Disclaimer: No part of Star Wars belongs to me, no matter how much I wish it would.
Author's Note: This fic is inspired by the fan art from the cover, sorry if it's not very easy to read. In the middle of the Clone Wars Ahsoka is left at the Jedi Temple without her master and must find some way to occupy herself while Anakin is away.
The sun was just beginning to rise over coruscant and light streamed through the large windows of the Jedi temple. Ahsoka was returning from breakfast after an enormous food fight started by the younglings, with only mild encouragement from herself. She was quite happy today, it was one of her rare days off since the Clone Wars had started and she fully intended to enjoy every second, starting with waking her master up bright and early to challenge him to a friendly lightsaber duel.
She opened the door to her room and quickly dashed inside to grab her lightsabers but halted upon seeing a small note on her desk, it read:
Snips,
Meeting with senator Amidala. Important classified stuff.
Maybe you can meditate with Obi-Wan or something till I get back?
Here's some credits, buy yourself a pizza, your bedtime is never.
-Anakin
There were seven credits attached to the parchment, a decent amount for Anakin who always insisted he had no money to spare, this 'important classified stuff' with Senator Amidala must have actually been pretty important. Ahsoka sighed loudly, what was she supposed to do now? There was no one interesting awake at this hour, only younglings. Not even Barriss had been at breakfast, maybe Ahsoka should've slept in a little but now that she was up there was no way she'd be going back to sleep. It was time to explore a bit.
Ahsoka left her room and closed the door behind her, looking left and right for any Jedi walking through the halls but she saw no one. Aimlessly choosing to go left she turned and walked away. The view out the windows was amazing, Ahsoka could clearly see the senate building in the distance and wondered if Anakin was there. What could possibly be so essential that he had woken up as early as she had? Ahsoka had no idea, though she had her suspicions there might be more than friendship between her master and the senator from Naboo.
Having finally left the Jedi living quarters she found herself near the front of the temple where a few Jedi were beginning to stir, perhaps there would be someone here who could suggest something to occupy her time. She descended to the base level and scanned the small amount of people there, among them was Mace Windu heading towards the upper levels. He was one of the most revered Jedi Masters but he didn't have much of a sense of humor, or fun. Asking him what to do with her time would just end with a suggestion to meditate or study in the library for hours on end, boring.
Other than Master Windu there were only recently promoted Jedi Knights she didn't know and she suspected they wouldn't want to be bothered by a 15-year-old togruta padawan at this hour of the morning. She could always go practice her lightsaber skills until everyone woke up, that might be a good option, especially since she wouldn't be on break for long before she was called to the front lines again. Maybe she'd do that, the younglings would certainly be training by now, perhaps they would welcome her to practice with them. Having decided what to do for the time being she headed back upstairs to the training room.
When Ahsoka arrived she quietly opened the door, hoping not to disturb anyone if there was a class in progress, she failed miserably. Upon entering the room she saw the younglings were practicing deflecting blaster shots and she tried to be quiet and sneak around them to the back of the room. Hugging the wall she thought she was doing great, until she tripped over a vase and fell flat on her face. For a togruta she sure felt clumsy.
"Padawan Tano, welcome," Master Yoda said, Ahsoka hadn't even noticed him when she came in.
"Oh, hi," she said, hoping she wouldn't have to talk much more.
"A visitor we have younglings," Yoda announced to the class and they all lifted their blinders to see her standing embarrassed next to the broken vase.
One of the older younglings spoke up, "Padawan Tano, why are you here?" she asked innocently.
"I came here to practice but I seem to be a bit clumsy today," Ahsoka admitted, a few of the younglings laughed a little before quieting to allow Master Yoda to speak,
"Stay you can, Padawan Tano," he said, "Learn from you the younglings may."
Ahsoka agreed and stood in the back of the class, setting her practice remote to the highest levels and closing her eyes to focus. She deflected the blasts with ease, despite her reverse grip, which Anakin always commented on. She thought it was more effective than the normal way. Apparently the younglings thought the same because despite her effort to remain unnoticed to keep from being a complete showoff like Anakin, she heard mild clapping from her left. A young twi'lek boy was applauding her instead of practicing, it was clear he had watched her in awe the entire time.
Ahsoka knelt down to achieve his height and spoke to him, "You should really be honing your skills," she stated, "instead of watching me."
"But Padawan Tano, I've been doing this all morning and I still miss. I'm not getting any better," The youngling told her.
"Well I didn't get to be where I am without lots of practice, you don't become better at anything until you dedicate time and effort to it. Keep training and you'll get there eventually, I promise," Ahsoka told him.
"Okay," he responded, "I'll try again."
Throughout the rest of the class Ahsoka kept her eye on the twi'lek boy, watching as he improved slowly but with newfound determination. She had a feeling he'd make a good Jedi Knight one day. After the lesson was over she said goodbye to Master Yoda and the younglings and left the room to find her next form of entertainment.
Once again Ahsoka stood in the hall wondering where to go. More Jedi were awake at this point so she figured there would be a better chance of someone interesting meandering about. Without much luck in the entryway she remembered something from Anakin's note, "Maybe you can meditate with Obi-Wan till I get back?", meditation sounded no fun, but maybe Master Kenobi could point her in the direction of something interesting and enjoyable. She set off towards his room, she might even run into him on the way there. After no such luck seeing Obi-Wan in the hall, Ahsoka arrived at his door and knocked gently.
"Who's there?" she heard him ask from inside.
"It's Ahsoka," she responded, "I need some advice," she added, knowing he wouldn't resist an opportunity to impart his knowledge to the next generation, even if it was about where to have some real fun in the Jedi temple.
"Come in," he responded and she opened the door.
Master Kenobi sat at his desk reading and enjoying a steaming cup of tea, his Jedi robes pulled around him like a bathrobe and a pair of small brown glasses perched on his nose. He turned to look at Ahsoka, "What do you need advice about?" he asked.
For a moment Ahsoka couldn't speak. Obi-Wan wore reading glasses? That was new. She stared at him for a little while longer, wondering if Anakin knew about this.
Obi-Wan looked confused for a moment and then suddenly realized what she was staring at, quickly removing the glasses and stashing them in a pocket.
"Ahsoka, you mustn't tell Anakin, he'd tease me for weeks!" Obi-Wan insisted.
"Okay okay I won't, don't get yourself worked up," Ahsoka replied, holding back a laugh, "Anyway, I came here to ask you what I should do with my free time."
"I thought you were going to train with Anakin today," Obi-Wan commented.
"I was but he had an emergency meeting with senator Amidala, something about 'classified stuff', I don't know what that means but I'm on my own for today," Ahsoka told him.
"Hmm, that's interesting," Obi-Wan said but didn't dwell any further on the suspicious actions of his former padawan, "So what do you have in mind?"
"I know I should be studying or meditating or practicing something but I really just want to have some fun. Is there anything fun to do in the temple?" Ahsoka asked.
"Well, it depends on your definition, I personally enjoy reading when I'm not busy, have you tried that? I have some good mystery novels on my shelf you might enjoy," Obi-Wan responded.
"I'm not much for reading," Ahsoka said, "anything else? He left me seven credits if that helps."
"Well as far as within the temple, there's not much to do you would consider fun. Maybe Master Plo would play a board game with you, he does tend to enjoy such things," Obi-Wan told her.
"That sounds fun," Ahsoka commented, "You should play with us!" she stated enthusiastically, "It'll be awesome!"
Despite his want to continue his book, Obi-Wan remembered when he was Ahsoka's age and thought the temple was incredibly dull, it would be rude of him to refuse, "Okay," he said, "But just one game."
"One game," Ahsoka agreed.
And that was how the great Monopoly game started.
"Yes yes yes!" Ahsoka shouted, "I have a monopoly!
"Don't get too excited little Ahsoka, I have two monopolies," Master Plo stated, "And I've begun to build landing platforms on them."
"And I have none." Obi-Wan stated sadly, "I guess this game is about strategy after all and not simply luck; because if it were based on luck I would've won by now, considering all of Anakin's crazy battle tactics I've survived."
Both Ahsoka and Plo Koon laughed at that.
The game had started to become interesting. Ahsoka had lots of property cards but mostly singles and doubles of the same color, Plo Koon only had six properties but they made two monopolies and Obi-Wan had the leftovers. All the spaces had been purchased at this point so it was up to negotiations, something Ahsoka thought she was good at but it turned out Obi-Wan was very stubborn with board games and Master Plo didn't have anything to trade.
So there they sat, making desperate attempts to win the game and arguing over trade deals. It had already been going for three hours and Ahsoka was starting to get hungry.
"Are you guys hungry?" Ahsoka questioned, "Because I'm starving."
"Now that I think about it, I could do with something edible," Obi-Wan stated.
"Well Anakin gave me credits for pizza, let's order some," Ahsoka suggested "And there'll be extra money, I would really like some cookies too, and maybe some sweets."
Four hours later the game was nearing its end. The game board was a mess, covered in sweet wrappers mainly contributed by Ahsoka, the pizza box lay empty on the edge of the table. It was down to Master Plo and Ahsoka, the two of them slowly convincing Obi-Wan to sell his properties and thus bankrupting him. It didn't affect him much though, he enjoyed Ahsoka's fiery determination to win, it was very obvious she had picked up that trait from her master. At this point it had come down to luck, if Plo rolled a seven or eight his game would be over. Ahsoka had managed to acquire the pike place squares and had spaceports on each one, a proverbial death trap.
Master Plo picked up the dice and rolled them gently, Ahsoka hoped to see the numbers she was looking for and was almost pleasantly surprised until at the last second one of the die flipped over to create a roll of eleven.
"No!" Ahsoka yelled, "You almost had a seven! There's no way that just happened, you used the Force!"
"I certainly did not," Plo Koon responded, "I have no idea what happened but I'll accept it if it keeps my game alive."
"Well I refuse to accept it," Ahsoka stated, "There's something suspicious going on here."
Three moves later Ahsoka landed on Plo Koon's best properties and went bankrupt, losing the game with a terrible shriek of "Noooo!"
"Well young Ahsoka, I guess you aren't the best at monopoly yet, but give it some time, skill only increases with practice after all," Master Plo stated.
"I suppose," Ahsoka grumbled, putting the board and pieces away and cleaning the sweet wrappers up.
Obi-Wan stood up, "Well it's time for me to get back to my mystery novel and tea," he told them, "Goodness look at the time, it's almost eleven, shouldn't you have been in bed hours ago Ahsoka?" he asked.
"No, Anakin said my bedtime was never and I'm gonna take that seriously. I plan on staying up all night," Ahsoka told them both, "What else can I do?"
"Well everyone is asleep by now Ahsoka dear, there's not much to do at this hour," Plo Koon told her, "Maybe you should go to sleep, you had a lot of candy and cookies."
Plo Koon was so much like a worried father, "I'll be fine Master Plo, besides like you said I've had a lot of sugar, I couldn't possibly sleep now. I have to go find something else to do, thanks for playing monopoly with me, even though you did win. I still think you cheated," she stated quickly. The sugar was catching up to her.
"I did no such thing," Plo insisted as Ahsoka walked away.
"No, it was me," Obi-Wan added once she was out of earshot.
Ahsoka wandered the halls aimlessly for a few hours, it had been a while since she was this adventurous in the Temple. She hadn't been down many of the halls since she was a youngling. There was no one around so she was alone, but it wasn't dark. Coruscant was never truly dark with all the lights everywhere. After a while everything started to look the same and there wasn't anything left to see or do so she was finally heading back towards her room.
As Ahsoka rounded the corner she noticed something strange, a figure walking down the hall in a hurry at the opposite end. She reached out in the force to determine who it was.
"Master?" she asked.
Anakin turned around, a little stunned, "Snips!" he exclaimed, "what are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question Skyguy," Ahsoka replied, walking towards him, "I didn't think senate meetings went this late."
"What?" Anakin asked, momentarily confused, "Oh, yes, the emergency classified stuff, yeah there was a lot that needed... discussing,"
"Oh, okay," Ahsoka said, smiling a little. She knew he wasn't telling the truth but she didn't mind all that much.
"So, um, what did you do while I was gone?" Anakin asked, walking beside her.
"Well I explored a little, trained with the younglings and Master Plo beat Obi-Wan and I at monopoly," Ahsoka told him.
"Yeah never play board games with Plo," Anakin laughed, "he'll win every time."
"I figured that out," Ahsoka commented, "How was your emergency classified political stuff?" she asked.
Anakin was silent for a moment, "Well…. it's classified, I can't tell you."
"I'm sure it was super important right?" Ahsoka said, "Otherwise you wouldn't have left so early and come back so late," she paused, "peculiar times of the day when no one is awake to see you? But you know, that's none of my business," she finished.
"I don't know what you're talking about, there's nothing going on between me and senator Amidala," Anakin said abruptly.
"I didn't say anything about her but okay, thanks for the information," Ahsoka told him, "anyway, here's my room, I better get to bed," she opened her door, "you owe me an early morning lightsaber duel. See you later Skyguy, hope your date with Padmé went well," she said and shut the door in her bemused master's face.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Leave a review if you feel up to it, hope the story was enjoyable!
-Luna
