AN: Ok, so this isn't the greatest story, and it certainly isn't one of my better ones. But I wanted to post something so this was hastily edited and checked for logic errors (and if you happen to notice any, please point them out, I know what I'm saying). Sorry for the ending; is it too abrupt? Enjoy.
Obi-Wan Kenobi sometimes wondered if someone or something somewhere messed up. The eighteen year old boy in front of him—no, no, man, he wasn't a boy now—appeared to have all the maturity of the younger Padawan he was playing with. The child could have been no more than six, and yet Anakin Skywalker was playing with the child as if he was his own age.
Wasn't he more mature at nine?
Or perhaps merely the innocence Anakin had possessed then had been so washed away by the tales of war and the keeping of peace that he was determined to hold on to some. Obi-Wan disagreed with the Jedi sometimes, exposing the Padawans to rather ugly situations. Logically, he knew it was the only way for them to learn, but there were times he wondered if there was another solution.
"Ani, Ani! That's no fair!" The child, whose name Obi-Wan hadn't caught, jumped up and down, trying to grab the chocolate drenched fruit Anakin had stolen from him. Obi-Wan smiled to himself. Anakin's height certainly did give him a huge advantage; the little boy couldn't have reached up any farther than Anakin's stomach.
"Didn't you say that Master Rei lectured you on the evils of sweets?"
"Doesn't mean anything! Gimme!"
"Now, now, Lumissi, behave."
"Gimme!" Lumissi chanted as Anakin danced away from him.
Really, what grown man acted like that? And Anakin was so set on being called a man.
"Ani!" Lumissi whined.
Anakin pulled a disapproving face and mock-sternly told the boy off. Lumissi managed not to burst out laughing.
Wait, was Anakin trying to do an impression of him? Obi-Wan, to say the least, was not amused. Not that Anakin didn't do a good job. He had been lectured enough by his master to know what he sounded like. But the fact that the Padawan obviously found him so funny...
Did he not remember Obi-Wan was standing right there, watching the two? Or was Anakin—
"Master, have I angered you?"
Obi-Wan jumped at the question. "Angered me?"
"You have...this look...I was only jesting."
"I know that. But if you jest any longer, that chocolate will melt all over the floor."
"Make him hive it back, Master Kenobi!" Lumissi pleaded.
"And what have you done to deserve it?" Obi-Wan loved playing on the perceptions of the young ones that he was heartless.
The child pouted. "Ani made me do the chores you told him to do."
"Really?" He turned to Anakin, whose expression was entirely too innocent. "Anakin, what have I told you about forcing the younger Padawans to do your work for you?"
"He did them willingly." Mirth danced in his dark eyes.
"And my reward was the chocolate fruit Master Rei doesn't let me have!" Lumissi cried.
"Anakin, give the poor boy the fruit."
Sensing he was in trouble, Anakin quickly did as he was told.
"Now, bid Lumissi goodnight. We need to talk."
Anakin laughed. Talk? Talk he could do. "Goodnight, Lumissi! Enjoy!"
The child was too busy devouring the treat to do much more than offer a garbled sound. Anakin continued chuckling to himself as Obi-Wan practically drug him down the hall, resisting the urge to pull him by his Padawan braid.
I swear one day I'm going to choke him.