Luke's, Sunday

[uncertain_dume]

Things were finally starting to wind down a little. Finally starting to approach something that Kanan had begun, at one point, to accept as his new normal. The week had been damn near good compared the fresh hell he felt like he'd been navigating for some time now, even if his head hadn't quite managed to wrap itself around the events of the week before just yet.

He was relieved to find that the same was the case with Luke's when he walked in. Normal Sunday pancake special, normal diner setup. Normal kitchen staff trying to herd some kind of weird giant tentacle thing back into the freezer...

He gave a content sigh as he settled behind the counter for his shift.

Ah, it was good to have some normal back.

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[somethingwithturquoise]

So it would probably be a shame if something were to come in and shake things up, now, wouldn't it?

Summer had debated a little whether the diner was the best place to broach this topic, and she was still a little on the fence about it, but it was a familiar, neutral sort of territory, comfortable, really, and comfortable would be good, right? The only thing she knew for sure was that she sort of had to stop putting it off; the deeds were drawn, the credits were ready to go, equipment scouted, resources secured...No more classes, no more business. All that was really left was just...telling Kanan.

You know. The really fun part!

And who knew? Maybe it might not even be a big deal. Maybe he wouldn't even care. Maybe the sun would explode tomorrow and shoot mutant fire monsters straight into the Earth. It was Fandom. Anything was possible.

"Hey, BDG," she said, smiling faintly as she settled into her usual spot.

[uncertain_dume]

"Summer, hey," Kanan said, smiling and giving a little nod back. In the kitchen, a polar bear had joined the tentacle thing in its conquest of the Space Outside The Freezer.

Ah, nice, normal Sunday.

"Here for your usual?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Yeah," Summer answered, and it sounded maybe a little wistful. Not too many of these Sundays left for her, really. At least she still had to talk to Sabine about painting the ship; that might take a little while. At least one more Sunday...

...her time left here on Earth was definitely going to be counted by Sundays.

"Chocolate chips today, I think," she decided. "And a chocolate shake. Feels like a chocolate kind of day, unless even being in the proximity of it's gonna be too much for you."

[uncertain_dume]

"Chocolate and I can coexist," Kanan replied, smirking a little and rolling his eyes. "We have to, I hand food to people for a living. On pancake day."

And so, there was so much chocolate.

Blegh.

Still, he was writing down her order and holding it out for someone in the kitchen to take. A tentacle reached and took it. Kanan thanked it and turned back to Summer. "Any particular reason it's a chocolate day?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Well, I am PMSing pretty hard right now," said Summer, who didn't even know if BDG would know what that meant, nor did she want to know if he did, but it was mostly to give herself a little more time to finally decide on a good way to just frame....everything. "But I guess it's kind of to celebrate?"

Which could have been a flag right there. Summer almost exclusively went sprinkles and glitter for celebrations; chocolate was usually for those rough days. Should have probably gone chocolate sprinkles...

"I, uh, finally decided on a spot."

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan opened his mouth a moment. And then closed it again. Wasn't sure whether to call her on that celebration or not.

And so the next time he opened his mouth, all he said was, "Yeah?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Yeah," said Summer, with a small snort of a laugh, since it was really difficult to dance around a yeah. "It's a bit of a fixer-upper, just like the ship, but I'm not too worried about it. That'll just make it easier to turn it into whatever I want it to be, you know? I got a really good deal on it, too, even if it's still more than I would like to be paying, but, I mean, good luck trying to successfully get a lowball price on anything on Coruscant. Thankfully, Shunsui put down a, like, stupid amount on Turtle & Canary, like, it's kind of ridiculous how much I got out of that deal, and, like, where does a guy like that even come up with that kind of money, anyway? He's one of the laziest people I've ever met. But not one of the drunkest. But that's a pretty high bar to reach; Grampa Rick could probably drink him right under the table. My mom could drink him under the table."

Difficult to dance around it, sure, but Summer liked to think she could bust out at least a few good moves.

[uncertain_dume]

You know, there was a lot going on, there. Good deal, that was great, thew new weird guy with the heart emojis paid a lot for the convenience store, that was fantastic. There were a lot of drunks in Summer's life and Kanan had a moment of clinging to the fact that he was no longer one of them, and he wanted to just keep clinging to that, really. That was the saner option, but his breath was catching and his heart was skipping and.

"Coruscant."

And it was an admirable attempt, Summer. It really was.

[somethingwithturquoise]

She really did have to at least try, and, even though Summer wasn't honestly expecting it to have worked, she still flinched a little when it didn't. Her shoulders fell, and her expression held a faint sort of smile backed up by a whole lot of apology.

"Yeah," she said. "Coruscant."

She might have launched into a whole explanation there; she'd certainly rehearsed one...several...over and over and over again in her head, but maybe she wouldn't even need them. Maybe he could still see why, without her having to go over it, maybe he'd just understand why it had to be Coruscant and she'd just been building this all up for nothing.

Fat chance. But maybe.

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan... just stood there. In silence. For far, far too long. Waiting for more, maybe. Trying to convince himself that maybe her reaffirmation of what she had said could still possibly mean somewhere else. There were countless inhabited planets in the galaxy, maybe there was another, smaller, safer Coruscant somewhere in the Outer Rim that he just hadn't encountered yet and...

"How far," he said, after that long moment, "from the-" and he had to stop himself from saying 'temple,' "Emperor's Palace?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

Hoo boy.

"Hop, skip, and a jump, really," said Summer, who found a way to make her expression even more apologetic, somehow. She bit her lower lip a little before offering, "But not too close. I mean, some rando picking up primo space in the Federal District would be suspicious as hell, but I still needed to be close enough to where things were actually happening, you know? It's a big city; gotta keep the focus where it counts."

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan was quiet again.

For another very, very long moment.

"You know," he said, "I'm trying very hard to keep calm right now."

Leaning pretty hard into that 'passion yet serenity' thing, as a matter of fact.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer was just going to straight up bite that lower lip clean off at this point.

"I know," she said. "I know! And I know how it sounds to you, and that's why I've been putting off telling you, but I've known this is where I need to go for a while now, too. I've thought about it, Kanan. You know I have, you know I wouldn't just go throwing myself at Coruscant unless I was absolutely, one-hundred-twenty percent sure it was exactly where I need to be. And it is. What am I going to be doing in some far-flung Outer Rim planet where people like you and Hera are already doing things? You need someone closer. You need someone right in the middle of it who actually can be there, who isn't tied to any of this, who can get information, make connections, and get you one step ahead before any of it even starts being whispered across the galaxy. I'm that person, Kanan. This is where I can help the most."

And she had a ship now. Her class was over, her store under new management. Credits lined up, she just needed to seal the deal. She could take off as soon as she left the diner, and there wasn't anything he could do about it, either. It wasn't like he could even go chasing after her, either....but that was just her failsafe. That was her Left With No Other Choice, and she really, really, really hoped it didn't have to come down to that.

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack hadn't exactly been avoiding Kanan all week. More like she'd been sunk on her couch in an epic sulking funk and hadn't bothered to leave the house. She finally mustered up and went to Luke's after her radio shift.

A small bit of normal, for once this summer.

"Hey," she greeted, taking a seat. Was Kanan absolutely getting a once-over to make sure there were no lasting bruises, contusions, or trauma stress? Absolutely.

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan was already reaching for the coffee pot. Well. After taking a moment to hold up his hands and do a slow-turn so that she could see that he was in one piece, with the exception of a seriously scuffed boot.

"Hey," he replied with a nod as he poured her coffee and slid it to her. "Long time, stranger."

[biotic_psychotic]

And she was taking the look, yes, and noting the scuffed boot. Then she was studying the ceiling and saying through her teeth, "I know. So.. you know how I was one of those little clicky block toys?"

Yup, that was a growl.

"The floor of my apartment turned to the same type of clicky block material. I got out of bed and stuck to the fucking floor ickle. It's a good goddamn thing toys don't gotta piss, man."

Yes, she knew how ridiculous the image was. She'd lived it. He'd earned the laugh.

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan blinked. And pictured that.

And then grinned faintly.

"Hey, my feet were glued to the floor. But at least my piece of floor was relatively small and mobile."

[biotic_psychotic]

"Mine wasn't," Jack told him, "It was the whole floor. Finally pried myself off, took one step.. stuck the fuck down again. It took me a couple days just to reach the damn door."

[uncertain_dume]

Sorry, Jack, Kanan was biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

"Sounds like it kept you out of trouble, at least?"

[biotic_psychotic]

"Kept me the fuck out of everything," Jack said. After a beat, she added a single word. "Sorry."

Because she was. They'd .. slightly less than figuratively.. put Kanan in front of a firing squad and she hadn't been there, hadn't been able to do a single damn thing about it. She would have at least tried if she hadn't had her feet stuck to the fucking floor.

After an awkward drink of coffee, she asked, "How you holding up, ickle?" Didn't figure him for fine.

Figured him for a headslap if he tried to say he was fine, though.

[uncertain_dume]

"I'm..." Kanan hummed a little. Was 'not sure' an appropriate answer? It wasn't a helpful answer, anyway, and so he offered, "working on it."

That was something. There was still a lot of ground to cover. He was still absolute poodoo at talking about it.

Working on it.

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack bobbed her head in a slow nod. That was an acceptable answer. It was better than a lie you could see from space. "You need anything I can give you?" she offered because she was bad at this whole comfort thing. "Talking, sparring, stupid mindless shit to distract you? Cupcakes? I mean, that's kind of Kaidan's fucking thing but, you know, if it helps."

[uncertain_dume]

And now it was time for the, "I'm not sure." Kanan sighed, and then added, "Stupid mindless shit, maybe. There's a lot. This whole summer has been a lot, and it's definitely wrapped itself up with a bang."

Rey, Summer, the Toymaker... Kanan was holding on by the skin of his teeth.

[biotic_psychotic]

"This whole summer has been pure fucking balls, ickle," Jack complained with agreement, "It does this shit next year, I say we all fucking bail and hang out on Omega for three months."

She sipped her coffee and .. yeah, this wasn't subtle. "So what's goin' on in your head?"

[uncertain_dume]

... Hell, Omega was tempting. Far away from his galaxy, far away from the island, far away from the Empire or any remnants of the Jedi or those damn Clones...

"I settled here because it was the safe place to keep my head down," Kanan offered. "... For starters."