Lemonade and Sunscreen
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars nor do I own the song "Lemonade" by Emerson Drive.
Setting: Umm… Post- NJO? I started writing this before TJK so I guess its AU.
Summary: Zekk was looking in his closet for shoes and stumbled upon a box of old holos.
/. . ./ song lyrics + italics + bold
Italics flashback, which, btw, are going to be in first person, Zekk POV
/Called in sick to the coffee shop
Said let's go someplace the weather is hot
Bought two plane tickets and called a yellow cab/
Zekk shifted through the junk in his closet. His good boots were in there somewhere. He was sure of it. His elbow hit a small box as he dug through cluttered space. It wobbled on its edge before tipping over. The noise startled him and he glanced around. Scattered on the floor were old holochips.
He knew those chips well. They were in his closet for a reason: he didn't want to remember. The holoschips contained glimpses into his happier past. A time when Jaina actually felt something more than friendship towards him, where Anakin was alive, and they were all together. An irresistible urge to look at the holos swept over him. He reached for the spilt chips and placed them back into the box before carrying them to his bed.
His hand reached for his datapad that sat on the bed side table. The chronometer in the corner of the table said he had a few minutes before time became short as it always did.
Almost as if he was in a trance, Zekk slid the 'chip into the slide and activated it. The first holo was of Jaina putting sand into Anakin's sandwich while he hadn't been looking. The next picture was of Jacen buried up to his neck in sand and staring with growing fright at the approaching tide. Zekk immediately knew where these holos had come from. They were from vacation the Solos had during one of the student breaks at the Jedi Praxeum. He had been invited along – most likely at Jaina and Jacen's insistence. The Solos had spent a week and a half at the artificial beaches on Coruscant. Zekk was only there for a week due to Peckhum leaving a few days after the family had left.
He switched the holo. The next one was of him and Jaina. He was hugging her from behind – his head resting on hers – and both were grinning at the camera. He froze the picture and stared at it with a distant gaze as his mind was sucked into the past.
"Jaina, over here!" I called as I gazed around the sandy parking area. It was hot, bright, and all together different from lower levels that I had gotten used to in the past two weeks.
She grinned at me in greeting, waving a little before she jogged over. I dropped my small duffel in favor of pulling Jaina into a hug. She laughed and said, "I'm glad you could come! Did Peckhum leave after all?"
"Yeah, the guy rescheduled at the last minute." I picked up my duffel and slid my arm around her shoulders. "So, where's the place we're staying?"
"I'll show you, but first you need to sit down." Jaina tugged me into a chair, stubbornly ignoring my protests. She kneeled and grabbed my booted foot.
"Uhh… Jay, this may be an odd question, but why are you pulling on my foot?" I was confused – had she lost it? Did Jacen finally get to her?
"I'm taking off your shoes, laserbrain," Jaina said as if it was obvious. "You don't wear shoes on a beach, see?" She stuck out her foot – toes wiggling – to prove her point.
This was new. Normally, Jaina liked to have shoes on, not off. I wondered what had possessed her. She must have sensed my thoughts – she had gotten quite good at that – and said, "Anakin brought Tahiri and she convinced us that the greatest thing to do while near sand is to go barefoot. I don't dare put my shoes back on, last time I tried she lectured me on how shoes were created by the Sith."
I laughed and let Jaina take my shoes off. She stood a few seconds later and held them out to me. After I placed them a top my duffel – and assuming my previous position with my arm slung over her shoulder – I asked, "So, where are your brothers and parents?"
"Mom is making Dad take her shopping, Jacen is exploring the marina, and Anakin and Tahiri are at the beach," she rattled off. We walked in silence down the main promenade until Jaina pointed to a tall building. "That's where we're staying. You're going to have to sleep with Jacen and Anakin, unless you want the couch." She smiled apologetically at me.
I responded with a grin and tugged her to me in a one-armed hug. "Don't worry about it; they won't bother me as long as neither of them snore."
"Then I should warn you that Anakin sounds like bank of turbolaser canons going off at once."
I gave a fake grimace. She laughed, which was what I had wanted. Jaina and I made our way slowly to the hotel and dropped my stuff off. I don't really remember what it looked like – I was too busy staring at Jaina – nor do I exactly remember what the room looked like. After we had gotten rid of my stuff, and I had changed into cooler clothes – it was hot out there – we left to explore. Since Jaina had been here longer, I let her do the leading this time.
Zekk laughed and smiled sadly at the holo. He flipped it to a different one. This holo was taken by Jacen, the morning after he had arrived at the hotel. He and Jaina were covered in sand and holding a blanket, grinning like a couple of little kids who just got a whole ryshcate. The dark-haired man froze the holos a second time. He stared at it and smiled fondly.
/Drank all our money in beach side bars
Took pictures of each other smoking cheap cigars
Stole a blanket from the hotel room and slept on the sand
We held the world like a glass of lemonade
It tasted sweet
Oh, man we had it made/
The first stop was this place that resembled a very high-tech hut. It had the latest in refreshment serving technology, but the bartender was some guy in his middle ages with a beer gut and buzz cut. I raised an eyebrow at Jaina – knowing perfectly well that she wasn't allowed to drink by her parents – but she ignored me as usual. Jaina dragged me to the bar and sat down in one of the stools, making sure that I sat down next to her.
"We'll take two lemonades," Jaina ordered.
Lemonade! Lemonade! Let me tell you, I was very confused right then. I didn't know what the kriff lemonade was. I glanced at Jaina, hoping for some clarification. She just gave me that lop-sided grin her family's known for. So, I sat on the bar stool and waited in suspense. Why I doubted Jaina had given me something safe to drink, I shall never know.
"Here they are, Miss," the bartender said. "That'll be ten credits."
I reached for my wallet but Jaina beat me to it. She grabbed the drinks and stood. "C'mon, let's take a walk while we drink these."
"You're the boss," I said. I didn't drink any of this "lemonade", I only stared at it. Jaina didn't even blink as she took a sip of the liquid. Well, I remember taking a sip – only because I didn't want Jaina to think me afraid of some drink – and then getting a burst of a tart, tangy flavor. My eyes widened in surprise. "This is… good."
Jaina laughed. "I know, that's why I ordered it. Did you think I would get a bad tasting drink?" I remember my mind drifting back to that one time Jaina had given me some of her father's special "headache" drink as a joke. She must've been thinking along the same lines, for she said, "Okay, there was that one time, but only once!"
Now it was my turn to laugh. "Well, can you blame me? That stuff was horrible!" I took another sip of that lemonade stuff.
For the rest of the day we hung out, and messed around. Nothing could bring us down. After the evening meal, Jaina, Jacen, and I were sitting on the terrace of the hotel room that overlooked the water.
"So, Zekk, Jaina, what'd you guys do today?" Jacen asked.
"We went for a walk," Jaina responded.
I nodded along, still staring out at the water. An idea popped into my head. Yawning, I stretched and said, "Well, I'm gonna hit the sack, see you in the morning." At the same time, I sent a mental message to Jaina saying: Meet me in the living room when everyone is asleep.
Around 2300, I snuck out of my room once I had felt everyone except for Jaina drift off to sleep. I knew she'd be coming in a second so I snatched blanket from the closet. Sure enough, Jaina came silently out of her room just as I was getting closing the closet door. She looked at me expectantly and asked in a whisper, "Well, what are we going to do? And what's the blanket for?"
I shook my head and replied with, "You'll see."
We crept past the shut-down Threepio and managed to make it in and out of the turbolift without running across anyone. I lead Jaina out of the hotel and onto the beach. I could feel her staring curiously at the back of my head but pretended like I didn't notice as I spread the blanket on the sand. Then I flopped down onto it and patted the spot next to me. "Take a seat, enjoy yourself for a while."
She smiled down at me and sat down. She scooted over until she could rest her head on my shoulder. "Are you going to tell why we're out here now?"
"No real reason, I just wanted to be alone with you," Zekk muttered. I intuitively knew her eyebrow was raised but she didn't comment. Instead, she snuggled closer and stared out at the ocean.
/Did we get or too grown up
To do anything just because
Just because we just don't give a damn
Oh, when did we get so serious
What happened to that part of us
Baby can you help me out I don't understand/
He abruptly shut the datapad off and placed it gently onto his bedside table. Zekk went back into his closet, found his wayward boots, slipped them on, and raced out the door. Ten minutes later, he walked back in, muttering curses under his breath. He sat down on his bed again and reached for the datapad. When it was barely inches away he snatched his hand and exclaimed, "No, bad hand!"
Then he groaned and fell backwards, landing with a flop on the bed. "What am I doing? I have things to do, places to be." He sighed then reached for the datapad again only to stall his hand over it. "Do I delight in self-torture? Who am I talking to?" Zekk groaned yet again and reached for the small computer a third time only taking hold of it now. Pressing the button, he muttered, "You're making me go crazy. I'm talking to an inanimate object."
With ease, Zekk sat up, flipping through the photos until he arrived at the held he and Jaina the morning after. They had fallen asleep on the sand and were just getting in. The rising sun had woken them up and when they realized where they were they swiftly made their way back into the hotel. Jacen had been waiting for them and managed to snap the picture just as they stepped into the door. Zekk had the blanket thrown over one shoulder with his other arm snugly around Jaina's waist. Sand made a varying appearance through their hair and the back of the blanket was sprinkled liberally with it. An expression of amusement and slight shock was on both of their faces.
Zekk's eyes and expression turned forlorn as the questions that had been haunting him for some years. What happened to them? Why had they become near strangers? He didn't understand how it happened; a part of him still didn't except that it did. A part of him still held the hope that one day things would go back to the way they were. He tried with all his might to ignore that part of him.
Zekk knew he couldn't pinpoint exactly when they had started to grow apart. He knew for a fact that if he was aware that they would become cool strangers then he would've done everything in his power to prevent it from happening. The thing he did know was that Jaina had ceased to truly acknowledge him as a close friend. He had reacted with the same indifference that she had treated him with – it's his automatic defense – and regretted it ever since.
/We held the world like a glass of lemonade
It tasted sweet
Oh man we had it made
Look at us in that photograph
So beautifully naïve
I want it back
Didn't we laugh, weren't we brave
Wasn't it cool actin' like fools
With nothing in our way/
He changed the image again. This one was of him and Jaina, again, but it was the day before they would leave the beach. Jaina had been applying burn salve to his bright red back. The Solo family and Zekk had spent the whole day on the beach, and Zekk claimed that he didn't burn and thus, did no put any sunscreen on. It resulted in his torso, face, and legs to be cherry red the next day. Jacen had taken the picture, stating, "The pale boy shall be tan-less no more."
Zekk's mouth twitched at the memory. In the picture however, Zekk was scowling irritably at Jacen but with a hint of laughter in his eyes while Jaina was in the middle of chuckling at his expense. He froze the image and placed it back on the bedside table. The memories were becoming too much for him. They had been so wonderfully naïve of the world around them. Their only cares had been whether they would keep in touch with each other. Nothing could stop them as long as they were together, that had been their philosophy. He saw how foolish they had been, but that didn't matter to him. Then, it was cool to be a fool.
His comm terminal started to ring - interrupting his thoughts - and he stood to answer it. The screen flickered to life and Luke Skywalker's face filled the screen. "Hello, Zekk."
"Hello, Master Skywalker. I know I'm late, I'll be there in a minute," Zekk said.
"Oh, that's what I was calling you about. It's no longer necessary for you to come," Luke said. "The person who was supposed to oversee the negotiations, came through. You can still go if you want, but you don't have to."
"Ah… Well, thanks for letting me know," Zekk said. He terminated the connection then leaned back in the chair.
/Picture in a frame, deep blue sky
You and I stuck in time like
We would never fade
Baby why'd we have to change
Let's call in sick and leave this town
Don't matter where we go let's just go now
I'm thirsty for a glass of lemonade/
His eyes flicked to the bedside table where the holograph of them sat still, frozen in time. His eyes then flicked back to the screen. He wanted to be a clueless teen again. Then again, that would be hard since he was really never clueless, just uninformed. In the past, he thought Jaina would come to him if he was patient and gave her space. After all, if she didn't want him around so there was no reason to be. Still, he remained barely a call away and would've willing gone through a whole fleet of skips just to get to her.
The foolish hope was maintained until their knighting ceremony on Mon Calamari. It was there he realized that Jaina didn't care or need him anymore. So he stopped waiting and attempted to get on with his life. Now every thought and feeling he had had during that time came rushing back to him. As he stared at the still image, Zekk came to a decision. He turned back to the terminal only to have it ring.
Puzzled as to who it could be, Zekk flipped it on. Luke's image filled the screen once more. "Hello again, Zekk, I apologize, but our negotiator fell through, are you still available to do it?"
Zekk paused in thought for a moment, his duty to himself and duty to his master battling it out. Finally, he shook his head. "No, Master Skywalker, I'm sorry. I have something else I want to do."
"That's alright," Luke said, looking slightly deflated. "I'll just call around. Maybe Kyp's free."
"Sorry, again, Master, bye." Once more, he turned off the terminal. Again, he thought for a moment before getting up and quickly packing his bags. As an afterthought, Zekk added the datapad, looking at the picture once more before turning it off. He left his apartment, locked it, then pulled his comlink from its place. He swiftly punched in the code and was rewarded with a, "Hello?"
"Hi, Jaina, it's me Zekk. I know we haven't seen each other in a while but I wondering if you wanted to go down to the beach with me this weekend. Yes, I'm well aware that sounds forward, but we can just go as friends. I think I'm thirsty for some lemonade, how about you." He paused and listened to her response. "Great, this time, though, it's my treat." He paused again, this time his cheeks slightly coloring. "I'm going to actually put on sunscreen this time, I learned my lesson well."
End
It's over… And just for a bit of a side note, in the last two parts of the lyrics I split the chorus in half.