"I don't think they've moved since he gave me the address," Sylvana told her brother as they snuck along the halls of the military apartments.
"And just when was that, Syl?" Arrek asked with a smirk.
"Back in two thousand, or thereabouts. We figured that Ali-" something stopped in her throat, and she choked it down as she cleared her throat. "Anyway, once we get in, we'll know for sure if it's still their place."
Arrek put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly before dropping it to his pocket. They soon made it to the address Sylvana had, and looked at the door. On a nameplate beside it was some Aurebesh. "Now let's see if I can remember my lessons on the way over...." she studied the nameplate. "I think that's a 'K', hmmm, and that's a 'J' and those are 'N's.... This must be it!"
Arrek laughed, "You figure out three letters, and you know this is it?"
"Sure," she told him as she pointed. "After the one after the 'K' is the same letter after the one after that, and then another that shows up in the next word right after the 'J' shows up before the 'N'."
He looked at his sister blankly, "You feeling alright, sis?"
"Yeah. But seriously, by process of elimination and deductive reasoning, it is elementary my dear brother," she stepped back. "That plate says 'Klivian' and 'Janson'."
"And how do you plan on getting in?"
"Well, we could try to see if they left it unlocked before we try to do any breaking and entering," she smirked and pushed a small panel beneath the names.
The door glided open quietly along its track, and Sylvana stepped first into the room. The movement triggered a light, and she grinned at the sight before her. "This is definitely it."
It was as though the bunkbed in the centre of the room divided it in half between two extremes. On either side of the bed was a tall window, looking out on the busy sectors of military and civilian Coruscant.
To the right it looked to be ordered chaos. Around what must have been an open hamper lay various articles of clothing, including a garish shirt half in and half out of the thing. There was a chair pushed away haphazardly from a desk that had so many piles on it, it was hard to believe, including many toy-like things. Several of the piles looked like inverted pyramids, the small things more toward the bottom. One knock to the desk, and half the piles would be all over it, and the floor . . . vying with other things scattered about. The drawers in the side were half closed. The one thing that was well ordered, was the entire wall. It was covered with a weapons display; blasters of every shape, size, and colour were arranged in neat rows. To one side could only be a blastsword, and to the other hung . . . a toy lightsabre from Terra.
Sylvana chuckled as she looked to the other side of the room. It was nearly a polar opposite. The hamper was closed, only the slight corner of what could only be a blue shirt peeked out from the side. The chair was neatly pushed under the desk, whose top was in military like order. There were all of two neat piles, and along the back lay another Terran toy lightsabre, and a few still-holos. Most looked as though they were family pictures, or pictures of sqauadmates and friends. There was one other, someone standing against a wall. She couldn't tell, from her vantage point, of whom the last could be.
The closet doors were closed, though one had the look that the opener would find a pile of things cascading out atop them should it be disturbed. The top bunk was as disorderly as the right side of the room, the bottom neatly made. Arrek moved to stand beside her, "Yup, definitely their room."
She lightly punched her brother's shoulder, "Told you." She took one last short look at the room, "Let's get to work." She turned and hit the panel on the inside of the door, then one beneath it. The door locked. "We'll get Wes first."
"Yes'm sister!" Arrek saluted sloppily, and the two went over to his side of the room. They spent the next several minutes rearranging the weaponry, along with putting most of them on their hooks upside down. As he worked to finish doing that, Sylvana rearranged the piles on the desk, including putting them in a less precarious position. As far as the small figurines or toys went, she hid some within the drawers, which she closed, and then put a few under the pillow of the messy top bunk.
"Okay, now that's done, let's-" she broke off as she heard talking outside the door.
"I thought I said leave it unlocked, nobody's gonna break in!"
. . . and there was the unmistakable sound of someone typing in a passcode. "HIDE!" she hissed in a stage whisper, diving for the bunks. Her brother followed suit and soon both were secreted beneath the bottom bunk by the time the room's occupants entered.
"I'm sure we'll get to see the team while they're here, Hobs. I wouldn't be surprised if the Wraiths or someone held a nice little party for the Terrans. Everyone's going to want to see them again." The lower bed squeaked as the two sat down upon it.
"I know," the bed bounced slightly above their heads as the two flopped onto their backs. "I also know you'll probably have a hand in it, somehow."
A mischevious glance passed between the siblings as they saw the four feet before them, wearing sneakers after a sort. Stealthily, they untied the shoes, and looped one pilot's right sneaker's lace around the other's left, then tied the respective pairs together. They drew their hands back, and stifled sniggering with their hands over their mouths.
"I'm gonna take a lay down," Wes declared, standing. "You can have a shower first. You smell."
"So do you, Wes," Hobbie said with a short laugh.
The pilots stood.
Hobbie took a step for the fresher just as Wes went to leap up to his bunk.
They didn't stay upright for long.
They wobbled on their footing for a moment, then soon crashed to the floor.
"What the-?!"
"Tha Sith?!"
The two looked at eachother, then glanced forward. Their eyes met those of the Lorrdains, hidden beneath Hobbie's bed.
"Sylvana!"
She went to rub at the back of her neck, and bonked her elbow against the frame, giving herself a case of funny-bone syndrome. She chuckled nervously, "Hi guys. . . ."
"And Arrek!"
Arrek grinned and waved a hand.
"What are you two doing under my bed?!"
"What does it look like we're doing? We're hiding," Syl put her chin on her folded arms and smiled.
Wes fell over onto his back and started laughing. Suddenly, as he cought sight of his side of the room, he stopped. "What the sith have you done?!"
Syl shrank back slightly, wincing slightly before donning a sweet smile. "Redecorated?"
He looked gleefully to see what they had done to Hobbie and frowned, "Man, you didn't even have enough time to do Hobbie's stuff." He turned to his blonde friend, pushing his shoulder to get his attention away from Sylvana. "We either shoulda left the gym earlier, or walked back slower so they could at least get you too!"
When Hobbie saw all of Wes's weaponry upside down and scattered haphazardly, he couldn't help but burst out in laughter. "I'm GLAD that we got here when we did!"
With that, he rolled to a seated position, and started working at the expertly knotted laces. Wes did the same, but quickly lost patience, and just pulled his sneakers off. The Lorrdains stayed under the bed.
Wes rolled back over onto his stomach and regarded the siblings beneath the bed. "You guys can come out, you know."
Arrek slipped out and looked at his sister, who hadn't moved. "C'mon," he beckoned.
"I can't."
"Why not?" Hobbie wondered as he worked patiently at the laces.
"I'm stuck."
"You're kidding!" Arrek laughed.
"No, I'm not," she frowned slightly. "My braid's caught."
"Cut it off," Wes said with a wink.
Sylvana almost shrieked, "What?!? No way in all places evil! It's a good thing you're out of my reach, Mr. Pilot!"
Arrek chuckled, and nodded his head in assent.
"Well you can't live under the bed," Wes pointed out.
To prove his point, Sylvana sneezed. "Oh bugger," she turned over onto her back and started working at untangling her hair from the springs beneath the bed.
"Come on, you, help me put things back," Wes pulled the tall boy behind him over, by his collar, to work on the weapon wall.
A short while later, Hobbie had all four sneakers free, Sylvana had finally extricated herself, and the wall had been righted by Arrek and Wes.
"Anyway," Sylvana quickly rebraided her long hair as she sat on the bed, "We were going to leave a note when we were done to let you know we were on planet."
"So we heard," Hobbie said with a smile.
"We'll have to get together sometime, but right now we'd better get back before Rumpelstiltskin skins us and tans our hides for tentmaking."
"What?" the two pilots looked at her in confusion.
"It's a joke!" she chuckled. "Seriously though, we've gotta get back. See you soon?" she said to both, but smiled up at Hobbie.
He just smiled back contentedly.
"Better believe it!" Wes said with a grin. "Now you two get outta here, while we get some showers..." he started pushing them toward the door, then paused and winked at Sylvana, "Unless you wanna take one with."
She punched him in the shoulder, none too gently, as she walked past. "Dream on, flyboy."
"What was that for!?" he rubbed at it.
"For telling me to cut off my braid." She grinned lopsidedly over her shoulder as she and her brother left.
Hobbie started laughing, and Wes picked up a sneaker to throw at him. He dodged it easily. "What's so funny?"