Chapter 19: Annie Skywalker

In the end, seeking out Annie Skywalker to be his sparring partner turned out to be harder than Tylo would have thought. She was almost always by her Master’s side these days, and in fact, her and Obi-Wan were taking an awful lot of missions off-planet. More-so then him and Aayla, even though they were comparable as Jedi Knight-Padawan pairs. If Tylo didn’t know any better, he’d say that the Jedi High Council was putting way too much pressure on the two of them. Maybe because Obi-Wan was the Sith Killer, or something. From Tylo’s scant amount of time around both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Annie Skywalker, he HAD picked up hints of… friction between the two of them. From the thoughts he’d pulled from their minds, he’d gotten the impression that the decision to train Annie had not been made by the Council, but by Obi-Wan’s late Jedi Master, Qui-Gon Jinn. The fact that the High Council was apparently unwilling to countermand the deceased Jedi Master’s dying wish was apparently the only reason Obi-Wan and Annie were still together, or even that Annie had been trained as a Jedi at all. It seemed like a source of constant frustration to Tylo, and he wasn’t sure it was healthy for any of the parties involved. Certainly, getting some alone time with Skywalker proved challenging… so challenging, in fact, that Tylo found himself skulking along in the dark of the Jedi Temple late one night, just to try and talk to her. It’d taken some doing and some… snooping, if you will, but he’d discovered something about Skywalker. Namely, she liked to sneak out when she was on planet. She snuck out a lot. And so, Tylo was waiting for her by the hatch he’d seen her thinking about when he’d passed her and her Master by earlier. Her very real escape hatch from the responsibilities of being a Jedi Padawan, and the overbearing nature of the Jedi Knight in charge of her. Can’t be seen. Can’t be seen. Sneaking, sneaking, sneaking… Jolting, Tylo leans back in the shadows, blinking as he hears the thoughts of a certain Padawan coming towards him. There’s honestly something a little… pure about Annie’s thoughts. She’s certainly not as much of a slut as the Jedi he’s currently living with, that’s for sure. But she probably just hasn’t had enough time to grow into it or something, he figures. She’d certainly noticed him on their mission together, her mind commenting on his looks at the time. Regardless, he’s never been happier for his mutated ability to hear thoughts, because as he feels Annie’s mind getting louder, his eyes must be playing tricks on him. He doesn’t really see her. Or rather, he’s not allowed to see her right now. Somehow, possibly entirely by instinct, the Chosen One is obfuscating her presence in the Force. But he knows she’s there. He can literally hear her mental thoughts as she puts all of her effort and focus into not being seen. “Skywalker.” It’s a shot in the dark, but Annie’s mental presence goes still as he calls out to her. Wha- who the fuck?! Wait… Tylo Vondin?! With his call, Annie’s concentration is broken, her haphazard and likely completely subconscious stealth technique shattering as she’s revealed to his senses once more. He blinks as the air sort of shimmers before he can see her again, and steps forward, staring at her with wide eyes as she does the same right back at him. “T-Tylo?” What’s he doing here?! Did Obi-Wan put him up to this?! Ugh, I just want to race! That last bit was particularly interesting, but Tylo knows he has to convince her his intentions are clean before she gets too worked up. Raising his hands, he offers his fellow Padawan a smile. “I… I wanted to see you again, sorry. It’s been hard getting some time to talk with you alone, given how your Master seems to… like to hover. I don’t think he likes me very much.” In truth, Obi-Wan barely even thought about him from what Tylo had been able to glean. The Jedi Knight had enough on his plate already, presumably, and Tylo was small fry in comparison to the problems he was dealing with. Still, it’s what Annie wants to hear, he’s pretty sure. And indeed, upon putting himself in an adversarial role with Kenobi, he can feel the palpable relief on Annie’s end, her thoughts turning altogether calmer as she nevertheless flushes and squirms a bit in deference to her Master. “O-Obi-Wan… Obi-Wan just wants to make sure I’m alright. He means well…” Tylo just continues to smile and nod. “Sure. But still, our Masters can be quite overbearing, can’t they? I presume that’s why your planning to sneak out and go racing?” Annie’s eyes nearly bulge out of her head at that, and she sputters in a way that exposes the truth of the matter as much as any confirmation could. “W-What?! How could you possibly know that?!” He knows about my racing! Oh Force, if he tells Obi-Wan, Master is going to kill me! Sheesh, if Tylo was a nastier sort of person, that would be the perfect lead into blackmail. But he’s not out to ‘get’ Annie or anything like that… and he certainly doesn’t want to turn his budding relationship with the Chosen One into something negative. His initial goal was to spar her, to see how he measured up with the girl who was supposed to be the most powerful Force User of his generation, and possibly the most powerful Force User in the entire Temple. But now he sort of felt bad about it, like he would be ruining her night if he forced the issue. So, smiling enigmatically, Tylo shakes his head. “Never mind how I know. Do you want some company? I’d love to see you race. I’ll be honest… I originally wanted a spar with you. I feel like I’ve been overtaking a lot of the other Padawans in my saber work, but because your Master keeps you with him practically all the time, we’ve never got a chance to cross sabers. That said, I don’t want to ruin your night…” He’s so thoughtful and considerate… and cute. Ugh, why can’t I get over how cute he is? Blushing up a storm, Annie is silent for a few moments before finally nodding. “S-Sure. You can come. And uh, if all goes well, maybe we can have that spar afterwards or something…” Tylo just gives a cheery smile as he steps aside to let her at the currently closed hatch they’ll be escaping out of the temple through. “Whatever happens, happens. I don’t mind either way.” Shooting him a grateful and altogether considering look, Annie bites her lower lip subconsciously for a moment before jimmying the hatch open and crawling through. After a moment of glancing about, Tylo follows after her. -x-X-x- Several hours later, two positively filthy, sweaty Padawans come tumbling back out of the hatch, looking like they’ve not only just run a marathon, but had several brushes with death as well. And indeed, there are burn marks on their robes from some… VERY close calls. For a moment, Tylo and Annie just lay there on the floor, half-atop one another. They realize this at the same moment and hurriedly pull apart, both blushing under the sweat and smudges of oil covering their faces. Staring at each other for a few seconds, Tylo finally starts to chuckle, prompting Annie to giggle, the both of them slowly letting it all out over the course of the next few minutes, just helplessly laughing with one another. Relief and exhilaration and adrenaline all lace their voices as they laugh and laugh and laugh.

Really, it started out relatively tame, all things considered. Annie had snuck them out of the Jedi Temple with an ease that would have taken Tylo aback if he couldn’t read her mind and automatically know how many times, she’d done this before. The girl was a mechanic at heart apparently and had even built her own protocol droid at one point, before being forced to leave him behind unfinished on Tatooine. But on top of being a skilled mechanic, she was also a racer, specifically a pod racer. This, Annie told him directly, even telling him the story about how she earned her freedom, how Master Qui-Gon Jinn had bet she would win the Boonta Eve classic back on Tatooine and secured her as the price of victory. Annie Skywalker talked about Qui-Gon Jinn with a wistfulness that would have alerted Tylo to her discontent with her current Master even if he couldn’t read her thoughts. Qui-Gon was indeed the one who was supposed to train her. He was indeed the only reason she was even being trained as a Jedi now. Even in death, Qui-Gon had done all he could by guilt tripping his last Padawan into taking her on as his Padawan Learner. It really, really didn’t seem healthy in Tylo’s opinion. Annie had a fondness for Obi-Wan that was unmistakable, but it was shadowed demonstrably by the circumstances of their pairing. They were Master and Padawan by necessity, not by choice on either of their parts, and that… that was a problem. Whether it would solve itself with time or not, Tylo couldn’t have said, but it was still a problem. Regardless, there was no pod racing on Coruscant. But there was swoop bike racing. And while Annie didn’t have any credits or technically any possessions at all because she was a Jedi, she could scrounge and scavenge with the best of them. Indeed, even on their way to the swoop track through the upper layers of Coruscant’s underbelly, Annie had stopped at least a handful of times to look over this or that piece of what, to Tylo’s eyes, looked like so much discarded trash. To be fair, most of it did turn out to be trash, but Annie tucked at least one of those parts into her robes as they continued on. Indeed, even the swoop race itself was fantastic. It was Tylo’s first time being anywhere outside of the Jedi Temple without… well, without his Master nearby, at least. Aayla didn’t hover as badly as Obi-Wan, but obviously Tylo wasn’t just allowed to wander Coruscant all willy nilly. And yet, there he’d been, watching Annie race along with a bunch of other spectators, getting caught up in the moment and cheering her on. Perhaps he’d gotten a little TOO caught up in the moment, because shortly after Annie had WON the swoop race, they’d been accosted by a gang of thugs, among which were several brutes who’d been IN the spectator area with him. Now to be fair, Tylo couldn’t possibly be expected to keep track of hundreds upon hundreds of thoughts at the same time, and indeed, outside of the Jedi Temple, it was LOUD in comparison. But still, he did feel like he should have been able to pick up on the threat before it’d manifested. In the end, he and Annie had been forced to run, not having their lightsabers on them, not having any way of identifying themselves as Jedi. And indeed, not wanting to be caught as two Jedi Padawans going AWOL for the night. The ensuing chase had taken an hour all by itself, with too many close calls to mention, but they’d made it back in one piece all the same. Here they were, not really any worse for wear then when they’d left, if one didn’t count the trash they’d had to wade through, or the burn marks in their robes from several VERY close calls. Still, they’d done it and both of them couldn’t help but laugh helplessly over it, until eventually the exhilaration of their escape began to die down. However, just because they were out of the woods, didn’t mean the adrenaline from their night’s adventure just… went away. As their laughter quiets down, they’re still staring at one another. Tylo stares into Annie’s eyes, finding them to be the most beautiful shade of blue he’s ever seen… and his Master is a blue-skinned Twi’lek! Now, Annie’s eyes might just be more beautiful at the moment because the rest of her is so messy, making them stand out amongst the dirt and grime coating her face… but, nevertheless. Should he kiss her? Luckily for Tylo, he’s no normal Jedi Padawan, or he’d have to simply go off instinct. Instead, he gets to cheat. Force, I want to kiss him so badly right now. With that thought from Annie, it doesn’t feel like he’s going to get any better of an invitation. And so, shuffling closer, Tylo ignores that she tenses up, and gingerly reaches out to cradle the Chosen One’s cheek in his palm, before leaning in and kissing her. She’s frozen at first, but soon begins to milk into the kiss, eventually kissing him right back. The two of them lay there side by side in the dimly lit corridor buried within the Jedi Temple’s deaths, their lips pressing together heatedly, their tongues working into each other’s mouths. Tylo starts that of course, but boy if Annie doesn’t go along with it, her own tongue swirling around his. She doesn’t give any ground, doesn’t just submit like so many of the other Jedi he’s kissed. This isn’t a dominance play or anything like that, it’s just two young people making out, even if Tylo’s reams of experience in the matter do give him a bit of a leg up on her, allowing him to lead the whole makeout session a fair bit. But it’s Annie who takes things a step further, when she suddenly goes from resting her hands against his chest, to reaching down and working open his trousers. Tylo’s eyes widen slightly at that, and he peers into her mind, trying to get an idea of what she wants from him. He’s… he’s the first friend I’ve ever truly had. I can’t believe he actually came with me tonight. And without him, those thugs might have managed to get me. Force, I need him to know how much he means to me. I can’t let him slip away like all the others! It would appear that Annie had been having a hard time making friends since coming to the Temple. That didn’t surprise Tylo, nor did it surprise him to learn that the few friends who did get close to her for a time were eventually chased away, either by her all-around prowess in the Force, or the oddity of being the only one among them not to grow up in the Temple from infanthood, or even her Master being his overbearing self. Still, it did leave Tylo with a bit of a conundrum. Did he really want to have sex with Annie Skywalker here in a dark corridor while they were both covered in sweat and grime, and her strongest motivation for doing so was because she was afraid, he would abandon her if she didn’t? Actually, having sex might be a good way of reinforcing that he wasn’t going to abandon her, but it might also be just as good if he stopped her now and told her he wasn’t going to abandon her? Fuck, Tylo wasn’t sure what the right choice was here. All he’d wanted was that spar, and now here he was about to get into another ‘spar’ entirely. Or was he?