Thank you so much for all the excellent advice I was given! We're keeping everything together in one story, a verdict I'm very happy with.
Sofie's Australian music recommendations for today, as per the inspirations for this chapter: Camp Cope's 'One Wink at a Time' and Montaigne's 'What You Mean To Me' are beautiful songs about learning to fall in love. Which is what our beautiful Duchess is finally letting herself do...
After a childhood of dispassion, in the wake of years of lying and in the wake of a broken heart – Satine was loathe to admit such a thing but Obi Wan had, in these years of separation, broken her heart – learning affection was a strange and wonderful experience. No longer was there the threat of Master Jinn outside their tent and yet somehow the act even of simply gazing at Obi Wan, of looking at him and appreciating the elegance of him, seemed a daring act. She drank the sight of him in covertly when his gaze was fixed upon their son and she stared at him in the minutes after he fell asleep before she closed her own eyes. She accepted his careful kisses but never deepened them. She ran her hands over his hair and arm and intertwined her hand with his as they fell asleep but did not touch him elsewhere. It was not like Satine to be unassertive. But she felt an entirely different person when she was alone with Obi Wan now. She had thought she had known him completely and loved him already but could not help but feel that now she was falling in love anew, with all the sweetness and shyness of the very first time.
Obi Wan showed no impatience. He would be with her a few days, he said – however far he could push the Council without losing custody of his Padawan, essentially. He would be back whenever duty allowed. He spent his days caring dutifully for their son and reported proudly that he had memorised Baby Shatual's Goodnight Song cover to cover. While Satine was in morning meetings he and Korkie constructed a ve'vut'galaar nest from items scavenged from Satine's wardrobe.
"The nest in the clouds!" Korkie announced in ecstasy, waving at his mother from his perch atop a bookcase.
Satine looked at Obi Wan and would have liked to gripe about safety but knew in truth that he had never been in better hands.
And so they continued in this bizarre and beautiful domestic routine until the sixth day, when Satine was gifted an extended lunch break courtesy of the last-minute cancellation of a meeting. Korkie's appetite was back with a vengeance after so many days of illness and he over-ate ferociously until he coughed, spluttered, and ultimately vomited his entire gastric contents directly onto his father's chest.
Obi Wan grimaced at first with all the haughtiness of his youth - Satine remembered, fondly, Obi Wan's endless complaints about the mud in Enceri - but soon managed to find his composure.
"It's alright, Korkie-ad," he soothed, using the sleeve of his already-soiled shirt to wipe the residual vomit from Korkie's chin. "Sit with Buir Mama, she'll get you some water. I'll just go clean myself up…"
He gave Satine a grateful smile as she pulled their child into her own lap and hurried into the ensuite.
"Drink your water, cyar'ad," she encouraged gently, stripping Korkie of his soiled clothes. "It is nearly naptime, little shatual."
Korkie agreed with a yawn and a series of heavy blinks. As the water of the 'fresher provided a steady cascade of white noise, Satine wrapped her son in his sleeping blanket and brought him to his cot, singing softly all the while.
"And the stars in the sky and the moon like a pearl and the water in the streams and the whispers in the leaves…"
Obi Wan emerged from the 'fresher with damp hair and joined in the song.
"… and the heartbeat of the herd and the feathers of the birds all say goodnight, Baby Shatual."
Satine laid Korkie down on the mattress. He rolled onto his front, one arm beneath his head and the other splayed wide – the child insisted on sleeping in what appeared to be horribly uncomfortable positions – and fell into a heavy sleep.
"You really have memorised it," Satine remarked quietly.
"He's been putting all of his toys to bed," Obi Wan explained, as he rummaged through the small bag of clothes that he had brought with him on his mission to Fondor. "He sings it to each of them in turn."
"Cyar'ad," Satine murmured.
Obi Wan frowned as he continued to sift through his garments.
"I think that was the last clean shirt I had."
He was wearing only his linen pants, his towel slung over his bare shoulders.
"They all either have sputum or vomit on them…"
The wound on Obi Wan's left shoulder was curved and deep, presumably courtesy of an old-fashioned blade without cautery. The newly healing tissue was pink and weepy. Obi Wan found a roll of bandage in his bag and looped it a few times around the wound. Satine watched the movement of each muscle beneath his skin. He looked healthier and stronger than when she had last seen him undressed; they had both been close to starving, that winter of revolution on Mandalore.
He looked up from his bag, his bright blue gaze catching hers. His smile was sharp and mischievous.
"You're staring, dearest."
Satine flushed.
"I-"
"I'm not complaining."
He stood upright and came to stand before her, grasping her hands at her sides. So close to her. Satine felt her whole body come instantly and brilliantly alive. She took a step backwards, towards her bed. Obi Wan lay her down on her back, his nose touching hers.
"Suppose Korkie wakes up…" she murmured.
Obi Wan smirked.
"I can ensure that he doesn't."
"Jetii mind tricks," Satine muttered, in false contempt.
Obi Wan looked at her innocently.
"I'm doing it for you, dearest."
Satine scoffed.
"No self-interest on your part?"
She brought his hips down to meet hers.
"That feels like self-interest to me," she remarked, with a smirk.
Obi Wan rolled his eyes good-naturedly and kissed her.
"Have it your way, dearest."
Another kiss.
"I'll rephrase: I am doing this for us."
He could have stayed in bliss on Mandalore forever, were there not someone he loved on Coruscant who he'd rather discourteously abandoned. Obi Wan was greeted by Anakin waiting in the hangar with arms folded across his chest and a wry grin on his face.
"I didn't realise you were going to be gone a whole week, Master."
"Nor did I, Anakin. My apologies."
The child – almost adolescent now, Obi Wan realised, appreciating his Padawan's accelerating height anew – was smirking at him.
"I take it things went well, then?"
Obi Wan shrugged.
"Satine and I have worked things out."
His feigned off-handedness did little to convince his Padawan. Anakin's smirk deepened.
"Congratulations, Master."
Obi Wan rolled his eyes.
"Thank you, Anakin."
They strode from the hangar and towards the Temple.
"The Council's real mad, though," Anakin warned.
Obi Wan nodded grimly at the expected news.
"I told them I didn't know where you were," Anakin went on. "I didn't know what else to say."
"That's perfectly fine," Obi Wan assured him. "I wouldn't want you to be considered party to my disobedience."
"I never thought I'd see you be disobedient," Anakin snickered.
"I was disobedient in taking you as my Padawan, remember?" Obi Wan prompted, nudging him.
"Yeah, and you spent the next two years doing everything they say," Anakin retaliated with a very Obi Wan-like roll of his own eyes. "You'd better have a good excuse, you know. I've been on my very best behaviour for nine kriffing days convincing them that I should keep you as my Master."
Obi Wan suspected that his endeavour to curb Anakin's profanity was a battle he would never win.
"I appreciate that very much, Anakin," he conceded, laying a hand on his Padawan's shoulder. "And not to worry. I'll think of a good excuse."
Anakin gave a double-take.
"You haven't thought of one yet?"
"I've been busy emotionally healing, Padawan."
"Star's sakes," Anakin grumbled. "You were easier to manage when you repressed everything."
After a few steps, the smile faded from Anakin's face.
"You know I don't mean that, right?"
Obi Wan grinned.
"I got the joke, Anakin."
"Just checking."
"You are a delightful Padawan," Obi Wan asserted, looping his arm around Anakin's narrow frame and pressing him in towards him for a clumsy hug as they walked. "I mean it."
Anakin grinned self-consciously.
"Thanks, Obi Wan."
Obi Wan stopped at their quarters only long enough to drop his bag inside.
"We ought to see the Council sooner rather than later, no?" he asked Anakin. "I don't imagine there is much to be gained by delaying."
"Just delay for a few seconds…"
Anakin turned his Master by his shoulders to face him and tweaked at his tabards and collar.
"You've just got something here that you should probably cover up…"
There was repressed laughter in the Force. Obi Wan tried in vain to see what his Padawan was fussing over.
"It's a hickey, Master," Anakin dead-panned. "You know, the bruise that stupid junior Padawans give each other during their rebellious phases of sexual experimentation?"
Obi Wan groaned.
"Don't look so smug, Padawan."
"Hey! I could have let you walk into the Council Chambers like that. I'll be smug if I want."
"One day…" Obi Wan warned, as they embarked through the Temple hallways once more.
"Please," Anakin snorted. "I'll never be so oblivious."
"I'll hold you to that, Padawan."
The journey to the Council Chambers involved an enormous number of stairs. Anakin was no longer the frightened child from Tatooine who had been terrified to enter an elevator, but the habit had stuck. When Anakin had last tried to protest that he was more than happy to make use of the Temple lifts, Obi Wan had retorted that exercise was important for unruly Padawans, which Anakin could grudgingly concede was still true. The long journey up the stairs did well to quiet the nerves in his stomach. There was nowhere in the Temple he disliked visiting as much as the Council Chambers.
"Haar'chak!"
Obi Wan was frowning down at his left shoulder, where spots of blood had appeared on his robes.
"Does Mando'an profanity still count as uncivilised behaviour?" Anakin asked innocently, jogging past his Master up the next flight of stairs.
"From your mouth, not mine," Obi Wan muttered, fiddling with the bandage beneath his robes. "The exercise has made it bleed again…"
"Perhaps you are too old for such vigorous exercise," Anakin suggested. "Udesii, Master."
Obi Wan cocked a brow.
"You're learning Mando'a too?"
"I can't be the only di'kut in the family who doesn't speak it," Anakin reasoned.
Anakin was enjoying the challenge of learning a new language; he found it far more expressive and nuanced than Huttese, which he supposed should not have been surprising. Anakin leaned over the stair-rail to appreciate his Master's struggle.
"You've uncovered your hickey again."
"Iba shu'shuk," Obi Wan grumbled, wrapping his collar tightly once more and continuing slowly up the stairs.
By some small mercy, they made it up the final flights without further damage. Anakin could not help but feel a half-foot smaller as he stood before the Council – an improvement, at least, on when he had first met them and felt like a tiny gorg in the presence of krayt dragons.
"Returned to us, Kenobi, you are," Yoda observed. "Grave concerns for your whereabouts, we had."
"Not to worry," Obi Wan managed, with an easy smile. "I am quite unharmed."
Anakin looked forward to the day – if it ever came – when he could be so self-assured while Mace Windu glared at him like that.
"We heard that you left Fondor seven days ago, Kenobi."
"Indeed," Obi Wan agreed. "I returned the Crown Prince to his parents. And while I would have rather stayed on planet and enjoyed the hospitality of the royal family, I found myself chasing a lead."
"A lead?" Master Windu pressed.
"Yes. To Eriadu. You know that they have keen economic interests in Fondor. The weapons used by the insurgents on Fondor made me suspect support from the Tarkin regime…"
Obi Wan gave a hapless shrug.
"I got nowhere, however. An injury to my shoulder and little else."
He gestured to his blood-spotted robes.
"I apologise for having acted recklessly, Masters. It was upsetting, frankly, to see the insurgents treat that child as they did. I was caught up in my own suspicions and hurried to act as quickly and covertly as possible to chase the lead. I should have communicated with the Temple; I see that now."
The Masters of the Council gave their slow nods. Obi Wan had taught Anakin this trick – to plead guilty early in the piece, confessing to a relatively minor transgression.
"We will be eager to read your mission report," Ki Adi Mundi remarked. "I have long suspected Tarkin's regime on Eriadu of misconduct."
"Of course, Master. Although I'm afraid that my discoveries to that end were ultimately few."
Obi Wan spoke with an assuredness that belied his fictitious mission and non-existent mission report. Anakin suspected he would be enrolled in a creative writing task later this evening.
"I must thank you very deeply, Masters Yoda and Windu, for having cared for my Padawan in my absence," he went on. "You were right. The mission was too dangerous for him."
Anakin made an effort not to scowl. He should have been there.
"Engaged well in our training, Padawan Skywalker has," Yoda reported. "Insightful, this time has been."
Obi Wan nodded, silent and blank-faced. Anakin knew him well enough to sense his faint anxiety.
"He holds far less fear than when we first met him," Master Windu conceded. "Despite his contact with his mother."
Anakin knew that Obi Wan would have liked to say I told you so. He was impressed by his Master's restraint.
"Anakin is doing very well," Obi Wan agreed reservedly. "I'm glad that-"
"The more concerning attachment," Master Windu cut in, "is between the two of you."
There was a heavy silence in the room. Obi Wan's gaze hardened.
"I don't accept that, Masters."
"No?"
"I think that the bond between us is as it should be."
And even though they weren't out of trouble yet, Anakin felt such warmth towards his Master beside him. His Master who would not renounce him, even when invited to.
"Obi Wan hasn't done anything wrong," Anakin protested.
He was speaking out of turn and he was proving their point but he couldn't help himself.
"He's been so good to me; he understands me and he's helped me-"
Obi Wan laid a gentle hand on Anakin's shoulder. Hush, Padawan.
"What do you propose, Masters?" Obi Wan asked, inexplicably dignified. "I warn you, we will not be separated."
Anakin was certain there was no one in the galaxy so courageous as his Master. Mace Windu's expression contorted with displeasure at being warned by a lowly Knight.
"Propose a separation, we do not," Yoda intoned calmly. "But occasional teaching with Council members, we advise. Much to teach the Chosen One, the members of this Council have."
Obi Wan gave an elegant shrug and squeezed Anakin's shoulder.
"Your swordsmanship will be better than I could ever teach you," Obi Wan conceded blandly. "It is not a bad idea. What say you, Padawan?"
Anakin held firmly onto the warmth of Obi Wan's gaze.
"I would be honoured to learn from Council members on occasion," he managed.
His heart was thundering. They had done it. They would stay together. Anakin worked to shield his overabundant joy that would surely affirm the Council's fears.
"Closer training for you too, Kenobi, we advise," Yoda went on. "Sure, we must be, that go missing again, you do not. Be allocated any missions in the meantime, you will not."
Obi Wan accepted this with a marginally less gracious nod; Anakin knew that he would not enjoy having his shields prodded by the Grand Master.
"Get to the Healers, Kenobi," Master Windu bade him – perhaps an even greater punishment, given Obi Wan's intense dislike of being a patient in the Halls. "I look forward to reading of your journey to Eriadu."
Kenobi and his Padawan practically skipped from the Council Chambers.
"He's been miserable by all reports for the past several months," Mace grumbled to the Grand Master beside him, as the Council concluded their formal session. "And his Padawan with him."
"Miserable now, he is not," Yoda observed.
"Indeed he isn't."
Mace would have comfortably bet his life that Kenobi did not find his happiness on Eriadu.
"Push Kenobi too far, we must not," Yoda mused, taking up his gimer stick. "Loyalty to the Order, despite his personal matters, he has shown. And the key to Skywalker's loyalty, he remains."
Personal matters? Mace knew better than to ask the Grand Master to clarify.
"We simply can't have him swanning about the galaxy at his own whim," Mace pressed instead. "It would discredit the Council."
Yoda shook his head, solemnity on his wizened face.
"Behave himself, Kenobi will. Abandon Skywalker, he will not."
Mace sighed. And so they would compromise for the privileged duo again.
"They never should have been placed together," he muttered.
Yoda gave a shrug, his ears quirking upwards.
"Insistent on their pairing, the Force was."
"Well, we're skating on rather thin ice, Padawan," Obi Wan conceded, as they half-jogged down the stairs. "But skating elegantly, I would say."
"I'll help you write a convincing mission report," Anakin offered.
"You'll do no such thing. You're the one who's won the trust of the Council, not me. I owe you one," Obi Wan conceded with a wry grin.
This was not something that his Master admitted to often.
"I'll accept my punishment and write it tonight," Obi Wan went on magnanimously. "You should go to Dex's for dinner, you've earned a treat."
"You just want me to bring something back for you," Anakin observed, with a grin.
Obi Wan gave a guilty shrug.
"I wouldn't say no to a nerfburger. In fact, I'd give an arm for a nerfburger."
"Didn't Satine feed you?" Anakin asked, laughing.
"She's vegetarian, you know that."
"Wayii, Obi Wan," Anakin groaned, grinning up at his Master.
Obi Wan Kenobi had a karking girlfriend. Riduur. Something. Obi Wan who'd seemed all but inhuman when they'd first met. Obi Wan who'd spent the past two years meditating away his feelings. The galaxy had surely gone crazy.
Anakin shook his head with a wry grin as he fell into step with his Master once more.
"Why do I get the feeling that these next few years are going to be even crazier than the last ones?"
Phew! Our favourite Master-Padawan duo are (mainly) off the hook. As much as the Jedi Council like to talk tough, I thought it quite believable that they'd compromise on Obi Wan and Anakin's close bond - given that they made the massive compromise, in the first place, of letting Obi Wan train Anakin. And I'd like to think that Yoda, despite having some suspicions about Obi Wan's personal life, realises that Obi Wan is taking Anakin in a good direction.
Mando'an translations:
Haar'chak = damn it
Udesii = take it easy
Di'kut = idiot
Iba shu'shuk = what a disaster
Wayii = an exclamation to the effect of 'good grief!' or (in Australian English) 'bloody hell!'
Our next chapter, in which we celebrate many family life-days through the years, is about half-written, so hopefully the wait will not be too long. There will be happy days and sad days, and the reintroduction of one of my favourite characters (any guesses?) Let me know if there are any special life-day moments you are hanging out to see and I can write them in.
Happy Easter-time if you celebrate it!
xx - S.