Bittersweet

It was a cold and rainy Coruscant evening when Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi returned from their mission on Telar IV. It had been a frustrating peace negotiation where neither party seemed interested in anything but who would be granted custody of "The Sacred Statue", a boulder in the vague shape of their god. After ten years of partnership and friendship, Obi-wan and Qui-Gon had developed a strategy for such trivial causes of war: Obi-Wan would threaten to destroy the item of controversy and Qui-Gon would negotiate the importance of it with the two conflicting sides and lead them to a solution that they believed was their own. It worked every time, although some cases had nearly gotten Obi-Wan killed for heresy, for which Qui-Gon had deeply apologized.

But now the mission was over and they were back at the temple in the warm confines of their shared quarters. Qui-Gon performed his ritual of unpacking and preparing tea simultaneously as he always did when they returned from a mission. Obi-Wan, still being young at twenty-three, had no rituals to perform and simply collapsed in a chair by the window with a somewhat empty feeling. The rush of the mission was gone and so was his energy. To make matters worse, he had the guilty feeling of lonesomeness. He knew that was a stupid and selfish emotion considering that he was with his master nearly all the time, but he still missed his friends. He missed the comfort of their voices and playful natures. Like him though, they were all busy with their own masters and their own missions, it was even more selfish of Obi-Wan to expect them to make time for him just because he was lonely.

"Tea, Obi-Wan?" Qui-Gon asked, breaking Obi-Wan's train of thought.

"No thank you, master," the young man replied.

"It might lift your spirits," Qui-Gon insisted. Obi-Wan gave him a wary look.

"You're distressed, Obi-Wan. Perhaps a bit…lonely?"

Obi-Wan sighed and gave an unwilling nod to his master. His feelings were always so obvious; nothing escaped the broad sweeping senses of Qui-Gon Jinn.

"I know it's selfish of me to feel so, but...I do. How can I make this feeling go away, Qui-Gon?" Obi-Wan asked imploringly.

"Go make some friends," Qui-Gon replied simply.

"I have friends, they're just busy, like us, and we're never at the temple at the same times."

"So make some friends in the city, citizens," Qui-Gon sipped his tea and popped a cracker in his moth.

Obi-Wan looked at him deadly. That was an easy thing for Qui-Gon to say; he seemed to make friends even when he didn't want to. It was a fluke that Obi-Wan had any friends here at the temple to begin with; he was not a social person. The idea of randomly making friends with city people seemed as impossible, to Obi-Wan, as forcing himself to sprout wings and fly away.

"Master…" Obi-Wan began hesitantly.

"Just go out and meet some people, you're bound to like somebody you meet," Qui-Gon told him.

"You're serious, aren't you?" Obi-Wan asked incredulously.

"Of course! It might do you well to have some friends in the city. You never know what resources you'll need in the future, and ordinary citizens are a great resource for any profession."

Obi-Wan thought about what his master was telling him. It was true that they had often asked Qui-Gon's city friends for information in regards to a broad spectrum of missions and they had all yielded a profit. The idea of making friends though still bothered him.

"But how…"Obi-Wan began.

"You'll know," Qui-Gon answered, before the young man could finish, "In fact, I think that tomorrow would be an excellent day to begin your search for new friends. The rain's supposed to let up and make way from some beautiful sunshine."

"Yes, master," Obi-Wan sighed and slumped further back in his chair.

'I've got a bad feeling about this,' he thought in the way back of his head as the reality of his situation sunk in.

The next morning Obi-Wan pulled on his civilian clothes and filled his pockets with credits and a comm-link.

'To call for help when I make friends with the wrong people,' he thought bitterly as he walked out into the hallway of the Jedi Temple. Younglings and older initiates were rushing to classes and playing amongst themselves as knights and masters made their ways to and from meetings and missions. Obi-Wan made his way to the main doors of the temple to embark on his own, less important mission.

The sun was bright, as Qui-Gon had predicted and the streets were busy. Not knowing where else to start, he stepped onto the walk way and picked a direction. The market place was several blocks away, but seemed the only reasonable destination to meet people at.

'What am I doing?' he thought to himself as he passed a diner full of transients, 'I can't make 'friends' with just anybody, that's crazy. Besides, even if I do meet some one I like, they won't necessarily like me. Who wants to be friends with a Jedi anyway? We're never around and we can't exactly do favors for people…can we? No matter, we're not around enough to have favors asked of us! Does Yoda have non-Jedi friends? I can't imagine that Master Yoda went wandering around Coruscant looking for random friends. This is insane, I can't believe I'm doing this, I should just go ho…'

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" a young human woman cried as she stumbled past Obi-Wan. Apparently he'd bumped into her. She was giving him a cold look as he half mumbled an apology.

'Great start, Obi-Wan. You'll be making friends any minute now,' he thought as he continued on his way. He briefly glanced back at the woman he'd bumped into and found her glancing back at him, but with a much softer look than she'd given him before. Obi-Wan had barely realized she was looking at him before she turned away and disappeared in the mass of city people.

'Perhaps, I've made an enemy now…'he continued as he turned a corner, 'I'm sure she's not happy about being run over by a clumsy, friendless, Jedi. You moron, Obi-Wan, you could have made friends with her! She was right there and looking at you! Right, Qui-Gon will be thrilled when I tell him I made friends with a random woman after I upset her. Women make friends easily, she's probably on her way to meet a flock them.'

Obi-Wan turned another corner and found a busy walkway lined with small shops and restaurants. He walked for another hour and half perusing the people he passed. They all looked the same to him, not benign or malevolent, just the same. He felt like giving up and resolving himself to being friendless and slightly lonesome for the rest of his life. Before he gave up though, Obi-Wan decided to grab some lunch. A few more blocks down, was a small restaurant that Qui-Gon had taken him to once when he was younger. He remembered they had delicious Corellian pastries.

'Perhaps someone will wish to join me at the restaurant for a brazben tart with cream sauce…probably not though,' he thought, as he saw the restaurant come into clearer view. Obi-Wan knew he was being hard on himself and creating negative energy. He didn't want new friends; he wanted to see his old friends. He wondered if Qui-Gon had always been good at making friends or if it was a skill he'd acquired through years of missions. He was now in front of the restaurant; it was lightly occupied.

'Brazben tart with cream sauce...'he thought dreamily as he walked in and sat at an empty table.

"What'll it be?" asked a skinny green Twilek, with his head-tails wrapped in a turban.

"Brazben tart with cream sauce," Obi-Wan replied promptly.

"Anything to drink?"

"Spyder Wine."

"We're out, but may I suggest Thorian Gribble Juice," the waiter offered cheerfully, "Its sweet and clean flavor makes an excellent match for the brazben."

"Sure," Obi-Wan replied quietly, a little off-put by the waiter's enthusiasm over a drink.

"Excellent! I'll be right back with your order!" the waiter said as he spun on his heel and left for the kitchen.

Obi-Wan glanced around the restaurant as he waited for his pastry. He saw families and couples enjoying various meals and drinks. An old Wookie was sitting alone in one corner of the restaurant, no doubt placed there out of the owner's fear for customer's safety. This Wookie looked to old to be looking for trouble though. Its head was drooped over a steaming mug with a small side plate of Corellian sweet greens that hadn't been touched. The Wookie's stature spoke that it had been there for a long time, and in some sort of disparity.

'He looks like he needs a friend,' Obi-Wan thought as he gazed at the Wookie, 'A Wookie would be a valuable resource to have as a Jedi. I'd have to learn Wookese though…so how would I tell him that I want to be friends? He may be old, but he could still rip my arms off if he got the wrong message from me…'

The restaurant buzzer sounded, declaring the entrance of another customer. Obi-Wan was too engrossed in his internal debate over befriending the Wookie to see the person sit at the table in front of his. The cheerful Twilek came back to take the new customer's order.

'Ugh…'Obi-Wan though, 'I hope he's calmed down since he took my order. Where is my order anyway? I thought he said he'd be right back?'

"I'll take a brazben tart with cream sauce and a glass of oral sap: bitter, not sweet, Jen," said the customer in front of Obi-Wan. It was a human woman with her back to him. She had long purplish-red hair and sounded distressed.

'Hey, we both like brazben tarts,' Obi-Wan thought, 'Maybe I can make friends with her…I sound like a youngling! This is insane! What am I doing? I'll just get my tart and go back to the temple and tell Qui-Gon I'm not lonely anymore!'

"Oh I'm sorry, sweet thing," the waiter, now named Jen, replied sadly, "I just sold the last one to the young man behind you!"

The woman turned around and looked at Obi-Wan, "Ugh!" she exclaimed, as she slumped in her seat, shooting Obi-Wan an incredulous look. Obi-Wan froze; it was the same woman he'd run into on the street that morning.

"I didn't think you were coming Andy! So I sold it! It was already an hour past your usual time!" the waiter babbled as the woman sighed and turned back around.

"That's ok, Jen, I'll just have hot tea then…" Andy replied quietly.

Obi-Wan was in a slight panic. The woman was obviously very upset for the second time today and both times had been his fault. He felt he had to do something for this woman; he couldn't just continue ruining her day…

"I'll share my tart with you!" he blurted out. He felt his face flush instantly.

'What have I done! Stupid!' he thought.

"Oh, how sweet, Andy! The young man's offered to share the last brazben tart with you!" Jen crooned.

"Forget it Jen!" Andy snapped, "I'll just go down to Dax's for a sandwich…I'm on a diet anyway."

With that Andy got up and left the restaurant without giving Obi-Wan so much as a second glance.

"But, uh, I…"was all he managed to spit out before she was out on the street

"Ugh," he groaned as another twilek brought him his tart. He looked at it sadly. He couldn't eat it now; not after all that the poor woman had been through today at his expense. Obi-Wan quickly threw all his credits on the table and dashed out the restaurant after the woman.

He used his quick reflexes to weave through he crowd without damaging the tart and to track the young woman.

"Wait!" he cried when he saw her long dark hair.

"Wait! Andy!"

The woman turned around with a wary look until she spotted Obi-Wan.

"Not you again," she said exasperatedly, "Look, I don't want…"

"Take it," Obi-Wan said abruptly, "Just take it. I want you to have it. I've already done too much to your day. Please."

Andy sighed heavily and turned away, burying her face in her hands, and began to walk.

"Andy…!" Obi-Wan called out.

She turned quickly and spat, "My name's not Andy! It's Andra! Now just go away! I don't care about the damn tart!" And with that she was gone, leaving Obi-Wan in a very bewildered state.

He looked down at the tart and sighed as he began to walk back to the temple. His outing was officially over, as was the mission to find new friends.

'It's hopeless,' he decided, 'I'm just not a sociable person. I can't even properly make right for what I've done wrong…even if it was an accident and just a bad coincidence. I'll simply have to rely on the networks of my colleagues…how pathetic: a Jedi who can't even make his own network of friends and allies to aid in the keeping of the Force. I can't even enjoy my brazben tart with cream sauce! What an unfortunate day…'