The Preserve, Tuesday Midmorning

[weetuskenraider]

She'd spent the night out on the beach with Ben, but a vague unsettling feeling had drawn Tahiri back to the cabins and the comlink she'd left in her alcove there -- it wasn't that she was in the habit of leaving it behind, but she hadn't wanted the potential interruption. (Not of that. Because there was no that. Just a chance to get some uninterrupted sleep, okay?)

There was, in fact, a message waiting for her when she got there, and as soon as she played it the unsettling feeling coalesced into something very much not vague any more. Jaina -- her Jaina at home -- never sounded like this, and yet she was practically exuberant. And it wasn't that Tahiri could blame her for being happy that her twin brother was alive after all.

She'd half expected it, really, and it saved her the guilt of hoping it wasn't going to happen, but at the same time it brought certain unwanted potential futures a little closer than she'd like for comfort. Having just met someone who looked exactly like Jacen, even if George sounded and acted nothing like him, didn't do much to help either. The timing was what really sucked void, though. Tahiri couldn't have stopped being aware of the time that had passed since Anakin's death if she tried, even if she wanted to, and by her count (including the time that had passed on her mission home in spring) it had been a year since Myrkr.

So it . . . wasn't unfair, exactly; she knew that. It was just the fact that she'd gotten news of one of Jaina's brothers being alive again had come now. When it marked a year since Anakin died, and she had to face up -- again -- to the realization that he wasn't coming back.

After getting the message, Tahiri had wandered away from the campsite into the preserve and now found herself staring at a cluster of grotesque-looking angel statues. She didn't know the story of what they were or how they had gotten there, but she got the sense that they were frozen in time, somehow. Stuck in a moment they couldn't get out of.

She hadn't had that dream again last night, but she'd had it often enough in the past few weeks. Had, to some extent, been stuck in that moment for the past year. Looking at the statues now, she wished she couldn't say she knew the feeling.

[OOC: Yeah, I'm a mean, horrible person. I know. I AM SO SORRY. And I swear she will get over this or I'm going to headdesk myself unconscious. Establishy, but open, why not? ETA: Details of convo with Karla NFB, whee.]

Comments

[weetuskenraider]

"Have you?" Tahiri asked right back.

That would be a no. Er.

[momslilassassin]

"I stopped for coffee after my run this morning?" he tried.

[weetuskenraider]

"Maybe I should bring us down some food then, too," Tahiri replied.

[momslilassassin]

"Like a picnic," Ben said, trying (and failing) to keep his voice light.

[weetuskenraider]

"A sleepover picnic." Tahiri wasn't any more successful at a joke, and got up on tiptoe to kiss him instead. "Hey . . . c'mere."

[momslilassassin]

Ben cupped her face between his hands and put everything he couldn't put into words in the kiss he gave her.

[weetuskenraider]

There was a lot Tahiri couldn't put into words either, and she wrapped her arms around him as she kissed him back, wanting to show him how much he meant to her, no matter what she was feeling right now.

[momslilassassin]

He kept the kiss relatively gentle--no reason to make things even more complicated for her--but wasn't planning on pulling back any time soon.

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri wasn't pushing the kiss either, but she hoped he could tell what she was trying to show him. Thanks, she sent tentatively.

[momslilassassin]

It's what I'm here for, he replied, sliding one hand down to rest at her waist.

[weetuskenraider]

She dropped her hand to cover his, then brought it up to cup his cheek. Nobody else I'd rather have with me.

[momslilassassin]

The briefest flicker of doubt shot through his Force-sense before he quickly repressed it.

"Good," he said softly, nipping at her lower lip.

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri kissed him back, then pulled away to look up at him. "Hey. I wouldn't be with you now if I didn't want to be."

[momslilassassin]

He gave her a tiny smile. "Yeah, I know. You'd stomp on my foot and tell me to go away."

[weetuskenraider]

"No, I'd probably kick you. And I don't want to." Tahiri smiled slightly at him, then glanced toward the statues. "This place creeps me out."

[momslilassassin]

"It's like they're watching us," he said, glaring at them over her shoulder.

[weetuskenraider]

"It's freaky. And kind of sad," she added.

[momslilassassin]

"Why sad?" Ben asked.

[weetuskenraider]

"Because . . . I think I know what it feels like to be them," Tahiri said quietly.

[momslilassassin]

"Stuck in one place and creepy looking?" Ben smiled and ran his finger along her cheek. "I'm not so sure."

[weetuskenraider]

"Well, I like to think I'm not creepy looking." No matter what Katchoo said. "But stuck in one place . . ."

[momslilassassin]

The look in Ben's eyes said he wasn't really going to argue that she wasn't. "Do you want to keep being stuck?" he asked instead.

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri hesitated briefly, then shook her head. "No. I really don't."

[momslilassassin]

"Then we can work on it," he said, reaching for her hand. "If you wanted to stay where you are, well, that would be another matter."

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri took his hand and, watching as she did so, laced her fingers through his. "I stopped wishing I could have died with him a long time ago," she said quietly.