Seth watched from the doorway as Jaina sat down on her bed and slipped off her boots. She then slipped off her tunic to reveal a more casual white shirt underneath.
Do I really need to talk to Ben?
Yes. Go.
She smiled and threw the tunic at him. "Get lost and do what you need to do. You can see more tomorrow."
He laughed and caught the tunic and walked over to her. He tossed the tunic on the bed beside her and leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "Tomorrow it is, then," he walked across the room to the open door. "Have a good night," he said as he walked out into the hallway.
"Yeah, you too," she smiled at him as he pressed a button on the control panel next to the door to close it.
He took a deep breath and started off down the empty hallway in the direction of Master Skywalker's quarters, walking at a brisk pace in hopes to get there before he could convince himself to return to Jaina's quarters.
Seth walked up to Master Skywalker's door and pressed the button on the adjacent control panel to open it, a rare occurrence as the door usually opened for him before he was even fully in front of it. He poked his head in and saw the Jedi Master sitting on one of the raised cushions in his quarters, his legs crossed beneath him.
"Mind if I interrupt?"
As if you haven't already.
"Sure," Master Skywalker gestured to the other cushion across from him that Seth usually occupied. "How'd the first day of training go?" he asked as Seth took a seat on the indicated cushion.
"I think it went well. Not quite as bad as I was expecting."
"Okay," he replied, "I guess I should've asked how much you trained her," he added with a lopsided smile.
Seth returned his smile. "More than you probably think. We talked about philosophy, what destiny actually means, and other more general things about the nature of the Force. There were tangents, of course," Seth added, though the Jedi Master undoubtedly already knew this.
"What's this about destiny?" Master Skywalker asked after a few seconds of silence.
"She was worried about her future given where she came from. Granddaughter to Darth Vader, niece to the only man to the galaxy who saw good in him and is the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, and daughter of two heroes of the Rebellion. She talked about feeling pressured by different people to take different paths in life."
Master Skywalker nodded, saying nothing at first. "I've been worried about that ever since I found out Leia was pregnant with Ben. They were born with high expectations that they would never be able to realistically live up to in the eyes of the public. Of course, you never truly know what your destiny is. Growing up I thought I would be a pilot in the Imperial Navy, but here I am today as the Grand Master of the Jedi Order. People tend to put too much faith in destiny."
"More of that 'looking to the horizon' thing?"
"Something like that," Master Skywalker smiled. "Did you show her how to do anything?"
Seth nodded. "I showed her how to open herself to the Force and she was able to throw a rock so far above the treetops that I lost sight of it, and she hardly even tried."
The Jedi Master didn't respond immediately, he just sat still, deep in thought.
"She's strong," he finally said. "As expected, like her brother."
"Extremely."
"Does that scare you?"
"Not particularly. Should it?"
"Not necessarily. I just thought you may be a put off by the responsibility of training someone with that much power and no real means to control it, especially since she's your first student. I know I was apprehensive myself when Ben was old enough to begin his own training."
"Normally I probably would be, but not with her. Like I've said before, she's different."
"Your judgement is clouded by love."
"You're the one who told me to train her," Seth replied matter-of-factly.
"I know, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's not surprising, and it's almost expected in a situation like this. As I've said before, emotions aren't inherently bad, but it's very easy to let them control you. Be mindful of the choices you make and let the Force guide you. There will be times when you feel insecure and may have to make choices you're not completely comfortable with or that put the two of you at odds with each other, but that's unavoidable as a Jedi Master training a new student, and even more so when you have a strong emotional attachment to your student and don't want them to be angry at you. Trust your instincts, the Force is a powerful ally."
"I feel like I'll be learning that the hard way eventually."
"You will, and on more than one occasion. As you grow older you'll come to realize that failure is a better teacher than success. Sometimes you'll slip up and learn a lesson you didn't even know you needed. Failing and learning from your mistakes is a part of life, all that matters is that you learn from them. You have a lot to teach her, but she also has a lot to teach you. Remember that. I learned more when I was teaching than I ever did when I was first studying the Force on my own."
Seth sighed and pushed a hand through his hair, not responding.
"Any plans to talk to Ben?" Master Skywalker raised an eyebrow.
"Only if I can't avoid it," Seth responded reluctantly to the change of subject.
"Well, if you hope to make this relationship with Jaina a long-term thing, you really can't. If nothing else, it should put the issue to rest for the time being. I like to think he means well, but he tends to be overbearing at times."
"Any advice for dealing with him?" Seth slid to the edge of the small platform and stood up and walked over to the door, sensing that Master Skywalker would want to return to his meditation.
"He's not as tough as he thinks he is," Master Skywalker gave a small smile as Seth pressed the button to open the door and stepped into the hallway beyond. "Jaina gave him an earful her first night here after that altercation you two had, so he may not have much to say."
"Thanks," Seth returned his smile, hardly encouraged by his advice. "Have a good night."
"Same to you," Master Skywalker nodded as Seth walked out into the hallway and pressed the button to close the door behind him.
He sighed and pushed a hand through his hair once more as he turned to walk down the hallway in the direction of Ben's quarters.
Seth came to the door of Ben's quarters and immediately knocked before he had a chance to talk himself out of it.
"Come in," the door opened before Seth had a chance to open it himself.
He walked into the room and found Ben sitting at his desk reading a large book, similar to how he had found Master Skywalker on many occasions.
"Busy?"
"Yes," Ben responded flatly, not looking up from the book.
"This won't take long," Seth responded as Master Skywalker had frequently responded to him. He grabbed a nearby chair and sat down a few meters away from Ben. "There's something we need to discuss."
"I know what-"
"I don't care what Jaina said," Seth cut him off. "I'm here, not her."
"Fine. What?" He turned his chair to face Seth
"Why would you be so against us being together that you attacked me?"
"I'm her older brother," Ben replied almost robotically. "It's my job to protect her."
"I understand," Seth nodded, "but why from me? We've known each other for just short of a decade now. Do you really think I would do anything to hurt her after everything your family has done for me and how they've essentially taken me in as one of their own?"
"Your background," Ben replied after a few seconds, not acknowledging anything Seth had just said. "Imagine how it would look to the public if the daughter of two heroes of the Rebellion and the niece of Luke Skywalker took up with someone with your background. Imagine what people would say and what they would think of our parents."
"I'd imagine people would say the same thing they said about your mother, and look at what happened. They rebuilt the New Republic and your father is now a highly respected former general," Seth responded. "Now, what's the actual reason?"
"Fair enough," he shrugged his shoulders, "but times have changed."
"Why are you dodging the question?"
"I'm not," Ben snapped.
"Just tell me so we can settle this once and for all, Ben," Seth replied exasperatedly. "We're at each other's throats often enough as it is."
"Fine," Ben said immediately. "I don't want her to be with a Jedi, or to even be a Jedi herself. We've always had a strained relationship, but she's my younger sister and I want what's best for her. The life of a Jedi isn't a stable or safe one."
"She's an adult now, you know," Seth replied. "You can't protect her forever."
"Don't lecture me like my uncle," he snapped. "It's my responsibility, and you're not going to talk me out of it."
"I didn't come here to," Seth replied evenly. "I was hoping to come here to have a conversation about this situation and come to an understanding that would allow us to put this behind us, but it's obvious that won't be happening. We're happy together and I don't plan to go anywhere anytime soon, so you'd be much happier if you just accepted it."
"You've known each other for a matter of days," Ben replied, a cold tone creeping into his voice.
Seth shrugged his shoulders. "Sometimes you meet a person and feel like you've known them your whole life."
"I have a hard time believing that."
So do I.
"You don't have to, you just have to live with it," Seth stood up and returned the chair to its place near the wall and walked over to the open door. "Have a good night, Ben," he walked out into the hallway, cutting off the conversation that was going nowhere productive.
He'll get over it eventually.
Maybe.
He walked in silence through the winding hallways and out onto the grounds in front of the temple, dimly lit by the bright stars in the sky. He then began to slowly walk out to the treeline and into the dense forest surrounding the temple. Once he got just over two kilometers into the forest, he began to scale a particularly tall tree that he had come to know well during his time at the Academy. He scaled the tall Massassi tree with surprising ease and came to the top, where he found a sort of platform created by the dense and large branches of the tree. He lay down on this soft platform of branches and stared up into the clear night sky.
This had been his favorite place to meditate for years, even more so than the top of the temple. Even when not meditating, he still enjoyed climbing to this place just to lie down and look up at the stars with no particular purpose in mind. Of course, he had a good deal on his mind on this night in particular.
He's right. We've only known each other for a few days. How could I love her? How am I so sure about this? How are we both so sure about this?
He took a deep breath as these questions ran through his mind, though he knew that no amount of meditating or thinking would give him a definitive answer.
How can I be so happy with a woman I hardly know, but still feel like I've known her for my entire life?
He closed his eyes, suddenly feeling very comfortable on the surprisingly sturdy branches. As he drifted off to sleep and his breath began to even, he found himself standing in an empty room with many visions flashing before his eyes. He and Jaina walking through the forest of Yavin IV, them dancing at some sort of formal party, them standing before their family and friends at a wedding ceremony, them sitting on the edge of the bed with Seth holding Jaina as she cried, them laughing uncontrollably sitting on a couch in a small sitting room, and Seth sitting beside a hospital bed holding a newborn baby as Jaina watched from the bed with a smile on her face.
Vision by vision, Seth saw the life he had dreamed of since he was a child: settling down with a loving wife, starting a family, and being the father to his children that he never had himself. It wasn't until he met Master Skywalker that he realized just how much he had missed out on without a consistent father figure in his life, and he had vowed many years ago that, if he ever started a family, his children would never know that pain or have to desperately seek out a father figure in every man they encountered.
Seth had never heard anything definitive about his biological father, and he wasn't sure if he would ever want to at this point in his life. Would it be better to know what happened to him, even if it brought with it the pain of being an unwanted child who was left to his mother to care for alone? Seth had always suspected this, but he had never been brave enough to ask Maz directly.
Before the visions could continue, Seth was roused from his dozing by the tree shaking, likely by one of the many animals native to the forest moon somewhere below him. Unsure of whether he had just seen a vision of the future or if it had simply been a dream, he rose to his feet and began the long journey down the tree and back to the temple.
Seth walked into the temple and through the hallways, unsure of how long he had actually been gone. He was very tempted to go to Jaina's quarters instead of his own, but thought better of it considering how late it may be.
There's always tomorrow night.
Seth walked up to the door to his room and pressed the button to open it. He walked through the doorway and immediately began to shed his robes, being left in a simple shirt and pair of shorts before the door had completely closed behind him. It wasn't until this moment that he realized how exhausted he was. He briefly considered showering in the morning, but in the interest of being able to sleep longer he walked into the refresher unit and quickly showered and changed into a new pair of underclothes.
He walked out of the refresher unit and over to his bed and pulled back the blanket on top, but before he could lie down he noticed for the first time a figure on the far side of the bed facing away from him with long brunette hair. Only briefly wondering why he may not have sensed her presence immediately upon walking into the room, he pulled up the blanket slightly farther and looked under it to find that Jaina was dressed almost exactly as he was.
Seth smiled and slipped under the blanket next to her. He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and draped an arm around her waist with his hand resting limply over her stomach. The last thing he felt before drifting off to sleep was Jaina slowly placing one of her hands over his.
