"Have you read the briefing?" Ahsoka's new master asked for the five billionth time.
She rolled her eyes – not that he'd see it, behind her back that he was. "Yes, Master, stop fretting," she said.
Anakin sighed. "This could be a matter of life and death, Snips! You know how much trouble we get in when the intel's wrong, right? It's like that, except worse. You could spark a war just with a single offhand comment or your choice of footwear."
"Spoken like someone who skipped reading a briefing and started a war, I suppose?" Ahsoka peeked over her shoulder. She could have used the Force, but Anakin was brighter than a supernova and it hurt to look at him, so eyes it was.
"I have never started a single war," Anakin groused. "Besides, Obi-Wan never would've let me set foot on the transport had I not memorized the mission briefing."
"Even if it was really long?"
"Even the one time it was Master Mundi's thousand-plus page masterpiece." Anakin crossed his arms and stared at her seriously.
Ahsoka boggled. "Over a thousand pages? You're kidding, right?"
"Unfortunately not." Anakin leaned against the doorframe and scrubbed his gloved hand – the mechanical one – through his hair. "It was a lowish-tech world rife with sectarian violence. They can agree to stop killing each other, but someone has to go renegotiate the treaties every few decades. Master Mundi simply summarized and appended all the treaties the Jedi had ever negotiated there after the Ruusan reformation, plus the Jedi teams' notes."
That would be one thousand years divided by approximately thirty. Ahsoka made a face as she did the math.
Anakin snorted. "Exactly. And for the first centuries, they'd send the same Jedi to do the negotiations. I hadn't realized it was even possible to be that verbose."
"Please let's not get sent there?"
Anakin stroked his chin in thought. "Oh, I don't know, Snips, it sounds like-" He snorted. "Oh, you should see your face!"
Ahsoka rolled her eyes and collapsed next to her go bag on the bed. "Ha ha. Very funny, Master."
"Always glad to be appreciated." He winked.
Ahsoka made a noise of agreement and poked at her go bag again. Jedi didn't have many personal possessions to begin with and took even fewer with them, so Ahsoka had thrown in a datapad and her personal hygiene kit and fizzled out. She'd been to Ilum, sure, and on some day trip missions helping various charitable organizations on Coruscant's middle levels as a Senior Initiate, but the rest of her mission experience was with the 501st, traveling in a military camp that was a home away from home more than a temporary mission accommodation.
"Have you packed everything?" her master asked.
"I have a datapad and hygiene supplies, and I'll have my lightsaber on my belt. Do I need anything else?"
"Well, my very young padawan, have you considered packing a change of underwear?"
Mortified, Ahsoka hopped off the bed to rummage through her drawers while her master laughed behind her. How could she have forgotten underwear? What had she been thinking?
"Now that you have that dealt with, Snips, I'd also suggest a spare robe and your cloak."
"But Kortai's capital is at the edge of a desert. It's too warm to wear a cloak."
Anakin smiled. "It never hurts to be prepared, Snips. Why, one mission Obi-Wan and I went on, we spent the entire week sleeping rough. You bet we were glad we'd brought our cloaks with."
Ahsoka tried to act casual. "Oh?"
"Pack your bag and I'll tell you the rest in the shuttle."
"Yes, Master!" Ahsoka threw the second set of clothes and the cloak into her bag, patted her hip to check her lightsaber was still there, and sprung up to her feet. "I'm ready to go!"
Anakin laughed and picked up his own go bag from the floor. "Sure thing. Race you to the hangar!"