“Deadweight Company to command, we have a problem.”
“Sergeant, why are you on the Commander’s communicator?”
“...Like I said, sir. We have a problem.”
Penchant would take a moment to appreciate Commander Neyo’s long-suffering sigh, but he’s a little preoccupied with watching the highly trained, highly unstable seventh-cycler glaring at him from the shadow-draped corner of the throne room.
Penchant clears his throat.
Faie brandishes his vibroblade.
“Sergeant, I’m going to need an explanation.”
Slowly, Penchant lowers himself to the ground, sitting cross-legged with the hand not operating the comm flat on his knee. “Is anyone up there familiar with Force artifacts?”
A questioning noise, likely General Windu, comes over the line.
“Specifically, their ability to… de-age people?”
“What.”
“Alright, deep breath in—” Simms presses the stethoscope to Faie’s back “—and out. Good. Another one in… And out.”
Simms is fucking unshakeable, Penchant thinks, watching him ease the stethoscope out from under Faie’s shirt and set it on his cart. Faie’s watching the medic’s every move, hands twitching convulsively like he’s just waiting to grab a knife, but Simms keeps on giving the checkup calmly and cheerfully.
“Okay, I think you’ve got a few cracked ribs and some pretty serious bruising, but you should be alright with a bacta shot or two.” Simms stands lax in front of Faie, just out of arms’ reach.
Faie watches him carefully and gives no response.
Simms gives him another gentle smile. “I’m going to give you a second once-over with the scanner, okay? I won’t touch you, but I will get pretty close and I’m going to have to walk around behind your back. I just need you to hold still, yeah?”
Faie says nothing. He also doesn’t move to attack, so Simms proceeds with the scan.
“Okay! Everything looks normal, so I’ll let you go now.” Simms steps back, snapping his gloves off. “Thank you, Faie.”
Faie watches Simms wipe down and stow the stethoscope and scanner, then watches him all the way out the door.
For several tense minutes, it’s just Faie and Penchant, watching each other over a backdrop of muffled medical sounds. Faie hardly moves. Penchant shifts a bit, trying to get comfortable in the plastoid chair.
“Did you lie to me?” Faie says into the semi-silence.
“What?”
“Did you lie to me? About Neyo. He’s not coming, is he?” Faie eyes the door carefully.
Penchant glances down at his comm. Neyo’s early still. “He’s busy, Faie. He’ll be here soon.”
Faie raises an eyebrow. “He’s dead.”
“Why would you think that?”
“I killed him, didn’t I? That was the blurry spot. I killed him and now you want to know if I’ll do it again.”
Penchant opens his mouth and he’s not sure what he’s going to say but he’s got to say something—
“I will,” Faie says before he can decide. “I’ll do it again. Just say the word.”
Penchant blinks. Faie does not. Penchant takes a deep, steadying breath. Faie does not.
“No one’s going to make you kill anyone, Faie. And Neyo’s still alive.”
Faie doesn’t say anything, just wrinkles his nose and keeps watching Penchant with those fucking eyes.
It takes Neyo another ten minutes to arrive, and he storms in like he sprinted the whole way, helmet off and eyes wide. “Sergeant, I– Faie.”
On the exam table, Faie goes stiff. He looks Neyo up and down, and then up and down again.
“Faie,” Neyo continues, “Faie, I. It’s. You haven’t killed me yet.”
It doesn’t make any sense to Penchant, but something about that phrase cuts all Faie’s strings. He slumps forward and Neyo rushes to meet him, not touching, just kneeling on the ground in front of him. “The fuck happened to you?” Neyo asks, and he sounds…
Faie looks over Neyo’s shoulder at Penchant. Neyo turns and looks after him. Go, he mouths, and Penchant goes.
He’s heard Faie cry before. He doesn’t need to hear it now.
Neyo and Faie stay in that exam room for nearly two hours. No one dares go in or even comm them. In that time, plans are made. Faie is to be brought to a nearby medical station to meet with a Jedi Healer named Master Sunder, who apparently has experience in this area. Somehow, Penchant doubts that.
They’ve been en route for maybe fifteen minutes when Neyo messages him, requesting his presence in the medical bay. Penchant wishes it was closer to the bridge.
“Commanders?” He knocks hesitantly at the still-closed door, listening for any sign of… anything. All is quiet, and Faie is never quiet.
His ‘pad dings with an incoming message.
MCDR Neyo: unlocked
MCDR Neyo: be fucking quiet or ill rip your fucking face off
Penchant opens the door and nearly falls flat on his face. It’s only a minor miracle that keeps him from making more than the smallest of noises as he recovers and keys the door closed.
“Do not,” Commander Neyo snarls, “breathe a word about this. To anyone.”
“I,” Penchant squeaks. He clears his throat. “I, I won’t, sir.”
Faie, still tiny, is fast asleep. Penchant had expected as much when Neyo messaged him to be quiet. What he hadn’t anticipated is the way Faie’s curled up in Neyo’s lap, face pressed into his neck just above his armor. Neyo’s got his arms around him, holding him with the same desperation Penchant sees in Faie’s arms around Neyo’s neck.
For a moment, Neyo is silent, staring a hole in Penchant’s forehead over the top of Faie’s head. Then, “I need you to stay with him until the Healer gets here. Windu needs me on the bridge.”
“Of course, Commander.”
Slowly, carefully, Neyo eases Faie off his lap. Penchant’s sure he’s going to wake, because he has never been able to so much as breathe differently without waking Faie up, but Neyo must have the magic touch, and he lays Faie down on the cot without incident. He stands, gesturing to the spot he’s left open, right by Faie’s feet. He’s just got socks on, Penchant realizes, and even those are comically large.
“Sit with him,” Neyo orders. He turns away and picks up his datapad. “He sleeps better when someone’s around.”
“Oh,” is all Penchant manages before Neyo’s out the door.
Penchant wonders how many hours he’s spent sleeping beside Faie since the war’s started. He wonders how many thousands more Neyo must have.
“Faie, hey. Time to wake up.” By now, Penchant knows better than to touch Faie or even stand near him when he wakes. Sure, they share a bed regularly, but that’s different. Faie controls that contact: he falls asleep with it and he wakes up with it. That’s fine. The one time Penchant woke him with a poke to the shoulder, though, Faie dislocated his. “Faie, come on. Up and at ‘em.”
Faie blinks, rolling into his pillow just like he does every time. “Hmm…”
“Faie, it’s Penchant, remember? It’s time to get up.”
Faie sits bolt upright, clutching his loose medical tunic close. “What?”
Penchant drops down to sit on his heels, looking up at the distraught kid who used to be his commander. “Faie, it’s Penchant. Neyo was here earlier, remember?”
Now, just like in adulthood, Faie’s stare is sporadic. Intense, but broken. Every few moments, he looks away from Penchant, eyes darting around the room, chasing imaginary dangers. “I remember,” he says, hesitant. “What do you want?”
“There’s a doctor here to see you. A Jedi. He’s going to try and figure out why you’re so…”
“Small?”
Penchant sighs, nodding. He hadn’t expressly told Faie, and he’s not sure if Neyo had, but Faie’s plenty smart enough to put at least some of the pieces together on his own. “There’ll be a vod medic with you the whole time, don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried,” Faie snaps, sitting up at the edge of the cot. “Where are they?”
“At the door. I’ll let them in now.”
Faie stands. “Wait.”
He turns back towards Faie. “What’s up?”
“I don’t want you in here while they examine me.”
“...Alright. I’ll be around.”
Every day, things happen to Penchant. Horrible things. Awful things. Things that make his skin crawl and his stomach turn and his brain send messages to the rest of him that make him want to find a warm, dark hole and curl up there and sleep forever.
Every day, Penchant gets up.
Every day, he survives, even though the things that happen always feel like they should be world-shattering and life-ending and make it so that he has to change something, do something, end something.
Somehow, Master Sunder has Faie back to normal in forty-five minutes.
Neyo is called away on an urgent assignment before he can talk to the newly re-aged Faie, so Penchant goes down to keep him company.
Faie tells him to leave, tells him to go fuck himself, tells him he never wants to talk to him again. Faie’s told him that something like thirty times now, so Penchant isn’t too worried about it. He leaves Faie in his quarters and goes back to the medbay to talk to the Healer.