Third floor common room, Wednesday night

[chasingangela]

Angela has a beautiful copy of Handmaid's Tale to flip through, a kitty curled up next to her and purring, a fresh episode of Vanessa Saturn to watch, and soda and candy to munch on.

Yet, strangely, she is not smiling. Perhaps it is just because she isn't on the FLOOR OF AWESOME, but she seems vaguely uneasy.

Comments

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin smiled at Yoda. "Well, he's having his own kind of fun, anyway."

He stretched out on the couch and, hey, look at that, scooted a little closer to Rory. "So other than Zero in the library, how was your day?" His expression went serious. "I heard you said goodbye to Aeryn."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"I did," Rory said, her smile fading. She leaned back against the couch, moving just a wee bit closer to Anakin.

"I'm going to miss her."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"Me too," Anakin said, tilting his head to look at Rory. "It's hard to say goodbye."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"It is," Rory agreed quietly. "Poor John."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"John has people here who will watch out for him," Anakin said. "Aeryn's going to be alone."

Yes, he was identifying just a little too closely with John and Aeryn.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Poor Aeryn," she said softly. "But she said she loves what she'll be doing once she gets home. I mean, that's something. Right? John should be happy for her."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin nodded. "But it's natural for John to worry, too. I mean, Aeryn's very, very good at what she does, but not being there..." Anakin's eyes were trained on hers. "It'll be hard for a while."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory swallowed, her eyes wide. "It will," she said. "I like to think John and Aeryn will be okay, whatever they've decided to do."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"I think you're right," Anakin said, leaning over to look into Yoda's tank. If his knuckles happened to brush Rory's hand, well, these things do occur.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"And I think that y'know, if John and Aeryn had had more time to think about it, I would have advised them to just enjoy the time they have and not worry," Rory continued quietly, watching him.

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

He nodded. "I think that's very good advice."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"So, yes," Rory nodded. "I vote new topic, because I don't want to be sad. Did I tell you John got turned into a Vladdie-lookalike yesterday? He saw Steve."

She looked a bit desperate for the shift in conversation.

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"You didn't," he said, equally desperate for a conversation shift. "And today was a stick bug?"

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Yes. I set him on her head."

Rory's smile? Really about as close to mischievous as she could get.

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"You didn't," he repeated, coming very close to a giggle. "I think I kind of love you for that. What did Professor Skeeter do?"

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"She turned him human again. While he was on her head."

She grinned. "But I guess she messed up the spell or something. Because she turned into him, too. It was like having John and Cam there, except one of them was still wearing bifocals and a skirt and stuff."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin was definitely giggling now. "Did you get pictures?" he asked.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Not of her as John. I didn't want to be a grasshopper or something," Rory said sadly. "She was really mad. She turned into a bug, too, before she went back to normal."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"That's okay," Anakin said, reaching out to pat her hand. "I like you not being a grasshopper. Yoda might eat you by accident or something and then I would be sad."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory blinked.

"Yes, that would be alarming," she said slowly. "Also, I don't like bugs. They're icky."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin blinked back. "Um. Yeah. Apparently my brain is no longer turned on."

He yawned. "I think I'm off for bed." He smiled. "Need a hand getting Vladdie downstairs?"

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Always," Rory replied, watching Vladdie chase himself dizzy, and fall over. She scooped him up and smiled. "But you have Yoda to take upstairs. I should walk you to your room for a change."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"I haven't seen Yuffie around for a while," Anakin said, smiling. "So if you'd like to come up, I'm sure that would be fine. We won't wake her or anything."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory raised an eyebrow. "Okay. I hope she didn't vanish, like my first roommate here," she said, making her way to the common room door. "I'm still not sure where Summer went."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"I'm giving it another week and then the random stuff on the ceiling is coming down," he said with a slightly evil smile.

He picked up Yoda's tank and headed for the stairs.