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"You know, if you had listened to me, and not gone swimming two nights ago, you’d be healthy right now," Yukiko scolded with a wry grin. The stick in Annika’s mouth beeped. "Well, it’s official, you have a fever."
"What’s a fever?" she asked with a stuffy-nosed accent.
"It’s a sign that the bad germs are fighting the good germs," Kairi-chan told her.
"Well, sort of, yes. You should feel better after a few days of bed rest." That comment from Yuki-chan made the other girls giggle.
"Bed rest won’t be a problem for her, Yukiko," Ippin laughed. Annika threw a stuffed wampa toy at her, then picked up some of the Sailor Moon manga Yuki had loaned her and began to read.
They left the coughing and sniffling girl alone and joined the other senshi. Chikako was studying a book about the native wildlife on Myrkr, Kyoko and Zyta were playing sabaac, and Audra was beating Kousotsu in a game of holochess.
The Room-Behind-The-Waterfall was big enough to get lost in, so it was no surprise when Priire came from seemingly nowhere.
"Hey, what’s going on in here? It’s so quiet." She glanced around the room, noticing everyone else busy. Even her red-haired twin, Ippin, was busy. Priire was forced to sit and do nothing. Deciding there must be something to do somewhere, she walked outside.
She immediately saw Anakin Skywalker sulking under a low arching bridge. She sauntered over.
"Boo!" He almost jumped out of his boots.
"What did you do that for?!" he ranted. Priire laughed and apologised.
"Sorry Jedi, you just looked so silly and pathetic over here, I couldn’t resist."
The blonde-haired boy shook his head and sat down on a nearby bench.
"It doesn’t matter anyway. My day can’t possibly get any worse."
Priire sat next to him. "What’s that supposed to mean? You can’t be any more worse off than I am today."
"Wanna bet?" Anakin said and shrugged his shoulders, reluctant to share his story.
Priire elbowed him in the ribs. "Come on, spill it."
"It’s just... all right. When I first left Tatooine, I was under the impression that Jedi Knights actually cared about Padawans. Then I get here to Coruscant, and I’ve got some little green freak telling me ‘fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, blah blah blah blah.’ I mean, what am I supposed to learn from that? What if I stub my toe, or some jerk steals the last bowl of pudding - I guess I have to accept that because ‘it’s Jedi Code’. Plus, I get this stupid haircut and the same outfit every single day."
"Oh, right, you have problems. I get hired to fly a bunch of girls around space, then I find out that I’m one of them! Not only that, but I have to defend the whole stinking galaxy from the Sailor Sith, worry about my ships, and try to find time to eat! I swear it’s like living with Hutts! And you wanna talk about the same outfit? I’m a Sailor Jedi, you’d think every now and then I’d get a different colour fuku, or different boots... but no!"
"Please. Try lightsaber practice with an egotistical, girl-hogging, Jedi Master. We can’t go anywhere without gathering a small following of females. And don’t think he doesn’t exploit that either! Mr. Gorgeous doesn’t even have to use the Force - all he does is smile and bat his eyelashes. Jerk..."
"Hello? Didn’t I tell you we fly a lot? How many boys do you think I meet? Maybe one, and he’s usually a Sith out to kill me. So, give me a break."
Anakin snorted and stood up. He stretched and looked down at Priire. "We were on a mission to who knows what planet, we get lost... twice, and he won’t let me use the map. ‘The Force will lead us’, he says. Right, two days later, we finally land and it’s the wrong planet. He claims it’s the will of the Force." Anakin shook his head and sat back down.
"Really? Well have you ever been on an asteroid that just so happens to be inside a black hole, and this asteroid just happens to have one of your enemies on it? And let’s say this enemy is stark raving nuts, and you’ve got no way to get out? Or, I know, how about being trapped in some weird, strange room being jolted with electricity. Oh no, I know, how about the thousand or so times I was almost killed?" She folded her arms and stuck her nose in the air.
"That’s interesting. Do you get stuck doing all the work while the other Senshi sit and sip herbal tea? Then do the other Senshi take all the credit for the hard work? Then maybe you’d confront them about it and you’d get some lame excuse about hard work building character? Because that’s exactly what happens to me."
Priire rolled her eyes, "Pardon me, but at least you have a Jedi Master to learn from. I have to learn as I go. On top of that, you only have one person to deal with; I have a small city!! Some of them are Princesses, at that, and a certain white-haired one has a habit of slipping into Princess-mode when she doesn’t get her way and then she pouts. Then, there is my twin sister who defies a definition - she’s a brand new word!"
Anakin laughed.
"Priire!" It was Ippin. "Do you want to play sabaac?"
"Yes, I’ll be there in a minute!" she yelled back.
"Anakin!" It was Obi-Wan. "Have you finished your exercises?"
"Yes."
"Good. I need you to go shopping and get me some more of that special scented foot cream."
Anakin looked at Priire, and she looked at him.
Priire smiled and said, "You win."
