Author's note: I am so sorry! I have neglected my little account and stories for far to long. I'll do my best to restart posting chapters for some of my series, but with the holidays I can't promise anything now. It may be I'll just get some one host put up now and again.
Like this one.
I do not own Star Wars or any of it's characters.
Lights, Tree, Trouble
What happens when two padawans are left alone with a Christmas tree
"Let it go, let it go. I'm one with the wind and sky!" Siri sang as she carried in yet another box of ornaments.
"Siri, you haven't even seen that movie yet," Obi-Wan called from his coroner by the outlet. He was busy testing the lights, leaving Siri to organize the boxes. Siri rolled her eyes as she set the box down. She crossed her arms and surveyed the room. Well, what could be surveyed of it. Boxes and lights and greenery were flung all over the place, just waiting to be hung and twisted in what ever fashion suited the decorators.
"Well? How many of the lights work?" Siri asked, ignoring Obi-Wan's quip about her latest obsession, Frozen, and instead heading towards the radio in the kitchen.
"Um... a good many," Obi-Wan answered, turning back to his task of untangling the working strings. "Qui-Gon's old one with the blinking lights that is half burned out, but he still insists on putting it up every year. All these ones over here work, and that leaves only these to strings that don't work at all."
"Perfect!" Siri sighed as she turned up the radio so the music blared through the quarters. Obi-Wan covered his ears and scowled.
"Siri! Some of us would like to keep our ear drums intact through our apprenticeship!" he shouted over the roar of Frosty the Snowman. Siri sang along, ignoring her friend's protests, until the door to the quarters opened and their masters walked in. Each grinned broadly at the mess and catastrophe before them.
"Siri, please turn the music down to preserve Padawan Kenobi's hearing, as well as your own," Master Gallia insisted. With a most dramatic groan, Siri did so. Obi-Wan sighed and removed his hands form his ears.
"Thank you Master Gallia," he said as he resumed fighting with the lights.
"I for one take Siri's side," Qui-Gon said as he pushed some garlands off the couch so he could sit.
"Thank you Master Qui-Gon." Siri said with a smirk. She then turned to her own master, arms crossed.
"I thought you and Master Qui-Gon were going to be out shopping while we decorated," she said with a huff.
"We were, but it started snowing and..."
"That's no excuse!" Siri cried indignantly. "You promised you'd let me and Obi-Wan handle things this year!" Master Gallia raised an eyebrow at her impatient and, at times, brash padawan. Siri remembered her manners and quickly recovered.
"I'm sorry for my disrespect master," Siri apologized quickly, causing Obi-Wan's jaw to drop in the coroner, "but you and Master Qui-Gon did promise!"
"So we did," Qui-Gon agreed from the couch, and he stood. "What do you say Adi, shall we either brave the snow or wander the temple?"
"I think I have some of that green tea you are so fond of in my quarters, and I am in no way risking my neck to go sit in a store for three hours," Adi replied, and she lead Qui-Gon out the door. Qui-Gon turned long enough to give one last warning to the padawans.
"You have three hours, and then we shall return, so I expect all empty boxes to be hid from sight, all spilled glue and cocoa to be cleaned up, and if I step on a single ornament I shall not be blamed for it's abrupt end."
And then the masters were gone. Siri grinned, and celebrated their return to freedom by turning the music up to blaring levels again.
outside the door, the two masters grinned at each other when they heard the music's volume rise again.
"I regret not following Windu's advice and putting up a camera in the kitchen," Qui-Gon reflected as he and Adi walked down the hall towards the turbolift.
"Oh don't worry," Adi assured him. "I guarantee they'll make things almost clean by the time we return. And besides, they're just going to invade my quarters tomorrow, and we'll be even then."
"I suppose," Qui-Gon said.
"Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock. Jingle bells swing, and jingle bells ring," Siri sang as she handed the lights to Obi-Wan.
"Stop, please," Obi-Wan groaned.
"No," Siir said as she retrieved the lights again around the other side. "You made me listen to the Grinch, so you have to listen to this!"
The two stood opposite each other, each on one side of the tree. Starting from the bottom, they were stringing the lights up row by row from top to bottom. The first to go on had been Qui-Gon's old ones, and then the newer ones. They were on the second string of clear lights when Siri froze. That wasn't good, Obi-Wan reflected as he craned his head round the bushy branches of the tree, trying to see why Siri had stopped.
"Siri? What is it?"
"We have to take them down," Siri said, sounding almost sick.
"What!" Obi-Wan demanded, and he crawled around the tree to Siri's side. "Why?"
Siri was kneeling by the outlet, the plug-ins in hand.
"Watch," she said, and she plugged in Qui-Gon's lights. Nothing. Not even a flicker of light.
"But I just checked them!" Obi-Wan insisted. "What about the others?"
Siri quickly plugged in the second string they'd been in the middle of putting up. Half the tree lit up this time.
"No," Obi-Wan groaned. "Not Qui-Gon's lights... I just checked them five seconds ago! They worked!"
"I know," Siri agreed, as she stood and surveyed the tree. "Though, you did check them in a different outlet."
"What difference is that supposed to make?" Obi-Wan demanded. Siri shrugged.
"Picky lights?" she suggested.
"The others worked just fine in both," Obi-Wan pointed out, his heart already sinking at the thought of telling his master his lights didn't work.
"Yes, but these are Qui-Gon's lights we're talking about," Siri said. "Anyway, we have to take them all down again. We can double test Qui-Gon's lights if you want, but we still have to take them down to test them in the other outlet."
"Just perfect," Obi-Wan groaned.
"Come on," Siri said, almost cheerfully, "the faster we start, the sooner we'll finish, and the sooner we can start again!"
Fifteen minutes later, after unwinding what they had just worked so hard winding, the lights were off again. Siri took the beloved Qui-Gon lights to the outlet Obi-Wan had used in testing, and plugged them in. With a twinkle they lit up. Obi-Wan was torn between sighing with relief and growling at the obstinate things. Siri unplugged them and carried them back over to the outlet by the tree. She plugged them in again, and they worked.
"Stupid lights," Obi-Wan growled, crawling back behind the tree.
"Let's try this again," Siri said, and she passed the lights back to Obi-Wan. Again.
"No, no, no!" Siri cried, grabbing the red ball ornament from Obi-Wan's hand. Startled, Obi-Wan let her take without protest. for two seconds anyway.
"What?" he asked, arms crossed. "I was just hanging it..."
"Right next to a red icicle ornament!" Siri cried, moving the ball and hanging it by a gold icicle. "They have to mix; no red next to red, or gold next to gold. Understand? And don't dare let me see a blue next to a green!"
"you've got to be joking," obi-wan muttered as he grabbed a blue ball and being very careful to hang it next to a gold.
"That's better," Siri said cheerfully, and she grabbed an old popsicle stick snowflake ornament. Curious, she read the writing scrawled on it in crayon.
"Two Mastur Kwi-Gone. Frum Obi-Wan. Age 5. Ahhhh..." she said looking up at the now blushing Obi-Wan with a grin. "I didn't know you made this for him..."
"Give me that," Obi-Wan said quickly, grabbing the ornament away from the laughing Siri.
"Like you didn't make anything for any of the masters," Obi-Wan huffed as he hung his humble child-made ornament in the very back of the tree.
"No, but I had Master Mareya spell out what I was writing for me before I wrote it myself," Siri said as she grabbed another ornament, hanging it in the spotlight of a green bulb.
"well, weren't you just the smartest," Obi-Wan remarked sarcastically.
"Smart enough to skip two levels," Siri remarked with a grin.
"Oh, and I suppose next your going to say you'll be knighted first."
"Nope," Siri replied as she hung a green ball, strategically placed next a to a silver icicle. "That position falls to you alone my friend. You will be knighted first, and be the youngest knighted of our entire class."
"No way!" Obi-Wan argued as he carried an empty box to the hall closet. "I'll probably end up being the last."
"Yeah right," Siri scoffed, grabbing two others and following him.
When the two returned to the living room, Siri looked over the room approvingly.
"Well, the tree is done, and all that's left in the boxes are mugs and garlands. which do you take?" Obi-Wan considered which one Siri would be least likely to mess up and/or break anything.
"I'll do the garlands," he said at last.
"To late, you waited to long before calling," Siri said, and she grabbed the garlands and darted for the ladder. Sighing, and begging the force to allow Siri to hang the garlands without breaking anything, he started unwrapping the mugs. He was half way through when he heard the crash.
Qui-Gon couldn't hide the grin on his face as he walked with Adi backed to his quarters. He'd given the two padawans an extra fifteen minutes, so they had no excuse if there was any kind of mess still all over the place. when he reached the door, he paused outside to listen. Nothing. not even Christmas music. Odd enough. He opened the door and the two masters walked in. the place had been turned into a winter wonderland. Garlands and paper snowflakes were hung in every conceivable place. the Christmas tree stood by the window, a proud center piece of the season. There was a rather oddly placed Christmas wreath stuffed with snowflakes hung on the wall, but considering nothing seemed to be broken or spilled, he wasn't going to point it out. Yet.
The two decorators were seated on the couch watching a Christmas movie on the holoset. they looked up, smiling innocently as their masters walked in.
"Well?" Siri asked.
"it certainly fits the season," Qui-gon said. Adi glanced at him, also noticing the wreath, he shook his head, signaling for her to not mention it as well. she turned back to the padawans.
"I suppose the two of you have had enough decorating for a while," she said, and Qui-Gon arched an eyebrow at her. trying to get out of her quarters being descended upon by Christmas maddened padawans was she... luckily Miss Siri would have known of that.
"Oh of course not!" Siri cried. "We'll be all ready to decorate our quarters tomorrow, master!" Adi forced a smile.
"Of course you will be," she replied, and then she motioned Siri toward the door. "Come on, let's leave Master Qui-Gon and Padawan Kenobi to enjoy their new quarters alone."
As the two of them left, Qui-Gon studied the tree.
"Obi-Wan," he asked, "where's the snowflake ornament you made me? You know I always like it right in front." Obi-wan buried his face into a pillow as Siri's laughter carried through the doorway, even after the door closed.
"Thanks a lot, Master," Obi-Wan groaned.
"Oh? Would you rather me ask about the brand new wreath on the wall?"
"Nevermind..."