fandomhigh | Library (12/14/05)

Rory matched his grin. "Yay! And that's why I don't drive with my grandparents anymore," she said with an affirmative nod. "I'm not a reckless driver, just like how you're, I'm sure, a perfectly capable pilot. Some people just worry too much."

"It's a da--er, plan, then," Anakin said. "I kinda have to put the sim back together, though." He looked abashed. "I was trying to turn into a Viper--the kind of ship they fly where Lee's from--and I got a little outsmarted."

He grinned. "But turning it back into my ship? Piece of cake."

"Wasn't Cally building one of those? I thought I heard something about that," Rory wondered aloud.

She shook her head and blinked, arching both brows at Anakin curiously. "And what kind of ship is yours? I mean...not that I'd know the name or anything, but can you describe it? Or is it one of those things where I'll have to see for myself?"

Anakin nodded. "Yep, she was. She's going to let me fly it, too." His eyes lit up. "Maybe over break. It'll be the first time it'll get airborne." He bounced a little on the balls of his feet. "It'll be great."

Talking about his ship made him even happier. "Well, it's a Jedi starfighter," he began, "so it's not really mine because of the whole 'no possessions' thing, but I've tweaked it a bit for me--the engines are bulked up, the trigger's more sensitive, the guns rotate faster--" he trailed off. "I'm probably boring you to tears."

He clasped his hands together in front of him. "She's sleek, she's fast, and she's heavily armed. She's also an absolute joy to fly." He grinned. "You'll love it."

He yanked at his braid. "Normally, the starfighter's a one-being ship, but I'll rig up the trainer model with two seats." He gave her a smile. "That way I can show you the controls rather than just being a voice in your ear telling you to grab that level, no, the other one, lower, and to the left." He snickered. "Which is how I've seen some Jedi learn. Normally the more hopeless of the pilots."

Rory beamed at his enthusiasm, and ran a hand through her hair. She idly played with one wavy lock in an unconscious imitation of what Anakin was doing with his braid.

"Wow. I'm glad you'll be in there with me, since I'm probably going to be a bit confused by it. I'd probably accidentally blow it up, or something, if I were left to my own devices in there. Plus," she shrugged, blushing faintly, "it'll be more fun with you actually showing me, and stuff."

[ooc: *bounces off to class for about an hour*]

"You wouldn't blow it up," Anakin said firmly, "but I'll be glad to show you how it works." He blushed, too, and shuffled his feet.

"I should probably let you get back to work, huh?" he finally said.

Rory glanced around the quiet room, noting that Angel was acting strangely and that the guy with the glasses who Zero and Parker had complained to her about was being whiny.

She gave Anakin a look of amusement. "What work? But I can imagine you probably have better things to do than to educate me about ships and assure me of my non-combusting tendencies."

[ooc: *headdesk* Reposted to...you know, make sense, yays]

Anakin followed her gaze. "I wasn't sure if you had massive, um, library-type duties," he said. "Beating off books with sticks, or alphabetizing something for justice, or--" his hand flailed around, "other stuff?" he finished lamely.

"And I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing," he said. Then blushed to the roots of his hair.

Rory looked surprised, and tried to hide a smile. She was, however, unable to hide the fact that her entire face was slowly turning a distinct shade of magenta.

"Really?" she asked teasingly. "You're even more easily entertained than I am. Seriously, though. I'm boring. You must have something infinitely more interesting to do."

"I have a training regimen that includes glitter," Anakin replied in a "duh" voice, "Of course I'm easily entertained. But you're anything but boring."

Anakin blushed again. "I think I'm going to, um, find a hole to bury myself in now."

Rory's mouth twitched, but she managed to keep from smiling. Or saying what she was thinking, thank God, because telling Anakin she thought he was adorable? Probably not smart at the moment.

"Don't bury yourself. You're too tall. It'd have to be an especially deep hole, and I don't know where you're going to find one of those," Rory said solemnly.

"And I'm horrifically uninteresting, though you flatter me. Want a cookie?" She pulled one of the cookies that always seemed to be lurking behind the desk out and offered it to him tauntingly.

He took a cookie with a smile. "Thank you. The cookie has convinced me to stay and not dig a hole and bury myself. Plus, it's cold out there and digging seems like a lot of work."

"Very agreed," Rory nodded. "We have coffee too. But it might just be special library wench coffee. In fact, that might be a special library wench cookie. But since I like you, you can have special library wench refreshment privileges."

Anakin took a bite of the cookie. "That doesn't mean I have to answer to the name 'library wench', does it?" He smiled slowly. "Because other then the whole gremlin biting incident that I never, ever want to repeat, I don't think I look much like a wench." He looked anxiously at Rory. "Do I?"

"Nope," Rory grinned. "I mean, for one thing? I don't know a single wench who could pull off one of these." She reached over and gently tugged once on his braid.

Anakin gave her a wide-eyed look of surprise. "No one ever touches the braid," he said softly. "I don't mind or anything, though."

"Oh!" Rory said, retracting her hand immediately and turning a deep, deep red. "Um. Sorry. You can, um...touch my hair, or something. It's not the same, but, um...." She eyed the desk. "I should crawl under this. Better than digging a hole, anyway."

Anakin caught her hand before she moved it too far. "Really. It's okay." He gave her a slow smile. "It's not like touching a Padawan braid makes us married or anything. There's nothing to be embarrassed about."

Rory's blush deepened. "Well, that's good. I'm only seventeen. I don't need to make it a Gilmore tradition to commit to huge things in my teens," she babbled. "I, um, just didn't realize it's off-limits. Will keep my hands to myself now."

"Don't worry about it," Anakin said, his hand still holding hers. "Really. It's not that it's off-limits. It's just no one's ever thought it was interesting enough to touch."

Rory smiled, her blush fading a little. She didn't move her hand from Anakin's grip. "Oh. Well, I'll keep that in mind. As long as I'm not violating some ancient Jedi rule about touching the braid."

"No ancient Jedi rule," he assured her. "Although there is one on the books that bans pimp hats." He shrugged. "I didn't ask why."

"Because pimp hats are tacky, and Jedi have good taste," Rory said with a somber nod.

"That might be it," Anakin said, nodding. "But then you think they'd've banned droid spoken word albums. Those are a greater affront than the worst hat I've ever seen."

He finally let go of her hand. "I should probably go. Have to get some Christmas shopping done today."

Library (12/14/05)

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