MHA #-1- Friday evening

[solo_sword]

Last night Jaina had met with her dead little brother. It had kind of thrown off her week.

The weird thing was, Jaina mostly felt better for it. If you'd asked her three days ago how she would react to Anakin Solo wandering around and letting her hug him because she could actually touch him, she probably would have yelled and stomped off because that was a cruel question. But at the same time... she got to see Anakin again. It wouldn't ever fix things or make it all better, but at least there was some sort of closure. There was also a lot of guilt that the rest of her family back home didn't get that, questions of whether she should tell them about this, an urge to check on Tahiri, and then a listen to radio told her that her dead grandmother should be walking around here, too.

So a day later Jaina was going to the one person who just tended to add some sense of normalcy to even this sort of thing, and knocked on the door to #-1, hoping he was okay with this.


[For he who lives there.]

Comments

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

He was watching home improvement television and wishing he understood dishwasher mechanics. Or had his own mute McKay to take care of these things.

The knock on the door had John distractedly yanking it open and--looking way down. "...hey."

That would be surprise on his face, yes.

[solo_sword]

"Hey," she said, trying for a little smile. She was also hoping the surprise wasn't something that would get her kicked out right away. Not that that possibility stopped her from asking, "Up for some company for a little while?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John was just going to stare at her, but the polite part of him took a step to the side, holding the door open for Jaina to come inside.

While he stared.

"Uh...sure thing." Okay, he kind of thought it was a booty call, to be perfectly honest.

[solo_sword]

She stepped inside, daring to glance around where he lived now, if briefly. She'd seen two of his apartments before, looking was habit. And then she turned back to him and said, "I should explain. You haven't listened to radio, have you?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Everything's kind of broken," he admitted, walking back to the sofa and muting his program. "Have a seat. The sofa's all I've got so far."

Someone needed a trip to Ikea.

[solo_sword]

It was a telltale sign that Jaina was mostly okay about her brother when she went to sit and stopped short, asking, "...Is that your sofa?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Yes! Can you believe it? And barely even used since I gave it up," John answered proudly, taking a seat and patting the back fondly.

It was the little things.

[solo_sword]

She took a seat, sitting back and feeling weirdly comfortable. Then again, she felt like she'd spent about a third of her high school life on this thing. It was hard not to smile at seeing it again. "How did it get here?" she wondered.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John shrugged, giving his head a confused scratch. "Guess Ronon - uh, the one who was our teacher? He must've grabbed it at the yard sale. Though, him living here so explained all the broken...everything."

[solo_sword]

"Gotta love how things work out," Jaina said, shaking her head. "Nice of him to leave it untouched. And now I'm itching to start fixing things."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"I've got a dishwasher you can attack," John offered, totally willing to let anyone who wanted to fix it so he didn't have to wash everything by hand.

[solo_sword]

Jaina sighed dramatically, letting her head drop back against the sofa for a moment as she said, "Just as I got comfortable." With one of those little lopsided smiles, she stood anyway and got her multitool from her pocket, figuring that would be a good start. "Somehow when I came here I wasn't expecting a project, but I'm okay with that."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John laughed. "Seriously, you don't have to...but it'd be nice."

He was not turning down free assistance, dammit.

[solo_sword]

"It'd probably be more fun to watch you try it, but since I know that's not happening, I figure I can lend a hand," she teased, looking to locate the dishwasher and heading that way.

Plus, being here and feeling comfortable enough to fix his dishwasher kind of helped other things, too. It just made things feel more okay.

"Any idea why he broke all this?" she wondered.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

It was weird that it was normal to follow her into his kitchen and lean comfortably against the counter to watch her work.

"Well, Ronon's not exactly the most patient guy in my reality," John shared. "So I'm guessing he just forced a button or two and boom - no more dishwasher."

[solo_sword]

"I wish I would have known about this before he left," she said, kneeling on the floor and opening the dishwasher to see just what the situation was. "There would have been a good long talk about treating appliances nicely. I probably would have gotten grunted at, but it might have made it safer for your dishwasher. Do you have tools?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Me? Fixing things?" John smirked really hard. "No, there are no tools here."

[solo_sword]

"You're getting a housewarming present," she told him, finding what she thought the problem was and getting to work. "If only just to have it when Jedi come around fixing your stuff."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"What do I need to keep them here for when you fix-it types carry your own?" John pointed out, keeping his distance, but still being totally nosy about her work.

[solo_sword]

"Because if this were a bigger problem than I think it is, I might need more than just my multitool," Jaina pointed out, looking back at him over his shoulder. "Also, sometimes you just need screwdrivers for furniture. Something to keep in mind."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"I'll make sure to pickup whatever the Isle of Ikea says will be useful when I finally buy some furniture for this place," John replied to appease her.

[solo_sword]

"Shopping not high up on your to-do list?" she asked, still listening even if she looked very focused on the work.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, shopping's not even made a list yet," John said. He so wished the teaching gig came with a life assistant. That would rock.

[solo_sword]

"It feels wrong that I got that part done before you did," she realized. Granted, her furniture was rented.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Well, I'm not exactly all that motivated," he admitted. "The place came with a sofa and bed and what do I really need a chair for? Or a coffee table - much as I like drinking coffee."

[solo_sword]

Well, he had lived in an apartment with almost nothing in it, she remembered. "Tell me he left the coffeemaker intact?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John sighed. "There is no coffeemaker here."

A tragedy, clearly.

[solo_sword]

"This is why you need to go shopping," said Jaina, tweaking one last thing and closing the door to the dishwasher. "That's no way to live."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"It's not so sad, if I hit up J,GOB I get a donut, too!" Perks to needing coffee from elsewhere.

[solo_sword]

Jaina frowned at him. "Dammit, I really didn't want to let you win that one," she said, pushing a couple buttons on the dishwasher to see how it worked. "Does that sound like a dishwasher to you?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John smiled, "And once again you are my heroine." He reached to give her shoulder a friendly squeeze and sort of paused midway through, realizing that was probably not welcome.

[solo_sword]

She definitely noticed the gesture, and told him, "You can touch me. It's okay." It wasn't the sort of gesture she was used to from him, but welcome to life after a relationship. She'd live.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

It was so a booty call.

His hand stroked over the top of her shoulder. "I don't want to confuse things any more than we have." But he was still attracted to her, that was never in question.

[solo_sword]

"I'm not confused," she said. That was maybe a little bit of a lie, since that was more like the kind of gesture she was used to from him, which in itself was confusing. She wasn't sure if she was reading into it or if it was still that little hopeful part of her or what. "I was serious about the friends thing."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"And I was serious, too," John said, wondering what her working definition was there.

Seriously, why else would the girl he broke up with (who's been spreading it around that she dumped him) stop by his house in the evening and volunteer to do repair work in his kitchen while telling him she's not confused and wants to be friends. It screamed dirty to John.

[solo_sword]

To be fair, she told one person. Radio did the rest. But she was wondering exactly what friends meant to him now, too, since she hadn't thought he wanted her at all. And if that wasn't the case, she had to come to grips with the fact that there might be a part of her that needed to be beaten right to death because that part of her would probably go for it after the last few weeks. She had not counted on this when she showed up here.

"I just really needed to go somewhere to be normal for a while," she explained, not sure if that helped or not.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

His fingers trailed up to her neck, rubbing gently. "So you came to see me?"

There were worse places to go.

[solo_sword]

It was not a good sign for her resolve that her eyes fluttered shut briefly at that. Maybe showing up during a big week of turmoil was not one of her better decisions. "I did, she admitted. "This wasn't exactly what I had in mind..."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Might not have been your intent, but it'd sure feel pretty normal." In a really odd and yet welcome way.

[solo_sword]

She hadn't so much as kissed him since she was back, and so now she had all these thoughts running through her head. And while she wanted to tell him no, and still was making a conscious effort not to touch him back because then it was all over for saying no, she had to admit he had a point and was wanting him to touch her more. A lot more.

"This could be a huge mistake," she pointed out, meeting his eye.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John stepped into her space, leaning down so their lips were only inches apart, eye contact an intense part of that. "It could be a huge mistake either way."

[solo_sword]

And now that little part of her that would have gone for it a couple minutes ago was a really big part of her insisting that she could work on things like sorting out feelings after she got laid.

"Kriff it," she decided, closing the distance between them to lean up and kiss him.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

Her choice met his approval and immediately his arms wrapped around her, drawing her closer for a deeper kiss.

Feelings were messy. Getting laid was life in the here and now.

[solo_sword]

Deeper was better, and she wrapped her arms around him, realizing that even if this was the last time they did this, with all the mess in her head lately, there was no way the sex was going to be anything less than fantastic. If she ended up regretting this tomorrow, at least there was that.