Rey's warehouse- Friday afternoon

[thatwaslucky]

Rey was still not in the best place this weeks even if she was doing okay and certainly wouldn't classify herself as bad. The weekend had been a lot and it took more than a few days to process things, especially when they brought up things from last year, and also the last seventeen years...

So today rather than throwing herself into anything, she was sitting on the floor with her back against part of the course, reading one of the tests, but mostly the same page at least four times.


[Open!]

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[sith_happened]

"Rey?" Anakin called, also sending out a soft tendril through the Force to see if she was up for company.

[thatwaslucky]

She was, if a little quieter than normal.

"Over here," she said, closing the text and setting it down beside her.

[sith_happened]

Anakin walked in and sat down next to her. "Rough weekend," he guessed.

[thatwaslucky]

She nodded. "Yes. But no? And also yes."

She considered it. "It's been a worse week."

[sith_happened]

Anakin hummed sympathetically. "What happened?"

[thatwaslucky]

"My parents were here," she said.

[sith_happened]

Anakin's full attention turned to her. "How did it go?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Overall good," she said. "Sometimes awkward. Heartbreaking a lot of the time. Surreal."

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "Would you like a hug?" he asked.

[thatwaslucky]

"Yes," she said, already moving to give him one.

[sith_happened]

Anakin hugged her back tightly, happy to hold on for as long as she needed it.

[thatwaslucky]

Rey took a minute. Maybe two.

"I'm okay," she assured him when she pulled away. "It's just been a lot."

[sith_happened]

"Of course it's a lot," Anakin said quietly. "Was this the first time you've seen them?"

He had been an adult for a very long time and still would choose not to think how he'd react if his mother showed up.

[thatwaslucky]

She nodded a little hesitantly. "I don't really have any real memory of them before they left. Just vague impressions, mostly. And then when everything happened last year I had a vision of when they left and how they died. That was the first time I ever saw their faces. That I remember."

[sith_happened]

"Does this help make the memory of how they died less painful?" Anakin asked, shifting closer to add physical support to what might be a tough question.

[thatwaslucky]

Yeah, she had to think about that one.

"No. It makes it worse, knowing the story. But knowing the story makes the rest of it less painful, in a way."

[sith_happened]

"You can't fill in the unknown with the worst ideas your brain can imagine any more," Anakin said quietly.

[thatwaslucky]

"Yeah. I've been feeling a little guilty over the time I spent believing they abandoned me," she said.

[sith_happened]

Anakin nudged gently into her shoulder. "It was an honest conclusion to come to," he said.

[thatwaslucky]

"I know." And she couldn't even be mad at Kylo Ren for putting that thought out there- though she could be forever mad about the whole thing in general there- because he'd gotten that thought from her own head. "Just having met them now, it feels stupid that I ever could have been mad at them."

[sith_happened]

Anakin smiled softly. "Well, they had their weaknesses just as much as anyone. Don't overcompensate wildly in the opposite direction, either."

[thatwaslucky]

"It doesn't hurt me if I do, though," Rey said. "I'm probably never seeing them again."

Never say never, but she had a feeling.

[sith_happened]

Anakin pressed his lips together. "I'm sorry to hear that."

[thatwaslucky]

Rey shrugged. "I'm better off than I was before. I got answers. It's just that now I actually know who I miss."

[sith_happened]

"It's a weekend that's not without a downside," Anakin agreed.