fandomtownies | JGOB- Wednesday afternoon

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JGOB- Wednesday afternoon

No one should really try to blame Jaina for being a little anxious about her trip back this time. It was also a good kind of anxiety, though, because... she got to see Anakin again. For real. Not as a ghost, but as a real, living person.

Basically there were a whole lot of emotions going on here.

For someone like Jaina, who hardly ever seemed to have a handle on her emotions unless she was repressing them, getting a hold on them had taken practice. Shielding would kind of be a tipoff that something was wrong, and she didn't want to do that. By the time she got back to Fandom, she was feeling nice and in control. Or at least as nice and in control as she ever got.

After ~~handwavily~~ getting herself set up in town, she got to JGOB before taking a deep breath and trying to locate that familiar presence she hadn't felt in years, and then she sent a little message: Hey there, little brother. She might not be able to send the exact words, but he should get the gist of it.

And then she ordered some coffee (in retrospect, not the smartest thing to do) and took a seat to wait. And run through some calming techniques. Shut up, you try not being nervous.

[Expecting one!]

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Anakin hadn't gotten the message entirely in words (which could've had something to do with not being attuned to her quite the same as to his Jaina) but he recognized her presence in the Force immediately anyway.

The second he did he was off like a shot into town. By the time he burst through the JGOB doors his hair was more tousled than ever from the run, but he was grinning.

A little wide-eyed, too, since she was so much older than he'd ever pictured her, but grinning all the same.

"Hi, Jaina."

Wow.

Meanwhile now that Jaina was actually looking at him, not just remembering, it was almost jarring to see just how young he looked. It was hard to remember that when... well, when at the time she'd just been a kid herself.

"Hi, Anakin," she said, smiling when she stood. And then she held her arms out for a hug, saying, "You have zero choice in this matter."

Anakin wasn't quite at the stage where he was horribly embarrassed by public displays of familial affection, and besides, Jaina was the only member of his family besides Mom that he felt really comfortable around right now. So no, even if she'd said he did have a choice in the matter, he wouldn't have taken the other option.

"Not at all?" he asked, moving in to hug her hard.

"Absolutely zero," she said, hugging him back tightly. She was a little proud of herself that she hadn't burst into tears or something yet. "Welcome to the weirdness."

That would have been bad, if she did burst into tears; Jaina being this much older than him was strange enough, but if she'd cried it would have completely unnerved him.

"You would beat me to it," he said, a little petulant but in a playful way. "You always beat me to these things."

But that was nice and constant, at least. Comforting in an unfamiliar situation.

"I'm the big sister. It's my job," she replied casually, pulling back. "Do you want anything before we probably start asking each other a million questions?"

Anakin shook his head and smiled. "It's also what makes you a pain," he pretended to complain. As the little brother it was his job to give her a hard time. "And I wouldn't mind a hot chocolate."

He hadn't acquired a taste for caf yet.

"I got this," she told him. "Maybe it'll make me less of a pain."

It was actually kind of nice being able to talk like this. She hadn't really been able to joke around with Jacen since... if she was being generous, she'd say Qoribu, but realistically it was five years earlier than that.

When she returned with his hot chocolate a moment later, she said, "You are definitely related to Uncle Luke."

Neither of them was in a position to joke around with Jacen right now, coincidentally. Anakin tried, but sometimes it wasn't worth the effort when they'd probably end up arguing again within hours.

"That's not a surprise, unless you mean the one who was here." He'd taken a seat at the table while waiting and was already drumming his heels against the rungs of the chair in that restless fifteen-year-old way. "I still can't believe that. Him and Mom."

Jaina put his drink down and took her seat, shrugging. "Believe it or not, it really does get less weird," she told him, and paused. "Most of the time. Has anyone given you the rundown of who's all here yet?"

"Grandfather was driving the shuttle that brought the new kids here," Anakin reported, scrunching his face up. "Then someone at the picnic thought I was him, just a kid because something weird happened. It hasn't gotten much less weird yet."

Did he whine about that a little? Yes. He wasn't the embodiment of patience.

"He told me about you and Ben, I've got a class with Zayne," he recited, ticking names off on his fingers. "Ben told me about Mom and Uncle Luke, and Professor Atreides said Tahiri used to be in her class."

"I think that's everyone," she said, looking thoughtful. "At least of everyone who still comes here. At least there won't be any more surprises that don't get the rest of us, too?"

"You think someone else could show up?" Anakin asked, suddenly worried. Mostly, he thought he could handle that but there were a couple of names that came to mind that were a little worrisome.

"It's always a possibility, but it probably wouldn't be anytime soon," she assured him. "I think it was about two years between Tiny Mom and you showing up here."

Anakin nodded and ducked his head. "I don't know what I'd do if Chewie showed up," he admitted quietly.

"Hey, don't worry about things like that," Jaina told him gently. "It won't do you any good. Besides, there's Grandfather and a cousin I'm guessing hasn't even been born yet in your time hanging around. If nothing else, focus on acclimating before you start wondering about hypotheticals."

Anakin tended to listen to Jaina, as much as he ever really listened to anyone, so he set his jaw and nodded firmly.

"Grandfather was the biggest surprise, but Ben was the strangest one," he confirmed. "And he's older than me, too. He's astral, though. I'm supposed to help him work on an astromech."

"Don't blow it up, either of you," she said automatically.

"Will not," Anakin protested just as automatically, as if he wasn't some kind of giant trouble magnet.

"Just making sure that's out there," Jaina said. "Whose astromech is it, anyway?"

"No one's yet, but his, I presume. Once it's built, anyway," Anakin explained.

And then he got little-brother whiny. "How come he gets his own shuttle, anyway?"

"Because he's luckier than us?" she guessed, since she didn't actually know.

If Anakin had his own ship, he'd probably take off for whichever trouble spot he thought he needed to be at the drop of a hat, so that probably explained it for him.

"I guess." He ran a hand through his hair. "What are you doing back here?"

Not that he wasn't glad to see her.

"I'm in for some event thing over the weekend," she said. "I come back when I can to see people. When I heard you were here, I decided to come a little early." Shhh.

Anakin tried to picture himself almost Jaina's age and . . . had a really hard time with it, actually.

"What for? To see how much younger I was once, a long time ago?"

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