Chapter 2

Valia carried the syrup module out of the small walk-in cooler in the back of the store and brought it to the front counter. She discarded the empty one from the dispenser and plugged in the new one. Maybe now she could get to that accounting work. Several customers moved away from the bar, leaving a gap through which she could see the outside tables. Then she saw him. There he was, taking a seat at the same table as three days before. She stared at him from under the sheltering roofed area behind the bar. Same nondescript tan and brown clothing as before, only this time he was enveloped in a dark, almost black cloak. Jinn, he'd said his name was. Qui-Gon. He absently picked up a fallen tree blossom from the table in front of him, closely examined it and flicked it aside. Oh, that tree, she thought disgustedly as she watched him pick up another and toss it. She really did feel fortunate to have it in front of her store and couldn't bear the thought of having the city remove it. There were precious few trees on Coruscant as it was. It was a reminder that seasons and nature did exist on the city-planet. But it made such a blasted mess every spring when it bloomed and dropped the pink tubular flowers all over the ground and her tables. How many times had she thought of calling her brother or one of her cousins about it? They probably knew of a way to treat it so it wouldn't be harmed, just not drop the flowers. At least in autumn the fallen leaves blew away and didn't stick like great pink slugs. Moving through the gap in the counter she gave a quick hand signal to the hovering utility droid. It obediently followed her as she headed in the Jedi's direction.

"Sorry about the mess," she said to him, picking up a flower from the ground. She held it in front of the droid's blank black eye. "Pick these up. From the tables, seats, and ground." She eyed it for a few seconds, making sure it did exactly as she asked. The last time, it had begun to pick them directly off the tree.

"Or I can get someone to move the table over," she offered quickly as she watched a blossom fall on his head, bounce off his nose and drop to the table in front of him.

"No, don't bother, that's quite all right," Qui-Gon said.

A waitress approached and took his order. Listening, Valia helped pick up flowers off the seats of the next table and took note of it. She liked to know what her regular customers ordered. She caught herself wondering if that's what he would be.

"Has your foul-mouthed friend stayed away from you?"

Valia stopped peeling flowers from the table surface and turned to him. "Ha! He was no friend of mine, that's for sure." She walked to the planter from which the tree grew and tossed the flowers over the short wall. "No, I haven't seen him since." She narrowed one dark eye and gave him a smiling, mock suspicious look. "You didn't go off afterwards and kill him, did you?"

Qui-Gon Jinn slowly leaned forward on his elbows. He looked to either side conspiratorially, then back at her. "Would you like me to?"

Valia's eyes widened. He had to be teasing her back. As appealing as the idea was, she herself had just been kidding. Wasn't he? There was just enough seriousness in his voice and face to make her wonder.

"I didn't mean...you're not supposed to...I don't...No!"

Amused, Qui-Gon smiled serenely and leaned back in his chair. He realized he probably shouldn't tease her, but sometimes it was a blunt way of taking measure of a person. And she seemed like a person who could give as good as she got.

"Can you sit down for a minute?"

Valia stared at him with what must have been a stunned 'who, me?' look on her face. Just like that, he was asking her to sit with him. She really needed to get to those accounts, boring as the work would be. She should blow him off, her normal course of action for an attentive male customer. But there was something so intriguing and dashing about him. Even if he did seem to turn her into a blathering idiot. Besides, she owned the place. She could do this. She sat with customers all the time. He didn't look quite as overwhelming when sitting. And he had been kind to her. She paused, trying to feel any peculiar tuggings or strong suggestions in her mind. There were none. But then would she be aware if he was using the Force on her?

Qui-Gon saw her suspicious hesitation and waited patiently, amused again. He'd vowed to himself he would not bend her will in any way if he encountered her again.

"That is, only if you want to. If you have time."

Valia paused another second, then approached his table. She pulled out the chair on the other side of it, feeling somehow more at ease with something solid between them. She casually sat, her back to the tree so she could keep an eye on the storefront and eating area. This was no big deal. She could do this, and without feeling like a skittish little girl. She jumped when a flower landed in front of her on the table.

"Is this your only store, or do you have others?"

"Right now, this is the only one. But I'm hoping to open another one sometime in the next year. It all depends on finding a good location. I'd prefer it to have access to the outside, like this one. This one has done very well." And so it had. The area was bustling with humans and several other species. Valia Traxis had tried to re-introduce a little nature back into the artificiality of Coruscanti life. Fruits, juices, extracts and preserves were imported from all over the galaxy and offered here, tastes of home for transplanted city dwellers. Her store was a colorful little oasis in a world of hard gray. Her customers seemed to truly enjoy the rustic, natural feel of this tiny corner of the plaza. She was offering them a part of herself, and making a successful livelihood of it. Qui-Gon sensed everything from the chairs designed with comfortable organic curves to the textured fabric swooping in loops from the overhang had been thoughtfully selected by her. Where an ordinary plastic bin would have served, she'd used woven baskets. She insisted on garnishes in all the fruit dishes and most of the drinks. There was an atmosphere of warmth and generosity that came from this place. From her.

She glanced over to a table full of noisy, juice-guzzling University students. A rakish dark-haired young man was doing a handstand. She smiled and looked fondly at them, shaking her head at the young man's foolery. She was wearing black trousers and short boots. A simple, loose, white, open-throated blouse completed her outfit. Her sleeves were rolled up to escape the ever-present fruit juice behind the bar. She'd removed her apron which had been stained with a watercolor of juices before coming out to the tables. The unfeminine attire only accented her all too feminine hips and legs. Her hair was artlessly bound up in a loose knot at the crown of her head. Several pale tendrils had escaped, one of which brushed the smooth skin below her collarbone. She kept absently pushing it back over her shoulder. Qui-Gon knew a nearly insane urge to touch it, to caress her. Even stronger than three days ago. Not less, as he had hoped. He hadn't touched a woman in any way more familiar than a handshake in over ten years, and suddenly that was all he wanted to do. He folded his arms inside the sleeves of his robe as if they needed more than his will to keep them obedient. Three days and nights of wondering if she was unharmed, wondering if those eyes were as beautiful as he'd thought they were, and a deep aggravation with himself for thinking so had finally driven him to walk over here. An apparent whim of fate had brought her straight to his table. He found himself wondering what she'd look like just out of bed in the morning, all tousled and silky. Wearing nothing but a smile. Appalled at the direction of his thoughts, he forced himself to listen to her, his face never betraying what was on his mind. This was a monumental personal distraction he did not need. Not ever, but especially not now. Obi-Wan was reaching critical junctures in his life and training, and he needed his full attention right now. And he was a Jedi Knight, a Master. His behavior was supposed to be above reproach. What was he doing? Qui-Gon Jinn paused to consider the question. It wasn't a question he ever asked himself. He wasn't sure he could produce an answer for it. He just did what he did. He sighed inwardly and resolved to somehow find the strength to banish this strange new preoccupation. In the mean time, he supposed it couldn't hurt to be friends with this Lia Traxis. She thought she appeared at ease in the chair across from him. One arm was loosely draped across the back, but he still sensed a tenseness in the way she sat, as though she needed to be on alert to run away. What was it about him that made her nervous, and what could he do to help her not feel that way? Her fingers had idly shredded the flower that had dropped on the table while talking to him.

"If you've been here only ten years, then you must not be a native Coruscanti."

"No, I'm originally from Nyme'. Most of my family is still there. But this is home for me."

Now he remembered where he'd heard the name Traxis before. A large, ancient and clannish family, they owned and operated extensive orchards and fruit-growing collectives on that Mid-Rim world. She told him about the planet, her family and their land, but he picked up indications that she wished to turn her back on her homeworld for some reason.

Valia found herself slowly growing more relaxed talking with Qui-Gon. He was finally asking her questions she could easily answer. Try as she might, she could detect no ulterior motive in his wanting to speak to her. He seemed to be content just passing the time in an idle chat, maintaining a polite eye contact. Still, she noted the way his blue eyes flicked interestedly over her during several points in the conversation. She wasn't sure whether to be relieved or alarmed at the sight of a normal male reflex in him. She couldn't quite think of him as ordinary. He seemed indefinably so much more than that.

By the time Qui-Gon's juice glass was empty, Valia realized she had done most of the talking, and she hardly knew any more about him than three days ago. How had that happened? With some chagrin, she pulled herself away from the table and vowed to herself the next time she saw him she would learn more about him. Would there be a next time? As he rose from his chair, she noticed one of the obnoxious pink flowers had caught on the hood of his robe. Common sense told her he probably wouldn't want to walk around with that. "Uh, Master Jinn, you've got..." she pointed to his upper back, then realized it would just be easier to pick it off herself. She cautiously reached up around him and plucked it from the fabric. She stepped back, suddenly feeling uncharacteristically shy. What was wrong with her? She wasn't bothered by physically big men, but she was acutely aware of this peculiar larger than life aura surrounding him. She forced herself to look up at him. He really had the kindest smile. It was squeezing the outer corners of his eyes into crinkles. He gave her another one of those courtly bows, thanked her for the pleasure of her company, and was off with a swirl of dark robe. She watched his long, rolling stride take him out of sight, back to the Temple presumably. She stood lost in thought near the table several seconds after he'd disappeared.

"Hobnobbing with Jedi Knights now, are we?"

Valia turned to the wickedly handsome student who'd been doing the handstand earlier.

"Peel it and stuff it, Ravi," Valia said sweetly, walking back to the counter. "It's not like they don't come here almost every day."

"You don't sit down at tables with them every day."

She wadded up the flower she'd picked off Qui-Gon and pelted it at him.

"Hey!" he protested as it struck him wetly on his ear.

Ravi Brillion was one of her best friends and one of the first she'd made upon her arrival to Coruscant. Several years younger than her, he was a perpetual student of various performing arts or whatever happened to catch his interest. He was constantly in the middle of dreaming up and writing plays in the hopes they'd one day be wildly successful. An expert dancer, he often partnered Valia in the many dance clubs they frequented around the City. He'd also introduced her to the sport of building-climbing and para-gliding. He filled the role of adventurous younger brother and, at times, son in Valia's life. But every time she felt the relationship was a little too one-sided, such as when she was rescuing him from some drunken adventure or one of his passionate political protests, he'd do something to come through for her. Most of the time he simply kept the laughter in her life. It was an odd but enduring relationship.

Valia sensed Ravi was going to be a complete pest about seeing her talking with the Jedi Master, so she decided to fill him in. "This one did me a little favor the other day," she said returning behind the counter.

Ravi theatrically jerked his head back in surprise. Then he leaned forward on the counter expectantly. "Ooh, do tell..."

So she told him and the rest of the group of friends clustered at the counter what had happened three days before. When she finished, they all erupted at once.

"I'd have kicked this guy's ass to Tatooine and back..."

"Lia, why didn't you say anything..."

"I'd have dragged him to a dream shop and made them wire him so he'd have everything he said to you done to himself..."

"What the hell do you mean they just 'suggested'..."

"Didn't they even use their lightsabers?"

"They should have sliced off his--"

Valia was laughing at their belated macho protectiveness. "No, no, they never used their lightsabers. Except maybe to let him see they had them." They all turned into little boys when it came to the subject of Jedi Knights and lightsabers. Even though it was impossible to become one unless one was born with a high midichlorian count and chosen by the Order, children and young people everywhere dreamed on. They had their own ideas for how to employ the classic Jedi weapons, as well. It was fortunate they'd never get their hands on them.

"I'd have made this loser dance if I had a lightsaber." Paccaia was skilled with metal swords and bars, and was making thrusts and swipes in the air with an imaginary weapon.

"Yeah, the real story isn't very exciting." This from Bracca.

"Well, excuse me for sticking to the facts," Valia laughed. But then, I really didn't tell you the exciting part, which I still don't quite understand myself, she mused. She pulled datapads and cards out of a cubbyhole in the back wall of the store. Ravi was already satirizing the event which he'd been nowhere near to witness.

"Oh, Padawan-boy," he intoned in a comically deep, stern voice. He stared down his nose at an imaginary offensive object on the ground. "Remove this piece of dung from the lady's sight." He waved imperiously with his hand. Valia snorted and rolled her eyes.