Standing Tall

by Merry Amelie

Title: Standing Tall
Author: Merry Amelie
Archive: MA only
Category: Alternate Reality, Heavy Angst, Qui/Obi, Romance, Series
Rating: R for violence and language
Summary: Aikido outside the dojo.

I'm posting Arcadia and Q/O drabbles to TPM 100.

Series: Academic Arcadia -- # 114
A chronological list of the series with the URLs can be found under the header 'Academic Arcadia' at the Master Apprentice ML.

My MA story page is here.

Feedback: Is treasured at MerryAmelie@aol.com.
Disclaimer: Mr. Lucas owns everything Star Wars. I'm not making any money.

For
My beta team: Nerowill, Emila-Wan, Carol, and Padawan Sue
Mali Wane for posting
My former betas: Alex and Ula

"You fucking faggot!"

Quinn froze for an instant at his desk, forced his sweaty fingers to dial 911, then raced to the door, Ian a step behind him. They ran downstairs to the Taton parking lot, where they saw a waking nightmare. Two toughs were pummeling a familiar young man, who was gamely trying to defend himself against steep odds.

"Freeze!" Quinn roared, and the attackers did, probably thinking he and Ian were the police. That split-second of compliance, before the thugs realized no cops were there, gave the professors the edge in grappling with them before immobilizing them with arm locks.

Sirens screamed into the lot, presaging a night of depositions, X-rays, and stiff drinks.

Quinn looked up from his desk at the knock. Office hours had ended an hour ago.

"Come in," he said, then rose when he saw Noah Briggs from his graduate seminar at the door. He was relieved to see that the bruises were fading fast on his cheek and knuckles. They were badges of honor as far as Quinn was concerned.

Now two weeks later, the visible signs of trauma had almost disappeared, just as he and Ian were trying to help minimize Noah's emotional scarring.

Quinn patted Noah's unbruised left shoulder and waved him to the student chair, while Quinn sat at his desk. "Good to see you. Everything all right?"

Noah's grin brightened the afternoon office. 'Yes, and I've got good news. Those assholes have been denied bail."

Quinn beamed. "That's wonderful!"

"Yeah. The judge wanted to make an example of them. Apparently, there's been only a handful of hate crimes at Luke, and he wants to put a stop to them now."

"Amen to that," Quinn said grimly. "I was relieved to find out they weren't students here."

Noah nodded. "Just a couple of local drunks."

"Are you still in counseling?" Warm blue eyes softened the question.

"Uh-huh." Noah looked down. "It's hard to dredge all this stuff up. I don't want to think about it anymore."

Quinn's empathy lit the dark corners of the office. "Who would? But when you work your way through it, you'll be ready to let go for good."

"Thank you, Professor."

"Fantastic!" Ian whooped.

Quinn grinned at his lad's reaction to the news that the thugs would stay in jail. Here at the kitchen table, the dark events seemed like a bad dream.

Ian finished his apple cider. "I'm so happy for Noah."

"He's dealing with this mess better than I expected." Quinn poured them more cider.

"That's a relief." Ian's pensive tone did not match his words.

Quinn took his husband's hand and pressed his lips to the knuckles. "What's bothering you, then?"

Ian's eyes were rueful. "You know me too well."

Quinn's hand tightened over Ian's. "Guilty as charged. Now spill it."

"All right. All right." Ian took a cleansing breath. "This was the first time I've ever used aikido against anyone in real life."

Quinn came around the table to take Ian in his arms. "Me, too, laddie. Bad feeling, huh?"

Ian nodded against Quinn's sweater. "It felt good to help Noah, but I never thought I'd have to use my training this way."

Quinn ruffled Ian's hair, running his fingers through the spikes that resulted. "Neither did I. There's a big difference between theory and practice. Let's talk with Master Yodama on Saturday. He's been through this before."

"Good idea, love. He always has time for us." Ian burrowed into Quinn's sweater, relaxing into his unique warmth.

Quinn kissed Ian's forehead and tried to lighten the mood. "It was amazing to fight alongside you, lad. We make quite a team."

Ian smiled into Quinn's neck. "Yeah. We've got the moves."

Ah, this was Quinn's chance to distract him completely. He grinned wolfishly. "How 'bout showing me some now, laddie mine?"

And Ian did.