title Banding Together
author patientalien
rating PG
summary Ahsoka vs. Silly Bandz
notes So I guess silly bandz are all the rage among certain members of the young teen population (as well as some of the teachers at Kirkwood). After being gifted with a couple, citizenjess and I had this idea. Also based on a rant somebody posted in the Clone Wars section of which actually had nothing to do with Clone Wars and everything to do with how they thought their fellow 14 year olds' obsession with silly bandz was, well, silly. Title goes to citizenjess, and is, as always, dedicated to her awesomeness.

Ahsoka Tano generally did not care about trends. She was in the field too much to worry about what her peers at the Temple were doing, and she couldn't be bothered keeping up with the myriad "hot new things" her fellow Padawans worried about.

The trouble, of course, came when she was back at the Temple for any length of time, as she was now while the Resolute was being refit after her Master had, once again, caused the poor warship to sustain extensive damage. Being back at the Temple meant attending classes, teaching Younglings, and waiting around for their next assignment. Being back at the Temple meant boredom.

Her Master, true to form, had disappeared the moment they'd hit the landing deck, so Ahsoka was left to her own devices. Her first stop was the Padawan dorms; she was hoping to shower and change clothes before she got down to the task of having very little to do for the next however long. She did so with quick efficiency and then, blissfully, slept for several hours before heading down to the cafeteria for a late dinner.

When she got there, she found several of her agemates huddled around a table, in rapt conversation.

"Look who's back!" one of them said, not *quite* sounding unfriendly.

"Uh, hi," Ahsoka said, going to the table and looking down. Spread across it where hundreds of small, colorful bands, all a different shape. "What are those?" she asked curiously. Several of the girls had more bands around their wrists, and a couple had them twined around headtails or secured in hair.

She was given a universally disparaging look. "You don't *know*?" she was asked. "Little Miss Too Good for the Temple doesn't know about silly bandz?"

"Silly... bands?" Ahsoka raised a white-marked eyebrow, letting out a measured breath as she attempted to let the insult roll off her. She doubted Anakin would be impressed if she got in a fight their first day back.

"Only the coolest things in the galaxy," the girl who'd originally greeted her replied, as though Ahsoka was a two year old. "Obviously."

"Well, obviously not, since I've never heard of them," Ahsoka snapped back. "Who cares about silly little elastic bands?"

"Everybody who's cool," she was informed. Ahsoka furrowed her brow. She knew she shouldn't care if she was deemed cool or not - after all, she got to be on the front lines and these girls didn't, which automatically made her much cooler than them, as far as she was concerned - but still. If she was going to be spending an indeterminate amount of time here, she was going to have to get with the program, fast.

"Yeah, well," she said, flipping one of her headtails over her shoulder. "Have fun with your toys. I'm going to go see what my *Master* is doing." Anakin would help her, she decided - he had to, it was his job. Besides, he owed her about twenty credits that she could put towards her own silly band collection. Not, of course, that she cared about such silly youngling pursuits. Nope, not at all. "Later."

She was steadfastly ignored as she left the room.

Though she wasn't sure her Master would be in his quarters, she decided to go there anyway and wait for him. It was better than hanging around in the dorms, and Master Kenobi could usually be counted on to have stocked the kitchen. The apartment was dark when she entered, which wasn't overly surprising, considering nobody was in there.

She made her way to the kitchen and got herself a snack, then headed back to the sitting room for some well-deserved holonet time. "Master!" she exclaimed, almost dropping her bowl, upon seeing the figure stretched out on the worn sofa.

Anakin Skywalker moaned and rolled over, and Ahsoka wrinkled her nose slightly. "Are you, uh, are you okay?" she asked, though the answer was pretty obvious. She'd expected him to be with Senator Amidala - that must have fallen through.

"Yup," Anakin replied, face buried in the cushions. "Got kicked out of the Outlander, was a pretty good night. What're you doin' here?"

Ahsoka frowned slightly and settled herself in Obi-Wan's armchair. "How does one get kicked out of the Outlander?" she wondered.

"By throwin' up on the bouncer," Anakin slurred in response.

"That would do it," Ahsoka said, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Look, can I talk to you?" She knew nothing she said would be retained come morning, but it was technically a good opportunity to divest her Master of some of his credits. She felt a little bad for taking advantage of his condition, but he'd taught her to make the best of any situation.

Anakin struggled into a sitting position and blinked at her as though trying to get her into focus. "This gonna be one of those 'I'm very disa..pointed in you' talks?" he asked.

Rolling her eyes again, Ahsoka shook her head. "No," she replied, and Anakin looked visibly relieved. "I have a favor to ask." At his shrug, she continued. "There's this thing I have to get, and you owe me twenty credits, so... uh, could I have all or some of that back so I can go buy the thing?"

Anakin regarded her for a long moment, then burped. "Uh, sorry, Snips," he said as she wrinkled her nose. "I kind of don' have any cash on me."

"WHAT?" she exclaimed. "Master, you *owe* me..."

Anakin waved a hand at her. "I spen' it at the Outlander," he replied, as if that made it okay.

"How is that even *possible* to spend your *entire stipend* AND *part of mine*?" she demanded, though given Anakin's current state, she supposed she wasn't all that surprised.

"What d'you need to buy anyway?" he asked, stumbling to his feet. "Jedi have no... attachments." At this bit of wisdom, he giggled, as though he were in on a secret nobody else was - except, Ahsoka thought, his secret attachment was not as secret as he assumed it was.

"That's not the point," she informed him, following him into the kitchen. "The point is - Master, what are you doing?"

Anakin turned and swayed for a moment. "I have no idea," he admitted. "OH, yes, food, I'm hungry." He turned to the cooling unit. "Anyway, what's so 'portant that you need it like right this second?"

Ahsoka debated telling him. At worst, he would laugh at her until he passed out, which seemed inevitable at this point. At best, he would have some muddled advice to give. She took a deep breath. "All the other girls in the dorms have these things? Silly bandz? And if I have to stay here and hang out with them while the Resolute's in dry dock, I... I need to have some so I'm not left out!"

Anakin turned to her, a bag of lunch meat in his hands. "S'at all?" he asked, gazing down at his prize, looking suddenly nauseous. "Nevermind," he said, putting it back in the cooling unit.

"I just... don't want to feel left out, that's all, and I *know* that's not a very Jedi thing to feel, but..."

"But you wanna be able to talk to your friends 'bout something," Anakin replied, leaning against the counter.

She nodded, surprised. "Yeah, basically. I don't have anything in common with those girls, and I just..."

"Wanna feel included," Anakin finished for her. "I get it, Snips." He looked slightly guilty-feeling. Or maybe he was just going to vomit; she wasn't sure. "But you gotta r'member, friendships like that - they don't always last. If somebody's gonna judge you on whether you have the latest gadget or whatever, they're not really your friend."

"That is... surprisingly coherent," Ahsoka told him.

"And true," Anakin agreed. "'Sides. Friends like that'll turn on you no matter what you do. You're better off not havin' friends. I mean, I don't have any friends, and I've done okay, dontcha think?"

"And coherence has been replaced by absurdity," Ahsoka sighed. "Master, please? I have a hard enough time fitting in, and I'm *obviously* not as well-adjusted as you are."

"Not many people are," Anakin replied. "Look, I'm sorry I don't have any money for you to buy your li'l toys or whatever. But trust me, you'll be better off in th' long run if you jus'..." He shrugged. "I'ma go to bed now, Snippers," he announced suddenly, pushing himself off the counter and staggering back to the couch. "Good talk."

"Right. Thanks for nothing, Master," she groused to Anakin's already-sleeping form. So much for *that*. She sighed again. It was time to resort to a different tactic.

"Is there any chance I could get an advance on my month's stipend?" Ahsoka asked the Temple bursar the next morning. "My Master - you know, *Anakin Skywalker* - said it shouldn't be a problem."

The bursar looked down at the computer screen and frowned at her. "I'm afraid I can't do that," he told her. "Your Master's account has been frozen as of this morning, which means I can't make any adjustments to yours."

Ahsoka stared at him. "Are you kidding me?" she asked.

"Tell Master Skywalker the hold will be lifted when his traffic tickets are paid off," the bursar told her, then leaned around her. "NEXT!"

She didn't bother going back to her Master's apartment to let him know about the hold on his account; she was pretty sure he would be too hungover to listen, and besides, let him figure it out on his own.

She made her way back to the Padawan dorms, dreading what she would find when she got there. Sure enough, her agemates were in the middle of a silly band trading session. "Want to join in?" one of them asked, then looked aggrieved, "Oh, *right*, you don't *have* any."

"I don't need status symbols to prove my worth to myself," Ahsoka sniffed. "Which is why I am an apprentice, and the rest of you are not." It was a low blow, to be sure, and untrue at that, but Ahsoka was getting fed up. She turned on her heel and left the room.

The rest of the week was spent alternately avoiding the Padawan dorms and avoiding her Master. She found herself spending a great deal of time in the Room of a Thousand Fountains, perched atop the highest waterfall, trying to release her frustrations into the Force. It bothered her that she was so bothered by her lack of silly bandz. What a stupid - silly, even - thing to get so fixated on, when there were far more important things to worry about.

She was a Jedi Padawan, on the front lines most of the time. She had men under her command, who would die if she made the wrong call. She had a Master who cared about her, in his own obtuse, infuriating way. She was well on her way to Knighthood, if she did say so herself; she didn't need colorful, shaped bands to prove her worth to herself.

And why did she care what her peers thought anyway? She realized she wasn't meditating so much as brooding, and tore herself to awareness. She sighed, and stood. So much for releasing frustration. Her wristcom beeped, Anakin's code sliding across the small readout. "Tano here," she said, not sure she wanted to hear what he had to say.

"Resolute's done!" Her Master sounded positively ecstatic, and Ahsoka realized suddenly that he was as at a loss of what to do with their downtime as she was. "We're shipping out in an hour!"

"On my way," she said with a smile. She'd be able to forget all about the ridiculous silly bands as soon as she saw the 501st, as soon as they were back in the air. Sometimes the Force had fortuitous timing, she thought.

The Resolute looked much better than it had the last time she'd seen it. The loading ramp extending, legions of clone troopers marching up in formation, and Ahsoka swallowed a lump in her throat. It never failed to take her breath away. She felt a hand on her shoulder. "Glad to be getting back to it?" Anakin asked.

She nodded. "You?"

"More than anything," he replied. "Oh, hey, I have something for you."

She turned to him, expecting a datapad or some instructions on their next mission. Instead, he pressed a yellow band into her hand. She held it up, raising an eyebrow at the brightly colored, starfighter-shaped silly band. "Master?" she asked.

"They really should think about getting better security for the Padawan dorms," he said by way of explanation.

She looked down at the band, then back up at her Master. "Thank you," she said, and twined the band around her left headtail. Together, they boarded the ship.