pronker

Title: Zounds! Entasis!

Author: pronker

Rating: M

Era: Leia is sixteen.

Disclaimer: George Lucas owns Star Wars and all its characters and settings; I am playing with them by writing fanfiction for no profit whatsoever, but a lot of fun. I am not Lucas.

Summary: A Princess has many friends.

A/N This is an intertrilogy series in its second and final part, following "Male Gaze", "Aphrodisiac", "Getting To Entasis", "Novel Entasis", "Upright Entasis" and "Xenogamy Entasis." The first part consisted of "Song of Myself" and "Spring Fever." Each part is standalone; any plot point question cheerfully answered. Events in this finale reflect the YA series "Rebel Force" by Alex Wheeler, a six book series that Wookieepedia has not yet interpolated into the Leia Organa Solo entry as of August 2012. To summarize, Ferus Olin joined the Rebellion; readers of Jude Watson's Jedi Quest series and The Last of the Jedi series will recognize characters that Wheeler borrowed for her series. Writing for a franchise must be fun like that. ficfinishing and its mod, emmademarais, and all the members, here's a round of applause for your help! **clapclapclapx200** This is a wonderfully effective comm for gaining practical methods of completing that WIP.

IOIOIOIOIO

"Bail, the Park is off to a good start." Ferus felt uncommonly cheerful this morning. Luncheon would soon be served.

"Yes, it was a spectacular beginning, wasn't it? The light display, the gathering of bards and artists, the silencing of all music as we simply listened to the wind in the zaela trees ... I approve."

Zaela trees, um ... "Everything is online. It is a fine tribute to Her Highness."

Bail kept his eyes on Poonelo, who ran for no apparent reason from the comm station to the tea cart to behind the nearest pillar in the broad reception room. Poonelo's tail twitched in full view of the two men as he waited to ambush the next interesting thing to pass by. "You and she have a better rapport."

"Leia has matured. I don't know what else to say."

Poonelo pounced on Bail's robe of state. Ferus picked up the pittin, plucking at the hair it left behind on Bail's elegant attire.

"Never mind, Ferus." Bail slapped the end of a finger on the pittin's nose, Poonelo hissed at him, and the two men looked at each other. "Why would she give it a canoid's name?"

Ferus shrugged by way of answer. Leia's pittin was a handful. He gave it a final pat that was almost a swat as he replaced it gently on the floor. Poonelo snarled in his direction and ran off towards the kitchen.

"I like you, Breha liked you." Bail ran his thumb around his wedding band. Now Ferus saw how thin the band had worn, and realized that Bail would wear it until his death, touching it to attain calm, for remembrance that His Serene Highness, Prince Bail Organa, First Chairman and Viceroy of Alderaan, was more than his title, had been a beloved husband, and that a great deal of his serenity had fled forever when his wife died.

"It's appreciated. I like you, too." Basic sentiment, something that Fess glossed over but that Ferus knew how to communicate well, with Jedi honesty. Bail swept him into an embrace while Ferus clapped his back, and then Ferus got a great surprise.

"Leia has been good for you."

Ferus backed out of the embrace, eyes wide. "Bail - "

"She has. And I am pleased for you and for her." Bail clasped his hands behind his back, turning to the vista. "She has spread herself thin with her work and ambitions. She needs to play more. And to learn how to be alone. That, my friend, is something that Madame Vesta does not instruct her girls in, but I think a Jedi might."

"She, she will be safe with me. I will protect her always." What would the Negotiator say? "I would die for the Princess." No, stupid, he would not say that! Obi-Wan never had to deal with this, Ferus was certain. Never having royalty as a lover, it was unthinkable that Obi-Wan had such a conversation in his entire life.

Bail turned back to Ferus, eyes piercing. "Such drama, Ferus! Let's hope this situation shall never happen, yet I thank you for considering it." As Bail always did when the conversation turned serious, Ferus saw that Bail thought of his wife. It was as if she were standing beside him. "I don't know how Breha would have taken this situation. Women are different."

"They plan more, I think?"

"They have to. Circumstances can sweep them away into lives they never thought they would get into. It is more difficult than we and they think to change them." The dinner chime sounded loud in the antechamber. "Ah, let's see what awaits us. I told Chef to surprise the family, and you, my friend, are family when you are here."

Ferus kept pace with Bail as they strolled to the dining pavilion, set for four on the balcony, pennants streaming from the highest rooftop of the palace. When bubblezap and nerf burgers appeared before him on plasticine plates, it was another surprise. That Poonelo was on hand to steal scraps was no surprise.

IOIOIOIOIO

At the interlude that was to be their last, Ferus bent under Leia's dominance as a seed-heavy field of lumigrass bowed under a thundersprite's relentless downpour. With his newfound strength in the Force, he played with her underneath the sheets in her sleeping chamber, suggesting this and that in an offhand manner and servile tones, as if just now thinking it. He Sensed her blush as if it were his own when he locked the door and lowered the lights to quarter power. She whispered that he should wait to touch her; he was amused to obey his Princess. He followed her directions, keeping Fess' expression interested in the extreme, but grinning inside at her unwitting portrayal of a more sophisticated bedroom scenario. He knew himself indulgent and patronizing and if she felt it, she didn't let on. She was to the manor born, a turn on he didn't know that he had until now. "I live to grovel," he said to himself, tracing her waist from the tantalizing scoop of her navel to the small of her back when she gave permission. She twisted away from the tickle, breaking the mood with a giggle. He laughed with her. "But I love it," he said aloud.

"You may put your thing in me now," Leia whispered finally.

Ferus did. "Calyx. Anther. Sideroxylon." He groaned. "Propagule."

Leia's eyes rolled up. "Sepals."

Afterwards, they discarded all roles, breathing in and out and nothing more. Some minutes later, Ferus directed their conversation as they lay braided together. "So this is good, and knowing how to be alone is good, too."

"Neena says that as well. I miss her."

"She is following her dream in studying music offplanet as you will follow your dream." Able to move again, Ferus carded his fingers through her sable fall of hair, imagining placing a t'iil blossom in it. "Silya would advise the same."

Leia pulled the sheet up to her neck. "Sometimes I don't like doing this. It's like you can see right through me." She was not yet at ease with pillow talk, Ferus surmised..

"That's what I meant. Being alone " - Ferus thought back to a Jedi conundrum in a Temple classroom, decades earlier - " is how we are born and how we die. One of life's ironies is that we sentients are together in our aloneness." Ferus dreamt of Siri last night, and of the ritual of First Braiding. Her voice trembled in his dream as it had not in reality, when he had been an impossibly young eleven Standard, feeling his new Master's hands shaping his braid, tying off his Knight's tail and chucking him under the chin afterwards. It was a ritual lost to the mists of time and he would have to make his own ritual.

"Leia," he said, "hold still." He wrapped her hair around one fist and pulled her closer. She offered her cheek for a chaste kiss, but afterwards she drew back, all imperious majesty and he bowed his head, acknowledging the differences in their stations in life. Their bond had no name, nor needed one, and the Force whispered that he had done a good deed. He disentangled his hand and they rose as one.

"What are you looking for?"

"The tie to my robes, have you seen it?"

"Here. Poonelo had it."

Ferus took the soggy, shredded tie in two fingers. "Thanks. Here's your hair ribbon." We've crossed a line. We're domestic.. Ferus turned his back to dress and so did Leia. Some avians twittered cheerily outside the window, swooping down to snatch insects mid-air, coating the morning with birdsong. It reminded Ferus that Alderaan was the opposite of Tatooine, in that Alderaan's temperate clime was the opposite of Obi-Wan's realm of stark heat, bitter night chills filled with roaming nomads who were predators of the unwary, sentient or not. "Obi-Wan, I am enjoying my life to a fuller extent," he addressed the Jedi Master who was stroking his beard before his mind's eye, "according to your counsel."

"I'll see you tonight, Leia?" he found himself asking.

Leia looked uncommonly thoughtful, when she usually looked relaxed or even somnolent after they had played together. "You will."

IOIOIOIOIO

"My Dear Fess," tapped Leia, "I have something important to tell you. Please meet me at the twenty-third gate to the palace at tenth hour." There. Done. Girn's farewell a blip on her mental scanner screen archive from a week ago, she hit 'send' and returned to updating her journal with what she wanted to record of the good Senator's final words.

I said 'thank you for your instruction, Senator' and Girn said that I was 'vibrant' and 'radiant' and that I would have a career and a family. I don't know why he said this last part because I never mentioned anything of the sort. Did he see Father with my aunts and gather that I come from a close-knit group of Royals? Did he notice Father's wedding band and surmise that I will marry, too? I don't want to marry anyone right now, much less start a family. I remembered the last time we were together on top of the gaming table and when I couldn't stop myself from feeling the plush material of his shirt, he pulled my hand away and pointed it upward. 'Remember the plaster rosette?' he asked. Well, of course I did! Then he let go of me and was quiet. I did not know what he was getting at and told him so. He said that, quote, you are beautiful like the rosette, and as hard, but that is all right with me. I shall follow your career with great interest. When my bill passes, come around to the Montferd Casino. I'll give you four thousand decicreds to gamble with, unquote. I said maybe I would. He said that I wore stylish clothes as if I had inherited the grace to display them and if I got tired of the Senate and wanted to `START AN ESCORT SERVICE'! for his casinos that he would stake me in the venture. I never noticed before, but he has an enlarged pore at the tip of his nose. I stepped back to get out of his reach and said goodbye. He said goodbye at the exact same time and it was sort of funny so I started to laugh but he did not laugh so I didn't either and I left on the first transport home. I'll keep him on my padd but not on speedcomm. I think he just likes pretty things, and YOUNG things. Maybe he thinks youth is catching? Now with him and Fess being older than I am, that makes me think that next time I'll go for the same age as me, or younger. Or maybe something different. I am still confused and need to think, Journal, so this is goodbye for now.

Leia saved her entry, masking it from her friends. Now it was time to accomplish the same leavetaking with Fess, and then she could concentrate on her career. Personal development could wait. When Fess met her in two hours, the rendezvous was not going to take place like when they met four days ago by the thirty-seventh gate at ninth hour. That night, the words of parting were on her lips, but then he showed up with candy. We played around with it and the next thing I knew, I was like a droid, not particularly wanting sex but moving this way, gesturing that way and then we were rolling together like tumblebunnies here on this bed. I wish I were a Praci. Praci did not have these slightly ridiculous experiences in their lives. Praci budded into more smiling Praci and were among the nicest beings anyone could ever hope to meet. Adrift in a reverie, Leia plucked Poonelo from his nap and pressed the creature to her cheek. The interlude before last with Fess had not gone to her wishes, either. There had been a niggling sense of belonging to him, tied to him in an obscure manner. Well, those feelings would fade with time. It had taken over four hours with Girn, and surely with Fess, the duration would be shorter? She knew him well enough to trust his conduct in a breakup.

She put Poonelo down and nibbled on a thumbnail. It would happen, and by this time tomorrow, she would be free to regroup. She would gather strength right now and in two hours, she would break up with Fess and be ready for real love, years down the road. That would happen, too. It would be easy.

Leia hummed and then broke into song. "Just slip out the back, Zakk, make a new plan, Yan - " Poonelo made his rumbling sound again, batting at her padd. "Not now."

"Mrrrrr."

"I said no."

"Mrrrrrrrrrr."

"Oh, all right."

Leia juggled her padd and her pittin. Fess wouldn't be hurt, would he? They didn't need to discuss much, and if he wanted her to sleep on things before deciding, she would say no. I've had enough practice. I know I don't like being on top, because from the bottom I can concentrate on his moves and not on mine since I already know about mine. I do like to talk during sex, and I like to cuddle afterwards. Girn and Fess were both good at that. She scrolled down to Galaxapolitan.

217 Ways To -

The annunciator panel buzzed. Leia looked up. The saffron light strobed, so it was no emergency, only caution. "Leia, it's me. I was in the conference suite talking to your father and got your comm. My commlink is keyed to a special vibration for your comms. Is anything the matter?"

Fess' concern leaked through the door, as welcome as a mynock in the punchbowl at a debutante's ball. "This is unexpected," Leia said to the grille as she fastened her coldsuit to the highest point of its collar. She put Poonelo on the floor and the padd on her nightstand before letting Fess in.

Poonelo jumped back up immediately.

Fess made for the bed and sat down. Poonelo rowred at him, flexing his claws. Leia made herself sit calmly. "A special vibration? Yes, that is like you." This would not be easy now. She shifted away from him, using Poonelo as a fluffy buffer. "You are early."

"Yes."

Uh-oh. He had a 'ready-to-defend-you' look about him, as impenetrable as a bauta mask for Carnevale. It disappeared as if through a gigantic effort of will and he grinned widely. "That's agood quality, right?"

"Mmmmm." I'm offbalance, and you have ruined my plans.

He looked her up and down. "Going out?"

"I was ready to."

"Well, that suit will keep you warm. It is chilly." He wanted her to keep warm, as if she were two Standard.

"Yes."

It seemed to sink in that he had done something wrong. "Leia, if you need to be alone for some reason, I can leave. I do understand needing solitude. There is no substitute for it."

He was going to be nice, and she wasn't. She took a deep breath. "Fess, you have been good to me. You are a nice man." First step. Check. "I needed tutoring and you were there for me." Now she wanted to cup his cheek. Wrong! "My career is starting well and I owe you a great deal."

"But."

"But you were right, I do want solitude. I want to think, and learn more about politics and less about what you and I have been doing."

"I said that I would leave." She had neglected to shutter her window and now she could discern a flurry of snowflakes through the night sky. Was that why she felt so cold?

"Not just for tonight. Please understand. I want us to remain cordial through this, even if - "

"It's over."

"Yes."

She had never seen this expression on his face before. "Are you going back to Toric?"

"What? No. I'm through with him." She scrubbed at her forehead, where an errant tendril had escaped a braid. It brushed against her skin each time she moved. She would have corrected the dishevelment if he had waited two hours. But no, he felt enough at ease with her to invite himself over and not wait until she had summoned his presence as she had prepared for. She would not get rankled over this, she would not. The unexpected could and would be dealt with. She had been an intern, was going to be an aide, and then a Senator.

"Good. He was unworthy of you." Fess added in a nastier tone, "And he has horrible taste in clothing and jewelry."

Keep your private things private. Leia shrugged. "I never said he didn't, but he didn't need to have my and your taste when I first left home. I've learned that a handsome face counts for something, and that attractiveness is the sum total of inside and outside qualities and I feel stupid saying these things to you about looks when what really counts is how someone makes mefeel, and you and he made me feel like an adult. So thanks.""All right, so he wasn't totally useless. And I suppose he piloted you all right to Coruscant and introduced you all around. You were curious and you took what was offered to you, all well and good, but Leia, now you're back home for good after three months. How does that feel?"

Here it comes. "Busy. I'm preparing to run for Senator when I am eighteen, because Father says that thirty years of service is enough and he will step down then. Father wants me to attend the University this next session, Winter will attend with me, and my weapons training with Giles will take up more of my time. There won't be the leisure to visit Princess Park, or to have visitors here. Fess, I'm not seeing anyone, not Raal and not you." She touched his hand as it reached to smooth her hair.

There was a shock from static electricity.

"Eek!"

"Oh!"

"Mrrrrooowwwwrr!"

Fess gave a nervous giggle. "Have you been petting your pittin a lot?"

Leia couldn't help giggling herself. "He's such a needy creature! I like him and he likes me, but he is difficult to handle. Sometimes it takes Father to put him in his place." This was more like it, the Fess who she had known all her life. She could trust him to keep a secret, too. She ducked her head. "My aunts and even Father think I should be presented at Imperial Court to start the search for a groom for me when I accompany him back to the Senate next week." At his look, she added, "Don't worry! I'm not marrying anyone for a long, long time. I'm simply agreeing because it's good politics." She snorted. "It's not like anything will happen this decade."

Some moments passed before he spoke. "You're right. You're much too busy to continue seeing me. I'll go now."

Poonelo scrabbled at the end of the tie to Fess' robes. He jerked it away from the hooked claws, they stuck into the material, and Poonelo went flying upwards. His hind claws churned for purchase, scoring the back of Leia's hand as she reached for her pet. The claws ripped into Fess' forefinger, too.

"Poonelo!" Leia made a grab for him as did Fess, and their heads knocked. Leia laughed as she squatted to pick up her pittin but when she rose to her feet, she took a step back from the ire which she saw on Fess' face. No, this would not go well at all.

IOIOIOIOIO

"I don't know who I am anymore," thought Ferus as he glowered at his Princess. "Am I Ferus, Jedi, or Fess, slacker?" He saw Leia back away from him and supposed he looked like a stern Jedi Master, her Master. You've turned into the prettiest girl I've ever seen. Even Master Yoda would say so. Obi-Wan had not ever said if Yoda lived, and even now, with his enhanced Force connection, Ferus was unsure if a Force-rending death such as Yoda's would register in his meditations. Ferus yearned for Yoda's advice even more than Obi-Wan's, because he was certain that asking about revealing secrets would remind Obi-Wan of Anakin's secrets, making him relive those painful revelations.

Ferus and Roan had avoided keeping secrets, beginning after the knowledge of Ferus' former Jedi status.

Roan had been open, and clean.

"Maybe Anakin's secrets became that thing that he and his Master never talked about, like my guardianship of Leia. Maybe I should tell her right now," Ferus mused, staring at Leia with rapt fascination, seeing her revealed as the sexual being that she truly was. Sixteens are very sharp and smart and hard, like adega shards that have not yet been shaped into functioning lightsaber crystals. I must handle her with care.

Ferus brushed his hand over his stomach. Leia had bitten him six days ago when he had tutored her in a basic lovemaking skill, not intentionally, he was certain, but he had not self-healed the dusky mark. He saw the omission now as a sigil of hubris. Was arrogance in being her lover overcoming his Jedi self-effacement? He gathered any pride he had in knowing her so intimately and threw it into the Force, unsure whether the Force would accept it. But he had to release it. "I have become a Master," he thought. "I must let her go to truly claim the title."

The pride was gone. Now all that was left was anger.

~~~~~~~

On To Part 2