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The final class that Maul had transferred to and would likely be the last before he became a Padawan was different from what he had experienced on a daily basis since his arrival by the Jedi and also different from his life as a child before that when he was under the control of Master Sidious.
With people who were actually his body age, it was… childish. Actually that was not bad, Maul preferred children, and not just because Savage was happy with them. The children were…weak. Weakness was not good in itself, but it was reassuring because it meant they could not hurt him. They were not dangerous.
The more he was around older people, the more dangerous they were because they had better control of their abilities and were better trained. He was not afraid of them, he could take most of them in single combat and kill them without breaking a sweat, Force, even Savage had been able to kill Jedi with very inadequate training and just a lot of motivation and brute force, they were not up to par...but they had functioning brains, he had to be more careful about his behaviour around them.
Which meant he had to adapt his manners to approach what was socially acceptable. The problem with this plan? Kenobi, because things often came back to Kenobi these days. Maul was in Kenobi's class, because why the fuck not?
He wanted to die, no, better: he wanted to kill him.
That being impossible, he tried to ignore him to the best of his ability, but because he was "the kid" and Savage's brother, Kenobi and Vos had apparently decided to help him integrate well among their comrades. He understood a little why they did it, the Jedi did things by the book and having a foreign and Sith child like him climbing the ladder at full speed must have been worrying for a lot of people who were afraid of him, especially since they had no way of knowing if it was the Sith teaching or Maul's natural skills that made him such a smart and precocious kid, so... yeah, he was outside the norm, and his background made that appealing to him. more problems than praises.
This made it more difficult for him to integrate among his new classmates, especially since now the age difference was really obvious, he spent all his days surrounded by people who were roughly twice his age and most of them were approaching the age of becoming a Padawan, everyone besides him was between eleven and thirteen.
Not that age was a problem for him, he did not yet know when he would become a Padawan himself but he did not plan to wait several years to learn real new things. Surely Windu and Yoda would understand that letting him get bored and chomping at the bit was a bad idea for everyone involved. Maul did not react well when he was bored or frustrated. He knew how to control himself, but there were limits.
For now, however, he remained calm. He did not get along with everyone but he recognized the efforts, and as he could not be mean either he stayed in his corner, sometimes chatting with some Initiates when they had to work collaboratively. Tachi was pleasantly calm and serious and found a lot of people impossible so they got along fine as long as they did not talk a lot and worked efficiently. His second favourite person was Unduli, who had an unfailing serenity that had been very useful to them when he had almost hit that idiot Chun when the guy had broken the datapad in which they had recorded their homework. The memory of seeing the Mirialian take apart the datapad to retrieve the data chip to insert it into a new datapad and then give it to their teacher still made him smile, the arrogant idiot was fuming.
Little did he know that it was way better than what Maul would have done if she had not stopped him, he would have sent him in a Bacta tank for several days, that damn brat.
He had forced himself not to react to the attitude of the white-haired boy who was asking for trouble, he was better than being influenced by a stupid child.
Then he discovered that he was not just doing it to Maul, he was actually just a distraction from his main target which was none other than Kenobi.
Maul had seen red when he saw from afar the boy causing the explosion of a scientific experiment that Kenobi was doing with Muln, so just after the lesson he had grabbed the guy coming out of this course and had intimidated him while trying not to leave physical marks. No proof, that was his new watchword since he understood that he would be punished for bad behaviour.
Anyway, it was not hard for him to be creative and imagine threats of death or torture that turned the moron's face as white as his hair.
Maul was extremely proud of himself for still being able to have such an impact even when he was so small and skinny, it seemed that pinning the guy down with the Force, keeping him on his knees, pulling his hair and promise him great suffering were enough to stop him from opening his mouth.
He really was the best, he still thought it when he came home to talk to Eeth about it. The white-haired kid attacked Kenobi when the adults were not there or were not looking, it would be necessary for an adult other than their teacher to hear it otherwise he would not be believed, so he had to try it directly with the one who was most sensitive to his puppy-dog eyes.
Kenobi was his, the idiot was lucky he was not a Sith Apprentice anymore otherwise he would have killed him for getting between him and his enemy.
"Eeth, are you there?" He asked loudly as he entered, noticing the tall, bald Jedi in the kitchen but not looking in his direction.
He and Windu had developed their own way of communicating, he would not be offended.
"I'm here, hello Maul, did you have a good day?"
"I had a good day," he replied with great suffering, hating having to submit to small talk but he knew that it would please Eeth so he did a little to make him easier to convince. "What about you?"
"Nothing to report, I'm meditating, do you want to join me?"
"No thanks."
"I see. What do you need me for then?"
Finally, they got to the heart of the matter.
"There's a brat you should pay attention to."
"Hmm?"
"I said, I met a fucking asshole."
"Language!" Was the dual shout released by the couple although Eeth was in his room, meditating.
Besides...
"Aren't you supposed to meditate?" He said mockingly, losing his smile when the Zabrak sighed just loud enough for the two of them to hear:
"Mace, would you please take care of this?"
"With great pleasure," the Korun stated serenely, smiling amusedly towards Maul. "You may talk, I'm in a good mood."
"There's a kid, Burk Chun. No, wait… Bruck Chun, his name is Bruck Chun. He needs to be pulled back into line urgently."
"What did this poor boy do to annoy you?"
"He bothers others, not just me, he needs more attention. He's not evil," and it cost Maul a lot to admit it, "but he has a nauseating personality."
"For you to say that, it must indeed be urgent."
"Eeth, did you hear what he just said?"
"Mace! Do I really have to come?"
"My apologies, it was just a joke," the man apologized meekly, looking at Maul with a glare. "Snitch."
Maul smiled widely and returned to the front door, not at all ashamed of putting the other in trouble with his lover. Besides, speaking of that…
"Good evening, by the way, Master Windu, why does it look like someone bit your neck?"
The Jedi silently signalled to him that he was going to slit his throat, but Maul had learned not to care and sent the Jedi a kiss as the door closed behind him.
Well, that was a good day.