Room 327- Monday morning

[notconflicted]

Sia usually had no problem at all with focusing, no matter what she was trying to focus on. Today is was really, really a problem.

It had started with a message from home that she'd had to pause and put aside for later because she found herself concentrating more on the Imperial Knight sending it rather than the message he was sending. That just struck her as inappropriate. And when she'd decided that she didn't like the feeling of being this keyed up for no reason, she'd spent longer than she wanted to admit in the salle, only for it to not make any real difference.

At that point (and after a shower that was a bit colder than she was used to) she'd become determined to at least get through her homework, because this was officially ridiculous and surely she could keep her focus for more than five minutes.


[She should not be able to do that, no. Door/post open!]

Comments

[suitably_heroic]

"Why the hell are you working?" Atton asked casually from the doorway. Hey, if there was anything he'd taken away from last time, it was that having-huge-fights-then-pretending-nothing-ever-happened was kind of their thing, so he was putting that into practice.

Also he was antsy and planning to hit Baltimore early tonight but he still needed to waste some time before anything really opened.

[notconflicted]

"Because I can," she said, trying for neutral when she was still a little mad about that last fight. "did you expect me to be doing something else?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Something that's not doing homework?" Atton suggested. "I mean. You know none of these teachers is actually going to come after you if you don't turn something in, right?"

Atton would know!

[notconflicted]

"I like having something to do," Sia said. "Do you have other ideas?"

Why did that sound wrong?

[suitably_heroic]

"Yeah, I'm going out to Baltimore in a little bit," Atton said lightly. "Definitely more fun than whatever you're doing."

[notconflicted]

"And ypu stopped to question my choice of activity first?"

No, really, why did everything sound wrong?

[suitably_heroic]

"The good places aren't open yet," Atton replied, and okay, that had sounded kind of funny, Sia--

Ugh, he was distracted today. Not good. "But my choice of activity? Still better."

[notconflicted]

"Then perhaps you should include me in it," she said.

[suitably_heroic]

"Y-- wait, what? No," Atton said. Then, firmly: "No. You don't like the kind of places I hang out."

Or probably the kind of girls he was planning to hang out with.

[notconflicted]

"That's never stopped you from taking me before," Sia pointed out. Let's just all be glad she really fidn't intend anything she said to come out like it did. "And you're the one always trying to get me to loosen up."

[suitably_heroic]

"Trust me, you don't want this kind of loosening up."

...Everything sounded bad today. What.

[notconflicted]

"Who says?"

That was actually sort of true.

[suitably_heroic]

"Says me," Atton retorted. "You're like fourteen. There are some things that don't need to be loose just yet."

Now, on the other hand, he just sounded like a doddering old dad.

[notconflicted]

"I'm sixteen." A month from tomorrow, anyway. "And I can handle myself better than you apparently know."

[suitably_heroic]

"Not in the places I'm planning on going, princess," said Atton, where by 'places' he meant 'between somebody's--' ahem.

[notconflicted]

Sia stood, folding her arms. Under her chest, of course, because this was the week to accidentally emphasize things. "I see. So I'm to just keep you busy for now."

And now she hated her brain a little.

[suitably_heroic]

"Are you angry again?" Atton checked. "Because if I want to talk to someone who's angry, I can just talk to Cade - he's less pretty."

Uh.

[notconflicted]

Uh, indeed.

"Is thinking I'm pretty a problem?" Ordinarily she'd think it was. Today, however...

[suitably_heroic]

"Sixteen," Atton reminded her.

[notconflicted]

"So what?" Sia asked.

[suitably_heroic]

"I'm not explaining that one to you in front of the squirrels," Atton said firmly, "...and why is this an issue all of a sudden anyway?"

[notconflicted]

"I didn't think it was an issue," she said. "And you're the one saying I'm pretty."

[suitably_heroic]

"Why can't you just take a compliment like a normal person?" Atton asked.

[notconflicted]

"Because I didn't know you thought that." She'd honestly thought his tastes had just changed since he was seventeen and that first came up.

[suitably_heroic]

"Look, any fool can see you're pretty," Atton said, rolling his eyes. "Doesn't mean anything."