Two more, at long last!

Crushing vs. Love

At the age of eight and one-half standard years, Jin'Xerquina had his first encounter with romantic affection.

Her name was Xiaana'Mersu, which meant "perseverant spider" in Twi'leki and suited her much better than the clunky Basic "Xiaan Amersu," "solid spider." She was three years his senior, tall, slender, and graceful even for a girl of their species. She worked as his tutor for their Twi'leki class, but he could barely concentrate on his lessons, focused as he was on her clear turquoise skin and intelligent blue eyes. He excelled in the class, however, because he studied thoroughly each night, giving up on precious hours of sleep, just to impress her.

His instructors looked upon his affection as something he would grow out of as soon as Xiaan was apprenticed, but assigned him a different tutor to make sure. He pooh-poohed their misguided attempt to separate true love, and made sure to surprise Xiaan with a hand-picked flower from the Temple gardens at each lesson.

His friends teased him a little for it; he responded in kind, pointing out Lorelei's suspicious eyelid-fluttering in the presence of one Knox from Roaring Lion Clan, or O-Mer's steady blush that appeared whenever one of Master Ki-Adi-Mundi's daughters visited the Temple.

Xiaan herself tried to dissuade him of the notion, reminding him that attachment was against the Code. He listened to her, a little, but remained convinced that, Code or no Code, someday they would get married, have children, and be co-Grand Masters of the High Council together.

Then Xiaan became apprenticed to Master J'Mikel, and, for a time, he rarely saw her. Years later, he went on a training mission with four of his Clan-mates, and, for a time, he never saw her. Even more years later, he disembarked from a ship that belonged to a sympathetic band of bounty hunters, and saw her for the first time in what seemed like forever, waiting amidst a crowd of spectators to welcome the lost Padawans home.

"Hello, Jinx," she said softly, her big blue eyes sad and nostalgic.

"Hi," he replied.

There was a pause, as she searched for a conversation topic. "So, uh…how are you doing with your Twi'leki?" She winced, probably thinking that it was a stupid thing to ask, since he had definitely had no opportunity to practice his native language during his incarceration.

He saw the question for what it was – just a simple effort to get some small talk started – and shrugged. "Not very well."

She gave a tentative smile. "I could tutor you, if you want."

He tried to smile back, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "I'd like that," he said, nodding to emphasize that he really would like that, and his lack of enthusiasm was just…baggage, nothing more.

Her smile blossomed into a grin, in a display of pure white teeth that would have dazzled him when he was eight. "Good."

"Good." He tried to find more words, but they weren't coming. Everything seemed so unreal, now; a part of his mind was still certain he would wake up any moment with the familiar crick in his neck that came from sleeping in a tree root.

So he let the awkward silence pass, studying a crack on the stone landing pad and unconsciously seeking out another girl's voice in the crowd.

Xiaan is a canon character from the comic books. I'm not quite sure if she's supposed to be dead yet in TCW, but the girl who is talking to Jinx at the end of "Wookiee Hunt" looks a lot like her.