Drinking games

[for_everyone]

It was supposed to be an easy repair, fiddly but relatively straightforward. But then the stored replacement part was bad, every shop in town was out except for one, which was broken, and the repair to fix that made it an uphill slog to even fit it in the Ghost, due to Chopper and Zeb getting into a fight and leaving at least two drill bits where drill bits did not belong.

And since it was meant to be easy, everyone but Hera and Kanan is out at the cantina enjoying themselves and the two of them are here, exhausted, dusty, and covered in grease. The smell of welding torch is heavy in the air.

Then Hera rolls to her feet, shaking her head a little to clear it.

"You know what? This calls for a drink, and I've just remembered where I left some."

Comments

[for_everyone]

"The Captain," Hera says, gesturing to herself without slopping any alcohol out of her cup, "will allow you to pick the next topic. If you want, that is."

Which is to say, she agrees with his desire for a change in topic. Because . . .

Just because.

[notallofus]

"Anything besides the future?"

Especially unlikely futures, he doesn't say.

[for_everyone]

She sobers a little, gaze softening. (Any future seems wildly unlikely, these days. It is what it is.)

"We can do that. Any ideas?"

Her own mind drifts toward the past, but that's not really something to talk about.

[notallofus]

Kanan stays quiet for a moment, idly turning his glass in his hand.

"Okay," he says, taking a deep breath, "before we met, this is what I'd do when I wanted to get someone else to drink."

He sets his glass down.

"I'd guess something about them, and if it was true, they were supposed to drink."

[for_everyone]

One corner of Hera's mouth quirks up in a crooked smile.

"I'd say we know each other too well, but since drinking's the point . . . I'm in. If you are."

[notallofus]

"You'd have a big advantage over... anyone from back then."

Kanan wasn't so much good at this, so much as everyone else was bad at it. Somehow 'secret Jedi past' was never guessed.

[for_everyone]

She sobers a little.

"I'll try not to misuse it too nefariously."

No alcohol poisoning for anyone on this ship.

[notallofus]

"Gee," Kanan says, more than a little dry.

"Thanks."

[for_everyone]

"Hey, it was your idea," she points out, smiling again.

"And if it helps, I'll let you go first."

[notallofus]

Kanan can admit that he had it coming. Kind of.

"I'm not sure if 'help' is the word you want, there. But sure."

Now, let's see . . . something innocuous . . . but true . . .

"Chopper is the annoying little brother you never had."

There's a question in that, but only a slight one.

[for_everyone]

Hera snorts.

"Kanan, Chopper's older than both of us. If anything, he's like the grandfather I never knew."

The annoying, curmudgeon grandfather, sure.

[notallofus]

Kanan takes this moment to resolutely not think about Chopper meeting Master Yoda. Or . . . nope. Done.

"I'm telling him you said that."

What?

[for_everyone]

"I think he knows."

She doesn't sound worried, in any case. "So what, is it my turn now?"

[notallofus]

"Looks like, unless you want me to drink in penalty for being wrong?"

He is willing to do that, if necessary.

[for_everyone]

"I'm game if you are."

But she lets him decide that, as she thinks of her guess.

"When you started seeing other people," she says, slowly, as she decides how to phrase that, "the first girl you started seeing was older than you."

[notallofus]

There's a second where Kanan thinks how did she know, but then he huffs out a breath that might be a laugh. Better that than awkwardness, right?

(He knows exactly how she knows. He's predictable, okay?)

"Uh. Yeah, you got me there."

He takes two sip of his drink, one after another.

"I'm pretty sure it wasn't pity, but who can say now?"

[for_everyone]

"I doubt it was."

Hera wouldn't say predictable, but it does seem more like his type.

[notallofus]

"Yeah, well."

He is not going to blush, he is not going to blush. Maybe he should have just downed the entire cup instead of taking little sips -- too late now.

"Right. My turn again."

[for_everyone]

Hera, meanwhile, decides it might be safer if she stares up at the ceiling for a minute.

"You know, I'd like to drink again at some point."

[notallofus]

If she's going to be like that --

"If you couldn't fly, you'd go stir-crazy within a month."

[for_everyone]

Oh, that -

"All right, I'll drink, but you have to take another turn."

Because that shouldn't even count.

[notallofus]

"You said you wanted a drink!"

She can't have forgotten so quickly!

But yeah. Right. A less obvious truth, he can do that. It's just that so much truth is wound around with sadness, with loss, with the things that mark them as different. Ah, well. In for a credit chip . . .

"It bothers you that you're a good dancer."

[for_everyone]

Hera doesn't take two sips, but she finishes off her glass, and slides it to Kanan to refill.

"I wouldn't say I'm good." But it doesn't sound exactly like a denial, either.

[notallofus]

Kanan holds up his hands for a minute, in a 'I'm not saying anything' sort of gesture, and refills her glass.

Then, of course, he says something.

"Yeah, I know."

Anyway.

"Next up is you."

[for_everyone]

Hera looks back at him, biting her lip for a moment.

"You've cheated at sabacc."