.

“Chief! Welcome home!” yelled Dhas, the lead clerk at the front desk. “You get in okay? Must have! If you’re here!”

Dhas always spoke from exclamation to exclamation. The people on their home planet must have been the most enthusiastic alive. Jannah could only stand to talk to them for a few sentences at a time. She looked past them, to the empty desk in the far corner.

“Ah, you looking for Master Chief? You know she’s not here!”

“Yeah, had to check, on the off chance,” Jannah squeezed to the end of the counter and behind it. “Do you know where she is?”

“Maintenance bay, I’d say, Chief!”

“Yes Dhas. <em>Which</em> maintenance bay?”

“Well…Number 1 is empty, waiting for those engines you’re bringing! Number 2 has the…” Dhas counted them off on their fingers. Every word made Jannah more impatient. She ground her teeth together. “Number 8…”

“Number 8?”

“Yeah, that’s where the action is today!”

“Thank you, Dhas. Okay if I leave out the back?”

“Sure enough!”

Jannah waved goodbye and hit the back door. The alley was marginally more quiet. She jogged down the back way to the maintenance bays, running faster as she passed each numbered door. It felt good to stretch her legs and get some good air into her lungs. She stopped at Number 8, but it was closed up tight. The crew had already knocked off. Going back one door, she could hear work in Number 7. Why did she bother to ask Dhas anything?

The hangar door for Number 7 was pulled closed, but the wicket door was ajar, so she entered. It wasn’t much quieter inside, smelling of oil and metal. The large concrete floor was empty save one ship, which wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, the surrounding floor littered with parts large and small. A full engine rebuild was underway. From the back there was a hiss and flicker of sparks, then a muffled curse. Jannah calmed her breathing, then quietly crossed the space, coming around the bulkhead to see her lover bent over a workbench. She took a moment to look at her, in her usual dirt brown overalls, tucked into black boots. Her black straight hair pulled into two short ponytails, slung close to her neck to leave room for the welding visor straps across the back of her head. Stuck into her back pockets were a multi-tool and a kerchief. Even from here, she looked every bit the mechanic, deep in her craft.

This shared craft was what had first brought them together. Fixing something that is broken. Making do when there’s no other choice. Inventing somethint from nothing. These were shared experiences deeper than the childhood one couldn’t remember or the one the other couldn’t forget. Deeper even than their losses, different, but still shared. Never in a hundred lifetimes did Jannah think she could have had so much in common with a miner’s daughter from the Outer Rim, but here they were. She was about to clear her throat, but then Rose twitched with that odd sixth sense of hers and looked up as if someone had tapped her on the shoulder.

Rose flipped her visor up, the look on her face was priceless. Her smooth light brown face, rounded cheeks, bright eyes, full pouted lips coming up into a smile. She carefully placed the tools down and then her gloves before racing into Jannah’s waiting arms.

“Nan! You’re home!”

“Surprised?”

“No, I knew you were due, but…I didn’t have my hopes up.”

They hugged, Jannah’s hands flat on Rose’s back, Rose’s arms wrapped around Jannah’s neck. Rose smelled like sparks and grease. They parted slowly, and as they did, Jannah turned her face to Rose and kissed her. Softly at first, until Rose lifted onto her toes and deepened the kiss, lips parted, her hand landing confidently at Jannah’s collar.

“Good to be home,” Jannah said, her nose to the side of Rose’s, both of her hands on Rose’s waist, squeezing for emphasis.

“Good to have you home, Nan” Rose responded, the sound of Jannah’s pet name lingering in her sigh. She unwound her hands and let them slide down Jannah’s shoulders. She moved her hands over Jannah’s cheeks. “You’ve been eating?”

“Yes Rosie, the squad made sure I ate at least once a day.”

She grumped. “I guess that’s enough. I was worried.”

“You been sleeping?” Jannah asked in return. Rose’s eyes went hooded as she answered.

“About as well as usual.”

“At least once a day?”

“At least once a day,” Rose agreed.

“That’s enough.” Jannah hugged Rose to her body, feeling the other woman soften into her chest. She buried her nose in Rose’s hair. After long minutes, they parted.

“Let me clean up,” Rose said, “I’m almost done.”

“Do you need a hand?” Jannah approached the work bench, fingers itching to make something just at the sight of the tools and left over pieces.

“Sure! I could use…hold this…” within a few minutes they were holding, bolting, welding together. Which for them felt perfect.

“You know you could get a droid to do this?”

Rose pffft’d through her teeth. “Then I wouldn’t know how it works.”

“So you know how it works now?”

“Um. No. But I know how it <em>doesn’t</em> work, and that’s something.”

They finished up, both stepping back to take in their handiwork. Outside, the end of shift horn sounded, muffled but audible. Rose slipped her hand into Jannah’s.

“I missed you,” she said, squeezing her fingers.

“I missed you too.”

Rose turned to look at Jannah and Jannah’s heart melted the rest of the way. With the flush of love came one of desire, a belly deep call to be close to Rose, to feel her skin, hear her breath in time with her own.

“I love you, Rose Tico,” Jannah murmured, her voice deep, soft. She bit her lip between her teeth. Rose blushed, stepped closer.

“Me?” she said innocently, looking to the side at all the no-one in the room. “Why me?” but even as she spoke, the innocent face smirked. She licked her lips.

“Because you’re you.”

“Good thing, I love you too, Jannah. Head to toe.”

Jannah moved in for another kiss. It was hotter this time. Lips parted, sucking Rose’s lip between hers. Rose responded with her tongue, pressed into Jannah’s mouth. Rose dragged her nails over Jannah’s shoulder, the other hand up the side of her neck, pulling at Jannah’s earlobe. Jannah hmmmmmmm’d, let her hands settle on Rose’ backside and squeeze, pulling her close and grinding their hips together. Rose whimpered into the kiss. Tipped her head back and bared her throat to Jannah’s lips, down one side to the collar of her jumpsuit.

“Nan, I’m so glad you’re home.”

“Missed my kisses?”

“Missed far more than that,” Rose responded as she came back in for another kiss. They traded lip for tongue for teeth until Jannah eased the zipper of Rose’s jumpsuit down to her navel. The sound of it tickled Rose’s mind. She put her hand over Jannah’s. “Let’s finish this,” she gestured to the workbench, “then we can head home.” Before Jannah could move again, Rose had slipped away, busying herself at the bench. Jannah approached her from behind, hands on Rose’s hips, fingers moving into the space where her torso met her thigh. Rose made a light, high pitched noise of surprise.

“Hurry up Rosie,” Jannah whispered into her ear, which she nuzzled, licked, sucked at the lobe. Rose leaned heavily on the bench in front of her, whatever she was working on momentarily forgotten.

“You’re not making it easy.”

“I’m bad,” Jannah responded, pulling Rose into her hips. “Do you want me to stop?” and she did, hands and mouth pausing, waiting for the clear yes.

Rose sputtered, “yes? No?” Jannah raised both hands and stepped back.

“I’m begin bratty. It can wait.”

Rose caught her breath, head down. “Help me? Many hands…”

“Light work. Sure.”

They quickly cleaned up the mess, slotted the tools away, with the repaired part proudly displayed in the middle of the bench. As they surveyed their handiwork, Rose bumped Jannah’s hip with her own.

“We’re a good team,” Rose observed, arms crossed proudly over her chest.

“The best, I think.” Jannah nodded, sliding her hands into her pockets. They itched with anticipation and she couldn’t stop them fidgeting.

They stood together a moment longer than necessary, Jannah unwilling to be the first to move. Finally, Rose broke the silence with a laugh.

“Oh Jannah, what are we standing around here for?” she said, wiping her hands down her overalls.

Jannah shrugged. “I was waiting for you. Just enjoying…” she trailed off. Rose looked at her and it didn’t matter. Rose stepped close. At their height difference, Jannah tipped her head back and Rose fit a kiss just at the side of her throat.

“Let me get you home,” Rose responded softly.

Rose hefted her case of tools and lead the way. She talked the entire time, catching Jannah up on every detail and social interaction she’d missed. Rose was enthusiastic about everything she did and about the people around her. Previous partners, mostly men, had indicated this made her…exhausting. But Rose’s constant chatter filled Jannah with a peaceful happiness, a sense of life and liveliness. It rejuvenated her. Rose’s energy was infectious for Jannah. She found it hard not to care, not to love what Rose loved.

The couple walked to the Master Chief quarters they shared, located in the fourth floor above the station office. The windows looked away from the tarmac, out over the cliff of the plateau to the green ravine below. With the windows open, a fresh breeze swept up from the cooler deeps, stirring the curtains. The single room apartment was a riot of collected things. Originally all of Jannah’s belongings had occupied only one shelf, along with a wardrobe for her bows and other weapons. Now, everything was mixed together, with the stones and other trinkets that Jannah brought back from her trips scattered around and among Rose’s scrapwork artistic creations.

The large room had a couch and chairs for socializing, and a large bed in the far corner lifted by a three-step dais. There was a proper fresher, and a kitchen and replicator, which they never used. Was easier just to go down to the market and get what they could find. On the empty kitchen shelves, over the sink and between two windows were the urns that held the dust of Hays Minor that Rose had collected. With the urns, a stick of incense, a bowl of fruit, a fist-sized geode. Out of habit and respect, Jannah automatically nodded her head in the direction of the family altar as she entered. They were her family now. She knew all the family stories, felt like they were like her parents, wonderfully kind and devoted people she’d simply never had the chance to meet.

Jannah hung up her jacket and collapsed onto the couch, stretching into the second hand cushions. All of the furniture had been there when they moved it, would remain if they ever left. She’d just gotten comfortable, half sleeping when Rose woke her by pulling her boots off.

“Why don’t you go wash up, Nan. Get the ship off you.”

“Hmmm,” Jannah hummed in response. She was pulled in two directions, one by the sweet comfort of home, the other by her desire for Rose. The comfort won out. She dragged off to the fresher to clean the grime of travel from her skin. They swapped places, Rose entering and Jannah leaving the fresher. Jannah unbraided her hair and let it fall large and loose around her face. Then she leaned back into the cushions of the couch again, her towel falling loose around her torso. She realized she was sleeping when she woke to Rose, placing the softest kiss at the corner of her mouth. She inhaled deep, smelling plain soap and a nutty hair oil. Jannah rolled to her back and Rose kissed her fully, lips warm, then parted, inviting Jannah’s tongue in.

A familiar desire returned to Jannah, moving from a tingle in her fingertips to a buzzing in her ears. She moved to sitting, letting the towel fall to the side to Rose’s appreciative murmurs. Rose traced her fingers up Jannah’s torso as she nipped downward over her collarbones. Jannah sighed gratefully, moving her hands under Rose’s robe against her barely damp skin. Rose was round and supple in her hands, curves down her sides and a full, thick pad of flesh on her hips. Jannah squeezed and massaged the skin, loving how Rose moved and responded. Jannah moved to the edge of the couch and dropped one hand down to Rose’s ass to squeeze and pull them together. Rose’s hands and mouth met at Jannah’s chest eliciting her own warm, hungry moan.

Before joining the Resistance, Jannah’d had a few sexual encounters with other members of Company 77. None had been repeated. Some had been merely disappointing, others too complicated with sibling-like affection, others still were simply made untenable by the drama of small group dynamics. As she’d become a leader among them, Jannah had eventually steered clear of any relationship that would endanger the balance of the group at large. She was surrounded by the Company, but always alone at night.

That meant that when she’d met Rose, and Rose had looked her slowly up and down with the evaluation of a woman who knew what she wanted, Jannah had been utterly swept away. Every touch after their first time was new, every encounter a fresh adventure. Rose knew her way around a body. She set about pleasure with an attention to detail and willingness that was breathtaking. Jannah let herself sink into that now, releasing any lead and enjoying the attentions of someone she loved, to whom she owed, and from whom was owed, neither loyalty nor survival.

Jannah moved her hand between them, over Rose’s belly and up to her breast that fit exactly in Jannah’s palm. Rose broke the kiss when Jannah brushed her thumb over the nipple before plucking at it gently.

“I want you, Rosie. In bed? Or here?”

“In bed, Nan.”

Jannah rose slowly and helped the other woman to her feet. They held a long gaze, both smiling with a comfortable joy, their noses touched, eyes sliding closed.

With a deep bend in her knees, Jannah wrapped her arms around Rose’s thighs and lifted her smaller, thicker lover into the air. Carrying her dramatically to bed while Rose giggled and wiggled.

When they had first slept together, Rose had been sensitive about her weight and size. She spent a lot of time arranging herself under covers to hide the curve of her hips, the stripes of growth arching over them. Jannah loved them, the texture they gave to her skin, the darker and lighter shades they lent to Rose’s pale belly and thighs. It had taken all the encouragement Jannah could give to convince Rose of her own beauty. And the first time Jannah had lifted her? Pushed her against a wall and lifted Rose onto her toes? After it was over, Rose had cried. It was such a romantic thing, to be lifted off one’s feet, a thing that previous lovers had convinced her she could not look forward to.

That was their relationship, really. Rose introducing Jannah to a galaxy of experiences she’d only dreamed of. Jannah reminding Rose that there were no limits — you could always get what you wanted.

At the bedside, Jannah lowered Rose carefully. Rose reached out her hand. Leveled her steamiest stare at Jannah.

“Come here lover,” Rose purred. Their kisses intensified, teeth joining sucking lips to raise heat and sensitive spots on the throat, neck, torso, breasts. Hands moved purposely. Rose’s legs wrapped around Jannah’s torso and held her close, relaxing just enough when Jannah moved her hand between them.

Rose arched back on to the pillows, both of her hands feeling the thickness of Jannah’s hair with a light touch.

“Oh, yes, Nan, yes.”

Jannah’s hair had been its own adventure. Hard experience had taught her to care for it, but also that other people would read their own feelings into it. Amongst the Company, they’d all come into their hair together. Hair carried little significance beyond the freedom to let it do whatever you wanted. Out in the wider galaxy, hair was its own endless language. Gender, sexuality, species, colony, origin, all could be read by the tufts and waves coming out of different skulls. And hers, was a lot -- in volume, in presence, in all the senses it would trigger. It was a tongue Jannah didn’t know how to speak. At one point, exhausted by it, she’d taken a rough pair of scissors to her locks and was part way through the Big Cut when Rose had come into the communal washroom. Perhaps that was the day that Jannah first loved Rose, when she’d wiped the tears from Jannah’s face and convinced her that other people’s baggage was their own and need not be carried on top of her head.

It had taken time for Rose to learn her way around Jannah’s thick curls and coils, but she loved them. On sleepless nights, insomnia being a scar of war they both shared, Rose would spend hours brushing, oiling, braiding, wrapping each strand while Jannah sat between her knees and nodded between uneasy sleep and anxious wakefulness. When working, Jannah kept her hair braided and bound up. At home, comfortable and clean, she let her crown shine.

They traded climaxes quickly, then slowed and rotated. Rose on top, she buried her face between Jannah’s legs and enjoyed the feeling of her lover climaxing again beneath her just before her own warm and satisfying release.

***

After, Jannah and Rose curled together and dozed as the sun set. Until they were disturbed by Jannah’s comm buzzing with Finn’s voice.

“Jannah, we eating or what?”

Jannah groaned.

“Is that Finn?”

“Yeah, we’re supposed to have dinner with him and Poe. If you’re up for it?” Jannah pulled herself away from the warm weight of Rose’s body and sat up reluctantly. “We could skip it.”

“Who knows how long they’re in for…”

“Jannah do you copy?” Finn again. Then another voice: “We’re here for a good time not for a long time, Jan, come see us!”

“Is that Poe?”

“Who else?”

“Tell him, <em>them</em> yes. We’re on our way,” Rose laughed. “We can come back to bed later.”

Jannah took a few long strides to her pants and fished out the comm unit.

“Yeah, General, I copy. We’re in for dinner and drinks if you are.”

“Good heavens, Jannah, what were you doing? I been callin!”

“Not gonna say, Finn. Where should we meet you?”

“We’re at a dive called…” he paused. Jannah could hear the ruckus behind him and Poe’s voice. “The Pwerderferr!”

“The P’wer Driver, I know the place. The name is a pun…”

“A what?”

“Never Mind. We’ll be there in a few. Have a drink.”

“Too late. We’ll have two.”

“Copy. Out.” She clicked off the comm. As she slid it back into the pocket of her jacket she felt the small packet. The gift. Jannah took it with her back to the bed where Rose was pulling her fingers through her hair.

“I know we have to run, but I bought you something.”

“Nan, you always do and you never have to.”

“I know Rosie, but I wanted you to have it, special.” Jannah offered Rose the packet. Rose settled with her legs crossed beneath her and took the packet, a square of paper about the size of her palm.

“It’s heavy. Was it expensive?”

Jannah shrugged. “Not for you, no.” Rose smiled shyly and ripped the paper.

“I can’t remember the last time someone gave me a wrapped gift!”

Inside was a pair of slender bangles in a iridescent shining gemstone. Rose gasped as she tilted them both in her hand to catch the last of the light from the open windows.

“Oh Jannah…”

“They’re…”

“Opals.” They both said together. Jannah grinned at Rose’s obvious joy.

“I should have known you’d know. They are stones, after all.”

“They’re incredibly rare, especially at this size.”

“That’s what the seller told me. These are carved each from a single piece.”

“This is too much.”

“It is just enough.”

Rose sat passing her fingers over them, turning them over and over. Finally, Jannah pulled one from between Rose’s fingers and slipped it onto her slender wrist. It took a little push over the heel of her hand, so they could be sure they wouldn’t fall off. Rose put the second one on next to the first. They made a satisfying clink when they touched.

“Thank you, so so much Jannah. I love them. Love you.”

“I love you too, Rosie,” Jannah leaned close for a kiss, which Rose willingly gave, her fingertips on Jannah’s cheek. The kiss ended but still close, Jannah asked the other question, the one that she’d been considering her entire time away. “Do you think, maybe, we could…”

“Heavens above, please ask me to marry you, Jannah. Please.”

Jannah laughed and bowed her head. Rose laughed too. “That wasn’t what I was supposed to say, was it?” she said, not really regretting it.

“Well, you could ask me…” Jannah offered.

“I haven’t finished your ring, Jannah, I can’t ask you.”

“A ring? Finished? Is there an unfinished…”

Rose nodded, her grin irrepressible. “I’m working on it.”

“Well then I guess I’ll have to wait.”

Rose pretended to pout, which just pulled another kiss from Jannah. Another. Another. Finally, Jannah pulled back. “We have to go or Finn will call back, drunk.”

“Yeah. Later then.”

“Sounds like we may have a lifetime.”

“Yeah,” Rose bit her lip, then ducked her head and slid off the bed to dress.

Hand in hand they ran through the darkened streets.

Sometime after the Battle of Naboo, Saché (Sofia Coppola) starts to deteriorate. She lost family in the war against the Trade Federation, and as Nute Gunray escapes punishment again and again, she becomes depressed and desperate and turns to drugs to numb the pain. All the Handmaidens are saddened and concerned, but Sabé (Keira Knightly) was particularly close with her and takes it hardest.

After the attack on her life that resulted in Cordé’s death, and the defeat of her deescalation bill, Padmé (Natalie Portman) is close to the edge and Dormé (Rose Byrne) fears she’s flirting with the same disasters that befell Saché. She enlists Sabé to help her find Padmé and bring her home. Where they all fall into bed together to prove they are alive.