Room 529, Tuesday Midday

[weetuskenraider]

Well, she'd gotten her lightsaber back, at least; disconcerting as it was that the piles of zombie bodies had just disappeared from the school grounds she wasn't complaining about not having to pick through reeking piles of goo and rotted flesh to find it.

Tahiri sort of lost track of how time passed between here and home, and didn't really try to keep track of it that much anyway, aside from what was strictly necessary to keep up with how the war was going. It was more timeline confusion than she really needed. So she hadn't realized what today was, not until she checked her messages and found several birthday greetings There was a hyper one from Tekli that made her smile (nothing about a one-meter tall, fuzzy brown Chadra-Fan on an apparent sugar high wasn't funny), and more subdued ones from Sannah, Valin, Kam, and Tionne that got about the same reaction. The message from Han and Leia, though, nice as it might have been (and it really was, considering how worn down they looked and that they'd still taken the time to send it), was a little more bittersweet.

She sent back some cursory replies, thanking them and sort of glossing over the fact that the last week and change had been less than fantastic. Force knew they all had bigger things to worry about anyway.

Huh. She was sixteen now. She felt a lot older than that sometimes, she mused as she sat on her bed, staring out the window with her datapad dangling from one hand. And maybe, if some things worked out, this year might end up stacking up better than the last couple had.

Considering this was the first birthday she'd had since Anakin died, it was a little surprising that she was thinking that. But Tahiri wasn't sure that was a bad thing.

[OOC: Door's open a tad, post is all the way open! Subject to SP until late afternoon, but open anyway. She's not emo, I swear. ETA: OMFG BURGER KING KTHX.]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

Ben hadn't been doing a lot of sitting still anyway. It led to thinking, and thinking was bad.

"I'll be sure there aren't zombies out there this time," he said ruefully. "I think I turned Ender off of ice cream for life accidentally."

[weetuskenraider]

"Ben Skywalker," Tahiri said with a soft laugh, "only you would go out for ice cream in the middle of a zombie invasion."

[momslilassassin]

"I wanted ice cream," Ben insisted. Which was...mostly true.

[weetuskenraider]

"And getting to fight zombies on the way was a bonus?" Tahiri guessed.

[momslilassassin]

"For me," he said. "I forget that everyone isn't like me."

[weetuskenraider]

"I like that about you," Tahiri ventured.

[momslilassassin]

"That I'm good at killing things?" Ben looked a little wibbly.

[weetuskenraider]

"That didn't come out right, did it?" Tahiri gave him a sheepish look. "I meant I like that you're not like everyone else. And that's part of who you are, so . . ."

[momslilassassin]

Ben's cheeks went pink. "Yeah, that sounds a little better," he mumbled.

[weetuskenraider]

"Sorry," she said, looking down at the bantha in her lap. Time for a change of subject? "I should come up with a name for him, I suppose."

[momslilassassin]

"Kettch is already taken," he said with a more natural smile.

[weetuskenraider]

"I heard all about him," Tahiri noted. "It came up when Face thought the idea of me in an X-Wing was pretty hilarious."

She was still kind of cranky about that.

[momslilassassin]

Which was why Ben didn't smile. "Short jokes? I expected more of them."

[weetuskenraider]

"That was just for warmups." Tahiri gave the bantha a one-armed hug. "I actually kind of miss them. A little."

[momslilassassin]

"I won't tell," Ben promised. "I didn't get to see them this go-around. It was just Jedi and the Hapans."

[weetuskenraider]

"And Jag," Tahiri remembered. "Don't suppose you ever got him dragged into an Ewok celebration."

[momslilassassin]

"No," Ben said with a little pout. "Probably would have vastly improved my mood, if not his."

[weetuskenraider]

"It would probably have been good for him," Tahiri said, smiling crookedly at Ben.

[momslilassassin]

"No one can be that serious with Ewoks around," Ben declared.

[weetuskenraider]

"Nobody should," she agreed. She was so not ready to broach the subject of where that other version of her came into things, so what she said was "Have I mentioned how glad I am you're back?"

[momslilassassin]

Ben's cheeks went pink again. "Maybe?"

[weetuskenraider]

"Maybe I should mention it again, just to be on the safe side," Tahiri decided.

But didn't, just then, because she was a brat sometimes.

[momslilassassin]

Ben's eyes twinkled at her. "Maybe you should."

[weetuskenraider]

"Maybe I will," Tahiri retorted, almost pathetically happy to see that look in his eyes. "I'm really, really, really glad you're back. And you brought me a bantha."

[momslilassassin]

"Who still needs a name," Ben replied.