Private Crazy Rich Jedi

[Xian Xiao]

Xian let out a long, dramatic sigh, the kind that came from somewhere deep in her chest, and flicked a strand of bright red hair out of her face as she glared at the towel on her bed.

"You know," she said, her tone sharp but tired, "you can always take things out of my cubby and pretend I left them there. You already rearrange everything else in my life, so what's one more thing?"

She punctuated it with a quiet, stubborn little humph, but the edge of it softened as Noriko kept talking. The playful scolding faded beneath the weight of something far bigger—something Xian didn't know how to hold.

Noriko spoke easily, casually, as if listing planets, millennia, and whole populations were the simplest thing in the world. But each detail landed heavier and heavier, until Xian found herself staring at her hands instead of rolling her eyes.

"Four hundred thousand," she echoed under her breath, barely more than a whisper. "Just… here?"

Her fingers tightened slightly where they rested against her legs, the room suddenly feeling too small to contain numbers like that.

"And millions more… on other worlds? In other galaxies?"
She shook her head slowly, the movement making her red hair shift in a soft wave across her shoulder. "That's… a lot."

She didn't step away from Noriko when she approached; in fact, she leaned into the warmth of the arm around her without thinking about it, the comfort slipping past her usual bristling guard before she could stop it.

"I spent most of my life thinking there wasn't anyone left," she admitted quietly, her voice lacking its usual defiance. "My parents are gone. Everyone else left sooner or later. It was just… me."

A long breath left her lungs, far calmer than the one she started with.

"And now you're telling me I have—what?—hundreds of thousands of family members?"
Her mouth pulled into a small, bewildered half-smile, not quite sure whether she wanted to laugh or hide under a blanket. "That's more people than I've ever seen in one place."

She was quiet for a moment, her shoulders easing as she finally let the truth settle instead of resisting it.

"It's overwhelming," she admitted, softer now, "but… I don't hate it."

She hesitated, then added, even softer:

"Not at all."

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

"And likely more, our family has been around for a really long time and while not everyone of them did a lot enjoyed the galaxy. There are several cousins who are part of a number of other species with some being on their homeworlds that were visited. We should have a million known... who knows either way it makes life day awesome when we all participate and it means that there is always family wherever you go... allowing for a safety net across the galaxy." Noriko gave a nod of her rhead to that.. she had a lot more though when Xian was there with her as she spoke. "And don't worry, I am sure the wet towel will be haandled.. I'll do it before bed to make you happy. Don't want to go to bed grumpy.. you'll get new wrinkles."

 

[Xian Xiao]

Xian's whole face scrunched up immediately. "Wrinkles?" she echoed, offended on a spiritual level. Her hands flew to her cheeks, patting them as if a crease might suddenly appear just because Noriko said so. "I'm thirteen. Thirteen-year-olds don't get wrinkles. That's—that's an old people problem."

She jabbed a small but dramatic finger at Noriko. "You're the old lady. You're practically fossilized compared to me. If anyone here needs fancy creams or face masks or whatever Atrisian spa-things you use, it's you."

Her red hair flared as she turned her head with a huff, but the fire in her indignation slowly softened as Noriko kept talking.

A million family members.
Houses on dozens of worlds.
Great Jedi Masters in the bloodline.
People spread across the stars… and all of them counted as hers now?

It was too big. Too strange. Too… much.

Xian blinked hard, trying to picture it, but the numbers tangled in her head. "I don't even know what that means," she muttered, quieter now, hands falling into her lap. "There weren't even a hundred kids at the orphan center on Coruscant. And now you're saying I have—" she gulped, "—hundreds of thousands of relatives?"

Her voice wobbled, just barely.

"Before you showed up, it was just me. Just… me. No one to look for. No one to find. No one cared if I left or stayed."

She swallowed again, then hurriedly added with a spark of teenage attitude—because she didn't want to sound too soft: "And don't think this means I'm calling you 'family' out loud in public. I'm still mad about the cardio thing."

Xian nudged Noriko's arm with her elbow—half-awkward, half-affection she didn't know how to voice yet.

"And you are picking up that towel," she declared, trying to recover her bravado. "If anyone in this room ends up with wrinkles, it's going to be you. I'm too young and too pretty to deal with that."

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

"AGe doesn't make wrinkles as much as a perpetual scowl Xian and you scowl enough for the entire family and then a million more. THink of it this way though now when you vent to random people on the street you can think in the back of your mind 'are they family' and let that drive your thoughts for a few days." She moved a hand while she was laying there and lifted the towel with the force as she tossed it back towards the door of the fresher and had a look on her face. "Fine fine you don't have to call me family in public.... I'll just have to endure with the pulling of teeth to get you to do anything. meanwhile I get to enjoy the fruits of Atrisia and all the awesome things that come from the planetary physical fitness regiment. All those hard bodies and harder..." She winked for a moment putting a hand on Xians ears. "oh earmuffs for adult language."

 

[Xian Xiao]

Xian's whole body snapped upright.
"I have NEVER vented at random people!"

Her voice pitched higher than she intended, but she didn't care—this was a matter of honor. "Name ONE time. One! I do not just walk up to strangers and start yelling about my problems. I'm not unhinged." Her cheeks puffed slightly in indignation, red hair swishing as she crossed her arms tight over her chest.

But then Noriko kept talking.
And talking.
And the wink.
And the earmuffs comment.

The mental images her thirteen-year-old brain had absolutely no preparation for hit her like a speederbike to the face.

Xian froze.

Her mouth opened.
Closed.
Opened again.

"—I—I—I don't need earmuffs!" she squeaked, slapping both hands over her ears anyway. "Stop—stop saying things like that! I don't need to know about—about—hard—whatever!" Her face went scarlet, more red than her hair, and she practically flailed backward off the bed before catching herself.

"You're—you're corrupting my brain!" she accused, pointing at Noriko like she had just personally unleashed a Sith holocron on her. "I'm going to have nightmares. Actual nightmares. And they're going to be YOUR fault!"

Her hands flew back to her ears.

"And I have NEVER vented at strangers," she muttered again, softer but still stubborn. "I barely talk to strangers… and now I won't be able to without wondering if they're secretly related to me or if you—" she made a vague gesture as her brain refused to form the words "—did… things with their older siblings or something."

She shook her head rapidly as though trying to fling the adult thoughts out of her skull.

"This is horrible. I'm too young for… for whatever that was. My innocence should be protected. Someone should file a complaint."

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

"Okay." Noriko said it as the grand answer to everything Xian was complaining about and her hand went out to the light with the force. Turning it off so the room was cast into darkness and she yawned. "Sleep time now, just relax and let your blood pressure settle. THe vain in your forehead is going to burst with how much you seethe and get worked up over small things. Save that for the morning run tomorrow." She said it while stretching out and she had her padawan there who had come over next to her while she rolled into a more comfortable position stretching herself out across the bed and under the covers. She didn't fall asleep right away more she was just relaxing herself.

 

[Xian Xiao]

There was a long, offended silence in the dark.

Then—

"There is NOT going to be any morning run for me."
Her voice cut through the darkness like a blade.
"Not. Going. To. Happen."

Xian flopped backwards onto her pillow, arms crossed so tightly she could've snapped her own bones. The indignation practically radiated off her small frame.

"I am not getting dragged out of bed at dawn just so you can brag about your 'cute Atrisian body' to random horselords again," she muttered, glaring holes into the ceiling she could no longer see. "I don't need to run ten miles to be a good Jedi. I can fly. I literally control the wind. Running is… is obsolete for me."

She huffed, turning her back toward Noriko with a dramatic roll that nearly tangled her in the blankets.

"And my forehead vein is FINE," she added sharply, as though that were the most important part. "It doesn't burst. It's… expressive."

A beat.

"Also," she muttered into the pillow, voice muffled but still full of righteous teenage fire,
"You can't make me. Jedi training doesn't include torture."

Another beat.

"You're not carrying me out the door either. I'll electrocute us both before that happens."

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

Noriko didn't speak, she just closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of contentment being under the covers as she was drifting off to sleep. XIan was still being loud but she could let her be.... morning would serve properly for bonding and training and food... she felt her bones pop pop pop for the moment. She found herself relaxing into the cushion of the bed and the force when she finally went to sleep just rolling over so she was on her stomach. Herr voice coming out more groggily. "Alright alright you don't have to shout with excitement. We'll go early so we can finish at dawn. So anxious and eager." She said it nuzzling the pillow to be more comfortable.

 

[Xian Xiao]

There was a long pause.

Then a soft, incredulous sound in the dark:

"…What?"

Another beat.

"WHAT?!"

Xian sat bolt upright, blankets whipping off her shoulders like her body had rejected the idea on instinct.

"EARLY? EARLY!? Before dawn? Noriko—that's not training. That's psychological warfare!"

The bed creaked as she twisted toward the warm, smug lump pretending to sleep.

"And I was NOT shouting with excitement," she snapped, voice getting sharper by the second. "That was horror! Pure, unfiltered horror. You can't just— decide that we're running at an hour when even nocturnal animals are tapping out!"

A vicious jab of her finger aimed at the darkness where she assumed Noriko's face was.

"And don't twist this around! I don't wake up thinking, 'Hmmm, yes, cardio—my favorite form of dying slowly.' That is YOUR unhinged hobby. Not mine!"

She flopped back down, limbs splaying dramatically, mattress groaning under the indignation.

"I swear, Noriko… if you try dragging me out of this bed before dawn, I'm going to fill your entire side of the room with gale-force winds. I will storm you. You won't sleep for a week."

A final, muffled groan into her pillow:

"Anxious and eager… honestly… absolutely delusional."

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao


"Anxious and eager got it. go to sleep Xian." She said it while not moving from her lump with a look. SHe wasn't faking it more she was just falling into it but someone kept screaming constantly... and threatening... threw off the whole beauty sleep aspect. "I want to sleep to preserve my lithe, petite, sleek atrisian body." She said it while waving her off in the dark and letting the force wash over herself to relax all of the muscles of her body with a smile on her face as she went. Interest in a few things as she let out a breath for the time. She was fully prepared for more shouts and screaming as the force energies were cushioning, buffering around herself to lower the volume.

 

[Xian Xiao]

Xian flopped onto her back with the most exaggerated groan in the galaxy — a sound that conveyed teenage suffering, exhaustion, and utter disbelief in equal measure.

In the darkness, she glared at the dim outline of Noriko's "lithe, petite, sleek Atrisian body."

"Oh my gods, Noriko, if you say 'lithe petite Atrisian body' one more time, I swear I'm going to shove you into a laundry chute."

She yanked her blanket up to her chin in an aggressive bundle, shoulders scrunched, voice full of that particular 13-year-old indignation reserved only for authority figures who were technically correct but annoyingly smug about it.

"And I'm not anxious or eager. I'm done. Done. D-O-N-E. There is no more done than I."

Noriko waved her off sleepily in the Force, and Xian sputtered.

"—And stop using Jedi brain-waves to muffle me! That's cheating!"

She huffed again, pulling the covers over her head so she became a small mound of righteous fury and tangled sheets.

A beat of silence.

Then, from beneath the blanket, her voice emerged, quieter, but still dramatic:

"…If you wake me up before the sun is literally above the horizon, I'm rolling out of bed and playing dead. Full corpse. No running."

Another beat.

A begrudging mutter:

"…Goodnight."

And finally — softer still:

"…old lady."

Because Xian always had to get the last word.

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

Okay she just thought it going to sleep and waking up a few hours later. A small stretch, some food and taking off to run as she said. The debate of waking up Xian was less a debate and more wondering if it was worth it since all she did was scream and rarely offered anything else to do. Noriko's shoulders rose in a shrug as she went out and started jogging. The pre-dawn air giving her plenty and the quiet... it was welcoming as she moved through the courtyard with the night watch there welcoming her to go and exercise. The sounds of heavier footfalls as the large form of the new empress. In similar gear mostly as she ran with a toga of silk.

"Empress." Noriko said it while she was slowing down and about to stop when the empress motioned for her to keep jogging and spoke. "It is quiet now. I take it your student finally self soothed herself to sleep?" The woman was still impossibly tall, formed like a mountain of a horselord even among them. Noriko spoke. "Possibly, eventually you have to learn to tune herr out cause it isn't a complaint as much as her just declaring what she won't do. I am happy to have her with me and travel around but she doesn't want to do anything and sitting around until she does would be boring for everyone else." She said it while she moved and they rounded one of the curves.

"Yes the entire palace knows what she won't do and doesn't like. There is a question among the guards if we could weaponize her screaming hysterics as an emergency system in case the communication towers go down. We had reports from as far as the mountains they could hear her. An impressive feat she hasn't blown a lung or two." Noriko looked at her and snickered a little. "Apologies empress I didn't know everyone could hear her." She said it and first instinct was to bow a little. The Hordelorrrds had invited them here as guests and rarely did it. Worse then representing the jedi they were representing greater atrisia and making an impression.

Noriko though was dropping her head as the empress spoke. "It is to be expected, she is what ten?" The empress looked at Noriko was going to correct her but didn't really know how to argue it. "Children scream and don't want to do things that is why we and from the books your jedi train them from a young age." Noriko gave a nod. "She is recently met, I took over her training but she doesn't want to do that anymore. I am guessing cause she has a little power she believes she doesn't need anything else. A dangerous mindset but jedi don't force... and because I took over after the others left she has other issues."

The empress looked at her with some understanding. "Ah she is touched in the head I see, it is noble for you to help her then and try to give her a life." Noriko took a moment longer as they were going and spoke. "What... no not that... well maybe just a splash... maybe some high blood sugar.... heaping dose of high blood pressure, maybe some constipation explaining why she is always so angry. Maybe some gray hair cause she stresses herself out so much." She said it and moved her hands up to look at it. "Also maybe a little racism and sexism as she doesn't want to talk with anyone else aside from herself.. but put it all together you get my kind of on again, off again padawan..... sometimes."

She looked at the empress who gave her a nod of her head and they shared a laugh at that while running.

 

[Xian Xiao]

Xian woke with a start.

The room was quiet, soft morning light beginning to creep through the shutters. Noriko's side of the room was empty. Of course it was — she'd slipped out before dawn again. Probably to jog. Probably to flirt. Probably to be annoyingly perfect at everything she ever touched.

Xian rubbed her eyes, groaning.
"I'm not running," she muttered to herself, dragging a hand through her hair. "Not today, not ever, not even if the palace was on fire."

She dressed quickly, refusing to look at the wet towel still on the floor because she did not need Noriko to be right about anything today.

She stepped outside.

And froze.

She didn't mean to eavesdrop — but their voices carried easily over the quiet courtyard.

The Empress's tall form moved beside Noriko as they jogged the outer circle. Xian stayed half-hidden near the archway, listening despite herself.

"…children scream… dangerous mindset… touched in the head…"

Noriko snorted a laugh. "High blood pressure, spot of constipation, maybe a little racism, but hey — that's my on-and-off padawan."

The Empress chuckled.

Xian's heart slammed painfully against her ribs.

Not because she felt mocked — she was used to Noriko teasing her —
But because it made her feel small, like someone being discussed instead of spoken to.

A child.

A burden.

Someone being carried, not taught.

Xian swallowed, forcing her face into something calm before stepping out into view.

"Empress."
She bowed, properly, respectfully. Her voice stayed smooth, level. "Forgive the interruption."

Then she turned to Noriko — not shouting, not flailing, not childish — but hurt simmering at the edges of her tone.

"I heard what you said."
A quiet breath. "All of it."

She folded her arms lightly, gaze turning down to the stone for a moment before lifting again.

"I'm not angry," she said softly — a lie they both heard, but politely shaped. "But I am… disappointed."

Her dark eyes met Noriko's fully.

"You joke about training me, but the only thing you've offered so far is running."
A tiny flicker of frustration colored her voice. "You know that's not what I'm here to learn."

"And I'm not 'touched in the head.' I just…" she paused, searching for a word that wasn't childish, wasn't dramatic, "…don't want to be abandoned again."

Her hands tightened slightly at her sleeves.

"That's all."

She bowed again, gentler this time.
"Empress. Master."

Then she stepped back, giving them room, her heart hammering beneath her calm posture — a quiet, controlled storm inside a respectful frame.

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

She looked at she stepped out and the empress stopped with a raised eyebrow. Noriko listening as Xian headed off and she debated the right choice. Following no matter what would have to be done but she would be getting affirmation. The jedi master was more debating how to speak to her since if she heard everything she would have also heard how the rest of the palace got an impression of her. "Go, we'll talk later." The empress said it and ran off while Noriko moved to go to stand in front of Xian with a look. "If you heard everythign then you know the view we are giving these people as diplomats is terrible. You want training in what? In the force you don't know the basics, you don't respect the basics you want to fly and throwing lightning."

She said it and kicked off the ground, force energies wrapping around her as she levitated there for a moment and moved. "Like this." Noriko took a moment to move around as her hands showed golden white energies crackling. "You want to throw lightning." She let electric judgment go from one hand into the sky. "Spew fire." Herr body took a sharp intake of breath as her chest got larger and she opened her mouth exhaling as the air in front sparked firing off a stream. "Like so?" She said it looking at her when she touched down with a look that went from her normal playful to stern. "If all you want to do it throw around power with no discipline we can do that. I have the stamina to go longer then you Xian."

She took aa moment to look at her while she stood in front of her. "If you just want to shout, I can do that as well. We are jedi or at least I am. I am trying to teach you the basics first and to respect the power. Doesn't matter if you think you are better then a morning work out. It doesn't matter that you can use the force to fly for a time. If you were in the field you will get tired, take away the force and you'll be back as a teenage girl with no skill to defend herself. Yeah it is exercise you aren't supposed to like it but it will build up your stamina, it will make it so you can keep yourself focused even when you legs are ready to give out. If everything is because you don't want to be abandoned then stop trying to get people to abandon you."

She looked at the girl and it wasn't anger, she barely had it over serenity just showing. She knew how to argue with perfect calmness. "I can't even work out by myself while you are asleep. I didn't wake you up, I didn't force you to come along. You woke up, saw I was gone and came here looking to what confirm people do things when you are not around? People do, they work out, they laugh, they flirt, they eat. You want to sit around and sulk not doing anything fine you can do that. I'll teach you when you deem yourself ready to learn and stop trying to include you in any training that isn't to your liking." She said it and before she could speak the jedi master rose into the air and flew off as she wrapped the force around herself.

 

[Xian Xiao]

Xian stood there, watching the dust swirl from Noriko's lift-off, and something inside her finally snapped into clarity—not rage, not sulking, not humiliation.

Just clarity.

She didn't shout.
She didn't run after her.
She didn't break.

She took a deliberate step forward, lifted her chin, and spoke up before Noriko got too far to hear.

"Stop."

It wasn't a scream.
It wasn't a demand.
It was a word spoken with a steadiness that did not belong to a frightened child.

When Noriko hesitated mid-air, Xian continued—voice low, even, cutting perfectly through the morning air.

"You're wrong about me."

She didn't move closer.
She didn't need to.

"You keep calling me a tantrum, hysterical, sulking, and touched in the head like I'm some loud problem you have to tolerate. You talk about me to an Empress like I'm a joke. You think that's what I am?" Her hands clenched at her sides, not with anger—with control. "Do you really think I screamed last night because I'm a brat who hates exercise?"

A slow breath.

"I was scared you left.
That's it."

She swallowed once, keeping her voice steady.

"You say I don't know basics. You're right because you haven't taught me any. Not once. You offered jogging, Noriko. Jogging." A beat. "You think I care about cardio?"

Her eyes lifted to meet hers—not defiant, not challenging.
Just painfully honest.

"I don't want to hurl lightning for fun.
I don't want to fly because it's easy."
Her voice softened, almost a whisper.
"I want to be safe. I want to be strong. I do not want to be left behind again. If you're going to teach me, then actually teach me."

She took one step back—not retreating, but reclaiming space.

"And if something about me bothers you?" she said quietly. "If my fear, or my inexperience, or my being thirteen embarrasses you in front of royalty…"

Her throat tightened—just for a second—before she mastered it.

"…then tell me. To my face. Not the palace. Not the guards. Not an Empress."

Her gaze lowered.

"Just me."

Then she said the last part with the quiet dignity of someone who had been abandoned too many times to beg anymore:

"If you're my Master… then don't fly away every time you're frustrated.
If you're not… then stop calling me Padawan."

She turned, not storming, not running—just walking away with a stillness that said more than shouting ever could.

"And for the record," she called over her shoulder, calm as the wind she controlled,
"I didn't follow you to catch you doing something 'behind my back.'
I followed you because for once… I didn't want to be alone."

And she kept walking—head high, steps steady, not waiting to see if Noriko followed.

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

She stopped and listened for a moment before hanging her head. Then touched down on the ground again and walked the opposite direction. She was more annoyed now cause for someone who listened he accused a lot of things said to Noriko as coming from her. She had explained to her why she ran in the morning and how to channel and train the force. Her mind was racing in two directions, annoyance and acceptance. Xian may get what she wanted. To be alone cause it seemed nothing was her fault it was everyone else failing to talk to her to teach her. She breathed in and then outwards allowing the force to steady her breathing... course through her muscles and took off jogging to clear her head.

She breathed in and then outwards as she needed to debate with herself what to do. Herr training method was not the best but she was teaching someone how to survive more then just be strong. She wanted her to have a routine, normalcy, they ate together, they shared a room, they talked... usually. There was little to talk about but she tried to get her to have some sort of fun or ease up. The jedi master could hear her feet on the stone work as she shifted to grass and then flowers. "I'll talk with her laater, for now cooler heads. Maybe she'll listen, maybe she'll continue to treat it like everything is bad." Either way Xian was family and she knew you didn't abandon family.

 

[Xian Xiao]

Xian watched Noriko's back retreat into the mist and morning light, that familiar loop of self-blame following her like a shadow. For a long moment, Xian didn't move. The hurt in her chest wasn't sharp anymore; it was quiet, dull, familiar—something she'd lived with since she was four.

Still… she couldn't let Noriko walk away believing that.

She didn't chase her.
She didn't raise her voice.
She just stepped forward enough that her words would carry—soft, steady, calm.

"Noriko… I wasn't saying you didn't train me."

Her voice was small, but it didn't waver.

"I was saying I didn't understand why we were doing half of it. And when no one explains the why…"
A slow breath.
"…it's easy to feel like none of it matters."

She looked down at her hands—small, young, but calloused from what little training she'd had.

"I heard what you said to the Empress," Xian continued quietly. "All of it. I know she asked you questions. I know you answered truthfully. I'm not angry about that."

Her shoulders drew in—not from fear, but from the ache of having been misunderstood her whole life.

"I'm hurt because you think I don't want to learn anything except lightning and fire, that I don't respect basics. That I think I'm better than training."

She shook her head.

"That's not true."

Her eyes lifted, and for once, she let Noriko see everything—fear, confusion, longing, hope, hurt.

"I want to learn. I… need someone to say things to me, not at me. To explain, not assume."
A pause.
"I'm not mad at you. I'm not blaming you."

Her voice softened to almost a whisper.

"I just don't want you to give up on me because I don't learn the way you expect."

She stepped back again, giving Noriko space—even now, she was considerate.

"And if you need time to cool down…"
A gentle nod.
"…take it. I won't run off or hide. I'll be here when you're ready."

Then, with a calm she didn't entirely feel, Xian added:

"You said family doesn't abandon family.
I believe you.
So I'm not going anywhere."

She turned, not storming away—just walking slowly, thoughtfully—toward the quiet of the palace gardens where the morning wind brushed the flowers.

Leaving Noriko with the truth, soft and sincere:

"I don't think everything is bad.
I just… don't always know how to be good at people yet."

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

Noriko breathed in and out as she listened. SHe could be frustrating but she was family. Still having to make sure you always got the last word was something... She felt herself slam into something solid and fleshy... and the first thought was she walked into a longma but backing up she looked up at the empress who was standing there and offering a small smile. "Careful master jedi." The woman looked down at her and her outfit had changed to what it was before. The massive length of her hair no longer folded, twisted and designed to look small.. instead it was back as her outfit. Wrapped in complicated weaves around her body and form.

Noriko mentally was remarking that she had so much hair on her head and eyebrows... well they were trimmed and looked full but everywhere else was flawlessly smooth skin.. she had noticed it when she smacked her face into the sculpted muscle that was her glutes. The empress was looking at her and brought a hand down to touch her shoulder. "Come we'll walk.. was everything okay with your padawan?" Noriko looked at her as they were walking back to the palace and she breathed in the scent of spices, flowers and there was exotic oils in all of that hair. "She is... I do not know. Right now I am just letting things cool and making it a day."

Noriko breathed in and then outwards as she was allowing the force to guide her and calm her mind and body. The empress offered distraction and Xian could cool her heels for now.

 

[Xian Xiao]

Xian didn't stop walking when she left the training fields. She didn't storm or stomp or explode the way some people expected of her. She simply kept moving, quiet and tight-shouldered, each step carrying her farther from the courtyard, farther from the palace, farther from the echo of voices she hadn't meant to overhear.

At first she wasn't even sure what direction she'd chosen. Her feet followed the familiar pull of wind along the stone paths, the soft curve of the early morning breeze threading through her hair as if trying to coax her forward. The palace grounds softened into rolling fields, then into low terraces marked by patches of wildflowers, and still she walked, her breath trapped somewhere higher in her chest than she liked.

She sat down only when her legs finally made the decision for her, lowering herself onto a sun-warmed strip of stone bordering a shallow field. She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, not to hide, but to still the nervous trembling that had begun in her hands. The morning light was soft here, unfettered by grand walls or watching eyes, and for a moment she simply breathed. Or tried to.

She hadn't meant to hear any of it—not the teasing, not the casual analysis of her temper, not the way her frustrations had become anecdotes. Noriko hadn't spoken cruelly, and the Empress hadn't either, but the words had still landed hard, slipping beneath her skin with the precision of a blade that knew where old wounds lived. Xian had wanted to be steady today. Mature. Capable. The kind of person who didn't embarrass her teacher in front of royalty. Instead she was now sitting alone in a field because she couldn't shake the twisting ache in her chest.

"I'm not… like that," she murmured into her knees, though a part of her wondered whether she was protesting them or herself. She didn't scream for attention. She didn't fight just to make noise. She didn't want to be difficult. She simply couldn't always stop the fear that flared when someone she cared about walked away—even if they were only going for a morning run.

"Not touched in the head," she said again, softer, her throat tightening around the words. "Just… tired. Of not being sure."

Wind stirred around her ankles, gentle and insistent. It wasn't judging her. It never had. The air hummed in a rhythm she could feel in her bones—steady, patient, warm. A reminder of the first thing she'd ever been able to control. The first thing that had never abandoned her.

"I didn't mean to embarrass her," she whispered, eyes closing briefly against the sting. "I just didn't want to be left."

The confession left her raw. Alone but no longer angry. Just worn thin by memory, by too many people who had vanished without warning, by the constant quiet fear that she might not be enough to make someone stay.

She looked back toward the palace in the distance—its spires faint through the morning haze, its halls filled with people she barely knew. Noriko would come back eventually. She always had. But Xian couldn't face her right now, not with her emotions this tangled, not with the echo of overheard laughter turning over and over in her thoughts.

Maybe she needed space.
Maybe Noriko needed it too.
Maybe it was safer, for both of them, if she stepped away before she said anything she regretted.

Her breath steadied, but only slightly. Then she stood, brushing her palms against her leggings as the wind rose in a soft coil around her, responding to the shift inside her the way it always did. It lifted strands of her hair, tugged gently at her clothes, nudged her forward like a friend asking if she was ready.

She wasn't sure if she was.
But the idea of staying—of returning to the palace heavy with eyes and expectations—felt suddenly impossible.

So she inhaled once, deeply, letting the air fill her lungs and calm her pulse. And when she exhaled, she let the wind take her weight.

It lifted her with ease, gathering beneath her boots, wrapping around her legs, carrying her upward until the field fell away beneath her. She rose slowly at first, then faster, the rush of air cooling the heat in her face and loosening the knot in her chest. Higher, away from the palace, away from the voices she wished she hadn't heard, away from the fear that she was already disappointing the person she cared most about pleasing.

She didn't look back.

Not out of anger.
Not out of rejection.
But because right now, the only thing keeping her breath steady was the wind beneath her feet and the space it offered her to think—truly think—without needing to defend herself or explain what she barely understood.

The wind wouldn't leave her.
It never had.

And for now… that was enough.

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

Noriko had taken the time to breathe and savor a fleeting moment of unadulterated enjoyment. The Empress was proving to be... intoxicating, a whirlwind of regal ferocity and promises that left Noriko's pulse thrumming like a lightsaber on the edge of ignition. Now that she was officially the new one and no longer just a finna bound by ancient rites and ritual it meant access to realms of privilege she'd only glimpsed in fevered dreams. Realms like the royal artisans, those silent virtuosos who wove the species' most sacred indulgence: hair grown to obscene, decadent lengths reshaped into garments that blurred the line between armor, adornment, and provocation. Noriko had spent the better part of the day with one such master.

Her fingers tracing the hypnotic patterns as strands thick as silken ropes were coaxed into living tapestries around the empress herself. The results were nothing short of mesmerizing as there was something beautiful as it contoured to the architecture of the empresses body, each weave a testament to the primal artistry. The air on the high, gilded balcony of the palace hung thick and languid, heavy with the perfume of distant wildflowers unfurling in the untouched meadows beyond the white marble railing, its intricate gold piping gleaming like veins of captured sunlight. Out here, far from the spires of the cities, the rural skies of Atrisia stretched in vast, unblemished azure, a canvas unbroken save for the lazy drift of cloud-herds.

Below, the thunderous rhythm of horse lords echoed up from the training grounds their longma war-steeds' hooves a primal drumbeat, their guttural cries weaving into the wind like a warrior's call. Noriko drew it all in with deep, measured breaths, the cool edge of the railing pressing into her palms. The Empress had brought her here to share the vista after everything with Xian, it was a stark departure from the throne room's suffocating opulence. This? This was raw, unfiltered majesty. It didn't just hold her enthralled; it made her happy to see a few things. "The scouts report an object resembling your padawan flying away from the palace. She has protection here but the others would attack a lone Atrisian wandering in our lands."

NOriko was worried about it... Xian going off wasn't just a danger it could be a lot worse. The Horselords had extended the invitation and escorted them because of the danger for a reason. "She does want to give me gray hair." She breathed in and sent an impulse through the force wanting her to return. A massive explanation wouldn't be easy but the impression of continuing could potentially and would likely be dangerous. She looked from the balcony with a nod. "BEst I could do in your dominion empress. Yet the true dominion of the balcony belonged to the Empress, her towering presence eclipsing the horizon like a shadow cast by an eclipsing sun.

She loomed behind Noriko, her imposing frame tall and lithe defined muscles, yet honed to lethal elegance with sinewy muscles that spoke of battles won in silence and savagery curving forward in a predatory arc, enveloping the smaller woman without a single touch beyond the weight of her gaze. The Empress's body was a masterpiece of controlled ferocity: long, powerfully defined legs that tapered into predatory grace; an abdomen carved like polished beskar, ridged and taut, every ripple a testament to disciplines that blended martial rigor with sensual abandon. But it was her attire or lack thereof that commanded the eye, a scandalous symphony of her own ebony-black hair, cultivated over cycles to lengths that defied reason.

Then shaped and reborn as an extension of her will. No mere fabric could rival this: thick, lustrous braids, each strand as resilient as synth-cord and twice as sinuous, wove across her pale, flawless skin in a web of deliberate indecency. They framed her high chest with crisscrossing harnesses that plunged daringly low, the dark lattice barely containing their swell, leaving the undersides brazenly exposed to the breeze like forbidden fruit begging to be tasted. From there, the braids snaked downward around her waist in a single, teasing thong of interwoven locks, hugging her thighs to trace the curve of her glute before vanishing, only to reemerge in a scandalously sheer veil that draped yet did not conceal the apex of her form.

Lower still, the weaves coiled around her waist like a leather bindings, accentuating the flare of her hips, before splintering into delicate fetters that lashed her ankles with possessive elegance. It was clothing as conquest, salacious and sovereign, every movement causing the braids to shift and whisper against her skin like a thousand invisible caresses. SMall bells weaved through in a beautiful framework of sound as she walked. Her face, sharp and imperious, was half-veiled by the cascade of unbound tresses that framed it, those silvery-blue eyes cold as neutron stars, hot as their corona locked onto Noriko with a hunger that was equal parts command and empathy.

Framed within that enveloping shadow stood Noriko, the height disparity turning her into a delicate counterpoint: she rose only to the swell just below the Empress's chest, her lithe, athletic build a coiled spring of warrior's poise, slender yet etched with the unyielding strength of one who ran and worked out. Her skin, sun-kissed from the runs she haad been doing since she got here, bore the elegant scars of survival faint silvered lines etching her shoulders and forearms like constellation maps of forgotten skirmishes, each one a silent vow etched in flesh. She wore the pared-down uniform of her clothing satchel: a cropped training top of form-fitting synth-weave, cropped high to bare the taut plane of her midriff.

The fabric clinging to the generous curve of her chest as the sweat had dried in a way that had drawn appreciative whistles from the horselorrds as she had passed them during her morning runs. Paired with it were shorts that rode high on her thighs, sculpted from the same materia, hugging the lean power of her legs and the subtle flare of her hips functional, yet unwittingly alluring in their brevity. At her belt, the unignited hilt of her lightsaber staff hung like a dormant promise, its cool metal a nice ground she would use as she had gotten that at leaast in case there was a problem but so far the day had allowed her to relax at least.

The Empress's hands descended then, settling on Noriko's shoulders with a weight that was pure possession fingers splaying wide, thumbs tracing the ridges of her collarbones in slow, deliberate circles that sent sparks racing down her spine. She leaned in, her braided mane brushing Noriko's cheek like silken chains, tilting her head just so as her full lips hovered perilously close to the Jedi Master's ear. A grin curved her mouth, wicked and knowing, as her voice slithered forth, low and laced with that velvet rumble. "Beautiful, isn't it, Master Jedi?" She said it while she was looking out from the palace and the people had largely left the streets.

Noriko nodded, her breath catching on the floral-scented air, the Empress's proximity a gravitational pull she had no desire to escape. For this stolen interlude, at least, the wilds below could wait. She could linger here, pinned and pondered, until duty or dinner called her back to the palace's gilded maw. She looked more at parts of it though and hoped Xian was being safe in this now.. she had left it harsh but two days of fighting over small things was never good and yet neither was going to say they were wrong. She needed to get some of that Ike family wisdom, have a moment or two to call one of them and see what they might say.