Room 317 [late afternoon]

[tatooine_doofus]

Luke was in his room, sleeves up--the gash on his arm was fading rapidly--surrounded by his tool kit and fiddling with Artoo. If it stopped him from dwelling on other things, well, bonus.

Artoo was not entirely thrilled being used as a distraction.

"Try it again, please," Luke said.

Artoo obligingly began to spit back the beginning of "I Know A Song That Gets On Everybody's Nerves."

"It needs to be higher pitched, louder," Luke said, "and more off-key."

The door was open if anyone was wondering what he was up to.

Comments

[solo_sword]

Jaina took the slightest of pauses before saying, "More or less. The situation's a little rough. But everyone's still in one piece."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke's forehead creased with concern. "Anything I can do? This me, not your me."

[solo_sword]

She shook her head. "Thanks, but it's okay. There's nothing I would really be able to do even if I was back home, so I'm counting on them to straighten things out and not worrying too much. If you could kick them into sending me news more often, though, that would be great."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Next time I talk to your father, I'll be sure to tell him to keep in touch," Luke teased.

He had the worst timing ever.

[solo_sword]

Jaina had no idea what the expression that flickered across her face might have been, but she got control of it quickly. "Make sure he listens," she said totally evenly.

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"I will," he said softly, then gestured at Artoo. "Want to get your hands dirty?"

[solo_sword]

"Sure," Jaina said. "What are you doing?"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Adding irritating songs to his programming," Luke said. "He's going to visit Umbridge next week."

[solo_sword]

"I know a few Corellian drinking songs," Jaina said immediately.

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"The one with the really terrible chorus and about a trillion verses?"

[solo_sword]

"That's one!"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke burst out laughing. "Your father and Wedge almost got into a fight about verse 73. It was a looooooong night."

[solo_sword]

She thought about which verse that was. "Suddenly some references they'd made make more sense..."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke's eyes lit up. "I haven't accidentally traumatized you or anything, right?" he checked belatedly.

[solo_sword]

"I think all the traumatization that could possibly happen did so in the first month or so of being here."

No, it hadn't.

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke snickered. "Yeah, just wait," he said. "One of these days your twin brother'll show up to teacher or your mom will be fourteen years old and then you'll be sorry you tempted the dramatic irony gods."

[solo_sword]

"See, I'm not so sure that would be weird anymore," Jaina said. "I think finding out who was teaching Flight and Flying about did it."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke's entire sense went flat again. "You can still be surprised," he said.

[solo_sword]

Jaina raised her eyebrows, asking, "You okay?"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke waved a hand dismissively. "Fine," he said. "It's just a bad month. It's been a long time for you, but it's the first anniversary of the Death Star for me."

[solo_sword]

"Oh," she said. "Sorry. I didn't realize."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"There's no reason you should," Luke said with a small smile. "Don't worry about it. Or me. Really."

[solo_sword]

She watched him for the briefest of moments, but smiled a little back. "Okay. So drinking songs."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Luke said, obviously grateful for the change in topics. "Do you think that '1 Trillion Bottles of Lum on the Wall' is too cruel?"

[solo_sword]

"Not at all. You might even stand to get crueller."