He leaves his quarters and goes — he doesn't know where he's going. His form is excellent but it can always be better; he goes to the training ground and works until he's exhausted and then meditates, tries again to cut away this attachment, fails again. 

(If he tells anyone they'll take Elvee away and he'll be wiped — the fact that Marlo cares so much about that is evidence that it would be a good thing — he still can't make himself tell.) 

Elvee sorts through his facts about Marlo, gets lost in the intricacies of youngling education and yearly physicals.

(The information about Marlo's birth family will be particularly hidden. Elvee wants it.)

He goes back to training, works on exercises that use different muscles this time. By the time he's done he feels like he's going to collapse if he pushes himself further; he goes back to his quarters and barely gets his shoes off before he falls into bed. 

(Elvee will have to look hard to find anything on his birth family, but in the records of younglings considered for the Order there's a Relani Aliya, female, human, two years older than Marlo, mildly force-sensitive but not enough so for Jedi training.) 

Marlo isn't holding him. Why isn't Marlo holding him. What did he do wrong?

He looks for information about Relani Aliya's family. 

When Marlo wakes up in the morning he'll find an unsigned message on his console:

you gave them my number? not cool. don't worry, it's still open for you whenever you want to chat xo

not very smart of you, anyway-- i was going to help you. here's something as a show of good faith: dooku's other students are after you, and most of them aren't as nice as I am. the big guy is interested in you specifically. dunno why, i'm just a minion. he thinks you're something ~special~.

here's my cookie recipe. expect an interesting next couple of years xoxo

(Relani Aliya is from a city planet several systems away from Coruscant; as of her second birthday her parents were an architect and a physical therapist; there aren't any photos of her older than two, but the photos in which she's two look remarkably similar to the pictures from when Marlo was very small.) 

He doesn't answer the message. He doesn't delete it either. 

He can maintain files full of information about Marlo and that is-- not actually comparable to hugging, they fulfill different needs, but it is very rewarding anyway and if he had to choose one he would choose the files.

He puts in a request for records from the city planet. He listens to recordings. He doesn't talk to Marlo unless Marlo talks to him. 

That's — good, if Elvee is busy that means he doesn't have to have this conversation just yet. He finds work for himself. (He rereads the message, still doesn't respond.) 

Elvee is not bored but he is very conscious of the fact that the thing he's doing is less enjoyable than the thing he could be doing.

In the mid-afternoon, he gathers his courage and says, "Master, is there something you wanted from me?"

"— hm?" 

"You haven't given me any orders. If there's some way that I can be of service--"

"There's nothing I particularly need right now, but I'll let you know if that changes." 

He hesitates before saying, "And I'm sorry." 

Elvee looks confused.

"I'm a droid."

"I know. I'm still sorry." 

"You don't have to apologize to me any more than you would apologize to a toaster. I'm not a person. I don't have feelings."

"I have also apologized to toasters," he says, instead of engaging with that statement properly. 

"I suppose," Elvee says, and notes down this fact for his Marlo file.

There's some datawork he needs to catch up on, but once he's done that it's back to waiting for an assignment, creating work for himself, and debating whether to delete the message, answer it, or report it. 

In the middle of the afternoon he receives an invitation to meet with Senator Palpatine.

He accepts, of course. 

"Hello, Senator." 

"Good afternoon, Marlo. I see you've done well on your first mission."

"Thank you, Senator." 

He's very sure that most people do not receive invitations to speak with Senators after their first missions, no matter how well they go.

"As you know, I've always taken an interest in the Jedi."

"You have, Senator." 

"You are one of the rising stars of the Jedi Temple. Yoda himself has spoken to me of your... potential."