scavenger.

15 - yavin-4

Jace ran his hands down his face, tugging his eyelids as if to force them open.

Since their departure from Jakku he'd barely slept. Two-thirds of the time he spent piloting the ship, of course, and the rest was spent in a rather uncomfortable chair in the ship's common room in a lame attempt at rest, which wasn't accomplished.

Not that he was complaining at all—quite the contrary. It was cold comfort, tough love—this was how he'd grown up. His mother had always said that his childhood was among the flowers, but his home was in the stars. He'd missed them so much during the short time he'd spent on that barren dumpster planet. He wondered how Anri had been able to stomach it for so long without completely losing her mind.

He'd been avoiding Anri, of course. Other than when it was necessary to see her—when her makeshift bandages (aka the tattered remains of her cape) needed changing, when her wounds needed cleaning, all of that sort of thing. The ship was starting to run out of its already menial supply of water. Knowing this, Jace had chanced another jump to lightspeed so they could get where they needed to go sooner.

At this point Jace couldn't deny to himself that he was deeply attracted to this girl. In fact, it would've been more surprising if he wasn't. She was tall and beautiful and headstrong and witty and incredibly intelligent, and Jace was a guy who hadn't seen a single woman for months by the time she found him (the imperials weren't very diverse, suffice to say). But she didn't want him. And maybe that was for the best—maybe he couldn't afford any more attachments. Maybe he just needed to focus on avenging Bheema.

She'd called him lucky.

How the hell had she known?

"Jace," the gruff voice of the bounty hunter wrecked his train of thought. The hunter cleared his throat and nodded toward the cockpit. "Think we should get out of lightspeed around now. Wouldn't do any good if we suddenly appeared in rebel territory—they'd think we're attacking."

"Right," Jace said. "We're almost there anyway, right?"

The hunter shrugged a little bit, making a face. "I'm not good at reading stars, but I can recognize the Vallusk cluster on the nav, so I know we're at least near the Gordian Reach."

"Yavin's around here somewhere, then," Jace said. "It's gonna be hard to miss." The planet itself was absurdly huge, with an equally absurd number of moons in its orbit. If it weren't floating around a star almost equal in size, Jace would've considered it its own system. Not that that was how these things worked—but you certainly got that impression.

The hunter nodded and went back into the cockpit, with a final glance in the direction of the bunks. Jace wondered at how strangely cordial the hunter had been to him these past few days. He appreciated it, but it was still odd.

Jace decided he would go talk to Anri and update her on what was going on. It was her ship, after all. She'd been restless, constantly squirming around in the bunk despite the pain—it was obvious she hated being laid up when she had wanted to pilot herself on her first voyage. Jace felt like a bastard for that. If they hadn't been after him, she wouldn't've been in this situation. No matter what she said.

He knocked on the door. "Anri."

It was quiet for a moment, but then—"What are you waiting for? Come in."

Jace stifled a smile. Blunt as ever. The door slid open and he found her pacing around the room, her eyes trained on the window until she tore them away to look at him.

"Yes?" she asked in a clipped tone, and Jace thought she seemed like the captain here.

He cleared his throat. "We're going to be jumping out of lightspeed soon. You ought to secure yourself." And then, against his better judgement, "You shouldn't be up, anyway."

Anri glared at first, but then her expression melted into a smile. "Ah. This is my payback."

"Payback?"

"Trying to keep you laid up all that time, and now you're doing the same to me." She lifted her chin, pushing her hair back. "When we get to Yavin, I want to greet them upright."

"You will be upright," Jace returned, yet another smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Upright on your bunk."

"That won't do," she said, knitting her brows and looking away again. "They'll think I'm weak."

"You aren't weak, Anri, you're injured. I am too."

"Yes, but you get to walk around."

Jace shook his head. This conversation was going nowhere. "Just lay down for now. I'll come get you when we're at Yavin."

Anri nodded, swinging her arms. "Fine."

He turned and walked out at that. That short conversation held the most words they'd spoken to each other in days. Every time they spoke, he felt like grinning. This had to stop.

Her eyes had been so shadowed, her skin ashen.

She clearly hadn't been sleeping either.

Jace was back in the cockpit, staring at the nav. He decided to go ahead and jump back out of hyperspace—nodding to the hunter, he pulled the lever.

The momentum was shocking as always (he could never get used to that part) but Jace stomached it. As he'd predicted, they were close to Yavin—if he squinted, he could almost see Yavin-4 from here. It was decidedly greener than the other moons.

He and the bounty hunter both glanced around warily—lacking a radar system, they had to rely on their own eyes to notice any signs of danger.

"Think we're clear?" asked the hunter.

"We're already clear," Jace replied. "It's just a matter of whether or not they know it."

As the ship neared the planet, Jace saw a few fighters headed their way. He prayed the telecom worked—it'd never been tested.

His prayers were answered—staticky but intelligible, he heard one of the pilots come in. "State your business. Any funny moves, and we'll shoot."

He flicked a switch. "I am Captain Jace Sato. I'm with the Alliance. Battal—"

"You're not Jace Sato," another pilot interrupted, incredulously. "He's been dead for months."

Jace recognized that voice and couldn't suppress a grin. "Nooks?"

Stunned silence on the other end.

Then—"Cap, you bastard!"

Jace laughed, dizzy with relief, and looked over at the hunter, who was humorless. Didn't bother him. "You gonna escort us in, or not? We don't bite."

"Yeah, yeah! We'll let the base know it's you."

Stars, it was good to be back!

"Pilot," Jace offhandedly commanded the hunter, pushing himself out of his seat. "I'll go get Anri."

"Yeah, sure," he heard the hunter mumble, but he didn't pay it any mind—Anri was going to be glad to land again, heal, get back on her feet. Shit, he was going to be glad for it!

Without announcing himself, Jace slid the door open. "Anri, we're about to—"

But she was curled up on the bunk, bundled under a blanket.

Asleep.