The door swung open almost instantly, as if Tahiri had been expecting him. Which she had been, just for the record.

"Oh, good. You look presentable today," she announced, eyes twinkling with mischief. "You can come in, in that case."

"Not if you bribe me with ice cream," Tahiri replied, nudging the door shut again. "The flowers already got you on my good side. Lucky you."

"Hi." Tahiri reached up to put her arms around his neck. "No, you'd only have been in trouble if you weren't back before break."

Which she was so not missing this time, thank you.

"The Bahamas," Tahiri answered, with a resigned but good-humored sigh. "Lots of sun and sand. I looked it up. It's on the beach, though."

"You just want to see me in a swimsuit," Tahiri retorted, which was not exactly saying no. "We've been putting that off for a while, haven't we?"

"Without the need for a vac-suit, or the excitement of hard vacuum," Tahiri noted, trying to tug him toward the bed.

. . . to sit down and eat ice cream. What were you thinking?

"I have been in the water before, you know," she pointed out. "It's just less fun when you're concentrating on not drowning."

"Which it better be." Her last few experiences with being in the water had been, quite frankly, disgusting.

Tahiri came over to sprawl out near him, making a contented noise. "I missed you."

Tahiri shut her eyes instinctively for a second, shifting to rest her head against his knee. "It's working just fine. Sometimes I have to make adjustments, but . . . it's more like remembering to set my feet right when I'm doing a lightsaber drill, instead of doing it the wrong way just because it's what I'm used to."

That felt . . . amazingly nice, somehow, and Tahiri smiled. "I'm doing all right, Ben," she assured him, and reached up to curl her fingers around his hand. "I feel more like myself than I have in so long, I almost can't remember."

"I can feel that." Tahiri smiled up at him, as if to prove his point, and curled a little closer. "And it's one less thing for you to worry about." She wasn't under the impression that he didn't have other concerns, no.

Tahiri looked at him, oddly intent for several moments. "No, I don't think you do," she said finally. "So you can relax about that. You probably have a lot to wind down about, huh? Being gone for months and everything."

Yes, the way he'd been holding her hand last night had been a clue.

Tahiri wrinkled her nose slightly. "I can live without the glitter and pink, but if you don't want to talk about it now, I can wait." Maybe not for long, but there was ice cream, and a vase of flowers on her nightstand, and she had no problem with the idea of observing this holiday. "Boy, you really got back just in time. I'd almost think you calculated that."

"I said," Tahiri informed him, sticking her tongue out. "Because calculating time differences between Fandom and anywhere else is like trying to pin down a permanent route through the Transitory Mists."