The Apprentice
PG
Ahsoka watches her Master
Just something after reading The Clone Wars novelization.
Ahsoka Tano didn't really like this planet, but she knew better than to say anything to her Master. He'd tell her to suck it up, that they were at war and were lucky that the most they had to currently worry about were blood-sucking insects and humidity. Oh, and no shelter, and nothing that would allow them to build a lasting fire. Then he would start brooding again.
He'd been doing that for what seemed like hours. He called it meditating, but Ahsoka knew better. She was a teenaged girl - she knew brooding when she saw it. She'd come to realize that her Master was not a "normal" Jedi. Although she had known, in some respect, before being assigned to him, hearing rumors was not the same as seeing it in person.
He could be fun, in the short spurts he forgot he was being Tough Soldier Guy, and Ahsoka could see the kind of person he really was, under that. She liked it when he just... relaxed. But he didn't do it often - most of the time he was wound so tight she wasn't sure how he didn't pull muscles just from being so tense all the time.
They were sitting down, regrouping, resting, and he was staring at the damp ground. Not at, Ahsoka realized after a moment, through. Past. He was gone, zoned out, lost in his own head. It was happening more and more frequently and although Ahsoka trusted her Master and knew he wouldn't let anything come in the way of his duty to her and to the Republic, she still worried a little.
Not like she could say that to him, though. He didn't accept concern easily - she'd seen that enough in his interactions with the clones and with General Kenobi. How many times had she overheard arguments between her own Master and General Kenobi about some stunt the younger Jedi had pulled?
She wasn't the only one who worried.
And her Master seemed to worry about everyone else. Yes, he was reckless and daring, but often it was because the only way he could save others was to put himself in danger. Ahsoka had to admire that, but at the same time... what would happen when he wasn't fast enough, or strong enough? She wasn't sure she'd make it through the war without Anakin Skywalker as her Master.
She wasn't sure she'd want to.