Private Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

[Lief]

Eliphas shook his head softly. "You know, most wouldn't take it well" he confessed, hoping to dissuade him from such a path, "They're meant to be for affection, mutually desired, not..." He shook his head again, this time unable to keep a humoured chuckle from escaping him. "Not to shut people up."​

​

As for what Eliphas wanted... It seemed he'd been right in coming to Val for such an insight, the man was blunt if nothing else and not likely to sweeten his words. "Nobody wants to know for sure if the ones they love are dead" he agreed, only with less emotion than he'd previously been presenting. More of a pragmatic response than an emotional one. "I suppose some part of me is hoping that if I don't find out it won't be real, as though it has not already happened."​

​

It was... foolish. He knew that it was foolish.​

​

Dancing was Val's suggestion of what to do, but that was easy coming from a man who danced for a living, and who had working legs. "I'd like to dance" he admitted, as the steak was handed over in a tankard. Eliphas gawped at it for a moment, before blinking up at Val as he made his 'threat'. The Tetan's cheeks reddened, and for a moment he considered saying nothing.​

​

"That isn't really a threat" he mumbled instead, looking back down to the steak. "Do you have a knife and fork, by chance?"​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

Val merely looked confused by Eli’s explanation, as though he couldn’t fathom why anyone would kiss another person except for the purpose of quieting them. “It shut you up,” he pointed out.

"Nobody wants to know for sure if the ones they love are dead."

“You are a sad, strange little man,” Val said. “When I felt my brother Alyosha die, I rushed to find him. I had to know for sure that he was dead. Because if he wasn’t, I’d be abandoning him while he was still alive. If you love them, you won’t leave them to rot just because you’re too scared to face the truth.”

"That isn't really a threat."

Val misinterpreted Eli's flirting as tantamount to uttering 'I am rubber, you are glue' or 'I know you are, but what am I?'. Turning to glare over his shoulder at the boy, Val huffed under his breath and reached into a drawer full of mismatched utensils. Picking out a fork and steak knife, he said, “Here, catch!”

The fork was relatively harmless when thrown, but the knife? Owie. Eli had better either catch it with the Force or dodge it in time to avoid being skewered.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

"But I didn't mind.. most people would... personal space, and all of that.." Having to spell it out like that was even more embarrassing, his cheeks were burning at this point. ​

​

As for how strange and small he might have been, and his reluctance to find out the truth, Eliphas looked down into his lap. "It's... it's been months, Val" he whispered, "Happened when I was comatose. It's.. it's not something I have any effect on." That unending guilt was gnawing at him even as he said it, and it was fortunate that he looked up when he finally did because cutlery was flying his way.​

​

He dodged away from the knife, then picked it and the fork up from where they landed beside him. "Thanks" he whispered, before he let out another sigh.​

​

Eliphas didn't pay any immediate attention to the steak though, nor did he keep eating the ice cream, instead he stared off at nothing.​

​

"I'll... I'll speak to Starlin" he finally said, nerves flowing through him unchecked, "See if we can't head over to Teta." He knew they could, the only reason they hadn't gone already was because Eliphas kept putting it off. Val had helped him to see a little clearer though, helped him to realize he was, simply put, just being a coward. Unfair. If the roles were reversed they'd have searched for him.​

​

"Do you, uh... Do you think you could show me again, how to, um, fly..?"​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

“Oh, I see. You’re one of those people who likes being shut up.” Val looked as if he finally comprehended one of the great secrets of the universe. “Very well. I’ll never kiss you again.”

"It's... it's been months, Val. Happened when I was comatose. It's.. it's not something I have any effect on."

“How do you know that for sure?” Val shot back. “There’s always a chance. Make sure. Do it! Now!”

Eliphas finally agreed to speak to his master about attending to the matter. Val nodded in approval. It was then that a soft knocking interrupted their conversation.

“Eat steak first,” Val replied as he went to answer the, er, boarding ramp.

When he returned a few minutes later, he was accompanied by a young woman with blue eyes and auburn hair. Tall and statuesque, she was beautiful and elegantly dressed. Something about the way she comported herself revealed that she was a member of the nobility, even if the planetary culture she represented was more obscure on the galactic stage than others.

Upon seeing Eliphas, she paused. “Oh—I didn’t know you had a guest,” she said. “Or are you one of Valentin’s passengers, sir?”

“Eliphas Dune, do you need a ride anywhere?" Val asked, getting the introductions out of the way while he was at it. "Lady Anesha Astapova wants to know.”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Well he'd gone and blown it, though honestly he knew he'd never have any chance with Val anyway. Maybe that was what drew him to the eccentric man in the first place, the thrill of the hard to get chase. He had been pushing his luck anyway, though his mind did drift back to the shut-up kiss. He had to mentally shake the image away, and instead focused on what actually mattered here.​

​

"I... I guess I don't know it" he responded, that one question seeming to shatter his worldview entirely. Val's pushy nature helped too, and Eli felt suddenly bolstered and capable of doing what had previously seemed so impossible.​

​

"Okay" he mumbled when instructed to eat the steak, watching as Val wandered off. He did his best to eat with the steak where it was, but ultimately reached out a hand to try and pull a plate into his grasp. Slow going, but doable with a few attempts. With it in his lap, he set the steak down and cut it into manageable chunks.​

​

By the time that Val returned he'd made a decent start on it.​

​

The auburn haired woman was an unexpected addition, and his eyes widened nervously to see her. "G-Guest," he responded, before Val asked his question and managed to get the introductions out of the way at the same time. "No, Mister Drutin. Am I in the way?" He looked between the pair, then back to Val. "I can leave if you'd like..?"​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

“Absolutely not!” Val exclaimed. “Clearly fate has brought us all here together for a reason. We just need to figure out why…”

Cupping his hand over her ear, he whispered something to Anesha. To Eli it would sound like an awful lot of “pspspspsp” and nonsense words.

Anesha smiled at him with great fondness, then removed her gloves. “After you’ve finished eating, Valentin would like me to help you learn how to fly again,” she said, apparently having understood him perfectly. Perhaps she was a little mad herself, or merely so used to his eccentricities that she could easily decipher his word salad.

“She is my Muse, Eliphas,” Val said, striking a majestic pose. “And she will be the same to you, too. You will be awakened by her; she will hold you up, and on her wings you will fly!”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Psstpsstpsst indeed.​

​

Eliphas sat awkwardly as the pair convened, shifting the cut meat around on his plate as though it would somehow make it disappear. He'd managed a bite or two, but his stomach wasn't exactly happy about it.​

​

"Oh" he responded to the auburn haired woman, "Do.. I have to eat it all first?" Could he manage all of it?​

​

Val spoke of muses, and the Tetan couldn't help but smile. "Didn't know you were a romantic, Valentin," he teased, "Do you dance too, Miss?"​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

"Do... I have to eat it all first?"

"Oh, well I—"

"YES!" Val screamed, cutting her off.

Anesha shrugged. "Not to be rude, but you do look like you could use some protein, Mr. Dune."

"He looks like a little porcelain doll, but the dollmaker got tired and just gave him sticks for arms and legs," Val said, with no regard to social etiquette whatsoever. "Or a marble statue someone started chipping away at..."

"Didn't know you were a romantic, Valentin."

"I am not!" Val violently protested, stamping his slippered foot like a child. "I am an artist, she is my Muse. There's nothing more to it than that."

"Oh no," Anesha answered Eli's question with a shake of her head and a gentle smile. "I would have liked to be a great dancer. But my parents would not permit it, and now I am too old to be great. So instead I have dedicated myself to the genius of Valentin."

Val blushed and looked away, pressing his hands over his heart. "You mustn't say such things," he said in a purring tone which suggested he would very much like her to say more.

"I have seen many other dancers. None are equal to Valentin Drutin, and none shall ever be greater than him. He is a true god of the dance."

They went on like this for some time, with Val basking in Anesha's adoration while they waited for Eliphas to finish eating (or to come up with some clever way of getting rid of the steak. It wouldn't be hard, considering how preoccupied they were...). Then it was time to teach the boy how to fly.

Apart from initially hauling Eli to his feet, Val retreated to the role of choreographer. He directed Anesha to hold onto Eli's hands, but then switched her position so that she was behind him, holding him under the arms. "That's better. She has a light touch, doesn't she? You barely know she's there. Now stay like that, even if you start to feel yourself weakening. Eli, close your eyes and imagine that you are floating in water. Then in air. Then cease to imagine, and make it so..."

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Val was very quick to make it clear that Eliphas was in fact to eat every last bite of the steak provided. He supposed it was only fair, such cuts of meat were not cheap and it would be rude of him to waste it after the man had gone through the effort of trying to help him in his recovery. Quite selflessly, in fact.​

​

"Okay, Mister Drutin, sir," he mumbled, as the pair began to devolve into opulent fawning. He cut at the steak, eating it tiny bite by tiny bite, and even by the time he was full they were still at it. From the corner of his eye, Eliphas could not help but coyly watch Val as his cheeks reddened and his chest puffed up with the inflated ego he was being provided with.​

​

Empress, why did the fates have to be so cruel? One hand lifted and he lightly brushed his fingertips over his lips before he realized what he was doing. There was only a slither of steak remaining, but Eliphas sorely feared that by eating it he would end up hurling. As a result, he slipped the plate onto a side table, more or less out of sight, and hoped that what came next would provide enough distraction that neither would notice the remnants.​

​

Hauled to his feet, Eliphas clung to Val until he found a steady footing and then was soon left in the delicate hands of Anesha. His eyes closed, and he took slow and calming breaths to focus his mind on the task at hand.​

​

"Think happy thoughts?" he mumbled, as he tried to recall how Starlin had tried to teach him back on Kashyyyk. He'd managed to rise an inch from the ground then, hardly a great feat but it was something. Something would always be better than nothing where such was concerned.​

​

"I don't think it's.." Cutting himself off before Val could see fit to do so, Eliphas' expression softened up as he turned more introspective, visualizing the aforementioned water, and then the air around them. No ground beneath him, just more of the same weightlessness at his feet. He could almost forget that Anesha was there at all.​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

"Think happy thoughts?"

“And they lift you into the air,” Val added.

As Eli slipped into a trance, Anesha’s eyebrows rose. She glanced at Val questioningly. He made a few emphatic gestures, which she understood to mean don’t do anything to disrupt him. So she remained where she was, holding up the nearly weightless emaciated boy.

The emaciated boy who was gradually becoming even lighter.

Soon he left her hands entirely. Val tiptoed forward, standing just below Eli’s floating body, his arms outstretched underneath the Padawan just in case he fell. “Do you think you could lift your legs, Eliphas?” he asked, as if nothing had changed. “Anesha will still hold you up, of course. I want to test your abdominal strength…”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

"Oh, erm..."​

​

Could he lift his legs? Theoretically, yes. And if miss Anesha was there to support him, why not try? One foot lifted first, seeming to have no effect on how stable he felt, and then came the other. Huh, he didn't even feel any added pressure around his torso where she held him. He felt...​

​

... Weightless.​

​

His eyes opened all at once, and he discovered that he was not just a mere inch off the ground but so high up that the tops of his curls were touching the starship's ceiling. Those eyes widened, first in alarm and then surprise, and he fought to keep himself afloat. Fought to upkeep those so-called happy thoughts, of a time when all was well in the Universe. He'd thought of mother, and father, as they were when he'd last seen them. Happy and proud and loving as ever.​

​

Eliphas felt his mind beginning to fumble now that he had more to focus on though, and he began to quickly descend. His eyes squeezed shut, and one hand lifted to his lips where the fingertips delicately brushed against the spot Val had used to silence him.​

​

He didn't lift any higher, but nor did he crumple into the man's arms either.​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

“HE’S FLYING!” Val bellowed, leaping through the air in excitement. His powerful jumps carried him to greater heights than Eli; he bounded around the room like a gazelle. Anesha laughed joyously as she watched him circle her.

“Do a spin in midair! Or a flip!” He stopped to take hold of Eli’s ankle, tugging it upwards in an effort to turn the boy over like one would flip a pancake. “Or some other trick! You can fly, Eli! Hey, that rhymed.”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Wait... He was flying, wasn't he?​

​

He could not help but finally beam a smile, let his grief wash away until all he felt was elation in its wake. Even when his ankle was seized and he was flipped upside, until he couldn't quite tell which way was up, his mood did not change, and oddly none of his usual fear or concerns arose within him either.​

​

"I'm ... I'm doing it!" he whooped, as he finally came full circle to be floating upright once more. "Val, you're a genius!"​

​

And for his next trick... Eliphas moved. It was nothing at all like walking, and yet somehow it left him feeling just as free. He practically swam through the air, approaching the manic dancer as he did, then somersaulted all over again.​

​

He could move.​

​

No chair needed!​

​

Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

"Val, you're a genius!"

“CORRECT!” Val agreed heartily. “Now, let’s see if you can fly home!”

Hijacking Eli’s empty hoverchair, he sat in it and sped down the boarding ramp.

Lief​