JKQ Pastebin 1: Master and Apprentice

“Ambrose!” she yells as she approaches you.

It’s been two months. A master shouldn’t be away from his apprentice for this long.

“Meeka!” you squeak out as she envelops you in a tight hug, your voice made high by the unexpected hard squeeze on your diaphragm.

You laugh and she doesn’t let go. A passerby in the spaceport points a smile at you as you embrace her and tips his hat.

You push her off of you, putting on a formal face and bowing, “It is good to see you in such good condition, Apprentice Meeka. We shall resume your training immediately.”

Meeka bows, her mess of light brown curls flopping as she does, “It’s good to see you as well, Master.”

As Meeka beams that excited grin you’ve only been able to experience through holo-messages, your facade of serious melts and you beam right back before she rushes forward to resume the hug.

“I missed you,” Meeka says simply.

“Jedi are meant to guard against such attachment, Padawan,” you chastise before saying in a much softer voice, “I missed you too.”

“You’re as bad at the Code as I am sometimes,” she teases before letting you go. The two of you begin to walk down the sparse hallway in one of Dantooine’s small spaceports.

“Sooooo,” Meeka begins, “When am I going to--”

“No,” you command.

“Come oooooon! Secret missions! No one gets secret missions! Especially directly from the Council of First Knowledge! You have to take me on one!” she pleads.

“Padawan,” you soften your tone, “When you’re a knight and I have a mission that requires a partner, you will be the first and best partner I will require, but until you pass your trials, I will not endanger you beyond reason.”

Meeka rolls her eyes and gives your arm a playful push, “I survived a Mandalorian civil war with hardly a scratch on me and you’re worried about danger?”

“Padawan, you broke your shoulder and your knee and you were held at gunpoint for nearly half of an hour trying to convince a mercenary posing as Mandalore that you were just a lost orphan and not the half Zabrak Jedi.”

“For a Mandalorian civil war, that’s virtually a scratch,” she fires back.

You feel the single robotic finger that is your souvenir from that mission before responding, “Fair point.”

“So why not take me on your next secret mission?” she says.

You think for a long moment and look her over while you do it. It’s hard to believe she started her training late. Lost, alone, and living on the street and yet the Council could barely detect a hint of dark emotions in her when they found her. Where most would fall behind, she excelled. She’ll make a fine Sentinel and you’re glad you helped her achieve that. You’ve seen her grow from the impulsive and mischievous Padawan she began as to a woman of judgment, grace, and strength in the Force like you’d never seen. She seemed to glow through the darkness wherever she went.

“I...will consider it, Padawan.”

Meeka bites her lip in excitement.

“Master, I’m going to make you proud.”

“You’ve done that already, Meeka.”

__________________________________

The shuttle shakes on re-entry. Your eyes bolt open and scan the room on instinct but you remember where you are in a moment. A small groan comes from your left and you see Meeka asleep with her head on your shoulder. You smile and your eyes droop back down to their place of rest. Your head sinks down onto hers and you hear her hum in her sleep. It should be another 20 minutes or so before a landing pad on Jedha is clear. There’s no hurry.

__________________________________

“You’re distracted, Padawan,” Master Hallar says to you

Your attempts at mediation today have been going quite poorly and your master can sense it. You hope by the Force he doesn’t know why.

“I’m sorry, Master,” you say, your eyes lifting to see Hallar’s deceptively stern stare. You look into his eyes, gold like a rare Krayt dragon scale in the desert sun. He smiles at you for a second before clearing his throat and going back into his incredibly convincing emotionless Jedi Master act. And you knew it was an act. No one you knew cared about others the way Hallar did. No one you knew threw themselves in harm’s way for others with such passion. No one looked at you the way he did.

“Meeka, is there something wrong?” he says, moving closer and putting a hand on your shoulder.

You had only been training with him on Jedha for two days and already it was almost too much to bear.

“I guess...I guess I just really missed you, Ambrose.”

“Meeka, when we’re training, you should address me as…”

Ambrose freezes when your eyes finally connect and for the first time since he went off on his secret mission, the two of you take a long look at one another. For the first time in your life, you see fear in his eyes.

He knows.

“I...I’m sorry,” you let out, your chest feeling like a furnace and your skin, hardier than most humans, feeling like melting glass dripping onto the floor.

Ambrose’s cheeks turn bright red and amidst all the fear and all those other emotions you know you shouldn’t have, you can’t help but laugh at your invincible master getting flustered.

“Let’s...I’m giving you the rest of today off to think of...”

That’s where you cut him off. Force knows where this strength came from but for this moment, the Jedi Order and all its rules and consequences feel like gizkas and these feelings inside are the kath hounds ready to strike.

You take one step forward and Hallar takes one step back.

“Meeka…”

You take another step forward and this time, Ambrose holds his ground. You take one more step and he leans into you, his arms, powerful and defined, slip behind your back as your lips drift into his.

He’s soft, so much softer than you would have thought. The kiss is sloppy and unpracticed. It’s wet and cold and awkward. It’s perfect.

It all comes back to you in seconds, reality that is. Expulsion from the Order. Or worse, transferred to a new master. You know the stories. The ridicule, the humiliation, the extra supervision. Eyes always watching you like you're about to pull out a thermal detonator. It’s something that will follow you. No matter where in the galaxy you find yourself, you’ll still be the Jedi seductress, you’ll still get approached by brash knights looking for emotionless fun, you’ll still get looks from the others. You'd be better off on your own.

You’re running now. When did you start running? Ambrose is telling you to wait and trying to catch you but you’re somehow faster than him now. You’re not sure when that happened, but you thank the Force for it as you run to anywhere but here.
_________________________

“Force damn it!” you say as you circle around the Jedha market, looking for where your apprentice could have run off to.

You’re an idiot. You’re a damned Bantha fodder brained, spineless, scruffy looking idiot.

“Meeka!” you shout, circling around and looking for any trace of her. “Meeka!”

Rushing around the market, your eyes moving fast between shops and side streets, your breath heavy, you search for her to no avail.

Finally, you pause and push your hair back, slowing down your breath. Your eyes close and your reach out through the Force.

Instead of Meeka, you find a voice.

“Ambrose,” it echoes like a current through the air.

You open your eyes to find a man. His legs sit crossed in the dirt. His eyes sit relaxed and almost shut except for the sliver of whites you discern as you draw near.

“You know my name?” you crack with more desperation in your tone than any Jedi ought to have.

He speaks, slurred a drunken sounding, “I know what is unguarded.”

You cross you legs to match his, “I am not worried about guarding my mind right now. I worry only for my apprentice.”

“Worry?” he cackles, “Is that what you call it? That is an ugly word for a pretty thing, Ambrose.”

“Help me find Meeka,” you say with the authority of a Jedi Master.

The man takes three dice and places them in a cup.

“The Force works in mysterious ways,” he says as he shakes the cup with one hand covering it to keep the dice inside. “It returned you to Jedha after all this time.”

“I don’t know you,” you say, your voice louder than you meant for it to be.

“Did the Jedi teach you no patience?” he asks as he casts the dice.

You see a symbol you don’t recognize. It is a small circle with an x and a line through it. Another die shows a baby and the third die shows a severed hand.

“You can read my mind from across a busy marketplace. You call out to me. You claim to recognize me but you are a stranger. You claim I have returned, but this is the first time I have every been to the Jedi Temple on Jedha. I can see you’re of some religion here on Jedha and I respect your wisdom but it is of no consequence to me now. If you cannot help me find Meeka, then--”

You get up to leave and find a hand gripping your arm, far stronger than its meager frame let on.

“You are a Guardian, as I am, Ambrose. The Force works in mysterious ways. The future is fickle as the Whills is constant, but I sense you will return to us.”

You rips your arm away and turn around to find Meeka approaching you, face red from dried tears.

“As she will return to you.”

______________________________________________________________________________

The silence eats away at the room. The walls feel smaller, the ceiling feels like it’s collapsing down on your head.

“Ambrose,” you say with a voice softer than you knew you had, “I’m sorry.”

You sit in silence for another moment, feeling the shame of your master’s eyes looking at you with disappointment.

That’s when you look up and see the fear. You’ve never seen Ambrose look so afraid.

“Master, I--”

“Meeka, this is wrong,” he cuts in, “You are my apprentice and these feelings are inappropriate and I ask that you forgive me. I can no longer be your Master. I have taught you everything I’m willing--”

“No!”

He flinches back in surprise.

“Ambrose, I won’t live the rest of my life apart from you because of this,” you spit as tears well up again.

“Meeka, we can’t just pretend this didn’t happen. This is--”

“Ambrose, do you love me?” you say, very sure of yourself for this one moment.

There was the fear again. More fear than you could ever imagine your master possessing. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes and for a moment, you sense something in him. You’ve caught glimpses of it before, but now it seems to be aching to get out. Something warm. Like the glow of a sun without any burning. Something--

“Yes.”

The silence returns to the room, but this time it makes you feel small, tiny in it, You’re a speck on the floor and the ceiling may as well be the sky.

“Master,” you say slowly, “I don’t like the idea of not kissing you.”

There’s no fear in his eyes now. Only that same determination that’s gotten you both through so many battles.

You take one step forward and he matches your stride.

Another step.

And another.

Your lips connect once again, giving way to a flurry of senses, an electricity through your whole body that seems to connect to his where his lips touch yours and where his hands wrap around your back and where your fingers

There’s no turning back now.