Title: Somewhere Never Have I Traveled
Author: Audrey Layne
Disclaimer: I do not own SW, nor do I make any form of profit wherewithal in correlation to the intellectual and copyright properties of Lucas productions. I just have fun with'em.
Summary: When they met...
Author Notes: Romantic claptrap disguised as a space adventure...
___---___---___
Obi Wan did not find it strange that in spite of his most recent meeting with Nico Ca'Hall, he still did not have a clear picture of what she looked like.
Just the strangest not smile quirk of her mouth and russet colored curls that smelled faintly of something Qui Gon identified as ginger and myrrh. (He found himself logging onto the holonet to find out what ginger was, and then venturing to the planet levels of Coruscant to discover why it was her hair smelled that way), it was infuriating, and even worse since he had last seen her, Adi had twisted long pieces of that deep hair into a new Padawan's braid, twisting around the former one with black ribbon of morning, and white ribbon of chastity.
The ribbon taunted him.
---
When he saw Bant later that afternoon the Mon Calamari took one look at him, sat him down and fetched him a glass of tea before calling Garen Muln to her shared quarters.
Garen dropped onto the lounge beside Obi Wan and grinned at his tawny haired friend, "I heard what happened...I don't know whether to be disturbed that a group of Jedi would play a prank like that...or disturbed that you were the one they called."
Bant clucked at him disapprovingly and placed the glass of steaming liquid in Obi Wan's hand, "Obviously the former Garen, I can't believe they'd do something like that to an empath, especially one who's gone through what she has. I'm amazed she didn't accidentally destroy their minds."
Obi Wan garbled something out and glanced up, "You guys...she cried herself hoarse, we had..." His voice cracked slightly, "We had to restrain her to keep her from scratching her eyes out."
Bant's eyes went wide, a puff of mist spraying from the collar around her clavicles, Garen let out a low whistle, and "I heard Council woman Gallia was finally making progress with her too...apparently she's really smart but all the instructors are worried she's too unstable to be in any classes. It really isn't any wonder the younglings pulled a prank like this. The girl *is* practically a myth."
Obi Wan nodded, "I spent almost twelve hours with her and I don't even know what she really looks like."
Bant blinked, "Well that can't be right Obi--you're the most observant person I know."
Garen snorted, "Not unless she didn't want to be noticed Bant--she *is* an empath. She can influence things like that."
Bant gasped, "A Jedi would never resort to such things unless it was required!"
Obi Wan listened to them banter; he knew Bant was right of course, as was Garen. But Qui Gon had done a very good job of training him to know when he was being influenced, and the girl had done nothing more than throw up some of the tightest barriers he'd ever walked into.
"I think it was just she's very good at hiding herself. Wasn't her Master Quetz Et'el?"
Bant and Garen both paused mid-argument.
Garen nodded his agreement, "Yeah I think so--he was the one who got..." His voice trailed off and all three glanced down for a moment.
Bant let out a soft, "I hope your Master has them cleaning the sewers for the next four cycles Obi...no one should have to relive what they made her relive, regardless of their intentions or not."
Obi Wan nodded and nearly spilled his tea when Garen jumped, exclaiming triumphantly, "I have an idea!"
---
'That's how this entire thing started,' he realized, staring across the table at what had to be the strangest looking scarring he'd ever witnessed.
They were, the four of them in the mess hall, eating breakfast. Garen had decided they would show the temple that Nico was very much so a real person, just painfully shy.
The scarring seemed to slide over the left half of her face, disappearing beneath the high collar of her tunic. It wasn't ugly just...really disconcerting. She probably made sure to hide it for other people's sakes rather than her own.
Adi had explained that it had happened long before Nico could remember, some sort of accident from before the Jedi had taken her.
The young woman kept it hidden for other's comfort, and he had no doubt it was also in part, self-preservation. When you could literally read a person's thoughts and emotions without actively trying, he was sure it got to not only be very exhausting, but heart breaking as well.
He wondered what it felt like, and caught her staring at him with equal curiosity, her eyebrows twisted in some mockery of thought, though her eyes twinkled somewhat amused.
That not-quite-smile was back on her face, and she turned to respond to something Bant was saying.
He knew he hadn't been broadcasting-- Before Adi would let them see Nico again she had put them through nearly twenty hours of shielding classes so Nico wouldn't be subjected to their every thought and emotion.
His thoughts must have shown on his face, and he schooled his features back into careful neutrality.
---
The problem he thought was that Nico wasn't classically pretty. She was very different from Siri--who had claimed his heart and body with a ravenous hunger that bordered on obsessive for nearly two years before like a flame, their ardor simply snuffed out.
Siri was supernova bright, passionate, fiery, and despite the analogy, so very good it was like spending a day in the Peace Gardens. He always left Siri's company feeling as though he'd been scrubbed raw and clean by the Living Force itself.
And yet, where Siri had been bright, Nico seemed to be just as opposite, the young woman rarely smiled, pewter colored eyes were always distant, as if her thoughts collected her entire being and froze her that way. She emanated such presence it was difficult not to notice her, despite her best efforts to remain unobtrusive (and this, Obi Wan had no doubt, was why she was simply not cut-out for dangerous off world missions, the woman had all the stealth of a Rancor in a glass shop).
They were polar opposites really, Nico commanded a subtle kind of attention, her voice was soft, and strangely accented, even to Obi Wan's ears, her hair such a deep red brown it was almost black in artificial light. It lit up like burnished, aged copper in the light of the Coruscant sun, and hung to almost the middle of her back in waves of riotous, rebellious curls.
He had over heard her confessing, in a distractingly amused tone that she had all but begged Adi to cut it all off, only to be met with the stern disproval of a wall.
Bant had laughed so hard the Mon Calamari had almost fainted from lack of oxygen.
And that was another point, Siri was blunt, callous and often times offensive. She had never outgrown her brashness and Tahl was constantly correcting the blonds' lack of diplomacy skills, but Obi Wan had been first hand witness to Nico's ability to interject herself into heated debates and calm both sides without exerting her will over them at all.
That was not the sort of charisma or calmness one wanted in the wrong hands.
And she was funny, in a twisted, tongue in cheek, caught him off guard every single time sort of way. The four of them (He, Garen, Bant and Nico) had spent several hours exploring one of the moons around Coruscant, an agricultural star really. And it had taken the three of them nearly two hours to realize that Nico had been making lewd comments about the vegetation for most of the day.
When Bant confronted her about it, the gray eyed woman had blinked her eyes enormously at Bant and cast a devastating smile that had left even Bant reeling.
If Siri was a raging inferno, then Nico was a banked blaze, subtle and long-lasting.
---
It really would not have been such a big deal, except it seemed that Nico had an absurd way of ignoring virtually everything going on around her. He supposed this was why she had seemed so startled when, around what he assumed was her sixteenth birthing year the first Padawan's and Knights began approaching her.
He was fairly sure she had come from a temple on Possil Massa, which meant she should have been apprised of things like The Rite of First Refusal, but the way her skin colored such an inelegant red, and her eyes going so large she could have given a cat a run for its money had Garen in stitches, Bant patting her arm, and Obi Wan simultaneously furious at her lack of education, and intrigued by her reaction.