𝘰𝘩 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘭𝘪𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩, 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘮 𝘣𝘰𝘮𝘣 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘪𝘯
Harlow Kaz is a young adult in the middle of a war that she's been fighting in since she was a little girl. Now on a new mission she meets a man...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
xii. you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave
CASSIAN HAD GOTTEN USED TO THE monotonous drumming of the machines around him, the sound echoing through his skull no matter what he did.
It all faded into the background as he focused on the task at hand, at making it to the next day and not letting anything stop him from making it out.
Every morning he would check the machine next to his bed, seeing as it had gone down slightly to count down the shifts that he had left to do and the number seemed impossible to complete.
But he was going to make it home to his mother and he was going to make sure that she was safe and looked after for the rest of their lives together.
Two months in and he had never expected this to be as tiring or as trying as it was but he was working hard trying to make sure everyone else was okay like he always did.
Melshi called outr his name and Cassian looked up, passing the machine towards Ulaf and then giving him a questioning look.
"Who's Harlow?' He asked and for a second, Cassian wasn't going to pay attention to the question but when he heard her name, he looked up.
His brows furrowed as he wondered where he had learnt the name from, he hadn't told anyone about his past or the things that had happened outside of here.
Cassian hadn't even thought about her whilst he was in here. That was a lie. He thought about her every single day, he thought about her and Maarva, Bix and Nemik, Brasso and vel.
He wondered how everyone was doing in the outside world where he wished he could be. Sometimes he wondered that maybe he should have gone to Coruscant with Harlow to avoid all of this.
"What are you talking about?" He asked, everyone holding their hands up as they waited for the machine to slot itself in.
The other men listened to the conversation. After so long trapped in these prisons with no new things to talk about, they were almost glad for a bit of gossip.
Most of them had family members, lovers, partners, people that thy had left behind when they were taken here. Some of them had nobody left and that was the saddest part of it all.
"You were saying the name in your sleep," he said, shrugging his shoulders, "I was just curious,"
Melshi slept on the opposite bunk to Cassian and the two friends, or as much as you could be when you were barely allowed to talk to one another in the prisons.
Cassians face scrunched up and his shoulders tensed, an air of awkwardness entering the conversation and they saw how protective he looked.
"It's none of your business," he said, brows furrowed as he looked down at the work.
Cassian felt a strange aura of protectiveness over her, wanting to make sure that she was safe and that nobody else knew about her.
"We've been here two months Keef, you never mentioned a girlfriend," Melshi stated.
That's one thing that cassian didn't like getting used to. Nobody had called him Cassian in months and he missed it, the way his mother would say his name when he was a child, the way Harlow would yell it in anger. It was like a part of him had been taken away.
"Yeah man, we all have some fantasy that brings us a bit of peace," Jemboc said, a smirk on his face.
That's when Cassian froze, his hand tightening around the machinery as he looked up at Jemboc, eyes narrowed.
"She's not my girlfriend," he said, his accent thick and his anger obvious.
Jemboc and Ham shared a look, one that said that he clearly cared about this girl to be so overprotective over her and not want to mention her.
But they also knew that he still had over five years until he was getting out of here and clearly he was never expecting to get back to her - whoever she was.
That's when Kino walked over, having heard the conversation that the boys were having. He could see that they had slowed working slightly so he stopped at their table.
"I don't care about previous side pieces, get on with your work," he stated, his voice stern as he looked at the group.
"She's not a side piece," Cassian said, the blood boiling through his veins, "She's an old friend,"
Kino shrugged his shoulders, walking away and going to reprimand another table for slowing down like he always did, the cycle continious.
The group were silent, the air tense and awkward as the work hadn't started again yet. They'd never seen Cassian so angry over something so clearly this girl was important.
"Seems like more than a friend to me," Melshi stated, his voice slightly quieter than before as he passed the machine along, stating the same words as always as everyone stepped away with their hands up.
Cassian stood there for a second, clicking the pieces into place and wondering if she was okay wherever she was.
He knew that she was strong and that she could handle himself but for some reason, there was a gnawing feeling in the back of his head that pondered over her whereabouts.
He didn't know that she was sitting in his home on Ferrix, drinking tea with his mother as she tried to keep her alive.
And she didn't know where he was either. Sometimes, and only sometimes, she would peak out of the window as she sat in Brassos apartment and wonder if he was somewhere out there on the universe still.
Both thought of the worst things that could have happened, Cassian could have gotten in trouble with the police, she could have been caught on the way out of ferrix.
But instead of allowing the incessant thoughts that plagued him as he slept tell him the worst, Cassian saw that she was happy on Coruscant, making a difference where she could.
That was what brought him peace at night, the dreams of the Coruscant skyline, her standing on the edge with a happy smile on her face. That's what brought him peace.
