𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐧'𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞 ✶ torbin

One

✶

"How long will you be gone?" Kandra asked, her voice a soft plea as she held tightly onto his hands.

Sweeping curls fell into Torbin's warm blue eyes as he gazed down at her, his heart torn between his feelings and his purpose as a Jedi. Each moment they spent apart felt like an eternity, but the mission ahead called for his unwavering commitment.

A sigh slipped past his lips and he murmured, his voice tinged with longing, "I don't know. Master Indara didn't say but it doesn't sound like we will be returning to coruscant for a while."

Her resolve began to falter as tears prickled at the corners of her eyes. "I've only just returned, it's not fair."

Gently, he lifted her hands to his lips, pressing a kiss to them as he whispered, "I promise you, Kandra. We will see each other again soon."

Her tears flowed freely now, mingling with the intensity of their feelings. She leaned into him, seeking solace in his embrace. Without thought his arms closed around her, holding her while he still had the chance. They served the order before themselves but that never made it any easier.

As she began to calm, finding solace in his embrace, Torbin too found himself holding back tears. The last thing he wanted was to leave her so soon but he had little say in the matter. When his master called, he came. It was the sworn duty of a padawan to obey and follow their master and, one day, when he becomes a master himself, he would still answer to the council before his heart.

They had spent so many years together growing up. So much time side by side, but now they were all but grown and what little time they had belonged to the order. The galaxy, always, before themselves.

No longer was the ease of their youth, filled with training and games. They had faced trials and overcome them, learnt to wield their lightsabers in defence of their own lives. They had been built from such a young age to be the very visage of peace and justice, to protect the galaxy even when no one else could.

Times were peaceful now, for the most part, but there was never any rest for the Jedi. Missions of exploration and expansion were voyaged on from one end of the galaxy to the next and, with each of their masters taking different posts, the young lovebirds often found themselves at times entire worlds apart.

This was a mission like any other, but Master Indara had told Torbin little about it. He always knew what he needed to know which, in the eyes of his mater, wasn't always a lot. She believed in learning things for oneself which, although an important lesson to teach, could also be infuriating. But Torbin had been taught in patience and had much practice of it in his time away from Kandra.

It was not that the Jedi ways were so hard to follow but that they were flawed, not that either padawan would admit it despite their longing for one another.

"One day, when we're Jedi masters, we'll be able to do whatever we want. We could go on missions together or ask to remain stationed here at the temple to teach the younglings," Kandra had once said so hopefully.

Torbin had smiled at that, the notion of their shared future together. They both knew it would be difficult but they were so sure that they could make it work. Maybe, in time, the council would even agree to romantic relations. They just needed time, and to show themselves a good example, for the council to understand that such a thing should not be frowned upon.

He still remembered the times when they kept their feelings to themselves and how strong that ache was. Not telling the person you love how you feel can be suffocating, more so when both of you face dangers across the galaxy. Bottling up feelings like that... it's like a bomb waiting to go off.