Snips and Skyguy: Return of the One Shots

Before

anakin was never crispified in this au and kanan still has working eyeballs.

"So we're having Darth Vader over for dinner?" Ezra deadpans, arms crossed over his chest as he looks the man beside Ahsoka up and down.

"Ezra," Hera warns.

"I've explained it to you a million times," Ahsoka says, narrowing her eyes. "He's not Vader. He was completely controlled by Darth Sidious."

Anakin looks shamefully at the floor. He hasn't said much since Ahsoka rescued him—hasn't said a word to anyone but her.

"He's the reason that my parents are dead," Ezra continues, glaring back.

"That's enough," Hera snaps, pointing at him with a spatula (they're having hot cakes for dinner. There wasn't much else on the ship).

She had been wary of their guest too, of course, but, though she still had mixed feelings about Ahsoka and her attachment to the former Sith Lord, she trusted Kanan. Him and Ahsoka had promised that there was not an ounce of what had used to be Darth Vader in the man's presence. This was Anakin Skywalker.

"So," Sabine chirps as she walks in the room, "if you're a part of the crew now, can I draw you?" At Anakin's confused expression, she continues, "On my wall, I mean. With spray paint. I have a picture of everyone on there."

Anakin's eyes dart back and forth between Ahsoka and the Mandalorian girl.

He clears his throat.

"Uh, sure."

"Awesome."

Zeb and Chopper enter a few minutes later. Kanan has spoken to each member of the crew about what's going on before sending them into the kitchen for dinner.

Zeb's got an odd look in his eyes, Ahsoka notices, but he smiles nonetheless. Chopper doesn't seem any more murderous than usual, so she decides that's a good thing.

They all sit at their respective spots at the table when Kanan comes in, and Hera slides a hot cake onto each of their plates before sitting down beside him.

Ahsoka nudges Anakin's foot under the table and his head snaps toward her. She gives him a small smile while the family around her's usual banter begins to clear the awkward silence.

"You good?" she asks. He nods his head.

"Yeah, you?" he returns, somewhat awkwardly, which is odd because Anakin has never been awkward, but Ahsoka knows that his old, trademark confidence is gone. She can't expect him to be the same as he used to be.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm great." She's got one brother back, and she has another waiting for her when they return to the Ghost. How could she not be?

(Obi-Wan, Plo, Jesse, Barriss, Padmé)

"Where is he going to stay?" Ezra all but spits, nodding toward Anakin, who tenses visibly at the boy's words. Ahsoka feels for his hand beneath the table and when she finds it—when they find each other—he holds onto her with clammy fingers like a lifeline.

"I'm sure that you and Zeb can make some room for one more," Kanan says. The lasat glares in his direction.

"Absolutely not," the two say in unison. They are not sharing a bed.

"Anakin can stay with me. I'll sleep on the floor," Ahsoka decides simply, focused too much on her meal to notice the way that his eyes widen at her words, the way that he looks at her as if he thinks that she's lying because there is no way that she wants to be anywhere near him after all that he'd put her through, even if it's all just a hazy memory of nothing but the color black to him. He doesn't know what he'd done under Palpatine—Sidious's—influence. Not all of it, at least.

"You sure, Ahsoka?" Kanan asks. "Hera and I could bunk together and one of you could take my room if you really need it."

Ahsoka bites back a smile. Sabine doesn't hide hers, smirking and waggling her eyebrows at Kanan, who just shoves her head playfully in the other direction.

"It's alright. We have a lot to catch up on," she explains, turning half of her mouth up in a smile at Anakin beside her. "You gonna eat?" she asks him, nodding towards his full plate.

"Not really hungry."

Ahsoka shrugs and slides the hot cake onto her own plate.

"Suit yourself."

Dinner doesn't last much longer, and Chopper's able to steer the ship with a very stern glare from Hera and a promise to not do anything stupid (she's the only one he'll listen to), so everyone can get some rest.

"Come on," Ahsoka says, tugging on Anakin's arm to get him to follow her. "I'll show you where my—our room is." And she feels like a little kid again, dragging him down the hall of a ship, the only difference the lack of his usual laughter.

She's staying at the end of the hall on the ship that the Republic had leant to them, across from Ezra, who shoots them a final glare before slamming his and Zeb's door shut.

"Just... ignore him," Ahsoka sighs. "He isn't having the easiest time separating you from Vader."

"I can tell," Anakin hums. Neither am I, he wants to say.

"I'd let you borrow clothes or something but," she begins as they enter the room, "somehow, I'm still smaller than you. But only by a little."

Anakin huffs out a quiet laugh and runs his hand over the covers on her bed, pausing at the pillow when he senses her apprehension.

"Something wrong?" he asks nervously.

"No, it's just, uh... it's..." she trails off with a grin and takes a few steps forward to stand by his side and move the pillow over, revealing something beneath it. It's a device of sorts, one that he recognizes. Simple and cheap, it's able to store one holo. Ahsoka turns it on and the image swims before him as tears spring to his eyes because—

"It's us," he's saying, reaching forward to let his fingers fall through the translucent picture. Ahsoka's much shorter than him in it, more than she is now at least, and she's got her head on his shoulder. His is lying on top of hers. Both of their smiles are peaceful and content.

He doesn't remember taking the picture, but from the way that Ahsoka's arm is stretched out in it, he's sure that she had been the one to do so.

"Yeah," she breathes, nodding. "Before..." she waves a hand in the air. Before what exactly? Her trial? Order 66? Vader?

"Before," he agrees.

She switches the holo off and grabs his hand, placing the device in his palm and closing it shut.

"Snips—"

"You keep it," she says confidently, throat growing tight at the sound of her old name. She hasn't heard it in years, didn't want to. Because the only person who had ever used it had been gone.

But he's here now, in the flesh, right in front of her.

"I'm sorry doesn't even begin to—"

"Don't you dare," she snaps, holding onto each of his hands in her own. Her voice is low now, serious. "That wasn't you, and I'll defend you until the day I die, okay? I need you to believe me because I know that you don't trust yourself right now, and you told me that you trusted me. All those years ago, you believed me, so I need you to believe me now. You aren't him, Anakin, you're my brother."

He lets out a loose gasp when he tries to speak next, and she pulls him down to her shoulder, arms looped around his neck.

"I don't deserve you," he whispers.

"Yes, you do," she promises, "yes, you do."

i might be getting two cats 🥺😭 i rly hope it works out pls wish me luck and hope that my parents don't say no at the last minute like they usually do