anakin needs friends, and dune needs to child-proof his living quarters (crayven could be trusted to not chew the cords, but dune's not sure what nine-year-old humans do for fun . . . better safe than sorry, right?). off to the creche we go!
tw: shady behavior by adult, directed at children (palpatine)
There's a new kid in the creche.
Keegan watches as Master Dune leaves him at the door with a promise of return and an encouragement to make a few friends. The kid seems ready to bolt, but Keegan is already on his way over. There's a new kid in the creche who looks like him and Keegan is gonna make friends!
"Hi!" he says, "I'm Keegan! Who're you?"
"I'm Anakin," the new kid says.
"Hi, Anakin! Let's go play!"
Before Anakin can say anything else, Keegan drags him off to where a little mouse droid is waiting. "This is Ardee!" he tells Anakin, "His name is actually RD-6, but we just call him Ardee!"
Ardee beeps a hello. Anakin grins. "I met an R2-D2 droid on Naboo," he says.
"Wow! That's awesome!" Keegan bounces up again. "Let's play tag! You're it!"
He sprints toward Amita, giggling, as Anakin takes off after him. "Can't catch me!"
Keegan whirls behind Amita as Anakin nears him and shoves the other initiate into Anakin's way. "You're it now!"
"But I don't wanna play!" Amita complains, but she's already chasing Anakin. He shrieks as Amita lunges at him, and she falls into one of the other kids. "You're it!"
And just like that, the entire creche is caught up in their game. Keegan gets tagged a few more times, but mostly he stays by Anakin as they dodge the other initiates together. "No!" Keegan laughs as Anakin basically waltzes into the Dathomirian who's currently 'it,' "You're supposed to run away from them!"
"Arr!" Anakin says, grinning, and takes off after Keegan. Keegan yelps and dodges away, running zig-zags to keep away from his new friend. "I'm faster than you!"
"Nuh-uh, you're not!"
"Yeah, I am!" Keegan shouts, but apparently, he's not, because Anakin tags him as he's whirling behind another crechemate. "You're it!"
"Dang!" Keegan says, taking off after another initiate.
They tire themselves out eventually, and Keegan collapses into a giggling heap next to Anakin. "Nice to meet you," he says, "I think we're gonna be great friends!"
When Master Dune comes back, Keegan glomps onto Anakin's side and refuses to let go. With a shake of his head and an exasperated smile, he takes the both of them back to his quarters for hot chocolate and a movie.
"Master Dune," Keegan asks, wedged between the older Jedi's legs as he braids Keegan's hair, "are you Anakin's Jaieh?"
"Yep," the Avid Jedi says.
"You're so lucky," Keegan tells Anakin, "Master Dune is the best."
Anakin squirms. "Jaieh makes really good pancakes."
"I want pancakes!"
Master Dune laughs. "Maybe tomorrow," he says, tying the last of Keegan's braids, "but right now, I believe you should be heading back to the creche. It's late, yeah?"
"Aww," Keegan whines, "fine, I guess."
"Shoo! Master Hipolito will be waiting for you."
"Bye, Anakin!" Keegan shouts as he bounces out the door, "See you tomorrow!"
Master Dune indeed does make pancakes for Keegan the next day, which he loves. Even better, he makes them for lunch! He also brings Knight Adalee over, who has a purple Twi'lek padawan named Shakka.
"Hi, Shakka!" Keegan says when he sees her.
Shakka, a few years older than Keegan (he's not quite sure how many), rolls her eyes. "Hello, Initiate Aurelius," she says.
"Aw," Keegan says, "stop being such a party-pooper! This is Anakin. He's new."
"Hi," Anakin says.
"Agisti, Padawan," Shakka says, giving Anakin a bow.
"Silly Shakka," Keegan laughs, "Anakin doesn't know Dai Bendu!"
"Yet!" Anakin snaps, frowning, "I'm learning!"
Master Dune steps to Keegan's side, placing a hand on his shoulder and leaning over to give Anakin a hug. "The best way to learn a new language is to use it as much as possible," the older Jedi says, "and Anakin is doing very well. Now, how about we settle down and have lunch?"
Years later, when Keegan is a padawan himself, his master will say the best friendships are made over a table of food. It's not true for most of his life—civil wars and genocides will get in the way—but it certainly is true for his friendship with Anakin and Shakka. A streaming plate of bao sits between him and Anakin as Keegan helps teach his friend how to read. When Shakka comes to visit, she brings with her oozing cookies filled with dulce de leche. Their best pranks are, of course, thought up over a stack of Master Dune's pancakes.
(Shakka still won't talk about the time they dropped a bucket full of water on Master Windu's head. They got to clean the Temple courtyard with a toothbrush for their troubles, but Keegan thinks it was so, so worth it.)
Keegan's master is a Human named Kira Nevis. She's a Guardian with frizzy red hair and a sharp tongue like she's making up for how tiny she is. She's also wickedly smart and super funny, and Keegan loves her.
(Master Kira couldn't cook if the Force demanded it of her, but that's okay, because Master Dune, then Anakin, could.)
When Keegan turns thirteen, Master Kira takes him on his first mission. On Lothal, Master Kira teaches him how to listen to what people don't say and how to use the Force to cast Notice-Me-Not. Shakka has been on almost a dozen missions with Master Adalee and Anakin goes on his first diplomatic trip. Somewhere in between, Shakka brings home a piece of sheet music and they find out Anakin can sing. It becomes tradition, then, to bring music back home whenever they go on a mission.
Sometime in the same year, Keegan breaks Ferus Olin's nose and gives him a shiner that lasts for weeks. Master Kira gives him the lecture of the century and hands him over for Archive duty, but Keegan never apologizes to the other padawan.
("You can take the boy out of slavery," Ferus had said, "but you can't take the slave out of the boy. Skywalker will never be a real Jedi.")
When the Chancellor asks for Anakin, Keegan sneaks out to join him and refuses to go home when the Chancellor tells him to.
"Jedi go two-by-two," he says, "Anakin and I are practicing."
The Chancellor frowns but doesn't say anything else. He takes Keegan and Anakin to a bar in the Coruscant's underbelly and makes Anakin mess up a Senator's dice game and makes them swear not to tell anyone where they went. And maybe Keegan wouldn't have, but Master Dune had made them sit through a cringy holoslide presentation about relationships last week, and Keegan knows it's not okay for an adult to tell them to keep a secret.
"Maybe if it was 'Don't tell your masters I bought you ice cream,'" Anakin says, "but I don't think we're old enough to go to a bar."
So Keegan tells Master Kira and Anakin tells Master Dune. Keegan doesn't know what they did, but the Chancellor doesn't ask for Anakin again.
(Years later, when summer days at the Temple are nothing more than fading memories, they will find out the Chancellor never actually stopped asking for Anakin. The Council just stood in his way.)
Master Dune says he's proud of them but makes them sit through the cringy holoslide again.
"Be careful around men with power," he says, "They'll do anything to get what they want."
"He kinda felt slimy, almost," Anakin says, "Like Master Yoda's soup, but a person."
"Ew," Keegan shudders.
Master Dune pauses from where he's making more of his delicious pancakes. "Trust your guts, Padawans," he says, "because they're probably right."
Knight Kenobi comes home from a mission talking about "Open" and "Closed" and a civil war on Carnelian IV. "Strange people," he says, "but I'm glad I could help them."
Sometimes, Knight Kenobi tries to teach them Soresu, but Keegan has chosen Niman and Anakin Djem So. Shakka tries to incorporate Knight Kenobi's teachings into her preferred Ataru, but even she eventually gives up. Not to be discouraged, Knight Kenobi quickly moves on to gardening. Keegan has no idea why there are so many plants in the Knight's quarters—maybe he's trying to become one with a tree.
"What if you actually had been his padawan?" Keegan asks Anakin, "You'd be sharing a bed with a shrub!"
"Oh, come on!" Anakin laughs, "Obi-Wan's perfectly cool. There aren't that many plants."
Keegan snorts. "Whatever helps you sleep at night."
They grow up in fits and starts. Keegan earns a yellow bead for weapons study, while Anakin gets blue for mechanics and Shakka black for covert operations. Like her master, Shakka will be a Shadow one day. Anakin never actually gets good at reading and writing but still learns too many languages to be considered sane. Keegan breaks Ferus Olin's nose a second time and doesn't apologize again.
Their reign of chaos continues. By the time they're fifteen, the trio have probably scrubbed every inch of the Temple courtyard with a toothbrush. They give their teachers a headache and rope the other padawans into their hare-brained schemes, but it's okay, because they're kids, and they're allowed to have fun.
They learn how to fly and how to do math and how to negotiate peace. Keegan and Anakin learn how to braid Master Vos's hair while Shakka watches. When they're all together, Master Dune takes them to meet with conductors on the Freedom Trail.
"A rising sun, a Krayt, waves of water—keep an eye out for symbols traditionally associated with freedom," Master Dune tells them, "The Jedi might not free slaves, but that doesn't mean we can't help those who do."
"Freed slaves call themselves Ekkreth sometimes," Anakin says, "My mom used to tell me a story about Ekkreth and Umingmak. She said Umimgmak taught the Amavikka to be strong until they could all be Sky-walkers."
"Hmph," Master Dune says, "Your mother really wasn't holding back when she named you, was she?"
"Nope! I think she thought I was gonna do great things."
Master Kira laughs. "'Anakin' means Rain-Bringer, doesn't it? Did you know 'A'Duné' comes from an Avid word for rain?"
"Whoa!" Anakin says, "For real? That's so cool!"
"The will of the Force, it is," Keegan says, playfully shoving his best friend, "in mysterious ways, does it work."
"Indeed," Master Dune says, "indeed."
author's note: nothing like politics to get one back to writing -_-