Regardless, I began to get a little stir crazy. I needed to do something, and I wanted to do it with Jysella.
I sat on the steps that lead up to our porch, looking out into the woods. I remembered spending hours playing in those woods, quite often with Jysella herself. I smiled slightly as I remembered a particular day a few years ago, when we and a couple of other padawans went to a bluff about two klicks out that overlooked a deep natural spring. One of the other padawan's dared us all to jump in. I went first, with Jysella quickly following. Oddly I can't remember if any of the others actually jumped in.
That is when it hit me; I should take her on a picnic. I thought that the small bluff I had just been thinking about would be a perfect spot for a picnic and a swim.
With a mission in mind, I decide to go ask Jys. I knocked on her door, and received a soft "come" in return. As I entered her room, I felt a nervousness that was somewhat, alien to me. I continued the rest of the way into the room, as she turned her head to look at me.
She was sitting near an eastern facing window, wrapped in a blanket. The sunlight that shone in through that window, gave her an ethereal glow. I felt my breath catch in my throat, and my palms start to sweat as she gave me that half-smile of hers and said "Hey Ben."
I was nervous and did not understand exactly why.
"Will I go onto picnic me?"
Yes, that sentence is the beauty of the blasted Skywalker luck.
Blushing, I looked at her, and then down at my hands, I took a deep breath, and I tried the request again. "Will you go on a picnic with me?"
She really smiled at me when I asked her this, and for just a second I caught a flash of the old Jysella in her eyes as she said, "I'd love to, and now give me some privacy so I can get ready."
I returned her smile, and turned to leave, saying "We'll also go swimming if that's ok?"
My smile just grew larger as she replied "That sounds wonderful Ben"
With that large foolish smile on my face, I went about gathering the things that we would need on our picnic and swim, and placed them on the kitchen counter. Then I started making the food we would take with us.
When I was about halfway through, Jysella walked into the kitchen and helped me finish fixing the food. Of course, I went slower after she started helping, as I was very distracted by how her hand or thigh would brush against me, and everyone now and then I would find myself just watching her hands as she sliced some fruits and vegetables.
Finally done fixing the lunch, we packed it all into a basket, and I placed the rest of the things we were taking with us into a pack.
Then we hiked out to the spot I had picked out for our picnic. Even the hike was a lot of fun. We pointed out the different plants and animals as we walked along the game path, or other little things like an overly intricate arachnid's web.
Finally we arrived. I set up our blanket for the picnic, and pulled out the towels and other odds and ends that we would need after our swim and then declared it was time to go swimming.
She was dressed in the usual Jedi tunic and pants for the walk, but had her swimming outfit on under that, and I must admit I was utterly unprepared for it as she removed the outer garments. I just stared, my own preparations forgotten.
Jedi outfits tend to be loose, flowing and androgynous. A tight fit to the body is usually eschewed in favor of free range of movement. Where her swimming outfit covered skin, was anything but loose and flowing. She moved with a feline grace that I had never noticed before, one that was both economical of movement yet amazing to watch.
I was mesmerized by the way she moved.
Her legs were long and sculpted as hours on the sparring mat would accomplish, and the cut of her suit emphasized their length and shape. Her trim, athletic body seemed to be all curves. Everything about her seemed a far cry from the boyish playmate that used to run these woods with me.
I was transfixed by the sight of her.
Then she let her hair down. She has that deep black hair, where the highlights almost appear blue, and it was long, hanging nearly to the small of her back. The other thing I noticed was that it almost seemed to bounce with her every movement. She gave her head a small shake, loosening her hair, and I felt a nearly irresistible desire to run my hands through it.
And then she noticed.
She had glanced at me, and noticed my stare. A confused and self-conscious look crossed her face. She said, "What?"
"Noth, nothing," is what I managed to stammer out, managing to feel quite foolish again.
With a worried look still on her face she then asked "You are still coming swimming aren't you? Please?" In the Force I could feel her emotions, there was a lot of fear, fear of abandonment, fear of me teasing her, fear this was some type of joke and some other fear, one that I could not quite understand.
Sending her reassurance through the Force, I said "Of course I am." Then looking down at my hands, and felt my cheeks start to turn red, I started to remove my outer garments and I added "I, I just got, uhmm, distracted."
Understanding seem to explode in her Force presence as she blushed, and turned away from me, but not fast enough for me to not catch the slight smile that appeared on her face.
I finished stripping down to my own swimming outfit, walked to the edge of the bluff, and looked down to see the water. It was about a 50 meter drop, so with a quick smile at Jysella, I jumped in.
As I surfaced I saw her plunge into the water. It was a good afternoon. We spent about two hours swimming and playing and in general goofing off in the water.
Finally, our hunger told us it was time for us to get out and get some food. So we started climbing up the trail that led to the top of the bluff, Jysella leading and I was right behind her.
Once again, I was amazed by how she moved. It was like everything moved in random directions as she carefully picked her way back up the path, but it did so in a way where everything seemed graceful and smooth.
Just watching how she walked was all the distraction the root that got me needed.
Yes, I, a trained swordsman, who had sparred in terrain rougher and wilder than anything offered by Ossus, and doing so while blindfolded, was so distracted by Jysella that a simple loop root tripped me.
I heard myself hiss "Sith" as I hit the ground and heard Jys yell "Ben!" as I started my slide back down the path. Luckily for me, there was a nice tree about ten meters down the path which was willing to stop my slide.
By the time Jysella got to me, I was sitting up with my back leaning against the tree, and my legs stretched out in front of me. She got on her knees, straddling my legs, facing me and said, "Krif Skywalker! Don't do that to me."
She took my head in her hands, and tilted it so she could look at the scratch near my ear and asked me if I was hurt anywhere else. As she let go of my head, I looked at her face, the fear and worry in her beautiful, vibrant eyes, and admired the shape of her nose and lips.
Then instead of answering her questions about my health, I did what any self-respecting Jedi trainee would do. I wrapped her in my arms, pulled her to me and kissed her.