A Portal Out In The Preserve, Monday Evening

[rebelseekspizza]

All things must come to an end - and children needed to return home.

As always, the portal sprung into life somewhere after sundown, emanating a gentle purple, and a simple, inescapable call: come home.

[[ goodbye post! ]]

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[thatwaslucky]

Rey had had the weirdest weekend, dealing with a kid who seemed to alternate between watching her way too closely or wanting nothing to do with her. She hadn’t been able to get anything but the vaguest answers out of him, either, but what she had gotten made her feel bad about sending him back, even if she was absolutely not equipped to deal with this.

They didn’t say anything till they got back to the portal, at which point Rey crouched down to see him better. “Do you need anything before you go?”

[rat_in_a_ceyge]

Reyge frowned at her, confused. “What would I need?”

[sith_happened]

A hug, maybe? Or a decade of therapy?

Anakin was loitering in a decidedly creepy manor in the back of the preserve, clutching a souped-up mouse droid in his hands.

[thatwaslucky]

“There’s a whole list of things I would want to bring back with me when I leave here,” Rey pointed out. Of course, she assumed he was with her on Jakku, because why would she ever leave Jakku?

She did catch sight of Anakin, though, and gave a little nod. Reyge hadn’t told her what the deal was there, either, but that somehow didn’t surprise her.

[throughaphase]

Clint and Kitty had been through this with Lexi quite a bit already, and while it was always sad saying goodbye, she always came back. And to Kitty at least, it felt different because now there were so many questions, and maybe they were getting her for real, and what if she didn’t come back either way?

So she was totally not teary at all (again) when they got there. “All right, you know the drill.”

She was fine, okay.

[so_hawkward]

Of course Kitty was fine, which was why Clint had his arm around her waist for solidarity. "Be careful when you go back and apologize for disappearing and freaking us out. Again."

[ahawkwardphase]

“You guys are used to it,” Lexi pointed out. It did happen like every year.

[so_hawkward]

"Still, we love you, and don't want you to go missing," Clint said, ruffling her hair a little. "Keep being awesome and smart and amazing, okay?"

[heroic_jawline]

Steve wasn't in the remotest way ready to say goodbye to James, which was why he was doing the steely jaw thing of stoicism as they entered the preserve.

"Now you have the letter I wrote to Buck explaining where you were, right?" he checked.

[soul_survivor]

"Yes." It wasn't going to keep him from getting grounded and gruffly hugged, but it was nice of Steve to try.

[imafuturist]

"Tell Rhodey I say thanks," Tony added with far too much emotion hitting him than he needed. Like. At all. "Might distract him from locking you in a room until you're 18."

[boneyard_girl]

Ada hated this part. She hated it.

But the show must go on, and this was just like any other performance. Her smile was bright, head up, back straight. They were going home, where they belonged, and that was what was right.

"Now, everyone's gonna go apologize for runnin' off -- even if'n you don't mean it -- an' be good for at least two days, right?"

[seas_visions]

"Real good?" Zia asked. "Or just-don't-get-caught good?"

It was a very important distinction.

[vrajna_kralis]

"Real good," Hyacinthe said, if just to give their beleaguered parents a break. "To make up for all the ways you were bad that you got away with here."

He was smiling, but his dark eyes were less merry than usual.

[what_dad_was_like]

Jacen, armed with a few holos he wasn't totally certain he should show his mother and a handful of phone numbers he wasn't completely sure he could even call, walked through the woods, halfway holding his breath. He'd had a lot of problems with this weekend in general, but now that it was time to go home...

He checked over his shoulder to see if his parents were still there.

Parents.

[futurespacemom]

Hera did her best to smile reassuringly. She both wanted time to think about everything without Jacen nearby, and wanted to keep him close and ask him a ton of questions she probably shouldn't have the answers to.

Plus, she didn't get enough time to just be with someone else that thought of flying the same way she did, and her kid or not, she was going to miss that.

"I'm sure your-mom-me is going to be missing you." She was probably frantic.

[what_dad_was_like]

"She's probably already torn half the galaxy apart trying to find me," Jacen admitted, biting his lip for a moment and looking between Hera and Kanan, who was lingering just a little behind. He probably didn't want to make this weirder than it already was. "I'm grounded for a month, I know it."

The literal grounding. The kind that would be hell on a little pilot who had inherited his mother's love of flying.

[blue_eyed_cosmos]

Yeah, like hell was Kueng going to bail on his parents right before leaving for his actual parents (okay, no, that sounded weird even in his head), but that didn't mean he couldn't shout.

"Jace!" Sorry not sorry, Jacen, for that shortening of your name. "Don't forget! Every Wednesday and Sunday!"

Kueng was a bit of a shit, definitely.

[what_dad_was_like]

Jacen blinked over at him, and then laughed and gave a wave of his hand. He wasn't about to bail on his parents, either. Even if things were still... weird? Kind of?

Maybe he'd try to come back again, if he could, someday.

"I've got your number," he called back. "We'll make it work!"

[clonewelldone]

Angela walked back, holding her fathers' hands. She'd be happy to be back home, but she liked this version of them, too, and saying goodbye was always hard, even when it'd be hello again in just a few moments.

"Don't forget to keep trying," she chided this Jono. "Father and I love to cook for you together, you know."

[furnaceface]

Jono rolled his eyes a little, giving Angela's hand a squeeze.

//We've done this enough times that you're using these farewells as excuses to lecture me now, have we?//

He didn't seem to actually mind all that much.

[clonewelldone]

"Yep!" Angela kissed the side of his face. "You're running out of time, after all." Only ten or fifteen years left!

[blue_eyed_cosmos]

"Okay," Kueng said. "Okay, I don't think I forgot anything. I've got Silly, despite your best efforts, Mom. I've got the pictures."

So many, many pictures. That's what he had.

He also had a horrible twisted feeling in his chest that made him want to cry but there was no way that was happening in public. When he got home he'd shove the pictures at his dads, hide in his room, and then he'd deal.

He'd... deal.

He didn't want to deal.

"Dad, are you sure I didn't forget anything?"

Maybe they should go back. And check. Again.

[puppy_fair]

"Pretty sure," Zack replied, giving Kueng a small, wry smile. "You don't get to take Girl with you, I'm sorry."

Or Ino. Which he was both less and more sorry about, for very different reasons.

"And if there is something, just come through the weird portal again next year to get it. I think that's how this sort of thing works."

[blue_eyed_cosmos]

Kueng snapped his fingers.

"That's it, I forgot Girl. We have to go back for her. It's just--a year is a long time."