Title: Rebuilding the Bond
Author: SilverDragon & Kyuan
Author's Note: Yeah, bloody typical of you, DW. ;) Messing around with Ami's verse so the rest of us have to write quickly to fix it

"Happy Birthday, Anakin," Obi-Wan said, walking into Anakin's room.

"Birthday?" Anakin echoed. "Is it my birthday?" And why do you care? He wondered. Ever since he was nine, Obi-Wan had completely ignored his tenth birthday, forgotten his eleventh, and had given him a tissue for his twelfth. Then again, maybe Obi-Wan had just given him a tissue because he had sneezed.

Obi-Wan was grinning widely. "It's your thirteenth birthday, Ani! Do you know what that means?"

"My Master got abducted by clowns and turned into one of them?" Anakin suggested.

To his surprise, Obi-Wan burst out laughing. "You're officially a padawan today."

Anakin raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't your padawan before?"

Obi-Wan frowned briefly. "Want to hear a long story, dating back to the ancient Jedi Masters who first devised these customs?"

"Not really, but if you wanna tell it . . . "

"A long time ago," Obi-Wan said. "The Jedi Master decided that at the age of thirteen, a person would be officially a Jedi Padawan. Not a padawan, but a Jedi Padawan. You were my padawan before, but now you're both my padawan and a Jedi Padawan; are you following this, Padawan?"

Anakin personally did not, but he nodded anyway. No need to start off his birthday with another lecture.

"So anyway, today you're a Jedi Padawan and . . . "

"Master?" Anakin interrupted.

"Yes, Anakin?"

"Can we eat breakfast?"

Breakfast was the usual: Obi-Wan's delicious ration bars. Anakin couldn't help making a face as he saw them. For four years now he had eaten those bars, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks . . . Anakin frowned. He must have eaten 365 X 4 ration bars by now...which was what?

"Master, what is 365 times 4?"

Obi-Wan didn't blink. "1,460," he said.

Anakin gaped. "How do you do that, Master?"

"I calculated much the same thing," Obi-Wan admitted. "I'm taking cooking lessons, Ani. But it's either this, or nothing at all."

Anakin smirked. "Maybe I should cook," he suggested playfully.

"Would you?" Obi-Wan asked seriously. "That'd be great." He betrayed his seriousness with a sudden smile. "No need to look that way at me . . . I'll continue to provide these delicious bars until I get my cooking license."

"Cooking license?"

"You burn down half the Temple and then you'll see if the Council will let you cook again without first getting a cooking license," Obi-Wan said, taking another bite of his ration bar.

"You burned down half the Temple?"

Obi-Wan suddenly appeared very interested in reading the nutritional ingredients of the ration bars.

Noon hit and Anakin was wondering what exactly had gotten into Obi-Wan. His normally stoic Master had been joking around all day, playing practical jokes, everything the opposite of the way his master normally reacted. Anakin could have sworn that it was Obi-Wan who was turning thirteen, not him.

At the same time, Anakin knew that Obi-Wan's new attitude was strengthening their bond. Anakin grinned. Over the past few years, various events with Obi-Wan had pushed the development of the training bond, and plenty of other events had wrecked destruction on the fragile link.

But today, Anakin felt as if nothing could break the bond now.

Not even a meeting with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.

"So, young Anakin, your birthday, is it?"

"Yes, sir!" Anakin said happily. Ever since last year, when he had stormed out on Obi-Wan, he had been coming here after his classes. Most of the time, Palpatine talked about responsibilities of a Supreme Chancellor, but also about the power that he had. Power to control people, planets, the possibilities were endless for him.

A few times, Palpatine talked about the Sith and how they were deeply misunderstood. How they didn't seek to kill, but how they sought peace and a uniform style throughout the galaxy.

"You see, Anakin, I know the galaxy. Many worlds squabble over pointless issues. If everything were the same, if everyone was held in an iron grip, there would be no more wars over ignorant things."

"But Supreme Chancellor, the Sith will kill anyone to get that!"

"No, no, they kill only who stands in their way. Jedi do that too, from a certain point of view. And your Master always says that many things rely heavily on your point of view."

It surprised the young apprentice how much Palpatine seemed to favor a government that he said, "the Sith want." But much of what Palpatine said made sense. But today, Anakin was not in the mood for more talks about how it felt to rule the galaxy.

"Supreme Chancellor," he said hurriedly. "Master Obi-Wan wanted me to meet him in twenty minutes so that he could show me a surprise!"

Palpatine's mouth thinned. "Master Obi-Wan, eh?"

"Is something wrong?" the padawan asked, confused.

Palpatine's face smoothed out and became neutral. "No, no, my dear boy, nothing is wrong. You go along now to your Master. I will meet you again tomorrow, same time. We will have much to discuss."

"I might be busy tomorrow . . . "

Palpatine forced a smile. "I will speak to your Master to free up some time."

Anakin furrowed his brow, but did not say anything.

When Anakin returned home, Obi-Wan was standing by the comm, frowning. "Master Windu, all due respect, but why does the Supreme Chancellor need Anakin tomorrow?" He listened to Windu's reply with apparent interest and then frowned. "But, Anakin is not going to grow up to be a diplomat. Yes, I know diplomatic skills are useful for a Jedi, but – " he frowned again. "Mace, wait! I need to – "

"Uh, hi, Obi-Wan?" Anakin asked.

Obi-Wan turned, smiling at his apprentice before jotting down some numbers. "Okay, got it. Listen, I'll call you back. Yes, I know it's disrespectful of me, but it's my padawan's birthday. Good-bye. Force be with you," he quickly added before turning off the comm.

"Hi, Anakin. Back so soon?" he asked.

Anakin grinned. "You told me to come back early for a surprise," he said hopefully.

Obi-Wan smiled. "Here," he said, handing Anakin a small package. "Open it," he encouraged as Anakin held the package up to the light.

With a grin, Anakin ripped open the wrapping paper and out fell – a rock. "What is this?" he asked, turning over the rock in his hand.

"It's from the River of Light on Qui-Gon's home planet. He gave this rock to me on my thirteenth birthday and it is something that he carried around." Obi-Wan smiled wistfully at the memories. "This rock saved my life. It's Force Sensitive, Anakin."

Anakin looked upon the rock with more interest. "You mean Qui-Gon used to carry this around wherever he went?" he asked.

"Everywhere he went," Obi-Wan said, his smile fading slightly. "When he gave it to me, I carried it around too. Now I pass it on to you, my Padawan."

Anakin grinned widely. He poured feelings of trust and love into their shared bond and was surprised and gratified to feel Obi-Wan return the same. The two sat for awhile, simply relishing the bond between them until Anakin's rumbling stomach reminded Obi-Wan of lunch.

"I have another surprise for you," Obi-Wan said, leading Anakin to the dining room.

"Cake!" Anakin burst out. He gave Obi-Wan a shrewd look. "Did you cook it?"

Obi-Wan laughed. "I got my cooking license today!"

Anakin breathed a sigh of relief. Obi-Wan could finally cook. They would no longer eat ration bars 24/7. As he tasted the cake though, he wondered why that worried him so much.

The End