darkforcerising | OPEN POST

Anakin could tell the emotions he could feel from Obi-Wan weren't entirely connected to the events of the movie, even if Anakin's feelings were about Bingbong's sacrifice. But that's what these movies like this were meant to do. In their simplicity they were relatable. They were like miniature exercises in experiencing intense emotions in a controlled way.

Anakin did shed a few tears for Bingbong, but got swept up in the next swell of the movie.

He was also kind of a little more than bit interested to see how Obi-Wan would process the image of the emotions console turning black. Because Anakin had felt that before - it was probably the best way to describe what it felt like on the Dark Side.

He probably should have associated the console turning dark with The Dark Side. It was his most recent experience, after all, and the metaphor (or just visual) was a good one.

Yet, because of where his mind had already been he was still thinking about... Mustafar and the events around it - or more accurately his absolute despair at that point and how Yoda had prodded him out of that, reminding him that despair also led to the dark side.

Then that feeling of ... emptiness. Of not really existing.

It was strange that he'd only thought of that now, really, or even realized that he'd still been in that state when Anakin had shown up in his living room. He didn't cry but he rubbed a hand over his face, though he wasn't crying, stroked Anakin's side with his thumb and both watched the movie and was a million miles away.

Anakin didn't need Obi-Wan to say anything, and he didn't need to say anything to him either.

It was beautiful just to watch the moment when Sadness and Joy made it back into the control tower - he hoped Obi-Wan saw the humor in Disgust using Anger as an effective tool.

And then Joy encouraged Sadness to fix the console, and Sadness does. And Joy gives Sadness the core memories to hold and change. Because that was the emotion Riley had been needed to feel most since the conflict of this movie started. So that Riley could cry and mourn the loss of the life she used to have with the help of her family.

The complexity of mingled emotions - the joy of what had once been, the sadness of the present circumstances - culminating in finding hope and reassurance for the future with the support of people you loved.

How could Anakin not like this movie?

The movie as a whole contained a lot of complexity, and a lot of things that were amusing, and touching and a nice lesson buried within it.

He quirked a faint smile.

"If there was still a Jedi Order, I'd be showing that three times a day until everyone had seen it. Particularly the children."

Of all the things Obi-Wan could say, Anakin wasn't expecting that.

After letting it sink in, he barked a laugh, and dropped a kiss on top of his head.

"You'd be in as much trouble with the Council as I always was."

He made a low noise, considering and with a hint of amusement buried in there. It wasn't quite a laugh but it wasn't too far off, really. Not to anyone who could also sense him in the Force.

"Not if I started with the Council." A pause. "If I started with children I would have been in more trouble than you and Qui-Gon combined."

"You could get maybe Master Koon and Master Tiin," Anakin conceded. "But I don't think you'd ever convince Master Yoda or Master Windu this is a better approach to teaching how to handle emotions." That was the most polite way Anakin could put that.

"Mm. Mace would have been easier than you think. Yoda, you're likely right about. At least before the entire thing went to hell and there wasn't an Order much less a Council at all." Yoda it was easier to be irritated by, somehow. Maybe just because Yoda wasn't dead yet. That Obi-Wan knew of.

"Maybe for you," Anakin said. "If I suggested it, Master Windu wouldn't even consider considering it."

Anakin dropped another kiss on Obi-Wan.

"I like Rebellious Obi-Wan." He was more than a little pleased that Obi-Wan liked the movie.

He tilted his head up enough to return the kiss, quick and light. "Mace was afraid of you, but Mace was... more and less aware than any of us at the same time. And you should like me rebellious. If I weren't...." He stopped and frowned. "Actually I don't know what."

"If you weren't," Anakin said, taking a moment to capture Obi-Wan's hand with his. "You wouldn't be blowing up the Empire with me."

He frowned faintly and tilted his head. "...But I might have been. It depends on how rebellious I wasn't. ...or maybe I mean on the Council being less agreeable. No amount of agreeable would have made me just leave you."

"I'm glad you're doing this with me." He started lacing their fingers. "I wouldn't be able to do it without you."

He rolled over a bit more into Anakin and wound up half draped across his chest, but he didn't let go of Anakin's hand. "Mm. But would you be here without me?"

Anakin welcomed the change in Obi-Wan's position, encouraged it, in fact. Obi-Wan was warm, and Anakin craved warmth like the Tatooine desert at night. And he craved touch more than he craved warmth.

"Here on Alderaan?" Anakin asked, deliberately obtuse. "Absolutely not."

Obi-Wan would probably never stop being a little standoffish and aloof by default, but relaxed enough, close enough, tangled up mentally with Anakin enough -

he'd do this and love it.

Even if he weren't also still just a little clingy (for him).

He stayed draped heavily across Anakin, but chin propped up a bit on Anakin's chest. "Why not? It's beautiful." A pause. "Do you know how to swim?" This Anakin, not the one who had died.

Aside from the obvious answer - Anakin wouldn't have been welcome on Alderaan without Obi-Wan's help. Anakin took Obi-Wan ridiculous question and ran with it.

"I do know how," he said. "I just haven't been interested in it in... well since I was a kid in Arizona- that's the state in the country- Okay, do you want to hear about the world I was on?"

"Yes, and very much so." He paused, very briefly: "But only after you tell me how likely I am to be able to convince you to swim with me."

"Likely, yes. I just didn't when I was older because, well, I lost my arm and tore up the side of my body... people where I was... they aren't always accepting of... injuries like that. And I'm not the biggest fan of sand."

He'd seen Anakin naked a lot but they could talk more about that later. He was pleased with a probably for now. "Tell me more about Arizona."

"Okay..."

Anakin settled in more to talk. Not that he wasn't comfortable before, there was no way not to be comfortable on a bed like this. He just wanted to scoot down a little so he was more on Obi-Wan's level.

"The planet I was on- we just all called it Earth, because people there... are strange. The one moon in orbit around the planet - the moon. Our star - the sun. But there are seven other planets in that solar system, scores of dwarf planets, and hundreds of moons around the other planets and we gave all of them names. But... Earth didn't have one planetary government- there were like two-hundred countries and we did not get along... I lived and grew up in the country called the United States of America- and it was a strange place. Arizona was a state in the south western part of the country and it was basically one big desert. They projected it was going to run out of water in about thirty years but no one there cared- except probably the indigenous tribes- ya, they probably really cared about the water being used up. But America didn't care about its indigenous tribes, like at all."

"That all sounds," he said, after a moment of processing and a rather bemused expression, "terribly familiar."

In parts, anyway, to Tatooine. Clearly. Not quite exactly, not around the specific details of the solar system or moons or names, but at least in the desert and running out of water and conflict with the indigenous tribes.

"Ya, humans are... humans everywhere..." Anakin had noticed the similarities, but that was an oddity he couldn't parse.

"Growing up in Arizona wasn't bad. There were better places, but it could have been worse. No slavery this time, so that was nice. Life was very ordinary until I started getting these memories. I think you should ask me some questions, 'what's it like' is very open ended."

He tucked his fingers just under Anakin's hip and put his head down so his cheek was on Anakin's chest rather than his chin - for both their comfort.

"What did you do for fun?" Besides fly, he meant.

Anakin grinned and appreciated Obi-Wan getting more comfortable, not just for his own sake. But because it was one very small step towards Obi-Wan moving on from his brush with the Dark side.

"As a kid, before I joined the military, I built and raced dirt bikes- their a one to two person means of transportation. Nothing like podracing. I have a picture on my phone of the last bike I had-"

He called the phone to him from the night stand and pulled up his pictures. It took him a while to find the image he wanted. But he founded it and handed the phone to Obi-Wan - a candid picture of a kid, seventeen years old, post race, mud covering his face and racing jacket, but he's grinning, standing next to a yellow and silver dirt bike.

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