Chapter 74 - Annoyed

After waking up, for a long moment, I didn't know where I was. But... There was a new kind of warmth at my side, radiating outwards, making me feel like I was in pure bliss. It was followed by a steady rhythm of breath, running against my neck and tickling my collarbone, making me shiver, but in a good way. As my consciousness returned... I could feel that my arm was pinned under something soft, and a hand that was not mine curled loosely over my chest, holding me. I blinked a few times, registering the sensations I was feeling... Yeah... I was still home, in the academy, at Yavin 4... but the ceiling above me curved with a slightly off pattern, telling me this was not my room.

Oh... Right. I'm in Vila's alcove...

Thinking about it, my head turned slightly, and there she was, snuggled up against me as we lay on the one-person bed, making the feeling way more cozier than it had any reason to be. Her legs were tangled with mine, one of her lekku draped across my shoulder like a purple scarf, resting on me. She wore simple gray pajamas, and her face looked.... Peaceful. One thing I could tell was that... Even without focusing... That she wasn't having any nightmares now.

And then I realized something else: She was smiling in her sleep. There were no twitching, no muttering, and no flinching like I did when I woke up from being lost in the Force and tried to rest in the following days. She was just breathing softly, contentedly, her lips curved upward ever so slightly, enjoying her sleep.

I didn't move, of course, because I didn't want to ruin her dreams. If I could bottle this exact moment and live inside it for a while, I would... So I made sure I memorized it, hoping it would help me too in the past, whenever I feel... overwhelmed. Then, as if realizing I had woken up, her eyes opened only minutes later than when I began thinking about our current situation. She did so slowly, not like someone waking because something disturbed them, but in a natural, satisfying way.

Yawning a little, she looked up at me, still lying there, her head resting on my chest, and of course, her smile didn't fade at all. It seems that I was the only one who felt a bit shy at the moment.

"This…" she muttered, licking her lips, her voice still hoarse with sleep, "was the first time... The best time... Ever."

"Um..." I tilted my head, brushing her forehead lightly with my nose as she began adjusting her pose. I was trying not to turn into a tomato, probably without any success, "First... Of what?"

"First time I slept like that," she chuckled. "No bad dreams... Not waking up in a cold sweat. You know... All that jazz. It is a good feeling not to bolt upright from some weird memory that my brain tries to make me remember. It was just…" She snuggled up to me closer, eyes fluttering shut again. "Peace..."

That hit me deeper than I expected. Her voice wasn't teasing, not even a little, and I could feel that she was honest in the way Vila rarely let herself be. I learned early on that she had built a wall around her actual thoughts, and although she made friends with others... That was still different as they couldn't see all of her sides, just the part that she was comfortable sharing. Right now, she was probably even more honest, because she now knew I would be able to tell everything anyway...

And she let me in instead of building that wall even higher.

"Well..." I smiled in the end, running my finger on her back, gently caressing her lekku, which made her shiver... Um...I shouldn't... do that? Wait... how was it for twi'leks? Ugh... I was unsure, but she didn't pull away... So... it should be fine. "I guess I'm pretty useful, then?" I added, pushing down my thoughts.

"Mhm," she nodded, "I just might keep you."

"Happy to provide, eh?" I let out a soft chuckle, shifting a bit so my arm didn't fall asleep under her. "You know, 3PO would have a meltdown if he walked in right now."

"Nah," She cracked one eye open at me again. "This is my private abode. He has no reason coming in... Duh, he doesn't even come to this part of the Temple... Idiot..." She pursed her lips, realizing I was just teasing her.

In the end, we stayed like that for a little longer, doing nothing, just lying there quietly and thinking of nothing in particular. It felt like the universe finally paused to let me not focus on anything and just... be. It was a surprisingly good feeling.

And then… it hit me. Just one, simple thought, catching me like a rock to the head, causing me to sit upright, my eyes widening.

"Oh no—!"

"W-what?" Vila blinked, looking up at me, suddenly startled. "Kael?"

"HK!" I gasped. "I never reactivated him!"

"..." She just looked at me, like I was an idiot... and I felt like one. "Ahahahaha! So what?!" She laughed so loudly that it resonated throughout the room, making it sound like multiple Vila were laughing at me.

"Damn, I just... zoned out! Thinking about C-3PO made me realize I never went to pick him up!"

"Really?" She continued to laugh, but let me climb out to dress up. After watching me find my clothes, she also began to change, "Never even thought about the ol' rust bucket? Cruel."

"I was in a coma! Then you kissed me into oblivion! My brain got scrambled!" I complained, but neither of those sounded actually convincing.

"And you didn't think of him at all until now? Pft~!"

"I'm a terrible droid dad," I groaned.

"Like he looks at you like a dad!" She giggled, following me out of the room, constantly chuckling whenever she looked at me, making me grumble again and again.

Ultimately, it took me twenty minutes to find where he'd been stashed.

He was in storage bay nine, under the Temple's southeast wing, next to an entire collection of broken training remotes, recycled droid components, and half-assembled speeder parts. All the usual stuff that got broken by the padawans and then ended up here to be fixed in due time. Or as a lesson for the more technically gifted. I found HK-01 leaning against a wall like someone had sat him there politely before abandoning him forever.

Wait... wasn't he... taken away by the Masters? But then again... Ah, doesn't matter. If they put him here, that's fine. Checking him, everything looked good, even a little fixed up. Its head, torso, and arms were all right, and only its legs remained that of a different model. And that left arm. Will we ever find them? Who knows... but he was in a good, operational state as far as I could tell.

"Here goes nothing..." I murmured, glancing at Vila, who just stepped back, watching me turn him on. I shouldn't need to mention that he looked offended... and he wasn't even powered up completely yet. "I'm so sorry," I muttered, standing beside him as his photoreceptors began to readjust, and he booted up, just like when I first met him. With a sharp click, his systems buzzed to life, its servo joints whirring as his red photoreceptors flared online, snapping directly at me.

He stood still for a beat, then tilted his head even closer toward me, looking directly into my eyes.

[Statement: Power levels restored. Systems rebooted. Internal chronometer synchronized. Time since deactivation… Error. Confirming… Recalibrating… Confirmed.] He paused... [Accusation: Four months, four days, seventeen hours, and forty-two minutes. You left me offline for over a standard season, Meatbag.]

"Ugh..." I winced. "I know, I know. I was... Unconscious... look, it's a long story, okay?"

[Indignant Reprimand: I was left in a closet, surrounded by the robotic corpses of retired cleaning units and juvenile droid parts. Unacceptable. Aggravated Remark: Do you have any idea how humiliating that is for a superior assassination unit like myself?]

"I didn't mean to—!"

[Sarcastic Simulation: 'Oops, sorry HK, I had a coma and then forgot my oldest and most deadly asset ever existed.' Sarcastic Addendum: 'You protected me, I am so indebted to you unless it's about reactivating you!' How convenient, Meatbag logic.]

I had to admit, the way he mimicked my voice, to perfection... made me wince.

"Um..." I held up my hands. "That's... almost exactly what happened, actually. As I said... I was in a coma... And I am indebted to you for fighting back there... Really!"

[Incensed Declaration: I could have been melted for scrap! Or, worse: repurposed as a protocol unit!]

"You are in a protocol droid body," Vila reminded him gently, "Partially that is."

[Scandalized Retort: That is temporary. And offensive, Meatbag.]

"Look," I began, but he wasn't listening, and he began pacing, or rather, clanking his legs. I was sure he was intentionally putting more force behind his steps, walking back and forth, muttering loudly in binary while throwing the occasional glare in my direction.

[Mocking Statement: 'HK, I'll never abandon you. HK, I trust you with my life. HK, watch my back while I flirt with the Twi'lek.' Meatbag nonsense. Untrustworthy biological anomalies. I knew it the moment you two started sharing oxygen via the mouth that I could not rely on you two.]

"Hey!" Vila snorted loudly, stomping in place, before I raised a hand, trying to calm her down.

"HK!" I sighed, "You know that's not fair—!"

[Petulant Complaint: While you were snuggled up in meatbag ecstasy, I was deactivated next to a broken mop droid!]

"Drop the mop, please!" I pressed my hand to my forehead, finally getting annoyed, "And please stop repeating 'meatbag' and 'ecstasy' in the same sentence."

[Defiant Refusal: Never. Observation: It brings you a significant amount of shame. Statement: I will continue to do so until I am satisfied.]

"If you want, we can reprogram you to be indeed a janitor. I think you could suit the role perfectly fine!" Vila shot back at him, making him finally stop his angry march, just looking at her murderously. Not that he had any other expression on his droid face.

"Oh, you really pissed him off," I added, whispering, but Vila just continued to grin, slowly fingering her lightsabers.

"He is a big, old metal child. A spanking is in order..."

[Spiteful Observation: Just try it.]

"I may!" Vila grinned, not backing down. "Hey HK."

[Grudging Acknowledgment: What?]

"Are you going to keep moping around like an actual mop droid, or pull yourself together?" She smirked, nudging me. "Take it as if you had a good, long sleep. Be happy, because there was a serious possibility that you would have been melted down to scrap metal if not for Kael."

"..." I said nothing but what surprised me... I didn't feel like she was lying. What did I do? Because of me...? What? I missed something... I definitely missed something...

[Begrudging Conclusion: I am not going to say thank you.]

In the end, I watched him clank away into the corridor, muttering to himself like a drama queen.

"I think he's going to need a full day of tantrums," I murmured, watching him ignore us.

"Oh no," Vila said, patting my shoulder. "This will last weeks. Good luck, he is yours, not mine!"

"Err... thanks?" I sighed and started following HK. "Guess I'll be sleeping with one eye open while he gets placated to an acceptable level."

[Statement: You should have thought of that before locking me in a tomb of broomsticks, you flesh-lump of betrayal.]

"Well, he didn't call me a meatbag anymore?" I turned to Vila. "Improvement?"

"Maybe," She smiled and looped her arm through mine. "Absolutely not, though."

"Wait... that's..."

"Come!" She pulled on me, "Let him be a little sad droid for a while. Clearly, he is not that great of an assassin if this makes him act like a meatbag child."

As we left, I could swear I saw HK look at us, maybe even a bit stunned. Oh well... He should cool off soon. I guess... I hope...