POV: Ahsoka Tano

I walked out of the temple and down the rows of stairs. I saw my Master relaxing on the stairs. I shook my head as I approached him. I sat beside him, glancing at him. His eyes were closed and a half smile danced on his lips. "Are you okay, Master?"

"Yeah, Snips," he whispered, opening his eyes. He turned his head and smiled at me. "Are you all set? I should ask if you're still hungry, but you always are."

I chuckled and punched his arm playfully. I saw his eyes light up and his smile grow wider. I watched as he stood up and reached his hand out for mine. I gripped his hand and he carefully helped me up. "I'm not always hungry, Master."

"All right," he agreed, nodding his head. "You just are most of the time. I keep wondering how you stay so tiny when you eat so much, little one. What's your secret?"

"I do not eat so much!" I laughed. "It's all the training we do. I practice when you aren't around sometimes. We can't train again until you feel better. In your current condition, my training saber will probably end up killing you."

"I highly doubt that," he laughed. "Anyway, let's get going. I'm kind of hungry."

I chuckled, releasing his hand. I hadn't even realized that our hands were still connected until this moment. Clearly he hadn't realized that fact either. He rubbed the back of his neck as I rolled my eyes. "I'll race you to the speeder."

My eyes met his for a brief moment before a wide smile reappeared on his face. "You're on."

"Go!" I laughed. Together, we ran down the final amount of stairs and across the pavement. We rounded a few corners until we reached the speeder lot.

At the moment, I was actually a little ahead of him. I smiled, pushing myself harder until stronger arms wrapped around my waist. I was spun around in a circle and placed on the ground. By the time I turned around, my Master's back was directly ahead of me. "Oh, and I'm the cheater!"

I heard him chuckle as he reached the airspeeder. I watched as he jumped over the side and landed in the pilot's seat. I jogged the rest of the way and jumped over my side. I smacked his arm again, glaring at him playfully.

"Oh, come on, Snips," he laughed.

I closed my eyes, looking away from him, and crossed my arms over my chest. I heard him chuckle as his hand rested on my leg. "What a youngling you are."

"I'd rather be a youngling than a cheater." I stuck my chin in the air slightly, my eyes remaining closed.

"I promise I won't cheat next time."

I raised my chin higher. His arm wrapped around my shoulder and pulled me closer to his body until my head rested against his upper chest. I felt his warmth radiating off of him and it felt so wonderful. My feelings for him resurfaced and almost exposed themselves, but I managed to calm myself down. I remembered that he was my Master and that he had a wife.

I sighed and opened my eyes, smiling up at him. He smiled at me and shook his head. "I'll play fair from now on, Snips."

"You're actually a lot more fun when you cheat. Playing fair wouldn't have won us the numerous battles we fought, Master."

"Good point," he replied, nodding. With his other hand, he began the airspeeder's engine. As soon as he was ready to fly us to Dex's Diner, I pulled away from his arm. He glanced at me uneasily for a moment, blinking rapidly before focusing on the speeder.

We flew from the lot, blending into the normal traffic of Coruscant. I bit my lip and wondered if now might be the right time to bring up Padme.

I sighed, glancing over the side of the speeder. I could clearly see her apartment from here and I wondered if that's where he'd rather be right now. Why spend time with a Padawan when you could be with your wife?

"Are you okay, Ahsoka?"

I turned my attention back to him and nodded. "Absolutely."

"Would you tell me if something were bothering you?"

"Of course." I normally would, but this was something much bigger and so much more important to him. I wondered what he might think of me for following him that night. My curiosity had definitely gotten to me.

I reached my arm out across the small distance between us and rested my hand on his. He flipped his hand over and held mine. He would usually steer with one hand because he was overconfident in his piloting abilities. I was a bit jealous every time he did this and I had a small feeling that maybe he was trying to impress me. That could be done very easily…

"All right," he whispered. "Ahsoka, I talked to Senator Amidala earlier. We had a discussion about politics again."

I groaned, picturing where this might go. The last time he'd spoken to Padme about politics, I'd gone behind enemy lines and was reprimanded for it by him. "What?"

"Nothing," I replied quickly. "Where is this going?"

"It's not going anywhere like last time, Snips. She actually misses you. She asked me if I could bring you by a little later. Would that be all right with you?"

"Definitely," I laughed. I felt like he was covering up the fact that he wanted to see her. Why would he invite me along though? I glanced at him, checking his expression. He seemed genuinely happy that I had accepted the invitation.

The speeder dipped down beneath the traffic and headed for the under city. We reached Dex's Diner and he carefully parked the speeder in an open space in the lot.

"All right," he began. "You can order whatever you'd like. Don't even look at prices."

POV: Anakin Skywalker

She looked at me with an incredulous expression. "What?"

"What do you mean 'don't even look at prices'?"

"I mean that I would like to pay for dinner. If something looks really good, then I want you to get it. I feel like spoiling you tonight."

"Oh?" she laughed. "And why is that?"

I shrugged. "I just feel like being a gentleman tonight. I'm not your Master right now; I'm your friend, okay?"

She nodded and smiled. I watched her jump over the side of the speeder and I followed suit soon after, jumping over my side. I walked around and draped my arm over her shoulders. She leaned into me and I swore that I could almost taste her happiness.

We entered the diner and, seeing as though almost every seat was empty, we chose the one closest to the exit. If Ahsoka didn't like the food choices, we could just jet out of here.

She took the one right by the door, so I chose to sit across from her. She folded her hands at the center while I glanced around. I saw a waitress droid rolling around. She looked at us and said, "One minute, hon."

"Take your time."

I turned my attention back to Ahsoka, her eyes downcast onto the table. "What's wrong?"

She jumped a little as she raised her head. I tilted mine, meeting her eyes. She smiled weakly and shook her head. "Nothing's wrong, Master. I'm just thinking."

"What are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking of ways to improve my lightsaber skills."

"Ahsoka," I sighed. "I don't think there's much improvement to be done. You're doing everything with a tremendous amount of skill. To be honest, I think you're pretty close to being ready to undergo the trials."

I watched her eyes light up as she straightened in her seat. "Do you really think that?"

I smiled, nodding. "Of course I do. You've proven yourself time and time again to be an amazing student. It's just… going to be so hard to let you go when that time comes. You've been my Padawan for almost three years and I've grown close to you. You're like my little sister."

Her smile faltered for a moment. It was too quick, but I noticed it. "Thank you, Master."

She turned her head as the waitress droid rolled over to us. "What'll it be tonight?"

Ahsoka glanced at me nervously, her eyes widening slightly. I bit my lip, thinking quickly. "Do you have specials for the week?"

"Yes, hon. Dex has a special soup this week."

I glanced away from the droid and focused on Ahsoka. "How does that sound?"

She nodded her head, fiddling with her fingers. "All right, we'll take two dishes of the soup."

The droid pulled out a datapad and scribbled our order onto it, rolling away from us. I turned back to Ahsoka, smiling at her. She was rubbing her left lek nervously and I could tell that she was thinking of something much bigger than improving her lightsaber skills. "Ahsoka, talk to me."

I rested my elbows onto the table, folding my hands and resting my chin on them. She moved her hands down towards her lap and bit her lip. Her eyes darted beside me and then back to me several times. I tensed as I felt the nervousness rolling off of her in massive waves. "What are you so nervous about, Snips?"

"Nothing," she muttered, attempting to contain her emotions. I lifted my head and placed my hand on the table, palm up. She glanced at it briefly before placing her own on top of it. "Master, I'm sorry. There's nothing going on right now that really makes me nervous. I'm just nervous about the future in general."

I rubbed her hand with my thumb. "Everything is going to be okay, little one. Why do you think something so terrible is going to happen?"

"I just have this feeling and I'm starting to believe it. I don't truly understand it."

I sighed, half smiling at her. "Don't worry. I'm not going to let anything happen to either of us, Snips."

She nodded, closing her eyes. "I know you won't, Master, but I feel that this is something much bigger than us both."

"Then we need to come together to stop whatever this bad feeling is."

She laughed lightly, opening her eyes again. "Thank you, Master. I forgot to ask you how your meeting with Master Yoda went. Did he help you figure out what your premonition meant?"

I shook my head. "He told me that I had to let whatever happens in that dream come true. He said that... the events were natural, that I couldn't prevent them. He said that I need to let go."

"If you don't mind me asking, what did you dream about?"

I pulled my hand away from her and straightened myself. "I'd rather not get into this right now, Ahsoka. Maybe I'll open up to you about it later. It's just…"

"I understand," she whispered. "It's something difficult that you don't want to open up right now because you're unsure if it'll become reality."

I chuckled, staring into her eyes. "I think you know me a little too well, Snips. You know that I'll eventually tell you, but for right now I don't want to worry you."

"I'm going to be worried even if you keep it hidden. I'll always be here for you, Skyguy. I want you to open yourself up to me. Sure, I'm a Padawan, but –"

"You're not just a Padawan," I interrupted. "You're the one person I trust with my life. You've been here for me through trying times and we've both saved each other countless times. You're my best friend, Snips."

"I think you've had to save me more than I've had to save you," she laughed.

I rolled my eyes and smiled. "That's because you always get yourself into trouble. Hm, like when you followed Bane by yourself."

"Don't even start, Skyguy," she chuckled, reaching across the table to smack my arm.

"Here ya go," the droid announced, placing our food onto the table. Ahsoka and I nodded, thanking the droid. I paid the amount of credits due and we began to eat in a peaceful silence.