MCA #4, Saturday Afternoon

[suitably_heroic]

There was music screaming across Atton's apartment again, for the first time in about a week. He was here much sooner than Mical would have liked, but he couldn't stand hanging around the Temple any longer, and the kolto had healed up the worst of his chest injuries. What was left now was the enduring-- bruised face, bruised insides, and moving hurt, but that wasn't new.

For the sake of not aggravating his injuries, he'd sat down on a pillow on the floor. That was the only concession he was making. He had a job to do, here: rebuild his lightsaber. Maybe build one that suited him better. He'd been running around with a loaner for too long.

Besides, if he had to stay in, he might as well work on his finer Force control.

He let the various segments levitate into the air, taking care to spend some time on each one. It was... more complicated than he'd planned. But that was good. Stretching his legs, so to speak.

He grabbed the bottle by his side and took a long gulp, letting the fizz settle in his stomach. No alcohol for him any time soon, it'd dull the senses. But a sugar rush? That would keep pushing him on.

Besides. It was harder to think when you had sugar screaming through your system and something physical to focus that energy on. It shut out most of whatever this past week had dredged up, except for one thing:

Her face. There is another war waiting, in the Unknown Regions.

Maybe Brianna was right. Maybe he was kidding himself out here, pretending to have a normal life.

[[ door shut, post open for messages or visits or what have you ]]

Comments

[myownface]

"Oh. So. It's, like, a whole galaxy thing," Sparkle replied, scratching at his head and nodding a little. "It's still weird trying to think of things at that scale."

Toronto kid.

"But there's headway being made there anyway? Less dark side stuff all around, so you could, like, use the big stompy tarantulas as a gauge almost, if it didn't involve getting your ribs smashed up."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton pulled a face. "Yeah, I'd rather not make jaunts to Korriban a regular thing, thanks," he said.

Because Korriban. It messed with your head even if you weren't an ex-soldier with a dark side past.

"We'll probably be mopping up some stragglers of Dark Jedi over the next while, like the guy we ran into here," he said. "But what we did last summer cut the head off of that one. At least, that was the idea. If it's not true, I'm going to be really annoyed."

Things out in the Unknown Regions, apparently. Better not be Sith.

[myownface]

"I think 'really annoyed' is a good start, anyway," Sparkle decided as the timer on the oven went off and he pulled himself to his feet again. "Uuugh, I would be so pissed."

It was easy to announce that he would be so pissed, really. He was never gonna be a Jedi. It wasn't going to ever be his problem.

[suitably_heroic]

... Sadly, also a thought Atton had had at sixteen. Go figure.

Atton let out a snort. "Yeah, me too, kid," he said. "But hey, food."

It was halfway through getting up to go collect said food that he remembered getting up was a bad idea, and he wound up grabbing the arm of a nearby chair to keep himself upright all the way... well, up.

[myownface]

Atton, you were getting such a look.

"I was going to go get that, you know." What with the whole not being mutilated thing Sparkle had going for him, and all. "Sit your ass back down, I'll bring it out."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton rolled his eyes. "I can get it," he said. "Just need to start moving, then I'm fine."

See? Walking to the kitchen went more or less all right.

[myownface]

Sparkle just sighed and rolled his eyes right back before using a rag to fish the pizza out of the oven. On his list of things to sneak into Atton's apartment? Proper cooking supplies, eesh.

"Suit yourself," he sighed, shoving a plate at him. "But if you hurt yourself worse I'm filling your whole apartment with cats."

[suitably_heroic]

"Look, which one of us has more experience getting the poodoo kicked out of them?" Not necessarily a good thing, Atton. He grabbed the plate.

[myownface]

"All the more reason to make this place into crazy cat lady paradise," Sparkle pointed out. "Out of spite. Because god knows you're not going to take it easy when you're hurt, here."

Case in point, Atton being on his feet. In the kitchen. Right now.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton let out a frustrated noise. "I only ever pretended to like sitting on my ass," he muttered. "If I can move, I'll move, all right? There's not going to be some smartass making my pizza every day."

[myownface]

"And presumably you're not going to have busted ribs every day either," Sparkle snarked, looking around for a knife to cut the pizza with. "But since I am here, you're going to have to suck it up and accept that maybe there are people who give a damn and want you better soon."

Really, it wasn't as though there couldn't be a smartass making Atton's pizza every day. At least until Sparkle graduated. So.

[suitably_heroic]

There had been a time when Atton had believed life was sink or swim, and everyone's only responsibility was to be self-sufficient. He'd grudgingly changed his tune on that when it came to helping other people, but he was clinging to it tenaciously where it came to himself. He had to. (Mical didn't get it, either, but Mira did, even if she'd probably be calling him an idiot right now.)

"I'll be better soon," he said, rolling his eyes. "Top drawer, I keep a bread knife."

Some people should probably not be allowed food preparation.

[myownface]

Sparkle was going to keep his eyeroll to himself, this time. Who used a bread knife to cut pizza?

Atton, obviously.

"Cool," he muttered, making his way to the top drawer. A few moments later, and he was starting to unceremoniously hack his way into the pizza. "Soon's still not now, but if it makes you happy, man."

[suitably_heroic]

In Atton's defense, he... didn't really have a lot of cutlery to go around in general. Forks. Bread knives. There was a spoon squirreled away somewhere.

"All that matters is, I should be up and going for class," he said. "Maybe make a trip back to the Temple in the mean time if there's anything going on there, I don't know. I'd been hoping this place would be quiet."

Slink off, deal with his wounds by himself, rifle through his brain until everything got nice and locked away back where it belonged.

[myownface]

Sparkle wasn't even going to point out that class was on Thursday, so there was no need to be up and going now. And if there was anything going on at the Temple, he could only hope that it had more people who would at least try to nag Atton into sitting the hell down or something.

If nothing else, he wouldn't have to do his own cooking there.

Sparkle finished cutting the pizza, set the knife in the sink, and then gestured at the food. If Atton was so hell-bent on being up and getting it himself, then he was more than welcome to.

"Yeah, well, you had to know I was going to come by to harass you after you've been gone a week if you texted me," he pointed out. "It seems pretty quiet otherwise. And this way you get pop tarts."

And broccoli! And concerned grumblings! Lucky man!

[suitably_heroic]

Sadly, the only way anyone was bothering Atton into sitting down was if Mira happened to show up; nobody else at the Temple ever really quite managed to handle Atton.

Which he was proud of, by the way. In a crotchety, kark-you-all kind of way.

"If I'd known you'd jump up and race right over here, I'd have waited another week," he grumbled, stacking on some pizza on his plate and then shuffling off to the dinner table. Gingerly. "I mean, not that I don't appreciate the concern." It was always nice to know people cared.

Just, you know. Not up and close enough to see the actual bruises.

[myownface]

Sparkle shrugged a little. Hey, he'd seen Atton doing far worse than he was at just this moment. He was worried, yeah, but comparatively...

"If you waited another week, I'd see you in class on Thursday anyway, and then probably just be even more annoying then to make up for lost time."

He would have, too.

"I might even be nice and frame it as bitching about how you left Skywalker to teach in your place." He shrugged, content to lean back against the counter. "Depends."

[suitably_heroic]

Yeah, but back when Sparkle had seen him worse, he could still convincingly pull off the normal guy thing. These days...

"What'd he have you guys do?" Atton asked. Mostly to get off the subject.

[myownface]

Sparkle pulled a face, but he let the topic swap slide. He figured Atton already knew how he felt about... about whatever. Sparkle had plenty of feelings.

Funnily enough, the way he viewed Atton hadn't changed all that much since Atton was a student. Which just meant the whole Jedi thing tended to perplex him, and the friendship with Anakin baffled him all the more.

"Run laps," he grumbled. "Jump fences, crawl through mud and pudding and whatever. Wasn't too bad, I guess. It isn't like I can't handle a fence."

[suitably_heroic]

That was, at least in part, because... Well, Brianna had been right, maybe. Atton did pretend to be a whole lot more normal around here than he was honestly entirely sure he was, anymore.

Hence also the not mentioning the explosion part, among other things he wasn't - or hadn't, in the past - mentioning to Sparkle.

"Could've been worse," he decided. "Look, Skywalker's the only one I know who could've covered that class with something useful, so..."

He took a bite of his pizza.

[myownface]

"Could've been worse," Sparkle allowed. "I'm gonna bitch either way, though."

... Sparkle was very good at holding a grudge.

"What's this week gonna be?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Shooting stuff," Atton said vaguely. "It was gonna be advanced holds, but you're bad enough, I don't need the entire class eyeballing me or crawling up my ass." ... Phrasing.

[myownface]

Sparkle's mouth fell open. And then he closed it again.

And then he just... cackled.

Sometimes, you just needed to cackle. Sometimes, shit was just so ridiculous, it didn't take much, and Sparkle's brain was in the gutter already anyway, and. Yeah.

So much cackling.

[suitably_heroic]

Seriously, why couldn't Atton headdesk right now? Or headdinnertable, to be precise.

"Sit down and stuff some pizza in that face of yours," he said irritably.