darkforcerising | OPEN POST

Anakin thought about giving Obi-Wan a demonstration, thought about daring him to try to get up. But he dismissed that quickly because he suspected that would not be good for his friend's psyche, given what he'd gone through the past few days.

So Anakin switch tactics.

"Why are you so insistent on this? You don't have to make anything right with me."

"I don't have to do anything except watch over Luke and eventually be killed by you. That doesn't mean that this isn't right, and I'm insistent on it because it is the right thing to do. For you and, I think, him."

"No," Anakin insisted, not letting Obi-Wan get away from his question. "Children need stability. Why do you want this?"

"He's less than a week old. He isn't going to be destabilized by seeing you." That was just ludicrous.

...That wasn't an answer, and he knew it.

Anakin understood what ramifications there would be if they went through with this idea. It wasn’t that Luke would remember, but that the Lars would. And that would shape how they treated and raised Luke.

So Anakin didn’t counter with that, he just asked again, “Why do you want this?”

Lars would only remember if allowed to remember - and he would be, because all that was going to happen was Obi-Wan borrowing the baby for a bit.

"Because I spent days with him on the way here, Anakin." Fine. Have your answer.

“So you want to see him, too?” Anakin’s voice was sympathetic.

"Did you always remember your previous life?"

Moving on.

Anakin’s deadpan look at Obi-Wan’s evasion would be hard to miss. But he figured he’d pushed the older man far enough on that topic for now.

“You mean, was I child with memories of committing massacres, attacking my wife and friends, destroying governments?” he asked.

After a pause, “No. my life was very... basic until one day, as an adult, these memories just started coming back to me... I did not handle it well at first.”

"I can't imagine that there is any handling of that well, at any age, though I won't pretend I'm not relieved you weren't having those memories as a child."

It would have been worse.

And that evasion had not been subtle but then it hadn't actually needed to be, had it?

“I used to be so afraid I would just... wake up one day and be... him.”

That had been a long process, to completely reevaluate his morality. What he was capable of doing. Who was he really after knowing what it felt like to participate in a massacre that spanned a galaxy, or stand by and watch a planet with millions of people blow up, or torture his own children.

He smiled, sadly, and that sadness went much deeper than his smile. It was woven all the way through.

"You didn't just wake up one day him, even in the life he's living."

“That’s not that comforting.”

An admission the Jedi was probably not any less afraid of that possibility still.

He wanted to joke about each of them getting a pass if they wake up to other choking them in their sleep. But really, only Obi-Wan deserved a pass on that.

Obi-Wan pushed up on an elbow at the ... not sound of Anakin's voice, but something less concrete to look at him.

It was entirely too damned cold for them to be out of the covers at all, but still-

"Look at me."

Anakin heard the seriousness in Obi-Wan’s voice and even pushed his drawn hood back from his eyes so he could meet the man’s level gaze.

"I am not afraid of you."

That isn't absolution for the past - for either of them - and Anakin could probably still push him into fighting far, far, harder than he should but meeting Anakin's eyes, being very serious and very firm about it.

"Not what you are now, and not what you think you could become again."

Anakin hadn't realized how much he needed to hear those words from Obi-Wan until his friend was saying them.

Without thinking, he leaned over and tried to get another hug from Obi-Wan.

He sighed, softly, wrapped his arm over Anakin to return the hug and just held onto him for a bit.

"I don't think I realized until just now that you even thought it was possible. Too busy thinking you were afraid of me, I think."

"To be honest, I was. But I can be afraid of multiple things at once. My emotions are complicated like that."

Now that he was this much closer to Obi-Wan, he didn't want to let go. Mostly because it was freezing out. And for other reasons he didn't want to examine right now.

"You're warm, don't move, I can go to sleep like this."

"I don't blame you. I did fling you into a wall, and that's not even beginning to approach the worst of it." That he doesn't want to talk about. Think about it. Deal with much at the moment.

"I'm not letting go." He did drop his head so his nose was in Anakin's hair, because it was easier to breathe warm air and - well. Because. "If you can sleep, sleep."

Anakin wanted to ask what Obi-Wan considered 'the worst of it', but he wasn't lying. He was comfortable, and warmer this way, and his eyes were finally willing to close. He would ask tomorrow, maybe, if he could pin Obi-Wan down again - pin in the sense of getting the man to talk about emotional things.

He was asleep a few short seconds after Obi-Wan was done speaking.

He hadn't been lying when he said he wasn't afraid of Anakin as he was, or as he could be. That didn't mean he trusted himself at all, especially not his subconscious.

So he evened his breathing, slowed his heart-rate, closed his eyes and -

meditated instead of slept.

It worked, Anakin got a peaceful night's sleep and Obi-Wan got to feel him sleep and get somewhat rested himself. Enough that in the morning he was only slightly awkward in getting out of the bed, and not at all by the time they had breakfast.

From there there was one goal for the day (one acknowledged). "I think it's safer for you to get the parts than me." That was true, absolutely. "I can't imagine we want to freeze another night if we can avoid it."

Anakin was eating his meal packet as fast as possible. Not because he was in any rush, but that's just who he was.

Without suspecting a thing, he asked, "Do you have something specific you want to trade with them? Or do you want me to pick through that pile I was making yesterday?"

"You can pick through the pile if you like. There is a variety of currency here." NOt much, but he had to be able to live, and there were limits to that when there were no Jedi to rely on, status or social support. "Take what you need. As long as we wind up with a functioning here, it will be worth it. Though be careful."

He would ...not handle something happening to Anakin very well.

He nodded. Off the top of his head he could think of at least five things the Jawas would value for trade. "Do you have a pack for carrying everything?"

He snorted. "What's the worst that will happen? Probably a terrible sunburn." He looked up. "I'm kidding! I'll keep my skin covered. Promise."

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Omg my autocorrect corrected ‘that he’ to ‘the Jedi’ wow autocorrect wow

I read it right anyway, which is the really amazing part.

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