The Bonadan Years

Ace had been coming to the roof for as long as he could remember. He was fourteen now, longer limbs folded in on themselves at the edge of the orphanage, boots dangling over brick and rusted piping. The city glowed beneath him, thousands of windows burning through haze and smoke. The scrapyard lights flickered in the distance. Engines hummed, constant and indifferent.

Above it all, the binary moons hung in their usual places. He leaned back on his hands and let the cool air settle against his skin. Up here, the noise softened. Not gone, never gone, but distant enough. Footsteps scraped behind him.

"You always come up here."

Hina's voice carried softly in the night. Thirteen, purple hair catching starlight, freckles dusting her cheeks like someone had painted them on for effect. She dropped down beside him without asking, close enough that their shoulders brushed.

Ace didn't look at her at first. "It's quiet."

"It's never quiet." She said, smiling faintly.

"It's quieter." He corrected. After a moment, he added. "Helps me relax. Helps me forget that… this is my life."

The words slipped out before he could stop them.

Hina glanced at him, something warm flickering in her eyes. "Yeah..."

They sat in silence for a while, watching the moons drift through thin clouds. The stars were sharp tonight, scattered thick and endless beyond the haze.

"Sometimes..." Hina said, "I look up there and I wonder what my future's going to be like."

Ace didn't answer, but the thought pressed into him anyway. The future. He used to imagine one, when he was smaller, when he had a little more hope in his heart.. Hina tucked her legs in and rested her chin on her knees.

"When I leave here, I'm not coming back." She said lightly, like she was talking about tomorrow instead of years from now. "I want to see Zeltros. Or Coruscant. Somewhere bright. Somewhere people don't look at you like you're already done before you've started."

She glanced sideways at him.

"Maybe I'll run a shop. Or fly transports. Or… I don't know. Something that's mine."

Ace listened. She spoke like the galaxy was waiting for her, he remembered when he used to feel that way.

"I don't want to scrape by forever." She continued. "I want something bigger. Not even famous. Just… bigger than this."

He nodded once. He didn't tell her that he'd stopped imagining titles or futures or places where his name meant something. Those had faded slowly, replaced by something simpler and harder to admit.

Freedom. Not glory. Not greatness. Just the ability to leave, to wake up somewhere the skyline didn't look like Bonadan. To move without checking over his shoulder. To choose something instead of surviving it. He kept that to himself.

Hina shifted closer, their shoulders fully touching now. "What about you?" She asked gently. "What do you see when you look up there?"

He hesitated. The honest answer would have been too big, too exposed.

"Ships." He said instead. "Routes. Ways out."

She smiled at that, softer than before. "You'd make a good captain."

He huffed quietly. "I don't even have a ship."

"Not yet." She said.

He didn't catch the way she looked at him then. The quiet certainty in it. The way her hand hovered near his before retreating back to her own lap.

They watched the moons in silence after that. Below them, Bonadan continued as it always did... unconcerned, unchanging. Above them, the stars stretched out in infinite possibility. Ace's gaze lingered there. He didn't dream of being a hero anymore. He didn't picture battles or saving anyone. He had learned better than that.

But the stars still pulled at something in him. Not hope, but something close to refusal. Refusal to believe this was all there would ever be.​