Obdurate Heart – XXII

Wow. Okay, so, don't hate me for this chapter. Sort of short.Anyway, as to where I find my quotes—various places. They're all over the place! Thanks guys.

"It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui."

- Hellen Keller

The tray in Obi Wan's hands felt heavy as he stood before the chamber door, unwilling to make this daily check-up on the troublesome captive Darth Maul but still certain that it was improper to neglect such a task. As he came past the guards stationed outside of the room, they greeted him with nothing more than a casual glance, but he felt as though they could somehow sense his unease. He felt just as surely that their eyes were on his back as he made his way in, though he knew in his mind that this was not so.

Obi Wan did not bother his eyes with the sight of Maul as he came in, instead going to the bedside table and setting the tray in order with his eyes fixed upon it. If it turned out that his prisoner was sleeping, there was no reason to draw this visit out. He had had it with the bickering and the idiotic chatter between them, and he would be grateful for any opportunity to avoid it.

"Mm. Not even a 'good evening'."

So much for his hopes. He slowly drew his eyes towards where Maul was sitting up and sighed. "I thought perhaps we could do without the meaningless pleasantries."

"That seems rather unlike you."

Obi Wan stepped away from the tray and faced Maul sternly. "Despite all of your wit and your over-evaluative drivel, you do not know me."

Maul narrowed his eyes a bit and snorted, rubbing part of his naked upper arm. "I see. So you're still angry with me for kissing you."

Obi Wan scowled and felt himself redden terribly. "I'm not angry."

"I suppose I'd be disappointed if you weren't." Maul chuckled to himself. "At least you feel something."

"So long as you're happy." Obi Wan said coldly, and he despised how tangible the anger was in his tone. With that, he turned to leave.

"You're afraid." Maul accused defiantly from behind him, seeming greatly annoyed.

Obi Wan stopped hesitantly. "I am not afraid of you."

"Of course you aren't afraid of me. You're too busy being afraid of yourself." Maul growled. "You're a coward. You don't wish to deal with the matter at hand, and so you run away from it."

"Oh that's rich, that really is." Obi Wan whipped back around and came closer to the bed, glaring down at him. "How convenient for you to call this running away. Did you ever think that perhaps I just didn't like you? That perhaps that is why I wish to leave so quickly?"

"Well now either way you're allowing yourself to be governed by emotion, aren't you?" Maul returned with a sneer.

"No." Obi Wan said instantly, though he could only flounder for words after. "…You are a despicable creature!"

"Not so much as you!" Maul bore his teeth. "Fine then, if this is to be simple, I've repaid my debt to you! My life for yours, your life for mine, so find another Jedi for the task, go on about your uptight brainlessness and leave me be!"

Obi Wan leaned forward more aggressively. "Nothing would make me happier!"

"Then do it!"

"Gladly!"

To his own horror, Obi Wan didn't even protest at the hands that snatched the front of his tunic and pulled him down. There was some kind of a struggle that, through his anger and confusion, he didn't quite understand, but in a matter of moments, he was on the bed and pinned under Maul, who—he hoped—had been the one to initiate a now suffocating and uncomfortable kiss. What was worse was that he could only complain to this with a growl. He was countering the kiss with his own before he realized it, but at the same time, his body writhed and jerked in search for escape.

"But that would really be unorthodox, wouldn't it?" Maul hissed as Obi Wan successfully broke away from the kiss. "Having another Jedi fill in for the position you've worked so hard to attain?" he emphasized this with a heavy push down into Obi Wan's trapped body.

"Whatever should relieve me of you!" Obi Wan spat back, still struggling but meeting his gaze with his own in refusal. His words were only cut again by a rough kiss.

"There you are again with that anger you deny so much." Maul pointed out as he drew back.

"I'm not angry!" he denied hopelessly.

"Still stubborn." Yet again Obi Wan was halted by a mouth against his own.

Obi Wan jerked his head away, feeling as though his chest would explode with a scream. "I have every right to be angry!" he shouted.

Maul looked down at him fiercely, a hand resting on a row of Obi Wan's ribs. One push from the powerful hand could snap them, but it dealt no more than a predatory caress. "Yes. You do. And you are, and it feels good to be angry when it is right, does it not?"

Obi Wan kept his scowl, clenching his teeth hard and shifting his shoulders futilely. His green eyes narrowed and bore into Maul's completely untamed. It was he who initiated the next kiss, though his limbs still fought for freedom while as his lips and tongue betrayed them. It was almost a childish retaliation, as though just to show Maul that he could outdo him whatever the task, so even despite the passionate nature of their circumstance, this was still a battle. The only difference was that Obi Wan was fighting purely for his pride as opposed to his life. And as in a battle, there were no more words. Where a lover would deal a gentle touch and an enemy would deal a blow, an odd middle ground seemed to be reached in the movements they chose against one another. Maul restrained Obi Wan's escape roughly but not bruisingly, and Obi Wan struggled against him with vehemence but not desperation. In reality, Maul could have stopped the Jedi's resisting, and in reality, Obi Wan could have pushed the Sith Lord away, but reality had long since ceased to be a clarity in certain states of mind. As did the lines between ally and enemy, and two men who could never truly be either. Sex brings forth a world of change.