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Anakin felt his eyes falling closed again.
He was trying to keep his attention on his learning module but it was boring. Very boring. Super boring. (At least it wasn’t as boring when he had help, or could do it with one of the others. Aayla never minded helping him, even if her Master was annoying.)
But he was a padawan. Not a little kid.
He could do this. Could sit still and not fidget (much) while he did his lessons and his Master poured over archives.
Obi-wan spent a lot of time in the archives. He read everything. And he always answers Anakin’s questions when he knows how to. And he showed Anakin how to use the library to find his own answers when Obi-wan couldn’t answer. (It’s hard though, but not as hard as his galactic diplomacy module.)
But…Anakin knows that some of the others are worried.
Master Plo sometimes comes by and takes them to get dinner with him. (He’s still not sure about the Councilors but he at least seems nice…) Master Mace just orders Obi-wan to go take a nap if he catches Anakin’s Master reading for the third time in a row. (Anakin is scared of him.) Madame Nu is less strict but even she fusses after Obi-wan. (He’s heard her mutter about how she needs to talk to some Yan person about the behavior.) Quinlan has come by to just physically drag Obi-wan out of the library. (Which is really funny to watch, actually.)
Anakin jolts awake before his head can actually hit the table.
Obi-wan glances at him and gives a faint smile from his reading – about the Sith, it’s almost always about the Sith or about armies or about….Obi-wan has dreams. Bad ones. Ones that leave him sitting all night in their little kitchen holding a cup of tea that went cold hours ago.
“Why don’t you take a break, dear one?”
He scrunches his face a bit but nods. Because maybe he should be a good padawan already and be able to keep still but he isn’t. Not yet. (He’ll practice though, so no one can ever question that. He just needs more time, he thinks.)
“Just walk around a bit, it’ll help,” Obi-wan advises him.
Anakin sighs but does as he’s told.
There’s a lot of interesting things to look at in the archives. But he’s not really interested in the statues without Obi-wan there to explain them to him.
(He still pauses briefly to eye a metal relief that looks like it might be made of beskar that shows a Mando holding a lightsaber. Mandalorians don’t use those. The weird Mandalorian is wearing robes though, but weird ones.)
Anakin shakes off his suspicion – he’ll ask about it later – and continues wandering. Pausing to eye the weird bits of art and such.
Then something actually interesting catches his eye.
There are lots of droids in the temple. (He adores them all, from the little B-D units that accompany explorers to the astromechs and even the cleaning droids. Jedi almost never remember to do memory wipes so there’s a lot of mechanical personalities to chat with. And they’re less judgmental about his ‘manufacturing location’ than his age-mates are.)
This one is an astromech rolling along the stacks with a single-minded determination. (He seems to be rearranging things so they’re not where they’re supposed to be a chortling while he does it.)
It’s mostly white with some orangeish-yellow markings.
He’s never seen it’s like but when he gets close he can read its designation in faded paint.
“Teeseven-oh-One,” he reads aloud.
//Baby Jedi! = Lost?//
And he blinks at the binary because it sounds weird. Not wrong but…archaic. It’s like listening to Master Yoda talk compared to most droids.
“I’m not a baby, and I’m not lost,” he frowns at it. “I thought I knew all the astromechs in the Temple.”
//T7-01 = Explorer, T7-01 + Temple = Rare//
“How come?”
//Secret Mission.//
“Really?” he asks, excited. Because he didn’t think droids got secret missions. “Can you tell me about it?”
//Secret Mission = Secret//
Anakin can’t help pouting at the droid for that. He’s being laughed at by a tin-can and he kind of deserves it this time.
//Baby Jedi + Development + Program Updates + T701 = Good Team + One Day// The droid reassures him cheerfully.
Anakin can’t help smiling, “I can help clean you up if you want? No one’s done your paint in a long time, have they?”
The mournful whistle of agreement makes him nod. He’ll definitely help the mech out since their Jedi doesn’t seem to have done a good job. Speaking of…
“Where is your Jedi?” he asks – because most the mechs in the temple have adopted one or two that they like best and only really cooperate for those particular individuals. Astromechs are finicky like that anyways and Jedi ones have even more attitude. (Anakin thinks Artoo would fit in great here if he ever got bored of Naboo, but Naboo has Padme so he can’t blame the droid for staying.)
The droid gives long, soft whistle. A sad one. But beeps at him to follow.
Anakin hurries to do so, trailing after the mech past several knights (and a bemused looking Master Tholme), to one of the stone reliefs that Obi-wan had said depicted something to do with the Old Republic.
The droid trundles up to it and points at one of the Jedi figures battling Sith (they have Lightsabers anyways but they look a little weird compared to other Sith that Anakin’s seen) in the foreground.
//T7 + Jedi = Heroes of the Republic = Heroes of the Galaxy//
The droid whistles, but Anakin swears he hears sorrow mixed with the pride of the statement. The mech shifts back and forth, like it’s uncertain or it can’t handle the information that it is trying to process. And emotions are a lot to process, they’re even harder than galactic diplomacy is. So Anakin just pats him gently trying to make the droid feel better.
“You miss him, huh?”
//Yes//
“I miss my mom,” he offers. “…talking helps – a little bit – do you want to tell me about your Jedi?”
Obi-wan isn’t surprised that Anakin tamed one of the Jedi’s Order’s most notorious droids. Not really. But he can’t help feeling a little shocked anyways.
Teeseven has a reputation.
And zero qualms about zapping unsuspecting Jedi into ‘good behavior’ because they somehow interfere with one of his missions. Not that anyone really remembers where the droid is even from.
(Obi-wan personally likes to believe the story the droid tells, but that’s mostly because Quinlan tripped over it once and witnessed the droid fighting a kriffing Sith Lord at his Jedi’s side while they were padawans. But most the Temple believes that while very old and extremely helpful, despite his penchant for explosions, the droid can’t actually be that old.)
So it is something of a shock when he finally locates his wayward padawan curled up, fast asleep, and listening to the droid tell him stories about the knights of the Old Republic.
And since Anakin has a rather lot of questions about how the Order has changed since leaving Tython again so he knows that his dear apprentice was paying some attention, at least. Even if it wasn’t to any of his homework.
Teeseven fixes him with a look (as much as a droid can) and informs him quite sternly that the ‘Baby Jedi’ needs recharging before rolling off in the direction of the astrogation charts.