Chilly Boulder- Saturday night

[solo_sword]

Jaina was supposed to meet Ben tonight, so naturally that meant ice cream. Besides, was both good for celebration (yay graduation) and a good pick-me-up (any news that had to be told today). It worked.

So getting here early, she ordered something more or less at random and found a seat to wait for Ben. And try not to feel too old that the once-baby cousin she'd seen show up as a freshman had just graduated.


[Jaina's here for Ben, but can be open!]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

Ben walked in and gave Jaina a huge hug. "Hi there."

[solo_sword]

"Hi," she grinned, hugging him back. "Congratulations."

[momslilassassin]

"I didn't have to turn five!" Ben said a little gleefully.

[solo_sword]

"Sure, rub it in," Jaina said dryly as she pulled back. "And your alternate universe parents who don't involve the Luke who went here say hello and congratulations, too."

Oh, Fandom.

[momslilassassin]

"You know, if all of the version of my parents sent me congratulatory credits for graduating, I might be able to buy my own place on a lake on Naboo," Ben mused. "It'd be a fishing shack, but still."

[solo_sword]

"I think that's a nice dream," she told him.

[momslilassassin]

"I think I'll tell some of the Lukes about it and see how hard they laugh," Ben said, sitting down with an enormous bowl of ice cream.

"They found out I graduated," he explained, "and are worried their profits are going to nose-dive."

[solo_sword]

"That's a valid concern," Jaina said, eyeing the bowl. And it was something of a miracle she remembered to eat half the time lately. "You've probably put somebody's kid through college."

[momslilassassin]

"I'm happy to help," Ben said, "especially because ice cream is astral. I kind of want a table named after me, though."

[solo_sword]

"Ask for a flavor instead," she advised. "It sounds more impressive."

[momslilassassin]

"Oooh," Ben said. "What should be in it?"

Repressing his last conversation? Hell yes.

[solo_sword]

"You're asking someone who ordered off the menu at random," Jaina pointed out. "Tell them to rename your favorite after you."

Normally she'd think this ridiculous. But seriously, she knew him and the ice cream.

[momslilassassin]

"I might," Ben said. "I like most of them, though. Not rum raisin--that's nasty."

[solo_sword]

"Did raisin rum actually just come up in a conversation with the two of us?" she realized.

Not that she'd been repressing anything, either.

[momslilassassin]

"Seems so," Ben replied, making a little face. "Guess there are things neither of us want to bring up."

[solo_sword]

Just a little.

"Wanna get it over with?" she asked.

[momslilassassin]

"Not really," Ben admitted, taking another bite from his bowl. "Want to go first?"

[solo_sword]

Unless someone was dying, there probably wasn't a chance that his news was worse than hers. Jaina had no problem with going first and working up to something less terrible.

"Mom called me yesterday to tell me about Ailyn Vel," she said.

[momslilassassin]

And that was a stream of Tusken curses he'd picked up from Tahiri.

"I'm so sorry," he said, looking ill.

[solo_sword]

"We'll deal with it," she told him. "When I go back after this, we'll figure out what we need to do and we'll do it."

Okay, so maybe she'd worked up from wanting to be depressed about it all and was getting to the scary focus part soon.

[momslilassassin]

Ben looked worried anyway. "Where's Ben? And Tahiri?"

[solo_sword]

"Tahiri's with the Jedi. I just saw her a couple months ago, she's fine," Jaina assured him. The rest was not so great to tell. Which was why there was a little wince when she said, "Ben is apparently in the GAG."

[momslilassassin]

And Ben wasn't hungry any more. He pushed his bowl away. "Shit. Shitshitshit. Okay. You need to talk to him: he's probably freaking out about Vel being dead."

He froze. "Wait. Did Jacen fire you?"

[solo_sword]

She blew out a breath and said, "Yeah. That's why I have to go back when I do, see how it pans out."

And added 'talk to Ben' onto the mental checklist. If he'd talk to her.

[momslilassassin]

Yeah, by the look on this Ben's face, he was wondering about the possibilities of the conversation going as well as he'd hoped.

"He's going to take Jacen's side on that," he murmured. "Idiot."