Not that Bo-Katan doubted it but Steve was true to his word. He led Bo-Katan to Hawke’s house one day as promised. Though the guy couldn’t stuck around and just dropped her off. Which was fine. Though she would be lying if she said she wasn’t apprehensive about asking a total stranger about something she felt made her vulnerable.
Even so the Mandalorian walked up to the door and used her left hand to knock politely. Holding herself in as confident pose as she could manage. Waiting for this man she never met to answer.
The first thing is a dog barks about three times before a male voice shushes him and then Hawke himself opens the door. He's a big man, over six feet tall, with broad shoulders that look even broader with his wings of fire behind them. The dog, still a puppy, also pokes his head out to sniff at the newcomer.
"Hello," he says with a friendly smile. "Here for magic lessons?"
Anytime a new face shows up on Hawke's door and doesn't immediately let themselves in Hawke assumes they're there for magic lessons and are a brand new student. He's not growing anything just yet for people to come take so it can't be his garden.
Bo-Katan is no stranger to big men and isn’t the least bit intimidated despite being a rather petite woman. She stands up straight and clasps her hands behind her back as she looks up at him. The dog getting a glance but otherwise being ignored.
“Not exactly. As useful as that might be.”
She did gain the fire ability during the fair but hadn’t done much with it.
Oh, very formal this one. Hawke's instantly amused and reminded very much of Aveline. Hair's too short though.
"Yeah, I know healing magic." He looks her over. "Do you need me to come heal someone for you? I'll get my boots."
Because clearly she doesn't need any healing. She looks in quite good health and there's not a drop of blood on her blue armor. He turns away leaving the door wide open but the pup stays to 'protect' the doorway.
"How bad's the injury? Not too bad I assume because you are not panicking and begging me to hurry."
"Montoya, she's not a threat and she's not going to give you a treat, go lie down."
The dog huffs and sulks his way to a big fluffy pillow in the living room. He circles around twice before he flops over and lets out a big sigh.
Hawke motions for the woman to come in. "Alright then, that's a little trickier to work with but I'll take a look. Make yourself comfortable."
He putters his way to the kitchen to put on a tea pot, lighting the stove with a snap of his fingers. "I'm Garrett Hawke, by the way. A mage with some talent for healing. You are?"
If she had known he had a pet she might have brought a treat but alas. The only thing she had on her was the blasters at her hips and a purple ball attached to her belt that held the one pokemon she had here. Once the dog moves and she’s invited in, Bo-Katan steps inside. Taking a brief look around before find a place to sit.
“Bo-Katan Kryze,” she offers back at the introduction.
“I’m Mandalorian, if that means anything.”
Din’s influence didn’t seem to be as strong here as the last world she was in. But maybe this guy had met him. Who knows.
Hawke pauses a moment to think and then shakes his head. "Maybe I've heard it before but I don't remember it well. Sorry. Not like a vegan is it?"
Hawke has met the other Mandalorian only once and mistook him for a knight. The word tickles the back of his mind but there's no real recognition in him.
He putters around the kitchen a bit more to make a pot of tea and then brings it with him and two mugs to the living room table.
"Well, Bokatan," he says her name as one word without a pause. "Tell me about the injury."
Bo-Katan rolls her eyes and huffs in amusement. “No, nothing like that.” Quite the opposite actually.
There’s a moments pause as he asks about the injury. Though hesitant, it’s the whole reason she’s here after all. So she takes a breath and launches into it.
“My right hand was crushed about a year ago. With enough force to crush the hilt of a sword I was holding too.”
Which is kinda a big deal since the darksaber is made out of beskar, but no need to get into that.
“It’s technically healed but it hasn’t been the same since. I also reinjured it a few months ago when I took a fall.”
Hawke holds out one of his hands, big and rough with dirt under the nails and a few scars. "May I?"
While she's reluctant to talk about it there's no other way around it. If he's going to be any help to her he's going to have to look at it and pass some magic through it. She can't really hide it if she wants help.
"It's going to sound a bit awful but a reinjury could be helpful. Set a bone wrong and the only way to fix that is break it again, you know?" Hawke's tone is thoughtful. "My healing could do a bit for that."
He's never healed anything old before. This will be an interesting challenge. "Does it hurt you? All the time?"
Taking a moment to remove her glove, Bo-Katan then held out her hand for him. Injuries happened, but admitting to any sort of weakness is difficult for her. For any Mandalorian, really.
“If that’s what it takes, I’m okay with that.” She was not afraid of pain. Whatever it took to make her hand more functional again, she would probably do it.
His question about it hurting her drew a reluctant nod. “The hot springs help. I go frequently.” Obviously for the pain management. It was the only real relief she’s managed to find.
He chuckles. "I am not breaking your hand to mend it. I'm not that good of a healer."
Hawke's energy subtly changes from one breath to the next. Everything about him seems to soften and gentle as he settles into the Spirit Healing. His magic flows through her hand in a subtle cooling sensation, easing aches and pains.
"Hmm," he muses as he rubs his fingers around her knuckles. "I think your problem is the pain makes you reluctant to use it, yeah? The less you use it, the more it stiffens up and the harder it is to use. I think what you need are yes, the regular visits to the hot springs should continue. I've got a salve I make that can ease aches and pains. What I think you need more are exercises."
Hawke nods to himself as he continues to massage healing magic into her hand. "I mean, the bone crushing did you no favors. I can't see inside your hand but I imagine some of these are out of shape, yeah?"
He shrugs. "Might need to find a healer who can see inside and has more training than myself."
Bo-Katan felt her heart sink in disappointment. She had tried not to get her hopes up, but Steve had been so sure that her hand could be healed. Seems that she might have been right after all, that it was too late.
She nods in affirmation and understanding. His suspicions were right in that she didn’t use it much. “I did some physical therapy for a short time before I reinjured it, it helped.” But then clearly it fell into disuse again after the second injury.
He shakes a finger at her. "That's part of your problem right there. You need to start doing that again."
Hawke presses her hand flat between both of his and warms his palms so that her hand is flat and trapped between heated pads. It should loosen up those stiffened tendons and muscles.
"Now, this is going to sound mad I'm sure but you should play an instrument," he says with a grin at her. "Something like the guitar or lyre or harp. It'll keep your fingers moving and they'll have to stretch to reach the strings."
He is waiting to feel her hand relax between his. To let some of that tension from the pain go.
That suggestion makes Bo’s brows raise in surprise. An instrument? She snorts in a scoffing manner at the thought of being a musician. “I don’t think I would be any good at it, but fine.”
The warmth surrounding her hand feels nice though and in a few moments it relaxes.
"The point is to get good," he explains patiently. "That means you're practicing enough to keep your hand flexible and build strength. If you keep being bad, you're ignoring the physical therapy. Again."
He gives her a pointed look. "You came to a healer for advice but if you're just going to ignore that advice the pain is your own fault."
Hawke isn't the sort of healer that will keep coaxing a person to take advice they've ignored. Either she'll do as he tells her or she'll cripple herself. That's her choice.
"Feeling better?" he asks as he lifts his hands off of hers. "Give it a flex."
She makes a face at the scolding but sighs in resignation. “All right, I’ll give it a try.”
Bo-Katan is willing to work at it, especially since she has the time, but that doesn’t mean she won’t be grumpy about it. An artist she is not. This was going outside of her comfort zone. Ultimately though, she didn’t want to have to deal with this forever.
Looking down at her hand she tried to move her fingers. They curled in but she couldn’t quite make a fist with it.
"Hmm, limited range." Hawke gets up and disappears down a hallway. Montoya lifts his head and watches his master go but doesn't get up.
He's back a few minutes later with a glass jar full of a slightly green paste. Hawke sits back down and offers it to her. "Salve for the pain," he explains before he takes her hand and sandwiches it between his.
The pulse of healing is much stronger this time, almost a cold, sharp blast of it. "Try again."
Bo-Katan breathes in sharply only because she hadn’t expected that sensation, but she takes it like a pro. When instructed to try again, she tried flexing her fingers again. It was an improvement but still not perfect.
A part of her wanted to cry in frustration and anger. Gideon had taken so much from her and destroying her hand had been his final act of spite against her. It reminded her every day of that man and she hated it. She holds back her emotions though, her face a practiced cool expression.
"Good!" Hawke, meanwhile, looks pleased. "There is some healing that your hand can still do. Keep up the visits to the hot springs and see me... oh, twice a week? We'll do regular sessions on top of your physical therapy and it should progress."
Hawke doesn't know how long it'll take. He's not that good of a healer but what he does know is proving to be useful.
"If I'm not around due to a Trial or some other nonsense my student, Mel, can help you. She's a very gifted healer." Hawke speaks of her with fondness. She's his favorite student and he's not ashamed to say it.
His optimism helps to soothe her inner turmoil, a glimmer of hope returning to her eyes as she nods. “I will,” she says, mustering up some of her determination. She can do this. If she could just get her hand feeling somewhat normal, that would go a long way in helping her feel like herself again.
“Thank you,” she says quietly but with definite gratitude. “But please. Don’t tell anyone about this. There’s someone here who wouldn’t think twice about using my weakness to their advantage.”
"I'll tell you right now, I'm not keeping this secret from my friends," he says with a little shake of his head. "They'll ask me what I've been doing and I'll talk about my healing. Best I can promise you is not to say your name."
And that's all she's getting from him. Hawke understands pride. He has a ton of it himself but he's not going to lie about what he's been up to. Hawke prefers to be honest whenever he can.
"And watch out how much you keep secret. A weak side could get people hurt if they don't know about it in a Trial." He shrugs.
She didn’t much like that and it shows in her expression, but she relents. “That’s good enough.” Or at least she hoped it would be.
“I only tell those I trust,” she says back. “If that person knows, it could get me killed.” It was more than just pride. It was self preservation. Her and Maul nearly went at it the other day. Despite how she very much would have liked to have kicked his ass, she had been more at a disadvantage than usual thanks to her hand.
"Good news, death is not permanent. And I imagine you have at least a few friends who would rally to you if this bastard tries anything." Hawke has seen the people rally together more than once around people. He knows he would go to war if someone threatened his friends here. Most of them don't need defending but that's not really the point.
"There's a combat school," he offers as he pours them both a cup of tea. "Someone there could teach you to fight in a way that compensates for the injury."
Hawke sprawls back in his seat, long legs bumping the coffee table. "Or you learn some magic of your own. Even a crippled hand won't slow down most casting."
Her expression hardens at the suggestion of going to combat school. “I don’t need lessons on how to fight,” she snaps. That hit a sore spot. She can fight just fine, it’s her hand that needs fixing. That hit her pride more than anything.
She huffs out an indignant breath, trying to get ahold of herself. This man didn’t know her after all. He was just trying to help. That was the whole reason she came here.
“That cat gave me fire magic,” she then admits after she had composed herself.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Early April
Even so the Mandalorian walked up to the door and used her left hand to knock politely. Holding herself in as confident pose as she could manage. Waiting for this man she never met to answer.
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"Hello," he says with a friendly smile. "Here for magic lessons?"
Anytime a new face shows up on Hawke's door and doesn't immediately let themselves in Hawke assumes they're there for magic lessons and are a brand new student. He's not growing anything just yet for people to come take so it can't be his garden.
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“Not exactly. As useful as that might be.”
She did gain the fire ability during the fair but hadn’t done much with it.
“Steve sent me. Said you’re a healer.”
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"Yeah, I know healing magic." He looks her over. "Do you need me to come heal someone for you? I'll get my boots."
Because clearly she doesn't need any healing. She looks in quite good health and there's not a drop of blood on her blue armor. He turns away leaving the door wide open but the pup stays to 'protect' the doorway.
"How bad's the injury? Not too bad I assume because you are not panicking and begging me to hurry."
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“No it’s… it’s for me.”
Clear reluctance in that admittance.
“It’s an old injury.”
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The dog huffs and sulks his way to a big fluffy pillow in the living room. He circles around twice before he flops over and lets out a big sigh.
Hawke motions for the woman to come in. "Alright then, that's a little trickier to work with but I'll take a look. Make yourself comfortable."
He putters his way to the kitchen to put on a tea pot, lighting the stove with a snap of his fingers. "I'm Garrett Hawke, by the way. A mage with some talent for healing. You are?"
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“Bo-Katan Kryze,” she offers back at the introduction.
“I’m Mandalorian, if that means anything.”
Din’s influence didn’t seem to be as strong here as the last world she was in. But maybe this guy had met him. Who knows.
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Hawke has met the other Mandalorian only once and mistook him for a knight. The word tickles the back of his mind but there's no real recognition in him.
He putters around the kitchen a bit more to make a pot of tea and then brings it with him and two mugs to the living room table.
"Well, Bokatan," he says her name as one word without a pause. "Tell me about the injury."
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There’s a moments pause as he asks about the injury. Though hesitant, it’s the whole reason she’s here after all. So she takes a breath and launches into it.
“My right hand was crushed about a year ago. With enough force to crush the hilt of a sword I was holding too.”
Which is kinda a big deal since the darksaber is made out of beskar, but no need to get into that.
“It’s technically healed but it hasn’t been the same since. I also reinjured it a few months ago when I took a fall.”
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While she's reluctant to talk about it there's no other way around it. If he's going to be any help to her he's going to have to look at it and pass some magic through it. She can't really hide it if she wants help.
"It's going to sound a bit awful but a reinjury could be helpful. Set a bone wrong and the only way to fix that is break it again, you know?" Hawke's tone is thoughtful. "My healing could do a bit for that."
He's never healed anything old before. This will be an interesting challenge. "Does it hurt you? All the time?"
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“If that’s what it takes, I’m okay with that.” She was not afraid of pain. Whatever it took to make her hand more functional again, she would probably do it.
His question about it hurting her drew a reluctant nod. “The hot springs help. I go frequently.” Obviously for the pain management. It was the only real relief she’s managed to find.
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Hawke's energy subtly changes from one breath to the next. Everything about him seems to soften and gentle as he settles into the Spirit Healing. His magic flows through her hand in a subtle cooling sensation, easing aches and pains.
"Hmm," he muses as he rubs his fingers around her knuckles. "I think your problem is the pain makes you reluctant to use it, yeah? The less you use it, the more it stiffens up and the harder it is to use. I think what you need are yes, the regular visits to the hot springs should continue. I've got a salve I make that can ease aches and pains. What I think you need more are exercises."
Hawke nods to himself as he continues to massage healing magic into her hand. "I mean, the bone crushing did you no favors. I can't see inside your hand but I imagine some of these are out of shape, yeah?"
He shrugs. "Might need to find a healer who can see inside and has more training than myself."
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She nods in affirmation and understanding. His suspicions were right in that she didn’t use it much. “I did some physical therapy for a short time before I reinjured it, it helped.” But then clearly it fell into disuse again after the second injury.
“Do you know anyone like that?”
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Hawke presses her hand flat between both of his and warms his palms so that her hand is flat and trapped between heated pads. It should loosen up those stiffened tendons and muscles.
"Now, this is going to sound mad I'm sure but you should play an instrument," he says with a grin at her. "Something like the guitar or lyre or harp. It'll keep your fingers moving and they'll have to stretch to reach the strings."
He is waiting to feel her hand relax between his. To let some of that tension from the pain go.
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The warmth surrounding her hand feels nice though and in a few moments it relaxes.
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He gives her a pointed look. "You came to a healer for advice but if you're just going to ignore that advice the pain is your own fault."
Hawke isn't the sort of healer that will keep coaxing a person to take advice they've ignored. Either she'll do as he tells her or she'll cripple herself. That's her choice.
"Feeling better?" he asks as he lifts his hands off of hers. "Give it a flex."
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Bo-Katan is willing to work at it, especially since she has the time, but that doesn’t mean she won’t be grumpy about it. An artist she is not. This was going outside of her comfort zone. Ultimately though, she didn’t want to have to deal with this forever.
Looking down at her hand she tried to move her fingers. They curled in but she couldn’t quite make a fist with it.
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He's back a few minutes later with a glass jar full of a slightly green paste. Hawke sits back down and offers it to her. "Salve for the pain," he explains before he takes her hand and sandwiches it between his.
The pulse of healing is much stronger this time, almost a cold, sharp blast of it. "Try again."
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A part of her wanted to cry in frustration and anger. Gideon had taken so much from her and destroying her hand had been his final act of spite against her. It reminded her every day of that man and she hated it. She holds back her emotions though, her face a practiced cool expression.
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Hawke doesn't know how long it'll take. He's not that good of a healer but what he does know is proving to be useful.
"If I'm not around due to a Trial or some other nonsense my student, Mel, can help you. She's a very gifted healer." Hawke speaks of her with fondness. She's his favorite student and he's not ashamed to say it.
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“Thank you,” she says quietly but with definite gratitude. “But please. Don’t tell anyone about this. There’s someone here who wouldn’t think twice about using my weakness to their advantage.”
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And that's all she's getting from him. Hawke understands pride. He has a ton of it himself but he's not going to lie about what he's been up to. Hawke prefers to be honest whenever he can.
"And watch out how much you keep secret. A weak side could get people hurt if they don't know about it in a Trial." He shrugs.
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“I only tell those I trust,” she says back. “If that person knows, it could get me killed.” It was more than just pride. It was self preservation. Her and Maul nearly went at it the other day. Despite how she very much would have liked to have kicked his ass, she had been more at a disadvantage than usual thanks to her hand.
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"There's a combat school," he offers as he pours them both a cup of tea. "Someone there could teach you to fight in a way that compensates for the injury."
Hawke sprawls back in his seat, long legs bumping the coffee table. "Or you learn some magic of your own. Even a crippled hand won't slow down most casting."
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She huffs out an indignant breath, trying to get ahold of herself. This man didn’t know her after all. He was just trying to help. That was the whole reason she came here.
“That cat gave me fire magic,” she then admits after she had composed herself.
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