Who: Yang, Li and Ahsoka What: Yang and Ahsoka try cheer Li up. There are birds. When: Recently Where: Their apartment Status: complete Rating: PG
Li definitely hadn’t been herself lately. Ever since her dream where Leah had died, she’d been lethargic and uninterested in her passions in life. Her violins didn’t even get touched when she wasn’t at school, and she didn’t even fiddle with her music composition programs on her computer either. All Li really did was read, watch TV and sleep when she wasn’t busy doing schoolwork, of course.
She’d gone into the spiral of blaming herself for what had happened to Leah and what was happening to the High Heavens. The spiral had led to depression because there wasn’t anything she could do about it from here. She didn’t have the Prime Evil to chase down or demons to fight. She didn’t even have the drive of burning hatred and wanting to find Adria and kill her. Vengeance for Leah.
Currently, Li was sitting on the couch, legs folded under her, as she was watching some show. She wasn’t even certain what it was about as her mind was a million miles away.
Yang was really starting to worry. Li was listless, and she could recognize the symptoms of depression a mile away. She sent Ahsoka out to get a few things, then decided that she ought to help Li cheer up. Hopefully Li would be more receptive than Yang could get on a bad day.
It would also help distract her from some of her own personal issues and certain conflicts that had been raging in her head. “Hey. You hungry?”
She didn’t even wait for Li to answer before putting a tray in front of her. Yang had cooked it all herself, and she hoped she’d gotten Li’s favorite done right.
Li hadn’t really registered that Yang had been in the kitchen cooking. She was wallowing, which wasn’t quite like her. Sure, she’d wallowed after her parents had disowned her, but she’d bounced back from that relatively well. But this was different. Being kicked out of a family paled in comparison to having doomed the entire world to die if she didn’t find a way to stop Diablo in time. And at least her parents were still alive, unlike Leah.
“What?” She asked, looking up at Yang, then looking down at the tray of food. Li blinked a bit, not really knowing if she was hungry or not. “Thanks,” she said. Picking up the chopsticks, she at least started to slowly pick at the food.
“Figure this might cheer you up a little.” Yang hopped over the couch and took a seat next to her, picking up a PS4 controller. “And I know we can’t go beat up any ultimate evils, but I’ve got the next best thing.”
Li pushed some food around the plate with her chopsticks. She looked over at Yang. “What would that be?” The next best thing in Li’s mind would be tracking Adria down, but she couldn’t do that either.
“Well, when I couldn’t track Adam down, I had to find another outlet.” Yang had learned to play with one hand, and still could. She didn’t want to risk crushing the controller, anyway. She loaded up a fighting game. “Come on, we’re going to beat up some pixels and polygons.”
Yang offered Li another controller.
“I’m not exactly good at this,” she said, taking the controller and setting the chopsticks down. Li could probably stand to eat something substantial. While she had continued to eat, she wasn’t eating as much as she probably should.
As for her skills with video games, sure she’d played with Yang and Ahsoka, but she still wasn’t exactly that good at the games. Each game tended to be different, and she had to learn a new set of controls. Some games she got easily, others she didn’t.
“That’s okay, you’ll figure it out as we play!” It was a bloody game, with women in skimpy outfits and men in just about as skimpy outfits, and the mechanics were pretty good too. Not that Yang complained about any of the above.
The skimpy outfits didn’t really attract Li’s attention. Even under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t get her attention. She was more focused on getting the mechanics down and trying as best as she could. Which wasn’t very good at all, really. “What is the point of this game? Aside from beating up pixels and polygons.”
“Well you can unlock achievements. They’re like little trophies that tell you you did something cool, or hard. Or beat the story mode.” Yang preferred to just play against, or with friends. That was where she got enjoyment, in the shared experience.
“What’s the story mode for this game like?” Li had quickly learned that games had different modes. She didn’t quite understand why they needed multiple modes, but she didn’t question it too much.
“It’s set up like a tournament. You pick a character and go through various fights. Sometimes there’s a cut scene, or like a skill challenge. At the end of it you fight the big bad guy. And then your character gets their own special ending.” Yang picked out her favorite. “And each fighter has their own ending. I dunno which ending is the real one, we won’t know until the sequel! Or maybe they’re all real.”
Li nodded a bit as she looked through the characters. She ended up choosing the one that seemed to be a martial artist. She’d prefer one that had magic, but considering this game was more hand-to-hand combat, she went with the martial artist. “So basically fighting your way through several rounds in order to become the champion or something of that sort.”
“Exactly! Do you wanna play against me or a real player online? Or play the tournament mode with the story?” Yang was good with either, as long as Li could get her aggression out healthily.
“You. You’ll probably still kick my ass, but you’d do it lovingly while a stranger would just thrash me.” Li responded.
“Yeah. They would.” Yang sighed. Luckily she could trash talk back, but Li didn’t need that kind of thing right now. “I’ll try not to kick your ass too hard! I’ll even do it with one hand tied behind my back.”
Which involved actually removing her arm.
“You don’t have to do that.” Li said. She’d rather Yang kick her ass with both hands and not give her a leg up on anything. Li worked better against seemingly insurmountable odds, even if right now she just felt like letting someone thrash her.
“I need the practice and I don’t want to have to wear it all the time,” Yang said. It actually took some effort to admit that. “I need to be able to function without it. I want to be able to.”
That actually got through Li’s skull and everything that was swirling around in it. She felt bad for seemingly forgetting about Yang’s arm and her issues over it. Li had been rather self-absorbed recently, so she’d make an effort to push her crap aside so she could be a better friend and a better girlfriend. “Maybe I can give you a better challenge, pushing your skills a bit?”
“I’d like that.” Yang winked at her, aligning the controller and positioning her fingers and arms in the way she’d learned. “But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna hold back either. I’ve got muscle memory on my side.”
“And again you have the edge,” Li responded, readying herself for the fight. She wasn’t exactly into doing this, but if it made Yang happy, that was all that mattered. Li just hoped that she could actually put up a fight and not get knocked out in two punches.
Yang just grinned. She was keeping at least one secret. This game had Super Ultra moves, which would be really hard to pull off but if she managed it she’d be proud of herself. “Just focus on the basics. Also try to do some of the special moves. Like down down right punch. Smash buttons until something awesome happens.”
Yang was smiling, that was something. And at least it made one of them who was smiling. Li nodded a bit, looking at the controller for a moment to refresh her memory on the buttons before turning her attention back to the screen. She adjusted her grip on the controller slightly before the match begun. Li would basically just button mash until she found a combo that worked well.
It happened quickly, Yang’s character taking a few nunchuks to the face before she recovered. Her character was a big, brawler type, and she unleashed punishing attacks designed to keep other characters from blocking or countering.
The first few hits had given Li a little confidence, but that was quickly crushed as Yang unleashed her attacks. Blocking and countering was useless, as Li discovered, and she couldn’t really do much to stop it. She was keysmashing as much as she possibly could, but she wasn’t doing much. Perhaps she should’ve picked one of the big brawlers, it might’ve gone better for her that way.
“Try spinning the stick and hitting X,” Yang suggested. It would probably give her some big problems. “And each character has a weakness you can exploit, you just gotta figure out what it is!”
Li tried spinning the stick and hitting X, not really knowing what it would do. But it was something that kept Li alive a bit longer. She also tried to keep an eye out for the weakness that Yang’s character had so she could try to exploit it before getting her ass kicked.
It did something pretty cool that put Yang on the defensive. Her character’s biggest flaw was a combination of lead up time and recovery time. When she did the more powerful moves, there was a small delay as the animation went through, and then another delay as the animation played a recovery. Both were opportunities to hit back.
Li took the offensive, then took note of how Yang’s character moved and acted. She noted the time it took for the character to lead up to an attack and to recover from it, so she started to attempt to pick at those, leaping to the offensive when she saw the openings.
The fight suddenly got a lot more exciting, which is exactly how Yang liked it. Oh, she preferred to win, so she wasn’t exactly going to make it easy on Li, as she demonstrated when she got the KO in the first round. “Winner is best two out of three, you can still come back from this! You almost had me.”
When Li got KOed, she set the controller down, not expecting the two out of three. “Against you? I doubt I’ll be able to make a comeback.” Li expressing doubt about herself in any way, shape or form was a very bad sign. Normally, she would’ve vowed vengeance and to make a comeback. But right now? She had no faith in herself, and it was showing.
“Come on, it’s round 2!” Yang elbowed Li, and waited for her to pick up her controller again. She wasn’t going to attack until it was a fair fight. But Li was really, really worrying her. She hoped Ahsoka got home soon.
It would probably help matters if Li actually talked about what had happened in the dream, but as it was she’d only said that it was her fault and not actually gone into detail. She picked the controller up and waited for the fight to begin. As she launched her character at Yang’s, she did notice that Yang didn’t fight back at first. Was she deliberately going to let Li win? That was worse than if Yang just wiped the floor with her.
No, Yang wasn’t going to let Li win. She waited for Li to get close, then unleashed a ridiculous looking super combo. The only reason Li didn’t immediately die was because Yang’s aim was off. And it left her character vulnerable for a counter attack.
Ahsoka came in, raising her eyebrow at the scene on the TV. Li looked like she was doing a little better, which was a relief. “Don’t stop on my account. Kick her ass, Li!”
Of course, Li looked up at Ahsoka at the same moment that Yang’s character was vulnerable for a counter attack. So Li missed that window. When she looked back at the screen, she launched into an attack that was probably going to be futile. “I’m not exactly good competition here,” she said in response to Ahsoka.
“I beat her!” Ahsoka said. “Once.” She was pretty sure that Yang spent way too much time playing these games. “Are you having fun at least?” She leaned on the back of the couch, absently running her fingers through Li’s hair and forgetting that that would probably have the opposite effect of helping Li win.
“You are better at this than I am,” Li responded to Ahsoka. “She already got me once.” Li tried to focus on fighting Yang, but the fingers in her hair were a bit distracting. “I guess? I’m still trying to get the hang of this.” She was better at flinging fireballs and such at Yang than she was playing her in a video game.
Ahsoka had pretty much moved into distraction mode, one hand trailing along Li’s shoulder as she kissed at her ear. She murmured. “I got you something.”
It was...quite a scene and it distracted Yang. It made her want to see Blak--Evie, it made her want to see Evie.
Yang might have a problem.
Li shivered a bit, getting rather distracted by Ahsoka. It had been a while since they’d been intimate, mostly because Li just hadn’t been in the mood. She really had been quite the party pooper of late, though she’d managed to be in a better mood for Yang’s birthday. “You didn’t have to,” she responded.
“I wanted to.”
Yang gave up, tossing her controller aside. “I’m calling it a draw because Ahsoka is cheating.”
She got to her feet, and winked at the two of them. “I’m going to go out. There’s still food and you should both eat.” Yang gave Li a pointed look, as though she had noticed Li mostly pushed her food around.
“That was weird.” Ahsoka sat down next to Li, and put her arm around her.
Li looked up at Yang. “Sorry I’m not better company or a better challenger today.” She caught the pointed look and she lowered her gaze. Reaching out, she picked up the tray with her food and set it on her lap as Ahsoka put her arm around her. She picked up the chopsticks, picking up a piece of food and eating it. “What was?” She asked.
“Nothing. Just sensed some oddness from Yang. Something is bothering her but she’s not talking about it.” Which could be said for Li, oddness and things bothering her and her not talking about it. But Ahsoka at least knew what was bothering Li, even if Li didn’t want to talk about it. She leaned her cheek on Li’s shoulder.
“Oh. Maybe she’s not ready to talk about it?” Li suddenly started wondering if she’d missed something happening with Yang while she’d been moping. She should probably force herself to get up and do stuff. Go for a walk, clean, anything. Maybe if she made herself useful or active she’d feel better.
“Maybe. But she should soon. It’s not good to keep things in.” Ahsoka nudged Li, like that went for her girlfriend too. “Neither of you are really the moping type, so it’s just a little distracting.”
Li looked at Ahsoka, hearing that also being directed at her. And she wasn’t the moping type, but this just got to her. She was silent for some moments, taking another bite of food. “After I defeated Azmodan and his soul was put inside the Black Soulstone, we had victory in our grasp. But Adria said she needed to prepare the rituals and such before we could destroy it. When Kormac and I returned to our camp in Bastion’s Keep, we were told Adria and Leah had gone to the armory. When we got there, all we found were body parts scattered around the room and more blood than you can imagine leaving a trail that lead up to the roof.”
She pressed her lips together, that anger towards Adria started burning again. “When we got there, Adria had confined Tyreal and Leah was in some sort of stasis spell. Adria revealed that Leah’s true father had been Diablo, the Lord of Terror himself and she was going to use Leah as a vessel to bring Diablo back into the world. And she succeeded, though instead of only being Diablo, he was now one with his six siblings and they were now the Prime Evil, more powerful than anything else. Leah’s soul was lost and Adria never actually cared about her daughter. Leah was just a way to secure Diablo returning to the world.” She drew in a slow breath. “And it’s my fault because I warned Leah that things weren’t always what they seemed. Zoltun Kulle warned me that I was being used. He knew what Adria was doing the instant he pulled the Black Soulstone from where he’d locked it away. And what did I do? I just killed him and took the Soulstone, and it turns out he was right and I did nothing about it. My friend died because I didn’t get rid of Adria. And now the High Heavens as well as my world will be destroyed if I don’t find a way to stop Diablo.”
Ahsoka gave Li her attention, listening carefully and rubbing her thumb up and down Li’s arm. Perhaps the part of that that hit her the hardest was Leah. No innocent deserved to be used like that, or suffer like that. “You’re human, Li. You made a mistake. It was a terrible mistake. Gods know I’ve made my share of mistakes and gotten people killed too. But that doesn’t make you a bad person.”
“I’m more than human, I’m a Nephalem.” Li drew in a slow breath. “Leah didn’t deserve that. She was so kind, and curious and trusting. She’d even made plans for what she wanted to do with her life after we finished our quest. She’ll never get to run the inn she wanted to.” It hurt to think about that now, about all the things Leah would never get to do. She was too young to die, especially when it was a death where she was essentially possessed by Diablo himself.
“Doesn’t matter.” Ahsoka poked Li in the chest. “In your heart, you’re still human. So you’re a Nephalem. Guess who you aligned yourself with? Humans. That makes you one of them. No different than when I fought on a planet along side others. Where it counts and how it counts, you’re on the side of good.”
“For now, anyway. I have demon blood in my veins, not just angel blood. Some day, the demon half could win over.” Li admitted. She’d come to terms with the Nephalem heritage far quicker than dream her had. Probably because here, she had more perspective on the matter. After all, she killed an extremely powerful Nephalem, Zoltun Kulle, without much trouble. Not only that, but she’d unlocked the Nephalem temple easily as well. Both of those events, along with other things, was enough to prove to her that she was Nephalem.
“But you are right, I chose to side with humanity. I am currently fighting forces that the vast majority of them could never hope to stand against. I just need to believe that my power will be enough to destroy Diablo in his extremely powerful new form.”
“Very few people fall far enough that they can’t find their way back from the edge of the paper,” Ahsoka whispered. That part of her that still thought Anakin could be saved was still strong. The part of her that still wanted to save Barriss. “And you already are aware of the possibility. That’s more than could be said for others. You’re not blinded. I think you need to trust yourself.”
“True, but what happens to those who fight demons aren’t encouraging. The first hero who defeated Diablo in the Fall of Tristram eventually became possessed by Diablo. Others who stood against him fell to madness and became demons themselves. My teacher fought against Diablo the second time he tried to take Sanctuary for his own. She ended up murdered. Zoltun Kulle went mad with his thirst to destroy evil. In my dreams, I have that very same drive, to destroy evil at all costs. I could fall prey to the same corruption the rest have, but in the dreams I don’t think about that I just keep fighting because stopping evil is what I believe in. Prophecy says that I’ll stand there at the End of Days, and that time has come. But in this life? I can see how easily that level of belief will lead me to ruin.” In the end, Tyreal might have to stand against her. Or another hero would.
And Li was afraid of falling prey to evil, of becoming what Kulle had become. Or worse. She could fall completely and turn into a full demon, and she didn’t know if she’d be able to stop it if that’s how things went.
“There is more at play here than simply my belief and trust in myself. Demons leave corruption in their wake, no one escapes it. The longer you fight them, the more like them you become, whether you notice it or not.” She was saying this as a warning to Ahsoka. A warning in the event that Li one day started to turn into a demon and needed to be stopped.
“It’s like a cycle. But cycles can be broken.” Ahsoka just hoped the dream Li would be able to see that. A cycle that could be broken. She knew how easily someone wanting to do good could go bad, just because of zealotry.
Ahsoka took Li’s hands, and kissed her knuckles. “We’ll be fine. One way or another.” She wouldn’t fight Li, not unless she had to.
“It’s a cycle that could’ve been broken with destroying the Black Soulstone with the souls of the demon lords going with it. But now I don’t think that’s possible with all seven combined into one.” Li was worried because Diablo had been defeated twice before and he’d always found a way back. Even more worrying was that these defeats had come within a year or two of each other. And now it had been twenty years since Diablo had last been defeated.
Li looked at Ahsoka and took a deep breath. “I hope so.” She hoped that her dreams would not bleed over the way some others did. After all, Orange County didn’t need demon lords running around here.
“You’ll find a way. It won’t be easy and there’ll be a long hard road to get there, but I believe in you.” Maybe Ahsoka was wrong. Maybe Li would fail, or worse, turn evil. They’d have to work with that if it came.
“Maybe if all that evil is in one place, it’ll be easier to get rid of forever.”
“Thank you. I’ll need that kind of faith as I follow Diablo into Heaven and try to stop him.” The coming battle wasn’t going to be easy by any standards, Li had no illusions about that. “Maybe it will be easier, but I do not know for certain. I do not think anyone has the answer to that. No one ever thought the seven could be one like this.” Even with the existence of the soulstones that were created to specifically hold the souls of the demon lords, no one made the leap that they could potentially be combined into one.
“I wonder if that means Diablo will have powers belonging to the other six to throw at me. I may have to deal with Azmodan and Belial’s powers again.” The attacks that had left their marks on her skin, the lightning on her chest, the grazes on her arm. Luckily the broken bones from Azmodan had been healed, thanks to Zatanna.
In her Jedi days, and even after, Ahsoka would have seen all the souls in one place as a good guy advantage. Sure, they were insanely powerful, but you also knew where they were and anything done to one, happened to all. “Hopefully you learned some lessons. But I’ll be sleeping lightly for awhile.”
“I’d like to think I did. Though there are four other demon lords that I never fought, so I’m uncertain what they’re capable of.” Who knew, maybe Diablo just had a whole new set of ultra powerful attacks due to being that juiced up? Li would find the answer when she fought him. “Let us hope I don’t give you a rude awakening one day.”
“I’m used to rude awakenings.” Ahsoka didn’t mean that as a knock on Li. They both woke up more often than not from some nightmare or strange dream. She’d like to go more than a month with a full night’s sleep for all of them.
She moved, suddenly, into Li’s lap, and cupped her face in her hands. “You can’t help that other world right now. But maybe you can find something good to do here.”
Li could agree that she’d like to go a while being able to sleep well. The nature of her dreams, the constant fighting and encountering demons and humans allied with the demons wore on her. It’d be nice to get a break from that. Though she doubted that would happen until she defeated Diablo.
When Ahsoka shifted onto her lap and cupped her face, Li looked up at her. “That almost sounds like you have idea for something I can do.”
“I do. I also have something for you, but that can wait. I think we need to find an outlet for you, and that’s a little more important.” Ahsoka rubbed her thumbs over Li’s cheek bones.
“What kind of outlet?” Li asked. She had a possible idea of what Ahsoka had in mind, but she wasn’t completely certain. She set her hands on Ahsoka’s waist, waiting to see what she had to suggest.
“Volunteer work. There’s a lot of local charities that could really use help, or we could take my starfighter somewhere else and help out there.” Ahsoka was more used to working in a warzone, but that might not be the best idea. Too tempting to resolve everything the Jedi way.
Which was. Really. Really. Tempting.
“It’s worth a try.” Getting Li up and active was probably a good start for getting her to work through the angst from her dreams. She wasn’t opposed to doing work in a warzone, but she’d be prone to help out the so-called “good guys” in the warzone using her magic. Which didn’t need to happen.
“Yeah, it is. Good way for the both of us to focus our energy. We’re both helpers, Li.” She leaned her forehead against Li’s and grinned toothily. “We might have to sit back and watch ourselves in the dreams, but that doesn’t mean we have to do nothing here.”
“It’d be far easier to fight, or put my magic to some use, but helping people is at least something I can do.” Maybe even work with immigrants, which was certainly something near and dear to Li now that she was basically an immigrant.
“Okay. Tomorrow,” Ahsoka promised. “Tomorrow we’ll find something to do, and then we’ll keep finding things to do. But tonight I have plans.” And those plans involved making Li at least laugh, if nothing else. It really depended on what Li was in the mood for. “Do you trust me?”
“Okay,” she said with a nod. Li hoped that such action would bring some sort of stability back to her life, make her feel like she was doing something other than simply taking up space on the planet. At the question, Li looked at Ahsoka quizzically. “Yes, I do,” she said a bit carefully, not knowing what Ahsoka was going to do next.
“Good.” Ahsoka kissed Li’s forehead. “I want you to close your eyes.”
Li closed her eyes, drawing in a breath. “My eyes are closed.” And she was seriously wondering what the hell Ahsoka had planned here.
This was actually plan a. Plan B involved Ahsoka in lingerie, but she wasn’t sure Li was up for that sort of thing right now. But that was the backup. Plan A involved Ahsoka leaving the apartment. She reappeared about two minutes later, something metalic banging a little.
Something squawked and Ahsoka shushed it. “Okay, you can look!”
Ahsoka was holding a cage with two Conures in it. Colorful red and green birds, a subspecies of parrot.
Li heard Ahsoka leave the apartment and got a puzzled look on her face, but she kept her eyes closed, as instructed. Then the metallic banging was strange, and the squawk was...definitely not what she expected. Still, she kept her eyes closed until she was told to open them. When she did, the two birds in the cage were unexpected, but certainly explained the squawk.
“For me?” She asked, looking up at Ahsoka, before looking back at the birds. Other than fish, Li had never actually owned a pet. Her and her parents had always been too busy for a dog or something of the sort that required time. “They’re beautiful!” That certainly got her to perk up a bit.
“They’re uh, they’re Conures! I’ve been reading up on bird and they’re friendly and sweet and tend to attach easily, and also kind of like...bird jokers with a sense of humor. So like, bird mes.” They were also pretty cheap to care for, and didn’t require as much attention as a dog, or some other birds. “I think we can train them to hang around with an open cage. Unless like the door has to stay open or something.”
Carefully, Ahsoka opened the cage and let the birds climb onto her hands, then she brought them over to Li. “...What do you think?”
Really she should have talked to her roommates about PETS first.
Li wasn’t even thinking about whether Ahsoka asked if pets were alright. She was, however, assuming that Yang was either in on it or knew about it already. But she was more distracted by the birds. The colors were vibrant, and she already loved them. When Ahsoka brought them over, she looked at them curiously.
“I think they’re beautiful. I’ve never actually had a pet before, other than fish.” Li held her hands out to the conures, letting them decide if they wanted to come to her or let her pet them or what.
Shock of shocks, there was even a smile starting to form on her face!
The birds tilted their heads curiously, almost in unison. One quickly hopped over to Li’s hand, but the other was a bit more cautious, though it nudged at Li’s hand like it was asking for pets.
“They’re girls. Suppose to be sweeter and cuddlier than the boys are.” Ahsoka figured that would work out better in this particular house hold.
As Li’s hand was nudged, she did start petting the cautious one. She looked at the more adventurous one and smiled a bit wider. “Hello there,” she said.
“That sounds like it’ll be good. I was wondering if they were girls or boys or one of each.” Li said, looking at Ahsoka. “Do they have names?”
Ahsoka shook her head, setting the cage carefully down and sitting next to Li. “No, that’s up to you.”
The birds seemed to already like Li. The less shy one was climbing up her arm, only to snuggle and sqwuak against Li’s neck. The other was happy to hang out on her hand.
“I got them some toys, too, the cage would look good against that wall and keep them out of the draft from the window and the AC.”
Nodding a bit, Li had a couple names in mind, but she’d think on it for a bit. At any rate, she smiled as the one snuggled against her neck. “You’re quite friendly, aren’t you?” She kept petting the shy one as much as she would let her.
“Good plan. We don’t need them in the draft at all.” She looked at Ahsoka. “Thank you.”
Beaming, Ahsoka rested her hand on Li’s knee. She’d thought that maybe what Li had needed was something to care for. A little bit like a reminder there was more to life than dreams. And she’d wanted to do it in a way to give Li an outlet that didn’t just rely on her, either. “You’re welcome, kitten.”
Something to care for was definitely needed. And maybe she could even see if she could teach the conures to speak. Or do tricks. Or something along those lines. “You are wonderful. I know I’ve been a downer lately, and it hasn’t been easy for you to deal with.” Meaning how Ahsoka felt Li’s emotions. “I’ll work on improving that.” And she was already feeling a bit better. Talking about it had released some of the emotions she’d kept tightly to her chest. But the birds and Ahsoka having gotten them for her had helped more.
“Just don’t change yourself for me,” Ahsoka said. She brought a hand up to Li’s face and stroked her cheek. “I love you as you are. Good times and bad times both.”