Room 204 [afternoon]

[momslilassassin]

Attention world: Ben Skywalker finally got his hair cut!

Newly shorn (not quite military short, but close) thanks to the people at the spa (where he rather vehemently turned down a massage, an eyebrow sculpting and a pedicure. The staff had discovered quickly how easy it was to make him blush), he was now back in his room tinkering with a couple of projects that he was thinking of turning into holiday gifts.

The door was wide open.

Comments

[momslilassassin]

Ben blushed and grinned. "Thanks. I was getting compared to sheepdogs and banthas. It was time."

[solo_sword]

"This is when you tell them it's a cultural thing," she reasoned. "And show them a picture of Zekk's ponytail and say ha." Granted, Zekk might not still have the ponytail in his time, but she could provide holos anyway.

[momslilassassin]

Ben wrinkled up his nose. "I never want to have hair as bad as Zekk's. Or Kyp's, for that matter."

[solo_sword]

"Exactly. Tell them that's the route you could go, and the bantha comparisons should stop forever. I assume," Jaina admitted. "People tend to not bring up that sort of subject with me." Certain former Hapan queens notwithstanding.

[momslilassassin]

"Well, the bantha comparisons come from Tahiri," Ben said, laughing, "so I doubt that I could put an end to all teasing, even if I wanted to."

[solo_sword]

"Yeah, that's kind of her right," she agreed. "How're you doing? Besides shorn?"

[momslilassassin]

"Glad not to be in Connecticut any more," he said with a quick smile. "That was a lot of family."

[solo_sword]

"Really? I sort of liked it," Jaina admitted. Yeah, she thought it was weird, too.

[momslilassassin]

Ben blinked, looking surprised. "Really?"

[solo_sword]

Jaina shrugged. "I haven't seen our family back home all together in... longer than I can remember," she explained. "Seeing everyone together like that, weird as it is, was kind of nice."

[momslilassassin]

"Granddad smiles," he replied. "I had no idea he was capable of it."

[solo_sword]

"It still weirds me out to this day," Jaina told him. "And I've seen him do it in other times, too."

[momslilassassin]

Ben cleared space off of his bed so that Jaina could sit down and gave her a dubious look. "Gremlin?"

[solo_sword]

"Well, then too," she said, taking the offered seat. "And I think a couple times were even pre-Juliet. Shocking, I know."

[momslilassassin]

"Kind of," Ben admitted with a little smile. "I mean, the other Luke was really...happy...but imagining Granddad with a permanent smile is kind of creepy."

[solo_sword]

"No one smiles permanently. Know it had to go away sometime and you'll feel much more at ease about it." She spoke from experience.

[momslilassassin]

"That's...really kind of depressing," Ben decided after a moment. "I'm still smiling."

[solo_sword]

"I mean it literally. Seriously, if I saw someone just randomly smiling for an hour straight, I'd get pretty freaked out," she said. "But in a non-literal way, you should be still smiling."

[momslilassassin]

Ben shrugged. "It was a long year, and November was a long month. But December will be better."

Why yes, he was Luke's son.

[solo_sword]

"And meanwhile I'd just written off the year, including December," Jaina said wryly. Which wasn't really true. A lot of parts of it had been great. "I don't even think I saw you for most of November."

[momslilassassin]

Ben shrugged uncomfortably. "I wasn't great company," he said. "There was an anniversary."

[solo_sword]

It didn't take more than half a second to remember what the anniversary was, but it was hard to believe it'd been a year already. "Sorry I wasn't around anyway," she said. "How are you doing now?"

[momslilassassin]

His hands suddenly became incredibly fascinating. "Okay," he said carefully. "Worried about Tahiri."

Because it was healthy to just shift your problems to one that was more immediate.

[solo_sword]

"Haven't seen much of her lately, either," Jaina admitted, wondering if she'd missed something big.

[momslilassassin]

"Do you know about Riina?" he asked softly.