fandomtownies | Ye olde shuttle parking [Monday morning]

Rory had taken her time to get ready. There was no reason she wanted to look especially pretty.

No, really.

She smiled and waved as Anakin and the shuttle came into view.

Anakin gave her a huge smile as she came close.

"Hi, you," he said.

Very smooth, Anakin.

Rory gave him a slow, uncertain smile, the events of Saturday still fresh in her mind. "Hey. How are you?"

"Better now," he replied before he could stop himself.

Then practically turned maroon with the blushing.

"I mean, hi," he continued.

Which he'd already said. This wasn't off to a promising start.

"Hi," she said, almost wanting to laugh. "Do I get to take off again today?"

"Sure," Anakin said. "And today we get to use the hyperdrives. It's going really, really fast without having to do it ourselves." He grinned. "Because getting to that star at sub-light speeds would take hundreds of years. I think you'd be tired of me long before then."

"No, I wouldn't."

Oops.

"But, um. Going fast? Me?"

"You won't even notice," Anakin promised, keying the ramp to the shuttle open and walking in. "I promise."

He slid into his normal seat on the left side and smiled. "Trust me," he said as he strapped in.

"I do," Rory sighed, sliding into her seat and starting the procedures he'd taught her.

Anakin slanted his eyes towards her as she worked and gave her a proud little smile she wasn't exactly supposed to see.

"Good."

Rory was too busy concentrating to notice anything, sadly. She gave a little smile as she carefully took off, and said, "So the whole super-fast thing means we won't crash or anything, right? We won't hit anything even though we're going crazy fast?"

"That's what the navicomputer'll prevent," Anakin said. "And I always run the numbers in my head to be sure," he continued.

Because complicated astronavigation is certainly something that you can just calculate like that, Anakin.

He sometimes forgot when he was being completely extraordinary.

Rory stared at him. "You can do that kind of math? Just like...in you head?"

Anakin nodded. "Sure. It used to drive Obi-Wan crazy. It would always take him a few minutes longer."

Rory was gripping her controls, trying to hide how impressed she was. "Do you have any idea how difficult that is?"

"...no?"

"I can't do it," she said after a moment, somewhat reluctantly as they broke atmosphere.

Anakin carefully held in a smile. "It's something I was trained for," he said. "Jedi tend to swing closer into orbits of planets and systems than the navicomputers are programmed to do. But you have to be right--landing in the middle of a sun makes for a real quick trip."

This was sooooo not the thing to tell Rory right now.

"...okay, so since I can't do the math, you're going to and the computer will because I burn really easily and I don't really want to die in a sun please and thanks."

"Nothing's going to happen," Anakin soothed, punching the coordinates into the navicomputer and waiting for it to chug through the mathematics.

He pointed to the lever that would launch them into hyperspace. "Wait for the computer to ping, then we're ready to go," he said. "Then you pull that back."

Rory bit her lip and waited patiently.

The computer, funnily enough, went 'ping!'

"Wow, how literal," she said, yanking on the lever.

Outside the window, the stars spread into lines.

Anakin smiled. "Good job."

Rory felt herself being pressed into her seat, and stared out the window in wonder. "...oh my god."

Anakin's smile widened. "Not bad, huh?" He unstrapped himself from the seat and stood up. "We have some time if you want to stretch your legs a little."

Rory looked at him like he was insane. "Put your seatbelt back on!" she said, looking panicky.

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