Disclaimer: boo hoo. I wish this stuff was mine but it isn't. sad.
Spoilers: nothing yet, I'll warn you if there ever will be.
A/N2 Accuracy is not guaranteed. If anything on the Jedi in general is wrong, please tell me, but just to warn you, I'm not exactly a Star Wars expert, so please don't kill me either. Also, flashbacks or visions that take place in the real episodes might not have the same lines or whatever as they normally did. It's all the same idea, though.
"Take off, but fly low," Obi-Wan ordered the pilot. He nodded, and the Jedi turned to leave, barely sparing the child who had brought the message a curious glance. He hardly noticed when the same boy followed him towards the room where Qui-Gon now lay, panting on the floor.
"Master!"
"I'm alright." Qui-Gon heaved himself up, then glanced around the room. "Anakin!" he shouted, and Obi-Wan turned. It was the boy who had told him of Qui-Gon's plight. He had picked up a blaster from who knows where, and was now balanced precariously on the same ramp that Qui-Gon had just jumped onto.
"What are you doing?" demanded Obi-Wan, aghast, but Anakin didn't pay him any attention. The young boy lowered the blaster, aiming carefully, and shot it at the alien who had attacked Qui-Gon. The alien staggered, then fell, his two sided lightsaber falling to the ground besides him.
Obi-Wan, at least remembering how to do one thing right, quickly lowered the ramp again enough so that he and his master could jump down. To his annoyance, the boy followed them, landing perfectly.
"He's dead," said Qui-Gon, examining the corpse.
"Where'd he get the lightsaber?" asked Obi-Wan, hefting the weapon and flicking it off.
"I believe he may be a Sith," answered his master. Obi-Wan had never seen Qui-Gon that worried.
"How would a Sith get here?" he asked, but there was no reply to his question, and he hadn't expected one.
They examined the body and his weapon for a few more minutes, before Qui-Gon turned towards the boy.
"Who taught you to shoot a blaster?" he asked, his brow still furrowed from worrying about the Sith.
"Watto did," explained the child. "He wanted me to collect debts for him when I got older, and he said that I'd better be prepared."
"I can hardly imagine him teaching you anything," commented Qui-Gon.
"He didn't, really. He just told me to learn. I'm a fast learner." Obi-Wan couldn't help but smile at the boy's pride as he said that. Someone, probably his mother, had undoubtedly told him that enough times that he believed it.
Qui-Gon turned around to look at his apprentice. "Obi-Wan, this is Anakin Skywalker. Anakin, this is my apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi."
"You're a Jedi too?" asked Anakin, wide-eyed. "Pleased to meet you!"
Obi-Wan smiled.
Coruscant, Five Years Later
Obi-Wan Kenobi sat up and rubbed his eyes, wondering where he was. A few moments' confusion ended when he tried to roll over and fell off the couch he was sleeping on. Oh. He had fallen asleep in his living room, not even bothering to go to bed. Again.
I'm getting soft, he reflected wryly. I've only gone, what, three nights without sleep? And already I'm falling asleep in the middle of writing a report.
Qui-Gon would say he needed to take better care of himself, but Obi-Wan shook that thought away before it entered his mind. He knew what his former master would have to say on his living style for the past five years, and maybe he did go to long without sleep, or forget to eat until he nearly passed out during a council session. Obi-Wan was the only one being harmed by it (both physically, and in other ways, passing out wasn't a good way to end a council session, and he had been embarrassed) and if he didn't mind, nobody else should.
Shaking depressing morning thoughts out of his head, Obi-Wan stumbled towards the bathroom and splashed water in his face. He couldn't help remember a younglings' story about a man who's reflection did different things than he did, but, of course, his was acting normally.
Silly of him to remember that now, or even glance at it. If someone else had been there, he never would, but Obi-Wan was alone all too often these days.
His bright, blue-green eyes studied the mirror for a moment, something else he never would have done if there had been someone else. His face stared back at him, blinking blearily. He needed a shave, but glancing at the clock in the other room, Obi-Wan realized that he wouldn't have time if he wanted to give the council that report this afternoon as he had promised. It was already almost eleven o'clock, and the report was only half-finished.
His stomach growled warningly, and Obi-Wan added another thing to his list. Oh, well. If he had already wasted time sleeping, he might as well slow himself down even more by eating. He could work while he ate, as much as he might dislike it, and a shower could wait until he got home after giving the report. He just didn't have time today.
As Obi-Wan left his apartment, he made a mental time check on his day. If he worked on it on his way to breakfast, and on his way back to his apartment, and again at both destinations, he might be able to finish in time to shower quickly before presenting it to the council.
During his little planning session, Obi-Wan hardly noticed that he had walked straight into a boy heading the opposite direction until the child fell down and said "Ouch," very loudly.
Jolted out of his moment of distraction, Obi-Wan glanced down at him and helped him up, apologizing absently. The boy pushed his blond Padawan's braid out of his face impatiently and stared up at Obi-Wan with curious blue eyes. He appeared to be about thirteen, and after a befuddled moment, the Jedi remembered who this boy was. Anakin, his master's third apprentice.
"Hi!" said Anakin, sounding just like the eight-year old that Obi-Wan had barely spoken too.
"Hello," he mumbled now, still distracted.
"What's that?" asked Anakin, pointing at the report in the older Jedi's hands. When Obi-Wan reluctantly explained, the boy brightened again.
"Cool. Want help?"
"No thank you, I doubt you'd understand it."
"But I'm a really fast learner!" absently, Obi-Wan remembered him saying something just like that five years ago, on Tatooine. He doubted Anakin remembered.
"No thank you. It's been good seeing you again, Anakin. Goodbye." Obi-Wan turned and walked away, not noticing that Anakin gave him a worried look that matched the one Qui-Gon always wore perfectly.
Did you like that? Please review and tell me what you think, and if I should continue. I'm sorry for the plotless state of my story, I'll try to make it better, but I just got so caught up in details that I didn't remember to give it a plot until it was too late. I'll do better next chapter… if you review and tell me what you think. If not, then I'll probably just abandon this like all my other stories.