Estelle pulled Shiloh with her as she went to go investigate the contents of Winter and Elias' pantry. Seeing some familiar fruit that both she and Shiloh loved, Estelle reached for it and brought it back to their seat.
"Come on, you know you want some," she murmured, putting a piece of the fruit to Shiloh's lips.
The Twi'lek rolled her eyes and nipped the fruit from Estelle's fingers. Estelle giggled and Shiloh smiled seeing her wife so happy.
hiro smiled at the one big family he'd joined. he sighed softly as he tweeked his saber.
Winter and Elias sat down, and Winter curled into Elias. She looked around at the small amount of chaos that had shown up recently. She looked up at Elias.
“Hun, you’re a little warm. Are you feeling alright?”
Elias yawned and rested his head on Winter’s.
“Yes my starlight. I am fine. I just exhausted myself. The real question is, whose story should we start out with? Ours, or Shiloh’s and Estelle’s?”
Winter turned her nose towards Elias face and rubbed it against his cheek.
“Why don’t we let Hiro decide. He is our newest member. And you good sir-“
Winter poked his side.
“Get to practice with someone in their teens. For when Frost gets older.”
Elias sighed and looked at Hiro.
“Do we really want to slam him with all this information?”
Winter nodded.
“It’s either now, or later when he’s in a worse place. He’s safe here, and if we say something that rattled him, he can go to his room and let us know.”
Elias turned towards Hiro.
“Alright son. This is your decision. If you want to hear our stories now, all you have to do is ask. And whoever you wish to share their story first, will. We have nothing to hide, and we no longer have shame. Having shame is not a right way to live. So choose. We’ll support the decision.”
hiro felt a little shocked first at the bluntness but figured it happened often. " can i hear yours first?" he asked Elias
“Aha! Go right on ahead hun! Tell him your story. Let him know what you were like!”
Elias grumbled.
“Alright Hiro. I’ll start it all off. My story starts on Hoth. Back ten years ago, the Empire was still very much a threat. My family group, and I won’t call it a clan, because they were divided over the smallest things, agreed on one thing. They decided that the Empire could make us the most powerful group on Hoth. So everyone voted for it, and I voted against it. The Empire came in, and My family disowned me, and sent me out to die. I wandered around for weeks out in the snow, barely surviving. And then I made the decision to go back to my family, to see if they’d take me back. I was only greeted with death and desecration. The Empire slaughtered everyone, and I was the only survivor. I spent weeks burying the dead. And then I decided it was time to go. And I wandered around for a few days until off in the distance, I saw Winter. And I followed her around for weeks, because she would go and hunt and kill what little was on Hoth for her own food. She was the reason I survived. Then one day I got too close and she jumped me basically.”
Elias chuckled.
“I think she was just as surprised to see someone like her as I was. Then we teamed up. And as horrible as it sounds, we fell in love very quickly. Like a month after we met I was determined to marry her. I mean it kind of happens when you’re the last two people of your kid that you know of. Together we destroyed a hidden Imperial base, stole a ship, and ended up in a cantina looking for a pilot. We ran into a man named Essar and his moody droid Hi-5, and then we ran into Shiloh. And then I straight up asked Winter to marry me. And then we brought chaos to the galaxy, and we’ve been doing it since. A lot of things are brought on by war. Like love and loss. But we can learn from both. Remember that kid.”
" i will. " he said and turned to winter " you ?" he asked softly, intent on hearing everyone.
Winter hung her head.
“I’m going to start it all off with the fact that I feel very guilty about my existence. In all reality, I shouldn’t be alive. My story begins when I was fourteen. And I was happy and in love. With someone I was supposed to marry, in order to unite two families and two separate clans. Then the Empire came. We did not accept them. They fought back. When we first told them no, they thought it was a joke and came back and experimented on us. We resisted. Then they came back and slaughtered us. I survived because my best friend and hand maiden hid me away. I heard screams and blaster fire for hours. Until all was silent. I remained hidden for days. Until I couldn’t any longer. I grabbed what little was left in my room, and ran. On my way out, I ran into a squad of snow troopers. I ran as fast as I could from them, until I cornered myself at the rift. It was a huge wall of ice. They all lined up and I shut my eyes waited for the end. I kept hearing shots fired, but not one touched me. I opened my eyes and they were all frozen in mid air. The Force had chosen to save me and in that moment, I did lean heavily to the dark side and used the force to kill every snow trooper. And once they were dead, I raided their bodies for what little food they carried. And then I became a wanderer. And I wandered Hoth for four years. I was alone until the day I jumped Elias. And in that moment, I was so overcome with emotion that I couldn’t handle it. I was angry, happy, and in love all at the same time, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. Then Elias and I exploded an Imperial base, went to a cantina, caused chaos throughout the galaxy, found a sister, and started to learn how to accept guilt and move on. And then about six years ago, Elias and I went back to Hoth, and went back to my home.”
She drew in a shaky breath.
“We buried the skeletons. They were hardly recognizable, and contorted in horrible positions. It was very hard to do. And then we got involved in the galactic senate of the new republic. And Senator Organa and the Pantoran senators have been our biggest supporters. And then four years ago, we decided to have Frost. And we have been thinking about having another child recently, but we have time. We’re still young. Hiro, enjoy the smallest things, and enjoy whatever time you’re given with people who care about you. You never know when it might be the last time.”
Hiro nodded thinking about the little bugger, " I could never find love at home.. I doubt I will.."
Winter looked back at Frost’s room, and leaned on Elias. Elias spoke softly.
“Son, you’ve already found it. You’ve found a type of love. You’ve found the love of one jacked up family. However, it’s up to decide who you want to love in return. Be it man, woman, or alien, we’d support it. Who are we to judge? But you have to find love and experience it before you are to give it away.”
Hiro nodded, following winters gaze " he's awake you know,"
Winter looked at Hiro.
“Don’t I know it. I’m going to go be on mom duty. He doesn’t sleep well, even for a four year old. That’s something that Elias and I are going to have to reach out into the Force and find out. Something may be pulling him somewhere, and he doesn’t know how to tell us. It may very well be you, or it may be someone else, and you might be the key.”
Winter got up and walked to Frost’s room. And a few moments later gentle singing could be heard coming from there. Elias closed his eyes and smiled.
“Ya know, I hate it when my kid wakes up. But I do love it when she sings him to sleep. It’s soothing, and it brings back good memories.”
Hiro nodded " I hate feeling like it's me keeping him up.. " he said softly
"If anything, it's probably me," Estelle contributed to lighten the mood. "He's just so happy to see his auntie again."
"Aunties," Shiloh corrected.
Elias chuckled.
“It’s probably all of us. Anyways, Shiloh and Estelle, duel it out over who has to share their story next. Both of your stories are pretty good. Really adds flair to your person.”
Elias stretched and yawned.
And after you two share, we all probably need to go to sleep. I know we’re all exhausted. We’ve had a day…”
"Oh, Elias," Estelle sighed. "Don't you know my entire person is flair?" She tossed her blue hair over her shoulder for effect and Shiloh rolled her eyes, not for the first time that day.
"Yeah, we know. That's the problem."
Winter stuck her head outside of Frost’s room.
“So we’ve noticed. Hiro choose her! Do it. You’ll love her story!”
"Okay, first of all, rude!" Estelle gasped at Shiloh before the Twi'lek pulled her in for a lingering kiss. They maintained it for a moment before Shiloh broke off.
"Better?" she murmured.
"Much," Estelle cooed. "Anyway, please do pick me! I'm dying to tell you the story of how I saved Shiloh's life."
"Excuse me, who did the saving?" Shiloh asked incredulously.
Winter stuck her head back out the door once again.
“If I recall correctly, Estelle was saved first, and then Shiloh. You technically saved each other. But who is keeping tabs on who saved who? For the stars I almost murdered Elias when I saw him. And considering now that we have a child I probably should have just ya know stabbed him once to at least let him know what he was going to get into.”
Elias turned back to Winter.
“Honey, I’ve been stabbed enough times by several people. You wouldn’t be any different. Need I remind you that Shiloh has stabbed me over a piece of fruit before? But lemme tell you something. The form and execution of the stab was immaculate. We probably still have the fork somewhere. Imma go find it!”
He jumped up to go searching for the fork.
Winter just sighed and continued rocking Frost to sleep.
Hiro sat in utter shock " a fork. Really?" He asked at first but shook his head " I actually wanna hear Shiloh first"
"Ok," Shiloh took a breath. Estelle put a hand on her wife's knee, and the Twi'lek visibly relaxed at her touch. "When I was a young little Twi'lek girl living happily on Ryloth with parents who were never into being politically active at all, I decided I was going to become very interested in one thing. Being a trained assassin. I wanted to be the one to kill Vader. So I begged to get trained by this one woman - Ayon was her name. She taught me all I know. How to shoot a blaster, that using a knife in hand-to-hand combat is useless unless you know how to do it right…"
Shiloh paused to draw in a shaky breath at the coming details, and Estelle kissed her cheek. "You're doing wonderfully, ma sareen [my sweet]."
The words spurred Shiloh on, and she continued. "One day, my village, clan, pod – call it what you like – was attacked and everyone in it was captured except for me and my patroling group of three others. Ayon was with us. We got back and everyone was gone." Shiloh bit her lip, then continued. "My… my sister is my life force, aside from this angel," she added, grinning at Estelle, who flushed pink. "I love them both to the ends of the galaxy. When I returned and found out that my sister was gone, I immediately wanted to go find her. Ayon took charge and made a plan. It required one of us to be the scout and go ahead to make sure that the area was clear. The scout wasn't supposed to fight in the battle. The scout was just an extra. Ayon knew my abilities, but she… she wouldn't let me fight. We attacked the thieves band as they were just beginning their executions."
Knowing this was the most difficult part of her story, Estelle leaned over and rested her head on Shiloh's shoulder. "Wachamio, ma sareen [Let's go, my sweet]," she murmured. "I have my story to get to still, you know."
Shiloh laughed quietly, and she continued. "My beautiful sister was marched to the platform, and speaking technically, I couldn't do anything. But I ignored Ayon's orders, pulled out my blaster, and shot thieves. All of them. Not one survived. Ayon was furious with me, though, as if I had disappointed her somehow. I was the hero, and I saved the day – that's how Ayon saw it. I was just trying to save my sister. I couldn't live with Ayon's glares. So I left. And that's how I ran into these two." She jerked her thumb at Elias and Winter with a knowing smirk. "And then we found this one." She nuzzled into Estelle's neck, and she giggled.
hiro looked shocked, " an..and you arnt mentally crippled how?"
Shiloh let out a barking laugh. "An excellent inquiry," she remarked. "I was on my own for a long while after I left, but these two and Essar saved my life." Her amber gaze fell on Winter and Elias, and she smiled warmly. "And now I have the most beautiful woman on the galaxy as my wife, so crippled is out of the question."
Estelle giggled as Shiloh brought their lips together lovingly.
hiro chuckled, " hey, why dont you bring the bugger out here? ill try and hod him for a bit,"
Winter remembered Shiloh’s story well. It was hard for her to share with Essar all those years ago, and it was hard to share it now. Winter looked at the half asleep child in her arms.
“Yeah you can hold him Hiro. He’s exhausted. If he starts to get fussy, rock him. It’s not going to be long before his little brain forces him to go to sleep.”
Elias came back from looking for the fork, and watched as Winter walked over to Hiro and set Frost in his lap. He spoke gently.
“Hothians are know for their cool to cold skin, so he’s not gonna be warm to hold. That’s just a little warning if you start to get concerned.”
" alright" he said and moved to lean against the wall and he let the child relax. he gently rubbed frosts back in hopes of him finally catching some sleep.