Disclaimer: How I wish I owned Kyp Durron… *sigh*

Part III

When he walked out of his quarters the next morning, he knew she was there waiting for him. He had sensed her approach, her firm resolve, from the moment he had woken, but he took his time in the sanisteam and getting dressed, just to see if she'd waver.

He sensed a flicker of nervousness as he palmed the release pad…

And then she was on him, pulling his mouth down to hers and wrapping her arms around his neck. Grinning through the kiss, he walked them back into his room to avoid any curious onlookers and struck the pad to close the door again with a spare elbow. He allowed the kiss to continue for another few seconds before pulling gently away from her and smiling softly.

"You'll stay?"

"I'll stay."

Something deep flickered within him and his heart started beating just a little faster. "You know, surprising a Jedi master- your master- should never go unpunished."

Her head tilted slightly. "Oh dear," she said wryly. "Whatever shall be the consequences of my actions? Might I remind you," she cut off his reply, "that we have a meeting in ten minutes with some important people, not least of all Commander Darklighter and General Antilles?"

His face fell comically but he brought a hand up around her neck, running a thumb along her jaw line. "Oh," he said quietly, "that's a good thing. It gives me more time to contemplate the… seriousness of your transgression."

She just smirked and shook her head before ducking under his arm and reaching for the door panel once more. He watched her go with hooded eyes before following and matching her quick pace down the corridors of the star destroyer.

They slid into the last two available seats at the conference table thirty seconds before 0800 hours. Wedge Antilles looked up distractedly as they did so, nodded once to each, and then handed his datapad over to an aide before commencing the morning briefing.

A few times, Kyp managed to catch Jaina's eye. Each time, a faint color would rise in her cheeks and Kyp would feel a stirring satisfaction at the visual evidence of the effect he could elicit from her, having a sudden desire to see more of her skin flushed in excitement like that…

He caught a jolt of embarrassment in the Force and smirked across the table, realizing that something of that last image had gotten through to her.

"Jaina?"

She started and looked up at Wedge. "Yes, General?" her voice was quiet and hoarse.

He frowned. "Are you alright? You look a little… bothered."

If there was anything he could have said to make her flush deeper, that was it. "I- sorry, sir. I'm not quite feeling myself this morning," she stammered. "I wonder if I might be excused?"

"Of course. Send word if you're still in the med bay through sim training, we'll find a replacement for the exercise."

She stared unblinkingly for a moment, realizing she was stuck now going to the med bay. Across the table, Kyp was fighting the smile threatening to take over his face, and Jaina shot him a dirty look. "Yes, sir. I should be fine with a bit of rest, I'll see you at thirteen hundred."

Without another word, she glided noiselessly from the room. Wedge shot a quick and calculating look at her back- and then another to Kyp- before turning back to Gavin Darklighter who was discussing Yuuzhan Vong movements near Reecee and Selvaris.

Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.

Two hours later, Kyp found her attempting to meditate in the training room. It was one of those rare times during the day when it was empty, with crew and pilots occupied by meetings, morning briefings, or breakfast, but despite the dark and eerie silence of the room, she seemed to struggle to focus.

"I could sense you coming," she offered by way of greeting, slowly opening her eyes and reaching her arms above her head to stretch.

He looked her over. "Did you go to the infirmary?"

"Yes."

Surprise flickered across his features as he sat a few feet in front of her. "Oh? What did they say?"

She grinned. "Nothing. I just asked for a stim-shot, said I wasn't sleeping well and had difficulty concentrating." He continued to regard her carefully and she sensed a feeling from him that was more than a little foreign- nervousness. "Are you alright?"

"I went by the infirmary first to see if you were there," he said, not answering the question. "I grabbed something for you." She frowned, confused, and he pulled a long tube that she recognized as a syringe holder from his robe pocket.

Handing it over, he watched her face carefully as she read the label and, as predicted, she quickly went red. "Kyp," she muttered, "I uh…"

"I just want you to have it in your medpac," he urged. "I told you last night to never let yourself feel pressured into anything you didn't want, but you also have to consider ahead to the time when you do want it. That could be tomorrow, a month from now, or ten years from now, but you wouldn't want to be caught unprepared, whenever it happens. Okay?" he asked gently, and she nodded. "Hey," he leaned forward, urging her to look up at him. "I'm just looking out for you."

She restrained herself from pointing out that there would be a very strong chance that it was himself he was looking out for just as much as her.

Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.

As he had anticipated would happen, Jaina was more subdued the next couple of days, throwing herself into whatever training exercises the squadron was doing during the day and focusing intently on sparring and meditating techniques in the evenings. She refused to let her mind wander over the events of the past few days, but that was good, in Kyp's opinion. Jaina had always been too hot-headed- like himself- and that led to easy distraction. Now she was simply getting better at compartmentalizing her emotions in light of their shifting relationship.

And despite the cool, collected attitude while they were training… there was a moment each night when her eyes would soften and she would allow him to give her a lingering kiss before they parted ways.

For now… it was worth it.

Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.

He held up a hand to stop her as she made to discard her outer robe. "I thought we could bypass the sparring tonight."

Bemusedly, she turned to face him. "Oh? Getting soft on me, Master?"

A flash of dry humor touched her. "No," he murmured. "That is most definitely not the case." He studied her carefully. "Nevertheless, I thought we could take the night to… talk."

"To talk?" her voice was remarkably skeptical.

"Sure. Seeing as I'm kissing you goodnight on a regular basis these days, it didn't seem wholly unreasonable that we spend just one night doing something more than sitting quietly and sensing the some-thousands of other people on this ship."

Her lips quirked. "Something more? How much more?"

"However much you want," he said lowly, gratified when she flushed but did not look away.

She looked hesitant. "Ah, uh… did you want to do that here?" She laughed at his sudden wide-eyed surprise. "Talk, Kyp. Did you want to talk here?"

He chuckled, unembarrassed. "Sure; unless you have a better idea."

By the look on her face, she was weighing the options carefully. "No, here is good," she finally settled, and Kyp wondered if she didn't like the idea of neutral ground, as opposed to one of their cabins. "Shoot."

A Q and A then; that was fine. "Tell me about your love life." She shot him a sharp look. "I don't need names and dates," he said evenly. "I just wonder how you manage to be so coy and teasing at the same time as innocent and confused."

Her initial reaction was indignation; that was fine too. He sat patiently, staring her down coolly, until she relented, albeit a bit grudgingly.

"I had something of an on-and-off boyfriend at the academy. Off, mostly," she admitted. "We'd been friends since Jacen and I were nine or so. But he…" she trailed off and looked away, eyes unfocused. "It never really went anywhere. He was too frightened of hurting me again, and when he finally got over that… it was just too late. We kissed once; it felt weird."

"Hurting you again?" Kyp frowned.

She just shook her head. "He fell; the Shadow Academy recruited him, twisted him into a dark shadow of what he'd been back on Coruscant- we didn't even know he was Force-sensitive," she admitted ruefully. "After the attack on the praxeum, he came back to the light, but he wouldn't stay to be trained properly, he was too afraid of himself. When he did finally come back… Jacen and I left soon after to start our proper apprenticeships with Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara."

"Yes," Kyp murmured. "That story is… familiar. Though I never met your mysterious, dark suitor," he teased lightly.

"Zekk," Jaina ground out. "His name is Zekk, and he's not 'dark.' Not anymore, anyway."

"Hm." They sat in contemplative silence for a few minutes. "What else?" he finally prompted.

She frowned. "That's it."

A wave of surprise swept him, followed by a tingling of guilt, but he suppressed both sensations. It was no wonder she had become so alarmed so quickly in her quarters a few nights ago…

For the first time, he wondered if her decision to stay here with him had been a good one.

Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.

"Master Durron- a word, please?"

He glanced around curiously. Wedge's voice was cool and firm, his gaze tense as he watched the rest of the squadron leaders file out of the meeting. Admiral Kre'fey was due to arrive in-system in a day or two, putting all fighters on standby alert.

"Yes, General?" he did his best to sound calmly indifferent. It was no secret that the infamous Wedge Antilles didn't much care for him; to be perfectly honest, Wedge wasn't his favorite person in the galaxy either.

The older man sized him up for a moment. "You've taken Jaina Solo as your apprentice." It wasn't a question.

Kyp frowned. "Yes; she has been for a month. Surely you aren't just hearing of this now…?"

Wedge waved off the inquiry. "Gavin is hoping to induct her back into Rogue Squadron by the time we finish up at Sernpidal."

He'd suspected as much. "It is a rather- informal arrangement. She is my apprentice only as long as she remains here with my squadron and chooses to be my apprentice."

"Tell me, Master Durron… this 'informal arrangement' of yours… does it entail late nights in your cabin alone?"

He bristled. "It's difficult to find quiet space on a ship like this, surely you understand, General. Having said that- I hardly see how Jaina's ongoing Jedi training is a matter of your concern…"

"Her primary purpose here is to fly a snubfighter," Wedge snapped, "and that makes it my concern if she is not spending her free time recovering her strength adequately. We could find ourselves under attack at any time and I need prepared pilots."

Kyp eyed him curiously. "She works no longer or harder than I do."

"You're a grown man."

"I think Jaina would resent your implication," Kyp murmured softly.

A lengthy, terse silence stretched between them. Then, Wedge really made Kyp want to throttle him. "Are you sleeping with her?"

"General Antilles," he bit, "I can assure you that Jaina Solo would resent this highly inappropriate interest in her personal life even more than I do. And, to answer your question… no."

It was said with complete honesty, and Wedge seemed taken aback and then mildly chagrined. Kyp was amused to see the look of consternation of the older man's face as he realized he'd played his cards wrong. Surely he knew that Jaina and Kyp had become involved- otherwise, he wouldn't have confronted him like this. But he'd jumped too far, too fast and couldn't backtrack.

"If that's all, General?"

With a look of frustration and annoyance on his face, Wedge waved him away. Kyp couldn't help but smirk lightly as he strutted back to his cabin.

Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.

Alarms sounded. Across the ship, pilots snapped out of bed and shoved their arms and legs into flight suits, their feet into boots, and tucked helmets under their arms before dashing out into the crowded corridor and rushing towards the fighter hangars.

It took Jaina less than three minutes from the first alarm to be approaching her craft, her droid being lowered down into the socket already.

Another five minutes passed and her fighter was powered up, shields and weapons online, and tearing out of the hangar with a few dozen other small starfighters of various designs. Pouring out into space, it was immediately evident what the problem was: the Ralroost had arrived as scheduled. The large ship movements, however, had attracted a Yuuzhan Vong patrol fleet which was now hammering at the bothan cruiser which already had squadrons of fighters emptying from the docking bays.

She was preparing to locate Kyp's squadron when her private comm channel pinged with a message. "Solo, you'll be flying Rogue today- thirteen." She recognized the low voice of Gavin Darklighter.

"Yes, sir," she murmured, checking her sensor readings and locating the still-forming Rogue cluster. "I'll be without a wingmate though…"

"Negative," a new voice sounded in her ear. "You'll be forming up with me. Rogue fourteen, reporting in."

She stared at her console. "General?" she asked, astounded.

The laughter in his voice was obvious. "I don't want to let my piloting skills completely deteriorate; you better be on top form today, Jaina, no one will forget it if you let the fleet commander get vaped."

He was joking but Jaina winced. Joke or not, it was completely true.

End Part III

A/N: Halfway done already…! ;-)

Until next time,

*~Lexi~*