Cure | Anakin Skywalker

chapter twenty-one

"Okay, what are we going to do?" I ask, trotting beside Obi-Wan as he leads me down the hall. He's asked me to join him today while I'm stuck in the Temple, missing all the action, and I am beyond grateful to have something to occupy myself with.

"Excited to get started, are you? Looking to fill the time now that Anakin has left for his mission."

I scramble for an answer that doesn't make it sound like I miss him, knowing that it would be the end of all things good if Obi-Wan found that out. "Well, he keeps things interesting around here."

"He is inspiringly hard to keep up with. I suppose being told he was the Chosen One at such an early age didn't help. Nothing like a God-complex to go along with all that ambition and impulse."

I smile. We stride through the Temple, passing all of the rooms I guessed he might take me to, the library, the training rooms, the records hall, the armory, and we walk the length of the Temple. When I finally ask where we're going, he points to a back door and opens it, allowing me to enter first. Through it, I emerge in the dining hall kitchen, a place I'm obviously familiar with, but this time I am behind the counter where the food is.

A number of people bustle around the kitchen, tending boiling pots of fragrant spices and rich vegetables, checking ovens that hold trays of meat and assortments of pies. A line of them stand in the back, slicing fruits and veggies so fast I worry for their fingers. When I turn around, Obi-Wan is holding up two aprons and a pair of hairnets, a grin illuminating his features.

My shoulders drop. "You're kidding."

"When I have time, I come help cook. This is a big temple, you know. It takes a lot of work to feed everyone here," He says, handing me my things. "I've asked some friends to join us to lighten the load."

From the door we've just entered, a group of Clones come marching through the threshold. Fives, Jesse, Echo, Kix, and Cody stand grinning before me, stained aprons tied around their bulky armor. I can't help but laugh at how pleased they look, standing like a group of kids excited to show off a new pair of shoes or something.

"Ready to get to work, General," Cody says.

"I may not have ever had to bake anything," Fives says earnestly, "But there's a first time for everything, isn't there?"

"Right," Obi-Wan says proudly. "Fives, Echo, you guys are on baking duty. Kix, I hear you make a lovely fried Nuna leg?"

Kix grins confidently and tightens his apron. "Let me show you boys how it's done."

"Where did he learn to fry Nuna legs?" I whisper to Jesse.

He shrugs. "Maybe the same place he learned to embroider pillowcases."

I give him a surprised look but before I can inquire, Jesse is sent to chop vegetables with Cody.

"Alright, Siorah, pick your poison. Which station do you want to work?"

I scan the kitchen, Kix already halfway done preparing a platter of Nuna legs for the deep frier, Jesse tossing chopped carrots into a bowl, and Cody pocketing some food for later. I finally land on Fives and Echo cutting their sticks of butter into slices and decide I'm probably needed there. I nod to where they stand and cross the room, coming to stand beside them and their handiwork.

"What are you guys doing?"

"Chopping butter, sir," Echo answers.

"I imagine it will cook better that way," Fives adds. "Smaller pieces, you know."

"You know you have to mix it in, right?"

Echo stops moving his knife. "Mix it into what?"

"Don't you just put it on top of the pie and it makes it golden brown?"

"I mean, yes. But you have to make the crust." I say.

"We are not making a pizza. This is a meat pie," Fives scoffs.

I furrow my brows at them. "Do you know what a pie crust is?"

Echo stands up straight. "To be frank, sir, I have never spent a day of my life in a kitchen. I also am vegetarian so I never eat the meat pies. I have no idea what a meat pie looks like."

I give them a skeptical look, amused with their effort, and point to the recipe that hangs on the wall in front of us. "This tells you what to do. I'm not much of a cook, seeing as how I've been training my whole life and never once had to man a kitchen, but it can't be that hard. We'll do it together."

As it turns out, cooking is a lot harder than it looks, baking even more so. I feel more like I'm working on a science experiment but with edible ingredients, and Fives and Echo are no help.

"Echo, we can't cook with these," Fives argues, pointing to a bowl filled with rather large chunks of onion, "Who wants to bite down on something that big? They need to be small so they aren't as noticeable!"

"Why wouldn't you want to notice them? Onions are delicious. The best vegetable out there, an absolute stunner of a food, Fives."

"No, really," I say, grimacing at the huge pieces, "Let's cut them smaller."

When our pie is put together, with some added decoration around the edges and on top from Fives, we are all so excited for it to be ready that we take Obi-Wan away from his cheese souffle, that he is arrogantly proud of, to watch as we take it out of the oven. Echo takes it delicately, places it on a cooling tray, and we stare at it in dismay.

"Why is it so sunken in the middle?" I say angrily at the heap of soggy mess.

"Guys, this is a disaster," Echo replies, shaking his head at our failure.

"Honestly if you had just drained the meat a bit more I'm sure it would've turned out fine," Obi-Wan says. "Try again. I'll help this time."

When he says help, he really means he'll do the whole thing and we'll watch on the side, fascinated by his expertise. Fives, Echo, and I try to assist, Kix even comes after he's done frying a couple dozen Nuna legs, but Obi-Wan waves us away. His concentration on the perfection of this pie is a new side to him that I've never seen. I assume he must come here often to help and suddenly, I wonder if Anakin was ever brought here.

"I think we should give Anakin a chance to show off his skills," I say as Obi-Wan butters his flawless pie crust, "I doubt he'd last long."

"I brought him here a few years ago actually. He insisted that he do everything himself because that boy is convinced that he doesn't need anyone's help, and this entire kitchen was almost burned down in the process."

"Is that what that huge fire drill was two years ago? When the entire Temple had to evacuate?"

He smiles. "Indeed, I believe it was."

Kix and I resort to playing with food like children as most dishes are being plated up. He smears flour on my face in a futile attempt to recreate his helmet markings on my cheeks, nose, and forehead. I haven't seen these troopers this relaxed in a long time. In a world where war rages on every one of our corners, having fun feels like a crime. I long for the day when we can go back to being people, not soldiers or killers, just people.

As Obi-Wan shows off his creation, his hairnet and apron covered in flour and oil, the kitchen door slides open and when I see who walks in, my stomach does a flip. I know I'm supposed to be angry with Anakin, we still haven't talked after the Council meeting, but seeing him excites me in a humiliating sort of way that makes me grateful none of the Clones can read my mind.

"Anakin, you're back so soon? You've only just left," Obi-Wan says, surprised.

"She turned herself in," He answers, "It was the easiest mission I've ever been on."