Chapter 1
"You’ve gotta be joking!" you scream, flopping onto the couch and punching a near-by pillow.
Your Master looks at you for a moment, her emerald eyes showing no sign of disbelief at your behavior.
"You’ll know when I am joking, Padawan, and now is not one of those times."
You look at her, anger surging through you like a stream of molten lava.
"Forgive me, Master," you say standing and bowing to her, "it’s just that...you know how I feel about him...as does the rest of the Temple! Why would you assign me to a mission with him?!"
Your Master sighs.
"I do not decide which Jedi are chosen to carry out missions. All I do, is deliver the message when it concerns my Padawan or myself."
You sigh heavily at her and fall back down onto the couch.
"It’s not fair! Why, of all people, did they have to pair me up with the one Padawan that totally loathes me!"
Your Master sighs once more then takes a seat beside you on the couch,
"Now, now, you’re focusing on the negative. Padawan Kenobi has always been inhospitable toward you, that much is true. But he knows when it is and when it is not appropriate to taunt you; as do you him, I hope."
You angrily look away from here and fold your arms over your chest.
Man, it sucks having enemies. you think.
Indeed it does, especially when your enemy is one of the, if not the only one, sexiest Jedi Padawans at the Temple.
You two have never really been on good terms and your Master, Galexa Ling, says it’s because he’s jealous of the relationship you have with his Master, Qui-Gon Jinn.
You began your Jedi training late, it’s true, and had to deal with the teasing from other Padawans in later years, as well as Obi-Wan‘s, throughout the majority of your childhood. Most of the other Padawans, however, had quickly dismissed the fact that you were a late starter and had accepted you as one of their own...that is, mostly all except Kenobi.
For some really odd reason, excluding the jealousy possibility, Obi-Wan has never, ever liked you, therefore leading you to thoroughly dislike him as well. And it’s not just dislike or loathing really, it’s BLIND HATRED. He hates every single little thing about you. Yeah, so you have a close relationship with Qui-Gon, so what? He’s the only father figure you can ever remember having, even though your training DID begin late. How can you actually hate someone for having a father-daughter type relationship?
Oh well, you think, It’s not like I can really do anything more to try and get him to like me...I guess I just have to accept it: he’ll never see me as an equal.
He’s also gotten far enough into the teasing to give you probably the dumbest nickname ever spoken: "the Jedi Princess".
Yeah, ok, so your father just happened to be on the Jedi Council at the time you were testing and attempted to convince the other members to reconsider admitting you. (Thankfully, Yoda "sensed a future in you") So what if practically all the Council members have a strange fondness of you? So what! Kenobi just thinks you had it a little too easily. This coming from the guy who didn’t get actual Jedi Training (with a Master and all) until he was 13 years old, having met Qui-Gon on one of his missions. Then again, he HAD been studying to be a Jedi since he could walk, talk and read...So maybe he’s right...perhaps you did have it a tad easier then other Jedi, but is that really your fault? I mean, you were only a kid, how the hell were you supposed to understand what was going on?
But now, the teasing gets to become worse; you’ve got to go on a mission, the first without your Master or Qui-Gon, and to top it off ALONE with Kenobi.
Great...just the kind of thing I need at this "oh so wonderful" point in my life.
When you are finally able to return to reality, you realize your Master has left the couch and is staring out a window projecting exasperation, obviously, aimed at you. She must have been trying to communicate further when you decided to take a stroll down Memory Lane. Oh well, nothing you can really do about it now.
Suddenly, there is a knock on the door. Both you and your Master are jarred away from your thoughts.
"Come in." you both shout simultaneously.
The door immediately slides open revealing Qui-Gon Jinn and his very agitated-looking Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
"Good evening, Galexa," he says to your Master and quickly wishes you the same.
You turn, still sitting on the couch, to meet his eyes, respond with the same greeting and happen to pick up a thought coming from Obi-Wan who is side glancing at you:
Gods she’s got beautiful eyes...
Your (beautiful) eyes instantly widen as you stare at him, shock registering all over your face.
Whoa...that had to have been my imagination... Kenobi would never think anything like that about me and have his shields down...
Obi-Wan catches your stare and raises an eyebrow.
"What are you looking at, Princess?" he snaps, the "princess" rolling off his tongue sardonically.
You stare instantaneously turns into a glare.
"Hmm, always a pleasure to see you too, Kenobi." you reply, breaking your eye contact and rising from the couch.
Your Master gives you a hard look that tells you to say no more and turns her attention back to Qui-Gon.
"So, Qui, what brings you here?" she asks, abruptly changing the subject.
Qui-Gon smiles.
"Well, we’ve come to inform you that there will be a Council Discussion tomorrow evening concerning our Padawans’ mission. Master Windu asked me to notify you."
Your Master nods.
"Of course, thank you for the update. I’m sure my Padawan is looking forward to it, are you not, Padawan?"
You snap your head up at her and flash a charming smile.
"Oh, of course, my Master. I always look forward to working with Obi-Wan." you reply, subtly rolling your eyes.
Kenobi’s face wrinkles into an expression of utter disgust, and he has absolutely no problem letting you know, as he projects it to you quite effectively.
Qui-Gon catches a bit of it and shoots a look at Obi-Wan, who quickly withdraws his projection.
You smile condescendingly at him and take advantage of the sudden silence.
"Well, it’s been great but I’m going to take my leave. Good Night." you say, bowing to the two Masters, while avoiding eye contact with Kenobi.
You quickly turn on your heel and walk swiftly from the main chamber into your bedroom quarters. You shut the door softly behind you and jump headfirst onto your squishy, soft bed.
Tomorrow is gonna be one hell of a day...
Chapter 2
You wake up early the next morning, ready, but not willing, to start your day back to your classes. The Jedi Masters has been nice enough to give all of the Padawans two weeks off from their lessons, to do what, though, who knows.
As you walk around your room, going through the usual routine, your mind goes through a checklist of all that you need to get done today.
Ok, go to classes and attempt to pay attention; go to ‘saber practice at 11AM, be sure to bring an extra tunic this time (last time, it was singed by a hyper Padawan's 'saber);... tonight... what have I gotta do tonight... you think, finally finishing you rummaging and packing.
You allow your mind to wander a tad as you stroll out of your bedroom quarters and into the living area, only to find your Master, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan sprawled on the couch and chairs: asleep.
When you see them, you try as hard as humanly possible not to laugh too loud at what you see: Qui-Gon is on one end of the couch in a sitting position, his head resting on the back of the couch, snoring softly. Your Master is at the opposite end of the couch; her legs are curled up under her body and her head is resting on the armrest, her black hair thrown every which way. Then there was Obi-Wan; this is probably the only peaceful look that crosses his face all day. He’s lying in one of the chairs opposite the couch. His, still boot-clad, legs are draped over one armrest and the other is occupied by his head, which is turned to one side (obviously in your direction if you can see him). His mouth is wide open and has formed a small puddle of drool next to itself; he’s not snoring. You continue to contain your laughter as you scan the bunch one more time.
"Geeze, I wonder what topic could’ve been this exhausting." you say, shaking your head and strolling into the kitchen to prepare your breakfast.
Just as you sit down at the table, with your bowl of cereal, milk and a spoon (low and behold, they’ve even got cereal in other galaxies!), a tired looking Padawan enters the kitchen and plops down at the table in the chair across from you. For a moment, you just stare at him waiting for an unnecessary comment to fly out of his mouth, but he says nothing and only stares at the flowers in the center of the table.
You raise an eyebrow.
Hmm, I guess it’s too early for even him to berate me, you think happily, turning your attention back to your breakfast.
Right as you take the first bite, Obi-Wan stirs from his daze and looks up at you tiredly.
"What are you eating?" he asks quietly.
You glance up at him, bent over you bowl, spoon hanging over it with milk dripping from it.
You quickly swallow you previous bite and set the spoon back down in the bowl.
"Cereal. Why, do you want some? There are bowls in the cabinet over the sink and spoons below that." you tell him, pointing this way and that, before returning to your own bowl and spoon.
Obi-Wan responds by staying silent and watches you eat. After about two minuets of him watching you, you are done eating and are about to get up, when you notice him staring at you, a blank expression on his face.
"What?" you ask innocently, sitting back down at the table.
He stares at you a moment longer, then a smirk breaks onto his face. You raise your eyebrows at him.
"Whoa, now you’re starting to freak me out..." you say, rising quickly from the table. Kenobi’s gaze follows you as his smirk widens.
Ok, you’re on the brink of total freakishness, here.
What is up with him? you think, picking up your bowl and bringing it to the sink. When you’re finished cleaning it out and stowing it in its washer, you spin around quickly to see if he’s still watching you: he is.
"Ok, well then, if you get hungry, the stuff’s in front of you, bye." you say with an uneasy grin, before slipping out of the room smoothly.
Gods, is he gonna do that on a regular basis?? That was utterly weird, you think as you make your way back to your bedroom quarters to retrieve your items for class.
You scurry around your room gathering a few last minuet things, throw your shoulder bag on and quickly open your door and find Obi-Wan blocking your way.
"AH!" you cry, startled by his appearance there.
"Oh gods, Kenobi, don’t do that!" you yell at him while attempting to slow your heartbeats.
He says nothing, like in the kitchen, and only smirks as he leans on your doorframe, still blocking your only exit.
You look at him confusedly before bending over to pick up your shoulder bag that dropped when Obi-Wan scared you. You rise up and cross your arms over your chest and stare at him.
Fine, you think, if he wants a staring contest, a staring contest is what he’s gonna get!
The two of you stare silently for a moment or two before you begin to worry whether or not you can keep this up.
Man his eyes are intense... you think, searching them for any sign of emotion; nothing, there’s no emotion registering on his face, and not even in his eyes.
Wait a minuet, he must be doing some form of meditating, but concentrating on my existence...can you do that?!
Finally, you lose your composure and break eye contact with him.
You walk up to him and get very close, to see if you can get him to move; he doesn’t budge. Apparently, being close to him did not have the effect on him you had hoped it would.
Then you get an idea.
Fine, I’ll play his little game...he’s not just staring he’s concentrating on my aura in order to freak me out...well, I’ll just do the same to him then...only, I dunno HOW! Ok, maybe I can do something...different...
You gain eye contact again and prepare yourself to work your charm. There’s only about an inch of space between the two of you at the moment.
Well, we’ll just have to do something about that, you think, stepping forward so you’re close enough to smell him. You hold eye contact as he gulps subtly.
You see this, and smirk, almost lustfully, to try and throw him off guard and it only half works; his face cringes a little but he realizes is and quickly suppresses it.
Next you bite your lip seductively and smile coyly at him. This practically breaks him as he is unable to control neither his gulping nor his facial expressions.
Time to go in for the kill. you think, licking you lips unconsciously.
You smile a little smile this time and begin to close what’s left of the space between your face and his, slowly.
C’mon, Kenobi, back up, back up! you chant victoriously in your head.
But Obi-Wan doesn’t move. He just watches you more nervously and starts to breathe heavily as you get closer and closer to his lips.
Then, when you’re less than a centimeter away, he screams and jumps backwards.
"Thank you for moving. Bye bye." you say smiling victoriously at him and walking away toward the front entrance.
Kenobi is still breathing heavily with wide eyes, staring at your former location in shock. When he regains his composure, you’re already out the door and half way down the hallway.
You walk triumphantly, a victorious smirk still plastered on your face. Suddenly, Obi-Wan is next to you, not looking at you fully, just stealing glances. You roll your eyes at him.
"Geeze, Kenobi, don’t you ever quit?" you say, walking a little faster.
Obi catches on, and meets your speed.
"Quit what, Princess?" he responds almost innocently.
You stop abruptly and sigh heavily. Obi-Wan stops as well and turns to face you.
"Don’t you have somewhere to be?! Like a class or following Qui-Gon around or whatever!" you say, folding your arms over you chest.
Kenobi raises an eyebrow.
"Yes, actually I do have somewhere to be." he replies acting like you’ll be sad if he tells you where.
"...but not until 11." he quickly adds with a smug smile.
"I’m all yours ‘til then."
You grimace at those words and roll your eyes.
"Thanks, but no thanks, Kenobi. I have better things to do then to hang out with you. Bye." you say, before quickly round a near-by corner.
To your dismal, Kenobi follows, still taunting you.
"Aw, c’mon, Princess! Don’t be like that! I’m not that bad, am I?"
You stop quickly and spin sharply to give him a look.
"...Ok, ok, don’t answer that."
You turn from him and resume walking again and soon stop when you’re at the end of the hall.
"Look, Kenobi, as much as I know you love taunting me, you’re gonna hafta stow it for now, kay? And just leave me alone ‘til it’s mandatory that I see you again. Good, bye."
With that you open the door to the room you’d been standing in front of and enter your first class late.
Great, thanks a lot, Jerk...
Chapter 3
It’s almost 19:00 and you still haven’t forgiven Kenobi for making you late this morning. As you sit in your bedroom and attempt to work on the homework given for the day, you’re fuming with anger because you have to see him again tonight.
Oh yea... twice in one day... you think, rolling your eyes in the process.
So what if the guys hot? He’s a total jerk when he’s not asleep!
Just when you’ve returned you thoughts to your studies, there’s a knock at your door.
You look up from your Physics book (btw, that‘s the subject I‘m failing...). "Come in, Master."
The door to your quarters slides open and your Master enters looking solemn.
"Good evening, Padawan. Are you ready to leave for our meeting with the Council?" she asks, her hands hidden beneath her dark brown robe.
You sigh and unwillingly nod your head 'yes'.
"Well then, let us be off. I’ll be waiting in the living area." she bows and exits quickly with out looking back at you.
You sigh once more and close your Physics book.
"Oh well, it’ll all be over in a moment’s time...hopefully." you say aloud to yourself as you don your own Jedi robes.
You fix your hair into a loose bun and exit your room, pressing the access panel to shut the door behind you. When you turn from your door, you expect to see you Master sitting patiently in an armchair, but she’s no where in site.
You scrunch up your nose in confusion and set off across the floor to the door that leads to your Master’s quarters.
She said she was gonna be out here, but maybe she thought I’d be longer. you think as you fumble with your robe to find your hands.
When your hands have been revealed, you knock on the door softly. No answer.
Hmm, you think, maybe she didn’t hear me...
So you knock harder this time and receive no answer again. Sighing, you decide to just open the door and see if she’s in there. I mean, she’s your Master; what on earth could she be doing that would shock you? You open the door half way and stick your head through.
"Master Ling?" you call, hoping for an answer.
"Master Ling?"
But to your dismay, there’s no response. You look around her room before shutting the door again and sigh when you find nothing out of the ordinary.
Where on earth could she be?
Just as that thought crosses your mind, you hear voices behind you, but they’re faint.
You snap your head back through the door to join the rest of your body and shut your Master’s door quickly.
You turn fully and skulk around the room for a second trying to find the source of the talking. Your search leads you to the front door of your apartment, where the voices seem to be louder. Now you can at least tell whether or not it’s guys or girls. you hear a female and a male talking but can’t really identify who the voices belong to. You quickly come to the conclusion, though, that the female’s voice most certainly belongs to your Master; where else could she have gone? You bite your lip, move closer to the door and press your ear up against it to see if you can hear better.
You listen for a few minuets and are still unsure who the male is, when you hear a funny beeping sound; like someone was pressing buttons or something. Your eyes widen as you realize what it is, but only too late to move. The door you’re leaning on slides open and you fall straight forward. The people entering must have sensed your presence because you fall flat on you face instead of on someone.
"Ouch." you say painfully as you struggle to sit up.
When you’ve managed at least that, you move you, now fallen, hair off of your flushed face and look up to see who witnessed your uncoordinated moment. Obviously, your Master’s there, staring at you with an expression mixed with anger and disbelief. You turn your head to the left and see Qui-Gon staring at you with an amused look on his face.
Oh, that’s who she was talking to.
You smile awkwardly at him and then suddenly come to a realization: Wherever Qui-Gon goes, Obi-Wan follows... you 'smile' disappears instantly and is replaced with utter regret and total embarrassment. You sigh and close your eyes.
Great...something else he can use against me... you think, opening your eyes and turning your head farther to the left.
As you assumed, Obi-Wan’s there looking at you with the weirdest expression, as if he was trying incredibly hard not to burst out laughing at you. You roll your eyes at him, stand up and smooth out your robs.
"Hi..." you say quietly before re-entering your apartment.
"That was very graceful, Princess." says Kenobi with a large amount of amusement in his voice.
You stop suddenly and spin around to face him.
"Thank you, Obi-Wan." you say sarcastically, before turning on you heel and scurrying to your bedroom.
When you reach the door, you push the enter button, run inside and quickly punch the panel to shut the door. You lean up against the wall (no need to have the same incident happen twice in one night) and slide down it until you’re sitting with your knees up against your chest.
Oh...my...gosh... you think. That had to be, the MOST EMBARRASSING thing that has EVER happened to me... You place you head in your hands and lay them on your still curled legs.
Five minuets later, you decide that you’ve pitied yourself long enough and that you can only avoid Kenobi for so long, so you sigh and get up slowly. You look in the mirror and decide you should probably redo your hair since it came out of its bun.
You quickly lace it up in a braid and tie the end before checking to make sure there are no stray hairs.
You turn quickly toward your door, which makes your robe flutter behind you, and walk to the door slowly. You reach out and press the access button and your door slides open. You enter the living area, now feeling a little less embarrassment and walk over to you Master, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.
You bow to the Masters and try desperately to ignore Kenobi at all costs. You Master breaks the silence immediately when she spots a chrono.
"We should be heading off. We’ll be late if we don’t."
Qui-Gon agrees and ushers Obi-Wan out the door, followed by you and your Master.
It takes you all only ten minuets to arrive at the Council Room, where you are quickly ushered in. All four of you stand by the door.
"Come forth, Master Jinn and Master Ling." says Master Windu.
This leaves you and Obi-Wan alone in the corner.
Luckily, though, Kenobi is unable to speak or he would be being disrespectful and he can’t send you a Force message because the rest of the room would also hear it.
Instead, he stands still, in the Jedi stance, looking all disciplined and respectable. You decide to forget about Kenobi for the time being and focus on the meeting at hand instead.
"Allow your Padawans to accept this task, do you? Many trials will they face; believe in them, you do?" Master Yoda asks the Masters.
Both Masters nod to Yoda and the rest of the Council.
"Come forth, you will, Padawans." Yoda says to you and Obi-Wan.
You both walk forward and bow to the Council when you are in the center of the room.
"Ready to accept this task, are you?" Yoda asks you both.
You nod, as does Kenobi and Yoda looks over at Master Windu to continue.
"Your task is this: go to the planet of Sophax. There you will be met by a representative of the Sophaxian Royal Guard. They will then take you to the Royal Palace where a negotiation will take place. You are to be out Jedi representatives, regardless of the fact that you are only Padawans. You will be provided with information about the negotiation before you set off. Padawan Kenobi, I trust you know how to pilot an aircraft?"
"Yes Master."
"Good, then you will know where to find the map that will lead you to Sophax. You, on the other hand," he says, pointing at you, "will be in charge of locating the trade routes, planet governments...the general thing. Can you carry out this task, Padawan?"
"Yes Master." you say, nodding once.
Master Windu nods approvingly.
"Very well then. You will be in direct transmission contact with us at all times in case one of you needs to contact us or vice versa. If you feel you would be more comfortable with a Master Jedi on the ship with you, it would be wise to speak upon it now."
"No! I think we’ll do perfectly fine on our own, Master. But thank you for the offer." Kenobi responds quickly.
You look up at him with a 'thanks-for-answering-for-me' look. He responds with a sigh and a 'can-we-talk-about-this-later?' look.
You roll your eyes and return your attention back to the Council meeting.
"Very well. You leave tomorrow morning. May the Force be with you both."
You and Obi-Wan bow to the Council and walk toward the door. You Masters then bow and soon follow you out the door.
When you reach the outside, you turn to Kenobi quickly.
"Explain." you say simply, crossing your arms over your chest.
Kenobi sighs and looks at you exasperatedly.
"What is there to explain? Do you want a Master on board our ship ordering us around like we don’t know what we’re doing?"
You pause a second and look down at the floor.
"Well, no, not really." you respond quietly.
"Well then, don’t complain." Kenobi responds triumphantly.
You return your gaze to him almost immediately.
"I wasn’t complaining, Kenobi! I simply wanted to know why you felt the need to answer for me when I’m completely capable of answering my own questions!"
"Padawans...cease the arguing. You’ll have plenty of time for that on your mission tomorrow. Save up until then." lectured Qui-Gon.
"Yes, Master Jinn." You respond indignantly.
"Come along, Padawan." you Master says to you, smiling slightly.
"Good evening you two, see you tomorrow morning." Qui-Gon calls out as you walk away with your Master.
"Well, your mission seems easy enough." you Master speculates.
"Much easier than my first solo mission was, anyway."
You turn your face to her and smile.
"What did you have to do on yours?"
Your Master laughs lightly and turns her face to look at you.
"I had to go to a peace treaty signing between Alderaan and Colempha.... basically, it didn’t go too well. I ended up being called back to the Council because they were afraid for my safety."
You laugh slightly at her story and turn your head forward.
"Who did the Council force you to go with?" you ask half-heartedly.
"Qui-Gon, actually. I must say, I have no idea why the council pairs people who dislike one another up."
"What do you mean? You hated Qui-Gon?"
"In more ways then one, Padawan."
You smile at her comment and dread the next morning.
DISCLAIMER: Don’t sue! Star Wars belongs to George Lucas!! I’m just playing with the characters... the only characters that are mine are the made up ones, but I could care less if anyone used those.