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Getting kidnapped -- for the fourth time? seventh? fifteenth? he's not sure -- is thirsty work. So nine-year-old Jacen Solo isn't exactly distraught to see a tapcafe instead of his bedroom upon his return to Coruscant.

"I know," he says happily to a waitrat, then laughs at something unheard. "A ruby bliel sounds great. I'll find a table."

He picks one with a good view for people-watching, and sits on the table itself with his legs swinging.

When his drink arrives, he thanks the waitrat and laughs again.

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There's a little red-headed girl watching him.

(Mama's got holo-albums of her friends at the Academy and Jacen's in them and...)

She clutches the strange little animal in her arms (and it bleats at her) as she wanders a little closer. And just eyes him.

Jacen senses someone's attention on him -- though it takes him a little while -- and turns to look at the girl--

IS THAT AN ANIMAL?!

He brightens and hops off the table, drink still clutched in his hand, and approaches.

"I've never seen anything like that! What species is it?"

Holli honks at him and it makes Allana jump. She still hasn't gotten used to the strange creature.

"I-I don't know." She shrugs. "Me an' fwend Luke found it in the forest outside."

The noise makes Jacen laugh and he waves at Holli, sending a vague sense of Hello! Let's be friends.

He looks at Allana again, briefly surprised at the name. "Luke?"

Then, more importantly: "There's a forest outside?"

Holli bleats happily at him and starts to squirm. Allana quickly sets her down on a table...where Holli promptly starts to eat the napkins.

Allana stares at her. "Er...yeah, Luke Smith. And yeah, there is. Past the lake."

"Oh," Jacen says at the name, and nods.

But most of his attention is on Holli again now, and he grins as he crouches a little to watch her at table-level.

"I have got to go check that out," he says absently, glancing at Allana. "I think I spent most of my time in the kitchens last time I was here."

She watches him. "Luke Skywalker doesn't come here."

She can feel that he's the same and it hurts a little. "Do...do you come here lots?"

At this age?

"You know Luke Skywalker?"

He spares a longer look for her this time, then shakes his head with a rueful smile.

"Nope. I was five last time; I'm nine now. Two visits in four years. I'd forgotten this place even existed."

"Of him. I know...his nephew." She's frowning now and sighs. "You come here when you're older. You...you're with my Mama."

"Me or--"

Jacen's eyes widen. He straightens from the table, and now it's Holli who gets only vague attention; he scratches behind her ears idly.

"You know me from the future? That's crazy."

(He doesn't really think it's crazy, though.)

"Not really." She forces a smile on her face. "I mean, you're Jacen Solo right? Pawents are Han and Leia...aunt and uncle are...Luke and Mara...you meet a girl named...Tenel Ka, if you haven't already."

She bites her lip. "She's your besterest fwend."

Jacen nods, and starts to say, "Right," but bursts out laughing.

"Mara Jade? No, I don't have any aunts at all, unless Winter counts."

He smiles faintly. "I believe you, though, about the rest anyway. Is this Tenel Ka your mommy?"

"Well you will." Allana says, crossing her arms. "And she is."

She doesn't voice her suspicions about her father, though. She couldn't do that.

"Uncle Luke gets married?"

To Mara Jade?!

Jacen shakes his head, but smiles again. "You seem to know a lot about me, but I don't know you at all. What's your name?"

"Allana." She answers, reaching out to Holli, who wiggles her way over to her. "I'm four."

"You act older," he says, a little surprised. Then he grins again. "Older than my brother Anakin does sometimes, and he's seven."

He watches Holli again, and as much as this somehow seems like a vaguely important conversation-- "Are there others like her in the forest?"

"Have to act older. Wars make you gwow up." She tells him very seriously. "I don't know. Just found her randomly."

Holli tries to munch on Allana's dress. "Noooo!" the four year old sighs.

He gives her a slightly sideways look at this, both bemused and sad for her. At least there's no real wars for him.

Then he laughs and reaches a hand out to Holli. "Hey, girl, there are more napkins. Here--"

He grabs a napkin from the table, then uses his straw to lift a little of his ruby bliel out of the glass and drip it onto a corner, dampening the napkin. He holds this out to Holli.

Holli loves it. She eats it happily, bleats, and then flaps her little wings in an effort to get to him.

She loves him too! Only she can't fly properly so Allana holds on. "No, Pwincess Hollifalump, you're wings aren't big 'nough yet!"

Jacen laughs again happily.

"I bet she'll be big enough soon. She'll fly all over the place and eat everyone's napkins. The little -- well, whatever kind of animal she is -- that could."

"One day." Allana agrees, patting Holli on the head. "Wanna hold her?"

"Yes," Jacen replies instantly, and holds out his hands palm-up for Holli. "She's really great."

Allana carefully hands the animal to him, like a mother with a child. "Be careful."

He nods solemnly, even though he's always careful with animals, but the solemn expression breaks into a giggle as Holli sniffs at his hands.

"Hi," he says to her, lifting her up to face-level. Then he tilts his head slightly, and smiles as if at something he's hearing.

Allana eyes him like he's CRAZY.

"Does she talk to you?"

"'Course," he says, almost dismissively. He grins again and says to Holli, "You're welcome, but I dunno if napkins really count as food. Gotta eat your greens, 'member."

He shifts her in his hands to free one for stroking, and admits, "'s not really talking, not like Basic. Sometimes it makes more sense than Basic."

"The Force." Allana says, crossing her arms. "Right?"

"Yeah!" He smiles, pleased. "The Force. I don't have to try hard, though, like I do if I wanna move something with it."

She nods. "I can't even use it at all, really, so you're really good."

"Thanks! My brother and sister can do all kinds of things with machines, but I like animals better anyway."

He pauses for a moment and laughs again before lifting Holli up some more to sit atop his head. He keeps his hands resting lightly on her to make sure she doesn't fall, and advises her silently not to eat any of his hair.

"She'd like it better if I was taller, I think," he says, and smiles again at Allana. "Are you gonna learn when you're older?"

Allana giggles at the sight before her. This was Jedi Jacen, her mother's best friend, her protector...

...and he had a strange animal on his head.

And then she nods. "Yeah. I think so."

"Will you go to Uncle Luke's Academy?"

(It's impossible to think it might not exist in her time.)

"I can't wait to go there," Jacen says wistfully, and glances up as Holli peers over his head and bleats at him. "It's got a jungle right outside."

She nods once. "Yeah, if he keeps teachin'."

Bonzo would not, truth be told, recognize Jacen. That would be the whole age issue (Jacen being about a quarter century younger than the last time he came in) combined with the fact that the two may never have met. But...he sees a new kid in the Bar, and since he's not busy at the moment, heads on over. "Hey there...you new here?"

Jacen stills his leg-swinging and looks at Bonzo over his drink, thoughtful for a moment. Then he smiles.

"Mostly. My sister and I came here when we were little, just for a couple days. I 'member the ranats, though."

Bonzo laughs. "Ranats?" Pause. "The waitrats? Yeah...haven't seen them anywhere else on...well, anywhere." Pause. "So...what's your name...and who's your sister?"

The first question is only natural; the second is more 'because you mentioned it'.

"Yeah, waitrats." He smiles. "They're nice.

"I'm Jacen Solo," he says, deciding the risk of kidnapping is low. "My sister's called Jaina, but she's not here just now."

He tilts his head thoughtfully. It's a little weird, being somewhere he can't sense his twin, but not scary. He just has to go back through the door, after all.

Bonzo nods, thinking about Jaina. "I know your sister. Well, knew rather." Pause. "She hasn't come in here in a long time, as far as I can tell."

She was also far, far older. "So...how old're you, Jacen?"

From the looks of him, Jacen's not yet a teenager...Bonzo pegs him at somewhere in the vague "around ten" category, but nothing more than that.

Jacen thinks about this, tilting his head a little, then says, "Was she from the future? Cause she only came here once before."

This is said with the absolute certainty of someone who knows his twin inside-out.

"Almost nine and a half," he answers with the seriousness that only young children can have. "What about you? And what's your name?"

"My name's Bonzo Madrid." Pause. "And yeah, she was from the future...probably about 20 or 25, if I had to guess. Definitely older than you are now."

For what it's worth, Bonzo is able to stifle any laughing at Jacen's definitive statement of his age with a memory of how he was at that age...

...though only in part, because of what he was then.

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