Where Dinner Is Fun

Ahsoka Tano, young Padawan of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, staggered forward as her master let his arm wrap around her shoulder while he grinned. His master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, wise High Council member, was across from them on the turbolift, looking sternly amused.

"Well, Obi-Wan, I bet you're glad that I'm kidnapping you from your Council duties."

Obi-Wan was clearly trying not to look pleased. "In case you couldn't tell, my old Padawan, we're in the middle of a war. The Council is beyond swamped, buried, and surrounded with work to do."

"But this is the first time Snips gets to come as well."

Ahsoka blinked. "Wait, what? I'm coming along where?" All Anakin had said was that he needed her help getting Obi-Wan to relax while he could. She had gone with him to plead that Master Kenobi needed a break. But then her master and Obi-Wan had drifted off. Ahsoka was very familiar with this. Despite having been Knighted, Anakin and his old master maintained their training bond and could use it both frequently and over vast distances that Ahsoka had thought impossible.

But then, being with Anakin Skywalker, one tended to redefine impossible. Frequently.

Whatever her master had said in the bond had made Obi-Wan agree almost instantly, leaving Ahsoka to wonder what she had missed.

"Her first time?" Obi-Wan asked. "The two of you have both been here together enough to have..." The Master's voice trailed off as he looked to Anakin with a raised eyebrow.

Turning to glance at her master, Ahsoka was astonished to see him blushing. Blushing!

"Well, Snips had studies to catch up on so..."

To Ahsoka's further surprise, Obi-Wan started to blush. "My forthright old Padawan," he squeaked. "Too much information."

Anakin, still blushing, stood tall, shrugging nonchalantly. "You asked."

"I most certainly did."

Ahsoka interrupted, repeating her question. "I'm coming along where?" she turned petulant eyes to her master in a look she always hoped would work but never quite did.

Anakin glanced at her, then turned to Obi-Wan. "Surely I wasn't this bad."

"Oh no. You were worse," he replied with a smile.

Her master grumbled words she wasn't supposed to know the meaning of and turned to her. "Patience, Snips," he winked at her. "I know you're going to enjoy tonight."

Ahsoka pouted.

Anakin held his impatience as they left the Temple that evening. It had been five months since he'd seen Padme. Granted, they'd talked when able, but fuzzy small holograms just weren't the same.

He'd missed her. While away, he'd only ever had a sense of her and now that he was back on Coruscant, he could feel and bask in her warm heart anywhere on the planet. But it still wouldn't be the same as holding her in his arms. The bond he'd made with her was strong, but limited. And, when she'd learned he could hear her thoughts clear as day whenever he was on planet, she'd been uncomfortable. Understandably so since she couldn't shield herself at all. So Anakin had kept a privacy screen between them. If she was thinking particularly loudly, he'd hear, but she otherwise was just a gentle murmur.

For some time now, he'd felt an overwhelming joy from her, one she would awkwardly try to send to him and he was getting very curious on what had her glowing so brightly with joy and with undercurrents of worry.

Hopefully, he'd find a way to have Obi-Wan take Ahsoka back to the Temple so she could talk more freely to him.

It was something Anakin wasn't completely comfortable with. When he and Padme had married, they had both discussed for a long time who, if anyone, could know. Padme, regrettably, said none in her family could be in on the secret. Her nieces weren't old enough to understand secrecy and her parents and sister, though not politicians, knew enough people that if anything slipped, it could be pieced together. This was also why Anakin had never told his friend Palpatine.

Telling Obi-Wan had been their first fight. Padme, fresh from Geonosis, remembered what he'd said about how his master had said he'd be expelled from the Order if he'd gone to save her. Anakin, who didn't mind blaming Obi-Wan for that, did understand what his master had meant.

Obi-Wan had been trying to pierce the emotional haze of Protect Padme and remind him of the duty he'd sworn to do. And though Anakin hated admitting it, it sometimes took something that harsh to penetrate his thick skull.

There had also been the fact that Anakin had still been living with Obi-Wan and was by his side every day. Even if he had kept quiet about it, there was no doubt in Anakin's mind that Obi-Wan would still have known. Not the details, necessarily, but that something was there. Besides, Obi-Wan said he'd support Anakin if he still wanted to marry Padme.

In the end, Padme had agreed.

Neither had counted on Anakin getting a Padawan.

Ahsoka, they had decided, was still too young. But they wouldn't hide that they were close. After all, Padme had opened her home to the Jedi and on very rare occasions, another Knight would join Anakin and Obi-Wan for a pleasant dinner of no stress or worries.

But outright lying, even by omission, to his Padawan felt wrong. Anakin wanted people to be straight with him as he always tried to be with others.

Ahsoka would likely learn eventually. Both he and Padme agreed on that. The question was when.

This was the same question on the bond he had with his young Padawan. Her potential in the Force was impressive. He had no doubt she'd make a strong Knight and a wise Master. But she wasn't there yet. She didn't have strong shielding down, and she'd need that for when their bond deepened. For Anakin was planning on deepening the bond with her. He cared too much not to. Having her presence in the back off his head would be a great relief, as Obi-Wan's and Padme's were.

But she wasn't there yet. Instead, he worked on his end of the bond. He could hear her thoughts as clearly as Padme's if he wished and over a decent distance, though nowhere near as far as he could with Obi-Wan. But Ahsoka was still so very young and prone to outbursts of emotions that were very strong. Curiosity and petulance being amongst the most common. Thus he needed to retain a constant shield in order to get things done.

Teaching her was... interesting. Given how much they were on the front lines, lightsaber techniques were an area he had to focus on intensely, just so she could survive long enough to learn more. Shielding was important as well, not only for the bond, but also with all the Dark Acolytes that Dooku had crisscrossing the galaxy.

With those two areas of intense concentration and constant battle and missions, there had been little time to teach her much else. It was frustrating that she was lagging so far behind in other areas such as mind tricks and the finer control of telekinesis. There was simply no time. And his little Padawan had a huge and caring heart that she couldn't quite control when things got desperate. She would keep fighting a losing battle rather than withdraw and regroup, and she could easily get overwhelmed when there were multiple things on her plate to deal with.

Hopefully, now that they were back on Coruscant (he dreaded just how short the visit would be this time) Anakin could spend a little time with her to deal with some of these things. He couldn't leave it all to her teachers at the Temple. And there were teachings in the Temple that he didn't agree with that he was going to have to ease Ahsoka into really thinking about.

Of course, Anakin worried constantly on if he was doing the right thing with Ahsoka. He knew his thoughts on things and how he approached problems was a little... different than the average Jedi. He was, in many ways, charting new territory, and despite his bravado and confidence, he knew he was on shaky ground at best. He'd never trained a Padawan before, hell, he didn't even have much experience with the younglings other than occasionally having the duty of helping in the crèche.

Naturally, he'd gone to Obi-Wan on many occasions to see if he was doing right by his Padawan. And his master, radiating amusement across the bond so strongly that Anakin couldn't help but smile, would always say that Anakin was doing fine and that Obi-Wan would not interfere in his teaching of her.

What was unusual, however, was how often these reassurances were given to Anakin while he was at one end of the galaxy and his master at another end. Granted, they couldn't talk clearly at halfway from one rim to another, but impressions could still be freely transmitted with general understanding if Anakin was on the Outer Rim and Obi-Wan was back on Coruscant for a Council meeting.

Indeed, Anakin couldn't shield out his master any more. Instead, all he and Obi-Wan could do was to place filters along the bond so that what came through was diluted enough so as not to be a distraction, especially in battle. If Anakin ever sat and thought about what the two of them could really do with the bond, it was actually a little scary. Obi-Wan had once asked him in clearly amazed exasperation, to please stop redefining impossible after Anakin had explained that his mind was basically parallel processing the here and now with Obi-Wan's constant chatter in the back of his mind.

Even from the Core to the Mid Rim, both Obi-Wan or Anakin could look through the other's eyes and ears with filters down and they could strategize together through the Force as if they were one mind instead of two.

It was both amazing and terrifying. Even now, as they were headed up to Padme's apartment to have a nice relaxing dinner of laughter, Anakin was shifting in nervous anticipation, completely living in the moment as Qui-Gon had taught Obi-Wan who had taught Anakin, a part of him was poking Obi-Wan about the Council meeting and what was wrong this time while another part of him was observing Ahsoka's attempts to control her curiosity over just what was so special about having dinner with a Senator, and another part of him was basking in the warm, nervous joy Padme was unconsciously projecting about something. All simultaneously.

The doors to the turbolift opened, and Threepio was already there to greet them.

Ahsoka sat back into the soft cushions of the couch, astonished at how much fun they'd had. There was no doubt in her mind that Anakin and Obi-Wan were frequent guests here as they both displayed a familiarity and comfort in the apartment, complete with Obi-Wan, ever the proper gentleman, did the unusual and went to help in the kitchen. The meal itself had been all of Ahsoka's favorites, and she had to wonder when her master had the chance to tell Padme. And while the meal had been delicious, the conversation was fantastic.

It seemed stories were the currency of the table. It was a simple game, tell a good story and you'd get a good-sized helping of whatever was available. The more amusing or heart-warming the story, the better chance you got at getting a helping. Once Padme had explained the rules, she'd looked to Anakin and Obi-Wan and told them in no uncertain terms that teasing each other was out of the question.

That didn't last long.

Obi-Wan was a master at story-telling, particularly of her master's younger years of embarrassment, always painting Anakin as an inquisitive child who seemed to find more trouble than a Kowakian monkey-lizard, leaving himself as a stressed master who was ever put-upon. Anakin, by contrast, was also a master of story-telling, particularly of Obi-Wan getting into less-than-flattering situations, starting with Obi-Wan losing his lightsaber (multiple times, no less) and upgrading to Obi-Wan's almost constant need to be rescued like some damsel-in-distress.

This isn't to say that Padme was to be outdone. Though her stories had a great deal to do with her nieces and her family, like Obi-Wan and Anakin had many stories of each other, she also seemed to collect stories of just how close her master and his master were.

Those stories just seemed to make Ahsoka's heart swell. The two of them bore so much compassion for each other. There were tales of both seeking to rescue the other side-by-side stories of one taking care of the other. Of course, to counter all this, Anakin had several stories of Padme's own kindness and Ahsoka smiled at the easy friendship between the two of them.

Back at the Temple, Ahsoka knew that her master was the Chosen One. That there were a lot of expectations of him and that he was, no matter how unintentionally, set apart from the rest of the Jedi. Anakin always worked well with the Jedi, but Ahsoka had realized early on that he was close, or even friends with very, very few. It made him seem distant and a little cold, despite his open heart, but she was starting to understand. As she had gotten to know him, she'd realized that Chosen One or not, her master was still just a person. And she wondered how many other Jedi realized that.

But to see him laughing and having fun like other Jedi would in the commissary, just made Ashoka smile. She was so very grateful that Padme could bring this out in him like Obi-Wan could when unencumbered by missions and battle.

So Ahsoka offered her own stories, both of her friend Bariss Offee, her master, Senator Chuchi, Master Plo, etc. (She had to admit, the meat-pie was divine!) And, just to show that she could, she pulled out the one story she had of Master Obi-Wan that was so out-of-character embarrassing; she easily trumped her master without breaking a sweat.

All in all, very satisfying.

"Okay, Snips," her master sat across from her. He had this look on his face that made Ahsoka just know she was in for it. "You handled dinner well. Now let's see what we can do about the proper entertainment."

Despite the fact that she was internally cringing, already knowing she was about to get one of Anakin's more unusual lessons, she didn't let any of it show. Instead, she just raised an eyebrow, slid on a crooked smile, and said, "Do you need me to tickle you, Master?"

"That would be my job," Padme sat down by Anakin. "No, Ahsoka, now comes a game."

"Oh this should be quite interesting. Anakin, I think I'll just sit back and watch."

"No way, Obi-Wan. It'll be me and Padme versus you and Snips. She'll need all the help she can get."

Obi-Wan sat by Ahsoka. "Oh, aren't you confident."

"Naturally."

"Stop it you two," Padme scolded, though her stern face was betrayed by the twitching smile.

From under the table, she pulled out a small, gleaming wooden box opening it, she tipped it, letting the contents spill over the coffee table. "This is a very simple game, Ahsoka. Match the clamshells together."

"There will be a small difference for us than Padme," Anakin explained, grinning widely. "Since she's not sensitive to the Force, she'll be using her eyes to match the shells together. The rest of us will be doing it blind."

Ahsoka blinked. "... What?" she demanded. "Blind? But how are we supposed to-"

Obi-Wan put a hand on her shoulder. "Patience," he said, ever the teacher despite how many times he'd told Anakin that he wouldn't interfere in her training. "Use the Force. Don't force an answer, feel it."

She tried to. It didn't help that her master was radiating smugness to distract her.

Anakin, do stop that, she thought she heard Obi-Wan whisper.

Aw, come on, Master. It's fun.

Hush.

And with the quiet, Ahsoka finally understood. "Whoa. These shells, they're Force sensitive?"

"Yup," Anakin replied. "You need to feel which belongs with which."

Oh yes. Ahsoka was definitely getting schooled.

Padme merely smiled, shuffling the shells. "It's fun, Ahsoka. See how many you can get before these two louts start cheating."

"Cheating? Padme! Obi-Wan and I would never cheat!"

"Milady, I am only defending my shells."

"Oh yes, pardon me," she said dryly. "Can you two keep the antics down enough so that we can get through one round with Ahsoka?"

"Of course," they both readily agreed. Obi-Wan, Ahsoka knew, would keep that promise. Her master, however...

All three Jedi closed their eyes and Ahsoka opened herself up to the Force, listening to the bubbling laughter of the shells calling out for their mate. When Padme shouted for them to get started, she started reaching, clumsily bumping her hands against the other's as she grabbed for the two shells she found that seemed to go together.

What Ahsoka wasn't counting on while reaching for the shells that went together, was the joyous laughter and singing of the shells already mated. The happy chorus was louder as more shells were matched. The laughter was contagious, both herself and Padme giggling as the game continued, and though Ahsoka couldn't see them, she knew her master and Obi-Wan were smiling.

The game got really interesting when, by Ahsoka's estimate, half the shells had been paired. Along their training bond, she could feel Anakin getting mischievous. And, as if the singing shells weren't enough of a distraction, there was a surge in the Force that was fast and subtle and she almost thought she'd missed it. Until the shell she had just been grabbing slid out of her hand.

She growled, but kept working, reaching again for the shell, only to have it gone when she reached for it. Not liking where this was going, Ahsoka reached into the Force herself to grab the shell she wanted. This resulted in a tug-o-war between her and her master, as they yanked and pulled the shell, mirth bubbling up from them both.

Obi-Wan gave a great (though amused) sigh beside her and continued collecting shells while Padme laughed outright before attempting to scold Anakin between chuckles. He was utterly unrepentant.

Yet despite Anakin's clear cheating, Ahsoka couldn't stop the grin on her face. This type of relaxing, having fun... They didn't have anything like this at the Temple. And she couldn't help but wonder why. This was fun, a very motivating way to get her to learn parts of the Force, and it almost made the light around them shine.

Ahsoka let go of the shell she'd been reaching for, letting Anakin fling it to who-knew-where, and used the Force to match two shells, rather than her hands, before her master intercepted her. She was actually rather proud of the strategy.

She figured that strategy faster than you my Old Master.

"Only because of whatever Force-be-damned things you have taught her, my cheating old Padawan."

Ahsoka burst out laughing.

In the end, she decided it didn't matter who won or how badly she'd been schooled (Anakin had been matching shells while doing the tug-o-war; no fair!). The whole evening had been one of the most enjoyable experiences she'd ever had.

And with Anakin as her master, she hoped to be allowed to come along again.

It was after several rounds of the matching shells game that they all sat back and relaxed to more normal chatter. Obi-Wan sipped his tea and let the pure tranquility that surrounded him soak into his weary bones. Catching such snatches of pure light when darkness seemed to pervade everything was such a treat. But then, when Padme had started these dinners, none of them expected what they evolved into.

He doubted Ahsoka realized why it was so relaxing and peaceful. But Padme and Anakin, the hosts, understood. The evening they'd just had was not just friendship but of family. Something Jedi denied. Something that, when Obi-Wan was back at the Temple, would wonder if it was a good idea to be a part off, yet could never stop going to. And Ahsoka had been privy to a far more normal night of fun and relaxing, rather than the more restrained version that would happen if another Jedi decided to visit.

Oddly enough, though Obi-Wan wasn't entirely surprised, any Jedi that partook of Padme's open invitation for a stress-free evening never returned. Because, Obi-Wan was certain, they didn't know what to make of it. Even with constraint and holding back, there was no denying the way the Force would dance around the apartment in ways that a Jedi usually never saw. The Force in the Temple was calming, soothing, and peaceful. When Anakin, Padme and himself went about an evening of relaxing, it danced with mirth, and swirled in joy. Thus the confusion, because there was no denying that any guest Padme and Anakin hosted had a good time. So a Jedi was always left wondering why such strong emotions brought out such joy in the Force instead of turning dark.

Indeed, Obi-Wan wondered the same, after years of learning that peace and serenity was the way of the Jedi. But other Jedi did not have Anakin as a resident in one's mind. It was through Anakin's eyes that Obi-Wan saw what the Force looked like to the Chosen One. For Anakin, the Force wasn't just something that was there for him to work with. It was so integrally a part of him; there was almost no defining the two. The Force could guide Anakin's actions without conscious effort and he wielded it like it was an extension of himself. For Anakin, making the Force dance with love and joy was just a byproduct of expressing his love and appreciation for his wife, his respect and caring to his old master, and his devotion and commitment to his Padawan.

There was just something so inherently... light about what he did with the Force at these times that Obi-Wan was sent back to his Jedi teachings and wondering if something hadn't gotten twisted over the millennium.

But there was no denying that Anakin had dark tendencies. He had, buried deep in his core, a terrifying fear of losing the ones he loved. It was rooted in the lack of permanence he bore during his years as a slave, where his mother or himself could be sold on whatever whim Watto had. So Anakin clung tightly to those he considered his family. (Obi-Wan still wondered from time to time, what he had done to deserve the privilege, but whenever he did, Anakin reached through the bond and swatted him.) Anakin had yet to truly deal with that fear, though he made small attempts to break off tiny pieces of it.

Nights like this, where everyone was happy and together and the Force sang, were countered by Anakin's constant struggle on the battlefield against that fear whenever Obi-Wan or Ahsoka were in danger. Anakin had mostly removed the touches of darkness that had stained him after the Tusken Raiders and encountering Ventress on Yavin IV. Mostly. But the roots to his fear still existed, meaning they could flare up at any time, despite all the time and effort both Obi-Wan and Anakin had spent trying to clean them away.

When Obi-Wan had pushed for Anakin to be knighted, particularly without formal Trials, he had had to explain how, for each Trial, Anakin had already been through and survived. Most, like the Trial of Flesh, were easy to show an example of. But the Trial of Spirit was not one that Obi-Wan could explain quite so simply. For how could he show that Anakin regularly wrestled with his fear to the point of touching the Darkside, yet always walked away still in the Light? Anakin had passed his Trial of Spirit many times and continued to face it regularly. He had more than earned being knighted, even if he hadn't mastered himself yet.

And despite frustrations at still just being a Knight instead of a Master, Anakin understood that it was because he hadn't mastered himself yet. The moment Anakin faced down that debilitating fear and won (because Obi-Wan believed that his old Padawan would win), would be the moment Obi-Wan would start to push for Anakin to be a Master. It didn't stop Anakin's impatience. But at least Anakin knew when it would come. It was just up to him to face down that fear.

Obi-Wan could only hope that Anakin facing down his own Darkness didn't occur when facing a Sith. He knew all too well how difficult it was to face down a Sith while fighting against touching the Darkside. And the fight would be far more pronounced in Anakin. Especially with so much darkness coating the galaxy.

Padme and Ahsoka sat down by a dejarik table, quietly going over rules and strategies as Ahsoka continued to learn the game. Anakin fell beside Obi-Wan, leaning back in a picture of lanky laziness.

"You're worrying again, my old Master. I thought we agreed that Council meetings aren't part of the itinerary on these nights."

Obi-Wan shook his head, sipping his tea again. "It's not the Council; just a lingering worry about all the darkness that's been spreading. I feel we're missing something important and if we don't see it in time, it could mean our disaster. Something is about to happen. And I believe we are ill prepared for it."

Along the bond Anakin reached out, grasped Obi-Wan's worries, and released them to the Force.

"I know, Obi-Wan. But for right now? We live in the moment."

And hearing his old master's words from his own Padawan made Obi-Wan chuckle.

"Very true. Shall I assume you'll want me to take Ahsoka back to the Temple without you?"

Anakin squirmed.

"Um, yeah. Padme's been wanting to tell me something for a while now. I kinda want to know what has her glowing so brightly."

"Among other things, I'm sure," Obi-Wan muttered, hiding a grin behind a hand that brushed at his chin.

"Oh, come now, my old master. We are so rarely together that when we can, we want the chance to actually be together."

"I say again. Too much information."

They laughed.

Obi-Wan stood, intending to refresh his tea and continue to enjoy the evening, when his comlink beeped.

"Kenobi, here."

"Master Kenobi! Chancellor Palpatine's been kidnapped!"

Author's Note:Okay, for those of you concerned about what happened during Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene slamming through us last week, we've already ranted and raved a fare bit. Both here:

http :/ mirrorandimage . livejournal . com / 110937 . html

and here:

http :/ mirrorandimage . livejournal . com / 111204 . html

Back to our regularly scheduled author's notes.

Kyaaaaa, that was forever in getting done. This starts the Episode III material and, since we haven't seen Ani or Obi since Ani's knighting, there's a lot of expository what's-been-happening that needed to be stated. And somehow remain interesting. Which we're not sure if it is or not. Bleh.

Yes, we are aware that technically, Obi-Wan and Anakin were nowhere near Coruscant, let alone on it, when Palpatine got fake-kidnapped. It was the kidnapping that finally got them home and for Padme to finally tell Anakin her happy news, etc, etc. Clearly, a lot of our changes are affecting things already. ^_^ This was deliberate. Aside from being a chance to breath before things start to get crazy (so much for drabbles, this is a fully chaptered story at this rate...) and we introduce our more major turns from canon, it was a chance to show what Ahsoka might be like when things start. As of yet, no one knows what her fate is. (We personally think she will die, as another thing to push Anakin to the Darkside.) So if she is alive, we want to play with what her role might be. Rather than sending her away so that Revenge of the Sith can play out, we're going to make sure she's included. She's such a fun character.

Also, if any of you have read Shadows in Starlight by Vathara, you'll recognize the shell game. And if you want a good Obi-Wan-only story that's a crossover, you can go read it.

Next week: Battle of Coruscant. Though a bit different than the movie.