DINNER

Okay, this plot bunny bite me while I was watching a DARK ANGEL
episode, because of a dialogue between Logan and Max. I just HAD to use
it as a Luke and Mara dialogue, it fitted them so perfectly...Anyway,
these fanfic is a very short one and it happens a couple of months
before SotP. It can be read alone or as a prequel to my other fanfic
HYPERDRIVE, which you can find at ***SHAMELESS PLUG***
http://www.skywalkers.cjb.net

Disclaimer: These characters were created by George Lucas and Timothy
Zahn, therefore they don't belong to me. They belong to the Star Wars'
wonderful universe. There are some pieces of dialogues that you may
recognize from DARK ANGEL, but I just borrowed them. It isn't my
intention to break none of these copyrights. My intention when writing
this text is only as entertainment, and I'm not making any money when
doing it. Then, please, don't sue me!

Thanks to Sherry and Andrea (a.k.a Artemis) for beta'ing this fanfic
for me, and giving me great ideas and improving my English Grammar! =)

TheRealMaraJade

**********

Luke straightened his black tunic one last time and had to admit; Mara
Jade certainly knew how to surprise him. And she had done it twice
already this week.

First, she had come to Coruscant to ask Luke to help her access the Old
Jedi Order files to look for some information about her parents, and
she knew Luke had free access to all of them. Well, at least the ones
that hadn't been erased by Palpatine.

It was on the evening of their third day of scanning through the Old
Jedi Order files when she had thrown her second surprise toward him.
They had been looking at the computer screen for the last 14 hours
straight and had been considering asking Leia to grant Mara permission
to scan through the Old Republic and Imperial files, when she suddenly
surprised Luke by inviting him to dinner.

Luke had been so surprised that he had just stared at her, and only had
accepted when Mara had repeated the invitiation.

Now, he was just about to head over to her apartment when his holocomm
beeped. Luke turned it on and Han Solo's face appeared.

"Hi Luke, how are you?" He regarded Luke's clothes. "Are you going
somewhere?"

Just by looking at his brother-in-law's face, Luke knew something was
wrong. "Han...What is it? I know you didn't call me just to know my
schedule for the evening."

Han sighed. "Well, I guess there is no point in avoiding the subject.
We have a problem. Borsk Fey'yla appears to be up to another of his
schemes , and Leia was hoping you could help us discover what is it
before it's too late."

Luke nodded. "Okay, I will just call Mara and cancel our dinner."

Han gaped. "Mara? Mara Jade? Are you going on a date with Mara Jade, ex-
Emperor's Hand?"

"Yes, it's Mara Jade. And no, I'm not going on a date with her. I'm
going to help Leia as soon as possible," Luke stated.

"Don't you think you ought to be going to meet with her? You can deal
with Borsk Fey'yla tomorrow; tonight you've got a date," Han said, his
face splitting into a grin from ear to ear, despite Luke's seriousness.

"It's not a date."

"Is she making you dinner or are you two going out?"

"She is making me dinner."

Han grinned. "If this is not a date, I don't know what else it could
be."

Luke rolled his eyes. "I'm telling you, we're just a couple of friends
getting together for dinner. Anything more than that is a sure-fire way
to ruin a nice friendship. Besides, Leia needs me, so I'm just going to
have to cancel."

"At the last minute?" Han raised an eyebrow.

"I have work to do. Mara will understand."

"No, she won't understand. She's female...in case you hadn't noticed. "
After a moment, he added, grinning, "And she's not some woman, you
know."

Even though Luke was getting uncomfortable with Han's teasing, he had
to admit that he was right about one thing. Mara wasn't just some
girl. "Tell me about it," he said, grinning, and turned the holocomm
off.

**********

Mara was just finishing setting the table when there was a knock at the
door and she hurried to answer it.

"Hey, did you bring the wine?" she said, smiling at Luke as he entered
her apartment.

Luke, appearing a bit more distracted and nervous than usual, handed
over the bottle of wine. "Yeah...umm..listen. Something came up."

Mara was concentrating on the bottle of wine. "Alderaanian. Nice."

Luke blurted out. "Han just told me about some distress regarding Borsk
Fey'yla. I need to go to help Leia deal with him."

Mara shrugged. "Well, I'm sure you can help her first thing tomorrow
morning." She placed the bottle on the table and headed over to the
kitchen to get the opener. "Hope you like bruallki," she said from the
kitchen.

"Love it. But tomorrow's no good..." Mara came back from the kitchen
and was about to open the wine when Luke said, "No, don't do that!"

"You're right. I always break the cork." She handed him the bottle.

He waved both his hands in front of him. "No, no.... I just mean that
it'll go bad if we don't drink it right away."

Mara smiled at Luke. "Oh, I'm game if you are."

"Mara! Haven't you heard a word I just said? I've got to go tonight,"
Luke almost yelled.

Mara was starting to think that Luke was acting rather odd this
evening, but she decided it was better not to mention it, or their
evening could be ruined. "OK. I'll put the bruallki on."

"I've got to go -- now!" He did yell this time.

"Now?!" Mara said, startled at his demand and his raised voice.

"Yeah, now!"

That was it. Luke had stepped over the line. Mara clasped her arms over
her chest. "You're not going. I've spent the whole afternoon cooking
dinner for you, and calling Mirax whenever things seemed to be turning
out really bad since I'm not a very good cook. I was hoping to thank
you for helping me trying to find something about my parents, and
you're not going to leave just because Fey'yla's up to something."

"He's up to something very bad, Mara, I can feel it," Luke replied,
groaning.

Mara shrugged. "Not my problem."

It was Luke's turn to fold his arms over his chest. "That's a pretty
selfish way of looking at things."

"Yeah, well, you're being pretty selfish too. And we can't all be
obsessed with saving the freaking galaxy."

Luke was taken aback. "I'm not obsessed."

Mara snorted. "That's all you ever think about. All you ever talk
about."

"Look who's talking about being obsessed...you spend years of your life
planning my death! You even told my own sister you'd kill me! You
couldn't let go of your past at that time, and you can't let go of it
now any more than I can let go of the Jedi Academy or helping the New
Republic. It is who we are."

Mara's eyes turned into slits. "If you think that you were born to be
the galaxy's hero and hide your true self behind some silly Jedi Master
act, then I feel sorry for you."

It was Luke's turn to be mad. "If you think you were born to be the
galaxy's biggest cynic and hide behind some tough-ass attitude, then I
feel sorry for you."

"You know what?" Mara stepped over her door and opened it. "Don't call
me and I won't call you," Mara said, matter-of-factly, pointing to the
door. She gritted her teeth, the man before her pushing her buttons
better than anyone else could.

"Fine," Luke agreed, not realizing what this really meant to their
friendship. He stomped out of her apartment, slamming the door behind
him, thinking that women were too complicated for a simple Farmboy like
him to understand, certain that next time they met Mara would act like
nothing had happened at all. Which was even more complicated for him to
understand. 'Women' he thought, with hopelessness.

**********

After Luke had left, Mara wandered about her apartment for a while,
trying to slow down her heart rate, and dampen her anger, but she was
unsuccessful. The Jedi Master had really made it this time. Mara was
furious with him.

For the first time in years and for a brief moment she actually
considered killing him. Not because it was the Emperor's last command,
but because she had spent her entire afternoon making dinner for him,
and he simply had preferred to run and save the galaxy once more
instead of having dinner with her.

She was pissed off. 'How could he be so insensitive?' she thought. And
to make things worst she wasn't hungry anymore. 'Damn you, Skywalker.'

Since she had lost her appetite, she decided to just leave, once again,
to join Karrde's crew at their next rendezvous and rejoin up with the
crew for a bit. She had to admit that after all their work at
Coruscant, she hadn't found anything about her parents, and that was
the only place where she might find something about them.

Besides, she wasn't ready to think about why she and Skywalker had
burst into another stupid fight, and to deal with the consequences of
her reasons of doing so. She was beginning to be conscious of her
developing feelings for the Jedi Master, and she didn't want to deal
with them. Not now.

At that thought, she changed into more comfortable clothes, catch her
travel bag, and left for the Jade's Fire. Perhaps a few days at
hyperspace would help her calm down.