Private Call me if you need me

[Kyra Perl]

It wasn't often Kyra was in OPA space, but fact was she was here now and there was nooooooooooo way she was gonna follow Caedyn Arenais around his enclave as he attended to boring jedi affairs. Having a Master was weird sometimes. Like having to ask permission to see her own sis? Ugh. Still, he had asked what she wanted to do for her birthday and this was it. Not that she mentioned as much to her big sis when she dropped the message that she was nearby. No, this wasn't anything like that. The longer she was apart from her family the more distant she had begun to feel, until even an event like this-- a simple sisterly sleep over-- had built up in her head to be a hard request to make. Yula couldn't know that walls the youngest had built around her heart. She couldn't know how much she was needed.

But her Master was persistent about the matter, and in truth, Kyra wanted to lean on her family more than not. She tried not to overthink it.

Kyra gave her sister's door a rapid knock, fusing one last time with her clothes as she waited. Did she look alright? She untucked and retucked her padawan braid from behind her ear, a bit of makeup gracing her face. What did one even wear to a casual hang out? Her mind ran rapid loops, a bit of trepidation hitting her gut as she felt her grow close. Would Yula recognize her now? She was taller. Less chub to her cheeks.
"Housekeeping?" Kyra sassed weakly, blue eyes distorted widely across the camera lense.

Yula Perl

 

[Yula Perl]

“Housekeeping?”

The camera whirred to life, the lens housing shifting back and forth, front to back as it readjusted to look over the new visitor. Given the close proximity, the lens darted forward to thok Kyra on the forehead in a gesture of admonishment.

The door creaked open, and a miniature spider droid with cobalt detailing peeked out. After a moment of examination, Emily warbled angrily as if she were a little old lady berating the Zeltron trespassing on her property.

With a few more punctuated words in droid speak, the door slammed shut.

Kyra Perl

 

[Kyra Perl]

“Ow!” Kyra protested, rubbing at her forehead and ducking out of the way of the next swing. “Watch it!” She shoved it out of the way, straining to peek through the door for her sister’s face.

Instead she was met by a spider. A droid spider, but a 6 legged creature nonetheless. She resisted the urge to squash it, hands going to her hips as she peered down at it. Well! She was waiting!

She blinked hard as the door was abruptly slammed back in her face. Kyra looked back and forth, watching for the explanation. “...uh, Yula?” She knocked again. “Your droids are weird. Let me in.” She turned the knob, testing if it was open.

 

[Yula Perl]

While Emily was busy enforcing the new security protocol, Yula was in the garage below working on a new speeder model. The commotion along with the ensuing door slam had her attention, and so she slowly put two and two together while ascending the stairs to the upper floor of her home.

Wiping her oily hands on a rag, she paused on the landing and couldn’t hold back a smile when she saw Kyra. It had been a while since she’d seen her baby sis—now, well, she didn’t look like much of a baby anymore. Is this what mom felt when looking over her grown children?

“Hey, brat.” She greeted her sister, hooking an arm around Kyra’ shoulders and pulling her into a bear hug. “Glad you made it! You know you could have let yourself in…” She pulled away from the redhead as a sudden thought dawned on her. That, and a chorus of whirrs and squeaks erupted from behind the door, almost in protest.

Yula jiggled the handle of the door, frowning when she found it locked. “Emily, disengage security protocol.” She called out, voice louder with the command. Her answer from the droid was a pointed warble. “A housekeeper? Where on Terminus did you get that from?” Yula groaned. “It’s me Em. I made you! And I can un-make you!”

She turned to Kyra with an apologetic gaze. “Sorry about Emily, kiddo. I just integrated a new security protocol for the apartment but it sounds like somebody needs to be DOWNGRADED.” That last part carried a little louder as she gave a pointed glare to the door.

Sighing, she waved Kyra towards the direction of the garage. “Come on, we’ll go outside and up the side of the building. Fortunately this is just a test run, so I didn’t do the windows yet.” She paused, an observation turning over in her eyes. “You look pretty.”

Kyra Perl

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra's nerves vanished the moment Yula's arms enveloped her. Kyra hugged her back, tight and embracing. It ended too quickly, her sister's attention turning to the locked door and the dysfunctional droid. "...I can help you squash her if you want," She chirped, watching the exchange. "I learned force-stomp," she lied, blending technique together to suit her liking.

"Bet I could shove my foot through metal, easy." She picked up her bag, a skip to her step as she followed Yula's wave through the halls. Yula's sudden compliment sent her blinking-- the next moment the girl beaming in pure delight. "People say I look a lot like mom," she declared, skipping into Yula's side. "I think it's just the hair-- you have her complexion. And cheeks!"

She reached up, pinching at Yula's jawline. "Bummer we don't look more alike..."

 

[Yula Perl]

“Do not try and squish any of my droids, brat.” Yula snorted. “Force knows they see that on a regular basis…” She added in a mumble through clenched teeth. She’d never heard of Force-stomp, but imagined that her durasteel critters would not fare well against a force-enhanced boot.

“…and cheeks!” Yula pulled back on instinct as her chin was pinched, grimacing as Kyra praised her in a manner very much akin to their grandmother. “That’s genetics for you, I guess. But you’ve got the trademark Perl-red hair, like Alan.” She smiled fondly, patting her sister’s head. Maybe being compared to their eldest brother wasn’t the best compliment, but at least he was business-savvy?

“Alright, alright. Up we go!” After leading Kyra outside and around the building, they made their way up the fire escape and through a top window, which Yula jimmied open with a hydrospanner. “Sorry for all the trouble, kiddo. This is the easier way, trust me.” If Kyra wanted to watch her sister spend all night arguing with the droid behind the door, that was on her.

Folding herself carefully through the window, Yula slowly slipped onto the living room floor. Sorting herself out, she turned to see if Kyra needed any assistance before throwing her arms out in a sweeping gesture.

“Welcome to Chez Yula.” Said home was a rather modest looking apartment, charmingly messy with half-finished mechanical projects scattered about. Meandering her way over to the cooler, Yula retrieved a bottle. “Can I get you anything? Beer? Are you even old enough to drink yet?”

Emily casually skittered over to Kyra, trilled at the new pink arrival, then skittered away, satisfied.

Kyra Perl

 

[Kyra Perl]

"Beer!" Kyra chirped, in a manner that was far too excited to suggest any causal experience with the beverage. Kyra curiously picked at a project, tilting her head as she tried to fuss out what it was. Yula reminded her of Uncle Damian, in this regard. Just female and... more edgy. She let her bag drop at her feet, a thunk of something metal hitting the floor.

"You know you can just pay someone to fix these for you." It wasn't as if they didn't have money, she reasoned, still very much of the age where their mother's funds were all she considered. She dropped the metal pile back onto the table, her expression brightening on Yula. Another sudden and impromptu hug was given, Kyra now a size that would require proper bracing to avoid a tumble from her enthusiastic affections.

"Imissedyou." She murmured into Yula's shoulder, giving her a good, subtle sniff. Her shoulders relaxed a little further. She abruptly craned back, arms still around her, and said with no small amount of displeasure, "You don't have a boyfriend, do you?"

 

[Yula Perl]

Yula chortled quietly to herself, curling her fingers around a second bottle of beer. She couldn’t remember what the drinking age on Terminus was. Did the galactic standard for this sort of thing even exist? Perhaps it was just a way for Yula to cover up the fact that she wasn’t exactly sure how old Kyra was. Something-teen, right?

Teen. Geeze, where did the years go. Wasn’t it just yesterday that she was toddling around their childhood home, trilling happily and chasing after her brothers and sisters?

Yula straightened, snapping those thoughts from her mind once she realized she sounded like mom. Tossing Kyra a beer, she snorted again. “Where’s the fun in that?” She winced when the pipe hit the table with a clunk that was too solid for her liking. “And they don’t need fixin’—they’re in process.” Her tone of voice tried to give some faux officiality to her tinkering.

She should have expected the sudden hug, and Yula had to take a step back to brace herself as Kyra came in for another snuggle. “Oof-“ Awkwardly, she wrapped her arms around her baby sister, still holding her beer by the neck with one hand. “I missed you too, kid. It’s been a while.” There was a level of genuine feeling in her smile, then she nudged her sister with the butt of the beer before dropping onto the couch and using the ledge underneath the coffee table as a bottle opener.

The mention of a boyfriend didn’t phase her at first, so she shrugged through her first swig. “Nothin’ serious. Why, you got any cute Jedi friends?” Her eyebrows shot up to accompany her teasing tone, after which she started wondering why her kid sister was asking about boyfriends. “Do you have a boyfriend, Kyra?” She asked slowly, with a tight, teasing smile that was somehow loaded at the same time.

Kyra Perl

 

[Kyra Perl]

"Noooooooooooooooooo." Kyra backpedaled, dropping the topic in an instant. "Jedi don't have connections." Her prim verbalization of the old ways was all she felt she needed to absolve her of the questioning. She plopped next to Yula, arm and arm. Yeah she was getting no space.

"Besides, I'm faaaaaaaaaaaar too busy training with my new master to do anything like that. I'm on form four now. I can do spinning tricks. Can you do spinning tricks?" Sibling rivalry coated her tone, but it came from a place of wanting to measure up and show off. She was totally an adult now-- she wanted Yula to see her at the same level!


She leaned forward and tried and mimic Yula's move with the beer cap and the coffee table, gouging the material and making a horrible noise as she failed.

"Eh," she complained, handing it over to Yula in an instant.

 

[Yula Perl]

Yula blew out a puff of air. “Yea, Jedi don’t have connections. Mom was a Jedi and she had plenty of connections.” When their mother stopped being a Jedi had always been unclear to her, but she’d maintained friendly ties with the Silvers throughout. After all, Zeltros was under their protection, and she’d deemed the Jedi more palatable for her children than the scuzzy territories of the Outer Rim.

Nothing had stopped them, of course. Yula had snuck onto grandpa Zef Halo 's ship when she was eight, to be discovered less than a day later.

Taking the proffered beer bottle, she unlatched the cap before handing it back to her little sister. It felt weird giving her alcohol, but she was of age now, wasn’t she? It was weird to think of her as a teenager and not a baby toddling after her and the others. The youngest in their family, Kyra had always done her best to keep up with her older siblings. According to Joza, it was Kyra who had both walked and talked the earliest.

“Hmm,” Yula took a contemplative sip of beer. “I don’t think that I can do spinning tricks.” She wasn’t sure what form four was, either. “I’m surprised someone agreed to teach you, brat.” Grinning, she ruffled her sister’s hair affectionately. The path of a Jedi had not been for her, and it required more discipline than Yula could muster. She was proud of her younger sisters for pursuing a path that required patience and dedication, but she worried about them all the same.

“What’s this master of yours like? Don’t tell me it’s one of mom’s old friends.” She could imagine that Kyra would not have liked her mother to send someone to watch her. Yula wouldn’t have liked that either.

Kyra Perl

 

[Kyra Perl]

"Hey!" She ducked the hand, giving a fussing 'pat pat' at the curls that had been disrupted. "I'm a GREAT padawan," she lied, ignoring all the conversations and strenuous moments that had suggestion otherwise. Never mind the fine line she had danced with expulsion. In more than one academy.

She sucked down the beer, fingers gripping at the neck of the bottle as she failed to gasp the concept of taking it slow. She was suppose to chug until she was buzzed, right? "No he does not know mum. And he won't ever if I have my way. What if she sees to it to connect with him?" She looked up at Yula, aghast.

Was that a fair rendition of their mother? No. But did her teenage angst twist their zeltron heritage into something mock worth? Oh absolutely. "Speaking of which." She whacked Yula with the butt of the beer.

"You coulda warned me the pilot you stuck with me was mum's old friend!" And then some... Something caught on her expression, the girl then asking in a much more careful tone. "What'dyouevenknowabouthim, anyway?"