A/N: Short but sweet. That's how most of these vignettes are going to be. But I assure you that I'll be expounding on Obi-wan and Tali's relationship as this story progresses, so do stick around. ;)

Bonded

Obi-wan cursed under his breath. This wasn't how the mission was supposed to go. And in hindsight, it was supposed to be a relatively easy mission, especially considering how strong his padawan had become. But instead of being on their way back to the Temple with the plans for the potentially dangerous, so-called "BS Ares," they were in a conference room surrounded by droids. Their light sabers were out of their cloaks but not yet lit; neither Obi-wan nor Tali, his apprentice, wanted to risk it. In order to be able to fight, they needed a bigger space. And he knew that Tali knew.

One droid approached them and harshly prodded Tali's shoulder with his blaster. "Drop your weapons, Jedi scum," it said.

Obi-wan did so immediately, and glanced over at Tali when she didn't do the same. "Do as it says, padawan."

She followed his order but seemed to be very distracted. She had a faraway expression on her face, with her lips slightly parted and her eyes flitting from side to side. Obi-wan knew that look. It appeared time and time again whenever she was planning something. And if Obi-wan had learned something in his ten years teaching her, it was that she had a brilliant mind – a mind that had gotten them out of tight spots many times before. He was certain that this time wouldn't be any different.

The droid that had prodded her leaned down to pick up their light sabers. As it straightened up, it said to the others, "Take them to the general."

While the droids moved to stand behind the Jedi, Obi-wan heard Tali's voice in his head: "Master."

He looked over to her and found her scratching her nose, right before she slid a single finger across her eyebrow and tilted her head to the direction of the droid that had their light sabers. There was a questioning look on her face, and he raised a surprised eyebrow.

"Now?" he said, to which she replied with a brisk nod. He sighed. "Alright, am I A-1 or A-2?"

She grinned. "A-2."

"Be careful, padawan."

Obi-wan acted quickly. He grunted, as if in pain, and fell onto one knee, clutching his other leg like he had pulled something. A look of agony was plastered onto his face. He had closed his eyes tightly to make it more believable, but he took a quick peek to see that Tali had knelt beside him, looking quite stricken. She had always been a very good actor.

For a fraction of a second, her eyes flickered to something behind him. He nodded once in understanding.

"He's in pain," she was saying, pleading with the droids. Suffice it to say, they hadn't been expecting something like this to happen. "Please, you have to help him!"

Obi-wan groaned loudly to further prove her point. He saw her lip twitch upwards in a small smile. Behind her, the droid that had their light sabers approached and said, "What's going on here?"

The change in Tali's face was instantaneous. Hastily, Obi-wan pushed himself back with a little help from the Force, so that he was beneath the conference table. Before anyone could make a move against him, Tali had Force-pulled both her and his light sabers away from the lead droid and into her waiting hands.

In the blink of an eye, she had activated them and was ferociously battling the small legion of droids that stood in the way of their escape.

Blasters shot at her from every direction, but she was strong in the Force, stronger than anyone Obi-wan had ever encountered — perhaps she would even become stronger than Yoda, with more training. She twirled the light sabers in her hands with ease, deflecting blaster fire from everywhere at once; even behind her, at which point she would only stretch her arm back and make sure that the light saber didn't cut through her spine.

"Do save some for me," Obi-wan told her. Again, a grin lit up her face.

In a hasty yet effective maneuver, she dropped and rolled to lie on her stomach before Obi-wan, both of them safely beneath the table. With both light sabers already deactivated, she handed Obi-wan's blue one to him.

"Toegther?" she said.

He returned her smile. "Together."

As one, they exited the confines of the table and dispatched with the droids in a relatively casual fashion. When all the troops were lying on the floor, and Obi-wan and Tali were hurriedly making their way back to their ship, Obi-wan asked, a bit exasperatedly, "When will I get to be A-1?"

"Next time, master. I promise."

Then he looked at her and must have realized just how much she had grown, from a wide-eyed girl to a now maturing young woman. She was going to be knighted soon, and they were going to be seeing much less of each other.

"You did well, Tali," he said as he was starting up the ship.

She glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. "Did you want to be A-1 that badly, master?"

He couldn't help but to chuckle. "You can't blame me for trying. I can't know when we're going to get our next mission."

After a moment's thought, she shrugged. "We could always try it with the training droids at the Temple."

"It's not the same." With a soft grunt of dismissal, he flew them away from the enemy planet and started them on their way to Coruscant. "I always thought that you didn't want me to be A-1 because you didn't like the idea of me using your saber. You're quite attached to that toothpick."

"Master Obi-wan, I would have you know that this is an elegant weapon, made for a very civilized age."

He laughed. "I like that. And right you are, padawan. An elegant weapon indeed…

… But I'll still be A-1 next time."