Beyond - Legends Certainty (L/M February Challenge)

It's a little late for V-Day, but here's my February L/M challenge–the quote is:

4 - Love is a lot like a backache, it doesn’t show up on X-rays, but you know it’s there.

* * *

After an exhausting day of teaching teenaged Padawans–taking a trip to the underground hot springs under the Academy had been a mistake, and telling them they could swim in it had been an even bigger mistake–Luke flopped down on the couch face-first and let out a long, loud groan into a throw pillow.

Mara emerged from the bedroom and looked at him. She smirked and walked over to the couch. She knelt on the floor beside Luke's head and scratched his neck gently.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Hormones," Luke said bluntly.

Mara's eyes widened, speechless. "Um...Luke, is there something you'd like to tell me?"

Luke raised his head up from the pillow. "I mean teenage hormones."

She chuckled. "Ah. So you had the junior Padawans today. Let me guess–took them down to the hot springs?"

"Yep."

"Oh, Luke..."

"Hey, it was a good exercise for the inaugural class."

"Luke, the inaugural class were all adults, married, focused on their studies, or some combination of the three. Teenagers are...teenagers." She moved onto the couch as he sat up to make room for her. "So what happened?"

"It all started when they wanted to get out of the classroom," he said. "Well, I agreed, so I took them down to the springs."

"Right, then what?"

"Well, then, while I was trying to get them organized, they kept trying to get past me and feel the water. It took me almost ten minutes to get them all sitting down at the same time. So then I started to tell them about how the springs would occasionally bubble over and boil."

"And they wanted to see it happen, right?"

"Actually, they all wanted to leave right then because they were certain that if they didn't, we were all going to die horribly as boiling water seared through our skin. It took another five minutes to calm them down."

Mara laughed. "Well, that's pretty bad. But I still don't understand what it has to do with hormones."

"Oh, we're just getting started." Luke pinched the bridge of his nose. "Once I convinced them that the boiling was very rare, and that they would sense it in the Force before it happened, they were calm for a little while. But then they wanted to get in the water."

"And?"

"And I told them we needed to finish our lesson first. This despite the fact that I'd hardly even started the lesson." He sighed. "So anyway, I finally got in a short lesson, which they all fidgeted through the entire time, by the way."

"Of course."

"Here's where it gets good. When I told them they were dismissed, they started stripping and jumping into the water."

"Stripping?"

"Stripping. Apparently they thought their undergarments would make sufficient swimwear."

Mara laughed. "Oh, stars!"

"Yeah. Well, it would've been okay, I think, except one of the female students is a Zeltron."

"Oh, no."

"Oh, yes. Well, her pheromones kicked into high gear, and every boy in that hot spring wanted to get at her. I'd had enough. So I started calling them out and telling them to get out of the water; it was time to go back into the Academy."

"Luke, you didn't."

"I did. Well, Jacen and Jaina know me well enough to know I was serious. They got out of the pool. Everybody else, though...well, it was a vicious cycle. The boys were still trying to get to the Zeltron, but the other girls were getting jealous and trying to draw the boys' attention away from the Zeltron, which only made her pheromones kick into higher gear, and so on and so on."

Mara slapped her palm into her forehead.

"Yeah. Even Jacen was having a hard time staying out of the water at that point; I told him and Jaina to go back inside the Academy and get Kam and Tionne. Well, to make a long story short, eventually we got them out of the water, but I have a feeling we're going to have a lot of chaperones in the dorm halls tonight, because I think every adolescent in there made it perfectly clear who they have romantic interest in, and after the heat of that moment, most of them will probably try to act on it."

Mara had a good laugh at that, while Luke just laid his head back on the couch and closed his eyes, relishing being alone with her. After a long moment, she stopped laughing and looked at him.

"What difference is there between them and us, Skywalker?"

Luke's eyes popped open. "Huh?"

"How do I know you're not only attracted to me because of my appearance? That you don't just have a bad case of man-hormones? We spent a lot of time together on Nirauan; it's natural that you'd become attracted to me. But what if it's not love; what if it's just lust? What if we married based on a brief feeling of passion?"

Luke wrapped his arms around her. "Mara, I know what lust feels like, and I know what love feels like. I can't prove it–because you can't see it–but I do love you. It's like a backache. X-rays don't show it, but that doesn't mean it isn't there."

Mara grinned and kissed him. "Good. And I love you, too."

 

Excellent use of that quote.

 

Darn teenage hormones! Glad I was home schooled all of high school; but if I was I might either have a slightly wider friend circle and my problems might have come to light sooner. But then i might have never emotionally survived and might have never discovered this site!

 

Hahahahaha. Excellent use of the quote. And poor Luke!

 

Hot springs are awesome - but trust Luke not to realise that taking hormonal teenagers there may not be such a good idea!

 

Wonderful story! Great dialogue, very natural sounding. And I love the hot springs idea - but yeah, teenagers will be teenagers. Poor Luke!

 

And if they only knew he used to go skinny-dipping in there...

 

I found Luke and Mara's conversation at the end very interesting and his description made great use of the quote.