Room 313, Tuesday early afternoon

[solo_sword]

Jaina had decided that even on a break week, there simply wasn't enough time. She'd gotten up early today, started going through her messages and reports that had been sent overnight, and really wasn't happy with how long she'd been doing this when she finally looked at her chronometer. She sighed and put the datapad down for now, mainly because she was going to get eyestrain soon if she kept looking at it.

Ordinarily she would have just gone home till classes started up again, taken care of things, checked up on her squadron, maybe run a campaign or two while she was actually in the vicinity of the war. But if this was John's last week here, she really didn't want to do that now. Though she still wasn't sure how to tell him she was planning to go next week instead, as "I'm going back to where everything bad happens as soon as you leave" probably wouldn't go over well.

She waved her hand, opening the door, maybe for once actually hoping for some sort of distraction.

[Open door, open post.]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

He shrugged. "I have time on my hands without classes and clubs."

[solo_sword]

"So you came to... explain things?" By that answer, she was guessing he hadn't.

[momslilassassin]

"Which things?" Ben asked. "There have been a lot of...things."

[solo_sword]

"The four months of purposely not telling me things thing."

[momslilassassin]

Ben's mouth set into a very familiar stubborn line. "I don't have to tell you everything."

[solo_sword]

"Come on, Ben, you hardly tell me anything," Jaina said. "I can understand why Tahiri didn't want to say anything, though I still think it was dumb. You I don't get."

[momslilassassin]

Ben plucked at an invisible piece of lint on his sleeve. "Figured if I mentioned anything, you'd remember that the Ben you know is two or something."

[solo_sword]

"I don't really forget that. Look, I'm going to tell you the same thing I told her: I don't care that much about your love life," she said bluntly. "On the scale of weird, I rank it right up there, but that's the only say I get to have in it. And it's definitely not worth four months of not telling me while at the same time I'm being told how easy I am to tell things."

[momslilassassin]

"You're easy to tell things?" Ben said, raising an eyebrow. "Huh. Not really."

[solo_sword]

"Fine, then I can just take that as confirmation that I was getting nothing but lied to. Makes it much better."

[momslilassassin]

"You didn't ask, I didn't bring it up," Ben said, a little edge in his voice. "Where's the lie?"

[solo_sword]

Jaina watched him for a moment, and shook her head. Things seemed to be uncomfortably okay with Tahiri, so she wasn't going to bring it up. "You ever have someone keep something from you? On purpose? With no actual reason for it? Ever have any idea what it's like to find out about it?"

[momslilassassin]

Ben gave her a look. "Of course I have. You grew up in the same family."

[solo_sword]

She just gave him a look right back, waiting for him to care.

[momslilassassin]

Ben's Force-sense, what little was making it through his shielding, was decidedly guilty. "I didn't think it was going to last four months," he mumbled.

[solo_sword]

She was curious as to whether he meant the relationship, or the secrecy, and decided either way she didn't really want to know. "Well it did. It just really, really didn't have to be a big deal."

[momslilassassin]

"Seemed like it would be a big deal at the time," Ben said with a little shrug. "I figured neither of you needed a big fight over something that might not last."

[solo_sword]

"People make too many assumptions," Jaina decided, pursing her lips as she sat back. "And to note, most people are optimistic when they start seeing someone."

[momslilassassin]

"This is me," Ben said. "I don't do optimistic any more."

[solo_sword]

"Remember it's me telling you this." Because really, she was still amazed to have made it to twenty.

[momslilassassin]

Ben ran his hand through his hair. "Yeah," he said quietly. "I know. I don't think I'm cut out for hearts and flowers and whatever."

[solo_sword]

Jaina shrugged. "Who is?"

[momslilassassin]

"Someone has to be or else the rest of us wouldn't be expected to do it, too," Ben complained.

[solo_sword]

To be fair, her boyfriend was pretty good at it. "The expectation is stupid. You do it or you don't." How were they on this subject?

[momslilassassin]

"I won't do it," Ben decided.