Salty Hal

   Ridley watched as Haldir shouldered his way past Tobias without even acknowledging him. Tobias let out a disheartened grunt but said nothing, his green gaze just followed the golden and brown Zebrak as he entered the ship.  

             Haldir had been in a rather foul mood ever since they got to Mimban. Ridley knew the reason as to why. This place held dark memories for his older companion. Ridley thought back to before the mission. He had been taken aback when Haldir had originally told him that he’d accepted it, and even more so surprised when he found out that they were to go to Mimban. “Couldn’t you have asked Spire Squandrent to take the mission instead?” he had argued back to Haldir. “I’m sure they would understand if you just told them—”

              Haldir had cut him off by shooting him a glare. “More people than I'm comfortable with know about my role in the clone wars.” He growled, but his gaze quickly softened and he lowered his voice. “The less people that know, the safer we are off.” 

              Ridley closed his eyes and sighed. “These people are allies, Haldir.” Ridley said as he gestured to a few fellow insurgents who were out of earshot, deep in their own conversations. “We can trust them. They are all fighting for the same cause we are.” 

             “You can never be too careful,” murmured Haldir, staring past Ridley. 

              He followed Haldir’s gaze, his friend was glaring at a scarred rebel with rather unkempt brown hair. The dude's name was Tobias, he joined the fight not too long ago and there were already some nasty rumors going around about him. Ridley had made it his goal to befriend the newcomer, and he had eventually offered him a spot in their small two man squadrent, against Haldir's better wishes he should add. Haldir was reluctant to let him join at first but he eventually gave into Ridleys constant pestering.

               Ridley couldn’t help but feel a pang of sorrow at the way Haldir glared at Tobias, they had already been on a few missions together and everytime Haldir acknowledged Tobias it was as if he was talking to an enemy. And it didn’t look like Haldir was about to warm up to him anytime soon. 

               —

               The sound of the ship's doors closing shot Ridley back to the present. He turned his gaze to Tobias who was still staring at the closed doors of the ship, seeming to be lost in thought.

               Ridley furrowed his brows as he tried to search Tobias face for any giveaways on how he was feeling, but as usual his expression was unreadable. Tobias suddenly turned and made eye contact with Ridley, the coolness in his flecked hazel gaze had caught Ridley off guard for a moment. “What are you staring at?” Tobias spat before whipping around and stalking off towards the crates they had been sorting earlier. 

               Despite Tobias’ seemingly hostile attitude, Ridley knew couldn’t leave him out here alone. He slowly got up and made his way up to Tobias who, if he had heard him coming, hadn't acknowledged him until he was standing right next to him. 

               “Don’t take it to heart.” Ridley began after a moment,  “Haldirs always like this with people he’s not accustomed to.” 

               “Oh, I’m sure he is.” Tobias sourly scoffed, not taking his eyes off the crate panel he was fidgeting with. “He seems to be getting more resentful than less as he gets more accustomed to me.” 

                Ridley looked down as he searched for words to comfort his friend. Tobias didn’t show it, but Ridley could tell that Haldir's unmasked dislike for their ex-empire companion was starting to get to him. “It’s not like that! I mean, yes Hal has his issues but you’re not the root of them.” Ridley glanced back up at Tobias and shrugged awkwardly. “Take this planet for example, Hal has bigger issues with it than he does you.” He awkwardly chuckled out the last part as Tobias stopped fidgeting with the crate and focused his attention on Ridley.

                 “What do you mean by that?” Tobias asked, a mixture of curiosity and suspicion in his voice. 

                 “Oh I just meant that-“ Ridley paused, realizing that he probably shouldn’t have said that. Tobias didn’t know anything about Haldir's past and he would rather have kept it that way. Ridley could feel Tobias staring at him, waiting for him to respond. It can’t hurt if he knows just a little bit about Hal? Can it? 

                 He took a breath, gathering the courage to speak again, he didn’t want to take too long and look as if he was hiding something from Tobias. “I just meant that this planet is a reminder of the life Hal once had, before the empire.” Ridley paused for a second, Haldir wouldn’t be pleased to know that he was talking about this part of his past. Yet It’s not like he was going to tell Tobias everything. 

                 “He just lost some people close to him here, that’s all.”

                 Ridley knew that wasn’t the whole truth, the actual extent of the trauma this planet has caused Haldir goes years back. All the way to the end of the Clone Wars. From what Ridley was able to squeeze out of him, he found out that Haldir was stationed here with his Jedi Master doing some basic recon. He and his master had been separated, and during this confusion his master was shot down when the clones suddenly turned on them, leaving Haldir to fend for himself. Ridleys tried asking Haldir how exactly he escaped, but Haldir had always changed the subject or dodged the question.

                 Ridley looked at Tobias, who in turn just stared at him for a few seconds, his expression almost unreadable. Only his eyes gave way that he was deep in thought. Was it possible Tobias knew he wasn’t telling him everything? Ridley felt like the silence dragged on for rotations, he was starting to regret talking at all when Tobias suddenly spoke up. “Is that why he’s acting extra broody toward me?” 

                  Ridley was surprised to hear a hint of humor in Tobias’ voice, and he let out a small sigh before smiling. “Yeah he’s making less of an effort to be nice to you, believe it or not. ” Ridley chuckled in response, combing back some loose hair with a blue hand. his gaze clouded a bit. “I can’t ask you to be more patient with him than you already have been,” Ridley started, “but I know that he will warm up to you. Just give him some time.” 

                   Tobias glanced down for a second. “I can’t blame him for taking so long” he murmured in response, but he didn’t waver on it and he rolled his shoulders. “We should probably finish up work out here then head into the ship. It’s starting to get dark and we don’t want to get caught hanging around here.”

                   Ridley nodded in agreement. it was obvious that Tobias wanted to change the subject, and to be fair so did he. 

• -    -

                    They finished sorting things quickly, Mimban was a pretty dangerous planet to be on for long periods of time, especially since it had a high empire population. Haldir had landed their ship in one of the few remote parts of the planet and he hid it in a wedge of sorts, but patrols would be reaching this side of the planet soon and they were in no shape to take on an attack by the empire. 

                    “That should be it.” Tobias said with a grunt as he heaved the last crate into the ship. They hadn’t gathered much but these supplies would serve the rebellion well. the tzzt of Ridley's comms sounded from one of his pockets. “Are you two done yet? I want to get off this planet.” Haldir's static voice sounded from within the communications device. “Plus, I just got off the comm with Fulcrum, we have to make a short stop before we head to base.” 

                     Ridley quickly responded to Haldir, confirming that they had just finished up out here before putting his device back away. He turned to Tobias, who was making his way toward him. “Race you to the lounge!” Ridley suddenly announced, not giving Tobias time to respond before he bolted off toward the ship. He heard Tobias yell something from behind him, he glanced back to see that Tobias had started to give chase. Ridley quickly turned back around and let out a surprised gasp, noticing he was about to run into a wall. He swerved to avoid it and ended up crashing through a few boxes of rations as he hit the floor with a thud. 

                      Tobias was quickly at his side, he bent down and offered a hand to help him up. “Well that sure was elegant.” 

                      Ridley light-heartily smacked his hand away as he sat back and looked up at Tobias “I’d like to see you try better” he crowed with a smirk. 

                      They both turned their heads when they heard the hissing of a door open and the figure of Haldir standing in the doorway, his arms crossed. Haldir let out an exaggerated sigh as he put a hand to his face, shaking his head a bit. “What did I say about running in the ship, Ridley!”

                       Ridley hunched his shoulders a bit, Haldir had no real anger in his voice. “not to do it-“ 

                      “Not to do it, exactly.” Haldir cut him off, finishing Ridley's sentence for him. He walked over to the two of them. “What am I going to do with you?” 

                       “Forgive me and forget this whole ordeal happened?” Ridley said innocently, batting his eyes at Haldir. Haldir scoffed “Not gonna happen, you’re in charge of cleaning up this whole mess later.” Haldir paused as he turned his gaze from Ridley to Tobias. “And don’t even think about helping him. He always manages to find a way to weasel out of his chores.” 

                      Haldir bent down and grabbed Ridley's arm, helping him up. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Haldir fretted. Ridley dusted off his shoulder and looked back at Haldir “I feel better than I ever have!” He finished with a big smile. “Really! I feel fine.” Ridley added, noticing that Haldir hadn’t looked convinced. Haldir slowly nodded and started making his way back to the cockpit, signaling for Ridley and Tobias to follow. “C’mon, I’ll inform you guys about this next mission on the way. We’ve already spent too much time chit chatting.” 

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