I just heard the song Barbie Girl for the first time. My theatre class is the best thing in my life. I have a movie marathon tomorrow and a four day weekend. I'm doing well. Disclaimer- I don't own Star Wars the Clone Wars or any of its characters.


Chapter 16

(Tristakine) Ahsoka POV

Ms. Mauline told Ahsoka she would have to rest to heal her broken rib.

That was impossible.

Ahsoka had to work. She had to take care of the Walkraf's farm. She had to take care of her own farm animals. Those were the ways she got by. Those were the ways she got money to get by.

Even with a broken rib, she managed to do all of those things. And she was able to keep the fact that she was still working from Ms. Mauline. If that woman found out Ahsoka was still fixing hovercrafts in her condition she would get yelled at worse than she'd ever gotten from her father.

A few weeks after she broke her rib Ahsoka had the day off. She couldn't find anyone who needed a mechanic on the warm sunny day, so she spent a majority of the day with her garden. She didn't know it as a majority of the day until Chance came home and she realized how long she'd been pulling weeds.

"Have you been here all day?" Chance sat down next to his sister on the ground and tried to help her pull weeds.

"Mostly. I cleaned the house earlier, but I finished that around noon." Ahsoka gave her brother a small smile but focused on her work.

"Ms. Mauline says you shouldn't be working."

Ahsoka stopped and pulled back. She brushed the dirt off her hands as best she could and turned to her brother. "Ms. Mauline doesn't understand that if I just lay around for the next few weeks we'll starve to death and get behind on our house payments."

Chance frowned. "Aren't you hurting though?"

Ahsoka frowned too seeing her brother so worried about her. "Only a little bit," she lied. It hurt a lot.

They went back to work watering and weeding the garden for a while until Chance once again broke the silence. "When's the last time you ate?"

She sighed and thought. Yes, she actually had to think about the question. "Only a day ago," she mumbled off to the side, "or two."

Her little brother stopped abruptly and looked at his sister. He obviously heard her quieted comment.

Chance shook his head and looked around. He suddenly reached in front of him and picked a tomato off the garden vine. "Eat it."

"Chance-"

She didn't get a chance to speak. He interrupted her. "I know you've been getting thinner. I see it. You forget to eat and spend all your time taking care of me. Well if anything happened to you I don't know what I'd do. Eat it. One a day. Just so that you have some food in you. Just so you can say that you ate that day." He must've seen the doubt in her face because he didn't stop there. "Please Ahsoka. I'm the little brother and there's not much I can do to take care of you. That's half because you won't let me try and take care of you and that I'm too young to. But please let me do this. Just eat the tomato. Eat just one a day. For me."

Ahsoka let out a breath. She stared at the tomato in her brother's hand, then into his eyes. He was her little brother. She would do anything for him, so of course she took the tomato. She would take a million tomatoes for him. He was her everything. He was all she had left.

She loved him.


After another few days Ahsoka ended up once again in Mr. Retner's hardware shop. She was fixing his faulty video cameras again. They broke at least once a month, sometimes more. Ahsoka was pretty sure he didn't replace them because they were his reason to check up on the young girl. Every time they broke, he would call her in and she would fix them while catching up with him at the same time.

This time when she was fixing the cameras he left for a little while to get lunch. Ahsoka was left alone with his fifteen year old son Equar.

It wasn't necessarily awkward. It just wasn't really comforting. Ahsoka was just about to pray for a miracle when Chance entered the store. She nearly fell off the ladder in joy. Equar was about to start some conversation that would only be more awkward.

"Hey Ahsoka Ms. Mauline said you'd be down here and-oh Hi Equar." He looked cautiously from his sister to Equar a few times. Then in a sort of way he and his sister had a mental conversation. He wondered if he interrupted something and Ahsoka shook her head violently, 'no.'

Equar walked up behind Chance in the middle of their telepathic conversation and patted his back. "Hey Chance, how are you? Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"It was a half day." Ahsoka tried to flash her brother a 'help me' face.

"Ah Ms. Mauline needs to see Ahsoka. She sent me down here to get here. That is- do you mind if I take her?" Ahsoka thanked the universe that her prayers were answered.

Equar shook his head. "I don't mind at all." He walked over to the ladder and tried to help Ahsoka down. At the same time, she tried to rush down before he came over and offered to help her (she was stubborn like her father and didn't want help). Her plan didn't quite work so well when she rushed down to quickly and lost her footing. She began to fall back on the ladder.

About mid-way into the fall she was caught by a pair of arms. Her eyes focused again to see that she was being held by Equar and he was smiling down at her. Ahsoka silently yelled at herself for being so clumsy. She was never that way. Most of the time, she was actually pretty agile. Her injured rib must've been throwing her off.

Speaking of her rib, it started to hurt because of the position she was in. She waited for Equar to put her down, but he didn't. He just stared down at her with that dazed look in his eyes. Ahsoka clenched her teeth in pain.

"Ah, thanks," she tried to hint.

He smiled impossibly wider down at her. "It's no problem."

Ahsoka struggled trying to figure out what to say next. She thanked the universe that Chance was there for her. "So we better get going, with Ms. Mauline waiting for us and all."

Equar seemed as though he just noticed Chance was there. Actually he didn't seem to notice there was any world besides the girl in his arms.

Chance's words snapped him out of the daze and he gently let Ahsoka down. They mumbled their awkward good-byes and parted ways.

Ahsoka refused to talk to Chance on the way home. She partially didn't want to talk about it, but knew she would have too. Chance would tell Ms. Mauline and Ms. Mauline would tell Ahsoka to spill. And of course she would.

When they were all sitting in Ms. Mauline's living room that was exactly what happened, exactly how Ahsoka predicted.

"It's nothing," Ahsoka tried to brush off the entire thing but Ms. Mauline wasn't letting it off that easy.

"Oh it's definitely something dear." Ms. Mauline lived off gossip like this, even when it was nothing. If there was enough gossip around their small town she would eat it three meals a day.

Even Primara joined the conversation. "He likes you Ahsoka."

Ahsoka just sighed. She didn't want to talk about this. Chance, who had since been smiling, now changed to look curious. "Do you like him too?"

"No!" It came out a bit louder than the thirteen year old girl meant for it too. She calmed herself for a moment and then continued. "No. He's nice. He's really nice. I'm just not…" She couldn't finish. She didn't know how to finish that sentence. At first she was going to say interested, but why shouldn't she be interested? He was a nice, handsome boy who could support her if they ever got married. Yet the attraction just wasn't there for her, and she didn't know why not.

Ms. Mauline seemed to notice Ahsoka's trouble thinking and told the kids, "Primara, take Chance to see those flowers you picked earlier."

Primara was hesitant at first but took Chance out of the room anyway. Ms. Mauline spoke up the second the two of them were out of sight. "Ahsoka, where do you see yourself in the future?"

She let out a shaky breath having already anticipated this conversation. "I don't know." It was true, she didn't know. She had no idea.

"You do know that you and Equar are-"

Ahsoka interrupted the innocent woman. "Yes, I know. We're arranged to be married from birth. How can I forget? It's only one of the most common things we talk about."

Ms. Mauline seemed to be unaffected by Ahsoka's harsh tone because she went on. "Then you know that you're a year past the age where you'd normally be married."

"I know that but…" Ahsoka clenched her teeth and thought for a moment. "I can't get married yet. I have Chance to look after. I can't just leave him at the house forever and go live a completely different life. Especially not with my father there. Marriage can wait."

She couldn't leave Chance. That wasn't the only reason she didn't want to get married, but that would have to do for now.

"Butterfly-" Ms. Mauline's voice was wary and quiet but began to fade.

"Mom used to call me that."


Anakin POV

The screen was changing memories again. The sight of Ms. Mauline and Ahsoka faded and produced another recollection. Anakin was once again surprised to see his face appear.


(Tristakine) Ahsoka POV

Ahsoka and Anakin were on their current mission. It was just the two of them on the ship and Ahsoka was trying to repair a broken circuit board while Anakin piloted.

"Are you almost done with that?" Anakin threw the words back over his shoulder.

"It isn't exactly the easiest thing to fix. If you think you can repair it faster than do it yourself!" She spat back at him. Ahsoka was having a tough day. The circuit board had already shocked her three times and she was tired of it.

"Alright Butterfly calm down." The words just seemed to come out of his mouth. They were innocent words to him. He was just trying out a new nickname. What he didn't know was Ahsoka's past with the word.

Ahsoka's voice turned dead cold as she spoke, "Don't call me that."

"What you don't like 'Butterfly?' I happen to think it's quite fitting."

The Padawan's voice turned soft. She begged, "Please don't call me that."

Anakin seemed to sense the plea in his apprentice's voice. He left the conversation at that. He respected her enough not to question her actions. He never called her Butterfly again.


Anakin POV

The scene changed back to Ms. Mauline's living room.


(Tristakine) Ahsoka POV

"Isn't there another reason you wanted me here? I doubt you called me here just to talk about marriage." Ahsoka praised herself on the topic change and just hoped that Ms. Mauline would take the bait.

She did. "Yes, there is." Her voice got more serious than it was before. Ahsoka didn't even know that was possible. Why had Ms. Mauline called her here? "Ahsoka, I saw what you were doing the other day in the garden."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Ms. Mauline sighed but her expression didn't get any less serious. "You were moving things with your mind."

Ahsoka stayed silent.

"How long have you had the gift?"

The young girl pondered on whether or not to answer. Finally she decided that staying silent would do her no good. "Ever since that night on the Walkraf's farm."

"I thought so," the woman muttered more to herself than to Ahsoka.

She looked up again and met Ahsoka's eyes. "I promised your mom I would never let this happen to you."

Ahsoka saw the torn look in the woman's eyes. She straightened up on the sofa. "Is it dangerous?"

"Not necessarily but-"

"Then we'll keep it between you and me. No one else will find out, I promise."


A/N- Thank you to the people who stay with me and still watch this. It means a lot. -Saraphine