Smile

Mentor 1.

She seemed to be more grown up every time he saw her.

This time, he came across her unexpectedly. On his way to a quiet corner of the Room of a Thousand Fountains, Plo Koon was aiming for a favorite spot to rest and meditate. The last mission he'd been assigned to was a long one, and it had been several weeks since he'd last seen Coruscant and home. A little bit of rest and peace was well in order.

It wasn't that Ahsoka was being noisy – actually, she was surprisingly quiet as she went through the motions of her empty-handed kata. It was only that the location she'd selected, far in the back of the gardens, was a wide enough space for practice, and the greenery around it was thin enough that he could see through. He folded his arms across his chest and observed.

She was moving slowly, but steadily, her eyes closed. Each of her hands was outstretched, flat and bladelike; a strike from one of them would be sharp and painful. Of course, seeing as Ahsoka was barely as tall as his waist, it would be a few more years before she had the build and muscles to put behind it. Still, her form was good, and getting better. Her motions slowed, and he could feel the build-up of energy and power, before she exploded into a back-fisted strike, at what would be an opponent's head. She swept around, knees bent and soft, before leaning backward, her weight going onto one leg. She leapt forward with a kick, landing easily and punching downward with one fist, while the other came up to her hip.

Her bolo-ball, ever present, was floating around her. With each movement, it hovered, a constant distance away from her body, perhaps a handspan. As she spun around and lifted herself into a crouch, it rolled down her arm and waited, idly floating mid-air, before she struck out with a palm. The ball moved forward, dipping towards her for a second before pushing back out to its usual distance.

Behind his mask, Plo smiled a little. It did not look like much, but she was exerting a great deal of control, attempting to unite both her native Togruta abilities of echolocation with her Force sense. The younglings all trained with remotes regularly, learning to block stinging electrical charges with a lightsaber while blindfolded. By keeping the bolo-ball at a relatively constant distance from herself, while practicing kata blind, she was forcing herself not only to constantly judge the ball's location and distance, but keep it floating. Rather than awareness alone, it built stamina and fine control.

The only problem with the entire scene was that she wasn't supposed to be here.

Sliding into the final, closing position, she lifted her fists, crossing them at the wrists and sighing. She opened her eyes, and the bolo-ball dropped into her hands with a light smack.

"Cutting class again, little 'Soka?" he asked, his rich voice filling the clearing.

She started, almost leaping into the air in surprise as she spun around to see him standing there watching her. Clutching the ball to her chest, she looked down and away, guiltily. "Hi Master Plo," she mumbled, more into the ball than to him.

He repressed a chuckle and joined her in the clearing. She didn't lift her head from where it was resting on top of the ball, but she did raise her eyes for a moment, perfectly aware she should be in trouble. "Why are you here, Ahsoka?"

She hugged the ball closer to her again. "Practicing."

"You should be doing that with your class and your teachers."

She shifted from foot to foot and said nothing. Plo tilted his head, looking at her. She'd grown a great deal, from the toddler he'd found on Shili, but she was still small, and when she curled herself around the ball like that, she seemed tiny again. He knelt on one knee, bringing himself closer to her eye level. She focused on the brown surface of her ball. "I'm sorry."

"Why are you practicing here, Ahsoka?"

She pursed her lips and twisted them to the side. "I know how to do what we were doing in class."

"So you decided to leave?"

Her nose wrinkled and she looked at him several long seconds. Then the stubbornness set in. Her pout became a scowl and her brows drew down into an adamant expression. "I have to get better so I can be a padawan."

Plo's brows rose as he considered her declaration. She was years away from being chosen as a padawan learner. A few of the older younglings, though, had recently left the crèche to begin their training with their new Masters. Ahsoka was a handful, but there was no reason for her to pressure herself so early on. If she focused herself a little better, she'd be one of the top students in her age group, instead of the one the teachers had to constantly chase after for disappearing, or chastise for daydreaming or inattentiveness. "I have no doubt you will be, someday."

The petulance faded a little as she looked up at him skeptically. He placed a hand on her head, between the two navy-tipped lumps that would someday grow into her montrals. A look of consternation crossed her face, and she looked up at him, hopefully. "Will you be my Master, Master Plo? I'll be a really good padawan, I promise."

"Of that I have no doubt at all, Ahsoka. But whether you become my padawan or not is not entirely up to me or to you."

She looked up at him, then further up where his arm was above her head. She squirmed and pushed lightly at his hand. He smiled a little. She seemed to be reaching a stage where it wasn't always cool to be treated like the age she was. "Why not?"

He removed his hand from her head and let his forearm drape over his bent knee. "The Council needs to approve such things. They may have a different Master in mind for you, someday. Someone more appropriate than I."

Her eyes rounded and her face puckered up again, this time with defiance. "But you're the best Master! And you found me and brought me here!"

This time, he couldn't resist a laugh, and Ahsoka scowled at him with all the fearsomeness of a blind, day-old nexu kitten. "Thank you, little one. It may be that I'll be your Master. Or it may not. You have many years to learn before you are ready. You will need a Master who can strengthen the skills you already possess, help them to grow."

Ahsoka was a fiercely independent child; certainly not one to fear much of anything, at least not her teachers. Though it made her difficult now, that willfulness and fearlessness would make her a prime candidate for field work someday, if she could learn to balance those traits with wisdom and wariness. Kindness she already had. She would be a duelist, a fighter and a peace-maker , a creator of peace, rather than a peace-keeperand maintainer of it.

She seemed to be mulling his words over, glancing between him and the ball she was still clutching in her arms. "Even if you're not my Master, Master Plo, will you still teach me sometimes?" She paused, then flushed. "I won't hide, either."

He smiled. "I will always be happy to do so, little 'Soka. But for now, I think we need to take a little walk."

"A walk?"

"Yes, back to your classroom."

Ahsoka stared up at him, then pouted. "You're no fun, Master Plo."

Chuckling, he stood, and began to usher her away from the gardens and back towards the crèche. A few steps later, he felt a small hand reach into his and squeeze once. When he looked down, he found small orange fingers inside his larger orange ones, a pair of bright blue eyes looking up at him, and a little girl smiling.

I've finally got it figured out. Anakin is Big Brother, Obi-Wan is Uncle, and Plo is Dad.

This chapter is for ThoseWereTheDays, who requested some Ahsoka/Plo Koon friendship (though it was quite awhile ago now! Sorry for the delay!) Also, a big thank you to everyone who reviewed last time: laloga, OKami-hu, Jadedsnowtiger, reulte, sachariah, KatiaSwift, TheLightisMine, Sarge1995, AwRiter, A Rose by any Other Name, and Queen Ceilidh! Thank you all so much for taking the time to comment!

I'm still taking ficlet suggestions, if anyone has any!

~Queen