While You Were Sleeping

[Kaden Farr]

Yasha had it hard. Kaden couldn’t imagine being raised by someone who was so distant that he wasn’t really there. Kaden was an orphan because his parents had been killed. Yasha was an orphan because grief and pain was stealing her father away from her. It was a hard life to live as the child of a wounded warrior. As Yasha spoke, the more he understood her world and why they had become such close friends as fast as they had. She was all he had, and in a way, he was all she had. That reality made the moment a little sad, but as Yasha continued the mood changed.

They had both found someone to watch their backs. Each other. Yasha nuzzled into him again, and Kaden put his arm around the girl. He had done it in the medical ward and he did it again here. They were bonding much deeper than a simple friendship would let them. Kaden understood things to be complicated at this point. The words they chose to use with each other, paired with the feelings he had, complicated a lot of things. It felt right though, their relationship. Whatever it was and whatever it was becoming, the two would always have each other’s backs.

”I’m sorry your father has been wounded as much as he has. I can’t imagine what that life is like. He lost you and your mother, got you back again, only to lose her and your brother.”

Kaden sighed. He could understand actually. He had lost it all, and he let that consume his thinking. Kaden had no business trying to avenge his parents at such a young age. Mia had been a warrior much more skilled than he was. Had they faced off, she would have easily heated him. It had been a foolish endeavor, one they were both lucky to have escaped.

”Now that the fighting is over for now... maybe we can hunt more or go camping. Things that people our age are supposed to enjoy. I should be looking for a job too. Now that I’m an adult... Gods that seems odd to say....”

They needed the hope of happier times. It would help them move on from the war they had just been through.

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“I’ve got to take care of him, Kade. Just like I took care of Mama. She was so scared all the time… she needed her Yasha. Now Daddy needs me, too.” Locked in place, when was Yasha able to be the child others thought of her? She cuddled into [member="Kaden Mantis"]’ side, feeling the sleek power of his arm around her. Outside the hospital it felt less like pity, or the actions of a boy watching a girl groggily wake up. It made her spine tingle and her mouth go funny inside. While Yasha didn’t understand, she welcomed being cuddled against his side.

“An adult. No offence but you don’t look like an adult. Not like Daddy or Uncle [member="Silas Mantis"]… Why don’t you ask [member="Baiko no Kaho"] for a job? She’s taking care of Mama’s companies for me until I’m old enough… might be something there. What do you want to do? That’s how Daddy met my Mom, eh? He’d seen her at this anti-Sith thing, but he met her when she hired him on as protection for a mining op. There were pirates! And the whole thing sounded so exciting.” Yasha sighed against his side, looking up at his face without her goggles to mar the view.

“Baiko says I’m not an adult until I hit 19… more years of hunting and sh-she-shen-shenabigoats… she-na-ni-gans… what else are kids our age supposed to enjoy? I like camping! It reminds me of the Netherworld! I can take first watch and make sure no evil monsters eat you in your sleep!” Yasha giggled, slumping in his grasp to nudge her cheek on his shoulder, back faced toward his chest. She clung to his arm, and sighed.

“Am I a monster? Everyone looks at what I can do and I know they don’t like it… but it’s normal, you know?”

 

[Kaden Farr]

Kaden shrugged. He knew he didn’t look like the other adults, and as a human male his body was still developing. By the time he reached nineteen, the age Baiko said Yasha would be an adult, they both would be much different. Kaden didn’t think much of what that life would look like. He just knew that it would involve being a true Mandalorian. Kaden had no vision for anything else, something that could be something of a weakness.

”I have no idea what I want to do. Many of our people farm, but that’s hard to do now. I could hunt, learn to fashion Beskar. Do you think Baiko would give me a job? I mean if you aren’t an adult til 19 would she hire me at 14?”

Kaden would only want one job, keeping Yasha safe, but as long as she was Mandalore, Kaden wasn’t leaving. They had just told each they would have each other’s backs. That meant they had to stay together. Their lives were intertwined as far as Kaden was it.

Yasha stuttered less, but at times it still came through. When she wasn’t confident in her mando’a The stutter was noticeable. Kaden was always patient with her. She understood more than she could say. Their language wasn’t an easy one. Kaden was trying to learn her other languages, but he found them just as hard. His mind wasn’t good with the nuances of language. He tried though, hard.

”With no war we shouldn’t need to take turns keeping watch, not unless you want to practice for next time. We should be able to go camping and just relax with no worries. Hunt a small animal for meal times and live off the land for a couple nights. I had to do that for my verd’goten.”

He seemed eager to get out with Yasha once she was well. Their world had been war, but now it could be something different. For Yasha it would be the first time in her life to know peace. What would she do with it.

Kaden scrunched his nose at her question.

”You are not a monster. They just don’t understand that we have only known loss and war. For you, you also knew hell. They stare because they don’t understand.”

His arm wrapped around her tighter.

”Would I be holding you like this if you were a monster, Yash’ika? It’s one more reason we have to keep each other. The other adults, they don’t understand us, what we’ve been through. There are whispers that we shouldn’t have been allowed to fight, but people are alive because of us.”

Kaden let his cheek rest on top of Yasha’s head.

”How’s the anesthesia wearing off? You think you could try eating something?”

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“Baiko has to give you a job! She’d probably love it, [member="Kaden Mantis"]. Chance to get you a car-carr-career… and then we could spend more time together. You know, when I’m not learning from Ra.” Curled into Kaden’s side, Yasha let the groggy sensations filter off. A calm safety filled the prefabricated temporary housing.

“No war? Only known life without war a few months, after Mama and I came back and Daddy resigned his post as Field Marshall to stay home while Mama worked… till Mama and Daddy got fighting… Kade? I don’t know how to do anything but fight a bunch and… and Mama tried to teach me to dance a little, but… what if I’m no good? What if I don’t know what the rules are?” She peered up at him, the girl who finally proved herself a fragile being by bleeding on the Cold Iron ground.

Kaden promised she wasn’t a monster, yet the lack of a voice in her head, the lack of dreams and a lifetime being a silly little child struck her. The other girls had different lives. Wouldn’t Kaden be happier with one of them at his side, wrapped in his arm?

“I’m glad you are holding me, is that awful? Could get used to it… the adults never understand anything. We were okay to die at Monroe’s hands, why couldn’t we fight to save our own lives? They’ve got the liberarty of their ideals behind their shields and motes.”

Face going hot as Kaden rested his cheek on her hair, Yasha let her eyes shut and nestled in. The cold room felt scant and terrible as a cell without the thought of Kaden being in it. Maybe if Narir was there, she would feel even better?

Somehow Yasha knew in her chest that wasn’t the case. “My head is all swelly and gunky and the room’s all bright and gross and my head hurts, and my toes hurt and my chest hurts and…” Yasha sniffled, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. “… sorry. Complaining is for five year olds… yeah.. I could eat something… my tummy doesn’t feel that bad… if I don’t look around too much.”

Curling up and putting her head on a pillow she placed on Kaden’s knee, Yasha’s knees tucked up to her chest and she shivered lightly as she hugged her legs. “Thank you for being with me when I woke up, Kade… th…”

Yasha stuttered one last time and mewled before falling steadily asleep.