He could shield his thoughts from her, and he could summon his discipline to keep conscious memories of his dreams at bay. But for some reason, he could not keep himself from noticing things that, yesterday, had meant far less. The way her sun-reddened skin was interrupted by freckles. The way her mouth turned down defiantly when she wasn't thinking about it. The breeze catching at stray hair and the ends of her clothes. Things that, by themselves, were not inherently sexual but which he could not help thinking he was being a pervert by noticing, after last night.

And the way she was acting, almost as if she knew. She couldn't look at him, and her manner had altered substantially since the previous day. Had he really ruined everything with his outburst, or did she somehow get wind of his private thoughts?

And since when was her abandoning him ruining anything? Since when was her leaving 'abandonment' in his mind? When had he decided he wanted her to stay? This could not stand--he could not, in good conscience, allow her to remain here with his thoughts preying on her even in secret. It was reprehensible, a betrayal of her mission and his and the whole master/padawan covenant.

But you never really accepted her as a student, did you?

Shut up, he told himself. You are not going to start making excuses for this being okay, which was totally beside the point that in no universe was someone like her going to think he was--

"Did you?" he asked abruptly, to interrupt his own thoughts. "Rest, I mean."