"Master?" asked a voice from the foot of Obi-Wan's bed.
Obi-Wan rolled over. Nine-year-old Anakin stood at the foot of his bed, wrapped in one of his cloaks and looking unusually small and dejected. Obi-Wan sat up and looked at him. They had been granted a series of rooms together after Anakin had been completely unable to sleep for three nights, and had accidentally begun snubbing everyone who wasn't doing something for him. It had been Obi-Wan who had first hypothesized the solution might be to allow him to be near someone he knew. It was their first night sharing quarters, and judging from the expression on Anakin's face, Obi-Wan wasn't sure he'd thought of the right solution.
Qui-Gon would have known what to do. He'd always known how to help any out-of-sorts padawans, younglings, or miscellaneous children they had come across on their travels. In caring for Obi-Wan, his theory had always seemed to be to start by making sure that he was properly fed and rested, and then attending to any needs Obi-Wan brought attention to, and if Obi-Wan continued to be unreasonable, he had always seemed to have some kind of surprise arranged. Obi-Wan had once seen him coax a young prince out of a very deep crevice the boy must have just fit into, which neither master or apprentice had been able to enter, with a bag of candy. Qui-Gon had always known how to manage anyone.
Obi-Wan may have relied on him just a bit too much in that respect. He didn't know how to comfort the young boy he'd taken in, and Anakin was frustratingly evasive when it came to trying to ask him if he was happy.
"Master, I'm cold."
Glad that Anakin was being open about his needs, but uncertain as to how to proceed, Obi-Wan answered in bafflement, "You have two blankets on your bed, and my cloak."
Anakin pulled the cloak further around him. He sighed and clambered up onto the foot of Obi-Wan's bed, "May I stay with you?" he asked.
Obi-Wan stood up very quickly, hurrying open the closet above his bed and tug out another blanket, "Come along," he told the youngling, "I'll tuck you back into bed, and if you're still cold I'll get you another blanket, all right?"
Anakin was still sitting resolutely on the bed, looking up at the older Jedi. He had his arms crossed, and was shivering. Obi-Wan approached him as he would a wild animal and quickly dropped the blanket around his shoulders. Then he pulled the boy off the bed, and Anakin followed fairly willingly as his teacher-to-be led him back to his own room. Obi-Wan lifted the form of the small desert dweller onto his bed and pulled the blankets up around him. Anakin didn't protest, but he didn't seem particularly happy about Obi-Wan's decision either.
Obi-Wan sensed his way back through the darkness to his own room and climbed back into bed. It was hardly cold, to him, but he knew that to Anakin the temperatures in the Temple were borderline glacial. He pulled the thin blanket he was using back around himself and began to go to sleep.
"Master?" Anakin's voice asked again.
Obi-Wan sat up once more, looking down at him. This time, Anakin was trailing Obi-Wan's robe and the most recent blanket. He was still shivering, and this time he didn't wait for any form of answer at all before pulling himself up onto Obi-Wan's bed and climbing over his legs to snuggle against the wall.
"Anakin," Obi-Wan said, "It is hardly appropriate for you to be climbing into bed with me."
Anakin was facing the wall, but the tone of his voice was completely unabashed as he said, "It doesn't really matter as long as we don't do anything."
In the darkness, Obi-Wan blushed. He hadn't been thinking anything of the sort, of course, only of the rules. How many Jedi, he wondered, had a first assignment as difficult as keeping a young overly-mature and out-of-place person happy?
Anakin rolled over to look at him, "Please? Qui-Gon let me stay with him that night on the way to Naboo."
"I am not Qui-Gon," Obi-Wan answered, all too aware of the fact. He had noticed, of course, that his master had allowed the boy to crawl in next to him, and keep warm by staying against him, but he was uncertain that he was prepared to have such a relationship with him.
Anakin sighed, and sat back up, dragging cloak and blanket as if they had suddenly gained a great deal of weight. He crawled back to the foot of the bed and slid down dejectedly. He walked off in the direction of his room, and Obi-Wan used the Force to flick on the lights. Anakin flinched, and continued out of the room.
"If you really want to stay with me," Obi-Wan began, but Anakin was already shaking his head defiantly.
"I'll stay in my own room, thanks," he said sharply, and Obi-Wan could only watch as his suddenly stiff-backed form left the room. He flicked off the lights, trusting his apprentice to sense his way back to his room. Immediately, the boy slumped again, and Obi-Wan was left completely confused. He shrugged to himself and lay back down, making himself comfortable once again.
He silently monitored his apprentice's progress back to his own bedroom, and sensed the boy bump into the coffee table, a slip up he should have been easily able to avoid. He sensed him climbing back into his own bed, trying in vain to wrap himself more tightly in his blankets and sighing. He brought his attention back to his own body, and was about to drift off once more when the child in the next room gave a soft sob. It was far too quiet for Obi-Wan to have heard it usually, but the Force told him as reliably as any other sense.
He slipped his consciousness back into his young charge's room, and heard the boy whisper, "I'll come back, Mom. I'm going to see you again. And I'll bring Padmé so you can meet her too. And…" Obi-Wan tried to strengthen the connection to his brain so he could hear the boy's next words, "Obi-Wan. If he'll come. I'm glad you got to meet Qui-Gon."
Obi-Wan understood, suddenly, at the tone in the boy's voice. Being cold had had little to do with why he'd come in to Obi-Wan's quarters. He had wanted the human companionship at least as much. In fact, probably more than he'd wanted to be warm. After all, had temperature truly been the difficulty, he would have demanded that Obi-Wan come back and stay in his bed, which had more blankets, or dragged the lot of them over to Obi-Wan's room, or simply requested more blankets.
He stood up, shaking his head at himself, this was why it had always been Qui-Gon's duty to deal with others. He vowed that he would improve. He would learn to understand when "I'm cold" meant "I'm lonely" and he would continue to work on his understanding until there wasn't a phrase in the galaxy that Anakin could use that he wouldn't understand. He'd learn Huttese if he had to. He'd learn whatever other languages Anakin might have picked up in his unfathomable life. But he would learn to take care of Anakin as well as he'd been treated by Qui-Gon.
He walked to the boy's room, and pulled back the covers from Anakin's body. He made the bed tightly with Anakin still curled in it, watching him in silence. Then he folded back the edge of the blanket and lay down next to Anakin. The young boy immediately pressed up against his tunic.
"I knew you'd come," Anakin said softly.
Obi-Wan smiled down at him, wrapping his arms around him, "Of course, you could use simple Aurebesh to tell me what you want, and then there wouldn't be the delay."
He could hear the smile in Anakin's voice, "Where's the challenge in that."
"You're going to be enough of a challenge even if you're not trying. Don't feel like you need to make this any more difficult than it has to be."
"I like you," Anakin said, a sentiment he hadn't voiced before, "I think I'll keep you around."
"I'm glad," Obi-Wan said, "I like you too, impossible or not."
Anakin was silent then, and Obi-Wan lay still. His apprentice had woken him quite completely, and he didn't imagine he would be falling asleep again for a while. He twisted his head to glance at the chrono, and as he'd suspected, it was near morning. His apprentice must have lain awake for hours, which was, of course, only logical. It was so unlike Anakin to ask something of him that it was difficult for him to believe that he'd been so passive in trying to comfort and soothe the child.
He lay beside his sleeping charge until the first light of morning touched the room, whereupon he stood, wrapping another two blankets around Anakin, and went to the kitchen. He gathered some assorted beans, tomatoes, and other sorts of vegetables and started the slow cooker, reasoning that it would be warm food available for a chilly Anakin all day. As Anakin had not awoken before he was finished, he then began cooking some muffins.
"Master?" Anakin asked, stumbling into the room, rubbing his eyes, "What're you making? Where'd you get the recipe?"
Obi-Wan used the Force to grasp Anakin's hand and lead him onto a sofa. Anakin stumbled backwards onto it, and curled into a ball, pulling Obi-Wan's cloak around himself.
"I certainly hope you're not suspicious enough to think that I'm going to poison you," Obi-Wan said.
"They smell like," Anakin yawned, "Mom's."
"I certainly hope they don't disappoint you," Obi-Wan said, putting the tray in the oven and turning to his apprentice, who seemed about to drift back off against the sofa. He pulled his cloak around the boy more tightly, "I'm not going to be getting this back, am I?"
Anakin shook his head.
"Maybe you won't be so impossible after all."
Anakin yawned again, "I hardly slept last night," he moaned, "Please don't underestimate me for it."
"I'm not," Obi-Wan promised, "I'm sure you'll be a terror once you've eaten and rested."
"Good," Anakin said, "Brace yourself."
"I'm working on it. But if you don't stop looking so small and helpless soon, I'm going to fail," Obi-Wan said.
At this, Anakin pulled himself into a more upright position, "I'm not helpless," he said.
"I know you're not."
Obi-Wan stood and walked back to the kitchen, taking the muffins out and carefully removing one, which he tossed to Anakin, who immediately unwrapped it, and ate it in a few quick bites.
"Don't burn yourself," Obi-Wan said, taking out a couple more, and pouring them each a glass of fruit juice, which he carried to Anakin. He watched as Anakin swallowed a couple more of the muffins, then curled up again.
"Do I have to go to lessons today?" Anakin asked.
"I think your teachers might thank me if you never returned after your first few days."
Anakin frowned, "Was I really that bad?"
Obi-Wan shook his head, "You weren't very happy. You were somewhat unresponsive. And surly. Not to mention volatile. And angry. Generally not particularly pleasant. But you weren't too bad."
"Not very Jedi," Anakin berated himself, "Do you really think I'll ever be a Jedi?"
"Don't worry about it," Obi-Wan said, "We've all seen worse."
Anakin gave a sharp laugh, "Worse than me? Mom used to joke that me in a bad mood was worse than if the suns went out."
"If it makes you feel better, I once threw a mug at Qui-Gon in a temper."
"You did?" Anakin asked, looking up at Obi-Wan and seeming comforted.
"I did. I left the Jedi Order once because I was so infatuated with a girl."
"Really?"
"Yes. Do you feel better now?"
Anakin nodded, "Yeah. Much. Thanks for telling me."
"Thank you for being comforted," Obi-Wan answered, "I feel as if it'll make my job much easier."
"Yeah, probably. Do I have to go to lessons today?"
Obi-Wan looked over at him, "Maybe you could stay home for today, and I could start teaching you."
Anakin grinned, "Really?"
"We can start with cleaning the kitchen," Obi-Wan said, and Anakin slumped somewhat, but nodded.
"I'll go contact your teachers," Obi-Wan said, and Anakin nodded, already starting to gather the dishes and carry them to the sink. Obi-Wan smiled at him and hurried to call Anakin's teachers, and inform them that their day would be contained with learning some of the basics of the Force and on how to live without one's mother.