Beyond - Legends Mend A Broken Heart (K/J one-shot, post-LOTF)

Title: Mend A Broken Heart
Author: DantanaSkywalker
Rating: G
Timeframe: post-LOTF
Characters: Kyp Durron, Jaina Solo
Genre: romance
Keywords: romance, fluff
Summary: Kyp seeks to distract Jaina from her grief after the death of her brother.
Author Notes: I'm just playing in the world, I don't own it. Nothing's used with permission and anything weird is entirely the fault of my brain.


For thirteen years, he’d tried to deny it. But ever since Jaina’s near death experience on the Anakin Solo at the hands of her twin, Kyp had come to admit and accept that he was still very much in love with her. When he’d learned, after her stay in the infirmary, that she had no intention of getting back together with Jagged Fel, he’d thought, “Time to pick up the pieces.”

He’d thought it to himself once, so long ago, that he would do just that when she fell apart, and here was his chance. So for the last few months, he’d anonymously been courting her. Kyp had left her a new hydrospanner and multitool in her toolbox. A straight-to-her-datapad subscription of a publication focused on the mechanics and developments of starfighter tech. Little things like that, to draw her out of the shell she’d retreated into.
It seemed to be working.

He found her in the hangar where the Jedi kept the StealthX fighters, sitting on the floor by her open toolbox, in the shadow of her personal fighter. In her hands, she held a flimsiplast envelope, frowning at it.

“What’s that?” he asked.

Jaina jumped, startled. She relaxed when she saw it was just him. “Oh. Nothing.”

“Doesn’t look like nothing,” he prompted.

She let out an explosive sigh, one that blew a few strands of brown hair out of her face. “I keep getting gifts from someone. Like… A secret admirer. Jag swears it isn’t him. And he wouldn’t know what model multitool I use, anyway. He never paid attention. This person bought me a new one after the wire splicer on mine broke.”

“Huh.” Kyp gestured to the envelope she held. “So what’s that?”

She flushed a little. “It’s a voucher for two to this retreat on Chandrilla I’ve always had my eye on. I heard about it when… When you and I were there before Sernpidal and I always thought it would be nice to try it.”

He knew. He’d seen her with brochures for it more than once. “Are you going to?”

“… I dunno. It’s maddening not to know who this is, but I… Kind of like the intrigue.”

Kyp smirked. “I say use it. It’s not like it’s a commitment to date this secret admirer or anything, right? It’s a gift.”

She chewed on her lip for a minute in silence. “I can’t think of who it would be.”

Can you not? he wondered silently. “You need a break from everything. I say go.”

She looked down at it, sighed. “I could definitely use a break. Good idea, Kyp.”

“I do occasionally have them,” he responded wryly.

—–

Chandrilla was largely a forested world, with a lot of pretty lakes. It had somehow escaped the destruction wreaked by the Yuuzhan Vong, and the retreat was just has it had been before the invasion. Kyp managed to arrive a full day before Jaina was scheduled to, ostensibly off to a mission on the other side of the galaxy.

He knew she wasn’t much for flowers, but he’d arranged for a live plant of white Chandrillan roses to greet Jaina when she entered the two-bedroom cabin he’d reserved. Keeping his Force presence hidden, he watched as she got out of the speeder she’d apparently rented and used to come from the main office on the other side of the lake. She had just one bag with her, always one for travelling light, and he watched from the window as she stood outside, taking in the views.

Then she let herself into the cabin. It was really rustic, only the front, exterior door a modern sliding one. While it had full electricity and plumbing, the rest was a throwback to an earlier time: wood floors, glazed windows, a fireplace.

He heard Jaina stop in the front entrance, where the small table with the roses stood. She’d picked up the attached card, because she read aloud, “‘May you find some peace here. And maybe more.’ What ‘more’?”

He heard her sigh.

“Kriffing secret admirer,” she muttered under her breath. “Why go to all this trouble?”

Kyp stepped to the door of the room he’d been hiding in. “Because I wanted to.”

Her brandy-coloured eyes flew to him, wide but not alarmed. And not surprised, either. “Kyp.”

“You’re not surprised.”

“Well, it couldn’t be Zekk, he’s engaged. And not Jag.” She gave him that Solo half smile. “And neither of them have ever been to Chandrilla, or would have reason to know my multitool broke.”

“You’re not upset.”

She shook her head. “But why?”

He crossed the space between them and plucked the card from her hands. “Because I wanted to,” he repeated. “Because you’ve been eyeing the brochure for this place for fifteen years.”

Then, the moment of truth. “Because part of me, then all of me, has been in love with you for fifteen years, and I couldn’t say it. I asked you, here on Chandrilla, to be my apprentice because it was all I could allow myself. You were too young. And you said here that you’d consider me. I went and screwed it up. So I’m here to ask for a second chance.”

The lines of her face, which had in recent times become hard, softened at his words. “Kyp. I thought… You moved on.”

“I tried. Turns out that’s the one thing I’m incapable of doing.” His dark green eyes searched her face. “If you don’t want this, want me, I’ll go. I won’t bring it up again and we’ll go back to how it’s been.”

She gazed up at him, expression inscrutable. “You went to all this trouble just to tell me something I already knew.”

He shrugged, for once feeling awkward and a little embarrassed.

Jaina huffed a breath. Then she said, “Don’t go.”

“What?”

“Don’t go,” she repeated, and stood on her toes to kiss him.

 

Dawwwwwhhhhhh!!! This is so cute!!!!! I'm honestly a J/? shipper. If given the choice between the two, I'd pick Jag, but Kyp is only slightly less appealing in my mind, but I've honestly never thought either of them were right for her. Jag's just...inscrutable sometimes, and Kyp is too Kyp in my mind and too old, but his brashness is a perfect counterpoint in my mind. So basically I'm impossible to please

Anyways, while this isn't like my OTP for Jaina, I LOVEEEE IT. Because I can see Kyp (for all his un-subtle-ness) being the type to do this, once he'd grown a bit and realized that not everything is fixed by blowing it up or sweeping in with tons of fake bravado. The tool angle was adorable and is something I can almost see Jaina appreciating more than anything else. And the Chandrilla angle was just perfect--eyeing the brochure for 15 years!!

Awesome job!!!

 

I'm the other way round - Kyp is juuust right. And he totally knows how to win Jaina's heart here. She may be sporting some of her mom's signature NOPENOPENOPE here, but throughout this, it just...melts away, bit by bit, until her guard is completely down. Enjoyed this very much.

 

Oh scrumptious ... that place sounds lovely and the way he showed and told --

 

I always knew that they both were meant to be. Thanks for letting it happen in your fic!

 

AAAAHHHH!!

I've been away from fan fic for such a long time (and Star Wars fan fic for even longer)--this was such a treat to come back to. Always here for good, old-fashioned J/K. This was lovely and gushy and very, very sweet. Thank you for sharing!

 

Thanks! A lot of that "growing up" is thanks to Jaina, actually. Watching her almost fall, helping her, was basically a bucket of cold reality over his head.

I won't get started on Jag.

Thanks! I too, just adore Kyp, even with his faults.

I didn't describe it much. I was going to, but I was writing on mobile. It's autumn, the leaves are yellow red and falling. The cabin has a green shingled roof and is of a warm, red-toned wood like cherry, though the interior is a little more golden.

I let it happen in just about all my fics. XD Thanks for reading!

IDRELLE!!!!!! You live!!! Hi!!!

You need to take a look at my profile. I've got a bunch of new K/J you might be interested in. I even *gasp* updated "Like The Deserts Miss The Rain" back in... January? December? I've got another chapter almost done, though "Counting Stars" has taken most of my fic writing time.