Shaak Ti thought all this while she stood outside the small washroom where Harry had been taking a shower. It seemed the only place in the warehouse like structure that was enclosed by actual walls and a door.
When he finally emerged, she stepped away, grabbing his attention and causing him to come to a stop. A towel was loosely wrapped around his waist, and his skin was cleaned of the black soot that had previously shrouded his face. The lack of clothing showed an extremely toned body that bore testimony to very hard work being devoted to its upkeep. He looked at her with a curious expression.
Shaak Ti cleared her throat, and asked, "May we start over, Mr. Potter?"
Harry blinked at the question, and she knew dozens of sarcastic remarks must be flashing through his mind at both her question and the way she'd phrased it.
Finally, he stared at her in the eye for a very long minute. If she didn't know better, she'd assume he was somehow judging her soul by the way he gazed into her eyes.
"On one condition," suddenly, he nodded brusquely, as if he had realized all of the conclusions she had begun to jump to and had to forcibly stop herself. "From here on out you'll ask questions before you assume anything, right?"
Shaak Ti glanced down and nodded a little bit. The fact that he had to demand that was more than a little testament to how off-center she was. She had always prided herself on being calm and level headed in any circumstance, but now she seemed ready to just jump at the smallest things.
"Alright then," He nodded agreeably, his posture relaxed as he moved past her back toward the main room.
She watched as he went to a well used cot and picked up a set of clothes that were folded and set on the edge of the bed. He picked them up, but then stopped and turned to her with an eyebrow raised in amusement. It took a few moments for her to realize why; he was waiting for her to leave. She blinked once and then turned away, cursing the blush that she knew had appeared visibly on her cheeks as she did so. "I'll leave you to it, Harry Potter,"
The Togruta Jedi Master watched him walk away, but the low chuckle that her Force-enhanced hearing picked up as she left had her shaking her head in embarrassment and furthered her uncharacteristic blush even more.
She joined the other two out around the table, thankfully obscured from Harry's bed by several book shelves.
As she sat down, Aayla drew her eye as the Twi'lek hesitantly poked at some of the food served, as it was obviously nothing she recognized. Her younger friend didn't seem to be concerned with the food, more just cautious about something utterly foreign to her, which wasn't something that happened often to well-travelled Jedi such as themselves.
Shaak Ti looked at the food herself, and found that she didn't recognize it either. That was very odd to see something that two extremely well-travelled Jedi had never encountered before.
Ahsoka picked lightly at the food Dobby had provided her, slowly making her way through the unfamiliar meal. The former Padawan wasn't even really paying attention to what she ate, as her mind was on the night before.
As she recalled the previous night, she realized Harry had spent quite a bit talking about his past, more than he had at any point previously, though she now felt as if she had even more questions than answers. He had been inside her head and let her inside his with yet another technique she had never heard of but wanted to learn.
Ahsoka had seen his own version of a trial that he had been put on. She almost hadn't recognized the Harry that she had seen there. He had seemed so small at the time, a mere shadow of the man he had grown up to be. It made her wonder what had truly happened in the intervening years, as the location she had seen filled with near-palpable tension could only truly account for a fraction of the difference in personality she had seen in the Harry who had almost lost the privilege to use Magic in his society. The Harry that she had been in such close proximity to these past few weeks was confident, even brash. He moved with purpose and gave no excuses about just who he was. He was irreverent and seemed to have no filter at all when he spoke to people. The Harry in the memory seemed so… so… timid. The small boy seemed overwhelmed and even intimidated by those who the present Harry wouldn't have even bothered speaking with in a civil tone.
After the memory, in which he had been found not guilty of underage magic use (whatever they meant by that) he had expounded on it for her and explained the context of the trial. He had talked about the house he grew up in, and the controls the government exerted over its magic-using citizenry. He hadn't gotten much more in depth than that, since he hadn't wanted to spend all night giving a detailed history of his planet or himself. But to Ahsoka, the point had been made. He hadn't been kidding or exaggerating when he had told her that he understood some of the feelings that she had gone through at her own trial.
Harry knew she had many questions for him; it was plain to see on her face. Before they had parted for the night he had told her to make a list of those questions and that he would answer them. She deserved that much, especially as his apprentice.
One of the things she truly liked about Harry was that, with the exception of his own personal history, which he wasn't so much evasive about as he was putting off what she now knew would be a long conversation, he always gave her direct and straight answers.
But in Ahsoka's mind, it was more than just that, which made it all the more impressive in her mind. The night before, she had asked him about the connection they now shared and what it meant. His response had been startling in that he hadn't the faintest clue. It wasn't his lack of knowledge on the subject that made her reel, but that he had flat out admitted it. He hadn't tried to pretend to possess knowledge and experience he didn't have, or maintained that it was a lesson and she needed to seek out information to determine the truth herself.
Harry had simply been honest with her, and even in being uncertain had somehow reassured her more than a lot of the philosophical run arounds she would sometimes get from Masters within the Order, with the obvious exception of Anakin, who redefined "direct" beyond the typical Jedi Guardian approach of "jump in and stab".