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Dex had no intention of grumbling, he did not want to come across as a grumpy old man, but now... he just had to get it out:
"Damn, I'd forgotten how much I hate sand!"
"Tell me about it! Obi-Wan makes fun of me all the time and teases me when our missions take us where there's sand, but no matter how beautiful the scenery is on the planets he takes me to, I won't change my mind."
"Of course you won't change your mind," Dex scoffed as he walked with a determined step that nobody would want to stop in the slightly busy streets of the town, which was a reasonable size for this kind of inhospitable planet. "Only desert nomads sincerely like it, the rest of us just have to put up with it. The sand is only nice for the upper class, for whom it's synonymous with luxury holidays and relaxation under the sun. On a day-to-day basis, it's just a pain, dirty and it gets everywhere! The horror of every self-respecting mechanic."
"That's it!" Anakin agreed loudly with a huge smile, looking delighted to be supported in his lamentations. "Every time I handled components or assembled things, I spent half the time blowing or wiping sand off. It was all over us too, all the time, it got into the house and our clothes, and for washing... well, you know what I mean."
The hygiene facilities available for slaves were rarely of quality, he probably grew up without showers of any kind, or else a common building potentially dangerous for a single woman with her infant child, not the kind of luxury mother and son could often have afforded. Everything had a price.
"You forget sandstorms," he added, to take his mind off what he probably still felt were difficult and humiliating moments, "I lived through one when I was young, I felt like my ship was going to blow away in a thousand pieces."
"That's why most houses are mostly underground."
"God, I hope I can even get inside now that I think about it."
Anakin considered his height and the broad shoulders, his eyes widening as if he were rediscovering him and thinking "oh yes, now he's tall". It was... actually quite endearing.
The boy did not hesitate at all and led him straight to a door, but when it opened on a young redheaded woman who stepped back when she saw them, his face was enough to tell him that it was not the boy's mother or anyone he knew.
"I... what do you want?"
"… who are you?"
"Sorry for the inconvenience," Dex said in a calm, soothing tone while patting the Jedi on the back to indicate that he was being far too aggressive with a poor, confused and worried girl. "We're looking for Shmi Skywalker, do you know where she is?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know who that is," the human whispered, and she sounded sincere.
"All right, we'll figure it out ourselves, have a good day."
Anakin whispered something, softly, too softly for Dex to hear, but the girl heard and her whole face softened as she bowed and stepped back to take refuge inside.
"What was that?"
"Slaves always invent their own languages or phrases whose meaning is known only to themselves," he explained with a sad smile. "I wished her good luck for the future, I felt she hadn't lied and even if I don't like it, she can't help it. People change so often here, I don't recognise anyone. Let's try at Watto's."
"Watto?"
"My... former owner."
Hmm... that would be thorny, they would have to keep their composure.
"Are you okay?" He asked suddenly as he saw the kid kind of shiver and grimace.
"I'm fine, really," he insisted when Dex arched an eyebrow at him. "It's just... the Force."
"Your Jedi voodoo magic?"
That at least managed to elicit an incredulous laugh from the kid.
"If you could, I'd love to hear someone say that at the High Council."
"Anytime, kid."
"It's just... I'm getting like disgusting vibes, every second of just being here is unpleasant."
"Like... the wind?"
"No, more like a slimy, crawling sensation running through my body."
"Yuck."
"You've got it."
He had already felt like 'the Force' was a pain in the arse on a daily basis, but if this was some kind of energy perception... yeah, Dex was really glad he was not a Jedi right now. The benefits they could occasionally reap from it just did not seem to be worth it given all the daily hassles involved. To Dex, Tatooine was just a ball of burning dust and that was probably for the best.
"Out of curiosity, have you ever been to Nar Shadda or Nar Hutta?"
"Never, why?"
"Curiosity," he repeated, hoping for his sake that he would never go. "In some places you didn't need Jedi voodoo to just know deep in your bones that the place is rotten and the Hutt worlds usually are a good representation of the it."
Dex followed Anakin into a scrap metal shop and watched from a distance as he spoke to the Toydarian behind the counter in... Was that Huttese? Wow, the kid was a real polyglot! All he could make out in the sentence was "Shmi Skywalker", he had never bothered to learn Hutt, barely anyone spoke Basic these days.
"If you could continue in Basic, that would be nice."
"Oh, sorry, yes," the Padawan realised, turning to him with an apologetic look. "Anyway, the question remains the same."
"And why do you care, eh?" The small, flying, slightly elderly creature asked as he flew over with curiosity...
Dex would not want to judge someone by their face, especially as certain features were impossible to control once you were born as a member of a particular species, but the facial expression he was looking at seemed... extremely suspicious, even unhealthy to the Besalisk.
Finally, after careful observation by Anakin, "Watto" seemed to understand. Dex would have preferred it if he had not.
"I can't believe it, Ani? It's really you, you're little Ani! You've grown so much-argh!"
Dex's hand was loose enough not to strangle him completely or break his neck, but the message seemed clear to Anakin's former Master: no more familiarity.
"Listen, mate, I'm not as accommodating as Anakin. Tell us where his mother is."
"Did you sell her out?"
Dex would never claim to have Jedi powers, but he... somehow felt like something was going on with Anakin. Like the feeling of the air around them was becoming more... present. Dex suddenly felt a lot more on edge than he had a few seconds earlier. Emotional outburst? The Jedi really were something else.
"I didn't sell her, I freed her!" Watto said very distinctly with careful articulation, looking uninterested.
Dex knew better, the guy was completely freaked out even though he hoped to be able to take advantage of this conversation. The Besalisk knew his type well.
"Explain yourself, I've no time to lose."
"A farmer has come to pay to free her, from what I know they've married, so obviously she doesn't live in your old house any more. They're living on a moisture farm away from the city, the Lars family!"
"Mom... got married?"
Out of town. Moisture farm. Lars.
That was more than enough.
"Finally a relevant answer, it was time. Let's go."
"Wait, that's it?" The Toydarian exclaimed once released and Dex walked towards the door.
"That's all," Dex confirmed with a vindictive grin, "consider yourself lucky that I'm leaving you alive. We're off."
The Besalisk led the young Jedi ahead of him, he did not want to leave them alone any longer. Whether he realised it or not, Anakin would always have a submissive and docile attitude to this particular person, about ten years of submission since birth were not so easily forgotten, there were traumas that no distance could resolve. Here, very subtly but still strongly enough to be visible to Dex, Anakin was no longer a Jedi Padawan, he was Anakin the slave who spoke Huttese, with secret slave language and a very polite way of talking to his former Master instead of coming in and demanding answers.
Dex was glad he had stayed and gone with him.
"Are you still feeling up to it?"
"You might laugh," the boy said softly before continuing, looking down at his feet, "but of all the possibilities I never imagined Mom would get married one day."
"She was never married when you were little?"
"No, I don't have a father."
Dex could understand, there were many reasons why the child of a slave would not know who his father was, would have been separated from him too early to remember, or would have lost him in painful circumstances.
"Let's stay optimistic kid, we finally have some real information. And it looks like she's free now."
"I can't wait to see her again, you can't imagine."
"In any case, I'm happy for you."
He was already considering what to do about Shmi Skywalker's situation to make sure Anakin was all right, but the fact that she was free was a pleasant surprise. On Tatooine, slaves were brought in from outside, it was not the free settlers who provided fresh meat, so... if Shmi's husband was ready to welcome his wife's son into his home, Dex's job was done.
Anakin would be safe, cared for among his own kind.
He could not quite understand the pang of sadness and discomfort he felt at the thought as the blond human gave him a radiant smile.
It was probably uncertainty, but that would pass as soon as they met the people they were looking for.