#xaja is oblivious

[keldae]

On a small college campus, it didn't take long for rumours to start flying. Naturally, Jonas was the instigator of such things – a little word to Mako that his roommate was seeing a pretty girl, and it became campus news.

Somehow, Xaja didn't notice this. 

If she'd been aware of the rumours starting to swirl around her dorm, perhaps she would have been a little less eager to go visit her cute neighbour across the hall. But in her moment of panic, her dismayed screech stifled as her laptop bluescreened, her mind went fairly blank.

“Shit!” Kira exclaimed as she eyed her roommate's computer and the Blue Screen Of Death. “Weren't you in the middle of a paper, too?”

“Yes,” Xaja all but wailed. “And it's the one for Doctor Shan. Fuck me, I need this thing functioning!”

Kira had a thought of someone else who'd probably appreciate that particular invitation more, but kept it to herself. Xaja wouldn't appreciate the teasing about their cute neighbour while in such a moment of panic. “‘Kay, we have a couple neighbours across the hall who are in computer science. Hopefully one of them is home.”

“God, I hope so,” Xaja groaned, unplugging her malfunctioning laptop and getting to her feet. She hurried out of her and Kira's room, knocking frantically on Theron and Jonas’ door. Please, one of you be home… and please, neither of you with ‘company’... She had no interest in interrupting Jonas if he was in the middle of ‘entertaining’ a girl, and the mere idea of Theron being with someone else made a spark of jealousy bloom in her chest.

The door cracked open, and Theron himself poked his head out, confusion in his amber eyes. A second later, he smiled. “Hey there. What's up?”

“Oh, thank God you're here!” Xaja quickly said. “Help!”

Theron's brow creased in a frown. “What's up–?” Xaja turned her bluescreened computer to face him, and his eyes widened. “Oooh shit. Okay, yeah, I can probably fix this. Gimme.” He took the laptop out of Xaja's hands and retreated into the room, holding the door open for her to follow him inside. “Take a seat, this might take a while. Sorry about the mess.”

“I can excuse almost any mess,” Xaja said, relief making her knees weak as she took a seat on the bed Theron pointed to. “I've got two younger brothers, and you're saving my sanity along with my computer.”

Theron shot her a grin. “Okay, yeah, you get it then. Hang tight.” He set the laptop down on his desk and quickly took a seat in front of it, pushing his own computer out of the way. “What were you doing when it died?”

“Working on a paper for the guest lecturer Professor Din brought in this week, and listening to music in the background,” Xaja answered, anxiously watching as Theron forced her computer to a hard restart. “Nothing too strenuous.” She looked up as the door to the shared bathroom opened and Jonas stepped out, yawning. “Hey,” she said in greeting.

Jonas paused, looking back and forth between Xaja and Theron. “Am I interrupting anything?” he asked, a slow grin on his face. “I can go…”

“Nothing like that,” Theron growled out, although Xaja noted his ears were starting to turn red. “I'm tech support today.” He pressed a key, booting into what Xaja thought was the BIOS of her laptop. “Okay, baby, what's going on with you…” he murmured.

“Tech support?” Jonas asked, tilting his head as he sat down on his bed.

“Blue Screen Of Death,” Xaja answered. “And I have a paper due tomorrow for Doctor Shan!” She didn't notice Theron do a slight double-take at the mention of the guest lecturer.

Jonas winced in sympathy. “Worst timing! Isn't she that guest speaker Professor Din brought in this week?”

“The very same,” Xaja confirmed. “And she's rewarding a bursary for the best paper, and I could really use that bursary…”

“No pressure,” Theron absently said, still fussing with the BIOS of Xaja's laptop. “I'll get your computer back up and cooperating. Don't you worry.”

“Pretty sure he'll put in a good word for you with Doctor Shan too,” Jonas added with a grin. “If he ever accepts that invitation of hers to go for lunch.”

Xaja paused, frowning. “Why would Doctor Shan be inviting you for lunch, Theron?”

Theron looked up from the laptop to scowl at Jonas (who just grinned cheerfully back), then sighed. “She, uh… she's my bio-mom.”

Xaja felt her eyes widen comically. “Doctor Shan is your mom?”

“What, you never connected ‘Theron Shan’ with ‘Doctor Satele Shan’?” Jonas asked with a smirk. 

“In all fairness, ‘Shan’ is a super common name,” Theron pointed out. “And I don't think I look a ton like her.”

“Hmmm.” Xaja looked at Theron (or rather, at the back of his head and shoulders), putting the mental image of his face beside the memory of Doctor Shan's. “She mentioned she had a son attending here, but she didn't say it was you…”

“Our relationship is… complicated,” Theron admitted. “She didn't come back in the picture until I was in high school – my grandfather raised me. She was too busy with all her international work to do more than send birthday and Christmas gifts for most of my childhood.”

“... I feel like I just broached a sensitive subject,” Xaja slowly said. “Sorry – I didn't realize it was a touchy subject.”

Theron shrugged. “You didn't know. Don't get me started on my bio-dad – he didn't know I existed until last year.”

“That was a whole thing,” Jonas agreed. “Nice guy, your dad, but he low-key intimidates me. So does your mom, come to think of it. How did you not inherit ‘mildly intimidating’ from either of your parents?”

Theron flipped Jonas off without looking at him. “I swear I'll sign you up for some obscure fetish email list again.”

“Rude.” Jonas stood up, dramatically throwing a hand over his brow. “I can tell when I'm not wanted.”

“Unless you're helping fix this bluescreen,” Theron growled out, “kindly fuck off with your helpful commentary?”

“Fine, then I will. Maybe I'll go out for lunch with your mom instead.” Jonas pulled his shoes on and started heading for the door. “Since her only son doesn't seem interested in seeing her…”

“You are not going out for lunch with my mother!” Theron snapped. “Can't you go find a freshie to hit on or something?”

“You spoil all my fun,” Jonas complained. “Xaja, tell him he's a killjoy!”

“Don't you go dragging me into this!” Xaja yelped, looking back and forth between Jonas (who looked entirely too pleased with this situation) and Theron (who had turned to give Jonas a murderous glare). 

“Come on,” Jonas cajoled. “Doctor Shan's hot, isn't she?”

“Theron's being nice enough to fix my computer,” Xaja retorted. “Of course I'm going to side with him – no hitting on his mom! Besides, Doctor Shan isn't my type.”

Theron twisted around in his chair to give Xaja a grin, one that made her heart race a little bit. “Knew I liked you for a reason,” he said, winking at her before turning back to the laptop.

Jonas dramatically sighed and sauntered toward the door. “You two are made for each other. I'm gonna go find something to do – have fun!”

Not wanting to admit how her heart sped up even more at Jonas’ comment about her and Theron being made for each other, Xaja watched as the other student left, then looked back at Theron. “If you decide to strangle him, I can help hide the body. I watch enough true crime shows...”

A snorted laugh came from the computer. “I'll bring the shovel and tarps, you get the ropes and scout out a good location to dump him. But the first priority is fixing your computer. We can plot murder after.”

Xaja grinned, then got up from Theron's bed, stealing Jonas’ desk chair and dragging it over to sit beside him. “Sorry if I'm interrupting your own studying with this.”

“Don't worry about it,” Theron quickly assured her. “I'd rather be doing you a favour than working on Doctor Trant's coding project.” He shot her a grin. “I still owe you one for letting me sleep on your floor the other week.”

“We're even now,” Xaja laughed. “At least until the next time Jonas kicks you out for the night.”

“Which will hasten his demise,” Theron muttered. “Okay, I'm going to run a couple of processes that'll take some time, but should recalibrate the glitch that gave you the BSOD…”

For a second, Xaja thought she could quite literally kiss Theron for fixing her computer. But wait, that would be entirely too forward of her to do that. He hadn't said anything that made her think he was interested in her in that way – and a handsome, charming, endearingly awkward guy like him? There was no way he was single. No, kissing him was entirely out of the question. So she instead settled for beaming at him. “You're a literal lifesaver, Theron. Thank you!”

The grin she got back sent butterflies rushing through her stomach. “Anytime.”

***

Jonas barely waited for Kira's “Yeah?” after he knocked on her door before letting himself into the room across the hall, inelegantly flopping into what had to be Xaja's desk chair. The taller redhead looked up from her textbook. “Theron gets to be the hero of the day? Or is he gonna make Xaja actually cry for her computer?”

“Theron's got an uncanny touch with making BSODs fix themselves. I'm sure he'll get Xaja's laptop fixed up. Maybe she'll kiss him out of gratitude and he'll figure out she likes him.” Jonas grinned impishly at Kira's snort. “I'm a closet romantic at heart, what can I say?”

“You're also delusional. I've known Xaja long enough to know she's so chicken with making moves on cute guys – and she definitely thinks he's cute.” Kira smirked. “Unless Theron charges for his tech support in kisses or dates, she'll never make a move on him.”

Jonas groaned. “And Theron doesn't want to girlfriend-zone a girl he likes as a friend, even if he's pining for her. Maybe I should threaten to hit on her if he doesn't make a move…”

“I think they'd both kill you,” Kira laughed. “I'll keep trying to encourage her to flirt with him. He can't be so oblivious that he misses a pretty girl hitting on him, right?”

“You haven't known Theron long enough if you think that.” Jonas sighed, then dug his phone out of his pocket and texted Thexan. <Can you be a creep for a second?>

Thexan's response came back a minute later. <Whyyyy…?>

<Left Theron and Xaja alone in our room, wanna know if anything's happening.>

<... You're asking me to go listen for sex noises from the bathroom? Are you for real?>

<Come on, I know you're as invested in these two idiots as I am!>

Thexan's response took a few minutes longer. <Invoked ‘older twin’ rights and made Arcann do it. He says ‘fuck you’, and also he heard nothing but Theron trying to explain computer shit to Xaja.>

Jonas sighed in annoyance at his oblivious (or chicken-shit) roommate. <Thanks.> That done, he looked up at Kira and shook his head. “Well, so much for leaving them alone. The twins didn't report anything happening that they heard.”

“You planning on just hanging out in here while waiting for those two to be done?” Kira asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Nope. I'm going to utilize some drastic measures.” Jonas stood back up. “Doctor Shan is still getting meals at the cafeteria with the rest of faculty, right?”

“Yeeeeeessss?” Kira slowly answered, tilting her head.

“Excellent.” Jonas grinned and turned for the door. “Don't tell Theron, but I'm gonna get his mom involved in this.”

“Doctor Shan is Theron's mom?” Kira blinked, then shrugged. “Yeah, okay, I can see it.” She looked over at Jonas as he started opening the door. “You know he's gonna kill you if he finds out, right?”

“What he doesn't know won't hurt me,” Jonas called back, waving over his shoulder and smirking as he left the room. “Toodles!"

“... Did you just say ‘toodles’?” Kira asked incredulously as the door closed behind Jonas, saving him from having to answer her. He chuckled, then started sauntering down the dorm hallway. Doctor Shan was a very diplomatic sort, from what he'd heard and seen of her. Maybe she could help drop Theron some subtle hints.

And if not… well, this would still be entertaining as hell for Jonas, and the rest of the dorm.

[keldae]

for the cute shippy starters, #42 “I swear it was an accident.”

(So it's not "shippy", and it is a million years late, but!)

Some days, being a parent was more stressful than it needed to be. This was definitely one of those days.

Reanden sighed and paced back and forth in front of the couch, pinching the bridge of his nose. "What in the blazes were you thinking, again?"

"... I wasn't?" Korin cautiously looked up from his seat on the couch, fingers nervously fidgeting with the computer spike he'd lifted from the caf table. "I swear it was an accident."

"You don't 'accidentally' have sex, Korin. That's not how it works and you know it. And especially not with a Jedi."

"It wasn't exactly a planned event, either," Korin protested. "Besides, didn't you do the exact same thing with Mum?"

"We're not talking about your mother and I from almost four decades ago. We're talking about you and your sister's Padawan from apparently the last few years."

"By the way, thanks for talking Xaja down from–"

"I only told your sister she wasn't allowed to murder you for sleeping with her Padawan," Reanden interrupted, eyes glinting warningly in the Shadow's light. "Maiming you is still a possibility if Theron doesn't talk her out of it."

"Technically, Kira's her ex-Padawan–"

"Korin."

Korin shrunk at the warning tone in his father's voice. "Shutting up."

"That's the smartest decision you've made that's even tangentially connected to Kira." Reanden sighed and rubbed his temples. "And yes, I'm aware that you and her are both grown adults and can make decisions for yourselves, but did either of you even think about the potential consequences of this?"

Korin shrugged. "The Jedi can be… willfully oblivious when they feel like it. We figured, as long as we weren't doin' it in the Council chambers, we weren't gonna get in shit for it. The reformed Council hasn't given Xaja a hard time for being married and having kids, after all…"

"Xaja also saved the galaxy multiple times. Kira contributed, certainly, but she wasn't the driving force behind your sister's actions." Reanden looked skyward for a moment, as though seeking patience. "And I wasn't thinking of those consequences. I'm talking about the ones you two have to deal with now. Did you even discuss the very real possibility of a pregnancy?"

"It… uh… no," Korin sheepishly admitted. "It just… never came up much?"

Reanden muttered something about Jedi apparently trying to use the Force for birth control, then looked back at his son. He could feel a migraine forming behind his temples. "And have you discussed this with her now that you know she's pregnant?"

"We didn't exactly have an opportunity to do so!" Korin protested. "Between Xaja trying to strangle me and you doing that whole scary cipher agent glare that you're doing right now…"

"If only the scary cipher agent glare worked on you," Reanden muttered. "Have you given it any thought?"

Korin shrugged. "I dunno… I wasn't planning on ever having kids, I figure Kira was in the same boat. I guess… I'll back her up, whatever she decides to do?"

"And what if that entails her leaving the Jedi and becoming a full-time mother to your child?"

Korin raked his hands through his messy blond hair and released a heavy breath. "Then I guess I pay child support? Or… I dunno, maybe I try to settle down with her and raise the kid?"

"You? Settle down, when you're flirting just as much with Arn as you are with Kira?" The migraine ramped up; Reanden sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose again. "Your love life is more dysfunctional than the entire fucking Senate. At least your type seems to be Jedi."

"Hey!"

Reanden glared at his son, and Korin subsided with a grumble. "It's not that dysfunctional," the spacer muttered.

"I beg to differ."

"... You know, I would have thought you'd be delighted at the prospect of another grandkid."

"Oh, I am. But I'm more worried about that grandkid's future, and if its father is going to be step up and be responsible for it. You realize that if you do back Kira up, and if she wants to settle down and raise that child, it'll mean a significant restriction on your current roaming around the galaxy, seeking out shenanigans in every port. And I don't see Kira putting up with having competition for your affections."

Korin groaned and dropped his head into his hands. "I know," he sighed. "And I really do lo–" He coughed. "I really do care about her. I want to do right by her, and the kid. I just… Impending fatherhood is fucking terrifying. I dunno how to be a dad to the little squirt!"

Reanden huffed out a small laugh. "That's something every first-time father says, son," he said. "Force knows I didn't take it well when your mother told me she was expecting Xaja. But that's something for a different time." He took a seat on the caf table in front of his son. "You ready to own up to the consequences of your actions, kid?"

"I don't really think I have a choice," Korin mumbled.

"Oh, you've got a choice. The cowardly choice would be to run off to the Outer Rim and never be seen in the Republic again. The honourable choice is to stick around and back Kira up, whatever her decision is – and if she chooses to keep and raise the kid, then so be it." Reanden reached over and set a hand on Korin's shoulder. "And you are not a coward."

Korin shrugged. "Yeah, well, don't go around spreading the rumour that I'm honourable or some such nonsense. I got a reputation to uphold." 

Reanden snorted. "Your secret's safe with me… for now. Think real hard about what you should do, Korin." He sighed and got to his feet. "And while you're doing that, I need to go remind your sister that her former Padawan is a grown woman who can make her own choices about who she sleeps with."

"Please do, before Xaja decides to actually murder me," Korin muttered.

"I'll do my best to talk her down. You had better track Kira down and have a long, serious conversation with her, now that you two are potentially about to have your galaxy upended." Reanden patted Korin's shoulder. "And if you do decide to give parenthood a shot, you know you won't do it alone. I'll be around, and your brother and sister will be delighted with a new niece or nephew."

Korin finally looked up and offered his father a small smile. "Thanks, Dad. It means a lot."

"That's what I'm here for." Reanden smiled back, then released his son. "Go find Kira. I'll go talk your sister out of something she'll eventually regret."

[keldae]

OC asks: Would your OCs like you if they didn’t know you created them? How about if they did?

If they knew I was the one to create them and put them through the angst wringer, they would, one and all, LOATHE MY ENTIRE EXISTENCE and probably kill me. XD (Would killing the OC’s creator kill the OCs too? This may be a serious question to know, in case Clan Taerich ever winds up crawling out of my computer one day. >.>)

As far as if they DIDN’T know I’m the evil bitch who puts them through hell… It’s a good question. I feel like Sorand and I might get along the best, because book-loving introverted nerds kinda flock together. I’d like to think they’d all like me well enough? Reanden might just put up with my existence, Korin would probably be flirting with my oblivious/demi self, and Xaja and I would probably bond over snarky comments and being referred to as Jawas/Hobbits on a regular basis. :P