Chapter 3: Settling In
"Obi-Wan! Wake up. Master…"
The shrill young voice penetrated Obi-Wan's sleep and he woke as he felt the blanket being pulled off his still half asleep body.
"Mmmmpfhhh…"
"Master! We have to get up. You're going to have me ins…inscribed to classes and we need to get there early. You said so yesterday and it's almost seventh hour already."
"Oh, did I? What? Seventh hour. By the Force, we should have been doing the morning meditation already."
The young Master bounced out of his bed and set the course towards the 'fresher, slamming his elbow into the doorframe as he entered. A silent 'ow' was all Anakin could filter out from the words emanating from his Master's lips.
Two minutes later he emerged, small droplets still pearling from his fringe after an all too hasty face splashing with cold water.
"Come on, Anakin. We have to go. We have an appointment with Master Sher'an at seventh hour sharp."
"We'll be too late for that anyway," Anakin muttered, "and besides, I'm hungry."
"Anakin, come on!"
Anakin followed with a slightly furtive mien.
They came to the appointment only three minutes too late and by that they avoided a scolding from Master Sher'an, only a slight disapproving glance could be seen."
"Master Kenobi, I've been expecting you."
Obi-Wan felt an urge to look back over his own shoulder to see who this 'Master Kenobi' was. It surely would take time to adapt to his new title. Somehow 'Master Kenobi' seemed less…fluent than 'Master Jinn'.
They quickly agreed upon Anakin's timetable for the first three months and Anakin and Obi-Wan left the office.
"Now, let's go to the refectory and get you some food before you meet to your first class."
Surely it wouldn't look good letting his Padawan starve to death the first week. Hopefully he would avoid such a disaster in the upcoming weeks as well. He really needed to do some shopping of groceries for the upcoming days. They would need to have something to eat for first meal in their own apartment on days like these.
…
Slamming an electronically guided door behind him should in principle be impossible, but Anakin made it with aplomb.
"Anakin! Don't slam the door. How did you manage it anyways?"
"Like this!" The door opened a bit and slammed shut again.
Obi-Wan held up his hands in defeat.
"OK, OK, I get it. Something is wrong and you're upset. What happened? "
"They've…they've…put me in a class with…babies!"
Anakin's voice was so indignant that he could hardly speak coherently.
"With babies?" Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow quizzically, "how so? I believe it isn't possible. All classes demands that one at least is able to speak coherently."
"Masterrrr!" Anakin growled, "My class mates are only six standard years old. I'm nine! They are babies."
He took a stance on the floor, feet slightly spread and arms crossed tightly over his chest. His annoyance almost palpable. Obi-Wan did his best not to burst out in laughter. A couple of calming breaths later he was able to speak again.
"Anakin," he said softly, "come sit."
"Don't want to."
"Come here." Obi-Wan patted the couch on his left hand side.
Reluctantly Anakin entered the living room, annoyance still flooding from him.
"Why do you think you're put in a class with someone who's younger than yourself?"
"Dunno' "
"Well, for how long have you been living here?"
Anakin scowled: "Before or after Master Qui-Gon died?"
Obi-Wan felt a little stab in his heart, but concealed it well.
"Both, I'd say."
"Well, we were here for about two weeks before going to Naboo, and then we've been back for five days. That makes it (he counted his fingers) twenty days," he finished triumphantly.
"Right. And how long have your classmates been living here?"
"Oh…." Anakin hung his head slightly, "longer, I guess?"
"Right again. Most Jedi arrive before they reach the age of three standard years. That means that your class mates have been here for at least three years already. They are about learning the same basics as you, right now."
"But I will never get friends here if I'm supposed to be with babies."
Anakin wasn't one to give in so quickly.
"I promise you, you will get friends. And if you study hard these first months I'm sure you will surplus your class mates in no time and escalate to the next levels quickly. You are a bright boy and since you're more mature than them you will soon bypass them. I'm certain of that."
Anakin looked up at him, far less agitated now.
"Do you really think so, Master?"
"I'm certain."
Obi-Wan squeezed his protege's shoulder comfortingly.
….
The seventh day came of their first week as Master and Padawan came far quicker than any of them had expected, and Anakin woke to the lovely smell of…pancakes? In a moment he was out of his bed. Pancakes was something his mother had made on the very rare occasions when she'd managed to get all the needed ingredients.
"Mom,…I mean…Master, what are you doing?"
Obi-Wan watched his oh so young apprentice with an amused glimpse in his eyes.
"Good morning, Anakin. What do you believe I'm doing?"
"It seems like you are making pancakes?"
"A very good observation, young one. Why is it that it surprises you so much?"
"I thought…I thought…that only moms can do that. Make pancakes, I mean."
"Well, you're wrong in that assumption, I can assure you that I'm not your mother."
A shadow fell over Anakin's young face and Obi-Wan saw the change of mood in him.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Anakin. I didn't mean it that way. I know you must miss your mother."
"I guess I do," Anakin answered hoarsely, "don't you miss yours? Not ever?"
"Anakin, like most other Jedi I never knew my mother. Most Jedi are given to the Order before they are three years old. I was even younger. I was given away when I was only a few days old. Or so I've been told."
Anakin's brow wrinkled in concern.
"Do you mean that you never met your parents? Not ever?"
"Not that I can remember, no," Obi-Wan assured. "I cannot remember anything else than growing up in my creche with my crechemates. They were almost like siblings to me."
"But why did your mother give you away so young?" Anakin asked. "Why didn't she want to keep you at all. Did you never wonder why? Did you ever think that she didn't like you?"
For a split moment Obi-Wan felt the old, well known feeling of being unwanted stab his heart, then he realized that Anakin was not intentionally trying to hurt him, he was merely curious.
"Actually I didn't think much about it when I was an initiate," he answered. "When I became a Padawan, my friends and I discussed our origin and that's when I realized that everyone else seemed to know something about their birth parents. But I didn't. So my Master and I tried to dig up some information about them, but we only found that I've been left at the stairs in front of the Temple when I was a few day's old. Later we discovered that my homeworld was a planet called Stewjon, but we never managed to find my birth family. Well, actually we didn't look for them either."
"I'm sorry," Anakin said quietly, "I didn't want to hurt you."
"It's OK, Anakin, really. I don't worry much about it. The Jedi are my family, as they will become yours with time," he assured.
The stack of pancakes had slowly been growing while the two of them were talking and Anakin reached for the plates and drinking glass in the cupboard. When the first meal table was ready he looked upon his Master again.
"Master? You never really answered how you'd learned to cook?"
Obi-Wan chuckled softly.
"It was a necessity. Here, in the Temple, it's never a problem because we can always find something to eat in the refectory, but when out on a mission it's a necessity to be able to have some basic cooking skills. I learned that the hard way. Master Qui-Gon was a gifted Jedi, but he was never good at cooking. Sometimes I wonder if that was why he loved his tea so much, he couldn't make anything else. After the first mission together where preparing a meal was a necessity I realized that it would be a very good idea to learn some basic cooking myself."
Anakin snickered.
"I should be safe then. I don't need to learn to cook, since you're a Master of pots and pans…"
A plate with a huge stack of pancakes levitated from the stove to the small table.
"…and for that comment, my very young Padawan, you are the one who will have to wash the dishes after first meal today. Teaching you how to cook can wait until another day."