Anakin Solo (anakinsolo) wrote in starnomad, @ 2015-08-15 11:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | character: anakin solo, character: jacen solo, character: lyric, character: rikki barnes, date: [61.09], location: errant venture |
Who: Jacen Solo, Lyric, Rikki Barnes, & Anakin Solo
When: 61.09
Where: Errant Venture, Classified.
What: Four friends reunited over caf.
Status: COMPLETE
There was something honestly nice about the fact that his entire family was in one place even if Jacen's relationship with half of them had been a little touch and go of recent. But he hadn't seen Anakin since directly post-Yavin IV, and he hadn't seen Jaina since he left Coruscant. His parents were here, his Uncle and Aunt, and cousin, and beyond that, he had Lyric here, on a ship that was a good deal larger than the Falcon, with fewer reminders - maybe - that they were in space and not on solid ground. The bunks weren't roomy, exactly, but they were a tiny bit larger than the Falcon, but mostly, Jacen had to admit that it was nice to be all in one place. He couldn't remember the last time it had happened -- maybe Sernpidal. Probably Sernpidal if he were being honest with himself. Even at Duro they'd been on separate ships or separate planets for large portions of the time. Right now though, he had picked up a bowl of hot cereal of some sort, that likely tasted like the protein mash it was made from, and he was pouring himself a cup of caf as he waited for Lyric to join him. Within the day, or certainly within the next two, things would probably shift again, and they would be given missions and assignments or his Dad would decide to head back out to privateering, but for the moment he could relax just a tiny bit knowing they were all together and would be for the near future. The mess hall had once served hundreds of Imperial troops, and now served Booster Terrik's crew and the Jedi Academy he had picked up to transport around space. With such changes in patronage, there were plenty of tables and checking to see that he hadn't lost Lyric yet, Jacen made his way to one on the edges, currently empty, but with plenty of room for him and Lyric to sit down, and for Jaina or Anakin to join him if they should make their way into the mess hall. He glanced over at the other boy and a smile turned up the corner of his lips. Somehow over the past few weeks he'd come to be a good deal happier than he'd been for months before that. And while in the moment it might be family related, in the long-term it had to do with this boy... He glanced down at the bowl as he slid into the seat. "You know, I'm pretty certain they just reformulate protein bars to make this stuff, but I'm really hoping I'm wrong." "You'd be surprised what you can reformulate protein bars into with a little imagination." Lyric sighed with a soft easy smile as he took his seat next to Jacen. He could have taken the seat across, maybe even should have. But that would have deprived him of the chance to rest his hand light against the small of Jacens back for a moment. It was a small, possessive guest ire that to outsiders simply looked like Lyric was steadying himself as he leaned in close to comment as he sat down. The gesture lasted only a moment but the small, little touches he could sneak past Jacen in public might be his favorites. He had almost started getting used to the freedom on the falcon, the freedom of people knowing. He didn't like the star destroyer much more than he did the falcon. There was still something wrong to it, a sway Lyric could feel that no one else seemed to register that left his stomach in more knots than he would care to admit. But Jacen was smoking, reunited with his family. It couldn't be all bad, Lyric could see Elix bouncing close to Jaina out of the corner of his eye. Likely she was giving Jaina the full update on their failed adventures. A familiar redhead caught his eye and she made her way over with a smile. Greetings and hugs had been yesterday but Rikki still seemed relieved to see them. There was no breakfast in Rikki's hands as she took a seat across from Jacen and Lyric. She had spent the earlier part of her morning with breakfast and the skywalkers, going over the last pieces of her plan with Luke and Mara for feedback before she started final preparations. For now though the day was hers and she relished the freedom to have her friends so close for the first time in a long time. "Morning." Lyric raised an eyebrow at Rikki sounding far too awake. "Morning to you too, nomad." Jacen gave Lyric a lopsided smile at that. The other boy had no doubt had more than his fair share of making something from the boring nothing or protein bars. Jacen had as well despite his comparative privilege. But Lyric's touch rested on his back somewhere between comfortable and familiar and exhilarating because of the publicity of it. He glanced sideways at Lyric knowing that the other man knew precisely how he was affected by that touch. He simply dropped a hand, brushing it lightly across Lyric's inner thigh under the table before bringing it up to reach for the cup of caf. But Rikki's approach meant he would shelve most of that for later. While his parents did know nobody else did and Jacen wasn't convinced it was a conversation that he wanted to have at this hour of the morning so instead he merely offered Rikki a smile. "Did you sleep?" He inquired on top of Lyric's greeting with the grin directed at her instead of at Lyric even though if he shifted just right he could touch Lyric's shoulder with his own. "You're too awake to have just woke up." Lyric offered Jacen a private smirk at the tease against his thigh. Fire lit up his spine and really he shouldn't be this awake in the morning, despite being what could be described as a morning person. Things like sunrises had never really mattered in his world but the earlier hours of the day were safer to move in, or as safe as the undercity got. That mattered even less on a ship but at least there were regular meals to keep track of time by here. That was way better than the undercity. "You haven't spent much time around her in the morning, have you?" Lyric chuckled softly, but there was undeniable affection as well. Rikki returned with a quick, indulging smile. "Har har." Rikki rolled her eyes. "I've been meeting with Master Skywalker and Aunt Mara all morning. We should be able to move within the week." Were Lyric given to surprise he might have reacted. But instead his expression stayed in a picture of calm. "Exciting." He dead panned with exactly as much excitement as he felt that warranted. Jacen looked over at Rikki and raised his eyebrows just slightly before downing a sip of caf. It really was too early in the morning to be contemplating additional missions - particularly when he mostly just wanted to enjoy the fact that they were all together again in one spot. He put the cup down his mind floating back to the conversation he'd had with her before he'd left Coruscant. He knew the pieces she'd been throwing together, and he wondered now what she'd found. Wondered as well what she'd told his Uncle and Aunt and what their take on the situation had been. But there wasn't really time to ask as Jacen realized his brother was coming up behind Rikki, and Anakin slid into the seat beside Rikki with a yawn and two cups of caf. "How are you awake?" Anakin asked Rikki as he looked over at her. He was supposed to be the Jedi and have the ability to stay up late and not have sleep and to still be awake the next day, but he was ridiculously sleepy. Late night conversations with Rikki aside, he'd not had a lot of sleep when he'd been out with Corran and Tahiri and maybe it was all catching up with him in the relative safety of the Errant Venture. He couldn't quite keep from a yawn and he punctuated it with a sip of the caf. "Sleepyhead," Jacen teased Anakin, giving Lyric a quick glance out of the corner of his eyes - a shared bit of a joke between the two of them. "We've been awake for hours and hours." Anakin rolled his eyes at his brother and instead focused a smile on Rikki. "Here," he slid one of the second cups over to her. "Good morning." "I had a meeting." Rikki explained easily as a smile beamed out at Anakin. It would have felt so naturally to lean over and kiss his cheek as a thank you, something she had done countless times before in another life. But this wasn't that life, this was still new despite the giddy familiarity that was threatening to take her over. Nevermind that the energy running through her was as much about Anakin even with spending almost the entire night up talking about whatever crossed their minds. Even then she still hadn't wanted to go to sleep, her heart beating on pure excitement. "Thank you." she answered instead of a kiss, smiling into the sip. Lyric tilted his head just slightly as he looked over Anakin and Rikki. This wasn't exactly a surprising turn of events but he would have had to have been blind to miss the looks the two were shooting each other. It was about time really with the dancing they had both done. Though with Anakin running off no wonder it had taken a little longer. "Not everyone's as energetic as you are in the morning, Jacen." Lyric offered breezily, his monotone in place despite the implication just for Jacen. Jacen choked on a bite of protein based cereal mush and turned to glare at Lyric, even if he had every suspicion the other boy would be looking completely innocent. His suspicions were right and he kicked him gently under the table turning his eyes back to his brother - who seemed... remarkably happy. For an instant Jacen watched the looks that passed between the two and he couldn't help but wonder how much they had been n communication all of this time despite the distance. Before Anakin had left Coruscant, Jacen had watched the two and thought that perhaps there was a crush there, but now there was a sort of familiarity that passed between the two of them that Jacen couldn't help but notice as he reached for the caf and took another sip of it. Anakin kept his eyes on Rikki's face for a heart-beat more even if he wanted to keep them there forever. They had talked for hours last night, way past when they should have probably but he couldn't bring himself to regret it. There wasn't any place on the Venture with the same ability to just fall asleep in the cockpit like they had on the way back from the Corellian system, and besides he hadn't wanted to go to sleep. He could have talked forever - neither of them slept a lot on their own - it was more enjoyable to not sleep together. Even without the 65 - or was it 66? - kisses he'd managed to pepper her with throughout the night. When he turned around he looked at Lyric and Jacen's trays to consider the food and raised an eyebrow and said wryly. "Here I was hoping the arrival of Uncle Luke and a new baby Jedi would be enough to get them to mix up the menu. Just one morning of celebratory fruit salad and eggs - you know? Do you want something Rikki? I can get you something?" Lyric remained perfectly still as Jacen kicked him, imagining the blush that Jacen was fighting to keep from blossoming on his cheeks. He was getting better at controlling it which really just made this entirely more fun. Still imagining Jacen blushing was something Lyric could keep himself entertained with all day Right now their attention should be on the two in front of them that seemed to be easily falling into the definition of a couple. There was no denying that look that Anakin kept slipping to Rikki or the bright color to her cheeks that was starting to form. All Rikki wanted was to reach out and take Anakin's hand. But she contained herself, keeping her hands firmly planted on the caf in her hands as her mind wanted to wander back to the sweet kisses she had stolen the evening before. Despite its reality that it could continue was an idle fantasy that she was indulging in. No matter how much she loved Anakin the truth was that there was a high enough chance she would never return from this mission. It was dangerous, this was dangerous. But she couldn't help smiling all the same. "I had breakfast with Aunt Mara and Master Skywalker." Rikki shrugged slightly. "So I'm good. Especially since you already knew to bring me caf." Her smile was bright again as she looked over at Anakin with that. "You can never have too much caf," Anakin remarked with an easy smile, leaning over to knock his shoulder against hers quickly. "I'll be right back." Jacen looked over at Rikki, ignoring for the moment, the sense of the man sitting next to him and there was the realisation that if he didn't have that man sitting next to him he might be a little envious of his brother. But as it was he could count Rikki as a friend, a good friend, and as Anakin walked away to get food, he turned his attention onto that good friend and teased. "I think it's entirely possible to have too much caf. You might bounce out of the bay, past the shields, into space - you haven't already had three cups or something have you? you seem a little..." and he now glanced over at Lyric. "What's the word I'm looking for here?" Lyric raised an eyebrow perfectly as he looked back at Jacen. There were entirely too many options to go here. On the one hand Rikki was a friend. But on the other hand she was his friend and really should expect it from him from all the time they spent together. After all it wasn't proper high class basic that Lyric had helped Rikki learn when she could barely string two words together. "Post-kriff?" Lyric answered, his tone schooled calm and innocent as if this was the most ordinary conversation of the day. Which only caused Rikki's cheeks to flush as red as her hair, very much hoping that the world was swallow her eyes as her eyes went wide and she sputtered. "What? I- no. That is not." "Not what?" Lyric asked, taking another infuriatingly calm sip. "Shut up." Rikki huffed, setting her cup down and trying to force the blush to go away. The red flush to Rikki's cheeks almost made Jacen wonder if Lyric had hit the mark. Which if he had -- his eyes found his brothers form wrestling with something from the food line -- Anakin was still young. Younger than Jacen by a year and a half and however much he and Rikki were obviously into each other Jacen wasn't entirely certain his younger brother was ready. On the other hand maybe that made him a hypocrite. Either way, he kept the teasing grin in place and he looked over at Lyric with a teasing smirk. "You've made her blush now." "Hey, they had fruit," Anakin sat the tray down with a smug look at Lyric and Jacen. "I'm pretty certain that it was canned over a decade ago but fruit." As he sat down it was impossible to not feel as if he had walked in on something. He looked at Lyric and then at Rikki, who - was she blushing? - and Jacen's grin and he raised an eyebrow. "What?" "Nothing." Rikki grumbled as she forced the flush away. The color made it look worse than it was. For the most part Anakin and her were relatively innocent. This wasn't something Rikki wanted to push, especially not now when the stacks were too high. Still it wasn't like she wanted Lyric and Jacen knowing what they were doing. "Lyric and Jacen are much better friends that I'd thought they were." "The best." Lyric chuckled easily as he looked over at Anakin. It wasn't often that Rikki was off of her guard and as much as he adored her there was just too much potential. Anakin was basically grown anyway, if he was old enough to be sent off to die he was more than old enough to mess around with pretty girls in Lyric's opinion. "So, what has you so tired this morning?" Anakin hadn't been born yesterday and he knew Rikki well enough to know that something had happened but it didn't seem as if it were something earth shattering and so he shrugged lightly and tried the cereal. It wasn't dreadful but it wasn't great. Pretty much the standard fare he'd been existing on for months now. "They have been roaming around the Galaxy trying to build a river together," he said with a quick grin. "I'm sure that sort of thing is relationship building." It was Jacen's turn to fight a flush because both Rikki and Anakin were a little too close to the truth even if it wasn't exactly the truth either of them were implying. He lifted the caf to his lips and gave his brother a look. "You're avoiding the question." "Well," Anakin dumped fruit into his cereal. "Rikki didn't get in that early and then we went to see Ben and Aunt Mara and then we had a lot to catch up on." Somehow he managed to get through all of that without thinking on the fact that they'd managed to work in sixth plus kisses and nearly three hours worth of conversation between those kisses. "So we kept talking and kinda lost track of time," he shrugged again, this time giving Rikki one of his lopsided grins. "I haven't seen her in months," he pointed out even though there really wasn't any need to be defensive about the time spent. "Sleep seemed irrelevant." Lyric could have helped the small twitch of a grin at Anakin's assessment but he didn't want to. It was true in more ways than one. Traveling through the galaxy had let Lyric glimpse that there might be a possible future, all they had to do was survive this war. Surviving seemed a lot more possible with Jacen by his side than without him. Even Elix was blossoming, the little Rodian in the corner of his eye chatting with someone in line. With his luck she'd somehow end up shmoozing up to whoever it was that was running this ship. "I bet it did." Lyric kept his calm face even as Rikki kicked him under the table. She had gone through worse and they both knew it. But she couldn't help the smile that came back up when Anakin talked. Maybe she was a little moon-eyed, she couldn't help it. While Anakin might not be there or may never be there, Rikki loved him with her entire heart and she finally had him back after months of nothing but quick messages sent off into the night hoping someone was on the other end. "There was a lot to catch up on." Anakin looked over at Lyric and considered raising an eyebrow at him as his brother's lips seemed to twitch. Clearly putting the two of them together had been a really bad idea. Lyric seemed to have gotten more annoying and Jacen seemed to have picked up on Lyric's bad habits. But he ignored them both ultimately, instead turning his attention back to Rikki. "I don't think we caught up on all of it," he teased, knowing that she knew they hadn't finished their 100 promised kisses and so at least from the perspective of kisses, there was still more to do. Not that he was about to tell his brother or Lyric that. Jacen couldn't help a half laugh at his brother's words. After Lyric there was no way his mind wasn't going to go there, and Lyric probably knew it. But he decided for the sanity and safety of everyone at the table they should probably get off the topic of kriffing or possible kriffing as soon as possible. It was self-preservation really. "Where were you when we got here? You never said? Corran said something about getting stuck on a space station with no air?" Anakin sobered a little. "Yag'Dhul system," he responded, his brows furrowing. "And yeah, thankfully we had some airtight lockers and Corran found us some suits, because the Givin are vacuum resistant," he glanced over at Lyric, not knowing if the other boy would know this. It wasn't as if there was necessarily any reason for him too. "But the problem started before that - we ran into Kelbis Nu on Eriadu on a supply run. Tahiri felt him in the Force - and the Peace Brigade were after him. We tried to help, but really weren't much, and then things kind of spiralled from there." He'd given Rikki a much more detailed sequence of events the night before, but right now he actually reached out for her hand, almost without thinking about what Lyric or Jacen would say about that. It was not particularly thrilling to know how close he'd come to completely blacking out on the station. "Apparently Jaina and Rogue Squadron were doing something at Sernpidal - did she tell you about that? - That helped the Givin out, but still, that's the Inner Rim and it's connected to both the Rimma Trade Route, and the Corellian Trade Spine." "They're all over the Corellian Run," Jacen said, lifting the caf to his lips again. "But We knew they were in the Inner Rim. Was the New Republic Defense Force there at all?" "Fifteen hours away - it was almost entirely Givin ships, if it hadn't been for the Sernpidal battle," Anakin shrugged and took a bite of his food. It wasn't as if he was being cavalier about it - but it was more or less how battles seemed to go. The Yuuzhan Vong were too good and they kept beating the New Republic every step of the way and more and more systems seemed to be left to defend themselves. "How'd your river building go? Elix seemed to have like five hundred stories when I talked to her." Reflexively Rikki took his hand, holding onto him as he went through the story. She'd already gone through her own worry last night, holding him close even though she knew that he was all right and that he would have made it through that mission. It was his destiny to make it through after all. And he had, just as he was supposed to. But that didn't change the quick rush of fear that holding onto him helped quell. Lyric and Jacen could judge all they wanted to and Rikki didn't want to hurt Jacen, but she would always be there for Anakin whether he knew it or not. Lyric however couldn't hold back the slight paling of his skin as Anakin went through. As much as he wanted to focus and prod at the hands linking together in front of him the reminder of just where they were and what could go wrong. Granted the Falcon had provided him with more than enough reminders there and part of him wanted to be as open as the two little lovebirds in front of him seemed to be. Reaching out to Jacen would be easy but at the same time it seemed impossible. So instead he simply tilted his head. "She's got about five hundred more she hasn't gotten to yet." he offered in the same calm and steady tone. "Mostly about getting shot at." "Well, you're with my dad," Anakin smirked slightly. "Jacen did tell you that you'd get shot at right?" "Of course I told him that," Jacen said quickly. "I did tell you that right?" He looked over at Lyric, unable to completely stop the affection in his eyes. Or perhaps simply not wanting to do so. He might not be ready to explain to Anakin precisely the nature of his and Lyric's relationship, but his brother reaching out for Rikki's hand had seemed so natural, and it meant he wanted to look over at Lyric - to reassure him that they were there. And that while there were still dangers even on the Errant Venture, they were less right now. "And we were able to do some stuff. Dad decided that he'd start stealing things from the Peace Brigade, so that was a thing, but I think mostly we were able to get stuff that Uncle Luke needed without too many people being harmed - and possibly a few saved..." he paused. "Did Kelbis Nu...?" Anakin shook his head slightly and pushed his spoon into his bowl with a little too much force. "No. We weren't that helpful." He was silent for a minute. It had been hard to stand back and not be able to help. It had been difficult as well to know that Tahiri was watching him. Everyone was and it wasn't easy to try to figure out the right thing to do - not just to do the right thing, but to not cause others to be unnecessarily injured along the way. He reached for the caf and purposefully changed the subject: "Have you seen Rikki's ship though?" It would have been so simple to lean over and kiss Jacen to put him back at ease. But as simple as that would have been Lyric knew that it would have opened up even more problems for Jacen. That piece of affection was something that could wait till they were by themselves. All of this would move exactly how fast Jacen wanted it to if Lyric had anything to say about it. So instead of a kiss Lyric just shrugged lightly as he caught Jacen's eyes. His hand found Jacen's thigh under the table quietly and squeezed, a soft reassurance that he could give out of sight and quick enough that no one would notice. "Does everyone have a ship now?" Lyric asked, rolling his eyes affectionately even as they flitted over to Rikki. Her own ship solved one of the problems that they might have had with this mission of hers. They wouldn't have to rely on the Skywalkers or someone else to get them there and back. "This keeps up and Elix will be expecting one." "Maybe we've got one hidden for Elix, you never know." Rikki teased awkwardly, taking Anakin's cue to move past the conversation they had been on. But her hand didn't leave his despite, holding on easily until Anakin wanted to pull away. Jacen smiled at Rikki even as Lyric's touch sent warm comfort through him and he made a promise to himself that Lyric would take a stop by their quarters before they ended up anywhere else this morning. Even if it wasn't to fall back into bed, he wanted the kiss, the feel of arms around him, he wanted that simple support that Lyric offered him and that he tried to offer back in return. "Maybe we'll even get you one," he teased Lyric affectionately. "You might even decide you liked it after enough time." Anakin looked over at Lyric and gave him a raised eyebrow. He could drop Rikki's hand, but he didn't. He probably should though considering the number of people that he knew that were wandering through the mess hall, but he found he couldn't really be bothered to care. Now that he'd found it he didn't want to let it go. "Not a space travel fan?" Lyric scowled easily and lifted up his caf. There were a great many things Lyric disliked in this galaxy, way more than he actually enjoyed. Space travel was up there towards the top. There were benefits, certainly. He got to spend time with Jacen, they got to act as if they were even normal at times. And Elix loved it, bouncing around the Falcon as if she had finally found the place where she really belonged. But how anyone handled it was beyond him. "There's this sick feeling that doesn't go away." Lyric grumbled. "I'm not a fan." Rikki raised an eyebrow as she looked over at Lyric. "Are you motion sick?" she asked, curious as she tilted her head. She supposed it made sense that some people might not take to space travel, and she assumed it had to be more than nerves at this point. After all Lyric had been traveling with Jacen for over a month now. Jacen looked at Lyric sympathetically. He hadn't expected when he'd brought Lyric with him, just how little the other boy would like space travel. It was something so particularly familiar for him that sometimes he caught himself assuming that it would just get better, but Lyric didn't really seem to love any more now than he had the first day. "We'll put you planet side again sooner or later," he said simply. Anakin took another sip of his coffee and finally released Rikki's hand so he could finish eating some more of his cereal. "That really stinks. I'd go nuts if I got sick from space travel." "Maybe that's your problem," Jacen teased his younger brother. "You've had so much space travel that you have gone nuts." "Ha ha," Anakin glared at Jacen, but it had no real fire behind it. "But hey, we're all together, and we've got caf, so space isn't all bad," he gave Lyric a grin. Lyric stared at Anakin in dead silence, his face purposefully blank as he took a long, slow sip of his caf. Life could be worse, it was true, and his stomach was slightly more at ease now than it had been on the Falcon. Still he planned for Jacen to make good on that promise and soon he would have his feet on planetside again. With how the war was going there was only so much he could really hope for though and Elix did love the travel they were certainly doing. "And you've even found fruit." Rikki offered helpfully with a smile towards Anakin. "things are looking up the whole time." And I have you. The words floated to the top of Anakin's tongue, but he stopped them - instead just offering her a quick smile. He wanted to lean forward and kiss her. She had bright cheeks, and a beautiful smile, and he didn't feel like he'd spent nearly enough time with her, but he'd have more time and time when Jacen and Lyric weren't sitting there. "Fruit is definitely a good sign," he grinned at her. "You want some?" |