"So what do you even need all of that for?" your favorite merchant, Ahsala, asked before quickly adding: "Not that I am complaining or anything! We do love your money here."
You handed over the credits you'd been carrying with you for these exact purchases into her open hand but hesitated for just a bit before answering.
"I'm going to cook something from home for Anakin's birthday tomorrow. You might even get some leftovers, my friend, if you don't ask any further questions."
She rolled her eyes at your evasiveness just as she had been doing for years by now.
"Keep your secrets, you recluse! One day you are going to tell me all about your secret family recipe voluntarily, just you wait, you'll see! Anyway enough with the dramatics, give Anakin this for me."
She showed you a small beige package, about the same length as your elbow measured to your shoulder, and stuffed it into the smaller one of your two grocery bags with an excited smile. You offered her your most charming smile, the one you only reserved for Anakin and the likable ones of your gambling companions.
"Oh," you shouted before you forgot to warn her. "Just so you know, it's going to be very spicy. Like really spicy!"
And with that you were back on your way home, navigating through the masses of people that too called Therea their home. Still not as bad as Mos Espa on a bad day, you thought as you struggled to avoid a large group of children running in the busy street.
This was one of the days you missed Tatooine which was ironic since you spent your whole life planning how to get off it as soon as possible.
You had always been somewhat reluctant about explaining your folk's traditions to an outsider like Ahsala. Not because you didn't like to share but rather because deep inside you felt like they would never truly understand. It had been ingrained inside you from birth. Even though you had resisted, enough of Tatooine's culture had become a part of you to not be able to be overlooked when you settled on Naboo.
While you'd never say it out loud your reluctance had partly been due to the way some Nabooian's had been treating you. Your accent, which you had never actually thought about in the past, continued to serve as the advertising sign of your "poor Outer Rim education" as many called it. It didn't matter that you actually were properly educated. Outer Rim was all they heard before losing all interest. Or rather this had been the case so far in every interview you have had so far since arriving on Naboo and this was a major point of aggravation for you by now. You could only hope Anakin wouldn't continue to pick up your dialect Basic as he had been doing so far and rather assimilate the one his schoolmates were going to speak when he started school next year.
What you were going to share with Anakin was a custom as old as time in the village you hailed from but it was practiced all over Tatooine, though you preferred the variation of your home. It certainly tasted better and it was the last thing you had left as proof the person your parents had raised actually existed. However, small part of yourself needed to prove something to yourself too, that you actually were of Mother Tatooine's blood.
You had to substitute many of the ingredients that you knew even Ahsala's part of the black market wouldn't be able to smuggle in for you, since they were local to Tatooine and weren't all too common to find on Naboo without paying a lot of money you certainly didn't have. And maybe because they were illegal here as well, but whatever. You could make do.
Once a child has lived to see the age of five a feast was prepared. The family would come together on the night before the birthday to prepare a stew which would be served for five nights and five days in celebration of the child's survival. There would be dancing and laughter, especially once the elders had drunken enough to tell the tales of younger days where the Krayt Dragons lived among mankind until one day a cunning human managed to steal the biggest Krayt pearl right under the dragons noses. This had been your brother's favorite story. You could vividly remember him taking one of your father's coats and dunning it his cape, before going of to play dragons vs. humans with his friends. You couldn't quite remember if he had been dragon or human. Not that it mattered anyway. You had never cared about those fairytales very much. Why listen to false tales when you could explore the vast galaxy in your books?
Now all those years later it was about to be your turn to share your village's legend with Anakin and you were glad you did not forget this sole tale. At least one you should be able to offer your son.
Though even getting to this point did take a lot of effort and mental strength from you. Oh not because it made you sad, rather because one of your more insistent clients just couldn't take a hint and had given you a major headache with his consistent attempts at changing your mind. So you'd politely repeated that no you wouldn't be available for the rest of the weeks and then watched him stalk away to bother someone else. Well more like you had 'politely' pointed your blaster at him but you wouldn't go around admitting to that if anyone were to ask. That wouldn't be good for business. However, you were fairly sure he would be back. Because quite simply there wasn't anyone around who could best you at your field, which was a fact you were very comfortable with.
You arrived in front of a big blue complex built to resemble a flower, the center serving as a garage for the inhabitants speeder bikes and ships (as long as the latter of those didn't exceeded a specific amount of space, which luckily your ship didn't). Your and Anakin's apartment was in one of the small 'petal' complexes.
After struggling with the broken door for a few minutes, because the landlady just couldn't get around to fix the sensor no matter how often you complained (god you couldn't wait for her to drop dead), you finally got inside and stepped into the elevator.
Hopefully Anakin had behaved for the babysitter, the old lady being the only neighbour you actually liked, especially since she babysitted him for free.
You stepped towards your door, placed the bags on the ground and flashed your keycard to the sensor. At least this one wasn't malfunctioning. Yet. As soon as you stepped inside you were greeted by an excited shout and grabby little arm pulling you into a hug.
"Ma, you're home! I missed you! Ooh, what's this?" he asked and pointed to the bags you had taken up again, his attention now fully on them.
You swallowed down the incoming wave of feelings and smiled down at him. Hearing him call you "Ma" was simply a bit too much so close to his birthday, Shmi's last day alive. Any other day it didn't other you, just during these times you'd always feel immense amounts of guilt for taking her place in his life.
"I missed you too. And this, you little snooper, is a secret. Now shoo off and say goodbye to Mrs. Rediei, will you? You didn't cause her any trouble, right Ani?"
You tousled his hair and gave Mrs. Rediei a friendly nod before walking into the kitchen.
Anakin, of course, followed along right beside you after closing the door behind the old woman, and tried his best to glimpse at whatever you were carrying in those grocery bags.
"Do you still wanna know what this is?"
"Yes!"
"You know, a special someone's fifth birthday is tomorrow and that's why I'm going to cook something amazing tonight for us to eat then," you whispered as if you were hiding a big secret, while you unpacked the first bag, placing the ingredients along the kitchen aisles. The other normal items that you had bought were simply put in the refrigerator, minus the Ahsala's present which you quickly hid in a cabinet before Anakin could spot it.
"Do you want to help me and be my assistant?" you asked and continued on after Anakin gave you an energetic nod in response. "Alright! but only if you don't grumble when I send you to bed tonight. Otherwise you won't get any presents, you hear me? Oh I was just kidding!"
You laughed. You could be a bit mean at some times but Anakin knew you loved him. You told him so every night after reading him his bedtime story, and you meant it.
You could see him weighing in his options, his little face scrunched in thought. It was written all over his face. Until finally: "Okay."
Wow, he was very wordy today. Maybe you should sent him to bed already, him growing silent was a sure sign that he was getting tired. But you'd promised to let him help you which was a promise you would keep.
You walked over to the wardrobe area and kicked off your shoes, which you neatly placed next to your boots and Anakin's three colourful pairs. Your eyes fell on the table in the center of the room and then to the growing darkness outside of your window.
"Ani! Can you please put the bowl on the table into the sink? You just put it in there. I will clean it fast and then we'll go right to cooking! I'll be right over, just let me finish this," you called over your shoulder while lightning the candles on the window sill.
And then you suddenly spotted the reflection of the small glass bowl in the window as it was rising through the air towards Anakin as if it was the most natural thing in the world for him.
You couldn't hold back the startled curse you let out.
The bowl fell to the floor, shattering into thousands of pieces, taking with it all hopes of Anakin ever having a normal life.
AN: I don't think I've mentioned that before but as you've noticed by now, Kuebiko will involve many of my personal head canons for Tatooine's culture as will other upcoming works in this series :) I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and hopefully you had fun reading it :P
