The beach, Tuesday morning

[betterthanaplan]

It was basically warm again -- or at least not that cold -- so beach yoga was back on the beach, waves and porgs and all. Who were having a glorious time climbing all over the small tower of rocks Duke had built.

No, he was (probably) not going to try to get Rey to balance on it. He was just having some idle fun while he waited for her to arrive.

[open!]

Comments

[thatwaslucky]

"They're having fun," Rey noted when she arrived, wearing considerable fewer long sleeves than last week.

[betterthanaplan]

"They are. I'm staring to think the climbing on me thing is just because they're understimulated or something."

[thatwaslucky]

"Is this going to end with the porgs getting a full play area?"

She wouldn't hate seeing it.

[betterthanaplan]

"Probably," Duke admitted. "If it keeps them from trying to eat my yoga mat. Or the ropes on the Rouge. Or . . . rocks."

One of the smaller porgs was, in fact, gnawing on one of the rocks as they spoke. "Seriously?" Duke asked it. "That thing's bigger than you are."

[thatwaslucky]

"If it helps I'm not sure they can actually eat those." If they could, Rey would not judge.

[betterthanaplan]

"Certainly not the ones bigger than their heads," Duke said. "That . . . might be a thing, though. Birds eating rocks." He shrugged. "Think I read that somewhere."

He hadn't started obsessively watching animal documentaries as a stress response yet, so he didn't have the term for it right off the top of his head.

[thatwaslucky]

"Maybe." It wasn't like she'd know. "Hey, I have a proposition for you."

[betterthanaplan]

"I'd say I'm not that kind of guy but that'd be a lie," Duke said. "What's up?"

[thatwaslucky]

He'd look at her funny if that was the proposition anyway.

"You know how you said you'd be open to helping out back home?"

[betterthanaplan]

He would! They didn't have that kind of relationship. That weird weekend where they were ~soulmates~ or whatever not long after they'd started hanging out probably had something to do with that.

"I do," he said. "Got something coming up that could use the services of a good smuggler?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Exactly that, actually," she said. "I can fly but don't know... any of that, and Chewie knows what he's doing but there's going to be a language barrier."

And let's be real, no one was going to put Rey front and center on this sort of thing, just look at that innocent face.

[betterthanaplan]

"Language barriers can be tough," Duke said. "Yeah. That could be fun." He just wouldn't think too hard about the 'being in space' part of the whole thing. "When were you thinking?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Over the weekend? Time's flexible since it moves strangely there. Should be back by Su day night, Monday morning at the latest."

She was learning how to use the time difference to make weekend trips without making anyone worry, maybe.

[betterthanaplan]

"That'd work for me. Gives me time to let Lucy and Octavia know what's up, and not enough time for the porgs to completely overrun the boat while I'm gone."

[thatwaslucky]

"The porg takeover should be minor," she smiled. "Thank you."

[betterthanaplan]

"No problem. And hey, this time I won't have to worry about you."

They'd just probably have people worrying about both of them.

[thatwaslucky]

"You never need to worry abkut me," she told him.

It was still weird that anyone did.

[betterthanaplan]

"You know, I'm getting that," Duke said. "You're the kind of person who can figure her own way out of pretty much anything." He gave her a knowing look. "But that's not going to stop me from doing it anyway."

[thatwaslucky]

And this was why she was figuring out timing.

Which would inevitably backfire at some point.

"And maybe thjs will help. You'll be able to see there's nothing to worry about." Aside from the occasional firefight and her stalker.

[betterthanaplan]

“Rey. You’re fighting in a rebellion. There’s always going to be something to worry about.”

[thatwaslucky]

"It's fine," Rey insisted. "I was in more trouble last weekend than I've been back home."

...Recently. And she hadn't been back a ton.

[betterthanaplan]

". . . Wait, what'd you do last weekend?"

[thatwaslucky]

"I was in Beau's world saving people from torturers." Which was the easiest way to put it.

She'd tried to tell him!

[betterthanaplan]

And her attempts had clearly made quite an impact on him.

"You were doing what."

[thatwaslucky]

"I was doing my job."

...That answer was definitely different than what she'd have said a couple weeks ago.

[betterthanaplan]

"You were -- okay, back up. Can I get the whole story here, maybe?"

[thatwaslucky]

"She called myself, Liam and Karolina that Saturday to come help, because her friend's family had been taken. So we had to fight our way in, defeat the thing in charge, and free everyone. No one had a good time."

The basics were straightforward enough, and it'd still screwed her up for the week.

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah . . . no, I guess not." Duke remembered his conversation with Beau on New Years, how very not excited she'd been to be going home. He gathered no one having a good time was probably pretty par for the course as far as Beau's home was concerned. "Good on you for helping, though."

[thatwaslucky]

"How could I not?"

She was hearing that sort of thing a lot over the last few weeks and she was really starting to have Feelings on that.

"Anyway, I got through it just fine."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke just let out a little huff at that. Rey had no idea how much it said about her that she didn't even question helping people, even when it put her in bad or dangerous situations.

"You did. Explains why you were a little bit . . . off last week, though."

[thatwaslucky]

"It brought up some stuff," Rey said, and shrugged. "It's fine now."

[betterthanaplan]

"You sure? I don't mind listening if you want to talk."

Said the guy who would all but shut down completely that night rather than try to talk about his issues.

[thatwaslucky]

"It's not anything big. Just... knowing how those people felt. It sticks with you."

Especially since she had her own, albeit very different experience there.

[betterthanaplan]

"Those people being the ones who were being tortured," Duke said. ". . . Yeah, I'd guess so."

[thatwaslucky]

"Yeah. And you don't want to hear the rest."

He hadn't much liked hearing the Force bond stuff, and it all tied in.

[betterthanaplan]

"Okay, but now I'm just going to be imagining a bunch of terrible shit. You might as well tell me."

[thatwaslucky]

Rey paused, because she didn't have any problem talking about it. The only reason she'd hesitated this long was because of that initial reaction.

"I've had the captivity and torture thing happen. It's not like what they went through." But enough to be reminded.

[betterthanaplan]

"But it still brought up some bad shit, huh?" Duke asked. "Can you do that Force thing you did with me on yourself? Send yourself soothing thoughts or something?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Meditation and things," Rey shrugged. "It's fine. I just... deal with it."

She had a surprisingly healthy attitude about it, which was how you knew she wasn't related to the Skywalkers.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded. "Guess you've already been working on that part, huh. Good on you."

[thatwaslucky]

"I guess so." She also didn't know what to make of this reaction, either, so she shrugged again. "So what are we working on?"

Moving on.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke shrugged. "Got nothing specific in mind. You want to keep it simple today, or maybe try something new?"

[thatwaslucky]

"I like new things," she said.