Story Title: Being Ten

Series Title: Unlikely Brothers

Author: Obi the Kid

POV: Dashen (Tanner is 10, Dash is 16)

Chapter Summary: Dash worries about Tanner not enjoying his childhood.

Series Summary: A series of non-chronological stories taking place in the world of my OC's Dashen and Tannerlin.

Rating: PG

Characters: Dashen Lesedi, Tannerlin Vai (Jedi)


"I swear, Tanner, you're ten years old now! Time to start acting like it!"

"I am acting like it. I go to school and I learn and I do my home assignments and…"

"No, no, no, and no. That is not how a ten year old should act. You should be outside playing with friends, getting dirty, torturing insects and blowing up sand moles. It's what kids do!"

"I don't want to torture insects and blow up sand moles. Why would I want to do that?"

"Because you are TEN! You only live this childhood thing once and you have to take advantage of it."

I didn't think I was convincing him. I was convincing me though as I had a sudden desire to go play in the dirt and blow up sand moles. But no, those things were out of the question for various and obvious reasons. And regardless of my wants, I was sort of worried about the kid. He didn't do what the kids around here did for fun. His fun was in learning and reading and studying and absorbing…oh and holo-vids. He did love holo-vids. At least that part was normal.

He was determined though, I'd give him that.

"I am taking advantage of it, Dash. I'm learning to better myself."

"That is exactly my point. Not a single other ten-year-old kid on the entire planet of Terra has ever uttered those words."

A finger scratched at his brown hair, and pallid brown eyes wondered at me. I do believe I was confusing him.

"I'm not from Terra, remember? I didn't grow up here. I grew up in the Jedi Temple. We didn't have much dirt to play in or many sand moles to blow up. Although I do remember another apprentice trying to set Master Yoda's gimmer stick on fire once."

Yoda? What the hell was a Yoda? Oh wait…"Is that the troll thing you told me about? Short little green guy, giant ears, big man complex?"

The kid giggled at me. Okay, that was fine. Ten year olds were still allowed to giggle. I think he still had another couple of years for giggling to be accepted. I was still concerned though. Not about the giggling, but about him and just taking time to be a kid. Or maybe he was being a kid. I don't know. I was sixteen, what the hell did I know about parenting? And he had a point - this is how he was raised. Indoors. In classes. In training. Sounded like crap to me, but I hadn't lived it. I sorta…well I wished a little more for him than just books and classes.

"Okay, Mouse, this is what I mean. I know you were raised differently, but didn't you do anything for fun? Just let loose with friends and do silly stuff?"

A thoughtful moment passed as did a small shrug before he remembered. "We had free time every day – mostly every day, after training and classes were over. A couple of hours to do whatever we wanted. Most of us went to the gym to have mock saber battles and pretended we were Master Jedi or evil Sith. That was fun."

Better, but still not quite what I was hoping to hear. It was still training of a sort. It was still learning and it was still inside walls. "I'm sure it was fun, but that's it? No outside stuff? You didn't run around the woods playing Tag or Hide and Seek?"

"Coruscant is a city planet. There are no woods, just city. I suppose we could have played those games in the Jedi Gardens, but there weren't very many places to hide there. The lower levels of Coruscant weren't too friendly, especially to young ones, so we weren't allowed down there since it was the center of most of the planet's criminal activity."

"Huh, Colton and I might have fit right in then."

"No," Tanner shook his head firmly with a denial. "You are nice. And clean. The lower levels were scary and dirty. Those people would shoot you in the back, burn you and then feed you to the vultures given the chance."

Well, this was making more sense now. Essentially, as young Jedi they were trapped in the temple unless sent out on a mission with their masters. No wonder the kid seemed obsessed with learning and reading.

"You must have had holo-vid night or something though, right?"

"No. But my master had a collection of holo-vids and he let me watch whenever my studies were done. He said it was downtime, but I always learned something from them."

He didn't just say that, did he? The kid actually learned from holo-vids? Okay. I was certain that he wasn't learning what I – a hormone driven teenager - had learned from vids in the past couple of years, his learning was probably more valuable to the galaxy than mine that consisted of weapons, women and ale. I suppose at sixteen on Terra you get different stuff out of vids than does a former Jedi-boy who had spent his life inside the sterile walls of a temple.

This was becoming frustrating and I don't know, maybe my cause to help him have a little more fun was pointless. He seemed so…so…okay with everything. Could be that maybe I was the one who was supposed to learn something from all of this?

Eh. Nah. Learning sucked. I enjoyed my fun.

Still…"Okay, since you get so much joy out of school, what fun things did you learn this week?"

There was a pondering of thought and then more and more as he paced the room until, "I know. It's animal week. Did you know that the adult male eopie spins around thirteen times before he lays down for the night? And the females spin fifteen times. And if you distract them while they spin, they'll start all over. Oh and they only spin to the right. If they spin to the left, it's bad luck and you can't ride him that day. The babies – either sex - spin only twice though. Oh yeah and if they step on a rock and it flies out from under their toes and whacks someone nearby in the face, that's good luck. And painful."

As he smiled, I stared. Not at him, no. I stared at nothing, just off into the distance. Tanner sat down on the couch next to me, seemingly proud of himself for his 'fun facts'. I finished staring and inched closer to his face.

"That is fun to you? Spinning eopies and flinging rocks?"

"Yes. You said name something fun, so I did."

"It's not exactly what I had in mind, Mouse."

"Oooh, mice! Did you know the spotted brown loop-eared mouse can sniff out a speck of cheese from about four hundred yards away? See? More fun!"

I shook my head. The kid was hopeless. But at least he was having a good time while being hopeless. I had to give him credit there.

"Fun, indeed. All right, that's it. Tomorrow is the weekend. I'm job free and we are going somewhere, anywhere outside to have fun. The lake. Perfect! Glad I thought of it. You've never been there. Lots of kids there. Water sports, beach sports. Good for you. You and me, fun in the sun, sand and water. Yeah!"

"I don't have to torture any insects or blow up any sand moles, do I?"

"No," I sighed. "No, you don't. I swear, Tanner, you are as unique as they come. Do you want to bring a friend?" Head shake. "All those kids you talk to at school, your friends there," still shaking his head, "…ah no?"

"They only talk to me to ask for help with lessons. They're not really friends, but they're nice. Salia is my friend though."

"A girl? Okay! Girlfriend!"

"No," another head shake and a determined one this time. "Not a girlfriend."

Oh right, Jedi values and all that stuff. "But still a friend. Invite her."

"She's allergic to the sun."

"She's allergic…to the sun. Ah, hmm. What?"

"Direct sunlight makes her break out in welts. She has to wear sleeves, a hat and sunglasses when she's outside. It's called polymorphic light eruption. You wanted to know that, didn't you?"

"Funny, Tanner. Funny kid you are. Well then, cancel the girlfriend."

"Not a girlfriend!"

"Okay, okay. It'll just be me and you then. You really should find some friends at some point."

"So you can pawn me off on them and you can spend time prowling for girls."

"WHAT?! Who told you I do that?"

"Colton."

"I do not prowl. I'm not old enough. You do that at my age and they'll arrest you. I only look. It's harmless and I don't get slapped in the face. And anyway, don't listen to what he says. He likes to contaminate your brain with stories about me."

Picking up the control to the holo-vid monitor, Tanner punched up a favorite movie. His mind however had wandered into questioning me rather than me questioning him. "So, what were you like at ten? Did you torture insects and sand moles?"

I thought about it. I probably had. I didn't really recall. That was a year before our (Kossi and me) parents died. Three years before he'd died. I assume I was just a normal kid at the time. I know I'd tried to con myself into Colton's house once or twice. That was a big deal when I was a kid. One of those stupidly, crazy things to do. I mean, let's be serious. You have a house that massive and you expect an inquiring child like me to leave it alone? I had to at least try. I don't recall being very successful with my cons though. I do remember spending time with friends at the lake. I had a massive crush on a girl at the time; Ahbren I think was her name. She drove me crazy, until I'd tried to kiss her and she punched me in the face. After that, she drove me mad - in a good way. I had it bad. I think it was she who liked to blow up sand moles though. Maybe that's why I followed her around like a lost bantha pup.

Tanner never had any of that at the Temple, or if he did, he was keeping it well hidden. I tended to believe him though when he spoke about his life there. I tended to believe him in whatever he said - he has this thing about being truthful as long as it didn't compromise our safety. So, for him, there was none of that nutty kid stuff at the Temple and none of that here either.

It's why I worried, though I was beginning to feel that my worry was completely unjustified. The kid that everyone else knew as my little brother – and who really wasn't – didn't seem to need all those things that an average Terra ten-year-old needed.

Said little brother poked me in the ribs. "Hey, you didn't answer my question about what you were like at my age."

"I'll tell you tomorrow on our way to the lake."

"Okay, but don't forget."

"Yeah, like you'll let me forget." I got up from the couch. Paperwork was calling me. I had to finish logging my runs. I didn't have to really, but it was something Colton had instilled in me when I'd first taken up jobs with him. Document everything. No detail is too small and you never know when those details might come in handy. And they had, a time or two. So, I kept it up. I turned back to Tanner briefly.

"You know, Mouse, it's really okay if you want to torture insects and blow up sand moles. But it's okay too if you want to do your own thing. Just be content with whatever you choose." He nodded at me. "And don't forget to have a little fun once in a while, even if it does involve counting the number of spins a male eopie makes before bedtime. Okay? After all, that is some ultra thrilling stuff there, no doubt about it. Those crazy eopie and their spinning."

With a brotherly wink I walked away to leave him to his current ten year old fun – watching for the fifteenth time one of his favorite vids - Mutant Sando Aqua Monster vs. Colossal Opee Sea Killer.

It was horribly bad, but for Tanner, it was horribly fun and he laughed hysterically all the way through it.

Fun times!

….Just what being ten was all about.


The end.