-Blossom-

Shedu Maad is mostly temperate, but it doesn't have the climate control stations that Coruscant does, so it actually gets seasons. It's spring where the Jedi Temple is, and there are flowers everywhere.

Allana, Jaina's niece, has come to formally train at the academy now that she's ten, almost eleven. She and her nexu, Anji, play in the garden that one of the Ithorian Jedi cultivates. The large, dangerous feline rolls on her back and lets Allana rub her belly, growling and purring as the girl's fingers dig into her fur. Jaina would be alarmed at Allana owning such a pet if the incredibly smart nexu wasn't fiercely protective of the girl, as if Allana were her cub.

Jaina sits with them, effectively babysitting the Chume'da. While there is relative peace in the galaxy, some idiot is always threatening the heir to the Hapan throne. Allana is never alone, something Jaina would find irritating.

She watches the two play, the pale-furred nexu and the red-haired child, and wonders if, someday, she'll have any of her own. She had planned to have children with Jag, but that had not happened. Now she's divorced, something she definitely had never planned on.

Anji notices some birds and stalks off into the flowers to hunt them. Allana is distracted by some bright flowers, and she plucks a few, plopping down on the ground to weave a crown out of them.

There's a footfall on the path, and Kyp appears around the corner, dressed in dark robes. Allana looks up from the crown and yelps, "Master Durron!"

She stands, crown in hand, and runs over to him. Jaina is a little bemused when the girl hugs the Jedi Master. She's just plain amused when Allana insists he wear the crown she just made.

Covering her mouth with her hand to hide her smile, Jaina grins as her niece carefully rests the pink and orange flowers on Kyp's head. When he glances her way, Jaina stops hiding the grin.

"What do you think, Master Solo?" he asks as he and the girl come over to Jaina's bench. "Should we incorporate this into the official Jedi uniform?"

She laughs. "Oh, I dunno. Might be difficult to keep on your head while dueling."

Anji slinks through the flowers, sneaking up on Kyp, and headbutts him in the back of the legs. The broad feline head is wider than Kyp's shoulders, so it's no surprise that the impact, unexpected and unseen, makes his legs buckle.

Kyp stumbles and only lands on the bench because Jaina grabs his arm. The crown falls from his head and lands on the ground. Anji crouches, four large eyes squeezed shut in feline amusement, tail weaving to show she wants to play.

Allana says, "Bad Anji!" She picks up the fallen flower crown. The petals are bent now, and her eyes fill with tears.

Kyp reaches out, takes the crown, and puts it back on his head. Allana immediately perks up and lets Anji drag her off into the flowers.

"You need kids of your own," Jaina remarks, reached up to straighten one mangled blossom.

"I might be too old for that," he says.

"If Mom and Dad can do it at sixty, I think you could manage at fifty."

He shrugs, eyes fixed on Allana and Anji. "Maybe. That would require a mother for them, though."

She can't argue that. A thought occurs to her, and she ducks her head. He needs a mother for children. She needs a father for them.

She's not about to suggest, two months out of a disastrous marriage, that they have them together. But the thought is there, and she suddenly can't make it go away.

Her brown eyes slide up, to the crown on his head. "I'm not sure pink is your colour," she says.

"Oh, shut up."