One Path Chapter 36--The Skywalker Special
Title: The Skywalker Special
Author: Lionchilde
Summary: "Uncle Anakin saved my life..."
Rating: PG
Length: Around 2000 words
Category:Gen
Pairings/Charaters: Obidala mentioned; chapter's heavily Obi/Anakin friendship.
A/N: One Path Chapter 36. Set during an alternate RotS.
The Skywalker Special
Anakin and Obi Wan borrowed a temple speeder for the lunch date, and Ani thought it was exceedingly funny that the pair of war heroes had to promise repeatedly that it would be returned in one piece before they were allowed to leave. Despite having had absolutely no intention of letting Anakin drive, a pleading look from his son was all it took for Obi Wan to find himself slinking into the back seat while his former Padawan took the controls. Once there, he strapped himself in as tightly as he could and kept a wary eye on the pair in the front of the vehicle.
"Now, listen, Anakin, we have Ani with us--"
"I'm well aware of that, Obi Wan," said the Knight, leaning over to tighten the boy's safety harness.
"Yes, well, that means you need to go slow--"
"I don't like to go slow, Dad," Ani interrupted, peering over the edge of the front seat to grin at his father.
"Of course you don't," sighed Obi Wan. "Why would you? Your name is Anakin."
"I think he's starting to catch on," the elder Anakin remarked with a wink at his namesake.
"Very funny," replied Obi Wan, who was completely unable to see his son mouthing the words as he spoke them.
Anakin took off, and Obi Wan was only mildly surprised when they reached Coco Town alive. Without the excuse of a criminal to pursue, there had been no abrupt drops through the air, barrel rolls, or narrowly-avoided midair collisions. Weaving in and out of traffic and blatant disregard for the established speed limit, however, were a completely different story. All things considered, Obi Wan decided that the trip had gone remarkably well. He had managed to keep down his breakfast, no one had lost a lightsaber, and Ani had shrieked and giggled the entire time. All he had to do now was make sure that Padme never heard about any of it, but since they already weren't planning to inform her of where they were taking her only child for lunch, he didn't think that would be very difficult.
They had to park about a block away from the diner at this time of day. The business section of Coco Town was teeming activity. Beings of every description bustled through the streets on their way from one seedy establishment to another. The air was thick with the mingled aromas that wafted from various restaurants, industrial smog, and the belching smoke of a backfiring vehicle a few feet away. The area fascinated Ani just as much as the Jedi Temple had. He had questions about everything. Sights and sounds that the two men had long since absorbed as part of the background of this colorful section of the city were new and amazing him, and as they reached Dex's, Obi Wan almost didn't want to take him inside. He felt an irrational urge to prolong the outing, to squeeze in just a few more questions and answers, a few more moments when the war was only a faint tug in the back of his mind and he could watch his son's face light up in response to every answer that he or Anakin provided.
"Is this where we're going for lunch?" Ani asked, eyeing the brightly colored metallic walls and foggy windows of the diner with both surprise and excitement.
"The best eats in the Coco Town streets," Anakin replied, looking down at him with another wink.
Watching them, Obi Wan felt a surge of profound gratitude toward his former Padawan. It was to him that Obi Wan and Padme owed their son's life--a debt that neither could ever repay, and one that Obi Wan had never felt more keenly. He knew that there had been a time before Ani had even existed, that he had felt happiness and contentment before, but he could hardly remember it. Life without this child had become unthinkable--the notion of joy in a world where Anakin Kenobi had never lived was utterly impossible to him. The young Knight looked up at him and smiled, sensing his former teacher's emotions. Then he bent casually and swung the boy into his arms, letting Ani wrap his arms and legs around him as they moved through the door. Obi Wan saw Anakin's arms tighten around his son and smiled too. Anakin's hug seemed to him a wordless promise of devotion, a promise that his commitment to Ani, which had begun with that single, instinctive act had become something far deeper--something unbreakable and binding, as powerful as the love that Obi Wan felt for both of his sons.
"Can I help ya?" asked the familiar voice of WA-7, the diner's waitress droid as they stepped inside.
"We're looking for Dexter," Obi Wan replied pleasantly.
WA-7 made a rather unpleasant sound. Ani's eyes widened, but neither Obi Wan nor Anakin were particularly surprised at the reception. Both men were obviously not regulars, and Dex's past was…colorful. His staff and customers were nothing if not loyal, and though Obi Wan had known him since his days as Qui-Gon's Padawan, neither he nor Anakin had had much time for social visits since the Battle of Geonosis. They looked quite different than they had five years ago, even if the droid's memory stretched that far back. Whether it did or not, the public was largely distrustful of Jedi, and Anakin's clothing marked him unmistakably as a member of the Order.
"We do need to speak with Dexter," Obi Wan told the droid in the same polite and even tone.
"Whaddaya want him for?" came the response.
"He's not in trouble. It's personal," the general promised.
"Tell her who you are, Dad," Ani suggested.
"Hmmph!" sniffed the droid, giving the boy a suspicious look. "Doesn't matter to me if he's Obi Wan Kenobi. He's still gotta go through me."
"Right," Ani grinned.
Obi Wan held a finger to his lips, stifling a laugh.
WA-7 looked the trio up and down for another long moment, hmmphed again, and shook her head. She moved off to the serving hatch behind the counter and called, "Some people to see ya, honey. One of 'em's a Jedi, by the looks of 'im."
Seconds later, a huge head poked through the open hatchway along with a stream of grayish and decidedly unappetizing steam. A gigantic, block-toothed smile--on a mouth easily large enough to have swallowed the humans whole-- appeared on the immense face of Dexter Jettster at the sight of the company.
"Obi Wan! Anakin!" he called cheerfully.
"Oh…" WA-7 said with quiet chagrin.
"Hey, Dex," the two men chorused.
"Take a seat, fellas, I'll be right with ya," Dex told them.
Anakin set his namesake down, and the boy's head swiveled around to take in everything in the greasy establishment. From the booths along the walls to the freestanding tables to the stool-lined counter populated mostly by dockworkers and freighter drivers, Ani missed nothing, and if it was possible, his eyes seemed to get bigger with every turn of his head. WA-7 had gone back to serving the regulars, and Obi Wan smiled down at his son.
"Pick a spot," he said.
Ani took another look around, then led them over to a booth by the window. Obi Wan and Anakin slid in on either side, and Ani clambered up beside his father. He had to stay on his knees to reach the table, but that didn't deter him from reaching for a handful of the napkins on the table and beginning to shred them.
"Don't make a mess," Obi Wan said automatically.
"Why not?" the elder Anakin asked.
"Because…" Obi Wan trailed off in exasperation as Anakin took his own napkins and started ripping them apart.
WA-7 rolled over to them, looking at Anakin as if she wasn't quite sure what to make of him. "You fellas want some Jawa Juice?" she asked, her head moving between the two men.
"Oh, yes, thank you," Obi Wan said.
Anakin looked up from the mess in front of him and grinned, nodding in agreement. "Thanks."
The droid tsked and turned to Ani. "What about you, honey? How 'bout a nice big piece of cake?"
"Mmm, I love cake!" Ani's head bobbled eagerly. "Thank you."
"Cake sounds good too," Anakin spoke up.
"You don't need any cake," Obi Wan jabbed a finger at his friend. Then he gave the waitress a meaningful look. "And I think we'll save Ani's cake until after lunch."
"I could just have cake for lunch," Ani suggested, wriggling his eyebrows hopefully in his father's direction.
"No, you couldn't," Obi Wan replied.
"Please?" Anakin entreated mockingly from the other side of the table.
"No one is having cake for lunch," Obi Wan insisted, rolling his eyes at his friends antics.
"C'mon, Dad…" Ani attempted.
"No. Your mother would kill me," Obi Wan said sternly.
"She's already gonna kill you," Anakin reminded him.
"Why?" Ani frowned.
"Never mind," the two men said together.
"Huh?" Ani asked.
Obi Wan sighed. "Let's just say, if your mother asks what we had for lunch, you let Uncle Anakin do the talking."
"Me?" Anakin cried.
"We had a deal, remember?" Obi Wan pointed out.
"Oh. Right," the Knight nodded, loosening his collar a bit uncomfortably.
"What deal?" Ani wanted to know.
"Never mind," they repeated.
"You two are weird," Ani told them flatly.
"Hey, fellas," WA-7 spoke up. "Hate to break this up, but there are customers waitin'."
"Oh, of course--" Obi Wan started, but Anakin smoothly cut him off.
"Terribly sorry. He gets a bit excited sometimes," the Knight smiled, tilting his head to indicate Obi Wan. He gave the droid a conspiratorial wink. "All that time on the Outer Rim, all he's talked about is how much he wanted a big, greasy old fried nerfsteak from Dex's."
"I think we can handle a pair of nerfsteaks for ya, sweetie. You two are heroes, even if ya are Jedi," the waitress replied.
Anakin's smile faltered momentarily, but he only nodded. "All the fixings."
"I want one too, Uncle Anakin!" Ani grinned.
"You're not going to eat a whole nerfsteak," Obi Wan protested.
"I am too!" he insisted.
"Make it three," Anakin said smoothly.
"Oh, come on, Anakin!" complained Obi Wan.
The Knight spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "Hey, a deal's a deal. It's not my fault if you didn't feed him a big enough breakfast."
"Padme fed him breakfast," Obi Wan shot.
"Still not my fault," retorted Anakin.
"You don't have to enjoy it quite so much," Obi Wan pointed out.
Anakin shrugged in the same helpless manner. "I can't help it if you're the one with the Republic credits in your pocket, General Kenobi. Jedi don't own anything, remember?"
"Right," Obi Wan sighed as Dexter Jettster lumbered out through the counter door and plodded over to them. The Besalisk's giant pot-belly protruded between his grimy shirt and pants. He was bald and drenched in sweat from the hot kitchen, with four powerful arms that could make fists bigger than Obi Wan's head. Ani gulped at the sight of him.
"Hey, ol' buddy!" he bellowed, reaching straight over Ani's head to lift Obi Wan easily out of the booth.
"Hey, put my father down!" Ani cried, watching in open mouthed astonishment. Dex set the general on the ground again, but Ani's amazement only increased as his father was engulfed in a four-armed hug.
The process was repeated with Anakin, by which time WA-7 had rolled off again to wait on someone else. Once Dex had finished crushing Anakin, he turned his attention toward Ani, who was still staring at them from the booth.
"Who's this?" he asked.
"Dex, I'd like you to meet my son," Obi Wan smiled, straightening his clothes after the manhandling. "Ani, this is Dexter Jettster."
"Hi…" Ani said, still slightly awestruck.
"Ani, is it?" Dex asked, beaming from him to Anakin. "That's cute."
"Uncle Anakin saved my life," related Ani. "When I was just born."
"Yeah?" Dex sounded impressed, but not overly surprised.
Anakin ducked his head in embarrassment.
"He's good at that, ain't he?" remarked Dex with a wink. "Saving Kenobi butts."
"I think so," Obi Wan agreed.
'Well," said Dex. "Only one thing for it. Free lunch for everyone. Call it the Skywalker Special."
Author: Lionchilde
Summary: "Uncle Anakin saved my life..."
Rating: PG
Length: Around 2000 words
Category:Gen
Pairings/Charaters: Obidala mentioned; chapter's heavily Obi/Anakin friendship.
A/N: One Path Chapter 36. Set during an alternate RotS.
The Skywalker Special
Anakin and Obi Wan borrowed a temple speeder for the lunch date, and Ani thought it was exceedingly funny that the pair of war heroes had to promise repeatedly that it would be returned in one piece before they were allowed to leave. Despite having had absolutely no intention of letting Anakin drive, a pleading look from his son was all it took for Obi Wan to find himself slinking into the back seat while his former Padawan took the controls. Once there, he strapped himself in as tightly as he could and kept a wary eye on the pair in the front of the vehicle.
"Now, listen, Anakin, we have Ani with us--"
"I'm well aware of that, Obi Wan," said the Knight, leaning over to tighten the boy's safety harness.
"Yes, well, that means you need to go slow--"
"I don't like to go slow, Dad," Ani interrupted, peering over the edge of the front seat to grin at his father.
"Of course you don't," sighed Obi Wan. "Why would you? Your name is Anakin."
"I think he's starting to catch on," the elder Anakin remarked with a wink at his namesake.
"Very funny," replied Obi Wan, who was completely unable to see his son mouthing the words as he spoke them.
Anakin took off, and Obi Wan was only mildly surprised when they reached Coco Town alive. Without the excuse of a criminal to pursue, there had been no abrupt drops through the air, barrel rolls, or narrowly-avoided midair collisions. Weaving in and out of traffic and blatant disregard for the established speed limit, however, were a completely different story. All things considered, Obi Wan decided that the trip had gone remarkably well. He had managed to keep down his breakfast, no one had lost a lightsaber, and Ani had shrieked and giggled the entire time. All he had to do now was make sure that Padme never heard about any of it, but since they already weren't planning to inform her of where they were taking her only child for lunch, he didn't think that would be very difficult.
They had to park about a block away from the diner at this time of day. The business section of Coco Town was teeming activity. Beings of every description bustled through the streets on their way from one seedy establishment to another. The air was thick with the mingled aromas that wafted from various restaurants, industrial smog, and the belching smoke of a backfiring vehicle a few feet away. The area fascinated Ani just as much as the Jedi Temple had. He had questions about everything. Sights and sounds that the two men had long since absorbed as part of the background of this colorful section of the city were new and amazing him, and as they reached Dex's, Obi Wan almost didn't want to take him inside. He felt an irrational urge to prolong the outing, to squeeze in just a few more questions and answers, a few more moments when the war was only a faint tug in the back of his mind and he could watch his son's face light up in response to every answer that he or Anakin provided.
"Is this where we're going for lunch?" Ani asked, eyeing the brightly colored metallic walls and foggy windows of the diner with both surprise and excitement.
"The best eats in the Coco Town streets," Anakin replied, looking down at him with another wink.
Watching them, Obi Wan felt a surge of profound gratitude toward his former Padawan. It was to him that Obi Wan and Padme owed their son's life--a debt that neither could ever repay, and one that Obi Wan had never felt more keenly. He knew that there had been a time before Ani had even existed, that he had felt happiness and contentment before, but he could hardly remember it. Life without this child had become unthinkable--the notion of joy in a world where Anakin Kenobi had never lived was utterly impossible to him. The young Knight looked up at him and smiled, sensing his former teacher's emotions. Then he bent casually and swung the boy into his arms, letting Ani wrap his arms and legs around him as they moved through the door. Obi Wan saw Anakin's arms tighten around his son and smiled too. Anakin's hug seemed to him a wordless promise of devotion, a promise that his commitment to Ani, which had begun with that single, instinctive act had become something far deeper--something unbreakable and binding, as powerful as the love that Obi Wan felt for both of his sons.
"Can I help ya?" asked the familiar voice of WA-7, the diner's waitress droid as they stepped inside.
"We're looking for Dexter," Obi Wan replied pleasantly.
WA-7 made a rather unpleasant sound. Ani's eyes widened, but neither Obi Wan nor Anakin were particularly surprised at the reception. Both men were obviously not regulars, and Dex's past was…colorful. His staff and customers were nothing if not loyal, and though Obi Wan had known him since his days as Qui-Gon's Padawan, neither he nor Anakin had had much time for social visits since the Battle of Geonosis. They looked quite different than they had five years ago, even if the droid's memory stretched that far back. Whether it did or not, the public was largely distrustful of Jedi, and Anakin's clothing marked him unmistakably as a member of the Order.
"We do need to speak with Dexter," Obi Wan told the droid in the same polite and even tone.
"Whaddaya want him for?" came the response.
"He's not in trouble. It's personal," the general promised.
"Tell her who you are, Dad," Ani suggested.
"Hmmph!" sniffed the droid, giving the boy a suspicious look. "Doesn't matter to me if he's Obi Wan Kenobi. He's still gotta go through me."
"Right," Ani grinned.
Obi Wan held a finger to his lips, stifling a laugh.
WA-7 looked the trio up and down for another long moment, hmmphed again, and shook her head. She moved off to the serving hatch behind the counter and called, "Some people to see ya, honey. One of 'em's a Jedi, by the looks of 'im."
Seconds later, a huge head poked through the open hatchway along with a stream of grayish and decidedly unappetizing steam. A gigantic, block-toothed smile--on a mouth easily large enough to have swallowed the humans whole-- appeared on the immense face of Dexter Jettster at the sight of the company.
"Obi Wan! Anakin!" he called cheerfully.
"Oh…" WA-7 said with quiet chagrin.
"Hey, Dex," the two men chorused.
"Take a seat, fellas, I'll be right with ya," Dex told them.
Anakin set his namesake down, and the boy's head swiveled around to take in everything in the greasy establishment. From the booths along the walls to the freestanding tables to the stool-lined counter populated mostly by dockworkers and freighter drivers, Ani missed nothing, and if it was possible, his eyes seemed to get bigger with every turn of his head. WA-7 had gone back to serving the regulars, and Obi Wan smiled down at his son.
"Pick a spot," he said.
Ani took another look around, then led them over to a booth by the window. Obi Wan and Anakin slid in on either side, and Ani clambered up beside his father. He had to stay on his knees to reach the table, but that didn't deter him from reaching for a handful of the napkins on the table and beginning to shred them.
"Don't make a mess," Obi Wan said automatically.
"Why not?" the elder Anakin asked.
"Because…" Obi Wan trailed off in exasperation as Anakin took his own napkins and started ripping them apart.
WA-7 rolled over to them, looking at Anakin as if she wasn't quite sure what to make of him. "You fellas want some Jawa Juice?" she asked, her head moving between the two men.
"Oh, yes, thank you," Obi Wan said.
Anakin looked up from the mess in front of him and grinned, nodding in agreement. "Thanks."
The droid tsked and turned to Ani. "What about you, honey? How 'bout a nice big piece of cake?"
"Mmm, I love cake!" Ani's head bobbled eagerly. "Thank you."
"Cake sounds good too," Anakin spoke up.
"You don't need any cake," Obi Wan jabbed a finger at his friend. Then he gave the waitress a meaningful look. "And I think we'll save Ani's cake until after lunch."
"I could just have cake for lunch," Ani suggested, wriggling his eyebrows hopefully in his father's direction.
"No, you couldn't," Obi Wan replied.
"Please?" Anakin entreated mockingly from the other side of the table.
"No one is having cake for lunch," Obi Wan insisted, rolling his eyes at his friends antics.
"C'mon, Dad…" Ani attempted.
"No. Your mother would kill me," Obi Wan said sternly.
"She's already gonna kill you," Anakin reminded him.
"Why?" Ani frowned.
"Never mind," the two men said together.
"Huh?" Ani asked.
Obi Wan sighed. "Let's just say, if your mother asks what we had for lunch, you let Uncle Anakin do the talking."
"Me?" Anakin cried.
"We had a deal, remember?" Obi Wan pointed out.
"Oh. Right," the Knight nodded, loosening his collar a bit uncomfortably.
"What deal?" Ani wanted to know.
"Never mind," they repeated.
"You two are weird," Ani told them flatly.
"Hey, fellas," WA-7 spoke up. "Hate to break this up, but there are customers waitin'."
"Oh, of course--" Obi Wan started, but Anakin smoothly cut him off.
"Terribly sorry. He gets a bit excited sometimes," the Knight smiled, tilting his head to indicate Obi Wan. He gave the droid a conspiratorial wink. "All that time on the Outer Rim, all he's talked about is how much he wanted a big, greasy old fried nerfsteak from Dex's."
"I think we can handle a pair of nerfsteaks for ya, sweetie. You two are heroes, even if ya are Jedi," the waitress replied.
Anakin's smile faltered momentarily, but he only nodded. "All the fixings."
"I want one too, Uncle Anakin!" Ani grinned.
"You're not going to eat a whole nerfsteak," Obi Wan protested.
"I am too!" he insisted.
"Make it three," Anakin said smoothly.
"Oh, come on, Anakin!" complained Obi Wan.
The Knight spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "Hey, a deal's a deal. It's not my fault if you didn't feed him a big enough breakfast."
"Padme fed him breakfast," Obi Wan shot.
"Still not my fault," retorted Anakin.
"You don't have to enjoy it quite so much," Obi Wan pointed out.
Anakin shrugged in the same helpless manner. "I can't help it if you're the one with the Republic credits in your pocket, General Kenobi. Jedi don't own anything, remember?"
"Right," Obi Wan sighed as Dexter Jettster lumbered out through the counter door and plodded over to them. The Besalisk's giant pot-belly protruded between his grimy shirt and pants. He was bald and drenched in sweat from the hot kitchen, with four powerful arms that could make fists bigger than Obi Wan's head. Ani gulped at the sight of him.
"Hey, ol' buddy!" he bellowed, reaching straight over Ani's head to lift Obi Wan easily out of the booth.
"Hey, put my father down!" Ani cried, watching in open mouthed astonishment. Dex set the general on the ground again, but Ani's amazement only increased as his father was engulfed in a four-armed hug.
The process was repeated with Anakin, by which time WA-7 had rolled off again to wait on someone else. Once Dex had finished crushing Anakin, he turned his attention toward Ani, who was still staring at them from the booth.
"Who's this?" he asked.
"Dex, I'd like you to meet my son," Obi Wan smiled, straightening his clothes after the manhandling. "Ani, this is Dexter Jettster."
"Hi…" Ani said, still slightly awestruck.
"Ani, is it?" Dex asked, beaming from him to Anakin. "That's cute."
"Uncle Anakin saved my life," related Ani. "When I was just born."
"Yeah?" Dex sounded impressed, but not overly surprised.
Anakin ducked his head in embarrassment.
"He's good at that, ain't he?" remarked Dex with a wink. "Saving Kenobi butts."
"I think so," Obi Wan agreed.
'Well," said Dex. "Only one thing for it. Free lunch for everyone. Call it the Skywalker Special."