#cbnc

After Ahsoka wakes from the bacta tanks and leaves the Order, Anakin wastes no time submitting his resignations and joining her. It's time to leave Coruscant behind.

~

Soooo.. that happened. Yeah, Camie has a liiiittle bit shitty anatomy. I know.

And also, I LOVE how the illusion-monster turned out in the end!

Okay, okay, okay, so I wrote waaaaay too much because apparently I had to work through the angst first (Look Dooku, already bitter and being courted by Palpatine and literally about to leave the Jedi Order because fuck you and fuck this getting saddled with a roughly 5-6 year old Ahsoka would not be A Happy Man Okay With This. Qui Gon had to kick his teeth in before Dooku stopped being a neglectful asshole, and then he still needed to get judged harshly by Anakin (who was ready to commit a minor case of major murder) and Obi-Wan before coming around to it. That is not my fault and I won’t apologize, but unless you really want the angst Imma skip it for what this made me actually think of and want to write out). There was a lot of angst lol, BUT can you picture it? For this to work out, Dooku would need to not leave the Order or Republic. And you know what that means? Time for Palpatine choked on a bagel trope, my favey fave! Enjoy Dooku manhandling his feral trash child!

Padme wasn’t sure how she managed to not laugh instantly. She had become the youngest Senator of Naboo after Palpatine’s unfortunately early passing, and had just finished another exhausting day of learning on the job when she’d run straight into Master Dooku. Who was well known as a Jedi scholar and diplomat, literally digging through the trash while hissing into it. And then, like a magician pulling something impressively large out of his hat, he had pulled a togruta Padawan from the trash by her robes.

It was quite the sight!

The Padwan smiled brightly, “Hello Master, fancy seeing you here!”

“Ah yes,” Dooku said drolly, “whatever might I be doing here considering my Padawan seemed to have vanished from her rotation assisting Senator Taa?”

Padme looked at the young girl again, she must have been older than Padme had assumed if she had a rotation with Orn Free Taa. She did not envy the Padawan, in fact, she could understand wanting to hide in a trash bin to avoid him herself.

“I wouldn’t say I vanished,” the Padawan made no effort to be released, instead hanging happily from Master Dooku’s hand like the galaxy’s least repentant massiff. “I saw that my presence was not required and decided to make better use of my time and his.”

“By hiding in the trash!? Ahsoka...” Dooku sighed heavily before finally putting his apprentice down.

And oh, wasn’t that a bit funny? Anakin had recently met with her for lunch, uncaring of his stained mechanics clothes in the high end restaurant he’d gushed about his best friend Ahsoka. Who was a togruta. She could only hope luck was on her side this time and they were one in the same.

“What?” Ahsoka bristled as she stomped a foot, “It is a better use of my time! It’s not like Free Taa-”

Dooku spoke in the same tired and broken tones that Padme usually associated with her own parents on learning what she’d done this time. “Senator Taa, you will be respectful of the Senator’s title.”

Not that Padawan Ahsoka seemed to be listening. “-and he isn’t even trying to help me understand politics because I’m too young and it’s not earning him any credits-”

“Ahsoka…” Dooku sighed heavily again. Now that she thought about it, it was rather like the way Obi-Wan often sighed Anakin’s name. He rubbed one hand against his face as if to wash his exhaustion off with it. “You are required to finish a rotation to a Senator’s satisfaction, and this is the third time you’ve run away.”

The Padawan crossed her arms and glared at the floor. “They started it.”

“I am running swiftly out of contacts for you to spend this rotation with, how many times do you wish to fail this particular course?”

Padawan Ahsoka scuffed her boot on the carpet, mumbling in embarrassment.

“Padme,” Corde half hearted grumbled through her smile, “no.”

“Padme, yes!” She whispered back before stepping forward. “Pardon me Master Dooku, Padawan Ahsoka, I am afraid I overheard just a bit of your conversation.”

Dooku actually blushed, which she was going to hold as something of a personal award for the rest of her life, and Ahsoka’s lekku wiggled and shifted colors at the attention.

“While I am rather new to the Senate myself, I have been in politics my whole life. I would love to take Ahsoka on, and it would greatly benefit us both I think.” Padme smiled before adding on, “I have heard great things about your from Jedi Skywalker after all.”

Ahsoka, somehow, managed to blush harder. Her lekku going almost more black than blue. Her voice was rather small as she more asked than said, “...Senator Amidala?”

“Yes, that would be me. A pleasure to finally meet you.” Padme walked with confidence before extending her hand for a shake.

Dooku appeared to be either counting backwards from ten or had a massive headache. Perhaps both. Ahsoka, however, happily shook her hand with a wild grin growing on her face now that she realized she wasn’t in trouble.

“Master? I think this could be a very good fit for me,” Ahsoka said, and if it wasn’t for the fact that Padme literally saw her pulled out of a trash can not five minutes ago she wouldn’t have guessed the problems she’d run into here at the Senate. Her posture and tone were spot on for any seasoned politician in the dome.

“Well, that is two against one, but I suppose it is up to you Master Dooku.” Padme kept her voice as pleasant as possible.

After all, in a different timeline Dooku could have been another planetary ruler like herself.

“You will finish this rotation Padawan, and you will behave yourself.” “Yes Master.”

“Thank the Senator.”

“Thank you for the opportunity Senator Amidala.”

Padme smiled, but was able to hold her laughter in. “You are welcome Padawan.”

“Excellent,” Dooku bowed to her, “I wash my hands of this then. I will see you at evening meal Padawan, do not be late.”

Despite the look he was giving Padawan Ahsoka, Padme had a good feeling it was mostly for show. Especially with the way Ahsoka grinned back like a bright white supergiant and bounced on her toes. “Yes Master!”

They watched as Master Dooku spun on his heel and stalked back out of the Senate before Padme finally allowed herself to giggle just a little bit, which was really more Corde’s fault for tugging on her sleeve like that. Ahsoka seemed unbothered as she walked over to join them.

“So, what are we doing next and do you have any embarrassing stories about Ani?”

Padme snickered, “Let’s get a schedule set up and then we can talk about Anakin.”

Anakin and Ahsoka arrive on Tatooine to visit the rest of their large, messy, complicated, beautiful family. Part of the Close But No Cigar AU!

Okay FIRST OF ALL, you just made me literally cry and I had to walk away from my computer to process b/c I’ve been having a bad few months, and this was amazing. So, fun story time. I was unemployed and my depression and anxiety were MAXED out. I realized that I’d stopped having personal hobbies of any kind, and decided to try and get back into writing after about three years of not typing a single word. I hated all of it. Everything I wrote was “bad” and I didn’t want to share any of it with anyone. Then I got a reminder of NaNoWriMo and decided to try and go for it to build a writing habit back up. What came out was a hot jumbled mess in a tone I’d never written in before, and for some reason it included Ahsoka being Yoda’s Padawan. And I didn’t meet my goal, and I didn’t write the story I wanted to, and I thought it was the Worst Thing I’d Ever Written. But I kept going back to it every week. Thinking about it more, daydreaming about it more, actually planning out a plot for the story, and eventually even doing the unthinkable. I continued to work on a WiP I’d abandoned on my drive. And I still hated it. It felt so stiff and strange and off. Until one day it suddenly all clicked and I went, “Oh…wait, wait a second. This could work. What?” It was 6 months after I’d started writing it and I was harassing my best friend to read and help me with the fic. He come back with oodles of notes for things I could try or do or fix tucked in between the majority of his squeeing. And I still didn’t think anyone would like it. I resigned myself to the fact that while I was more excited, I’d probably get like 5 people MAYBE who liked the story and read it. I am so very grateful that I was so very, very wrong. I wanted to put that out there first to try and lay out how much getting this was an amazing heart punch. That the “weirdly too detailed” details and “this is not the plot why are we here” side stories and B plots and “I better just own this OOC characterization” characterization….they’re all things someone enjoyed so much that they stayed up until 4AM just slamming the content back while losing all sense of time and space. Things I hoped would shine through like Ahsoka’s ever growing family bonds being deep but also silly, getting mentioned in this? Imma die. For you. Like, if you ever need someone to die for you, call me first. Name a time and place I will be there! My weird Force visions that I worried about being too jumbled and hard to follow being loved, and the tight nit lineage feels being lauded. Like, dude, I can’t express how much I wish I could give you a hug right now, except that I would probably start crying and get snot on you and I think we’re probably both good to not go there. :p And then I turn into a little demon because-

Tearing it all apart at the seams was way more fun that I’d expected it to be, and having someone read it all and go, “Excuse me. The execution is a dreadful masterpiece, Ahsoka’s shock built this anticipation, and then you ripped my heart out. Thanks!” 

MMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

Have I mentioned yet that I love you? Because I love you. Hi! 

The VERY LONG WINDED point I’m building to here is: Thank you for writing me. 

Not just because I crave the same sweet, sweet validation that every author does. But also because this is a story that came from a bad place for me, and grew into something wonderful and meaningful to me. And especially after having a kinda hellish time on and off recently, getting to see someone just enthralled with this fic in particular, well, like I said at the start I legit had to have a lay down because I was crying and felt so good. I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed this series! And I’m very grateful for the amazing feedback you provided! I know I’m fond of saying it, but seriously, I feel The Force validated in this Chili's tonight. So Thank You!