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

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[sith_happened]

Anakin forgot about breathing as he watched her eyes. "...yet?" he repeated.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory hadn't meant to say that.

"...I can't speak for the future," she said, looking up at him hesitantly. "But right now, it's too -- everything. Maybe it'll get less complicated. But this is us, so I doubt it."

[sith_happened]

He'd never been any good at hiding anything from her, so the heartbreak was clear in his eyes as he nodded. "I understand."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"It's funny. If you'd asked me a couple months ago what I wanted more than anything? I'd say this," she said with a soft, humorless laugh. "But I don't want either of us hurt more than we already are."

[sith_happened]

Anakin reached out a hand to cup her chin. "I've already caused you enough damage," he agreed quietly.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"That's not what I said," she replied quietly.

[sith_happened]

But that's why he wouldn't do it.

He ran a finger down her cheek, gave her a long look, and then stepped back, shaking his head.

"It's true," he said, starting out the window again.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"It's not like there isn't blame on my end too," she argued.

[sith_happened]

Anakin's eyes flicked back to her. "How do you plot that course?" he asked, confused.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory shrugged. "Clean slate, Anakin. I forgave you. I'm just as accountable as anyone now." She shook her head. "And really I shouldn't...be with anyone for a long time. Even you."

[sith_happened]

Anakin didn't want to fight about this again, but he couldn't stop himself from asking. "Did he hurt you that much?"

Because if the answer was yes, there wasn't anything in this galaxy that would stop him from kicking someone's ass.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

She shook her head. "He was fine. I don't know how many different ways I can tell you that I wasn't over you, though. It was a mistake."

[sith_happened]

But you're over me now... a tiny little part of him wailed.

He ignored it.

"I just don't like seeing you unhappy," he said softly. "And if he made you happy...I'd be all right with that."

No, not really, but he was trying.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

She shrugged. "We weren't right for each other. He's a good friend."

[sith_happened]

Anakin had his own opinion on that, too, but he kept it to himself.

"I believe you," he said neutrally.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"And he never -- we never...it didn't get that serious," she said quietly, dancing around implications. "I was never in love with him."

[sith_happened]

It took a moment for the pieces to click together, but when they did, Anakin's cheeks flushed red.

"Oh," he said just as quietly.

Luke and Leia were proof that he hadn't exactly done the same, and that was just a tangle of emotions he wasn't close to prepared to dealing with yet.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"I don't do casual very well," she said, turning red.

[sith_happened]

His hand tangled in his curls as he focused on the view of the nebulae outside. "Me either," he admitted. "I don't know how to just go halfway."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"I just can't pretend something I don't feel, hoping it'll get better," she said quietly, looking out the window. "I guess it goes along with being a bad liar."

[sith_happened]

"Yes," Anakin said sadly, "I know. Sometimes you just have to let it go."

...he'd heard. He hadn't had much luck doing that in his own life, um, ever.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

...well. She hadn't meant forever.

But he seemed like he did.

"Might be safer for everyone."

[sith_happened]

Only they could manage to break up so many times without ever being together again, Anakin reflected a little sourly.

"If you want," he replied. "I've never really been one to live life if a bubble, though."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, well, you're not the one who was left here grieving last time, were you?"

That was a little harsher than she'd meant to be.

[sith_happened]

Anakin gaped at her. "No, I was grieving alone," he shot back, "and for years. You were as forever lost to me as my mother...and more impossible to talk about."