The Pieces of Cal Kestis (Cal Kestis x Reader)

Pieces of a Scrapper

When Cal Kestis first showed up on Bracca, you weren't sure what to think. He was young, only two years younger than yourself, and clearly unused to the work he volunteered himself for, and something about that mix of circumstances led to you taking him under your metaphorical wing. It probably wasn't the best idea to settle into a mentor role when you were still getting used to your own job as a scrapper, but something about Cal drew you in and held you there until finally, you stayed.

Ironically enough, there were times where you felt as if you learned more from Cal than he did from you. Before the Empire took over, you were an apprentice engineer in the guild, spending most of your time putting together the tech the scrappers salvaged from the scrap yards. You hadn't imagined ever being one yourself, but time and a new major governing power (forcibly) changes people, and you were no exception.

It took a while for you to get used to traversing the yards, something that made you feel like less of a mentor and more of a student when you saw how easy it was for Cal, but what you lacked in physical ability you made up for in knowledge. It was easier to make money from the wreckage you tore apart when you knew what parts were useful, and your experience with engineering gave you an advantage over most of the other scrappers in that department. Parts that others disregarded, you took, sometimes combining it with other bits you found to increase selling price. It was a good way to keep your skills sharp, and you even ended up teaching Cal some of it when you found the time.

Cal...

He was, to put it lightly, an enigma. He came to Bracca at an alarmingly young age, seldom talked about his past, and largely kept to himself. None of these things were concerning in their own right, but together and paired with the fact that Cal didn't seem to have parents was, to a degree, alarming. Normally when people came to Bracca from off-planet, they were either runaways or desperate, always lower class, and at the very least they were adults or close to being one. Hell, the only reason you were there was because you grew up in the Scrapper Guild after your parents gave you up to them. Other than you, no children worked the yards. Until Cal showed up, that is.

He was only thirteen, even younger than you were when you started working as an apprentice, but he settled into the role of a scrapper easily. It was a little concerning, especially with how averse to talking about his past he was. Nevertheless, you somehow managed to weasel your way into his orbit and plant yourself into the role of best friend/occasionally wiser partner in crime and you two managed to live the closest thing to comfortable you could get on a shitty trash planet in the mid rim.

Ironically enough, the living arrangements were the one thing that Cal really struggled to adjust to. Traversing the heaps? Easy. Taking apart wreckage? Child's play. But living in a tiny one-bedroom hut carved out of the remains of an old warship? Constant grimaces and silent complaints that he never voiced to you, but were written all over his face if you knew what to look for. You couldn't really figure out what about the situation put him off, especially since the only thing you really knew about Cal's past was that he had some sort of training that enabled his agility in the scrap yard. It could've been anything, really. It could've been the near-squalor that you two lived in, or maybe just being in constant close-quarters with you was what he wasn't used to. Either way, it was the only thing that really seemed to bother him on the trash land that you called home, and you couldn't figure out why.

"Hey."

You were broken away from your thoughts by none other than Cal himself, crouching next to your bed and lowering his face so that it was near your own. You cracked open your eyes blearily, mind awake but body still on the verge of falling back asleep. He called your name, quiet in the early hour, but loud enough to wake you up if you were still sleeping. You weren't, but there was no way for Cal to know that you had been awake and thinking for nearly half an hour now.