"What do you think, Ani? Fencing classes? Just once?"

Anakin glanced at Naomi, then at Ulisses, who was sitting with his head resting on his folded arms, staring. Ever since Anakin had been forced to explain his abilities (I was born with them) and hand (I built it myself) Ulisses had taken to staring at Anakin for long periods of time, silently, with brow furrowed. Anakin had the distinct feeling that if he were to reject Naomi's offer he was going to get a different partner walking home.

"You know what, Naomi? I'd love to."

The building was bigger than Anakin had expected, and nicer. Arched ceilings hung high overhead, and everything practically shown with a clean, bright, sheen.

Naomi led him forward to a man who seemed to be in charge. The man stuck out his hand, and leaned forward with a friendly smile.

"My name's John, what's yours?"

"Anakin, pleasure to meet you."

"Anakin, huh? Ulisses has told me about you - you're his other mechanic friend, right?"

"That's about the long and short of it," Naomi remarked. "Anakin, John here is in charge of pretty much everyone, but he and Ulisses have a pretty special bond. I've learned more about John since I learned that Ulisses and I both fence here. John and Ulisses train together, and they're good friends."

John chuckled. "I like to think that we're good friends too, Naomi! But you're not wrong."

Naomi giggled, slapping a hand to her mouth and ducking her head. Anakin grinned, tilted his head at John.

"I suppose Ulisses could use a good teacher!"

"He's a good student. A great student, in fact. I've never really trained anyone like him… so much passion. He's going to be great one day, I know it! Honestly, he's practically a son to me."

"It's good to know Ulisses has someone else watching out for him," Anakin mused. "He's a great guy he just… gets in trouble sometimes, you know?"

John raised an eyebrow insightfully. "It sounds like you're speaking from experience?"

Anakin laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Plead the fifth? How about you teach me a thing or two?"

John laughed deep, his eyes crinkling at the corners. "How about it. How much experience do you have?"

Anakin paused only a moment, having expected this. There was no way he'd be able to hide all his experience, but there was no good way to explain his using forms that didn't exist.

"Well, my father taught me some when I was younger, but I don't know what you'd call the forms, or where you'd consider my experience level."

"Mmm. Well, I suppose we can just spar and see where you're at."

Anakin was led to the mats, and, after fitting the proper equipment, took a basic stance as he faced John. He had to be careful to hold back… but he wasn't going to make this easy.

The rapier was fairly similar to his lightsaber, all things considered. Light enough to almost be negligible, especially with his metallic hand. Besides, all one had to do to score was touch the opponent, unlike cleaving with a sword. The only disadvantage was that it felt like fighting Dooku again.

Anakin surged forward, surprising John, who had expected far less aggression. The next few moments spun into a blur of Anakin's attacks, as John defended, waiting patiently for an opening.

John finally struck out, a blurring attack that was only deflected by the elegant twists of Makashi. John's eyes flew open, in his moment of surprise his guard dropped, and Anakin's rapier flitted in to score the final point.

Anakin panted, and shoved away the faceguard, unsure and uncaring of whether or not he was following proper procedure. In either case John followed suit, staring in wonderment.

"What was that?"

"Ah, a move my father taught me."

"Incredible… I've never seen anything like it… never…"

Anakin shrugged, and tried not to look suspicious.

"It's incredible because… well…" John stared deep into Anakin's eyes; searching, wondering. "It's rather similar to some moves I've been working on myself."

"Is that so?"

"...Yes… your father taught you, you say?"

"When I was younger, yeah."

Naomi started walking up to them, and Anakin grinned in her direction, before John interrupted.

"Could I speak with him - your father?"

"I'm afraid he passed on some years ago, sorry."

John murmured condolences, as Naomi beamed at him.

"Look at that! Your first time here, and you beat John himself! Ani, you didn't tell me you were so good!"

"Ah, I think he was just distracted. Lucky hit."

"Those were an awful lot of lucky hits," Naomi said reprovingly.

"He's amazing, no doubt about it!" John vouched. "I don't understand a bit of what his style is, but there's no doubting his skill. I'd really like to see more of you, Anakin. See if you can teach me anything."

"I might have to do tha-"

"Naomi!"

Naomi whirled to see a man with shoulder length brown hair running towards her, before tripping on his own feet and stumbling the rest of the way there.

"Andrew! Are you alright?" She rushed forward, catching Andrew by his shoulders and helping him regain his balance.

"Hm, yes of course! You're here!" Andrew proceeded to blush at his own words, and Naomi giggled, hunching her shoulders.

"Awww, um, thank you. Um, Anakin! This is Andrew! He's a friend of mine." Naomi turned to face Andrew, one arm intertwined with Andrew's.

Anakin paused. "A friend?"

Both of them blushed to the roots and stammered, before being saved by John. "Friends. Yes. Every time they're here together they wind up together somehow, platonically talking and platonically sparring and platonically flirting."

"Wha… no!" Naomi leaned forward, eyes wide. "No, we're uh… friends!"

"Yeah!" Andrew chimed in, straightening to his full height.

Anakin nodded sagely, as John excused himself to work with another student.

"Of course, I see."

The two nodded at him, before Andrew turned, and, doing his best to ignore Anakin, cleared his throat. "Of course, I… platonically made you a gift…"

"Andrew, really?"

Andrew nodded, and Anakin made a mental note to tease Naomi endlessly the second they left the building.

Naomi walked with her head straight forward, and her newfound crochet cup holder safely ensconced in her grasp.

"Sooo. Andrew, huh."

"You shut up, Anakin Skywalker."

"You had to know this was going to happen. If he sees you every time, you had to know this was coming."

"Well, I didn't realize you were going to be so unbearable about it."

Anakin grinned. "Oh, you think I'm unbearable? Wait til Ulisses and I get together. Hey, how come I haven't heard about Andrew before now?"

"I suppose because you didn't have any reason to meddle in my private friendships, Anakin."

Anakin chuckled. "You know, you're a completely different person in front of strangers than you are with friends. And that's a nice cup holder."

Naomi tried to keep a straight face, but a smile twitched at her lips. "It is a very nice cup holder."