The Benevolence of the Force by Spiritofthesky4 (WILL RETURN)

Chapter 12: Onus

"Come on, Rex, it doesn't take an hour to get ready. Everyone's waiting, and we're just going to the flower field! You barely have hair," I grabbed the clone's hand and tried to drag him away from the sink.

"What's that got to do with anything?" He asked incredulously. "Me not having a lot of hair, I mean?"

"One of the most time-consuming things for me when getting ready is making sure my hair looks good, and you don't have any, so it shouldn't be taking this long!"

Rex sighed. "I do have hair."

"Not as much as I do."

"That's only the case in terms of hair on your head," he said, raising his eyebrows with a sly grin. "In other places, however..."

My mind went directly to the gutter and I clapped one hand over my mouth in mock horror. " REX! That kind of joke is hardly appropriate--"

"I was talking about leg hair," he said haughtily, but in such a way that I knew he was lying. "How dirty-minded of you."

I swatted at him. " You--"

"Come on!" He grabbed my hand. "You've been complaining about me being slow, but now you are!"

Rex dragged me out of the bathroom and down the hall, past where most everyone was gathered in the living room and kitchen. Lula jumped off the couch and ran to my side, nudging my hand with her nose. I patted her head and her tail waved in response.

"There you are!" Anakin grinned widely, springing up from his seat on the couch. "Let's go, guys!"

Everyone rose from their seats and followed us out the door and to the truck, happily chatting. Obi-Wan slid into the passenger seat and immediately pulled up his datapad, despite its continued state of uselessness. The Jedi stared blankly at the screen, eyes glassy, as I pulled out of the driveway and headed towards the flower field with everyone else in the back.

It had been five days since our trip to the lake and the city. Five days since I told Obi-Wan the truth. In that time, he'd become despondent. He was quieter, sadder, and prone to zoning out, and disappeared into his and Anakin's shared room for hours at a time scribbling things in Aurebesh on random loose sheets of paper. Anakin had noticed his Master's gloomy mood, but I could tell that he didn't quite know how to approach the issue– not that Obi-Wan would break our deal if the young Jedi did ask.

I'd been dealing with my own problems as well. The assumed date of our departure, now only a little more than a week away, loomed over me. I'd begun making a packing list and a list of tasks that had to be completed before I could leave– things like deciding what to do with the house, and what to do with.... Lula. The fact that I would soon be leaving this planet hadn't quite sunk in yet, and I had a hunch that it wouldn't until I was well into the other galaxy.

That wasn't all, however. Tensions on Earth were rising. Countries, are angry at each other, spewing threats like geysers. Alliances forming and breaking in only a few weeks' time. Material shortages. Fear seeped from civilian's pores every time Rex and I– or Obi-Wan and I– went into town. Rex, bless his heart, hadn't noticed, too busy examining pomeranian dogs or gumball machines. But Obi-Wan had. I'd pointed some things out to him, like the fact that most gas stations were now closed due to the shortage of gasoline, and the ones still open had prices like twenty dollars per gallon or the news reports that several countries were threatening to unleash their nuclear arsenals.

" Viria, they can't use nukes here! Your tech isn't advanced enough to get your species to another planet or to create a safe haven! Your entire planet would be destroyed !" Obi-Wan protested when I showed him the news report on TV in the restaurant.