Hooray! Another update. Unfortunately I am forced to inform you that I don't think that I will ever be able to finish this fic before Christmas, despite my promise. My apologies.

herc009 and Ann Jinn, thank you for reviewing. Now enjoy this chapter!

CHAPTER 6
A Visitor

Jeran opened the door to his tiny quarters only to find that it was already occupied. By Arianne. "What the blazes are you doing here?" he asked.

"Visiting you," stated his friend as though it was usual to visit a friend in the middle of the night.

"Do you know what time it is? You can't just flounce in here uninvited." Jeran hissed as he closed the door behind him.

Arianne waved her hand dismissively. "Apparently not late enough for you, if you can still run around in the middle of the night. I was going to flounce in here invited, but since you weren't in I decided to wait for you here." She flopped onto his sleepcouch. "I want to talk to you."

"Is it so urgent that it cannot wait for a more reasonable hour?" He entered the tiny refresher.

"Well, yes it is." Arianne crossed her arms behind her head. "I know you will avoid me tomorrow and if I keep on waiting the Council will send you of on another mission to Force knows where and who will know when I shall see you again? Besides sooner or later you may only come back in little pieces so I think it is better that we get this settled before it's too late."

Unintelligible muttering came from behind the closed door. Arianne sat up and decided to look around her friend's quarters while he showered. The place was small; temporary quarters for newly minted knights and active field Jedi always were.

There were only three rooms; a bedroom, a small common room that doubled as a kitchenette, and a refresher. There were no windows, but the air cooler was on at full blast. Jeran had always liked it cold.

She ran a finger down the bedside table and withdrew it, thick with dust. It looked as if no one had been in here for years. Even the mattress was hard indicating that it was hardly slept in.

Walking over to the chest of drawers opposite the bed, she opened the topmost drawer. A spare cloak, a tunic and a pair of pants. The next drawer was empty. Inside the third were underclothes and at the bottommost she found civilian clothing. Curious, she lifted out a worn pair of cargo pants, two shirts, a nerf hide jacket and two blaster holsters. As she inspected the clothes she noticed that they were all rather worn and tattered.

She was about to put back the items when she noticed that the bottom of that drawer was rather higher up than the actual height of the drawer. She ran her hand along the smooth wood until her fingers found a tiny niche. Hooking a fingernail around it, she pulled and the bottom came up.

Seeing what was inside she almost gasped then caught herself. She should not be surprised, really. Knowing what kind of missions her friend took, it was really was not surprising that she was looking at a neat array of weapons which included two vibroshivs of varying length, blasters and a dart shooter. Power packs were neatly arranged in a corner.

Arianne was still kneeling there, inspecting holdout blaster, when the 'fresher door hissed open behind her. "You're still here?" She held up the tiny weapon. "Do you really use this on your mission?"

"Well I have to, don't I?" Jeran snapped as he towelled his hair. "I can't walk around as a pirate and then pull out my lightsaber."

She put the blaster back and replaced the false bottom and the clothes. Closing that drawer, she stood up and opened the second one. This one had a false bottom too. She pulled it away and drew out vest made of blaster armour and a mimetic suit. The suit had been shorted out and there where marks on the vest. "Jeran," she said sadly as she traced a finger around a patch of blackened leather and ceramic plating. "You've been shot."

When he did not reply she looked around to find him sitting on the bed with his knees drawn up to his chest. His arms were wrapped around his legs and he rested his chin on his knees, gazing straight ahead of him.

Arianne sighed as she put away the armour and suit. She closed the drawer and then walked over to the sleepcouch and sat down next to her friend. Jeran shifted aside so that they both had place. Leaning against the wall, Arianne looked at the drab coloured ceiling and sighed again.

She nudged her silent friend. "How is your hand?"

Jeran looked up. "My hand?" he repeated, puzzled. When she rolled her eyes he said, "Oh, that." He lifted up his right hand and curled it in to a fist, inspecting it as though he had never seen it before. He opened his fist. "It's fine. Never felt better. In fact, sometimes I don't even remember that it's mechanical."

Arianne tapped the back of his hand. "I'm sure you don't. You had it upgraded, didn't you? Now even when you concentrate you can hardly hear the servodrives make any sound."

He shrugged. "An acquaintance of mine knows an expert in prosthetics; he offered me this as a payment for my…help."

Arianne turned a suspicious gaze on him. "It was nothing against the law," he added hastily. She looked away, shaking her head. "You know Jeran, if you hadn't-"

"-been so careless we wouldn't be having this conversation. I know. Do you think I've never regretted my actions?" Jeran got of the sleepcouch and started pacing. "Can you please stop harping on my mistakes? Or is that why you're here? To do that? Or are you going to call me a selfish idiot again and burst into tears, again? Can't you just leave me alone?"

Arianne got up too. "That is exactly your problem. You are alone too much. You go of on your mission alone, and when you come back you still want to be alone. You just stay in here and mooch around until the Council sends you of again. Don't you want more in your life than missions?"

"Look Ari," Jeran began exasperated. "If you mean that I should take a Padawan I already said I do not want to. Do you understand simple Basic?"

"Yes I do, Jeran," Arianne said icily. "But it seems that you do not. So far you do not seem to have understood anything I said. This is for your own good."

Jeran turned away and crossed his arms. "Stop sounding like you're my Master or something."

"Stop sounding like an immature little boy."

"I am not immature," Jeran said furiously as he whirled back around to face her.

His friend regarded him coolly. "I never said you were immature. I said you sounded immature." A long silence ensued then she said, "I'm leaving now. Actually I only came to tell you that Salis is back."

"Sal is back? When did he arrive?"

She ran a hand through her black hair. "This night. He commed me but said he couldn't raise your comm."

"I turned it off."

"I thought so. Anyway, he suggested that we get together next night. You know, talk and drink. It would be nice to have us all together again." She fixed him with a threatening glare. "Unless of course you'd rather be alone."

"I'll come," Jeran promised. It would be nice to see his Zabrak friend again.

"Good," Arianne said looking pleased. "He said we should take something along to drink and meet at one of the common rooms."

"Right."

Arianne turned to leave. "Goodnight then. See you tomorrow." She walked towards the door. Jeran moved after her. "Hey, Ari," he called. She turned around and looked at him coolly. "What?"

"Sorry."

Her cold expression melted away and she embraced him. He hugged her back. "Oh Jeran," he heard her murmur. "You are such an idiotic fool sometimes that I really don't know what to do with you."

"You don't have to do anything," he said.

"Oh, I have to do something," Arianne said as she pulled away. "I'll be so bored if I don't have you or Sal here to boss around."

Jeran smiled wryly. "When it comes to interfering with peoples lives, you are worse than Master Yoda. By the way, do I sound like Master Yoda when I say 'hmm'?"

His friend looked at him curiously. "Who said that?"

"Someone," he replied evasively.

"Well," she said. "To tell the truth I've never really heard you say 'hmm' before. But one thing is sure; whether you sound like Master Yoda or not, he certainly isn't as stupid as you are."

"I suppose I should take some comfort from that."

"You should," she said as the door slid open. "Goodnight."

Jeran closed the door and walked back into his bedroom. A wave of his hand and the lights went out. As he lay on his sleepcouch he thought of everything that his friend had told him today. Maybe he was selfish. Maybe was he was careless. Maybe he was an idiot. He smiled to himself in the darkness. At least she still cared.

He thought about Maia. He thought about their spar and the promise she had shown. He thought about Arianne's nagging that he should take a Padawan. He punched his pillow. His life was his life and no one should tell him what to do with it.

Thank you for reading! Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon. Please review.
May the Force be with you.

Xrai