Atton's Coruscant, Saturday

[suitably_heroic]

Bright side: Atton had actually managed to get off the planet, and had subsequently even managed to catch a nap on the ship, which made him feel a lot better. Bad side: spending several hours tooling above an evil Sith artifact had not been good for him, and now he was trying desperately to remember the name of the blond guy he hated so much. It was something with an N, right?

It'd come back to him. Some things already had. The emptiness in his gut was shrinking again; it was just a matter of time and exposure now.

It was just a pain in the ass.

Anyway, Blond Guy With An N looked livid when he set the Hawk down by the Temple, but Atton had said he had an important meeting coming up (which he did) and he didn't have the time (which he didn't). At which point Blond Guy With An N had decided to invite himself along on the jaunt to go pick up, uh, what was it again? Glitter?

Damn it.

"You should not be doing this," Blond Guy told him again. "In fact, you should not have gone in the first place, but right now we should give you medical attention, perhaps some scans..."

"I'll be fine," Atton said, rolling his eyes as he pushed open the door to the Portalocity station. "It's temporary memory loss. It comes back, I know that, it's come back before. Just got to, you know--" He pulled a face, then snapped his fingers as Blond Guy let the door shut behind him. "--what's the phrase? Work itself out? No."

Blond Guy, Blond Guy, B-- Mical? Mical. Mical was right. Mical sighed. "I don't even know if you are dodging my questions or you genuinely don't remember," he said. "If there is a threat out there--"

"No threat," Atton said. "Well, there is a threat, not just from this planet. I don't know if the Sith seeded badness there just to get me killed, or they shot me down above the planet because they knew it would make things worse and I'd, you know, get my ass killed, but where I went, there's nothing left with two brain cells to rub together."

Mical rubbed at his forehead. "Can we again touch upon how utterly stupid this was and how you should be in medbay?"

"I can't spend every Saturday in medbay."

"No, but you are doing your utmost best."

And so it was an arguing set of Lost Jedi who waited in the Portalocity lounge, attracting some small amount of attention.

[[ for sparkle ]]

Comments

[myownface]

"Well, cities make sense," Sparkle pointed out. "Like, I wouldn't last too long outside of one. Too quiet."

This all said in a breathy hush, mind. Sparkle was in awe.

[suitably_heroic]

"Space quiet is all right," Atton amended.

He touched a couple of buttons, getting the hyperdrive good and ready.

Coffee? Something about coffee. Sparks had gotten free coffee.

"But then I guess space quiet is basically like being in a house that happens to be hurtling somewhere quiet." He shot Sparks a glance. "Hold on to your hat," he added dryly, and initiated the hyperdrive.

[myownface]

"I don't even have a-- OOOOOOO!"

SPACE WAS FUCKING AWESOME.

"Hurtling houses are officially the best kind, holy shit!"

[suitably_heroic]

"Welcome to hyperspace," Atton said, flopping back in his chair. "Without this, we'd probably be out a few weeks instead of a couple of hours."

Was he kind of enjoying this now? Yep. Sparkle's sheer over the top elation was at least putting him in a decent frame of mind.

[myownface]

"Jeeze, that much difference?" Sparkle was going to be in awe for at least a while longer, here. "God, can Earth, like, hurry the hell up and figure this stuff out already? Forget cooking or acting. I want to be a starship pilot."

[suitably_heroic]

"Being a starship pilot is pretty good living," Atton said. Only a little bit smug. Honest.

He shot Sparkle a sideways glance, but decided not to harsh his squee just yet by asking. "I'll just let you have your moment," he said magnanimously. "Since you've seen the light."

[myownface]

"It's a good moment, okay? I just need a few more seconds to bask in it, and then you can ask whatever you want."

... Ah. Yes. This was nice.

"Kay. I'm good."

[suitably_heroic]

"So are you being cagey about last weekend?" Atton said. "'Cause I barely remember any of it, so it's not like I give a crap."

[myownface]

"... Might be. There was some weird stuff going on there. I mean, not that that even means it's going to happen, right? Last weekend like that one, I was still with, like, Alec."

... Which was never going to happen again. Ever.

[suitably_heroic]

"See," Atton said, "So clearly these weekends project some kind of dumber Sparkle."

He was never, ever going to like Alec. Not even in retrospect.

"Anyway, good to know I didn't forget me doing something really stupid or terrible or something," he added, "But yeah."

[myownface]

"Nah. I had the market cornered on stupid, I think." Sparkle sighed. "I can't even remember all the details, myself. Something about prison. I think, anyway. You weren't happy about it, I know that much."

[suitably_heroic]

"I could think of a few better places for you to spend time in than prison," Atton said, shooting him a glance. Then he shrugged. "So, y'know, don't wind up in prison."

(Twenty years later Atton had been making up for younger self's his habit of running away from responsibility in a big way. Current Atton wasn't even close.)

[myownface]

"Yeah, I generally try to avoid incarceration," Sparkle grumbled. "The island is probably just being an asshole. It's good at that."

[suitably_heroic]

"What, the island?" Atton asked, getting up from his seat. Wasn't like he needed to do much right now, anyway. "Whatever gave you that idea? I mean, it's got such a fantastic track record."

Which he would've coughed up if he remembered the specifics.

"Though hey, at least you weren't dead, and you didn't wake up on Monday with someone embarrassing. Look at the bright side."

[myownface]

"... I dunno. Knowing the people on the island? Like, all the embarrassing ones are girls, or straight."

It helped that Sparkle was mostly shameless.

[suitably_heroic]

"Hey, it's Fandom. It's not out of the realm of possibility. Could've woken up with, uh, what's her name," Atton said, snapping his fingers, "...Alec's sister."

See? That would've been so much worse.

[myownface]

"... Nope. Not a chance. No way, oh god, no, nope, thanks for that, but nooooooo."

... Sparkle, stop making retching sounds in the Hawk.

[suitably_heroic]

It was fine as long as he wasn't actually throwing up. If he was, he was going to be spending the next few hours scrubbing the floor.

"You get drunk, she gets her boobs Fandommed off for the weekend..." Atton gave a casual shrug with one shoulder and leaned his other arm on the back of the co-pilot's chair. "That'd really have given you something to be awkward about this go-around. Hey, maybe this is some kind of improving thing, like every time this thing comes around, you make one less terrible decision."

Like banging a Lightwood!

...and this was a very inconvenient time to remember that in some alternate universe he'd apparently slept with Anakin Skywalker. Sigh. (Then again, wasn't any time an inconvenient time to remember about that?)

[myownface]

Hugely, seriously inconvenient. Even if Anakin did have glorious hair.

"Great, so maybe next time this thing happens, I won't have done... whatever stupid-assed thing it was I did to get myself thrown in prison. Or at least I maybe won't get caught."

Like, really. Didn't he know better than that by now, at least?

[suitably_heroic]

"Or we'll break you out," said Atton, pulling a face that had nothing in particular to do with the subject at hand. Could he maybe just pick and choose what popped back up in his head? "Though, y'know, not doing it is probably the easiest way to get out of that one. Ask yourself, is this stupid thing going to get me thrown in jail? and if the answer is yes, don't do it."

[myownface]

"Well. There go, like, three quarters of my hobbies, then."

At least he admitted it? But some people were just asking for some skinny homeless punk to break into their home just to steal, like, the last fork in the silverware drawer just so that their place settings would be uneven.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton thought about it.

"Don't... steal something unless you're absolutely sure nobody is going to catch you stealing shit?"

Look, he was no longer contractually obliged to even try to be a role model, here.

[myownface]

"Well, that, I can handle," Sparkle decided. "Like, you wait until nobody's home you make sure there isn't a security system or a yappy dog and you leave anything they're actually going to miss. It's easy. You just have to be not stupid about it, that's all."

Said while they discussed how stupid future-Sparkle had been about something.

Shut up.

[suitably_heroic]

In Sparkle's defense, it hadn't been the stealing he'd been stupid about?

"See, I think that's just the line we're going to stick to to avoid this prison future of yours," Atton said. "Don't be stupid. Don't do anything heavily illegal." Beat. "Maybe avoid drugs until the parole is over. You know. The heavy ones."

[myownface]

"I mostly avoid the heavy ones," Sparkle protested. "And pot is... kind of ambiguously legal these days!"

It wasn't even really decriminalized, Sparkle. Cops just generally cared about it marginally less these days, unless they were looking for an excuse to convict you.

Which was what you were trying to avoid, remember?