see ch 1 for headers and crap

Author's Notes: Whee! The nice reviews I read earlier made me inspired to write the next chapter, so yay. Here it is. I don't really know where I am headed with this, it's just writing itself.

And… ehhh… I hope this makes sense cause it's 2am. I reread it but um… coffee? SEE?! Anyway, please review and tell me what you think! I'll start working on chapter three tomorrow. =)

--)

Mara awoke with her eyes skyward. As soon as she opened them, she wished she hadn't as she found herself staring directly into the second sun. //Fabulous, now I'm blind// she thought while squinting and sitting up. She then realized she was alone in the forest of knee-high, creepy vegetation.

"SKYWALKER?!" she barked shrilly.

He came leaping over several bushes with reasonable skill and skidded to a halt in front of her bewildered gaze.

"Um. Good morning," she said while standing up.

"Yeah. Okay. Anyway, I didn't really have a chance to see what ration bars I grabbed yesterday so-" Luke was cut off.

"Arg! Food this, food that. You'd think you were starving," Mara swatted her hand at him like he was a bug.

"I'm passionate about food, okay? What can I say? Anyway, these ration bars," Luke began again, all business, "I got the incredibly good kind! What luck!" He was practically glowing with glee.

"Wow, great, I really care." Mara rolled her eyes. "So what kind are they?"

Luke jumped about a foot in the air while making a happy sound, "Desertberry Tropical Fruutail!"

"Okaaay. That's great. I'm really glad you got that kind." Mara rolled her eyes yet again.

Luke pouted.

"Don't do that! It makes me laugh and then we'll never get anything done," Mara looked away.

"Why does it make you laugh when I am sad?" Luke said through his hugely exaggerated pout.

"Because you're not. And you look… funny…" Mara tried hard not to look at him.

"I am sad. You insulted food. I am passionate about food. This hurts me," Luke pouted more.

"AHHH! Stop it!" Mara reached out and smacked him – hard. He fell to the ground with a resounding thud.

"Owww! I bit my lip! Thanks a lot, Mara." Luke whined as he got up.

"Then stop pouting!" she exclaimed.

"I can't help it now. My lip is swollen. It will look like I am pouting all the time now. Way to go." Luke pointed out. Mara did not reply, she just smacked herself in the head a few times after realizing this to be true.

"Rar," she growled as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a brown bag made with a flimsy yet strong fibre substance. She poked her fingernails in twice to make eyeholes. "Wear this over your head."

Luke looked at the brown, rectangular bag and then back at Mara. "Um, why?"

"So I don't have to look at you all day!" Mara said as if it were obvious.

"Oh. Well. I'll try it… for you," Luke took the bag and put in over his head. He blinked through the eyeholes… he could see fairly well.

"No, you will wear it. All day. Until that stupid lip heals." She commanded and tried her best not to laugh at his appearance. //He's just too damn weird!// she thought to herself.

It had been an eventful day so far. Luke and Mara had managed to walk all of three kilometres north. Their scenery hadn't changed a bit and it looked like they had several days worth of travel just to reach a small pile of rocks in the distance. Meanwhile, the sun was beating down like a man with a pointy stick, and Luke was getting antsy.

"Maraaaaa… it's getting hooot in this baaaag…" Luke slumped his shoulders and whined for effect.

"Stuff it! I really don't care!" Mara hushed him for the third time in as many minutes.

"Yes, you do. You care about me." Luke said simply.

"No, I do not. So shut your mouth and keep walking, farmboy," Mara snapped.

He was right though. As much as she didn't like to admit it, she cared about Luke Skywalker. She didn't like him enough to be friends with him, gods no, of course not, but she did still care about him in some capacity… //Which is still too much.// she scolded herself, //Arg. He's so annoying. How could I possibly care about him? He's too… moral and good. It bothers me. I could never like him. LIKE HIM! Ah. I mean care about him. A little. Not like… But then again…//

Luke only looked on in confusion as Mara smacked herself in the head and mumbled, "Idiot!" to herself. She had issues, he knew, but she had strange ways of dealing with them. He kept walking…

The night had fallen before Luke did, making getting up that much more difficult. He hated his new shoes; they needed to be broken in more. He grunted as he got up again, righted his bag mask, and called after Mara to wait up.

//Hmm. He does have a nice ass, though… AH WAIT. I wasn't supposed to think that! EW EW EW. No. I do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, like Luke Skywalker, nor do I think he is sexy. NO! Ah…! I'm here accompanying him on a mission for the New Republic, nothing more. I am not here because I like him… WHICH I DON'T!// Mara was fighting an internal battle and didn't even notice Luke yelling at her to slow down.

Why wasn't she hearing him? Did she have vegetation in her ears or something? "Maraaaa!" Luke called again, "SLOW DOWN! I fell and now my shoe is twisted!" She carried on walking. "MAAAAAARRRAAA!"

The sound of Luke screeching her name broke her thoughtful condition. "AH! What the hell are you yelling for, Skywalker?" Mara paused and looked around. "Skywalker? Yoo-hoo, farmboy…?"

"OVER. HERE!" he screamed from way behind her.

"Well, what the hell are you doing way over there? Move it!" Mara snapped and rolled her eyes. Some people could be so incapable.

Luke tsked and rolled his eyes, almost unconsciously, as he tried to move faster through the dense bushes. His efforts were in vain, however, it was impossible to walk at a reasonable pace when your new AstroFly walking shoe was twisted and disfigured around your foot! Honestly, why did they call them walking shoes when they do not compensate for such events as a fall? //Or maybe I'm clumsier than the average Jedi.//

"MARA. I can't move any faster! My shoe is twisted! Just wait for me to catch up!" he yelled at Mara, whose figure was slowly disappearing from sight.

"UGH!" was her reply. "FINE, you blasted Jedi. Can't you just fly yourself over here?"

Well, of course! Luke hadn't thought of that. //I suppose being a Jedi doesn't increase your brainpower all that much.// Luke pondered. He reached out with the Force and lifted himself into the air, gliding over to where Mara stood waiting for him.

"ABOUT TIME," she smacked him for effect. "You wasted a cargoload of time, Skywalker, so now we'll never get to that pile of mysterious rocks in the distance."

"Don't be so dramatic. Of course we will… just not today. And I don't feel anything from the Force that suggests those rocks are anything more than habitats for some nasty looking bugs. … I don't know about you, but I'm starved." And with that, Luke punched a mouth hole in his bagmask and began munching contentedly on a Desertberry Tropical Fruutail ration bar.

Mara stared at him blankly before sitting down and reluctantly consuming a ration bar as well. "So why do you like food so much?"

"Because it tastes good." Luke replied, fully immersed in his ration bar.

"I would have thought the all-knowing Jedi Master Skywalker would have a more profound reason, but alright… stranger things have happened." Mara shrugged. "Hey… these are actually pretty good…"

Before she knew it, Mara Jade had eaten four of the succulent ration bars and night had darkened its presence to almost pitch black. Mara stretched out and thought of what tomorrow would be like, making a mental plan of their estimated progress. They should reach the rocks sometime before Coruscant noon. She fell asleep almost instantly, dreaming of what that pile of semi-conspicuous rocks might mean.