fandomtownies | Luke's, Sunday

"They're just square," Kanan laughed, shaking his head and shrugging, already reaching for a mug to pour her coffee into. "I think they add little blue and gold tassels with icing."

He grinned up at her as he poured.

"Morning, Jack."

"Square's fine," Jack agreed, still giving the Cook a bit of eyeball. "I don't trust the wacky on this island to not make 'em concrete."

Was she reaching for that coffee immediately? Yes. "So a whole new generation of fully-fledged students has left the nest. That mean a new group's coming in soon? Other than the summer kids, I mean?"

Beat.

"Good morning."

Yup, and there was one coffee, being passed Jack's way.

"Yeah," Kanan confirmed. "Usually the new students show up on a Saturday, right before classes kick back in. So we've got another week of relative quiet," ha, "before I'm right back to itching out of my skin all over again, wondering if there are any little Jedi or Sith or Mandalorians running around that weren't here the day before."

It seemed to be a far more common happenstance than one might think it would be, given the general state of 'functionally extinct' of the Jedi in his time.

Jack paused with the coffee halfway to her mouth and set the mug back down again. "How much trouble might that be if there were? You seem to get on ok with whatever fuckers are here."

"Depends on who it is," Kanan replied, shrugging. "Skywalker and I don't always see eye-to-eye, Atton thinks I'm some ridiculous puppy. My first few semesters teaching here I was actually teaching one of my older classmates from my own youth, and Lana and Sabine were both pleasant surprises. But it could always get complicated, when it comes to people from home."

"But that ain't trouble," Jack said slowly, "Complicated, yeah. Emotionally upsetting, sure. Not trouble. So where's the itch from?"

"If I knew what the itch was, I'd know what to do about it," Kanan replied, hiking up a shoulder. "Sometimes it's just a bad feeling."

And he hated that. A lot.

"Kaidan said to pay attention when you said you had a bad feeling about something, Kanan," Jack told him quietly, "That generally, you don't have 'just bad feelings'."

Kanan's head bowed a little at that, and he closed his eyes and sighed.

"What I mean," he amended, "is that I don't have anything more to go by than that. There's something coming, Jack. It feels like the sort of pressure that builds before a storm. But that's all I have to work with. The Force doesn't always give me the answers."

"Then neither of you goes anywhere without backup until it's over," Jack told him, "and none of us goes anywhere unarmed." A wry smile, "Not that you ever do, I mostly mean the other shithead and me, who aren't so used to needing to carry here. Though Kaidan's been pretty good about having his Eagle on him."

She thought about it and asked, "It get worse, the feeling, when you think about the bus? Other than your usual anxiety about it, I mean?"

Kanan shook his head a little.

"No," he replied. "It really doesn't. Not sure that means anything, but at least it's... promising. Or damning. I haven't decided which."

Edited 2019-04-28 23:51 (UTC)

"If you think past the welcome shindig, anything?" Jack asked curiously, "Or does it just sit there in your head until it happens?"

She thought about it and offered, "I can go with to help pick up the kids if you wind up driving." Annnnnd grinned, "Make sure nobody tries to take off with the bus when you hit the bathroom or whatever."

"I no longer take breaks while driving the bus," Kanan muttered. "If I'm driving this semester, I might actually camp out in the damn thing overnight, in a secret, undisclosed location somewhere on the mainland. Just to be sure."

He... probably wouldn't do that.

He might do that.

"And for the rest... I'd have to make time to meditate on it," he replied. "Even then, no guarantees I'd learn anything new. The Force is a guide, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's free and easy with the roadmaps."

"Make the fucking time, Kanan," Jack said, sipping her coffee, "Even if you don't learn anything new, meditating can't hurt and if there's a chance it might help narrow the fucking scope then it's worth it, yeah?"

She tilted her head, "We could always booby trap the bus."

Might be kidding.

Probably wasn't kidding.

Kanan paused for a few moments, glancing around for squirrels.

"... Trap it how?"

He'd circle back to the meditating thing in a moment. Right now, there was a convenient distraction.

Er.

A game plan. Yes.

"Some UV dye, some glitter, an aerosol chamber and a mercury tilt switch," Jack shrugged, "Kind of like the things they put in with banknotes when there's a theft. Shit gets everywhere."

Don't.. ask how she knew that.

"Stick it on the steering wheel or the door, anyone tries to get in, anyone tries to move the bus and they look like a neon orange disco ball for about a week."

She hadn't spent any time thinking about this. It was just the way her brain worked.

"Myself included?"

Kanan couldn't help but smile crookedly at that. Because knowing his luck, it absolutely would be. Just by setting the damn trap.

Jack eyed him, "Only if you're an idiot and forget it's there before you Force-fucking-lift it out of the way, ickle."

Really, what good was being a Force user, even?

"I have occasionally been known to be an idiot."

Just putting that out there.

Because oh boy, was he sometimes so very much exactly that.

"Then that'd be your own fucking fault and you'd be a very pretty neon orange disco ball at the Welcome Picnic," Jack smirked at him.

"Could be an interesting look for when you haul me off to go dancing," Kanan mused.

"Wrong kind of club, ickle," Jack said without missing a beat, "For that you want a rave. Which so fucking help me I am gonna throw one of these days. Probably not the same weekend as the new meat arrives."

"Maybe the weekend after," Kanan agreed, half-smirking. "At least let them unpack before making them be social, Jack."

She snorted. "I don't have to throw a rave for that. I signed up to teach a summer class all about working together."

And how to not be an asshole. By, say, running ahead of the party without checking.

Hey, he'd be following the students, the party would be fiiiine.

"They do classes for that sort of thing now?"

A beat.

"Force knows people around here do need them."

Not that he knew anyone like that, personally. Honest.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject