Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for Kionne and any other random people I decide to throw in to make a "plot". All Star Wars characters belong to George Lucas and any anime characters in this chapter (I don't know who they're going to be yet) belong to their respective owners. Btw, I have never really been to an otaku before but I've heard about 'em!
For all the people that reviewed,I'm not going to answer the reviews until the end of the chapter this time because I'm experimenting with which ways arebest. As a matter of fact, please tell me which way you like authors to answer reviews (stupid question, but please do it). So scan for my response down at the bottom somewhere. Also I would like to know if you want a recap from the previous chapter. I'm not going to do that this time but I may or may not next time. Give me any more suggestions that will make this story easier for you to read.
Chapter Three: She Married Who! And Otaku Here We Come!
Kionne was amazed. Marin looked like a black and pink blur dragging a red and white blur along the streets. There were only two people she had seen move this fast. Jaina, when she saw a new model of a ship, and Lowie when he was hungry. Kionne vaguely wondered if the super speed was affected by how obsessed the person was with the object. Judging by how fast Marin was sprinting, she really loved this Otakun, whatever that was. Kionne's thoughts were distracted as she attempted to keep up with to keep up with her new friend. After a while, she started to feel her muscles protest and knew that she couldn't keep this up for long. She Force-shoved Marin onto a bench and Kionne collapsed on the ground next to it.
Marin looked at her indignantly. "Meow! What did you do that for?"
"Sorry, Marin," Kionne said, panting in between each word. "I think we can get there faster if we take a taxi."
"A taxi? But I heard that on Mon Cal that there's only the turbolifts and passenger cars that go to specifically defined areas."
"Marin, is this your first time here?"
"Yes, the only other planets I've been to are Ossus, Commenor, Corellia, Zonama Sekot, and Kegan, but that doesn't really count since it's my home planet."
"Well, it's only on the ground that we have those limitations. Honestly, we're like every other planet. We do have air taxis, but we also have water taxis, too," Kionne explained.
Marin looked sheepish as Kionne just smiled and scanned the air for a taxi. Spotting one, she did what most of the normal people did. Kionne waved her hand and whistled loudly, but the hand wave was accented by a small Force suggestion just in case. The cab flew over and landed at a nearby platform. Kionne raced over and claimed it before anyone else could, despite her exhaustion. She waited for Marin to get in before telling the droid driver their destination.
The ride went smoothly and they arrived at the Shell Dance Hotel. Kionne inserted the credits into the payment slot and then followed Marin out of the cab. Marin dragged her over to the hotel and through the front doors. People who were in the lobby gave them weird looks until Marin grabbed a Mon Calamari in the hotel's uniform. He merely glanced at them before motioning to a set of double doors off to the side of the library. "The Otakun convention is in there."
Marin gave an excited "mrow" and dragged Kionne to the door. She whipped them open and both girls gasped.
XaXaXaXa-
(Jaina's apartment, at the same time as Kionne and Marin are getting into the air taxi)
Zekk peered at the wedding party holosof his friend Tahiri. Jaina had been the maid of honor, looking quite nice in the blue dress… No, no, no, bad Zekk, banish those thoughts from your mind. He looked over at the groom and groomsmen andthen rubbed his eyes. He hadn't drank anything alcoholic today, so he know that he wasn't seeing double. The Best Man and groom were identical brothers with sand-colored hair and blue-gray eyes. "So, that's the guy Tahiri married? I don't think I've seen or heard of him."
"Oh, really? His name's Mystiran Kenys. He's in my squadron as one of my senior officers along with his twin brother Alaric. They're both Jedi, only a year younger than us, and just plain odd."
Zekk raised an eyebrow. "Odd? How?"
"Well… 'Ran pretty much is the person we look to if we want to go on a mission incognito, if you know what I mean. Al doesn't really know what goes on outside of his computer. You'll notice him soon enough. He's the guy who wanders around with the half vacant look on his face;occasionally he'll run into a wall. He's also friends with Ghent, so that explains some things."
Zekk blinked andthen clicked to another picture. It was thewedding reception and Jaina was caught being forced to dance with one of the twins-Alaric, judging from the large "A" written on the back of his suit in white paint. Jaina was laughing about something and Alaric was grinning. Zekk gave asmall smile before quickly turning to another holo. This one was the groom (he had a big "M" on the back of his suit) and Tahiri dancing. After that, it was the groom again, this time he was dancing with a woman who looked almost exactly like him, just slightly older.
He nudged Jaina, who looked at the holo. "Who's the woman dancing with…?"
"Mystiran?"
"Yeah, him."
"That woman is his older sister, Cassiel. She's a doctor."
"Ahh, she's not a Jedi?"
"Nope."
Zekk looked over the rest of the holos, laughing occasionally. It was around 4:30 when he was done. Jaina had left him at the kitchen table to go look for something to watch on the Holonet 30 minutes prior. He joined her on the couch and looked at the holoscreen. She was watching Hapan news with an annoyed expression on her face. Jacen and Tenel Ka were standing next to each other at a press conference. Zekk grabbed the remote from the table and turned it up.
"Hello, my children," Tenel Ka said. The corners of her mouth were lifted up and Zekk watched with interest, wondering what could have made her so happy. "As you know, I have been courting Jacen Solo for the past few months-"
Jaina made an outraged noise. Zekk looked at her curiously. "What? I thought you and Tenel Ka were on good terms."
"We are, that sithspawned brother of mine failed to mention that he and Tenel Ka were going out when I called him 3 weeks ago."
"And we are to be wed in the 5 standard months. So, good people of Hapes, I give you your new prince," Tenel Ka finished.
Jacen smiled, nodded, and grabbedTenel Ka's only hand before the feed was cut off and taken back to normal news. Jaina muttered something and turned off the holoscreen. She stood up, walked over comm unit, and started to send a message. Zekk couldn't hear what she was saying, but Jaina sat back down on the couch again a few minutes later with a very satisfied smirk on her face. She grabbed the remote and turned on the holoscreen but changed the channel.
Zekk grew worried. Whenever Jaina had that self-satisfied look like that on her face that normally meant something bad for another person, and he had a feeling that this time that person was Jacen. So, because of his concern for Jacen's well-being, he asked, "Jaina, what did you do now?"
She put an innocent look her face. Yep, she was definitely up to something. "Me? Do something? I have no idea what you're talking about."
If it wasn't obvious before that Jaina was doing something, then it was now. Zekk had seen that innocent routine done on others so many times that he didn't fall for it anymore. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. Now out with it, Solo."
Jaina scowled, then said, "Well-"
XaXaXaXa-
(Shell Dance Hotel, Otaku convention)
The girls stared with wide eyes at the sight before them. Hundreds of people were milling about in the room, most of them dressed as some random character from a show and few walked around in normal clothes. There were stands set up all around the room; it was loud and slightly crowded. Kionne's eyes moved from one thing to the next at high speeds. A group of people clad in weird costumes at a nearby stand started to shriek and yell.
"KAWAII!" One girl shrieked. She was a human with black hair swished around while the she circled another girl and her amethyst eyes sparkled with joy. She was dressed in a short skirt and her shirt was in the design of some old-fashioned sailor suit that had been worn a long time ago. She was also holding a holocam in one hand and was filming another member of the group.
The girl she was filming was a Twi'lek with a short, brown wig on over her lekku. She was wearing a short black dress that had a pink apron over it. The dress poofed out from the ruffled petticoats underneath it. On top of the wig there was a cat-eared headband similar to the one that Marin had been wearing when Kionne had met her. She held an odd looking staff with both hands. Its head was bird shaped with a beak and two small white wings on either side. The body of the staff was pink and it ended with a red and gold jewel.
Marin snorted at them, grabbed Kionne, and dragged her over to a table that was selling posters. While Marin shuffled through them, Kionne continued to watch all the other people with interest. One man had a blond wig on his head that sort of looked like a broom and wore a long blood-red coat with a dangerous-looking blaster at his side. There was a Mon Calamari female standing next to him in normal clothes, shaking her head and saying, "You'll never make a good Vash without donuts and his sunglasses."
"I couldn't find any of those glasses and the donut shops were all closed!" the man whined.
Kionne's attention was again diverted when a man with vermillion hair and a cross-shaped scar on his left cheek started walking over to the same stand they were at. He had violet eyes and was smiling serenely. He walked up the Rodian behind the table at the stand and pointed to a poster.
"This one would like to have that poster please," he said.
Marin turned and started laughing before grabbing onto Kionne's sleeve and dragging her away. A person wearing blue and black robes approached them. He was holding a gold staff that had a circle on the top separated by three rings.
"Good Sango costume," the man commented He looked at Kionneand then said, "You would be a pretty good Kikyo if your skin wasn't so pink and you didn't have blond hair." He then jerked a thumb behind him and looked at Marin. "You might not want to take the Kikyo over there. Some fanatical InuKag fans are over there."
Marin blinked. "How do you know?"
"Because they're all dressed as Kagome and squealing over an Inu poster."
"There's an Inuyasha poster over there!" Marin squealed. She grabbed Kionne and dragged her over.
XaXaXaXa-
(Back at Jaina's apartment)
"Jaina, you're evil, pure evil," Zekk stated as hesat back and stared at her.
She nodded in acknowledgement and said, "And you're just figuring this out now?"
Zekk launched a bit of his dinner at her and the food fight began. They had ordered takeout because both of them were too lazy to get up and cook. And now, their dinner was strewn across the floor, on the table, on their faces, in their hair, and of course, on their clothes. When both had run out of ammo, they first looked at the room, then ateach other, and thenback at the room before bursting into laughter. Jaina sat on the floor once she had calmed down and started remove bits of food from herself. Zekk sat down next to her and tugged a piece of greenery out of his hair.
Jaina surveyed the kitchen before shaking her head. "We're going to have to clean this all up now."
"Yes, one of the many responsibilities of having a food fight. Don't you have a cleaning droid of some sort? Sith, even a protocol droid would work."
"Nope, we don't. If we did then I probably would have shot it by now. Especially, if it was a protocol droid."
"That's true," Zekk said. "The last thing anyone needs is a second Threepio."
"Yes, yes, now stop changing the subject and help me get to work on cleaning the room."
XaXaXaXa-
(Still at Jaina's apartment only it's about 7:45pm, it's in the weird Zekk POV sorta thing, again)
After they had finished cleaning the kitchen, Jaina and Zekk sat on the couch and watched the Holonet. During this time, Zekk noticed Jaina was becomingmore and more introspective. When he attempted to probe her emotions for a hint as to how she was feeling, he found that Jaina had shut him out. Zekk was starting to feel very uncomfortable, until Jaina said something out of nowhere that really confused him.
"I'm sorry."
He blinked and looked curiously at her. Sorry? What was she sorry about? The only recent thing that might call for an apology was her launching a good portion of her pasta at him. Onlythat didn't really need an apology, because he had dumped a bowl of mounder potato rice onto her head. "What are you sorry about?"
"Everything."
"Everything? What do you mean? I was the one who started the food fight. There's no reason for-"
"No, not that! I'm sorry about…"
Now he was really confused. Why didn't she just blurt it out? Normally, she didn't have a problem with being blunt, and nearly downright tactless, but now… Well, let's just say that he couldn't figure it out for the life of him.
"Jay, just spit it out."
"I'm sorry about what happened on Hapes."
Oh… that was what she was talking about. Zekk's face fell as the memories of that time resurfaced again. He had known, of course, that this topic was going to come up. He just wanted it to. Everything was going almost as it had in the old days, when they hadn't worriedabout ifthey would see tomorrow come or not.
Hapes held too many unhappy thoughts for him. Jaina pushing him away and going to someone else for comfort was the most painful. Of course, it wasn't as fresh a wound as it had been, but that still didn't make it any less painful. After all, how would you feel if the person who saved you from the dark side, cared about most, and shared almost every happy childhood moment with, was suddenly pushing you aside and replacing you with some… stranger.
He attempted to say something but it only came out as a grunt. He tried again and his throat decided to work, somewhat. It came out a bit squeaky, but he was sure she wouldn't notice. "Hapes? I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes you do. I was acting like a spoiled little kid who had its favorite toy taken away. I didn't give you or anyone else a chance. It was wrong of me; I was a jerk, brat, and all that other stuff." Zekk opened his mouth to try and say something but Jaina cut him off before he could. "Don't even say I wasn't, because I was. I realize that now. I had no excuse to do what I did to you and the others, especially you."
Zekk's eyes widened and he blinked for a moment in surprise. First of all, Jaina Solo, a Solo for kriff's sake, had just apologized; secondly, she had apologized to him no less. His mind seemed to finally register these facts, and he raised a hand and cut her off from babbling. "Jaina, shut up and let me get some things said too."
Much to his surprise, Jaina actually did what he said without protest, and looked at him like a child learning life's meaning. "Jaina, you weren't the only one who did something they regretted at that time, you know." He held up his hand again when she opened her mouth to protest. "Yes, I know you did a lot, but you weren't alone. I wasn't too happy with myself, either. Jaina, I'm sorry that I left."
"But that wasn't your fault!" Jaina protested. "I was-"
"Shut up for a minute and let me speak, please," Zekk interrupted. He cleared his throat and continued on. "I know you pushed me away, but I didn't really try all my hardest to make you open up. To be honest, I was afraid. Afraid for you and of you, I was worried that if you went over completely and no else was left but me that I'd have to… I'd have to…" He took a deep breath and continued, "I'd have to stop you. I knew that I couldn't do that, so I left. But that isn't all, though."
Jaina looked at him curiously. Again, she opened her mouth only to close it again when Zekk held up his hand. "I was afraid…" Crap, this confession stuff had been easier at first. It's really hard to say something that you've kept shut inside for so long. "Jaina, I was afraid that if I couldn't take you down, that I would fall… again."
He waited in silence as she absorbed this. He tensed when he realized that this might be the end of their rebuilding friendship. He was so worried that he didn't notice that Jaina had started speaking until he heard his name mentioned. "What did you say?"
"I said I understand, Zekk. I was letting grief take control of me and I wasn't thinking straight. It's only natural that you would feel that way. After all, you were pretty much against the dark side after… well you know."
"But Kyp-"
"Kyp is reckless and he doesn't listen to caution as much as he should. Besides, I think that turning me away from the dark side was another way for him to try and fill his debt that he thinks he owes my family."
"Yes, but-"
"Zekk, we already apologized and I really think you don't have that much of a reason to apologize, but it's your decision. The only thing that I care about is if you still want to, you know become friends again."
Zekk grinned at her. "I thought we were already friends."
She laughed and hit him on the arm. The tension in the room was broken and Zekk could fell a weight that he hadn't known being lifted from his shoulders. He gave her a small smile and then retaliated by hitting her with a pillow. Jaina's reaction was interrupted by Kionne and Marin running into the apartment. Both girls were panting and the only thing they said for an explanation was, "Crazy InuKag fans!"
TBC-
Well, I'm slightly depressed. How sad is that? I just depressed myself with that last bit of the chapter. Oh well, it had to be done sometime. I thought it would be better to get it off the plate now, rather than dealing with it later. I just hope it wasn't too soon and the chapter was okay
Reviews:
DathomiranAuthorRoamer: I'm surprised. You think this is good enough to add to the J/Z index. Actually, what I really mean to say is… THERE'S GOING TO BE A J/Z INDEX! I really need to get out more. How could I have not heard of that? Oh well, please tell me when it's up! I'd love to check it out! I definitely agree there needs to be more J/Z, considering I feel like I'm one of the few who aren't being converted to J/K. I named my violin Rossini b/c I love to play the William Tell overture. Marin's so interesting in real life that I had to use her as a character. It would've been a crime for me to not do that. I'm glad someone appreciates my humor. Thank you for reviewing!
To All Reviewers: I'm not sure if I said this before but… I'm not above bribing people to review so I'm going to leave out chocolate, cookies, and all that good stuff okay? And if you want, press the little button in the lower, left hand corner. I enjoy meeting new people!
