TRICKSTER GRENADE
Chapter 2
"You got plans for tonight?" Han asked Jaina, who had come out of the shower, her long chestnut hair wrapped in a towel, the rest of her in a bathrobe.
"Why? Are you in a hurry to get rid of me? And where's Jacen?"
"He's meeting up with some friends," Han said simply.
"Who?" Her voice became suspicious.
"He's meeting some friends from school."
"Where?"
"He's getting together with..." Han grabbed the flimsi, "Bix Varnel - "
Jaina rolled her eyes. "Oh please, Bix is a total loser."
"Jaina, to say you're critical of people is a lot like saying your father is a an excellent pilot," Leia said sharply. "He's done everything we've asked. And he's been nowhere but school for six months. Believe it or not, your parents need a break once in a while."
"Well, don't stop on my account," Jaina snapped at her. "I'm gonna have dinner with my girls and then see a holoflick."
"Which one?" Han asked.
"Whichever one we can finally agree on."
"That could take all night," Han said, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, and it usually does," Jaina theatrically sighed. "Well, don't let me get in the way of your plans."
"Believe me, little princess, we certainly won't, provided you leave soon," Han said to her.
"Okay, okay!" She stomped back to her room to prepare to get ready. Jaina took forever in the shower, but the rest of the ritual rarely took more than an hour.
"I suppose we could eat right now," Leia said, winking at Han.
"Well, if we're going to do what I think we are, we need our strength."
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It was a quarter to midnight when Han and Leia were finally physically spent. Han had his arm around her as she lay on his chest, listening to what had been the rapid beat of his heart slowing to a calm and peaceful rhythm. Han kissed the top of her head.
"I feel like it's been forever since we've been without a kid in the house," Leia told him.
"Tell me about it," Han said softly.
Just then Leia's comm went off.
"Jacen. Saying he's leaving and should be home in 15 minutes," Leia said.
"I told him he had to be in by 0030," Han said. "Maybe we're finally gonna get a break." Han's comm then went off. He groaned as he picked it up. "Jaina. They're just going to the holofilms right now and she'll be home by 0200. What the hell do four girls do that they can't get to a holoflick till nearly midnight?"
"Drink kaf beverages and talk about boys," Leia responded. Han groaned, and Leia laughed gently. "You asked, Flyboy."
Leia heard the door from the hallway to the living room open. "Sounds like Anakin's back."
"Yeah, wonder how much he lost tonight," Han muttered. "Next thing I know, he'll mortgage the apartment to the hilt." Anakin's social whirl revolved around, among other things, sabacc.
"He usually wins," Leia pointed out. "Something about an expert teaching him all his tricks."
Han allowed himself to grin. "If the kid wants to play cards, he needs to do it right."
Anakin knocked on the door; Leia had had the good sense to lock it. "Hey Mom, Dad, I won 150 credits!" He shouted through the door.
"Congratulations. Now leave your mother and I alone," Han called back. They both chuckled. Anakin would go and watch holovision for a while; he loved cheesy films that featured large, hungry, angry mutant creatures (and young scantily clad women). He would head for the kitchen and demolish whatever Jacen hadn't devoured. Keeping food in the house with two teenaged sons was proving to be both a major challenge, not to mention a huge expense.
A short time later, they heard the front door open again, and heard Jacen greet his younger brother and indicated that he was starving.
"Our kids are deficient in a certain concept known as 'indoor voice," Han muttered.
"Jacen's home on time. That's all I care about. I can always get groceries on the outskirts of the city tomorrow," Leia said, sighing as if she'd been holding her breath.
"Yeah, you'll have to find a market you haven't totally cleared out," Han said as his wife embraced him. "I dunno about you, sweetheart, but I'm ready for some shuteye."
Leia blew out the candles on her nighttable and settled happily against Han in slumber.
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"What's doing, bro?" Anakin asked Jacen with a mouthful of crackers.
"I'm starving," Jacen said, grabbing some of the crackers. "We got any Amalarian pears left?"
"I ate the last one."
"Bastard."
"You know it," Anakin said lazily. Jacen opened the chiller and then the freezer. "Ooh, iced custard!"
"There's ice custard? And I didn't know about it?" Anakin jumped off the sofa for that one.
"Yeah. Mom and Dad musta gone wild," Jacen said, grabbing the container. Not even attempting to get bowls, the two dug into it with their spoons until the container was completely empty.
The next mission was to ransack the chiller for whatever was there. They found a large chunk of cheese and a wrapper of Jaquira fruit and some kavasas.
"No Amalarian pears," Jacen grumbled.
"Dad's headed for the Outer Rim, he'll bring some back."
"He's gone for two weeks."
"So they finally decided to let you out."
"Yeah, I think they were hating on house arrest as much as I was."
"So what'd you do?"
"Met up with some guys from school. Hung out." Jacen strategically left out the part that consisted of them smoking Marcan herbs with Bix's hookah. It wasn't the rush that synth stim gave, but Jacen had enjoyed it; he felt mellow. And really hungry. They'd pigged out after smoking at a local diner, but Jacen was still famished.
"And you're okay?" Anakin asked.
Jacen rolled his eyes. "Can everyone just stop acting like they're my babysitter? I told you, I'm done with that stuff."
"Just asking." Anakin had a way of defusing a potentially charged situation. "Oh man, the Rodian's gonna get it!" His eyes had returned to the film they were watching.
"The Rodian always gets it," Jacen commented as he ate some of the breakfast cake they had located. "In the first five minutes. These holos are always the same."
"But that's what's so great about 'em!" Anakin said, gnawing on the end of the brick of cheese. The wrappers were now all that remained from the large scale consumption.
"Stupid dialogue, bad special effects, cheesy music?"
"You left out the hot science babes and the girls in bikinis," Anakin reproached.
"Well, okay, I get that. We got anymore food?"
"You get it. I wanna watch the Rodian get eaten."
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"There's no milk! Who drank up all the damn milk?!" Jaina shouted to no one in particular.
"Talk to your brothers," Leia told her. "I have to foodshop. Again. That's the third time this week."
"They're like swart hogs," Jaina grumbled. "They'd eat the furniture if nothing else was around."
"Hey, get moving," Han told Jaina. "Chewie's waiting for us at the Falcon. Where's Anakin?"
"Sleeping, the last time I checked," Leia told him.
Han went to the room that his two younger sons shared. "Anakin! Move your ass!" Han shouted as he knocked on the door.
"Least Jarik's not around to slow us up," Jaina muttered. "There's no flatbread left! There's like really nothing left!"
"We can get one of those sugar laden concoctions you call a kaf and some breakfast sandwiches," Han told her. "Now step on it."
"Gods, what's everyone so worked up about?" Anakin asked as he entered the kitchen, bleary eyed and yawning.
"'Cause we gotta help Daddy with the Falcon," Jaina informed him. "Thanks a lot for eating everything in the house!"
"It wasn't just me! It was Jacen, too!"
"And speaking of Jacen, if I have to foodshop, he's going to help me," Leia said in a determined tone. She went to Jacen's door and rapped on it. "Jacen! Let's go. Unless you consider starvation to be a wonderful plan!"
A few minutes later, Jacen came out of his room, blinking his eyes groggily. "What?" he demanded, his voice indicating ill humor.
"We have to foodshop," Leia told him.
"And I'm your bagman, right?" Jacen growled.
"You have a choice," Leia informed him. "You can either help me shop or go hungry."
"All right, all right!" Jacen slammed the door to the kids' fresher.
Leia turned to Han. "Tell me again why we wanted children."
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Han was incredibly irritated by the time he, Chewie, Jaina and Anakin had finished servicing the Falcon. The kids had argued numerous times over how to best perform the repairs to where Chewie, who indulged the kids like crazy, roared at them. His band was playing that night and sound check was in an hour and a half and he still had to do the load in.
"You should really rethink how you did that wiring on the cooling nozzles, y'know," Anakin said to Jaina, his tone recalcitrant.
"I've been doing this longer than you have - " Jaina snapped back.
Han turned to them, his expression nearly furious. He raised a finger and glared at both.
Anakin and Jaina decided it was in their best interests to be quiet. For a moment or two, anyway.
"Is Mom going with you tonight?" Anakin asked.
"Why, you planning on having a sabacc tournament at our apartment?" Han asked him.
"Actually, yeah, the 53rd floor residents are getting pissed at us."
"Maybe you should try making less noise," Han suggested, his tone short. "Or try another floor."
"Maybe you shouldn't throw food around," Jaina said to Anakin sharply.
"What? That was one time we had a food fight!"
"Yeah, and it cost every parent 250 credits," Han reminded him.
"So? Can I have it at our house?"
"Talk to your mother, but I promise you this: If she wants to go to our gig tonight, there'll be no teenaged sabacc tournaments. And, if she wants to go with me, one of you has to babysit."
"Make Jacen do it," Jaina said. "I can't believe you let him go to Bix's. That guy is a loser."
"You think everyone's a loser," Anakin shot back.
"Bix is nothing but a stoner."
"All right, what part of 'SHUT UP' are you two having trouble with?"
Leia had asked Han earlier in the day why they'd wanted children. Right now, he had no idea.
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