Ch. 8: "I Don't Wanna be Nobody but Me" - Colors, One or Nothing
Qui-Gon kept an eye on his Padawan during late meal. Obi-Wan ate sensibly, choosing a vegetable soup and three slices of still warm bread. He practically inhaled that and went back for more. Around them, the low hum of conversation filled the large dining hall. Other people shared their table but didn't encroach on their space, and Merrick and the Jedi kept mostly to themselves.
Qui-Gon looked forward to the lesson tomorrow morning. He'd noticed briefly earlier today, and some the last time they'd been here, how differently Obi-Wan handled himself when fighting with the staff. He could explain part of it, at least, because Obi-Wan didn't use the Force, to help him blend in and not stand out as Jedi. Qui-Gon could guess that most people wouldn't know the difference. Maybe that explained the rest of the difference, too, as he tried to blend in. He'd done a good job. In all other things he acted the same, though, his intense concentration and the way he soaked up instruction like a sponge.
"Done?" Merrick asked when Obi-Wan set his spoon down after his second bowl.
"Yes," Obi-Wan said. Qui-Gon detected no embarrassment, either on his Padawan's face or through their bond, like he'd felt when he'd first met Obi-Wan.
"Let's go back to my quarters, then," Merrick said. They took their dishes to the moving belt taking them into the wash area, and then Merrick lead them away from the public areas of the Monastery toward the private housing. He stopped at a narrow door and pressed his hand to the plate beside it. The door opened and he ushered them inside. "Welcome to my home," he said. "An improvement over the last quarters you found me in."
Qui-Gon smiled. "Yes. Caves are not comfortable for such as us."
The room looked well lived in, neat and clean. Across from the door they'd just entered, a narrow sleep couch stood against the wall. A small table sat against one wall, two chairs facing each other across it. Cupboards took up half of the other wall, and a comfortable chair sat against the remaining blank wall, under a light that hung from a chain. A small table next to it held a datapad. A narrow door on the same led off somewhere unknown.
At Merrick's invitation, Obi-Wan vanished through that door into the 'fresher. Qui-Gon helped Merrick set up a mattress on the floor for Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to share.
"Tell me why your friend wants to see my staff," Merrick said as they lay blankets over the mattress.
"Miro read about it in one of Obi-Wan's reports," Qui-Gon said. "It interested him, and he quizzed Obi-Wan pretty thoroughly. He would like to examine one, to see if he can use any of your ideas to make our own weapons more effective."
"Would he dismantle it?"
"I don't know," Qui-Gon admitted. "He will not if you ask him not to."
Merrick nodded, settling into a well worn chair across from Qui-Gon. "What do the Jedi offer me in return?"
Qui-Gon took the other chair. "What would you like?"
"More of the practice forms," Merrick said. "What I got from Ben has helped, but I could use more, for more advanced and interested students."
"I believe that can be arranged. Holovid?"
"Yes, please."
"We can do that," Qui-Gon said.
"Then I believe we have a deal," Merrick said, relaxing in his chair. "I'll send one with Ben tomorrow."
As if saying his name had brought him, Obi-Wan returned then, his hair wet. Merrick offered Qui-Gon the use of the 'fresher, and went in himself when Qui-Gon declined.
Obi-Wan sank down on the floor, smiling to himself. Qui-Gon smiled as well. "You look pleased," he said.
"I haven't forgotten as much as I'd thought," Obi-Wan said. "It's good to be here again," he added, his words slower.
"Would you like to stay?" Qui-Gon teased.
Obi-Wan shook his head. "No, Master. It is like being at the Temple, in a way. A feeling of being at home." He settled better, stretching his side.
"Sore?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Bruised," Obi-Wan said ruefully. "I forgot how hard those things hit, in the hands of a master."
Qui-Gon nodded, not too surprised when Obi-Wan closed his eyes. He felt a swell of pride as Obi-Wan sank easily into a healing trance. His Padawan had grown so much in the past years, from a boy terrified to move wrong to this capable apprentice - his, he still had to remind himself, still surprised - could and had taken on solo assignments and executed them with grace.
Obi-Wan opened his eyes when Merrick returned, and after a short conversation puctuated by Obi-Wan's yawns, Merrick retired to his sleep couch, and the two Jedi lay down on the mattress they'd help lay out. Within minutes of the light going out, Qui-Gon fell asleep - although Obi-Wan beat him to it.
Some hours later, Qui-Gon jolted awake, distress in his bond with Obi-Wan, to find Obi-Wan thrashing, struggling against something in his dreams. Qui-Gon shook Obi-Wan's shoulder gently to try to wake him. When that didn't happen, he squeezed tighter to try again.
Obi-Wan gathered the Force around him, then his eyes opened and he tried to toss Qui-Gon across the room. Qui-Gon countered, grounding himself with the Force automatically, noticing that Obi-Wan didn't seem to see him at all. "Padawan," he said firmly, and the Force pressure eased. Obi-Wan stopped struggling, and his eyes focused back on here and now.
"Master?" he asked, blinking in the dim light from the stars outside. Recognition filled his eyes. "I"m sorry. Did I break something?"
Qui-Gon let him go. "No. What happened?" he asked.
Obi-Wan slumped back to the bed. "I had a nightmare. About Toman." He shuddered. "Something I hadn't thought about in a long time." He hesitated, brow furrowed. "I felt... a darkness in the Force," he said slowly. "Like what drove me here last time."
That didn't surprise Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan had a sensitivity to the dark side of the Force, thanks to events that had driven him from the Temple six years ago. "Do you feel it now?"
"No. it's gone. I think it might have just been my dream," Obi-Wan admitted.
Qui-Gon lightly tugged Obi-Wan's braid. "Sleep, Padawan, or meditate if you cannot."
Obi-Wan nodded, lay down, and closed his eyes. Qui-Gon checked the Force around them before doing the same.