Perspective: the Important Things in Life.

Author's note: It's the 11th September 2011; my deepest thoughts and prayers go out to anyone who lost a loved one, or had their lives impacted in any way during the atrocity in America a decade ago.

However, its my birthday. No terrorists are going to prevent me having a happy 24th birthday! So, as I can't exactly hand out slices of birthday cake over the internet, I thought I'd make people smile with a happy little ficlet.

In this, Obi-Wan isn't far off being three-years-old, and he's done something very special - special enough that the Council want to talk to him about it… but what is special to Obi-Wan, and what is special to everyone else has two different meanings.

I am an amateur author of false name,

I borrow worlds of another's fame.

I stake no claim on recognised locations,

Neither do I own canon situations.

I merely come here to spend a while,

Reading other's work; writing my own style.

I earn no money, no wage, no dosh.

I gain no finance, no revenue, no cash.

I do not mean to step on legal toes,

I mean no infringement, I'm friend not foe.

So please, do come in, relax, unwind.

I hope in my work, enjoyment you will find.

It was mid afternoon on Coruscant, and the Council sat in session. They'd been sitting in the same meeting for the past two hours as Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn defended the rather unique methods he'd used on the mission he'd just returned from.

"Qui-Gon, the end cannot justify the means!" New Councilmaster Mace Windu groaned. His stomach joined in with a grumble of its own, reminding the youngest, and newest, member of the Council that they'd debated Jinn's actions through lunch.

"Yes, however, it is the end result that will be remembered by the people of that planet, regardless of how It occured!" Qui-Gon replied, grinning slightly behind his beard at the frustration of the Council.

"That's beside the point - how you managed to get them to sign the peace treaty was actually illegal!" Mace countered.

"Not on their planet, it wasn't… its only illegal in most of the Republic."

"Most, what do you mean most? Qui-Gon, 99-percent of the Republic would have had you locked up for it!" Snapped Windu.

"Well, isn't it a good thing that their planet is one of the one-percent minority… and I thought 99-percent would qualify under the definition of 'most', or does it need to be a few percent less?" Qui-Gon said, fighting back a chuckle at the faces of the Council.

Before the Council could argue back, the door guard opened the huge doors and bowed to the occupants. "Excuse me, but you're over-running, and the person due in your next scheduled meeting is ready to have his afternoon nap."

"I could do with a nap too, it is tiring dealing with people with incredible intelligence, but without a scrap of common sense." Qui-Gon muttered, earning a sharp look from Master Yoda, who indicated for his Padawan's Padawan to move to the edge of the room.

"Finished with you, we have not. Stay here, you will."

"Yes, Master." Jinn said, bowing respectively and moving to the far edge of the circular room.

Saesee Tiin looked down at his data padd before speaking, "The next item on the agenda is the recommendation of a merit to be added to the academic record of someone who doesn't actually have an academic record, yet."

"Pardon?" Ki-Adi-Mundi said, looking confused.

Tiin continued to explain, "We are all aware that Crèche-Master Amaya Laery collapsed last week due to a brain haemorrhage. She has decided to retire some years earlier than expected, on grounds of ill health…"

"Indeed, terrible news it was to hear of such a thing. Glad I am that not too much lasting damage, there was." Master Yoda said, his ears drooping a little.

"It turns out that there was more to this story… it was one of the crèchelings that called the healers - even whilst all his age-mates were screaming and crying in panic. He quite calmly climbed up onto Laery's desk, pushed the right buttons, and very clearly communicated what had happened. The healers have informed me that if it wasn't for him, they would have arrived too late for anything to be done."

"Good indeed, this is!" Master Yoda said, looking towards Tiin, "The Crècheling, how old is he?"

"He isn't even three yet; which is why we need to debate adding a merit to his record - because he doesn't actually have an academic record yet." Tiin replied.

"Ah, can't we create him a record?" Mace asked, as if it was the most obvious answer to the problem.

"They create automatically when a child moves from being a crècheling to an initiate - but creating them early confuses the system, and the record ends up corrupted and filled with glitches." Oppo Rancisis said.

"Well, can't we save the merit for a later date?" Mace asked again.

"Merits can't be back-dated by any more than six months." chipped in Eeth Koth, shrugging.

"Invited him and the replacement Crèche-Master, we have. Recognised the little one must be for his achievement, but no merit can we give. Rewarded for his achievement, he will be - but not like an initiate would be rewarded." Yoda said, waving his clawed hand at the door guard to let the Crèche-Master, his Padawan and the little one in.

The replacement Crèche-Master, Thion Dysar, was a friendly Rhodian who'd retired from active field duty due to injury-through-torture, and relocated himself into the bubbly, innocent atmosphere of the Crèche. His Padawan, Ylenia Droma, was a stunningly attractive, female, red-skinned Twi'lek - much sought after by slave-traders all over the galaxy. Unfortunately, there had already been three violent attempts to kidnap the fifteen-year-old Twi'lek, and she was frightened to step outside the Temple doors.

Master Dysar was too busy with his continued medical treatments and the Creche to leave the Temple, and Padawan Droma had an affinity for children and a phobia of the outside world. Droma's previous master had released her from training, so that she could apprentice Dysar. The pair were slowly healing and helping each other, whilst performing the essential duty of caring for the very youngest.

The Padawan was holding the hand of a little boy with huge grey eyes and a shocking sticking-up mess of red-gold hair. The little one dragged a fleecy blanket printed with starships behind him, his grip white-knuckled.

"Welcome you are, no need to be frightened there is." Yoda said softly, wiggling his ears at the child in an attempt to make him smile. The boy looked around the room slowly, before reaching for the Twi'lek with both arms, clinging to her legs.

"Are you going to say hello? These nice people want to talk to you." Master Dysar said gently, leaning on his walking stick to bend down more to the child's height. "You're usually such a little chatterbox, you're not normally this shy… come on, say hello."

"Ha-wo." the child said, mumbling around the thumb he'd planted firmly in his mouth, he still had a death-grip on his blanket, and was refusing to let go of the Twi'lek.

"Who are you little one? Can you tell us your name?" Eeth Koth prompted, smiling softly at the boy.

"Obi-Wan." The child said, reluctantly letting Padawan Droma tug his thumb out of his mouth and wipe it on a handkerchief. "This is my binky." he said, waving the hand that held the brightly-coloured fabric. The Council smiled softly at the boy's introduction of his 'binky'.

"Obi-Wan, do you have another name?" Ki-Adi-Mundi prompted, standing from his chair and moving closer to the boy. Obi-Wan looked up, and up, and up; his jaw dropping open as the very, very, very tall Jedi Master came near him. Obi-Wan pulled his blanket closer to himself, a little bit scared of someone so very, very big.

Slowly, so not to startle the tot, Ki-Adi-Mundi knelt down and began to speak in his most gentle voice. "Can you tell us any other names you have?"

"Obi-Wan." the boy repeated, earning a quiet chuckle from the room.

"We know that one, Sunshine, what's your other name, the one at the end of Obi-Wan? What name comes after Obi-Wan?" Master Dysar said, smiling kindly.

"Kenobi." the little boy said, giggling as Ki-Adi-Mundi made his blanket ripple in mid air by using the Force; to Obi-Wan, it made it look like the cartoon starships were really flying!

"Obi-Wan Kenobi, that's a nice name. This is a very nice blanket, isn't it? Do you like starships?" Ki-Adi-Mundi said, trying to get the child to open up a little.

"I wike watching dem fwy. Dey go zoooooom and whooooosh and dey high up in de skwy!" Obi-Wan replied with a grin, his thumb back in his mouth again.

"Obi, can you tell these people what you did? Tell them all about the really grown-up thing that you did. Tell them about how well you did." Droma said, kneeling down next to the child and wrapping her arm around his little waist, one hand gripping onto the thumb that the boy wanted to suckle, that she'd once again wrestled from his mouth.

"I went pee in the big-boy toilet, not the potty. And I did it stood up like a big-boy." Little Kenobi said, his grin beaming, and doing a little happy dance where he stood.

Around the room, the assembled Masters were trying desperately not to laugh - knowing that laughing at the little boy might undo some of the hard work that had gone into potty-training. Obi-Wan would most likely take offence at being laughed-at for being such a big-boy. He was too young to understand that they'd be laughing at how what he'd said was out of context; that they weren't making fun of his achievement in the lavatory.

His hands clasped over his mouth, Master Qui-Gon Jinn slid down the wall he'd been leaning against, shaking in silent laughter; Mace Windu was looking anywhere but at his prostrate friend, knowing that one look at Jinn would set his own laughter off. Master Yoda's ears twitched erratically in his mirth, and he smiled widely at the little boy.

"Obi, that is very, very grown-up of you - and we are so very happy… but can you tell them about what you did when Master Laery became ill? Tell them how well you did." Dysar said, petting the lad's shock of red hair.

"She fell over. She wasn't moving. We was scared. Everyone else was being silly. I call the healer with the real comm, not the toy one." The little one shrugged, as if what he'd done wasn't remotely as important as his earlier news.

"That was very clever, and we are very happy that you didn't become silly and start screaming like everyone else did. You did something very, very good by using the comm and telling the healers what had happened." Mace said, shuffling down from his seat and walking on his knees towards Obi-Wan. "She was very, very sick, and your quick thinking made her get better."

"Healers make owies go away. Not me." Obi-Wan stated, looking at Master Windu as if he was particularly dense. Obviously, it wasn't because of him that his old Crèche-Master would get well again, the healers made you better, everyone new that.

"Yes, the healers made her better, but only because you called them. They didn't know she was sick until you called." The Padawan clarified, Obi-Wan's little eyebrows creasing up as he digested this information.

Digesting the information was hard work, causing the little boy to yawn widely, rubbing his binky into his eyes in tiredness. Slowly he sat down, leaning against the Twi'ek. She wasn't looking at him, nobody was looking at him - so he happily put his thumb back into his mouth. (They were telling him off for doing it now that he was getting to be a big-boy. Big-boys didn't suck their thumbs). Obi-Wan had absolutely no idea what all the people were talking about, they were using too many words and too many people were talking at the same time. He let the voices of the debating Council carry him off to dreams about starships.

"Perhaps you'd better finish this later, the subject of the debate has just fallen asleep." Master Jinn said from the side of the room.

"Its way past nap time." the Padawan said, leaning down and scooping the limp figure into her arms, gently pulling his thumb from his mouth. Mace gently tucked the blanket around him.

"Is he dry?" Master Dysar asked, waiting for his Padawan to check for any accidents.

"Completely dry, Master."

"Wonderful, we just have to get him into his bed without waking him up." The Rhodian said, bowing to the Council and leaving without being dismissed.

"Oh, to be so innocent that it is more important to pee like a grown-up than save someone's life!" Jinn said, smiling softly.

"A very strong Knight, he will be. Very strong in the Force." Master Yoda said, in the cryptic way that he was want to do.

"Very strong in bladder too, apparently." Qui-Gon chipped in, reducing the Council into the laughter that they'd suppressed earlier.

"Still in trouble you are, Qui-Gon. Deal with you after lunch, we will."

"I need a bathroom break, anyway." Qui-Gon said, still chuckling as he was dismissed from the Council Chamber.