Room 317 [early afternoon]

[tatooine_doofus]

After spending some time removing onion dip from Artoo’s internal systems—Force know how that had gotten there—Luke finally reached for his comlink and made a long-delayed transmission.

Leia answered immediately, and Luke chattered happily on about his workshops—and Tori— and some of the new students he’d met, including Bigg’s cousin—and Tori—and why getting bit by a gremlin had been a terrible mistake.

Leia laughed for a solid minute once Luke explained who Siegfried and Roy were. “It sounds like you’re settling right back in,” she said.

Luke nodded, then took a deep breath. “There’s something I need to tell you,” he said quietly. “I shouldn’t have taken this long to do it.”

“What happened to the shuttle?” Leia asked immediately, eyebrows flying up.

“Nothing,” Luke said, “but when I came back to Fandom, I wasn’t alone.”

Then he told her who’d been with him.

Leia’s momentary silence was the dangerous calm of the Tatooine desert before a wind storm kicked up.

“He’s WHAT?! You WHAT?! You waited how long to tell me?!” she exploded, her voice loud enough to be heard down the hallway.

Artoo moaned and rolled into Luke’s closet.

Luke chewed on his lower lip. “I was wrong,” he said quietly.

“’Wrong’ doesn’t come close to describing this, Luke Skywalker,” Leia spat, her image going in and out of his view as she paced. “He stood there on the Death Star and did nothing as Ald…he put Han into…He’s alive?!”

Her eyes finally focused on Luke’s and the anger in them made him flinch backwards. “I’m coming to see him,” she said, every inch the icy royal. “I’ll be there on Friday. We’ll talk about this more when I arrive.”

Her image shut off abruptly and Luke let out a deep sigh.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” he muttered.

From the closet, Artoo wibbled his agreement.

[OOC: Leia was loud, ya'll. Feel free to knock on the door.]

Comments

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Artoo rolled back into the closet, whimpered. Luke snorted. "Her bark's worse than her bite," he said. "Most of the time."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"God, I hope so," she laughed, "Otherwise you're in real trouble."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Where are you heading?" Luke asked. "Maybe I can catch up."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"I'm going home to Scotland. Slayers and vampire killing galore. Also, my sister," she grinned in anticipation. "Should be fun. Sure you don't want to come?"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"I haven't seen my sister in months, either," Luke said. "She'll calm down."

Beat.


"Eventually."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"How long is it going to take her to get here, your time?"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Friday," Luke said, wincing.

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"No," she shook her head, "I meant, will it only be three or four days for her, too, or will there be years of light speed involved during which she could maybe calm down?"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Believe me when I say she's not going to calm down about this," Luke said, making another face, "but it'll only be a few days of flight for her anyway. It could be decades and she'd still be angry."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

Dawn winced. "I'm sorry, Luke. That sounds rough."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Family stuff," Luke said. "She'll get over it."

He changed the subject. "Where's Scotland?"

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"Um." It took Dawn a minute. Yay American public school. "On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, which is the same one as the beach, north of here," she said, visualizing the map in her head, "And it's an island, north of England, which is north of Spain, which is that thing on the right side of the map next to the water that kind of looks like a club."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke watched her as she floundered. "I take it this isn't where you grew up?"

Either that or the educational standards were worse than Imperial ones on remote Rim Worlds and that's just sad.

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"No, I grew up in California," relatively speaking, anyway, "which is on the other side of the country. Plus, it's kinda hard to explain to someone, y'know?"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Small country on a small island on the other side of the water not near Spain," Luke recited back with a smile. "Just in case I have to borrow my father's shuttle and make a quick getaway."

[lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com]

"You can always ask Molly or Rikku--no, wait, maybe not Rikku. Ask one of the locals, and they can probably point you in the right direction." Dawn walked towards the door. "Good luck, Luke. And if you can't get away completely, you're welcome to borrow my side of 328."