Hera Syndulla (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
for_everyone) wrote2023-09-10 02:51 pm
for_everyone) wrote2023-09-10 02:51 pm
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These days, the most reliable downtime they could get came during hyperspace jumps. Locked in for eight hours, Hera had drafted Kanan and Chopper into doing maintenance with her, and told the others to get some rest. Whether they were actually doing this, Hera wasn't sure - the distant sound of Mando sonic punk and occasional shouts from the cargo bay made her think otherwise. But then, as much as they might all need sleep, Hera knew that post-mission tension is always hard to shake off.
She and Chopper arrive in the galley first, while Kanan's still finishing a diagnostic on the dorsal gun. Hera asks Chopper to run a final systems check, ignoring his grumbling as she moves to make caf. Once he's plugged at a console near the doorway, Chopper blurts at her again.
"Yeah, I know," she says, while she powers up the brewer. "I'll get to it later."
She and Chopper arrive in the galley first, while Kanan's still finishing a diagnostic on the dorsal gun. Hera asks Chopper to run a final systems check, ignoring his grumbling as she moves to make caf. Once he's plugged at a console near the doorway, Chopper blurts at her again.
"Yeah, I know," she says, while she powers up the brewer. "I'll get to it later."
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"What?" he says, smiling in turn, "you're telling me you don't want to sing along, too?"
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"I'm all right for now, Kanan."
It isn't the first time Kanan has nudged her this way, since Ryloth. But unfortunately for him, her response has been consistent.
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It's not that it cuts at him, that she doesn't sing. But he saw how much she connected with it, with singing, back on Ryloth. Maybe it's not the right company, but . . .
"It's just -- it seemed like you liked it. Before. And I thought -- "
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"It's just - not about that -" Hera answers, mostly keeping her voice even.
But Chopper doesn't miss her discomfort, and blats at Kanan, waving his arms. You sing something, and an insult that sounds best in binary.
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And --
"Okay," he says instead. " I mean, if you want to talk, I'd like to hear. But."
His expression flattens a little and he casts a quick glare at Chopper, just because he hates giving the old chaotic plague any encouragement.
"Chop's right. I can -- sing something. If you want. Instead. Or -- "
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She says it quickly, trying to catch Kanan before he can back down. Chopper had already calmed her nerves, because, well - she'd thought the idea was funny, and assumed Kanan would just taunt Chop back. But now -
"I'd like to hear that."
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(Definitely not jatz).
"Okay. Sure. Uh, I can do that."
What to sing, though? The bass in the song they can barely here isn't really similar to any songs he knows well, but if he just focuses on the rhythm, maybe he can find something that works.
He taps a few beats on the tabletop, setting the pace, and then, trying desperately not to pay attention to Hera's reaction, he starts singing.
Kanan can remember similar but not identical voices raised in song around campfires on several planets, with his Master occasionally lending her own voice to the song. There was determination in it, and resistance to the powerful, and a hope of homecoming.
Maybe now is an okay time to revisit that. He's going to try, anyway.
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Hera hasn’t heard the melody or the words before, and yet there’s an easy familiarity to them. The notes follow a minor scale, leaving a soft chill in their wake. The words tell of a great treasure, but in a sorrowful tone, as the singer imagines this will lead them far from their home, and from everything they’ve known. Kanan doesn’t need to sing for very long before Hera has recognized the pattern of the notes, can anticipate the lyrics.
By the end of the first verse, Hera picks up the song, her voice curling a gentle harmony around Kanan’s.