Obi-Wan woke up to hearing a sharp gasp.
Which was enough to prompt him awake, his hand nearly crashing into the rock wall. If he hadn't been a little more alert, that would have made quite the mess on his knuckles—but luckily, he managed to be awake enough to keep himself from doing just that.
"Anakin?" Obi-Wan's voice somehow came out slurred—more slurred than he would have liked, and for a moment, he could just blink at the sudden…whiteness that was outside. He rubbed his eyes, wondering if perhaps he had just seen something wrong…or maybe he had somehow hit his head while he was sleeping (the rocks were hard enough for that), but no, then he saw Anakin standing at the cave mouth.
"Anakin?" Obi-Wan repeated. He stood up gingerly, made his way to his young apprentice.
He found Anakin standing stock-still—so still that for a moment, Obi-Wan was worried. That was, until he saw Anakin's face.
He found wonder: that was the only way to describe it. Pure, gleeful wonder as Anakin stared out at the white before him. At the still-falling white.
"Is this…"
"Snow," Obi-Wan replied. He looked out and was glad that they were dressed in their longer robes. "This planet does snow time to time…although I hadn't thought that it would be the season…"
Anakin looked at Obi-Wan, his eyes wide. "Can I…"
"It's perfectly harmless," Obi-Wan said, and he was a bit confused by the question—but Anakin had lived on a desert planet for almost all his life, after all, so of course, this must be a new phenomenon. To prove his point, he held out his hand. Felt the cold settle onto his palm, the snowflakes melt right into his hand. "See?"
Anakin stared, surprised. And then, tentatively, he held out his hand.
The snow drifted right into Anakin's palm, and he shivered once.
"Cold?"
Anakin nodded. "But it's…" He looked at Obi-Wan, wide-eyed. "It's wet!"
"Yes," Obi-Wan replied. "It's just another form of water."
Anakin blinked. He turned back to the snow, and after another pause, he stepped out onto the snow. Obi-Wan heard another quiet gasp, and then Anakin held out his hands, his head tilted back as the snow continued drifting down.
"Master," Anakin whispered, his voice just barely louder than the snow itself. "I think I like snow."
Obi-Wan watched Anakin for a little while. There was something so incredibly open about his new apprentice, and for a painful moment, Obi-Wan wondered if he had looked the same on his own earlier missions with Qui-Gon.
Anakin laughed now, looking up at the sky with an eagerness that Obi-Wan had only seen a few times after he had left his home.
And then, quietly, quietly, Obi-Wan lifted his hand and called on the Force. Let the snowflakes suddenly swirl around Anakin, and then he heard his Padawan inhale again.
When Anakin turned around, Obi-Wan lowered his hand back to his lap. "I think the snow likes you too," he said.
When Anakin smiled, Obi-Wan smiled back.
A/N: hello, everyone! welcome to this fic! as per the summary, i'll be updating this little drabble fic daily-all 31 days of december! this chapter covered anakin and obi-wan in pre-aotc days, but y'all can rest assured that the next chapter (and then on) will mostly be focused on tcw-era. (i just thought of "first snow" and my brain went straight to "desert child sees snow" and decided that was that.)
as always, reviews/follows/favorites are greatly appreciated!