Coruscant- Sunday night

[notconflicted]

Sia would say that the fact that her week was incredibly busy was a welcome distraction from her own head, but no. Running a galaxy sucked. She almost wouldn’t mind a normal problem to distract from that, but maybe not the one she currently had.

Luckily, she had Jessica, and they lived somewhere where takeout was a real option again. Even though it meant sending an aide out to get it since Sia couldn’t exactly go herself, and then it taking forever to get back partly because she suspected the aide had gotten lost inside the palace, and also because the restaurant apparently knew who it was for and decided to give way more than ordered in an attempt to suck up.

“There has to be an easier way to do this,” Sia said, closing the door after the aide and bringing the food back to the sofa.

Comments

[notconflicted]

Sia appreciated you, Jessica.

“I think the person who got it said where he was from. It’s not quite enough to feed an entire dorm floor, but I’m sure I’ll be giving some to the staff,” she said, heading to the couch, where the boxes of the GFFA equivalent of Chinese food food were already set out. “I’d almost forgotten they do that there.”

[craftyladyparts]

"The extra couple years I spent there working for a poor Tony Stark means I'll never forget the magic of ordering food and having leftovers for days," Jessica said. "It was worth it, though. I got more experience in engineering there than I have the rest of my life combined."

[notconflicted]

“Seems like there are a lot of stories that come out of that town like that.” Sia grabbed a box and utensils and tucked her legs under her to get comfortable. “I sometimes wish I appreciated the break I got there more than I did.”

[craftyladyparts]

"You came out of it with some good friends. As far as I'm concerned, that means you did it right," Jessica suggested.

[notconflicted]

“This is true,” Sia said, and paused. “Though I’m not sure one of those friends wants to talk to me for a while.”

[craftyladyparts]

"What's up with Atton this time?" Jessica sighed before digging into some of her food.

[notconflicted]

“I slept with him,” she replied, definitely paying attention to the food right now.

[craftyladyparts]

"Ah." Jessica took a beat to consider this before continuing, "Normally I'd say 'congrats' and maybe go for a high five, but you did say he may not want to talk to you, so I'm guessing this isn't a time for celebration."

[notconflicted]

Very important first things first. “Why don’t you seem surprised?”

[craftyladyparts]

"You two have had a complicated will-they-won't-they thing since high school," Jessica explained. "Things were stressful here, you're recently single, and Atton does things he might reconsider later by nature. It's hard to be too surprised."

[notconflicted]

“Well. We were surprised,” Sia admitted, though Jessica actually made a lot of sense there. “And then things got awkward and somehow more complicated.”

[craftyladyparts]

"'More complicated' because you guys hooked up, or did something else happen?" Jessica checked, because that was legitimate. Maybe Atton revealed another deep dark secret or something. You never knew.

[notconflicted]

“I’m not sure. But he seemed... stunned, afterwards? And he thought I’d been planning to do that because I don’t just do things, but he also slept here?”

Why couldn’t she have just hooked up with the ex? At least then she’d know why she felt weird about it.

[craftyladyparts]

"Yikes." Jessica shook her head. "Like you even have time or brain space right now to plan a hookup. How do you feel about what happened?"

[notconflicted]

“I don’t know.” It was a theme. “I’m not upset that it happened, but I still can’t say why I did it. Mostly I’m worried that the awkwardness will carry over and we won’t be able to have a real conversation without thinking about it.”

[craftyladyparts]

“You’ll be fine. It’ll be weird for a while, probably, but if any two people can get past that and back to their normal level of weird in time, it’s you two,” Jessica said encouragingly.

[notconflicted]

“Feelings might be tougher than coming back from the Sith thing.” And she wasn’t even scared of feelings. She’d been just fine in relationships. It was just that it was Atton, so it was different.

[craftyladyparts]

“But both of you have training in dealing with and confronting your feelings, right?” Jessica asked. “Granted, you deal with them way better than he does.”

[notconflicted]

“I can’t see that ending well,” Sia said. “More than likely we’d have to deal with it on our own and then pretend nothing happened. Forever.”

[craftyladyparts]

“You could try talking about it,” Jessica suggested.

[notconflicted]

Sia actually laughed before she could quickly stop herself. “It’s Atton.”

[craftyladyparts]

“I’m not saying it would be easy or fun,” Jessica laughed back. “But it might be worthwhile.”

[notconflicted]

“What do you think would happen if we did that?” Sia didn’t have a positive outlook on it, but Jessica was also one of her advisors and someone with listening to.

[craftyladyparts]

"You'd argue for a bit, probably eventually come to an understanding as long as you stuck through him being all Atton about it," Jessica said. "There's a chance you hook up again and make things worse. Smaller chance that you hook up again and make things better. But if you put the effort in to keep him on track, I like the chances of coming to an understanding while clothed."

[notconflicted]

“Or, we’re actually honest and it ruins one of my most important relationships.” This was what she was seeing as the most likely scenario.

[craftyladyparts]

"Why would honesty ruin it?" Jessica asked.

[notconflicted]

“Because I have feelings for him, and even if he did reciprocate them, it wouldn’t go anywhere and would be left hanging over everything,” she replied.

[craftyladyparts]

"Did I ever tell you about my best friend back on my Earth, Kitty?" Jessica asked. "We were friends, teammates, roommates for a while, and I was completely in love with her. I told her how I felt even though I was pretty sure she was very straight. You know how that worked out?"

[notconflicted]

“It worked out okay?” Sia guessed.

[craftyladyparts]

"It worked out okay. She wasn't interested, we were mature and it didn't hurt our friendship, and then our world exploded during a multiversal collapse and I never saw her again," Jessica said. "And if I hadn't gotten resolution, I'd be sitting here today wondering what I might have missed with her before that world explosion."

[notconflicted]

“I’m sorry about that last part,” Sia said. “And I’m really glad you’re out here.”

[craftyladyparts]

"So am I," Jessica said. "I'd like to still have my world intact, but I might have ended up here helping you regardless. I just might have had some extra backup to help me out."

[notconflicted]

“It would have been harder to both you with this over text,” Sia said.

[craftyladyparts]

"There's a 'call' option, too," Jessica said.

[notconflicted]

“Do people actually still use that?” Sia asked.

[craftyladyparts]

"In emergencies, but that's about it," Jessica admitted.

[notconflicted]

“This definitely isn’t an emergency. Just a self-inflicted personal annoyance,” Sia said.

[craftyladyparts]

“Po-tay-to, po-tah-to,” Jessica said. “You need a sounding board, I’m there even if it means making a phone call.”

[notconflicted]

“Thank you. Though I’m also going to have to keep you here forever,” Sia told her. “I’m sorry, that’s just how it is.”