Chapter Text
Riding through the deserted streets of coruscant isn’t exactly how Obi-Wan would’ve decided to spend his evening. He had work, papers to grade and he was only just starting to get everything ready for his moving day, so no, he didn’t exactly want to be here.
It was Quinlan who had decided to drag him along for a nightly ride around the city, stopping only for coffee before they were off to nowhere.
“Chin up, Obes,” Quinlan had said, already practice dragging him towards his car. “You need a break from all of this-“ he gestured towards the mess that was Obi-Wan’s table, covered to the brim with papers and tests and tea cups. Obi-Wan scowled, pulling his hand back so that he could cross his arms over his chest. “I don’t think you have any right to judge my work ethics, and I told you not to call me Obes.”
“Oh come on,” Quinlan groaned, dramatically leaning onto Obi-Wan. “It’ll be fun! Like when we were kids!”
“We aren’t kids anymore, Quinlan,” Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, but he grabbed his keys all the same.
They had been driving long past the bustling streets, closer to the darker parts of Coruscant where the calmer, quieter neighborhoods were. Obi-Wan couldn’t find it in him to just relax, far too caught up in his thoughts that even the tea Quinlan had generously paid for couldn’t help.
And that’s when Obi-Wan sees him. Quinlan stops at a red light and it gives Obi-Wan time to glance at his surroundings, when he suddenly freezes.
There, in the light of the moon and broken down street lamps, is a beautiful man . He’s a wreck, Obi-Wan notices almost immediately, the moment he processes how absolutely lovely his face is. Dressed all in black, with clothes that were ripped and torn at the seems, purposely or not Obi-Wan genuinely can’t tell. A red bandana was tied loosely around his neck, a bi pin proudly displayed on it, and his broad shoulders had a loose cape, a good to honest god cape , wrapped around them, just as dirty as his clothing. And he wasn’t wearing any shoes. And he was on a skateboard.
Obi-Wan blinked once, and then twice, and desperately tried to remember if he had taken anything the day before. The man skates down the street cross walk when the signal changes, and Obi-Wan has a chance to see him up close as he passes in front of their car, if only for a moment. He’s a man on a mission, cape fluttering behind him as he pushes down with one foot to propel him foreword, and if the gravel of the road affects his bare foot at all he doesn’t show it. His eyes are narrowed with a confidence capable only of a flat out drunk man, as the wind pushes against his back and through his blond wavy shoulder length locks, focused only on what’s in front of him, and that leaves Obi-Wan free to unabashedly stare, eyes wide and awestruck.
Then he’s gone, like a ghost in the wind, and Obi-Wan cranes his neck to watch him disappear down the street, in an almost reverent awe , watching as the man jumps over a dog in an incredibly impressive skateboarding trick, turning a corner, looking away only when Obi-Wan could no longer make him out in the distance.
“Who was that?” Obi-Wan finally spoke, his words a whisper as he stared after the mystery skateboard man who had managed to claim his intrigue, respect, and albeit slight fear and apprehension all in one fluid motion.
“That, was a man barefoot on a skateboard,” Quinlan provided helpfully as Obi-Wan finally managed to tear his head away from the spot where that utterly beautiful freak of nature had disappeared from his sight. Quinlan shrugs at Obi-Wan’s incredulous look. “Not the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, especially in Coruscant.”
That didn’t stop Obi-Wan from leaning his head against the window, staring solemnly into the distance as the light turned green and they sped away. He’s never felt this way before, this strange tingly feeling in his chest. Let alone from somebody he barely saw. He sighs, moving his hand to turn up the radio. He really needs to get some sleep.
He can’t help but think that if he sees that man again, all the work in the world would be worth it.
This sentiment disappears when he returns home at 7 am only to remember all the tests he was supposed to mark, collapsing onto his shitty apartment couch with a groan.
Surprisingly, Anakin Skywalker did infact have a reason for spending his very early mornings skateboarding without any shoes on in the sketchy part of town.
He had originally been having a late night-turned early morning drink at a bar with Padmé. His best friend had convinced him to let go for a day, and when Rex had promised to look after Ahsoka, Anakin hadn’t seen any reason not too.
But then Ahsoka had come down with something, and she had to be taken to the hospital, and Anakin had worked himself into a frenzy. Even after Rex had assured him that the girl would be fine, Anakin had ended up deciding that he had to go home. Right now.
Unfortunately, he and Padmé were both drunk. They couldn’t drive home and honestly? He probably could’ve just Uber’d to the hospital, but that idea wasn’t currently registering in his panicking drunk brain. Or in Padmé’s. That’s when you knew she was flat out drunk.
“I need to get to Ahsoka,” Anakin said, running out of the club. “Fuck, I’ll never make it.”
Padmé looked behind him at that, and a smirk slowly grew on her face.
“This can’t be happening, I- what?” Anakin turned towards his best friend, pausing in his monologuing to look at her with narrowed eyes. Slowly, he turned around, and when he saw what Padmé was looking at, he smirked as well.
“Oh. Oh. I see” Anakin grinned, looking over at Padmé. “You’re a genius” Anakin said. Turning back around, he yelled “Hey kids! I’m gonna need a skateboard”
And that’s how Anakin Skywalker, slightly drunk but mostly just a little tipsy, ended up on skateboarding barefooted, trying to get to his little sister. He honestly couldn’t tell you where his shoes had gone. The whole night was a blur.
In the end he had managed to make it to hospital, where turns out Ahsoka was fine, she had just caught some really bad chills.
She promised him that she was never going to let him live down the fact that he had skateboarded all the way across town barefoot and drunk, cackling. Rex admittedly did show him the pictures that were taken. He looked terrible, but also he was rocking those black ripped jeans.
It was better then that one time Ahsoka had forgotten her lunch in ninth grade. Anakin didn’t have a car, he’s definitely wasn’t paying Uber prices, and Ahsoka took the bus to school, so the man had bought a pair of heelys and had rode all the way to her high school just to hand her a ham and cheese sandwich. It had taken him only thirty minutes for what should’ve been an hour walk, and that satisfied him almost as much as being known as Ahsoka’s cool heely older brother by a bunch of teenagers.
“You literally looked like you got into a gang fight in a burning building,” Ahsoka said with a grin the next morning, where Anakin was desperately trying to nurse his hangover headache with a groan.
Even he had to admit he definitely looked insane to the average onlooker. He must’ve been quite the picture, what with his velvet black cape, his beloved bisexual pin Kit had given him for his birthday, shoeless on a 15 year olds board as an equally drunk Padmé cheered him on, the latter coming to his house with an equally hungover appearance the next day, carrying his black platform shoes with him and thank god for that, those things were expensive.
“Oh fucking god,” Padme groaned, stepping past Ahsoka without so much as a hi, unceremoniously dropping Anakin’s shoes and flopping into the dining room chair beside Anakin. “The things I do for you,” she whispered. “You don’t deserve me.”
“I don’t,” Anakin groaned back, leaning his head against the table. “Thank you for my shoes, Padmé.” Said woman responded solely with a grunt, rolling her neck and yawning.
“Alright,” Ahsoka said sarcastically as she walked into the kitchen. “I guess I’m making breakfast. Waffles, Padmé?”
“Yes, god yes thank you Ahsoka” Padmé whispered, voice hoarse. “God my head,” she groaned, banging it on the table.
Ahsoka just shook her head, cuffing her brother on the head, to which he very verbally complained, and going to toast some frozen waffles.
Just another day, she supposed.