darkforcerising | OPEN POST

The truth was, Anakin had had a kinder life - in another reality. But it didn't involve Obi-Wan. And it was hard for Anakin to choose which one he wanted more.

"Okay, so about tonight." He figured he was better to move on before he overfilled Obi-Wan emotional cup. "How many blankets do you have here?"

The truth was also that Obi-Wan was not reconciling this 'same Anakin but different' very well and was flipping between almost talking to the ghost of who Vader had been, and the Anakin in front of him.

It would likely stabilize at some point, but for now-

He was just grateful Anakin lightened the conversation before he was forced to do it. Far better when someone else did the deflecting for him.

"Four. Five if we count my cloak." Which should count, it's enormous and it is heavy.

"Four or five-!" Anakin said. "Oh my god, Obi-Wan, we're going to be fine! It gets cold at night, it doesn't turn into Ilium at night for eighteen days. Maybe we'll have to share blankets, but if that's too uncomfortable, I'll take the cloak and you can have the rest."

"Why would I be uncomfortable sharing blankets with you?" Confusion first then mild offense, and something even a little petulant: "I hate being cold. Not as much as I hate being dirty, but I do not enjoy it." Could tolerate it, but he didn't want to

"So we'll be fine." Anakin was a bit concerned about Obi-Wan walking up and freaking out on him again. "And tomorrow we'll go out and track down the Jawas and I'll fix your heater."

That settled, he decided to ask, "Do you need to eat? You're sending off hangry vibes."

Waking up would require he go to sleep first, and while he may it certainly isn't the plan.

"Not particularly, but I will if you'll explain what kind of vibes I'm sending off."

He also tried to stop. Which mostly just meant tighter shielding within the force. Trying to contain more.

"Hangry - angry hungry. Irritability due to low blood sugar levels," Anakin explained. He suspected he might have to do that a lot given his experience in another reality. Cultures were like that. "It happens to everyone."

"...Possibly," he admitted. He suspected most of it was the result of other things - like, oh, emotional upheaval - but he still went to put a kettle on for tea, and grabbed a meal pack. "Do you want to help me with the blankets and bed?"

"... Is it complicated?" Anakin asked.

Anakin walked over to the bed and evaluated it. Weighed and measured it with his eyes and found it wanting. "This is going to be an uncomfortable night."

"Yes, because most of the blankets aren't on the bed." That didn't make it complicated, but it did mean some assistance in spreading them out so he could continue to eat with one hand would be nice.

First, though, he opened a trunk and pulled the blankets out of it, in a stack.

"And I know it's going to be uncomfortable." It was going to be cold.

Anakin took the stack.

"Sit down and eat. I have two hands," he said it without thinking. He just meant that he could spread the blankets on his own.

He lifts his eyebrows a bit pointedly. "Only because you own them both." Which is him snarking while having another inexplicable (to him) flare of discomforting memory of cutting Anakin's other arm off.

'discomforting' meaning, of course, nausea inducing.

He's done eating now.

Edited 2020-01-08 05:05 (UTC)

"Now, I can't tell if that's a slave joke," Anakin snarked back, before realizing what was going on.

He set the stack of blankets down and went to Obi-Wan.

"Obi-Wan, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it like that. That was..." he thought about the math. "Eighty-ish years ago for me. I... don't- I try not to think about it."

He shakes his head mutely, because he temporarily cannot get words out of his mouth. He puts his meal pack down, forgets about it and grabs a blanket.

"It's fine. You're the one who experienced it. You're allowed to make jokes or not think about whatever you want. Including not thinking about how I'm going to respond."

...Someday he might stop smelling Mustfar and burning flesh.

No. Anakin wasn't going to just let it be that way. Obi-Wan mattered, his feelings mattered. That's where the Jedi had failed every member so completely. Feelings mattered, they had a purpose, ignoring them was an abuse Anakin wouldn't perpetuate.

"Obi-Wan," he said firm but not harsh. "It was traumatic for you, too. You're my friend. Of course I care how you're going to react to it."

"Of course it was traumatic for me," he - didn't exactly snap, but shot back with the tiniest bit of an edge. Hey, it was an admission - that he felt vaguely forced into making.

...It was also an admission that needed to happen.

"If you want to care how I react to things that you did, that's ... acceptable." Barely. "But that is something I chose to do."

In essence? He didn't deserve consideration.

"That I forced you to do," Anakin said. "We were friends. I chose to go to the Dark Side. You had to stop me."

"Except I still didn't stop you." There it was. "It was... pointless."

He was basically being pushed pretty hard - for Jedi standards, anyway - to really let emotion go in a meaningful way and it was... working.

He wasn't mad, the... wall of reserve was just breaking rapidly. In ways similar to what had happened in that conference room with Organa and Yoda, except Anakin wasn't telling him to get his shit together.

He was pushing Obi-Wan to let it the hell go.

And it was working.

And he was about a half inch from physically collapsing and crying, all over again.

"Could you have killed me?" Anakin asked, crossing the distance between them. If Obi-Wan struck out at him physically, he would back off, but Anakin felt this was the better move.

"Yoda shouldn't have made you try."

Obi-Wan was a very, very good at fighting - hand to hand or with a lightsaber - but through and through, he was also someone who chose to fight defensively. He frequently ended fights, but making the first move in one? Very, very, very rarely.

If anyone knew that about him, it was Anakin.

Even nearing something that could probably be called hysterical, him lashing out was damned unlikely. Especially at Anakin. Especially with where his head was.

Anakin approached and Obi-Wan just basically... fell down. Not to get away from him but because he was abruptly not really capable of remaining standing. ...That had happened at the Temple, too, after he'd watched the security feed.

"No." No he couldn't have. "And I told him that."

Anakin sat next to him on bed and placed an arm around Obi-Wan's shoulders.

He hadn't been sure what to say about 'the future.' He knew Jedi didn't like knowing, or trying to know - the future was always in motion, and all that. But he felt like now he should say something.

"You watch over Luke here. You train him. And he helps me come back from the Dark Side. It's not pointless... It's just the excruciatingly painful will of the Force."

For a fraction of a second, it seemed Obi-Wan might reject the physical contact. Barely long enough to blink he stopped breathing and tensed.

But then he relaxed not just physically but mentally and emotionally. Not the fake kind of relaxation that was deliberate, but an almost slow motion collapse and give. Because he was tired and out of the ability to fight it all back and down and away, and because in spite of being a ridiculously uptight Jedi he needed physical contact after this mess and just -

Just because he was, ultimately, human.

He still thought Anakin being the stable one, the steady one, was profoundly backward, but right now? He was going to take it.

He closed his eyes and listened to what Anakin said. "I can live with excruciatingly painful." Still sorry for Anakin's sake, and the Galaxy's, but - "I couldn't live with pointless."

The benefit of good therapists. That’s what Anakin could offer his long time friend.

“That is the most Kenobi thing I’ve heard you say this whole time.”

Anakin wondered if he could get away with pulling Obi-Wan closer, and decided to go for it. The man deserved a proper hug.

But he also said. “You should still eat. You’ll be frustrated at yourself tomorrow when you think you’ve wasted that food.”

Not only could Anakin get away with it, Obi-Wan barely registered anything odd about it. He would shortly, but when initially pulled closer, he actually curled into the hug and returned it.

"That is really not going to happen," he said, with a soft but derisive snort. He meant the eating, not the frustration. The frustration would probably be an issue at some point. "I'll finish it later tonight." Once his stomach calmed down.

The heat from the twin suns around Tatooine, that made the planet unbearable during the day, bled off into the black heart of space quickly after the last rays of light slipped below the horizon. Temperatures dropped to freezing before the hour was up.

Anakin pulled the hood of his hoodie up over his head and drew the strings tight. Five blankets (actually four, plus one Jedi cloak) were going to get him and Obi-Wan laying next to him through the night, but the chill in the air was uncomfortable.

"Ugh, I hate this planet so much," he complained. He wanted to hunt down Palpatine if only for the chance to get off this awful planet.

"I hope Jabba is having a terrible night, too... Ugh, he's probably not. Stupid sand slug."

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