A/N: "Patience" is the third story in our Drex and Kaden saga. The first one is called "A Padawan, a Master and a Matchmaker." The second is called "The Generation Gap." Both can be found in our author profile.
Although it might be a better reading experience if you have read our prequels, it is not critical as each story can stand alone. We'd like to thank all of those who have given us feedback and stayed with us. We hope you're going to enjoy this one as well. Like its prequels, this story emerged from online role-playing, so it involves alternating points of view that we will edit into story format. It contains some coarse language, and many scenes of discipline, including – sometimes severe – spanking of a non-sexual nature, meted out by adults to children. If this bothers you, don't read it. Very simple. We're neither intending this to be parenting advice literature nor a realistic description of childhood; it's fiction, and a type of fiction we happen to enjoy writing and hope some of you enjoy reading.
"Your hold on your saber is perfect, padawan, but you still need to improve your footing," Drex told Kaden. "If someone attacks you from the back and you need to turn around, you are bound to lose your balance."
They had been working at this particular defensive move for half an hour now, and Drex, as usual, was relentless in his attention to detail. Kaden had been his padawan for three months now. Drex had been relatively easy-going about lightsaber training for a while, wanting to ease the boy into his new life. He had continued to work with him on the forms and moves he already knew, mostly from the Ataru form of lightsaber combat, and had usually rewarded a decent effort at kata or Force work with a period of freestyle sparring. Kaden had been frustrated occasionally at having to do things he considered boring, but he had soon learned that a poor effort would result in forfeiting his freestyle sparring sessions. Since he was not stupid, things had, all in all, gone smoothly.
Recently, though, Drex had decided that Kaden needed to move to a new stage in his training. Drex intended to give him a thorough grounding in the defensive form of Soresu, knowing that, by forcing Kaden to focus on his defences, he would leave the boy little opportunity to give in to his aggressions. And this was of paramount importance since both Kaden's strength in the Force and the amount of aggression he put behind his attacks were formidable. If Drex allowed this to continue, Kaden would have great difficulties ever making it to knighthood.
Thus, Drex had started teaching Kaden Soresu moves a few weeks ago. Initially, he had continued his practice of rewarding an adequate effort, on Kaden's part, with freestyle sparring sessions. He had found, however, that this made it very hard for Kaden to acquire the right mindset for developing his Soresu skills. The boy tended to go through the motions, thinking more of earning his reward than of the actual purpose of the exercise. Kaden also tended to apply the attack-oriented fighting style he opted for whenever given a choice to Soresu practice. As a result, Drex had decided a few days ago to ban him from performing Ataru, whether in their training or in any kind of freestyle sparring session, altogether until further notice – which was to say, until Kaden had mastered Soresu to a certain extent and internalised its philosophy. Despite the fact that Drex had explained his reasoning, this was more than a little frustrating to Kaden. But then, among the many things he would have to learn was how to deal with his frustrations – or that he needed to ask for help if he was unable to do so. And Drex had told him as much several times already.
To say that Kaden was finding this new stage in his training frustrating was an understatement. As Drex had correctly surmised, he had simply been going through the motions to get it over with so they could get to the fun part and spar.
Right now, however, Drex was making Kaden practice a new move, but so far his padawan was making little progress.
"Padawan," Drex said patiently after the next rather unsteady attempt, "this move is about balance, not about your saber. If you execute it well, you will not even need to use your saber, you will move out of your attacker's range. Disengage your saber and try without it."
The ban on performing Ataru had hit the boy hard enough already. To add insult to injury, today Drex was apparently not even letting him use his lightsaber at all! Kade rankled but obeyed, having learned from experience to do anything other only made it worse. "What is the point of practicing a lightsaber form if I can't even use my damn LIGHTSABER!" he ground out, snapping the weapon onto his belt aggressively.
Drex was not impressed with his padawan's reaction.
"You have used your saber for half an hour now, with little success in improving your balance," he pointed out. "Get your aggression under control, or ask for help if you cannot do it on your own. We are not finished here by a long shot."
"Right, and taking it out of the equation altogether is supposed to help? I'm sure that's gonna work great when I take a blaster bolt to the chest. At least my fall to the ground will be executed with perfect balance and precision, but, whoops, I couldn't actually block the thing because I spent all my time learning how to run away from attacks and was never allowed to USE. MY. LIGHTSABER!" By now, Kade's frustration was peaking, and he kicked at the floor with his boot.
Drex did not dignify this outburst with a response. He had given Kaden a chance to work on his aggression, to ask him for help, which was more than someone like Eeth Koth would have done. If Kade did not listen, that was his own problem. Drex calmly and firmly took hold of Kaden's ear and dragged him towards the far side of the training room where benches were lined up along the wall.
"Bare your bottom and put your hands on the bench," he ordered, his voice level and unperturbed. "And keep your protests to yourself, please."
The expression on his master's face was enough to tell Kade that he'd gone too far, and although he'd have taken it back in a split second, had time travel been amongst his talents, it was not, and he could not. The only thing that remained to be done was to do his best to act as if his ear was not burning and stumble to keep his balance whilst being dragged towards the bench.
He did not rub his ear because that would be to admit that it actually hurt, which it had! Sure, Drex wouldn't physically see it, but then again, he managed to 'see' an awful lot for a man who was born blind. Wordlessly, Kade unbuttoned his trousers in clipped, annoyed movements, yanking both to his knees, and reluctantly put his hands on the bench.
Drex made short work of this punishment. He put a hand on Kaden's back, both to keep him in position and to help himself take aim, and gave him a couple of very hard swats to get his attention.
"You do not take your frustrations out on me," he told Kaden, raising his hand and bringing it down again with a resounding crack.
That first swat got Kade's attention. Drex's hand was large and hard and, although he knew better, he'd swear the man had picked up a vossball bat. Not that he was going to let on or admit how much it hurt.
"I am doing this to help you learn, and I expect you to make an effort to follow my guidance," Drex continued. Several stinging swats to the under curve of Kaden's bottom underlined this message.
"If you are offered help, you would do well to accept it" – another couple of swats, this time to Kaden's upper thighs, followed – "instead of throwing a tantrum."
With this, Drex picked up the pace, wanting to leave no doubt that Kaden's behaviour had been entirely unacceptable.
Unfortunately for Kaden, his resolve to take his punishment stoically lasted no longer than this. By the time Drex started in on his thighs, the boy was grunting and pushing his hips forward as each blow landed in an effort to lessen the impact. "Alright, alright! You made your point. I'm sorry," he ground out through gritted teeth, and by this stage, the boy really was sorry; he knew better than to lose his shit with his master as it always ended the same way, painfully. Now not only would he endure the lesson, he'd do it with a roasted ass, it was adding injury to insult!
Drex had other plans for the boy, however. He finished the spanking off with a flurry of hard swats, then pulled his padawan into an upright position.
As Drex walloped him those last few times the boy couldn't stop from letting out a yelp. In fact, it took a great deal of restraint not to bolt for the next best fountain and sit in it, but he did not. Instead, he stumbled upright when his master righted him and stared at the floor, his eyes a touch overbright.
Without giving him much time to recover, Drex told him: "As you are unwilling to commit to the move I am trying to teach you, we will stop this for today and continue on muscle-building exercises instead. Tomorrow, we will try again, but your saber stays home. It is only getting in your way. Now, you can start with push-ups. Until I tell you to stop."
He nodded towards the middle of the room, his expression calm, but unyielding.
Kade had been a boy of few words, especially so when he was in uncomfortable circumstances – that was until the Force thrust him into a saber class with Councillor Koth who had brought about events that led him to his blind Hrakian master. Gestures such as smiles, nods and even fearsome scowls all lost effectiveness when the recipient could only sense the mood behind it with varying degrees of precision. As a result, the boy had been forced to start using his words… "Fine," he retorted, and after pulling up his pants, he turned on his heel and strode, somewhat stiff-legged, towards the centre of the room where he dropped to the floor and began. He wasn't happy about this, but nor was he willing to argue.
Kade had not realised just how much work was involved in improving things like strength and endurance. He had always relied on his prowess with a lightsaber to get him out of most situations during sparring, and as a result, he was not quite as fit or strong as most boys his age. This was something that was apparent during exercises like these, and the number one reason why he truly hated doing them.
Drex, on the other hand, had noticed early on that strength and endurance were areas that his padawan badly needed to work on. His natural skill with a saber would not get him far against opponents who were stronger, faster and easily able to outlast him. Here, again, he had taken his time, easing his padawan into his new role. However, he was becoming increasingly serious about this aspect of Kaden's training, much as Kade disliked it. Drex was also paying a lot of attention to maintaining and even improving his own physical condition. The Council had reduced his duties, and he therefore had time for a workout almost every morning when Kaden was in class, which he made use of to the best of his abilities.
He had known from the beginning that there would come a point at which Kaden's wishes would clash dramatically with what Drex needed to impose on him in order to break his bad habits - habits that would ultimately lead him to the Dark Side if allowed to continue unchecked. Therefore, while far from being exhilarated about making his padawan miserable, Drex was entirely confident about the measures he was imposing and did not feel bad about them in the least.
Right now, he was standing by while Kaden struggled through his push-ups, his face impassive and there being no indication that he was going to tell him to stop any time soon.
While Kade did not excel at this sort of exercise, the boy could be tenacious if he had a mind to be, although it was probably more his stubbornness that got him through the first 30 without slowing down. By 45, his arms were burning, by 50 they were trembling with each exertion and by 55 it was taking a tremendous effort to push himself up. His arms shook with the strain, his biceps and abdominals felt as if they had been put through the wringer. He projected his pain and fatigue across their bond in hopes that his master would take pity on him and let him up.
Drex was actually impressed with his padawan's perseverance. Stubbornness could be an advantage, and he was not about to discourage it.
"Alright, padawan, you may get up," he said calmly. "Get a skipping rope from the store room and start skipping."
Kade slumped backwards onto his heels, breathing heavily as he let his forehead thump onto the gym floor. The relief was not immediate, but thankfully, as the strain lessened from his arms and stomach, the pain began to subside. He lay there for several seconds while he digested his master's words. Surely he had to be joking! Alas, if his tone was anything to go by, he wasn't joking... He rolled to his side and reluctantly got to his feet, his muscles burning in protest as he stood and dragged his feet towards the storeroom. He took his time. A minute later he emerged with the rope and started skipping. He hated freaking skipping. It always left him feeling jarred and shell-shocked, as if his body had just been pounded repeatedly by ATAT's.
Drex knew exactly how his padawan felt. He also knew it was necessary to force him to leave his comfort zone where his training was concerned, and with Kaden, that apparently required drastic measures - not that this was much of a surprise to Drex. He continued to run Kaden ragged today, switching from one demanding exercise to the next and never stopping before the boy had reached, or possibly exceeded, his limits. Only when he sensed that Kaden was close to collapsing did he allow him to stop.
By the time Drex was finished with him the boy was slumped forward, his hands on his knees as he attempted to swallow the urge to vomit. Thankfully, his master had not pushed him to that point, although the boy knew that to pass his trials he'd need to endure far, far worse than a rough gym session.
"Walk around the room three times and drink some water," Drex told him. "Then come and join me." He took up a cross-legged position on the floor, waiting for his padawan to finish fulfilling his instructions.
Three laps of the small gym felt like five miles, but Kade completed them, and after a few sips of water he was feeling a little better.
Wordlessly, he sat, somewhat uncomfortably, opposite his master and attempted to hide the fact that if Drex ordered him to do one more exercise this session, he might just start crying.
"Do you have any idea why that just happened?" Drex asked mildly. "Why I just made you endure what was probably one of the more horrifying training sessions of your life so far?"
It was on the tip of his tongue to retort with: "Because you enjoy torturing me!" However, he recalled what had happened the last time he'd made such a remark. It had been during his first sparring match with Chatzis and Quarg. He had exhausted himself trying to impress his more experienced nephew with powerful attacks, and instead of winning the match, he'd wound up facing off against his master, which unfortunately resulted in losing more than the match. In fact, he ended up being worked to the point of exhaustion, sent home and walloped when he had tried to pull an attitude in response. Kaden was many things, but the boy was not stupid. Thus: "Because I lost my temper, took it out on you and because I need to improve my strength and endurance," he replied, still sounding a tad sullen and refusing to show how much the session had hurt him.
"Well, yes, you do," Drex said patiently, "but there's more to this than that. Sure, you took out your temper on me. But there was no need for you to lose it in the first place. I offered help in dealing with your frustrations, but you ignored that offer. And I believe you ignored my offer because of your pride and because you prefer to indulge your frustration over fundamentally changing your attitude about your training, which would be infinitely harder. You're used to thinking of a lightsaber as a weapon of attack, and to thinking of aggression as the main purpose of wielding a saber. You need to let go of that attitude in order to be able to move on to where you want to be. But you don't want to let go. You are clinging to it with all your might because attacking is what you're good at and love doing. And here I am, telling you that you need to stop doing it. Once and for all. I'm not surprised you're unhappy about it, but I expect you to accept my guidance and to be open for what you need to learn, instead of mourning the things you're not allowed to do. If you cannot do that, life will continue to be very, very difficult for you because I will certainly not give up."
"Well, I'm sorry that I'm not yet immune to losing my temper," Kade stated touchily, shifting uncomfortably on the hard floor. Kade understood what Drex was saying but like many things, it sounded simple enough in theory, but was far more difficult and complicated to put into practice.
"Unfortunately for you, I will come down on you hard every single time you lose it," Drex replied, "especially when related to your training. Ultimately, what is required of you is to do something that's not in your nature at all. You will need to surrender to what I'm trying to teach you here. Just waiting for it to be over so you can return to your old ways will not work. I know that surrender does not come easy to you, but sometimes, it requires more inner strength than fighting."
Kade didn't know what to say in response. After all, everything that his master had said was true. The only problem, he thought whilst discretely cupping an aching bicep muscle, was that despite knowing that it was for his own good, he still found it difficult to accept, not to mention unbelievably frustrating! Although he wasn't particularly happy about it now, he was secretly relieved that Drex was not planning to give up on him, as if he did, there was no future for him in the order. And Kaden wanted to be a Jedi more than anything. He used thoughts like these to firm up his resolve when it felt like it was all getting too hard, and that was how he managed to pull himself together each time he gave in to his temper or landed in deep water with his master, because Force knew the man was not kidding around when he said he came down on him hard. He always did.
Drex rose from his position. "We are going to the mineral baths now," he said. "That way, your muscles will only be very, very sore by tomorrow, as opposed to being unbelievably, intolerably sore. And believe me, I'm speaking from experience."
"Yeah, right. I'm sure master Devno did not push you to the Dark Side and back during a training session because you blew your stack at her," Kade guffawed, but there was no longer any bite to his tone. It was more one of resignation and, unsurprisingly, discomfort.
As they entered the hallway he quickly lost the pained expression and stiff gait in an effort not to appear as if he had just been walloped and run ragged for an hour. Unfortunately, if the sympathetic expressions from passers-by were anything to go by, his acting ability needed work.
Drex smiled. "Oh, the certainty of youth ..." he said in a distinctly amused tone of voice. "You know, I did have a temper when I was your age. I've also had more than fifty years to get rid of it, so it might not be that noticeable any longer. But my master did not usually chase me through the training room for my fits of temper. She just walloped me until I saw sense. What she chased me through the training room for was laziness. I was not very confident in my ability to ever become a field knight, due to my blindness, so I had times when I did not really think I needed to make much of an effort to improve my physical condition. Well, my master wouldn't have any of it. And the mineral baths have been specifically designed for the treatment of sore muscles, so you're hardly the only person who has ever had that complaint."
While he talked, he led Kaden into a simple change room that allowed them to undress and deposit their things on shelves. There was also a stack of dressing gowns and, for the more modest among the humanoids, swimming trunks although most Jedi simply went naked.
Not for the first time, Kade was pleased that his master could not see the expression on his face because the mental picture of his grandmaster chasing a young Drex through the gym was certainly enough to get him smiling. "I can't imagine you losing your shit over anything, or being considered lazy. Hell, you're quite possibly the 'un-laziest' person I know," the boy said honestly as he tugged off his uniform and tossed it onto the bench next to Drex's.
He paused briefly at the door and discretely turned his ass towards the mirror. It was decidedly red, but then again, he was pretty sure the Jedi sharing the pools with them would have seen far worse injuries in their time, not that he didn't still blush slightly as he padded along the stone path headed for the pool Drex had pointed out. They were all different shapes and smelled slightly different, so Kade figured that the one they were going to would have specific herbs beneficial to his injuries whilst not melting the skin from his Hrakian master. Their pool was large and deep enough to comfortably fit four Jedi. It was also currently empty. Kade looked left, then right, then made a bomb style entry, only to regret the move as his ass-first style of entry had clearly not been such a good idea: the pools, being meant for relaxation, not for swimming, were not deep enough for such jumps. Drex winced in sympathy as he heard and sensed Kaden's entry.
"Ouch …" Kade complained quietly, standing up and rubbing at his backside furiously.
"The next time you try that, padawan," Drex said, "check out the pool first. You're supposed to get in, stretch out, relax and let the water do its work on your muscles. If you want to swim, jump or dive, we can go to the big Temple pools any time."
He got in himself, leaning back against a rock and enjoying the slightly bubbly, scented water that had a very relaxing effect on his muscles and also possessed healing properties.
"It looked much deeper," Kaden defended himself, frowning, but after receiving a few frowns in kind from the Jedi resting in the pools around them, he decided to sit down before he attracted anymore unwanted attention. "Sorry," he said simply and copied the man's relaxed posture on the ledge opposite him.
They spent a good hour just soaking. When Kade got out, he looked like a prune. On the up side, his muscles were not burning as they had before. "Thanks, that feels a bit better. Can we eat at home tonight? I don't particularly feel like braving the dining hall," he asked while pulling on his boots.
"Sure," said Drex. "Our cooler is not particularly well-stocked, though. I could do some grocery shopping while you get started on your homework."
As a rule, he preferred eating in the dining hall. He was able to cook edible meals, especially in his own kitchen where all the ingredients were filled into containers that were clearly labelled in raised letters so he ran no risk of mixing up salt and sugar, but nonetheless, cooking took up quite a bit of time. On the other hand, it went much faster when he had a padawan to help. And as a result Kade had learned to make most of the basic meals they enjoyed fairly quickly. He didn't mind cooking although it wasn't something that particularly captured his interest, at least not at this stage of his apprenticeship; he was far too busy juggling his training and other commitments to make room for a hobby.
"Or we could order in and you could help me with my homework? It's biology, you know I hate biology," Kade elaborated.
"Of course, if you prefer me to," Drex agreed readily.
Kaden clipped his saber to his belt. He still couldn't believe he'd be leaving it home for their so-called saber practice tomorrow, although as he sat down on the wooden bench to wait for his master, his thoughts were immediately redirected towards the consequences of noncompliance…