Author's Note: Yes, these topics are so random. I don't even know how I come up with them, and I am the one who typed this up…Oh, well, life is made up of seemingly insignificant matters, and I guess that this fic reflects that aspect of the human experience.

Food

Dooku and Qui-Gon: Ever since he was a young Jedi student, Dooku had believed that one could discern much about a sentient based solely upon what he or she consumed. That was one of the reasons why he enjoyed attending refined, aristocratic cocktail parties whenever he was dispatched on a diplomatic mission. He relished the opportunity to sip the fine wines and eat the delicacies that he would have eaten all the time if he hadn't been Force sensitive. At cocktail parties like that, he was able to remind everyone that he came from noble stock, and that his genes made him superior in more ways than just giving him a deeper connection to the Force than most Jedi would ever manage. For reasons Dooku would never understand, Qui-Gon had never embraced cocktail parties as much as Dooku did. Indeed, Qui-Gon spent most cocktail parties with a twinkle in his eyes that suggested that it would never cease to amuse and mystify him that sentients with so much money would squander so much of it on haki snails that didn't even taste good. Qui-Gon preferred a simple meal in a poor farmer's home or a fat laden meal at a cantina to any banquet. Dooku liked associating with the high class, and Qui-Gon preferred the common masses. Dooku didn't understand what Qui-Gon saw in the dregs of society, but he eventually learned that it was something innate in his Padawan and something that could not be altered even by as stubborn a man as Dooku. When it came down to it, nobody could really dictate the tastes of another.

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan: When Obi-Wan started his apprenticeship to Qui-Gon, he had been just starting that phase of rapid adolescent growth when boys could never get enough to eat even if they lived in a kitchen. He had loved virtually any and all food that he came into contact with. Once he had matured and his body finally stopped growing what seemed to be a foot a day, his relationship with food seemed to change. He no longer craved it and seemed to perceive it as just another means of fulfilling an objective that could be subjected to his dry wit as much as anything else. Sometimes, it seemed to Qui-Gon that Obi-Wan's attitude toward food had changed overnight, because, even though he had been beside his Padawan every day while the transformation occurred, he still had no idea how it had happened. That was what made it so simultaneously awful and wonderful.

Obi-Wan and Anakin: When Anakin had first become Obi-Wan's apprentice, Obi-Wan had taken him to see the museums and statues that Coruscant was famous for, and afterwards they would eat at one of what seemed like millions of different ethnic restaurants that managed to stay in business on this cosmopolitan planet. Now that the two of them were trapped in the Clone Wars living off the hard ration bars that tended to be the GAR's idea of food, he found himself recalling those times wistfully and promising himself that when this war was over, he and Anakin would visit Dex's Diner and eat a deliciously non-healthy meal together. It might have appeared to everyone else to be a stupid motivator, but it was enough to sustain him, and that was all that mattered. After all, it was often the littlest things that made the most difference, and it was really grand ideals that inspired people on a day-to-day basis. That's why even clones like Cody who were raised from the moment they were decanted to be perfect soldiers admitted that they didn't truly think of the glory of the Republic in the heat of battle but of keeping their brothers alive.

Anakin and Ashoka: Food. On the surface of it, it seemed like a ridiculous thing for any relationship to depend on, but many relationships were built around it. Sentients all over the galaxy relied on meal times to get together and talk about the minor triumphs and defeats of the day. Sharing food was a silly little ritual that bound beings together. It tied him and Obi-Wan as they jokingly competed to see who could come up with the most insulting description for the ration bars, and even during the rockiest patches in their relationship before the battle of Geonosis had forever altered the galaxy, they could always rely on a good or lame food joke to ease the tension between them. It didn't take Anakin long to figure out that food would never be a source of unity in his relationship with Ashoka, but a point of division. Ashoka wasn't a human. She was a predator, and she was prone to looking longingly at lizards and rodents that crossed her path as though she wanted nothing more than to hunt and devour them. Anakin knew that it was simply the way of her species and that it shouldn't have unsettled him since at their core humans were omnivorous, but he couldn't help but feel disconcerted whenever he saw her slip into her predator mode. When she was in her predator mode, he realized anew just how different and alien she was from him, and then he would start to wonder if every time he drew on the Force other Jedi could only see the freakish Chosen One showing just how abnormal he was even by the Jedi's standards. That was a trail of thought he was never comfortable exploring. He didn't want to see himself as the lone alien among humans with a Master who was faintly unnerved himself desperately trying to explain his oddities to the rest of the puzzled and frightened humans.