suitably_heroic | Room 210, The Arms Hotel, Saturday Morning

Had Atton considered letting Mical and Mira stay at his place? Of course not. Maybe if it'd just been her, sure, he'd survive the headache. But not him. So of course when he stuck his head in through the doorway - right after the door had opened - the first words out of his mouth were, "He's gone, right?"

Yes, he was gone. You could even sense he was gone. Space, Atton.

Mira	"How would you react if he answered, 'Nope, I'm still here!' right now?" Mira asked. Why answer a question directly when you could be sassy?
Atton	"I'd say 'Get out'," Atton said flatly. He was going to take that as his cue to actually step into the room, though.
Mira	"Doing that to a guy in his own hotel room," Mira teased. "Good to see this place hasn't changed you. Not gonna lie, we've missed the attitude." Well, she did, at least. It got lonely being the only one with too much attitude sometimes.
Atton	... Stupid Mira. Almost like she remembered that his main weak spot was people acting like he wasn't a complete pain in the ass to be around, or something. "Yeah, well," he muttered, and shut the door behind him. "...I'd miss me too if the only other company I had was Brianna and Mical." There, that saved some face. (Okay, there was Visas, too, but he kinda liked Visas, even if she was a little... Visas.)
Mira	"The dinner parties are a little dry," Mira agreed. "Mical wants to talk about books, Brianna makes sad faces at the fact that the food has dressing, Visas... She does her thing. And nobody listens to my suggestions for how we can hunt down and trap potential students so we can give them the sales pitch. We have plenty of stun mines, I don't see what the problem is." Most of that was probably a joke. The part that definitely wasn't was Mira's plan. She was just brainstorming!
Atton	"Hey, anything's better than the 'let's lock ourselves up on Dantooine and start a library' plan," Atton said. He walked up to the desk and shoved aside what he assumed were Mical's files because he was nothing if not dedicated in his pettiness, and sat down on it.
Mira	That assumption was correct. Why would Mira keep files? Receipts, sure. But not files. "I wouldn't say 'anything.' He could've suggested Korriban," Mira pointed out. "Maybe I can talk him into setting up shop here just to keep you in the group."
Atton	See? Atton understood her! ... or wouldn't have minded anyway on the off-chance they had turned out to be hers. Either or. "Oh, no no no," he said. "No way is that guy coming anywhere near here. It's bad enough I'm dealing with Skywalker for the sake of the group, that's more anyone can ask of me. Ever."
Mira	"Come on, we could meet at the community center," Mira suggested. "Offer to chaperone dances. Pick a fight with those creepy-looking troopers. It could be fun." No, it couldn't.
Atton	"Or I could shoot myself in the face with my blaster, it'd be quicker," Atton said, with obviously fake cheer and an obviously fake smile. "...Also you scoped this island out fast."
Mira	"Well, it hasn't changed at all since I went to school here," Mira noted. Has she really never mentioned that? Oops.
Atton	Wait with the-- "I knew it!" No, you didn't. You'd thought the question, and then you'd thought the question very loudly in her general direction, and then you'd forgotten about it because people were shooting at you.
Mira	"Sure you did. That's why we've talked about it so many times," Mira said.
Atton	"I was getting around to it," Atton said peevishly. "You could've mentioned." Beat. "Though that explains how you got here without any trouble. Huh." And he was happy to see her, even if he wasn't going to say so out loud. He'd been having a tough time lately, and having someone around who knew exactly what had happened helped.
Mira	"At first I figured it was a Fandom thing and you were a different version of yourself. I mean, you were pretty much the same age you were in high school," Mira said with a shrug. "By the time I figured out that you're just a weirdo, it would have been strange to bring it up. So I waited until it could be as strange as possible."
Atton	"I'm not a weirdo," Atton retorted. "We were kind of busy at the time."
Mira	"Settle down, I'm just teasing you," Mira said. "Do you need some meditation time?" Someday Mira was going to be a Jedi Master with her own Padawan and everything and they were going to either learn to live with being teased or turnto the dark side. The choice would be made inside of a week.
Atton	Atton scowled at her. "Do you need some time with the business end of my blaster?" he retorted. It was like 70% habit at this point. They had a patter, here. "Been bored a lot without me?" That was his way of asking how you'd been, Mira.
Mira	"Hearing you grumble always helped pass the time," Mra said instead of 'yes.' "But as long as I have some work in front of me, I never get too bored. It's just a shame that work doesn't involve enough mines these days."
Atton	"I'm still kind of sad that didn't work as a crime-solving tool," Atton admitted. "But then I miss getting to shoot people who annoy me. I have to be nice to my stupid students." For some measure of nice that involved telling them to shut up a lot.
Mira	"So you're not trying to find a line between nice and shooting?" Mira asked. "I find that hard to believe."
Atton	"Is there a line between nice and shooting worth finding?" Atton asked.
Mira	"Yeah. It's where I live my life. Bothan stunners, blunt objects, gas grenades, sonic grenades, concussion grenades, tranq darts, oh, glue grenades..." Mira listed. Nothing in that list had to be shot!
Atton	"Pretty sure the school would disapprove if I used any of those, too," Atton pointed out. He sounded faintly disappointed. "There are some idiots in my class who keep trying to lie to my face. I mean, that's their choice, but if you're going to choose to lie, don't do it badly." Beat. "Maybe I should do a class on that." Ladies and gentlemen, the Disciples of Meetra Surik, resurrectors of the Jedi Order and famed Jedi set to hit the history books.
Mira	"What's your class about?" Mira checked. She had to ask. There were too many horrifying possibilities to guess.
Atton	"How to not die if you're not some hotshot Jedi who gets all their food paid for," Atton explained. "Though I didn't call it that. I mean, all the hotshot Jedi we know are kind of dead now, not that I'd want to teach them if they weren't."
Mira	"Not all of them. Skywalker's still the Dean here. He probably still has a handful of kids around," Mira pointed out. "You can't just count our time."
Atton	"Hey, that's why I said we know," Atton retorted. "I just don't want any of these people asking questions. Anyway, it's great, last week I taught them how to feed themselves when they're flat broke." Or dumped them in a grocery store and told them to figure it out. Whatever.
Mira	"Here? Memorize a long speech, stand out in the preserve, wait for a deer to come up, nail it with a weapon. If we're talking fully broke, a sharp rock would do," Mira suggested. "Use the rock to skin the deer and save that for a nice blanket before starting a fire and cooking up the meet. You could survive on that for days." Of course her suggestion was hunting and trickery.
Atton	"I was going more with an urban environment," Atton said, shooting her a weird look. Not too weird. Look, it was Mira, this was kind of her thing. "But hey, hunting's not a bad suggestion for next week. It might even make the stuck-up girl cry." Worst. Teacher. Ever.
Mira	"There are still squirrels and rabbits in urban environments," Mira said. "Just don't get caught or you'll look insane. Simple. And good luck with making your students cry. I'm pretty sure you'll get a teaching award for that. Or fired. One of the two."
Atton	"It's Fandom," Atton said, rolling his eyes. "How badly do you have to screw up to get fired around here?"
Mira	"If you really put your mind to it, I bet you could find out," Mira said with the utmost confidence.
Atton	"Too much effort," Atton decided. "Plus right now they pay my bills so I don't have to slum it on Dantooine with the rest of you."
Mira	"Well, whenever you get tired of rolling in your education riches, we'll still have an open seat for you at the table," Mira said.
Atton	"Don't wait up," Atton muttered, slumping back in his seat.