The following months passed quietly for Obi-Wan and Anakin, a welcome reprieve after the previous tension-filled period.
They moved to live together in the new quarters the Temple assigned them. The apartment was much alike those assigned to the master/padawan teams: two bedrooms, a 'fresher, the kitchen, the living room and a room that could be used as a study or an office. The place was large enough to comfortably house the two of them and Anakin's mother.
However, Shmi Skywalker decided not to join them at the Temple, at least for the moment. She said she would remain in the flat she had shared with Anakin and that she would live alone, with Tiane's help.
She thought the two men deserved some privacy now that they could live together, and did not need an old woman always around them. Both Obi-Wan and Anakin protested her words, but they both appreciated the feeling behind them. However, they made Shmi promise to join them at the Temple, at least for a while, when their son was born to help them to care for the boy.
Living together was exhilarating, despite the slight problems they had to face in the beginning. Obi-Wan and Anakin had to learn to adapt to each other's habits and to cope with each other's faults.
Anakin liked to listen to high volume music, Obi-Wan loved to read in silence. Anakin was used to dropping his things on every free surface, Obi-Wan insisted on keeping the rooms tidy and in order. Sometimes the younger man had to turn the apartment upside down searching for the things he remembered having left in some place and that Obi-Wan had made disappear without telling him. But they both loved to cook together, to go out to dinner with Shmi or Bant, to share the bathtub now and then, to spend quiet evenings watching the holovid snuggling on the divan or not so quiet evenings playing heated games of sabacc.
As for the rest, their lives went on as usual. The two men, along with the Council had decided to keep Anakin's pregnancy secret. They did not want the news to leak out of the Temple, now that several non- Jedi were living inside it, and catch the interest of some tabloids. Also Obi-Wan did not want Anakin to be submitted to unwanted, perhaps morbid curiosity, just now that their relationship was no longer as interesting as it used to be a few months before.
Their professional lives continued as before. Obi-Wan sat in the Council, taught his classes and held seminaries in diplomacy at the Coruscant Central University. Anakin kept on happily staining his hands with grease and oil as he worked a mechanic repairing ships in the Temple hangars or piloted diplomatic vessels across the Republic. The only difference was that his assignments now did not last more than ten days.
Anakin's pregnancy progressed well under Bant's supervision, and he was healthy as usual. The hormones running into his blood made him even more beautiful to Obi-Wan's eyes, but in a strong, masculine way. There was nothing soft or feminine in Anakin, not even now, and since he was such a tall, broad-backed man, his belly did not need to expand too much to house the child growing inside. The bulge he put on along the months could easily be mistaken for the padding put there by too much fondness for food and a sedentary life.
Not that Anakin would have complained if people knew what was going on. He not only was used to be stared at, but this time he would even been proud to be pointed at, should they have not decided to keep it a secret.
After all, how many men had given a child to their mate? How many Jedi had convinced the Force to help them by bending the natural rules?
Yes, Anakin had the right to feel proud, and Obi-Wan told him so more then once. However, the Jedi master chose not to reveal to his mate who and what the Council reputed him to be.
An accurate analysis of the circumstances of Anakin's birth, the presence of only Shmi's DNA in his blood, his extremely high midi-chlorian count and the absolute miracle of his conception, had led Yoda and other masters to conclude Anakin had been born by the Force itself.
Someone even dared to say the young man was the mythological Chosen One announced by a Jedi prophecy. Or better, yet he could have been, had he been trained as a Jedi.
Obi-Wan listened intently, but did not share that talk with Anakin. He knew that deep inside, his mate would have loved to be a knight. The young man has told him that he used to play the Jedi when he was a child and how he often ran to Mos Espa spaceport when some Republican ship landed in the hope to spot a knight. Obi-Wan had no doubt Anakin could have been a wonderful Jedi had he been found as a child, but the Force had chosen differently. It had no sense to instil regrets in the young man by taunting him with what could have been, but was not.
Anakin was happy now, satisfied with his private and professional life, and Obi-Wan wanted him to always be so. His young one had already suffered enough and the Jedi master was determined to make sure he won't be hurt again.
Obi-Wan too was as happy as never before in his life. Jedi did not look for personal happiness as other people did, but it was undeniable that they pursued serenity, and that his serenity was very much alike Anakin's happiness, although he was much more controlled in expressing it.
He still felt ill at ease with public displays of affection, preferring to reserve them for when he and Anakin were alone.
Anakin respected their differences to the point, the day they had received the documents of their joining from the Council, he had calmly announced they did not need to have any ceremony to celebrate the event.
"I don't need a traditional ceremony as others knights have done to please their civilian mates," Anakin had said, his eyes showing a maturity beyond his age. "Nor do I need a token to know the depth of our commitment to each other. We exchanged our vows that night on Tatooine, after we made love for the first time. We know each other's mind and heart. The elaborate weddings and the golden bands are for whose who need to demonstrate something or want something to show; we don't need them."
Obi-Wan had been touched by Anakin's quite certainness about the depth of their feeling for each other, but also by his unspoken desire – his need – not to be known as 'Master Kenobi's mate', something that would certainly happen if they held a public ceremony.
Anakin liked to be his own person. He was independent and free willed and Obi-Wan would never want for him to feel constricted. He liked his mate's tenaciousness and strong personality, although they sometimes clashed because of it. It was a rare event, for they were so complementary they mostly agreed on everything, but when it happened…
Obi-Wan would always remember the night he had told Anakin it would be better if they refrained from making love until the child was born, since he was in such a delicate condition.
Obi-Wan thought all of Anakin's neighbours – he was still living in his flat -- had heard his outraged "WHAT!" before the younger man explained to his mate, with a dangerously calm voice he had no intention to go on without sex for seven whole months.
"I refuse to go for months like this, Obi-Wan!" Anakin had exclaimed. "I intend to make love with you every night and morning! You will be gentle and I will ride on top of you-- but we will be lovers still until I am too big to raise myself!
Then he had reinforced his words by taking Obi-Wan to his bedroom, where he had made clear he was anything but delicate. He had almost ripped his mate's clothes away, before pushing him on the bed, and stripping down himself. He had then climbed on the bed and come to loom over the older man on his hands and knees, watching him like a predator ready to strike, causing a shiver in his mate.
Anakin's eyes had glinted as he had bent down to kiss Obi-Wan, quickly and deeply, before sliding down his body and ravishing him.
He had kissed, licked and nipped Obi-Wan's neck, chest and abdomen, leaving teeth marks on the fair skin, before settling between his mate's sprawled legs and give his whole attention to the erect shaft and taut balls there.
Anakin had been unstoppable that evening. He had driven his mate mad with desire with his skilled mouth and hands. He had sucked Obi-Wan's penis, laved his testicles with his hot tongue and pressed one finger inside the writhing man, tormenting his body from the outside and the inside.
Anakin had brought Obi-Wan on the brink of release several times, only to back away at the last moment or press strongly against the base of his mate's erection to stall off the imminent orgasm.
Anakin had made Obi-Wan beg that night, before he had straddled the older man's hips and taken the angry-red shaft inside him.
"Do you still think I am delicate?" Anakin had grunted out, as he rode Obi-Wan hard and fast, his sweat falling on his mate's belly and chest.
"No…no…" Obi-Wan had panted, eyes closed and muscles tense, already on the verge of release, only to moan aloud in desperation when Anakin had stopped moving.
Slowly opening his eyes, Obi-Wan had been overwhelmed by the sight of his mate perched atop of him. Anakin's bronzed skin had glowed in the light; his cheeks had been flushed and his hair plastered to his brow. The sheen of sweat had made his broad, hairless chest look even more impressive, but what had made Obi-Wan hold his breath, had been the look in his eyes.
Gone had been the domineering man who had tormented him until then, replaced by the sweet natured boy he loved.
"Now that I have your complete attention, we will make love as I plan to make it for the next months, gently and slowly."
Anakin had started moving again, raising and falling, rolling his pelvis with each downward stroke. Obi-Wan had grasped his hips gently but firmly and rose to a sitting position, so that he could kiss, lick and nuzzle Anakin's neck.
Locked in this embrace they had begun to move faster, breathe more heavily, moan more loudly until they came together, crying each other's name.
Afterward, they had cuddled together, and Anakin had apologized for his behaviour, but Obi-Wan had just smiled.
"There is no need," he had answered, "but this will certainly teach me to never make you angry!"
They had then fallen asleep, spooning together as they often did, with their hands joined over Anakin's belly, cradling and protecting their son.