Courtship – A UAAT Mini-Story

 Four years after Part 5 Epilogue timeline

22-year-old Ahsoka Tano slumbered peacefully in her room in the New Jedi Temple, dreaming of strange things. She saw a little girl with short blond hair and violet eyes, who reached out to her, saying, 'Come for me!' Then her old Master, Anakin Skywalker, picked up the child and walked away with her. She cried out and tried to climb out of his arms, then the two of them disappeared into a sandstorm on Tatooine.

Suddenly, some one started shaking her. She was most definitely not dreaming now. "Uh...? Let... Lemme sleep..." she mumbled, rolling over and burying her face in the pillow.

The shaking came again, more insistent this time. Her Jedi instincts kicked in, and she sat bolt upright, her hands in fists, immediately ready for an attack, if one was eminent. "I'm up, I'm up!"

"Ahsoka, it's me." She recognized the voice of her boyfriend, the former Senator Lux Bonteri of Onderon, who was Force-sensitive, and a member of the New Jedi Order. The Order was an organization that she had founded herself in the aftermath of Order 66, and of which she was leader. Its goal was to keep the Jedi ways of life from dying out completely.

But she didn't want to have anything to go with it all now. She just wanted to sleep. Rubbing her eyes and sinking back down into the blankets of the bed in her room at the New Jedi Temple, which was chiseled out of the soft crystal caves of Cialone, and stared unhappily at him. "Lux... what? It's got to be hours past midnight," she said sleepily, and curled up again, closing her eyes. When he didn't leave his spot at the edge of her bed, she opened them again.

His eyes twinkled, even in the dark. She knew that he still hadn't forgotten that for a few months, he had been mainly nocturnal, and had no objection to being up and about before dawn. "It's a star-gazing night." He extended a hand. She smiled, thinking of all of the memories that they had made under Cialone's spectacular nighttime sky. She took his hand.

Ahsoka and Lux lay together, side by side, in the meadow near the camp. With one of his arms wrapped around her, and with her hypersensitive lekku, much longer now that she was older, were wrapped neatly around her neck like a scarf. They stared up at the bright pinpoints of light that made up their galaxy with planets, stars, and suns beyond count.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" she murmured wonderingly, as she pictured the people that lived and thrived around the stars.

"Just like something right next to me," Lux said, sneaking a kiss at the tip of one of her montrals that stood nearly straight on top of her head.

She looked up at him. "No, I'm not beautiful."

"You are to me."

Ahsoka ran a finger through his bangs that always seemed to be just a little too long. He hadn't wanted to slick them up in the traditional Jedi padawan style, but then again, he wasn't really a padawan. He was something else. And she loved him the just the way he was, which was crazy about her. She kissed him softly, once, twice, three times. Eventually, they parted, and continued to look up at the spectacle above them.

"Ahsoka, I need to tell you something." He got up, disrupting her comfortable position next to him. He walked a few steps, facing away from her, but she soon followed. She sensed a great turmoil in him.

"Lux, you're troubled. What is it?" When he said nothing, she looked down, rubbing his arm. "No, don't push me away like this. Tell me what's on your mind."

Suddenly he turned around, taking her in his arms. "Ahsoka, we've been together for nearly six years now. And in that time, I've discovered that I truly do love you."

She knew where this was going. She stretched herself up to kiss him, but he put a finger on her lips, and she half-pouted, feeling dejected. The finger on her lips moved down to lift her chin so she was facing him again.

"I wasn't finished. I just think that our love could be something more."

"More? What do you mean?" She stood corrected: she did not know where he was going with this.

He sighed, slightly nervous. But it passed, and he spoke again. "Ahsoka Tano, will you do me the honor of marrying me?"

She gasped softly, looking down. "I..." she stuttered, trying to find the words. Then, after a moment, she looked up, and kissed him.

"Yes," she whispered, and kissed him again. She knew that this was where their relationship was meant to go. It was the will of the Force. "Yes, Lux Bonteri, I will marry you."