milliways_bar | (no subject)

And there is a redheaded Jedi standing behind her, a smirk on her face. "Valentine Skywalker. Fancy meeting you here."

Val turns, a bit startled. "Mara Jade Skywalker. I haven't seen you in frelling ages. Have a seat." She's grinning, perhaps a bit of a smirk on her own face.

Mara sat down across from her, taking on a very relaxed posed that made her look like she owned the place. "How long has it been? It...was about eight years for me?"

She makes a face. "I feel old. And I can only tell by how old Ben is now."

Val chuckles, leaning back in her chair a bit. "Um. I think it's been about four or five months." A pause. "Time goes so frelling strangely here, it's hard to really put a finger on how long it's really been." She smiles. "Old or not, it's great to have you back." A smirk. "You'll probably really feel old when you see Luke."

Mara gives a long suffering sigh. "Especially when I see Skywalker. My Luke is 51 now!"

She shakes her head. "So I take it you know what's been going on? I take it you've Jaina and Zekk?"

Her voice takes on a rather hard edge when she mentions her neice.

Val makes a face. "Force, that's forty years older than my Luke. He is old." She smirks. Yes, she knows she might get bapped for that.

"Yeah, I've seen them." She pauses, an odd look on her face. "I think I've kinda figured out what's been going on. From one perspective at least."

She looks away for a moment, thinking with a flash of anger, they are the reason my son's joined to a bug.

"I saw them too, and I haven't gotten a chance to yell at them at home, Luke's kept a close eye on me so I don't do so...but I let myself go here. Jaina didn't even listen." Mara growls.

"Val, have we ever told you that you're our favorite aunt in the galaxy?" Jaina asks as she plops down on a seat across from Val.

Val raises an eyebrow. "Ok, Jaina. What do you want now?" She's grinning, though.

"Nothing," Jaina replies honestly. "Just thought we'd tell you."

"Oh, alright then." Val seems a bit startled by this. "Any specific reason this randomly appeared?" What? The girl lived with Peter for fifteen years. Allow her a bit of suspicion.

She shrugs. "Saw Mara today."

That didn't go too well.

"Oh, that might explain a thing or two." Val raises an eyebrow. "I have a feeling it wasn't the happiest of reunions."

"Not really. There was a reason we avoided her when we went back to Ossus last night."

Val takes a deep breath. "I can understand why you would want to avoid her sometimes." She's a Skywalker-Solo woman. They are all to be avoided sometimes. "This wasn't just random stubborrn or abraisive, was it, though?"

Jaina nods. "Don't think she's too happy with us for the decision we made at Qoribu. Wasn't her choice, though."

Yet another place-name that goes over Val's head. She really needs an atlas. And a history book or four. "One's choices are one's own. She really shouldn't be trying to tell you what you should or shouldn't have decided. That's not her business." She pauses, but does't go on.

"We know," Jaina answers, a bit more defensive than she probably should have.

Val bites her lip. "Sorry. I know you know." She sighs. "I tend to state the obvious sometimes."

"Don't apologize." She gives Val a small smile. "There's no reason to."

Val smiles back. "Alright." A pause. "So, how have you been, Jaina? Really and truly, not just waved off." Her eyes are concerned, searching her niece's face.

She's an empath, so it's hard for Jaina to lie to her. But the mun is placing this pre-Nathan fight. Yay for Millitime!

"We, um...really confused."

Millitime is love. Very much love.

"What're you confused about? What's been going on?" She pauses. "Just smack me if I'm too nosy. I'm just worried. Aunt's perogative." She cracks a small smile.

Jaina tries to grin. "Kissed Zekk last night."

She's decided that it might help think things through if she actually told someone about it.

Val raises an eyebrow, and pulls her feet in her skirt, arms around her knees. "Oh really?" There's an implied question in there. "What happened?"

Jaina bites her lip, clicking softly to herself. "We were talking and he...he kissed me and we returned it. Wanted to return it."

Val takes a deep breath. She's not really sure what's happened with Jag in the years since Jaina left the bar, and she's not exactly sure if this is the moment to ask.

"And it's confusing you, I'm guessing." She pauses, but waits before she says anything else."

Jaina nods. "Love Jag. So much that it hurts sometimes. But we know how Zekk feels, and he's here. It's hard to differentiate sometimes."

Well, there's the answer to -that- question. She nods once and then finally speaks. "What does Jag think about all of this, if I might ask? I haven't seen him in ages."

Jaina frowns. "He was here, about a week ago. We got into a fight."

Erk. Perhaps that wasn't the best question to ask. Frell. "I have a feeling, if I might make a guess here, that it had something to do with being a Joiner? Or am I totally off-planet?"

"Zekk," she replies, working on keeping her expression neutral. "He ran when we told him about being a Joiner."

Val raises an eyebrow. "Somehow something seems off there." And Val really can't seem to put her finger on why.

"He was drunk?" she offers.

"Well, intoxication might explain running away." She chuckles, rather dryly. "Have you tried to talk to him when he's not drunk?"

"Haven't seen him since." Jaina shrugs a bit. "Hard to admit, but we're afraid to see him again."

Val bites her lip and pauses for a moment. "I think, Jaina, that he would understand if given a chance, and, well, a lower alcohol level in his blood." She takes a breath. "You at least would get a chance to explain yourself, and perhaps answer any stuff he has to say about it." There's a long pause. "And really, that's all you can do. You can show people your side of the story, you can try and explain yourself, but it's the other person's choice how they react to it." Quietly, mostly inaudibly, she adds. "Your mother taught me that one."

Jaina clicks to herself as she thinks over Val's words. It scares her, a lot. No matter how many times she thinks or tells herself otherwise. She really doesn't know how to handle her emotions well.

Softly, "But what if he says no? What if he won't accept what we've become? Zekk loves us; he accepts us. What do we do if Jag can't?"

"All you can do, Jaina, is explain things to him. Tell him why you did what you did, present it to him clearly, help him to understand. You can't force him to accept anything. In fact, the more you force people to accept things, the more they fall away from it." She pauses. "He has to make his own desicion, as much as it might hurt you." She pauses. "And if the worst does happen, I'm always here if you need me. Even if you just need a shouder to cry on or someone to punch. I make a decent punching bag, really."

Jaina nods slowly. "Just don't want it to hurt."

Val reaches over and hugs Jaina. "I know, dearling. I can't promise that it won't hurt. I can only hope that it will go well. And be here if it goes belly-up." She pauses. "I wish you all the best, though, and I wish there was more I could do."

"Thanks Val," Jaina whispers softly, returning the hug. "You've done a lot, already."

"I hope so. I really do care about you, Jaina. And I want to help if there's anything at all I can do." She smiles.

Jaina nods, forcing a dry chuckle. "Think you could tell us what to do about Zekk?"

Val smiles, seriously. "I think you should just talk to him. Not mentally, but actually sit down somewhere and speak it." She pauses. "There are times that Luke and I try to get away with just thinking things which should really be talked about. For what it's worth, I think you need to tell him that you need some space. That's what I'm understanding, at any rate. You need to talk to Jag, and see where that is, afore anything else happens. And you need space to really think about things." A pause. "Oh, and don't be stupid like your aunt and just run off. That doesn't solve anything."

"We did that. We were talking yesterday. And then we kissed." Jaina shakes her head, silently cursing the galaxy.

"Wait, what do you by that?" She's referring to the being stupid like your aunt part.

"That's what I was meaning, Jaina. You need to talk about the kissing bit. Explain that you're confused."

She pauses. "Um, well, I kinda ran off, back to my 'verse about four days before the wedding. I was confused, and thought that I was doing Luke a favour by disappearing. Let's just say that it was rather stupid. I should have talked to him."

Jaina nods, she hadn't known that. "It's easier not to talk sometimes, isn't it?"

She stands from the table, smiling at Val. "Thanks for the talk, aunt. Good night."

Val smiles gently. "Anytime, niece-mine. Sleep well when you do."