Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars and will most likely never have the money needed to buy it.
Point in the time-line: 3 years after Naboo
Chapter 21: Rae plays the 'Lock them in a Broom Closet' Game!
Only, She Doesn't have a Broom Closet...
It was one of the rare times Obi-Wan had to drag Anakin, who was nearing his teen age years, to Rae's apartment and neither were too happy. "Why are we doing this again?" Anakin asked petulantly.
"We are doing this because we are Rae's anchor to reality, because she needs someone to drag her away from her slowly developing weapons collection, because it's nice to get out of the Temple for a non-stressful, safe reason, and because we both have a weakness for those cookies she always seems to have on hand," Obi-Wan told the boy who was swiftly becoming like a brother to him. Anakin sighed, still reluctant, but quickened his pace at the promise of cookies. When they reached Rae's apartment, they were surprised to find Padme greeting them in her stead.
"Oh, Obi-Wan, Anakin, how nice to see you again!" she said, pleasantly surprised. It had been nearly a year since they'd last seen each other after all. Obi-Wan recovered easily and kissed the back of her hand.
"Your Majesty," he demurred.
"Oh~! Is that the Dynamic Duo? The Delta Squad? The Knight and the Squire? Ying and Yang? The Fearsome Twosome?" Rae asked, walking into view while wiping her hands off on a dark blue towel, a smirk on her face and a playful twinkle in her eyes. Obi-Wan narrowed his own eyes slightly, wondering what her aim was.
"Har-de-har-har," Anakin drawled, jaw tightening and eyes drooping into a rather fearsome glower... for a twelve year old. Rae grinned, unrepentant, and tugged Padme out of the doorway.
"Ah, don't be like that, Teufelskerl!" she said, steel creeping into her eyes. Anakin swallowed heavily and drew back, forcefully reminded of their 'sparring' sessions. Grin growing just a little wider, Rae stepped back and bowed the Jedi Duo into her apartment. "Come, I just put the sweet potatoes in the oven and the table needs setting," she said. Obi-Wan lead the way inside and quickly set the table with silverware, Anakin taking care of the dishes. Tasks complete, they sat and talked with Padme, who had been chased out of the kitchen by a grinning Rae.
"Seriously, that grin..." Anakin muttered, shooting a look toward the now humming woman who fairly danced around the kitchen.
"I will admit, her expressions have become slightly more... unsettling... since she began to train her intuition," Padme said.
"When you live with a Jedi such as Yoda, you find yourself quickly growing desensitized to knowing looks and/or smiles," Obi-Wan said flatly. Anakin gave him a considering look.
"Are you saying it doesn't bother you, Sensei?" he asked.
"I never said that," Obi-Wan said flatly. Rae cackled.
"HA! Sure ya did... from a certain point of view!" she declared with a feral grin. Obi-Wan sighed, dropping his head forward.
"You're never going to let that go, are you?" he asked. Rae cackled again, a wicked gleam in her eyes.
"Now now, Obi-Wan, relax. Dinner's on the table," Padme said, dragging the cackling Rae out of the door and directing the Jedi toward the table.
/*/
"Ya know," Rae remarked, setting her fork down on her empty plate, "this is really nice. I think we should do this more often, don't you?" Obi-Wan nodded and Anakin was looking anywhere but at Padme. Groaning, Rae dragged the Jedi Knight into the kitchen, taking their dirty dishes with them. "I'll just leave you two to catch up!" she called to the younger members of their mismatched family.
"What are you hoping to accomplish here?" Obi-Wan asked of his sparring partner. Rae smirked at him.
"In the future I Saw, Anakin married Padme in secret and had twins that rivaled their parents; Luke for Anakin and Leia for Padme. I'm trying to see if more interaction and less fantasy will make their love stronger... or expose it as infatuation and teenage hormones. And no matter what comes of my meddling in their lives, I doubt either of us want to deal with them dancing around each other," she said flippantly. Obi-Wan groaned, but knew Rae had a point. Much as it irked him.
"So... you're playing matchmaker?" he asked. She scoffed, waving a hand before her face.
"Oh, hardly! I'm playing the 'lock them in a broom closet and see what happens' game. But, since I'm fresh out of broom closets, I chose the next best thing. My tiny dining room," she corrected. Obi-Wan quirked an eyebrow at her.
"It doesn't have a door," he pointed out. Rae smirked at him, that playful twinkle coming back full force.
"So? My apartment does, and the only way out of the dining room is through here. With the two of us in here, and my apartment locked, they are essentially locked in my dining room," she explained. Obi-Wan shook his head with a rueful smile.
"You are a piece of work, you do know that right?" Rae cackled and pulled out her ipad. "Do you just carry that around with you everywhere?"
"Just about, yeah," Rae answered, swiping away at the screen. "Plus, this is the room I use it the most so, there's that."
"Okay, what are you doing?" Obi-Wan finally asked, unable to understand her actions.
"Pulling up fanfiction on you. Did you know there are a lot of stories where you are either gay, in a relationship with Padme, in a relationship with Sabine, in a relationship with Sabe, or madly in love with either the reader or an OC?" Seeing the famous Jedi Master choke on his recently acquired water was a rather gratifying sight and Rae felt no shame in snorting at him.
"What?!" he asked, just shy of squawking. Rae burst out laughing, holding out the ipad.
"See for yourself!" she said.
And that was how Obi-Wan was introduced to fanfiction.
(Rae may or may not have accidentally on purpose set the filter to show the M rated entries.)
/*/
While Rae was corrupting poor Obi-Wan's eyes with fanfiction, Padme and Anakin were having a heart-to-heart. "So... you have a crush on me," the young queen said slowly. Mortified, Anakin nodded. Padme chuckled, shaking her head. "I'm a little too busy for that kind of thing, Anakin, and if I were to choose a husband I'd want it to be someone I know. Someone whom I can relax and be myself around," she told him gently. Anakin seemed to think about her words for a moment... before their talk was interrupted by an outraged 'THAT NEVER HAPPENED!' from the kitchen, followed by the familiar sound of Rae's cackles.
"Hum... something tells me Rae is laughing at Obi-Wan's pain again," Anakin said with a wry smirk on his lips. Padme chuckled as well, dark eyes dancing with mirth.
"She gets more mischievous every time I see her," she said.
"You haven't seen her sparring with the Padawans in the temple," Anakin said, shivering. "She makes even the Masters nervous at times."
"Ah. What does that have to do with her being mischievous?" Padme asked, looking to the preteen curiously.
"Nothing. I'm calling her a sadist," Anakin told her seriously. Padme pondered that, then nodded.
"She does have a fascination with weapons," she remarked.
"Well, there ya go!" Anakin said, waving toward the queen and sitting back in his seat. The two sat in companionable silence until Obi-Wan finally shouted,
"HOW THE FORCE CAN YOU READ THIS TRASH!?" and threw Rae's ipad out of the kitchen. Reacting quickly, Anakin caught it with the Force and directed it toward Padme. The young queen took a glance at the screen and flushed a deep red before snapping the cover closed. Anakin quirked a brow, but Padme shook her head at him, eyes wide. Living as a slave on Tatooine had taught Anakin there were some things you didn't ask about, and living as a Jedi had taught him there were things better left unseen. So, the Padawan kept his mouth shut and nodded to the queen.
And that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between the youngest of the atypical family.
And the moment that Obi-Wan realized Rae was one of those friends that loved to laugh at your misfortune. How he'd missed that in the three years that he'd known her, no-one was quite sure.
/?/
A/N: So... yeah. I really have no excuse. This chapter was meant to be a dinner party that fell to chaos, then it was meant to be Padme and Anakin talking through his crush, and finally it just spiraled out into this.
Man, when you have three characters that like to run away with the script, in the same chapter, it really makes it hard to write something coherent!
