Kissed by Fire: Cal Kestis

Chapter 25

"Why did the Nightsister do that?" Cal wondered, to which Y/n shrugged gently.

"I'm not entirely sure, but Merrin said-"

"Merrin?" Cal repeated the name, and Y/n realized he hadn't known the name of his attacker. He could've only referred to her as 'the Nightsister'.

"That's her name. Merrin. I wanted to talk to her peacefully so I wouldn't die, and I thought calling her by her name was the first step in doing that," Y/n explained, although Cal bristled slightly in his step. He was clearly disturbed by the thought of Merrin finding Y/n without him there. "She told me that because I was a doctor and I only followed you as a friend she wouldn't harm me. Because I was poisoned by your lies and didn't know what I was following you into."

She spoke with an air of sarcasm on her tongue, but Y/n could see where Merrin was coming from. She had believed her entire life that it was the Jedi responsible for the massacre of her people and the destruction of her home. You can't erase a belief like that in one day. She heard Cal let out a small sigh. Shaking his head, he said, "I wish she would listen. The Jedi had no hand in the massacre of the Nightsisters."

"I know, Cal. Nothing she said was going to make me think that," Y/n assured him, and she could tell that actually saying those words seemed to ease his conscience. Wishing to remove the thoughts from his mind, she looked to him with a small smile and said, "Let's get moving. We can't waste any more time than we already have."

Cal gave her a grin back, however strained it was, and nodded his head along with her as he led them on BD's path. "I'm just glad you're safe," he told her, although it was very quiet. As if he didn't want Dathomir to hear what he had said. The small sentiment made her grow warm inside her chest and swell up with glee for a short moment. She didn't know why, but Y/n was joyous to hear him say those words.

Their journey continued, BD-1 buzzing and beeping every now and then whenever a heavy silence came over the two of them. He was recognizing more and more the awkward looks and strange talks they were having as they became closer and closer. He was starting to get giddy, the droid hoping that they were recognizing their shared feelings, although he knew it was a long shot. Especially for these two broken humans. But they were his broken humans, and like Cal always fixed him up, BD felt he needed to fix them up. Preferably with each other. Maybe after they got off of this horrible red planet they'd confess, although he felt that Y/n was still in the peak denial stage. Cal had already accepted, he told BD himself he was feeling a connection with her. Now all that was left was for BD to trick Y/n into confessing to herself.

Or she would just accept it. That was another option. But BD liked the first one better. It gave him a chance to be perfectly mischievous.

They soon reached a cliff covered in fire lichen, which Y/n let out a sigh for when she saw it. "We could get up there if my grappling mechanism on my blaster wasn't busted. How are we going to scale that?" she questioned, more to herself than to Cal until she saw him messing with something along his knuckles. "What are you doing?"

"I found these in Gorgara's cave," he told her, taking out a pair of strange looking claws. He showed her his own pair and said, "They're climbing claws. The Nightbrothers use them to get up this lichen. I managed to find a pair for both of us."

Y/n's eyebrows raised in surprised, taking the claws from his grasp. "Wow, thanks, Cal," she said, and looked them over with a befuddled expression.

"Here. Let me help," Cal spoke up, taking the claws and surprising her as he fitted them over her knuckles. She wasn't looking at his hands, though. She couldn't keep her eyes off of his face as he concentrated on attaching the claws over her hands.