Coruscant- Sunday Fandom time
The ride from Han and Leia's new apartment to the Jedi Temple was spent mostly in silence, right up till Zekk had to open his mouth. "Well, that was interesting."
Jaina rolled her eyes, but apparently she had been waiting for the opportunity to talk about it herself. It had been a normal family (plus Zekk) dinner to celebrate the new place: her parents' first real, stable home that wasn't the Millennium Falcon since the Yuuzhan Vong war. It hadn't gone so smoothly. "My favorite part was when my dad actually got political," Jaina said, pretty sure that had never happened before. "And fought with Uncle Luke about it. First time I've seen that."
There had been problems between the Galactic Alliance and Corellia recently, and it was beginning to look like it was going to end in rebellion, if not war- the fourth of Jaina's life, if you counted Panem. Luke and the Jedi were expected to act with the GA, though Luke sided with the GA there anyway, and Han was a natural-born Corellian who very definitely sided with his homeplanet, with his stupid lookalike cousin heading things up there these days, so it was getting tense.
"It tops Han accusing me of chasing you all over the galaxy in the middle of it?" Zekk asked.
She sighed. "That might go hand in hand with why Mom was checking up on the ETA for grandchildren." Which... was a little more annoying than she wanted to let on. There wasn't any real pressure to find a nice guy anymore, and she hadn't even had an issue letting Eric visit without being questioned about the relationship. As it turned out, they actually believed that Eric was just a friend because they thought Jaina was with Zekk, or about to be.
Yeah.
Despite Jaina's obvious frustration, Zekk almost grinned. "What'd you tell her?"
"To ask Jacen," she said. She didn't know that Jacen's answer to the same grandchildren question was to ask Jaina.
He paused, looking thoughtful. "Is that why Leia invited me?"
"Probably," Jaina admitted. "So I have that to nip in the bud..."
Zekk went quiet, and Jaina knew it was because he didn't want her to have to nip it in the bud. Sorry, but she just didn't want to go there with Zekk. She couldn't help the way she felt, and she felt nothing but friendship there. Not to mention, Jaina did like the relaxed... thing she had going on with Eric and liked that it didn't come with the typical problems of a relationship. Her life was not conducive to romance, and knowing what she might be in for in the next year, she wanted her focus to be on what was happening around her.
Luckily Zekk changed the subject to keep things from getting too awkward. "I thought you and Jacen were better. Things felt... cool tonight."
They never felt anything but anymore. "I tried," she said with a one-shouldered shrug. "There's only so much trying you can do before you have to stop and hope things turn out okay."
"Even with what you think might happen?"
Jaina almost snapped at him, but Zekk knew her concerns. He was missing one very large, key element to the whole Jacen-goes-dark picture- namely, her part in the end- but he knew that in one reality out there, Jacen was Sith. He also knew how much she stressed over it. If he was asking, he wasn't judging. And the fact was, after her last trip to Fandom, she was stressing over it more. She wanted to give Jacen some support, knowing that if he did do something massively stupid and turn to the dark side he'd need her to come back, but he kept making it so difficult. It was like he kept pushing her away on purpose and had been for years now, sometimes by simply never returning calls, sometimes by using her to start wars.
And if he had, in fact, mindwiped her... She couldn't trust him enough to be supportive right now.
"There's only so much I can do, Zekk. He was the one who manipulated us. He's the one who started picking fights. He's the one who keeps leaving me hanging. If he doesn't want me in his life, then there's nothing I can do about it." She maybe could be nicer to him, though. She couldn't help it- she was hurt. And worried. And annoyed. And it wasn't like Jacen seemed to care, which just made her colder.
"That's really it?" he asked.
"Yes. Do you mind, I'm trying not to crash us here."
"You couldn't crash us if you tried."
She gave him a sidelong look. "Kalarba, Tenupe..." She'd crashed plenty. Sometimes they were impressive crashes, too.
Zekk considered this. "Okay, I'll let you focus on driving for now."
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. And so begins Legacy of the Force (finally). My apologies for the upcoming spam to your flists from here on and I promise to at least try not to be too annoying. Tracy... I'm gonna owe you a pony or something.]
Jaina rolled her eyes, but apparently she had been waiting for the opportunity to talk about it herself. It had been a normal family (plus Zekk) dinner to celebrate the new place: her parents' first real, stable home that wasn't the Millennium Falcon since the Yuuzhan Vong war. It hadn't gone so smoothly. "My favorite part was when my dad actually got political," Jaina said, pretty sure that had never happened before. "And fought with Uncle Luke about it. First time I've seen that."
There had been problems between the Galactic Alliance and Corellia recently, and it was beginning to look like it was going to end in rebellion, if not war- the fourth of Jaina's life, if you counted Panem. Luke and the Jedi were expected to act with the GA, though Luke sided with the GA there anyway, and Han was a natural-born Corellian who very definitely sided with his homeplanet, with his stupid lookalike cousin heading things up there these days, so it was getting tense.
"It tops Han accusing me of chasing you all over the galaxy in the middle of it?" Zekk asked.
She sighed. "That might go hand in hand with why Mom was checking up on the ETA for grandchildren." Which... was a little more annoying than she wanted to let on. There wasn't any real pressure to find a nice guy anymore, and she hadn't even had an issue letting Eric visit without being questioned about the relationship. As it turned out, they actually believed that Eric was just a friend because they thought Jaina was with Zekk, or about to be.
Yeah.
Despite Jaina's obvious frustration, Zekk almost grinned. "What'd you tell her?"
"To ask Jacen," she said. She didn't know that Jacen's answer to the same grandchildren question was to ask Jaina.
He paused, looking thoughtful. "Is that why Leia invited me?"
"Probably," Jaina admitted. "So I have that to nip in the bud..."
Zekk went quiet, and Jaina knew it was because he didn't want her to have to nip it in the bud. Sorry, but she just didn't want to go there with Zekk. She couldn't help the way she felt, and she felt nothing but friendship there. Not to mention, Jaina did like the relaxed... thing she had going on with Eric and liked that it didn't come with the typical problems of a relationship. Her life was not conducive to romance, and knowing what she might be in for in the next year, she wanted her focus to be on what was happening around her.
Luckily Zekk changed the subject to keep things from getting too awkward. "I thought you and Jacen were better. Things felt... cool tonight."
They never felt anything but anymore. "I tried," she said with a one-shouldered shrug. "There's only so much trying you can do before you have to stop and hope things turn out okay."
"Even with what you think might happen?"
Jaina almost snapped at him, but Zekk knew her concerns. He was missing one very large, key element to the whole Jacen-goes-dark picture- namely, her part in the end- but he knew that in one reality out there, Jacen was Sith. He also knew how much she stressed over it. If he was asking, he wasn't judging. And the fact was, after her last trip to Fandom, she was stressing over it more. She wanted to give Jacen some support, knowing that if he did do something massively stupid and turn to the dark side he'd need her to come back, but he kept making it so difficult. It was like he kept pushing her away on purpose and had been for years now, sometimes by simply never returning calls, sometimes by using her to start wars.
And if he had, in fact, mindwiped her... She couldn't trust him enough to be supportive right now.
"There's only so much I can do, Zekk. He was the one who manipulated us. He's the one who started picking fights. He's the one who keeps leaving me hanging. If he doesn't want me in his life, then there's nothing I can do about it." She maybe could be nicer to him, though. She couldn't help it- she was hurt. And worried. And annoyed. And it wasn't like Jacen seemed to care, which just made her colder.
"That's really it?" he asked.
"Yes. Do you mind, I'm trying not to crash us here."
"You couldn't crash us if you tried."
She gave him a sidelong look. "Kalarba, Tenupe..." She'd crashed plenty. Sometimes they were impressive crashes, too.
Zekk considered this. "Okay, I'll let you focus on driving for now."
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. And so begins Legacy of the Force (finally). My apologies for the upcoming spam to your flists from here on and I promise to at least try not to be too annoying. Tracy... I'm gonna owe you a pony or something.]