"Ow!" Sylvana Lorrdain dropped the crackling gold sphere and rubbed her stinging hands together, glaring at her smirking twin. For good measure she glared at the pilots watching from the deck.
Face made very clear he'd seen her flub, shaking his hands in exaggerated imitation before laughing his head off Hobbie tilted his head in question whether she was alright, but tried to hide his amused smile... until she stuck her tongue out at him.
She held some satisfaction as his drink went the nasal route.
"Don't glare at them, Vanni, you know better than that. Have you used your skills at all since your team was disbanded?"
"I've used them!" she coughed and pitched a small crackling blue sphere at him, "and they work when I'm not messing around with yours. Hmph, yours sting more."
"The moon will always be softer than the sun. It's common knowledge."
"It's you being a brat and putting more oomph in than is required for the game."
"So you're saying you've practised."
"Fes!!!" Sylvana threw a large sphere at her brother as he barely (in her opinion) stepped aside in time to dodge the strike. She concentrated on the energy she'd used and tried to disperse it into a harmless static in the air, but she miscalculated what she'd put into it and instead flattened the sphere to a disc that burned a circle into the ground.
"Oh look, a new fire pit - yay!"
"Oi! No comments from the peanut gallery or you're next, Rikki!"
"No comments here. Nothing but two downtime old pilots-"
"Speak for yourself!"
"-enjoying the mountain air!"
"Oh, look! Chopper!"
Sylvana's growl was hidden beneath the noisy helicopter flying overhead manoeuvres, but the following "Hmpfh!" was not.
"Honestly, though, Vanni - your control is nothing like it was when you were on active duty." Fes ignored his sister's glare. "It's been deteriorating the last few times I've returned to visit."
Syl crossed her arms. "I'm irritated."
"I can see that." Fes walked over and grabbed her arm, pulling her down to sit on the ground beside him. "But usually you being irritated sharpens your focus, it doesn't loose your control."
Sylvana picked a stray pine cone out of the grass and threw it at him. "It isn't like there is much use for them, or any of it, really. Not any more."
Ignoring the pine cone that bounced off his shoulder, he waited silently.
Watching.
He had to put it to her, the intervening years since they reunited had taught her patience, after a sort. His sister could handle silence for silence sake indefinitely, true - but expectant silence made her react as though the crawler creepers were burrowing in her skin. Or so she'd once said.
Five minutes passed, though she had passed that hurdle and was able to wait longer than that now. It once had been all it took.
Eight minutes.
Ten.
Thirteen.
Fifteen.
"I DO practise, still! Just two weeks ago, I painted the Grace's briefing room in neon polka-dots."
"What are you, twelve?"
"I could have painted the fighters," she said, sticking her tongue out.
"You're proving my point."
She gave him a galactic gesture.
"Yes, yes. Very mature. I'm guessing you picked that one up from Alison?"
"If we're done here, I've got a new charger to buy." Sylvana stood and brushed off her trousers. Alison was still somewhat a sore point with her. She understood her best friend had obligations to the New Republic - and that, as a veteran of Terra Group, she was always under some sort of suspicion with the higher echelons. When the team....
Alison had already been out of communication for ages, anyhow.
Sylvana never learned whether that was job related or not. Personally, she thought perhaps Ali had had enough of the bureaucracy and had gone home to her family and built herself a new Self once again. She just wished, if that was the case, they'd been able to find a way to stay in touch.
Things at the Spaceport, as far as she knew, went bad quickly. Ton Phaanan had managed to sneak a visit to her with Fes a year after Terra Group was forcibly disbanded. He gave her a new laser scalpel to replace the one he'd given her so long ago, and an adapter to be able to re-charge the cel using Terran technology. He'd also said that "Sith-you, I mean, SACUL" had all but taken over with the approval of The Powers That Needed Their Butts Kicked For Ruining Status Quo.
Alison would be furious to learn what had been done to Her Spaceport.
Sylvana spared a thought to what may have happened to Qwi. She hoped she managed to escape the 'hostile take-overs'.
"Pretending a problem isn't there won't make it go away," Fes called after his sister as she walked toward the house.
"I know, that's why I need to get a charger. What if someone's trying to contact me? It's not like I give out Mama and Da's phone number every time they change it!"
"That's not what I meant, and you know it!" Fes tossed a low-charged sphere at her back.
Before it could hit, it was intercepted by one of her own - exploding harmlessly mid-air. "You want focus?" Sylvana asked. "I will kriffing well give you focus." Her eyes shifted shade only a moment before she disappeared from sight.
Fes jumped to the side, before he also disappeared from view.
Garik "Face" Loran and Derek "Hobbie" Klivian moved to the edge of the deck, giving up all pretence of ignoring the siblings 'training session'. It always got interesting when they would finally get serious. Of course, they would prefer to actually see what was happening.
Sounds of hits accompanied growls of frustration, both male and female. Spheres resembling sunlight and moonlight would appear in flight and disappear in a scatter of sparks, or a small explosion. Footprints would appear in patches of mud, scuff marks in the grass.
Then things really got entertaining as tree branches bowed and swayed - rocks zoomed through the air, whether as distraction or weapon was either one's guess. A large splash in the pond doused the nearby grazing equines, causing them to whinny in irritation and gallop back to the barn.
"She needs this, doesn't she?"
"Ten credits say this ends with her in a fit of giggles."
"I don't bet on a sure thing. Twenty credits say she's sitting on her brother when that happens."
"No way" they both ducked a clump of muddied grass that passed just above their heads to splat the window. "Fes has been at this far longer. The man trains with Noghri."
"Syl tickles."
"...Vanni's going to win, isn't she?"
"You taking back your bet?"
"If she's less grumpy when this is over, everyone wins."
"Duly noted."
Twenty minutes later, the twins appeared in a tumble of limbs. Fes landed on his stomach, hiding his face in crossed arms as he laughed helplessly. Sylvana pushed herself off just enough to land sitting on his rear, before falling to the ground herself in a giggle fit, her arms wrapped around her stomach.
"Let's go inside and find them something to eat. When they're done laughing, they'll be ravenous."
*
"Crackman was always a tough nut - but at least he had a bit of heart under his Grinchyness," Sylvana grumped after polishing off her third (and final) sandwich. "It's been THREE YEARS, and this new guy, whom I won't even dignify by naming - is STILL trying to keep us shunting back toward the Dark Ages!" She threw her hands up in the air, "All. Done!"
"Now that you've had your annual three-year-old moment-"
"Shut up, Rikki."
"-you know you wouldn't be the first of your compatriots to leave this hunk of backwater for a more civilised home."
"We've had this argument before. Frequently. Terra is civilised enough, thank you."
"Give it up, Face. I've lost count on how many times the 'Get Sylvana to go Galactic' conversation has come up and failed."
"Thank you, Hobbie."
"That doesn't mean I won't make the 'please come back with me' noises every time I make it here, though."
"As long as you remember I have the right to make the 'I can't leave, nor can I live on a city planet and survive' noises - followed by the 'you can always stay here' suggestion."
"But we both know the end of that conversation," Hobbie pushed his chair back from the table as Sylvana got up and then plopped down into his lap. "No hard feelings?"
"No hard feelings."
"I'd kiss you right now, but I'm afraid your relations would decide to defend your honour."
"She has honour left to defend?"
Sylvana looked at Face and then laughed as his chair tipped over. "Oops."
"Like I said."
The laughter was nice.
RING went the old rotary phone.
RING
RIN- "Hello? . . . May I ask who's calling?"
Sylvana shared a look with her brother at the confused of their mother's voice inside.
"Just a moment." A pause. "SYLVANA! TELEPHONE!"
"Me? Here?" She got off Hobbie's lap. "I never gave anyone this number."
Her mother handed her the handset once she crossed the threshold inside. "Someone named Kristy Henscheid?"
At that, three sets of ears perked as their owners followed Sylvana inside.
"Lady Boss-Lady Ma'am? What's the what? . . . I thought so. I know I never gave out the number. . . . Now? I've got another week of leave yet! . . . Okay, 'vacation'. What's so important you had someone slice . . . fine, 'hack' my parent's phone number? . . . Can't another doctor deal with whatever it is? . . . Ah. You'll explain there, then? I'll be there in the wee hours. Tell the Graces not to shoot me down. . . . Are you kidding? I don't have the money for that. Trust me - I'll get there. . . . Yes'm. See you by morning." Sylvana thoughtfully placed the receiver back on the phone.
"What was that all about?" asked Hobbie.
"I don't know - but when The King says to call for the Court physician, the Court physician goes home!" She turned to her brother, "So, Salmar, mind if I tag along a ride back to Mendellia when you all leave tonight?"
"It's along our flight path, but even though I can keep off grid because Raven's Omen is Beryllium, they'll notice emissions from take-off if I land there, even just long enough to drop you off. We don't want me taken in for questioning if I vary my proposed and permissible, it'll get Hobbie and Face in a sithload of trouble."
"That's okay - I'll just hop out the back."
"Crazy like a Rogue."
"No, crazy like a Wraith."
"You're both wrong, boys. I'm crazy like a Terran."
"Same thing."