A sliver of the morning sun peeked over the majestic spires of Coruscant's downtown skyscrapers, illuminating them in a backdrop of dazzling gold. Above him, the sky was a faded cottony gray that went substantially darker the closer it got to the horizon. A pink blush crept along the underside of a cloud, breathing a pale gold and red cast to the grayish sky. Gold suddenly shocked the clouds as the sun crept farther into the sky, stretching its fiery golden rays over the industrial and commercialized city of Coruscant. Far above the reaches of the heavens, the palest shade of robin's egg blue began to pattern itself onto the skies. Qui-Gon watched the beautiful sunrise with the same feeling that always beat in his chest every time he observed the splashes of tropical colors; a deep, primal kind of joy. Because of all the smog that otherwise clung to the scummy lower cities of the planet, the sunrises were substantially longer and more beautiful than on any other planet he had been on. Coruscant attracted aliens and humans of all classes and creed, reduced to tourists as they craned their necks to gape like children at the sunrises and sunsets that sprawled across the heavens in a fabulous painting. Resting his hands on the stone banister that lined the piazza, he had to look down and away from the bedazzling golden sun as it began its course into the farthest pinnacle of the skies. Closing his eyes, he reached out with his mind and felt the Force all around him, raising the hairs on the back of his neck and arms in its intensity. The intricate web that made the Force suddenly pinged, a tiny signal shuddering through his system to alert him that someone was approaching him from behind. Looking behind him, he saw Ana watching him.
Ana was leaning against the doorway to the piazza, her arms folded, a sleepy kind of look on her pouting lips. For the first time since he had seen her, there was a subdued mellowness to her eyes that probably did not appear at all during the rest of the day. Now, when she was most relaxed and vulnerable, he once again saw the woman behind all the obsidian-hard masks that she had frantically thrown up to protect herself. Last night had been the shattering point; when she finally broke down and sobbed into his chest, he saw the woman she could have been without the scars that webbed her heart. The pent up feelings had imploded and finally the dam had broken; when she looked at him, there was a moderate shading of trust in her dark green eyes. She blinked drowsily and yawned, suddenly looking like a small child. "What are you doing up so early?" she asked, her words slurring together with the potent toxin of sleep. She came over to him and winced at the brightness of the skies, rubbing her eyes firmly before squinting at the sunlight. "An' why are you watching a sunrise?"
"It is one of my pleasures to watched the sunrise on Coruscant," Qui-Gon admitted. "I have always taken a partiality to the colors displayed here." He looked down at her and allowed one corner of his mouth to lift into a smile when he saw the sulkily tired look on her face. She reminded him of a small child forced to wake up from its nap too early, what with her full cheeks and snubbed nose, pouting rosebud lips and dark green eyes that were still hazed with slumber. She fidgeted slightly, one slim hand plucking nervously at the long hem of her brown sleep tunic, the other stuck in her pocket at a determined attempt at carelessness. She was hiding something, and he knew it, but she was doing a remarkable job of keeping her shields intact.
"Um…Master Jinn?" she asked tentatively. He noted that it was the very first time she had referred to him as 'Master' without a sneering or derisive tone in her voice. "I'm going to be late for our sparring practice today. I, uh, need to meet someone today, and it'll only be a few minutes." He clamped down on his tongue before he could ask exactly who she was going to meet. If he wanted her to trust him, he had to trust her. Still, there was a mild chafe in the back of his mind at the idea that she might be blowing off the first few minutes of their spar to go meet someone else. Precisely why this trivial matter annoyed him so was beyond his mental capacity. He desperately needed to meditate today and untangle all these conflicting emotions he had towards his Padawan. He realized with a start that she was waiting for an answer.
"By all means, go meet your friend," he assured her. "I shall wait for you." She gave him a little grateful smile, and then left, leaving him alone with the sunrise that had finished streaking the fantastic colors across the portrait of the heavens.
He followed her. He wasn't sure why, but the idea that she was going to meet someone else was annoying him beyond all sensibility. He threaded his way through the throng of young Padawan learners that were already beginning to choke the hallways and corridors that wove themselves into the labyrinth of the Jedi Temple. She was quite easy to follow, mostly because she moved with the innocent unawareness that said she naturally assumed she would never be trailed. A few times he worried that he might have lost her in the sea of swarming people, but he always found her eventually. His stormy blue eyes followed her as she continued her dreamy progress through the crowd of students making their various ways to the dining hall, the arena, or other areas that they had occupied during this obscenely early hour. She moved with the hurried gait and a ducked chin, belying her assurance that she had subtly intoned in her speech when she told him of her departure. Wherever she was going, she didn't want Qui-Gon - or anyone else, for that matter - to follow her. She wove her way through the crowds, turned a corner - and vanished. He cocked an eyebrow quizzically, wondering where she could have gone. He had been following her quietly and carefully, without making a sound, and she just disappeared. He scanned the rapidly moving students and Padawans that were mingling in the corridor, and he wondered where she could have gone.
Ana slowed when she was sure he was out of sight. She had taken a shortcut that was rarely used by the other Padawans because the narrow hallway was cramped and extremely disused. The Temple was so sprawling and confusing that there were dozens of conflicting hallways that stumbled into each other. Clah'Diam had shown her several of them, and Ana had discovered you could get around the Temple virtually unseen by the various inhabitants, unless one of them decided to haphazardly glance into the large cracks that separated the hallways from one another. She batted aside a cobweb and took several corkscrew turns, emerging out into a staircase halfway across the Temple from where she had last been seen by Qui-Gon. Taking the stairs two at a time, she must have made quite a sight; still in her sleepwear, her hair mussed and hanging in her eyes, dark green eyes still cloudy with sleep, cheeks flushed with a rosy glow. The gritty stairs felt cool and good underneath her bare feet, and as she mounted the stairs her hand skimmed the railing. She darted into another hallway, then threw open the door leading to the place she needed to be. After a hurried glance around - the last thing she wanted was for anyone to see her entering this rather embarrassing place she had only been to when she had returned from Al-Kahrid - she ducked inside.
Uououououououououou
He was unutterably confused as to where she had gone off to. Resigning himself to the fact she knew the Temple quite a bit better than he did, he went to the arena and waited for her. She said she would be late, but he didn't know how late. Settling himself down, he found a shady spot near the wall of the arena and sat cross-legged on the ground. He would just have to wait. Possibly she was going to meet Clah'Diam and confess that she had completely lost it the night before, although this seemed highly doubtful. Closing his eyes, he leaned against the wall and began to meditate. Meditating always soothed him, and he realized with a little jolt that he had never seen La'Ana meditate. She probably didn't put that much in store of it. Vaguely he remembered her mentioning Wathearu's inclination to get her to meditate and calm her mind. Slowly, he expelled a breath into the still-dewy morning. His muscles relaxed and he searched himself silently. It didn't take him long to discover the annoying little chafe in the back of his mind. It was dim and shadowy, hard to pin down, but he managed to concentrate and extract it with unerring slowness. It was like pulling a tooth from a rotted gum; it let loose with a good deal of pain and a sickening pop. When it was laid bare for him to analyze and wonder over, he began to study it. What he saw surprised him more than he could have possibly imagined.
Attraction.
He was attracted to La'Ana.
His first impulse was to laugh. After all, Ana was at least ten years younger than he was. She was small, cute, good looking, while he was tall, with a nose that had been broken multiple times, a scruffy beard, and an impulsive nature. But then, turning the concept over in his mind, he decided after a bit that he must not be thinking straight. He had liked the woman he had seen briefly last night, the woman who had finally let down the guard she had spent her whole life perfecting. He had seen the woman who resided at the very core of Ana; the small, meek, submissive girl who had been chained in some dark corner of her mind that was probably only exposed - on occasion - to Wathearu. After a moment, he realized this wasn't quite right either. He had always liked the way Ana looked. She was certainly not going to win any beauty contests, for her figure was rather too petite and slender, her cheeks too full, and her eyes too disdainful. But there was a certain regal slimness to her body, a nobility in her stance and a defiance in her nature that was, he admitted, very attractive. It was that he was attracted to, he decided. And that was all. Firmly he shoved the idea away and continued on his meditation.
The Force shimmered once more, and he slowly withdrew himself from his meditations. Someone was approaching him, and it was alerting him. Getting up, he glanced around and saw the stocky Twi'Lek, Clah'Diam, who was looking at him anxiously with her golden eyes. "Master Jinn?" she asked questioningly. "Have you seen Ana today?" Her bottom lip was tugged between her teeth, and she worried it briefly before releasing it and looking at Qui-Gon with a pair of nervous eyes. "She said she was going to do something today, and I haven't found her yet. I checked the crèche - she goes there sometimes to relax - and she isn't here, at the arena. I was wondering if you knew where she was."
Qui-Gon's brow furrowed. "No, I only saw her for a moment this morning. She told me the same thing; she was leaving to go somewhere urgent. I followed her for a while, but I lost her in the crowds. Why do you ask, Clah'Diam?" he asked. Clah'Diam's eyes narrowed worriedly and she glanced around.
"Oh, no reason. She was just acting rather strangely the other morning and I wanted to check up on her and be sure she is doing fine. You know," she said, an idea lighting her eyes, "I haven't checked in the gardens. Come to think of it, that's probably where she is." Clah'Diam seemed relieved. "I'll go check and make sure she's all right."
"I'd prefer it if I went to her, Clah'Diam," Qui-Gon said after a moment. "We had a discussion last night, and she is most likely feeling guilty. Where in the gardens did you say she would be?" Clah'Diam looked mildly surprised, but didn't comment on Qui-Gon's words.
"Master Wathearu had a little plot of flowers in the Temple's garden, towards the western corner. That's probably where she is. Are you sure you don't want me to go? I can go fetch her and bring her back here to you, if you want." Clah'Diam offered. Qui-Gon shook his head slowly.
"I shall go. I appreciate it, Clah'Diam. Send your master my best wishes." he said. Clah'Diam gave a small shrug and nodded, taking off into the center of the arena. Qui-Gon began his journey to the Temple gardens, specifically the western corner.
Uououououououououou
She was on her knees on the carpet of glittering grass, each green spike holding one beaded dewdrop that was winking brightly in the morning sun. Her head was bowed, and she seemed to be talking to herself in a low voice. Qui-Gon's sharp ears pricked up, and he caught the last few words of her sentence. Something with 'different' and 'uncertain' in the phrase. Most likely she was talking to Wathearu in her mind, and probably talking about him. Qui-Gon stepped forward off of the smooth stone path and into the little plot of a garden where Wathearu had spent most of his time. He had to pull aside a curtain of low hanging willow branches in order to fully enter, and when he did, he was hit by a blaze of color. Forest green bushes sprouted pink blossoms the size of Ana's fist, a spiky blue shrub squatted low to the ground, covered in a veil of minute white flowers, and a patch of golden flowers the size of Qui-Gon's thumbnail bloomed exquisitely, ruffled petals forming the appearance of a petticoat. The only drab thing in the small garden was Ana, with her plain brown-and-black clothes, bare feet…and a Padawan braid.
She had a new haircut. Her hair was even shorter and spikier, leaving a shock of black curls that still hung heavily in her eyes, but there was a short Padawan braid hanging down in back. Due to the shortness of her hair, several intricately embellished beads had been added to the braid to lengthen it. It suited her, and he dimly harkened back to the time she had looked at him so angrily and practically growled that she would never grow her braid back. Something had changed, and it didn't take a genius to recognize what; Ana trusted him. Oh, she would never trust him completely, but she trusted him enough to begin her training in earnest. When he spoke, she flinched and turned around. "You grew it back." he said quietly, his deep baritone a low rumble. She got up and passed her fingers through her curly black hair ruefully with a blush skimming her cheeks. Up until this point, she actually didn't know she could blush.
"The hairdresser had to add a few silca beads to make it longer," she admitted. "But yes, I did. Eventually it'll be long, but for now I'm content with it being short." Qui-Gon closed the gap between them and ran his fingers down the short braid, intermittently woven with a few ivory beads, carved with several random signs and shapes. He didn't catch the hitch that jerked in her breath, nor the flush that now rose to her eyes as she realized how close the two of them were. He had a masculine, distinctive scent, similar to a heavy musk or something that reminded her of raw power. It was primal, it was savage, it was handsome, it was man. She fought for control over her emotions that were currently cavorting around inside her chest like wild animals. She was so busy trying to wrestle some deep-rooted feeling that was telling her to do something drastic, that she almost didn't hear his question.
"Do you trust me?" he asked. She gasped slightly and swallowed hard. Did she? Was she disgracing Master Wathearu by trusting this man? Then she decided it was a foregone conclusion. She trusted him the moment she felt safe in his arms, the moment she clung to his chest and allowed all the bitter tears to balm the wounds that had been slashed into her heart. Slowly, she looked up at him, their eyes locking, and her forest green eyes were solemn and completely serious.
"I trust you enough to give you a chance."