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“Ariu?” Shmi asks, in surprise. The gold twi’lek woman in the beautiful blue and black fabrics turns around, blinking in surprise.
“Shmi?” She asks. “What are you doing here?”
“Gardulla lost me,” Shmi says. “Didn’t an off-worlder buy you?”
It had been a spur of the moment deal, she remembers. Ariu had gone off one night to take her dancing shift and just… never come back.
Shmi, meanwhile, had had a short break, having been pregnant with Anakin at the time.
“It’s hard to believe that it’s only been five years,” Ariu says, quite obviously avoiding the subject. Shmi nods.
“I know,” she says. “You’re my desert springs, Ariu. You were there for me after…”
After Anakin’s probable “father” disappeared.
Ariu scoffs.
“Oh please,” she says. “You deserve so much more than that off-worlder.”
“Deserve, want, need, and have are rarely aligned, though,” Shmi says. “You deserve to be more than a rich Republic beaurocrat’s plaything.”
Ariu trips backward, slightly, obviously startled at Shmi’s simple assumption, and then she laughs.
“I could never keep something from you,” she says. The sag in her shoulders is no longer hidden, nor the exhaustion in her eyes. “I am alone, and I missed you so much. I broke every rule and begged my Master to allow me to accompany him on this trip.”
The amazing part, Shmi thinks, is that the Master listened to Ariu. And yet… for all the years Ariu has been her dear friend, she’s never seen the other woman so shaken - and in such ironic colors, too.
“How long do you have?” She asks. Ariu looks at her.
“Not enough for what you’re planning,” she says. Then, with a sighs, she adds, “But, at this point, I care more that I try.”
Shmi hums a familiar melody, not saying a word at Ariu’s admission.
“Come to my house, then,” she says. “You can… meet Ani.”
Watto is truly a good Master, for all that Masters can be good. He doesn’t punish them unnecessarily; he hasn’t put Anakin to work, quite yet.
Her sweet, wonderful Ani, who jumps up excitedly as she enters. She hates to leave him alone, but she knows he spends most of the day in the center of the slave quarters, where the older children and the elders too old for work watch out for him.
“Amu!” He says, excitedly, as she hugs him tightly. “Did you see that big ship? It was so cool - I’ve never heard of the model. Korla said I was stupid and I said he was mean. Who’s this with you? Are we helping her?”
Shmi can’t help but laugh, and she looks back to see a pale echo of Ariu’s familiar smile, at the sight of the two of them. Slowly, she untangles herself from Anakin’s little arms, still remaining at eye level to him.
“Hello to you too, Ani,” she says. “I saw the ship - it was an SZA-30A from Corellia.” And, now that she thinks about it, probably what Ariu flew in on. “Please don’t call other children unkind things, even if he said it first. No, especially if he said it first. This is Ariu; she’s my friend, and we’re helping her.”
Anakin blinks.
“Okay,” he says. He lets go of Shmi’s hand and walks up to Ariu. “Hello, Ariu.”
His “r” comes out with the slightest lisp that obviously had Ariu instantly in love. She kneels down, as Shmi stands.
“Hello, little raindrop,” she says. “Are you gonna help me?”
Anakin nods, and Ariu smiles, hugging him after a careful check of his willingness.
“Well I trust you to do it,” she says.
It’s so domestic that Shmi can practically feel a smile splitting her own face, even if she rarely ever does.
She wants to take this moment and treasure it forever.
“…It worked,” Ariu says in surprise, as she holds the small deactivated detonator in her hand. Shmi finishes tying the cloth around her thigh.
“You were lucky,” she says. “Your Master told you where it was.”
Ariu smirks.
“The benefits of outsiders,” she says. But then her smile drops. Now that they’re finally alone. “I missed you, Shmi. So much, my yellow finned sandswimmer.”
Yellow finned sand swimmer, as if she wasn’t real. A joke, but none of Ariu’s nicknames have ever been so simple.
And Shmi thinks about Ariu’s words, and—
Dukkra ba dukkra, freedom or death.
“What would you have done, if we hadn’t seen each other?” Shmi asks. Ariu sighs again.
“Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to,” she says. “I was gonna be free. And I was going to be home, eaten by the sands Ar-Amu screams her despair through.”
Shmi says nothing, simply wraps her arms around the now-shaking shoulders of her old friend.
“And I missed you, most of all,” Ariu admits. “I love you.”
…Oh.
Shmi… doesn’t know how to respond. Until five years ago, Ariu had been the one constant in her life. But did she love her?
She doesn’t even know if she truly loved the mysterious being who had somehow given her Anakin, and yet…
And yet.
“I missed you too,” Shmi says. “More than anything. And I…”
Ariu pulls away, face serious.
“Don’t say it unless you mean it,” she says. “Don’t insult me.”
“I know you’re my family,” Shmi says, at that. “Beyond that…”
Ariu sighs.
“It’s fine,” she says. “I have to leave you behind, again, but I swear, Shmi… next time, I’ll be the one to save you.”
Ariu leaves and doesn’t return for another five years, and, in that time, Anakin is taken away by the Jedi.
Shmi is left without her closest family and finds herself wondering what she should do.
She has no doubt that, as nice as they were, the Jedi were Core Worlders, and they didn’t care about the people in the Outer Rim. Anakin wouldn’t be returning.
Also, in that time, she’d thought about Ariu all the more. And she’d found her answer to Ariu’s unspoken question.
Yes, she did love her.
And it’s a normal day when it happens, of course. Shmi is cleaning Watto’s junk shop that’s about to go belly up from his gambling, and someone walks in. She turns around to greet them, and…
“Hello,” says Ariu. “How much can I get for the beautiful woman, to get her out of here?”
Shmi smiles.
“I’m still 20,000 Hutt units,” she says. “And you?”
Ariu merely smiles.
“Free,” she says. “It’s so good to see you.”
And Shmi usually tries to stay reserved, a lifetime as a house and shop slave breeds that effect, but she runs towards Ariu before you can think.
“I missed you,” she says. Ariu hugs her back.
“And I you,” she says. “Shall we go, then?”
Shmi nods.
“I love you,” she says. Ariu pauses… before a bright smile splits her face.
“And I you,” she says.