The nighttime animal noises did little to help matters. Mara fumed as she took her clothes out of her small travel bag and punched them into the small dresser in her equally small room at that infuriatingly small Jedi Academy. With every thrust of her hands, she imagined slamming Skywalker right in the nose.

Nice thought.

She was running through her rather extensive list of curses and insults, all of them directed at a certain Jedi Master, while she tried to convince herself that there was some possible way to enjoy being trapped on Yavin IV for as long as Skywalker decided to hold on to her hyperdrive motivators. Of course, there was always the option of finding Skywalker and physically beating the parts out of him.

Nicer thought.

Mara took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. Violence was her usual answer to most of the problems that came her way, but lately she'd been thinking that that might not be the perfect mindset for dealing with the Jedi. As much as she hated to admit it, Skywalker was almost assuredly a better fighter than she, especially when his mastery of the Force made her proficiency pale in comparison.

She just couldn't figure out why she kept rebuffing Skyalker and his constant recruitment pitches. If he thought that she could be a powerful Jedi, then why shouldn't she take him up on his offer? Afterall, he was the acknowledged authority in things concerning the Force.

Mara thought back over the developments of the last few hours. He was also the person to trap her here on that stupid backwater planet. She sighed. It's not that she really hated Yavin IV, it's just that it was a jungle world. Ergo, it was hot and humid, all the time, and she hated sleeping in hot, humid weather. She muchly preferred Coruscant and its more moderate climate. Fortunatly, she'd lucked out and had (accidentally) come prepared.

Mara pulled out the last article from her bag and regarded it with a critical eye. It looked like it would fit the bil for her temporary home.

Oh, well, Mara decided, stripping out of her jumpsuit and into the sleepwear. As was normal, it was going to be a warm night on Yavin IV, so she slid into her small cot and tried to sleep.

A few hours of surprisingly comforting sleep later, Mara awoke to a dark feeling in the back of her mind, a feeling of something... not right. The tremor in the Force rippled on the edges of her waking mind before vanishing completely. Mara blinked her eyes and sat up in her bed, trying to decide if she'd actually felt what she thought she did or if it was just a dream.

She focused on what she'd felt, but only remembered vague impressions. A dream, she decided and flopped back down, trying to get back to sleep. No such luck. Her mind just wouldn't let her take that easy route. Grumbling, she stood up after half an hour of tossing and turning, and left to find the only person who could possibly give her answers.

Mara knocked on Skywalker's door quietly, hoping to avoid disturbing any of the his students, whom would no doubt need every scrap of sleep they could get. She knew just how hard Skywalker drove his students, how difficult Jedi training was. When she got no answer, she simply opened the door and walked into his room.

She made her way through the antechamber and into the bedroom proper, where she promptly froze in place, her jaw going slack.

Apparently, Skywalker felt the same way about Yavin nights as she did, since he slept with very little clothing on. Mara could now personally attest to that fact. Against her will and better judgement, Mara just stood in the door to his bedroom and watched him. Her eyes started at the headboard of his bed and slowly worked their way down, her mouth getting progressivly drier. She knew that Jedi training was mentally and spiritually demanding, and understood that it was physically intensive as well, but she didn't realize just how much physical work was involved until she saw the results displayed before her.

She was shocked to find herself disapointed when her traveling eyes discovered a scrap of cloth that passed for a sheet covering Skywalker's... modesty. She stayed that way for a long moment, enjoying the sight before slapping herself in the face, trying to drive away such thoughts about Skywalker, of all people!

Finding new reserves of resolve, Mara strode to his bedside and tapped him on the shoulder. Nothing. She tapped harder. Still nothing. Smirking to herself, she decided to enter his mind and wake him up using the Force. Maybe that would finally get him off her back about training harder.

As she focused her mind onto his, she easily slipped past his sleeping defenses and looked into his mind. He was dreaming of... red-gold hair?

Mara could feel the heat rising in her face, and covered up her discomfort by smacking Skywalker on the shoulder.

"Wake up. I'm even better in real life," she stated.

"I warned you what would happen if you ever invaded my mind," Skywalker sleepily responded.

"If I invaded your mind, you'd never wake up," she threw back at him, impressed despite herself at how quickly he shifted from deep sleep to awake enough to hold a conversation.

"You're free to try whenever you like," he challenged, eyes still closed.

"I'll remember that. But I didn't come here to fight with you. I need your help. I think I sensed something during the night. I'm not sure if I did or not, so I need your opinion."

"Mara, it's two in the morning. Don't you think this could wait until morning?"

"If I thought that, I wouldn't be in your room at this hour!" she seethed back at him.

"Are you sure about that?" he muttered softly, eyes still closed and mind drifting back to sleep. Mara smacked him again and walked over to his door.

"I'm serious. What ever I felt, if anything, was really disturbing. Meet me in the kitchen." Skywalker gave up with a sigh that was half a yawn.

"I'll be ready by the time you're dressed," he said.

Mara smirked and turned back to face him. She reached up and snapped the slender strap of her skimpy sleepwear. "Well, I am dressed."

Skywalker's eyes flew open.

Her new sleep garment had cost a rather exorbitant amount of money, money that now seemed well-spent. It was a top-of-the-line brandname article.

Funny how "brandname" usually meant "revealing".

She allowed Luke the barest moment's view of her wearing it, in all of its tight, curve-hugging, revealing splendor. Then she spun on her heel and started to walk out. She could feel his eyes watching her, and that only put extra slink into her hips as she sashayed out of the room, grinning ear-to-ear.

Somehow, the rest of her stay on Yavin IV was looking to be much more entertaining.

Two of Master Skywalker's students were out, prowling the hallways in a bout of insomnia when they heard a door close. They walked towards the sound, and realized that it was the Master's door closing. They looked at each other, shrugged, and moved foreward.

Then they saw Mara Jade swagger out of his room in what had to be the galaxy's skimpiest, sexiest woman's night clothing possible. And she was grinning.

They looked at each other again for a moment, each processing what they'd seen.

"Naaah," they said to each other and quickly walked away.