Padawan Found chapter 6

Feelings in the open!, after finally admitting their feelings for each other padawans Barriss Offee and Ahsoka Tano can finally focus on the mission at hand. Desperate to see her former master in a less compromising position Barriss rushes to the medical station on board the Jedi cruiser Resolute.

Chapter 6: Heaven in Your Eyes

Barriss woke up in a better mood than even she thought was appropriate considering what had happened the night before, after a quick shower she made her way to the medical bay. With a wave of her hand the door leading to the medical bay hissed open revealing an empty bacti-tank, Barriss started to look around the room when a familiar voice caught her attention "looking for someone padawan" master Luminara stepped through the door behind her with a smile on her face. Barriss took a moment to examine her former master, now back into her black Jedi robes the scares of her last battle were almost invisible save the small limp she tried her best to hide.

Luminara put a reassuring hand on Barriss' shoulder "Skywalker told me about the force meld, how are you doing?"

"it's...different to saw the least, having someone able to hear my every thought took some getting used to"

"I can imagine, what about Ahsoka?"

Barriss couldn't hide the hesitation in her voice "what about her?"

"how does she feel about all this?"

"I'm not really sure, we haven't had the chance to talk about it"

Luminara nodded "well I'm sure you'll get the chance, given my circumstances"

"master?"

"well I'm not exactly in any condition to teach you unless you want to learn how to limp, you'll have to stay with Skywalker till I can be back out in the field"

Barriss wasn't sure how to feel, on one hand this was exactly what she wanted, on the other she found herself missing her formers master company "if that's what you wish master".

"it is, despite his sometimes rash decisions on the field Skywalker has proven himself to be a good teacher"

"no argument there, Ahsoka is very well trained" as both Jedi made their way to the door Barriss clipped a lightsaber off her side "master I almost forgot, your lightsaber"

Luminara took the lightsaber with a smile "thank you padawan, now come on, your master is waiting for you".


^0^0^0^

Barriss once again felt her body heat rise as she stood in front of the Jedi council, Anakin bowed slightly as master Luminara took her seat. Master Windu spoke up first "no losses, master Luminara returned safely, and one less separatists ship to worry about, excellent work Skywalker"

Anakin grinned as he placed a hand on both Ahsoka and Barriss' shoulder "couldn't of done it without these two"

Yoda kept his eyes on Barriss as he talked "yes interested to hear how they performed I am, hard to control a force meld can be".

Barriss took a few reluctant steps forward as Anakin lightly pushed on her back, the eyes of every master on the council were now focused on her "uh...yes master Yoda it was a challenge at first but after some time I think we have the hang of it"

Yoda nodded thoughtfully "what about you padawan Tano, awfully quiet you have been"

Ahsoka didn't move an inch when Yoda mentioned her name, it wasn't until Anakin patted her on the shoulder that she snapped to attention "huh, oh yeah the force meld. It's been a challenge master, but nothing we can't handle"

Yoda seemed unconvinced but let the subject drop "hmm, very well then. Dismissed you are" Barriss bowed before turning to the door and following her master out of the room.


^0^0^0^

Anakin went to his room immediately after leading the way to their quarters, Barriss and Ahsoka sat down on the coach and silently watched speeders fly by the window. After she couldn't take the silence anymore Barriss leaned back on the coach "you alright?".

At first she was sure Ahsoka hadn't heard her but after a short silence she answered back in her head 'I don't know'

'Ahsoka I want to apologize, I pushed you to far last night when...'

'when we almost kissed' Ahsoka finished the thought with an unreadable expression on her face, Barriss wasn't sure what to say let alone think.

She was well aware of what just about happened but saying it out loud really brought it into reality 'yeah, I'm sorry'

'you have nothing to be sorry about, in case you hadn't noticed I wasn't exactly pulling back' despite the situation neither girl could resist a small smile.

Before the conversation had time to restart Anakin walked out into the living room "this force meld might be a good thing after all, don't think I've ever seen you two so happy" Anakin pulled a fresh apple off the table as he headed for the door "well I'm going out"

Ahsoka gave him a weird look "now?, it's almost midnight"

"relax Snips I can take care of myself"

"well would you at least tell us where you're going?"

"out, stay out of trouble" with that Anakin disappeared out the door

Ahsoka let out a loud sigh "god!, I hate it when he does that!"

"this happens a lot?"

"about every other day, I wouldn't mind if he would at least say where he's going"

"do you want to follow him?"

Ahsoka quickly shook her head "if I learned one thing these past few days it's that everybody has their secrets, but we could follow our masters example"

Barriss tried to understand as she was pulled off the couch and to the door "what do you mean?"

Ahsoka stopped inches from the door and turned to her friend with a mischievous grin "looks it's obvious we can't figure out these feelings ourselves, so I say we let fate decide"

"fate?, Ahsoka I don't understand"

"it's simple, we go out tonight and whatever happens happens. No Jedi code, no responsibility, no war, just two people out for a night on the town"

"a date?"

"you're over thinking it, lets just go have fun"

^0^0^0^

Barriss followed Ahsoka to the outskirts of the Jedi temple before they stopped "Ahsoka are you sure about this, I don't think Anakin would want us out this late"

Ahsoka had her eyes set on the mass of skyscrapers ahead of them "Anakin always believed in doing whatever was necessary to complete the mission, well this is necessary to our mission"

"and that mission would be?"

"to find out who we are, now come on" Ahsoka took off down the nearest walkway before Barriss could object.

As she watched her friend disappear into a crowd of people she let a grin spread across her face "find out who we are, this should be fun"

Ahsoka's thoughts echoed in her mind 'you coming or not?'

Barriss had to run to catch up, pushing past a group of people she finally saw her friend standing at the edge of the walkway 'right behind you'. Barriss moved beside Ahsoka and leaned against the large rail that overlooked the senate district, the sun had just started to set behind the large domed building that housed the senate. The sight was truly breathtaking but despite her best attempts to stop it Barriss felt her eyes begin to stray away from the slowly darkening city, instead they rested on her friend.

As the darkness was quickly replaced by moonlight it seemed to cascade around Ahsoka's orange skinned body, a gust of wind caused all three of her Lekku to blow lightly across her face and neck. Then a sight Barriss knew she would never forget, looking deep into Ahsoka's blue eyes she found herself lost as the moon's reflection moved through them clearer than it was directly above her. Apparently feeling the eyes on her Ahsoka turned a blushing face away "you ready for this?"

the question caught Barriss off guard "ready for what?"

Ahsoka pointed straight ahead "see the senate building?"

Barriss had to hold back a laugh "you mean the biggest building on Corusant, yeah I think I see it"

"well, race yeah there" Ahsoka pulled herself up and over the ledge in one fluid motion.

As she fell silently to the row of rooftops below Barriss had to blink to make sure she had seen correctly "oh you're on!"


^0^0^0^

Barriss hit the first rooftop a few seconds after Ahsoka, after a smile was shared between the two she took off as fast as her legs would allow. As the end of the roof quickly approached a short burst of force energy sent her into the air and across the alleyway, she hit the next roof in a roll just as an orange blur speed by "too slow!" Ahsoka cleared the next two buildings in one leap and started to disappear from sight. Barriss didn't need time to come up with a plan, as her friends silhouette vanished from sight she turned towards the edge of the roof and vaulted straight into traffic.

Her heart raced as a fierce wind blew against her face, after passing two large domed speeders and narrowly dodging a transport shuttle she landed in the back set of a small yellow speeder. The speeders driver turned his head in a heartbeat "what the hell!, oh no" the fear stricken face of James Clever turned milky white as he took in the sight of the Jedi "look I don't want any trouble".

Barriss quickly pointed towards the senate buildings domed roof in the distance "relax James Jedi don't hold grudges, but I would be very appreciative if you took me to the senate building as quick as possible"

James ran a nervous hand through his hair "of course Jedi" with a hard push on the steering pad James' speeder took off, the small speeder weaved in and out of traffic as James pushed it as fast as it would go.

Barriss held onto the back seat as the wind wiped against her face, within a minutes time the speeder was inches away from the senate building. James parked the vehicle quietly on the ground next to the main entrance before turning in his seat "look Jedi"

"Barriss Offee"

"look Barriss, about what happened the first time we meet. I just want you to know that wasn't something I do all the time, things have been rather...difficult lately. Between father going off to war and mother...well you don't need hear about my problems. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I truly am sorry".

Barriss looked into the boy's crystal clear brown eyes, one thing was for sure, he wasn't lying "apology accepted Mr. Clever" her body wanted to climb out of the speeder but something in the boys expression stopped her from leaving "James if you ever need someone to talk to please stop by the Jedi temple, even if I'm not there the Jedi are always here to lend an helping hand to someone in need".

"...thank you Barriss Offee, I appreciate that"

"don't mention it James, and thanks for the ride"


^0^0^0^

With a few well timed force jumps Barriss was on the senate buildings roof in no time, although her black shoes found it hard to keep a grip on the slanted surface a little help from the force was enough to straighten her form. 'Alright Ahsoka I'm here, now where are you?'

'look up slowpoke'

Barriss did what the voice asked, Ahsoka stood in the very middle of the domed roof 'how the hell did you get here before me?, I hitched a ride on a speeder for force sake'

'yeah I saw you cheating, guess the driver wasn't fast enough'

'I guess not, so what do we do now?'

Ahsoka pointed to the spot beside her as she sat down 'let's just sit for a while, I'm kind of tired anyway' Barriss made the last jump to the top level of the senates roof and quickly cleared the distance between her and Ahsoka, as she sat down beside her friend the same cold shiver from before went through her body. Ahsoka must of noticed the series of goose bumps that went across her body "you're okay with this right?, because we can do something else"

"no, no I'm fine. Just kind of cold up here" it was meant to be an excuse but the second the words left her mouth a gust of wind sent another chill through her already cold body "okay really cold now, maybe we should go?" Ahsoka said nothing as she looked out towards Corusants horizon, Barriss followed her gaze and once again the city managed to take her breath away.

Neon lights placed across the various skyscrapers painted a rainbow spectrum over the landscape and were only completed by the lights of speeders buzzing by, from their vantage point the extensive walkways going through every inch of the city were clearly visible, each still filled with people of different species even this late at night.

Another chill tried to snake its way up Barriss' body but was stopped halfway through when a orange arm wrapped around her waist, Ahsoka wasted no time in scooting as close to her friend as she would allow. Barriss instantly felt warmer both inside and out as she moved her own arm behind Ahsoka's head, both Jedi laid still staring straight up at the stars as their body heat warmed each other. Without thinking Barriss started to run her hand lightly across Ahsoka's back Lekku, she considered stopping until Ahsoka tightened her grip on her side.

Barriss felt her heart beat increase dramatically as Ahsoka buried her head in her neck, once again the pleasant feeling of her friends breath on her bare skin enveloped her whole body. Ahsoka's breath was heavy but relaxed, after a few minutes of silence she spoke up, her voice pitched a bit lower than usual thanks to the position she was in "there's no fighting this is there?"

"no I don't believe so"

"would you?, I mean if there was a way to let these feeling disappear, would you do it?"

Barriss needed no time to think, no question she was ever asked seemed as easy as this "of course not, I know the Jedi code is the way it is to help us but something that feels the way this does...it can't be wrong"

Ahsoka pulled her head back "it took me a while to figure it out but I think your right, fighting this is only gonna hurt us so when you think about it we really only have one other option"

"so...you want this?, cause I'm not going to force you into anything you don't want" Barriss tried to hide the tremble from her voice one look from Ahsoka told her she was unsuccessful.

The young Togruta led a smile envelope her face "you're not forcing me into anything, I want this, more than anything"

"me too, so what do we do now?. Obviously neither of us have ever been in a relationship before, I don't know about you but I have no idea how this works"

"I guess we'll go by instinct" after Ahsoka finished talking Barriss quickly noticed their lips had been inches away from each other the entire conversation.

Barriss tried to hide the tremble in her voice as she talked "so what are your instincts telling you to do?"

"take a wild guess" a smirk crossed Ahsoka's lips as she leaned in, a ripple of pleasure went through Barriss' body as their lips pressed together. As cliché as it sounds Barriss saw the world crumble around her, the neon lights of Corusant went black and disappeared from existence as she found it impossible to focus on anything else besides the moment at hand.

A few murmured laughs were shared as each padawan tried to learn how exactly to move their lips in motion with each other but to Barriss funny was hardly the word she would use to describe the feeling inside her, the taste in her mouth was by the far the best thing she had ever experienced and a lack of expertise wasn't going to ruin that.

A sharp pain forced a reluctant Barriss to pull back "ow!, what was that?" the question answered itself as a drop of blood fell from her bottom lip.

Ahsoka ran a finger along the mark "sorry about that, Togruta have sharp teeth" a smile from her friend revealed one blood covered fang.

Barriss had to hold back her laughter "don't be sorry, I could get used to that".