Celesta laughs as Jacen lands the punchline to the story perfectly. He smiles, pleased with himself. It's been a good evening so far, and he's sure it can only go up from here. Heeding Sabine's advice, he has taken Celesta to the mid-priced Alderaanian restaurant in Capitol City. Of course even mid-priced is still slightly out of his budget, but he's willing to splurge a little on a first date. Especially if it's with Celesta.

He'd been working up the courage for months to ask her on the date, and part of him couldn't believe she'd agreed to it. After a childhood of being bullied over his strange looks and green hair, sometimes it's hard to have the confidence his mother insists he should have. He's glad he listened. Tonight has been amazing.

"Honestly, if Instructor Pala just followed her own advice, none of you would have been in that ridiculous situation," Celesta says thoughtfully.

"You're telling me." Jacen agrees, nodding. "You should have seen what was left of the intake manifolds after the system flush finished. It looked like someone had taken a plasma torch to the whole assembly." He looks down at his Aldera Crown Cake and cuts another piece off with his fork. He'd looked at the whole menu, but couldn't resist trying the Crown Cake after last nights family history lecture from his aunt.

Jacen absently notices a droid come by and refill his empty drink. "Anyway, I think the whole incident terrified half the first years. I doubt they'll be rushing to enroll with Instructor Pala again anytime soon."

"I imagine not," Celesta says. "Did you see that droid? Seemed like a really old model for such a new restaurant."

Jacen glances around but doesn't see the droid. "No, I didn't notice, sorry."

"Yeah, it was weird. I think it was an old Clone Wars model astromech."

"You don't say?" Jacen mumbles, a cold pit of fear settling in his stomach. There was no way it was him. It just wasn't possible.

"No doubt. My grandfather still has a working one. I forget the exact model, but it had a notoriously bad personality. I think something was wrong with the whole line. I don't know; maybe this one is the owner's personal droid or something. I can't imagine anyone letting it work at a restaurant otherwise." Celesta goes back to eating. But Jacen can't stop thinking about the droid. Part of his rational mind knows how slim the odds that the droid was Chopper, but he also knows Chopper too well to discount the possibility completely. After the story he heard last night about Chopper ruining a date...

"Whu whumpa whom. Wuwah."

Jacen freezes. Chopper is beside the table holding a tray with a desert, some moist cake with nuts and a creamy fruit sauce. The surly droid carefully places the dessert tray on the table between the couple. Jacen realizes he's sweating blaster bolts as he eyes his mother's droid. What could this greasy rust bucket possibly be...

"What did it say?" Celesta asks with a raised eyebrow.

Jacen wipes his brow and scratches the green hair at the side of his head. "He, uh... Says that dessert is compliments of the owner." Not that that made any sense. How Chopper had stolen this from the kitchen without being seen was something Jacen wasn't even going to try and guess. This was going to be hard to explain to the waiter. Unless he's in on it too. Jacen is suddenly afraid that there is a larger conspiracy at work. Does his mother know Chopper is here? Does Ezra? And Sabine had recommended the restaurant...

Celesta smiles sweetly, "Well this is a nice surprise. Will you thank the owner for us, droid?"

"Whu whump whuma. Whumma wump." Chopper says and turns to leave.

"I'm watching you, Jacen. I'm always watching."

It takes everything in Jacen's power not to panic. All he can think about is poor Wedge.

"What did it say?" Celesta asks again.

Jacen watches as Chopper rolled away, and hopes that the droid doesn't have anything else planned. He considers telling her the easy lie that Chopper said to enjoy the dessert but knows that she might meet the droid again someday and recognize him. He lets out a long, slow sigh. "Look Celesta, just in case something else happens, I should probably warn you about my family..."

Author's Note:

And I've made it through another one of these things! I really hope you've enjoyed this bizarrely structured piece. The whole thing turned out to be rather difficult to plot out and have it come out as a single cohesive work, between the present tense framework narrative, the myriad of story types, etc.

I'm pleased with it. But oh boy was this one exhausting. I think I've learned a lot about writing doing this one and I have no regrets.

This time around I tried to do more world building, adding to Mandalorian and Lothalian culture. I tried my hand at more and different types of humor. (I'm still ashamed of what I did to Wedge). I also introduced a few minor original characters, something that can go south real quick in fan fiction. I feel did okay with them. All that I and still managed to have my super happy fairy tale endings.

Ddaulton94 I have answered your challenge with enough overkill to drown a whole herd of banthas.
I'm not doing that again! :D

Like my stuff and want to read more? Guardians of Lothal fits into the timeline of this story. Vigil of Malachor is one of the coolest things I've written, filled with Force mysticism. And nobody read it... (I can see those numbers, and they make me sad). It also fits in with this timeline but follows completely different subject matter.

And then there's my first foray into fanfiction, Acceptable Outcomes. It doesn't fit into canon anymore since I wrote it before the finale, but if you like Mandalorians, you'll probably enjoy it.

As a side note, I don't imagine Chopper did anything but scare Jacen. I imagine he worked alone, as I do NOT think Sabine, Ezra, or Hera would do something like this. He's just being Chopper.

Thanks for all the reviews and follows/favorites! They are the lifeblood of fanfiction and make the trouble worth it. If we don't hear from you, it's like shouting all our hard work into the dark.

Until next time, fair well Rebels Fans!