At long last, Valia confessed being a bit chilled. Qui-Gon helped her out of the pool. They picked the flower petals off one another, with much amusement over some of the places they had gotten stuck. He helped her into the deep warm soaking tub. She sank up to her shoulders into the heat with a long sigh and made herself comfortable across from him.

They talked about swimming, and when they had first learned how. Qui-Gon had learned at the age of two, while Valia had been the ripe age of seven. And then they talked of fish.

"I haven't told you the fish story from when I was nine years old," he said thoughtfully.

Valia sat upright. "You have a fish story? Do tell."

"Since I got in so much trouble for it, I believe this might qualify as one of those 'sordid details' you wanted to hear."

"I'm all ears." She leaned forward in the water, her eyes sparkling.

It was common, Qui-Gon began, for young children and students to take their turns at domestic chores around the Temple until they became Padawan learners or graduated into another phase of Jedi life. It was naturally part of early training in humility and service, to teach that no task was beneath any member of the Jedi Temple community. It seemed one of the most universally disliked were kitchen duties. Of these, overseeing kitchen garbage removal was the most reviled. Qui-Gon's turn had come around, and he had just finished making the rounds, ensuring all the bins had been emptied and the filled hauler was waiting on the loading dock for the automated transport to take it away in the morning. He had slipped to the edge of the dock for a moment of solitude, relatively clean air, and stargazing, such as it was on Coruscant. It was then that he noticed the tank of freshly delivered live fish. Actually he had noticed them long before he even saw the tank. He had heard their voices in his subconscious for some time before he realized what they were. He heard their longing to be free and their dislike of this close confinement. He felt it. It had been so subtle, at first he had thought it was his own longing for a life as a full-grown Knight, and his future. He had lifted the lid, and looked inside at the fish destined for the Temple tables.

"They didn't buy bulk frozen filets?" his economic-minded lover asked, as she comfortably propped her legs atop his beneath the water.

Qui-Gon shrugged. "The fish always tasted fresh, I hadn't realized just how fresh it was."

Anyway, he had found out later that this species needed to be prepared at the last possible moment for ideal freshness and nutrition. And that the humane methods the Temple cooks used to dispatch them were trustworthy. But at that moment, all he had known was that he was deeply disturbed. As he had looked down on the smooth backs and long fins in the water, an idea had come to him that he had been unable to put aside, even hours later as he tossed and turned on his pallet.

"So, I set them free."

"You set them free? But where?"

"Back on their home planet."

"You must have become quite well acquainted with them in such a short time," teased Valia. "That's cute. But that doesn't sound like something to get into too much trouble for."

"It wasn't so much setting the fish free, as it was the means to my end."

"Oh?"

"I, ahhh, borrowed a Master's written signature to authorize the transfer, and the funds to cover the cost of shipping them back and releasing them."

Valia gasped and laughed. "You forged a signature and stole credit. At the age of nine."

"Copied, and took out a loan," he corrected with a twinkle in his eye.

"I assume you were punished for such heinous deeds?"

"Yes: a very long talk with Yoda about what I could and could not control; about foods being a personal choice; and the intimate relationship of death with life. Earning all the credit back to pay for shipping, and kitchen garbage duty for six months," Qui-Gon said. "Including cleaning out the inside of the hauler."

Valia grimaced and laughed again. "That's how I learned to hold my breath for so long," he said. "Without a breather."

"Oh, sure."

"It's true," he insisted. Then a look came over his face, one Valia would have said was downright mischievous. Complete with the off-center smile.

"Would you like to see how long I can hold my breath?"

Valia wondered what he had in mind. What she had in mind was leading him back toward the bedroom, to do something about the slow fire that had been burning in her for the last few hours. The fire that had been fueled by their play and their closeness, and the sight of his very well constructed, naked wet body.

"Should I sit here and time you?" she asked lazily, her hands idly playing with the water currents on the surface.

"If you like," he said. He took a deep breath and ducked his head beneath the water, his brown hair disappearing in the swirling bubbles. Valia gasped as she felt his hands go around her hips and reposition her. He made a new, small trail of bubbles that trickled up her stomach and between her breasts. He gently spread her legs. She then realized exactly what he had in mind, and flung her arms up and back to hold on to the curving edges of the tub. She groaned and lay her neck back against the rounded lip of the tub as he began to intimately pleasure her with his mouth. She completely lost all sense of how long he had been under, but before too much more time passed, she cried out and arched her back. Qui-Gon resurfaced, his skin rosy from being submerged in the warm water, and wearing a smile much like the one he'd had before, only dripping wet now. He caught Valia as she sagged limply into the water, nearly going under. Her limbs were like warm rubber.

"So...did you time me?"

Valia closed her eyes and grinned drunkenly. "I forgot." She ran a tongue across the swell of his chest and lightly scraped her teeth across a nearby nipple, making him flinch. She took a mouthful of his skin and played her tongue over it.

"Hungry little wench," he murmured, beginning to imagine that lovely mouth doing the same thing to him in another area. She went still and frowned into space, looking as though she was trying to remember something.

"I really am hungry. Ravenous, actually. I think we forgot to eat. How about you?"

"As sweet as you taste, and as satisfying as that was," he said, "Yes, I'm still hungry."

Valia smirked at him. "You stay here. I'll take care of this." She dripped water all over him as she climbed past him out of the tub. Qui-Gon sighed with mild regret at her leaving and told himself to be patient. He helped her as she climbed so she wouldn't slip. She squawked and swatted his hand when he helped himself to a generous pinch of her backside.

"I won't order any fish," she said over her shoulder with a wink.

A short while later, they were seated cross-legged by the side of the pool with a small feast spread out picnic style between them. Valia put on one of the robes while Qui-Gon was content to wrap a towel around his waist. They ate without speaking too much, and without any playful games with the food, they were that hungry. They contentedly watched the glittering streams of Coruscant's traffic pass by outside as they shared their meal.

Qui-Gon left her for a moment amid the discarded sandwich wrappings and fruit rinds and pits, and returned from the bedroom with his datapad. And to her laughing disbelief, he retrieved page upon page of poetry from it. He seemed to have stored an entire library of it in its memory banks, selected from as far back as five thousand years of writings from all over the galaxy. Then, sitting before her, he began to read aloud. He read her love poems. He read her romantic and erotic pieces, both silly and serious. Valia put her hands over her face and bent forward in a vain effort to cover her wild blush and contain her self-conscious laughter. She saw his lips twitch as he fought to keep from laughing himself, but his low, accented voice did not falter. He read to her an entire sonnet devoted to describing the beauty of the curves of the human female form. After a while she was able to stop laughing and went quiet. When he glanced up from his pad during a poem written by a soldier for his wife, she had rested the side of her face in her hand. She was listening to him, watching him, a soft glow in her dark eyes and on her lamp-lit face.

Valia soon wanted to explore the shower. She carried a dozen or so of the oil lamps into the bathroom. Qui-Gon heard her happily humming to herself over the running water as he did some quick picking up after their late dinner. Then he followed her into the room to join her.

They washed each other. Valia was sure she had never in her life been as clean as she was that night. She made no protest as he slipped behind her to start lathering her back and kept right on going to cover the rest of her. His big hands moved over her skin with loving reverence. When he got to her hair, she nearly dozed off as his hands massaged and lulled her head. He carefully rinsed the length of it with a pitcher.

When her skin was tingling and she was clean and rinsed down to every single one of her toes, he let her turn her attention to him. She took the same care with him as he had done with her, reveling in the long soapy slide of her hands over his skin. She took the time to pay attention to every detail, to focus as he did, and had shown her how to do. All the small things she thought she saw when she looked at him, she re-learned. The scars, the tiny brown spot there on his shoulder, the mole on his flank. And even the bright silver-gray hair that stood out among the others at the base of his stomach. When he noticed her scrutiny in that particularly sensitive area, he looked down to see what it was that had evidently caught her attention.

"It's nothing. Nothing you haven't already seen yourself, I'm sure," Valia insisted with a smile, standing and putting aside the soft sponge she had been using.

Qui-Gon looked down at himself, and then he saw it. He plucked the rogue hair free with a quick tug and held it up before his eyes. No, as a matter of fact, he hadn't seen this before. Certainly not in that area. The expression on his face at the sight of it caused Valia to clamp her lips shut and turn away to hide the laughter that threatened to burst out of her. She busied herself with looking over the selection of moisturizers and various scented oils in an alcove of the shower.

"They say three more gray hairs take the place of every one you pull out," she said as nonchalantly as she was able.

"Naturally, you would think this is funny."

"I'm not laughing at you," she fibbed. She opened a bottle and sniffed the contents. Not caring for it, she closed it and took down another. She stifled a snort, and her water-slick back and shoulders shook with laughter.

Qui-Gon smiled and folded his arms. "Go ahead and laugh. Just because yours are few years off yet, and might be harder to see..."

"I'll have you to go looking for them," she said.

Yes, she would. Here was something else he wanted: someone to grow old with, who would laugh and poke fun at the process the whole way. His dear apprentice would pass the Trials and move on, to have his own life and his own Padawan-learners. But for the rest of his life, Qui-Gon would never be lonely again. And he would not lack for laughter. He had her.

Qui-Gon sank to his knees so she could wash his hair. She took her time, as he had done with her, working the lather in. Her hands gently moved back and forth, slowly rocking his head. He blissfully closed his eyes.

They had been carrying on a running conversation that contained many one-syllable responses and was broken by many long pauses. The subjects of Qui-Gon's remaining years as a Knight and the Jedi Council were among the things they talked about.

"I don't deny their wisdom, but what a unique bunch," Valia said. "Do you suppose they'd be a little less stuffy if they tried things like this once in a while?" she asked.

Qui-Gon cracked open one eye. "I doubt it."

"Well, too bad. Maybe they all need to get laid," she declared.

Qui-Gon tipped his head back to look at her face. The sheer irreverence of the comment combined with her serious expression was too much. His cheeks creased with laugh lines as he let loose a full laugh that echoed off the walls. Valia grinned as she took in the rare sight of his bared teeth, and the longer pointed one on the right side of his mouth. She reached for the pitcher and filled it from the shower to begin rinsing his hair. She snickered as she began to think a little too much about what she had just said.

"I sincerely hope that's a job in the Temple you have not thought about volunteering to help with," he teased. He snapped his eyes shut just before she up-ended the entire pitcher over his face.

They stayed in the shower until the skin of their fingers began to wrinkle. They stood together while untold gallons of luxurious warm water sprayed, cascaded or rained down on them, depending what setting Valia turned to. Finally Qui-Gon put an end to her playing with the water adjustments. One playful kiss led to another and soon they lost their playful nature and became quite serious. He flattened her against the smooth stone wall and they melted together in an ardent embrace, their wet skin pressed together. They drank deeply of each other, each helping the other to take it slowly and enjoy. Qui-Gon savored the silky smooth wetness of her cheek where his nose pressed against it, and the tickle of her droplet-sparkled lashes against his face. She languorously pulled her parted lips across his face and tugged lightly on his lower lip. Her arms were wrapped around his shoulders, tangling in his wet dark hair. Her hand rested on a shoulder next to the dark wall, and the ring there caught the lamplight and shimmered through the ripple of water that ran over it.

They dried each other off. Valia smoothed some scented oil over her own skin and his. She'd fallen for its woodsy, citrusy fragrance. It was vaguely familiar, as if she had smelled it before, but she couldn't recall when or where. Qui-Gon picked her up and carried her back out to the pool area and laid her down on some of the blanket-sized towels on the floor. They made love there, twisted together near the water's edge. He lay over her, and with easy strength, gave her the release she was craving. Qui-Gon held himself still in her weak embrace as she regained her breath. She opened her eyes and moved her hips to pleasure him.

"Now you," she whispered raggedly.

A very carefully controlled smile slid across his face. "In a while," he said calmly, not moving, locking them both in place.

Valia lightly slapped his biceps. "Show-off!" she gasped and lay her head back and closed her eyes. He was giving new meaning to the term staying power.

He rolled them over, reversing their positions and wrapped his arms around her, tangling his hands through her swaying, damp locks. Gray hairs be damned, she was making him feel like he was about Obi-Wan's age again. With a great effort, he restrained himself and her, and she rested on top of him for a while. Then he turned her around so her back was against him and he curled forward to spoon her. He softly nuzzled the corner of her neck and shoulder with his lips while his hands moved slowly up and down over her, caressing her breasts, torso, hip, groin and thighs. She rested her hands atop his, loosely lacing her fingers with his. The sensation of feeling herself through his hands was shockingly intimate. Every soft swell and hollow, every cell of her skin tingled under the slow pass of his strong but gentle hands. Never had she so been the focus of someone's complete attention before. Wordlessly they shifted to their knees and he was inside her once more. He held her upright in front of him. She groaned softly at the unexpected position. But he was so strong he held her easily, and she was limber. He was slowly taking her apart, but there was the unspoken promise he would put her back together again. With little more coaxing, he sent her into another jarring climax. At last he let himself go, shuddering and resting his forehead in her hair.

They lay down on their sides again. "Sleep," Valia murmured an indistinct amount of time later.

"Mmm." Qui-Gon answered with a low rumble.

"Let's sleep right here," she suggested.

They roused themselves enough to lay enough towels and blankets to make a bed there near the pool and hot tub. They lay down face to face, and fell asleep pillowed on each other's hair in the dewy warmth of the room.

Some time later, Valia woke. She had no idea what time it was. The silvery light of the city nightscape had dimmed somewhat in the very early morning hour. She lay still, vaguely wondering what had woken her from such a deep and restful sleep. Probably only a passing freighter or an unfamiliar noise in the building. Qui-Gon lay close to her, on his back, his head turned toward her. She expected to see the reflection of the lights sparkling in his eyes as they opened. But they remained closed and he continued to breathe evenly, his smooth chest slowly rising and falling. She watched him with a growing delight. This was only the second time she had ever seen him sleeping. Except for one occasion after he had returned from a mission on the brink of physical breakdown, he always woke before she did, and fell asleep after she did. Valia held very still, not wanting to break whatever spell had allowed her to see him this way. His short brows were relaxed in an open, content expression on his face. Not quite, but almost a smile. A pulse beat steadily in the deep apex of his throat. Her eyes took in the scattering of dark hairs below his jaw before they gathered into his beard, the tight wrinkles in his neck where it was turned, and the fuzzy, mostly dried hair tucked behind one ear. Send him off to some Jedi retreat indeed, she thought. That wasn't what he needed. What the man needed was right here and now, she thought with satisfaction. Several hours of love and a good night's sleep. She carefully lay her head back down again and returned to sleep, her eyes on him until they closed.

She was dimly aware she had slept for a couple hours and awoken again. She felt herself against Qui-Gon and his arm around her. He was slowly moving, pressing against her. She couldn't decide if she should protest as she felt him very slowly entering her. Again? She made a little groan. A nice way to wake up, to be sure, but after last night... Her mind fuzzily began to comprehend her mate-to-be had apparently not had enough of her. She struggled to rouse herself to even partial consciousness so she could actually participate, if he was that eager at this hour.

Just relax

What...why...but...

You don't have to do anything. Just be with me. Just...be.

Was it a trance she had slipped into? Or back to sleep and into a light dream? She seemed to be imagining a picture of flat, calm water. One single drop broke the surface and sent circles of ripples outward. The water stilled. Again, a single drop. The spreading circles. Over and over, slowly measured. Valia could never have recalled how much time she passed in this state. Yet it was restful. And he was there, close to her. She thought she remembered something this reminded her of. A slow water clock or a meditative fountain, where the smallest changes accumulated into something mighty. A sense of waiting, of filling came to her. Anticipating.

The final, critical drop fell. The water spilled. And so did she. She smoothly slid into a long climax. Her eyes flew open in shock. He was right there, over her. Her movement triggered his own spill. They made no sound, only lay twined together tightly until the last sensation faded.

Their rigid bodies relaxed and he gently pulled away from her. But she felt him as though he was still pressed against her, part of her. And there was that feeling again, the feeling of being connected to everything living. Her skin and every nerve ending seemed to shimmer with a peaceful energy.

They were both wide awake now, even though only the first hints of blue were beginning to appear in the sky. They swam again, the cool water a welcome sensation against their flushed skin. Valia wanted to know more about what they had just shared. No, he said, he had never experienced that before. It had simply occurred to him as a good idea to try at the time, he told her with an enigmatic smile. He, too, seemed quietly moved.

Had she actually touched the Force, she wondered.

"You touch it every day, my Lia. Even when I'm not with you to point it out."

She became sleepy again, and left the pool to dry off. She lay down again, her body insisting it was still the middle of the night. It felt heavy and sated. He stretched out beside her, straightening their makeshift bed and drawing the covers over her. After he heard her even breathing, he fell asleep himself.

He dreamed. He saw the door of a great and beautiful house, a generous porch before it. Valia was coming out of the door. An older Valia, a careworn but still beautiful Valia, moving confidently and with straight-backed health into middle age. Golden light shown through the open door behind her and the windows. There were others in that house, in that golden warmth. Family. But she carefully closed the door behind her and looked into the distance. The blue evening was chilly and she pulled her dark wrap around her tightly. The wind swirled it around her ankles. She was looking for someone, waiting. Worried about someone out in the cold, someone who was late. Yet it was as if she did not want to call attention to her waiting. She bent to pick the dead flower heads from a potted shrub, as though that had been her intent.

He knew she wanted for nothing in her life. Nothing. Except...there was a sense of far away danger and great changes. He sensed a gulf between them, and yet he was standing right there. Why did he not speak to her if he was right there? And who did she wait for?

A child opened the door behind her, a girl of about twelve. She poked little more than her nose out the door, not wanting to leave the warmth of the house. Valia turned to her with a smile. The vision faded before Qui-Gon could see the girl's face.

They woke much later to full daylight. Or at least Valia did. She opened her eyes and saw Qui-Gon meditating in a patch of sunlight a short distance away near the edge of the pool.

They spent the rest of the day reading, or talking. Most of the time they were perfectly content to retreat to themselves, after so much intimacy. At last they dressed and made ready to leave their haven, and to go back to their work and different worlds. Valia cast a fond look back into the suite as they left it. They walked out of the coral and glass atrium to find the weather had gone cool, and the sun was becoming hidden behind high clouds. The breeze was a brisk shock after the quiet and still warmth of the building's interior. Gusts funneled sharply between the hard sides of the buildings, making Valia blink and fumble for the edges of her cloak to wrap it more closely to her. Qui-Gon stood close behind her and put an arm and part of his cloak around her, his solid warmth a comfort. He guided her forward to walk her home.

The End

(But not)