The Park on Sunday morning - picnic.

[hernando_fuentes]

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!]

Comments

[what_dad_was_like]

"Did you see the look on my father's face?" Jacen was grinning from ear to ear as he righted the ship and then started making a break skyward. "I don't think he was sure if he was supposed to strangle me or congratulate me. And was that your other dad, laughing his head off?"

[forever_family]

Quinn nodded and laughed again, "Kanan makes the best faces. Yeah, that was Dada. Papa's still not quite used to things on the island and this one's probably less so since it's before we were even adopted. He still gets worried about things sometimes. Dada's usually there to tell him it's fine. It's kind of a gauge of whether or not I'm actually in trouble. If Dada's laughing or trying not to, it's not so bad. When he's not laughing.. "

Low whistle. "That's when I know I've really screwed up. Usually it's because something was dangerous but I didn't know it at the time. That's the worst, you know? They don't yell or anything, but they'll make a point to tell me how my actions affected them. I don't mind pranking them but when I heck up and scare them.. " He shook his head, "That makes me feel terrible. They're so good, you know? They deserve a good kid, someone they can be proud of."

[what_dad_was_like]

Jacen nodded a little, falling into a little, fond smile.

"That's mom," he admitted. "For all that her 'you're in trouble' voice can stop rancors in their tracks, she's still pretty good at taking stupid in stride, you know? But you don't really become a general if you can't do that much. Especially not with the crew she had."

He said that with a laugh- he loved them all. The Spectres were his family, after all. Even if they were a ragtag pack of idiots. A Mandalorian, a survivor of the Lasat genocide, a former ISB agent turned fulcrum.

... Chopper...