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Damaris was stuck. Stuck in this palace, even after Jabba had died by the Princess Leia’s hands, just as Damaris had predicted, stuck in the palace of the new Daimyo Bib Fortuna, stuck here on this miserable planet, stuck in the sands and stuck in her dreams. Her dreams that promised her a better life, that gave her visions of freedom, of the wind in her hair, of her arms wrapped around the waist of someone she loved, dreams of happiness that may never come, dreams that could be just dreams, her faith making her believe they were something more.
Damaris sings day in and day out, her voice growing tired, her anger fizzling out, her hope that one day she would break free of this place diminishing with every song, every guest leering at her, truly no change coming with the change of leadership. It was fine, it was what she was used to, she could survive, could bear it until she couldn’t, until her body was tossed out into the Dune Sea, ready to be picked apart by all types of creatures. She had her dreams, her lovely dreams of freedom, that’s all she had to cling too, and it wasn’t enough.
~~~~~~
The bounty hunters, Boba Fett and Fennec Shand storm into the palace and Bib Fortuna is dead in an instant and Damaris has hope again, feels herself truly smile for the first time since she was a girl when Shand waves her on, tells her she’s free to go. Damaris feels lighter than air when she runs out of the doors, runs into the sand and the scorching heat and thinks that this is what heaven is, that she’s never felt anything better than the twin suns beating down on her.
~~~~~
She finds a place for herself in Mos Espa, a modest life, no true connections, but a place to stay and food to eat and no one to control her, to threaten her with violence and death and everything else horrible about that place. She gets to live truly and honestly live in a way she doesn’t think she ever has. She still has her dreams though, her dreams of another, their face hidden away, something else for her to hope for, something else for her to want and maybe, just maybe actually receive.
~~~~~
She hears the speeder before she sees it, and her heart jumps, something in her mind telling her that this is her moment, her dreams come true. Damaris steps outside tentatively, nervous of who waits for her behind the door. She tries to imagine who she wants to be there, who she wants to whisk her away, and all she can see is a pale face hidden behind a curtain of blonde hair, a shock of blue running through it.
Damaris opens the door and there she is, Jess, her lovely, lovely Jess.
“Hey,” Jess says, more breath than word. “I found you.”
“I wasn’t hiding,” Damaris answers, her heart pounding. She had always loved Jess from afar, and in the last few months before Jabba’s death maybe a little closer than afar, but then the sail barge blew and all hell broke loose and her girl was gone, as free as the wind. “You’re the one who left.”
Jess’s face falls, regret instantly washing over her features. “I know,” she says. “And I’m sorry. And I’m sorry for what I said to you before I left. I just-”
“It’s okay,” Damaris says, reaching out to hold Jess’s hand in her own, pale skin meeting bronzed. “You’re here now, and that’s all that matters.”
“I couldn’t leave my girl for too long,” Jess says. “I love her too much.” She lifts their intertwined hands up, pressing a kiss to the back of Damaris’s. “Run away with me? Somewhere that’s not in the shadow of the palace? Somewhere with grass and water, where we could just be us?’
Damaris looks at her, looks at Jess’s big brown eyes, full of hope, full of everything Damaris had ever dreamed of, and in that moment, she couldn’t have looked more beautiful. “Absolutely,” Damaris answers, the only answer she was ever going to give. “When do we leave?”