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Ahsoka trudged listlessly through the Pantoran holiday bazaar, keeping up a veneer of conversation with Barriss as her mind turned over a single question like a mantra: what the kriff do you get your crush for Winter’s Crest?
Especially, Ahsoka noted to herself, your crush who you aren’t quite sure how she feels about you, which means you can’t just ask her. She felt like she had looked at every cart and stall at the market: every scarf that clashed with Barriss’s eyes, every kitschy knick-knack Barriss would never use, every ring that felt like a promise they were too young to make.
Then, suddenly, a familiar face in the crowd, like a blessing from the Force. “Hey, Riyo! Hi!” Ahsoka jogged over to her friend, Barriss trailing along behind her. “Barriss, this is Senator Riyo Chuchi. Riyo, this is Barriss Offee, my, uh, friend and fellow padawan.” The two other women bowed to each other, completing the introduction. “Barriss, you don’t mind if I run off with Riyo and catch up, just the two of us, do you?”
Barriss cringed, hoping the heavy weight of the winter cloak she wore would mask her small motion. “Of course, Ahsoka.” She bowed her head again. This is not your Ahsoka! She reminded herself. Seemingly no sooner had she raised her eyes than all they could see was Ahsoka’s back, moving away from her at speed. This Ahsoka’s heart is free to love who it may, she continued. I certainly do not deserve to share her love a second time. Barriss sighed, and went off in her own direction as quickly as she could. At least they still had the conspiracy to unravel, and many more “pretend” dates to look forward to. Unless, of course, Ahsoka and Senator Chuchi were so obvious in their affections that they would have to alter that part of the scheme as well. She sighed again. Working out the logistics of a fake triad relationship where two of the partners were keeping a real secret from the third sounded like the sort of torture she probably deserved. But for now, she thought glumly, I don’t think I can focus on anything. Maybe I’ll take advantage of not having Ahsoka by my side to buy her a Winter’s Crest gift?
***
“Riyo! I’m so glad to see you! I need your help.”
The Pantoran raised a dark purple eyebrow. “You need only ask, my friend.”
“I need to pick out a Winter’s Crest gift for Barriss and, uh, I have a crush on her and I don’t know if she feels the same way about me, and…it’s complicated?” Ahsoka offered with a sheepish grin.
“In that case,” Riyo noted, “you might apologize to her for running off so quickly.”
“Sithspit,” Ahsoka groaned. “I totally did!” She turned over her shoulder but could not see Barriss. “Okay, I guess it had better be a really good gift, then.”
Riyo smiled indulgently. “I’ll do my best to help. What does she like?”
“Uh…Barriss is pretty into the whole non-materialism thing, even by Jedi standards.”
“Perhaps something that can be used up, then?”
“I just got her a loaf of bread she really liked…” Ahsoka’s eyes wandered over to a baker’s cart.
“Hm, Winter’s Crest isn’t for another two weeks,” Riyo noted. “That bread will be hard as a rock until then. Perhaps a cookbook? I think I passed a bookseller earlier.”
“That would be perfect - Barriss is big into her studies, and knowledge isn’t really a material good.” Ahsoka nodded contentedly.
“And,” Riyo added, amber eyes twinkling in the torchlight that lit the bazaar, “it would provide you a good excuse to spend time baking together, to see if she had feelings for you as well.”
“You’re a true friend, Riyo Chuchi,” Ahsoka declared as she followed Riyo back to the bookseller’s cart. If only my relationship with Barriss were so easy to define, she mused.