"Ah-choo!"

Sick. Sick sick sick.

Stupid. Idiot.

Sick. Sick. Sick.

In case it wasn't obvious, Ahsoka was sick. Her face was flushed, causing her tangerine skin to become a flaming orange-red color. The eyes that were normally a clear, crystal blue were slightly glassy, and her nose was running. Her lekku were also dull, a definite sign of sickness in the togrutan species.

"Ahsoka? Are you feeling alright?" The concerned voice of her master rang across the training room from where he was currently sparring with his padawan. They had barely been master and apprentice for a few days, yet it still seemed surreal to Anakin. He hadn't been a knight for very long either, and now he was expected to teach her everything he had learned.

Still, he was finding that it wasn't simply teaching he was going to be doing.

"I'm fine, Skyguy." Came the stuffed reply of his padawan.

She obviously was not fine.

Ahsoka's swings were becoming weaker and weaker, her foot work sloppier and sloppier, but she still continued to try to hold her own. Had she been more alert, she would have seen that Anakin was holding back quite a bit in an effort to not hurt her. Eventually Anakin got so fed up that he simply disarmed his padawan and put away his lightsaber.

"You are not fine. Ahsoka, you are literally falling ov- Ahsoka!" He quickly reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her back toward him. She yanked her arm out of his grasp, or at least tried to, glaring in a confused manner at him.

"I-*sniff*-am perfectly-*cough*-perfectly fine, Anakin." Her annoyed response came through in the manner of her falling over against her master.

"Yeah, you're perfectly fine, Ahsoka." He murmured, scooping her up bridal-style and carrying her shaking form back to his - their - quarters. Anakin looked down at her, concerned, only to see her sleeping fitfully, sneezing every once in a while.

It wasn't a normal bug, that much he was sure when he tried to take her temperature, only for the thermometer to stop working the moment it touched her, and even if she took some medicine, nothing would stop the coughs, sniffles, sneezes, and shivering that plagued her. Instantly, he knew what was wrong, and he almost kicked himself for it.

She was bonding sick.

The same thing had happened to him when he was a teenager, and there were many times he had curled up without Ahsoka in an effort to keep her from getting sick. That plan only backfired on him when he got reprimanded by Luminara for keeping away from Ahsoka, and then the master would continue, further telling him that he wasn't going to feel better unless he stayed near her for twenty-four hours. An entire day.

It might have been him being stupid, but he had never realized that it would happen to Ahsoka, because she was generally more cuddly than he was, but she had been spending a bit of time training with the clones lately.

Anakin definitely wasn't jealous that Ahsoka wanted to spend time with the clones.

Putting his feelings aside, he sat Ahsoka down on her bed, taking her boots off of her feet before sitting down beside her, stroking her forehead gently. He left to grab a cool wash cloth and a glass of water for her, before coming back and sighing. She looked a bit worse than when he left, but as soon as he came near her, she calmed a bit.

Anakin sighed again, setting the washcloth on her forehead and grasping one of her small hands.

"Ah-choo!"

The tiny, high-pitched sneeze left a small smile on his face as he stared down at his padawan.

She would be alright.

---

Well, hello again! This is kind of short, I apologize.

Read? Comment?

-Flaming Starbird