The Park, Friday Afternoon

[uncertain_dume]

The weather was nice enough, and honestly, Kanan probably would have showed up here for his weekly swordwork even if it wasn't. He'd brought a bit of an assortment of swords with him today, including a couple of bamboo training swords and the leaf blade that Amaya had let him borrow, but those were all sitting off to the side waiting for their respective sparring partners while Kanan had his lightsaber out and was going through his usual forms with it, eyes closed, attuned to the world around him through the Force.

It was like training and meditation all wrapped into one, and incredibly calming. He was actually sorry he couldn't do more things like this back home.

Maybe that was part of the reason he'd stuck around Fandom even after it had let him go. It had been entirely too long since Kanan had been able to even safely acknowledge Caleb, never mind run through his forms, wielding his lightsaber, out in the open where nobody cared beyond the novelty of a sword that hummed and glowed when ignited.

Or maybe he just had to come back for Stance, who had tuckered himself out chasing a squirrel around and was now napping in the shade under a nearby tree. Yeah. That was it. This was all the dog's fault.

[OOC: Open park!]

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[1000yearstoolate]

Issa had desperately wanted to go out. Seivarden doubted that the cat new what day it was, but since she insisted, the two of them arrived at the park in the afternoon. As usual, Seivarden kept as far away as possible from Kanan, ignoring him while still being able to keep an eye on Issa.

And she had brought tea, of course, snorting as she poured herself a cup. Should she ever get back to the Radch, she 'hot leaf water' people would make a such a good story. She'd leave out the hot leather jacket part.

[uncertain_dume]

And hey, Kanan knew Seivarden and Issa had arrived without so much as opening his eyes. Which meant that she was part of his range of awareness now, which he could have lived without.

He did an excellent job of ignoring her. Stance, on the other hand, was yawning, and stretching, and trotting gamely over to greet both the cat and her person. Because Stance had terrible taste in people, apparently.

[thatwaslucky]

It was one of those days when Rey felt bad for interrupting, because he looked like he just had this. So she went to sit next to Stance for a bit until Kanan felt done.

[uncertain_dume]

And step, swing, breathe... Kanan wasn't much longer before he straightened up and shut off his lightsaber, no. After all, it was difficult to miss that Rey had arrived, even with his eyes shut. He smiled faintly, turning and opening his eyes to find that Stance had wiggled in close so that he could try to rest his head in Rey's nap.

"Hey," he said, giving her a little nod. "Thanks for being patient with me, there. I was almost finished anyway."

[thatwaslucky]

"Not a problem," she said, scratching Stance behind the ears. "You seemed pretty into it."

[uncertain_dume]

"It's easy to get lost in when you let yourself fall into feeling it out," Kanan admitted, maybe a little sheepishly. "Probably something I should let myself do more often."

[thatwaslucky]

"Probably," she said, and paused. "You've seemed like you've been doing better the last couple weeks."

Or it was a big contrast from the other week, anyway.

[uncertain_dume]

"It's amazing how much actually putting some effort in can help," Kanan admitted. "It's one thing to not stress about something. It's a completely different matter to take steps to move forward, too."

[thatwaslucky]

"What kinds of steps?" she asked, interested.

Meanwhile here was Rey, the reigning queen of not moving forward.

[uncertain_dume]

"Trying to put negative influences out of my mind," Kanan offered, as an example. "Bad habits, hostile people who aren't worth my energy. Opening myself up to the more positive ones. Making new friends. Helping people. I'd blocked myself off from all of that, once. Not long ago, in fact." He smiled wryly. "Hell, even just admitting that much is a big step forward."

[thatwaslucky]

"It's working for you," she said with a smile. "That just looked... right."

[uncertain_dume]

"Yeah?" Kanan held up his lightsaber hilt and eyed it thoughtfully. "Then I guess I'm going to have to keep doing what I'm doing."

Even stagnating at his current skill level but keeping it up was better than letting it molder in the back of his mind the way he had been.

[thatwaslucky]

"Yes. And I definitely know what I'm talking about," she said lightly.

She did mean it, though.

[uncertain_dume]

"Hey, you're more likely to see what I'm doing from an objective point of view than I am," Kanan pointed out, still smiling. "I come with a slight bias."

A teeny-tiny one.

[thatwaslucky]

"I am here most weeks," she agreed. "What brought all this on?"

[uncertain_dume]

"It's been building for a while," Kanan admitted, reaching up to scratch his cheek idly. "Coming here and realizing it's safe. Actually coming to terms with that. Seeing people from home being so unrepentant about being themselves."

He paused, and then added, "And seeing me being so completely... not. The tremens and the fallout of that. The new Mandalorian student. Gratuity coming back with a sword. And... Hera."

He shrugged.

"None of this was even remotely on the table even a year ago. Not like this."

[thatwaslucky]

"So everything kind of coming together at once." Not that Rey had ever had a moment like that. "I'm glad you got there."

[intotheout]

"I have working arms today!" Tip announced as she came trotting up. "Let's spar!"

She wanted to hear the clang-clang of metal swords. It was going to be awesome.

[uncertain_dume]

"Still getting there," Kanan noted. "Definitely not there yet. But it's progress. I'll take any progress that I possibly can."

[uncertain_dume]

Hey, Kanan had been looking forward to this one since he'd gotten the sword, himself.

"We can do that," he laughed, putting his lightsaber on his belt almost immediately. "Amaya finally decided to take it easy on you guys this week, did she?"

[thatwaslucky]

She figured he could still brag there, but it probably didn't help to say that.

"If you're looking better, does that mean you would kick my ass if we sparred?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Now that I have a weapon that can actually hold up to yours without snapping in half or cleaving yours in two, I guess we can find out," Kanan chuckled. "Is that a challenge?"

[intotheout]

"We laid rebar and concrete," Tip said. "Soooo, less 'easy' and more 'didn't have to do as much lifting and swinging this time'. Leaving me plenty left for lifting and swinging here."

[uncertain_dume]

"Well, good. You must've been looking forward to giving your sword a workout for a while," Kanan noted, teasing maybe a little. "I think that's the first time I've ever heard the words, 'Let's spar' come out of your mouth."

[intotheout]

Tip laughed. "Yeah, just a little. I've totally been excited to spar before, though."

Not very often. But it had happened.