Chapter 7

"So very serious today, Obi-Wan," Valia remarked to him, strolling past his table to check on him. As if he wasn't equally as serious every day. She stopped behind him. "What are you looking at?"

Obi-Wan looked up from the large data screen he was frowning over. He sighed. "Hyperdrive generator schematics."

Valia grimaced, looking over his shoulder. "Looks like the inside of a rotted out liantium tree." She peered at the complicated diagrams. She could take apart and trouble-shoot her small droids and some of her equipment, but she had utterly no clue what these meant. Curiosity piqued, she leaned her arms on the back of a nearby chair. "Why are you studying these?"

"Qui-Gon and the other masters believe it 's good to pick an area of interest and become proficient in it, to better serve others. It's also a good idea to have something to fall back on in case...well, in case you don't pass the Trials and become a Knight."

Wash out of the program? Valia hadn't known that could happen. She understood the life of a Padawan-learner was difficult and they faced great pressure, but she had little idea of what the specific details of the daily life of a Jedi-in-training were.

"Well, I suppose that's very practical thinking, don't you think so?" She chose not to patronize him and merely tell him she knew he'd succeed. She was sure he'd make a great Jedi Knight.

"Oh yes, it is."

"Need a refill on that juice?"

"Yes, please," Obi-Wan said, rubbing his eyes. Valia went to the bar and quickly returned with a pitcher and refilled his glass. She also slipped a plate of sliced beomunti on the table next to his elbow. She smiled and winked at him. "I'll leave you alone now," she said and left the pitcher on the table for him. She'd sweeten up the boy yet. She had resisted the urge to ask him where Qui-Gon was. She no longer bothered denying to herself the daily hope that she'd see him. But lately she'd distinctly sensed disapproval in his student. Disapproval aimed at any attention she gave to Qui-Gon. She'd also caught what she was sure were the same looks at Qui-Gon when he gave her any attention, but more covert and hidden. Could he be jealous of her? Or was he just trying to steer his master away from doing anything embarrassing or forbidden? The last thing she wanted to do was come between master and apprentice or cause trouble for them. But Qui-Gon had become a fairly regular fixture at her business. Sometimes alone, sometimes with Obi-Wan. They'd appear for days at a time and then vanish for weeks. She'd catch herself worrying and wondering about them until they reappeared at the table under the tree as mysteriously as they'd gone.

Qui-Gon often spoke to her, but just as often left before she could find the time or excuse to approach him. It was probably better that way. She reasoned if she could just dismiss this huge attraction to him as just an adolescent crush that would never amount to anything and eventually fade, well, that's exactly what would happen. So then why did it never seem to lessen? She was fond of him and his dry humor and wise observations on life, and enjoyed his reassuring presence. Watching out for her, or watching her? She wasn't sure which. When his eyes were on her she felt the most curious sensation that he was trying to tell her things with them, as if all she needed to do was look deeply into them and they could have entire wordless conversations. So far she'd thwarted him by either closing her eyes or looking away. She wasn't sure she wanted him to see what was on her mind.

She propped her elbows on the bar counter. No customers needed waiting on and inventory ordering was taken care of. She could do something serious, like continue her search for a new store location. She eyed a basket on the counter full of Malastarian melons. Or she could see if she still knew how to juggle. The pink and purple striped globes were about the right size. Normally this was something she might holler at Ravi for doing, but...he wasn't here now. And the place was nearly deserted at the moment. She picked three melons out of the basket and moved outside in front of the counter where she'd have more room. She held one in one hand and two in the other, trying to remember how to start. She hefted them, gauging their weight. She gently popped them into the air, and surprised herself when her hands remembered what to do and she kept them from falling. She concentrated on only moving her forearms and wrists, keeping her upper arms still. Chuluk snorted with amusement at his employer from behind the counter where he was restocking drinkware. Valia continued, wondering how to stop. She glanced out at Obi-Wan. He was staring at her, openly curious, hyperdrive schematics completely ignored. She stopped juggling and caught the fruits awkwardly. She grinned at him. He smiled back. On sheer impulse, Valia tossed him a melon. He caught it and looked at it as if unsure what to do with it. He politely tossed it back to her. Her grin widened. The boy showed every sign of growing up to be far more aloof, serious and introspective than even his master.

"What do you like to do for fun, Obi-Wan?" Valia walked over to his table. The young Jedi looked at her as if she'd asked him to sit on the melon and hatch a rancor.

"Fun?"

"Yeah. You know, what you do in your spare time. Amusement. Hobbies. Entertainment. Playing. Goofing off."

"We never 'goof off'," he said a little loftily. Valia laughed with delight at him. Of course he wouldn't.

"A thousand pardons, oh serious one. But surely there must be something, even if you don't call it goofing off. A famous philosopher once said 'change of work is rest', but some deep thinker from my own world noted that humans are notorious for craving play, that it's a sign of great intelligence. I like his thinking better."

Obi-Wan Kenobi thought about this. Valia nearly laughed out loud again at the way his brow furrowed. He was serious about even this.

"Well, I used to enjoy building little model ships and fighters. I like swimming. And I do really enjoy saber practice. I suppose I look on that as fun."

"Hmmmm. That still sounds too much like work."

"It does?"

"Here. While you think about that, can you juggle?" She tossed him the melons one after another.

"I don't know. I've never done it before."

"I'll bet with your reflexes you could pick it up in a minute."

Obi-Wan examined the melons in his hands. He stood up.

"Practice with just two to start. Hold your hands out like this." She gently moved his arms into the right position. "Your palms will do most of the work, popping them in the air. Try to never let them go higher than your forehead, so you can always keep your eyes on them."

He looked at her again as if expecting to be the butt of some joke. Valia shrugged and smiled. "Are you worried Qui-Gon is going to see you?"

"I'm supposed to be studying. That's what he left me here to do," he said stiffly.

"And so you were. I saw you. But you need regular breaks from it, too. Your eyes won't get strained, and it's a better way to study. Just tell him you were practicing your hand-eye coordination," she said, her smile taking on a sly look. She just absolutely had to see him do something frivolous.

Obi-Wan shrugged and threw himself into a concentrated effort to learn this new skill. With much laughing and fumbling, Valia taught him in stages. Learning how to juggle yourself was one thing, but teaching it to someone else was entirely different. She demonstrated it for him by doing it herself several times. He tried again and again, a look of concentration on his face, to do as he'd seen Lia doing. At last he seemed to pick up the pattern. He found the rhythm and sustained it. A smile broke over his face as he kept all three melons moving in the air.

"Unbelievable. What did I tell you?" Valia watched him with her hands on her hips. "It took me months to learn how to do that. Months!"

Obi-Wan kept juggling, not wanting to lose the rhythm. He studied the pattern the fruit made. This was easy. "I think I see openings for more. There could be more melons in the gaps between the other ones." His eyes quickly flicked at them. "Toss me a couple more, I want to try it."

"Show-off!" laughed Valia as she went to fetch more melons from the basket. "I think I've created a monster..." But she was happy to see him actually playing.

When she returned, he stopped, catching the melons against his chest.

"Hold two in each hand, and when you've got the hang of four, which should be no problem now that you've mastered three, we'll see if you can do five, which I can't do myself."

Obi-Wan continued to juggle melons. When the time came to try five, he was determined to succeed at it, just to master the skill, but also because she couldn't do it. He had almost succeeded in trying to keep five in the air when he fumbled. Trying to catch the suddenly slippery, round melons he missed one and it landed on the stone with a messy splatter. Both he and Valia stared at it for a second, then simultaneously burst into laughter.

"Oops," observed Obi-Wan, grinning at her.

"Oops," agreed Valia, laughing through her hands. Obi-Wan lifted up a booted foot, checking for bits of melon and juice. This struck Valia as particularly funny and made her laugh all the more. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she had to lean on a nearby table. It was too hilarious. It served him right. She was trying to tell him she would go get him a towel when suddenly he wasn't laughing with her any more and a shadow had fallen over the melon at their feet.

"Master," he said softly, his head bowed.

Qui-Gon studied the two of them for several long seconds, one the contrite padawan, the other the hauntress of his dreams, and anything but contrite. Her eyes were still sparkling with merriment from beneath her bangs. He should have expected to find Obi-Wan doing something uncharacteristic after being too long in this place. It seemed to have that effect on them. Or rather its owner did.

He'd watched them for some time from a distance away on the plaza. The sunlight gleamed off their hair as they stood together, most brightly on Lia's. She was wearing the most casual attire he'd seen her in yet: flat slippers, loose satiny trousers and a sleeveless shirt. The perfect clothing for playing on a warm day such as this. And there she was, playing with his protege'. Even from here he could hear that musical laugh of hers, as she touched his hands and moved his arms just so, encouraging him, or as she demonstrated for him. He should have felt mildly annoyed. Perhaps exasperated. Most likely a well-practiced void of feeling would have been the expected reaction from within him. But he was completely unprepared for the crushing wave of emotion that threatened to flatten him where he stood. He closed his eyes against it, against the pain, the stunning bliss of it. There was no willing the feeling away. It made no sense. The only word that his wildly searching mind could find for it was love. He was in love with her. Loved her. Is that what this was? He stopped struggling to fight it, stopped trying to analyze it and rationalize it away. He let it wash through him. It was just so much easier. He'd worry about what to do about it later. For now he concentrated on gaining control over his heart rate and breathing, and the tightness in his throat and chest.

His apprentice remained where he was, his head lowered, waiting for his instructions or reaction. He was sensing for his mood and erring on the side of caution. Obi-Wan felt something intense, but strangely being kept from him.

"Obi-Wan. Take those back to the counter now," Qui-Gon said softly.

"Yes, Master," Obi-Wan answered, clutching the four remaining melons and moved to obey.

Valia studied Qui-Gon's face as he thoughtfully watched his student. She made herself keep her eyes on it to see if she could read him. And she'd had enough of the way she became outrageously demure around him. She was relieved to see he apparently wasn't upset with them. Not angry, but definitely deep in thought.

"He's not going to be in trouble, is he?"

Qui-Gon turned to look down at her. She maintained eye contact with him. "I started this. I'm sorry if he is."

"No. He's not," he answered slowly.

"Well then... am I in trouble?" she probed after a curious pause. Had she broken some Jedi taboo by causing his apprentice to goof off? His face was its usual contemplative mask, but there seemed to be a lot going on behind it. His eyes looked dark and mysterious, from some trick of the light maybe. He looked at her for so long she nearly did what she swore she wouldn't do and drop her gaze. There was a surprising amount of warmth in the way he was looking at her.

"Possibly," he said. "But not in the way you think."

Valia put her hands on her hips and gave him a tilt-headed quizzical look at this enigmatic statement. My dear, he thought, you've never seen a man whose heart has just been ripped free of its moorings for you? A smile spread over his face and he laughed. Just one short laugh upwards to the sunny sky. She stared at his adam's-apple, startled because this was the last thing she'd expected, and because she instinctively knew it was a rare thing. Well, it had been pretty funny to see Obi-Wan juggling fruit. But there had to be something else behind his good humor.

She felt an intense rush of desire for him again, similar to the very first, but this time tempered with a longing to know the man, his thoughts, his fears, his dreams. Her knees nearly went weak with it. She leaned on the back of a chair with what she hoped was a casual-looking move. She'd never wanted anyone so fiercely before, not even as a teenaged girl. When he leaned forward and lightly brushed her shoulder affectionately, she closed her eyes and swallowed hard. Her skin tingled where he'd drawn his fingertips over it.

Then Obi-Wan was there again, and the current between them was broken. Qui-Gon clapped a companionable hand down on his padawan's shoulder.

"Enough playing with food for today, young Obi-Wan. We need to go. Didn't Lia tell you how easily those melons bruise?" He slanted a smile at her. She could only give him a weak, abashed smile in return.

Obi-Wan's relief was evident on his face. He gave Lia a questioning look. Had she come to his defense? There was definitely something between her and Qui-Gon, but he couldn't quite pin it down. His master seemed to have put up walls against him lately. And what was it in their conversation that had made him laugh? And then touch her like that? He wasn't sure, but the Jedi council and the Order would most likely frown upon and strongly discourage this. Just how far had this gone? Another suspicion hovered at the back of his mind. He wondered if he had just failed some test. Study without being distracted. Had they collaborated on this? Was this just another excuse for his master to be near her every chance he got? Why was he so interested in her?

Qui-Gon had once told him that an overly suspicious mind was an open gate to the Dark Side. He frowned. It shouldn't be any of his business. He didn't like questioning his master's actions and decisions. All his training told him he should not. But still... He was still shaking off the chagrin of having Qui-Gon catch him at fooling around. He decided he didn't like this unusual situation as he collected his data screen and they walked away.

Valia gave in to the urge to sit down and daydream for just a minute. Bracca, Paccaia and Ravi found her a short while later, staring into space, sitting next to a shattered melon.