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[Aela Talith]

Borleias
[member="Kaili Talith"]

Aela fumbled slightly as she placed the cup down onto the soft dish rag next to the kitchen sink, steam from the running hot water rising slightly. She frowned for a moment as she managed to place the glass upright, ensuring that it wouldn't fall over and smash on the floor. She wasn't usually clumsy, but she hadn't exactly felt like herself lately. Something that was disappointingly common in the Talith house hold as of late.

The young Jedi Master frowned for a moment, then took a step to the right and grabbed one of the dirty cups still resting in the other sink.

Her mother had just ducked out to go and check on Micah, leaving her to do the dishes alone.

Aela had often wondered why they'd never bought a dish washer, or why they didn't get a droid to do it for them. She'd asked her father once, but the only response that she'd received had been an amused chuckled and a comment about her mothers belief in 'work ethic'. Aela didn't really know what that meant given that she and all of her siblings actually had a phenomenal work ethic, but her father had simply walked away.

The memory came to her as she began to rinse out the cup, using a well worn sponge to clean the clear glass.

She'd always hated doing the dishes, even as a kid. Chores had never really been a large complaint of hers, she didn't mind cleaning her room and organizing was practically fun, but the dishes? That was disgusting. Tiny food particles, grime, muck that you had to touch.

"Ugh." Aela said quietly to herself as she used her fingernail to scrape a stain from the side of another cup.

Her father had a habit of leaving half empty mugs of caf sitting around the house. They usually sat for a few hours until they stained. She didn't even want to know how much money her parents had spent on replacement mugs over the years. "Gross."

She said quietly to herself as she continued the task.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Aela Talith"]

That day still rung with clarity in Kaili’s mind, and the days after it equally so. In the matter of just a few seconds Kaili had gotten so close to losing everyone around her and to say that she had taken it poorly was an understatement. The events on Bespin with Chloe and Rekha were all a big haze but Kaili had taken to imagining that she had kept herself together all things considered. It really hadn’t been until afterwards that the walls had come crashing down, but in the end she had managed to rebuild them with the help of a dumb luck encounter with a Heavenshield on Ilum. Enough time had since passed that Kaili had managed to balance herself again, get a grip and even out her mind and its troubles. She still had her moments, but that was really just Kaili being who she was. She was after all the hot-head of the siblings.

Stepping into the kitchen Kaili adjusted the collar of her thin turtleneck and shifted her shoulder a bit to find the sense of comfort she needed. Her arms fell limp by her sides in a gentle sway as a slight smile spread on her lips at the sight of Aela doing the dishes. Knowing how it had been growing up, she was most likely not having a great time with it. If she had to guess, she hadn’t really wanted to do it, but had to cover for someone else. Most likely mother as she went to check on Micah again. There was a tense air about the house, but in some regards Kaili had grown used to the underlying feeling that was ‘risk of loss’ a long time ago. In some ways she had already lost someone not too long ago and gotten them back. It wasn’t enough to shield her completely from the heaviness of being home, but she tried to keep it under wraps for her own sake.

Approaching Aela in full Kaili decided to lean against the counter and stand next to her. “Hey.” The younger sibling said and looked at the dishes. “Mother suckered you into doing the dishes, huh?”

“Or well, not suckered. She probably went to check on…” Kaili paused herself and shook her head at what she was saying. Two seconds in and already fumbling for words. Great. “Yeah, you get what what I mean. I think.”

“Have we heard anything new about how he is doing?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

"Better." Aela said truthfully.

She had taken careful measure to hide her own troubles as of late, as to not add anything to the troubles already floating inside of the family. She was doing well with it on her own, or rather with the help of Jacen. They had a trip planned in the near future, and hopefully the issue would resolve itself in that way at the very least. She frowned for a moment, placing another cup on the drying rack before giving Kaili a once over.

"He'll be fine." Aela said with a smile. "Just takes a while to heal."

Even for force users.

Neither of their parents had any knowledge in healing, and for that matter neither did she or any of her other siblings. However they had enough money to pay for the best medical treatments in the entire galaxy, so even without Aunt Amorella they had managed to get Micah in a good place. The doctors had said he'd make a full recovery, but said recovery would take time and effort. It wasn't the best of news of course, but it was something at least.

Something good. "A few more weeks in bed, then some physical therapy."

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Better. It was a simple word that could still mean so much, and in regards to having survived an explosion and having a big chunk of one’s self torn asunder, it could mean an even greater deal. Micah had been fortunate in the aftermath of what had happened over Anoat, something very few could say the same about. The thought of what would have happened if their parents hadn’t come to his aid was one that — unlike most thoughts — caused Kaili to pause for a moment. Her head nodded at what her sister said about healing and the while it would take to truly heal all wounds. Kaili herself was no stranger to it, at least not the mental ones, but recent weeks had hardly been about her. Attention had been split in two places with Allyson having been another survivor of all that had happened as well. Kaili’s hand reached out to rub at her neck in an effort to find some measure of comfort.

“Same as Allyson had to undergo then.” Kaili frowned. “They both got lucky.”

A callsign that had grown all the more ironic since that day. Silence was allowed to linger as Kaili shuffled in her seat against the counter. Her eyes set on the door out of the kitchen, the one leading in the general direction of her brother and the spot in which her mother was most likely attending to him.

“I hate this.” Kaili sighed and lowered her hand from her neck. “The waiting and the uncertainty.”

“We know he is fine, will be fine, but… I don’t know. That kind of damage, not to mention what he must have seen and felt when it all happened...”

“I hope he remains the same old Micah we’ve always known. That he won’t be Kaili-ing this up.” Her breath forced a chuckle from her throat as she turned to look at her sister again. “Uh, that is to say, you know,”

“... I didn’t take it well when it happened to me.”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

She pause for a moment.

Change.

It was an odd thing to fear, though she well understood why Kaili did. Once Aela would have denied any such possibility, but given how things had gone for herself as of late? Well anything had become possible. She frowned for a moment and put down the next cup, glancing at her little sister. "Even if he does change."

She began quietly.

"He's still our brother." That was what mattered in the end, wasn't it? Their family was so sprawling, so big, and so...messed up that it didn't really seem to matter. Half of their aunts and uncles, half of their cousins were pirates, Sith, even murderers. Sure their nuclear family had always been different, but family was still family. That connection remained no matter what, and Micah, Micah would always be Micah. They knew that.

"No matter what happens." She told Kaili. "We'll be there for him."

Aela smiled. "Just like he would be for us."

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Kaili’s head bobbed up and down. She’d be there for Micah no matter what, there was no question about that, but chances still were that some part of him would deep dive into his own misery in the same way Kaili had, right? Not really. Micah had never been one to sit on his hands and let the tide sweep him away like that. He did things, moved around and caused trouble wherever he went. It was hard to really believe that something like that would ever change.

“Yeah.” Kaili felt her eyes close to endure the coming onslaught of yet another prolonged sigh. As the air burst through her nose she felt her head shake, and by the time they were open again it had come to a stop. She was good at handling these emotions by now, but there were some days when things got to her. Kaili would be determined to not let this be one of them.

“We won’t know for sure until he wakes up, but at least there is solace in knowing that he will wake up.” She tried her best. “How are you doing with those dishes?”

Maybe a change of topic would make things just a bit more easier on her.

“Need help?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Aela looked at her little sister, then at the single plate left in the dirty dishes pile.

"Sure." She said with amusement in her tone. "Maybe about ten minutes ago when mom first left."

She smirked at Kaili, showing she wasn't really all that mad about the dishes. Sure they were a pain to take care of, but if you just tackled the problem it would go by fast enough. At home on Wroosti she had a dishwasher, and she was going to make the suggestion again to her mother to buy one. If only to save herself some work.

Quickly washing the plate Aela turned to Kaili. "Maybe we can go to the mainland after."

She suggested to her little sister.

"The house is getting low on groceries." Meaning they still had the entire pantry, freezer, and fridge full but the second freezer in the garage was getting low. "And if we go mom and dad won't have to."

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Once again Kaili laughed.

“Ten minutes for a plate, huh?” Kaili fired back and let her lips split into a small grin before it evened out into a small smirk. Aela finished the dishes and Kaili pushed herself off the counter with a quick jump. “Sure, the mainland sounds nice.” She nodded at the proposal. It was hardly as if they truly needed it, but Kaili would take any excuse to get outside at this point. Perhaps in the end she was alone in feeling what she felt, but the atmosphere at home was heavier than she seemed to remember it having been before. There was reason for it, obviously, but it was still something Kaili could do without.

“Might be able to swing by one of the bigger outlets.” Kaili let her holopad poke out of the projector enveloping her wrist. “Bigger sortiment there, might find something to…” Her focus was lost as she began to swipe letters into being on the device’s keyboard. “Something to…” Her eyes poked up from behind the screen. “... What was I- RIGHT. The food.”

“Maybe find something to help mother and father relax?” Kaili scrunched her nose and then rubbed her hand against the collar of her shirt again. “Or something to let all of us relax.”

“Just… Relax in general, I guess.”

“Relaxing is nice.”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Aela laid a hand on her sisters shoulder. "Food."

There was no need to get ahead of themselves just yet. She didn't really mind going to one of the bigger outlets of course, but she wanted to make sure that Kaili kept herself on track. There was no need to go overboard with everything.

Of course she couldn't exactly remember the last time she and her sister had gone shopping or anything of the sort.

"We'll get that last." Aela said with a smile. "Maybe we'll find something for mom and dad."

She shrugged. "But we don't have to."

"But." Her gaze drifted to some of the advertisements on the screen. "We can look for ourselves too."

Only fair.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Aela Talith"]

It must have been years since the last time Aela and Kaili actually went out and did something. At least something that didn’t include staying mostly at home. They had gone fishing that one time a long while ago, but even then it was in close proximity to their home. It could be blamed on both sisters leading busy lives despite their age. One of them was a Jedi Master and the other was a community leader of sorts, if one could call it that. Kaili had a business she ran, had a people in the Outer Rim revere her for having brought them back into the galaxy despite the fact that she had done it with the help of a few friends in the Boolon Foundation and the Silver Jedi. She had pressures just the same, and even then most of it wasn’t something she really wanted. At this point she really just played a role while seeking the occasional escape amongst family and Allyson. Both of which were good for it.

“Yeah, we can.” Kaili nodded at her sister’s comment. Their parents could wait, even if it felt like it were they who needed the break the most. “A wine bottle, maybe.” It seemed fair, though it was just as fair to assume that as far as the realm of ‘drinks’ went Kaili had no real idea what she was talking about. “Just want them to get a real break from it at some point.”

Her head shook with a deep breath and exhale. “I guess we’ll figure that out later. I’m good to go whenever you are.”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Wine.

She'd never really known her parents to drink before. Aela supposed that they did, even she'd had alcohol at this point, though her mother had never really struck her as the type of person that would indulge in that sort of thing. It wouldn't be bad if she did, but...all she could imagine was incessant giggling at everything and anything that happened and or moved. The thought made her smile.

Maybe Wine would be a good idea.

"Let me get changed." Aela said absent mindedly as she headed towards the stairs.

She'd been wearing nothing but pajamas for the past couple of days, mostly because that was all she had to. There was something to be said about spending time at home in isolation, no one was around to judge you or comment on your looks. It was nice, and not having to worry was one of the chief reasons that Aela had actually wanted to get out of the Jedi Temple. She'd spent days at a time at her place on Wroosti simply sitting in her pajamas.

It was nice.

"Alright." Aela said as she came back down the stairs in more proper clothing. "I guess you'll be flying."

Like that was ever in question.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Wine tended to work for Kaili and she could at the very least hope it worked for their mother too. That wasn’t to say that Kaili imbibed a whole lot, but to say that she would enjoy it every now and then was just a fair assumption. Not really having realized that Aela was still walking around in her pajamas, Kaili found herself somewhat confused when she mentioned getting changed. Upon closer consideration, of course, Kaili had found the idea to be perhaps one that was for the better. Even if pajamas were undoubtedly a lot more comfortable than most other clothing.

At least the wait was short.

“I guess I will.” Kaili grinned and went for the keys. “I would say we might have to refuel, but considering who we are and where we live I am guessing we won’t.”

Stepping out into the open and then into the family speeder she checked to make sure the pendant was still there, and sure enough it was. They could both breathe a lot easier knowing that to be sure. The engines kicked to life and Kaili shifted them into the air to let them hover in the sunny breeze. Just for a short while.

“So uh, did we say anything about where to go? Because I think we can go…” Eye set on the fuel gauge. Sure enough, didn’t need to refuel. “Well, we can go pretty far if we wanted to.”

“I mean, my vote would still be one of the bigger commercial zones, but if you have a better idea I am open to that too.” Kaili said and began to steer them away from the island in no particular direction. “Big or small, corporate or local, the choice is yours.”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

She considered for a moment. "Vineta."

Kaili was absolutely right, they were who they were and they had a right to show it. It's not like they really had a limit on the money they could spend and right now they needed to do something that would get their minds off of Micah and maybe give them a little bit of joy.

Visiting a luxury city right around the corner from them? That seemed like a good option.

"I went there with Jamie once." She wouldn't be telling her sister what exactly Jamie and she had done there, mostly because Kaili absolutely did not need to know that her big sister got incredibly drunk to the point where she couldn't walk. "It has stores for everything, fancy foods, clothes, wines."

They could bring those home for mom and dad. "It'll be lots of fun!"

The enthusiasm was likely something Kaili would never expect from her older sister, but Aela had changed since those years of their childhood. She hadn't become a different person, she could still be stern and stoic, but Jamie had taught her that sometimes you just needed to cut loose.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Vineta. Not a place Kaili had really had the luxury of visiting just yet, but she sure enough had heard the rumors about the place. Much like her oddly excited sister said it seemed to be a place where people could go and get themselves a break. As a big proponent for ‘a break’, Kaili would undoubtedly agree that Vineta was both closeby and a highly desirable location to visit. What she had not exactly expected was the excitement her sister was showing at the prospect, but Kaili wouldn’t let her sister know that and instead chose to smile at the sight.

Hey, it was change. A good change from the Aela she had grown up with. Kaili turned the speeder around to head towards Vineta proper and sent them speeding on their way, not quite realizing exactly how unphased she seemed to be at this point. A few years ago this entire deal, flying, would have been a far more reluctant affair. Perhaps it was because she was in a speeder, or perhaps time had just permitted it. In a sense, the Kaili that Aela had in the driver’s seat wasn’t entirely like the Kaili that she had grown up with either. She might have seemed calm, at least far more so than the hot-headed child that she had been in her adolescence and teenage years. Grown up, perhaps. It wasn’t out of the question.

Her shoulder shifted in discomfort again with her hand letting go of the steering wheel for a second to rub at her neck again before going back.

A big tower pierced the horizon the closer to Vineta they got. Kaili turned to perk her brow at her sister. “That it?” She asked and turned back towards the structure. One tower gradually became four. It was indeed Vineta and here came the hardest part of it all, right?

“So uh, where do we go first?” Kaili began her descent towards the different districts. “I have never been here.”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

"Landing pad first, just give our last name and that should really be enough." Vineta had been first built when the Republic was still in control over the area around Borleias. She and Kaili's father had helped with the documents that had actually allowed this place to be constructed in the first place.

"Say it's Jedi business." Aela said with a small smile. "We'll pay less for docking fees."

Kaili might again be surprised at that.

Aela had always been a stickler for the rules, but now? Well she was a bit more relaxed. The only reason she wanted to skirt those rules anyway was because Vineta was exorbitantly expensive. The cost of doing anything here was almost out of this world, and although they had plenty of money she still wanted to cut some corners. "Then we go to the market."

Plenty to do there.

"Buy some clothes." She poked Kaili's side.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Kaili blinked at what Aela was proposing. Was it breaking the rules now? Who was this new Aela and when did she get cool? The blinking turned into a laugh at what Aela was saying and sure enough when the authorities asked for identification Kaili would slowly open her mouth with a incredulous shake of her head.

“Uhm, Talith. Jedi business.” A cautious glance was thrown at the older sister as they awaited their response. The greenlight was given and the young one couldn’t help but let out yet another laugh at how simple it had been. They were assigned a pad and Kaili would steer them in its direction. The finger that poked her side forced her to laugh before she realized what Aela was proposing.

Clothes.

Uh oh.

“Uh, yeah, clothes.” Kaili laughed for a third time, albeit with a far more awkward undertone. “You thinking of getting a new pajamas to walk around in, huh?”

Their speeder found its pad and Kaili gently eased it into position before turning its engine off and threw Aela another look. “And, I mean, I could use a new-” Kaili was going to say shirt, but well, considering the collar on her current shirt that simply wasn’t true. Today at least. “Pair of pants.”

Yes, pants. That was a very convincing cover story.

“Or shorts.”