Private Crazy Rich Jedi

[Xian Xiao]

Xian followed Noriko down the last stretch of stairs, although her expression suggested she objected strongly to being accused of making the conversation confusing. She hadn't been the one who started assigning everyone's names to pronouns. Still, she wisely decided not to argue that point. "Yes, Master. I'll try to be less confusing," she replied with remarkable seriousness.

The warning about Shoma, however, earned a puzzled look. Xian knew enough by now to understand that the Ike family seemed to stretch into nearly every corner of Atrisia, but she was still discovering exactly who all of these relatives were. Apparently, one of them was also going to become Emperor someday. That was useful information, even if Noriko's advice about avoiding personally targeted legislation seemed strangely specific.

"Why would he do that if we've never even met?" Xian asked as she followed Noriko into the hall. "He doesn't have any reason to be mad at me." She thought about it for another moment before adding, "Unless you've been pretending to be me around him too. Then I think whatever law he makes should specifically exclude you by name."

A faint smile betrayed her before she could maintain the serious expression. "I'll respect him if I meet him, Master. I wasn't planning on insulting the future Emperor." Xian paused, reconsidering everything she'd learned about this family since arriving. "Although now I'm wondering how many more important cousins I have that nobody has told me about yet."

Noriko Ike

 

[Noriko Ike]

Xian Xiao

"Shoma is a moody sixteen year old. When is he not going to be mad? Don't you remember what a monster you were like at that age?" She said it while walking and looked as the doorway opened into the jungle and they could walk along the paths. "You got to look at it as a big picture, we have a lot of duties and Atrisia needs everyone but the Commonwealth itself that has Atrisia and hundreds of systems that we are responsible for. Atrisia is at the cutting edge of technologies within the galaxy and we feed and provide the means for all of those worlds to improve themselves."

 

[Xian Xiao]

Xian followed Noriko through the doorway and onto the jungle path, but the accusation about what she'd been like at sixteen earned an increasingly puzzled stare at the back of her Master's head. "Master, I'm thirteen." She stepped carefully around one of the broad roots crossing the path. "I don't remember what a monster I was at sixteen because I haven't been sixteen yet." After a few more steps, she added, with quiet suspicion, "Unless I'm somehow supposed to be responsible for things I haven't done yet too."

Shoma had been mentioned enough now, however, that Xian couldn't help wondering about him. Sixteen. Moody. Future Emperor. Family. Those were nearly the only things she knew about him, which apparently gave her imagination plenty of room to supply everything Noriko hadn't. She wondered what he looked like and whether he was actually as moody as Noriko claimed. Maybe he wasn't around someone he liked. Maybe when they finally met, he'd like Xian. She could imagine him showing her parts of Atrisia she hadn't seen yet, complaining about whatever responsibilities future Emperors had while she listened, or the two of them escaping all these family duties together for a while.

Then her imagination betrayed her completely.

Xian had been quite certain she wasn't interested in being paired off with anyone. Every time the subject of mates or relationships had come anywhere near her, she'd wanted nothing to do with it. Yet when she imagined herself a little older and Shoma beside her, the idea suddenly didn't seem quite so terrible. She wondered what it might feel like if he wanted her there specifically, rather than because they were family and therefore expected to tolerate one another. Maybe they could become friends first. Maybe, eventually, something else. The possibility produced an unfamiliar little flutter in her stomach, followed almost immediately by heat flooding her cheeks when she realized where her thoughts had gone.

Xian abruptly became fascinated by the jungle.

She said absolutely none of it. Noriko could never know. Xian wasn't even entirely certain what she'd just imagined herself wanting, and giving her Master that information seemed like the fastest possible route to hearing about it for the rest of her natural life. Instead, she concentrated hard on Noriko's explanation of Atrisia and the Commonwealth until her blush faded.

"Hundreds of systems?" That finally pulled her fully back into the conversation. Xian knew Atrisia was important, but she'd never really considered the scale of what Noriko was describing. "That's... a lot of people depending on what happens here." She walked quietly for several moments, trying to fit that into everything else she'd learned since coming to Atrisia. "So when you say everybody has duties, you don't just mean the family or Atrisia. If Atrisia is helping feed all those worlds and giving them technology, then what happens here affects people we've never even met."

Her expression grew thoughtful as she looked toward Noriko. "I think I understand the big picture better." She hesitated, thoughts threatening for one dangerous instant to return to a certain future Emperor, and immediately shoved them elsewhere. "I'm just still figuring out where I'm supposed to fit into all of it."

Noriko Ike