tatooine_doofus | Room 317 [early afternoon]

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Room 317 [early afternoon]

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.]

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Luke nodded. "It scared the hell out of me," he admitted. "I watched him die. I mourned him...I set up his funeral pyre...and then he called to me through the Force."

He gave her a rueful smile. "I should've known that if anyone would be able to cheat death, it'd be my father. He's never done anything the easy way."

Tori couldn't begin to know what that must have been like, but she squeezed his hand, reassuringly.

She smiled slightly. "I guess that's a good thing, then."

"Most days, yeah," Luke agreed with a tired sigh. "It's been a hell of a year."

He gave her a worried look. "Do you still want to be here? I hide the crazy well."

"So it seems." Tori nodded in agreement.

She took in the worried look and couldn't but smile. "Of course I do. It's going to take a lot more than that to chase me away."

Luke's eyes widened. "I was pretty sure that was about as crazy as things could get before someone's brain dribbled out their ears," he said, leaning his forehead against hers. "I'm very, very lucky I found you."

Tori couldn't help but smile a bit at that. "I guess for some it would be." She shrugged, blushing slightly. "And I'm lucky I found you."

"Do you want to meet Leia, then?" he asked. "Or Dawn's leaving the country. That's an option too."

Tori grinned and nodded. "I would love to, if she's going to be up for it. I don't want to intrude or anything." She admitted, chuckling a moment later. "I think I'll stay here as tempting as that offer sounds. After all, you might need backup." Tori winked, clearly joking.

Luke grinned. "The benefits of having a ninja for a girlfriend," he said, then bit his lip, uncertain again. "Isabel said I need to ask you about that? I mean, if you wanted to date people who aren't me?"

Tori grinned and nodded, blushing ever so slightly. "Oh, she did, huh?" She had been meaning to talk to him about this. Tori made a mental note to see Isabel later and thank her because she would've chickened out on bringing this up. "I really don't want to date people who aren't you." There she'd said it. That wasn't so bad.

Luke's entire face lit up. "Really?!"

"Really." Tori nodded, smiling.

Luke tilted his head in for a kiss. "Today's looking up already," he murmured.

"I'm glad." Tori grinned, kissing him happily.

"So how have you been?" he asked when he finally came up for breath. "Any random relatives showing up?"

"I've been good." Tori admitted, having nothing really to complain about. "Not really. Unless you count five overprotective boys back home, wanting me to visit them soon." She chuckled. "They're really all like older brothers, which is funny since I'm the oldest one out of the group. A few of them came up during graduation, I'm not sure if you saw them around."

Luke frowned as he thought. "I might have," he admitted, "but I was pretty distracted by Rory's grandparents. They're a bit of work. These are your teammates, right?"

"Yeah, and that really was quite a graduation." Tori shook her head in bewilderment. She still couldn't believe the school had been blown up. "Yep, that's them; Shane, Dustin, Cam, Blake and Hunter."

"And they like to ride speeder bikes, except with wheels," Luke remembered. "I should check with Molly and see if I can borrow hers sometime."

"Yes, all except Cam. Though, he did try it once." Tori made a face, remembering how well that went. "Oh yeah. I remember talking to Molly about it, though I can't recall just exactly how we got onto subject."

"That happens around here a lot," Luke said with a smile. "I had a whole conversation yesterday about putting cows into someone's room."

"Sure seems like it." Tori nodded, grinning. "You did?" That made her laugh.

He nodded. "If you meet a girl named Aravis? Don't tease her about traditions and customs on this planet. She doesn't take it well."

"Okay, I promise I won't." Tori nodded. "Oh no?"

"It leads to revenge plans involving livestock, apparently," Luke said, shrugging. "And, I'm assuming, escalation and counterattacks."

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

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Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...