Breaking Bread (Taori)

"Well, if you have any ideas on fixing Destron, let us know," Taori replied. "That's sort of the big sticking point, here. Most other things we know how to clean up, but you can't exactly just suck Destron up into a vacuum." Taori really didn't know anything about chemicals, but he imagined reaching out directly to some Tuffle scientists might be of help. Then again, they'd be the same Tuffle scientists who had developed and employed the Destron, at least in part, so contacting them to help clean up their own mess might be a smidge awkward...

Jackie then clarified she had her ways of getting back to Earth quickly, which Taori had to assume was either some sort of ship that could make use of that new sparking fuel stuff that supposedly sped ships up to nearly light speed, or some form of magical transportation like Ward was capable of.

"Well, as long as it's safe without you," Alpinia added. "I'm sure Plant would be okay if we stepped out for a bit, too." They'd be gone for a large chunk out of the last year and things hadn't completely fallen apart, so that did build some confidence in the Saiyan people's ability to watch over themselves without always needing some sort of higher power to act as their babysitter. Amara was pretty worn out with the job once Taori finally took it back over from her, though.

And speaking of family, while Jackie claimed to have not heard of Delia, she did know Tsuna! "Oh, that's great!" Alpinia chirped, "Isn't she so pretty? And sweet? Her wife is great, too. Tsuna's amazing." Alpinia thought quite highly of her older sister, to say the least. "We usually don't speak too often over scouter, so I haven't seen her since the last time she was on Plant. Gosh, I guess it's been like, a year, hasn't it?" She glanced up at Taori for confirmation.

He nodded. "Yeah, something like that. Her and Sukeru - and Azuki, now that I think about it. I'm actually thankful they were here, that time. Azuki was able to help defend the city when Blizzard attacked it. Without her, things might've gotten a lot worse than they did." It was thanks to Azuki's quick thinking that Alpinia and her sister had escaped harm that day, hiding them in the castle and leaving some guards to watch over them. Alpinia could handle herself well enough in that sort of situation, so Taori was fairly sure she'd have been fine anyway, but he was glad, regardless.

"Have you seen them recently?" Alpinia further asked. "How are they holding up? I hope they haven't had any grief with those attacks on your planet you've been talking about - oh, but with Azuki to help defend the place, I can see why you aren't all that worried about it. She's really strong."

Jackie's sudden, apparent discomfort didn't go unnoticed between Taori and Alpinia. Still, they didn't have much reason to be particularly suspicious of her, as it seemed Jackie had quite a bit on her mind, what with the looming galactic threats that seemed keen on continuing to terrorize her planet. Much as Taori would've liked to help out more directly with that, Plant was still a mess in its own way, and he couldn't very well shift their focus over to assisting a planet halfway across the galaxy just because some of its people were kind. Maybe in a few years' time, once things had settled down more on their home turf.

"That sounds like Azuki, alright," Alpinia replied with a gentle but playful roll of her eyes. "Tsuna's always telling me about her and her rambunctious attitude at any chance she gets. But she's definitely a good kid. We'll be lucky to be raising someone half as well as Tsuna and Sukeru have pretty soon, right Taori?"

"Huh?" Taori looked slightly taken aback by Alpinia's sudden urging him about raising a future child well, and he rubbed the back of his neck as he suddenly looked nearly as uncomfortable as Jackie did - though for far less dire reasons than her. "Uh, yeah, I mean, when we're ready for that, we can, uh, look into it..." Though it wasn't like Taori had never planned on being a father, the prospect of it being a potentially very near thing was something of a shock to his system. It always seemed like more of something that'd be happening later, not soon.

Alpinia just chuckled at his flustered response, though she was also suddenly taken aback by Jackie's words of apology coming out of the blue. "Sorry? For what?" she asked Jackie, a feeling of worry suddenly entering her chest. Before Jackie could move to leave, Alpinia stepped in front of her. "Hey, wait, did something happen? Is my sister okay?" Alpinia suddenly looked very worried, her brows furrowing and dark eyes staring up into Jackie's, pleading with her to spill the beans on what exactly she was holding back from the two of them.

Alpinia's tense shoulders dropped in relief as Jackie confirmed Tsuna was, in fact, just fine. If something were to have happened to her sister, Alpinia wasn't really sure how she'd handle it. However, as Jackie continued to speak, it turned out that what did happen wasn't all that much better. Alpinia's worried face quickly grew into one of simple sadness, her head dropping slightly as Jackie confirmed that Azuki... Her sweet, little niece... She was gone.

"No..." Alpinia mumbled. No wonder her sister hadn't reached out to her in so long... The amount of grief she must have been dealing with was something Alpinia could only hope to never feel herself. And with how distraught Jackie was, she seemed to have bore witness to... Whatever it was that had brought about Azuki's end. Some kind of demon, apparently. Damn it. Maybe if they hadn't gotten stranded on that planet, she and Taori might have been able to help, somehow.

"It's not your fault, though," Alpinia suddenly added after a moment to take it all in. "It was whatever that demon was, right? They're the only one who's responsible." Alpinia looked over at Taori, whose expression was difficult to read, though he was obviously feeling hurt about the loss of his niece as well. He'd seen her grow up, after all. No one liked seeing family like that die, no matter who they were. For the moment, though, he was remaining silent and allowing Alpinia to handle the situation.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, either way," she added, offering a small smile as she reached up and wiped away Jackie's tears with her thumb. She then took a step back, exhaling deeply. "I better um, give my sister a call," she added as she turned to leave. As she did, she glanced back at Jackie, and added, "Take care of yourself, Jackie," before making her exit, leaving Taori and Jackie alone again.

He was quiet for a few moments as he studied Jackie, then finally said, "If you need to uh, rest or anything, we do have some rooms in the castle you can use. It's a big place. No one will mind." 

"Ah... Don't worry," Taori replied after Jackie responded affirmatively to his offer of a place to rest for the night, as well as with another apology. Having been a soldier for so long, he wasn't particularly accustomed to being in the presence of someone who was shedding tears so openly. Saiyans tended to bottle up their feelings of loss and regret, or only tended to express them through anger and violence. For the most part, anyway. So Taori was, to say the least, inexperienced at what he was meant to be doing with Jackie.

"You might as well at least have some breakfast before you go. We have really good, uh, bacon," he offered. Earthlings ate meat too, right? Jackie looked well-built enough that he had to assume they did, though it wasn't impossible to build muscle on a vegetarian diet. Just inefficient. And not nearly worth giving up meat, in his opinion. But uh, he was getting a little bit sidetracked, here. There was still a distraught, crying woman in the room with him that he presumably should try and help feel better, somehow. 

"If it's any consolation," he began, "I know what it's like to lose someone you were desperately trying to protect. I'd have to use fingers from both hands to count off how many times that's happened to me." There had been so many times during the war on the front lines where, if he'd just been a little bit faster, or a little bit stronger, there may have been a few less Saiyans in Hell than there were today. When it happened enough times, he'd grown mostly numb to it, but every now and then, he could still feel that pang in his gut.

"My only real advice is... Don't blame yourself for what happened. Learn from it, and try to make sure it doesn't happen again." He hoped he could abide by those words himself. He then approached Jackie and placed a hand on her shoulder before offering her a rare, small smile. "Let's find you a comfortable room for the night, then. There's a few nicer ones upstairs reserved for noble visits that I think we can spare for you." He then led Jackie out of the meeting room and up towards the guest rooms where, hopefully, the Earthling would get the peace she needed to process things.