As Obi-Wan drifted slowly back to consciousness he realized that Anakin was still asleep. He could hear the younger man's slow, steady breathing falling almost completely in time with the beating of his heart. Obi-Wan also realized for the first time since their reunion that their hearts were still beating in time with one another. It was something that had come about following his rescue after the events on Jabiim. They had been meditating together, attempting to strengthen their bond, when Obi-Wan slowly became aware of the fact that their hearts were beating with the same rhythm. It hadn't been a conscious effort on either of their parts, but had instead come about through the will of the Force. No matter what had happened afterwards their hearts had continued to beat in harmony. Obi-Wan had taken great comfort from it then and even more following Anakin's seduction to the Dark Side. No matter what had happened he knew that Anakin was not completely lost and that there was still hope.
He was grateful that Anakin finally seemed to be at peace. After everything the younger man had gone through in the past few weeks, Anakin was undoubtedly stressed out and exhausted; a physical state that would wreak havoc on even the strongest of men. And Anakin was strong. Stronger than anyone else Obi-Wan knew. So he had confidence that in the end Anakin would be able to overcome the demons—both physical and emotional –that plagued him. Obi-Wan wouldn't stand for anything else.
Carefully rolling onto his side, Obi-Wan raised himself up on his elbow so that he could get a better look at the other man's face. He was relieved to see just how relaxed Anakin's features were. In that moment the deep creases between his eyes had faded and his mouth was slack. Anakin's lips were parted slightly, a small trail of drool puddling onto the pillow beneath his head. Unremarkable as the sight was, it made Obi-Wan's heart soar because he knew in that moment that it was truly Anakin lying before him and not Vader.
Moving slowly so as not to wake the other man, Obi-Wan lifted his right hand and gently brushed a few stray strands of hair from Anakin's face. The strands had been inching close to the blonde's nose and likely would have woken him before long. Obi-Wan wanted Anakin to sleep as long as possible, knowing that it would heal him more than anything else. Still, he couldn't resist allowing his fingers to ghost across Anakin's temple, feeling the heat Anakin radiated more than his actual flesh. Anakin didn't stir throughout. Emboldened, this time Obi-Wan slid his index finger along the scar that bisected Anakin's right eyebrow. As he touched the fading pink line of scar tissue Obi-Wan felt once again the terror he'd known when Anakin received that injury.
Obi-Wan was across the room in an instant when he saw Anakin go down. They had been separated during the melee, the droids having overwhelmed them. Obi-Wan acted purely on instinct, slicing down droids without conscious thought, concerned only about reaching Anakin who was under fire and struggling to regain his footing.
Deftly slicing through the limbs of the final droid that stood between him and Anakin, Obi-Wan rushed to his former Padawan's side, supporting him with an arm around his waist. Anakin clutched at the sleeve of his tunic, his right arm trembling as it held his lightsaber. He could still fight, though. Between the two of them they managed to dispose of the remainder of the droids with relative precision.
Only when Obi-Wan was certain that there was no longer a threat in the area did he finally turn his full attention to the younger man. And gasped when he saw the damage done to his face.
"Force, Anakin," Obi-Wan moaned, carefully turning Anakin's face to the left so that he could inspect his bloodied right cheek.
The panic was rolling off him in waves and Obi-Wan knew why. The injury was very close to Anakin's right eye. Through all of the blood, Obi-Wan could see that his right eye was swollen shut, the area around the wound cracked and bruised. The damage was extensive and Obi-Wan couldn't tell at the moment whether the eye had been effected or not.
The droid must have had a self-destruct or something. It blew up and one of the pieces hit me," Anakin managed to explain through clenched teeth. His left hand was gripping Obi-Wan's shoulder, the right just above his elbow.
"We need to get you back to the camp so that one of the medics can have a look at you. I'm not sure if all the bleeding is because it's a head wound or if the damage is actually that serious."
Tilting Anakin's head down slightly, Obi-Wan pressed a soft kiss to his left temple where there was no wound.
"Everything will be fine, I'm sure of it," he whispered in the blonde's ear then pulled back, offering a confident smile. "A few weeks and everything will be normal again."
"Or as normal as it gets out here."
It had been a very tense week as they waited for the wounds to heal and the first of the bandages to come off. To be safe the medics had bandaged Anakin's eye as well as the effected area. The metal that had hit him had been flaming and they wanted to be sure that his retina hadn't been damaged. The scar was the only evidence that remained.
Obi-Wan became aware of Anakin twitching slightly in his sleep. It was his facial features, more than anything, that were the most active, a sure sign that Anakin was on the verge of waking up. Obi-Wan had watched just such a thing many times. It was something that had remained the same since Anakin's childhood.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, Anakin's eyes began to flicker open. They stared at each other for a long while, neither of them willing to break the silence. Obi-Wan was content with the silence, grateful just to have Anakin near him after so much uncertainty.
Noticing Anakin begin to tremble, Obi-Wan rolled them over so that he was lying on top of the Anakin, the younger man's thighs on either side of his hips. He pressed a kiss to the side of Anakin's jaw and simply enjoyed how close they were lying. After a few minutes of shifting about their limbs were entwined in such a way that it was difficult to tell that which arm or which leg belonged to whom. Obi-Wan would have been content to never move again.
Anakin sighed as he felt Obi-Wan's familiar weight pressing him into the mattress. He had never been one to be confined, but it was different when it was Obi-Wan. Anakin never felt confined by him, but instead protected. He always knew that he was safe when Obi-Wan was nearby. Because, no matter what happened or what he did, Obi-Wan always came for him.
"I was afraid to let myself hope that you'd be here," Anakin whispered, breaking the silence. "That you'd want to be anywhere near me."
Lifting himself up so that he could see Anakin's face, Obi-Wan touched their foreheads together lightly. "I won't abandon you, Anakin. You are far too important to me."
Anakin took great comfort in the words, knowing the truth in them. Obi-Wan was never one to offer trite comments just to give him comfort. He would only say the words if he absolutely meant them. Anakin found more comfort in that than anything else. Obi-Wan had said that he wouldn't leave him and Anakin new that he meant it. That he wouldn't be left alone to face Sidious.
Tilting his chin up, Anakin brushed his lips against Obi-Wan's in the briefest of kisses. It was soft and chaste, a simple moment for them to share each other's breath. The second kiss involved their lips parting slightly and Obi-Wan sucking Anakin's bottom lip between his teeth. Anakin couldn't stop himself from arching his hips upwards as a result of the suction. His hands, which had been resting on Obi-Wan's hips, tightened, holding him in place so that Anakin could find some much desired friction.
"Easy, Anakin," Obi-Wan murmured as he released the blonde's lips. "There is no need to rush anything."
Anakin's left hand slid up Obi-Wan's body to cup his cheek. "I just want this to be real. I'm scared that I'm going to wake up in a minute and this will have all been in my head. Either because I'm dreaming or because I've finally lost my mind. Half of the Council always thought that it would happen eventually and I've finally proven them right. I killed all of the younglings and all of the padawans and knights that happened to cross my path and I don't even know why any more."
Obi-Wan silenced him with a kiss, swallowing whatever words would have come next. Anakin was grateful for the interruption, his hand sliding back to twine through Obi-Wan's short hair while his mind forgot all of its earlier fears. Anakin wanted to believe that if he could just erase them from his mind than he wouldn't have existed in the first place. And in that moment there was only himself and Obi-Wan and that was just how Anakin wanted it to stay. Anakin didn't want to think about anything else. Not the Emperor or Padmé, not even what was going on in the next room. Right then nothing existed in the galaxy outside of him and Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan began to kiss a slow, leisurely trail along the side of Anakin's jaw. When he reached Anakin's ear, he sucked on the lobe for a minute then whispered, "I don't want you to think. Just focus on me and nothing else," into the shell of his ear.
Anakin's only response was a long exhale of breath and allowing his body to go slack. He trusted Obi-Wan completely. There was no doubt in his mind that Obi-Wan would take care of him. It was what the older man had been doing for him since he was nine years old. It had been very simple at first, a hug when he missed his mother, a hand ruffling through his hair when he did good work, soothing words when he woke from a nightmare, a fond smile when he'd done something to make Obi-Wan proud. There had been so many things over the years, thing that Anakin couldn't even remember, that had build the trust between the two of them and helped to make them into the most effective team in Jedi history. Because, unlike so many other teams, they were truly halves of a single complimentary whole.
All trains of thought left Anakin's mind then as Obi-Wan's lips returned to their earlier exploration.
Obi-Wan could tell the exact moment Anakin's body gave up all its earlier resistance. It wasn't when he felt the blonde's initial relaxation, or even the long sigh. It was when Anakin's head tilted downward just enough for their eyes to meet. Obi-Wan paused in the attention he was lavishing on the younger man's right nipple to press a kiss just past the middle of his chest, on the left side. Right over his heart. He held Anakin's gaze for several long seconds before returning to his earlier activities.
Obi-Wan's only concern right then was to make Anakin forget all of the darkness that had consumed him only a few short days ago. He wanted his Anakin back. The one that frustrated him, that irritated him, that he cared for and loved above all others.
So once he had pebbled Anakin's right nipple to his satisfaction, he laved a wet trail along his ribcage, tracing the contours of each rib as Anakin inhaled sharply. Before he had even reached the younger man's navel he had him turned into a quivering pile of nerves. He had Anakin so distracted that he wasn't able to think which was his goal. If Anakin could clear his head of everything….
Two years of being lovers had given Obi-Wan remarkable insight into all of Anakin's sensitive areas. Of all the lover he'd had since his teens, Anakin was the only one whose body he'd bothered to learn the map of. It was not frequency that had created that knowledge, but the desire to. From the moment he had met Anakin, the boy had stirred thing sin him no one else ever had. He had never known jealousy until Anakin, or fear or anger. Pride, too came, with Anakin. Before their meeting Obi-Wan had always kept such emotions at bay, banishing them into the Force. But for Anakin he allowed himself to experience it. More than anything else, from Anakin he knew love. It was the most sublime thing he had ever experienced and Obi-Wan could not understand why the Jedi Council sought to deny it so vehemently.
Each time he saw Anakin laid bare, not only of his clothes, but of his inhibitions as well, Obi-Wan willingly allowed himself to be consumed by the same passions that infused all of Anakin.
He bumped his nose against the edge of Anakin's navel as he laved wetly at the soft flesh beneath. Fit as he was, that one bit of flesh ever remained soft. It was Obi-Wan's favourite part of Anakin's body. There were many nights during the wars when he and Anakin had been too tired to do much more than collapse in a heap wherever they happened to be sleeping and simply lie in a tangle of limbs. Often times on those nights, Obi-Wan would find himself at some point with his head resting upon that soft dip of flesh.
And while Obi-Wan would have been content then to do just that, in that moment they were both in need of something more. So after spending far less time than he would have liked tormenting Anakin's lower belly, Obi-Wan moved on to the jutting piece of flesh that poked insistently at the side of his jaw. At first he simply enjoyed the novelty of being able to rub his bare cheek against Anakin's erect cock. Anakin seemed to appreciate the sensation as well, his hips bucking up from the mattress.
It seemed a lifetime ago that he had been able to enjoy the pleasures of Anakin's body when in fact barely more than a week had passed since Obi-Wan had left for Utapau. Yet in that time so much had changed. What hadn't was Anakin. Not where it mattered.
Taking pity on the boy, Obi-Wan slid his lips over the head of Anakin's cock, sucking on it briefly before closing his lips over it completely. It was a taste that Obi-Wan hadn't even realized he was craving until it was there once again upon his tongue. The very texture of the shaft against his tongue made him moan in delight. An act that had an equal effect on Anakin whose fingers immediately sunk into his hair, his entire body thrumming with pleasure. And glancing up at his young lover from under his eyelashes, Obi-Wan found his breath stolen by Anakin's beauty. In that moment, with all of his fears at least temporarily banished, Anakin was truly beautiful.
He felt a tremor pass through Anakin's body then. It was a momentary thing, but its effect remained on Anakin's features afterwards. What Obi-Wan saw, though, was not pleasure. It was fear.
"Anakin?" Obi-Wan murmured when the younger man squeezed his eyes shut tight. "Anakin, what's the matter?"
The only response he received was a low, terrified moan.
The sound hadn't even faded from his ears when Obi-Wan was crawling up Anakin's body, drawing him into his arms. A sob escaped Anakin's lips then and he clung tightly to Obi-Wan. His eyes remained closed tight, though, guarding against some frightful vision that only he could see.
"I'm here, Anakin."
"Obi-Wan, please…." Anakin moaned, the sound of his voice little more than a breathy whisper. "Make it stop."
Framing Anakin's face in his hands, Obi-Wan peppered his face with kisses before drawing him into a deep kiss. He could feel the darkness that was once again trying to invade Anakin's mind and cursed Sidious. Doing the only thing that he could think of, Obi-Wan attempted to combat that darkness with more peaceful sensations. He needed to banish the corruption that had been poured into Anakin during their time apart.
"Look at me," Obi-Wan whispered, touching his forehead to Anakin's. "Please, Anakin. Open your eyes and look at me."
It frightened him to see the brief flicker of gold in Anakin's usually bright blue eyes. Banishing that fear, Obi-Wan concentrated on surrounding him and Anakin with nothing but goodness and light. He could not allow Anakin to be lost to the Dark Side when he had already done so much to turn away from it.
"I am here with you now, Anakin, and I always will be. On that you have my word," Obi-Wan whispered, his eyes never straying from the younger man's. "But I need you to focus right now. Focus on me and push everything else away."
While their hearts still followed the same rhythm, it took several minutes for Anakin's panicked breathing to match his own. As the minutes ticked by, Obi-Wan could both feel and see it the fear began to fade from Anakin. For the moment, at least, Sidious was gone. Obi-Wan wasn't fool enough to believe that it was over for good, but he and the fear he created was gone just the same.
His breath escaping in a shuddering gasp, Anakin wound his arms and legs around Obi-Wan, pressing his body close. It felt as though Anakin was attempting to disappear inside of him. Obi-Wan allowed himself to be held close, shifting his body in such a way so that he was able to slide the fingers of his right hand along Anakin's side. He then lifted himself up, hoping to reach as much of Anakin's body as possible. It seemed to be calming Anakin somewhat.
"I love you, Anakin," Obi-Wan said quietly, his lips ghosting across the blonde's collar bone. "Never doubt that."
"I never have."
Their movements were very slow and very tender, fingers and lips barely touching one another, but soon enough their earlier passion began to return. Neither felt the need for play, their movements sure and confident from two years of experience. From two years of learning and knowing each other's bodies more completely than they knew their own. So when Obi-Wan slipped into Anakin's body a short while later, it felt like a coming home for both of them.
Their movements were slow and languid, each thrusting in counter with the other so that every time their hips met they felt it that much more. Obi-Wan felt every second of it and through their bond was able to experience everything that Anakin was as well. It was the most intense thing Obi-Wan could ever remember feeling.
And when his eyes caught Anakin's as he neared his climax, he could see all of his own emotions reflected in those impossibly blue eyes.
Anakin sunk his fingers into Obi-Wan's hair, guiding his lover's mouth down towards his own. His body was coiling tighter and tighter as Obi-Wan thrust into him, cockhead grazing his prostrate on ever few thrusts. All of his nerves felt alive and he rejoiced at the feel of it because it was only ever Obi-Wan that made him feel like that. Anakin's back arched when Obi-Wan reached between their bodies and wrapped his callused fingers around Anakin's erection. He felt himself spiraling even more and he moved his head about in search of Obi-Wan's eyes. He needed something to ground himself.
When he finally caught sight of those familiar blue grey eyes, Anakin found his center only seconds before he was sent spiraling again when he reached his climax. He was vaguely aware of Obi-Wan thrusting into him a few more times before the older man stilled and there was a sudden jet of warmth pulsing inside him.
The both of them lay in a panting heap, their bodies curled around one another. Obi-Wan's softening member remained within him, Anakin locking his legs around Obi-Wan's upper thighs to keep the man within him for as long as possible. He wanted that connection to last as long as possible.
Anakin relaxed into the mattress, sighing at the lazy kisses Obi-Wan pressed against his shoulder. In that moment, nothing else mattered in the galaxy. It could implode around them and so long as he and Obi-Wan remained together it wouldn't matter.
He would not allow anything to separate him and Obi-Wan again.