darkforcerising | OPEN POST

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."

"I seem to recall you implying I was being ridiculous for being concerned."

Which was not actually unfair - they weren't going to die, just get awfully cold and miserable until the suns reappeared to bake the planet again.

He was lying on his side so Anakin could fit in his bed and under the blankets (and cloak). He was surprisingly unbothered by the closeness. After you've been to war with someone, is there really any point in reserve?

Yes, said Obi-Wan, but there was none after you'd cried in their presence. Also? He was definitely already cold.

"You could find a ship in Mos Eisley, you know." Get off the planet.

"I'm not concerned, I'm uncomfortable," Anakin corrected. "And I just want one of the perpetrators of abuse in one of my youths to be as uncomfortable as I am. Don't take this from me, Obi-Wan. Complaining out loud is all I can do about my situation."

Anakin didn't mind the closeness either, it was the best way they were going to survive.

"Why would I leave you?" he asked, matter of factly. He also got more talkative the less medication he had in his system. "Where would I go? Hunt myself down? I could bother him." That made Anakin smile despite his whinging before. "Ironic."

"Oh, well then. Do carry on." There was something approaching a normal tone from him, there, for the first time since Anakin's arrival. ...No, not normal. Playful. Almost, sincerely, light.

He pulled the blankets up higher around him, so he had his nose tucked into fabric and he wasn't breathing cold air.

"It isn't about leaving me. You could go anywhere, do anything. Including bothering Vader, I suppose, but I can't imagine that being much fun for you."

"Why wouldn't it be fun?" Anakin asked. "I'd be literally self-sabotaging myself. That's hilariously ironic- in a way this place doesn't use that word like that." Hmm, should he explain Alanis Morissette? "It would be funny to people back where I was." Should he explain memes?

"But I don't want to leave you alone on this rock. That's just... so sad."

He blinks because he has no idea what in the name of the Force Anakin had just said. "I'll take your word for it." Well, he understood all of the words individually.

"And I don't want you to be suck on this rock with me. That isn't any less sad, though-" He frowned, thoughtfully. Then switched tracks, on purpose. "There's no reason it has be one or the other. Though please don't go bother yourself. You might die. Again."

"Then I would haunt him," Anakin said with amusement, as if this was an even better prospect. "I would so move his shit around."

"If you're haunting him," Obi-Wan pointed out reasonably, "you are also not keeping me company on this rock."

"Space and time and spacetime are meaningless concepts when you die."

But he did pause for a second, before saying thoughtfully, "But Luke is here... I'd like to see him at least once if I could."

"If I haven't managed to achieve enough mastery of the force to communicate with Qui-Gon, I probably won't manage with you, either, and that means you won't be company."

He's joking but not. The idea of Anakin dying was... beyond upsetting.

"That's... not how that... works," Anakin said.

He was quiet again, Obi-Wan hadn't responded to his comment about Luke, was his friend trying to subtly change the topic?

"Do you not want me to see Luke?"

"I'd already decided I wanted you to meet Luke, I was just trying to figure out how to best arrange it before pursuing it any further with you. I doubt it's going to be... well received."

Which was fine, but if he could... negotiate, he would do so.

"Ya..." Anakin could see Obi-Wan's point. "Don't know how to tell them I'm not dead. And then there's the fact Owen doesn't like Jedi."

"He doesn't trust Jedi, especially around his family, and I can't say I blame him." He flashed a slight smile at Anakin. "But I think I can manage something. If you can avoid telling him you aren't really dead."

"I don't trust the Jedi. He doesn't like them." There was a vast different between him and his step-brother's feelings about the Jedi, all stemming from how the Jedi had treated - or rather not treated with their indifference - Shmi.

"So do I use a new name now? Tell him any similarities between me and me are purely coincidental? Do I need a mask now?"

"I play with his mind in a move that is undoubtedly of questionable morality and he accepts that you look similar to Anakin, but are not him."

Look, he's good at it, it's non-violent, and it saves pain.

“No,” Anakin said, not even a pause. “I know you mean well, but I know what it’s like to have someone mess with my mind. I know it’s not the same. But I don’t want to do that to someone unless it’s absolutely necessary. And seeing Luke isn’t a necessity, it’s a want.”

It was something he’d given up the rights to. Just like he couldn’t see Leia.

"Okay, then the solution is even more simple unless you have a burning need to see your step brother."

He could, he thought, convince Owen to let him borrow the baby for a bit. Maybe.

"You're not suggesting-" Anakin looked over at Obi-Wan, shocked. "We kidnap him, are you?"

"We'll take him back!"

Defensive? A little.

Anakin was silent at that, enough wits about him to think it through.

"Luke needs to stay safe," he said at last. "And he is safe with Owen and Beru and they probably love him already." That last part said a bit begrudgingly. And how fair was that to Owen and Beru? He wasn't trying to just use them. There was a lot of guilt floating on the surface of his emotions mixing with regret and sadness. Guilt from a memory of a life more advanced than this one, where he'd coldly ordered Owen's and Beru's death like a thousand other executions.

No, he wouldn't try to hurt them this time.

"We'll think of something."

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