Ye olde shuttle parking [mid-morning]

[sith_happened]

Anakin was inside the shuttle pulling the hyperdrive completely apart. Nothing would be beeping at inappropriate times on this trip out, dammit.

[OOC: For the omgjustafriend, rly, please. SP for great justice and UST.]

Blackbird - The Beatles

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[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

When Rory arrived, she couldn't see him.

"Hello?"

If she got stood up, she would be very, very unhappy.

[sith_happened]

"Back here!" Anakin called between muffled bangs.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Um. Need help?" she called

[sith_happened]

A few more bangs.

"Nah," Anakin said, poking his head out of the hole in the floorboards. Sweat had curled his hair against his forehead. "I just wanted to make sure nothing that wasn't supposed to ping went ping again this week."

Not that he'd been really, really upset about that last week or anything. Reallly.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

She smiled. "Oh, okay. So it won't go off like it did before?"

Not that anything interesting had been happening.

[sith_happened]

"Not if it knows what's good for it," Anakin said with a scowl towards the offending parts, then pulled himself out of the control panel and gave Rory a bright smile. "Hi."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Hi," she said. "Where are we off to today?"

[sith_happened]

"I looked up another couple of nebulae," he offered shyly, "but if you have other ideas, that's fine too."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"No, last week's was beautiful," she replied, smiling shyly. "Sounds perfect."

[sith_happened]

"There's one that's fairly close-ish," Anakin said, waving the control hatch closed, "called the Star Queen Nebula."

He smiled at her. "I might've already gotten lunch ready for us."

These lessons were becoming harder not to classify as dates.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Star Queen," Rory repeated, starting the takeoff sequence. "I've heard of it. And thanks for getting lunch. I'll bring something next week."

Not a date, nope. Really.

[sith_happened]

"I like pie," Anakin said with a grin as he strapped into the seat next to her. "You fly Virgo like she's yours," he commented softly.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Is that bad?" she asked worriedly. "I don't mean to be presumptuous or anything."

[sith_happened]

The look in Anakin's eyes made it pretty clear he didn't think so.

He shook his head just to make sure the point was made. "It's completely fine," he said. "I'm just happy you like this enough to keep coming back."

Sometimes Anakin was willfully blind.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"It's not just the ship," she admitted, concentrating on her flying.

[sith_happened]

Anakin's cheeks went pink. "Really?" he asked, concentrating a little too hard on putting the coordinates into the navicomputer.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Really," she said softly as they broke atmosphere.

[sith_happened]

Anakin's entire face lit up before he could stop himself. "Good to know," he said, looking over at her.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory gave him a shy smile. "So where am I headed?"

[sith_happened]

"Sagittarius arm of the galaxy," Anakin replied after a bit too long of a pause, "but it'll take a bit to get there. Caf break once we get into hyperspace?"

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Like you have to ask?" Rory asked with a grin, setting things up.

[sith_happened]

And it was a pretty blazingly obvious sign for anyone who knew to look for it when Anakin let her fly without offering commentary or help.

The man wasn't exactly one for letting go. "Go ahead," he said as the navicomputer pinged happily.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory happily sent them into hyperdrive.

"I don't suck at this."

[sith_happened]

"Of course you don't," Anakin said with a smile. "It's just like driving, only with a much more expensive piece of equipment."

Well, no, not really, Anakin.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"And we're in space," she added.