i. wear a seatbelt, kids

"Please tell me you know where you're going."

Anakin bore his eyes into the speeder ahead of him and didn't answer, which was how Ahsoka knew her master was in trouble. She sank a little deeper into her seat, tugging at a stray string from the machine-woven material. When she got into the speeder with Anakin, she had overheard Master Kenobi warning about "no spinning, no dangerous tricks, and please, Anakin, make sure you're flying in the right direction of traffic" because "you don't want any more head injuries".

Ahsoka had pretended not to hear the conversation, mostly because Anakin's jaws were locked a little too tightly for her to make a light joke, but now she wondered if she should have gotten her own speeder instead.

"I know where I'm going."

Ahsoka cast a sidelong look at Anakin, but he didn't look back at her, which was how Ahsoka knew her master was lying. She shifted her eyes back to the front of the speeder. The vehicle coughed gas and sputtered, making other drivers turn and glare at the driver of the faulty machine. The driver, however, did not budge from his seat. Ahsoka wondered if the driver, too, was lying to himself about something so notably obvious.

"Are you sure?"

Ahsoka's question lingered in the small sliver of space between herself and her master before evaporating into the inevitable silence of an unanswerable question. The soft rip-rip-rip of Anakin's leathered gloves joined the silence, and Ahsoka turned her gaze now to the speeders driving past them. They all looked tired or a little too-awake; they all wore either work jumpers for the new day or glittering outfits from the old night.

And Ahsoka and Anakin—existing in both worlds of the new day and the old night, wearing the same clothes as not yesterday, but the day before yesterday because they had just come back from a mission before being assigned another one. A small one, the Jedi Council had said, a small one tracking down a weapons dealer in one of the slum sectors of Coruscant.

"I'm sure now."

Only a second passed before Ahsoka's stomach dropped with the speeder, plunging down, down, down into the deeper, darker, grimier, grittier levels of Coruscant. The wind whistled past; speeders shouted in alarm. Something wet touched Ahsoka's cheek—someone's spit, maybe a drop of water from a rusted machine part. The wetness dried almost instantaneously as Anakin dove faster, faster, faster—the cry of surprise lodging itself deeper, deeper, deeper into Ahsoka's throat.

"He was in front of us the whole time!"

Anakin's voice reached Ahsoka's hearing, but she didn't see his mouth form the words. His lips had only just parted—just enough so that he wouldn't swallow and choke on the smoky air reaching its tendrils to envelop them. Ahsoka gripped the side of the speeder, wishing again she had just gotten her own speeder.

The speeder in front of them knew Anakin and Ahsoka was on his heels now—the driver turned back for a fraction of a second, widened his eyes, took a sudden turn, which of course meant that Anakin had to take a sudden turn, too, which of course meant that the speeder jerked Ahsoka hard enough into the side of the speeder for her to open her mouth and finally scream,

"Master!"

"What?" Anakin hollered back over the din of the speed and light of their race.

"You need to cut him off!" Ahsoka shouted, hoping—and then knowing, because the wind was blocking all sound—that the weapons dealer couldn't hear her. "You can't chase him in this thing!"

"His speeder's broken! We can—"

Ahsoka turned back to the speeder ahead of them a moment before Anakin did, which looking back, she knew was one of the only reasons she knew to scream, "Look out!"

The speeder's guttural coughs and sputters weren't the signs of a dying vehicle—only a waking vehicle because Ahsoka caught a glimpse of the brightening jets and the flames before the driver sneered at her.

The flames flickered, expanded, roared—and suddenly, Anakin's speeder was really diving down now, because Ahsoka's stomach was lost in gravity, floating somewhere between her throat and a space outside of her body.

"Mas—" She reached blindly for Anakin's arm, trying to get him to start the speeder again—only to come to empty air. She stared, horrified, at the space where he used to be and then looked down, her heart stopping as she watched her master's numbed body diving past the other speeders, past the weapons dealer.

Ahsoka really wished she had gotten her own speeder.

She dove for the controls, the seat belt groaning against her weight as she strained and pushed against the only thing keeping her from falling after her master. She yanked at the controls—steady, now, steady!—and the speeder leveled itself just enough for Ahsoka to slip out of her seat and jump fully onto her master's side.

And—seatbelts first—she dove after Anakin.

"Hang on!" she screamed over the wind, but she wasn't sure—no, she knew—her master probably couldn't hear her. She passed the other speeders—passed the weapons dealer, who undoubtedly was still sneering after her, and flattened the pedal until all she could see were dots of light and flashes of metal flying past.

Somehow, amidst the dots and flashes, Ahsoka caught him—his body armor glinting amongst the other speeders like a beacon.

"No dangerous tricks," Ahsoka muttered under her breath, and floored the pedal as she swerved around other speeders—someone swore at her—and swept down right underneath her master. She only just remembered to call on the Force to soften Anakin's fall so he wouldn't crush his body against the speeder's seats at who knew what speed.

"Master!" Ahsoka shouted, even though she knew the volume wasn't necessary—not now, when the speeder was in full-stop. She ignored the increased swearing in her direction as drivers moved around her.

A small groan answered Ahsoka, and then a weak, "Don't tell Obi-Wan" which was how Ahsoka knew Anakin was fine.

"Wear your seatbelt next time," was all Ahsoka could say before she drove the speeder back into the lanes. "And give me a warning next time before you do some dumb trick."

"No promises," Anakin replied, which was how Ahsoka knew it was safe to glare at her master.

A/N: So I guess I'm back for the summer...? I've gotten this entire story completed (oh, look, Caroline's actually planning for once? Yeah, kids, I'm trying Responsibility(tm) out for a spin), but I'll be releasing chapters on a weekly basis. As always, comments are appreciated, flames are not!