The Book of Good Tidings Part II
"Now into bed."
"But you're not going to bed."
"No, I am not."
"Then why do I have to?"
"Because I am your master and I say so."
"Oh. But I don't want to go to bed."
"You want to be bright for classes tomorrow, don't you?"
"Class isn't that important."
"Bali."
"Master."
Obi-Wan scooped up the pajama-clad padawan who burst into a fit laughter as he was carried into the small sleep room. The young master carefully dropped the boy onto sleep couch. "Now, no wandering the Temple tonight," he whispered hoping that just this once the apprentice would stay in his bed all night.
"Yes, Master." Bali gave a little frown pulling his covers up. "Are you going to be gone long?"
"I don't know." Often he had gone to a training room to relax after Bali fell to sleep but that never lasted too long and he was always back before nightmares or mornings robbed Bali of his sleep. He studied the padawan's curious green eyes and gave him a warm smile. "I will be close," Obi-Wan replied. He reached out and brushed calloused fingers through the boy's dark brown spikes causing more giggles. "I will be in the Lunal Lounge with Bant and Garen."
Bali made an unhappy face as he snuggled against the pillow.
Obi-Wan had known Bali didn't like being called a pet by Garen and had asked about it in the cafeteria. It had been a difficult question to answer without insulting the young padawan. He pinched the little wrinkled up nose. "You do that often enough and you will soon look like Master Diiban."
"With the funny nose?"
"The very one."
Bali burst into giggles.
Obi-Wan tucked the boy into his sleep roll. "If you need me just call." He tapped his right temple for effect.
"I'm not a little initiate, Master," Bali said as if he had just been insulted again. "I can spend the night by myself."
"I know you can."
A look of worry glazed Bali's face. "You'll be close, right?"
"Yes, Padawan."
* * * * *
"I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up," Garen called out the moment the lounge door opened.
Tugging at his cloak, Obi-Wan paused to study the dark haired knight, the healer and the table full of bottles between them. "I had to make sure Bali got to bed first." He didn't miss the happy grin on Bant's face before she quickly stifled it.
The knight quizzed, "Sneaking out are we?"
"Of course not," Obi-Wan replied almost indignantly as he pulled out the only other empty chair at the table. "I don't have to do that with Bali." Reaching lightly for the training bond, he was reassured to know Bali was sound asleep.
Bant eyed her friend and giggled nursing a glass of dark amber liquid. "Bali likes to wander the halls at night if Obi-Wan is out about the Temple."
"In other words a devoted pet," Garen observed.
Obi-Wan grasped a bottle of Corellian Sweet Ale and softly popped the dark cork. "Bali is hardly a [i]pet[/i]." Preparing to pour the liquid into a glass he paused then took a swig directly out of the bottle.
Stretching slightly, Bant grabbed Garen's arm stopping him from taking another drink and pulled him closer. "Be careful, he's worse than a Melorian tigress protecting her cubs when it comes to that padawan of his."
"I wouldn't be surprised," Garen answered taking a swig from his bottle of sweet ale. "Wouldn't surprise me a bit. I saw how he looked at the little guy."
"Bali's a sweet kid, but it is beyond me just how he gets along so well with Obi," Bant teased.
"You know, I am in the room," Obi-Wan reminded between draughts.
"Of course," Garen started to laugh, "you missed it, Bant my darling. Bali reminded everyone in the corridor of the famous security recording. Should have seen our stoic friend here." He paused long enough to down another gulp of the sweet ale and motion toward Obi-Wan. "He turned such a lovely shade of red."
Obi-Wan set the bottle down on the table with a clank and leaned forward to study Bant. To the healer's credit she never met the intense pale blue gaze, instead kept her silvery eyes fixed anywhere but on him.
The young master almost pleaded, "Could you not tell Bali about all of my embarrassing escapades?"
"We don't have that kind of time. Besides, how will he learn if I don't tell him?" Bant chirped. "I mean, poor little kid is stuck with dour old you for a master. I just want him to know his master wasn't always so dull."
"He thinks I'm dull?"
Bant looked to Obi-Wan's worried expression then mumbled something to herself and grabbed up an unattended bottle downing half of it before setting it down with a thud. "You know I say silly things when I'm drunk."
"You're not drunk."
"She is now," Garen said grabbing his bottle again. "Or will be if she's not trying to keep a clear head."
"I thought we were supposed to get drunk?" the healer said worriedly. "What is the point of drinking if we're not going to regret it in the morning?"
"My kind of girl," Garen teased. He held out the bottle, nudging it slightly cuing everyone to raise their bottles in a toast. "To friends and the hope we can do this more often."
* * * * *
On the long couch that took up a good portion of the semi circular lounge, a hiccuping Bant slumped against Obi-Wan. She wrapped an arm across his shoulders. "You're awful quiet."
Drawing the cool rim of the ale bottle to his lips, Obi-Wan took a long draught emptying the bottle. With a sloppy, drunken grin, he slurred softly, "I'm wondering why I let you two talk me into this. I'm going to regret it–"
"Talked you into what?" Garen said, raising his head from the bench he was stretched out across. "If you're still thinking," he paused and then continued in his own slurring tongue, "you aren't drunk enough."
Between loud hiccups, Bant managed to say, "It's a good thing we aren't padawans anymore. Our masters would be hunting us down right now."
"You're masters maybe," Obi-Wan said pausing long enough to grab the half filled bottle from Bant's hand. Taking swig from it, he continued, "Mine pretended, or maybe he didn't notice, that my head was going to implode the next morning."
Garen twisted up in a maddening fit of giggles. "Still wish someone had a holopic of that. Can you imagine the look on the great Qui-Gon Jinn's face when you spewed all over him?" Still taken up by the laughter, the drunken knight rolled a little to far to one side and fell off the bench landing with a dull thud.
Bant exploded into laughter.
"Never got to see it before I passed out," Obi-Wan said softly finishing off the bottle. He stood up but only made a few steps before something snagged his long cloak.
"Don't leave," Bant begged with eyes rimmed with tears of laughter. "Please."
"I'm not leaving," he said with a smile while prying her hands free of the rust colored material. "I am just going to see if there is anything left to drink."
* * * * *
Garen flopped backward into a large circular cushion that was normally used in the meditation chambers but for some reason made up part of the lounge's decoration. He stared up through the protective bubble of the small deck at the far end of the lounge at the amber glow of the Coruscant evening sky. "So tell me," he said, not taking his gaze from the night, "how did you and Bali meet?"
Obi-Wan looked up from the chair he had been nested in for the last hour. "In one of the main corridors." Stopping only long enough to steal a few small sips from one of the last bottles of ale. Then he dreamily let his head fell back against the cushion. "A bully was getting back at him for something. I stepped in," there was a long pause then softly he added, "and scared the older boy half to death."
"That boy was a monster," Bant interjected. "If he had stuck around Daen Lebo would have made Bruck Chun look like an angel."
Obi-Wan frowned.
Garen propped himself up on his elbow. "Just like that? You two meet and become best buddies? If only it was so simple when we were hoping to be picked by masters."
Bant started giggling. "You are funny." She pointed to Obi-Wan. "Have you met Mr. Warm and Fuzzy? While you were off being some fancy starfighter pilot and charming everyone you met, our dear Obi here had the personality of Calamarian fire eel."
"Some say I still do."
"Old habits are hard to break," Bant teased. "They discovered they had something in common."
"What?" Garen pressed. When no answer was provided, he pushed, "Are you going to make me guess?" Finally he propped himself up a little higher. "They are both incredibly stubborn?"
"That too," Bant added.
"A major pain in the–"
"You are talking about my padawan," Obi-Wan playfully warned.
Suddenly making the connection, Garen grinned. "It's their love for the healing center."
Bant burst into giggles and Obi-Wan frowned again.
The healer straightened slightly and studied her quiet friend. "Obi?"
Obi-Wan gave an uneven grin just before taking another draught of the sweet ale. "Yes, Bant?"
"You know that wasn't the first time you met Bali."
"I think I would have remembered such an invasive encounter."
"Mind speaking in a language I understand?" Garen asked reaching blindly for a bottle sitting on the floor next to the meditation chair.
Bant eyed her dark haired friend that was still stretched over the meditation seat. "You met Bali, right?"
Garen tried to raise his hand up to indicate Bali's approximate height but nearly fell off the chair. "Cute kid who giggles a lot."
"That's him," Bant said smiling. "You can almost see how powerful the bond is between them."
Garen nodded a silent agreement.
"It seems the Force decided those two were meant to be together and every time Obi-Wan got near Bali, a training bond started to form. This was back when Obi-Wan was extremely heavily shielded."
"As if he isn't now."
"Well, he is trying," Bant defended. "Little Bali punched through Obi's shields like they were nothing." She looked over to the quiet ginger haired Jedi and said firmly, "I know you two met before that." She gave a gentle grin but never let her silvery gaze stray from Obi-Wan. "Remember, oh about six years ago when the Temple was all in a rush over a missing initiate?"
Obi-Wan shook his head no.
"Come on, Obi," Bant chided. "A three-year-old had vanished from the crèche and was missing for several hours."
Obi-Wan just looked at her in quiet confusion.
"Every padawan, knight and master was turning the place upside down searching for the little boy." When her friend still didn't respond she looked to Garen. "You remember that? It was the last time they lost a little one."
"I remember," Garen replied. "You would have thought the Temple was under attack the way they mobilized the place." He laughed taking in more of the sweet ale. "Maybe you were on a mission," he said motioning to Obi-Wan.
"He was with me when we came across Bali," Bant said, strangely sober. "You don't remember?"
"A few more drinks of this stuff," Obi-Wan softly slurred holding up the bottle in his hand, "and I won't even remember my own name."
Snorting unhappily, Bant turned her attention back to Garen who watched sleepily. "Obi and I were sent through the halls near the stone garden. Out of a corner toddles this little dark haired boy. He was all wobbly like he had just learned to walk and had not yet mastered it. The crèche masters must have figured he wasn't capable of taking off or they would have put a leash on him." Glancing back at Obi-Wan who still stared at her in confusion, she continued, "The poor boy was hungry and tired. He had been missing for hours and no one knew how he got nearly thirty levels and across the Temple away." She smiled at the memory. "Obi asked him what his name was. Instead of answering, Bali jammed his thumb in his mouth."
"Naturally," Garen said. "But how do you know for sure it was Obi-Wan's apprentice? There are lots of dark haired little boy's running around the crèche." He then tilted his own dark haired head forward for effect.
"I remember it because it was the only time in my life I have seen Yoda run."
Garen sat up looking at her as if she started spouting Huttese. "Yoda. Running?"
"Would have thought he was being chased by a Sith army he ran so fast. Then just like that he was happy and relieved that we had found Bali." She looked back at Obi-Wan who was listening intently to the story. "You offered to carry him back to the crèche but Yoda said he would take care of him and that we should go and inform the crèche masters he had been found. You don't remember any of that?"
Obi-Wan shook his head negatively and took another draught nearly emptying the bottle.
* * * * *
Garen propped his arm and himself against Obi-Wan's unsteady shoulder. The dark haired knight drew close and whispered. "Come on, a corridor run for old times sake."
"Only if you go first."
"No, together."
"Last time you said that I got caught because you held back."
Garen gave him a big sloppy grin. "Come on. Bant is stealing the boards. The least we could do is make fools of ourselves."
Obi-Wan slowly approached the ledge of the balcony. His bleary gaze nearly swam at the deep drop to the main walkway far below. Hands pressed to the cool stone. "You are mad. We're not stupid padawans anymore."
"Padawans no. Still stupid? Yes."
A small smile leapt to Obi-Wan's drink weary face. "If I kill myself, you have to promise to train Bali."
"And if we both die?"
"I guess Bant's stuck with him."
"What about me?" the healer asked as she appeared with two floater boards from the healing center. Each board was no more than a half-meter square and was used in aiding injured Jedi without being as clunky and taking up as much space as a hover gurney. "Try not to break them." She handed one off to Garen but held onto the one for Obi-Wan. "Don't you dare make me train that tiny terror of a padawan. He's your problem."
Joy radiated in pale blue eyes. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
"At least let me get down to the walkway so when you two crash and break your necks I can administer first aid to you crazy creatures. Or laugh hysterically."
"I am sure Garen will be thankful for your professionalism," Obi-Wan said pulling his heavy warm cloak from his shoulders and held onto it for a moment before giving it up to Bant's care.
"Ha! You're the one Master Yaddle found flat on your back in the middle of the corridor with a busted board next to you," Garen happily reminded from a running distance to the balcony. "Are you two just going to stand there or are you going to get ready?"
* * * * *
Bant paced and tried to focus the Force to help her wring some of the alcohol out of her system but she was well beyond pickled and knew sleep was her only cure. Folding Obi-Wan's cloak over her arm she looked up at the small balcony high overhead and wondered what was keeping them.
Probably still arguing about whom goes first, she snickered to herself.
Then she wondered if she should point out the silent holocam floating near one of the rafters. She decided they were experienced field Jedi, if they couldn't figure it out, she wasn't going to help them. Besides, she wanted a copy of the silly stunt for her records along with a few other incidents that would likely kill both Obi-Wan and Garen if they knew existed.
A slight ripple moved through the Force. She glanced up in time to see Garen burst over the balcony rail and a second behind him was Obi-Wan. The small boards were not designed to carry full-grown men through the air. Nor were they completely ineffective so they did not just drop. Gliding with aid of the Force, the two Jedi cut through the vast openness of the Temple as the boards quickly descended toward the main corridor. Nearly in unison the two leapt to their feet and surfed the air as the boards hover ability kicked in a meter above the stone walkway.
The Force swirled wildly around the two as they raced along walkway, using the ancient power to guide them just a little farther.
Garen's feet slipped and he tumbled to the walkway, rolling in laughter as Obi-Wan raced past him.
Bant raced to her fallen friend. "You okay?"
"Never better."
Mentally pulling at the controls of the small hover board, Obi-Wan caused it to slow and lower until finally he was able to just step off. "How is it you are an expert starfighter pilot but you can't race the main corridor without crashing and burning?" he teased.
"You were always better at being stupid," Garen grunted reaching for Obi-Wan's offered hand.
