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It had been quite the day for Shorne Ohil. She had, of course, known since she was seven that she was destined to be Barriss Offee’s padawan, but that didn’t make her day of graduation feel any less monumental. Miss Offee had tied her braid and given her the first bead on it, and they were now going out to a celebratory dinner in Little Mirial along with her grandmaster Luminara, Miss Offee’s best friend and fellow Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano, and Shorne’s best friend and now-former clanmate, Kashona Vol. Kashona had yet to be chosen as padawan by another Jedi Knight, and Shorne could sense jealousy radiating off of her friend. Shorne had felt guilty for a while for being ‘pre-ordered,’ as some Jedi called it when a Knight selected a padawan years before they were old enough to graduate from the creche, while Kashona remained uncertain of her future, and her guilt spiked as she felt the negative emotions from the girl sitting beside her. Thankfully, or perhaps unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one who could sense Kashona’s unshielded jealousy. Miss Offee gave Kashona a pointed look. “Kashona, dear, first of all, please put up your shields. Everyone at this table can sense your emotions, and it’s having a negative effect on all of our moods.”
“Sorry, Miss Offee,” said Kashona bashfully. Shorne could tell her best friend wasn’t in good spirits because she used Miss Offee’s real last name, and not “Miss Toffee,” which had started as Kashona misspeaking but had quickly become a deliberate nickname for Shorne’s master. Kashona thought it was hilarious; Shorne didn’t really see the humor in it, but it was endearing, and importantly, it made Miss Offee smile every time she said it.
“Kashona, are you upset because I took Shorne as my padawan and you haven’t been chosen yet?”
“No…” Kashona lied, crossing her arms and looking away from Miss Offee.
“There’s plenty of time for that, Kash,” said Ahsoka; “I didn’t become a padawan until I was fourteen, and then only by Master Yoda’s intervention. It’ll happen, I promise. You have the makings of a great Knight, and any master would be a fool not to see that in you.”
“Why can’t you be my master, Miss Ahsoka?”
Ahsoka sighed. “I’m just not sure we’re very well-matched. I think you need a master who’s calmer and more patient than I am. I struggle with a lot of the same things you do, and so did my master, and for all that I love Master Anakin dearly, and we did make a great team, I sometimes think I would have been better suited to learn from someone else. Anakin was probably not ready to train a padawan back then, and I’m still not sure he is, honestly. Anyway, Kashona, the long and short of it is that I think you deserve better than me. Or at least, someone who’s better for you than I can be.” She paused for a second. “How about we make a deal, Kash? If you haven’t been chosen by your 15th birthday, I will take you as my padawan. Does that sound good?”
“That’s so long, though!” Kashona whined.
“That’s because I have no doubt you’ll find a master before then.”
The quintet returned to eating in silence for a bit, then Kashona spoke up again:
“I’m just sad because… I’m gonna miss Shorne.” She sniffled.
Shorne clasped Kashona’s hand in hers, and the Togruta leaned into her. “I’m going to miss you too, Kash. I’ll still be in the Temple, though, at least most of the time. We’ll see each other, I promise.”
“You won’t forget me, will you?”
“Kashona, dear,” said Master Luminara with a wry smile, “you are very difficult to forget.”
“Kash, you’re my best friend. That’s not going to change, I promise.” Shorne held up her pinky finger and presented it to Kashona. “Pinky promise.”
Kashona locked her pinky finger with Shorne’s. She nodded solemnly. The bond had been sealed; the consequences of breaking such a vow were understood. Miss Barriss and Miss Ahsoka giggled to themselves at the display. Kashona scowled at them, which only made them laugh more.
When Shorne returned to the Temple with Miss Offee, the next order of business was for her to move her possessions—meager as they were—out of the creche dormitory and into the padawan quarters attached to Miss Offee and Miss Ahsoka’s apartment. Shorne knew it was unusual for two Jedi Knights to share the same living space, but she supposed that must just be the kind of close friends Miss Offee and Miss Ahsoka were. She examined her space in the creche dormitory one last time, then, feeling mildly melancholic, she took her things and made the trek up to her new home.
As Shorne approached Miss Offee’s door, she heard a half-whispered conversation going on behind it:
“We’re going to have to tell her. That’s just a given.”
“Yes, but what then? She’s going to be sleeping here every night, and our walls aren’t thick enough to…”
“We just have to tell her the truth about what we’re doing, I think. I’m pretty sure she’s old enough to understand.”
“If she doesn’t know already, we’re in for an extremely awkward conversation.”
Shorne hesitantly knocked on the door. After a moment, Miss Offee opened it and let Shorne into her and Miss Ahsoka’s living room. Miss Ahsoka was sitting on their couch, and waved hello to Shorne.
“Your room is right there,” Miss Offee pointed out. “Mine and Ahsoka’s is down there, that’s the ‘fresher there, and over there’s our kitchen.” Shorne nodded, then brought her things into her new padawan quarters. It seemed that Miss Offee and Miss Ahsoka had already put some thought into decorating the room, including a Mirialan tapestry hanging on the wall opposite Shorne’s already-neatly-made bed, a bookshelf already stocked with some hefty history books as well as a statuette of the Mirialan trickster goddess, and white bedsheets with the symbol of the Jedi Order printed on them in burgundy.
“How do you like it?” asked Miss Offee.
Shorne had no good metric to assess the room right now. “It seems perfectly adequate,” she said. “To say anything else I’ll probably have to live in it for a while.”
“Fair enough. Now, if you’d like to come back to the living room, Ahsoka and I have something we want to talk with you about before we all start living together, okay?”
Shorne was apprehensive, but followed her master dutifully back to the living room, where Miss Offee took a seat on the couch next to Miss Ahsoka, then motioned for Shorne to join them. Shorne complied.
“Right, so…” Miss Offee began. “Myself and Ahsoka are… very close. She is my best friend, but we are also more than that to each other.”
Oh. Shorne felt like an idiot for never putting two and two together in the four years they’d known each other. “So you’re… girlfriends?”
“That’s what we usually call ourselves, since explaining exactly what we are to each other gets pretty complicated.”
“Okay. I understand why you share an apartment now. Was that all?”
“No, but the other thing is related,” said Barriss, clearly uncomfortable. Miss Ahsoka turned to her girlfriend, then finally turned to Shorne.
“Kriff it, I’ll rip the synthskin off if my useless girlfriend is too shy. Shorne, have you had The Talk yet? I don’t remember how old I was when I first had it explained to me, but I couldn’t have been much older than you.”
“The talk about sex, you mean?”
“Okay, good, she knows what sex is. Good start,” said a relieved Ahsoka. “I take it you have, then?”
“Yes, I have. Can I guess at what you’re trying to tell me?”
“Sure?”
Shorne eyed the partners. “You two want to… have sex, and you’re worried about disturbing me.”
“Well, not right now we don’t, but yes. The walls here are probably not thick enough to block everything, and we just… didn’t want to make you uncomfortable with our activities.” Shorne could swear Miss Offee was visibly sweating.
“Well, I certainly don’t want you to have to give that up on my account. I’ll be… fine, I promise.” Shorne was blushing furiously in embarrassment, and Miss Offee and Miss Ahsoka were having a similar response.
“Okay, good.” said Ahsoka. “Good. Good. Yep. So that’s all…”
“Yes… yes it is,” replied Barriss. “So…”
Shorne glanced between the two of them, then burst out laughing. “You two really have no idea what you’re doing, do you?”
“What? No. We definitely know… things. Everything’s fine. You’re in good hands. Don’t worry.” Miss Ahsoka crossed her arms and gave her (unconvincing) best impression of someone who knew what she was doing.
“It’s okay if you don’t, you know. I have no idea what I’m doing either. This is new for all of us.”
“It is,” said Barriss, sighing. “Thank you for reminding us of that, Shorne. I just want to be a good master for you, you know, and even though Ahsoka isn’t your master, she cares about you the same way I do.”
Shorne came over to give Barriss a hug. “You already are a great master, Miss Offee.”
Barriss chuckled uncertainly. “We’ll see about that,” she said. “By the way, you can just call me Barriss when it’s only the three of us. When we’re out and about or with other Jedi, it’s probably best practice to call me ‘master,’ but I honestly don’t care that much.”
“Got it.” Shorne yawned heavily.
“Hmm, it is getting late,” said Barriss. “Oh, right. The other thing I was going to say—please never be afraid to knock on our door if you need anything. Even if it sounds like we’re… otherwise occupied, you are always my number one priority, Shorne. Ahsoka or I will be there to help as soon as we can, no matter what.”
Shorne nodded.
“Well, it’s definitely bedtime for me and Ahsoka,” said Barriss, “and that means it’s bedtime for you as well, dear padawan. Have a good night, and sleep well.”
“Thank you, master.”
Shorne did her nightly routines, dressed in a set of comfortable pajamas, and lay down on the bed. She was not used to sleeping alone; the creche dormitory was a shared space for the whole clan, and Initiates often ended up sleeping huddled together in piles. Kashona especially usually ended up falling asleep cuddling Shorne, and she had become used to hearing her Togruta friend’s soft purring and feeling her warmth beside her. Now, Shorne felt cold and isolated in her new bed. She hoped Kashona wasn’t suffering similarly without her, but at least she still had plenty of crechemates to cuddle with. Shorne had no one, and she wasn’t sure if it was allowed for her to ask her master for companionship. She felt pressure building up behind her eyes, and let out a soft whimper as her tears started to flow. The stream didn’t let up, and whimpers turned to sobs. Then there came a knock on her door.
“You can come in,” said Shorne, nose stuffy from crying.
The door opened to reveal a very worried-looking Barriss. “What’s upsetting you, padawan mine?”
“It’s nothing… it’s stupid,” said Shorne, eyes trained on the floor.
“I don’t think anything that’s giving you such strong feelings could be stupid,” said Barriss, sitting down on the bed next to Shorne. “Please, tell me what the problem is.”
“I’m just… not used to sleeping alone.”
“Oh. Of course, I can’t believe I didn’t think of t—” Barriss caught herself in her spiral and took a deep breath. “Do you think it would help if I got you a plushie or something to cuddle with? I can absolutely do that.”
Shorne nodded. “Yeah… I think that might make it better.”
“Alright, I’ll get right on that tomorrow. With that being said, you’re more than welcome to stay with me and Ahsoka for the night. Do you want to know something kind of embarrassing about me, Shorne?”
“Sure.”
“I also have trouble sleeping alone. I have for years, actually. Master Luminara would sometimes cuddle me to sleep right after I became her padawan, but then… the war happened, and she got too busy. Then, I basically didn’t sleep for two years until Ahsoka and I started spending more time together. I guess I never really got over it; I just managed to sidestep the issue. So… my point is that I know how you feel.”
“Still, I don’t want to intrude on your space. Especially since you two are…”
Barriss smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling. “What did I say before, padawan mine? You are always my first priority. Ahsoka knows that, too. We will never hold it against you for needing help from us, no matter if you interrupt us doing anything. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Besides, Ahsoka is an excellent cuddler, and you should take advantage of that whenever possible.”
Barriss and Shorne walked down the short hallway to the larger main bedroom, where Ahsoka was sitting up on the bed.
“Trouble sleeping?” she asked. Shorne nodded.
“I’m sure Barriss already told you this, but we are here for you, always. That includes if you need a hug or a cuddle, okay?”
“Thanks, Miss Ahsoka.”
“Between us, Shorne,” said Barriss, gesturing to the middle of the bed. Shorne climbed in to rest by Ahsoka’s side, back facing the Togruta, then Barriss followed, sandwiching her between the two Knights. Ahsoka petted Shorne’s hair gently as the padawan snuggled up to her, and Barriss rested a hand on her apprentice’s shoulder.
“Goodnight, dearest padawan,” said Barriss tenderly.
“Goodnight, master,” Shorne replied. “Goodnight, Miss Ahsoka.”
“Goodnight, sweetheart,” said Ahsoka.
Within moments, Shorne was out like a light. Ahsoka and Barriss looked at the peacefully sleeping padawan, then at each other.
“She’s so precious,” said Ahsoka quietly. “I don’t know if my heart can handle it.”
“I know. It’s making me feel all maternal.”
“For what it’s worth,” said Ahsoka, “I think you’re an excellent padawan mom.”
“I hope so,” said Barriss, “Not being her mom, I mean—I’m not her mother, nor is that the role I’m supposed to fill, but I still hope I can be a good teacher and caretaker. I know I’m going to mess up sometimes, and I’m trying to be okay with that, but I just want so badly to do right by her.”
“You will, I know it. She’s going to be an amazing Knight, because she has the best master in the galaxy. And the prettiest.”
“You’re biased, Ahsoka.”
“About which part? I admit beauty is subjective, but everyone I’ve talked to about you and Shorne has absolute confidence that you two are going to be a great pair.”
“With the exception of myself, I assume.”
“Barriss, you’re always the exception to everyone’s confidence in you.”
“Damned right, I am.” The two Knights giggled softly.
“Goodnight, my love,” said Barriss, pressing a kiss to Ahsoka’s forehead.
“Goodnight, sweetie,” Ahsoka replied.
Soon, they too were comfortably asleep. Tomorrow would surely be another busy day, and full of training for Barriss’ new padawan. Tonight, though, the Tano-Offee household welcomed a new member, who slept peacefully, protected by the barrier of her master and her partner from any dangers beyond the bed, and surrounded by the love of two Jedi Knights, both for each other and for the young one who lay between them.