Preview #1: A Dying Art (title subject to change...) Plan: eventual multi-chapter fic

Anakin's eyes suddenly took on a curious and excited glint. "You've been in this tournament before? When? Did you do well?"

"It was forty years ago," Obi-wan said with a light chuckle. "I'm sure it's changed quite a bit since then."

Anakin's face visibly fell. "Forty years? Master, you have got to quit wasting your entire life working. That would have made you what... eighteen, nineteen... no... hold on, let me figure this..." He shrugged, smirking. "Sorry, I don't have enough fingers and toes to use such big numbers."

Obi-wan stared at him until the younger man cocked his head to the side. "What?"

"Perhaps I should join with a different friend and show you just how little a role age plays in this tournament," he said evenly.

~~OOO~~

"Anakin," Obi-wan repeated, "just get us a schedule and get back here. If you wanted to be late, you shouldn't have asked me to be your partner. And for the record, 'fashionably late' is still late. You still keep people waiting, you still make people angry, and you're still late. Some people aren't amused by that."

Anakin headed for the door, but he spared a glance over his shoulder, just so that Obi-wan could see his smirk. "Well, no, maybe not cranky old farts such as yourself, but most others are at least tolerant..."

"Tolerance is for those who are content with indifference," Obi-wan quipped, his face flattening to a look of pure annoyance.

Anakin rolled his eyes and turned back to open the door. "I'm leaving before you turn this into a one-sided conversation of the philosophical sort. I'll be back soon - WHOA!" He took a step back and Luke followed him in with a laugh.

"I didn't know it was possible to surprise you," Luke said.

Anakin frowned, but it was Obi-wan who groaned. "Great, just marvelous," the Jedi Master muttered. "Now I have two of them in my apartment."

Two heads swiveled in his direction. "Hey!" both of them snapped at the same time.

~~OOO~~

Luke took one look at him and promptly sat down right in the middle of the room. Obi-wan smiled slightly and slid down against the wall. "What are you so hesitant to talk about?"

Luke sighed once, realized there was no way out, and then spoke. "I'm not hesitant, I'm just... embarrassed."

"That you don't know me as well as you think."

Luke blinked, surprised. Then he sighed again. "Well... yeah. I mean, father's told me stories and such, and I've spent about as much time with you as I do with him, seems how you're always together, but I've never actually asked you anything personal, you know?"

Obi-wan smiled. "You could have at any time, Luke. I won't lie to you."

~~OOO~~

Kyle shifted in his seat. "Destroyers? We aren't allowed to. They're off-limits during the tournament. I guess we could try and simulate one with the training droids, but I don't know how..."

"True... I forgot we couldn't use them. Maybe we should practice maneuvers, then. Try and figure out a way to kill them quicker. We need to get through this whole round tomorrow without being stunned."

Kyle lifted a brow. "Why? I know your dad's a close second to us right now, but as long as we keep beating them on the course I don't see them beating us any time soon. We've watched enough of their matches; we can beat them easily when it comes to that."

Luke shook his head. "It's not that. They fought in the Clone Wars, remember? They know how to take care of these things. If we can't get past a couple of destroyers, they'll make up a lot of ground in this round alone."

Kyle snorted. "Look, Luke. I know what you're saying, but getting through a dozen destroyers is a big stretch, even for them. And then after that, they're faced with an all out assault."

Luke nodded towards the window of the observatory they were sitting in. "Let's find out. They're up next."

~~OOO~~

The bolt struck him in the shin. It shouldn't have been that bad; they were just set to stun. Yes, the things stung like crazy, but the man shouldn't have fallen like that, as if he'd had a dull knife stabbed into his leg instead of a stun bolt.

Obi-wan's leg was thrown back awkwardly and he fell forward, hitting the floor hard even though he caught himself at the last moment with one hand. Luke's gaze was frozen on Kenobi's face. The grimace of pain there wasn't going anywhere. The pain wasn't fading like it did with a typical stun bolt.

~~OOO~~

"Know your limits, Obi-wan! I don't care about results in a kriffin' tournament! This isn't life or death; it's supposed to be fun, and you're throwing yourself around without any regard for -"

"Perhaps, Anakin," Obi-wan bit out, "you should have thought about that before you asked me to be your partner in this."

Anakin stepped forward, shoving a finger into Obi-wan's chest. "Don't you dare put this on me, Obi-wan! You put yourself into that position. And when I asked you to join me, I wasn't expecting you to treat this like a blasted war."

Obi-wan shoved Anakin's hand away, barely holding back enough to make it look like a mere brush-off instead of a counter attack. Surprisingly, the older man glanced away, catching Luke's eye for a second before turning to survey the mess they had created. "It's hard," he said, voice dropping to an emotionless tone. "It's hard to treat all of this," he gestured pointedly, "as anything else."

~~OOO~~

Silence followed. Only the sound of trickling water filled the air. It sounded deafening in his ears even thought its source was so small.

"Scrap metal," Obi-wan finally stated. He reached with a hand, drawing a line along his scar. "It was crude, but effective. Attached to the end of a length of leather. She snapped it twice. Just twice." His hand reached the end, up towards his knee, and he paused.

Luke wasn't sure he was hearing the man right. "I'm not sure I understand..." he began, but that was a lie. He knew.

Gray eyes snapped over. Flashes of blue flickered into existence here and there. "One piece stuck the second time, took some bone with it when she ripped it out... I couldn't walk right for a month..."

His hands were shaking. Funny, because Obi-wan was perfectly still, saying these words with a calm he couldn't comprehend. Luke settled on gripping his knees to stop the shaking. "What... what happened?"

Remember, these are only previews... works in the making. And I'm not giving you guys any plot lines to go with any of these, because truth be told I don't really have any yet. Just ideas!

Please let me know what you think! I'll even take suggestions for plot lines if you guys have any! :)