New York City, Thursday

[suitably_heroic]

Sometimes mornings were nice. Time spent in the music room, after people had woken up, but before he needed to be anywhere. Jack let his fingers move over the keys, his ear fied on the sound of Dane's chords flowing from the phone recording - Em, G, Cmaj7, D... "Why do we always crave absolution? Why can't we put these ghosts to rest? Why won't we tell the dead to leave us alone? Why let the ghosts follow us home, to let our blood and leave us to roam? The dead should leave us alone--"

"I like the triplets and the duplets," Dane commented quietly from the doorway. "Very cute."

Jack let out a sigh as he looked up and away from the piano. "Well, we aren't all fancy assholes with pretty pieces of paper that say we're qualified to make music good."

"It is a nice thing to have." Dane lifted his cup of coffee with a small smile. "I like it, though. It's getting better."

There was still a quiet exhaustion in his face, and Jack knew it wasn't physical - Dane had slept just fine last night. He put the sheets with the notes down and rose from his seat. "Thanks," he said. "How are you holding up?"

One of Dane's shoulders slid up in a helpless shrug. "I'm okay--" he started. "Okay, no, that's bullshit. I'm sorry. I'm, I don't know. Stuck in some bad memories. I guess. It'll be fine."

Jack took a moment to roll his wrist, fiddling with the straps of his glove. Then he took a few steps, getting in closer, seeing the truth of that reflected in Dane's eyes. "Look, I know you're probably not eager to hear my Jedi zen therapy bullshit," he said. "But try and find a moment to sit with it for a while today, okay? Grab a break or something. Listen to the dulcet tones of cabs racing past, I don't know."

"Aye aye, Zen master," Dane said, a wry smile tugging on his mouth.

"And if you want, I can call the band, cancel our performance at the protest this weekend," Jack added casually. "Give you some time."

"And deprive you of a chance to yell 'fuck the system' in public?" Dane sipped his coffee. "I'm not that much of a monster."

Jack shook his head. He brushed a kiss against Dane's cheek before he passed him by. "Just think about it," he said.

"You tell Lana I said hi," Dane called over his shoulder.

"She agrees with me about the zen shit!" Jack called back.

He grabbed a thermos of coffee on his way out, shoving half a sandwich in his mouth. Lana was probably not going to be outside at 10 AM on the dot, right? He would be that lucky?

[[ for her ]]

Comments

[unusual_sith]

"If they weren't fun to plenty of people, they wouldn't be effective traps," Lana pointed out. "Tell me you'd pass up a castle full of meat and cheese. Didn't you have any fun stops on your tour?"

[suitably_heroic]

"No, because we're not insane people who go to tourist traps," Jack sighed, shaking his head. "Space. Every time you're here, I'm afraid you're going to drag me to Times Square. Or worse - make me see the Mets."

He'd always been very good at keeping a straight sarcastic face, except that habit had been failing him every now and again lately. Like right now, when he was clearly trying to swallow back a grin.

[unusual_sith]

Lana wasn't bothering to hide hers. "You know, I don't think I've been to Times Square before. That is a thing I should see, isn't it?"

[suitably_heroic]

"If you want to be Force-blind for the rest of your life, sure."

[unusual_sith]

"Because of the place itself, or is that a threat?" Lana asked, confused.

[suitably_heroic]

"Because of the place itself," Jack clarified. "It is the worst, loudest, most visually assaulting place I have ever been to in my life, and I lived on karking Nar Shaddaa."

[unusual_sith]

"It doesn't look that bad in pictures," Lana protested. "Seriously?" Not that she really doubted him, but it couldn't possibly be worse than Nar Shaddaa, could it?

[suitably_heroic]

"It is bad," Jack said, gesturing wordlessly towards their left, as he turned away from the railing and started walking along the water. "You have my word as a transplant New Yorker, I'm not lying."

[unusual_sith]

"Well, I can't possibly doubt you, then," Lana said gravely. "I'll do my best to avoid it."

[suitably_heroic]

"Thank you," Jack said. "I appreciate the confidence. Now we're gonna walk uptown for the next fifteen minutes until one of us decides what kind of food we want."

[unusual_sith]

"What are our options?" Lana asked. "Apart from pizza and Chinese."

[suitably_heroic]

"It's New York," Jack pointed out dryly. "The options are 'everything'. Cade was big on the tacos. Apparently he's never had tacos before? That poor guy."

[unusual_sith]

"You'd think as much as he gets around, he'd have found something similar in our galaxy," Lana said. "Hm. How about something I haven't tried before?"

[suitably_heroic]

"I don't think he actually pays a lot of attention to the world around him," Jack said. "Or anything going on in his own head."

He shook his head, and added, "As for you, you've half-lived on Earth long enough that I don't know what you haven't tried."

[unusual_sith]

"Honestly, neither do I," Lana said. "What are some of the less common foods?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Space," Jack groaned, racking his brain for whatever the last three weird ethnic restaurants he'd seen were. "Uh, Ethiopian isn't uncommon in New York, but it's uncommon in a lot of other places around the country? There's Georgian food around here, too. The country, not the state. There's a Kazakh place down in the Financial District..."

[unusual_sith]

"I don't think I've had any of those," Lana said. "So whichever we come to first, I suppose. Or last, if you're in the mood for a longer walk."

[suitably_heroic]

"I could walk all day," Jack admitted. "I like how this city feels in the Force, you know?"

[unusual_sith]

"It's full of life, but...hm. Lived-in I suppose?" Lana said. "Worn, but not worn down."

[suitably_heroic]

"Not like Nar Shaddaa, though there was a comfort to that too," Jack said, and glanced back out over the water. "But there's no sickness around the edges here. It's just life."

[unusual_sith]

Lana nodded. "It's comfortable."

[suitably_heroic]

"Cade kept calling it a 'mid-sized city on a backward mudball'," Jack muttered.

[unusual_sith]

Lana rolled her eyes. "Was he serious or just trying to get a rise out of you?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Both?" Jack said. He shook his head. "He thinks I'm running away," he said. "And before you say it, no, I know I'm not. I think he's having some issues he's refusing to come to terms with. Insulting me because I got out of the throwing-myself-at-danger game is easier."

Just. Maybe. Kind of been perkolating in his head in that 'I need to talk to someone from home who gets it' kind of way.

[unusual_sith]

"I won't pretend to understand Cade's issues," Lana said, "but if he has Jedi training, I'm not surprised." She grimaced. "I can admit that some of what they do is good, but they are terrible at handling feelings, and that doesn't seem to have changed over the centuries."

She eyed him. "Do you think he's jealous you got out and wants to himself?"