Visiting grandma Tico

Disclaimer: see previous chapters.

…The first time that Ben saw the Tico family lands, (or was it called the estate?), he was immediately reminded of his uncle Luke's lands, aka the site of his dojo/retreat/school, whatever you want to call it; just less civilized. Not a comparison that Ben thought that he would make in regards to Ahch-To, but there you have it.

"Yes, now that Paige and I aren't spending much time here, grandma Tico isn't able to maintain the grounds in a proper form," Rose readily agreed, "but it isn't so bad…" She trailed away as the duo looked around. Small birds were flying up from the grass, equally small rodents were running through it, and though neither Ben nor Rose would admit it to each other, but both of them thought that they might have seen a small but probably venomous snake crawl by as well.

"Right," Ben broke the tense silence. "Let's go and meet your grandmother, shall we?"

Therefore, the duo did. Luckily for them, the path was not too far-gone yet, and the duo were able to move through it, even though they did have to look underfoot…just in case.

"So, how often either you or Paige are visiting her?" Ben continued to ask questions, just because.

"Rather irregularly," Rose admitted guiltily, "as you can guess yourself by our South American stint. Still, something is always better than nothing, I always say…"

Rose trailed off, as the duo came across some sort of a party – a rather hippy one, one should add.

"…Now I am officially lost," Rose muttered, as she somewhat not hid behind Ben. "Any idea as to what we should do now?"

"I think that I know where to start," Ben sighed, as he moved towards a certain big hairy guy, flanked by Rose, because reasons. "Hey there, uncle Chewie. What is going on here?"

The latter – and since when did Ben have another uncle? – turned around and using grunts and gestures, (not the most talkative man, this one was), explained that Ms. Tico has kindly agreed to loan her family's lands for some nature TV show, watch and observe it!

…And so Ben and Rose did, actually. It really was some sort of a live nature show, not unlike something that you could see on Animal Planet before it sold itself out completely to the corporate devil, cough…and, apparently, on this particular episode, a venomous cottonmouth, (or another pit viper), was being matched and compared to a non-venomous water snake, or grass snake, or some similar reptile.

…Neither Ben nor Rose were the real life specialists that Hux and Phasma were, (or at least Phasma was, and where she and Hux were in the meanwhile,Rosecould have really used them to pad the silence), but they could see that neither of the reptiles was too happy with their handlers; the latter were professionals, fair enough, but regardless, Rose began to realize that she and Ben were stalling, all the same.

"Yes, well where do we start looking?" Ben replied, when she pointed this out. "It's a large place, and I don't know it at all-"

"Hello, dear," spoke a much older version of Rose, wearing a pair of extra-large spectacles and a long pearl necklace. "Is this your fellow?"

Rose readily agreed. "Hello, grandma Maz!" she said in Vietnamese.

"Stop showing off," the much-older woman snorted, before switching her attention to Ben. "So, you're Han and Leia's boy?"

Ben shrugged. "Yes. How long did you know them?"

"Mostly via Chewie," Maz shook her hand fondly at Ben's non-biological relative. "And how was your mission in the jungle?"

"Fine, grandma Maz," Rose spoke with more spunk and good cheer than she normally did – clearly, her grandmother was good for her. "I met Ben, got myself a new handbag, and got rescued from a monster spider, the usual!"

Maz blinked and looked at Ben. "It was just a spider, really," he told her.

"He is being humble-"

"No, I am not-"

"Yes, you are-"

Chewie walked over to Ben and patted him across the shoulders.

"In other news, we want to know, what's with the TV series over here?" Ben accepted his que and changed the topic.

"Oh, that, just a small way for me to make money," Maz said dismissively, in a manner not unlike Rose's, actually. "Bagel? Or a hot dog?"

Ben blinked. Chewie blinked. Even Rose blinked, but immediately caught herself. "Grandma Maz," she told her rather sternly, "should I call Paige and Poe? Are there financial difficulties, or are you just lonely?"

"I am having a midlife crisis!" Maz said brightly.

"Grandma," Rose sputtered, "you're- grandma! Grandmas don't have mid-life crises!"

"I do!"

"It does sound more like uncle Chewie's thing," Ben agreed with his significant other.

Chewie sputtered, and glared at the younger man. Ben shrugged apologetically, but stood by Rose.

"Regardless of whether or not Chewie has a mid-life crisis," Maz opted to be the voice of reason, "are you two hungry? Chewie, you're always hungry, judging by what I've learned."

Chewie shrugged and declined from arguing about the obvious. "So-?" Rose continued, returning to the elephant in the room, (or rather – the snakes on the front lawn, cough).

"They were looking around for an appropriate location to film their specials for online streamer videos, I volunteered, the end," Maz snorted. "Rose, kindness makes the world go round, remember?"

Rose glared and muttered something about sisters beneath her breath.

"Yeah, I'll take it as acceptance of my wisdom," her grandmother said loftily. "Now, how about that meal?"

Ben looked at Rose, Rose looked at Ben, Chewie looked at both of them. "Fine," Ben muttered, "let's have lunch. Uncle Chewie hasn't changed that much since we left for South America, it looks like." He paused and added, askance: "Also, my folks are wondering when you will be coming over-?"

Chewie did not back down, and in his typical manner explained that that will happen when their diet kick will end. Ben sighed, and pointed out that diets were good for health. Chewie disagreed.

"I like him," Maz told her granddaughter in the meantime, albeit in Vietnamese. "You choose well!"

Rose just blushed, but did not argue.