Title: Watching
Era: Post NJO AU waves hand NJO and DN never happened.
Characters: Jysella Horn; Jacen Solo; Corran/Mirax Horn; Valin Horn; Myri Antilles; others
Ships: Jacen/Jysella (Jacella)
Genre: Romance
Summary: Jysella silently watches the man she's had a crush on for years.
Disclaimer: I think we've established the fact that none of us here own SW. I mean, if we were the ones writing the SW EU, we wouldn't be complaining so much...
Notes: I would like to say this is all Luney and Myri's fault. :p They were the ones who had to start the whole Jacen/Jysella thing… I swear, IT'S CONTAGIOUS:p :D ;)

Prologue

I don't remember the first time I realised I was in love with him. I guess you could say it was a gradual progression. He'd always been there growing up, a comforting presence. He was quieter than his outspoken twin sister, more rational than his younger brother. And, in my mind, as handsome as all hells.

Maybe it was the fact that we were so different from each other that originally drew me to him. He was quieter, thoughtful and I was loud, brazen, and far too nosy for my own good. Another part was the fact that he was unobtainable. Fourteen years my elder, I knew that it was pretty hopeless for me by the time I went into my teenage years. Also despite our obvious differences, we were kindred spirits, longing to break free of the shell that surrounds every child with famous parents. Everyone always expects you to go in the same direction as one or both of your parents, and they expect you to do everything better as well.

It's never easy being the child of heroes. But Jacen had coped, forged his own path within the array paths that had been set before him.

Hardly a fortnight went by when there wasn't one story on the holochannels which featured the love-life of one of the Solo children. I would furtively look at these intently, hoping that it was a story on Jaina and her husband Jag, or on Anakin and Tahiri. Every time it was Jacen being exposed to the scrutiny of the sludgenews my heart would contract a little, part in pain, part in annoyance towards the sludge reporters. How idare/i they pry so much? The pain, that was my fear. What if I saw that he was engaged to someone else? So it was with both longing and dread that I viewed those articles.

Jacen's name had been linked with a number of beautiful women over the years, or at least by sludgenews. Tenel Ka Chume Ta' Djo and Danni Quee being among them. A Queen Mother and a renowned scientist. How in the Corellian Hells is a skinny fourteen-year-old, who has even decided what she wants to be yet, meant to compete with that?

So I hid my feelings, no one other than my closest friend knew of my secret. Not my mother, and especially not my elder brother or my father. The thought of Dad coming across that was just plain... nightmarish, if that's even a word. I contented myself with watching him discreetly when ever I had the chance.

The way he talked, his compassion when dealing with patients through the Medward, the way his hands were always moving, or that gorgeous half-smile that he, and his siblings, had inherited from their father. Nothing escaped my notice. It was often the most mundane things he did that I noticed. Working with him in the med-ward after I was apprenticed as a healer only made things worse.

By the time I turned sixteen, I had dismissed it as a childish crush. I started dating a few other boys half-heartedly, much to my father's dismay. Although watching whichever one of my dates squirm under the gaze of both my dad and my elder brother was vaguely amusing. It was always the same story though, I tired of the boys. Subconsciously, I'd be comparing them to Jacen, and they never measured up. Myri kept a record of how long each of the boys lasted, the longest one lasted two weeks, three days, and 7 hours before I dumped him. Myri thought it was pretty funny actually, and there was no point me doing the same thing with her, as she and Izzac Celchu had been steadily dating for about 7 months at that point.

One of the disadvantages of having a best friend five years older than you, they tend to get to different areas in life a whole lot quicker than you do.

Reveiw people... Jysella is demanding it! ;)

Misha