broken [1]- a Star Wars story

XXXV

"Until death do us part."

"Marry me?"

The words left his mouth in a tremble, his hands shaking and his mind going haywire with the endless thoughts of being rejected, or not.

Aayla stares at him in shock and disbelief. She already knew her answer to his question.

Yes, Jed. Yes, of course!

Yet, she was having trouble believing if this was real. Or, perhaps, her vision had taken a turn for the better, and Jed was never going to kill her, instead he was going to propose.

However much she would rather that be the case, she knew it was not. This was not going to replace her vision, instead, this was something completely unseen. Unforetold.

Unexpected.

Jed stands there, his eyes darting back and forth from the ring in between his fingers, and the girl in front of him.

The panic and sheer adoration for the woman he loved was radiating off of him as if he were wrapped in thick fleece in the middle of the Tattooine desert.

Never had Aayla seen him so exposed, out of his comfort zone, so innocent.

And all she could do was stare at him, completely void of speech, struggling to even comprehend the scene in front of her.

Here he was, Jeddak Starkiller, her best friend, the man she had known for all that mattered of her life, and the one she had loved for the best part, in all his glory.

Barriers fully broken down, a raw, loving man.

Committing an illegal act in the Jedi order.

They'll know.

Panic begins to rise in her mind, and she grabs Jed's hands, hiding the ring with her own. Her eyes dart towards the door, her mind reaching out to the force, feeling for anyone or anything that could hear or sense them.

"Not here." She whispers, her voice breaking with the lack of acknowledgment and emotion towards Jed's action of love for her.

His eyes dart between hers with confusion, trying to understand if this was her way of saying no, or if she wanted him to propose elsewhere.

He suddenly felt defeated.

The boy had no experience with women, with love. Let alone with proposals and marriage. Jedi didn't love, didn't marry. Anakin was an exception. Then again, as was Obi-Wan, strangely.

But he had no idea what he was doing, or if he was going about this in the right way.

Jed had done his best to research marriage, of bonds and families. There was very little of that in the Jedi Archives. There was no need to wonder why. Forbidden actions, they were.

All he learnt was that rings, jewellery, commodities and items that could show a persons love to another were good ways to propose one's self to the other.

Anakin made Padmé a necklace as a child, a small pendant that he carved himself. Jed wasn't too sure if he proposed to her or not, with a ring or without. But, it didn't matter.