A/N: Thanks to froovygirl, ElizabethlovesTatu, Swfanfan for reviewing. I apologize for the long wait. I literally had no idea what to write. A short chapter. But I think you guys will like it.

Chapter Seventeen

Tatooine Bound

Ahsoka sat at the starships controls, her fingers sliding absentmindedly and delicately over the navi-screen. Not with enough pressure to set anything off, though she wouldn't care if she set something off. Like Anakin, she thrived on thrill seeking. If something dangerously unexpected happened she would look back on it excitedly. It gave her a sense of euphoria. Her heart raced and the danger made her want to get past the trappings of her physical body. She wanted whatever part of her, her soul, if you will to burst out from her skin and shoot up into the sky fireworks.

Playing with danger made her feel alive.

The life of routine often made beings feel less than alive. But shaking it up and challenging the so-called logical made her feel alive.

And the adage went that many felt the most alive just moments before their death. Flirting with the idea that she could die at any moment made her cling to life desperately. It scared her. It alarmed her. It unsettled her. And that was precisely why she loved it.

Obi-Wan would shake his head in disapproval at her line of thought.

I'm such a lunatic, she thought.

She smiled.

The sound of Obi-Wan's boots alerted her.

She could always tell he was walking up to her before she looked. And it had little to do with his presence in the force. His footfalls were dignified. Slow and soft.

He didn't see any reason to run anywhere if there was no need to. Don't expend your energy, he'd say. You need it.

Anakin's footfalls were different.

They were quick and they struck the ground with much noise. His footfalls were rarely ever soft.

Anakin's walk was elegant visually and he had mastered the refined aesthetic of Jedi grace. When he walked he almost floated.

But it always sounded rough. She remembered telling him it felt like the quaking of a starship blasting off when he walked.

He had looked a bit angry by the statement. But he had smirked arrogantly and pinched her arm playfully.

She had slapped him in return.

At this point she was laughing to herself.

"Are you mocking me in your daydream, young padawan?"

"Anakin, actually."

"Finally. I'm so tired of being picked on."

"Oh, I'm still gonna pick on you. That's too amusing an activity to give up."

He sighed with a smile.

Siri Tachi was lingering behind Obi-wan.

"Hello, Master Tachi." Ahsoka said respectfully.

"Hello."

Siri sat at the controls

"Two women piloting the ship?" Obi-Wan said skeptically.

"Don't even bring up that stereotype." Siri began. "Women make great pilots. Much less reckless than our male counterparts."

"You're generalizing, Siri. Not all men are needlessly aggressive pilots. I don't assert any dominance when I pilot. It's just a means to an end. From the starting point to the destination."

"I guess I was stereotyping too. And you're right. You're not an aggressive pilot. In fact, you pilot with such little aggression I'd mistake you for a drowsy elderly person."

Ahsoka was cackling with laughter.

And here they were again. However the day started and no matter who was there it always ending with a ritualistic mocking of his level headedness.

He sighed with annoyance. Siri and Ahsoka were laughing so hard they were clutching their bellies in pain , tears running over flushed cheeks.

"Like school children." He scolded and walked away.

That only made them laugh harder.

Ahsoka was meditating in her sleep chamber.

Siri looked at Obi-Wan with mischief in her eyes.

He looked back and knew what the look meant. He shook his head.

"She'll catch us."

"Oh nonsense. I can be very quiet. And we can turn on some music."

He smirked.

"So scandalous. Trying to hide our illicit affair." Obi-Wan said sarcastically.

"So illicit. An engaged couple being intimate. Terrible." She replied jokingly.

He was laughing.

She touched his cheek. His beard was rough on the inside of her wrist. She buried her fingers in his thick, copper locks.

His calm blue-green eyes flickered to life.

Slowly he threaded his fingers through hers and they walked back to his chamber.

"Wife."

She draped an arm across his waist and her cheek fit into the hollow of his shoulder.

Her voice was barely a whisper. A reverent whisper.

"Husband."

He could barely hear what she said. But he knew by the contentment that warmed to his core what she said.

He drew her up in his arms. Their cheeks pressed up against each other.

He shut his eyes and it felt like breathing for the first time.

It always felt like that.

Like beginning again. Like dying and then coming back to life. Like waking up.

Anakin had been right all along.

There was nothing in the world that compared. Love was the ultimate. There was nothing else quite like it. And there was nothing that was better.

It was everything. And it was the only thing.

The starship shot through space immeasurably fast. Like a subliminal blur.

But inside that starship there was no such concept of time.

They were frozen.

In the best way possible.