LL2 21 Sex Life

The duel drifted away of the clearing and deeper into the jungle. Each attack sent one moving backward and the counter attack usually pushed the other in a different direction. They bounced like a football through the shrubbery, laughing when they won and growling in jest when they screwed up. Romping around like felines at play, neither one noticed when serious training mutated into a giggling frolic.

Kess ran until she found an opening in the trees. Dusk shined down through the canopy in fuzzy circles. She stopped and spun, bringing the blade up to block the other one just in time. Luke danced out of the bushes with clean laughter echoing through the forest. He pulled back and paced around, giving them both a chance to catch their breath as he laughed. "I almost had you that time."

Kess' eyes were fiery with excitement. Bits of leaves littered her braids and her coveralls were smudged with mud, but Luke was no cleaner than she was. Sweat darkened his shaggy hair and black pants were just as smudged. He shed his shirt down to his tank top a long time ago.

She fought to keep from tripping over the vines as she shuffled, but no matter where she was, she maintained her white blade hovering defensively in his direction.

With shining eyes locked onto hers, Luke squared off and waited.

She tightened her grip and attacked. After several quick taps, to which he defended easily, she smoothly changed her angle and hit his blade so hard that she knocked both blades into a nearby tree branch. Before he had a chance to recover, she pulled back and swung as if to cut off his head. Luke ducked under it and stomped forward with a big swipe, but she stopped it.

The blades crossed low. Another loud zap echoed through the trees.

The birds chirped away from the canopy and the evening sun glowed down on their faces in a background of deep green. Luke panted through his open smile, watching her wild eyes. Kess shined right back at him, secretly enjoying this unusual playfulness in him for as long as it was going to last.

Kess pulled her blade from the low cross and swung, but he met it again at a high cross.

She gritted her teeth at the first hint of frustration, yet Luke watched her with as much guard and focus as she watched him.

"I can't win against you," she panted. "You're bigger and stronger."

Luke flare a dark smile. "You've got weapons of your own," he assured.

"Weapons?" Kess echoed with a curl of her eyebrow.

Luke blinked and flushed a smile. He shrugged a hand from his hilt to reiterate politely, "attributes."

"Attributes?" She echoed even brighter, laughing now, just to tease his choice of words. "And what would those be?"

Luke shook his head and scolded her with his eyes, but his smile spread wider across his face. "You know that's not what I meant."

Kess knew that's not what he meant, but leveled a strong gaze on him anyway. "I didn't say what I thought you meant."

Luke shoved a guilty tongue into his molar.

Busted.

Even though she couldn't see it in the cool clarity of his eyes, she sensed the blade of blood red passion spike out from him on the Force. He didn't shy away from the truth of it, but he said nothing more to feed the distraction either.

Kess had no intentions of using her sex as a weapon in any fashion, not even to win a dud lightsaber duel, but his momentary stumble about it occurring simultaneously with her momentary strength about it opened the door of humanity just enough for Kess to see a clear peak.

So there is a man under there after all.

Now charged up with an extra volt of glee, Kess pulled away from the cross and came back at him with vigor. Luke defended two swift blows and jumped to back up, but caught his foot in the vines. Kess took the advantage when his balance wavered. Her blade came down and hit him directly on the back of his right hand.

Luke grunted as he tumbled to the ground. His face twisted with more pain than it should have. He turned off his blade with his left hand and tossed the hilt aside. He sat up in the vine-covered ground with his right arm huddled close to his stomach as if lame.

Her eyes flashed wide in shock of his reaction. She turned off her blade and ran to his aid. "What happened?"

Luke breathed through hard teeth. "Well, the dud blades don't hurt flesh." He brought out his right hand out to review the damage. "But I keep forgetting that this isn't flesh."

Kess fell to her knees by his side and saw the blow had charred a patch of synth-flesh on the back of his hand. The tiny split revealed a hint of cyborg electronics inside. She perked up with surprise, "You're part droid!"

Luke glanced wryly at her before focusing on his wound. "Yes. And now I'm part broken droid."

Kess leaned over his knee and took his hand, studying it like any other broken electronics she ran across. "The frequency from the blade could have confused the servos and overloaded them."

Luke looked at her sarcastically. "You're a cybernetic doctor, too?"

Kess glanced up, "Er, no." She let go of him and backed up to sit on her feet.

Luke pulled in his hand and looked it over. The damage wasn't bad. He turned up his wrist to thumb around for the hidden switch and turned off the pain receptors.

"What happened to your real one?"

Luke focused to squint at the switch. "It was cut off by—" his eyes flicked up, "Vader… Vader cut it off."

Kess shifted to get comfortable, realizing lightsaber training was over for the day. She unraveled her hair into two, long pigtails, and unraveled those so she comb away bits of leaves and twigs from her hair.

She wanted to ask about Vader again, but she wasn't going to spoil this awesome afternoon with poking at his long stories that would just piss him off. "Are you gonna be okay?"

Luke nodded and dropped his hands to his lap. "I'll go to medbay when we get back." He looked to her and smiled big. "That was fun."

Teasing, Kess shook her index finger at him. "It wasn't supposed to be fun."

Luke shrugged, "I know."

Kess basked in his smile until he yanked his eyes away again. She watched him close his eyes until his eyelids wrinkled, scolding himself with a brief meditation for just having fun.

The very idea of that made her heart shrivel a little. Kess angled her chin. "Can I ask you a question?"

Luke blinked his eyes back open and grinned about it, "Is it about Vader?"

Kess laughed softly, "No."

Blue eyes beamed. "All right, ask."

"Are we really not supposed to have any fun at all?" She shook her head at him, struggling with the mere idea of that. "Ever?"

Luke looked at his lap somberly, but lifted his eyes again to admit, "I don't know."

Kess slumped like a teenager.

"I'm telling the truth, Kess." Luke almost grinned about it. "Don't underestimate how much I really don't know."

"Yeah, but—" She cut herself off and exhaled a rush of sadness.

Luke's smile vanished. "What?"

She faked a smile and gathered both dud saber hilts to go. "Nothing."

He urged gently, "Come on. What?"

"Nothing," she insisted, climbing to her feet.

His voice was one of support, "You know better—

In a flash of anger, Kess spun back and snapped at him. "Luke, sometimes you just have to take a lie as another way of saying, 'I don't want to talk about it with you!'"

"All right," Luke nodded at his lap, then angled up his head to dare, "but who else are you going to talk about it with?"

Her heart shrank. Kess blew up at her bangs and looked up to see the sky fading into dusk. "Nobody," she admitted in a dead whisper. "Not a blasted soul."

Luke pulled his knees up and wrapped his elbows around them. "Let me guess. The news is out that you're a Jedi Apprentice and, one by one, people are giving you more room to walk."

Kess chuckled wryly, "And I wondered why you didn't have a girl."

Luke grinned at the ground. "So tell me what happened."

She put her hands on her hips, "Look, I'm not interested in anyone, so it doesn't matter right now, but I feel like the option of getting married and having children someday is totally out of the question now."

He pushed himself off the ground. "It's not out of the question—

"Oh really?" She spun around. "Have you looked at your own sex life for the past eight years?"

Luke straightened his shoulders.

"And don't give me any of that 'my sex life is none of your business' crap either." She stomped forward with an aggressive point at his chest, "Because if my sex life is your business, buddy, then your sex life is fair game." She shrugged her hands at him, "Or lack thereof, anyway."

Luke snapped his mouth shut at the sudden clarity of what this was all about.

She continued to chew him out without fear. "You are my Jedi Master and you are my Commanding Officer, but you are not my damned father and you have no right to grant or deny Wedge permission to ask me out on a stupid date!"

Luke forced himself to remain calm. "When I told you to use the Force on duty I didn't mean for you to peek into my private conversations."

She frowned and nodded, "Yeah, okay. I'll stop." Her fists clenched and her attitude thickened, "In about a year." She turned her back to him, frustrated, insulted and degraded.

Luke closed his eyes in a silent curse and opened them up again to see her back.

Her arms knotted across her chest.

Determined, he stepped to her side. His voice was quiet and firm. "First of all, Kesselia, you know why I watched you and you know I have stopped; and you watched me on the vid for eight years, so don't wave that at me as your victim-earned right to peek in on my private life (or lack thereof)."

She glared at him, "Actually, I heard it through the grapevine, like human people do."

Luke decided to leave that one alone and continued. "Secondly, the general public is still trying to get used to having Jedi around. Until that happens, the only ones who are going to be close to you are the friends you already have. The only new ones are going to be the friends I already had. Everyone else is going to give you a wide berth and you are going to feel lonelier that you've ever felt in your life."

She faced him with clenched teeth, "Yeah, but—"

"Let me finish," he snapped. "I will tell Wedge and (any other interested party) that your social life is none of my business as soon as I am convinced you won't take a joyride with a relationship and turn to the dark side on me when some arrogant scum hurts you."

Kess' chin crunched back. "You're saying Wedge is some arrogant scum?"

His voice was bordering impatience. "That is not what I said. Wedge is a perfect gentleman when he wants to be, but he is not the subject matter here and you know it. He just happened to be the first one that asked me."

Kess shifted her eyes away.

"Now, as a Jedi Apprentice you are doing very well, but you still fly off the handle at some pretty insignificant stuff, like this, and if you don't control it you are going to turn to the dark side."

Her gaze dropped to her feet with a tinge of worry in her brow. "I don't use the Force when I'm upset."

He leaned his face to her and whispered, "All it takes is once."

Her voice was nervous and angry. "So I'm grounded? Is this payback for putting the chocks on Rogue Five? If I let you fly will you let me date?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it." Weary, Luke turned away to head back.

Her voice was cold. "It doesn't matter what you meant as long as I'm not having any more sex than you are, right? Are you going to slap a chastity belt on me too?"

Luke spun back with a hard pointing finger at, "That's exactly what I'm talking about, Kess! You're angry and you're frustrated and you can't control it."

She waved her open hands at him as she followed. "You can't tell me that you've been able to stay at peace all day every day for the last eight years! You may be a Jedi, but you're still human!" She spread her hands, suddenly unsure about that. "Right?"

"I haven't," he stopped her, "but I control it." He insisted. "I put it aside until I can go somewhere and get it out. You noticed this clearing is worn in and it's true. I come here, away from people, and away from problems just so I can be angry and be upset and be depressed. But if someone shows up, or the commlink goes off, or anything happens that requires my attention to the real world, I turn it off like a power switch." He snapped his fingers in the air.

Kess wasn't trying to block or hide the sadness swelling out of her soul at all this.

Luke shrugged his hands to his sides. "You'll learn to do it too. Once you've mastered that, the rest is easy."

Kess quieted respectfully. "So what do you do now that I'm in the clearing too?"

Luke laughed weakly, trying to make light of it all. "I'll just vent my aggressions out on you." He turned away to walk back to the clearing.

Her mouth twisted with a thought as she followed. What if it's not aggression you need to vent?

She followed him through the trees back to the clearing and raised her voice, "Back to the subject of Wedge…"