Back again! Yayy!

Where could he have possibly gone this time? Obi-Wan wondered. The Republic outpost on Tatooine was not large, and it was surrounded on all sides by vertical rock, the only way to get in a hidden tunnel in front of the base's main hangar door. The top of the structure had been camouflaged to make it appear as a shorter rock formation amidst the rest of the landscape. The surrounding land was a maze of rock, one in which the Jedi Master had to admit he would lose himself in. He had searched the entire base, top to bottom, for his wayward comrade, paying special attention to each spacecraft, Anakin's love to tinker in the forefront of his mind. But it was to no avail; the Knight was nowhere to be found.

Obi-Wan let out an exasperated sigh, then reached out, searching for the familiar Force signature of his old apprentice. Moments later, he found it, outside the base, burning brightly with – joy? He wrinkled his brow and opened his eyes, a trickle of Anakin's emotion spilling through their bond, prompting a small grin. He headed toward the source of the Force signature, having to close his eyes every once in a while to regain his bearings before he got lost; all the rock looked the same. Finally, he was close, and knew Anakin was just on the other side of the wall. A sudden shout rang through the cavernous passageway, one that usually would have spurred Obi-Wan's legs into a sprint without his conscious command, but no fear or pain to any extent was emanating from the younger man. Rather, intense amusement – tinged with slight annoyance – is what Obi-Wan found. He quirked an eyebrow, wondering what could be going on. Moments later, he peeked his head around the earthen wall to find – a pile of Womp Rats? And, to make the matter all the more strange, Anakin's laughter was coming from the center of it. Obi-Wan stopped, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest as he sensed no danger and a smile grew on his lips.

As he watched, Anakin extricated himself from the bottom of the pile of small creatures, and proceeded to bounce on the balls of his feet in front of them, exciting them. They pranced around, full of happy energy, until Anakin took two quick steps toward them, pushing them back before the squirming mass of bodies turned the tables and chased him. And continued to chase him. He led them in circles, trying to stay a few feet ahead of them – and failing. One of the largest Womp Rats in the pack hooked his nose around Anakin's ankle, causing the Jedi Knight to lose his balance before he twisted around and landed heavily on his side. The same Rat ran up to Anakin's face, snuffling and licking him as he tried to shield himself.

"Stop it, Wompers!" Anakin gasped between bouts of laughter, and to Obi-Wan's surprise, the Womp Rat did, sitting back on its hind quarters and panting with exertion, all the while looking extremely pleased with itself. Anakin pushed himself up on his elbows, still trying to catch his breath and smiling profusely. His eyes wandered, catching onto Obi-Wan's leaning form. His face turned slightly more pink, almost imperceptibly to anyone but his all-but-blood brother, but that was the only indication of embarrassment at being caught acting so… un-Jedi-like. His huge grin did not falter.

Obi-Wan crossed the distance between them, coming to stop a meter from the Womp Rat in front of Anakin; his old Padawan may have trusted the creatures, but Obi-Wan had had enough experiences of his own to be wary of them. He looked down with a smirk at the younger man on the ground. "Wompers?"

Anakin's face reddened in earnest as he sat up, Wompers coming over and doing his best to clamber up and fit his full seven foot length onto Anakin's lap. Needless to say, though three feet of his length was tail, Wompers did not succeed. After a few minutes of restless shifting – eliciting grunts from his human cushion when he unwittingly slammed into Anakin's stomach – Wompers gave up, content enough with his shoulders and head on Anakin's lap and his tail wrapping around the Knight. Anakin subconsciously began stroking the Womp Rat's head as he looked up at Obi-Wan. "Yeah," he gave a small smile, his eyes dropping to the top of Wompers' head. "See, when I was young, I used to come out here almost every day after Watto let me leave the shop. Home wasn't too far from here," he jerked his head, motioning behind him. "Mom let me come out here, but she never knew I was playing with Womp Rats. Probably would have had a heart attack if she did." He gave a half-hearted chuckle. "I had heard plenty of horror stories about these guys, sure, but even from the first time I came out here, I knew I wasn't in any real danger. They're just poorly misunderstood creatures, lonely, isolated, feared. People lash out and attack them even before there's cause. They don't get a single chance to show they're more than what they appear to be on the outside." Anakin's hand paused, resting on Wompers' shoulders. The animal looked up into the man's eyes. "I guess I could relate."

Anakin looked at Obi-Wan, who realized he had somehow come to be sitting next to his old Padawan. Anakin cleared his throat. "Anyway, I came out here all the time, and there was this one Womp Rat with whom I just immediately… connected, you know? Except he was a lot smaller then!" He looked down pointedly at Wompers, who seemed to understand him enough to look a little abashed. Anakin laughed softly and continued to pet him. "At the time I met him, Wompers was only about a foot long, just a baby. He didn't know how he fit into the world, like me. But we were both just kids, so we didn't know that's what we were feeling. We just… clicked. I quickly came to see him as a friend, and we'd talk about anything and everything. I always wished I could take him home, but I was smart enough to know the reasons why I couldn't. He was kind of my secret pet, my secret friend." A wistful smile pulled at Anakin's mouth, and Obi-Wan could not help but give a sad one of his own, imagining a small Ani playing with a baby Womp Rat. But a question still nagged at him.

"But… Wompers?" he asked with a grin and a sideways glance. Anakin groaned, but could not hide his smile.

"I was eight! Plus, it was more original than 'Wompy'!"

"I can't really argue with that," Obi-Wan conceded.

"I never expected him to still be around, twenty years later," Anakin thought aloud. "But I've never really known how long their natural life expectancies are."

Before Obi-Wan could respond, he felt little feet on his legs as a baby Womp Rat climbed into his lap, unafraid. The same could not be said for the Jedi Master, who tensed and froze. The small animal turned around a couple of times before settling down, nosing his hand and maneuvering it until it was resting on the creature's head, then gave a big sigh, closing its eyes. Next to him, Anakin was laughing at the almost-fearful look on his face.

"I think he likes you."

"Oh, really? What gave you that idea?" Obi-Wan had yet to move a muscle.

"Pet him."

"What?"

"Pet him, Obi-Wan. He won't bite," Anakin assured him. Tentatively, Obi-Wan did, relaxing a bit after a few moments when the creature only sighed again.

"I think you tired him out with all your roughhousing."

Anakin chuckled. "Probably. I haven't played that hard in forever. It's not really something we do at the Temple."

Obi-Wan was not sure how long they sat out there on the desert planet, but all too soon, the comm on his wrist chirped. He answered it to Cody's voice telling him that Master Fisto was requesting a holo-call from him before leaving Coruscant to join them.

Both men unwillingly got up, Anakin loathe to leave again his childhood friend and Obi-Wan wishing he could always see his old Padawan – the Chosen One – so carefree.

As Anakin led him back to the base, Obi-Wan noticed the younger man's brow was wrinkled and a look of distaste was easily readable.

"Anakin."

"Mm hmm?"

"I know you aren't happy to leave your Womp Rat friends, but we do need to get back."

"Hmm? Oh. No, it's not that. I think there's a hair in my mouth… or several."

The half-disgusted, half- embarrassed look Anakin gave Obi-Wan was enough to start the Jedi Master laughing. Anakin stuck his tongue out at Obi-Wan, but joined the laughter soon enough.

Yeah... this one was inspired by me playing with a puppy and then getting hair in my mouth... Yeah. Seren laughed really hard. But so did I, so...

It got really deep there in the middle. I don't know why. Go ask Anakin. He just told me to write it and I did. Then I went back and reread it, it hurt my heart. WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME, ANI?

Please review! Ani and Obi will be super happy if you do! They might even have more misadventures I can tell you about!

~Mirnava