The next morning Anakin woke late and alone to the sound of raindrops against the window and the twittering of the kids out in the lounge. He spent some time relishing his memories from the night before, the marks left from some love-bites on his torso proving that yes, it had actually taken place and wasn't just yet another vivid dream. He rolled over and scratched his leg, allowing himself a brief moment of smugness as he recalled the impressed look on Obi-wan's face when he had seen a turned-on Anakin in his birthday suit for the first time. Not that the man had been any less impressive himself. He could now hear noises from the kitchen, and decided he'd better stop thinking about last night before he got too horny to be decent.
He rolled off the bed, hitting the floor with a thud, pulled on some loose sleep-pants and shuffled to the doorway, cracking open the door quietly, hiding his presence in the force so as to sneak a look at what was going on in the lounge before he was noticed. There was Obi-wan, impeccably neat and tidy as always – how did he do that? - with an apron on, dancing, yes dancing around the dining table delivering pancakes with a flourish to the delighted children. Anakin felt a burst of affection and that he could quite happily just hide here and watch this all day: the three people he cared about most in the galaxy enjoying each other's company.
Being Skywalkers, naturally the twins sensed his presence first, Leia calling out "daddy's up!" and Luke waving with his fork. Obi-wan looked up to see the young jedi watching them, lazily slouched against the bedroom door frame. He felt his stomach flutter as he took in Anakin's disheveled hair, bare torso and low-sitting sleep-pants – how could the man be so ridiculously good-looking with so little effort? Gods, he could be wrapped head-to-toe in a beet sack and he would still more attractive than every finely-dressed man on Coruscant.
Obi-wan had cooked the younglings pancakes shaped like acklays, and Luke reported in a matter of fact tone to Anakin that they were much better than when daddy cooked pancakes since he always burned them. Anakin laughed, acknowledging that it was true, and Obi-wan took the moment to announce that for the rest of this holiday, he would do the cooking. The kids applauded and Anakin just beamed, before putting two and two together to realise that that meant he was going to be on dishing-duty every day. But, he thought to himself, it was definitely worth doing a few measly dishes to have meals cooked by Obi-wan every day.
Leia offered to 'help' with the dishes while Obi-wan took Luke out into the lounge to tease the tangles out of his wayward mop of hair. He smiled to himself as he listened to the vivacious little girl pestering Anakin with incessant questions, and felt a tidal wave of happiness wash over him when she asked "daddy, why was uncle Obi in your bed last night" and he heard Anakin quietly reply "because it is uncle Obi's bed too now, and it makes daddy happy when he's there." He was rapt to hear Leia respond simply "ok. Can I have a pet porg one day?" as if it was totally natural that uncle Obi should start sharing her father's bed. If only adults could be so accepting.
As Anakin was shrugging on a t-shirt a knock came on the door. Luke ran to open it, looking up at a tall Alderaanian woman. "Nadka!" called Anakin with delight, "come on in." "Nadka Sorana, Obi-wan Kenobi. Obi-wan, Nadka" Anakin introduced them and they smiled at each other, Obi-wan feeling completely at ease in this woman's friendly presence. Nadka, it turned out, was the owner of the lakehouse and lived in a townhouse in Cantara. "I got to know Nadka through Padme's family about seven years ago – she knows the whole sodding story and has been my rock over the last few years. She knows every parenting tip in the galaxy!" Nadka dipped her head in acknowledgement of Anakin's words. "Obi-wan is my… old best friend" he paused. "He's a jedi, of course. He was my master when I was training to be a jedi knight. You should see him in action with a lightsaber! He agreed to come on holiday with us, the kids love him and he's an amazing cook…" Realising that he was beginning to babble and that Nadka was no fool, Anakin abruptly stopped talking and beckoned them to take a seat at the table.
With a glint of amusement in her eyes, Nadka eyed Obi-wan approvingly. "Well then you're very welcome, master Kenobi. It has been a tough time for us all due to the war alone, not to mention any additional personal problems. Please make yourself at home and enjoy your time here in our little piece of paradise." Obi-wan thanked her for her kind words and brought over a pot of his favourite lantibban tea, the adults chatting on while the twins played. Some time later, as she prepared to leave, Nadka suggested that Luke and Leia should come and stay with her family one night – her kids were the same age and they were all friends already. "Then you men can have a little time to yourselves for a change" she said with what could almost have been a wink at Anakin. "Oh yes, pleease daddy, can we go and play with them?" cajoled the twins. Anakin chuckled and told Nadka that he appreciated the offer – they didn't have any firm plans for the week yet but it'd be great to meet them for a picnic at the beach in a few days and maybe the kids could go home with Nadka's family afterwards for the night. They parted, agreeing to make arrangements via comlink later on. "For someone who isn't force-sensitive, she always seems uncannily able to read what I'm thinking" Anakin muttered as he closed the door.
Since it was still raining heavily and looked like it was going to stay that way, Obi-wan settled back into his chair and picked up the weighty book he had brought with him – a treatise on the different forms of bureaucratic rule on a range of planets around the galaxy. It would do him good to better understand the full range of governmental systems he may encounter one day. Anakin glanced at the cover over his shoulder – he would never understand how the older jedi could actually read stuff like that. Just reading the cover alone made Anakin want to yawn. He turned back to the model starfighter he'd been piecing together. He'd much rather be outside swimming, sparring, doing anything physical, but this would have to do until the weather improved enough for the others to feel like going out.
As it turned out, the twins had other ideas. They'd hatched a plot between themselves that morning, and as soon as the two jedi had settled into their respective pastimes, they launched their attack. Leia leapt onto Obi-wan's lap from behind, sending his book flying through the air and nearly giving him a heart attack – his ability to perceive the future must be out of practice, he hadn't seen that coming. Luke's target was Anakin. Luckily for Luke he was smart enough to have worked out what would be in store for him if he broke Anakin's starfighter model, so he grabbed hold of the top of Anakin's chair and tipped it over backwards, tumbling his astonished father onto the floor where he found himself sat upon by his cheeky, resolute son.
"You're being so booring!" exclaimed Leia. "Yeah, you told us that you and uncle Obi always have adventures when you're together, but now you're both just… sitting there!" Luke chimed in, in agreement. Obi-wan looked over at Anakin and raised an eyebrow – oh yes, these were Skywalker children through and through. "Well…" started Obi-wan. "Has your father ever told you about the time when we were captured by pirates?" "Noo" the kids gasped, wide-eyed and eager to hear more. "Well, it was a while ago, back when your father and I were generals in the Clone wars. We were on a mission…" Obi-wan slid down onto the floor with the kids as he told the story, his illustrative gestures becoming increasingly dramatic as the tale developed. When he started describing a fierce battle, Anakin joined in by playing the part of the head pirate Hondo Ohnaka, earning him applause from his children. When Obi-wan's story came to an end, Anakin piped up. "Well if you think that was an adventure Obi-wan, what about the time when we were flying our starfighters in a battle and yours was attacked by buzz droids?"
By now all four of them were totally immersed in the imaginary world the two men were describing. When Anakin was telling them how he was doing barrel rolls to escape missiles he scooped Luke up and flew him around like a starfighter. Leia was soon hot on his tails, Obi-wan swooping her around, pretending to avoid enemy starships and ducking explosions. The kids were giggling like crazy, and it infected the men who couldn't help but start laughing themselves as they ran around the house holding the kids above their heads, making rocket noises and almost crashing into light fixtures more than once.
Finally, the adults collapsed into the sofa, crash-landing the children onto their laps. "Oops, crashed again" said Anakin light-heartedly, to which Obi-wan replied "yeah, well that's nothing new" with an affectionate smile at his love. "But you said daddy was the best pilot in the galaxy!" accused Leia, at which Obi-wan ruffled her hair with his hand and replied "and I was telling the truth." Anakin snorted. "But even the best pilots crash a lot when they insist on flying much faster than the galactic code of starship piloting suggests is reasonable for the conditions." "Yeah yeah, do you think the blasted galactic piloting code would be able to save your sorry ass from buzz droids?" countered Anakin with a grin.
Anakin extricated himself from the couch. "I know you said I was forbidden from cooking anymore, but how about I make us all some popped chitnuts? It's honestly the one thing I can cook – my specialty, if you like." Luke and Leia backed him up and told Obi-wan in full seriousness that yes indeed, their father was a master of popping chitnuts. "Master of something, at last" Anakin said to himself just loudly enough for Obi-wan to hear it and smile. After a little while, with the obligatory crashing and banging that seemed to arise whenever Anakin was in the kitchen, he returned with four steaming bowls of treats and Obi-wan had to agree, this was the tastiest thing that had ever resulted from Anakin applying heat to ingredients.
They set the kids up to watch a nice long holovid in the lounge, the littlies now being content to just sit there and munch on their chitnuts. Then the men headed out onto the couch on the veranda, protected from the rain by the overhanging roof. Anakin encouraged Obi-wan to not fret so much about anyone seeing them - after all, the nearest neighbours were miles away - and was pleasantly surprised when Obi-wan did indeed recline back to nestle against Anakin's chest. "Living dangerously, master jedi" he whispered into Obi-wan's ear, giving it a gentle nip before leaning back and enjoying doing absolutely nothing, with the weight of a fully-relaxed Obi-wan pressing against him.
"You know, I never believed this actually would happen" murmured Anakin into Obi-wan's neck, while Obi-wan lazily stroked his fingertips up and down Anakin's flesh arm. "I thought… I thought you might say yes to coming, because you're so kind and I know you enjoy being with children." He paused. "But never in a million years did I imagine that all my dreams would come true like this." He hugged Obi-wan tightly, burrowing his face into that soft golden hair. "Many unexpected things have happened to me in life as well" replied Obi-wan. "Funnily enough, you seem to be the starting point for all of them" he joked before turning serious. "I have felt guilt every day for five years about sending you into Padme's arms… about trying so hard to be the perfect jedi master that I lost my ability to see the reality of what was right in front of me – a young man who desperately wanted to feel approved of and loved and instead only got cold by-the-book lectures on his failings."
Anakin shook his head, a tear involuntarily squeezing out of the corner of his eye. "It wasn't your fault, nothing was your fault. I know it was me who brought this upon myself. But… but I've been so low ever since I was left to raise the kids alone. It's been like being stuck at the bottom of a deep sarlacc pit, with everyone you know and care about up in the light, looking down on you and wondering why you aren't trying harder to climb up out of the pit, but never thinking to pass you a ladder." Obi-wan absorbed his words, beginning to fully understand the crushing sense of abandonment that Anakin had been living with.
The young man continued. "I haven't been able to sleep properly for years from the stress of knowing that it's up to me and me alone to teach these two little beings how to fulfill their potential, while knowing that I completely failed to fulfill my own. You have no idea how I've longed to hear your voice, even if it was to tell me off for dropping my lightsaber yet again, just so it felt like somebody out there cared about me. It became my weekly ritual to pore over the temple's rosters in the hope that your free time might one day match mine, but it seemed like the admin staff were always deliberately offsetting our schedules by a week, just to torment me. I've been so lonely, so lonely, but I've had to put on my everything-is-ok face for the twins every day because they don't deserve to suffer from my mistakes. My children… my gorgeous children… if there is one thing I don't regret, it's that they have come into my life. Until now, they have been the only thing that has kept me from falling." "Falling?" asked Obi-wan. "I've felt... the dark side calling to me, Obi-wan" Anakin hesitantly admitted, a note of fear coming into his voice. "It beckons to me, promising me the power to change my life, to make it the way I want it to be" he whispered. "I've been fighting it for years, but it's only getting harder to resist, and I'm afraid that one day I'll give in."
Obi-wan turned on his side so he could see Anakin's face, and wrapped his arms around him, wanting to hug the past away and make Anakin feel just how loved he truly was. "I'm so sorry I didn't come to visit you. I could have, I know that. I just… I just felt so rejected… so hurt… and I'll admit that at first I felt a very un-jedi-like emotion. I wanted you to feel the same misery that you'd unknowingly inflicted on me. I'm ashamed to say it, but it's true. And then… work and the daily grind of life just took over and it never seemed the right time to make contact with you. If I'm honest, I was just too scared of the pain of seeing you again. When you called my name that day that you invited me here, my heart leapt so high I swear I thought I was going to have to see a medidroid. But I also never imagined that all my dreams would come true if I came with you. I love your kids Anakin, they are so full of energy and joy, so unsullied and open. And I love you, Anakin." He tenderly touched his fingers to Anakin's chin. "I've thought it a thousand times... but I've never told you to your face just how staggeringly handsome you are."
Anakin looked away, embarrassed. Obi-wan persevered "it's true, your skin is so smooth and perfectly tanned, your hair is just made for me to run my hands through, your lips make my spine tingle with every word you say, your scar…" he caressed the mark crossing Anakin's right eye "…your scar is just proof of the courageous way you fight to protect those weaker than yourself, and your eyes… oh gods, your eyes… I could drown in your eyes." He sighed, gazing with desire into those very eyes.
"Only when I'm with you do I feel safe, Obi-wan" Anakin professed in response. "I see you come into a room and it lights up – everyone wants to be with you, you make everyone feel happier somehow." His mood lightened, and he broke into a grin. "And kriff, you think I'm attractive? You have no idea how sexy you look when you confidently shrug off your robe all over the place, like you own the galaxy." As if to emphasise his point, he shifted his hand to stroke Obi-wan's inner thigh, feeling warmth rising deep inside him. Right at that moment a banto-bird cried out shrilly from a tree nearby, abruptly reminding the two jedi that it was, in fact, only the afternoon and they had better not get too carried away because that holovid wasn't going to last forever.
Moving inside, the men joined the kids in the lounge and enjoyed the rest of a relaxing uneventful afternoon, Obi-wan making plans for the next day's activities. He wouldn't tell the Skywalkers what he was scheming, but he kept writing in a notebook and looking things up on his datapad. Anakin amazingly managed to hold back from pressing him to explain what he was up to, looking forward to the surprise of whatever he had in store. After a gourmet meal a la Kenobi for dinner, Anakin tucked the twins into bed, reading them a story until they fell asleep.
Walking back into the lounge where Obi-wan was back reading his brick of a book, Anakin felt a little awkward. Yesterday they had just kind of ended up in his bedroom, but did that mean that they would share the same bed every night now? Or should he just go to bed and then go to Obi-wan later? Maybe Obi-wan just wanted to sleep by himself tonight? "Um… do you wanna…" he shyly gestured with his hand at his bedroom door. "I'll be right there, Anakin" said Obi-wan absent-mindedly as he finished a chapter. "Just have to go to the fresher first." "Oh ok then" Anakin replied, relieved that that was easily settled. He headed into his bedroom and dived under the blanket.
"You know, if this is now our bedroom, by rights I should have some say in the organisation of clothing and floorspace" Obi-wan declared as he squeezed through the door that was partly blocked by a pile of clothing. "Did you unpack by triggering a bomb in your suitcase, perchance?" Anakin just laughed at Obi-wan's indignation. "Yep, that's exactly how I unpacked, far more efficient than doing it manually." "One of these days I will teach you how to be civilised" Obi-wan muttered as he undressed and slid in beside Anakin, who was hiding under the blankets waiting to pounce when his prey was in range. He was about to make his move, when he sensed that Luke was toddling towards the room. Sure enough, the door squeaked open and a plaintive little voice called his name. "What is it is, son?" he asked. "I need a glass of water." With his voice muffled through the blankets Anakin reminded Luke that he was old enough now that he could get his own water, and then to go back to bed. Luke nodded, padded out of the bedroom to collect his drink and made his way back to his own room.
"Right, where were we?" Anakin turned back to his intended victim, burrowing through the blankets until his lips made contact with his lover's broad chest, dotting playful little kisses past his collarbone and up his neck until at last he planted a kiss onto Obi-wan's mouth, following it up with a deeper, more passionate kiss which elicited a soft moan from the older man. Obi-wan wrapped his arms around Anakin, letting his hands slip slowly down the supple skin on his back until they were caressing the top of his firm buttocks, gently grazing over the cleft that led to places Obi-wan felt a thrill of anticipation about exploring. They could feel each other's cocks stiffening more with every kiss.
Anakin was just about to move his delectable lips from Obi-wan's mouth to another part of his anatomy in need of urgent attention, when he heard that wretched door squeak again, and froze. "Daddy?" Leia inquired of the pile of blankets that was all she could see in the darkened room. "What is it honey?" "I can't find Quinto." Anakin sighed. Quinto was Leia's stuffed porg that she slept with every night. He remembered that she'd had it on the couch when they were watching that holovid, hopefully it was still there so he wouldn't have to do a grid-search of the entire house to find it. "Try looking on the couch sweetie, I know he was there this afternoon". Leia tottered off to the lounge but obviously couldn't find Quinto as he could sense her growing sadness through the force. "Stang!" Anakin swore as he rolled out of bed, threw on a scuzzy old robe and stomped out of the room to help his daughter find her precious toy. Eventually he found it, behind a pot-plant in the kitchen. 'How did it ever get there?' he wondered, before kissing Leia tenderly on the forehead and sending her shuffling off back to her room.
"Kriffing kids, they do it to me on purpose I swear!" Anakin complained as Obi-wan chuckled, their bodies back off the boil after the lengthy interruption. "Well they didn't burn up much energy today, so no wonder they're full of beans now. But I have an excellent plan up my sleeve for tomorrow that will leave them so worn out that we would be able to invite the whole village and have an orgy without them waking up." "Now there's an idea" said Anakin, resting his head on Obi-wan's arm as they lay side-by-side, staring at the ceiling.
"Do you realise that I'm over forty now?" stated Obi-wan, out of the blue. "Wha… where did that come from?" responded Anakin. "No I hadn't realised, but I'm sure I could have worked it out, even if maths never was my strong subject… I'm twenty-five, I know you're sixteen years older than me, which makes you… forty-one." Anakin turned his head to face his lover. "But I really don't give a shit." Obi-wan made a hmm sound in his throat. Anakin let out a disbelieving scoff. "Oh come on! Don't start fretting over your age! Who cares? I don't! At forty-one you are far sexier than anyone half your age that I've met – and no doubt over those years you've picked up some skills that I might… enjoy…" he finished, brushing his hand suggestively over Obi-wan's thigh.
Obi-wan felt his body respond instantly to Anakin's touch, but as he went to reciprocate he felt Anakin freeze again. "Daddy?" Anakin cursed, he hadn't even noticed the door open this time. "Yes Luke?" "I think there's a gundark under my bed." Anakin gave up – this night was not going to be one of passion. He was just going to have to make up for it the next day. He carried Luke back to his room, vanquished all the gundarks from under the bed, and lay down beside his little boy until they both fell soundly asleep. Obi-wan snuggled into Anakin's pillows, savouring the scent of Anakin that permeated everything – sweet and fresh, like lying on a lawn on a summer's day. Dreaming of the adventures they were going to have tomorrow, both in and out of the bedroom, he also fell into a deep sleep.