spncentral | When Sith Beat Jedi To The Prize (Of The Chosen One)

Garth'zel had intended never to go to Tatooine again. The entire experience the first time he was there was hot and miserable. The only good point, so far as he was concerned, was meeting Andronikos. But as luck would have it, his ship ended up deciding to need minor repairs. Nothing too bad, but it did require him to land somewhere to get the parts he needed, because of course, the bit that went was something he didn't have spare parts for. The only planet within reasonable range? Tatooine.

It didn't take long for a Force-sensitive boy to catch his attention. One strong enough that he was surprised the Jedi didn't already find him. Well, their loss was his gain. ...Once he pried him loose from Watto, anyway. He suspects he actually had an easier time of it than a Jedi would, although he's not going to hang around and give one the chance to give it a shot. At least, unlike them, he's willing to come to Tatooine from time to time so Anakin could see his mother. Probably not more than a couple times a year or so, due to it being best to go there when they're at least vaguely in that part of the galaxy anyway, but it's far better than 'sorry kid, we're never bringing you back'.

Of course, there is one tiny problem with this whole thing. He's never had to raise children before and doesn't know what he's doing. With the ship safely in hyperspace and not due to come out of it for a good long while, enabling him to do things that didn't involve sitting in the pilot's seat of the ship, he's in the lounge area. Time to figure out what he's doing. "Have you managed to get any kind of schooling? Like from someone you know, sitting down with you for an hour here and there as time permitted to teach you things like how to write?"

May as well figure out what he needs to teach besides how to use the Force consciously instead of unconsciously drawing on it.

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"Oh. Ok." At least he's guessed right? "I'll go to my bunk. Goodnight. I'll see you in the morning."

Anakin unhooks his restraints and climbs out of the chair, and starts making his way back to the crew bunks.

Thank you. Now he can wind down and go to bed. "Night. I'll get you up if I need to, given that, being on a ship, you don't have your usual indicators to tell you it's time to get up."

Like the sun coming up.

Oh right. There wasn't a morning on a ship, was there?

"Ok but I usually get up before the suns come up anyway." Most of the time he was up before his mother. And he's just going to scoot off to bed.

And true to form - awake six hours later, although he won't get up until he hears Garth'zel.

Unlike some people, Garth'zel prefers to get a full night's sleep when possible. Even though nightmares tend to make that difficult.

Still, he's up when he feels like he's had enough and has no plans to call Anakin until he's mostly done with breakfast. He figures about ten or fifteen minutes should be enough time for anything the kid wants to do in the 'fresher.

Almost as soon as Garth'zel can be heard, Anakin is climbing out of his bunk, already dressed and wide awake.

"Good morning!"

Garth'zel just blinks slowly at him. "You are entirely too awake for this early in the morning."

Let him use his caf to wake him up in peace. Not that he can't wake up instantly when needed, but it's not needed right now, so he can afford to let himself take time to wake up.

"I"m always awake early." Some of it was just being young, some was just Anakin's aversion to sleep, some was survival on Tatooine, when pre-dawn was safer to work due to protection from the sun and heat.

But at least Garth'zel gets a reprieve as Anakin scoots past him to use the 'fresher and then head into the galley for food.

Oh good, he gets to have his caf in peace. At least for a few minutes.

When Anakin reappears, it becomes time to talk. "Once I feel awake enough to want to deal with any of it, I'll point you at some of the ship maintenance tasks. The ones that need to be done daily, anyway. The weekly and monthly ones don't need to be done today."

He wasn't even going to talk yet! So Garth'zel can't even say that Anakin wasn't going to leave him to wake up.

"Ok." There he is, almost bouncing on his toes in excitement again, but being quiet and trying not get under Garth'zel's feet. What was it about adults and being so cranky when they got up?

They're cranky because they aren't ready to be awake yet, that's why.

"Mmm." Excuse him while he finishes feeling properly--well, not human since he isn't one--but the same general state of awakeness that comes with being functional for the day.

Then don't get up yet?

Anakin meanwhile is going to just get a pitcher of water and pour himself a large glass, humming happily to himself while tracing the tines of a fork soundless on the table, tracing out an engine design. Might as well as relax while Garth'zel decides to get uncranky.

Just because he feels like he's gotten enough sleep doesn't mean he's actually ready to start his day.

Garth'zel eventually eyes him. "Am I going to need to eventually get you things to draw with?" So he can tell what the child is even doing.

But he chose to get up!

"Huh? Why?" He is mostly just thinking and dreaming while waiting, rather than trying to communicate, although it's likely going to be easier for him to use drawings than written or typed words for a bit yet.

"For one thing, it'll be easier for me to figure out what you're drawing," he says dryly.

"Oh. An engine for a land speeder. I think if I tweaked a standard one a bit, it would work better, but I haven't gotten to try the modifications out. Dust and sand are real hard on engines though, so people are always tryin'." And making something last longer and work better was something Watto wasn't found of - but something Anakin did for his neighbors whenever he could get away with it.

"Mmm. Sounds useful when one needs to go through desert a lot, yes. Be the desert entirely covering a planet or just a portion of it." Color Garth'zel unsurprised about Watto's opinion.

"Mhm. Watto said it wouldn't make him enough money." Anakin works on draining his glass, while still puzzling out the details of this engine design in his mind, occasionally air-sketching out something while waiting for Garth'zel to be ready.

"It's a little hard to make money off people if they don't need to come back to buy new parts," Garth'zel says sardonically before going back to shutting up and focusing on his caf.

Anakin nods, that is what Watto would say, although not in that tone, before going quiet and drinking his water and continuing to daydream while given Garth'zel his peace.

All in all - which eager, even antsy to get started, he's mostly content. Although the longer he has to sit with nothing to do, the more a low level creeping anxiety starts to build.

Garth'zel eventually finishes his caf and feels properly awake for the day. "All right, let's get you something to do so you aren't about to crawl out of your skin," he says, getting up to rinse out his mug to set aside.

"Ok!" Anakin snaps out of his thoughts as soon as as Garth'zel speaks and bounds to his feet as Garth'zel gets up. It's difficult for him to know either it's relief in having something to do and excitement in getting to work on the ship.

The novelty of working on a ship will wear off soon enough, Garth'zel's sure. But in the meanwhile, comes pointing Anakin at various things to work on, be it in the form of checking indicators to make sure nothing more actually needs to be done or something more involved.

It might, it might not - Anakin couldn't say, just that he enjoyed it. He's quite happy as Garth'zel points out the rounds and he needs little instruction beyond directions or to locate tools, even when it comes to reading the gauges despite not being able to read - he just double checks which is the low and high ends of the gauge and what it's reading.

"Well, at least you seem to have gotten lucky in actually liking what you had to do. Me, not so much," he eventually comments. It's probably time for you to take a break and do something else."

That last isn't even a hint.

Anakin shrugs at the comment. He had been lucky, but he was always lucky it seemed. "I'll...go find something."

And try to stay out of the way until he's summoned again.