#velcintaweek2024

[armoralor]

Cinta Kaz & Vel Sartha icons from Andor for VelCinta Week ✰ reminder that T*RFs can fuck off, only interact if you love trans & nb folks ♡ more below!

[chipthekeeper]

Losers Buy

For Day 2 of VelCinta Week, it's the crossover you've all been waiting for!! Prompt via @dailyvelcinta is "the shape you made me" (partners/change over time)

Summary: Vel and Cinta team up with the rebellion’s newest dynamic duo for an important mission, and the stakes have never been higher (except when they have).

(aka: Velcinta and Rebelcaptain double date of Imperial sabotage)

Read on ao3!

[dailyvelcinta]

VelCinta Week 2024 housekeeping

I'm so excited for year two of celebrating Vel and Cinta! Here are a few things to remember for the week ahead:

Please tag #velcintaweek2024 in the first 5 tags, and/or @ this blog to ensure your piece gets reblogged!

If you post to AO3, consider adding your piece to the collection here!

We can't wait to see what you've created! <3

[kleyamarki]

author’s note: This is cute and tropey and I don’t care. I wanted soft lesbians and I will have soft lesbians. You’re all welcome. Written for velcinta week day 5: i want to eat you whole / passion / getting together

rating: explicit

warnings: no archive warnings apply

pairing: Cinta Kaz/Vel Sartha

other tags: fluff & smut, stargazing, planet Aldhani, Dhani culture & customs, cuddling & snuggling

summary: While the morning light’s pale and the sun still hides behind trees and mountains, war can wait.

I really hope y’all enjoy!! Thank you @dailyvelcinta for organizing another great velcinta week!!

[rebelandrichgirl]

This is for day 2 of Velcintaweek2024

March 8: the shape you made me partners / change over time

The whole story belongs to that prompt, even though I'll post it in three chapters on three different days, because it's probably too long to read it at once (and admittedly because the end isn't really finished in time for today). I'm gone for the weekend and will probably have other things to do than to write. The plan is to post the second chapter on Sunday and the third on Tuesday.

Summary:

A new version of how Vel and Cinta met and how Vel joined the rebellion. And some insight in what Vel's life in Coruscant looked like before that happened. You think Vel and Kleya are toxic exs? You have no idea just how toxic it can get!

@dailyvelcinta

[woahpip]

how can we fight it?

velcintaweek day 1

A chip on your shoulder can keep you alive just as easy as it kills you.

They both have one, both have something to lose.

Cinta: her and her family’s dignity. Vel: freedom to be what her family can’t stand.

They hate each other but spar every night after training. That evening’s reheated mush of nutrients flows through their veins, giving them an extra spark before they pass out asleep in their bunks later.

“You fight dirty,” Vel tells her after a hard fight. She’s wiping sweat off her forehead, thinking if she can stand another frigid shower to feel clean.

Cinta huffs but Vel can’t spare the energy to be angry. It’s always like this; always Vel feeling like the loser, feeling like she has something to prove.

The exact same thing others say about Cinta. Vel can’t keep it bottled up like her.

(read the rest here on ao3)

[lovehateanalysis]

@dailyvelcinta March 8

[e-the-village-cryptid]

“Just One More” by earthsthirdmoon for Velcinta Week 2024

Relationship: Cinta Kaz/Vel Sartha Words: 1068

Summary:

"I'm doing one more run." She had been planning on six. It was a nice round number, one for each member of the crew. If she stopped at five... Cinta forced the thought aside. It was irrational. She needed the practice, that was all.

Cinta turned away, walking towards the start point for the next loop.

"Kaz!" Vel's voice rang out, commanding. "Stop. You're done for the day."

Cinta stilled but did not turn around. "Just one more," she answered, hating the childishness of the words.

~~~

The Empire doesn't rest, and neither does Cinta.

Full text below the cut:

Cinta pulled herself out of the water, climbing a few rungs on the ladder they'd built to a platform in the trees before stripping out of her wetsuit and repacking her gear. The rhythm was familiar now: the swim, the climb, the fixing of the two rappel devices, and finally— Cinta vaulted off the edge of the platform, the weightlessness rising momentarily in her stomach before she glided to the ground below. Unclipping herself from the rappel line, she ran back towards the rock where she'd left the stopwatch—

"23 minutes, 12 seconds." Vel stood before her, the stopwatch in her hand.

"How long have you been watching?" Cinta asked, already walking back to the platform to retrieve the rappel devices.

"Just caught the end of this loop," Vel answered. She sat on the rock, watching silently as Cinta climbed the ladder and recovered the gear.

"You've been out here for hours," Vel continued when Cinta returned. "Must've gone through this at least a half-dozen times by now."

"Almost."

"It's getting dark."

"We'll be climbing the dam at dusk."

Vel sighed. "It's another three months till then."

"We need to be ready."

"You've already got it down to 23 minutes."

"Needs to be 20."

"We'll get there, Cinta!" Nearby, Skeen looked up from from where he was gathering firewood. Vel glanced his way, then continued more quietly. "We're practicing tomorrow. It's us doing this, not just you. And it's no good for either of us if you work yourself to exhaustion before we even get to the mission."

"I'm only doing one more run." She had been planning on six. It was a nice round number, one for each member of the crew. If she stopped at five... Cinta forced the thought aside. It was irrational. She needed the practice, that was all.

Cinta turned away, walking towards the start point for the next loop.

"Kaz!" Vel's voice rang out, commanding. "Stop. You're done for the day."

Cinta stilled but did not turn around. "Just one more," she answered, hating the childishness of the words.

~~~

Just one more.

The thought burned across Cinta's brain as she straightened her aching body, forcing her breaths to slow as her lungs wheezed for air. She fixed her eyes on the tall boy in front of her, pumping her legs twice as fast to keep up with his long strides. Up the wall, down the rope. Under the wires. She packaged up her exhaustion in one corner of her mind, her grief in another. For now, only the obstacle course mattered, the makeshift training ground that Saw Gerrera had set up for his protégés.

Cinta had been 12 years old when she was deposited on Saw's doorstep, untrained, undernourished, and half-feral with grief and desperation. He had cared for her, in his own way. Fed her, sheltered her. Honed her. A finely-crafted weapon to wield against the Empire. And she had eagerly offered up her steel to the forge.

Cinta floated, watching herself run from slightly behind and above, observing her own heaving breaths and quick footsteps. Pain and fatigue were distant sensations at the edge of her consciousness, barely detectable. The world was quiet, in-focus, its colors bright and over-saturated. Her vision tunneled at the edges, locked in on solely what was before her. She saw the boy in front of her stumble almost before it happened, his foot sinking ankle-deep in a patch of mud. Cinta sprang lightly around the hazard and sprinted for the finish line.

She crashed back into her body as soon as she crossed the line, fire burning through her lungs and calves, the laser-edged world shattering into a spinning haze. She didn't notice her legs collapse beneath her, only the oddly soothing feeling of her hands and knees in the soft mud. Gasping for air, she looked up through sweat-blurred eyes for Saw's reaction.

He was looking straight back at her, a small, proud, smile on his lips.

A glow of pride filled Cinta's chest, momentarily overtaking the pain stabbing through it with every breath. She was the happiest she'd felt since... Since before.

Cinta leaned to the side and vomited.

~~~

"Cinta?" Vel was saying. "Cinta? You in there?"

Cinta rearranged her expression to a careful neutral and turned, looking Vel in the eye. "Yes."

"You're done for the day," Vel said again, but the command had left her voice. She met Cinta's gaze, face open and gentle. "Come to bed."

Cinta nodded, maintaining the eye contact for another moment before she turned to hide away the gear. Everything in her screamed its protest at leaving this task incomplete. Cinta rehearsed the loop over and over in her mind as she forced unwilling muscles to follow Vel away from the river, back to camp. She kept her eyes fixed forward each time Vel looked over her shoulder to check for her, never quite meeting her concerned glances.

~~~

Cinta lay awake, listening to the deep, even breathing of the rest of the crew. She closed her eyes. Opened them again. Incompleteness scratched at her like a thistle in her boot.

Carefully, Cinta extricated herself from Vel's arms and the blanket they shared. Cinta watched her for a moment; Vel stirred but did not wake. Two months in and she still slept as though their hut were a Chandrilan mansion with guards posted at every entrance.

Cinta had almost reached the edge of camp when the tiny click of a blaster echoed through the darkness. She froze.

"Oh. Kaz." She could just make out Skeen's figure in the darkness as he lowered the blaster. "What're you doing out here?"

"What are you doing?" she asked. "Thought it was Nemik's turn on watch." The kid could usually be counted on to have fallen asleep by this point.

Skeen shrugged. "Kid's tired. And it's not like I'm sleeping anyways."

Cinta nodded, then tilted her head towards the river. "I'm just getting a little extra practice in."

Skeen chuckled softly. "Can't sleep either, huh?"

Cinta nodded again, unsure how to answer. After a moment, she moved to walk past him.

"Don't worry," Skeen said as she walked away. "I won't tell her."

Cinta slowed for a second, the only indication she'd heard him, then picked up her pace again, breaking into a jog as she approached the platform by the river.

Just one more run. Vel wouldn't have to know.

[chipthekeeper]

Better in the Next Life

Summary: After a year apart, Vel turns back up in Cinta’s life to say goodbye.

And here we are, at the last day…

Thanks so much again to @dailyvelcinta for another lovely event for these two! Day seven prompt is “better in the next life” (the end / over and over again). This has given me another reason to think about the images above and the possibilities for season two. Unfortunately I went for the sad possibilities this time.

I never meant to write the end. But here we are. Sorry. At least it's hot too I hope?

Read on ao3!

[chipthekeeper]

a stubborn heart

A 100-word drabble for Day 1 of VelCinta week! Prompt was "hold a grudge like it’s a hand" (fighting / stubborn)

Thanks again to @dailyvelcinta for doing my favorite event of the year!

(also on ao3)

~

Cinta was not in love.

She didn’t know much, but she knew that. Love would’ve compromised her. It would’ve made her weak.

Cinta was not weak.

Just because she had finally spared a thought about the future, about how the world would look for her and Vel after the Empire, did not mean she was in love. It was just one thought. Any more would be naive.

Cinta was not naive.

And she was not in love with the runaway rich girl from Chandrila.

She was not.

She couldn’t be.

She knew better than that.

She was not in love.

~

[chipthekeeper]

Vel Sartha's Guide to Coming Out to Your Niece

This is probably not as whimsical as the title and image would have you believe, but *shrug emoji*

Day Four of my favorite week of the year comes with the prompt of "home is the first grave" (family / talking about the past) from @dailyvelcinta

Read in full here or on ao3!

~

Vel called upon all the unwanted etiquette training from her past so as not to wiggle continuously while she sat on the sofa, watching her partner and her dear cousin interact without her for the first time.

All things considered, she had nothing to worry about. Her first time introducing Cinta to Mon had thus far gone off without a hitch. A break in assignments for them, a day off for the senator, and a trip off-world for Perrin proved to be the perfect conditions to arrange a long-awaited overlap of Vel’s two worlds. Still, she’d worried. Given Mon’s outward appearance as a hardly-useful politician and Cinta’s disdain for pretty much anyone who wasn’t actively fighting the Empire, there was plenty of potential for friction between them.

But Cinta had apparently been paying attention when Vel had told her about the real Mon, the one who cared, who fought as hard as she could behind the scenes. And Mon would never have anything negative to say about any person who put a real smile on Vel’s face. So they’d found whatever common ground they could, and as far as Vel could tell, it was going perfectly.

There was, however, still the matter of Leida.

Vel tried to gauge the reaction of her so-called niece as they sat on the couch and watched the other two women interact. She knew what Leida thought of her mother – the same thing most teenage girls think of their mothers, not much. And she knew what Leida thought of her – everything, for some reason. But she could not determine what the girl felt about the woman Vel had brought home with her.

Though she and Mon had been relieved when the girl’s potential betrothal to the Sculdun boy had fallen through, Vel knew Leida had been eager for it to happen. For reasons Vel could not understand, she had a fondness for the old ways of Chandrila that Vel herself had pushed so hard against at the same age. She wanted to marry, to take her “rightful” place in Chandrilan society, even if it meant missing out on years of freedom and exploration.

Much as she hoped Leida would grow out of it before she got tied down, Vel worried that her reverence for the traditions of their homeworld would one day cause a rift between them. As it had with the rest of her family, the people she would definitely not be bringing Cinta around to meet. None of them had ever understood why she’d needed to leave, why her “way of life” just didn’t fit on Chandrila.

She hoped it would not be the same for Leida.

“What do you think, kiddo?” Vel asked her in a whisper, nudging the girl with her elbow and gesturing vaguely at her partner.

Leida considered the question quietly for a moment, perhaps internally replaying the last few hours they’d all spent together, having lunch and getting to know one another.

Finally Leida looked up at her with a cautious smile.

“I like her,” she said, and Vel’s heart rate slowed by a fraction. “Where’s she from? Where does her family live?”

Vel’s own anxious smile turned sad as she averted her eyes and reached to smooth out a wrinkle in Leida’s dress.

“She doesn’t have much of a family anymore, love,” she said solemnly.

“Oh…” Leida muttered, quiet again for a moment as she drew several conclusions. “Just you?”

“Yeah…” Vel told her, her smile growing again before the anxiety returned. She bit her lip and shoved down the worry as she asked the one question on her mind. “Does that bother you?”

Leida gazed back toward the window at Cinta and Mon, who were presumably sharing a laugh over some story Vel would’ve been embarrassed to have told.

“No,” the girl said. “I think I want to be her family too.”

Vel released the breath she’d been holding in a long exhale, wrapping an arm around her niece and pulling her in close so she wouldn’t see the tears suddenly trying to leak from her eyes.

“That would make me happy,” she said, smiling at the two women now watching her from the window. “That would make me very, very happy.”

~

[chipthekeeper]

failure

It's a double drabble for Day Five! Thanks to @dailyvelcinta for the prompt of "i want to eat you whole" (passion / getting together)

Read in full here or on ao3!

~

The first time Vel kisses her, Cinta feels like a failure.

For years she’s been so disciplined, so strong and focused. She’s not let herself be distracted by anything that could compromise her mission to avenge her family. She’s had experiences, sure. But that was a matter of biology, of meeting one’s needs.

Being kissed by Vel, falling into bed with her, making love to her…that is also a matter of need, but more than anything it is a matter of desire.

A matter of longing.

A matter of passion.

A matter of feeling connected by some unexplainable Force.

And it’s a failure.

It’s the first step – or maybe the dozenth, depending on when she allows herself to think this started – to losing sight of her goal. Vel does not understand. She can’t. She’s never lost like Cinta has, never had to mourn so much at once.

They’ll never do this for the same reasons.

But in the morning, Vel kisses her again.

“I’m here for you. Always.”

And Cinta thinks maybe…maybe it would be close enough if she could just be Vel’s reason.

Maybe it’s not a failure to have gained such an ally along the way.

[chipthekeeper]

bloodsport

A ficlet for Day 3 of VelCinta Week -- "knife in my teeth" (blood and guts / patching you up) @dailyvelcinta

Read in full here or on ao3!

~

Just a few hours after being ordered to break in the newest recruit for the rebel network, the only thing more painful than the blaster burn on the back of Cinta’s shoulder was the fact that she had to rely on that in-over-her-head rich girl to fix it.

The pretty little blonde woman who’d shown up for their mission smelling like privilege and comfort personified looked as though she was merely a second away from losing her breakfast as she checked out the wound Cinta had sustained in her most recent shootout with the Imps. Cinta fought with all her might not to roll her eyes. She’d grown up surrounded by war, seeing all the ways a human body could be mangled by blasters and explosions, by the violent hearts of one’s oppressors. She’d been by her mother’s side as she tended to all these wounds with a face as strong and hard as stone, and this woman – this Vel – had probably never witnessed anything more gruesome than a broken nail.

Not her own, of course. If her soft, perfectly manicured hands were any indication.

Those hands quivered as they reached out to start cleaning Cinta’s wound, and Vel let out a long, nervous breath that made Cinta grit her teeth in annoyance and finally speak up.

“Seriously, I can do it myself if you’re—”

“No. I’m fine,” Vel insisted, with such intensity that it made Cinta flinch slightly. The woman took another deep breath and steadied her hands in a great effort of concentration. “You couldn’t reach this if you wanted to. Just walk me through it.”

Cinta took her turn to sigh heavily, then guided her step by step through caring for the wound. Vel didn’t seem to mind the condescending tone of her voice – either that or she didn’t realize Cinta was treating her like a student in a basic first aid lesson. Cinta was almost as surprised by that as she was that her delicate hands were impressively deft and skilled. There was clearly more to this woman than met the eye, but Cinta wasn’t about to praise her for doing the bare minimum. Not out loud, anyway.

It wouldn’t do to let her get complacent so quickly, Cinta told herself as she put away her supplies and watched Vel’s eyebrows knit together while she washed the blood off her hands.

“You’re going to see a lot worse things than that if you stay with me,” said Cinta, immediately questioning her own word choice.

With me? she wondered. Where did that come from? There were plenty of other people for Vel to learn from, even in their blossoming rebellion. Plenty of people she would probably get along with better, people she would not slow down as much as she had hindered Cinta’s work.

There was no reason to suspect they’d ever work together again after this. And yet something inside Cinta – in her head or her heart, she could not say – told her they’d be seeing many more horrors together in the future.

“I know,” Vel said, either not noticing or not bothered by Cinta’s choice of words. “But I need to see it. I can’t keep going through life in this galaxy with my eyes closed. That doesn’t help anyone.”

Finally Vel looked up from her hands at Cinta, and in those wide open eyes Cinta saw everything she needed to. There was all the fire and all the determination, that – with a bit of training – would make this woman a real asset to the cause that had driven Cinta for as long as she could remember.

“No. It doesn’t,” Cinta agreed softly, staring a bit too long into the deep blue ocean of Vel’s eyes.

She looked away just before a strange and unexpected feeling stirred somewhere deep within her, focusing again on the bloody, unforgiving work ahead.

[chipthekeeper]

we did not give up on love today

Day Six!!!! Almost to the end and I am sad about it but trying to ignore that because today is about the happy ending!!

Full prompt from @dailyvelcinta was "lovers alone wear sunlight" (alternate universes / happy endings). I chose the latter and to let my obsession with my new #1 Velcinta song take over.

Read in full here or on ao3!

~

The first thing Vel wanted to do when they left the planet of Jakku after the final battle was go to sleep. Or, more accurately, tell Cinta to go to sleep.

She’d lost count of how many years it had been since they’d both gotten a good night’s sleep at the same time, but maybe now that the war was over it could happen again. Not right away – even if they never picked up blasters again or saw another stormtrooper in their lives, it wouldn’t keep the nightmares away. Not after everything they’d seen and done.

But someday soon. Someday soon they’d know what it really meant to be at rest. At peace.

“What happens now?”

The first question out of Cinta’s mouth caught Vel off-guard for a moment. Usually after a battle she’d want to go over what they could’ve done better next time, what went wrong and could be corrected. But, Vel remembered, there was finally no need to think about next time. The thought was overwhelming, but she tried her best not to let it show. This was always the part - everything outside the war - that she was supposed to be better at than Cinta. She couldn’t let her see that she had no more idea about what came next than she did.

Vel set the autopilot on her ship and swiveled her chair so she could look at her partner.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “Mon will be busy, and there’ll be trials and elect—”

“I mean for us.”

The previous thought died on Vel’s lips as she watched Cinta stare at her expectantly. She had no idea what to say. After so many years trying to train herself not to think past the moment, not to get attached to a future she might never achieve, she had nothing to offer the woman.

“Even less sure about that…” Vel said. She smiled sadly at her partner. “You haven’t thought about it at all, have you?”

To her surprise, Cinta let a slight grin crease the side of her lips.

“More than you might think,” she said, then the grin disappeared and she sighed. Vel wished it was a relieved sigh, but she could hardly have sounded more exhausted. “I just want you to take me home.”

Vel blinked in stunned confusion, trying not to look hurt by her choice of words.

“Take you…?” she asked cautiously. She would of course take Cinta anywhere within her power, to the edges of the galaxy and anywhere in between. But she would have preferred not to simply be a taxi service if she had any say in the matter.

Cinta merely shrugged a shoulder, then looked up at her with a shyness Vel hadn’t seen since about the first time they’d kissed.

“Well, I didn’t want to assume you’d…want to come…”

Another sad smile drew at Vel’s lips as she shook her head. Her hand found Cinta’s and held it gently, as it had a thousand times throughout the years of the war, every time she wasn’t sure they’d make it to this day. They’d walked hand in hand all the way through hell and now they were out, and she’d be damned if she let go now.

“If you couldn’t get rid of me for that whole war…” she said, “what makes you think I’m going away now?”

Her smile grew as she raised Cinta’s hand to her lips and kissed it gently. Cinta smiled even wider, and Vel realized that as tired as she was, she’d gladly go to war for that smile all over again in a heartbeat.

“You never gave up on me,” Cinta noted quietly.

Vel shook her head. The thought had never even crossed her mind. “Neither did you.”

“Best decision I’ve ever made.”

They stared at one another with proud eyes, then shared their first kiss in a galaxy free of the empire that had tried its damnedest to keep them down. It hadn’t succeeded. Nothing would.

When they broke apart, Vel was finally sure of the only plan that mattered.

“Let’s go home.”

[lovehateanalysis]

@dailyvelcinta March 7

[dailyvelcinta]

March 10:

home is the first grave family / talking about the past

(tag velcintaweek 2024 / post to the AO3 collection)