Who:Anakin and Ahsoka What: Ahsoka is alerted to Anakin’s presence and goes to investigate, it’s neither a smooth Jedi Knight nor a powerful Sith Lord that she finds When: day time Where: a restaurant with outdoor seating Rating/Warnings: low for now, with update if necessary
Anakin caught the two children – they couldn’t be more than seven and six years old – from the next table over looking at him, whispering and pointing to his prosthetic arm. And then they noticed that he’d noticed. The younger one, the girl, blushed vibrant red, but the boy only looked embarrassed for all of a second before finding the courage to asking out loud, “Do you have a robotic arm?”
Anakin didn’t mind these questions from children, because they were usually asked from a place of good intentions and genuine innocence.
“Yes,” he answered straight forward. No malice, or snark.
“What happened to your arm?” the little girl asked quietly.
“I had an accident.”
“Oh.” Her eyes were wide and she hide half her face down behind her hands as they gripped the edge of his table.
“What can it do? Anything special?” the boy asked, more than a little excited.
Anakin chuckled. “No. I’m not a superhero. Just normal stuff, uh, like-” he looked around for something, not sure for what, he was just searching for something that would come to him to demonstrate what he meant. Then an idea came to him and he started fishing in his backpack. He pulled out two bottles of tennis balls. He popped the lids on both of them and dumped the balls on his side of the table.
“I can play catch.” And used his right hand to grip one of the balls to roll to girl and then picked up another to throw lightly to the boy. He held his hand out expectantly for them to throw them back. The boy threw the ball first and he tossed it again.
“And I can juggle.” He picked up one of the balls in his area and started tossing it up in the air then catching it with his right hand. But then he motioned for the boy to throw him the ball in his hands again. When the boy did, he added that ball to the one he kept in rotation in the air. To escalate the fun, with his left hand he sent the remaining balls rolling across the table towards the children and gestured to them to throw the balls at him so he could catch them and add them to the pattern he had started.
He knew he could easily juggle four balls, and if he really concentrated he could make five balls work. Maybe. He’d just have to figure out what to do with that sixth ball.
The children caught onto the idea quickly and started tossing balls at him.
He should have anticipated their aim and their enthusiasm. Because they threw balls at the same time and one hit him in the head early on. He didn’t have to worry about what to do when he reach five balls in the air because he never made it that far. In short order, under the barrage of the balls, he lost his concentration and all the balls came crashing down on top of him, much to the children’s delight. But, he found it as humorous as they did, too.
It was about this time that the children’s mother finished her cell phone call, and, entirely unaware of the circus happening right next to her, started rounding up her children to leave. The boy tried to explain about the robot man they’d just met only to be meet with absent replies from their mother. The little girl twisted around to wave a silent good bye.
Anakin chuckled to himself and bent down to start picking up the yellow tennis balls scattered around him, unaware himself that another might have witnessed the whole scene.