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"I'm home!" Maul shouted the second he stepped through the door.
He could feel the excitement throughout the flat, and he knew he had done the right thing when the sound of frantic movement came from the bedroom.
"Maul, already back?" Eeth asked as he left the room with a worried smile, his cheeks flushed and his clothes subtly disordered.
"I finished before everyone else. This course is rea... -lly easy", he finished at the last moment in a better formulation than the "it's real shit" that spontaneously came to mind.
"Really? Where did the others stand in comparison?"
"They were struggling", he said with a shrug.
"And you left Savage without helping him?"
"Of course not", he rolled his eyes at the taller Zabrak, "I was going to, but the Masters told me I wasn't allowed to. Which is stupid, aren't Jedi supposed to help people?"
"You weren't going to help people, you were going to help your brother, they were right, a good Jedi is impartial". Master Windu declared serenely as he left the room as if nothing had happened and as if his presence in Eeth's bedroom was not highly suspicious.
"Says the man at the head of a nepotistic High Council."
"Say that again, kid?"
"Is Master Rancisis not Master Yaddle's Padawan? Is Master Gallia not Master Piel's Padawan? Is Master Mundi not Master Yoda's Padawan? Has Master Koon not taken the place of his Wookie Master? Is Master Billaba not your Padawan? Nepotism."
"Who better than a former Sith Apprentice to spot that kind of juicy little detail? You certainly have a sharp mind". Eeth teased gently, giving his companion a warning look that Maul himself could translate as "Don't get too angry with the child".
It was so convenient being a child, Eeth was always going to defend him.
"It's not a matter of favouritism, the High Councillors are selected unanimously for their management of their missions, their abilities, their mentality and-"
"Anyway", the Zabrak interrupted him before smiling innocently at the two Jedi. "What were you two doing in your room?"
"Napping", Master Windu replied, his face unreadable and his tone confident.
"Wow, are you really that old?"
"Who are you calling old?!"
"Only babies and old people nap", Maul persisted, genuinely curious and disturbed by the possibility, however slight, that the information was true.
Maybe they were initially resting next to each other and cuddling and it had all gone wrong.
And now that he thought about it, Windu was a lot older than he looked, was not he? He was older than Master Mundi, whom he himself had endorsed to the Jedi High Council, as far as he knew. He had never really known how old the man was, but he knew that Eeth was not even fifty, the age difference and the power dynamic was worrying if they had a big difference in status at the beginning... It was not in his interest to take advantage of Eeth in his presence.
"He spent part of the night in the Archives and we trained for several hours, it's normal to be tired", Eeth explained with a soft repulsive look towards his lover.
Ugh. Love.
"By the way, you're just in time, brat, let's go and do your weekly report, the High Council meets in about thirty minutes."
"Noooo, when is this going to stop?" He grumbled as he went back to putting on his boots, secretly relishing the fact that he had real feet every time he did it. "I don't even have anything interesting to say!"
"It doesn't matter, acclimatising to a new living environment is a daily battle that's fought over the little things, so it's important that we can observe your successes and improvements."
"My life here is better than it's ever been before", he muttered under his breath.
He was not starving, exhausted or beaten up every day after training. He was not deprived of sleep, care or called incompetent. He was protected, people asked him if he was all right and they were... generally nice to him, even if his eyes were still of that golden color that many people knew to be a bad sign.
Like Count Dooku, no, just Master Dooku. Force it was strange, he had bumped into the man with considerably less white hair and it was strange, especially as he seemed to be very friendly with a High Councillor. Seeing him in the corridors had been very strange, especially as the duo seemed somehow more suspicious of him than Master Windu sometimes was, and that was saying something because this man was terribly cautious and knew he was older in the head than he looked.
But no matter what he thought, the Jedi had to obey and he would obey.
They walked out, casually giving Eeth a minute to get himself in order before joining them and he only responded to the flick of fingers to the back of his head with a smirk.
"Brat."
"Lustful", he retorted with a teasing wink.
"It's sooo much me," the Master mocked, looking amused despite himself by his repartee.
He could not have received much with his position.
"We'll make sure you pass the level tests so you can move on to higher study groups."
"Great, I'm sick of these whiny losers."
"You damned-"
But Maul had set off the second he had said his part and was laughing as he looked back, smiling even wider at the incensed look on the Jedi's face.
Now, by his own admission, ever since he had been in the Jedi Temple, Maul had not really been looking where he was going. It was because he was not risking anything, at his age no one was getting angry with him so he was enjoying it while he could. He had bumped into people more times than he could count since he had arrived, so he was not so much surprised by the fact that he was bumping into legs as by the size of those legs and the fact that he had not really noticed the Jedi's Force presence until they had bumped into each other at the junction of the corridors.
"Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't see you. Here you go."
Maul accepted the offering by reflex, then looked with confusion at the enormous cookie the size of his whole hand that the Cerean had taken out of his pocket as if he had more, and he gave Master Windu a questioning look as Master Mundi walked away.
"He's has many daughters, he's got into the habit of going around with sweets."
"Hng. I'm not one of his girls", he protested rhetorically, sniffing the offending gift before biting into it.
It was... surprisingly tasty.
Hng... not so bad.
It would take more than good food to convince him though.