Rila: So they're allowing 'reader' insert stories now? Never been a big fan of it myself. I prefer good old-fashioned books, thank-you very much. Also, guess who bought Star Wars: The Clone Wars season one today? YEAAAAHHHH. And boy is this one long.

Word Count: 1,053

Disclaimer: Season one is the only season of TCW in which I wholeheartedly enjoy every episode. The others are hit and miss.

Chapter Description: She had never had time for it - but that didn't mean she didn't want it.

A family.

In a sense, she had one. Master Plo was the closest thing she had to a father, and Master Skywalker was undoubtedly her older brother, though he got her into trouble just as often as she did on her own. Barriss was like a sister - but there was no mother to the dynamic. Sometimes Master Kenobi seemed to fit it, but it was a little too disturbing to think of him that way.

But as for her actual family - Togruta, like herself - she had never known them. Perhaps, if she actually spent more than just a handful of minutes trying to recollect her time spent on Shili, she might've been able to recall something. A face, perhaps, or a voice.

It didn't upset her the way she thought it would. She did, after all, already have her "family" and a network of friends that she would give her life for without hesitation. But there was something still missing, an emptiness that only surfaced when she watched others.

Civilians. It didn't matter the planet, didn't matter the species - they had something she could never have, knew an ignorance she would never know. They lead normal lives, ones without the Force or battles. Children so close to her age could laugh and play and do as they pleased - without consequence.

They were tucked in each night by loving parents who formed attachments without regret or regard to the Jedi Code. The war still affected them, that much was true - but they weren't the ones on the front lines, wondering if each breath they drew would be their last.

It was a life that she longed for at times. Times when it felt like the war would never end, when she felt as though every step she and everyone else took forward, the enemy was three-thousand steps ahead, no matter what they did.

Sometimes, it was almost enough to make her cry. Almost, because she didn't. When she felt like it, her mind would remind her of what she had - and that she was still alive.

She was alive, those she cared for were still alive - and that had to count for something.

Ahsoka didn't think any more about families until several months later. The village they were at was small, and almost completely populated by her own people. Not anyone she knew on a personal level, but that was to be expected - she hadn't been home to Shili since recieving her akul-tooth headdress.

An older woman called out in her native tongue - a language that she hardly used anymore, and she found herself listening to it with a sense of nostalgia. A girl no older than eight ran past her, and she found herself watching the child as she raced towards the woman who bent, arms opened in welcome.

The little Togruta girl ran into them without hesitation, and the older Togruta's arms folded around her - a gesture of warmth and love that had Ahsoka's heart twisting painfully. It was a reminder of what she had never had. And it made her wonder.

Would she be the same girl she was if she wasn't Force-sensitive? If Master Plo hadn't found her and brought her to the Temple, would she have grown up here, under the care of a loving mother and father? Had siblings to fight with instead of a Master?

Ahsoka shook her head in denial. It wasn't something she should have been wasting her time on - she couldn't change the past, not even if she wanted to. But still, her gaze remained locked upon the Togruta mother and child.

If she was not who she was, if she was not a Jedi - in a few years, she supposed, that would be her, beckoning to children of her own. Sharing a home with another Togruta, forming a family of her own.

It formed a bittersweet taste in her mouth and made her heart twist in a way that nearly brought tears to her eyes.

"Ahsoka?" The call of her name in Basic, not in her own language, brought Ahsoka's attention to the speaker. It was Rex, his helmet tucked under his arm as his eyes locked with her own. Perhaps he read something in her face - no doubt she was an open holonovel at the moment, with the way her thoughts had gone - because his own creased in concern. "Is something wrong?"

Instead of answering him right away, she found herself eyeing him almost thoughtfully, new questions rising to the top of her mind like oil on water. Did Rex ever think about the future? Did he ever entertain the thought of a family? And if he did - and the chevrons on her montrals and lekku darkened just a bit at her thought - was she involved in that sort of future?

"Ahsoka?" Rex's voice now carried concern to match that of his expression, and she shook her head to clear it before she met his gaze and forced a smile, ignoring the painful ache of her cheeks.

"I'm fine." She stepped forward, and she couldn't help but glance backwards one last time, towards the mother and child. They were gone, however, and she closed her eyes before turning back around. "Let's go."

Perhaps it was childishly naieve to think that she would get a happy ending after the war - assuming she would live to see the end - and even more so to add Rex into it, but she found that she was not quite ready to give up on it. It was, after all, a product of hope - and so she would keep it, just for a while longer.