moreofaponchoguy | Outside the School, Early Friday Morning

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Outside the School, Early Friday Morning

So, it turned out that when you let people with no fear of heights visit the Eiffel Tower as part of Earth Tourism, they returned to the island with some amazing ideas. Cal had been eying the tower on top of the school since he'd arrived in Fandom, and he only needed the tiniest bit of encouragement from Arden to be convinced to try to scale it. He didn't want his Jedi abilities to get rusty, after all.

Not wanting to be foolish enough to try this in broad daylight, they'd gotten started before sunrise, working up the main portion of the building, with Cal leading the way and Arden following behind. He wanted to encourage her climbing skills, like a good friend, and there were enough ledges and bricks that Cal could pull loose for her to have a clear path. The second part, on the other hand, was going to be a little more treacherous, and they'd stopped on the roof to catch their breath.

"It's already a nice view, huh?"

[For the partner in crime!]

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"It's gorgeous," Arden breathed, looking out over the roof to where the sun was painting the sky a panoply of colors, pinks and golds and crimsons. In a moment, she'd take her camera out and snap some shots for photography class, but for now she just wanted to take it all in, unfettered.

Her arms were already sore and her back was aching from the climb but this view alone was worth it. She glanced back at Cal, limned in sunlight, her eyes looking gold instead of their usual amber, and smiled. "I never would have thought to climb this on my own," she told him. "Best idea of the week goes to you."

One of the few good things about sleeping like crap was Cal saw a lot of sunsets. For that brief moment of the morning, it was easy to pretend that everything was okay, and getting to share one of those moments with Arden... well, it felt right. "This was at least partly your idea. Or your encouragement," he said. "We could just stay here if you like..."

He knew she probably needed a small break, if nothing else, but he also wanted to give her a chance to back out of the scary part if she was having second thoughts.

"Your idea," Arden said with a grin, shaking her head. "I just made it happen."

She was glad of the break, though. She had no plans of bailing now that it was just getting good, but she also appreciated the chance to pop some ibuprofen and drink some water. She did not have the arms Cal did, that was for sure.

...She was also trying to ignore Cal's arms, because friendship.

"I snagged some water bottles and made some sandwiches," she said, reaching into her bag. "We got time to eat now? Or are we waiting till we get to the tippy top?"

"I'll take some water, but you can save my sandwich until we get to the top. That'll be a reward for getting you up there," Cal said with a grin. "Thank you for bringing that though, that's so nice of you." He gazed up towards the tower, mentally mapping their path like the nerd he was. "I'll let you catch your breath and enjoy the view. You did really well keeping up with me."

"Sandwich, singular?" Arden scoffed. "I've seen you eat, Kestis. You've got three." She gave him a saucy grin but it turned into something less teasing and more genuine when she met his eyes and that smile of his own. "But it just seemed like a good idea, you know? Something to eat after we climbed. I figured we'd be hungry, especially with our early start and all."

So, less nice and more practical.

Cal turned away to start figuring out their path and Arden finished her sandwich, leaving crumbs for birds to eat. "You're a really good teacher, actually," she said. "You explained what handholds to look for and how to climb without hurting my hands. That helped." She glanced up the rest of the way with him. "Definitely wouldn't try climbing the rest of the way, though. You sure you're not too worn out to carry me?"

Cal turned a little red, grateful for the peeking hints of sun to hide his blush. "I have a big appetite, I'm a growing young man," he teased. "You didn't have to do that, I could have just eaten when we got back to the manor."

No, he wasn't uncomfortable at other people doing the bare minimum for him, that was silly.

"I'm not too worn out at all. It'll be a fun challenge, I promise. You just have to promise to not squirm too much, and to trust me. Do you trust me?"

It was a friendly question, he wasn't going to look too deeply into it, honest.

"And run the risk of you fainting from low blood sugar halfway up? Never," Arden teased right back. "Besides, now it's not just a climb, it's a picnic."

Just a little sunrise picnic, totally normal things to do.

Do you trust me?

Arden looked surprised at his question and then laughed softly. "Cal. You've talked me through a panic attack and summoning a hurricane on the roof. Trusting you to carry me up to the tower? Babytown frolics at this point." She leaned against him, letting him take her weight. "I'm pretty sure I've trusted you since the day you rescued me from sand and you've only ever given me more reasons as we go."

Well, now he was really blushing, and he was going to attribute that to the exertion of the climb so far, not the way hearing nice things from Arden made his chest feel tight. He held himself still to support her, and gave her a friendly nudge. "Ah yes, the random sandstorm that attacked you. I'm still offended at the beach on your behalf," he teased. "I, on the other hand, need a lot more than low blood sugar to take me out."

BD-1 made a mocking beep at him and twirled his head to roll his eyes. He was learning such good human tricks.

"Yeah yeah, keep mocking me. You get to stay here while we go the rest of the way."

"Of course. I'll keep an eye down here," BD said.

"Completely random sandstorm," Arden agreed. "Came out of nowhere. I was an innocent victim and you should be nice to me about it."

Arden glanced down at BD and grinned at his antics. "You're right and I'm glad you're saying so," she agreed, before kneeling down to give him a hug. "You really don't mind staying?" she checked, as if she could possibly understand the answer. "We can find a way to bring you along, promise."

BD-1 didn't want to scare Arden - they were probably fine since no one would be trying to kill Cal on the way up - so he just patted her hand and sat down on the roof, green light coming from his head as he scanned the space along the side of the tower.

"We don't want to make anything uncomfortable for you. This is about you getting a good view without any worries," he said. "We can bring BD next time." Because he was being brave and assuming there would be a next time if he didn't mess anything up today. "Are you ready to be a backpack?"

"Excuse you, that's the world's cutest-- she paused, looked at BD and amended, "--second cutest backpack, thank you."

She tossed her water bottle into her bag, then went over to him and slid her arms over his shoulders from behind. "If you're good," she said and hopped up, legs wrapping tightly around his waist. "Let's do this."

Cal took a moment to get used to having Arden wrapped around him - to reconsider his weight and center of gravity, nothing else - and hopped up to the first handhold he'd spotted, starting the climb slowly to allow her to adjust. "Let me know if I go too fast, I want this to be fun." The second-cutest backpack deserved nothing less.

What else could have needed adjusting to?

"You mean too slow, then, right?" Arden teased in his ear, though he could feel her shifting slightly, making sure that her grip on him was sure, she was pressed against him as closely as possible so she didn't overbalance him, her position comfortable for them both. "You good? I'm not anywhere I might mess you up or knock you off-balance?"

"Not at all. Usually, I'm doing this to get out of danger, or to be sneaky. Climbing for fun is a rare experience," he said, scooting them around the tower a little faster just to show her he could. He definitely wasn't trying to compete with her experience flying with Gray, that would be ridiculous. This was just a matter of general pride and practice. "What do you think we're going to find up there?"

Why would he be trying to compete with her description of getting swept up in the arms of a handsome angel and then flown about the sky? That would just be silly.

"Oh, it's definitely gotta be some kind old, abandoned tower, where nobody's been in, like, a hundred years," Arden said. "We're gonna find a bunch of weird shit from the earliest days of the school, like old uniforms and maybe creepy pictures, and equipment that looks like maybe old torture devices but are probably weird gym equipment and stuff that Dean Skywalker would want to use on Wednesdays."

"I wonder if that's where he keeps all the costumes and props," Cal said as they scaled closer to the window openings. "Maybe we can find his stash and make it disappear so everyone's Wednesdays will be calm again. We'd be like secret heroes."

"What the kriff are you doing up there?" came an extremely annoyed voice from the ground.

"Oh shit," Arden hissed. "Uhhh..."

Did that sound like the Dean to Cal? Cause it kinda sounded like the Dean to Arden. "Climb faster! Maybe we can make it inside before he gets a good look at us!"

Right, Anakin definitely wouldn't be able to narrow down who could scale a wall like this from the vast number of Jedi who were on the island. He froze momentarily like he was still a padawan getting yelled at by his Master, and then climbed as fast as he could. "Hold on, this is getting more like my usual experience," he whispered to her.

"At least he probably won't start shooting at us?" Arden said and she managed to cling on a little tighter.

She wished she could sound more sure about that.

"...Is it weird I'm still actually having fun?"

"Yes," came that annoyed voice from halfway up the tower. He'd jumped there because Jedi are gonna Jedi.

Oh, that was a very undignified noise that came out of Cal. "Maybe if we just stay here, he won't see us?" he stage-whispered to Arden. He could hang off the side of the tower forever, right?

"Is he like a T-Rex where he can only see movement?" Arden asked, because that seemed unlikely but who was she to say for sure. "...Can you jump like that?"

Children, this was less stealthy than you might think.

"You know I can hear you, right?" Anakin commented dryly.

From, again, way closer than he should be.

Okay, Cal could be a wimp and continue to hide, or he could man up and face the consequences. It probably took longer than it should have for him to make the right choice and pull them up into the tower to face Anakin. "Uh. Hi. You're in excellent shape, has anyone mentioned that to you recently?"

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