Drinking games

[for_everyone]

It was supposed to be an easy repair, fiddly but relatively straightforward. But then the stored replacement part was bad, every shop in town was out except for one, which was broken, and the repair to fix that made it an uphill slog to even fit it in the Ghost, due to Chopper and Zeb getting into a fight and leaving at least two drill bits where drill bits did not belong.

And since it was meant to be easy, everyone but Hera and Kanan is out at the cantina enjoying themselves and the two of them are here, exhausted, dusty, and covered in grease. The smell of welding torch is heavy in the air.

Then Hera rolls to her feet, shaking her head a little to clear it.

"You know what? This calls for a drink, and I've just remembered where I left some."

Comments

[for_everyone]

"From your mouth to the galaxy's ears."

Hera tips her own glass toward Kanan's, clinking the rim against his.

[notallofus]

He takes his own deep sip from his glass.

"Yeah, haven't had a drink like that in a while."

[for_everyone]

"If we ever make more than marginal profits, maybe we'll get the chance to have it again."

Or something like it. Maybe if they rescue a princess . . .

[notallofus]

He shakes his head.

"I think I only drank like this when I was friendly with the cantina owner."

[for_everyone]

"I hate to tell you this, but there are no cantinas here."

Which was the point of this whole finding-alcohol endeavor.

"Never say I skimp on my friends."

[notallofus]

"I know I've never said that."

He takes another sip from his glass. "And we don't usually stick around long enough to get friendly with the locals."

And even if they did, it was a lot safer for said locals when he was only a transport pilot, or whatever job he'd picked up at the time.

[for_everyone]

"Maybe someday," Hera says, more softly than a moment ago.

"When this is over."

If that's in their lifetime, that is. But you've got to try.

Her smile is a little crooked.

"I think we'd make excellent local farmers."

[notallofus]

Kanan leans back in the seat.

"Right," he says, sounding a little wistful.

And then, "You would be so bored."

[for_everyone]

"I'd end up running for mayor," Hera agrees, because Kanan is not wrong.

"What would you do?"

[notallofus]

"I don't know."

In his entire life, he'd only had one stationary 'home,' and even then, Jedi weren't really meant to settle down.

"Can I be the cantina owner in this scenario?"

[for_everyone]

"If you promise to save at least a little bit of your top shelf for me, and your lowest shelf for Zeb, sure."

She will allow it.

[notallofus]

"I'm not sure how much business sense it makes," he says, lifting his glass again, "but I think I can arrange it."

[for_everyone]

"Excellent!"

She toasts him with her cup again, then pauses meditatively.

"I'd run away to the hyperspace lanes again eventually, though."

Hera knows herself pretty well, by now.

"I hope you wouldn't mind being kidnapped on my way out of the system."

[notallofus]

"And give up my cantina?"

He doesn't think on this that long. "Yeah, I'd be okay with that."

[for_everyone]

"Leave it to the wild nerfs and banthas."

Clearly.

[notallofus]

"From what I've seen, it's not a great job, anyway."

A lot of cleaning and dealing with rowdy, drunk patrons. After long enough he might prefer taking on a squad of stormtroopers.

[for_everyone]

"Maybe if we weren't the customers . . . "

It probably wouldn't make a difference.

[notallofus]

"One thing I was good at was getting other people to drink."

Which is probably a good skill for a cantina-owner. "But I didn't always have to deal with the consequences then."

Sometimes he did. But not as much.

[for_everyone]

"No more mops!"

The time with the nerfs in the cargo bay left some scars, all right?

[notallofus]

He puts up his hands. "It's a fictional cantina!"

[for_everyone]

"Fine, no fictional mops."

She takes another slow sip of her drink.

"For our -- I'm sorry, your -- fictional cantina in the fictional town of which I am mayor."

Hera exhales, also slowly.

"Is it wrong not to really want things to be much different than this, for a while?"

[notallofus]

"I think we might have to accept that neither of us seems very interested in settling down, for a while."

Even if other, external circumstances might have been different.

[for_everyone]

"Fair enough."

It's true, so . . .

[notallofus]

"On that thought..."

Kanan picks up the bottle to refill their glasses.

[for_everyone]

Hera leans forward to make the pouring easier, then sits back and resettles herself comfortably.

"For a minute I thought you were going somewhere. Somewhere besides just pouring more to drink, that is."