There were caves on the planet that Luke was on currently. He had no particular desire to explore them, but it was definitely better than the alternative, which at this point looked like getting attacked by a herd of… something. They were big, and had teeth, and that was enough to convince Luke that he wanted to stay away from them. So he ventured into the cave system, hoping to lose the pack of wild creatures on his tail and ready to kill him. It took surprisingly less time than he thought it would. It might have been because they had no sense of smell. They were some sort of desert creature that had excellent eyes, but no nose at all. Why they were on an island in the middle of an ocean was a question to Luke. Thankfully the cave had so many twists and turns that he could lose them quickly.

Luke stopped to catch his breath after running a couple more minutes after losing them, just to be sure. He glanced around at the caverns around him, and he could barely see a thing. From what he could see, it looked nobody had ever been inside the caves. As Luke's eyes started to grow adjusted to the dark cave, he could see a faint blue glow around the bend. It looked almost like the glow of his blue lightsaber. He figured since he had no idea how to get out of the caves, he might as well investigate.

They were flowers, glowing softly in the darkness, but looking really bright with how dark the rest of the caves were. He recognized them. They were called Echo Flowers. They would record, and echo back until someone says something else. Luke was now glad that he'd stayed quiet. He could really learn whether there had been anyone in these caves before. He leaned his ear close to the nearest flower.

He heard a passing conversation.

"Those fucking things. What were they?" The man sounded out of breath. Luke moved to the next flower

"Well I don't know." There was a second man speaking now, and he sounded really sarcastic and had a Coruscanti accent. "Maybe if you'd listened to me, we wouldn't have been chased into this cave, and we'd be on our way, and not nearly killed and lost, Anakin." Luke froze. His father had been here? Did that mean that the other man there was Obi-Wan? Luke quickly moved on to the third flower.

"I never wanted to go to this fucking planet anyway. That was your idea." Anakin sounded bitter. Luke continued going from flower to flower, hearing the conversation in it's full.

"Anakin watch your language, you're supposed to be a Jedi."

There was a snort from Anakin "Like I didn't hear you swear when you stubbed your toe on the corner of your desk yesterday."

"Where were you during that? I thought you were supposed to be in the shower!"

"Perhaps I actually finished taking my shower in a reasonable time. Unlike someone I know, Obi-Wan. Then I was about to step out when I heard you bang your foot on the desk, and swear loudly, and I died laughing, so I stayed in the shower for a couple more minutes until I calmed down."

"…I really hate you Anakin."

There was another laugh from Anakin. "Sure."

The next couple of flowers were silent.

"Do you know how to get out of these caves, Obi-Wan?"

"No. You shouldn't have riled up those things with the teeth. Then they wouldn't have chased up into the caves. And we wouldn't be lost right now."

"No need to get snappish with me." Anakin spat somewhat bitterly.

"I'm sorry." Obi-Wan sounded quiet.

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten angry. I'm just tired, and I'm really not happy about having to deal with all of this sand."

Obi-Wan laughed quietly. "Well at least it's calm in here."

"Yeah."

There was a whole stretch of Echo Flowers that were quiet.

"Hey. Obi-Wan? Can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Why can't Jedi get married?"

There was a sigh from Obi-Wan. "Were a Jedi to experience the loss that comes with losing the object of their affections, they might be overcome with such anger that they turn to the dark side. You know this." He sounded like he was reciting something from a textbook.

Anakin growled. "It's still bullshit though."

Obi-Wan sighed again. "It's the rule of the Jedi council. There's nothing that you can do to change that right now. You can't be with Padme. I'm sorry."

"What?" Anakin sounded surprised.

"Aren't you asking this because of Padme?" Obi-Wan sounded surprised too.

Anakin laughed.

"I suppose that it would seem like that. But no. I mean… She's pretty, and I do kind of like her… but…"

"But what, Anakin?"

"Nothing. It's just a question."

The next flower was quiet.

"Obi-Wan… If you could make the decision between doing what others think is right, and doing what you know in your heart is right… what would you do?"

"It… depends on the situation…" Obi-Wan sounded uncomfortable with this subject matter.

"You know what this is about." Anakin was speaking quietly.

"I… I don't know Anakin. Let's just try to get out of here."

"Is this about Satine?" Anakin asked, part accusatory, part simply curious.

"What?" Obi-Wan sounded surprised.

"Satine. I can see you two flirting every time you're in the same room. It's practically sickening."

"'I suppose that it would seem like that. But no. I mean… She's pretty, and I do kind of like her… but…'" Obi-Wan mimicked Anakin.

"Ha ha Obi-Wan. But if it's not Satine, then…?"

"You never told me who you were talking about if not about Padme."

"True."

Neither said anything for quite a while. Luke was very invested in the conversation at this point.

"Whoever it is…" Anakin started, "Do you love them?"

"Why do you care?"

"You're my… friend, Obi-Wan." He snorted, "Not like I'd get you in trouble. Come on, I've pretty much broken every rule of the Jedi code."

"To be honest, I try not to think about it that much." Obi-Wan sounded somewhat resigned to be talking about this.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well I just kind of keep it in the back of my mind. I've kind of accepted it now. I know that it's there, but I keep it away so that I don't act on it."

"Is that what you think that I should do?"

"It depends on whether you've accepted that you love her."

There was silence for a couple minutes.

"I don't know if I love… If I'm in love."

"Well how do you feel around her?"

Anakin sounded uncomfortable. "When I'm with… them, I feel happy. I like their company. I feel like I would do anything to make them happy too. I feel powerful. Like I could do anything. They're… very beautiful, and they pretend that they know that, but I don't think that he really thinks-" Anakin cut himself off abruptly as he realized his mistake.

"Oh."

Another long stretch of silence followed, and Luke's eyes were wide, realizing that this was his father speaking.

"It doesn't mean that I don't like girls. Just… that I kinda like guys too…"

"I see. Well. Me too."

"Really?" Anakin was clearly shocked.

"Yes." Obi-Wan laughed.

"What are you laughing about?"

"Well, don't tell anyone I said this, but Qui-Gon and I both acknowledged that we shared a mutual… attraction."

"Qui-Gon and you?!"

"…Yes. Don't make me regret telling you that."

"Yeah, but Qui-Gon?"

"Oh shut up."

"But he's… old."

Obi-Wan burst out laughing. "He was much younger when I knew him just after finishing my training. And much better looking too."

Anakin sounded like he was choking on something. "I did not need to know that."

"So is that enough information in exchange for the knowledge of who you're pining over?"

"Did you two ever… you know."

There was a loud thump and Anakin shouted out in pain.

"No. We acknowledged the attraction, and that was that. Honestly Anakin, you say you're disgusted by me saying that Qui-Gon was more attractive in his younger years, and then you ask me that?"

"I was just asking…" Anakin mumbled.

"So after that, you'd better tell me who this is that you might be in love with."

The next flower was quiet, as though Anakin was weighing his options.

"I can't."

"And why not? Come on, you thought that was awkward for you, think how I felt."

"…Like you said. Try to put it out of your mind. Don't think about it. I don't want to talk about it."

"Fine. Don't tell me then." Obi-Wan's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"It's not like you were going to tell me about who you're in love with." Anakin sounded indignant.

"Fine." Obi-Wan snapped, "You want to know?

"…" Anakin paused, "Yes."

Obi-Wan sighed. "I supposed you were bound to find out eventually."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You, Anakin. I fell in love- I've fallen in love- with… you."

The next flower was silent, and Luke was in complete shock. He didn't know how to feel.

"I'm sorry, Anakin. Like I said, I'm keeping all feelings in the back of my mind. Nothing will ever come of them."

"…You're being serious?"

"I… I am." Obi-Wan sounded like he was seriously considering lying and pretending that he was just joking.

"Well."

"Are you… smiling, Anakin?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Because that means that I can do this."

Luke furrowed his eyebrows, not entirely certain what that was supposed to mean. He moved onto the next flower, hoping it would give him some sort of indication as to what his father had done.

"...You just kissed me."

Luke startled back from the flower, and stared at it in shock. This had to be a joke. His dad? Darth Vader? And Obi-Wan? Part of him wanted to continue on, but another part was still rather invested in this conversation. He moved on to the next flower with uncertainty.

"Yeah. I did."

"You shouldn't have done that. It's against the Jedi code."

Anakin gave a bark of laughter. "Fuck the code, Obi-Wan. Remember what I asked you? About doing what other people think is the right thing to do, and doing what you know in your heart is the right thing to do? I don't care about those other people. Yoda can go fuck himself!"

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan sounded appalled.

"Obi-Wan. Come on. You have to know that that part of the code is complete bullshit. Being with you… It makes me stronger. It makes me want to fight harder. I'd be a better Jedi if I could be with you. Together. We work in harmony. As a couple, we could work harder. Our emotion would be peaceful. Our passion would be serene. We would work together, with the Jedi code. Only that part, about how Jedi cannot be in relationships was bullshit. The Jedi council is afraid, contradictory to their own code. They're afraid of anything going wrong, so they ban every tiny thing that could cause trouble. It's bullshit."

"Anakin, I know it is, but we're Jedi. This, this can't happen." Obi-Wan sounded like he was in pain.

"Then let's not be Jedi. We're stranded in a cave, Obi-Wan. Nobody knows where we are. We could run off, no one would find us. We could be happy, Obi-Wan."

"No Anakin. I'm sorry."

"Don't you want to be happy?"

"I do. But… We can't be happy together. I know it's not fair, Anakin, but it's just not meant to be. I wish that it could work, but…"

"No…" Anakin sounded slightly distraught. "How is it not meant to be?"

"Come on. We have to get back to the others."

"No we don't Obi-Wan. We can go, find an island in the middle of nowhere. It'll be our happily ever after."

"No Anakin." Obi-Wan sounded stern, but sad. "You're supposed to be a Jedi. You have to restore order to the force. You have to go back to train Ahsoka."

Luke heard the faint sound of a kiss.

"I love you, Anakin. But we can't do this. It isn't meant to be. We will always have this, but it can't continue. We're Jedi."

Luke stepped back from the Echo Flower, thoughts bouncing around in his head. His dad was in love with Obi-Wan? He slowly leaned his head in to the next flower, to hear what Anakin had to say.

"I love you." He sounded heartbroken.

"Shh, Anakin, don't cry. I'm not going anywhere. We'll still see each other. This isn't the end. It's just a new chapter. Shh… Don't cry. Anakin. Don't cry…"

"I've lost everything, Obi-Wan. I lost my home, I lost my mother, hell I lost my fucking hand. And now I'm losing you."

"You're not going to lose me, Anakin. You'll have to try harder than that to get rid of me."

"I've lost my chance of happiness with you, then. And it's all the fucking Jedi's fault. I'm starting to wonder whether I'm really supposed to be a Jedi. Whether I even want to be a Jedi anymore."

"No Anakin!" Obi-Wan sounded alarmed. "Please. Stay."

"I… I want to stay. But I can't do this anymore. I want to stay with you, but I can't take the fucking 'Jedi code' anymore. I love you, Obi-Wan. And if the Jedi say that that's not allowed. That that's wrong somehow. Then maybe I don't want to be a Jedi anymore."

"But… You need to restore-"

"No, Obi-Wan. I don't want to be the fucking 'chosen one'. I don't want to 'restore order to the force'. I just want to live a normal life. I want to be allowed to love who I love. I want… I want to live. Because whatever the Jedi have me doing right now, this isn't living. I'm being chased into caves by giant creatures, I'm nearly getting killed every day."

"I'm sorry."

"When I was back on Tatooine, with my mother, and I was just a child. I would dream of winning a pod race, and getting off of that planet, becoming famous, and letting my mother free. As I got older, what I wanted most in life got more and more reasonable. Soon I just wanted to free my mom. But then she was killed by the Tuscan Raiders. Now, what I want seems like it would be so easy, but it's nearly impossible. I just want to be happy. That's all I want. And for a few moments just now, I was. I was happy because I thought that we could be together, I thought that we could work, and that I could finally achieve my only goal in life. But the Jedi code fucked that up for me. Tell me this, Obi-Wan, why should the Jedi council get to stop me from being happy?" Anakin's tone took a dark turn at the end.

"They shouldn't, but that doesn't mean that you can disobey them. Anakin, my worst fear is losing you, and I would do anything to prevent that from happening. The Jedi council would be disgusted with me if they found out. I agree with you Anakin. When I'm fighting alongside you, I feel stronger. And I can still do that, just so long as nobody knows about this. Because if they do, they'll never let us stay together, and work together. I know that they're afraid, Anakin. But there is nothing we can do about it at this point. So we're going to get out of this cave, and we'll keep these memories with us for the rest of our lives, but we won't- we can't speak of this ever again."

There was the sound of one kissing the other.

"I'm so sorry Anakin."

There were no more Echo Flowers.