Room 204 [late afternoon]

[momslilassassin]

Normally, Ben had a very defined routine on Mondays: run, lightsaber practice, classes, lunch with Ender, then an afternoon of either research or socializing.

Today he stuck to classes, and then returned immediately to the dorms without stopping for food. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to head down to the cabins again, and he felt safer in his own room at the moment.

...And its fascinating, fascinating ceiling. Which he'd been staring at for hours now.

But he was fine.

The door was firmly closed.

Comments

[solo_sword]

So, the problem with thinking you'd been gone for five years was that things like keys to an apartment you didn't think you still had was not a priority. Therefore, after successfully breaking into her own apartment and realizing not doing anything felt weird, she decided that it would probably be a good idea to at least touch base with Ben.

Which would be why she was calling now.

[momslilassassin]

Ben jumped about a foot in the air before reaching for his comlink and checking the name.

"Jaina?"

[solo_sword]

It was weird. He didn't sound like the nine-year-old she was used to. Kinda threw her off for a second there, not that it stopped her from smiling. "Hey, kiddo. I was hoping you were around."

[momslilassassin]

"Fell through the rift yesterday afternoon," Ben said, then paused. "Wait, you've been gone. Ignore that. Hi!"

[solo_sword]

"Hi. I think we're going to have to back up a second, though," she said. Oh, Fandom. "You fell through a rift? I go away and this is what happens."

[momslilassassin]

"Most of the island did," Ben said. "You know me--I like to follow the crowd."

[solo_sword]

Well, at least that explained some of the feeling she was getting today. "You okay?" she checked.

[momslilassassin]

Ben thanked the Force that this was over the phone. It was so much easier to deflect this way. "It's fine," he said. "You should check in on Tahiri, though."

[solo_sword]

And as soon as she heard the answer, she remembered that she'd sort of asked a pointless question, since 'fine' would always be the answer. "Oh, I will," she said, and that had the potential to be a strange conversation. "She fell in too, I'm guessing?"

[momslilassassin]

"To a different dimension than mine," Ben said. "Hers was really nasty. She had her lightsaber destroyed."

[solo_sword]

Somehow that seemed about par for the course. "Other dimensions," she repeated. "Wow, I really did miss a lot."

[momslilassassin]

"Well, you've been gone a couple of weeks," Ben replied. "You know how this place gets."

[solo_sword]

"Uh," said Jaina, biting her lip. "Technically it's been a little longer than a couple of weeks."

[momslilassassin]

"How much longer?" Ben asked warily.

[solo_sword]

"Five years," she replied. "I'm just back from Tenupe." Technically she was just back from Coruscant, but she figured Tenupe would give him a better sense of when she was from now.

[momslilassassin]

And that little thud would be Ben's skull whacking against his headboard. "So how's Zekk?" he asked carefully.

[solo_sword]

"He's okay. I talked to him this morning," she said, because shaking off codependency required baby steps in this case. "He's still on Coruscant, it's just me here."

[momslilassassin]

He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding when she replied with "I." "Good," he said. "How's everyone else?"

[solo_sword]

Don't think 'I' wasn't a conscious effort sometimes. It was easier here, sitting in her apartment, surrounded by her things, in a town on a planet Zekk had never seen. "Things have been a little strained," she admitted. "Do you remember a lot from then? Now, whatever."

[momslilassassin]

"Some," Ben said, "but mostly feelings--how stressed Mom and Dad felt, that kind of thing."

[solo_sword]

"There's definitely been a lot of stress," Jaina said, feeling a little guilty that she'd been part of the cause. She still wasn't apologizing for her part in the war, but she knew she and Zekk hadn't made things easy on people. "Everyone's all right now, but there have been some things happening that we're not too happy about. That's probably not a comm conversation, though."

[momslilassassin]

Ben had a very bad feeling about that. He let out a tired sigh. "I haven't seen your new apartment yet," he said finally. "Want me to stop by?"

[solo_sword]

"Sure. Though it's nothing you don't have to deal with yet if you're not ready," she assured him. If he was 'fine', she wasn't going to push him if he didn't want to talk. "But other than probably needing to see if I still have a job I'm supposed to be going to, I have nothing but free time."

[momslilassassin]

"You interrupted me wondering if I could connect the dots on my ceiling," Ben replied. "I'm just not really up for a lot of social...stuff today."

[solo_sword]

"Kinda figured," she said. "If I'm-" And that was a conscious use of it that time. "-social stuff, it can wait. But it would be good to see you sometime. It's hard not to picture you as nine right now."