The Park, Friday Morning

[suitably_heroic]

The medic had freed Atton from his kolto bath again on Thursday morning. Another full day of observation, and he was good to go, with a bunch of patches in his pocket and an abdomen that still hurt if he bent the wrong way.

And then Mical had put him on the Ebon Hawk and sent him back to Fandom. (The Hawk was to make a point: stay there, don't come back. Otherwise Mical would've just kicked him through a portal.)

He wasn't planning to stay there. Not for long. Not with Mira out there, dealing with this problem that Atton was beginning to suspect was bigger than they'd anticipated.

He didn't bother to go back to the apartment - he didn't want to run the risk of running into Sparkle just yet - but stumbled down the stairs and walked down to the park.

That alone was probably more exercise than he should've given himself. He winced at the sound of his own breath as he sank down on a bench.

Space.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[suitably_heroic]

"You jump over this one and I'll think about it," Atton joked. "You sparring with anyone here?"

[uncertain_dume]

"When I can find a partner," Kanan replied. "One of the students, but she's leaving in a few weeks. I throw down on occasion with a guy who can flat-out turn himself to mist."

He shrugged and tossed the remote up, catching it again.

"It's a weird mix."

[suitably_heroic]

"That's Fandom for you," Atton said.

After a beat: "Though mist is a new one."

[uncertain_dume]

"Yeah," Kanan grinned faintly, turning the remote over in his hands, fiddling with the settings with no real end result in mind. "He's good people, we spot one another if we think we'll need it while training, but I still have no kriffing clue what to do about mist."

[suitably_heroic]

"Any chance you're going to tell me who mist-guy is?" Atton said. "Just in case I need to water my plants or something."

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan snorted at that, clipping the remote to his belt for a moment so that he could assemble his lightsaber.

"I don't think he's on call for plantsitting services," he noted. "And it's not my place to share. But best of luck with those plants, there."

[suitably_heroic]

"They're my roommate's plants," Atton said, "So I only care this much."

[uncertain_dume]

"Fair enough," Kanan replied, and then, with a deep breath, pulled the remote back from his belt and ignited his lightsaber. He was here to train, after all.

Hard not to feel like a fraud training in front of basically anyone who knew what they were doing, though.

"I'm sure your roommate can arrange for a plantsitter if it's that important, anyway."

[suitably_heroic]

"Probably," Atton said.

He waved a hand at Kanan. "But now I'm here anyway, show me what you've got."

[uncertain_dume]

"No pressure, huh?"

Kanan blew out a breath, started up the remote, and slipped into the opening stance for Form III.

If he was going to show Atton what he had, he was going to do it with the one form he was still at least faintly confident in.

[suitably_heroic]

"No pressure," Atton agreed lightly. "So we're fighting droids today, huh?"

[uncertain_dume]

"It's a training remote," Kanan replied, resisting the urge to hike up his shoulder as a volley of bolts came at him, and were either avoided or deflected with relative ease. "There's a surprisingly small number of people around here willing to shoot at someone in the name of training."

Funny, that.

"This is for me. The kid I'm teaching some rudimentary swordwork to doesn't get to play with Shooty, here."

...

"She named it."

Never name your remotes. Not if Kanan was training with them.

[suitably_heroic]

"Hey, no shame in batting around blaster bolts," said Atton, at least partly just to mess with Kanan.

"Shooty, huh?"

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan's brow furrowed, pulled somewhere between focus and an almost playful attempt at pulling a face. It was hard to split the difference between banter and training.

Which he imagined was kind of the point.

"Shooty McKillface. I think. She thought she was being funny. Either that or she's hoping it gets the upper hand on me one of these days."

[suitably_heroic]

"You can always just slice it in half and give it to her on her birthday," said Atton, ever the party animal.

[uncertain_dume]

"I could," Kanan replied, three blaster bolts pinging off of Shooty's plating in succession, "but then I'd be down one remote and I'd have to resort to trying to convince people to throw rocks at me again."

He was mostly joking, at least?

[suitably_heroic]

"You can't find anyone on this island to build you a decent practice droid that doesn't act like a mosquito?" Atton asked.

[uncertain_dume]

"... Not really, no."

Who would he ask?

[suitably_heroic]

"Well, wait a few semesters, I'm sure someone'll pop up," Atton said, squinting. "I always hated remotes."

[uncertain_dume]

"I'm not the biggest fan," Kanan admitted, and another few volleys were fired and reflected, another few hitting the remote, one sending a shower of sparks that sent the little thing buzzing around in an even more errant circle than usual.

"Sithspit. That's why."

It was always a matter of time, with him.

[suitably_heroic]

"At least you made it past the three-second mark," Atton said, all faux-cheer.

Atton, stop riling him up.

[uncertain_dume]

"And I'm still not face-first on the ground," Kanan agreed, sighing and waving a hand, shutting off the remote. "Sorry, Shooty. You're being retired so I don't have to re-name you Sparky."

Shooty, naturally, responded by falling into the grass. Kanan shut off his lightsaber.

[suitably_heroic]

"And you still have all your limbs," Atton said, shifting slightly on the bench.

He mostly repressed a grunt.

[uncertain_dume]

"... You see many people lose limbs to their training remotes?"

Kanan cast a sidelong glance at Atton at that.