fandomtownies | The Park on Sunday morning

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The Park on Sunday morning - picnic.

The puddle of children had woken in the morning and asked to go to the park. After feeding them - and shooing the teenager out of his kitchen so he could have the privilege of making breakfast - Hernando walked them all to the park.

The children knew the way and it wasn't that Hernando was any sort of helicopter parent except yes, perhaps today a little bit, he was. Sparkle was making a quick dash into town to put a 'closed today on account of children' sign on the door of his store but planned to join them later.

Hernando had packed an entire antique picnic basket full of food and snacks and put Quinn to work hauling a rolling cooler behind them. The children had acted as if this were a usual thing and that made Hernando smile a bit. Abney was wearing the folded picnic blanket as a superhero cape and was running ahead with her arms out, making zooming plane noises.

There was way more food than the children would need, even if one was a growing teenager. To his rueful chagrin, Hernando found that the store had decided to help when he spread the blanket out and began to unpack. The basket never seemed to empty. He set out only enough plates of sandwiches and baskets of fruit for the moment and let the children go run. There were thermoses of tea and sodas and waters in the cooler as well.

Once free of her superhero cape, Abney lead the way to the playground and commenced burning off the energy. Quinn was more interested in reading a book but he, too, occasionally joined his sister in playing.

[Open park with picnic food! Come let the kids play together!]

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Jacen looked at Quinn, and then glanced at Kanan, and then just grinned.

"Yet, you mean?"

What would his baby parents do, anyway? Ground him until tomorrow?

Quinn gave him the same sort of grin right back. "Even if they ground you for a year, you'll be ungrounded by this time next year and back home your mom won't know, right?"

He looked over to see what his parents were doing. Dada was pushing Abney on the swings, Papa taking a hundred thousand pictures. Yeahhhh they weren't going to miss him for awhile.

"We said we were going for a walk, right? Soooo.." Quinn suggested, walking in a direction that would take them back toward the MCA.

"We," Jacen announced, "are totally walking. Right up until we're flying, right? Anyway, it isn't like there's any real trouble for us to get into up there. A few craters on the moon that aren't too boring to circle."

"Yeah, look at us walking," Quinn said innocently, strolling along. "As long as nobody's up there already. I didn't hear anyone take off this morning, did you? You're staying at the MCA with Kanan and Hera, right?"

He grinned a little, "There's always the junk belt."

"Yeah, with Kanan and Mom and Anan."

He was absolutely enamored with the kid. Honest.

And also jealous as hell of her.

"... The junk belt could be fun, though. I mean, it's a little sparse compared to some I've seen. This world is such a baby, isn't it? It's kind of cute."

Absolutely his father's son, this one.

"Who's Anan?" Quinn asked with a small frown. Another lopsided smile, "Compared to things on your side of the portal, yeah. Earth's pretty young. I'm kinda glad there's not too much shit up there, though. It's kind of awful how people leave so much garbage in space."

There was something about those two words that made Jacen want to hug the poodoo out of Quinn, right there.

'Who's Anan.'

"Anan's Mom and Kanan's kid from a different future, I guess," he replied, shrugging. "She's a Jarrus, for what that's worth. Seems like a good kid? But..."

You know. Had both her parents and looked more like Hera than he ever would. There were a lot of conflicting feelings there.

"Let's go play in space garbage, okay?"

"Huh," Quinn said and shrugged, "She's not around in our time. Maybe she just hasn't been born yet." He grinned at Jacen, "Maybe they decided Jace is enough trouble and stopped. Who knows. Things are funny on the island. Maybe next year they'll get you and our Jace and have twins and won't that be fun. I'd love to see what the two of you would get up to."

He nodded, taking a scrunchie off his wrist and putting his locks back in a tail. "Lead the way. Let's ditch the sisters and go for a joyride."

"I don't know either of them, and so I am completely unrepentant," Jacen reported, crossing the street and making his way right for the front door of the apartment building. "... It'd be weird to meet another me, though. Sorry if I'm not too upset if that doesn't happen next year."

Meeting a version of him who had known his father?

He'd hate the guy.

"'Sfair," Quinn nodded, "I can see where you wouldn't want to. Maybe Abs and I will get to come back next year. Then you'd have people you knew, at least."

He wouldn't mind. It'd been kind of nice, surprising his parents this way. Getting to see that no, having a pain in the ass son hadn't really changed anything in the way of them. They were like this before he'd even been there.

"That would be nice," Jacen admitted. "It's..."

He frowned a little as he unlocked the front door of the building with a wave of his hand - a trick that was self-taught, thank you, but it came in handy with archaic Earth locks - and then held the door for Quinn.

"... It's weird. Everyone knowing everyone, and I'm just... here."

Quinn gave an exaggerated bow and stepped in. "It's weird from this side, too. Knowing everyone and none of them, not even my own parents, knowing me. Might be why Abs is running around re-adopting everyone. Probably how you felt last year with your parents. Did they freak out when they met you? Mine did. Well. Papa did. Dada kind of took it in stride. He had Elias visit last year, I guess."

"They... kind of did?" Jacen frowned a little. "Apparently they had Anan the year before, so it was a little bit less of a shock."

He shrugged as he started up the stairs.

"It was probably harder for them to swallow that I don't really know my father at all. What that means."

"Means he's dead," Quinn said quietly, "That's obvious. What'd you do here last year? Did you hang out with any of the other kids?"

Jacen shook his head a little.

"Mostly with my mom. Kind of... avoided the whole... dead dad situation. As much as I could."

Quinn headed up toward the roof. "Are you still? I mean, it's awkward, right? It looked like you two were at least trying to talk until Abney threw you for a loop."

"And I realized that literally everyone is family with my father except me?" Jacen might have kicked a toe against a step on the way up, yes. "That kind of threw a hydrospanner in the whole 'family bonding time' plan, yeah. I can't, right now. I'm too..."

Something. He wasn't sure what. But it wasn't great.

"He doesn't know Abney or me any more than you do, Jacen," Quinn pointed out, "His face was all over confusion when she said it and then he didn't want to hurt her feelings when she was about to cry all over him. I don't think he's any more used to it than you are."

He shrugged, "You're not our Jacen, but you're still Jacen, so..uh.. if you want it, you're still our cousin."

Quinn wasn't as good as Abney at adopting people but he was trying anyway.

"I mean, it's not... not entirely about who he knows. You have him. Everyone here has him. And I have... I have a mural Sabine painted, so at least I know what he looked like before he died. And a charm on Mom's kalikori. And his stupid face and his stupid hair and his stupid ears and sometimes Mom sees me in him and flinches inside."

He had, 'my father,' and they had 'Uncle Kanan.'

Jacen swallowed.

"Not... not that I'm... saying no. You know? It's just..."

He was green with envy. More green than usual, anyway.

Quinn leaned over and bumped shoulders. "I get it. I used to feel that way about other kids who had parents, when I didn't. I'm just sayin'. We're here, you know? If you want people of your own."

Jacen chewed on his lip a little.

"I mean... it isn't that I don't have people," he hedged. "I've got Mom and Chop. And sometimes Sabine and Zeb and Alexsandr. Wedge even visits sometimes, or we go to Ryloth..."

Which... was always A Thing. A complicated Thing.

He sighed as he stopped in front of the door to the roof.

"But it'd be nice to at least have people my age." A pause. "People who get it."

Quinn nodded, "So we make it happen. If you get the chance, you come back and we do the same." He thought about it for a second, "Did Kanan give you a phone?"

Jacen shook his head a little.

"Nope." A pause. "Should I get one?"

"Yeah.. wait, hold up. We're on Aunt Jack's floor," Quinn said, "If she still lives here."

He walked over to one of the apartments and scrutinized the doorjam for a moment before smirking. "She definitely still lives here." He reached up and carefully removed something that looked like a tiny, clear thread, setting it aside.

Out came his wallet and out came a lockpick and wrench. It took him less than a minute to get the door opened. Pushed it carefully and took a look inside just to make sure. Yup. Definitely Jack's place. Same couch. Same dartboard with a Cerberus logo and a bunch of throwing knives sticking out of it. He snickered and headed inside, going right to a cabinet in the kitchen. A quick rummage around and he found what he wanted - her stash of burner phones. They were cheap and basically disposable smartphones but they had standard parts and chargers, which was what he wanted. These came with a SIM card included, which was good since he couldn't exactly stop to go buy one right at the moment.

Quinn carefully put everything back and closed back up, returning to the hall, closing and locking the door as well as resetting the little hairlike strand. "Got one. Aunt Jack keeps a stash. She, uh, is a little hard on phones."

She threw them at the wall or into the ocean with frequency. "I can mess with it while you're flying."

Jacen paused a moment to lean in and kind of squint at that thread.

Huh.

"Yeah," he replied, smiling crookedly as he straightened up again. "That sounds like a plan. Onward to the Escape, then?"

Which was the best ship ever and was going to be his someday anyway, so he might as well take it for a joyride today, right?

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