A Rose is a Rose

Ben

"She can be a handful at times, but often, she's..." I can't describe the feeling, so I just think about it and let Vader feel it, too. "I see. Regardless, you must teach your apprentice to behave." "She does." "There's clearly some sort of problem. You're absolutely right; she does everything anyone asks of her, within reason, and she does behave. It's what she does in her spare time that troubles me." "I will teach her." "Good." He turns and walks away; I watch him go, then turn around to go get Anaya, but before I can get anywhere, Hux is directly in front of me, firing question after question about Anaya and her whereabouts; I don't answer any of them. It's supposed to be a secret that he adores the girl, but everyone knows because he makes it so obvious. And it angers me to no end.

We got to talking about puzzles and, before I could slip away, I sensed Anaya settling into her position behind me. "Word searches are clearly the best puzzle." "I disagree. I think it's crosswords." Hux then addresses Anaya, asking her which she prefers. "Um... I-in my opinion..." She keeps shifting her eyes. She doesn't know where to look. She's starting to blush. "Crosswords. I mean, uh, in my opinion," Which doesn't matter at all, I heard her think, and it took all of my willpower not to tell her that it mattered to Hux. "Crosswords are better. But Sudoku is the best." I turn to Hux and childishly say, "I told you so." Just to get him going. Then I divert my attention back to Anaya, who's standing behind me, staring off to the right, out a window, into space. She's wearing the standard black, form-fitting, long-sleeve shirt with the First Order insignia over her heart, but, seeing as it's her training day, instead of the collar going up to the base of her head, the v-shaped neckline is just above her chest. She's wearing dark blue leggings and the standard black boots, but she makes it look good; the boots go up to her knees and display her calves perfectly; she models the outfit well. On top of it all, she's wearing a black stone in the shape of a dragon on a silver chain, and her sleek, long, dark brown hair just completes everything. I suddenly start, jerked back to reality, realizing that I've been ignoring Hux and thinking about my apprentice for half an hour. He snaps at me for not paying attention and storms off, leaving me with Anaya. All I can say is, thank goodness I have this mask to cover my blush. I'm just about to turn to Anaya and suggest that we head to the training room when her notifier goes off. She looks at it, astonished, and hesitantly taps it to open the message. She's gotten a summons to go to the Emperor immediately.

Alone.