Spicy woke up early as usual and took Nyla for a walk on the beach. Well the planet was mostly a beach, Nyla sniffed the sand cautiously. He thought it was funny that massifs come from the desert and yet this was her first time seeing sand. He had to admit that the planet was beautiful, and the weather was warm and pleasant and it was peaceful. A stark contrast to the very noisy Coruscant he was used to. Just then he saw Stella running towards him, she tripped and face planted in the sand, he shook his head at her clumsiness.

"You scared me" Stella whined as she tried to shake the sand out of her hair.

"By…..going for a walk?" he raised a brow.

"When I woke up for a second I forgot where we were, and when I didn't see you I panicked" Stella said.

"Sorry I'm just used to waking up early, I guess that will never change" Spicy said.

"What do we do now? Since we're stuck here" Stella said.

"I'm not sure, but I don't want to do nothing all day, it drives us clones crazy if we feel useless" Spicy said.

"Maybe Azura can help?" Stella said. And they headed back to the palace.

"So you wish for something to do huh? Well I suppose since you're a clone in the Diplomatic service you are used to being a guard, you can help guard the palace" Azura told Spicy.

"Whoa whoa whoa let's get something straight here, I'm not in the Diplomatic service, I'm just…. being reprimanded right now" he muttered the last part.

"Oh please do excuse me trooper, and you Stella could….be a maid and help clean the place up" Azura turned to her. Spicy burst into a fit of wheezing laughter.

"A maid? Well I suppose I possess no other skills so I accept" Stella sighed.

"Spicy meet with Captain Geyser, he will get you started" Azura said. Spicy nodded and walked off.

"And Stella, meet with the head maid Stream" Azura said.

"Ok…" Stella sulked off like a kicked puppy.

"Hello, I'm the new maid" Stella said.

"You don't sound very enthusiastic" Stream giggled.

"I'm sorry, I just was hoping to learn some new skills so I can be more useful" Stella said.

"Like what skills?" Stream asked.

"Hunting, maybe some training with a weapon" Stella said.

"Why didn't you say so, us aquarians are great hunters, I'm sure Azura would be glad to teach you" Stream said.

"Maybe some other time, I told her I would be a maid and help keep the place" Stella said. And they got busy.

*Spicy's Pov*

"Ok soldier, don't think your clone training will work here because it wont, this a completely different terrain then you're used to" Geyser said.

"Well then it's a good thing that us clones are trained on all different types of terrain, while you over glorified seaweed brains are only trained on beaches" Spicy held his head up smugly.

"Why you disrespectful little- you think you're better than me!?" Geyser was furious.

"I don't think, I know I'm better than you" Spicy smirked at him.

"How dare you! Do you want to put your credits where your mouth is!?" Geyser snarled.

"Jokes on you I don't have any credits, but if you mean kick your butt then sure I'd be glad to" Spicy sneered.

"You just talk a big talk, but I know you are nothing without your blaster" Geyser said.

"Here I won't even use it, us clones are trained to use a variety of weapons not to mention we are also trained in hand to hand combat, while you fish faces are only trained to use those…oversized forks" Spicy crossed his arms.

"Oversized forks!? These are tridents, the sacred weapon of our people" Geyser flashed his fangs at him.

"Oh really? I thought someone was going to eat some salad or something" he blew him off.

"That tears it!" Geyser let out a battle cry and lunged at Spicy. He stood there unmoving, then faster than a veractyl he swept Geyser's legs from under him and he landed with an oof. Earning laughter from his fellow guards. He silenced them with a snarl.

"Aww don't snap at them because you looked like a fool" Spicy jeered. Yelling Geyser got back up and charged at Spicy again. Spicy side stepped and then kicked him in his scaly butt sending him stumbling forward until he lost his footing and face planted.

"You quite literally got your butt kicked"Spicy laughed. Geyser shot him a hateful glare as his fellow aquarians laughed, not caring if it made him mad.

*Stella's Pov*

Stella and Azura were sitting at the table talking when Geyser came storming in.

"I'm not working with that disrespectful creton!" Geyser pointed at Spicy who had just walked into the room before storming off.

"Spicy what did you do? Let me guess, running your mouth?" Stella looked annoyed with him.

"Hey, he started it by insulting my clone training" Spicy said.

"It isnt my fault the Geyser erupted, he can dish them but he cant take them" Spicy sat down at the table.

'Don't worry Spicy you can still guard the palace" Azura giggled.

"Ok, but you also need to apologize to Geyser" Stella said.

"So Stella here wishes to learn to hunt so I'm going to give her some lessons tomorrow" Azura said.

"Oh really? Wow what for?" Spicy asked.

"Well Moonchildren are supposed to learn anyways, and I want to be useful" Stella said.

"Wait, you're a Moonchild?" Azura said.

"Yes, you've heard of us?" Stella asked.

"Oh yes I've heard of you, we had one visit a while ago, she was looking for someone, anyways why didn't you ever learn then" Azura asked.

"Well my parents never let me learn, I guess they knew I was defective from an early age" Stella looked down sadly.

"How are you defective? You look perfectly fine to me" Azura asked

"Well I never learned to shift" Stella ducked her head in shame.

"Are you sure you're a Moonchild?" I've never heard of a Moonchild that can't shift" Azura said.

"The question has been raised, I'm showing every other sign of being a Moonchild just no shifting" Stella said.

"Well that sucks" Azura said and began talking to Spicy.. Her dismissive tone rubbed Stella the wrong way.

"You have no idea how bad it has sucked! My life has been so hard because of it! I was disowned by everyone including my own family! I was banished from the only home I ever knew and thrown into the world of politics which by the way I have no idea about! I can't even begin to know what I'm doing!" Stella snapped. Then she left the room.

"I'll go talk to her" Spicy said as he stood up and went looking for Stella. He went back to their room and found her sobbing on her bed. He gave a soft sigh before sitting next to her.

"I know you're feeling down about not being able to shift" Spicy said.

"Why did I have to be born this way!? I'm good for nothing without shifting, I have nothing! No Moonchild strength or enhanced senses, no family, no home, nothing! Why do I even exist" Stella was sobbing uncontrollably. She hugged Spicy, she expected him to yell and push her off. But she got a surprise, he wound his arms around her and patted her back.

"Just because you can't shift doesn't mean you don't have a purpose, you know back on Kamino there are defective clones, just because they can't be soldiers doesn't mean their lives have no meaning, it's ok to be different Stella, you just have to find your place, and you will find it just give it time" Spicy said. After a while she pulled herself together.

"Thanks….that was the first time I had ever been hugged or comforted, I knew you weren't as mean as you acted" Stella wiped her eyes.

"You're welcome, and I guess you can say I have some experience, I do have millions of brothers after all, some quite a bit younger than me, you see we had a new squad of cadets some months ago and their transport was attacked,it left the surviving cadets pretty shaken up so it was up to us older clones to comfort them" Spicy said.

"That's very sweet" Stella said.

Later that night they were sleeping. However Stella was tossing and turning. As she was plagued by a horrible nightmare

"You're pathetic"

"You can do nothing but stand there and watch as I kill your friend"

"Oh force! I'm so sorry Spicy!"

"Now die!"

She awoke with a gasp and sat up abruptly. She looked around frantically before realizing it was only a dream. She looked over at Spicy, the moonlight was shining on his face and she was surprised it wasn't disturbing him. But he continued to lay there with a peaceful expression on his face, her heart began to beat faster as she noted how handsome he looked.

"What? What is this? How can this be?" she whispered.

She decided to get some fresh air. She got out of bed and exited the room careful not to wake Spicy, she went down to the water's edge and sat, she worked her toes into the warm sand and looked out at the water, the moon reflecting off the crystal clear water was dazzling. She looked up at the bright full moon and her heart began to race. All Moonchildren have a reaction to the moon, so once again confirmation that she was a Moonchild. But everyday she discovered something new about herself that just left her more confused. After she sat a while to clear her mind she headed back inside to try and get some sleep for her lesson tomorrow.

The next morning she ate breakfast before she and Azura headed out. They walked to a place with palm trees kind of like an oasis.

"Now first you'll need to locate your prey" Azura said.

"I don't have any enhanced senses" Stella said.

"That's ok you don't need any, you'll just rely on your eyes more, now see if you can spot something" Azura said.

Stella looked around keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of anything other than fish people. She finally saw a bird.

"I see a bird" Stella whispered.

"Good, now how are you going to get it?" Azura asked.

"Um, I don't have a weapon" Stella looked unsure.

"That's ok you can borrow mine" Azura gave her her trident. Stella was slowly creeping closer to the bird as it obviously pecked at the base of a palm tree. She was laser focused on the bird, just then out of the corner of her eye she saw Spicy walking up beside Azura. She took her eyes off the bird and was looking at him. She stepped on a palm leaf which crunched beneath her foot and alerted the bird. It took off, she was hot with embarrassment.

"What happened? You were doing so good" Azura asked.

"Sorry I….got distracted" Stella rubbed the back of her neck.

"Sorry I didn't mean to distract you, I just wanted to see how it was going" Spicy said.

"I didn't say it was you that distracted me" Stella brushed sand from her dress to hide her embarrassment.

"Well I better head back, Geyser hates me enough as it is" Spicy turned and left.

"So was it Spicy that distracted you?" Azura asked.

"Yes, but not for the reason you're thinking, it was because he suddenly appeared and startled me" Stella said.

"We both know that's not true, you like him don't you?" Azura asked.

"Ok fine yes, but I shouldn't be able to and it's so confusing" Stella sighed.

"What do you mean by that?" Azura asked.

"Well Moonchildren have their one Luna given mate, that means that there is only one person in the whole universe that is your mate chosen by the moon goddess Luna herself, and it is only possible for us Moonchildren to be attracted to that person, like it literally isn't possible for us to be attracted to anyone else" Stella explained.

"What's confusing then? Doesn't that just mean that Spicy is your mate?" Azura asked.

"Well I haven't shifted, Moonchildren can only find their mates after they've shifted, like your mate could be right in front of you but if you haven't shifted you won't recognize them" Stella said

"How do you recognize them?" Azura asked.

"By scent, you smell them" Stella said.

"Please don't tell Spicy what I've told you, it would make things awkward between us and we're finally getting along, I don't want to ruin that" Stella begged.

"Oh don't worry, I won't tell him" Azura said.

"Hey, you know what? I just realized that I have something to do, so we'll have to cut it short today" Azura said.

"Oh ok" Stella said, catching on to her sudden mood change. They walked back to the palace in complete silence.