Office hours [all day]

[sith_happened]

After his weekly spar with Ben, Anakin came into his office to catch up on the radio and laugh at his students' pain catch up on his email before he headed up to Connecticut the rest of the week.

The door was open.

[OOC: SP due to relatives!]

Comments

[trigons_child]

Pain? What pain? Raven was enjoying the assignment. She even had baby Ariela (with wee red gem stuck to her forehead) with her when she appeared at Anakin's door after her morning class. "Good morning, Professor Skywalker," she said.

[sith_happened]

"Good morning, Raven," Anakin said with a smile. "Good morning, young one," he said, nodding his head at the baby, which cooed adorably at him.

[trigons_child]

"Her name is Ariela Willow," Raven said, moving inside. She smiled down at the robobaby. "I think she likes you." Took after her mother, of course.

[sith_happened]

"Of course she does," Anakin said. "I programmed her to."

[trigons_child]

"That is cheating," Raven scolded.

[sith_happened]

"It's not a lesson intended for me," Anakin declared. "I'm allowed to cheat."

[trigons_child]

"True," Raven conceded. "But were Ariela a living child, then I would be able to use my gifts to see to her needs far more easily." That hadn't stopped her from treating Ariela exactly like a living child, however.

[sith_happened]

Anakin grinned. "But not all parents can do that. This puts you all on a level field."

[trigons_child]

"I know many of my classmates do not like the assignment," Raven said, "but I have been enjoying it a great deal." Her roommate, not so much.

[sith_happened]

"I'm glad," Anakin said sincerely. "Why do you think you're reacting so much more maturely?"

[trigons_child]

Because it was Anakin's class and she wanted to be teacher's pet, duh.

"I think it is because this is something I will never otherwise experience," Raven said. "I will never have a child of my own."

[sith_happened]

"You know this to be absolute?" Anakin asked.

[trigons_child]

"I am certain it is physically possible," Raven said, "but it would be irresponsible of me. A child of mine would also have the blood of Trigon in her veins. I would not wish that struggle on another."

[sith_happened]

"Things can change, young one," Anakin said with a small smile. "Perhaps by the time you want to be a mother, Trigon won't be a factor."

[trigons_child]

"That would be wonderful," Raven said. "Though even then, I would have to be careful about emotions around a child of mine, unless I raised her in a place like Azarath."

[sith_happened]

"I have to be with Juliet," Anakin said. "It's something you get used to."

[trigons_child]

Raven nodded. "And an empathic temper tantrum would be truly fearsome," she said.

[sith_happened]

"She'll also be able to throw things," Anakin said with a wry smile. "Force-strong babies are going to be a challenge."

[trigons_child]

"How soon do you think she will learn to escape from her crib?" Raven asked.

[sith_happened]

"A few weeks," Anakin admitted. He hadn't mentioned it to Rory. "Or at least she'll be throwing the stuffed creatures to get our attention."

[trigons_child]

Raven couldn't help but laugh. "I think the students who are complaining about this assignment should consider themselves lucky you did not program the infants with those abilities as well."

[sith_happened]

"They wouldn't believe me if I said I was cutting them slack," he said, eyes sparkling.

[solo_sword]

Jaina had been sort of dreading today, knowing she was likely going to have to talk about some things and not knowing how to discuss that, let alone with her grandfather. There were some things she just wasn't comfortable going into detail about. When she got to the office today, though, she found there was one thing she had to do first.

"Could you stand?" she greeted him.

[sith_happened]

Anakin gave her an inquisitive look, but didn't ask any questions as he stood up.

[solo_sword]

Now that she could get to him, Jaina walked over to hug him.

Shut up, it'd been a really hard week and she didn't have her mom around.

[sith_happened]

"Hey," Anakin said, holding on tightly and reaching out to stroke her hair. "What's wrong?"

[solo_sword]

"Think I can just skip ahead to twenty-three?" she asked. It'd have been two years. She should be over this in two years.

[sith_happened]

"It doesn't really work like that," he said softly. "What happened?"

[solo_sword]

She pulled back a bit. She thought she'd been handling this all pretty well so far, and it was much easier to continue to do that when you weren't clinging like a little kid. "John's married," she said simply, calmly. "My breakup should win some sort of award."

[sith_happened]

"He's what?" Anakin replied.

Kind of loudly.

[solo_sword]

"It's been two years for him," Jaina said, having expected something like that. "He didn't do anything wrong."

Yet another reason she was trying to deal with this as well as possible: whatever Anakin's reaction, Han's would be worse.

[sith_happened]

Like Anakin was ever going to be logical about this sort of thing. "He hurt you. That's wrong."

[solo_sword]

"Please don't," Jaina said, not sure whether she was pleading or warning. A little of both, maybe. "He's living his life like he should be. It's not possible for him to wait for me to catch up to him. There's no need to get defensive on my behalf."

[sith_happened]

"Of course there is," Anakin retorted. But he was also the guy who still held it against Rory's ex-boyfriends for, you know, existing.

[solo_sword]

"No. If there's bashing, I'm leaving," she told him, and she felt really strongly about this. "I'm as okay as I can be. No one should be more upset than I am, let's be realistic."

[sith_happened]

"I didn't bash him," Anakin said, looking a little insulted. "I just said there was a need to get defensive on your behalf. He hurt you."

[solo_sword]

"I'm saying it as a preventative measure. And he didn't mean to. He didn't have to tell me, I told him I wanted to know," Jaina explained. "He can't be blamed for the circumstances being bizarre. Seriously, I'm all right." Or getting there, but she was admitting it.

[sith_happened]

"You came in looking for a hug," Anakin said, reaching out to touch her shoulder. "From me. You're not all right."

Someone was still a little stuck on that, yeah.

[solo_sword]

She shrugged. "My mom spoiled me," she said. "Seriously. I'm not great, but doing better than I probably should be. It's bad now, but I'll get over it." Eventually. Someday. Maybe. She was trying to be optimistic there.

[sith_happened]

His eyes locked on hers. "I do have a bit of experience in heartbreak," he said. "Want some chocolate?"

[solo_sword]

"I'm okay. There's been a lot of chocolate lately. I need a break," Jaina admitted. "If the invite's still open for Thanksgiving, though, I'll take that."

[sith_happened]

"Absolutely," Anakin said, reaching out to tap her on the chin. "Can you leave tomorrow?"

[solo_sword]

"I'm ready whenever," she agreed. "A break might be nice."

[sith_happened]

"A break with pie is even better," Anakin replied, grinning.