Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OCs and possibly some percentage of the plot.
Notes: So I just made up the Padawan stances thing because the thought amused me.
Cara had enjoyed the weeks of the honeymoon period of her relationship with Obi-Wan. That stretch of time during which they never argued, everything was romantic and both their lives seemed to settle comfortably around each other.
Then the hard part started. While her acerbic tendencies were fine in smaller doses, on the day or two that he'd been able to take from his Temple duties, now he was there all the time and she couldn't exercise her sarcasm on him. She went too far a few times before she realised and started to hold back. This wasn't like with Anakin where she'd always had to be careful with because he was a child under her care, or with Shmi, who wasn't naturally sharp like that. Obi-Wan was witty and could be just as cutting, but he had a remarkable skill at not being hurtful as he did so.
Cara did not.
When she realised how much she'd hurt him, she pulled away, trying not to do it again.
Obi-Wan responded in a way that she didn't expect, also distancing himself. Cara, despite all their time working through painful memories together, didn't realise he saw her pulling back as the latest in a line of rejections. Obi-Wan didn't want to be rejected again and began composing speeches to gracefully bow out of the relationship.
Shmi noticed the tenterhooks they were both on and collared Cara first. "Why are you and Obi-Wan avoiding each other?"
"Probably because he's finally realised how much of a bitch I am and is just trying to find a way to get out of this with everyone's dignity intact," Cara said. She flopped down onto one of her kitchen chairs. "It's a good thing he never moved in here. It would have been really awkward."
Trying very hard not to sigh, Shmi sat down beside her friend. "I know you well now, Cara."
"What's hard to understand? I was horrible to him so he realised he doesn't want a relationship with me any more." There was a steady drip of hurt bleeding off her as she fed it into the Force.
Shmi eyed her in some exasperation. "Perhaps you should speak with him before making assumptions?"
"I refuse to be mature about this when I can just avoid everything, and he'd be better off with a nice girl who isn't horrible to him as a hobby," Cara declared stubbornly.
The older woman gave in and sighed, then ambushed Obi-Wan the next day as he was leaving after several hours of instruction for Anakin in lightsabre forms and various Force techniques. She opened with the same question. "Why are you and Cara avoiding each other?"
He flinched. "I assume because she has become tired of me," he said. "I . . . do not wish to press where I am not wanted."
Neither of them realised that Anakin had been listening in on their conversation, nor had Shmi and Cara realised Anakin had eavesdropped on them the previous day. Between Obi-Wan's subtler practices and Cara's training in shielding to conceal, Anakin had brought it all together to make himself wholly invisible when he wanted.
He popped out of the back room where he'd been trying to make a mouse droid into a remote-controlled miniature battle-bot. "Cara! Obi-Wan thinks you're tired of him! You should tell him that you think he hates you because you're a horrible bitch!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.
Shmi dropped her face into her hands. "Anakin, we're going to have a talk about tact, poor language and listening in on other people's conversations," she said and carted her son off while Cara slammed into the room looking panicked. Obi-Wan flushed bright red in embarrassment.
They stared at each other for a moment. Obi-Wan started. "Is it true?" he asked. "I don't think-"
"I'm horrible," Cara said. "I know that. I'm always horrible and I've been worse to you. I'm not a nice person," she continued. "I just . . . you're sharp, Obi-Wan, and I like that and I tried to . . . but I hurt you. I was trying to . . . to not. So, I understand if you don't want-"
"No one ever wanted me to stay," Obi-Wan said. "Satine refused to ask and I . . . I don't want to go where I am not wanted."
"I want," Cara said. "I do. I just . . . you'll tell me if I'm being awful?"
Obi-Wan smiled. "I will. If you'll tell me if you don't want me any more-"
"I want you. Trust me, if I didn't want you I'd tell you. I wouldn't be hinting," Cara snapped. "I don't do subtle unless I absolutely have to."
Obi-Wan laughed despite himself. "I shall endeavour to remember that."
They were about to kiss when Anakin, who had escaped his mother grumbled from behind them, "You're both dumb."
"I can't wait until he gets his first girlfriend," Cara commented, studiously ignoring the boy. "I will make fun of every moment of nerves he has about it."
In a similarly level tone, Obi-Wan said, "I do believe that would be taking potshots at the ignorant."
"When has that ever stopped me?"
Obi-Wan smirked back. "Never my dear, but I would ask that you leave enough behind for me to garner my own entertainment."
"I'll try," Cara said, layering on meaning behind the words with a small twist of the Force for Obi-Wan's senses only. Anakin caught it anyhow.
"You're both dumb and mushy," Anakin reiterated.
Cara turned to him. "When you turn twenty I'm reminding Padmé of the fact that you proposed when you were nine."
Anakin's went wide. "You wouldn't."
"If she doesn't I will," Shmi said. "Ani, downstairs, now."
Anakin thumped down the stairs again, followed by his mother. "I don't want to be grateful to him," Cara mused. "I may have to find some way to be nice without being too nice."
In the end, Cara chose to be nice by no longer pitching fits over the droids using the outlet in her kitchen - unless it was early morning when she wanted her tea without listening to them squabble, or if Obi-Wan was staying the night.
She also provided an odd response to Obi-Wan's padawan braid issues. "So, Anakin mentioned something about padawan braids," she said apropos of nothing one day when they were watching a hilariously terrible holonet drama about Jedi in the old days of the Republic.
"What brought this commentary on?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Well, you remember that after that time that I punched the choreographer in the face for not understanding 'no' I was told I had to spend time helping teach the kiddies in the Royal Ballet School," Cara said.
Heaving a sigh, because the situation had been more complex than that and her punching him had actually not been wholly justified (only partly), just one of Cara's usual flashes of uncontrolled temper, "I do recall." He judiciously did not lecture her, as he had already done so at the time.
"Well, there's a fad going around with the girls to make thread-and-bead bracelets," she said. "Actually, they're a really interesting little design that's supposed to be added onto. Sort of like a badge. Red for new friends, blue for one year, purple for two, green for five, colours for friends lasting through fights or personal upheaval or moving, beads for particular types of events. Basically, you're supposed to add to it when things happen." She tapped a few points on a pad and passed it to him. "Anakin said you were supposed to put different thread and beads in to a padawan braid for accomplishments. I thought you both might like a . . . some sort of thing like that so you could mark points of success."
Obi-Wan looked at the holonet page, designed for girls in their early teens, but with a complex and interestingly designed bracelet. He smiled. "Thank you, Cara."
"You're welcome. Now shush, I want to watch the not-Revan give a speech."
It was a terrible speech that Obi-Wan couldn't imagine anyone giving, let alone any Force-user. He also made Anakin one of those bracelets, colours and beads coded to padawan achievements, and they began using it to track his progress much as one would have used a padawan's braid in the Temple.
When Anakin was fourteen, on a recommendation from Queen Amidala to the Alderaanian state, Obi-Wan was able to take Anakin on their first negotiation off-planet and not involving Naboo. The mission had been going well, especially as Anakin found the discussions regarding workers' rights on the small moon to be of personal interest, considering his long-term goals. He had also proven to be very adept at managing the specifics of Alderaanian social mores from a variety of social classes, impressing both Obi-Wan and Senator Bail Organa, representative of the Alderaanian Crown, with his pitch-perfect greetings. He had then promptly been wholly incapable of holding up the sort of polite conversation that went on at these events outside of actual negotiations. Upon thinking about it, that seemed Anakin all over. Then the teen vanished and was found in the midst of a lengthy conversation with one of the serving droids, in binary, which had talked him into giving the droid a tune-up.
It also turned into one of the missions Obi-Wan had been so used to before with the Jedi, as a bomb was set off by what was at first assumed to be extremists on behalf of the miners.
It turned out that it was a small group of business owners within the Trade Federation ("It's obviously the Trade Federation!" "I know that, Anakin, but we only have proof that those particular people set the bomb and that they genuinely wanted to use it to harm people. Do you really want the law to mean so little?") attempting to frame the miners. They wound up in a pitched firefight. Anakin, despite Obi-Wan's endless attempts to get him out of the fighting acquitted himself admirably. He blocked and redirected shots taken at both the pair of them as well as the various negotiators with competence, if a bit of unnecessary excitement, did follow directions when it came to intimidating those who had caused the trouble into compliance, and impressed a few Corellian pilots along the way when he piloted a small freighter in ways that gave Obi-Wan conniptions, swearing in ways he could only have learned from Cara the whole time:
"You karking lousy-"
"Anakin!"
"Sorry - sithspit!"
"Anakin!"
. . .
"Nice pilotin' kid, but lemme show you somethin'. If you take the exhaust ports and half close them on the downswing, then snap 'em wide here, you can block the sensors if you're in close enough, buy you time to bring the blasters online or make a jump."
"Wizard!"
"Force give me strength."
When the excitement was over and Obi-Wan had managed by the skin of his teeth to begin imparting on Anakin the fine art of making a mission report sound like nothing exciting had happened at all when there had been bombs, blasterfire and someone piloting a ship like a maniac, they met up with Senator Organa again. "Mr. Kenobi, when I heard that you were a former Jedi, I admit I had some doubts, but you do seem to have much the same style as the other Jedi I had encountered in such a capacity, Master Qui-Gon Jinn."
"Master Jinn was my padawan master, Senator Organa," Obi-Wan replied with a smile. "Actually, I do believe that mission was one that occurred when I was ill and unable to leave the Temple."
"I see the resemblance," Organa replied with some amusement. "Still, I must consider this a successful outcome. I will inform her Majesty of your potential availability for such issues."
Obi-Wan sighed. "I had not precisely missed such . . . aggressive negotiations," he told the other man ruefully.
Anakin made a protesting noise which he stifled on his own, clearly trying not to embarrass Obi-Wan. The backwash of the training bond made it quite clear the teenager had been thinking the whole situation had been 'wizard!'. Organa clearly read Anakin's enthusiasm over the excitement of the past several hours, the investigations and the 'sabre combat.
"The flying was just as impressive at the lightsabres," continued the senator. "Do they teach that at the Temple on Coruscant?"
Anakin's forbearance ran out. "Doubt it," he said. "He flies like a little old lady."
"Anakin," Obi-Wan said repressively.
The teenager seemed to realise he'd said it in front of a senator. "Ummm," he said gracelessly, eyes wide. Then he carefully stepped back into Obi-Wan's shadow at precisely the placement a padawan learner was supposed to stand at, folded himself into startling facsimile of the stance of a dutiful padawan and said, "My apologies, Senator Organa for speaking out of turn."
"Apology accepted," Organa said, "But I suspect you owe your teacher more of one and maybe you'll be a little more careful in future with this sort of situation?"
"I will endeavour to do so," Anakin said with a point-perfect bow.
They said their farewells, got on board their ship and then before Anakin could vanish into the cockpit to give Obi-Wan another conniption with his flying, the teacher collared his student and asked, "When did you learn to do that?"
"Do what?" Anakin asked in confusion.
Obi-Wan kept from sputtering by reminding himself that his question hadn't been clear. "The Active Listening Stance of a padawan learner awaiting direction from your master?"
Anakin blinked. "It has a name?"
"Yes it has a name, as do all such stances," Obi-Wan said. "Please just explain when it was you learned to do that. It was something of a surprise."
"Back when Cara was first trying to find me an ex-Jedi or a current Jedi to teach me, she thought I might wind up needing to know how to do all that staying half a metre behind to the right stuff, so she wormed it out of a few and spied on a few when she was on Coruscant," Anakin explained. He looked sheepish. "I thought maybe I should do that now because I'm not as good as you at the . . . the polite political talking thing."
That was both entirely unexpected and yet wholly the sort of thing he'd learned was typical of Cara's teaching methods. A lot of specifically useful information learned to very specific purposes, and the occasional thing that would seemingly have no particular value given the very pragmatic bent of both Cara and Anakin's interests, yet had somehow been included on the off-chance it would be useful.
Later that evening, while he waited for the transit to hyperspace, he was on the comm with Quinlan Vos. "He did very well, although I wish Anakin could learn to fly like a sane person instead of like a podracer trying to kill the competition, and then he just couldn't keep quiet when we were talking to the senator."
Quin laughed. "That's not totally unusual for anyone except you."
"Actually, Quin, I'm reasonably certain your inability to keep your mouth shut is more of a failing on your part than a general failing of padawans," Obi-Wan told him tartly. "But that's not where I was stunned. One moment he's being his usual brash self, the next I could have sworn he was a Temple-trained padawan. He stepped back precisely the correct distance behind my right shoulder, folded his hands and held the Attentive Listening Stance as though he'd done it his whole life."
Quin blinked. "That's . . . weird. Aayla has trouble with that, and she went through all the years of being an initiate. You had trouble with that and you're a perfectionist. He got it on the first try?"
"My girlfriend taught him," Obi-Wan said. "Or, at least, that's what Anakin told me. That when she first started looking for a Jedi to teach him diplomacy, or at least something that vaguely resembles it," he had to pause as Quin laughed. "She was concerned that Anakin would need to know it, so she went to the effort of having him learn it."
"Your girlfriend is incredibly strange," Quin told him. "She knows secret techniques to trick darksiders and is a dedicated ballet dancer who can teach your not-padawan how to convince people he's a real padawan and she's never been interested in being a Jedi." The Kiffar shook his head. "You meet such interesting people, Obi-Wan."
"She's taking another anger management seminar," Obi-Wan said. "I think she hit the parking metre droid with her purse and accidentally broke something. I'd be concerned if she ever acted out against actual living beings, but she doesn't seem to."
"She damaged a parking droid with her purse? I thought those things are designed to stand up to being hit with speeders going full tilt?"
"They are," Anakin said, popping up from the back of the ship. "I don't know what her bag is made out of, but I was impressed."
Quin grinned. "Anakin Skywalker I presume? Nice to meet you."
"Obi-Wan's friend-who-remains-nameless-because-he-doesn't-want-to-talk-about-you, hi!" Anakin said. "He's let me talk to Bant, Garen and Reeft, but you're a bad influence apparently."
"Obi! I'm hurt!" Quin said affecting a melodramatic sort of emotional agony.
The redhead shot him an unimpressed look. "You look like a character from Cara's favourite terrible holodrama."
Anakin looked contemplative. "You know, he sort of does. Like that pirate-thief Otolikas that Riva Jedi Princess has an almost romance with. I like him. He's funny and smart."
"I'm suddenly very interested in this terrible holodrama," Quin said. "Jedi Knight Quinlan Vos."
"Glad to have a name for you finally," Anakin said. "And you should totally watch it. Everyone has short skirts or wide open shirts and the fighting scenes are awesome."
"Wholly unrealistic tripe," Obi-Wan said.
"Well sure," Anakin told him. "But you don't watch 'em for that, you watch 'em because they look really cool and because Cara's planning to see what you'll do if she does the war cry the next time you guy's're sparring."
"Oh, Force," Obi-Wan groaned.
"So, how did you enjoy your first major non-Naboo negotiation?" Quin asked.
Anakin proceeded to give him a play-by-play which told Quin all the details Obi-Wan hadn't wanted his friend to hear about, and which led to Quin howling in laughter because that was just typical of the old Jinn-Kenobi partnership.
Anakin was fifteen the first time they crossed paths with the Corellian Jedi.
Well, crossed paths was something of a misnomer. Between Anakin's flying and cursing, the friendships Padmé Amidala spawned by being able to out-Corellian any Corellian if she put her mind to it and the quiet political friendships that grew up between Alderaan, Chandrila, Naboo and others of their ilk politically, Obi-Wan was asked to sit in on a Corellian negotiation with Kuat about trade agreements and shipbuilding. The Corellians had planned to bring their local schismatic temple Jedi with them, and when Kuat assumed the Corellian Jedi would be biased, Obi-Wan's name came up.
The Corellian Jedi, a knight and padawan in the green robes the schismatic Jedi wore, arrived alongside the delegation from Corellia. Obi-Wan barely stopped himself from bowing as would have been the traditional greeting between two Jedi knights and inclined his head. Anakin stayed just behind him, peering curiously at the padawan. She was a Nautolan a couple years younger than Anakin, maybe twelve, but she shot a smug imperious look at Anakin from her place behind her master's shoulder.
Obi-Wan could feel the way Anakin was peering at her and saw to his amusement that she was trying very hard to play the dignified perfect padawan as an attempt to in some way show off at Anakin. "I am Jedi Knight Ansem Park," said the blonde man, "And this is Padawan Teksa Shakdar."
"Obi-Wan Kenobi, and this is my . . . student, Anakin Skywalker," Obi-Wan said. Behind him, Anakin had shifted himself very deliberately into the listening posture that the padawan was aiming for. She had not had the benefit of a dancer's tutelage, however. Obi-Wan had, upon discovering that Anakin was now curious about all those little details of where padawans were to stand and how they were to move in formal situations, had taught him. Cara had intervened in a way that Obi-Wan had never seen before, trained as she was in flawless physical mimicry. She couldn't teach Anakin an attitude, but observing Obi-Wan as he had used Shmi as a stand-in for a padawan's master, she had been able to get Anakin trained with a perfection to every movement.
Anakin was showing off.
The Nautolan girl's eyes narrowed a moment, and Obi-Wan saw the twitch of her lekku in what was the equivalent of a huff of annoyance. She shifted a little, now indicating by movement her devotion to the wisdom of her master. Locking eyes with Park, Obi-Wan twitched a subtle eyebrow and was met by an amused quirk of the lips. The other man was well aware that his student was posturing. Behind Obi-Wan Anakin shifted, no doubt suggesting his master was a better fighter.
That karking Sith-Killer title again.
"If you're both quite finished?" Knight Park said, clearly suppressing laughter. "I am somewhat surprised. I was told that you were not a Jedi, Master Kenobi."
Obi-Wan sighed. "I was, but I felt called away from the Temple on Coruscant. Anakin was . . . unexpected, but I felt I should not leave him less than fully trained in the Force." He added, "And I never reached Mastery, Knight Park. At best I was a knight myself." He looked over his shoulder. "Anakin, if you're not going to actually be useful, why don't you put some of that ridiculous effort Cara put into teaching you padawan stances and offer to help Padawan Shakdar with finer details."
Anakin immediately zipped over to the girl and said, "You've got piloting beads. What did you learn on?"
"Oh Force," the Corellian said. "It's going to be all engine talk from here on out, isn't it?"
The two teachers sighed and chatted about the actual negotiations upcoming, the travails of teaching and rode herd on their respective students all the way to the meeting room.
The talks between the two shipbuilding powers were long and difficult, not least because the two Jedi and two non-Jedi force users were determined to be reasonable, while the two governments arguing about trade and economic exclusions and monopolies were each determined to gain a monopoly for themselves.
Anakin turned out to be surprising useful with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the ship designs of Kuat and Corellia allowing him to advise where one side or the other held a design advantage, a market advantage or general popularity in the galaxy at large.
The padawan, it turned out, had a talent for mind tricks of the mild sort Obi-Wan liked to use in negotiations, mostly for getting someone to pause and actually listen to a proposal or to get everyone to stop and agree on a particular definition.
During a break, Obi-Wan found himself settled in with young Teksa, walking her through the finer points of such things. "Exactly," he praised her when she had finally wrapped her mind around the skill.
"Thank you," she said, the pale blue stippling her skin brightening in a Nautolan blush. "I'm sure your pad . . . Anakin is better."
"He's very much not," Obi-Wan assured. "He has his talents, but mind tricks are not one of them. I've mostly given up on bothering with anything but the broadest strokes with him." Anakin, coming up behind them opened his mouth and was cut off. "And if you are going to make an off-colour remark in relation to my relationship with Cara, Anakin, do not. I could always ensure that I'm the one to see you off on that date you'll be going on when we get home."
Anakin stared, horror not merely on his face but actually radiating into the Force. "You wouldn't. Do you know what happened the last time? I had to listen to her talk about how hot you are the whole date."
Park, listening in to the lesson and chatting idly with Anakin about lightsabres burst out laughing. "I couldn't blame her. I had been thinking of asking you out myself, Kenobi."
"I can't say yes, not only because my girlfriend would likely do something drastic in response, but also because I'd never hear the end of it from my friend Quin," Obi-Wan said firmly.
"So, you did lie about liking men just to make him stop," Anakin said. "That's what he said. Cara said she wouldn't mind as long as she got invited any time you two got together."
Obi-Wan sighed. "Anakin, please stop being invested in my sex life."
Teksa made a face. "Can everyone stop talking about their sex lives? I'm too young for this."
While the negotiations were difficult, the Corellian Jedi were friendly and they parted on fairly good terms. Better terms than Obi-Wan had parted from the bulk of the Order on Coruscant, his personal friends notwithstanding.
The next time they met up with the Corellian Jedi was an investigation into pirate attacks along the Corellian Run.
Obi-Wan had been contacted by security forces from along the Corellian Run where some small-time pirates had been hijacking freighters and causing trouble. He'd been asked to quietly investigate, which was another one of those sorts of missions Jedi would often undertake, and if handled correctly was unlikely to be very dangerous. The plan had been to follow the path of a freighter of the sort most likely to get attacked and then attach a tracer to the pirates' ship.
They had found it easily enough, but it wasn't the small ship they'd been told, it was a very large ship. Anakin had got them in close enough to get the tracker on unnoticed, but flying sneakily away had been interrupted when some broken down slag of a freighter had popped out of hyperspace right on top of the pair of them with no warning. Anakin had enough warning in the Force to get out of the way, but the move had drawn attention. They'd wound up being taken on board, their ship held in place with a series of heavy-duty clamps that had to be disconnected before they could get away again.
There had been blasters and fighting and Anakin had ignored Obi-Wan when he'd shouted to stay near the ship and be ready to go. The pirate captain had been right there and Anakin had flung himself into the group feeling invincible. He'd nearly been overwhelmed instead and Obi-Wan had to throw himself after to protect the teen. Obi-Wan had also been forced to fling himself into the path of the oncoming blasterfire to protect his student.
Anakin found himself with an unconscious, bleeding, pale, severely injured Obi-Wan. He barely managed to drag his teacher to the small fighter parked in the pirate's cargo bay, escaping by the skin of his teeth. He flew, for the first time unable to enjoy dodging and weaving through the pirates' shots, heading straight for the Jedi enclave in Coronet.
Anakin ignored the towers asking for his ident information, ignored oncoming ships and flew straight for the enclave. As the fighter cockpit opened, he was greeted by a dozen green-robed Jedi with lit lightsabres. "Please! I need help!" Anakin ignored them, trying to manhandle Obi-Wan's unconscious form out of the rear of the ship.
A familiar voice and the sound of a lightsabre disengaging filled him with relief. "Anakin? What's happened to Kenobi?" Ansem Park asked.
"They shot him. They shot him and it's my fault and he needs a healer-"
What followed was a blur of shouting and healers and people helping Obi-Wan and Anakin being checked over while he tried to insist that his teacher was what was important.
Obi-Wan was in a bacta tank while Anakin stared at him, curled up in a miserable ball on a chair. "Hi," Teksa said from behind him. Anakin startled and nearly fell off his chair.
"Hi," he said, then turned back to study the outputs on the various machines. He didn't know what they all meant, but they were all stable-sounding with no scary reds.
"The healers said he's going to be okay," the Nautolan told him.
That just made him feel guilty all over again. "But it's all my fault," he said. "He told me to stay where I was, that I should keep my back against the ship, and instead I just ran into the middle of them. He had to save me and I-"
Knight Park had come with his padawan. "Anakin, I'm not saying you shouldn't have listened, but you need to take a deep breath and let it go for now. You're not helping him by broadcasting misery at him, and somehow I doubt it's quite as much your fault as you think."
"For one thing," commented another Jedi who had showed up, "This sort of mission should maybe not have been asked of a knight with a junior padawan. And while I understand he is no longer a Jedi, based on what Knight Park has told me, you are not yet at the level of skill of a senior padawan, and I suspect he might not have taken this on had he known it would be a situation such as it was."
None of that helped, because it was his fault and they could have done it if he hadn't been so carried away with how cool it was to swing his lightsabre. But they were right that he needed to not broadcast misery at Obi-Wan. Anakin settled in and shoved all the misery into the force that he could and made sure that the only things going down the bond he had with Obi-Wan were his relief that his teacher would be okay and the sort-of-false sense of calm that came from bleeding all those feelings off. When he felt more stable he looked up at the Jedi, Park, Teksa and a female Rodian master. She tilted her head in that way that meant a Rodian was smiling and told him, "I am Master Meeku, young Skywalker. I've been asked to hear your story."
Anakin let them lead him away with the promise that Park or Teksa would stay with Obi-Wan so he wouldn't wake up alone. When he'd finished telling Master Meeku about the pirates, she informed him that they would send a pair of knights who specialised in that sort of thing to deal with them.
Then she insisted on taking him to the training salles. She handed him a practice 'sabre and suggested a brief spar. "Just to work off some of that nervous energy you've got," she told him.
He started half-heartedly, lunging at her sloppily in order to get it over with so he could go back to Obi-Wan's bacta tank, but after a few swings that were so easily blocked Anakin suddenly just wanted it to stop being easy for her. He wanted to hit something and he was so angry with the pirates for shooting Obi-Wan and with himself for messing up and with Obi-Wan for letting himself get hurt, and because he'd been protecting Anakin when he'd been hurt the teen was more angry with himself all over again.
The thing was, the longer the bout stretched out, the less Anakin found himself thinking about his pain and fear and anger, and the more he could focus on the actual fighting. With every strike he was able to release a little more of his ire into the Force, letting him think more clearly, move more tactically and move past wanting to just hit something and into wanting to succeed in the match.
When the last of the roiling emotions eased, Anakin saw his opening and stepped into Ataru from the Djem So he'd been using, surprising the Rodian master. She accordingly shifted her steady Soresu to account for the change in style, but Ataru was Anakin's style. He'd learned from Cara, who treated it as a defensive style, intent on dodging everything thrown at her to the point of missing openings for attack on occasion, and he'd learned from Obi-Wan who treated Ataru as a wholly aggressive style.
Anakin was more aggressive than even Obi-Wan in Ataru, but his first training had been in using it defensively. He slipped around and through the Soresu guard and might have even had her dead to rights, when she shifted to Makashi.
Obi-Wan knew the style well enough to take Anakin through all the Katas, but he didn't specialise in it and Anakin had no muscle memory to predict the movements. He lasted only a short time more before she struck past his dodge with a remarkable pinpoint accuracy, disabling him and winning the match.
The set of Master Meeku's shoulders and the tilt of her head was a smile. "Very well done Pad - Skywalker," she said. "Knight Kenobi has taught you very well."
With the adrenaline and his grip on the Force waning now that the spar was over, exhaustion set in and Anakin began gasping for air. "I like to think so, yeah," he said. He was about to ask her to teach him, at least enough that he could be better at stopping Makashi when he recalled that he wasn't good enough yet because he was an overconfident little jerk and had needed to be rescued in the first place.
He wasn't even angry anymore, just sad and sorry. "It's a hard lesson," the master told him. "It's hard the first time you realise that there will always be a time when you're outnumbered, when your opponent will just be better than you and that you can't afford to get carried away with the Force and a momentary success."
"I was supposed to listen to him," Anakin said miserably.
She put an arm around his shoulders, walking him to the stands where people could watch a match. "You were, but in the end he saved you and you managed to keep your head and save him back-"
"I shouldn't have had to," he interrupted.
She poked him sharply. "But you did save him and got him help. The situation will be resolved and we will send a strongly-worded complaint because this should have been sent to proper authorities, not an independent contractor, no matter how skilled."
Right then Anakin's comm went off. He pulled it out. "Ani? I know you and Obi-Wan were supposed to be busy, but we didn't hear from you on time. Are you alright?"
"I'm . . . I'm okay, Mom," Anakin said, trying to sound it.
She didn't buy it. "You are not. What has happened?"
He gaped a moment, trying to force the words out. Master Meeku took some pity on him and took the comm. "I am Master Meeku of the Corellian Jedi Temple. There was an unfortunate outcome of Knight Kenobi's mission and he has been seriously injured. Anakin was not, but we expect them both to be here for a few days while Kenobi recovers."
"What!?" Cara's voice came over the comm. "What happened? Did my karkin' idiot boyfriend try to get himself killed or somethin'?" She was very upset as her Corellian-accented Basic started coming through.
Anakin cut in. "It was my fault. I was stupid and he had to protect me."
There was an interminable pause and then his mother was back. "I will talk to Cara, Ani. Do you want either of us to come?"
"Only if . . . only if Cara's not gonna be too upset," Anakin said. "I mean, I want to see you, Mom, and Cara, but she's . . . angry," he finished inadequately.
"You mean I have anger management issues, which is part of why I never go with you on these things," she said. She was all fake-calm, but that just meant she wasn't really mad at him or at Obi-Wan, just at the universe for them getting hurt. "I'll pack up the ship, we'll be there soon."
Cara was as good as her word, apparently having pulled a few tricks that she hadn't told Anakin about to shorten the run from Naboo to Corellia.
She had her shields all the way up to make herself seem like a Force-null, and she nervously skulked through the Jedi compound to Obi-Wan's bacta tank. His mother just hugged him and Anakin felt himself relax finally. He knew it was stupid to feel better, like somehow his mother could make everything be better just by being there, but he couldn't help leaning into her. "Oh, Ani, he'll be fine."
"He better be," Cara muttered darkly. "Or I'm going to tie him up somewhere and he can just teach you from my living room."
"Then who'll be your date at the annual Life Day gala?" Anakin asked, curious as to how far she was going to go in her irrational planning.
"No one," Cara said. "I'll quit my job and we'll be shut-ins together." She was starting to look pale and Anakin realised what she was doing when Obi-Wan's eyes snapped open, a few alarms started to go off and the healers came and shoved them out of the room.
Shmi had realised as well and snapped in a rare moment of temper, "Cara, stop that!"
Anakin acted. He was strong enough in the Force to see things other people couldn't, and now that he was paying attention to something other than himself he saw that Cara was doing something with the Force that was somehow helping Obi-Wan, but it was hurting her. It was hurting her a lot and was very different from how the healers at the Corellian enclave had been helping Obi-Wan and it was most likely a Sith technique. So, he slammed a shield up between Cara and Obi-Wan, disrupting what she was doing.
Cara gasped and staggered into the wall. "Anakin," she said weakly, protesting.
"They all said he was gonna be fine," Anakin told her. "I don't know what you were doing, exactly, but he didn't need it, and now you're . . . you're sick or something."
"I'm fine," Cara told him, but seemed to actually listen and stop trying to do weird Force things that would probably kill her.
Anakin was carted off to rest somewhere by his mother when Obi-Wan didn't properly wake up after being taken out of the bacta, and Cara stayed by Obi-Wan's bedside, letting her anxiety roil around behind her shields.
Obi-Wan woke slowly, wondering momentarily where he was, then his memories of the pirates came into focus. "Anakin!" He sat bolt upright only to find himself restrained by Cara.
"Easy," she said. "Anakin's fine, you're the one who nearly died." Her voice cracked and she laced her fingers through his. He could feel her upset through the bond they shared and the way that she was clinging to it.
"I'm sorry I worried you," he said. She was looking pale and unwell and somewhat unsteady. "Where is Anakin?"
Her mouth quirked. "Probably being put to bed by Shmi," she told him. "He's been sitting with you for quite a while and he'll probably be very unhappy that after all that you only woke up after he went to get some rest."
"How long have you been here?" he asked her. "Because you look quite tired."
Her eyes slipped away from his just slightly and he could feel the deception through the contact of their hands. "Oh, I'm fine." She flinched from his raised eyebrow. "Well, I mean, I'm pissed that you managed to nearly die fighting pirates, but I'm fine. Physically."
Obi-Wan quirked his eyebrow just a little higher. She narrowed her eyes at him and refused to break. They probably could have sat like that for longer, but Knight Ansem Park arrived then. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything," he said.
Cara could lie effectively, it was just that she could only do it with people who didn't know her that well. A moment later her whole body posture shifted and she turned into the Corellian spacer that Obi-Wan rather thought her parents had been. "Cara Mabban," she said. "I'm this lunatic's girlfriend for reasons I'm not sure anyone understands."
"Jedi Knight Ansem Park," replied the blond man. "Good to see you awake, Obi-Wan. Anakin's been a ball of guilt since he arrived with you."
Obi-Wan sighed. "That's going to be a difficult balance."
"I can guilt-trip him and you make him feel better," Cara offered. He shot her a look. "Or not," she said flinching a little.
Park looked back and forth between them a moment but tactfully didn't say anything. "After hearing Anakin's story about what happened, Master Meeku has sent a very irate message to the authorities for not handling this properly."
That was a relief to Obi-Wan, who said, "I had been planning to speak to your people once we were finished. It was a little late given how things went for me to try after we found out this was worse than a series of very minor skirmishes. I would be happy to pass on what further information I have."
"That will be much appreciated. Also, you should know that, once you're recovered there is quite the collection of knights and masters here who are interested in sparring with you," Park commented. "Master Meeku let Anakin wear himself out in the training salles, just to work off some of that anger, and she was quite impressed with him. In fact, I don't know if he noticed how many people wound up watching, but he gained quite a few admirers from the older initiates and padawans." He smiled, "Then she contacted Knight Vos-"
"Oh, kark it, what did Quinlan say?" Obi-Wan interrupted, already tired. "And how do you know Quin anyhow?"
Park shrugged. "He apparently gets into enough trouble that he's made contacts with most of the light Force traditions."
"That sounds like Quin," Obi-Wan said. Then he realised what his friend must have told them. "He told you about the Zabrak on Naboo, didn't he?"
"You mean that you're known as the Sith-Killer?" Park asked with a bright grin.
The former Jedi made a disgusted noise.
They wound up staying there for quite a while, Anakin participating in some classes while he was there, sparring with other students his own age and enjoying getting to actually win sometimes, and learning from masters with different focuses and skills than Obi-Wan. Shmi took the time to speak with elder masters about the Force, taking the opportunity to learn this new environment.
Obi-Wan, meanwhile, enjoyed the time back in a Jedi temple, even if the Corellians took a slightly different approach than he was used to in interpreting the Code and were a little more naturally aggressive than the main Coruscanti Temple. He also did enjoy getting to work with their battlemaster once he was recovered enough to do so, getting to finesse some of his techniques as the last of his injuries and weakness faded away.
The one thing that concerned Obi-Wan in the meanwhile was the way that Cara vanished from the Jedi enclave during the day, determinedly avoiding them, then burrowing into him at night.
He mentioned this concern to Shmi, who sighed and pulled him into a quiet alcove out of sight. "I do not know what it was that Cara did," she told him, "Perhaps Anakin may have seen it more clearly, but she is . . . troubled at the potential loss of those she cares for. It is a fear in her that I don't believe she can approach calmly."
"She did something . . . some Force technique while I was unconscious?" Obi-Wan asked, worried.
Shmi sighed. "As I said, I am not certain what it was, save that she began to look ill very quickly, your eyes opened and you appear to have healed more quickly as a result and Anakin was concerned enough to block her efforts."
He took in a deep breath, carefully releasing his own fears into the Force. That evening he confronted Cara about it. "Shmi said you did something that was so concerning that Anakin felt he had to stop you. What did you do, Cara?"
She was clinging to him as he asked and he felt her flinch in the Force. She sat up, pulling everything in and as he sat up looking at her, he could see she was preparing for the worst. "There's a Sith technique," she started, then paused as he closed his eyes and released his concern into the Force.
"Cara, the one thing I know about you is that you have not intended to hurt anyone since you pulled away from the dark side." As she shot him a raised eyebrow, he amended, "No one who was not intending harm. You may overreact, but I have not seen you act to harm without cause."
"I don't really know how Jedi Force healing works," she began again, "But the Sith can pull midichlorians and life force from one person to heal someone else. It works very fast, very well, but as a corollary, it very quickly drains and kills the person you're taking from."
It didn't take a genius. "What were you thinking? Do you think, even if I'd been in such danger of losing my life, that I would have wanted it to be at your expense?" His hand had risen up to hold her arms tightly without his even noticing, and worse, he had to restrain himself from shaking her. He was furious.
"I just . . . intellectually I get it," Cara reassured him. "But then you were right there and you were so still and pale and immersed in the bacta tank and I just . . ." She looked away a moment, then said, "I'm sorry. I can't promise not to do it again if you're that badly off, but . . ." Looking up again, she was serious as she said, "I'm just not meant to be in situations where there's danger, you know?"
Obi-Wan couldn't help his dry chuckle in response. "It isn't precisely my preference either, Cara, but you seemed capable enough on that station rescuing those initiates and Master Koon."
She sighed. "I think it was partly that there was something I could actually do to help rather than just look at you floating like you were half-dead, and because it was familiar. I knew everyone there, I knew how to play that game. I knew that I was better than them with a sabre." Cara looked nervous and pleading as she said it, like she was asking him to believe her. He did.
"I think I understand," Obi-Wan told her. "Now," He clasped her hands in his and continued, "How about we walk through this?"
They went through each other's memories, in his case the blind terror when Anakin didn't listen and nearly got himself killed, and Cara's panicked gut reaction to Obi-Wan in the tank. When they were spooned together, both of them much calmer about the whole ordeal he told her, "I'll talk to Bant about getting some texts on Force healing techniques for you."
"Oh good," she told him. "Then maybe I can speed up Maté healing from her broken leg a bit more. She said I was very unpleasant the last time I did it."
He stared at the back of her head a moment. "I cannot believe you used a ridiculously dangerous adapted Sith healing technique over a broken leg."
"That audition was really important," Cara informed him. "She might not have made principal dancer without it, and she needed the raise because her stepdaughter needed some really expensive stuff if she was going to be going into that political science program Padmé recommended."
"So this isn't you panicking," Obi-Wan grumbled, "You simply have no sense of proportion. I see where Anakin gets it from, because it's certainly not from Shmi."
Cara snuggled back. "I love you too, you are possibly the best thing to ever happen to me, other than Shmi and Anakin." She blew their Force bond wide so he could feel the genuineness of her statement.
He didn't quite know what to say to that, and saying that it was nice to be wanted as a first choice by someone was a little too gauche, so he pulled her close and enjoyed their final night at the Corellian enclave before going back to their regular lives.
