Anakin didn't really know where he was going. When he'd left the suite, just getting out, just getting away, had seemed like enough of a plan. Storming out had felt good in the moment. Now that he was out in the quiet corridor, and no longer had a target for his anger, and alone, he didn't know what to do with himself. A walk, maybe, He went back down the staircase he'd climbed up just a few minutes before, but it felt like a long time.

The adrenaline of his outburst had already started to fade, replaced by a kind of ache in his chest, born of equal parts sadness and anger.

He was about to go back out the door when a voice - not Obi-Wan's - called his name.

"Anakin?" Eraan's head was sticking out of one of the rooms that lined the long corridor of the ground floor of the residential building. "What are you doing down here?"

"Can I see your room?" Anakin asked. He didn't particularly want to talk about it standing right there in the middle of the hall.

Eraan nodded and stepped aside to let Anakin enter. Anakin was pleased to see the other boy's room was almost as untidy as he habitually kept his at the Temple, (much to Obi-Wan's chagrin). It wasn't dirty really, but there were a lot of things strewn about. Gadgets of varying kinds and sizes, data pads, books, piles of clothes and a couple puzzles and models. An old holo projector sat on the floor in the middle of the room. Anakin wondered if it was one of the ones sent from the Temple. There was a bed, a chair and a desk which all looked to be from different parts of the galaxy, but everything looked warm and comforting. Not much like one of the rooms at the Temple.

Eraan himself looked even less Jedi-like as usual, now wearing an oversized shirt that had "Solkola Beach" printed on the front in bold letters. Anakin wondered where that was, and if Eraan had actually been there.

"You get in trouble?" Eraan asked, closing the door. He flopped down onto his bed and looked at Anakin as if expecting a good story. At the same time, there was nothing mean or mocking about the question. He just looked curious.

Unable to resist, Anakin picked up a puzzle cube that had been sitting on Eraan's desk and started fiddling with it. "Sort of. He was mad I forgot my commlink. I tried to tell him about saving the dentherium and all but he didn't even care. Probably because it wasn't 'official Jedi business.'"

"How'd you end up down here?" Eraan asked.

Anakin moved a row of the puzzle into place with a satisfying click. "I yelled at him. About how I was sorry he was stuck with me. I just had to...leave."

Eraan looked perplexed. "What do you mean, 'stuck'?"

Anakin sighed. Now he wished he hadn't agreed to answer Eraan's questions and he wished he had been more vague with his answers. He wanted to change the subject, but he had a feeling Eraan wouldn't leave him alone about it now. "He's only training me because he promised his master he would."

"Oh," Eraan said. He thought for a moment. "So?"

Anakin handed him the puzzle, sitting down on the bed beside him. "Solved it. Too easy."

Eraan grabbed it indignantly. "It was already half solved. Anyway, who cares if he made a promise? I wish Master Yoda had made someone promise to train me. At least someone would have cared."

Anakin contemplated this. He supposed he'd never really been in Eraan's position. To be raised in the Temple meant being just one of many younglings being considered for apprenticeships, all hoping and trying to distinguish themselves, to stand out. Obviously, being strong with the Force wasn't always enough by itself.

"He seems to like you well enough," Eraan continued.

"It's not that," Anakin said. He wished he had better words. "I just don't think I'm what he really wanted. He probably wanted someone more like him. Someone who doesn't mess up so much."

Eraan shrugged. "Maybe. But Jedi Knights aren't supposed to think about what they want. They just think about what they're supposed to do. It's part of the Code." He gave Anakin a strange, long look then, as if realizing something. "You are the boy who came into the Temple late, aren't you?"

Anakin nodded. He usually tried to avoid talking about his history with people when he could. It always made him feel like more of an outsider than he already felt. Eraan seemed to sense that, and didn't ask any further questions. He reached for a basket on his night table and held it out to Anakin. It was full of small cakes studded with nuts and dried fruits.

"Want some? Coral left them here for me."

Anakin took one gratefully. After fighting with Obi-Wan his stomach had felt tight and twisted up, but now in the calmness of Eraan's room he was feeling ravenous again. "Thanks. That was nice of her."

"Yeah. She gets worried when I miss dinner. Do you want to watch a holovid? I have a bunch."

"Okay," Anakin said. He wasn't used to watching vids for entertainment; Jedi didn't normally have time for such indulgences. If there were any non-educational vids to be found in the Temple he didn't know about them. The last time he'd watched one was at Kitster's family's house in Mos Espa, years ago. His family had owned a whole two old, worn out vid tapes and an ancient holo projector which Anakin always helped repair when it broke down, securing himself a warm welcome at Kitster's nearly anytime. One of the tapes the family owned was a slow-moving Sullustian romance, but the boys' favorite had been about some warriors fighting monsters in an asteroid belt. The tape itself had been so battered and used over the years that there were whole parts of the story missing, but they hadn't cared.

Eraan started gathering up the tapes that were scattered in various locations around his room. "There's a swap meet in town every season, and everytime we go I get some new ones with my allowance," he explained. "I like the funny ones the best."

"Do you have any with fighting?" Anakin asked.

"Yeah, lots. This one is about some guys rescuing a princess from some Trandoshan pirates."

Anakin nodded his approval and Eraan stuck the tape in and turned the lights off so they could see it better. It was a silly story, full of exaggeration and nonsense, but watching it Anakin started to feel a peaceful drowsiness come over him.

"Sometimes these are funny without trying to be," Eraan laughed after a while. "If you tried something like that in real life, you'd be dead."

"So, how'd you get sent out here, anyway?" Anakin asked. His eyelids were feeling heavy now, and the vid was starting to lose his interest.

"It was just kinda sudden," Eraan said, sounding tired himself. He was slumped against the wall, a pillow tucked behind his head. "Right after our trip to Ilum. I didn't know it was gonna happen. They said they thought I'd be happier here. Declan thinks maybe I'll take over someday."

"Do you want to?" Anakin asked. They were both ignoring the vid now. "Do you like it here?"

"It's okay," Eraan said. "Beats some of the other AgriCorps farms. We visited one on Rheylon, where there are a bunch of mining colonies. That place is just a giant, lifeless rock. All the settlements are under biodomes. I'd go crazy living in one of those."

"Mm, yeah," Anakin agreed. "Too quiet." He was laying down fully now, his head resting on his arms.

"You know what the part that hurt the most was?" Eraan asked. He reached over and turned off the projector, and the sounds of yelling and blaster fire ceased immediately.

"Hm?"

"When they cut my braid off," Eraan said quietly. "Because then you know it's really over. Like when they make you a Knight and cut it off you know that part of your life is gone forever. Except when they cut mine off I knew my chance to be a Knight was gone forever."

Anakin's fingers moved automatically to his own braid. When Obi-Wan had taken him as his apprentice, he hadn't thought much of the braid his master had given him, other than it meant he was training to be a Jedi. What would it have been like to be raised in the Jedi Order almost your whole life, to be trained for an apprenticeship, only to be told suddenly that you weren't worthy? That you would never make it? To have the symbol of your whole purpose ripped away from you?

"They should have given you more of a chance," Anakin said.

"Guess I can't really blame them," Eraan said sleepily, laying down fully now. "I was always playing in the gardens when I should have been studying. They probably thought I didn't care."

"Mm," Anakin said. It was getting harder and harder to resist the call of sleep. "I guess I should get back now…"

But unconsciousness took him before he could even finish the thought.