Emo Beach [midday]

[sith_happened]

The dekittification could have gone worse.

You know.

Somehow.

And Anakin was going to sit here on the beach until he thought about how.

[For Rikku. SP for great justice.]

Comments

[the_merriest]

The room had been empty when she got back, and she wasn't going to admit how relieved she was about that. So she should have sat down and figured out who to contact and waited for Hermione to get back. That lasted all of thirty seconds before she'd taken off again.

Rikku hadn't even realized she was headed for the beach until she got there. The beach was good. She could sit and listen to the spray and nuzzle her Judekitty and ... you know. Completely avoid all of the stuff she needed to do.

Great.

She wiped her eyes again and tried to figure out how to start telling people, completely oblivious to the fact that there was someone else on the beach.

[sith_happened]

"He liked to keep to himself," Anakin said softly, "but it doesn't mean he passed through unnoticed. Zoe'll know what else to do." He smiled grimly to himself. "Somehow I don't see Hamlet as a flight of doves and bagpipes type."

Force, but he missed him already.

[the_merriest]

Rikku shook her head. "He w-wouldn't want ... a big fuss. But people should know."

She hugged herself. "I keep waiting to wake up, you know? And then he'll call and tell me how silly I'm being and ..."

[sith_happened]

Anakin reached back over to hug her like he would've comforted his own daughter.

You know, if Leia was talking to him at all.

"It's not going to work like that," he said, rocking her.

[the_merriest]

"I know," she said softly, screwing her eyes up again, and she let herself be pulled back into a hug. "It's not f-fair, it's not supposed to be like this, it's all wrong."

[sith_happened]

"And you're not supposed to learn that lesson for years yet," Anakin said, voice full of sorrow.

[the_merriest]

She laughed, almost bitterly. "I've known as long as I can remember. My mom, my friends, my tribe, ... I c-can't go back to that." She drew a long, shuddering breath. "To pretending it's all okay and ... and l-letting each death roll by, and ... I can't."

[sith_happened]

"But wallowing doesn't do any good either," and wow Anakin, listen to your own advice.

"You don't have to be manic, and you don't have to be miserable," Anakin said, unconsciously imitating Obi-Wan. "Just be you. Find your balance in your own time. You don't have to impress anyone here."

[the_merriest]

Rikku nodded, stepping back a little to wipe at her eyes. "It's ... it's that I w-wanted to be strong, you know? For Yunie and for everyone else and ... if they don't have to worry about me then ... then it's easier. And it doesn't hurt so much if you ..."

The Judekitty mrowled again, headbutting her ankles, and she laughed softly. Impulsively she crouched down to scritch his ears. "Yeah. I know. You didn't let me get away with that, did you?"

[sith_happened]

Anakin finally noticed the cat. "Um...Jude?" he guessed.

It would hopefully stop her from noticing he was doing exactly what she'd just described.

[the_merriest]

She scooped Jude up into her arms and stood up again, giving him a wry smile. "Fandom as usual. He, uh, he kind of ..." She leaned forward to nuzzle the Judekitty lightly. "W-wouldn't let me ... close off, yeah? I mean, when he was Jude and not, uh. This just happened this morning."

Oh, wow, did that sound bad. Rikku tried not to blush and sound like an awful terrible sort of person because it was totally innocent that she'd slept over. Uh, mostly. More or less.

[sith_happened]

"Were you in a closet?" Anakin asked before blushing dark red. "Never mind," he said quickly. "I don't need to know that."

[the_merriest]

"A ... a closet?" Rikku looked at him curiously. "No, we were just in ..."

Yet again, her mind took forever to catch up with her mouth. "H-his room!" she squeaked. "Not like that. I mean. Hey! Is there a c-closet that changes people? Do you think it'd change him back? Last time it took almost a week for him to change back and is this really just a Fandom thing? I've never turned into anything before and I've been here like six months and doesn't it get annoying, after a while?"

If she talked very, very fast, maybe he wouldn't realize that she had almost said "bed."

[sith_happened]

Anakin's cheeks were very red for a teacher. "Just guys, and just the one direction," he muttered. "Sorry. You have to wait for it to wear off."

He silently begged for her not to ask exactly how he knew this.

[the_merriest]

She nodded quickly. "And have clothes, 'cause people said ... yeah."

Why, oh why, could she not shut up?

"B-but that's ... why I didn't ..." She took a breath. "I should have been telling people and doing things and every time I said that he got very 'no, you're Doing That again, stop it' and ... that's ... it's harder, yeah? To ... not do that."

[sith_happened]

"Sometimes they know you better than you know you," Anakin said with a small smile towards the cat. "And now you've told people and we can do things and you can remember to breathe, okay?"