Private Reruns

[Jem Fossk]

"Hee ya, it's Deputy Law..." Jem sang to herself, her voice low as she ruffled through the unfamiliar cabinets for something more to eat. "Da do da do da de.........."

4am and Jem couldn't sleep. Wasn't that the couch was bad, cause truth be told the teen could sleep on rocks. The girl just couldn't get her eyes closed long enough for her exhaustion to take over, and damn was she tired.

She slid down onto the kitchen floor, cradling a jug of milk and a bowl of dry cereal. She didn't bother turning on the lights, her kind didn't usually need them. It felt better to sit in the darkness. If she squinted enough she could almost pretend it was home.

Even if the Temple floors were never this sticky.

She was trying not think about that place.


She poured herself a bit of milk and sat with the bowl ... no spoon. Very well, she could damn well slurp. She brought the bowl to her lips and tipped it back, theme music running through her head on repeat.

And Dagon was worried she wouldn't adapt well.

Yula Perl

 

[Yula Perl]

A switch flicked on, bathing both of them in a sudden flash of harsh light.

Yula squinted at the girl with her cereal, rubbing her one eye to rid the strain. Though they'd spent several hours on the same couch watching the Deputy Law marathon, Jem and Yula hadn't exchanged more than a few words before going to bed.

Now, it seems they were both in need of a midnight snack.

Without a word of acknowledgment, Yula lumbered over to the cabinet and retrieved a bowl. The clatter of metal sounded shortly after when she rummaged through what constituted the silverware drawer. Mumbling sleepily, she tossed a spoon to Jem before plopping down.

"Shove over."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem watched Yula's shadow through her lashes, the harsh light burning holes through her retinas. "Ow," she complained, scooting obediently to the right. The edge of the fridge dug into her back, but there was space for both of them now as Yula plopped down. Jem handed over the jug of milk and busied herself with the new spoon. Yula didn't receive more than a grunt of thanks for it, even if it did make woofing down the stale pebbles that much easier.

The moment reminded her of home. She and her brother would sneak in to raid the temple pantry. While padawans weren't technically permitted into the kitch after hours, the chef on level 28 always took pity on them and left the storeroom keys hanging in sight.

If she kept still enough, the bumping elbow besides her almost felt like Saan'an. Her chest throbbed in agony all over again. She had sent him a message on Dagons holo hours before. No response yet.


"What time is it?" she finally croaked, reaching for more cereal to freshen up her bowl.

 

[Yula Perl]

"Umm…" Yula paused in the middle of a mouthful of cereal. Looking at the chrono on the stovetop would require craning her neck. "Late." She resumed sluggishly chewing, sober but still lethargic from her neural hangover.

For a minute, the kitchen was filled with the sounds of muffled crunches and spoons clinking against cheap ceramic bowls.

Can't sleep? –That was going to be Yula's next comment, but it was a dumb observation. Of course Jem couldn't sleep. Neither of them could, which was why they were sitting on the kitchen floor in the middle of night eating cereal. Dag wouldn't be back until morning, so their only buffer was out fighting crime.

Guess they'd found a new buffer in a box of Yoda-Os.

"Was I," Yula paused to swallow, digging her spoon back into the bowl shortly after. There was something about 3 AM that just made cereal taste better. "Was I making tibana oil soup again?" Dag had found her with a smoldering pot of bubbling tibana oil the last time she'd fried her brain. It was a miracle that the whole block didn't go up in flames, but the bubbling brew had left a nasty stain on the wall.

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem crinkled her nose at the suggestion.

"What? No." She paused, following the woman's gaze and realizing just what that stain was from. "...You were frying socks. You know spice is really bad for you." It was impossible for the girl not to sound snotty then, but it was kinder than all the things she could have said.

Such as-- I can't believe my master is dating a druggie, or I'm going to tell on you.

The situration was almost unheard of for the temple raised girl. She really was struggling to fathom how she could be expected to live in it. This wasn't normal.

This was just a misunderstanding in the end.

 

[Yula Perl]

Too tired to even mix her cereal with the milk, Yula lazily crunched her way through a dry spoonful taken from the top of the Yoda-Os pile in her bowl.

"You're not wrong," There was a tinge of sleepy confusion in her voice, and it took a few moments to connect the dots. Did Dagon tell Jem about her troubled past? It wasn't that distant. The realization lanced through her like an electric shock. She chewed harder, grinding the toasted crunchies between molars.

More awake, she had the good sense swirl her cereal and milk together. "I wasn't high earlier today." A thoughtful pause. "Not from spice, anyway."

"You ever try it?"

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

"What? No!" She sputtered, nearly spilling her bowl as she looked ready to bolt or duck or otherwise dodge sudden authoritive whiplash. "I'm a jedi," she hissed in explanation, practically begging the woman to see reason and never say that again.

"Or at least training to be one, and jedi don't do spices-- or spirits-- or anything else that detracts from our work. We serve the force ," she lectured.

"And the Force doesn't do raves." End of sentence, closed book, period!

She unruffled just enough to spoon another bite into her mouth.

Yula Perl

 

[Yula Perl]

"And the Force doesn't do raves."

"It doesn't?"

Yula's mock surprise was underscored by a chit-eating grin. Ever sleepy, she still found the will to be smarmy. With a shrug, she turned back to her cereal.

"The Force sounds boring as hell."

How many Jedi had the Zeltron come across in nightclubs by now? Dagon would probably blow a gasket if she mentioned that to Jem. Maybe once the kid was more settled in.

"How y'liking Denon so far?" The side of her cheek bulged as she chewed and stared out the window above the sink. The opaque night was reflected back to them from the cheap glass, along with the diffused light at the kitchen ceiling. From this angle, you couldn't see the city lights that zagged across the skyline.

She didn't expect Jem to warm to the grimy charm of the undercity just yet—or even soon.

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem snorted. She'd give the woman that, the force was boring sometimes. That didn't mean you did spices. Her gaze followed Yula's and projected up to the inky window.

She gave a subtle shrug and looked away. "I'dunno, Dagon didn't really take me through any of it. Couldn't even be at the window on the ship. .... I think he's paranoid," she added, as an afterthought.

She didn't know what the woman did or didn't know about her, but she wasn't about to add to her bad image with Dagon's overprotectiveness. She lapsed into a thick silence, wondering just what exactly the future would hold for her.

"...I can only remember ever living on Coruscant." She cleared her throat, her words growing tight at the confession. "Everything I know is there. ....And my shoes." A bare toe wiggled, another casualty of the attack.

"I know you hate me..." Came the final, lackluster observation. At least she was talking now, even if the direction of it all didn't quite make sense.

Yula Perl Yula Perl Yula Perl

 

[Yula Perl]

Silence drifted at the edge of Jem's voice, which remained undisturbed by Yula. The wriggling toe drew her eye, at least. Green gaze lingered on the digit for a few moments before she dropped her spoon into the empty bowl with a solid clatter, probably louder than it needed to be.

All at once, the Zeltron gathered herself from the floor and walked away from Jem, disappearing into the bedroom. A little over a minute of rummaging later, she returned, and dropped a pair of thick, fuzzy socks on the girl's lap.

"I don't hate you, y'know." Settling back onto the floor with an unceremonious thump, Yula sounded almost irritated at the implication. "Just…startled, I guess. Dag didn't tell me about you." And now your living in my home, with no input from me.

That…wasn't Jem's fault though. Yula would work out a punishment for Dagon later.

Pressing her back against the cabinet, she smiled wryly at the Padawan.

"I'm guessing he didn't tell you about me neither."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem snorted. "No."

"...Don't really know him that much." She added, her thoughts drifting back to the new nature of their partnership. It had taken Dagon some time to adjust and learn how to make room for Jem again. He hadn't even reached for her when the temple went down. She had found him. That stung, but... he had been there... waiting for her when she had fled at the news of her father.

And then he had brought her here.

There was a bit of hope inside all of this darkness that maybe.... things were changing. Maybe he meant what he said, and she'd get to know the enigma behind the leather jacket now.

Jem took in a deep breath and reached for the socks.

"Does he always disappear like that?" She glanced to the living room in subtle reference. She hadn't even seen him slip out. A part of her worried he wouldn't come back.

 

[Yula Perl]

Yula exhaled with a long huff, cheeks expanding before she breathed out. "Yep."

Why lie? Better she know now then to find out later and go through motions then. "Dag's very focused. Sometimes the blinders go on, and he can't see what's going on around him…or who." Still sitting, she propped one leg up, resting an elbow on the bent knee. This was Dagon's apprentice, so she should probably be watching her mouth—

—not that it mattered. Especially if Jem was going to bunk here for a while.

"He means well. Idiot with a heart of aurodium." That sounded sappy, so she snorted. "To be fair—I also do. Sometimes. Not as much, but most of my work is on Denon. The steadiest thing I've got going is the garage below."

A tickle of triumph prickled her chest when Jem went for the socks. "You wear a larger size than me, and you're obviously smaller than Dag. We'll head to the corner thrift a few blocks away, tomorrow morning." She raked a hand through her hair and took her time with a slow yawn.

"Can't have you walking around like that."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem in took a breath and forgot to let it out, taken aback by the sudden gestures the woman was offering. Maybe she wasn't so bad after all. Maybe they had both just... had a bad day.

"Thanks..." she finally murmured, taking Yula's empty bowl and stacking it under hers. The weight of the night finally crashed down on her temples and she finally felt like maybe she could fall asleep.

The spoons rolled around the bowl rim, before she stood up and placed them both in the sink.

"...If that wasn't spice, what was it?" She asked, curiosity subduing her tone.

 

[Yula Perl]

"It was Emily!"

As if on cue, the little spider droid…did not appear. Still, Yula's grin stretched wide across her face. The Zeltron was never one to pass up talking about her creations, as Jem would soon come to regret.

"It's like—okay so, Emily has these fangs. And normally she can use them to attack, but sometimes when I really need her to, she can plug them into the ports on my neck—" Here she would lower her head and sweep back the dark waves over her opposite shoulder, so that Jem could see the two small female sockets at the base of Yula's neck, dotting her skin like large metallic freckles. "And then, she transforms into armor. Like, full coverage armor. With hydraulic spider legs on the back. An' because I'm neurally integrated with her, I can control 'em with my mind. It's really cool, can scale buildings and fight with em, and the armor itself has a ton of cool features. Except when I was on Jedha, the guy I was fighting, he ripped the legs off so now I need to repair them. It took me a few years to build, technically three if you count the time I spent on the prototypes and they all exploded but—"

She paused to take a breath, finally sending oxygen to her brain and regaining some sense.

"Anyway, it's really taxing on me. If I stay that way for too long, it fries my brain something bad."

"And that's how you end up with fried socks."

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

Jem crinkled her nose.

"That doesn't sound safe." Then again, Jem had a slight mistrust of cybernetics. Anything that wasn't flesh and blood wasn't right, and that spider just flat out gave her the creeps. She rubbed her arm at the reminder of Jedha. It was a second attack, one that happened while she was away. She should have been there for that.

It was her fault. This whole damn thing was her fault. He was her father and he was going to tear the whole galaxy apa-- Jem jerked back from the sink, breathing quickly as she tried to shake off the pressure in her chest.

"I um, I think I'm ready for bed," she announced, taking a step away.

 

[Yula Perl]

"It's not." Yula sounded a little too proud when she said that. "You can't let little things like health and safety stand in the way of progress!"

Even with her energy, the mood sobered in the quiet lapse that followed. When Jem gripped the sink with white knuckles, Yula scrambled up from the floor and placed a hand on her shoulder, not even stopping to think about the awkwardness. Zeltrons were touch driven by nature, even platonically. Something told her that the long night was ending.

"Okay." She said quietly, hand slipping away to give the girl some space. "Try 'an get some rest, yeah?"

Jem Fossk

 

[Jem Fossk]

With little else to say, Jem turned from the warm and the care and scuttled back to the darkness of the living room.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Don't think. Don't think-- Don't--