Notes: This is just a cute little one-shot fic idea, written both to start off the short-fic collective and to shamelessly just to make for some cute Anakin and Obi-Wan bonding. Besides, I'd never written little!Anakin before, so that was fun. This is set a few years after TPM. Hope you enjoy!
Of Jedi and banisters
by: Amrita Glittersong
Twelve-year-old Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker was bored.
Usually, he could find something to do with his time, but today, he was bored. He'd run out of droid parts, and Obi-Wan had forbidden him from going looking for new ones until later. Obi-Wan had also forbidden him from going to the garbage pit races on the lower levels of Coruscant, and from launching marbles at the Council members with the Force, and various other things. Sometimes, Anakin thought, Obi-Wan was no fun at all.
So now, he was just wandering the Temple aimlessly while Obi-Wan studied something in the Archives, trying to find a way to amuse himself until his master was done. He was failing.
But then, something caught his eye. The long, straight railing that guarded one of the grand staircases of the Temple was calling to him, screaming, 'Anakin! I'm FUN!' He was immediately drawn back towards it.
He'd heard lots of stories about how fun it was to slide down the banisters from initiates and some other padawans, but he'd never had an opportunity to try it himself. Looking back and forth, Anakin assured himself he was indeed alone, and would be unseen in his act of harmless mischief as he stepped over to the start of the rail. Being Jedi, or Jedi-in-training at least, the 'proper' way to slide down a banister was on your feet, as he'd heard. Anakin looked at the rail, the distance to the floor, his feet, than back to the rail and shrugged. How hard could it be?
In one graceful motion, he leapt up to alight gently on the railing... And go nowhere but directly off the side, back onto the stairs. He landed easily, his reflexes fast enough to keep him from hurting himself, and realized his mistake. Jedi boots were made specifically not to slide on things, and he's forgotten to take them off.
Stepping back into place, Anakin removed his boots this time and tried again. This time, he slid quite nicely; too nicely, in fact. Anakin realized belatedly this was not as simple as it looked, and it took all his concentration not to lose his balance and fall to a much harder landing than before. As it was, he was concentrating so hard on his balance than he didn't think about the decorative globe that was positioned on the end of the railing and, reaching the end of his slide, slammed his shins right into it and went flying in a wild tumble through the air.
'Great.' He thought idly as he tumbled. 'Podracing, garbage pit competitions, starfighter piloting... And I'm going to be killed by breaking my neck while sliding down a banister.'
However, that was not to be the case as instead of hitting the floor, he slammed into something considerably softer and his wild flight stopped as he and whatever he'd hit fell to the ground.
"Anakin Skywalker! What are you doing!?"
Anakin looked up in surprise at the familiar voice to see that it had been Obi-Wan who'd caught him and who was now giving him a look that was a cross between surprise, anger, and concern. "Oh, hi, master."
Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow, getting back to his feet and pulling Anakin up as well. "Hello, Anakin. I see you ignored my orders not to get yourself into trouble."
"Yeah." Anakin responded, only looking slightly sheepish. "Sorry about that. But thanks for catching me."
"You're welcome." Obi-Wan responded after a moment, sighing. "Anakin, that was dangerous. You could have been hurt."
"Yeah, I get that now. Who would have thought that sliding down a banister would be more difficult than the other things I've done?" Anakin lamented, giving the railing a dirty look as he spoke, as if it was it's fault. "The other padawans and the initiates made it sound easy..."
"It is, if you're know what you're doing." Obi-Wan said after a moment, then he looked around, as if to make sure no one was listening, before continuing. "I suppose you're going to need someone to teach you how to do it correctly..."
Anakin looked at him in wonder, not sure if his master had meant what he thought he'd meant, and Obi-Wan gave him a faint smile. "So you don't hurt yourself, of course." The Knight added, almost as an afterthought. "Considering I have a feeling you won't listen if I simply tell you not to do it again."
"You know me, master." Anakin responded, smiling as he lead the way back up the stairs. Who would have thought Obi-Wan would know how to slide down a rail, let alone encourage it?
"Yes, unfortunately." Obi-Wan responded, though the light tone made the words teasing rather than harsh. "Alright, Anakin. This is relatively simple. The Force will help you balance; trust in it, and pay more attention to when to jump than to attempting to balance. When you reach about a half-metre from the end, plant your feet and jump. You'll have enough room to clear the globe and land on the ground." Obi-Wan explained, removing his boots. "Watch."
Anakin nodded, stepping back to make room for Obi-Wan to jump onto the railing. He did so, sliding gracefully down the rail as if he'd done it a hundred times before, and crouched down slightly as he neared the end so he could gain more height on the jump. A perfect double-flip later, Obi-Wan landed, only to come face to face with Mace Windu, who had seemingly come out of no where.
"Um... Hello, Master Windu."
Anakin tried not to giggle at the nearly identical response Obi-Wan had for nearly running into Mace as Anakin had for running into Obi-Wan.
Mace just looked at Obi-Wan, then up to Anakin at the top of the stairs, then back at Obi-Wan, and then just shook his head and sighed. "I don't know what to do with you two sometimes." A moment later, he shrugged, and began striding away. "Don't hurt yourselves."
"Smooth, master." Anakin commented once Mace was out of earshot. "Great demonstration; it really was pretty wizard. Just one thing. Do I have to land in front of Master Windu, or is that optional?"
Obi-Wan just gave him a vaguely amused look, and Anakin laughed.