Chapter 2: First stirrings

Shoes. Stupid shoes. All they wanted her to draw were shoes for the whole summer. No landscapes. No people. Just bloody shoes. Avin was stretched across her bed on her stomach slowly sketching out her father's boot onto a large blank sheet. That had been her final assignment for art class in Naboo, a punishment for sneaking into the tertiary level's life-drawing class. It was supposed to hone her line drawing and also regrettably, her patience. She had learned all the tunes assigned to her on her Arconan flute and the Bontormian Klesplong, a complicated musical instrument from the Bontormia system which drove her father absolutely crazy. She had already smashed through the political and oratory texts she was supposed to read, she liked Xingotl's confessions the most, and now felt the rest of the summer holiday stretching out before her. When she was a little girl the holiday compound in Port Tarkin had seemed massive and sprawling but now that she had grown she realised how small and insular it was compared to the cosmopolitan Naboo. The bland clothes and the sneering countenances of all those teenagers from the old academy days who still excluded her were bad enough. They still had dance balls for maker's sake and she had to curtsey to officers. If her friends at school saw her curtsey to anyone she would die of mortification. So here she was. Sketching stupid shoes and avoiding her mother, who had recently taken to looking at her in an odd way whenever she entered the room. Tensions had been high at home as stronger rhetoric against the New Republic became common amongst the houses, with growing discussion of the First Order. The Shuah's unique position as ship-builders in the New Republic and strong family name within the Empire gave them allowances most of the other houses did not. This political turn didn't seem to affect anyone in her school on Naboo and the tutors never spoke of it, so she considered it a distant unimportant problem for most of the year. Her mother wanted to be as uninvolved as possible while her father needed to negotiate many of the trade deals on ship building for these shadowy figures in order to gain significant profits. Avin had heard many late-night arguments break out between the two when she was not in school. She hoped their annual holiday to Phelorian would help the matter but her mother seemed even more anxious than usual, casually referring to people she had grown up with as 'those people.'

Fed up, she rolled off the bed onto a soft cushion of silk wraps and other discarded clothing on the floor. The room was a mess but it was her mess and that was how she liked it. Leaping up she prowled out of her room in order to show her father the completed sketch and return his boot. The halls of the family villa were full of sunlight and the sheer curtains billowed inwards as she walked towards the veranda her father usually sat on in the warm evenings. She deposited boot and sketch into his hand for an appraisal which he loudly complimented. "I need more shoes to sketch." she said briefly, leaning with one hand against the gilded railing of the veranda. Her father thought about it deeply and flashed her a mischievous smile very similar to her own. She knew immediately what he was going to say. "Ask people in the compound. Our neighbours the Gorokis are here this weekend. So are the Verengha family and the whole household of the Orolambers descended yesterday afternoon." She made a face at him in disgust. "I'll look so stupid. They don't like me at all how can I ask them- "

"Consider this good experience." Her father interrupted with as he leaned back in his chair. "You must persuade people to give you what you want." "But-" "No buts!" he cautioned and stolidly put his sun hat over his face. She knew where she had to go. She moved through the perfectly manicured lawns of the central square which connected all the various villas, effortlessly dodging the gaze of Vaya Orolamber, the self-proclaimed beauty of the compound and one of Avin's staunchest enemies. Making sure no one saw her she clambered up a tree beside the largest villa in the whole town and stepped along a thick tree branch towards an open window.

"Hi." She whispered, poking her head to look into the window. There he was, same as always, a splash of red hair bent over his computer console at a large solid wood desk. He didn't bother to look up as she swung her leg to get into his room. She gathered herself quickly and sat down at the window seat taking in the room. Nothing ever changed. The computer console and the perfectly made bed. No hint of clothes or even a stray sock left out, unlike her own bedroom which was a wild messy colourful place. If Armitage had not been in the room she would have thought it wasn't occupied, like a hotel room waiting for a guest. His presence and a distinct smell of sandalwood and leather boot polish made it his room. After a few moments he deigned to lift his head and look at her. "Shuah." He said. "Hux." She intoned in the same formal manner. He breathed loudly out of his nose and looked her straight in the eye. "I've told you not to sneak into my room." She nodded solemnly and took her ankle boots off, assiduously storing them under the window seat in order to avoid the possibility of clutter. "I don't ever remember you saying that, Hux." He glanced at her briefly before turning back to the screen. "You know, if I didn't sneak into your room you'd spend the whole summer alone at that console. Teamwork and socialisation are a key component to the new order." She said, parroting one of his father's favourite phrases. He glanced at her briefly again and then back to the console as another memory test started. She briefly looked over his shoulder as the subject of the test flashed up on the screen: 'Tenets of political annexation in the Outer Rim systems'. She rolled her eyes discreetly and slowly pulled out her sketching sheets trying to make as little noise as possible as he selected the correct answers. He still sat slightly awkwardly at the desk, all gangly limbs and it gave her a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach when she looked at him. She decided to push further. "But really you enjoy me sneaking into your room and hanging out with you, be honest now."

"I find you less annoying than others, I suppose." he muttered leaning back in his chair as his finger tapped the right answer on the screen. Avin broke into a huge grin. "My word Armitage, that sounds like a confession of love." She waited and was not disappointed as his ears and cheeks began to flush crimson. The teasing had begun last year when they both reached fifteen and began to fully hit puberty. He had shot up like a pole while Avin had filled out in other ways and his sudden self-consciousness about their genders was perfect fuel for jokes. Avin still vividly remembered his flushed face as he held her hand when they drank Corellian ale, only to see him be violently sick all over his boots a few minutes later. It had been nice but a little strange. For all intents and purposes, Armitage seemed to merely tolerate her, but there were rare moments when his shield slipped and she saw affection interlaced with a scorchingly dry humour underneath. She looked up again to see him staring at her feet, his eyes full of disapproval. "You are wearing odd socks again, Shuah." "Do you know why I am wearing odd socks, Hux?" He turned to look her fully in the eye, his voice dripping in disdain "because you cannot organise yourself for even the simplest of tasks?" She waited for a second as he glared at her. "Nope, it's because I like to wear my favourite pairs at the same time."

"Frivolity." he muttered, turning back to the console. Avin burst into laughter until the tears ran down her face and when she looked up and saw the slight upward turn of his mouth it set her off again. It was these moments when he wasn't pretending to be an angry old man like his father that Avin enjoyed the most. Another question flashed up on the screen and his attention was captured again although this time he didn't immediately answer it. She stood up and wandered over, reading the dense question over his shoulder. "Do you know the answer?" she prompted. "Of course, I know the answer." He snapped at her and Avin was reminded of the first time they hung out together on the pier when she was slightly afraid of him. But things had changed a lot since then. "Well, well. You better answer it quickly, timer is going down. Tick tock." He drummed his fingers on the tabletop. She walked up behind him and leaned over so that some of her long dark hair fell against his shoulder and whispered in his ear: "the answer is Coruscant." The tops of his ears were completely flushed now and suddenly feeling embarrassed she stood straight again and returned to the window seat. He let the time tick down as he sat poker straight in his chair and the word 'Coruscant' answer flashed briefly before the exercise ended. His head flicked downwards to look at his lap and then he quickly scooted his chair forward, hiding his lower body under the desk. He sat completely still and Avin felt she had done something horribly wrong. She decided to change topic quickly.

"Can I sketch one of your boots?" She heard a muffled yes in reply and she quickly walked to his closet guessing where the boots would be. As she opened the closet door, she heard him leap from his chair. "Wait!" he shouted in a commanding tone, but the door was already open. All on the inner right side of the closet door were pictures. They were photos from previous holidays on the planet which she had taken and sent to him. Most of the pictures were of them, going hiking in the mountains above the compound area and a photo of them beside one of her father's main trading ships docked in the port. A very rare one of him smiling before a sea wave crashed down on them which was one of her favourite pictures in the world. One photo of them dressed prim and proper at a formal banquet the previous year, already looking so young in comparison. Many of her sketches she had sent to him were printed out as well, including a sketch of her best friend Korellia asleep in the Naboo sun. One large picture of him and his father, standing together awkwardly outside of Arkanis academy looked down at her, placed above what looked like a slightly crumpled photograph which had been handled many times. It was a bad photo she had taken a few months ago, she faced the shot the wrong way round and had snapped her body leaning forward showing the cleavage underneath her tunic instead of the ship ascending in flight from the port. "What is all this?" she asked.

"I'm not allowed have any personal effects showing." he explained. He strode over to the closet in two long steps, picked up a boot and closed the closet doors quickly. When she looked at him without understanding, he added "Individuality is frowned upon in the First Order." Suddenly feeling awkward and a little silly she took the boot from him and returned to the window seat. He paused and cleared his throat, looking out at the swaying trees close to his window. "Have you considered-?" he paused again and looked out the window a second time. She should close the blinds, she suddenly thought, and fought back a compulsive smile. She waited for a moment. Sometimes when he had something important to say it took some patience to get it out of him. He looked down and she thought the moment had passed. This had been happening a lot recently, especially since the Order had put even more pressure on him as the Commandant's son. When he had accompanied his father on a campaign to resistance territory their inter-space communication had been studded with weird pauses for weeks. Interestingly, when her mother had found out just how much they were communicating the same thing had happened, her mother's pursed mouth and awkward pauses becoming a constant fixture in Avin's house. She enjoyed sending him her drawings, sketches from her anatomy lessons and interesting quotes from oratory class. He sent her clips of his physical training (which had significantly progressed over the years) and interesting historical facts about warfare in the galactic empire era. She had never thought he would keep what she sent him or display them somewhere. She hadn't really thought about it at all. It was just what you did with friends, sharing parts of your life to keep in contact with each other. She knew Armitage wasn't like her other friends on Naboo who were easy to get on with and open to talking and laughing about things. Even though she knew they would never be the best of friends they had a good relationship, but this wall of pictures had unnerved her. Armitage was still standing stock still, staring out the window. His chest was rising rapidly and it made her nervous and warm in a way she had never felt before.

"Avin, have you considered," he began again, "have you considered discussing any arrangements for m-"

"Who are you speaking to?" Maratelle Hux shrilled outside of his bedroom door. Once the rumours had spread about his parentage, that the Commandant's wife was in fact not his mother, Avin had been even more afraid of incurring her wrath. They quickly looked at each other and without a word, Avin grabbed her stuff in one hand and hopped out of the window onto the tree branch. As she quickly scaled down, she heard Armitage's voice on the wind, telling her not to disturb his memory exercises. When she was on the ground she sent him a private message from her communicator.

Get rid of that photo underneath your family portrait please.

A few minutes later a message pinged back to her and her heart began to beat faster, she quickly looked at it.

Of course. H.