For thirteen years, he'd tried to deny it. But ever since Jaina's near death experience on the Anakin Solo at the hands of her twin, Kyp had come to admit and accept that he was still very much in love with her. When he'd learned, after her stay in the infirmary, that she had no intention of getting back together with Jagged Fel, he'd thought, "Time to pick up the pieces."
He'd thought it to himself once, so long ago, that he would do just that when she fell apart, and here was his chance. So for the last few months, he'd anonymously been courting her. Kyp had left her a new hydrospanner and multitool in her toolbox. A straight-to-her-datapad subscription of a publication focused on the mechanics and developments of starfighter tech. Little things like that, to draw her out of the shell she'd retreated into.
It seemed to be working.
He found her in the hangar where the Jedi kept the StealthX fighters, sitting on the floor by her open toolbox, in the shadow of her personal fighter. In her hands, she held a flimsiplast envelope, frowning at it.
"What's that?" he asked.
Jaina jumped, startled. She relaxed when she saw it was just him. "Oh. Nothing."
"Doesn't look like nothing," he prompted.
She let out an explosive sigh, one that blew a few strands of brown hair out of her face. "I keep getting gifts from someone. Like… A secret admirer. Jag swears it isn't him. And he wouldn't know what model multitool I use, anyway. He never paid attention. This person bought me a new one after the wire splicer on mine broke."
"Huh." Kyp gestured to the envelope she held. "So what's that?"
She flushed a little. "It's a voucher for two to this retreat on Chandrilla I've always had my eye on. I heard about it when… When you and I were there before Sernpidal and I always thought it would be nice to try it."
He knew. He'd seen her with brochures for it more than once. "Are you going to?"
"… I dunno. It's maddening not to know who this is, but I… Kind of like the intrigue."
Kyp smirked. "I say use it. It's not like it's a commitment to date this secret admirer or anything, right? It's a gift."
She chewed on her lip for a minute in silence. "I can't think of who it would be."
Can you not? he wondered silently. "You need a break from everything. I say go."
She looked down at it, sighed. "I could definitely use a break. Good idea, Kyp."
"I do occasionally have them," he responded wryly.
Chandrilla was largely a forested world, with a lot of pretty lakes. It had somehow escaped the destruction wreaked by the Yuuzhan Vong, and the retreat was just has it had been before the invasion. Kyp managed to arrive a full day before Jaina was scheduled to, ostensibly off to a mission on the other side of the galaxy.
He knew she wasn't much for flowers, but he'd arranged for a live plant of white Chandrillan roses to greet Jaina when she entered the two-bedroom cabin he'd reserved. Keeping his Force presence hidden, he watched as she got out of the speeder she'd apparently rented and used to come from the main office on the other side of the lake. She had just one bag with her, always one for travelling light, and he watched from the window as she stood outside, taking in the views.
Then she let herself into the cabin. It was really rustic, only the front, exterior door a modern sliding one. While it had full electricity and plumbing, the rest was a throwback to an earlier time: wood floors, glazed windows, a fireplace.
He heard Jaina stop in the front entrance, where the small table with the roses stood. She'd picked up the attached card, because she read aloud, "'May you find some peace here. And maybe more.' What 'more'?"
He heard her sigh.
"Kriffing secret admirer," she muttered under her breath. "Why go to all this trouble?"
Kyp stepped to the door of the room he'd been hiding in. "Because I wanted to."
Her brandy-coloured eyes flew to him, wide but not alarmed. And not surprised, either. "Kyp."
"You're not surprised."
"Well, it couldn't be Zekk, he's engaged. And not Jag." She gave him that Solo half smile. "And neither of them have ever been to Chandrilla, or would have reason to know my multitool broke."
"You're not upset."
She shook her head. "But why?"
He crossed the space between them and plucked the card from her hands. "Because I wanted to," he repeated. "Because you've been eyeing the brochure for this place for fifteen years."
Then, the moment of truth. "Because part of me, then all of me, has been in love with you for fifteen years, and I couldn't say it. I asked you, here on Chandrilla, to be my apprentice because it was all I could allow myself. You were too young. And you said here that you'd consider me. I went and screwed it up. So I'm here to ask for a second chance."
The lines of her face, which had in recent times become hard, softened at his words. "Kyp. I thought… You moved on."
"I tried. Turns out that's the one thing I'm incapable of doing." His dark green eyes searched her face. "If you don't want this, want me, I'll go. I won't bring it up again and we'll go back to how it's been."
She gazed up at him, expression inscrutable. "You went to all this trouble just to tell me something I already knew."
He shrugged, for once feeling awkward and a little embarrassed.
Jaina huffed a breath. Then she said, "Don't go."
"What?"
"Don't go," she repeated, and stood on her toes to kiss him.