Ye olde shuttle parking [early afternoon]

[sith_happened]

After hours of sweaty work, Anakin had finally gotten the hyperdrive working again.

He's slept through most of Sunday--he'd needed the rest--and was looking almost like himself again.

Except for the nervous twitch he was developing as the time Rory normally showed up got closer.

Blurry - Puddle of Mudd

Comments

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"That sounds fine," Rory said, hopping aboard the shuttle and moving to her usual seat.

[sith_happened]

Anakin took a moment to smile about how comfortable Rory looked in that chair before strapped into the pilot's seat himself. "You know how this works," he said. "Fire it up."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory smiled and started the sequence. "I think I'm going to ask Grandma and Grandpa for one of these as a graduation present when I'm done with college," she said, nodding solemnly.

[sith_happened]

"Only if I'm there to see the look on your grandmother's face when you do it," Anakin insisted with a smile as he punched the coordinates into the navicomputer.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Of course you'll be there," Rory said without thinking.

[sith_happened]

Anakin's entire face lit up. "Good," he said softly.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"I mean...." Rory colored as she realized what she'd said. "I mean, you wouldn't miss my graduation, right?"

[sith_happened]

"Of course not!" Anakin said quickly, hiding his disappointment in her reply by fiddling with a dial that didn't need fiddling. "I think we're far enough away from Earth now," he said after an uncomfortable pause. "You can put us into lightspeed now."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Wheeeee," Rory said, trying for enthusiasm as she shifted into lightspeed.

[sith_happened]

Anakin raised an eyebrow. "You getting blasé about space travel?" he asked. "I don't want you to be bored."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Not blasé about space travel," she said, biting her lip. "Far from it. But I don't want to get twitchiness all over the shuttle."

[sith_happened]

"You're doing fine," he soothed, reaching out to put his hand on her shoulder. "But there's never been anything you haven't been able to do once you decided you wanted to."

Which, as she'd made clear on Saturday, didn't include him.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"There've been a few things," she said quietly, thinking of him.

[sith_happened]

"They can't have been that important," Anakin decided. "We should be there soon. I'll go get caf. Just pull the ship out of hyperspace when it pings."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

She nodded. "Yay, caf," she said. "Hey, do you ever put stuff in caf like we do in coffee?"

[sith_happened]

"I don't, but others do. Sugar, milks, creams, honey...I didn't like honey at all." Anakin gave her a shy smile. "I'll be right back."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Ew, honey," Rory muttered to herself, and pulled out of hyperdrive as soon as the annoying noise she hated sounded.

The sight (http://zuserver2.star.ucl.ac.uk/~apod/apod/ap031022.html) that met them made her audibly gasp. "....Anakin. Anakin, look."

[sith_happened]

Anakin, even though he knew generally what to expect, had bolted from the galley with two cups of caf in his hand. "Do we need weapons?" he said, skidding back into the cockpit.

Some instincts die hard.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"What? No. That. Look," Rory said impatiently, pointing as though he might have missed the nebulae.

[sith_happened]

Anakin's expression softened as he handed her the mug. "You like it?"

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"It's beautiful," she breathed, taking the mug.

[sith_happened]

"The name kind of jumped out at me," he said as he stared out the window, sipping from his mug.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"I don't know this one," Rory admitted. "What's it called?"

[sith_happened]

Anakin's cheeks flushed red. "They're the Heart and Soul Nebulae," he murmured, not making eye contact.

Subtle like a Skywalker.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"...oh."

Rory bit her lip. "That's a nice name."

She didn't know what else to say without getting her hopes up again.