Jaina watched Tenel Ka leave, and then sighed with relief. Being around other people wasn’t something she enjoyed. Sure, it’d been fun to watch Tenel Ka try to figure out what Jaina was saying, but it got annoying after a while. But it would have been more fun to be able to watch Tenel Ka and Jacen talk, or whatever it was that they would be doing.

Unfortunately, Jaina had to go to yet another lecture. One would think that as you progressed in the world of the force, you would go to fewer lectures. However, much to Jaina’s ire, it didn’t work that way.

So she had to go and be bored by hearing the same stuff she’d heard for years. It’s only saving grace was that this was her last year at the Academy, provided uncle Luke let her ‘graduate’. They couldn’t really call it a graduation because, as her uncle constantly reminded his students, a Jedi never stops training.

To heck with training, thought Jaina. I just want to get out of here! But since her parents had never given her the ship she’d been promised a couple years back, Jaina would probably have to hitch rides around the galaxy, and find a semi-decent place to live, for a while at least.

Moving back in with her parents was not an ideal situation. Luckily, as soon as she left the Academy as a Jedi, and not a trainee, she would come into her large trust fund, set up when Jaina was a baby, or so they said. So money wouldn’t be a problem for the first few years, but after that...

Jaina’d have to figure something else out. Wouldn’t be a problem; she could always think of a plan when she needed one. But thinking about the future was too nerve racking. How would she make money, Jedi didn’t get paid a lot, if they even got paid, where would she live, etc..

Glancing at her chrono, Jaina realized that the lecture would be starting soon. Regretfully standing up, she began the short walk to the lecture hall. Apparently, her brother and Tenel Ka would be found missing for this one, and Jaina knew they’d be ‘missing’ for quite a while.

Jacen was sitting on the old planning table again, trying to figure out what just happened. How could Lowie think Tenel Ka could see him as anything but a friend? And he wasn’t, in his opinion, even a very good friend.

They would hang out together, usually with Lowie, but sometimes without. They trained together, and had gone on a lot of escapades when they’d first arrived at the Academy, but they didn’t have those anymore. After the Shadow Academy, nothing exciting ever really happened again. Except for a brief stint on Alderaan, that is.

Jacen would talk to Tenel Ka, naturally, but they didn’t have a wide range of subjects. He would go on about his animals, and she would talk about training techniques. Lately they’d been talking, or she’d been listening to him complain, about Jaina. But other than that, they didn’t talk about much.

They’d both been raised in, for the most part, sheltered environments. Even so, Jacen’d had his share of adventures when he was younger, as had Tenel Ka, but it they’d already told each other about that stuff. They could always talk about the force, but that was kinda boring. Or it was to Jacen, at least.

Then there were the ‘off limits’ categories. Namely Tenel Ka’s family and future as queen, and whatever he would be doing when he left the Academy. Jacen didn’t know, and he didn’t want to think about it. Before, it’d been so simple to figure out. He, his sister, and Lowie would go around doing what Jedi did, and go visit Tenel Ka in Hapes as often as possible. But Jaina’d defected, and Tenel Ka was going to get married, so he could scratch staying with her for weekends.

Tenel Ka was getting married. No matter how many times he told himself, it still didn’t want to stay in his head. There was a chance that she could marry him. A slim chance, but a chance nonetheless. Of course, it was something she would never want to do, but if she did...

Jacen didn’t know what would happen if she did, but he was almost positive that she wouldn’t. Why would she? What did he have to offer her? An endless supply of pets, sure, but what else? Lowie was wrong, he thought. She saw him as nothing more than a friend. And that would never change.

“May I come in?”

The voice startled Jacen out of his revere. He looked up from his feet, and seeing Tenel Ka standing in the doorway, he promptly looked back down, saying nothing. What could he say to her? Lowie’d wanted him to go talk to her, but he wasn’t ready yet. But he couldn’t tell her that.

Waiting for a response from Jacen as he stared at his feet, and not getting one, Tenel Ka walked over and stood in front of him. He hadn’t even noticed. She cleared her throat loudly, and he jumped.

Jacen looked up, and straight into Tenel Ka’s eyes. He gulped, but if she noticed she didn’t show it. He stared at her, trying to think of something to say.

“Come in?” It sounded dumb in his mind, and Jacen instantly wished he hadn’t said anything.

“I am in, Jacen. There are things which we need to discuss.” There, she thought. Jaina was wrong, he barely looked me in the eye, and very reluctantly as well.

“Um....Yeah we do.”

Tenel Ka sat on one of the surviving consoles in the room, and faced Jacen, who had again found his shoes to be very interesting. “About my forthcoming marriage, Jacen. I expect nothing of you, I certainly don’t expect you to want to be my husband, but I believe that your sister has...other ideas.”

“Yeah, Lowie was saying...” Jacen looked up at her, and resisted the urge to stare at her legs. It wouldn’t help the situation if she saw him doing anything like that.

“Lowie was saying what?” Tenel Ka asked. Why did he keep looking at his feet?

“He was thinking all this stuff about you and me that wasn’t true.” Jacen said, standing so he could make a fast escape, if necessary.

“Your sister also had some unusual things to say about you as well.”

“What did she say?” He would see that serious harm would come to his sister if she had somehow figured him out, and told Tenel Ka about it.

“Interesting things. But why don’t you tell me about what Lowbacca said first?” He’ll have to say it before I say it, thought Tenel Ka.

“Um... He had this idea stuck in his head, that you and I....that we were....that we wouldn’t think of marriage as such a bad idea.” Jacen began to pace around the room, it had gotten to be a habit of his. “But I don’t expect that from you, Tenel Ka. I know you’d rather be with some other guy besides me, and I would never assume that you would want to. Marry me, that is, because I know I’m not good enough, and you should be with someone that’ll make you happy, and I’m not one to get in the way of your happiness, so-”

“Stop.” All it took was one word from Tenel Ka to silence him, and stop his pacing as he looked at her from across the room. “What do you mean when you say you ‘aren’t good enough’? Jaina said you felt this way, but I chose not to believe her. Are you saying I should have?”

“I mean that you’re just so much more....What else did Jaina tell you about me?” Jacen was worried about his sister inadvertently saying something she definitely should have kept to herself.

“Many things. She believes, among other things, that you have had a...crush of some kind on me, and I told her it wasn’t true, that you could never look at me that way, I would have known, and then she said I wasn’t able to look when I was too busy...” Tenel Ka trailed off, not wanting to finish a sentence that could embarrass herself as well as Jacen.

Jacen was in another state of panic. How could his own sister of told something like that? He’d better get her mind off of that topic, fast. “Um, too busy doing what?” He asked, looking at her from across the room.

“I was,” Tenel Ka blushed, her face turning a light shade of pink under her friend’s scrutiny. “well, she said all kinds of crazy things. It was hard to tell if she was making anything up. But it doesn’t look like she was.” Seeing Jacen’s worried expression, she quickly moved towards the door, as if to escape, or prevent him from leaving.

Uh-oh, I’m screwed, Jacen thought, as he watched Tenel Ka start towards the door. She’s leaving? But I need to explain, he thought. Jacen ran to the door, reaching it before Tenel Ka did, as he’d been closer to it than she had, and to her surprise, closed and locked it . “What did my sister say?”

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