another fic idea I plan on expanding upon
so Alex and I have been throwing this concept back and forth for at least a week or two now, but-
So AU where the war didn't happen. Zeb is a son in an aristocratic family, and the family often has trips and work throughout the galaxy.
One time, they have him take a vacation to go with them. He very much did not want to join, he had too many duties to attend to in the palace. He finally agrees when one of his siblings reminds him of how bored he's been and another says that they're going to Coruscant, which means they'll also be going to the royal orchestra house.
On the first day on coruscant, Zeb still thinks that most of the trip will be boring. That is until a fight breaks out between some security guards and a few scavengers from the lower levels. Zeb is had been warned not to interfere before hand, as it could cause a violation between Coruscant and Lasan. So he observes what was happening and then saw that one scavenger slips away from the scrimmage with whatever was looted from the jeweler store.
He chases this tall, scruffy-look blond through the streets and down a couple of levels. The scavenger passes the bag off to someone else, who goes in the opposite direction, but something tugs Zeb to continue pursuing the person. Besides, he didn't really have any intention of making an arrest or recovering the jewels. He wants some excitement and this scavenger has been throwing taunts at Zeb the whole way down.
He leads Zeb through a maze of alleyways and... to a dead end. Zeb looks up when he hears laughter from above. "Sorry Lasat, it's not your day."
Hissing a growl between his teeth, Zeb launches himself to the wall and scales it, catching up to the scoundrel. "Day's not over yet, buddy."
Something about the spark of determination in the other’s eyes thrills Zeb. The two begin a brawl, and Zeb is impressed with how well the other holds his ground to him. There's a lot of heat in the fight, but no malice. Reminds Zeb of the spars he's had with his fellow guardsmen. It ends all too soon, coruscanti guards quickly making their way down the levels. The human knocks Zeb off his balance and takes advantage of the stumble to make his escape. "It was a pleasure, but I very much don't like prison."
From the spot Zeb lays on the rooftop, he watches as the scavenger salutes him before falling backwards off the roof. In a panic, zeb scambles to the edge, watching as the other falls for just a short while longer before being scooped by a passing speeder. Zeb laughs as the speeder descends deeper into the planet.
And he thinks that his path crossing with the man is just a one time coincidence.
That is, until the night he goes to the ochresta. His family rented a private viewing suite. He's watching the performance when he feels like he heard something down the way. Zeb tells his family he's leaving for some fresh air, not hearing anything other than the sound of something clattering before hurriedly trying to be muffled. Zeb walks past gaurds who don't pay the noise any mind, so it's probably farther away.
Zeb goes down a few floors, to the empty rooms that are kept behind locked doors. Slipping in, Zeb follows much quieter sounds, sounds of humming and tapping, with pained hiss slipping inbetween the melodies.
Zeb swings a door open into a dark storage room, props and old instruments having been knocked down by an open window. Zeb follows the mess until his eyes quickly meet the scavenger from earlier, stating at him like a deernny in headlights.
And they just stare at each other for a moment. Zeb's eyes fall to where his hands are, wrapping a very injured knee with bacta bandages. Panic sinks into the scavenger's eyes as he looks between Zeb and the window, as if trying to calculate how the kriff he's going to make it to the window without getting grabbed. Zeb quietly closes the door and walks closer to the other slowly.
"Lovely night for the orchestra, eh?"
The other looks Zeb up and down, cautiously continuing his piss-poor medic work. "Yeah... they're playing stuff from Lothal all week. Very lovely." His eyes never leave the other.
Zeb rolls his eyes and takes a seat on the crate across from him, next to where his foot is propped up. "Yeah, the arrangement is a set of scores that were composed on the planet." He picks up items from the open medical supplies thrown across the floor. "And you're doin' this wrong. If ya don't splint your knee, this'll heal incorrectly." Zeb holds his other hand out for the roll of bandages.
The scavenger scans Zeb over for a moment, before making a decision and handing the roll to the other. With nothing left to hold, the other grips the edge of the crate he's sitting on.
Zeb works on unwrapping the bandages until he gets to the torn layer of pants that reveal some pretty painful looking discoloration on the human’s pale skin. "With stunts like the one ya pulled yesterday, I can’t imagine how this happened."
The comment pulls a huff of laughter from the other between winces as Zeb uses the splint to support his knee and begin wrapping it.
"I- mm... I would say that my 'stunts' aren't the cause of this, but it was my own fault that I got this injury, so you aren't too far off, actually."
Humming, Zeb rolls a thumb over the final wrap of the bacta, his hold becoming much more gentle than firm now as he helps the other maneuver his leg off the crate. "So if not your acrobatic tricks, how'd you get like this?" Zeb motions to his knee, "I very much doubt one of those guards actually caught you, seeing as how you're not behind bars."
A smile ghosts over his lips as he looks to the wall that separates them from the open room of the orchestra house, music still thundering through despite it. "I'm bad at following orders. I disobeyed a direct order and..."
A mixed feeling of shock and terror washes over Zeb. He’s been warned of many of the horror stories of the lower levels, but... "Your own people did that to you?" Zeb doesn't dare let the question why do you stay slip from his tongue, knowing that it's probably not even an option for the man across from him.
The other man just shrugs, "you really don't want to hear the rest of that story, Princling."
Zeb shakes his head with a frown, "I'm not a prince."
The other gives this smug kriffing smirk as he leans against the tower of supplies behind him. "You're something adjacent to the title. What is your proper title then, hm? What would you like me to call you?"
"Just call me Zeb."
The other tilts his head, the smugness having been short lived. "What’s that short for?"
Zeb crosses his arms over his chest and leans against the tower of crates behind him as well. "How do you know its short for something?"
The other rolls his eyes, "I honestly really don't know much about Lasat or Lasan, but I do know that the language tends to be difficult for most throughout the galaxy to learn and pronounce. I could be very incorrect in saying this, but that probably isn't the full name of a fancy aristocrat such as yourself, Starling."
Zeb breathes out his nose sharply. "That's still more than what most people tend to know. It's Garazeb. My name."
And then the other rolls the name off his tongue, as if he’s said it a thousand times before and Zeb’s breath stops short. "Garazeb. Now that's lovely," a wolf-ish grin breaks over his face.
Zeb swallows hard, ignoring the flick of his ear as his blood rushes to his face. "So what's your name, huh?"
The other's eyes loose their playful tone, smile dropping. "Not important." He moves to stand up, swaying for a moment before catching himself, "don't need to get into any more trouble than I've already gotten myself." He turns to walk toward the window, presumably to make another jump.
"Aye, aye, aye!" Zeb catches his wrist to stop him, but the other flinches from his touch. So instead, Zeb moves to block the path to the window. "You really shouldn't be doing crazy jumps with that knee of yours."
The other frowns as he takes a step back from Zeb, but steps on something he had knocked over earlier and causes himself to lose balance. He winces, or more accurately braces for impact.
Zeb moves in and catches him before he either hits the ground or tries to catch himself on the crates and then hits the ground.
The injured man tries to wrestle out of the hold that saved him. Zeb stands them back up and lets go, placing his hands on his hips but doesn't move away. The other just crosses his arms over his chest as he tries to figure out a new escape. "Well, I climbed up here, didn't I?" He growls out his next sentence, "I can climb back to the hole I crawled out of."
Zeb just rolls his eyes. "You're so intimidating with that injury, you're right, I should cower out of the way so you can break your kriffing neck."
The man chews on the inside of his cheeks as he glares at Zeb. "Fine. If you can figure out a way to smuggle me past the security, I won't scale the building back down. I'll catch a speeder back down."
Shaking his head, Zeb scratches his neck. "And then what? Are you going to stay off that leg until it heals? I very much doubt that."
The other sneers at Zeb, lip curling. "What I do is honestly none of your business. It doesn't affect you one way or the other."
Zeb sighs, he wants to help the other until he's able to move around and take care of himself. He curses Kanan and Hera for instilling such a lack of common sense in him when it comes to helping others.
'Yeah, you don't really have anyone else to blame that one on, buddy,' Zeb can hear Ezra laughing at him now.
"Look, I have a needlessly huge deluxe suite to myself. There's plenty of room. You can stay with me while I'm here so your leg can fully heal."
The other tenses, resisting the urge to take another step back in the cramped space. "No thank you, Garazeb. You've already-"
Zeb flinches as the lights are flicked on, "what's going on here? You two can't be back here."
Both men turn to look at a gaurd standing in the doorway. Zeb glances back at the other, watching as panic fills his eyes but his face goes blank. Zeb pushes a laugh out as he slips his arm over his shoulders and looks back to the gaurd, "Sorry man, we got lost on our way to the food court and my friend here really needed to rest his leg," Zsb motions down to the other's injury, "and I had a hell of a time trying to find a bench." Zeb makes a few clicks of his tongue as he shakes his head. "That's quite a lack of accessibility, honestly."
The gaurd tries to think of something to say, but Zeb is already guiding the scavenger past him. "We'll be on our way now, thank you for your service."
The other allows Zeb to guide him out the building and to a speeder.
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