NOTE TO SELF: Keep it clean. (check) Get the lyrics. (Got'em)

NOTE TO READERS: It's been a long time since I wrote Pre-Phantom Menace, but I was writing it way back in the first few years of the second Millenium so I do know what I'm doing. I've had this thing through about five computers though and this is the sixth...and it's never been posted it. So I looked it over, gave it a final edit and decided it's time to do so. So, it's going on my flashdrive with the updates.

DISCLAIMER: IF YOU RECOGNIZE IT, IT DOESN'T BELONG TO ME. IF YOU DO NOT RECOGNIZE IT, IT DOES BELONG TO ME. I'M BELOW THE POVERTY LEVEL, INCOME WISE...SUING ME WILL DO YOU NO GOOD. I'M NOT RECEIVING ANY BENEFITS FROM THIS OF ANY KIND.

WARNING: AU/AR

Plotbunny: Powerful claiming via ballet and an intense old song from Air Supply.

SUMMARY: 17 year old Senior Padawan Kenobi is skating the thin edge of personal disaster when his swelling emotions for his Master cause him to set his half of the most powerful Lifebond in Jedi history on Qui Gon...and HE doesn't notice. Yoda send outside the Jedi for an instructor in the Art of an Ancient Dance form, in the hopes the highly emotional type of dance will allow Obi to release his emotions when his inability to do so with the Force signals a crisis. ONESHOT

Nothing at All

The dance instructor glared at the Jedi Council members..."He's ready to do this...stay out of it. This is going to cause a suicide if you push things your way. Unless you want a very dead Padawan, you need to do it my way. There's a reason I'm so good at my job, you know."

"Empath you are, understand we do. Our Empaths agree."

"Your empaths should have spotted the problem long before it got this far." She snapped. "I've called in every master with a high Empathic ability in the Temple orchestra for this, warned them...if not his own...and they're shielded enough not to be drawn in too far, but not so much that they can't send through every ounce of the emotions they pick up from Obi right back into the music. They have to, they don't want him suiciding either. It's a good thing Qui has decades of experience in this dance form though. I've got him kitted out in something that...well, you'll see. He's got to finish that bond though or that boy is dead meat. It's gone too far, been there too long and there's no other way." She snarled.

Mace kept his mouth shut this time. He didn't want another butt chewing like the last first time she'd growled at them, he'd chided her for it and she'd rounded on him...explaining in very small words that she wasn't a Temple empath or a Jedi. She didn't have to be polite to people unless she thought they deserved it...and the condition this apprentice was in clearly indicated that the current council members did NOT.

Obi Wan was kitted out in a soft white body suit...as clearly fem as she could make it without going so far as to hide his obvious masculinity. He shivered as the opening notes for the practice runs...instrumental only, until now...sounded in the outdoor arena. Nothing indoors was big enough for the actual performance which would see him going from ground to sky in a dance that was a dance and not a kata...but which had included in it a few kata moves as a sort of a physically expressed commentary. There would be a bit of active, visual Force manipulation as part of the early moves, as well. He had never heard the words, only the music but it throbbed in his bones. The rightness of every step of it was felt deep in his gut. He wondered what parts his master had been made to learn as she nodded at him to assume his place.

The run through ended and his Master entered in a costume that made the boy's gut clench...and an observing master immediately sent a shield up to shelter younger Jedi not yet ready to deal with the overflow. Crechlings had not even been allowed to attend.

The music began low, a swell of sound, fell back and then only the opening notes of a piano were heard.

Obi Wan began to move...the shields he'd held against his master utterly gone. She'd taken them down in a way he didn't understand and had done the same to Qui...who steadied Obi Wan so he didn't falter...and continued seamlessly when they both heard the words to the now familiar melody for the first time.

"I know just how to whisper and I know just how to cry,

I know just where to find the answers and I know just how to lie,

I know just how to fake it and I know just how to scheme,

I know just when to face the truth and then I know when just to dream,

This is when Obi started petting and playing gently with visible Force tendrils.

"And I know just where to touch you and I know just what to prove,

And I know when to pull you closer and I know when to let you loose,

He went airborne with that line, letting the Force bear him into flight.

"And I know the night is fading and I know that time's gonna to fly"

Sent him to a pleading stance in front of Qui Gon...who was getting the full brunt of the unfulfilled lifebond's throbbing need now.

Now, finally, he understood the danger Obi Wan was in...and his arms took the soothing posture drilled into him naturally instead of in the dance move. He opened himself fully to the Force...which by this time had been made well aware of his padawan's peril...and listened to it properly...finally.

And I'm never gonna tell ya everything I gotta tell ya,

But I know I gotta give it a try...

Obi Wan then addressed his knowledge of Qui's worries...

And I know the roads to riches and I know the ways to fame,

I know all the rules and then I know how to break them

And I always know the name of the game...

Obi Wan had never been more graceful or more beautiful than he was right now...and with his defenses down depending solely on his master's protection, Qui let his half of the bond form...which it did, flowing into Obi Wan and attaching in a grip that would never break.

"But I don't know how to leave you,

And I'll never let'cha Fall,

And I don't know how you do it, makin' love, outta nothing at all.

Makin' love,

Outta nothing at all,

Makin' love,

Outta nothing at all,

Makin' love,

Outta nothing at all,

Makin' love,

Outta nothing at all,

Makin' love,

Outta nothing at all,

Makin' love,

Outta nothing at all,

Makin' love,

Outta nothing at all...

"Every time I see you all the rays of the sun are streaming through the winds in your hair,

And every star in the sky is taking aim at your eyes like a spotlight."

Now Qui's body joined his in the dance, those last two lines had clearly been to the younger Jedi from the older one who adored him. There was so much sheer love and romance radiating off Qui Gon that the music making masters were hard-put to do their job and shield at the same time. The boy was dedicating his existence to Qui Gon while radiating pain at the same time...Obi's desperate eyes met his as the dance required and the words hit Qui like a hammer. Obi Wan's expression confirmed their truth.

"The beating of my heart is a drum and it's lost...and it's looking for a rhythm like you...

You can take the Darkness from the pit of the night and turn it to a beacon burning ever so bright,

I worked so hard for everything I knew, but it was nothing til I gave it to YOU.

His master's memory entered the mine on Bandomeer and he hurt for what he'd put Obi through for so long. The boy had wanted to die then, not just offered to. Because his soul had already begun to attach itself to a master who hadn't wanted him. And he still thought he had been taken out of pity. The memory of Obi's actions during the Mela/Daan mission crept in from the sides...and Qui's heart shattered, because he finally understood why it had happened at all. Every master on the council caught that and Yoda groaned. "Punished he was. Without cause. Qui Gon censored should have been. Padawan seeking guidance was, received none."

"I can make a player fumble, I can make the receiver fall,

I can make every tackle at the sound of a whistle,

I can make all the stadiums roll,

It was a clear reference to his skill with the form of football played at the Temple, the games that Qui never attended.

I could make you mine forever or I can make it disappear like the dawn

And I can make you every promise that has ever been made

And I can make all your demons be gone...

The promises came with tears, now, the boy's heart was breaking and Jinn couldn't stand the desperation he'd caused...

But I'm never gonna make it without you,

Do you really want to see me crawl?

Crawl? Dear Force...no, not Obi, surely? Jinn was horrified.

And I'm never gonna make it like you do, makin' love outta nothing at all.

Makin' love,

Outta nothing at all,

Makin' love,

Outta nothing at all,

Makin' love,

Outta nothing at all,

Makin' love,

Outta nothing at all,

Makin' love,

Outta nothing at all,

Makin' love,

Outta nothing at all,

Makin' love,

Outta nothing at all...

And when the last notes of the singer's voice died and the last booming drumbeats faded into silence, Obi Wan was on his knees at Qui Gon's feet, rocking back and forth with his face covered in tears and the man was joining him on the floor. Jinn said nothing, only scooping the crying boy into his arms as the Lifebond fully meshed.

All of the masters were vibrating with the sheer power of the emotions the boy had finally released...but only because his master had finally been ready to hear. Everyone from Knight to Yoda understood the power of Obi Wan's need now...and knew why the empaths had all been so insistent.

"Off the roster they are. To Atramitia they should go, alone they must be. Take time, this will." He sighed. "Add ballet and music to the classes we will, avert tragedy they have. Mesh well with Force they do."

~*~ finis ~*~