“We’re hoooooommmeeee,” Sofila announced into the empty apartment. She pushed the door open enough for Cole to get through as she quickly reached over to turn on the lights.
“Okay, you go ahead and get settled and I’ll go making some… thing.” Right. Whatever they had in the fridge was possibly bad by now.
“Er. Okay, let’s order food instead!” Her eyes flickered over to Cole with a smile.
He did it all for me…. Her heart twinged with guilt but there was no heaviness. No darkness nor anger that she couldn’t understand.
So why was the guilt so painful? Right! Redirect the focus! There was one thing she always does when she gets back from hospitals-
“I’ll go get the datapad and look up some places, do you want to shower-” She stopped when she realized she doesn’t know if he can? Does the bathroom even have a handle bar? Would he need help? What if he falls? Maybe they should call and get a bar installed? Or perhaps a chair?
“Sof.” Cole cut through the visibly racing thoughts.
Hed made it through the door, still awkward on the crutch. While the wound wasn’t really… a wound that meant that there wasn’t anything to heal despite his body firmly stating otherwise. The replacement Hector made was incredible, but was taking some adjusting to. Not having a leg was.
Still, she was talking again. 10 miles a minute with zero breaths, no weight on her shoulders.
He smiled, a slight thing but undeniably present, “I’ll take a shower, the data pad is on the bottom shelf in the bedroom. Get us both a glass of water too.”
“Huh?” Sofila glanced at Cole when he called her name as she blinked in confusion. Was she rambling? Did she go too far? Was she making it obvious that he’s obviously-
“Oh! Okay!” She dropped the bags right onto the floor with a small thump as she quickly hobbled over them before pivoting on her heels and used her feet to scoot the bags closer to the wall so Cole could walk through.
“Datapad… water… shower…” Sofila mumbled to herself to remind her what she needed to do.
Cole nodded to confirm, walking past the bags and into the bathroom.
It was at that point he realised getting undressed while on a crutch wouldn’t be normal. He frowned to himself, looking at the offending aid and shuffling to sit on the toilet. Shirt, easy.
Pants… less so. Maneuvering them off was not only longer than it ever should have been to do, but between the constrained movements and the pain that ignited whenever Cole placed pressure on the remnant of his leg left him sweating with teeth gritted.
He reached over, managing to turn the shower on while sitting down still and let the water sort it’s temperature out while he recovered. And.. worked out how in the stars he was going to properly clean himself while sat down or with an arm stuck in a crutch.
About 20 minutes later, longer than he usually liked to take, Cole made it out the shower and sat down on the floor beside his clothes.
Just a minute.
Sofila hummed to herself as she went to get the datapad first. Choices, choices… perhaps she can just pick top three and Cole could finalized the final choice and then they can order off the menu.
The three choices had been chosen! Her head tilted towards where the bathroom was and she can hear the water running-
“Water!” Sofila reminded herself quickly as she set the datapad down on the coffee table and made her way to the kitchen to get the glasses of water and set them down on the coffee table coasters.
Coasters are always so weird. I mean, yea, if you don’t get them they can leave rings but is it really that bad? Is our coffee table good quality enough to avoid rings? Hmm. A theory maybe I should test- Her eyes darted to the hallway where the bags were. She could go ahead and put them up while she waited for Cole.
At the same time, she didn’t wannnnnna. They just got hooooommme.
How long had it been? She checked the datapad time and realized she doesn’t even know when they got home. It didn’t feel that long but she never was a good measurement on time.
“Ugh. Just get it over with, Sof,” she slouched forward in a grumpy manner and started to unpack their bags by putting dirty clothes in the laundry and putting stuff away.
Sofila was almost done unpacking by the time the bathroom door opened with a red faced Cole limping out on the crutch, partially dressed. Hed gotten pants on, only remembering after sitting on floor after the shower that he didn’t have a karking change.
So the Human had thrown his shirt over his shoulder and carried the rest in the armpit.
“Hey.” Blue eyes glanced round. Bags were missing, sofila was making noises in the bedroom. Unpacking. That was nice.
Sit down or clean clothes? The glass of water beckoned but no, Cole gritted his teeth and despite the growing ache in the irritated stump of his leg, limped his way to the bedroom. There was no point in showering if he then mooched around in dirty clothes. And he wasn’t keen to hop back in the shower again soon…
“Hiya-” Sofila stopped. Oh. Kriff! She should’ve thought of bringing clean clothes to Cole, also why was he wearing dirty pants, not like she had seen all of him before.
Wait! Should she run into the bedroom and get clean clothes for him? No, he got this. He’s fine, he’s okay. He’s a big man and he will ask for help if he needs-
No, actually, he wouldn’t- Should she-
Her body felt frozen in place, as if she needed to run to bedroom but she wasn’t moving at all. By the time she could even coherent a single thought, Cole had already made his way to the bedroom as she grimaced to herself.
Karking, kriffing, so stupid- Sofila pinched the bridge of her nose before she pushed her hand back as she ran her fingers through her hair for a moment. She messed up.
It’s fine. We’re not used to this. Things are normal… Though she didn’t seem sure of herself when thinking that things were normal when they obviously weren’t.
At least she can ask Cole if he needed something?
“Do you need help with anything?” Sofila called out to Cole, with a slight wince. At least he can’t see her face.
Cole did glance at her with mild confusion as she just… stood there but he limped past, gathering up clean clothes from their suitcases and then entering the bedroom, dumping the dirty ones onto the bed.
“I’m okay.” He answered, sitting on the bed to take his pants off and realising… well. Maybe he wasn’t. He frowned. “Or-”
The words caught in his throat.
Cole rubbed his face.
Sofila had an idea. Just make it normal as possible. Go in there put the items away and make it seem like a swift fluid motion.
Would it work?
She entered into the bedroom with almost empty bags and set them on the dresser drawers. She slid them open, “I’ll start the laundry after I finish putting everything away,” and grabbed clean boxers as well clean trousers and set them by Cole as if it was just a normal thing.
“I narrowed down the restaurants to three choices, I couldn’t decide! So I’ll grab the datapad - which should have three tabs with the choices - after I start the laundry or-” She stopped herself. Course he’ll be back in the living room after he finished getting dressed.
“I’ll just meet ya in the living room!” She grinned as if that little pause didn’t happen, grabbed the bags, and made her way to the bathroom to put away their toiletries.
Something was off.
But Cole had let her sweep in and out, nodding in affirmation and letting the barely cobbled together query fade. It’d be fine.
Absolutely, fine. Fine.
It hurt like a schutta. Or well, ached. He was so tired, it barely even made sense. It took him a minute of just breathing before he could bear to look at the crutch and get himself back on his feet. Foot?
Feet.
He stepped into the living room, lowering carefully onto the couch and very gratefully taking the glass of water in hand.
Sofila made her way back into the living room and handed Cole the datapad, “Let me know what you chose!”
Without missing a beat, she made her way over to the laundry room and started the washer. It buzzed for a moment and then started to spin to sense the weight of the clothes to judge how much water should go in there.
Sofila sat down next to Cole and let out a sigh of relief. It had been a busy few days for the both of them. More so Cole than herself. There was a heavy pang in her heart that she felt guilty that he…
She would had done the same. And they both knew it.
Sofila started to fidget with her fidget ring as she waited for Cole to decide on which one of the three choices she provided in terms of food. She realized her body had felt a bit heavy too and grateful she didn’t have to cook tonight, they were tired enough from the travelling as well.
The first tab was a sandwich place, the second one was a noodles place, and third was a bbq option.
Cole considered for a minute, glancing between the three menus. He wasn’t often picky, but in pain and barely feeling hungry he wanted to be careful to get something that wouldn’t make him more uncomfortable. He settled on the first tab, shifting to press closer to Sofila so she could see the tab and scrolling through the options. He picked his first while she looked, before letting her choose.
Once all was chosen and the order was on the way, he set it down and leant back into the cushions.
“Does this all feel… different to you?” He spoke with a slight frown, looking over the apartment.
Sofila blinked towards Cole while she was mid sip. There was an audible loud gulp of water when he asked her as she looked around the apartment too.
“I mean… I feel less angry? It feels like…” She frowned as she wasn’t sure what he meant. Did he mean about them finding out that a piece of Scimitar’s dark soul was in her the whole time? Did Cole mean this apartment has bad memories because of everything they went through?
Everything they went through… Cole stood by her side despite it all. She cleared her throat as a way to not get choked up thinking about it.
“If this place has too much negative memories, we can always go elsewhere! Make new ones!” Sofila grinned. She knows some people that can stay and just make new positive memories but there was some that rather move and start afresh and she wasn’t sure which one Cole wanted.
Though, the idea of a new adventure was rather alluring.
Or did Cole meant the situation with him missing a leg? It was just a limb. A painful experience for him as she tried not to grimace out of the blue.
It seems that they both has some adjustments to make.
Cole blinked. It was strange getting used to the roller coaster of emotions Sofila would go through within the span of 30 seconds. Confusion, sadness, excitement, hope, discomfort. He sipped his drink slowly as she worked her way through it. A few moments passed before he finally responded.
“It’s not negative memories here. On the Voidbreaker maybe, on Selen… But not here.” Cole considered that for a few seconds. That still meant the vast majority of the locally available places to go to.
“It may be nice to move, anyway. There’s no reason to stay.”
Sofila grinned, “Okay! Then I’ll get out a big ol star map and just throw a dart at it!”
It was hard to tell if she was joking or not.
“Um. Is… there anything you need? I can help with? I mean-” She was nervously picking at her fingers a bit.
“I’m so sorry,” her shoulders finally dropped as she slumped a little. “You.. why?”
Cole chuckled ever so slightly at the suggestion. But then she drooped in place, and he wasn’t sure what she was asking of him.
“Why what?” He asked after a few slow moments.
“You and Hector- I mean, I’m sure there was another way, I didn’t want you to go through the pain- I didn’t want you to do that, to go through the rehab? It didn’t sound comfortable and I didn’t want you have to adjust like this or- I don’t know, I just feel like there was another way or you should’ve had me do it instead of you-” Everything had happened so fast, she was in pain and couldn’t exactly yank Cole out of that ritual circle and put herself there but what if?
She should’ve been stronger-
“I should’ve been stronger or faster-”
That would’ve worked?
“Or-”
“Sof.” Cole interrupted.
He lowered the glass into his lap, looking at her and then down at his leg. He shook his head slowly, leaning back into the sofa slightly. “The other option was you dying. Maybe we would have been able to bring you back again. But you would have died again. In the time we had, we had killing you or sacrificing pieces of ourselves. I’d do it again, over and over. It’s a nuisance to readjust but this is easier than grieving someone else.”
His voice caught slightly and Cole stopped. It was a good place to anyway.
Sofila bit her cheek.
“Right…I mean if the shoe was on the other foot-”
She paused as the color drained from her face, she just shoved her foot in her mouth.
Cole snorted.
It was a extremely short laugh, but dark humor has always been the one that usually got to him.
“Exactly. You’d do the same for me. And if I felt guilty that you had, im fairly sure we’d be having this exact conversation right now anyway.”
Sofila grinned, relieved. She forgot that he didn’t mind dark humor. With her upbringing, she didn’t either, just different reasonings.
Then she threw her hands up playfully, “Calling me out here.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek and right on cue, the doorbell rang.
“FOOD!” Sofila said out of excitement as she hopped up, jumped over the table easily thanks to her long legs and made her way over to the door.
Cole smiled ever so slightly again, shifting to stand up once Sofila cleared the table. He heard her thank the delivery guy before closing the door and making her way through locking the locks.
As she did, hed limped his way into the kitchen and gotten out some plates and cups.
Once everything was set up and Sofila was halfway through her food, she slowed down a bit, pondering some thoughts.
“Won’t you miss anyone here? Are you really okay with moving?” She wasn’t sure how he felt about htis. Sofila was used to constantly changing homes with Wulfram’s job and it was never a bad thing either. The kids were excited to learn new things each time they moved. Some of them at least, there was always a sibling or two who protested.
It occurred to her that Cole has been at one place his entire life before it was destroyed and he moved here and since then… nothing else. She felt bad for not considering his thoughts about changes.
“Miss anyone?” Cole commented, using the implied need for a pause to finish a mouthful of food.
“Zuza already left to kark knows where. The Voidbreaker crew didn’t exactly care much for me. The only people I’m leaving behind are travellers. Savran, for instance. If they want to meet up, me being planetside won’t effect anything. Corvo will probably come with us, he’ll want to stay close.”
He was quiet for a few more seconds and then shook his head, “I have no attachments here. None that anchor me.”
Oh.
Sofila’s heart twisted. Right. At least Corvo would most likely come with them, she likes him.
Maybe, just maybe, Cole can find new friends wherever they move to. She could later try to suggest hints and clues about some community or group of his hobbies.
Then it occured to her.
What are his hobbies? Maybe she could find something about shooting games or…
Later problem for later Sofila, she thought to herself as she started to finish up on the food, not realizing how kriffing hungry she was.
“Not going to lie, I’m worried about Zuza,” Sofila sighed softly, “But I just remind myself everyone is different, I just hope she’s okay. I guess it helps having so many siblings and all different personalities and ways of handling things. So while I am concerned, nothing I can do about it right now.”
Cole hummed, nodding at the concern.
“Im worried too.” He admitted slowly, though more easily than it would have come before. “Unfortunately she’s resistant to help.”
He saw Sofila shift, and then the expression of Ironic coming from you and sighed, “Even more than me. At least I’ll stay in a hospital if I get mauled. Or have a Caxquette burst out of my thigh, or get shot three times in the stomach. Even when she really needs it, she runs.”
A pause, and he shook his head, taking another bite of food, “She always comes back though.”
“That’s fair.” Sofila couldn’t really be a hypocrite considering, just like Cole, sometimes she gets a bit stubborn about getting help but eventually she does it.
“Guess nothing I can do. Once we move, I can still invite her to different outings. Course! You don’t have to come, I know you don’t always want to do them. Okay! So! I was planning to get a big ol map on the wall, by using the holocon projector and throw a dart but maybe- now thinking about it, should we look up jobs that we would like to apply and then move or just…”
She grinned while looking at Cole, “Let the dart decide our fate.”
“Let’s try the dart and see if it lands anywhere that we’d actually want to live.” Cole retorted, leaning to retrieve the holoprojector from under the coffee table.
He grunted slightly doing it, placing it down and returning to his spot.
“Do we own darts?”
“Aw yea-” Sofila froze, her eyes became blank and if anyone can make a video out of this and add a buffering icon above her head, that was exactly the situation that was going on in her brain.
“Uh.” That was a good question. She did have a little dart game to help with her aim growing up until it was more trouble than it was worth when Asani had decided to change it’s target.
“Kriff. What can I use? Oh, knives!”
“There’s going to be at least 3 in our bags. Or- kark somewhere.” Cole realised he wasn’t in reach of any of those somewheres, contemplating getting up.
Sofila was already moving though, and he let himself sink back into the couch again.
He kinda hated this.
But it was nice watching her ass at least.
“Oh!” The bags! Right, Sofila made her way over and grabbed them and found them. They would just need one.
It would also put a hole in the wall but eh, there’s deposits for that and being on Port Ol'Val? Deposits are high.
“Got it!”
Once everything was set up, Sofila closed her eyes and threw the knife. It, surprsingly for her NOT LOOKING, pierced the wall with a soft thunk.
She opened her eyes.
“Huh. What’s that?” She asked out of curosity as she walked closer to figure that out.
Dammit he wanted to see
Cole shifted up, using the arm of the sofa as leverage. He didn’t see Sofila looking over her shoulder, watching him like a hawk until he was mostly stood.
But he did get the crutch back under his armpit at least before limping over.
He looked over the map before removing the knife to see where the hole was.
“Looks like the Caelus system.”
Sofila blinked.
“Why does that sound familiar…” She squinted as she clicked on the system and zoomed in.
“Wait! Isn’t that the one with the blizzard?”
Cole nodded, “Port Kasiya, yes. The system Clan Taldrya resides in.”
He was quiet for a moment before shrugging, “So long as planetary blizzards aren’t a common problem I’m not opposed.”
“That is a fair point, I don’t think it’s common?” Sofila tapped a finger on her chin, “They asked us for help and that never happened but yes!” She grinned.
“We can double chec-” She gasped loudly, “COLE! WE CAN GO SNOWBOAR-” She stopped herself and cleared her throat. “Snowboarding eventually!”
Snowboarding?
It didn’t sound as dangerous as half the other stuff Sofila liked to do. Hopefully.
“We’ll also be able to access the hyperlanes more easily. No being tucked behind a bunch of black holes will make travel easier overall.”
Sofila winced, how many times has she hoped the pilots wouldn’t make a single mistake? At least Selen had it’s own defenses besides just what Clan Arcona can provide. Kriff. She can’t imagine being a pilot. She liked punching better.
“Sounds good!” With the excitement of change, adventure, and something new, she suddenly didn’t feel tired. Well, that was a problem. Then she leaned over towards Cole, nuzzling into the side of his face a bit.
“Mm. I got some energy to spend~”
Cole raised an eyebrow, wrapping an arm around her and pressing a kiss to the side of her head.
“Well, at least thats a problem we can solve tonight.”