Nostalgia

[Ash]

Alchamy and Titus had spent about a week on Geonosis before they had left the bug planet and headed for the frozen planet of Hoth. She felt distanced from Titus because of the Mandalorians' new relation to the Empire, but she had stopped entirely blaming him, she wasn't happy with it, but she was a bit more... accepting. They'd arrived on Hoth with no problems, she'd only been once with her brother and they had spent only a short time there, but Alchamy had enjoyed every bit of it. He's wanted to get away from everything and just relax for awhile. Jeremy and Alchamy had a shared love for the cold and Hoth was their choice of 'vacationing'. The siblings had spent their time acting as if they were five and ten all over again, rolling in the snow and throwing balled up snow at each other until they were too numb or too tired to move anymore and go back inside.

There place of stay was a small hut-like building with one room, two beds, a chair by the small window and then there was a bathroom, kitchen with a connected dining area and hearth room. She loved the place, most likely for the nostalgia that came with it. It had been the same small hut Jeremy and Alchamy had stayed. She knew she still had some items hiding around the hut that she hoped were still there. She gave a smile to Titus before turning her attention from Titus to her luggage bag, throwing it on the bed closest to her. The luggage rejected her actions and bounced off the bed and onto the floor, making her frown as she went and picked up her luggage bag again. She glared at the luggage and this time, gently placed it on the bed. With Titus snickering behind her, she turned and glared at him, pointing an accusing finger at him before turning her attention back to her luggage. Titus put his luggage onto the other bed and turned to her, watching her curiously as she began tearing through her bag and pulled out more snow clothing.

"Come on! We're going to go play in the snow!" she exclaimed with a smile spreading ear-to-ear. She didn't know much about Hoth or the species there, but she knew the small area she'd spent time in and knew that snow was the best to play in.
Her character had completely changed from how she'd been their first night in Geonosis, and now she was bubbly and happy with her surroundings. She noticed Titus was still watching her so she climbed over the bed and to him with some difficulty considering she was dressed for the freezing temperatures and environment of Hoth. "What are you waiting for?" she asked sweetly before turning her attention to his own luggage and started to dig for his snow clothes. She didn't look up to see his face but she knew it had to have been amusing as she went though everything in it.

 

[Django]

With a large grin Titus finally agreed to Alchamy's demands. "Okay," he said while putting on more layers of clothes. "Okay, but I warn you, I've never really played in snow."

Walking over to Alchamy, he lifted her up quite easily and took them both outside, and once they were there, he plopped her down in the soft snow and walked over her. Taking a few more steps, Titus fell purposely to the snow face first, and then start rolling side to side.

After doing this for a bit, Titus set up and looked at Alchamy as she played in the snow. "I think I'm going to need some direction if this is going to be any fun."

 

[Ash]

After being thrown into the soft, cool snow Alchamy had began her creation of three perfect snowballs while Titus was too busy trying to figure out how to have fun in the snow. "I'm not giving you any directions. Just know how to defend yourself from this!" she yelled the last word and nailed him in the face with one of her freshly crafted snowballs before struggling to stand up and run from him, holding the other two in each hand, Alchamy pegged him with another snowball as she fumbled through the thick snow, hitting him in the chest.

 

[Django]

After being hit a couple times with snow balls, Titus decided he should mount a defense. Letting out a cute, loud, "Rawr," he began to run after Alchamy. Reaching down carefully he manages to get handful's of snow and does his best to hit Alchamy with them, and from time to time, he actually gets a hit in.

Running for a bit, Titus begins to catch up to her and jumps after her, getting a hand on her ankle they both crash softly into the snow. Scurrying up to her, Titus pins her down and asks her out of now where, "Have you ever been here before? I remember you mentioning the planet, but you never said if you had been here before. Just wondering..." His voice trailed off as she began to stuff snow in to his mouth.

Eating the snow he spoke again, "I'd like to know, seriously."

 

[Ash]

Alchamy still had one perfect snowball nearby, it had fallen and rolled away from her after she was tackled by Titus, but it was still in reach. She managed to free one hand and was putting snow in his mouth while he was attempting to ask her something that might have been important. "Well." she started, "I have. Only for a week. With Jeremy." she whispered the last bit, almost coming out as mute, she looked down and tried to suppers any thoughts that may have caused her to keep thinking about it. She hadn't ever told Titus what happened to her mother and brother other than simply they'd died. For all he knew, they could have died in some freak, tragic ship crash. Now that she thought on it, he didn't know much of anything about her mother and brother. He knew her father quite well though, and that made her happy. Her father liked Titus quite well, he wasn't a man to hand out compliments but it was all he did when it came to Titus.

She stopped thinking over everything, grabbing the snowball and launching it at Titus' face, and wiggling away from him, scooping snow into her hands as she hobbled through the snow slowly and tried to make more balls of compact snow to throw at him.

 

[Django]

Standing up with a face of total seriousness Titus continued with the conversation, "Did you enjoy that time? On a rate of one to ten, how high is that memory up there?" Titus could tell that Alchamy still was caught up on her brothers and mothers death. Titus had lost people before. A couple friends during the MCW, and in a sense his parents long before that.

He knew how to deal with all of that, he knew what Alchamy had to do. He thinks. He would try to help her out with her situation. If he didn't, what kind of person was he?

 

[Ash]

"Ten!" she shouted as she took another ball of snow and threw it at Titus, drilling him in the stomach before tripping over something. "Ow~!" she muttered, looking into the spot that had taken her down. Deep down into the snow she could see an odd shape just beneath the snow. She knew this spot well after looking at it for a moment. She'd actually tripped right here a few years back when she'd come with her brother. The shape still hurt like no other when she had her foot jammed into it.
She looked toward Titus' direction, looking for her brother who was sure to come and see if she was unharmed like he had not too long ago. Alchamy could hear the crunching of snow beneath someone's boots and figured it was her brother as he came closer.
She had her right knee pulled to her chest with her left haphazardly sinking slightly in what little was left of the snow's height along the path she'd carved.

 

[Django]

Titus followed after Alchamy, ignoring the ball of now hitting him. He carefully dodged the thing that Alchamy had tripped over and looked down on her, "Are you okay," he asked with a giggle. Falling done freely, he landed beside her. He turned his head to face Alchamy. "Would you kiss me?"

 

[Ash]

"Jere--" she cut herself off. She was with Titus and Jeremy was dead. It wasn't Jeremy who had asked her to kiss him, it had been Titus. She looked around the snowy plains and mountains around them, searching for her brother to appear, her gaze fell and she didn't feel quite as comfortable in the snow as she had moments before. Alchamy instinctively lunged at Titus and wrapped her arms around his scarred neck almost with enough force to knock him back, though he just fell back a small bit and then righted himself. She planted her face into his torso and stayed there. From within his chest she said something that sounded like, "You don't have to ask every time!", but it was hard to tell with her voice being muffled by the wind and the fact her face was buried in Titus' chest.

 

[Django]

"Okay," he whispered in her ear, and then placed a gentle kiss right behind her ear just as he pulled her hair back. He gazed down at her and lifted her chin up so she met his gaze. "You know I'll always be here for you, right?" He kissed her forehead, and slowly and gently kissed his way down to her lips where he kissed her with passion he didn't know that he had to give.

 

[Ash]

"I'd like to think that." she whispered as Titus kissed her forehead, hoping it didn't come off as rude.
He was fighting for her it seemed, fighting for her to be herself again. The girl he didn't know. Alchamy wasn't always like this, she wasn't always so sad and neither was her father. All he did was stay in his office and work on a droid he wasn't likely to ever finish. Then again, all Alchamy did was sit at political rallies and meetings just watching people. No longer did she speak her opinions, she just watched. Maybe one day Titus would be able to bring her back out. The old Alchamy wasn't ever going to completely come back, that was certain. Jeremy had been too much a part of her life and who she was for the old her to come back. But some of who she was could make it's way back and she hoped that Titus would be able to do just that.
She happily accepted his kiss, tracing her fingers along the sides of his neck and keeping herself close to him. His warmth, even in the cold of Hoth's great outdoors, comforted her and made her feel safe, made her feel welcome. She felt happiness and that was something hard to come by anymore. He had something behind the kiss that made her enjoy it that much more. This was something dangerous, but it was something she would risk anything for to continue feeling.

 

[Django]

"Okay Alchamy. Where is what I want you to do. I want you to think about Jeremy and your mother. I want you to think of all the good memories you have of them. Every. Single. One. And just think about them, enjoy them, and allow me to swell and surge and overtake the bad memories."

Titus hoped like hell that is would work. He continued speaking, "Now I want you to say goodbye to them, I want you to say goodbye and allow yourself to have some closure and think about them in happy times. They would not want you to be like you are now, I know that and I hope you do too."

"I know how you are feelings. I lost my parents in an odd way, twice. I lost buddies during the Civil War to horrible, disgusting deaths. But I did what I am asking you to do and it worked. I've been able to move on. Now, let's move on, together."

 

[Ash]

She shook her head violently, "I don't want to forget them. I don't want to say goodbye.", her eyes swelled with tears and she looked at Titus, her forest green eyes wide and pitiful as she tried to remember every good memory as Titus has asked her, but she kept seeing her brother's busted up lip, his blackened eye, and the rest of his bleeding corpse. In her mind, she was still on Hoth with him and if she wasn't, she was holding the body of her brother to her chest and crying, praying he'd come back to her and say something- anything.
Alchamy would damn near kill to see his smiling face and his eyes that matched her. They fancied it was the 'mark of a Ruaca', those bright green eyes, that had the power to make people believe you, to love you. Jeremy had always been a catch with women because of those eyes, his personality and his build. He was a handsome man who respected the women around him, he loved his sister more than anything else in the world. He lived to protect her from anything and to put a smile on her face. Now, Jeremy was gone. He was gone and there was nothing Alchamy could do but sit and reply the images of his corpse kept flashing through her mind. "I don't want to."

 

[Django]

"Alchamy you need to. You have to. You are not forgetting them, not totally. You are moving on and remembering the good things." Titus held Alchamy close, and whispered to her, "You need to. For your father. For me. But most of all, for yourself."

Titus stroked her check and wiped away her tears as they came. He was there for her, he hoped she knew that. He hoped she was listening too. He hoped she was taking into heart the things he was saying, and he hoped she was beginning to do that things he requested.

 

[Ash]

"If I move on, I might forget." she started shaking, not from the cold but from the fear of losing those she loved entirely. Forgetting wasn't something Alchamy did easily, and moving on brought her closer to potentially forgetting and that was the one thing that she aimed to never do. So far, it hadn't been a hard task to accomplish, it was almost achieving itself. She moved closer to Titus and was practically sitting in his lap now, with her arms hugging herself as she tried to do as Titus said but couldn't very easily.

 

[Django]

"Trust me Alchamy. When I say you will never forget them I mean it, I know from experience." He held Alchamy tightly and close to him. He loves her. He allowed himself to realize that now, although he always knew deep down. He did his best to get her to allow him to wipe her tears away. "Alchamy, I... I think I love you." You would probably regret those words, at least for now. She was in no condition to hear such things and he hated himself for making her face the words.

 

[Ash]

She'd been holding onto herself and Titus as she tried her best to keep from crying, "Alchamy, I... I think I love you." she heard Titus say, she thought for a moment she had heard him wrong, but then looked up at him in shock. Her eyes wide in surprise as she attempted to make sense of what he just said. "I..." she didn't know what to say. She refused to say she loved him out of fear of losing him, she didn't know what she felt other than the sadness she felt for her brother.
Maybe it was Jeremy who'd sent Titus her way to bring her hope and help fill the gap that had been carved into her heart. She didn't know, and she would never be sure. The only think she knew was that she needed to try to at least move on from the pain and accept the love that those around her did have to offer. She decided to take some control and kissed Titus lightly since she had no words to explain what she thought or how she felt.

 

[Django]

"I know," he said. And he did, he knew that she wouldn't be able to say those words to him. Not now, and maybe not ever. But deep down he was sure that she did love in, and even if he was wrong, she cared about him enough for him to love her forever and be there for her. He had already promised he would always be there for her, so he wasn't going anywhere.

He spoke up after a long silence, "I think we should go back to our home on this planet and nap for a bit. Maybe warm us up a bit? Sleep would be nice too."

 

[Ash]

She nodded to him, "Yes, please." she said as she started to try and get up, using Titus as a support.
The cold was now starting to get a little uncomfortable and seep into her clothing. This was most unwelcome. Alchamy could do for a nice long rest and tomorrow.. she'd show him how to properly roll down a hill and make yourself a snowball.

 

[Django]

Getting up with Alchamy, he lifted her into the air gently. His left arm was below her shoulders, and his right arm was below her knees. Compared to Titus and the things he had to lift when he was still fighting a war Alchamy was pretty light. He enjoyed carrying her, too. It gave him a sense that he was protecting her, guiding her, and always there.

He walked all the way back into the cabin (or house, he wasn't really sure what to call it) carrying Alchamy in his arms. He placed her on her feet and said, "We should probably change." Deciding he didn't care Alchamy would see him almost naked, and see his many scars and burns and bruises he undressed. "Do you need me to help you?"