Star Wars: Say Nothing At All

Say Nothing at All

Naluma stumbled across the Senate Hall to Luke. Tripping over her feet, she collapsed into his arms.

He caressed her face when she reached him. As the emotion overwhelmed them, he pulled her into a hug. Relief spread across their connection. They were both alive.

She winced in pain when his arm grazed her lightsaber wound. He adjusted his grip as she pressed her head against his sweaty hair. Their shields dropped, opening their bond again.

As the Jedi left the ruined hall, Naluma lumbered in stride with Luke. He limped. Her flesh wound burned. And both their heads ached from the concussion blast.

She ducked her head under his arm as they stumbled back to their shuttle. They were silent the entire way, not a thought between them—just the Force-bond wide open.

Luke shuffled to his quarters under his own power, dejected. Naluma followed him as far as the galley to heat some water for the headache powder.

While the nanocooker zapped the liquid, she ripped the left sleeve from her tunic and cleansed the wound before applying a layer of bacta salve and a bulky bandage.

She watched through Luke's hatch as he removed his left boot and sock. He gasped as the boot pulled his ankle out of alignment, his swollen ankle turning from red to blue.

After the cooker beeped, she stirred the powder packets into both mugs, grabbed the medkit, and entered Luke's cabin. Without a word, she handed him a mug while she placed the medkit and her mug on the footlocker.

Luke sipped, staring at her with his intense blue eyes and nodding his approval. He scooched on his bunk and sat with his back to the port bulkhead.

She sat on the foot of the bunk, settling his foot in her lap. Gagging at the pungent odor, she bathed his foot with sanitizer before wrapping it in a support splint and activating the cooling pack. After grabbing some pillows from the footlocker, she placed them under his foot.

"Thank you, Naluma." His tongue lingered over her name as he pulled her down on the bunk next to him.

Darkness saturated their link now, darkness she did not understand, darkness that scared her. "What's wrong, master?"

"The people we left on Telti. Now we'll never convince the Senate to return. Some of them survived. I feel them—their anguish, their deaths."

She did not know what to answer. The Senate had just signed their death warrants. And Luke was going to feel every single death. Tears streamed down his cheeks, tears of torment for the Teltians he did not even know.

At that moment, Naluma did not care about protocol and Jedi Mandates. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling his head to her shoulder as he mourned. She stroked his head, soothing his aching soul.

Tendrils of the Force laced around them as she held him, allowing him to mourn, but after a few minutes, Luke broke away from her. "I'm not supposed to be crying on the shoulder of my apprentice."

The corners of her mouth turned up. "New Jedi Order, new rules."

Luke jerked back. "Have you been talking to Han?"

She shook her head and entwined him with her willowy arms, transferring as much peace as possible through their bond. The flow of energy resonated now, bathing them in the glow of their Force-signatures—his blazing sapphire and her burgeoning violet melding into a sparkling indigo.

Breathing heavily, he broke from the embrace once again, but this time he did not push her away. He traced her face with his fingers, drawing the outline of her cheek to her chin and raising his fingers to her lips.

She spread her lips at his touch and arched her neck, waiting for more, waiting for the kiss she desired, the kiss she knew he desired. The light raced through their Force-bond now, magnetizing them, impossible to separate even if they wanted to. But she didn't want to. She knew he didn't either.

As his firm lips touched hers, she leaned into the kiss. She savored the warmth that radiated to her inner being. His long fingers held her face as they melted into one Force-signature. She'd never been kissed like this before. The softness of his mouth against hers, the flutter in her heart, the union of their spirits that she had longed for, that had called to her every time they touched.

She ran her hands down his back and walked her fingers up his abdomen to his chest.

But, as she reached his collar and unhooked the loops, he broke off the kiss with a heaving pant. "This is wrong."

Naluma entwined her fingers in his. "Can't you feel the Force between us?"

"'Luma." He released her hands and turned his head with a whimper. He grabbed her by the shoulders and stared into her eyes. "I'm your teacher, 'Luma. Teachers aren't supposed to—"

"I'm a consenting adult, Luke." She twisted her mouth in a grin.

His countenance softened, the reckless passion building in him once more and spilling across their bond. Then he shook his head. "But I'm not. I took a vow, 'Luma. No attachments—"

She held him by the back of his neck and focused beyond his eyes into his soul, luxuriating in the Force that swelled within her, within them both. "—outside the Jedi Order." A wave of heat flared once more through their Force-bond. "How can you be breaking a vow when it's the Force itself drawing us together?" She twisted her fingers in his hair, his eyes glazing over. "You could even say this is the only way you can keep your vow."

She grabbed him by the lapel of his open tunic and pulled him into a deep kiss, pushing his head onto the pillows. When their lips touched once more, it felt like he was the Sarlacc inexorably pulling her into the chasm of his soul.

Fan Art of Luke and Naluma by Faera Lane, commissioned by SapphireAlena (S. A. McCaffrey). All rights belong to SapphireAlena.