Joe's Note: For the record, while this story may indeed become a 'Cordy Does Coruscant' story at some point, in the same vein of so many male-centric crossovers that result in the Gary Stu of the author's choice bedding every single woman from the fandom that the author finds even moderately attractive? Cordelia's solution to the crisis facing her and Hiskari was her using the rigid morality of the Jedi against them, nothing more. Is this version of Cordelia flirty? Yes. In possession of a dirty sense of humor, especially compared to the emotionally repressed Jedi? Yes. Mischievous and manipulative? Yes and you betcha. But a slut? No.
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Alexander, Howard, MJ, Daniel, Christopher, Marc, Ziryo, Elliot, Crusifikz70, Timothy, Leigh, Jason, Chris, George, Koby, Ken, Thyatira, William, Wil, Invernos, Jack, Pat, Warren, Chris, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.


Descending to her desired floor, Cordelia emerged from the turbolift and broke into a smile at the very familiar figure waiting for her. The brunette shook her head in amusement; her girlfriend - she supposed it was truly official now that they had dispensation from the High Council to be together until they split of their own volition - had a bad habit of camping out in areas she knew Cordelia had to pass through so that she could waylay Cordelia for hugs, kisses, and other adorable displays of public affection. It was one of the many things that would have normally turned her off romantically but only managed to seem cute when it came to Hiskari Dorset.

Like, well, Hiskari herself. Before her reincarnation adventure, Cordelia had been strictly about the humans… emphasis 'mans'. Demons were more Xander and Buffy's thing than hers, while girls were Willow's domain. Well, if she was honest with herself, Cordelia had been starting to fall for Doyle when he died… but he didn't really count, being a half-demon and a human-passing one at that. She also didn't count her two bouts of freaky demonic pregnancy because hey, lack of consent and all that. Didn't really count in a discussion about her choices, now did they? In her new life, on the other hand, the weird-looking beings that surrounded her were aliens rather than demons and even that wasn't always true. While Hiskari was about as similar to Cordelia genetically as a squid was to a human, there were a whole bunch of cute near-human species who possessed horns, odd skin tones, spots, or other significant differences despite being only a tiny bit different from a baseline human when it came to their genes.

Cordelia was still amused by the fact that the Powers had quite literally dropped her into Hiskari's bed. She would probably never know if it was a random place they'd chosen to materialize her new body or if they'd been trying to play matchmaker… but either way, it's where she'd appeared out of thin air when she arrived two years ago in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. The security logs - and how creepy was it that they watched each other sleep? - showed Hiskari slipping into her tank and sleeping alone for several hours, before suddenly finding herself wrapped in the arms of the newly-reincarnated Cordelia. Hiskari had awoken seconds after that on account of Cordelia's thrashing and flailing after inhaling water, leading to copious amounts of shouting and some threatening. Then had come tests out the wazoo and a whole bunch of arguing between the members of the High Council. Eventually, though, they'd arrived at a consensus and informed Cordelia that she'd be staying in the Temple.

It hadn't been until six months after Cordelia's arrival that Hiskari had been able to talk to her without blushing, stammering, and fleeing à la high school Willow. Even then, it had taken another month of regular conversations and hanging out - a concept that Cordelia had actually found herself needing to introduce her fellow teenagers to - before Hiskari had been able to step forward and confess that she felt a bond with Cordelia. That had inspired a few long brooding sessions on the brunette's part before she'd come to the conclusion that Hiskari was someone that she really enjoyed spending time with and that if she could find alien men attractive, what was wrong with being attracted to alien women? Once she'd made that decision, the vaunted Jedi Code was never an obstacle. Her reincarnation had changed several things about her, but at her core? She was still Cordelia Chase. She didn't follow the masses, she was the one at the front of the pack giving them directions.

They certainly made for the oddest-looking couple in the Temple, that was for damn sure. Cordelia had been given back her original body - or something close enough to it that she couldn't tell the difference - and had finally grown back to her official DMV height of a hair over five feet, seven inches. Her skin had slowly but surely paled as she spent more time in the Temple than outside soaking up Coruscant Prime's rays, making her dark hair and eyes appear even more striking. Even more striking because… well, she was just as voluptuous in this life as her last. Combining that with the snug outfits she preferred was enough to make her stand out among a group of people who favored ugly brown robes, unflattering haircuts, and overall androgyny.

Hiskari, on the other hand, definitely wasn't beautiful by human standards. Even Cordelia was honest enough to admit that her girlfriend looked like the unholy lovechild of a human, a Rowell alien, and a squid. But for some reason that continued to elude her, Cordelia had come to find the long, sleek lines of Hiskari's body to be beautiful. Sure, kissing her girlfriend's neck and getting a mouthful of gills had been ubercreepy before she learned to aim higher, and those bulbous red eyes were unsettling to have staring at her when she was in trouble. And Hiskari was a bit shorter and a good deal more petite than Cordelia was, meaning they couldn't share outfits if they wanted to. But that was okay with her these days. It'd taken several years and a half-demon love interest, but Cordelia had finally learned to appreciate people for what was on the inside instead of the outside. Even if the outside had headtresses, webbed hands, and gills. The only thing she really had to worry about was making sure she didn't buy anything that clashed with her girlfriend's pale blue skin tone, but other than that, things were copacetic.

Shaking herself from her thoughts, Cordelia returned her attention to the Nautolan and raised an eyebrow. "You know, waiting places you know I'm going to be? So not the way to prove to the Council that we're not attached to each other." She made sure to soften her words with a smile, just in case her girlfriend missed the whole concept of 'teasing' again.

Evidently Hiskari got it, though, grinning back at Cordelia even as she twiddled her webbed fingers nervously. "Considering it was my idea that got us in trouble, I wanted to find out what was going on." Reaching up to fiddle with the tip of one headtress, she nibbled on her lower lip as she stared up at Cordelia and waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, the vaunted Jedi calm cracked and she started getting visibly impatient. "So, what's going on?"

"Oh, the usual High Council bitchiness and whining." Cordelia waved her hand back in the direction of the turbolift dismissively. "Attachment is bad, you need to learn better emotional control before Hiskari leads you down a dark path, we know we can't get rid of you so maybe we should throw your girlfriend out of the Order…" Hiskari displayed one of the few physical tells that she shared with humans then, the blood draining from her face and shifting her skin from a pale blue color to pasty white. "…and then Master Rancisis either made a huge mistake or threw me a bone, I still can't figure out which. I asked what the big deal was, since I've walked in on other pairs of padawans and we're the only one they're complaining about, and he let slip that it was our relationship that bothered them and not the actual sex. The emotional, not the physical. And so I might have mentioned that if you were gone, I'd sleep my way through most of the other padawans. Of both genders. And maybe Master Ti if I had a chance."

Hiskari gasped. "You didn't."

Grinning, Cordelia buffed her fingernails against her navy jumpsuit. "I so did. Empty threat because I was never into the whole 'wham, bam, thank you ma'am' thing in my old life and I'm not about to start now… but they didn't know that. And it freaked them out enough that Master Trebor decided to jump in on our behalf. He pointed out that since they're pretty much stuck with me, if the alternative is me running wild and corrupting other padawans? Maybe a few knights or even a master? It made a lot more sense to give the two of us an exception. Basically, they've declared that they're going to sacrifice you to keep me contained. Which means that in a roundabout way, they're officially cool with us now."

"You rock!" Hiskari squealed, launching herself at Cordelia and wrapping her legs around the taller girl's waist. Cordelia laughed and hugged Hiskari back, enjoying the smaller girl's furnace-like warmth. She still marveled sometimes at how much she'd managed to rub off on Hiskari in their time together, both in terms of vocabulary and mannerisms. Most of the Jedi were physically standoffish and spoke like a college English textbook, but she'd managed to 'fix' Hiskari with some time and determination. Leaning in, Hiskari pressed her lips against Cordelia's briefly before pulling back. "So, they just sent you on your way? No punishments like, say, taking away your private quarters?"

Cordelia raised an eyebrow at the not-actually-a-random question. "Um, no? I'm the Girl-With-No-Master, dear. Where else would they put me, especially since they're trying to keep me away from impressionable young minds? Although speaking of punishment… if you think about it, you're kinda beyond the reach of the Code now too. And the Council. I mean, if you ever do something bad enough that they threaten to give you the boot? You can just smirk and slide that whole 'Cordy will sleep her way through the Temple and corrupt your precious Order' thing back out there. Because hey, evidently nothing is scarier than people having some fun around here. But like I was saying… you're untouchable. Because you're touchable. Wink wink. I'm gonna buy you so much stuff. Real clothes. Jewelry. Random aquatic stuff that looks cool. Oh! One of my designers has been wanting to talk to you ever since you came with me to that one fitting; evidently they're looking to expand into aquatic and amphibious fashions and would love to bring you aboard as an official model for those designs." Suddenly, her mind drifted back to Hiskari's original question and she took in the little smirk gracing her girlfriend's face. "…why?"

Letting out a disbelieving chuckle, Hiskari brought one hand up and gave Cordelia a gentle swat upside the head. "To quote you? 'Um, duh!' We just got the kind of exception that's handed out to maybe one Jedi in a thousand. Five thousand. Ten thousand? I have no idea exactly how many Jedi there are right now, but I only know of two who are openly allowed to be in a relationship. Cereans, both of them, which means that they only have it because of the low birth rate problem that their species suffers from. Which makes what we were just given incredibly special and important." Leaning in, she bit down on Cordelia's lower lip and tugged it gently as she pulled back, releasing it before winking at the brunette. "I was thinking we should go celebrate. Just wanted to make sure we had somewhere to go to."

"Oh please, like whether or not my room is available has ever slowed us down in the past." Cordelia gently patted her girlfriend on the ass, Hiskari obediently unwinding her legs and dropping to stand on her own two feet. The Nautolan immediately grabbed Cordelia's hand and began tugging her down the hallway, Cordelia's longer legs allowing her to keep up easily. The two passed Aayla Secura in the hall, the Rutian Twi'lek giving Cordelia a smirk and a knowing look as she slipped by, flashing three fingers at the brunette who nodded in agreement before turning her attention back to Hiskari. "At any rate… what exactly did you have in mind for this 'celebration'?"

Hiskari peered up at Cordelia and her pale blue skin flushed an almost sapphire color in two spots high up on her cheeks as she pulled her hand out of Cordelia's grasp, pulling it up into the flowing sleeve of her brown outer robe for a moment before emerging with… a trio of shiny metal balls? What..? "What would you say to me, you, a few of these, and some… um… creative telekinesis practice?"

Wow. Considering the source, that was a shockingly naughty suggestion. Cordelia grinned widely. She was such a good influence on Hiskari. Leaning down, she pressed a kiss to the top of the Nautolan's head, right at the base of one headtress. "Well, Master Windu did say I needed to work on my control of multiple objects." Although… Cordelia looked back over her shoulder, only to find Aayla long gone. Damn. Maybe she should have told the Twi'lek she needed to reschedule entirely instead of just pushing their practice back a few hours?