Passion, yet serenity.

Things had been oddly peaceful in the following days. Maul mostly kept to himself, although it also wasn't exactly unusual for him to lash out. Living with someone you've been obsessed with killing for so many years will do that, but he wanted to let go of it. Not because of any desire for harmony, of course- it was because he had a much more important revenge to exact, and a solid plan on how to attain it, which happened to include living with Obi-Wan.

Living with someone you're obsessed with can be highly irritating. It was one thing to keep Obi-Wan in his subconscious mind at all times, driving him to do better, to stay alive, to fight until he could see him again and kill him, and it was another thing entirely to actually be in the presence of his obsession nearly every moment, waking or not.

Something about the situation felt either suffocating or liberating, and there was no determining which one it was.

There's no telling what one of them might do if the other turned his back. Although, grabbing Luke and fleeing the planet would certainly be among the most likely candidates. Maul had certainly considered it. Training the chosen one who would someday kill Sideous wouldn't be a bad way to get revenge. But he already has an apprentice, and he won't discard Ezra the same way that he himself was discarded by his own master. Even if Ezra does have some hesitance in accepting him, doing that to him is simply not a viable option.

No, Maul will have to settle for following through with his original plan. Even if it is a little miserable.

At least the hunting and sparring were nice.

As those days turned into weeks, Maul gradually discovered a number of unnerving facts; the most of which had to do with the cognitive dissonance between how he'd decided Obi-Wan was and how he actually was. Disgusting as he found it to be when he first began to realize this, the truth was that by allowing Obi-Wan to haunt his life, he'd created a ghost of him. Somewhat of an echo of highlighted features, strengths and weaknesses. Of course he'd never had a chance to defeat a phantom. This was a grave miscalculation that he intended to rectify.

If Maul wanted to defeat Obi-Wan once they've dealt with Sideous, then he would first have to put them on equal footing.

So, several months after they began living together, Maul decided to use the cool down after a spar as an opportunity. "Where do you go when we fight?"

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow. This was the first time Maul has tried to engage him in any conversation beyond the necessary in their time together. "I seek stability through the Living Force and allow it to guide my movements."

Maul growled, igniting his lightsaber to take a single swipe at Obi-Wan, who quickly jumped out of reach. "You dodge quite a lot for a man so forthcoming, Kenobi." Upon saying this, Maul deactivated his lightsaber and returned to the rock he'd been sitting on. "Are you perhaps remembering the first time we fought and I killed your master? Does it make you reconsider allowing me to live?"

It didn't take long for Obi-Wan to settle back down as well, though he never dropped guard. "Sometimes, in the back of my mind, perhaps. Killing you now, however, would only perpetuate an unpleasant cycle of anger and grief. Revenge may be your answer to loss, but I will never let it be mine."

With a deep breath, Maul processed his gut reaction before he could allow himself to respond. Remember the goal. "I should have known. There is no emotion, there is peace. Pretending you never felt loss to begin with. Although I haven't figured out how you suppress it- your feelings are quite powerful. If you'd decided to use them, I doubt you would have had trouble defeating whichever opponent it is you see when we fight. Tell me, is it that much worse to feelloss than it is to be haunted by visions of past mistakes?"

Despite them being only a few feet apart, Obi-Wan was quite far away. It was indeed true that he was going somewhere else when they sparred. "Being defeated by an opponent is not what I'm seeing."

Failing him is.

The arrogance of thinking he could train Anakin despite the council's warnings. The ignorance of thinking he could simply tell Anakin not to make attachments, even though attachments had already been made. Anakin was not born into the code, he was forced to adjust to it, rigidly.

Obi-Wan can see clearly that Maul's malice has died down. Now, more than ever, the yellow eyes remind him how rigidly emotionless ideals have hurt those he most wanted to see thrive.

This brings home a concept that has been slowly building since they began living together; regardless of all they'd done to each other, Obi-Wan didn't want to fail him like he did the rest of the universe. It felt as though the Force must have led them here, to meet one another again and to prove that harmony is still an option.

Nodding slightly to that thought, Obi-Wan stood, holding out his hand toward Maul. There was no actual expectation of said hand being taken, but it had to be done. "Loss doesn't need to define us- even if we don't know what's left after it's gone."

Maul reached back.