Star Wars Short Stories

Slug-Beetle

*This story goes along with my fanfiction, Restoration of Light, but can also be read on its own. (**I suggest waiting until you've read chapter 13 of Restoration of Light just to make sure nothing is spoiled!**)

;)

"Moooooommmmmm! Tell Feyga that she can't come!" The small seven year old stuck out her pale pink lip and crossed her arms over her chest as her little sister's big, blue eyes stared back with sadness.

"Feyga, your sister wants to spend some time with her boyfriend." Grace coated their mothers tone as well as her manner. "You remember what boyfriends and girlfriends do right?" As she spoke, a rugged man with wind-blown sandy brown hair walked into the kitchen and grabbed the woman's waist, kissing her gently on the lips.

"EW! He's not my boyfriend!" Replied the little girl. Her sister stuck her tongue out of a wide open mouth in pure repulsion.

"Blech! You're gross Azalea, I don't want to come anymore!" Light blonde hair bounced behind the four year old as she ran into the garden. Lovingly, the tall man pulled away from his wife and watched her as she watched her daughter.

"You're welcome, Azalea. You be home before dark."

"Can't I stay out late for once mom? I'm seven years old, I even finished fixing the water speeder!" Azalea pushed, cupping her hands together and batting her butterfly eyelashes. "Pretty please?" Her father stepped forward slowly with a serious look on his face, though amusement glinted in his brown eyes.

"You better listen to your mother Azalea... or else I might have to do the same thing..." he wrapped his arms around the girl and she screamed with playful delight, "... TO YOU!" He planted kisses on her head before letting her down and she promptly ran towards the front door.

"I'll be back!" Azalea sprinted to the small pod-shaped land speeder and drove to the spot where she was supposed to meet her friend. Stopping near a restaurant with the words, 'Flyers Fancy' on the door, she parked her speeder and cut off the engine before finding her friend near the library where they usually met.

"Jatú!" The gungan's head whipped around and he showed off a toothy grin.

"Hey Slug!" Azalea groaned and rolled her eyes at his nickname.

"UGH! I told you to stop calling me that, it's gross."

"Yousa are the one who bit that thing!"

"You're the one who dared me to!" Azalea pushed his shoulders back.

"Misa thought you were too chicken to actually bite a slug-beetle!" He laughed loudly and with childish boldness.

"Well you thought wrong, and I'm so going to jump farther than you at the waterfall today," stubbornly, she stuck out her tongue and walked towards the place where they would play in the lake.

"Misa let you think that because it's yousa birfday tomorrow." Azalea pulled slightly on Jatú's ear in teasing before they heard a squeaky, unpleasant voice behind them.

"Hey! Where are you shaak-herders going!?" Azalea turned around and glared at the snarky boy and his 'friends' while Jatú gulped.

"None of your business, bug off Hugo!" With no intentions of doing as the girl had demanded, the tanned boy only walked closer to the pair, his two friends behind him. He was older than Azalea by three years, closer to Jatú's age.

"I won't! Why don't you hang out with us, instead of him."

"What is that supposed to mean?? You're just a swampfly, and I told you, bug. off." A frown creased the boy's forehead and he pointed a finger at Azalea.

"FINE! If you want to spend time with him, you're just a slimy, swamp loving gungan girl and you will probably never be pretty anyways." Jatú finally spoke up in protest of the words directed at his friend.

"Yousa not talk to her that way. She's very pretty and yousa a liar!" Hugo's nose scrunched up on his face, making him appear even more unruly than the frown did.

"Well if I'm a liar, you're a blubbering swamp frog and should just go back into the dirty water where you came from!" Snickers and giggles came from the boys friends as they agreed with him. Azalea's whole face turned red and she got right up into the boy's face.

"You take that back right now... or else!" Slowly, Hugo puffed out his chest, making him seem like a swollen frog himself.

"Or else what?" Before he knew it, a fist was headed straight for his nose and a loud 'crack' resounded as it met the middle of his small face. With a wince, the girl pulled her fist back and shook her hand out as shock, as well as a bright red liquid, shown across Hugo's face and his hand cupped his nose.

"You... you hit me!" Azalea started towards him again and he and his friends ran in the opposite direction as Jatú stared on, with substantially more shock than the boy who had just had his nose broken.

"I'LL DO IT AGAIN IF YOU COME BACK YOU BUG!" Shakily, she looked back down at her hand with little blood spatters on the back of it and frowned. "I've never hit someone before..." She looked back at Jatú and a cheeky smile graced her features, "but it kinda felt good." Jatú stared at her with wide eyes before bursting out laughing, and Azalea soon joined him.

"I'll remember that forever, slug. Thanks."

They walked away laughing about the swampfly who tried to cross the flower girl.