Mala- Friday

[notconflicted]

If Sia had to go on a goodwill tour of all the places the Sith Empire had ravaged through the years, she really would have rathered skipping the planet where she got stabbed and really should have died. She never addressed it, she played nice, she tried to keep the focus on the battle here instead of on what happened to her personally, partly because she didn't want to be reminded and partly because Atton was dealing with enough and she didn't want to bring this up on top of it.

It was a relief when she was finally able to say her goodbyes and board the transport, heading for her quarters as the crew got them off the ground and on to the next stop.

[For one but open!]

Comments

[notconflicted]

"You might be surprised. You were my education in this field," she pointed out, pouring two glasses and bringing one over to him to take.

[suitably_heroic]

"But I bet you've got people to pick this stuff out for you," Atton said.

Normally, he would've stuck to one drink. Right now, he felt so helpless in the fact of it all that he wasn't sure alcohol would make anything worse.

He took the glass. And then a sip.

[notconflicted]

"I'm not that spoiled," Sia told him, and she took a seat next to him. Not too close to crowd him, but close enough that if he needed physical contact he could have it. "I just can't run my own errands anymore."

[suitably_heroic]

"You ever just want to steal out of here and go shopping like a normal person?" Atton asked.

[notconflicted]

"All the time," she admitted. "There are tunnels in the palace on Coruscant that can get me out without detection, but they lead into the underlevels, which isn't exactly safe."

[suitably_heroic]

"Might be fun, if offensive," Atton said. He took another sip and stretched his legs out. "You know, put on a wig, maybe steal some smuggler's gear and live the undercity life like some kind of tourist."

[notconflicted]

"It could be," Sia agreed. "For as very temporary as it would have to be."

[suitably_heroic]

"Empress slumming it for a day," Atton said. He shot her a wry smile. "Kind of like old times."

[notconflicted]

"Are you saying I've slummed it?" Sia asked, a little teasingly, even if that sounded kind of gross.

[suitably_heroic]

"Don't think I wasn't tempted to do an obnoxious yet strangely charming rendition of 'Common People' for you at Caritas once or twice," Atton said. He hoped it was clear he was teasing. His voice felt kind of flat today.

[notconflicted]

She got it.

"Now that I know, there's always a chance that I ask for it now," she pointed out.

[suitably_heroic]

"I should probably go back to the island if this drags on much longer," Atton said, and hated himself for saying it out loud. "So you could probably catch me at Caritas."

[notconflicted]

"Of course," she said automatically, though she didn't like hearing that herself.

So she added, "Though you always have the option to stay here, if you wanted."

[suitably_heroic]

But what if Sparkle showed back up on the island and he wasn't there?

... Space.

"Thank you," he said, tapping his glass with one finger, and then gulped back a mouthful.

[notconflicted]

"And if not," she said, "then you know what to expect from my next visit."

[suitably_heroic]

"Yeah." Atton stared across the room for a moment. "Poodoo. I'm not going soft on you, I swear."

He'd just been. Worried. About Sparks. Even before all of this had gone down.

[notconflicted]

"So what's happening?" she asked, gently.

[suitably_heroic]

"You ever meet someone several times and still don't know how you feel about them?" Atton said. "Even though there's considerable pressure to think about them one way?"

[notconflicted]

"Like everyone's telling you you should like a person?"

She was in politics, she understood this, even if she knew the details had to be different.

[suitably_heroic]

"Exactly that," Atton said. He peered into his glass. "I've been trying to figure out whether it's me being weird, or I actually have a bad feeling about Sparkle's boyfriend." Beat. "The new one."

[notconflicted]

"What puts you off about him?" she asked, and nodded towards his glass in case he wanted a refill.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton nodded.

"About the guy personally?" he said. "He's very sure of himself, pretty much all of the time. Thinks he's got everybody figured out, even if he's never met them, and he'll tell you repeatedly what they're like. Even if you have met them."

He held his glass out for that refill. "Spent the past few months coming up with all kinds of new visions of torture porn about what Lewis was gonna do to Sparkle in court. I mean, stuff straight out of the holovids, but still. Who does that?"

[notconflicted]

Sia floated the bottle over to pour more into his glass.

"I'd say he's considering worst case scenarios, but it sounds like he really thinks things will go that way." Which wasn't how it worked. She'd once set someone up for a trial that should have been an easy conviction and it hadn't worked out that way.

[suitably_heroic]

"He said he was just trying to come up with the worst the guy could throw at us," Atton said, bringing his glass back up to take another sip. "But he started hitting ideas like 'What if Lewis brings in Sparkle's parents to testify against his sanity and we'll have to bribe a therapist to diagnose Lewis as a narcissist on the stand' and I'm like, what is this? Are you gathering material for your next detective novel, or are you trying to support Sparks?"

[notconflicted]

Sia stared.

"What?"