Well, hey there! So… this here is probably going to be a collection of one-shots featuring our favorite paranoid pilot and wayward exile. There might be a few other characters thrown in there, I'm not sure yet… I'm replaying KotOR 2, so cute little fanfic stories keep popping into my head. Please enjoy, comments are loved!
This particular one was kind of an off-shoot of the scene were Atton asks Bao Dur if he thought the Exile and he could ever be romantically involved. Also, my character is currently named "Kate Falco," so I'll be using that name for the Exile.
Chapter 1 : Miscommunication
Atton tugged nervously at the collar of his white shirt, and the resulting puffs of cool air calmed him down a little. What did he have to lose? His pride? Ha, long gone.
"Uhhh…" His voice stalled as the Iridonian's name flew out of his head.
Bao Dur looked up from the malfunctioning hyperdrive, hydrospanner in hand, and stared expectantly at him.
"…Hey, buddy. How's it going?" he finally managed to say.
"It's going fine. Almost fixed."
"Good, good…" Atton rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Nice weather we're having."
"Err… yes, it is."
An uncomfortable silence followed, during which the pounding of the Dxun rain on the metal hull was painfully evident.
"Well… Atton, if you don't mind, I still have to finish this, and T-3 could use a few upgrades to his motivator…"
"No, wait. I, uh… Can I ask you something?"
"Sure. Need something fixed?"
"No, no, it's… Well, you knew Kate before, during the wars, right?"
"I was one of the techs in her battalion. So, yeah, I guess you could say that."
"Do you think she and I…"
Bao Dur looked at him curiously. "She and you what?"
"You know… we could have something together?"
Bao Dur stared at him. "Like a pet gizka or something?"
Atton glared at him, but he didn't seem to be acting clueless on purpose… maybe he just was. "No, not that kind of something. Like something romantic, something."
"Uh, Atton, maybe this isn't the best time…"
In a tone halfway between angry and desperate, Atton said, "What, you don't think so? Is it because she's a Jedi and I'm just a lousy pilot? Or because she's so beautiful and I'm, well, me? Or because…"
"Uh, no, Atton, it's not that, it's just that… I was… she… that is to say, we… uh…" He pointed guiltily at the commlink attached to his ear.
Atton's face turned sheet white, then Zakkeg-red in a matter of seconds. "Oh…" he muttered.
"I'm sorry, Atton, I should have told you before you…. yeah. She wanted to know how the hyperdrive was coming, then you came in and I never ended the transmission and… sorry."
There was a soft rapping noise, and both of them turned around to see a slight, sandy-haired woman standing in the doorway. "Ah… hey guys."
Atton looked determinedly at a muddy footprint on the floor.
"Atton, can I talk to you for a sec?"
"Yeah, sure," he said dully. He followed her down to the cargo hold, where Brianna was practicing with her lightsaber. Its blue light cast strange shadows on the bare walls. She stared at them, eyes darting between their faces, smirked, then carefully slipped past them and disappeared into the hallway.
Atton leaned against a storage cylinder and waited for her to tell him how she was a Jedi, and she wasn't allowed to form attachments like that, and how she was really, really sorry, and he was a great guy, and one day he'd find someone he would fall in love with and they'd live happily ever after, it wasn't him it was her, her mother's dying act was to betroth her to a Twi'lek, yadda yadda yadda… he'd heard it all before. That didn't mean it was going to be any less painful this time.
"Listen, Atton." Here it comes, he thought. "I'm sorry I overheard you, I didn't mean to eavesdrop. But, uh… I know we've been through a lot since Peragus. You've saved my neck more times than I can remember. The last few months seem like a lifetime, I know, but I still feel like we barely know each other. You know, I don't even know what you were doing before I found you in that cell. You could be a prince from an Outer Rim planet, or a Sith Lord…"Atton's jaw tensed automatically, but she didn't dwell on that.
"…or something, and I wouldn't know. You know? I just think we should get to know each other better before thinking about… that kind of something."
She reached out and gently took one of his large, rough hands between her two small ones. "I'm not rejecting you, Atton. I don't really go in for all that Jedi not-falling-in-love stuff, okay? I'd really like to get to know you. The real you. So we'll talk sometime, when we're not being chased around by psycho droids and bounty hunters and assassin Sith. Deal?"
Atton looked into her blue eyes, and he could tell she meant what she said. He smiled, a smile he only had for her.
"Deal."
