Obi-Wan didn't know what he had expected from this trip. He had mostly scheduled it because he wanted to let Anakin and Ahsoka have a chance to go on vacation, especially Ahsoka. She was still in foster care, and while Obi-Wan wanted to get custody of his foster sister, who was more like a sister to him, they weren't letting him. But he did get to see her and so when he got permission to take her for a weekend, he knew that she would like this.
And she did seem too to, even though she had wanted to stay at the cabin for awhile and spend time in the hot tub, instead of going to the town. When they got back, she was dressed in her normal clothes and her eyes were wide and full of excitement. When she saw Padmé and Satine, she sighed and shook her head.
"Really, Anakin?" Ahsoka said sighing as if she was speaking to a difficult child. Obi-Wan could hardly blame her. Anakin did act like a child a lot. Sometimes Obi-Wan thought that Ahsoka might be more mature than Anakin even though she was younger. She rolled her eyes and exchanged looks with Anakin.
Anakin was the type who liked to have girlfriends, but he always thought the person he was with was the one even though he was young. He was a modern day Romeo. Romeo had been foolish too when it came to romance.
But hopefully Anakin wouldn't end up getting himself killed because of it.
"Padmé and Satine are very nice and they're here by themselves," Anakin said, even though it wasn't really relevant that they were here by themselves. "I used to come here as a child with my mother so I know this place. I want to show them around."
Rather he wanted to show Padmé around. Anakin didn't care about Satine. Obi-Wan felt bad about it.
Even though he had just met Satine, he knew that she was going through something. She was often looking off into space with a sad expression on her face. And Padmé kept trying to cheer her up.
But Anakin was going to make that difficult because he was obviously attracted to Padmé.
And to make it worse even though Padmé seemed like a good friend, she kept smiling and giggling at Anakin's stupid jokes. And they were stupid.
So Obi-Wan wasn't surprised when they ended up spending the evening with them and the next day too. And Obi-Wan found that he liked Satine. She was so passionate and smart and seemed to have an opinion about everything. Obi-Wan always was attracted to women like that. He liked people who knew what they believed in.
And she certainly did.
But he imagined that she wanted to spend the weekend with her friend.
So Obi-Wan shot Anakin a look when he asked Padmé to go dog sledding with him. Anakin didn't even look at Obi-Wan. He had always been the master of ignoring him. That was pretty much the only thing that Anakin was the master of.
"It'll be fun," Anakin said, giving Padmé that annoying grin he gave women he was interested in.
Obi-Wan sighed and rolled his eyes.
"I don't think—" Obi-Wan tried to say, but he didn't get the chance to finish his thought. Surprisingly it wasn't Anakin who interrupted him.
"I've always wanted to go dog sledding," Padmé said. "They really have that here?" she asked.
"They seem to have anything that is Christmas related," Satine said and she wasn't wrong. It was one of the reasons that Obi-Wan had wanted to bring Ahsoka here. She loved Christmas.
And she deserved to have good holidays. Obi-Wan didn't know if he and Anakin would be allowed to see her on Christmas yet. Obi-Wan hoped so, but her parents might show up and actually want to see her, which would be good if they actually showed up and didn't ditch her at the last minute. Ahsoka might have to stay with her foster parents too who were decent enough people for the most part.
If they hadn't been… Obi-Wan didn't know what he would do but Anakin would have murdered them.
"You should go with me," Anakin said. "It'll be fun."
"I'd love to," Padmé said, beaming.
"I want to go too," Ahsoka said too.
Anakin frowned, obviously that hadn't been what he wanted to hear.
"Yes, you should go as well," Obi-Wan said. He went over to Anakin and whispered in his ear. "And you better not make this awkward for Ahsoka. We came here to spend time with her."
"I know, Obi-Wan," Anakin said. "And I'm fine with Ahsoka coming with us."
"Yes, it'll be fun," Padmé said.
Anakin nodded, but his smile looked force. It was a shame that Obi-Wan didn't really care if he was unhappy. This trip wasn't for him.
"It will be," Ahsoka said. Her smile was genuine but before she was gone she muttered something that Obi-Wan could only hear. "Don't worry, I won't let them do something stupid."
"Good," Obi-Wan said. "But do have fun. Don't worry too much about Anakin. You know stupid is his specialty."
"What did you say?" Anakin said, looking toward them.
Obi-Wan and Ahsoka just smiled.
Maybe Obi-Wan should have gone too but he didn't have any interest in dog sledding. He decided he would go see how Satine was at her cabin if she even wanted to speak to him. She had left soon after the others had. Maybe she wouldn't want to speak to him. After all she was going through something.
But when he knocked on the door, she answered. Her blond hair was partially covering her face, but for a second, he thought her eyes might have lit up a bit.
But he had probably just imagined it.
"Hey, Satine," Obi-Wan said. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Hello," she said as she let him in.
"I was wondering if you wanted to go to town?" Obi-Wan asked as the door shut behind him.
"Did Padmé tell you to ask that?" Satine asked.
"No, I wanted to see how you were doing?" Obi-Wan said. "You seem..."
"I seem what?" Satine asked.
"Distracted, no, hurt," Obi-Wan said. "As if something is hurting you."
Satine sighed and shook her head. "I…" she crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't normally tell people but yesterday was my sister's birthday."
Why didn't she usually tell people that? He didn't say anything and he just kept listening. She would continue if she wanted to.
"She's gone now… my whole family is," Satine said. She looked down at the floor. "I miss her a lot. She never got to have a Christmas like this. She was young when she died." She wiped her eyes even though Obi-Wan couldn't see any tears. Maybe they hadn't come yet. He didn't want to see her cry. "She would have liked this and she deserved to have more birthdays."
"I… I'm so sorry, Satine," Obi-Wan said. "I know how the holidays can be when your family is gone."
"You know?" She didn't sound doubtful but curious.
"I haven't seen my parents since I was a kid. I was in foster care and…" Most parents wanted to be reunited with their children and would do whatever they could, but his hadn't been like that.
"I'm sorry," Satine said. "That's horrible. I don't know why some people wouldn't want to get their kids back."
"I don't either," Obi-Wan said.
"I was planning to just watch Bo's favorite movies this weekend but…" she sighed. "Last night I was thinking maybe I'm not honoring her memory doing this. If she was here, she would want to do things. And she would want me to have fun. I just don't know if I can do something like that even here."
"We can do something," Obi-Wan offered before he could even think about it. She probably didn't want to spend time with him. She probably wanted to spend time with her friend Padmé but she had run off with Anakin.
"Really? You would want to do something with me?" She asked.
"If you want to do something with me," Obi-Wan said. "It could be fun."
"I suppose there are worse people I could spend time with," she said.
"Does that mean that you do want to do something? I think I can find some interesting things to do."
"Something super Christmassy," Satine said. "This town is excessive when it comes to that."
"Yes, that's for sure, but we'll still have a good time. I promise."
And he intended to keep that.
Satine at first wasn't sure about leaving the cabin. She had gotten used to her tradition of just moping around the house. But now she wasn't at her place and last night before the two of them had gone to sleep Padmé had said something that made Satine feel she should do more to honor her sister's memory.
So she was going to try her best to have fun.
As long as it wasn't ice skating again. She knew that she wasn't into that. And if she broke her leg that would be far from fun.
"We could do dog sledding too or go on a sleigh ride or go sledding."
She didn't really want to go dog sledding. Maybe it was silly but she felt sorry for the dogs. Yes she had been told that they enjoyed it but still. As for a sleigh ride in a way it sounded good but too romantic.
But she couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to go on a sleigh ride with someone like Obi-Wan. But she wouldn't force him to do something like that with her.
Even though if they had they would have things to talk about. She had talked to him a lot last night. More than she had talked to Padmé even. It was odd that she could talk to long to a stranger, but he didn't feel like one to her at all.
It felt like she had known him for a long time. Which was a way that Satine never felt about anyone.
"Sledding sounds good," Satine said. When she had been a little girl, that was something that she had loved to do. Not that it had snowed much where she lived. Yes, maybe here in Leavenworth, Washington there was some snow, but in western Washington snow was rare and didn't even happen every year.
Still she remembered sledding down hills with her friends. She hadn't done that since she had been a kid and doing it now… well, it sounded like it would be fun. Maybe it would make her feel like a kid again. That might be nice. She hadn't felt that way in such a long time.
When they got to the Ski Hill, the sledding hill there was nothing like the hills that she had gone on when she was a kid. This was a much more amazing one. They wouldn't even have to walk up the hills and would be taken up them with a lift.
"This is fancier than the sledding I'm used to," Satine said as she looked at it. She pulled her coat closer to keep some of the cold air from getting in. She kind of liked the cold air though.
"You still want to?" Obi-Wan asked. "It'll be fun, but we can do something else if you want. I'm sure the town has something else if you're afraid to—"
"Afraid? I'm not afraid of sledding," Satine said. "No one is afraid of such a thing. Or at least she wasn't. "And I think it will be enjoyable." She decided that she would say something that she normally wouldn't. She would try and be more adventurous. "I imagine that I could reach the bottom of this hill faster than you could, Obi-Wan."
"Really? You think you could?" Obi-Wan asked raising an eyebrow.
"I'm positive that I could," Satine said, crossing her arms over her chest. She wasn't positive of such a thing, but still she smiled. She was going to do the best she could. And besides, she had a good chance. Obi-Wan looked more athletic than her, but sledding didn't require that.
Right?
"We'll see," Obi-Wan said.
And with that the two got on the lift to go down the hill. On the lift their shoulders touched and Satine looked away as they did. It was such a simple thing, but it made her heart race. What was she a school girl? How embarrassing. She didn't know how something so simple could feel this right.
It made her wonder what it would feel to kiss him. She loved his beard, even though she imagined he would be cute without it too. It did cover up a lot of his face, and he had a nice attractive face.
When they got to the top of the hill, she did her best to push those silly thoughts away, even though she partially enjoyed having them. It was fun and something that she didn't get to feel that often.
Maybe being here was giving her a chance to feel things that she didn't normally get to. And she would get to do things that she didn't usually do. Maybe it would get her out of her shell.
And maybe that would be good for her.
But first she had to beat Obi-Wan at their sledding race.
"You know there is nothing wrong with second place, Satine," Obi-Wan said with a smirk.
"You should tell yourself that, Obi-Wan. It might help comfort you after I prevail at our race."
Obi-Wan smirked yet again.
The two of them counted down from three and then they took off. It was a lot faster than Satine thought it would be, but she wished that she could do something to make the sled go faster. He probably had the advantage because he weighed more. That was how sledding worked, right?
But she still had a good feeling that she was going to win this. That she would defeat Obi-Wan.
The two of them were so close. It could go either way. Their sleds were getting closer and closer to each other.
Almost too close.
Satine frowned and she was going to do something but then it was too late.
Their sleds collided.