Room 204 [afternoon]

[momslilassassin]

"Last load," Ben said from behind a pile of metal. "Think we could start our own branch of Stark's right here in the room?"

His side of his new room was already neatly organized--not that he had much that wasn't droid parts--and he was talking mostly to hide his nerves.

Given the room's other occupant, he wasn't sure why he was even trying.

[OOC: For the roommate, and then open!]

Comments

[weetuskenraider]

"Yeah." Tahiri fidgeted and ran a hand through her hair, then blurted out, "I wish she'd just leave me alone."

Way to segue there, Tahiri.

[momslilassassin]

Ben reached for her hand immediately, looking concerned. "Is she getting even louder?"

[weetuskenraider]

"She is right now," she mumbled, looking down but squeezing his hand.

Sithspit, all the machinery. That had to be it.

[momslilassassin]

Ben glanced around the room, trying to figure out the cause.

"The droid parts," he said, sounding mortified.

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri nodded briefly. "I don't care. She can get used to it," she said through her teeth.

[momslilassassin]

"Is she hurting you?" Ben asked, Force-sense going over-protective and worried.

[weetuskenraider]

"No," Tahiri answered decisively. "Just complaining really, really loud. Why now, though, I don't know."

[momslilassassin]

Shhhhh, Ben directed at the little Riina space in Tahiri's essence. "Think you should talk to Karla about it?" he replied.

[weetuskenraider]

"Maybe." Tahiri remembered what Jaina had said about that version of her being in really bad shape. And then Tara's questions about her aura. "I don't want to risk making her worse, but . . . if I can't get rid of her, Ben, I don't know what that's going to do to me."

[momslilassassin]

Ben pulled her into his lap. "We'll figure it out," he said quietly. "I'm not going anywhere, and neither are you. She's just going to have to learn that she's not winning here."

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri wrapped her arms around him and just held on. "You won't let me fall, right?" Which didn't mean she wasn't going to do everything in her power to keep herself from falling first.

[momslilassassin]

"You fix me, I fix you," he whispered.

[weetuskenraider]

"Yeah." Tahiri leaned in to rest her head against his shoulder, gritted her teeth, and pushed Riina's snarling objections to the back of her mind. "She's just going to have to deal, because she's not going to get me to stop visiting."

[momslilassassin]

"I'll put it away before you come next time, I promise," Ben said, a wave of guilt rippling through the Force. "I don't mean to make it worse."

[weetuskenraider]

"No. Not your fault," Tahiri said stubbornly. "I'm not asking you to go out of your way for me."

[momslilassassin]

"It's for me, too," Ben said. "I don't want to whack my shin into anything at night."

[weetuskenraider]

"Oh. Well, I don't want you to do that either," Tahiri conceded. "Just don't go and be all weird on me because of this, okay?"

[momslilassassin]

"There are people in this room who would say I was weird anyway," Ben replied with a tiny smile.

[weetuskenraider]

"I meant extra weird," said Tahiri, who agreed with that sentiment. "Not your normal kind of weird."

[momslilassassin]

"I won't get obsessive about it," he promised.

[weetuskenraider]

"Good," Tahiri said, looking very much relieved about that. "I hate being treated differently because of this."