Outside Anakin & Rory's apartment [Monday evening]

[momslilassassin]

"Why did we agree to this again?" Ben asked in an undertone to Tahiri for what was probably the fortieth time since they'd left Fandom. "Other than it being his birthday and Granddad being insanely intimidating?"

He reached his hand out to knock on the door.

[OOC: For the other babysitter, then Rory!]

Comments

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri had no idea how hard she was supposed to try to hold on, and was a little bit afraid of what would happen if she put Juliet down (she knew what Skywalker children were capable of getting up to, thank you) so she tried awkwardly patting the baby on the back.

"Nobody is trying to get in, so I think those instructions might be more helpful right now," she agreed.

[momslilassassin]

"Looks like...dinner, then a bath, then bed," Ben recited. "We have to sing, too."

He laughed. "Can you imagine Granddad doing this every night?"

[weetuskenraider]

"I can, actually." Tahiri tried rocking Juliet tentatively. Would that distract her at all from wanting to get down? (Was it horribly optimistic of her to hope so?) "It's a little frightening."

She grinned at him mischievously. "Does this mean you're going to sing 'Dance Dance, Little Ewok?'"

[momslilassassin]

"It's on the list," Ben said unhappily as Juliet reached out to yank at Tahiri's hair. "You'd think it was the only lullaby in the galaxy."

[weetuskenraider]

"Oh, good, that means -- ow, no, that's not for playing with!"

That wasn't what that meant, of course.

[momslilassassin]

Juliet's lower lip trembled. "No?" she repeated.

"I'll get her dinner started," Ben said, hastily retreating behind the safety of the fridge door.

[weetuskenraider]

"Please, no?" Tahiri tried more gently. Sure, throw her onto an enemy-occupied planet with one other being for backup and she could deal with that, but a baby was threatening to be more than she could handle, and now Ben was . . . well, not hiding exactly.

This was probably very sad.

Maybe she could bargain with Juliet? "You can play with it, if you don't pull too hard?"

[momslilassassin]

Juliet gurgled happily and gave the hair a good yank.

"Found it!" Ben sang out. "Mmm. Pasta and squished up peas."

[weetuskenraider]

. . . at least Tahiri could handle pain? Not that it hurt so much as it was a little embarrassing.

"That sounds good, right?" she asked Juliet, hoping maybe dinner would be a more interesting prospect than hair-pulling. "Maybe before Ben tries to eat it all?"

Ha.

[momslilassassin]

"Oh, this isn't my kind of food at all," Ben said, making a face. "Ooh, but there's pizza!" He opened up the freezer. "And ice cream! And popsicles! I like Rory."

He popped the little plate of food into the microwave and walked over with a bib. "Guesses on where this goes?"

He wasn't quite that clueless. He was trying to push it.

[weetuskenraider]

"Ben Skywalker, you are not that hopeless," Tahiri exclaimed. "Come on, Juliet, just for that I think we should make him put that on you, and give him a hard time about it."

[momslilassassin]

"Well, better her wearing it than me," Ben said, rummaging through drawers until he found one with spoons. "Hee, they have tiny little baby spoons! Did you know those existed?"

[weetuskenraider]

"Oddly enough, I think I saw you being fed with one last time I was home," Tahiri retorted, smirking. "But I guess that was long enough ago that you don't remember."

[momslilassassin]

Ben tried very hard to match his face to the color of his hair. "That's mean," he declared. "I don't have any embarrassing stories to retaliate with."

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri laughed and tried to disentangle her hair from Juliet's fingers. "The Tuskens aren't exactly in the habit of getting holos of everything, or I'd offer."

[momslilassassin]

"I know," Ben said, putting the food next to the high chair. "So I'll just have to make things up instead."

[weetuskenraider]

"I look forward to what you'll come up with," Tahiri told him as she carried Juliet over to the high chair. "Really."

[momslilassassin]

"For instance, I'm not sure how you lived through the embarrassment of the Mos Eisley Boonta Eve pageant costumes," Ben made up cheerfully.

[weetuskenraider]

"That never happened," Tahiri felt the need to inform Juliet.

But she had to play along. "That was one of the few advantages to having to wear a mask all the time," she said solemnly.

[momslilassassin]

Ben snickered, loading up the spoon with dinner and held it out for the baby. "It also helped to hide those experiments with make-up that went so badly," he teased.

Because the Tusken Raiders were known for their beauty regimes.

[weetuskenraider]

"That was how we learned that hubba gourds made very, very bad facial treatments," Tahiri deadpanned.

[momslilassassin]

Ben burst out laughing. "I'll be sure to pass that along at the next slumber party I have."

[weetuskenraider]

"I was wondering," Tahiri replied, reaching for a napkin, "how you spent all that vast amount of free time of yours. I'm a little disappointed. I thought it was something more exciting."

[momslilassassin]

"I also write poetry," Ben lied, "and cliff dive."

[weetuskenraider]

"Awful poetry, I bet," Tahiri snorted. "That you're not inflicting on your poor baby aunt."

[momslilassassin]

"It could be worse," Ben said. "It could be a passion for droid spoken word albums."

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri shook her head and looked at Juliet. "He's hopeless, isn't he?"

[momslilassassin]

Juliet gurgled happily.

"Hey!" Ben replied. "I'm not the member of Face's fanclub."

[weetuskenraider]

"And I'm not the one who signed me up for it," Tahiri replied sweetly.

[momslilassassin]

"Teach me to get you any more gifts," Ben said, sticking his tongue out at her.