Their friendship was only natural. They were both Jedi guardians, she with more experience than he. He admired her greatly for her prowess in battle, the graceful way she leaped and spun around enemies. She was more like a dancer, she had so much grace and power behind each movement of her lightsaber. "Juhani, I was wondering...maybe we could spar sometime? I still feel like a kid with this lightsaber. Maybe you could help me practice?" "Sure padawan, it would be my pleasure" she said with an uncharacteristically warm smile. It's not that she wasn't a nice person, Cathar just generally are not a very affectionate people.
Through their sparring sessions they learned each other. They were both warriors and combat was their language. Quickly Brayden started to become a skilled combatant with his lightsaber, and as his skills grew Juhani began to open up more. Brayden could tell though that his friendship with Juhani bothered Bastilla. Whenever he and Juhani would have a conversation alone or laugh at some shared private joke he caught her scowl out of the corner of his eye.
Oh Princess, if you only knew how I felt about you. He and Juhani had many conversations regarding their fellow Jedi.
"Hey Juhani! Would you sleep with Bastilla?" he asked as they tromped through the Shadowlands with Jolee grumbling about something as he walked ahead. "Whaa? No! I mean...yes...I mean no! urghhh I hate you!" Brayden laughed. He of course knew about his friend's attraction to women. She had confessed to him one day about the fellow padawan that she had fallen in love with, Belaya and their affair they had carried on at the academy. He had no problem with it, it gave him someone to talk about girls with. Carth was still giving him an icy reception for no reason and Canderous was a little too crude, Brayden could only take him in small doses.
But Juhani thought similarily to him about the beauty of women and how they deserve to be treated. Even though they were Jedi there was no harm in talking about it right?
"Why are you and Juhani always giggling together like schoolchildren?" Bastilla asked one day as he was making some upgrades on T3. "Huh?" "You heard me!" He looked up at her in surprise and then grinned when he realized what she was thinking through their bond. He broke out into a crooked grin.
"You're jealous!" Bastilla looked at him increduously. "Am not!" He put down his tools and walked up to her until they were so close that their noses touched. He felt her breath hitch as he placed his hands around her waist.
"Use our bond Bastilla. You'll see how I really feel."
They both closed their eyes and he pressed her against his chest and he broke down all the mental walls he had placed up to hide his feelings.
You're a stuck up spoiled Jedi Princess but I'm crazy about you. I want to know every inch of you inside and out. You are a work of art and deserve to be appreciated as such. I know that The Council will think it's wrong but I don't care. I love you Bastilla Shan, with all my heart and everything I am.
"Brayden.." she breathed against him. He tilted her chin up so he could see those grey eyes that never failed to enthrall him and brought their lips together
Juhani was the only one who knew of that moment, that hidden kiss between her two fellow Jedi. By then Brayden Jesra knew he could safely call the Cathar Jedi knight his best friend.
Juhani rescued Brayden, Bastilla and Carth from Saul Karath's totrture chamber. Brayden had never been more happy to see anyone in his whole life then when he saw the Cathar Jedi knight come through the door of the brig.
And then his whole world was flipped upside down. How does anyone recover from learning they were once the Dark Lord of the Sith? Revan? No...he wasn't Revan anymore, he couldn't be. If that wasn't bad enough his love was gone...
Carth had to drag him to the Ebon Hawk as tears rolled down his face and he slammed his violet lightsaber against the locked blast door calling out Bastilla's name desperately like a wounded animal.
He laid down in the Hawk's cargo hold where he could feel the thrum of the hyperdrive engines. "Do you think moping like this is going to help her?" a familiar exotic voice said breaking him out of his revelry. "Well I know it's not going to help her but I'm trying to not focus on our bond...I...I can feel her pain too strongly." "Ah" she said sitting down next to him. "You know...you being Revan...it doesn't change anything to me." He sat up and looked in her eyes. "Juhani I am so proud of your progress and to see how amazing of a jedi you are. I can definitely without question say you are my best friend. Your one of the most important people to me next to Bastilla...will you help me stop Malak and save Bastilla?"
Juhani did the most un-Cathar like thing Brayden had ever seen her do. She embraced him tightly.
"It would be my absolute honor...best friend."