Author: Keiran
Title: First Impressions 2/2
Rating: 14+
Warnings: slight gore, no romance.
Characters: Duo, Wufei.
Genre: Action/Adventure, or: The Pathetic Excuse To Give Duo a Sexy Metal Arm. Thank you.
Summary: Star Wars universe fusion. Kids often cost us an arm and a leg – in Duo Maxwell's case, the statement is literal.

Notes: I am a SW geek. I couldn't pass a chance to do g-boys with light sabres. This one was originally an explaining one-shot, that somehow had gotten a life of its own. I have a 1x2 sequel in mind (so far in the form of several LJ drabbles), if I manage to draw a plot for it, that is. Enjoy!

Thanks to Shenlong Deb, for betaing!

xxxXXXxxx

Leaning heavily on the teenager's shoulder, the young knight made his way out of the hall, not without giving one last, not too gentle, Force-prod to the fallen figure of older man, fighting the temptation to drop a wall on him.

The temptation to drop a wall on a squad of droid guards, however, was not fought but embraced eagerly, with much glee even.

"Mr Jedi, sir?" Duo heard Wufei say suddenly as they entered the hangars.

"Duo Maxwell," he put in helpfully.

"Master Maxwell, sir," the child continued in a voice that was timid, considering his usual tone. "Shouldn't we take… him back as well?" The question awarded him a thoughtful glance.

"Normally, yes, but forgive me if I'm not quite up to the challenge at the moment. And you cannot go alone," the knight replied, grunting in pain again. Waving his hand in the air vaguely, he opened the entrance to a slender star ship stationed in a hangar. "On board you go. And the cretin will be found. As soon as I can hold a sabre in my right hand again."

The little boy looked at the aforementioned hand in a mix of awe, guilt and disgust. His musings were however broken by Duo yet again. "Wuffers, don't stare. It's not polite. That's one. Furthermore, I don't enjoy the stench of smoking flesh either. I think it'll be better for both of us if we ignored it, right now."

Wufei bit back the instinctual 'My name is Wufei'. "Yes sir."

"Good to know you understand. Now, the pilot's seat is the one on the left," the older man pointed, finding a first aid kit, applying a disinfector and wrapping the sorry remains of his limb in sterile cloth to prevent infection, all the while fighting with the gut reaction of his stomach. "I liked this arm, Force-damn it," he muttered sourly, temporarily winning the fight with nausea and dizziness.

"What?"

"Do I look like I'm in any condition to stay on top of all of the clicking?" Duo raised a brow, wriggling the fingers of his left hand. The boy flushed and immediately obeyed the command. "Don't worry much. I have an emergency program for occasions such as these, but monitoring it still wouldn't hurt."

"Why can't you be monitoring?"

"'Cause I predict I will not exactly be conscious in a little while," the knight answered evenly.

"I thought that Jedi knights could ignore pain?" Wufei asked, a frown forming on his face. He regretted his words immediately, but Duo didn't seem offended.

"All things considered, I would think I am doing a splendid job, wouldn't you say?" the man answered grinning widely. "Anyway," he added, pointing to a screen on the left, his voice barely shaking. "There. Find 'Emergency' and follow takeoff procedures. Once we reach the orbit, make sure the coordinates are set for Coruscant and – once everything is beeping cheerfully – activate the hyperdrive. The lever below the big, red button," he added helpfully, seeing the boy's confused gaze. "Getting there might take a while, so help yourself to a bed and something to eat. Don't wake me until we reach the bloody planet. Shinigami sends a distress signal to the temple automatically, whenever the emergency system is activated, so they will be ready to dock us in."

"Okay." A pause. "Sir – why didn't you just use the Force to find the detonator?" Wufei asked a little fearfully. Duo sighed in response. "I would have caught it – but you stopped me. Why?"

"'Cause the thing was Force-sensitive," he answered finally. "It's fairly simple, really," he continued, seeing the question marks form in the air. "Jedi use those whenever the need to blow something serious up arises, especially in dangerous circumstances. Beats me how the cretin managed to learn that."

"The thing's made of a tube with an air filter, to allow the flow of oxygen. Inside there's a few fireflies, which glow whenever they feel a concentration of the Force. Obviously, the stronger the concentration, the brighter the glow. And they don't require much at all to start glowing." Grunting, Duo arranged his right arm in his lap. "Add in a photosensitive circuit and voila! Unfortunately, extreme heat also causes the bugs to glow. So it needed to be extracted from that damn bucket quickly." Fitting himself in a chair as best as he could, he tried to relax. His voice gradually grew softer as he whispered any information Wufei might find useful over the course of next two days, as they journeyed to Coruscant.

Granted, there was a healthy dose of 'Do not, under any circumstances, mess with weaponry, navigation, paint work – I spent ages on that one – electrical circuits, anything that sparks. Exercise extreme caution when using the kitchen. Do not make a mess. Do not breathe on integrated circuits. In other words: do not harm my ship, in any way. Or else', but all in all, it was pretty friendly.

"Wufei," Duo said finally, his voice barely audible. "I have an enormous soft spot for kids. I really do. But if there's a scratch on my baby when I wake up, you will wish your grandparents lived their whole lives on opposite ends of the galaxy. I promise you that."

With the final words still ringing in the air, Wufei watched as the older man finally slipped into deep meditative trance. Releasing the breath he didn't realize he was holding when the console started beeping, he initiated the jump into hyperspace.

xxXXXxx

Wufei sighed heavily. His fate was not going to be pleasant. No one seemed exactly pleased with his stunt, especially considering the state Duo was in when they returned. The council might have been in perpetual state of annoyance regarding the Corellian, but they respected his skills, if not the man himself. True, they made sure he had as little as possible contact with the easily influenced initiates or padawans. Or even the rest of the knights. Over all, however, Duo was universally loved.

Especially now that his old master was a part of the council.

Trudging behind master Yoda, Wufei tried to look as small as possible. It seemed that all of the world was giving him disapproving stares. Not that he blamed them really.

Eventually the ancient master and his charge made it to the hospital in which Duo was stationed ever since their return. A tall medical droid met them on the landing platform.

"Master Jedi, we are pleased to receive you," it greeted formally in a slightly monotone – yet pleasing – voice. "Follow me please." Rolling away at a pace that master Yoda could follow, she continued to speak. "We have fitted Knight Maxwell with an artificial limb, as per your request, however he insisted it should be build around the remaining bone structure." Her tone suggested she disapproved most strongly. If it wasn't for the fact that Wufei knew 2-C4 was a droid, he would have sworn there was a hint of aggravation in her voice. Clearly, the boy thought with some amusement, she couldn't comprehend living beings' attachment to the flimsy, calcium-based framework.

"All that remains is the final testing phase," the droid remarked, directing the visitors into a medical room, where the knight in question was chattering away to the hearing circuits of another medical droid. The monologue stopped the moment the man noted the arrival.

"Master Yoda! Glad to see you, I am," he announced cheerfully, waving at the pair with his left hand, the other immobilized in a sterile, transparent bubble, already put together, but not closed up. "Hi Wuffers!"

The friendly welcome earned him an equally friendly whack on the shin. "Show proper respect, you will," the small green goblin said, glaring a little. Duo chuckled.

"Yes, master." Returning his attention to the medical droid, he stared fixedly on his new appendage, reflexively obeying the commands the robot issued from time to time. Wufei shuffled a little, watching the tedious job of locking the various parts of the metallic arm onto their designated positions, each circuit tested with a briefest electrical charge.

It took a few minutes, but eventually the process was completed and the limb released from the bubble. "It is performing at 121.453 standard model efficiency," 2-C5 announced. His female counterpart would have blinked, had it not been for the lack of eyelids. And eyes, for that matter.

"Impossible. This is a vastly inferior structure, based on living tissue; the odds of it operating at more than 85.4443 efficiency are 17,388 to 1!" Duo grinned pulling his shirt back on.

"Let's leave them to argue it out," he suggested, scooping master Yoda in one arm and hugging him tight. "Nice to see you, master. You too, Wuffers. Now, see if I can get someone to lend me a hovercraft we shall; on Shinigami check, I must."

There was very little stopping Wufei from breaking out in laughter. When he realized that his chances of remaining in the order were brief anyway, the very little dwindled down to nothing, allowing the boy to chuckle.

"Funny for you, this is?" master Yoda grumbled. "No respect elderly these days get. No respect." Over the old being's green head, Duo and Wufei exchanged amused glances. "Laugh at me, you will not," the tiny master shrieked, making use of his staff yet again and whacking the unruly knight lightly on the head. "Carry me in silence, you will!"

"Yes, master," Duo replied, with a disarming grin. Yoda grumbled a little longer, but the soft sounds were barely noticeable to begin with and grew quieter with every step.

As it turned out, there was no speeder Duo was allowed to borrow, or even pilot – the driver from the temple clutched the wheel of his vehicle tightly, when he noticed who was walking down the ramp, and didn't let go until the violet-eyed knight was seated in a back seat, seatbelts securely fastened.

In fact, the poor man barely dared to breath during the ride. He only exhaled properly once the long braid was long gone from sight. Most of the Jedi were already carrying an official ban from driving; Duo, thanks to his forced avoidance of Coruscant, managed to escape that fate, though apparently he was around often enough to compel many of drivers and pilots to cut their hair really short. Urban myths travelled fast on the capitol planet.

Despite the shaking of the unfortunate driver, the three Jedi managed to get to the temple in one piece. The young knight immediately ran to torment the ground support staff, who was temporarily in charge of his Shinigami.

"Never change, will he," Yoda sighed. "Come, young one," he continued, turning to Wufei. "The council your fate now shall discuss," the small being continued gravely. Trudging after the Jedi master, the boy sighed. That demeanour didn't offer much hope.

He left the council chamber half an hour later, his worst fears confirmed. Sighing softly, he made his way to his room and started packing. He didn't hurry. He didn't want to hurry. He didn't want to do anything particularly. Except possibly curling up in his bed and crying, but only girls and sissies did that, and he was neither.

He was neither…

His resolve was almost broken when a knock sounded on the door. Without giving him time to reply, they slid open revealing Duo Maxwell. Wufei quickly wiped his face, just to be sure there was absolutely nothing betraying how he really felt, and turned to face the knight.

"Hey kid," Duo greeted cheerfully. "Done with packing yet?"

"Yeah. Almost," the black-eyed boy replied softly, putting the last of his things into the bag.

"Good, good," Duo seemed impatient for some reason, the boy noted. Almost as if he was expecting something to blow up. "Grab your stuff and we're off."

"You'll be taking me to that place?" Wufei asked, 'that place' sounding rather resentfully.

"Yeah. Something like that. Now move your skinny butt, I'm not made of time." With a final sigh, the teenager shouldered his bag and walked out of his – now previously his – room. He was going to miss it. Not that anyone would ever know.

Halfway down to the hangar, they were stopped by a blue Twi-Lekkian padawan. "Knight Maxwell," she called. "The council wishes for you to come up to the tower immediately."

To the utmost surprise of everybody present, especially the mild-mannered youths, Duo let out a fluent stream of curses, using words not only banned from the temple but filed as 'inexistent'. Grabbing Wufei's smaller hand with his mechanical arm, he broke into a run, dragging the confused child past the astonished Jedi.

Reaching the hangars and Shinigami at record time, the knight set about preparing the ship for immediate takeoff, leaving Wufei to reach his own conclusions. When the man finally fell into the pilot's chair, the ship shooting through the atmosphere, the general shape of the questions formed in the boy's mind. Before he could voice any though, Duo broke the silence.

"This isn't going to make us more popular with the old coots, I fear. You either live with that, or I phone home right away and tell them I'll just drop you off at what's-its-name place so you can farm to your heart's content," he said, gazing at Wufei heavily. Wufei returned his gaze with a hint of exasperation, excitement and desperation, hoping to hell that the latter two were masked with the former.

"You don't have any idea what you're getting into, do you?" Wufei drawled, though the excited 'anything but farming!' begged to be let out. Duo gave him his best 'I R cLulesS' grin.

"Not the slightest clue."

The boy snorted. "I suspected as much. I suppose I can live with you." He fervently prayed it didn't sound half as desperately joyful as he felt.

"Cool. Lesson one. Every action has its consequences," Master Duo began his lecture.

"I gathered that," his dutiful pupil replied sourly, feeling the slight twinge that came with a glance to Duo's metallic right arm which glinted when the sun hit it at the right angle. "What's your point?"

"The point is, my inbox is being filled with messages from angry council members as we speak. Drop master Gee and master Yoda a line, ignore the rest. Tell them we shall hide out in the Outer Rim, until the tempers cool down significantly."

"You're not that brilliant with this consequences business either, are you," the as-of-now padawan observed sourly, his fingers delivering final clicks to the laconic message.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Duo replied, grinning brightly as Shinigami made the jump into hyperspace.

THE END.

Finished! So - shall I try for the 1x2 sequel?