Farm life wasn't as pleasant as some people made it out to be. It demanded continuous efforts from those born into it or those that chose it. One wrong moment would destroy every effort and it's rewards were marginal at best. No one knew that like the people of Tattooine. Sometimes you had to make a choice between morality or survival.

Guilt had its place on that harsh desert world.

When Cliegg Lars came to the choice of freeing the woman he loved or buying a slave who could save his farm. Looking at his son, he pushed aside the guilt, and settled the debt with Watto for the purchase of the small boy. In a few seasons, he would have enough to perhaps purchase the boy's mother. Until then, he would try to do his best by Anakin Skywalker.

(break)

The boy was eight years old, crafty, quick to get into and out of areas Cliegg or Owen could not. His clothing was better than the garb he'd been dressed in and he'd slowly gained weight over the six months since his arrival. As part of his new life, Anakin was allowed a brief hour after dinner to make a holocall to his mother. The boy hadn't settled in easily. He had a quick, lightning fast temper that worried the Lars family. It was only after being sent to his room during one of his temper fits that he seemed to settle into the fact that this was his life.

The boy missed the fast, thrilling races that had sent his mother's heart beating in her chest. He missed the nightly moments where they would spend a few scant hours pouring over old star charts and learning about all the different worlds. Cliegg was a rough man, strict and caring of his family. Owen, unlike other children, didn't hold his freedom above Anakin's head and did his level best to act as if the younger boy was just another child.

Some people might have said the Lars were good, honest people.

Anakin, in one of his darker moments, called them the worst sort. They hadn't purchased him to be good people. They'd done it because they needed someone small, quick, and able to get into different areas. It didn't matter that he was a child or that they made sure he was treated like something he wasn't. Anakin Skywalker knew... the Lars were no different than Watto.