Office hours [all day Thursday]

[sith_happened]

Anakin was in his office writing down his first impressions of his new class. Every now and then, he'd glance over at the holo of a redheaded baby, smile and shake his head.

This island.

The door was open.

Comments

[intraspective]

She peeked around the door, sometime in the morning. "Master Skywalker? Are you busy?"

[sith_happened]

"Nothing that can't wait," he said with a small smile. "Come in."

[intraspective]

Ino slipped in, feeling a bit awkward, but smiling. "I heard you were back from radio," she said. "How was your summer if you, like, don't mind me asking."

All she knew about his summer that it had involved getting married. To Ino, that sounded like a good summer, really.

[sith_happened]

"Relaxing," Anakin said. "There were entire months that went by without me having to worry about turning into a pony or my socks deciding to attack me."

[intraspective]

That got a laugh. "But having to worry 'bout all of that is part of the fun, don't you think?"

[sith_happened]

"It's why I came back," he said oh-so-solemnly.

[intraspective]

She grinned. "Too much relaxing is bad for you," Ino said impishly. "So, clearly, teaching is the cure to that."

[sith_happened]

"Especially with this class," Anakin agreed. "How was your summer?"

[intraspective]

Ino wrinkled her nose. "Life got turned upside-down? Which is fun, only not."

[sith_happened]

Anakin gestured to a chair. "Tell me about it?"

[intraspective]

She curled up in the chair, tucking her legs up under her, and started to talk. And talk. "Bunch of it, was like, at the start just people... leaving 'cause they graduated, you know? I don't like people leaving, I always get left behind. But I could handle that, right? I mean, it wasn't something I hadn't dealt with before," a roll of her eyes, "or that I won't be dealing with again. Did I mention I hate graduation? Yeah. But anyway, that was just a kinda...omnipresent bad, and then Temari and Hinata showed up, from my world. And Hinata's from my timeline, and she said I'd become spoiled, and Temari's from a few years ahead of me time-wise and she said that me, this me, not her me, was pathetic and nothing but a liability." This was easier after saying it first to Karal last night. "And I was all, well, whatever, I am not, sort of thing? But it kept bugging me, you know? Somewhere 'round there I stopped being able to find my center."

"And then Cal decided that me not giving him back pictures was enough to end our friendship, which means it couldn't have meant very much to him anyway, which wow, sucks, and then I had to go home for a few days. Mom's birthday. Which was fine, I guess. But I... found out that Temari and Hinata were right. That I was really as pathetic and everything as they said, and that everyone back home had become so much stronger and I was just... me. Left behind again, but because of my own fault. So I... cut my hair, and I'm trying to eat properly, and Temari said she'll help me become strong like she is, and Karal said he'll help me find my center again, but all of that still... burns, you know?" She trailed off there realizing that, uh, dropping all of that on him was... a lot.

[sith_happened]

Anakin's eyes had gone a little wide, yes.

"You have had a busy summer," he said after a moment. "And it certainly hurts to hear unpleasant things about yourself. Even more so when they're true things. This island is wonderful for a great many reasons, but it does tend to take the edge off of those of us who spend most of our lives fighting." He gave her a very small smile. "I know I've certainly gotten rusty."

[intraspective]

That had been the short form!

She didn't smile back, though that was comforting to hear. "But it's not just, like... fighting. It was, well, the first sign back home of everything being really off? Was me misjudging how long it'd take to get from the portal drop off point to home. I misjudged by an hour. No ninja does that. Can afford to do that."

[sith_happened]

"That's a real problem," he agreed. "You know that your skills won't be returning immediately, right? It's going to take a lot of hard work."

[intraspective]

She nodded. "I can handle hard work."

[sith_happened]

"Good," he said. "Now how did you end up so away from who you are? Can you pinpoint how you ended up where you are now?"

His eyes were serious. "Because there's no point in putting in the hard work if you're just going to end up back where you are again."

[intraspective]

Ino thought about that, taking her time. "I... got lazy, I think," she said quietly. "Because it's easier here than at home..."

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "And there was no one here to keep you up to a standard?"

[intraspective]

She flushed, but nodded. "It was... like a vacation... only it never, really, ended."

[sith_happened]

"And a year later you're well behind your peers and feeling a bit sorry for yourself," Anakin said.

[intraspective]

Her flush deepened.

But she nodded. "I'm working to fix it though." It wasn't like she was just, you know, sitting around feeling awful.

[sith_happened]

"And that's an important step," he said. "Some people would've wasted time convincing themselves that everyone else was wrong."

Like, for instance, him. Details.

[intraspective]

She tugged at her hair a bit. "Hard to do that, when it's everywhere you look back home," Ino said quietly.

[sith_happened]

Anakin leaned forward. "It's fixable," he said quietly. "Give it a few months and no one will be able to call you a liability."

[intraspective]

"I know," she said, wishing that her voice didn't wobble slightly. "I've just... never liked being weak. I'll work at it."