'ello, peoples of the earth!

Well! That was a longer gap between stories than I expected. However, at long last, I have triumphantly returned!

Okay, maybe it's not a triumphant return. But y'all know what I mean!

Long story short, it's good to be back. And now, without further ado: I present Chapter 1 of Clean! Hope y'all enjoy!

What a sweet couple, Riga Aivtal thought, watching the two sentients seated near the door to the transport. She might not have had much experience with love, but the Twi'lek knew plenty about attraction, and the way the young male adjusted the female's head covering reeked of tenderness.

Then again, what did she know?

"Kira, just let me hold him. You haven't put him down the entire trip," the male said.

"And I don't intend to," the girl, Kira, replied, adjusting the squirming bundle in her arms. Riga raised an eyebrow. Curious. The girl seemed much too young to have a toddler in her arms, but there were all sorts of cultures spread around the galaxy. Perhaps the people on the young couple's homeworld married young.

A voice rang over the intercom. "Attention, ladies and gentlemen. We have arrived at the Mos Eisley spaceport," announced the alien pilot. "Good news is, you shouldn't need to worry about your passports. There ain't any stormtroopers out here on this rock. Yet."

The voice laughed as the cargo ship touched down, jostling everyone on board. The young couple were first out of their seats, and the child in the girl's arms jumped down from the seat. Riga felt sorry for the Kira woman, who seemed incredibly flustered as she tried to keep him from running into the aisle. "Stop it, Anakin," she chided. "We'll be out of here in a minute."

The young man looked on as the woman struggled with the child, but Riga couldn't tell if that was adoration or apprehension on his face.

When the door opened, the couple and toddler were out of the ship and heading into the bright Tatooine sunshine before Riga could greet them. As she exited the ship at a much slower pace, she shrugged and glanced off in the direction they'd gone. She mentally wished them well, then she dropped the couple from her mind as she held a hand to her forehead, scouring the spaceport for her ride.

"At least he waited until the end of the ride."

Kira Narro appreciated Jim's attempt to cheer her up, but at the moment, she wasn't in the mood, though she did her best to hide it. "I suppose," she replied, adjusting her grip on Anakin's hand. He kept trying to pull away from her, and she certainly wasn't having that.

Jim took the hint and changed the subject. "You know, I thought the old man promised to meet us here," he said.

Kira swatted Jim's arm with her other hand. "He's not old," she defended Obi-Wan. "Besides, he told me he would meet us at a cantina in this area, not at the spaceport."

"Which one?" Jim joked, referring to the abundance of cantinas surrounding the open square outside the spaceport.

Kira rolled her eyes. "Follow me."

And Jim did. However, he grinned at Kira, amused, as she pulled Anakin closer to her side. Though she could not see or hear Jim laughing at her, she could sense his mirth.

Kira did not like this attitude at all and wondered, for the umpteenth time, why Cadena had snapped the Code in half for this man. But a promise she had made to Cadena and that promise she would keep, even if it meant spending time with her dead friend's obnoxious husband.

Still, it was good to see Jim laugh again.

Kira shook herself out of those thoughts as she approached a cantina with a doorway that looked like it was about to cave in. Jim squinted as he read the sign. "Fort Tusken," he read aloud, shading his eyes with his hand. "What sort of name is that?"

Kira made sure her covering concealed her lightsaber. "The sand people raided that fort," she explained while she did this. "The name has to be either a rude joke or out of respect for someone the owner knew. The people of Tatooine remember that attack well. It's why they flee from the sand people like jakrab from an anooba."

Jim eyed the place warily. "Sure it's safe?"

"If Master Kenobi told us to meet him here, then yes, I am absolutely certain." And Kira was. She would believe almost anything her Master told her. (The exceptions included times after battle Obi-Wan claimed he was uninjured.)

Jim sighed and strode past Kira toward the entry. "Then let's go."

Kira frowned but followed Jim into the cantina without a word.

Inside, the place was damp and dimly lit. Creatures of all sorts swarmed the counter, clamoring for a drink. Others danced to the music the band of Biths in the corner produced. Kira pressed Anakin to her side and her head covering over her nose. The stench was awful, and she saw why when she caught sight of a pair of aliens at a nearby table. One poured a bottle of an unknown blue liquid over the head of the other, who drank greedily though he was already sitting in a pile of the stuff. Kira cringed and stepped away.

A shift in the Force greeted Kira like a hello from an old friend, and she sensed the man in the robe behind her before he even spoke. "Welcome, strangers," said Obi-Wan, causing Kira and Jim to turn around. "Perhaps I can interest you in a drink?"

Jim glanced at Kira, who discreetly shook her head, then turned back to Obi-Wan. "We'll be fine. They had some drinks on the transport over here."

"Very well. If you'll follow me."

Kira moved to follow Obi-Wan, eager to leave the smelly place. Jim was right on her heels as the small group moved past the bar, where Obi-Wan dropped a few credits before turning toward the exit.

Outside, Jim stood at attention. "It's good to see you, General Kenobi, sir."

"None of that, Jim," Obi-Wan replied modestly, "and most certainly not here. You'll give us away." He glanced over his shoulder. "This way."

The group silently walked for a little while before approaching an area filled with different animals. In one of the stalls, an eopie brayed when she caught sight of the group. Even with his hood over his face, she still seemed to recognize Obi-Wan.

"Easy, old girl," Obi-Wan said softly, rubbing the creature's forehead. "Calm down." He turned to the three behind him. "We can rent a speeder, but that just means we'll have to bring it back," he said, looking at their charge. The eopie's snout had distracted Anakin, who tried to catch it with his free hand, for the time being.

Kira could use some exercise. "We'll be fine," she said, "I'd like to stretch my legs."

"As would I," Jim put in. "Long ride, you know."

"Very well." As they talked, Obi-Wan had been retrieving the saddle and other supplies for the eopie from a storage box inside the stall. "Then perhaps we can take turns riding. It will take a while; I doubt we will arrive before sunset."

With Jim's help, Obi-Wan loaded up the eopie. Then he climbed onto its back, a feat his robe made slightly difficult. "Kira, there is plenty of room for Anakin up here," he said to Kira, who still struggled to keep the young boy close to her.

However, she was skeptical. "Won't he fall?"

Jim clapped the blonde on the shoulder. "You trust Obi-Wan, right? Don't you think he'll keep Anakin from falling?"

Kira pressed her lips together in a thin line. Nodding, she allowed Jim to pick up Anakin and hoist him onto Obi-Wan's mount. Anakin didn't like being in the grip of this strange bearded man, so he threw out his chubby hands and squirmed. "Da! Da!" he squealed. "Da!"

Jim did his best to comfort his son. "I'm right here, Anakin," he said. "I'll be here the whole time."

At last, Anakin stopped squealing. By the time the passerby stopped staring in the direction of the baby screams, the group were already heading out. Kira and Jim each had a small case with them, but other than that, the luggage was minimal.

They'd had to leave quickly. With insurgent activity on Onderon and the shooting of an informant in Iziz, more and more stormtroopers had poured onto the planet. Kira had been terrified one of the troopers would recognize her or Jim; she'd been determined to get off the planet and out of the sector before something happened. Jim had teased her about finding an excuse to move to Tatooine to be with Obi-Wan, but in truth, he, too, had been worried.

In the end, they had escaped just before the Imperials began issuing passports. They had avoided gunfights and angry edicts from Coruscant as they prepared to leave, and their friend Ahsoka had pulled a few strings to get them onto a transport.

The Togruta had also seen the two off at the spaceport. "I wish I could stay," Kira said as she hugged Ahsoka goodbye. "I want to help."

"I know. But it's best that you stay under the radar," Ahsoka had declined. "That you both stay under the radar. For Anakin's sake."

Kira had glanced over her shoulder to watch Jim give Anakin a piggyback ride. "It doesn't matter. I can't just sit around and do nothing."

"I know." Ahsoka took Kira's hands in her own. "Don't worry. Your time will come, sooner rather than later if I suspect correctly."

Kira had simply nodded, not wishing to argue. Ahsoka hadn't said any more on the subject.

Now Kira shaded her eyes against the twin suns as she, Jim, and Obi-Wan and Anakin on the eopie made their way out of Mos Eisley. During her time on Onderon, she'd become accustomed to the humid air of the green jungles and the fog of the valley below the mountains of the region. She had been to Tatooine before, but not long enough to get used to the dry heat of the desert.

By the time the group stopped to trade eopie riders, Kira was burning up. While Obi-Wan helped Jim adjust himself on the eopie saddle, she retrieved her canteen from her belt and poured some of its contents into her hand. The water in the canteen had miraculously stayed cool during the trek, and Kira gratefully held her wet hand first to one cheek, then the other.

After Jim helped Anakin drink from his canteen, the group started off again. Obi-Wan fell into step beside his former apprentice. "You've gotten taller," he observed, prompting a smile from Kira. They both knew how much she'd hated her height when she was younger.

However, Kira's observation of her former teacher was more sober. She noted the dark circles under Obi-Wan's glassy blue-grey eyes. "You haven't been sleeping."

Obi-Wan shrugged off the comment. "It's hard to rest when you don't have a breeze."

Neither of them mentioned that a year was more than enough time for Obi-Wan to adapt to sleeping on a desert planet.

Kira let it go – for the time being. "It's good to see you, Master."

Wrinkles at the edge of Obi-Wan's eyes crinkled as he smiled. "It's good to see you as well, Kira. I trust Ahsoka is doing well?"

"Just fine, Master. She asked me to tell you hello for her."

After that, the trip was quiet. Former Master and Padawan walked side by side in companionable silence.

When it was Kira's turn to ride the eopie, she quickly found that an eopie ride was not her favorite form of transportation. A few moments after she climbed on, the animal tried to buck her off. Obi-Wan rushed to grab the reins as Kira did her best to keep herself and Anakin on the creature's back. By the time Jim got Kira and Anakin down, Kira was trembling from head to foot. "I'm never getting on that thing again," she declared, much more calmly than she felt.

After that, the trip was uneventful. The wind picked up a bit as the suns sank toward the horizon, but the travelers saw that as a blessing rather than an inconvenience. Kira especially welcomed the wind; she even went so far as to remove her head covering so the wind could cool her face.

Obi-Wan's small residence came into view at last, and Kira knew she wasn't the only one who was relieved. She took Jim's case so he could help Obi-Wan with the eopie and took Anakin out of the stable so he could run around a bit. Kira didn't lose sight of the toddler for a second.

It was Obi-Wan who came to fetch the two. "Allow me," he said, gesturing to one of the cases.

Kira let him take it without argument.

Anakin was all too eager to begin exploring his new home and disappeared within the small hut within seconds of making his way inside. Kira and Jim were slower, putting down their cases and inspecting the place.

The hut was plain but cool. Everything was in its proper place, and merely a chest and a few chairs constituted a small living area off to the side. A small window allowed the last light of day into the hut. The scent of Obi-Wan's favorite ginger tea wafted through the air.

Kira liked it immediately.

I should probably say that this story will be a little slower than its predecessors. A bridge, if you will, to the next leg of the saga.

Kira: Wait. Hold up. There's going to be another leg? As in, more than one book!?

Me: That's right, peoples! This isn't the end of Eyes Open, oh no! Not by a long shot!

Kira: Force help me.

Me: Force help you indeed. Ehehehe.

Kira: At least I've got Master Kenobi to help me in case you go crazy again.

Obi-Wan: Don't drag me into this, Padawan!

Me: Ha! Looks like he doesn't want to help! I bet he's as scared of me as you are!

Obi-Wan: I'm not scared! I'm just ... just ...

Me: Frightened? Afraid?

Kira: Hey!

Me: Eh. We all know you two are scared of me. On that note, who wants to pick the song?

Kira: I will! *presses button*

Tablet: Hey, old lover, it's a lonely day, there's a record on and the song remains...

Me: Nice choice. Okay, Obi-Wan, you do the review notice.

Obi-Wan: Me? Why?

Me: Because I said so. And because Kira does it all the time.

Obi-Wan: ...if you liked it, hated it, or wanted to light it up and watch it burn, please review and let Amy know. Thank you.

Me: Perfect! Did I mention how good it is to be back?

Obi-wan: I believe you did.

Kira: Master, don't make her mad...

Me: I'm in a charitable mood at the moment. Anyway, thanks for reading, and may the Force be with you always! See you next time!

Kira: Bye!