Jacen had been studiously avoiding having to look at Tenel Ka. What was he supposed to say? He knew he had the right kind of credentials for possibly being her husband, but he also knew that wasn’t the way their relationship worked.

It would be an easy way out, Tenel Ka realized. Jacen was her trusted friend, and why would she not want him as her husband? Because he might have better things he could be doing, she told herself.

I have to get out of here, thought Jacen. He needed to be alone to think, no, he needed to talk to someone, anyone. Lowie, of course, he realized. His friend would be able to talk to him, as soon as he found the wookiee, that is. But he had to leave without saying anything stupid, anything that would make the ridiculous situation any worse.

“Um, Tenel Ka?”

“Yes?” He had interrupted her thoughts, which as they were becoming less and less coherent, was probably a good thing.

“I gotta go....um...go find Lowie. To talk to him, um, about stuff, because stuff is important, and, um, I need to get him...to...to...tell him about stuff, because stuff happens, and...stuff happening can...lead to chaos...and chaos can be bad, and stuff so, um, I was going to, uh, go now. Bye!” He jumped out of his seat and practically ran from the cafeteria.

Somewhat confused by her friend’s babbling, Tenel Ka watched him go. Did the idea really disgust him that much? Or was he just as confused as she was? A little of both, she decided. But he was going to talk to Lowie, about ‘stuff’, and she had a good idea as to what ‘stuff’ he meant.

She stared at what was left of his morning meal. He’d barely touched it, preoccupied about her and her situation, Tenel Ka assumed. Jacen was going to have someone to talk to, someone to give him the best advice on how to deal with what his sister had told them.

Tenel Ka did not have a person to give her advice. She had not made an abundance of friends at the Academy, she preferred a small, close, circle of friends to a large, impersonal one. Jacen was already talking to Lowie, and Lusa would not be hard to talk to, but it was Tenel Ka’s belief that she and Raynar were joined at the hip, or flank, as the case may be, and Tenel Ka did not want for a lot of people to know about her situation.

Which left Jaina. Who probably would be the best person to talk to about the mess, besides Master Skywalker, but even though he was an easy person to talk to, Tenel Ka wanted to speak with someone her own age. And even though Jaina had done a fair job of distancing herself from her friends, Tenel Ka knew she could still be counted on.

“Hey, Lowbacca!”

Jacen had spent a good half hour searching for his friend, in his hurry to get away from Tenel Ka, he’d forgotten to ask her where Lowie might be. Which had resulted in his running around and through the base of the Great Temple at least seven times. He finally found Lowie as the wookiee was exiting his skyhopper.

Lowbacca growled questioningly at Jacen. “Master Lowbacca asks what is it that troubles you, Master Jacen.”

“Is it that obvious? Never mind, can I talk to you for a minute? Inside?” He gestured toward one of many entrance to the main temple.

Lowie chuffed in agreement, and followed his human friend inside the ancient temple.

Jacen kept walking until he’d reached one of the abandoned war rooms, left over from Yavin IV’s battles with the Empire.

Sitting on the old planning table, he looked pointedly at the small translating droid on his friend’s belt. “Can I trust him not to say anything?”

“Why, Master Jacen! I am appalled that you would even insinuate such-”

Clamping one of his furred hands over the droid’s speaking grill, Lowie growled an affirmative answer, and waited for Jacen to begin.

“All right, the first thing you should know is Tenel Ka’s gonna get married.”

[words surrounded by * denote what Lowbacca says] “*To who?*”

“I don’t know!” Jacen jumped off the table, and began to pace around it. “The only thing I know for sure is she’s getting married on her eighteenth birthday, and probably to some bratty noble guy who she’ll hate.”

“*How long have you known about this?*” The wookiee was very surprised at the news.

“Since this morning, I accidentally listened in on her talking to her grandmother about it.”

“*Accidentally?*”

“Yes, accidentally. But that’s not all.”

“*What else is there?*”

Running his fingers through his unruly hair, Jacen stopped pacing and faced the wookiee. “My charming sister has made this whole situation much worse!”

“*How has she done that?*”

“Well, you know my mom was one of those princess people back on Alderaan, right?”

“*Princess people?*”

Jacen started pacing again. “You know what I mean. Anyway, Jaina just had to bring up that because I’m technically royalty, and technically I would be a suitable husband for Tenel Ka. Which has screwed everything up!”

“*Why has that ‘screwed everything up’?*”

“Because it’s...she’s...I don’t know, it just has!”

“*Why?*”

“It’s...I’m not...Because now Tenel Ka probably thinks I want to marry her or something.”

“*What’s wrong with that?*”

“I can’t marry Tenel Ka.”

“*Why not? I thought you were qualified.*”

“She doesn’t want to marry me, that’s why.”

“*Is that what she said?*”

Jacen stopped pacing again, and sat back on the table, facing Lowie who was leaning against a wall. “No, but it’s what she would say if I ever asked.”

“*How do you know?*”

“Why would she want to marry me?”

“*Why not?*” Lowbacca countered.

Jacen began counting on his fingers. “One. I spend too much time with animals. Two. I make stupid jokes that nobody, nobody ever laughs at, including Tenel Ka. Three. I don’t have a world to inherit. Four. I cut her arm off, I’m lucky she still speaks to me. Five. My hair’s always messed up, or has leaves or something in it. Six. I’m not a warrior, she could wipe the floor with me any day. Seven. Her grandmother wouldn’t approve. Eight. She’s my friend; it’s not like she’s in love with me or anything. Nine. No matter how hard I try, or how much I work out, I can’t climb or run half the things she does. Ten. You’re not blind, you’ve got better eyes then me, Lowie. Take the time to look at her, just for a second. She’s beautiful, she can have just about any guy at this Academy. Why would she waste her time on me? Now I’m outta fingers, and I don’t want to start counting my toes.”

Lowie, who had been listening closely during the entire rant, shot back one of his own. “*One. It doesn’t matter how much time you spend with your animals, Tenel Ka likes most of them. Two. She finds your jokes comforting, strange as it may sound. And I laugh at them sometimes. Three. I don’t think she would care about how much money you had, she’s got more than enough. Four. Tenel Ka has admitted that it was her fault that her arm was severed, no one blames you, except you. Five. Nobody cares about your hair, if it bothers you, then brush it. Six. You’re not as bad as you think when it comes to fighting, you can beat more than half of the other students here, and you know it. You could beat almost all of them when dueling with a lightsaber. Seven. She wouldn’t care. Eight. Have you ever asked? Nine. She’s been doing that kind of thing all her life, you only started two years ago. Ten. What makes you so sure that she wants all of those guys?*”

Jacen had followed most of what Lowie was saying, and sat silently.

Lowbacca decided to just ask his friend the question that’d been in his head for almost two years. “*You know you like her, everyone else knows she likes you, why hasn’t anything ever happened between you two?*”

“What have I been saying? I’m not good enough for her, and never will be!”

“*So you’ve thought about it before?*”

“I’ve only thought about it every day since I met her.”

“*Why aren’t you good enough for her?*”

“Do you want me to make a new list? I’m just not.”

“*Don’t you think she can decide what’s good enough for her and what’s not? In all of your time spent contemplating how you felt about her, did you ever think about how she felt about you, without automatically assuming that you ‘weren’t good enough’?*”

Jacen stared at his feet, unable to think of a suitable response.

“*I don’t think I’m the one you should be talking to. You can stay here and sulk, or you can go find Tenel Ka and talk to her. I’ll see you later.*” The wookiee left silently, leaving Jacen alone with his thoughts.

“Jaina? Are you in here?”

Great. I’ve traded my brother’s presence for someone else’s, Jaina thought. “Come in,” she called, hoping it would be over quickly.

Tenel Ka hesitantly entered Jaina’s room, glancing at the adjoining door to Jacen’s quarters before sitting on one of the work benches scattered around the room. “I need to ask you a few things.”

“What might those things be?” Jaina had a pretty good idea as to what ‘those things’ were, but didn’t want to volunteer more information than necessary.

“Oh, nothing much. I was just wondering why you thought it would be a good idea to tell your brother about my marriage? Sure, he already knew, but it was something that I wanted to tell him.”

“It was to both your advantages if he knew. I didn’t think you’d tell him for a long time, and I didn’t want you to be keeping things from him.” This was expected. Jaina had known that Tenel Ka would naturally be upset, and it was going to cause her plan to get rid of Tenel Ka to take a little while longer than anticipated.

“I would have told him.”

“When? After he got his invitation? I could tell that you didn’t want anybody to know about it.”

“And I still don’t. I would appreciate it if you would refrain from telling any more people about it unless I say they can know.”

Jaina nodded noncommittally. “Who else am I going to tell? My brother’s either a) talking to Lowie, b) talking to Raynar, c) talking to Uncle Luke.”

Tenel Ka eyed her warily, but let that issue drop. “Another thing. Why did you think it necessary to tell Jacen that he was a possible choice for me to marry?”

“Because I’m not blind.”

“And I am?”

“On occasion.”

“Give me an example.”

“No.” Jaina knew Tenel Ka was confused, and probably wanted an explanation, but it was more fun to make her figure it out herself.

“Then why did you tell him that? Why did you tell me that?”

Of course she had to help a little, otherwise Jaina’d be talking to Tenel Ka for hours. “Why not? Why would I not want my brother to marry someone I trusted, someone he’d be happy with?”

“He would not be happy with me.”

This will definitely take longer than expected, thought Jaina. “Don’t try to put yourself down when it comes to Jacen. He has you on a pedestal higher than any of the Massassi temples.”

Tenel Ka shot her a withering look. “I mean, he would not be happy with someone whom he doesn’t love.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that. I don’t think he loves you, yet.” He’s just had a huge crush on you since the day you two met, thought Jaina.

Tenel Ka narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean ‘yet’? Jacen has never made any advances towards me.”

“What? Goo-goo eyes don’t count as ‘advances’? I’m in shock.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Remember? You’re sitting on the highest Massassi temple, he can’t climb that far. So all he does is look.” Jaina knew they were oblivious to their feelings, but not this oblivious!

“He does not ‘look’. You’re wrong.”

“He does too look. But for whatever reason, you don’t see it.”

“I would know if he looked, and he doesn’t.”

“Well, I suppose it’d be pretty hard to catch someone ogling you when you’re busy ogling him.”

Tenel Ka blushed. “I do not ogle him.”

“What about the time when you all dragged me with you to go swimming? I saw how you looked at him.” Jaina was having too much fun to stop now. “Or all those times when you two went climbing? The only other person who’s as blind to it as you are is Jacen.”

“Isolated incidences. And that was me looking, not him.”

“Well, you know my brother. He’s a little shy about that sort of thing, so he only looks when you can’t see him. Or when he doesn’t think you can see him. Face it, he likes you. He’s liked you ever since the first time he saw you. The whole wedding thing’s got him upset, and when you find a groom, for the sake of argument say it’s not him, he’ll be insane with jealousy.”

“I still don’t think he looks. And why would he like me? What have I got to offer him?”

Jaina rolled her eyes. Tenel Ka still didn’t get it. “Well, you’re a princess, making you extremely rich, he finds you attractive, he likes that you can beat him to a pulp, but don’t ask me why I know; it’s that twin thing and I don’t wanna think about it. And they’re thousands of other reasons but I’m not going to list them because you’re ego doesn’t need that big of a boost.”

Tenel Ka was silent for a moment, considering what Jaina had said. “Then why hasn’t he ever done anything? If he likes be as much as you say he does, then why has he never let me know that he feels this way?”

“He doesn’t think he’s good enough for you. He’s always thought you wouldn’t want someone like him.”

“Why?”

“How should I know? Jacen doesn’t tell me these things, I get it through the force. You want answers? Talk to him.” As much fun as she was having, Jaina’d gotten bored analyzing her brother’s and Tenel Ka’s relationship. They were on their own now.

“But wh-”

“Enough,” Jaina interrupted. “Don’t talk to me, talk to him. And while you’re there, see if he ogles you, I think he will. Goodbye.”

Taking the not so subtle hint, Tenel Ka stood and walked to the door. “Bye,” she said, before leaving.

Tenel Ka started looking for Jacen, knowing he probably didn’t want to be found, but not really caring. She almost immediately found him through the force, and could sense Lowbacca moving away from him. Sighing, she walked swiftly towards the unused wings of the temple. Why did he have to find a place so far away to talk?

I don't think I like this story line that much, should I take it out?