One Shots

Prize Winner (Shmi-Gon)

Qui-Gon Jinn made his way through the garages of Mos Eisley coliseum, a blue Toydarian up ahead.

"Well Jedi," Watto smugly flew up to him. He held out a dice covered in red and blue markings. "If the boy wins, I will free him, his mother, or both. The blue is for the boy, red is the woman... If the boy loses, I get your fancy spaceship."

"Very well." The wise Jedi Master nodded. "Roll away."

Watto tossed the small dice down, both men watching it teeter between its six sides. With a very subtle move of his thumb, Qui-Gon stopped the dice so a side split between both colors faced up. "No!" The toydarian cried, angrily looking up at him. "Two slaves is too much to lose! You did something, Jedi! I know you did!" His human counterpart gave him a polite and barely smug smile. "For me to manipulate it, I would've had to roll it myself." He lied, putting a little persuasiveness behind us words with the force. "You rolled both of them, so that's the pot."

Watto grumbled to himself, flying away pissed off. He went over to Sebulba's pen. "You better win or I will lose a lot of money!" The alien competitor just laughed as he buzzed off.

Meanwhile, Qui-Gon had made his way back to their viewing tower. "Watto is going to be a very poor man soon enough." Both  Shmi Skywalker and a disguised Queen Amidala looked at him in question. "What do you mean, master Jedi?" Padmé asked, moving closer to the railing so he could get into the pod. "He wanted to bet the boy and his mother... We rolled a dice; red for Shmi, blue for Anakin."

"What did it land on?" Shmi looked up at him hopefully. "Please, tell me it landed on my Ani. He deserves a better life than this, a life without chains." Qui-Gon smiled at her, gently taking both of her hands and holding them to his heart. "It landed on a side with both red and blue. When Anakin wins, both of you will be free." Her hazel eyes widened to saucers. "You're putting a lot of weight on my boy's shoulders... You only needed to free him."

"But I refuse to leave you behind."

Padmé watched the interaction with a soft smile on her face. "I do believe the Queen would welcome both of you with open arms." She saw both of them grin, inwardly aweing when they embraced.

"I can not believe you've done this..." Shmi pulled away enough to look up at him. "Don't blame me, blame the Force." Qui-Gon winked at her, keeping an arm around her shoulders as the racers began to line up at the start. Truthfully, he felt a connection to the boy's mother from the moment he laid eyes on her. Something in the Force was connecting them, like two pieces of the same crystal.
While he understood and mostly lived by the Jedi code, Qui-Gon was not one to be so emotionally nonexistent. He cared greatly for his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. The young man might as well have been his own flesh and blood. He also cared for the Queen of Naboo, something about the tiny woman also an exception to the Jedi code.

Something about both Skywalkers, Shmi only slightly more, made him want to throw out the rules entirely.

Anakin seemed to click with him instantly, reminding the Jedi a lot of how his apprentice did through their bond. The nine-year-old didn't seem too outgoing with strangers, but simply had to interact with them without prompting. His mother, Shmi, had welcomed all of their search party into her home with warmth and open arms. She'd spent quite a lot of her free time conversing with him and he could tell they were kindred spirits from their first hello.

Force be damned if he let those beacons in the force stay.

Order be damned if they got between any of them.

~

Anakin won the race - making history and setting both Skywalkers free in the process.

Shmi sat on the terrace's wall, her eyes glued to the starry sky over head. She felt at peace, solemnly reflecting on the new reality of being a free woman. Qui-Gon crept out behind her, settling his hands on either side of her hips.

"It's beautiful out tonight." Shmi leaned back against his chest. "Yes, you are..." The Jedi Master teases as he hugged her back into him. They shared a quiet laugh, the former slave turning around to face him. "I thought Jedi weren't supposed to be so affectionate with other beings." She tucked a piece of hair behind his ear. "Well, when the Force is telling me to do so, who am I to disagree?" Qui-Gon smiled as he leaned into her hand. "I don't expect you to understand, but the Force has bonded us together. I can't leave you behind and I don't want to keep anyone else closed moving forward... I'm sorry if this is all too much, too fast." He confessed, green eyes boring into her hazel ones. "I have never experienced such a phenomena within the Force... It's amazing, truly."

"What happens if your Jedi people don't like it? What if they kick you out of their order?" Shmi turned back around to face the night sky. "My son can do many strange but magical things... I don't want to be the reason he loses his chance to learn how to control his gifts." Two muscular arms wrapped around her shoulders, pulling the former slave back into his heart. "If the Order expels me for listening to the Force and keeping you close, we will just..." Qui-Gon paused for a second. "I will ask the queen to give us shelter until you and I can get on our feet. I can still teach Anakin the ways of the force, control, how to build a lightsaber... I don't need the Order to train the boy, the Order needs me more than anything."

"Perhaps we shouldn't do this then, if they need you so badly."

"They would need me to get to your son. He's far more talented than any other Jedi and he doesn't even know it yet." The Jedi clarifies as he turned his face to lay near her neck. "I'm sorry if all this is too much... I don't know how to behave when I feel this way. Do you feel it too?" She pulled away just enough to turn around and face him. Standing on her tip toes, Shmi pulled his head down to meet hers - their foreheads pressing together. "I feel that my life's about to change forever because of you, Master Jinn."

"I'm just Qui-Gon to you." He pressed his lips to her forehead as he embraced her, grateful to have found someone so special to be bonded to in the Force.

A/N: Sorry this one is so short, I had writers block about halfway through and this is all I could get out on paper. The next Shmi-Gon oneshot will be longer!