"Where were you last night?"
I looked up at the railing, swinging my left leg off the bike to see Hera, who was looking at me with a raised eyebrow. Why was she acting like my mother?
"Out."
I answered, removing my helmet and propping it against my waist.
"Out where?"
Her question seemed off-handed, but I detected a slight bit of worry and suspicion in her tone.
I crouched down slightly, bending my knees and a second later, I was crouching on the railing, looking down at her with my own raised eyebrow.
"Relaxing, I have had a few stressful days since the month started."
Jumping down from the steel rods, I started walking to my room to discard the helmet, since I already had a shower, I didn't reek of alcohol.
"Did you have fun?"
I paused in the doorway and looked up slightly.
The skin, smooth under my touch, each chased breath followed by a gasp of pleasure, hair disheveled, and those brown eyes filled with pleasure as sweat trickled down...
I cut off my thought process right there. didn't need to pitch a tent standing up right here.
"Yes, I had fun."
I nodded and walked off, ignoring the amused chuckle that followed.
Yes, the night and the following morning with Dina was very pleasurable and I even got her contact in case we ever crossed paths or ever wanted just to talk.
Basically, in Earth terms, I got her number, could slide into her DM's anytime, and finally, I managed to score.
Damn.
My lips thinned and my eyes narrowed as I finally reached my room and plopped the helmet down on the table.
The thoughts that festered in my head the day before surfaced unprompted. My mood soured instantly and I looked over to the data pad.
Sighing and rubbing the bridge of my nose in annoyance, I grabbed the data pad and tossed it on the table where my helmets were resting.
Grabbing the shoulder protection of my armor, I shifted it slightly. It started hurting. Frowning, I lifted my hands, going into T pose and all of my armor parts shifted with my movements.
Sighing in annoyance, I started taking off my armor. Fucking puberty.
Getting out of my body suit after a few minutes, I tilted my neck to the side, frowning in thought. Where were my normal clothes again?
Walking over to a metal closet that was connected to the wall, I opened it and reached inside to take out shorts and a shirt.
Putting them on, I grabbed the boots and some socks, slipping them on in the correct order, I stretched my arms and went out of my room, my palms finding their way into my pockets.
I felt naked, no blasters, no lightsabers no tricks I could pull out of my sleeves and kill anyone that was in my way instantly. And most importantly, I had no armor. I still had the force, but that alone was not enough, and my fingers twitched inside my pockets.
My frown was prominent as Kanan entered the hall I was about to exit.
"What's wrong? The night didn't go as planned?"
I raised an eyebrow and shook my head slightly.
"No, it went great, it's just that my armor is getting tighter and I need a new set, or to re-forge the old one, which is going to be a pain."
He looked me over with a strange look and I looked down at my body, noticing that the shirt was tight on my body. This thing was a size too big two months ago.
I freed my hands from my pockets and crossed them over my chest, turning my body to the side and glaring at Kanan.
"Perv."
He deadpanned and I stopped trying to recreate an anime comedy scene. Shoving my hands into my pockets yet again, I moved to the side, letting Kakan pass by, but he did not.
"You want to train?"
I blinked at him and extended my arm toward my room where the door opened and a lightsaber floated out lazily.
"You haven't changed the design yet?"
He remarked questioningly, and I just shrugged when the deadly weapon and an excellent toast maker was in my hand.
He shrugged too and turned around.
___
"Holy shit!"
Kanan's cry rang out in front of the Ghost as he tried to block the barrage of slashes coming his way, I didn't need to mind my equipment, I didn't need to mind any restriction my armor provided, and for the first time in combat, my joints were free to move.
And move I did.
My amusement was showing with the grin that my lips were spread into.
Red met blue as we struggled for dominance, a struggle that Kanan thought he had an advantage in. Of course, he was mistaken.
I shifted my stance, leaning my body on the grip of the lightsaber, and pushed. The older man's knees bent until he tilted his blade to the side in an effort to slide the opposing one off and probably disorient me.
My grin widened and I followed the momentum, a spin later, my heel slammed into his jaw, sending him rolling on the ground.
I dropped my foot and waited for him to get up as he staggered to his feet and rubbed his jaw, wincing slightly at the touch.
"You seem awfully energetic today, did something happen?"
Instead of answering, I leveled my lightsaber at him and waited. The older one of us sighed and got into a stance, I narrowed my eyes, located the weak spots, the slight imbalance of his stance, and predicted his next few moves from what experience I had with sparring against him.
And I, instead of telling him all of this, I decided to beat the weakness out of him, you know, like a normal person.
I dashed at him, not waiting for him to attack, my lightsaber coming down in an arc. The blue blade came into its way, intending to block my attack, but the red blade disappeared in an instant as I rolled on the ground, stopped into a crouch, and placed the other end of my hilt on his spine, specifically the lower portions of the thoracic vertebrae, if I activated the saber now, if it didn't kill him, it would paralyze his body from the waist down.
"That's dirty."
The comment was made in a stern voice and I looked up at him like he was an idiot, because he was certainly acting like one.
Getting up, from my crouching position I raised an eyebrow at him to which he just crossed his arms like an impudent child.
"You do realize that it's not about it being fair, right? It's about being alive at the end of the battle."
I pointed my finger at him, to which he just shook his head.
"If you use the Force-"
I uncurled my four other fingers and cut him off.
"Look, I know that Jedi schpeel, Force is holy, and Force should not be used for bad, Protect the people, much light, so wow."
Kanan mouthed the last part of my sentence with confusion written all over his face, but I continued.
"The Force is a great tool, I use it for my own gain because I was born with the ability. But you must understand, "The Force" isn't a viable answer for everything, some people need to die, there is no such thing as true peace, and knowing when to respond to fire with water can save lives."
He went quiet for a bit and we stood in an awkward silence for a moment, just looking at each other.
In the end, I just shrugged dismissively.
"Besides, the whole "no connections" is a work of pure idiocy, even if the Jedi were still at large, I would kick the recruiter in the nuts since they would not be using those anyway."
His lips thinned and after a moment, he snorted and broke out into laughter. Taking advantage of this, mostly for my amusement, I kicked him in the stomach.
He doubled over, falling to the ground, but to his credit, he did roll to the side and gained some distance from me. My legs moved as my lightsaber activated, the red blade buzzing with life as it connected with its opposite yet again.
"I didn't think you could make jokes."
The remark was rewarded with a Force shove, blasting him backward and I followed. He got up just in time to deflect my blade and I pivoted on my heel. As I was in the middle of my turn, I jumped, my body continuing the movement and the blade hitting its match twice before I landed on his other side, his back exposed to me.
If I had my blaster I would shoot him in the back, if my blade had the option to stun, I would hit him, however, I had no other choice but to grab his ponytail, and with a small application of force, lift him off the ground and slam him into the ground.
Thankfully, my teachings were effective as he used a small burst himself to soften the impact.
"Ugh."
The fully grown man who was defeated by an almost sixteen-year-old groaned pathetically and rolled over, breathing heavily.
"Man, you're brutal today, where did those elegant movements come from?"
I just shrugged, I was relaxed for the first time in a while and had no extra items on my body to inhibit me, but that wasn't important.
"More importantly, why are you not using the tazer function in your palm?"
I questioned and Kanan just blinked at me, looked at her arm, and turned to me again.
"I have a tazer in my arm?"
Bruh.
____
"What are you up to?"
I blinked, lowering my Datapad and glancing at Sabine. Was it just me or was I being asked that question a little too frequently?
I was in the main room, which also doubled as a kitchen, eating waffles with a cup of coffee cooling down next to the plate.
Without much dramatics, I showed her the Datapad, which had the design of my new armor on it, It would not be done for a few years, since I didn't want to change my armor every time I grew, so I would just wait it out.
Sabine looked over the design, moved the blueprint around to show more information, and let out a thoughtful sound while leaning her weight on one hip and putting a hand to her lips.
I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Is this the final design?"
Her question did nothing for my expression as it remained the way it was, but I did decide to answer.
"No, still thinking about the helmet shape, but otherwise, yes."
She narrowed her eyes, flicking her head to get the hair out of the way.
"The materials this is going to take will be costly."
I just rolled my eyes, I knew that, I made the design, but that didn't change the facts, I would need a few crates of light but durable metal for it and while they were abundant in the galaxy, I would need to gather them, melt them and reforge them into a correct shape.
I didn't even want to talk about the mechanisms that would be implemented into it.
I had two easy options. Forge the armor over the next few years and fix any problems that might come along and add any functions I wanted on it along the way, or forge the whole thing at once.
"Will you let me paint it when you get it done?"
I took a bite of a waffle and chewed for a moment, thinking it over. By the time the armor was done, I would have probably already left the crew, so it would be fine if I told her that she could, even if it was a lie.
However-
"No."
Only I would paint my creations.
//////
Shameless P-atre-on plug here: p-atreo-n-.com/-user?u=-79594910.
Just delete the "-" and it will work. If it doesn't then my name there is ItsaMeMario.
My apologies for the lack of chapters, it's midterm week and we didn't get a break to prepare for them, but as soon as they are done, I will be posting chapters again.
Thank you for understanding