fandomhigh | BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge, Saturday morning

Billie perched on top of a pile of luggage that looked suspiciously like it could have come out of the back of an upscale garage band's van. (It . . . kind of had. She'd managed to pack a few non-musincal essentials, but they were all shoved into the corners of the various road cases. She had her priorities, okay?) She had her phone out, scrolling through her latest playlist, when a video call request came in and she grinned.

"T!" she greeted.

"B!" said Thea from the phone. "You landed!"

"I landed!" Billie agreed. "I am so totally in Baltimore, dude!"

"You're so totally in Baltimore!"

They proceeded to run through everything that had happened to each of them since they last talked -- about an hour ago, before Billie's flight landed.

"I know it's totally too early to call," Thea admitted eventually.

"Dude, I was so totally going to call you." Billie grinned. "How cool is it that we're both on our own epic adventures?"

"It is most, most egregiously nonbogus," Thea said. "Oh! That's the opening bugle. I gotta go!"

"Yo, I cannot believe you moved to the Alaskan military school."

"That's the Alaskan musical conservatory, thank you!"

Billie laughed and nodded. "Right, right, excellent!" They both gave each other a one-handed air guitar. Which anyone walking by would somehow be able to hear.

You're welcome, passersby.

"Talk to you later, T!"

"Talk to you later, B!"

Billie deflated slightly as she hung up with her ~~soulmate~~ ~~other half~~ best friend, then went back to tooling around on her playlist, one ear of her massive, audiophile headphones slid back so she could hear if/when anyone else came to join her in the lounge. Or when the shuttle eventually arrived.

"Righteous," she muttered, bopping along to the music on her headphones. "First day of grad school playlist complete." She kept bopping, then looked around at her stack of luggage in the otherwise empty lounge. ". . . Now what do I do?"

[open! And a little earlier than normal, perhaps, because I managed to completely forget that I have an event tonight. :P]

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"Oh, good," Erasmus said, relieved. He was getting a good grade at having a normal amount of luggage, a thing that was both normal to want and possible to achieve. "Glad to hear it.

"Were you worried?" Anakin asked.

"I've never packed up to go away to school before," Erasmus said. "I don't know what's usual."

"I'm not the one to ask," Anakin said. "I arrived with one change of clothing. I don't have to make another trip with the bus, so I say you pass."

"A minimalist, huh?" Erasmus asked. "I can respect that. I just had to come prepared. I hear it gets cold in Maryland."

His idea of cold was like, 70 Fahrenheit.

"What is your definition of cold?" Anakin asked.

"Like...seventy?" Erasmus echoed his narrative. "I'm from southern Mississippi." If the accent hadn't given it away.

"I grew up on a desert planet," Anakin explained with a smile, "so I understand where you're coming from and it will get cold for you."

"I was afraid of that," Erasmus admitted. "But it's good to have new experiences, right?"

Remember you said that when you were bitching about the cold like it was your job, buddy.

Might as well rip the bandage off: "Besides, none of the schools closer to home would accept me," he said, while watching Anakin's reaction very closely.

Anakin didn't look horrified by such news, if that's what Erasmus was looking for. "Their loss," he said with a little smile.

"I like to think so."

Unfortunately, the only people who agreed were pretty much his parents.

"Is it far to the school?"

"It's about a half hour, faster if there isn't much traffic," Anakin said.

Mostly because Anakin didn't believe in speed limits.

"Sounds great," Erasmus said, like a person who had not yet experienced Anakin's driving would. "So I'll just--load up?" If he could lift that larger suitcase, which...questionable.

"Let me know if you need help," Anakin said.

"No, I can do it."

Questionable.

Oh, this was gonna be sad.

BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge, Saturday morning

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