-Hope-

He's in the middle of sparring with a YVH droid when he becomes aware he's got an audience. The only living being who'll willingly spar with Kyp is Jaina. She's the only one who can keep up with him, since Luke is still, over a year out, recovering from the injuries Abeloth gave him.

But when he reaches out to see who his visitor is-not taking his eyes off the deadly droid-Kyp is surprised that it's two visitors, a human and an animal. The predatory sense from the latter tells him that Allana Djo Solo has come to watch him.

The red-violet blade of his lightsaber whirls in a blur as he blocks and throws back a flurry of blaster bolts. Allana is safe, behind the reinforced transparisteel window of the sparring room's observation booth. Kyp scores enough hits on the reinforced droid that it intones, "Time. Match won, Master Durron."

He shuts off his lightsaber, telling the droid to put itself away. He's breathing a little hard; he had the droid on its most difficult setting, which was almost, but not quite, enough to give him a run for his money.

Kyp clips the lightsaber to his belt and finally turns to see Allana watching, small hands pressed to the glass, grey eyes big with awe. Smiling to himself, Kyp picks up a towel as he enters the booth and wipes his face.

The young princess looks him up and down. "You're really fast," she says. "As fast as Jaina."

He lifts a brow. "Since I'm older, she's as fast as me."

The girl laughs. "I mean, I've only seen her fight. Is that why everyone worries about you, Master Durron?"

Kyp blinks. He tosses the towel into a laundry bin just inside the door and sits straddling one of the benches, pulling a bottle of hydrating fluid to him with the Force. Anji, the nexu, watches it float by. The animal is why he didn't get up for it; he's not stupid enough to put his back to the nexu, even if she's semi-tame.

He pops the cap, takes a drink, then asks, "Worried about me?"

Allana nods, then carefully sits down. "Maybe not worried. Maybe…"

"Afraid?" Kyp asks wryly.

"A little, yeah. Why would they be? Jaina isn't."

He snorts. "There's not a lot your aunt is afraid of."

"That's true. Jaina is really brave." The girl cocks her head, and Kyp can see Jacen Solo in her then, in the shape of her eyes, her mouth. The colouring is her mother's, but the ghost of her father lives on in this child.

"I don't know that they're afraid," he says slowly. "Just cautious. I did some things when I was… Wow, only a little older than you, and the others…"

"Bad things?" she asks. "Things like my daddy?"

Kyp sighs. "Kind of. Yeah. But your grandpa helped me straighten out."

"Grandpa couldn't help my daddy," Allana says softly.

It really isn't fair, Kyp thinks, what Jacen Solo did. Especially to this little girl, who will always know that her father, as much as he loved her, was a monster. The poor kid shouldn't have such burdens. She's only ten.

"Your aunt tried," he says gently. "But sometimes you can't help people, as hard as you try."

"I know."

Anji puts her big head on Allana's lap. The child absentmindedly starts petting the feline. Kyp marvels that the girl is completely unafraid of the nexu. He remembers that her father had a crystal snake when he was fourteen. The thing was deadly, but Jacen carried it in his pocket.

Kyp hasn't spent time with kids since Jaina was one. It occurs to him that it's probably not appropriate to be alone with Allana, but there are security cameras everywhere, and Anji would literally eat him if she thought him a threat.

"Jaina worries about you," Allana says. "And she's sad."

"She does, huh? What's she sad about?"

"Being alone. She's been sad since Uncle Jag left. Except when she's with you."

Kyp takes another sip from the electrolyte-infused drink. It tastes like gundark sweat, in his opinion, but it works.

"She says she broke your heart and she feels bad."

He chokes, spluttering. Anji rears back and hisses at him.

"Anji!" Allana scolds.

Kyp coughs, clears his throat. His eyes water. "Did Jaina say that, in those words, or are you inferring?" His voice is rough, a little strangled. He'd forgotten how forthright children, especially Solo children, can be.

"She said it," the girl insists. "So I came to ask if you're going to be her boyfriend."

He closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Uh. That choice is not up to me, kid. And it's more complicated than just deciding I'm going to… be her boyfriend."

Kyp can't believe he's getting relationship advice from a ten-year-old.

"She's not married and you're not married. And you love each other. So why is it complicated?"

Ah, the innocence of youth. But her words give him pause. "Did she says she loves me?" he asks.

"... Not exactly," the girl hedges. "But I know she does. She feels happy with you."

"She's my friend," he points out. "If she were miserable around me, we wouldn't be friends, would we?"

"I guess." Allana reluctantly stands. "You should talk to her."

Head high, the future Queen Mother leaves with her massive protector slinking along behind her. Kyp watches her leave, feeling a bit like he's been hit between the eyes with a shovel.

"That kid is going to mow down everything in her way," he mutters.

He finishes his drink and tosses it in the recycler beside the laundry bin. With a sigh, he stands.

She's perceptive, he'll give her that. But she isn't right about everything. Jaina doesn't love him. Not the way he wants. And she never will.

"You love each other."

And yet, he suddenly wonders, what if the kid is right?