#I’M GOING TO FINISH THESE i chisel away at them in between comms!! chiseling now as we speak!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

badger-writes · 3 years

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Star Wars OC Ship Week 2021 - “for light and love”

Day 5 - Meeting the Family

Kelto stared up at the Temple ziggurat from the ground of Processional Way. From bas-relief faces chiseled into massive monoliths, the Four Masters stared back.

It was humbling, to be standing in the shadow of history like this, in the very gaze of the Jedi. Humbling, and more than a little intimidating. He wouldn’t mind it so much, if he could simply follow the stairs back into the temple, but Sskeer had asked him to be here - to wait for him, out in the middle of the boulevard. Here, when all of Coruscant sprawled around them, gleaming marble and aurodium.

Couldn’t we have just met somewhere else?, he wondered to himself, shifting on feet that were rapidly becoming sore. Somewhere nicer? I hear Monument Plaza is lovely this time of day - or there’s this one diner in CoCo Town we could have stopped at, Master Jora says they make the best galma fruit cobbler--

There he is, he thought, spying Sskeer coming down the Temple steps. He set off at a trot to meet him at their base, robes flapping in the breeze behind him. At about the halfway point between them he realized Sskeer was being trailed by another humanoid. This didn’t strike him as particularly odd - sure, Sskeer was a bit of a sourpuss and a loner, but he’d put up with him for this long, hadn’t he? - but it made him wonder, just for a moment.

“Sskeer!”, he called, slowing to a stop at the foot of the stairs. “Good morning.”

Sskeer returned him with a curt nod as he finished descending. “Healer Lem. I see you received my transmission.”

“Yes,” Kelto replied, panting only a little. “What took you so long? I thought you wanted to meet at mid-morning - it’s almost noon by now.”

“I had to collect someone.” By now, the humanoid - an actual human - following in Sskeer’s wake had reached the foot of Processional Way as well; he gestured between her and Kelto. “Keeve Trennis, may I present Kelto Lem, Jedi Knight and healer.”

The youngling - Keeve - stood at attention, hands clasped behind her back, bowing at the hip. She couldn’t have been more than the older side of teenaged, Kelto guessed, and she was seemingly built for action - compact, lean, and wiry. Her dark skin glowed under the light of the sun, and the curtain of thick, dark curls from her half-shave spilled off to frame the right side of her face. The long hilt of a double-bladed lightsaber hung from where she’d clipped it to her hip.

She smiled at him. Politely, Kelto smiled back.

“And Kelto Lem,” Ssker continued, gesturing again, “may I present Padawan Trennis.”

“Hello,” he said, bowing.

“Hello, Mast-- wait.” Keeve froze mid-bow and gawked up at Sskeer. “‘Padawan’?”

The Trandoshan looked down at her expectantly. “Did I misspeak, apprentice?”

As Keeve all but combusted with joy and gratitude, Kelto grinned at Sskeer. In doing so, he noticed something in his eye, something in the way he set his face - the way the corners of his eyes crinkled, and the corner of his mouth tugged to one side just so. The warmth they carried.

“Well, look at you now, ‘Master’ Sskeer,” he chortled, crossing his arms. “The big, cranky lizard finally mellows out and takes a student! Jora and I must finally have gotten through to you,” he added, and leaned over to nudge him with an elbow.

“If my social manners have appeared to improve, Healer,” Sskeer rejoined coolly, “it is no doubt because I have spent time becoming accustomed to smaller, more annoying lifeforms.”

“You wound me, sir. I’ll tell Jora you said that about us. ‘Small and annoying’ - the truth finally comes out.”

Before them, Padawan Trennis had finally reached the end of a furious stream of thank-yous, and now stood with a flush on her face and a stray curl dangling in front of her forehead, beaming. It was no secret why Sskeer had chosen her, Kelto thought. The way she carried herself, the glint in her eye - she was spunky. More than that, she was ready.

“So,” he said grandly. “The big lizard finally deigns we should meet. I’m glad to finally meet you, Padawan.”

“Likewise, Master Lem,” she said, bowing again. “Only--”

“Bah! I’m no master, not yet. Just call me Kelto. Or ‘Kolto’. Either’s fine.”

“Er- Yes, Master Kelto.”

“Close enough. What were you going to say?”

“Oh, just - I’ve heard about you before, from Master Malli.”

The Rodian shot the Trandoshan a faux-scandalized look. “You really introduced her to Jora before me?”

For once, Sskeer looked like he was caught on the backfoot. “I really didn’t think it would matter,” he shrugged.

“Typical. I’m always the last to know anything.”

Keeve giggled into a hand. Sskeer shot Kelto a look that said, you’re making me look foolish in front of my new apprentice. Kelto flashed him a grin that said, try and stop me.

“So anyway, Keeve,” he said breezily before Sskeer could get a word in edgewise, “what’s Master Malli been saying about me? Nothing but good things, I hope.”

“Yes, sir. Only…” And here Keeve’s eyes screwed up towards the sky, feigning the impression of innocence, like a child trial-ballooning a potentially revealing question to their parents. “I don’t really know if it’s okay to say this, but she did mention once or twice that you were kind of… more than just friends? Sort of? That you were figuring it out?”

The reptilians blinked, then glanced at each other. Then they looked back at Keeve.

“I don’t know,” she continued, shrugging. “It’s just, I’ve heard that that stuff’s technically not allowed under the Code, but Master Jora said it was okay if you thought about it like this and not like that, but it’s all a little… you know, confusing.”

Sskeer rumbled thoughtfully. “And what do you think about such matters, Padawan?”

“I dunno, Master,” she said, shrugging again. “I’m still just a learner, I’m not sure it’s any of my business. Orrr - anybody else’s, really. But if she’s right and it ends up working out, or whatever - I guess I’m happy for you two?”

“So you’re not gonna snitch?” Kelto asked suddenly.

“What? Pfft, kriff no.”

Sskeer’s scaly brows shot up his forehead. “Padawan,” he hissed, as Kelto cackled.

“Sorry!”, she yelped, blushing furiously. “Sorry, master!”

Kelto sighed, and wiped a tear from his eye. “Ohhh, I like her,” he decided, and reached up to pat Sskeer on his broad shoulder. “You’re really going to have your hands full with this one, Master.”

Sskeer hmmphed. “Regardless - Padawan Trennis, your first duty as apprentice shall be to accompany me on a patrol of Level 5053, so I can appraise your performance in the field. I will signal a speeder - you wait here with Healer Lem.” He gave the Rodian a sidelong glance as he fished out a comlink.

“Try not to rub off on her,” he grumbled as he turned away.

“No promises,” Kelto whispered back.

As the Trandoshan spoke into the comm unit a few paces away, Keeve and Kelto were left standing next to each other.

“So what do you think of your new Master and his little healer friend, Padawan?”, he asked her.

“No offense,” Keeve began slowly, “But… you two don’t really act like what I thought Jedi Masters would act like.”

“Clearly you haven’t met many Jedi Masters,” he replied. “We’re pretty much all like this. The ‘wise and venerable’ thing is just an act the old timers put on. It’s mostly sass and bickering.”

She quirked an eyebrow at him. “I thought you were just a Knight?”

“Well - you know,” he said, scratching his head so the pom of his topknot bobbled, “Not yet. But I’m getting there!”

Keeve grinned, shooting a puff of air out through her nostrils. This was a thing humanoids with noses did when they were amused, Kelto had observed - or irritated. With Sskeer, it was mostly irritation. She turned to look at him, still talking into his comm.

After a moment she said, “I like him. He’s kind of rough around the edges, but… he’s good to people. A protector, I guess. I have a good feeling about him.”

Kelto nodded in agreement. He turned to look at Sskeer, silhouetted against the sky beyond the far edge of the boulevard. “So do I.”

If Keeve noticed the pride in his voice or in his smile, he didn’t care. He’d seen that pride in Sskeer’s eyes already, looking at her. And it made him proud, too.

It was an honor to know this man, and to love him. And the Code, whatever it had to say about it, could clam up.

“I think you’re the fun one,” Keeve decided.

Kelto shook himself out of reverie. “Hm?”

“I think you’re the one who’s going to tell me how to push all his buttons if I ask nicely,” she said, grinning.

“Hah - I wouldn’t go that far,” he said, a little bashfully. “I sure didn’t start out as the ‘fun’ one, I’ll tell you that much.”

“So was I wrong?”

“Well, we can give each other grief, but he’s your master now. And you ought to treat him with a certain amount of respect at all times. No matter how much grief I, or Jora, or any other masters might be giving him.”

“Oh, so it’s different with you,” she observed. “Because you’re friends, or because you’re… ‘friends’?”

He tilted his shoulders to one side, then the other, then again in a little sort-of dance, humming thoughtfully. “I prefer to think of it as because we’re family,” he said finally. “One great big Jedi family.”

She frowned dubiously at him. Which was fair - it was a total cop-out.

“And now so are you,” Kelto finished. He squeezed her shoulder with a smile, and at that, she seemed to perk up. “So make sure you listen to him out there, okay? And trust him. He’ll be good to you, Keeve Trennis. So you make sure to be good in turn.”

“I will, Master Kelto.” Keeve set her jaw and nodded. “I promise.”

“Good.” He glanced to the side; Sskeer was still stuck on the comm line. “Now, do you want to hear a secret?”

“Uhhh… sure?”

He leaned in close, talking behind the back of his hand. “He might look really grumpy,” he told her in a stage whisper, “but deep down, Sskeer loves giving puffer-piggyback rides.”

“I’m… not so sure about that,” Keeve replied doubtfully.

“Hey, you wanted to know how to push his buttons, didn’t you? So you better do it while you’re still small enough for him to carry around.”

Her eyebrows raised mischievously. He gave her a wink.

“Padawan!”, called Sskeer. “Our speeder will arrive at the foot of the temple. We should be off.”

“Coming, Master!” She started, stopped, bowed to Kelto one last time, then resumed jogging over to her teacher.

Kelto waited patiently. He watched Keeve catch up to Sskeer’s retreating form and then, with just a touch of the Force, jump straight up and latch onto his shoulders. He cried out in alarm, and staggered a step - but he caught her, and didn’t fall over.

The Trandoshan half-turned on his heel to give Kelto an impotent glare; he wiggled his fingers in an innocent wave back at him. He was going to get a stern talking-to later tonight for that little stunt, he was sure - and probably a little more besides - but the toothy grin Sskeer probably thought Kelto wouldn’t see him crack was worth whatever reprisal he had in store.

Those two would go far together. Kelto just knew it.

#StarWarsOCShipWeek2021 #star wars #high republic #sskeer #keeve trennis #original character #oc x canon #fanfic

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