The party, part I: Visit on Tatooine – A UAAT Mini-Story

Ahsoka Tano, clad in a fuzzy brown bathrobe and slippers, stumbled sleepily out the spare bedroom in Obi-Wan Kenobi’s modest home on Tatooine and into the kitchen. “Caffeine… Need caffeine…”

“And good morning to you too, padawan,” he said with his usual Obi-Wan smile. He plunked a mug of something that smelled like his usual caffeinated tea down in front of her at the table. Then she noticed that it was in his favorite mug.

“Hey, isn’t this one yours?” she asked, waking up slightly.

“You take it. I’d already poured the tea into my cup when I realized that there wasn’t enough for both of us.”

She pushed the cup back to him. “You take it. You’re older.” Lately, even though he had always retained his orange-ish hair color, more and more grey was beginning to make an appearance.

“Very funny. But I must insist.” He pushed it back to her with an air of finality.

“Fine,” she said. He raised an eyebrow, probably not having expected such an easy victory over his stubborn sort-of padawan. She had been training with him for the past year and a half on Tatooine, but wasn’t quite his apprentice. She was more like a bothersome friend who would watch him like a hawk whenever he picked up his lightsaber and who had a bad habit of depleting his stock of caffeinated tea.

She smiled, and dropped two credits on the table. “But I get to pay you back. I know this stuff is expensive, and me being here is only draining your supply.”

“How is it that you always get the last word?” he asked, mock-exasperated. “You’re almost as bad as–”

He stopped himself, but they both knew what he was going to say. Anakin. Ahsoka knew that she reminded her new Master of his old apprentice, especially with their every-day banters and her ease at dishing out comebacks. She had picked it up from Anakin, as well as many of her other personality traits.

“Let’s not think about that right now,” he said as he sat down. “I have news.”

Her eyes widened over her mug, but he reassured her. “No, no. It’s not that kind of news. Nothing bad happened that directly concerns us, the twins, or the New Jedi Order.” She nodded, relieved. “Lux is coming to see you.”

She nearly spit out her sip of tea. “What? When? Why didn’t I know?”

“Hmm, that’s a tough string of questions to answer. “Yes, he’s coming, you didn’t know because he called when you were still asleep, and he should be here…” Then the sound of a ship’s engines right outside cut through the hot desert air.

“You’ll pay for this, Obi-Wan Kenobi! Springing a visit from my boyfriend on me like that?” She got out of her seat, and heard the engines shut off. “Distract him!”

Ahsoka ran back into her room, washing her face and hands in the basin by her bed, and got changed into her maroon combat suit, the one that she had purchased on that very planet over a year before. She felt that Obi-Wan had grown accustomed to seeing her looking terrible, and she had grown used to letting him, but she preferred to look her best in every situation.

Taking one last look at her reflection in the mirror that she kept forgetting to polish, she pulled on her boots and ran outside. She hadn’t seen Lux in two months, and it was starting to wear on her. She needed to be around him, and frequently.

She caught sight of him standing there, talking with Obi-Wan, and sped her pace up. She careened into him, nearly knocking him over, and held him tight. The Jedi master took a step back, giving them some space.

His timing was perfect, because, no sooner had he moved away, she pulled his face down to hers and kissed him. This went on for what felt like a long time. She hadn’t expected anything less, because they had been apart for so long. It was wonderful.

“Hey,” he said, breaking the kiss. Just hearing his voice again was great.

“Hey. I missed you so much, Lux! It’s so great to see you again!”

“I missed you more, Ahsoka. Way more. It’s hard not seeing you around the place on Cialone any more.”

“It’s hard not seeing you at all. But why now? On such short notice?”

“Let’s go inside, and we can talk,” Lux said, keeping an arm around her as he started over towards the modest dwelling. She could sense that he was slightly embarrassed that Obi-Wan had seen the entire kissing episode, and tried to resist giggling at his discomfort.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

They sat down in the living room area and Lux proceeded to tell Obi-Wan and Ahsoka his news and reason for coming. “I came because I wanted to invite you both to Alderaan. Bail Organa is having a party to celebrate the Queen’s birthday, and he said that the three of us were welcome to come. I don’t know if you’d feel comfortable there, Ben, but…”

Obi-Wan put up his hands. “No, no, Lux. Thank you, but I’ll leave the fun to the young people and the politicians. I have to stay here and watch over Luke.”

“Suit yourself, Mr. Guard Dog,” Ahsoka said. “I’m coming. But what are we going to do about our identities? There’s an Imperial presence on Alderaan, and if they found out who we are…”

“It’s all been arranged, Ahsoka. Bail has a plan, and you’ll approve of it. But first,” he said, jingling a bag of credits, “we’re going shopping.”

She sighed. She had never really like shopping for clothes that much. But, she was a Jedi (padawan) and she would be ready to meet the obstacle head on. And Lux’s near-impeccable sense for what was currently in fashion didn’t help the situation much. He had always been willing to spend way too much money on her, and he would insist on going to all the pricey boutiques.

“Um, okay. But can I wake up first?”

They all laughed. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all…