*Obi-Wan?* Qui-Gon Jinn tapped lightly on his padawan learner's bedchamber door. *I know you're in there, Padawan.*
"Go away," came the muffled, slightly pathetic reply.
Qui-Gon opened the door, allowing a small shard of light to filter through into the darkened room. "It's time for evening meal."
"I'm not hungry." Again, there was the pitiful voice. A rustling of materials drifted to Qui-Gon's ears and he frowned.
"What's wrong, Padawan?" Qui-Gon stepped in and shut the door behind him. He waited until his eyes adjusted to the darkness and then moved toward his apprentice's sleep couch.
There was a long silence before Obi-Wan answered. "Chloe broke up with me."
Qui-Gon suppressed a grin and put on a somber expression. "I see."
"She said that we could just be friends." Obi-Wan remained buried under the covers of his sleep couch, but Qui-Gon could make out the lump. He sat down next to it.
"Are you going to remain friends?" he asked curiously.
Obi-Wan's head popped out from underneath the covers, not next to Qui-Gon but from the foot of the bed. He gazed at his master scornfully. "Why should I do that? She left me for Aust Cavort." The other boy's name was said scathingly. Qui-Gon's grin broke through the calm facade and he turned his head, but not before his apprentice caught sight of it. "It's not funny! I love her!"
Qui-Gon heaved a sigh and grabbed a stray limb underneath the covers. It turned out to be a leg and he pulled the apprentice toward him. "I know it hurts, Obi-Wan, but you'll get over it in time. You'll find someone you like, or love, better than Chloe and forget all about her." Qui-Gon tugged affectionately on his padawan's braid, it's length barely to the boy's shoulder.
Obi-Wan frowned. "I don't want to forget her. She's special." Qui-Gon refused to comment on that statement and instead sat in silence with his apprentice as the boy sorted out his feelings. "Master?"
"Hmm?" Qui-Gon smiled inwardly at the 'little boy' sound to Obi-Wan's normally 'I'm all grown up now' voice.
"Did you ever get dumped?" Qui-Gon's grin widened as he thought back to a similar conversation. "You did, didn't you." It was less of a question and more of a positive, smug statement.
"Yes, I distinctly remember getting my heart broken by a fickle Jedi padawan one time." Qui-Gon scowled. "Her name escapes me for the moment, however."
"Did your master help you get over it?" Obi-Wan couldn't fathom the tempestuous Ashanti Vende giving lovelorn advice to his master with any stretch of the imagination.
"To a point. I spent most of my time keeping her from confronting the girl, demanding to know why I wasn't good enough for her." Qui-Gon leaned to the couchside table and lit a small candle. Like Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan enjoyed the soft glow of candles over the bright flourescent standard lighting. "I was so mortified by the merest possibility, I quickly got over my heartbreak to minimize any further humiliation from Ashanti."
Obi-Wan wrinkled his nose. "She sure is a spitfire, isn't she?" Qui-Gon only laughed. The fifteen year old sighed heavily. "I can't believe she dumped me for him, though, Master. Aust is such a...a..."
"Shallow individual?" Qui-Gon supplied. Obi-Wan slowly nodded. "Is he handsome, a real ladies' man?" Obi-Wan nodded again. "It sounds like Chloe maybe a little shallow herself."
Obi-Wan shook his head in denial vehemently. "Oh no, Master! She's sweet, and funny, and intelligent and so pretty." Obi-Wan listed the girl's considerable attributes in all their gory detail while Qui-Gon pretended to listen in rapt fascination. He remembered reciting just such a list to Ashanti when Ashanti had demanded to know what was so great about a girl who couldn't see her padawan's potential.
"She obviously doesn't appreciate just how special you are, Qui-Gon," Ashanti had told him imperiously, having interrupted Qui-Gon's litany of the former girlfriend in question's greatness.
"That other guy stole her away!" he insisted in his love's defense. Ashanti raised an eyebrow. "Please don't confront her. How embarrassing! Please!" Qui-Gon remembered begging his volatile master. She finally shrugged and let it go, but he knew she kept a watchful eye on every girlfriend he ever had after that.
"Master?" Obi-Wan's questioning voice brought him out of reverie.
"I'm sorry, Obi-Wan, I got lost in thought." Qui-Gon decided it was time to take the situation in hand. "What do you want to do about this? Get her back?"
Obi-Wan looked at his hands self-consciously. "If she's happy with Aust, I guess not. I just want to know how I'm going to face them tomorrow. Everyone knows she dumped me. It'll be humiliating!"
Qui-Gon patted his padawan on the shoulder comfortingly. "Trust me when I say that if you hold your head high and show that anything they do or say does not bother you, they'll leave you alone." Qui-Gon gave Obi-Wan a conspiratorial wink. "Chloe might even wonder if she's missing something in you after all."
Obi-Wan brightened at this thought, and with the mercurial mood swing of teenagers, tumbled from the bed covers and raced to the dinner table. Qui-Gon followed, chuckling to himself.
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Obi-Wan came charging in a week later, tunic all askew and his eyes bright with mischeif. The boy had moped within the confines of their shared quarters, putting on a good facade of nonchalance outside, for two days and then seemed to get his equilibrium back totally. Qui-Gon was beginning to feel at ease with his padawan, being relieved that he wouldn't have to walk on eggshells anymore.
He'd forgotten how emotional teenagers were.
"Hello, Padawan, where have you been?" Qui-Gon greeted the flurry of teenage boy. He marked the page in his book he'd been reading and waited for Obi-Wan's answer.
Obi-Wan stopped suddenly and stared at his master. "Fine." The answer was abrupt and when Qui-Gon said nothing else, Obi-Wan went back to being a whirlwind. Obi-Wan disappeared into his sleep chamber and came out in a fresh tunic, braid rebraided neatly and boots gleaming.
"Going somewhere, Padawan?" Qui-Gon asked casually. He wondered if the fabulous Chloe had changed her fickle mind.
"To eat," Obi-Wan said, brushing microscopic dust particles off his robe.
Qui-Gon raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Where, and with whom?" He tried to sound casual. Obi-Wan wasn't concentrating on him though, and was worrying over how straight his obi and belt were.
"At the dining hall with Bant, Reef and.." Obi-Wan's eyes went dreamy in the mirrow, causing Qui-Gon's eyebrow to raise once again. "Sammie." The teenager breathed the name like it belonged to a goddess.
"Sammie? Do I know this young man?" Qui-Gon deliberately got the gender wrong to provoke a reaction out of his apprentice.
"Sammie's a girl, Master," Obi-Wan instructed his master in exasperration.
Qui-Gon hid his smile and inquired politely, "I thought you were going to win back Chloe?"
Obi-Wan wrinkled his nose in distaste. "She's so shallow, Master. Aust can have her!" With that pronouncement the apprentice swooped up his robe and zipped out the door.
Qui-Gon chuckled as he curled back up in his chair to read his book. *Ah,
youth!* he thought to himself.
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