Anakin knows Ahsoka like he knows himself.
It's easy to say everything's fine, but it's harder to act like everything is.
They've been on Onderon for less than five hours, and already Ahsoka's struggling. He can see every movement is hurting her, and her prosthetic knee is making a whirring sound that it really shouldn't be making.
He lets her carry on at first, hoping she'll come to him for help when she needs it.
"I'm worried about Ahsoka." Obi-Wan murmurs, stood by Anakin's side as they watch Rex and Ahsoka attempt to train the Onderon rebels. "I fear she's only going to hurt herself."
"She knows her limits." Anakin says, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice. Obi-Wan is still treating her like a patient, even though Master Che gave permission for this mission.
Ahsoka and Rex are showing the rebels how to disarm a tank using EMP grenades. It's supposed to be a one-man job, but these rebels are inexperienced and not fit enough to complete the task in a matter of seconds, so they'll be working in pairs.
Rex takes the front hatch, opening it with one hand and throwing the droid popper inside with the other. Ahsoka swings herself onto the main canon, walking along it to reach the top hatch and disarm the Commander who controls the turret.
Except she overbalances, and her ankle rolls off the canon. The rebels hardly notice as Rex extends a hand upwards, ready to catch her, and out of the corner of his eye, Anakin sees Obi-Wan reach out too.
Ahsoka catches herself, grabbing onto the canon and pulling herself up again as if nothing happened.
"Anakin." Obi-Wan says sternly.
"Fine," he says, "I'll speak to her."
The Captain and Commander disarm the tank together, and when they return to the ground, Anakin notices Ahsoka leaves Rex to teach the next lesson.
She walks over to her Masters, one hand on her hip as if it's sore. Anakin raises an eyebrow, "You alright?"
"Yeah," she walks past them, keeping her eyes low, "just need to take a breather."
Obi-Wan tuts beside him.
Anakin sighs, turning to follow his stubborn student as she sits on one of the cargo boxes, giving her legs a rest. He pulls a servodriver from his belt, "You've got to use Skipper like a real leg, Snips."
"I know." She says, leaning back on her hands, "It's the stupid ankle; it slipped."
"Here," he holds out a hand, and Ahsoka lifts her prosthetic leg into it. His analysis takes seconds, "I can fix it."
Ahsoka stays quiet as he tweaks the bolts which are coming loose. It's a problem he gets with his arm, even today. As he works, Anakin prods at her mental shields, gets a grasp at where her head is.
Regret swirls around the girl, making him frown.
"You think coming on this mission was a mistake?" He asks out loud.
Ahsoka shoots him a look for invading her privacy, "It's not exactly going great, is it? I'm more likely to get one of these rebels killed than train them to defend themselves."
"Snips," he can't help but laugh, "that's exactly what I told Obi-Wan when you become my student, and you haven't turned out too bad."
She raises an eye-marking at him, "Have you been here for the past month, Anakin? I died!"
He hates how easily she can say that.
"Well, maybe if one of the rebels die, the Force will decide to save them too." He says with a shrug, trying to use humour to ease the tension.
