#sh: sivala x obi wan | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

solasan · 2 years

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study, love, + stars for sobi peas

ONE-WORD (MICRO) PROMPTS (948 words)

On the second night, Sivala realises that the stars are brighter on Tatooine.

See, there are some things you forget when you live on a city-world, and the sheer beauty of the galaxy whirling above your head is definitely one of them. On Daiyu, the sky is choked with pollution during the day, and when the lights come on after dark like the many eyes of a waking nightdweller, the stars are blinded by their fluorescence.

Honestly, even if that wasn’t the case, Sivala doesn’t remember the last time she looked up for anything but checking for snipers. It’s— nice.

She says as much to Obi-Wan, seated on the ledge beside her with his legs swinging. His knee brushes hers as he shifts position to study the stars, and the minute touch is enough to have her tensing, something she thought was long-dead heaving one more shuddering breath.

If he notices, he says nothing. Only exhales slowly; sets his poor excuse for a plate aside.

“I’m afraid I’ve… gotten rather used to it.”

“You’ll get used to anything after ten years,” she muses. “Still. It’s a prettier sight than anywhere else I’ve been in a while.”

She doesn’t specify where she’s coming from, nor where she’ll be going once her sojourn here is over. But they have an agreement on that front; he doesn’t ask her about her work, and she doesn’t ask him about what ties him here, to this planet peeled down to its bones. Even if she does sometimes wonder.

“I didn’t take you for an astronomer,” Obi-Wan reflects, something wry about the set of his mouth in the moonlight. “I suppose I never had the time to ask. I never thought to.”

She shrugs. “We had… bigger things to worry about, then.”

“We have big things to worry about now,” he mutters, and his smile doesn’t— doesn’t die, exactly, but it withers, dry as the acres of sand and rock around them.

It’s true. They do have big things to worry about now. Jabiim’s lost to them; the Path functions at half its previous size, limiting itself to only the rumour of a whisper. Darth Vader will never leave her people — and that includes Obi-Wan, now — alone.

But the stars are beautiful on Tatooine, and out in the desert like this — with the twin suns tucked away behind the horizon and nothing but the whisper of the wind filling the air — it feels like they’re the only people on the planet. The only people in the galaxy.

So Sivala exhales. Consciously releases the ache in her chest, just for a little while— and points up at random.

“You remember learning the charts, don’t you? What’s that?”

The look he gives her through his lashes is so sardonic she almost laughs.

“I haven’t been quizzed on star charts in decades, Sivala.”

“Then you’re due a test, I imagine,” she retorts, somewhat primly. “Besides, it’s useful information to have. Just in case.”

Just in case. She doesn’t elaborate. She doesn’t want to.

When he looks unconvinced, she rolls her shoulders back, resting her full weight on her palms behind her so she can take in the sky. Then she nods to a radiant patch of stars due north, so bright that they wash the planet with cold light.

“For example, I’d say that’s the Ghost Tide Nebula. It’s some rough navigation, if I remember correctly, but from here, it looks… quite lovely.”

There’s a pause. Then a rustle as — not to be outdone — Obi-Wan heaves a sigh, leans back with her, and gestures west.

“Tyrius. That— that star over the outcropping. The one flickering. It’s Tyrius.”

With her eyes, she follows the long line of his arm, shoulder-to-elbow, elbow-to-pointer-finger, until she finds the sun in question. She remembers little and less about the Tyrius system, but it’s easy to spot now she knows what to look for.

Somehow, she can’t quite smother her triumph at persuading him to join her in something so mundane as star-gazing. It dredges up a rusty smile from somewhere half-forgotten inside her, and she’s so unused to the sensation that she bites down on her lip to contain it.

His presence in the Force flickers slightly in response, amused, but all he says is, “And over there, that’s Neri.”

“Is it?” She frowns at the distant blue light and leans closer, which is silly of her, because she already knows it won’t change the view. “I thought that was Nen.”

“I have been looking at this sky for ten years, Sivala.”

“And you’ve got old eyes, Obi-Wan, so I’ll forgive you your follies.”

When she turns her head in this position, his face is a matter of inches from hers, but that’s not what surprises her. It’s the strange expression she finds there; the furrowed brow, the crinkling of crow’s feet. How the not-quite smile plays so cautiously at his lips.

For a moment, they do nothing but consider each other. She could read his thoughts right now, she realises. This is the most unguarded she’s ever seen him, and Sivala’s always been oddly in-tune with the Force when it came to people. She could.

She doesn’t. It’s— it’s not something you do to the people you love. You shouldn’t, anyway.

As though sensing the path her thoughts have taken himself, Obi-Wan leans away, eyes skittering to the side. His aura — slowly warming all evening — fades away almost physically, like a blanket ripped off her shoulders.

“Ah. And— and that’s Andooweel in the east, by the horizon.”

“Quite,” she says, coming back to herself so suddenly it knocks her back into her earlier position, away from him. “Yes.”

Yes. Well then.

#948 words is a micro prompt for me ok pls i dont want to hear it this got away from me #FANK YEW EMILY ILY <3 #no one @ me abt this characterisation im still getting the hang of him i think?#my writing #sh: sivala x obi wan #ch: sivala sylwiri #answered #denerims

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