WHO: Albus Potter, Helena Potter, Bean & the Mandalorian WHEN: Somewhere in the late February / early March area (Backdated) WHERE: The Kroger in Tumbleweed WHAT: Helena and Bean play in an aisle. Their Dads have no choice but to socialize. TRIGGERS: Nope
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Helena slid down the aisle of the store, arms outstretched in front and behind of her, as she felt the wind rush through her hair. In actuality, she'd only moved a few feet on the wheels of her sneakers, but it was so much more exciting than plain old walking. "Hels, what did I say?" came a strong voice from behind her and she cringed. The rules for her getting the pair of sneakers were that she wasn't allowed to use the wheels when they were in public places like a store. "Sorry, Daddy!" she called over her shoulder.
A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed he was back to looking at the label of a juice container in his hand. She smirked to herself. She wasn't supposed to leave the aisle without him. And she technically wasn't. She was just going around to the corner of it!
She took a few more steps until she was at the end, fully ready to do another quick zoom while Albus was distracted, but she came to a stop as soon as she saw a small figure. She blinked. She didn't even seem to notice or mind who the figure was with. Her attention was solely on him. A grin grew wide. "Hi!" She said, waving towards Bean.
This was meant to be a quick stop in the store: get the necessities and get out. There weren’t eight kinds of everything back home. If you wanted anything, it came simply-presented, by maybe two vendors at best. It wasn’t pureed, or diced, or… whatever it was Mando was staring at in the sauce aisle. He sighed and reached for the least offensive-looking can. Whatever tomato sauce was, it seemed pretty universal to use.
His eyes tracked along the aisle to where the kid had been teetering and tottering along, curiosity prompting his short legs to carry him. He caught sight of the small, green-skinned explorer on the edge of the aisle where the kid was waving to a taller child. And for that reason, Mando lingered back. The one part of this place that was tricky was that there wasn’t really a central village -- no communal area where the kids played. It limited playtime pretty severely.
For Bean’s part, he’d been moving along at a steady pace towards a display near the end of the aisle where several toys were dangling. The girl who intercepted him on the way earned an inquisitive head tilt and a small coo. He stopped, his stubby fingers lifted into what he’d learned was something people did when they came upon others.
She set her foot down properly so the wheels were retracted back into the soles of her sneakers and grinned as he waved at her. She seemed to be focusing in on him, the gears in her head turning, because he looked very familiar. But she'd lived in Tumbleweed almost all her life and she knew not to make assumptions.
"Kroger is soooooooooooooo boring, right?" She asked as way of conversation, still smiling at him.
Meanwhile, Albus came around the corner, looking just slightly exasperated that she'd gone past the end of the aisle. He was just about to speak up when he noticed she was speaking to another child. Instead, he shut his mouth and looked past her down the aisle.
His head turned slightly spotting the Mandalorian. Not Boba Fett. That much was clear. The colors were wrong. He dropped his gaze back to the two children for another moment, then looked back up.
The kid’s face lit up at being addressed, his mouth turning upwards as a small, enthused noise was offered. Most people just came close to remark about how adorable a creature he was, but they were adults who passed by if Mando didn’t insist they move on. This was someone closer to his level. He pointed to the toys hanging from the end of the aisle: little balls that flashed multi-color lights when bounced. He’d spotted another kid playing with them from a distance, but by the time he reached this point, that kid had gone.
Mando would be remiss to not see the adult who’d crossed into his view. He watched the man for a second, noting that he appeared to be ready to address the young girl, and then there was a moment of eye (such as it was) contact made as the man looked back over. Mando obliged with a nod. It was hard to read locals. Some were convinced he had a dedication to costumes and he made no effort to correct them. The Displaced community seemed less jarred by his appearance.
Helena watched him carefully. He wasn't speaking but that didn't mean he wasn't communicating. She turned her gaze toward where he was pointing. "Oh! Yeah, those are awesome." She was taller so she had no issue moving to get one down from the aisle clip. She pulled it down and then took a couple steps closer to Bean. She held it out for him. "Here you go," she said gently, still smiling.
Albus caught the nod and returned it as his own way of silent greeting. But, not unexpectedly, his focus turned back towards the children between them. Thus far, there didn't seem to be a need for intervention. From what he could tell, the other child seemed younger than Helena but that wasn't a deterrent from the looks of things. His daughter was always more social than himself and he attributed that to his relatives more than anything else.
With the cool, smooth surface of the ball in Bean’s grip, he gave it a quick once-over. Then, with a small effort, he threw it towards the girl in front of him. It didn’t quite bounce that high, but the impact was enough to set it sparkling red, green, blue in a flurry of colors. The elated squeal was proof of satisfaction, but his arms raised as well, the fabric of his sack-like clothing bunching up beneath his long ears.
Hopefully those things weren’t expensive, Mando found himself thinking. It would be a hard thing trying to pry that glittery ball away from the kid now that he’d taken a shine to it. Mando took a few steps closer, one hand gripping the can of tomato sauce awkwardly. He refused a cart and a carrying basket. How much could someone actually buy at a time, anyway?
There was a half upturn of a smirk from Helena at seeing his glee displayed from the ball's illumination. When it was close enough for her to catch, she took hold of it, so it wouldn't go rolling too far away from them. "Do you want to catch it?" She asked, paying attention to his responses. She'd bounce it gently back to him if he did.
Albus was leaning on his cart now, which was rather full. He didn't enjoy this chore but there was no going back to the days of only take away meals after nearly two years of living with Jamie. Helena expected certain foods readily available to her so he had to do his best in the store.
The kid’s arms were up expectantly, awaiting the ball to be tossed back. He gave a soft coo, ears twitching slightly as he waited.
Mando released a breath, then started an approach towards the other man. Might as well be clear about things. When he was within earshot, he nodded towards the playing kids. “Yours?”
Helena bounced it back to him, making sure to hit it on the floor so the light up would happen again, but not hard enough to possibly hurt Bean.
Albus lifted his gaze towards the Mandolorian and nodded his head. "Yes." He offered a small smile. "She gets social when there's new kids in the community." He glanced quickly to them both but then back to Mando. "I'm Albus. She's Helena."
Another squeal sounded out as the kid reached to catch the ball, but mostly ended up trapping it against the floor with his short arms. He held it, watching the colors flurry until they stopped.
Mando gave a short nod of understanding. ‘In the community’ probably meant they were part of the collection of those originally from other worlds. His voice crackled over his helmet’s comm. “The kid’s been shortchanged on playtime where we’re from. Wasn’t sure where to take him around here.” The introduction was left hanging for now. It was always tricky for a Mandalorian and a child without a name.
"Yeah, the options aren't obvious," Albus agreed. He knew plenty of places to take his daughter for socialization and playtime but he was accustomed to Tumbleweed as well as Muggle life, too. He knew others wouldn't exactly have that benefit, especially when they came from other worlds such as the pair did. "School is a good place to start."
As far as Albus knew, there'd been no enrollment for a young creature who looked like Yoda. And though Albus didn't work with the younger kids, the school wasn't very big. He'd have heard. "There's...a parent group. We meet every few weeks. When it's calm."
“School,” was echoed with a mild uncertainty. The kid might be fifty in human years, but he was probably in need of something much more basic to start. Ahsoka’s lessons still seemed the best option. For now. “He gets lessons one-on-one.”
Mando watched the continued semi-disjointed game of catch that was more like throw, chase, teeter, pick-up, and throw in turns. He wasn’t so socially inept that he couldn’t recognize an invitation. “The others would be fine with the kid around?”
"That's probably better. From an educational stand point." Not that they didn't have incredibly small class sizes at EPS. Most teachers had a max of 5 students per class. But he moved away from that and nodded his head in agreement, looking quickly to the kids, before back to Mando.
"I don't see why not. It's good for the kids. And there's ages ranges." He thought for a moment, trying to recall when the next session was. It was difficult to say after everyone had gone into crisis mode during Maleficent. It took a bit to go back to normal.
Meanwhile, Helena caught the ball and then held it for a second. "I bet you'd like a Snitch!" She turned her head to look back towards Albus and Mando. "Can we bring them a snitch, Daddy?"
Albus' attention turned back to Helena and he hesitated for a moment, "We'd have to ask Uncle Charlie."
"Can I show him mine then?"
Albus paused and looked to Mando. "Would that be alright with you?"
He wasn’t used to this: being asked any sort of permission first. Usually people moved in on the kid as a power play, trying to rile him up. Of course, that stemmed from his usual contracts being gruff types who had something to prove or something to level with Mando himself.
He didn’t know what a snitch was, but Mando nodded. “Sure.”
At that moment, a woman, older and using her shopping cart as more of a walker than anything, pushed past. She stopped to level a glance at the two kids before staring at Mando and then shaking her head and walking on.
Albus didn't need to relay to Helena. She was watching Mando intently for a response and as soon as one was given, she grinned wide to him to show her excitement at the permission. Then in a whirl of bouncing curls, her attention was back on Bean. "Do you want to come over? I'll show you my snitch. It was my Great Grandpa James' and he was the best Quidditch player there ever was!" She held the ball back out for Bean to take.
Albus held back a laugh at that because he was fairly certain a few members of his family would disagree with that statement. He caught sight of the woman and gave a nod in acknowledgement. "Ma'am," he said, making sure to lock eye contact. And then he turned his attention back to Mando.
"We have weekends free. They work for you?"
Now that the temporary gig with the Bureau had ended, Mando found himself reflecting on more free time than he rightly knew what to do with. He’d have to deal with that. The money earned would dry up eventually.
“Yes,” Mando replied. His gaze lowered to the kid again, who seemed like he’d found exactly what he wanted in the store. The flashing lights inside the ball were almost hypnotic to his over-sized eyes.
In another uncertain moment, Mando took out his phone. People used this to coordinate, right? He held it up, hoping Albus would somehow direct what came next. So far, all Mando knew was that you could view the network on it and secondarily peruse what was apparently called the ‘internet’.
Albus watched Mando for a moment before nodding. He slipped his hand into his pocket, pulling his own out. Turning it so it was visible to Mando, he hit the photo button so the keypad could be displayed. "Just do that and enter this number," he told him, waiting for the other man to follow along, before giving Mando his number. "And hit this button," he pointed so it'd make a call.
Once the call came through, Albus quickly hit reject, but was turning the phone back to him. He hit the number so it could be sent a recipient for a text message and quickly typed a message, before sending it to Mando's phone. Looking back up to Mando, "That's our address and my number. Do you know how to use the directions feature yet?"