Obi-Wan never understood Icarus.

"Icarus master?" Anakin looked over at him questioningly. They were walking together having left the celebrations on Endor. Obi-Wan wasn't quite sure of their destination. Nor did he know how long they had been walking or even where they were. He supposed it didn't really matter. They had all the time they could possibly want now. Besides, he felt they would probably keep walking until they were to be somewhere else or doing something else. He wasn't really sure about the afterlife yet. Most of his time dead he was assisting things in the Living Universe after all.

"Yes," Obi-Wan shook his head to clear away his musings, realizing he must have spoken out loud, "I always thought you were like him."

"Icarus…Icarus…" Anakin tilted his head up, eyes closing. He was clearly casting his mind back, "wasn't that a Nabooian myth?"

"Yes, of a boy who flew too close to the sun and fell to the sea."

"Yes, yes I think I heard that once – Icarus' sole flight on the wings his father gave him."

"Correct. We had quite the discussion about sense once because of him."

"That's right," Anakin opened his eyes and gave a half-grin. It had not escaped Obi-Wan notice that his former padwan had yet to give a full smile. "But you know there are a lot of differences."

"Oh?"

"For starters Icarus plunged into water while I received baptism by fire."

Obi-Wan winced. He wanted to apologize for that, but knew it was far too soon to bring up Mustafar and had no desire to call Anakin on his deceptive light-heartedness. So instead, "yes, you were always a creature of fire rather than water."

"What can I say? I'm a desert womprat."

"Indeed. And I suppose Palpatine is more suited to water than the sun," he watched carefully but though Anakin flinched slightly and his face stilled, the only sign of strong emotion was a brief flame in ocean blue eyes that burned out before Obi-Wan would have been able to identify it in anyone else. But this wasn't anyone else. This was Anakin and Obi-Wan knew Anakin, even when he didn't understand the younger man.

"Are you alright?" Obi-Wan stood in the doorway. Anakin started at his master's unexpected entrance, to far into his own world to have sense or heard the older man.

"Fine" he replied, emotion flaring briefly in his eyes, "just remembering." He ran a hand through his slightly longer hair. "It's been almost a year since the war began and I was just – thinking."

Deflection. A truth, but one from a certain point of view. The war did begin about a year ago and Anakin was thinking about something that happened last year, but he wasn't thinking about the war, of that Obi-Wan was certain. These were the tricks he used, he could recognize when someone else was trying to use them against him.

It took time, but Obi-Wan was finally able to draw out at least a part of the story from Anakin. His mother had died last year on this day, just like he dreamed. That explained the pain, and the guilt. (Of course it wasn't until he was living on Tatooine years later and heard the legend of the "White Ghost" that he realized there was another reason behind his padwan's guilt.)

So Anakin felt pain and guilt when Palpatine was brought up. Not unexpected.

"Why do you say that?" Anakin asked, managing to sound almost detached.

"Palpatine was a lake. Most people looked in and saw what they wanted to see. He reflected their own dreams and desires back to them and tricked them into believing that he held them."

"Though he didn't," despite the bitterness that managed to creep in, his voice was steady. Anakin was calmer than Obi-Wan expected. But then, it had been twenty-three years since they last spoke properly. "Reflection is not substance."

"A man with moonlight in his hand holds nothing there at all" Obi-Wan quoted softly with a sad smile, remembering the song from a diplomatic mission he and his own master went on so very long ago, before returning to the topic, "some people of course realized there was more, that Palpatine was a lake not a mirror."

"But it was too late to do anything by the time Sidious called up a monster from the depths." There was pain in Anakin's eyes and voice. Obi-Wan decided it was time to move the conversation along.

"You on the other hand are one of the most honest people I know, knew, know. Passionate and restive, eager and restless – definitely more fire than water. And of course there are many more differences between you and Icarus." Despite Obi-Wan's attempt to give the conversation a lighter turn, Anakin's thoughts were still running down a dark path.

"Yes, Icarus had only a quick fall, then it was over. Suddenly the wind goes out from under him, he flaps, but can't fly – then a crash, a splash, and finally just the wind left whispering, 'don't worry, this won't hurt at all'. I was aware of what happened after. I knew I was surrounded by dark, and could see, be tortured with, what I gave up in my madness," he spoke bitterly, self-condemning, "once he fell, he fell. It was over, done. I just kept sinking, finding new depths and new levels of darkness to reach," his mouth twisted and his eyes were focused elsewhere.

Obi-Wan wondered what Anakin was seeing. To speak, or stay silent? He looked over at the scarred man beside him. Anakin was no longer a child, no longer a young man, for him to mentor and guide. Not to mention their relationship was far different. Their bond had been ripped, torn, damaged, broken. They needed to start again, slowly. And it was for Anakin to decide when to confide, when and what he could trust. Obi-Wan just needed to listen, even when he didn't understand. The Jedi felt peace rather than conflict at his decision and felt too for the first time in a long while that he was doing the right thing by Anakin.

He clapped the younger man on the shoulder and smiled. Anakin started, then saw his smile and weakly returned it.

Anakin titled his head back and exhaled. Then he brought his head back down and gave a little smile, visibly more at peace.

They stopped walking and their eyes met. A moment passed between them. Then Anakin gave a mischievous quirk of the lips.

"But do you know what you're greatest mistake was?" he put up a finger.

"What?"

"You" he pointed, "assigned a Nabooian myth to a child of Tatooine," Anakin's almost-grin was back, with a hint of smugness this time "we have our own legends."

"Really. So if we were looking at Tatooine myths who would you be?"

"Birth by fire, on a pyre built by my own hands no less, flying, brought back to life, or at least to the light. I'd have to say a phoenix."

"Phoenix?"

"Haven't you heard of it?"

"I'm afraid Knight Qel never covered any Tatooine legends in our Cultures and Myths class."

Anakin snorted, "probably didn't consider us civilized enough to have a culture."

Obi-Wan decided not to comment on that, "tell me about this phoenix then."

Obi-Wan smiled as they started to walk again and Anakin began talking about five hundred-year-old burning birds, irrationally glad of the differences between Anakin and Icarus. Nodding and commenting as Anakin spoke not of pride, childishness, death, and despair, but of folly, sacrifice, rebirth, and victory. The similarities were still there, but it could be this phoenix was a much better fit. He hoped so. He wished to know Anakin, not as strongly or desperately as before, it was no longer an overpowering need, but still. He loved his brother/son and wanted to understand him.

And Obi-Wan never understood Icarus.