#why kiss a local fulcrum

[anathtsurugi]

So, Star Wars buddies, y’all remember how I wrote that soulmate AU a couple years back...

Well, When You Pry it From My Cold, Dead Chest is finally getting a continuation. The new story will be posted in about a month as part of @kalluzebminibang‘s mini bang event, but the first chapter is available right now on my Patreon. So if you still remember my odd little story, if it touched your life in some way and you’ve maaaaaybe got a few spare dollars lying around for a rainy day, you can hop on over and be one of the first to see the start of the new fic.

But for now, if you haven’t got the spare change but are still excited for the new story, here’s a little sneak peek at the upcoming You Can Take My heart, You Can Take My Breath.

~*~

 Ever since returning from Mandalore, Kanan had been working with him to try and figure out a way to regain his soulmark. Nothing they'd tried had come anywhere close to succeeding. Zeb still possessed amber in his field of vision, and would occasionally report other flashes of color flickering in and out. So it seemed the problem lay not with him, but with Kallus himself.

 These last few days, he had gone out early in the morning to meet with the Jedi, before he had to be on shift and before Kanan would meet up with Ezra for their own regular training. But this was even earlier than he normally woke. He doubted Kanan would even be awake yet. Even so, he would head out, maybe take a little extra time to get into the necessary head space...

 "I know you're not goin' out at this un-Ashla hour," Zeb grumbled from the bunk just as he finished dressing. "Y'should come back to bed."

 Kallus gave a fond sigh as he crossed the few steps back to the bed, dropping to one knee beside it. "I will do no one any good lying here unable to sleep," he said, leaning down to press a kiss to his partner's lips. "Go back to sleep, my love. I'll return in an hour or so."

 "Mm, there's other things we can do if you can't sleep, y'know," Zeb mumbled, voice thick with sleep.

 "Be reasonable, Garazeb," he started with a small laugh. "We can't have sex every time I can't sleep."

 "We could. It's an option. You're just choosing not to."

 Again Alex laughed, placating his lover with one last kiss. "Maybe so, but you at least require sleep, and if you're a good boy and get enough rest, I promise you can kriff me up against the wall when I get back."

 "Promise?" the Lasat grumbled peevishly as he rolled away from him.

 "Promise."

 "Fine. But I'm holdin' you to that. I don't care how late we are for morning shift."

 "Fair enough," Kallus conceded as he got back to his feet.

 "L'ashkerrir an," Zeb mumbled, barely awake.

 Kallus stopped in the doorway at the sound of those words, feeling that same flutter of unbound joy in his heart as he had the very first time Zeb had spoken them. He hoped it never stopped.

 "And I you...my dearest Zeb," he said softly, adoringly, before allowing the door to slide closed behind him.

 Kallus took no weapons with him when he departed the Ghost, despite every instinct he had always begging him to. The very first time they'd gone out into the jungle, Kanan had insisted he wouldn't need any weapons.

 "Are you crazy?" he'd asked, certain the knight hadn't yet been informed about the local fauna. "Do you have any idea what's out there?"

 Kanan had simply given him a shit-eating grin and offered up cryptically, "Only what you take with you."

 Whatever that meant. Still, Kallus had obeyed, and he had not found cause to doubt Kanan yet. This particular morning was no different, if not a touch earlier than even he rose. The sky had barely begun to lighten as he moved through the dense jungle. He'd likely have had trouble finding his way if he didn't already know where he was going. However, much to his surprise, their usual clearing was not deserted when he arrived.

 "Couldn't sleep?" Kanan asked as Kallus stepped into the circle, clearly having been sitting in meditation for some time already. As had been the case on all the mornings prior, he was not wearing his typical mask.

 "I don't know that I've slept properly since Atollon," he admitted, tired of his own stoic front. He had learned quickly that the knight could read him like a holobook. "Though neither, it seems, could you."

 "Call it a hunch," the Jedi said, nodding to indicate he ought to sit down beside him. "Feel up to contemplating your innermost self this fine morning?"

 "As much as one ever is 'up' for such a task," he conceded as he came to sit beside the man he had previously hunted. "Though Zeb did try to argue that it isn't even properly morning yet."

 "And he was right. Unfortunately for those of us with normal biorhythms, the Force says 'jump' when and where it wants to, so we mortals must abide. Let me see your arm," he said, holding out his hand.

 "See, Kanan?" he joked half-heartedly as he rolled up the sleeve of his jacket, resting his forearm in the Jedi's outstretched hand.

 "I can see better than you can right now," Kanan returned in a similar tone, caught somewhere between joking and serious. Exhaling, he brought his other hand up to run his fingers over the skin where the soulmark had once been, and when he winced at whatever it was he was feeling, Kallus was once again grateful not to be able to feel it.

 "Close your eyes," the Jedi told him.

 Kallus did as he was bid, easily quieting the skeptical voice in his mind that had grown smaller and smaller since he'd watched the inquisitor burn away a piece of his soul.

 "Quiet your mind," Kanan coached him.

 Kallus knew the Jedi had not found it easy to convince him to let go of the tight patterns of control Imperial conditioning had worked him into. He still didn't find it easy to just...let go. To give up control of his mind and his thoughts and allow himself to just...be. The closest he came was his state of mind when engaged in a particularly fierce fight ― the sort where he had gone beyond gauging his opponent and plotting his own moves and had simply become lost in the rhythm of the moment...the dance of it. He couldn't say how much time had passed when he became aware of Kanan's voice again.

 "When you first realized Zeb was your soulmate...what did you feel?"

 "Relief," he answered without having to think about it. "Even though I had tried- to give it up...I had feared that my partner had died soon after Lasan. There was something...freeing...in finally hearing those words spoken aloud."

 "But...?"

 "That relief was immediately followed by anger."

 "Because he was your enemy?"

 "Because I was his."

 "What do you mean?"

 "I think I had always known...from the moment I was able to understand the words on my arm...that there would be enmity between my partner and I. The older I became, the more I was prepared to hate myself...for all of it. When the moment finally came...all I had left was anger...hatred...for him, myself...for the galaxy and everyone in it. I tried to tell myself I'd done the only thing I could do..."

 "But you knew different."

 "Deep down...I suppose...yes. I didn't begin to consider the implications of any of it until after Bahryn...and then everything was happening so quickly...and Zeb was forgiving me everything...even if he shouldn't have done. I loved him...so fiercely in those days. I clung to it when I was weak...in my darkest moments..."

 "And then you were captured."

 Kallus gasped, any response he might've had slipping away from him as the memories pierced his awareness, sharp and unforgiving.

 Thrawn's red eyes...his cruel sneer...

 The inquisitor's chilling voice...her molten, scorching touch as she-

 "NO!" he cries out in anguish, struggling to pull back, to turn away from the horror of it.

 "No. Don't run from this. Stand your ground, Fulcrum," the Jedi's voice comes to him again, firm but not unkind, guiding him in the darkness. "We're so close now."

 So Alex let the memory play out, trembling, but not looking away as he relived his worst moment.

 "It- broke me...when that bond was cut," he recounted, his voice unsteady. "I had bled for it...killed for it...in a way, I had died for it...and they took it from me. As easy as peeling off a glove...they stole a part of my heart from me...the part that was good...that was true and worth saving...the part that Zeb loved. They stole it from me," he hissed, feeling the sting of tears as they pushed their way through his closed eyelids.

 "Do you really believe that?" he heard Kanan asking him. "That the part of you that's worth saving is lost?"

 "Yes," he answered, voice still unsteady, but certain. "I don't- doubt his love...but why should someone as wonderful as Garazeb Orrelios...be bound to such a broken creature as this?" He had taken comfort in Zeb's promises...after Atollon...but did he believe himself worthy of them?

 No.

 "That's it, then."

 Inhaling sharply, Kallus suddenly found himself blinking his eyes open in the grey pre-dawn light to find Kanan now sitting in front of him, unseeing eyes gazing rather pointedly into his. Kallus had to resist the urge to pull back from him.

 "I...what?"

 "That's why you haven't been able to regain your soulmark. It's because you aren't certain you deserve to have it...that you don't want Zeb to be tied to you when, in your view, he has the chance to be free."

 "It- would seem so. Yes," he said quietly, achingly, as he let his gaze drop to the small patch of dirt that separated them.

 "Then there isn't anything I can do to help you," Kanan told him, reaching a hand up to grip his shoulder. "Until you know what it is that the two of you share, that bond won't return."

 Kallus inhaled slowly before giving a long sigh and looking up at the Jedi. "I understand. Thank you for everything you've done."

 "Don't give it up for lost yet, Kallus," Kanan scolded him mildly as he climbed to his feet. "Zeb's a stubborn one. He'll help you scrub out that Imperial mindset. You just need to give him a chance to prove himself. Go back to him. You two can probably get in a little extra time before the day gets going."

 "Right. I'll...catch up with you," he said, voice still little more than a whisper. Not watching Kanan go, the only indication he had that the younger man had done so was the quiet sound of his footfalls.

~*~

Interested yet? Wanna see some more? Come check out the full chapter over on Patreon.

#Star Wars #SWR #Kalluzeb #soulmate au #My writing

[multi-muse-transect]

All Our Days

AU: Phasma tries to calm down a sleeping Mira. Mira Wren Bridger belongs to @meldy-arts, the destroyer of emotions and inspired by the Dawn and Mira pic. This AU wouldn’t have happened without thanks to @hotsam1 and also @eyeloch. I do not own the song and it belongs to Jeff Williams and Rooster Teeth.

A long nap is what Phasma needed after last night’s mission. The locals of the planet weren’t so welcoming and underestimated the First Order so like always, she led the troopers into battle. Phasma is close to sleeping right now....Only to hear the cry. She opens her eyes knowing she remembered from Snoke to keep Mira close to her so she lives with her in her quarters now in a separate room.

The captain gets up in her black shirt and pajama’s to Mira’s room where the crib is. She dammed herself to this objective and wished Thrawn would be in charge of her since he has experience with children before though he only has a niece but enough experience already. Phasma sighs and opens the door to Mira’s room who is crying. If she was a regular recruit, Phasma would have used a droid on her but since she is her guardian, she’ll do it the parental way of things.

“It’s okay, I’m here.....” Phasma picks up the toddler who is still crying heavily. Luckily, her room isn’t near anyone so she’ll have a lot of time to think of the ways she’ll calm her down. First thing she does is pat her back and cradling her but its doing nothing. Phasma groans and hopes out of some miracle of the force she’ll stop crying....She has an idea though. The captain adjusts her voice.

“Long ago, before we met,I dreamed about you....~” Phasma sang getting Mira’s attention. Her voice is almost gentle but a little rough. 

“The peace you'd bring.The songs we'd sing.~” She looks at Mira who look back at her. The toddler blinks.

“Then one day, you arrived. I heard your angel cry.  Helpless, small, and perfect, Welcome to your life~” Mira gives a brief laugh and touches Phasma’s face.

“And on that day, I made a vow. Whispered and true....” Phasma continued as Mira begins to calm down now. 

“No matter what, no matter how, I made this promise to you~.....” She rubs Mira’s back as she hugs her and tightens her grip. 

“I will cling, I will clutch, I'll hold onto you, I won't turn away. I won't leave, I won't go, I will stay with you all our days.~” An aura of peace fills the room as if a violent storm has ended.

“Years of joy have passed since then.With time I've seen you grow. Watched you play, new each day. I begged the time to slow.~” Mira smiles enjoying her song. 

“And though I miss the little girl, You've made me awful proud. Funny how our lives change,'Cause you're my hero now....~” The toddler laughs again before Phasma smiles.

“But things in life will rearrange. Friends come and go. Don't ever doubt, don't ever fear, I'm always here and you know.~”” Sleep begins to catch up to Mira....

“I will cling, I will clutch, I'll hold onto you, I won't turn away. I won't leave, I won't go, I will stay with you all our days.....” Mira begins to close her eyes as Phasma begins to smile.

“I will stay with you all our days.....” The little girl falls asleep in Phasma’s arms as she smiles then puts her back into the crib. She kisses her in the forehead before leaving.

Sabine watches Mira hang out with Finn, Rey, Poe, and Blare. Kyle Katarn told them how messed up she was when he found her. How she didn’t trust anyone at all....Phasma walks beside her then leans against a wall. She defected to the Resistance after finding out Mira has joined therefore becoming a fulcrum agent until her position was compromised. Now she’s spectre-six.

“You raised her well Phasma.....” Sabine commented catching the former captain by surprise. 

“Why well? I made her into a stormtrooper, I basically ruined her life....” Phasma replied.

“I don’t think so. You raised her and she had a normal life, you’ve been with her when we weren’t....Thank you.” Sabine thanked. Phasma pauses for a moment.

“.....You’re welcome Mrs. Wren.” Phasma replied and smiled.

#star wars rebels #mira wren bridger #captain phasma #sabine wren #mira au #bounty hunter mira au #captain momsa

[anathtsurugi]

Chapters: 5/8 Fandom: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage Relationships: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso, Chirrut Îmwe/Baze Malbus, Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, Implied Ahsoka Tano/CT-7567 | Rex Characters: Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, K-2SO, Bodhi Rook, Baze Malbus, Chirrut Îmwe, Galen Erso, Lyra Erso, Orson Krennic, Saw Gerrera, Wilhuff Tarkin, Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader, Davits Draven, Alexsandr Kallus, Hera Syndulla, Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, C1-10P | Chopper Additional Tags: Rule 63, Rule 63 Everyone, Rebelcaptain - Freeform, spiritassassin, Mind Rape, Battlefield Flirting, because that's a tag now, Intent to corrupt a minor, kalluzeb - Freeform, Ghost crew during Rogue One Series: Part 1 of The Dark Side of the Moon Summary:

"That is your given name, is it not? Jin Erso, son of Gaila Erso." "This is Captain Cassia Andor. Rebel Intelligence." "Beni. Rook. Cargo pilot. Local girl, huh?"

 Or...what does Rogue One look like with all of the characters gender-flipped?

Snippet:

"Auntie!" Jaina called out shrilly as she threw another ball. "Down!"

This time, Alix allowed the ball to hit her, making a show of groaning in pain as she went down. "Oh, no! She got me! Curse you, rebel scum!"

Ziba laughed as she looked down at her, giving her shoulder a gentle tap with her prehensile foot. "Thought you didn't like playing the big, bad Imperial. Too many bad memories."

Alix opened up a single eye, grinning as she looked up at her lover. "Whatever my princess commands, I shall gladly do. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm dead."

"Karabast. Don't even joke about that," Ziba snarled quietly.

"Language, Gereziba," she scolded right back. Ziba sighed.

"What about Mira? Where's little Tano got to?" the Lasat asked her, referring to Rei's little girl.

Eyes still shut, Alix vaguely shifted her head toward the far corner of the room, where the tiny half-Togruta was curled up under her thin blanket. "Sound asleep. How Heron gets them both to nap at the same time, I'll never understand."

"Y'know, you're wastin' your talents...not bein' a mother yourself," she suddenly heard Ziba saying. Feeling her heart do a summersault in her chest, she had to employ every ounce of her own willpower not to allow her eyes to shoot open.

"Jaina and Mira are enough of a handful as it is," she said, trying to sound casual as she kept her eyes shut, "but if you're applying for the job...then..."

"Maybe I am, but that's not why I'm here," Ziba said, the sound of her voice moving closer indicating to the former Imperial agent that she was crouching beside her. "Stuff's been goin' on with Fracture. I know Draven's been tryin' to keep you outta the loop, but I thought you'd wanna know. Andor's been comin' back with some pretty crazy reports."

"Crazy how?" Alix asked as she sat up, the game instantly forgotten. Draven did indeed prefer to keep her out of touch with the best Fulcrum agent she'd ever trained, but that didn't mean she was very good at following that directive. She was, after all, Cassia's mentor.

"Like...Geonosis level crazy. You'd better go see what's happenin'," Ziba said before going to retrieve Jaina from her hiding place. At first, Jaina looked angry, but she was quickly squealing in delight once Ziba started lifting her up high, flying her through the air like a little X-wing.

"Auntie Z! Auntie Z!" the youngling cheered, spreading her arms and legs as far out as they'd go.

Alix jumped up, pressing a quick kiss to the Lasat's cheek before heading out of the room, pleased to hear both Ziba and Jaina laughing.

"Yeah, you're gonna be a great pilot someday, just like your old dad."

#Star Wars #Rogue One #Rebels #SWR #rebelcaptain #spiritassassin #kalluzeb #jyn/cassian #baze/chirrut #kallus/zeb #Rule 63 #My writing #prompt fic #fan fic #new chapter