The Pieces of Cal Kestis (Cal Kestis x Reader)

Pieces of a Jedi

"Cal?"

He whipped around, green eyes that you haven't seen in over a year widening when he caught sight of you. You stared at each other in shock before the sound of blaster fire forced your attention to the small squad of stormtroopers that were rushing through the door. You dove away, taking cover behind a nearby storage crate as Cal ignited his lightsaber and started deflecting the shots back to them.

It had been roughly a year and a half since you left Bracca, since you had seen Cal, and you've managed to do more good for yourself in those last eighteen months than in the past six years.

After Nick had dropped you off on Sleheyron, you sold what you could from your bag of scraps and sought out a group at his recommendation. They got you in contact with a band of rebels on Randa that would benefit from someone with engineering experience, and from there you started bouncing around jobs. You took work from various resistance groups, working with organized movements and independent crews alike, traveling around the galaxy and helping where you could to add kindling to the sparks of rebellion against the Empire.

While you mostly stuck to ship repairs and general maintenance, occasionally you would end up joining a crew on a mission. You normally stayed with the group, providing covering fire and messing with wiring and anything else that your engineering knowledge would be useful for. So of course the one time you end up separated from the crew, you run into Cal. At the very least you weren't running around alone anymore.

Cal shouted your name, and you glanced at him from the corner of your eye as you started returning fire. "What are you doing here?!" he yelled over the sounds of the scrimmage. You peeked further out from behind the crate, measuring your shots better since most of the attention was on Cal anyways.

"What are you doing here?" you shot back, dropping the last trooper in the room and lowering your voice to a more comfortable speaking level. "I thought I'd never see you again after you left Bracca."

"Same here." Cal grinned, sheathing his saber and running a hand through his hair. It was still the bright red you remembered, and you almost started giggling remembering the jokes you made about his hair being all the hi-vis orange he needed in the scrapyards.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you," he tacked on, realizing how his previous words could've come off. "I just never expected to see you like this."

"Same here," you parroted with a chuckle, holstering your blaster. It was true; you had never expected to see Cal again. Hoped, sure, but never expected it, never anticipated it. In a way, you were meeting him all over again, and maybe he was meeting you again, too. He wasn't the same boy you had known in the scrap yards. He carried himself lighter, seemed more carefree despite the circumstances. Something must have happened while you were apart. Maybe the baggage he carried during your time with him on Bracca had been lightened. Maybe he had healed. Whatever it was, he seemed looser, less tense, and it was a refreshing sight.

"But seriously, what are you doing here?" you asked again, stepping closer to him.

He opened his mouth to respond, stuttering briefly before getting cut off by the door once again. You quickly seized his arm, barely glancing at the new squad of troopers filing out of the door before you dragged Cal behind the crates you were using for cover.

"Hold that thought," you instructed as you worked on prying the cover off of a vent by the floor. You felt Cal grab the blaster from your belt to cover you as you started shimmying through the vent, and after you got far enough in, he followed.

"My crew and I are trying to get rid of the info posts here," Cal explained from behind you in the vent. "They've been monitoring hyperspace routes and it's been making moving around difficult for the Partisans."