Chapter Text
6 June 1996 - Leia’s pov
Leia parked her blue 1983 Honda Civic outside a small, brown brick building surrounded by other, same looking houses lived in by the local people. The weather was gloomy, but the temperature was very pleasant, not too warm, not too cold. As she walked out the vehicle, a soft wind blew in her brown, curly hair. Leia was wearing a dark red turtleneck, a pair of office cut black pants, and black boots. Her hair laid loosely on her shoulders, which had bothered her, while she tried to put her bag on.
Leia was a third-year law student at Griffith College in Dublin, but she was spending most of her time in her home city of Dalkey, about sixteen kilometres from the Capital. Which, as she counted, was long enough to listen to the whole “Jar of Flies” by Alice in Chains. Dalkey was a small city with regional coastal transport links, historic nineteenth-century industrial corridors, and a small, but friendly community. She has lived there since birth, so did her twin brother, Luke, who was currently studying geography in Cracow.
They weren’t from a very wealthy family, so Luke’s journey was a bit of a financial load for all of them. Padme, their mother, was a history teacher in a nearby school, and Anakin, their father, was a taxi driver, with a bit of a shameful history. He has spent his early years as a soldier, and him being British wasn’t helping, nor welcome around here, when he noticed his wrongs. Leia still lived with both of them, she loved her parents deeply, but twenty-one years of age was enough, to start getting tired of constantly sharing a house with the same people.
To make some money, after school, Leia worked in a tea shop as a waitress and a tea barista. She really liked her job, and it gave her a real chance of an independent life.
Leia turned off the earlier mentioned “Jar of Flies” cassette, got out the car, and locked its door. The brown brick building stood out among others, thanks to a big, sage green signboard, with the tea shops name on it, written in brown letters. “Suaimhneas” was an Irish word for peace, and quietness, that perfectly reflected how the place felt like. Leia thought it is a brilliant name.
A dimmed, yellowish light came from inside the café. A few customers were sitting by the table. Leia was obviously early, so two other waiters were still on their shift. She came through the door, to be at once greeted by one of the owners. Mr and Mrs O’Donell were an older couple, who have opened the place in the late sixties.
“Dia dhuit!” the silver haired man, greeted Leia with a thick west Cork accent.
“Hello, Mr O’Donell” Leia greeted the man back, with a smile on her face.
“How was school today, love?” he asked. She found it really thoughtful, that he cared enough to ask her this question every single day for two and a half years.
“Interesting, to be honest” Leia chuckled, putting her bag behind a wall, which divided the shop from backroom. No matter how knackered she would feel after university, this question in particular always made her powers to come back.
“That’s good, love” The man smiled to her once again, and then disappeared to talk to one of the clients about their love for cats.
Leia absolutely adored the atmosphere in this place. She grinned at her luck once more, then she took her boots of, changed them to some comfortable sneakers, and put her dark green apron on.
When the clock hit four, she went behind the counter, cleaned it a bit after the previous server, and began her shift. A few clients came in, some were just buying tea blends to brew them at home, others sat down by the tables, and enjoyed the drink with a slice of cake or a cookie.
Two hours passed when rain started dripping from the greyish sky. More people started coming by, tracking water all over the floor. Leia asked them if they needed something first, however right after swiftly fulfilling their orders, she took a mop and cleaned the floor. She was very careful, minding all the customers sitting by the small wooden tables, saying “sorry” repeatedly. The place might’ve been small, but it was big enough to tire her. Leia dried her hands on her apron and then dried her forehead with her palm.
As she went to the backroom to put the mop back in its place, a tall, young, brown headed man walked in. His hair was dripping wet, as well as his shoulders and his back. He was wearing a grey t-shirt and dark jeans. A black document bag on his side. He clumsily approached the counter, right in the moment when Leia appeared behind it.
“Hello, what can I do for ye today?” she smiled politely.
“Um…” He took a look around with his eyes “A tea”
“Alright, served or packed?”
“Served, please” the man smiled.
“Sure, which one?” Leia looked at him, she noticed a slight Irish accent in some of the vowels he said, however it was deeply Americanised. She thought he must be from around, but had to have spent his life abroad, most likely in America.
He looked perplexed to the point that Leia considered her accent might be too strong for the foreigners, for the first time in her life, but as it turned out, that wasn’t the case. This man just had no idea that tea comes in different types, blends or brewing styles, which happened often,
“What do you recommend?” he chose the safest answer possible.
“Well, that definitely depends on which one ye prefer. Green or Black?” Leia asked politely.
“Black” the man nodded.
“Alright then, so standard we have Ceylon, Earl Grey, Irish Breakfast…” She looked at a shelf with different tea jars behind her back and pointed each type she named.
“What’s that?” he asked, looking genuinely curious.
“It’s a blend of few black teas” Leia didn’t want to bore him with details.
“I’ll take that one” The man smiled and brushed his wet hair with his hair.
“Sure…would ye like a towel?” Leia looked at the gesture and noticed he was shivering a little.
“That’d be nice” he chuckled.
“No problem” Leia looked around and pointed at a table near one of three cozy sofas “Take a seat over there, I’ll bring ye the tea and some towels”
“Thank you so much” the man put his hand on the counter, Leia wondered it must have been in gratitude or something, hoping the man wasn’t feeling sick or faint.
He took the seat she showed him, whilst Leia began to boil the water in a kettle, poured dried tea leaves into a teapot, after that she took one porcelain, hand painted cup (signature for their shop), as well as a tiny one designed for milk. Some preferred to drink their tea with and some without it, however it was traditionally drunk with milk around here, so it was a free addition to each order. Shame to admit, but Leia has always preferred drinking plain tea, no milk, no sugar, but when the situation required it, she had no problem doing otherwise.
About two minutes later, she came to him, holding a platter with his order on it, alongside a white towel.
“Here ye go” she smiled, and placed crockery in front of the client, who thanked and smiled back.
Leia served two other clients, and started taking care of the dishes, before he finished his order and came back to pay. When he was about to leave, he looked her in the eye for a second, and chuckled.
“That’s dumb, but do you know where the nearest store is?”
“Grocery?”
“Yeah”
Leia thought for a second, feeling dumb for not knowing directions in her own hometown mechanically, but then she began gesturing how to get to the store he asked about.
“So, you have to go down that road, then turn left and go straight through the park, it’s somewhere around there” Leia sighed out of relief that she made no mistakes or stutters in the sentence.
“Thanks” the man smiled, and when he was about to leave, she remembered something.
“Oh! And if it will be closed, just go around it and ask the fella to open it, he tends to do it when nobody comes around”
“I’ll remember”
A bell rang when the door closed behind him, which has happened anytime someone entered or left the shop. Leia looked at her watch and noticed it was almost seven, she made an upturned smile noticing how quickly this shift went by. Well, almost, she still had over an hour left.
After that, nobody visited the place no more, some of the clients stayed for a while, but Leia was quickly left all alone. She cleaned the place, made sure everything was secured and ready to leave overnight, in the middle of the table cleaning Mr O’Donell left the establishment, waving politely at Leia, who returned the gesture with a huge smile on her face.
All this to swiftly leave the place at eight thirty sharp, to surprise her best friend by picking her up from her hospital traineeship. Leia double checked the door were properly closed and left in her car to the calming tunes of Marvin Gaye. The sun wasn’t setting yet, but it was late enough for it to create a colourful and unique painting on the sky.
It took about five minutes to get to one of the two hospitals in town. Leia parked right outside the staff entrance, then started to wait for Mara outside her car, which she regretted after a short while, because the rain lowered the temperature significantly.
“Oh c’mon, Mara” Leia crossed her arms and looked at her watch, trembling a little. Obviously, she could simply sit in the car, but Leia loved putting her neck on the line for others, especially for Mara. She knew her friend will be tired after eight-hour shift, and could easily missed her car, since she wasn’t expecting her. It was important for Leia for other reason, she was simply worried about Mara going home by foot for approximately thirty minutes at this hour.
At about ten past nine, Leia noticed a redheaded girl walking towards the entrance. Mara was about twenty centimetres taller than Leia, which wasn’t hard, so to be honest she was average hight, her shoulder-length ginger hair was put into a messy ponytail, she was about to take out. She was wearing a loose hoodie and a pair of jeans, paired with her hospital shoes she forgot to take off.
It took her a minute to notice Leia standing next to her car, but when she did, her tired face lightened up, and she ran up to her.
“Leia? What are ye doing here?”
“I was worried” Leia grinned and hugged her best friend.
“Finished early?” Mara embraced her back.
“Kind of” Leia squinted her eyes “How are ye feeling”
“Knackered” Mara mouthed.
“I’m going to take ye home then, miss Jade” Leia opened her the car door imitating a chauffeur.
“Eejit” Mara rolled her eyes and giggled, taking her seat.
Leia started the car, fastened her seatbelt, looked at herself in the front mirror, and started the engine with a loud hum.
“So how was it today?” Leia looked at Mara, while trying to manoeuvre her way out the parking lot.
“Nothing special ye know…I just talked to a few people, took care of someone’s burned hand, and assisted a brain surgery…well, looked at it” Mara responded so calmly and naturally, she made it seem like a very average day.
“Nothing special?” Leia looked slightly shocked “Ye saw a brain surgery? That’s amazing…was it successful?”
“Oh yeah, sure it was” Mara smirked.
“Ye did all of this in eight hours” Leia articulated, visibly impressed.
“Yeah” Mara has just now noticed how extreme it might’ve sound to her.
“Oh stop it, I’m getting emotional now” Leia sniffled.
“Ye crying?” Mara frowned.
“I’m just so proud of ye” Leia made a sad smile whilst a singular tear dropped on her cheek.
In this exact moment they have stopped on a red light, so Leia saw it as a perfect opportunity to hug her best friend.
“Oh Lei” Mara had no idea what to say, a sudden wave of happiness and warmness flushed all over her body.
“I’m just so grateful to have ye in my life” Leia still held her in a tight embrace, not minding the seat car that was making it difficult to breathe.
“And vice versa” Mara laughed at first, but then she placed a small kiss on her hair, as a gesture of gratitude.
“Watch the road” she then realised Leia almost missed the moment when red light turned into green.
“Sorry” Leia focused on instant.
“So how was your day, hm? Any interesting customers?” Mara raised her brow cockily.
“No, not really, many familiar faces” Leia smiled, while leaning out a bit to see what’s going on the road “Well, there was a foreigner fella here today, now when I think about it”
“Oh, that’s new, where was the fella from” Mara started getting interested in the topic. Despite the fact they were less than twenty kilometres away from Dublin, the city was for locals only, maybe sometimes someone from the press cared enough to visit, but anytime someone spotted a foreigner, it aroused interest.
“No idea, but he might be Irish, just haven’t been around for a long while” Leia tried to remember the stranger she met today, he seemed talkative and friendly. She wondered if he got to the grocery store after all.
“He wasn’t British?” Mara looked at her own reflection in the mirror.
“Didn’t sound like he was”
“Good. The only British people I like is Princess Diana and ye old fella” Mara chuckled and rubbed her eye.
“What about spice girls?” Leia looked at Mara.
“I don’t listen to them…weren’t they Australian?”
“Australian?” Leia guffawed.
“What?”
“Posh spice? Australian?” Leia took a turn to the street Mara’s house was on.
“Oh, don’t laugh” Mara tried to hide her smile.
“I’m not”
“Yes, ye are” Mara mouthed and unfastened her seatbelt “thanks for the ride”
“My pleasure” Leia barely reached to the door on her left.
“I can open these me self ye know that?”
“I am ye chauffeur tonight” Leia rolled her eyes.
“Sure, shortie” Mara waved her a goodbye, and then disappeared behind a big tree that was standing in her small front garden.
After safely driving Mara back home, Leia felt she was getting tired, she took a rather dangerous and fast turn around and drove back home. The thought of an upcoming exam kept spiralling in her head, and for a moment Leia wished she had courage to tell someone without feeling like a pity for others.
“Oh, get over yourself” she shut the car down, unfastened her seatbelt, and ran up to her front door.
The hall she entered was small, maybe two meters square, a set of white wooden stairs were right in front of the door, on her right a small wooden shoe shelf, and on her left an open living room in which her parents were. The house was filled with dimmed, yellowish lights, and it smelled like a mix of pie and sausage, which perfectly showed the diversity of meals that Padmé and Anakin were making. It was quite obvious who chose which.
Leia closed the door behind her and leaned onto it for a moment. Then she took her boots of, and put her bag on one of the steps, in case she forgot to take it upstairs. Leia sighed and came into the small living room.
“Well, here is my joy and pride!” Anakin stood up to hug her, he was visibly tired, but he loved greeting Leia every day.
“Hi, pa” Leia walked up to him slowly and sunk in her father's chest.
“Tired, huh?” He laughed
“Mhm” She would’ve said “stressed” but the thought of talking about the exam would just make it real, so it was best to omit the topic.
“Go to ma, I’ll make you a cuppa” he smiled warmly.
Leia sat next to Padmé, who was sitting by the dining table, looking at some papers.
“Hello dear” She smiled at the sight of her daughter.
“Hi, ma” Leia smiled and kissed her mum’s cheek “What are ye doing at this hour?”
“Checking tests” Padmé rolled her eyes theatrically.
“Now?” Leia frowned.
“I told her to leave it” Anakin said from the kitchen “But she never listens”
Padmé mouthed these exact words, showing he kept repeating this sentence over and over again.
“It’s interesting…one fella wrote that the IRA are “Afghan terrorist forces” Padmé looked from behind her glasses, to enhance the shock on her face.
“What?” Leia laughed.
“Yea, take a look” Padmé handed her a piece of paper.
While Leia was laughing at some of weird test answers, Anakin handed her and his wife a cup of black tea, with a warm smile on his face. Leia felt overly grateful to have a family like hers, Anakin and Padmé only have eyes for each other for almost thirty years now, and they inspire her to have a family one day. At one point when she felt her eyes were closing, she hugged both of them a little tighter than usual and headed towards the bathroom to take a quick shower and try to fall asleep at a rational hour this time.