fandomhigh | Earth Tourism, Tuesday 5th period

Lana greeted them all at Portalocity with a huge smile and a huge crate. "Since you all seem to have no problem with heights, we're going to extremes today, so rather than have you all purchase ridiculous amounts of Earth equipment, I've brought some from home. I hope you all wore comfortable shirts and trousers to go under it, as I ~~handwavily~~ suggested."

She opened the crate and started passing out hooded jumpsuits of a dirty white colour with straps to secure them everywhere. Everyone also got a face mask equipped with breathing apparatus and comm unit. "These will keep us warm and alive and let us communicate more easily." She put on her own to demonstrate how it worked for those of the students who hadn't been to Hoth before. When they were all done, she nodded to the gnomes, and their portal opened up. Lana stepped through.

"Welcome to the highest location on Earth, Mount Everest. It's almost 9,000 meters above sea level, and is normally only accessible by experienced climbers with a lot of specialized equipment and a month or two to spare. And quite a few of them still die," she noted. "So please be careful. But it is a spectacular view, isn't it?"

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Cal groaned playfully, but had a smile on his face. "You might end up with an appetite as big as mine. That onion did look pretty good," he admitted. "It's time for me to finally pay up for one of these bets. When do you want to go out? No gremlins allowed this time, I'll make sure of it."

"You've got that laserblade, right?" Arden teased. "Scare 'em off with it while I cower behind you magnificently."

She grinned and gave him a shoulder nudge - but gently because this place was a scary as it was breathtaking. "You see all this wide space here?" she said, arcing her arm to take in the vista, "this is like unto my schedule, open and free. Tomorrow night? Thursday?"

Cal laughed, nudging her in return. It was so nice to just be friendly without any worries. "Tomorrow night works for me. We might need a boost after whatever happens at the shenanigans tomorrow," he pointed out. "I was too busy dodging paint yesterday to properly apologize for that."

"For not taking any of the outs I gave you with the Dean, you mean?" Arden asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why would I take the outs when I had less to lose? If I get kicked out of classes, I just can't take classes anymore. You getting into trouble would have been so much worse," Cal said.

"Because you really really care about the Dean's opinion of you," Arden said stubbornly. "And you deserve it. If the Dean tried to kick me out, there would probably be an appeals process." She had no idea but that sounded real, right? "There's no appeals for losing his good opinion. And I'm not gonna have you suffer because you wanted to show me a great time."

She folded her arms over her chest, which was harder than it looked, considering the puffiness of their gear.

"You deserve better."

"I mean, I could probably get his opinion back," Cal said, but he sounded kind of uncertain about that. "Or maybe he'd dislike me forever, but my future wouldn't rest on that. You're like... taking classes for a reason. That's important too, and you deserve to get that."

So there!

This was not at all a ridiculous conversation.

"Well, how would you respond to me apologizing to you about Friday?" she countered.

"You have nothing to apologize for," Cal said, looking genuinely confused. "I should have taken more precautions so we didn't get caught."

You know, if tripping him and knocking him to the ground wasn't likely to send them both off the side of the mountain with the resulting scuffle, Arden would be tempted.

"Listen," she said, stepping closer with her thickly gloved hands on her very puffy waist. "The climb? Was worth getting into trouble for. Okay? It was awesome. And when you apologize for it, you make it sound like a) you were the only one with agency during that climb and that's hella not true, and b) like you don't think it was worth it, or think I might not. And if you don't? Well, I'm sorry that that's true, but that's not how I feel. Okay?"

The great thing about talking to Arden was that she helped him realize things about himself. The bad thing about talking to Arden was that sometimes those realizations sucked.

"I... might have been worried that you thought it was a mistake since we got into trouble," he said. "It was an awesome climb and the view was great and we had a really nice morning until we got caught, and I was worried everything kind of got ruined."

"Cal," Arden said softly. "You helped me do something I'd never done before. And I loved it. You notice how I didn't answer the Dean's question about why I was sorry? It was only 'cause we got caught. Otherwise, I wasn't sorry at all." She sighed and shook her head. "I'm sad we were interrupted before we could explore and I'm sad you didn't get to have your sandwich so it really wasn't a picnic, and I'm sad it might have cost you, like, face with the Dean or whatever. Everything else was amazing. And even knowing we were gonna get caught, I'd do it again anyway."

"I mean, I'm going to get dinner with you, and that's better than a sandwich," Cal said, smiling softly. "I just... I know I'm reckless. I got used to being on my own, and I don't worry a lot about what'll happen to me, and that means I put people into danger when I shouldn't. I hope you know I would never do anything to get you hurt."

Dammit, Cal, you couldn't say stuff like that, it just killed her.

"Ah, but then we could have both," Arden teased, reaching for his hand - not that it was easy to do in giant gloves. "And, of course I trust you. I know that you'll throw yourself between me and danger, no matter how small it is. But I wouldn't complain if you worried a little more about yourself as if you were me. I like you also not being in danger."

"I mean, climbing that tower was the most danger I've been in since I got here." That was not the reassuring statement Arden was probably looking for. "I worry about myself more than I used to?" Also not helpful!

Well, the tower was fine. Because maybe that would convince him that he didn't have to fuss over her being in danger. But the other?

Nope, not even a little bit helpful.

"Well...we celebrate all wins in this house," Arden sighed. And there was time. She nudged him again and smiled. "Adventure buddies, okay? I go into things with my eyes open. And I'm willing to take consequences as they come."

"Okay, I'll try to be more relaxed. It might take time though, like multiple adventures. If you don't mind helping me learn how to face things as a team."

Don't mind his sneaky smile, it couldn't be helped.

Be cool, Arden, stay cool. He meant it in a friendship way, so be cool. Sure, that smile was fuckin' dangerous, but stay cool.

"Gives me good practice for all my friendship skills, too," Arden said, "so seems like a fair trade. More adventures and dinner sounds like a great deal."

"Your friendship skills are pretty great," Cal said reassuringly. "And I'm looking forward to dinner, because I'm not a sore loser. I might be sore after whatever Anakin has planned for us..." He trailed off with a sigh. "But we'll get through it together."

Earth Tourism, Tuesday 5th period

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