Chapter 1

Leaving the Jedi Temple was the hardest thing Ahsoka Tano ever had to do. It had been her home since she was three and Jedi Master Plo Koon had brought her there for training. It was the only home she could remember and the Jedi were the closest thing to a family she had but she could no longer stay there. She had been framed for a crime she didn't commit and, while the real cultrate (someone she had thought of as a friend) had been found and brought to justice clearing her name, the sting was still there. No one believed her when she proclaimed her innocents, not even her former master at first. Leaving Anakin Skywalker had been the second hardest thing shed ever done; he was more than her master, he was like her big brother since only seven years separated them (she was sixteen and he was twenty-three). But she needed to work things out on her own without him hovering over her like he sometimes did.

Coruscant was a bustle of activity, not all that surprising since it was the seat of the Republic and the Clone Wars was still going on. Ahsoka knew she had to find some place to stay but she had few options. She didn't want to go back to Sili, the planet where she had been born, because she didn't know anyone there. The Togruta colony on Kiros would have been a good choice since she knew several of the colonists there (including the governor) but she didn't have any money to travel that far. That left one of her senator friends. Padmé Amidala would have been her first choice but the young senator from Naboo was very close to Anakin and Ahsoka didn't want to run into him when he stopped by to visit Padmé. Senator Chuchi was another choice but the Pantoran senator didn't have a spare room. That left only one other option: Lux Bonteri, a young senator her age from Onderon.

Unlike Padmé and Chuchi, Ahsoka had trouble categorizing her relationship with Lux. She first met him on a political mission with Padmé and he and his mother had been the first Separatists she met that weren't droids or military personal. She had also been the first Jedi he had met and the two had bonded over the mutual experience. Not long after, she had saved him from making a big mistake in joining Death Watch (a Mandalorian radical group) to avenge the murder of his mother and he had kept her safe since Death Watch's leader hated Jedi with an unknown passion. (He had even kissed her to maintain her cover as his betrothed. It had been Ahsoka's first kiss and she still dreamed about it sometimes at night.) When she, Anakin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Rex had journeyed to Onderon to help train the freedom fighters, she had become more than a little jealous to see an Onderon girl name Steela practically flirt with him. Now that she reflected on it, she realized that she had fallen in love with Lux (or at least had a crush on him). But such things were forbidden to Jedi and Ahsoka had surrendered to the fact that she could never be anything more than good friends with Lux.

Now that she was no longer a Jedi, she was a little nervous about reuniting with him. She knew he had only been attracted to Steela (who gave her life to free her planet) because she reminded him of her but she still had no idea how he felt. However, she didn't have much of a choice. It was either turn to him for help or stowaway on a ship bound for Kiros.

Taking a deep breath, Ahsoka knocked on the door to Lux's Corocent apartment. The door was answered by a silver protocol droid.

"Is Lux here?" Ahsoka asked, her voice shaky as she tried to hold back her tears.

"Someone is here to see you, sir," the droid said as it let Ahsoka in.

"That will be all, C-67," Lux said upon entering the room and seeing Ahsoka.

Once the droid had left the room, Ahsoka rushed into Lux's arms. Burying her face in his shirt, she began to cry, finally letting the tears she had been holding back fall.

"It's okay," Lux said holding her close. "Just let it out. Padmé told me what happened and I never once believed that you could have done what Tarken said you did."

"I have no where to go, Lux," Ahsoka said between tears. "The Temple was my home and the Jedi my family for thirteen years."

"You can stay here for as long as you need. I don't mind. I'd actually like the company and having someone to talk to beside C-67."

♡♡♡

A scream woke Lux up in the middle of the night. Getting out of bed, he went to the guest room to find Ahsoka awake and crying.

"It's okay," Lux said sitting down on the bed and pulling her close. "It was just a nightmare."

Ahsoka continued to cry, clearly still upset by both the ordeal she went through and her nightmare. Lux kissed her forehead and then rested his head against hers, rubbing his hand on her back in a comforting manner.

"Do you want me to stay until you fall back to sleep?" he asked.

Ahsoka nodded. She needed comfort and understanding to get through this and Lux was happy to give it to her. She also needed a friend and Lux knew that, even though he wanted to be more than friends with Ahsoka, right now he could be the friend she needed to lean on.

♡♡♡

When Lux woke up the next morning, he was aware of two thing: he wasn't in his room even though he was in his apartment and someone was pressed up against his back. Rolling over, he saw Ahsoka sleeping peaceful next to him. As the events of the previous day came back to him, he realized that he must have fallen asleep while waiting for Ahsoka to fall back to sleep after her nightmare.

Reaching out, he ran his hand over her lekku. Ahsoka sighed in her sleep and snuggled closer. Lying next to her felt right, like it was meant to be. But Lux knew that it was something Ahsoka didn't need right now. She needed a friend right now not a lover. And, until she got through this, he would be that friend.