Title: Off to a Rough Start
Author: JediDreams
A/N: I own only my OC's. The rest belongs to everyone else from whom George Lucas stole inspiration. I make no money on this.
"Keep up, Anakin."
The small boy from Tatooine bit his lower lip at the sharp but dull reprimand from the tall figure striding some distance in front of him. In reality, he knew Obi-Wan Kenobi wasn't that tall…but from Anakin's vantage point, struggling to keep the swirling brown robes in sight through a teeming mass of beings in an enormous city far from home, the Jedi Knight seemed huge and remote. Somehow, he reflected wistfully, Qui-Gon had never seemed so far away. The late Jedi Master had towered over Obi-Wan, but Master Jinn never made Anakin feel small and annoying. He couldn't quite shake the feeling that that was all he was to Obi-Wan—a small and annoying nuisance with whom he was saddled for the foreseeable future. The young Jedi hadn't said or done anything especially mean to Anakin, but there was a distance between them just as palpable as if they'd stood on opposite ends of Beggar's Canyon at home on Tatooine. With a small sigh, Anakin Skywalker hitched his pants higher up at the waist so he wouldn't keep tripping on them and took a few running steps to catch up to Obi-Wan.
Ahead, Obi-Wan Kenobi took pains to ignore the flagging energy and enthusiasm of his new Padawan. True, Coruscant was brand-new to the former slave child (well, almost), but he would just have to get used to living on a city planet instead of a desert one. This was the home of the Jedi Temple—now his home for the next several years as well. He would get used to the sights soon enough and stop that annoying gawking habit he seemed to have picked up since their adventures on Naboo.
The young Jedi frowned as a nagging voice that bore suspicious similarity to his late Master's started up inside his head again. He's just a child, Obi-Wan, and he's been dragged across the galaxy and back again in a matter of days. He's been through more at his age than most of his peers at the Temple. And he comes from a desert dust ball of a planet—why wouldn't he be tempted to gawk? Desert to endless city? How many beings go through a transplant like that before they've even reached their first decade of life?
Obi-Wan's frown deepened, and he did not even notice his hand reaching up to flick at the stubborn thoughts as if they were so many flying insects crowding around his temples. Well, like it or not, the changes have happened to him. Force, he WANTED to come to the Temple and become a Jedi, he's got nothing to complain about. Deep inside, a tiny voice that was all Obi-Wan whispered, "But he wanted to be a Jedi with Qui-Gon…not you." Obi-Wan swatted at the voice again before throwing another glare over his shoulder at the subject of his inner dialogue, struggling to keep up with his fast pace as he strode through the crowded walkways. He was deliberately setting a faster pace than necessary, but he couldn't say what his reasons were. That should probably bother me, he thought to himself.
Anakin swallowed and ducked his head as he sped up even more to keep pace with Obi-Wan's much longer legs. He could tell Obi-Wan was unhappy, and his new Master seemed to be angry with him, but he couldn't figure out exactly why. That could be dangerous, he knew from his slave days. It was always best to figure out what you were doing to anger the master before the master punished you for continuing to do it. Taking a deep breath that did pathetically little to calm his nerves, Anakin looked up at Obi-Wan.
"Um…Master Obi-Wan, sir?" he asked hesitantly, trotting alongside the tower of cream and brown. "Uh…sir?" he asked again a moment later, when his first query met with silence. Obi-Wan turned his head abruptly, looking down at Anakin with a fierce expression that startled Anakin into a standstill. The boy was so unnerved by the look on Obi-Wan's face that his question flew for a moment right out of his mind, and he just stood there gaping at Obi-Wan with a blank stare. Obi-Wan halted too, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared down at the wide-eyed child.
"Yes, what is it?" he asked abruptly. Anakin jumped at the question and fumbled for an answer.
"Uh, well, you see sir, I was just wondering…you, uh, seemed angry with me, and I was just wondering…uh…if I did something? I mean, besides being too slow, sir. If I did something wrong, I'm sorry, and I'll—" Obi-Wan cut him off by raising his right hand.
"I am not angry at you, Anakin. Whatever gave you that idea?" Anakin stared at him with a disbelieving look.
"Well, you looked mad, and you haven't really said anything to me except 'keep up' and 'stop staring at everything.' I thought you were mad at me," he answered uncertainly. Obi-Wan sighed impatiently and fidgeted his folded arms underneath his cloak.
"I am not angry at you, Anakin, I simply wish to get to the Temple at a reasonable hour. We are now at the busiest point of the day for traffic in Coruscant, and I don't want to be delayed any longer than necessary." At the embarrassed look on Anakin's face, Obi-Wan forced himself to take a softer tone. "I am sorry if I did something to make you think I was angry with you. I am not. I am tired and hungry—as I'm sure you are—and I just want to reach our quarters and go to sleep. Tomorrow morning we must report to the Council, and we'll both need our rest before we face that particular trial. Some other day, perhaps, we'll go sightseeing a bit, and you'll quickly get used to living in a city. Humans have amazing abilities of adaptation," he finished, laying what he hoped was a kindly hand on Anakin's shoulder. Anakin smiled tentatively, then all-out grinned when the smile was met with an answering one from Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan slowed his pace slightly as they continued their journey towards the Jedi Temple, but his thoughts were churning more rapidly than he cared to admit to. He's not stupid, Kenobi. He was birthed by the Force, for crying out loud! He can sense things! He knows you don't like him, and now he's not going to trust you. Great start to a stellar relationship. Take your own advice and suck it up, Kenobi. After all, like it or not you're stuck with each other and he'll just have to make do with you instead of Qui-Gon. The tiny voice spoke up again in a whisper. I'd give anything to let him have Qui-Gon…if only I could have him back, too.
Anakin was looking up at him curiously now, so Obi-Wan tightened up his mental shields and pointed out their path through the crowds.
They had gone only a few minutes longer when they came to a wide and incredibly busy skyway, with a narrow pedestrian crossing platform built across 18 lanes of solid traffic. Speeders, skimmers, and skyboats of every make and model were packed into every lane, impatiently waiting for the stream of pedestrians to finish crossing before the traffic signal changed. Obi-Wan and Anakin were near the middle of the group as they crossed the skyway. Obi-Wan had reached the far side and bent down to ask Anakin if he needed to stop and catch his breath for a moment when he realized Anakin was not where he should have been. Straightening and turning quickly, he turned and looked back across the skyway. There, hunched in the middle of the platform, was Anakin.
The small boy was crouching in the exact center of the walkway, staring down in horrified fascination at the next level of skyway, some hundred meters below his feet. Far above, the prow of a very expensive luxury skyboat loomed over Anakin's head. From the driver's vantage point, he would not be able to see Anakin. The signal was about to change, and Anakin would be crushed by repulsorlifts or thrown off the edge of the walkway. Without another second's thought, Obi-Wan charged through the stragglers in the crowd and ran back towards Anakin. He was not even halfway to his young apprentice when Anakin looked up, and the traffic signal changed.
"Anakin, get back!" Obi-Wan yelled, coupling his words with a strong Force-shove from his outstretched hand. Anakin flew backwards, landing hard on his butt on the far side of the skyway. Other pedestrians grabbed his arms and hauled him back to safety as the mass of traffic roared across the platform, heedless of the figure still standing in it. Obi-Wan spared one glance over his right shoulder at the high prow of the skyboat bearing down on him before he launched himself straight up, somersaulting just over the top of the boat and coming down on the other side. There was no time to make another daring leap before the sporty late-model speeder that was next in line slammed into his legs, throwing him over the open-air cockpit and off the sloping tail.
The Jedi barely snagged the high point of the fin protruding off the back of the speeder with one hand to avoid falling the 100 meters to the next level of traffic. Half a second later, however, his stomach climbed into his throat as the speeder took a sickening nosedive off the skyway and dove down and across half a dozen other lanes, finally leveling out two levels down, cutting into a skyway almost as busy as the one they'd just left. Hanging precariously by the grip of one hand, Obi-Wan threw a glance over his left shoulder as he swung one leg up in an attempt to climb onto the back of the speeder. The glance was just enough to show him the shining quarter panel of a large, boxy hauler heading straight for him as his speeder slewed around in a dizzyingly out of control manner. Screams and the thunder of crashing metal and thrumming repulsorlifts straining filled Obi-Wan's ears in a cacophony of epic proportions for a few seconds. Obi-Wan's lower half was suddenly under crushing pressure; then mercifully, everything faded to black.