Anakin grips his mother's hand as much for his own comfort as for hers as they walk down a long, dusty alleyway towards Wattos shop. The rising sun is just starting to warm up the cold air left behind from the night, it streams through the gaps in the run-down buildings around him. It's his fifth birthday, but he still has to get up at dawn to go to work. All of his free friends didn't have to get up at dawn on their birthday, which annoys him. It isn't fair and he doesn't understand why he has to when nobody else has. He would never admit it to anyone but he even cried a little bit when Schmi had made him get up to leave.
But as she saw the tears swell in his eyes she wrapped her soft, loving arms around her innocent little son and promised him that she would make it up to him when they got home. Her warm embrace made him feel better, like it always did when he was upset. A little flicker of something Anakin didn't yet understand told him she was just as upset as him, so he took her hand and followed her out the door with the bravest face he could muster.
Now all he has to do is to wait until seven, when they get home, and then he can have some real fun. He saw the present his mom had tried to hide from him in her room. She is keeping it under a thick old blanket but he could see the edges of a box sticking through the fabric. He is giddy with excitement, the fact that she won't even tell him what his surprise is makes him even more so.
They round the corner and Wattos junk shop comes into view, he wonders what menial job he will be tasked with completing today. His mother squeezes his hand protectively as they cross the road, not that Anakin can't look after himself. According to him, he is perfectly capable of crossing even the busiest intersections independently. Mom thinks otherwise.
She presses the grimy button that opens the door to the shop and leads him inside. The smell of oil and rust hits him immediately. He knows this place well, probably even better than he knows his own home; it's where he spends most of his day, every day.
"Your here at last, what took you so long eh?" Watto asks with a thick accent as he hovers behind the counter.
"I'm sorry, we were held up when a man asked us for directions to the local pod racing track, isn't that right Ani" she lies.
Anakin is momentarily confused, so he looks up at his mother with an expression of unexpected puzzlement. They are late because he spent a good ten minutes crying about having to go to work on his birthday. She smiles down at him reassuringly, so he decides to go along with his mother. He turns his head towards Watto and nods in agreement.
"Ah, those off worlders always wanna go to check out the pod racin' eh?" Watto remarks with a disapproving shake of his head. "Their wastin' all of their money betting when they could be spending it here" he says dejectedly.
Anakin remembers that Watto gambles too, and that he owns them because he won them in a bet. He suddenly feels the need to share this fact but as he draws in a deep breath to speak with his mother squeezes his hand tightly as if silently telling him to stay quiet.
Watto rounds the counter and begins rummaging through a box of bolts.
"Just don't be late again or I'll take your rations away eh? Ani you sort through all these, I want all the different types of bolts in their own box. Schmi you get to cleaning up that mess in the back room"
"Of course" Schmi says. She lets go of Anakin's hand to plant her own on his shoulder. She squeezes it one more time before leaving to carry out her task.
Anakin does that thing he can't describe to anyone as his mother's emotions suddenly appear in his mind. He feels her anxiety dribble wash away because Watto didn't punish them, and he feels her determination to do her job to the best of her ability surface as she gets to work.
Wishing that the day would go a bit quicker, he wastes his pent up energy by skipping over to the boxes he has to sort, a quick glance at them tells Anakin that there are at least a hundred different types of bolts in there. Or maybe he is just being a Debbie downer again like that old lady said when he told her that the sand kept getting in his clothes. Watto fly's back to the counter and starts counting the credits in the till.
His small little fingers quickly start picking out the different sorts of bolts and putting them in their separate boxes. The big ones go with the big ones; the little ones go with the little ones. The short ones shouldn't be with the longs ones. It is such a mindless task that Anakin is very quickly bored out of his mind. But to his credit, he starts off strong and keeps sorting for nearly a whole hour before his mind starts to wander back to the present his mom has hidden from him. He frowns as he once again tries to figure out what it is. A model fighter maybe? More books about space? Soon he is completely bored with his task and can barely stand to look at the pile of bolts in front of him.
"I'm five today you know" he states with childish glee to Watto.
"Five? Already?" Watto lets out a few soft chuckles "You're getting big Ani; soon you can start helping your mother fix the droids"
Anakin darts around to square his master with an expression of unadulterated glee.
"Really? I can?!" Thoughts of finally being able to fiddle with the treasure trove inside the shop filling him with excitement.
"Well, only if you're good. So get back to work, I want those sorted by the end of the day"
Anakin sighs, knowing all too well that it's a bad idea to get on his masters wrong side. He sulkily returns his attention to his job and resolves himself to power through it. After what feels like an eternity of sorting, he eventfully allows himself to think about his present again. It would be really awesome if his mom bought him a book about droids. Then he could repair anything in the shop. Maybe one day he will even be the best mechanic on Tatooine.
Several gruelling hours jam packed with boredom of the worst kind eventually pass by and Watto allows Anakin and his mom to go into the backyard for lunch.
Schmi unwraps the homecooked buns she made the night before and hands one to her son.
"Thanks" He says happily as he hops over to metal the bench by the wall and sits himself down. He takes one giant bite out of the top of the bun as his mother comes to join him.
"Mom, why did you lie to Watto earlier?" he muffles loudly with a mouth full of bun. Crumbs trickle out of his mouth and stick to his tunic, but he is to busy staring up at his mother to notice.
She smiles down at him with caring brown eyes.
"I didn't want him to know that you held us up"
Anakin raises one of his eyebrows like the people in the comic books he reads always do when they're puzzled. He gathers the giant ball of food in his mouth and swallows it all with one giant gulp.
"But you said lying is wrong"
He says before stuffing another giant chunk of food into his mouth. This piece is so big that his cheeks hurt.
She wraps her arm around his shoulder and wipes the crumbs off his shirt.
"Sometimes we do things that we usually think are bad to protect those we love from harm"
"But it's still bad, right?"
Her hand moves to cup his face and she wipes a large chunk of bun off his cheek with her thumb.
"Yes, but I didn't hurt Watto because he doesn't know any better, and if told him the truth he would have gotten angry and we all would have suffered"
Anakin digests this information for a few moments as his mother continues to wipe crumbs from his lap. She didn't do it because it was bad and she's a bad person, she did it because she was protecting him, so she is a good person. Anakin concludes that sometimes you have to do bad things to protect good people.
"I understand" he says with a broad smile that reveals his missing front tooth.
"I knew you would, your my smart little boy Ani" she says with soft encouragement.
"I'm not little!" He shouts in protest.
"You certainly haven't gotten a little tummy judging by the way you ate that bun" she jokes as she tickles the sides of his tummy.
He can't help but burst to laughter, his sides are always his weak spot.
"Stop! Mom!" He cries through fits of laughter.
Her timer dings, telling them that their break is up. Thankfully freeing him from her tickle torture. She wipes her own crumbs of her lap and stands up in front of her son.
"Come on Ani" she says with a golden smile as she reaches out her hand.
He smiles back and gets up with her. Just a few more hours now before they can go home.
It's evening now and the heat of the day is starting to pass. Anakin is ready to climb up on the counter he is so excited. He happily jumps from foot to foot as his mother talks with Watto in the back room. If it's a model fighter, he is going to put it up on that big empty spot on his shelf. He can even move some of his old stuff out of the way depending on how big it is.
Schmi finally appears and walks over to him, she feels just as excited is him when she sees the look on his face.
"Ready to go?" She asks, though he suspects she already knows the answer.
"You bet!" He says, grabbing her hand impatiently.
"See you tomorrow" she calls to Watto as she gathers the few things she takes with her to work.
"Alright. Don't be late tomorrow eh?" He calls back from the other room.
"We won't" she says before opening the door to leave.
They head outside and Anakin struggles to not drag his mom across the street. They walk home quicker than usual as Anakin interrogates her once more about his present. But she remains frustratingly quiet. All she will do is reply with an understanding smile and a few gentle words of consolation.
They reach their hut as the last few drops of light give way to the encroaching darkness. Schmi opens the door and before she can set foot inside her son has bolted past her legs and into her room. She hurriedly closes the door and rushes after him. She follows him to see that he thankfully hasn't opened his present yet, she didn't want to miss this for the world.
Anakin kneels beside the big blanket his present is hidden under. It's at the foot of her cot, which takes up most of the space in the small room. He looks back at her with eyes betraying all the excitement he built up over the day.
"Well, go on" she says as her smile grows so big it almost rivals his.
Anakin pulls back the blanket with one powerful tug. Underneath is a big box about half the size of him, it's kept together with black tape.
He still can't tell what it is though, so he hurriedly pulls away at the tape to get a look inside. He opens it out to see that there are lots of old fashioned manuals on top, made from real paper. He carefully pulls them out, not wanting to so much as leave a small crumple on his new belongings. To his glee he reads that they are droid construction manuals! They look like they're for some sort of protocol droid.
"Cool!" He exclaims. He flicks through the pages. It gives detailed information on the specifics of a humanoid translation droid.
"It's fluent in over 6 million languages! That's so awesome!" Anakin says with a smile so big it was threatening to reach his ears.
"Unfortunately I couldn't get you a protocol droid Ani, but I'm sure if we look around in the junkyard we will find you some parts to get you started" she says, knowing how much her son wants to start working on droids himself.
"Yeah!" He says as he flicks though the pages again.
"There's more, look in the box again" she says she kneels down beside him.
Anakin can hardly believe his ears.
"More?" He says as he looks into the box again.
He sees the glint of something shiny catch his eyes beside the scrap metal his mother no doubt collected for him.
He reaches in and grabs the mysterious object. He pulls it out to see that's it a brand new hyper spanner; a multi-purpose tool designed to allow one to be able to fix and build robotics with ease.
"Wow! Mom, where did you find this?" He asked as he reverently stares at his new implement. Hyper spanners may not be new technology, but they are top of the range in the outer rim. To a slave they would cost a small fortune. He never thought he would get his hands on one of them.
"I have my ways" she says as her sons joy threatens to bring her tears.
"Thanks mom. You're the best!" He exclaims.
Anakin jumps up and runs over to his mom to give her a big hug. She lets him run into her chest before she wraps her arms around him. He squeezes her with all his might, conveying in any that he can how much her presents mean to him.
"Take care of these now" she says as she kisses his blonde hair affectionately. "And don't let Watto see your new tools"
"I'll always keep them safe, I promise" he says with as much sincerity as a five year old can muster. He knows that they are poorer than most people and mom always has to tell him just that whenever he saw what his free friends got on their birthdays. So his mother must have gone through a lot of trouble to get him what she did and he promises himself that he will repay her by looking after them as best as he can.
After a few precious moments embracing get each other, Schmi pulls back to look down on her son. He looks back at her with big blue eyes and gives her a wonderful smile that makes her heart melt. That smile, makes everything she goes through worth it.
"Now, how about we get some dinner and I'll tell you about the constellations before we settle in for the night?" She says, knowing that teaching him about space will distract him from having to go to bed. Anakin is so energetic all the time that sometimes it's nearly impossible to get him to sleep.
"Yeah!"
He watches his mother slowly move from a kneeling position to a standing one. He can feel that her knees and back hurt from cleaning all day. He doesn't know how he knows though, and he is kind of scared that people will think he is crazy if he tells them he can do this.
She walks out into the kitchen. He looks down at his presents one last time, feeling completely satisfied with his birthday. The wait was worth it. He picks up his hyper spanner and clips it unto his belt before following his mother out into the kitchen. He wonders what she will tell him about space tonight.
Dooku fixes his cape uneasily as his pilot lands his ship in the grungy space port on Tatooine's surface. Tatooine, possibly one of the worst planets in the Galaxy. Hot, poor, corrupt. Everything the Count hates. But his master had insisted that he come here. In his meditations Sidious had sensed that there was an extremely powerful force sensitive on this planet and that he would be their key to victory against the republic. Dooku had begrudgingly gone along with his master as he usually did. How his master had managed to sense an untrained and likely very young uncertainty who lived on the other side of the Galaxy was beyond him. Part of him didn't even believe Sidious. But he was here anyway. And here in the late hours of the day too, which would make finding him or her all the more difficult.
Dooku waves away his guard as he steps out into the dusty and frankly filthy landing pad. He tries his best to ignore the suspicious individuals eyeing him as he walks as quickly as he can to his destination, some junk shop. The address is nothing special, but his master had insured him that he would find what they were looking for there. He just hopes Sidious was right so he can go there, get the little brat and leave as soon as humanly possible.
The streets he quickly realizes are just as filthy as the landing pad. This place is wretchedly poor and he can almost feel himself losing money by just existing here. He reaches the junk shop quickly. True to its name, there is indeed junk everywhere. Though it looks closed, which causes the Count to grimace. Although he can sense an individual inside, not that he needed to. He clearly hears him knocking over something and letting out a string of curses in response.
Dooku sighs, mentally preparing himself for his conversation with this backwater peasant. Oh how he hates talking to the ignorant. And in his experience, the poor are all most definitely ignorant. He opens the door to the shop with the force and strides inside. A blue toydarian is there to greet him.
"We're closed. Come back tomorrow" he says in questionable standard and fly's away.
But the count is having none of it. It's bad enough having to come to this wretched planet without its inhabitants treating him so rudely. He raises his hand and grabs the weak little alien with the force.
"That may be true, but we aren't done talking yet" he says as he strides over to his captive. The toydarian struggles, but to no avail. He remains suspended in the air thanks to the counts unquestionable power.
"Wha- what do you want?" It asked rather aggressively.
Dooku smiles a cunning smile as he looks into his captives stunned eyes. It's not every day a Sith Lord suspends you with the force.
"Information, my friend"
"Huh?"
"I'm looking for a child, one who spends or has spent a lot of time in this shop. Do you know anyone who fits that description?"
There are a few brief moments of silence, which are eventfully broken by the toydarian, who laughs uncomfortably
"That's not a lot of information to go on eh?"
That response isn't what he is looking for and he has to refrain from killing the pathetic little alien. He needs him, for now.
"This individual would be... unusually talented" the count continued.
The toydarian is silent for a few moments as he considers the counts words.
"I don't know anyone particularly talented, but my slave Anakin spends a lot of time here. He's a kid, and he's pretty smart for his age"
The force reacts unexpectedly as the toydarian utters his slaves name. Dooku can feel the darkness signaling to him with a flurry of intense energy. It seems that this master was right; someone powerful may very well be here after all.
"Your Slave, you say?"
"Yeah, he isn't for sale" the toydarian says, rather uneasily.
"Oh I'm sure I could make it worth your while"
He pulls out a huge bag of credits and drops it unto the counter.
"Now, I am offering you considerably more than a typical child would be worth. I suggest you accept my generosity, lest there be... complications"
The aliens merit, it seems to understand what he is insinuating. Its beady eyes dart between the money and his face as it tries to find a way out of the deal.
"Ah, he's nothing special, I think you got the wro-" the aliens drabble is cut of as Dooku tightens his grip around its neck.
"I assure you, I have the right person. Show me where he is, and you may live" he says, growing increasingly more tired of this conversation.
"Ok! Ok! Ack!" The toydarian manages to splurt as he chokes.
Dooku smiles.
"Good"
He lets go of the toydarian altogether and the pathetic beast nearly falls to the ground as he does so. He gasps for a few moments, Dooku watches him silently. He eventually manages to pull himself together, his wings start working again and he steadies his flight.
"He is probably at home now; I'll go pick him up for you"
"And I will accompany you" Dooku says as they both exit the shop.
This could have gone a lot worse, Dooku reflects as they walk down another putrid back alley. He could have had to spend several days scouring this disgusting bantha ridden pit in search of this kid, but he did not. His master will be pleased with his progress, most pleased.