Thrawn's Birthday

In which Eli decides Thrawn needs to have a birthday.

It was a horribly forced affair.

Eli didn't want to be there, but as an ensign, it was expected that he'd attend. There was that whole unwritten law about an officer's code, and part of it meant that when one officer had a birthday, all the others would show up as a sign of solidarity.

It wasn't as though Eli didn't like Captain Virgilio. The commander of the Blood Crow wasn't as annoying as he could have been. Even if he had initially been a little wary of Lieutenant Thrawn – an alien who by all accounts shouldn't have even been in the Imperial Navy – Captain Virgilio had eventually warmed up to him.

It didn't hurt that Thrawn never complained and did everything he was tasked to do efficiently. Eli was sure it was the only reason Captain Virgilio never openly resisted the idea of the alien lieutenant having an aide. Any one who had spent any amount of time with Thrawn knew that his excuse of needing Eli as a translator was borderline ridiculous.

At a birthday party, though, Eli's role as an explainer of human culture was put on display for everyone to see.

"Ensign Vanto," Thrawn said, Eli assuming he was trying to be as discreet as possible but failing. "What is the purpose of the candles?"

"I don't know," Eli grumbled, wishing he could offer a better explanation. It wasn't like he had any sort of education in the cultural anthropology of galactic humans. "It's just… something people do."

Hardly a minute passed when Thrawn asked again, "Ensign Vanto, why do humans celebrate their birthdays with sweets."

"Because sweets make people happy," Eli mumbled.

"They are not very good for you," Thrawn pointed out.

"All the more reason to like them," Eli said.

Thrawn was silent for a moment and then, as expected, asked, "Explain."

It went on like that for hours.

Eli just wanted to go back to his cabin. Every time Thrawn opened his mouth, Eli could feel the room go a little silent, as if all the other officers were waiting to hear what kind of ridiculous question the Chiss was about to ask. And a few times, there were a couple of officers who couldn't hide their snickering. When it was finally over, Eli collapsed in his bunk, wishing he could have thought of an excuse to not have shown up in the first place.

"That was… interesting," Thrawn said. Eli just groaned in response. Quite possibly everything in the galaxy was interesting according to his roommate.

"Don't they celebrate birthdays on your world?" Eli grumbled, his face still smushed into his pillow.

"We do," Thrawn said. And in typical Thrawn-style, he didn't elaborate.

But Eli picked up that reminiscing on his home had put Thrawn in a withdrawn mood. It lasted for the rest of the night. Eli mentally scolded himself for being so cold – all the stories he knew of the Chiss spoke of their undying loyalty to one another. To be exiled… must have been painful to keep being reminded of.

So next time they had leave, Eli made sure he'd fix that.

"Well, I was going to wait but…" Eli said when they'd made it back aboard the Blood Crow, offering Thrawn a small, plain package wrapped in brown paper.

Thrawn took it skeptically.

"Happy birthday," he said, and when Thrawn just stared at him blankly, elaborated. "I figured you'd have no idea when your birthday was in this galaxy, since the Chiss calendar had got to be different from ours. And… this happens to be the one year anniversary of when we found you and brought you into the Empire. So…"

Thrawn opened the package slowly, Eli wondering if exchanging presents was a completely foreign concept to him. He'd only just then remembered that during Captain Virgilio's party there hadn't been much in the way of a gift exchange.

"That's something else we do," Eli stammered quickly. "We exchange gifts."

And when Thrawn saw his present? There was the faintest hint of a smile. It was a box of colored wax sticks.

"You know… because you like art so much," Eli explained.

"Thank you, Eli," Thrawn said.

Eli smiled – it was one of the rare moments when Thrawn actually addressed him by his first name.

"You're welcome," he said.

Eli couldn't refuse the Chiss's offer to draw a picture, even if he felt a quick stab of panic at the very thought of it. Him? Draw? But Thrawn had been so obviously touched by the gesture that he found himself sitting at his desk, biting his tongue, trying to draw. It was horrible, but oddly kind of fun at the same time.

"I think I see why people like doing this," he murmured.

An hour later, and Thrawn was showing off his drawing. It made Eli's stomach sink.

"HOW?" he stammered.

Thrawn had drawn a completely accurate and insanely detailed star destroyer. With… colored wax sticks.

Eli suddenly didn't want to share his at all, but he did. He could feel his face grow warm with shame. His art was an absolute disaster compared to Thrawn's.

"Ensign Vanto," Thrawn said. "Can you explain what this is?"

Of course. It was so bad that even art-savvy Thrawn couldn't figure it out.

"It's… us," Eli said lamely. "That blob is me, and that blob is you, and … well, I tried. I told you I'm not very good at this."

"And you wrote 'happy birthday Thrawn'" Thrawn pointed out.

"Yeah…" Eli said, wishing he'd thought of something like a star destroyer.

"I appreciate it," Thrawn said, taking it from Eli, with a look of complete amazement on his face. "I'm going to keep it with me," he went on, folding it up and making a motion to put it in his pocket.

"You don't have to humor me," Eli said with a nervous laugh.

But Thrawn looked up, almost… with a hurt expression.

"Is it not proper to keep it with me?" Thrawn asked.

"No… it's just…" Eli stammered, glancing away and running a hand through his hair. "It's a bad drawing, you don't have to pretend like it's good or anything. You know, you're not going to hurt my feelings."

"But you drew it," Thrawn said. He looked over at the worn down wax sticks, gesturing to them, "This was an acceptable gift, but this," he looked down at the drawing he was holding, "This was something you made. It means more to me."

Eli sighed in resignation. "Well, happy birthday, Thrawn."

Thrawn smiled.

SORRY BUT THRAWN AND ELI COLORING WITH CRAYONS TOGETHER IS THE BEST IDEA EVER DON'T TELL ME IT ISN'T.