He found out by accident.
She'd been looking at the announcement board in the Academy, it had all sorts of announcements, posters and more pinned in overlapping layers . He'd stopped next to her because he was going the same direction and hadn' t turned the corner yet. The board had the usual things: training schedules, shop hours, a lost-item notice about someone's boot. And in the center, a printed card announcing a film screening in the common hall that evening. TONIGHT: STAR WARS. MAIN HALL. 21:00. SNACKS PROVIDED
"What's that," she said.
He looked at her. Then at the card. Then at her again.
"A film."
"What's a film?"
He opened his mouth. "You're serious."
She looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to elaborate.
"Moving pictures," he said. "With sound. You watch them. They tell a story." He paused. "They've existed for about a hundred and fifty years."
"Oh." She looked at the card again. "Is it good?"
"Yes," he said. "Very good."
"What's Star Wars?"
He turned around. She was looking at the notice with curiosity, head tilted slightly.
"You don't know Star Wars?"
"I just asked what it was."
"It's-" He stopped. "How do you not know Star Wars!?"
"I grew up in the outskirts," she said, like that explained it, and maybe it did, a little, but also Star Wars had been a cultural fixture for longer than either of them had been alive and he was struggling to construct a reality where it had simply not reached her.
"It's a film whith….." he said. " Space. War. A man who breathes very loudly."
She looked at the notice again. "Is it good?"
"It's…" He paused, because the honest answer was complicated and the Flaw wasn't going to let him be diplomatic about it. "Yes. Mostly. The ending is fine."
She looked at him. "You said fine differently than the other things."
"I said fine normally."
"You didn't."
He looked at the notice. He looked at her. He looked at his coffee. "I'm going tonight," he said.
She turned and walked away.
At twenty past nine she sat down next to him in the main hall.
—-------------------------------
The hall was about two-thirds full, some faculty, a handful of students who had, rest were just awakened who were not sleeping. Someone had arranged actual chairs in rows, which felt formal, someone else had arranged blankets and floor cushions at the front, which undermined the formality entirely. Snacks had been distributed. He had acquired popcorn on the basis that it was free and he had not yet met a version of himself that turned down free food.
She sat down nex to him and looked at the screen with her big green eyes, her eys then landed on his popcorn and a hopeful expression appeared on her face, the corners of his lips twitched as he saw her gaze longingly at the popcorn, he tilted the containers sideways in offering, she did not hesitate. Taking a handful of it, well her hands were small anyways, she nombed on them slowly.
Then she took her cloak off.
She folded it neatly over the armrest and settled back in the chair, the wings folding against her back, the light in the hall caught the line of her shoulders, the particular way her collarbones–
He looked at the screen.
'Pure thoughts sunny, pure thoughts'
The screen was blank. The film had not started yet so that was to be expected, there was nothing interesting whatsoever yet his entire focus was on it, watching the blackness of the colors, the black was blacking.
'Yeah, that's right. I might unlock the next stage of shadow dance'
She reached into his popcorn again.
"That's mine," he finally said.
"You have a lot."
He did have a lot. He again held the bucket slightly in her direction without looking away from the blank screen as she took another handful.
The lights went down. The opening crawl began, a few people cheered as yellow text scrolled up through a star field, the full weight of the brass section arriving like something important was about to happen. He watched her in his peripheral vision. She read every word. He knew because she tracked them, head tilting back slightly as the text climbed. Her wings shifted once.
Then the Star Destroyer arrived.
It came from the top of the frame and kept coming, the full absurd length of it, filling the screen from edge to edge while the bass from the speakers moved through the floor, she went completely still. She watched it with intense interest, like the interest she'd given his eggs that morning, turned up considerably.
'Good' he thought, against his better judgment. 'She should see this.'
Twenty minutes in she leaned slightly toward him.
"Is he lying," she said.
On screen, a diplomat was being interrogated. Darth Vader's hand around her throat.
"Yes," Sunny said.
She nodded and sat back.
Thirty minutes later, during a briefing scene, she leaned again.
"Is he lying." Ben Kenobi, explaining the Force to Luke
Sunny considered this for a moment. "No," he said. "But he's not telling the whole truth either."
She was quiet for a second. "Those are different things."
"Very different things."
She went back to the screen with an expression that suggested she was now watching everyone in the film with significantly more suspicion. He ate popcorn and did not examine how much he was enjoying sitting next to a person who found the galaxy far far away less interesting than the question of whether its characters were being honest.
The shadow had abandoned its post near the exit and was sitting between their chairs.
He let it.
—-----------------------------------------
The credits rolled. Around them people were stretching, talking, debating over this and that. She sat still for a moment, processing, and he waited.
"It was good," she decided.
"It's a classic."
"The breathing man was frightening." A pause. "I liked R2"
"Most people do."
She turned to look at him. He was already looking at the middle distance with the expression of someone who had no feelings about anything.
"You put the popcorn down," she said.
He had. He always put the popcorn down at that part. The ending of Star Wars was too clean, wrong people got the medals, Han Solo spent the whole film being the most interesting person in it only to stand in a row at the end looking decorative. He found this genuinely irritating.
He did not say any of this.
"The film was good," he said.
She was quiet for a moment. Then she reached into the popcorn bucket, which was mostly empty now, more hers than his at this point, and ate the last handful.
"Han Solo should have gotten a medal," she said.
He stared.
"He flew the ship," she said simply. "He came back. That matters more than anything else."
A small chuckle escaped his lips
"Stupid reasoning"
The hall was emptying out by now. She stood up in a motion, picked up her cloak, folded it over her arm. Her wings were still loose, the tips catching the light as she moved.
They walked back through the corridor without talking, which was fine. Better than fine. The quiet with her did not seem to be awkward anymore.
Outside her door they slowed to a stop. She was looking at the floor for a moment, then up at the ceiling.
"I want to watch the next one," she said.
"There are eight more."
Her eyes went a little wide. "Tomorrow?" she said.
His chest might have flipped "Tomorrow," he said.
She went in without another word.
He stood in the corridor, the stupid bucket still in his hand, Sunny stared at the closed door for a moment. Then he looked down at the bucket. He walked to his room, set it on the desk for no reason, lay down, and looked at the ceiling.
'Damnation, I forgot to ask her name!!'