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A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away…
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44BBY
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(The Jedi Temple on Coruscant.).
Inside the Créche wing two younglings sit side by side focusing on meditating with the force, or at least one is focusing. Twelve year old Oliver sits crisscross eyes shut tightly listening to the force when another youngling, Max, pokes the boy next to him.
“Oliver,” he says, he gets ignored, “Oliver,” he says again.
“What,” he replies a bit impatiently and side eyes the dark brown curly haired boy on his left.
“Do you feel the force?” He asks, “because I know I don’t, maybe I can’t because…I’m not meant to be a Jedi?”
“That’s not true!” He whispers loudly, “you will be a Jedi, just focus more on feeling the force, try to act like it’s only you in the room,” he goes back to meditating.
Max nods, he closes his eyes, once again truly trying to feel the force. He tries so hard his eye twitches, maybe a few minutes go by before Oliver feels another poke, but this time on his head.
“What’s going on up there, why can you feel the force but I can’t?”
“Well I know that concentration of Midichlorians is needed for the force to communicate with us, maybe you just need to look for Midichlorians in yourself,”
He sighs heavily in disappointment and discouragement, “yeah, okay,” he decides to leave Oliver alone, it’s really for the best, adding another person to the list of people who thinks he’s annoying, and being a burden isn’t in his best interest, instead he attempts to connect with the force…again.
Oliver feels a faint shift in the force; he knows the boy next to him is upset, “do you want to go to the room of a thousand fountains and do something more fun?” He smiles at Max.
He hesitates for a moment, someone is finally taking interest in talking to him, he doesn’t want to think about it too hard because if he does he’ll just say no, “yeah,”
Oliver puts his pointer finger to his lips as a gesture to silence Max, he takes his hand and they tip toe away to the room of a thousand fountains.
When they make it to the green and colorful garden, Oliver picks up a long stick and gently hits Max with it as if using a lightsaber. Max flinches not from pain but surprise, he grabs a stick as well and hits the other with it but ten times harder. The blonde haired boy stumbles and blinks shocked at the strong hit, he swings the stick back, he makes lightsaber sounds with his mouth and hits Max's side. He giggles and hits him back but Oliver blocks it with his own stick, Max continues to try to hit the other but he blocks it almost every time though the times he doesn’t block the hits he dodges them.
“Unfair!” Max groans, “fight me!” Oliver nervously smiles.
“But what if I’m better and you cry,” he says softly, but Max still takes it as an insult, Oliver’s never been the best with his words.
Max scoffs, “you won’t be! I’ll prove it,” he raises his stick up high in an attempt to truly hurt the other but he dodges it once again, he runs behind Max trying to hit his back gently but he spins around swinging his stick down. Oliver grabs it, it isn’t supposed to be this intense, no one is actually meant to get hurt, Max lets go off the stick and pushes Oliver to the floor, and it definitely isn’t gentle, or friendly, or maybe even something they can laugh at later, no, it’s out of envy.
“You can’t touch a lightsaber!” He huffs crossing his arms looking away from Oliver, he looks back at the boy when he hears puffing, his face crumbles and turns into guilt when he sees the tears flowing down his face.
“Fooling around I see,” master Yoda says, causing both the younglings to jump in surprise. “Hmm hurt chin I see” he points to his own chin with his stubby green finger, with a pause he continues, “one mustn't allow bitterness to blind the eye in battle,” Max turns towards Yoda while Oliver cups his split open chin and looks at the Jedi master. Max nods feeling both embarrassed and hurt about what he did to the innocent and sweet boy.
“I’m sorry,” he says, helping him to his feet, "Master Yoda, can I take him to the medical center?” He asks continuing to hold the other boy's hand.
“Hmm lessons to be learned, indeed you may, fail must not,”
Max nods in gratitude, he guides Oliver to the medical center, “I’m sorry,” he says again still holding his hand, looking at him try to calm himself down, “what I did was wrong, very very wrong,”
“And it was against the Jedi code,” Oliver murmurs, “you were angry, Jedi don't get angry,”
“I know…and I am sorry,” he looks away in guilt, “I just…well I don’t know, I’m sorry, I really don’t think I’m fit for a Jedi, I simply can’t control my emotions,” he sighs helplessly, “you’d make a good Jedi though, better than good, great! You’re letting me walk you to the medical center, alone at that! You trust me even though I just hurt you, I admire that you can let me help you,” he smiles looking back at him.
He feels cruel for bringing up the Jedi code, internally he shakes that feeling away, “Maybe you feel that way because we aren't far into our training, I think you can be a good Jedi one day,” he pauses “I forgive you,” he smiles back.
“Thank you, for both forgiving me and being so nice, I’d like to be a Jedi…I like helping others, even if I’ve wronged them before,” they arrive at the medical center, a droid comes to take Oliver inside a room for his stitches, Max’s watches as he waves him goodbye, his heart aches at the sweet gesture, he gives a small, almost scared like wave back, then turns around leaving the room, he groans walking to the cafeteria, he gets food and sits with a few other younglings, he doesn’t have an appetite, not after what he did, not after disobeying the Jedi code, and definitely not after hurting someone who was so kind.
A few hours after lunch Max sees Oliver walking around the temple.
“Oliver!” He shouts running toward him, stumbling over his feet, “I’m so sorry!” He grabs the boy's shoulders and shakes him, “so so sorry!”
“I'm okay! It's okay, but please stop shaking me, I'm getting dizzy,” Oliver says with a slight smile.
“Oh right! Sorry about that,” he says nervously putting his hands down, “I’d glad you’re alright, does it hurt?”
“No, no way I can't even feel anything!” He says proudly, he flares his hands expressively even though he's lying to himself and Max.
“Wow really! I’d cry for hours, you're very brave! And strong!” He exclaims in excitement, feeding into his ego.
He smirks, honored and then winces because of the stitches on his chin, “Really? You think I'm brave,”
“Yes of course! Very very brave! You’re such a teacher's pet I’d never ever expect you to be so brave!”
Oliver side eyes Max slightly when he’s called a “teacher’s pet” he speaks grumpily and under his breath “I don't think im a teachers pet…”
“Really? Everyone knows you are one, everyone calls you one,” Max looks at him confused and surprised, not like it’s exactly a secret.
“People say that about me?” He blinks surprised and dumbfounded “I thought they said I was cool,” he sounds disappointed.
“Oh…I’m sorry, I mean I don’t call you one, I just think you’re more focused on being a Jedi than the rest of us are! So that just means you’re gonna be an awesome Jedi!” He gives Oliver a big smile that may or may not be a little forced.
He's confused because Max called him a teacher's pet seconds ago but he forgets about it the second he hears the other boy say he's going to be a great Jedi. “Thanks! I think with more practice you will be a cool Jedi as well,”
He smiles weakly, “yeah, I hope,”
Time goes by quick, a lot quicker than most people realize, that includes Max and Oliver, it feels so recent when the two would fight with sticks or any long objects making lightsaber sounds with their mouths, bickering about small things, like who had the better names for a pet, eating together, share anything you could think of and never leave each others side unless absolutely necessary, they were basically glued together, until they weren’t, until time did what it does best, pull people away, sometimes it subtle, you don’t realize until later, other times…it’s fast, and you wish you never realized at all, but suddenly its 41 BBY and they’re 15 and 13.
“Aren’t you excited?” Oliver says gleefully, “our first mission,” he has the biggest smile on his face, it makes Max want to feel happy.
“Uh, well I think I’m nervous more than anything,”
“You’re nervous about a lot of things when it comes to being a Jedi,”
“Well yeah, I guess, I’ll miss you a lot too, we’ve been so close for three years, like attached at the hip close, but I won’t see you anymore, at least not very often,”
“I’ll miss us too, I'm excited for my missions though, I hope I see you again soon,” Oliver smiles a bit sadder.
Max realizes the hurt in his face and sighs, “I’m glad you’re excited, I still think you’ll make a perfect Jedi, I have no doubts about that,” he puts a hand on Oliver's shoulder smiling at him gently, “we’ll see each other soon, I’ll make sure of it,”
“I hope that's a promise,”
Max smiles gently.