i reeeeeeally want to get a tattoo

"Where are you guys parked?"

"In front of the dorms," Obi-Wan answered, squinting at one of the many doors to the building in front of his car.

"Would you like to be more specific?" Anakin deadpanned.

Ahsoka snorted, hugging her knees closer to her chest as she watched Obi-Wan roll his eyes at their brother's sarcasm.

"Anakin, I don't have a clue where I am. Why don't you tell me?" Obi-Wan sighed.

"Wait, hang on, I see you guys," Anakin announced. "Wow, the car has gotten more banged up since Ahsoka got her permit."

"Hey—"

"Quiet," Obi-Wan interrupted her. "Anakin, do you want us to come to you, or will you meet us in the—"

A beeping noise sounded as Anakin evidently hung up the phone, the click of a big door opening replacing it.

"Anakin!" Ahsoka shouted, yanking her seatbelt off and nearly tripping over her own feet after pushing the door open and sprinting at her brother.

"Hey," he greeted, smiling down at her as he pressed her head against his chest, squeezing his eyes shut in contentment. "There she is," he laughed, cupping her cheeks as she pulled back, beaming.

Ahsoka didn't know what to say—the longest time that she'd gone without seeing her brother before he went to college was only a week. And he'd moved in nearly two months ago. She felt her stomach churn anxiously at the awkwardness of the silence. That had never happened before with him.

Luckily, Anakin spoke, asking if Obi-Wan was just dropping her off, or if he was going to come in too.

"He's got a date," Ahsoka replied, waggling her eyebrows.

"Ooh, with Satine, again?"

Ahsoka nodded, grinning as Anakin tucked her under his arm before cupping his mouth to call to their brother,

"Have fun with your girlfriend!"

Obi-Wan drove off without another word.

"Rude," Anakin muttered, pulling Ahsoka with him as he turned around to walk back inside. "Come on, you've got to come meet my roommate—Rex."

"Isn't there some sort of rule against girls going into the boys' dorms?" Ahsoka asked.

"Well, yes, but you're my sister," he answered with a laugh as he pulled the door open with his free hand.

"Have you brought any other girls in here?" she teased.

"Just to hang out as friends," her brother answered, "but I have a date tomorrow night so we'll see where that goes."

"Ew."

"Kidding, kidding," he said, grinning as he opened the door to his dorm, revealing a tiny, yet, surprisingly clean room. "Tada," he sang, stepping aside and pulling his arm off of her to let her enter.

There was a large window on the left wall, and a desk sat in front of it, covered in scrap paper and pencils, along with two slim computers. She recognized Anakin's handwriting in the equations and formulas scribbled out in blue ink, as well as some of his sketches. On the right side of the room was one of the beds—Rex's, she guessed, based on the fact that she didn't recognize any of the faces in the pictures on his wall. He seemed to have a lot of brothers, all nearly identical. His bed was neatly made with a blue blanket and a crisp, white pillow.

Anakin's however, she could not say the same for. His bed was against the wall next to them—the back one—and clearly slept in. Three, thick, blue-gray blankets covered his mattress (her brother had always had issues with the cold. As in, he hated it), and four pillows were sprawled about.

In the space between the beds was a table, littered with wrappers and bags of junk food, along with a half-full bottle of soda.

"You two are certainly healthy," she commented, stepping forward and placing her palms on top of his mattress. He ruffled her hair with a jokingly-annoyed smile, before she hopped up onto the high bed, testing out the spring of the mattress. "Cozy."

"See my pictures?" he asked, gesturing toward the wall space over his bed.

She looked to the side and was met with her own face, over and over again, along with Obi-Wan's every now and then, a picture of the three of them together, which had taken their dad nearly an hour to get because they wouldn't stop arguing (and featured Anakin and her discreetly flipping off the camera), in the center of it all.

She couldn't remember much from when Obi-Wan had been in college since she hadn't even been born when he was a freshman. All she could remember from visiting him in her toddler years was the fact that she was upset because he didn't have any pictures of her up on his walls—he didn't have any pictures at all. She'd thought that he was going to forget about her. Of course, that had not been the case at all.

"Aw, you made a shrine of me? How sweet," she joked, laughing loudly as Anakin grabbed her around the waist and pulled her off of the bed.

Just as he dropped her, unceremoniously, on the floor, the door opened to reveal who must have been Anakin's roommate.

"Ah, so this is the little one?" he asked.

"The little one?" Ahsoka hissed, looking up at him, offended, and then at Anakin with narrowed eyes before getting up, off of the ground. "I'm Ahsoka, and I'm sixteen, thank you very much."

"Oh, wow," Rex commented, raising his eyebrows.

"I'm two years younger than you," she reminded him. "Don't act all high and mighty."

"And that is why I call her Snips," Anakin said, pulling her away from his slightly stunned, yet amused, roommate.

"I see."

"So," Anakin began again, "this is Rex. Rex, this is Ahsoka."

"Very nice to meet you," Rex chuckled, walking past the two of them and over to his bed. "Are Sabé and Padmé still coming over tonight?"

"Yeah, I think that Sabé is picking up a pizza," Anakin said, hopping up to sit on his bed. Not knowing quite what to do with herself, Ahsoka copied him.

"Are we supposed to be paying?" Rex asked.

"No, they said that they owe us from when we brought them takeout the other night."

"Right, right."

Ahsoka swung her legs back and forth while she listened to her brother and Rex discuss things that she'd never even heard come out of Anakin's mouth before. She'd never met a 'Padmé' or a 'Sabé' before, and she didn't know what coffee shop they were talking about going to study at tomorrow.

Anakin had been her best friend from day one, but she'd never felt as out of place around him as she did right now, listening to him talk so casually about his new life—one that no longer included her.

She shuffled backwards, laying down on his pile of pillows and pulling one of his blankets over herself.

"Tired?" he asked, looking over his shoulder, eyebrows furrowed in concern. It took Ahsoka a moment to even realize that he was talking to her.

She forced a smile and nodded her head, humming a yes.

"Long ride up here, huh?" he asked, abandoning his conversation with Rex in order to scoot up against the wall behind his pillows, and pull her head into his lap. "Can I play with your hair?"

She nodded again, feeling her smile turn slightly more genuine as he began combing through her locks with his fingers. She caught sight of Rex grinning at them before saying,

"That brother of yours is really great with hair."

"Don't start, Rex," Anakin groaned.

"What? What happened?" Ahsoka asked, peering up at him. Anakin shook his head.

"You know, my hair isn't naturally blond, right?"

"Literally how could she possibly know that?"

"Quiet, Skywalker."

Ahsoka snorted.

"I asked him for help with just dying the tips of my hair when it was still grown out, but somehow, he managed to do my entire head," Rex began. "His solution to this—because it looked atrocious—was to shave it all off."

"A stroke of genius, really," Anakin added.

"And now, I look like this," Rex concluded, gesturing to his head.

"Padmé said that I did a good job," Anakin muttered. There was a knock on the door. "Speaking of..."

"Come in!" Rex called.

"There's dinner," Anakin sang as the door opened, and the heavenly aroma of a fresh pizza filled the room. "Oh, and my date," he teased while the girl, who must have been Padmé, shook her head with a smirk.

A second girl followed behind her, the shade of her hair and eyes nearly identical to Padmé's, carrying two, large boxes.

"Is this your sister? Ahsoka?" Padmé asked excitedly, propping her chin up on the mattress.

"The one and only," Anakin replied as Ahsoka sat up slightly to get a better look at her brother's supposed girlfriend.

"Nice to meet you," she said with a little wave.

"You too! I have heard so much about you. I think we're going to be great friends," she said back with a bright smile. "I've always wanted a little sister."

And, at that moment, Ahsoka decided that Padmé was good enough for Anakin.

"I've always wanted an older sister. It's tough, dealing with Anakin all the time," she sighed.

"Yeah, I totally get that," Padmé replied, nodding in agreement while Anakin shook his head at them.

"Maybe, you two meeting was a mistake," he mumbled.

"I don't think so," Padmé replied, reaching forward to high five her new friend, before crossing the room to greet Rex.

"Are you okay? You seem a little off." Anakin asked quietly, whispering so that no one else could hear their conversation. "Be honest with me—and remember, I know you better than most people so I'm probably going to know if you're lying."

She nodded.

"It's just... a little strange to not be part of your life anymore," she explained, pushing herself up, into a seated position, so that he could hear her better.

His eyes widened.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't know what you're talking about. Whether we live two minutes or two hours away," he began, holding her by the shoulders, "you will always, always, be the most important part of my life, alright? No matter what. The fact that I'm in college now is not going to change a thing, I swear."

"You really mean that?" she asked, hoping that he would just chalk the cracking of her voice up to the fact that she was whispering.

"Of course," he promised again, sounding almost hurt that she'd even assumed that he loved her any less now. "Tell me if you ever feel this way again, please," he said, pulling her into a tight hug. "I love you so much."

"I love you too," she said into his shoulder, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Don't ever forget it."

She pulled back, meeting his eyes, and held out her pinky. He grinned and locked his prosthetic one with hers.

"I won't, as long as you won't."

nothing rly prepared me for how weird it was gonna be to see my sisters—literally my best friends—again now that they live away at college. i just feel so disconnected from them now and it's like all of our childhood memories and bonds and stuff is just gone and ik that just happens when you grow up but MAN it's weird. and yes. one of them has a bunch of pictures up and none with me 🥲 the other one appreciates me tho 😃🙌